Hold My Cutter
Bob Walk's Odyssey from the Mound to the Mic
Stepping up to the plate, Bob Walk, the former Pirates pitcher with a tale that's more twist-filled than a knuckleball, joins us for a great episode of Hold My Cutter. We're not just talking curves and sliders; this is about Bob's incredible leap from local Little League to World Series starter. Sit back and soak in the stories as we cover Bob’s unexpected rise, the passion that fueled his career, and the unpredictable nature of life in the major leagues. His journey is a poignant reminder that sometimes, the last one picked can end up leading the pack.
Our trip down memory lane doesn't stop at the batter's box. We explore the hallowed halls of Hart High School and the fertile grounds of California baseball that shaped us into the players and fans we are today. Remember when rookies winning World Series games was unheard of? We revisit that too, along with some high-stakes banter and a dash of nostalgia that will have you recalling the scent of ballpark hotdogs and the roar of the crowd during an epic ninth inning.
But it's not all peanuts and Cracker Jack. We also peel back the curtain on the nitty-gritty of contract negotiations and the stark reality of being traded. From a player's perspective, we examine the heartfelt advice and pivotal moments that can change the trajectory of a career. And for those who dream of managing a team one day, Bob shares his aspirations and insights on the transition from the diamond to the broadcast booth. It's a full count of emotions, strategy, and the undeniable love for the game that keeps us coming back for more.
CHAPTERS
0:04 Baseball Journey of Bob Walk
13:16 Baseball Memories and Nostalgia
26:51 Professional Baseball Player Negotiates Contracts
39:19 Johnny's Advice Changes Career Path
51:51 Bob's Dream of Managing Pittsburgh Pirates
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!!!!
www.holdmycutter.com
Stepping up to the plate, Bob Walk, the former Pirates pitcher with a tale that's more twist-filled than a knuckleball, joins us for a great episode of Hold My Cutter. We're not just talking curves and sliders; this is about Bob's incredible leap from local Little League to World Series starter. Sit back and soak in the stories as we cover Bob’s unexpected rise, the passion that fueled his career, and the unpredictable nature of life in the major leagues. His journey is a poignant reminder that sometimes, the last one picked can end up leading the pack.
Our trip down memory lane doesn't stop at the batter's box. We explore the hallowed halls of Hart High School and the fertile grounds of California baseball that shaped us into the players and fans we are today. Remember when rookies winning World Series games was unheard of? We revisit that too, along with some high-stakes banter and a dash of nostalgia that will have you recalling the scent of ballpark hotdogs and the roar of the crowd during an epic ninth inning.
But it's not all peanuts and Cracker Jack. We also peel back the curtain on the nitty-gritty of contract negotiations and the stark reality of being traded. From a player's perspective, we examine the heartfelt advice and pivotal moments that can change the trajectory of a career. And for those who dream of managing a team one day, Bob shares his aspirations and insights on the transition from the diamond to the broadcast booth. It's a full count of emotions, strategy, and the undeniable love for the game that keeps us coming back for more.
CHAPTERS
0:04 Baseball Journey of Bob Walk
13:16 Baseball Memories and Nostalgia
26:51 Professional Baseball Player Negotiates Contracts
39:19 Johnny's Advice Changes Career Path
51:51 Bob's Dream of Managing Pittsburgh Pirates
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!!!!
www.holdmycutter.com
Hey, it's a special episode of Hold my Cutter here at Burn by Rocky Patel on the North Shore, just down the street from PNC Park. We've got a very special guest to join Michael McHenry and me, none other than former Pirates pitcher and longtime Pirates broadcaster, the great Bob Walk. From behind the curtain, bob, have a seat, grab your stogie. The LB1 is our special featured smoke. We come back. We'll talk to Bob on Hold my Cutter. So I'm here with Bob Walk. The great Bob Walk another episode of Hold my Cutter.
Speaker 1:I see you chuckling. I mean that, the great Bob Walk. You know, bob, somebody is doing a story on you. They may have called you last couple of weeks. They called me. They asked me to try to describe Bob Walk. I thought you'll appreciate this. So I'm thinking about how people get it. Some people get it Like Bob gets it in such a unique way and I know he chuckles but and I've actually talked to his wife, lori, about it how understated he is. He's in terms of like a color analyst. I think he's the best there is. I think we're lucky that I said this many times that nationally he hates hearing this, but nationally that.
Speaker 2:I agree with him, so don't look at me.
Speaker 1:I won't use the too strong to say they're dumb, because they're not dumb the powers that be nationally, but they miss the boat and we're lucky in that regard. I kind of compared them to like a modern day they didn't miss the boat.
Speaker 3:There was no boat. I was not going to go anywhere.
Speaker 2:He's on a ship.
Speaker 1:He's on a ship, all right, so he wasn't going to go anywhere, but I'm just surprised that no one made it off or he couldn't refuse. The bottom line is he's a great friend, he's a great broadcaster and he's become a great Pittsburgh and his story much like you, fort is so unique. Everybody has a story, but Bob has one that is so wow, bob, you weren't when you were going through Hart High School and the community college with College of the Canyons.
Speaker 3:You have any.
Speaker 2:Cougars.
Speaker 1:There's no way you had in your mind that someday you'd be starting like the first game of a World Series for the Philadelphia Phillies, let alone your incredible career Right.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I never you know, everybody has a has the story of coming up through like Little League and all that stuff. I mean everybody. Whether you went on to play major leagues or not, you know there's always, you know, coming up and there were always guys that were a little bit better than I was. You know, pitching, hitting, playing. You know, if I made one of our local all star teams, I was always the guy that had to go move and play some other position because there was a better player at the position I played on my little in-house team.
Speaker 3:So I never saw myself as like a good baseball player that was going to go somewhere and do something. My goal not coming from a real well off family that had a lot of money was to try and be good enough at baseball to where maybe I could go to college and have that paid for it. When high school got over with I still wasn't in that position and at that time you could go to community college for like $23 a semester or something like that Very doable. So I decided to go to my local community college and the baseball coach there who, mike Gillespie, went on to coach the USC Trojans for many years I went. No, I think he's had a college world series under his name Long enough.
Speaker 2:I think I played with his son Gillespie. Yeah, I'm sure you did. He was a catcher, he was a catcher.
Speaker 1:Come on.
Speaker 3:Wow, Anyway, he wanted me to. He said you can come and you can play on our team. He said you're playing. Days are over, though You're going to be a pitcher, and this was like right when the DH was coming in.
Speaker 3:He dropped your playing days are over. Yeah, my last day as a hitter was my last day of being a high school player, which is maybe where I hate the DH. That's where it came from. So I well, I wanted to keep playing. So I went and said, yeah, sure, and I went up, of course, made the team because he asked me to come out and I was not a bad pitcher, kind of a little bit of a late blower.
Speaker 3:And right after my first year I got drafted by the Angels and I held out for the big bucks and so I went my second year and ended up doing all okay, got drafted by the Phillies. But then I also got some offers from colleges for free ride, scholarships, no, like really big schools like Cal State, Northridge, Cal State, LA. But I could go to college, an actual, real college. But then I ended up getting the itch to travel and get out of the little small town that I'd grown up in and that's why I decided to sign and leave. Is I just wanted to like go somewhere and see other things. No, thought that I was ever going to be in Major League Baseball and then you know, sure enough, three years later I'm pitching a World Series.
Speaker 3:It was really kind of weird for me to have three years later I played 77, 78, 79 in the minor leagues and 80 I was in the World Series.
Speaker 2:So junior college one year or two years, Two years?
Speaker 3:Actually the second year, though, I had what they call nowadays forearm inflammation.
Speaker 1:Tightness. Could you just start pitching right yeah?
Speaker 3:I ended up not doing anything but sitting and watching like this second half of the season, and so my the scout that I was that had got him to draft me guys named spider Jorgensen.
Speaker 3:He called me up like late, late in the year, like January or something. He says how's your elbow? Is it? Can you throw now? And I said, well, I've been playing catch, but I really don't know for sure. And so he goes I can get you an inning or two and like a like this Sunday beer league down in the San Fernando Valley. He goes would you come down and pitch? I want to see if you're healthy.
Speaker 3:So I hadn't, like, pitched a game for like seven or eight months, something like that. Like since last, have you even thrown out the mound? No, so I went down there and I pitched a couple innings while he was watching, and after that we went across the street to like a Denny's or something like that, and my father had gone down with me and he said, okay, he goes, we would like to sign you. So he offered me a contract and I said, well, let me think about it. So went home, you played hardball. Huh, you played hardball right out of the game. I said, let me think about it. Well, I had, I had leverage. You know, I had these. I could go back to college.
Speaker 2:I had to pitch in seven months. So yeah, I dominated the fear leaguers and ready to go.
Speaker 3:At the time I was working at a Texaco gas station. You know the back where you actually put gas in cars and stuff. And I'm sitting there and there was a pay phone back in the Lube room. And did you say Lube room? Yeah, they used to like change oil Gas stations were different than they are now.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Now you go there to buy milk and bread Back then it was to get your car work done. So anyway, I went there's a pay phone there and I was about maybe 1130 or something in the night I'm going to close about midnight or so and I called him. I put money in the phone, I called him up and I said he offered me $5,000. I said is that as high as you guys can go? And he goes, I can go to 7,500.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a deal.
Speaker 3:That's a deal I'll sign.
Speaker 3:And then he goes and then they remember him saying I'll drive up there right now. He lived like two hours away. He lived out in like San Bernardino, someplace a long drive, and I said no, and he goes. No, he goes. I don't want in the morning you changing your mind. And I said no, I promise I won't change my mind. And he said okay, he goes, I'll be at your house tomorrow at like 10 o'clock. I said okay and he showed up, signed the contract and, like I said, that was like the middle of January. So my first experience in professional ball was going to spring training and I didn't get like the rookie league thing, you know, in the middle of the year or anything like that. It was like going right to spring training and that was an eye opener for me. So I was totally unprepared for that.
Speaker 2:Ronnie, he went from the Louvre room, that's right. How much were you making at the gas station?
Speaker 3:Oh, I don't know. Let's see Trying to think 1976, I don't know, probably about 250 an hour Gas is what less than a dollar Gas? No we'd had that 73 thing, you know, the war in the Middle East, and gas went up a lot. Gas is probably about about a buck 30 then.
Speaker 2:You just dropped a no, 5000 is not going to do it.
Speaker 3:I want. Yeah Well, I didn't say what I wanted, I got 225 an hour going on. No, no, here's the thing. If he would have said, yeah, five, that's as high as we go, I would have said, yeah, okay, I'll say yeah.
Speaker 2:But why not ask right? But he said 75. Straight from the beer league to signing. So now I'm going to spring training and that.
Speaker 3:Four-wheel drive Chevy pickup that I bought with that money is. I know where it is right now. Today it's sitting At a place here in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2:No way, you're kidding, no way.
Speaker 1:How's it the house end up there?
Speaker 3:Well being Pittsburgh, and that truck coming from California after a couple years here was rusting to death and so I didn't want to see it go into the crusher because it'd been part of my family for 30 years, and so I gave it to some guys that said that they were gonna restore it, and Last time I saw a picture of it it looks pretty good. You're kidding.
Speaker 2:I want to know where that is. I want to go see. You stayed in touch with these people that have it.
Speaker 1:No, I know where it's, where it's at.
Speaker 2:Was that your first car?
Speaker 3:It's only about. Let me see, I'm gonna say it's about Three miles from C&G.
Speaker 1:I just gonna say because it's C&G then know where it is too.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, they know what's that. Yeah, they probably was that?
Speaker 2:was that your first car, your first big purchase?
Speaker 3:first big purchase, so my first car cost me $500.
Speaker 2:What was your first car? Brownie.
Speaker 1:Whoo borrowed my mother's car, my parents car, for First one I purchased was a a Yellow, bright yellow, mercury links bright yellow like a school bus.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I was a maroon with a black vinyl top 1966 Dodgeport about yours.
Speaker 2:Wow, my first car was a Plymouth Breeze, I called it, it was purple, nice. I called it the purple people eater.
Speaker 1:Wow, what do you get up? As a rocky then yeah, and then make sense.
Speaker 2:I finally got a new car when it just slid into a Guardrail. They still think I did it on purpose, but it just. It decided to just go right there as I was trying to turn you know, you always say dear, ran in front. Yeah. I swear with the miss of deer. I think it was a ghost.
Speaker 1:This episode's featured smoke, the LB1. What do you think of it, bob? Medium, like a lot medium-bodied.
Speaker 3:I found out that when you pick at me out of cigar is always always good really especially here the folks at burn by Rocky Patel.
Speaker 1:They set us up real nice mix of two Nicaraguan fillers, the Kandega and the Astelli, ecuadorian Hobata wrapper, red pepper notes with some chocolate notes, a little creamy but really like the chocolate notes because they go good with the coffee. Yes, is that good coffee? By the way, they have very good coffee.
Speaker 2:I taste that creaminess, that you're talking about? Yeah, that definitely tastes so glad I don't have to say that walkie. What everything that just came out of his mouth. I don't know how you do it, how I, how I'm so happy.
Speaker 3:I don't have to do that. I haven't had to say it either for 30 years.
Speaker 2:Just sit next to it, yeah.
Speaker 1:Leonard, thanks for producing here and thanks to the folks at burn by Rocky Patel. Melissa set us up with with these stogies, as did Ken and Jim and great people and the Robert Vernon walk here with us, kind of like the old. You and I are old enough to remember the show. This is your life, oh yeah, remember that. Yeah, where you kind of break down a prayer Well, we'll get into some real baseball. Hopefully have some arguments, because Bob and I love to argue here an hour.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, at least. I have a question. Wait, did you not start pitching until junior college?
Speaker 3:No, I pitched my senior in high school and that was the first time you really, we had two really good pitchers, so both of them ended up getting drafted going on.
Speaker 2:That's prior to pitch counts and everything, and one of them got.
Speaker 3:What is it? They call it the kissing disease. What is that? Mono, no, no, he's a mono, and so then I took his place and I started pitching on a regular basis, and it's really well. I should have. You know what I think. Somewhere I got my high school stat. She should have brought her in.
Speaker 2:We'll look it up. No, it's probably where it's. Probably see it.
Speaker 1:We probably see it anytime we go to LA, the Hart High School. He's like the man at Hart.
Speaker 2:High. I bet they have a bronze statue there there are now.
Speaker 1:Since he went to Hart there have been at least a dozen guys Get to the big leagues.
Speaker 3:Yeah, probably.
Speaker 1:Who was the?
Speaker 3:you are the first. No, the first was a guy that he played there back in this in the early 60s. I can't remember his name okay, but but they got a. They got a big sign there. I went back to that the high school there, the ballpark, and up with one of my kids. I just wanted to show him where I went to high school and stuff and we snuck through the fence and walked out there and they're sure enough, there's a big sign there and it has all the guys that went to Hart High School that have played in the big leagues.
Speaker 1:It's kind of including Tyler glass now. By the way, of course, james Shields, bob, if you recognize the guy's name you're talking about.
Speaker 2:So they breed, they breed stallion, oh yeah but, but he kind of set the tone.
Speaker 1:Michael Montgomery, casey McCarthy, the valetkas, trevor Bauer, trevor Brown, chad Kruder mentioned Jerry Owens. Might have been before, bob, but anyway, so you did set the tone.
Speaker 2:He did. I don't care what you say. You set the tone, I guess I did. And then those are some Thoroughbreds that I'm talking about right there.
Speaker 1:What's the? The cheer that every once in a while we got a heart? High school guy You'll so during a broadcast. Don't bring that up.
Speaker 3:I when we had like part-time people like you, when new hall was pitching for us.
Speaker 2:Yes, you know, hey, it's so funny, how humbly is, because baseball in California Into the 2000s was so, so good early 70s, how good it was, how many guys came out of there because they got to play a lot of more you.
Speaker 3:You can say whatever you want.
Speaker 2:I'm hitting as a junior out there. You're doing something special.
Speaker 3:We have a window here. Yeah, yeah, thanks here a lot of people. Yeah, they're, bob is there, our guests, but yeah, I remember one done One day you're not, probably about five, six years. Seven years ago we had all those guys from San Diego schools.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we were in San.
Speaker 3:Diego playing and and I don't know, you guys were all talking about how, how great their teams were and their travel Teams and all that stuff. So I started looking things up, you know, and then I saw, well, yeah, they put together the travel team, they went north and that crushed.
Speaker 1:They weren't that good. No, there was somebody Recently. I shouldn't even ask you this because I don't mean to stump you, but wasn't there a Player recently that you'd discovered was a hard high school guy, maybe a Somebody, the Pirates Organization, even In?
Speaker 3:the last couple years. Oh, that's right, Well boy we always see him in Arizona. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll get it. Yeah, I'll get it. I can picture him right now.
Speaker 1:I'll get it, but that guy yeah, but anyway. So so Bob pitches for the Phillies in the in game one, the 1980 World Series, the Phillies against three years, so dearly. I think at the time he was only the third rookie to pitch game one of a World Series, as I recall.
Speaker 3:Yes, and now you'll see here, here's, here's how I'm like. What do you call it when you don't brag? I was a first rookie to win. Okay where you go, because, yeah, I think there was only one other guy, I think was this first something black Wow was his name really Okay not put a black, but yeah, yeah, that was it. But but anyway, that didn't last long, because Fernando did it the very next year.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, so I got. You know, you want.
Speaker 2:Hey, you did it first. Yeah you have that on, I think.
Speaker 3:We have a media guy that we both know yeah might Look something up. Yeah, yeah Well as you blast.
Speaker 1:We talked about this one of these episodes, but blast hates the internet because it's really all the stories, all the stories.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's so true.
Speaker 2:I was just going with enough conviction I think you're good in the old days, yeah now somebody'll fact check here, right?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, well you're smart.
Speaker 2:You're not social media, so they they don't actually come at you and say you're an idiot or you don't know it's talking about.
Speaker 1:yeah, so you're good pop so. So you pitched game one of the 1980 World Series at veteran stadium against the Royals Clint Hurdle in the Royals, by the way, the first guy you faced her. Remember who it was.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the center fielder, willie Wilson.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know what he did. Yeah, yeah, I knew, he knew that you know what pitch.
Speaker 3:Oh no, let me ask you guys know who made the last out of that World Series.
Speaker 1:Well, he Wilson. Oh my gosh, you know how he struck out, he struck out against him. Tug McGraw how about that? He started the Wow, that's a great world series.
Speaker 3:I bet he remembers that. Let me ask you this what a true who threw the last pitch in the World Series in 79 and I threw the first pitch in 80.
Speaker 1:The last pitch of the 79 World Series Was Grant Jackson or a teak had to be take.
Speaker 3:Take through the last pitch in 79 after the first pitch in 80. Come on, isn't that cool? That is cool for the Pirates.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's cool. Against the Pirates, I mean, yeah, you, the Phillies Played the Pirates.
Speaker 3:No, yeah, no, he played where. Who did they beat the Orioles? He threw the last pitch. A little series against the Orioles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the next year me pitching because? But? But your first major league game is my point. Oh was against the Pirates right and it was at three Rivers.
Speaker 3:No, that was at the vet, at the vet and and who was the first battery?
Speaker 1:you were in relief, omar Marina.
Speaker 3:No I.
Speaker 1:Don't okay yeah.
Speaker 2:Look that was later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, not that I rely on Three years you look up anything about? Yeah, Well, I was a reliever much of his keep.
Speaker 3:He came in a style really established start you know something here that brings up something that I.
Speaker 2:Didn't realize until what you were tell way later in my career about how, how things work.
Speaker 3:Actually, I didn't realize it in my career. I realized it when I became an announcer and saw what Young guys we would take out of spring training and what going guys we didn't For pitchers. And I'm and I'm like now I see. And then I I thought back to my first year and I'm like, oh, wow, now I know what was going on. When I was in double a. We had two real good starting pitchers myself. I think I was on that. I Made like the. I led the league in the era and Was on the humble brag again postseason.
Speaker 3:Oh, I'm trying to set the postseason all-star team. I was the right-hander, ragetti was the left-hander on that on that team. So I had a very good, obviously, year. I got put on the 40 man roster and and I went to spring training thinking I Might even have a chance to make this team, because I now, for the first time in my life, I've realized that being in the big leagues is a doable thing and tell now I never really thought that but now it was after that year you felt that way.
Speaker 2:You.
Speaker 3:And so there was this other guy that was on the team's name was Scott Monninghoff. He was also. He was a number one draft pick. He was an outstanding pitcher came flying up through the minor leagues actually caught caught up with me. He jumped over, he went from low a, jumped high a right to right to double a and did fantastic. He was a sinker slider guy, had a great sinker and a slider to pitch guy. I was a conventional fourth pitch guy. So we go to spring training and me and some of the young guys I've come up through the minor leagues well rented places in the same like the general area, so we all hung out and everything. So come time for where they were going to start making cuts, I was one of like the first five guys who got caught. Really, I think I pitched one I'd won outing.
Speaker 2:Was it similar? Was it similar then, like did they do like four cuts? I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 3:Back then I didn't pay attention to that.
Speaker 2:I had no idea. You just knew when you got to the ballpark and they said hey, they're going to be cutting today, I go why?
Speaker 3:Back then it was just like cuts were always before payday, yeah.
Speaker 2:They're always before payday.
Speaker 3:Which was the worst? Yeah, it's the worst because you've rented a place for spring training and now, instead of getting you know, I don't know what it was a week back then, but fairly decent, more money than I've ever had in my life yeah, you know, now you're down to where you're getting $40 a week. That's not paying for nothing, nothing. So, yeah, getting cuts a big deal, but anyway, back to story. So then, scott, he makes it through that cut, he makes it through the second, he makes it through all these cuts, he makes the team Never played. He went from low A to double A and right to the big leagues and they put him in the bull pin. I could never. I didn't understand that. I'm like that's. You know, I was the first cut and that and don't get me wrong, he was like real, I became really good friends with him. I mean we, we liked each other, hung out and stuff like that. I mean I was happy that he made the team, but I was, I was like I didn't even like hang on for a while.
Speaker 3:Right, not even a chance. So but now, knowing what I know and watching us with the Pirates do this all the time, they saw him as a reliever. They were growing me as a starting pitcher. That's why they wanted me because because what you tell the picture, what they don't understand and what you know if they'll they'll get later in their careers is that top part of the triple A rotation is part of the big league team. Those are the guys that are coming up. I mean, how many starters do you use in a year?
Speaker 2:Right, right.
Speaker 3:I got off to a five and a start after like maybe six starts down there, and just before Memorial Day I got called to the big leagues and I was in the starting rotation the rest of the year and at the time, like I never gave it another thought, I just thought I went down, pitch well, and they called me up. No, that was part of their plan, which is always what teams do, right the guys that that they see as relievers.
Speaker 3:They actually have a legitimate chance as a young guy to make a breakthrough and going to the bullpen, but they're not going to bring, have some young guy that they think is going to be a hot starter for them soon and put him in the bullpen in the big leagues. No, they're going to send him to the minor leagues so he can continue to pitch and start every five days. He used to actually build guys innings up.
Speaker 1:It's going to change a little bit. Yeah, a little bit.
Speaker 3:A little bit. So you know that's how that all happened and I just wanted to throw that out because that's something that I'd learned later on in my career. That it's not about when you're a young guy and you're thinking, oh, you're going to make a team as a pitcher and you don't. That doesn't mean he's not good enough, we've got to put him back in the minor leagues. No, they might think, yeah, this guy's good enough, we got to keep him on schedule.
Speaker 1:So you think, guys, get it even now. They could be told that all the time, but you don't.
Speaker 3:No, you don't, because you don't want to go.
Speaker 1:You just don't want to go to the minors regardless. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean back in those days the minimum salary in the big leagues was $32,000 a year. I went to the minor leagues and was making $1,000 a month for five months. That's a huge difference, wow.
Speaker 2:I believe it's almost 32,000 in the minor leagues now. Believe it or not. It's really close with the new bargaining.
Speaker 3:My father was running a backhoe for the city of Los Angeles, who worked for the department of water and power. He made twice the money I was making pitching in the big leagues. I saw things that changed. Wow, that's incredible. My dad was a really good backhoe player.
Speaker 2:Did you see the shift? Though you saw the shift.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, I'd say, when the TV contract started going through the roof, then I mean every year it went up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up, and you know things don't. And then when that happened, like, let's say, a young guy comes up and makes minimum, what's he getting the next year?
Speaker 2:Like $10,000 over a year, barely, barely, but first three years you're not making anything.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I made 32 my first year. You know how much money I made. The second year they bought me to 64. They doubled my salary, wow.
Speaker 2:That's almost like the 40 man roster, yeah, when you think about it.
Speaker 3:You know how I negotiated a 100% rate.
Speaker 2:Come on, you did it again.
Speaker 3:I did it again. I went in, there was at a holiday in spring training.
Speaker 2:So we got at Denny's in a holiday in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, who was the old general manager back then? The Pope, paul Owens. Paul Owens, I went into Paul's holiday in suite and he goes okay, and he had my contract. He's got a little desk set up in there. And he goes hey, I got off the phone with your agent and he said you just want to sign a blank contract and we can fill in whatever numbers we want. He goes is that really what you're going to do? And I said, yeah, he goes, I'll sign one out, I'll just sign a blank. You do whatever you want. And he goes okay, he goes, we're going to give you 64. I go okay, fine, he doubled my salary, wow.
Speaker 3:Wow, no I don't think that's not the way things work nowadays.
Speaker 1:He was playing mind games. Why would your agent do that?
Speaker 3:Even though, because my agent explained to me he goes. You know what they're going to.
Speaker 1:They're going to give you. We have no leverage. They're going to pay you what they want anyway.
Speaker 3:Okay, so why don't we just like? Be done with the game One of his favorite sayings is you catch more flies with honey than you do vinegar. He loves saying that he goes we're going to play the honey game this year. You're going to be.
Speaker 2:That's beautiful.
Speaker 3:You're going to go in and you're just going to say, hey, let me sign the contract. You fill in the numbers whatever you want. I did. They gave me a really nice raise.
Speaker 2:They knew. They knew we wanted to be there. I think that's amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, good strategy. Two weeks later they traded me.
Speaker 2:Like we're not paying this, that's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'm under Andrew Lorraine is the guy we were thinking.
Speaker 3:Yeah, how did you look that up? No, no, no, it just came to me.
Speaker 1:The former hard high school guy who's with the Pirates organization is a scout.
Speaker 2:That's pretty impressive. His name is on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we see him every time, at least once or twice a year.
Speaker 3:I haven't seen him in a while because I don't go to Phoenix. We're out. We would see him most of the time, see him a couple of times in some other places.
Speaker 2:He's still. He's still scouts and does all that. Yeah, on that area.
Speaker 1:So you go to get traded to the Braves, right? I spent three years with the Braves. Yes, how tough was it to be traded.
Speaker 3:Well, it's devastating. I'm getting the Braves finished last year before I got traded from World Champions to the team that finished last, and it was an incredibly unpopular trade. In Atlanta, I got traded for Gary Matthews, which was the star of their team.
Speaker 1:My gosh.
Speaker 3:And it was like there was even like Glenn Hubbard, who I became good friends with when hunting wind stuff for a few years. I remember like first day I was there he was ripping the trade in the paper. We're like new teammates.
Speaker 2:Really it was like horrible, that's tough.
Speaker 3:But that's when and I've told you this story that's when Noxy took care of me Because I think, necrow, he realized what was going on. And so I'm leaving the clubhouse in spring training and he pulls up in his pickup truck right in front of me and he goes you like the fish? And I go, yeah, and he goes, get in. He goes, we're going fishing. And we went deep sea fishing that afternoon.
Speaker 1:Phil Necrow takes some young yeah Wow.
Speaker 3:Because he knew that I needed to be felt like I was kind of wanted by somebody, did you?
Speaker 2:feel like you're in the ocean. Prior to that In the clubhouse oh yeah.
Speaker 3:It was like, I mean, I didn't want to be there, didn't know anybody, and they didn't obviously want you. No, they didn't like, but I mean after a couple of weeks. I mean, teammates are teammates.
Speaker 1:You always get settled.
Speaker 3:They're not looking at me and saying, oh, it's your fault that one of our best players and our clubhouse leader is gone now, because it wasn't because of me.
Speaker 2:They were already bad before.
Speaker 3:Well, he was having yeah, gary Matthews was going to become a free agent at the end of the year and so I think Ted, ted Turner made the decision that we're not going to pay him big money, we want him to trade, and then it was just kind of an unpopular.
Speaker 1:Who else is part of that deal?
Speaker 3:Nobody.
Speaker 1:Just straight up. Wow Right, the Braves were smart. Here's another little thing.
Speaker 2:Look it's weird how things in life you see crossroads out there, the teak thing kind of blew my mind.
Speaker 3:I didn't find it until years later, when I was like we were in Philadelphia and you know how you always get those books that I never read. They're called Media Guys, media Guys, yeah, okay, I'm like looking through that. They stack up. Well, I'm looking through the media guys, exactly, do read them ever now, then, and I was looking at Gary Matthews Cause I got traded for I'm not as curious about it. He went to the same high school as my dad did, isn't?
Speaker 2:that weird. Come on San.
Speaker 1:Fernando High School. I told me that that's wild Jeez. You were telling him that yeah.
Speaker 3:I say, hey, my dad went to San Fernando.
Speaker 1:Unreal, so about three years, but kind of a rocky time there?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I didn't. The first year was horrible. It was the strike year.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, 81, 1981.
Speaker 3:I went from like one of the main starters on the Phillies to what year was that? 81. I was all instantly put in the number Cause they had veteran pitchers on the team. I went into the number five spot. What happens to the number five guy when it's the first two weeks of April?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, you don't, you don't, you don't you don't, you don't, you don't, you don't.
Speaker 3:You don't, you don't, you don't, you don't, you don't you don't, you don't, you don't, you don't, you don't, you don't, you don't. But I was mentally in a bad spot. I didn't want to be there. I wanted to be with my teammates, my team, you know. I know they're up there. They're having the ring ceremony, opening night. I'm not there. You know, my World Series ring came in a box in the mail.
Speaker 2:She's and.
Speaker 3:I just and I got off to a horrible start and then that's not easy, though I don't know what they call it nowadays. Back then we call it like a Obliquely aged, oh yeah. Oblique, oblique. Yeah well, say, you pulled your rib and I like that, and so I had to come out, and then, about the time I was start and maybe to throw again just a little bit, we went on strike and I don't know. We were on strike for what like two months.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Right in the middle of the year.
Speaker 2:It happened right in the middle. I didn't know what I saw.
Speaker 1:It too, that split season the first half winner played the second half winner in the playoffs.
Speaker 2:So they didn't have to finish prior to the season.
Speaker 3:They kept, then they went on strike, they went on strike in the middle of the season they went on strike in the middle of the year for two months, and then it might have been two and a half months. It was a while.
Speaker 1:It was long yeah.
Speaker 3:And then because I just bought a new house. I bought a house in Atlanta.
Speaker 2:So you're a nervous wreck after that. And now.
Speaker 3:I got no paycheck, no paycheck, yeah, and we weren't like it wasn't like I got huge paychecks a year before. I had a little extra money, though, because of the World Series bonus Right.
Speaker 2:And your negotiation skills, but that was going.
Speaker 3:That was. You know. I also owned a house in California, so the money was going out and nothing's coming in. So I'm sure remember all the stories of what guys were doing back then oh yeah. I went to Arizona with paint and houses during the strike.
Speaker 2:That's crazy to think, guys going back and working and think about how the union took care of those guys when they're negotiating. They got what? $10,000, $15,000 a week. So when it came back, they should be thankful to you, by the way.
Speaker 3:We were back about. We were playing games for about maybe three days, and you know I hadn't pitched since early May, so they sent me to Richmond.
Speaker 1:Triple A affiliate. Yeah, I was going to go down to Richmond and on.
Speaker 3:I guess nowadays they would call it rehab, but this was. I had options, so they just sent me down there and I stayed down there and pitched quite a while until we got through the playoffs, and then it was September and I was at September call it, and it got to finish the year up there and that was my first year with the Braves and it wasn't one to remember, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:Your time wasn't great, honestly, either the whole time.
Speaker 2:That sounds like a tough year right 81, 82, 83.
Speaker 3:It was well, 83 is. I got off to a really good start, but then in August I started pitching very poorly and they said they were going to skip me a spot in the rotation and in the meantime they wanted me to go down to the bullpen as like an emergency guy. I remember walking down to the bullpen and I had my tennis shoes on and the bullpen coach, pignatano, joe Pignatano.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, pignatano. He said how come you don't have your cleats on? I go. Well, I'm just kind of down here. They want me to. They think my arm is dead or something and they want me to. They're going to give me some time off and he goes. Well, if they need you, you're supposed to be able to. They're like pitching it. He goes. You got to go back and get your cleats on. So I went back and got my cleats on and sure enough.
Speaker 1:I pitched that. Oh jeez, I'm supposed to be down there for a rest. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:And that was like the middle of August. Oh, by the way, when I at that time I was tied for the team lead in wins, me and Noxy were tied, for we both had 11 wins at that point, so you didn't have that bad of an August. Wow, no, my ERA was like mid fours and I was tied. Me and Noxy both had 11 wins.
Speaker 3:And you were going through dead arm because of all the I don't know if it was dead arm I was, just I wasn't. I was never a great pitcher, I was kind of a mediocre middle of the road pitcher that had my moments and I had a lot of good moments earlier in that year, but through the end my moments weren't that good. So I think I only pitched like maybe two more times the rest of the year out of the bullpen and then the next spring training. I pitched really well in spring training, pitched as a starter, and on the that there's a day in spring training that where you know this day, I'm sure all players know this day.
Speaker 2:I know exactly where you're going with this.
Speaker 3:It's the day that if you're still on the roster, it guarantees your contract for the year. They cut me the day before that. That day, sent me to Atlanta or sent me to Richmond, and I spent the whole year in Richmond, except for three weeks. Gene Garber got hurt, the closer of the team. Then they would call me up I don't know why, and I sat in the bullpen for that whole time, pitched one time out of the bullpen. When Garber got better I got sent back down to Richmond. But actually, looking back on it, if that hadn't happened I wouldn't be sitting in this chair talking to you guys, right now Sure Because.
Speaker 2:Here's another one, because that's where.
Speaker 3:John, I met Johnny Sain, Johnny Sain, johnny Sain the greatest pitching coach. This guy was unbelievable and I got to be extremely good friends with him and we would sit and talk pitching and stuff all the time and he really liked me, he was on my side. I tell you a lot of great things at Johnny Sain's stories and stuff, but just the best thing that Johnny did for me was the next spring training. They released me.
Speaker 2:Wow, were you having a good spring? Oh, I'm having a very good spring, probably a pretty good spring and I didn't weigh in.
Speaker 3:So I went to Johnny. Johnny was staying at a he always stayed had this little tiny motor home and he was staying in his motor home at this and he was the pitching coach for the AAA team and he was. I went to sign him at his motor home in the camp run and I said, johnny, I don't know what to do. I said they want me to resign a minor league contract and stay here. The AAA manager had called me and had a meeting with me. The general manager I'm sorry, I can't remember his name right now.
Speaker 1:For whom?
Speaker 3:For the Braves. Back then he called me in and Henry Aaron was the director of the minor leagues.
Speaker 3:He called me in, which I thought was kind of like oh, this is cool, I'm sitting here, yeah, that's really cool Across the desert man and he said, hey, we still have faith in you, we want you to, you know. So the GM, the director of the minor leagues and the minor league AAA manager, eddie Haas, all want me to stay and sign. So I went and I asked Johnny. I said, johnny, I don't know what to do, and he goes. Well, you've been released, you can go anywhere you want and he goes. I sat there in the meetings and, as long as Joe and Gibby are, Joe Torrey and how about Joe.
Speaker 1:Torrey is the manager. Bob Gibson's the pitching coach.
Speaker 3:As long as those two guys are here, all the favors. He goes. They don't care for you too much. He goes and obviously that's why you've been released.
Speaker 2:That got to change your life.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he goes you need to get out while you can and go somewhere else and start over. And so and I go, and I don't know the first thing about this I go. I guess I just have to call my agent and have him start making phone calls and he goes. I'll tell you what he goes my best friend in baseball is Chuck 10. He goes I'll give Chuck a call and see if he can do anything for you. So then I get a phone call. I gave Johnny my phone number, my apartment, and Chuck Tanner calls my apartment down in spring training.
Speaker 1:The manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, I mean but think about the yeah.
Speaker 3:Think about that and he says I just got off the phone with Johnny and he says you're definitely a Major League pitcher and he thinks that you can help us. He goes right now he goes. You know, see last day of spring training he goes. There's no way I got a spot for you right now, but he goes. If you'll sign AAA contract with us, go to Hawaii. He goes. If the, if he goes, if July comes around and you're and I can't get you the big leagues with us, he goes. I'll give you my word, I'll get you the big leagues with somebody.
Speaker 3:Wow, and I said OK, done, Let me sign. So then I signed with the pirates.
Speaker 2:How awesome was that, by the way, going away it went away.
Speaker 3:It was awesome.
Speaker 2:I got to play a foley there and I loved it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was. It was awesome and we had a great team, especially at home. We destroyed everybody. I pitched Phenomenal. I Think I, in fact I think I've I gotta let the PCL and ERA which, by the way, the seals not easy place bitch and sure enough they they released an outfielder to call me up, and at the time you'll remember this the Pirates team was struggling, but it was because they couldn't score runs at all, I think they ended up leading your team in here.
Speaker 2:They led the lead the league in the yard. They were a great release. The outfielder, to call me up, that means you're really throwing to a team that the last thing they needed it's pitching, was pitching.
Speaker 3:But then the other side of that coin is they had nobody that was hitting the ball, so it didn't matter. They released an outfielder. And here's, I think, the outfielder they released. I think Was a mis-otus.
Speaker 1:Oh, I bet you're right.
Speaker 3:Who Hit a home run off me in the world in the World Series 1984.
Speaker 2:Way crossroads, haha you got, you got your payback.
Speaker 1:I don't know I don't think that's payback. Well, it's funny about me talking about the crossroads and, by the way, I think John Mullen was the GM in 1984. Yes it was, john. You end up Fast-forward pitching one of the great games in three-over-stadium history Against the Atlanta Braves. Yeah, pirates are down. Three games to one in the nationally championship series of 1992 Circle they have to win this game.
Speaker 1:And Bob, he's talked about this before. Yeah, and I was gonna ask you one of your most most proud moments, most nervous moments, on the on the baseball field. But I wasn't there then in 1992, but from what I hear it was one of the most electric, loud Sports moments in Pittsburgh history.
Speaker 3:No, I think it was the the blackout game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the 2013 wildcard game, maybe close to that right close.
Speaker 3:It wasn't. It wasn't as good as that, but it was close to that. It was like I Thought that I literally thought that the stands might fall because the way people were jumping, yeah and especially on the old ones that would move around. Yeah, you could see him bouncing up and down. It was like so cool, wow so it was just, it was crazy.
Speaker 1:So Bob pitches a complete game. The best of you ever yeah he's a complete game, to send it down to game six. Of course that was. They ended up losing game seven. That said, bring slide across home plate. But Did you tell me once that you, in that game, took an extra moment toward the end of that game?
Speaker 3:No, that was a. That was a game. The next year in Atlanta, oh wait, no it was.
Speaker 1:I Know you did your final pirate game.
Speaker 3:It was a year before that in line, the year before I pitched, I Think, completely out of the bullpen in the in the playoff, oh, and I would come into a game and At one moment I'm out there and the bases are loaded and it was a 3-2 count. Uncid brain cross, oh, geez and Incredible you can't make this stuff.
Speaker 1:It's incredible, it's incredible.
Speaker 3:It's a tie game, it's a 3-2 count. Two outs tie game sets up and here we go, the place that is doing this. Oh boy the chop and it was just like there's not a seat in that old round stadium, that it down in Atlanta. Yeah, colton County and it was incredibly loud and I stepped off the back the mound just for a moment and I'm just looking around and I'm going.
Speaker 2:This is why we really yes in my mind, this is why you play.
Speaker 3:I can't, I can't like this, I will never be in this moment again in my life the fact you took the time to do that like, can you?
Speaker 1:imagine.
Speaker 2:Oh no, I would have gone faster.
Speaker 3:So I it's crazy. I looked out and I looking and I can remember. After the game, tommy Sant said that I would first base coach said that Skipper, hall of Famer, leland, he. He turned to him and said, probably not in these, using more colorful words what is he doing? What's? Going on and Tommy said don't worry, he's just taking it all in, he'll be fine.
Speaker 1:I Now again so much stuff here, but Tommy Sant was your manager in Hawaii. Tommy Sant, a former big league player who was one of our favorite people we passed away a couple of years ago, but just a great baseball person, a great guy, and was your manager in Hawaii and gave you an opportunity, Did he not? To manage the team.
Speaker 2:Oh, I had two games.
Speaker 1:He explained that All right by the way, why are you playing?
Speaker 3:I was playing baseball the city.
Speaker 1:pup that I was old. Oh yeah, I was not saying I wanted to know what happened. How about that?
Speaker 2:So you got back on and did you shake to it, or did it come right down? Oh, I don't know, because I bet Spanky's catching.
Speaker 3:I don't know who was catching. I can't remember that. But I know I can remember getting up on there and thinking, okay, I can throw a fastball for a strike, I can throw a curveball for a strike too, but it won't be a very good one. It's not going to be, like you know, a high spin curveball. It's going to be like a little I'm going to you.
Speaker 2:got him with the speed difference.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm just going to like kind of flicking in there. It's got to be a strike. I can't walk in the possible winning line, so I just threw him like a little backdoor curveball. He, they had a good swing at it. We popped it up. My goodness, what would you? What would you?
Speaker 1:just have a chance to manage.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, okay, we had wrapped up the first half in Hawaii.
Speaker 3:Actually, this was in Calgary. So he's a player, yeah, in Calgary, and we're out in the evening having some coffee.
Speaker 2:So, like I am, it was like $48 to because Hawaii is expensive.
Speaker 3:This was in Calgary. Oh, calgary is Canadian dollars, they're cheap, yeah yeah. So anyway, we're out. It's after game, it's fairly late, but it's Calgary Sun still up.
Speaker 3:Oh and we've, we've, we've, we've clenched. Now we got two games left before we start the second half and Tommy is complaining about how we're not scoring any runs. And so me, after having several coffees and like a little bowl, then I said, well, maybe it's your managing. You know I go, you know, let me manage. I said I'll score some runs and he goes. Okay, fine, he goes, you're managing them all. He goes. I'm going to do like I want to be like you. I'm going to sit down the corner of the dugout and pull my hat over my face and go to sleep.
Speaker 1:He goes you're, you're managing. Now, when he says this, do you really believe he's going to let you manage?
Speaker 3:No, I get there the next day.
Speaker 2:I mean, he was still hyped up on his coffee.
Speaker 3:The next day I get there and he just kind of like hands me like all of his little raw things and he goes. The only thing he told me we had this veteran left hander I think it was Dave Tomlin Does that? You remember Dave Tomlin? He was an older guy, he was in our bullpen. He goes. I'll give you one thing of advice If you're in a tough spot, you need to get it out. You see it happen and get Tomlin up. He's the only guy that he goes. You're really it depends on it. He goes, that's the guy you want to use. So I said, okay, did he give you a?
Speaker 1:little bit of wisdom, did he write the lineup for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I think he did write the lineup.
Speaker 3:So he handed you a. He had me a lineup and said okay but then he went down there and they didn't say a word the whole time. I managed the whole time, and what was that like it?
Speaker 1:was fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we lost like 15 to 12.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 3:I used, everybody in the bullpen got the pitch. So after the game we're out again having coffees and I'm like saying, hey, we scored runs. It goes, yeah, but you got to win the game. You gave up 15. It was so ridiculous to score and he goes. We got no one to pitch tomorrow and he goes. I'll tell you what he goes, I'll let you manage tomorrow and he goes. You don't have to score a lot of runs, but you got to win. Well, I ended up getting killed, like this time, 15 to nothing, we don't score any runs. I used the entire bullpen again the second day in a row. My last picture for the last two innings is Mitchell Page.
Speaker 1:Oh for position player, big leaguer.
Speaker 3:And the thing about Mitchell is he didn't know how to pitch from a stretch. He'd never, ever pitched before. He didn't know how to do it, so he kept stretching like it was a whiney. He'd go, like and then just like go and like the first two pitches he throws, he got called box on. So I'm going out to like talk to him and the play-dump part meets me halfway because I keep showing you got to like, come to stop, like this. And then you got to pitch and you know Mitchell's like look, he's got them glasses on and all. He's like God that made it. But he keeps doing the same thing Box, box, box and we're getting killed anyway. So the play-in part meets me halfway and he goes. Don't worry about it, he goes, there will be no more box, just let him go. And I said all right. So then he just pitched however he wanted. That was it.
Speaker 1:I can't imagine it would never happen. This day.
Speaker 2:My favorite part is he's going out to the mouth.
Speaker 1:How about this. He's managing, he's using everybody in the bullpen. What are the guys in the big leagues? The farm director, the GM? What are they thinking?
Speaker 3:the pirates there's probably they don't know who knows. It's not like now that people know we were up in the way up Calgary. We're in another part of the world. I don't think Tommy was writing in his notes that Bob managed.
Speaker 1:No, no, but he still has to answer every day, the next day they get those game reports that the farm director will call the manager, say what happened last night. I'd love to know what that conversation must have been like.
Speaker 2:I thought that was outstanding.
Speaker 1:I would love to know what your teammates thought at Calgary. They loved it, they did.
Speaker 3:I was putting hit and runs on with our three, four hitters. It was like anything is crazy.
Speaker 1:They were loving it.
Speaker 3:They were like coming back to the dugout. They were laughing. They go hit and run by the way.
Speaker 1:So Bob managed those two. He doesn't talk about this much.
Speaker 2:So over two so far.
Speaker 1:But he was under serious consideration got a great interview to manage the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Speaker 2:Many years later, a hundred years ago, Is that something you really wanted to do, or is it something that obviously I see on Facebook?
Speaker 3:Well, no, that would have been as a ex-player and that stuff, and the guy that had made his lifetime home in Pittsburgh. That would have been a dream job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been great at it.
Speaker 3:It's been awesome, but it didn't happen. And then after that it kind of like it had passed. Now, when you say it passed, do you think it's because of the game? I got to the point to where I wouldn't want. Even if the opportunity came up again, I would have said no, I'm where I need to be. But at that time I think I'd only been announcing for maybe three years.
Speaker 1:So I was still and there had been success. Not too long before that, Larry Dierker, who had former pitcher for the Houston Astros, longtime color broadcaster for the Astros. They plucked him out of the booth and he managed the Astros and did pretty well. But what was the interview.
Speaker 3:I didn't pursue that. I didn't ask for this.
Speaker 2:No, no, they came to you, which is really cool. I wish that happened more often to today's game.
Speaker 3:I was up steelhead fishing up in Erie.
Speaker 2:Of course, and I got home and this was before cell phones and stuff.
Speaker 3:And I was out there for a couple of days after season and I got home and Larry says, hey, cam Boniface been calling here, he wants you to, he needs to talk to you, and so I wish I would have been there when he first called him. What was the interview?
Speaker 1:process like Do you remember that?
Speaker 3:The interview process. Yeah Well, when I first in, it wasn't for an interview. He goes I just want to come in and pick your brain about the team. And he had one of these things sitting on his desk. He goes once you come in, we'll have lunch. And so I came in and he had one of these and he asked me a million questions and I mean he filled like 20 pages and stuff up at all. He wrote down, he took all these notes and stuff.
Speaker 3:That's amazing. That's amazing. And he asked me about, like, who should we be looking for for the next manager? What should he be like? All these different questions about the team, about the pitching? What do you think is going wrong right now? What do we need to change? I just it was very so. I walked into his office at noon and time flew. When I walked out of the ballpark to get in my car, it was dark outside. That's how long it is, you know you love what you're doing.
Speaker 3:That's cool, so I got home and I told Lori about everything and she goes well, does he want you to manage? And I go, I don't know, it was like it was like there was all these hints that he did, but he never came out and asked that. So the next day I called him and I said this is this. If I'm out of line here, this is kind of a stupid question. I go thinking about our meeting yesterday. Were you wanting me to maybe want to, you know, throw my hat in the ring? And he goes. I would love you to throw your hat in the ring? And I said, well, yeah, I would love to, and he goes okay, we need to have an official interview then. It's got to be official and it's got to have a um.
Speaker 1:Team President McClatchy, oh, and the owner of the time he goes.
Speaker 3:McClatchy is going to have to be here too, so I went in and we basically did the same thing all the same all over again uh to in front of McClatchy, and Kevin asked a few questions too, but it was mainly. It was just like everything we'd done before. Actually, this meeting was a little bit shorter because we'd already done all this when you left the meeting, did you think you know what I?
Speaker 1:you didn't think.
Speaker 3:I had no idea. I had an inside man, you know, that called me and he said man, they really, they really like you. He goes I think you got a chance. And then a couple of days later they said that you were close, but we're going to go with Matt.
Speaker 1:And I was fine with that.
Speaker 3:I mean you're talking about the guy that had his locker right next to mine.
Speaker 3:Like the last three years on my major league career. I mean me and Lloyd knew each other very well. I mean we, we talked all the time about stuff. I was happy as hell that here one of my buddies is going to be the manager of the team. This is great. So you know, I was very happy with that and I just started a new career that was going very well announcing. You know, I was, I think, on like my first multi-year contract and I was like, hey, that's great, I'm happy where I'm at. I would have loved to got the job, but things happen for a reason.
Speaker 1:We'll have Bob back on hold, my cutter for sure, because there's way way too much to talk about Bob. This is unbelievable.
Speaker 2:A little circle, yeah.
Speaker 1:So we'll look forward to many more episodes with you. Hold my cutter, Bob. How do you hold your cutter Like that? I?
Speaker 3:didn't throw a cutter by the way, I called that a little short slider.
Speaker 2:That's what they called it back in the day. You had a slider yeah. Yeah, short slider, and then you got on top of it. Hold that cutter too, bob.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh yeah. Here we go. Short slider Like a fastball force seamer. The cutter actually spins like this. Here you go. But if you pull down on the side just a little bit, you get this little spin as it's going in there. That's how you hold your cutter. It's been fun, man.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you did that. Thanks, enjoyed it. You're a legend.
Speaker 2:Thanks for watching.