1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 This is Retro Sports Radio. Visit RetroSeasons.com for more sports history. 2 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:17,000 From day to the Rocher de Rees, it's double play with De Rocher and Day. 3 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:22,000 With their guest Pee Wee Rees, here's another chapter of double play with De Rocher and Day. 4 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:34,000 Welcome to another visit with baseball's most exciting and controversial couple, Lorraine Day and Leo De Rocher, with their guest for today, Pee Wee Rees. Let's listen. 5 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:37,000 Well, the funny you sort of the Paul is saying. 6 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:46,000 Well, well, well, if it isn't like old times on the Brooklyn Dodgers, with our guest, the famous shortstop of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Pee Wee Rees. 7 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:54,000 And I'm sure all of you fans like Pee Wee just as much as we do, although Leo and I happen to be on the opposite side of the fence right now. 8 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:56,000 Tell me what were you fellas laughing at? 9 00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:58,000 Well, we were telling a few umpire stories. 10 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:00,000 Well, let me in on them. I like umpire stories. 11 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:06,000 Yes, from umpire stories to hidden ball tricks, we're going to run the gamut on double play today. 12 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:10,000 But now, time out. Let's hold everything for an important message. 13 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:20,000 And now back to Leo, Lorraine, and their guest for today, Pee Wee Rees, the famous shortstop of the Brooklyn Dodgers. 14 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:29,000 And Chris De Rocher, Leo and Lorraine's little four-year-old, who's been awaiting this visit anxiously because he too has a very important problem. 15 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:31,000 You want to hear what we were talking about, really? 16 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:32,000 Yeah. 17 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:35,000 Pee Wee, we may have to change a few of the words, but well, I think so. 18 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:39,000 Well, you don't have to change them for me. Just say them, uh, say blinkity-blank. 19 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:43,000 Oh, we used a few different words when we talked to those umpires after. 20 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:48,000 Oh, well, you know, I never have any trouble with umpires, Pee Wee. I just go up there and stop my calcium. 21 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:49,000 Well, I tell you, you're a changed man. 22 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:50,000 Oh, sure. 23 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:52,000 You used to have trouble when I was with you. 24 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:55,000 You know, Pee Wee, Jimmy Dyke told me that this happened to him on the ball club. 25 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:59,000 I don't see how a fellow could think this fast, but it seemed as though he was juiced. 26 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:07,000 His leadoff hitter was at the plate, and he took a close pitch when the count was three and two, and the umpire called him out. 27 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:14,000 He's at three and he's out. And there was the biggest rhubarb real quick, and the juiced dropped a bet, and he jumped at that umpire, and he was all over it. 28 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:19,000 By the time Dyke got there, he lost his shortstop and everything, and he run up to him and he said, 29 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:25,000 What did you put him out of the game for? He said, My shortstop's on the best ball player. What did you put him out for? 30 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:29,000 The umpire proceeded to tell Dyke what Juiced had said. 31 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:36,000 It seems as though Juiced had called him a number of things and called him a blind blankity-blank. 32 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:41,000 He dykes and turns to him and he says, Well, if you leave out the blind part, how wrong is he? 33 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:46,000 And of course you know what happened to Dyke. He got thrown out too. 34 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:51,000 Well, I'll tell you one that happened to me when I threw you out of the back when I first came up to the Dodgers. 35 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:52,000 Oh, excuse me, what dear? 36 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:53,000 Now? 37 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:56,000 No, no Chris, not now. Come back a little later, okay? 38 00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:58,000 What was you all saying? 39 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:06,000 Getting back to my baseball story, Leo, when I first came up to the Dodgers, I was kind of a quiet sort of boy, not like you, you know. 40 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:07,000 Just a minute now. 41 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:13,000 Anyway, I was hitting this particular day and I didn't know the umpire code, so the guy, the umpire was Phil Clamp. 42 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:19,000 He called a strike call me and I turned around and looked at him like this and you know, that's, that's, you should never do that with Clamp. 43 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:20,000 Oh, that's murder with Clamp. 44 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:25,000 So he said, Son, don't be looking around here. He says, That guy out there is fooling you, not me. 45 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:30,000 From here on out, buddy, I never turn around and look at those umpires anymore. 46 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:31,000 Oh, there's a lot of those guys. 47 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:38,000 Before you tell that story, can I ask you, if this is true, you had played the Yankees in spring training and they had beaten you, I guess, about four straight. 48 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:39,000 You never happened. 49 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:42,000 Oh, all right, three straight. 50 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:47,000 Well, anyway, the way the story goes, you were in this little southern town playing an exhibition game. 51 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:55,000 Well, and the fans were giving you a terrific sighting thing. Hey, hey, what about what the Yankees do to you? What the Yankees do to you? 52 00:03:55,000 --> 00:04:01,000 And if Larry gets it, Jake, Jake, why don't you turn around and yell, what did the Yankees do to you? 53 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:04,000 And then we'll all run. Did that really happen? 54 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:07,000 Yes, certainly did. And they weren't calling. What did the Yankees do to us? 55 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:08,000 What were they calling? 56 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:11,000 What did the Giants do? Oh, we were lucky. 57 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:13,000 We certainly were. 58 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:17,000 Oh, we were lucky. I mean, we had talent. Come on. 59 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:19,000 One swish of the bat, Pee-wee, and it was all over. 60 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:22,000 Well, we had to make it close. We played a little too close. 61 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:27,000 I guarantee you, you know, some of my players told me, they said, we had them, you know that old expression, Pee-wee? 62 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:28,000 We had them all the way. 63 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:33,000 We had them all the way. I said, I wish you'd let me know because it got awful tight. We couldn't have gone much further. 64 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:34,000 What about Bill Clem's story? 65 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:41,000 There's a Clem story, and this happened to me when I was playing. I was with the St. Louis Cardinals and Bill Clem was on the farm behind the plate. 66 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:50,000 And I was saying that if you ever hollered at Bill Clem and said, hey, Catfish, and he heard you, and you were a player, right now you were out of the game. 67 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:52,000 It was just something that you couldn't call Mr. Clem. 68 00:04:52,000 --> 00:05:00,000 This day there was some fan off behind home plate, and he kept hollering at Clem, hey, Catfish, Catfish, and Clem couldn't spot him. 69 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:07,000 So I was at the plate, going to take my turn at bat, and Clem brushed off the plate and he said to me, will you point that fellow out to me? 70 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:11,000 See if you can spot that gentleman that is calling me that name. 71 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:17,000 And as he stood up, brushed the plate off, I stood there and I looked and I said, he's right, and I noticed he wasn't starting to point. 72 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:21,000 He said, don't point you, blankety-blank-blank. 73 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:25,000 And I said, what are you getting on me for? He said, don't you numb skull. 74 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:29,000 So naturally I stood at the plate, and I queued you, one, two, three, and he says, you're out. 75 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:36,000 And I walked back to the bench, and as I get back to the bench I lift up, and he was walking over and had the police put that man out of the park. 76 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:42,000 That's twice I know that since I've been in baseball that when Clem was an umpire that EFN put out him. 77 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:44,000 You just couldn't call him. 78 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:45,000 Oh, no. 79 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:49,000 You were telling me a story once about Clem and McGraw. What was it? Was it McGraw? 80 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:55,000 Yeah, that's what it was. I think McGraw was hitting, because I heard this story. Of course I wasn't there. 81 00:05:55,000 --> 00:06:03,000 But anyhow, McGraw had, Clem had called two strikes on McGraw, and the third when he called it a ball. 82 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:10,000 So McGraw said, Clem says that was the same place the other two were. He said, well in that case you're out. 83 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:17,000 Well I guess we better get to these questions, and we'll never get them answered, although I could go on forever listening to these wonderful umpire stories. 84 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:18,000 This is from Bangor, Maine. 85 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:19,000 Meryl, mother. 86 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:22,000 No dear, come back a little later. Not now, Fritz. 87 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:23,000 What does he want to do? 88 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:27,000 Just a minute, dear. This one says, dear Lorraine, here's something I've always wondered. 89 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:34,000 How does an infielder get possession of the ball without the baserunner knowing it on the hidden ball play? Bob Forsythe. 90 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:36,000 Okay, you're an infielder. 91 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:42,000 But I'm not too much of a trick artist with the ball, but I have done it. I've worked it one time since I've been in the major leagues. 92 00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:44,000 And I suppose it's against the Giants? 93 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:48,000 No, it was. I wish it were. Oh, fine thing. 94 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:53,000 The way I did it, I took the ball in and just act like I put the ball in the pitcher's glove. 95 00:06:53,000 --> 00:07:00,000 Well, I didn't. I just didn't talk to the ball and I slipped it in the back of my glove, in between my palm and my glove. 96 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:06,000 And I walked back to my position and walked over to talk to the guy on second base until he started talking to me. 97 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:09,000 All of a sudden I had the ball and I said, buddy, you're out. 98 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:13,000 And the umpire called. Sometimes the umpire, you have to call the umpire's attention to it because even who the umpire is. 99 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:18,000 Yes, the umpires don't know you have the ball and if they don't see it, naturally they're not going to call him out. 100 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:21,000 I just don't remember, Pee Wee, who did it to us. 101 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:22,000 Nonny Ryan. 102 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:24,000 Nonny Ryan did it, but who was the player? 103 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:25,000 Lockman. 104 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:31,000 Was it Lockman? Yeah, and I know I was coaching too and they really gave it to me and I didn't know Ryan had the ball. 105 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:37,000 A coach should watch it because if the pitcher gets anywhere near the rubber, that's a ball. 106 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:41,000 He can't get up on that mound. He can't get in anywhere in the vicinity of the rubber. 107 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:44,000 A lot of times around the mound the pitcher will go and get the. 108 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:45,000 The rosin bag. 109 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:48,000 The rosin bag. It's shaped a little bit like a ball, you know. 110 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:52,000 He can put the rosin bag in his glove and you can fool a runner sometime like that. 111 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:54,000 But it's usually probably the coach's fault. 112 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:56,000 Sure, it's the coach's fault. 113 00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:58,000 He should have found the ball. 114 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:04,000 I can remember a game where the fans told you and you were coaching it there and they kept yelling, the ball, the ball, the ball. 115 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:05,000 I don't know which color was it. 116 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:07,000 Well, I've had it happen. I've had it happen where the fans have powered. 117 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:10,000 And finally you called time and you had to see where the ball was. 118 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:11,000 There's a lot of times you don't know where the ball is. 119 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:14,000 You'll be thinking of something else. Your mind's a million miles away. 120 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:17,000 You're thinking of the, well, I've got to get this run. I'm going to bother. I'm going to hit and run. 121 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:19,000 The first thing you're going to look up and your man's out. 122 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:23,000 And I would say it's quite embarrassing if you are the manager and you are coaching. 123 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:24,000 And the player. 124 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:27,000 Well, let's say it's embarrassing all the way around. 125 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:28,000 Yes, it is. 126 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:30,000 Well, let's go on to our second question from Topeka, Kansas. 127 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:32,000 Joe Rizdas, I think. 128 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:40,000 Would you ask some players if the athlete must maintain a strict conditioning schedule the year round or is it just during the playing season? 129 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:46,000 When I first came up with the Dodgers, Leo knows that I weighed about 150 pounds and I thought I would never get over 160. 130 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:51,000 But now then I weigh about 175, 180 strips and I have to watch my weight. 131 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:58,000 So I do. I ride a bicycle a lot in the wintertime and I work out with a basketball team and I live right across from the park. 132 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:01,000 And I go over there and I have a bird dog and I work out with that quite a bit. 133 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:04,000 So I do think that you have to watch your diet. 134 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:10,000 You have to watch what you eat in the wintertime and you have to keep your legs in shape because you build your legs up in the summertime. 135 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:14,000 You just completely let them go in the wintertime. Then you have to fill them back up again. 136 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:15,000 I think it takes something out of them. 137 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:18,000 You do play a lot of golf. You don't give a few weeks in the winter. 138 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:19,000 Oh yes, by the way. 139 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:23,000 You play a lot of golf and a real good golfer, by the way. What are you, a two-fee-wee or a three? 140 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:25,000 No, no. I'm about a five. 141 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:28,000 Oh, about a five. Well, that's one of those fives. A Louisville five. 142 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:29,000 He's a five. 143 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:36,000 Yes, he's really a two or a three. That's his correct handicap. But in Louisville, of course, they give him five and that makes it easy for him. 144 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:40,000 Well, speaking of golf, how about letting our sponsor tee up right now? 145 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:43,000 And now back to double play. 146 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:48,000 Well, back to baseball. I have a couple of letters here. I don't know if we're going to have time to answer both of them. 147 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:50,000 So keep your answers short, huh, Salas? 148 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:51,000 Go ahead. 149 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:58,000 All right. The first one says, dear double play, why is it that a manager, in order to be successful, apparently has to be unpopular with his players? 150 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:03,000 Of course, there are exceptions, but I'm thinking of McGraw, Southworth, Vitz, McCarthy, and men like that. 151 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:07,000 I don't think any manager can satisfy a 25-ball player. 152 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:13,000 Well, you can't satisfy a – I mean, it's awfully hard for one person working in an office of 10 to satisfy everyone. 153 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:20,000 That's right. I mean, the guy who's thinking he should be pitching and why aren't I pitching, why – he must not like me, and I'm a better player and this guy playing. 154 00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:22,000 I think it could happen on every club. 155 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:31,000 It sure – it certainly does, Peewee. There's no way that a manager can satisfy everyone, and you have to change your mode of living, your tactics and everything else the minute you become a manager. 156 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:41,000 You have to stop being real buddy-buddy with your players. You can be close to them and be very popular with them, I believe, but you just can't be as close to them as you were when you did play with them. 157 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:42,000 That's true. 158 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:48,000 You do the best you can, and you have to rub certain ones and kick certain ones to get the full amount out of everybody. 159 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:56,000 What about this? I'm only 5 feet, 6 inches, and weigh 145 pounds, but want to play professional baseball. Please let me know if I have a chance or is my size against me. 160 00:10:56,000 --> 00:11:05,000 When Peewee first joined the Brooklyn Ball Club the first year that I was over there, he looked like he belonged in one of the high schools. He looked like a little bitty boy. 161 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:06,000 Probably played like. 162 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:14,000 No, and all I know is this, but I took one look at him and I said, that's all. I hit him a few ground balls and I knew that my glove was about to be hung up and left there. 163 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:21,000 And I don't think you have to be a big fella or anything else. I don't think size enters into it. 164 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:26,000 I know, Peewee, we can name some players for you that'll prove it. 165 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:34,000 Well, I don't like to mention another league, but we can name a player with the Yankees that's not exactly a big strapping fella, but he does a fair job over there. 166 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:36,000 Short stuff, I would say. 167 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:39,000 But you usually try and have a very tall fella thing first, don't you? 168 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:42,000 Well, not necessarily. It's better if you can. 169 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:47,000 We had Camelli. He was many taller than I. Of course, he's a lot broader, but he was about 5'10". 170 00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:50,000 What about a catcher? Can a little guy catch? 171 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:56,000 Well, I would say a big guy again because a catcher takes a lot of punishment back. 172 00:11:56,000 --> 00:12:00,000 And you want a nice big target too. I'd rather have big men behind the play. 173 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:03,000 Can you please show me how to play marbles? 174 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:08,000 Peewee, ever since Chris heard that you were coming over, I promised him that you would show him how to play marbles. 175 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:12,000 I'd love to, Chris. You sit right over here and I'll show you. 176 00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:16,000 You know, this is how Peewee got his name. He used to be the champion marble player. 177 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:21,000 Where's Chris? I want you to get this marble out so you can get it out. Can you get one of them out? 178 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:24,000 Let's see how you hold it now. 179 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:26,000 No, that's wrong. 180 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:28,000 Well, I guess we're going to have to quit talking about baseball now. 181 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:30,000 It looks like we have a marble lesson coming up. 182 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:57,000 So see you next week, same time, same station. So long.