Dana Brown Leads Houston Astros as MLB’s Only Black General Manager

Brown was soon scouting for the Pittsburgh Pirates and got his break in 2002, when M.L.B. took over the Expos after their owner, Jeffrey Loria, bought the Marlins and took most of his front office to Miami. Commissioner Bud Selig hired Omar Minaya as Montreal’s general manager, and as Minaya scrambled to assemble a staff, he remembered the scrappy outfielder he had scouted at Seton Hall.

“He was a young guy I thought had potential, because as a player, he had leadership qualities,” Minaya said. “He was kind of the captain of that team. I thought he was the kind of guy you could mentor, in the sense of evaluation. Some people just need a chance. And let’s not kid each other, as an African American, it’s hard to get chances sometimes.”

Minaya gave chances to others with more unusual backgrounds, cobbling together a front office that also included Perry Minasian, who had started out as a batboy and clubhouse attendant for the Texas Rangers, and Anthopoulos, a Montreal native who had paid his way through scout school but was running out of money.

Brown elevated Anthopoulos from intern to full-time hire (“Dana got a little bit of grief for giving me $25,000 — things were really, really bare bones,” Anthopoulos said, laughing), and Anthopoulos eventually moved on to the Blue Jays. As their general manager, Anthopoulos hired Brown and Minasian, who became general manager of the Los Angeles Angels in 2020. Brown predates both in the game, but waited the longest for his chance.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/01/sports/baseball/dana-brown-houston-astros.html