Al Campanis Cancels Himself on National TV (1987) 

Koppel did all he could to allow Campanis to retract his statement, but Campanis just didn't get it (or didn't want to get it). This interview is akin to watching a train wreck. It is horrific, but one cannot look away from it.

What became lost was Roger Kahn's eloquence on the various topics.

I remember seeing this interview live when I was a kid. Didn’t realize what they was talking until now. Thanks Reelblack !

And here's to you, Jackie Robinson..

As a lifelong Dodger fan, besides the removal of Latino families from Chavez Ravine to build Dodger Stadium, this is one of the Dodgers darkest moments.

It's like the NFL. You don't go from 25% of the players to 75%+ of the coaches and GMs and 100% of the owners without this level of thinking

Thank for posting this video. I didn’t see it live but I heard about the next day

Nothing I haven’t heard the WWII generation say before. Realize that Al campanis would be around 100 years old in 2021. There was no “politically correct” way for people to talk on camera that weren’t politicians. Campanis was born into and raised during a completely segregated era in virtually all aspects of America. Ignorance does not equal hate. My long since passed grandmother was born in 1919, on a farm in the middle of nowhere. She never had interaction with black people until she was an adult. All she knew was what she was taught. She was NOT taught to be racist but she understood there were differences between white and black. She didn’t fear black people for being black. She feared no one for being different than her. However, this tiny little white old lady referred to black people often times as colored. Why? Was she being racist? Or was it something she thought was appropriate since that’s what she saw written and heard said everywhere? Later in her life she moved to a big city. Had people of different races living all around her. She still used the term colored. No one that ever heard her say that would have ever accused her of being racist. She sat on the stoop in the summer everyday talking with her neighbor, who was black. They were almost inseparable for 20 years. Went to church together, went to funerals together. Hitler was racist. Al campanis was not intelligent enough to understand that some things you are taught in your environment as a kid, are wrong. If you’ve been taught that way for the first 20 years of your life, it’s almost impossible to know you’re wrong and even more so to change yourself. Maybe he had an easy ness to his apparent prejudices that allowed him to speak about it without ever realizing how it sounds. This is not an excuse for the dodgers having him in the position he was in. I hear less anger towards them than him. Shouldn’t the dodgers have known he wasn’t fit for the job as far as sensitivity is concerned? We should try to understand, subtext here is not stupidity. It’s ignorance. Uneducated people are all around you. It does not make them stupid. We are all products of our environment. If somehow you read all this, thanks. Non of my comments are meant to offend, but rather understand what someone is saying and why. It’s only my opinion. In the end there are things that we ALL say and have heard said that we would never say in public. And if you claim not to have ever done that, you were born a deaf mute.

Campanis just would not stop digging.

the head shake at 7:23 lmao

Ted Koppel did a great job here, and so did Roger Kahn.

the truly amazing thing about the destruction of Al Campanis is that it's interrupted by commercials, during which apparently nobody got a hold of Campanis and told him to either correct himself or shut the fuck up, claim illness and exit stage left.

Ted Koppel was on point

Dude would've got roasted in social media. Thanks for the upload, I never knew about this interview and I was in my 20's then.

I saw this live. My eyes popped out of head. I was in shock.

Respect to Ted Koppel!

I remember watching this interview back in the day. At first, I thought he was doing a bit. He had that silly look on his face so it came across as a failed attempt at humor. Once it dawned on me that he was being serious, I realized he just set race relations back 40 years. And it was stupefying that this was coming from a Dodger executive. The Dodgers always seemed to be at the forefront of offering minority ballplayers opportunities.

i'm still laughing. How many lifelines do you need, TK was giving him every opportunity. Also these folks are still making certain decisions

Just as they are fading to black for commercial, you can see Koppel shaking his head. Campanis had just flat stunned him with his answers.

Buoyancy? Gtfoh! My Backside is a damn flotation device. It's been tried and tested. I get in the pool...get on my back..and FLOAT. All I must do is BREATHE.

"Campanis" sounds Greek too. So Jimmy the Greek didn't learn anything from this?

And we still faces these issues in the Sports.Smh

A few months later Doug Williams wins the Super Bowl!

What brought me here was a video of Al's grave. Now we see in the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter. You can't take your color with you. With some people racism doesn't stop until their heart stops.

ted was on point with this interview

I love Ted Koppel’s upfrontness and honest appraisal of the situation.

Ted Koppel threw out a lifeline to Al Campanis several times and Campanis keeps digging himself in the hole.

I was watching that live iin 1987, not even as pc of a society as today. But I’d heard Campanis and I was shocked

Campanis was fired a day-and-a-half after this interview.

Great anecdote, Rog.

Ted Koppel is such a class act. Such a great example of how integral journalism is to the function of society. Wish we had more like him today.

Never knew that Alec Guinnes was so involved in baseball.

I was five min in thinking he’s not said anything bad…ooo then a minute later I was like 🤦🏽‍♂️ 🇬🇧

His statement on swimming didn’t make sense, but I am curious is how does someone become a baseball president?

Here we are 35 years after this broadcast and have had a black president of the United States for which the Republican party all these years later is still melting down over.

Tell em' Ted! Great interviewer.

Ted & Roger's faces are like "What???"

Ted Koppel had that dog in him. No clutching his pearls or "why I never"! Just called him on his bullshit in a direct, confrontational manner.

The shame of this is: Campanis was a roomate of Robinson and supported him through this tough time.

How come there are so few Blacks in Synagogues? How come so few Blacks in Israel?

I remember this first time it came on, but what got me is how people got more mad at Ted Koppel for just asking him some simple questions

I got an opportunity in the early '90s to sit in Ted Koppel's anchor chair at the ABC studios in D.C. I was amazed at the number of cigarette burns on the carpet surrounding the chair. Hahaha. Anyway, Ted was the real deal as a journalist. Hard-hitting and relentless. Sam Donaldson was cut from the same cloth. They weren't political mouthpieces for either party.

When he said “black people don’t have bouency” I lost it 🤣

I am glad this is on film. It reminds us of how ignorant Al and so many others were. Al was given a chance to correct himself and he doubled down on his stupid and ignorant beliefs.

Holy shit. This guy is unbelievable. He Just. Keeps. Digging.

The analysts was so clutch with the questions! All you gotta do is be quiet and listen to white people...let em expose themselves.

Ted Koppel did a good job here, but I think that he kinda let Campanis off the hook when Campanis said that, "they [Black people] may not have some of the necessities...." Ted Koppel should have asked him to specify to what "necessities" Campanis was referring.

Wow just seeing this 2022. RATHER SAD, but still relevant today.

Jackie took our game to the white leagues and dominated. Imagine had they had Josh Gibson, (Leroy)Satchel Paige, Buck Leonard, Hilton Smith, Smokey Joe Williams, Cannonball Dick Redding, James Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston, Ted Paige, Ted Double Duty Radcliffe the list goes on and on. The Dodgers would have had a dynasty for years to come.

Ted out there exposing the racists. And Steve Brener who was a publicist for the Dodgers claimed that he didn't like Koppel because he was to "controversial" which we know what that is code for. Brener knew exactly what kind of words Campanis used and he respected that more than a real man like Ted Koppel.

I remember watching this

The look on Koppels face! @ 17:03

Ted wow a true objective reporter commentator narrariator and friend

Roger Khan looked like he was going to lose control of his temper with Al. He was wringing his hands, his face looked like he was going to have a seizure

He was promptly fired.

Sad because Al was making some good points but lost the plot with the swimming comment

I miss Tedd. Real reporting. Putting people on the spot ha!

I'm shocked they kept him on lol simultaneously I respect them trying to continue civilized discourse

I remember just being stunned upon hearing Al Campanis' (matter of fact) racist views when this conversation aired on Nightline that evening. It just wasn't openly expressed-not that it didn't exist of course. People with such demented beliefs generally kept it to themselves (even when interviewed by the media). I was in my late twenties back then... I'm now in my mid 60s, and I no less shocked by it today. Why? Because individuals like Campanis weren't known to be hard core racists. Yet, their upbringing and level of ignorance is rooted so strong that it interferes with the core critical thinking and true progress in this country. I often wonder what Campanis (and others like him who seemingly-in their mind at least meant well) have to say about the level (or lack) of progress still emulating in the world of sports business.

Ted gave him a shot at redemption _but_ ..it didn't work.

Campanis: We welcomed Jackie has a person when he showed his prowess on the baseball field and helped us win games.

The worst part about seeing this at the time was the realization that this attitude of Campanis' still existed, that he almost certainly wasn't the only baseball executive holding it, and that it is still pervasive in all sports and American society today.

Campanis was white, rich, and privileged. However, Campanis didn't have the "necessities" to answer Kopel's questions in a manner that didn't reflect his discriminatory ideology. Sadly the heirs of Campanis and other former white, rich, and privileged baseball executives are running MLB today. The executives in MLB today are the fruit from which the trees have bared. As a result, little has changed with only two black managers and zero black general mangers. Therefore, you must plant a different variety of trees if you want to produce a different fruit. That's easier said than done when the white, rich, and privileged have access to all of the seeds and are still planting all of the trees.

This was literally where “cancel culture” started. I think Campanis got fired within 24 hours of this. Deservedly so.

This happened when I was 12, and even back then, you were like "this guys a fuckin moron." Then al's like "wait! hold my astrodome beer! I've got more".... more repugnant after all these years...

Kahn... every single time. He is even doing the hand rubbing on cue.

ROGER KAHAN!!!..THAT BROOKLYN_ACCENT!!!! GREAT REPORTER/JOURNALIST....

I see dividing and conquering by those we can’t call out

Koppel's responses to him were great...he doesn't hold back at all lol

Sure, I remember seeing this. Ted is a great journalist.

Anyone notice Ted Koppel shaking his head in disgust at 7:24..

Campania died with his boots on

6:16 here we go end of a career

You gotta give it to Al Campanis. Even at 19 minutes, he mentions that blacks are fleet of foot as to why there are 1/3 of current players being black. I saw this live and yes it was shocking. Campanis was a victim of his time with his thoughts on the Faculties and Buoyancy of Black athletes. And 40 years later, how much has changed? This was an historic segment.

Campanis showed his ignorance and prejudice with his racist comments . Campanis and the team was part of the problem for Mr. Jackie Robinson !!!

Wow 😳

Well, stereotyping hasn’t gone away in 2023, but it’s way better today than whenever this was recorded. Great stuff from Kahn.

Campanis sounds like a biographer reciting a fact sheet about Jackie Robinson. He doesn’t sound like the kind of guy who actually knew and played with him the way he talks about him. He sounds like he’s lecturing in the classroom.

It might have been like the Titanic lookouts who saw the iceberg as they were getting closer and closer and closer. Trying to get that great ship to turn, but it wouldn't, it COULDN'T!!!

Man embarrassed himself, was given a chance to save his career and tossed it back into the wind. He would'nt stop.

He said “they don’t have the buoyancy.” Holy crap.

Can Campanis calculate his own buoyant force? I doubt he has the intellectual acumen.

I’ve always admired Ted Koppel’s hair Helmet

Ted Koppel would have been a wonderful educator..

From the title, you had me thinking that he "killed" himself on TV!

8:37 koppel going in for the kill shot

Campanis was fired before this segment was over.

@11:05 That Earl Warren story was amazing. Must listen.

Prime example of where a young fool, aged into an old fool!

I beleive that Campanis was somebody who believed blacks could and should have been permitted to play ball but he on the same note felt that intergration in terms of who ran the teams and picked players was a line he would not cross. In short he was every bit the bigot he was fighting against in his playing days when it came to who was running teams .

This guy was an immigrant from Greece to New York and still wound up like this

Shoutout to Ted Koppel for exposing this piece of shit. I remember when this aired..

Talk about Double Down

"I never realized... this whole thing is White."

Wow notice he kept saying the same thing that the slave masters main concern was with the slaves! He kept complimenting them on their agility and strength and Power muscles! That guy was a straight racist shout out to mister Ted Koppel much love

I never knew Ted Koppel was a real one I wonder how many BBQs he was invited to

Campanis was right then and he’s right now. The only issue people had with him is he had the courage to say it. They deep down knew it was true as well.

We're all equal. I do really wish people wouldn't go for blood when someone says stupid stuff though. Al Campanis was from a different time. He is more clueless than racist.

I’ve seen clips of this segment but never the entire thing. Makes you cringe as you listen to Campanis just dug himself deeper and deeper. He just didn’t geo

I can't swim; However I do own my own business 😄