Word: veeck
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...flavor. It won't be easy for the sport to reconcile its players' new clout with the need to keep ticket prices down to a daily digestible level, but then it isn't easy to throw or hit a nice pitch either. Showmen like Bill Veeck and operators like Ted Turner seem to be up to the new challenge, and baseball appears to have the momentum to keep rolling along. Asked what he likes most about the game's format, Tug McGraw ponders for a moment and replies, "The shape of the ball. We must never...
...Braves." Dry land athletic competition may be a new game for Turner, but of one thing he is certain: "The principles in sailing and baseball are the same. You go at it to win, and you do so with as much style and grace as you can muster." Bill Veeck could not have said it better...
...spirit, at least, baseball's youngest owner is surely not Turner, but Veeck. At 62, Veeck has returned from the baseball purgatory to which he was assigned when he gave up the White Sox in 1961. Prior to that, he owned the Cleveland Indians, the Milwaukee Brewers (when they were a minor league team), the St. Louis Browns, and the hearts of fans. When it comes to promotion-and rocking boats-he is baseball's alltime MVP. American League owners tried hard to keep Veeck locked out of baseball last December by imposing stiff conditions on his offer...
They failed, and already have suffered the consequences. In March, when the owners voted 23 to 1 to lock the spring training camps, the one was Veeck. ("That's the usual tally," he says.) A few days later, he unveiled the new White Sox warm weather uniform-short pants. On opening day, peg-legged Veeck (he lost his leg as a result of a 1943 war wound) choreographed some Bicentennial foofaraw and greeted his crowd as the fife player in a fetching patriotic ceremony. Marching across the field with him were Business Manager Rudie Schaffer on drum and stern...
Other owners have been complaining for years about Veeck's undignified approach to the game, while busily adopting his zany promotional stunts. It was he who first dotted the baseball calendar with Bat Days, Ladies Days, Bartender Days, Cab Driver Days, Gourmet Days, and Name's the Same Days (everyone with the same name as a member of the team gets in for free). He was the first to install an explosive Scoreboard, stage milking contests and have mock invasions from outer space. His most memorable stunt was sending a midget to pinch hit for St. Louis wearing...