A real question from the year 2016, nearly 70 years after he debuted, and nearly 20 years after Major League Baseball instituted Jackie Robinson day in order to honor the person who broke the modern color barrier: Is the league going to do anything about its lack of hiring and advancement of minorities as managers, coaches and executives? Perhaps a statement by Robinson's 93-year-old widow, Rachel Robinson, will motivate them.
Attending the Television Critics Association winter meeting Monday night, where "Baseball" and "Civil War" documentarian Ken Burns screened a new short biography of Jackie Robinson to be shown on PBS soon, Rachel Robinson put it politely but firmly:
"There is a lot more that needs to be done and that can be done in terms of the hiring, the promotion" of minorities in the sport, she said.
She took part in a Q&A session with TV critics about "Jackie Robinson," a two-part PBS documentary airing in April.
Holding Jackie Robinson Day at ballparks and handing out T-shirts to honor his brave integration of baseball isn't enough, she said.
"We're talking about very few (black) coaches, very few managers ... so there's room for real progress, where people can come into the sport and feel they're going to be respected and given opportunities," Rachel Robinson said.
Burns recalled that Jackie Robinson, in his final public appearance, said he would be even more proud if he glanced over toward third base and saw an African American coach.
MLB has two black managers (Dusty Baker of the Reds and Dave Roberts of the Dodgers) and one, Fredi Gonzalez of the Braves, who is Latino. Baker and Roberts were hired this offseason. Once the Mariners fired Lloyd McClendon, MLB had been down to one minority manager -- a level unreached since the late 1980s. Under commissioner Bud Selig in 2009, the number of minority managers reached as many as 10, but it has dwindled ever since. New commissioner Rob Manfred says it's a priority of the league to improve their record for all minorities, but consistent actions have yet to equal talk.
Dave Stewart of the Diamondbacks and Michael Hill of the Marlins are the lone African American GMs. Farhan Zaidi of the Dodgers is of Pakistani descent, and Al Avila of the Tigers is Latino. This has to be considered an improvement, considering that Ruben Amaro was the lone minority GM as recently as mid-2014. Still, based on the words of his widow, it's not likely Jackie Robinson himself would consider it much progress at all.
