Latest / Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History / 1952 • Baseball Clip • Leo Durocher and Ralph Kiner - Radio Interview

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1952 • Baseball Clip • Leo Durocher and Ralph Kiner - Radio Interview · Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History

• 0:00
  This is Retro Sports Radio. Visit RetroSeasons.com for more sports history.
• 0:13
  From Day to DeRosier to Keiner, it's double play with DeRosier and Day.
• 0:18
  With our guests Ralph Keiner and Nancy Chafee, here's another chapter of double play with DeRosier and Day.
• 0:24
  Welcome to another visit with baseball's most exciting and controversial couple, Lorraine Day and Leo DeRosier,
• 0:34
  with their guests for today, Ralph Keiner and his lovely wife Nancy Chafee.
• 0:39
  And now Leo is about to meet one of his guests, Nancy Chafee, who seems very impressed and says,
• 0:45
  Oh, you're the man that they call the All-American Out.
• 0:48
  Oh, great. Well, that tore it. I'm sure Leo will have something to say about this.
• 0:53
  But first, this message.
• 0:59
  And now back to double play with Leo DeRosier and Lorraine Day and their guests, Ralph Keiner and Nancy Chafee.
• 1:05
  Hi there, everyone. This is Lorraine Day.
• 1:08
  Baseball leads into some mighty hot sessions with some of the famous personalities we'd like you to meet on our program.
• 1:14
  Guests like Casey Stengel, Ralph Keiner and Nancy Chafee, Duke Snyder, Bob Lemon, and on and on.
• 1:23
  And I'm here to represent you fans because, well, because I'm a baseball fan myself.
• 1:29
  I eat baseball, I sleep baseball, I dream baseball, and I get a lecture about baseball every morning for breakfast.
• 1:36
  So I should be qualified.
• 1:38
  But right now, we want you to meet two wonderful people, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Keiner.
• 1:44
  Tell me, Leo, have you ever played tennis?
• 1:46
  No, I never have, Nancy.
• 1:47
  Well, I'd like to show you how to hold the racket. You see, you put your hand this way.
• 1:50
  Oh, no, Leo. Isn't it tough enough being a baseball wife in the summer and a golf widow in the winter without my having to worry about tennis?
• 1:58
  I only wish I had this thing when I was playing baseball. Maybe I'd have hit more than 220.
• 2:02
  Look, Ralph, I've never seen a ballplayer hold a bat the way you do.
• 2:07
  And there's two grips I think you use. I'd like to see one of them. I have a golf club here, Ralph.
• 2:11
  Could I see the way you hold a golf club?
• 2:14
  What stance you want, my good stance or my 11-handed stance?
• 2:17
  Well, I'll take the good one, Ralph.
• 2:19
  Well, this is about the way I do it.
• 2:21
  Now, look, look, girls, look where he has the finger on that golf club. That is what is known as a golf grip.
• 2:26
  Now, let me see that bat here. I want to show you something.
• 2:28
  Show me something.
• 2:30
  And show me the same, the way you hold a bat, Ralph.
• 2:32
  I change a little bit, Leo, because I don't overlap, of course, but I hold my hands about the same position.
• 2:37
  Well, why? Now, what I want to know is this. Why do you have your fingers so high up on the bat?
• 2:42
  Well, it's comfortable in one respect to me. I like it that way. My hands feel right on the bat.
• 2:46
  And the other reason is I get more bat coverage with my hands.
• 2:49
  In other words, Ty Cobb used to split his hands like this to get more bat control.
• 2:54
  Well, I get the same amount of bat control by turning my hands this way, and it feels better.
• 2:59
  I wish some of my hitters had learned to use a bat like that.
• 3:01
  Well, come on, let me see your 220 grip.
• 3:03
  I want to ask you something. Was that 220? Does that mean you're batting average, or is that your weight?
• 3:08
  You and your...
• 3:10
  Leo wasn't such a bad hitter. Why, he hit 400 one year.
• 3:14
  Yeah, 200 left-handed and 200 right-handed.
• 3:16
  Yeah, I didn't know you were a switch hitter.
• 3:18
  Come on, let's get out of here.
• 3:19
  Ralph, I mean, I...
• 3:20
  You got to getting up.
• 3:21
  I don't think that Ralph has told you that it's no bed of roses to be the wife of a baseball player.
• 3:26
  I don't know anything about it, because this is my first season.
• 3:28
  Oh, I feel so sorry for you. You just wait until Ralph gets into a hitting slump, or until he strikes out with men on base.
• 3:36
  Well, I've seen him strike out before. In fact, one game in Pittsburgh, I don't remember who the Pirates were playing, but he struck out three times.
• 3:43
  And then the fourth time he came up, I looked at this friend of mine and I said,
• 3:46
  gee, if he had only hit a pop fly, now that shows how much I know.
• 3:50
  I know nothing about baseball.
• 3:52
  You thought it would make him feel better.
• 3:54
  Well, anything but the swing and the miss all the time. That's terrible.
• 3:57
  Of course, he gets a lot of home runs, too.
• 4:00
  Oh, sure. That makes up for it. I know I get a little nervous every time Ralph comes to the plate.
• 4:04
  So do I. But differently, I think.
• 4:06
  You're protecting your husband's team.
• 4:08
  Yes, and you're rooting for yours.
• 4:10
  Yes, that's so right.
• 4:11
  Well, you know, we had a slump of losing 11 games straight in a row.
• 4:15
  Well, I want to tell you that during that slump, I became acquainted with more wrestling holes, because Leo would never go out.
• 4:23
  You know, it never goes out when we lose. So we have to sit and the only thing he'll watch on television is wrestling.
• 4:28
  I don't know why all of a sudden, but oh, I can do all these things.
• 4:31
  Really? Imagine the night that I'd sit home if we never went out when the pirates lost.
• 4:36
  Well, that's wonderful. You don't have to worry about the whole team is different being a player's wife,
• 4:41
  because you're only concerned with that particular player.
• 4:43
  But being a manager's wife, you've got every player on your mind and everything every player does,
• 4:48
  so we stay home and watch television.
• 4:50
  Were you interested in baseball before you married Liam?
• 4:52
  Oh, no, and it was so pleasant. It was just wonderful. I went along smiling all the time.
• 4:56
  I could read the newspapers without worrying about that.
• 4:58
  Come on, Ralph. Let's get in here and break this up. You know how it is when baseball wives get together.
• 5:03
  What happened?
• 5:04
  She just knew it when she started like that.
• 5:05
  What happens when baseball wives get together?
• 5:07
  Well, I'm telling you, Nancy, you know, a few years ago, the Chicago White Sox had a rule.
• 5:13
  The players could not bring their wives, even their automobiles.
• 5:17
  What do you mean, even their automobiles?
• 5:19
  Well, I'd rather have my automobile, wouldn't you?
• 5:21
  Oh, Ralph! You're a hero.
• 5:23
  Well, now why, Neil?
• 5:24
  Well, they just wouldn't let them do that because they didn't think that they paid enough attention to baseball.
• 5:29
  And I know it's, I've read it in the paper that the Philadelphia Phillies are not going to allow their players to have their wives in spring training camp.
• 5:36
  Well, I asked Mr. Ashburn about that and I said why, and he said,
• 5:40
  well, the year that they won the pennant, wives weren't allowed in spring training.
• 5:45
  And so they're just sort of superstitious. They think they'll win it this year, but...
• 5:48
  That superstition doesn't go too well, you know. Sometimes, I used to wear the same suit all the time, the ballpark, if I got a hit that day,
• 5:54
  but I found out that you have to swing the bat, too, you know.
• 5:56
  The suit doesn't win it for you?
• 5:58
  Not a bit. You've got to swing the bat.
• 5:59
  Well, you know, Rob, we were in Santa Domingo and this was in 1947 when Leo was managing the Dodgers.
• 6:06
  That's right.
• 6:07
  And we could tell them.
• 6:08
  Well, in 1947, we had a rule also. We were over there at Ciudad Trigil and Mr. Ricky, your present boss, Ralph, had made a rule.
• 6:17
  A bow to the South now?
• 6:18
  Oh, you bow, really bow. And he made a rule that we couldn't have any of our wives over there in spring training camp.
• 6:25
  And Pete Reeser, formerly of your ball club, had his wife come over there and actually paid all our expenses and she lived at another hotel.
• 6:32
  But still it caused a big, what we call in baseball, a rhubarb.
• 6:36
  And there was a lot of dissension and finally Mr. Ricky sent Pete Reeser and his wife back to Barrow Beach.
• 6:41
  Ralph, it wasn't that they didn't like baseball wives. It was because there were only so many rooms allotted to the Brooklyn Dodgers for spring training.
• 6:48
  They still had to take care of their tourists and they just didn't have room.
• 6:52
  Well, I think that the wives are good for a ball player in spring training camp.
• 6:55
  They're settled down. They have someone to be with in the evening. They have dinner with them. They go to the picture shows.
• 7:00
  And I think they're more settled and they just don't have to worry about writing home every night.
• 7:05
  They have their wife with them and I think they're much more contented and they're happier.
• 7:09
  Well, what I hear about most of the trouble caused by baseball wives is in the stands.
• 7:13
  Now I don't know about it because I don't happen to sit with baseball wives.
• 7:17
  This is for you, dear.
• 7:19
  Your first lesson.
• 7:20
  Well, for instance, well.
• 7:22
  Yes. Well, for instance, any pitcher's wife is sitting next to any infielder's wife and maybe the infielder makes an error and it costs the pitcher the game.
• 7:30
  Well, I understand that in the heat of the moment that possibly the pitcher's wife would turn to the infielder's wife and say,
• 7:36
  well, if only your husband could learn to pick up the ball, my husband wouldn't lose this game and now you're in trouble.
• 7:41
  What do you think will happen to you then?
• 7:42
  What will happen to the ball players?
• 7:43
  I don't know. I think I'm going to sit home and listen to it on the radio.
• 7:47
  See, now there we go. That's how wives get into trouble.
• 7:50
  I won't say a word. I never get nervous when he goes to bed.
• 7:52
  What do you mean you won't say a word?
• 7:53
  I mean with the other baseball players.
• 7:55
  Let me ask you something, Ralph. If I may interrupt here about baseball, how does it feel to be a tennis husband?
• 8:00
  Say, this sounds like it's going to be mighty interesting, but before we get started on it, here's something else that's interesting.
• 8:10
  And now, what was that question again, Leo?
• 8:12
  How does it feel to be a tennis husband?
• 8:14
  You know, it's one of the worst feelings in the world.
• 8:16
  I get up in the morning and she isn't around. She's out in the tennis court practicing tennis.
• 8:20
  So I have to cook my own breakfast.
• 8:22
  Oh, you poor boy.
• 8:24
  I know by the time I want to get my golf clubs out and go out and play golf, I haven't got a car and the golf clubs are in the back of the car.
• 8:29
  So this goes on all day and I have a tough time.
• 8:32
  Well, what is this I hear, Ralph, that you may be going on a few tours with your wife, Nancy, on some tournament tennis. Is that so?
• 8:42
  Well, I don't know, Leo. That's kind of a, well, I should do it. Actually, I beat her, you know. I can beat her all the time.
• 8:48
  Oh, that's just your idea.
• 8:49
  Hey, this is where you go.
• 8:50
  This is what happened. He said, I'll put you in the game.
• 8:53
  How'd you make out?
• 8:54
  Beat the wire.
• 8:55
  How'd you make out?
• 8:56
  That's the final score that counts.
• 8:57
  Oh, but this is different. We played and he said, I'm going to serve every game.
• 9:02
  So he served every game and beat me 6-3.
• 9:05
  So that's the same thing as if you had played a baseball game and the same team hit every half inning or inning or whatever you call it.
• 9:12
  I never served the ball.
• 9:14
  Do you think that you would have beaten Ralph if you had a chance to serve?
• 9:17
  He has no chance.
• 9:18
  How can you say that, honey?
• 9:19
  Do you feel that tennis interferes at all in any way with baseball because I've heard this argument about golf and baseball.
• 9:26
  Well, they give you these arguments.
• 9:27
  Joe Cronin, who was probably one of the greatest shortstop's that ever played baseball, took up tennis to learn how to hit.
• 9:33
  And he said that the movement from hitting a tennis ball is very similar to getting your hips and everything out of the way to hit a baseball.
• 9:38
  And he says that it actually helps his hitting.
• 9:41
  So I think that any sport that you do play, it has to help you in other sports.
• 9:46
  It teaches you coordination, gives you timing, and you use it later on in anything else you do.
• 9:50
  Yes, but what about golf? Now, I've heard you in these little off-the-record chats saying that you don't believe that ballplayers should play golf during the season.
• 9:59
  Now, I say that ballplayers shouldn't play golf, dear, on the day that they're playing baseball.
• 10:03
  I say that if you have an off day and a fellow wants to go out and play golf, I think it's an altogether different game.
• 10:08
  The ball is standing still and you have to hit it with the club.
• 10:11
  And baseball, the ball is moving, and it's an altogether different thing.
• 10:15
  But I think that the rhythm and the timing in golf and in baseball are practically the same.
• 10:19
  And I don't see where it hurts a ballplayer that goes out and plays a game of golf on an off day.
• 10:25
  The only thing that I don't want my players to do is to play golf, like, on a day when you're playing a night game.
• 10:31
  That, I think, tires them out, and I don't think it's good for them.
• 10:34
  But I do think that golf is all right, and I certainly haven't seen any ill effects as far as my club is concerned.
• 10:42
  I think that you're right when the fact that if you do play, it does worry you out before a ballgame.
• 10:46
  I don't play, well, last season I hadn't played a game from March until the season is over.
• 10:51
  I just completely quit during the season, and after the season is over, I take it up and play it all winter.
• 10:55
  It keeps your coordination.
• 10:56
  And you, it gives you something to do.
• 10:58
  You're walking at least six or seven miles a day the way I play.
• 11:01
  It's about nine miles a day.
• 11:02
  I wish some of the day, Dr.
• 11:03
  I wish some of the day that you played my club, I wish that you played golf that day.
• 11:08
  Before you came out to the park.
• 11:10
  Before you came out to the ballpark, because many of us, oh, yes, it is, Dr.
• 11:13
  He wants you to have a good time.
• 11:14
  One thing about being a manager, you got to put up with all that stuff.
• 11:16
  I wouldn't want to be a manager at all. That's terrible.
• 11:18
  I don't want to be a manager's wife, either.
• 11:20
  But why? What's wrong with being a baseball manager's wife?
• 11:22
  Look, in the first place, you get the second guessing.
• 11:25
  That's just the most wonderful thing.
• 11:26
  That's the worst part of it all. You shouldn't second guess.
• 11:28
  But why not? The paper's second guessing all the time.
• 11:31
  Yeah, but he's got to have the first guess, and that's it.
• 11:33
  I mean, that second guessing stuff is...
• 11:34
  But I'm dying to get out of here.
• 11:35
  Oh, I got to get out of here. You can't get a word in with these girls.
• 11:37
  I mean, they're worse than umpires.
• 11:39
  Well, I see that our time's about up, folks, and don't forget to write now. So long.
• 11:49
  You've been listening to another chapter of Double Play with baseball's most exciting couple, Lorraine Day and Leo DeRosier.
• 11:57
  Today, Lorraine and Leo had as their guests, Ralph Keiner and Nancy Chaffey.
• 12:02
  Join us when again it's time for...
• 12:04
  Double Play with Leo DeRosier and Lorraine Day plus another big-time guest star.
• 12:09
  Double Play is produced by Marty Martin, directed by Ted Nealon, and is a MarTed production.