Excerpt from Matt Sieger’s book, The God Squad: The Born-Again San Francisco Giants of 1978
San Francisco Chronicle sportswriter Lowell Cohn did not write many columns about the God Squadders, the born-again Christians on the Giants. He was a columnist, not a beat writer, so he wasn’t in the Giants’ clubhouse every game. Besides, he had to also write about the San Francisco 49ers, the Oakland Raiders, the Golden State Warriors, and the Oakland A’s. But when he did approach the topic, he did it with gusto. He wrote a column, “Can Satan Save the Giants?” on May 7, 1980, which made quite a splash.
On the day the Chronicle published the column, the Giants were in last place in their division with an 8–18 record. In his satirical piece, Cohn concluded that God must hate the Giants.
Lowell Cohn, writing in the San Franciso Chronicle: What does he have against our local heroes? He’s downright prejudiced against them. No question about it. He has them so befuddled they can’t even count the outs. The irony is that the Giants are a God-fearing bunch, if there ever was one. I’ll bet, prayer for prayer, they’re the most God-fearing team in major league baseball. It’s not for me to say why God has singled out the Giants—His ways are very mysterious to man. But as long as things are already shot to hell, I have a suggestion. Join the other team, fellas. Throw in with the Prince of Darkness—the Big D.
Cohn went on to recommend that at least one Giant sell his soul to the devil to turn the team’s season around, just as long-suffering Washington Senators fan Joe Boyd did in the novel, The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, the inspiration for the 1955 musical comedy, Damn Yankees, which in turn generated the movie of the same name (Joe Boyd was renamed Joe Hardy for those productions).
“I was joking around,” Cohn told this author. “I wrote my satire on the soul because that’s what people were talking about. I wasn’t accusing them. I was trying to have fun.” But, as he would soon discover, some of the Giants didn’t get the joke.
In mid-June, the Giants, ten games under .500, were in New York to play the Mets, and Cohn made the rookie journalist mistake of catching a forty-five-minute ride on the team bus from the Giants’ hotel in Manhattan to Shea Stadium in Queens. He didn’t know that no ballplayer wants a sportswriter on the team bus.
Cohn says he never rode the team bus again. But this time, he did and stood while most of the players sat. Cohn, who had been critical of the Giants and other Bay Area writers, told this author: John Montefusco was in the back. He didn’t like me at all. So he started yelling at me. It was more than 40 years ago, but I think he said once, “F___ you, Lowell!” The bus stopped at a light in Manhattan. There was a homeless person on the street, and Montefusco yelled, “See that f___in’ bum, that’s Lowell’s brother!”
I was still standing up. It happened very quickly. There happened to be an empty seat next to Johnnie LeMaster. He grabbed me and said, “Sit down here. I’ll take care of you.” LeMaster was one of my all-time favorite athletes I ever covered. He is the most decent, lovely person.
But he was troubled and said to me, “Why did you write we should sell a soul to the devil?” And I said, “Johnnie, I didn’t mean it. It was satire.” And Johnnie, in the goodness of his heart, said, “What’s satire?” And I’m not putting him down. I love Johnnie. He didn’t know. And I tried to explain, you’re making a joke, and I don’t think I ever adequately explained it to Johnnie. But the point was, even though he disapproved of what I had done, he didn’t disapprove of me. And he protected me from what he saw as a verbal onslaught from Montefusco. And by the way, I don’t have any hard feelings toward Montefusco. God loves John Montefusco. I’m telling you what happened like 43 years ago.
In mid-June, the Giants, ten games under .500, were in New York to play the Mets, and Cohn made the rookie journalist mistake of catching a forty-five-minute ride on the team bus from the Giants’ hotel in Manhattan to Shea Stadium in Queens. He didn’t know that no ballplayer wants a sportswriter on the team bus.
Cohn says he never rode the team bus again. But this time, he did and stood while most of the players sat. Cohn, who had been critical of the Giants and other Bay Area writers, told this author: John Montefusco was in the back. He didn’t like me at all. So he started yelling at me. It was more than 40 years ago, but I think he said once, “F___ you, Lowell!” The bus stopped at a light in Manhattan. There was a homeless person on the street, and Montefusco yelled, “See that f___in’ bum, that’s Lowell’s brother!”
I was still standing up. It happened very quickly. There happened to be an empty seat next to Johnnie LeMaster. He grabbed me and said, “Sit down here. I’ll take care of you.” LeMaster was one of my all-time favorite athletes I ever covered. He is the most decent, lovely person.
But he was troubled and said to me, “Why did you write we should sell a soul to the devil?” And I said, “Johnnie, I didn’t mean it. It was satire.” And Johnnie, in the goodness of his heart, said, “What’s satire?” And I’m not putting him down. I love Johnnie. He didn’t know. And I tried to explain, you’re making a joke, and I don’t think I ever adequately explained it to Johnnie. But the point was, even though he disapproved of what I had done, he didn’t disapprove of me. And he protected me from what he saw as a verbal onslaught from Montefusco. And by the way, I don’t have any hard feelings toward Montefusco. God loves John Montefusco. I’m telling you what happened like 43 years ago.
Matt Sieger, now retired sports reporter/columnist who worked for New York State and California newspapers, did his undergraduate work at Cornell University and received a master’s in journalism from Syracuse University. He is the author of The God Squad: The Born-Again San Francisco Giants of 1978. This article first appeared in The Vacaville (California) Reporter.