Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
Card King here right come.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hello, sports fans, sports collectors and all hobbyists. Welcome to
The car King Sports and Variety Show. I am your
host of Catman, Brian Kataquid aka The car King. We
are live on ABC's k M e T fourteen ninety
a m dot com. You're number one spot right here
for news and talk on the West Coast. I thank
everyone for tuning in this morning on the telephone line.
(00:37):
I welcome to the program a legendary Red Sox player
who is famously known for hitting his dramatic home run
in that nineteen seventy five series. I welcome to the
program the great Bernie Carbo. Bernie, honor to have.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
You, Hey, thanks for having me him. I'm really happy
about being on your show.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Absolutely, Bernie.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
And you know, you know I looked at that clip,
but when you hit that dramatic home run to tie
the series, I mean, are are you still in disbelief
that you actually accomplished that feat?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Well, you know you don't get to see the hole
it bat and so when when Roy Eastwick was the picture,
Sparky Anderson would go to Will Mcananie to left hander.
I'm a left handed batter. So when I went on
the tech circle, I told Jan Benika is to grab
a bat. I said, Swarky is gonna come out. So
(01:30):
I'm just sitting there waiting for Sparky. I'm looking at Sparky.
He's stelling the dugout and the umpire said get up
here in the head and I was, wait a minute, Sparky,
go get your left handed will lecanany so you can
go to Beniakas. So I was like, are you kidding?
So I went to home plate and I looked at Bench.
I said, what do you do? He said, We're going
(01:52):
right at you, Bernie, We're going right at you. Well,
I stepped back out and next thing I know, I
had a two to two count on me, and I
probably took the worst swing in the history of baseball.
Bench is arguing with the umpire that the pitch was
a strike, and the umpire called the ball, and I
swung at it. I dribbled at about two feet. Pete
Rose said, look like the worst Glow League swing he
(02:13):
ever saw in his whole life. And Benny really was
the worst. Yeah, and Rico's over it in first base.
He said, look like a pitcher hurt his arm train
and learn how to hit. And Freddie Lynn says, I
just turned around and said this kid that you know,
Bernie's got no chance. And Zimmer was walking down the
line going what kind of swing was that? You know?
So it was the worst swing I think I ever
(02:34):
took in my whole life, even if I was a
little kid. It was the worst swing. And I'm thinking,
I'm almost struck out. The ball was in the catcher's glove,
and oh man, I don't know what to do. And
I just got up to the plate and the next
thing I knew it too me a fastball and I
hit it and I was like, wow, this might have
a chance to go out of plate, and Toronivo turned
(02:55):
his back. I said, wow, this is going to be
a home run. And next thing I know, I'm running
the second base that flo Well, I'm gonna give Dave
mccar they David's concept shown. I'm gonna give him a
hug because we played in the minor league together and
came up in the same year in nineteen seventy and
since the rich he should be in the Hall of
Fame too. Dave concept shown. So I'm yelling at Pete Rose,
(03:15):
don't you wish you his strung, Pete, don't you wish
you this strung? And he's yelling at me, this is
the greatest World Series, greatest World Series game ever been played, Bernie,
this is fun. So I ran the home played. I
was like, wow, this is you know. That was my
second pinch hit home run, which tied a record for
World Series pinchhit home runs. And I thought, wow, take
(03:37):
a deep breath. And then he said, go out and
play left field. And I don't want to go out
and play left field. But I went out and played
left field, and there was the bases were loaded on
three to two count ball hit the left field and
I over ran it and I reached back and the
ball went in my glove and I went into the
dougout and I told carl Schrifsk I said, I hit
(03:57):
a home run and almost missed the fly ball with
him about fifteen to twenty minutes. That was unbelievable, but
it was the greatest home run. On the twenty second
of October of the World Series, Carlton Fish hit his
home run after midnight, which would have been the twenty
third and our game was picked as the greatest game
(04:18):
ever played. So it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I mean, yeah, just to give a quick recap, it
was like, like you mentioned, a pitch hit, three run
home run which tied to score six to six, paving
the way for the dramatic Carlton Fink's game winning homer
in the bottom of the twelfth, leading seven to six
Red Sox victory. So Bernie, your name will forever be
cemented in World Series history.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
How about that?
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Well, you know, after fifty years goes by, I can't
believe I'm seventy seven now, people kind of forget, you know,
But you know, Carlton fish home run was hit on
the twenty third. I tell him, that's what's greatest home
run that baseball? George Foster caught that baseball and kept
it for about a year or two. Any options they'd
offer about fifty grand?
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Did he really?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
And yeah? Yeah? So wow? Who would ever have thought
at at times about collecting baseball cards, collecting autographs, you know,
selling things or doing whatever. But my home run bat,
my home run bat. Nobody knows what I did with
that home run bat. They took that couldn't find it.
What happened was I found a lot. I found a
(05:25):
small lathe. So I was lathing. I was taking them
all the sparnish, all the names, everything off the bat.
I took Lousville Slugger, Burning Carbo off the bat. I'm
saying in it. Rick White says, what are you doing?
You can't use that bat? Why? I saidn't have a label. Said,
I went and got a magic marker and I put
a diamond on there. Put Lousville Slugger, put Burning Carbo
(05:46):
in one ten. So when I eat the home run
coming around the third, they said, oh heck, if they
pick up the bat, they might they may not save
the home run. They say, you legal bat. But yeah,
so it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
So you still have your memorabilia items from that series?
Speaker 3 (06:10):
No, no, no, we never thought about keeping anything back
in those days. You know, we just I didn't start
collecting autographs and started collecting things after I got out
of baseball. Can you imagine I'm nineteen and Joe Page
comes in my clubhouse and he sits next to me
and tells me he sat your Page. I played for
I played with Hank Air and I was my hit
(06:32):
instructor was Ted Williamson, Sam Musho, and played with Willie Star,
Joe Dave Parker. I played with Bob Gibson, Joe Torre,
Ted Simmons, I played with Carya Shrimsky, met Bobby Door
and John Demanngeur, Joe Demonte. I mean, all these great
people that you know, you associate with, and at one
time Ted Wims was signed all kinds of autographs. We
(06:54):
didn't think, you know. The joke is I could have
been a millionaire for my mother. My mother didn't through
my baseball cards away.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
We're talking with Bertie Carbo, Boston Red Sox. He's with
us this morning. Bertie, let's talk about when you were
first drafted. I believe you were seventeen years old, sixteenth
overall pick.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
In the draft.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Now you were the first pick for the Reds and
then came Johnny Bench.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Is that true?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Yes? And Johnny didn't like that very oft, didn't you know.
He came over and when we first met and he says,
are you burning Carbo to the number one draft stores?
I said, yes, I am. He said, what'd you sign for?
So I signed for thirty thousand wasn't a lot of money.
And he walked away and I found out he signed
you know, for five thousand dollars in the character's glove.
(07:43):
But we we became great friends. I loved him. I
loved his family, his mother and everything, and staying with
Hi from Binger, Oklahoma, and I was in the Army
Reserves and I stayed with his mom and dad. But
Johnny bench great, one of the greatest catchers. But I
didn't want to get drafted. I didn't I didn't believe
in the draft. In nineteen sixty five was the first
year of the draft. I wanted to play for Detroit Tigers,
(08:06):
and I wanted to play for and I'm from Detroit,
so I didn't want the draft. That was the first
year of the draft. I hate the draft even today.
I hate the draft. I just think that I could
play wherever I want, sign wherever I want. I just
kind of believe in that. But it's it's just what
it was. And I went to Cincinnati, and I struggled
in the minor leagues. Sparky Anderson got a hold of
(08:27):
me and made me a baseball player, had me go
to the ballpark from nine to eleven, one to three,
and you know, he said, you're gonna be a baseball player.
We're gonna play to win. We won a championship. The
next year, I had a great minor league season. I
hit three fifty nine, went to the big leagues and
hit three ten and twenty one home runs, fifth highest hitter.
And then my kind of my career kind of took
(08:48):
a dive. And but you know, you look back, you know,
and we went on strike five times, and we made
it better for these these minor league players, and we
also made it better for big league players today. This
is why they're making so much money. We didn't benefit
from the strikes that we went on. We went on
five strikes. It didn't benefit us, but it benefits these
(09:09):
kids today.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
I mean, Bernie, when you look at a salary like
this guy wad Soto, I mean he's making almost close
to a billion dollars. I mean, don't you think that's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Well, what's ridiculous is that Number One, if you're gonna
pay these ballplayers that much money. I made four hundred
and seventy six thousand dollars in seventeen years. And if
you're gonna make this much money and play this much
money and pay these players as much, and you want
to take a look at this as the what you're
gonna do today. You have gambling, you're making billions of dollars.
(09:44):
Now you're saying that Pete Reynols and shootings Joe Jackson
should be in the Hall of Fame and put him
on the ballot because you're committed to say, Okay, we're
making billions of dollars on gambling, and then you're gonna
tell the Sarok guys that you can put them in
the Hall of Fame. So everybody's doing steroids, we don't
have drug testing one hundred percent, and you're making billions
of dollars. Now, why don't we just let people come
(10:06):
into the ballpark cheap. Let the kids come from free,
have date nights and have double hitters, and come and come.
You don't have to they don't have to make any
money withdrawing one person. They're already making money. So allow
it to be affordable for us to come and watch
the game. I mean, let's look at the Savannah Bananas,
(10:28):
you know, the other bananas whatever they call themselves. It's fun,
it's a it's a it's it's a it's affordable. We
can't I can't pay for a ticket to go to
a ball game. I can't pay for parking. I can't
even pay for the hot dogs. I mean, you know,
they don't need to draw one person when you're paying
people billions of dollars, and you're paying them millions of dollars,
(10:50):
and you're taking this out on the fans. This is
why Minor league baseball is becoming so popular, and it's
popular because it's affordable. And we can make this affordable
in MLB. It's take. If you're going to pay these
people this much money, let the people come in and
have it free to come in and watch baseball. You
(11:10):
don't have to have one person come in the ballpark
to make any money.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Oh, I mean a family of four.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
You're spending like four or five hundred dollars with parking
tolls and the hot dogs and beer.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Forget it. It's insane.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. You know, if you want
baseball to get back to where it was, let the
kids come in for free. Let them go free.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
And you know, you know like what you what you
do when when you when we see you at these
car conventions, you and Bill Lee, I mean I think
that actually helps, uh, you know, helps promote the sport better.
Do you still feel that baseball is not as popular
as it used to be.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
It's not as popular at all, not as popular as
what's popular is these kids they're not even playing baseball,
you know, baseball is dying. They're playing soccer. They're playing
playing tennis and golf and basketball and volleyball, and they
(12:10):
play the game that they play too. There's a new
game with they got a ball with a net and
they throw it in. It's what they called The Indians
played it at one time.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah, yeah, I can't think of it, but yeah, no,
I got you.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
But yeah, So baseball is not at the top anymore.
It was at nineteen seventy five that World Series brought
baseball back to where it was where it should have
been the number one sport. But you look at it now,
so you look at what's doing now. Kids are more
active in playing soccer and doing these kinds of things.
In basketball and baseball. It's just too much, too expensive.
(12:50):
Even in travel baseball, I mean, travel baseball is ruining baseball.
And I was with Pete Rose probably thirty or forty
years ago. B Road said travel ball was going to
ruin these kids. T ball and coach pitch and everything
like that. You know you're only getting you go on
you travel. You're paying fifteen hundred dollars to half of
the on a team, and then you're traveling and you're
(13:11):
only getting three games. You get six at bass, maybe
a ground ball or whatever. You got a couple practices
or whatever. It becomes a pop and mom game. It's
too expensive, pay for travel, motel and everything like this,
and the season they don't get. You know, when we
were young kids, we played football in the backyard. We
played baseball on the streets, We played side baseball. We
(13:34):
played baseball for morning to night. We got hundreds of
swings every day and we just went out in the
park and picked up teams and threw the ball over
the plate and let them hit it. Now we got
kids from nine to twelve, fourteen years old blowing out
their elbows, their arms, rollercuffs and Tommy John and you know,
it's not good. Travel ball is not good. When we
(13:56):
were playing travel ball. We didn't play travel ball till
we're fifteen, seven teen or eighteen years old. And when
we did play it, it was because we were good.
And what's happening now and if you have money, you're
on the team, and that's what it's about. It's about money.
I just don't like travel ball. I like parking, recreation ball.
I like pickup baseball. And what I do is I
(14:18):
do camps now with boys, and I do camps with girls,
and I give them fundamentals ground balls, throwing the ball,
bases outfield, hitting, running the bases, throwing, And we played
with football out they umpire, they keep score. They play baseball,
and they have a blast. They throw the ball over
the plate, let the kids hit it and the field
and they just play and love it. And they argue
(14:41):
about the umpire, but the umpire by the faith out
and they come to an agreement that I argue about
the score. But they're out there having fun. And when
they playing, I sit on the bench. I let them
mark and play, and the good players teach the bad players.
And that's what we used to do when we were younger.
We played that. We did the same with football, same
thing with basketball, and and we did all these things.
(15:04):
We played all day all night. You know. It was fun.
So when I when I have clinics, I do probably
I do June, July and August every every week. I
have boys out there from nineteen eleven, twelve and then
thirteen fourteen, fifteen, and and I give them all the
fundamentals and and the hleball out and they said, what
are we doing? You're playing baseball? Well, how are we
(15:25):
gonna do that. You're gonna pick the teams, You're gonna umpire,
you're gonna score, and you're gonna throw the ball over
the plate. Let them hit it and just catch it
and through it and keep scoring and they have a blast.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I mean, well, Bertie, you know I saw you and
Bill Lee a couple of weeks ago at a show,
and I mean there was a line out the door.
I mean, you guys are still fan favorites in my business.
I mean after fifty six years, I mean, fans still
want your autograph.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Do you still enjoy signing autographs for the fans?
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Well, I'll tell you the truth. Penway Park, the Boston
Red Sox, mister Yorckey, I love mister Y. When I
first met mister Yockey owned the team, I walked up
to him, he was in the clubhouse. I walked up
to him and gave him twenty bucks and told him
to give me a cheeseburger. And fries and the clubhous
guy come over. He said, you know, you get that
twenty dollars too. I you know. He said, it's mister Yorckey.
(16:16):
He owns the team. So I went over to mister
Yorckey and he said, Bernardo, Bernardo, just win the game, Bernardo.
I loved Fenway Park. I loved mister y Hockey. And
then I took him to arbitration for ten thousand dollars
and loss. And I went to him. I said, mister Yockey,
and my wife's gonna have a baby. I want to
buy a house. Take this. I need ten thousand dollars.
(16:41):
And he gave me ten thousand dollars and gave me
a twenty five thousand dollars raise. And I played for
mister Yorckey. So after every game, by the parking lot
at Fenway, you could sit at the corner and I
would sign. I would sign autographs until the lights went off.
I loved if I was over for the best thing
I could do was sign autographs all night. I signed
(17:03):
them at before the game. I sign them now. I
sign them anytime. I write my name so you can
read it too. I don't scribble, I write it so
you can read it. And I would say out there
to the lights went on. All I did was I said,
I got my own pen. I got my pen, I
got my markers, everything else. Don't pump, don't pump, don't put,
don't get link all over me, don't push, don't push.
(17:24):
I'll sign all their autographs as far as I do
the lights go off. I love signing autographs. Who wants
Bernie Carble's autograph? I will sign it for nothing if
I have to. I love signing autographs. It just makes
you feel good. I'm what a baseball player signing autographs.
I mean, come on, guys.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
You know this is I had like five minutes left
with you, Bertie. And this is why I like radio,
because we can go all over the place. You know
who I had on my show. I had one of
your former teammates, Scipio Spinks. Is it true that Scipio
set you a stuffed gorilla?
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Well, I'll tell you the truth. What happened to Scipio
was he heard his arm. He threw about ninety four
ninety four, ninety six, and he heard his arm, and
he told him, we're gonna have you sit with the
psychicartist and tell you your arm doesn't hurt. So he took
this monkey, stuffed monkey in the Saint Louis Cardinal uniform.
He said, tell the monkey to pitch because he doesn't
have a sore, but I do. So when I got traded,
(18:27):
I opened up a box and there was Mighty Joe Young.
So I kept Mighty Joe Young for all those years.
And then what happened was when the Pittsburgh case came out,
Keith Nandis came out and said, well, Bernie Carbo introduced
me to cocaine. Well that was the truth, but did
he really say that. Yeah, yeah, So what happened was
(18:47):
I ended up putting the monkey in a box and
pictures of my kids sitting on his lap, and I
mailed it to him to the to New York Mets,
and mailed it to the clubhouse to Keith Hernandez. So
you got to ask you, Tananis about Mighty Joe Young.
But I wish I had Mighty Joe Young. I could
probably sell him and make a few bucks. But yeah,
(19:08):
it was. It was something that you know, baseball treated
in a way that Sipill thought, you know what, you
treat me like a monkey. I might as well, give
you I'm gonna dress a monkey up as a player.
And that was kind of the same thing too. You
know my rookie year, I hit three ten high sitter
and rookie he had the year at MVP in the
minor leagues. And I held out and I held out
(19:31):
for they offered I was making twelve thousand, they offered
been the one to fifteen. They offered me seventeen. I
held out, and I went to talk to Bob Housman
and he said, you're gonna sign for seventeen two thousand
dollars raise. I said, well, give me thirty thousand you
gave me when I was a kid. And he said,
go home and carry lunchbucker like your dad. And when
(19:52):
he said it about the fourth time, I dragged him
across the desk and I beat him up.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Yeah? I hit him about five times. I didn't. I said,
what did my dad got to do with me? You know,
go home and carry lunch bucket. You're not even giving
me a raise. Then I went to Marvin Miller and
told him, I said, look, I want to go with
kurk Flood to court. I want to go to I
want I want to go to court. I don't want
to play with Cincinnat anymore. I need to play someplace else.
I you know, I just did something that should never
(20:22):
have done. Beat up Bob Housman, who was you know,
he's the president of sin As. He said, well, I
can't take you because you're a kid. Well ten years
later he said, yeah, I should have taken you to
court with me with you know, with when I want
to try to get the free agency. What I wanted
was I wanted to play someplace else because I was
going to get buried. And I did get buried, and
(20:43):
you know, I didn't make a lot of money, and
uh I just my career went downhill from there, and
uh I ended up not liking baseball very much. I
thought money was going to be the answer. They're all things,
but the answer for me is Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Now.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
But before I let you go, Bernie, let me ask you. Now,
you played twelve seasons. You played with the Reds, Cardinals,
Red Sox Brewers. Let's talk about a couple of your
teammates you played with. So you mentioned Pete Rose, I
mean a young Pete Rose is sixty nine, seventy seventy one.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Uh, you guys got along right off the bat.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
I love Pete Rose. I love Pete Rose. He made
a mistake. You don't bet on baseball. I love Pete Rose.
Greatest guy ever met in my life. I played with
Hank Caeron. Hank Harroon said to me, Bernie, he'll be
a great interview. Learn that, you know. Learn it's okay
to make it out. He said. I made over eight
thousand outs, Bernie, and you're not even going to get
that many at bat. And I said, what are you
(21:42):
talking about? I said, be happy in new beginning. Every
get back to the new beginning. Hit the ball hard, Bernie,
hit the ball hard. And now you know. I stole
Willie Mason's bat my first time in the big leagues
in San Francisco. It was this game bat and I
broke it and came in my mother. I was looking
for my bat, And forty years later, it's still mad
at me. You know, I'm playing with Parker, and I
played with Parker, and I played with Willie Stargoe and Ted.
(22:05):
You know, I've met College Schremsky playing with him. Funniest
man I ever met in my whole life. So I
look back at my years in baseball, it was a
lot of fun. I met a lot of great baseball players.
I played with a lot of great players. I made
a lot of mistakes in my life, a lot. And
you know, you think that we want to strike five times,
(22:26):
we just didn't benefit. But we didn't make a lot
of money. But I loved the game. I love playing
the game. I still love the game. And it's it's
a lot of fun to be around the kids today
and see how much fun they can have. And it's
a real shame is that we're putting too much emphasis
on travel baseball and making these kids play and teaching
(22:48):
the things and not the fundamentals of baseball. I think
MLB is trying to reach kids, but they need to
let the kids come to the ballpark for free.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
And you know, Bertie, So what's down the road for you?
I mean, are we going to see you at more conventions?
What's down the pipeline? What's your schedule?
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Like, Well, I'll tell you what I got going. I
do a fantasy camp. I did a fantasy camp and
mobile out of them. It's my twenty sixth year there.
I charged three hundred dollars and one hundred and fifty
dollars if you bring someone twenty six years with next year,
will be there January or February at Mobile University. I
have a camp coming up here. I live in Carolina.
Now I've got a camp in Fayetteville the nineteen twentieth
(23:31):
and twenty first at Woodpecker Stadium for three hundred dollars.
We put a uniform on, we go out there and
play baseball Friday, Saturay and Sunday, and we just have
a great time. And what happened was, you know, when
Fantasy camp started years and years ago, it's like it
was affordable. Now it's like five grand or whatever. And
I just said, you know what, I've had this camp
(23:52):
for twenty six years, first year in Fayetteville, and I'd
been doing it for three hundred dollars and one hundred
and fifty. If we bring somebody else and we go
out there and play baseball and really have a great time.
We're now looking for no Number one draft choices or anything.
But if you go to Berniecarpo dot com Berniecarpo dot com,
you can find out my phone number, find out about
the baseball camps, the Fantasy camps, and also I'm going
(24:15):
to have a web page where they can go to
and buy some of my pictures or uniforms or something
like that. But I'm looking to go in October. I'm
going up to Vermont and I'm gonna be with Billy
up there signing autographs in October, so I'm looking forward
to that. Then I'm also going up to Boston September third, fourth,
(24:39):
and fifth, and I'm gonna be in Worcester in Worcester
at the DOUBA ball team there signing autographs. So I'm
looking for that. The fifty year anniversary is probably keeping
me busy, but then after that, you know, fifty years
is a long time to be remembered. And you know
I'm seventy seven now. My birthday's come August fifth. Oh no,
(25:00):
you know, I like to live til eighty sixth, and
that means I live longer than anybody in my family.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Well, you know, I saw you a couple of weeks ago.
I mean you look great. I mean your face looks young.
I mean you look great.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Well, you know, I feel good. I think that it's
the way the way you look at life. You know,
I'm working with them. I'm doing what I love, and
I'm working with kids and girls and watching them grow
up and things like that. I feel I feel good.
You know what I mean? You know, I don't know
if big fol I became an alcoholic and a drug addict,
(25:34):
and my mother committed suicide. My dad died two months later.
I wanted to commit suicide, and I met a gentleman
who at that particular time, Bill Lee called, and then
Ferguson Jenkins called. I ended up in rehab and I
had an anxieties that ended up in the hospital, and the
man asked me, do I have a personal relationship with
(25:55):
Jesus Christ. I don't know. My mom and dad didn't
believe in God. I don't know what you're talking about.
And the spirit fell on me. And I've been with
the Lord Jesus Christ for now for thirty one years,
and I've been clean for thirty one years. I speak
in churches in twelve step programs. I go all over
the country. I've been to Saudi Araba, Kuwait, I've been
to Guam. I've been to places where I never thought
(26:17):
i'd be. For that home run that I hit, even
though that home run is fifty years ago, that home
run opened the door for me to go be able
to talk about Jesus Christ. And I've been able to
go places because of that home run. But when I
hit that home run, it only lasted a little while
and I was on the bed just crying. I was crying.
This crying is crying. I don't know why. I hit
(26:38):
the greatest thing I've ever done in my whole life.
I dreamed about hitting that home run my whole life,
and I'm like, no one's here with me. I'm all
by myself, man, And so it was. You know, I've
been fortunate. You know, I've been clean for thirty one
years and it's been beautiful. I lived a good life,
and you know, God been good to me. And baseball
(27:02):
has been the greatest game ever played. And that's what
I preach, you know, God, it's the greatest game, and
we played the greatest game and that's baseball.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
A Bertie. You know, many blessings to you.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
I mean, it was an honor to have you, a
nice meeting you a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Great job today.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Well I appreciate you guys, and baseball is a great game.
But we got to give it back to the kids.
Gotta get it back to kids, a new generation. We
got to get it to a new generation of these kids.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Everyone, Bertie Carbo, go to Berniecarbo dot com. Right, Bertie,
Berniecarbo dot com.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Amen, brother, heymen, thank.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
You, thank you. Until next week, Happy collecting to all,
Card King here right come.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hello, sports fans, sports collectors and all hobbyists. Welcome to
The car King Sports and Variety Show. I am your
host of Catman, Brian Kataquid aka The car King. We
are live on ABC's k M e T fourteen ninety
a m dot com. You're number one spot right here
for news and talk on the West Coast. I thank
everyone for tuning in this morning on the telephone line.
(00:37):
I welcome to the program a legendary Red Sox player
who is famously known for hitting his dramatic home run
in that nineteen seventy five series. I welcome to the
program the great Bernie Carbo. Bernie, honor to have.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
You, Hey, thanks for having me him. I'm really happy
about being on your show.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Absolutely, Bernie.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
And you know, you know I looked at that clip,
but when you hit that dramatic home run to tie
the series, I mean, are are you still in disbelief
that you actually accomplished that feat?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Well, you know you don't get to see the hole
it bat and so when when Roy Eastwick was the picture,
Sparky Anderson would go to Will Mcananie to left hander.
I'm a left handed batter. So when I went on
the tech circle, I told Jan Benika is to grab
a bat. I said, Swarky is gonna come out. So
(01:30):
I'm just sitting there waiting for Sparky. I'm looking at Sparky.
He's stelling the dugout and the umpire said get up
here in the head and I was, wait a minute, Sparky,
go get your left handed will lecanany so you can
go to Beniakas. So I was like, are you kidding?
So I went to home plate and I looked at Bench.
I said, what do you do? He said, We're going
(01:52):
right at you, Bernie, We're going right at you. Well,
I stepped back out and next thing I know, I
had a two to two count on me, and I
probably took the worst swing in the history of baseball.
Bench is arguing with the umpire that the pitch was
a strike, and the umpire called the ball, and I
swung at it. I dribbled at about two feet. Pete
Rose said, look like the worst Glow League swing he
(02:13):
ever saw in his whole life. And Benny really was
the worst. Yeah, and Rico's over it in first base.
He said, look like a pitcher hurt his arm train
and learn how to hit. And Freddie Lynn says, I
just turned around and said this kid that you know,
Bernie's got no chance. And Zimmer was walking down the
line going what kind of swing was that? You know?
So it was the worst swing I think I ever
(02:34):
took in my whole life, even if I was a
little kid. It was the worst swing. And I'm thinking,
I'm almost struck out. The ball was in the catcher's glove,
and oh man, I don't know what to do. And
I just got up to the plate and the next
thing I knew it too me a fastball and I
hit it and I was like, wow, this might have
a chance to go out of plate, and Toronivo turned
(02:55):
his back. I said, wow, this is going to be
a home run. And next thing I know, I'm running
the second base that flo Well, I'm gonna give Dave
mccar they David's concept shown. I'm gonna give him a
hug because we played in the minor league together and
came up in the same year in nineteen seventy and
since the rich he should be in the Hall of
Fame too. Dave concept shown. So I'm yelling at Pete Rose,
(03:15):
don't you wish you his strung, Pete, don't you wish
you this strung? And he's yelling at me, this is
the greatest World Series, greatest World Series game ever been played, Bernie,
this is fun. So I ran the home played. I
was like, wow, this is you know. That was my
second pinch hit home run, which tied a record for
World Series pinchhit home runs. And I thought, wow, take
(03:37):
a deep breath. And then he said, go out and
play left field. And I don't want to go out
and play left field. But I went out and played
left field, and there was the bases were loaded on
three to two count ball hit the left field and
I over ran it and I reached back and the
ball went in my glove and I went into the
dougout and I told carl Schrifsk I said, I hit
(03:57):
a home run and almost missed the fly ball with
him about fifteen to twenty minutes. That was unbelievable, but
it was the greatest home run. On the twenty second
of October of the World Series, Carlton Fish hit his
home run after midnight, which would have been the twenty
third and our game was picked as the greatest game
(04:18):
ever played. So it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I mean, yeah, just to give a quick recap, it
was like, like you mentioned, a pitch hit, three run
home run which tied to score six to six, paving
the way for the dramatic Carlton Fink's game winning homer
in the bottom of the twelfth, leading seven to six
Red Sox victory. So Bernie, your name will forever be
cemented in World Series history.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
How about that?
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Well, you know, after fifty years goes by, I can't
believe I'm seventy seven now, people kind of forget, you know,
But you know, Carlton fish home run was hit on
the twenty third. I tell him, that's what's greatest home
run that baseball? George Foster caught that baseball and kept
it for about a year or two. Any options they'd
offer about fifty grand?
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Did he really?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
And yeah? Yeah? So wow? Who would ever have thought
at at times about collecting baseball cards, collecting autographs, you know,
selling things or doing whatever. But my home run bat,
my home run bat. Nobody knows what I did with
that home run bat. They took that couldn't find it.
What happened was I found a lot. I found a
(05:25):
small lathe. So I was lathing. I was taking them
all the sparnish, all the names, everything off the bat.
I took Lousville Slugger, Burning Carbo off the bat. I'm
saying in it. Rick White says, what are you doing?
You can't use that bat? Why? I saidn't have a label. Said,
I went and got a magic marker and I put
a diamond on there. Put Lousville Slugger, put Burning Carbo
(05:46):
in one ten. So when I eat the home run
coming around the third, they said, oh heck, if they
pick up the bat, they might they may not save
the home run. They say, you legal bat. But yeah,
so it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
So you still have your memorabilia items from that series?
Speaker 3 (06:10):
No, no, no, we never thought about keeping anything back
in those days. You know, we just I didn't start
collecting autographs and started collecting things after I got out
of baseball. Can you imagine I'm nineteen and Joe Page
comes in my clubhouse and he sits next to me
and tells me he sat your Page. I played for
I played with Hank Air and I was my hit
(06:32):
instructor was Ted Williamson, Sam Musho, and played with Willie Star,
Joe Dave Parker. I played with Bob Gibson, Joe Torre,
Ted Simmons, I played with Carya Shrimsky, met Bobby Door
and John Demanngeur, Joe Demonte. I mean, all these great
people that you know, you associate with, and at one
time Ted Wims was signed all kinds of autographs. We
(06:54):
didn't think, you know. The joke is I could have
been a millionaire for my mother. My mother didn't through
my baseball cards away.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
We're talking with Bertie Carbo, Boston Red Sox. He's with
us this morning. Bertie, let's talk about when you were
first drafted. I believe you were seventeen years old, sixteenth
overall pick.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
In the draft.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Now you were the first pick for the Reds and
then came Johnny Bench.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Is that true?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Yes? And Johnny didn't like that very oft, didn't you know.
He came over and when we first met and he says,
are you burning Carbo to the number one draft stores?
I said, yes, I am. He said, what'd you sign for?
So I signed for thirty thousand wasn't a lot of money.
And he walked away and I found out he signed
you know, for five thousand dollars in the character's glove.
(07:43):
But we we became great friends. I loved him. I
loved his family, his mother and everything, and staying with
Hi from Binger, Oklahoma, and I was in the Army
Reserves and I stayed with his mom and dad. But
Johnny bench great, one of the greatest catchers. But I
didn't want to get drafted. I didn't I didn't believe
in the draft. In nineteen sixty five was the first
year of the draft. I wanted to play for Detroit Tigers,
(08:06):
and I wanted to play for and I'm from Detroit,
so I didn't want the draft. That was the first
year of the draft. I hate the draft even today.
I hate the draft. I just think that I could
play wherever I want, sign wherever I want. I just
kind of believe in that. But it's it's just what
it was. And I went to Cincinnati, and I struggled
in the minor leagues. Sparky Anderson got a hold of
(08:27):
me and made me a baseball player, had me go
to the ballpark from nine to eleven, one to three,
and you know, he said, you're gonna be a baseball player.
We're gonna play to win. We won a championship. The
next year, I had a great minor league season. I
hit three fifty nine, went to the big leagues and
hit three ten and twenty one home runs, fifth highest hitter.
And then my kind of my career kind of took
(08:48):
a dive. And but you know, you look back, you know,
and we went on strike five times, and we made
it better for these these minor league players, and we
also made it better for big league players today. This
is why they're making so much money. We didn't benefit
from the strikes that we went on. We went on
five strikes. It didn't benefit us, but it benefits these
(09:09):
kids today.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
I mean, Bernie, when you look at a salary like
this guy wad Soto, I mean he's making almost close
to a billion dollars. I mean, don't you think that's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Well, what's ridiculous is that Number One, if you're gonna
pay these ballplayers that much money. I made four hundred
and seventy six thousand dollars in seventeen years. And if
you're gonna make this much money and play this much
money and pay these players as much, and you want
to take a look at this as the what you're
gonna do today. You have gambling, you're making billions of dollars.
(09:44):
Now you're saying that Pete Reynols and shootings Joe Jackson
should be in the Hall of Fame and put him
on the ballot because you're committed to say, Okay, we're
making billions of dollars on gambling, and then you're gonna
tell the Sarok guys that you can put them in
the Hall of Fame. So everybody's doing steroids, we don't
have drug testing one hundred percent, and you're making billions
of dollars. Now, why don't we just let people come
(10:06):
into the ballpark cheap. Let the kids come from free,
have date nights and have double hitters, and come and come.
You don't have to they don't have to make any
money withdrawing one person. They're already making money. So allow
it to be affordable for us to come and watch
the game. I mean, let's look at the Savannah Bananas,
(10:28):
you know, the other bananas whatever they call themselves. It's fun,
it's a it's a it's it's a it's affordable. We
can't I can't pay for a ticket to go to
a ball game. I can't pay for parking. I can't
even pay for the hot dogs. I mean, you know,
they don't need to draw one person when you're paying
people billions of dollars, and you're paying them millions of dollars,
(10:50):
and you're taking this out on the fans. This is
why Minor league baseball is becoming so popular, and it's
popular because it's affordable. And we can make this affordable
in MLB. It's take. If you're going to pay these
people this much money, let the people come in and
have it free to come in and watch baseball. You
(11:10):
don't have to have one person come in the ballpark
to make any money.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Oh, I mean a family of four.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
You're spending like four or five hundred dollars with parking
tolls and the hot dogs and beer.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Forget it. It's insane.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. You know, if you want
baseball to get back to where it was, let the
kids come in for free. Let them go free.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
And you know, you know like what you what you
do when when you when we see you at these
car conventions, you and Bill Lee, I mean I think
that actually helps, uh, you know, helps promote the sport better.
Do you still feel that baseball is not as popular
as it used to be.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
It's not as popular at all, not as popular as
what's popular is these kids they're not even playing baseball,
you know, baseball is dying. They're playing soccer. They're playing
playing tennis and golf and basketball and volleyball, and they
(12:10):
play the game that they play too. There's a new
game with they got a ball with a net and
they throw it in. It's what they called The Indians
played it at one time.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah, yeah, I can't think of it, but yeah, no,
I got you.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
But yeah, So baseball is not at the top anymore.
It was at nineteen seventy five that World Series brought
baseball back to where it was where it should have
been the number one sport. But you look at it now,
so you look at what's doing now. Kids are more
active in playing soccer and doing these kinds of things.
In basketball and baseball. It's just too much, too expensive.
(12:50):
Even in travel baseball, I mean, travel baseball is ruining baseball.
And I was with Pete Rose probably thirty or forty
years ago. B Road said travel ball was going to
ruin these kids. T ball and coach pitch and everything
like that. You know you're only getting you go on
you travel. You're paying fifteen hundred dollars to half of
the on a team, and then you're traveling and you're
(13:11):
only getting three games. You get six at bass, maybe
a ground ball or whatever. You got a couple practices
or whatever. It becomes a pop and mom game. It's
too expensive, pay for travel, motel and everything like this,
and the season they don't get. You know, when we
were young kids, we played football in the backyard. We
played baseball on the streets, We played side baseball. We
(13:34):
played baseball for morning to night. We got hundreds of
swings every day and we just went out in the
park and picked up teams and threw the ball over
the plate and let them hit it. Now we got
kids from nine to twelve, fourteen years old blowing out
their elbows, their arms, rollercuffs and Tommy John and you know,
it's not good. Travel ball is not good. When we
(13:56):
were playing travel ball. We didn't play travel ball till
we're fifteen, seven teen or eighteen years old. And when
we did play it, it was because we were good.
And what's happening now and if you have money, you're
on the team, and that's what it's about. It's about money.
I just don't like travel ball. I like parking, recreation ball.
I like pickup baseball. And what I do is I
(14:18):
do camps now with boys, and I do camps with girls,
and I give them fundamentals ground balls, throwing the ball,
bases outfield, hitting, running the bases, throwing, And we played
with football out they umpire, they keep score. They play baseball,
and they have a blast. They throw the ball over
the plate, let the kids hit it and the field
and they just play and love it. And they argue
(14:41):
about the umpire, but the umpire by the faith out
and they come to an agreement that I argue about
the score. But they're out there having fun. And when
they playing, I sit on the bench. I let them
mark and play, and the good players teach the bad players.
And that's what we used to do when we were younger.
We played that. We did the same with football, same
thing with basketball, and and we did all these things.
(15:04):
We played all day all night. You know. It was fun.
So when I when I have clinics, I do probably
I do June, July and August every every week. I
have boys out there from nineteen eleven, twelve and then
thirteen fourteen, fifteen, and and I give them all the
fundamentals and and the hleball out and they said, what
are we doing? You're playing baseball? Well, how are we
(15:25):
gonna do that. You're gonna pick the teams, You're gonna umpire,
you're gonna score, and you're gonna throw the ball over
the plate. Let them hit it and just catch it
and through it and keep scoring and they have a blast.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I mean, well, Bertie, you know I saw you and
Bill Lee a couple of weeks ago at a show,
and I mean there was a line out the door.
I mean, you guys are still fan favorites in my business.
I mean after fifty six years, I mean, fans still
want your autograph.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Do you still enjoy signing autographs for the fans?
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Well, I'll tell you the truth. Penway Park, the Boston
Red Sox, mister Yorckey, I love mister Y. When I
first met mister Yockey owned the team, I walked up
to him, he was in the clubhouse. I walked up
to him and gave him twenty bucks and told him
to give me a cheeseburger. And fries and the clubhous
guy come over. He said, you know, you get that
twenty dollars too. I you know. He said, it's mister Yorckey.
(16:16):
He owns the team. So I went over to mister
Yorckey and he said, Bernardo, Bernardo, just win the game, Bernardo.
I loved Fenway Park. I loved mister y Hockey. And
then I took him to arbitration for ten thousand dollars
and loss. And I went to him. I said, mister Yockey,
and my wife's gonna have a baby. I want to
buy a house. Take this. I need ten thousand dollars.
(16:41):
And he gave me ten thousand dollars and gave me
a twenty five thousand dollars raise. And I played for
mister Yorckey. So after every game, by the parking lot
at Fenway, you could sit at the corner and I
would sign. I would sign autographs until the lights went off.
I loved if I was over for the best thing
I could do was sign autographs all night. I signed
(17:03):
them at before the game. I sign them now. I
sign them anytime. I write my name so you can
read it too. I don't scribble, I write it so
you can read it. And I would say out there
to the lights went on. All I did was I said,
I got my own pen. I got my pen, I
got my markers, everything else. Don't pump, don't pump, don't put,
don't get link all over me, don't push, don't push.
(17:24):
I'll sign all their autographs as far as I do
the lights go off. I love signing autographs. Who wants
Bernie Carble's autograph? I will sign it for nothing if
I have to. I love signing autographs. It just makes
you feel good. I'm what a baseball player signing autographs.
I mean, come on, guys.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
You know this is I had like five minutes left
with you, Bertie. And this is why I like radio,
because we can go all over the place. You know
who I had on my show. I had one of
your former teammates, Scipio Spinks. Is it true that Scipio
set you a stuffed gorilla?
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Well, I'll tell you the truth. What happened to Scipio
was he heard his arm. He threw about ninety four
ninety four, ninety six, and he heard his arm, and
he told him, we're gonna have you sit with the
psychicartist and tell you your arm doesn't hurt. So he took
this monkey, stuffed monkey in the Saint Louis Cardinal uniform.
He said, tell the monkey to pitch because he doesn't
have a sore, but I do. So when I got traded,
(18:27):
I opened up a box and there was Mighty Joe Young.
So I kept Mighty Joe Young for all those years.
And then what happened was when the Pittsburgh case came out,
Keith Nandis came out and said, well, Bernie Carbo introduced
me to cocaine. Well that was the truth, but did
he really say that. Yeah, yeah, So what happened was
(18:47):
I ended up putting the monkey in a box and
pictures of my kids sitting on his lap, and I
mailed it to him to the to New York Mets,
and mailed it to the clubhouse to Keith Hernandez. So
you got to ask you, Tananis about Mighty Joe Young.
But I wish I had Mighty Joe Young. I could
probably sell him and make a few bucks. But yeah,
(19:08):
it was. It was something that you know, baseball treated
in a way that Sipill thought, you know what, you
treat me like a monkey. I might as well, give
you I'm gonna dress a monkey up as a player.
And that was kind of the same thing too. You
know my rookie year, I hit three ten high sitter
and rookie he had the year at MVP in the
minor leagues. And I held out and I held out
(19:31):
for they offered I was making twelve thousand, they offered
been the one to fifteen. They offered me seventeen. I
held out, and I went to talk to Bob Housman
and he said, you're gonna sign for seventeen two thousand
dollars raise. I said, well, give me thirty thousand you
gave me when I was a kid. And he said,
go home and carry lunchbucker like your dad. And when
(19:52):
he said it about the fourth time, I dragged him
across the desk and I beat him up.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Yeah? I hit him about five times. I didn't. I said,
what did my dad got to do with me? You know,
go home and carry lunch bucket. You're not even giving
me a raise. Then I went to Marvin Miller and
told him, I said, look, I want to go with
kurk Flood to court. I want to go to I
want I want to go to court. I don't want
to play with Cincinnat anymore. I need to play someplace else.
I you know, I just did something that should never
(20:22):
have done. Beat up Bob Housman, who was you know,
he's the president of sin As. He said, well, I
can't take you because you're a kid. Well ten years
later he said, yeah, I should have taken you to
court with me with you know, with when I want
to try to get the free agency. What I wanted
was I wanted to play someplace else because I was
going to get buried. And I did get buried, and
(20:43):
you know, I didn't make a lot of money, and
uh I just my career went downhill from there, and
uh I ended up not liking baseball very much. I
thought money was going to be the answer. They're all things,
but the answer for me is Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Now.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
But before I let you go, Bernie, let me ask you. Now,
you played twelve seasons. You played with the Reds, Cardinals,
Red Sox Brewers. Let's talk about a couple of your
teammates you played with. So you mentioned Pete Rose, I
mean a young Pete Rose is sixty nine, seventy seventy one.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Uh, you guys got along right off the bat.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
I love Pete Rose. I love Pete Rose. He made
a mistake. You don't bet on baseball. I love Pete Rose.
Greatest guy ever met in my life. I played with
Hank Caeron. Hank Harroon said to me, Bernie, he'll be
a great interview. Learn that, you know. Learn it's okay
to make it out. He said. I made over eight
thousand outs, Bernie, and you're not even going to get
that many at bat. And I said, what are you
(21:42):
talking about? I said, be happy in new beginning. Every
get back to the new beginning. Hit the ball hard, Bernie,
hit the ball hard. And now you know. I stole
Willie Mason's bat my first time in the big leagues
in San Francisco. It was this game bat and I
broke it and came in my mother. I was looking
for my bat, And forty years later, it's still mad
at me. You know, I'm playing with Parker, and I
played with Parker, and I played with Willie Stargoe and Ted.
(22:05):
You know, I've met College Schremsky playing with him. Funniest
man I ever met in my whole life. So I
look back at my years in baseball, it was a
lot of fun. I met a lot of great baseball players.
I played with a lot of great players. I made
a lot of mistakes in my life, a lot. And
you know, you think that we want to strike five times,
(22:26):
we just didn't benefit. But we didn't make a lot
of money. But I loved the game. I love playing
the game. I still love the game. And it's it's
a lot of fun to be around the kids today
and see how much fun they can have. And it's
a real shame is that we're putting too much emphasis
on travel baseball and making these kids play and teaching
(22:48):
the things and not the fundamentals of baseball. I think
MLB is trying to reach kids, but they need to
let the kids come to the ballpark for free.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
And you know, Bertie, So what's down the road for you?
I mean, are we going to see you at more conventions?
What's down the pipeline? What's your schedule?
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Like, Well, I'll tell you what I got going. I
do a fantasy camp. I did a fantasy camp and
mobile out of them. It's my twenty sixth year there.
I charged three hundred dollars and one hundred and fifty
dollars if you bring someone twenty six years with next year,
will be there January or February at Mobile University. I
have a camp coming up here. I live in Carolina.
Now I've got a camp in Fayetteville the nineteen twentieth
(23:31):
and twenty first at Woodpecker Stadium for three hundred dollars.
We put a uniform on, we go out there and
play baseball Friday, Saturay and Sunday, and we just have
a great time. And what happened was, you know, when
Fantasy camp started years and years ago, it's like it
was affordable. Now it's like five grand or whatever. And
I just said, you know what, I've had this camp
(23:52):
for twenty six years, first year in Fayetteville, and I'd
been doing it for three hundred dollars and one hundred
and fifty. If we bring somebody else and we go
out there and play baseball and really have a great time.
We're now looking for no Number one draft choices or anything.
But if you go to Berniecarpo dot com Berniecarpo dot com,
you can find out my phone number, find out about
the baseball camps, the Fantasy camps, and also I'm going
(24:15):
to have a web page where they can go to
and buy some of my pictures or uniforms or something
like that. But I'm looking to go in October. I'm
going up to Vermont and I'm gonna be with Billy
up there signing autographs in October, so I'm looking forward
to that. Then I'm also going up to Boston September third, fourth,
(24:39):
and fifth, and I'm gonna be in Worcester in Worcester
at the DOUBA ball team there signing autographs. So I'm
looking for that. The fifty year anniversary is probably keeping
me busy, but then after that, you know, fifty years
is a long time to be remembered. And you know
I'm seventy seven now. My birthday's come August fifth. Oh no,
(25:00):
you know, I like to live til eighty sixth, and
that means I live longer than anybody in my family.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Well, you know, I saw you a couple of weeks ago.
I mean you look great. I mean your face looks young.
I mean you look great.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Well, you know, I feel good. I think that it's
the way the way you look at life. You know,
I'm working with them. I'm doing what I love, and
I'm working with kids and girls and watching them grow
up and things like that. I feel I feel good.
You know what I mean? You know, I don't know
if big fol I became an alcoholic and a drug addict,
(25:34):
and my mother committed suicide. My dad died two months later.
I wanted to commit suicide, and I met a gentleman
who at that particular time, Bill Lee called, and then
Ferguson Jenkins called. I ended up in rehab and I
had an anxieties that ended up in the hospital, and the
man asked me, do I have a personal relationship with
(25:55):
Jesus Christ. I don't know. My mom and dad didn't
believe in God. I don't know what you're talking about.
And the spirit fell on me. And I've been with
the Lord Jesus Christ for now for thirty one years,
and I've been clean for thirty one years. I speak
in churches in twelve step programs. I go all over
the country. I've been to Saudi Araba, Kuwait, I've been
to Guam. I've been to places where I never thought
(26:17):
i'd be. For that home run that I hit, even
though that home run is fifty years ago, that home
run opened the door for me to go be able
to talk about Jesus Christ. And I've been able to
go places because of that home run. But when I
hit that home run, it only lasted a little while
and I was on the bed just crying. I was crying.
This crying is crying. I don't know why. I hit
(26:38):
the greatest thing I've ever done in my whole life.
I dreamed about hitting that home run my whole life,
and I'm like, no one's here with me. I'm all
by myself, man, And so it was. You know, I've
been fortunate. You know, I've been clean for thirty one
years and it's been beautiful. I lived a good life,
and you know, God been good to me. And baseball
(27:02):
has been the greatest game ever played. And that's what
I preach, you know, God, it's the greatest game, and
we played the greatest game and that's baseball.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
A Bertie. You know, many blessings to you.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
I mean, it was an honor to have you, a
nice meeting you a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Great job today.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Well I appreciate you guys, and baseball is a great game.
But we got to give it back to the kids.
Gotta get it back to kids, a new generation. We
got to get it to a new generation of these kids.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Everyone, Bertie Carbo, go to Berniecarbo dot com. Right, Bertie,
Berniecarbo dot com.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Amen, brother, heymen, thank.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
You, thank you. Until next week, Happy collecting to all,
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