Latest / Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History / 1955 • Baseball Clip • Hank Sauer & Dick Groat - Radio Interview

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1955 • Baseball Clip • Hank Sauer & Dick Groat - Radio Interview · Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History

• 0:00
  This is Retro Sports Radio. Visit RetroSeasons.com for more sports history.
• 0:07
  Sports fans, here's the sports show of sports stars.
• 0:10
  Your home run hitter, Hank Sauer.
• 0:13
  Discus hitter, Dez Cook.
• 0:15
  And twin sports star, Dick Grotto the Pirate, on The Inside TAC.
• 0:31
  This is Fred Hessler presenting a plate of sports personalities with the answers to leading sports questions.
• 0:36
  Today here Hank Sauer of the Cubs and the way to beat the Hank Sauer shift.
• 0:40
  Discus performer, Dez Cook of Southern Cal, tells the secrets of his field event.
• 0:44
  And Dick Grotto the Pirate also appears with Hilton Spaminger joining us at the organ for The Inside Track to Sports.
• 0:59
  In baseball, the fans really go for the powerhouse.
• 1:02
  The big man with the big bat who can hit those home runs.
• 1:05
  In Chicago, the favorite is big Hank Sauer who's been home run king and last year passed the 40 mark in home runs though he didn't top the league.
• 1:13
  With big Hank a strong full hitter, it's tough for him to get hits because of the defensive shift used against him, the Sauer shift.
• 1:21
  Chuck Benedict talks to Sauer about the shift and about that mighty bat he swings heaviest in baseball.
• 1:27
  Well as far as I know Chuck, I think it is true.
• 1:29
  I use a 36, 38 ounce bat.
• 1:31
  Well up into the past three years that's what I've been using.
• 1:35
  And before that I was using a 36, 40 ounce.
• 1:37
  So now I'm back 36, 38 in about July or August and I just drop it down maybe an ounce or two.
• 1:44
  That's what I was going to ask you, whether it made a difference over a season in changing the weight of the bat.
• 1:48
  Well it does because playing every day like we do and you get into this hot weather in July and August, you naturally have the strength set from you so then you drop your weight of the bat.
• 2:00
  Now Hank, of course you're one of the most deadly full hitters in baseball.
• 2:04
  They even pull a shift on you many, many times. In fact they do it rather consistently now, don't they, in the National League?
• 2:09
  Yes, all but a few clubs and at times they don't shift over.
• 2:12
  If there's a man on first base and it means anything, they know that I will take a shot out the right field then they play me straight away.
• 2:18
  But the only time they really pull a shift is when there's a home run in order or something like that.
• 2:23
  Uh huh. Does that make any difference to you up at the plate there?
• 2:26
  Of course as you say, occasionally you try to keep them on it by slapping the right field, don't you?
• 2:30
  Yes, but it doesn't make too much difference because if you're going for the long ball you don't care where they play. If you hit the ball good they're not playing in the right spots anyway.
• 2:37
  That's right and of course coming off of your bat that ball is almost always a rifle shot when it does go into fair territory and no matter how they shift it's tough to get those in there.
• 2:47
  Yes, if you hit the ball real good you can still get them through the hole because I've hit many of them that I had three of the ball players on one side and I still got them between them.
• 2:55
  Yeah, well those rifle shots will sure do it. They'd have to really load that infield on that left side to hold you down in a case like that and they can't afford to do that, can they?
• 3:03
  Well no, not when it's going to hurt them because if it hurts them I'm going to take a shot over that way even if I have to hit it in the ground.
• 3:09
  I remember one time I hit a ball and it never even got off the infield on the right side and it was a base hit because there was no one over there.
• 3:14
  Sure. Well in certain situations the defense can't afford to shift that much, isn't that true Hank?
• 3:20
  No, in a close ball game they can't afford to because it's live lacoste in the ball game because I can't hit that way when I want to and they know it so they just play me straight away and honest when it means something.
• 3:32
  Uh huh. Are you more comfortable in left field do you think?
• 3:35
  Yes, I think I am much more comfortable over there for the simple reason. I have an easier throw over there and my arm is not quite strong enough to be a right fielder and throw from right field.
• 3:46
  As far as fly ball and catch and run and catch and up throw them that's concerned I can do that alright but it's the arm. He has to have a terrific good arm over there in right field.
• 3:56
  In other words the equivalent throw from right field to third base from left field is the first base and you hardly ever have to make that throw do you?
• 4:02
  Well you don't make that throw unless you come in fast for maybe one of the shoestring catches and you have a man on first base and he may be half way.
• 4:10
  Then maybe you throw over there but that's not too often either.
• 4:16
  Music
• 4:31
  And that's the inside track to hitting with Hank Sauer.
• 4:34
  Music
• 4:41
  It isn't necessarily true that you've got to be a football hero but it is true that many football players also make good discus throwers.
• 4:49
  That's been the case with many including the 1936 Olympic champ Ken Carpenter and another Southern Cal star Dez Cook.
• 4:57
  Cook played football for the football Cudgeons and also performs ably with a discus. There's a reason for football men starring in weight events and it's due strictly to size as Husky Dez Cook can tell you.
• 5:09
  We asked the nation's top collegiate discus man about his performance.
• 5:13
  What's the furthest you've ever thrown a football?
• 5:16
  Oh I don't know 70 or 75 maybe.
• 5:19
  That's a pretty fair thought. I'll settle for that. Let's see if Bookage can film that far a two year old.
• 5:25
  I've got quite an arm on him already.
• 5:28
  I want to ask you one thing about this matter of throwing a discus now. You see this in other events too. Occasionally a guy lays off for a while, takes it up for the first time in a long time and gets off a mighty heave.
• 5:39
  Are you better at it when you're throwing regularly and working out regularly or does the layoff sometimes do you a lot of good?
• 5:47
  It all depends on where you catch it. Once you stop your conditioning, when you first come back after a long layoff you do feel good the first day and maybe the first week.
• 6:00
  But pretty soon once you start working on it in your form it'll start tearing you down and you'll drop down for a ways.
• 6:06
  But then when you get back into condition, actual throwing condition, it comes a lot more natural and you become more steady.
• 6:14
  At the first you get good throws but you're never very consistent.
• 6:17
  You mean right field, left field, throwing on the left.
• 6:19
  That's right. And in distance also you get a real great throw and then you'll muck one completely.
• 6:24
  Have you found that you were ever consistently let's say off to the right or consistently off to the left?
• 6:31
  In good condition I'll throw slightly off to the right, right of center.
• 6:36
  Is there any reason for that? Have you figured it out or does it make too much difference?
• 6:40
  Well I figure if I go straight across the circle my feet will be pointed straight out toward the center and you can't throw straight over your hip.
• 6:49
  So you have to open up a slight bit which would put you a little bit into right center.
• 6:53
  Something like golf stance.
• 6:54
  That's right. You can't go directly over your hips. You've got to go around them in order for them to do you any good.
• 7:00
  Now unless you're a big man and most of the good discos men have been pretty big men, would you say that it's an event that requires good size or have you seen some small men who do pretty well with it too?
• 7:11
  Well you'll find small men that do well with it but I should say 200 pounds is about probably a good weight.
• 7:19
  It's about the smallest you'll find good disc throwers.
• 7:22
  At that weight you have enough strength to move the discos yet you have enough. You can develop speed and it'll average out.
• 7:30
  Where of course size and coordination help the more you have the more you can throw of course.
• 7:38
  But a small man say, I think a small man is 200 pounds for the discos.
• 7:42
  What do you think you get most of your effort from? In other words naturally it's the coordination but I mean is it strong shoulders, strong arms?
• 7:50
  Is there any one phase that is more important?
• 7:52
  No, no. The discos is an event where you use everything.
• 7:55
  It's like most track events in order to get the best out of it you've got to use a well a better percentage of your capacity you might say.
• 8:05
  The discos is very exemplary of that fact. If you leave one part off it will throw you off completely.
• 8:13
  I mean it's a coordination of muscles. It's not just a plain gut offense you might say.
• 8:19
  And some days you go out there and you feel it and other days you don't. Is that the idea?
• 8:23
  Well that's right especially when you're not in condition but condition in effect is just a consistency.
• 8:29
  You are able to depend on it much more when you're in condition you know what to expect.
• 8:34
  How far do you think you're capable of throwing?
• 8:38
  Well I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to throw over 185.
• 8:44
  And then of course if you get to that point then 200 is just around the corner.
• 8:49
  Well I think weightlifting is the secret there because just about any successful athlete especially weight men are doing a lot of weightlifting controlled of course to the event.
• 8:59
  It's a science. It's not just you just don't go out and lift. It's a science and there's a lot to it.
• 9:05
  There's a lot of study behind it but it really produces results.
• 9:22
  And that's the inside track to the discus with Dez Cook.
• 9:32
  If you're choosing a sports career it's normally an easy matter.
• 9:36
  You usually have one sport in which you excel and that's the sport you like the best.
• 9:41
  But occasionally there are athletes like Dick Grote who excel in two sports and love them both.
• 9:46
  Grote they do call American and basketball signed a bonus contract for the baseball pirates.
• 9:51
  Though he's a star in both sports he still can't choose between the two.
• 9:55
  Though sometime he'll have to make the choice as he tells Navy Chief Al Spanger.
• 10:00
  Well as of right now I haven't exactly made a choice yet.
• 10:04
  I played with the pirates when I finished college.
• 10:08
  I went back to graduate and at the same time I was flying to Fort Wayne to play pro ball with his owner Pistons on the weekends.
• 10:14
  Then I went into service in February.
• 10:16
  So is it your idea to continue with pro basketball too?
• 10:20
  Well I believe a lot of it depends on what kind of year I have with Pittsburgh this year.
• 10:23
  I like pro basketball and I'd like to play it again but if I were to have a real good year with Pittsburgh I might have to give it up.
• 10:29
  In other words it's really pretty hard to choose between sports?
• 10:33
  Certainly is. Especially since I like to play basketball just as well as I do baseball.
• 10:38
  Janowick's had that trouble too didn't he?
• 10:40
  Yes he did. I think he's playing football, just football now.
• 10:45
  With the Washington Redskins?
• 10:47
  Right.
• 10:48
  Of course a lot of fellows I think possibly because college baseball isn't publicized as much get more publicity in some other sport.
• 10:57
  Do you think that would have anything to do with choosing what they go into?
• 11:01
  Well it could have a lot to do with it.
• 11:03
  Baseball in the colleges isn't nearly as popular as say football or basketball.
• 11:10
  Is it as gratifying?
• 11:12
  I think it is. That's my own personal opinion. A lot of people may not think so.
• 11:18
  Well you know it seems to me that well something possibly like track and field you don't get the spectators
• 11:24
  and possibly that detracts something away from let's say basketball or football.
• 11:29
  Well that's one thing. It wasn't quite as big a sport at Duke as basketball and football.
• 11:36
  But baseball was a big sport, a lot larger than track and a lot larger than most college baseball in the northern schools.
• 11:43
  Since our season is much longer we have the climate for baseball.
• 11:46
  Well how many games did you play for instance?
• 11:48
  Well in comparison for example University of Pittsburgh which is right near my home, they play I imagine 18 or 20 baseball games
• 11:56
  where we play 42-44 almost double, in effect double the number of games.
• 12:02
  And it would seem to me with that many ball games it would be more interesting and a lot more rivalry too.
• 12:09
  That's right. There are four big schools in North Carolina, North Carolina State, Wake Forest and Duke
• 12:14
  within a radius of 25 miles and that's quite a rivalry there.
• 12:18
  Did you travel much in college baseball?
• 12:20
  Well nothing like you do in basketball. Of course the end of the season we went to the NCAA tournament at Omaha
• 12:25
  but that's the only real big trip we made.
• 12:28
  That's a pretty big tournament too isn't it?
• 12:30
  Yes sir, it certainly is.
• 12:31
  Well fellows like Wally Moon for instance with Texas and oh you could go right down the list
• 12:37
  and find a lot of big leaguers that played college ball.
• 12:39
  That's right.
• 12:40
  Many that you've played against up here?
• 12:42
  Quite a few, Grady Hatton who was for Cincinnati when I was here playing college ball.
• 12:46
  Jim O'Neal who played with Holy Cross the same year, he's with Pittsburgh right now.
• 12:50
  He played with Holy Cross the same year I played in the NCAA.
• 12:53
  How about before you went into the service, what sort of year did you have with Pittsburgh?
• 12:58
  Well I played about 95 games and I was lucky enough to hit 284 that year.
• 13:03
  How about being in good shape? Is there, in other words if you're in good shape let's say to play basketball,
• 13:10
  does it hold over to baseball?
• 13:11
  Well a lot of it does yes, my weight was down from basketball but I used an entirely different set of muscles
• 13:18
  in baseball and you have to get your legs in shape again.
• 13:21
  But as far as the weight is concerned my weight was very good.
• 13:24
  Music
• 13:33
  And that's the inside track to hitting with Hank Sauer of the Cubs.
• 13:36
  The disc is throwing with Dez Cook of Southern Carolina Baseball and Basketball
• 13:40
  with Vic Grote of the Pirates.
• 13:41
  Hilton Spanninger was at the organ.
• 13:43
  This program was produced by Frank Sealy and Fred Hessler who invites you now to join us again
• 13:46
  for the answers to leading sports questions with the men who know, those who make the sports headlines.
• 13:51
  For this is The Inside Track, an original production of the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.
• 13:58
  Music