In his early 30's it became clear that infielder Al Campanis would not be the star on the diamond that he had hoped. After graduating from New York University in 1940 he joined the Brooklyn club and rose up the ladder until his Major League debut as a 26-year old second baseman in 1943. Then the military came calling and Campanis would spend much of his "peak" years in the service of the US Navy during WWII. When he came back home Al continued with his Baseball dream, but his days at the plate were winding down. Fortunately for him, he was well on his way towards making a different kind of impact on the game.
Featured above is a vintage July 15, 1949 Brooklyn Eagle printing plate of a portrait of Al Campanis, and below is a Brooklyn Eagle newspaper article featuring this printing plate.
As you can see, Al Campanis was being groomed by the Mahatma and his son, affectionately nicknamed 'the Twig', as either a field general or front office honcho. Per the article:
There's quite a struggle between the Rickey's -- senior and junior -- over the future role of Al Campanis in the Dodger organization. The Branch has an idea that Al is best suited as a field manager but the Twig maintains that the ex-Dodger infielder has the makings of a great general manager in the front office.
So they've compromised. Campanis serves, during the regular season, as pilot of the Lancaster Class B Club and in the off months he works with Rickey Jr. in promotional and business activities at Montague St. No one else in the setup can boast this distinction.As you certainly know, Al Campanis would eventually rise up to be GM of the Dodgers in 1968, and is famed for two things. First, one of his earliest deals was to trade his own son during that first season. And one of the last things he did as General Manager was to make an unfortunate statement while a guest on the nationally broadcast news channel Nightline on April 6, 1987 that would force his firing as GM.
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