Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Tribute to the Hall of Famers We Lost in 2020

Episode Date: October 5, 2020

D.C. does his best to pay tribute and celebrate the careers of the four Hall of Fame baseball players we lost in 2020. Tigers great Al Kaline, "Tom Terrific" Tom Seaver, stolen base king Lou Brock, and dominating Cardinals World Series champion Bob Gibson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you very much, Joey. Monday is upon us once again. It is Monday night, a Monday night edition of Locked-on Mariner's, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, or T-L-O-P-N-O-P-N-Lop-N, or Slopin, brought to you by Built Bar, the best-tasting protein bars in the history of the world. They are low in sugar, calories, and carbohydrates, while also being high in protein quite obviously. They taste great.

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promo code locked on for $10 off your order. Also remember to download rate and subscribe to this program on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked on Mariner's podcast, or or any program here on Tloppin. Follow us on Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-N-Skore Mariners and follow me on Twitter as well at D.C. underscore Lundberg, L-U-N-D-B-E-R-G, if you are indeed scoring at home. Ladies and gentlemen, this is going to be a celebration of sorts

celebrating the lives in the careers of the Hall of Famers who have passed away during 2020. Towards the end of the 2020 calendar year, I will go over some more players you know, who we lost. And I want this to be a celebration. I don't want these to be somber episodes because these gentlemen entertained us on the ball field.

And for that reason, they should be celebrated. And we will try to do that here. We did lose Al Kline, Tom Seaver, Lou Brock, and Bob Gibson, the Four Hall of Famers, who passed away during 2020. Al Kaline was the first. He died on April 6th, 2020, obviously, 85 years old,

in Bloomingfield Hills, Michigan. A Detroit Tiger, his entire career, all 22 years of his career, were spent in Detroit. He is a member of the 3,000 hit club, 297 career batting average, 376 on base, 480 slugging, that's an OPS of 855,

399 home runs, just missed out on being a member of the 400 home run club, 498 doubles, two away from the 500 doubles club, led the league in hits in 1955. His first all-star season, he also led the league in batting average that year at 340. He led the league in doubles in 1961, with 41 doubles. He led the league in total bases in 1955,

the year he led in batting average, and in 1959 he led in slugging percentage, and OPS with 530 and 940, respectively. A right field or by trade, he also played a bit of center field, won 10 Gold Glove Awards, and was an 18-time All-Star.

He won a World Series in 1968 with the Detroit Tigers, obviously since he spent his entire career in Detroit against the St. Louis Cardinals, and we'll get to a very special performance in that 1968 World Series later on in the

program. He was a first ballot Hall of Famer with 88.3% of the vote in 1980 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame that year, along with Duke Snyder. K-Line was born December 19th, 1934 in Baltimore, and was signed as an amateur free agent by the Detroit Tigers on June 19th, 1953. And again, passed away on April 6th of this year. Albert William Keline was 85 years old.

Tom Seaver also passed away this year, August 31st, 2020 for this gentleman, in Calistoga, California. He did not spend his entire career with the Mets. He did pitch 12 years with the Mets in two different stints, actually. Also, he pitched six years in Cincinnati, where his no hitter was pitched, three years with the Chicago White Sox, and a partial season with the Boston Red Sox. He is a member of the 300 win club. 311 and 205 was his one loss record. He led the league in wins three times.

In 1969, he won 25 ball games in 36 games, 35 of them were starts. 1975, he won 22 games. And in the strike shortened 1981, he led the National League with 14 victories. he was a member of the Reds by that point. He also led an ERA three times. 1970 with a 282 ERA, 1971, 176 ERA, and in 1973, a 208 ERA.

His career ERA, 286. His career whip 1.121, and he led the Ligon whip three times. 1971, 0.946, 1973, 0.976, and 1977, 1.014, that season was split between the Mets and the Reds. He also led the league in strikeouts five times, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1975, and 1976. He struck out 3,640 in his Major League career, a great number. He also led the league in complete games in 1973.

with 18 of them in 36 games started, and he completed half the ball games he pitched that year. That's just unheard of in today's era and something that I absolutely respect and admire. He was the 1967 National League rookie of the year. He was an all-star that year as well, and he was a three-time Sy Young Award winner, 1969 National League Cy Young, 1973 National League Cy Young, and 1974. National League, Syung. He also won the 1969 World Series with the Mets.

Again, three-time Syung Award winner, three-time ERA title, 12 All-Star appearances. After he retired, he lived on a three-and-a-half-acre vineyard in California, which he ran with his wife. And they bought this in 2002, I believe, and his first vintage from that winery was produced in 2005. It was reported in 2013 that he had started to suffer from symptoms of dementia. And on March 7, 2019, Seaver's family announced that he was retiring from public life because of this dementia. And that is ultimately what claimed his life on August 31st, 2020.

George Thomas Seaver, nicknamed Tom Terrific, was 75 years old. We are not going to have a Mariners trivia question today. We will speak about Mr. Bob Gibson. and Mr. Lou Brock in the second half of today's program. But first, I must tell you about Postmates. When you need red wine at 4 p.m., that's an indication that there's a problem. Sushi at 9 p.m. Okay, that makes sense. A breakfast burrito at 8 a.m. makes total sense.

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Got a question or a comment? Send it over to Lockedon Mariners at Gmail.com for use in our mailbag segment. I will read it and reply to it on the air. Questions about anything? It need not be baseball related. Going to do one towards the end of this week, probably on Friday. Jason Hernandez will join me on. that. And I want Jason on the show. So if he's not available this week, and he might not be,

because he's recording a lot of other hockey stuff, we may bump that to next week because I do want Jason to be able to reply to one message in particular, and that is the one from our Fred Lewis in Mexico. Locked-on Mariners at gmail.com is the email address if you wish to participate in this fun segment. More Locked-on Mariners after this. Now back to Lockdown Mariners and your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you once again, J.M. Second half of Locked on, Mariner's about to come at you, celebrating the careers and lives of the four Hall of Famers, whom we lost during the 2020. And again, I will do a much larger retrospective of some of the other players who passed away in 2020 towards the calendar end of the year, or the end of the calendar year, whichever you prefer.

And again, I don't want this to be a somber episode. I want this to be a happy celebratory episode of these Hall of Famers careers. We spoke of Al-Kaline, we spoke of Tom Seaver, and now we will speak of Lou Brock, who passed away almost a month ago, September 6th in St. Charles, Missouri. He was born June 18, 1939, in El Dorado, Arkansas, and was originally signed by the Chicago Cubs, pardon me, as an amateur free agent on August 22nd, 1960. He spent three and a half seasons with the Cubs, where he played 327 games, 257. average, 306 on base, 383 slugging percentage. Didn't exactly do a whole lot as a Chicago Cub. So in the middle of kind of a pennant race, so to speak, for the Cubs, they needed some

pitching help. So they traded Brock along with two other players to the St. Louis Cardinals for Doug Clemens, Bobby Shantz, and Ernie Broleo. And Ernie Broleo was supposed to be the centerpiece of this huge deal going from the Cardinals to the Cubs. Broleo did not work out with the Cubs, but boy, did Brock work out with the Cardinals? Career as a Cardinal, 297, 347, 414 slash line. Career slash line overall, 293, 343, 410.

Over 3,000 hits, 3,023 hits, 486 doubles, 141 triples, and 149 home runs. He was a 20 home run hitter. He hit 21 home runs in 1967, but his calling card stolen bases. He held the record up until 1991 when Ricky Henderson broke it. He led the league in steals eight times, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1979, 1971, 1972, 1973, and 1974, which was not only a career high, but he set a major league record for stolen bases that season. 118 stolen bases that season.

My gosh, that's a lot of stolen bases. As a matter of fact, the game in which Lou Brock broke the single season record for stolen bases, Rick Riz was in attendance at that game. He was a 19-year-old college kid at the time, according to him. And this is also another neat story. He carried the ticket stub from that game around with him for the next 10 years until he met Brock at an event where Brock signed his ticket stub. but 118 stolen bases in one season.

There are teams that don't steal 118 bases these days. Over a 162 game stretch, 3rd-me, 938 stolen bases for his career versus 307 caught stealings. That's the thing about these stolen base kings. They ran a lot, and I'm not saying that that is a bad thing. They're taking the chance.

I want these guys taking their chances on the basebaths. If you're going to steal 118 bases in a season, go ahead and do it, sir. Yes, be my guest, and go ahead and do that. He also led the league in runs scored twice in 1967 and 1971. He was an all-star only six times, which was surprising given this tremendous Hall of Fame career. He won two World Series championships, 1964 and 1967, and played in the 1968 World Series against Al Kalin's Detroit Tigers. And we will be speaking more about that World Series when we get to Bob Gibson here.

coming up in just a little bit. He ran in some health problems the last five or so years of his life. His leg had to be amputated. His left leg had to be amputated below the knee about five years ago in October 2015 because of an infection related to a diabetic condition. Also, on April 13, 2017, it was announced that he had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, which is a blood cancer. However, the cancer went into remission,

and on July 28th, 2017, his family announced that the cancer was gone. And this is a direct quote, we got reports that it was 25% gone, then 50%, then 75% gone. The doctors were absolute. Cancer is not there. End quote. Lewis Clark Brock died September 6, 2020, at the age of 81. Bob Gibson, also a member of the St. Louis Cardinals,

who won those two World Series Chalachians. Championships in 64 and 67 was born on November 9th, 1935, in Omaha, Nebraska. He was a nine-time All-Star, and get this gang, he was also a nine-time Gold Glove Award winner, two-time Syung Award winner to boot, 1968, which was just the year that he went out of his head in 1970. Let's go over these 1968 numbers. 22 and 9 record, 34 games, ERA of. 1.12.

1-1-2 earned run average. WIP of 0.853. Yeah, my gosh, 268 strikeouts. 13 shutouts. I mean, this was the year of the pitcher overall in Major League Baseball, and Bob Gibson was at the head of the pack that year. 5.8 hits per nine innings that year.

Strikeout to walk ratio, 4.32, fewer than two walks per nine innings. He was a power pitcher who also had very, very good control. According to his catcher, Tim McCarver, he could locate a fastball or a slider on the outside portion of the plate within a zone of a few inches. He was on top of his already terrific game in 1968. My goodness, that was a season for the ages. He won 251 ball games in his 17-year career, spent entirely in St. Louis, 2.91 career earned run average, Whip of 1.188, 3,117 strikeouts led the league again in 1968 with 268 of them,

and that wasn't even his career high. 274 strikeouts was his career high in 1970, his other MVP season. He played in the 68 World Series as well, along with his teammate Lou Brock, against Al Kalin's Detroit Tigers, and that year he set the record, which still stands, for most strikeouts in a World Series game fanning 17 Detroit Tigers. What a way to cap off the year of the pitcher. In July of last year, it was announced that Gibson had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer

and was going to begin chemotherapy. Just a couple of days ago on October 2nd, that cancer claimed him in hospice care at the age of 84. We wish the families of Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Tom, Tom, receiver and Al Kalan, the very, very best. I hope you enjoyed this little stroll-down memory lane, hopefully celebrating these gentlemen's lives and careers. That was the intent. Again, I wanted this to be, you know, a happier, upbeat episode rather than a somber episode,

and celebrate what these men did on the field, and I hope I accomplished that. Please join us tomorrow for another edition of Locked-on Mariners. And joining us on tomorrow's program will be Oscar Madison, Guy Smiley, and a napkin ring. Remember to download radio and subscribe to this program on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app that springs into your brainhead. Look for us on any podcasting app there is. Follow us on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners and follow me on Twitter at DC underscore Lundberg.

Thank you again, ladies and gentlemen, for listening to today's episode, paying tribute and celebrating the lives of the four Hall of Famers whom we lost this year. We will be back tomorrow, and I will talk to you then. This is Joey Martin saying join us back here next time for another edition of Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.