Comments Doomed Campanis Remarks Out Of Character, But Nonetheless Inexcusable

George Campanis remembers his father taking a belt to his backside just once when he was young - for using the n-word.

“I was just a little kid, I didn’t realize the offensive meaning of the word,” Campanis, 50, said. “And my dad let me know right away I should never use that word again.

“From bringing up his children to dealing with people, he was a fair man. Race never played a part. He hired more black athletes than any other general manager in sports.”

Maybe so, but Al Campanis will be remembered for his remarks about blacks in baseball on ABC’s “Nightline,” which aired 10 years ago today, not his work as a baseball executive.

Now 80 and needing full-time care after nearly dying of pneumonia last month, Campanis was forced to resign as general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers because of the remarks. He had held the job for nearly 20 years.

“It’s done now,” he said. “It didn’t come out the way it should have or the way I would have liked. But things work out. It cost me my job. It was one of those things.”

Campanis was nearing retirement when the “Nightline” show aired April 6, 1987. He was a late replacement for Don Newcombe, the Dodgers’ director of community relations, who had missed a flight.

Campanis, who is white, and Newcombe, who is black, played with Jackie Robinson, who broke major league baseball’s color barrier 50 years ago with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

“Dad got in fistfights coming to Jackie’s aid,” young Campanis said. “Dad loved Jackie. Years later, Rachel Robinson gave dad a trophy that Jackie had won, because of her friendship with dad.”

The subject on “Nightline” was Robinson, but it quickly changed. When host Ted Koppel asked Campanis why there were so few blacks in baseball management, Campanis said blacks “may not have some of the necessities to be, let’s say, a field manager, or perhaps a general manager.” It went downhill from there.

The interview, taped in an empty Astrodome with Campanis sitting at home plate with an earpiece, only got worse. At one point, he said blacks weren’t good swimmers “because they don’t have the buoyancy,” and pointed out there weren’t many black pitchers or quarterbacks.

Fred Claire, who succeeded Campanis as the Dodgers’ general manager, said the remarks were out of character - and inexcusable.

“It was a very sad event for Al, it was a very difficult time,” said Claire. “With one glaring exception, he served baseball very well.”

Months after the show, Campanis said if his remarks helped blacks by drawing attention to the issue he was glad it happened, said his son.