Tom Boswell published this account in the Washington Post.
“One Tuesday night in Yankee Stadium, year old Carlton
Fisk of the Chicago White Sox took 22-year old multisport multimillionaire
Deion ‘Prime Time’ Sanders of the New York Yankees to the woodshed for not
running out a popup. And he did it in
front of 24,241 witnesses.
“Fisk said he blew his stack (causing a bench-clearing
fracas) so that Lou Gehrig could ‘stop spinning in his grave.’
“When Sanders popped up, he walked toward first base, then
strolled to the Yankee dugout before the ball was caught. Imagine his surprise when there, behind him,
bellowing, was the mammoth Fisk, who could bench-press two Deions.
“Run it out, you piece of crud,’ ordered Fisk, who’s in his
21st season, to Sanders, who hasn’t yet played in 21 big league
games. ’Go on, run it out.’
“Sanders was nonplused.
Why would Fisk care if a player on another team didn’t run out a
popup? On his next at-bat, Sanders
learned why.
“Let me tell you something,”…said Fisk. “There is a right way and a wrong way to play
this game. You are playing it the wrong
way…”
Life life like everything matters. Everything counts.
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