BLACKS IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL MANAGEMENT: ABSENCE OR MALICE? : Padres : Colbert Optimistic About His Chances of Becoming a General Manager

Nate Colbert is black and thinks he’d like to be a baseball general manager some day.

Hopeless?

Colbert thinks not. The San Diego Padres aren’t racists, he says. He played five seasons for the Padres, later worked in their community relations department, and now is a Padre minor league instructor.

“I can honestly say I haven’t encountered prejudice there (with the Padres),” he said Wednesday.

He is not impatient. It bothers him when black players who have big names think they should step right into executive positions. He’d rather work his way to the top, which he says he is doing.

“A lot of black players would like to be general managers and managers, but there are certain steps you’ve got to go through,” said Colbert, a former all-star first baseman.

“I’d like to be a general manager. I have a degree in business, and I’ve worked in stocks and commodities. But I realize it takes time. I want to take the time and learn the business. And when I’m ready, hopefully, I’ll get it (a general manager’s job).”

The Padres specifically made room for Colbert in their organization, after the community relations department was disbanded this season. Colbert wanted to work with kids, so he did so. Meanwhile, there are four other non-playing blacks in the Padre system: Deacon Jones, a hitting instructor, Sandy Alomar, a first base coach, Amos Otis, a minor league roving instructor, and Jamie Moreno, a minor league coach.

Tom Romenesko, the Padres’ minor league director, said Wednesday: “Race has never been involved in any personnel decisions.”

Jones and Alomar claim they’ve never heard a racist word anywhere in the Padre organization, and Tony Gwynn and Garry Templeton--two Padre players--say the same thing.

Romenesko agreed with former Dodger vice president Al Campanis’ assessment that low management salaries in the minor leagues discourage would-be front-office executives, black or white. Few really want to go to the minor leagues to manage because there’s no money to be earned there, Romenesko said.

“There have not been a lot of former black players who’ve come forward (and asked to manage),” Romenesko said. “Money’s just terrible. (Larry) Bowa (the new Padre manager) managed at Triple-A last year for $28,000. I didn’t have to get in a bidding war to get Larry Bowa, though, because he wanted to manage. But Amos Otis worked for just $18,000 and it goes on.”