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 Dey to DeRosha to DeMaggio, it's double play with DeRosha and Dey. 3 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:23,000 With our guest Joe DeMaggio, here's another chapter of double play with DeRosha and Dey. 4 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:31,000 Welcome to another visit with baseball's most exciting and controversial couple, 5 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:36,000 Lorraine Dey and Leo DeRosha. With our guest for today, Joe DeMaggio. 6 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:41,000 So many of you have written to us asking us to have Joe DeMaggio as our guest on the show. 7 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:46,000 And we're going to have Joe DeMaggio, but you know, he's retired now. 8 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:50,000 But we'll have him as our guest just as soon as I can wake him up. 9 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:56,000 Joe. Hey. Joe. Joe. 10 00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:01,000 Lorraine, I know if Joe joins our audience in listening to this message, he'll be wide awake. 11 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:12,000 And now back to Leo and Lorraine and that very famous retired Yankee, Jolton Joe DeMaggio. 12 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:16,000 Hi there baseball fans. Welcome to another chapter of double play. 13 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:20,000 Lorraine. Well you're really taking this retirement seriously aren't you? 14 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:23,000 Oh I certainly am. You know I've been laying in that apartment and I don't have to go to the ballpark anymore. 15 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:26,000 I feel wonderful. No more aches and pains. 16 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:30,000 I'll bet you there's one fellow who's glad you're retired and that's your brother Dom. 17 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:32,000 Well why do you say that Lorraine? 18 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:36,000 Well I would just sort of imagine Joe that it's pretty tough to be a ball player and grow up in, 19 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:39,000 I mean play ball in the shadow of such a famous brother. 20 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:44,000 Nobody ever really notices you because your brother's so famous and such a great center fielder. 21 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:47,000 Well he certainly is famous but I... 22 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:49,000 I'm talking about you! 23 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:53,000 This is a very strange thing because Dom did tell me two years ago, he said, 24 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:58,000 why don't you quit this game? He said I'd like to get my name and all the columnists writing about me for a change. 25 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:04,000 He certainly has done that because he's leading the league now I see and I only hope that he continues to do that. 26 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:10,000 I was talking to Mrs. McCarthy and I said, when Joe was managing didn't you ever second guess him the way I second guessed Leo? 27 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:15,000 She says, well it seems that every time he came in the house the thing I said to him was, 28 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:18,000 why didn't you walk to Maggio? 29 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:24,000 Well she asked me that too Joe. She asked me that in the last word, you know, how come you didn't walk to Maggio? 30 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:30,000 I said, why was I going to put him? I said, he just, you know, after all you just rip one of the seats for us, that was all. 31 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:34,000 Well Leo, you know up there in Boston, my gosh, that left field wall up there, 32 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:40,000 I'd hate to be a pitcher out there or I'd hate to be managing the club and find you at the plate at that short left field wall and ball. 33 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:43,000 I don't know how much you'd have hit if you'd have had a park like that to play in Joe. 34 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:50,000 Well I don't know about that Leo, all I can say is in 1951 there during our World Series with you, I went 0 for 11 if you recall. 35 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:57,000 If you went 1 for 90 it wouldn't make any difference. I know that when you walk up to that plate that the pitcher has to be very careful. 36 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:01,000 If he made a mistake we knew we were gone. You're the one that worried my staff the most, I'll tell you that. 37 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:05,000 Well your staff is no exception, but let's get to these letters that we have. 38 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:06,000 That's pretty fresh. 39 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:11,000 I'm sorry but we have to answer letters on this show. We get so many asking questions and when we do have a guest like Joe, 40 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:14,000 why we have to ask these questions that only Joe can answer. 41 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:15,000 Go ahead. 42 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:20,000 For instance I have a couple of letters here. One is from John Robb in Wall Lake, Michigan and he says, 43 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:26,000 I've read so many sports writers who insist that Casey Stengel's style of managing is unorthodox. 44 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:33,000 If it is, it certainly seems to work, but I want to know if this is true. Is his style of managing unorthodox? 45 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:37,000 Well I would say so. His style is very unorthodox. He's a type of fellow of the manager. 46 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:44,000 You know when he has 25 men which is the limit that you have on the bench or the roster, he uses every one of them. 47 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:46,000 Is he funny on the bench by the way? 48 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:47,000 Well he certainly is. 49 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:48,000 He's so much off the bench. 50 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:55,000 I could recall one of the days over there sitting on the bench just recently and he was walking up and down the bench 51 00:03:55,000 --> 00:04:01,000 and a play happened out there on left field and it was one of those appeal plays and he was walking around 52 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:05,000 talking to all the umpires and they couldn't get anything or he couldn't get anything out of them. 53 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:09,000 So he comes storming into the bench and he came over to me. I was minding my own business, 54 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:13,000 smoking a cigarette way off by the stairs and he says, Joe, what about that play? 55 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,000 And I says, well I don't know. I haven't ever read a real book in my life. 56 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:21,000 Maybe he wants you to go out there and see if you can straight the umpires out. 57 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:27,000 Well speaking of managers, do you think we could manage to let our sponsor get a word in right here? 58 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:37,000 And now back to Double Play with Leo DeRosha and Lorraine Day and their guest for today, Joe DiMaggio. 59 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:40,000 Here's a question you might like to answer, Joe. 60 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:45,000 It says, what do you think the famous players of maybe just a few years ago think of the bonus system? 61 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:49,000 And that is asked by John Welch of Akron, Ohio. 62 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:56,000 The best way I could answer that, Lorraine, is that I don't really approve of the bonus. 63 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:59,000 Of course I'd like to see the boys get as much money as possible. 64 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:02,000 But on the other hand, I don't think it helps their playing any now. 65 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:09,000 I could think back about Antonelli when he was signed with Boston for something like $75,000 66 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:14,000 and he had to stay with the team. In other words, they couldn't send him down back to the minor leagues. 67 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:18,000 I think not only it hurt him because he couldn't pitch, he was a green boy, 68 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:20,000 but it also hurt the ball club. 69 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:25,000 So I'd like to have the boy that starts off picking him out of the sandlot and playing minor league ball, 70 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:28,000 get his two or three years experience, then bring him up to the major leagues. 71 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:29,000 And I think he's just about ready. 72 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:36,000 Have there been many very famous bonus players who have succeeded and become big stars? 73 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:41,000 Well, there's been a few. I mean, Roberts of the Philadelphia Club and Simmons, 74 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:47,000 I think those are the two best bonus players that have been in baseball in quite some time. 75 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:50,000 And they have very little experience, both of them. 76 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:55,000 But I think that before they were signed as bonus players, they played with strong semi-pro clubs. 77 00:05:55,000 --> 00:06:01,000 But the kids that this gentleman is referring to, the kids that come out of school, 78 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:05,000 Joe is so right about it, you put them on a major league ball club, 79 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:10,000 you give them a fantastic figure of $65,000 or $75,000 or whatever the amount may be for signing. 80 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:13,000 Now you've got to keep them a year on your club. 81 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:14,000 Hasn't that rule been changed? 82 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:17,000 It has been changed, but you handicapped the manager in the past, 83 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:20,000 you've handicapped the manager that he's now got this kid. 84 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:22,000 He can't pitch him, he can't play him. 85 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:27,000 If he does, he may lose an important ball game that may cost him the pennant, 86 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:29,000 and the kid sits idle all summer long. 87 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:32,000 Whereas if he, as Joe says, comes right out of the sandlot, 88 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:36,000 a rough, tough kid that wants to play ball and is interested in making a great career out of it, 89 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:41,000 he wants to play in a minor league club and make a record for himself and be brought up slowly. 90 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:49,000 Maybe Mr. Welch means how does the established star say who is getting a salary of $50,000 and who is a star? 91 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:53,000 And it is so important to his club, how does he feel about a young kid coming in 92 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:58,000 and getting $75,000 or $100,000 just to sign and is of no help? 93 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:05,000 We've had players in every spring, they've always referred to so-and-so that you gave $30,000 to, 94 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:11,000 and now I'm looking for a $3,000 raise and I played 140 games and hit 340 or hit 310, 95 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:15,000 and I can't get it, you're quivering about it, and you're willing to give this kid, 96 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:21,000 well there has been arguments like that, and I can see where you do have controversy about it 97 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:24,000 from a manager's standpoint and an owner's standpoint. 98 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:26,000 Maybe Joe has a different answer for it. 99 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:31,000 No, I go along with that, Leo, because I remember, of course, I recall some of the boys 100 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:34,000 being around the clubhouse and talking about it, and they had great years, 101 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:38,000 and they had a tough time getting a $2,000 to $5,000 raise when they hadn't given a kid 102 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:41,000 who hadn't proven himself something like $60,000 to $100,000. 103 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:46,000 Well, just think how the Pittsburgh ball club may feel, how the players must feel, rather, 104 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:52,000 to get a kid like this Pettit who got $100,000, and you take a player on the club who, 105 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:56,000 we'll say, had a mediocre year that's playing for maybe $6,000 or $7,000, 106 00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:58,000 there's a lot of talk around the clubhouse about that, 107 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:03,000 and that can cause a lot of dissension on your ball club, I believe. 108 00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:06,000 Well, I know that Joe, when Joe started out, did you know this, Leo, 109 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:08,000 that Joe started out as a shortstop? 110 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:09,000 Yes, I did. 111 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:10,000 Did you, Leo? 112 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:13,000 No, I didn't know that. I was amazed. I really am sorry. 113 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:14,000 You did? 114 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:18,000 I did. I played with San Francisco the first three ball games that I had played with them. 115 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:24,000 It was the last three games of the 1932 season, and I have, I think, an all-time record, Leo. 116 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:28,000 I've handled 11 chances, but not cleanly. All errors. 117 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:32,000 Oh, no. So that makes you not feel there immediately. 118 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:37,000 Well, you know, Joe, that's a funny thing. It's a funny thing how great players go into one position. 119 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:41,000 I can recall with the St. Louis Cardinals when Frankie Frisch was the manager, 120 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:44,000 you know, he never played shortstop. Oh, he was a great second baseman, 121 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:47,000 and he'd come right out of college, in fact, into Major League Baseball. 122 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:50,000 And I remember one day in Cincinnati, oh, this is a number of years ago, 123 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:55,000 we had him beaten, I don't know what the score was, by 10 or 11 runs in the last inning, 124 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:59,000 of a doubleheader who was tremendously hot, well over 100, 125 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:03,000 and I said to Frank, you know, he wasn't playing the second game, I said, 126 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:05,000 finish up for me, William, all in. 127 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:09,000 And I think the first five balls hit the first year shortstop, went right through his legs, 128 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:13,000 he never picked up a one-up. And he came in the clubhouse, and he just jumped up and down, 129 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:16,000 he said, don't you ever ask to be taken out of the ball game again. 130 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:18,000 So that ended his career as a shortstop, too. 131 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:22,000 Well, it's lucky you could pick him up, because, boy, if they had to depend on that bat of yours, 132 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:23,000 you would still be on it. 133 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:27,000 Now, I cry all the time when you get the people on the show that you criticize, my hitting. 134 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:31,000 Oh, honey, let's face it, 220. 135 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:35,000 Listen, fine guy, I'm going to ask you, what's the fine guy to have on the show? 136 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:36,000 I didn't say 220. 137 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:37,000 Well, it makes me feel good. 138 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:42,000 Joe, let me ask one question, Joe. My lifetime average, I think, is 238. 139 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:44,000 I'm not sure, what is your lifetime average, Joe? 140 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:48,000 My lifetime average is just half the ceiling record book the other day, 325. 141 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:49,000 Let's forget, that'll go on. 142 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:51,000 I don't know anything more about that show. 143 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:53,000 You do this to me every show. 144 00:09:53,000 --> 00:10:01,000 Well, you know, Joe, I think one of the most memorable quotes to make a tribute to you 145 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:07,000 is in 1949 when the fans gave you a day when you said, thank God for making me a Yankee. 146 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:12,000 Well, I kind of felt that way at the time, and it was really a nice tribute 147 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:17,000 because of the people that were out there and the Yankee organization asking my mother and family 148 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:20,000 to come to make the trip just for that one occasion. 149 00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:26,000 And of course, that's during the time that I was sick, and I was of course pent up with emotion myself, 150 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:28,000 so something like that came out of me. 151 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:31,000 I quite didn't understand it, but I actually felt that way, 152 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:34,000 and I really felt what I said were really my feelings. 153 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:38,000 There wasn't a dry eye in the Yankee Stadium, I understand, when you said that. 154 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:42,000 And we asked a question on one of our shows that when the fans give a player a day, 155 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:48,000 it seems that they usually have an off day, that they can't seem to do anything very well on that particular day. 156 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:49,000 Was that true in your case? 157 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:55,000 No, I got a base hit that day with the Maron 1st and 2nd, and kept the rally going. 158 00:10:55,000 --> 00:10:57,000 It had gone over to a drop, and just came into relief. 159 00:10:57,000 --> 00:11:01,000 They were leading 4-0, and I hit the first pitch right through the mound for a base hit, 160 00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:07,000 because he knocked it down, and we did load up the bases and went on to get four runs that inning. 161 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:14,000 But the rest of the day, of course, I could say the next day, I hit a ball the right field. 162 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:17,000 They were all playing me in left field because I had lost 18 pounds. 163 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:21,000 So I had pneumonia and various pneumonia, and they were all playing me in left field, 164 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:24,000 and I dropped a couple in the right field. 165 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:29,000 I know one thing, Joe, you've come back after being sick, and there's just something about it, Joe. 166 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:30,000 I don't know what it is. 167 00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:33,000 A great player just takes a club and brings it along. 168 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:40,000 I don't know, Joe, maybe this is a funny thing to say, but how about coming out of retirement? 169 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:45,000 You know, I can use a center fielder, and you know, isn't there some way we can work this around 170 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:47,000 so we could just play a little bit? 171 00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:52,000 Well, it's nice of you to say that, Leo, but you know, I'm still obligated to the Yankees for some reason. 172 00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:55,000 Oh, the Yankees could get along without you for one year. 173 00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:57,000 Joe, let us have you one year. 174 00:11:57,000 --> 00:12:00,000 Yes, I'd like to look at the man you're going to the plate for me. 175 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:03,000 Besides, who's going to carry me out the outfield? Who's going to bring me in? 176 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:07,000 I'll be your caddie, Joe. I'll be your caddie. I'll get you out and get you back. 177 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:11,000 Well, with that, we'll let you go right back into retirement, Joe. 178 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:13,000 Okay, Lorraine. See you, Leo. 179 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:15,000 There he goes. 180 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:18,000 Oh, right on. Back to rest. 181 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:43,000 Sorry, we have to go to a salon.