Second Opinion / OTHER MEDIA : RAFU SHIMPO : Marge Schott: Just Another Embarrassing Footnote

By GUY AOKI

Jan. 25, 1993 12 AM PT

Guy Aoki is co-founder and president of the Media Action Network for Asian - Americans. His opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Rafu Shimpo, an English-language paper published six days a week in Los Angeles for the Japanese-American community.

Most of the media is missing the point about Marge Schott by relating her ignorance/insensitivity/racism just to the world of professional baseball, which was earlier tainted by Al Campanis--the Los Angeles Dodger vice president who said in 1987 that blacks lacked “the necessities” for top-level positions in the business--and CBS sports analyst Jimmy the Greek--who in 1989 said that blacks were bred to be better athletes.

I always believed that firing them was just a convenient way for Major League Baseball to cut their losses and get rid of an embarrassing situation. They hired Bill White, a black man, as National League president, to help make up for the lack of blacks in baseball management. But according to Harry Edwards, a former consultant to Major League Baseball on minority hiring, White will be leaving in March and has been complaining about how rampant racism is in the business. So the problem--the mind-set--that Campanis and Jimmy the Greek reflected is still there.

We should be talking about these issues long after Marge Schott becomes just another embarrassing footnote in the annals of baseball.