Former Chicago White Sox bench coach and longtime major leaguer Joey Cora believes that Hispanic candidates don’t get a fair look when teams are looking for new managers.
Cora told ESPN’s Max y Marly on Friday that there are plenty of qualified Hispanic coaches who would be capable managers, but they don’t get a fair look when teams are hiring.
“When you have a Sandy Alomar, Alex Cora, Eduardo Perez, Dave Martinez, a bunch of guys — and I’m going to include myself — I have been in the big leagues,” Joey Cora said, via the Chicago Sun-Times. “I coached in the big leagues, I’ve managed in the big leagues a few games because someone got thrown out. I’ve been a bench coach, too.
“Some of the guys tell us we have to go through the minor-league system to get experience. I don’t think that is fair. All they have to do is give us a chance — the same chance you’d give anybody else. It is not because we are Latinos. Our resumes speak for itself.”
Cora, who coached under Ozzie Guillen in his stops in Chicago and Miami, believes that perhaps Hispanics should try to aim higher and work in front offices in order to change the landscape.
“Our aim has to be higher than only being manager,” Cora said. “If we get to be GMs, assistant GMs or directors of minor league systems, then we can make the hires. We can make the decisions. We have to be in the decision-making positions to make hires. It might be our fault that we only aim to be managers and that shouldn’t be it. It should be higher than that.”
There has been an effort to increase awareness of the lack of African-American managers in baseball – Dusty Baker and Dave Roberts are the only two in the majors today. However, with the recent unceremonious firing of Fredi Gonzalez, there are no Hispanic managers in a sport where nearly 30 percent of players are Latino. Perhaps MLB needs its own version of the Rooney Rule that the NFL has adopted.
