One of the great pleasures of my baseball writing life was the day at spring training two years ago when Whitey Herzog spent a morning at the Mariners’ complex with Wes Stock, pitching coach on the Mariners’ original 1977 team.
Having grown up outside St. Louis and been a lifelong Cardinals fan, I’ll never forget the 20 minutes I was able to spend talking with Whitey. It’s why today is special, because Whitey is going into the Hall of Fame. I’ll occasionally listen to that interview just to hear that voice and, more than that, the passion that Whitey has for the game.
Whitey isn’t short on opinion — or salty language — and that was delightfully apparent the day we spoke two years ago. A sampling (expletives deleted, of course):
WOULD “WHITEYBALL” WORK IN THE MAJOR LEAGUES AGAIN?
“The ball’s too jacked up and the parks are small now. To be able to do that, you’d have to have parks with 375 (feet) down the lines, 385-390 in the gaps and 450 to center. You have to have power. (Mariners, are you listening?)
“But I don’t agree that you can’t have movement and can’t run a little bit. Things happen when you do that, but they’re so (bleep) damned worried today about losing a baserunner. I watch baseball today and everybody is so (bleep) damned scared they’re going to lose a baserunner. I see situations now where there are men on first and third, one out and they don’t run. Damn fellas, you’ve got to run!”
CAN A TEAM CREATE HAVOC ON THE BASES WITHOUT A LINEUP OF SPEEDSTERS?
“The problem is that they don’t go on running counts and move the defenses around. I’m not picking out anybody. They’re all doing it!
“The guy that starts playing like that and has a little bit of movement on the basepaths is going to be a lot more successful. That’s a (bleep) damned All-Star today!
“The catchers aren’t throwing as good, the pitchers don’t quick-step anymore. Hell, I could steal on some of those (bleep)suckers, and I’m 76 years old!”
DID YOU HAVE THE ITCH TO MANAGE AGAIN AFTER LEAVING THE CARDINALS IN 1990?
“I had a relationship with (Cardinals owner) Gussie Busch for 10 years. You couldn’t have an owner and a manager who got along like we did. I didn’t have to answer to anybody but him. When I was the general manager and the manager and I put the team together, he didn’t really know what I was doing. He said as long as I told him before it got into the paper, he was happy.
“I’d tell him, ‘Hey Chief, I just got so-and-so.’
“And he’d say, ‘Ah, wonderful, wonderful.’
“Hell, he didn’t know. I was able to do things that other people couldn’t do without having a lot of meetings and everything else.
“When I left St. Louis, I didn’t think I could ever be happy again managing because I could never find another owner like that. Money is such a key now. If an owner doesn’t want to spend the money or he wants to release somebody who’s making money, you can go from a guy who’s a pretty good manager to a dummy in a pretty big hurry.
“In the meanntime, after 1990, I probably turned down four managing jobs for big money and longterm contracts. My wife said to me, ‘Did you ever think they’d offer you that much money to manage?’
“I said, ‘Did you ever think I’d turn it down?’ It doesn’t really make sense, but I did. I had some good clubs that I could have gone to, but I didn’t think I would enjoy it anymore.
“I haven’t lost a game since 1990, but I haven’t won any, either.”
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