Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball by Donald Hall

Author:Donald Hall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Touchstone
Published: 1976-07-01T04:00:00+00:00

Management

Joe Brown is general manager of the Pirates, a likable albeit dignified man in his fifties, son of the great comedian Joe E. Brown. After apprenticing in minor league management, he became Pirate general manager in 1955, bringing Pirate pennants and world championships. He talks carefully, negotiates well, and generally gets along with his players.

When his ballplayers complain about “management,” they must be talking about Joe Brown, and yet they pay him the personal tribute of substituting the abstraction for the name.

(Also the abstraction or euphemism acknowledges that the general manager might be overruled by owners or misrepresented by delegated authority. And, too, it supposes that baseball is run by a gigantic conspiracy, incorporating all owners, general managers, vice-presidents, publicity directors, stockholders, and Bowie Kuhn, an organization as intricate and fiendish as the Red Menace, hiding under the name of Management.)

Joe Brown is an Equal Opportunity Employer. “We’ve never had less than nine blacks, in the last ten or twelve years. We’ve had as many as fourteen. I don’t think any club in the history of baseball has consistently had as many black players, or as many at one time as fourteen. This is not giving us credit because we don’t do it deliberately.” The word “blacks” includes Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, and Panamanians—from the dark skin of Manny Sanguillen to the pale tan of Ramon Hernandez.

Talking with Joe Brown, in 1974, I ask him about Dock and the press, Dock and the public.

“Dock’s popped off from time to time, and said things which people have objected to more strenuously than I have. He’s got sheer immediate intelligence. A lot of people who know him don’t get deep enough to realize how smart he is.

“He pops off at times when he’s going to get the most publicity. I’m not sure whether it’s deliberate or just naïve. For example, in the play-offs about the beds. He comes out on the field at the All-Star Game, and he’s surrounded by newspaper reporters.” He seems to admire Dock’s public relations skill, then qualifies his admiration. “There are times when the public image of the club has not been improved.”

Joe Brown has received letters telling him to get rid of Dock, because Dock hurts morale. “Well, Dock doesn’t. It’s just Dock’s way. He loves to be the center of attention. He loves to talk. He doesn’t disturb the players. They just say, ‘Aw, shut up, Ellis.’ I think he has a good relationship with most of the players on the team.”

I asked Dock about Joe Brown.

“The Pirate organization was my college, from sixty-four to sixty-eight, and Joe Brown was my professor. He was trying to groom me for the world. He’s cool. I do a lot of public relations for Joe Brown. A lot of ballplayers, they’re always blaming Joe Brown. I say, ‘You can’t blame Joe Brown. You signed your name on a contract. You’re letting them do it. What would you do, if you were Joe Brown?”

At the beginning, Dock didn’t know what to expect of him, and Joe Brown felt that Dock was hostile.

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