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This is Richie Ashburn of the Philadelphia Phillies. In a few moments I'll tell you about my greatest sports thrill.
This is Harry Wismarff. What you're about to hear is a transcribed story of one of baseball's outstanding players.
And in the event our special guest Richie Ashburn considers his greatest sports thrill.
And Richie himself is here to tell us all about it. But first, here is Bill Ruddick with a message of interest from your United States Air Force.
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And now back to Harry Wismarke.
For 11 seasons now, Richie Ashburn has been delivering base hits in remarkable quantity.
He has a lifetime batting average of 315.
He covers as much ground in the outfield as any of the more glamourized fly chasers.
He is one of the fastest men on the bases.
Yet it wasn't until 1958 that Richie Ashburn gained recognition as one of the outstanding stars in the game today.
It wasn't until he won his second National League batting title that the fans began to appreciate just how good Ashburn is.
It isn't surprising that the baseball public has been so slow to accept Richie Ashburn as a standout.
He doesn't look imposing at the plate, his measured swing lacks power or grace.
Opposing infielders and outfielders disdainfully close in on him.
But he keeps coming up with a single here and a double there.
By the end of the year he has more hits than most of the sluggers.
In 1958 he collected 215 hits more than anybody else in either of the major leagues.
Richie Ashburn's true hitting stature is not something you recognize at a glance.
And neither is the driving temperament that has put him where he is.
Ashburn is one of baseball's real bear down guys.
When Richie Ashburn won his second batting crown with his great a finish as one would care to see,
he simply said the hits were dropping in for him.
He wrapped up the title in a four way race that was a real pressure cooker in the stretch.
The pitching is getting better, observed Richie Ashburn after it was all over.
But so is Richie.
At 32 the speedster out of Tilden Nebraska showed no signs of slowing down.
He stole 30 bases in 1958, his 350 average and his 215 hits represented personal peaks,
exceeding efforts like those in 1948 when he was rookie of the year with a 333 mark in 1951 when he batted 344.
As long as his legs remain sturdy, Richie Ashburn should be good for a half a dozen more seasons.
A stretch that may place him within reach of 3,000 hits.
He passed 2,000 August 15, 1958, and his younger than Stan Mugeau was when he attained that milestone.
Richie Ashburn is not only a sound hitter, but an exceptionally fine fielder.
In 1958 he made 500 put-outs, more than any other National League outfielder.
This was the ninth time he had done so to equal the Major League record established by Max Carey,
the former great defensive outfielder of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Richie Ashburn's only flaw is that his throwing arm is not the strongest in the league.
Yet he made the most important single throw in the last game of the 1950 season.
It was the ninth inning with the Dodgers and Phillies tied 1-1.
The Phillies leading the Dodgers by one game needed that victory to clinch the flag.
The Dodgers, on the other hand, had to win this game to deadlock the fills and force a playoff for the pennant.
Cal Abrams of the Dodgers was on second, representing the winning run.
Duke Snyder lashed the line drive to center. Abrams lit out for home.
Richie was playing shallower than he usually does for Snyder.
That foul was hit so hard that Ashburn grabbed it on the first bounce and fired home.
Abrams was out by a city block.
In the tenth, Dick Sestler hit a home run for the Phillies, and the Whiz kids won the pennant.
Richie Ashburn is the product of a solid family life in the small Nebraska farm town of Tildon, population 1040, where he still makes his home.
He was one of the original Whiz kids who became the darlings of the country in 1950, while bringing Philadelphia its only pennant of recent times.
Richie was one of the most dedicated ball players on the club.
Back in 1948, Richie Ashburn broke in with a splash, batting 333 in 117 games and being acclaimed by the sporting news as rookie of the year.
In the ten succeeding years, he has finished eight seasons batting 300 or better.
Pretty good for a fellow whom they said was nothing more than a leg hitter.
Richie Ashburn has hit only 21 home runs in 11 years in the big leagues.
He says his greatest satisfaction would be to become a home run slugger.
The Philadelphia Phillies want him as he is, just about the most consistent hitter in the National League.
That's a fact that opposing pitchers have recognized for a long, long time.
Richie Ashburn, the batter who is always on base.
And now before you meet our special guest, Richie Ashburn in person in an interview from Connie Max Stadium in Philadelphia in here about his greatest sports thrill.
Here is a message of interest to all young men with an eye on the future.
It has been wisely said that the best things in life are worth planning for.
That's why former servicemen who are planning a successful career should look into Air Force opportunities now.
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So take time to investigate the exciting Air Force space age positions now open to men and women with prior service.
See your local recruiter for full details.
And now back to Harry Wismer.
Richie Ashburn, what was your greatest sports thrill?
Well Harry, I'd have to go back to 1950 when I was with the Phillies of course, still with the Phillies, but that was our one and only year that we won the pennant.
And I'd have to go back to the last game this season when we won it from the Brooklyn Dodgers.
That was when Roberts won the game 4-1, Dick Sisler hit a three-round home run in the 10th inning.
That particular moment after the game I think was my greatest thrill, Harry.
Do you recall your first appearance at the plate in a Philly uniform?
Yes, I do. It was a 1948 opening day in Philadelphia and it was against the Boston Braves.
And Johnny St. was a pitcher and I got put out.
Johnny was of course a great curveball pitcher and was a very good pitcher that year.
I think you remember that was the year of 48 that they won the pennant and of course Johnny was one of their stars.
Richie, being one of the fastest men in the league, what pitchers down through the years have been the toughest for you to steal on?
I think that everybody will say that Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves is one of the toughest and still is.
Left handed pitchers are a little tougher than right handed pitchers.
One of the toughest right handers that I had ever tried to steal against was Herman Weimar when he was over here with the Cincinnati Reds.
As an outstanding batter, what are some of the important things to keep in mind when trying to move a base runner along or just butting for a base hit?
Well, butting, butting today, there isn't too much of it but it's still I think mighty important in the game, Harry.
There is a difference in the situations when you're just trying to move a runner along, you're sacrificing yourself and naturally just squaring around at the plate
and you're trying to get a strike and bunt the ball down, move that runner along.
When you're trying for the base hit, you're trying to beat it out and for me that is getting tough because of the way the infield plays.
The third baseman is real close and the first baseman is real close and I have to almost lay down a perfect bunt to beat it out.
One of the things I will say that I try to do is bunt the ball on the very end of the bat and the ball will drop dead if you can do that which of course makes it a little tougher for the infielders to handle.
Richie, do you have any pet theories of your own on the art of hitting?
Harry, I have a few that I think would apply to my style of hitting.
I primarily try to hit the ball where it's pitched. I'm up on the plate. I'm over what I'm trying to say is I'm over the plate, close to it, I guard it and I don't give the pitcher any part of the plate.
I more or less leave where the ball is going to go up to the pitcher to ever what part of the plate he throws it.
Richie, what's going through your mind as you stand on first base with the idea of stealing second base?
Well, one of the things I try to do is to get a good lead and I study the pitcher's techniques, his mannerism. You steal on the pitcher most of the time. You very seldom steal on the catcher.
So a study of the pitcher's movements will help you and if I know his movements and I have a good lead and I think with the speed I have that I can steal the base no matter how the catcher throws the ball.
What player, coach or manager has been most helpful in your development as a Major Leaguer?
Harry, I've had a lot of people help me in this game ever since I've been in baseball from American Legion Ball on up.
Right now I would say that our present manager, Eddie Sawyer, who was also my minor league manager, helped me an awful lot.
Wally Moses, who is presently the coach of the Cincinnati Reds, helped me with hitting a lot as did Floyd Baker, who is a scout for the Washington Senators now.
Right offhand I'd say those three players probably helped me more than anybody I can think of.
Do you resent the pitcher using a brush back or knock down pitch?
I think there's a difference between the two, Harry. A brush back pitch I think is justified because these pitchers have to protect their own interests and that's getting the hitter out.
Now the knock down pitch to me that's something different because a knock down pitch is thrown I think with the intent of trying to hit somebody and trying to hurt somebody.
I feel this way when I'm hitting. Now I don't mind being brushed back a bit because as I said before I am on top of the plate and those pitchers when they go inside on me,
once in a while they'll brush me back. But if I feel a pitcher is deliberately trying to hit me, I think it makes a little better hitter out of me.
I don't know, it does make me mad. I don't like the knock down pitch. The brush back pitch I think is justified.
Richie, not being a long ball hitter, do you recall the longest home run you ever hit?
I certainly do, Harry. I don't hit many of them and I remember them all.
The longest one I hit I think was in Philadelphia off Marv Grissom. This was in the 1958 season.
I really tore into that one so to speak and I was real proud of it.
Harry, I don't think they got the tape major out for it. I don't know for sure how far it went but it did go over that right field wall and to me that's quite a poke.
Richie, do you get much conversation from various catchers around the league when you're up to bat?
There are some catchers that talk to you quite a bit. I'd say Ed Bailey of the Cincinnati Reds is one that talks quite a bit.
Valmy Thomas who was with the San Francisco Giants and who is now with our ball club.
We used to have a very nice conversation. He used to tell me what was coming but he'd always throw something different.
Once in a while they'll talk to you a little bit. I don't especially like it myself.
I think they do it to keep you from concentrating. I just assume they'd keep quiet back there.
Thank you very much. Richie Ashburn of the Philadelphia Phillies, one of baseball's outstanding players.
Greatest sports thrills with top personalities in the world of sports is narrated by Harry Wismer, directed by Gene Kirby, written by Arthur Soskin Jr. and presented by the United States Air Force in cooperation with this station.
This is Bill Reddick speaking, the preceding was transcribed.
Thank you.