DES MOINES, Iowa -- Former manager Whitey Herzog said he
believes major league baseball is sometimes guilty of reverse
racism when it comes to hiring for management jobs, a newspaper
reported Saturday.
"I do think that there's a lot of capable minorities," Herzog
said Friday at the podium of the annual Iowa Cubs FanFest luncheon,
The Des Moines Register reported.
"But I do think today, the people that are really getting it
stuck to them are guys like this guy over here because he isn't a
minority," Herzog was quoted as saying. The reference was to Iowa
Cubs manager, Bruce Kimm, who is white.
Herzog, who led the St. Louis Cardinals to the 1982 World Series
championship, said he hopes Kimm someday can manage a big league
team.
"And the reason I say that: We are so intent in our country
today that we must do some things strictly opposite of what our
country was built upon," Herzog was quoted as saying. "When our
country was built, the best man always got the job. The most
capable person was the guy. It didn't make any difference what
color he was, it didn't make any difference if he was a minority."
Herzog did not immediately return a phone message left at his
home Saturday by The Associated Press.
Rich Levin, a spokesman for commissioner Bud Selig, said he has
never heard complaints that baseball is involved in reverse racism.
"We try to be as inclusive as possible. We are very concerned
about equal opportunity," Levin said. "We want to make sure that
minorities have equal access."
Currently, six of 29 major league managers are minorities. The
Florida Marlins do not have a manager. There is one black general
manager, Ken Williams of the Chicago White Sox.
Many audience members, including Iowa Cubs majority owner
Michael Gartner, were upset by Herzog's comments, the Register
reported.
"It was embarrassing," Gartner was quoted as saying. "It's
not consistent with our own beliefs and baseball's beliefs, and I
apologize to those people who were offended."
David Chavez, president of Colorado Springs-based Pro Sports
MVP, which set up Herzog's appearance, has known the 70-year-old
Herzog for 10 years and thinks he was misinterpreted.
"He's a standup guy and a gentleman in the truest sense," he
said. "I think he miscommunicated what he was trying to say.
"At the end of the speech, I just think he was just trying to
pull it together," Chavez said. "He was trying to say baseball
has moved in the right direction. But at the same time, there's
still a lot of good people out there."
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