Put the whole scenario in place–the fact that the club was 15-30 going to Memorial Day and think that you were knocking off the Cardinals, who won 100 games and doing it in their ballpark–it was just unbelievable. It’s the only way to put it. There was a lot of pinching going on.
When we landed and went down to the ballpark to get our luggage (1), it was already a quarter to 4, and there were hundreds of people at Minute Maid Park at that hour.
When the club was 15-30, Phil Garner would not let the club quit. I’ve been doing this for 50 years. I’ve seen all kinds of teams. I’ve seen clubs mail it in that time of year, saying, “Well, we’ll go to the ballpark and we’ll play for contracts.” That would be the attitude, and it didn’t get any better, and a lot of times it got worse. Garner just preached the sermon that, “Hey, we can get back in this.”
We were with the `79 Pirates together (2). As a matter of fact, he hit .500 in that World Series. We’re not just baseball friends. We’re very close. We’re both big bird hunters. For several years, “Scraps” and I and Nolan Ryan as a trio would go on several hunting trips around Corpus Christi.
“Scraps” is famous for his competitiveness. That’s the way he is on a quail hunt. And he smokes those horrible black cigars that drive you up a wall, and here you are in an enclosed hunting shack for five days, no shower. So you’re a pretty good friend when you’re in that element.
I’ve been doing the Astros for 21 years. I left here after the `84 season when the Cubs were good enough and if they don’t stub their toe in San Diego, they’d have been in the World Series. I know Sparky Anderson told me after the fact that “we got a break that we didn’t have to play you guys in the World Series,” and they went on and beat the Padres.
I was there 16 years. I did Cubs, I did White Sox, I did football and basketball. In those days you did everything. When I was at WIND, you had to do a record show everyday besides do the ballgames.
I’d been promised that I was replacing Brickhouse, and then two years later when it’s a stunner and they bring him in (3), we had a past in St. Louis and later in Chicago. It was a fire waiting to have kerosene poured on it, and one thing led to another, and that’ll be in my book, “Making Airwaves–60 Years with Milo at the Mike,” as I celebrate my 60th anniversary on the air on Thanksgiving.
I was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in ’74. Never really got any treatment for it. Before I went to spring training in ’82, the figures on the count of the white corpuscles reached the stage where they said when you get back from spring training, if they aren’t better, I’m going to have to put you on medication. It went on for a year and because of the highs and lows, because of the things they put me on, it was a tough year. Lou Boudreau called me every morning because he could see what I was going through. Before the next spring training, they said if you come back as good as you are now, we can take you off the medication. I haven’t had to be treated since.
My best call, because I hear it somewhere every week, is Henry Aaron’s 715th home run that broke Babe Ruth’s record.
One day on a Friday around 1 o’clock, the phone rang, and Bill Guilfoile (4)–he’s another great friend; more than just a baseball friend–he didn’t say hello. He just said, “I’d like to speak to the newest member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.” Well, I lost it.
Tim Purpura (5) grew up on the South Side. He tells some wonderful stories how his dad used to take him to all the White Sox games. And the funny thing about it is, I don’t know how many kids paid attention to who the general manager was. He started asking questions along those lines. And Roland Hemond kind of took to him. He gives Roland Hemond a lot of credit for where he is today. And now here we are, with Roland still with a tie to the White Sox and the kid that he took a liking to is the general manger of the team that will battle his club in the World Series.
I’m hangin’ it up here after this year, as far as travel. I’m going to keep doing home games and spring training.
(1). Thursday morning after eliminating the Cardinals to reach the World Series.
(2). When Hamilton called Pirates games and Garner, nicknamed “Scrap Iron,” played for Pittsburgh.
(3). Harry Caray.
(4). From the Hall of Fame.
(5). The Astros’ general manager.
