BLACKS IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL MANAGEMENT: ABSENCE OR MALICE? : Angels : Club Is Sympathetic, but There’s Little Action

No one in the Angels’ organization has made any derogatory statements about blacks, but the club isn’t exactly a trend-setter when it comes to hiring blacks for front-office jobs or on-the-field, decision-making roles, either.

Ron Jackson, who was signed by the Angels in the 1971 draft and played for the club in 1976-78 and 1982-84 is a member of the Angels’ community relations staff. Frank Robinson, in 1977, and John Roseboro, 1972-74, were coaches with the Angels.

There have been so many changes in the team’s minor-league affiliates over the years that tracking the progress made by blacks in those executive and managerial positions is almost impossible. But longtime Angel followers--both within and outside the organization--mention just three names.

“Roseboro, Robinson and now Jackson, that’s all I can think of,” said Buzzie Bavasi, who was the Angels’ executive vice president and general manager from 1977 to 1984.

“And the Angels have had lots of black scouts in the past, but scouts come and go because the money is not there,” Bavasi said. Bavasi also mentioned Reggie Lambert, a 23-year-old coach with the Angels’ Palm Springs Class A affiliate.

Angel General Manager Mike Port says he has never witnessed any “biased activity” while with the Angels and claims he has never seen a case of discrimination in almost 20 years of front-office duty with the Padres and Angels.

“The people I’ve worked with have always considered (color) an irrelevant thing,” Port said. “You hear stories, of course, about how things were in the early days. But all the time I’ve been involved with baseball, here or San Diego, the only criteria was good, qualified people whenever an opening occurred.

“Of course, unless you’re inclined to create jobs, first you have to have an opening. We’re interested in good, qualified people, regardless of any other factor. That’s the way we’ve always operated. I can’t--even stretching my imagination--imagine operating any other way because then we wouldn’t be doing our jobs and the bottom line is always performance and quality.”

Bavasi believes that the main reason there aren’t many blacks in the front offices is because so few apply for those types of positions.

“In the seven years I was with the Angels, I had only one request for an office job from a black. That was from Roseboro, who came in to see me. But in order to give John the job he wanted, I would have had to fire somebody and that’s not fair.

“I thought Roseboro would have made a fine executive if he would have taken the time to go to the minor leagues and become a business manager. He has a great deal of intelligence and a great personality. If he had gone to the minors and gotten the background, he might have been another Henry Aaron (who is a director and vice president for the Atlanta Braves).”

Roseboro, who has a public relations firm in Los Angeles, may yet end up in the Angel organization. He recently has discussed that possibility with owner Gene Autry and Autry’s wife, Jackie.

“I’ve talked with Gene and Mrs. Autry, more with Mrs. Autry, and she is looking for a spot I may be able to fit into,” Roseboro said. “We talked during the playoffs and I told her I’d like to get back into baseball. I saw her again this winter and she said she was still looking around the organization for a position.”

Roseboro’s relationship with the Angels got off to a rocky start, however.

“I started out as the bullpen coach in ’72 and moved to first-base coach in ‘73,” Roseboro said. “But I was moved back to the bullpen, which caused me a whole lot of trouble with (then-General Manager) Harry Dalton because I thought it was a backward move.”

The Angels were dissatisfied with the performance of third-base coach Salty Parker and wanted to move him to the first-base coaching box. Roseboro felt he should have been promoted to third, but the club brought in Whitey Herzog to take over at third and Roseboro wound up in the bullpen.

Was the decision based on skin color?

“There was a block there,” Roseboro said, choosing his words carefully. “I don’t think the Angels were any different than any other team, though. I think it was the system. The system did not permit a minority as a third-base coach.

“It certainly had nothing to do with talent or ability. And I guess that’s why I got so (angry).”

Roseboro doesn’t think prejudice played a part in his first failed attempt to get into the Angels’ front office, however.

“I believe what Buzzie says is true,” he said. “He was going to try and work me in and it just didn’t come about because there were no openings.”

Bavasi said he never witnessed any form of racial discrimination in his seven years with the Angels.

“No way, absolutely not,” he said. “In fact, I can honestly say that in my 45 years in baseball, I saw no prejudice whatsoever.

“I will say it took longer than it should’ve for us to realize that black people belonged in baseball.”

Robinson, one of three blacks to have managed in the majors, served as the Angels’ hitting instructor in 1977 after he was fired as manager of the Cleveland Indians, the team that had made him baseball’s first black manager in 1974. He later managed the San Francisco Giants from 1981 to 1984.

Roseboro says it is unfair to point the finger at any one team. And he hopes something positive comes from the furor surrounding the comments of Dodger General Manager Al Campanis on national television Monday night.

“It’s a baseball-wide phenomenon,” Roseboro said. “The consensus in baseball has been, ‘Let’s keep the status quo.’

“Al’s comments have moved it out from behind closed doors and opened some eyes. Now, maybe things will start to change.”