Back When There Was Baseball

Mike Garman is our guest this week. Mike pitched in the Majors from 1969-1978 and was the 3rd overall pick out of the 1967 MLB Draft by the Boston Red Sox. He pitched for the Red Sox, Cardinals, Cubs, Dodgers and Expos in his career. Mike shares a story about how he and Bill Buckner were traded for each other and they were notified while they were both hunting together. He also saved the wild Dodg...

We are fortunate to have Tad Myre as our guest this week. Tad wrote the SABR article on Ron Hunt. Ron passed away on July 15, 2026, at the age of 85. He played from 1963-1974 in the Majors with the New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Montreal Expos and St. Louis Cardinals. Ron was noted for leading the league in hit by pitches. He was quite a character and could play most inf...

Ernie Camacho joins us on the podcast this week. Ernie signed with the Oakland A's after being drafted in the 1st round of the 1976 June Draft out of Hartwell College. Ernie was a hard thrower and pitched in the Minor/Major Leagues from 1976-1990. His best season was with the Cleveland Indians in 1984 as he appeared in 69 games and finished with 23 saves. He also pitched very well for the San Fran...

Rick Bladt joins us on the show this week. Rick played in the Major/Minor Leagues from 1966-1977. He was a non-drafted free agent in 1966 signed by the Chicago Cubs. He played parts of 2 seasons in the Majors with the Chicago Cubs in 1969 and the New York Yankees in 1975. Rick had solid stats in the Minor Leagues, and you have to wonder what his career could have been had he been given an opportun...

Steve Luebber  joins us this week. Steve played in the Major/Minor Leagues from 1967-1988. He made his Major League debut with the Minnesota Twins in 1971 and had stints with the Twins in 1971, 1972 and 1976 as both a relief pitcher and a starter. Steve had some really good years at the AAA level but didn't get much of a chance to pitch in the Majors. He also coached for a significant amount of ti...

Former Major League pitcher  Randy McGilberry  joins us this week. Randy was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in 1975 out of Louisiana Tech University. He made it up to the Big Leagues in 1977-1978 as a relief pitcher. This was in the middle of the Royals' 3-year playoff run facing the New York Yankees in the A.L. Championship series (1976-1978). He was taken off the roster in the 1978 playoffs f...

Former Major League manager  Jack McKeon joins us this week. Jack signed his first contract in 1949 and played several years in the Minor Leagues but never made it to the Majors as a player. He started his managing career in the Minor Leagues in the 1950s and what a career it was. He is the only manager that won 1,000 games in both the Major and Minor Leagues. Jack built the Kansas City Royals, wh...

Our guest this week is the 1965 National League Rookie of the Year. His name is  Jim Lefebvre and he played with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1965-1972 then continued his career in Japan for four more years. Jim also managed the Mariners, Cubs and Brewers as well as the Chinese National Team. He has some great insight into his playing and managing days both in the states and Far East, and the comp...

Jim York  joins us on the podcast this week. Jim had a storied road to his signing with the Kansas City Royals. He started his college career at Cerritos Junior College and the team went 40-0. He then migrated to UCLA before he was drafted by the Royals in 1969. He played in the Big Leagues from 1969-1976. He had a good year with Kansas City in 1971, then was traded to the Houston Astros and Jim d...

Willie Lozado  joins us on the podcast this week. Willie played his high school baseball in Brooklyn, NY, then migrated to Miami Dade College. He was signed as a non-drafted free agent by the Milwaukee Brewers on December 3, 1978. Willie talks extensively about coming up through the Minor Leagues. The Brewers had a solid infield with Cecil Cooper at 1B, Jim Gantner at 2B, Robin Yount at SS and Pau...

Pete LaCock  joins us this week on the podcast. Pete went to William Howard Taft Charter High School in Woodland Hills, CA surrounded by Hollywood stars as his father, Peter Marshall, was the host of the legendary game show Hollywood Squares. He was drafted in the 1st round of the 1970 MLB January Draft by the Chicago Cubs. Pete debuted with the Cubs in 1972 and played for them through the 1976 se...

We are blessed to have one of the greatest pitching coaches of all time with us this week.  Leo Mazzone  joins us to talk about his career as a pitching coach and how he was able to keep the Atlanta Braves in contention each year with his stable of pitchers. In the 1990s it was Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz along with a 4th pitcher throughout the decade. He talks about not only the top...

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...