Choo-Choo Coleman - Quotes

Quotes

While Coleman never had success as a player, he became somewhat famous for his malapropisms. Perhaps most famous was an interview on Kiner's Korner, the Mets post-game show. Host Ralph Kiner liked to tell the story, during game broadcasts, about how Choo-Choo didn't say much and was very hard to interview. Coleman also had a bad memory for names, and called everybody "Bub". Ralph explained that he had run out of questions for Coleman, so he asked Choo-Choo, "What's your wife's name and what's she like?" Choo-Choo replied "My wife's name is Mrs. Coleman and she likes me, Bub." Another time, Kiner asked Clarence how he had gotten the name Choo-Choo. "I don't know, Ralph," was the answer.

Casey Stengel once referred to him as "the best low-ball catcher in baseball", a commodity the early Mets staff probably needed.

In 1963, during Duke Snider's only year with the Mets, he told a reporter how Choo-Choo did not know his name, despite the fact that he and Snider had spent months on the same team. The reporter did not believe him. To prove his point, Snider said to the Mets catcher, "Choo-Choo, do you know me?" Choo-Choo replied, "Yes, you're number 4." Roger Craig once said: "Choo-Choo would give you the sign and then look down to see what it was."

The authors of The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book, Brendan C. Boyd & Fred C. Harris, Little Brown & Co, 1973, had this to say about Coleman on p. 37, next to a picture of his baseball card: "Choo-Choo Coleman was the quintessence of the early New York Mets. He was a 5'8", 160-pound catcher who never hit over .250 in the majors, had 9 career home runs, 30 career RBIs, and couldn't handle pitchers. Plus his name was Choo-Choo. What more could you ask for?"