Couple of veteran scribes were perusing the official transcript of Don Mattingly’s pregame media session when one of them noticed that the person who asked the first question had addressed Donnie as, “Skipper.” Well, this is an old-time baseball term for the manager, and I suspect players all over the game still routinely address their managers as “Skip,” when not addressing them by their first names or their clubhouse nicknames (such as “Donnie B”). But for media who cover the game, it’s probably bad form to address the manager as Skipper — even though I myself have often addressed Donnie as “Skip” when passing him in a hallway or on the back fields at spring training or whatever. For us media types, addressing the manager as “Skipper” is considered uncool — and believe me, when it comes to cool, we middle-aged, rumpled and somewhat-paunchy baseball writers pretty well have the market cornered on cool.
So after laughing at the utter uncoolness of this faceless person identified on the transcript only by the letter “Q” (for questioner), one of these veteran scribes comes up with this gem:
“The only person who should ever be addressed as ‘Skipper’ is Alan Hale Jr.”
Alan Hale Jr. Now THERE is a name you don’t often hear dropped in a major league press box.