Joe Garagiola

Tomorrow is Major League baseball’s opening day, the first day of the 2023 season.

On the first day of a 162 game schedule, every team is in first place. Any team can win the world series. And a batter can hit /400, and a picture can have a no-hitter.

The world is full of possibilities .

On the Opening Day roster for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1946 was a rookie catcher named Joe Garageola.

That year Joe played in his first, and only, World Series. He was a major leaguer for nine seasons, playing for the Cardinals, the Pirates, the Cubs, and the Giants.

But after his retirement from the game, Joe Garagiola found another career in which he had much greater success.

Television.

He did sports broadcasting, but also game shows, and even substitute hosting on the Tonight Show.

I met him in 1988, when he was promoting his book It’s Anybody’s Ballgame, about his post baseball career.

No, to add some context to the interview you’re about to hear. We talked just a couple of weeks into the 1988 season, but already by that time the hapless Baltimore Orioles had a 13 game losing streak, a major league record. Sadly he Os Went on to lose their first 21 games in a row, which still stands as the major league record.

So here now, from 1988, Joe Garagiola.

Joe Garagiola.died in 2016. He was 90.


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Rachel Robinson

Photo: Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com

A few days ago Ketanji Brown Jackson made history as she was confirmed as the first black female supreme Court Justice.

But 75 years ago today another African American made history, in a way that may have been nearly as significant.

On April 15th. 1947 Jackie Robinson took the field as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers, the first black man to play in the Major leagues.

And Jackie Robinson was no token. He was voted Rrookie of the Year that year and was the National League’s Most Valuable Player two years later.

By his side during his historic baseball career was his wife, his college sweetheart, Rachel

In the decades after Jackie Robinson’s death in 1972, Rachel Robinson has been a prominent andd influential active and leader in her own right.

In 1996 Rachel Robinson published a book about her late husband and their life together and that’s when I have the chance to meet her, the eve of the 50th anniversary of Robinson’s Major League debut.

So here now from 1996. Rachel Robinson

Rachel Robinson will be 100 years old in July. She lives in Connecticut.


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Tom Boswell

In 1969, shortly after he graduated from college, Thomas Boswell joined the staff of the Washington Post. Over the next 15 years he honed his craft as a sportswriter, eventually earning his own column in the post in 1984.

What Boswell brought to his columns was more than just an account of balls and Strikes, touchdowns and field goals, holes-in-one or hat-tricks.

He brought a literary sensibility, often diving deep into the personal lives of the sports stars, and would be stars, that he covered.

Oh, he knew all the technical stuff, but his real strength was his ability to bring out the personalities.

I interviewed Tom Boswell many times over the years, including this interview from 1994, for his book Crackimg The Show.

And, like all of Tom Boswell’s columns, I think this interview has stood the test of time. Well, you tell me.

So here now, from 1994, Tom Boswell.

Tom Boswell is 73 now. He retired from the Washington Post at the end of June this year, after 52 years never working for any paper other than the Washington Post.

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Ron Luciano

They say baseball is a funny game. No, really, it’s a funny game full of funny characters.

In the 1980s, one of the best chroniclers of those characters was former Major League umpire Ron Luciano.

Luciano umpired in the American League from 1969 to 1979. And along the way, he collected hundreds of stories about some of the most colorful characters in Major League Baseball, past and present.

I met Ron Luciano in 1989, as we talked about his book Remembrance of Swings Past.

So here now, from 1989, Ron Luciano.

Ron Luciano died in 1995. He was 57 years old.

Bob Feller

Tomorrow is Major League Baseball’s opening day. So today, a conversation from a few years ago with one of the greatest major league pitchers of all time.

Bob Feller, a farm boy from Iowa, joined the Cleveland Indians when he was just 17 years old. And during his 18 Major League Seasons that followed, seller set all kinds of pitching records.

Is 98 mile per hour fastball earned him the nicknames rapid Robert, or Bullet Bob.

And he is to this day the only major league pitcher to ever throw a no-hitter on the first day of the season.

I had the chance to speak with Bob Feller in 1990, 50 years after his historic opening day no hitter.

And in the interview you’re about to hear, Bob Feller also Reveals His close connection to one of the most famous baseball photos of all time.

So here now, from 1990, Bob Feller:

Bob Feller died 2010, not long after his 92nd birthday.

Cal Ripken

In 21 seasons with his hometown Baltimore Orioles, Cal Ripken racked up some very enivable numbers:

3,184 hits. 431 home runs. 1,695 runs batted in. A 19-time All-Star, and two-time American League Most Valuable Plater.

But perhaps his greatest number was 2,632. That’s how many consecutive games Ripken played in,shattering the Lou Gehrig record of 2,130, 25 years ago this weekend.

I met him 11 years after he broke the record. He had just written a book called “Parenting Youth Athletes the Ripken Way.”

So here now, from 2006, Cal Ripken:

Cal Ripken retired from baseball in 2001. A year after our interview, he was electyed to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He’s 60 now and still lives in Maryland.

Denny McLain

In all of major league baseball history, going back well over a hundred years, there has been only a handful of pitchers who have won 30 or more games in a single season.

That very short list includes names like Cy Young, Grover Cleveland Alexander, and Dizzy Dean.

And .. the last to do it — righthander Denny McLain.

It was on September 14th, 1968 that McLain, pitching for the Detroit Tigers, struck out ten to notch his 30th win of the season.

Fast forward 20 years, almost to the day — that’s when I met him.

So here now, from 1988, Denny McLain.

Denny McLain swept the 1968 American League MVP and Cy Young awards and won the Cy Young winner in 1969 as well, before his career imploded after rotator cuff issues.

But Denny McLain, who is 76 now, baseball’s last 30-game winner, never did make it to the Hall of Fame.

Dave Pallone

A little bit of backstory: in 1979 major league baseball umpires went on strike. MLB hired substitutes — scabs, as m,any call them — and veteran minor league umpire Dave Pallone was offered a big-league job.

He remained in the National League for ten years.

But as he told in his 1990 book “Behind the Mask,” his fellow umpires disliked him. And he developed a reputation for being quick-tempered.

In April 1988, Pallone had a very high-profile confrontation with someone else who had a reputation for his temper: Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose. During an argument over a controversial call, Rose shoved Pallone — a very serious offense in baseball — and was suspended for 30 days.

Dave Pallone was forced to resign from baseball in September 1988.

I met him two years later, when he published his book.

Here now, from 1990, Dave Pallone.

“Behind the Mask” was a New York Times best-seller

Dave Pallone is 68 now, and does diversity training for corporations, as well as NCAA colleges, universities and athletes.

And he’s in the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame.