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OUT OF LEFT FIELD |
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HALL OF SHAME
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Scoundrels hail induction
of Walter O'Malley
of TheColumnists.com
There was a little-noticed underground meeting of some artful members of the baseball Hall of Fame after the recent ceremonies at Cooperstown. It concerned the induction into the Hall of Walter O’Malley, the former Dodgers owner who scuttled Brooklyn to take the team out to Los Angeles. O’Malley just made it, receiving the minimum of nine votes from the 12-man veterans committee.
The meeting was among a sort of oddfellows group whose shadowy backgrounds tied them together into a fraternity that called themselves The Shamers. This was their answer to those who believed these men should be--not in the Hall of Fame--but the Hall of Shame. They adopted the name Shamers in defiance of their critics.
A spy who came across minutes of the meeting spirited these goings-on to “Out of Left Field.”
Cap Anson
(a late 1800s rabid opponent of allowing blacks into major league
baseball. His threats to take his team off the field, caused
black players to be removed from line-ups.)
“I am glad O’Malley finally made it. I didn’t
like some of the comments by the people at the induction ceremonies,
though. Tommy LaSorda, the big mouth, old Dodgers manager, credited
O’Malley with signing Jackie Robinson. He didn’t. It
was Branch Rickey who signed Robinson when he ran the Dodgers.
Robinson and O’Malley did not get along. I did my part to
keep black guys out of baseball, but that guy Rickey….I’m
glad O’Malley is here even if Rickey isn’t."
Kenesaw Mountain Landis: (longtime baseball commissioner)
“I did my part as baseball commissioner. I kept saying
there was no rule against blacks in baseball, but everybody knew
how I felt. I frowned upon any moves toward hiring blacks. And
I put the skids under Bill Veeck when he tried to buy the Phillies
so he could put an all black team into Philadelphia."
Ty Cobb: (the
all time great outfielder of the pre-World War I era who not
only was a racist, but was allowed to go unscathed from a possible
conviction for fixing games.)
“Yes, everybody knows how I felt. I once went into the
stands to beat up a black fan. As that fool Casey Stengel used
to say, “You could look it up.”
Charles Comiskey: (niggardly owner of the Chicago White Sox team that
fixed the 1919 World Series; He tried to cover up the conspiracy
but was not punished by Landis).
“I am happy to welcome O’Malley into our Hall of
Shame. I need support from the critics who have been badgering
me all these years. They say those Black Sox threw the World
Series because they were so angry at the low wages I paid them.
So what if the book-movie “Eight Men Out” made me a
villain; two White Sox stadiums have been named after me.”
Rabbit Maranville: (long-time weak-hitting shortstop, mostly with the
Boston Braves in the years between the World Wars.)
“I am used to criticism. Ever since I was inducted into
the Hall, people have slandered me for the way I got in. Just
because I ran the Hearst sandlot baseball program and Hearst
ordered the sports writers on all his newspapers to vote for
me, people ridicule me and my lifetime .258 batting average”.
Gaylord Perry: (Much-traveled pitcher of the 1960s and 1970s, notorious
for throwing the illegal spitball.)
“I laugh at the bastards who say, I shouldn’t have
gotten into the Hall because of my spitball. Hah. I never admitted
I did it. But I have a great time driving around in my car that
has the license plate, “SPITTER.” Let them complain.
I am in the Hall with my 314 victories--and I love being a Hall
of Shamer.”
Steve Carlton: (The sphinx of pitchers who, in is prime as a great lefty in the 1970s and ‘80s, wouldn’t talk to reporters).
“Good for you, Gaylord. I never had any use for the press. A guy wrote a wrong thing about me early in my career so I didn’t talk to any of them after that. I was the best pitcher in baseball, but I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of talking to them. The only way people could find out about me was to talk to my catcher, Tim McCarver. He was a funny guy. He used to say that when we died, we would be buried 60 feet, six inches apart.”
Cap Anson: “Yeah. But I would have more respect for you if you didn’t turn chicken at the end. Once you lost it and were knocking around the big leagues, you begged for jobs. You played with the White Sox, the Indians and the Twins, and you sucked up to the press. I hear that reporters walked away from you then.”
Rabbit Maranville: “Yeah, it’s like that great line the sports columnist Frank Graham had about Bob Meusel. He was hostile like you, Carlton. Graham said, about Meusel, 'He started to stay hello when it was time to say good-bye.'"
Charles Comiskey: “Now that they admitted O’Malley, I’m pretty sure I’ll be getting more of my kind of company soon. It shouldn’t be long before they admit George Steinbrenner. For too long people wouldn’t excuse him for subverting the election process by making secret illegal campaign contributions."
Ty Cobb:
"He was, as Billy Martin said, a convicted felon, but
President Reagan gave him a pardon."
Kennesaw M. Landis: "He also put a spy on one of his players,
Dave Winfield. I might have been upset about that when I was
commissioner, but not really because I was most of all an owners’
commissioner. And Winfield forgave him as we all could see during
the All Star Game celebration at Yankee Stadium."
Gaylord Perry: "Some people thought it was all a bit sappy. Not me."
Rabbit Maranville: “I was touched when we saw old George break down in tears. He would be a welcome addition to our group of Shamers."
Steve Carlton: “I’m sure O’Malley would welcome him. It would be sort of a reunion. They both went to the Culver Military Academy in Indiana as youths.”
Ty Cobb: "Say, and how do you guys feel about Pete Rose?"
©2008 by Stan Isaacs. The Stan Isaacs caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. The photo of Walter O'Malley is courtesy of Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. This column first posted Aug. 11, 2008.
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