Bill White Is NL’s Choice

National League owners, conferring by telephone, made it official Friday, unanimously approving Bill White as the league’s next president.

White, 55, who received a four-year contract, will become the first black to head a major professional sports league when he succeeds Bart Giamatti, who will replace Peter Ueberroth as commissioner of baseball on April 1.

The appointment of White was hailed as the most significant step yet in the affirmative action process that baseball accelerated after the appearance by Al Campanis, former Dodger vice president, on the television show “Nightline” in April, 1987. On that show, Campanis suggested that blacks “lacked the necessities” for leadership roles in baseball.

Home run champion Henry Aaron, now an executive with the Atlanta Braves, has ridiculed baseball’s recent claims of progress in minority hiring because of its general failure to hire minorities for key decision-making posts.

“I have been critical, and rightfully so,” Aaron said from his Atlanta home. “But this is a monumental step in the right direction. It’s on par with Jackie Robinson breaking (baseball’s color barrier in 1947).

“Jackie can rest a little easier now. He went through hell for all of us. If it wasn’t for Jackie, there wouldn’t have been a Larry Doby or Henry Aaron or Bill White.

“I’ve been fighting, talking, screaming and shouting in the hope that baseball would finally see a man for what he is and not the color of his skin, and the (search) committee is to be congratulated.

“It didn’t take guts, it took intelligence. Bill White was one of my peers. He’s smart. He cares about the game. Most importantly, he’s a former player who understands it. I’m sure he’ll do a very fine job. There’s no reason to believe he can’t do as good a job as Dr. (Bobby) Brown has in the American League or Mr. Giamatti has in the National League.”

Aaron also said that White’s hiring would contribute to the hiring of other blacks for key positions.

Frank Robinson of the Baltimore Orioles, baseball’s only black manager and one of only two minority managers, said he isn’t sure.

Robinson, contacted at his Los Angeles home, said he had mistakenly thought that his own hiring as baseball’s first black manager by the Cleveland Indians in 1974 would generate a minority hiring pattern.

Likewise, Robinson said, White’s hiring “doesn’t mean it will trigger a movement, though I hope it does. I hope it means that baseball is ready to judge a man by his capability and not his skin, but we’ll have to wait and see.

“What it does prove is that if they want to go in that direction, they can find a quality person. I’m obviously pleased, because it’s a step in the right direction, but I hope they don’t say, ‘Well, we’ve got a minority as National League president, that’s all we have to do.’

“There’s still a long way to go. It would be wrong not to continue to right the injustices. This is a tremendous opportunity, and I’m particularly happy for Bill. He was a smart, dedicated, hard-working ballplayer, and he’ll bring those same traits to this new job.”

White was a six-time all-star during a 13-year career as a National League first baseman. He has spent the last 18 years as a radio and TV broadcaster for the New York Yankees, teaming primarily with Phil Rizzuto, who said Friday that White has always emphasized “breaking barriers.”

“Bill felt this was important for baseball, himself and blacks in general,” Rizzuto said of White’s decision to accept the National League offer.

White, however, played down the minority factor. He said the five-member search committee--which was headed by Dodger owner Peter O’Malley and included former National League President Chub Feeney, who was general manager of the New York Giants when White first signed a pro contract--selected him because he was the best available candidate.

White said the opportunity to become baseball’s highest-ranking black official didn’t enter his thinking.

“I’m aware of my social responsibility,” he said at a New York news conference. “I’m aware of how far the game has come from the segregated conditions I encountered when I first broke in, in 1952. I will obviously try to encourage continued advancements.

“But you do the job no matter what your color is. This is an honor, a challenge, an opportunity that comes along only so often, and I felt I was ready for a change. I had nice security with the Yankees and a relaxed pattern to my life, but how many ways can you say, ‘There’s a ground ball to short’? I was simply ready for something more meaningful.”

The search committee apparently narrowed its choice to White and another black, Simon Gourdine, former deputy commissioner of the National Basketball Assn. and now director of labor relations for the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York. Gourdine had been a favorite from the start, but apparently there was a late-developing sentiment among committee members for a candidate from baseball.

White said it wasn’t until 10 days ago that he was contacted by Ted Jadick, who operates an executive search company in Chicago and New York and was authorized by the search committee to do its leg work.

Gourdine said Friday that he had been told Thursday night that he was no longer a candidate. He said he had been treated courteously and fairly by the committee, and he, too, hailed White’s selection.

“The appointment of Bill White is historic and very meaningful,” he said.

“The symbolism is terribly important to all Americans and to all people interested in baseball and in all sports. It’s part of a start.”