The Pirates have a diversity problem; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 5/1/16

Larry A. Silverman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; The Pirates have a diversity problem:

"Yet, for all the team’s success on the field over the past few years, being at PNC Park on Jackie Robinson Day was a sober reminder of the one area in which the Pirates organization has failed to live up to Jackie Robinson’s hopes and dreams for baseball — diversity.

Here are the facts. According to the 2016 “Racial and Gender Report Card” by Richard Lapchick, published by the Institute for Diversity & Ethics in Sports with the support of Major League Baseball:

• Thirty of the coaches on MLB teams (10.6 percent) are African-American. The Pirates have zero African-American coaches.

• Twenty-five of the vice presidents on MLB teams (6 percent) are African-American. The Pirates have zero African-American vice presidents.

• Ninety-nine of the senior administrators on MLB teams (5.4 percent), including assistant general managers, are African-American. The Pirates employ one of those 99 (although during the off-season the league did hire away the Pirates’ African-Amercan director of player personnel, Tyrone Brooks, to head a new MLB diversity program).

• The principal owner, president, general manager and manager of the Pirates are all white, although the Pirates are hardly alone in this. There are only two African-American managers and two African-American general managers on the 30 MLB teams, and no African-American owners or CEOs.

No one is suggesting that the Pirates intentionally exclude African-Americans from on- and off-the-field leadership positions. Nevertheless, the facts do suggest that the Pirates organization must ask itself some tough questions:

Why have the Pirates lagged far behind the other 29 MLB clubs in hiring and promoting African-Americans for key leadership roles?"