July 23, 2025 • 48 mins
MLB pitching legend and current Phillies broadcaster Larry Andersen joins Parney Time for one of the wildest innings yet.
From his journey to the big leagues to his love for clubhouse chaos, Larry shares iconic stories, including the legendary jello prank, convincing a teammate he was traded to Japan, and even getting flashed during a bullpen session.
They talk favorite teammates, minor league memories, and how Larry’s love for fun made him a clubhouse favorite throughout his career. It’s a hilarious and heartfelt conversation you won’t want to miss!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Podcast is happening today, and it's a special day because
I got my Sandbridge Beach hat on today for Sandbridge Island, Virginia,
the seventh inning stretch, my second home on AKA Paradise.
We got MP on the mic with us. Let's go,
and Joe T's behind his Joe T. You excited about
today's show? Hell yeah, this one's They're all special here
(02:55):
at party time. We're deep into to season two. Been
working on this one for a while for a whole
host of reasons. The early nineties when I got my
start in baseball, there was a lot of influential people
and this guy taught me a lot of stuff some
might say shit, and so I'm really excited about having
him on. There's also a real deep connection with him
(03:18):
in many ways, including with my father, which I'll get
into a little bit as well. But Larry Anderson, the
Philadelphia Phillies legend major League Baseball with the lead pitchers
six and ninety nine appearances, and former Reading Phillies pitching
coach of the only championship team I have ever been
a part of in the minor leagues, the nineteen ninety
(03:38):
five Reading Fighting Phillies. LA. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Hell, thanks Bonnie, I appreciate it. Thank y'all. Good to
be here.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
I we never script these shows out. They're conversations, not interviews.
MP and cheets. If he if he can get here today,
we'll do one shots and give you one shot question.
You don't actually have to do a shot unless you
want to. It's up to you. But they're going to
come in and out and Joe t you either say hell,
(04:08):
yeah or hell when he agrees or disagrees. I got
a funny feeling that you guys are on the same
page and he's going to agree with you a lot.
I didn't know where to really start, so I'll start here.
My family moved to Philadelphia in nineteen seventy nine. My
dad and I spent many a Sunday afternoon with him
laying on the couch with the Philadelphia Inquirer over his head,
(04:29):
faking like he was taking a nap, but listening to
Whitey and Harry, who later in life I found out
were pretty much hung over every Sunday day. Game. Is
that right?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Pretty much?
Speaker 1 (04:41):
We don't judge here at the part of time podcasts,
but at some point in the and I don't remember
when it was but did you wear a mask on
the field one day or something? Didn't you have a mask?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I've been known to wear some masks, Yeah, every now
and then.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah. Well my dad saw that and he instantly he
became his favorite film, and he followed you his whole career.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
And then later on in life, you got you and
he kind of started this this relationship through me. And
I'll talk about that a little bit later. But you
and I didn't really meet until nineteen ninety five. But
before we start there, you you got into the big
leagues late. Well, talk about talk about your your journey
(05:23):
to get into the big leagues. First. I want to
start there because it's a great story because you ended
up one shy seven hundred, Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah, yeah, I think I think that Preston Matting, we
should sign you to a one day contract and let
you pitch one batter.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I would like to do that, and I'm well, actually
I need five, And he said, I think I've end
up with nine hundred and ninety five innings, so I'd
like to get a thousand. So if you can make
that happen, I would really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Well, we'll make some phone calls after the taping.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
You might want to look for another arm too.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Oh you do is throw sliders anyway, And I found
that out first place. I'll tell that story later too,
about how La threw me sliders one morning at like
four o'clock in the morning. But talk about your I'm
so excited right now. I came even keep my head straight.
Talk about your journey into the big leagues.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
La Well. I signed in seventy one out of high school.
I was five, So I signed. I got a ten
thousand dollars signing bonus. I was a seventh round pick
by the Cleveland Indians. I knew early on that I
was not going to be real good at making good
decisions in my life because with my signing bonus of
ten thousand dollars in nineteen seventy one, I had a
(06:33):
choice to buy a red sixty eight Mustang that was
souped up, that was beautiful, or I could have bought
ten acres at seven hundred dollars an acre in Aspen, Colorado.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And so how'd you like the car? So?
Speaker 2 (06:52):
I liked it until it ended up in a ditch
and I walked away from it. And I'm still making.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
For those Was that a nineteen seventy one also that was.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
That was a couple of years later I had I've
managed to hang on to it for a couple of years.
But could you imagine ten acres and Aspen right now? Oh,
it's millions, that's and that's why I said, I'm just
I'm not a smart man, and I've never made good
decisions in my life for the most part. And it
started there. I got to the big leagues in seventy
(07:22):
five September call up, got sent back down, seventy six,
back up, and in fact, in seventy six I was
with Williamsport and we played against reading some great stories
from from playing days in those years, most of which
I probably can't share. You can't share anything on the
(07:43):
border pocket.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
We found that out. Hall of Famer Billy Wagner told
all the analysts to f off a couple of shows ago.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I'd be right there with him, and back down seventy six,
up for part of seventy seven, back down in seventy eight,
back up in seventy nine, back down. Well, no, Then
I got traded to Pittsburgh for one year. I was
in TRIPAA with them, then got tripped. What's that? No,
that was they were in Pittsburgh, was in Portland. I
(08:11):
was born in Portland. I grew up going to Portland
Beaver games with my aunt oftentimes. My father was a pilot.
He was killed when I was thirteen in a plane
crash out in Oregon, and so my aunt and I,
she would take me to a lot of the Portland
Beaver games. And they were a Cleveland affiliate at the time.
I didn't even realize that, but I would go to
(08:32):
games there with her, and so my dream growing up
was always to play for the Portland Beavers. And then
so I got to play for him in seventy eight
with Cleveland, I got to play for him with eight
and eighty with Pittsburgh, and I got to play with
them form with Portland with the Phillies in eighty three,
and at that point I was like, Okay, that dream's
(08:53):
come true enough. Now I want to move on to
maybe maybe some bigger aspirations, maybe to pitch in the
big leagues instead of just pitching for the Portland Beavers.
So the Phillies bought my contract from Seattle in eighty three.
It was hard to leave because I was playing with
such household names like Dave Edler and Paul Serna and
(09:15):
Dan Farova. I'm sure their names you guys have all heard.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
I think one of those guys. I think one of
those guys was about Uber Driver the other night.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Yeah, more most likely, and there were legitimate teammates. That
probably explains part of the reason why we only had
three thousand people a night at the Kingdome and why
we were in last place. But then when this yeat went,
when Philadelphia bought my contract in July of eighty three,
I walked into the clubhouse and uh, there was what
(09:49):
five or six future Hall of famers in there, p Rose,
Joe set Yep, Steve Carlton, Tony Perez. Yeah, and then
my locker was next to tug So when I walked,
I walked in that clubhouse leaving again leaving the likes
of Dave Edler and Paul Sooner and I walked into
this clubhouse. My first thought was, where's the clubhouse? I'm
(10:13):
supposed to go in this This is not where I belong.
I'm pretty certain of that, but it was. I mean,
that was in retrospect and looking back, that was one
of the highlights series highlights of my career was walking
into that clubhouse and seeing these legends, these Hall of famers,
are future Hall of famers, and it was just I
(10:36):
couldn't put words to it. It's just it's phenomenal, just
an unbelievably great feeling.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
The World Series.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yes, yes, In fact, I ended up being the only
pitcher or the only player uh to be in the
eighty three World Series and the ninety three World Series
with the Phillies. Nobody else was able to do that.
So yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
My dad who talked about already we didn't have a
pot to piss in and a lid to go on
top of the lid when I was growing up, and
my dad spent fifty bucks to take me to Game
four of the nineteen eighty three World Series, and I
remember he took me early. We stood in right field
and we listened to Pete Rose and Ron Reid during
batting practice talk about betting on football games. Oh boy, yeah, yeah,
(11:25):
And we were sitting in the seven hundred level, which
which those of you that haven't followed the Phillies from
Veterans Stadium days, LA will tell you the seven hundred
level was a place where young people like me learned
a lot about life in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, back in the
days of Veterans Stadium. But uh, but and Paul Owens
was your manager. One of my favorite people of all time.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, he was. He took over for pat Corrals. Pack
Corrals got fired and team was in first place. Go figure.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah, that's crazy. Sparky Law once said pack corralis was
a lot like a diaper. Half the time he's full
of shit and half the time he's all your ass.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
That sounds about right. Yeah, Pope took over. I came
there not knowing anything. I didn't know anything about the
National League. I didn't like the National League because they
had they had the pitchers hitting. And although I was
a career three point thirty three hitter in high school,
one for three, which which means I couldn't hit a lick.
(12:28):
But I do. I do make the argument. I did
make the argument at once with Tony Gwynn that I
was a better career hitter. I had a better career
average than he did. And he started he had that
high pitched laugh. And when we played together in San Diego,
this was after I started broadcasting. I was retired and
Tony was still playing, and so I was down in
the dugout with Tony and telling him how I my
career average was three sixty four. He's like, what the way,
(12:51):
I'm like, Tony, listen to me. I played in the
National League for eleven years. In four of those years,
I got a hit. Now you do the math eleven.
So he kind of had to agree with me there.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
So in Philly the World Series eighty three to ninety three,
I didn't realize that I want to talk a little
about the ninety three team. We can dive into that
now unless you want to do something about that. Ninety
three team was another team full of characters. You want
to talk about that for a second?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Oh man? That was it all kind of started in
spring training, where there was no you didn't drink. There
was no beer in the clubhouse in spring training. There
was during the regular season. Everybody had beer in the clubhouse,
most everybody, until they took it out of the Padres
clubhouse and thus fassages at the Padres. And he made
the comment about the Crocs who owned McDonald's or owned
(13:42):
the McDonald's franchises. He said, Oh, it's okay for you
to poison the world with your hamburgers, but we can't
have beer in the clubhouse.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Jo likes our hamburgers.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
It did not go over well. People probably don't realize this.
My second year in baseball in organ ball nineteen seventy two,
I was or seventy three, I'm sorry. As my third year,
I was a clubhouse manager. So I was a first
clubby player ever in the history of baseball that I
know of. I don't think anybody else did it before
(14:15):
me as a player. So we would do all the
washing of the underwear, the t shirts, the jocks. We
would supply to some flower seeds, the tobacco. We did
all that, and it paid for my eight by thirty
foot black aluminum trailer that I lived in in the
summer in Reno in seventy three. I shared that with
a guy named Jeff Roser, who we called Ma, and
(14:38):
we addressed her as she because she did all the cooking,
did all the cleaning did and the reason she was
such a good cook. And we lived together in this
eight by thirty trailer. And in the summer in Reno,
it gets hot, and it's an aluminum black trailer, so
it stayed pretty hot. But he would cook everything with
wine and he said, why do you do that? And
(15:00):
it could be it could be wine on cereal, it
didn't matter, but everything had wine in it. And I said,
what's the reason for that, ma, And he said, well,
if you don't like it by the time you sit
down for dinner, you'll like it by the time you
get up.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Hell yeah, you're already Jot's favorite guest. Lat loves you already.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
There's a former clubby the guy that runs the clubhouse.
I already had experience. So in ninety three I said
to the guys working in the clubhouse at that time,
I said, hey, if you guys will, let me do
the catcher's gear and clean that up. And that's what
they were doing at the time. I said, let me
handle that while you guys run to the store and
(15:43):
get us some beer. And so they did. So I
was cleaning the catcher's gear in ninety three in spring training,
we had about ten twelve guys hanging around. We're all
at one end of the clubhouse and at the other
end is Jim Eisenreich. And it's all been well documented
that you know he played, he had Tourett's They didn't
realize it. They didn't document it or didn't diagnose it.
(16:04):
I should say, for a couple of years he was
out of baseball, and then when he got diagnosed and
got the medication, he came back to play and ended
up coming to the Phillies. Now he had his you know,
Tourette's twerks or.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Twit twig, what do they call it? Twig twitter?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Twitter? Yeah, twitch, But he had those, and and so
he's down and went in the clubhouse. He's flipping through
a sporting news reading it, and I said, is I said,
come on, come on down here and join us, because
not that I didn't know him, but we talked and
he knew that I played against him when he first
came to the big leagues. We were in the Metro
Dome and I was with Seattle at the time when
the Metro Dome opened, and Isy was I believe their
(16:43):
lead off hitter, Rick Sweet was our catcher. He comes
back to the dugout after the first inning and he goes,
what is up with that? As enriched dude, Like, what
is wrong with him? He's up there, he's talking to bugs,
he's talking to himself. He's jumping around like and nobody knew.
Nobody had any idea. The everybody thought it was just
nervous and that type of thing. Anyway, so Issa is
(17:04):
at the other in the clubhouse and I said, Ezie,
come on down here, have a beer with us. He goes, now,
I don't drink and crucking mouse off. Oh no, that's
Jeffrey Dahmer. He's down there just waiting for one of
us to pass out so he can get something to eat.
So Eisenwit's nickname became Dahmer. To this day, when we
(17:24):
get together, it's not uncommon for somebody to drop a
Dahmer on him and he just laughs. But that's everything
started to kind of go sideways, right out of the
right out of the gates. And spring training when we
started that, and we'd have our beers there for ghosts,
all the coaches and everybody's left the clubhouse. They're long gone.
But that was one thing I think that made that
(17:45):
ninety three team so good, so cohesive, was that we
just we started together. We knew we were going to
have a good time together. And in fact, what Dalton
had just signed that spring, it signed an eighteen million
dollars contract, which is three it was huge. Well, we're
on overnight travel UH series over in the East Coast
(18:07):
and we're going from Clearwater over to Port Saint Lucie
and Vero Beach to play the Cardinals and the Dodgers.
So we're staying overnight. And when you stay overnight in
spring training, you have a roommate. Nowadays nobody has a roommate,
and during the regular season we didn't, but in spring
training you had a roommate. So Eisenwreich was rooming with incabilia.
So we're on the bus coming back from Vero and
(18:32):
the Derelicts, and you know, we were all sitting in
the back of the bus. Isy was in the middle
of the bus. Inky hollers up to Eisenwreich. He said, hey,
roomy iy. Isy looks back in the bus, looks the back,
looks to the back of the bus, and he goes,
what's up, and he goes, I just want to thank
you for not eating me last night, which eis Eisenwright
(18:55):
leans back over the island, looks back, he goes, You're welcome,
lunch and everything. I think we probably stopped four times
for beer from from driver. It was about four hours,
so we figured we had stuff about every hour. The
bus driver made about four hundred dollars on that trip
(19:17):
just from tips from all the guys. But that's everything
kind of just started that spring and it just it
carried over. It was just, I mean, a magical time,
a great time. This team they played as hard on
the field as they did off the field, or vice versa.
But when that bell rang when they crossed that white line.
I've never been on a team that played the game
(19:38):
so well and so right all the time, whether and
we policed ourselves if something went south the players. Dalton
was the leader of that club by far, the leader,
but he would take care of it. He would nip
it in the bud for Goosie. As good of a
manager he was, he had the easiest job in the world.
You would think with that lunatic clubhouse that it would
(19:59):
be a struggle, but it wasn't. He didn't have to
do anything because we took care of everything. We really
as players, which that's gone by the wayside today. You
just don't see it anymore.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I've talked like Jimmy Leland one time, who's, as you know,
is an awesome, awesome, awesome guy. He used to always say,
let let the players police themselves. The players police themselves.
And I was a fan of that team. I was
working in Reading, which we met the next year. I
believe for for real, for real, for physically for the
first time ever. But I remember having an exhibition game
(20:33):
and Kruck pitched. He took one at bat and then Reading,
and then he was gone, and the media wanted to
find Kruck and I couldn't find Kruck. I'm walking all
over the ballpark. Kruck was in the grounds crew pit,
drinking a beer, sitting on the lawnmower, and I walked
to I, go, Cruk, the media is looking for you.
He goes, how much think this thing costs? I need
(20:53):
to buy me one of these? And that was the
That was the epitome of that whole team. Name for
our listeners, some of the guys as you play with
on that ninety three team, So the people that are
on Phillies fans remember it was Kroc, Dykstra.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Dalton, Dalton, Dave Hollands. Yeah, head Marion.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Almost as big as Bruce Bochis, which is damn near impossible.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Mitch Williams, MITCHI pooh. We had an unbelievable starting staff
with Shilling, Tommy Green, Terry mulholland, Ben Rivera and Danny Jackson.
The bullpen was pretty much David West, Mitch Williams, myself,
and then we got Roger Mason at the deadline. Mike
Williams played a big role at times in that bullpen.
(21:41):
We had platooning in left field was Inky Kabilia and
Milk Thompson, Dykester in center, and then West, Chamberlain and
Eisenwright platooning in uh in right, and then making me
with Morendini and Mariano Duncan platooned at second. We had
three platoons, which everybody said, you know, you can't you
can't win with platoons. We had three of them. And
the thing about it is everybody pulled for each other.
(22:03):
It didn't matter. It just didn't matter, and that was
it was just it was an unselfish team and again
like playing the game the right way when they went
if somebody didn't run hard, they heard about it in
the dugout for Ghost. He didn't have to say anything,
and it was just it was just a just a
joy to play on that team, it really was.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
And experiencing that la and now broadcasting so long. I
remember when you left reading to become a broadcaster. We
talked about it, and so you've been broadcasting almost thirty years.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Now, right, Pretty cool around there.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Yeah, And how do you bite your tongue when you
see somebody jaking it out there?
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Or do you bite your tongue? I don't know. I
watched tatus when we just played the Padres this last
week of the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Is that the right days? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
I think so, and tat teams.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
All the days run together in baseball, they do matter.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
But Tatuas hit a couple of ground balls where he
literally jogged down the first base and I was like,
oh man, he must be hurt. I'm trying to give
him the benefit of doubt, kind of being a little sarcastic.
I said, boy, he must really be that hamstring or
knee or something must be really bothering him. Then he's
hits a ball I think it was in the third game.
(23:19):
He hits a ball swinging bunt and he busted it
down the line and beats it out for a base hit.
And I'm like, oh, so his leg's not bad, so
there's really no excuse for the way he was not
running those ground balls, and I just I let him
have it. I just I can't. There's some things I
can't bite my tongue at and I when I do
(23:40):
it again, and I'll do it against the Phillies players too,
And when I do it, then I get called in
and get my handslapped because they say I'm being negative.
My response is always, you guys need to get a
dictionary and look up the definition of negativity and look
up the definition of honesty. They're completely different. They're not
the same thing. So when I'm calling out guys on
(24:00):
our team being honest, that's not negative. That's just being honest.
And I think that's why I've got such a good
rapport with the fans here, and I hear probably from
ninety eight percent of them when they say something to me,
it's always something to do with keeping it real. Thanks
for telling us the truth, Thanks for being honest with us.
And in Philadelphia, if you're not, you're done. You have
no credibility. And I'm a huge fan too. If people
(24:23):
are sitting at home watching the game and something happens,
they want to throw the shoe through the TV. I'm
feeling the same way and I'm broadcasting that way, much
to the chagrin of our front office, who, when he
was our president, Andy McPhail literally introduced my wife, Christie
and myself to his wife's family, introduced us as this.
This is Christy and Larry Anderson. Larry's one of the
(24:46):
more beloved broadcasters in Philadelphia, not so much by the
front office, though. It stopped me im and it's stunned
me because I've been saying it for twenty years and
I finally got somebody to admit it. So, I mean,
between that and having one of my bosses tell me
(25:08):
that I was a dime a dozen, I was like,
all right, well, it is what it is. I'm not
going to change. I'm not going to I'm not going
to give up my credibility to the fans to appease
the front office to piece my bosses. And I told
them this is probably four or five years ago. I said,
if you guys would have let me go, feel free.
(25:28):
And I wasn't trying to be pompous or braggadocious, but
I was saying, I don't I don't need this job,
I don't need the money. Well that might have been
a lie, but it sounded good at the time, and
I set up with a lot of confidence, so I
think they believed.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Hey, La, it wouldn't have been a lot of you
would involved that that property in Veil said that mustang exactly.
Oh my god, that bunch of ninety three that was
towards the end of your career. Is there is there
a moment? I mean ninety three. Actually, it was the
only time I ever heard my dad curse. My dad
(26:06):
was real. He was a missionary, real Christian man. I
took him to Cooperstown for Game six. Am I telling
this story right? I think I'm telling the story right.
That was when Joe Carter hit the home run. Right,
We're sitting in our hotel NAM at Cooperstown. Mitch throws
the ball, Joe deposits it in the left field left
(26:27):
field stands, and I didn't see the ball because my
dad went, damn it as soon as Mitch as soon
as as soon as the ball hit the bat, my
dad knew it was gone. But that group really changed
in my mind. The Phillies like connected to Philly fans
in such a way because you all were so blue collar,
(26:47):
and now you've become a legend through the years in Philly,
because you're honesty and because like Larry Anderson, to me,
it's just like the Philly fanatic in Philadelphia, like you're
you're one and the same. Like when I think of
the Philly I think a bunch of things, but you're
one of them, and I appreciate that. Then you made
the transition, and that's when we met in reading Pennsylvania.
(27:08):
Talk about that transition. You were a player coach first off,
if I remember correctly.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Yeah, ninety five. I went down. I went to spring
training late because we'd had the strike after the ninety
four season. They wanted me to come down to minor
league camp and I was like, I can't do that.
I'm a major league player. And they said, well, you're
not under contract, which I wasn't the last couple of
years of my career. The last few years, I just
(27:34):
signed one year deals, and I usually signed it at
the end of spring training, so they'd have roster spots
up until then. I had to go down to spring training.
I wasn't happy about it, but I went down there.
Doctor Fish was our team psychologist or organizational psychologist, and
so he was speaking to the minor league guys. The
whole group of them, and he was out in front
and he had his camera and had somebody taking pictures.
And I see him taking pictures of doctor Fish talking
(27:57):
to kids, and they put the camera back in the bag.
I was in the trainer's room with Norm Charlton, who
was there also for injury. So I'm like, you know what,
I think I'm going to take some pictures with doctor
Fish's camera. So I got in his bag and I
handed the camera to Norm and I said, Norm, will
you do me a favor you take a couple of pictures?
And he goes, yeah, what, And I said, well, just
(28:17):
a minute, I'll show you. So I turned around, I've
bent over dropped trial and I said how about this?
So he took a picture of my bare ass, put
the camera back in the bag, never said a word.
I said, please do not repeat this, don't anybody, don't
share this with anybody. About two months later, I see
Doctor Fish and he goes, I know it was you.
(28:40):
I know it was you. I'm like, what, Doc, And
he goes, I was going through these photos of spring
training talking to the minor league guys, and I'm flipping
through them and I'm showing my wife all these pictures
of me talking to the minor league guys, and all
of a sudden, this one picture came up, which happened
to be my backside.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
And she said, oh, Fish, that's Larry Anderson's ass.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
He's like, we'll keep going, maybe we'll get more. But anyway,
so I was down there in spring training and I
went through it and then we settled the strike. Well,
I've already been pitching. I was already basically through spring
training when major league camp opened, so we didn't have
a pitching coach in Redding. So Lee Thomas I asked Lee, actually,
(29:24):
if I could go to Redding, since I've already been
through spring training, let me go to Redding and just pitch,
you know, be on the roster and stay sharp so
I would have a chance to get back to the
big leagues, maybe get that seven hundredth game or that
one thousandth inning. So I go down there, and Lee's like, well,
(29:44):
I got any better idea. You can do that, but
how about if you become our pitching coach there too,
because you don't have a pitching coach for reading. And
I was like, I'd love it, because I loved I
loved even at the time, working with guys like Toby
Borland or Rick and Batalico. Talking to these guys just
mental stuff and things and trying to help him. So
I thought this would be great. So I did that.
(30:06):
I thoroughly enjoyed it, and until one point I was pitching.
I'm forty It was in ninety five. I'm forty two,
so I'm forty two years old. Most of the guys
I'm playing against are twenty one, twenty two, maybe twenty four,
and we're pitching in a game. I'm pitching in a game.
I'm in a game and we were down five to
(30:27):
nothing to who was it that they had purple uniforms,
not New Haven anyway. Down five to nothing, we're down.
We come back. It's like the fifth inning. We're down
five to nothing. All of a sudden we start coming
back and a Don Milan ends up hitting a home
run and then Gary Bennett comes up and they drill
him after we tied it. So I'm like, oh, you
(30:49):
got to be kidding me. I'm in the game. They
just drilled one of our guys after we come back
and tie it up after a home run. I'm like,
I don't and he hit one of these guys.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
You know, they got to it.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Yeah, it's gonna hurt them, but it wouldn't hurt But
I mean just the fact that I had to do it.
So I'm like, this is brutal. So Eric, we go
out next inning. Their dh is up, short kid, but
stocky strong probably could have broke me in half. He
comes up when I drill him in the back, like
the back of the shoulder. The next thing I know,
(31:25):
I hear our bench is all laughing, all the guys
on our bench. So get out of the inning, come
back into the dug out and I go, hey, guys,
come here, I said, one of you guys want to
please explain to me why you thought it was so
funny that I had to go out there and drill
that guy. And I drill him and then you all
start laughing. And he goes, wait, you didn't hear what
he said? And I was like, no, what do you say?
(31:48):
He threw his bad down. He looked at and he goes,
you're too old for me to fuck with. I said, well,
I don't really blame me for laughing, then go ahead,
no problem.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
No he wasn't wrong either.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
No he wasn't He was not wrong at all.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
But but then, but then we went. We went on
and seriously won the championship.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
That year, and almost without Wayne Gomes.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Go ahead, I was, I was teeing you out for
this one. Go ahead and tell the Wayne Gomes story.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
As a pitching coach, you have to you have to
appoint the guys the next pitch, the next starting pitcher,
to chart all the pitches. So you get the chart,
you get the pad and the pencil. And every time
somebody was charting the game, Wayne Gomes would go over
and break the pencil and I'd have to go back
into the clubhouse, walk through the stands or through the
concourse to the clubhouse to get another pencil, bring it out.
(32:40):
And he kept doing this. I said, Grimace. I called
him Grimace.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
I said Wayne Gomes's body MP literally looked like the Grimace. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
McDonald's maybe the worst body in baseball, at least certainly for.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
A number one pick out of old Dominion.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
They're breaking a pencil, I told Grimace, Like, the next
time you do it, you're going to be sorry. The
next game breaks the pencil, Like, all right, here we go.
So I just happened to get a call from ESPN,
the magazine saying, would you be interested in doing a
little prank that we could do put on TV, put
on our ESPN magazine show. I'm like, sure, I think
of something. So I'm thinking, you know what, this would
(33:19):
be the first time to get Grimace. So they sent
out a news crew with cameraman and actually it was
a Korean guy, not Japanese, but we made the story
that we're the Japanese group was coming in here to
do a documentary on minor league baseball, and they picked
the Redding Phillies to document it. And they said they're
(33:39):
going to be walking around with the mic, so just
let them have access. They've got access to everything. The
Phillies are aware everything's cool, and so they'll, you know,
they will be doing interviews and stuff for this documentary.
So it's all set up. I mean, Wayne Golm's agent knew,
our general manager, Lee Thomas, knew what was going on
in Philadelphia. It was all clear.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Weird.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
So we have a meeting after batting practice and Bill
Dancy's the manager. He comes in. He says, Fellas, I
got some news I want to share with you. The
Phillies have just traded Wayne Gomes to Japan and it
just so happens. There's this documentary crew here. James Chang
was it was a creak. I wasn't even Japanese, but
(34:22):
he and his cord for the mic was in his
coat pocket. I mean, nobody had any idea that nothing
was even going on, nothing was being taped or recorded,
but they were falling everybody around. So they started falling
gomes around and I said, it's only for a for
a year, I mean for the rest of this year.
He's still our property. He'll be back with us in
spring training. But it was something that we thought would
help the major league club. So he's going to be leaving.
(34:45):
This is I think on a Friday. He said he's
got to be leaving, got to leave Sunday morning for Japan.
So he's already packing his bag, taking stuff out, throwing
his shoes to snack. Bark Mitchell buddy, best friend Mary Mitchell,
Arry Mitchell, He's going Richmond, who lives in.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
The Richmond area, came up to me last year at a
game and we told this story to each other again.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Yet out Oh, so Gomesy's throwing him his red spikes
because I can't. I guess I can't use these over there,
and Mitchell gets him and he's starting and Mitchell's crying. Larry,
Mitchell's crazy, I don't want your spikes and he throws
him back and.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Did we have Gomezyla, didn't we have Gomez? He call
his parents.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Oh yeah, he's on the phone with his mom. His mom.
He's talking to his momm He said, yeah, Mom, I'm
I got traded to Uh. I was like to yes,
yea Couci Massachusetts or something. It was Nomo's old team.
I mean, he had no idea what team he was
going to, but all he knew was Nomo's old team.
So and then he's talking to her, telling his mom,
talking to his fiance, trying to get a hold of her,
(35:44):
and it just kind of carried on, probably for about
an hour, and then we came into clubhouse and had
another meeting and Bill Dancer says, anybody got anything to say?
And he looks at me and goes, and you got
something to say? When I say something? I said, well, yeah,
I said, I'd just like to, you know, pre to
give Wayne Gomes my appreciation for all his hard work
he's done this year. He has helped us get to
(36:05):
this point in first place, hopefully that leads us to
a championship. And I just I just really appreciate all
he's done for us, and I also just wanted to
mention that with all those broken pencils, I told you
I would get you, and all of a sudden he
just went ear to ear grin, knowing it was a joke.
Everything he had then done and gone through, he knew
(36:27):
he wasn't going to Japan, so all worked out, but
it was well worth it.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
And then he got you back in Harrisburg.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Yeah, he tried for lack of child support. I'm like, well,
that's not really going to work because I know I
pay automatically every month and even if I didn't pay,
I didn't care. So that he had tops there trying
to put me in handcuffs and all this. He's like,
that's not gonna work, but he tried. It was a
(36:56):
good effort.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
That's one of my favorite stories in my tire thirty
six year career, the Wayne Gomes getting traded to Japan
story MP one shot. Sorry we kept you waiting so long,
but I knew this was going to happen with LA.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
I think we're all enjoying it absolutely. What's what's your
most famous?
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Right?
Speaker 3 (37:15):
I know the Jello one? Everybody talks about it?
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Is that it?
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Or is there is there another one?
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Now? Probably I would say that the Jellogate or or
the Goames trade to Japan, they're they're both one. One
was a lot more involved. The Jellgate was much more involved.
And it's a long, long story, but h that's that
was probably the top. I would say Gomes was the
second number two.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
How'd you get in the room?
Speaker 1 (37:40):
That was? When? Was it? Renee Latsman La? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Yeah, well I know it was good friends. We'd been
in winter ball together, our family, my wife and his
wife and me and him. We'd gone to dinner, been together,
done a lot of things together. So I was a
little skeptical and I wasn't like I was lid with
that group, with the Farova, the Serna, the Edler's. I
was one of those guys like hanging on by the
(38:07):
skin of my teeth, so probably went a little more
overboard than I should have. But that was one of
the greatest capers of all time because it lasted for
what three almost four months? Do they still prank like that?
Speaker 1 (38:23):
When you were.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
I don't, I am. I don't think they did it
in spring training. They actually I thought he was a copycat.
They got Kyle Kendrick. Brett Myers I think was an
instigator behind it. He got Kyle Kendrick, they got traded
him to Japan. So it was basically it was a
takeoff of the Wayne Gomes prank. But it worked. It
(38:46):
was good, although KK was a little upset with it.
He was not happy about it. But it was a
good prank. But it wasn't original.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Do you remember in nineteen ninety five when we I
think it was the last game. I think we wanted
in writing the last game and I walked in the
morning now mp JOT, producer Wyatt, everybody out in party
time Land. Larry Anderson taught me a lot of things
in my career, one of which was you weren't supposed
to mix Crown Royal with anything other than an ice cube.
(39:20):
That was one of the first things he taught me
because I was wanting to put diet coke in it,
and he's like, no, kid, just take an ice cube
and go through it like this, and that's that's gonna
be good enough. But I walked into the clubhouse that
morning and you were standing there in your underwear and
you said, I said to you, La, if we win
(39:40):
this thing, me and you all night slapped this hand
and you're in and you remember what happened.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
I'm not sure exactly what happened all prior, but I
remember what happened. Driving out of that stadium.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
At what time of the day.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
It was seven o'clock. It was very light, very light
to the point where I actually had some glasses on,
which I don't think you could have worn because as
as we're driving another park and I look over a
Parney's car and I see him look over and wait,
he's got a Catcher's mask on. Well, he's driving out.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
I had to wear a catcher's mask just for saying.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
I will never ever forget that visual. I never That'll
never leave my mind ever. It just won't. That's one
of my best memories of reading. And I don't know
if that's sad or not. I just just think it's funny.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
When you and I talked about doing this show, and
one of the first things you texted me was you
still have your Catcher's mask on MP You got another
one shot of for Larry Anderson. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:44):
I mean, I'm curious about if you and Bagwell ever
connect about your your role in one of the best
trades in baseball history.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
I I used to when we play Houston, I would
always find out I would I would look for Baggy
and say, dude, you better pick it up a little bit.
I said, I haven't heard my name that much in
the trade deadlines of late and I think, you know,
with you hitting more home runs and getting into the
Hall of Fame, you can keep me relevant for a
(41:13):
lot of years. I said, you just need to hit
a few more home runs. Well, wouldn't you know it?
In his Hall of Fame speech, he mentioned my name
and he said, Larry Anderson, who I got traded for,
used to get on me about I need to hit
more home runs and hit more home runs. And he's
(41:34):
standing there on the stage and he goes, is this
good enough for you?
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Larry?
Speaker 2 (41:40):
And that was part of his Hall of Fame induction speech.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Hell hell yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
I really appreciated that.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
One of our guests in season one A Parting Time
with Steve Klein, la, can you really quickly tell the
Steve Clin story When we were in the minor leagues
together and what you did with Steve Klein.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
I just remember offering to get a limousine for him,
because every time he pitched against us, we torched him.
We did. We just lit him up, and he was
a good pitcher, but we just we had his number.
And it was like there was I don't know exactly
what it was, and he might have told you, you know,
(42:17):
recently about what it was, but there was something where
I was like, well, I'm just I'm gonna send a
limousine to make sure that you get to make to
get to the park on time every game that you're
playing against us, because we got a real good chance
to win if you're in there.
Speaker 1 (42:31):
He literally was. He was here in Richmond, l A
not too long ago, and he told a bunch of
the staff members of the story. He said, he walked
out of the hotel and reading and there was a
limousine driver there that had his name on a car
to said Climb and he's like, what's this all about.
He goes, oh, well, mister Anderson from the reading Phillies
sent a limo for you. Wanted to make sure you
get to the ballpark on time so his hitters can
(42:53):
tear you up again tonight.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
I'll tell you what there was. There was nothing the
fun that you can have. And I know it's of
business and guys are trying to, you know, make their
careers happen. But I've always said, if you can't have
fun in the game, you shouldn't be in it. And
it's like, I'm gonna have fun no matter what I'm doing,
and that's stuff like that. You do it and then
you think back, like, man, I hope I didn't crush
this guy, but I think I knew Clienty enough at
(43:18):
the time that he'll be able to handle it.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
He's just he's just fine. Don't worry about Steve Fan
and he finishes up with one last one if you
got one that I want to talk about my relationship
with La and my dad as we close up.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
Yeah, tell me about you know, a lot of the bullpens,
you know, the fans have access to you while hanging
out out there were there were there any memorable fans
along the way.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
Well, when they were doing the wave one time in Pittsburgh,
there was a girl sitting on the edge of the
stands right next to the bullpen and kind of well endowed.
I didn't do it, but there were guys in there
going raise the shirt up every time they were doing
the wave. Sure enough they they used to are doing
(44:00):
the wave, and sure enough, here she goes with the
shirt up. I don't know exactly how it came about,
but somehow we got this bra from her and we
all we all signed it in appreciation of what you
did for us. Even guys with long names had plenty
of room.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
So oh, my goodness, Well, we could go on and
on and on and on about the times we've had
together through the years. You've always been really good to me.
I want to close it up. My my dad passed away.
I'm looking at his picture right here in my office
August fifth, twenty twenty two. He was a huge Larry
Anderson fan. I can remember laying in his hospital bed
(44:43):
with him a couple of days before he passed away,
and he asked me if I had talked to you recently,
and I'll tell him, you know, you've always been great
about staying in touch and UH. And then at his UH,
at his viewing, I walked out into the lobby and
one of the the prettiest bouquet of flowers in the
form of a cross. I believe it was was from
(45:05):
Larry Anderson and that touched me in such a way
during a deep time. This show's all about relationships and
we laugh. We've laughed for forty five minutes so far today.
But that's how deep these relationships are in LA You're
one of the great ones. You meant a lot to
my dad. You mean a lot to me and my
family on his uh, I think it was his birthday
(45:27):
last year. Something must to pump up in your phone
because you sent me another text so that that means
a lot to me. And when they when they went
to take the flowers to the to the grave site,
I said, that's the one right there that goes at
my nearest my dad's head, because he would want Larry
Anderson to be next to him as he's resting eternally
in peace. So we're going to close it up. There's
(45:50):
so many other questions, like you let me finish your
favorite teammate because you have you're such a popular dude.
I want to know who your favorite teammate was of
all time.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
Probably David West who died a few years ago from
the brain cancer. Yeah, he was. We had a thing
when we in ninety three where we had adjoining rooms.
The rules were the doors never lock between us, They're
always open. I kind of learned to regret that Westy
(46:24):
would start the year at two fifty he would end
the year at two seventy five. And with these joining rooms,
we would go out and have us. He would call
them social sparklers. Pretty race, Yes, social sparklers. After every
game we'd go have a few, and we'd come back
to the room two thirty. Maybe maybe we weren't didn't
(46:47):
have our wits all about us, so we would come
back and the next thing you know is jol you
want a cheeseburger? No way, No, I don't want a
cheeseburg Yeah, make that two cheeseburgers. Do you want any fries?
No ways, I don't want burgs. I don't want Yeah,
get two fries. What do you want to drink? Every
(47:09):
single night without fail? And I would hear that, and
here we go, Yeah, make that towo cheeseburgers, make it
too frost whatever. Just yeah, And he was funny. I
just it was just a treat to be around. What
a great guy.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
And and this isn't that what this game is all about?
La this game is about the relationships and about the deep, deep,
deep friendships that we have. And that's that's how I
feel about you. I know I bugged the hell out
of you about being on this show, but it was
important to me for a bunch of reasons to have you.
You mean the world to me. I got a lot
of love for you, man, and I just I'm so
grateful for you to join Joe T and MP and
(47:48):
Cheats wherever, wherever you are Cheats, we missed you, uh
and why the producer today? Thanks for being on with
us La. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
I love you, Palace, Thank you for having me. Thank
you all. Nice to meet you all.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
Through Yeah Joe T gave you a hell yeah oh
yeah
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Podcast is happening today, and it's a special day because
I got my Sandbridge Beach hat on today for Sandbridge Island, Virginia,
the seventh inning stretch, my second home on AKA Paradise.
We got MP on the mic with us. Let's go,
and Joe T's behind his Joe T. You excited about
today's show? Hell yeah, this one's They're all special here
(02:55):
at party time. We're deep into to season two. Been
working on this one for a while for a whole
host of reasons. The early nineties when I got my
start in baseball, there was a lot of influential people
and this guy taught me a lot of stuff some
might say shit, and so I'm really excited about having
him on. There's also a real deep connection with him
(03:18):
in many ways, including with my father, which I'll get
into a little bit as well. But Larry Anderson, the
Philadelphia Phillies legend major League Baseball with the lead pitchers
six and ninety nine appearances, and former Reading Phillies pitching
coach of the only championship team I have ever been
a part of in the minor leagues, the nineteen ninety
(03:38):
five Reading Fighting Phillies. LA. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Hell, thanks Bonnie, I appreciate it. Thank y'all. Good to
be here.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
I we never script these shows out. They're conversations, not interviews.
MP and cheets. If he if he can get here today,
we'll do one shots and give you one shot question.
You don't actually have to do a shot unless you
want to. It's up to you. But they're going to
come in and out and Joe t you either say hell,
(04:08):
yeah or hell when he agrees or disagrees. I got
a funny feeling that you guys are on the same
page and he's going to agree with you a lot.
I didn't know where to really start, so I'll start here.
My family moved to Philadelphia in nineteen seventy nine. My
dad and I spent many a Sunday afternoon with him
laying on the couch with the Philadelphia Inquirer over his head,
(04:29):
faking like he was taking a nap, but listening to
Whitey and Harry, who later in life I found out
were pretty much hung over every Sunday day. Game. Is
that right?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Pretty much?
Speaker 1 (04:41):
We don't judge here at the part of time podcasts,
but at some point in the and I don't remember
when it was but did you wear a mask on
the field one day or something? Didn't you have a mask?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I've been known to wear some masks, Yeah, every now
and then.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah. Well my dad saw that and he instantly he
became his favorite film, and he followed you his whole career.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
And then later on in life, you got you and
he kind of started this this relationship through me. And
I'll talk about that a little bit later. But you
and I didn't really meet until nineteen ninety five. But
before we start there, you you got into the big
leagues late. Well, talk about talk about your your journey
(05:23):
to get into the big leagues. First. I want to
start there because it's a great story because you ended
up one shy seven hundred, Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah, yeah, I think I think that Preston Matting, we
should sign you to a one day contract and let
you pitch one batter.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I would like to do that, and I'm well, actually
I need five, And he said, I think I've end
up with nine hundred and ninety five innings, so I'd
like to get a thousand. So if you can make
that happen, I would really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Well, we'll make some phone calls after the taping.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
You might want to look for another arm too.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Oh you do is throw sliders anyway, And I found
that out first place. I'll tell that story later too,
about how La threw me sliders one morning at like
four o'clock in the morning. But talk about your I'm
so excited right now. I came even keep my head straight.
Talk about your journey into the big leagues.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
La Well. I signed in seventy one out of high school.
I was five, So I signed. I got a ten
thousand dollars signing bonus. I was a seventh round pick
by the Cleveland Indians. I knew early on that I
was not going to be real good at making good
decisions in my life because with my signing bonus of
ten thousand dollars in nineteen seventy one, I had a
(06:33):
choice to buy a red sixty eight Mustang that was
souped up, that was beautiful, or I could have bought
ten acres at seven hundred dollars an acre in Aspen, Colorado.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And so how'd you like the car? So?
Speaker 2 (06:52):
I liked it until it ended up in a ditch
and I walked away from it. And I'm still making.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
For those Was that a nineteen seventy one also that was.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
That was a couple of years later I had I've
managed to hang on to it for a couple of years.
But could you imagine ten acres and Aspen right now? Oh,
it's millions, that's and that's why I said, I'm just
I'm not a smart man, and I've never made good
decisions in my life for the most part. And it
started there. I got to the big leagues in seventy
(07:22):
five September call up, got sent back down, seventy six,
back up, and in fact, in seventy six I was
with Williamsport and we played against reading some great stories
from from playing days in those years, most of which
I probably can't share. You can't share anything on the
(07:43):
border pocket.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
We found that out. Hall of Famer Billy Wagner told
all the analysts to f off a couple of shows ago.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I'd be right there with him, and back down seventy six,
up for part of seventy seven, back down in seventy eight,
back up in seventy nine, back down. Well, no, Then
I got traded to Pittsburgh for one year. I was
in TRIPAA with them, then got tripped. What's that? No,
that was they were in Pittsburgh, was in Portland. I
(08:11):
was born in Portland. I grew up going to Portland
Beaver games with my aunt oftentimes. My father was a pilot.
He was killed when I was thirteen in a plane
crash out in Oregon, and so my aunt and I,
she would take me to a lot of the Portland
Beaver games. And they were a Cleveland affiliate at the time.
I didn't even realize that, but I would go to
(08:32):
games there with her, and so my dream growing up
was always to play for the Portland Beavers. And then
so I got to play for him in seventy eight
with Cleveland, I got to play for him with eight
and eighty with Pittsburgh, and I got to play with
them form with Portland with the Phillies in eighty three,
and at that point I was like, Okay, that dream's
(08:53):
come true enough. Now I want to move on to
maybe maybe some bigger aspirations, maybe to pitch in the
big leagues instead of just pitching for the Portland Beavers.
So the Phillies bought my contract from Seattle in eighty three.
It was hard to leave because I was playing with
such household names like Dave Edler and Paul Serna and
(09:15):
Dan Farova. I'm sure their names you guys have all heard.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
I think one of those guys. I think one of
those guys was about Uber Driver the other night.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Yeah, more most likely, and there were legitimate teammates. That
probably explains part of the reason why we only had
three thousand people a night at the Kingdome and why
we were in last place. But then when this yeat went,
when Philadelphia bought my contract in July of eighty three,
I walked into the clubhouse and uh, there was what
(09:49):
five or six future Hall of famers in there, p Rose,
Joe set Yep, Steve Carlton, Tony Perez. Yeah, and then
my locker was next to tug So when I walked,
I walked in that clubhouse leaving again leaving the likes
of Dave Edler and Paul Sooner and I walked into
this clubhouse. My first thought was, where's the clubhouse? I'm
(10:13):
supposed to go in this This is not where I belong.
I'm pretty certain of that, but it was. I mean,
that was in retrospect and looking back, that was one
of the highlights series highlights of my career was walking
into that clubhouse and seeing these legends, these Hall of famers,
are future Hall of famers, and it was just I
(10:36):
couldn't put words to it. It's just it's phenomenal, just
an unbelievably great feeling.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
The World Series.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yes, yes, In fact, I ended up being the only
pitcher or the only player uh to be in the
eighty three World Series and the ninety three World Series
with the Phillies. Nobody else was able to do that.
So yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
My dad who talked about already we didn't have a
pot to piss in and a lid to go on
top of the lid when I was growing up, and
my dad spent fifty bucks to take me to Game
four of the nineteen eighty three World Series, and I
remember he took me early. We stood in right field
and we listened to Pete Rose and Ron Reid during
batting practice talk about betting on football games. Oh boy, yeah, yeah,
(11:25):
And we were sitting in the seven hundred level, which
which those of you that haven't followed the Phillies from
Veterans Stadium days, LA will tell you the seven hundred
level was a place where young people like me learned
a lot about life in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, back in the
days of Veterans Stadium. But uh, but and Paul Owens
was your manager. One of my favorite people of all time.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, he was. He took over for pat Corrals. Pack
Corrals got fired and team was in first place. Go figure.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah, that's crazy. Sparky Law once said pack corralis was
a lot like a diaper. Half the time he's full
of shit and half the time he's all your ass.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
That sounds about right. Yeah, Pope took over. I came
there not knowing anything. I didn't know anything about the
National League. I didn't like the National League because they
had they had the pitchers hitting. And although I was
a career three point thirty three hitter in high school,
one for three, which which means I couldn't hit a lick.
(12:28):
But I do. I do make the argument. I did
make the argument at once with Tony Gwynn that I
was a better career hitter. I had a better career
average than he did. And he started he had that
high pitched laugh. And when we played together in San Diego,
this was after I started broadcasting. I was retired and
Tony was still playing, and so I was down in
the dugout with Tony and telling him how I my
career average was three sixty four. He's like, what the way,
(12:51):
I'm like, Tony, listen to me. I played in the
National League for eleven years. In four of those years,
I got a hit. Now you do the math eleven.
So he kind of had to agree with me there.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
So in Philly the World Series eighty three to ninety three,
I didn't realize that I want to talk a little
about the ninety three team. We can dive into that
now unless you want to do something about that. Ninety
three team was another team full of characters. You want
to talk about that for a second?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Oh man? That was it all kind of started in
spring training, where there was no you didn't drink. There
was no beer in the clubhouse in spring training. There
was during the regular season. Everybody had beer in the clubhouse,
most everybody, until they took it out of the Padres
clubhouse and thus fassages at the Padres. And he made
the comment about the Crocs who owned McDonald's or owned
(13:42):
the McDonald's franchises. He said, Oh, it's okay for you
to poison the world with your hamburgers, but we can't
have beer in the clubhouse.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Jo likes our hamburgers.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
It did not go over well. People probably don't realize this.
My second year in baseball in organ ball nineteen seventy two,
I was or seventy three, I'm sorry. As my third year,
I was a clubhouse manager. So I was a first
clubby player ever in the history of baseball that I
know of. I don't think anybody else did it before
(14:15):
me as a player. So we would do all the
washing of the underwear, the t shirts, the jocks. We
would supply to some flower seeds, the tobacco. We did
all that, and it paid for my eight by thirty
foot black aluminum trailer that I lived in in the
summer in Reno in seventy three. I shared that with
a guy named Jeff Roser, who we called Ma, and
(14:38):
we addressed her as she because she did all the cooking,
did all the cleaning did and the reason she was
such a good cook. And we lived together in this
eight by thirty trailer. And in the summer in Reno,
it gets hot, and it's an aluminum black trailer, so
it stayed pretty hot. But he would cook everything with
wine and he said, why do you do that? And
(15:00):
it could be it could be wine on cereal, it
didn't matter, but everything had wine in it. And I said,
what's the reason for that, ma, And he said, well,
if you don't like it by the time you sit
down for dinner, you'll like it by the time you
get up.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Hell yeah, you're already Jot's favorite guest. Lat loves you already.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
There's a former clubby the guy that runs the clubhouse.
I already had experience. So in ninety three I said
to the guys working in the clubhouse at that time,
I said, hey, if you guys will, let me do
the catcher's gear and clean that up. And that's what
they were doing at the time. I said, let me
handle that while you guys run to the store and
(15:43):
get us some beer. And so they did. So I
was cleaning the catcher's gear in ninety three in spring training,
we had about ten twelve guys hanging around. We're all
at one end of the clubhouse and at the other
end is Jim Eisenreich. And it's all been well documented
that you know he played, he had Tourett's They didn't
realize it. They didn't document it or didn't diagnose it.
(16:04):
I should say, for a couple of years he was
out of baseball, and then when he got diagnosed and
got the medication, he came back to play and ended
up coming to the Phillies. Now he had his you know,
Tourette's twerks or.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Twit twig, what do they call it? Twig twitter?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Twitter? Yeah, twitch, But he had those, and and so
he's down and went in the clubhouse. He's flipping through
a sporting news reading it, and I said, is I said,
come on, come on down here and join us, because
not that I didn't know him, but we talked and
he knew that I played against him when he first
came to the big leagues. We were in the Metro
Dome and I was with Seattle at the time when
the Metro Dome opened, and Isy was I believe their
(16:43):
lead off hitter, Rick Sweet was our catcher. He comes
back to the dugout after the first inning and he goes,
what is up with that? As enriched dude, Like, what
is wrong with him? He's up there, he's talking to bugs,
he's talking to himself. He's jumping around like and nobody knew.
Nobody had any idea. The everybody thought it was just
nervous and that type of thing. Anyway, so Issa is
(17:04):
at the other in the clubhouse and I said, Ezie,
come on down here, have a beer with us. He goes, now,
I don't drink and crucking mouse off. Oh no, that's
Jeffrey Dahmer. He's down there just waiting for one of
us to pass out so he can get something to eat.
So Eisenwit's nickname became Dahmer. To this day, when we
(17:24):
get together, it's not uncommon for somebody to drop a
Dahmer on him and he just laughs. But that's everything
started to kind of go sideways, right out of the
right out of the gates. And spring training when we
started that, and we'd have our beers there for ghosts,
all the coaches and everybody's left the clubhouse. They're long gone.
But that was one thing I think that made that
(17:45):
ninety three team so good, so cohesive, was that we
just we started together. We knew we were going to
have a good time together. And in fact, what Dalton
had just signed that spring, it signed an eighteen million
dollars contract, which is three it was huge. Well, we're
on overnight travel UH series over in the East Coast
(18:07):
and we're going from Clearwater over to Port Saint Lucie
and Vero Beach to play the Cardinals and the Dodgers.
So we're staying overnight. And when you stay overnight in
spring training, you have a roommate. Nowadays nobody has a roommate,
and during the regular season we didn't, but in spring
training you had a roommate. So Eisenwreich was rooming with incabilia.
So we're on the bus coming back from Vero and
(18:32):
the Derelicts, and you know, we were all sitting in
the back of the bus. Isy was in the middle
of the bus. Inky hollers up to Eisenwreich. He said, hey,
roomy iy. Isy looks back in the bus, looks the back,
looks to the back of the bus, and he goes,
what's up, and he goes, I just want to thank
you for not eating me last night, which eis Eisenwright
(18:55):
leans back over the island, looks back, he goes, You're welcome,
lunch and everything. I think we probably stopped four times
for beer from from driver. It was about four hours,
so we figured we had stuff about every hour. The
bus driver made about four hundred dollars on that trip
(19:17):
just from tips from all the guys. But that's everything
kind of just started that spring and it just it
carried over. It was just, I mean, a magical time,
a great time. This team they played as hard on
the field as they did off the field, or vice versa.
But when that bell rang when they crossed that white line.
I've never been on a team that played the game
(19:38):
so well and so right all the time, whether and
we policed ourselves if something went south the players. Dalton
was the leader of that club by far, the leader,
but he would take care of it. He would nip
it in the bud for Goosie. As good of a
manager he was, he had the easiest job in the world.
You would think with that lunatic clubhouse that it would
(19:59):
be a struggle, but it wasn't. He didn't have to
do anything because we took care of everything. We really
as players, which that's gone by the wayside today. You
just don't see it anymore.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I've talked like Jimmy Leland one time, who's, as you know,
is an awesome, awesome, awesome guy. He used to always say,
let let the players police themselves. The players police themselves.
And I was a fan of that team. I was
working in Reading, which we met the next year. I
believe for for real, for real, for physically for the
first time ever. But I remember having an exhibition game
(20:33):
and Kruck pitched. He took one at bat and then Reading,
and then he was gone, and the media wanted to
find Kruck and I couldn't find Kruck. I'm walking all
over the ballpark. Kruck was in the grounds crew pit,
drinking a beer, sitting on the lawnmower, and I walked
to I, go, Cruk, the media is looking for you.
He goes, how much think this thing costs? I need
(20:53):
to buy me one of these? And that was the
That was the epitome of that whole team. Name for
our listeners, some of the guys as you play with
on that ninety three team, So the people that are
on Phillies fans remember it was Kroc, Dykstra.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Dalton, Dalton, Dave Hollands. Yeah, head Marion.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Almost as big as Bruce Bochis, which is damn near impossible.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Mitch Williams, MITCHI pooh. We had an unbelievable starting staff
with Shilling, Tommy Green, Terry mulholland, Ben Rivera and Danny Jackson.
The bullpen was pretty much David West, Mitch Williams, myself,
and then we got Roger Mason at the deadline. Mike
Williams played a big role at times in that bullpen.
(21:41):
We had platooning in left field was Inky Kabilia and
Milk Thompson, Dykester in center, and then West, Chamberlain and
Eisenwright platooning in uh in right, and then making me
with Morendini and Mariano Duncan platooned at second. We had
three platoons, which everybody said, you know, you can't you
can't win with platoons. We had three of them. And
the thing about it is everybody pulled for each other.
(22:03):
It didn't matter. It just didn't matter, and that was
it was just it was an unselfish team and again
like playing the game the right way when they went
if somebody didn't run hard, they heard about it in
the dugout for Ghost. He didn't have to say anything,
and it was just it was just a just a
joy to play on that team, it really was.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
And experiencing that la and now broadcasting so long. I
remember when you left reading to become a broadcaster. We
talked about it, and so you've been broadcasting almost thirty years.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Now, right, Pretty cool around there.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Yeah, And how do you bite your tongue when you
see somebody jaking it out there?
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Or do you bite your tongue? I don't know. I
watched tatus when we just played the Padres this last
week of the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Is that the right days? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
I think so, and tat teams.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
All the days run together in baseball, they do matter.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
But Tatuas hit a couple of ground balls where he
literally jogged down the first base and I was like,
oh man, he must be hurt. I'm trying to give
him the benefit of doubt, kind of being a little sarcastic.
I said, boy, he must really be that hamstring or
knee or something must be really bothering him. Then he's
hits a ball I think it was in the third game.
(23:19):
He hits a ball swinging bunt and he busted it
down the line and beats it out for a base hit.
And I'm like, oh, so his leg's not bad, so
there's really no excuse for the way he was not
running those ground balls, and I just I let him
have it. I just I can't. There's some things I
can't bite my tongue at and I when I do
(23:40):
it again, and I'll do it against the Phillies players too,
And when I do it, then I get called in
and get my handslapped because they say I'm being negative.
My response is always, you guys need to get a
dictionary and look up the definition of negativity and look
up the definition of honesty. They're completely different. They're not
the same thing. So when I'm calling out guys on
(24:00):
our team being honest, that's not negative. That's just being honest.
And I think that's why I've got such a good
rapport with the fans here, and I hear probably from
ninety eight percent of them when they say something to me,
it's always something to do with keeping it real. Thanks
for telling us the truth, Thanks for being honest with us.
And in Philadelphia, if you're not, you're done. You have
no credibility. And I'm a huge fan too. If people
(24:23):
are sitting at home watching the game and something happens,
they want to throw the shoe through the TV. I'm
feeling the same way and I'm broadcasting that way, much
to the chagrin of our front office, who, when he
was our president, Andy McPhail literally introduced my wife, Christie
and myself to his wife's family, introduced us as this.
This is Christy and Larry Anderson. Larry's one of the
(24:46):
more beloved broadcasters in Philadelphia, not so much by the
front office, though. It stopped me im and it's stunned
me because I've been saying it for twenty years and
I finally got somebody to admit it. So, I mean,
between that and having one of my bosses tell me
(25:08):
that I was a dime a dozen, I was like,
all right, well, it is what it is. I'm not
going to change. I'm not going to I'm not going
to give up my credibility to the fans to appease
the front office to piece my bosses. And I told
them this is probably four or five years ago. I said,
if you guys would have let me go, feel free.
(25:28):
And I wasn't trying to be pompous or braggadocious, but
I was saying, I don't I don't need this job,
I don't need the money. Well that might have been
a lie, but it sounded good at the time, and
I set up with a lot of confidence, so I
think they believed.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Hey, La, it wouldn't have been a lot of you
would involved that that property in Veil said that mustang exactly.
Oh my god, that bunch of ninety three that was
towards the end of your career. Is there is there
a moment? I mean ninety three. Actually, it was the
only time I ever heard my dad curse. My dad
(26:06):
was real. He was a missionary, real Christian man. I
took him to Cooperstown for Game six. Am I telling
this story right? I think I'm telling the story right.
That was when Joe Carter hit the home run. Right,
We're sitting in our hotel NAM at Cooperstown. Mitch throws
the ball, Joe deposits it in the left field left
(26:27):
field stands, and I didn't see the ball because my
dad went, damn it as soon as Mitch as soon
as as soon as the ball hit the bat, my
dad knew it was gone. But that group really changed
in my mind. The Phillies like connected to Philly fans
in such a way because you all were so blue collar,
(26:47):
and now you've become a legend through the years in Philly,
because you're honesty and because like Larry Anderson, to me,
it's just like the Philly fanatic in Philadelphia, like you're
you're one and the same. Like when I think of
the Philly I think a bunch of things, but you're
one of them, and I appreciate that. Then you made
the transition, and that's when we met in reading Pennsylvania.
(27:08):
Talk about that transition. You were a player coach first off,
if I remember correctly.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Yeah, ninety five. I went down. I went to spring
training late because we'd had the strike after the ninety
four season. They wanted me to come down to minor
league camp and I was like, I can't do that.
I'm a major league player. And they said, well, you're
not under contract, which I wasn't the last couple of
years of my career. The last few years, I just
(27:34):
signed one year deals, and I usually signed it at
the end of spring training, so they'd have roster spots
up until then. I had to go down to spring training.
I wasn't happy about it, but I went down there.
Doctor Fish was our team psychologist or organizational psychologist, and
so he was speaking to the minor league guys. The
whole group of them, and he was out in front
and he had his camera and had somebody taking pictures.
And I see him taking pictures of doctor Fish talking
(27:57):
to kids, and they put the camera back in the bag.
I was in the trainer's room with Norm Charlton, who
was there also for injury. So I'm like, you know what,
I think I'm going to take some pictures with doctor
Fish's camera. So I got in his bag and I
handed the camera to Norm and I said, Norm, will
you do me a favor you take a couple of pictures?
And he goes, yeah, what, And I said, well, just
(28:17):
a minute, I'll show you. So I turned around, I've
bent over dropped trial and I said how about this?
So he took a picture of my bare ass, put
the camera back in the bag, never said a word.
I said, please do not repeat this, don't anybody, don't
share this with anybody. About two months later, I see
Doctor Fish and he goes, I know it was you.
(28:40):
I know it was you. I'm like, what, Doc, And
he goes, I was going through these photos of spring
training talking to the minor league guys, and I'm flipping
through them and I'm showing my wife all these pictures
of me talking to the minor league guys, and all
of a sudden, this one picture came up, which happened
to be my backside.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
And she said, oh, Fish, that's Larry Anderson's ass.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
He's like, we'll keep going, maybe we'll get more. But anyway,
so I was down there in spring training and I
went through it and then we settled the strike. Well,
I've already been pitching. I was already basically through spring
training when major league camp opened, so we didn't have
a pitching coach in Redding. So Lee Thomas I asked Lee, actually,
(29:24):
if I could go to Redding, since I've already been
through spring training, let me go to Redding and just pitch,
you know, be on the roster and stay sharp so
I would have a chance to get back to the
big leagues, maybe get that seven hundredth game or that
one thousandth inning. So I go down there, and Lee's like, well,
(29:44):
I got any better idea. You can do that, but
how about if you become our pitching coach there too,
because you don't have a pitching coach for reading. And
I was like, I'd love it, because I loved I
loved even at the time, working with guys like Toby
Borland or Rick and Batalico. Talking to these guys just
mental stuff and things and trying to help him. So
I thought this would be great. So I did that.
(30:06):
I thoroughly enjoyed it, and until one point I was pitching.
I'm forty It was in ninety five. I'm forty two,
so I'm forty two years old. Most of the guys
I'm playing against are twenty one, twenty two, maybe twenty four,
and we're pitching in a game. I'm pitching in a game.
I'm in a game and we were down five to
(30:27):
nothing to who was it that they had purple uniforms,
not New Haven anyway. Down five to nothing, we're down.
We come back. It's like the fifth inning. We're down
five to nothing. All of a sudden we start coming
back and a Don Milan ends up hitting a home
run and then Gary Bennett comes up and they drill
him after we tied it. So I'm like, oh, you
(30:49):
got to be kidding me. I'm in the game. They
just drilled one of our guys after we come back
and tie it up after a home run. I'm like,
I don't and he hit one of these guys.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
You know, they got to it.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Yeah, it's gonna hurt them, but it wouldn't hurt But
I mean just the fact that I had to do it.
So I'm like, this is brutal. So Eric, we go
out next inning. Their dh is up, short kid, but
stocky strong probably could have broke me in half. He
comes up when I drill him in the back, like
the back of the shoulder. The next thing I know,
(31:25):
I hear our bench is all laughing, all the guys
on our bench. So get out of the inning, come
back into the dug out and I go, hey, guys,
come here, I said, one of you guys want to
please explain to me why you thought it was so
funny that I had to go out there and drill
that guy. And I drill him and then you all
start laughing. And he goes, wait, you didn't hear what
he said? And I was like, no, what do you say?
(31:48):
He threw his bad down. He looked at and he goes,
you're too old for me to fuck with. I said, well,
I don't really blame me for laughing, then go ahead,
no problem.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
No he wasn't wrong either.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
No he wasn't He was not wrong at all.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
But but then, but then we went. We went on
and seriously won the championship.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
That year, and almost without Wayne Gomes.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Go ahead, I was, I was teeing you out for
this one. Go ahead and tell the Wayne Gomes story.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
As a pitching coach, you have to you have to
appoint the guys the next pitch, the next starting pitcher,
to chart all the pitches. So you get the chart,
you get the pad and the pencil. And every time
somebody was charting the game, Wayne Gomes would go over
and break the pencil and I'd have to go back
into the clubhouse, walk through the stands or through the
concourse to the clubhouse to get another pencil, bring it out.
(32:40):
And he kept doing this. I said, Grimace. I called
him Grimace.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
I said Wayne Gomes's body MP literally looked like the Grimace. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
McDonald's maybe the worst body in baseball, at least certainly for.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
A number one pick out of old Dominion.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
They're breaking a pencil, I told Grimace, Like, the next
time you do it, you're going to be sorry. The
next game breaks the pencil, Like, all right, here we go.
So I just happened to get a call from ESPN,
the magazine saying, would you be interested in doing a
little prank that we could do put on TV, put
on our ESPN magazine show. I'm like, sure, I think
of something. So I'm thinking, you know what, this would
(33:19):
be the first time to get Grimace. So they sent
out a news crew with cameraman and actually it was
a Korean guy, not Japanese, but we made the story
that we're the Japanese group was coming in here to
do a documentary on minor league baseball, and they picked
the Redding Phillies to document it. And they said they're
(33:39):
going to be walking around with the mic, so just
let them have access. They've got access to everything. The
Phillies are aware everything's cool, and so they'll, you know,
they will be doing interviews and stuff for this documentary.
So it's all set up. I mean, Wayne Golm's agent knew,
our general manager, Lee Thomas, knew what was going on
in Philadelphia. It was all clear.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Weird.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
So we have a meeting after batting practice and Bill
Dancy's the manager. He comes in. He says, Fellas, I
got some news I want to share with you. The
Phillies have just traded Wayne Gomes to Japan and it
just so happens. There's this documentary crew here. James Chang
was it was a creak. I wasn't even Japanese, but
(34:22):
he and his cord for the mic was in his
coat pocket. I mean, nobody had any idea that nothing
was even going on, nothing was being taped or recorded,
but they were falling everybody around. So they started falling
gomes around and I said, it's only for a for
a year, I mean for the rest of this year.
He's still our property. He'll be back with us in
spring training. But it was something that we thought would
help the major league club. So he's going to be leaving.
(34:45):
This is I think on a Friday. He said he's
got to be leaving, got to leave Sunday morning for Japan.
So he's already packing his bag, taking stuff out, throwing
his shoes to snack. Bark Mitchell buddy, best friend Mary Mitchell,
Arry Mitchell, He's going Richmond, who lives in.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
The Richmond area, came up to me last year at a
game and we told this story to each other again.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Yet out Oh, so Gomesy's throwing him his red spikes
because I can't. I guess I can't use these over there,
and Mitchell gets him and he's starting and Mitchell's crying. Larry,
Mitchell's crazy, I don't want your spikes and he throws
him back and.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Did we have Gomezyla, didn't we have Gomez? He call
his parents.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Oh yeah, he's on the phone with his mom. His mom.
He's talking to his momm He said, yeah, Mom, I'm
I got traded to Uh. I was like to yes,
yea Couci Massachusetts or something. It was Nomo's old team.
I mean, he had no idea what team he was
going to, but all he knew was Nomo's old team.
So and then he's talking to her, telling his mom,
talking to his fiance, trying to get a hold of her,
(35:44):
and it just kind of carried on, probably for about
an hour, and then we came into clubhouse and had
another meeting and Bill Dancer says, anybody got anything to say?
And he looks at me and goes, and you got
something to say? When I say something? I said, well, yeah,
I said, I'd just like to, you know, pre to
give Wayne Gomes my appreciation for all his hard work
he's done this year. He has helped us get to
(36:05):
this point in first place, hopefully that leads us to
a championship. And I just I just really appreciate all
he's done for us, and I also just wanted to
mention that with all those broken pencils, I told you
I would get you, and all of a sudden he
just went ear to ear grin, knowing it was a joke.
Everything he had then done and gone through, he knew
(36:27):
he wasn't going to Japan, so all worked out, but
it was well worth it.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
And then he got you back in Harrisburg.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Yeah, he tried for lack of child support. I'm like, well,
that's not really going to work because I know I
pay automatically every month and even if I didn't pay,
I didn't care. So that he had tops there trying
to put me in handcuffs and all this. He's like,
that's not gonna work, but he tried. It was a
(36:56):
good effort.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
That's one of my favorite stories in my tire thirty
six year career, the Wayne Gomes getting traded to Japan
story MP one shot. Sorry we kept you waiting so long,
but I knew this was going to happen with LA.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
I think we're all enjoying it absolutely. What's what's your
most famous?
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Right?
Speaker 3 (37:15):
I know the Jello one? Everybody talks about it?
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Is that it?
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Or is there is there another one?
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Now? Probably I would say that the Jellogate or or
the Goames trade to Japan, they're they're both one. One
was a lot more involved. The Jellgate was much more involved.
And it's a long, long story, but h that's that
was probably the top. I would say Gomes was the
second number two.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
How'd you get in the room?
Speaker 1 (37:40):
That was? When? Was it? Renee Latsman La? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Yeah, well I know it was good friends. We'd been
in winter ball together, our family, my wife and his
wife and me and him. We'd gone to dinner, been together,
done a lot of things together. So I was a
little skeptical and I wasn't like I was lid with
that group, with the Farova, the Serna, the Edler's. I
was one of those guys like hanging on by the
(38:07):
skin of my teeth, so probably went a little more
overboard than I should have. But that was one of
the greatest capers of all time because it lasted for
what three almost four months? Do they still prank like that?
Speaker 1 (38:23):
When you were.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
I don't, I am. I don't think they did it
in spring training. They actually I thought he was a copycat.
They got Kyle Kendrick. Brett Myers I think was an
instigator behind it. He got Kyle Kendrick, they got traded
him to Japan. So it was basically it was a
takeoff of the Wayne Gomes prank. But it worked. It
(38:46):
was good, although KK was a little upset with it.
He was not happy about it. But it was a
good prank. But it wasn't original.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Do you remember in nineteen ninety five when we I
think it was the last game. I think we wanted
in writing the last game and I walked in the
morning now mp JOT, producer Wyatt, everybody out in party
time Land. Larry Anderson taught me a lot of things
in my career, one of which was you weren't supposed
to mix Crown Royal with anything other than an ice cube.
(39:20):
That was one of the first things he taught me
because I was wanting to put diet coke in it,
and he's like, no, kid, just take an ice cube
and go through it like this, and that's that's gonna
be good enough. But I walked into the clubhouse that
morning and you were standing there in your underwear and
you said, I said to you, La, if we win
(39:40):
this thing, me and you all night slapped this hand
and you're in and you remember what happened.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
I'm not sure exactly what happened all prior, but I
remember what happened. Driving out of that stadium.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
At what time of the day.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
It was seven o'clock. It was very light, very light
to the point where I actually had some glasses on,
which I don't think you could have worn because as
as we're driving another park and I look over a
Parney's car and I see him look over and wait,
he's got a Catcher's mask on. Well, he's driving out.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
I had to wear a catcher's mask just for saying.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
I will never ever forget that visual. I never That'll
never leave my mind ever. It just won't. That's one
of my best memories of reading. And I don't know
if that's sad or not. I just just think it's funny.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
When you and I talked about doing this show, and
one of the first things you texted me was you
still have your Catcher's mask on MP You got another
one shot of for Larry Anderson. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:44):
I mean, I'm curious about if you and Bagwell ever
connect about your your role in one of the best
trades in baseball history.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
I I used to when we play Houston, I would
always find out I would I would look for Baggy
and say, dude, you better pick it up a little bit.
I said, I haven't heard my name that much in
the trade deadlines of late and I think, you know,
with you hitting more home runs and getting into the
Hall of Fame, you can keep me relevant for a
(41:13):
lot of years. I said, you just need to hit
a few more home runs. Well, wouldn't you know it?
In his Hall of Fame speech, he mentioned my name
and he said, Larry Anderson, who I got traded for,
used to get on me about I need to hit
more home runs and hit more home runs. And he's
(41:34):
standing there on the stage and he goes, is this
good enough for you?
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Larry?
Speaker 2 (41:40):
And that was part of his Hall of Fame induction speech.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Hell hell yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
I really appreciated that.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
One of our guests in season one A Parting Time
with Steve Klein, la, can you really quickly tell the
Steve Clin story When we were in the minor leagues
together and what you did with Steve Klein.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
I just remember offering to get a limousine for him,
because every time he pitched against us, we torched him.
We did. We just lit him up, and he was
a good pitcher, but we just we had his number.
And it was like there was I don't know exactly
what it was, and he might have told you, you know,
(42:17):
recently about what it was, but there was something where
I was like, well, I'm just I'm gonna send a
limousine to make sure that you get to make to
get to the park on time every game that you're
playing against us, because we got a real good chance
to win if you're in there.
Speaker 1 (42:31):
He literally was. He was here in Richmond, l A
not too long ago, and he told a bunch of
the staff members of the story. He said, he walked
out of the hotel and reading and there was a
limousine driver there that had his name on a car
to said Climb and he's like, what's this all about.
He goes, oh, well, mister Anderson from the reading Phillies
sent a limo for you. Wanted to make sure you
get to the ballpark on time so his hitters can
(42:53):
tear you up again tonight.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
I'll tell you what there was. There was nothing the
fun that you can have. And I know it's of
business and guys are trying to, you know, make their
careers happen. But I've always said, if you can't have
fun in the game, you shouldn't be in it. And
it's like, I'm gonna have fun no matter what I'm doing,
and that's stuff like that. You do it and then
you think back, like, man, I hope I didn't crush
this guy, but I think I knew Clienty enough at
(43:18):
the time that he'll be able to handle it.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
He's just he's just fine. Don't worry about Steve Fan
and he finishes up with one last one if you
got one that I want to talk about my relationship
with La and my dad as we close up.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
Yeah, tell me about you know, a lot of the bullpens,
you know, the fans have access to you while hanging
out out there were there were there any memorable fans
along the way.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
Well, when they were doing the wave one time in Pittsburgh,
there was a girl sitting on the edge of the
stands right next to the bullpen and kind of well endowed.
I didn't do it, but there were guys in there
going raise the shirt up every time they were doing
the wave. Sure enough they they used to are doing
(44:00):
the wave, and sure enough, here she goes with the
shirt up. I don't know exactly how it came about,
but somehow we got this bra from her and we
all we all signed it in appreciation of what you
did for us. Even guys with long names had plenty
of room.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
So oh, my goodness, Well, we could go on and
on and on and on about the times we've had
together through the years. You've always been really good to me.
I want to close it up. My my dad passed away.
I'm looking at his picture right here in my office
August fifth, twenty twenty two. He was a huge Larry
Anderson fan. I can remember laying in his hospital bed
(44:43):
with him a couple of days before he passed away,
and he asked me if I had talked to you recently,
and I'll tell him, you know, you've always been great
about staying in touch and UH. And then at his UH,
at his viewing, I walked out into the lobby and
one of the the prettiest bouquet of flowers in the
form of a cross. I believe it was was from
(45:05):
Larry Anderson and that touched me in such a way
during a deep time. This show's all about relationships and
we laugh. We've laughed for forty five minutes so far today.
But that's how deep these relationships are in LA You're
one of the great ones. You meant a lot to
my dad. You mean a lot to me and my
family on his uh, I think it was his birthday
(45:27):
last year. Something must to pump up in your phone
because you sent me another text so that that means
a lot to me. And when they when they went
to take the flowers to the to the grave site,
I said, that's the one right there that goes at
my nearest my dad's head, because he would want Larry
Anderson to be next to him as he's resting eternally
in peace. So we're going to close it up. There's
(45:50):
so many other questions, like you let me finish your
favorite teammate because you have you're such a popular dude.
I want to know who your favorite teammate was of
all time.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
Probably David West who died a few years ago from
the brain cancer. Yeah, he was. We had a thing
when we in ninety three where we had adjoining rooms.
The rules were the doors never lock between us, They're
always open. I kind of learned to regret that Westy
(46:24):
would start the year at two fifty he would end
the year at two seventy five. And with these joining rooms,
we would go out and have us. He would call
them social sparklers. Pretty race, Yes, social sparklers. After every
game we'd go have a few, and we'd come back
to the room two thirty. Maybe maybe we weren't didn't
(46:47):
have our wits all about us, so we would come
back and the next thing you know is jol you
want a cheeseburger? No way, No, I don't want a
cheeseburg Yeah, make that two cheeseburgers. Do you want any fries?
No ways, I don't want burgs. I don't want Yeah,
get two fries. What do you want to drink? Every
(47:09):
single night without fail? And I would hear that, and
here we go, Yeah, make that towo cheeseburgers, make it
too frost whatever. Just yeah, And he was funny. I
just it was just a treat to be around. What
a great guy.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
And and this isn't that what this game is all about?
La this game is about the relationships and about the deep, deep,
deep friendships that we have. And that's that's how I
feel about you. I know I bugged the hell out
of you about being on this show, but it was
important to me for a bunch of reasons to have you.
You mean the world to me. I got a lot
of love for you, man, and I just I'm so
grateful for you to join Joe T and MP and
(47:48):
Cheats wherever, wherever you are Cheats, we missed you, uh
and why the producer today? Thanks for being on with
us La. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
I love you, Palace, Thank you for having me. Thank
you all. Nice to meet you all.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
Through Yeah Joe T gave you a hell yeah oh
yeah
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