Word: finley
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...Finley, whose $1.4 million player payroll is among baseball's highest, could not care less. "Sure, Bando had some clutch hits," he says. "Don't I deserve something for $100,000? As for Holtzman ?hell, he won 21 games in 1973. What am I supposed to do, give him a raise for having a worse year? These guys are just bad losers...
Perhaps. But even the losers agree that arbitration is better than the long, bitter salary disputes of other years. Reggie Jackson held out for higher pay in 1970, Vida Blue in '72, and both say Finley humiliated them by publicly ridiculing their ability and their salary demands. Says Jackson, who was only 23 at the time: "Charlie wanted to make me bend. He wanted to show me who was boss." Finley showed him. Late that season, his rancor still running strong, Jackson hit a grand-slam home run. While crossing home plate he looked up and raised a fist...
...What Finley did to Mike Andrews is something the A's will not soon forget. After Andrews made two costly errors in the second game of the 1973 World Series against the New York Mets, Finley announced that the team physician had found the second baseman unfit to play because of a sore arm. Bent on making room for another player to strengthen his roster, Finley dropped Andrews from the team. In protest, the A's wore his No. 17 on their sleeves at a workout before the third game. To a man, they insist that Finley ordered the doctor...
...Finley's handling of players is controversial, the rate at which he eats up managers is positively incredible?12 in 15 years. "I'm not one of these guys who's afraid to admit a mistake," Finley says. "I've gotten rid of so many because they weren't worth a damn...
...league managing is a notoriously uncertain job,* but Finley's dealings with his managers are far from routine. "He calls you in the dugout, in the clubhouse and at home," says a former manager. "He makes you explain every move. And he's never satisfied with your explanation. He tells you who to play, where to play him, when you play...