{"id":855,"date":"2008-02-28T22:20:42","date_gmt":"2008-02-28T22:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beta.mbtn.net\/?p=855"},"modified":"2019-03-24T22:09:01","modified_gmt":"2019-03-25T04:09:01","slug":"mart-noble-interview-part-3-the-lightning-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/?p=855","title":{"rendered":"Marty Noble Interview (Part 3): The Lightning Round"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from\u00a0Part 1<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Part 2<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Earlier in our discussion,\u00a0Marty Noble<\/strong>\u00a0remarked that uniform numbers were “a background thing,” but something he noticed once they came to the surface. In the conclusion of our interview, there’s definitely an itch to scratch. He riffs on numbers, and stories, with the perspective only a veteran beat reporter could have. This whole interview was a blast, but for me, this part was especially fun.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"Are there particular Mets numbers you have specific associations with?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019d be sitting around the clubhouse and see 23. That\u2019s a favorite of mine. I liked Flynn. I thought Gilkey was as good a teammate as they ever had.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I saw the game after 9\/11 on TV the other night and they had a guy in right field, No. 23. I had no idea who it was, as the batting order goes around I\u2019m waiting for him to come up thinking Jermaine Allensworth? He was 23. Finally, I realized. It was Matt Lawton.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a study that says when you like something, there\u2019s a secretion in the brain that makes it stick in your head. If you hear a flip side of a song you like, you\u2019ll remember that too because you like the song it\u2019s attached to. So it\u2019s weird. Matt Lawton was unfriendly. He wasn\u2019t a bad human being, but he was unfriendly. I don\u2019t want to think of him.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"That turned out to be such a bad trade, for Rick Reed.<\/strong>
\nDon\u2019t tell me what his number was. He wasn\u2019t 34 or 36\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He was 35.<\/strong>
\nBilly Beane wore 35. I like him, so I remember that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That\u2019s right<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

34 was always a nondescript pitcher.. The first 34 I met was Apodaca. There was one year they got into late August where he hadn\u2019t even appeared in a victory.<\/p>\n

Things are starting to come out. When I see six, I see Darryl Boston.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

38?<\/strong>
\nTim Leary.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2?<\/strong>
\nSandy Alomar. I wouldn\u2019t want Bobby Valentine to know I thought of him. Marv Throneberry\u00a0was 20 with the Yankees and 2 with the Mets.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

6?<\/strong>
\nMy six is Wally. Al Weis is probably the most important 6 in Mets history.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

19?<\/strong>
\nHas to be Bobby O. Though Gardy is a special guy, I love him. In fact, I\u2019ll put Gardy above Bobby O.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

20?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m drawing a blank. Hojo is 20 but he\u2019s not the one I want. I like Hojo. I like Shawn Green a lot. Ryan Thompson was fun.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

27?<\/strong>
\nSwannie.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

28?<\/strong>
\nMy 28 is Bill Robinson.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That\u2019s a good choice. Robinson has been there as long as any player. Except maybe John Milner.<\/strong>
\n\"\"Milner was lazy. He had a bathrobe that was Howard Johnson colors: orange, turquoise and white. He could have gone 60-for-60 in the previous weeks but if he had that bathrobe on, he wasn\u2019t playing. If he had gone 0-for-48 and didn\u2019t have the bathrobe on, he was playing. He wouldn\u2019t say anything. If he had the bathrobe on he\u2019d just walk away. Not a nice person. He once had a wine bottle by the neck and threatened me with it. I called him \u201cthe Hamper\u201d not the \u201cHammer.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You\u2019re ruining my childhood memories.<\/strong>
\nHe wasn\u2019t a good guy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How about 33?<\/strong>
\nRon Hunt, but Hondo was the big 33 for the Mets.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Actually, Hondo was 55, not 33.<\/strong>
\nMy mistake. I\u2019m seeing him hit against Whitey Ford.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He and Frazier were both managers who wore 55.<\/strong>
\nI remember Frazier wore 55. Frazier was a misfit. Very nice guy, but completely over his head. He had no sense of New York. He attacked Tom Seaver on the bus, not physically, but he got all over him. If you\u2019re the manager of the Mets in 1976, you can\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s actually part of a funny story. Remember Augie Borgi? Augie was the\u00a0Daily News<\/em>\u00a0Mets writer for years in the 1970s including 1976. Augie was the cheapest man on the face of the earth. No one was remotely close. We were in the bus, coming out of LA into Chicago. Seaver is on the same bus as Frazier, and the manager is a little loaded, and he got on him, calling him\u00a0Seavers<\/em>, saying, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be saying too much if I was pitching like you\u2019ve been pitching,\u00a0Seavers<\/em>.\u201d We all wrote this story afterward that nobody had ever spoken about Seaver that way. Augie was right there but he didn\u2019t write it. Why? Because he wanted to put in for a cab fare. Now that redefines cheap!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

43?<\/strong>
\nMy first that comes to mind is Paul Siebert. He comes to mind, I can\u2019t tell you why. The other one that comes to mind is Spider Lockhart but he didn\u2019t play for the Mets. Who else wore 43?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Remlinger\u2026<\/strong>
\nI liked him.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Paul Byrd\u2026<\/strong>
\nDidn\u2019t remember that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

John Hudek\u2026<\/strong>
\nGod, no.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

49?<\/strong>
\nBenitez comes up. He\u2019s not my favorite but he comes up. What did Mike Bruhert wear?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He wore 26. He was the first 26 after Dave Kingman.<\/strong>
\nI remember Kingman wore 26, and 10, but 10 may have just been spring training [it was<\/em>]. Rusty wore 4 and 10. But my all-time 10 is Kelvin Chapman. He wore 10 as a kid when he first came up in 1979, then 11 in 1984 when he came back up. Maybe he changed because 10 was bad luck.<\/p>\n

Kelvin Chapman was a great kid and the best basketball player they ever had. Better than Strawberry.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I read somewhere that he has a son who\u2019s a well-regarded prospect.<\/strong>
\nI wouldn\u2019t doubt that. The Mets wanted him desperately to become a coach. They thought he\u2019d be a great manager. He was as personable a guy as you\u2019d ever want to meet. He and Xavier Nady are two of the most popular people in the clubhouse I\u2019d ever known.\u00a0Chapman couldn\u2019t touch right-handed pitching but he could really hit lefties and Davey loved him.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Davey rescued him from several years in the minors and in the process turned away guys like Brian Giles.<\/strong>
\nHe should have been turned away. He had skills but he didn\u2019t want to play. And he didn\u2019t want to stand close in the batter\u2019s box. He stand as far back in the corner as you could be. Balls on the outside he couldn\u2019t hit with a telephone pole. Defensively he could do things that most people couldn\u2019t do, but he was afraid of the ball at bat.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

29?<\/strong>
\nMy first thought goes to Bud Daley, a Yankee. 29 was Viola who I didn\u2019t like very much. And Magadan who I liked a lot. Very good guy. Very good hitter and a good hitting coach from what I hear.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Mets didn\u2019t believe in him. They had Hernandez who was a slightly better version of him\u2026<\/strong>
\n\"\"Slightly? Hernandez was the best player I ever covered. He made his team win more than any other player. He was a good interview, and we\u2019re friends today, but when he played he never, ever gave me stuff. I still get on him for that. He never helped me! He gave me nothing. I don\u2019t care if you didn\u2019t give it to anybody\u2026 give it to me! Keith would give you opinions but wouldn\u2019t give you facts. I don\u2019t think he gave anyone facts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Who\u2019s on the all-interview team?<\/strong>
\nGlavine is No. 1. He and Joe Torre are the best interviews in the game. Keith would be No. 1 at first. Wally was great. He tell you to come over and trip you. At shortstop, Elster was great. He saved a quote for me one day.\u00a0In Chicago, in 1991, they had lost 9 straight games and I walked into the clubhouse and Elster said to me, \u201cBefore you go into Buddy\u2019s office, I have to tell you something. I\u2019m saving this just for you.\u201d He said, \u201cYou know what makes this so good?\u201d meaning losing 9 in a row on the road? \u201cWe just cut four and a half innings off the season<\/em>.\u201d It was great, and\u00a0<\/em>I wrote that. The next day Buddy came to me and he said, \u201cI\u2019m not accusing you of making this up, but did he really say that to you?\u201d I said yeah. He said, \u201cI have no control of my players, do I?\u201d And he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

At third base, David is not there yet. Hojo was OK. He was good at first, but got too cautious after a while. Roy Staiger wasn\u2019t any good. Hubie didn\u2019t say much. I have to go with Ray.<\/p>\n

Left field, no one liked McReynolds as much as I did, but he wasn\u2019t a great quote. Alou is very interesting sometimes but not always. Kingman was a pain in the ass. Foster was a bigger pain in the ass. Gilkey would be the guy.<\/p>\n

Catcher would be LoDuca though Todd told me more than LoDuca would. LoDuca was a good quote. Center field had to be Lenny. He\u2019d say anything. Though Brian McRae had the quote of the century. When they lost five straight games at the end of the 98 season, after they were shut out by the Expos he said, \u201cEveryone plays us like the World Series. They want to kick our ass because they hate our manager.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I remember that quote.<\/strong>
\nWe all went down after that and talked to Felipe, who denied it. But Bob Nightengale of the LA Times was in Houston and heard about this quote and after the game and went to Moises Alou who said, \u201cMy dad hates Bobby. Are you kidding? He wants to kick his ass!\u201d So he called me, and we had it confirmed!<\/p>\n

Right field? Bonilla never did anything but lie. Burnitz was no good. Straw was Straw. He could be manipulative. Rusty was very condescending when I covered him. Now we\u2019re good friends but then, he was a difficult. Shawn Green is actually quote good.<\/p>\n

Relief? Franco was tough. Neil was loose-lipped. Tug was spectacular every day. Billy is good when he pitches like shit. But Tug was amazing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Did Wagner\u2019s criticism of Willie and Peterson ring true to you?<\/strong>
\nYes. They moved Sosa to the bullpen which was a good move but after that I couldn\u2019t ever figure out who they were going to bring in. You see guys warming up who wouldn\u2019t come in. There may have been injuries we didn\u2019t know about \u2013 that\u2019s often the case.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do you find Willie a little churlish?<\/strong>
\n\"\"I get along great with Willie. I\u2019ve known him since he was a baby. But I have to be by myself. If I\u2019m by myself he\u2019ll tell me anything. But in a group, once in a while I think I can read him.<\/p>\n

Remember two years ago when Feliciano shot his mouth off? I remember the next day I could tell Willie wanted to say something but he didn\u2019t want to be the one who said it. So I asked, is there anything else you want to say about this and he later thanked me for allowing him the opportunity to say this \u2013 he said, \u201cI\u2019ve been around winners all my life and winners don\u2019t do that.\u201d What an incredible way to assert himself and not rip Feliciano, but say what had to be said. I thought it was a genius quote, I couldn\u2019t think of a better thing to say.<\/p>\n

We have a system that allows what I can write without his name, what I can write with his name, and what I can\u2019t write. It used to be that way with a lot of guys but the world has changed. Part of that is that there\u2019s more Spanish guys who don\u2019t trust you or just don\u2019t know how to say the things that need to be said. There are also guys who just don\u2019t want to deal with us.<\/p>\n

But Wally would say anything. Remember the fight with Eric Davis in \u201886? We came in to the clubhouse afterward and Wally was there and said, \u201cCome here, write this down.\u201d And he motherfucked George Foster for an hour!\u00a0That motherfucker wouldn\u2019t fight. Danny Heep was out there fighting in his underwear, and George is on the bench. Fuck him. Write it! And say I said it!<\/em>And I did.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You\u2019re 59 years old, and approaching 40 years covering baseball. Do you have plans to retire?<\/strong>
\nI have no plans yet, not while I\u2019ve got a wedding to pay for in September for my daughter, and another daughter still in college.<\/p>\n

Again, I’d like to thank Marty for being so generous with his time and his opinions. Met fans in general — and this site in particular — owe much to his style and spirit while telling us how it is.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from\u00a0Part 1\u00a0and\u00a0Part 2 Earlier in our discussion,\u00a0Marty Noble\u00a0remarked that uniform numbers were “a background thing,” but something he noticed once they came to the surface. In the conclusion of our interview, there’s definitely an itch to scratch. He riffs on numbers, and stories, with the perspective only a veteran beat reporter could have. This … Continue reading “Marty Noble Interview (Part 3): The Lightning Round”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=855"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3060,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions\/3060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}