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Old 10-12-2018, 09:49 AM
Hankphenom Hankphenom is offline
Hank Thomas
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Originally Posted by lumberjack View Post
After listening to the audio book, I am struck by the more controversial statements Mr. Ritter left out of the printed version.
Chief Meyers, for all his charm, touched briefly on his place in American society as a Native American. I would have to get out the audio version, but I believe he said he was treated as an outsider.
Rube Bressler, who could do it all, transitioning from pitcher to position player and sticking around for years, was still angry at being released by the Cardinals with just a matter of weeks to go in the 1932 season. Granted, Bressler had reached the end of the line, but Rickey fired him in the midst of the Great Depression and it looks as though it was done to save a few bucks. It was cold. Dressler called Rickey a hypocrite and compared him unfavorably to his first manager, Connie Mack.
Did Larry Ritter ever mention to you why certain things were omitted?
lumberjack
Interesting observation. No, and we didn't pay attention to the book at all when doing our set. It would be interesting to compare and see what Larry thought was too raw for the book in 1966. There were only a couple of instances, mostly outdated racial references as I remember, that Neal and I thought needed to be left out for sensitivity's sake. One of the charms of the interviews, to me, is that these guys aren't pulling any punches, they're beyond that point in their lives, and are just letting it fly. As Goose Goslin says at one point, "Let the chips fall where they may!"
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