Murray Chass on Baseball: Chris Chambliss: Still Mr. Nice Guy, Still No Job

Murray Chass…the same white guy who used to write for the N.Y. Times.

You want experience? Chambliss has plenty of experience.

Yet no major league team has expressed interest in him as its manager. The Tigers, for example, were the first organization he managed in, but they have had five managers in 13 years, and none has been named Chambliss.

The Tigers sometimes have even violated the commissioner’s rule that when teams interview candidates for managing and general managing jobs they have to include minorities on their interview lists. That’s right. Chambliss is still the same black guy who hit the momentous playoff home run in 1976 that beat Kansas City and catapulted the Yankees into their first World Series in a dozen years.

The Yankees didn’t interview Chambliss either last fall when they sought a successor to Joe Torre. Tony Pena, their first base coach, was their minority candidate, but he never had a chance in competition with Joe Girardi and Don Mattingly. At least he got an interview.