It used to be that when Whitey Herzog opened his mouth, folks fell down in laughter.
"Baseball has been good to me," the one-time Rangers manager once reflected, "since I quit playing it."
"I'm not buddy-buddy with the players," the '85 manager of the year explained one time. "If they need a buddy, let them buy a dog."
It was that kind of wit, no doubt, as well as Herzog's record as one of the game's finest managers, that earned him an invitation last Friday to entertain at the Iowa Cubs Fanfare luncheon. He was its keynote speaker, and the following was the highlight of what he said:
"I do think that there's a lot of capable minorities (for managerial and front-office jobs). But I do think today, the people that are really getting it stuck to them are guys like this guy (Iowa Cubs manager Bruce Kimm, who is white) over here because he isn't a minority.
"I just hope that Bruce gets the chance someday to manage in the big leagues. And the reason I say that: We are so intent in our country today that we must do some things strictly opposite of what our country was built upon. When our country was built, the best man always got the job. The most capable person was the guy. It didn't make any difference what color he was, it didn't make any difference if he was a minority. If he was the most-qualified person, he got the job. And I sometimes think today that maybe, just maybe, we ought to go back that way."
When Herzog was done chattering away this time, no one was doubled over in laughter. No one was applauding. No one was digging for pen and pad to take notes on how to run their businesses from a fellow long considered one of baseball's brightest lights.
Herzog hadn't lost his touch. He was, I hope, just out of touch.
The cold reaction he received was an indication that there are some folks who can make a difference in baseball, and in life, whose mindsets are more progressive these days when it comes to equal opportunity above the factory floor.
"It was embarrassing," Iowa Cubs majority owner Michael Gartner told Des Moines Register columnist Marc Hansen of Herzog's comments.
It was wrong, despite that there are plenty of folks who would agree with Herzog. I know. I hear from them all the time. They're the ones who've told me I wouldn't have this job, wouldn't have earned a scholarship to grad school, wouldn't have been allowed to attend a private college and wouldn't have been able to prep at a parochial high school if not for my skin color. When Kenny Williams of the White Sox became just the third black general manager in baseball a couple of years ago, it was suggested that he was a token hire.
"It's not consistent with our own beliefs and baseball's beliefs," Gartner continued to say of Herzog's view, "and I apologize to those people who were offended."
Those people would include black coaches like Jerry Royster of the Brewers, Willie Randolph of the Yankees and Chris Chambliss, now with the Pirates organization, who has been a manager-in-waiting for a generation. They would include all the Hispanic ex-players who aspire to be managers, but see even fewer of their ilk gaining such opportunities than do their black peers.
They would include Dave Stewart and Omar Minaya, two fellows who've worked their way up the elevator to the general managers' level, but can't get the door to open.
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