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

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

• 0:00
  This is Retro Sports Radio. Visit RetroSeasons.com for more sports history.
• 0:12
  From Dey to DeRosha to DeMaggio, it's double play with DeRosha and Dey.
• 0:17
  With our guest Joe DeMaggio, here's another chapter of double play with DeRosha and Dey.
• 0:23
  Welcome to another visit with baseball's most exciting and controversial couple,
• 0:31
  Lorraine Dey and Leo DeRosha. With our guest for today, Joe DeMaggio.
• 0:36
  So many of you have written to us asking us to have Joe DeMaggio as our guest on the show.
• 0:41
  And we're going to have Joe DeMaggio, but you know, he's retired now.
• 0:46
  But we'll have him as our guest just as soon as I can wake him up.
• 0:50
  Joe. Hey. Joe. Joe.
• 0:56
  Lorraine, I know if Joe joins our audience in listening to this message, he'll be wide awake.
• 1:04
  And now back to Leo and Lorraine and that very famous retired Yankee, Jolton Joe DeMaggio.
• 1:12
  Hi there baseball fans. Welcome to another chapter of double play.
• 1:16
  Lorraine. Well you're really taking this retirement seriously aren't you?
• 1:20
  Oh I certainly am. You know I've been laying in that apartment and I don't have to go to the ballpark anymore.
• 1:23
  I feel wonderful. No more aches and pains.
• 1:26
  I'll bet you there's one fellow who's glad you're retired and that's your brother Dom.
• 1:30
  Well why do you say that Lorraine?
• 1:32
  Well I would just sort of imagine Joe that it's pretty tough to be a ball player and grow up in,
• 1:36
  I mean play ball in the shadow of such a famous brother.
• 1:39
  Nobody ever really notices you because your brother's so famous and such a great center fielder.
• 1:44
  Well he certainly is famous but I...
• 1:47
  I'm talking about you!
• 1:49
  This is a very strange thing because Dom did tell me two years ago, he said,
• 1:53
  why don't you quit this game? He said I'd like to get my name and all the columnists writing about me for a change.
• 1:58
  He certainly has done that because he's leading the league now I see and I only hope that he continues to do that.
• 2:04
  I was talking to Mrs. McCarthy and I said, when Joe was managing didn't you ever second guess him the way I second guessed Leo?
• 2:10
  She says, well it seems that every time he came in the house the thing I said to him was,
• 2:15
  why didn't you walk to Maggio?
• 2:18
  Well she asked me that too Joe. She asked me that in the last word, you know, how come you didn't walk to Maggio?
• 2:24
  I said, why was I going to put him? I said, he just, you know, after all you just rip one of the seats for us, that was all.
• 2:30
  Well Leo, you know up there in Boston, my gosh, that left field wall up there,
• 2:34
  I'd hate to be a pitcher out there or I'd hate to be managing the club and find you at the plate at that short left field wall and ball.
• 2:40
  I don't know how much you'd have hit if you'd have had a park like that to play in Joe.
• 2:43
  Well I don't know about that Leo, all I can say is in 1951 there during our World Series with you, I went 0 for 11 if you recall.
• 2:50
  If you went 1 for 90 it wouldn't make any difference. I know that when you walk up to that plate that the pitcher has to be very careful.
• 2:57
  If he made a mistake we knew we were gone. You're the one that worried my staff the most, I'll tell you that.
• 3:01
  Well your staff is no exception, but let's get to these letters that we have.
• 3:05
  That's pretty fresh.
• 3:06
  I'm sorry but we have to answer letters on this show. We get so many asking questions and when we do have a guest like Joe,
• 3:11
  why we have to ask these questions that only Joe can answer.
• 3:14
  Go ahead.
• 3:15
  For instance I have a couple of letters here. One is from John Robb in Wall Lake, Michigan and he says,
• 3:20
  I've read so many sports writers who insist that Casey Stengel's style of managing is unorthodox.
• 3:26
  If it is, it certainly seems to work, but I want to know if this is true. Is his style of managing unorthodox?
• 3:33
  Well I would say so. His style is very unorthodox. He's a type of fellow of the manager.
• 3:37
  You know when he has 25 men which is the limit that you have on the bench or the roster, he uses every one of them.
• 3:44
  Is he funny on the bench by the way?
• 3:46
  Well he certainly is.
• 3:47
  He's so much off the bench.
• 3:48
  I could recall one of the days over there sitting on the bench just recently and he was walking up and down the bench
• 3:55
  and a play happened out there on left field and it was one of those appeal plays and he was walking around
• 4:01
  talking to all the umpires and they couldn't get anything or he couldn't get anything out of them.
• 4:05
  So he comes storming into the bench and he came over to me. I was minding my own business,
• 4:09
  smoking a cigarette way off by the stairs and he says, Joe, what about that play?
• 4:13
  And I says, well I don't know. I haven't ever read a real book in my life.
• 4:16
  Maybe he wants you to go out there and see if you can straight the umpires out.
• 4:21
  Well speaking of managers, do you think we could manage to let our sponsor get a word in right here?
• 4:31
  And now back to Double Play with Leo DeRosha and Lorraine Day and their guest for today, Joe DiMaggio.
• 4:37
  Here's a question you might like to answer, Joe.
• 4:40
  It says, what do you think the famous players of maybe just a few years ago think of the bonus system?
• 4:45
  And that is asked by John Welch of Akron, Ohio.
• 4:49
  The best way I could answer that, Lorraine, is that I don't really approve of the bonus.
• 4:56
  Of course I'd like to see the boys get as much money as possible.
• 4:59
  But on the other hand, I don't think it helps their playing any now.
• 5:02
  I could think back about Antonelli when he was signed with Boston for something like $75,000
• 5:09
  and he had to stay with the team. In other words, they couldn't send him down back to the minor leagues.
• 5:14
  I think not only it hurt him because he couldn't pitch, he was a green boy,
• 5:18
  but it also hurt the ball club.
• 5:20
  So I'd like to have the boy that starts off picking him out of the sandlot and playing minor league ball,
• 5:25
  get his two or three years experience, then bring him up to the major leagues.
• 5:28
  And I think he's just about ready.
• 5:29
  Have there been many very famous bonus players who have succeeded and become big stars?
• 5:36
  Well, there's been a few. I mean, Roberts of the Philadelphia Club and Simmons,
• 5:41
  I think those are the two best bonus players that have been in baseball in quite some time.
• 5:47
  And they have very little experience, both of them.
• 5:50
  But I think that before they were signed as bonus players, they played with strong semi-pro clubs.
• 5:55
  But the kids that this gentleman is referring to, the kids that come out of school,
• 6:01
  Joe is so right about it, you put them on a major league ball club,
• 6:05
  you give them a fantastic figure of $65,000 or $75,000 or whatever the amount may be for signing.
• 6:10
  Now you've got to keep them a year on your club.
• 6:13
  Hasn't that rule been changed?
• 6:14
  It has been changed, but you handicapped the manager in the past,
• 6:17
  you've handicapped the manager that he's now got this kid.
• 6:20
  He can't pitch him, he can't play him.
• 6:22
  If he does, he may lose an important ball game that may cost him the pennant,
• 6:27
  and the kid sits idle all summer long.
• 6:29
  Whereas if he, as Joe says, comes right out of the sandlot,
• 6:32
  a rough, tough kid that wants to play ball and is interested in making a great career out of it,
• 6:36
  he wants to play in a minor league club and make a record for himself and be brought up slowly.
• 6:41
  Maybe Mr. Welch means how does the established star say who is getting a salary of $50,000 and who is a star?
• 6:49
  And it is so important to his club, how does he feel about a young kid coming in
• 6:53
  and getting $75,000 or $100,000 just to sign and is of no help?
• 6:58
  We've had players in every spring, they've always referred to so-and-so that you gave $30,000 to,
• 7:05
  and now I'm looking for a $3,000 raise and I played 140 games and hit 340 or hit 310,
• 7:11
  and I can't get it, you're quivering about it, and you're willing to give this kid,
• 7:15
  well there has been arguments like that, and I can see where you do have controversy about it
• 7:21
  from a manager's standpoint and an owner's standpoint.
• 7:24
  Maybe Joe has a different answer for it.
• 7:26
  No, I go along with that, Leo, because I remember, of course, I recall some of the boys
• 7:31
  being around the clubhouse and talking about it, and they had great years,
• 7:34
  and they had a tough time getting a $2,000 to $5,000 raise when they hadn't given a kid
• 7:38
  who hadn't proven himself something like $60,000 to $100,000.
• 7:41
  Well, just think how the Pittsburgh ball club may feel, how the players must feel, rather,
• 7:46
  to get a kid like this Pettit who got $100,000, and you take a player on the club who,
• 7:52
  we'll say, had a mediocre year that's playing for maybe $6,000 or $7,000,
• 7:56
  there's a lot of talk around the clubhouse about that,
• 7:58
  and that can cause a lot of dissension on your ball club, I believe.
• 8:03
  Well, I know that Joe, when Joe started out, did you know this, Leo,
• 8:06
  that Joe started out as a shortstop?
• 8:08
  Yes, I did.
• 8:09
  Did you, Leo?
• 8:10
  No, I didn't know that. I was amazed. I really am sorry.
• 8:13
  You did?
• 8:14
  I did. I played with San Francisco the first three ball games that I had played with them.
• 8:18
  It was the last three games of the 1932 season, and I have, I think, an all-time record, Leo.
• 8:24
  I've handled 11 chances, but not cleanly. All errors.
• 8:28
  Oh, no. So that makes you not feel there immediately.
• 8:32
  Well, you know, Joe, that's a funny thing. It's a funny thing how great players go into one position.
• 8:37
  I can recall with the St. Louis Cardinals when Frankie Frisch was the manager,
• 8:41
  you know, he never played shortstop. Oh, he was a great second baseman,
• 8:44
  and he'd come right out of college, in fact, into Major League Baseball.
• 8:47
  And I remember one day in Cincinnati, oh, this is a number of years ago,
• 8:50
  we had him beaten, I don't know what the score was, by 10 or 11 runs in the last inning,
• 8:55
  of a doubleheader who was tremendously hot, well over 100,
• 8:59
  and I said to Frank, you know, he wasn't playing the second game, I said,
• 9:03
  finish up for me, William, all in.
• 9:05
  And I think the first five balls hit the first year shortstop, went right through his legs,
• 9:09
  he never picked up a one-up. And he came in the clubhouse, and he just jumped up and down,
• 9:13
  he said, don't you ever ask to be taken out of the ball game again.
• 9:16
  So that ended his career as a shortstop, too.
• 9:18
  Well, it's lucky you could pick him up, because, boy, if they had to depend on that bat of yours,
• 9:22
  you would still be on it.
• 9:23
  Now, I cry all the time when you get the people on the show that you criticize, my hitting.
• 9:27
  Oh, honey, let's face it, 220.
• 9:31
  Listen, fine guy, I'm going to ask you, what's the fine guy to have on the show?
• 9:35
  I didn't say 220.
• 9:36
  Well, it makes me feel good.
• 9:37
  Joe, let me ask one question, Joe. My lifetime average, I think, is 238.
• 9:42
  I'm not sure, what is your lifetime average, Joe?
• 9:44
  My lifetime average is just half the ceiling record book the other day, 325.
• 9:48
  Let's forget, that'll go on.
• 9:49
  I don't know anything more about that show.
• 9:51
  You do this to me every show.
• 9:53
  Well, you know, Joe, I think one of the most memorable quotes to make a tribute to you
• 10:01
  is in 1949 when the fans gave you a day when you said, thank God for making me a Yankee.
• 10:07
  Well, I kind of felt that way at the time, and it was really a nice tribute
• 10:12
  because of the people that were out there and the Yankee organization asking my mother and family
• 10:17
  to come to make the trip just for that one occasion.
• 10:20
  And of course, that's during the time that I was sick, and I was of course pent up with emotion myself,
• 10:26
  so something like that came out of me.
• 10:28
  I quite didn't understand it, but I actually felt that way,
• 10:31
  and I really felt what I said were really my feelings.
• 10:34
  There wasn't a dry eye in the Yankee Stadium, I understand, when you said that.
• 10:38
  And we asked a question on one of our shows that when the fans give a player a day,
• 10:42
  it seems that they usually have an off day, that they can't seem to do anything very well on that particular day.
• 10:48
  Was that true in your case?
• 10:49
  No, I got a base hit that day with the Maron 1st and 2nd, and kept the rally going.
• 10:55
  It had gone over to a drop, and just came into relief.
• 10:57
  They were leading 4-0, and I hit the first pitch right through the mound for a base hit,
• 11:01
  because he knocked it down, and we did load up the bases and went on to get four runs that inning.
• 11:07
  But the rest of the day, of course, I could say the next day, I hit a ball the right field.
• 11:14
  They were all playing me in left field because I had lost 18 pounds.
• 11:17
  So I had pneumonia and various pneumonia, and they were all playing me in left field,
• 11:21
  and I dropped a couple in the right field.
• 11:24
  I know one thing, Joe, you've come back after being sick, and there's just something about it, Joe.
• 11:29
  I don't know what it is.
• 11:30
  A great player just takes a club and brings it along.
• 11:33
  I don't know, Joe, maybe this is a funny thing to say, but how about coming out of retirement?
• 11:40
  You know, I can use a center fielder, and you know, isn't there some way we can work this around
• 11:45
  so we could just play a little bit?
• 11:47
  Well, it's nice of you to say that, Leo, but you know, I'm still obligated to the Yankees for some reason.
• 11:52
  Oh, the Yankees could get along without you for one year.
• 11:55
  Joe, let us have you one year.
• 11:57
  Yes, I'd like to look at the man you're going to the plate for me.
• 12:00
  Besides, who's going to carry me out the outfield? Who's going to bring me in?
• 12:03
  I'll be your caddie, Joe. I'll be your caddie. I'll get you out and get you back.
• 12:07
  Well, with that, we'll let you go right back into retirement, Joe.
• 12:11
  Okay, Lorraine. See you, Leo.
• 12:13
  There he goes.
• 12:15
  Oh, right on. Back to rest.
• 12:18
  Sorry, we have to go to a salon.