Cardinals’ Tudor Apologizes to Media : Pitcher Says He Was ‘Out of Line’ With Reporters During Series

John Tudor, the St. Louis Cardinal pitcher whose splendid work on the mound was at least somewhat overshadowed by his antagonistic sparring with reporters during postseason play, apologized Monday for his behavior.

Tudor, in a phone conversation arranged by his agent, Steve Freyer, said Monday to a Times reporter that he was sorry for comments he made to that reporter during the World Series, which included the suggestion: “Want me to take a swing at you?”

“I wanted to get ahold of you after this whole stuff was over and apologize for the way I acted,” Tudor said from his home in suburban Boston.

Such an apology is rare in relations between professional athletes and the media.

Tudor won two games during the World Series and probably would have been voted the most valuable player had he won the seventh game. Instead, the Cardinals were routed by the Kansas City Royals, 11-0, and Tudor then cut his pitching hand when he punched an electric fan in the St. Louis dugout.

The reviews he got from the national press were no kinder to him than the Royals had been in Game 7.

Wrote Curry Kirkpatrick in Sports Illustrated: “Spare all of us the perplexing Tudor--so neat and graceful on the mound, so graceless, drab, sullen, even mean off it.”

Tudor’s image problem did not begin with the Series finale. It began before the Series and was well under way after what he himself described as the game of his life--a 3-0 shutout of the Royals in Game 4.

When he entered the Cardinal clubhouse after that game, he surveyed the crowd of reporters around his locker and said: “What’s it take to get a media pass, a license?” Then, when a Times reporter asked him why he had been so condescending to reporters during postseason play, at the risk of his personal reputation, Tudor engaged in an exchange that culminated with the suggestion that taking a swing might be in order.

Until this season, Tudor, 31, had never pitched for a winner before, having played for the Boston Red Sox and the Pittsburgh Pirates. He said he wasn’t prepared for the attention he received during the playoffs and World Series. It wasn’t something he reveled in, either.

“I’m not a person who likes to talk about myself,” Tudor said. “And when I have to do it, I kind of resent it.

“Then when you hear 45 questions about the same thing, it tries your patience. And I didn’t respond too well.”

Tudor said that after Game 4, he wanted to savor the game he had just pitched with his teammates, but that he hadn’t even reached the dugout before someone was tugging on his pitching arm, asking him to come over to be interviewed by Reggie Jackson on network TV.

Then it was on to the interview room, where a couple of hundred print reporters awaited, then a series of live TV sessions before he was able to return to the clubhouse--where more reporters awaited.

“It’s too much of a circus,” Tudor said. “My comment about the press pass was out of line, but it was not that far out of focus. I was interviewed by one guy who couldn’t have been out of high school. He couldn’t have been more than 17.

“But this is not an excuse for my action.”

Tudor said he was not surprised by the wave of media criticism.

“Like I told you, people can write whatever they want, I don’t care, so long as it’s the truth,” Tudor said. “And most of what was written was true. A few guys took shots that basically were lies.

“But I’ll take criticism. I knew it was coming. I knew I’d take some heat, and I knew I deserved it.”

Tudor said he wasn’t calling in the hopes of receiving positive publicity, that he just wanted to explain himself and apologize.

Now, he said he hoped to do some scuba diving, one of his favorite off-the-field pursuits. He was supposed to have the stitches removed from the finger in his left hand Monday he said. “I’ll probably just clip ‘em out myself,” he said.