A Bonus Episode Featuring more from the top 100 Baseball Players of the 20th Century

Welcome to the second part of the Shawn Mackey show where we discussed three more players from the sporting news top 100 players baseball players of the 20th century today we’re gonna start off with Yogi Barra now this is a dude I mean come on you’ve seen them in commercials, you’ve seen them on TV you had to have heard some of the saying

But Yogi Berra is to me the epitome of what baseball was about during the period in which he played. He was a guy that I just swear to God you probably hung around with all he wanted to do was have fun. You know he’s like that friend we’ve all had that friend and it doesn’t matter the rest of us out there working our asses off and you know we’re starting to worry about life with what we have going on, but we all have this one friend he always seems to have fucking money do whatever the hell he wants he don’t give a shit about what everybody else thinks about full-time jobs. This is that not and he just wants to have fun.

Until Next week!

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Transcript

Welcome to the second part of the Shawn Mackey show where we discussed three more players from the sporting news top 100 players baseball players of the 20th century today we’re gonna start off with Yogi Barra now this is a dude I mean come on you’ve seen them in commercials, you’ve seen them on TV you had to have heard some of the saying.

But Yogi Berra is to me the epitome of what baseball was about during the period in which he played. He was a guy that I just swear to God you probably hung around with all he wanted to do was have fun. You know he’s like that friend we’ve all had that friend and it doesn’t matter the rest of us out there working our asses off and you know we’re starting to worry about life with what we have going on, but we all have this one friend he always seems to have fucking money do whatever the hell he wants he don’t give a shit about what everybody else thinks about full-time jobs. This is that not and he just wants to have fun.

And I wanna keep hold of this idea I have that Yogi Barra is that friend you know so you look at this guy and he goes by Lawrence you know he’s growing up as a kid he’s Lawrence Peter Barra they call him Yogi right but he’s born Lorenzo Pietro, right And if this guy isn’t Italian, no one is Italian Wright. He plays like 18 years in the major leagues 14 of them for the Yankees he’s now now he played longer than that OG 19 season 19 seasons he plays in major-league baseball and he’s an 18 time All-Star are you freaking kidding Wright? He wins 10 World Series championship while he’s playing he goes on he becomes a manager he has he becomes a coach and he’s a catcher for most of his life and he has a career batting average of 285. What the hell are you telling me here folks as long as I’ve been alive?

The catching position from what I’ve witnessed every single season has one or two guys who are outstanding hitters and the rest are great defensive catchers so you have a position in major-league baseball. We guys stick around a lot longer than they should simply because they can catch a ball and Bob Uecker  immediately comes to mind so Bob Uecker might have to get his own episode here at the Shawn Mackey show.

So Yogi Berra here’s a guy now he’s born in St. Louis and here. I was born and raised in Chicago.  St. Loui is  not very far from where I currently live so to me that’s kind of cool Yogi Berra ends up. He signed with the Yankees in 1943 and then guess what he’s gotta go serve in the military. He hits the United States Navy. He’s a gunner's mate. He’s in the Normandy landings during World War II, right 21 years old in 1946 boom out of the military makes his major league debut the rest as they say is history folks all right. 

So September 22, 1946 debut for the New York Yankees May 9, 1965 that’s the last time he plays and he plays for the New York Mets dude hits .285 career batting average 2150 hits 358 home runs 1430 runs bad And he becomes a manager and he’s above 500 for his career as a manager. He’s got 484 wins to 444 losses so he’s sitting at a 522 winning percentage as a manager as well. Play for two teams in major league baseball but then for me he goes on more for his comedic genius  On TV or in commercials and things of that nature, he’s like this is like déjà vu all over again and it’s not over till it’s over. I love Yogi Berra all right so that's why he comes in at oh shit. I forgot to tell you where he came in at on this list gonna tell you though all three we decided to go with three guys in a row on this list so let’s see where we gotta find Yogi Berra comes in at number 40 on the top 100 baseball players of the 20th century got love me some Yogi Berra.

Player number two on our list for this week is a guy that we love tremendously. He was our guy and then they let him go and then he became our guy again but then all the stuff that he’s known for is when he’s not our guy and we get him back and he’s not the guy we had and where he did all his stuff when he was somebody else’s guy.

Yeah, coming in at number 39 on the list is Greg Allen Maddux born April 14, 1996 called the “Mad Dog” saw this kid when he first came up with the Cubs knew we had something special one first say Young with the Cubs and then we cub fans were like YYY when we first heard the news that he was no longer a Chicago cup. You know what I’m saying he came up in 1986. We see what the guy can do by 1992 God, God and he goes to the Atlanta Braves.

And he goes on to win more awards and become one of the best pitchers. Hold on let me get myself to get a right folks. Yeah I’m just joshing. You’re there. Let me get myself together. 

I was like back in 1992 when that all happened big year for me first child was born in November 1992 so you know still had Greg Maddox there around a little bit but then he goes onto the Braves and absolutely destroys the Cubs every time he pitches against us goes on to basically solidify his Hall of Fame career with the Atlanta Braves And played there for about 910 years comes back to the Cubs in 2004 to 2006 not the same guy that he was but he still goes on to have a pretty decent career until 2008 but I’m gonna tell you what he’s another one of those guys you know there’s always that that meme or whatever it is that goes around Facebook

Talking about how he dominated everybody and then buddies I have fun, Tony Gwynn you know type one of those deals. I don’t know. I’d have to dig it out and look at it but this guy he would just paint those corners and he would he would get an inch further and every pitch was such was thrown with such precision and he would get umpires Collin strikes that probably weren’t really strikes Just because he would be able to move the ball. You know a centimeter here or a centimeter there whether it was inside or outside or up or down you know and he wasn’t an overpowering pitcher. 

He didn’t have a shit ton of velocity, but he was a student of the game. He was smart as they could be damn he’s got a brother who’s a pitching coach in Major league baseball so you know that’s Greg Maddox in a nutshell for you so let’s see he’s with the Cubs makes his debut doesn’t come out. He’s not like the guy right away but he goes on. He goes on to become the guy with the Cubs and we knew that and we knew what we had and so he had consecutive 15 win seasons in 90 and 91 right in 1992. He wins 20 games for the NL league. He got his first Young award and then boom free agency hits. It was pending after that season with the Cubs. 

You know they didn’t go the way that he had wanted and then they stopped and Larry Himes cub general manager at the time and Maddox agent the famous Scott Boras you know their their butt heads with each other, throwing accusations about and Greg Maddox ultimately walks away from the Chicago Cubs signs with the Atlanta Braves and it broke all of our hearts as cub fans, you know and that for me that was early that was early in life that was 1992 so I was like 24 years old at the time so yeah my heart had been broken 84 especially comes to mind but man that was a tough one for us to lose Greg Maddox so we don’t even have to go over Greg Maddox numbers we already know dude dude let’s just all right all right I know OK stop you’re all like all shit. I’m gonna turn off the episode. If you don’t go over Greg Maddox number because I know you’re all just chopping at the bit to know what it actually ended with him even though you know he’s gotta go down in history as one of the best major-league baseball players pictures

So Greg Maddox he ends up with 355 wins 227 losses a 3.16 ERA he pitched in 744 games start 740 of those no safe wasn’t a bullpen guy pitches over 5000 innings he has 3371 strikeouts and he ends with a whip of 1.143 OK so we know we know what the guy did the guys out there we as cub fans we loved it when he came back he just wasn’t the same guy That he was when he after he left.

So that brings us to player number three for this part of today’s episode and this is another guy. Thankfully, we had this guy the whole time we loved this guy. There are statues built for this guy. He is one of the best major-league baseball players, one of the best baseball players ever and he was our own and he was Ernie Banks. Let’s play too.

That infamous line uttered by Ernie Banks made famous the photos going on of him, taking the L train to get to the ballpark to play in Wrigley all right so we got Ernest Banks, Mr. cub and Mr. sunshine he played in Major league baseball as a shortstop and a first baseman for the Chicago Cubs between 1953 and 1971. The man got his due and was inducted into the national baseball 

Hall of Fame in 1977. It is very first year folks that’s Wright Ernie Banks a first year Hall of Famer did you have any doubt he is one of the greatest players of his time. I unfortunately did not get to see him play a lot. Ernie Banks was playing oh man he left the game when I was like three so I’ve only got to watch him in video but I’ve got the stories from my dad but with Ernie Banks you know there’s like not a lot of controversy there’s not any other stories. This was just a hard nose ball player who went out and gave over 100% every time he went and played. He would’ve played all day every day if you let him in hell I’m probably sure he did.

Iron Man before Iron Man became popular you know in 58 and 59. The guy is the most valuable player in Major league baseball. He was the Cubs first gold glove winner in 1960 so Ernie Banks born in Dallas Texas OK graduated from Booker T. Washington high school in 1950 but you know play shortstop first base and his career with a 274 batting average 2500 hits more than 2500 hits. He’s an All-Star 14 times MVP twice and won a Gold Glove in 1960. 

Twice he was leading the national league in home runs. He was twice the RBI leader in the National League so nobody in the Chicago Cubs organization can wear number 14 anymore because they’ve retired that for Ernie Banks and this is a guy. Just wish I would’ve been able to see he was a great ambassador for not only baseball but for the Chicago Cubs he is he is what a lot of us people, my age and in our in our mid 50s no as you know, he’s a Chicago Cubs legend and you know I could sit here all day and there’s probably pages and pages built to this guy in his major league career you know so we all know we all love Ernie Banks if you’re a true Chicago cub fan, and you have been for a good portion of your life you know and love Ernie Banks for what he did for the Chicago Cubs And Major League Baseball so that’s this part of the show that we have left folks that’s all we have for this week we Dove on to number 40 Yogi Berra number 39 Greg Maddux and number 38 Ernie Banks so that knocks three more players off of our list again we got about five or six more episodes left for this season. 

We don't know if we’re gonna get through all of these guys cause quite frankly, some of them we never got to see play they’re from the very earliest part of the 20th century so we may just kind of like round out with the guys we didn’t touch on in depth, but as we go through this list, we do wanna spend a little bit more time on those players that were near and dear to us for whatever reason with Yogi, I love the sayings. I love seeing him in commercials. He has that comedic aspect to him. I mean, I couldn’t even imagine if you would’ve been able to get Bob Uecker and Yogi Berra  to do a sitcom together. That would’ve been hilarious. I would’ve loved to have seen that you know and then we have Greg Maddox and he comes. He comes at a time we’re early you know we’re still in our early 20s we see hope with this kid we know what we have and then boom he is gone.