Latest / Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History / 2006 • Baseball Clip • Ernie Harwell - Great Moments in Baseball - Radio Interview Part 7 of 8

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2006 • Baseball Clip • Ernie Harwell - Great Moments in Baseball - Radio Interview Part 7 of 8 · Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History

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  This is Retro Sports Radio. Visit RetroSeasons.com for more sports history.
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  Ernie, you've seen so many great players and moments in your 55 years in the booth from
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  Jackie Robinson stealing home on your very first broadcast to Bobby Thompson shot her
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  around the world to Willie May's debut with the Giants in 51. There are a few others though
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  that help shape baseball history, aren't there? For example, Nolan Ryan had 7-0 hitters and
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  you were there for one of them. Oh yeah, that was a great moment. Nolan Ryan pitched a no-hitter
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  against the Tigers and not only pitched a great no-hit game, but he almost broke the strikeout
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  record and I think as a broadcaster I was concentrating as much on the strikeout record as
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  I was a no-hit performance. In the ninth inning, two out, nobody on, one out to go for Nolan.
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  Then Norman Cash comes to bat and he is sent back to the bench by the umpire. His bat is illegal.
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  He comes up to bat with a new bat, pops to shortstop. Nolan gets his no-hitter and I asked
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  Norman after the game, I said, Norman, why was that bat illegal? What happened? He said,
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  well Ernie, we weren't hitting the guy and I certainly wasn't going to get a hit off him.
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  So I went in the clubhouse and I got a leg off the table and took it up there to bat against him.
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  Well here's a very important last half of the ninth inning coming up. Nolan Ryan on the
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  verge of setting baseball in history. He is only three outs away from a no-hit shutout against
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  the Tigers and he is only three strikeouts away from setting the all-time major league record in
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  strikeout. Cash is struck out twice and bounce the second. One more out and Ryan has a no-hitter.
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  It'll be the second no-hitter pitched against the Tigers this year. Norman getting a new bat
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  and I believe that's going to be tossed out. Luciano does not want him to use that bat.
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  Been ruled illegal by the play dumpire. Oh Norman gets a new bat. There are two down in the
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  ninth inning. Ryan cannot tie the major league strikeout record. He can tie Bob Fellows America
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  league record of 18 and the pitch to cash is a ball. Oh a curve ball breaking in only one strike
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  away from tying the American League strikeout record by Bob Feller. Here's the wind up. He pitches
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  swing and a pop fly back in the left field going back. He's there. Ryan has his no-hitter but he
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  does not tie the strikeout record. He is mobbed by his angel teammates as he comes off the mound and
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  it is a no-hit victory for the young man from Texas Nolan Ryan. Ernie one event that took the
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  nation by storm was Hank Aaron's chase of Babe Ruth's career home run record. Being in the
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  American League and not in the national during the time that was going on what were your perceptions
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  of Hank Aaron's pursuit. I was rooting for Hank to break babes record but I tell you it was a tough
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  thing for Hank because he got a lot of abuse about it. A lot of people felt like the babe should
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  always be the home run king and I think maybe you know in a lot of people's minds he'll remain the
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  home run king but Henry Aaron got a lot of abuse that he did not deserve and he went through with
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  it and I think did a tremendous job to keep his focus on baseball and finally break the record of
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  Babe Ruth. Henry Aaron in the second inning walked and scored. He's sitting on 7 14.
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  Here's the pitch by downing swinging. There's a drive into left center field. That ball is gonna be
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  out of here. It's gone. It's 7 15. There's a new home run champion of all time and it's Henry Aaron. The fireworks are going.
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  Henry Aaron is coming around third. His teammate at home plate and listen to this crowd.
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  The crowd is cheering. Henry Aaron the home run king of all time. You've had the opportunity to call
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  baseball games that featured a lot of future Hall of Famers. How about Yogi Barrow? Yogi Barrow was one
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  of the smartest guys ever met in baseball. A great friend and I really love the Yogi like everybody
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  does and I was with him on the veterans committee and he came to that committee well prepared about
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  the other players that we're gonna vote on. He had great insight and I think his sayings are full of
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  wisdom. You know he says it in a different way but he's a very wise wise man. I guess he's Yogi
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  Barrow. Yogi what about all these stories now we hear all these Yogi Barrow stories and some of them
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  are true some of Mark. How did all that get started? Well I don't know I think when I go to the
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  bank was always mention my name on it you know Yogi said this Yogi said that. I guess the one you
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  could really get the truth on is Joe Gargiard because you know we grew up with him. We know each
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  other a long time he got pretty good idea. Well Yogi if you said all those things they say you said
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  you wouldn't be doing anything we're talking all your life would you? You're not kidding that's
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  the truth. I don't know sometimes I say you know home my kids and my wife I'll say something they'll
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  say there's another one. What did I say you know and all that but but usually I don't I didn't say
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  all them things. Some are true and like you said some are false. What do you think Yogi Barrow
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  would have done if he hadn't been a big league ball player? My gosh I couldn't tell you. I know I
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  worked in the shoe factory when I was a kid before I started playing ball. Maybe I might have still
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  been in the shoe factory. Now you've been a player you've been a coach you've been a manager which
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  is the most fun in the big leagues playing? Playing is the best fun. Well coaching is too you know
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  you know you see these kids you know if you get some good ones you know make you happy and everything
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  and I enjoy this my 41st year now and I still enjoy it I think if I didn't want to do I don't
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  have to do it but I like it I can't wait till spring training comes along. What's the kick out of
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  coaching see young kids develop is that it? You know help out the catchers young catchers and
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  everything and it is it is good you know to see some young kids come along. Yogi what's the most
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  important thing a young catcher has to learn when he comes to the big leagues? Boy if they I know
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  it they're hard to find now I know that we're looking for one over there ourselves and I don't
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  know I think the kids just don't want to do it no more they think it's a lot more hard enough for
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  it and I always try to tell us the best position to play you have a lot of fun you get to talk to
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  everybody up there and you're in the game more and everything we have one kid over here a kid
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  named Greg Bijou we just signed on a seed and haul I don't know if you see him today but he
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  really wants to play he's really got a lot of life and he takes choice for a young kid. What's
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  the secret of throwing for a catcher getting the ball off quick? Well I get I see a lot of
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  catchers today aren't they well I can't show it to you on here they seem like they catch the ball
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  first and then they throw it I always like to go up for the ball like an infielder did I say and
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  throw it because you get you know like an infielder you know I like to move on my right foot first
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  into the ball and then you put something on it you get a lot of the catchers they they catch it and
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  then they throw it throw like a lot of flat foot and everything they do all their movement after
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  they catch the ball instead of doing it while the ball's in flight mm-hmm a lot of them think
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  they say well the hitter is going to hit me you know if I start moving right and I try to teach
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  you won't get hit I let him swing and I tell you won't you won't hit me sure and but it's it's tough
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  to do some of them I don't know like Dickie when he got a hold of me my gosh he worked my butt off
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  every day every day so you get used to you know I used to go home after work out and stand in front
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  of a mirror mm-hmm to work on my footwork you know just to see how I was doing well it paid off for
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  you I loved it I want everything to build a gentleman who pitched in Detroit Jim Bunning Jim
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  Bunning was a great guy I like Jim he was a very smart guy one of the first proponents of the
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  baseball union one of the strong proponents of it and he was a fine pitcher also and was later
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  traded to Philadelphia where he pitched the perfect game against the New York Mets and then later on
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  as everybody knows he was elected to Congress from Kentucky and then after being a congressman he
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  moved over to the Senate and has been a very influential guy I got a sort of a kick out of Jim's
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  testimony when they had the big test about drugs and baseball and he made this epic speech about
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  cheating and baseball people should not cheat but I remember a game in Baltimore where he was scratching
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  the ball on his belt buckle and Billy Hitchcock the Baltimore manager collected about 10 or 12
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  baseballs went to the umpire and said this guy is cheating but they didn't do anything about it but
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  that's part of the game I think and I certainly excuse the senator for that sometimes it's all a
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  matter of perspective now some players have had careers interrupted by military service others
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  more tragically and the first one that comes to mind is Roberto Clemente Roberto was a great guy he
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  got his 3000th hit in the final year of his career and then that December the big disaster hit down
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  in Nicaragua and he wanted to help from his native Puerto Rico and he was sending supplies down
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  there collecting them getting money for the folks who had been hit by this disaster and he
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  wasn't too satisfied because they were draining off some of the money so he got on the plane himself
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  helped load the plane got on it and it took off and got no farther than a couple of hundred yards
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  before it fell into the ocean and Clemente gave his life for that cause so he did a lot more than
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  just played baseball but he was a sort of a misunderstood guy he was a guy that the Dodgers
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  had signed and hidden away but then when Branch Rickey went to Pittsburgh he knew about Clemente
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  and got him back into the spotlight signed him for Pittsburgh then he made his great hall of fame
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  career there holder of the longest consecutive game hitting streak in baseball history the Yankee
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  Clipper Joe DiMaggio certainly was one of the superstars of baseball he had the celebrity
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  status of a rock star and he had so much pressure put on him that he hit away from people and a lot
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  of people thought he was different and cool but I found him after I got to know him and he got to
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  know me a little bit that he was a quite warm and very responsive I did an interview with him and
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  he talked about some of those great pressures put on him by the public and the celebrity that he had
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  on the road for instance during the streak why we're pretty much left alone my roommate was
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  Gomez and because he did a great job of screening things and it wasn't the fault of the fans as
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  much as they were well-wishers and at times they'd come knocking on a board on the door about two
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  or three o'clock in the morning you know I'm just wanting an autograph to say hello or things of
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  that sort and because we had other people that want to go I want you to go to banquets or lunches
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  and breakfasts you know all those kind of things and I would have to say that was the pressure now
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  the thing that I did to escape most of all of that was to come to the ballpark about four
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  hours early so there was nobody at the park at that time and I just hung around the ballpark well
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  is it true that when you were coming to the park in Cleveland on the day the streak was broken that
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  the cab driver said that he thought the streak would be broken I thought all that stuff was
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  forgotten but I guess it's so true that's the truth and I was riding along with Gomez at the
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  time and Gomez jumped all over me he just had the feeling he says he turned around he says Joe
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  he says I just have a feeling that tonight is gonna be the night that they're gonna break your
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  streak and Gomez I could recall just jumped all over him you know and he kind of felt miserable
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  about it because he told me later on he says you know he said that bothered me throughout
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  that whole ball game and then the streak was broken but you started the brand new one didn't
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  you and that is correct but I must give a little credit there where it's due and I think more
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  the great third basements is the one that really stopped it Kenny Calder who made two fantastic
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  plays and I think only a man like him who played along the line that made the long throw is just
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  nipping me bang bang just so like that you know but they had to come to one end at one time and
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  then there were a couple of guys whose last name began with G Charlie Garinger and Hank Green
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  Berg Charlie Garinger was one of the real heroes of the Detroit baseball the mechanical man they
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  called him there's so many great stories about Charlie I think one of the best that I like to
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  relate is the fact he's the only Hall of Famer who did not attend his induction ceremonies because
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  when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame it was the same year that he had decided to marry
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  his wife Joe and he had settled on a date it was going to be out in California arranged by
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  Marv Owen and his wife so they'd set this date and it happened to be that when the Hall of Fame
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  elected Charlie they picked the same date for the induction so Charlie decided it was more
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  important to get married than it was to be inducted into the Hall of Fame of course he was inducted
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  anyway but he just wasn't there but they used to say that he was a silent guy he was a great
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  personality a good storyteller and a wonderful person and then Greenberg Hank Greenberg was a
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  true hero in Detroit he was extra special because he fought prejudice just like Jackie Robinson
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  did later on and Hank went into the service twice not once in the World War two and gave a lot of
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  his years that he could have been playing baseball to Uncle Sam he was a great slugger he missed out
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  in the World Series in 35 because he broke his wrist in one of the first two games he didn't play
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  from then on and the Tigers suffered because of that but he also had a key home run when the Tigers
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  won the pennant in 1945 against the St. Louis Browns when he first came out of the service and
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  then was one of the heroes of the 45 victory now you didn't broadcast any of the games this
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  gentleman played in because he went into the Hall of Fame in 1942 but how about the Raja
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  Rogers horns me I think I remember him best the managing in Cincinnati he had a very different
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  way of removing a pitcher when he won't take the pitch out of the game he just looked down
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  on the bullpen and give a wave with his left arm he wouldn't even go out to get the ball and he
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  didn't allow food he didn't allow anybody to drink water anything else in the clubhouse but he also
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  had a great proclivity for the horses he loved the horses and he had his own tout to travel with
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  the team when he was managing a Baltimore in the international league but he was all baseball and
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  you could sit there and talk for hours about baseball but if you started another subject he'd
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  say forget it and walk away from you Bob Gibson one of the fiercest competitors that baseball
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  is ever known he invented the glare I guess didn't he he was he certainly did Bob and he was Mr.
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  intimidation there was nobody that he would knock down and he didn't even want to put up with his
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  teammates you know one of the guys I forgotten who it was came over to say something to him and
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  he said the only thing you know about pitching is you can't hit it get back to your position and
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  he was a mean guy when he was on the field but a very intelligent guy and a great pitcher and when
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  you knew him off the field he was a terrific guy but when he was in uniform he was a great
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  competitor comparable to Don Newcomb and we talked about absolutely Don Drysdale with the Dodgers
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  they were all brushed back they'd stick it in your ear if you gave them a chance they do it
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  they as they say knock down their grandmother if they had to trying for number 16 right now against
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  cash to break the record makes you set position the developers here's the pitch
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  another great innovation for Gibson setting the new World Series mark 16 strikeouts in the game
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  two down of an Anthony Horton the batter how do you compare or contrast them to say the finesse of
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  sandy cofax I think cofax had so much natural ability he really didn't have to be as mean as
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  competitive as that he was a good competitor no question about it but I don't think he really
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  had to brush back guys so much because his fastball was so effective that people probably had a sense
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  of fear to some degree when they went up there anyway and he was just so good he mastered control
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  after rather slow start in the big leagues but he learned control and once he got that fastball
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  and his other pitches under control he was invincible one of the nicest people you'll ever
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  meet and probably one of the most unassuming superstars you will ever find I think so and
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  something that really doesn't go along usually with the big winner we usually think about the
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  mean guys and the competitors but he was just as you described him it is 946 p.m.
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  two and two to harby keen one strike away sandy into his windup here's the pitch
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  prince howell newhauser prince howell what a guy he was a young guy that was pitching a pro ball
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  when he was in high school actually during the wartime with the tigers and he had a great fast
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  ball a lot of good curves and he just blew down the opposition no question about that and there
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  was a canard against the newhauser for a while among the voters for the baseball hall of fame that
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  he was a wartime pitcher but he did a lot of winning when the guys came back you had a lot
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  of great ballplayers in 46 47 and new house was still a brilliant pitcher in that time and I think
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  he was one of Detroit's great heroes he had number six on his back and st. louis on the front of his
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  uniform Stanley visual stand the man what a guy one of the most personable fellows you'll ever meet
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  he always went out of his way to be a gentleman I've been on cruises with Stan and his wife and
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  but we went on a cruise from new york on the qe2 down into the caribbean and we hit some rough
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  weather around Cape Hatteras a lot of people got sick brookes Robinson's family got sick and Stan
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  got sick and we got to st. Thomas he said forget it I'm flying back to st. louis he got off the
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  ship and went home he had a great batting stance and when I worked in brooklyn all the brooklyn fans
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  loved Stan they were the ones that gave him the nickname the man and you'd go to st. louis and
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  right on the team bus maybe from the train station past sandlot baseball games and every kid you saw
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  had to stand museal stance if you were a milwaukee braves fan it was spawn insane and pray for rain
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  yeah all the warren he was a great left hander warren spawn won more games than any other left
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  hand pitcher he was a fabulous pitcher who really got his start a little bit late because he'd been
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  in the service he was in the battle of the bulge and Casey stingle made a drastic mistake when
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  he was managing warren spawn before the war warren was in spring training and casey wanted to move
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  a guy back from the plate with a fastball and he didn't do it and casey said well you know if you
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  don't have guts enough to do that you're going back to the miners so they sent him back to the
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  miners and here's a guy came to be a great war hero in the battle of the bulge a little mistake
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  of identity there I think this man's baseball trading card is the most valuable in all the land
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  honus Wagner you know all honus of course despite rumors to the contrary I did not see honus wag
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  the play but I knew all honus because when I was in the dodgers we'd go into Pittsburgh and
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  honus would sit on the bench and I love to sit there with him and he'd chewed him back and he'd
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  tell these terrible jokes you know that everybody would laugh at in respect of the great honus
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  Wagner because he was a very old man at that time but they said that he was a greatest shortstop of
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  all time at least throughout most of baseball some of those opinions might have changed now but
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  we said that you could roll a barrel through those bow legs but you couldn't get a ground ball through
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  they said that no one would ever own the Boston Red Sox fans like the splendid splinter Ted Williams
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  did the man who came the closest though Gerolya Stromsky yes sir triple crown winner great guy
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  and he could hit and field and do everything had a great spirit too and he was an interesting
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  personality he was a bear down guy but I like Carl a lot got along good with him I knew his father
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  father had been a potato farmer out on Long Island outside of New York Carl sort of came up the hard
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  way but he made the hall of fame and certainly deserve it and like you said Bob there's no question
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  that he's one of the real icons at Fenway Park well Ernie with all the athletes that you've had
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  the privilege of seeing there've been a lot of teams that have accomplished a lot of things
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  but is there one that stands out among all the rest that you would consider maybe your
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  top team of your seven decades I think my top team would be the Yankees of 1961 and I think
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  what made the Yankees so good was they had great depth and they had good pitching Whitey Ford was
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  a bellwether the staff but what I remember about them is that they had three catchers
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  Elston Howard Johnny Blanchard and Yogi Berra and all three of those guys could catch play first base
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  or left field and I don't know how many home runs they had among them but it was a whole bunch of
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  home runs plus the Yankees just had a good team they knew how to play the game they had great
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  defense and they had heavy hitting and I'd have to say the 61 Yankees would be my best team
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  I've got a picture that was taken of the Yankee dugout and I think it was right before
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  one of the World Series games because it had the starting line up that day with Skyron Richardson
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  Kubeck who was third base Boyer was third base you're right um Elston Howard
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  Mickey Mantle Roger Maris and the picture that day was Art Dittmer and Art gave you the picture
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  yeah and and also Casey standing there but he's in a in a shirt and tie no good yeah great and
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  Terry Ralph Terry was on that but the art pits that day so it was made of that day started by
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  that great and he autographed for me and gave it to Ernie we've talked about the influence that
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  Paul Richards had on you and the other managers of the teams that you've worked for let's go back
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  and talk for just a second and maybe you can give us a little inside to some of these guys that you
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  had a especially close relationship with how about Bert Schotten? Bert Schotten was a fellow from
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  Bartow, Florida he was a fisherman he loved the fish he played ball in the National League played
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  with the Cardinals and some other clubs and he was very close to Branch Rickey when Leo DeRosha
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  was suspended by the commissioner Rickey called his old pal down there in Bartow to come on up
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  and manage the Dodgers and he came up in 47 and stayed through 48 Leo came back and eventually went
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  over to the Giants but Bert Schotten was a very laid-back guy one of the few managers that did
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  not wear uniform he'd wear pair slacks and he'd wear a Dodger jacket and he lived at the same
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  hotel I did the Bossett Hotel when I broke in with the Dodgers in 1948 and I used to
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  ride out to the ballpark with him after I got started with the Dodgers usually with Bert and
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  with the relief pitcher Hugh Casey and he was a very wonderful gentleman he didn't get excited one
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  way or the other you get on the train after the game it might be a very tough loss or it might be
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  a brilliant victory and you really couldn't tell the difference by the manner of demeanor of Bert
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  Schotten. Now you also had the opportunity in Detroit of working with two managers who had made
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  their name possibly with other teams a guy who still owns the Major League record for being
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  fired the most times by the same owner the Brad Billy Martin. Yeah Billy Martin was quite a guy
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  Billy came into the Tigers he'd debounced around a little bit he'd been a great player and he'd
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  managed it Minnesota when he came to the Tigers he was very popular at first but as my mom used to say
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  he wore out his welcome Billy had a proclivity for after he got started and establishing himself
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  in a job he began to carpet the other people in the organization especially his bosses and it
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  never seemed to work because you don't criticize your bosses are too heavily. Sparky Anderson who
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  had managed the big red machine in Cincinnati to world championships. Sparky was a big guy no
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  question about that he had managed Cincinnati to the world championship he was a choice of
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  Jim Campbell when the Les Moss was fired Sparky came in actually Les had a record around 500
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  but it was a chance to get Sparky who'd been out of work and Jim felt like if he didn't strike
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  then that somebody else would come in and get Sparky and Sparky had sort of a five-year plan
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  and actually it worked because after five years the Tigers had a championship team. Sparky now
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  walked a lot when we got to be good friends we'd get up every morning and we'd walk for about an
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  hour we talked a lot about baseball a lot about life and I think I learned a lot from Sparky he
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  was pretty smart he was an old used car salesman who knew how to close the deal you know and he
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  could read the minds of his players and get the most out of them. Charles Dylan Stingle KC named
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  after the town he came from he was a failed dentist he wanted to be a dentist and he couldn't make it
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  and he came to the National League he played for Brooklyn and he played for the Giants and
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  he was a pretty good ball player but he was always a clown at Brooklyn he doffed his cap one time
• 27:02
  and a bird flew out he hit a homerun in the polo grounds playing for the Giants against the Yankees
• 27:08
  and lost his shoe running home is inside the park homerun then he became a manager first at Boston
• 27:15
  with the Braves and he was a terrible manager because they had a terrible team somebody said
• 27:21
  the best thing that ever happened to the Braves was when Casey got hit by a cab and broke his leg
• 27:25
  and couldn't manage anymore but then he went to the Yankees and he became a genius and later on
• 27:31
  was a great manager with a met but he was a kind of a guy you know you'd ask him what time it was
• 27:37
  and he'd tell you how to build a watch I'm not sure that I made my question clear
• 27:48
  I'm not sure I'm gonna answer yours perfectly I was asking you sir uh
• 27:55
  why it is that baseball wants this bill passed I would say I wouldn't know but I would say the
• 28:01
  reason why they'd want it passed is to keep baseball going as the highest baseball sport
• 28:09
  that has gone into baseball and from the baseball angle I'm not going to speak of any other sport
• 28:15
  I'm not in here to argue about other sports I'm in the baseball business it's been run cleaner than
• 28:19
  any baseball business that was ever put out in the hundred years at the present time
• 28:25
  Leo DeRosher he was very volatile he would be up one time and down the other and he'd
• 28:31
  had feuds with the writers and he and his wife had feuds and he had feuds with everybody
• 28:37
  Leo had come off the streets of Connecticut in the boyhood where he hung around the pool halls and
• 28:42
  he became a pretty good ball player sort of a no-hit great fielding shortstop and then later
• 28:48
  made himself a manager but I think the great thing about Leo is he instilled a certain amount of
• 28:53
  confidence in his players that no other manager that I've ever been with could do somehow they
• 28:59
  would really go to battle for Leo because they figured that he'd figure out a way as much as he
• 29:04
  could to win the game for them some of the players didn't like Leo some of them liked them a lot
• 29:11
  but whether they liked him or didn't like him they did play hard for him
• 29:18
  just as there were characters who manage teams I guess there were characters who own the teams
• 29:22
  too and the first name that pops up is the colorful Bill Vec oh yeah Bill Vec was certainly a character
• 29:28
  he was a maverick the establishment didn't like Bill Vec very much because he went against the
• 29:33
  grain a lot he's a fellow that introduced the immediate Eddie Goodell into baseball and he
• 29:39
  played against the Tigers and Bill Vec got that idea from a story by James Thurber you could look
• 29:45
  it up and it turned out to be one of the outstanding events in baseball history Bill also had a lot
• 29:52
  of good ideas he would make three or four speeches a day to try to promote baseball he had a tough
• 29:58
  time with the Browns because they couldn't draw the Cardinals were always the number one team there
• 30:03
  with Cleveland uh Bec did a lot better he won the pennant there went to Chicago he would sit off
• 30:09
  ball night and talk baseball and he had a wooden leg that he uses his ashtray you know he'd smoke
• 30:15
  cigarettes he was a chain smoker and he'd flip the ashes in a little hole in his wooden leg
• 30:20
  but uh he was a great personality and he was always reading he loved to read books he loved
• 30:26
  literature and he was a great guy to talk to i really love Bill Vec.
• 30:31
  Speaking of innovators Charles O. Fenley. Yeah Charlie O was quite a guy and again here was a guy
• 30:37
  that the establishment didn't like because what Charlie O did he proved when he went to Oakland
• 30:43
  that he could have a winner or the front office had consisted of himself his brother and a couple
• 30:48
  other guys whereas all the established franchises had a table of organization that included a couple
• 30:55
  of hundred people and Charlie was doing it all by himself and Charlie had a young african-american
• 31:01
  guy that looked like Hank Aaron and they called him the hammer and hammer would go down and get
• 31:07
  the lineups and bring them up to us then he'd talk to Charlie and sit in the booth with Charlie
• 31:13
  and he turned out to be MC Hammer the great rock star some of the guys at Oakland Reggie Jackson
• 31:20
  and some of the others gave him seed money to start his outfit and he became a superstar in the music
• 31:26
  world. The shipbuilder George Steinbrunner. I like George a lot he's always been good to me and I think
• 31:31
  he's good for baseball I know he's got some detractors but I like to see a guy who has a passion
• 31:37
  that George Steinbrunner does he wants to have a winner and he does almost anything he can to get
• 31:43
  it he's a pretty hard guy to work for he goes through managers like you know most people go
• 31:48
  through socks and underwear but he's a very smart baseball man and I think when he got Joe Torrey
• 31:54
  it was really a smart move my good friend Arthur Richmond made that suggestion a lot of people
• 32:00
  didn't want Torrey to come he didn't have much of a record but he turned out to be the perfect
• 32:04
  manager to work with George Steinbrunner. Now the commissioner's office without mentioning every
• 32:13
  commissioner and talking about each one of them one stands out because of a decision that he had
• 32:17
  to make and that was a Bartlett Giamatti and the Pete Rose case what did he face what was the big
• 32:23
  problem as you saw it? I think the big problem that the commissioner had at that time was what
• 32:29
  to do with Pete because the Dowd report claimed that Pete had bet on baseball and in that case
• 32:35
  of course he should be banned from the game but Giamatti had a press conference and he made a sort
• 32:41
  of a compromise with Pete in the press conference Giamatti said that Pete will be suspended for
• 32:47
  one year then he'll have a right to come before us and see about the suspension but in the meantime
• 32:53
  we've all agreed that nobody will address the question of whether Pete bet on baseball or not
• 32:59
  and then about a week or two later Giamatti had a press conference and he said to the press well
• 33:05
  everybody knows that Pete bet on baseball so it sort of clouded the issue at that time and then
• 33:13
  Giamatti died soon after that and Fay Venson took over and it created a very gray area for a long
• 33:21
  time with Pete Rose and my own feeling was that I really wasn't sure Pete maintained that he didn't
• 33:28
  bet on baseball the report said he did but we didn't know about the authenticity of the report
• 33:35
  and I was in Pete's corner really I felt like he had a great record in baseball he made the most of
• 33:41
  his ability he was a great player on the field he had the most hits he did all kind of things
• 33:47
  he was a team man he won a lot of big games and I was for him but then when his book came out
• 33:53
  my opinion changed because he said in his book that he did bet on baseball and it looked like to
• 34:00
  me he was saving the confession for a money-making proposition and I think a lot of people that were
• 34:06
  in Pete's corner at that time turned against him as far as getting into the Hall of Fame and of
• 34:12
  course the Hall of Fame is independent from baseball but they cannot put anybody in who suspended
• 34:18
  from the game so it's not a question of putting Pete in at any point now until he is reinstated
• 34:25
  the suspension is over and he's eligible to go to the Hall of Fame now whether he will or not
• 34:31
  I don't know but right now my opinion is that he probably should not be in it is this the same
• 34:36
  scenario that Judge Landis had with Shulish Joe Jackson well with Shulish Joe they actually had a
• 34:42
  grand jury trial the White Sox players were exonerated in court but Landis had been put in
• 34:49
  and given extreme power so he decided even in the face of the exoneration he would suspend these
• 34:57
  eight White Sox players who were on trial and Joe Jackson was one of them and a lot of people felt
• 35:03
  it was unfair because Joe had hit about 375 in the World Series and it was hard to put a finger on
• 35:09
  a guy whether he had thrown a game or not and there were all kind of rumors back and forth
• 35:14
  but baseball needed a strong hand at that time and Landis stepped in and did the job and banished
• 35:21
  all of them from baseball and then the Ted Williams later on you might remember put on a campaign
• 35:27
  to get Joe Jackson reinstated and elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame and I was in favor of that
• 35:33
  I thought Joe had paid his penance you know he'd been suspended he couldn't play against the
• 35:37
  professional players all his lifetime and his life had practically been ruined by this and why not
• 35:43
  honor him even if you did after he died. Now you've also had the privilege and pleasure I'm sure of
• 35:53
  working with and around and across the field in some cases from some great broadcasters
• 35:59
  Russ Hodges. Russ Hodges was a people kind of a guy. Soddler like Harry Carey was later without
• 36:06
  the flamboyance of Harry he was the guy sitting in the bar with his best pal and they were talking
• 36:11
  about baseball and he had sort of a down-the-middle easy style very easy to get along with he'd worked
• 36:18
  at Chicago and at Charlotte and Washington with Arch McDonald and all over the place but he was a
• 36:24
  real professional he came to the Giants from in New York where he had worked with Mel Allen so he'd
• 36:29
  been around and he knew baseball and was very very popular announcer.
• 36:59
  Then there's the man who saw everything from the cat bird seat. That was a great red barber who
• 37:08
  along with Mel Allen was one of the first of two to go in the Hall of Fame they were inducted in
• 37:13
  the same year. Red was a real pioneer that all of us owe a great deal to because he took baseball
• 37:20
  from a game where the station told the announcer to go out buy yourself a scorecard and broadcast
• 37:27
  the game he was far from that he was a true reporter and it was very tough working for Red
• 37:33
  because he was a task master he wanted the very best and I think it was great for whomever
• 37:39
  worked with Red that he was demanding. He had all these southern expressions in Brooklyn and he
• 37:45
  had a great advantage that Mel also had of coming into New York and being the first big league
• 37:50
  announcer that the people of New York had ever heard because big league baseball was not broadcast
• 37:56
  in New York until 1939.
• 38:27
  And then as distinctive as Red's voice was the man you just mentioned how about that Mr. Mel Allen.
• 38:45
  Well Mel Allen was a voice of baseball no question about that because of his affiliation with the
• 38:51
  Yankees and they were always in the World Series and Mel Allen did all the World Series so he got
• 38:56
  more national acclaim I think than anybody he had great enthusiasm he had a deep resounding voice
• 39:03
  and he had a terrific passion for baseball I think his whole life was wrapped up in baseball
• 39:09
  never married and he lived with his mom and dad and everything that he did was wrapped up in his job
• 39:14
  he did the Rose Bowl for NBC he did the World Series and he did a lot of big events and he also
• 39:21
  did the newsreels and was a guy who started a second career after the Yankees fired him in the 1960s
• 39:28
  he was out for a couple of years and then Joe Reichler working for the commissioner got Mel a
• 39:33
  job on this weekend baseball and he made a completely new career for many many years as the voice of
• 39:41
  this weekend baseball a lot of younger fans probably never heard him broadcast the game but they know
• 39:45
  all about Mel Allen. Mickey Mantle at bat with a count of one ball no strikes left-handed pitcher
• 39:51
  Chuck Stobbs on the mound Mickey Mantle a switch hitter batting right-handed digs in at the plate
• 39:56
  here's the pitch Mantle swings there's a tremendous drive going into deep club field it's going going
• 40:02
  it's going over the bleachers and over the side atop the bleachers into the yards of houses across
• 40:09
  the street it's got to be one of the longest home runs I've ever seen hit how about that. A gentleman
• 40:16
  whose tenure in Los Angeles rivals yours in Detroit Vince Scully. Vince Scully I think is the best
• 40:24
  baseball announcer that ever came along I think he's fantastic he had the good fortune they're
• 40:29
  going to LA with a good team nobody'd ever heard a big league announcer at that time and the city
• 40:35
  of automobiles and transistors and everybody had to listen because the Coliseum where the Dodgers
• 40:41
  played was such a bad place to see a ball game you really needed a radio description to go along
• 40:47
  with it but in addition to that he just had great talent and always did have he broken a very young
• 40:53
  he was about 22 I think when he started and my real claim to fame Bob is the fact that he took my
• 41:00
  place on the CBS roundup for football when I was switched to another game Red Barber had to give
• 41:06
  Vinny his first job and that was broadcasting a game in Boston and he did a good job and then
• 41:12
  when I left the Dodgers to go to the Giants Red Barber called and by the way Vinny's mother said
• 41:19
  Red Skelton called but it was Red Barber and he offered Vinny the job to do the Brooklyn Dodgers
• 41:25
  and he's been there ever since he's a magnificent announcer then there was the cowboy from Wyoming
• 41:41
  who ended up behind the mic in Fenway Park in Boston that's Kurt Gowdy the great basketball
• 41:47
  player who became a very versatile announcer he could do baseball football basketball he could
• 41:53
  do everything he might not have been the very best in each one but I think as far as overall
• 41:58
  versatility you'd have a hard time matching Kurt Gowdy I work with Kurt quite a bit most of the
• 42:04
  time on CBS and he was always on the telephone he was a great businessman and he took care of
• 42:11
  business with all his radio stations while he was broadcasting and he loved to do the American
• 42:16
  sportsman on TV and I know that he went out with a lot of great celebrities and being Crosby and
• 42:23
  Phil Harris pulled a big joke on Kurt because of the situation they had on American sportsman
• 42:28
  they were always kidding about always having a phone and they did a show from a duck line
• 42:33
  and in those days they didn't have a cell phone they gave Kurt a real phone to use in the duck line
• 42:39
  account one and one to Williams everybody quiet now here at Fenway Park after they gave him a
• 42:45
  standing ovation of two minutes knowing that this is probably his last time at bat one out nobody
• 42:51
  on last of the eighth inning jack fisher into his wind up here's the pitch William swings and there's
• 42:57
  a long drive to deep right that's all his time and it is gone a home run for Ted Williams in his last
• 43:04
  time at bat in the making league well Ernie there's one broadcaster who was not known as a play-by-play
• 43:10
  man but you had a long and very nice association with Paul Kerry Paul Kerry was one of my many
• 43:18
  great partners I had a lot of partners and all of them were good but I'd have to tip my hat first
• 43:23
  to Paul Kerry because we were together longer with him than any other partner that I had Paul and I
• 43:29
  existed together about 18 years as a tiger announcers and I think Paul Kerry had the best sports voice
• 43:37
  of anybody I've ever heard the people around Michigan said it was the voice of God but the
• 43:42
  problem with working with Paul was he made everybody who worked with him sound like a soprano but I
• 43:48
  was able to overcome that he had a good grasp of the game he'd come from Michigan he grew up here
• 43:54
  he knew all about tiger history and Paul was just such a wonderful guy to work with and so accommodating
• 44:01
  and he had an extra duty in the last 15 or 16 years of working with me when the station decided
• 44:08
  that they would not use an engineer that Paul Kerry would not only have to broadcast but he would
• 44:14
  have to do the engineering the only outfit in the major leagues that did not have an engineer so
• 44:20
  that was an added burden but he did it and did it well he was such a professional and such a great
• 44:26
  guy I really have to pay tribute to Paul Kerry well it's my pleasure now for the last time for
• 44:32
  play-by-play unless we go into extra innings to introduce a man who's meant so much to me in 19
• 44:37
  years we just couldn't do it without him I've gotten a lot of accolades and a lot of attention
• 44:43
  much of it I didn't deserve and I have to share more of it with him than he knows Paul Kerry
• 44:50
  Ernie thank you very much for those thoughts it has been an absolute joy for 19 years to have
• 44:57
  shared a tiger radio booth with you and it's now coming to an end the Tigers finishing off the
• 45:04
  season here in Baltimore but they've got a big five to one lead is milk Tyler the league's off
• 45:09
  the fourth inning all they had a couple of pitches there's a third and it's a two one count on milk
• 45:15
  and then you have the first member of first and second generation major league baseball
• 45:20
  broadcasters first let's talk about Jack Buck or Jack Buck was a guy that everybody took to he
• 45:25
  had a nice easy style he had a sardonic kind of a wit about him he was great at the cardinal games
• 45:32
  he was a big fan of Harry Heilman he grew up in Cleveland and used to hear Heilman do the tiger
• 45:37
  games he came to st. Louis to work with Harry carry and then when Harry left jack became the big
• 45:42
  guy and was there for years and years and everybody loved jack buck and he was on monday night
• 45:47
  football too and the thing I remember best about jack in his closing years there I was broadcasting
• 45:53
  a game at bush stadium in st. Louis and I was back at the batting cage and jack buck came up to me
• 45:59
  and said dirty there's only one good thing I can think about you is that you never die young
• 46:03
  hey look at the way he's limping that's impossible for him to come out and bat in
• 46:08
  and we have a big three two picks coming here from eckersley gibson swings and a flying ball
• 46:14
  to deep right field this is gonna be a home run unbelievable a home run for gibson in the
• 46:21
  Dodgers and won the game five to four well he saw his son move into broadcasting but another man who
• 46:34
  saw his son and his grandson come into the business is the aforementioned harry carry
• 46:39
  oh that was amazing too that three generations who had broadcast in the big leagues the only time
• 46:45
  it's ever happened and harry I think was probably the outstanding personality among all baseball
• 46:51
  broadcasters he was flamboyant he loved baseball he really did and deep down his heart he was always
• 46:58
  such a fan he was quite critical of the players and they'd get on his case sometime but it didn't
• 47:03
  bother him he would say what he felt should be said and he said it in a very author david manner
• 47:09
  and he was a great showman and I think the best thing that ever happened in any baseball broadcast
• 47:15
  his career was what happened to harry carry when he began to sing the seventh inning stretch take me
• 47:22
  out to the ball game that was a bill veck production you know he talked him into it but harry took
• 47:27
  that to the cubs and it reached a great fulfillment at wriggly field and they still do it all in
• 47:33
  tribute to harry carry
• 48:04
  yeah
• 48:13
  When it's a shame for it
• 48:17
  I will return to our happy old ball game
• 48:25
  I will taste it