Sportswriters
Sportswriters bug the hell out of me, and that goes for the TV guys, too. Why do so many of them suck?
Oh, I hated that Boston press. ... I can still remember the things they wrote, and they still make me mad: How I was always trying to get somebody's job ... or how I didn't hit in the clutch ... I was a draft dodger. I wasn't a team man. I was "jealous." I "alienated" the players from the press. I didn't hit to left field. I took too many bases on balls. I did this, I did that. And so on. And so unfair.
-- Ted Williams
Oh, so you're a baseball writer! I never met you before, but you're no good. No good till you prove otherwise. I didn't always feel like that about baseball writers. I used to open my heart to those guys. Then boom -- they'd give me a lousy story.
-- Ted Williams
I'm flattered that so many baseball people think I'm a Hall of Famer. But what's hard to believe is how 150-plus people have changed their minds about me since I became eligible, because I haven't had a base hit since then.
-- Richie Ashburn, after receiving 158 votes in the Hall of Fame balloting, up from six the previous year
I don't like all this personal contact with the press. The press expects everyone to be congenial. Everyone's not congenial! They want to put every athlete in the same category as every other athlete. It's as if they thought they owned you.
-- Bob Gibson
In a later column, I will discuss the biggest losers and jerks on TV today. Actually, this may require several columns. Dozens, if I include sportscasters.
-- Joe Queenan, TV Guide
Of the 43 names printed on the ballot, 14 appear for the first time, and two of these are odds-on to win election without delay. They are Henry Aaron and Frank Robinson. They will not be unanimous selections; there ain't no such animal.
At least there never has been, not even in January 1936, when the first election was held, with all the greatest players of this century, up to then, eligible.
Of the 226 voters in that go-round, four left Ty Cobb's name off their ballots, 11 ignored Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner, 21 gave the back of the neck to Christy Mathewson, and 37 passed up Walter Johnson. That was the first class enrolled, and the tabulation always comes to mind when somebody claims a popish infallibility for inmates of the press box.
-- Red Smith, 1981
Tom Seaver has been one of the finest pitchers in the game. ... He is his own man, thoughtful, perceptive and unafraid to speak his mind. Because of this, M. Donald Grant and his sycophants put Seaver away as a troublemaker. They mistake dignity for arrogance.
-- Red Smith, when Seaver was traded from the Reds to the Mets
If Jesus Christ were to show up with his old baseball glove, some guys wouldn't vote for Him. He dropped the cross three times, didn't He?
-- Dick Young, on Hall of Fame voting in general and, specifically, Willie Mays not being elected unanimously
For the Mariners to win, they have to outscore the opposition.
-- Tim McCarver, busily informing the masses about the intricacies of the game
Finding a shortstop can be easy sometimes ... but teams are already snapping up some good ones, such as Walt Weiss and Jay Bell. That bottomless well of talent known as the Atlanta Brave organization didn't even blink at losing infielder Bobby Smith [in the expansion draft], because it was busy signing Weiss to play alongside Chipper Jones. Smart move.
-- Mike Downey, who didn't explain how signing a free agent is indicative of a bottomless farm system
Those words... black, white... almost suggesting racism.
-- Karl Ravech, always swift on the uptake, on Tony Phillips' remarks following his suspension for fighting