(This first section comes courtesy of Fay Vincent, the former commissioner and a friend of this column.)
With our game of baseball now heading into the full bloom of the new season, I thought about the wonderful things I have been told by baseball people during my baseball years. These represent for me the wisdom and often the elegance of what baseball people, sometimes but not always Hall of Fame players, have shared with me.
When I asked Warren Spahn who taught him how to pitch, he peered at me as if I had just insulted him. I was sure I had asked a stupid question and he acted as if he agreed. After a pause, his answer was – “Commissioner, hitters taught me how to pitch.” I was stunned by the answer. He knew there is also no other way to become a great pitcher, or doctor or lawyer or rabbi. One has to learn from one’s patients, clients, audience or competition. Spahn was the smartest baseball person I ever talked to about the game and from him I learned how his intense attention to hitters gave him the insights that led him to 363 wins – the most by any left-handed pitcher in major league history. His ubiquitous answer remains compellingly simple.
Once I asked an old Negro League veteran, Alfred “Slick” Surratt, if he had been a good bunter. He grinned: “Well, Commissioner, when I bunt, if the ball bounces twice, ain’t no use in you pickin’ it up, ‘cause by then I’m already safe.” Slick was also the man who had a ready answer when I pressed him to tell me how he got his nickname. His reply was gentle. “You know, Commissioner. I don’t know you well enough to answer that question.” I never did get him to tell me the answer but I am pretty sure I figured it out on my own.
One time I asked Yogi Berra what was the toughest part of managing and he immediately replied: “Changing pitchers.” My follow up was to ask what made a good manager. His answer was classically sound. “Good players.” Yogi was deceptive in that he was remarkably intelligent and many of his famously awkward quotes were based on serious insights. I think he made sense when he told us “No one goes to that restaurant any more – it is too crowded.”
A few months after Ralph Branca threw that famous pitch to Bobby Thomson in 1951 that resulted in the Giants winning the pennant , Ralph was asked at a banquet that winter what pitch he had thrown Thomson and why. He explained he had intended to get Bobby out with a curve ball but had thrown a fastball in order to set up the curve. Of course the fastball went over the left field wall. Later in the evening, he felt a tap on his shoulder, and turned to see his friend and pitcher Sal “The Barber” Maglie who gave him memorable advice. “Hey Ralphie, if you want to get him out with the curve ball, throw him the freakin’ curve ball.” I believe that advice has wide application to many situations. When you know what works do not waste time on anything else. Call it Sal’s Law.
I asked the legendary Cal Ripken, Jr. how he would like to be remembered by history for his time in baseball and his reply made eminent sense. “I would like to be remembered as someone who went out on the field every day and performed like a professional.” Ripken learned from his father, a long time baseball manager and coach, that there is one way to behave in baseball. The professional does his job every day to the best of his ability. Ripken defines the essence of the professional player. He went out to play every day and when he took a day off he had played in 2,632 consecutive games.
I once asked Joe DiMaggio, the acknowledged leader of those stellar Yankee teams from 1936 to 1951 whether he ever tried to assert his leadership by giving pep talks or speeches to his teammates. “No, Commissioner, I never did that. “I asked then how he tried to lead, and his answer was typically laconic. “I just went out and played hard and knew they might follow my example.” I asked him if he had learned any leadership skills from Lou Gehrig, whom Joe played with in his early Yankee years. “No,” Joe told me, “Gehrig never talked to us. He just played really hard and was very upset when he did not play well. He was really angry if he went 0 for 4 and would just sit quietly after a game, smoke a cigarette and say nothing to anyone.” Those great Yankees never had to speak out. They demonstrated with their intensity how they wanted the game to be played.
I asked Ted Williams what was the best hitting advice he ever received and he told me of some wisdom he had been provided when he played briefly in the minors for the Red Sox farm team in Minneapolis. There the hitting instructor was Rogers Hornsby, whom I and many others believe was the finest right-handed hitter of all time. Hornsby compiled a lifetime batting average of .358 and in the five years from 1920 to 1924, he averaged over .400. He hit .424 in 1924. Ted told me Hornsby told him “Kid, make sure you hit your pitch and not the pitcher’s pitch.” Williams believed that advice was the finest instruction he ever received and he followed it religiously.
Finally, I asked Bob Feller how he would combat the modern belief that pitchers should not be permitted to throw more than 100 pitches in a game, and his answer was typically unusual. “Look Commissioner, if you want to limit me to some number of pitches like that, I believe you are crazy. But if you force me to work within that number, I will have to be careful. I tell you one thing. I will not waste many pitches on hitters batting 7, 8, and 9 in the lineup. Those fellows cannot hit so I will throw them my good fastball and most times they will hit pop ups or grounders and make out. I never want to run the count on them and so I keep throwing them good pitches and hope they can’t hit. If they do get a hit I go to work. But look at how many times you see a kid go to a full count with hitters at the bottom of the order. I would not waste pitches on those guys especially if I only get 100 for the whole game.”
I never heard such wisdom from the modern pitchers. The Fellers of the baseball world were smart and much of what I heard from them proves it.
FOOLS AT FENWAY
Shock and disbelief greeted the racist remarks directed at Baltimore’s Adam Jones made by some ignorant Fenway Park fans, and there was certainly no excuse for such verbal behavior. But remember where the hate was expressed. It was at Fenway Park, which was the last major league park whose team put a black player in uniform.
Pumpsie Green was the player, and he played his first game for the Red Sox in July 1959, 12 ½ seasons after Jackie Robinson first played for the Brooklyn Dodgers as the first black player in the major leagues. Green’s appearance also came a year after the last previously segregated team, Detroit, integrated (Ozzie Virgil, Sr.) and 4 ½ years after the New York Yankees signed Elston Howard as their barrier breaker.
The reason the Red Sox did not sign black players sooner was not difficult to figure out. It’s called segregation and racism. The so-called cosmopolitan city of Boston was not ready for baseball desegregation, and some of the Neanderthal descendants of the earlier Fenway faithful hadn’t been squeezed back into the tube.
However, the reaction from sane, sensible fans – and the current Red Sox ownership – probably restored civility to Fenway and will make it safe to attend games there, white and black.
Here is a list of the first player of color to play for each of the 16 original major leagues clubs and the dates they began their major league careers:
KEN WILLIAMS’ JOB DESCRIPTION
I hate making mistakes, but I made one in my last column and I am correcting it here.
Writing about Richard Lapchick’s annual report card for Major League Baseball, I said that Lapchick had overstated the number of minority general managers. Lapchick wrote that Kenny Williams was executive vice president for baseball operations of the Chicago White Sox, and I noted that Williams’ title did not include “baseball operations” and that he was no longer involved in personnel matters.
I was correct on the title, but a major league official pointed out what the team guide says on that subject:
“Ken Williams begins his 36th season in baseball in 2017 and his fifth as executive vice president after being promoted to the position on October 26, 2012. In his present role, Williams has increased the scope and range of his involvement with the club while continuing to maintain oversight and final approval on major baseball decisions. He also attends Major League Baseball owners’ meetings on the club’s behalf.”