Disgraced former Mariners team president Kevin Mather’s comments were heinous enough on their own, but they continue to reverberate as fans wonder exactly how widespread executives who think like Mather—glib about manipulating service time to increase team profits, dismissive and at times openly contemptuous of players and their backgrounds—are in baseball. It’s a reminder of the privilege that runs rampant through the upper echelons of the sport, and the narrow, exclusionary worldview held by those in that rarified air. That lack of diversity isn’t just a Mariners problem; it’s a baseball problem, but currently no team is more in the crosshairs as a representative of the consequences of a lack of varied life experiences than the Seattle Mariners.
What the Mariners’ promise to “do better” might look like in their search for a new CEO
