Billy Sample's NL Central comments

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mikechamp
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Billy Sample's NL Central comments

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These comments came from a chat with former MLB outfielder Billy Sample that occurred on February 27. He played in the '70s and '80s for the Rangers, Yankees and Braves. He has since spent time as a broadcaster, writer and movie producer.

Yes, I get that the NL Central didn't exist in the 70s and 80s, but the dude chatted for over 4 hours!!! There were a few NL Central-related questions, but I also threw in a few bonus Q&As that I found funny. As always, click on the link to read the entire, humorous chat.

The link to the entire chat can be found here: https://live.jotcast.com/chat/live-chat ... 15162.html

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Who was the toughest catcher to run on?

Billy Sample
I thought Lance Parrish and Mike Heath could out throw good jumps. Mike threw me by such a margin in Instructional Ball one year that I didn't even get to slide. And every throw in the Big Leagues was bang-bang. I actually didn't like the guys who had quick releases, like Jim Essian.
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You’ve had a wonderfully varied and eclectic career from baseball to DJ, to author and filmmaker. Have you always been driven to try different things? Is that why you left baseball at only 31 and still productive? Wanting to try new endeavors?

Billy Sample
Well, you may remember that the owners engaged in collusion in the mid-eighties. Jack Morris had to pedal his wares, Tim Raines wasn't resigned by the Expos until May and Andre Dawson handed the Cubs a blank contract. I was a margin player at best, though in most situations I think I would have gotten a contract. I only got an invitation to spring training with the Twins. I was coming off knee surgery, but all the publications had me making the team, probably platooning with Randy Bush. What sealed my fate is when the head of the Licensing Dept of the Players Association sent me a letter to the clubhouse in Orlando. It was handed down to me by the higher ups. I gasped when I saw it as I knew it was over. I never understood why it was sent to me there as if we are going to conduct business as usual during an obvious collusion? All we did was rubber stamp what the dept head decided. Ugh, anyway, the Twins made a great trade for Dan Gladdin and won the World Series that year ... buzzard's luck...

Oh, and thanks for the compliments. I was voted Most Versatile in my high school graduation class. I was in two plays my junior year, a JV debater my freshman year and played three sports.
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Thanks for doing chat. Do you feel new rules favor pitchers or hitters?

Billy Sample
All rule changes in every sport favors the offense, the powers that be concluded that there is a great correlation between offense and revenue. Johnny and Joanie from Covington, Kentucky will see the Reds play and it may be an otherwise lackluster game but five homers were hit and they go home and tell their parents about the exploding scoreboard. That's the discretionary income they are after. Those of us who like the game hinges on each pitch in a 2-1 contest at Dodger Stadium, they've already got.
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I was so happy when Jim Rice got elected into the Hall of Fame in 2009 (too late if you ask me). Which player(s) in your era do you believe should be in the Hall of Fame who currently are not in?

Billy Sample
The only player that I really championed for the Hall was Jack Morris. I would love for Don Mattingly to get in and I hear there is a movement for Keith Hernandez too. I don't know where the bar is anymore.
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Watching Sandy Koufax (before your time), you can see he had incredible velocity and stuff. And until 10 years ago, players still could pitch 88-92 and have a lot of success. Bronson Arroyo had a wider repertoire, as an example. Are pitchers today leaving strategy on the table for all velo? How do you react to today's game? Also, do you like the pitch clock and shift rules?

Billy Sample
I was watching film of Koufax pitching to the Yankees in 1963 and I think my knees buckled on one of his curveballs ... and I was sitting. I'm not big on pitch clock changes and what's next, can outfielders not move in the direction where they think the hitter might hit? Then again I'm old (school) as I tell people as long as my pension is well-funded, I'm good.
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Like hearing about your days in majors. Canadian here, what was our proud Canadian Fergie Jenkins like?

Billy Sample
I just got choked up. What a tremendous teammate. The veteran players took such good care of us youngsters when we came up and Fergie was super is many ways ... ah, the former hockey player and Harlem Globetrotter.
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Who were some of the funniest guys you played with?

Billy Sample
Bobby Jones, Ken Griffey Sr. Sparky Lyle, Mickey Rivers, Oscar Gamble

A couple who weren't teammates, Shawon Dunston, Ken Griffey Jr.
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It seems 1983 was your best year, but was it your funnest year?

Billy Sample
In Texas there was always fun. If you had a shrinking violet personality that may not have been the place for you. The drive from the tarmac to the hotel could be the most brutal forty-five to fifty minutes you'd ever want to experience when players started getting on each other. The coaches and media were riding the same buses, too.

One day traveling on an off-day from DFW to Minneapolis we had to prepare for a crash landing. The ghost white attendants took our shoes and so forth. It was a commercial flight and I think the players' devil may care attitude calmed the rest of the passengers. Normally, back then the sportswriters would travel on the charters, but since this was an off day the reporters left on later flights or the next day. I was genuinely annoyed that the sportswriters who had been killing us all year, were now going to kill us after we'd been killed. And as the fire trucks lined up outside of the runway, the pilot said, "This will be the end of Flight 461... ". I thought, what a great sense of humor.
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What was harder to play in, the Texas heat or the cold springs in the Midwest/Northeast?

Billy Sample
We were sleeted out of opening day in Detroit in 1979. The following day I went in for defense but got one at bat and could not feel the bat in my hands. I swung my shoulders and blooped a hit to left ... and Bill Veeck if he had fifteen thousand advanced tickets sold, you were playing no matter what. I saw Big Leaguers damn near cry because it was so bitter cold. I didn't know any better I grew up in cold mountains and played college in cold mountain chains, though one day in college I almost walked off the field right into my dorm room. That kind of cold that you don't care how well you do as long as the team wins (ha).
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Back in your playing time, which ballpark was your favorite to visit and which did not like to play in?

Billy Sample
Fenway was my favorite and Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, the light stanchions were so low that every line drive went into the lights, well, for that matter so it did in Arlington too. I could blow up that stadium, they forgot to call me to help control demolition the Kingdome. Wasn't crazy about Astro-Turf or in some cases like Montreal, painted green concrete. I got turf face one day in the Metrodome. Exhibition Stadium in Toronto was a visual nightmare; hard turf, baby blue seats with silver metallic numbering, with stands behind home that leads to the sky with very little overhang... and a fast team. Is it too late to get hazard's pay?
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Growing up in San Diego as a huge fan of contact hitters like you, Tony G, Rod Carew, etc. I modeled my game (in high school, college) after guys like you. Would you approach the game the same way today? Or would your K-rate climb in exchange for HRs!?

Billy Sample
If the ball is going to be as hard as it is today, it's hard not to go for the long ball. I understand that they are trying to put small ball back in the game, then soften the ball a bit, but they don't want that because the home run still attracts the fannies in the seats.
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