Misc. Bull$h!t

Roger Maris was also victimized by unconscionable deception on the part of the Yankees' front office, which is why he was so bitter toward the organization for so many years.  In 1965 Maris, sliding into home plate, sustained a hand injury which he believed was a dislocated finger.  Maris played the game as hard as anybody who ever wore the pinstripes -- almost recklessly in some respects the way he went into second base to break up double plays or slid into catchers at the plate or dove into the stands to catch the ball.  So when he said his hand was hurting and he couldn't grip the bat, you have to think he wasn't just looking for some time off.  The Yanks had their medical staff take X-rays, but said they showed nothing was broken and that there was no reason Maris couldn't play.  He tried to play through it, but it didn't improve.  Finally after the 65 season a friend had him see a doctor with no connection to the Yankees, and this doctor saw immediately that Maris had a broken hamate.  When Maris told Ralph Houk, who by then was back to being manager after firing Johnny Keane, Houk said he would level with him and that the front office knew he needed an operation.

This understandably did not sit well with Maris, who proceeded to have an operation which did ease his pain but did not restore his power stroke.  The Yankee brass had pretty well insinuated -- and the New York sports media dutifully repeated -- that Maris was just dogging it, and many of the fans bought into it.  They really let him have it.  After the 1966 season, Maris told GM Lee MacPhail that he was thinking about retiring.  MacPhail assured him the Yanks wanted him back.  Maris asked that if the team was going to trade him to any place other than Kansas City, which was near his home, to let him know so he could file his retirement papers.  MacPhail said the Yanks had no such plans.

Three weeks later he was traded to St. Louis for journeyman IFer Charlie Smith.  Maris found out when he came home one afternoon and saw reporters and photographers waiting for him in front of his house.  But the Cardinals were smart.  They had new GM Stan Musial get in touch with him and they hit it off instantly.  The Man told Roger that not only would he get a salary increase, but that there would be no pressure on him to hit HRs or do anything other than show up and do his best.  Manager Red Schoendienst got into the act too, and later players like Orlando Cepeda reached out to him -- Cepeda got a bit of the Maris treatment in San Francisco for not being Willie Mays -- and eventually all the players from Gibson on down were won over by his team-oriented attitude.  He played decently for the Cardinals and was an important part of two pennant-winning teams in 67 and 68 before retiring and getting his fondest wish -- a beer distributorship from owner August Busch that he ran with his brother Rudy.

Their treatment of Roger Maris was one of the real low points of Yankee front office chicanery, with an indifferent ownership at CBS and dishonesty from Ralph Houk, Lee MacPhail and quack corporate team doctor Sidney Gaynor.  Houk, who did so many good things, not just in baseball but as a genuine hero in World War II when he was awarded a Silver Star, did not have his finest moments as Yankee GM or in his second tenure as manager.  He had many noble qualities, but at times he had some serious failings.

Rizz, it was a low point for Yankee management. But it was years before the public knew about it --I sure did not until some articles and books began appearing years later. Maris was too much of a mensch to make an issue of it, and things worked out so well for him in St. Louis that he just let it go.  But the players knew, and they had his back both in New York and St. Louis, where he was made to feel welcome after some initial suspicions that he might be a difficult guy.

Dr. Sidney Gaynor, the Yanks chief medical guy, turned out to be a total tool of the front office.  His basic attitude was that the players were whiners.  When the Yankees could no longer deny that Maris had the broken hamate bone, Gaynor claimed that he had hoped that it would heal on its own and that's why he advised against an operation.  I don't know if such a thing is even possible, but even if it is that doesn't excuse the team doctors for asserting that X-Rays showed no break when obviously there was one.

Sorry to waste energy on something that happened almost 60 years ago and where all of the principals are long deceased, but Maris was an absolute straight-shooter -- and he could be brusque, no question -- whose career was made unnecessarily difficult by dishonest people in both the front office and the media.  The business with Judge last year brought a lot of it back to the surface -- he handled it so perfectly with the Maris family after they in good faith had graciously gone through what we ultimately learned was the fraudulent McGwire/Sosa circus in 1998.

Thank you Kaybli. I probably ramble too much about the distant past, but I suppose it's harmless enough. And it does kind of go with the territory in baseball. Always has, even when I was a kid. Even when my father was a kid. With the regular season about to start, I'll be able to pull my brain out of the past and focus more on the here and now.

And I neglected to wish you a joyous Ramadan. Haven't heard any complaints so far. Better March than June!

When we were living in the Middle East we always tried to get on people's schedules as early as possible during Ramadan if we were looking for cooperation. Of course in Kuwait that meant about 11 AM! Late afternoon appointments had a tendency to be a little edgier.

Kuwait was like Denmark compared to Saudi Arabia! But both were great life experiences (and once was enough!) My favorite ME countries to visit are Egypt, Syria and Morocco (which is the easiest for Western tourists.) Never been to Iran, which I am sure would be very cool. The Iranians ran many of the businesses in Kuwait and Qatar and UAE because the locals were preoccupied with accumulating money. But they were all very nice to us.