Baseball Grades Low in Study of Minority Hiring

A Northeastern University study gives basketball high marks for minority hiring opportunities, with the NFL earning a B-plus for improvement and C-plus overall. But major league baseball graded only straight C’s.

The report, by Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society, concludes that while minorities have made progress on the field, front office advancement, particularly in baseball, has remained slow.

“It is very disheartening to see how little progress has been made in major league baseball,” said Richard Lapchick, the center’s director. “There are very few blacks holding those positions.”

Major league director of public relations Richard Levin called the report “flawed,” citing National League President Bill White, who is black.

The NBA led in nearly all categories of minority opportunities. Seventy-two percent of its players are black, and the league had six head black coaches.

Baseball has two black managers, and Raider Coach Art Shell is the only black head coach in the NFL.

Black players in the NFL increased to 61% last season from 60% the previous year. Major league baseball reversed a 10-year decline in black players with a 1% increase over the past year to 18%.

The study gave added weight to the hiring of minorities in the front office. The NBA was a leader, with five black general managers. Baseball and football have no black general managers.

The report also gave NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue high marks for appointing blacks to key league jobs, including Dr. Lawrence Brown, the league’s drug adviser; Reggie Roberts, director of information for the NFC, and Harold Henderson, executive vice president.

The report was harsh on baseball, noting that moves to put minorities into management have slowed since the initial fury over former Dodger executive Al Campanis’ statement in 1987 that blacks didn’t have the “necessities” to be in management.

Blacks held 10% of the jobs in the baseball commissioner’s office last year, the same as in 1988 and down from 13% in 1989. Total minority employment was 21%. There were no black or Latino executives or department heads.