2023 Sports History With Will O'Toole - Ep.128: Nate Colbert Tribute and the 1969 Padres

get out of here [Music] you got an actual Padre to play first base and hit cleanup for our team yep Nate Colbert hey everyone this is Willow tool welcoming you to another Edition actually our second episode here in 2023 Park Ridge Sports history like to welcome you back from Christmas holiday vacation and wish you all the best in the New Year hope everything is going well we are going to talk of course about Nate Colbert and actually I I thought this would be fun about the 69 San Diego Padres but I do want to kind of highlight what did transpire over the weekend or prior to that last Monday night and that was the unfortunate incident with uh Buffalo Bills uh defensive player uh Demar Hamlin I'm just just want to reference my notes Demar Hamlin from the University of Pittsburgh and of course he's been playing for the Buffalo Bills the last couple of years unfortunately the incident on the field and all our prayers go out to Damar and his family and it looks like he is making a recovery so that is great and the only reason I want to bring that up is because I do want to bring too late an incident happened way back in 1971. and that was a player by the name of Chuck Hughes I'm going to get to the others and uh Chuck Hughes was a player who unfortunately had a heart problem and actually had a heart attack on the field during a game between the Detroit Lions and the Cleveland Browns and Chuck Hughes he's in a Eagles uniform here on this uh football card wasn't able to get one with the Detroit Lions but um he was a pretty good receiver at the University of Texas El Paso which was when he was playing Texas Western they changed their name in 1967 to UTEP I kind of like that better and uh was drafted out of UTEP or Texas Western as a wide receiver had some good years in uh college and then was drafted by the Eagles never really made anything with the Eagles and then the Lions picked them up and it looked like he was starting to have a career Chuck Hughes and then the unfortunate incident happened on the field between Cleveland and Detroit uh so I just want to uh everyone to realize that football being a brutal sport uh violent yes but fortunately it looks like the Buffalo defensive back Demar Hamlin is making a recovery and like I said our thoughts and prayers go to him his family and the NFL because uh it is it's always a reminder of how brutal this sport can be it's a great sport we know that it is a violent sport but it is nonetheless a great sport that has uh really uh done wonderful things for the players who have participated of course for the fans who watch it rapidly each week and uh just once again I just are our thoughts and our prayers go out to uh the bills and of course the more Hamlet all right uh with the unfortunate passing of this week of Nate Colbert at the age of 76. uh I'd like to take some time I'm being prejudiced when I say this Nick Colbert happened to be one of my favorite players now look when we were watching baseball in the 70s and even in the late 60s and to a certain extent the 80s we didn't have all these baseball games going on simultaneously or even all these different networks so getting information from the west coast to the east coast you know remember those games were people don't realize this the Mets and the Yankees used to have first pitch about 805 and the games used to end at 10 35 but even that being said the West Coast games were still getting off at about 11 o'clock Eastern Standard Time so many times when we picked up a I grew up in Essex County so we were either getting the Newark evening news or the Star Ledger every once in a while I would pick up the Bergen Record um or the New York Times or the Daily News I I remember uh and this is just nostalgic now I remember in 1971 for some reason uh my father would go out about 10 30 at night on a Saturday night and he would pick up Sunday's papers and it was great because it was always during the summer that he did this so we were allowed to stay up and read the papers and I can remember always spreading out the sports section on the floor and reading that my father would have the times or the New York daily news or uh like I said the Star Ledger at that time because the Newark evening news I think had had gone under and many of the writers went to The Ledger interesting history maybe I'll do that one day sports uh Sports pages that we grew up with anyway we buy the uh the papers and it was just great but unfortunately those those papers came out too early for any West Coast even the afternoon games uh would be too late for to be printed in the paper so we didn't know that much about the players except for of course Nate Colbert and the reason why I knew so much about him was that my brothers and I would play this game Sports Illustrated baseball kind of like the old uh the other card game based on Dice and all the rest of it we like the other one that's where it's Illustrated and we had the three editions 70 71 72 and of course those were Colbert's great years with the Padres so I always liked them because I used to play the Padres quite a bit so I knew pretty much the roster of the 70 team not as much as the 69. but Colbert was a solid player I was reading about him as I came to a broadcast today chronic back problems really hurt him and of course covert is remembered for two things at least in my mind the 72 All-Star Game and of course really the week after that when he went down to a same place Atlanta Fulton County Stadium and put on a monster demonstration a double header and many Baseball fans will know that he had five homers 13 RBIs in a doubleheader sweep of the Atlanta Braves which matched probably his Boyhood Idol Stan Musial and I was I saw an episode on Major League Baseball Network they had it and um Bob Costas who was doing a story on Nate Colbert didn't know this was at the games that Mutual had this monster monster game himself and here he is I think it was I'm gonna say it was 1954 and here is covert 18 years later matching Stan demands unbelievable night here's the interesting thing Colbert in that in that series first of all the Padres stumped that year it was 72 it was a strike shortened season the Padres came into that game ready for this they were 8 and 20 in June and probably their best month of the year was July 12 and 12 when they played the All-Star Game they would lose uh 19 of 29 games in August however they actually won five straight games courtesy of Colbert's uh great performance in that doubleheader on August 1st ready for this Colbert in that series went nine for 15. kind of cooled off in the third game he had eight runs scored 15 RBIs but people don't know this he actually had six home runs in that four game set against the Atlanta Braves and he went in to that series with not bad stats even by well actually there would be terrific stats by today's standards with the metrics and all the rest of it not really paying attention to um the batting average but Colbert had been elected to the All-Star Game batting 233 he had 25 home runs 69 RBIs there was no one else on that team that you could actually commit to that you would say is an All-Star so and and he was a legitimate All-Star he had made the team the year before in 71 and also in 1970 he really bashed the ball and you got to remember Jack Murphy stadium was not a great home run hitting uh venue oh here's culbert 1972. absolutely one of the ugliest uniforms going uh and I will do since we have ugly sweater why don't we do ugly uniforms because I'll tell you you can take the whole NBA season from 70 to 71. those are the ugliest uniforms probably in the history of the NBA with that little swerve it looked like a racetrack going down many of the uniforms of Southern teams the Atlanta Hawks particularly had some of the ugliest ones but this I I think the all yellow was a bit much with the brown now I do like the Padre Brown and in fact I was a little upset with the team when they went to the blue uh the dark blue with the gold but this was 1972 with Nate Colbert and um it doesn't the uniforms really don't do much in terms of accentuating uh a a person's build but Nate was six two to 200 maybe 215. we wouldn't want to mess with them and actually the this the baseball bat five homers 13 RBIs overall he was 9 of 15. in that double header by the way he was seven of nine and uh they just drilled the Atlanta Braves that year or in those four game stretch and like I said they won 10 games in August they won five straight to start out the month and then really when you think about it they lost 19 of their next 24 games but it wasn't really uh Nate Colbert's and Colbert was always a good guy he had a a charity I was I was listening to that for kids so I I'm upset of course of his passing but I really want to accentuate his life he had three monster years for the Padres and I just want to go to that ready for this in seven well actually he starts out 1969. he was drafted by Houston uh originally I believe was signed by St Louis go they were frustrated with his performance how about this now I'm really going off on a tangent remember please be patient with this this is us sitting in the bar having a couple of hamburgers or maybe one hamburger and a couple of beers you decide and we're talking all things Sports and things just you start conversing and you remember this and this and this and this and um what I do remember or reading about uh Colbert was he's a St Louis kid he was drafted by St Louis but um they were a little frustrated with I guess expectations they let him go to Houston Houston takes him and this is my whole point sometimes you have a great manager and sometimes you have a manager that just changes or wants to reconfigure you whatever and sometimes it works for some players and sometimes it doesn't and it's amazing how uh there are certain managers that really you click with and others that and you would think that wow I thought he would work or be magical with everyone all right getting to this Harry Walker was the manager of the Astros and wanted really as Nate Colbert to become a spray hitter he thought he would be a better hitter as a spray hitter and Colbert came up as a Masher as a power hitting first baseman not with a lot of speed uh and really he took him out of what you could say his comfort zone he probably should have left him alone why because the Astros really got frustrated with him I was reading that and actually a minor league season he played like 25 games now he's 18 or 19 years old and in those 25 games never took the field defensively served in most of them as a pinch Runner and I think was oh for seven as a pinch hitter trying to adapt to Harry Walker's hitting philosophy now in the 69 book before Harry Walker is uh well respected by the Astro players the Doug Raiders uh Jim Bowden and all the rest of it for his kind of funcical way of doing things also he was very fundamentally sound so here's a guy that was well respected by the Astro players for the most part and yet here's a player that he was trying to help and it didn't work he goes to the Padres and he's excited about going to the Padres in the expansion and who would your 20 22 23 years old you've been frustrated in one organization actually two what and one was probably your favorite team as a kid and now you go to the Padres you have uh Redemption you have a chance now to prove your worth and he does actually doesn't technically I was looking this up and I'm going to go through the 69 Padres does not start the first game for the Padres it went to a guy by the name of Bill Davis who had never heard of and again this is why I love doing this show because it puts me on an odyssey really of a real journey of Baseball sports research and Bill Davis was a big six foot seven guy from the University of Minnesota who in the early 60s helped Minnesota the Golden Gophers to the College World Series and apparently and I forget his name right now his manager uh was one of the first coaches to integrate and his roommate because I think David's also played basketball kind of like Dave Woodfield at Minnesota was Archie Clark who I remember as a kid being a guard for the Baltimore Bullets and I remember I always thought he had a pretty cool name Archie Clark because you grow up with the Archies back in the 70s the the music group and then the cartoon comic book and he was a roommate anyway he starts gets drafted I think by Cleveland doesn't do anything there is a sign is drafted or picked by the San Diego Padres starts first base and doesn't last he is soon that first baseman spot is soon taken by uh Nate Colbert and ready for this in those first few years when the Padres really don't have much uh from 69 and I'm going to say this to 73 so that's five Good Seasons Colbert hit 24 homers 38 27 38 and 22. and I think in 1973 uh the following year in 74 he has 14 home runs and I think that's where the chronic back issues really come into play probably would have been able to survive a little bit longer remember he winds up with Detroit probably playing mostly DH yes he does and but doesn't last that long probably with today's uh medicine he probably could have could have really done something with the back issues and maybe had maybe three four more Good Seasons but even so he had two monster years probably his best season was 72. he hit 250 that year 38 home runs 111 RBIs actually stole 15 bases and Drew 70 walks you know that and actually probably because and you can't say he was he was their best hitter their best Thumper in the in the uh lineup for San Diego but really when you think about not bad he drew 45 walks in 69 56 63 70 and 54. and then even in his down year in 74 Colbert Drew 62 walks all right not a bad on base percentage every year over 300 all right uh mash the ball like I said did finish in the MVP voting in 72 probably much much of it due to that one one night five homers 13 RBIs can you imagine you know what's amazing we talk about the five home runs 13 RBIs and it is truly amazing then you realize that Sonny Jim bonnelly drove in 12 runs in one day also but in one game so it's just one of those things pretty amazing but he comes out really um of that series and everybody on the East Coast kind of knows him so uh I'm not saying it did much more for his career other than people are saying wow they have a pretty decent player uh in uh San Diego and Nate Colbert the week prior to that though I'll tell you this he does come on the national stage because in Extra Innings he walks in the 72 All-Star Game and scores the winning Run for the national league actually Joe Morgan drove him in from the Reds so those in a span of a week he really comes to national attention of all Baseball fans Not Just San Diego and not just you know crazy kids like me collecting baseball cards and playing Sports Illustrated baseball with my brothers uh but Colbert uh has that one how many players wouldn't take that one glorious moment uh in the spot like that five homers 13 RBI seven of nine that's a career for many players and for Colbert man that was just one day in a pretty good career I didn't realize this I'm still amazed at this he's the all-time home-run leader for the San Diego Padres he actually hit 163. I am amazed that this franchise after 50 some odd years in baseball still has not had a player total 200 career home runs now I know the Jack Murphy stadium was not a very good ballpark to hit in but still you know even in the 90s when we had home runs Galore you would think that the Padres would have somebody but with at least 200 home runs uh but like I said he remains the all-time home-run uh Padre and he is in their Hall of Fame and with the Padres uh he hit a solid 253 he played with Montreal in Houston Detroit and Oakland actually when you think about it sometimes you think of Oakland As an expansion team because they've moved so much but played on three expansion teams and I think he and Rusty because Rusty played with Houston Montreal and the Mets as well I can't remember he played with Detroit goes back to the Mets yeah I think uh Ron Fairley played with Toronto Montreal I can't think if he played with anybody else uh but I am sure that Nate is one of the few that have played on three expansion or more teams I I kind of looked that up one day what players played on the most expansion team that's Nate colber now I'd like to do this just go and talk about a little bit that 60 th San Diego team because I I think it would be a little fun first of all uh he was their All-Star in 1971 72 and 73. I believe that the All-Star player for the 70 team if I can remember might have been Ollie Brown nope it was the other guy I was thinking of Cito Gaston now on that 69 team ready for this it's a pretty interesting team first of all they stink they're terrible they're 52 and 110. they finished in last place but to be fair to the Padres they actually win their first three games as an expansion team they sweep the Houston Astros they actually win the first game 2-1 and I've mentioned this before I did a show where I had expansion team home runs the first ones in in history Ed spezio whose son would play for the world champion St Louis Cardinals Ed Spezia would hit the first home run it would tie the game in uh on opening day against the Astros 1-1 and the Astros and the Padres was squeak another run across the plate to win their very first game in their franchise history 2-1 spezio hits the first home run but then they win the next two against the Astros so you're saying wow kind of like the Seattle uh Pilots they won quite a few games but then it goes all all downhill from that they only win 49 of the next 159 games that they play to finish 52 and 110. and this is what I'm saying to be fair to that team ready for this in 1969 when baseball split the aforementioned used in Astros probably got hurt big time by losing those first three games they finished 81 and 81. but had they finished 84 and 78 ready for this this is what happened to them let me just get it here the Padres finished in last place 41 games behind but that's not so bad because the Expo is also an expansion team even uh winning with an identical record they fit 48 games behind the Mets here's why that Astro team losing that game those first three games might have cost them the division I'm not saying it would have but they would have finished 84 and 78 which would have been it's still technically they would have finished in fifth place in the National League West but when you think about it the Braves only won only had 93. so who knows you get those three wins there and maybe you're talking real pressure on the brakes who knows maybe the Astros was Wilson and durker with Doug Raider Johnny Edwards Joe Morgan might have been able to do something else uh late in the season that being said those Padres were a terrible team and the reason why I bring up Ollie Brown is that he is actually the very first person that was drafted by the San Diego Padres uh in 1969. however let's get to cedo gas and the reason why I have two pictures of Gaston this is 71 this is 72. notice how he changed his stance the shame of it is I didn't get a 70 card uh and I think it's because he wasn't in a batting stance it would have been interesting because Gaston in 69 he was on that team ceto gas and hit two homers 28 RBIs the next year playing basically full time played 146 games Gaston had a good season ready for this 29 93 318 batting average and he had nine triples and he makes the All-Star team I don't believe he appears but then take a look at this in 71 he hit 17 over 61 RBIs with a 228 average now he raises his stance in this baseball card picture and I don't think it helps them because by 72 he's at 7 44 although he's has his batting average 40 points higher at 269. so he was up and down with the power numbers but but ceto gasin is most known for is that he takes Toronto to the promised land not once but twice and wins the World Series in 92 and 93. uh with a team that was really incredible when I think about Roberto alamore Dave Winfield coming in being a serviceable veteran player Paul Molitor uh being a big time player in that team Pat Borders their catcher uh number of great stud pitchers Tom Hankey I think was on those teams uh just a really solid team uh had a great Outfield play just a really solid baseball team and had talent that had to be managed and it was managed well by Clarence Sito Gaston now here's another player I got to uh mention and of course it's Ollie Brown now I took the 67 picture because this is the reason why he was probably uh taken by the Padres simply because he had no room there was no room at the Inn for Ollie Brown in Candlestick Park and that first year Brown has a solid year played 150 games and when he was given full time status he was 20 home runs 61 RBIs with a 264 average solid solid especially for a a you know an expansion team with the Giants prior to that in 67 with this picture he played 120 games had 13 homers 53 RBIs 267. but I'm sure that the Giants knew they had Bobby bonds coming up uh they needed they also had a guy named Ken Henderson and I'm sure that they were also thinking about Dave Kingman in their minor leagues so if they had to get rid of one player here it was the Giants who had a plethora of great slugging players in the 60s talking about Jim Ray Hart of course Willie Mays Willie McCovey Orlando Cepeda um and soon to be Bobby bonds and then Dave came in because Dave came in had called had over 450 some odd home runs just couldn't you know batting average he he would be a great player today Antonio right now he'd be the Joey Gallo of baseball today um like he was then although he did have some good Seasons he had one or two Good Seasons uh where he was really dangerous uh drew a ton of walks even had a decent batting average but Al Farrar is the guy I want to talk about because Ferrara and probably has one of the best and most honest uh quotes about why he wanted to be a major league baseball player and I saw it in ball four and that's why I loved it so much Al Ferrara stated he always wanted to see his picture on a baseball card now I gotta be very honest to you what kid playing baseball whether it's Wiffle ball or stickball or Sandlot baseball or Little League or travel baseball one of his things one of his dreams egotistically is to see his baseball picture on a baseball card uh and I think his honesty should be respected here now I didn't take he played for the Dodgers he played for the Padres really just a a uh pinch hitter bench player this is the 69 card though from the tops uh collection and I had to get that one I do like the San Diego on top with the brown hat looks good all right and you can tell it's brown as opposed to let's say black of the Giant player right there and of course I had to put in Al Santorini Al Santorini of course played for the Cardinals and also the Padres but if you're a New Jersey uh High School baseball fan you all know that Santorini actually uh matriculated at Irvington High School and back in the 60s and probably late 50s 60s and early 70s they didn't have all these County tournaments but they did have the Greater Newark tournament I was as it was called and it's since been called the Essex County tournament Al Santorini uh faced off with his Union High School Club against the Parsippany High School team that was led by Future baseball player Richie zisk and they played at Doc Gold's field in Verona now I didn't see the game I'm just telling you this from uh Baseball fans at the time who saw everyone play and uh I think Santorini struck out zisk a couple of times in the game and uh I believe that Irvington but I think Parsippany won the uh contest but Al Santorini goes to the San Diego Padres and uh in 69 never really has the career that many New Jersey fans were hoping for he pitched for Atlanta San Diego and St Louis I do remember having I think a 71 St Louis card and everyone making a big deal that wow he's from New Jersey and all the rest of it Santorini was 17 and 38. in his career his probably his best season was with the Cardinals no actually with San Diego in 69 I got to give him credit it was eight wins 14 losses not bad era of 395 uh pitched 184 innings Hey listen he played I didn't 99.9 of the American male population in the United States all right or in my my side this guy played 17 and 38 career I take that 429 era uh like I said might have been who knows I always like to think that if these players are on different different teams in and it's always the big if I know it's the smallest word probably one of the smallest words in the English language but it means so much if you know yeah if I was born six six 250 pounds and could run like a gazelle I'd be playing in the NFL I get that but you know sometimes like I was saying about uh Nate Colbert if you meet that right coach or you just happen to play for that right team at the right moment your career could uh could have really taken off I mean think about it culverted played let's say as the first baseman for the Pirates instead of Bob Robertson how lethal would the lumber team been then not that Robertson was a bad player he was an excellent player for a couple of years there right or let's say he played with Atlanta in 69. and 70 and 71. you know Atlanta won the Western Division in 69 could they have competed in 70 and 71 and 72 against the Reds while 71 the Reds were 500 under 500. I I think I understand could Colbert have done this imagine him with the 69 Mets instead of the 69 Padres maybe he would have been the MVP instead of Don Clendenin in the World Series so it's it's a big if right same thing with Santorini all right now I mentioned one manager on that team and I did say that Preston Gomez was the uh first manager but there was also another future manager on that team who would take Preston Gomez's position and that was Don Zimmer and this is Zimmer with the 55 Brooklyn Dodgers baseball card and of course Zimmer for many Yankee fans he's beloved he was uh on those world championship teams in the late 90s the core four group uh this is a 55 Dodger card I can't say and without looking up and I I I didn't bother looking it up I'm sure that he has a ring from that World Series team uh you know he wasn't getting into the starting lineup he is an original met 62. he does have some uh horrific hit by pitch where he was hit in the head had a metal plate inserted from a terrible beaming in um in baseball when he was at the plate he's probably the chief reason why the players have mandatory batting helmets today uh and remember that actually the last player I do know this they used to have a plastic or a metal lining that they could insert into their cloth baseball caps they were allowed to do that and Bob Montgomery I believe of the Boston Red Sox was the last one to wear that type of protection and now of course not only is it the helmet but they have the almost the chin and ear guard on both sides I remember that Yaz used to have the one flap on the one side I just thought that was kind of cool but uh things have changed and for safety's sake probably for the better I was just looking at a YouTube of it's funny how things change uh seeing Babe Ruth get hit by a pitch and it's just a little and pride does hurt 98 you know everyone thinks I was an off-speed pitch off-speed pitches were coming at the very War at the very least 70 miles an hour from 60 feet away so 70 miles an hour and Beirut just brushes it off and shows it off to uh the pitcher on the mound don't know who the pitcher was it was just a a quick camera bite anyway uh that first manager and I'm gonna get to this too first manager was Preston Gomez now Gomez unfortunately was saddle with for the most part mediocre players uh I I don't think there's any way I can say it differently yes uh some of those players become integral parts of championship teams like a Clay Kirby and like a Joe negro who I want to really spend some time with because I'll never understand that uh but as a collection yeah sometimes the mediocrity Rises instead of their special gifts that they can give to a winning ball Club but Preston what I always what impressed me about Preston is that he does go on to be a third base coach well I think he starts at the third base coach you know works his way but he actually supposedly had individual signs and signals for players on each and every team and his reasoning was look I could have you today you could be traded to let's say the Minnesota twin because I think he was doing it with the California Angels you could be with us today get traded tomorrow and now you know all of our signals but if I just concentrate on giving you one player uh the signals I'd have a list or a catalog of 24 different signs and languages for that particular guy and all particular players on the team I don't have to worry about you maybe stealing our signs so it was a pretty it's an impressive thing that you can have basically no 24 baseball languages because that's what signals are it's a line you know it's it's a language within a language of sport it's pretty impressive and he was able to do that now the reason why I want to show you this uh I loved when they took these pictures this is 72. actually this is the year he's fired and Zimmer takes over for the um San Diego Padres and I was trying to look I couldn't find it there is a picture of Don Zimmer you have to really if you think Colbert looks terrible in this uniform imagine a guy who was nicknamed the gerbil by Bill Lee imagine Don Zimmer in an all yellow outfit uh in a picture with the brown piping or striping going down uh the pants it's not really good these San Diego Padre uniforms aren't so bad though the white with the San Diego I like the lettering of the San Diego Padres list and I'm being prejudiced when I say this they have one of the best logos with the Padre swinging the baseball bat in his Garb and in his sandals it's a great logo I'm so glad that they brought it back I wish they would put it on their baseball hats maybe as a uh I don't know maybe a throwback or I wish they would put it as a permanent patch on their uniforms it's a great one and the fella on top I know met fans will know who he is this is Chris ganazaro and the other fella is by the name of Clay Kirby now Kirby was a pitcher and he's wearing a batting helmet now what I know about Kirby is this Kirby of course is true he actually was pitching a no-hitter and lost it and was actually taken out of the game he was uh losing the aim one nothing courtesy of a walk an error and a wild pitch he's losing the game going into the ninth inning and actually the manager pressing Gomez replaces him in the game instead of just you know at that point just let him pitch the no-hitter but he didn't get the first no-hitter in Padre history that wasn't until Musgrove um or Musgrave just did it a couple of seasons ago anyway Kirby does go and pitches for the Reds he's on the 75 World Series team interesting thing uh and if you ever I'm pretty sure it's Kirby but Johnny Bench talks about how Anderson puts him up in the bullpen but it was a decoy because apparently he had broken his arm and was not available for the World Series and the Reds did not want the Red Sox to know of the injury so Clay Kirby 10-6 one year for the Reds in 75 and gets a World Series ring but this fella Chris cannizzaro he is not only placed for the expansion Med team but he's he plays for the 69 San Diego franchise expansion team and he's actually so all you trivia Buffs out there the very first All-Star in Padre history and in my last minute and a half I want to talk about this guy Joe nikro I will never but then this is bizarre Anyway by the Cubs do you realize that he won 24 games for the Cubs and they let him lose they trade him to the Padres and of course I'm not saying that he was a great pitcher he was definitely a serviceable pitcher he wins 20 games he pitches for those Astro teams of the 80s I do believe that he pitched for either the 87 or 91 Minnesota Twins and gets a World Series ring uh he is a knuckleball pitcher and we'll talk about knuckleball pitchers in the future because uh Bill James had an interesting comment about that one time thinks that knuckleball pitchers are never taken seriously and they wind up on crummy teams because they're an afterthought and as we can see I it's an effective pitch but necro was on that 69 team my whole premise is this why did the Cubs ever get rid of him wasn't like they got uh anyone back of worth in the trade but it just goes to show you how mediocre front office management was of the Chicago Cubs having at 1.5 Hall of Famers and losing a hundred games five Hall of Famers and never even sniffing the pennant hey everyone this is Will O'Toole thanking you again for joining me on Park Ridge Sports history shout out to Howard Fredericks who has really been a godsend helping produce the show I'll see you next week with another Edition and again [Music]