Saying Goodbye to Campanis

It is a sad commentary on society that Al Campanis spent his last years in exile from baseball. No one ever did more to help African Americans, Latinos and all athletes to play major league baseball. He was banished because a seasoned interviewer cornered him into saying things he did not mean or believe.

The fans, players, Dodger management and leaders of majority and minority groups should have had more backbone and screamed loud in support of Campanis. Instead we succumbed to the powerful winds of political correctness rather than the calmer winds of correctness and the truth. We forgot that 44 years of good deeds and actions count more than a few words by someone not known for his eloquence.

Someday America’s game will remember him for cultivating the path to the outfield, infield and pitcher’s mound for persons of all backgrounds. We should have had the courage to do it in Al’s lifetime. For that, shame on all of us.

MICHAEL A. GLUECK, Newport Beach

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Now that Al Campanis and Jackie Robinson are roommates again, I can just imagine their first conversation:

Jackie: “Gee Al, after all the good you did for race relations in baseball your entire career, I never knew you were a bigot.”

Al: “Neither did I, Jackie, neither did I.”

JOE GENDELL, Beverly Hills