With each minute that passed before the first pitch, Tom Haudricourt stood inside the visitors’ dugout at Dodger Stadium, growing more and more irritated. That was more than 15 years ago when a Brewers pitcher was suffering from strange health symptoms and it was unclear if he was going to make a scheduled start. Reporters, like Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, were initially told the pitcher would be fine. But the rumors persisted otherwise. Eventually, it became official: the pitcher wasn’t taking the mound. Inside, Haudricourt was sizzling.
The affable Doug Melvin, general manager of the Brewers at the time, sat at the end of the dugout, squinting nonchalantly at the sun and sipping coffee. He didn’t know what was going to happen.
Haudricourt walked over to Melvin, pulled out his recorder, and asked sternly, “Doug, what is the organization’s policy regarding lies about injuries?”
snapped Melvin. It was one of the few times anyone had seen Melvin raise his voice.
“How dare you call me a liar!” Using more colorful words, Melvin explained that the information had changed, the Brewers weren’t hiding anything and no one had been lied to.
The next day, things calmed down. As Haudricourt approached the principal’s office, Melvin asked, “Hey, wanna kiss and do some makeup?”
“I don’t want to kiss,” Haudricourt said. “But I will make up for it.”
“Our only real spat,” Melvin said, recalling the scene recently with a few laughs.
There has been a lot of that recently when we were talking about Haudricourt: reminiscences and laughter.
