There were few firings in Major League Baseball following the 2017 season, although the big-name, big-market Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Washington Nationals have new skippers.
None of the new gents is black. Why am I not surprised?
Boston hired former player and Houston Astros bench coach Alex Cora, a Puerto Rican, as its manager. Dave Martinez, also Puerto Rican, was hired to lead the Washington Nationals after Dusty Baker got bounced after losing in the playoffs to the Chicago Cubs.
The Yankees hired first-time manager (or coach for that matter) Aaron Boone after surprisingly letting go of Joe Girardi.
With Baker’s termination, Dave Roberts of the defending National League Champion Los Angeles Dodgers is MLB’s lone black manager.
Rick Renteria remains the manger of the Chicago White Sox, which means just four of MLB’s 30 managers are men of color.
When asked during his introductory press conference about being Boston’s first minority manager, Cora’s response, in my opinion, was less than inspiring.
“I never thought I was getting interviewed because I’m a minority. I’m proud to be. I’m proud to be Puerto Rican,” he said.
“But I see it that I’m a capable guy. The history I understand. There’s not too many Latino managers. There’s not too many minority managers. But there’s 30 capable managers in this league, and I’m one of them,” he said.
Worcester Telegram-Gazette columnist Tom Ballou wrote “Counting Cora, there have been as many Red Sox managers as there have been U.S. presidents, 45, and Cora is the first minority. The country elected its first minority president eight years, before the Red Sox hired their first minority manager.”
“Cora knows Boston and Boston knows him, but as a smart, articulate complementary player on some strong (Red Sox) teams. Things won’t be the same for him as manager, and that job will never be the same in Boston now that the Red Sox have caught up with the voters and put a minority candidate in charge.”
Born in Brooklyn to Puerto Rican parents, Martinez was quick to dismiss his heritage as a reason for his hiring with the Nationals.
A reporter asked him in Spanish his feelings on joining Renteria and Cora as Latino managers and he replied, “It’s gratifying.”
“There’s a lot of good Latin personnel out in baseball, coaching, in the front office, and it’s nice to be recognized. But I really believe I’m here because of my merit, not because of any race or anything like that.”
This is true of any minority manager – they aren’t hired solely because of their race or heritage. But it bothers me that too many minority hires ignore that their respective race and heritage does factor into their employment.
Cardinals had Cuban manager
The St. Louis Cardinals, surprisingly, have had a minority manager.
Miguel Angel “Mike” González (Cordero) was a journeyman who played various positions, mostly catcher, throughout his 17-season career.
He played for the Cardinals 1915-18, 1924-25 and 1931-32.
Cardinals player-manager Frankie Frisch hired González as a coach in 1934, calling him “a great guy, loyal and true,” according to a 1938 Sporting News article.
The team, known as the “Gas House Gang” won the NL pennant and defeated the Detroit Tigers in a seven-game World Series.
In 1938, Frisch’s squad was 63-72 when he was dismissed.
González took over for the final 16 games of the year. He went 8-8 and the Cardinals finished sixth in the National League and 17 ½ games out of first place.
According to the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), González was the first Latino manager in Major League Baseball.
A close friend of Frisch’s, González said, “I hate to see him go. He’s a real pal and a good man. I didn’t want him to leave.”
Cardinals executive Branch Rickey and owner Sam Breadon reportedly sought González’ input on a new manager and hired his former manager at Columbus, Ray Blades.
Blades led the Cardinals to a second-place NL finish with a 92-61 mark, 4 ½ games out of first.
Blades was just 14-24 in 1940 when his managerial stint came to an end. González took over for six games and went 1-5. The Cardinals hired Billy Southworth to close that season and he led the Cardinals to the World Series in 1942, ’43 and ’44 with González serving as a coach.
Southworth left for Boston in 1945 and Eddie Dyer was named manager. Again, González was retained as a coach. He was coaching third base when Enos Slaughter made his “mad dash” to score the go-ahead run in Game Seven of the 1946 World Series against the Boston Red Sox.
He insisted that he waved Slaughter home because the bottom of the order was scheduled to bat and he didn’t want to strand a runner at third in the bottom of the eighth.
Slaughter never credited González for his role in the famous play. It would be the last game that González coached in the Majors.
So, the Cardinals had a Latino manager long before most franchises – and González remains the franchise’s only minority manager.
He first held the title nine years before Jackie Robinson played for the Brooklyn Dodgers and 16 years before Tom Alston became the Cardinals’ first black player.
Alvin A. Reid was honored as the 2017 “Best Sports Columnist – Weeklies” in the Missouri Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest. He is a panelist on the Nine Network program, Donnybrook, is a weekly contributor to “The Charlie Tuna Show” on KFNS and can also be heard on Frank Cusumano’s “The Press Box.” His Twitter handle is @aareid1.
