Cal Ripken Jr. Wrestling Before Games? MLB Stories You Won’t Believe

The majors look glamorous from the stands, but the real game is the pressure, the travel, and the personalities you share a clubhouse with. I’m joined by former MLB outfielder and longtime minor league manager Brad Komminsk, and he takes me straight into the moments most fans never hear about: the shock of going from high school baseball to pro ball, the constant need to prove you belong, and the whiplash of getting moved from city to city on trades and waivers.

Brad walks through his first call-up and what it’s like to face a veteran like Fernando Valenzuela when you’re the new guy and the strike zone doesn’t feel even. From there we get into pure clubhouse legend: Cal Ripken Jr. wrestling before home games, Billy Ripken’s prankster streak, and the day Ricky Henderson literally called time so a bat boy could bring out his Oakley sunglasses before a record-setting moment. It’s funny, it’s unreal, and it also shows how confidence, routine, and identity show up at the highest level of Major League Baseball.

We also revisit one of baseball’s most infamous flashpoints, the 1984 Braves vs Padres bench-clearing brawl, then shift into what baseball coaching can learn from it: why managers argue umpires, how players try to protect themselves in chaos, and what leadership looks like when emotions run hot. Brad finishes with hard-earned lessons from managing in minor league baseball, spotting future stars, and the mindset that survives a long season: leave it all on the field and move on fast.

If you love MLB stories, baseball coaching, player development, and the mental toughness side of the game, subscribe, share this with a baseball friend, and leave a review so more coaches can find the show.

Transcript

Opening Sponsor And Welcome

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Today on Baseball Coaches Unplugged, how Cal Ripkin Jr. jeopardized the streak before home games, the story behind Ricky Henderson and Oakley sunglasses, and being involved in the classic bench clearing brawl between the Braves and the Padres in 1984. Former MLB outfielder Brad Kaminsk, next on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

This is the Ultimate High School Baseball Coaching Podcast. Baseball Coaches Unplugged, your go-to podcast for baseball coaching tips, drills, and player development strategies. From travel to high school and college. Unlock expert coaching advice grounded in real success stories, data-backed training methods, and mental performance tools to elevate your team. Tune in for bite-sized coaching wisdom, situational drills, team culture building, great stories and proven strategies that turn good players into great athletes. The only podcast that showcases the best coaches from across the country with your host, Coach Ken Carpenter.

Pressure Of A First Round Jump

SPEAKER_02 1:14

Today's show is powered by the Netting Professionals, improving programs one facility at a time. Will Minor and his team at the Netting Professionals specialize in the design, fabrication, and installation of custom netting for baseball and softball. This includes backstops, batting cages, BP turtles, screens, ball carts, and more. They also design and install digital graphic wall padding, windscreen, turf, turf protectors, dugout benches and cubbies. The netting pros also work with football, soccer, lacrosse, golf courses, and pickleball. Contact them today at 844-620-2707. That is 844-620-2707. Or you can visit them online at www.nettingpros.com. Check out Netting Pros on X, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects. Hello and welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged. I'm your host, Coach Ken Carpenter. Don't forget to hit the subscribe button and look for a brand new episode every Wednesday where I sit down with some of the best coaches from across the country. Well, it's the beginning of April, and every high school, college, and major league baseball team is getting their season started. And I thought it would be great to take you behind the scenes and into the clubhouse of Major League Baseball and have a guest who can share stories where he was teammates with some of the greatest players to play the game of baseball. His name is Brad Kamensky. He was a first-round draft pick out of high school, and he joined the Atlanta Braves. He ended up playing in seven different organizations. And he is going to take us behind the scenes to share some incredible stories that the average baseball fan has no idea these things took place. Here it is, Brad Kaminsk on Baseball Coaches Unplugged. Well, you go from a top five first-round draft pick out of high school straight to the pros. Can you describe the pressure that comes with going from high school to professional baseball?

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Well, it was interesting, you know, because I've always, as a as a player, you always won the best competition. You always I always tried to play up when I was in when I was younger, you know, I wanted I played Legion ball when I was young and I played versus when I was a freshman and all that stuff. So you always want to face the best competition. It was an eye-opener, though, because I went to um I went down to the Abbey League and I was in Kingsport, Tennessee, and it was predominantly a college league. So I was playing against all these college grads that were, you know, pretty good players, and there were a lot of good players around. So um they were pretty good. It was an eye-opener for sure. I competed, you know, the best I could and and had a decent first year. But um, you know, I think the I never really looked at it as a lot of press. I just I guess maybe I did because I like some some of the guys, the college guys, one of the college guys one time, it's actually it's actually Dave Steve's brother, Steve. He was our catcher on my team in uh in Kingsport. Um, and he's like, he's like, I was really wondering what you'd be like as a first-round pick. I didn't I I couldn't imagine that you'd be any good, you know, or that good. And he's like, You're you're you're pretty good, man. You got some pretty good tools on you. Because I I had some pop, you know, pop for a young kid, and I was a little scrawny, a little 178-pounder, you know, back then. And and um, then I could run, I can, you know, fly a little bit, you know, and and uh I I think I surprised a lot of them too. But I just I just every every year I felt like I had to prove myself and prove why I was the number one pick. You know, every year I was going in and trying to trying to do the best I could and and uh really show people I deserve to be that that pick, you know.

SPEAKER_02 5:19

How long did you you go playing minor league baseball? And when you that moment came where you get the call that you're going up to the big leagues, what was that like? And you know, how was that first game?

First Call Up Versus Valenzuela

SPEAKER_01 5:33

It was kind of surreal. I I I was up in I was in Rochester, um, New York. We were playing the Red Wings, and um, I wasn't playing that today, and I was pissed because I played every game. You know, I didn't I I was out every day, you know, he took me out, and he's like, Yeah, you're not playing today. I'm like, what are you talking about? I'm not playing. Scoring the end of the year is in August, you know, mid-August or whatever. And I'm like, what do you mean I'm not playing? You know, I was, you know, I was had as good a stats, probably the best stats of anybody in the league overall. Um, I was just I was a couple points out from the for the you know the you know, the batting title and my home runs were right at the top, you know. RBIs had like a hundred ribbies, and he's like, You're not playing today. I'm like, whoa, whoa, I felt good, you know, it was August, but I was I was feeling good. We're we're playing good, winning some games. And um, he's like, you're not playing. And then after the game, he said, Hey, you're going up. Now he's like, now you might not you might turn around and come right back. Claudel Washington had like a maybe a pulled hamstring or groin or something. They're like, we're not sure he's they're gonna put you on the, you know, put him on the DL or not. So you might be coming right back. I'm like, okay, whatever. So I they I fly up. Um, and for some reason, it was, it must have been a day game, maybe a Saturday day game. And um like the flight was late. I was supposed to be, I was penciled in the lineup, so I didn't even I didn't play though because I was too late. Someone else played that day. And then the next day, I got um I got a play against Fernando Valence of Whale. It was my first day. And um, and and Atlanta back in the day, like they had no backdrops. Like nowadays, you got those big green or big black backdrops back there that are massive. In Atlanta, they had no backdrop. They had silver seats out in the center field. Like the silver, like in high school, that are glare, and the sun's beating down on a square. And my roommate at the time, Randy Johnson, he's like, you know, I knew right away it wasn't gonna be a good day for you. I he's like, I can't believe they played you in that can do with the uh, you know, with with the with the glare and everything. He said, that was not a good opener for him. I I punched out three times against Fernando, but um the thing was too, I mean, he he was a great pitcher, don't get me wrong, but back then the strike zones, they didn't have that little box like they do now. And if a you know, if it barely flips it, it's a strike, and if it's an eighth of an inch off, it's a ball. It's like if it was six inches off the off the plate, and it was a veteran like Fernando against me, a rookie, it was a strike. It could be a foot outside. And he might call it a strike. And then if you look back and did it again, he would just tell a guy, hey, just throw it out there again, and they wouldn't. They'd punch you out like that. You didn't even have to they didn't have to throw a strike. So the game has it's changed that much. It was like the until you really proved your proved your worth, they they would they would prove it for it. They say you gotta you gotta almost be exceptional. The best pitchers, yeah. I mean, they would get whatever they wanted, you know. If you kept hitting that spot, it was a strike. You know, it was a strike, it was a strike. Consistent. They're good, you know, they they caught it every time, you know. Um, but um, it it's a totally different game than it is today.

Trades Waivers And Constant Moving

SPEAKER_02 8:47

Yeah, that no doubt about that, there. You know, you played with the Braves and what I what I was able to look up the Brewers, Indians, Giants, Orioles, A's, and the White Sox.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

And I was everywhere. And I played for the Remini Pirates in Italy, too.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

Yeah, there you go. How difficult is that as a as a player? Because everybody sees somebody uh get traded nowadays, and they look at it and they go, Hey, you know, we we picked this guy up or whatever. But how difficult is it for you as a player to go to a new team in a new city and not just the baseball end of things, but you got to find a place to live and things like that?

SPEAKER_01 9:28

You gotta do it all. Yeah, it's um like a couple of those were like major league to minor league trades. Like I went when I went to Milwaukee, I was traded for Deion James. Um, you know, I got a call from the GM. Like they could actually call my parents and man, we're so happy to have him, man. He's gonna be a great addition to our team. And I had a great spring and barely taste, I got a September call if that's it. Um so I really didn't, they I was in a hotel for for that, but but um and I went to the Indies as a six-year free agent after playing for a couple years in Milwaukee's organization, made the team. So I went to Cleveland, did all my stuff. Um, really never got hurt, but they they wanted to sign Mike Young, the GM, was old Warrior. Mike was, you know, an old Warrior too, a switch hitter. So um at the time I had a bad asthma attack, so they put me on the DL and sent me down with the with the asthma attack. It's kind of mysterious one. And then um then I had to go out to Colorado Springs, so I had to move out to Colorado Springs, move all my stuff from from Cleveland to Colorado Springs. Then I got called back up, so I had to move it all back. Um so it was, you know, it was interesting. Yeah, you know, at the end of spring training, my second year with the uh with the Indians, I got I got put on the waiver wire. Like I was one of the first guys ever to be wavered. The the Giants picked me up off the white waiver wire. So the last day of spring, getaway day, it's getaway game. I walk in, the game's going on in Scottsdale. I get on the plane, I go to San Francisco. You know, so I had just a suitcase of clothes. I go up there, get a get a hotel, or not get a hotel. I uh, you know, I end up renting an apartment, I stay there a month, they get put me on the waiver wire again, and Baltimore claims me. So I'm like the I'm the first guy in history to get claimed twice. And I get clay came claimed twice within a month. So then I had to fly over to Baltimore, get a place to stay, and I was in Baltimore all year. Um but they they you know then they pay for your and the biggest say pay for your transport. So you get whatever. I don't know what it is now. They probably give you 30 or 40 grand to move. I don't know, maybe more than that. Um but back then they gave you, I don't know, five grand or something or 10 grand or something to move all your stuff. And I was uh mine was all rental stuff, so it was no big deal, and a couple of suitcases, so that's pretty easy. But um, yeah, nowadays it's more for production. They get obviously the money gets so much more, and who knows what's been negotiated into those deals. Probably probably pretty more than a lot of people make in the country in a year.

Ripkens Wrestling And Clubhouse Pranks

SPEAKER_02 11:58

Yeah. Well, you you played, you know, uh in the 80s and you during an era where some of there were some truly just great players back in back in the eighties and and probably uh even more legendary characters of the game, I guess you could say. Who are some of the most unforgettable personalities that you uh shared a field or clubhouse with?

SPEAKER_01 12:24

I mean, the Ripkins were pretty cool. Billy was Billy's the funny one. Cal's like the Cal was a beast, you know. He was like, I mean, I'll tell you a funny story about Cal, which I I don't know if I I can't I honestly everybody knows about his streak, but we used to have a big clubhouse guy that was, I mean, he was probably 6'4, like two, he was probably 250, this guy. And Cal and him every day at home, every day, they would wrestle. I mean, wrestle now. They would Cal would be dripping sweat down. They were they were throwing each other all over the clubhouse, like every day. It wasn't like uh just a once every now and then. And it was just like his thing. I'm like going, how did this guy ever stay healthy after doing that every day? You know, you you know, someone's gonna step on a toe or break a pinky or or do something like that. But um, you know, it was it was it was wild to to watch. And, you know, he's a great guy. I mean, Cal was awesome. The Billy was a funny one. Billy was a Billy was a trip. He was uh, I mean, he always had something up his sleeve and doing something or making jokes and uh and stuff like that. He was he was he was he was a character. I mean, he had the obviously everybody saw the baseball card with the bat with the, you know, I mean, if you look up Billy, Billy Ripkin's baseball card with the bat, you know, everybody will see it. If most people have probably seen it by now, but I mean he did that just mess with him saying, I didn't do nothing about it. He knew exactly what he was doing, you know. So um, yeah, it was it was funny. They're just a bunch of good guys. We had we had so much fun, you know. Um probably the in the minor leagues, it's probably maybe more fun. Because everybody's, you know, everybody's, you know, no one's making any money and they're just they go out, and it's like a different, different atmosphere, you know. You know, in the major leagues, most of the guys are married, they go home to their kids and stuff. But um, there it's a lot of single young guys and they're out running around and having fun and and doing their thing. And he and uh like he had the we used to have like the red-eye flights at five o'clock in the morning. So you're getting up at 3:30 or 4 to go to the airport to to fly out at 5 and be in an airport all day. And like we had this one guy that he would like, he would, he would bring the fake puke and throw it in front of a you know, the stewardess back then when you could do it, you know. Nowadays you'd get thrown off and arrested. But back then you could you could in in we used to glue like quarters and dimes down in airports, you know, just for and have somebody come and pick them up. I remember this this woman being bossed, and they'd won. I think it's probably probably the same guy probably glued this quarter down. This lady came to pick it up. And I tell you what, she was she exploded. You men, you were all. I mean, she called us every name in the book. You guys, I mean, just it was hilarious. Everybody was dying. And then you'd have the old, you know, you'd have the the old dollar bill or like on the field, like a baseball and fishing line. You know, you'd throw, you'd put a dollar out in the middle of an airport and it'd be on a fishing line, and you know, someone would come, oh, they're kind of casually looking, and they see this dollar bill, and they'll go down to grab it, and he'd yank it away, and they'll fall over themselves. And they would do the same, they would do the same thing. We'd do the same thing on the field too. You'd throw a ball out there for some guy to go get one of the players would go get it, and you just start you know, reeling it in, you know, and it's just it was just funny stuff, you know. Good, good, honest, clean, fun, you know. Um, everyone on their phones are thinking of thinking of goofy stuff to do. So uh yeah, the good old days. They were fun.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

Now, were there any players uh opponents, I guess, that you're like, well, this guy is just he's different. He's he's not all there.

Ricky Henderson Oakleys And Record Day

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Um Yeah, but I can't who was a weirdo? There are probably a lot of them. There's some some whack jobs out there for sure. I'm just trying to think who who would be uh who I'd who I'd classify as that. I don't even know if I would offhand, but I mean you you'd see uh I can't I can't think of one offhand, but there's there's plenty of characters out there. Believe there's there's every personality under this, under the sun on a baseball field or anywhere for that matter. You know, everybody has their own little little characters that are to do their thing. So yeah, it's it's uh there there's some there's some beauties out there for sure.

SPEAKER_02 16:45

Now, did you ever play against Ricky Henderson?

SPEAKER_01 16:49

I played I lockered next to Ricky. I'll tell you something. Oh, right. Yeah, Ricky was my yeah, he lockered next to me. He would not know me. He he didn't know me then, and I lockered next to him for three months. He would have no idea what my name was. But I mean Ricky like I was I was the day there the day he set the record. So um he walked. I believe he won. He did walk. He walked, and he had to call time. That was a day game, he had to call timeout. And the reason was he didn't have his Oakley glasses. Well, he wasn't hitting an Oakley's that day, so he needed his Oakley, so he called the bat called Timeout and had the bat boy run his Oakley's out. So Oakley, that's when Oakley, that's when Oakley's were just this was like their first year, second year. They're just they're giving all the players to to advertise when they just came out. And it it was rumored that he had like a hundred thousand dollar deal if he broke the record in the glasses. So he had to stop the game specifically to get the glasses. And he obviously broke the record and and uh got his whatever, hundred grand, whatever. It might have been more, it might have been a million bucks for all I know, but they paid him big money to break the break the record in those glasses. And then so he had his speech, you know, I'm the greatest of all time, which he was. He was freaking what an athlete. And then I was I, you know, I was inside after the game, and uh he was sitting there and all these reporters were there, and I'm just kind of minding my own business, kind of taking it in, you know, it's pretty cool. And and uh one of the reporters asked the Haases who owned Levi Strauss, they gave him a 9-11 Porsche to when he set the record. They drove it out on the field. There's your new car, you know, Ricky. And at the time, I don't know what a probably 80 grand back then, you know, that's a lot of money. And one of the reporters said, Oh man, Ricky, that's so nice. The Haases gave you this beautiful 9-11, and he's like, Ricky don't like Porsche. Ricky like Mercedes. And that was it. I mean, why didn't Ray mine mean? I'm Ricky. What are you saying, man? If you don't want it, I'll take it. But but uh I just thought it was so funny, you know, how he and you know, I would never say that. You just take it with a grain of salt. I give an 80,000, go sell and buy a Mercedes, you know, buy two Mercedes, whatever you gotta do. But but uh yeah, he was something else. Yeah, he always talked in the third person, and and uh he was everything, but he wanted what a town, man. He was unbelievable.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

And and you'd locker beside him and and he didn't know you're gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Oh no, I mean, I don't there were stories out, like he when he was in New York, he you know, Raghetti. He would say, or Dave would say, like when they're maybe maybe he was coaching later, maybe playing. He said, Ricky, what's my name? He said, You rags, man. No, Ricky, that's my nickname. What's my name? He said, You you're rags, you're rags. They called Raggetty Rags. And um, yeah, he couldn't tell him what his name was. He just called by which I get, you know, why nicknames are so prevalent in the major leagues that every, you know, you call him so much. I mean, but he he was serious. He didn't know, you know, I might black out and I'd call you carp, but I really know your name's Ken, you know, and um, which everybody probably calls you carp. I mean, that's a standard you're a you're a carp, you know. Every every carp here's a carp, you know, at least in baseball. And uh, you know, he he was rags, and that's all he knew him as is rags, you know. So he was he was a trip. He was but what a talent, man. He was something else. He was a good guy. I didn't I could never say anything bad. I was it's just he was a good old boy.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

Yeah. Was there a a road trip or a game or a spring training game that a story that you remember that for anybody out there they'd say that there's no way that happened, but it's it's like one of those stories that's absolutely true, and you know, you just look back at it and go, I cannot believe that happened.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

We had some good fighting stories, you know, with the Braves. We had the the San Diego fight, the classic back in '84. I said someone was played it the other day, you know. That was that was someone like, man, this thing's on why this thing escalated like it did. It just kept going on and on and on and all through the night. And it just, it was just something. I mean, it's like, you know, some of that, I mean, I mean, you almost got to go, you almost got to go step by step. It's been so long about, you know, trying Pasquale Press and Alan Wiggins, and then Wiggins wanted to fight him, but not really. It's probably a probably a cocaine deal going bad, because I was big back then. It was probably some kind of drug deal that went bad, you know, and and uh, but he didn't go get him, you know. So then I think Leffers maybe was pitching and drilled him or tried to drill him and gets thrown out and just it went on and on, just pitcher after pitcher. Pasquel was like, he was like a high strung, you know, I don't know how to, you know, fast. He's just kind of those one of those bodies that's like high strung energy, whatever. It's like he's so skinny too. You couldn't hit him, man. It was like the dude was virtually impossible to hit. He was so skinny and he was on the lookout. He's freaking like he's on speed or something. You know, he's probably on code probably back then. But um, you know, and they finally got him, but they they threw three of their managers out, and we we cleared the benches, I don't know, two. Or three times, four times, like one right after another. And finally, by the end of the game, they just sent everybody up to the up to the clubhouse and said, Hey, if you're pinch hitting, you can come down, or if you're coming in the game, you can come down. But they they basically kicked everybody out of the st out of the stadium except the people playing, you know, and we you couldn't go, why you'd be up in the clubhouse? It was it was just, I'm like, this is this is like ridiculous, you know, how I just kept going on and on and on, and no one could bury the hatchet on this. Is that a game? Is was was Ed Woodson playing, was he a pitcher? Oh, yeah, that's yeah. He was the actually he was the starter. That's who was starting. Then Leffords got him. Yeah, Whitson, he was the guy. That's yeah, good old boy, man. I love Ed. And um, yeah, we talked about it too. He uh, you know, he got thrown out of it. He was the first guy, I guess, got thrown out, then maybe Leffords after him, and and uh it was just yeah, it was it was good stuff. You probably talked to him about it, and he's probably said the same thing.

SPEAKER_02 22:58

If I think if I recall it right, I think there's video where like he's like in the dugout and he doesn't have his shirt on.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

With his shirt off, he did, yeah. He sure was, you know, kind of all all fluffed up like a rooster up there, you know. And and there were some weird Bob Horger came out with his cast on. He was not playing, he had a broken hand, and and he came out on a cast and was getting in a fight. Fans got in on it. You know, there were a couple fans that got on the field and got their ass beat, and people throwing beer, and you name it. It was like, it was like it was it was the maybe one of the best, or maybe the best of all time, maybe. It's right up there. If it's not, it's it's debatable. It was it was good stuff.

SPEAKER_02 23:35

Well, when they're when there that stuff happens in a game, and you know, you see brawls that you know, the bench is clear and the bullpen comes running in.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

Right.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

We're guys that are like, they're just gonna go out there and fight, and other guys are like, man, I'm just trying not to get injured. I think you know, I'm gonna get out of here, but I don't really want to.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

I'd say more people, yeah. There's a few of those guys that like to fight, but most uh I think most of the guys are like, hey, you gotta go out because you gotta go out, but you don't hurt something. I don't want to hurt another player for no, you know, if maybe if someone drills me, maybe, and you know, we have something going on, but someone else, I mean, most people don't want to hurt them or anything, you know. It's just it just but there's no there's always those those people, you know, that that want to get in the fight, you know, and that's that's the way you get in. They jump right on in and maybe maybe make them last longer than they should, you know. Yeah, definitely.

Umpire Blowups And Protecting Players

SPEAKER_02 24:29

Yeah, that's for sure. Well, as a minor league manager, you know, you've probably had your share of arguments with umpires, and you know, you've had some probably managers throughout your career and the minors and at the professional level with the the big major league teams. Is there uh is there a thing where you uh you enjoy watching a manager go out there and argue? You're like, wow, this is gonna be fun. He's he's gonna make it.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

Yeah, good, especially in the minor leagues. There's some really good arguments, you know. There's some good, you know, and they anything goes, it's like an it's like an act, you know, pretty much. You know, you're pissed, but sometimes it escalates for no reason. Like the one guy, um Wellman who throws the grenades and different guys throw grenades and steel bases and and and stuff like that. So it's it's fun to watch. I mean, and people used to like me do it, watch like me doing it, and I used to like to watch those guys get thrown out and see what everybody's trying to one up themselves, I think, or certain guys are anyway, you know. So um that's five fun, you know. And I I don't know how they look at it now, you know, if the way the game's changed so much, but it would like the players. I I think the players, number one, like you going out and trying to protect them or you know, get thrown out for them, you know. I I think there's there's something to be said for that, that knowing you got their back. And I think in the long run the guys do appreciate that. And I think see a little bit of a show on top of that, it's even better yet, you know, if something something good or fun happens. And like I would never shut the gates when I left, and I would always tell my bullpen, do not touch this gate. I'd always make the umpire do it. And they they would never do it. They'd send the bad boy after about 10 minutes and do it. But the fire was really prone. And they'd always tell bullpen, go shut the gate. And I'm like, I'm on the other side, do not shut this gate. Do not shut this gate. I would make them not do it for whatever. It's no just stupid why I did it, but they just they wouldn't, my guys would never do it, you know, like they'd look at the umpire like, uh, they'd shrug their shoulders, I'm not shutting that gate. Sorry, dude. Find someone else, and they'd always get a bat boy or something to run down there and close it up. But but uh yeah, they're fun. They're fun to do sometimes. Sometimes.

Wrigley Hecklers And Turf Burn Stories

SPEAKER_02 26:44

Yeah. Was there a favorite place that you like to play in the in the major leagues? And was there also a place where you're like, wow, the fans are just brutal to opposing players?

SPEAKER_01 26:56

Rig Rigley, they were horrible. Wrigley, the fans, uh being an outfielder out in the out with all the drunks out in the outfield. So yeah, they would always Oh yeah, Wrigley was horrible. They would just rag the shit out of you those drunks. They'd all be lit up in all day games, and they're lit up at two in the afternoon, just drunk out of their minds. You know, and they would be freaking just hooting on you and hollering, and you know, they they would channel me. I mean, it's probably everybody too. They probably threw everybody's name in there, but it'd be fee-fi, faux fum, comments gives a fucking bum, and they'd all of them would be yelling at every one of their friends. They all went in fucking chanting at you, freaking inning after inning. And I'm sure they still do it, or maybe they didn't pass it on, but but um they were there, they were a rough crowd. Good crowd. I mean, it's great place, great place to play Wrigley. I like the old, the old bar ballparks, Wrigley, I like you know, Fenway, old Yankee Stadium. I really like the old parks. I was in the time with all the cookie cutters, you know, but there weren't the new stadiums like there are now. Um so you had the riverfront and three rivers and Philly, they're all the same for the most part, you know. Um you know Bush Stadium was the same, just and it was so hot that turf, that turf was brutal back in the day. You know, you go to St. Louis, it was like 110 outside, the turf would be 170, 180 degrees. And you're like going, you're like, no way. I said, wouldn't when you played in a day game in St. Louis and probably other places too, we would have buckets of ice water, and you come in from, and back then they had the spikes with the the rivets in them. So they didn't have the plastic bottom, they had the rivets in these things. So you'd go in and you would ice your, you'd get in the ice water, soak your feet with ice water, and you'd go out, and by the time you got back in, your feet were dry. And by the time the game was over, you would have burn marks on your bare feet where the rivets were. They'd burn through your socks and and through the your insoles, and they'd burn your feet. That's how hot it was.

SPEAKER_02 28:58

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

That's crazy. It was brutal, it was like unbelievable how it was like you can't imagine how hot it was during the day game and you know, August and St. Louis on that turf. Because there's no no wind, no nothing to to cool it down at all. It's just blistering. I don't know how you'd ever watch a game there be blistering hot. You couldn't drink enough soil, you know. It was it was absurd.

SPEAKER_02 29:22

Yeah. Well, you played in the old municipal stadium there in Cleveland for the year.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

Oh, yeah. Yeah, loved it.

SPEAKER_02 29:27

It was it was a little rough, but yeah. I mean, that stadium, I can remember as a kid going there, my dad taking me, and and I I mean, there I can recall that somebody would hit a home run and I'd be like, we were sitting behind the first base dugout, and I'm like, I might have a chance to get that.

SPEAKER_01 29:44

Both had a chance at that one. Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure. It was, you know, like I used to know as you go to those games. I mean, like, I don't know if the pipes up on the second deck would be leaking down, and it's probably sewage, probably. I don't know. But um, and no one was there, you know, you could have 20,000 people there, and it looked like it was empty, it was so big, it was cavernous, it was massive that place. And um, like I remember like going there, like making the team out of spring training. You know, the Browns played there too, so center field is where the, you know, the middle of the field, you know, the whole line and what so it was all chewed up, you know, it's in between the hashes all the way out to center field. So they'd they'd throw the sod in and throw sod in there before, you know, opening day, but guys, it's not gonna take hold in Cleveland in April. It's freaking 30 degrees out still, you know. So if it rained, it's like the sod would almost be floating out there, like that strip of stuff. It was just just the fields back then were so compared to today, they're so bad that there was no drainage. Um, you know, they they didn't take care of the boxes or the mound like they do now, or they leveled every night with good clay like they do in high school now. They didn't do any of that stuff. And and uh like I was there, I was in, here's a funny one with Albert Bell, you know, Albert was there, Joey at the time. He was Joey back then. And um, like he, I don't know if he was Royd Raging then, I don't know what he was. He would he would get fired up, he would be he would he just had a wild, he was the greatest, the mildest manner, great guy. But like the light switch would go on, and you know, he'd uh whatever that look was, and like he'd strike out. And he'd go up in our clubhouse, he'd have to go up and up some stairs and get in it. And Buddy Black was he was a pitcher on the team. And Buddy would Albert would go in there, Joey, he'd go in there and beat the shit out of the bathroom stalls. I mean, he would he'd have dents here, boom, boom. He'd have dents all over this bathroom stall. And Buddy, being a character, he was a character, he would go in and date him. He'd be on, you know, freaking July 15th, JB, Joey Bell. August 8th, Joey Bell. He he didn't have signing them all. So it was it was it was hilarious. But yeah, old Albert, he was tripped. He was good, he could hit him, man. He was getting some juice.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

Yeah, he was uh he was uh you know part of the that brun that Cleveland had later on that you know that's vicious, yeah. He was just uh somebody you just didn't seem like he wanted to mess with, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

He just had to look about scowl all the time, and he's massive, those shoulders are about eight miles wide, so yeah, I don't think you want to mess with him.

SPEAKER_02 32:32

Well, as a minor league manager, um when you when you were doing that, and you did that for was it you know, over ten years, correct?

SPEAKER_01 32:43

What I um I think nine years I got it is then I was heading coach for a few years and you know, out in outfield base running coordinator for a couple years, but yeah. I guess I got some time then for sure.

SPEAKER_02 32:55

Well, as a manager or as a as a coach in the minor leagues, was there a player that you had or a player that you saw and you're like, you knew was a minor leaguer that this guy is gonna go on and be special. He's gonna be a Hall of Famer or an All-Star or something along those lines.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

I you knew Sebatia was gonna be pretty good. You know, he's so big and overpowering if he could, you know, harness his harness all that stuff, and he did, and obviously he was a Hall of Famer, but you know, Victor Martinez, I mean, he won batting titles everywhere. He could just tell that kid could he could hit, you know. He was something else. Um just the way he played every day, every every hour was so hard. He never he never took a break, you know, never. Um Matt Wheaters over in Baltimore, he was something else. He was a dude for Switch, big big switch hidden catcher. He was he was pretty special too. There were a lot of a lot of good, I've had a lot of good players or but I didn't have mine, but that played underneath me that they're fun to watch for sure. They were fun to watch.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

I always asked, do you do you hate losing or love winning, I guess, but I wanted to kind of tie it into when you're a major league baseball player, you know, the good teams are gonna probably lose maybe ten games less than they they win.

unknown 34:14

Right.

SPEAKER_02 34:14

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 34:15

Right, yeah, no, it's it's a fine line, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:18

How do players handle that that losing and winning? Is it just like you just gotta move on and go to the next game, and that's that's gotta be the same.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

Yeah, you just gotta, when it's over, it's over, you know, you move on to the next one. I mean, it gets tough when you're losing a lot and you're out, maybe out of the race. You know, that's when it gets really it's like, oh man, it's no fun to go to the ballpark. But if you're in in the hunt or have a chance, I mean it's it's always fun to go to the ballpark, but once you lose, it's like, you know, the next game is you know, you're 12, 15 hours away. You better, you better get be ready to go, you know. So you really got to forget about it pretty quick and and uh just move on. It's just the nature of the beast, you know. You yeah, you know, maybe if you're in high school or college, you might have a few days to you know think about it, but you know, in Pro Bowl, you don't, you know, minor leagues, major leagues, it's you're playing the next day. You don't there's not many off days to to um to have to worry about. You don't have much time to to regroup and and reload and get after it again.

SPEAKER_02 35:15

Now, you know, I I just saw the video the other day of the the Bull Durham where the coach comes into the shower and he kind of just rips it off. Right. How often does that ha happen at the major league level?

SPEAKER_01 35:29

Do the does the manager just get after guys or probably not um I can't in the major leagues really remember anybody getting really crazy, you know, crazy like that. You know, a lot of guys didn't at all. Um you know, you might have a like like a little meeting or something that that um to kind of firm some things up, but not the more more so in the minor leagues, I think. In the major leagues, if you don't produce, man, they'll just replace you. They'll find they'll find the next Ken Carpenter, you know. You're you're we we you're down in the minor leagues, we'll just say if you don't want to get it done, you know, can't get it done, if if you're not making too much money, boom, we'll find someone that that can that can do it. So um but in the minor leagues, it's like no, it's you know, you can you can you can have some some stern meetings, so to speak, and get after him a little bit. And I don't know so much anymore now. That's like I said, things have changed so much over the years. Back then you could you can get on somebody's ass pretty good and it was okay. Now, you know, they gotta treat him like no, don't hurt his feelings now. It's like, oh my god, please. That's a tough game, man. It's a tough game. If if I'm gonna hurt your feelings, you know, move on to the next. Come on.

Picking Game 7 Legends

SPEAKER_02 36:45

So well, I want to test your manager skills here. You need to win game seven of the World Series. And throughout Major League Baseball history up until today, you can have one pitcher, one hitter, and what one catcher. Who are the the three players you're picking?

SPEAKER_01 37:02

One hitter, one pitcher, one catcher. Um probably pitching. I mean, because in my era, probably I mean, probably Roger Clemens, probably. Maybe writing Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson's a lefty, maybe pitching. I would take that I'd take my chances with those two. Um I had someone hidden. Probably I'd depend on what kind of hit you need, like a Manny Ramirez if you needed something big, maybe a each row. I mean, now probably Otani nowadays. I mean, I'd want Otani probably come to the play just, you know, 27 times a game if I could, you know, and take my chances with him. But back then, I mean, you know, back in the the heyday, maybe a Maguire back then when he was just launching stuff right and left and he needed someone to hit a home run. He would be a dye. I mean, catching-wise, I'd probably I'd take Bench myself. But he was he was right there right at the right at the start of mine, so he would be my guy for sure. Okay. But I mean, there's other so many other good ones, you know, Pudge and you know, if you want an offensive guy like a piazza, maybe not as quite defensively, but uh if you just need a hitter, maybe him, he was probably as good as anybody in the wise. But but um yeah, I mean there's there's kind of I mean there's so many, there's so many good guys you could could name 10 at every spot, you know, or 20, you know, there's so many good guys and that can do the job and you're you're not gonna lose much, or it might just be favoritism more than anything, you know.

SPEAKER_02 38:43

Yep, no doubt about that. Is that I know we touched a lot on a lot of different stories there, but throughout your career of playing baseball and managing, is there one story that you're that stands out above all the rest? Or we already covered it.

Minor League Bus Driver Mayhem

SPEAKER_01 39:00

We probably covered it, I think. Yeah, it's uh I'm sure we it's in there somewhere, yeah. Um yeah, I said it's in one of those stories. Yeah, they're all um all good. Yeah, they're all good, yeah. It's you know, there's weird stories like my first year in in King Sport. We had this, and it's not even a it's a bus driver story. Okay. Like we had this this bus driver, I don't know, we just called him Bussy. Everybody called him Bussy, I don't know. And and our manager was a guy by the name of Gene Hafsell, just an old gruff old guy, you know, and and uh he could hardly walk. He probably needed two knee replacements and two hip replacements, but Hass was our guy, you know, and we would come out of, we played up in Bluefield. So if you've ever these guys on there have ever gone down, you know, 77 through Bluefield. Um back then it wasn't quite as developed. And this guy, uh yeah, he probably is half drunk, and Hassel would be up front kind of egging him on, and they'd be going around those curves at like freaking 100 miles an hour in a bus. And I'm like, dude, everybody's like, they're fearing for their lives. The whole team is fearing for their lives. It wasn't a big Greyhound like now, it's just some little bootleg little bus, you know, school bus or something. We're going in this thing. This guy's all mass through these through the mountains, going around these curves, and it's like we're on we're on two wheels, and and uh Hassel said it's pretty funny. Like he had he was only about five foot six, he was a little shit. But um, you know, like one day we're taking VP and he came in, he was late, and he he came in the right field fence and his Harley drove his Harley across the field during VP. He was probably seven years old. I mean, he's in his Harley going there. He was good. Then the last the last day of the season that year, um, there was a Kodak plant in town and in Kingsport that just smelled like Kodak film. But um it's like everybody was ready to get the hell out of there. It's like we got to get out of here. And I don't know if it was it was a night game we must have been playing. We played at a high school, and it was a bad high school field. It was on a football field. So the one corner was the was, and they had a center track that ran in the outfield from right field to center field. It was going out, it was cutting that way. Then it came kind of down the third baseline, kind of in foul toward turn, but it cut across right field. That's a right fielder, and they had it was cender, then they had bricks on each side of it to hold the centers in. So the bricks are sitting up about two or three inches. So there's a lip of bricks or two or three inches high holding the center tracks in. But um, so you came across that and everything. But the last day of the season, you're like, everybody's like, man, we need to get the hell out of here, man. Man, I think it's supposed to rain today. And all of a sudden, we're taking BP and it's coming. The rain, you're looking, and you can look just over the over the trees. It's like coming, it's pissing out. It's like, it's coming out. And everybody, we're taking BP. Everybody takes off. We go to the clubhouse. It's just our clubhouse is underneath a football stadium, and it just has nails in the wall and like a little two by four. That's our locker. You just hung your shit on this little nail. And the and the showers were like uh it was like wooden planks on top of it, and it didn't drain. It was just it'd go above the wooden planks, like the crates, and it'd be ankle deep, and it was just squalor. And uh Hassel's there. He gets stuck. It's so funny. Everybody's leaving. Hassle gets stuck. It's raining so hard for so long. He's stuck on the bench, and he's up on the up on the bench standing like hiding, and there's lightning crashes, thunder ripping all over the place. And Hass is sitting there, he can't get out of this thing. He's he can't move fast enough. So he sat this whole storm. Everybody else is, we all took off, like we're rained out, dude. We're going home, you know. And everybody took off, and he was stuck underneath that in that dugout. And it was like ground level. So it wasn't really dugout. He was ground level on this in these bleachers, just just stuck. I mean, it was it was hilarious. So everybody's like, look at ass, look at ass. Let's get out of here, boom, and we're gone. You know, it was it was pretty good. It was pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 43:15

To finish up, what would you tell or advice you would give the senior Brad Kaminsk in high school and you're going in and you're you're leaving for professional baseball. If you could go back right now and say, here's what I've been telling.

SPEAKER_01 43:36

I would just say, leave it all on the field every day. Play, you know, play twenty twelve twenty-seven hard outs, you know, on each side of the ball and let the chips fall as they may, you know. Gotta play hard every every inning, every every pitch, every bat, and and uh that's all you can do in this game. It's a tough game. You're gonna have your ups and downs. You're gonna as we all know, if you don't hit three hundred, if you make seven outs, you're you're still a great player. Um just you gotta leave it out on the field every single day, you know.

SPEAKER_02 44:06

Definitely. Well, well, Brad, I I really appreciate you taking the time to join me. It's Brad Kaminsk. Uh thanks again for taking the time uh to to be on baseball coaches unplugged with me.

SPEAKER_01 44:20

Kenny enjoyed it as always. Have a great one.

Closing Thanks And Sponsor

SPEAKER_02 44:24

This episode of Baseball Coaches Unplugged was powered by the netting professionals improving programs one facility at a time. Contact them today at 844-620-2707 or visit them online at www.nettingprose.com. As always, I'm your host, Coach Ken Carpenter. Thanks for listening to Baseball Coaches Unplugged.