Words by Jason Cordner
As Major League Baseball continues to be aggressive in finding creative ways to promote diversity and inclusion, the league has announced a new Front Office Diversity Initiative through a masterfully constructed MLB Diversity Fellowship Program.
#blacktwitter MLB’s New Front Office Diversity Initiative: The ‘MLB Diversity Fellowship Program’ https://t.co/NXHXio5sCU
— Is It Just Us (@isitjustus2) September 29, 2017
Creating Opportunity For The Culture
This new front office diversity initiative is the most prominent action taken by MLB’s Diversity and Inclusion department to support its Front Office & Field Diversity initiative. The program is open exclusively to women and people of color who are recent graduates, no more than two years removed from school.
Diversity has been a core objective for the league under Rob Manfred, with MLB expanding its youth baseball programs in inner cities, and the Commissioner sending out repeated “memos” about clubs making an effort to find minority candidates when managing and other high-ranking jobs become available. The league has in place a “Selig Rule,” which stipulates that “minority candidates” must be considered “for all general manager, assistant general manager, field manager, director of player development and director of scouting position.
Time will tell if people will jump at a chance at these opportunities. In the grand scheme of things, 23 jobs in an industry of 30 clubs and a big central league office with a thriving multimedia offshoot is just a light finger on the scale. It’s a start in the right direction. For more info click here: MLB Diversity Fellowship Program
