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This is Retro Sports Radio. Visit RetroSeasons.com for more sports history.

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If I may, I'd like to reminisce a little bit about the 1954 Giant Ball Club, which everyone has asked me,

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Leo, what has been your greatest thrill in the game today? And they all point, and they can with great pride, I do,

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to the home run that Bobby Thompson hit in 51 in the playoff game that won the National League pennant for us.

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That wasn't my greatest thrill, gentlemen. That was a shock. I didn't breathe for five minutes, I'm sure.

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That was a shock. It happened so sudden, I didn't know what happened, really.

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I think the greatest thrill I've ever had in the game was the 1954 season.

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And if I may, I'd like to reminisce a little bit about it and tell you something about the players

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and something about myself. Now, you've read hundreds of times in the newspapers,

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I read it until I got sick of looking at it, that DeRosha is a genius.

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He's the greatest manager in the game today. Oh, DeRosha's this. They've had it all over, all over the country,

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how great DeRosha is. Let me tell you something, gentlemen. 16 managers, put them all together.

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You can't separate them by a millionth of an inch. They all know the game just as well as the other fellow does.

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One may play it a little different. One may hit and run when the other fellow would play by the book and bunt.

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You may operate your club a little differently, but they all know the game.

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And I've always said this, and I always will say it. If you don't have the players, gentlemen, you may just as well go home.

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The players make the manager. Now, let me prove that point to you.

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Robin Roberts, the finest pitcher we have in the game today. Throw aspirin tablets, gentlemen.

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When he gets in trouble, just reaches down and pulls up his pants. And I want to tell you something.

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He can fire. That ball just comes up there and it looks like it's going straight and it just gets up there and it just jumps.

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He can fire and thread the eye of a needle. Oh, man, how he can pitch.

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He's just the greatest pitcher you ever looked at. And I've sent Rhodes up to hit against Roberts.

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And Roberts just wind up right, oh man, just wind up in a tough spot and fire that ball and Rhodes at swing and just miss it that far.

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One, two, three, and he's out. And come back on the bench and he'll just put the bat down and I'm waiting for him to explode.

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I know it's impossible for this fellow to sit down without saying something.

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So he just mumbled to himself, I must be losing my sight. Must be going blind. Let that busher get you out.

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This is just the greatest pitcher in the game now he's talking about.

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Finally, he can't stand it any longer. He gets up right in front of the dugout and he hollers real loud.

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He's done it. I've heard him do it a dozen times. Go warm up you busher. How do you ever get anybody out?

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Roberts, you know, just looks at him and he's nuts. He looks like a thug, wears his hat on the side.

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But believe me, gentlemen, you need one of them just like Rhodes on your ball club. You need a buffoon.

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You need a fellow like that to take the tension off.

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Now I'd like to say just a couple of words about Willie Mays, the center fielder.

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Everybody said, gee, was, you know, DeRosha made Willie Mays. DeRosha did this.

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Gentlemen, I have yet to tell Willie Mays one thing from the day he joined me and the day I left.

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I have yet to tell him or show him one thing about baseball.

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The man upstairs, the good Lord gave Willie Mays all the things that are necessary to become,

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in my opinion, he's got a chance to become one of the finest players we've ever seen.

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There's only five things you can do, gentlemen, to be great.

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And that's hit and hit with power, run, field and throw. That's all you can do in baseball.

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DiMaggio does all five of them. He did it like Walter off a duck's back and he was great.

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Mr. Mays can do all five. Instinctively, he has something about him.

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He does the right thing at the right time.

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And in the first game of the World Series, when he made that catch,

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when the ball was hit by words, I said immediately when the ball was hit,

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if it stays in the park, you'll catch it.

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I just saw Willie turn and when he turned and took the second look at it

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and then just took right out. Now how he does it, I'll never know, gentlemen.

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Why don't he run when the ball is coming down here? Why isn't Mays over here or over here?

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He is never in the wrong place.

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It's the hardest thing to do, to turn your back, completely turn your back on the ball

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and take out and run for maybe 30 yards.

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And then all of a sudden, like a ballet dancer, just bend back and catch the ball

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coming down over your head.

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Most players have to look, get a peek at it over their shoulder.

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Mays doesn't. He runs back and like a ballet dancer, stops, catches the ball.

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And when he made this catch in the first ball game,

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there must have been a hundred or more newspaper men from all over the world in the clubhouse

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and they said, Leo, wasn't that a great catch?

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And I looked at him and I said, routine.

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And they give me the big dog eye, you know, and I said, I'm on, I'm serious about it.

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I've seen them make 20 catches better than that.

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I said, he's right over there. Why don't you go ask him? Don't ask me.

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So they troops over and they said, Willie, how do you compare that catch with others you made?

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He just looked at him and said, I don't compare them. I catch them.