We were having fun and playing good ball and there was a lot of energy coming from Jimmy (Lefebvre).
And that's when it happened.
Himes made a comment on the radio in Chicago that he expected us to be 10 games over the .500 mark by the All-Star break.
And that's when the stuff really hit the fan.
That was all anyone talked about for the next two months. We couldn't figure out why he would say that.
What did it mean? What if we didn't get there? Was everybody gone?
There was a lot of speculation and the guys thought maybe Jimmy would be fired immediately.
The manager, coaches, players and trainers sat around wondering what the guy upstairs was thinking.
And we had a game to play!
I just never understood why every time it seemed like we were getting on track he would rip the team in the papers or on a radio show. It was never anything positive. And all that did was anger the players and turn them against Larry. I don't know what his purpose was but that was the moment the players really turned against him for good. |
