O’Malley: Schott May Need to Go

Peter O’Malley, Dodger president, said Friday that Marge Schott should resign as chief executive officer of the Cincinnati Reds if the racist and anti-Semitic statements attributed to her are accurate.

And Jackie Autry, executive vice president of the Angels and a member of baseball’s ruling executive council, said the council will examine the situation and “take extraordinary measures to deal with (Schott)” if her statements are accurate.

“I’m very concerned,” Autry said. “If, indeed, those statements are accurate, the council will take some type of disciplinary action. There is no place for statements and attitudes of that type in baseball, but I don’t want to hang her until I know the facts.

“Personally, I’m as close to Marge as any owner. She’s a very charitable and civic-minded person. I’ve never heard her make remarks of that type, but we obviously need to investigate.”

O’Malley agreed.

“If the statements attributed to Marge Schott are accurate, I believe Mrs. Schott should resign as chief executive officer (she has a majority holding of 18%) of the Cincinnati Reds,” O’Malley said, refusing further comment or to draw a comparison to his firing of Al Campanis as the Dodgers executive vice president in April of 1987.

O’Malley ousted Campanis after he appeared on the television news program, “Nightline,” and said that blacks lacked the “necessities” to manage in the majors.

The Major League Agreement provides that the actions or conduct of any player, umpire, club or league official found to be not in the best interest of baseball can result in fine, suspension or ineligibility.

A disciplinary ruling of that magnitude is normally made by the commissioner, but in the absence of a commissioner, the executive council has authority. There is a measure of alarm among some owners that Bud Selig, owner of the Milwaukee Brewers and chairman of the executive council, has yet to respond or say anything more than “no comment” about the controversy.

“I don’t care if it’s Thanksgiving or what, we have a fire burning here,” said one owner Friday, refusing to be identified. “It’s ridiculous nothing has been done.”

Autry revealed that the executive council had a general discussion of Schott’s comments in the deposition, but since the case was still in court it was decided to let it play out through the legal system first. That unscheduled discussion was part of a conference call in which other business dominated the agenda.

“Obviously,” Autry said, “there have been new accusations regarding comments Marge is said to have made and new reasons to look into it immediately, which I can assure you we’ll do.”

Schott, in a deposition taken last December for a wrongful firing suit brought by a former employee, admitted using the word “nigger” and said it was “possible” she had referred to Martin Luther King Day as “Nigger Day.” She also acknowledged she kept a swastika armband in her home and said she could not understand why a former employee, who is Jewish, had taken offense. When asked if she had told that employee that “Hitler might have had the right idea,” she answered, “I don’t really know.”

She was also accused by the former employees in depositions of making references to “sneaky . . . Jews,” and to calling former Reds outfielder Dave Parker a “dumb nigger.” Sharon Jones, a former employee of the Oakland Athletics, has since said that Schott, with other owners listening in a conference call, said she would rather hire a “trained monkey” than “another nigger.”

Comments of that nature prompted Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, to say Friday that Schott had “tainted and sullied” baseball and called for her suspension.