Athletes who did not speak to the media

[Azrael]

Turn the question around: why in the world would anyone ever trust or cooperate with the press?

 

[Dick Whitman]

Why was Jim Rice so uncooperative and distrustful of the media? There must be some reasons for this stance.

Some guys are just like that. Some of them are hypersensitive and freak out about the idea of being challenged or criticized. Some are arrogant and can't stand that a group of non-athletes doesn't worship them.

BYH: Worse than Andre Dawson?

 

[Moderator1]

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.

 

[mrbio]

If there was a Hall of Fame for Niceness, Curtis Pride would be a first balloter.
Really The Hawk Andre Dawson was not good with the media? I got a great Biofile with him, was very nice. Gotta dig up the Curtis Pride Biofile.

 

[Dick Whitman]

If there was a Hall of Fame for Niceness, Curtis Pride would be a first balloter.
Really The Hawkk Andre Dawson was not good with the media? I got a great Biofile with him, was very nice. Gotta dig up the Curtis Pride Biofile.

I meant that Dawson is a worse player than Rice.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Andre Dawson allegedly uttered the quote "I want kids to look up to me; I want them to copulate me." So he is a Hall of Famer in my book.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Andre Dawson allegedly uttered the quote "I want kids to look up to me; I want them to copulate me." So he is a Hall of Famer in my book.

That's up there with Magic Johnson attaining HIV.

 

[Joe Williams]

If he'd played in Pittsburgh and been named Dave Parker, he could have given reporters roses every single day of his career and never sniffed the HOF.

Dave Parker? Sniffed?

I see what did there.

 

[Joe Lapointe]

Even before he started messing with steroids, Barry Bonds was as surly as any athlete I've ever met. The only thing worse than the silent treatment from Bonds was when he allowed you to interview him. He had mean eyes and he coldest smile you'll ever see on a human being. Gave you a bunch of canned answers and never leveled. Wonder how he would've treated his cellmates? Guess we'll never know.

 

[mrbio]

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.

 

[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.

 

[Magic In The Night]

I will agree that Albert Belle was one of the worst ever. I once tried to ask for an interview and he stared daggers through me. There aren't too many athletes who just flat-out won't talk. I think most of them actually enjoy torturing the media with their nastiness.