Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:17):
It's a special rendition of the Big Bow Podcast, and
we were supposed to have them on yesterday, but the
schedules did not align. So we are presenting a special
edition of the BMP. We had Rob Deboan last week.
Now we have Norm Charlton. Norm Charlton a Llah the
sheriff who was a first round nineteen eighty four June
(00:39):
Amateur draft pick and by the Montreal Expos. All right,
let me ask you this, Norm right now the gate.
Do you have an affinity to the now defunct Montreal Expos.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
I missed that organization.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I missed him too. Montreal was a really fun city.
We had a great time when we went there. They
treated me very well. They just the rest just happened
to need a part. I mean, the Expos just happened
to need a part. Walling got hurt right towards the
inn of spring training and they registrated me for a
way trin tricky.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Nineteen eighty eight you came here to Cincinnati. What was
that like?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
I mean you were I mean, you get drafted by
the Expos, thinking you're going to be a guy that's
in Montreal, and then in eighty eight you're coming to Cincinnati.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
What was going through your mind?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Well, it was, I mean, there's a little bit of shock.
I'm taking first round picks. They actually traded me in
spring training of eighty six, and I got drafted in
you know, July of eighty four, and they they traded
me in eighty six, and you know, it was a shock.
Then I kind of felt like a slap in the face.
But as you know, as I spent more time in
the game, I understand and learned came to understand that look,
(01:53):
when somebody needs a piece, they go get the piece
that they need and they got to give up something.
So I was very thanks told that the Reds wanted
me in that trade and it worked out really, really well.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
We're talking to Norm Charlton, the sheriff from Fort Polk, Louisiana,
played baseball collegiately at Rice made his MLB debut with
your Cincinnati Reds on August nineteenth, nineteen eighty eight. Norm, I,
before we get into the Nasty Boys in the sports
Day coming up, what was it like those first couple
of years. Obviously, you know what everybody here in Cincinnati
(02:27):
talks about is that Wired to Wire nineteen ninety team
and how special that team was. But those first couple
of years in the late eighties with the Reds, those
weren't the most comfortable times being a Cincinnati Red at
that time.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Right now, there's a little bit of turmoil. You know.
We went through the Pete Rose saga with all the
gambling and all that, and then we had Tommy Holmes
as a manager for a little while. We had a
pretty good team, not great, we had a pretty good team.
And then uh, you know, Bill Berger should assembled Bill
(03:02):
and Pete had assembled a group of guys, and then
Bill left and Bob Quinn came in, and then they
brought lou Penela in. They made a trade for Randy
Myers and a couple more deals and and kind of
put together a team that was, uh, you know, built
to win. Uh And and we did. Now we'll tell
you that if we'd have had a couple of injuries,
(03:24):
it would have been a whole different deal. But for
the most part, most of our guys stayed healthy the
whole year. Uh. And we've got contributions throughout the year
from all sorts of people. I mean, when you look
back and go, man Glenn Braggs, who's not known for
his defense, although he plays pretty name good defense. Uh
reaches up and grabs a ball from Carmela Martinez over
(03:45):
the outfield fence. We're going back to well, we're going
back to Pittsburgh to face dray Back, who we don't
like to face. When we have heroes like Louis King,
Jonas and you know, guys that aren't the common household names,
Uh stepping up and doing things to enable us to
win games. Pretty cool ball club, Pretty cool ball club?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Do you and I want to talk about Loop Penell
in a minute, because I just from a fan standpoint,
I playing for him.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
You got to have enough stories to fill a library.
But a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Don't have enough time.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
You know, no time, We don't.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
We don't have enough time.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
We do it the sports Tag.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Well, I have a bunch of time for that, but
a lot of people consider go ahead.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
This is a PG program, I'm guessing. So we don't
have enough time, and we can't sell a lot of
those stories.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
You can open up some more of the curtains at
the Sports Tag, no doubt about that, but a lot
of them. Well, I talked to and I've heard this
a lot, and I have my own opinion. But of
course I'm just an outsider. But a lot of people,
even though Loop Penela was the manager of that nineties team,
for a lot of people say, even inside the organization
that that was, that was a team built by Pete Rose.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Do you agree with that, Pete and Bill Bourers and
then Bob Quinn. Yeah, that was a team built by
those guys. Luke came in at the right time, in
the right and you will be the first one to
tell you, man, they put together almost the whole chess board,
and he came in and added a couple of pieces
and brought a new fire and a new attitude, and
(05:12):
everybody clicked and everybody played for him. And you know,
he was in the clubhouse with us a lot. You know,
he would sit and have a cold beverage with us
after a game, and he would make corrections, you know,
after a cold beverage, after you know, two and a
half hours in the clubhouse where everybody understood. You know,
(05:33):
he's not like your dad's scolding you. He's been there,
he's done that, and he's like, man, this it would
probably work out better if we try to do this
next time. Okay, I get it. I get it.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Yeah, we're talking to Norm Charlton, who was a nineteen
ninety two All Star. Of course World Series champion in
nineteen ninety Nor Just like all of us, we get older,
we kind of move on in life, kids, grandkids, spout
what ever. But your time in Cincinnati, I kind of
believe that that was a very special time to you.
(06:08):
What Cincinnati even today mean to you.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Oh, it means in nineteen ninety World Championship. It means
playing and it means playing in a city with tons
of based proper tradition. It means what used to be
the first game of the season every year. It means
the parade on an opening day. You know, people that
have never been to Cincinnati don't understand that. You know,
(06:35):
the parade on't open to day is phenomenal. We didn't understand,
you know, myself and Dives and Randy didn't understand until
we were Grand Marshall phone year we did the parade. We're like, man,
if we didn't know this was going on, we just
skipped open the day. Ceremonies at the ballpark can come
and done this. Well. You know, if you just in
there and out of there as a player, you don't
(06:56):
understand the tradition of the Big Red Machine. You don't
understand tradition of Cincinnati basketball, you don't understand the tradition
of Molar High School. You know, if you're just in
and out, you don't understand those things. But if you
take the time, I mean, let's talk. Let's talk about
Molar a little bit. They got a couple of guys
(07:18):
that have done pretty well in multiple sports. That's Molar alone.
You know, Molar alone has more people in the big
leagues than a whole bunch of towns and big towns.
So so there's there's tons of sports tradition the Bengals there,
there's tons of that.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Nor could be wrong, and don't quote me on this,
but I think I don't think I am wrong, but
I might be, But I think Molar High School is
one of only two schools in the country that can
stay claim to two Baseball National Baseball Hall of Fame
inductees and Barry Lark and Ken Griffy Junior. So that
(07:58):
says a lot right there, right.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, absolutely, And look, you go through the list of
guys that play there, there's some guys that aren't Hall
of famers, but they're in the Hall of k damn good.
The whole Bell family. I mean, you know, the whole
Bell family. I mean they're not Hall of Famers, but
they're in the Hall of pretty damn good.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
That's awesome, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Hey, you've done these stags before, and I actually was
blessed to be at a stag where you and Rob
and Randy. Randy, he's on the back side of the moon.
He's our next interview. But we're gonna have to put
out a search warrant to get him on a folk call.
But can you believe this, thirty five years I know
the Reds are going to be celebrating you guys, thirty
(08:42):
five years removed from that night. It's crazy to think
that's been thirty five years since the world championship team.
The Reds are going to be celebrating you guys. We're
getting you here at Big Me. What's it like when
the boys get back together, namely you and Oween, Robin and.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Randy, Robin, Reeney and Iry. We try to do this,
you know, once a year we're doing the Mower Stag.
We've done the La Salles Dag. Once a year we
typically come up uh to Sports Gallery and do an
autograph show. And if you if you've not been to
one of our shows, you ought to go. It's pretty cool.
We spend a lot of time with the people. Uh
(09:20):
Randon Myers gives a hundred dollar bill whoever came from
the furthest It's not your typical autograph show. It's not
your typical autograph show where we put our heads down
a sign as many as we can in fifteen minutes.
We try to give the people a lot of time.
You try to be what they want. Yeah, we take
pictures with them. You know, we'll do tenor we'll do
ten or twelve people, fifteen people, and then we'll stop
(09:42):
and we'll take pictures with everybody. And it's just the
way we like to do things. It's uh, we don't
like to we don't like it to be a cattle
call because you know, people are spending good, hard earned
money to come see us, and trust me, at MOLA,
they're going to get their money's worth. We have a
good time.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
I mean that is a fact.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
You know, we really do, you know, and it's a shame,
you know sometimes we've got to put a timeline on it.
But we got lots of stories, and we had lots
of fun, and we really enjoy getting together. It's a
shame that, you know, when I'm doing anything for the
thirty fifth year anniversary of the ninety season, I.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Thought you were. I thought I heard there was a
little get together. So there's none.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
I don't if there is, I haven't heard about it,
and I don't know that it's very many guys. If
it is right, I mean, forty forty should be. I
mean we should definitely do something for forty.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
I would think, well, let's celebrate thirty five year a
Big Mo.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
The Reds Hall of Fame will be there as well,
So we're going to celebrate the thirty fifth anniversary that
team right.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Here at Big Mo.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Yeah, we can do that. Norm.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Thank you for taking the time. Really appreciate it yourself,
Rob Dibble, Randy Meyers, the Nasty Boys. I got a
framed photo, you know, with that famous iconic photo of
you hanging in my office. That was I was great
that you guys signed that for me. It's right above
my desk. But excited, yeah, excited for you guys to
come back to Cincinnati Moeller High School September twenty fifth
(11:09):
for folks that want some tickets, go to molar dot org.
You'll see a big gold ribbon up on top. Click
that you'll be off and running. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Will you will? You will get your money's worth. We
have a lot of fun. There's not a question we
won't answer.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
That is awesome. And the folks like those locker room stories,
and I know you might have one or two.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
We could tell a locker room story that was actually
a Seattle Mariner story of Tom Lampkin getting hitting lessons
from Lou and Lou had his towel on and then
lose towels not off, he's out of his shower and
lose standing. They're giving hitting lessons for another five minutes naked. Yeah,
we can tell all sorts of stories like that.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Oh and I definitely I'm not going to have you
tell the story now, but you know the Mike Soshia
story is gonna come up.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
And I still, oh yeah, I've how you that all
the time.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
You had your hairs right on the chest of Mike's soosha,
And I can't wait for you to tell that story.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
That was awesome.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
That's the way we did things. It's still the way
we do things, come to Mowler and find out love it.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
That's Norm Charleton the Nasty Boys coming to Molar September
twenty fifth.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Molar dot org for your tickets.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Special edition of The Big Mo Podcast with Norm Charlton
North Thanks lot Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
It's w MOOE and the Molar Broadcasting Network