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Speaker 1: Welcome back to the extra in postgame show with Bill Laski.

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Speaker 1: My guess was a four time American League All Star.

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Speaker 1: He also was the American League Cy Young Winner in

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight, a five time goal Glove winner, and

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Speaker 1: in two thousand and three, the New York Yankees retired

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Speaker 1: his number forty nine. Let's welcome in Ron Gidrey. Ron,

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Speaker 1: how are you today?

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Speaker 2: I'm doing well. How are you today?

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Speaker 1: I'm doing great. Pleasure to have you on the twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty six baseball seasons upon us. You pitched fourteen seasons

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Speaker 1: with the New York Yankees. Seven of those you had

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Speaker 1: the opening day start. Can you recall some of the

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Speaker 1: emotions you had going into that opening day?

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Speaker 2: There wasn't really any emotions. You just treated like another start.

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Speaker 2: It's the first start of the year. You're just looking

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Speaker 2: to do the best job that you can. You just

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Speaker 2: came out of spring training, So if you pitched well

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Speaker 2: in the spring, then you want to continue. If you

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Speaker 2: pitch bad in the spring, then you want to make

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Speaker 2: sure that you arned out all your problems. But it's

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Speaker 2: just another game.

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Speaker 1: Well, Ryan, you were one of the best pitchers the

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Speaker 1: Yankees had let's go back in time a little bit.

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Speaker 1: You started in University of Southwestern Louisiana the Raging Cajuns.

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Speaker 1: You pitched there a couple of years, twelve and five,

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Speaker 1: two point h three earned run average, one hundred and

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Speaker 1: thirty seven strikeouts. Were you looking at the time to

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Speaker 1: play major League baseball? Where you're looking to play a

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Speaker 1: little more college baseball because the two years were very successful.

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Speaker 2: I didn't know about the baseball future. I didn't know.

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Speaker 3: You know, your aspirations, you kind.

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Speaker 2: Of doubt because you don't know if you're good enough

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Speaker 2: where you are. And that's a smaller college. I mean,

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Speaker 2: it's the second biggest college in the state of Louisiana,

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Speaker 2: but you don't get a lot of notoriety like an

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Speaker 2: LSU or an Alabama or those big se schools. So

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Speaker 2: I didn't know about that. What the turning point for me, though,

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Speaker 2: is after my sophomore year at UEL, there were three

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Speaker 2: of us from the baseball team that went to play

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Speaker 2: a summer league in Liberal, Kansas. And when you go

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Speaker 2: to those places that they get the best college players.

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Speaker 3: All over the country to come to play.

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Speaker 2: I didn't know that. So all of the guys that

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Speaker 2: I was reading about, Well, I was here at uel

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Speaker 2: Who's who? In college, I played next to them. So

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Speaker 2: that's when that's when my thought process kind of changed,

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Speaker 2: because I went from not being sure if I was

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Speaker 2: good enough to convincing myself, well, you know, these guys

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Speaker 2: are the guys you read about. These are the best

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Speaker 2: that they have in college, and you're doing just as

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Speaker 2: good as they're doing. So maybe you've been looking at

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Speaker 2: this wrong.

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Speaker 1: That voice you hear in the external postgame show is

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Speaker 1: Ron Guidry. You end up getting drafted in nineteen seventy

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Speaker 1: one by the New York Yankees. Of course you sign

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Speaker 1: and you go to the minor leagues. Now let me

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Speaker 1: ask you. Were you a starting pitcher in the minor

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Speaker 1: leagues because you came up in your first year in

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Speaker 1: seventy seven as a relief pitcher. Did you throw a

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Speaker 1: bullpen in those years?

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Speaker 2: Well, I started off as a as a starter, and

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Speaker 2: then when I got to double A. We had signed

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Speaker 2: the two years after that, seventy seventy one and well

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Speaker 2: seventy two and seventy three, we signed a lot of

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Speaker 2: good kids out of high school in college, and the

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Speaker 2: majority of those kids were starters. So when I got

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Speaker 2: to Double A in seventy four, they talked to me

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Speaker 2: about maybe moving in the bullpen. Because they left up

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Speaker 2: to me.

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Speaker 3: I could have declined.

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Speaker 2: I accepted it because I hadn't done anything really worthwhile

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Speaker 2: to brag about as a starter. So I bullpen and

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Speaker 2: I started learning how to pitch out of the bullpit.

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Speaker 2: And when I went to Triple A with Bobby Cox

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Speaker 2: and Triple A, it's when I started to excel as

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Speaker 2: a closer.

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Speaker 4: So when I went up to the Big Club, I

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Speaker 4: was supposed to be a closer in New York at

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Speaker 4: some point in time, but we had the time We

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Speaker 4: had Sparky Lyle who was.

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Speaker 2: A premier closer, so I didn't get to close.

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Speaker 1: Well, Ronnie, you ended up going to the Big LEAs

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Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy seven. Is a relief pitcher. I read

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Speaker 1: a story where Sparky Lyle Tatcha the slider, taught your

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Speaker 1: grip to throw the slider. You had a high velocity fastball.

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Speaker 1: That slider mix you threw in there was just devastating

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Speaker 1: for the arsenal you had. Tell me how you work

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Speaker 1: that into your pitches.

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, when I first got up there, I

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Speaker 2: always threw hard, but I didn't really have a really

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Speaker 2: great breaking ball to compliment the fastball. I had something

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Speaker 2: that I threw, but it wasn't what I wound up with.

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Speaker 2: And I was throwing in the bullpen one day and

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Speaker 2: he walked up to him and he said, look, he said,

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Speaker 2: everybody up here knows you throw as hard as anybody,

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Speaker 2: but you need to come up with a different pitch

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Speaker 2: to compliment you so they don't just keep sitting on that.

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Speaker 2: And he said, I've been watching you throw, and you

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Speaker 2: remind me of just a smaller me. We throw so

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Speaker 2: much alike. Our mechanics. Our mechanics are a lot alike.

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Speaker 3: We both throw over.

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Speaker 2: The top, you know, coming down. And he said, that's

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Speaker 2: all I do with my slider is I just really

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Speaker 2: flipped my wrists at the end of my delivery. And

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Speaker 2: he said, I think that you could do the same thing.

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Speaker 2: So he you know, he said so much as that

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Speaker 2: the grip wasn't the main focus. It was what you

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Speaker 2: did with your wrist to make the ball rotate and

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Speaker 2: go down. So I started working.

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Speaker 3: On just throwing what he was teaching me.

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Speaker 2: And finally when he said okay, he said, you know,

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Speaker 2: now like Okay, tonight. When you throw it, just turn

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Speaker 2: it loose, throw it is, think of it as a fastball.

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Speaker 2: Throw it as hard as you have, and just bust

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Speaker 2: your wrists over at the end. And that's all I

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Speaker 2: started doing, And all of a sudden, you know, it

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Speaker 2: developed into what I called Muslider.

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Speaker 1: Ron Gidrey joining me on the Externing postgame show Louisiana Lightning.

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Speaker 1: I love that nickname of you. You ended up going

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Speaker 1: into the rotation that year. In seventy seven, you finished

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Speaker 1: sixteen and seven. You guys won your first World Series and.

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Speaker 2: It went really well.

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Speaker 1: But in nineteen seventy eight, boy, oh boy, what a

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Speaker 1: fantastic year you had. That was the you won the

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Speaker 1: Alsy Young twenty five and three, two hundred and seventy

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Speaker 1: three and two thirds innings of sparkling, one point seven

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Speaker 1: to four earned run average, nine shutout, sixteen complete games.

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Speaker 1: Everything was consistent when you went out there every game.

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Speaker 1: How did you stay in that same realm of thinking?

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Speaker 1: How did you stay in that same way of staying

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Speaker 1: in focus?

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Speaker 2: Well, I try to explain it. It takes a while

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Speaker 2: to explain. But the team and I as a pitcher

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Speaker 2: on a on a on a baseball team. We just

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Speaker 2: played so well together, they would It started off as

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Speaker 2: a small joke and then it just grew from there

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Speaker 2: because season we we didn't plays as great as we did.

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Speaker 2: Say that like the second half, because at one point

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Speaker 2: in time, we actually woke up one morning and we

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Speaker 2: were fourteen games behind balls as late as June. So

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Speaker 2: I kept winning. I kept pitching. I wasn't pitching as

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Speaker 2: dominant as I was later on, but I was winning

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Speaker 2: and I was pitching well. And we came into a

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Speaker 2: series in New York one afternoon and I walked in

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Speaker 2: from the bullpen, sat on the dugout, and Mickey Rivers

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Speaker 2: my center field. To be in his comical selfhe he

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Speaker 2: let he kind of bent over from where he was

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Speaker 2: sitting on the bench, and I know he said it

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Speaker 2: as a joke the first time, but he said, Gator,

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Speaker 2: He said, how many runs do you think we need

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Speaker 2: to score today for you to win? And I said,

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Speaker 2: if you give me two early games over And you know,

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Speaker 2: you say something like that in just in jest, because

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Speaker 2: you know what he meant. And the ironic thing is

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Speaker 2: like I got two runs in the first inning, so

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Speaker 2: you know, like it started where I would not go

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Speaker 2: out and give up anything, and then you know, we

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Speaker 2: could score more runs later on. But if you weren't,

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Speaker 2: if you couldn't score the two runs to get even

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Speaker 2: with me, you probably weren't gonna beat me that day

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Speaker 2: that year. And that's how it kept on it. It

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Speaker 2: just kept on building up. And I would come in

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Speaker 2: from games, I mean from the bullpen and when he

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Speaker 2: would ask me how much you what you need tonight

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Speaker 2: and not go one and he'd get He'd get a

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Speaker 2: base hit, steal, will he ran off with bunt, Thurman

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Speaker 2: would hit a ground ball, I'd get one run, and

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Speaker 2: I'd look in the opposing dugout and they'd be picking

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Speaker 2: up their equipment already. It's that's the kind of year

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Speaker 2: you have. It was just something that I was fortunate

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Speaker 2: to go through one time in my whole career where

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Speaker 2: everything was just falling into place. Whatever you wanted to do,

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Speaker 2: you could do. It don't always work that way, though,

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Speaker 2: but it did that year.

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Speaker 1: Boy, what a fascinating year you had. Ryan, When you

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Speaker 1: talk about Thurman Munson just now, and a battery mate

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Speaker 1: is always what you want behind the plate, somebody that

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Speaker 1: you can just correspond with something that both of you

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Speaker 1: think about same picture town, same thought pattern. What did

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Speaker 1: he do to you to build that confidence out there?

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Speaker 2: Well, he he took away all of the thought process.

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Speaker 2: Because I was young at the time. I mean, it's

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Speaker 2: my second full year. I'm still you know, getting to

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Speaker 2: know what's going I'm still considered, you know, the new

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Speaker 2: kid on the block.

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Speaker 3: So the first meeting that him and.

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Speaker 2: I ever had as a starting picture to Catcher, he

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Speaker 2: walked up to me and he said, okay, he said,

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Speaker 2: and he showed me one finger and he looked at

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Speaker 2: me and goes, what is that you know? And I'm

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Speaker 2: My first response was this is a trick question. So

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Speaker 2: I said, it's finger. He said yeah, but what does

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Speaker 2: it represent? I said one? He said yeah. He said,

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Speaker 2: that's your fastball. When you see me, give you that,

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Speaker 2: give me the best one you got. And I said okay.

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Speaker 2: So then he held up number three and he said.

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Speaker 4: What is that?

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Speaker 2: I said, well, that's a slider. He said yeah, when

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Speaker 2: you see me, give you that one. Give me the

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Speaker 2: best one you got. And he said that's all you

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Speaker 2: need to know. Trust me, and we'll get by. And

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Speaker 2: you know, he took all of the thought process away

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Speaker 2: from me standing on the mound. So whenever I looked in,

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Speaker 2: whatever I saw, I through and that's all it was.

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Speaker 2: It was easy as that.

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Speaker 1: And the confidence you both had, boy oh boy, one

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Speaker 1: after another. You guys just did so well together.

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Speaker 2: Ron.

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Speaker 1: You know, one of the things that I look at

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Speaker 1: is being a Gold Glove winner. It's a fascinating award

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Speaker 1: for a pitcher. You did it five times. I looked

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Speaker 1: up these numbers. Fourteen years. You only made eight errors.

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Speaker 1: I literally looked at it again.

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Speaker 3: Eight mort They all of them will probably throw.

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Speaker 2: Well sometimes, you know, sometimes as when you're when you're

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Speaker 2: catching and then you're throwing. Sometimes it's it's it's fast,

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Speaker 2: you know, you got to make hurry throws sometimes as

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Speaker 2: far as the fielding, I did this to too many

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Speaker 2: ground balls and line drives and stuff. Uh. You know,

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Speaker 2: if you knock down a line drive and you don't

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Speaker 2: throw a guy out, it's considered a base hit. But

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Speaker 2: a lot of times when you get those choppers or

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Speaker 2: those ground ball you know, you might have a Ricky

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Speaker 2: Henderson or Willie Wilson running, you got to hurry up

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Speaker 2: and throw. You throw the ball away, you know, and

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Speaker 2: then what happens is their speed, they'll go to second.

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Speaker 2: So advancing a base you get stuck with an error. Now,

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Speaker 2: if if he's safe at first and the first basement

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Speaker 2: cuts the ball off, he probably gets a hit, but

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Speaker 2: you're not credited an error. But if you throw a ball,

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Speaker 2: then you get credited in the error. And I can

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Speaker 2: remember a couple of those. So it's not like you

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Speaker 2: miss a ball and you you blatantly do something really bad.

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Speaker 2: I know the first era that I made, I fielded

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Speaker 2: a bunt and I hummed that ball down the right

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Speaker 2: field line on the first base side, and I was

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Speaker 2: so embarrassed that I had convinced myself I'd never do

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Speaker 2: something like that again. So I prided myself for fifty

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Speaker 2: ground balls every day during spring training to make sure

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Speaker 2: that I had a jump start on fielding ground balls.

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Speaker 1: Well, Ron, you know, being left handed, of course, feeling

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Speaker 1: the ball, you had to make a full turn to

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Speaker 1: make that throw to first, especially covering first base, you

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Speaker 1: had to throw off the right side of the mound

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Speaker 1: and then make that three sixty and bust tail the

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Speaker 1: first base. You were pretty quick in speed, but you

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Speaker 1: had to work out a lot on that.

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, you always work on that, but you know,

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Speaker 2: because of my mccam, I always had what everybody looks at.

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Speaker 2: They always said I had a little hop at the

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Speaker 2: end of my delivery. So as I threw the ball,

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Speaker 2: and I kind of I actually got to be two

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Speaker 2: or three feet closer to home plate than normal because

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Speaker 2: of the jump that I had. I just didn't throw

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Speaker 2: and turn or spin it or stop. Once my right

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Speaker 2: foot hit the ground, I actually jumped two or three

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Speaker 2: feet above that. So when I would hit the ground,

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Speaker 2: I was actually still moving. So if you hit balls

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Speaker 2: or you bunted, I was already moving when I saw

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Speaker 2: what you were doing. And you have an idea when

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Speaker 2: guys bunt, or you have an idea who are good bunners,

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Speaker 2: drag bunners and stuff like that. Like Rod Carup was

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Speaker 2: an excellent bunner. So the guys that you know are

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Speaker 2: capable of doing it, you make a mental note of

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Speaker 2: doing that. So as you release the ball and you're

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Speaker 2: going through your delivery, by the time that you're going

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Speaker 2: through all of that and your right foot is hitting

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Speaker 2: the ground and you're going through your last millisecond of delivery,

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Speaker 2: they're doing if they're going to drag bunt, their bad

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Speaker 2: is is you know, off their shoulders, so you know

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Speaker 2: it's a bunt, and if they square around to bunch,

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Speaker 2: they generally square around to bunt before you even throw

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Speaker 2: the pitch, so you know what's going on. But like

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Speaker 2: I said, most of the time, I was already moving

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Speaker 2: before you bunted the ball, so all I had to

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Speaker 2: see was did you bunt it left or right?

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Speaker 1: And I just adjusted a few more minutes with Ron

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Speaker 1: Guderia on the Extra Inning postgame show, one of the

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Speaker 1: things that happens very very instantly is an immaculate inning.

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Speaker 1: Nine pitches, nine strikes, three strikeouts. You did that on

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Speaker 1: August seventh, nineteen eighty four against fish patarc and Lozinski.

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Speaker 1: Three tough pitch of three tough hitters that you went after,

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Speaker 1: and you did it.

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Speaker 2: You know, it was the ninth inning, and if I'm

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Speaker 2: not mistaken, I think that was a shutout. It was. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: so you know you're you're going out there to make sure.

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Speaker 2: Now I had more than what was the score of

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Speaker 2: the game, three four or five nothing?

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Speaker 1: I think it was four zero.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so you have runs to play with. The

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Speaker 2: worst that the first guy can do is a solo,

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Speaker 2: So you could give up three.

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Speaker 3: Solo home runs that still win that game.

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Speaker 2: So I went out and like I always did, I

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Speaker 2: went out to make it as hard on you as

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Speaker 2: I could. I wasn't going to leave anything behind. And

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Speaker 2: then I had been throwing the ball fairly well all day.

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Speaker 2: So when I went out that for the ninth inning,

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Speaker 2: you know, I just said, Okay, you're not walking a

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Speaker 2: guy because you don't give up a lot a lot

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Speaker 2: of leadoff home runs. But every time you walk a

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Speaker 2: guy to.

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Speaker 3: Lead off and then it seems like he scores.

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Speaker 2: So do not walk a guy. So I just, you know,

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Speaker 2: just challenged Lozinski and you know, I struck him out.

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Speaker 2: And then the next guy, you know, was basically the same.

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Speaker 2: And then I didn't know about the nine pitch thing,

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Speaker 2: not until I've gotten the dougout. Did somebody come over

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Speaker 2: to say, hey, man, you know what you did? You

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Speaker 2: know that's called an immaculate in And I said, no,

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Speaker 2: I don't know, I'm not worried about it.

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Speaker 1: Well, it was very impressive. As we finish up with

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Speaker 1: Ron Kidriy. In two thousand and three, the New York

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Speaker 1: Yankees put a beautiful plaque in Monument Park with your

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Speaker 1: dedication to number forty nine being retired on that plaque,

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Speaker 1: it said a dominating pitcher, a respected leader, a true Yankee.

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Speaker 1: How emotional was that that day when they retired your

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Speaker 1: number and you saw that plaque?

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Speaker 2: Well, like I said, you know, I knew that. I

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Speaker 2: knew they were retiring my number. You know, they had

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Speaker 2: the family had said Okay, well you know they're going

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Speaker 2: to retire your numberah blah blah blah. And that was fine.

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Speaker 2: You know, it was quite an honor because you don't,

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Speaker 2: you know, you get there, you want to play, you

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Speaker 2: want to do the best job that you can. And

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Speaker 2: then when you leave, uh, you know, you're you're you're

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Speaker 2: asking yourself, did I do enough? While I was here

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Speaker 2: for the for the organization. So you know, for me,

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Speaker 2: I got an answer they were retiring my number. But

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Speaker 2: but I just completely for god that you know, if

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Speaker 2: they retire your number, you get a plaque. And when

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Speaker 2: I didn't, I didn't really have any emotion about the

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Speaker 2: whole day until I walked out and dugout and I

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Speaker 2: realized that the plaque was. It was cover at the time,

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Speaker 2: but I realized what it was, and that's when it

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Speaker 2: hit me what was really going on? You know, you

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Speaker 2: you not only do you get your number retard, but

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Speaker 2: you get a plackout in center field, and that time

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Speaker 2: they didn't have very many out there, so you know,

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Speaker 2: it was quite an honor to know that your name

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Speaker 2: was going up there with all of the guys who

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Speaker 2: have played in the past and have done the same

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Speaker 2: thing and had their numbers retired and had a plaqueoff there.

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Speaker 1: Well, Ron, I appreciate your time today on a fascinating

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Speaker 1: career and reminiscing some of the great points. Thank you

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Speaker 1: once again for joining an externing postgame show.

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Speaker 2: Well, you're quite welcome.

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Speaker 1: That was Ron Gidriy on the Externing Postgame Show. More

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Speaker 1: coming up right here on K and br D Sports

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Speaker 1: later