FISK, ANDERSON, PEREZ CASH IN

Carlton Fisk may be remembered best for smashing a game winning home run in the 12th inning in that 75 series setting up the seventh and deciding final game. While the ball was in flight he is depicted in archive pictures waving for it to fall fair off the foul pole.

James Loving - National Radio Text Service

Sunday July 1, 2001 - (Updated - Monday January 22, 2024)

REJECTION for BASEBALL HALL of FAME

Three of this years Major League Baseball Hall of Fame selections Carlton Fisk, Sparky Anderson and Tony Perez brought into focus for me why covering sports is more enjoyable than writing about entertainment. Sports are real while entertainment, for the most part, is hype.

In sports you have to earn your accolades. The beginning of everyone's professional sports career starts with a ZERO. There are no wins, losses, hits, goals, touchdowns or whatever… athletes have to start from scratch to prove themselves. It's as though they have to raise themselves from ZERO to a HERO.

Excluding a person's talent in the entertainment field everything from the start is projected as being great or the best. A new movie, recording or TV show has to be sold. In doing so the bull$#!t and the conning spin begins. Critics and reporters a showered with gifts to encourage them to put in a good word for the product. In most cases what is being pushed as a good product turns out to be a loser. In sports you either did it or you didn't, there is no bull$#!t about it.

Fisk, Anderson and Perez are proven champions. All three are cut from the same cloth. As the saying goes Winners never quit and quitters never win, these three fall into the winners category… they were all rejected but they never quit.

Ironically all three were a part of one of the greatest baseball World Series ever in 1975. Game six of that series is considered by many as the greatest most memorable World Series game of all time. It seems fitting all three should enter the Hall of Fame together 25 years after the event.

Of the 499 votes cast, 375 are required for selection. Fisk garnered 397 and Perez 385. Anderson was selected by the veterans committee making him only the 17th manager to be chosen.

Fisk may be remembered best for smashing a game winning home run in the 12th inning in that 75 series setting up the seventh and deciding final game. While the ball was in flight he is depicted in archive pictures waving for it to fall fair off the foul pole.

The Red Sox were considered overmatched but they took the Reds to the final game, Fisk informed me during an interview in June of 1990 at Anaheim stadium.

"The Big Red Machine was already an established team, he said. "They had proven their worth. They had proven how good they were. Before the series started we were not supposed to stay in the same ballpark with them because they were good and experienced and we were almost good and really inexperienced. But…as it turned out we took them right to the end. And…Everybody in New England thinks we won the series three games to four," he added with a chuckle.

The Reds won the series in part with the help of a two-run home run by Perez in the seventh game.

At the time of the interview I mentioned to Fisk that there were probably five or six players in that series who would become members of the Hall of Fame. At that point Johnny Bench and Carl Yastrzemski were the only players who were selected.

The count is now five. The Reds Johnny Bench was inducted in 1989, teammate Joe Morgan 1990. Boston's Yastrzemski was inducted in 1989. The selection of Anderson makes him the sixth in the Hall of Fame from that series. The Reds Pete Rose would have been selected if he didn't have legal problems and gambling convictions causing him to be banned by Major League Baseball from being inducted.

Fisk's career started strong. He was elected rookie of the year in 1972 [his first qualifying season] after batting 293, while blasting 22 HR and was tied for the league lead with 9 triples.

The Red Sox considered Fisk finished in 1980. He went on to have a 24-year major league career. During that time he was always a SOX playing 11 those years for the Red Sox and 13 with the Chicago White Sox. His 13 productive seasons with the White Sox proved the Red Sox he's finished theory wrong.

Fisk feels his 1983 season with the White Sox one of his best ever. "I hit .290 with 26 home runs [while] batting second and we went on to win the division, it was incredible," he said.

Pudge as he was called, holds the major league record for home runs by a catcher with 351 of his 376-career total being hit while he played that position. He also holds the Major League record for most games caught, 2226 and was selected as an all-star 11 times.

The then 6-3, 200 pound catcher suffered many injuries during his career. They included reconstructed knee surgery; he blew out an elbow, had 2 sets of cracked ribs, a separated shoulder, broken arm, 2 broken hands. No question…Fisk was a warrior.

He was known as a no nonsense hard nosed kind of guy. When he wasn't happy he wore his emotions on his sleeve. One day he would be happy and accessible for an interview. The next day he would be caustic but polite in letting you know that he wasn't in the mood to talk…but he NEVER took it out on you. He said what he had to say in a firm way letting you know that he needed his mental space.

Perez was a rags to riches player. At the age of 18 he left working in a Havana, Cuba sugar cane factory in 1960. He toiled his way through the minor league system before joining the Reds in 1964. At the time he was 6-2 and 160 pounds. He would finish his career weighing over 200 pounds.

Perez was nominated for the Hall of Fame eight times before finally obtaining enough votes for selection on his ninth nomination. "One time I got less votes than the year before and I said everything is going backwards," he noted.

Sparky Anderson retired as a manager at the age of 61. He later became a sports broadcaster for the Anaheim/California Angels.

Anderson, who has had premature white/silver hair since his 20's, played only one year in the major leagues. In 1959 he was the Philadelphia Phillies second baseman. He batted .218 with 0 HR and 34 RBI's. After that season he was sent down to the minor leagues never to return again to the big leagues as a player.

He found his major league success as a manager. At the age of 35, in his first year as the Reds manager, he led his team to a first place finish in the National League's Western Division.

He recorded 2194 career wins placing him third on the all-time list trailing only Connie Mack's 3731 and John McGraws 2784.

Anderson retired as a manager at the age of 61. He later became a sports broadcaster for the Anaheim/California Angels.

With all of his success Anderson's career had it's highs and lows. He found himself a reject of the Reds in 1978 despite his winning two world series. He recalls exactly when and where he was fired, November 28, 1978 in room 1118 at the airport Marriott Hotel in Los Angels by then Reds president Dick Wagner.

Anderson returned to the majors to manage the Detroit Tigers from 1979-95. His Tigers won the 1984 World Series title making him the ONLY manager to win World series in both the American and National Leagues. He's also won five pennants and two division titles.

It was when he was with the Tigers after his 2000th win which placed him behind only Mack and McGraw that he said of his accomplishment, "It just means I'm getting old. A guy [who] hangs around the bar long enough, he'll get drunk."

Anderson is loved by is former players and most anyone who has had an opportunity to meet him. I found him to be quite cooperative warm and engaging. He not only shared his feelings about his and his team's experiences but also his concern about others. In one interview he talked about his support for college sports. Anderson has lived near the Cal Lutheran University Thousand Oaks, California campus for over 30 years.

Anderson has a deep belief about respecting others and has been complimented about how well his players behaved. They learned what he advocates, "Treat everybody as if they're somebody because they are," he said in a CNNSI interview.

When Anderson speaks there's a humorous flair of down to earth common sense.

Regarding nostalgia he once said, "I've got my faults but living in the past isn't one of them - there's no future in it."

After all three of these future Hall of Famers found that their services were no longer needed by their respective clubs they each went on and made major contributions with other teams. Though rejected by their original organizations they all chose to be enshrined as a Hall member wearing the caps of those teams.

Fisk's decision to wear a Boston cap was a simple "I'd like to think I spent more years in Boston than just the years I was in uniform," CNNSI reported him as saying. Anderson simply feels it's appropriate because that's where it all started.

In all of Anderson's sports experience as a player, manager and broadcaster he came to a conclusion after a reunion of the 75-76 Reds teams.

"I realize now the greatest bunch of people I have ever seen in any professional sport was the 75-76 Reds because they were so professional and knew how to go about winning and knew how to act."

Overcoming adversity is the mark of a champion. These men exemplify the rewards of reporting on sports. It's meeting good people that work hard and achieve. They show what substance is all about. They are people who fight through hardship and strive to win. These three accomplished what they set out to be… WINNERS.

NBA LEGENDS vs CHINA: NBA Basketball Hall of Fame member RICK BARRY will coach the NBA Legends squad that will play a three game series in China against the China National team. Games will be played in Beijing August 11, Guangzhou Aug. 14 and Shanghai Aug. 17.

The NBA Legends squad includes Clyde Drexler, Dominique Wilkins, Buck Williams, Rolando Blackman, Eddie Johnson, Danny Schayes, Charles Smith, Joe Wolf, Tim Kempton, Doug Smith, Cory Beck and Tremain Folks.

TIGER CUP: Thailand National soccer coach PETER WITHE said only five or six players remain from the squad that lost their title in the 98 Tiger Cup. The teams poor showing resulted in Withe's being hired to coach the squad. [see Peter Withe part 1 ]

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