Back When There Was Baseball

Do you remember the Disco Demolition Night in 1979? If so, the crew chief of that event is our guest this week. His name is  Dave Phillips  and he was an umpire in the American League from 1971-2002. Dave recalls that event in Comiskey Park along with his ejection of Gaylord Perry for throwing an illegal pitch and other events in a long umpiring career. Sit back and enjoy Dave talk about the stori...

Don Money  joins us on the podcast this week. Don played in the Majors from 1968-1983. He started out in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization but got his break when he was traded to the Phillies. He was a shortstop in the organization but later moved to 3rd Base to make room for Larry Bowa. Don was traded at the end of the 1972 season to the Milwaukee Brewers where he finished his career. Don was a...

We are pleased to host one of the best relief pitchers in MLB history.  Jim Kern  joins us this week. He won the American League Rolaids Relief Man Award in 1979 and was one of the best relief pitchers in the history of the game until he suffered an arm injury. He was not highly touted out of high school but signed with Cleveland in 1968. He entered the Marine Corps in 1969, and we would like to t...

Two members of the PennSports.live family had fathers who played in the Minor Leagues and this episode will honor those fathers. My co-host, Steve Schaaf's father, Charles Dean Schaaf, played from 1955-1957 in the Baltimore Orioles organization. Tim Clark, host of Musings of a Sports Fanatic and Wall 2 Wall Football, had a father who played in the St. Louis Cardinals organization from 1949-1952. S...

Our guest this week is  Tom Carroll  who played most of his career in the Cincinnati Reds system.  Tom was a 6th round draft choice in 1970 out of North Allegheny High School in Wexford, PA.  He worked his way up the ladder as a pitcher and finally got his call up to the majors in 1974 at the age of 21.  When Don Gullett fractured his thumb in 1975, Tom was called up and was a major part in the Re...

Art Kusnyer  joins us this week. Art was a catcher and bounced around the Minor/Major Leagues from 1966-1979 with the Chicago White Sox, California Angels, Milwaukee Brewers and Kansas City Royals. He was a valuable part of a ball club as he knew how to handle pitchers. In 1980, he was offered the bullpen coaching position with the White Sox, which started his coaching career. He coached with the...

We are celebrating the Oakland A's dynasty (1972-1974) this week with our guest  Nancy   Finley . The A's won the World Series 3 consecutive years (1972-1974) and Nancy was a part of these seasons. Nancy is the daughter of GM Carl Finley and the niece of owner Charlie Finley. She shares stories about those years along with the rebuilding of the A's in the early 1980s. Nancy also wrote a book entit...

Wayne Causey joins us this week. Wayne was one of the "Bonus Babies" in the 1953-1957 rule, which meant that he had to be up with the parent club (Baltimore Orioles) for his first 2 years. After working his way up through the Minors after his first MLB stint, he was traded to the Kansas City Athletics before the 1961 season. His best years as an infielder were with the Kansas City A's in 1963-1964...

We have a rare treat for you this week. Our guest played with Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Ted Williams, Pete Rose, Frank Robinson, Tony Oliva, Harmon Killebrew and Rod Carew to name a few. His name is  Al   Worthington  and he pitched in the Majors from 1953-1969. He was in the dugout when Willie Mays made that great catch in the 1954 World Series and with the Giants when they moved from New York...

Leron   Lee  joins us this week as we take a look Back When There Was Baseball.  Leron played in the Majors from 1969-1976 with the Cardinals, Padres, Indians and Dodgers.  He then travelled to Japan and had a stellar career from 1977-1987.  Leron was the leading hitter in Japanese history until it was broken in early 2018 (he held that record for 31 years with a .320 batting average).  His best y...

American League Umpire,  Bill   Haller , passed away on August 20, 2022. We are re-airing this podcast conducted in 2020 as a tribute to Bill. Bill umpired in the American League for 21 years (1961, 1963-1982) and is considered one of the best umpires in MLB history. You can still see the iconic Earl Weaver "incident" on YouTube where Bill was mic'd for an upcoming documentary. We were very blesse...

Al Woods  joins us on the podcast this week. Al played in the Major/Minor leagues from 1973-1986 with the Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays. He debuted with the Blue Jays in 1977 as an outfielder. Al was a solid hitter and had several good years in MLB with 1980 being his best. We take the time machine back to the late 1970s through the mid-1980s,  Back When There Was Baseball , with our guest...

Pat Zachry passed away on April 4, 2024 at the age of 71. We re-air this podcast to honor him. Our guest this week is one of the winners of the 1976 National League Rookie of the Year award. That is correct, there were two that year and  Pat Zachry  was one of them. Pat pitched for the Cincinnati Reds when they won the 1976 World Series. He pitched in the Majors for 10 years, with a long stint in...

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....