Cadwallader: The ‘Brown Ceiling’ for MLB managers and GMs
From Sunny Cadwallader at The Shadow League on August 25, 2015, with mention of SABR member Anthony Salazar:
Last week, HBO’s Real Sports aired this from comedian, George Lopez.
Lopez lamented on the lack of diversity of Major League Baseball, not out on the field, but in the dugout. He called it, The Brown Ceiling.
The Brown Ceiling refers to the highest point Latinos and Blacks are ‘allowed’ to participate on a MLB team. “They let us pitch. They let us hit….They’ll even let us help out with the real jobs…. Hitting coaches. Pitching Coaches. They’ll let us do almost any job. Almost.”
What job is that?
Managers.
As of today, there are two managers of color in the league. Lloyd McClendon (Seattle Mariners) and Fredí González (Atlanta Braves). Two out of 30 in a league that boasts over 37% of Latino and African-American players. There were five during the 2014 season, according to The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (T.I.D.E.S.).
Chris Rock went in on Major League Baseball a few months ago as well, an honest segment that ripped into the sport, one which Lopez expands upon by discussing coaching hiring practices, dismal to say the least with only two managers of color currently in the League.
The numbers aren’t much better in the front office of baseball teams around the league. There are currently five General Managers of color: Dave Stewart (Arizona Diamondbacks), Farhan Zaidi (Los Angeles Dodgers), Ruben Amaro, Jr (Philadelphia Phillies), Jeff Luhnow (Houston Astros) and Al Avila (Detroit Tigers).
Read the full article here: http://www.theshadowleague.com/articles/george-lopez-dropped-knowledge-on-mlb
Originally published: August 26, 2015. Last Updated: August 26, 2015.