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Speaker 1: Welcome back to all the smoke Baseball. See why it's

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Speaker 1: It's been a fun day, got some work in and

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Speaker 1: we got to get to finish with one of the

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Speaker 1: greatest of all.

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Speaker 2: Time, of all time, I've been I've been looking forward

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Speaker 2: to dive in on this one.

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Speaker 1: Twelve time All Star, seven time Gold Glove, Hall of Famer,

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Speaker 1: three thousand hits, top twenty RBI is one of the

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Speaker 1: best athletes. I can't wait to get into that of

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Speaker 1: all time. Welcome to the show, Dave Winfields. Appreciate it,

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Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, thank you for here. Yes, you

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Speaker 1: have a new book coming out, I do. It'll come

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Speaker 1: out in September. Touch here, touching there. It is touching

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Speaker 1: all the bases.

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Speaker 3: And I've had a lot on my mind, in my

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Speaker 3: heart and in my career.

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Speaker 4: And you reach a certain time in life you say

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Speaker 4: it's time to talk about this because there's so many

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Speaker 4: years that I've played, and you know, you have a

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Speaker 4: life away from baseball, and you know, sometimes they play

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Speaker 4: with your name, they play with your legacy, they played

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Speaker 4: with you know.

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Speaker 3: I got sick of that because I had.

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Speaker 4: Battled too much for you know, your integrity, your legacy,

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Speaker 4: the truth, and you can't fight it every day sometimes,

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Speaker 4: so you step back, and I'll be.

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Speaker 3: Straight with you, guys man, for.

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Speaker 4: Many years, despite me having played well just about every

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Speaker 4: year that I played, it was never easy. There were

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Speaker 4: some of the hardest, toughest years of my entire life.

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Speaker 3: On the field and away from the game.

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Speaker 4: I could pick fifteen years almost in a row that

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Speaker 4: were horrible, terrible, And I mean, I do elaborate open

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Speaker 4: up on a lot of these things in the book,

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Speaker 4: and I'll just mention that it's interesting. I'll be doing

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Speaker 4: a documentary later on as well.

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Speaker 3: I don't won't call them companion pieces, and I don't

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Speaker 3: want them to eat up one another. If you will

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Speaker 3: cannibalize one another. But you know it's time.

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Speaker 4: I mean, you reach a certain age. You know you

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Speaker 4: can talk about it. I can tell the truth. I

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Speaker 4: ain't worried about it, fighting about it, reading the newspaper

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Speaker 4: he said, she said, or social media, which didn't exist, right.

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Speaker 4: I got tired of get driving down the street in

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Speaker 4: New York and you know you're looking at the newspapers.

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Speaker 3: Stand Winfield. This this has happening.

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Speaker 1: And it's only one sided too, And I think not

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Speaker 1: to cut you off. That's the one thing that I

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Speaker 1: found out more in this baseball space since we've been

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Speaker 1: doing baseball interviews was a majority of our guys Chris

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Speaker 1: that we talked to, there was no social media. So

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Speaker 1: whatever the ball club has said about him, or whatever

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Speaker 1: the paper had said about him, or if ESPN at

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Speaker 1: the time had said something, we never got their side

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Speaker 1: of the story. And for someone who had a little

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Speaker 1: touch of trouble during my career, understanding what they put

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Speaker 1: out about me what actually happened. Sometimes it's night and day.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes it's spot on, but sometimes it was not. So

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Speaker 1: what I found with the Kenny interview and some ed

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Speaker 1: stuff we did, these guys really have a lot. And

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Speaker 1: I'm excited too because you already said you got a

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Speaker 1: lot to get off yourchest, so we don't get all

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Speaker 1: that off your chest today. But I think it's almost

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Speaker 1: therapeutic to kind of be able to speak your truth

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Speaker 1: after all this time of having to hold it in.

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Speaker 2: Even the landscape of the time that you were playing

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Speaker 2: in and the comfort that one would have even had

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Speaker 2: to speak your mind in a certain time. So I

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Speaker 2: guess my first question before we even get into it,

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Speaker 2: is what or who helped you make this decision that

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Speaker 2: it was time to put this all.

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Speaker 4: On paper, thought about it for years. I had so

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Speaker 4: much documentary things. There are articles I had a friend

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Speaker 4: gave me. It was almost like a library that large books,

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Speaker 4: you know, books this size that have all the newspaper

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Speaker 4: clippings in them, and I mean like when you stacked

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Speaker 4: them up on their side there this why it was

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Speaker 4: like people look at this and.

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Speaker 3: They read this and they really, this is going on,

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Speaker 3: this has happened. That was part of it.

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Speaker 4: I tell you a good friend of mine and you

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Speaker 4: guys know him, Antoine Fuqua, you know, work with Denzel

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Speaker 4: and everything. We know each other well enough, we've been

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Speaker 4: friends and everything. He said, day, you got to tell

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Speaker 4: your story. And this was around COVID time and he

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Speaker 4: was working on other projects, he said, but you got

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Speaker 4: to tell your story. So he was looking at the

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Speaker 4: cinematic part, not necessarily writing the book, but during COVID

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Speaker 4: it was you know, you're not hanging out with a

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Speaker 4: lot of people. So and I word processed pretty well,

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Speaker 4: you know, quickly. So I just I downloaded four hundred pages,

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Speaker 4: you know, without really having to refer to other things.

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Speaker 4: I said, I just had to get it out and

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Speaker 4: then later on and you work with people that bring

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Speaker 4: it into existence. But just the other thing I have

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Speaker 4: to say about it, it's like, sometimes you want your

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Speaker 4: I want my kids, I want my relatives, my family,

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Speaker 4: future family to know, Oh, this was Dad, or this

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Speaker 4: was Uncle Dave, or this was grandfather Dave. This is

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Speaker 4: what he did, what he went through. So it's not

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Speaker 4: somebody else's story, it's his story. And even later on,

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Speaker 4: I know I'll do the audio version audiobook so people

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Speaker 4: can hear that too, And I just know friends who

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Speaker 4: have done that, they say, oh, I want to hear

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Speaker 4: your real, authentic voice, what you were thinking, what you

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Speaker 4: were saying. So I think it's important to document your

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Speaker 4: truth going forward, especially in a time where people trying

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Speaker 4: to erase history.

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Speaker 5: I love that.

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Speaker 2: And thinking about we're going to start in the beginning,

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Speaker 2: when you first enter the game and you being outspoken

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Speaker 2: at this point, it reminds me of somebody else that

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Speaker 2: has been outspoken for a long time. And as Reggie Jackson,

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Speaker 2: you coming in the league, Reggie Jackson, Joe Morgan, lou Brock,

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Speaker 2: those were the black faces, the superstars of the game.

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Speaker 2: As you Brooke came in, who were the guys that

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Speaker 2: you idolized, that really drew you to baseball.

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Speaker 5: Who were the players you looked up to?

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Speaker 3: Well understand, I grew up in the fifties and sixties.

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Speaker 3: You know, we didn't have cable TV.

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Speaker 4: You know, we barely had a television, you know, to

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Speaker 4: watch sports. But the key people Willie Mays got a

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Speaker 4: chance to play against him, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Folks

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Speaker 4: like that. And when I got to the big leagues,

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Speaker 4: whether it was spring training or whatever I got in

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Speaker 4: my first year, I appreciate these guys. Dusty Baker, we're contemporaries,

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Speaker 4: Bob Watson. I mean, they don't have to be the

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Speaker 4: biggest names out there. But they were intelligent, They were

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Speaker 4: good players. They pull you to the side. I remember

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Speaker 4: even Dick Allen pulling me over. He said he saw

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Speaker 4: me hit the first time. He said, young man, I

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Speaker 4: like the way you played the game. He said, save

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Speaker 4: your money and get you some real estate. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 4: But we couldn't do much back then, because I tell you,

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Speaker 4: the times are so different. You know, you hear young

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Speaker 4: bloods talking about I would have done this. I would

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Speaker 4: have done No, you wouldn't because you can't imagine a

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Speaker 4: time when rookie salary was fifteen thousand dollars. That wasn't

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Speaker 4: your meal money going on a road trip. You're rookie,

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Speaker 4: you make fifteen thousand dollars. The average player was making

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Speaker 4: thirty five. Top was people like Dick Allen and maybe

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Speaker 4: Hank Aaron or somebody at the end. One hundred and

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Speaker 4: twenty five, one hundred and fifty. They can't imagine a

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Speaker 4: time there was no free agency. They can't imagine the

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Speaker 4: time there was no arbitration. They can't imagine a time

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Speaker 4: when your pension was pitiful, your medical was woeful. It

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Speaker 4: was you had to get a job in the off season.

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Speaker 4: You know what I mean. You genuinely had to love

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Speaker 4: the game.

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Speaker 3: Oh you did?

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Speaker 4: You did? You genuinely love the game. I love the

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Speaker 4: guys who came before me. You know, I was a

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Speaker 4: little bit of a history and you know, hear about

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Speaker 4: the Negro leagues, But until I met Buck O'Neil, and

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Speaker 4: that's a whole story in itself, and so many guys

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Speaker 4: in the Negro leagues, I went out on a limb

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Speaker 4: and did a lot for them because I wanted to

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Speaker 4: see them get their do smell the roses while they're alive,

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Speaker 4: make people respect them while they were alive and were

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Speaker 4: I was able to do some really good things for

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Speaker 4: them with them because I looked at that was like family.

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Speaker 4: They went through a lot, and then I was able

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Speaker 4: to take it to the next.

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Speaker 2: Level when I talked to my parents. You know, I

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Speaker 2: didn't know either one of my grandfathers. They passed away

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Speaker 2: when I was young. But as I talked to my

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Speaker 2: parents and they tell me stories about my grandparents and

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Speaker 2: how much they, especially my grandfather's, how much they loved the.

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Speaker 5: Game of baseball.

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Speaker 2: Like baseball was a game that black men played on

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Speaker 2: a regular basis, even and it was represented in the

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Speaker 2: major leagues. You saw a lot of black players in

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Speaker 2: the major leagues. Almost twenty five percent of the league

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Speaker 2: was black. And then you get into the seventies, between

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Speaker 2: seventy three and seventy six, you see this dramatic decline

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Speaker 2: of the black baseball player.

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Speaker 5: You were playing here at the time.

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Speaker 2: What did you notice going on around the league and

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Speaker 2: what do you think were the causes that we saw

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Speaker 2: this decline happening? And was it obvious as it was happening.

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Speaker 4: Actually, I wrote a book on this. I was working

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Speaker 4: with the Padres as an advisor at the time, and

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Speaker 4: people used to tell me, you know, people of color, man,

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Speaker 4: you know, I want to play baseball, you know, because

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Speaker 4: they started hearing about the money in the game.

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Speaker 3: I said, holdly twenty seven, I said, man, you.

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Speaker 4: Gotta try to I told yeah, you're too late man

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Speaker 4: to jump in the world had evolved. And I'm gonna

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Speaker 4: tell you, Matt, you know, nowadays people look at a

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Speaker 4: black kid normally they're thinking about, I want to play basketball.

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Speaker 4: They want to play basketball because of what Irvin and

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Speaker 4: Kobe and Bird and a lot of people like. But

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Speaker 4: when Bill Russell was winning ten twelve champions said people

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Speaker 4: didn't care about basketball. They said, I don't care. They

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Speaker 4: didn't Basketball wasn't big football. You got to think about this.

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Speaker 4: Even when they had the first Super Bowl, they didn't

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Speaker 4: even think that would succeed.

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Speaker 3: Baseball was the sport in America.

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Speaker 4: It's hard again once, you know, for people to believe

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Speaker 4: or understand that they thought the first Super Bowl would

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Speaker 4: be an abject failure.

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Speaker 3: So whoever was leading away.

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Speaker 4: They should have fired though, you know, because that's the

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Speaker 4: biggest sports day of the year. But America began to change.

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Speaker 4: Now you're in a period of time and it's happened.

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Speaker 4: For the last thirty forty years, it's been going in

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Speaker 4: this direction where oh, there are other options to play

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Speaker 4: professional sports, to have fun, to enjoy, even tennis. Think

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Speaker 4: about playing on tennis before Serena and you know her sister.

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Speaker 4: And basketball, like I said, wasn't that big of a thing.

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Speaker 4: I mean, of course there were stars, but you didn't

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Speaker 4: hear about again, contemporaries Julius Irving and stuff.

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Speaker 3: I mean, doctor j you'd hear about him, but it

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Speaker 3: was more.

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Speaker 1: The finals were tape delayed. You didn't get to watch

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Speaker 1: the finals live.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, oh yeah.

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Speaker 4: So baseball was the sport and now it's changed where

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Speaker 4: it's pay to play, you know that whole youth baseball,

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Speaker 4: the youth baseball business. I think they estimate it's probably

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Speaker 4: about thirty billion. When I started in Major League Baseball.

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Speaker 4: All the Major League Baseball teams will probably value at

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Speaker 4: two and.

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Speaker 5: A half billion collectively.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, you could buy the New York Yankees for ten

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Speaker 4: million in seventy three, for ten million.

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Speaker 3: Now we're sitting here, man, can with ten you want ten?

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Speaker 4: You want to get Chris you know so? I mean,

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Speaker 4: but it just evolved. And then you talk about pay

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Speaker 4: to play. Kids of color, you can't pay for it, training,

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Speaker 4: travel equipment, equipment.

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Speaker 3: Parents taking off work to go to your tournament.

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Speaker 4: Pay to play is really that's one of the bigger things.

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Speaker 4: And then just the interest in other sports. You know,

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Speaker 4: you can't you can't blink, you can't take it for

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Speaker 4: granted that you're gonna be number one sport forever.

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Speaker 3: Like I said, football.

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Speaker 4: Got hot, Basketball got hot, and baseball kind of sat

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Speaker 4: on his haunches for a while, and kids of.

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Speaker 3: Color quit playing.

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Speaker 4: They had the academies and Dominican and everything else, and shoot,

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Speaker 4: kids go to sleep.

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Speaker 3: Their pillow was a glove.

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Speaker 4: You know, it's either played baseball or go cut some

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Speaker 4: sugarcane what you want to do.

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Speaker 3: So it's been an evolution. I called it in the

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Speaker 3: book I wrote called Dropping the Ball back in like

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Speaker 3: two thousand and eight.

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Speaker 4: I talked about a lot of these things and estimated

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Speaker 4: what it was going to be like. I know what

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Speaker 4: it was like for Jack ke Robinson to be the first,

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Speaker 4: and I had part of a chapter about what's it

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Speaker 4: going to be like for that kid that may be

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Speaker 4: the last? So but you could you look it up

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Speaker 4: dropping the ball. I wrote that back in two thousand

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Speaker 4: and eight, what.

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Speaker 1: Was life like off the field in the seventies for

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Speaker 1: a black baseball superstar.

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Speaker 4: It's a good question, one perspective on this, and it's

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Speaker 4: funny today I can look at there are so many

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Speaker 4: people of color who are involved in other aspects of

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Speaker 4: the game where they weren't before. There was maybe one

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Speaker 4: black agent. I'm sure there were no black money managers.

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Speaker 4: I never ran it or CEOs of their company. There

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Speaker 4: were no billionaires, there were no millionaires. They didn't known

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Speaker 4: pieces of teams like they do today.

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Speaker 3: Didn't exist.

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Speaker 4: And a kid with some of my friends and who

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Speaker 4: were you know, founders and different things, I said, Man,

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Speaker 4: you guys just didn't exist when we came up through

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Speaker 4: the system.

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Speaker 3: I'm glad to see you here.

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Speaker 4: I'm happy for all the guys who can benefit and people,

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Speaker 4: you know, a diverse group of people that can participate

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Speaker 4: in this industry. I would say that that's a big difference.

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Speaker 3: But as.

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Speaker 4: Players, you know that people of color many times I

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Speaker 4: can say it, you know, very skilled, compassion passionate about

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Speaker 4: how they play the game. We play it in a

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Speaker 4: unique way. The guys were the fastest, hit the most

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Speaker 4: home runs. The two people that were on my wall

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Speaker 4: when I even through college as a here one was

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Speaker 4: Willie McCovey. Fortunately we became we were teammates at one

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Speaker 4: point in San Diego Big Stretch because he'd walk up

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Speaker 4: the home plate and the pictures would look and he'd

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Speaker 4: just tap home plate and you could see the picture.

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Speaker 4: You know, here hime big Mac and he was one.

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Speaker 4: And on the other was Bob Gibson. I envisioned myself

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Speaker 4: being Bob Gibson because in high school and everything, here's.

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Speaker 3: A man who had an e r A of.

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Speaker 4: One point one two for a whole season, got about

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Speaker 4: twenty two wins, about nineteen complete games. You know, stuff

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Speaker 4: that people will never do. And he was a basketball player.

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Speaker 4: He was athletic, and back in the day they would

295
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Speaker 4: could knock you down. You know, you're not just gonna

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Speaker 4: get up there and dig in. And there's plenty of

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Speaker 4: stories that are true.

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Speaker 3: They you know, dude, walk up there and try to

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Speaker 3: dig in. Tell take time. We got to take time.

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Speaker 3: And they said, don't do it. Man, that's about Gibbs.

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Speaker 3: Don't do it.

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Speaker 4: And next thing you know, they're in the dirt and

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Speaker 4: if you played really well, you may get one in

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Speaker 4: the shoulder, the collar bone and helmet or whatever.

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Speaker 5: Too comfortable in the box.

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Speaker 4: Oh you know nowadays if they throw one, actually they

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Speaker 4: don't do it again. Shoot, you can take your helmet

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Speaker 4: off and say come on now, because they can't throw

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Speaker 4: at you again, they're out of the game. So, I mean,

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Speaker 4: there are a lot of different differences in the game.

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Speaker 4: I would still recommend to anybody who play the sport.

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Speaker 3: I love it. My brother and I played it. We

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Speaker 3: played all the time. Play catch, switch, hit, makeup games

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Speaker 3: off the stairs, off the church, play strikeout or home

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Speaker 3: run derby, makeup games. Kids now days, if you told

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Speaker 3: them to make up again, I don't know how. There's

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Speaker 3: no coach. I don't have nine guys.

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Speaker 1: First of all, they're not even going to go outside

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Speaker 1: these days, Like you got to get them off the

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Speaker 1: video games and the electronics to go outside, which is insane.

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Speaker 1: When we talk about the best athletes in Major league history,

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Speaker 1: you have to be right up there at the top

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Speaker 1: of the list. Obviously, you know, Bo and Dion were

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Speaker 1: be able to play multiple sports, but you were drafted

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Speaker 1: to four sports leagues in one year. Yeah, the Padres

326
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Speaker 1: the Atlanta Hawks. I don't know if they're Atlanta, the

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Speaker 1: NBA Hawks, Yeah, ABA Jazz, and then the NFL for

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Speaker 1: your hometown, the Vikings. I mean, how does that happen?

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Speaker 4: Well, it wouldn't happen today because they don't have two

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Speaker 4: basketball leagues. But you know, my last year of college

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Speaker 4: was it was extremely good and part of a lot

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Speaker 4: of these things I'll cover in my book documentary. The

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Speaker 4: interesting part is I played basketball for the University of

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Speaker 4: Minnesota only a freshman year that said, so I'm not

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Speaker 4: interested in this, so I'm going to play baseball. I

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Speaker 4: ended up playing the last two years. Because you probably

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Speaker 4: know him, you know his son probably Bill Musselman, was

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Speaker 4: the first coach of the Timberwolves. He was our coach

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Speaker 4: at Minnesota, and there's whole stories about that were we

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Speaker 4: missed our chance, I think, to make Minnesota a basketball powerhouse.

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Speaker 4: We were still very good, but they didn't know how

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Speaker 4: to put all the pieces together and keep them together

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Speaker 4: where people I think they would have put up with

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Speaker 4: the snow and the sleep. I'm gonna go to Minnesota

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Speaker 4: if people want to go to Arkansas or Mississippi State

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Speaker 4: or you know some places that are really out of

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Speaker 4: the way. They would Minnesota was a good place to go.

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Speaker 4: But I ended up having my senior year just get

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Speaker 4: to the point we won the Big Ten. In basketball,

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Speaker 4: we won the junior year. Senior year we tied, so

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Speaker 4: they didn't let we tied to win the Big Ten.

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Speaker 4: They didn't let us have it out right, so another

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Speaker 4: team went to the playoffs. But in baseball, I had

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Speaker 4: an extremely good year. I was an MVP, what they

355
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Speaker 4: call the most Outstanding Player of the College World Series

356
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Speaker 4: as a pitcher and a hitter, and so I was

357
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Speaker 4: a number I was the number four pick in the country.

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Speaker 3: I said, who these other three do? No, but I

359
00:20:37,160 --> 00:20:40,359
Speaker 3: had an extremely good year and played the basketball. And

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Speaker 3: then the Vikings just looked at it and said, this

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Speaker 3: big old.

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Speaker 4: Dude about six six could run jump.

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Speaker 2: It's so many athletes out there that when they were

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Speaker 2: the best. I say this about Lebron, like, if you

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Speaker 2: take some of these crazy athletes and you introduce them

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Speaker 2: to any sport as a kid, I think it ends

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Speaker 2: up translating into superior career that anybody else could happen.

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Speaker 2: Like we sit here interviewing right now, and I'm looking

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Speaker 2: at your statue and it's like man, we could be

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Speaker 2: talking to an NFL Hall of Famer, an NBA Hall

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Speaker 2: of Famer, MLB Hall of Famer, maybe boxing, Like what

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Speaker 2: made you choose baseball? Because a lot of guys choose

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Speaker 2: because they're just the best at something. But if you're

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Speaker 2: good at everything, what makes you choose baseball over the

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Speaker 2: other sports?

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Speaker 4: I chose baseball because when I grew up, by the

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Speaker 4: time I was twelve years old, people would say, what

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Speaker 4: do you want to do?

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Speaker 3: I want to be a professional baseball player. You don't

380
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Speaker 3: know what you're gonna do. I guess I do. I

381
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Speaker 3: want to play baseball.

382
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Speaker 4: And you know, all your buddies, you know, they drop

383
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Speaker 4: out for whatever reasons.

384
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Speaker 3: And I just stuck with it and I enjoyed it.

385
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Speaker 4: We had good teams, had a good coach for a

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Speaker 4: number of years, and I didn't know what the end

387
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Speaker 4: result was going to be. But I just wanted to

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Speaker 4: play professional baseball as a pitcher or but you play everything,

389
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Speaker 4: probably played everything too, but I was a short, shortstop,

390
00:22:03,359 --> 00:22:08,199
Speaker 4: third baseman, outfielder, pitcher, you know, whatever it took. So

391
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Speaker 4: that was always my number one. And check this out.

392
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Speaker 4: I didn't really like basketball. I never really played until

393
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Speaker 4: how about this. Before my junior year in high school,

394
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Speaker 4: you know, the brothers had come on, come on, man,

395
00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:26,400
Speaker 4: we need.

396
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Speaker 3: Somebody else to play on the court. I said, man,

397
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Speaker 3: I ain't.

398
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Speaker 1: Were you already six six at that point?

399
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Speaker 3: No, I was about it.

400
00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:35,840
Speaker 4: I was about six two and a half sixty three

401
00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:38,720
Speaker 4: by one ninety going into you know.

402
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Speaker 3: And I said nah.

403
00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:44,960
Speaker 4: And then they talked me into it and I played.

404
00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:47,119
Speaker 4: And I was very raw, didn't know all the rules

405
00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:50,720
Speaker 4: or anything like that. But I could always run faster,

406
00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:56,800
Speaker 4: jump higher, and stronger than some of the people. And uh, yeah,

407
00:22:56,800 --> 00:22:59,720
Speaker 4: I remember I stumbled through first year. They said come on,

408
00:22:59,760 --> 00:23:04,560
Speaker 4: let's played. Let's play. Uh that junior year in high school,

409
00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:08,160
Speaker 4: so I did make all city. You know, your game

410
00:23:08,280 --> 00:23:12,240
Speaker 4: is rough. And then I had a good senior year.

411
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Speaker 4: And that wasn't my thing that I wanted to do.

412
00:23:17,720 --> 00:23:23,080
Speaker 4: It was always baseball. But uh, even I said, I'm

413
00:23:23,080 --> 00:23:25,639
Speaker 4: gonna play one more year in college. So I played

414
00:23:25,640 --> 00:23:28,560
Speaker 4: freshman ball with some of the guys from out of town.

415
00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:31,200
Speaker 4: You know that we're just good friends. And I played

416
00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:34,520
Speaker 4: and then I said I'm gonna sit out. And I didn't.

417
00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:38,840
Speaker 4: I wasn't gonna play basketball anymore. And I'm trying to

418
00:23:38,920 --> 00:23:42,479
Speaker 4: keep the story short. But we I had We had

419
00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:53,160
Speaker 4: an intermural team, all black intermural team, Soul for Strutters, right,

420
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Speaker 4: and we were champions of the school.

421
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Speaker 3: And they kept bothering me.

422
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Speaker 4: The basketball coaches go on and play, and so I

423
00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:04,119
Speaker 4: ended up coming to They finally talked me into it.

424
00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:06,840
Speaker 4: They said, we give you full scholarships to that half

425
00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:07,520
Speaker 4: scholarship you.

426
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Speaker 3: I said, okay, now you're talking. And so it came

427
00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:12,560
Speaker 3: to the team.

428
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Speaker 4: And there's too many stories within that to go into now,

429
00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:22,200
Speaker 4: but it was it worked out. Sometimes you go through

430
00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:24,520
Speaker 4: that door, you don't know what's on the other side,

431
00:24:25,160 --> 00:24:28,879
Speaker 4: and it works out in your favor. For me not

432
00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:34,159
Speaker 4: having it wasn't in my plan, And all of a sudden,

433
00:24:34,359 --> 00:24:36,639
Speaker 4: you end up being a starter for a team Big

434
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Speaker 4: ten champion a couple of years in a row, and

435
00:24:41,080 --> 00:24:41,920
Speaker 4: being drafted.

436
00:24:43,400 --> 00:24:44,200
Speaker 3: You know, when other.

437
00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:46,679
Speaker 4: Guys came back, they said, man, they're looking for their

438
00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:47,240
Speaker 4: job back.

439
00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:50,800
Speaker 3: I said, I like this.

440
00:24:51,080 --> 00:24:54,280
Speaker 4: I like we got fifteen thousand people watching our games

441
00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:55,919
Speaker 4: instead of three hundred.

442
00:24:56,960 --> 00:24:58,240
Speaker 2: Well you told them, you told me, y'all can go

443
00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:00,280
Speaker 2: be great at basketball. I'll go ahead, and I'll go

444
00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:02,399
Speaker 2: ahead and play baseball and I'll let y'all have his basket.

445
00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:05,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was my That was my feeling really, And you.

446
00:25:05,840 --> 00:25:09,640
Speaker 2: Go off and get drafted, and something that we never

447
00:25:09,720 --> 00:25:13,600
Speaker 2: see anymore. You get drafted and you go straight to

448
00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:19,480
Speaker 2: the big leagues, no minor leagues. Young guy, walk into

449
00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:23,400
Speaker 2: the clubhouse that first day, How are you received by

450
00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:26,119
Speaker 2: your teammates? Well, and what was what was the energy

451
00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:29,639
Speaker 2: and the the thoughts going through your mind as you're like,

452
00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:31,040
Speaker 2: I'm going straight to the big leagues.

453
00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:36,679
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, I said that my contract. They

454
00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:40,040
Speaker 4: thought they I was going to maybe go to Triple A,

455
00:25:40,240 --> 00:25:45,840
Speaker 4: Double A. No, man, I said, either I'm going to

456
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:48,600
Speaker 4: big leagues or I'm gonna play basketball.

457
00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:52,159
Speaker 3: So you work with the cards that you have in

458
00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:52,600
Speaker 3: your hand.

459
00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:55,360
Speaker 5: I like that you better beat him, though.

460
00:25:56,920 --> 00:25:59,280
Speaker 1: He was with shoot, does let's say like now if

461
00:25:59,280 --> 00:26:02,080
Speaker 1: I have to go, I'm gonna go play in the NBA. Yeah,

462
00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:03,680
Speaker 1: Like that's crazy to say.

463
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:09,800
Speaker 4: Yeah, it would have been Cotton Fit Simmons Yeah, and Atlanta,

464
00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:12,919
Speaker 4: So you know, but you get to the big leagues

465
00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:15,720
Speaker 4: and you're in awe to a large degree.

466
00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:18,760
Speaker 3: The stadium is huge down in San Diego.

467
00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:21,720
Speaker 4: It's three point thirty down the line for twenty center

468
00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:25,639
Speaker 4: seventeen foot high wall. And then you see the guys

469
00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:29,280
Speaker 4: that I only imagine. It's like, I'm sure there are

470
00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:29,720
Speaker 4: guys that.

471
00:26:30,080 --> 00:26:31,880
Speaker 3: When you got to the league, christ you said, man,

472
00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:34,520
Speaker 3: I got to meet so and so. Say that you met.

473
00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:38,320
Speaker 3: I mean I saw Dick Allen Man hit hit balls.

474
00:26:38,359 --> 00:26:40,960
Speaker 3: He hit him so far I had them in left field.

475
00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:42,679
Speaker 4: I had to come in to see how far in

476
00:26:42,720 --> 00:26:45,720
Speaker 4: the second day this was going to leave the stadium.

477
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:47,800
Speaker 3: Or when Willie Mays first hit me.

478
00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:50,879
Speaker 4: A fly ball in the outfield, you know, I called it,

479
00:26:50,920 --> 00:26:54,879
Speaker 4: you know, like it was nothing. Uh, Willie May's hit

480
00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:57,360
Speaker 4: that ball. I mean, so, I was, honest to god,

481
00:26:57,400 --> 00:27:00,800
Speaker 4: I was in I was in awe. Just one little

482
00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:03,640
Speaker 4: quick story. Aido Gaston, who ended up being the manager

483
00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:07,840
Speaker 4: up in Toronto, first black manager to win World Series

484
00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:11,080
Speaker 4: and everything. We're on the same team, and he came

485
00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:13,320
Speaker 4: up to me. He said, so, you're the guy they've

486
00:27:13,359 --> 00:27:16,080
Speaker 4: been talking about. I said, yeah, what do you mean?

487
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:20,240
Speaker 4: He said, win Field? He said it kind of in

488
00:27:20,320 --> 00:27:27,879
Speaker 4: an English accent. Windfield, he said, He said, I can't

489
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:30,000
Speaker 4: believe it. He said, I said, what do you mean?

490
00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:32,200
Speaker 4: He said, they talked so nice about you. I thought,

491
00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:35,560
Speaker 4: I didn't know you were a black guy. That's good

492
00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:37,440
Speaker 4: they were.

493
00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:40,239
Speaker 3: Talking about and I don't want to get you know,

494
00:27:40,359 --> 00:27:42,119
Speaker 3: to make this the whole thing of color.

495
00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:45,560
Speaker 4: But we laughed about it. We became good friends. We

496
00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:50,240
Speaker 4: ended up being roommates for a bit. And then eighteen

497
00:27:50,320 --> 00:27:53,200
Speaker 4: years later he's the manager and I'm playing for his team.

498
00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:53,840
Speaker 1: Crazy.

499
00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:56,080
Speaker 4: It couldn't be any better. I couldn't have been happier

500
00:27:57,200 --> 00:28:00,439
Speaker 4: to work with him. But I was in awe into

501
00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:07,160
Speaker 4: the stadium and meeting all these guys because it was

502
00:28:07,359 --> 00:28:13,280
Speaker 4: it was still men against boys. They could pinpoint where

503
00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:16,199
Speaker 4: they wanted their pitches. They were throwing pitches that I

504
00:28:16,200 --> 00:28:20,040
Speaker 4: had never seen. There was a guy named Mike Marshall

505
00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:23,840
Speaker 4: played for the Dodgers. He was a relief pitcher, and

506
00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:25,920
Speaker 4: you'll see he set some records two years in a

507
00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:29,800
Speaker 4: row and as a reliever. I think he one year

508
00:28:30,040 --> 00:28:34,680
Speaker 4: about ninety four relief appearances and one I think might

509
00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:35,439
Speaker 4: have been over on.

510
00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:37,080
Speaker 1: Wow.

511
00:28:37,240 --> 00:28:41,560
Speaker 4: He had a screwball where he'd throw the ball. I've

512
00:28:41,640 --> 00:28:44,000
Speaker 4: never seen this before, and I'm in the big League.

513
00:28:44,040 --> 00:28:44,440
Speaker 3: You got to.

514
00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:47,560
Speaker 4: Perform I mean, where he'd throw it and it had

515
00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:50,880
Speaker 4: this rotation and I remember I swung at it and

516
00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:53,280
Speaker 4: I missed it, and I didn't know where it went.

517
00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:55,640
Speaker 3: And you don't want to step out of the batter's box,

518
00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:57,840
Speaker 3: take your helmet off and scratch your heads, say man,

519
00:28:57,880 --> 00:28:59,440
Speaker 3: what did he throw me?

520
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:04,160
Speaker 4: But there were things like that, But you had people,

521
00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:12,280
Speaker 4: You had tough pictures, Tom Seaver, Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton, Jr.

522
00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:18,360
Speaker 4: Richard big six, six eight five baseball in his hand.

523
00:29:18,440 --> 00:29:20,480
Speaker 4: If he didn't have a stroke, he'd have been one

524
00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:23,880
Speaker 4: of the all time. Randy Johnson was a left handed

525
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:28,520
Speaker 4: kind of replica of JR. Richard. So I had a

526
00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:31,880
Speaker 4: lot to learn. I'll tell you this. I came early,

527
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:37,400
Speaker 4: worked hard. Shut my mouth, you know, I'm not trying

528
00:29:37,480 --> 00:29:41,840
Speaker 4: to be you know, making any claims. I wasn't doing

529
00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:43,520
Speaker 4: the Muhammad Ali type thing.

530
00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:45,800
Speaker 3: I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that now.

531
00:29:46,400 --> 00:29:51,040
Speaker 4: And I appreciate and respect what he did. But like

532
00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:53,680
Speaker 4: I said, I came early, stayed late. I always worked

533
00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:57,560
Speaker 4: on how do I enhance my performance? Because there was

534
00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:01,280
Speaker 4: no science to baseball back then. There was maybe one

535
00:30:01,360 --> 00:30:06,600
Speaker 4: book that was published about hitting by Ted Williams. They

536
00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:11,560
Speaker 4: didn't have all the science and technology on how to

537
00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:17,240
Speaker 4: stretch and rest and manage your performance and get better.

538
00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:20,520
Speaker 4: But I was always trying to find better ways to

539
00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:24,240
Speaker 4: improve my performance. Uh, And I never really worked out

540
00:30:24,280 --> 00:30:26,800
Speaker 4: with the other guys many times, it's just the way

541
00:30:26,840 --> 00:30:29,200
Speaker 4: it was. They we weren't on the same schedule, we

542
00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:34,880
Speaker 4: didn't have the same mindset, and that's just the way

543
00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:37,040
Speaker 4: it was. I figured try to figure it out on

544
00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:37,400
Speaker 4: my own.

545
00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:39,600
Speaker 5: Yeah, speaking of that, it's we we had.

546
00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:42,880
Speaker 2: We talked to Jimmy Rollins as well, and one of

547
00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:45,520
Speaker 2: the conversations that stands out to me is when he

548
00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:48,840
Speaker 2: got called up to the big leagues with the Phillies.

549
00:30:49,240 --> 00:30:51,720
Speaker 2: The Phillies weren't rolling at that time. When you came

550
00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:54,480
Speaker 2: up with the Padres, Padres were towards the bottom of

551
00:30:54,480 --> 00:30:56,640
Speaker 2: the league. And when you're talking about how you were

552
00:30:56,640 --> 00:30:59,280
Speaker 2: able to gain your knowledge, sometime you had to lean

553
00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:02,840
Speaker 2: on OG's from other teams. How did you work those

554
00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:05,200
Speaker 2: relationships and who were the guys on other teams that

555
00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:07,360
Speaker 2: you made sure to lean on to try to help

556
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:08,719
Speaker 2: you acclimate to the big leagues.

557
00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:11,800
Speaker 3: Great question. The bat that I ended up using was.

558
00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:17,120
Speaker 4: I talked to Tony Perez with the Reds because he

559
00:31:17,280 --> 00:31:20,920
Speaker 4: was an RBI guy. And out of the three things

560
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:23,600
Speaker 4: as a hitter, I wanted to always I wanted to

561
00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:27,640
Speaker 4: be an RBI guy. First, driving runs because you get

562
00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:31,360
Speaker 4: more runs, your team is winning and you're valuable to

563
00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:35,560
Speaker 4: your team. The number two was hit for average and

564
00:31:37,280 --> 00:31:39,520
Speaker 4: because if you're consistent, they couldn't get rid of me.

565
00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:43,160
Speaker 4: It was more protective, like you know, and as well

566
00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:45,120
Speaker 4: as trying to get better. And the last thing was

567
00:31:45,160 --> 00:31:48,240
Speaker 4: home runs. But it was always like a line drive,

568
00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:51,840
Speaker 4: line drive. There's more line drives, are there hits? Let

569
00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:54,440
Speaker 4: those line drive hits become home runs. But I just

570
00:31:54,520 --> 00:31:58,320
Speaker 4: talked to guys on other teams. The mindset. I appreciated

571
00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:05,080
Speaker 4: Bob Watson. There was Billy Williams with Chicago love him man.

572
00:32:06,920 --> 00:32:13,480
Speaker 3: And so you just try to find some friends, ask

573
00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:19,360
Speaker 3: some questions, be around good people. The guys that I

574
00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:22,000
Speaker 3: could see that who wasn't going to the guys that

575
00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:24,800
Speaker 3: were not going to have a long career because they

576
00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:30,320
Speaker 3: abuse their body, you know, their mind and things like that.

577
00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:33,000
Speaker 3: I said, I'm going to try to make it without

578
00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:36,480
Speaker 3: abusing myself. You know, I'm going to see how far

579
00:32:36,600 --> 00:32:38,680
Speaker 3: I can go by doing this thing correctly.

580
00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:42,480
Speaker 1: Ten years, twenty three million at the time, it was

581
00:32:42,480 --> 00:32:46,800
Speaker 1: the biggest contract in sports history. You obviously negotiated your

582
00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:49,320
Speaker 1: way into just going straight to the big leagues. Did

583
00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:51,240
Speaker 1: you negotiate that deal that? Did you have some help?

584
00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:53,560
Speaker 3: I had some help then I had an agent.

585
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:57,360
Speaker 4: It's funny now they have to really be certified.

586
00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:02,320
Speaker 1: Could have just been a homeboy before. Yeah, represent me

587
00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:03,560
Speaker 1: go get some money.

588
00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:06,920
Speaker 3: This dude, older businessman from Mensino.

589
00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:11,000
Speaker 4: You know, he uh taught me a lot, but he

590
00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:12,160
Speaker 4: couldn't be certified.

591
00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:15,240
Speaker 3: He wouldn't be certified today. He just knew business.

592
00:33:15,760 --> 00:33:20,520
Speaker 4: And after my first contract, I always wanted to be

593
00:33:20,560 --> 00:33:23,600
Speaker 4: in the room when people were talking and it was

594
00:33:23,600 --> 00:33:26,400
Speaker 4: my business. I'm going to be in the room. We

595
00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:28,880
Speaker 4: talked strategy, what we're going to do. They're going to

596
00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:30,880
Speaker 4: say this at this period of time, this is what

597
00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:31,280
Speaker 4: you're going.

598
00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:31,800
Speaker 3: To ask for.

599
00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:38,920
Speaker 4: You know, just a variety of things. There's too many

600
00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:41,200
Speaker 4: things to go into right here. But you know, you

601
00:33:41,880 --> 00:33:44,360
Speaker 4: put it out there, like you say it enough. There

602
00:33:44,400 --> 00:33:46,840
Speaker 4: were many that during my last year would have been

603
00:33:46,880 --> 00:33:50,280
Speaker 4: in nineteen eighty, my last year with the Padres, we

604
00:33:50,480 --> 00:33:53,840
Speaker 4: talk about it enough. People would say, what's this guy worth?

605
00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:58,040
Speaker 4: San Diego was really at the time low balling it,

606
00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:01,040
Speaker 4: but they didn't have that much money in the organization.

607
00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:08,880
Speaker 4: And I remember we put out there enough time ten years,

608
00:34:09,920 --> 00:34:13,200
Speaker 4: so that was the first with ten years. Nobody else

609
00:34:13,239 --> 00:34:16,120
Speaker 4: had done that, and then we were talking about whatever

610
00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:21,360
Speaker 4: X millions going along with those ten years. No trade

611
00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:26,359
Speaker 4: maybe on a piece of the team. You don't talk

612
00:34:26,400 --> 00:34:30,200
Speaker 4: about it. You know, you can't visualize it, You're never

613
00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:33,720
Speaker 4: gonna get it. So there were a wide range of things.

614
00:34:33,800 --> 00:34:37,040
Speaker 4: So by the time, even though there were people actually

615
00:34:37,080 --> 00:34:40,759
Speaker 4: the team might end up going to the Yankees, who

616
00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:42,640
Speaker 4: was allowed at saying we're not going to do it,

617
00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:45,759
Speaker 4: George Steinbrenner who paid it, George Stibrenner.

618
00:34:46,160 --> 00:34:48,479
Speaker 1: But off the heels of that, they kind of began

619
00:34:48,520 --> 00:34:52,319
Speaker 1: a feud between you guys for a handful of years.

620
00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:53,279
Speaker 1: Can you break that down?

621
00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:55,440
Speaker 3: Well, I won't go into all details because I want

622
00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:56,720
Speaker 3: you to, you know, to buy the book.

623
00:34:56,880 --> 00:35:00,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, however, give us some cliff note.

624
00:35:00,200 --> 00:35:02,440
Speaker 3: However, within the first month.

625
00:35:03,960 --> 00:35:06,960
Speaker 4: Of my being there, and there were about three different

626
00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:13,560
Speaker 4: elements of business arrangements that we had a contract, a foundation,

627
00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:19,320
Speaker 4: and a marketing agreement we're gonna work on. He basically

628
00:35:19,360 --> 00:35:21,160
Speaker 4: told me to my face, he said, I'm not gonna

629
00:35:21,160 --> 00:35:23,520
Speaker 4: give you all your money and if you don't like it,

630
00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:23,960
Speaker 4: sue me.

631
00:35:28,560 --> 00:35:29,839
Speaker 3: You're gonna have to fight for that.

632
00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:34,600
Speaker 4: Really told me that a couple of times, and so

633
00:35:34,800 --> 00:35:38,680
Speaker 4: that's why you many times you would read Whinn't fields suing.

634
00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:42,680
Speaker 4: You know, I didn't enjoy that. I didn't look for it.

635
00:35:42,800 --> 00:35:44,680
Speaker 4: I'm not the kind of guy that would bring it

636
00:35:44,719 --> 00:35:49,080
Speaker 4: on himself. I'm your best asset. I'm gonna be there

637
00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:54,560
Speaker 4: every day bringing what this organization needs, and you're gonna

638
00:35:54,560 --> 00:35:58,759
Speaker 4: come at me like that. So we had to butt

639
00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:02,960
Speaker 4: heads for a long time. So that was really a

640
00:36:03,080 --> 00:36:03,960
Speaker 4: beginning of.

641
00:36:05,719 --> 00:36:09,160
Speaker 3: I don't know. I'm gonna tell you a decade of

642
00:36:09,200 --> 00:36:14,120
Speaker 3: the worst years of my playing career. You can't tell

643
00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:17,359
Speaker 3: by the performance because you can't come in every day

644
00:36:17,440 --> 00:36:21,399
Speaker 3: and saying what you feel, what you think, what's going on.

645
00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:28,279
Speaker 3: But there's some things you would say, you'd stutter, you

646
00:36:28,360 --> 00:36:33,680
Speaker 3: can't imagine what was going on, and so.

647
00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:38,600
Speaker 4: That's part of it. I like to bring you. I'm

648
00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:40,520
Speaker 4: gonna bring people in. You can be the fly on

649
00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:43,360
Speaker 4: the wall. You can be sitting in the room listening

650
00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:46,520
Speaker 4: to exact conversations that we had.

651
00:36:46,880 --> 00:36:47,680
Speaker 3: But we had to.

652
00:36:49,320 --> 00:36:54,040
Speaker 4: I'll say this and people, it's hard for him to believe.

653
00:36:54,880 --> 00:36:58,000
Speaker 4: One of the best things that happened for my career

654
00:36:58,200 --> 00:37:02,919
Speaker 4: is when I left New York Because while they're trying

655
00:37:02,960 --> 00:37:06,680
Speaker 4: to extinguish your career, I had six more years left

656
00:37:06,719 --> 00:37:06,960
Speaker 4: to go.

657
00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:08,840
Speaker 3: And if I didn't.

658
00:37:08,560 --> 00:37:12,520
Speaker 4: Get those six years with four teams and be comeback

659
00:37:12,560 --> 00:37:17,080
Speaker 4: Player of the Year, get three thousand hits, win a championship,

660
00:37:17,160 --> 00:37:20,120
Speaker 4: and be on a path to UH Hall of Fame,

661
00:37:20,719 --> 00:37:22,719
Speaker 4: if I wouldn't have escaped, if I would have let

662
00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:29,200
Speaker 4: them bend, break twists, destroyed me, give up, if i'd

663
00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:33,600
Speaker 4: if it would have driven me to drugs or angle

664
00:37:33,680 --> 00:37:36,319
Speaker 4: different kind of anguish or something, you know, I mean,

665
00:37:36,760 --> 00:37:39,319
Speaker 4: people go postal ones, you know.

666
00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:41,760
Speaker 2: From the stories I've read, I mean you talking about

667
00:37:41,760 --> 00:37:45,560
Speaker 2: benning and breaking s. Tactics were used that I hadn't

668
00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:51,200
Speaker 2: seen in professional sports towards you to try to break you.

669
00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:55,640
Speaker 2: Do you get into those things anything you wanna preview

670
00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:56,200
Speaker 2: a little bit?

671
00:37:56,600 --> 00:37:59,439
Speaker 3: N No, I won't go into all of this now.

672
00:37:59,719 --> 00:38:07,440
Speaker 4: But it was illegal and proper and I had to

673
00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:10,120
Speaker 4: live with it every day. And it's not just me,

674
00:38:10,760 --> 00:38:16,320
Speaker 4: it's my family, you know. And I'm trying to perform

675
00:38:16,400 --> 00:38:19,280
Speaker 4: to the best of my ability. You know, we're giving

676
00:38:19,320 --> 00:38:22,360
Speaker 4: this god given ability a short period of time in life.

677
00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:26,800
Speaker 4: And when somebody is intentionally standing in the way trying

678
00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:31,120
Speaker 4: to prevent you from becoming all you can become, there's

679
00:38:31,120 --> 00:38:33,160
Speaker 4: a lot of ways you could you could combat that.

680
00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:36,560
Speaker 4: I mean, some people quit, Oh it's too hard, or

681
00:38:36,600 --> 00:38:38,360
Speaker 4: this is terrible? What am I going to do?

682
00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:38,560
Speaker 1: Oh?

683
00:38:38,560 --> 00:38:45,320
Speaker 3: Woe is me? I'll just say one tactic.

684
00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:48,080
Speaker 4: I knew a lot of boxers, they were friends of mine,

685
00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:53,640
Speaker 4: and every match is different, and sometimes I would just

686
00:38:53,680 --> 00:38:57,799
Speaker 4: say that strategies and tactics I would rely on. Sometimes

687
00:38:57,960 --> 00:39:03,240
Speaker 4: you have your offense, sometimes you have defense, and sometimes

688
00:39:03,280 --> 00:39:06,680
Speaker 4: you have a CounterPunch. Because you can't say the same

689
00:39:06,719 --> 00:39:09,319
Speaker 4: thing every day. You can't do the same thing every

690
00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:13,120
Speaker 4: day to combat something that's coming at you that's negative.

691
00:39:14,040 --> 00:39:14,960
Speaker 3: And so I.

692
00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:18,600
Speaker 4: Would use a boxer strategy you didn't know. Sometimes they

693
00:39:18,600 --> 00:39:21,800
Speaker 4: think they got you. I'm gonna run them into the ground.

694
00:39:22,280 --> 00:39:26,160
Speaker 4: Bat you come back on it. Sometimes you just have

695
00:39:26,200 --> 00:39:27,000
Speaker 4: to rope a dope.

696
00:39:27,040 --> 00:39:30,719
Speaker 3: You have to take it in because otherwise people say,

697
00:39:30,320 --> 00:39:34,160
Speaker 3: what do they tell Lebrono shut up and driven or

698
00:39:34,200 --> 00:39:37,880
Speaker 3: whatever whoever they told it to, things of that nature.

699
00:39:37,920 --> 00:39:41,600
Speaker 4: So you can't and you can't talk about all the time.

700
00:39:41,960 --> 00:39:44,959
Speaker 4: Most of my friends or the guys that I played with,

701
00:39:45,239 --> 00:39:47,839
Speaker 4: and I was a player rep for the players for

702
00:39:48,360 --> 00:39:52,520
Speaker 4: sixteen of my twenty two years, most of them will

703
00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:56,200
Speaker 4: not know what was going on because you can't even

704
00:39:56,239 --> 00:40:00,960
Speaker 4: share this with everybody. And I'll just say this about

705
00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:05,120
Speaker 4: all the things that happened when my career was over.

706
00:40:05,320 --> 00:40:09,880
Speaker 4: Ninety five, played twenty two years, excuse me, played for

707
00:40:09,960 --> 00:40:15,759
Speaker 4: six teams, both leagues, both coasts, both countries, and I

708
00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:18,000
Speaker 4: ended up on a high note. It's like coming off

709
00:40:18,040 --> 00:40:21,920
Speaker 4: a ski slope, played well, accomplished what I need, you know,

710
00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:28,600
Speaker 4: thought I could accomplish good relationships with folks. And I

711
00:40:28,640 --> 00:40:31,800
Speaker 4: remember coming out here and this this is very interesting.

712
00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:34,640
Speaker 4: I only knew a we my wife, and I only

713
00:40:34,719 --> 00:40:36,120
Speaker 4: knew a few people out here.

714
00:40:37,320 --> 00:40:41,239
Speaker 3: Uh. I'll tell you Irvin Magic knew him, him knowing

715
00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:42,840
Speaker 3: forty years.

716
00:40:42,920 --> 00:40:45,520
Speaker 4: We were friends, and him and his wife, and there

717
00:40:45,520 --> 00:40:47,640
Speaker 4: were a few other people, the doctor that you know,

718
00:40:47,800 --> 00:40:53,799
Speaker 4: bringing our kids into this world and such. But there

719
00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:58,040
Speaker 4: were very few people that we talked about that we

720
00:40:58,120 --> 00:41:02,120
Speaker 4: talked to about my career because there was so much

721
00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:06,960
Speaker 4: negative stuff going on. It's like when you meet someone new. Now,

722
00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:09,440
Speaker 4: if we would have met, we just you know, they

723
00:41:09,520 --> 00:41:13,880
Speaker 4: know I can go. I've had a good career, good guy, charitable,

724
00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:16,680
Speaker 4: all these go where you want to go, do what

725
00:41:16,760 --> 00:41:17,240
Speaker 4: you want.

726
00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:18,800
Speaker 3: To do, dress, fly, whatever.

727
00:41:19,960 --> 00:41:22,800
Speaker 4: But I didn't talk about all the things that happened

728
00:41:22,800 --> 00:41:24,960
Speaker 4: to me because otherwise you do that all the time

729
00:41:25,040 --> 00:41:28,200
Speaker 4: and people just say, oh, you're gonna day, man.

730
00:41:27,960 --> 00:41:30,759
Speaker 3: You got sad story. I don't want to hear all

731
00:41:30,800 --> 00:41:32,759
Speaker 3: that stuff, so I buried it.

732
00:41:32,840 --> 00:41:36,239
Speaker 4: I didn't talk about it because I didn't want people

733
00:41:36,280 --> 00:41:36,880
Speaker 4: looking at me.

734
00:41:37,719 --> 00:41:39,840
Speaker 1: So we touched on this at the very beginning. And

735
00:41:39,880 --> 00:41:43,279
Speaker 1: obviously mental health wasn't something that was discussed back then them.

736
00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:46,040
Speaker 1: But obviously with the way that start, Brenner a poached

737
00:41:46,040 --> 00:41:50,440
Speaker 1: things above board, below board, verbally criticizing you for things

738
00:41:50,480 --> 00:41:54,960
Speaker 1: in the public. How did you get through that as

739
00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:57,960
Speaker 1: a man still perform and then still be the husband

740
00:41:58,239 --> 00:42:00,880
Speaker 1: and father you needed to be time.

741
00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:04,840
Speaker 4: There's no one way or one thing. But I have

742
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:09,760
Speaker 4: faith in God, you know I have. If I didn't

743
00:42:09,760 --> 00:42:14,840
Speaker 4: believe in a higher power and higher being and have

744
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:18,319
Speaker 4: my faith, I probably would have broken down. I think

745
00:42:18,360 --> 00:42:22,719
Speaker 4: that's number one. There are other things people asked me

746
00:42:22,719 --> 00:42:25,399
Speaker 4: that question. And I wrote an e book years ago

747
00:42:25,520 --> 00:42:29,120
Speaker 4: and there are forty Reasons for Strength was one of

748
00:42:29,120 --> 00:42:31,720
Speaker 4: the chapters. There were just different things that I'd rely

749
00:42:31,840 --> 00:42:35,200
Speaker 4: on at different times that would help bring me through

750
00:42:35,840 --> 00:42:43,120
Speaker 4: these tough times. And so again, not one thing. And

751
00:42:44,239 --> 00:42:46,960
Speaker 4: I'm glad I stayed wrong. I mean, because they were coming.

752
00:42:46,719 --> 00:42:49,879
Speaker 3: At me from every angle angle, and I'm gonna tell

753
00:42:49,880 --> 00:42:52,480
Speaker 3: you it was an interesting part. And when you're one

754
00:42:52,520 --> 00:42:55,680
Speaker 3: of the first out there, they know you're making that money,

755
00:42:56,120 --> 00:42:59,520
Speaker 3: they know, you know everybody's coming at me.

756
00:43:00,080 --> 00:43:04,680
Speaker 4: You know, nowadays you know guys, you know, average player,

757
00:43:04,800 --> 00:43:09,080
Speaker 4: you know, making five, ten, fifteen, twenty twenty. Yeah, yeah,

758
00:43:09,560 --> 00:43:12,399
Speaker 4: average players, you know, And but you know you may

759
00:43:12,400 --> 00:43:14,399
Speaker 4: not know who they are, right, but they knew who

760
00:43:14,440 --> 00:43:17,520
Speaker 4: I was, And so I was at target so many times.

761
00:43:17,560 --> 00:43:19,719
Speaker 4: I just after a while, I just let me just

762
00:43:19,760 --> 00:43:21,719
Speaker 4: low key man. I don't have to be out there,

763
00:43:21,800 --> 00:43:22,520
Speaker 4: stay out the way.

764
00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:23,360
Speaker 3: Yeah.

765
00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:27,560
Speaker 1: How therapeutic was being able to finally kind of give

766
00:43:27,600 --> 00:43:29,080
Speaker 1: it all, Like you said, you didn't want to share

767
00:43:29,080 --> 00:43:30,600
Speaker 1: it too much because you didn't want to be the

768
00:43:30,600 --> 00:43:32,520
Speaker 1: guy that came around every time you had some bad news.

769
00:43:32,520 --> 00:43:36,080
Speaker 1: But how therapeutic and tough was it? To kind of

770
00:43:36,080 --> 00:43:39,000
Speaker 1: have to relive this and put it out on paper

771
00:43:39,040 --> 00:43:42,680
Speaker 1: and be vulnerable enough to share some of your I mean, big, strong, tough,

772
00:43:43,160 --> 00:43:45,319
Speaker 1: could have been pro with several sports, but to be

773
00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:47,319
Speaker 1: vulnerable and share these kind of stories that are so

774
00:43:47,360 --> 00:43:48,040
Speaker 1: close to your heart.

775
00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:49,960
Speaker 4: At my age, I don't have to go into it.

776
00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:53,720
Speaker 4: They can read about all of that. But it wasn't

777
00:43:53,719 --> 00:43:56,760
Speaker 4: that hard because so much of this stuff is collected,

778
00:43:56,800 --> 00:44:01,759
Speaker 4: it's there. Everybody think they and this is interesting some

779
00:44:01,800 --> 00:44:04,080
Speaker 4: people in the publishing industry.

780
00:44:04,200 --> 00:44:06,200
Speaker 3: Now, Dave, we know your story.

781
00:44:05,880 --> 00:44:08,359
Speaker 4: And blah blah blah, I'm thinking about it. You don't

782
00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:12,319
Speaker 4: know nothing. I didn't tell you. You know what was

783
00:44:12,440 --> 00:44:15,239
Speaker 4: talked about long time, heard it from me. Yeah, So

784
00:44:16,680 --> 00:44:21,600
Speaker 4: it wasn't hard for me to share this information and.

785
00:44:23,239 --> 00:44:23,839
Speaker 3: I want to.

786
00:44:24,440 --> 00:44:28,000
Speaker 4: I think it's important because it's going to be educational,

787
00:44:28,280 --> 00:44:33,480
Speaker 4: motivational to number of people, and I'm glad I can

788
00:44:33,520 --> 00:44:34,000
Speaker 4: share it.

789
00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:37,319
Speaker 5: It's fascinating to me to hear your story. And then

790
00:44:37,600 --> 00:44:38,200
Speaker 5: you just go.

791
00:44:38,360 --> 00:44:42,040
Speaker 2: To the stats, pull a baseball reference and you look

792
00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:43,600
Speaker 2: at these years in New York.

793
00:44:43,680 --> 00:44:44,920
Speaker 5: Incredible and you're.

794
00:44:44,719 --> 00:44:47,960
Speaker 2: Talking about incredible careers. It's part of the reason you're

795
00:44:47,960 --> 00:44:51,640
Speaker 2: a Hall of famer, And you talk about after Reggie leaves,

796
00:44:52,239 --> 00:44:55,920
Speaker 2: multiple All Star Games, four gold gloves, going through the

797
00:44:55,960 --> 00:45:01,680
Speaker 2: batting title racing, what eighty four with Maddie, Like share

798
00:45:01,800 --> 00:45:04,759
Speaker 2: some of the good memories that you have from New York,

799
00:45:04,760 --> 00:45:07,200
Speaker 2: because when I talk to New York fans, everybody loved

800
00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:11,879
Speaker 2: Dave Winfield. So if you could share the batting title

801
00:45:11,960 --> 00:45:14,520
Speaker 2: race with Maddenly, what you remember from that, At what

802
00:45:14,640 --> 00:45:17,600
Speaker 2: point you realized you were a superstar And some of

803
00:45:17,600 --> 00:45:19,200
Speaker 2: the good times that you remember in New.

804
00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:23,359
Speaker 4: York those nine plus years that I was there, there

805
00:45:23,520 --> 00:45:28,640
Speaker 4: wasn't one day that I felt the organization was on

806
00:45:28,719 --> 00:45:33,840
Speaker 4: my side trying to help me, promote me, move me forward,

807
00:45:34,600 --> 00:45:38,239
Speaker 4: not just Don Mattingly. And I'll get into that, but

808
00:45:38,960 --> 00:45:41,280
Speaker 4: you got to go to work every day a toxic

809
00:45:41,480 --> 00:45:45,600
Speaker 4: work environment. I mean now they talk about that they

810
00:45:45,600 --> 00:45:47,960
Speaker 4: didn't used to talk about, just like mental health issues,

811
00:45:48,360 --> 00:45:52,200
Speaker 4: toxic work environment. It was every day, every day I

812
00:45:52,280 --> 00:45:54,719
Speaker 4: knew I had there was something that I was going

813
00:45:54,800 --> 00:45:57,600
Speaker 4: to have to battle that had nothing to do with

814
00:45:57,640 --> 00:46:00,440
Speaker 4: me hitting the slider on three two with mental base.

815
00:46:01,560 --> 00:46:02,080
Speaker 3: And so.

816
00:46:04,640 --> 00:46:08,279
Speaker 4: The guys I played with, we're friends. Don Baylor was

817
00:46:08,320 --> 00:46:09,200
Speaker 4: a great guy.

818
00:46:09,320 --> 00:46:13,960
Speaker 3: We were teammates, great leader, charitable, everything else.

819
00:46:14,200 --> 00:46:20,160
Speaker 4: Ricky Henderson coming in we had. I loved playing alongside Ricky.

820
00:46:20,239 --> 00:46:22,279
Speaker 4: You know, he and Kirby Puckett were like two of

821
00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:24,640
Speaker 4: the best guys that I ever played with, because you

822
00:46:24,719 --> 00:46:26,759
Speaker 4: come to work, man, and you know, it's a good

823
00:46:26,840 --> 00:46:30,480
Speaker 4: day just to be in the same room, same field,

824
00:46:30,680 --> 00:46:34,960
Speaker 4: talk stuff and enjoy. By the time I got Chris,

825
00:46:34,960 --> 00:46:37,120
Speaker 4: by the time I got to New York, I knew

826
00:46:37,120 --> 00:46:39,360
Speaker 4: I could play. I said, they just don't know me.

827
00:46:39,760 --> 00:46:42,880
Speaker 4: I'm playing in San Diego and we were at the bottom.

828
00:46:43,320 --> 00:46:47,480
Speaker 4: We're last place teams. I mean, it's tough playing for

829
00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:52,319
Speaker 4: a team that lose a hundred games every year. And

830
00:46:52,560 --> 00:46:54,759
Speaker 4: the only way you go to the playoffs is if

831
00:46:54,760 --> 00:46:57,000
Speaker 4: you won your division. There are only four teams going

832
00:46:57,040 --> 00:47:01,160
Speaker 4: to playoffs. It wasn't this watch. So if you're in

833
00:47:01,200 --> 00:47:06,320
Speaker 4: fifth place, you a long way form even sniffing a playoff.

834
00:47:06,520 --> 00:47:08,320
Speaker 3: And after a while.

835
00:47:08,200 --> 00:47:10,080
Speaker 4: No matter how good you are, no matter how much

836
00:47:10,160 --> 00:47:12,600
Speaker 4: money you make, you say, oh man, I got to

837
00:47:12,640 --> 00:47:14,719
Speaker 4: go somewhere where I got a chance while I have

838
00:47:14,800 --> 00:47:17,200
Speaker 4: ability left. So when I went to New York, I

839
00:47:17,239 --> 00:47:22,279
Speaker 4: knew I could play, and I had no problem. You know,

840
00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:25,160
Speaker 4: being a starter being you know, I was going to

841
00:47:25,239 --> 00:47:28,720
Speaker 4: play well. I knew how to you know, hit three hundred,

842
00:47:28,920 --> 00:47:32,520
Speaker 4: driving a hundred, score one hundred, you know, things like that,

843
00:47:33,120 --> 00:47:35,120
Speaker 4: and get along with everybody and still be the player

844
00:47:35,160 --> 00:47:38,240
Speaker 4: rep on the team looking out for the other guys

845
00:47:39,600 --> 00:47:43,360
Speaker 4: maddingly and I I don't have to go into the

846
00:47:44,000 --> 00:47:46,240
Speaker 4: whole story, but every day.

847
00:47:46,400 --> 00:47:50,000
Speaker 3: I mean, this is like nineteen eighty four and the

848
00:47:50,040 --> 00:47:52,399
Speaker 3: team was going nowhere, but both of us were hitting,

849
00:47:52,600 --> 00:47:53,920
Speaker 3: knocking the cover off the ball.

850
00:47:54,360 --> 00:47:57,160
Speaker 4: So that's what people came to see two guys on

851
00:47:57,200 --> 00:48:00,960
Speaker 4: the same team playing well because we weren't even going

852
00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:03,879
Speaker 4: to the playoffs. And it came down to the last

853
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:09,680
Speaker 4: day and he got three hits. I got one, and

854
00:48:10,200 --> 00:48:13,200
Speaker 4: you know, just let him have his platform for.

855
00:48:13,200 --> 00:48:14,200
Speaker 3: People to talk to him.

856
00:48:14,640 --> 00:48:17,240
Speaker 4: Had I come out on top, I would have probably

857
00:48:17,280 --> 00:48:20,840
Speaker 4: said something. I'd probably had a microphone or two there

858
00:48:21,040 --> 00:48:23,000
Speaker 4: because I said, this is what was going on during

859
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:27,400
Speaker 4: the course of the year. But because you don't have

860
00:48:27,520 --> 00:48:31,680
Speaker 4: that platform, I let it ride. Donnie and I don

861
00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:35,280
Speaker 4: Mattingly and I were always okay, it's not like we're buddy,

862
00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:38,200
Speaker 4: but he was a young kid. I'm a little over thirty.

863
00:48:38,239 --> 00:48:42,040
Speaker 4: He just starting his career, and we were always okay.

864
00:48:42,640 --> 00:48:45,560
Speaker 4: I never had a problem with Donnie. We're friends today,

865
00:48:46,360 --> 00:48:50,719
Speaker 4: but you know, he happened to come out on top

866
00:48:50,760 --> 00:48:54,200
Speaker 4: that everybody thinks they know the whole story, But I mean,

867
00:48:55,040 --> 00:49:01,880
Speaker 4: there's some things that happened during that year. I almost

868
00:49:01,920 --> 00:49:03,520
Speaker 4: don't even want to go into all of it. In

869
00:49:03,600 --> 00:49:08,640
Speaker 4: my whole book isn't negative at all. There's things about

870
00:49:11,080 --> 00:49:16,239
Speaker 4: just it is not just all negative. But I'll just

871
00:49:16,280 --> 00:49:18,279
Speaker 4: tell you there were things that happened that year. You say,

872
00:49:19,520 --> 00:49:21,839
Speaker 4: I can't imagine. That's unbelievable.

873
00:49:22,040 --> 00:49:25,400
Speaker 1: I mean, we talked to Dave Stewart earlier today and

874
00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:27,520
Speaker 1: he said how important it is to have a clear

875
00:49:27,640 --> 00:49:30,520
Speaker 1: mind and paraphrase it and to be able to play

876
00:49:31,160 --> 00:49:34,640
Speaker 1: your best. And obviously, with all the stuff that was

877
00:49:34,680 --> 00:49:37,680
Speaker 1: going on, you're still putting up Hall of Fame numbers,

878
00:49:37,680 --> 00:49:39,520
Speaker 1: you're still in the race for the batting title. So

879
00:49:39,640 --> 00:49:43,400
Speaker 1: imagine having a clear mind and an organization support you

880
00:49:43,920 --> 00:49:46,920
Speaker 1: on that platform what the numbers could have been and

881
00:49:46,920 --> 00:49:49,799
Speaker 1: what you know, the record books could reflect. So you know,

882
00:49:49,960 --> 00:49:51,920
Speaker 1: I definitely commend you for being over because I could

883
00:49:51,920 --> 00:49:55,560
Speaker 1: still tell by the way you talked that obviously it's

884
00:49:55,600 --> 00:49:59,080
Speaker 1: something that still hurts and something that's still in your heart.

885
00:49:59,120 --> 00:50:01,840
Speaker 4: I'll just say this. People ask me, how did you

886
00:50:01,920 --> 00:50:04,480
Speaker 4: make it through this? How I made it through it?

887
00:50:04,600 --> 00:50:09,440
Speaker 4: Was was one thing. But and some people think that, well,

888
00:50:09,440 --> 00:50:14,280
Speaker 4: because someone was agitating you and putting you up against

889
00:50:14,320 --> 00:50:17,480
Speaker 4: the wall, maybe you played better against it. I just

890
00:50:17,560 --> 00:50:24,759
Speaker 4: simply say that everyone can perform better if they are supported, period.

891
00:50:24,920 --> 00:50:25,919
Speaker 3: A pat on the back.

892
00:50:27,200 --> 00:50:31,440
Speaker 4: Never you know, that never happened, and so I have

893
00:50:31,680 --> 00:50:36,160
Speaker 4: the only wonder I have. I I wonder how much

894
00:50:36,200 --> 00:50:38,120
Speaker 4: better I would have been if I would have ever

895
00:50:38,200 --> 00:50:41,520
Speaker 4: been support it and when you never have it.

896
00:50:41,800 --> 00:50:46,239
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that was That's the best way I can

897
00:50:46,560 --> 00:50:47,200
Speaker 3: position that.

898
00:50:47,480 --> 00:50:50,080
Speaker 1: Well, thank you for sharing that. We definitely appreciate that.

899
00:50:50,760 --> 00:50:52,719
Speaker 1: Let's fast forward to the Blue Jays. You signed with

900
00:50:52,719 --> 00:50:55,680
Speaker 1: Toronto as a free agent in UH ninety one at

901
00:50:55,760 --> 00:51:01,560
Speaker 1: forty still hitting a hundred RBIs in the v I mean,

902
00:51:01,920 --> 00:51:05,000
Speaker 1: how do you keep your body? Obviously we talk about

903
00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:06,680
Speaker 1: your mind and what you had to do to focus,

904
00:51:06,719 --> 00:51:09,799
Speaker 1: but forty is forty and you're you're at the top

905
00:51:09,800 --> 00:51:12,759
Speaker 1: of you know, you're in the major leagues and still

906
00:51:12,800 --> 00:51:14,880
Speaker 1: being able to do what you're doing at that age.

907
00:51:14,920 --> 00:51:17,239
Speaker 1: It's like, what kind of shape did you have to

908
00:51:17,280 --> 00:51:18,920
Speaker 1: be in and was it really just a breath of

909
00:51:18,960 --> 00:51:20,080
Speaker 1: fresh air to be able to move on?

910
00:51:20,320 --> 00:51:24,279
Speaker 4: It was a number of things that were working in

911
00:51:24,280 --> 00:51:28,000
Speaker 4: my favor. There was joy. Every time I came to

912
00:51:28,040 --> 00:51:28,759
Speaker 4: the ballpark.

913
00:51:28,880 --> 00:51:29,560
Speaker 3: There was joy.

914
00:51:30,440 --> 00:51:34,920
Speaker 4: I was playing for a manager who was my friend

915
00:51:35,600 --> 00:51:38,280
Speaker 4: who at the start of the season, how about this, Chris?

916
00:51:38,320 --> 00:51:38,879
Speaker 3: I told him.

917
00:51:38,920 --> 00:51:42,360
Speaker 4: I said, see though, look they tried todh me a

918
00:51:42,400 --> 00:51:43,800
Speaker 4: little bit too much down.

919
00:51:43,600 --> 00:51:46,680
Speaker 3: And anahu, I said, I got a lot left. He

920
00:51:46,800 --> 00:51:47,640
Speaker 3: kind of looked at me.

921
00:51:48,600 --> 00:51:50,480
Speaker 4: And I said, if we go to the playoffs, you know,

922
00:51:50,719 --> 00:51:52,440
Speaker 4: I have to be able to play in the field.

923
00:51:53,040 --> 00:51:55,440
Speaker 4: So he looked at me, and when he ended up

924
00:51:55,480 --> 00:51:58,319
Speaker 4: letting me play, I played one hundred and fifty six

925
00:51:58,400 --> 00:52:03,080
Speaker 4: games wow, at age forty twenty seven in the field.

926
00:52:03,280 --> 00:52:05,600
Speaker 4: So I was ready when it was time for playoffs.

927
00:52:06,600 --> 00:52:09,359
Speaker 4: But I think even at that age a combination of

928
00:52:10,480 --> 00:52:12,839
Speaker 4: I mean, there's a real science of taking care of

929
00:52:12,880 --> 00:52:14,000
Speaker 4: yourself physically.

930
00:52:14,760 --> 00:52:16,239
Speaker 3: I think there's also.

931
00:52:16,920 --> 00:52:18,920
Speaker 4: I mean there was some equipment and things that I

932
00:52:19,000 --> 00:52:24,560
Speaker 4: did that were very helpful mentally that you know, experiment

933
00:52:24,680 --> 00:52:29,080
Speaker 4: with things just to and there's no nothing on anybody

934
00:52:29,080 --> 00:52:32,840
Speaker 4: but there were no drugs ever involved in in my

935
00:52:33,000 --> 00:52:36,719
Speaker 4: career on off the field, that type of stuff. But

936
00:52:36,800 --> 00:52:40,960
Speaker 4: it was just joyful to be in a place that

937
00:52:41,160 --> 00:52:44,000
Speaker 4: wanted me to be there, that wanted me to lead

938
00:52:44,120 --> 00:52:49,400
Speaker 4: and interact with the players on the team, and.

939
00:52:48,480 --> 00:52:50,560
Speaker 3: That still let me play every day.

940
00:52:50,640 --> 00:52:55,239
Speaker 4: I was even though I DHD, I was playing every day,

941
00:52:55,280 --> 00:52:57,319
Speaker 4: so I would fill with joy and we would get

942
00:52:57,360 --> 00:52:59,160
Speaker 4: forty thousand people coming in to Statey.

943
00:52:59,400 --> 00:53:01,040
Speaker 3: Toronto had some great fans.

944
00:53:01,080 --> 00:53:03,200
Speaker 4: I'm telling you you saw a little bit last year

945
00:53:03,200 --> 00:53:04,759
Speaker 4: he played the Dodgers show up.

946
00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:06,359
Speaker 3: But that's the way it was.

947
00:53:06,480 --> 00:53:08,600
Speaker 4: We get forty thousand, We're the first ones to get

948
00:53:08,640 --> 00:53:10,760
Speaker 4: four million fans.

949
00:53:12,280 --> 00:53:13,399
Speaker 3: You know, Dodgers have.

950
00:53:14,040 --> 00:53:18,279
Speaker 4: I think they reached that down, but they were the

951
00:53:18,280 --> 00:53:20,920
Speaker 4: first up there. So I just I don't know, I

952
00:53:21,000 --> 00:53:26,360
Speaker 4: kind of got got off track there. But essentially playing

953
00:53:26,400 --> 00:53:31,880
Speaker 4: for Cito, a friend of mine, you know, we're teammates

954
00:53:33,560 --> 00:53:38,759
Speaker 4: eighteen years before in San Diego, and I said, see,

955
00:53:38,800 --> 00:53:40,360
Speaker 4: you gotta let me play when we get to the

956
00:53:40,400 --> 00:53:41,160
Speaker 4: World Series.

957
00:53:41,200 --> 00:53:43,200
Speaker 3: Man, he just kind of looked at me side. He said,

958
00:53:43,239 --> 00:53:46,239
Speaker 3: at the moment he's gonna be forty years old. I

959
00:53:46,280 --> 00:53:48,839
Speaker 3: got it. I still got it. And so he let

960
00:53:48,880 --> 00:53:50,840
Speaker 3: me do it. So I set the record that year

961
00:53:51,120 --> 00:53:54,720
Speaker 3: for RBIs for guys over forty, drove in one hundred

962
00:53:54,719 --> 00:53:54,960
Speaker 3: and eight.

963
00:53:55,080 --> 00:53:56,960
Speaker 1: I'd be interested to see what the next closest up

964
00:53:57,000 --> 00:53:59,480
Speaker 1: to age forty was. One hundred and eight, you Grove, man,

965
00:53:59,480 --> 00:54:02,120
Speaker 1: I'm sure you probably fit the RBIs ahead of someone

966
00:54:02,120 --> 00:54:02,680
Speaker 1: in that age.

967
00:54:02,800 --> 00:54:03,040
Speaker 3: Yeah.

968
00:54:03,120 --> 00:54:07,000
Speaker 4: Well, next year Paul Molitor came and he benefited from

969
00:54:07,000 --> 00:54:08,640
Speaker 4: a lot of the things that I had to go

970
00:54:08,680 --> 00:54:09,760
Speaker 4: to another team.

971
00:54:10,280 --> 00:54:11,200
Speaker 3: So that that was.

972
00:54:13,520 --> 00:54:16,200
Speaker 4: All I can say is that was interesting. I got

973
00:54:16,239 --> 00:54:17,560
Speaker 4: kind of off trackted, Yeah, No, it.

974
00:54:17,520 --> 00:54:19,080
Speaker 1: Was just I mean we were gonna touch on, you know,

975
00:54:19,120 --> 00:54:22,399
Speaker 1: the World Series where you're able to hit the game

976
00:54:22,480 --> 00:54:28,200
Speaker 1: clinching double and nearly twenty years after you started, you

977
00:54:28,280 --> 00:54:29,160
Speaker 1: finally get that ring.

978
00:54:29,440 --> 00:54:29,840
Speaker 3: Yeah.

979
00:54:29,960 --> 00:54:34,800
Speaker 4: You know something when you grow up, how you finish

980
00:54:36,080 --> 00:54:39,680
Speaker 4: a day of practice, It's like you made you getting

981
00:54:39,680 --> 00:54:42,480
Speaker 4: ready to walk out of the gym, you hit that shot,

982
00:54:42,560 --> 00:54:45,040
Speaker 4: you know, game on the line. Whatever, that's what you

983
00:54:45,120 --> 00:54:48,080
Speaker 4: always dream about. I got a chance to do that

984
00:54:48,160 --> 00:54:52,200
Speaker 4: in nineteen ninety two because Padres we never went to

985
00:54:52,280 --> 00:54:56,319
Speaker 4: the playoffs or World Series. Yankees we did one and

986
00:54:56,360 --> 00:54:59,920
Speaker 4: I didn't do well, but it wasn't because of just

987
00:55:00,040 --> 00:55:05,600
Speaker 4: I'm overwhelmed sometimes Yeah, yeah, it worked as a size

988
00:55:06,000 --> 00:55:11,200
Speaker 4: Yeah so Toronto. I was just able to put it together.

989
00:55:11,440 --> 00:55:14,799
Speaker 4: And I mean so I've experienced everything.

990
00:55:14,640 --> 00:55:17,360
Speaker 3: The highs of the highs of the game, the lows

991
00:55:17,360 --> 00:55:17,920
Speaker 3: of the low.

992
00:55:19,120 --> 00:55:22,920
Speaker 4: But I think I fulfilled my destiny, accomplished what I

993
00:55:22,960 --> 00:55:28,560
Speaker 4: set out to do, enjoyed I It was late in

994
00:55:28,560 --> 00:55:30,959
Speaker 4: the career, but it took me a long time before

995
00:55:31,000 --> 00:55:34,160
Speaker 4: I really found the real enjoyment. San Diego was good

996
00:55:34,160 --> 00:55:36,520
Speaker 4: because I went right to the big leagues. Very few

997
00:55:36,520 --> 00:55:40,200
Speaker 4: people do that and learn how to make it happen.

998
00:55:40,360 --> 00:55:40,880
Speaker 3: And then.

999
00:55:42,520 --> 00:55:44,480
Speaker 4: You know, New York, it was like every day I

1000
00:55:44,520 --> 00:55:47,279
Speaker 4: came to work, you gotta fight. You got to fight,

1001
00:55:48,080 --> 00:55:50,319
Speaker 4: and not for you and not trying to help you,

1002
00:55:51,760 --> 00:55:53,040
Speaker 4: trying to mess with your money.

1003
00:55:54,440 --> 00:55:56,680
Speaker 3: I go on and on it. It wasn't good.

1004
00:55:56,840 --> 00:55:59,120
Speaker 1: Did you find a safe space in New York, whether

1005
00:55:59,200 --> 00:56:01,360
Speaker 1: it be some fans, whether there be some teammates, was

1006
00:56:01,360 --> 00:56:03,719
Speaker 1: it your wife, family, whether it's like kind of just

1007
00:56:04,280 --> 00:56:08,560
Speaker 1: where you were able to find some joy during that journey.

1008
00:56:08,360 --> 00:56:14,239
Speaker 4: Small group of people, okay, family friends. I mean even

1009
00:56:14,320 --> 00:56:17,200
Speaker 4: then I was like the player representative for the guys

1010
00:56:17,480 --> 00:56:20,719
Speaker 4: for the Union, so I'm making sure everybody else is right.

1011
00:56:20,800 --> 00:56:22,480
Speaker 1: So you're still looking at for everyone even though they're

1012
00:56:22,480 --> 00:56:23,280
Speaker 1: shitting on you.

1013
00:56:23,360 --> 00:56:25,200
Speaker 3: Oh yeah yeah.

1014
00:56:25,239 --> 00:56:29,279
Speaker 4: So it was all, like I say, difficult, and you

1015
00:56:29,360 --> 00:56:31,120
Speaker 4: can't complain or moan about it.

1016
00:56:31,520 --> 00:56:34,319
Speaker 3: Most people didn't know what was going on.

1017
00:56:34,640 --> 00:56:37,799
Speaker 2: As we're going through your story, I feel like we've

1018
00:56:37,840 --> 00:56:41,640
Speaker 2: gotten a good snippet of each stage of your career

1019
00:56:42,239 --> 00:56:45,920
Speaker 2: and ending at that game six double. Understanding you play

1020
00:56:45,960 --> 00:56:49,200
Speaker 2: a little after that, but the game six double, after

1021
00:56:49,239 --> 00:56:52,000
Speaker 2: the stuff that you went through, you're standing on second

1022
00:56:52,000 --> 00:56:54,920
Speaker 2: base right there, like you got to remember it like

1023
00:56:54,920 --> 00:56:58,000
Speaker 2: it was yesterday. What's going through your mind from everything

1024
00:56:58,040 --> 00:57:00,440
Speaker 2: that you went through to come through in that moment

1025
00:57:01,160 --> 00:57:01,840
Speaker 2: for the squad?

1026
00:57:02,000 --> 00:57:05,960
Speaker 3: You're right, I mean it was visceral. I had to really.

1027
00:57:05,719 --> 00:57:10,080
Speaker 1: Go, who's that guy? Who's that? No? No, no, I'm talking

1028
00:57:10,080 --> 00:57:11,439
Speaker 1: about the guy at bet.

1029
00:57:11,200 --> 00:57:17,760
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, like this moment though, I'm forty forty right there, yeah,

1030
00:57:17,800 --> 00:57:22,000
Speaker 4: I think, And they left this Charlie Lee Branton there

1031
00:57:22,080 --> 00:57:23,640
Speaker 4: and you know it was either going to be a

1032
00:57:23,760 --> 00:57:26,640
Speaker 4: change up away or try to come off the plate,

1033
00:57:26,760 --> 00:57:30,480
Speaker 4: come in on me, and I'm just trying to stay loose.

1034
00:57:33,000 --> 00:57:37,080
Speaker 4: Devon White's on the move, Alamar comes in down the

1035
00:57:37,120 --> 00:57:40,160
Speaker 4: line's rattling around in the corner.

1036
00:57:41,560 --> 00:57:42,360
Speaker 1: Is that wrong, Gamp?

1037
00:57:42,880 --> 00:57:46,920
Speaker 3: Yes? And I remember just standing on second base. It

1038
00:57:47,040 --> 00:57:47,800
Speaker 3: was almost like.

1039
00:57:50,000 --> 00:57:54,200
Speaker 4: Brings me back to when I was a youngster playing

1040
00:57:54,280 --> 00:58:02,360
Speaker 4: the game. The love of the game, the competition, just

1041
00:58:03,280 --> 00:58:16,640
Speaker 4: everybody was excited. And so, you know, that was a

1042
00:58:16,640 --> 00:58:22,240
Speaker 4: culmination of that year and one of the highlights of

1043
00:58:22,280 --> 00:58:24,680
Speaker 4: my career. I mean I did everything. You make all

1044
00:58:24,720 --> 00:58:29,240
Speaker 4: star teams, you know, all kinds of things, but you

1045
00:58:29,280 --> 00:58:30,400
Speaker 4: don't get to the World Series.

1046
00:58:30,440 --> 00:58:36,200
Speaker 3: Often. First World Series Yankees, we lost to the Dodgers.

1047
00:58:36,440 --> 00:58:39,840
Speaker 3: We lost four games to two. It didn't work out.

1048
00:58:40,000 --> 00:58:44,000
Speaker 4: And then so I'm how many years into the by

1049
00:58:44,080 --> 00:58:46,560
Speaker 4: eighty one, I'm eight years in.

1050
00:58:47,840 --> 00:58:53,040
Speaker 3: Doesn't work out. So it took me all the way to.

1051
00:58:52,920 --> 00:58:57,480
Speaker 4: Nineteen ninety two to get to the next opportunity. You

1052
00:58:57,560 --> 00:59:00,480
Speaker 4: just hope for that opportunity and to do your thing.

1053
00:59:00,760 --> 00:59:02,680
Speaker 4: You don't have to be the star. I was always

1054
00:59:02,720 --> 00:59:05,160
Speaker 4: like a team guy. It's not like I got to

1055
00:59:05,160 --> 00:59:08,000
Speaker 4: be the star or whatever the case may be. We win,

1056
00:59:08,160 --> 00:59:11,240
Speaker 4: we win as a team. But that was a great

1057
00:59:11,240 --> 00:59:14,240
Speaker 4: group of guys, man. You know, never forget them. You

1058
00:59:14,240 --> 00:59:17,880
Speaker 4: know you're you're inextricably bound to lie forever.

1059
00:59:18,400 --> 00:59:22,280
Speaker 2: I'm genuinely happy that moment happened for you, like genuinely

1060
00:59:22,280 --> 00:59:25,400
Speaker 2: happy to see all that come to culmination, Like it's

1061
00:59:25,440 --> 00:59:29,080
Speaker 2: a beautiful thing, and especially all that you gave back

1062
00:59:29,120 --> 00:59:31,000
Speaker 2: to the game. You're talking about your years. I mean

1063
00:59:31,040 --> 00:59:34,200
Speaker 2: we've been sitting here talking. You talked about your role

1064
00:59:34,240 --> 00:59:36,720
Speaker 2: with the Union as a player, as the player rep

1065
00:59:36,800 --> 00:59:41,520
Speaker 2: for years after you retired. I know, Dave Winfield, because

1066
00:59:41,560 --> 00:59:44,200
Speaker 2: of your other than this game, I would always see

1067
00:59:44,200 --> 00:59:46,920
Speaker 2: you in the clubhouse as an advocate with the with

1068
00:59:46,960 --> 00:59:49,320
Speaker 2: the PA, So seeing you, you would come in and

1069
00:59:49,360 --> 00:59:53,000
Speaker 2: you talk to us and you fought for players' rights.

1070
00:59:53,200 --> 00:59:56,240
Speaker 2: What's the one thing that you're most proud of with

1071
00:59:56,280 --> 00:59:58,880
Speaker 2: your relationship with the PA and what you were able

1072
00:59:58,960 --> 01:00:00,000
Speaker 2: to fight for and advocate.

1073
01:00:00,480 --> 01:00:03,640
Speaker 4: It's a great question. What it comes down to. You know,

1074
01:00:03,760 --> 01:00:08,240
Speaker 4: sports is a big it's a big business. You have

1075
01:00:08,320 --> 01:00:15,160
Speaker 4: to have representation. I remember when I started in seventy

1076
01:00:15,240 --> 01:00:19,240
Speaker 4: three was my first year. Minimum salary was fifteen thousand

1077
01:00:19,280 --> 01:00:22,520
Speaker 4: dollars averaged thirty five thousand.

1078
01:00:22,720 --> 01:00:25,920
Speaker 3: Top guys maybe Dick Allen and those guys may make

1079
01:00:25,920 --> 01:00:31,080
Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty no multi year contracts, no free agency,

1080
01:00:32,320 --> 01:00:39,479
Speaker 3: no arbitration. Medical was pitiful, woeful. It was.

1081
01:00:42,720 --> 01:00:49,880
Speaker 4: You hoped you played a long time and your pension

1082
01:00:50,280 --> 01:00:54,440
Speaker 4: you had to be I don't know, sixty five to

1083
01:00:54,480 --> 01:00:56,800
Speaker 4: start collecting, So you're gonna be out of the game

1084
01:00:57,000 --> 01:01:01,880
Speaker 4: twenty thirty years before you could start collecting a pension

1085
01:01:01,960 --> 01:01:06,200
Speaker 4: or anything. So I just remember going through the days

1086
01:01:06,240 --> 01:01:12,920
Speaker 4: of collective bargaining with Marvin Miller, don fear all those guys,

1087
01:01:13,000 --> 01:01:16,600
Speaker 4: when basically baseball just, eh, we like it the way

1088
01:01:16,600 --> 01:01:16,960
Speaker 4: it is.

1089
01:01:17,560 --> 01:01:18,800
Speaker 3: We ain't given you nothing.

1090
01:01:19,560 --> 01:01:24,600
Speaker 4: And so without that group of men standing up for

1091
01:01:24,680 --> 01:01:26,919
Speaker 4: the rest of the players, you know, they weren't even

1092
01:01:26,960 --> 01:01:30,680
Speaker 4: all going to benefit from this. Whatever you accomplished. Your

1093
01:01:30,720 --> 01:01:35,840
Speaker 4: career was short four years, four and a half years, maybe,

1094
01:01:36,520 --> 01:01:38,600
Speaker 4: so it was like you were doing this for not

1095
01:01:38,640 --> 01:01:41,160
Speaker 4: only yourself but the guys in the future.

1096
01:01:42,200 --> 01:01:44,080
Speaker 3: And I'm proud to have been a part of that

1097
01:01:44,840 --> 01:01:49,040
Speaker 3: long that connection to be able to accomplish something like

1098
01:01:49,080 --> 01:01:53,080
Speaker 3: I said, go for minimum salary fifteen thousand dollars too.

1099
01:01:53,280 --> 01:01:55,439
Speaker 3: I don't. I'd have to see what it is now.

1100
01:01:55,960 --> 01:01:57,480
Speaker 1: The minimums are pretty penny.

1101
01:01:58,440 --> 01:02:02,200
Speaker 4: But all the other sports, baseball was in the league,

1102
01:02:02,640 --> 01:02:05,240
Speaker 4: and I'm glad they've worked with a guy like Marvin Miller,

1103
01:02:05,960 --> 01:02:12,200
Speaker 4: Dick Moss, Don Fear, you know, all the way up

1104
01:02:12,240 --> 01:02:17,160
Speaker 4: to Tony Clark, and there was Michael Wiener and you know,

1105
01:02:17,240 --> 01:02:20,720
Speaker 4: so you sit with them and you just see what

1106
01:02:20,880 --> 01:02:25,320
Speaker 4: baseball is made of. And had we not stuck together,

1107
01:02:25,960 --> 01:02:29,240
Speaker 4: the industry wouldn't have changed, not only our industry but

1108
01:02:29,840 --> 01:02:34,439
Speaker 4: basketball football. And I'm glad to have been a part

1109
01:02:34,480 --> 01:02:38,120
Speaker 4: of that. And so I was just kind of passed

1110
01:02:38,160 --> 01:02:42,000
Speaker 4: it on you. You would see me come by with

1111
01:02:41,080 --> 01:02:45,880
Speaker 4: the Union and spring training and different times collective bargaining,

1112
01:02:46,160 --> 01:02:48,720
Speaker 4: and I'm always pulling someone to the side and saying, look,

1113
01:02:49,320 --> 01:02:53,080
Speaker 4: understand where you came from. You know, what you're made of,

1114
01:02:53,160 --> 01:02:55,600
Speaker 4: what other people have been through before you.

1115
01:02:56,320 --> 01:02:59,440
Speaker 3: It was just laid out there like that for you.

1116
01:02:59,600 --> 01:03:03,920
Speaker 4: So I feel good about that to be able to

1117
01:03:04,080 --> 01:03:08,520
Speaker 4: have transferred some of that knowledge and wisdom and for

1118
01:03:08,600 --> 01:03:10,200
Speaker 4: a person to stand up for their rights.

1119
01:03:10,280 --> 01:03:13,040
Speaker 5: Yeah, but players have to hear that so they understand.

1120
01:03:13,440 --> 01:03:15,200
Speaker 2: Like you're saying, it's a lot of guys who don't understand,

1121
01:03:15,240 --> 01:03:18,160
Speaker 2: So you need to understand the stories that came before

1122
01:03:18,200 --> 01:03:20,440
Speaker 2: you to why you know, I'm able to make what

1123
01:03:20,520 --> 01:03:22,200
Speaker 2: I made, and then players now are able to make

1124
01:03:22,240 --> 01:03:25,880
Speaker 2: what they make. But you know you've always been a trailblazer.

1125
01:03:26,000 --> 01:03:27,680
Speaker 2: You talked about you being the first one with a

1126
01:03:27,760 --> 01:03:31,080
Speaker 2: ten year deal, the record setting contracts, but still made

1127
01:03:31,080 --> 01:03:32,560
Speaker 2: it a priority want to give back.

1128
01:03:32,600 --> 01:03:33,600
Speaker 5: Everybody wasn't doing this.

1129
01:03:33,680 --> 01:03:36,720
Speaker 2: You're the first active player we checked this to have

1130
01:03:36,880 --> 01:03:39,560
Speaker 2: to establish a five, O one C three and that

1131
01:03:39,680 --> 01:03:42,920
Speaker 2: is fascinating. That's something I just learned yesterday with you.

1132
01:03:44,160 --> 01:03:46,600
Speaker 2: Why was that important to you? Who even laned you

1133
01:03:46,680 --> 01:03:50,440
Speaker 2: down that path because nobody was doing it? What made

1134
01:03:50,480 --> 01:03:52,720
Speaker 2: you want to go out there and use your funds

1135
01:03:52,760 --> 01:03:53,880
Speaker 2: and your influence like that?

1136
01:03:54,120 --> 01:03:56,520
Speaker 4: I think it's the way I grew up the community.

1137
01:03:56,560 --> 01:04:01,240
Speaker 4: I'm from Saint Paul, Minnesota, and it was pretty tight

1138
01:04:01,320 --> 01:04:05,080
Speaker 4: knit community.

1139
01:04:05,200 --> 01:04:08,800
Speaker 3: You knew everybody. You knew the doctor, the black doctor,

1140
01:04:08,960 --> 01:04:11,600
Speaker 3: or the.

1141
01:04:10,360 --> 01:04:14,960
Speaker 4: The you know, the police chief or whatever. You knew everybody.

1142
01:04:15,080 --> 01:04:20,520
Speaker 4: I don't know what motivated my family was close didn't

1143
01:04:20,520 --> 01:04:22,000
Speaker 4: I didn't want to get I want to come back

1144
01:04:22,040 --> 01:04:24,200
Speaker 4: to the truck, you asked me. I want to be specific.

1145
01:04:24,240 --> 01:04:26,400
Speaker 4: I don't want to go off too many tangents. But

1146
01:04:26,800 --> 01:04:27,640
Speaker 4: what was the question?

1147
01:04:28,000 --> 01:04:31,720
Speaker 2: The question is what made you feel the need to

1148
01:04:31,960 --> 01:04:35,160
Speaker 2: establish something to give back when that was not the

1149
01:04:35,200 --> 01:04:36,880
Speaker 2: norm for anybody else in the game.

1150
01:04:37,240 --> 01:04:40,120
Speaker 4: I won't say visionary at all, but I will say

1151
01:04:40,160 --> 01:04:45,240
Speaker 4: that growing up, you know, I had a larger extended family.

1152
01:04:45,280 --> 01:04:48,440
Speaker 4: People did for one another. Saint Paul, Minnesota just happened

1153
01:04:48,480 --> 01:04:51,640
Speaker 4: to be one of those places that they kind of

1154
01:04:51,640 --> 01:04:55,120
Speaker 4: looked out for one another. I thought that if I succeeded,

1155
01:04:56,440 --> 01:04:59,440
Speaker 4: and I had a group of friends, my brother and

1156
01:04:59,480 --> 01:05:03,000
Speaker 4: a lot of close friends back there, I said, Man,

1157
01:05:03,080 --> 01:05:05,680
Speaker 4: if I do well enough, we're going to start a

1158
01:05:05,680 --> 01:05:09,840
Speaker 4: scholarship here back here in Saint Paul. So we put

1159
01:05:09,840 --> 01:05:13,080
Speaker 4: together Winfield Awards where we were to honor these kids

1160
01:05:13,120 --> 01:05:20,040
Speaker 4: that did very well sports, health, and education. They did

1161
01:05:20,080 --> 01:05:22,680
Speaker 4: well in school and went on so we'd give them

1162
01:05:22,720 --> 01:05:26,080
Speaker 4: some money to head off to college and honor them

1163
01:05:26,080 --> 01:05:29,160
Speaker 4: in the community. And this coming year be the fiftieth

1164
01:05:29,240 --> 01:05:32,000
Speaker 4: year we've done that. Wow, you know, it's not I mean,

1165
01:05:32,000 --> 01:05:35,120
Speaker 4: there are bigger dinners and stuff. You know, my folks

1166
01:05:35,160 --> 01:05:37,840
Speaker 4: that naa, they don't want to get too big, you know,

1167
01:05:37,960 --> 01:05:41,760
Speaker 4: it's just this is what we can handle. But there

1168
01:05:41,760 --> 01:05:44,720
Speaker 4: are a lot of people that we've sent off to

1169
01:05:44,800 --> 01:05:47,400
Speaker 4: college and given them support, and that's what I was

1170
01:05:47,440 --> 01:05:50,800
Speaker 4: all about. So it was kind of normal from where

1171
01:05:50,800 --> 01:05:52,680
Speaker 4: I'm from, but no one had done it before me.

1172
01:05:53,480 --> 01:05:56,560
Speaker 4: So sometimes you just happen to be the first and

1173
01:05:56,600 --> 01:05:59,360
Speaker 4: you do it best. And then when I went to

1174
01:05:59,520 --> 01:06:02,160
Speaker 4: San Diego, made.

1175
01:06:02,080 --> 01:06:03,800
Speaker 3: Enough money, we did the they.

1176
01:06:03,640 --> 01:06:06,320
Speaker 4: Call Winfield Pavilion where you'd have a section of the

1177
01:06:06,360 --> 01:06:15,160
Speaker 4: stands nice. And then we got kids medical Attention Scripts clinic.

1178
01:06:15,640 --> 01:06:18,200
Speaker 4: We took them different places. So I was kind of

1179
01:06:18,240 --> 01:06:21,520
Speaker 4: like a pied piper, you know where people.

1180
01:06:21,280 --> 01:06:23,360
Speaker 3: Say Winfield, man, he's doing some good stuff.

1181
01:06:23,400 --> 01:06:23,960
Speaker 1: Man.

1182
01:06:24,320 --> 01:06:26,920
Speaker 4: So with the kids and the families and the communities.

1183
01:06:28,240 --> 01:06:31,480
Speaker 4: The first All Star game, All Star Game didn't used

1184
01:06:31,520 --> 01:06:34,600
Speaker 4: to be like it is until came to San Diego

1185
01:06:35,440 --> 01:06:37,600
Speaker 4: and I had my hand in this. Of the All

1186
01:06:37,600 --> 01:06:40,280
Speaker 4: Star Game. We used to just go. My first one

1187
01:06:40,280 --> 01:06:41,800
Speaker 4: was in seventy seven in New York.

1188
01:06:42,080 --> 01:06:42,640
Speaker 3: You just go.

1189
01:06:42,760 --> 01:06:45,040
Speaker 4: There was a commissioner's lunch and they give you a

1190
01:06:45,160 --> 01:06:48,520
Speaker 4: painting of all this and they didn't even open the practice.

1191
01:06:48,680 --> 01:06:52,560
Speaker 4: It was only open to writers and there wasn't all

1192
01:06:52,560 --> 01:06:55,360
Speaker 4: the festivities. And they came to San Diego the next

1193
01:06:55,400 --> 01:06:57,440
Speaker 4: year has been my second All Star Game. They said

1194
01:06:57,600 --> 01:07:03,320
Speaker 4: Winfield what'd you? What do you what we're gonna do? Man,

1195
01:07:03,440 --> 01:07:05,200
Speaker 4: we want to go to the game. I said, I

1196
01:07:05,200 --> 01:07:07,040
Speaker 4: don't know, I don't know, you know.

1197
01:07:07,160 --> 01:07:11,200
Speaker 3: And then then I just put it together where we

1198
01:07:11,240 --> 01:07:14,600
Speaker 3: asked the padres, where you open up the stadium and

1199
01:07:14,680 --> 01:07:17,920
Speaker 3: let us let them watch us take batting practice and stuff.

1200
01:07:18,000 --> 01:07:19,280
Speaker 3: It never been done before.

1201
01:07:19,800 --> 01:07:22,160
Speaker 4: And I said, We're going to have a big party

1202
01:07:22,200 --> 01:07:25,480
Speaker 4: for all the kids in San Diego, and so I

1203
01:07:25,760 --> 01:07:30,400
Speaker 4: rented a hotel in Mission Valley. So we had music,

1204
01:07:30,480 --> 01:07:33,400
Speaker 4: we had food, we had players come out sign autographs,

1205
01:07:33,920 --> 01:07:36,000
Speaker 4: and then they opened up the stadium and let all

1206
01:07:36,040 --> 01:07:40,040
Speaker 4: these people. There were seven eight thousand, I'm sure that

1207
01:07:40,280 --> 01:07:44,040
Speaker 4: made their way into the stadium and they watched batting

1208
01:07:44,120 --> 01:07:45,200
Speaker 4: practice for free.

1209
01:07:46,440 --> 01:07:50,720
Speaker 3: Interesting thing. We laugh at it now, but because you

1210
01:07:50,720 --> 01:07:52,880
Speaker 3: see all these festivities, you think it was always there.

1211
01:07:53,120 --> 01:07:53,800
Speaker 3: Didn't exist.

1212
01:07:54,720 --> 01:07:57,080
Speaker 4: And so they had a batting practice and we had

1213
01:07:57,120 --> 01:08:00,680
Speaker 4: an old coach had these baseballs that traveled really far.

1214
01:08:01,200 --> 01:08:03,640
Speaker 4: You know, they really traveled extra far because they used

1215
01:08:03,640 --> 01:08:06,680
Speaker 4: to have games with celebrities and they wanted the ball

1216
01:08:06,720 --> 01:08:09,240
Speaker 4: to at least travel. So we mixed them in with

1217
01:08:09,320 --> 01:08:11,880
Speaker 4: the batting practice before the game.

1218
01:08:11,960 --> 01:08:13,760
Speaker 3: Man, we got a second death.

1219
01:08:15,400 --> 01:08:19,120
Speaker 4: American leaguers looking like nag them the look who were playing.

1220
01:08:19,200 --> 01:08:21,800
Speaker 4: So we're killing the ball. So we did things like that,

1221
01:08:21,880 --> 01:08:24,440
Speaker 4: and then later on you see them start to adopt

1222
01:08:24,680 --> 01:08:27,000
Speaker 4: the things that we did in San Diego. So I

1223
01:08:27,040 --> 01:08:30,120
Speaker 4: had my hand and all that was nineteen seventy eight,

1224
01:08:30,760 --> 01:08:33,120
Speaker 4: and then from there it got more. Okay, we got

1225
01:08:33,120 --> 01:08:36,320
Speaker 4: the luncheons, we got this, we got the fan fest

1226
01:08:36,800 --> 01:08:37,559
Speaker 4: didn't exist.

1227
01:08:37,760 --> 01:08:40,160
Speaker 1: So you were a visionary. You just don't want to

1228
01:08:40,160 --> 01:08:41,519
Speaker 1: take credit for it, but you were.

1229
01:08:42,040 --> 01:08:44,240
Speaker 3: I'll take credit for that because otherwise someone else is

1230
01:08:44,240 --> 01:08:44,880
Speaker 3: going to take credit.

1231
01:08:45,000 --> 01:08:47,240
Speaker 1: Right there you go. I wanted to ask you about

1232
01:08:47,280 --> 01:08:49,519
Speaker 1: two players you mentioned earlier before we get out of here,

1233
01:08:50,200 --> 01:08:53,000
Speaker 1: two of my favorite players, Kirby Pucket and Ricky Henderson.

1234
01:08:53,640 --> 01:08:55,599
Speaker 1: As players, I want to hear about them, and then

1235
01:08:55,640 --> 01:08:57,200
Speaker 1: obviously off the field, two.

1236
01:08:57,040 --> 01:08:58,080
Speaker 3: Of my favorite guys.

1237
01:08:58,400 --> 01:09:02,559
Speaker 4: Kirby there is nobody in the game that disliked him.

1238
01:09:02,640 --> 01:09:04,320
Speaker 4: But if he's going to score a run and you're

1239
01:09:04,360 --> 01:09:08,240
Speaker 4: in the way, he gonna run. It wasn't about physical fitness.

1240
01:09:08,240 --> 01:09:12,479
Speaker 4: He was rotund, he was round, he like the bowling ball, strong,

1241
01:09:12,600 --> 01:09:17,120
Speaker 4: you know, big old calves and everything. But he'd bring

1242
01:09:17,160 --> 01:09:21,160
Speaker 4: out a bagger Mike and Ike or some candy. He

1243
01:09:21,320 --> 01:09:25,160
Speaker 4: was sitting and uh, we we just kid around before

1244
01:09:25,160 --> 01:09:27,880
Speaker 4: the game and stuff like that. He said, Man, I

1245
01:09:27,880 --> 01:09:30,519
Speaker 4: can't stretch. How am I gonna stretch for these bowling

1246
01:09:30,560 --> 01:09:33,599
Speaker 4: ball bowling you know, pin legs and stuff like that.

1247
01:09:33,840 --> 01:09:35,599
Speaker 4: But he he was great. You know, if you weren't

1248
01:09:35,600 --> 01:09:37,040
Speaker 4: playing well, he said, what's wrong with you?

1249
01:09:37,080 --> 01:09:39,479
Speaker 3: Guys? He said, you're not ready to play? That? Jump

1250
01:09:39,520 --> 01:09:41,519
Speaker 3: on my back. I got this today.

1251
01:09:41,640 --> 01:09:43,880
Speaker 1: And he's all about what five six five seven?

1252
01:09:43,920 --> 01:09:46,800
Speaker 3: He was, Yeah, he was, Yeah, I have to look

1253
01:09:47,080 --> 01:09:49,639
Speaker 3: he was little. Yeah, little Kirby was strong.

1254
01:09:49,720 --> 01:09:50,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, you have.

1255
01:09:50,680 --> 01:09:53,080
Speaker 3: To look up his stuff. But he was funny. We

1256
01:09:53,120 --> 01:09:53,719
Speaker 3: had fun.

1257
01:09:54,640 --> 01:09:56,920
Speaker 4: And I'll give him credit for when I got older

1258
01:09:56,920 --> 01:10:00,200
Speaker 4: in the game and I'm playing in Minnesota and let

1259
01:10:00,280 --> 01:10:02,599
Speaker 4: me hit Ricky first and then I'll come back to Kirby.

1260
01:10:02,640 --> 01:10:05,120
Speaker 4: But Ricky was just a lot of fun. One of

1261
01:10:05,200 --> 01:10:08,600
Speaker 4: the best players ever, one of the best teammates. You know,

1262
01:10:08,720 --> 01:10:11,600
Speaker 4: when you can steal one hundred and something bases, you

1263
01:10:11,640 --> 01:10:12,960
Speaker 4: know it hit that ball apart.

1264
01:10:13,680 --> 01:10:15,040
Speaker 1: Papa's college, Yeah.

1265
01:10:15,040 --> 01:10:19,599
Speaker 3: Papa's college. We just had a great time together and

1266
01:10:21,520 --> 01:10:22,200
Speaker 3: we miss him.

1267
01:10:22,600 --> 01:10:26,240
Speaker 4: Both of them go too early. But Yeah, Ricky was

1268
01:10:26,240 --> 01:10:31,240
Speaker 4: fun to watch, fun to play with. I mean, there's

1269
01:10:31,280 --> 01:10:34,439
Speaker 4: too many stories to go into. But like I said, Kirby,

1270
01:10:35,080 --> 01:10:39,880
Speaker 4: when I was in Minnesota and I'm forty years old.

1271
01:10:39,760 --> 01:10:42,080
Speaker 3: And you know, off day, man, I'm trying to get

1272
01:10:42,080 --> 01:10:43,679
Speaker 3: some rest. Man, I'm trying to get.

1273
01:10:43,720 --> 01:10:47,400
Speaker 4: Massage, the steam all these No, we're going fishing tomorrow,

1274
01:10:47,720 --> 01:10:49,960
Speaker 4: I said, Okay, man, what time we leave new noon.

1275
01:10:50,160 --> 01:10:52,960
Speaker 4: I'll be by at five or whatever. So Minnesota has

1276
01:10:53,000 --> 01:10:55,400
Speaker 4: a lot of lakes and stuff. So they come and

1277
01:10:55,439 --> 01:11:02,759
Speaker 4: get me and we just have a day fishing. After

1278
01:11:02,800 --> 01:11:06,520
Speaker 4: we had breakfast and eating double cheeseburgers.

1279
01:11:10,760 --> 01:11:13,880
Speaker 3: Healthy. But and then he to have his buddies.

1280
01:11:13,920 --> 01:11:17,759
Speaker 4: We go out on that lake, catch fish, have some beers,

1281
01:11:18,320 --> 01:11:21,559
Speaker 4: cut those fish up, and they just have a good time.

1282
01:11:21,880 --> 01:11:24,479
Speaker 4: If you could go to the ballpark, go to work,

1283
01:11:25,040 --> 01:11:28,040
Speaker 4: and be happy each day, and you wanted the year

1284
01:11:28,120 --> 01:11:32,120
Speaker 4: round people that you want to be around, definitely one

1285
01:11:32,160 --> 01:11:33,920
Speaker 4: of those people on top of the list.

1286
01:11:34,600 --> 01:11:36,880
Speaker 1: I love it all right, quick hitters. First thing to

1287
01:11:36,920 --> 01:11:39,360
Speaker 1: come to mind, let us know your favorite ballpark to

1288
01:11:39,400 --> 01:11:39,760
Speaker 1: play in.

1289
01:11:39,920 --> 01:11:41,360
Speaker 3: I'd have to look at the numbers.

1290
01:11:44,760 --> 01:11:45,440
Speaker 1: Aesthetically.

1291
01:11:45,760 --> 01:11:50,400
Speaker 4: I enjoyed Toronto. I don't like the turf at all,

1292
01:11:51,240 --> 01:11:57,080
Speaker 4: but it just worked out well. The fans everything else.

1293
01:11:58,160 --> 01:12:01,000
Speaker 4: And Atlanta, the old Atlanta stay of the ball used

1294
01:12:01,000 --> 01:12:04,160
Speaker 4: to travel, so you know, you hit one, I got

1295
01:12:04,240 --> 01:12:04,960
Speaker 4: jammed a little bit.

1296
01:12:06,320 --> 01:12:07,240
Speaker 3: I love this place.

1297
01:12:08,080 --> 01:12:11,559
Speaker 4: The worst ballpark, there was some tacky ballparks when I started.

1298
01:12:12,240 --> 01:12:19,240
Speaker 4: There was if I think back Montreal had a Jerry Park.

1299
01:12:19,680 --> 01:12:23,320
Speaker 4: It was a park where I guess they're fars. You know,

1300
01:12:23,400 --> 01:12:28,120
Speaker 4: they'd have I don't know, run animals. Yeah, before the

1301
01:12:28,240 --> 01:12:33,440
Speaker 4: Dome looked Jerry Park.

1302
01:12:33,520 --> 01:12:34,000
Speaker 3: Yeah that was.

1303
01:12:34,200 --> 01:12:37,960
Speaker 4: I mean the sun would reflect off of the the

1304
01:12:38,120 --> 01:12:40,599
Speaker 4: metal stands and you're trying to see where the ball

1305
01:12:40,760 --> 01:12:46,559
Speaker 4: is and all of that. So they everything changed. Spring training.

1306
01:12:47,280 --> 01:12:50,200
Speaker 4: I'm gonna tell you San Diego had the worst in

1307
01:12:50,280 --> 01:12:56,320
Speaker 4: the beginning because it was in Yuma, Arizona. Nothing in Yuma, Arizona.

1308
01:12:56,400 --> 01:13:00,360
Speaker 4: I think they had a prison and yeah, exactly still

1309
01:13:00,400 --> 01:13:04,880
Speaker 4: there is that. I don't know anybody in that one,

1310
01:13:05,880 --> 01:13:10,320
Speaker 4: but but but that was difficult. You know, even a

1311
01:13:10,360 --> 01:13:13,200
Speaker 4: single man. You tell you your girlfriend and stuff, you

1312
01:13:13,240 --> 01:13:15,559
Speaker 4: want to come and visit spring I'm gonna wait till

1313
01:13:15,560 --> 01:13:16,560
Speaker 4: you go to Montreal.

1314
01:13:17,000 --> 01:13:18,080
Speaker 3: You know it's okay.

1315
01:13:18,360 --> 01:13:21,719
Speaker 1: I remember that smartest picture you ever faced a.

1316
01:13:21,600 --> 01:13:26,160
Speaker 3: Lot of smart ones, but the tough, tough pictures.

1317
01:13:26,200 --> 01:13:30,880
Speaker 4: I'm gonna tell you Tom Sever, Tom Sever was up there,

1318
01:13:31,720 --> 01:13:37,720
Speaker 4: Bob Gibson. I'm gonna give these guys, you know, hard

1319
01:13:37,840 --> 01:13:42,400
Speaker 4: marks because Gibson, this was a brother who you know,

1320
01:13:42,479 --> 01:13:47,000
Speaker 4: didn't take no stuff, and he had had good stuff pitching,

1321
01:13:47,080 --> 01:13:51,479
Speaker 4: he was athletic. Yeah, you want to come out there,

1322
01:13:51,600 --> 01:13:54,400
Speaker 4: you know you might be in for it. You might

1323
01:13:54,560 --> 01:13:58,040
Speaker 4: think twice he had something. But those guys, I'm gonna

1324
01:13:58,040 --> 01:14:00,439
Speaker 4: tell you, even at the end, Tom Sever had that.

1325
01:14:01,520 --> 01:14:02,639
Speaker 3: I'll tell you he had his.

1326
01:14:04,400 --> 01:14:09,040
Speaker 4: The aura and accomplishments, and he was on his three

1327
01:14:09,120 --> 01:14:12,000
Speaker 4: hundredth win. I mean, we're going at it. I'm up

1328
01:14:12,120 --> 01:14:15,680
Speaker 4: back mintal base and then he ended up striking me

1329
01:14:15,680 --> 01:14:17,680
Speaker 4: out with a change up. Later on he said, man,

1330
01:14:17,720 --> 01:14:19,559
Speaker 4: you think I'm crazy. I ain't gonna through you no fast.

1331
01:14:19,640 --> 01:14:23,240
Speaker 4: I'm forty years old, man. But things of that nature.

1332
01:14:23,280 --> 01:14:27,680
Speaker 4: But I was fortunate, listen, guys, to play in an

1333
01:14:27,720 --> 01:14:33,400
Speaker 4: era of great players and went on to the next generation.

1334
01:14:33,520 --> 01:14:36,679
Speaker 4: I mean, when you can say you played against Henry Aaron,

1335
01:14:37,560 --> 01:14:43,679
Speaker 4: and you played against Tom Seaver and Bob Gibson and

1336
01:14:43,880 --> 01:14:46,360
Speaker 4: Lou Brock. He was one of the smartest bass steelers

1337
01:14:46,360 --> 01:14:52,439
Speaker 4: that ever had and played against. And there were eighteen

1338
01:14:52,439 --> 01:14:56,120
Speaker 4: to twenty percent African American plan so you had confidence

1339
01:14:56,400 --> 01:14:58,439
Speaker 4: and you could walk into the locker room and there

1340
01:14:58,479 --> 01:15:01,360
Speaker 4: were people who put the armor around and they shared

1341
01:15:01,439 --> 01:15:03,120
Speaker 4: with you what to expect me because I didn't know

1342
01:15:03,160 --> 01:15:09,000
Speaker 4: anything coming from University of Minnesota straight to the big leagues,

1343
01:15:09,880 --> 01:15:12,240
Speaker 4: and there was too many things I'd never seen before.

1344
01:15:12,640 --> 01:15:15,200
Speaker 4: And I appreciate guys like William McCovey putting his arm

1345
01:15:15,240 --> 01:15:17,760
Speaker 4: around me, said, come on, you sit with me on

1346
01:15:17,800 --> 01:15:19,640
Speaker 4: the plane. Well I should have been sitting on the

1347
01:15:19,680 --> 01:15:22,080
Speaker 4: wing or something. You know, when you're a rookie, you

1348
01:15:22,080 --> 01:15:22,759
Speaker 4: don't know nothing.

1349
01:15:22,840 --> 01:15:24,559
Speaker 1: They used to do you guys wrong, and I'm sure

1350
01:15:24,600 --> 01:15:25,080
Speaker 1: they did.

1351
01:15:25,320 --> 01:15:27,840
Speaker 3: You know, the guys who looked out for you too.

1352
01:15:28,200 --> 01:15:30,200
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, I had plenty of guys look out for me.

1353
01:15:30,880 --> 01:15:35,120
Speaker 2: Who had the kryptonite nastiest single pitch that you faced.

1354
01:15:35,240 --> 01:15:39,439
Speaker 3: Fernando nasty stuff.

1355
01:15:39,800 --> 01:15:41,960
Speaker 4: He's looking up at the sky and you don't know

1356
01:15:42,000 --> 01:15:44,400
Speaker 4: if the ball is going this way or that way.

1357
01:15:44,439 --> 01:15:50,200
Speaker 4: This way he for that period of time two years old, Yeah,

1358
01:15:50,240 --> 01:15:55,639
Speaker 4: he was nasty. You know, you're facing guys like Nolan Ryan,

1359
01:15:55,680 --> 01:15:58,880
Speaker 4: that're coming at you. You know, he's he's throwing one

1360
01:15:58,920 --> 01:16:01,679
Speaker 4: hundred miles an hour and he's in Texas.

1361
01:16:01,720 --> 01:16:06,479
Speaker 3: He said, you like you, my tad tar, I do

1362
01:16:06,560 --> 01:16:11,719
Speaker 3: what I want to you. Yeah, because don't don't. Don't

1363
01:16:11,840 --> 01:16:15,400
Speaker 3: be digging in too much. You might get one in the.

1364
01:16:15,320 --> 01:16:17,800
Speaker 1: Neck coming at you. Crazy.

1365
01:16:18,040 --> 01:16:19,400
Speaker 4: And that's why I had to go out and get

1366
01:16:19,439 --> 01:16:22,519
Speaker 4: him one time. I said, I ain't going over there.

1367
01:16:22,880 --> 01:16:24,000
Speaker 4: I had to go out and get him.

1368
01:16:24,200 --> 01:16:26,760
Speaker 1: You can look up some videos you got to find that.

1369
01:16:26,880 --> 01:16:30,040
Speaker 1: I need to see that funniest teammate.

1370
01:16:29,840 --> 01:16:35,280
Speaker 4: Kirby was up there was Yeah, he's uh, he was

1371
01:16:35,320 --> 01:16:37,639
Speaker 4: a lot of fun. Ricky Henderson too, was a lot

1372
01:16:37,680 --> 01:16:40,160
Speaker 4: of fun. Ricky was you know, we had a lot

1373
01:16:40,200 --> 01:16:43,719
Speaker 4: of good times. I'd say those guys are.

1374
01:16:43,560 --> 01:16:46,080
Speaker 1: Right up there. Yeah, two of my favorites.

1375
01:16:46,400 --> 01:16:48,679
Speaker 2: Not that you would need any assistance if this happened,

1376
01:16:49,640 --> 01:16:53,879
Speaker 2: bench Claren brawl. You're taking three with you, three boys

1377
01:16:53,920 --> 01:16:56,519
Speaker 2: with you to fight with you on your team past

1378
01:16:56,600 --> 01:17:00,320
Speaker 2: the present, played with them, played against him with three

1379
01:17:00,320 --> 01:17:01,200
Speaker 2: guys that you take him.

1380
01:17:01,200 --> 01:17:06,559
Speaker 3: I'm gonna start with you're talking about the.

1381
01:17:06,600 --> 01:17:09,160
Speaker 1: Baseball, Yeah, Dave Parker, that's a good one.

1382
01:17:10,080 --> 01:17:14,920
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know I go to Dave Parker because he

1383
01:17:15,000 --> 01:17:19,000
Speaker 4: was so solid. Uh, nice guy, but you wouldn't want

1384
01:17:19,000 --> 01:17:21,000
Speaker 4: to be Don Baylor Groove.

1385
01:17:21,160 --> 01:17:24,200
Speaker 5: Yeah, my hitting coach, he was angel.

1386
01:17:26,200 --> 01:17:30,919
Speaker 4: I'd have to think of a third one. William McCovey

1387
01:17:31,000 --> 01:17:33,800
Speaker 4: had too many injuries. I don't want to bring up

1388
01:17:34,960 --> 01:17:36,880
Speaker 4: his knees. His knees were bad.

1389
01:17:36,960 --> 01:17:40,280
Speaker 3: But so you know, people like that, we had want

1390
01:17:40,320 --> 01:17:44,120
Speaker 3: to see this. See. That was the third time.

1391
01:17:44,280 --> 01:17:48,760
Speaker 4: That was the third time that day, that day, that day, Yeah,

1392
01:17:48,800 --> 01:17:49,479
Speaker 4: that was third time.

1393
01:17:49,600 --> 01:17:51,519
Speaker 1: I said, man, come on, man, you try to take

1394
01:17:51,520 --> 01:17:52,080
Speaker 1: his head off.

1395
01:17:52,120 --> 01:17:56,360
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, he came with something. Yeah, well it was something.

1396
01:17:56,520 --> 01:17:57,000
Speaker 5: They're right.

1397
01:17:57,360 --> 01:18:07,400
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, bro, when you see that right, come across

1398
01:18:08,560 --> 01:18:09,920
Speaker 6: and he got some length on it too.

1399
01:18:10,120 --> 01:18:12,519
Speaker 4: And you know, the boys on the team, they were

1400
01:18:12,600 --> 01:18:15,639
Speaker 4: they were getting on me because he knocked me down

1401
01:18:16,520 --> 01:18:20,720
Speaker 4: two times before that, really, you know, undressed me. And

1402
01:18:20,800 --> 01:18:23,040
Speaker 4: I said, man, if you do it one more time,

1403
01:18:23,400 --> 01:18:28,720
Speaker 4: you ain't gonna do anything, man, you know, you know, I.

1404
01:18:28,560 --> 01:18:31,160
Speaker 3: We'll see, we'll see. So I had to go out

1405
01:18:31,160 --> 01:18:31,840
Speaker 3: there and get him.

1406
01:18:31,840 --> 01:18:33,599
Speaker 1: But that's funny.

1407
01:18:33,800 --> 01:18:34,000
Speaker 5: Yeah.

1408
01:18:35,280 --> 01:18:40,000
Speaker 3: I only had to do that a few times. The guys, but.

1409
01:18:42,000 --> 01:18:46,840
Speaker 4: I don't know, man, we we we covered a lot

1410
01:18:48,400 --> 01:18:51,840
Speaker 4: without giving away even there's a lot of stuff in

1411
01:18:51,880 --> 01:18:52,280
Speaker 4: the book.

1412
01:18:52,479 --> 01:18:55,080
Speaker 3: You know, the union was very important to me.

1413
01:18:56,920 --> 01:19:00,559
Speaker 4: What we accomplished, protecting the rights and advancing the rights

1414
01:19:00,600 --> 01:19:04,639
Speaker 4: of the players. That was always important to me because

1415
01:19:04,680 --> 01:19:08,720
Speaker 4: I'd seen it with family who worked the places with

1416
01:19:09,000 --> 01:19:13,120
Speaker 4: whether it was the railroad or teachers union, that you

1417
01:19:13,160 --> 01:19:16,120
Speaker 4: had to have an organized group looking out for your benefits.

1418
01:19:16,320 --> 01:19:20,040
Speaker 3: So I was always I was always a member of

1419
01:19:20,080 --> 01:19:22,320
Speaker 3: the union and a representative.

1420
01:19:22,400 --> 01:19:24,400
Speaker 4: No matter what else I was doing, I was making

1421
01:19:24,439 --> 01:19:27,519
Speaker 4: sure that I'm going to educate the other guys. This

1422
01:19:27,560 --> 01:19:29,160
Speaker 4: is what's going on in the league. You need to

1423
01:19:29,280 --> 01:19:32,080
Speaker 4: educate yourself. You need to attend this, you need to

1424
01:19:32,080 --> 01:19:35,439
Speaker 4: participate because this is where it started. You had nothing,

1425
01:19:36,560 --> 01:19:39,240
Speaker 4: and they weren't gonna give you anything if you didn't

1426
01:19:39,240 --> 01:19:41,760
Speaker 4: know what you were asking for, looking for what was

1427
01:19:41,800 --> 01:19:43,680
Speaker 4: capable to be obtained.

1428
01:19:44,520 --> 01:19:47,000
Speaker 3: So I was always a staunch member of the you know,

1429
01:19:47,080 --> 01:19:47,840
Speaker 3: players Union.

1430
01:19:47,880 --> 01:19:51,200
Speaker 1: When is that drop touching all the bases? When does

1431
01:19:51,240 --> 01:19:51,639
Speaker 1: that drop?

1432
01:19:51,840 --> 01:19:56,080
Speaker 3: Still got about five six months, five months, So in the.

1433
01:19:55,920 --> 01:19:57,080
Speaker 1: End of the year, towards the end of the year,

1434
01:19:57,120 --> 01:20:01,160
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, your pre order, now, yeah, you gotta

1435
01:20:01,200 --> 01:20:02,320
Speaker 1: order some copies.

1436
01:20:01,920 --> 01:20:04,200
Speaker 2: Please, get on the audiobook, and it's got to be

1437
01:20:04,280 --> 01:20:07,759
Speaker 2: your voice. You gotta take the time use your voice

1438
01:20:07,760 --> 01:20:09,800
Speaker 2: for it because when you speak, like, just listen to

1439
01:20:09,840 --> 01:20:12,920
Speaker 2: you speak, it makes it hit different.

1440
01:20:13,400 --> 01:20:17,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I intend to you know, it's you have

1441
01:20:17,400 --> 01:20:20,519
Speaker 3: a career. You didn't. I had my choice out of college,

1442
01:20:20,560 --> 01:20:21,960
Speaker 3: you know, to be you.

1443
01:20:22,200 --> 01:20:30,360
Speaker 4: Vikings drafted me Padres and Atlanta Hawks and Utah Stars

1444
01:20:30,680 --> 01:20:33,639
Speaker 4: at the time, and so I had my choice. Baseball

1445
01:20:33,720 --> 01:20:36,160
Speaker 4: was always the thing that I wanted to play. My

1446
01:20:36,240 --> 01:20:38,600
Speaker 4: brother and I, you know, played it since I was

1447
01:20:38,640 --> 01:20:42,759
Speaker 4: a kid. Every game, imaginary game, game off the wall,

1448
01:20:42,920 --> 01:20:46,639
Speaker 4: in the street, off the stairs, whatever the case may be.

1449
01:20:47,080 --> 01:20:49,360
Speaker 4: So I ended up doing what I wanted to do

1450
01:20:49,880 --> 01:20:52,920
Speaker 4: in life. I enjoyed the other things and they brought

1451
01:20:52,960 --> 01:20:57,920
Speaker 4: out a lot in me playing basketball college basketball. Some

1452
01:20:58,040 --> 01:21:00,479
Speaker 4: of the guys, I don't know, Matt, you you may

1453
01:21:00,479 --> 01:21:02,759
Speaker 4: have missed a couple of guys.

1454
01:21:03,160 --> 01:21:10,320
Speaker 3: There was Jim Brewer, he's out of Maywood. He's doctor, doctor, nephew.

1455
01:21:10,720 --> 01:21:13,400
Speaker 1: Doctor J's nephew, no doc.

1456
01:21:13,600 --> 01:21:16,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, oh is he Yeah?

1457
01:21:16,479 --> 01:21:20,759
Speaker 4: And we had Ron Behagen playing. We had some guys

1458
01:21:20,840 --> 01:21:24,000
Speaker 4: that could play. Bill Musselman was.

1459
01:21:24,160 --> 01:21:26,360
Speaker 1: The son's a coacher, that's seen it. But also keep

1460
01:21:26,360 --> 01:21:27,920
Speaker 1: in mind the A B A is stronger than the

1461
01:21:28,000 --> 01:21:31,400
Speaker 1: NBA at this point, the ABA, this is before the merger,

1462
01:21:31,439 --> 01:21:33,679
Speaker 1: So the A B A was actually the bigger league

1463
01:21:33,800 --> 01:21:36,240
Speaker 1: or or the or some would say, the more competitive

1464
01:21:36,280 --> 01:21:37,520
Speaker 1: league than the NBA.

1465
01:21:37,400 --> 01:21:40,160
Speaker 3: At the time they had the style Julius.

1466
01:21:40,320 --> 01:21:43,479
Speaker 1: Yeaper, all those guys, Yeah, well they We appreciate you

1467
01:21:43,520 --> 01:21:45,800
Speaker 1: sitting down and sharing a little bit of your story

1468
01:21:45,800 --> 01:21:48,000
Speaker 1: with us. Definitely looking forward to the book. Make sure

1469
01:21:48,000 --> 01:21:49,720
Speaker 1: you guys get it. You can pre order it now,

1470
01:21:49,880 --> 01:21:54,920
Speaker 1: drops in September October around that time. Yeah, thank you

1471
01:21:55,000 --> 01:21:59,519
Speaker 1: very much, man, Dave, thank you guys. That was a

1472
01:22:00,240 --> 01:22:03,640
Speaker 1: rap with the legendary Dave Winfield. You can catch us

1473
01:22:03,640 --> 01:22:06,120
Speaker 1: on all the smoke baseball. See you guys next week