Latest / Pittsburgh Sports Memories / 100 Greatest Players (Part 2)

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100 Greatest Players (Part 2) · Pittsburgh Sports Memories

0:00
SPEAKER_02: Hi everybody, welcome to the Pittsburgh Sports Memories Podcast.
0:03
SPEAKER_02: If you were with us last week, you know that we are celebrating a big milestone for this show.
0:08
SPEAKER_02: It's 100 episodes.
0:10
SPEAKER_02: And to celebrate that 100th episode, we started a countdown of the 100 greatest players in the history of Pittsburgh Sports.
0:18
SPEAKER_02: We're going to continue that countdown this week.
0:20
SPEAKER_02: Just as a reminder, we had some criteria for making this list.
0:24
SPEAKER_02: One was that the person had to be a player, so no coaches or owners.
0:28
SPEAKER_02: They had to have played for a Pittsburgh team.
0:31
SPEAKER_02: So no guys that were from Pittsburgh or ladies that were from Pittsburgh that played an individual sport.
0:36
SPEAKER_02: And it was only pro or college, no high school players.
0:39
SPEAKER_02: So that was our criteria.
0:41
SPEAKER_02: So I hope you enjoy our second installment of the hundred greatest players.
1:02
SPEAKER_02: It's Kiki Kyler, who's a guy we've talked about on the show before.
1:05
SPEAKER_02: Played for the Pirates between 1921 and 1927.
1:09
SPEAKER_02: He's a Hall of Fame right fielder.
1:12
SPEAKER_02: Consistently hit over 300, finished second in the NL MVP voting in 1925, the year that the Pirates won the World Series, and he did a lot to help them do that, as Steve detailed in a previous episode.
1:24
SPEAKER_01: He he he hit a he hit a yeah, a single in the well there was a double in the ninth inning or eighth inning that may or may not have been fair.
1:33
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:33
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:34
SPEAKER_02: And and and he had a uh massive beef with his manager.
1:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, which didn't which I I I place that more on Fred Clark.
1:43
SPEAKER_01: Fred Clark seems like a jerk to me.
1:45
SPEAKER_02: Oh, it wasn't Fred Clark.
1:46
SPEAKER_02: It was the uh I thought it was Fred Clark.
1:48
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't Fred Clark.
1:49
SPEAKER_02: No, it was the guy that was the manager in 1927 that we talked about.
1:52
SPEAKER_02: Who so in 1927 the Oh that's right.
1:56
SPEAKER_01: It was the guy on the bench questioning every decision.
1:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
2:00
SPEAKER_02: He was the guy that was like very stubborn.
2:01
SPEAKER_02: Donnie Bush, Donnie Bush.
2:04
SPEAKER_02: Uh was the guy that that Kiki Kyler uh he kept trying to get him to to do something, I forget what it was.
2:12
SPEAKER_02: But the way he threw through guys, it didn't hit the cutoff man or something.
2:16
SPEAKER_02: And Kiki Kyler's like, well, if you don't like it, get somebody else.
2:19
SPEAKER_02: And Donnie Bush is like, okay, I'll just bench you for the rest of the season.
2:22
SPEAKER_02: Even though we're playing the New York Yankees in the World Series, I'm gonna stick with my guns and keep you on the bench, even though all the fans are booing me.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that's right.
2:31
SPEAKER_01: And the 1927 Yankees.
2:33
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
2:34
SPEAKER_01: Was that team any good?
2:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
2:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it certainly didn't need an extra bat there to go against Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and company.
2:42
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, anyway, very good player.
2:45
SPEAKER_02: Number 65.
2:47
SPEAKER_02: We mentioned him earlier.
2:48
SPEAKER_02: Bobby Bonilla played for the Pirates.
2:50
SPEAKER_01: You didn't say it right.
2:51
SPEAKER_01: You got to say Bobby Bonilla.
2:54
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
2:54
SPEAKER_01: Remember the announcer when he used to come up the bat at the River Stadium?
2:58
SPEAKER_01: You saw it.
2:59
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why he always said his name.
3:01
SPEAKER_01: He's like Bobby Bonilla.
3:03
SPEAKER_02: I do not remember that, but I'll take your word for it.
3:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
3:06
SPEAKER_02: Bobby Bow played for the Pirates between 1986 and 1991.
3:10
SPEAKER_02: He was kind of the first big free agent to leave that team, and that was a big deal when he left.
3:15
SPEAKER_02: He was a four-time All-Star.
3:17
SPEAKER_02: He was a great power hitter.
3:18
SPEAKER_02: 114 home runs, 500 RBIs.
3:21
SPEAKER_02: Good hit for average, too.
3:25
SPEAKER_02: Kind of really bad at third base when he started his career, but then moved him to the outfield, and he was much better there.
3:30
SPEAKER_02: Bobby Boe, definitely a really good player.
3:33
SPEAKER_02: Steve, any any good memories of Bobby Boe?
3:36
SPEAKER_01: I remember uh I went to a Pirates clinic one time and Bobby Bunill was there and he threw me a pop-up, which I missed because I suck at baseball.
3:47
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's a great story.
3:50
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for sharing, man.
3:52
SPEAKER_01: Bobby Bunilla was embarrassed for me, but not too embarrassed because guess what?
3:56
SPEAKER_01: Every July he still gets a million dollars from the Mets.
4:01
SPEAKER_01: He does.
4:02
SPEAKER_01: So good for him.
4:04
SPEAKER_02: Here's an interesting story nobody will remember.
4:06
SPEAKER_02: When the Pirates were down three games to one in the 1992 NLCS, uh Barry Bonds was apparently really, really distraught because that had been two and a half years where the Pirates just weren't producing and he wasn't producing any NLCS.
4:20
SPEAKER_02: And he calls Bobby Bonia, and Bobby Bonilla actually flies into Pittsburgh to kind of counsel Barry Bonds in the middle of that series.
4:28
SPEAKER_02: And he's when Bobby Bonia was playing for the Mets.
4:31
SPEAKER_02: And you know, trying to pick up his spirits and tell him, you know, you're a great player, just keep pushing forward.
4:36
SPEAKER_02: And then the Pirates ended up, as we know, coming back all the way to the bottom of the ninth inning of game seven.
4:41
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and Bonds actually started hitting uh during that time.
4:45
SPEAKER_02: Uh so it's not like you know Bobby Bonia's pep talk necessarily turned all that around, but it it's again, if the just like Draybick, if the Pirates go to the World Series that year, I wonder if we remember that story more.
4:57
SPEAKER_02: Because there was no reason he was he played for another team, he had no reason to fly into Pittsburgh to help his old team, and he did that.
5:04
SPEAKER_01: I think that's something that no one will ever remember.
5:06
SPEAKER_01: What a mixed bag, too.
5:07
SPEAKER_01: Like, too.
5:08
SPEAKER_01: Like, remember, uh, didn't he challenge a reporter in New York to a fight?
5:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
5:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he had his he had his ups and downs.
5:17
SPEAKER_01: Whatever.
5:17
SPEAKER_01: Good for the Mets.
5:18
SPEAKER_01: I hope I hope the Mets' new owner appreciates signing that check every year.
5:24
SPEAKER_01: If we could only I've someday I hope to sign a Bobby Bonia deal like that.
5:29
SPEAKER_01: I would that would just could you imagine just it like I think he still has another eight years on that.
5:36
SPEAKER_01: Like if you you literally just you could keep doing something out.
5:39
SPEAKER_01: Like if you can't live off a million dollars every year, what what are you doing?
5:43
SPEAKER_02: I mean he um yeah, he really fleeced that, you know.
5:48
SPEAKER_02: But what can you do?
5:50
SPEAKER_02: All right, number 64 is DeMonte Dawson, center for the Steelers between 1998 and 2000.
5:57
SPEAKER_02: He's in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
5:59
SPEAKER_02: He was a seven-time Pro Bowler, and I I would argue the best at his position in that era, those 90 Steelers teams who had Jerome Bettis and Barry Foster and Bam Morris and those great running games, they don't have that without DeMonte Dawson.
6:14
SPEAKER_02: The other thing he could do really well was he could pull.
6:17
SPEAKER_02: I I don't know that I've ever seen a center pull before like he could.
6:20
SPEAKER_02: And there's a play, again, one of these things nobody will remember, but they're playing Denver in the AFC championship game, and that's the first time.
6:27
SPEAKER_01: I remember yeah, and he runs like 20 yards downfield and blocks somebody.
6:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for Cordell Stewart, early in that game, Cordell Stewart has like a 30-yard uh touchdown run on a bootleg.
6:39
SPEAKER_02: And and DeMarti Dawson gets out in front of him.
6:41
SPEAKER_02: He literally takes out two guys, two different guys for Denver with the same block, and that's why the Steelers uh get the first touchdown of that game.
6:49
SPEAKER_02: Again, no one remembers it because the Steelers lost, but that was the kind of player he was.
6:53
SPEAKER_02: Just a freakish athlete, really good player, Hall of Famer.
6:57
SPEAKER_02: Um so DeMarnie Dawson, number 64.
7:02
SPEAKER_02: Number 63 is Ray Matthews, played for the Steelers between 1951 and 1959.
7:10
SPEAKER_02: He played running back and receiver.
7:12
SPEAKER_02: He scores 39 career touchdowns, which in the 50s playing on the Steelers, you know, is pretty impressive.
7:19
SPEAKER_02: Some really, really bad teams.
7:21
SPEAKER_02: He's in the Steelers Hall of Honor.
7:23
SPEAKER_02: Again, a guy that none of us can ever say we watch play, probably not a lot of highlight film for, but um obviously a really great player on some bad teams.
7:33
SPEAKER_02: Steve, any thoughts on Ray Matthews?
7:35
SPEAKER_01: Uh I don't know Ray Matthews or anybody who saw Ray Matthews play, so sure.
7:41
SPEAKER_01: Why not?
7:42
SPEAKER_01: We gotta give him this due anyway.
7:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
7:45
SPEAKER_02: Number 62, we just talked about this guy recently, too, on our Pitt Hall of Famer episode.
7:49
SPEAKER_02: It's Joe Schmidt.
7:51
SPEAKER_02: Played for Pitt, was a linebacker between 1950 and 1952, has his number retired for Pitt, and then uh became a famous singer.
7:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, him and Dick Lebeau, and and somebody else on the Lions defense of that era.
8:06
SPEAKER_01: He's and uh he's considered the prototypical like uh Mike linebacker.
8:11
SPEAKER_01: He basically invented the middle linebacker position in the NFL.
8:15
SPEAKER_01: So Joe Schmidt, number 62.
8:18
SPEAKER_02: Number 61 is Rocky Bly, played for the Steelers between 1968 and 1980, certainly a key piece of those 1970s teams with Franco Harris in that backfield, won four Super Bowls, averaged 4.2 yards per carry, and is in the Steelers Hall of Honor.
8:36
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, definitely in the shadow of Franco Harris, Steve, but important player nonetheless.
8:43
SPEAKER_01: I had that big and you have a nice picture here, you know, we can see it on the podcast of the cut he caught a really awesome pass against the Cowboys right before the half.
8:53
SPEAKER_01: And uh plus a decorated war veteran, uh Purple Heart.
8:56
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if he got any other awards.
8:59
SPEAKER_01: And um, yeah, generally amazing story how he his foot was messed up and he came back.
9:04
SPEAKER_01: And um the benefit for him was he got Robert Urich to play him in his bio biography movie.
9:10
SPEAKER_01: So that's right.
9:11
SPEAKER_01: We could we couldn't do any like I mean, I guess some of our younger people, it'd be like if you got uh who's like a dreamboat actor these days, I don't know.
9:19
SPEAKER_01: Ryan Gosling.
9:20
SPEAKER_01: Be like if like Ryan Gossling played me in a movie, like I'd definitely be uh lucking out there.
9:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you can't you can't beat when Spencer for Hire plays you in the movie.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:33
SPEAKER_02: That's that's that's the pinnacle.
9:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
9:36
SPEAKER_02: Number 60 is Doc Ellis.
9:38
SPEAKER_02: Doc Ellis was a Pirates pitcher between 68 and 75, also came back briefly during the 79 season, although he was not a member of the World Series team.
9:46
SPEAKER_02: Doc Ellis probably best known for a no-hitter he threw in 1970 while tripping on acid.
9:52
SPEAKER_02: But if you take that away, he also won double-digit games every year between 1969 and 1974.
9:58
SPEAKER_02: So again, one of those guys that, you know, uh maybe not very heralded or maybe heralded for, you know, one thing that that maybe he should, you know, some people wouldn't like to remember, but uh was a pretty solid pitcher.
10:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and uh I don't think um he became did he become a drug and alcohol counselor later in the last year.
10:19
SPEAKER_01: Yes, he did.
10:20
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, great story.
10:21
SPEAKER_02: There's a great documentary on Amazon about him, I think it's on Amazon, uh about uh, you know, it's it's about that no-hitter, but it's really about his life and his life after that.
10:32
SPEAKER_02: Uh a pretty amazing story.
10:36
SPEAKER_02: Number 59 is Andy Russell, who played for the Steelers between 1963 and 1976, made seven Pro Bowls, was a team MVP in 71, is in the Steelers Hall of Honor, and it's it's one of those guys where if he comes if he comes into the league, you know, I don't know, eight, nine, ten years later, we have him way higher than 59.
11:00
SPEAKER_02: Like he he's at the end of his career when the Steelers won those first two Super Bowls.
11:05
SPEAKER_02: And he's still great.
11:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he's one of the few players that lasted from the pre-Chuck Knoll teams.
11:11
SPEAKER_01: Yes, because he was that good.
11:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
11:13
SPEAKER_01: I mean Chuck Knowle basically, what was the thing that Chuck Knowle said?
11:16
SPEAKER_01: He said most of you aren't gonna make it or something like that.
11:19
SPEAKER_01: Like we're we're gonna get a winning football team or something like that, and most of you aren't gonna be on the show.
11:24
SPEAKER_02: And he meant it.
11:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
11:26
SPEAKER_02: But Annie Russell was one of them.
11:29
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, Annie Russell, great player, great linebacker.
11:34
SPEAKER_01: Good for him, like pay the payoff too, like sticking around through the crap till you know the really good years.
11:40
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, oh yeah.
11:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
11:42
SPEAKER_02: And again, if he starts his career at the same time as Joe Green or Jack Lambert or any of those other guys, like he's he's way higher than 59 for sure.
11:53
SPEAKER_02: All right, number 58 is pretty much we just take everything we just said about Andy Russell and apply it here.
11:58
SPEAKER_02: It's Ray Mansfield who played for the Steelers between 1964 and 1976.
12:03
SPEAKER_02: Uh those he was their center, and he really, those first two Super Bowls that the Steelers won were very run-heavy.
12:12
SPEAKER_02: I I mean they just they did not have a much of a passing game at that point, and the league rules hadn't shifted yet to allow for a better passing game.
12:19
SPEAKER_02: So they won those first two Super Bowls on the back of that running game, and he was the anchor of that.
12:24
SPEAKER_02: Uh still holds the team record for 182 consecutive games.
12:29
SPEAKER_02: He's in the Steelers Hall of Honor.
12:31
SPEAKER_02: The Steelers had just like like literally three great centers in a row from like the time Mansfield started to the time DeMonte Dawson retired.
12:40
SPEAKER_02: And again, uh just like Andy Russell, he comes along a few years later and he's way higher on the list, Steve, I think.
12:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and another glad to see another guy where it paid off.
12:50
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's probably really the only two players from those teams that that made it.
12:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, man Mansfield, I saw an interview with him once.
12:58
SPEAKER_02: He he passed away quite a while ago, but I saw an interview before he died where he said that uh uh before Chuck Knoll came, he said Andy Russell and him used to just they would always just wait for the bottom to to drop out on the season.
13:11
SPEAKER_02: You know, even if they felt like, oh, we're having a good first couple of weeks or whatever, they just knew that eventually it was just gonna all all go south.
13:19
SPEAKER_02: And he was he said that those two guys who we just talked about, Mansfield and Russell, it they could just feel the change when Chuck Knowle and those new batch of players come in.
13:27
SPEAKER_02: They didn't feel responsible for all the years of losing.
13:30
SPEAKER_02: They were like, uh, whatever.
13:31
SPEAKER_02: What who cares what this team did before?
13:33
SPEAKER_01: Or they they didn't know any better.
13:34
SPEAKER_01: It's like they're too young to know any better.
13:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
13:37
SPEAKER_01: Which is sometimes a good thing, yeah.
13:39
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
13:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, sometimes ignorance is bliss, and it certainly wasn't that case.
13:44
SPEAKER_02: All right, number 57 is Joey Porter, JPZ, Steeler linebacker between 1999 and 2006.
13:53
SPEAKER_02: Three-time Pro Bowler, all decade team of the 2000s.
13:57
SPEAKER_02: Um, stats are not going to be the reason you have Joey Porter on this list.
14:02
SPEAKER_02: Like Joey Porter was so much more than stats.
14:04
SPEAKER_02: We did a whole episode on Joey Porter as well.
14:06
SPEAKER_02: The way he could get inside people's heads, the way he totally psyched out the tight end for the Seahawks, who've dropped a bunch of passes in the Super Bowl.
14:14
SPEAKER_02: Um his attitude, his flair, his intimidation factor.
14:19
SPEAKER_01: Like you just can't quantify Joey Porter's value to the team, Steve.
14:24
SPEAKER_01: No, you you really can't, I guess.
14:26
SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, like you said, he he was a good player, too.
14:30
SPEAKER_01: He he was really a good player, and you'll give him credit for his on-field stuff, and you know, he had a lot of key sacks and key sacks in big games, too.
14:39
SPEAKER_01: That Colts game, that divisional Colt game.
14:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he had a great, great game against Peyton Manning in that offensive line.
14:46
SPEAKER_02: He also holds the distinction of the only Steeler player that can say that they won us a playoff game ten years after he left the team.
14:54
SPEAKER_01: That's true.
14:58
SPEAKER_02: Number fifty-six is Donnie Schell.
15:01
SPEAKER_02: Um, just like the all-time most underrated player, maybe in the in Steeler history.
15:08
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he's the Carnel Lake of the 70s.
15:10
SPEAKER_02: He is.
15:11
SPEAKER_02: He really is.
15:12
SPEAKER_02: And he finally was recently acknowledged and inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
15:17
SPEAKER_02: He was an undrafted free agent in 1974, played for the Steelers all the way to 1987, has 51 career interceptions, made five Pro Bowls, but he played on this defense again with way bigger stars, and was just kind of a guy that was solid and there and made plays and didn't get the necessarily the same amount of accolades that those other guys did.
15:39
SPEAKER_02: Um so I feel very comfortable putting him this high on the list.
15:42
SPEAKER_02: Steve, what do you think?
15:44
SPEAKER_01: Uh he's a Hall of Famer, so that says something.
15:46
SPEAKER_01: And I did not get to see him play, but uh I've heard stories.
15:50
SPEAKER_01: And I think OJ, didn't OJ say like he he used to still feel his hip from when Donnie Schell hit him one time?
15:57
SPEAKER_01: So that that says something, right?
16:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there we posted a clip on um our Facebook and Twitter site a little while ago where he he crushed Earl Campbell once, made Earl Campbell fumble, and then Earl Campbell did never got up.
16:12
SPEAKER_02: And Earl Campbell was not a guy yet.
16:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
16:15
SPEAKER_02: I mean he the guy was a monster.
16:17
SPEAKER_02: So to get a lick on Earl Campbell, first of all, you had to have a lot of guts just to even try to hit him.
16:22
SPEAKER_02: Because there's clips of him, like there's a guy for the Rams.
16:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he just runs them over, yeah.
16:27
SPEAKER_02: He just destroys them, destroys them.
16:29
SPEAKER_02: And and so even to like say, okay, I'm going to try to hit Earl Campbell because it took a lot of courage, and then to actually get a good, a good, clean hit on him.
16:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Donichell was a pretty special player.
16:43
SPEAKER_02: Another pretty special player is Curtis Martin.
16:45
SPEAKER_02: Played for the Pitt Panthers from 1991 to 1994, uh, was a running back, ran for over 2,600 yards.
16:52
SPEAKER_02: And Steve and I have talked about Curtis Martin before, because the Pitt teams of that era were so bad.
17:00
SPEAKER_02: I can't describe how bad those pit teams were.
17:03
SPEAKER_02: I really can't.
17:04
SPEAKER_02: They were just awful, awful teams.
17:07
SPEAKER_02: And he was the only good thing on them.
17:09
SPEAKER_02: And and I don't know how how he could do anything because they the if you played against Pitt, they had no quarterback, they had no offense, they had no good game plan.
17:20
SPEAKER_02: All you all literally, you could put 12 guys, you could put 11 guys in the box.
17:25
SPEAKER_02: They were in Canada.
17:26
SPEAKER_02: Or 12 guys if they were but you could put eleven guys in the box and just leave leave the receivers uncovered because it it didn't matter.
17:35
SPEAKER_02: You know, if you could just stop Curtis Martin, they still still couldn't stop Curtis Martin.
17:38
SPEAKER_02: He he was he was just absolutely dominant.
17:40
SPEAKER_02: Steve, what do you think?
17:41
SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, he was like a tweener.
17:43
SPEAKER_01: He was uh big enough to run over the little guys and fast enough to run away from the big guys, and um that kind of carried him for his whole career.
17:52
SPEAKER_01: He just, I think, too, like it took him a couple years to mature into the player he would become, and that that definitely happened under Bill Parcells, and he's become probably a better human being in person than he ever is ever was a football player, and that's saying something.
18:09
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, yeah.
18:11
SPEAKER_01: Special player, one of my favorite Pitt players of all time.
18:14
SPEAKER_01: He said, I mean, there's just games I remember where Pitt did nothing.
18:18
SPEAKER_01: I still that 28 to nothing game against Boston College where the highlight of Pitt's offense that game was an 80-yard Curtis Martin run called back on a hold.
18:29
SPEAKER_01: Right.
18:30
SPEAKER_01: That's just kind of the story of his career.
18:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, me and my dad sat in the rain and watched that monstrosity.
18:37
SPEAKER_02: He had very few highlights.
18:39
SPEAKER_02: One of the ones, again, we posted this on Facebook and Twitter.
18:42
SPEAKER_02: Please subscribe on our social media sites if you haven't already, plug plug.
18:46
SPEAKER_02: But we posted a clip of there was a game they were playing at the vet, the old veteran stadium against Temple.
18:51
SPEAKER_02: And Temple was kind of like the other team in the Big East that was just garbage.
18:55
SPEAKER_02: So that was like our one-winnable game every year.
18:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
18:58
SPEAKER_02: And and Temple had just uh scored to make it a close game, and Pitt needed to run out the clock or have to punt back to Temple, and they handed it to Curtis Martin from their own, I think it was from their own 20, and he and this was the very end of the game.
19:12
SPEAKER_02: He had rushed a whole bunch of times, he was probably exhausted, and he cuts to the outside and he outruns the entire Temple defense after a whole day of running hard for an 80-yard touchdown.
19:22
SPEAKER_02: And that was just him, he just lifted the entire team on his shoulders.
19:25
SPEAKER_02: I I just I think that again, stats and all that just don't don't do him justice because you had to have watched those teams and realized how truly putrid they were to recognize how how dominant he was.
19:38
SPEAKER_01: I was at the game at Texas, and they don't have that somebody has the first half on YouTube, but they don't have the whole game.
19:44
SPEAKER_01: But Pitt ended up losing on like a late two-point conversion or something they didn't get.
19:51
SPEAKER_01: And I think Curtis Martin had 250 yards rushing.
19:55
SPEAKER_01: It was amazing.
19:56
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
19:56
SPEAKER_01: And the officiating was bad too.
19:58
SPEAKER_01: They they were definitely sided toward Texas.
20:00
SPEAKER_01: Because I remember Johnny Bajers after that game saying on the radio, well, the refs earned their Texas T today.
20:08
SPEAKER_01: Good job, Johnny.
20:11
SPEAKER_02: All right, number 54 is we're gonna go back to Pirates pitchers who um had good careers but really uh are on this list because of what they did in championship moments.
20:21
SPEAKER_02: And I don't think anybody defines that as well as Steve Blass.
20:25
SPEAKER_02: He played for the Pirates between 1964 and 1974.
20:28
SPEAKER_02: He was certainly the consistent ace of that era of those teams, but really it's it's the 71 World Series, right?
20:36
SPEAKER_02: The Pirates don't win that World Series without Steve Blass.
20:40
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
20:41
SPEAKER_01: He pitched a gem, uh, a shutout, I think.
20:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
20:44
SPEAKER_01: And uh it was him and Clementi, really, in that that game seven that that won it.
20:49
SPEAKER_01: And it's a shame because like it's another guy, like you wonder if he wouldn't have been the best pitcher in pirate history if he just wouldn't have yeah, lost his confidence or his fastball, or I don't know what happened to Steve Blast.
21:01
SPEAKER_01: You wonder like if he had that now, like with all the like the sports psychology and the medicine, yeah.
21:07
SPEAKER_01: Maybe they would have been able to he would have been able to had a more successful or long career.
21:13
SPEAKER_01: But I mean, I guess he was in the league 10 years, so but a lot of those he was like at the end there, he couldn't throw a strike.
21:21
SPEAKER_01: He just like for for after that for years, he he just couldn't throw a strike.
21:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
21:27
SPEAKER_02: If we have a no head number 54, I think if they don't win the 71 World Series, he's way lower, maybe not even on the list, right?
21:33
SPEAKER_02: But then conversely, like you said, if he kind of gets his his stuff together and and pitches for another six or seven years, maybe he's on the 79 team because he he's still gonna be easily been playing at that point.
21:44
SPEAKER_02: Then we have him way higher on the list.
21:46
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
21:46
SPEAKER_02: So definitely a guy that could have gone either way, but we'll we'll keep him at fifty four.
21:50
SPEAKER_02: And uh also want to mention obviously he was an announcer for the Pirates for thirty seven seasons.
21:55
SPEAKER_02: We're not counting that towards the you know his ranking, but certainly he was.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: He was entertaining.
22:01
SPEAKER_02: He was.
22:02
SPEAKER_02: So got to acknowledge that as well.
22:05
SPEAKER_02: Number 53 is a teammate of Steve Blast.
22:08
SPEAKER_02: It's Dave Parker, the Cobra.
22:10
SPEAKER_02: Played for the Pirates between 1973 and 83, four-time All-Star, 1978 National League MVP, three-time gold glove winner.
22:18
SPEAKER_02: There's some great highlights you can go watch on YouTube.
22:21
SPEAKER_01: I think there's one specifically from an all-star game where he guns somebody down from like from like the like the middle right field.
22:29
SPEAKER_02: Right.
22:30
SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah.
22:30
SPEAKER_02: I mean, so Dave Parker was a great player.
22:33
SPEAKER_02: We talked about him in our episode we did about the drug trials.
22:37
SPEAKER_02: Because uh we mentioned in that episode that there was a book that was published in the early 80s, and it was called the uh 100, it was just like we're doing now.
22:45
SPEAKER_02: It was the 100th greatest baseball players of all time.
22:49
SPEAKER_02: And they had Dave Parker on that list.
22:51
SPEAKER_02: Like literally, you know, this is Babe Ruth and and and you know, it just all the Ty Cobb and all the he's in the 100 greatest ball players of all time in the early 80s, and then he has uh a lot of problems with cocaine addiction, and that really ruins his career with the pirates.
23:09
SPEAKER_02: He does he does actually come back and have a strong end to his career in Cincinnati, but that's the reason he's not in the baseball hall of fame.
23:17
SPEAKER_02: I I still maintain to this day because of that.
23:19
SPEAKER_02: So another guy that gosh, Steve, could be so much higher.
23:22
SPEAKER_02: Like he could be like Clementi Stargle territory if he wasn't on drugs.
23:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if he didn't take that dip in the middle of his career, he'd probably have 400, 500 home runs.
23:32
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
23:33
SPEAKER_01: Probably.
23:33
SPEAKER_02: And he and he probably plays for the Pirates for all those years, too.
23:36
SPEAKER_02: Right?
23:37
SPEAKER_02: I think he hit for average too.
23:39
SPEAKER_01: He did.
23:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
23:42
SPEAKER_02: So so kind of a kind of a shame what what happened with him, but still a great player.
23:48
SPEAKER_02: Uh somebody, I I posted something on our Facebook site, and and somebody posted a comment that said, uh I watched him play and I always thought he was better than Clemente, which I thought was a was a pretty bold take.
24:00
SPEAKER_02: But again, I I that's how great Dave Parker was, right?
24:03
SPEAKER_02: That there's fans out there that actually said, you know, I I could actually say, you know, that I thought he was even better than Roberto Clemente.
24:11
SPEAKER_02: It just he didn't have the longevity to keep it going because of that addiction, unfortunately.
24:17
SPEAKER_02: Number 52 is well, it's another guy that's showing us some problems with addiction.
24:21
SPEAKER_02: It's Kevin Stevens, Penguin's winger between 1987 and 1995, and then came back in 2001 and 2002 for a second stint in Pittsburgh.
24:31
SPEAKER_02: He was a two-time 40 goal scorer, a two-time 50 goal scorer, instrumental absolutely to the two Stanley Cup teams of the early 90s.
24:40
SPEAKER_02: Uh arguably their second best player behind you know their center, the guy we'll talk about later.
24:46
SPEAKER_02: Uh and and again, just like Dave Parker, right?
24:50
SPEAKER_02: He he now now this one was a little different because what really what really triggered a lot of this was Game 7 of the 93 uh playoff series against the Islanders.
25:01
SPEAKER_02: We talked about that in our um in our episode we did uh a little while ago about the three teams that the three great Pittsburgh teams that didn't win championships.
25:10
SPEAKER_02: He um collides with Ricky Richie Pylons and he lands on his face just a gruesome, brutal, horrific injury and he starts taking painkillers and that leads to a a pretty significant addiction that ends up I think he ends up in jail at one point, Steve.
25:26
SPEAKER_02: Is that correct?
25:27
SPEAKER_02: I think so, yeah.
25:28
SPEAKER_02: And uh it just really derails his career, unfortunately.
25:31
SPEAKER_02: Otherwise, we have him way higher on this list.
25:34
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
25:37
SPEAKER_02: So unfortunate, but don't want to forget, again, four two time fifty goal score, two time forty goal score, that's that's beyond impressive.
25:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he was very good with those penguin teams of the 90s.
25:51
SPEAKER_01: Uh key piece, he was uh right wing, right?
25:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
25:54
SPEAKER_01: So playing on the line with Mario, though, that's uh that's always helpful.
25:59
SPEAKER_02: It is helpful for sure.
26:01
SPEAKER_02: But but you I don't think that anybody else a lot of people played on the line with Mario, and I don't know that they scored 40 goals for four different times.
26:09
SPEAKER_02: So number 51 is Ralph Kiner.
26:12
SPEAKER_02: Played for the Pirates between 1946 and 1953.
26:16
SPEAKER_02: He's a baseball hall of famer.
26:17
SPEAKER_02: He was a six-time All-Star.
26:19
SPEAKER_02: Really, the Pirates' first star home run hitter.
26:22
SPEAKER_02: You know, you had like the dead ball era of baseball, and then this this guy that we've mentioned a couple times, named Babe Bruce, comes along, and all of a sudden it's like, wow, home runs, that that just gets you all the runs at one time.
26:33
SPEAKER_02: You don't have to you know play small ball and move the guy over.
26:36
SPEAKER_02: So that becomes a big deal in baseball.
26:39
SPEAKER_02: And of course, fans of that era, just like fans of this era, love the guys that can hit the long ball.
26:44
SPEAKER_02: And that's Ralph Kiner's really the first pirate player that's that's a star home run hitter.
26:49
SPEAKER_02: Uh he hit over 40 home runs five times.
26:52
SPEAKER_02: Uh famously, uh was it Brance Rickey, Steve?
26:57
SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes Branch Rickey is the general manager of the Pirates.
26:59
SPEAKER_02: He makes he makes a famous quote: Ralph Kiner, I think, wants more money.
27:03
SPEAKER_02: And Brance Ricky says, Well, we finished in last place with you, we can finish in last place with everybody.
27:08
SPEAKER_02: And he's unceremoniously traded to the Cubs.
27:11
SPEAKER_02: So his pirates' career, not as long as it could have been.
27:14
SPEAKER_02: Maybe he's higher on this list if it was.
27:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he I think he does he have over 500 home runs.
27:20
SPEAKER_02: Uh for his career, yes, not with the pirates.
27:23
SPEAKER_01: Well, no, no, yeah, for his career.
27:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
27:25
SPEAKER_01: So one of another one of those great pirate hitters.
27:28
SPEAKER_01: And uh I I only remember him from watching when they used to have W O R on the cable, and they used to have like Mets games, and the post seat the post-game was Kiner's corner.
27:40
SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's right.
27:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's the only thing I remember Ralph Kiner from was he would do the post-game of Mets games in the 80s.
27:47
SPEAKER_01: I remember like today, Daryl Strawberry had three home runs.
27:53
SPEAKER_02: Good memory.
27:54
SPEAKER_02: He forgot about that.
27:55
SPEAKER_02: All right, we're halfway through the list, and number 50 on the list is LC Greenwood, Steowers defensive end from 1969 to 1981, just like Dwight White, part of that fame steel curtain line.
28:08
SPEAKER_02: Six times in the Pro Bowl.
28:10
SPEAKER_02: Uh 78 unofficial sacks.
28:12
SPEAKER_02: Uh, they didn't track sacks until 1982 after LC Greenwood retired.
28:16
SPEAKER_02: So sucks to be him.
28:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean that that was good for I I know TJ Watt just recently broke the record with like 82 or something for the Steelers.
28:26
SPEAKER_02: So he he was right up there in terms of career sacks, but again, it doesn't count.
28:30
SPEAKER_01: Did that count?
28:31
SPEAKER_01: So that didn't count toward TJ Watt.
28:33
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't a stat until 1982.
28:35
SPEAKER_01: Well Deacon, yeah, because Deacon, um what's his name?
28:38
SPEAKER_01: Deacon Jones said he kept tracking his playbook and he had like had like 24 or 25 one year or something.
28:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
28:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
28:46
SPEAKER_02: But it did yeah, it was not an official stat until 1982.
28:49
SPEAKER_02: Uh LC Greenwood is in the Steelers Hall of Honor.
28:52
SPEAKER_02: Uh there is a a pretty good case, I think.
28:56
SPEAKER_02: Obviously, we're biased.
28:58
SPEAKER_02: Pretty good case for why he should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
29:00
SPEAKER_02: He's not.
29:01
SPEAKER_02: Probably because there's so many Steelers from that era in there already, that probably hurts him.
29:06
SPEAKER_02: Uh Steve, Elsie Greenwood, what do you want to say about Elsie Greenwood?
29:09
SPEAKER_01: Was he the guy with the gold shoes?
29:11
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
29:12
SPEAKER_01: He's pretty awesome.
29:13
SPEAKER_01: He had a lot of sex.
29:14
SPEAKER_01: A little, once again, before my time.
29:16
SPEAKER_01: I the 70s Steelers, like I was too young to know them.
29:20
SPEAKER_01: I've heard of them.
29:23
SPEAKER_02: Like that counts for something.
29:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
29:26
SPEAKER_02: All right, number 49 uh is a guy on the list that we will also say is before our time.
29:30
SPEAKER_02: It's and before our time.
29:32
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you, Tim.
29:33
SPEAKER_01: I sat in Forbes Field and watched him run for all kinds of yards.
29:36
SPEAKER_02: It's yeah, it's John Henry Johnson, running back for the Steelers between 1960 and I heard he was the Steel driving man.
29:44
SPEAKER_02: He uh he's also in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
29:47
SPEAKER_02: He made three Pro Bowls for the Steelers.
29:49
SPEAKER_02: Also the first Steelers player ever to rush for more than a thousand yards, and he did that twice.
29:54
SPEAKER_02: So kind of like Bobby Lane was the first superstar quarterback.
29:57
SPEAKER_02: John Henry Johnson was maybe the first superstar running back.
30:02
SPEAKER_01: Was this the guy uh the chief paid a bunch of money for?
30:05
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, Oh my goodness, you'll never get that money back.
30:07
SPEAKER_01: Or was that so?
30:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he was he was again, so we did a whole episode and on the dark ages, yeah.
30:13
SPEAKER_02: We well, we did two episodes.
30:14
SPEAKER_02: We did an episode on the dark ages, and we did an episode about this kind of this specific era, the late 50s and early 60s, where the Steelers had a coach named Buddy Parker, and they decided, hey, we're we're going to go all in to kind of win a championship.
30:28
SPEAKER_02: Right?
30:29
SPEAKER_02: You've seen teams do that today, that was not in vogue back then.
30:32
SPEAKER_02: But they were like to to to hell with draft picks and developing rookies, we're gonna go out, get veterans, and we're gonna win now or bust.
30:39
SPEAKER_02: And John Henry Johnson was part of that.
30:41
SPEAKER_02: And and like you said, Steve, about Bobby Lane, it wasn't like they just got a guy at the end of his career that couldn't contribute.
30:48
SPEAKER_02: He was very, very good on the Steelers.
30:50
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it just didn't culminate in any championships.
30:53
SPEAKER_01: Well, the fact that the Colts and Packers were kind of the gods of in Cleveland, too.
30:59
SPEAKER_01: I mean, those are three really good teams that the Steelers.
31:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
31:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so yeah, it just didn't work out.
31:07
SPEAKER_02: Uh because of those other teams, and also because Buddy Parker was completely insane.
31:12
SPEAKER_02: So, like I said, go back and check out that episode if you haven't already.
31:16
SPEAKER_02: I think we called it like when the Steelers went all in to win a championship.
31:19
SPEAKER_02: It's a it's a pretty fascinating and forgotten era of Steelers football, but a pretty interesting one.
31:25
SPEAKER_02: Number 48 is Pie Trainer.
31:28
SPEAKER_02: Uh we talked about him also.
31:29
SPEAKER_02: Uh Steve did an episode about the the Pirates 1925 World Series team, another very forgotten, um, great time in Pittsburgh sports history.
31:38
SPEAKER_02: So again, goes into that episode.
31:39
SPEAKER_02: Pie Trainer was a key part of that team.
31:42
SPEAKER_02: He's in the baseball hall of fame.
31:43
SPEAKER_02: He has a career 320 average, he has 2,400 career hits.
31:48
SPEAKER_02: Um Steve, what do you want to say about Pie Trainer?
31:51
SPEAKER_01: Uh what posi did was he uh what position?
31:54
SPEAKER_01: Was he an outfielder?
31:55
SPEAKER_01: He was an outfielder.
31:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's what I thought.
31:57
SPEAKER_01: Because yeah, the Wayne, one of the Wainers played third base.
32:00
SPEAKER_01: So, but yeah, very good with those those guys.
32:03
SPEAKER_01: And um hey, won a World Series in 25, so you can't take that away from Mystery.
32:08
SPEAKER_01: His numbers retired by the Pirates, too, if I remember correctly.
32:11
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I believe you're right.
32:13
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
32:14
SPEAKER_02: Number 47 on the list is a teammate of his.
32:17
SPEAKER_02: It's Lloyd Wayner.
32:19
SPEAKER_02: Little Poison.
32:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this is Little Poison.
32:21
SPEAKER_01: Okay, yes.
32:22
SPEAKER_02: Yep, yes, and uh he played for the Pirates between 1927 and 1945.
32:27
SPEAKER_02: Also in the Baseball Hall of Fame, also has 2400 career hits.
32:31
SPEAKER_02: Uh also has a high career average of 316.
32:35
SPEAKER_02: Uh, one thing about Lloyd Wayner that you could say was made him stick out was his speed.
32:40
SPEAKER_02: Uh really, really good speed guy.
32:43
SPEAKER_02: Um so yeah, Lloyd Wayner, very good player as well.
32:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a shame.
32:48
SPEAKER_01: It's a shame they couldn't have had Kim and Kiki Kyler at the same time.
32:51
SPEAKER_01: They they had had a heck of a team in the National League.
32:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
32:56
SPEAKER_02: I mean they made it that again, that 1927 team will always be forgotten because, you know, 1927 Yankees, but as we detailed in that episode, is a really, really good team that uh, you know, maybe if it hadn't been for all the internal turmoil that they had, could have could have actually potentially upset the Yankees.
33:16
SPEAKER_02: Number 46, Mike Ditka, was a pit tight end slash defensive end between 1958 and 1960.
33:22
SPEAKER_02: He is in the College Hood Football Hall of Fame for his contributions in in uh at Pitt.
33:28
SPEAKER_02: His jersey is retired by Pitt.
33:30
SPEAKER_02: Mike was a great athlete, also played baseball and basketball, also wrestled at Pitt like on an intramural team, wasn't even wrestling Mike Ditka.
33:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I can imagine.
33:39
SPEAKER_02: That would be pretty rough.
33:41
SPEAKER_02: So we talked about Mike Ditka in our uh Pitt Hall of Famers episode.
33:44
SPEAKER_02: Obviously, went on to a great NFL playing and coaching career.
33:48
SPEAKER_02: A very colorful character, Mike Ditka.
33:51
SPEAKER_02: But uh, you know, before all that, he was just an all-time great player at Pitt.
33:56
SPEAKER_01: What about the injuries, Tim?
33:59
SPEAKER_01: Ask the trainer.
34:01
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
34:02
SPEAKER_01: Right.
34:02
SPEAKER_01: What about the injuries?
34:04
SPEAKER_01: Right.
34:04
SPEAKER_01: Ask the trainer.
34:05
SPEAKER_01: Next.
34:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
34:06
SPEAKER_01: Not fun, is it?
34:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
34:09
SPEAKER_01: Mike Dick had a lot of fun in his uh post-conference.
34:12
SPEAKER_02: He did, and I'll repeat what I said in that episode.
34:14
SPEAKER_02: I so badly miss that era of NFL coaches who were just completely unhit.
34:20
SPEAKER_02: You just don't see that today, and it's it's sad.
34:23
SPEAKER_01: Imagine if we could have like a league of like Buddy Parker, Mike Ditka, uh Buddy Ryan, Jim Mora.
34:30
SPEAKER_01: I'm just hiring the craziest.
34:32
SPEAKER_01: But Dennis Green.
34:33
SPEAKER_01: Although Dennis Green only really melted, though.
34:35
SPEAKER_01: Oh, he was pretty nuts.
34:36
SPEAKER_02: Sam Leich, yeah, Gary Glanville.
34:39
SPEAKER_02: Even another guy that people won't remember as much, uh, Jerry Burns was the coach of the Vikings back then.
34:45
SPEAKER_02: He had a press conference where he dropped, I think it was like 47 F-bombs in about four minutes.
34:50
SPEAKER_03: Oh my god.
34:50
SPEAKER_02: So it just again, you just stuff you would never, ever, ever see today because everybody's all image conscious.
34:56
SPEAKER_02: And those guys just would never get hired.
34:58
SPEAKER_02: You wouldn't have billion-dollar businesses with just NFL franchises hire a guy like that to run their team.
35:04
SPEAKER_02: But back then they did, and we all had a lot more fun.
35:08
SPEAKER_01: Maybe the X uh maybe the XFL will pick up on that.
35:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
35:12
SPEAKER_02: Maybe.
35:13
SPEAKER_02: Number 45 on the list is Connie Hawkins.
35:16
SPEAKER_02: Uh Connie Hawkins uh played for the Pittsburgh Pipers of the ABA from 1967 to 1968.
35:22
SPEAKER_02: He led Pittsburgh to its only ever pro basketball championship, and he was the MVP of the league.
35:28
SPEAKER_01: Why haven't we won a pro we haven't won a pro basketball championship in a while?
35:32
SPEAKER_01: Why hasn't that happened, Tim?
35:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't know.
35:35
SPEAKER_02: We should really get it together with that.
35:38
SPEAKER_01: It's I guess it's pretty tough to win one when you don't have a professional basketball team.
35:44
SPEAKER_02: That is correct.
35:45
SPEAKER_02: But we did have a professional basketball team in 1968.
35:48
SPEAKER_02: Connie Hawkins was his best player, and uh, you know, again, the the this may be a little controversial to put him this high uh because it was such a short time, but again, the contribution of of that championship is is something to be remembered.
36:03
SPEAKER_02: So Connie Hawkins.
36:04
SPEAKER_01: He had to fight to get in the NBA too, didn't he?
36:09
SPEAKER_01: Well, he had to fight just to get a contract somewhere because he got accused of gambling, which he didn't.
36:17
SPEAKER_01: So right.
36:17
SPEAKER_02: There was yeah, there was there was a scandal in college where he probably had nothing to do with it, but his name was tarnished.
36:24
SPEAKER_02: And back then, you know, he also was a black player, and probably that contributed to the like, well, I'm sure he was probably in with those guys anyway, kind of attitude that the NBA had.
36:34
SPEAKER_02: And so that's how he kind of made a name for himself was going to play for this upstart ABA league and and wins a championship and then launches a solid NBA career after that.
36:46
SPEAKER_02: Number 44 is Bill Frelick, uh, was an offensive lineman at Pitt from 1981 to 1984.
36:53
SPEAKER_02: Uh two-time consensus All-American, is also in the College Football Hall of Fame, like Mike Dicka.
36:59
SPEAKER_02: Uh offensive lineman, obviously, you know, there's no stats, there's not a lot of glory.
37:04
SPEAKER_02: But you you may have heard a term attributed to offensive line play and call it a pancake block, where someone literally just the offensive lineman just totally runs over the defensive lineman or linebacker, whoever it is he's blocking.
37:18
SPEAKER_02: That phrase uh is actually credited back to Bill Frelick.
37:23
SPEAKER_02: Bill Frelick was the the first guy that people saw do that, and that term, the pancake block, that entered the lexicon because of Bill Frelick.
37:33
SPEAKER_01: That is awesome.
37:34
SPEAKER_01: That's I I think he did the pit broadcast for a minute, too, if I remember correctly.
37:39
SPEAKER_01: I think you're right.
37:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
37:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
37:40
SPEAKER_01: And I remember now here's a good Bill Frelick moment.
37:43
SPEAKER_01: Was I dunno, it was a couple years ago.
37:46
SPEAKER_01: I I think might have been one of the I think Peterman was a quarterback, so it was like 2015, 2016, and they have Bill Frelick back, and I think he had stopped calling the games because his health started to fade a little.
37:59
SPEAKER_01: And um he's on the sideline, and I you've been to Pitt Games, Tim, though.
38:04
SPEAKER_01: I've like, oh, back today is I think they had Larry Fitzgerald back a couple weeks ago.
38:09
SPEAKER_01: But so Bill Frelick's on the sidelines, and Pitt was up like 14 to nothing, and for no good reason at all, Nathan Peterman fumbles the ball, and Virginia, they're playing the University of Virginia, returns the fumble for a touchdown, and it's 14 to 7.
38:25
SPEAKER_01: And they decide at that moment, after Virginia's kicked the extra point in between like the next kickoff, they're kicking back off the pit to interview Bill Frelick.
38:35
SPEAKER_01: And Bill Frelick had his arms crossed with a look on his face like, I will murder you, poor sideline recorder person, because we I am really pissed that we let Virginia back.
38:48
SPEAKER_01: Pitt ended up blowing them out, but he was not happy.
38:52
SPEAKER_01: But uh good for Bill Frelick felt like the rest of us at that moment, I guess.
38:57
SPEAKER_02: Gotta be honest.
38:58
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
38:59
SPEAKER_02: Bill Frelick actually uh no longer with us, passed away very sadly in his 50s.
39:04
SPEAKER_02: I think it was cancer.
39:05
SPEAKER_02: I do believe, yeah.
39:06
unknown: Yeah.
39:07
SPEAKER_02: Number 43 on the list.
39:09
SPEAKER_02: We had his little brother, the only the only brothers on this list.
39:12
SPEAKER_02: It's Paul Wayner.
39:13
SPEAKER_02: Uh played for the Pirates between 1926 and 1940.
39:16
SPEAKER_02: He was Big Poison.
39:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
39:18
SPEAKER_02: So Lloyd was little poison, Paul was Big Poison.
39:21
SPEAKER_02: Also in the Baseball Hall of Fame, MVP of the National League in 1927.
39:25
SPEAKER_02: There's not a whole lot of pirates that can say they were National League MVPs.
39:29
SPEAKER_02: Paul Wayner is one of them.
39:30
SPEAKER_02: He won four batting titles and he has over 3,000 hits.
39:34
SPEAKER_02: I I mean, it's just kind of one of those, the resume speaks for itself, even though none of us were around to see it.
39:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've heard stories like he could like show people, like he was showing somebody how to hit like all kinds of crazy pitches.
39:47
SPEAKER_01: Like he could hit to all fields.
39:48
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't just a pull hitter, and he could hit like balls out of the strike zone, and he could hit them where he wanted.
39:54
SPEAKER_01: Like if he wanted to hit down the third baseline, he could like contort his body and have a swing to where he could do it.
40:00
SPEAKER_01: It was like he was that good.
40:01
SPEAKER_01: So I guess that's how you become a four-time batting champion.
40:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
40:06
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
40:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he was a tactician of a hitter.
40:10
SPEAKER_02: And and really all the great hitters, whether it's Ted Williams or Tony Gwynn or anybody, they they could all sit there and explain to you kind of there's an art and science behind it.
40:19
SPEAKER_02: And I think, like you said, Paul Wynner was one of those guys.
40:23
SPEAKER_02: Number 42, another offensive lineman for the University of Pittsburgh, it's Russ Grimm.
40:28
SPEAKER_02: Played for Pitt between 1977 and 1980.
40:32
SPEAKER_02: Uh was just the heart and soul of the offensive line at Pitt.
40:35
SPEAKER_02: Great player, uh, drafted into the NFL, had a great NFL career, had a great career as a Steelers coach, almost became the Steelers' third head coach since 1969.
40:45
SPEAKER_02: Uh so highly respected, really good lineman at Pitt.
40:50
SPEAKER_02: Again, no stats, nothing to really say other than he was heralded, he was celebrated as uh a great blocker and and uh you know obviously remembered in pit history.
41:02
SPEAKER_01: Hey, do you remember in the um I think it was Super Bowl 40?
41:06
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if it was one of the NFL films thing, but it was like Ben threw that interception in the second half to Seattle, and like there's like a highlight of Russ Grimm on the sidelines going, no, Ben, no! It's like but great player for Pitt nonetheless and a pretty pretty good coach, too.
41:23
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, for sure.
41:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, never did become an NFL head coach.
41:28
SPEAKER_02: I was always surprised at that.
41:29
SPEAKER_02: I always thought that was going to happen at some point.
41:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't know.
41:32
SPEAKER_01: Like, I guess after the Steelers thing.
41:34
SPEAKER_01: Well, he was kind of like he went to Arizona and like they gave him like that co-head coach thing.
41:39
SPEAKER_01: Right.
41:39
SPEAKER_01: It just whatever hunt.
41:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
41:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it just never worked out.
41:42
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
41:44
SPEAKER_02: All right.
41:45
SPEAKER_02: Steve mentioned this guy earlier as his all-time greatest Pitt basketball player.
41:50
SPEAKER_02: Number 41 is Dewan Blair.
41:52
SPEAKER_02: Played for Pitt between 2007 and 2009.
41:56
SPEAKER_02: Uh, in 2009, he scored uh 550 points, 432 rebounds, and led Pitt to the Elite Eight, which is, I believe, the to this day the furthest they've ever gotten in the tournament, or at least in the modern era of the tournament.
42:09
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
42:09
SPEAKER_02: He's the only consensus first team All-American in the history of Pitt Basketball.
42:15
SPEAKER_02: So, see, if you're argument about him being the greatest ever, I dart argue.
42:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I wish he would have stayed a year longer because they beat Butler the next year with him.
42:23
SPEAKER_01: Butler would have had no answer for him, and they probably would have made the final four the next year, but such is life.
42:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and we we just talked about several guys who we didn't have the opportunity to watch play.
42:37
SPEAKER_01: This is a guy we did have the opportunity to watch play, and he had a little bit of an NBA career too with the Spurs.
42:42
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't terrible.
42:43
SPEAKER_02: He was an off-the-bench guy, but yeah, he wasn't he wasn't ever a superstar in the NBA, but he was certainly dominant at the college level, for sure.
42:51
SPEAKER_02: And and again, the stats, the stats are there, but then if you just watch him play, he was just he was really, really good.
42:59
SPEAKER_02: Number 40 on the list is another guy we've talked about a couple of times, Fred Clark.
43:03
SPEAKER_02: Uh played for the Pirates between and managed the Pirates between 1900 and 1915.
43:09
SPEAKER_02: Is also in the Baseball Hall of Fame, 312 career average, 2600 hits, and was one of the uh instrumental players on the 1909 World Series team.
43:19
SPEAKER_02: Uh uh probably a guy that is remembered obviously as as a manager, but he played the you know, the guys didn't just manage the fact that they they were player managers, and he was a really good player and uh and really was instrumental in those early 20th century pirates teams that they had that were really good.
43:39
SPEAKER_01: I think he still has all time wins for pirates manager.
43:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
43:45
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
43:45
SPEAKER_02: Uh and again we're not we're not counting coaches and managers, but but his time as a player is enough to make him the first time.
43:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, three twelve average and twenty six hundred hits will do ya.
43:55
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
43:56
SPEAKER_01: For sure.
43:57
SPEAKER_02: And again, the pirates are really good during that era, they won.
44:00
SPEAKER_02: Four pennants.
44:01
SPEAKER_02: So World Series, I think, too.
44:03
SPEAKER_02: And a World Series, yep.
44:05
SPEAKER_02: Number 39 is Larry Murphy, Penguins defenseman between 1990 and 1995.
44:11
SPEAKER_02: He's also in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
44:14
SPEAKER_02: And Larry Murphy, like some of the other guys we've talked about already, was one of those offensive defensemen.
44:20
SPEAKER_02: He would run point on the power play.
44:23
SPEAKER_02: And really that's that's who the Penguins are.
44:25
SPEAKER_02: The Penguins, you know, they've tried to remake themselves a couple times with very little success.
44:31
SPEAKER_02: And they just need to lean in.
44:33
SPEAKER_02: They did it recently by signing Eric Carlson.
44:37
SPEAKER_02: They're a team that's going to score.
44:38
SPEAKER_02: They're going to beat you with goals, and that's just who they are.
44:42
SPEAKER_01: Hang their goalie out the dry, so just emotionally prepare yourself for the goalie.
44:47
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
44:48
SPEAKER_02: And and they won two Stanley Cups playing that way in the early 90s, and Larry Murphy is a huge part of that.
44:55
SPEAKER_01: I think his goalie for the Penguins, you just have to make the big save at the critical moment.
44:59
SPEAKER_01: And I hope there's a I think there's a person coming up on that list that kind of epitomizes this.
45:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
45:05
SPEAKER_02: There is.
45:06
SPEAKER_02: But uh yeah, Larry Murphy again, Hall of Famer.
45:10
SPEAKER_02: I uh penguins don't win those two cups without Larry Murphy running point on the power play.
45:15
SPEAKER_01: I think he he's probably their best point guy.
45:17
SPEAKER_01: If you had to put the Penguins' all-time greatest power play, I definitely put him at the point over Gonchar or whoever else they've had over the years.
45:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I totally agree.
45:27
SPEAKER_02: And they've had some really good, I mean, yeah, they've had Gonchar Letang, uh uh uh Sergei Zubov, he's a Hall of Famer, right?
45:34
SPEAKER_02: They've had some really good guys in that position, but I agree I'd put it on.
45:38
SPEAKER_01: He was really good at keeping the puck.
45:40
SPEAKER_01: When teams would try and clear it up the boards, he was really good at keeping the puck in.
45:44
SPEAKER_01: And that's a big part of the power play.
45:46
SPEAKER_01: If you can keep the puck in the zone, they can't change and put fresh players on, and you can keep the pressure on.
45:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was that was a big part of his game.
45:53
SPEAKER_01: And he had a really good slap shot.
45:55
SPEAKER_02: So that's a that's a great point.
45:57
SPEAKER_02: That's one of those things that would never show up on a stat sheet.
45:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, how many times did he keep the puck in?
46:01
SPEAKER_02: That's not a stat.
46:01
SPEAKER_02: No, it's important.
46:05
SPEAKER_02: Number 38 is John Stalworth, Steelers wide receiver between 1974 and 1987.
46:11
SPEAKER_02: He's in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
46:13
SPEAKER_02: He is even to this day still third all-time in team receiving yards, which is pretty impressive given the way that football's changed since he retired to be all passing.
46:23
SPEAKER_02: He's still third all-time in receiving yards.
46:26
SPEAKER_02: And uh that last Super Bowl that the Stewards won Super Bowl 14, uh, he's he's a big hero in that game.
46:33
SPEAKER_02: Uh John Stallworth just a model of consistency.
46:36
SPEAKER_02: Some people would argue better wide receiver than Lynn Swan.
46:39
SPEAKER_02: I think Lynn Swan was flat here and had the career highlights.
46:42
SPEAKER_02: John Stalworth, maybe you could argue was more.
46:46
SPEAKER_01: I would agree with that.
46:47
SPEAKER_01: I think Stalworth's the better wide receiver.
46:49
SPEAKER_01: He's a I know Lynn Swan was more of a big play guy.
46:52
SPEAKER_01: This guy was definitely it he wasn't all possession either.
46:55
SPEAKER_01: Like he beat like the whole Rams defense on that on that bomb by Bradshaw that put the game away.
47:02
SPEAKER_01: But another NFL films moment where they rooted for the team that was playing the Steelers.
47:12
SPEAKER_02: Number 37 on the list is another Steeler receiver, a guy named Antonio Brown, played for the Steelers between 2010 and 2018, caught 100 passes for six straight years, made seven Pro Bowls.
47:27
SPEAKER_02: Uh I I I've said it before, I'll say it again.
47:31
SPEAKER_02: As one of the three most exciting Pittsburgh sports athletes I've ever watched.
47:35
SPEAKER_02: So fun to watch him play.
47:37
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and just a model citizen on and off the field, great teammate, yeah, uh class guy all the way, never had any problems.
47:45
SPEAKER_02: Uh we'll be remembered fondly for the rest of time in Pittsburgh, Steve, correct?
47:50
SPEAKER_01: Uh he was all about the stats, not about winning championships, so that's why I ranked him at 73, because I don't I'd rather have give me Heinz Ward, give me John Stalwart, give me Cedric Wilson.
48:05
SPEAKER_01: And you don't win championships with this guy.
48:08
SPEAKER_01: And he the only Super Bowl he won was in spite of him, not because of him.
48:13
SPEAKER_01: He was a very limited contributor on that Tampa team that won the Super Bowl.
48:18
SPEAKER_01: You know, Tom Brady won with way worse receivers than Antonio Brown, you know.
48:26
SPEAKER_01: So he ran that was won that one Super Bowl basically with a lacrosse player paying wide receiver.
48:32
SPEAKER_01: So was that Chris Hogan?
48:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
48:35
SPEAKER_01: I mean, so I I don't know.
48:37
SPEAKER_01: I I really I mean I maybe I'm undervaluing him, but I'm sorry, it comes it doesn't come down to putting he was all about getting his catches and his yards and thought, okay, that's great, good for you.
48:49
SPEAKER_01: I hope you make millions of dollars, and you did make millions of dollars, but and then and then refuse to pay anybody for their services.
48:57
SPEAKER_02: Well put those millions of dollars.
48:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's like whatever, you do what you gotta do, but you know what?
49:02
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh if you want me to spend my fan time or my fan money, I want to see championships.
49:07
SPEAKER_01: That's what that's what that's what separ you and the whole goal, the whole like I don't think the players understand that is the way to separate you know, your whole goal is to separate the fans from their money, you know.
49:20
SPEAKER_01: And the way you do that is win championships, not, you know, I mean, I guess not, maybe with all the gambling and fantasy football stuff.
49:28
SPEAKER_00: I think that's why he's so highly rated, because hey, I won my fantasy football league because Antonio Brown.
49:34
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it it's it's totally fair.
49:36
SPEAKER_02: I I don't I can't disagree with anything you're saying.
49:38
SPEAKER_02: They the Steelers did not win a title with him.
49:41
SPEAKER_02: He was he was arguably the best player, not just the best receiver in the league for a couple of years there.
49:48
SPEAKER_02: And and the Steelers have a long history of wide receivers willing them to championships, whether it be Santonio Alms or Heinz Ward or John Stalworth or Lynn Swan.
49:57
SPEAKER_02: Uh and and Antonio Brown was never that guy.
50:00
SPEAKER_02: So totally fair.
50:01
SPEAKER_02: I just for me, and I had him ranked way higher than you, which is why he's 37.
50:05
SPEAKER_02: I again he was just when he was dominant, he was just so dominant.
50:09
SPEAKER_02: You destroyed him, it'd be two minutes left in the game, the whole the whole defense would know he's getting the ball, and and he would still somehow get open.
50:16
SPEAKER_02: So to me, that's that's why I had him high on the list.
50:18
SPEAKER_02: But I can't, like I said, I can't disagree with anything you're saying.
50:21
SPEAKER_02: You're spot on.
50:24
SPEAKER_02: Number 36 is a guy that uh, again, not not super remembered, but it's Max Carey.
50:31
SPEAKER_02: Played for the Pirates between 1910 and 1926.
50:34
SPEAKER_02: He's in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
50:37
SPEAKER_02: He has almost 2,700 career hits.
50:40
SPEAKER_02: He also led the National League 10 times and stolen bases, which, you know, not a stat that gets a ton of glory, but that's a big deal.
50:48
SPEAKER_02: Especially again in that era, it was small ball era, deadball era.
50:52
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, advancing guys on base is how you won games.
50:56
SPEAKER_02: You didn't have home run hitters.
50:57
SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, they were starting, you could see they were starting to get into it.
51:00
SPEAKER_01: Like Ruth was starting to come into the game.
51:02
SPEAKER_02: At the end of his career, yeah.
51:03
SPEAKER_02: At the end of Max Carrier, but Max Carrier's gone in 1926.
51:06
SPEAKER_02: So it's you're right, it's just kind of getting in vogue at that point.
51:10
SPEAKER_02: Most of his career is dead ball, small ball.
51:12
SPEAKER_02: So Steve, you had him higher than I did.
51:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think he's uh and he had a cool name, Maximilian.
51:20
SPEAKER_01: But that wasn't, yeah, he was a very good player for that 1925 team.
51:25
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
51:28
SPEAKER_02: Number 35 is another guy that uh won a World Series with Pittsburgh.
51:33
SPEAKER_02: It's a guy named Bill Mazarowski.
51:35
SPEAKER_02: Played second base between 1956 and 1972.
51:38
SPEAKER_02: He's also in the baseball hall of fame.
51:40
SPEAKER_02: He was a 10-time All-Star.
51:42
SPEAKER_02: And really what he was known for was his fielding.
51:44
SPEAKER_02: He's an eight-time gold glove winner, arguably the best defensive second baseman to ever play the game.
51:49
SPEAKER_02: Uh he also hit a home run that was kind of important, I guess.
51:53
SPEAKER_02: I haven't really heard much about it, but yeah.
51:56
SPEAKER_01: It just happened, actually, uh as we're recording.
51:58
SPEAKER_01: It was just yesterday, as we're recording that, as the anniversary.
52:04
SPEAKER_01: It was a nice enough day yesterday.
52:05
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't raining, so people were out there at the wall.
52:08
SPEAKER_02: Oh, listening to the broadcast.
52:10
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever done I've done it?
52:11
SPEAKER_01: No, I know you have.
52:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
52:12
SPEAKER_01: So tell people what that is.
52:14
SPEAKER_01: So every October 13th, they start, I think at one o'clock, because they time it up with the time the home run happened, which is like around I think three in the afternoon, and they play a rebroadcast, a radio rebroadcast of the seventh game of the 1960 World Series.
52:31
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, it's fun to listen to.
52:34
SPEAKER_01: And they play old commercials too during the inning breaks, so it's fun.
52:39
SPEAKER_01: So it is it was a lot of fun to do.
52:40
SPEAKER_01: I'd at least do it once.
52:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Bill Masarowski has a statue here.
52:45
SPEAKER_02: Bill Masarowski's place in Pittsburgh history will just never ever, I don't think, be forgotten.
52:50
SPEAKER_02: I think 200 years from now, people will still be hearing about Bill Maserowski.
52:54
SPEAKER_01: William Pitt, George Washington, Bill Masarowski, Franco.
52:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
52:58
SPEAKER_01: I'm surprised he doesn't have like one out of the airport with him and Franco and George.
53:03
SPEAKER_01: Right.
53:04
SPEAKER_01: Right.
53:05
SPEAKER_02: Someday.
53:07
SPEAKER_02: Number 34 is Lynn Swan.
53:09
SPEAKER_02: Lin Swan was a Steelers receiver from 1974 to 1982.
53:14
SPEAKER_02: He's in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
53:16
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, we talked about him versus John Stalworth.
53:19
SPEAKER_02: John Stalworth's probably the more consistent receiver, probably the better like get open kind of receiver, but Lynn Swan's higher on this list because Lin Swan had the clutch moments, the highlight reel catches.
53:32
SPEAKER_02: If you needed a big play in a Super Bowl or in a playoff game, and Lin Swan was well covered, you could just throw it up and he would make an amazing catch, and he did.
53:42
SPEAKER_02: Um again, it's one of those intangibles.
53:45
SPEAKER_02: Like if you look at stats, Lin Swan's stats are nothing.
53:48
SPEAKER_01: That's why that's why it took him forever to get the Hall of Fame.
53:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
53:51
SPEAKER_02: I think he has 300 some odd career receptions, which is like it's not much, yeah.
53:56
SPEAKER_02: I I yeah, I I think that Deontay Johnson, so far in his career, has just about the same number.
54:01
SPEAKER_02: I'm not kidding.
54:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
54:02
SPEAKER_02: Just about the same number or more receptions than Lynn Swan.
54:05
SPEAKER_02: But it's it's all about what he did in big games and big moments.
54:09
SPEAKER_02: And that's what people always remember.
54:12
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely good.
54:14
SPEAKER_01: And uh I think he he ran uh USC there for a minute, I think his AD, didn't he?
54:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he had a yeah, he had an interesting post uh Yeah, he was an ounce or he was I think he was in The Water Boy.
54:27
SPEAKER_01: He was in a couple movies.
54:28
SPEAKER_02: He was in uh he was in he was on the show Family Matters, if you remember the Arctic movies.
54:33
SPEAKER_02: Remember that sitcom, the Arcle show?
54:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
54:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and he wasn't playing Lynn Swan, he was playing like the one of the uh somebody's boyfriend or husband or something.
54:43
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, Lin Swan had a pretty interesting post-DR career.
54:46
SPEAKER_02: Some someday I want to do an episode of like the the like a life's work episode, right?
54:51
SPEAKER_02: Like what people did after their careers, because I think there's a lot of interesting things that some uh Pittsburgh athletes did after their careers, but we'll save that for a different episode.
54:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and he was he was clutch.
55:01
SPEAKER_02: You are correct.
55:02
SPEAKER_02: He he was very clutch.
55:04
SPEAKER_02: For sure.
55:05
SPEAKER_02: All right, folks, that's the uh the end of part two.
55:08
SPEAKER_02: Come back next week for our third and final installment where we'll we'll count down the top 33 players in the history of Pittsburgh sports.
55:17
SPEAKER_02: In the meantime, please check us out on Facebook or Twitter.
55:21
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you can visit our website, uh those links are all in the show description.
55:26
SPEAKER_02: Let us know where you agree or disagree with our rankings, who you think is going to be number one.
55:31
SPEAKER_02: And as always, thank you so much for listening and celebrating with us as we go through our 100th episode.