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Ernie, you've seen so many great players and moments in your 55 years in the booth from
Jackie Robinson stealing home on your very first broadcast to Bobby Thompson shot her
around the world to Willie May's debut with the Giants in 51. There are a few others though
that help shape baseball history, aren't there? For example, Nolan Ryan had 7-0 hitters and
you were there for one of them. Oh yeah, that was a great moment. Nolan Ryan pitched a no-hitter
against the Tigers and not only pitched a great no-hit game, but he almost broke the strikeout
record and I think as a broadcaster I was concentrating as much on the strikeout record as
I was a no-hit performance. In the ninth inning, two out, nobody on, one out to go for Nolan.
Then Norman Cash comes to bat and he is sent back to the bench by the umpire. His bat is illegal.
He comes up to bat with a new bat, pops to shortstop. Nolan gets his no-hitter and I asked
Norman after the game, I said, Norman, why was that bat illegal? What happened? He said,
well Ernie, we weren't hitting the guy and I certainly wasn't going to get a hit off him.
So I went in the clubhouse and I got a leg off the table and took it up there to bat against him.
Well here's a very important last half of the ninth inning coming up. Nolan Ryan on the
verge of setting baseball in history. He is only three outs away from a no-hit shutout against
the Tigers and he is only three strikeouts away from setting the all-time major league record in
strikeout. Cash is struck out twice and bounce the second. One more out and Ryan has a no-hitter.
It'll be the second no-hitter pitched against the Tigers this year. Norman getting a new bat
and I believe that's going to be tossed out. Luciano does not want him to use that bat.
Been ruled illegal by the play dumpire. Oh Norman gets a new bat. There are two down in the
ninth inning. Ryan cannot tie the major league strikeout record. He can tie Bob Fellows America
league record of 18 and the pitch to cash is a ball. Oh a curve ball breaking in only one strike
away from tying the American League strikeout record by Bob Feller. Here's the wind up. He pitches
swing and a pop fly back in the left field going back. He's there. Ryan has his no-hitter but he
does not tie the strikeout record. He is mobbed by his angel teammates as he comes off the mound and
it is a no-hit victory for the young man from Texas Nolan Ryan. Ernie one event that took the
nation by storm was Hank Aaron's chase of Babe Ruth's career home run record. Being in the
American League and not in the national during the time that was going on what were your perceptions
of Hank Aaron's pursuit. I was rooting for Hank to break babes record but I tell you it was a tough
thing for Hank because he got a lot of abuse about it. A lot of people felt like the babe should
always be the home run king and I think maybe you know in a lot of people's minds he'll remain the
home run king but Henry Aaron got a lot of abuse that he did not deserve and he went through with
it and I think did a tremendous job to keep his focus on baseball and finally break the record of
Babe Ruth. Henry Aaron in the second inning walked and scored. He's sitting on 7 14.
Here's the pitch by downing swinging. There's a drive into left center field. That ball is gonna be
out of here. It's gone. It's 7 15. There's a new home run champion of all time and it's Henry Aaron. The fireworks are going.
Henry Aaron is coming around third. His teammate at home plate and listen to this crowd.
The crowd is cheering. Henry Aaron the home run king of all time. You've had the opportunity to call
baseball games that featured a lot of future Hall of Famers. How about Yogi Barrow? Yogi Barrow was one
of the smartest guys ever met in baseball. A great friend and I really love the Yogi like everybody
does and I was with him on the veterans committee and he came to that committee well prepared about
the other players that we're gonna vote on. He had great insight and I think his sayings are full of
wisdom. You know he says it in a different way but he's a very wise wise man. I guess he's Yogi
Barrow. Yogi what about all these stories now we hear all these Yogi Barrow stories and some of them
are true some of Mark. How did all that get started? Well I don't know I think when I go to the
bank was always mention my name on it you know Yogi said this Yogi said that. I guess the one you
could really get the truth on is Joe Gargiard because you know we grew up with him. We know each
other a long time he got pretty good idea. Well Yogi if you said all those things they say you said
you wouldn't be doing anything we're talking all your life would you? You're not kidding that's
the truth. I don't know sometimes I say you know home my kids and my wife I'll say something they'll
say there's another one. What did I say you know and all that but but usually I don't I didn't say
all them things. Some are true and like you said some are false. What do you think Yogi Barrow
would have done if he hadn't been a big league ball player? My gosh I couldn't tell you. I know I
worked in the shoe factory when I was a kid before I started playing ball. Maybe I might have still
been in the shoe factory. Now you've been a player you've been a coach you've been a manager which
is the most fun in the big leagues playing? Playing is the best fun. Well coaching is too you know
you know you see these kids you know if you get some good ones you know make you happy and everything
and I enjoy this my 41st year now and I still enjoy it I think if I didn't want to do I don't
have to do it but I like it I can't wait till spring training comes along. What's the kick out of
coaching see young kids develop is that it? You know help out the catchers young catchers and
everything and it is it is good you know to see some young kids come along. Yogi what's the most
important thing a young catcher has to learn when he comes to the big leagues? Boy if they I know
it they're hard to find now I know that we're looking for one over there ourselves and I don't
know I think the kids just don't want to do it no more they think it's a lot more hard enough for
it and I always try to tell us the best position to play you have a lot of fun you get to talk to
everybody up there and you're in the game more and everything we have one kid over here a kid
named Greg Bijou we just signed on a seed and haul I don't know if you see him today but he
really wants to play he's really got a lot of life and he takes choice for a young kid. What's
the secret of throwing for a catcher getting the ball off quick? Well I get I see a lot of
catchers today aren't they well I can't show it to you on here they seem like they catch the ball
first and then they throw it I always like to go up for the ball like an infielder did I say and
throw it because you get you know like an infielder you know I like to move on my right foot first
into the ball and then you put something on it you get a lot of the catchers they they catch it and
then they throw it throw like a lot of flat foot and everything they do all their movement after
they catch the ball instead of doing it while the ball's in flight mm-hmm a lot of them think
they say well the hitter is going to hit me you know if I start moving right and I try to teach
you won't get hit I let him swing and I tell you won't you won't hit me sure and but it's it's tough
to do some of them I don't know like Dickie when he got a hold of me my gosh he worked my butt off
every day every day so you get used to you know I used to go home after work out and stand in front
of a mirror mm-hmm to work on my footwork you know just to see how I was doing well it paid off for
you I loved it I want everything to build a gentleman who pitched in Detroit Jim Bunning Jim
Bunning was a great guy I like Jim he was a very smart guy one of the first proponents of the
baseball union one of the strong proponents of it and he was a fine pitcher also and was later
traded to Philadelphia where he pitched the perfect game against the New York Mets and then later on
as everybody knows he was elected to Congress from Kentucky and then after being a congressman he
moved over to the Senate and has been a very influential guy I got a sort of a kick out of Jim's
testimony when they had the big test about drugs and baseball and he made this epic speech about
cheating and baseball people should not cheat but I remember a game in Baltimore where he was scratching
the ball on his belt buckle and Billy Hitchcock the Baltimore manager collected about 10 or 12
baseballs went to the umpire and said this guy is cheating but they didn't do anything about it but
that's part of the game I think and I certainly excuse the senator for that sometimes it's all a
matter of perspective now some players have had careers interrupted by military service others
more tragically and the first one that comes to mind is Roberto Clemente Roberto was a great guy he
got his 3000th hit in the final year of his career and then that December the big disaster hit down
in Nicaragua and he wanted to help from his native Puerto Rico and he was sending supplies down
there collecting them getting money for the folks who had been hit by this disaster and he
wasn't too satisfied because they were draining off some of the money so he got on the plane himself
helped load the plane got on it and it took off and got no farther than a couple of hundred yards
before it fell into the ocean and Clemente gave his life for that cause so he did a lot more than
just played baseball but he was a sort of a misunderstood guy he was a guy that the Dodgers
had signed and hidden away but then when Branch Rickey went to Pittsburgh he knew about Clemente
and got him back into the spotlight signed him for Pittsburgh then he made his great hall of fame
career there holder of the longest consecutive game hitting streak in baseball history the Yankee
Clipper Joe DiMaggio certainly was one of the superstars of baseball he had the celebrity
status of a rock star and he had so much pressure put on him that he hit away from people and a lot
of people thought he was different and cool but I found him after I got to know him and he got to
know me a little bit that he was a quite warm and very responsive I did an interview with him and
he talked about some of those great pressures put on him by the public and the celebrity that he had
on the road for instance during the streak why we're pretty much left alone my roommate was
Gomez and because he did a great job of screening things and it wasn't the fault of the fans as
much as they were well-wishers and at times they'd come knocking on a board on the door about two
or three o'clock in the morning you know I'm just wanting an autograph to say hello or things of
that sort and because we had other people that want to go I want you to go to banquets or lunches
and breakfasts you know all those kind of things and I would have to say that was the pressure now
the thing that I did to escape most of all of that was to come to the ballpark about four
hours early so there was nobody at the park at that time and I just hung around the ballpark well
is it true that when you were coming to the park in Cleveland on the day the streak was broken that
the cab driver said that he thought the streak would be broken I thought all that stuff was
forgotten but I guess it's so true that's the truth and I was riding along with Gomez at the
time and Gomez jumped all over me he just had the feeling he says he turned around he says Joe
he says I just have a feeling that tonight is gonna be the night that they're gonna break your
streak and Gomez I could recall just jumped all over him you know and he kind of felt miserable
about it because he told me later on he says you know he said that bothered me throughout
that whole ball game and then the streak was broken but you started the brand new one didn't
you and that is correct but I must give a little credit there where it's due and I think more
the great third basements is the one that really stopped it Kenny Calder who made two fantastic
plays and I think only a man like him who played along the line that made the long throw is just
nipping me bang bang just so like that you know but they had to come to one end at one time and
then there were a couple of guys whose last name began with G Charlie Garinger and Hank Green
Berg Charlie Garinger was one of the real heroes of the Detroit baseball the mechanical man they
called him there's so many great stories about Charlie I think one of the best that I like to
relate is the fact he's the only Hall of Famer who did not attend his induction ceremonies because
when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame it was the same year that he had decided to marry
his wife Joe and he had settled on a date it was going to be out in California arranged by
Marv Owen and his wife so they'd set this date and it happened to be that when the Hall of Fame
elected Charlie they picked the same date for the induction so Charlie decided it was more
important to get married than it was to be inducted into the Hall of Fame of course he was inducted
anyway but he just wasn't there but they used to say that he was a silent guy he was a great
personality a good storyteller and a wonderful person and then Greenberg Hank Greenberg was a
true hero in Detroit he was extra special because he fought prejudice just like Jackie Robinson
did later on and Hank went into the service twice not once in the World War two and gave a lot of
his years that he could have been playing baseball to Uncle Sam he was a great slugger he missed out
in the World Series in 35 because he broke his wrist in one of the first two games he didn't play
from then on and the Tigers suffered because of that but he also had a key home run when the Tigers
won the pennant in 1945 against the St. Louis Browns when he first came out of the service and
then was one of the heroes of the 45 victory now you didn't broadcast any of the games this
gentleman played in because he went into the Hall of Fame in 1942 but how about the Raja
Rogers horns me I think I remember him best the managing in Cincinnati he had a very different
way of removing a pitcher when he won't take the pitch out of the game he just looked down
on the bullpen and give a wave with his left arm he wouldn't even go out to get the ball and he
didn't allow food he didn't allow anybody to drink water anything else in the clubhouse but he also
had a great proclivity for the horses he loved the horses and he had his own tout to travel with
the team when he was managing a Baltimore in the international league but he was all baseball and
you could sit there and talk for hours about baseball but if you started another subject he'd
say forget it and walk away from you Bob Gibson one of the fiercest competitors that baseball
is ever known he invented the glare I guess didn't he he was he certainly did Bob and he was Mr.
intimidation there was nobody that he would knock down and he didn't even want to put up with his
teammates you know one of the guys I forgotten who it was came over to say something to him and
he said the only thing you know about pitching is you can't hit it get back to your position and
he was a mean guy when he was on the field but a very intelligent guy and a great pitcher and when
you knew him off the field he was a terrific guy but when he was in uniform he was a great
competitor comparable to Don Newcomb and we talked about absolutely Don Drysdale with the Dodgers
they were all brushed back they'd stick it in your ear if you gave them a chance they do it
they as they say knock down their grandmother if they had to trying for number 16 right now against
cash to break the record makes you set position the developers here's the pitch
another great innovation for Gibson setting the new World Series mark 16 strikeouts in the game
two down of an Anthony Horton the batter how do you compare or contrast them to say the finesse of
sandy cofax I think cofax had so much natural ability he really didn't have to be as mean as
competitive as that he was a good competitor no question about it but I don't think he really
had to brush back guys so much because his fastball was so effective that people probably had a sense
of fear to some degree when they went up there anyway and he was just so good he mastered control
after rather slow start in the big leagues but he learned control and once he got that fastball
and his other pitches under control he was invincible one of the nicest people you'll ever
meet and probably one of the most unassuming superstars you will ever find I think so and
something that really doesn't go along usually with the big winner we usually think about the
mean guys and the competitors but he was just as you described him it is 946 p.m.
two and two to harby keen one strike away sandy into his windup here's the pitch
prince howell newhauser prince howell what a guy he was a young guy that was pitching a pro ball
when he was in high school actually during the wartime with the tigers and he had a great fast
ball a lot of good curves and he just blew down the opposition no question about that and there
was a canard against the newhauser for a while among the voters for the baseball hall of fame that
he was a wartime pitcher but he did a lot of winning when the guys came back you had a lot
of great ballplayers in 46 47 and new house was still a brilliant pitcher in that time and I think
he was one of Detroit's great heroes he had number six on his back and st. louis on the front of his
uniform Stanley visual stand the man what a guy one of the most personable fellows you'll ever meet
he always went out of his way to be a gentleman I've been on cruises with Stan and his wife and
but we went on a cruise from new york on the qe2 down into the caribbean and we hit some rough
weather around Cape Hatteras a lot of people got sick brookes Robinson's family got sick and Stan
got sick and we got to st. Thomas he said forget it I'm flying back to st. louis he got off the
ship and went home he had a great batting stance and when I worked in brooklyn all the brooklyn fans
loved Stan they were the ones that gave him the nickname the man and you'd go to st. louis and
right on the team bus maybe from the train station past sandlot baseball games and every kid you saw
had to stand museal stance if you were a milwaukee braves fan it was spawn insane and pray for rain
yeah all the warren he was a great left hander warren spawn won more games than any other left
hand pitcher he was a fabulous pitcher who really got his start a little bit late because he'd been
in the service he was in the battle of the bulge and Casey stingle made a drastic mistake when
he was managing warren spawn before the war warren was in spring training and casey wanted to move
a guy back from the plate with a fastball and he didn't do it and casey said well you know if you
don't have guts enough to do that you're going back to the miners so they sent him back to the
miners and here's a guy came to be a great war hero in the battle of the bulge a little mistake
of identity there I think this man's baseball trading card is the most valuable in all the land
honus Wagner you know all honus of course despite rumors to the contrary I did not see honus wag
the play but I knew all honus because when I was in the dodgers we'd go into Pittsburgh and
honus would sit on the bench and I love to sit there with him and he'd chewed him back and he'd
tell these terrible jokes you know that everybody would laugh at in respect of the great honus
Wagner because he was a very old man at that time but they said that he was a greatest shortstop of
all time at least throughout most of baseball some of those opinions might have changed now but
we said that you could roll a barrel through those bow legs but you couldn't get a ground ball through
they said that no one would ever own the Boston Red Sox fans like the splendid splinter Ted Williams
did the man who came the closest though Gerolya Stromsky yes sir triple crown winner great guy
and he could hit and field and do everything had a great spirit too and he was an interesting
personality he was a bear down guy but I like Carl a lot got along good with him I knew his father
father had been a potato farmer out on Long Island outside of New York Carl sort of came up the hard
way but he made the hall of fame and certainly deserve it and like you said Bob there's no question
that he's one of the real icons at Fenway Park well Ernie with all the athletes that you've had
the privilege of seeing there've been a lot of teams that have accomplished a lot of things
but is there one that stands out among all the rest that you would consider maybe your
top team of your seven decades I think my top team would be the Yankees of 1961 and I think
what made the Yankees so good was they had great depth and they had good pitching Whitey Ford was
a bellwether the staff but what I remember about them is that they had three catchers
Elston Howard Johnny Blanchard and Yogi Berra and all three of those guys could catch play first base
or left field and I don't know how many home runs they had among them but it was a whole bunch of
home runs plus the Yankees just had a good team they knew how to play the game they had great
defense and they had heavy hitting and I'd have to say the 61 Yankees would be my best team
I've got a picture that was taken of the Yankee dugout and I think it was right before
one of the World Series games because it had the starting line up that day with Skyron Richardson
Kubeck who was third base Boyer was third base you're right um Elston Howard
Mickey Mantle Roger Maris and the picture that day was Art Dittmer and Art gave you the picture
yeah and and also Casey standing there but he's in a in a shirt and tie no good yeah great and
Terry Ralph Terry was on that but the art pits that day so it was made of that day started by
that great and he autographed for me and gave it to Ernie we've talked about the influence that
Paul Richards had on you and the other managers of the teams that you've worked for let's go back
and talk for just a second and maybe you can give us a little inside to some of these guys that you
had a especially close relationship with how about Bert Schotten? Bert Schotten was a fellow from
Bartow, Florida he was a fisherman he loved the fish he played ball in the National League played
with the Cardinals and some other clubs and he was very close to Branch Rickey when Leo DeRosha
was suspended by the commissioner Rickey called his old pal down there in Bartow to come on up
and manage the Dodgers and he came up in 47 and stayed through 48 Leo came back and eventually went
over to the Giants but Bert Schotten was a very laid-back guy one of the few managers that did
not wear uniform he'd wear pair slacks and he'd wear a Dodger jacket and he lived at the same
hotel I did the Bossett Hotel when I broke in with the Dodgers in 1948 and I used to
ride out to the ballpark with him after I got started with the Dodgers usually with Bert and
with the relief pitcher Hugh Casey and he was a very wonderful gentleman he didn't get excited one
way or the other you get on the train after the game it might be a very tough loss or it might be
a brilliant victory and you really couldn't tell the difference by the manner of demeanor of Bert
Schotten. Now you also had the opportunity in Detroit of working with two managers who had made
their name possibly with other teams a guy who still owns the Major League record for being
fired the most times by the same owner the Brad Billy Martin. Yeah Billy Martin was quite a guy
Billy came into the Tigers he'd debounced around a little bit he'd been a great player and he'd
managed it Minnesota when he came to the Tigers he was very popular at first but as my mom used to say
he wore out his welcome Billy had a proclivity for after he got started and establishing himself
in a job he began to carpet the other people in the organization especially his bosses and it
never seemed to work because you don't criticize your bosses are too heavily. Sparky Anderson who
had managed the big red machine in Cincinnati to world championships. Sparky was a big guy no
question about that he had managed Cincinnati to the world championship he was a choice of
Jim Campbell when the Les Moss was fired Sparky came in actually Les had a record around 500
but it was a chance to get Sparky who'd been out of work and Jim felt like if he didn't strike
then that somebody else would come in and get Sparky and Sparky had sort of a five-year plan
and actually it worked because after five years the Tigers had a championship team. Sparky now
walked a lot when we got to be good friends we'd get up every morning and we'd walk for about an
hour we talked a lot about baseball a lot about life and I think I learned a lot from Sparky he
was pretty smart he was an old used car salesman who knew how to close the deal you know and he
could read the minds of his players and get the most out of them. Charles Dylan Stingle KC named
after the town he came from he was a failed dentist he wanted to be a dentist and he couldn't make it
and he came to the National League he played for Brooklyn and he played for the Giants and
he was a pretty good ball player but he was always a clown at Brooklyn he doffed his cap one time
and a bird flew out he hit a homerun in the polo grounds playing for the Giants against the Yankees
and lost his shoe running home is inside the park homerun then he became a manager first at Boston
with the Braves and he was a terrible manager because they had a terrible team somebody said
the best thing that ever happened to the Braves was when Casey got hit by a cab and broke his leg
and couldn't manage anymore but then he went to the Yankees and he became a genius and later on
was a great manager with a met but he was a kind of a guy you know you'd ask him what time it was
and he'd tell you how to build a watch I'm not sure that I made my question clear
I'm not sure I'm gonna answer yours perfectly I was asking you sir uh
why it is that baseball wants this bill passed I would say I wouldn't know but I would say the
reason why they'd want it passed is to keep baseball going as the highest baseball sport
that has gone into baseball and from the baseball angle I'm not going to speak of any other sport
I'm not in here to argue about other sports I'm in the baseball business it's been run cleaner than
any baseball business that was ever put out in the hundred years at the present time
Leo DeRosher he was very volatile he would be up one time and down the other and he'd
had feuds with the writers and he and his wife had feuds and he had feuds with everybody
Leo had come off the streets of Connecticut in the boyhood where he hung around the pool halls and
he became a pretty good ball player sort of a no-hit great fielding shortstop and then later
made himself a manager but I think the great thing about Leo is he instilled a certain amount of
confidence in his players that no other manager that I've ever been with could do somehow they
would really go to battle for Leo because they figured that he'd figure out a way as much as he
could to win the game for them some of the players didn't like Leo some of them liked them a lot
but whether they liked him or didn't like him they did play hard for him
just as there were characters who manage teams I guess there were characters who own the teams
too and the first name that pops up is the colorful Bill Vec oh yeah Bill Vec was certainly a character
he was a maverick the establishment didn't like Bill Vec very much because he went against the
grain a lot he's a fellow that introduced the immediate Eddie Goodell into baseball and he
played against the Tigers and Bill Vec got that idea from a story by James Thurber you could look
it up and it turned out to be one of the outstanding events in baseball history Bill also had a lot
of good ideas he would make three or four speeches a day to try to promote baseball he had a tough
time with the Browns because they couldn't draw the Cardinals were always the number one team there
with Cleveland uh Bec did a lot better he won the pennant there went to Chicago he would sit off
ball night and talk baseball and he had a wooden leg that he uses his ashtray you know he'd smoke
cigarettes he was a chain smoker and he'd flip the ashes in a little hole in his wooden leg
but uh he was a great personality and he was always reading he loved to read books he loved
literature and he was a great guy to talk to i really love Bill Vec.
Speaking of innovators Charles O. Fenley. Yeah Charlie O was quite a guy and again here was a guy
that the establishment didn't like because what Charlie O did he proved when he went to Oakland
that he could have a winner or the front office had consisted of himself his brother and a couple
other guys whereas all the established franchises had a table of organization that included a couple
of hundred people and Charlie was doing it all by himself and Charlie had a young african-american
guy that looked like Hank Aaron and they called him the hammer and hammer would go down and get
the lineups and bring them up to us then he'd talk to Charlie and sit in the booth with Charlie
and he turned out to be MC Hammer the great rock star some of the guys at Oakland Reggie Jackson
and some of the others gave him seed money to start his outfit and he became a superstar in the music
world. The shipbuilder George Steinbrunner. I like George a lot he's always been good to me and I think
he's good for baseball I know he's got some detractors but I like to see a guy who has a passion
that George Steinbrunner does he wants to have a winner and he does almost anything he can to get
it he's a pretty hard guy to work for he goes through managers like you know most people go
through socks and underwear but he's a very smart baseball man and I think when he got Joe Torrey
it was really a smart move my good friend Arthur Richmond made that suggestion a lot of people
didn't want Torrey to come he didn't have much of a record but he turned out to be the perfect
manager to work with George Steinbrunner. Now the commissioner's office without mentioning every
commissioner and talking about each one of them one stands out because of a decision that he had
to make and that was a Bartlett Giamatti and the Pete Rose case what did he face what was the big
problem as you saw it? I think the big problem that the commissioner had at that time was what
to do with Pete because the Dowd report claimed that Pete had bet on baseball and in that case
of course he should be banned from the game but Giamatti had a press conference and he made a sort
of a compromise with Pete in the press conference Giamatti said that Pete will be suspended for
one year then he'll have a right to come before us and see about the suspension but in the meantime
we've all agreed that nobody will address the question of whether Pete bet on baseball or not
and then about a week or two later Giamatti had a press conference and he said to the press well
everybody knows that Pete bet on baseball so it sort of clouded the issue at that time and then
Giamatti died soon after that and Fay Venson took over and it created a very gray area for a long
time with Pete Rose and my own feeling was that I really wasn't sure Pete maintained that he didn't
bet on baseball the report said he did but we didn't know about the authenticity of the report
and I was in Pete's corner really I felt like he had a great record in baseball he made the most of
his ability he was a great player on the field he had the most hits he did all kind of things
he was a team man he won a lot of big games and I was for him but then when his book came out
my opinion changed because he said in his book that he did bet on baseball and it looked like to
me he was saving the confession for a money-making proposition and I think a lot of people that were
in Pete's corner at that time turned against him as far as getting into the Hall of Fame and of
course the Hall of Fame is independent from baseball but they cannot put anybody in who suspended
from the game so it's not a question of putting Pete in at any point now until he is reinstated
the suspension is over and he's eligible to go to the Hall of Fame now whether he will or not
I don't know but right now my opinion is that he probably should not be in it is this the same
scenario that Judge Landis had with Shulish Joe Jackson well with Shulish Joe they actually had a
grand jury trial the White Sox players were exonerated in court but Landis had been put in
and given extreme power so he decided even in the face of the exoneration he would suspend these
eight White Sox players who were on trial and Joe Jackson was one of them and a lot of people felt
it was unfair because Joe had hit about 375 in the World Series and it was hard to put a finger on
a guy whether he had thrown a game or not and there were all kind of rumors back and forth
but baseball needed a strong hand at that time and Landis stepped in and did the job and banished
all of them from baseball and then the Ted Williams later on you might remember put on a campaign
to get Joe Jackson reinstated and elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame and I was in favor of that
I thought Joe had paid his penance you know he'd been suspended he couldn't play against the
professional players all his lifetime and his life had practically been ruined by this and why not
honor him even if you did after he died. Now you've also had the privilege and pleasure I'm sure of
working with and around and across the field in some cases from some great broadcasters
Russ Hodges. Russ Hodges was a people kind of a guy. Soddler like Harry Carey was later without
the flamboyance of Harry he was the guy sitting in the bar with his best pal and they were talking
about baseball and he had sort of a down-the-middle easy style very easy to get along with he'd worked
at Chicago and at Charlotte and Washington with Arch McDonald and all over the place but he was a
real professional he came to the Giants from in New York where he had worked with Mel Allen so he'd
been around and he knew baseball and was very very popular announcer.
Then there's the man who saw everything from the cat bird seat. That was a great red barber who
along with Mel Allen was one of the first of two to go in the Hall of Fame they were inducted in
the same year. Red was a real pioneer that all of us owe a great deal to because he took baseball
from a game where the station told the announcer to go out buy yourself a scorecard and broadcast
the game he was far from that he was a true reporter and it was very tough working for Red
because he was a task master he wanted the very best and I think it was great for whomever
worked with Red that he was demanding. He had all these southern expressions in Brooklyn and he
had a great advantage that Mel also had of coming into New York and being the first big league
announcer that the people of New York had ever heard because big league baseball was not broadcast
in New York until 1939.
And then as distinctive as Red's voice was the man you just mentioned how about that Mr. Mel Allen.
Well Mel Allen was a voice of baseball no question about that because of his affiliation with the
Yankees and they were always in the World Series and Mel Allen did all the World Series so he got
more national acclaim I think than anybody he had great enthusiasm he had a deep resounding voice
and he had a terrific passion for baseball I think his whole life was wrapped up in baseball
never married and he lived with his mom and dad and everything that he did was wrapped up in his job
he did the Rose Bowl for NBC he did the World Series and he did a lot of big events and he also
did the newsreels and was a guy who started a second career after the Yankees fired him in the 1960s
he was out for a couple of years and then Joe Reichler working for the commissioner got Mel a
job on this weekend baseball and he made a completely new career for many many years as the voice of
this weekend baseball a lot of younger fans probably never heard him broadcast the game but they know
all about Mel Allen. Mickey Mantle at bat with a count of one ball no strikes left-handed pitcher
Chuck Stobbs on the mound Mickey Mantle a switch hitter batting right-handed digs in at the plate
here's the pitch Mantle swings there's a tremendous drive going into deep club field it's going going
it's going over the bleachers and over the side atop the bleachers into the yards of houses across
the street it's got to be one of the longest home runs I've ever seen hit how about that. A gentleman
whose tenure in Los Angeles rivals yours in Detroit Vince Scully. Vince Scully I think is the best
baseball announcer that ever came along I think he's fantastic he had the good fortune they're
going to LA with a good team nobody'd ever heard a big league announcer at that time and the city
of automobiles and transistors and everybody had to listen because the Coliseum where the Dodgers
played was such a bad place to see a ball game you really needed a radio description to go along
with it but in addition to that he just had great talent and always did have he broken a very young
he was about 22 I think when he started and my real claim to fame Bob is the fact that he took my
place on the CBS roundup for football when I was switched to another game Red Barber had to give
Vinny his first job and that was broadcasting a game in Boston and he did a good job and then
when I left the Dodgers to go to the Giants Red Barber called and by the way Vinny's mother said
Red Skelton called but it was Red Barber and he offered Vinny the job to do the Brooklyn Dodgers
and he's been there ever since he's a magnificent announcer then there was the cowboy from Wyoming
who ended up behind the mic in Fenway Park in Boston that's Kurt Gowdy the great basketball
player who became a very versatile announcer he could do baseball football basketball he could
do everything he might not have been the very best in each one but I think as far as overall
versatility you'd have a hard time matching Kurt Gowdy I work with Kurt quite a bit most of the
time on CBS and he was always on the telephone he was a great businessman and he took care of
business with all his radio stations while he was broadcasting and he loved to do the American
sportsman on TV and I know that he went out with a lot of great celebrities and being Crosby and
Phil Harris pulled a big joke on Kurt because of the situation they had on American sportsman
they were always kidding about always having a phone and they did a show from a duck line
and in those days they didn't have a cell phone they gave Kurt a real phone to use in the duck line
account one and one to Williams everybody quiet now here at Fenway Park after they gave him a
standing ovation of two minutes knowing that this is probably his last time at bat one out nobody
on last of the eighth inning jack fisher into his wind up here's the pitch William swings and there's
a long drive to deep right that's all his time and it is gone a home run for Ted Williams in his last
time at bat in the making league well Ernie there's one broadcaster who was not known as a play-by-play
man but you had a long and very nice association with Paul Kerry Paul Kerry was one of my many
great partners I had a lot of partners and all of them were good but I'd have to tip my hat first
to Paul Kerry because we were together longer with him than any other partner that I had Paul and I
existed together about 18 years as a tiger announcers and I think Paul Kerry had the best sports voice
of anybody I've ever heard the people around Michigan said it was the voice of God but the
problem with working with Paul was he made everybody who worked with him sound like a soprano but I
was able to overcome that he had a good grasp of the game he'd come from Michigan he grew up here
he knew all about tiger history and Paul was just such a wonderful guy to work with and so accommodating
and he had an extra duty in the last 15 or 16 years of working with me when the station decided
that they would not use an engineer that Paul Kerry would not only have to broadcast but he would
have to do the engineering the only outfit in the major leagues that did not have an engineer so
that was an added burden but he did it and did it well he was such a professional and such a great
guy I really have to pay tribute to Paul Kerry well it's my pleasure now for the last time for
play-by-play unless we go into extra innings to introduce a man who's meant so much to me in 19
years we just couldn't do it without him I've gotten a lot of accolades and a lot of attention
much of it I didn't deserve and I have to share more of it with him than he knows Paul Kerry
Ernie thank you very much for those thoughts it has been an absolute joy for 19 years to have
shared a tiger radio booth with you and it's now coming to an end the Tigers finishing off the
season here in Baltimore but they've got a big five to one lead is milk Tyler the league's off
the fourth inning all they had a couple of pitches there's a third and it's a two one count on milk
and then you have the first member of first and second generation major league baseball
broadcasters first let's talk about Jack Buck or Jack Buck was a guy that everybody took to he
had a nice easy style he had a sardonic kind of a wit about him he was great at the cardinal games
he was a big fan of Harry Heilman he grew up in Cleveland and used to hear Heilman do the tiger
games he came to st. Louis to work with Harry carry and then when Harry left jack became the big
guy and was there for years and years and everybody loved jack buck and he was on monday night
football too and the thing I remember best about jack in his closing years there I was broadcasting
a game at bush stadium in st. Louis and I was back at the batting cage and jack buck came up to me
and said dirty there's only one good thing I can think about you is that you never die young
hey look at the way he's limping that's impossible for him to come out and bat in
and we have a big three two picks coming here from eckersley gibson swings and a flying ball
to deep right field this is gonna be a home run unbelievable a home run for gibson in the
Dodgers and won the game five to four well he saw his son move into broadcasting but another man who
saw his son and his grandson come into the business is the aforementioned harry carry
oh that was amazing too that three generations who had broadcast in the big leagues the only time
it's ever happened and harry I think was probably the outstanding personality among all baseball
broadcasters he was flamboyant he loved baseball he really did and deep down his heart he was always
such a fan he was quite critical of the players and they'd get on his case sometime but it didn't
bother him he would say what he felt should be said and he said it in a very author david manner
and he was a great showman and I think the best thing that ever happened in any baseball broadcast
his career was what happened to harry carry when he began to sing the seventh inning stretch take me
out to the ball game that was a bill veck production you know he talked him into it but harry took
that to the cubs and it reached a great fulfillment at wriggly field and they still do it all in
tribute to harry carry
yeah
When it's a shame for it
I will return to our happy old ball game
I will taste it