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Uncover the extraordinary journey of Brad Kamensk, a formidable force in the world of Major League Baseball, as he shares his incredible experiences from playing for six diverse teams. This episode offers an intimate look at Brad's humble beginnings in Shawnee High School, Lime, Ohio, his triumphant rise to prominence as the fourth pick in the first round of the MLB draft in 1979, to his admirable achievements in the minor leagues. Join us as we unravel the rich tapestry of Brad's life, full of awe-inspiring tales, unforgettable moments, and lessons that transcended beyond the baseball field.
As we take you on a rollercoaster ride through Brad's illustrious career, he reveals some of the most thrilling moments of his journey. Listen to the story behind that phenomenal outfield catch which Joe Carter declared as the greatest he ever saw, and find out what distinguished the Hall of Fame players from the rest. Moreover, Brad offers a unique perspective on coaching, and how allowing players to figure things out for themselves often brings out the best in them.
Furthermore, engage with candid conversations about the competitive yet challenging world of professional baseball careers in winter leagues, and the gritty reality of not matching up to expectations and the uncertain pay security in these leagues. Relish Brad's transition to coaching in the minor leagues, his encounters with the challenging conditions of baseball fields at the inception of his career, and the dedicated efforts of groundskeepers to provide the best playing surface. Brad's gripping anecdotes, thoughtful reflections, and introspective insights make this a must-listen episode for every baseball enthusiast and aspiring athlete. So, don't miss out on this captivating exploration of a baseball legend's journey!
Welcome to the Athlete One podcast. Veteran high school baseball coach Ken Carpenter takes you into life's classroom as experienced through sports. Go behind the scenes with athletes and coaches as they share great stories, life lessons and ways to impact others.
Speaker 2:Today's episode of the Athlete One podcast is powered by the Netting Professionals, improving programs one facility at a time. The Netting Professionals specialize in the design, fabrication and installation of custom netting for baseball and softball, including backstops, batting cages, bp turtles, screens, ball carts and more. They also design and install digital graphic wall padding, windscreen, turf, turf protectors, dive out benches and cubbies. The Netting Pros also work with football, soccer, lacrosse and golf courses. Contact them today at 844-620-2707, that's 844-620-2707. Visit them online at wwwnettingproscom or check out Netting Pros on Twitter, instagram, facebook and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects. Hello and welcome to the Athlete One podcast. I'm your host, ken Carpenter, and joining me today is this retired Major League outfielder, brad Kamensk. Brad, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Nice, kenny, great seeing you again. Looking forward to this.
Speaker 2:All right, well, let's start off with. You grew up in Lime, ohio, where you attended Shawnee High School, and you played three sports football, basketball and baseball and you were very good at all three, but you ended up being the fourth pick in the first round of the MLB draft in 1979. But before we get to that, I wrote a story about you being an all-state linebacker and was curious who was recruiting you as a football player.
Speaker 3:A lot of people did. But the main team that recruited me was the Wolverines. Gary Mohler's family was down around the Lime area. He had heard about me from them so he came down, they recruited me, him and Bo, and everybody came down and recruited me. I went up to a visit up at Michigan a game in the horseshow. I think we were playing Purdue at the time where they were playing Purdue and obviously they just destroyed Purdue. I got in the locker room with some of the guys that were in Purdue. They were like, oh my God, these guys are animals. I was just a little skinny kid. I was 6'2", about 180 pounds in high school after my senior year. So I was just a little skinny guy going into this weight room with these guys. I was 6'2", 6'3" and they were 250. I had to put on 50 or 60 pounds, 70 pounds, just to fit in the room. So it was a great experience going up there and checking out Michigan. You know Ohio State Buckeye fan when they're not playing I still leave them root for Michigan a little bit just for those reasons. I always want to see them do good, you know, outside of when they play Ohio State.
Speaker 2:Now, were the Buckeyes interested in you at all as a football player?
Speaker 3:More baseball, I went there for baseball, not so much football, I don't think but I did a recruiting visit at Ohio State when Joe Carbone was the assistant coach at the time, so Joe was the main guy that was recruiting me then. So went down and made a visit. I probably would have went there if I didn't sign, you know, but going the first round I didn't have much choice, I don't think.
Speaker 2:Right. Well, you know, looking back on the MLB draft, you were the fourth pick by the Atlanta Braves in the first round and I got on Wikipedia and checked out where you received a $70,000 signing bonus and just wanted to get your reaction to can you believe what the top picks are making now when they signed?
Speaker 3:That's about 30 years. It was 40 years too soon, I think. Yeah, it cost myself about five or six million dollars. Seven million dollars. The money was, you know the time, like the number one pick that year. He got 60 grand. So I got more of the number one pick in the country who was Al Chambers, out of a Harrisburg PA. I think Seattle took him and I actually thought I was going to go to Seattle. A local guy, Larry Cox, was playing for the Mariners at the time. He was a backup catcher and he had called me like the day before. Today it looks like we're in a draft, you know he's just talking to me a little bit and then it didn't happen. So it's kind of I wouldn't say it was a letdown, because I like where I end up going. But yeah, I really thought I was going to be a Marin or more than anything. But you know, the money was the factor Back then. The teams didn't want to spend any money. They didn't Until, like strawberry the next year, I think, or earlier before, maybe got 100 or 125. But yeah, they didn't want to spend the money now. Now they just they doled out man, they're not afraid to give it up nowadays.
Speaker 2:That's for sure. Now going into the minor leagues you lived up to the hype that was surrounded you and you won the cover of baseball America and I think you hit 322 with 33 home runs and 35 stolen bases at high-class A Durham. And then you know, to me it just sounds like you kind of picked up right where you left off with your high school and probably American Legion days, I would think.
Speaker 3:Yeah, pretty much. My first year was tough In rookie ball. I was kind of a tough transition. I kind of went to a college league which was the. I was down in Kingsport, tennessee, down in the Appalachian League. It was a mostly predominantly college league back then and I saw some pretty good, pretty good college arms that kind of ate my lunch. But I mean I had a little bit of success, but not not as much as I did. The following year when I went down to low. A ball had a decent year in Anderson, south Carolina. You know, learn some things. And then everything just kind of jumped off that year more than anything.
Speaker 2:Right Now, the the brightens turned down a trade where the Red Sox were offering a future hall of famer Jim Rice. And then in 1983, you hit the cover of baseball America again for being the top guy as far as best tools. You had 334, 24 arm runs, 26 steals at Truplay Richmond. But is there something you can point to that you think, okay, that's. That was really was the key to my success.
Speaker 3:You know, no, I don't know, you know I just everything kind of clicked that year. We had we had a really good team, you know, we had a pretty solid lineup, so I just kind of fit right in the middle of it. Nothing, I think. Maybe, maybe it would help that year a little bit. I got called up year before right for the last like week of the season and had a pretty. I got hot right away. So I think that might have carried over a little bit. And then, you know, I ended up getting called up toward, you know, in the middle of middle of August. Claude I was watching, got hurt. So I went up for a couple of weeks, came back and actually had a decent last you know four or five games and went right back to the major leagues. But but you know nothing, nothing I can really pinpoint. I just I just always expected to do good, you know I, just I, for whatever reason I always thought I you know was I was, I was really comfortable playing in that league and and you know I had a lot of momentum from the year before, the last couple of years before I was playing, playing decent and swinging the bat pretty good.
Speaker 2:So everything just kind of fell into place out here, but it was a fun year Now in that outfield when you got that first call up, who were the other outfielders with you?
Speaker 3:Murphy was there. I went into left field I forget who we were moving to right field with Claude. I'll be in hurt. I forget who they ran into in the right field, but I was there with Murphy, was our was the was the main guy out of center field and you know I might have been a little intimidated to start with being there. You know it's like, hmm, you always wonder if he'd belong or not. That was the biggest thing.
Speaker 2:Right now, when you finally got the call up, you know, I read a story where you got there late but you, you weren't able to play until you had to play the next day. And Talk about the, the first pitch. Are you faced in and what you remember from that?
Speaker 3:What got called up. I was in the lineup for the first first day. I was supposed to be there but I got there late. You know the flights, for whatever reason. So I was scratch. I was a late scratch and didn't get to play the first game of the next day. Sunday day game in Atlanta, silver seats on center field like it, a Gonna get a. My calls against Fernando Valenzuela, who was pretty good. He went to. No, you know, I've never seen a screwball before, at least anything like that, you know. And and back then to the umpires. I mean he could throw a ball foot outside their calling of the strike you know me being a rookie and nobody. And then they would tell you to. I mean you know that they catch a ball foot off the plane. They tell you to swing the bat. The umpires back in the day, they didn't really they could do anything I wanted. Yeah, if they didn't like you, they could. They could bury, you know, or make it. It'd make your way more than anything. So I mean all the young guys say they what wanted to see, wait, how you were acted, everything, and I just kept trying to wait. But it wasn't a pretty first day, I know that.
Speaker 2:So it's you don't kind of get that effect that you have nowadays with Twitter and right yeah, you know 24 hour sports coverage.
Speaker 3:Oh, they get graded so much if they miss it. I mean it's not easy to umpire by any means. You get a, get a ball, like you know 95 on the black or just off the black. You know they're pretty damn good. If you look at the, if you look at the little box I throw them to every day, most those guys are pretty darn good, pretty consistent. So, oh, yeah, I mean more sports. It looks, it looks really easy from from TV, but those guys definitely got a tough job definitely. So, yeah, you got to respect that and they put up with a lot of crap you know.
Speaker 2:Right now, let me ask you this back in back in the 80s. It seems like just about every picture that runs out on the mound now days is 95 plus, with the exception of a you know a few guys out there is it. Was it like that, or was it?
Speaker 3:made through as hard. They said I think they just got different guns. You know, I mean those guys, I mean you said no one run would run them up there at 100 and JR Richard and you know Bob Welch and I mean you go, every team it had a JR Richards. I mean every team had some guys could, could throw some gas and I, I really think the guns were a little bit different. I, you know, guys through hard back then too, don't give me, or maybe not quite as much, but Right, you know I don't think they were aesthetically enhanced either. I think they, um, you know, we're just more natural, but they, they threw and they, you know, back then there, and we didn't have like a 10 man staff back then. You know, I think it was Tony LaRusso who kind of turned them into like a 12 or 13 man staff um years ago with the specialty stuff. So you know, if you're a starting pitcher you win seven innings. You know, unless you really got hammered. You know they didn't and they didn't. You know, if a, if a bullpen guy pitched three innings today, they didn't send them back to the minor leagues and bring someone up to fill in. They just they just pretty much went with what they had, you know. So the game has changed a lot. That way, they just keep running fresh arms out there that that um Can get you out. So it's it's definitely a totally different game than it was back then.
Speaker 2:And uh, but there's some, there are still some really really good arms back then yeah, now, if you get on YouTube and, uh, you know, probably, you know, I don't know, I I didn't see all of the games that you played, but the one thing that stands out is the catch you made against cal ripkin, where you went over the fence and center field. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we were. It was actually in, uh, old memorial stadium in baltimore and john ferrell was pitching, rip was up at the plate. He just hit a ball to. You know, I was playing center field at the time and he hit the ball to Kind of more left center a little bit, but for whatever reason I got a really good jump on the ball and just everything was in slow motion, just kind of went back, jump, caught it, dropped it on the back side. So unfortunately, um, I did drop the ball on the back side of the when I, when I swung over the fence and ball kind of just Swung out of my glove and I did try to find it, it was stuck behind a little little tarp holder. There's a little roll, a tarp roll in the back for some reason, and I was going to go grab the ball and throw it up, you know, for the, for the catch. But obviously their bullpen was right there and they were all saying no, no, no, and I was. I looked up and sure enough I was on the diamond vision, you know, looking around for the ball. It kind of ruined my, ruined my almost catch, but but uh, it was pretty cool. You know, I got a lot of, actually I. That's why I ended up in baltimore the next year. You know, the indians got rid of me. Or you know, I got rule five by the by the giants right at the end of spring training. And then I got rule five by the Uh by the orals right after that. And they told me when I got there, just because of that, catch Weren't anything really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know the the what was the correct, the catch was incredible, but Um, you know I was amazed at two things. You know I uh won.
Speaker 3:I think you were up to your thigh on the fence Eight feet high, so yeah, but I got a perfect jump off the. I mean it's just when it was probably you know, if they did it a hundred times I probably wouldn't catch it 99, but at one time everything worked out perfect. You know, I knew where I sat. I didn't have to look and find the fence or anything, I just knew exactly where I was at and jumped it at all. I mean, it was just like I said, it was almost in slow motion, worked out perfectly. You know, almost.
Speaker 2:And I think was that was that Joe Carter that was at left field. Yeah, joe at the left field.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, and Alberell was in right field. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just. Joe Carter's reaction was just like, wow I, he couldn't believe that you didn't, right?
Speaker 3:yeah, I was he said it was the greatest, the greatest or the greatest, never catch ever or something whatever. He's something like that. It was pretty funny.
Speaker 2:Now you had a chance to play for Atlanta, cleveland, san Francisco, baltimore, oakland and Milwaukee. I guess the question I wanted to ask was, once you got to the major league level, were there were coaches trying to change anything about what you were doing, whether it be hitting or defensively?
Speaker 3:Not really defensively, most just offensively. So from day one when I got there I really wanted to change everything, you know, and it just I was probably too nice. I probably just sort of told them to let me do it my way, but I didn't. You know, no regrets but yeah, I just wish I would have let me go out and play and I think everything. I really felt like I should have made the team in 1984. I came off that year in triple way where I hit 322. You know wasn't the MVP, but I probably should have been the MVP that year, but I wasn't. But I was a rookie of the year in that league. And then I had a really good spring training, you know, and when they were sending me down I was the last cut and they told me they just said, you know, for you to make the team this year, we knew you had to have a really great spring. You had a great spring. We're sending you down and I'm like, and I just say then I felt like mentally, I just felt like I had to do something different to put better numbers up and I just think they would have let me go out from day one. I think things would have been a totally different, but they weren't and they weren't, so you're a you're a, I'm a cart guy.
Speaker 2:Well, you know the thing is, though. I mean, you know, in my experience just coaching high school players, you know I, you get it, you get somebody that's doing well, I, I kind of would stay back and be like I, they're figuring it out. And when they're not figuring it out, that's when you kind of step in.
Speaker 3:That's how, when I was coaching, it was the same way. I had your philosophy If someone was doing pretty good, I didn't want to screw them up by any means. You know, if we could build on some things, that's great, but I sure as heck didn't want to screw up. Guys are really good and doing really well, you know.
Speaker 2:Right. So now you had a chance to play against, and with plenty of Hall of Fame players.
Speaker 3:I had my share of it yesterday.
Speaker 2:What, in your opinion, is that makes them different from just all of the major league players out there?
Speaker 3:And just the consistency. Consistency more than anything, day in and day out, just going out and getting the job done. You know, there's a lot of great players obviously in the major leagues, a lot of great players in the minor leagues that really never get an opportunity. But for whatever the reason, those guys click, maybe get off to a good start, maybe not, you know, but find a way to get it done and then when they get, when their number gets called, they just keep producing. You know so. But some are extremely talented. I mean there's some guys who have unbelievable talent up there, athletic wise. You know when we're going to bow Jackson, but after he blew out his hip and with white socks and spring training, I mean he was an unbelievable athlete obviously. I mean, I'm not telling you something they don't know, but when you see it in person it's like, oh, this guy's like a definitely a big, big, big cut above the rest. You know.
Speaker 2:Right, right, yeah. Now, were there any other players out there that when you just looked at him you're like wow, these guys are just at a totally different level.
Speaker 3:I mean there's some arm like pitching wise, I mean player wise, not some, not until like the steroid era. You know other guys. I mean I thought I could have played with a lot of them. You know, I just, like I said, I just I didn't get the confidence right away and didn't go. But I thought, talent wise I had enough talent to play in the majors for quite a while. But you know, there were guys I'm like balls that Murphy hit to right center. I mean he would hit balls to right center like a left handed pole header. You know stuff like that. You know, I mean Mike Schmidt. I mean there's some unbelievable, talented, talented guys out there. I mean almost all the Dodgers, I mean the Reds, coming up. Those guys were They'd be, they'd be all stars now too. You know, joe, right, he rose. All those guys, johnny Benish, he'd still be all stars, they're not.
Speaker 2:Now who was? Who was the toughest pitcher you ever faced?
Speaker 3:Probably JR Richard. He's pretty nasty. That guy's Seem like he's about seven foot five and through about 95 with a nasty slider. You know hard, hard slider, just wild enough to Scare the crap out of. You know, just a big, big imposing force. You know. You see, was pretty special death right now.
Speaker 2:You know we had had conversations because our sons played for a high Dominican University just sitting up in the stands, you know, for eight, seven, eight hours at a double header and and Did. Did you say that in one of our conversations I thought you talked about Bob Gibson as a as a coach pitching.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's our pitching coach. When I said Atlanta, when I came up, he was, he was a joe Tory staff, you know. So he was. I mean, he was mean as a snake. You know I he could, but he was a good guy, I don't get me wrong, but I keep it. He would throw batting practice to us and if you hit him hard he got pissed off, I mean deep down. He might not say it, but he was. He didn't want you to hit him, even a BP hard and if you did, he would. He would, oh yeah, he'd break you. He'd tell you I was gonna break your bat and he would do it. You know he had the best stuff team and he was, I Don't know, 45, 50 years old. Then he was off. He's probably her best pitcher In the major leagues. He was awesome, yeah, he was. Yeah, some kind of arm and he was, he was scary out there. He. I mean back then to come he was pitching, they could drill you. Nowadays you can come close to hitting the guy without getting thrown out of the game. Right, the mob yips and wrong, he would drill you. If you dug in, he would drill. You know it's really. Oh wait, yeah, yeah, he was there's no, no, don't dig in on him, and he would. He would smoke in, he said the guys that played against him. So I felt like that'd be peace. Sometimes, when you dug in, he He'd want to smoke you if you could. He might not do it, but he wanted to, I guarantee you.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness, yeah, now. Now baseball seems like it's notorious for superstitions and Things like that. Did you have any superstitions or did you play with anybody that you can remember that was superstitious?
Speaker 3:you know, everybody had their little superstitions. What you wear, you know your bats, I mean how you do, how you do certain things probably the most superstitious guy ever, you know. There I mean, like when I had to, when I was coaching pitchers, they wouldn't step on the line, they jump over the line all the time and stuff like that. That was, that was a big superstition, for whatever reason. Probably the most superstitious guy that I ever saw was a guy by the name of Kevin Romberg from the Indians or the Guardians. I should say, gavin, he would never. He would never make a right turn. So so if you're on their first base dugout and he made an out, he'd run down the line and he'd pivot backwards. So he would. He turned back to the left. So he would never. He would never peel off to the right ever, and that was the thing. He'd walk it. If he was walking out home plate, he would never. If you had to go to the right, he would never go right. He'd always pivot back to the left. He'd always walk out to home plate, get his donut roll it back Every time and then he, then he would play a game and he would Like he would. He would not let you touch him last. So if you shook his hand, he come back and touch you real quick and leave. So if you patted him on your butt or something good, he'd touch your back really quick. So that was and he did. And people there were players who they said would send him letters in the winter time and they would say, since you're reading my letter, I touched you last because I touched this a letter and he'd like he'd have to respond and send a letter back and say, hey, I know, now that you read my letter, I touched you last and now we're even or whatever. You know, it's always right. He was, he was, he was like super, he was the ultimate superstitious guy, ultimate.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 3:I was almost too much to remember sometimes, but he was. He was great at all and he's like he was a character.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now at the end of your playing career, you you kind of wrapped it up and you played over in Italy, and what was that like compared to being in the major leagues?
Speaker 3:I mean not even close, I mean it's just, it was a fun way to end my career, that's. There was some, a few good player, really good players over there Now Maybe could have played the minor leagues, maybe the major leagues, I don't know. There's that one, the one guy that was in the big leagues a while back, chris Colabito, think with the twins, his mother teams. So he was our bad boy over in Italy one year so. But most of the Italian guys wouldn't want to come Play in the States because it would. It would affect their ability to play like an Olympic teams and they thought they'd be branded. They weren't able to play back there. But, um, there's some. I mean we had some good guys in our team. I mean a pitcher, rob Roberto Caballista, he'll again. Boo was a catcher, beppi Krull was the left-handed First baseman who could hit with. Anybody guy could rake, flat-out rake. So I mean those guys could have played in the minor leagues and maybe, maybe got a touch, a cup of coffee in the major leagues who knows? But they were definitely. And some other teams had some. Some of the better teams had some some pretty good players that maybe would have Done all right, at least in the minor leagues but oh one, I mean the competition one certain teams were not very good at all. There was like three or four really good team or good teams who were a nice steady competition. But every team had like a couple Americans or they were a couple Cubans over there, latino guys that everybody got two foreign players so They'd bring some old guys that had played in the major leagues or I come over and and and help their teams house. It was. There's always enough company, good players. You see some good arms and you know a couple good guys here and there. Yeah, Now.
Speaker 2:Did you ever get an opportunity to play in any of the winter leagues?
Speaker 3:Yeah, play that. Played in Columbia, played in Dominican, I played in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 2:Did you okay?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so Columbia had a team back there, a couple teams back then, but it was, it was rough. No doubt it was a they can I've. I went after my year in Durham where I had hit 33 jack. So I'm like the best thing do for me is Columbia. I didn't and it was. I mean there there guys with machine guns and the dugouts, I mean there guys stayed there after the season because they could buy a 55 gallon drum of marijuana for like 10 bucks. Guys who stayed there and do coke, and I mean the little kids were selling coke on the streets. I mean it wasn't. It wasn't the safest place for you know, by any means. But but we survived it. You know, I came back, I was ready to get out of there. I got actually got hurt. I had breathing problems down there with asthma that they couldn't quite fix, so so I got out of there early. You know, dominican's probably the best league. I mean there's. I mean all the major league town, them Dominican kids. It's a good, that's a really good league, not the best. Back then in the 80s the conditions weren't the best, you know, the fields were the best, but now major teams have pumped so much money into it. There's, there's good facilities everywhere. You know, I mean you see some great arms and great players, all the all the stars boy, I want them start late. You know, after the first month or so of the season they come in and start playing. But you see, they all play. They all play in Puerto Rico and there's, it was a good league too. I mean, you know, probably a step below Dominican maybe, but it's still there. There's so enough good players over there too that had to play the major leagues. It was a competitive.
Speaker 2:I had Chris Jones on and he played and the Dominican, one of the Dominican leagues, and he said that they were his first year. They were having such a bad season that the the owner come in and said he wasn't gonna pay them.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, they don't. Sometimes they get pissed off. They won't pay it. Or if you have a couple bad games I'll send you home. They don't, they do not care. There it's all about winning. But yeah, the owners, all that it gives you about, about the pay and stuff, oh, they will If you don't produce. See it later. Yeah, there's nothing to make them do it. You know it's like a Standard practice. You're not performing up their expectations. They don't know your money. You know it's.
Speaker 2:It's an interesting concept, yeah now, after your playing days, you you jumped in to the the minor leagues is From the coaching and your manager, and where were some of the stops you had along the way as as a coach in the minor leagues?
Speaker 3:I started up in Toledo with the with the mud hands. I was a hitting coach up there for a couple years, had an opportunity to manage with the Indians, so I signed, you know. I Flipped over to the Indians. I managed for three years. There was a outfield baser running coordinator for a couple years there.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 3:Went to where I got with the fellow. After that I guess I got let go from the baser in outfield, because you know it's kind of weird. When he why they did it, they said how do you think the outfielders and basers that? I said I think they did pretty good this year. We worked really hard and got better. And he said, I agree, if you're not bringing you back, I'm like, okay, what did you expect, you know? But whatever, I mean you know it worked out for the best. I went over to Philly for a year. Who was great organization? That's was Cleveland. Well, I'm Cleveland too, they're all. They were all pretty good to me. But I went over to Philly, I was down to Clearwater for the summer, which wasn't all bad, you know. Hang on the water. Florida, you know, paid. You know it was good we had. We had a nice team. We won the league that year, Went to Baltimore after that for for five years. So I was in Boogie, Maryland. I was at Norfolk. I was in Aberdeen.
Speaker 2:Wow, so you did.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I did some time. Yeah, yeah, near as coaching. Yeah, 18 play and 17 coaching. So yeah, it was. It was enough.
Speaker 2:There was a good but you know, I read an article the other day where I believe it was the Los Angeles Angels minor league system, the a player come out and basically said the conditions for the minor leagueers were was just horrible. Guys are like sleeping in the kitchen. Some were sleeping at campsites, and was I. If they're complaining nowadays like that, I.
Speaker 3:Was it tough to be a minor leader back in the day. Yeah, back then I, you know, I mean you know back in the day when they started, like you, when you're in a field, they were all go tracks, they were, all you know, just really bad fields for the most part. You know, you know home plate, where the, where, the, where the batters and the batters boxes they're all dug out and they never they never put them could put clay back in and they brush and dust in and that was. They went out six. This is your six inches. You just had to find your spot, you know. And the pitch right when they dug out around the rubber they filled it in with dust and that was it. They didn't put clay in it and firm it back up and you know, start from scratch. You know they didn't want it, you know they were. You know it was just a dust bowl everywhere. You went just rock hard usually so, and most, most parts were like that. It wasn't, it wasn't this one. Most more were more like that than the other way. You know now, like now, the fields are, you know, they're like Astro turf. A lot of our answer to her, but a lot of her, like you, go down to the Clipper Stadium. That thing is like state-of-the-art, beautiful, perfect playing surface. You know no bad hops, enough that you know if you get a bad hop on that infield, the groundskeeper is pissed off. And I've had groundskeepers the same way they would get. I had a guy I had a groundskeeper in Down in Kensington, north Carolina, that I keep it. Go with a golf like a ball, like a golf ball repair tool After BP, and he would start replacing divots, like they like fixing a green after you hit a ball. Right, yeah, wow, yeah, they. I mean they take a personal, they're really good. You know there's a lot of really good, yeah good groundskeepers and then if there's a bad hot, they take it personally. Yeah, now, like you know, and they like back when. That's what the Indians coming up to they do. You know they started feeding you like a lunch and a lot of times they feed you dinner afterwards too. So you know they have training to. They just feed you and feed you and feed you. And you know they play. You take power bars out on the field. I mean it was almost madness what they would do.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, now they're. I mean, if guys are bitching now about the conditions, it's you know they may know money, I mean six hundred dollars a month, my first when I first signed back in 79. So I worked for two months as they're two and a half months. I mean what I make 1215 hundred bucks. Yeah, I'm with a hundred bucks. I'm like, yeah, a good year man, I brought a hundred bucks back. Really I had a hundred dollars my name when I came back outside of my bonus, but but that's what the other guys were making too. And you think nowadays they love a toast family so they have no expenses and sometimes the host family speed them and you know if you get a good host family they take serious care of you. Right, then they didn't do. If you finish for yourself, you'd have three or four or five, do a place and Land top of each other and do whatever you could do to survive. You know right. You know, now there's some places are so expensive. You know I said booey For one bedroom place. I stayed in the clubhouse most of the time because they gave us $800 a month like great 50 or something, living allowance and a one bedroom place in Bowie started at like $1,800 a month, unfurnished, with no, with no, with no, you know, no utilities, no, nothing hooked up. You should have basically nothing for $1,800 a month. I'm like I'm not going $1,500 a month in a hole just to live here. Right in the clubhouse taking an air mattress and stayed there and they got pissed off and then the next year they raised it because there's quite a few coaches that that did it because the market was so bad. You know we're, they're, they had really high-end markets. You know, frederick Maryland, you know Bowie, they're all right in that belt way that we needed to make three grand a month, you know, for living allowance made in. They wouldn't do that.
Speaker 2:So, bowie, was that? What team, major league team, were they affiliated?
Speaker 3:with Baltimore is both okay, we may socks yeah. Yeah, it's a really nice field. I mean we're like 20 minutes, 25 minutes from Baltimore and 20 minutes from DC, probably a little bit further to Baltimore, but a nice field, right little. Yeah, it's so close to every, there's so much to do. That only problem is they didn't draw, for they drew, but not great because Annapolis is right there. You know you had the Washington capitals yeah, the water actually was. You had the Baltimore oils Ravens. You know Major league soccer, you had everything there. Yeah, just big bay. You know boating, you had everything there was. It was tough but but they grind it out and did pretty good there, or still do pretty good there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now let me ask you this this is kind of out there, but how realistic Was both the movie bull Durham, I know the pitcher Lelouch was Would never even make a high school team pitch in the way, pitch right right. But some of the other things in the movie was Relatable, I guess yeah, they had the groupies around there, groupies everywhere.
Speaker 3:Every ballpark had their little groupies and, and you know they're there teams that did the rain out thing. They, you know, get out and try to water the field down or what they needed to rain out there. Stuff like that happened Definitely. So when I was in Durham, that was our boss, that a little bus. They drove around and that's the bus we drove from From city to city. We had our own real property. We're we're top of the line. We had our own boss. I was a you know. So, yeah, I mean, I was in, definitely, you know. You know, if you wanted a groupie, there's a groupie there, there's, you know. You name it, you know. It was and there weren't really big crowds back then. Now they, now they promote the minor leagues. You know you go to a clippers game. They you know schnock, he promotes a crap out of it and they have a great team that does great work. And All the minor league teams do the same thing. They try to. You know they ring the bell, they want their people there and they do a really good job. It's entertaining. It's more than baseball. It's just a place to go entertain.
Speaker 2:It's breeze will take your family there and and have a night at the ballpark, right, right well, I guess, to finish up the as a manager in the in the minor leagues, what was your, your greatest of ejection? I know you've told me sitting up in the stands watching baseball. But if you could share your, your, your injection story, that I think it is classic.
Speaker 3:My best was it. My best was it now too, and I was just talking to the gm about it. Not too long ago I had a good one up and up and up in portland, maine, where you know, I don't know, I got rung up some stupid play. You know that the umpires is totally gaffed and you know, I was walking off the field and they had these little. They had a little game where they had these lobsters and they you had to throw them on the field or fling them in a net or so I don't know what. It was some stupid game of the lobsters. And I walked off the field and you had to walk through the stands and go to like another building for the, for the clubhouse. So, um man, those lobsters were right in my way. So I started firing rock lobsters onto the field, lobsters out there. The place went nuts. But uh, my best one was in. Uh, in Altoona I got thrown out of the game. I was jar old John with the umpire. We had a. We had a major like rehab guy there and he kind of kind of run you up, you know, on a questionable call. So I funny, it had enough, you know, and I, uh, I walked out there and I took my shoes. Every side took my shoes off. Then I took my hat off. I put my hat on my shoes. Everybody's like what's he?
Speaker 2:doing.
Speaker 3:And I look, turned around to my point, and I've said man, let him call the game, he'll do a better job. And then I just walked off and left my stuff there. That was that's probably my best. That was my best one. Unfortunately I wasn't on video.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 3:That was one of my. I wanted better and when I did it I said, booing stuff, I'd walk out. We had to walk down the right field line. I'd always. I'd always leave the gate open, always, and I'd tell the bullpen I said, do not shut this gate, do not shut the gate. And the umpire's like hey, go shut the gate. And they're like no, he told Brad torus not to shut the gate. I am not shutting the gate, so they run out and shut the gate, or you had a bad boy to do it. It was, oh, just something, liven up the thing a little bit. You know, it seems to love people getting thrown out. You know, the the man there's been ejected, so it was always fun. Yeah, see what? kind of show you put on.
Speaker 2:That's probably the thing you don't see a whole lot of nowadays and uh, in the major leagues or yeah, they're so serious you can't even have fun anymore.
Speaker 3:It's like, you know it's like so it's so wall street corporate. You know that you can't even game and even fun anymore. It's just like a, it's a business. That's what it is. It's like right, you know it's. They've, they've taken, they've taken all the fun with the analytics and all the All that stuff. You know all the old timers been kicked out of the game and you know they don't want to back them with people that you know just conform and say yes and oh. It's sad, but in the way it is, I guess.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's, that's.
Speaker 3:That's baseball, I guess, and it's baseball yes, until until the next wave, you know, we'll say.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you could go back and if that you you're given the commissioner job for a day. Uh, what? What would be the one thing you would like to see changed with the way baseball's being played now?
Speaker 3:Um, I'd probably fire all the analytical people and just get back to you know, the higher old, the old baseball salt dogs that have been there forever and picked up a baseball and bat and had pine tar on their hands, let them do their thing. You know, say man, let's get this thing back to normal. You know, let's have fun again. Yeah, definitely it's not fun, it's not. It's just like I said, the minor leagues is way more fun than the major leagues. Now, it's, you know, obviously the money isn't there. They don't pay the minor leaguer's anything compared to To what they should, but but um, that's a lot more fun, it's. You know, funny Can I find up there? It's just Just a game. Yeah it's a business. It's a business, that's for sure. That's, that's it, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, hey, brad, I really appreciate you taking the time to uh To join me on the podcast here and you know, you know, I'm sure I could probably have you back again and you could just just keep peppering the stories out.
Speaker 3:I love it, but We'll do it again then, no doubt down the road here.
Speaker 2:Yes definitely Well. Hey, I really appreciate you doing the podcast and and thanks again, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3:All right, kitty. Thanks for having me. I appreciate great seeing you too.
Speaker 2:All right, take care, see you, okay. This episode of the athlete one podcast was powered by the netting professionals, improving programs one facility at a time. Contact them today at 844-620-2707. That's 844-620-2707. If you enjoyed today's show, don't forget to hit the subscribe button, write the show and leave us a review. Also, you can follow us on twitter, instagram and facebook at athlete one podcast. And, as always, thanks for tuning in on wednesdays. Take care.
