As always, Buck Martinez and Mike Patrick had a hot show this morning. Here is a bit of some of the things that you can hear Monday-Friday on Homeplate 175 mornings from 6am till 9am with an instant replay.
Yankees LRP Mike Myers on all the talk about Joe Torre’s job being on the line:
“Any time you lose a couple of games here, they [media] are always calling for people’s job or call for people to be traded or released or what’s available on the market to go get….the streak we were going through wasn’t a lot of fun for anybody but the one rock that was in the middle of it was Joe Torre…He pulled us all together and told us he believed in us…He wanted to make sure there was an open line of communication with the players and nobody was talking behind anyone’s back…if anyone had anything say to another player, he could do so in a team-meeting format… He’s the one who rallied us up and will take us where we need to go…”
Hall of Famer Frank Robinson talks about how the hitters today have all the advantages:
“It seems like baseball, whenever they can, tries to help the hitters; lowering the mound after the 1968 season when Bob Gibson dominated and haven’t raised it back since; they’ve tinkered with the strike zone, it’s a much smaller than in the past; the smaller parks; it’s just tough to pitch nowadays…it used to be, when you needed an out, make the guy hit the ball to center field…well in these new ballparks, center field doesn’t hold the ball…it’s real tough pitching now…”
Robinson saying hitting in his era was very difficult compared to today:
“When I was playing it was a challenge because every ball club at least a couple of outstanding pitchers on their staff and some teams had four…Pitchers had no problem knocking you down, throwing at your head and keeping you honest at the plate…it was a real challenge to hit…”
