Back When There Was Baseball

This week's guest is  Jack   Hiatt .  Jack was a Major League catcher for 9 seasons, mainly with the San Francisco Giants. He broke into the Majors for the Los Angeles Angels in 1964. The Angels were in their 3rd season as an expansion franchise that year and they finished with a record of 82-80, which was unheard of for an expansion team during that time-period. Jack was traded to the San Francis...

We look back at the 1969 "Miracle Mets" this week with our guest  Rod   Gaspar .  Rod was the starting right fielder at the beginning of the season replacing Art Shamsky who was injured.  The Mets were 5 games behind the NL East leading Chicago Cubs on September 1 and made a furious run for the NL East crown down the stretch.  This was the first year of Divisional Playoffs and the Mets had to face...

Greg Harris  is our guest this week and is noted for pitching ambidextrously, which he accomplished in 1995 with the Montreal Expos. He pitched in the Majors from 1981-1995. Greg was not only a "jack of all trades" as a pitcher but was a decent hitter as well. Greg pitched for many ball clubs and was very effective.  In 1995 he got his chance to pitch from "both sides of the mound". Greg created a...

Jack DiLauro passed away on December 7, 2024.  We re-air this podcast in honor of him: Who has the New York Mets' 3rd best ERA with over 50 innings pitched with the club?  His name is  Jack DiLauro and he joins us this week.  Jack was a part of the 1969 "Miracle Mets" pitching staff.  He did not pitch in the postseason that year, however his 2.40 ERA helped the Mets get there.  Jack only played 2...

There was a commercial in the 1970s for Rolaids (antacid relief) which went viral: How do you spell relief? R-O-L-A-I-D-S. In 1976, Rolaids sponsored the Rolaids Relief Man awarded to the best relief pitcher in Major League Baseball. Our guest this week altered the commercial slogan which went, How do you spell relief: T-O-M-H-U-M-E.  Tom Hume  pitched in the Majors from 1977-1987. In the late 197...

Our guest this week is  Ron   Reed .  Ron is one of only 13 athletes to play in the NBA and also Major League Baseball.  He played for the Detroit Pistons for 3 years, coming out of Notre Dame, before deciding to focus on baseball.  Ron was a starting pitcher for the Atlanta Braves from 1966-1975.  After finishing up the 1975 season with the St. Louis Cardinals, he was traded to the Philadelphia P...

Mark Littell passed away on September 5, 2022.  We re-air this podcast in honor of him: Our guest this week is  Mark   Littell , relief pitcher with the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals from the mid-1970s through the early 1980s.  Mark was involved in several great moments in baseball history.  He is unfortunately recognized as the pitcher who gave up the home run to Chris Chambliss in G...

Our guest this week on  Back When There Was Baseball  is the 1972 National League Rookie of the Year, pitcher Jon Matlack. Jon was a member of the 1973 New York Mets which made it to the World Series. He started four games in the 1973 postseason with an outstanding ERA. He pitched in both the National and American Leagues during his career. Jon Matlack is one of those pitchers who will surprise yo...

The 1975 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox was voted as the best World Series in history. There is only one umpire remaining from that series and he is our guest this week on  Back When There Was Baseball .  Larry   Barnett  joins us and he talks about his storied career. Larry umpired from 1969-1999 which totaled 4,281 games. He umpired 4 All-Star games, 7 ALCS and 4 Wor...

Join us as we go  Back When There Was Baseball  to the 1970s and 1980s with our guest,  Johnny Grubb . Johnny played in the Majors from 1972-1987 with the San Diego Padres, Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers and Detroit Tigers. He was signed out of Florida State University and got to the Big Leagues in his 2nd season. Johnny hit .311 in his first full season with the Padres (1973). He was a solid pl...

Eric Soderholm  joins us this week. Eric played in the Majors from 1971-1980 with the Minnesota Twins, Chicago White Sox, Texas Rangers and New York Yankees. He had a career batting average of .264 with 102 home runs and 383 RBIs. Eric was a solid player at 3rd base for every team he played for. He had to sit out the 1976 season with a knee injury which led him to be a Designated Hitter in the lat...

Lenn Sakata  joins us on the podcast this week. Lenn was the 2nd Asian American to play Major League Baseball and his career spanned from 1977-1987. He was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers but played most of his career with the Baltimore Orioles. He was instrumental in the 1983 regular season which led to the Orioles World Series win over the Philadelphia Phillies. Lenn could play multiple positio...

Eric Raich  joins us this week. Eric played his college baseball at USC coming out of Compton, CA. He was involved in the middle of that great Rod Dedeaux run at Southern Cal where they won the National Championship in 1968 and from 1970-1974. Eric was drafted 1st overall in the 1972 MLB January Draft by the Cleveland Indians. He was a big pitcher standing at 6'4" and weighing between 240-250 lbs....

Former long-time Phillies broadcaster  Chris   Wheeler  joins us this week.  "Wheels" was behind the mic for 37 years of Phillies baseball which included their only 2 World Series championships (1980 and 2008).  The Phillies have only appeared in 7 World Series and Chris was a part of 5 of those events.  Wheels shares a lot of great stories from his time with the Phillies, which started in 1977, a...

We celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ten Cent Beer Night which occurred on June 4, 1974, in Cleveland. The game featured the visiting Texas Rangers, with manager Billy Martin, up against the home Cleveland Indians. Our guests are Steve Foucault and Tom Grieve who played for the Rangers, and Jack Brohamer and Dick Bosman who played with Cleveland. This was a promotion that went wrong. Streaking, wo...

We are privileged to host one of the best catchers in MLB during the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s.  Jim Sundberg  joins us to talk about his career. He came out of the University of Iowa and was told by a scout that he was not very good. That "insult" propelled Jim to become the best catcher he could be, and what a successful adventure that was. Jim played 16 seasons in the Majors (1974-1989) w...

We look back at the great Baltimore Orioles teams from 1969-1971 with our guest this week.  Eddie   Watt  was a valuable member of the Orioles pitching staff. He was a right-handed stopper coming out of the bullpen during those years with outstanding numbers. He had an ERA under 2.00 in 1969 and 1971. He also was 15-10 during those 3 years (1969-1971) which is outstanding for a relief pitcher. Edd...

We take a look back this week into the mid-1970s through the late 1980s with one of the best relief pitchers of that era.  Kent   "Teke" Tekulve  joins us to discuss his career which spanned from 1974-1989. He talks about how he was signed by the Pirates on a somewhat fluke situation. Teke had 3 years where he appeared in 90 games or more, with the final one happening when he was 40 years old as t...

We look back to the 1980s this week with our guest  Bob   Dernier . Bob started in the Phillies organization (1980-1983), then finished his career in Philadelphia (1988-1989). His career took off when he was dealt to the Chicago Cubs (1984-1987) where he was their leadoff man/center fielder. He led off the bottom of the 1st inning of Game 1 in the NL Playoffs (1984) with a home run against the San...

We have  Barry   Foote as our guest on the podcast this week. Barry was signed out of high school in North Carolina by the Montreal Expos. He had the privilege of playing for Gene Mauch while being the Expos starting catcher from 1974-1976. Barry was traded to the Phillies and was part of their NLCS run in 1977-1978. He then became a starter with the Cubs and later played with the Yankees during t...

We look back to the late 1960s to the early 1970s this week with former MLB pitcher  George   Culver .  George pitched in the Big Leagues from 1966-1974 with many teams and some great pitching staffs.  He was part of the great staff in Cleveland in 1967, Cincinnati in 1968/1969 and the Astros in the early 1970s.  George had a no-hitter in 1968 against the Phillies when he was with Cincinnati.  Tak...

Our guest this week was headed for the MLB Hall of Fame before a tragic injury curtailed his career. Listen as  Dickie Thon talks about coming into the Majors with the California Angels before being traded to the Houston Astros. He thrived in Houston before he was hit in the head with a pitch by Mike Torrez on April 8, 1984. Dickie played the rest of his career with impaired vision, which is unrea...

Our guest this week is former MLB relief pitcher  Steve   Foucault .  Steve is a very interesting subject in the fact that he became a relief pitcher in the Major Leagues but hadn't pitched since his Little League days.  Steve also never started a game in his minor or major league career.  He played in the Big Leagues from 1973-1978 with the Texas Rangers, Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals.  S...

Former MLB pitcher  Bill   Krueger  joins us this week on the podcast. Bill pitched from 1983-1995 with various ball clubs. This tall left-hander has a nice career record of 68-66 with a 4.35 ERA. Bill has a unique story as to how he started his MLB career after playing both basketball and baseball for the University of Portland. Bill went into broadcasting after his MLB career and covers the Seat...

We are pleased to have  Randy   Lerch  as our guest this week on the podcast. It is an honor for Rex as he was in the stands on September 30, 1978, when Randy started against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Three Rivers Stadium. Randy not only picked up the win on the mound, but he hit two home runs to lead the Phillies to clinching the N.L. East. He talks about that game along with his trials and tribu...