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Here's one of my favorites. Steve Barber was a quality pitcher for the Orioles in the '60s. But he developed arm trouble and dropped out of sight for a while. After successful surgery he resurfaced with the Yankees throwing harder than ever before. But his control was nonexistent and the walks to innings pitched ratio was astronomical. This inexplicable situation had everyone in the organization flabbergasted. One night during a game at the stadium the message board reported that Barber was the father of a new baby girl. Sportswriter Dick Young stood up in the press box and said, "Thank God it's a girl because if it were a boy it would've been born with four balls."
Back b4 I left the North East I took my nephew (10 yrs old at the time) to a game at Fenway, I bought him a baseball and we got there when the gates opened to see if any of the Sox players were out there signing, and sure enough there was John Valentin signing on the 1st base line, there was probably 15 people there, so we got in line, there was a little boy in front of us who was no more than 6 yrs old, and when it was his turn he handed Valentin a baseball, but apparently he didn't have a pen, I know this because Valentin said " what no pen, how the F*** am I supposed to sign without a pen" than he looked at me and I was glaring at him and he said " Pardon my French" and he walked away.
Here's one for ya. I posted this some time ago on another thread but I thought it would fit in well here. Gates Brown of the Detroit Tigers was a good utility player, played from 1963 to 1975. There was one game in the 1968 season where he knew he wasn't going to play. Halfway through the game he went down into the clubhouse to fix a couple hot dogs. All of a sudden he heard this yelling from the dugout to tell him he was going in to pinch hit, so he ran up to the dugout while sticking the hot dogs in his jersey pocket. He hit a double, sliding in to second base, crunched the hot dogs, and got mustard and ketchup all over his uniform.
The infielders, the pitcher, and the umpire were all laughing as he got up to call time out. After the game manager Mayo Smith fined him $100, and asked him what he was doing with hot dogs on the field. "I was hungry", Brown said. "Besides, where else can I have a hot dog and the best seat in the house"?
I read the book 'Seasons in Hell', which detailed the '73-'75 Texas Rangers seasons (a must-read for any baseball fan). It's the funniest sports book I've read. Anyway, there's a part where Whitey Herzog, the former Rangers manager, is surprised upon hearing that one of the team's newest players, Bill Madlock, is black. Whitey responded with something along the lines of, "He's black? Usually they go by 'Willie' or 'Will', but not 'Bill'". I thought that was hilarious.
When the brand-new New York Mets participated in an expansion draft held after the 1961 season, they made their first selection "Choo-Choo" Coleman, a catcher. And Mets' manager Casey Stengel commented, "If you don't have a catcher, you're gonna have a lot of passed balls."
Another one on the 1968 Detroit Tigers.
Denny McClain had won his 30th game just a few days earlier, and the Tigers were opening a three game series with the Yankees.
Mickey Mantle was McCain's idol growing up, and McClain was aware of the fact that Mantle was tied with Jimmy Foxx for 5th place on the all time home run list. As McClain commented on one of the cable program documentaries, he felt Mantle was getting close to being "Done" career wise. But the crowd gave Mick a standing ovation as Mick comes to the plate, the fans feeling, like McClain, that this might be the last time that they will see him.
Mantle comes up to the plate, and McClain calls up backup catcher Jim Price to the mound. Third baseman Dick McAuliffe wonders in to the conversation. "Let's let Mick hit one" McClain says. Price goes back to the plate and tells Mantle to be ready. Mantle says, "Be ready? What the hell does be ready mean?"
McClain throws the ball about 50 mph, on an arc. Mantle doesn't swing. McClain yells out "Where the hell do you want the pitch?" Mantle is wide eyed and says "up and in a little', motioning with his hand belt belt high. Mantle hits the next pitch out of the park-foul. And the next one in the upper deck.
According to McAuliffe, Mantle is rounding third base and McClain winks at him. Next up is Joe Pepitone, batting fifth. Pepitone obviously heard the conversation. He calls out to McClain "Here's where I want mine Denny!" McClain throws at Pepitone and hits him instead!
I've seen tape of this after the game. A reporter quizzed McClain about the pitch. McClain insists he hit a good pitch. The reporter goes to the Yankee clubhouse and asks Mantle about it. Mick said "well, whatever he says goes, but I kinda had the feeling he wanted me to hit one."
You know the famous incident involving Babe Ruth's "called" home run? That wasn't so; Ruth didn't do things like that. He'd been having a bad day, and the other team was riding him every time he stepped up to the plate. Finally, he couldn't listen to it any more. What he actually did was point his bat in the direction of the opposing bench...and tell them what he intended to do with it (a reference to a certain act that was sure to be painful for the recipient).
Fred Talbot, one of Jim's teammates told Jim a story about Mel McGaha, who managed Cleveland for several years and managed Kansas City for a short time. During spring training one year McGaha called everyone in for a team meeting on a Friday night, at 8 p.m. Not really a popular time to do this.
When everyone showed up, McGaha says "Boys, I'm glad everyone got down here tonight so quickly. We're not really having a meeting tonight, but I just wanted to see how quick we could all group up if we had to"!
Can't remember where I read this, but it supposedly happened when Ty Cobb was in his prime. Cobb's manager had been getting telegrams from someone out in the country that read, "If you'll send me trainfare I'll come and show you that I can strike out Cobb on three pitches." The skipper was skeptical but he figured anything was possible, so he sent the trainfare. One day while the team was doing its pre-game warmups this scrawny kid showed up at the stadium. The manager let him warm up and then called Cobb over and said, "See what you can do with this new pitcher." Cobb hit three consecutive pitches deep into the outfield bleachers. With a puzzled expression on his face the kid said to the manager, "I don't think that was really Cobb."
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An Imposter?
