Now It Comes Out, Carlton Is Really Pretty Good Talker

It’s kind of sad that Steve Carlton chose not to talk to reporters during most of his playing career. Silent Steve, when he wants to talk, does it pretty well.

And Carlton has decided to talk, at least a little.

When Berl Rotfeld, executive producer of the long-running “Greatest Sports Legends” series, called Carlton’s agent a few months ago to see if the big left-hander would be a guest on the show, he was somewhat surprised when the agent called back and said that Carlton would do it.

So there was Carlton Wednesday, being interviewed by the host of the show, Reggie Jackson, at the Dana Point Resort, a plush setting in southern Orange County.

The Carlton show will be shown early next year when “Greatest Sports Legends,” a syndicated series, begins its 17th season. Locally, it’s carried by Channel 7.

Carlton, although a little tentative, was articulate and offered interesting insights on baseball.

Carlton even answered a few questions from the lone reporter invited to sit in on the day-long taping session.

“Would you ever consider a career as a baseball announcer?” Carlton was asked during a break in the filming.

He smiled. “That would be a different twist,” he said, then added that Bill Giles, president of the Philadelphia Phillies, talked to him about the possibility when the team released him in 1986.

“Someday, maybe, but not now,” Carlton said. “I’m not ready to get back into baseball.”

Think about this one: Carlton, baseball’s most notable non-talker, gets offered a broadcasting job, and Jackson, one of the game’s best talkers, does not.

Jackson said he wants to get back into the game, if not as an executive, then as an announcer. But, he said, there have been no offers.

“Not even a nibble,” he said.

In his network appearances during postseason play, Jackson has been very good.

Maybe it’s perceived that his salary demands would be too great.

“They could at least ask,” he said. “I just don’t understand it.”

Jackson provided some insight on why it was so important for Pete Rose to continue hawking memorabilia on a cable home-shopping network on Aug. 24, the day he was suspended from baseball for life.

Jackson will do the same show for the Cable Value Network in Plymouth, Minn., Oct. 6-8.

“I’ll tell you why I’m doing it,” he said. “The money is tremendous. I’m talking $75,000 to $100,000 for three days of work. You can’t pass that up.”

Jackson said he will autograph 2,500 balls that will go for $39 each and will autograph 1,000 bats that will go for $250 each.

Jackson also shed some light on Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew’s financial troubles. It came out recently that Killebrew is $700,000 in debt and that one of his creditors is Jackson.

“That’s true,” Jackson said. “I loaned him a quarter of a million.

“I’m a soft touch,” he added, laughing. “Harmon’s paying me back. I wish $700,000 is all I owed.”

Coincidentally, Killebrew was at Dana Point only last week to tape one of the 10 “Greatest Sports Legends” show that’s being taped there. He and Jackson got along fine.

When Jackson first served as host of “Greatest Sports Legends” in 1976, he had a falling out with Rotfeld and wasn’t invited back.

But Jackson returned as the host last year and Rotfeld brought him back again this year. Apparently, things have been going well.

“He’s been magnificent,” Rotfeld said. “We’ve had hosts who just read the questions on the cue cards, but Reggie asks a lot of questions on his own. He listens to what the guest has to say and always has a good follow-up question.”

On Wednesday, Jackson seemed determined to get Carlton to open up. He asked him extensively about his decision to not talk to the press.

Carlton said he quit talking to reporters in 1976. But old newspaper clippings show he still did an occasional interview until the middle of the 1979 season.

Then, except for a brief TV interview in 1980 with his good friend and former batterymate Tim McCarver, there was nothing at all until July, 1986, when he consented to a news conference after signing with the San Francisco Giants.

“Talking to the press was an obstacle that interfered with my performance,” Carlton told Jackson.

Carlton explained that his philosophy was to block out all distractions and concentrate on pitching. The press was one of those distractions.

Carlton said that another factor was a 20-minute interview he once did, after which none of his quotes appeared in the paper the next day.

“I decided I can make better use of 20 minutes,” he said.

Off camera and away from Carlton, Jackson said: “He’s not really opening up. There’s more to it than just that.”

Jackson said he had heard that a story written by Philadelphia baseball writer Bill Conlin was a factor.

“He was misquoted or there was something about a family member that really got to Carlton,” Jackson said.

Carlton, off the air, said: “I don’t want to get into particulars. I’m dancing around on purpose.”

Carlton won 329 games during a 24-year career, spent mostly in St. Louis and Philadelphia. He is the only pitcher to have won four Cy Young Awards.

When the Phillies released him in June, 1986, he kept on going, trying to hook on with four different clubs until the Minnesota Twins let him go April 28, 1988.

Carlton told Jackson he didn’t regret his final two seasons.

“The competitive bug was still there,” he said. “I met a lot of nice people and enjoyed the experiences I had.”

Carlton said he has no regrets about his career, and thought his policy of not talking to the press worked for him.

Carlton was generally cooperative and pleasant throughout the day. And at times he cracked jokes.

“Where are those ground-to-air missiles when you need them?” he said once when overhead airplane noise interrupted taping.

The one question that seemed to stump Carlton was why he had agreed to appear on the show.

At first there was silence. Finally, Carlton, who was paid only $1,000 plus expenses for appearing, said: “I don’t know.”

After a pause, he added: “I guess I wanted to make up for those years of silence, to show the fans I care about them and appreciated their support.”

TV-Radio Notes

KMPC has decided to have play-by-play announcer Bob Starr double up and handle both the Rams and UCLA this football season. Starr replaces Joel Meyers on UCLA and will team with Bob Steinbrinck, KMPC news and sports director. Meyers left KMPC to join NBC-TV as a pro football announcer. . . . Pete Arbogast, KNX sports reporter, makes his debut as the new voice of USC football Monday when the Trojans play host to Illinois at 5 p.m. Arbogast replaces Tom Kelly, who was with USC for 27 seasons as either a radio or TV announcer but left to join Prime Ticket. Fred Gallagher remains the commentator.

Reporter Jim Gray, who left ESPN last year to join NBC, has gone back to the cable network. Among his duties will be filing regular reports for “NFL GameDay.” . . . “Dream Season,” a creation of NFL Films, begins an eight-week run on ESPN Sunday at 5 p.m., with the 1985 Chicago Bears facing the 1977 Dallas Cowboys. . . . ESPN celebrates its 10th anniversary next Thursday with a one-hour special at 9 p.m. . . . The “Pat Sajak Show” will have a sports flavor next week. Guests include Dave Winfield on Monday, Lyle Alzado on Tuesday and Jimmy (the Greek) Snyder on Friday. The Greek is back on TV this season, doing a weekend show called “Who Beat the Spread” for FNN/SCORE.