Showing posts with label manager. Show all posts
Showing posts with label manager. Show all posts

Friday, October 4, 2024

Insight: What’s in a Name?

By Ed Pierce
Managing Editor


The process of creating a nickname for professional athletes has always fascinated me.

Billy Scripture's nickname given to 
him by his fellow ballplayers was
'Old Hardrock.' He could demonstrate
chewing the horsehide off baseballs
for anyone who asked him to.
COURTESY PHOTO  
Some are derived from physical characteristics such as football’s William “The Refrigerator” Perry, so named for his size or Ed “Too Tall” Jones for being an overly large 6-foot-9 defensive end. Then there’s baseball’s Walt “No Neck” Williams stemming from a typhus injection he received as a baby that left him with an overtly short neck, Mark “The Bird” Fidrych for his resemblance to the Sesame Street character Big Bird, or Rusty “Le Grande Orange” Staub, who was so dubbed by French-speaking fans of the old Montreal Expos who admired his flaming red hair.

Basketball has Dennis “The Worm” Rodman who earned the name for the way he wriggled around when playing pinball, Larry “The Hick from French Lick” Bird, who grew up in French Lick, Indiana, and David “The Admiral” Robinson whose nickname pays homage to the time he served in the U.S. Navy.

But my all-time favorite nickname for an athlete is for a minor league baseball player you might not have heard of.

Billy “Old Hardrock” Scripture had that nickname hung on him supposedly for his penchant for munching on rocks with his strong teeth. It wasn’t true, he preferred chewing the horsehide off baseballs.

Earl Wayne “Billy” Scripture had been a star high school quarterback, wrestler, and baseball outfielder at Princess Anne High School in Virginia and earned a baseball scholarship to play at the college level for Wake Forest University. He led his team to consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference titles and was honored as a NCAA All-American before being drafted by the Baltimore Orioles to play professionally.

Working his way up to the Orioles’ top farm team, the Rochester Red Wings in 1968, Scripture was admired for his on-field hustle and never-say-die attitude. He personified toughness, refusing to acknowledge pain when hit by a pitch in his jaw.

According to Scripture, his practice of chewing on baseballs began as a nervous habit while sitting in the dugout at the old Silver Stadium in Rochester and watching his friend and teammate, Merv Rettenmund, batting during games.

Instead of chewing bubble gum, tobacco or sunflower seeds, Scripture would use his teeth to loosen up the heavily stitched seams and then proceed to rip the cover off baseballs. It was a unique talent that drew the scorn of dentists but bonded him forever with teammates and fans.

His ascent to the major leagues stalled because of Scripture’s inability to hit a curveball and by 1972, his playing days were at an end without ever reaching the majors. He was offered a minor league managing position by the Kansas City Royals and skippered teams in the Midwest League, the Gulf Coast League and the Southern League. In 1978, Scripture managed a minor league team for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Western Carolina League, and he returned as a manager one last time in 1984 to guide the Nashua Pirates in the Eastern League.

Among the players he managed who reached the majors are outfielder Bobby Bonilla, pitcher Dave Dravecky and infielder Ron Washington, who currently serves as the manager of the Los Angeles Angels.

To impress young ballplayers with his toughness, he once climbed a light tower to do chin-ups, or he would let the pitching machine bounce fastballs off his chest.

But nothing compared to Scripture demonstrating for sportswriters while managing the Jacksonville Suns in 1975 how to chew the cover off a Spaulding baseball.

He explained that his frustration intensified as a manager, and he would chew baseballs to alleviate gametime stress.

“Only lost one molar so far, and that's a whole lot less expensive than an ulcer operation," Scripture told reporters.

The trainer for the Royals, Mickey Cobb, said that Scripture was oblivious to pain and before a spring training game, he noticed Scripture had 19 blisters on one hand from hitting fly balls for outfielders.

Cobb said Scripture walked into the dugout and poured rubbing alcohol over the blisters and refused any Band-Aids for them. Later that same day, he saw Scripture having other coaches hit fly balls to the outfield so he could demonstrate to players the best way to run head-on into a chain-link fence.

After leaving baseball, Scripture spent a lot of time training labrador retriever dogs. He was a duck hunting guide and would compete in trap shooting competitions. He became so proficient at it that he became a director of trap and skeet shooting clubs in Indiana, Nevada, Texas, and Florida.

In 1968, I remember going to a Rochester Red Wings game against the Toledo Mud Hens and when the game ended, a few players stood by the dugout signing autographs for fans. I approached Billy Scripture and asked him if he would sign my program for the game.

“Why would you want a silly autograph when you can have something of mine even better,” he asked me.

Giving him a puzzled look, Scripture handed me a tiny knawed-on piece of a baseball. It sat for a week on my bedroom dresser before my mother tossed it in the garbage as if it were trash.

Who knows what it might be worth today?

Friday, August 5, 2022

Insight: Secrets to some great newspaper interviews

By Ed Pierce
Managing Editor


Being a journalist isn’t always easy. Yes, you do get to meet newsmakers, celebrities, and people of all ages from all walks of life, and I’ve always prided myself on having the knack for asking the right questions at the right time.

Ed Pierce once interviewed professional wrestler Mick
'Mankind' Foley about his career in the ring.
COURTESY PHOTO 
But it hasn’t been easy doing that and many of the questions I now ask during interviews for an article are based upon experience, my knowledge of the issues and the person answering the questions. Back when I was in Journalism 101 class taught by Dr. Harry Lancaster at New Mexico Highlands University in 1971, we discussed the proper way to conduct a newspaper interview and Dr. Lancaster said something I’ve never forgotten all these decades later.

He said that Voltaire was quoted as saying “Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers” and that pronouncement led me to always having a few thought-provoking questions in my back pocket to ask interview subjects through the years.

When I sat down with Hall of Fame baseball manager Earl Weaver of the Baltimore Orioles, I had a tough question for him that came up halfway through the interview with him I was writing for the Sunday sports section of the daily newspaper I worked for. I told him that I noticed a few of his major league players he had managed, such as Don Baylor and Frank Robinson, had gone on to become major league managers. He smiled and nodded and said he was proud of their success.

Then I asked him if he ever had a player when he was managing in the minor leagues that he knew then was going to become a successful major league manager.

Weaver thought about it and answered. “That’s a great question and nobody’s ever asked me that before. Yes, I had a 19-year-old player back in 1964 when I was managing at Elmira that I knew was going to manage somewhere someday,” he said. “He kept a small notebook in his back pocket and one of those little bowling scorecard pencils. When I would make a pitching change or put on a hit-and-run, he’d ask me why I did it and wrote down my response. He was preparing back even then and I was proud when he eventually managed the Cincinnati Reds to the World Series championship. His name was Lou Pinella.”

In another interview I was running short on time and was interviewing recently retired professional wrestler Mick “Mankind” Foley, who was throwing out the first pitch at a minor league baseball game in Florida. I had little time to get him to give me some quotable material to fill out my article about him. Foley wasn’t volunteering a great deal of information, even though he was promoting his new book, so I needed a question to turn the interview around fast.

I asked him how many times he had been clobbered with a folding chair during his professional wrestling career. Foley’s eyes lit up and his entire demeanor changed. It was like I had struck a nerve with him. “Would that be over the head or over the back,” he asked me. I told him either one. “Wooden chair or metal?” he asked me. Again, I told him it didn’t matter. “10,000 times,” he said.

That exchange led to an awesome 10 minutes of him telling me about his experiences in the ring and how much he loved the sport but hated being away so often from his wife and young children. That simple question had helped me to gain a greater understanding of a complicated man the public didn’t know very well, other than for his weird behavior, the foolish characters he portrayed, and the unusual plotlines he was involved in as a pro wrestler.

On another occasion, I was interviewing the Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker, who was visiting New Hampshire and had announced his intention to campaign for the Republican nomination for president in 2016. We discussed a range of topics including the success of America’s space program and how it inspired and drew the country together and he talked a bit about his love for thrifty shopping and how thrilled he was to save $10 on a sweater by using a Kohl’s cash certificate. But I still didn’t think I had the hook to write a great article.

While he was delivering his stump speech to supporters, I noticed his wife, Tonette, standing off to the side. I made my way over to her and asked her if she was me, what question would she ask her husband. She laughed and told me to ask him about his motorcycle.

It seems that they drove to New Hampshire in his truck pulling a trailer with his motorcycle. After checking into a hotel in Manchester, the couple rode to the campaign stop on his motorcycle which unfortunately ran out of gas along the way. He hiked to a gas station, refueled, and then flooded the bike, making them late for the event.

I asked him, “What do you love about riding your motorcycle in New Hampshire?” He grinned and said, “How in the world did you know that?” <