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This is RetroSports Radio. Visit RetroSeasons.com for more sports history.

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My guest today will be Al Schach, the famous clown prince of baseball. I'll start the interview

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with Al right after this important message.

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Well Al, how many years have you been going out and doing your act?

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Clowning, I started independently. I put the board of the so to speak, in baseball, 1937.

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I quit the American League. Jack Dempsey knocked me out of the American League.

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Jack Dempsey did.

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Yeah, well I did a burles price fight, one man price fight at the Yankee Stadium when

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I was with the Red Sox in 1936. And we fooled around, he hit me on the shoulder and knocked

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me on my back and I fell down and tore my shoulder and I decided right there and then

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I couldn't eat applause so I decided to go out and make a business out of it by appearing

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in different ball parks, which I did. So I used to make 128 towns in 130 days and I did

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that for 10 years. As a matter of fact, I made more, I could have made more money catching

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runaway horses on Park Avenue than I did as a coach on the Boston Red Sox or the Washington

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Senators.

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Let me ask you this Al, we've always talked about the importance of coaching, the importance

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of managers. How about coaches? Are they really important to the winning and losing

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of board games?

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Well Jack, I'm glad you asked me that question. I coached a third base for 13 years in the

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Major League. I claim a third base coach is the most important man on the field when his

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home team is at bat. He can win and lose your game by using bad judgment. Now let's take

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an example. In the first inning, there's a man in first base and a long ball is hit

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and there's nobody out. Now if there's any chance of that man being thrown out at home

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plate, if he's thrown out, it's bad judgment. It's not second guess because he's just as

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good a third base with nobody out. Then you'd have a man on third and second with nobody

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out whereas if he's thrown out at home plate with nobody out, you only got one out and

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a man on second base. Now if you lose that game by one run, it's a poor judging by the

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coach. Now there's a lot of times a coach will take a chance and score a man. For instance,

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there's a man in first base and you're down the ninth inning and there's two out and

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here comes your running. You figure the only chance he's going to get him is he's got to

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be a perfect throw at home. If you send him home and if the ball is perfectly thrown,

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you know he's going to be thrown out by five feet or ten feet. But if it's thrown, it

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depends on the throw being bad, you're hoping for it. If it's throw bad, your man scores,

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he makes a great slide, he comes in, he gets a crowd, gives him a big hand, he's making

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a great slide but he's caught at home and said, why didn't he hold him at third base?

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He's with a third baseman, never can be right. But there's a third baseman's brains or judgment

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and on those pads, first base coach doesn't mean too much. Third base coach is your man.

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Uh huh. Well I agree with that. Now Shaq, I just want to say that I've enjoyed this

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tremendously. Thanks for taking the time. Thank you for calling on me. Well that just

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about does it for now fans. See you soon.