I had the pleasure of interviewing Wendy Lewis, Senior Vice President of Diversity and Strategic Alliances for Major League Baseball.
I touched base with her on a topic that’s very near and dear to me and other fans of the game–the diminishing presence of African Americans in the sport of Baseball. With the numbers having plummeted to all-time lows last season, no time felt better than now to interview the woman whose job it is to help diversify the Nation’s pastime.
The 3rd annual MLB Diversity Business Summit will take place in New York City on April 14 and 15, which is Jackie Robinson. The Summit serves as an employment and business opportunity trade show, where job seekers and entrepeneurs can directly interact with human resource workers and procurement executives from all 30 teams.
It’s steps like the Summit which are helping to directly address the problem, Wendy Lewis went in depth with me on everything being done to get more minorities in the game.
Q: How did you come to work for Major League Baseball?
I came to Baseball quite a while ago, I’ve been with Baseball a total of 26 years, and I had the opportunity to come in at the club level. So I started my career out with the Chicago Cubs organization; with the opportunity to start up the club’s HR Department, and it turned out that would be the first club to have an HR Department. So, for me it was just as pioneering as it was just a great opportunity to get into sports.
Q: Did you grow up a baseball fan?
I grew up a baseball fan and a sports fan. When we were growing up my parents were all about staying active with recreational activities. I actually grew up in a cul-de-sac, so we had the opportunity to play in the streets–we played a little bit of everything. It was my grandfather who really made me more of a baseball fan, given his love for Jackie Robinson
Q: When you see the low numbers of African-Americans in MLB (a little over 8 percent, as it was last season) does it spark something in you—extra motivation to fix and address this issue?
It always makes me motivated, because I know how fascinating this sport is for a lot of people and a lot of families. Traditionally African American families have always been big fans of the game. The number is coming up, last season in was at 8.5% in the game, but what you don’t see are the amount of people coming in through our minor league system, through our Academies, through our RBI program. We see this sort of Renaissance period that we’re going through. And we look at other factors. We look at how many players within a 40-man roster, in the All-Star Game and in the draft, and we see those numbers growing.
So even though folks may say there’s underrepresentation, as it may appear today, I think we here at MLB know the kind of work and direction Commissioner Selig has given on how much is getting done on the inside. The low number does motivate me, but it also excites me that we are making a difference.
Q: MLB launched Diversity Business Partners (DBP) in 1998 what do you regard as your greatest achievement since you’ve been on board?
The Diverse Business Partners Program is really more of the off-field, or more the front office part of our business. That is our very aggressive and strategic effort to bring minority and women owned companies into our supply chain. I can happily report that we’ve seen that go from really low-level representation, in terms of actual dollars spent to now reportedly over a billion dollars spent with those minority and women owned businesses.
That’s why at the Summit those entrepreneurs who are looking to become apart of the diversity in the Partner’s Program will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with clubs to talk about their businesses, and how their businesses’ potential goods and service providers to not only those clubs but different clubs at the same time and maybe areas where they haven’t even thought like MLB.com, MLB the network, minor league clubs the whole industry perspective.
Q: Now while African American numbers in MLB have slipped, the rise in foreign born players and other minority groups who’ve entered the league have gone up. Do you think longterm that those encouraging numbers will persuade African Americans of today to give baseball a chance?
Yes, and I think it’s already happening. Last year the Commissioner launched the On-Field Diversity Task Force, and it’s really a dedicated group of some of the best minds in the game. And looking at this perspective and we’re already seeing some of the players rally around it, other executives rally around it, HOF’ers like Frank Robinson and other Baseball leaders like Dave Dombrowski, who is a Chair of the committee. So that’s out there and being dealt with in meaningful ways.
So when we look at the kids coming into the Academies–some much younger, we see this as an opportunity to not only get them excited, but getting future kids excited and getting them to stay excited.
Q: You had just mentioned the Task Force that MLB assembled, can you please just go a little bit in depth about what your role was and what the focus of the Task Force was.
Well, I can happily say I was just one of the committee members, there was 16 other members, as well. My perspective is really going to be pretty much based on my background of workforce and supply chain development. But we are really focusing on the on-field piece, the Commissioner wants to see a very rigorous collective P.O.V on how to get really get more African Americans to not only play the game but stay in the game and result in representation all the way up to the 40-man roster. The Player’s Association is also working with us on this, and in my many years with Baseball I don’t think I’ve seen such a rigorous, and really dedicated at all these levels group assembly like this working on this as aggressively as has happened.
Q: Ultimately do you think this is an issue which can be fixed—is the decline in African American players just a trend?
Oh, I do and the Summit will really be a big help with that. One thing I really love about the Summit is that it really creates almost an education based on all the opportunities that’s in the game. So of course those athletes who want to aspire to become those Opening Day 40-man roster players that’s always out there. But for individuals who maybe don’t make it that far in their athletic careers will also realize there’s employment opportunities, there’s entrepeneuralship opportunities and may also realize that this may be the game of choice for their young ones, as well as their teenage ones and beyond.
So I think as we continue to follow Commissioner Selig’s leadership and dig deeper and wider and advance that accessibility to the community I do think you are going to see in just a short time where it’s obvious to everyone that Baseball really is very open and being well represented by the African American community.