Campanis

Jim Murray restored the dignity and pride of one whom we've all admired over the years. Campanis' loyal 46 years of service to the Dodgers was rewarded with a disgraceful dismissal. It took Jim Murray to give the true meaning of Campanis' statement. Kudos to Murray. Only a racist would believe Campanis is a racist. MACE FUHR Los Angeles

Like the word surreal? Seems like we use it a lot, self included. Hard to avoid hearing someone describe some otherwise fairly innocuous scene as being just so surreal. Yet there was one moment in my life that truly seemed otherworldly, that even as you saw it transpire, felt uncomfortably eerie and unreal and as if you were watching it unfold while somehow suspended from above. Twenty-five years ago, Al Campanis sat on a wooden stool on home plate in the cavernous Astrodome.

If Al Campanis had to go, John Rocker has to go. Fair is fair. MIKE McDONALD North Hills

April 6, 1987. Nothing could have prepared me for what happened that spring night. I had just finished my first week as guest producer on ABC's "Nightline." And I got a quick introduction into the power of live television. Just a few words and neither the baseball world nor one man's career would ever be the same. I was the "Nightline" producer who first called Al Campanis, inviting him on the broadcast to honor Jackie Robinson 40 years after he broke baseball's color barrier.

Everybody knows that Bill Madlock's days were numbered since the moment he refused to sing the company tune during the Campanis fiasco. SPUNKY THOMAS West Hollywood

Dodger class was evident 25 years ago when they built a stadium with but one water fountain! LES SCHULTZ Seal Beach Editor's note: Viewpoint received slightly more than 175 letters in the wake of the Campanis affair , considerably more than on any other issue in recent years. The views expressed broke down roughly as follows: 54% deplored his remarks and applauded his forced resignation; 26% defended Campanis, the man, but not his remarks; 9% deplored his remarks but disagreed with his resignation; 6% defended his remarks (and in most of these cases went far beyond them)

Doug Rader hired as manager. What a shocking development--a white manager in major league baseball. I guess the good old boy network is just as strong in the post-Campanis era as it was before. I'm really growing weary of the charade that baseball goes through each time a managerial vacancy occurs. We see the same boilerplate article in newspapers over and over. It goes something like this: "The Turkeys announced today that Manager B. Martin has been fired. Turkey General Manager Jimmy (the Greek)

The Dodgers' PR and publicity department do not get enough credit for the great job they are doing, selling this bunch of misfits to the fans. Dodger Stadium is full, game after game, with Lasorda giving excuses and Campanis saying, "be patient." I think both should be traded and start fresh. Peter O'Malley is the one whose patience must be wearing thin. STEVE URBANOVICH Burbank

The highest-paid second-year player in baseball history remains Dodger pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, who was given a $350,000 contract in 1982 only after bitter negotiations that included a celebrated holdout. Another second-year Dodger pitcher looking for a healthy raise after a splendid rookie season is Orel Hershiser, but he's not a holdout. Hershiser reported to camp on schedule with the other Dodger pitchers.

A year ago today, Pedro Guerrero played his last game at third base, and the Dodgers--then a game below .500 at 23-24--went 72-43 the rest of the way, a .626 percentage, to win the National League West. The only Guerrero now in uniform for the Dodgers is Ramon, Pedro's younger brother and traveling companion, who works out with the team before games. Ramon Guerrero won't hit 15 home runs this month the way his big brother did to ignite the Dodgers a year ago.

LA AT 50: One in a series marking 50 years of the Dodgers in L.A. -- It was 21 years ago and it remains as clear as yesterday. Al Campanis imploded on national TV, and both the Dodgers and baseball swayed wildly for a while. A baseball team's public-relations nightmare became an entire sport's. What happened that night has been well documented. How it got so quickly to the Los Angeles public that hadn't seen the show, with that speed carrying great impact, has not been.

If Al Campanis had to go, John Rocker has to go. Fair is fair. MIKE McDONALD North Hills

We have now read the commentaries and eulogies surrounding the recent passing of Al Campanis. Almost all talk about how much he did for black and Hispanic ballplayers and how he didn't have a racist bone in his body. But isn't this exactly the point? If it had been Marge Schott who made the comments that Campanis made on "Nightline," they could have been dismissed as the idle thoughts of a nut. But instead we had Al Campanis--a friend of the black ballplayer--who made the comments that blacks may have lacked the necessities to be major league managers.

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.

Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax and an array of baseball luminaries attended funeral services in Fullerton on Friday for former Dodger general manager Al Campanis, who died of coronary disease Sunday at 81.

Two years before their paths were to cross on the "Nightline" program that has forever been engraved in the lore of major league baseball, Al Campanis and Roger Kahn had a moment in time that left Kahn forever grateful. And so it was with a sense of sadness, as well as irony, that the world-famous author of "The Boys of Summer" talked about Campanis, who died Sunday, at the age of 81. On Father's Day.

In most professions, success is simply determined by superb function of basic fundamentals. Perhaps spring training would be the ideal time and place for the Dodgers to learn such fundamentals. Going to spring training in playing shape may also have its advantages. Is there a chance of catching the Astros? Slim and none, and slim is dead. Goodby, good night and good luck next year. Hey, Campanis, structure salaries based on performance and deduct heavily for mistakes in basic fundamentals.

Al Campanis, the longtime Dodger player, scout and executive who helped prepare Jackie Robinson to break major league baseball's color barrier, but who was fired for making racially insensitive remarks on national television, died Sunday at his Fullerton home. He was 81.

Regarding the Al Campanis story ["The 'Nightline' That Rocked Baseball," April 6] and Vin Scully's summation, "It is truly an American tragedy": That's an opinion I've held from the beginning. It's interesting to see that it now appears to be the view of most fair-minded people and unanimously of those who know the real Campanis and his major contributions to the progress of black players in professional baseball. But where were all these fair-minded people in 1987?