MLB

Serby’s Sunday Q&A with Ralph Kiner (from June, 2008)

The Post’s Steve Serby sat down with Hall of Fame slugger and legendary Mets announcer Ralph Kiner (from June 26, 2008).

Q: Who was your favorite “Kiner’s Korner” guest?

A: The guy I had the most fun with was Tug McGraw. One time he gave me a haircut, he was in the military service. It took me about six months to get over that.

Q: Most reluctant guest?

A: The first player to turn me down was Curt Flood. Cleon Jones wasn’t willing to let his personality come out, but after he was on 40 or 50 times, he was actually doing the commercials.

Q: Your first guest?

A: Casey Stengel. The one thing about Casey was you never knew when he was gonna stop talking. This time he was very aware of the fact that we had to get off the air. So I said, “Casey, thank you for being on the show,” and he said, “Thank you very much,” and he got up and walked off. But he still had the microphone on and he pulled the whole set down.

Q: You once referred to Gary Carter as Gary Cooper.

A: It was Opening Day, his first game with the Mets, and he hit a home run in the 10th inning to win the game. In the Opening Day ceremonies, a movie star was singing the national anthem, and I was thinking of “Pride of the Yankees” and Lou Gehrig, and Gary Cooper played Lou Gehrig.

Q: Favorite Bob Murphy anecdote?

A: He was on the air and talking about Bob Aspromonte, and he said, “his parents are coming to the ballgame and they’re . . .” And then he called the pitch . . . “high and outside.”

Q: Best pitcher you faced?

A: The toughest was Ewell Blackwell. The best I saw was Bob Feller.

Q: Best player?

A: [Joe] DiMaggio or [Willie] Mays.

Q: Ted Williams?

A: The best hitter I saw. And the last four, five years Barry Bonds has been a better hitter than anybody I ever saw. Also, I’d throw in Stan Musial. The one hitter I didn’t see, and I have to believe is the best of all time, is Babe Ruth.

Q: You vote no on Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame.

A: He bet on baseball games that he participated in. Why is there any argument?

Q: How prevalent are steroids?

A: Baseball’s gotta take this very seriously and the penalties have got to be extremely severe.

Q: Tell me about your night on the town with Elizabeth Taylor.

A: I took her to a Hollywood premiere, which in those days was very fashionable, and we went to the most prominent theater in Hollywood, Grauman’s Chinese. After the movie, I took her to a place called Romanoff’s, where the other celebrities went, and we had dinner and danced.

Q: On a scale of 1-10, what would you give her?

A: Eleven.

Q: In your book, “Baseball Forever,” you tell why you never saw her again.

A: When I came out, they were paging so-and-so’s car, so I asked them to page mine. They did, but it doesn’t show up. I asked again, and it doesn’t show up, and finally they say to me, “Your chauffeur must have fallen asleep.” I said, “Chauffeur? I don’t have a chauffeur.” They said, “In that case your car is right over there,” and it was about half a block away in a parking lot. That wasn’t the greatest thing to happen on a date with Elizabeth Taylor.

Q: Best baseball movie?

A: “Pride of the Yankees.”

Q: Were you privy to the heckling and harassment Jackie Robinson received when he first came up to the big leagues?

A: In 1947, when he came up, he played a game in Pittsburgh and the Pirates had Hank Greenberg, a Jewish ballplayer. Greenberg talked to Jackie about the fact that when he broke in as a Jewish player, he was heckled, and he said: “I went through the same thing before you. Hang in there and you’ll get by and it’ll work out for you.” Which it certainly did.

Q: When you think of the ’62 Mets, what comes to mind?

A: We lost 120 games and it could have been 122, but two got rained out.

Q: The young Doc Gooden?

A: Best young pitcher I ever saw. He had more talent than anybody, including Herb Score. Gooden just ruined a Hall of Fame career.

Q: The young Tom Seaver?

A: I had played golf with his father in the Bing Crosby and George Seaver said to me, “I’ve got a young kid at home playing Little League ball and I’d like to have your autograph for him,” and I gave it to him. And when Seaver showed up for his first game, I talked about that incident happening with his dad, and I said to him, “What took you so long?”

Q: Leo Durocher?

A: A great manager, but very tough to play against. He’d do anything to beat you.

Q: Like what?

A: The one thing he did all the time was he’d sit on the bench and yell, “Stick it in his ear.” Meaning knock him on his butt.

Q: You said the 1969 Mets had the best-looking wives of any team you’ve ever been around. What about the ’62 wives?

A: They were too old.

Q: Do you think Mike Piazza should have charged Roger Clemens in the 2000 Subway Series?

A: I don’t think there’s any reason why anybody should charge anyone. But what Clemens did after shattering his bat and throwing it at Piazza, he should have been suspended. It was handled very badly.

Q: How would you fix the Mets?

A: They’re only a couple of players away from being a great team . . . Babe Ruth and maybe a good pitcher.

Q: You were the second player in NL history to hit 50 home runs in your second season, yet you are underappreciated as a slugger.

A: How many other guys have led the league in home runs seven consecutive years? No one. And I went into the Hall of Fame on my last ballot. The one thing that was a great honor to me was I was one of the 20 greatest hitters that Ted Williams picked.

Q: What’s it been like being Ralph Kiner?

A: I don’t think anybody could have had a better life. The only time I’ve been out of baseball were the 2½ years I spent as a Navy pilot, and that was something I also wanted to do.