I've posted a lot about Whitaker over the years, he is my favorite all time player. I've shared this story on the old board, but I will here again.
When Lou was a rookie, hitting coach Gates Brown was giving him some "advice" in the batting cage. Whitaker said something to the effect, "I know how to hit." I don't know if Joe Falls was standing right there, or if he heard the story second hand, but he printed it, and in a such a way it made Lou look cocky and uncoachable. In reality, he was just being his very confident self, and was not showing up Brown. But after that, he was quiet to the media. I've never seen a time when he went after the media, he would just not say more than he wanted to, which wasn't very much. He just let his play to the talking for him. Which, as we've discussed many times, is HOF worthy.
He may get the **** Allen treatment and be elected after he dies, and then labeled "misunderstood." But, in my opinion, he never tried to be more than he was to please anyone. He was just a quiet, deeply religious person who was a great baseball player.