Ron Hodges is a Dick

In this day and age of the internet it seems there is nothing we don't know about our favorite athletes. And even the guys who aren't so good, we end up learning a lot about them too.

But what about those players from the past, anonymous guys mostly whose personalities are never revealed.

Two recent books I read shined a new light on former Mets catcher Ron Hodges.



In "The Torre Years" Joe Torre recounts his days as manager of the Mets. In 1978, Torre was the manager, Bob Gibson was pitching coach and Ron Hodges was backup catcher. One night Torre and Gibson were walking through the hotel lobby and they saw Hodges and another player at the hotel bar.
According to Torre's rules the hotel bar was off-limits to players. But instead of going over there himself and "catching" them, Torre sent Gibson to tell them to finish their drinks and leave. Without using these words Torre hints that Hodges told Gibson to go fuck himself and refused to leave the bar.
A backup catcher insulting one of the greatest pitchers of all-time.

Lest you think that was one isolated incident, there's this from "The Complete Game" by Ron Darling.
Before Darling's first major league game in uniform (he was not due to pitch, just sit on the bench), he got dressed in his brand new white Mets uniform and was so proud of himself that he made it to the big leagues.
Darling sat on the end of the bench to steer clear of the veterans who would actually be playing that night. Hodges walked the full length of the dugout, spit tobacco juice on Darling's leg and walked away.

Ron Hodges was a career .240 hitter. Imagine what an insufferable son of a bitch he would have been if he were actually a good player.

Update: Keith Hernandez recently told the following Ron Hoges story but prefaced it with "He isn't going to be happy I'm saying this." Hernandez said when he was with the Cardinals it was well-known that Hodges wasn't disguising his signs well enough and it was too easy to see which pitch he was calling. Hernandez said as soon as he got traded to the Mets, he told Hodges about his pitch tipping.