1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Former MLB Pitcher Eddie Watt- October 20th, 2024

Episode Date: October 21, 2024

Former MLB Pitcher Eddie Watt- October 20th, 2024Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

All right, welcome back in to Ticket Weekends. Harrison Arns on the ones and twos as always come Sunday. If you guys want to join in, we've got a great show for you. 402, 464-5685, Sarder-Haman text line. And if you want to put a face to the voice to use the streams, Facebook, YouTube X, Alo, Channel 961. If you got Allo cable, you can even throw it up on Amazon Prime if you choose to do so. We got something a little bit different with DEP out on business. We're going to keep these shows going nonetheless, though.

We got Drew Frumwell in here. as well as a former MLB pitcher, a veteran added. Eddie Watt joins us in studio to my left. And like I said, I'd love for you guys to join in. And it looks like it might already have some from the YouTube section. So we'll get to those first or excuse me, we'll get to those later. And with some of these questions, keep putting them in there. And at a certain point, we'll read some of these off,

but you guys have your input on the show as well. But Drew, I'll go ahead and kind of let you start us off here and ask the first question. Well, first of all, thank you, Mr. Watt, for joining us today. And it's Eddie. It's Eddie. Okay. Well, two-time World Series champion with the Baltimoreals, Northern Iowa, Hall of Fame, right? 1987, Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame, 2000.

And you've got a lifetime ERA of less than three, I understand, in over 40 years in baseball. Is that correct? It's correct so far. It's correct so far. Well, tell us about the first time that you got called up. You broke camp with the Baltimore Orioles in 1966. Tell us about the first time you got. the pitch what was that moment like well i had never uh being born and raised in uh southern i

went a little town of about a thousand people uh i had never had an opportunity to go to a big league ballpark never saw a big league game never in a big league stadium and i made the ball club and spring training in uh 166 and we opened the season in boston and uh of course i was in total awe of the surroundings and intimidated to a certain extent and a few other things. But the bottom of the 13th inning, score was tied. Well, the top of the 13th inning score was tied. We scored a run. And Baltimore at that time had just about run out of pitchers.

Myself and one other guy. And Hank Bauer called me into the ball game and the bottom of the 13th. The first big league game I had ever seen, the first big league stadium I had ever been in, and here I am getting called into the ballgame in the bottom of the 13th inning to hold a, to hold a one-run lead. And fortunately, I got three guys out in a row and stopped shaking about an hour later. Well, a friend of mine, Mookie Chilson, we're going to move forward just a couple of years. he's out there in New Jersey.

He pointed out to me that Mickey Mantle never got a hit off of you. Did you realize that? And can you tell us what the secret was? No, I didn't realize. As I have said other times, I didn't have any idea. I have a friend of mine at home that loves to get all kinds of statistics and things like that. And come up to me one day and he asked me if Mantle had ever got a base hit off me. or if I'd ever pitched to him.

And I said, well, yeah, I pitched to him for like three or four years. And did he ever get a base hit off me? Not that I can remember. I don't know. And then Dwayne says, well, you faced him nine times or 13 times. He was old for 13 and you struck him out seven times or something. And I said, wow, that's pretty lucky. I do remember facing Mantle one time Palmer had a, uh,

five-inning, one-to-nothing lead. He had a blister. He left the ball game. I went in, and I pitched the last three innings, no hits, or the last four innings, I guess, with no hits. And I struck out Mantle twice that night. So that was one night. I think that might have been the night that gave me enough to myself to think that I

should belong in the big leagues. Well, you and I had breakfast a little bit ago, and you were telling a story about 1966. You're headed to spring training. Finish that story. Well, I just, 66, I was in my eighth semester of college. I finally got out. I graduated in January of 66.

And a couple of days, I was headed to spring training. my first official spring training with the Orioles. And I had $100 in my pocket. And that was all the money I had in the world. I didn't get a bonus to sign. And I'd had to go to school every fall. I'd promised my mother I'd finish college and get a degree. And so I would go to school during the day and I'd work all night.

And so I ended up with $100, took off for spring training. driving and i got down to uh florida jumped on the florida turnpike toll road and i realized after i got down to yaha junction that i was out of money i had just enough to pay the toll but could go no further so i got off on a little side road and ended up cruising into in uh, Miami and got there and that ball club had set up a place for me to stay, which was out on the Tam Miami Trail. And as I walked in, I said, okay, I'm Eddie Watt. Here I am. And they said, oh yeah, we're expecting you. Uh, your room is such and such. And, uh, we would, uh, we would like a $200 deposit. Uh, you'll be here for a while. And I said, uh, you don't understand. I'm broke.

I don't have, I think I had 47 cents in my pocket, and that was all I had to my name. And they said, well, we have a $200 deposit. Well, I said, okay, I took my girl, a little girl who was, now the little girl that was, let's see, she was three at the time, picked her up, set her on the counter and said, okay, here's your deposit. When I get $200, I'll come back and redeem her. And the lady didn't know what to do then. So she called the Orioles.

And I got a $200 advance. And I didn't have to put a security deposit down and I could buy some food and stuff. But that was about as broke as anybody could get. And then when we left to go to spring training, left spring training going to Baltimore, I had a wife. I had two kids and a car to get to Baltimore because I had. had to fly up with the team. So I go back in and again get some money. They paid for my wife and

kids to go to Baltimore and they paid for a driver to come, take my car to Baltimore. And then, of course, I had to pay them back. And I ended up that first year with being in debt start the season. And my paychecks were $157 and $20 for, uh, $157.20 for, uh, two weeks and that was the extent of my livelihood for the first year so you see that all major league players are not 100 million dollar players does your daughter know about this story that you used her as collateral yeah I've told it before and she's even she's even reminded me to tell it other times I think everybody in a family knows it now and and it got around.

Of course, not proud of it, but it was something that had to be done. I mean, that was it. Real quick, I'll make sure you got that mic when you're talking when you,

there you go, perfect. Absolutely. And real quick, I do, we got some text on. I want to encourage people to keep hopping in here,

joining in. This one from the commenting collector, he said, Mr. Watts, since your retirement, what, if anything,

did you do to satisfy your competitiveness? Well, I'll be very honest with you. I played 17 years. I coached in 25 years. And I will admit that at the end of my coaching career, when I was 61, 62, that was like 20 years ago, I've been retired. The day I walked away from baseball,

I also walked away from being violently competitive. I played basketball until I was 50. Again, for fun. I play a lot of golf. I guess I'm most competitive playing cards, Pinockel or bridge. I'm probably more competitive there, but that, of course, is a less violent form of competition.

I don't have, I don't do anything now. I play cards. I go fishing, play golf, try to relax, enjoy myself. I have a lot of arthritis, so I don't get too active in a lot of things. Absolutely. And then we do got another one, unknown texter here, 2-660. eight wants to know was there any badder you feared going up against well most of them uh i i i never had a trick pitch i never did anything that ever really fooled anybody i am a

i'm a great believer and as a pitching coach i was one of my philosophies was uh do what you can do and do it very well and do it better than anybody else and do it better than the hitter can read you. I had a lot of people. Pete Rose, of course, was an outstanding hitter. You get over 4,000 hits. Rod Carew was fundamentally the outstanding hitter. Jim Northrop, not known to be a great, great player, but I think if somebody hit me the hardest,

it was Jim Northrup on a consistent basis. Billy Williams was a great hitter. You see, everybody I'm naming is left-handed. I had a much better record, hit-wise, everything against right-handed hitters. I had somehow the ability to make them, uneasy in the box and easier to get out than left-handers. Absolutely. And then we got one more here.

I want to get to, and then we got a little bit five more minutes left. This one we got from Tim Miles fan. Was there any pitcher that you tried to emulate your game after in the big leagues? No. Like I said, I always tried to just be myself and be the very, very best I could. my ability

lay in certain areas. I was not a great pitcher. I was a good pitcher. I was a good pitcher, but I was a good pitcher every day. I would never go down as a great pitcher. I was good every day. I was going to be good the next day and the next day and the next day.

I was durable. So I, my abilities, I think were different than most every other pitcher's abilities. So I just tried to be myself. Absolutely. And then Drew, we got maybe time for a couple more questions. So throw it back over to you. And then we'll go ahead and throw it to our first break.

Yeah. Brent from Mack Wack Stacks. He had a question for you. So you were on scholarship to play basketball in northern Iowa. He wants to know what would the scouting report look like for Eddie White back then? Well, a little short pudgy guy that didn't make too many mistakes. I was not blessed with being a good shooter. My forte was I was quick.

I was quick. I was determined somehow, I guess it was my early upbringing, the position that I was put in as a kid, junior high high school that i was always on my feet always active always uh having to work having uh to do things for myself that uh i was always in in uh very good physical conditioning and i could run all day and i loved to play defense and chase people around i didn't like i said i was not a very good shooter, but I was difficult to guard a little bit. If you got too close, I'd run around you. And people tried that, which was a mistake because I couldn't shoot. And I ended up, I ended up

scoring a few points, but not much. My job was handling the ball and playing defense and hustling all over the place, which I like to do and I did. The game's changed an awful lot over the years. Talk about pitch counts and openers. What are your thoughts on that? Well, I, I of course don't agree with the pitch count philosophy, and I'm probably wrong. I think when Moneyball or whatever it is come in with the, what do they call it, all the number of pitches and the bat speed,

the elevations, yeah, analytics. Yeah, analytics. when that came in, I think it made babies out of a lot of the pitchers. I played in the minor leagues for four years as a starter. Never pitched relief in the minor leagues at all. Started 100 games in the four years. I averaged over seven innings to start,

almost eight endings to start, no pitch counts. I think out of those 100 games I started, I don't think I ever finished any under 130 or 140 pitches. You can build your arm up, but you have to start doing it as a kid. I have a grandson who wanted to be a pitcher. But instead of doing anything when he was a child to build up

the strength in his arm, the durability in his whole body, spent most of his time in front of a computer and a set of earphones playing Forge of Kings or Valley of the Dolls or something and ended up not hurting his arm, but his arm hurt because it just wasn't strong enough. I didn't have that choice. Of course, we didn't have, we didn't have television and computers as a kid. We didn't even have electricity for crying out allowed until I was about in fourth grade, fifth grade. So you have to do things to build your arm up.

And if you do, a hundred pitches is not a problem. Absolutely. Well said. We'll throw it through our first break here. Don't go anywhere. We've got the former Husker pitcher, former MLB pitcher Eddie Watton here, as well as Drew Cromwell, don't go anywhere. We'll keep things rolling here on a ticket Sunday.

All right. Welcome back in. Harrison runs on the ones and twos as always. If you guys want to join in 402464, 5, 685, you guys have been asking great questions so far. I encourage you to continue to do so. Facebook, YouTube X, Aloe, Channel 961, if you got Allow Cable, you can also put the comments through there.

Off the air, we couldn't help it. We talked a little bit about Husker football. It's still on the minds of everyone here, at least a little bit. And Eddie, we were talking about having some pride and just the mental state you need to have to be great, to be elite at anything in life. You need a mental edge. So I'll ask you, you kind of mentioned the story already, a moment where things just weren't

going your way and you having to battle through it. You got any great memories or stories of that for you? Yeah, my first wedding. That and my first job teaching school. I don't know which lasted the longest. I think it really didn't make any difference. neither one was very enjoyable. But no, not really.

Not that everything has always been rosy for me. I, as a kid, we were very, very poor. We didn't have very much if we had anything at all. I realized there wasn't any Christmas when Santa Claus didn't come for like two or three straight years. And so we were all. used to it. Family, I was the youngest of four kids. You get used to things and accept them for what they're worth and then make the most of it. And I don't think I've ever gotten down on my own

ability. I always try not to be overly cocky, overly sure of myself, but I was sure of myself and my abilities and tried to conduct myself in a manner that I wouldn't offend anybody and just enjoy life. Where do you attribute that mental fortitude? I've just always staying humble and not thinking

too much or too little of yourself. I honestly don't know. I have never a lot of people you see have a lot of tricks. They, the sociology, psychology, uh, cyber, cybernetics or whatever, all that kind of stuff is. I don't think so. I think everything, I've tried to make everything as simple as possible. I do in my life today as I did when I played. Uh, I kind of knew my limits and I kind of know my limits now.

things are much easier now than they were then but i try to uh keep everything as simple as possible and try to meet everything uh head on and uh enjoy it enjoy life even even some of the the drawbacks uh i've i've grown to uh appreciate over the years i we were playing Cincinnati we are up three games to nothing going into the fourth game Everybody wanted a big sweep. Half the town of Baltimore was there and all carrying brooms. I came into the ball game in about the seventh or eighth inning, I think. And Lee May, I hadn't pitched in a couple weeks, which is not an excuse.

This is the 1970 World Series. 1970 World Series. Lee May came into the ball game. And the first pitch I threw him was a sinker. But everybody said, well, I was too strong or something. and I threw a sinker, didn't sink, and he hit it about 450 feet up into the left field seats. Consequently, we ended up losing that game,

won the World Series the next day. And I was Baltimore's least favorite person for a year or two, and I might still be today, except I'm 1,200 miles from it. But I accept it. I accept it. And maybe I learned something from it. Maybe I learned not to totally make a sinker. I don't know.

Yeah, it's always that part. You can learn from all those things. 402, 4664-5. If you guys want to join in here before I throw it back over to Drew, definitely do so. And again, you can comment on any of the streams. Well, let me set the stage for this next question for you, all right? It's 1977.

You're playing for the Padres' Minor League affiliate, the Hawaii Islanders. And I understand that your team was in the middle of a losing streak. During the game, you picked up a rosin bag and? Through it. We were leading, while that we were leading the southern half of the Pacific Coast League at the time. And in that league, when you're in Hawaii, you go on road trips that don't consist of two and three games. We'd go on a 15-day road trip. And we were about five or six games in front.

We ended up losing four out of five here and four out of five there. And before you know it, we're tied for first, tied for first and second place after losing a big lead. Well, Dick Phillips, the manager was, I think he was two years older than I was. And he was going berserk. So we were the last day in Spokane. We were down 17 to 1. Dick called down to the bullpen. He says, Eddie, get in here.

He says, coach third base. I'm sick and tired of doing this. And I said, okay, I went in and coached third base. And then as I walked off toward the dugout, he said, he says, go out and pitch the seventh inning. He said, we've been here long enough. And he says, hell, I can't stay any longer. This is, it's driving me nuts. We got to catch a plane to hold.

why and I said okay so I went out to pitch and threw the ball around the infield and got got ready catcher threw me the ball I caught it and I dropped it and I dropped it right beside the rosin bag and it was one of the big rosin bag and I reached down and picked up the rosin bag put it in my glove put the ball in my glove look down and got signs from the catcher and um um Gardner or was the hitter and I wound up through the ball to home plate and it looked like a big water balloon going toward home plate and Rick Sweet to catcher made the play completely. The ball hit him in the glove and the rosin just poofed everywhere. You've seen Michael Jordan used to do it before games.

LePont James does it before games of making this big. cloud well that's what that did and the umpire behind the plate he says why stir right he says what the hell was that and rick just sat there completely dead faced no no and no and no nothing turn around through the ball through the rosen bag back to me perfect caught it in the glove dropped it picked up the ball and away and i just sat there and i posed and for about five seconds it was the quietest any place you've ever been in your life. And then everybody just realized what happens. And everybody roared and laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed.

And I left over in the dugout and Dick Phillips was rolling around on the floor of the dugout. And then I got three guys out in a row. And like you said, I never tricked anybody. But we were getting beaten 17 to 1. And I got the first guy out. second guy out. Well, the best hitter in the league was hitting third. He come up. And I threw him six pitches. I threw three breaking balls, three fast balls, but each breaking ball was different. Each fastball was different. I threw them out of a different arm angle. I threw them out of a different

windup. And again, everybody just started laughing. It was the funniest thing they'd ever seen. Well, we get back to Hawaii. We end up winning eight out of ten in Hawaii, win the Coast League and go play for the Coast League championship. And Dick Phillips always credited me for winning the Pennant for the Hawaii Club because most of them were young kids. There were two or three of us old guys. And then a bunch of young kids who were starting to get a little nervous. And now they were relaxed again and we ended up winning the Coast League. And that's the end of my career as a player was, uh, I guess in Spokane on the last pitch I three. I true. Well, I've heard of a fastball and a curveball. I've never heard of a rosin ball.

Yeah. But it made, uh, it made all the news and everything else. It, uh, it was, uh, on the radio back home as soon as the game was over with and went back to the hotel and I had a phone call waiting for me. And it was my wife who was in Hawaii at the time. And she said, did you really do that or did they just make that up? And I said, well, yeah. It was my, me, I did it. She said, you're going to get fined and you're going to get everything out and nothing happened at all. Did the commissioner or the umpire or anybody said anything to you? Nobody said. The only person that said anything was John Felski, the third base coach, whom I knew since 1963 or four in the Northern League. And then we worked together with the Phillies for a year or two.

and John just looked at me and he was laughing as hard as he could. And then he looked at me and he says, Eddie, you're the only guy in the league that can get away with this. Of course, I was the oldest guy in the league and, and, uh,

kind of had free reign to goof off and do what I wanted, I guess. Have we got one more from the text line? Unless, uh, before we throw to break, Drew, you got anything else left to add on this segment here?

Oh, go ahead and take it. All right, absolutely. We'll do this last comment here from the text line. Unknown Textor 2, 399, wants to know what is your proudest MLB achievement, whether individually or team-wise? My proudest achievement, I think, was making it to the big leagues and staying there for 10 years

and being relatively successful when many, many, many, many, people, uh, didn't think that I was big enough, didn't think that I had enough ability. Uh, they didn't realize how seriously I took my job. Uh, I try to take every job I do seriously, but I very, very seriously worked to make myself a baseball player and, uh, was very proud. of the fact that I succeeded in that. And I think that's my crowning glory. If everybody's talked about legacies and all that stuff, I don't know anything about that.

That's far too deep for me and for my mind. But if I wanted to be remembered for anything, it would be the fact that I was successful against all odds. Well said. We'll throw it to our final break here again. one-on-one with the former MLV pitcher Eddie Watt and Drew Cromwell joins us as well. Don't go anywhere. We'll keep things rolling on a ticket Sunday.

All right, welcome back in the final segment. We're going one-on-one with the former MLV pitcher Eddie Watt and Drew Cromwell joins us as well. If you guys want to put it in any last second comments before we get out of here, 402-464-5-6-8-5 is the Sartner-HamanthX line. Also use the streams, Facebook, YouTube X-Allow, Channel 9-6-1. We only got a little bit of time left, so Drew, I'll throw it over to you. All right. All-of- Fame manager, Earl Week.

was known to mix it up with the umpires a little bit what is one of your favorite earl weaver stories well i drew i have i have two okay uh earl was a uh a showman he would argue and he'd do a put on a show for the fans and stuff but earl was probably the finest manager around he he knew three innings ahead of time what was going on so uh but the one story at the all-star break in uh 19 70. I'd just been divorced. No, 71. I was divorced and my mother was not

well. And I was going to take my kids. My three kids I was single. I was going to take my three kids back to Iowa to see her. But on a Wednesday, we had this is an all-star break, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Weaves says, okay, anybody that doesn't make the workout Tuesday or misses the plane to California is going to cost them $100. I went in Sunday afternoon, wrote a check, gave her $100. And I said, we've, I'll meet you in California. I'll take care of my own plane tickets and everything else. I want to take the kids back and have him see their grandmother.

And he just pretended to grump on everything else. well, I did, and I took the kids, and I took them up to their other grandmothers. And then we got to California, I got there, and we played and come back. And Earl never cashed the check. He never cashed the check. I don't know, whatever happened to, I know what happened to it. He just tore it up. He wasn't quite the egotistical, hard-heaval.

head head, heartless person that a lot of people thought he was. The other time was, uh, I'd been with Earl two years in the minor leagues, five years in the big leagues. And, uh, during the winter meetings in, uh, 73, I got sold to Philadelphia. Uh, I left a bunch of my stuff in the clubhouse in Baltimore. Uh, when we left, I didn't figure to get sold or traded or whatever it was. So on the day I decided to go down and pick up all my extra baseball stuff and a few odds and ends that I'd taken there,

I run into Earl. And we sat there, and he actually started to cry. And I did too. I don't know why I am now. But it was a very tender minute that I never forget. And I know he never forgot either. Well, I got to ask you, did anybody ever charge the mound? No.

No, everybody, if I hit anybody, everybody knew it was either a mistake, and I didn't hit very many people by mistake. And if I did hit somebody, I'd hit them in a place that wouldn't do any more than bruise, never drew blood. I did break one guy's hand, but he deserved it. I never, I never threw it anybody that didn't deserve to be thrown at.

And I was somebody that tried to show up the club or try to show up me or deride my ability or the Oriole disability or something. But no, nobody ever charged the mound. everybody knew that the game was done the way it should have been done and they expected it. Absolutely. And we got to go ahead and wrap things up here. But I can't say it enough. Eddie Watt, definitely appreciate the time and your ability to be here with us today.

And one more time, Drew, if they want to go ahead and give you a follow, where can they find you? Yeah. YouTube, clean cheap shots. Absolutely.

Do that. Give them a follow, like and subscribe as always. And once again, thank you to Eddie Watt, the former MLV pitcher. That's going to wrap it up for us. here on a ticket Sunday. Don't go anywhere, though.

We'll have some more pre-recorded shorts for you up next. Appreciate it. We'll talk to you in a little bit.