Been devouring all the season previews - bought the Lindy’s and Athlon guides while lounging around the Detroit airport to while the time away - and I gotta say, it still looks weird to see the abbreviations WAS and LAA. The WaPo had a good article on former Washington Senator Frank Howard, who had one of my favourite nicknames in a sport rife with good ones - the Capitol Punisher. Here’s his thoughts on baseball returning to DC, including this bit on Ted Williams as a manager:
“Awww, he was one of the most electric, charismatic guys I ever met in my life,” Howard says. “You know, he’s one of the true gods of baseball.”
He recalls his third day in training camp that ‘69 season, when word came Williams wanted to see him in the clubhouse office. “I knocked on the door and said, ‘Skip, ya wanna see me?’
“He said, ‘Yeah, yeah, come on in here, bush.’ He called everybody ‘bush.’ Bush leaguer, ya know. He said, ‘Can you tell me how a guy can hit 44 home runs and only get 48 bases on balls?’”
Who knew Ted Williams was a proto-Moneyball manager?