Campanis Was a Scheduled Guest on ‘Nightline’

It was erroneously reported that Al Campanis’ appearance on ABC-TV’s “Nightline” program Monday was as a last-minute substitute guest for Don Newcombe, whose plane was delayed.

“The idea was to have all three--Al Campanis, Roger Kahn and Don Newcombe--on the program to talk about Jackie Robinson,” said Ted Koppel, the show’s host. “It is not true that Al was a last-minute replacement.”

On Wednesday’s “Nightline” program, Peter Ueberroth said he will resign as baseball commissioner if owners fail to become more aggressive in the hiring of minorities to top-level management positions.

“I believe strongly in the issue,” Ueberroth said. “We would not have brought it up and gone public with it and blatantly said baseball needs to improve late last year if we didn’t intend to do something about it. We would have ignored it.”

During December’s winter baseball meetings, Ueberroth called for increased opportunities for minorities in baseball. Not one of the 26 teams has a black manager or general manager.

“I don’t have a reputation for lip service,” Ueberroth said. “This is the first year baseball has attacked affirmative action and said, ‘Let’s get going.’ I think we’ll have progress that will be substantial.”

Also on “Nightline” were Reggie Jackson of the Oakland A’s and Dr. Harry Edwards, associate professor of sociology at the University of California.

“You can talk about a team not having (black) players on the field, but the real question is, where are the people in the front office that are black?” Jackson said.

“We don’t need affirmative action, we need definitive action. We’ve written about the Kennedys and the Martin Luther Kings for a long time; now we need to do something.”

Edwards said baseball runs under a “plantation-style system” in which blacks do the work but are not part of the decision process.