It’s my parents’ 46th wedding anniversary today. To my knowledge, neither of them have every thrown things at each other while in their underwear. The same can’t be said for someone else celebrating an anniversary today: Hal McRae.
As Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times notes, it’s the 20th anniversary of then-Royals manager McRae going absolutely gonzo when a reporter asked him if he had considered pinch-hitting George Brett for Keith Miller late in a 5-3 loss to the Tigers. The best part of it is the rant seemed to come out of friggin’ nowhere:
The most amazing thing about it, as Jaffe notes, is that the rant didn’t get McCrae fired. Indeed, he led the Royals to a winning record that year and the next year. If that kind of rant -- which actually injured a reporter who was hit with a phone -- had gone down today I think he’d be fired within two hours. Even if he was right not to bat Brett for Miller. I mean, jeez, Brett only hit .246 with a .299 OBP against lefties that year.
But 1993 was a simpler time. It wasn’t spread all over the Internet and talked about nonstop like every little thing today. And as a result, a temporarily crazy man hurling objects at the media while wearing long underwear was allowed to continue in his high-profile job.
