Media Restricted

Marty Marion oral history interview

Date1993 June 02

DescriptionAn interview of Marty Marion that was conducted by Larry Moffi on June 2, 1993 in St. Louis, Missouri. Content of the interview include: Side One -- Track 1 - (Contains profanity) On the Hall of Fame being for superstars, the guys who are really great, guys like (Stan) Musial, Ted Williams, Bob Feller, but so many guys in there now, just good players like him, the press makes them superstars, and if you know the right people you can get in, Joe Medwick and Enos Slaughter politicked for years and finally got in there; shouldn't put in people after they are dead, he shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame, he just wasn't that good (00:00:00 to 00:01:33) Track 2 - On being from Richburg, SC, near Charlotte, and Rock Hill; born in a house in the front bedroom, his dad's sister owned the house, the town only had 50 people; his uncle owned the drugstore, and he delivered Marion; when he was a kid, used to have a great time going to visit; his two aunts were the richest people there; moved to Atlanta when he was 9 months old (weird noise, truck horn?) father was a good amateur player for Georgia Power Co., his older brother Johnny Marion, played in the Major Leagues, for Washington, a good outfielder, but couldn't hit well; Marion was a skinny kid, too skinny to make the amateur teams, played high school ball for Tech High, all boy's school, and his brother was a big star on the team as an outfielder, but he was gone the year he came in; his first year, sat on the bench, and his coach, Gabe Talbert, smoked cigars, and his job was going to get him cigars the whole first year, the next year he played, the next year, they won the state championship for the next three years, even after he left (00:01:33 to 00:05:04) Track 3 - (Contains profanity) On holding out for a lot of money with the Cardinals; when he got out of high school, his brother was playing with the Chattanooga Lookouts, Cal Griffin was the general manager, adopted son of Washington manager Clark Griffin; he went to Chattanooga with his brother; the Southern League was a good league in those days, he signed a contract for $1,000, they stayed there about a week, until the team went on the road; he went home to his girlfriend because he was lonely, no one told him he was supposed to stay in Chattanooga and work out; so after a week, they gave him his pink slip; he went home to Atlanta, and there was a Cardinals tryout camp in Rome, GA; scout Tubby Wall (?) took a bunch of them up to the camp; he played two innings and the Cardinals sent him and third baseman Johnny Echols to St. Louis in '35; the Cardinals were playing the Cubs, the Cubs had won 21 straight games; Phil Cavarretta had just hit a home run off of Paul Dean, and the Cubs won the pennant that year; he and Echols got to work out on the field, met Branch Rickey, and they had made a pact that neither would sign if the other didn't get an offer; Frank Rickey, Branch's brother was a scout, came down driving a convertible Buick, a nice talker, good man, and talked to them, stayed 2-3 days, and Marion suggested they ask for a 4-year contract, got $500 to sign and he wrote down on a piece of paper, that they would make $250 for the first year, no matter where they played, $500 a month for the second year no matter where they played, in third year, make $3000 and the fourth year, make $5000; the first year, 1936, he played in Huntington, WV, a skinny little kid, a newspaperman Duke Rigsley (?), nicest man, and he wrote an article that Marty Marion looked like a girl wearing her first pair of high-heeled slippers, but by the end of the year, called him the best prospect in the league; next year they sent him to Rochester, and he stayed there for three years, so by the fourth year in Rochester, he was making $5000, good money, way higher than anybody else; in '39, hadn't made the team yet with the Cardinals, he was working out in spring training, in the Detroit Hotel in St. Petersburg, and Echols was sitting on the bed, and he said the Cardinals released him; and Marion went with him to meet with Branch Rickey, Marion reminded him of the four-year contract, and Rickey said he could release anyone he wanted, and they got a call from (Kenesaw Mountain) Landis, and they went to meet with him, and Marion showed him the piece of paper with the four-year contract, and Landis said Rickey had to pay Echols, Landis had it in for Rickey because he didn't like the way he ran the league (00:05:04 to 00:14:22) Track 4 - (Contains profanity) On people calling Rickey, "Mister," Marion always called people older than he was "Mister," it was respectful, Mr. Braden, Mr. Yawkey, Mr. used to say "yes sir" to Ray Blades; everyone said Rickey was the smartest man in baseball, a good businessman, knew talent and was successful as hell, never saw him on the field in his life; Yawkey used to take batting practice, but not Rickey; Landis was a very quiet, said he would take care of things and did (00:14:22 to 00:16:00) Track 5 - (Contains profanity) On being nicknamed Slats by Burt Shotton because he was skinny; when he joined the Cardinals for spring training, Shotton was the manager in Columbus, OH, and he took Marion back to Columbus, he had a contract to go to Huntington, but they didn't start for a month after spring training, so he went to Columbus for that month; there was a comic strip called Slats & Abner (Abbie an' Slats) and Slats was the tall skinny kid, so Shotton called him Slats; he still gets mail addressed to Slats; he didn't save anything, uniforms, gloves, shoes, nothing, except in 1944 he won Most Valuable Player in the National League, that stuff would be worth money today, so he was dumb for not saving it (00:16:00 to 00:17:57) Track 6 - On Honus Wagner sitting on the bench as an honorary manager, Marion used to talk to him, he'd say he couldn't field the way the kids did, he was a good hitter, hit with a piece of wood like a broomstick, and played with a little glove, Marion wouldn't have been able to catch a ball with it; nicest old man Marion ever met; wished he'd got his autograph (00:17:57 to 00:19:15) Track 7 - On turning his career around and making it to the Majors; never played shortstop in his life until spring training in '36; had a tryout camp where all the rookies came to Bartow, FL; and there were 15 third basemen, so he played shortstop, started fielding ground balls, and they liked the way he played; the year he was named MVP (wife comes in, tape glitches, discussion of TV crew coming to interview him about Johnny Mize) on having a great year fielding when he was MVP, hit .267; it was just one of those years when everything worked; one time Rickey came to him and asked him to play second base, so he'd be more versatile for the team, he told Rickey he wouldn't do it; Ray Blades was the manager of the team but didn't get involved; Blades was also his manager in Rochester, Triple AAA ball; they got Sammy Baugh, and benched Marion so Baugh could play, he was a great guy, and they tried to see if Marion could pitch, because he had a strong arm, but after trying him, they sent him back to shortstop; when he was in St. Louis, he had Blades, (Billy) Southworth and (Eddie) Dyer) then he went across town and played for Bill Veeck, and played for Frank Lane in Chicago, and bought the Minor League Houston club, and they kicked them out when the (Roy) Hofheinz built the Astrodome, he didn't get the franchise even though they had the Minor League team for 2 ½ years (00:19:15 to 00:24:42) Track 8 - On Veeck being a showman, a wonderful person, but didn't have any money, so he couldn't have a winning ball club, didn't have any players, and was just trying to survive; Veeck called him in California when Anheuser-Busch bought the Cardinals, and said they couldn't buck Anheuser-Busch; that whole year, 1953, was just about surviving; Veeck was a common man, good mind, always thinking, loved Satchel Paige; Satchel almost got them killed by not showing up to pitch an exhibition game; Marion talked to Sugar Cain at a party, Cain asked why Paige didn't have to do this or that, and Marion told Cain "when you get to be 60 years old, you can," Marion fined Paige $5,000 one time for not pitching in an exhibition game, and all the people came out to see him, and he wasn't even there, didn't even get off the train, the fans were mad, nobody wanted to see the Browns play, but they wanted to see Paige, he was a showman; they spent the night on the sleeper train, and when they got to Boston, Paige was sitting in the lobby, and Marion told him it would cost him $5,000, but Veeck wouldn't take the money from Paige; when Marion was in Chicago, and they were about to win the pennant; and Marion refused to sign Paige, because it would have upset the team; can't have a divided team and win, everybody had to be thinking the same way; the Cardinals played together, and didn't know how to lose; Southworth was a good manager because he didn't bother anyone, just let them play; one time Southworth took Marion out for a pinch hitter, and he stormed into the clubhouse, and Southworth buttered him up after the game and apologized, and never took him out for a pinch hitter again (tape runs out) (00:24:42 to 00:31:17)

Object numberBL-2000-02292-011

Artist, Creator, or Manufacturer Moffi, Larry

Attributes

Classificationsaudio/visual materials

Collection NumberBA RMA 002 Larry Moffi oral history collection

Dimensions00:31:17|1 of 2

Copyrighthttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

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RestrictionsDue to copyright restrictions, this interview can only be listened to at the Giamatti Research Center at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.