Sport: I’ve Been a Bad Boy

Detroit’s big (6 ft. 4 in.), good-looking Outfielder Dick Wakefield is blessed with personal charm and a wealth of natural ballplayer’s ability. But since the Tigers signed him up eight years ago, for a record $51,000 bonus, Wakefield has been successful only at driving his bosses to distraction.

His teammates put him down as lazy and self-centered. Instead of pounding his glove in disgust after booting one, Wakefield would laugh and admit that he sure looked like a clown on that one. When Manager Steve O’Neill once tried to shock him out of his complacency by benching him, Dick replied agreeably, “That’s all right, Steve . . . Don’t put yourself on a spot for me.” Manager “Red” Rolfe tried another approach—bullying him—with no more success. At their wit’s end a fortnight ago, the Tigers traded their perennial problem child to the New York Yankees. Last week, in an unprecedented three-page letter to the press, Wakefield announced that he was genuinely sorry for his sins in Detroit.

He thanked Tiger Scout “Wish” Egan, who discovered him playing for the University of Michigan: “The courage he has shown in fighting for me during my pitiful exhibitions will live with me as a shining example of friendship.” He thanked the Detroit fans for their support, though he admitted that “my mistakes caused many of [you] to desert me.” It was a nice, humble, broad-minded piece, but hardly evidence that Dick Wakefield had changed. The question seemed to be whether cagey Yankee Manager Casey Stengel could knock the humility out of him.