Athletes who did not speak to the media

[dooley_womack1]

Barry had a rep as being defensive and antagonistic to the media. I had one experience with him and he was actually quite nice. I did a biofile with Deion Sanders his Giant team and next over locker mate after overcoming some resistance from Neon Deion, he actually gave a classic interview. I then asked Barry B, who with some amusement, observed our entire exchange, if he would do one but he politely declined. But he was quite polite about it, enough to make me respect him. Can only go by they treat you and Barry B showed me a gracious respect.

A wise old sage once told me some of these athletes get so big and so famous and wealthy that they go a little "spooky." It's not so easy being a big star like Bonds. They can't all be as nice as Tony Gwynn or Arthur Ashe or Wayne Gretzky.

Bonds would have given you one if only he had known that Marcelo Rios had cooperated.

And I remember with delight the Tribune reporter writing, "Albert Belle, who was playing cards next to me, was not available for comment."

 

[Joe Williams]

Bonds was hot and cold, with no real pattern. When he was with Pittsburgh, he could be expansive and friendly one day, rude and uncommunicative the next.

Guys like that are the worst, because you're obliged to seek them out thinking it might be "one day" and they get to repeatedly be jerks because it is, in fact, "the next."

That's why I say, give me the guy who never talks. Fine. We're all grownups, we can work around that. But subjecting people to repeated, random rudeness or even ridicule just because they're trying to do their jobs is some level of sub-human.

 

[Drip]

Curtis Pride didn't have a "speaking handicap." He's hearing impaired. He speaks quite well. I interviewed him when he was in high school, when he played basketball at William and Mary as well as when he played pro baseball.

Pride ended his career with a few years in independent leagues (I believe he had a few cups of coffee in the bigs during this span), where he perpetuated the most poignant act of random kindness I've ever seen in a locker room.

This particular year, he was playing for the Nashua Pride--no kidding--and I was stringing for their local paper. I went into the locker room, which was as bare bones as you would expect from an independent league--no nameplates or anything like that--and asked the first person with whom I made eye contact where Player X (a career minor leaguer whom I wouldn't recognize by sight) was sitting.

A bunch of jokers who would never sniff the bigs thought it'd be fun to send me around the room looking for this guy. One would point this way, one would point that way. Honest to God, I didn't care. I'd been in big league clubhouses before, these guys weren't going to intimidate me. So I nodded, smiled and figured, fork it, I just won't talk to this guy.

Pride comes along, sees what is going on and asks who I want to speak to. I tell him, he motions to follow him. I do so and he walks over to the player, taps him on the shoulder, points to me and tells him I want to speak to him. He nods at me, I shake Pride's hand and I interview the player I've been looking for.

A room full of people and the hearing-impaired player is the one to step in and facilitate the interview. I thought that--terrible but inadvertent pun here--spoke volumes for his character. I could tell, in just a few seconds, that this was a guy who emphasizes with anyone who might feel like an outsider and would do whatever he could to make him feel comfortable.

Great story, and so very Curtis. Funny that we're talking about him so much on THIS thread.

When I heard WmMary had signed a hearing-impaired player not far away from Richmond, I drove up and spent a day with Curtis and his family. Covered him teams at WmMary but not on a daily basis. So he became familiar with me. I saw him here and there during his baseball career, not frequently at all. And every time, EVERY time, he'd make a point of coming up to me to chat, ask after the family, the usual. Just a first-class person in every way. I guarantee you if he saw me now he'd do the same thing, even though I haven't seen him in years.

The story about him getting tossed early in one of his cups of coffee is priceless. He lifts the umps mask so he can read the lips and the ump tosses him. He un-tossed Pride once he found out what was going on.

I recall the Curtis Pride days at Bill and Mary. He was a good interview then but when he reached the pros, he was even better IMO. He's a great story.

 

[Hoos3725]

As long as we're talking Virginia athletes in the niceness category, I'll throw in Brandon Inge. He's a classy individual. What I think strikes me the most about Inge is that he still appreciates being a big-league ball player. He still understands how lucky he is.

 

[Moderator1]

He went to VCU - so his high quality shouldn't be a surprise!
I think VCU has more current major leaguers than any other school, though UVA may have a couple in there I've forgotten. Probably wouldn't be the school anyone would guess in the state of Virginia.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Bonds was hot and cold, with no real pattern. When he was with Pittsburgh, he could be expansive and friendly one day, rude and uncommunicative the next.

Guys like that are the worst, because you're obliged to seek them out thinking it might be "one day" and they get to repeatedly be jerks because it is, in fact, "the next."

That's why I say, give me the guy who never talks. Fine. We're all grownups, we can work around that. But subjecting people to repeated, random rudeness or even ridicule just because they're trying to do their jobs is some level of sub-human.

I got lucky and got Bonds on a good day. He didn't say anything of great substance, but he hadn't talked in a few weeks so all of the Bay Area papers picked up my story and none were too happy about it.

Trust me I've been on the other side where the prima donna superstar who was on the team that I covered, rarely talked to anyone and we'd have to pick up quotes from out of town papers because he only talked if he felt like it, or in a press conference situation where it was rare to get him to say anything of substance...

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

Bonds was hot and cold, with no real pattern. When he was with Pittsburgh, he could be expansive and friendly one day, rude and uncommunicative the next.

Guys like that are the worst, because you're obliged to seek them out thinking it might be "one day" and they get to repeatedly be jerks because it is, in fact, "the next."

That's why I say, give me the guy who never talks. Fine. We're all grownups, we can work around that. But subjecting people to repeated, random rudeness or even ridicule just because they're trying to do their jobs is some level of sub-human.

Correct. Carlton was never a problem because you knew he wasn't going to talk, wasn't going to make exceptions. It was easy enough to work around him.

The guys who drive you crazy are the ones who can't make up their minds. Some days they're talking, some days they aren't. Or they're only talking to certain people. Major pain in the ass.

 

[geddymurphy]

Didn't Rocket Ismail decline interviews for a while?

And then Dale Murphy -- well, if you were a female reporter in the locker room. Right?

 

[Magic In The Night]

Didn't Rocket Ismail decline interviews for a while?

And then Dale Murphy -- well, if you were a female reporter in the locker room. Right?

Yes, Dale Murphy would not speak in the locker room or ever in the dugout to females. Only on the field and then only occasionally.

 

[Mike Nadel]

Herschel Walker stopped talking in his last season with the Vikings. I still would go up to him at least once a week and ask him to comment on something, just to make sure that day wasn't going to be the day he changed his mind and started talking again. "Walker declined comment" was seen fairly often under my byline that season.

Jerry Burns, the crusty old Vikings coach, got pissed off at a couple of reporters in his final season and pretty much stopped talking during the week, which was unheard of. Prior to that, Burns had been one of the all-time great quotes.

Ted Simmons, another motormouth who usually was a great quote, got pissed at a reporter in 1982 and didn't talk for a chunk of that Brewers pennant-winning season. By the postseason, he was talking again.

Tommie Harris, the Bears' recent defensive lineman, stopped talking to Chicago media a couple years ago. He also had been an above-average quote but thought he had been wronged.

As for Carlton, you actually could have a conversation with him in his later, post-Philly years but it wasn't about baseball and wasn't on the record. Finally, right at the end, when he realized he might need writers to get in the Hall of Fame, he started talking some on the record. Of course, it's impossible to believe that even the most revenge-minded guys in the BBWAA wouldn't vote for Carlton whether he talked or not.

 

[inthesuburbs]

Just to be clear, Walker didn't decline comment. He declined to comment.

 

[outofplace]

Didn't Rocket Ismail decline interviews for a while?

And then Dale Murphy -- well, if you were a female reporter in the locker room. Right?

Not sure about Rocket, but Quadry was apparently a bit of a pain in the ass, at least in his college days.

One of the guys at my college paper went through the SID to get an interview with Quadry before they played against our school. The interview started with this bit of fun:

"You've got five minutes and don't ask me about my brother. Now go."