Apparently, Bud Selig is upset that the Marlins did not interview any minority candidates before hiring Jack McKeon. I guess the elderly do not qualify as a minority.

Bud issues a fiat in April, 1999 that all teams must provide a list of minority candidates, which is reviewed by the commissioner's office before anyone is hired.

A stiff penalty is expected for Florida:

Selig has the power to fine teams up to $2 million. The Detroit Tigers drew the ire of Selig in 2000 after their hiring of manager Phil Garner without interviewing anyone else. They sidestepped a fine after establishing a community advisory board committed "to Equal Employment Opportunities, their Diverse Business Partners Program and their community relations activities," according to a Major League Baseball press release.

At the time, the NAACP was critical of Major League Baseball for letting the Tigers slide.

So Selig is not upset that a minority was not hired but rather that the Marlins did not pay lip service to hiring a minority by following his pointless guidelines. Look, it's clear that teams are going to hire who they want to hire, regardless of whether that person represents a minority or not. The Cubs wanted Dusty Baker, who is an African-American, and they hired him. The Giants wanted Felipe Alou, who is Latin, and they hired him. Tony Pena, who is Latin, was hired midseason last year by the Royals and seemed to retain his job by the skin of his teeth. He now has KC improbably leading their division.

Unfortunately, just about every team out there wants to hire old, white men. And McKeon was the oldest and whitest available when the Marlins were looking to hire. A minority hire today is signing a manager who was not a backup catcher.

But Florida will get their wrists slapped because they made MLB look bad. If MLB does not penalize the Marlins, it's as good as admitting that the minority hire system is a joke and it opens them up to accusations of unfair employment practices and the lawsuits that would attend them. So Florida will pay the fine, Bud will cover his white, wrinkled tuccus, and the system will proceed as always hiring white former backup catchers 90% of the time.

I guess what they have is better than nothing since a team may stumple across a diamond in the rough, who happens to be a minority. Then again, any decent minority candidate (read Willie Randolph and Chris Chambliss) has been picked over so many times that he can't help by let it affect his attitude. At least Florida did those candidates a favor by not getting their hopes up while having no intention whatsoever to hire them.