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 No equal opportunities here
Posted: Wednesday August 18, 1999 02:02 PM
It is a good thing, I believe, that just days after the Brewers fired Phil Garner , Willie Randolph was mentioned as a leading candidate for the job. This way, when another 60-year-old whitey on his seventh managerial assignment is handed the position, team owners can present the standard line: "We believe that minority representation must be improved in the game of Major League Baseball, but ... X." For the non-mathematics in the audience, X equals one of several things: Of course, when X equals "not here," Y, representing owner-to-GM dialogue, means "You're fired, Biff." No sane baseball executive has ever come close to admitting the obvious, that the grand ol' game was, is and potentially will always be a Selma, Ala., water fountain for minorities with aspirations. As it stands now, there are three managers -- Dusty Baker , Jerry Manuel and Felipe Alou -- and no general managers or primary owners of color. But wait! By ignoring minority candidates throughout the years, baseball has created its own monster -- a grouping of long-overdue smart, well-spoken, goal-oriented, strategic coaches who -- gasp! -- are African-Americans. What to do ... what to do ... Randolph, the Yankees' third-base coach, and Chris Chambliss , the club's batting coach, have both been praised by Joe Torre as "men who are ready to manage at this level now." Don Baylor , Atlanta's hitting instructor, spent six seasons leading the Rockies from expansion nothings to third-year playoff participants. The Reds' Ken Griffey, Sr. knows more about swing perfection than anyone this side of Ted Williams . San Fran's Gene Clines has been coaching for 18 years. The Mets' Mookie Wilson turned Roger Cedeno from tentative scrub to NL base-stealing king. Oakland's Ron Washington , Milwaukee's own Ron Jackson -- they are men deserving of a chance. They are men who must have a chance. Sadly, they are men who mostly won't get a chance. For every Randolph, there's a Bob Boone and a Ray Knight and a Jim Lefebvre and a Bud Harrelson and a Buddy Bell and a Phil Garner . They are not bad men or, for the most part, bad managers. But they are retreads -- whitewall tires that eternally receive another spin. Staff writer Jeff Pearlman offers his unique view on baseball every Tuesday during the season for CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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