July 5, 2005

Jerome Holtzman Interview

A Hall of Fame writer and the official historian of Major League Baseball, Jerome Holtzman covered the game like nobody else in town.  With over fifty years in the business, he worked for the Sun-Times, the Tribune and The Sporting News covering baseball.  He’s also written nine books on baseball including the acclaimed ‘No Cheering in the Press Box.’  He’s seen it all, and has witnessed the game and the reporting of the game change throughout the years.  In this interview, he talks about how the save rule came about and why he doesn’t like asterisks.  

The Heckler: How did you get started as a sportswriter?

Jerome Holtzman: I was a high school sportswriter at Crane Tech High School in Chicago. Believe it or not, we had a paper four days a week.  The day I graduated from Crane, I went to work at the Times (it was called the Daily Times before it merged into the Sun-Times) as a copy boy in the sports department. 

TH: You covered baseball for over fifty years.  How do you think the game has changed from the time you started covering it to the way it is today? 

JH: Well, the players are a lot better.  The players are better in all sports.  I watch pro basketball and my God, there’s no comparison from the pros of thirty years ago and now.  These guys can take those guys and pick them up and put them in the basket. 

TH: Do you think the players from thirty and forty years ago and more like the Mays and the Mantles could have competed against the players of today?

JH: Oh sure, they could have.  I’m just saying the average player today is much better than the average player of thirty years ago.  There’s always superstars that are better than everybody else.  But there are superstars today too.  It’s very difficult for someone to judge his own time.  History has to do that. 

TH: There have been a lot of allegations of players using steroids for the past several years.  How do you think that has affected the record books with the numbers being put up in the game today?

JH: I don’t think it has affected the game.  A home run is a home run if a guys on steroids or not.  I don’t see how you can classify each home run, this ones steroids, this ones not steroids.  You have to accept it for what it is.  I don’t believe in asterisks. 

TH: So you don’t think it has contributed to players hitting the ball further and hitting more home runs?

JH: Sure it has; of course it has.  Players are stronger today and I suppose that’s because of the use of steroids.  But I’m just saying people are saying they should take their home runs out of the record book and I’m saying how can you do that?  A home run is a home run.

TH: Having been involved in the game for so many years, who do you think is the greatest player you have watched to ever play the game?

JH: Probably Willie Mays.  Joe DiMaggio maybe.  There’d be a half a dozen of them. 

TH: There’s a player on the Cubs (Corey Patterson) that has great natural ability, but it seems he hasn’t learned how to harness his ability to perform up to the level he should on the playing field.  What does it take for a player to become an all-time great like a Mays or a DiMaggio?

JH: He has to mature.  He’s not a mature guy yet.  But every year he gets a little more mature.  He’s a better ballplayer today than he was yesterday.  This is a natural thing.  He’ll get better and better, and maybe someday he’ll be the player he could be.  He’s got terrific tools, but some guys are slower to respond than others. 

TH: You are the person responsible for creating the save rule in baseball.  How and when did that come about?

JH: I think it came about in 1960.  Elroy Face was 18-1 with Pittsburgh in 1959.  I was traveling with the Cubs.  The Cubs had two relief pitchers; right hander Don Elston and left hander Bill Henry.  They were constantly protecting leads and no one even knew about it.  The year Elroy Face was 18-1 he blew ten leads.  Did you know that?  But they had such a good hitting team they came back in the last inning and won the game for him.  Elston and Henry were terrific.  I thought it was not fair and that there should be some kind of index for the effectiveness of a relief pitcher.  You couldn’t judge him by his victories.  You couldn’t judge him by his earned run average because it should be lower than everybody else’s.  A lot of the runs he gives up are charged to the preceding pitcher.  So I came up with the save rule and obviously it’s caught on. 

TH: What constituted a save at the time you came up with the rule because I believe it has changed?

JH: It’s changed several times.  You had to face the tying run, and it changed the next year to the tying run had to be in the on-deck circle. 

TH: As the rule is now constituted, a pitcher has to pitch one inning and have no more than a three run lead.  As the person who invented the save rule, what do you think of the evolution of it?

JH: I think its fine.  I think it has evolved.  I don’t agree with everything.  But generally thinking, I think it’s a good rule. 

TH: Do you think it’s too easy to get a save now?

JH: I don’t really know.  I don’t keep that close tabs on it.  Maybe it is.  I’m not sure.

TH: It seemed back when you covered baseball, the media had a different relationship with the players.  It was almost like a friendly environment.  Were there things you witnessed back then that you kept out of print because of that relationship?

JH: There were certain things you didn’t disclose.  For example, there was one year we were in spring training with the Cubs in Mesa and one of the players trying to make the Cubs exposed himself.  John Holland was then the general manager and he called the writers together.  There were four or five of us, and he asked us if we wouldn’t write it.  We didn’t write it.  I don’t think we lost anything.  And why should we write it.  It didn’t mean anything.  When it was all over, the player didn’t make the team.  It was an unfortunate incident and why should we pigeon hole this player.  I thought we did the right thing by not writing it. 

TH: Does it seem like now its anything goes as far as reporting things that happen off the field, and is that a turn for the worse? 

JH: Sure that’s for the worse.  Players are entitled to some privacy.  I used to tell a player that if I ask you a question, you don’t have to answer it.  The president of the United States doesn’t answer all of the questions so why should a ballplayer have to answer all of the questions?  For example, you’ve got this player named John Rocker.  He invited this sportswriter from Sports Illustrated into his home and he said a lot of things that he shouldn’t have said.  And this guy goes back and writes them.  Do you think that’s fair to the player?  That happened to me a few times where the player would say something and I would usually say to the player, “Well, if you want to say that, I’ll come back tomorrow and I’ll repeat the question.”

TH: Is there any particular situation where a player didn’t like what you wrote?

JH: Oh sure, there were lot’s of players.  When I was in my first year, there was a relief pitcher with the Cubs named Turk Lown.  I wrote a ten paragraph story on him that was all glowing except for one paragraph, and that was the only paragraph that he mentioned to me.  I’ve had a lot of guys pissed off at me.  So what, that’s part of the job.  Once I was at White Sox Park in the visiting clubhouse and the Toronto Blue Jays were here, and the only other guy in the clubhouse was George Bell.   I didn’t even know who he was.   I was right next to him and I said, How are you, I’m Jerome Holtzman of the so and so.  And he said to me, I’m not talking to writers.  I said, well that’s alright.  I’ll see you next year or maybe the year after.  Who gives a damn?  There are plenty of guys to talk to.  Besides, I didn’t even want to interview him.  I was just saying hello. 

TH: It seems like in the players relationship today with the media, there is a lot more animosity.  Do you think that’s because of the way things have changed?

JH: Absolutely.  Everybody wants a scoop.  They want to get something on somebody.  It’s too bad.

TH: Dusty Baker has taken a lot of criticism so far this year.  Do you think it’s fair sometimes when a manager gets criticized and a lot of the things that happen aren’t necessarily their fault?

JH: I’ll tell you something.  I covered baseball for many years.  And never once with only one exception did I think I knew more baseball than the manager of a major league club.  So I never second guess.   He’s a professional baseball man.  I knew more about writing than he did, but he knew more about baseball than I did. 

TH: You covered Ron Santo for his entire career.  Do you think he should be in the Hall of Fame?

JH: Of course he should.  The problem is he played with the Cubs.  He never got in a World Series.  By all rights, he should be in the Hall Of Fame.  He was a terrific ballplayer. 

SportzNutz Columnist Darrell Horwitz isn’t shy when it comes to “A Fan Speaking Out”… he holds nothing back and tells it like it is, from a fan’s perspective.  A Chicago native, Darrell is a lifelong Cubs and Bulls fan. Along with his “A Fan Speaks Out” column, Darrell is the fan writer for the Chicago Cubs, here on SportzNutz.  If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to email Darrell at darrell.horwitz@nutzworld.net