Everybody seems to have a story about John Vukovich in Clearwater, Fla. -- players, club officials, baseball writers. The details are different: Vukovich offering properly profane advice, or being blunt when being blunt was the best thing, or interceding in a bad situation at just the right time, or pulling aside a young kid and guiding and protecting him.
The Phillies have chartered a plane bound for Philadelphia to be there for Vukovich's memorial service Tuesday and offered seats to employees of other teams in Florida, and it figures the flight will be packed.
No matter where the Phillies played, it was evident that he touched so many lives. Before every Philadelphia game I ever covered, as a beat reporter for opposing teams, there would be a small mob of coaches and players gathered behind the batting cage, and Vukovich would always be in the middle of it all, telling stories, giving somebody hell. I met Vukovich a few times, but didn't know him as fellow writers Jayson Stark and Jim Salisbury knew him. Much of what I've heard of his influence was learned from conversations with George King, a former Phillies' beat writer who now works at the New York Post; I'm sure Thursday was a very difficult day for George.
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Buster Olney
