Baseball Minority Hiring Showing Small Gains

Almost unnoticed in the home run chase was baseball’s announcement that minority employment rose 3 percent from 1995 to 1997.

Of 5,008 employees in major league baseball’s central offices and the 30 teams at the end of last year, 1,141 (23 percent) were minorities, up from 20 percent in the previous survey, which took place after the 1994-95 strike.

The percentage of women rose from 21 to 23 percent.

Among front-office employees, the percentage of minorities rose from 18 percent to 21 percent and the percentage of women rose from 36 percent to 38 percent.

The percentage of minorities was 15 percent when baseball began its surveys in 1989 and the percentage of women was 38 percent.

Among on-field staff, which includes managers, trainers, scouts, coaches and instructors, minority employment rose from 22 percent in 1995 to 26 percent in 1997. But there are just four minority managers: Felipe Alou (Montreal), Dusty Baker (San Francisco), Don Baylor (Colorado) and Jerry Manuel (Chicago White Sox).

MORE RECORDS: After setting the major league home run record Tuesday night, Mark McGwire still had another long-ball mark ahead of him.

Joe Bauman set the professional record of 72 homers in 1954 while playing for Roswell, N.M., of the Longhorn League. Bauman, like McGwire an imposing figure at 6-foot-5 and 235 pounds, batted .400, drove in an astounding 224 runs and scored 188--in 138 games. He had hit 50 homers in 1952 and 53 in 1953, both with Artesia, N.M., of the Longhorn League.

BUBBLE BATH: Joe Torre and his coaching staff hid in the tiny visiting manager’s office at Fenway Park the other night as the New York Yankees sprayed champagne and beer all over the clubhouse in celebration of clinching the AL East title.

Bored with soaking each other, the Yankees started looking for fresh targets.

“They wanted George (Steinbrenner) real bad, but he’ll save that for later on,” Torre said of the Yankees owner, who escaped a dousing by retreating to the team bus.

When his players began chanting for new victims, Torre had no choice but to surrender some of his staff.

“They wanted (Jose) Cardenal and we finally threw him out of the office,” Torre said. “That old human sacrifice thing, like in those penitentiary movies.”

EXPOS STILL PUSHING FOR PARK: NL president Len Coleman went back to Montreal on Thursday to push some more for a new Expos ballpark.

“We’re concerned about the franchise here in Montreal,” he said. “We feel very strongly that Montreal will require a new ballpark going forward. I think it’s particularly important in Montreal that the new park is constructed because right now the Expos, in terms of revenue generation, rank 30th of 30 teams in major league baseball.”

The Expos’ ownership group has set a Sept. 30 deadline to decide whether sufficient financing will be available to proceed with construction of a new ballpark in downtown Montreal.

“We agree fully with the Sept. 30 deadline,” Coleman said. “We have to look at scheduling for the year 2000 and other factors. We really need to be able to hold firm to that Sept. 30 deadline.”

WAX MAN: Mark McGwire bumped Roger Maris out of the record book. Now he’ll replace him in the Sports Legends exhibit at the original Hollywood Wax Museum.

A figure of McGwire has already been installed at the other Hollywood Wax Museum, located in Branson, Mo.--some 200 miles southwest of St. Louis.

McGwire’s wax figure is dressed in a St. Louis Cardinals uniform in a replica of him swinging for his 62nd homer.

“About a month ago, they figured McGwire was going to break the record, so they took the Roger Maris figure out of the wax museum in Hollywood,” spokesman John Blanchette said. “They used some of the wax in the Maris figure for the new McGwire figure. So Maris will always be a part of McGwire in Missouri.”

Blanchette said it will take about a month to complete the McGwire figure that will be placed on display at the original Hollywood Wax Museum.