BLACKS IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL MANAGEMENT: ABSENCE OR MALICE? : Dodgers : Joshua: ‘You Can See the Writing on the Wall’

Von Joshua, a hitting instructor and outfield coach for the San Antonio Dodgers, said Wednesday that he believes he has not been promoted within the Dodger organization because he is black.

“You can see the writing on the wall,” said Joshua, a former Dodger player. “I’m not stupid. I see myself getting caught up in the shuffle. I haven’t heard one thing about moving up. Not one peep.”

Joshua, a 10-year major league veteran, was signed as an instructor by the Dodgers in 1984, becoming the first full-time black minor league coach in the club’s history, a team spokesman said.

But, despite a series of changes in the Dodger farm system’s instructional and managerial staffs last winter, Joshua remains a Double-A hitting coach.

“I’ve never even been asked to go to (winter) instructional ball and I’m a Double-A coach,” Joshua said. “Those players are going to be coming to play under me, and I’m not even asked to go to the instructional league?

“Finally, I realized that maybe they didn’t think I wanted to go, so I asked Bill Schweppe (the Dodgers’ retiring director of minor league operations) about it. He said he’d keep it in mind, and then I never heard from him again.

“They just had a big shake-up, and here I am still in minor-league ball. They made guys managers who have never gone past Double-A ball.”

None of the six field managers in the Dodgers’ minor league system has played in the major leagues.

Asked if he believes he would ever become a manager in the Dodger organization, Joshua said: “There’s no way possible.”

Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier as a player with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, but the Dodgers, who moved to Los Angeles in 1958, have hired only one black for a management position.

In their history, the Dodgers:

--Have never had a black general manager.

--Have never had a black field manager at any level.

--Have never had a black pitching coach or black pitching instructor at any level.

--Have never had a black third-base coach.

Jim Gilliam, who was a coach from 1965 until his death in 1978, is the only black major league coach the Dodgers have ever had.

Don Newcombe, who was hired in 1970 as the director of community relations, is the only black department head the Dodgers have ever had. Newcombe is the highest-ranking black in the Dodger organization.

Roy Campanella and Lou Johnson, who are black, also work in community relations. Al Downing is a member of the club’s community services team, which means, basically, that he is a speaker.

Bob Darwin is the only black among 36 scouts listed in the Dodgers’ media guide. Tommy Davis is a roving instructor in the minor league system. Past black roving instructors include former Dodgers Johnson, Maury Wills and John Roseboro.

Dodger owner Peter O’Malley, asked if the Dodgers had done enough for the advancement of blacks in the organization, said at a press conference Wednesday in Houston: “I think we’ve made great progress and there is room for more progress.”

However, at a press conference in Los Angeles, a representative of the American Civil Liberties Union said the Dodgers are way behind and called for the team to make up lost ground in a hurry.

“For years, the color line has been synonymous with the baselines,” said Mark Rosenbaum, an ACLU attorney. “The black individual, within the Dodger organization, has been the source for the success of the team and for the financial abilities of the team. For years, the Dodger organization has never turned down black ballplayers, never turned down black fans, never turned down black support.

“Now is the time for the Dodgers to meaningfully give back to the black community. In the area of race relations and management, the Dodgers are not even in the on-deck circle as regards the black individual.”

When the Dodgers made changes within their farm system last winter, Joshua said, he was not contacted until after the fact.

“Mr. Schweppe called me one day and told me they were going to make a lot of changes,” Joshua said. “That’s all he told me. Then we got a press release a few days later announcing the moves.”

Joshua said he never told anyone in the organization that he was interested in a promotion.

“That’s what you’re here for--to move up,” he said. “I shouldn’t have to go and tell them that. I’m a professional and I’ve done my job very well.”

Times staff writer Sam McManis contributed to this story.