In the eyes of Kenny Williams, MLB's front-office diversity is just as lacking as it was when he took over baseball operations for the Chicago White Sox in 2000. That, and more, in BNightengale's Sunday Notebook:
Mackenzie Salmon connected with Fox play-by-play announcer Joe Buck to see how he stays at his best during this crazy stretch of calling NFL and MLB postseason games.PHOENIX — Ken Williams pulled up into his Chicago neighborhood, looked out his car window and gasped."No is going to run the Chicago WHITE Sox."Here we are 22 years later, celebrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
There has not been a single African-American hired as a GM or vice president of baseball operations since 2014 when the Arizona Diamondbacks hired Dave Stewart, only to fire him two years later. Yet, while Al Avila of Detroit, Farhan Zaidi of San Francisco and Kim Ng of Miami are the only other minority leaders of baseball teams, the jobs are constantly being filled by white men.
Williams, who played football and baseball at Stanford before a 10-year professional playing career, including six years in the major leagues, closes his eyes and listens to the voices that helped him throughout his career. "So, if I don’t honor these people by continuing to be a voice what does that say about me? What does that say about me when I still hear Muhammad Ali’s voice whisper to me in Cincinnati at the Civil Rights game: 'I’m proud of you. I’m proud of you. Keep telling it like it is.'"
"It was right after Hank had said that he wanted to see more African-American players in baseball, so Hank wasn’t happy with me for about two years." Williams is one of the few front-office executives unafraid to publicly convey his thoughts. Baseball’s Black community quietly seethes over clubs’ front-office and managerial hiring practices. There’s not a single Black GM in the game. Williams is the lone vice president in charge of baseball operations. Derek Jeter is the only CEO. Dusty Baker and Dave Roberts are the only Black managers.
"If I can look back and see maybe from the timing of speaking a little more aggressively and challenging the institution a little bit and say, 'Wow, from this point on, more people got opportunities,’ then whatever happens to me down the line will be worth it." Teams also must provide the Commissioner’s office with a succession plan for all senior baseball operation positions that include diverse candidates.
"Bias and stereotypes are going to be around forever, but I do think we’ve made a ton of progress," Balkovec said."I mean, there’s going to be women in uniform next year. Looking back on those days it would have been incomprehensible to understand what the next decade was going to look like for myself and for others."
Balkovec, who’s bilingual and has two master’s degrees, was beaming during her Zoom press conference that included more than 100 reporters. "He said, 'I took a long time to get back to you because I called all of the teams that had jobs posted and they also said the same thing.’She went to work as a waitress, took an internship with Arizona State, continued to apply for baseball jobs, and even changed her name on résumé to "Rae." It worked until a team called and her voice revealed she was a woman.
"There’s still a reason where you look at the box score in the paper the next day, and it says, 'Winning pitcher. Losing pitcher. Save.' That’s something you can’t change. Winning games is huge. You want to say Maddux’s 355 wins don’t mean anything?"Anything less was considered a failure.
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