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NEW YORK (UPI) — Some people have it, some don’t.
Jerry Priddy had it.
He had that gift for instinctively doing the right tiling at
the right time, a certain magic touch which attended
everything he turned his hand to.
Well, practically everything.
Lately, he hasn’t been that fortunate.
He was arrested by the FBI in Los Angeles Tuesday
evening and charged with trying to extort a quarter
million dollars from one of the steamship lines on a threat
of setting off bombs on one of their luxury liners sailing for
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Now he’s out on $150,000 bond.
During his time in baseball, Jerry Priddy put in 11 years
in the majors, coming up with the New York Yankees
originally and subsequently moving on to the Washington
Senators, St. Louis Browns and Detroit Tigers.
He Was a Good One
Priddy was a second baseman, and a good one.
When he first came up to the big leagues from Kansas
City of the American Association with his little shortstop
sidekick, Phill Rizzuto, the two were billed the best double
play pair since Joe Tinker and Johnny Evers of classic
Tinker to Evers to Chance fame.
Jerry Priddy was good, and he knew it.
The one thing he didn’t suffer from was any lack of
confidence.
He came up to the Yankees in 1941, a year when they
had such greats with them as Joe DiMaggio, Bill Dickey,
Charlie Keller, Tommy Henrich, Joe Gordon, Lefty
Gomez and Red Ruffing, but none of them particularly
awed Jerry Priddy.
Rodgers fires
a two-hitter
Danny Rodgers pitched a two
hitter yesterday as Exchange
downed Drug Shop 10-1 and
Jaycees beat Spalding Knitting
Mill 9-3 in the National division
of the Griffin Little League.
Thomas Akin was Drug
Shop’s losing pitcher.
Jeff Ector hit a home run and
single for Exchange. Willie
Gault had two doubles and Jeff
Schenk and V. Smith singled.
Kenny Gresham and Thomas
Akin singled for Drug Shop.
Joey McGee was Jaycees’
winning pitcher. He allowed
five hits, struck out five and
walked two.
Kerry Williams was Spalding
Knitting’s loser.
McGee hit three singles for
Jaycees. Keith Matthews and
Eddie Peters singled.
Neil Stewart hit two singles
for Spalding Knitting. Barry
Code, Scott Martin and Kerry
Williams singled.
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Priddy was a battler
KYM
trips
Borden
KYM defeated Borden
Chemical Co. 17-10 and Pro
Sports dumped Smith Texaco
15-5 yesterday in the Commer
cial Softball League.
Glenn Pitts hit two home runs
and a single for KYM. Gary
Carlisle hit two triples and a
double.
Leon Lamar had a double and
single for Borden. Leon Hines
had a triple and two singles and
Glenn Terry hit two singles.
Monday Feltman led Pro
Sports with a double and two
singles. Jerry Brinkley hit two
singles.
Wayne Jones hit a double and
two singles for Smith Texaco
and Steve Moss hit two singles.
Phil Rizzuto remembers that first day he and Priddy
walked into the Yankees’ training quarters in St.
Petersburg, Fla.
Priddy wasn’t the least bit bashful. He walked right
over to Gordon, who already was established with the
Yankees as the American League’s all-star second
baseman.
Had Self-Confidence
“You have to know Jerry,” says Rizzuto, who
broadcasts now for the Yankees. “He was the kind of guy
with tremendous self-confidence. The two previous years
he had won the second base job easily with Norfolk and
Kansas City, and this first day with the Yankees, he told
Gordon he was a better second baseman than he was, he
could make the double play better and so forth.”
You also have to know Joe Gordon.
He didn’t exactly curl up and die simply because Jerry
Priddy told him what he did.
The fact is Joe Gordon kept his second base job with the
Yanks that year, and Jerry Priddy was only a utilityman.
He never was really any more than that, and in 1943 the
Yankees dealt him to Washington.
Some of those who claim to know Jerry Priddy seem to
feel it broke his heart that he could never break into the
Yankees’ regular lineup.
Sold to the Browns
Priddy played with Washington three seasons, and then
was sold to the Browns, managed at the time by Zack
Taylor.
“I’ll say one thing about Priddy, he could play ball,”
says Taylor, now 75 and living in Orlando, Fla.
Braves snap
losing streak
MONTREAL (UPI)-The At
lanta Braves finally got some
hitting Wednesday night and it
brought them their second vic
tory in 12 road games.
Darrell Evans hit a two-run
homer and a triple and Dave
Johnson also poled a two-run
homer to give the Braves a 5-3
win over the Montreal Expos.
Knuckleballer Phil Niekro, be
ginning his new chore of pitch
ing every third game, allowed
the Expos only four hits over
Gabriel plot thickens
LOS ANGELES (UPI) - The
Roman Gabriel plot has thick
ened with the Los Angeles Ram
quarterback now charging that
the Rams’ management is
asking too much in its trade
talks with the Philadelphia
Eagles.
In a lengthy written state
ment released Thursday Gabri
el said he has learned that the
Rams are asking for two first
round draft choices, an All-Pro
player and three other Eagle
starters.
“It’s simply untrue,” replied
Rams owner Carroll Rosen
bloom.
“All I told (Gabriel’s attor
ney) Ed Masry was that I
would try to make a fair trade
with the Eagles,” said General
Manager Don Klosterman.
Gabriel and Masry visited
Philadelphia last week and
conferred with the Eagles’
brass, and Masry said “we
aren’t anxious to get on another
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the first eight innings, but he
weakened in the ninth and gave
way to reliefer Danny Frisella.
Frisella retired the side to pre
serve Niekro’s fourth victory
against two losses.
Carl Morton (4-4) tries to keep
the Braves on the winning path
tonight in the finale of the
three-game series at Montreal.
Atlanta returns home Friday
night for an 11-game stand
against St. Louis, Pittsburgh
and Chicago.
plane and travel to another
city.”
“We went to Philadelphia
with Mr. Rosenbloom’s con
sent,” the lawyer said, “and
the Rams said they would do
their best to make a trade for
Gabriel.”
Gabriel said in the statement
that “the Eagles have offered
the Rams most of what they
have asked for but cannot meet
the Ram demands in total."
Gabriel, who has repeatedly
charged that Klosterman and
Rosenbloom have been deceitful
to him, said “the facts I have
personally observed in the last
few weeks only strengthen my
conviction and opinion regard
ing the character of the Rams’
management.”
Gabriel added that he did not
intend to refile a civil suit
against the Rams which he
“He never forgot he used to be with the Yankees, with
all their big hitters, and he couldn’t understand why we
had to play it differently with the Browns. He just didn’t
like to bunt. I told him I had to, but coming over from the
Yankees, he never wanted to.”
Priddy’s distaste for bunting was so pronounced that he
even composed a little ditty about it, and he’d agitate one
of the Brownie coaches, the late Johnny Tobin, a superb
bunter in his day, by getting next to him in the shower and
singing the ditty to him.
Some of the Words
“I don’t remember all the words,” says Taylor, “But I
remember some of them. ‘Bunt and drive a Ford; hit
away and drive a Cadillac,’ he’d sing to Johnny Tobin.
Almost drove poor Johnny crazy. I remember sometimes
I’d give Priddy the bunt sign and he’d step out of there and
try to get me to take it off, or he’d drag or push the ball
when all along he knew we were trying to move the runner
up.”
One more thing about Jerry Priddy.
When he was through playing baseball, he tried his hand
at a number of other things and didn’t do so badly at any of
them.
He managed in the minor leagues, tried broadcasting,
was a touring golf pro for awhile, took a crack at the
restaurant business and most recently was with a public
relations firm.
“He likes to try different things,” says Phil Rizzuto,
who has remained a friend of Priddy’s more than 30 years.
“He loves a challenge.”
Evansscored the Braves’ first
run in the first inning by trip
ling and then coming home on
Mike Lum’s double. But Mon
treal tied the score in the
fourth.
Evans’ 12th homer of the year
with Ralph Garr on base gave
Atlanta a 3-1 lead in the sixth,
but the Expos again tied the
score.
Johnson’s eighth homer of the
year after Dusty Baker had
walked, settled the issue in the
eighth.
recently dismissed. He said he
has decided to “report to the
training camp (in July) if I’m
not traded to the Eagles.”
Gabriel, who was quoted in
February as saying that there
were too many “selfish”
players on the Rams’ squad
last year, denied any ill
feelings toward his teammates.
“I have nothing but the
highest respect and regard for
my fellow teammates,” the
statement read, “and any
reports to the contrary are
either misquotes or deliberate
lies”.
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Gordon’s
winnings
in escrow
INDIANAPOLIS (UPI) -
The nearly $90,000 Gordon
Johncock gained by winning the
Indianapolis “500” will be
placed in escrow until it’s
determined whether the money
should be involved in his
bankruptcy proceedings.
Johncock, at a federal court
hearing here Wednesday,
agreed to place his share of the
jackpot into escrow until
bankruptcy referee Nicholas W.
Susana determines whether
Johncock’s creditors have a
claim to the winnings.
Johncock, by winning the
rain-delayed and rain-shortened
race May 30, picked up $236,022
for his Patrick Racing Team,
Inc., of Indianapolis. His share
of the winnings was 38 per cent,
or nearly $90,000.
The petition for bankruptcy
filed by Johncock Feb. 14 listed
liabilities of $369,511 against
assets of $66,000. The assets
included land in Johncock’s
home state of Michigan, $5,000
in shares of stock in Johncock
Racing Enterprises, Inc., and
personal property.
Most of the liabilities were in
connection with forestry opera
tions Johncock owned in Mi
chigan, secured by loans in
Michigan and West Virginia.
Page 13
— Griffin Daily News Thursday, June 7,1973
Priddy volunteers
to take voice test
LOS ANGELES (UPI) -
Gerald Priddy, a former major
league baseball player, volun
teered Wednesday to take a
voice test to back up his
contention he had nothing to do
with an attempt to extort
$250,000 from a cruise ship.
Priddy, a major leaguer for
11 years and now an apparently
successful businessman, was
arraigned Wednesday on feder
al charges that he tried to
extort the money Tuesday from
Princess Cruises in return for
information on the whereabouts
of bombs.
Police said a telephone caller
claimed bombs had been placed
aboard the Island Princess,
then carrying 850 persons on a
cruise to Puerto Vallarta,
Mexico.
Priddy was released on
$150,000 bond Wednesday.
“I’d like to say a lot of things
but my counsel has told me not
to, and I’m going to listen to
my lawyer,” he said.
His attorney, Karl Ransom,
entered no plea but made it
clear that Priddy would plead
innocent.
“None of the alleged occur
rences were the results of any
act by Mr. Priddy,” Ransom
said.
Priddy wants to take a
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voiceprint test to compare his
voice with that of the extor
tionist The FBI recorded some
of the calls from the extor
tionist, and Priddy is willing to
use the same words in a voice
test, the lawyer said.
“You don’t think I’d stipulate
to having voiceprint tests made
to compare with FBI tapes if I
thought he was involved, do
you?” Ransom said.
Priddy, 53, was sharply
dressed in maroon slacks,
checked sportcoat and white
shoes, and appeared to weigh
about 40 pounds more than the
180 he scaled in his days as a
second baseman.
He started with the New York
Yankees in 1941, coming up
from the minors with Phil
Rizzuto, touted as a hotshot
double play combination, and
saw action in a World Series
his first year in the majors.
NO. 1 CHOICE
NEW YORK (UPI) — The
New York Islanders announced
Wednesday that they had
signed Denis Potvin, the No. 1
choice in the National Hockey
League’s recent free agent
draft, to a contract.
Terms of the contract for
Potvin, the most celebrated
amateur defenseman since
Bobby Orr, were not disclosed.