Heartfelt Comebacks, Career Reflections, and picking up the Mic with Kent Tekulve

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What truly shapes a sports career? Unravel the unexpected journey of former National League pitcher Kent Tekulve, who ventured from the mound to the broadcast booth after hanging up his cleats at 42. Without ever aspiring to be a broadcaster, Kent found himself embracing opportunities that came his way, including a role in public relations with the Pirates. Join us as Kent shares how a chance opening, due to Jim Fregosi's appointment as the Phillies' manager, turned into an unexpected and fulfilling new career. His story captures the serendipitous and sometimes humorous turns life can take after professional sports.

Kent also reflects on the pivotal trade that sent him from the Pittsburgh Pirates to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1985. Amidst apprehension and uncertainty, Kent was welcomed with a standing ovation, defying his expectations and showcasing the warm side of Philadelphia fans. This episode uncovers behind-the-scenes strategic maneuvers, the camaraderie among teammates, and the influential figures who shaped these crucial transitions. Kent's tale offers a personal glimpse into the often unpredictable and complex nature of baseball trades and the surprising connections that form along the way.

Dive into the scandalous era of 1980s baseball as Kent sheds light on the leadership turmoil within the Pittsburgh Pirates and the infamous drug trials that shook the league. From his firsthand experiences, Kent provides candid insights into the chaos and the lessons learned from those tumultuous times. As his career transitioned from player to broadcaster, Kent found joy in offering second chances to young players in independent baseball and recounts the emotional journey of returning to the sport post-heart transplant. This episode is a tribute to resilience, mentorship, and the enduring love for baseball that defines Kent's remarkable journey.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
welcome another episode of hold my cutter coming
your way here at burn by rockypatel, down the road from pnc
park, our special guest kent, tocall v, who pitched in relief
more times than any otherNational League pitcher Any, any
, any In baseball history.
And he recommended the numbersix, rocky Patel, which we are

(00:32):
enjoying now with a 95 rating.
90, that's about how hardTeague threw in the day.
Well, my wish.
Well, whatever Medium-bodiedcigar wrapped in stunning
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(00:52):
smokers alike.
And our guests here at Burnedby Rocky Patel receive gift
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And those gift cards allow youthe opportunity to check out
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Schedule a free fitting with astylist at our lounge in mount

(01:16):
lebanon.
And we also want to thank, asalways the great, our cats from
berkshire hathaway.
Yes, berkshire hathaway homeservices.
Ask Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices.
Ask Eric Katz at Ask Era.
That's A-R-A-H.
Katz, k-a-t-z.
Go to askerikatzcom Buying orselling a home.
Nobody better than Eric Katzand nobody better as a reliever.

(01:38):
And became a longtime coloranalyst After your days with the
Philadelphia Phillies.
Previous episode Kent Ekovi, wetalked about your days pitching
, but we didn't get into yet theopportunity to be a broadcaster
.
When you were pitching, whenyou were playing, did you think
down the road like McHenry?
When McHenry first came intothe big leagues, one of the

(01:59):
first things he said was I'mgoing to be a top podcaster.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
I'm going to be a pre and post game Were you like
that?
Yeah, I was absolutely likethat.
I had no idea.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
No idea, amen, no idea.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
I had no thoughts at all.
In fact, the way it happened, Ihad retired at the age of 42,
came back, did a little PR work.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
At the young age of 42?

Speaker 2 (02:23):
At the young age of 42.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
I'm not 40.
No, I was a worn-out 42.
Not even 40, yet that'sincredible.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
I was a worn-out 42.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
When did you think about McHenry?
When did you think about it,about broadcasting?
How old were you?

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Never, never.
I didn't.
I was terrified to do it.
Learning disabilities growingup I'm sure everybody's heard
that story, but yeah, I got anopportunity when Teek was here.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Oh, that's okay, We'll get into it, all right,
all right yeah it's one of thosethings that's really neat.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
It's because Teek's such a great guy.
I'm sure that's how that dooropened.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Well, I'll tell you what the door opened
accidentally for me you didn'tkick it in he.
I had done some PR work for thePirates, just working around
the ballpark, going aroundthanking people, stuff like that
, doing a few speeches here orthere or whatever you sound like
a politician.
The year after I retired.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
yeah, yeah, kind of yeah, kissing babies.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
And all of a sudden, my second year.
I'm still doing the same thing,or I'm getting ready to do the
same thing.
The season has just started.
About two weeks into the season, the Phillies fired their
manager and named Jim Fregositheir new manager.
Well, jim Fregosi had beenworking in the front office as a
consultant and a bunch of otherstuff, and one of the things he
was doing was they had apackage on Sports Channel that

(03:46):
they called it was a 25-gamepackage.
It was their smallest TVpackage.
It was just select games andthey did them over.
They spread them out over thecourse of the whole year.
Well, fregosi gets themanager's job, so he can't be
the analyst on this TV packageanymore in the middle of April.

(04:08):
So they've got a whole seasonfull of almost 20.
It was a 25-game package.
I think he did one and it waslike a miserable long 14-inning
game in the cold at Shea Stadium.
He was miserable about it.
He told me the story later.
So the Phillies decided let'sgo back through all the guys

(04:31):
we've had over the years andjust anybody that we think might
be good.
Bring each one of them in forthree, four, five games during
the course of the season andwe'll fill that spot over the
course of this year, just tofinish out the schedule, and
then next year we'll figure outwhat we're going to do with it.
Well, I happen to be, for somereason, who spent probably the

(04:53):
least amount of time on anybodyin philadelphia as a player.
Uh, one of the guys that theycalled I mean they called me, it
was mike schmidt, it was greggross, jake Johnstone, gary
Maddox you know guys withpersonalities that they thought
could do a little speaking.
So I ended up doing five games.
I mean literally how muchpreparation I had for it.

(05:17):
I got a call on a Tuesdaysaying would you even think
about it?
Have you ever thought aboutbroadcasting?
No, not really.
Says well, you know, explain tome, not really.
Says well, explain to me whathappened.
Says well, this was on Tuesday.
Says well, would you beinterested?
I don't know if I'll be anygood, I'll try.
It Says well, okay, get a planetomorrow, fly to Montreal,

(05:38):
you're doing the game Thursdaynight.
Says well, don't you?
You know, do we need to have ameeting or talk?
No, don't worry about it, we'lljust figure it out as we go.
So literally that's how I gotinto broadcasting is show up on
Thursday and we'll figure outwhat's going to happen.
So I get there on Thursday, I'mworking with Andy Musser, sit

(05:59):
down with Ray Tipton, theproducer, before the game.
We're having the dinner andfortunately, fregosi and I had
played together.
He was here with the Piratesfor a while, so I knew Jim and
some of the players on thePhillies team were still guys
that I was familiar with from acouple of years ago when I was
still playing.
So Jim being Jim put togetheran entire lineup that night of

(06:25):
people that I would know.
He did not have any of his newguys that had come in in the
last three years.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
I'm going to help out my buddy, my broadcaster Kent
to call me by putting in theguys that he knows.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
Now I wonder if that's better or if Walk making
the lineup in the big leagues isbetter.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
I can make a better lineup than this.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
That's pretty good Baseball's great.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Well, I'll tell you what, though.
Our friendship was good before.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
It really bonded that night, my gosh.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
So that was my introduction to broadcasting.
It ended up doing a total offive games over the course of
the whole season.
Some of them were on the road,some of them were in
Philadelphia.
It was like, yeah, let's do itone game a month.
You know which is not easy.
And the the greatest part waswe.
We had the dinner, right.
We went up to the press roombefore we started and it was ray

(07:14):
tipton.
Myself and andy were sittingthere and uh, ray gets ready to
leave.
He says, uh, we're gonna,because we used to um, because
we used to rehearse.
No, we taped the open, we usedto tape the open.
So he says we're going to tapethe open or we're going to tape
the stand-up at you know, 6.50,whatever time it was, 7.05, game

(07:38):
, 6.50.
Okay, so he leaves and he goesupstairs, or he goes to the
truck or wherever he goes, and Ilook at Andy and I go Andy.
He says what's a stand-up?
He says Andy, andy.
You know, andy, andy being Andy, he looks at me and he goes.
You stand up right next to meand answer whatever question I

(07:59):
ask you.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
Pretty simple.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
I can do that, I have done that before.
I can do that, I have done thatbefore, I can do that.
And that was my introduction tobroadcasting and my first
lesson of what you do as abroadcaster.
We literally went by the seatof our pants through the whole
five games that I did.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
Did you work with Andy each time?

Speaker 2 (08:20):
Sometimes with Harry, right?
No, I worked with Andy and Iworked with Chris Wheeler.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Did you ever work with Harry?

Speaker 2 (08:25):
No, Harry and Rich?
No, I worked with Andy and Iworked with Chris Wheeler.
Did you ever work with Harry?
No, Harry and Richie Ashburnworked together all the time
they did radio together.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
We did the.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
This was the third tier TV package.
But as you went along, did youever work with Harry?
No, harry and Richie Ashburndid radio together solely by
themselves for years.
Always a team Wow.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
It was Chris Wheeler, it was Andy Musser, chris
Wheeler most of the time.
And then toward the end therewere a couple other guys that
came in that I was working with,that were doing the
play-by-play.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
Now people who aren't very familiar are scrambling
like wondering how to call mewith the Phillies.
People may not realize that youdidn't spend your entire career
as a pirate.
It seems that way.

Speaker 3 (09:09):
I know, the first time I learned I was like that
was like wait, what he had,philly in his blood.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
I had four years of Philly, I know.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
I found out how about that?

Speaker 1 (09:18):
How about that trade?
It was April 20th 1985.
The pirates trade Kent Toccovito the Philadelphia Phillies for
left-handed reliever Al Holland.
Did that catch you by surprise?
It certainly seemed to catch alot of Pirate fans by surprise.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
I was about 30 days old then 30 days old.
I was about 30 days old, ayoung Michael McHenry.
Thanks, mike, I just startedreading.
We love that.
I just started reading.
He does this every podcast.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
He does this every podcast.
He does this every podcast, Ido you treat all the guests the
same.
Yeah, yeah and his co-host.
Go ahead.
You guys are only what Old manjokes.
Let's go.
I was going to say you threw meoff so much.
Now I forgot the question.
So, Eddie, were you thrown offby the trade, as many Pirate
fans were?

Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, it was interesting because I mean
number one nobody ever getstraded.
At the end of April, it waslike the 28th of April, you?

Speaker 3 (10:08):
said yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yeah, I mean, you just got out of spring training,
everybody just got their teamstogether.
They've done whatever movesthey were going to do during
spring training to put theirclubs together and get the
season started and then all of asudden, this trade comes up.
So yeah, I was caughtcompletely by surprise and I'm
also a little worried becauseover the years the past 10 years

(10:31):
, with the rivalry between thePirates and the Phillies and
what it was I was probably notthe most favorite person in
Philadelphia with the fans yousay if I opened the bullpen door
, say you play games against thePhillies.
If I opened the bullpen door andstarted walking out on the
field from the left fieldbullpen in Philadelphia at
Wettering Stadium, the boozestarted and they continued all

(10:54):
the way until I got to the moundand the game started.
And yeah, there were some beersthrown out of the upper deck
that came down past me andeverything else, just trying to
share.
I'm trying to figure outexactly how this relationship is
going to work out.
It could have been St Louis,that would have been different
or whatever, but it wasPhiladelphia and we had the

(11:14):
reputation.
I go over there, I get therethe first.
I get traded on Friday.
I get there, fly over Saturdaymorning.
We've got a Saturday night game, as luck would have it.
Of course, al Holland was theircloser, I was our closer, so
we're swapping closers.
So I'm the new closer, as luckwould have it, on Saturday night

(11:36):
against the Mets.
Eighth inning closing situationcomes up.
Here comes the trio phone ringsget up, get ready.
Phone rings, you're in.
I don't know what your action'sgoing to be, what's going to
happen.
Every time I opened that doorfrom that left field side, it
was not good.

(11:56):
I didn't know what was going tohappen when I opened up the
right field side, part of justme being me and my personality,
and maybe part of what allowedme to be a closer and not get
too worried about situations.
I walk over to the door and thedoor swung open out into the
field.
So I kind of eased the dooropen a little bit and I stuck my

(12:20):
head just to see out the door Alittle test, just to see what
the reaction would be.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
Tee-ka-boo.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
Tee-ka-boo.
Just let them, see me a littlebit at a time.
I don't want to just walk outthere like I usually did.
Well, as it turned out, I endedup getting a standing ovation,
and what I had thought all alongwas all the booing and all the
other stuff was actually respectfor being like just like we
respected.
We hated their players, but werespected their players because

(12:49):
they were so good.
So we got past that part of itStanding O, though Standing O.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
How about that man?

Speaker 2 (12:55):
And then go in.
Of course, I didn't everanticipate there being a problem
with the players.
The players have dealt withthat our whole careers.
We know players have come andplayers have gone.
Guys you played with andagainst have changed.
But yeah, that was aninteresting trade at a very
strange time of the year for itto happen.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
That is weird.
And closer for closer that'sweird too.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah, it was kind of an even swap that kind of worked
out the same for everybody.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
Well, it really worked out for you, because you
weren't around for the mess thatbecame the end of the 85 season
in Pittsburgh right.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
They lost the stake in the ground.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
I mean yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:33):
They lost the tickaboo.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
I don't think McHenry or anybody that was not around
at the time can truly understand.
People talk about how down attimes the Pirates have been over
the years in terms of thewin-loss record, and they wanted
the win.
Everybody wants them to win,but nothing can compare.
You talk about rock bottom.
That was rock bottom aroundhere.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
Well, actually 85 was the beginning of it.
Yeah, because I ended up beingfortunate, getting traded at the
end of April of 85, because bythe end of 85, the Pirates had
lost 100 games.
So I was on 100 loss season.
I went to not a championshipclub, but surely the
Philadelphia club did a lotbetter than what happened here

(14:16):
in Pittsburgh.
Plus there were some othercircumstances surrounding it you
know the myself or Al Hollandtrade and all that.
So you know the Pirates knewthat the club was going to be
sold at the end of the year.
They were going to get rid ofall the veteran players.
I was going to be one of themore popular players.
That was not going to be doneand another month or so I was

(14:40):
going to become a 10-5 player,which meant I could veto a trade
.
And everybody knew how I feltabout being in Pittsburgh and I
would have vetoed the trade andthen they couldn't have made the
trade.
It's ruthless the Pirates ifthey were going to unload and
purge after the 85 season,needed to get rid of me and
doing it this way, they got ridof me before we got to the 5-10.

(15:04):
I could veto the trade and thenew ownership group didn't have
to do it.
So that was on the pirate end.
On the opposite side of theequation, al Holland was
basically he was very similar tome.
I mean, we were both in thesame roles, we were both making
about the same amount of money.
I had a few more years left onmy contract.

(15:26):
His contract was going toexpire at the end of the year.
So he comes over here.
Well, what wasn't known thenthat is known now I think it was
known probably by thePhiladelphia people with the
Philadelphia Club was that AlHolland was going to be
implicated in the drug trial atthe end of the season and the

(15:50):
Phillies, being a very PRconscious organization, didn't
want to be involved in that.
You know him being part oftheir roster when that happened.
So that was kind of the impetusfor them to move him to the
Pirates.
The Pirates weren't going tohave to deal with it because his
contract was going to expire atthe end of the year.
Before the drug trial was goingto start, he was going to be

(16:10):
gone anyway.
And then I was out of the way,so the pirates didn't have to
trade me and put up with theanguish that was going to come.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
You wonder if they couldn't come up with somebody
else because, as fate would haveit, al Holland finishes the
year in 85,.
And then the drug trials.
And then they parade all theseplayers in the courthouse in
downtown Pittsburgh.
It's national television, allthese players coming in and out
of these trials in Pittsburgh,and one of theirs is Holland.

Speaker 3 (16:41):
Go a little bit deeper.
Candelaria took me into this.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
Speaking of Candelaria.
John Candelaria took me intothis.
Well, just speaking ofCandelaria John Candelaria, I
know you know this, he would endup.
Joe Brown, a former generalmanager of the Pirates, was
called upon as an interim GM tocome in.
He was well-respected.
They fired Pete Peterson butthere was a whole maelstrom
going on in terms of the talkabout how things have gotten
away from the Pirate Clubhouse,including Pete Peterson, the GM,

(17:09):
a really good GM.
He set up the 79 team WorldSeries Publicly.
Candelaria comes out and callshim a bozo.
Our general manager is a bozo.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
And Joe.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
Brown comes in and trades Candelaria and a bunch of
others.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Well, he calls him a bozo, he called him nepotism,
because his son was a bullpencoach.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
That's right, Rick Peterson?

Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yeah, Rick was a bullpen coach, and he turned out
to be a great pitching coach,by the way.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
Yeah, yeah.
No offense to Rick, but youknow Candy well things weren't
good.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
Candy wasn't one who handled things not being good.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
Very well, he's got one speed things not being good.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
Very well, he's got one speed.
No, that's right, he didn'twant to.
He didn't want to be a part ofsomething that wasn't real good.
He was used to being part ofsomething that was good and, uh,
you know, he was probably inthe same boat that when he got
traded, as I was, that it turnedout to be a bonus.
Yes, right, he got out before.
You know, it really got uglyand we got out.
We, we didn't have to end up onthe 100.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
Right 100 lost season .
You were going to say somethingabout Candelaria telling you
something.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
Yeah, he went into depth about how crazy that was
and told me different stories.
We'll have to have him onsometime and see if he'll share
some of it.
But like I mean, what was that?
Like Teague, I mean it couldn'thave been just in Pittsburgh,
it was probably everywhere wherethings were evident.
But it was just like it justgot out of control here.
And I know you have to leave,but there's drug trials.
That's nuts.
Most people, especially my age,don't even have a clue that

(18:30):
that happened.
They think about the Bonds andthe Maguires and everything in
the steroid era, but they don'tthink about the 85, 86 era.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
The only reason Pittsburgh became a central
place for it was because thetrials were held here.
I became a central place for itwas because the trials were
held here.

Speaker 3 (18:47):
I mean it was throughout baseball.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
Right, right, it was the cocaine.
There was a lot of stuff goingon that, really, I can tell you
honestly, I did not.
I knew there were some thingsgoing on, but I didn't
understand that it was as big asit was as widespread as it was
throughout the whole game, andhow that happens is you do what
you got to do, right.

Speaker 3 (19:06):
If you're not a part of the little clique that's
doing that right, you're notgoing to know.
Right, because guys are verysecretive when it comes to their
personal life.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
Apparently there's cocaine was around everywhere.
I never had anybody ever comeup and offer me.
I kind of feel deprived.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
Nobody ever thought enough of me to ask me if I
wanted some cocaine.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
It was everywhere Instead of a rubber band.
You want to be a slingshottoday, but this was kind of a
central location.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
That's another thing.
It was being run in through thecourthouse in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
How did that happen?
Like why Pittsburgh?

Speaker 1 (19:43):
Because there was stuff going on.
They had somebody involved inthe clubhouse, easy access, kind
of a well-known personality.
That was kind of being ago-between Stay tuned on next,
it was an absolute mess.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
It was a mess.
It was legitimately totallylarger than I had any concept
and I'm sitting right in themiddle of it and I had no idea
about it.
Which actually got to be scarybecause later on and this is one

(20:20):
of the, you know, you havethose moments as a parent when
all of a sudden something hitsyou and you go wow, all this was
going on all around MajorLeague Baseball.
I'm traveling, at least at thattime, all around the National
League, so I'm interminglingwith all these people.
You know, apparently there'sstuff going on in the clubhouses

(20:41):
, there's all kinds of stuffgoing on and I have no clue.
Turns out, rod Scurry, one ofour left-handed relievers, was
involved in it and the cocaineended up killing him Killing him
.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
How about that left-handed reliever Teague?
How good was he?
He was excellent, incredible.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
He was one of the best relievers around.
But I'm sitting at home onenight after this has all now
come out and I look at my wife,linda, and we got our four
little kids and I'm going.
If I'm sitting in the middle ofthis and this is going on this
bed and I didn't recognize it,how am I going to know if

(21:24):
something happens to one of thekids?
One of the kids gets involvedin it.
Great point.
I mean, it was just one ofthose moments when it just hits
you in the forehead and you go.
Oh my God, I feel totallyhelpless here.
My own kids, it could happen tohim and I won't recognize it
and you're thinking of thismonster as if something.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
Oh my god I know right away.
Yeah, you don't see that?
Yeah I, I saw none the onlything that that that a player
would know and anybody around atthat time would know and how
different times are is thatanybody was in and out of that
clubhouse.
Anybody, it was yeah, it was.

Speaker 2 (22:03):
There was no 9-11, there was no security no
security.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
Nothing got in and out of the clubhouse.
People all over the place thinkabout that.
Compared to now.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
Oh, it's night and day yeah, yeah, I mean it's
changed completely now yeah yougot to have a credential to go
anywhere in the worldpark now.
You could come off the streetand if you knew the guy that was
guarding outside the clubhouse,you'd go inside and see
somebody.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
No, it's not time.
Get on in there, go right in.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
I mean, there were people in our clubhouse
constantly and of course we weregood, we were popular,
Everybody had friends.
There were people in and out ofthere constantly.
I imagine every other clubhousewas the same way.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
So, teague, you spend the time with the Phillies and
then you end up with a chance towere you a Reds fan growing up?
Oh yeah, I figured you were ACincinnati guy, ted Ebernethy.
We talked about him in the lastshow, that's right.
I don't throw underhand, unlessI've got a 10-year-old memory
of Ted Everhathy so emulatingone of his favorite Reds players
and you end up finishing yourcareer.

(23:03):
How neat was that?
It was really cool.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
Unfortunately, pete Rose was the manager of the team
that year and that year inspring training, like the third
or fourth day of pitchers andcatchers is when the whole thing
broke with him and the gamblingand Bart Giamatti and all that
Talk about crazy, so that kindof put a shadow over the whole
thing for the team.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yeah, really Can we bomb.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
Personally, for myself, the Reds are such a
traditional organization veryseldom change anything.
The Reds are such a traditionalorganization, very seldom
change anything.
So I was literally wearing auniform that was almost
identical to my heroes when Iwas a kid oh, that's cool Ted
Kluszewski, gus Bell, wally Post, frank Robinson, roy McMillan,

(23:53):
johnny Temple, joe Nuxall, whogrew up right around where I was
living.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
I didn't know that.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
Wow, yeah, I mean these guys.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
So it's like a boyhood moment.

Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah, I mean, it's a flashback.
My little league uniform turnedinto a big league uniform and
the same little kid Did he giveyou a fire back.
That was six foot four.
Now, yeah, was still that samelittle kid in that uniform
getting to play with hisfavorite team when he was this

(24:22):
high.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
That had to give you some fire, right?
That's special, that's reallyspecial.

Speaker 2 (24:30):
It is special and I think every player who ever gets
a chance to go back and playwhere they grew up, whether it's
in the middle of their career,whenever it is you know Neil
Walker, obviously the obviousexample around here that moment
has to be so special because youknow you idolized that team,
those players for so long.

(24:51):
They were your heroes.
And now to actually now sitdown and it's almost
overwhelming to think that, wow,now I'm that little kid's hero
isn't that crazy I tried thatwith the graves.
Yeah, I don't know if I wantthat responsibility because
those guys were so big I can'tbe that big.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
That was 1989, 1989, and you mentioned that the that
was 1989.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Wow, 1989, my final year.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
And you mentioned that the stuff was going around
with Rose at that time.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
Right and he still managed the team part of that
year.

Speaker 3 (25:24):
He managed the team for the entire year.
Was there whispers of that Likedid anybody see that coming, or
did it just come out of theblue?

Speaker 2 (25:30):
It came out of the blue.
We actually— I've alwayswondered that.
I wondered that I was.
Danny jackson was on that team.
Wow, and he and I were.
We were living in a motel overin lakeland and training in
plant city.
So we would ride over to uhplant city every day to go to
spring training in the morningand, like I said, we're three or
four days into pitchers andcatchers regular players most of

(25:52):
them aren't even there yet.
We drive into the parking lotokay, big deal one.
The third or fourth day wedrive into the parking lot Okay,
big deal, one.
The third or fourth day.
We drive into the parking lot.
There are satellite truckseverywhere.
The whole parking lot is filledup with these satellite trucks
and all these satellites are setup.
What the hell is going on?
I mean, the real players aren'teven here yet.
And it was because the news hadbroken that morning about Bart

(26:17):
Giamatti investigating Pete Roseand the gambling.
Wow, now I'll take this onestep further and then we can
drop it and move on.
But I got to give Pete Rose Imean what.
I will never agree with what hedid.
Obviously, the biggest rule inbaseball is you don't gamble on

(26:37):
baseball, and we all knew thatfrom the first day signing every
clubhouse Pete Rose.
During that entire season.
He would not go out on thefield for batting practice.
He would stay in his office.
He would stay away so that allthat circus that was going on
around him would not bother us.

(26:58):
As far as us playing the gamewow, um, he took the heat.
We, we didn't.
We had a ton of guys that wereinjured.
He did everything else.
Well, he didn't take the heat.

Speaker 3 (27:09):
I mean, he was taking his own heat well, yeah, but I
mean, he didn't pile it on youguys he did not allow.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
He let the coaches run the team and we went out and
played.
Now we didn't play real wellbecause a bunch of guys got hurt
and in fact, one writer.
I only played until theall-star break.
I retired right after theall-star break but one of the
writers had come up to me andasked me about is this whole
thing with pete affecting theteam in the play, the way we're
playing?
I said I wish we could say thatwe're just not playing very

(27:38):
well and we've got a lot of guysthat are hurt.

Speaker 3 (27:40):
That part of it.
You cannot blame it on Pete.
That's really cool, I mean.
That shows how much he lovesthe game.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
Even though he did some things, he shouldn't have
as much trouble as he was in, asmuch as he was going through.
He respected the game enough tonot take away from us what the
game we would, the enjoyment andwhat we were doing as our
careers and just keep it tohimself that's the side most
people probably have never heard.

Speaker 3 (28:06):
Well, what?

Speaker 1 (28:07):
had you heard teak from the, from the veterans who
had played for him before 89 theprevious couple years, in terms
of what kind of a manager hewas?
Did everybody seem to respecthim as a manager?
Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
I think you know well part of it.
He was a player manager, yeah,and you know.
Then the other part, he wasjust managing, but I think, yeah
, the players respected him.
I think they don't knowanything about what was going on
, you know behind the scenes,but as far as knowing the game,
running the game and all thatother stuff, I think the players

(28:43):
respected him a lot.
One other little quick storyfrom when he was playing he was
playing, I believe, withMontreal at the time when I was
with Philadelphia and he wasjust playing.
He wasn't a player manager yet,or no, he was a player manager.
I'm sorry, we're playing theReds and we're playing them in

(29:04):
Philadelphia.
He is a player manager and someyoung kid's out on the mound
and I have to bat because we'releading and I'm going to stay in
the game and he walks me onlike five pitches so we get down
to first base and I'm taking mylead off of first base, my
little you knowfour-and-a-half-foot lead, when

(29:25):
your belly button hits the baseyeah, and Pete's.
Apparently he's walked a coupleother guys before me, so the
bases are.
So Pete's playing in front ofme.
So he throws the first pitch.
And I looked at Pete and I saysPete, who is this kid?
So he makes another pitch.
And Pete turns around and looksat me and says you don't have

(29:46):
to worry about it, he won't behere very long.
If he walked you the next dayhe was sent out, he was gone.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
He had those managerial instincts early on
Pete Rose did.
Do you think he should be inthe Hall of Fame even now?
Absolutely not.
No, why you stick by that?

Speaker 2 (30:05):
He broke the most sacred rule in the game of
baseball.
We all were held to thatstandard and we knew it from day
one and absolutely not Evenwith gambling.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
Such a part of sports now, and baseball, that's fine.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
The rules when we play or you don't do it.
Does baseball maybe have totake a look and change those
rules Because of the fact thatthey are actually now associated
with?
Of course, back then it was allillegal gambling.
Now you have legal gambling.
You have the online stuff.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
Yeah, they're making a fortune off of it.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
Everybody's got a phone.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
Major League Baseball's advertising.
They're involved in it, they'repartners, all this other stuff.

Speaker 3 (30:48):
Cincinnati has a sports bet in their stadium.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
They have it in the stadium.
I think there's going to come atime very soon where Major
League Baseball has to look atthis and say, hey, wait a minute
, you know, maybe we have tokind of change.
You can't let the players beton the game because you know the
idea is it was a Black Soxscandal in fixing the games and

(31:11):
getting involved with thegamblers.
But how long is it going to bebefore Major League Baseball is
going to get questioned aboutumpires' calls, just like the
NFL is now about referees' calls, because of the outcome of the
game being changed or theoutcome of the over-under or
whatever being changed?

Speaker 3 (31:31):
Yeah, the insider information doesn't go anywhere.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yeah, I mean, I can tell you that there were
thousands and thousands of timesthat I'd be walking in and out
of stadiums all over the country.
Hey Tink, how you doing today,oh, I'm fine how you doing.
Good Says.
You know, willa got hit lastnight.
How's he feeling?
Oh, he's okay.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
People wanting that inside information any way they
can get it.
It was the same answer everynight, oh you pitched three
innings last night.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
Are you going to be able to throw it tonight?
Oh, I think so.
It was every time, no matterwhat the question was, the
answer was exactly the same,because I knew what was out
there and I knew that I had tomake sure that I protected
myself against it.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
Well, think about it.
If that guy gets in trouble,who are they going to say?
I got the information from Teak.
He was my inside source.

Speaker 2 (32:23):
Well, they wouldn't even have to say that they could
trace it back and find out.

Speaker 3 (32:27):
Yeah, it's crazy.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
Oh yeah I mean somebody's going to give
somebody up?

Speaker 3 (32:30):
Yeah, exactly Because you're a big whale and they're
a little pond fish.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
So, teek, you went to your hometown team and then you
said you retired at theAll-Star but you just knew it
was time at that point.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
Yeah, I actually went there.
Murray Cook, who became thefarm director after Pete
Peterson, was the generalmanager of the Reds at the time.
Former Pirate guy.
Former Pirate guy.
Yeah, he was actually my finalcouple years in the minor
leagues when Pete took over asthe general manager, my final
couple years in the minorleagues when Pete took over as
the general manager, he was thefarm director.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
Ah Pete Peterson became the GM of the Pirates and
then Murray Cook was the farmdirector of the Pirates.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
Murray Cook became the farm director.
Well, he calls I get releasedby Philly.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
And now Murray's with the Reds.
Yeah, after the 88 seasonMurray's.

Speaker 2 (33:12):
The general manager with the Reds Calls me up during
the winter and he goes no, I'm40.
I just played at 41.
I'm going to be 42 the nextyear and I had an okay year.
I didn't you know, I'mobviously.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
Were you an oddity?
Was there many guys in their,you know, 38 to 42 range season?
No, yeah, you were still anoddity.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
When I retired, there was one person older than me in
Major League Baseball.
That was Nolan Ryan.
He played for five more yearsand pitched two more no-hitters.
He made the rest of us reallylook bad, by the way, teague.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
Teague threw 90 games at the age of 40 in 1987.

Speaker 3 (33:49):
Buckle up, you pirates, let's go.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
That's what we did.

Speaker 1 (33:53):
Murray Cook calls you .

Speaker 2 (33:54):
Murray calls me and he says have you had any
thoughts about playing one moreyear?
I said, well, I really hadn't.
I kind of figured that 42 after41 is done.
He says, well, I got a coupleguys in the minor leagues that
are going to be set-up guys inthe big leagues they're going to

(34:15):
be my set-up guys in the bigleagues next year that are young
, my setup guys in the bigleagues next year that are young
, and was wondering if youwanted to play one more year to
come in and kind of in thebeginning of the season, take
some of the tougher spots off ofthem and let them just kind of
settle in and get their feet onthe ground and teach them a
little bit about relief pitchingand whatever you can, and then

(34:36):
help them away.
And then, as we move alongthrough the season, we'll move
them kind of up in the order andwe'll move you back down in the
order and I would guess that ifwe were in a pennant race, I
probably would have got releasedand you could have got bad or
somebody that you needed.
Well, I, you know, I talked toMurray and I, like Murray and I
are friends and I said, yeah,okay, I think I can go one more

(34:57):
year.
So it did.
So we go to spring training andyou know.
Then you know the kids doreally well.
I start tailing off and by theall-star break I can tell I'm
going, I'm heading for my secondDL, the one same thing as the
year before.
The rotator cuff has just wornout.
So I call Murray up after theAll-Star break and I say you

(35:22):
know, the kids are doing good.
What would you say if I justretired?
We have never had a summervacation.
It's the middle of July.
Let me just retire and go.
He says if that's what you wantto do, it's fine with me.
You've done everything I'veasked you to do.
Blah, blah, blah.
So I retire.
So, although numerically thelast year that I played was that

(35:44):
year, in the first year, when Iwas only up for 28 days, were
the two worst years.
Number was, I had my career,but I was successful because
those two kids were Rob Dibbleand Norm Charlton.
Oh the nasty boys, those twoguys were Rob Dibble and.
Norm.
Gerald those two guys camealong with Randy Myers the next
year were the Nasty Boys andended up beating the Oakland A's

(36:05):
.
Swept them in the World Series.
So my last year wasunsuccessful number-wise, but
very successful in what thepurpose of me being there was.

Speaker 3 (36:15):
And that impact probably still hits home right
here, right, oh yeah, becauseyou impacted their lives forever
.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
That one, the two things other than you know,
obviously, the World Series andthe games that I've saved in
that the two things that reallystand out in my career.
Having been a closer, I knowthe value of the setup guy.
Okay, that one right thereteaching these, getting these
two guys in a position wherethey could help them win a World

(36:42):
Series the next year and theyear in Philadelphia at the age
of 40, you were just talkingabout where I pitched 90 games
and Steve Bedrosian, our closer,won the Cy Young Award.
That's great.
Now I will be honest now andtell you what I wouldn't have
never admitted then there weresome of those games that I was

(37:05):
in in the eighth inning with afour-run lead, that I just got a
little wilder than I would havenormally gotten.
That by the time Bedrosian camein in the ninth inning it was a
three-run lead and he got asave instead of a save.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
We were going nowhere .
A big assist for Teague.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
This is honesty of a player that's done and doesn't
have to deal with it anymore.
But yeah, there were a coupletimes that we weren't going to
go anywhere and he had a chance.
I love that.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
That's awesome.
A big assist for TeagueBedrosian Bedrock Tee'd them up.

Speaker 2 (37:35):
That's what the set-up guy's job is to do set it
up for the closer.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
Teek.
So you really never had youropportunity to take it all in
knowing it was going to be yourfinal year.
No, any regrets at all in thatrespect?
Well, I guess.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
I knew it was my final year, but I literally,
over the all-star break, madethe decision that it's time now,
because the situation was right.

Speaker 3 (37:56):
The kids were ready.
I love that.
I mean, it seems like he haszero.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
I wasn't.
I had asked Willie once, rightafter he retired.
I had asked Willie.
I says y'all, how do you knowwhen it's time?
And he just looked at me andsaid Teague, you'll know.
I agree, you won't look forward.
It's not how you're performing,although that's part of it.
You can't perform the wayyou're used to performing.
But he says you just won't lookforward to getting in the car

(38:21):
and going to the ballpark everyday, like you did in the past.
And I was at that point, youknow, I wasn't performing well,
I wasn't really needed to teachthem anymore, and there were
days where I would have, just,at 3.30, rather stayed at home
instead of getting in the carand going down to the ballpark.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
Do you remember your last game, or games at all?

Speaker 2 (38:46):
Yeah, it was on a Sunday afternoon and I took a
loss.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
You remember that one .
That's the matter In Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
It was the Friday, saturday, sunday after the
All-Star, or I guess back thenit was Thursday, friday,
Saturday, sunday after theAll-Star, or I guess back then
it was Thursday, friday,saturday, sunday after the
All-Star break and on Sunday IIn Cincinnati, in Cincinnati,
and on Sunday I took the loss inthe game and didn't pitch very
well and that was kind of thestraw that broke the camel's
back and that's what.
I made the call on Monday toMurray and said, hey, would you

(39:14):
mind if I retire, and not longafter that.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
Then you became a broadcaster.
You did some.
You said you took a year off.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
Took a year off, did some PR work with the Pirates.

Speaker 3 (39:25):
And then got into.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
Yeah, that was back before Steve was doing a lot of
the broadcasting, so he wasdoing a lot of the PR work.
Then he got back intobroadcasting, so then there was
kind of a little void there.
They didn't do nearly as muchthen as they do now as far as
PR-wise.
So I just kind of whatever theyneeded I did and did that for a

(39:46):
year and then the next year iswhen I got the call from the
Phillies about filling in anddoing that.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
What about Pirates broadcasting?
How did that come about then?

Speaker 3 (39:58):
Yeah, how did you get back here?

Speaker 2 (39:59):
Well, there was a lot of steps in between.
I did the Phillies for sevenyears and then they wanted me to
move to Philadelphia full-timebecause I was doing more.
I was doing about 85 or 90games a year by then and they
were switching networks andstuff like that.
They were redoing their systemand they wanted me.
I didn't have to do anything inthe offseason in Philadelphia.

(40:20):
They wanted me to move toPhiladelphia and do that and the
kids were in high school, theywere in their activities.
I didn't want any part of that.
So I told them.
I said no, I think I'll juststang it up, that'll be fine.
And then they got LarryAnderson came in, a couple of
the guys and they took care ofit all over there.
So then I went through a bunchof different things A couple of

(40:42):
years I didn't do anything.
Then I did the wild things.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
Tell us about the Washington Wild Things.
Did the Washington Wild Things?
How'd that come about?

Speaker 2 (40:49):
They just called me one day and said hey, by the way
, we're putting together abaseball team over here.
Well, I heard nothing of it.
Said we need somebody to runthe baseball operations.
Would you be interested?

Speaker 1 (40:59):
The general manager of the Washington Wild Things.

Speaker 2 (41:02):
Director of baseball operations.
General manager hasresponsibilities on the
financial side.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
You didn't have to pull tarp or anything either,
did you?

Speaker 2 (41:10):
No, I didn't drag infield.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
I didn't drag infield , but I didn't pull tarp.
What was that experience like?
Being with the Wild Things?

Speaker 2 (41:17):
You know it was kind of neat because of my history,
about the fact that I was neverthe guy that was ever wanted,
you understood these guys Iunderstood who these kids were
and what they were looking for achance and what that chance
meant to them.
And initially I'm going what doI want to do this for?
I'm going what do I want to dothis for?
But then all of a sudden it'slike I got a chance to give a

(41:42):
whole bunch of kids, a chancethat I would have loved to have
had when I was.
You know, independent leaguesdidn't exist then.
Yeah, so I have a chance tohelp these kids, maybe have a
chance to try to get.
And we got a couple of guys inthe minor leagues.
I don't think we ever gotanybody to the big leagues, but
we got some couple guys in theminor leagues.
I don't think we ever gotanybody to the big leagues, but
we got some guys back in minorleague systems and stuff like
that.

Speaker 3 (41:59):
That's awesome.
He's giving back to the game somuch.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
That was the incentive for me to do it,
because there were so many of meout there that were either
overlooked or had been in theminor leagues and got hurt and
got released, looking foranother chance.
You've got to have the chance.

Speaker 3 (42:16):
Yeah, that's the hardest part sometimes In the
Frontier League.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
At that time I don't know how it is now the maximum
age was 27.
So you couldn't have veteranplayers.
I think it's open-ended now.
So it was all young kids.
These are kids out of college.
They're kids that played acouple years in the minor
leagues and got released, so itwas just a second chance.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
How many years with the Wild Things?
I was just there for the firsttwo years, and then was it right
after that, the TV you cameback to.

Speaker 2 (42:44):
TV.
I think it was another coupleyears off and then the TV
opportunity.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
How'd that present itself?
It's a natural just wonderinghow it happened.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
Well, you know I was going down to which TV
opportunity we're talking aboutthe Pirate Opportunity now yes,
okay.
Yeah, we already talked aboutthe Philadelphia.
Yeah, yeah, okay, the PirateOpportunity.
I used to go down to springtraining every year for spring
training, and myself, billVerdon Sangy, who else was?

Speaker 1 (43:15):
it.
Okay, there were four of us.
I was guest instructors.
Let me tell you, wangy, whoelse was it?
Maz?
Okay, there were four of usover there almost.

Speaker 3 (43:18):
Let me tell you, Talk about a cool, cool moment Going
to spring training.
Get to know you guys.
That was awesome.
It was a difference maker whenI came to the Pirates.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
So I'll never forget it, just the fact that these
former Pirate greats werehanging around.

Speaker 3 (43:35):
T gave me advice to just be who I was and trust the
process and put his arm aroundme.
Didn't really know who he was,didn't know a lot about his
career, but I went home andlooked him up.
Same thing with Bill Verde.
Like you guys were just normaldudes in uniform and you kind of
were off with a little bit of ashadow or an aura, and then you
kind of come in and go out,come in and go out.

(43:56):
There's something special aboutthat because you had our backs.
When we're fighting to make theteam, which I had to in 12, I'm
there and I'm fighting and youjust gave me a little piece of
advice.
Verdon gave me a little pieceof advice and that made me feel
like I was being seen, like youwere just talking about, because
when you are the guy fighting,a lot of times the staff pulls

(44:17):
back because they don't want toshow favorites.
But you guys came up and Mannyevery single day.
Papi, you got to do it likethis and he would try.
Obviously it didn't move verywell at the time, but it meant
so much and I wish we still hadthat, but you guys had a
presence In all of our careers.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
At some point we were that guy yeah exactly we had to
make that first team.
Yes, you had to fight to getthere, so yeah, and we didn't
have anybody to help us Exactly,we were on your own.
Figure it out.

Speaker 3 (44:42):
And that's why they were there, and that was the
coolest thing.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
But it was cool for us too.
I can imagine now being on thisside and wanting to get back on
the field again during springtraining it felt good so much of
your part.
you know it was every every.
Well, in our case, with thekids, every right after the
first of the year we'd go downthe floor and I'd, you know, go

(45:07):
run on the beach a couple times,or something like that, and get
ready for spring training, andthen you know, off we went, and
then you know that was part ofit every year.
Well then, you don't have thatfor a while.
Then you get invited to go backand even if you're not doing a
whole lot, but you're there andyou're around the guys and so
that's an exciting part to getinvolved in.

(45:29):
So anyway, getting back to thebroadcasting thing, I used to
take my RV down.

Speaker 3 (45:36):
Yes, lived in my RV.
I'm an RVer.
I was to take my RV down.
Yes, lived in my RV.
Hey, I'm an RVer.
I was an RVer once too.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
For six weeks I lived in my RV, went to spring
training, go back and forth.
The camp wasn't very far at allfrom Pirate City.
So spring training's over with.
I'm driving back and I'm on theway back.
I left a couple days early,like three or four days before
camp was over, I think.
There's like three road gamesat the end and a flight to maybe

(46:03):
go in someplace to playsomebody next to a history game.
So I'm already on my way homeand I get a call on my cell
phone in the RV.
Now, this was not my littlebitty cell phone.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
This is a big thing, it's a cell phone.
It's attached.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
I don't think it will work, but it was close to the
brick it was relatively close tothe brick and the phone rings,
and it was at that point in time.
Let's see it was FSN, or it was.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
No, probably, geez, that could have been Fox
Sportsnet.
I can't remember whatderivation we were.
Was it Paul?

Speaker 2 (46:35):
Kassuth?
No, I can't remember now.

Speaker 1 (46:38):
It was past KBL I know KBL was out of the way.
It was probably Fox.
I think it was Fox Sports.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
It could have been Fox and they called me up and
Sean McClintock is on the phoneand he goes we're looking for
somebody to be the analyst onthe pregame shows.
Are you interested?
And I said, well, hadn'tthought about it.

(47:03):
But yeah.
He says can you get home intime Because we're opening at
home?
Can you get home in time?
Or no, we may have been open onthe road, I can't remember.
Can you get home in time?
Are you going to be home intime for opening day Because we
got a show to do?
He says, yeah, I'll be.
He says, well, if you'reinterested in it, it's your job,
wow.
So, I mean, I'm literally.

(47:24):
I had not, at that point intime in my life, had not met Rob
King.
I did not know Rob.
I mean I had met him, but Ididn't know Rob King.
How cool you're in the RV.
Driving in the RV.
Yeah, I couldn't get there intime.
So I get home a day ahead oftime.
I says, well, do you want to?
You know, this is kind of I'mkind of going back to my first

(47:44):
broadcasting job with thePhillies.
I says, well, you want me tocome down?
We'll go over the format, oryou know?
Look, you know do whatever.
Nah, just come on in.

Speaker 1 (47:52):
We'll just do it.
We'll just do it.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
I've had two.
I had two broadcasting jobs inmy life.
Talk about what we were goingto do on the set before I
actually sat down on the set.

Speaker 3 (48:03):
Is that what they're supposed to do?
Because they did that to me too, yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
I think it was it might work.
Yeah, it's just like I waspunking you.
Good luck hey you go to yourfirst call to the big leagues.

Speaker 3 (48:12):
That took me four years to know there was a
rundown.
Do you get a?

Speaker 2 (48:14):
meeting for two days before your first call to the
big leagues, before you Go playGo ahead.

Speaker 3 (48:20):
Go, get them Go play.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
So I mean, I literally was driving back from
spring training, get a cellphone call and three days later
I'm now doing pre-game shows forhowever many.
I think we were doing 125 gamesat that point in time.
And then eventually, aboutthree or four years in, then we
added we weren't doing or theydidn't have an analyst on the

(48:43):
post-game show.
Three or four years in and weadded we weren't doing, or they
didn't have a analyst on thepost game show.
Three or four years in, I endedup starting doing both pre and
post game shows and did that forthe rest of the 10-year period
incredible.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
And then, uh, a little hiatus for a new heart a
little.
Well, that was right that wasin the middle of it yeah, there,
there was a little break here.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
In fact, when I went to the hospital, I knew I had
problems and they put in thepump.
I was wearing the pump.
You couldn't see it on the setbecause it was below the desk.
It was a battery pack on yourhip.
It was hooked up through a wire.
It was actually running yourheart, a battery pack.

(49:22):
I'm walking down the street,did you have?

Speaker 3 (49:25):
rechargeable batteries at least.

Speaker 2 (49:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
Oh, golly Better.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
Yeah Well, during the day, At night you plug yourself
into the wall.
So you're like a Tesla.
Yeah, gotcha, you plug yourselfinto the wall.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
You're the first electric car.
Got it?
Wow Well, you had batteries too.
So Got it?
Wow Well, you had batteries too.
Yeah, so if you had to go, tothe bathroom you didn't have to
take the cord with you.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
You lived with your own.
But so, anyway, we're doingthis, we're doing the post-game
shows and all this stuff, andthen it's like it just kept
morphing itself into more andmore and longer and longer and
it was just the perfect way,almost perfect way to end my

(50:09):
baseball life.
It was 10 years back to where Istarted doing pirate baseball,
talking about pirate baseball,involved with the fans, trying
to teach them what I had learnedover all these years about you
know same thing you over allthese years about you know same
thing you're doing, about howthe game is played, why you do
this differently.
Yeah, yeah, and I I think thebiggest compliment I've gotten

(50:32):
most often is you taught me somuch about the game of baseball
and I did not know.
You know, and that's comingfrom men, that's coming from
women, that's coming from kids,yep it keeps you going, that's
for sure.

Speaker 3 (50:43):
So that's, that's the gratifying part of you know,
having done that and and onething I want I want to bring up,
since you know I preceded, younever could wear your shoes
we're not the same size, butyour teeth, um.
But the family aspect overthere, I I didn't realize I was
going to get that with thebroadcast group, with brownie
and and those guys, and alsowith Rob King and everybody

(51:04):
that's behind the scenes.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
Oh, especially the guys behind the scenes.

Speaker 3 (51:07):
Right, like the family there gave you that team
aspect too.
When you don't have it on thefield, you need it right?
You've had it forever.
Right Now you have it again.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
It's been part of your life, you get it again and
don't expect to get it Exactlyyou expect.
You know this guy over herewell, he makes tapes and
pictures and they plug that inthe show.
And this guy over here he goesinto a booth and reads a script
and then they plug that into theshow.
You don't get.
You have no idea until you'reinvolved with it how the
interaction is amongst thepeople on a TV team, especially

(51:38):
a TV team.

Speaker 3 (51:38):
It's one heartbeat.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
I think radio is probably a little easier because
you've just got your people inthe booth?

Speaker 1 (51:43):
Yeah, there aren't as many people involved there are
four or five people involved.
You've got your engineer.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
You're doing graphics , you're doing all kinds of
stuff on TV.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
The people behind the scenes TV you talked about that
.
They're magical.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
We you and I and Rob King, the people at home think
we know all that.
We did all that because we'rethe ones that see, that's what I
always felt bad about.
They never, nobody at home everknew a face of anybody that put
all that stuff together andmade us look that good and that

(52:18):
knowledgeable and made the showrun so smooth.
The producers, the directors,everybody.

Speaker 3 (52:23):
Yeah, they bring our knowledge to life, which is
remarkable.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
Yeah, and, like you said, the team aspect of it is
just.

Speaker 3 (52:29):
That's something I didn't.
I kind of knew, but I'd neverbeen in corporate America.
I'd started a business and kindof moved on from that, but when
I got there I didn't see thatcoming.
And then when you came back oranybody came back that had been
there before, put up thebirthday signs, all of it.
Like you could tell it was aunit, that was just different.

Speaker 1 (52:50):
It was really cool.
I want you to say the peoplebehind the scenes.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
Leonard Lee, our producer director here the
wizard Guys like that yeah thewizard.
Some of the nicknames wecouldn't use.
We had a couple of guys that weCould not, couldn't use.

Speaker 3 (53:05):
We had a couple of guys that we could not use, even
on a podcast.
Can't use it.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
Well, every now and then I throw out the nickname.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
Dave Ricchini, I'm talking to you.

Speaker 3 (53:09):
Hey, can I tell you a quick story about Dave Ricchini
.
So he just left Sportsnet and Igot him a little gift.
It was a pair of socks thatsaid the greatest ass of all the
asses.
And it's kind of a running jokebecause a couple years ago dave
got, you know, promoted asdoug's right-hand man doug was
our general manager slashexecutive producer with sean,

(53:32):
but I got him a golden cock andI put it at his desk.
It's the only thing he took home.
Yeah it.
It made me like I was a greatfriend right there, because I
love Dave and I'm going to misshim a ton.
And you worked with Dave.
He produced for you Well I wasa little classier than you.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
I used to come in with giant bags of Swedish fish.

Speaker 1 (53:53):
I've heard this.
I was the food guy.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
I was the food guy.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
And Roger Lenhardt, who was the executive producer
Roger brought me in.
Yeah, he had his own privatebowl of fish that I had a sign
on it.
Nobody was allowed to touchthese except Roger Lenhart.
Everybody else can come to mydesk and reach into my drawer
and get fish.
Roger had his own fish.

Speaker 3 (54:15):
I love it.
You got to take care of thembecause they're taking care of
you.
I thought I'd tell that story.
I've seen Rikini walk out withthat rooster.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
He loved that it was one of his favorite things yeah,
it was a rooster Teak how aboutwhen you came back from the
heart transplant?
In a few weeks, you're throwingout the ceremonial first pitch
at the wild card game in 2014.
Is that right?
Wow, that was.
You were like Superman.
You just had a new heart put inand a couple weeks later you're

(54:46):
up on the mound at PNC.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
Park.
Well, I wasn't up on the moundWell close.

Speaker 3 (54:51):
You were approaching the mound, I was, maybe halfway
you were a few steps in front ofthe mound.

Speaker 1 (54:56):
You don't have to ruin a good story.

Speaker 2 (54:59):
I was actually past.
The point of the biggest thingis don't bounce it.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
So I didn't care, yeah, just being out there.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
If you get a new heart, you don't care if you
bounce it.
Yeah, exactly, just being there, right.
But yeah, it was an amazingtime.
I mean, obviously there was thelead-up to it and then where I
just basically disappeared fromTV unbeknownst to anybody, and
there was no reason to give, robdid the greatest job in the
world of you know, ken maca camein and filled in for me and

(55:27):
nobody knew why I was gone andthat was.
That was just amazing, becauseI'm going through what I'm going
through.
We had gotten to the pointwhere the pump that I had just
wasn't good enough and, um, it'sbecause you have a huge heart.

Speaker 3 (55:45):
I did have a huge heart.
It literally was.
They said it was twice as as itwas supposed to be.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
You gave so much of it it wasn't because I gave so
much of it.
I beat it up so bad.

Speaker 3 (55:58):
He hates a compliment , doesn't he?
Yes, he does.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
I don't deserve compliments.
I go in and I have thetransplant, and that's when the
news finally breaks that I'vehad this heart problem and I get
a transplant.
I'm in the hospital for eightdays.
I unfortunately did not breakthe record.
The record was seven days toget out after a heart transplant

(56:21):
.
I got out on the eighth day, soI was still yelling at my
surgeon every once in a whilefor holding me up for a day.
I didn't tie that record.
But then 28 days later, afterthe heart transplant, so AW in
the hospital the next 20 days athome.
Well, it was a little bitbefore that, I get a call from
the ball club.

(56:42):
You know, would you come overand throw out the first pitch at
the wild card game?
And I'm going.
There's no way.
So I just said, you know,obviously it was a big story,
everybody knew about it.
This would be great, butthere's no way.
So I call up the head ofsurgery over at AGH and Dr

(57:05):
Morale, and I asked.
They called me, they asked meyou're going to tell me no, but
whatever.
And he said no.
He says you can do it.
He says there's only onecondition.
I said what's that?
He says, because of your chestbeing opened up and having
stitches all the way up and downthe front of your chest, you

(57:27):
can't throw like you used to.
You can't throw underhand andthrow this way Because he says
you're liable to pop your wholechest open, and it'll be stuff
laying all over the infield.
So he said you have to throwoverhand like a normal person.
So Dr Morale, my new pitchingcoach at the age of 65, or
whatever the hell I was, has nowtold me that I have to throw

(57:49):
overhand, which I spent my wholelife getting away from.
Now I've got to go back andthrow overhand.
But he said I could do it.
And which number one justshocked the hell out of me, that
he would allow me.
Number two, I mean, this is,you know, the wild card game.

(58:09):
The wild card game is now.
This is what the second wildcard game, or the third one, the
second of the three yeah.
This is the second of the three,so the first one has set the
expectations so high because itwas so great.
And so I'm thinking, okay,everybody in town is excited
because we're back in the wildcard game again.

(58:32):
Well, when they introduced meand I walk out because I don't
think it was very well knownthat I was going to do it, I
tried to keep it a secret.
When I walked out, when Iwalked out, the reaction from

(58:55):
the people in the ballpark thefull house obviously was just
overwhelming.
I mean, I start choking up justtalking about it now, because
I'm thinking, okay, some ofthese people saw me play.
A whole lot of them never sawme play.
Yes, they've heard the newsthree weeks ago that this
happened, but that reaction wasjust so overwhelming.

(59:21):
And then, you know, to actuallybe back on the field and throw
a baseball to Jared Hughes, whoactually requested to be the
catcher because he and I haddeveloped a relationship.

Speaker 3 (59:34):
Back in spring training.

Speaker 2 (59:36):
You know, everything goes full circle.

Speaker 3 (59:38):
How about that?

Speaker 2 (59:39):
So he was the catcher for it.

Speaker 3 (59:41):
That almost makes me cry.

Speaker 2 (59:42):
And then you know, then obviously I short hop it to
him, because they made me throwoverhand.

Speaker 3 (59:50):
If I could have thrown underhand, I could have.
You would have had a littlemovement to it too.

Speaker 2 (59:54):
It was just the wrong angle.
I didn't have the right release, point All kinds of stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:00:00):
We'll break that down .
That's what we do.
We'll get a pitching coachsomewhere, do analyze why I
didn't get it there.

Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
but uh, no, that was, you know, number one.
It was the honor that theyasked me.
Number two the reaction ofeverybody in the ballpark,
including which I didn't see,was the um, the reaction of the
current players.
My nephew, who was there he'sthe one that told me said, you

(01:00:31):
know, it was prior to the game.
The guys are out running theirsprints and not getting ready to
play a wild card game, and allthe guys on the field at that
time stopped doing what theywere doing and watched, and he
mentioned in particular Kutchwas one of them.

(01:00:53):
Yep, and you know just thewhole thing, the whole sequence
going from you don't know ifyou're going to live or die, or
if you're going to get throughthis transplant operation all
the way to within 30 days,you're standing in the middle of

(01:01:14):
PNC Park in a full house.
I mean, you talk about goingfrom nowhere to somewhere.
That was just unbelievableabout that whole thing.

Speaker 3 (01:01:25):
Your impact has been far and wide from the player
aspect I could speak on thatprobably for hours you and the
group of men that surround thePittsburgh name.
Your impact has been phenomenal.
That's why Cutch stopped.
Because Bill Verdon, because ofBill Mazeroski, because of you,
Because you were there.

(01:01:46):
You were there in the toughestmoments in some of a guy's
career.
You were the guy that just cameup and patted him on the back
and probably sat there.
Because that happened to me andit didn't happen to me in
Pittsburgh, but it happened tome somewhere else but it
happened because I knew that youwere the guys to open up to.
I knew the guys that could seethe tough.

Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
It happened because the guys before us did the same
thing for us.
Yeah, and you carried on, I'vegot a time where we were talking
earlier about in 74,.
I come up for 28 days, I stink,I get sent back to minor
leagues, I get dropped off theroster and you think it's over,
then right, You're just likewhat am I going to do?

(01:02:26):
now I mean I'm done and all of asudden circumstances I get
another chance in 75 to comeback to the big leagues.
So I'm down in Charleston whenSteve Blass is going through the
worst thing you can possibly gothrough in his life, full
circle.
Go through in his life, fullcircle.
Steve Blass is the one who tookme aside and said you know, he

(01:02:48):
knew what I'd done last year,that I'd been up, and he didn't
tell me directly.
He told me what, something thatDon Audsborn, who was still the
pitching coach at the time, whowas his pitching coach had told
him.
He says just go up there, throwit over the plate, the hitters

(01:03:09):
will let you know if it's goodenough or not.
And I went back with it.
They weren't the big leaguehitters anymore.
They weren't the guys that youhad to make a perfect pitch, or
else they're going to hit theball out of the ballpark.
Throw it over, they'll let youknow if it's good or not.

Speaker 3 (01:03:22):
We'll tell you everything you need to know.

Speaker 2 (01:03:23):
And that's exactly what I did, and that was the
total difference between thetime before and the time after.
So, anything that I passed on toyou or anyone else like that
during my times during springtraining was just me passing on
what Steve Blass had done for meor so many other guys when I
first came up.
The other guys when I firstcame up, the veteran teammates.

(01:03:46):
When I first came up you knowyou hear the stories about Doc
Ellis and what a character hewas and all this other stuff.
He went out of his way moreprobably than anybody else on
that team when I first came up,even in 74, when I wasn't very
good of going out of his way,and he came over to my locker

(01:04:09):
one day when I first came up,even in 74, when I wasn't very
good of going out of his way.
And he came over to my lockerone day and he says you're a
sinker baller, I'm a sinkerballer.
He says anytime you want toknow about any of these hitters
in this league, you come and askme.
I'll tell you what I know aboutall the different guys and how
they approach a sinker ballpitcher.
So you put that.
You put that with Blass, youput that with numerous other

(01:04:31):
guys.
We're not doing anything elsethat somebody in you did it.
You're doing it for somebodyelse now.
I mean, that's part of thebeauty of the game and the team
sport and what makes it sospecial.
It's not just 25 guys, it's theones that were before them or
the veterans that are with them,helping them to get there, and

(01:04:53):
then you feeling theresponsibility to pass it on to
the next group.
Amen, and that's one of themost gratifying things you can
get out of being a professionalbaseball player.

Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
The rubber band man.

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
Kent.

Speaker 1 (01:05:06):
Ticolvi, teek, teek, you are the greatest.

Speaker 3 (01:05:11):
Teek, you're the best .

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
For being on.
Hold my Cutter, we'll drink tothat.