Quote of the Day | July 12, 2008: Baseball Hijinks

From former baseball owner/pioneer/showman Bill Veeck's 1962 autobiography Veeck--As in Wreck:

Like Patkin, Jackie had his idiosyncracies. One of them brought his playing career with the Indians to a slithering halt. Everybody needs relaxation, right? Some people like golf; Jackie Price liked snakes. He liked his snakes so much that he used to wear them around his waist like a belt. Jackie was one of the most identifiable men I have ever known; I mean, he was the one with the snake around his waist.

Joe Gordon came to us in 1947, and Joe has to be on anybody's all-time, all-star team of agitators. If I had to put in time on a desert island, I can think of no one I'd rather have along than Joe, because even on a desert island he would always find ways to keep the hours dancing along.

Well, Joe could see at once that there were untapped potentialities in a man who wore snakes as an accessory to his wardrobe. Right from the beginning of spring training, they became fast friends. And just as well, too, because Jackie didn't remain in camp forever. The club was on a train to make an exhibition game in California. In the diner with them were some women bowlers. Jackie was eating his grapefruit happily; the snake around his waste was resting comfortably, content with his life of usefulness and ease and the knowledge that he was loved. The women bowlers were chattering about nudging the 7 pin into the 10 pin and such other matters as delight the feminine heart.

All that peace was too much for Gordon to take. He suggested to Jackie that it might be interesting to let the snake loose down the aisle. Which Jackie did. Women bowlers began to leap onto the tables and race screaming down the aisle. Men, to put it delicately, lost their appetites. The conductor, following the snake back to its source, grabbed Jackie and demanded to know his name. Jackie quite naturally told him his name was [Indians player/manager] Lou Boudreau and politely requested that he be unhanded.

At the next station, Lou's peaceful card game was interrupted by a couple of beefy detectives who informed him they were about to throw him off the train. The secret word, of course, was "snakes." Once that word was uttered, Lou was able to convince them he was not their man. The next I knew, I had received a wire from Lou that he was sending Price and his pets home. I shipped Jackie down to South America, a far happier climate -- for the snakes if not for Jackie -- while Lou cooled off.

Tags: Veeck as in Wreck, Bill Veeck, baseball