Chicagosports article on Carlton Fisk

[CSF]

OUT LOUD: Carlton Fisk

 

July 21, 2004

 

 

Steve Rosenbloom talks hugs and kisses with the former Sox hero.

 

 

 

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think Ozzie's doing a nice job. I think everybody was wondering what kind of job he was going to do, but he played the game hard, he played with a lot of enthusiasm. He had fun playing, and if you play that way, it allows your talent to come out.

 

It's the situation when I was there and how I was treated while I was there. I don't want to get into that. Anybody who knows any of the history of the game knows it would take more than Ozzie asking me to coach before I would.

 

But I'm going to go down and see him and see the guys as a fan of him and Walker and Bainesy.

 

That Garland, he surprises me. He should be a dominating pitcher. I don't know whether he doesn't really know how to get guys out.

 

That's how the game has changed now (pitches being called from the dugout.). I don't know why it turned that way. It starts early. It starts in high school, it's in college, in the minor leagues. Instead of kids learning what it takes to get hitters out, what it takes to keep hitters in the ballpark, they're not allowed to learn. We had to learn that. Now it's taken away from them, so they're sort of playing without a thought process.

 

A lot of pitchers with good fastballs have forgotten that the fastball is the best pitch in the game.

 

One of the reasons the offensive numbers have escalated: Catchers don't have to think on both sides of the ball. They only have to think offensively, because defensively it's basically all dictated for them.

 

Every World Series, you see it all the time.

 

I had some nice offensive moments, and not just that one home run, either. People think that's the only hit I got in my whole life.

 

I thought that was pretty special, to tell you the truth (when that World Series home run popped up in the Oscar-winning "Good Will Hunting" starring and written by Red Sox fans Ben Affleck and Matt Damon). They had mentioned they wanted to use it. I should've gotten an award for Best Supporting Incident in a Major Motion Picture of a Non-Appearing, Non-Speaking, Non-Involvement Role.

 

I caught Seaver's 300th win, and that was just excellent.

 

I like that '83 season and everything that happened that season, with the pitchers and how everybody hit and how we all played together as a team and all depended on each other.

 

I liked the Jack McDowell experience.

 

I'm not sure whether Frank really gets his position on the team. Frank figures that if he hits all those home runs and drives in all those runs, that's all the team needs. A team needs more than that, and if you're the guy doing that, you have to show team leadership skills.

 

I haven't built my greenhouse yet (for his orchids). That's the only disappointing thing.

 

Chicago's a really special town.

 

I'm doing anything I want. That's the nice thing about being retired, to tell you the truth.

 

The special moments now that my kids are grown up, whether it be my girls or my son, when they see me, they hug me and they kiss me, and I do the same to them. I missed a lot of them growing up, so I revel in the time we have now.

 

It's nice when people are making $10 million a year for the last 10 years saying, "I'm not going to play for the money." They don't need to. They're right. When you're like me, when you played 144 games for $11,000, money means a lot of things.

 

Everybody wants to be wanted and appreciated, and a lot of times I didn't feel as if I was, but I worked hard to play as long as I did. I'm pretty satisfied with that.

Copyright © 2004, The Chicago Tribune