Wow. This is a first. The last time I saw an athlete approach me with open arms was when Mo Vaughn came after me while swearing and holding a Louisville Slugger. It was not a tender moment. Mo was not looking for a hug. He was talking about slander and libel, using words I never heard in the Bible. Thankfully, he smashed the bat into a locker instead of the side of my head.
Was Rick Pitino looking for a group hug when he stood at the podium and said, “The negativity in this town sucks’’?
Pitino’s term for sports talk radio was “the fellowship of the miserable.’’
Now there’s a group that could use a group hug.
Manny Ramirez was famous for his hugs. Babe Ruth, too. But the sluggers weren’t likely to hug reporters.
Ted Williams hated the press when he played. Ted could make the word “writer’’ sound like a four-letter word. In the presence of baseball scribes, he was known to start sniffing the air and say, “Something stinks in here.’’ Before his last game, Ted paid homage to the fans but said he couldn’t get past things written by “the knights of the keyboard.’’
The late, great Will McDonough would not have been in favor of the group hug. Willie made history when he decked Patriots defensive back Raymond Clayborn in the team’s locker room in 1979. McDonough and Clayborn eventually made peace, but never advanced to the hugging stage.
Same goes for Jim Rice and former Globe baseball reporter Steve Fainaru. I was in the Sox clubhouse in Oakland when Fainaru decided to confront Rice after some grumbling near the star’s locker. Rice pounced and ripped the shirt off Fainaru’s back. No hug. Rice went on to the Hall of Fame, while Fainaru won a Pulitzer Prize for the Washington Post.
Our own Bud Collins probably wishes former Sox manager Pinky Higgins was a hugger. Higgins once smashed Bud’s face into a plate of beef Stroganoff.
