Biggest asshole in baseball. past or present. Players and managers only.

[maveric]

There have been many to rear their ugly heads in our national pastime. here are a few.

[olddem43]

1. where's Barry Bonds?

[maveric]

10. Choice #5

[Reverend_Smitty]

2. Ty Cobb was an asshole

but boy could he play baseball. John Rocker had one good season and he was an asshole too...and I also can't stand Clemens (that jackass just gave up a double, triple and a HR just now) for what he did to Piazza

[RebelYell]

3. Pete Rose

Oh....you said asshole...not stupid

[St. Jarvitude]

54. Pete Rose is an asshole.

Two words: Ray Fosse.

[ProfessorGAC]

62. Thanks, Tom!!!

People love that play because it showed Rose's "hustle". It was a grandstanding play intended to injure in an exhibition game. That's not hustle! It's thuggery!

Rose was a punk, still is a punk, and will always be a punk. I don't understand, 4000+ hits or not, any respect that this guy receives.

He was a neanderthal with good hand-eye coordination who got lucky he had ownership (in both places) who were blind to his MANY shortcomings both as a ballplayer and as a human being. He should never have lasted long enough in the game to have set that hit record. If not for Perez, Foster, Concepcion, Morgan, et al, there would have been no Big Red Machine, and Rose would have been remembered as a punk and a loser who played for himself.
The Professor

[No2W2004]

4. Connie Mack

Manager / Owner.. Phillidelphia A's

He'd rather have a team start off good, but fade down the stretch than a team that won the penant. Why? Because then he wouldn't have to pay the players more. When the A's did manage to win World Series, he sold off the team rather than pay more in salaries. Was dead set against intergration (as were most owners, but he was outspoken.) Never met a dollar he didn't like.

I would say Charlie Comiskey, who did play, but he was a jerk as an owner.

[playahata1]

5. I voted for Cobb. World-class asshole.

About Tris Speaker. I have heard about his association with the Klan. But he must have changed his views in later years. Larry Doby, the American League's first African American player, joined the Cleveland Indians in 1947 as an infielder. The Indians converted Doby into an outfielder the next year. Who helped him make the transition? TRIS SPEAKER, who is considered the greatest defensive center fielder ever. If Speaker was die-hard KKK in 1948, he would have refused to work with Doby, and given up his coaching job in the process.

[Magrittes Pipe]

And Doby fondly remembered Speaker in his Hall of Fame speech.

The Klan tuned down their public image in the '20s. LOTS of people joined, some may or may not have known what the Klan was really about. Hell, Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black was in the Klan in the '20s; and look at HIS record.

[JohnKleeb]

69. Justice Black later admitted he was ashamed of his one time membership

Hey I am a history buff so I know this shit and a baseball history buff to boot. Black was only in the KKK briefly and he admitted later he was ashamed of it. I dont remember Doby's induction speech but Speaker and Rodgers Hornsby were klansmen, now Ty Cobb who is interestingly remembered as a racist, his membership is uncertain.

[MikeG]

6. Leo Durocher.

[FlashHarry]

42. yep

[Shakespeare]

7. How could you leave Pete Rose off that list?

Jesus, the man is despicable...

[St. Jarvitude]

55. Ray Fosse

The most disgusting thing he did was not the gambling, or the lying - but his shameless destruction of a young, promising catcher's career for nothing more than the pride of winning a meaningless All-Star Game.

[Shakespeare]

59. I agree completely! Sadly, the Fosse incident is almost forgotten.

Hell of a guy, too. Still works as an announcer for As games.

[bigwillq]

8. Bonds.

Barry Bonds.

[wakfs]

9. Bud Selig

n/t

[marigold20]

84. Ditto on Selig

(shudder)

[WoodrowFan]

11. no Kingman

mailed a sportswriter a dead rat.

[Zomby Woof]

12. any Yankee

Both categories. :P

[fortyfeetunder]

33. yeah past and present.

A-rod, that includes you too!

[playahata1]

66. Zomby, I love you.

However....:nuke: :grr:

[Zomby Woof]

82. it's just sports

Which is of little importance. Or none.

Plus, I am not talking quality of play, just quality of character.

Rooting for the Yanks is like rooting for the GOP. They are both overly bankrolled, entitled, smug, arrogant, malicious, and have a "win-at-all-costs" mentality. Doesn't help that Steinbrenner once got busted for illegal contributions to Nixon's '72 campaign. He should have been banned like Pete Rose. They reek of privilege and being above the rules.

There were a few players who are the exception to this analysis - Lou Gehrig and Roger Maris come to mind. In the more recent era, I have a soft spot for Lou Piniella, although that is due more to his relationship to teams since the Yankees. There is something wrong with people who don't love Sweet Lou.

But really, I am not that passionate about it. It's just a meaningless (although fun, as it should be) game after you sift through the hype and haze.


(and you know I love you too, because sports cannot ever substitute friendship) :-)

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

13. Steve Garvey and Tommy LaSorda

The Dodgers can Cheney-Off.

[playahata1]

72. I despise Steve Garvey because of his hypocrisy.

Mr. Family Values fathered several children out of wedlock while still married.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

75. Garvey was courted by the Republican Party to run for office

until he started getting hit with paternity suits for children he'd fathered and hadn't bothered to support

[mitchum]

14. I voted for the psychotic, racist , violent Ty Cobb

arguably the greatest player the game has ever known

[Maestro]

15. Sip!

Nobody comes closer. He was even hated among players for his dirty play.

[No2W2004]

21. Cobb,

Racist...without a doubt, but so were a lot of people who grew up in Georga in the late 1800's.

Violent...absolutley. It's all been documented, but again, Cobb wasn't the only player back then who went into the stands after hecklers.

Psychotic...probably. Cobb was obsessed. His obsession was proving himself to his murdered father. Cobb HAD to be the best, and couldn't fathom why others didn't. This drove him go mad at times. He was very smart, lining up endorsement deals, making millions in the stock market, but he was never loved.

[Reverend_Smitty]

22. He made millions in Coca Cola stock

after all he was from Georgia

[No2W2004]

24. And he was buddies with Woodruff

who tipped him off that Coca Cola was about to start bottling their product. Nice to have friends like that! :)

[Reverend_Smitty]

26. Whats a little insider trading among friends??

n/t

[playahata1]

67. Cobb was SO universally hated,

that only THREE people from the baseball world attended his funeral in July, 1961.

[Magrittes Pipe]

16. Cap Anson.

The man responsible for the segregation of baseball from the 1870s through 1947.

The fact is, there WERE Black major leaguers before Jackie Robinson. Unfortunately, the best player in the league (Anson) refused to play with or against them. Hence, 70 years of segregation.

[Parrcrow]

30. Get that N***** off the field!!

hateful!

[VOX]

32. Lining up to whack the effigy of Cap Anson...

Who thought he was better than some.

Not so, Cap. :grr:

[Don_G]

17. Pete Rose

I met him once "off the field" and I can't imagine a more bigoted, self-serving MF other than than GW or Nixon.

I suppose Marge Shott had a lot to do with it on top of the fact that he asked a 8 year-old kid $20 for his autograph.

I haven't been a "big" Reds fan after seeing that.

[HuckleB]

49. Another one for Pete Rose.

Though Barry Bonds is a close second.

[Xithras]

18. Canseco, he scarred my childhood

In 1986 I was a 12 year old kid, and a huge Canseco fan while he was playing for the A's. One morning my dad suprised me with tickets and we drove to Oakland to watch a home game. When the game ended, my dad and I ran down near the locker rooms to try and get some autographs.

After nearly an hours wait, Canseco finally came out of the locker room. I was standing there (with about ten other people) wearing my Canseco jersey, my A's cap, and the biggest grin a 12 year old kid could fit on his face. I called out to him "Hey Jose, can you sign my ball?" and tossed him the baseball I'd brought just for this opportunity. He caught the ball, looked at it, looked at me, and said "No kid, I can't". Then he dropped the ball and walked off. The bastard :grr:

What really kills me about it is that an A's rookie walked up right after that and apologized to my dad, telling him that Jose had a "bad day". He signed my ball and cap, gave me his signed rookie card, and then walked away. Since the guy was a rookie, I didn't think much of it, playing the ball in a local lot and then losing it within a few weeks. I held onto my cap for two or three years before selling it to a local card trader for about $10, and got $15 for the rookie card at the same time. That "unknown rookie" was Mark McGwire. Doh!

[Reverend_Smitty]

20. that sucks man!!

hey but on the bright side isn't Canseco on house arrest and selling his junk on e-bay? Just goes to prove my theory on karma.

I have a similar experience with Bobby Bonilla. I was probably 9 or 10 when I was waiting outside the visitors exit at Vets stadium not having much luck with autographs because most of the Mets got right on the bus (it was a pretty bad loss). After the bus left most of the crowd left. There were maybe 5 or 6 people standing around when Bonilla came out, I asked him to sign my yearbook or baseball (that Jeff Kent handed me earlier that night at batting practice) when he refused to even make eye contact and started to sprint to the parking lot. What an asshole, couldn't even sign 5 or 6 autographs. Didn't even say a word just started running. I did however get Ryan Thompson's autograph that night...he came out next and signed for all of us. Unfortunately his career never really took off

[Xithras]

25. Yup, Conseco's a loser and McGwire became a legend. That was kinda karmic

I never thought about it that way before :)

I know that McGwire's reputation took a bit of a beating over the whole steroid scandal recently, but I can honestly say that he seemed like a genuinely decent person when I met him. He had a pocketful of Topps rookie cards presigned for anyone that wanted one, he signed cards and caps for every single kid there, and he was happy to do it...and he really did seem to be offended at Conseco's behavior to me a moment before.

McGwire, the nice guy, went on to fame and fortune. Canseco, the prick who breaks the hearts of small children, ends up in a legal mess and with a moderately forgettable career. Yup, that's karmic all right :)

[Tredge]

57. Another Mark McGwire story...

Many of the Oakland A's live in the San Ramon Valley (about 20 miles east of Oakland). Canseco was one...used to make record time on Crow Canyon Road to the stadium and every now and then he'd get pulled over in his Porsche and it'd be front-page news in the local paper.

The same local paper (I can't come up with the name) one year ran in the off-season a weekly thing where Mark McGwire would do a ridealong with the local police. I suppose he was bored, but the golf courses are good there. ANYway, these stories were just hilarious, about him riding along with cops and the escapades they got into.

Hell that area is so dull that the local cops work part of the week in Oakland just to get some excitement. Though I doubt they'd call it that.

[Xithras]

61. San Ramon Valley Times

Since you referred to it as a local, I'm assuming that you're not referring to the Contra Costa Times.

I used to work in Walnut Creek, and yes it is a very boring area. I didn't know the A's lived over there though (I was going to buy a home in Lafayette at one point, but the whole tri-valley area is just too expensive for us normal people anymore).

[Maestro]

23. Oh that hurts on both accounts! -nt

[Red State Rebel]

78. What a story!

That sounds like something Mark would do. Aside from the Andro stories, I have yet to hear one mean thing about that guy.

I hated when he retired, we was a wonderful member of the Cards.

[louis c]

19. Grady Little

No one is even a close second.

The only living human being I couldn't vote for if he ran against Bush for President, and was the only other choice.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

36. Grady got a bad rap for one bad night

FranCOMA makes me nervous...

[louis c]

53. You're right...

and so did John Wilkes Booth

[papau]

27. Where is Alvin Dark (3rd base St Louis and 60's Manager Cubs)?

I did love the "old fashioned" words he used to describe his players of color.

[maveric]

29. He was also a rabid fundie often claiming..

that jesus christ allows him to win the games he wins, and satan makes him lose.

[playahata1]

68. His attitude almost got him fired from his managerial job with the Giants

in the mid-'60s. He made some derogatory remarks about black and Latino players, claiming they did not have the smarts, the hustle, the desire of white players. The one exception, he said, was WILLIE MAYS.

This was a team LOADED with blacks and Latinos: Mays, Willie McCovey, Bobby Bonds, Juan Marichal, Jim Ray Hart, Orlando Cepeda. The ONLY thing that saved Dark was MAYS' talking Horace Stoneham, the Giants' owner, out of firing him. Mays' rationale: firing him would make him a martyr to the "rednecks." Also, Mays had inside knowledge that Dark would not return as manager the following year, anyway. (Dark didn't.)

[Deja Q]

28. Carl Pohlad... or Pete Rose...

n/t

[Parrcrow]

31. Cobb was a sociopath if not a psychopath

he stains baseball. His racism was only one of his problems. He was like so many of his ilk, a natural born hater.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

34. Didn't he beat up a guy with no hands who was heckling him?

I voted for Ty.

[Anaxamander]

37. And who, may I ask, are his "ilk"? (nt)

[Parrcrow]

38. sociopathically competative

narrow minded, paranoid assholes. They call themselves freepers these days.

[Anaxamander]

39. Ahh...

...gotcha.;-)

[Parrcrow]

41. Oh just noticed your avatar

Didn't mean to say or imply anything about Georgians.:hi:

[devilgrrl]

35. Jack Morris - Asshole Du Jour

King asshole of the 80's/90's and butt ugly to boot.

[madinmaryland]

40. George Steinbrenner

has proven over and over why he is so deserving of this award

:evilgrin:

[dolo amber]

43. Marge Schott much?

"Only fruits wear earrings..."

"These are my million dollar n**gers..."


:wtf:

[curse10]

45. she was an owner

not manager or player- but she was definately an awful person

[dolo amber]

48. Oi!!

Don'tchoo be correctin' me, Ms. Ma'am, I'll put you over my knee I will...:spank:

I just saw Ol' Gasbag Schott on "I love the 90s"....I'm half tipsy and can't be arsed with being accurate...

:D :* ;)

[curse10]

50. First Zomby! Now you!

I'm going to have a sore bum! :P

[dolo amber]

52. Well, clearly if we're both out to get you

you're obviously doin' it wrong...:P

[Parrcrow]

46. whined about a game being postponed when an umpire

died of a heart-attack on the field.

[maveric]

47. She'd throw cocktail parties and mingle with the crowd wearing a swatztika

armband.

[sir_captain]

44. Ty Cobb wins by so much it isn't even funny...

[Spiffarino]

51. Cobb, but...

...only because you didn't include Cap Anson. He segregated baseball, a once integrated game, almost single-handedly.

I don't care how good a shortstop he was, he was a miserable bastard. There should be a large asterisk by his name in the HOF with a caption at the bottom that reads...

*Asshole

[Ganja Ninja]

56. Ty Cobb was a legend.

He was also a legendary asshole. That's what makes him the biggest asshole baseball has ever known. The tales of his obnoxious behavior have been passed from one generation to the next and the next. People can say what they want about Rose or Bonds or Canseco but a hundred years from now Ty Cobb will still be a legendary asshole while those guys will just be names on a record somewhere.

[playahata1]

71. Did you know that Cobb believed that BABE RUTH was part black?

Whenever the Tigers and the Red Sox (with whom the Babe began his career), and later the Tigers and the Yankees, played each other, Cobb would heckle Ruth something fierce. Among the taunts Cobb threw at Ruth: "NIGGER!" Ruth had not only dark, tanned skin, but also a broad, flat nose and fleshy lips -- features often associated with blacks. (And Cobb was not the only white player who thought Ruth had mixed ancestry. Furthermore, many black professional baseball players thought that Ruth was "passing" for white; they considered him a "Brotha," and they cheered his exploits.)

In the early 1920s, both Ruth and Cobb were invited to go on a hunting trip in Georgia with a baseball executive and some sportswriters. Cobb refused, saying that he had never shared accomodations with a black man, and that he still would not share accomodations with a black man, "certainly not in my own home state of Georgia."

[DinahMoeHum]

58. Pete Rose. He could have been in the Hall of Fame solely

on his player credentials. And he threw it all into the toilet when he started managing and betting on games.

:nopity:

[Commendatori]

60. Pete Rose, with Carl Everett right up there. (n/t)

[soleft]

63. I vote for Jackson because he caused trouble for Thurman Munson

with is infamous "I am the straw that stirs the drink" bullshit

[playahata1]

73. A former -- I think -- DUer once posted about experiencing Reggie

up close and personal. He said that Reggie is not only arrogant, but also a sexist pig to boot.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

79. Jackson was right to an extent

He did get the Yankees into the playoffs. When Jackson was hot, he could carry an entire team on his shoulders. It's really too bad that Jackson had to play much of his career in Oakland, where it's very hard to hit home runs at night because of the heavy air, and during a dead ball era.

[soleft]

80. The Yankees were in the World Series the year prior where Munson

batted something like .587.

[Bertha Venation]

64. I voted Barry Bonds.

Ty Cobb may have been an asshole, but I wasn't around when he was, so he never had the chance to push my buttons.

Barry Bonds is an arrogant, self-important, self-aggrandizing ass.

[Mrs. Venation]

65. Where's Albert Bell?

There are so many to choose from; Albert Bell has to be in the top ten. And, please, don't exclude owners. Peter Angelo should be right up there with the rest of the assholes.

[JohnKleeb]

70. Angelos should burn!

god I hate thst guy.

[Bertha Venation]

74. I agree -- and I think there should be a poll strictly for Owners. eom

[JohnKleeb]

76. Steinbrenner would win

He was enemy of the state most of the time in the SI state polls they had the past year, I hate Steinbrenner well I am an O's fan can you really blame me lol, but one thing I give that bastard over Pete Angelos another bastard is that he actually wants to win.

[Bertha Venation]

81. I think you're right

A couple of years ago I would've had to vote for Michael Eisner et al, but thank THE GOD WHOSE NAME IS BASEBALL that someone who knows and loves baseball bought the Angels!

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

85. Oh, I don't know about that... there have been some seriously

wacky owners...

Marge Schott

Charley Finley

and lots of others far weirder than George.

[MrSlayer]

77. Bonds without a doubt.

[Bamboose]

83. since someone mentioned Canseco

we all must sing the Baseball Song!

Well, Mr. Burns had done it
The power plant had won it
With Roger Clemens clucking all the while
Mike Sciosa's tragic illness made us smile
While Wade Boggs laid unconscious on the barroom tile
We're talkin' softball
From Maine to San Diego
Talking softball, Mattingly and Canseco
Ken Griffey's grotesquely swollen jaw
Steve Sax and his run-in with the law
We're talking Ho-mer . . . Ozzy and the Straw.