Woman Makes a Minor Leap

The Dodgers continue to be on the forefront of hiring women in front-office positions, promoting Emily Christy to general manager of the Class A Vero Beach Dodgers.

In addition to the Florida State League team, Christy, 28, is responsible for the Dodger rookie Gulf Coast League team and extended spring training program. A Princeton graduate, Christy has risen quickly after joining the Dodgers as an intern 13 months ago.

The general manager job came open when Trevor Gooby became director of Florida operations with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Christy, the assistant general manager, took over on an interim basis and was given the full-time job this week.

“If anyone said six months ago that I’d be sitting where I am now, I’d have said they were absolutely crazy,” Christy said.

Three months after being hired by the Dodgers last spring, Christy had lunch with two other women who hold front office jobs with the major league team -- assistant general manager Kim Ng and minor league operations assistant director Luchy Guerra.

“Baseball is a boys’ club, to an extent,” Christy said. “But in the Dodger organization there are women in very prominent positions, so it seems normal to me.”

Dodger vice chairman Jamie McCourt, wife of owner Frank McCourt, is the highest ranking woman in baseball. Other women on the Dodger management team included chief financial officer Cris Hurley and associate legal counsel Christine Chrisman.

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After lengthy negotiations and some hard feelings, Dodger coaches Jim Colborn and Tim Wallach have agreed to contracts. Colborn, the pitching coach the last four years, and Wallach, who was lauded by players in his first year as hitting coach, wanted raises that General Manager Paul DePodesta was not willing to give.

Compromises finally were reached and Manager Jim Tracy had to fill only one vacant position, that left by bench coach Jim Riggleman, who became the St. Louis Cardinal minor league coordinator.

Bullpen coach Jim Lett, 54, will be the bench coach and minor league catching coordinator Jon Debus will replace Lett in the bullpen.

“I think it is important to reward people within the organization,” Tracy said.

Lett previously was bench coach for the Cincinnati Reds in 1996 and the Toronto Blue Jays in 1998-99.

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Mike Brito, the longtime Dodger scout with the trademark Panama hat, will be inducted into the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame on Feb. 6 in Miami. The Cuban native has been with the Dodgers since 1978 and has signed 27 players who reached the major leagues, including Fernando Valenzuela.