Back When There Was Baseball

We travel back to the 1970s with our guest this week.  Darrel   Chaney  played in the Majors from 1969-1979. He started out his athletic career as a Parade All American quarterback in 1965. Darrel turned down scholarship offers to Notre Dame and Michigan State to pursue his baseball career. He made his name as a utility-infielder, but as all utility players will tell you, they intended to be start...

We merge modern day baseball with baseball played 40+ years ago when we go  Back When There Was Baseball .  Don Cooper joins us this week. Don played in the Minor/Major Leagues from 1978-1987 with stints in the Majors with the Minnesota Twins, Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees. His experience as a pitcher helped him immensely as he became a pitching coach and had a long stint with the Chicago...

We take the time machine back to the early 1970s with our guest  John Doherty . John was drafted in the 1st round of the 1970 MLB January Draft - Secondary Phase by the California Angels. He played in the Major/Minor Leagues from 1970-1978. John suffered an arm injury early in his career which relegated him to 1st Base. He broke into the Majors in 1974 with the Angels and had a decent season. He a...

Curt Kaufman  joins us this week. Curt received a scholarship out of high school to play baseball at Iowa State University. After that he was signed as a non-drafted free agent by the New York Yankees on July 10, 1979. He worked his way through the minor leagues rather quickly and was named the International League Relief Pitcher of the Year in 1983 with 25 saves while playing for Columbus. Curt f...

Doug Rau joins us this week. Doug had a good collegiate career at Texas A&M which earned him a #1 draft pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the secondary phase of the June 1970 draft. He had an 81-60 record with a career ERA of 3.35 from 1972-1981. However, Doug may be best known for his infamous mound visit during Game 4 of the 1977 World Series as manager Tommy Lasorda was mic'd. He was a very ef...

Rudy Meoli joins us this week. Rudy played in the Major and Minor Leagues from 1969-1979 for several teams (California Angels, Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies). He got up to the Majors in 1971 for a short stint, but 1973 was the season that he established himself. Rudy started at 2B for the Phillies during that infamous 23-22 game with the Cubs on May 17, 1979, which ended up being his last...

American League umpire  Rich   Garcia  joins us this week. Richie was one of the most highly respected umpires of his time period (1976-1999). During his career, he worked 2 All-Star games (1980, 1992), 3 ALDS (1995, 1997, 1998), 5 ALCS (1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1996) and 4 World Series (1981, 1984, 1989, 1998). Richie was part of some memorable post-season games including the great 1982 ALCS betwe...

We take the time machine this week  Back When There Was Baseball  to the mid-1960s with our guest  John Werhas . John was signed in 1960 by the Dodgers after being a 2-sport athlete out of USC (baseball and basketball). He was the opening day starter at 3rd base for the Dodgers in 1964. After he struggled hitting, Manager Walt Alston inserted Junior Gilliam at 3rd base which provided the Dodgers w...

There were a few players in the 1970s whom Rex was told to emulate if he wanted to play Big League Baseball.  Art   Howe was one of them and he is our guest this week. Art started his athletic career as a football player at the University of Wyoming. After an injury, he concentrated on baseball and it paid dividends. Art started out in the Pirates organization but was traded to the Houston Astros...

When you talk about the greatest outfield arms in the history of the game players such as Roberto Clemente, Dave Parker and Ichiro Suzuki come to mind. However, our guest this week may have the greatest arm of them all.  Ellis Valentine  joins us to talk about his MLB career. Ellis was drafted in 1972 in the 2nd round by the Montreal Expos and made his Major League debut in 1975. He was part of th...

Tom Murphy  joins us this week. Tom played in MLB from 1967-1979 with the California Angels, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals, Milwaukee Brewers, Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays. He pitched as a starter and a reliever. Tom was drafted out of Ohio University in 1967 and made his Major League debut with the Angels in 1968. Enjoy this trip  Back When There Was Baseball with our guest Tom...

John   Morlan  is our guest this week. He played in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization from 1971-1977 with stints in the Major Leagues in 1973 and 1974. John is our first guest that was drafted 4 times before signing with the Pirates out of Ohio University. He participated in the 1974 season which included the Dock Ellis incident where Dock attempted to hit every Cincinnati Reds batter  on May 1....

Our guest this week is former MLB pitcher  Skip Lockwood . Skip signed with the Kansas City A's in 1964 for the unbelievable sum of $135,000. He started out at 3rd base and played behind Ed Charles in 1965 with the parent club. He had trouble hitting, especially during night games and was transitioned into a pitcher. Skip played for the A's, Seattle Pilots/Milwaukee Brewers, California Angels, New...

Doug Corbett  joins us this week. Doug played college baseball at the University of Florida but was not drafted. He signed with the Kansas City Royals for $500 on a free agent contract in 1974. Doug debuted with the Minnesota Twins in 1980 and had a great year as a relief pitcher, which resulted in a 3rd place finish for Rookie of the Year award (behind Joe Charboneau and Dave Stapleton). He playe...

We travel  Back When There Was Baseball  this week to the 1980s with our guest  Mike   Stenhouse . Mike was one of the best hitters in Ivy League history coming out of Harvard before signing with the Montreal Expos in 1980. Mike was able to hit everywhere he played, but he struggled when he got to the Majors. We speak with Mike about having to break into the lineup playing behind Andre Dawson, War...

Our guest this week was All-Everything out of the University of Tennessee before he entered the professional ranks.  Sam Ewing  hit .412 during his career at Tennessee garnering him All-American status. After competing in the World Amateur Games, he started his Major League baseball career. He was drafted by the Chicago White Sox and had stints with the parent club in 1973 and 1976. Sam was select...

Jim   Lyttle  joins us on the podcast this week.  Jim played in the Majors from 1969-1976. He then had a successful career in Japan from 1977-1983. Jim played with the Yankees during the CBS years (1969-1971), White Sox (1972), Expos (1973-1976) and Dodgers (1976). Jim discusses his career, what it was like fighting for playing time, and also playing for 4 teams then playing in Japan. He was a sol...

Dyar Miller  joins us this week. Dyar graduated from Utah State and was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1968 after he was not drafted. Dyar played from 1968-1984 with 7 of those years in the Majors (Baltimore, California, Toronto and the New York Mets). After switching to a relief pitcher in 1975, he posted a career record of 23-17 with a 3.23 ERA. After retiring as a player, Dyar stayed in...

Who was the last player to hit a home run in the original Yankee Stadium (1973) before the massive remodel? His name is  Duke   Sims  and he is our guest this week. Duke also had the privilege of catching one of the greatest pitching staffs in the history of the game, the 1968 Cleveland Indians staff which included "Sudden" Sam McDowell, Luis Tiant, Sonny Siebert, Stan Williams and Steve Hargan. D...

Mike Pau l joins us on the podcast this week. He came out of the University of Arizona and was drafted in the 20th round in 1967 by the Cleveland Indians. He was a part of arguably the best pitching staff in Major League history in the 1968 Cleveland Indians. Mike made it to the Majors quickly and had success. He played for the Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers and the Chicago Cubs and then finishe...

Ken Frailing passed away on August 25, 2022. We re-air this podcast in honor of him. Ken Frailing  is our guest this week. Ken pitched from 1966-1978 in the Minor Leagues and the Majors. Ken was very promising out of high school as he had a 13-0 record his senior season with an unbelievable 0.17 ERA. He played for the White Sox and Cubs organizations in his tenure and shares some fascinating stori...

Bart   Zeller  joins us this week. He was with the St. Louis Cardinals organization his entire career. Bart was a catcher and only appeared in one game with the parent club. So, you ask, why would you interview Bart Zeller? It's simple, Bart was the Cardinals insurance policy and worked with their great young staff which included the likes of Steve Carlton, Mike Torrez, Wayne Granger, and Reggie C...

Bill Melton passed away on December 5, 2024. We are re-airing this podcast in honor of him.  Who was the American League home run leader in 1971? If you do not know the answer, maybe "It is soo hot in Chicago that the third baseman is Melton" will jog your memory.  Bill   Melton  is our guest this week. Bill talks about his career and the many teammates he played with, including the late Dick Alle...

Eddie   Leon  is our guest this week.  He played in the Major Leagues from 1968-1975 with the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees.  His longest stint was in Cleveland where he teamed up with Jack Heidemann as one of the best double play combinations that few people knew about, as there were very few fans in attendance in Cleveland Municipal Stadium in those days.  Eddie playe...

Kevin Kobel joins us this week. Kevin came out of Athol Springs, NY which is south of Buffalo on Lake Erie. This is obviously not a good weather area for baseball, but Kevin earned his way to an 11th round draft pick by the Milwaukee Brewers in 1971. He had a fast track to the Majors and appeared in his first game in 1973. Kevin pitched in 1973-1974 and part of 1976 with Milwaukee. He ended up bei...