Every other Tuesday at 9 AM a new podcast will be released.
May 26, 2020 …
After a short hiatus, Sports’ Forgotten Heroes returns with a familiar guest, Joe Niese, who is back to discuss the terrific career of all-star outfielder Andy Pafko. A star for the Chicago Cubs, Pafko is probably best-known for this short stint with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Pafko spent just 1 1/2 years with the Dodgers and in that time he was a key figure in Brooklyn’s historic collapse in 1951 when Bobby Thomson hit his famous shot “heard round the world” to lead the Giants to an improbable National League Pennant. The following season, Pafko helped the Dodgers forget the collapse by winning the pennant and returning to the World Series. Pafko, who also appeared in the 1945 World Series with the Cubs, wound up playing for the Milwaukee Braves and helped lead that team to two World Series appearance including the Braves 1957 win over the New York Yankees. Niese, who previously spoke about the great football coach Gus Dorais and returned later to speak about baseball’s last legal spitballer, Burleigh Grimes, is here to talk about Pafko and the book he wrote about him, “Handy Andy.”
April 14, 2020 …
In 1964 Skip Lockwood was being looked at by several Major League Baseball teams. The Kansas City A’s and their general manager Pat Friday offered Lockwood a signing bonus of $35,000. Lockwood wrote a “1” in front of the 35 and convinced Friday and A’s owner Charlie Finley he was worth every penny. Finley agreed and Lockwood’s career was underway. A third baseman, one week out of high school, Lockwood joined the A’s on the road for some batting practice before he was to be assigned to a minor league team. The A’s batting practice pitcher didn’t care too much for Lockwood and beaned him. Quite a rude welcome; and that’s just one of the many stories Lockwood tells us on this edition of Sports’ Forgotten Heroes. Converted to a pitcher after not succeeding as a hitter, Lockwood was the No. 1 man out of the pen for the New York Mets of the mid-1970s closing out games for the likes of Seaver, Koosman and Matlack. He threw in the mid- to upper-90s and stared down some of the game’s best, guys like Aaron, Reggie, Schmidt, Stargell, Parker and more. Lockwood who just released his first book, “Insight Pitch”, shares many stories with us, like the time he was credited with his first stolen base due to a prank made by Max Patkin, the time he walked into the wrong bullpen, and having to travel with his Class A team in a caravan of three station wagons – a whole team in three station wagons! Join Skip Lockwood for these stories and more on this edition of Sports’ Forgotten Heroes.
March 31, 2020 …
Edd Roush was elected to the baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. A star for the Cincinnati Reds of the 19-teens and the 1920s, Roush also played in one of the most famous World Series of all time, the 1919 Series between the White Sox and the Reds. While so many players from Chicago have been written about and are well-known, especially Joe Jackson, Buck Weaver, Kid Gleason and Eddie Cicotte; so few know about the stars of the 1919 Reds, such as Roush. A .323 career hitter, Roush spent 12 years with Cincinnati batting .325 with 199 stolen bases, 260 doubles, 152 triples and he hit 47 homeruns too! Edd’s granddaughter, Susan Dellinger, wrote a terrific book about the 1919 series and included a great deal of background on her grandfather. Susan also dives into the 1919 scandal from the Reds perspective. Titled, “Red Legs and Black Sox,” Dellinger joins the podcast to talk about the career of Edd, his few years in the rival Federal League, the 1919 series – from the standpoint of the Reds, and so much more including: how “shady” characters were hanging around the team, how Hal Chase tried to fix games in 1918 and 1919, and Edd’s hitting lessons from the great Ty Cobb … lessons that turned him from an average hitter into one of the game’s best. In fact, if not for a two protests, Roush would have won three-straight batting titles.