I managed Dal Maxvill, and he's now our general manager. I managed Bob Gibson. He's a broadcaster. Tim McCarver. Bill White. Nellie Briles. He used to be a broadcaster. I tried to count them up one time.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
On the playing side, a lot of guys I played under were pretty good managers.
My high school coach was Ray O'Conner. He has coached a lot of players that have signed professional contracts, and many of those have gone on to play in the major leagues.
I never had the slightest desire to be a major league manager, and all knew it. But Ban Johnson, Bob Hedges, and Jimmy McAleer persuaded me that the Browns were in a sort of a jam, and it was up to me, as an old standby, to do what I could.
I wound up through a wild set of circumstances getting into coaching. I went in and volunteered with Don Coryell, who was a big part of my past, great coach. A lot of people say he was one of the greatest coaches ever. He was very good in high school, college and pro. Another guy on that staff was named John Madden.
I loved working with Eric Close and J T Walsh.
In 1962 I was named Minor League Player of the Year. It was my second season in the bigs.
I worked with Cameron Crowe, and I'd love to work with him again.
I played with Sam Lay, Jimmy Reed, Big Walter Horton, Big Moose Walker, and all those guys.
My sporting heroes were Ken Jones, Stanley Matthews, and Cliff Morgan.
Dick Moss, my agent. Dick became my agent in 1979 when I signed my contract with the Houston Astros.