MLB this week is rolling out a new fellowship program aimed at boosting the presence of minority and female execs in the sport. The MLB Diversity Fellowship Program will place 20 candidates in 18-to-24 month slots with club baseball operations departments, and three more in three-year terms at MLB HQ in N.Y., rotating between baseball operations and league economics. Each of the positions pay at higher-than-normal starting rates, and the fellows are considered full-time employees. The application period will close in November, with the chosen fellows announced in April. Applicants must be no more than two years removed from receiving their Bachelor's or Masters' degree, as the program is designed at recent graduates and developing early-stage talent. The program is one of the most ambitious efforts to date by MLB's ongoing front office and field diversity initiative, particularly given the extended period the fellows will work. "The duration is very deliberate. This whole program is very much about building relationships, building a network in addition to learning skills, and it’s difficult to build relationships over 10 weeks in the summer," said MLB VP/Talent Acquisition, Diversity & Inclusion Renee Tirado. "We're really looking to have these fellows be truly immersed" (Eric Fisher, Staff Writer). The AP's Ronald Blum notes the MLB economics department is "considered a track toward high club positions in baseball administration." Phillies GM Matt Klentak and Brewers GM David Stearns are "among the former economics department employees who have moved to clubs." Tirado said, "We have probably a list of easily over 600 schools that we're reaching out to, career services department, their diversity department, connecting with affinity networks within the university and college systems to make sure that we're targeting the audience we want to engage" (AP, 10/2).
SENDING A STRONG MESSAGE: YAHOO SPORTS' Jeff Passan writes MLB "doesn't need diversity for the sake of diversity," but it instead needs to "erase the perception -- a well-earned one -- that it's an unwelcome place to an enormous segment of the population." The fellowship program is MLB's "strongest foray yet into widening its talent base by recruiting those who don't typically consider baseball a viable career path." Tirado said, "If we want baseball to continue to be America's pastime and this amazing sport for everyone, we have to be diligent to bringing in the talent that looks like everyone. This is not an affirmative-action agenda. We are not hiring people because of their gender or ethnicity. We are hiring people who are super talented who happen to be those demographics." Tirado added that by "offering a higher-than-normal starting salary, MLB hopes to compete" with the technology companies and investment banks that "often poach the brightest talent off college campuses." Passan notes the initiative is part of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred's "push to fight against MLB's reputation and runs in concert with youth programs targeted at African-Americans, whose population in baseball has winnowed after years of negligence" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 10/2).
