Best All-Time General Managers: #16 Al Campanis

Misremembered due to one interview, the #16 on our list of best all-time general managers put together one of the strongest organizations for nearly two decades

Los Angeles Dodgers, 1969-87

When the name of Al Campanis is recalled today, it is not as one of the best all-time general managers, it is for his disastrous handling of an interview with Ted Koppel. In 1987, Campanis agreed to go on Koppel’s popular “Nightline” TV show to reminisce on the 40^th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s integration of big league baseball.

Asked why there had been no minority front office executives in baseball, his fumbling answer – that “they lacked the necessities” – came across as intimating that he didn’t think minorities as a group were smart enough. Amid rising interest-group outrage, he was fired two days later.

It was sad irony for Campanis. A veteran of 24 games for the 1943 Brooklyn Dodgers and also a Navy veteran, Branch Rickey, himself one of the best all-time general managers, had assigned him to Montreal in 1946, his chief task being to guide Robinson through his first season of organized baseball.

Beginning as a Dodger scout in the 1940s, he was, by late 1968, the obvious choice to succeed Dodger GM Fresco Thompson when Thompson succumbed to cancer.

That also put Campanis in position to harvest the abundant fruit of the Dodger farm system. Bill Buckner, Steve Garvey, Bobby Valentine and Bill Russell all arrived in 1969, Joe Ferguson in 1970, Ron Cey in 1971 and Davey Lopes in 1972. The infield of Garvey, Lopes, Russell and Cey would provide a mainstay around which Campanis could build for a decade.

The 1978 season stands as Campanis’ crowning achievement. Los Angeles was coming off a 1977 pennant, but in those nascent days of free agency, the Dodgers were in a delicate condition. Garvey, Russell, Burt Hooton, and Dusty Baker all were free agents, and the team needed pitching help.

Campanis re-signed all of them, and added right-hander Bob Welch to the rotation, enabling the Dodgers to hold off Cincinnati by two and one-half games. Campanis ought to have been the executive of the year in 1978, but voters went instead with San Francisco’s Spec Richardson because the Giants looked like a much-improved club while the Dodgers looked like just another back-to-back pennant winner.

As fate would have it, the Dodgers won their only World Series during the Campanis era in 1981, a strike-shortened season when Campanis improved the team only marginally. Cincinnati, St. Louis and Montreal all were probably better than the Dodgers in 1981, but the Reds and Cardinals both failed to win either the first or second half of that unique split season, and the Dodgers upset the Expos in the NLCS.

When the two best teams in the American League, Oakland and Milwaukee, also fell victim to the unusual post-season arrangement, Los Angeles skipped by New York in six games to win its luckiest World Series since 1959.

The mid 1980s was a period of unprecedented parity in big league baseball, and as the Dodger core aged Campanis found himself unable to replenish the talent base enough to continue on top. Los Angeles won the NL West in 1985, but played sub-.500 ball the next two seasons, Campanis’ last.

He was 70 the night of the Nightline interview and probably close to retirement, either by his own choice or others’, anyway. Campanis died in 1998.

Beyond his tongue, Campanis’ biggest weakness was a tendency to trade away talent. Even so, Campanis’ abundant strengths rank him 16^th on the list of best all-time general managers. That’s what the statistics say, anyway. The social record says something else.

Al Campanis

In the first six categories, values reflect the standard deviation of the GM’s performance above or below the historical mean for that category. Category 7 awards or deducts points for seasons in which the GM’s short-term impact exceeded the margin by which his team either reached post-season or failed to do so. Category 8 represents post-season appearances; in categories 7 and 8 indicated points are based on numbers of teams and post-season berths.

1 Short-term average: +0.71

2 Short-term total: +0.74

3 Long-term average: +1.09

4 Long-term total: +1.58

5 Residual average: -0.16

6 Residual total: -0.33

7 GM’s post-season shares:

• 1974 award +0.70. Campanis aided the Dodgers by +8.7 games. They qualified for post-season by +4.0 games. Key moves: Acquired Jim Wynn +3.8; acquired Mike Marshall +3.6
• 1978 award +0.70. Campanis aided the Dodgers by +15.0 games; they qualified for post-season by 2.5 games. Key moves: Promoted rookie Bob Welch +1.9; signed free agent Burt Hooton +3.1; signed free agent Terry Forster +2.4; re-signed Jeff Russell +3.1
• 1982 penalty -0.70. Campanis hurt the Dodgers by 7.7 games; they failed to qualify for post-season by 1 game. Key moves: Traded Bobby Castillo +1.3; traded Rick Sutcliffe +2.6; lost free agent Reggie Smith +1.7
• 1985 award +0.70. Campanis aided the Dodgers by 6.5 games; they qualified for post-season by 5.5 games. Key moves: Acquired Bill Madlock +1.3; re-signed Pedro Guerrero +5.9; re-signed Bob Welch +2.7.

Category 7 total: +1.40

8 Credit for post-season appearances (1974, +0.70; 1977, +0.70; 1978, +0.70; 1981, +0.70; 1983, +0.70; 1985, +0.70) Total +4.20

Grand total: +9.23

That’s our look at Al Campanis, our #16 in the countdown of the best all-time general managers. Do you agree? Comment below!