Great stuff.
You tell 'em Jimmy!!
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/ba ... tml#page=1Feisty Jimmy Piersall, 84, still full of opinions
The man who talked himself out of baseball jobs on both sides of town was still talking.
Our cellphone call had long ago been dropped due to the accidental push of a button on his end, so whatever Jimmy Piersall was saying to me was only being heard by Jimmy Piersall.
It didn't really matter, because I could imagine what he was saying just fine.
At the age of 84, Piersall is still alive and kicking.
And kicking.
And kicking some more.
The former major league player who was booted from his White Sox TV analyst job and fired as a Cubs roving minor league instructor is living in Wheaton and watching a lot of Cubs and Sox games on TV.
Piersall is busy spending time with his wife, Jan, seeing his 24 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren, and dealing with Parkinson's disease.
"I fell down a lot but they found out the Parkinson's I was having (most affected him) when I was walking backward," he said. "So I went to rehab a few months and they taught me how to turn so I don't go backward.
"It's pretty good now. I go to the mall and walk every day, and for my age I'm enjoying my life because of my great wife."
Piersall still loves to talk and has some strong opinions on a few things, as you might imagine. To avoid any unnecessary legal fees for the new Tribune publishing bosses, we'll leave some of them out.
Suffice to say Piersall is as feisty as ever, and if you ever find yourself on his front lawn, you had better get off of it — pronto.
For those too young to remember Piersall, a CliffsNotes version is necessary, although completely inadequate: He was a former major league player who suffered a mental breakdown, wrote a book about it and ripped actor Tony Perkins' portrayal of him in the movie version, "Fear Strikes Out"; was teamed up with Harry Caray to form arguably the most popular broadcast duo in White Sox history, but nearly forced the Sox to forfeit a game for making an obscene gesture at umpire Joe Brinkman when a call went against the team; was removed from the booth after making derogatory comments about ballplayers' wives during an appearance on Mike Royko's talk show, referring to them as "horny broads"; was relieved of his job as a volunteer, part-time coach under Sox manager Tony La Russa for choking a Daily Herald sportswriter, for which he was sued for damages and settled out of court; was confronted in a TV studio by La Russa and coach Jim Leyland; was hired by the Cubs as a minor league instructor; and was fired by the Cubs for suggesting on WSCR-AM that "two other guys" should've been fired instead of manager Jim Riggleman, referring to team President Andy MacPhail and general manager Ed Lynch.
In short, Piersall made publicity seekers like Dennis Rodman and Johnny Manziel look like pikers.
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I'd last spoken to Piersall in 1999 after his firing by the Cubs. He'd been critical of the team on his WSCR gig with Mike North, and in our interview proceeded to accuse the '99 Cubs of "dogging it" and "quitting" on Riggleman.
"I'm not bitter," he told me. "I hope it goes well for them. I'd certainly like to see them turn it around. ... Lots of luck."
Piersall soon faded out of view and out of mind, like any former celebrity who falls off the grid. But reminders of his crazy career popped up last week in Cooperstown, N.Y., after I asked La Russa if he and Caray had ever reconciled their feud.
"Hell no," La Russa replied, adding: "Harry liked to pick on lambs, and I was a lamb."
There was no doubt Caray criticized La Russa. The two Sox announcers ripped everyone and everything, which endeared them to their viewers. Piersall said Caray once told Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf: "We don't second-guess. We first-guess."
So was Caray's treatment of La Russsa out of bounds, or was it just Harry being Harry?
"Harry didn't criticize anyone in particular," Piersall said. "He just reported what he saw. Remember, when La Russa started managing, he was making only about $30,000 and he was having trouble getting started. He didn't know much about managing."
Piersall acknowledged there was no love lost between him and La Russa back in the early '80s, especially after La Russa and Leyland finally had enough and went to his TV studio one night to confront the analyst. Piersall had just criticized the defensive play of Sox outfielder Chet Lemon, and he said La Russa charged him with trying to get Leyland, who coached Sox outfielders, fired.
Piersall said he responded: "I wasn't trying to get anybody fired. All I asked was 'How can he be an outfield coach? He couldn't even catch.' " Leyland had to be separated from Piersall, who, it should be noted, once fought Billy Martin and ran backward around the bases after his 100th career home run.
More than three decades after the incident, Piersall says La Russa turned out to be a great manager and deserved to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
"I'm tickled to death for him," he said, before pointing out that former GM and current broadcaster Ken "Hawk" Harrelson fired La Russa as Sox manager. "That was a big break for La Russa, because he won about 3,000 games. I'm happy for him because he worked hard and got the job done."
Piersall may be happy for La Russa, but he's not enamored with the current state of the game, particularly the lack of fundamentally sound players and the length of games.
"The worst thing to happen to baseball is the owners are egomaniacs," he said. "They spend an awful lot of money and get complacent ballplayers. They don't know how to play the game. They're bigger and stronger and can so-called 'hit,' but they make so many mental mistakes.
"And no one can hit with two strikes except (Andrew) McCutchen and (Mike) Trout and the guy from Detroit (Miguel Cabrera). Oh, and the new guy from the White Sox (Jose Abreu)."
Due to space constraints, here's an abbreviated list of some other things that Piersall wasn't particularly fond of: outfielders who can't throw, don't position themselves and get bad jumps on fly balls; late A's owner Charlie Finley; outrageous bonuses for draft picks "who haven't proved nothing"; the Cubs overhyping their farm system; Cubs fans attending games for this year's team; catchers' blocking skills; a former Tribune Co. "pencil-pusher that didn't know anything" about baseball; the Tribune's suburban edition that doesn't have late scores; Commissioner Bud Selig; and players who strike out on sliders a foot off the plate and then "walk back to the bench like 'I've got an eight-year contract, what do I care?'"
The phone call suddenly dropped in mid-rant.
Piersall called back a few minutes later to apologize, but no apologies were necessary. It was like listening to his old radio show all over again, with no commercial breaks.
He continued to offer opinions for another half-hour, and probably would've gone longer if my iPhone wasn't running out of juice and I thought I heard my doorbell ring.
It was good to know that Piersall hadn't changed one bit, and will never run out of opinions.
"It doesn't make it right or wrong," he said. "There were those who liked them and those who didn't. But it made me a lot of money."
psullivan@tribune.comTwitter @PWSullivan
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