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<\/a>Boots Poffenberger<\/p><\/div>\n
Pitchers seem to be inordinately represented on the lists of the game’s most colorful characters, maybe because they have so much time on their hands between appearances and in the bullpen. Indeed, the widespread emergence of the relief specialist in the 1960s and 1970s coincided with a new age of diamond eccentrics.<\/p>\n
The Orioles’ Moe Drabowsky is probably as famous for calling the Kansas City bullpen one night in 1966 and ordering pitcher Lew Krausse to start warming up, as he is for his record-setting 11 strikeouts as a reliever in Game One of the World Series that year. In 1970, he and fellow reliever Pete Richert got colorful quite literally when they painted the A’s bullpen roof black and orange. During the Birds’ World Series celebration that year, Drabowsky gave Commissioner Bowie Kuhn a hotfoot while Kuhn was presenting the Championship Trophy. He used a full pack of matches, too. Presumably, Moe didn’t treat his clients this way: He was a stock broker during the off-season.<\/p>\n
1970 also happened to be Bill Lee’s first full year in the big leagues. Lee was not only one of the best southpaws to pitch for the Red Sox since Babe Ruth, he was also Boston’s most colorful player since, well, since Babe Ruth. Upon seeing Fenway Park’s Green Monster for the first time, the “Spaceman” asked if they “leave it there during games.” He once claimed that he sprinkled marijuana on his pancakes so the bus fumes wouldn’t bother him while he jogged to the ballpark.<\/p>\n
By the early ’80s, Dan Quisenberry was not only leading the American League in saves, he was leading the majors in wit. When discussing his contract, he stated that it “has options through the year 2020 or until the last Rocky movie is made.” Explaining his mechanics, the sidearmer once remarked, “I found a delivery in my flaw.”<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Moon Man, outfielder Jay Johnstone, was busy pulling pranks, out in Los Angeles with the Dodgers. He loved to imitate portly manager Tommy Lasorda by stuffing his uniform with pillows. However, his greatest triumph in Hijinxery may have come when he miniaturized teammate Ron Cey’s locker, so that it was proportioned more for a penguin than for a human. The diminutive Cey’s nickname, of course, was “Penguin.”<\/p>\n
Somewhere around this time, however, when Johnstone was sawing and hammering in the middle of the night and Rick Dempsey was slip slidin’ on the tarp during a rain delay, the colorful characters of baseball slip-slud (to quote Dizzy Dean) their way right out of the game. It’s a pity. Watching Earl Weaver tear up the rule book in an umpire’s face is way more entertaining than watching two umps watch a third ump don a head set while waiting to find out if the fourth ump made the correct call.<\/p>\n
Where have you gone, Jay Johnstone and Moe Drabowsky and Bill Lee and Boots Poffenberger? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you and the days when baseball was not only fun, but funny.<\/p>\n
Feel free to remember your favorite colorful character in the comments section below!<\/p>\n
Austin Gisriel is the author of <\/em>Boots Poffenberger: Hurler, Hero, Hell-Raiser, the recently published biography of one of baseball’s most colorful characters, <\/em>Summer Game Books<\/em><\/a>, publisher.<\/em><\/p>\n