Latest / Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History / 1960 • Baseball Clip • Jackie Robinson & Al Schacht - Radio Interview

Transcript

1960 • Baseball Clip • Jackie Robinson & Al Schacht - Radio Interview · Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History

• 0:00
  This is RetroSports Radio. Visit RetroSeasons.com for more sports history.
• 0:08
  My guest today will be Al Schach, the famous clown prince of baseball. I'll start the interview
• 0:13
  with Al right after this important message.
• 0:16
  Well Al, how many years have you been going out and doing your act?
• 0:20
  Clowning, I started independently. I put the board of the so to speak, in baseball, 1937.
• 0:25
  I quit the American League. Jack Dempsey knocked me out of the American League.
• 0:29
  Jack Dempsey did.
• 0:30
  Yeah, well I did a burles price fight, one man price fight at the Yankee Stadium when
• 0:34
  I was with the Red Sox in 1936. And we fooled around, he hit me on the shoulder and knocked
• 0:39
  me on my back and I fell down and tore my shoulder and I decided right there and then
• 0:46
  I couldn't eat applause so I decided to go out and make a business out of it by appearing
• 0:50
  in different ball parks, which I did. So I used to make 128 towns in 130 days and I did
• 0:55
  that for 10 years. As a matter of fact, I made more, I could have made more money catching
• 1:00
  runaway horses on Park Avenue than I did as a coach on the Boston Red Sox or the Washington
• 1:04
  Senators.
• 1:05
  Let me ask you this Al, we've always talked about the importance of coaching, the importance
• 1:10
  of managers. How about coaches? Are they really important to the winning and losing
• 1:15
  of board games?
• 1:16
  Well Jack, I'm glad you asked me that question. I coached a third base for 13 years in the
• 1:21
  Major League. I claim a third base coach is the most important man on the field when his
• 1:29
  home team is at bat. He can win and lose your game by using bad judgment. Now let's take
• 1:33
  an example. In the first inning, there's a man in first base and a long ball is hit
• 1:38
  and there's nobody out. Now if there's any chance of that man being thrown out at home
• 1:43
  plate, if he's thrown out, it's bad judgment. It's not second guess because he's just as
• 1:48
  good a third base with nobody out. Then you'd have a man on third and second with nobody
• 1:53
  out whereas if he's thrown out at home plate with nobody out, you only got one out and
• 1:57
  a man on second base. Now if you lose that game by one run, it's a poor judging by the
• 2:01
  coach. Now there's a lot of times a coach will take a chance and score a man. For instance,
• 2:06
  there's a man in first base and you're down the ninth inning and there's two out and
• 2:11
  here comes your running. You figure the only chance he's going to get him is he's got to
• 2:14
  be a perfect throw at home. If you send him home and if the ball is perfectly thrown,
• 2:20
  you know he's going to be thrown out by five feet or ten feet. But if it's thrown, it
• 2:24
  depends on the throw being bad, you're hoping for it. If it's throw bad, your man scores,
• 2:28
  he makes a great slide, he comes in, he gets a crowd, gives him a big hand, he's making
• 2:32
  a great slide but he's caught at home and said, why didn't he hold him at third base?
• 2:35
  He's with a third baseman, never can be right. But there's a third baseman's brains or judgment
• 2:40
  and on those pads, first base coach doesn't mean too much. Third base coach is your man.
• 2:45
  Uh huh. Well I agree with that. Now Shaq, I just want to say that I've enjoyed this
• 2:50
  tremendously. Thanks for taking the time. Thank you for calling on me. Well that just
• 2:54
  about does it for now fans. See you soon.