Bill White: the National League's new boss; baseball selects the first Black to head a major-league sports organization

Ebony, May, 1989

Bill White The National League's New Boss

Baseball selects the first Black to head a major-league sports organization

WHEN Bill White made his major-league baseball debut on May 7, 1956, he did it in very dramatic fashion. Incredibly, in his first at-bat, he hit a home run and joined a very small group of players who have entered the big leagues with such a bang.

Today, 33 years later, White's association with baseball is still one of distinction. The former first baseman for the New York/San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies is the first Black to be named president of the National League, making him the first Black to head a big-time sports league.

"It's certainly an honor and a culmination of a career that began when [former league president] Chub Feeney signed me to my first major-league contract," says White, whose four-year term began in April. "I hope to bring to the job my experience as a player and a love of the game. I also hope to bring a little more harmony between players and owners."

The 55-year-old White is a well-respected, likable and persuasive man who has taken a job that will be challenging, demanding and sometimes not so pleasant,.

But it's a position that gives him almost unlimited authority in the league.

As president, he has the power to interpret and enforce the league's rules; the power to suspend or fine players for on- and off-field infractions, and he has to approve all players' contracts before they become valid. Additionally, he is responsible for the scheduling of games, and the scheduling, hiring, firing and disciplining of umpires. "I don't think they could have found anyone more qualified for this position than Bill White," says Hank Aaron, the major leagues' home run king and now an executive with the Atlanta Braves. "He knows baseball."

Although the unanimous selection of the six-time All-Star by the league's owners represents another major breakthrough for Blacks in baseball, such breakthroughs have been very slow to come. After Jackie Robinson broke the major leagues' color barrier in modern times (1947), it took 37 years before Frank Robinson took a job with the Cleveland Indians to become the first Black manager. It took another 15 years for White's historic selection.

The appointment comes at a time when baseball and other major sports organizations are being severely criticized for overlooking Blacks to fill administrative and decision-making positions. But the new president downplays the possibility that race might have been involved in his selection, and stresses that he didn't take the job to make a symbolic statement. "If I didn't think I could do this job, I would have been foolish to take it just for historical significance," says White, who, throughout his career, has been called one of baseball's most knowledgeable men.

The road that White traveled to get to the National League's top spot was one with some unusual turns. The Lakewood, Fla., native was a pre-med student at Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio, when the opportunity to play professional baseball was too tempting to pass up. He played for 13 seasons, and his skills on the field produced some impressive statistics -- a .286 batting average, 202 home runs, 870 RBIs and seven Gold Gloves.

During White's career, he frequently exhibited the qualities of a leader, and he never hesitated to say what was on his mind. Back in 1960, for example, at spring training in St. Petersburg, Fla., he became fed up with the fact that Black players had to find housing with Black families while their White teammates enjoyed the luxury of hotels. At a time when it was very risky for a Black man to be outspoken, he stood in the clubhouse and loudly protested the situation before going to the press with his gripes. The publicity prompted management to threaten to find training facilities in another city if the situation wasn't rectified. The next year all of the Cardinals players were housed in the same hotel.

When his playing days were over, there was more time for him to fish and sharpen his photography skills, but White's main focus at that time was on broadcasting. His new career began at radio station KMOX in St. Louis in 1969, and the next year he became sports director at WPVI-TV in Philadelphia. His big break came in 1971 when he was hired by WPIX-TV to broadcast New York Yankees games, making him the first Black former ball-player to get an announcing job.

It took nothing less than the National League presidency to pry White from the microphone, because on at least one occasion he turned down a very prestigious front-office position. In 1975, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was ready to name him the team's general manager, but he turned it down. "I wasn't ready," he says.

White, who is divorced and the father of five adult children, was ready to take his new job, but admits that he was very surprised when asked to become president of the league. However, now that the appointment has been made, there seems to be a consensus that if baseball was looking for someone who could represent the league and someone with respect for the integrity of the game, then Bill White is the right man.