November 29, 2025 • 27 mins
(This episode was recorded in 2022).
We’re curating the most downloaded episodes for new listeners discovering Lost Ballparks. If you’re a longtime listener, thank you for being part of this incredible community!
Jim Palmer won 268 games in his big league career. He appeared in 6 World Series and won 3. He was a 3x Cy Young Award winner, 4x Gold Glove winner, won at least 20 games in 8 different seasons and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1990. And oh by the way, he is the only pitcher in baseball history to win a World Series game in 3 different decades!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mike Koser (00:00):
I'm Mike Koser, and this is Lost Ball parks, a
podcast that takes you on ajourney to the golden age of
baseball's lost ballparks, astold by the players,
broadcasters, and fans who werethere, and who are here now to
give detailed first-handaccounts of what it was like to
sit in the seats on a summerafternoon at Ebbett's Field,
what it was like to pitch at thepolo grounds, stand in the
(00:20):
batter's box at Forbes Field,walk through the gates at
Comiskey Park with transistorradio in hand.
Welcome to Lost Ballparks.
Announcer (00:33):
Podcast open.
Mike Koser (00:51):
Our guest today on Lost Ballparks, Hall of Fame
pitcher, Baltimore Oriole, JimPalmer.
Palmer won 268 games in his bigleague career.
He appeared in six WorldSeries, won three.
The only Oriole that was a partof all three World
Championships was a three-timeCy Young Award winner, four-time
Gold Glove winner.
He won at least 20 games ineight different seasons, and was
(01:12):
inducted into the Baseball Hallof Fame with Joe Morgan in
1990.
Jim Palmer, thank you for doingthis.
Oh, you're welcome.
So one of your first Major League Baseball games
that you ever attended, I thinkI've got this right, was in 1954
at Old Yankee Stadium.
Prior to that, you'd onlywatched games on a black and
white television at home.
So describe that experiencewalking into Yankee Stadium for
(01:33):
the first time.
Jim Palmer (01:33):
You have to understand in 1954, uh New York
had three major league ballclubs.
And you know you had theYankees in the Bronx, and then
the Giants up at the pologrounds with Willie Mays, you
had Mantle, and had DiMaggio.
I mean, some of the greatestplayers ever that played for the
Yankees.
And then if you went across thebridges and you went over to
Brooklyn, you had the Boys ofSummer with Duke Snider, their
center field er so.
Mike Koser (01:53):
What a time to be alive.
Like to to be a kid growing upin New York in the fifties.
So the first game was it a aday game, night game?
Jim Palmer (01:59):
It was a Tuesday night.
My dad I don't know how hedid it.
You know he's in the dressbusiness, so somebody must have
said, Hey, do you want to takeuh Jimmy to the to the Yankee
games?
And that was my favorite team.
I mean, I had three choices,but I love the Yankees.
When you've never been to aballpark and you go to a night
game and you walk up thattunnel, you don't realize for
the first time how green thegrass is.
And it was glistening.
(02:20):
We're playing the Indians in1954, they broke my heart
because uh I think they won themost games ever in the the catch
of the World Series where Maysmakes the great catch off the
bat of Vic Wertz about 460 feetout in right center field of the
polo grounds.
So it was a great series if youwere a Giant fan.
But if you were a Yankee fanand your team had gotten beat
for a very traumatic summer, andthen all of a sudden they get
(02:41):
swept by the Giants, you're alittle bit disappointed.
But I think it was Vic Raschihe was pitching against early
wynn, who ended up in the Hallof Fame for the Indians.
But the Yankees won.
That was the first time I everwent there, and I actually got
an autographed ball with the uhthe Yankees uh ball club on it.
Mike Koser (02:55):
Do you still have that ball?
Jim Palmer (02:56):
No, you know, hey, when you run out of baseballs on
a Saturday morning, you'll goto any length to do that.
Mike Koser (03:00):
Well, it wasn't that long after, and you could have
all the baseballs you wanted,because you're the one playing
at Yankee Stadium with some ofthese all-time greats that you
grew up watching.
Jim Palmer (03:08):
You know, I mean I saw Mantle hit his 500th home
run off of Stu Miller.
Mike Koser (03:11):
You were at that game, wow.
Jim Palmer (03:13):
Yeah, I was at that game.
You know, he hit a change-up.
Stu was a great change-uppitcher, uh, you know, one of
the best relievers I ever saw.
Mike Koser (03:18):
May 14th, 1967, and Jim, your Orioles are at old
Yankee Stadium, your teammateStu Miller on the mound, Mickey
Mantle at the plate, and thelate Jerry Coleman on the call.
Jerry Coleman (03:29):
Bellanger, Johnson and Powell.
All to the right of secondbase.
...hard to get a ground ball between them. All by himself at 3rd base. Brooks Robinson....Here's the payoff pitch... This is it! There it goes! It's outta here!"
Mike Koser (03:51):
Several years ago, I asked you on Twitter what was
your favorite ballpark to pitchin, and you replied, Old Yankee
Stadium, you said that youremembered a game in 1965 when
you were 19, that the bases wereloaded and you struck out
Mickey Mantle.
Eleven years earlier, you're inthe stands, a fan, watching
your hero Mickey Mantle, play,and now you're striking him out
with the bases loaded at theexact same ballpark.
Jim Palmer (04:13):
Well, I mean, that's kind of a life lesson for
anybody that loves baseball.
You know, I mean I go there atnine years old because I like
the Yankees.
You know, first time you'veever seen how green the grass
is.
You know, you dream aboutplaying there.
I mean, I always thought I wasgoing to be a Yankee because I
signed a year before the uh thedraft, so I could have signed
with anybody.
Mike Koser (04:29):
Right.
Jim Palmer (04:30):
And you know, I mean, as it turns out, of
course, you know, the Oriolessixties, seventies, and
eighties.
I think the best winningpercentage in baseball.
But I always just thought I'dgo to Yankee Stadium.
But so when I got to pitchthere, and again, you know,
Mantle was in the end of hiscareer.
Elston Howard was one of theguys that I struck out with the
bases loaded.
Um he had been the mostvaluable player in 64.
(04:50):
But but I threw high fastballs,and you know, if you look at
analytics, you know, in in thein the year 2021 or now 2022,
everybody's telling you, well,you gotta have that good spin
rate on that four seam fastball.
Well, I had that.
Uh they didn't tell us that,but the hitters told me that
they have trouble hitting thehigh fastball.
Now you bring it down a littlebit, you get into a hitter's
count, you know, things changeda little bit.
(05:12):
There were a lot of guys thatgave you trouble that because
they hit the high fastball.
But most of the guys they wouldsee that pitch and the Yankees
were in this grouping and theytried to hit it and they just
couldn't catch up.
Mike Koser (05:22):
By the way, even though you were a Yankees fan
growing up, you still made it tothe polo grounds to watch the
Giants play, right?
Jim Palmer (05:28):
I wasn't a Giant fan.
I mean, and I I it's hard notto grow up loving baseball and
not know who Willie Mays was.
Went on the daytime, it was itit wasn't sunny.
I don't even know where thepolo grounds was.
But every you know, if you werea Yankee fan, you knew where
Yankee Stadium was.
Mike Koser (05:42):
Right.
Jim Palmer (05:42):
And uh I used to come home when I was in the like
the third or fourth grade andthe games were all televised.
They were televised black andwhite, as as you mentioned.
But they uh I mean I watchedBilly Martin.
He made the great catch withthe bases loaded uh even when
he's playing second base rightbetween right behind the
pitching band to save a WorldSeries.
I think maybe that was mighthave been 52 or 53.
Announcer (06:01):
Game audio.
Jim Palmer (06:28):
And then when I moved to California after my dad
passed away when I was nine anda half, I used to fifty-five,
fifty-six, I used to listen tothe Yankee and the World Series
on a transistor radio betweenhistory and geography.
So, um I mean that's the wayyou grew up.
Announcer (06:53):
Game audio.
Jim Palmer (06:53):
If you're a baseball fan as a kid, where you either
came home if you got out ofschool early, or the game went a
little bit longer.
Back then the games only tookabout two hours and ten minutes.
Mike Koser (07:02):
Right.
Jim Palmer (07:02):
They weren't the four-hour duration type of games
we have now.
Mike Koser (07:06):
In 1963, at age 17, you signed with the Baltimore
Orioles.
And two years later, in 1965,at age 19, you make your major
league debut at Fenway Park.
Jim Palmer (07:15):
I came in and yeah, I mean, there's snow flurries.
It's pretty cold.
I I had fished in Aberdeen,South Dakota the year before, so
I had a little bit used to coldweather, but never had that
kind of weather in Arizona.
Mike Koser (07:26):
Snow flurries.
Jim Palmer (07:27):
Yeah, snow flurries. This is before global
warming.
Mike Koser (07:30):
Right, yeah.
Jim Palmer (07:30):
So I here.
Mike Koser (07:31):
And the first guy you ever face in Major League
Baseball is Carl Yastrzemski.
Jim Palmer (07:34):
Yeah, well, I walked in, but I got to the mound and
I came in and I brought thewarm-up ball in.
I was so nervous.
And Hank Bauer said, uh, hey,uh, how do you feel?
I said, Well, I've never donethis before.
I'm a little apprehensive.
I said, Well, what do I do withthis other ball?
He said, Well, I'll take careof that.
You take care of Yastrzemski SoI ended up walking Yaz, and the
next hitter was uh uh TonyConigliaro, who, for anybody
that has a good memory orhistorian of baseball, he was on
(07:56):
his way to 500 runs.
That's how good he was.
Mike Koser (07:58):
Oh, yeah.
Jim Palmer (07:59):
Yeah.
So I was nervous.
Well, you're just going oninstincts, which is okay, what
do you do fastball?
You throw a fastball.
So I threw him a high fastball,he swung.
I threw him another highfastball, he swung, and then I
threw him by accident, threw hima knee-high lone-away fastball.
And he actually took strikethree, and John Flaherty, the
home played umpire, called himout.
And then uh gave up a brokenbat single.
So my inherited runners numbersweren't particularly good uh in
(08:22):
my first game at Fenway Park.
Mike Koser (08:24):
In 1966, Frank Robinson joins the Orioles and
proceeds to have a career yearwhich included a home run off
Cleveland's Louis Tiant thatwent completely out of memorial
stadium.
Jim Palmer (08:35):
You know, you had um you had a mezzanine, then you
had an upper deck, and thenalong the edge of the uh upper
deck when it hung out over thethe lower bleachers, and we're
talking maybe 75, 80 feet, 90feet.
I mean, it was a long youdidn't want to be dropping
unless you had a parachutedropping out of that upper deck.
It was a long way down to wherethe the junior Orioles used to
(08:55):
sit actually about maybe 17, 18feet higher than the playing
surface.
So there was a chain link fencethat ran all the way to the top
of the bleachers, so peoplewouldn't fall out.
And he hit it kind of just tothe right of that.
So he hits the ball out of thestadium.
Mike Koser (09:10):
That power from Frank Robinson helped catapult
the Orioles to the World Seriesin '66.
And and the crazy thing is, in1966, at age 20, you finish the
season 15-10, and you findyourself pitching in game two of
the World Series.
Announcer (09:22):
Sandy Koufax and Jim Palmer are today's starting
pitcher.
The incomparable Koufax won 27this year, a National League
record for leftys....
The youthful Palmer had 15victories.
What did you think when youfound out you would be pitching
against Sandy Koufax?
Jim Palmer (09:39):
Yeah, he had a string of about five to seven
years.
It was as good as we're talking280 to 307 innings, 44 starts.
Uh, I think he pitched maybewrong, five no-hitters.
You know, he was 30, I was 20.
Announcer (09:51):
The 20-year-old Palmer seems calm enough as he
warms up for his first WorldSeries appearance.
Jim Palmer (09:58):
We had gotten to Los Angeles, and I didn't know they
called the American League theJunior League.
So when we were there, they uhit wasn't the LA Times, but they
had another LA Herald orwhatever it was, uh Junior
League uh loop leaders in townto play Dodgers.
Back then, you know, you hadthe TV show, um uh what was it,
Laugh In?
Mike Koser (10:16):
Oh, right, yeah.
Jim Palmer (10:17):
Yeah, Would You Believe?
So on the way out to downSunset Boulevard, because we
stayed at the uh uh ContinentalHotel that was owned by Gene
Autry, and he was actually atthe door the night before when
we came in.
So we went for a workout onMonday, and we're going to the
game on the first game, I think,on Tuesday.
And instead of a real estatesign saying three bedroom house,
two baths, a pool, it said,Would you believe Dodgers
(10:39):
...4 straight?
So the game starts Frank andBrooks hit home runs in the
first inning, and again, I'mpitching the next day, and I'm
hoping that I pitch well becausethat's the only way you're
gonna beat Koufax.
And then the next day, youknow, afternoon game, hazy.
It's sunny, but it's hazy.
And I think we go into thefifth inning, nothing nothing.
And Willie Davis routine flyball drops it.
(11:00):
He didn't have to run, theyjust came in, a couple of steps
dropped it.
The next ball, almost theidentical fly ball.
He drops that one, picks it up,throws it in the dugout.
We get like four under runs.
I think the Dodgers make sixerrors in that game.
Mike Koser (11:12):
Wow.
Jim Palmer (11:12):
Um Sandy, I mean he's 30, he still threw
exceptionally hard.
I hit off him uh for probablyin the second or third inning,
and Andy Etchebarren had alittle bit of uh kind of wrapped
the bat out a little bit.
Well, that's not a good thingto do against Koufax.
So he throws him a highfastball and he thinks about
swinging, but he can't get thebat going, throws him another
one, throws him another one.
So three high fastballs and I'mwalking up the home plate and I
(11:34):
said, radio balls.
He said, What?
I said, You you can hear him,but you couldn't quite see him.
So Koufax throws me the firstfastball.
You know, I won my first gamein the big leagues with a home
run off Jim Bowden.
I could hit a little bit.
I was a good hitter in highschool, but he throws me this
high fastball, and I'm thinkingabout swinging at it.
And I used to use FrankRobinson's 35 ounce bat, and I'm
going, and the ball's inRoseboro's glove.
(11:55):
So now he throws me the nextpitch, and it looks exactly like
the high fastball.
So I go to swing at it, andit's a curveball, it ends up on
the ground.
I mean it goes straight down.
So now I go, things aren'tlooking real good.
In two pitches, I saw what uhanybody that tried to hit off of
Sandy Koufax had to deal with.
You had a fastball that startedin the lobby and ended up on
the third floor.
You had a curveball that lookedlike it was starting in the
(12:18):
lobby and ended up in the lowerbasement.
And that's why Sandy Koufax wasSandy Koufax.
Easy wind up, ball had uhtremendous finish, pretty
surreal.
Mike Koser (12:26):
And to be so young and get a complete game four-hit
shutout for the win.
Announcer (12:30):
Palmer's triumph made history because at nine days
short of his 21st birthday, he'sthe youngest pitcher ever to
achieve a shutout in a WorldSeries.
Mike Koser (12:41):
First World Championship, too.
Um, and you mentioned MemorialStadium, that's your home
ballpark on East 33rd, where theOrioles played from 54 to 91 in
a very similar way to Ebbet'sField.
Memorial Stadium was rightsmack dab in a neighborhood.
Do you remember the route,first of all, that you would
take to the ballpark?
How would you get there?
Jim Palmer (12:57):
Well, it was on 33rd Street, so I'd just come down
Charles Street.
I used to ride in with DickHall, who went to Swarthmore,
one of the great controlpitchers of all time, and he
would, you know, he also studiedgeology.
He'd tell me about the rockformations.
So I learned a lot.
You know, Dick was much smarterthan I was.
I tried to stand next to him inthe outfield.
Mike Koser (13:15):
What were some of the unique characteristics of
Memorial Stadium that stood outto you?
Jim Palmer (13:18):
You had to park next to people.
So if the car behind you didn'tleave right away, you weren't
leaving.
It wasn't like normal parkinglots.
Mike Koser (13:25):
You were sardined in there.
Jim Palmer (13:27):
I mean 54, I think 54,000 people.
Um, I mean, I remember going tosee the Colts and the Packers
play maybe at 66, $5.75 for thechampionship ticket.
Announcer (13:39):
Wow.
Jim Palmer (13:39):
Sitting on the 50 yard line.
You know, they didn't have alot of box seats.
I think they had like 8,000 boxseats, but you had the
bleachers, you had the upperdeck.
309 down the line.
So if you're when it opened,and I wasn't there when they
opened it, they had a scoreboardway out there.
I think that's where the fencesactually were.
So a lot of triples were hit,and then they brought the fences
in.
So you had 309 with about a 15,16, 17 foot wall down the line.
(14:02):
So it kind of went out, andthere was a 360 sign, and then
you kind of got to where the oldoutfield used to be, and that's
where the bullpens were.
They were 387.
They brought them into 378along the line or weight, I
think the center field bullpenwe're visiting was out right
center or left center with theOriole bullpen.
And the great thing is they hadthe scoreboard, and to the
right of that, you had rowhouses.
(14:22):
So it was a pretty good placeto pitch in April because the
row houses were partly brick andwhite.
And I remember when RickDempsey came and first got
traded.
Of course, you know, we hadfour 20-game winners in 71,
three in 70.
And when Rick came over fromthe Yankees in 76, he said, You
can't see.
We need to we need to get ahitting background out there.
And and somebody said, "Dipper", don't you know the Orioles
(14:44):
win with pitching?
So until the trees grew inprobably in the middle of May,
it was a pretty good place topitch.
Mike Koser (14:50):
Well, yeah, I often think about like how great it
would be to be a kid and live inone of those houses and kind of
look out your window and youknow, do your homework but watch
a game.
Jim Palmer (14:58):
You could uh hear.
We did an ad uh once where wewere actually in a trailer and
we would walk at ...
knock on people's doors and say,Hey, where have you been?
We miss you at the ballpark.
And um Paul Blair was reallyshy.
So we're in the trailerlistening, and he walks up a
driveway, and the guy's actuallyI think he must have had some
kind of uh disease in one of histrees, and you can hear him
(15:18):
with a hammer.
He's kind of chiseling out thethe disease and it's gonna pass
it or do something like that.
And Paul says, Hey, where haveyou been?
We miss you at the ballpark.
And the guy goes, Used to liveon 39th Street, but couldn't
find a parking spot.
Now I live on 34th Street,can't find a parking spot.
I'm never going to theballpark.
So part of the intimacy ofactually living in a
neighborhood ...I used to have alittle Volkswagen that I bought
(15:40):
up in Mannheim for $1,375 afterwe won the World Series, so I
could go do Little Leaguebanquets and stuff for the
Orioles and make $25 a night.
I used to try to get thatVolkswagen and people would park
their car just where you didn'thave enough room to park in
between.
Mike Koser (15:55):
On game day, I mean everything about game day is
great except street parking ongame day, uh never, never easy,
especially near the stadium.
Okay, so look, after making itto the World Series in 1969, but
losing to a very good Metsteam, the Orioles are right back
in 1970, this time squaring offagainst the Cincinnati Reds.
Game one of the 1970 WorldSeries.
Jim Palmer (16:29):
Bench, I think, hit 45 home runs.
Perez hit 40.
They had a nice ball club.
They just weren't quite as goodas us, and they didn't quite
have the same type of pitching.
The whole 70 season started inspring training when Earl Weaver
said we're not going to uh, youknow, because we had a good
club.
We had 109 games in 1969, 108and 70.
(16:49):
So we had a good ball club, andand Earl was like a jockey
coming down the stretch at thePimlico in the middle of the
Preakness.
He had the whip out early.
Earl Weaver (16:57):
People say this is fun.
The further I can get away fromsomebody like that, the happier
I'm gonna be.
Jim Palmer (17:03):
He wanted to get to the World Series, he wanted to
win the World Series.
To be honest, they did not havethey didn't have the pitching
that the Mets had, they didn'thave the good fortune that the
Mets had, they didn't have theumpires on their side like the
Mets had. I don't know. It justseemed like every call in 69
went against us.
And when you're playing a goodball club in a turned out a
five-game series, that's all youneed.
Mike Koser (17:23):
You win game one at Riverfront Stadium, and I look
back and think, man, you justmissed pitching at Crosley
Field, the Reds' former home.
By just a few months, they hadmoved into Riverfront a couple
months earlier.
Uh that would have been fun,you know, to be at Crosley
Field.
Jim Palmer (17:36):
Well, it would have been, but you know, I played in
the All-Star game.
My first All-Star game is uh,you know, actually started
against Seaver.
Curt Gowdy (17:42):
This is Red's country, Riverfront Stadium,
home of the Cincinnati Reds andthe 1970 All-Star.
American League pitchers JimPalmer, Sam McDowell, and Jim
Perry are devastating.
Jim Palmer (17:55):
I got to pitch three shutout innings.
That's the game where Fossegets run over by Pete Rose.
Mike Koser (18:00):
Oh, right.
Yeah.
Jim Palmer (18:01):
Yeah.
Mike Koser (18:01):
So fast forward game one of the 1970 World Series,
and you're called on to pitch.
Jim Palmer (18:06):
Again, I pitched game one for some reason.
I mean, Cuellar and McNally won23 and 24 games, but I think
Earl thought right-handersmatched up better against the
Reds in 70 than than lefties.
I I kind of in retrospect, Mikewon 139 games in seven years,
and Mack won 20 games fourstraight years.
So in that stretch.
So but I started the firstgame, and I mean I gave up three
(18:29):
runs early.
But then we came back.
Five games, a lot of things canhappen.
Mike Koser (18:39):
It's your second world championship, and then in
uh in 1971, you're elected againto the uh American League
All-Star team.
The game is at Tiger Stadium.
The AL's trying to win for thefirst time, I think, since 1962.
It's the third inning, andReggie Jackson steps up to the
plate to face Pirates pitcherDoc Ellis.
Announcer (18:56):
Game Audio
Mike Koser (19:31):
You, I believe, were warming up at the time, is that
right?
Jim Palmer (19:35):
Yeah, you know, it's what's so interesting about
that game.
Well, a lot of things aboutthat game.
I think everybody, there weresix home runs, all hit by Hall
of Famers.
Frank hit a home run line drivehome run off, uh, Doc Ellis,
Bench hit one, or Clemente hitone, Aaron hit one, maybe
Killebrew hit one.
I mean, some pretty greathitters.
But when you're warming up andthrowing a pitch and turn around
trying to time my warm-ups toalso watch Doc pitch to Reggie,
(19:58):
and there's complete silence inthe ballpark because everybody's
watching how far the ball'sgoing.
And it does go up over thesecond roof, and if it doesn't
hit the transformer it is goingout of the ballpark.
I mean, that's a pretty goodcurveball that Willie Horton
wants, and he got out of hisfront foot and hit a line drive
to the upper deck in left field,but right field the pavilion's
even higher, the roof is uhhigher and he just scorched that
(20:22):
ball.
But the one thing thedifference the American Leauge
wasn't winning a lot of All-Stargames back then.
And we did win that game, Ithink, six to four, but the game
was two hours and eightminutes.
Mike Koser (20:31):
Wow, two hours and eight minutes.
Uh that would never happentoday.
Jim Palmer (20:35):
They ran a game uh a couple weekends ago, the the
sixth game of the 71 WorldSeries when we lost to the
Pirates.
And I gave up a run of thefirst, run of the third, and
then shut him out, I guess, forthe next five or six.
We won in the tenth inning.
And a friend of mine called meand he said, Yeah, that was a
tutorial on not taking a lot oftime between pitches.
And I said, Well, I alreadyfaced them once, already knew
(20:55):
what I wanted to do, alreadyknew what they probably knew
what they wanted to do.
They didn't wear battinggloves.
I mean, all you gotta do iswatch games now.
Guys come up to home plate,they got their batting gloves,
they adjust them, grab the bat,you throw ball one, you don't
even swing, they step out of thebox.
Mike Koser (21:09):
Yeah, adjust again and then do that every pitch.
Jim Palmer (21:12):
And they get ready to hit again.
Now they don't do that whenthey're taking batting practice.
Right.
They allow them to do it.
It's kind of a ritual.
Uh Mike Hargrove was a humanrain delay at home plate.
Mike Koser (21:21):
Oh yeah.
Yeah, I totally agree withthat.
You mentioned the 71 WorldSeries.
Uh, what do you remember aboutfacing Clemente?
Jim Palmer (21:27):
I mean, he uh you know he tripled off being hit a
home run in that game six, 358feet, but it was just poked at
the right field, but that's theway you hit 'em, much shorter
down the lines at MemorialStadium.
But he's a five-tool player,maybe four and a half, wasn't
known as a home run guy.
But if you go back to that 71All-Star game, I still remember
Mickey Lolich was quite apitcher.
One year he pitched 376innings, and uh he threw him a
(21:50):
hanging curveball.
He got out on his front footand hit over the 415 side in the
upper deck in right field.
Announcer (21:55):
Game audio.
Jim Palmer (22:17):
He could hit, and he could hit pretty much any pitch
you threw.
I think because he played inPittsburgh, he didn't play in
New York, he didn't play in LosAngeles.
We know Jackie Robinson changedthe fortunes if he were an
African American player, but ifyou read the book Clemente, you
realize that Latin players thatcame up through the system, I
think Roberto actually startedwith the Dodgers.
When you read his biography,it's a pretty interesting read,
(22:39):
but he ended up being one of thegreat players of all time.
Mike Koser (22:42):
On October 6th, 1991, the Baltimore Orioles
played their final game atMemorial Stadium.
More than a hundred Oriolesfrom the past and present were
there that day to say theirfinal goodbyes.
Music from the movie Field ofDreams started to play.
And out of the dugout, one byone, the all-time great Orioles
started to file out.
(23:02):
Brooks Robinson in uniform,wearing number five, heads to
third base.
Frank Robinson, right behindhim to right field.
Boog Powell to first base.
Jim Palmer, you, head to thepitcher's mound.
Don Baylor, Rick Dempsey goesbehind the plate.
(23:23):
Davey Johnson and Bobby Grichto second.
Louis Aparicio to short, LeeMay, Pat Kelly, El Rod Hendrix,
Dave McNally.
I mean, one by one, these guysare coming out of the dugout in
uniform.
There is not a dry eye inMemorial Stadium.
As fans who have celebratedthese players and their
accomplishments the last nearly40 years, Mike Cuellar, Mike
(23:44):
Flannagan, Dennis Martinez,Scott McGregor, Milt Pappas,
Steve Barber, Cal Ripken Jr.
And then finally, your Hall ofFame manager, Earl Weaver, walks
out.
Looking back at that footage,Jim, I still get goosebumps.
Jim Palmer (23:56):
Yeah, it was a memorable moment.
And I think anybody that livedin Baltimore, it wasn't just the
Orioles, it was the Colts.
Chuck Thompson, uh, the lateChuck Thompson is also
memorialized in the broadcastwing of the Hall of Fame.
He did the Colt games, did theOriole games.
When you talk about MemorialStadium, you talk about the
stadium that's built in memorialof people that died in World
(24:17):
War II.
You think of the Colts.
And again, Sunday in Baltimorein Memorial Stadium, watching
the Colts play.
I mean, when we won that '66World Series, we came back, get
our setup the next day, and theColts were working out.
And I was watching JohnnyUnitas, who eventually I would
get to know and play golf withand all that, throwing 15 uh
yard outs to Raymond Berry, whowas one of the great receivers
(24:37):
of all time.
And it was like a 95 mile perhour fastball blown away.
I mean, the ball was already inthe air, and Raymond hadn't
even made his cut.
So you got to see if you livedin Baltimore back then, if you
wanted to go to bowling, you'dgo to Johnny Unitas uh bowling
alley, or if you wanted Brookshad a restaurant, Brooks
Robinson.
A lot of the guys, GenoMarchetti started Gino's again,
an all-pro uh Hall of Famealignment.
(24:59):
Right.
So yeah, they just had amarvelous podcast.
I still run in to Lenny Moore,who's got to be, I don't know,
in his mid eighties now.
So yeah, yeah, Baltimore andMemorial Stadium was more than
just the Orioles.
In fact, we were kind of Ithink we kind of learned, earned
our spurs just trying to maybebe a little bit like a lot of
the Colts who lived in thatcommunity, became part of that
community and really made adifference in that community.
Mike Koser (25:21):
Yeah, and it was great to see some of the Colts
included in that finalcelebration at Memorial Stadium
in 1991.
And I did notice watching thevideo today that when you walked
out to the mound and that musicis playing, you fought back
tears.
I mean, it was it was a specialmoment, not just for the fans,
but uh for the players.
Jim Palmer (25:38):
Yeah, it was a special moment because I mean
here I am at 76, but my mind isstill pretty intact.
But at the end of the day,those are the kind of moments
and I think all you gotta do isgo to Cooperstown for the
induction, and you realize howpeople just love baseball or
love their football, and in thecase of the Colts, who would
eventually move to Indianapolis,and now of course you have the
(25:58):
Ravens, which they get inBaltimore.
But Baltimore, you know, hasalways been a nice sports town,
and Memorial Stadium had so muchto do with that.
Mike Koser (26:04):
Yeah, it really was a special ballpark.
And those that uh that werethere to experience it between
54 and 91, uh we'll never forgetit.
Thank you so much, Jim Palmer,for taking a couple minutes
today.
What a career.
268 wins, three Cy Youngawards, six World Series that
you appeared, and three that youwon, uh inducted to the
Baseball Hall of Fame in 1990.
Great player, great friend,great broadcaster, and uh thank
(26:27):
you so much for sharing yourmemories with us today.
Jim Palmer (26:29):
Oh, you're welcome.
My pleasure.
Mike Koser (26:30):
All the best to you and your family, Jim, and look
forward to hearing you back onthe air in the next couple
months.
Jim Palmer (26:34):
Okay, Let's hope.
Mike Koser (26:36):
Okay, yeah, no kidding.
I I can remember as a kid beingin the backyard of my house in
Castleberry, Florida, setting upa little pitching mound on our
stiff St.
Augustine grass, and thentrying my best to emulate Jim
Palmer's delivery.
Uh yeah.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of the Lost Ballparks
Podcast.
Really appreciate it.
This podcast is a completelabor of love and so I'm
(26:58):
thankful that uh you've takenthe time to join me today.
A reminder, if you haven'talready, you can subscribe for
free on the podcast platform ofyour choice.
Apple, Spotify, Pandora,whatever, so you don't ever miss
an episode.
I'm Mike Koser, and this is Lost Ball parks, a
podcast that takes you on ajourney to the golden age of
baseball's lost ballparks, astold by the players,
broadcasters, and fans who werethere, and who are here now to
give detailed first-handaccounts of what it was like to
sit in the seats on a summerafternoon at Ebbett's Field,
what it was like to pitch at thepolo grounds, stand in the
(00:20):
batter's box at Forbes Field,walk through the gates at
Comiskey Park with transistorradio in hand.
Welcome to Lost Ballparks.
Announcer (00:33):
Podcast open.
Mike Koser (00:51):
Our guest today on Lost Ballparks, Hall of Fame
pitcher, Baltimore Oriole, JimPalmer.
Palmer won 268 games in his bigleague career.
He appeared in six WorldSeries, won three.
The only Oriole that was a partof all three World
Championships was a three-timeCy Young Award winner, four-time
Gold Glove winner.
He won at least 20 games ineight different seasons, and was
(01:12):
inducted into the Baseball Hallof Fame with Joe Morgan in
1990.
Jim Palmer, thank you for doingthis.
Oh, you're welcome.
So one of your first Major League Baseball games
that you ever attended, I thinkI've got this right, was in 1954
at Old Yankee Stadium.
Prior to that, you'd onlywatched games on a black and
white television at home.
So describe that experiencewalking into Yankee Stadium for
(01:33):
the first time.
Jim Palmer (01:33):
You have to understand in 1954, uh New York
had three major league ballclubs.
And you know you had theYankees in the Bronx, and then
the Giants up at the pologrounds with Willie Mays, you
had Mantle, and had DiMaggio.
I mean, some of the greatestplayers ever that played for the
Yankees.
And then if you went across thebridges and you went over to
Brooklyn, you had the Boys ofSummer with Duke Snider, their
center field er so.
Mike Koser (01:53):
What a time to be alive.
Like to to be a kid growing upin New York in the fifties.
So the first game was it a aday game, night game?
Jim Palmer (01:59):
It was a Tuesday night.
My dad I don't know how hedid it.
You know he's in the dressbusiness, so somebody must have
said, Hey, do you want to takeuh Jimmy to the to the Yankee
games?
And that was my favorite team.
I mean, I had three choices,but I love the Yankees.
When you've never been to aballpark and you go to a night
game and you walk up thattunnel, you don't realize for
the first time how green thegrass is.
And it was glistening.
(02:20):
We're playing the Indians in1954, they broke my heart
because uh I think they won themost games ever in the the catch
of the World Series where Maysmakes the great catch off the
bat of Vic Wertz about 460 feetout in right center field of the
polo grounds.
So it was a great series if youwere a Giant fan.
But if you were a Yankee fanand your team had gotten beat
for a very traumatic summer, andthen all of a sudden they get
(02:41):
swept by the Giants, you're alittle bit disappointed.
But I think it was Vic Raschihe was pitching against early
wynn, who ended up in the Hallof Fame for the Indians.
But the Yankees won.
That was the first time I everwent there, and I actually got
an autographed ball with the uhthe Yankees uh ball club on it.
Mike Koser (02:55):
Do you still have that ball?
Jim Palmer (02:56):
No, you know, hey, when you run out of baseballs on
a Saturday morning, you'll goto any length to do that.
Mike Koser (03:00):
Well, it wasn't that long after, and you could have
all the baseballs you wanted,because you're the one playing
at Yankee Stadium with some ofthese all-time greats that you
grew up watching.
Jim Palmer (03:08):
You know, I mean I saw Mantle hit his 500th home
run off of Stu Miller.
Mike Koser (03:11):
You were at that game, wow.
Jim Palmer (03:13):
Yeah, I was at that game.
You know, he hit a change-up.
Stu was a great change-uppitcher, uh, you know, one of
the best relievers I ever saw.
Mike Koser (03:18):
May 14th, 1967, and Jim, your Orioles are at old
Yankee Stadium, your teammateStu Miller on the mound, Mickey
Mantle at the plate, and thelate Jerry Coleman on the call.
Jerry Coleman (03:29):
Bellanger, Johnson and Powell.
All to the right of secondbase.
...hard to get a ground ball between them. All by himself at 3rd base. Brooks Robinson....Here's the payoff pitch... This is it! There it goes! It's outta here!"
Mike Koser (03:51):
Several years ago, I asked you on Twitter what was
your favorite ballpark to pitchin, and you replied, Old Yankee
Stadium, you said that youremembered a game in 1965 when
you were 19, that the bases wereloaded and you struck out
Mickey Mantle.
Eleven years earlier, you're inthe stands, a fan, watching
your hero Mickey Mantle, play,and now you're striking him out
with the bases loaded at theexact same ballpark.
Jim Palmer (04:13):
Well, I mean, that's kind of a life lesson for
anybody that loves baseball.
You know, I mean I go there atnine years old because I like
the Yankees.
You know, first time you'veever seen how green the grass
is.
You know, you dream aboutplaying there.
I mean, I always thought I wasgoing to be a Yankee because I
signed a year before the uh thedraft, so I could have signed
with anybody.
Mike Koser (04:29):
Right.
Jim Palmer (04:30):
And you know, I mean, as it turns out, of
course, you know, the Oriolessixties, seventies, and
eighties.
I think the best winningpercentage in baseball.
But I always just thought I'dgo to Yankee Stadium.
But so when I got to pitchthere, and again, you know,
Mantle was in the end of hiscareer.
Elston Howard was one of theguys that I struck out with the
bases loaded.
Um he had been the mostvaluable player in 64.
(04:50):
But but I threw high fastballs,and you know, if you look at
analytics, you know, in in thein the year 2021 or now 2022,
everybody's telling you, well,you gotta have that good spin
rate on that four seam fastball.
Well, I had that.
Uh they didn't tell us that,but the hitters told me that
they have trouble hitting thehigh fastball.
Now you bring it down a littlebit, you get into a hitter's
count, you know, things changeda little bit.
(05:12):
There were a lot of guys thatgave you trouble that because
they hit the high fastball.
But most of the guys they wouldsee that pitch and the Yankees
were in this grouping and theytried to hit it and they just
couldn't catch up.
Mike Koser (05:22):
By the way, even though you were a Yankees fan
growing up, you still made it tothe polo grounds to watch the
Giants play, right?
Jim Palmer (05:28):
I wasn't a Giant fan.
I mean, and I I it's hard notto grow up loving baseball and
not know who Willie Mays was.
Went on the daytime, it was itit wasn't sunny.
I don't even know where thepolo grounds was.
But every you know, if you werea Yankee fan, you knew where
Yankee Stadium was.
Mike Koser (05:42):
Right.
Jim Palmer (05:42):
And uh I used to come home when I was in the like
the third or fourth grade andthe games were all televised.
They were televised black andwhite, as as you mentioned.
But they uh I mean I watchedBilly Martin.
He made the great catch withthe bases loaded uh even when
he's playing second base rightbetween right behind the
pitching band to save a WorldSeries.
I think maybe that was mighthave been 52 or 53.
Announcer (06:01):
Game audio.
Jim Palmer (06:28):
And then when I moved to California after my dad
passed away when I was nine anda half, I used to fifty-five,
fifty-six, I used to listen tothe Yankee and the World Series
on a transistor radio betweenhistory and geography.
So, um I mean that's the wayyou grew up.
Announcer (06:53):
Game audio.
Jim Palmer (06:53):
If you're a baseball fan as a kid, where you either
came home if you got out ofschool early, or the game went a
little bit longer.
Back then the games only tookabout two hours and ten minutes.
Mike Koser (07:02):
Right.
Jim Palmer (07:02):
They weren't the four-hour duration type of games
we have now.
Mike Koser (07:06):
In 1963, at age 17, you signed with the Baltimore
Orioles.
And two years later, in 1965,at age 19, you make your major
league debut at Fenway Park.
Jim Palmer (07:15):
I came in and yeah, I mean, there's snow flurries.
It's pretty cold.
I I had fished in Aberdeen,South Dakota the year before, so
I had a little bit used to coldweather, but never had that
kind of weather in Arizona.
Mike Koser (07:26):
Snow flurries.
Jim Palmer (07:27):
Yeah, snow flurries. This is before global
warming.
Mike Koser (07:30):
Right, yeah.
Jim Palmer (07:30):
So I here.
Mike Koser (07:31):
And the first guy you ever face in Major League
Baseball is Carl Yastrzemski.
Jim Palmer (07:34):
Yeah, well, I walked in, but I got to the mound and
I came in and I brought thewarm-up ball in.
I was so nervous.
And Hank Bauer said, uh, hey,uh, how do you feel?
I said, Well, I've never donethis before.
I'm a little apprehensive.
I said, Well, what do I do withthis other ball?
He said, Well, I'll take careof that.
You take care of Yastrzemski SoI ended up walking Yaz, and the
next hitter was uh uh TonyConigliaro, who, for anybody
that has a good memory orhistorian of baseball, he was on
(07:56):
his way to 500 runs.
That's how good he was.
Mike Koser (07:58):
Oh, yeah.
Jim Palmer (07:59):
Yeah.
So I was nervous.
Well, you're just going oninstincts, which is okay, what
do you do fastball?
You throw a fastball.
So I threw him a high fastball,he swung.
I threw him another highfastball, he swung, and then I
threw him by accident, threw hima knee-high lone-away fastball.
And he actually took strikethree, and John Flaherty, the
home played umpire, called himout.
And then uh gave up a brokenbat single.
So my inherited runners numbersweren't particularly good uh in
(08:22):
my first game at Fenway Park.
Mike Koser (08:24):
In 1966, Frank Robinson joins the Orioles and
proceeds to have a career yearwhich included a home run off
Cleveland's Louis Tiant thatwent completely out of memorial
stadium.
Jim Palmer (08:35):
You know, you had um you had a mezzanine, then you
had an upper deck, and thenalong the edge of the uh upper
deck when it hung out over thethe lower bleachers, and we're
talking maybe 75, 80 feet, 90feet.
I mean, it was a long youdidn't want to be dropping
unless you had a parachutedropping out of that upper deck.
It was a long way down to wherethe the junior Orioles used to
(08:55):
sit actually about maybe 17, 18feet higher than the playing
surface.
So there was a chain link fencethat ran all the way to the top
of the bleachers, so peoplewouldn't fall out.
And he hit it kind of just tothe right of that.
So he hits the ball out of thestadium.
Mike Koser (09:10):
That power from Frank Robinson helped catapult
the Orioles to the World Seriesin '66.
And and the crazy thing is, in1966, at age 20, you finish the
season 15-10, and you findyourself pitching in game two of
the World Series.
Announcer (09:22):
Sandy Koufax and Jim Palmer are today's starting
pitcher.
The incomparable Koufax won 27this year, a National League
record for leftys....
The youthful Palmer had 15victories.
What did you think when youfound out you would be pitching
against Sandy Koufax?
Jim Palmer (09:39):
Yeah, he had a string of about five to seven
years.
It was as good as we're talking280 to 307 innings, 44 starts.
Uh, I think he pitched maybewrong, five no-hitters.
You know, he was 30, I was 20.
Announcer (09:51):
The 20-year-old Palmer seems calm enough as he
warms up for his first WorldSeries appearance.
Jim Palmer (09:58):
We had gotten to Los Angeles, and I didn't know they
called the American League theJunior League.
So when we were there, they uhit wasn't the LA Times, but they
had another LA Herald orwhatever it was, uh Junior
League uh loop leaders in townto play Dodgers.
Back then, you know, you hadthe TV show, um uh what was it,
Laugh In?
Mike Koser (10:16):
Oh, right, yeah.
Jim Palmer (10:17):
Yeah, Would You Believe?
So on the way out to downSunset Boulevard, because we
stayed at the uh uh ContinentalHotel that was owned by Gene
Autry, and he was actually atthe door the night before when
we came in.
So we went for a workout onMonday, and we're going to the
game on the first game, I think,on Tuesday.
And instead of a real estatesign saying three bedroom house,
two baths, a pool, it said,Would you believe Dodgers
(10:39):
...4 straight?
So the game starts Frank andBrooks hit home runs in the
first inning, and again, I'mpitching the next day, and I'm
hoping that I pitch well becausethat's the only way you're
gonna beat Koufax.
And then the next day, youknow, afternoon game, hazy.
It's sunny, but it's hazy.
And I think we go into thefifth inning, nothing nothing.
And Willie Davis routine flyball drops it.
(11:00):
He didn't have to run, theyjust came in, a couple of steps
dropped it.
The next ball, almost theidentical fly ball.
He drops that one, picks it up,throws it in the dugout.
We get like four under runs.
I think the Dodgers make sixerrors in that game.
Mike Koser (11:12):
Wow.
Jim Palmer (11:12):
Um Sandy, I mean he's 30, he still threw
exceptionally hard.
I hit off him uh for probablyin the second or third inning,
and Andy Etchebarren had alittle bit of uh kind of wrapped
the bat out a little bit.
Well, that's not a good thingto do against Koufax.
So he throws him a highfastball and he thinks about
swinging, but he can't get thebat going, throws him another
one, throws him another one.
So three high fastballs and I'mwalking up the home plate and I
(11:34):
said, radio balls.
He said, What?
I said, You you can hear him,but you couldn't quite see him.
So Koufax throws me the firstfastball.
You know, I won my first gamein the big leagues with a home
run off Jim Bowden.
I could hit a little bit.
I was a good hitter in highschool, but he throws me this
high fastball, and I'm thinkingabout swinging at it.
And I used to use FrankRobinson's 35 ounce bat, and I'm
going, and the ball's inRoseboro's glove.
(11:55):
So now he throws me the nextpitch, and it looks exactly like
the high fastball.
So I go to swing at it, andit's a curveball, it ends up on
the ground.
I mean it goes straight down.
So now I go, things aren'tlooking real good.
In two pitches, I saw what uhanybody that tried to hit off of
Sandy Koufax had to deal with.
You had a fastball that startedin the lobby and ended up on
the third floor.
You had a curveball that lookedlike it was starting in the
(12:18):
lobby and ended up in the lowerbasement.
And that's why Sandy Koufax wasSandy Koufax.
Easy wind up, ball had uhtremendous finish, pretty
surreal.
Mike Koser (12:26):
And to be so young and get a complete game four-hit
shutout for the win.
Announcer (12:30):
Palmer's triumph made history because at nine days
short of his 21st birthday, he'sthe youngest pitcher ever to
achieve a shutout in a WorldSeries.
Mike Koser (12:41):
First World Championship, too.
Um, and you mentioned MemorialStadium, that's your home
ballpark on East 33rd, where theOrioles played from 54 to 91 in
a very similar way to Ebbet'sField.
Memorial Stadium was rightsmack dab in a neighborhood.
Do you remember the route,first of all, that you would
take to the ballpark?
How would you get there?
Jim Palmer (12:57):
Well, it was on 33rd Street, so I'd just come down
Charles Street.
I used to ride in with DickHall, who went to Swarthmore,
one of the great controlpitchers of all time, and he
would, you know, he also studiedgeology.
He'd tell me about the rockformations.
So I learned a lot.
You know, Dick was much smarterthan I was.
I tried to stand next to him inthe outfield.
Mike Koser (13:15):
What were some of the unique characteristics of
Memorial Stadium that stood outto you?
Jim Palmer (13:18):
You had to park next to people.
So if the car behind you didn'tleave right away, you weren't
leaving.
It wasn't like normal parkinglots.
Mike Koser (13:25):
You were sardined in there.
Jim Palmer (13:27):
I mean 54, I think 54,000 people.
Um, I mean, I remember going tosee the Colts and the Packers
play maybe at 66, $5.75 for thechampionship ticket.
Announcer (13:39):
Wow.
Jim Palmer (13:39):
Sitting on the 50 yard line.
You know, they didn't have alot of box seats.
I think they had like 8,000 boxseats, but you had the
bleachers, you had the upperdeck.
309 down the line.
So if you're when it opened,and I wasn't there when they
opened it, they had a scoreboardway out there.
I think that's where the fencesactually were.
So a lot of triples were hit,and then they brought the fences
in.
So you had 309 with about a 15,16, 17 foot wall down the line.
(14:02):
So it kind of went out, andthere was a 360 sign, and then
you kind of got to where the oldoutfield used to be, and that's
where the bullpens were.
They were 387.
They brought them into 378along the line or weight, I
think the center field bullpenwe're visiting was out right
center or left center with theOriole bullpen.
And the great thing is they hadthe scoreboard, and to the
right of that, you had rowhouses.
(14:22):
So it was a pretty good placeto pitch in April because the
row houses were partly brick andwhite.
And I remember when RickDempsey came and first got
traded.
Of course, you know, we hadfour 20-game winners in 71,
three in 70.
And when Rick came over fromthe Yankees in 76, he said, You
can't see.
We need to we need to get ahitting background out there.
And and somebody said, "Dipper", don't you know the Orioles
(14:44):
win with pitching?
So until the trees grew inprobably in the middle of May,
it was a pretty good place topitch.
Mike Koser (14:50):
Well, yeah, I often think about like how great it
would be to be a kid and live inone of those houses and kind of
look out your window and youknow, do your homework but watch
a game.
Jim Palmer (14:58):
You could uh hear.
We did an ad uh once where wewere actually in a trailer and
we would walk at ...
knock on people's doors and say,Hey, where have you been?
We miss you at the ballpark.
And um Paul Blair was reallyshy.
So we're in the trailerlistening, and he walks up a
driveway, and the guy's actuallyI think he must have had some
kind of uh disease in one of histrees, and you can hear him
(15:18):
with a hammer.
He's kind of chiseling out thethe disease and it's gonna pass
it or do something like that.
And Paul says, Hey, where haveyou been?
We miss you at the ballpark.
And the guy goes, Used to liveon 39th Street, but couldn't
find a parking spot.
Now I live on 34th Street,can't find a parking spot.
I'm never going to theballpark.
So part of the intimacy ofactually living in a
neighborhood ...I used to have alittle Volkswagen that I bought
(15:40):
up in Mannheim for $1,375 afterwe won the World Series, so I
could go do Little Leaguebanquets and stuff for the
Orioles and make $25 a night.
I used to try to get thatVolkswagen and people would park
their car just where you didn'thave enough room to park in
between.
Mike Koser (15:55):
On game day, I mean everything about game day is
great except street parking ongame day, uh never, never easy,
especially near the stadium.
Okay, so look, after making itto the World Series in 1969, but
losing to a very good Metsteam, the Orioles are right back
in 1970, this time squaring offagainst the Cincinnati Reds.
Game one of the 1970 WorldSeries.
Jim Palmer (16:29):
Bench, I think, hit 45 home runs.
Perez hit 40.
They had a nice ball club.
They just weren't quite as goodas us, and they didn't quite
have the same type of pitching.
The whole 70 season started inspring training when Earl Weaver
said we're not going to uh, youknow, because we had a good
club.
We had 109 games in 1969, 108and 70.
(16:49):
So we had a good ball club, andand Earl was like a jockey
coming down the stretch at thePimlico in the middle of the
Preakness.
He had the whip out early.
Earl Weaver (16:57):
People say this is fun.
The further I can get away fromsomebody like that, the happier
I'm gonna be.
Jim Palmer (17:03):
He wanted to get to the World Series, he wanted to
win the World Series.
To be honest, they did not havethey didn't have the pitching
that the Mets had, they didn'thave the good fortune that the
Mets had, they didn't have theumpires on their side like the
Mets had. I don't know. It justseemed like every call in 69
went against us.
And when you're playing a goodball club in a turned out a
five-game series, that's all youneed.
Mike Koser (17:23):
You win game one at Riverfront Stadium, and I look
back and think, man, you justmissed pitching at Crosley
Field, the Reds' former home.
By just a few months, they hadmoved into Riverfront a couple
months earlier.
Uh that would have been fun,you know, to be at Crosley
Field.
Jim Palmer (17:36):
Well, it would have been, but you know, I played in
the All-Star game.
My first All-Star game is uh,you know, actually started
against Seaver.
Curt Gowdy (17:42):
This is Red's country, Riverfront Stadium,
home of the Cincinnati Reds andthe 1970 All-Star.
American League pitchers JimPalmer, Sam McDowell, and Jim
Perry are devastating.
Jim Palmer (17:55):
I got to pitch three shutout innings.
That's the game where Fossegets run over by Pete Rose.
Mike Koser (18:00):
Oh, right.
Yeah.
Jim Palmer (18:01):
Yeah.
Mike Koser (18:01):
So fast forward game one of the 1970 World Series,
and you're called on to pitch.
Jim Palmer (18:06):
Again, I pitched game one for some reason.
I mean, Cuellar and McNally won23 and 24 games, but I think
Earl thought right-handersmatched up better against the
Reds in 70 than than lefties.
I I kind of in retrospect, Mikewon 139 games in seven years,
and Mack won 20 games fourstraight years.
So in that stretch.
So but I started the firstgame, and I mean I gave up three
(18:29):
runs early.
But then we came back.
Five games, a lot of things canhappen.
Mike Koser (18:39):
It's your second world championship, and then in
uh in 1971, you're elected againto the uh American League
All-Star team.
The game is at Tiger Stadium.
The AL's trying to win for thefirst time, I think, since 1962.
It's the third inning, andReggie Jackson steps up to the
plate to face Pirates pitcherDoc Ellis.
Announcer (18:56):
Game Audio
Mike Koser (19:31):
You, I believe, were warming up at the time, is that
right?
Jim Palmer (19:35):
Yeah, you know, it's what's so interesting about
that game.
Well, a lot of things aboutthat game.
I think everybody, there weresix home runs, all hit by Hall
of Famers.
Frank hit a home run line drivehome run off, uh, Doc Ellis,
Bench hit one, or Clemente hitone, Aaron hit one, maybe
Killebrew hit one.
I mean, some pretty greathitters.
But when you're warming up andthrowing a pitch and turn around
trying to time my warm-ups toalso watch Doc pitch to Reggie,
(19:58):
and there's complete silence inthe ballpark because everybody's
watching how far the ball'sgoing.
And it does go up over thesecond roof, and if it doesn't
hit the transformer it is goingout of the ballpark.
I mean, that's a pretty goodcurveball that Willie Horton
wants, and he got out of hisfront foot and hit a line drive
to the upper deck in left field,but right field the pavilion's
even higher, the roof is uhhigher and he just scorched that
(20:22):
ball.
But the one thing thedifference the American Leauge
wasn't winning a lot of All-Stargames back then.
And we did win that game, Ithink, six to four, but the game
was two hours and eightminutes.
Mike Koser (20:31):
Wow, two hours and eight minutes.
Uh that would never happentoday.
Jim Palmer (20:35):
They ran a game uh a couple weekends ago, the the
sixth game of the 71 WorldSeries when we lost to the
Pirates.
And I gave up a run of thefirst, run of the third, and
then shut him out, I guess, forthe next five or six.
We won in the tenth inning.
And a friend of mine called meand he said, Yeah, that was a
tutorial on not taking a lot oftime between pitches.
And I said, Well, I alreadyfaced them once, already knew
(20:55):
what I wanted to do, alreadyknew what they probably knew
what they wanted to do.
They didn't wear battinggloves.
I mean, all you gotta do iswatch games now.
Guys come up to home plate,they got their batting gloves,
they adjust them, grab the bat,you throw ball one, you don't
even swing, they step out of thebox.
Mike Koser (21:09):
Yeah, adjust again and then do that every pitch.
Jim Palmer (21:12):
And they get ready to hit again.
Now they don't do that whenthey're taking batting practice.
Right.
They allow them to do it.
It's kind of a ritual.
Uh Mike Hargrove was a humanrain delay at home plate.
Mike Koser (21:21):
Oh yeah.
Yeah, I totally agree withthat.
You mentioned the 71 WorldSeries.
Uh, what do you remember aboutfacing Clemente?
Jim Palmer (21:27):
I mean, he uh you know he tripled off being hit a
home run in that game six, 358feet, but it was just poked at
the right field, but that's theway you hit 'em, much shorter
down the lines at MemorialStadium.
But he's a five-tool player,maybe four and a half, wasn't
known as a home run guy.
But if you go back to that 71All-Star game, I still remember
Mickey Lolich was quite apitcher.
One year he pitched 376innings, and uh he threw him a
(21:50):
hanging curveball.
He got out on his front footand hit over the 415 side in the
upper deck in right field.
Announcer (21:55):
Game audio.
Jim Palmer (22:17):
He could hit, and he could hit pretty much any pitch
you threw.
I think because he played inPittsburgh, he didn't play in
New York, he didn't play in LosAngeles.
We know Jackie Robinson changedthe fortunes if he were an
African American player, but ifyou read the book Clemente, you
realize that Latin players thatcame up through the system, I
think Roberto actually startedwith the Dodgers.
When you read his biography,it's a pretty interesting read,
(22:39):
but he ended up being one of thegreat players of all time.
Mike Koser (22:42):
On October 6th, 1991, the Baltimore Orioles
played their final game atMemorial Stadium.
More than a hundred Oriolesfrom the past and present were
there that day to say theirfinal goodbyes.
Music from the movie Field ofDreams started to play.
And out of the dugout, one byone, the all-time great Orioles
started to file out.
(23:02):
Brooks Robinson in uniform,wearing number five, heads to
third base.
Frank Robinson, right behindhim to right field.
Boog Powell to first base.
Jim Palmer, you, head to thepitcher's mound.
Don Baylor, Rick Dempsey goesbehind the plate.
(23:23):
Davey Johnson and Bobby Grichto second.
Louis Aparicio to short, LeeMay, Pat Kelly, El Rod Hendrix,
Dave McNally.
I mean, one by one, these guysare coming out of the dugout in
uniform.
There is not a dry eye inMemorial Stadium.
As fans who have celebratedthese players and their
accomplishments the last nearly40 years, Mike Cuellar, Mike
(23:44):
Flannagan, Dennis Martinez,Scott McGregor, Milt Pappas,
Steve Barber, Cal Ripken Jr.
And then finally, your Hall ofFame manager, Earl Weaver, walks
out.
Looking back at that footage,Jim, I still get goosebumps.
Jim Palmer (23:56):
Yeah, it was a memorable moment.
And I think anybody that livedin Baltimore, it wasn't just the
Orioles, it was the Colts.
Chuck Thompson, uh, the lateChuck Thompson is also
memorialized in the broadcastwing of the Hall of Fame.
He did the Colt games, did theOriole games.
When you talk about MemorialStadium, you talk about the
stadium that's built in memorialof people that died in World
(24:17):
War II.
You think of the Colts.
And again, Sunday in Baltimorein Memorial Stadium, watching
the Colts play.
I mean, when we won that '66World Series, we came back, get
our setup the next day, and theColts were working out.
And I was watching JohnnyUnitas, who eventually I would
get to know and play golf withand all that, throwing 15 uh
yard outs to Raymond Berry, whowas one of the great receivers
(24:37):
of all time.
And it was like a 95 mile perhour fastball blown away.
I mean, the ball was already inthe air, and Raymond hadn't
even made his cut.
So you got to see if you livedin Baltimore back then, if you
wanted to go to bowling, you'dgo to Johnny Unitas uh bowling
alley, or if you wanted Brookshad a restaurant, Brooks
Robinson.
A lot of the guys, GenoMarchetti started Gino's again,
an all-pro uh Hall of Famealignment.
(24:59):
Right.
So yeah, they just had amarvelous podcast.
I still run in to Lenny Moore,who's got to be, I don't know,
in his mid eighties now.
So yeah, yeah, Baltimore andMemorial Stadium was more than
just the Orioles.
In fact, we were kind of Ithink we kind of learned, earned
our spurs just trying to maybebe a little bit like a lot of
the Colts who lived in thatcommunity, became part of that
community and really made adifference in that community.
Mike Koser (25:21):
Yeah, and it was great to see some of the Colts
included in that finalcelebration at Memorial Stadium
in 1991.
And I did notice watching thevideo today that when you walked
out to the mound and that musicis playing, you fought back
tears.
I mean, it was it was a specialmoment, not just for the fans,
but uh for the players.
Jim Palmer (25:38):
Yeah, it was a special moment because I mean
here I am at 76, but my mind isstill pretty intact.
But at the end of the day,those are the kind of moments
and I think all you gotta do isgo to Cooperstown for the
induction, and you realize howpeople just love baseball or
love their football, and in thecase of the Colts, who would
eventually move to Indianapolis,and now of course you have the
(25:58):
Ravens, which they get inBaltimore.
But Baltimore, you know, hasalways been a nice sports town,
and Memorial Stadium had so muchto do with that.
Mike Koser (26:04):
Yeah, it really was a special ballpark.
And those that uh that werethere to experience it between
54 and 91, uh we'll never forgetit.
Thank you so much, Jim Palmer,for taking a couple minutes
today.
What a career.
268 wins, three Cy Youngawards, six World Series that
you appeared, and three that youwon, uh inducted to the
Baseball Hall of Fame in 1990.
Great player, great friend,great broadcaster, and uh thank
(26:27):
you so much for sharing yourmemories with us today.
Jim Palmer (26:29):
Oh, you're welcome.
My pleasure.
Mike Koser (26:30):
All the best to you and your family, Jim, and look
forward to hearing you back onthe air in the next couple
months.
Jim Palmer (26:34):
Okay, Let's hope.
Mike Koser (26:36):
Okay, yeah, no kidding.
I I can remember as a kid beingin the backyard of my house in
Castleberry, Florida, setting upa little pitching mound on our
stiff St.
Augustine grass, and thentrying my best to emulate Jim
Palmer's delivery.
Uh yeah.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of the Lost Ballparks
Podcast.
Really appreciate it.
This podcast is a completelabor of love and so I'm
(26:58):
thankful that uh you've takenthe time to join me today.
A reminder, if you haven'talready, you can subscribe for
free on the podcast platform ofyour choice.
Apple, Spotify, Pandora,whatever, so you don't ever miss
an episode.
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