Harry Edwards, hired by Commissioner Peter Ueberroth...

Harry Edwards, hired by Commissioner Peter Ueberroth to help minorities reach executive positions in baseball, has blocked proposals by black groups and should resign, officials of a black philanthropic organization said.

The Black United Fund of New York also threatened to picket Ueberroth’s office next week to protest Edwards’ refusal to set up a meeting between baseball owners and the organization.

The group wants to stage two all-star benefit games in New York after the World Series in honor of Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball’s color barrier 40 years ago.

“He was hired to put blacks in baseball’s front offices and now he turns around and tells Ueberroth not to talk with us,” said Kermit Eady, president of the group. “Baseball does many charity games, but they’re done for white charities.”

Edwards, a sports sociologist and a civil rights activist who led protests by black athletes at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968, said that although baseball does work to fight some diseases, he could not support a benefit game on behalf of a special-interest group.