Latest / Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History / 1958 • Baseball Clip • Bob Friend Interview - Radio

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1958 • Baseball Clip • Bob Friend Interview - Radio · Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History

• 0:00
  This is RetroSports Radio. Visit RetroSeasons.com for more sports history.
• 0:08
  This is Bob Friend of the Pittsburgh Pirates. In a few moments I'll tell you about my greatest sports thrill.
• 0:13
  This is Harry Wismarff. What you're about to hear is a transcribed story of one of baseball's outstanding pictures.
• 0:31
  And an event our special guest Bob Friend considers his greatest sports thrill.
• 0:36
  And Bob himself is here to tell us all about it. But first, here is Bill Reddick with a message of interest from your United States Air Force.
• 0:46
  Any great baseball star has years of practice and training behind him. Specialized training can pay off for you too.
• 0:54
  Perhaps you're wondering where you can get the finest training leading to a bright career in the age of space.
• 0:59
  The answer is in the United States Air Force. It's true. The Air Force has the broadest and most complete range of space age training available.
• 1:10
  That's because the Air Force is in charge of thousands of jets, rockets and missiles.
• 1:15
  In the years to come, Air Force participation in space projects will grow and so will the number of career fields.
• 1:21
  So be wise. Join the Air Force for valuable training and bright career opportunities.
• 1:29
  In addition, you will have a chance for foreign travel, receive 30-day annual paid vacations and other extras.
• 1:36
  Get the full story on the Air Force career tailored to your abilities. See your local Air Force recruiter soon.
• 1:44
  Now, back to Harry Wismarff.
• 1:46
  It has taken National League fans a long time to realize that Bob Friend, Pittsburgh's strong-armed right-hander, is one of the finest pitchers in baseball.
• 1:56
  The people on the inside, the managers and players, have known this for some time, even if his record doesn't show it.
• 2:03
  The pirate brass is known for a long time how highly Bob Friend is respected around the league.
• 2:08
  Whenever they sit down and talk trade with any of the other National League clubs, Bob Friend's name usually leads the list of sought-after players.
• 2:18
  It has been Bob Friend's cross to bear for most of the eight years he has pitched for the pirates that he has been supported by one of the weakest casts of players in recent memory.
• 2:27
  The pirates of his time have often been a collection of fuzzy cheek kids who had been rushed up too soon or never should have been wearing Major League uniforms in the first place.
• 2:38
  In this atmosphere of fumbling youth and eighth-place finishes, Bob Friend has received little of the acclaim a picture of his consummate skills deserves.
• 2:47
  When the pirates finished last in 1955, Bob Friend turned in a 14-9 record, but even more impressive was his 2.84 earned-run average, the lowest in the National League.
• 3:03
  It was the first time a pitcher on a last-place ball club had ever led either Major League in earned-run averages.
• 3:10
  In 1956, Bob Friend now the established eighths of the Pittsburgh staff won 17 and lost 17, but a lot of his losses came at the hands of the leading clubs against whom he was the most often matched.
• 3:27
  Bob also led the league that year and innings pitched.
• 3:29
  Then in 1957, just when everyone figured Bob Friend was ready to have a really big year, he posted a disappointing 14-18 mark for an even more disappointing pirate team that finished in a last-place tie with Chicago.
• 3:46
  Bob Friend pitched as well as he had the previous season, but the support just wasn't there.
• 3:51
  In 1958, the young Pittsburgh pirate team suddenly came into its own. The kids had suddenly grown up. They took on the look of big leagueers.
• 4:01
  Bob Friend's one-lost record reacted accordingly. The end of the season, along with the pirates almost incredulous second-place finish, Bob Friend hung up his most sparkling one-lost record.
• 4:12
  His 22 victories tied Milwaukee's war and spawn for the league league. He lost only 14, hurled 274 innings, third high in the Nasta League, and started 38 games high for all pitchers.
• 4:28
  Bob Friend is an established star now, but he's lucky he's still in the big leagues. To begin with, he came up to the majors too soon.
• 4:36
  He broken at Waco in the big state league in 1950, winning 12 and losing 9. He finished that season at Indianapolis in the American Association, and he has been with the pirates ever since.
• 4:49
  I was brought up too soon, he said. When I went up to the pirates in 1951, I was 20 years old, and I only had one professional season behind me.
• 4:58
  I could have used another year in the association, but I never got it. I suppose it wasn't anyone's fault. The pirates needed help, and I guess they figured I could lend a little.
• 5:10
  Bob Friend didn't do too badly. A big, strong, fuzzy-faced right-hander. Bob had a blazing fastball, which he threw out of a complicated wind-up, more or less patterned after that of Bob Feller, his boyhood idol.
• 5:22
  Even today, Friend looks a little like Feller on the mound. He has a big wind-up, and before he pitches, he pulls his leg up in front of him and twists his body towards first base.
• 5:34
  Bob Friend's vault, from obscurity to fame, was marked by his first winning season, 14 and 9, in 1955, and his number one ranking in the earned-run column.
• 5:45
  Fired with a self-confidence he'd never shown before, Friend faced the 56th season with the hope of becoming a 20-game winner.
• 5:54
  After an opening day lost to the Giants, Bob flashbacked to win a quick pair over the Dodgers. The Hoosiers' final record of 17 victories and 17 defeats doesn't begin to tell the story.
• 6:06
  Workhorse Bob Friend appeared in 49 games, only seven in relief. He broke a 25-year-old pirate club mark for starting pitchers, one established by a hurler named Remy Kremmer in 1930.
• 6:21
  Friend started 42 games, Kremmer 38. Bob also worked 19 complete games, second best in the league to warrants Spahn of the Braves.
• 6:30
  He pitched a total of 314 innings, 17 short of Burley Grimes' record established in 1928, and he fanned 164 batters to rank number three in strikeouts.
• 6:43
  Bobby Bragan, then managing the pirates, said, he would have been a short 25-game winner with a pennant contender.
• 6:50
  As it turned out, Bob Friend was the starting hurler for the National League in the annual All-Star Game, pitching three Scolese innings and getting credit for the win.
• 7:01
  Bob Friend, who stands six feet and weighs 200 pounds, looks like a bricklayer and talks like a college professor.
• 7:08
  In addition to a lively fastball, a sweeping curve, and a deceptive change-up, Friend owns a bachelor's degree, which he earned at Purdue University in 1957 after soaking up culture there since 1949.
• 7:25
  Bob Friend became a pirate instead of a Brooklyn Dodger by a strange twist of fate. He was discovered by a scout named Stan Feasel.
• 7:33
  When Bob first met him, Feasel was working for the Dodgers. A top scout, he was the discoverer of Gil Hodges and Carl Erskine, two of the Dodgers' brightest stars.
• 7:44
  During the spring of Bob Sr. Year in high school in 1949, Feasel invited him to a Dodger tryout camp.
• 7:51
  Deeply impressed, the scout told him to come back later after he graduated. A few weeks later, Feasel switched from the Dodgers to the pirates.
• 8:03
  Bob Friend spent the summer playing semi-pro ball, and then he switched too. He liked Feasel, and he would have signed with any team he wanted him to.
• 8:11
  The Pittsburgh pirates gave Bob Friend $15,000 for signing. The way some ball clubs have been handing out tremendous bonuses, the investment in Bob Friend represents the best deal Pittsburgh ever made.
• 8:27
  Now before you meet our special guest, Bob Friend in person, in an interview from Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, and hear about his greatest sports drill, here is a message of interest to all young men with an eye on the future.
• 8:43
  Hi school graduates, have you ever met your local Air Force recruiter? If not, you'll be favorably impressed when you do. First of all, your local recruiter has all the facts and figures about the new age of space and the many interesting job openings in the Air Force.
• 9:00
  Your recruiter will point out the fine technical training available in over 40 career fields, and he'll give you the full story on the many space age advances being developed by the Air Force.
• 9:10
  For example, the radical new jet bombers and fighters, the X-15 space plane, the Titan intercontinental missile. The Air Force space age picture is an exciting one, and it can also be especially rewarding for you.
• 9:26
  If after seeing your local recruiter, you decide to join, you will serve with a fine group of men. So see your local recruiter today, and find out about your place in the expanding space age of tomorrow in the U.S. Air Force.
• 9:43
  And now, back to Harry Wismar.
• 9:46
  Bob Friend, what was your greatest sports thrill?
• 9:48
  Harry, my greatest sports thrill came when I won my 20th game for the first time. It was a long time coming, eight years, and certainly it came at a time when we certainly needed to win. It helped us since second place.
• 10:03
  And it came after a real tough ball game. I had given up something like 12 hits in the first four innings. Danny Murkthal stayed with me, and Dick Stewart bombed a two-run homer off of Marv Grissom in the 10th inning, giving my 20th win.
• 10:16
  Bob, after signing with the Pirates, do you feel you would have benefited more by a longer stay in the minors?
• 10:23
  I certainly do. I came up and I learned my pitching in the major leagues, and it certainly wasn't easy. And I probably lost a lot of confidence that I should have had by pitching and having a good year in a good, fast triple-A league.
• 10:36
  But of course the Pirates were billing at the time, and they were going along with youth. I had a good spring at season 51, and they stayed with me, but it was certainly a long, four-hard years learning how to pitch.
• 10:50
  You recall your first appearance on the mound as a member of the Pirates?
• 10:54
  Yes, Harry, I do recall my first appearance on the mound and occurred in Connie Mac Stadium when I started against the Phillies. I was very nervous at the time, and I wasn't able to feel three or four bunts and three or four balls that were hit back at me.
• 11:09
  And the bases were loaded, and Dick Sisler bombed a grand slam home run off me. It's certainly one that I would like to forget.
• 11:17
  Bob, can a pitcher get by in the majors today with just a good live fastball?
• 11:22
  Harry, I don't believe he can. I think a pitcher to win in the major leagues today must have at least three pitches that he can get over the plate in any situation.
• 11:32
  A pitcher with a good live fastball might be able to get by for the first three or four innings until the hitters have him timed him. But when they do have him timed, then he's going to be in trouble.
• 11:42
  Just another pitch, or two pitches that he's going to be able to set up his fastball with will certainly make him a winner in the big leagues today.
• 11:53
  Bob, do you have any feeling about keeping a batter loose when you see him digging in at the plate?
• 11:59
  Well, I certainly like to keep a batter honest. I don't believe in throwing at a hitter just for no purpose at all.
• 12:04
  If I see that the hitter is laying across the plate trying to get my curveball in the corner, I must back him up so I can make that pitch effective.
• 12:13
  If he leans across the plane, hits my curve, I certainly must do something about it.
• 12:17
  But I certainly don't believe in pitchers going out there and deliberately throwing out a hitter because maybe in some inning earlier that he hit a home run.
• 12:25
  The cat's out of the bag. What's the use to stir up trouble?
• 12:28
  Bob, what is the closest you ever came to pitching a no-hit ball game?
• 12:31
  Well, I did have a no-hit-no-run game when I pitched in the minor leagues.
• 12:36
  But the closest I've ever came while pitching for the Pirates in the major leagues was a game against the Chicago Cubs back in 1954.
• 12:44
  I only faced 28 men that day and Frankie Baumhoitz hit a high-bounding ball to second base, which Johnny O'Brien made a real fine play in the ball.
• 12:53
  He couldn't get the ball and of course, you know, Baumhoitz is a fast man.
• 12:55
  He beat it by a step and that was the only hit of the game that occurred in the seventh inning.
• 13:01
  Bob, does the batter constantly stepping out of the box upset a pitcher as much as they say it does?
• 13:08
  Well, Harry, I think it depends on who the pitcher is. I think if it's a veteran pitcher who's been around a long time and has a lot of poise out there, it's not going to bother him.
• 13:16
  I think it can work the other way, though. You find a hitter who is in a tight situation and especially an anxious hitter.
• 13:23
  I think it's, you'll find that pitcher taking a lot of time is going to upset the hitter just as much as a hitter would upset the pitcher.
• 13:32
  Would you like to see the spitball used again in the league?
• 13:36
  I certainly think it would save a lot of aroo barbs and a lot of embarrassing situations if they would legalize the spitball.
• 13:44
  You know, there's several pitchers in the league throwing it and you certainly can detect them, but they're taking so much away from the pitcher today.
• 13:51
  You've got the rabid ball, you've got the short fences, the strike zone is narrower, and certainly if it's going to help to keep a pitcher in the league that much longer, I'm off for it.
• 14:01
  Thank you very much Bob Prenn to the Pittsburgh Pirates, one of baseball's outstanding pitchers.