No Juice for Jax
*He weighed 215 pounds when he played and he weighs 215 pounds today. If all the supplements that are available to today’s athletes were available when he played, Reggie Jackson still would have weighed 215 pounds.
Would Reggie have been tempted to use steroids if they were as fashionable then as they are now?
“I’d never do that,” Jackson said. “I didn’t need steroids. I could hit it over the light tower without using steroids, you know that. A lot of guys use them and it’s not fair.”
Not to mention unwise.
“I think you’ll see ill effects healthwise for a lot of these guys down the road,” Reggie predicted. “Once they head into their forties and fifties they will have weird ailments and they won’t know why.”
Reggie on Gary Sheffield: “Gary’s a better hitter than I was. A lot of guys were better hitters than I was until September or October.”
Reggie said Sheffield told him at a recent All-Star Game that when Sheffield was playing a high school all-star game in New York, he asked Reggie for his autograph and was turned down, but that didn’t deter him from still looking up to Reggie.
“After he told me that, I walked over to the National League clubhouse and gave him an autographed ball,” Jackson said.
On the prospect of the Yankees possibly trading for Sheffield, Reggie said, “I don’t like what I read. I don’t like the comments he made, but I can look the other way because I like the man and I want others to like the man.”
Reggie said he admires Mark McGwire for not trying to squeeze the last nickel out of the Cardinals. McGwire’s two-year, $30 million deal was under market value.
“McGwire is starting to come and be a spokesman, which is good,” Jackson said. “He’s a Paul Bunyanesque-type figure and his feeling is either he’s going to get a lot of money or too much, what’s the difference? He’s getting $30 million for two years. That’s not enough? This is a guy who is No. 1 among players in terms of value. He sells radio and TV revenue and he sells tickets for everybody. If he hits three home runs in a game people are going to watch ESPN that night.”
Bowa Knows Where He Went Wrong
Ronald Reagan was president when Larry Bowa last managed in the big leagues.
Nearly every year since 1988, Bowa’s name surfaced as a candidate for a managing job. His reputation as a loud-mouthed lunatic who lit up one too many young player during his brief tenure with the Padres killed his chances.
Finally, he’s back in the dugout, for the Phillies.
“With the benefit of hindsight, I should have declined the offer and gone to the minor leagues to manage,” Bowa said, looking back to when he was hired to manage the Pods in 1987. “I was ready strategy-wise, but I’d rank that last in importance now.”
John Kruk, now a minor league hitting coach for the Phillies, likened playing for Bowa then to playing high school basketball for the losing side.
“You would just sit in front of your locker and wait for him to come in and yell at you after every loss,” Kruk said.
How will Bowa be different this time around?
“If I didn’t like how the player was doing something, I would hold a clubhouse meeting and air him out in front of the other 24 guys,” Bowa said. “There’s no need for that. I’ll have a lot of one-on-one meetings and I’ll still air guys out, but not in front of the whole team. Today’s players really don’t like getting embarrassed in front of teammates.”
Umpires will still encounter Bowa’s wrath.
“I’m still going to stick up for my players,” he vowed.
Bowa understands why he didn’t last the first time.
“When you get an opportunity you can’t screw it up and I screwed it up,” he said.
Ruben, We Still Don’t Know Ye
*Ruben Rivera remains as much an enigma as the day the Yankees dealt him to the Padres in the Hideki Irabu trade. Last season, Rivera batted .208, .175 after the All-Star break.
Rivera will be paid $1 million this season. Teammate Woody Williams makes $4.5 million. Rivera, the anti-Mariano, was in awe when he glimpsed one of Williams’ paychecks, at which point Williams gave him a lecture.
“This should be pocket change for you,” Williams told him. “You give me your talent, and I’m one of the highest-paid in the game.”
Rivera, a magnificent center fielder, lacks more than focus. His talent is overrated for this reason: Among the five tools, the hardest to scout is the ability to make contact. Rivera never has and never will earn a plus in that area.
Tommy Sings Same Tune
*For the first time since the 1930s, the Giants have had a better record than the Dodgers in four consecutive seasons.
“I’m happy the Giants are doing well, but I don’t want them to finish ahead of us because, well, I just feel we should be ahead of them,” Dodgers vice president Tommy Lasorda said. “That’s the way it’s always been.”
*The baseball writing profession lost its best storyteller when Phil “The Phantom” Collier died last week at his San Diego home.
Not all of Collier’s stories made the paper.
Many springs ago, Collier and a colleague who had a wooden leg were driving from Tucson to Phoenix. They stopped for legal beverages along the way. Since Collier had far less to drink than his pal and was under the legal limit, he drove.
Collier was driving the speed limit and was surprised to be pulled over by a state trooper.
“I was doing the speed limit, Officer, I don’t understand what the problem is,” Collier said.
“Oh no, you’re driving’s fine,” the trooper told him. “I just thought you might like to know your friend in the back seat is on fire.”
His colleague had passed out while smoking and his wooden leg caught fire.
Ballplayers and club executives, umpires and writers couldn’t hear enough of Collier’s stories.