Pegasus Interviews Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Palmer

by Justin Smith

Jim Palmer was incredibly nice and really seemed pleased to be there talking about baseball. When I finally got to speak with Mr. Palmer at the "Baseball As America" exhibit preview at the Museum of Nature and Science, I noticed he was much taller than I expected.

Pegasus News: Mr. Palmer, you probably get asked all kinds of questions about memorabilia and what it was like to play the game. But I want to ask you about the Jockey ad. How do you feel the role of athlete endorsements of products has changed since you were a player?

Jim Plamer: When Jockey approached me to do the ad, I was all for it. I donated a portion of the proceeds to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

PN: What I'm asking though, there weren't as many players in sports doing large endorsements back then...

JP: Oh no, they were there. If you look back you can even see Yogi Berra endorsing cigarettes in print ads.

PN: I guess what I am saying is the amount of income that a player can generate from endorsements today can be much higher in comparison to then.

JP: Yeah, I guess you're right. Derek Jeter comes to mind. But the Orioles organization competes for revenue against the Red Sox and the Yankees. And I wanted to stay with that organization for my whole career, so it made financial sense for me to do an endorsement like that because I would never pull a salary like I could if I played for the Yankees.

PN: That actually leads me to my next question. What do you think it will take for Baltimore to be brought back to their former status as one of baseball's most storied franchises?

JP: Well, I don't know, that’s a tough question. They did bring in Andy MacPhail (the new Orioles Chief Operating Officer) who had a ton of success both with Minnesota and Chicago. But again, the Orioles can’t go out and buy big contracts. It has to be done through the farm system and they have to grow good players. We will have to see how the organization does now.