June 6, 2025 • 7 mins
Bill Madden talked to Mendte in the Morning about his new book ‘Yankees, Typewriters, Scandals, and Cooperstown.’
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And this is an interview I've been looking forward to
all morning, Bill Madden, Yankees, Typewriters, Scandals and Cooperstown, a
baseball memoir. That's the title of his brand new book.
He has been covering New York baseball for over fifty years,
and he has memories inside stories. He's covered everything from
(00:22):
the scandals to the huge successes of the New York teams.
And so, Bill, thanks so much for spending some time
with us this morning. I really appreciate your.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Time, my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Larry, good morning, Good morning to you. Let's start out
when you started out as a baseball reporter and you
had to go into the clubhouse and you had to
cover the team for the first time, were you intimidated?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Well, I guess somewhat. Before I really became the actual
beat writer, I was kind of a rookie on the beat,
and my first introduction I was I wasn't even working
for the Daily News yet. I was working for United
presid International Wire Service and they set me up to
cover a Yankee game my first year there. And my
(01:12):
first experience was Ralph Houke was the manager of the Yankees,
and he was holding a scrum in the dugout, and
he kind of looked around at me and the other writers,
and then he looked at me again, and during the
course of his conversation with us, he spit tobacco juice
all over my shoes. And Phil Peppi, who was the
(01:34):
Yankee beat writer for the Daily News at the time,
called me aside afterwards, don't be offended by that. That's
just Ralph's way of saying, welcome to the club. That's
my way of saying.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Now, I'm sure you got to know Ralph Houk over
the years, inded, do you bring up that story with him?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I never brought it up again because he didn't know
who I was at the time, and I figured it
was no point in letting him know years later, when
I was the actual beat writer, that hey, I'm the
guy who you spit tobacco juice all over my shoes.
There was no point in doing that because use had
a volcanic temper when it came to sports writers anyway,
and I tried to stay clear of him.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Were you on the other side of that volcanic temper?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Ever, not with Ralph, because when he was gone by
the time I came to the Daily News, Okay, So
my experiences were with Billy Martin five times.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Five times. Tell us about the worst one.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I guess the worst one was nineteen eighty three, when no,
I would say nineteen eighty five when Billy got into
that famous fight at the Cross Keys Bar in Baltimore
with Ed Whitson one of his pitchers. And with Billy.
The problem with Billy when he was the manager all
the beat writers, we had to make sure that we
(02:59):
couldn't go to bed until Billy had left the hotel bar.
The good news was Billy usually only drank in the
hotel bar. The bad news was, as I said, we
never knew what was going to happen with Billy in bars.
And this particular night it started out he'd had a
bad series in Baltimore to begin with, a lot of
(03:20):
things happened down there, and anyway, he was in a
mellow moon at the beginning. And then I was sitting
at the table with a bunch of writers, and all
of a sudden, across the room, we hear all this commotion,
and we get up and we go over there, and
there's Billy and Ed Witson duking it out. And Witston
was as pretty tough southern boy from Tennessee, redneck, and
(03:45):
they were going at it, and they were wrestling on
the floor, and then it spilled out into the parking lot.
And you know, as always with Billy, your day is
never over until Billy has gone to bed. We've already
filed our game, store, isn't everything else? But here we
are back on deadline again. So what I remember most
(04:06):
about that was I went up to my room to
start dictating the story. I called the office and I said, look,
we got a new story here. This is going to
replace the game story on the back page. Billy and
Ed Widson just gone at it, and I'm describing the
whole fight, and all of a sudden, I hear this
commotion outside my door and it's Billy pounding on Wiston's
(04:27):
door and the hotel. In the hallway of the hotel,
I said to the office, I said, hold on a second,
I got round three going on right outside my door.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
You know, most baseball players you can talk to and
you can say, what is the moment that defines your career?
Do you have such a moment. Do you have a
moment that you remember more than any other?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Well, I was involved in a lot of pretty big
stories for the DELI. I guess the one that stands
out the most from me is because it formed a
lifelong friendship, was when I broke the story that Tom
Seaver had been left unprotected by the Mets in this
free agent compensation draft. This was after he had been
(05:16):
brought back to the Mets. They traded him to the
Reds back in nineteen seventy six, and now this is
a few years later and they had gotten them back.
Only there was this free agent compensation draft in which
all the teams had to protect only I think it
(05:36):
was fifteen players, so teams that lost a free agent
could pick from this pool. And it turned out that
the Chicago White Sox, who had the first pick in
this draft, found out they looked at the pool of
players and they realized that Siever had been left unprotected.
And what happened. How I found out about it was
a good friend of mine who used to work in
(05:58):
the Commissioner's office, a big White Sox fan, and he
called me the day before the draft and he said,
you're going to be covering the draft on Friday, and
I said, no, it's not a New York story. The
Mets or the Yankees didn't lose any free agents. So
he said to me, I have to tell you Bill,
who is not only is it a New York story,
It's a huge New York story. I said why, and
(06:19):
he explained to me that he had seen the list
of players and he said the Mets did not protect
Tom Seaver And he said not only that, but I
called the White Sox and they told me that they're
going to pick sever on Friday. So I had this
exclusive story. And this is long before Twitter and all
(06:40):
social media and everything else was just deadline every minute,
and so I sat on the store, we said the
DAILI is all day because hoping that nobody else was
going to get it. And at the same time, I
felt I had an obligation to sever to call him
and not blindside him with a story the next day.
(07:00):
So I did. I called him and he was First
of all, he was shocked, and secondly, he was very
appreciative of the fact that I gave him his heads.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Up and that created a lifelong friendship after that. That's
an amazing story, and you can read all of these
amazing stories in the book Yankees Typewriters Scandals, and Cooperstown,
a baseball memoir. Bill Madden, good luck with the book.
I'm sure it's going to sell. And thank you so
much for your time today the original Charist recording, Thank you,
And this is an interview I've been looking forward to
all morning, Bill Madden, Yankees, Typewriters, Scandals and Cooperstown, a
baseball memoir. That's the title of his brand new book.
He has been covering New York baseball for over fifty years,
and he has memories inside stories. He's covered everything from
(00:22):
the scandals to the huge successes of the New York teams.
And so, Bill, thanks so much for spending some time
with us this morning. I really appreciate your.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Time, my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Larry, good morning, Good morning to you. Let's start out
when you started out as a baseball reporter and you
had to go into the clubhouse and you had to
cover the team for the first time, were you intimidated?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Well, I guess somewhat. Before I really became the actual
beat writer, I was kind of a rookie on the beat,
and my first introduction I was I wasn't even working
for the Daily News yet. I was working for United
presid International Wire Service and they set me up to
cover a Yankee game my first year there. And my
(01:12):
first experience was Ralph Houke was the manager of the Yankees,
and he was holding a scrum in the dugout, and
he kind of looked around at me and the other writers,
and then he looked at me again, and during the
course of his conversation with us, he spit tobacco juice
all over my shoes. And Phil Peppi, who was the
(01:34):
Yankee beat writer for the Daily News at the time,
called me aside afterwards, don't be offended by that. That's
just Ralph's way of saying, welcome to the club. That's
my way of saying.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Now, I'm sure you got to know Ralph Houk over
the years, inded, do you bring up that story with him?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I never brought it up again because he didn't know
who I was at the time, and I figured it
was no point in letting him know years later, when
I was the actual beat writer, that hey, I'm the
guy who you spit tobacco juice all over my shoes.
There was no point in doing that because use had
a volcanic temper when it came to sports writers anyway,
and I tried to stay clear of him.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Were you on the other side of that volcanic temper?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Ever, not with Ralph, because when he was gone by
the time I came to the Daily News, Okay, So
my experiences were with Billy Martin five times.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Five times. Tell us about the worst one.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I guess the worst one was nineteen eighty three, when no,
I would say nineteen eighty five when Billy got into
that famous fight at the Cross Keys Bar in Baltimore
with Ed Whitson one of his pitchers. And with Billy.
The problem with Billy when he was the manager all
the beat writers, we had to make sure that we
(02:59):
couldn't go to bed until Billy had left the hotel bar.
The good news was Billy usually only drank in the
hotel bar. The bad news was, as I said, we
never knew what was going to happen with Billy in bars.
And this particular night it started out he'd had a
bad series in Baltimore to begin with, a lot of
(03:20):
things happened down there, and anyway, he was in a
mellow moon at the beginning. And then I was sitting
at the table with a bunch of writers, and all
of a sudden, across the room, we hear all this commotion,
and we get up and we go over there, and
there's Billy and Ed Witson duking it out. And Witston
was as pretty tough southern boy from Tennessee, redneck, and
(03:45):
they were going at it, and they were wrestling on
the floor, and then it spilled out into the parking lot.
And you know, as always with Billy, your day is
never over until Billy has gone to bed. We've already
filed our game, store, isn't everything else? But here we
are back on deadline again. So what I remember most
(04:06):
about that was I went up to my room to
start dictating the story. I called the office and I said, look,
we got a new story here. This is going to
replace the game story on the back page. Billy and
Ed Widson just gone at it, and I'm describing the
whole fight, and all of a sudden, I hear this
commotion outside my door and it's Billy pounding on Wiston's
(04:27):
door and the hotel. In the hallway of the hotel,
I said to the office, I said, hold on a second,
I got round three going on right outside my door.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
You know, most baseball players you can talk to and
you can say, what is the moment that defines your career?
Do you have such a moment. Do you have a
moment that you remember more than any other?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Well, I was involved in a lot of pretty big
stories for the DELI. I guess the one that stands
out the most from me is because it formed a
lifelong friendship, was when I broke the story that Tom
Seaver had been left unprotected by the Mets in this
free agent compensation draft. This was after he had been
(05:16):
brought back to the Mets. They traded him to the
Reds back in nineteen seventy six, and now this is
a few years later and they had gotten them back.
Only there was this free agent compensation draft in which
all the teams had to protect only I think it
(05:36):
was fifteen players, so teams that lost a free agent
could pick from this pool. And it turned out that
the Chicago White Sox, who had the first pick in
this draft, found out they looked at the pool of
players and they realized that Siever had been left unprotected.
And what happened. How I found out about it was
a good friend of mine who used to work in
(05:58):
the Commissioner's office, a big White Sox fan, and he
called me the day before the draft and he said,
you're going to be covering the draft on Friday, and
I said, no, it's not a New York story. The
Mets or the Yankees didn't lose any free agents. So
he said to me, I have to tell you Bill,
who is not only is it a New York story,
It's a huge New York story. I said why, and
(06:19):
he explained to me that he had seen the list
of players and he said the Mets did not protect
Tom Seaver And he said not only that, but I
called the White Sox and they told me that they're
going to pick sever on Friday. So I had this
exclusive story. And this is long before Twitter and all
(06:40):
social media and everything else was just deadline every minute,
and so I sat on the store, we said the
DAILI is all day because hoping that nobody else was
going to get it. And at the same time, I
felt I had an obligation to sever to call him
and not blindside him with a story the next day.
(07:00):
So I did. I called him and he was First
of all, he was shocked, and secondly, he was very
appreciative of the fact that I gave him his heads.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Up and that created a lifelong friendship after that. That's
an amazing story, and you can read all of these
amazing stories in the book Yankees Typewriters Scandals, and Cooperstown,
a baseball memoir. Bill Madden, good luck with the book.
I'm sure it's going to sell. And thank you so
much for your time today the original Charist recording, Thank you,
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