By Michael Nam
On Sunday, May 17th the Miami Marlins baseball franchise made a curious choice to replace their manager, Mike Redmond. Rather than working with the current “Selig Rule” to review multiple diverse candidates for the role, the Marlins went with their general manager, Dan Jennings, another white guy, bringing the overall diversity of MLB’s manager population to dismal levels.
On April 14th, 1999, then-Commissioner Bud Selig of Major League Baseball instituted the rule designed to improve hiring practices for underrepresented personnel in some of the highest profile management positions. After it was put in place, there was a brief period of positive change, which resulted in 10 manager positions being filled by persons of color in 2009.