Of the 160 minor league baseball team managing jobs, only nine belong to African Americans entering the 2018 season.
Two of them, Fort Myers native Tommy Watkins and Jacksonville native Corey Wimberly, have spring training in Fort Myers with the Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox.
Watkins manages the Chattanooga (Tennessee) Lookouts, the Double-A affiliate of the Twins. Wimberly manages the Lowell (Massachusetts) Spinners, the low Class A affiliate of the Red Sox.
This marks just the second season managing for Watkins and the first for Wimberly, who was recruited by Tyrone Brooks as part of a Major League Baseball initiative to diversify minor and major league coaching staffs with more people of color and women.
“It’s called the diversity pipeline program,” said Brooks, the director of the program. “Part of the program is to increase the pool of people of color and women for front office roles and on-field roles as well.”
Over the past two years, Brooks said he had helped place 54 people of color or women in baseball internships or scouting, coaching, managing or front-office jobs.
Brooks, an accounting and marketing major at the University of Maryland, broke into the baseball business as an intern with the Atlanta Braves in 1996. That led to full-time, front-office jobs with the Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Indians. From 2010 until early 2016, Brooks worked as the director of player personnel for the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he first met Wimberly.
In January, 2016, Brooks accepted a job with the Commissioner of Baseball’s office to further diversify the professional baseball's leadership.
“In 2010, we actually signed Corey,” Brooks said of his time with the Pirates. “He played for us in Indianapolis in Triple-A. We had acquired him from the Oakland A’s. I had continued to watch him play throughout his minor league career. I’m always looking for talent that has the ability to move to the next stages of life, whether it be coaching or managing or scouting or in the front office.
“He was someone I targeted based on my knowledge of him when he was a player and how he carried himself. As it turned out, he was interested in getting back into the game. As part of my job, I work hand-in-hand with the different clubs so that when they have an opening, I can help them fill those roles. I passed along his resume along to Ben Crockett with the Red Sox.”
Wimberly coached for the first time last season in Greenville, South Carolina, with the Red Sox.
“When I got to Triple-A as a player, I was kind of managing the game in my head, all of the time,” Wimberly said. “I felt like I was managing the game, even when I was playing. I’ve always wanted to be in baseball.”
Wimberly and Watkins have known each other for years as players and coaches – and now, as managers. They also share the same career goal.
“I want to manage in the major leagues,” Wimberly said.
Connect with this reporter: David Dorsey (Facebook), @DavidADorsey (Twitter).
Here’s a list of the African-American minor league managers, as provided by minor league baseball. Note: There are 38 other minorities, mostly Latin Americans, who hold minor league managing jobs:
Triple-A
Gary Jones (Lehigh Valley, Philadelphia)
Bobby Meachem (Buffalo, Toronto)
Pat Listach (Tacoma, Seattle)
Glenallen Hill (Albuquerque, Colorado)
Double-A
Willie Harris (Richmond, San Francisco)
Tommie Watkins (Chattanooga, Minnesota)
Class A
Webster Garrison (Beloit, Oakland)
Short-Season
Corey Wimberly (Lowell, Boston)
Kieran Mattison (West Virginia Black Bears, Pittsburgh)