Q: During your playing career, who did you most look up to? Who were your mentors?
A: Probably Ron Hanson and Luis Aparicio, of the guys I played with. Looking at the guys on the other side, probably Al Kaline, Paul Blair and Mickey Santos. They were the center fielders trying to take my gold gloves away from me, and they succeeded most of the time.
Q: Who was the most difficult pitcher you faced during your career?
A: Dean Chance, probably. There were a lot them. When you hit .250, there are several guys who are giving you trouble. Sparky Lyle gave me trouble. He would throw that little cutter under your hands and it was hard to lay-off of it.
...During our dinner, Berry shared all kinds of stories, one which detailed that during his playing days, players were fined for talking to members of the other teams. Berry is a bit of a throw-back. I had to explain to him what a “blog” was, but there was no doubt that baseball is a passion for him and he has spent his life in baseball.
He’s been a player at the highest level, coached, managed and even served as the baseball technical adviser for Charlie Sheen during the movie “Eight Men Out.”
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1. GotowarMissAgnes Posted: February 20, 2012 at 11:19 AM (#4064664)Berry was terrific with the glove for the Angels in '71-72, but because the Angels have had some many terrific center fielders, these seasons only rank around 20th best at the position in franchise history.
Though wow, now that I look at it, 7 of the worst 13 individual seasons the team has had in CF defensively came between 2004-10. Good Christ!
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