Ray Savage - SAVAGE VIEWS – Women in Baseball

 

SAVAGE VIEWS – Women in Baseball

April 29, 2021

One of my last assignments before I retired was serving as a consultant to a well-known international Foundation.  Their business model stipulated that their staff of a little more than 100 employees be well diversified.  Women, Gays and Minorities were well represented.  Optics were important since they operated on a world stage.

Like the Foundation, baseball needs to be concerned about its optics. Diversity is important and more opportunities need to be made available to blacks and Latinos through internship programs.

The question being raised is whether baseball discriminates against women with few holding prominent front office positions. According to statistics, in 2020 the number of women occupying key baseball operations roles was 225 with 17 serving as directors.  Women hold about 5% of such positions.

Kim Ng was hired as GM of the Florida Marlins and her appointment was rightly heralded.  She is a baseball lifer and evidentially is well-regarded.  My take on it at the time was the Marlins brought her on board as a PR measure.  Not only that, I’m sure her compensation package pales compared to similarly qualified men.  However, she opened the door for females to be considered in the future.  However, it does not appear that another Kim Ng is in the pipeline

Since baseball is a male dominated sport, it’s not unexpected that the overwhelming majority of senior front office positions are held by males. 

The role of GM has evolved over the years.  In past years, a GM was someone who had played the game professionally and came up through the ranks.  The modern GM is most likely a graduate of top ranked college who has demonstrated expertise in front office management, public relations, social media and analytics.   Of course, there is no reason why a well-qualified women can’t meet these requirements if she is willing to put in the effort to make it happen.

In a male dominated sport it’s always going to be a challenge for a woman to make progress.  In order to succeed, she must be willing to pay the price.  It usually means graduating not only from a prestigious college and be willing to take on an intern position that not only pays little with success not guaranteed.  The rise in the ranks may not only be slow but tedious.   Unlike a male counterpart, there may not be that someone willing to serve as a Mentor.  Also, there are almost no female colleagues to look to for guidance.  Unfortunately, female candidates may be subject to a hostile work environment and have difficulty gaining respect.

Should we be concerned with the paucity of females in decision making roles in baseball?  I don’t think so.  While the occasional female will rise to the top, I see no reason to make an extraordinary effort to increase female representation in such roles.  On the other hand, I’d like to see more of an effort made to increase the percentage of minorities in the ranks.

 

Ray