1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 This is Retro Sports Radio. Visit RetroSeasons.com for more sports history. 2 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:17,000 From Day to DeRosier to Keiner, it's double play with DeRosier and Day. 3 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:24,000 With our guests Ralph Keiner and Nancy Chafee, here's another chapter of double play with DeRosier and Day. 4 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:34,000 Welcome to another visit with baseball's most exciting and controversial couple, Lorraine Day and Leo DeRosier, 5 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:39,000 with their guests for today, Ralph Keiner and his lovely wife Nancy Chafee. 6 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:45,000 And now Leo is about to meet one of his guests, Nancy Chafee, who seems very impressed and says, 7 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:48,000 Oh, you're the man that they call the All-American Out. 8 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:53,000 Oh, great. Well, that tore it. I'm sure Leo will have something to say about this. 9 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:56,000 But first, this message. 10 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:05,000 And now back to double play with Leo DeRosier and Lorraine Day and their guests, Ralph Keiner and Nancy Chafee. 11 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:08,000 Hi there, everyone. This is Lorraine Day. 12 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:14,000 Baseball leads into some mighty hot sessions with some of the famous personalities we'd like you to meet on our program. 13 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:23,000 Guests like Casey Stengel, Ralph Keiner and Nancy Chafee, Duke Snyder, Bob Lemon, and on and on. 14 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:29,000 And I'm here to represent you fans because, well, because I'm a baseball fan myself. 15 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:36,000 I eat baseball, I sleep baseball, I dream baseball, and I get a lecture about baseball every morning for breakfast. 16 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:38,000 So I should be qualified. 17 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:44,000 But right now, we want you to meet two wonderful people, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Keiner. 18 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:46,000 Tell me, Leo, have you ever played tennis? 19 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:47,000 No, I never have, Nancy. 20 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:50,000 Well, I'd like to show you how to hold the racket. You see, you put your hand this way. 21 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:58,000 Oh, no, Leo. Isn't it tough enough being a baseball wife in the summer and a golf widow in the winter without my having to worry about tennis? 22 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:02,000 I only wish I had this thing when I was playing baseball. Maybe I'd have hit more than 220. 23 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:07,000 Look, Ralph, I've never seen a ballplayer hold a bat the way you do. 24 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:11,000 And there's two grips I think you use. I'd like to see one of them. I have a golf club here, Ralph. 25 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:14,000 Could I see the way you hold a golf club? 26 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:17,000 What stance you want, my good stance or my 11-handed stance? 27 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:19,000 Well, I'll take the good one, Ralph. 28 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:21,000 Well, this is about the way I do it. 29 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:26,000 Now, look, look, girls, look where he has the finger on that golf club. That is what is known as a golf grip. 30 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:28,000 Now, let me see that bat here. I want to show you something. 31 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:30,000 Show me something. 32 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:32,000 And show me the same, the way you hold a bat, Ralph. 33 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:37,000 I change a little bit, Leo, because I don't overlap, of course, but I hold my hands about the same position. 34 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:42,000 Well, why? Now, what I want to know is this. Why do you have your fingers so high up on the bat? 35 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:46,000 Well, it's comfortable in one respect to me. I like it that way. My hands feel right on the bat. 36 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:49,000 And the other reason is I get more bat coverage with my hands. 37 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:54,000 In other words, Ty Cobb used to split his hands like this to get more bat control. 38 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:59,000 Well, I get the same amount of bat control by turning my hands this way, and it feels better. 39 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:01,000 I wish some of my hitters had learned to use a bat like that. 40 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:03,000 Well, come on, let me see your 220 grip. 41 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:08,000 I want to ask you something. Was that 220? Does that mean you're batting average, or is that your weight? 42 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:10,000 You and your... 43 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:14,000 Leo wasn't such a bad hitter. Why, he hit 400 one year. 44 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:16,000 Yeah, 200 left-handed and 200 right-handed. 45 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:18,000 Yeah, I didn't know you were a switch hitter. 46 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:19,000 Come on, let's get out of here. 47 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:20,000 Ralph, I mean, I... 48 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:21,000 You got to getting up. 49 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:26,000 I don't think that Ralph has told you that it's no bed of roses to be the wife of a baseball player. 50 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:28,000 I don't know anything about it, because this is my first season. 51 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:36,000 Oh, I feel so sorry for you. You just wait until Ralph gets into a hitting slump, or until he strikes out with men on base. 52 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:43,000 Well, I've seen him strike out before. In fact, one game in Pittsburgh, I don't remember who the Pirates were playing, but he struck out three times. 53 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:46,000 And then the fourth time he came up, I looked at this friend of mine and I said, 54 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:50,000 gee, if he had only hit a pop fly, now that shows how much I know. 55 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:52,000 I know nothing about baseball. 56 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:54,000 You thought it would make him feel better. 57 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:57,000 Well, anything but the swing and the miss all the time. That's terrible. 58 00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:00,000 Of course, he gets a lot of home runs, too. 59 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:04,000 Oh, sure. That makes up for it. I know I get a little nervous every time Ralph comes to the plate. 60 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:06,000 So do I. But differently, I think. 61 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:08,000 You're protecting your husband's team. 62 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:10,000 Yes, and you're rooting for yours. 63 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:11,000 Yes, that's so right. 64 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:15,000 Well, you know, we had a slump of losing 11 games straight in a row. 65 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:23,000 Well, I want to tell you that during that slump, I became acquainted with more wrestling holes, because Leo would never go out. 66 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:28,000 You know, it never goes out when we lose. So we have to sit and the only thing he'll watch on television is wrestling. 67 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:31,000 I don't know why all of a sudden, but oh, I can do all these things. 68 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:36,000 Really? Imagine the night that I'd sit home if we never went out when the pirates lost. 69 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:41,000 Well, that's wonderful. You don't have to worry about the whole team is different being a player's wife, 70 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:43,000 because you're only concerned with that particular player. 71 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:48,000 But being a manager's wife, you've got every player on your mind and everything every player does, 72 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:50,000 so we stay home and watch television. 73 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:52,000 Were you interested in baseball before you married Liam? 74 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:56,000 Oh, no, and it was so pleasant. It was just wonderful. I went along smiling all the time. 75 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:58,000 I could read the newspapers without worrying about that. 76 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:03,000 Come on, Ralph. Let's get in here and break this up. You know how it is when baseball wives get together. 77 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:04,000 What happened? 78 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:05,000 She just knew it when she started like that. 79 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:07,000 What happens when baseball wives get together? 80 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:13,000 Well, I'm telling you, Nancy, you know, a few years ago, the Chicago White Sox had a rule. 81 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:17,000 The players could not bring their wives, even their automobiles. 82 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:19,000 What do you mean, even their automobiles? 83 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:21,000 Well, I'd rather have my automobile, wouldn't you? 84 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:23,000 Oh, Ralph! You're a hero. 85 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:24,000 Well, now why, Neil? 86 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:29,000 Well, they just wouldn't let them do that because they didn't think that they paid enough attention to baseball. 87 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:36,000 And I know it's, I've read it in the paper that the Philadelphia Phillies are not going to allow their players to have their wives in spring training camp. 88 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:40,000 Well, I asked Mr. Ashburn about that and I said why, and he said, 89 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:45,000 well, the year that they won the pennant, wives weren't allowed in spring training. 90 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:48,000 And so they're just sort of superstitious. They think they'll win it this year, but... 91 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:54,000 That superstition doesn't go too well, you know. Sometimes, I used to wear the same suit all the time, the ballpark, if I got a hit that day, 92 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:56,000 but I found out that you have to swing the bat, too, you know. 93 00:05:56,000 --> 00:05:58,000 The suit doesn't win it for you? 94 00:05:58,000 --> 00:05:59,000 Not a bit. You've got to swing the bat. 95 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:06,000 Well, you know, Rob, we were in Santa Domingo and this was in 1947 when Leo was managing the Dodgers. 96 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:07,000 That's right. 97 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:08,000 And we could tell them. 98 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:17,000 Well, in 1947, we had a rule also. We were over there at Ciudad Trigil and Mr. Ricky, your present boss, Ralph, had made a rule. 99 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:18,000 A bow to the South now? 100 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:25,000 Oh, you bow, really bow. And he made a rule that we couldn't have any of our wives over there in spring training camp. 101 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:32,000 And Pete Reeser, formerly of your ball club, had his wife come over there and actually paid all our expenses and she lived at another hotel. 102 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:36,000 But still it caused a big, what we call in baseball, a rhubarb. 103 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:41,000 And there was a lot of dissension and finally Mr. Ricky sent Pete Reeser and his wife back to Barrow Beach. 104 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:48,000 Ralph, it wasn't that they didn't like baseball wives. It was because there were only so many rooms allotted to the Brooklyn Dodgers for spring training. 105 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:52,000 They still had to take care of their tourists and they just didn't have room. 106 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:55,000 Well, I think that the wives are good for a ball player in spring training camp. 107 00:06:55,000 --> 00:07:00,000 They're settled down. They have someone to be with in the evening. They have dinner with them. They go to the picture shows. 108 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:05,000 And I think they're more settled and they just don't have to worry about writing home every night. 109 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:09,000 They have their wife with them and I think they're much more contented and they're happier. 110 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:13,000 Well, what I hear about most of the trouble caused by baseball wives is in the stands. 111 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:17,000 Now I don't know about it because I don't happen to sit with baseball wives. 112 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:19,000 This is for you, dear. 113 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:20,000 Your first lesson. 114 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:22,000 Well, for instance, well. 115 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:30,000 Yes. Well, for instance, any pitcher's wife is sitting next to any infielder's wife and maybe the infielder makes an error and it costs the pitcher the game. 116 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:36,000 Well, I understand that in the heat of the moment that possibly the pitcher's wife would turn to the infielder's wife and say, 117 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:41,000 well, if only your husband could learn to pick up the ball, my husband wouldn't lose this game and now you're in trouble. 118 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:42,000 What do you think will happen to you then? 119 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:43,000 What will happen to the ball players? 120 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:47,000 I don't know. I think I'm going to sit home and listen to it on the radio. 121 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:50,000 See, now there we go. That's how wives get into trouble. 122 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:52,000 I won't say a word. I never get nervous when he goes to bed. 123 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:53,000 What do you mean you won't say a word? 124 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:55,000 I mean with the other baseball players. 125 00:07:55,000 --> 00:08:00,000 Let me ask you something, Ralph. If I may interrupt here about baseball, how does it feel to be a tennis husband? 126 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:06,000 Say, this sounds like it's going to be mighty interesting, but before we get started on it, here's something else that's interesting. 127 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:12,000 And now, what was that question again, Leo? 128 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:14,000 How does it feel to be a tennis husband? 129 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:16,000 You know, it's one of the worst feelings in the world. 130 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:20,000 I get up in the morning and she isn't around. She's out in the tennis court practicing tennis. 131 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:22,000 So I have to cook my own breakfast. 132 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:24,000 Oh, you poor boy. 133 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:29,000 I know by the time I want to get my golf clubs out and go out and play golf, I haven't got a car and the golf clubs are in the back of the car. 134 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:32,000 So this goes on all day and I have a tough time. 135 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:42,000 Well, what is this I hear, Ralph, that you may be going on a few tours with your wife, Nancy, on some tournament tennis. Is that so? 136 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:48,000 Well, I don't know, Leo. That's kind of a, well, I should do it. Actually, I beat her, you know. I can beat her all the time. 137 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:49,000 Oh, that's just your idea. 138 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:50,000 Hey, this is where you go. 139 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:53,000 This is what happened. He said, I'll put you in the game. 140 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:54,000 How'd you make out? 141 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:55,000 Beat the wire. 142 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:56,000 How'd you make out? 143 00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:57,000 That's the final score that counts. 144 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:02,000 Oh, but this is different. We played and he said, I'm going to serve every game. 145 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:05,000 So he served every game and beat me 6-3. 146 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:12,000 So that's the same thing as if you had played a baseball game and the same team hit every half inning or inning or whatever you call it. 147 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:14,000 I never served the ball. 148 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:17,000 Do you think that you would have beaten Ralph if you had a chance to serve? 149 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:18,000 He has no chance. 150 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:19,000 How can you say that, honey? 151 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:26,000 Do you feel that tennis interferes at all in any way with baseball because I've heard this argument about golf and baseball. 152 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:27,000 Well, they give you these arguments. 153 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:33,000 Joe Cronin, who was probably one of the greatest shortstop's that ever played baseball, took up tennis to learn how to hit. 154 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:38,000 And he said that the movement from hitting a tennis ball is very similar to getting your hips and everything out of the way to hit a baseball. 155 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:41,000 And he says that it actually helps his hitting. 156 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:46,000 So I think that any sport that you do play, it has to help you in other sports. 157 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:50,000 It teaches you coordination, gives you timing, and you use it later on in anything else you do. 158 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:59,000 Yes, but what about golf? Now, I've heard you in these little off-the-record chats saying that you don't believe that ballplayers should play golf during the season. 159 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:03,000 Now, I say that ballplayers shouldn't play golf, dear, on the day that they're playing baseball. 160 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:08,000 I say that if you have an off day and a fellow wants to go out and play golf, I think it's an altogether different game. 161 00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:11,000 The ball is standing still and you have to hit it with the club. 162 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:15,000 And baseball, the ball is moving, and it's an altogether different thing. 163 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:19,000 But I think that the rhythm and the timing in golf and in baseball are practically the same. 164 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:25,000 And I don't see where it hurts a ballplayer that goes out and plays a game of golf on an off day. 165 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:31,000 The only thing that I don't want my players to do is to play golf, like, on a day when you're playing a night game. 166 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:34,000 That, I think, tires them out, and I don't think it's good for them. 167 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:42,000 But I do think that golf is all right, and I certainly haven't seen any ill effects as far as my club is concerned. 168 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:46,000 I think that you're right when the fact that if you do play, it does worry you out before a ballgame. 169 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:51,000 I don't play, well, last season I hadn't played a game from March until the season is over. 170 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:55,000 I just completely quit during the season, and after the season is over, I take it up and play it all winter. 171 00:10:55,000 --> 00:10:56,000 It keeps your coordination. 172 00:10:56,000 --> 00:10:58,000 And you, it gives you something to do. 173 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:01,000 You're walking at least six or seven miles a day the way I play. 174 00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:02,000 It's about nine miles a day. 175 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:03,000 I wish some of the day, Dr. 176 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:08,000 I wish some of the day that you played my club, I wish that you played golf that day. 177 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:10,000 Before you came out to the park. 178 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:13,000 Before you came out to the ballpark, because many of us, oh, yes, it is, Dr. 179 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:14,000 He wants you to have a good time. 180 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:16,000 One thing about being a manager, you got to put up with all that stuff. 181 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:18,000 I wouldn't want to be a manager at all. That's terrible. 182 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:20,000 I don't want to be a manager's wife, either. 183 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:22,000 But why? What's wrong with being a baseball manager's wife? 184 00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:25,000 Look, in the first place, you get the second guessing. 185 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:26,000 That's just the most wonderful thing. 186 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:28,000 That's the worst part of it all. You shouldn't second guess. 187 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:31,000 But why not? The paper's second guessing all the time. 188 00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:33,000 Yeah, but he's got to have the first guess, and that's it. 189 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:34,000 I mean, that second guessing stuff is... 190 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:35,000 But I'm dying to get out of here. 191 00:11:35,000 --> 00:11:37,000 Oh, I got to get out of here. You can't get a word in with these girls. 192 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:39,000 I mean, they're worse than umpires. 193 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:45,000 Well, I see that our time's about up, folks, and don't forget to write now. So long. 194 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:57,000 You've been listening to another chapter of Double Play with baseball's most exciting couple, Lorraine Day and Leo DeRosier. 195 00:11:57,000 --> 00:12:02,000 Today, Lorraine and Leo had as their guests, Ralph Keiner and Nancy Chaffey. 196 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:04,000 Join us when again it's time for... 197 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:09,000 Double Play with Leo DeRosier and Lorraine Day plus another big-time guest star. 198 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:36,000 Double Play is produced by Marty Martin, directed by Ted Nealon, and is a MarTed production.