Glass Ceilings Made Secure

Because the Cubs open up against the Dodgers in Tokyo on Tuesday, the Tribune felt the need to pull together a baseball-preview section. As a certain president might say, sad. This is paste-and-cut at its most basic, without a single Trib writer contributing a story. Still, one story in particular caught my eye, “Calling their shots: 5 former players are running baseball operations in the majors. More could be on the way.” According to Jay Cohen of the AP, the Giants; Mariners; Rangers; Red Sox; and White Sox are all headed up by former MLB players. So, everything old is new again, though two of the people in question do have Ivy League degrees. I happen to think experience counts, especially in coaching—which is different from managing—and maybe in the front office, too. If more former players are in fact headed to the front office, here’s the thing: That’s not a good trend for women. Why? For the very simple fact that there has never once been a female MLB player. Over at The Athletic, I read a story about the value of pitching labs. The story shows a young woman working a computer as a college pitcher looks to be throwing hard, which is what pitching labs are all about. The story also mentions a woman who set up a lab at Wake Forest much-visited by MLB clubs. Nothing new here. From what I’ve seen, women coaches in baseball tend to have a tech connection. They either operate the gizmos or base their hitting/pitching coaching on data from the gizmos. So far, though, female, tech-reliant coaches haven’t reached the major leagues. And what happens when tech loses its appeal? Roger Craig, who twice lost 20-plus games in a season for the Mets, reinvented himself as a pitching guru by coming up with the split-finger fastball. Maybe Craig would’ve done it sooner with the help of tech, but the point is as an ex-pitcher of some success in the majors (74-98 for his career), Craig kind of knew what he was looking for. An ex-hitter never could’ve done it. How can someone who’s never pitched? Long story short, from where I sit, women will always be an afterthought in baseball whether in the front office or the coaching ranks until they establish themselves on the field first.