MLB gets A for race hiring, C+ for gender

 Baseball received its fourth straight A for race hiring in the annual report by Richard Lapchick’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports at the University of Central Florida. MLB’s grade for gender hiring fell to C+ from B- last year and a B in 2010. Baseball got an F among team vice presidents and a D among senior administration. “It was primarily at the team level,” Lapchick said on Wednesday. “There was a significant drop in the percentage of women in professional positions at the team level.” Lapchick, who has been conducting his study since 1988, recommends that MLB Commissioner Bud Selig direct teams to consider minorities and women of color for front-office jobs, following the example set when he told them they must look at minorities when filling openings for manager and general manager. Baseball’s central office was given an A+ for race and a B+/A- for gender. “If they were able to get the teams to adopt that for all senior administration and professional positions, I think that would change things rather quickly,” he said.