This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jacmeslence on Fox Sports fourteen
fifteen powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat z R
two sad in iHeart Radio station. They good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to
I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fort Une fifty. I'm Steve Rivera,
He's jagonzas got our guys said back from the summer break, Welcome back
from the one hundred and twenty thousand degrees. Phoenix said, my dad,
I didn't talk about duns. Yeah, welcome back. Did you get a
nice ten from your scorcher man? It was it was hot man that summer.
He didn't want to go outside. I know I didn't. It was
hot. I was like I gotfed a few times, but there are a
couple of times it was a little dicy. No one has not accused you
of being local. Parents left Italy without me. So that was my summer
holo hold alone. Yep, it might not stick for a twenty years.
Oh yeah, I guess there's there's that. Okay, Well, welcome back.
Got another guy in the studio to help us with the old mechanism here.
Yeah, you call this get we'll get uh, we'll get it all
up, fired up for this and uh hopefully by by Monday you'll be you'll
be all over. It's talking about good luck with that. I'll pick it
up. Yeah, it's it's intimidating to be. But for you kids,
you guys you know lived on this stuff. Hey, when they know this
stuff, yeah, it's yeah. For me, it's say what I do,
know what it touches. Hey, welcome to Friday. Hey we finally
got here. Uh, you should have be a fun, fun show,
different show. If you guys want to call five two o four one six
seventy four forty, we'd appreciate it. I know a lot of people.
Jay are getting more and more people it says, hey, we listened to
your show yesterday. To to mister Turner, Joe Turner had a lot of
fun and says what did you listen? Well, we caught it on Pecaccios
are coming in, or we caught it on the Pipe podcast. Because a
lot of people, we know by the numbers were that a lot of people
watch us on or listen to us on podcasts, So that was good.
They liked to show a lot of fun today should be just as fun.
Yeah, yeah, you know our third guy from that uh from that time
that uh you know Arizona was first building that's uh building the program under Loot
in the car ride yesterday, ran the car ride yesterday. But uh,
you know we're gonna have Eddie Smith today and uh Eddie will you know he
was he was in that car with Milan, Joe Turner, Pete Williams.
We had Pete on you know, just recently. So uh, you know,
these guys were all part of that part of the foundation, as we
say, of of Arizona basketball back in the eighties. And uh, they've
been great to join us, and uh they've been a lot of fun.
Yeah, so that'd be fun. And then and the second at the hour,
there's gonna be a lot of fun and a memory that's gonna be it
was long lasting for a lot of people back in the seventies eighties, right,
Uh, it should be a lot of fun. I thought the World
Series is going on and who better or there's a couple of people right and
Rosberg and then Mike carry on, Yeah, Mike, Mike carry on,
who was on that seventy three team I was going through, Uh you know,
you look them up in Google and stuff and there's a picture, a
team picture that team. Did you go did they have the team? They
didn't. So I was gonna say, did you know many of them?
And we'll see where they are. Maybe Mike knows where they are. Yeah,
it's fifty years ago, fifty years ago this year, fifty years ago,
finished second in the world right right, Yeah, national champions because what
they would do it It was always it was an eighteen bracket, four teams
from international and four teams from They just had four regions East, West,
yeah, Midwest and so or whatever it was. They were the West region.
Well, you know, and that's one of the questions I want to
I want to ask Mike, I said, you know, I want to
say, hey, when did you guys know that you were when they Yeah,
I was was it? You know? Was it with with each win?
Right? Right? Right? I'm sure these three moments too. So
we'll talk about that. That should be a lot of fun. Uh,
we'll see what he's been up to, see where maybe some of the guys
are. There is sixty two, right, there's sixty two, most of
them sixty one, sixty two. They're not they're gonna be six Yeah,
well sixty, they're gonna be sixty two and sixty three, sixty sixty four.
And I'm a year older than those guys, right, but they must
have been late twelve year olds then, because well you are by a lot
of times by the tight right, by the time you get to the World
Series, some of these kids have turned thirteen. You're right, fifty fifty
years age limit ended August first. Okay, so thirteen, twelve ten or
twelve eleven some of the day. What comes up to twelve eleven across the
two very o one? Okay, no, cool, that'll be a lot
of fun. Again, we'll talk to a lot about a lot of things
here. Uh, we get closer to the game on on Saturday. Press
conference has becoming on Monday with Jed returned with that did the women win last
night? Soccer? I thought I saw he was he saving the day?
Yeah? On a on a penalty kick on a penalty kick? Yeah?
Okay, okay, are you are you working for the school paper? No,
but a lot of my fellow students are involved with that. We'll be
covering some women's soccer, women's for class. Yeah, I know, I
just was wondering if you had a beat already or you probably if you did,
he probably wouldn't be in here because it's busy. You get busy.
Yeah, okay, no, cool again, you don't get a call already?
Got wow? Okay, let's take this. Hi, you're on the
air and I on the ball. You tush? This is this is this
is gay becauserting. How are you guys? Gay? We're good? How
are you bat Man? We thought we'd never hear from you given the controversies
over Hey, yeah, I'm just are they busy again? All all those
things in the order for me to start taking classes out to U r A
and so just I'm pretty busy. So how are you guys doing? We're
doing fine? Are you Are you happy that? Are Are you happy now
that Arizona's in the Big twelve? Yeah? Definitely, So let me get
to that. So I seen Jetta Fish is gonna stay at err Zonna because
if we're if we if Arizona was in the past twelve, I think I
think Jestridge will probably leave and go to Florida. But the Arizona is in
the is gonna go into the Big twelve. I've seen she's gonna stay far
a lot for a couple of years. So I'm pretty happy about that.
I am don't know. I'm still not happy that the dumb ass says that
AFU off coming, So I'm not happy about that. Wait, look,
let me ask you something, Dave. Do you have like little brothers or
little sisters that annoy the hell out of you? Because that's what this sounds
like. No, No, I got insufferable idiot friend that I meant idiots,
not a friend but acquaintance. He's at He's a head equipment manager at
the scum Dell, so he's a moron. So so so do you spend
a lot of your time thinking about these topics because you come up with some
crazy ones? Are that good ones? And you're making for a great call?
Hey, I just I just really love fishing off the scun devil.
Okay, well, the fishing, the fishing. I don't think Oregon,
Oregon and Washington are gonna do really good in the in the big in the
Big ten, I think they're gonna. I think they're gonna lose a lot
of games to a house day. And also I wonder who get Bill Walton
the divorce? Probably UCLA or Oregon. So yeah, you come up with
some great topics. You spent a lot of time. So we about a
month ago when you had us on the show, but we had you on
the show when you called in. You were talking about Jetfish going to a
greater pastors, who's gonna win a lot of games and leave. Now you
have him here, how do you come up with this stuff? Well,
well, technically unless you another University Arizonal podcast of Walking Country and Eric Cohen
was kind of talking about, Hey, should we be worried about jett Fish
might maybe going to Florida or maybe going to somewhere else, And I was
thinking, yeah, he's probably he's probably happy here. And plus going coaching
on Florida, coaching on Michigan needed coaching Michigan coaching at UCLA. I'm sorry,
that's a that's a lot of stress and a lot of work. I
mean, if if jett Fish wins about ten games and eleven of games,
we're r A fans, we're building a statute for him. And also there's
not a lot of pressure at Arizona, so why why not just staying at
Arizona. That's just might kind of thought, okay to me, it's like
wondering if Galgadut's gonna come after me her husband. I mean, that's stuff
that I don't work about right now. He was wonder wonder Woman. Hey,
I'm about we're talking like he's like a new wonder Woman. She like
just came out and we love your calls. Man, we love your calls.
Thanks Gabe, and heasy bear down, Arazon. He speculates a lot
of things. You know, we got to where he wanted to get to,
right, but he dang it, we've brought that. We've brought the
crappy little brother with us. Goodn't leave him behind. That's too funny.
I thought we awesome because all the problems have been resolved, right, Yeah,
exactly exactly why I love Gabe. Yeah, I love him. So
what were we talking about? I don't know. I don't remember. I
have the memory of the Goldfish song. Oh man, dude, that's not
good. You didn't tell us that in the interview. Okay, we forget
everything. You're the young dude. You don't You're not supposed to forget stuff.
Dude, you can't. No, no, no, no, no,
okay, So no, we got our guests, right, we got
our guests football coming in, we got Monday, everything like that. Uh,
this weekend, we're gonna go tonight. We're gonna go see South Point
and maranat Point Mirana at the at the top point we're looking for. Uh.
We just we got invited too a tailgate. Now we got to figure
out where the tailgate is so still where the smell is the best? Well,
and we got we gotta get there early enough, Steve, so that
we get we get in on the Tacos well parking and Tacos Parking and Tacos.
I drove by there to kind of scout the place out on the way
over here to see where to park, and it didn't really help it,
called sister merrily, yelling and seeking, I borrow your car your space to
drive. So hopefully UH are our guy who invited us over the uh over
on our Twitter feed. I just sent you a message with my cell phone
number. Give us to drop us a text and let us know where we're
supposed to go today. So you know, okay? Cool? And you
said you're gonna have some breaking news, yep, I got some. You
get some stuff stuff here that's cool. Cool, A lot of things.
School. How's the school. I was the school to a lot of people
bustling, hustling and bustling. Oh man, it's packed. It is packed.
If you try to get food during the first week, good luck.
The food lines along, Oh man, it is Okay. I didn't even
think of that. So you're talking about that's union and all the oh yeah,
all that, the jam everything. Okay, you know, I didn't
even think of that. But you're right. I mean, you know,
it's all changed from when I was there. But the Mexican restaurant there,
which gets like a fruitful Mexican restaurant now, was that one was like where
it used to be in the student union. They had a great Mexican restaurant
in the student union back in your day. Yeah, and I'm talking about
you know, Jimmy Changas and you know, red chili and beans and rice
and just a fast food place. It wasn't a fast food, man.
They made that. They made it. They made the thing there. They
had a great salsa and uh that's a long you know, real tacos,
you know, I mean like real tacos is the whole bit. It was
a buffet line. Well, it's a little more fruitful. It's kind of
new vot Mexican. Yeah, this was like hardcore you and me mex That
was really good. And uh and uh, you're right. First couple of
weeks of school, man, the line was out the door, but it
was always worth the weight. So okay, it's good enough. I've never
maybe I'll eat there one of these the one now it's okay, but it's
not what it's not what it was like. It's it's more of a new
vot Mexican food with you know, you know a lot of a lot of
avocado. Yeah, a lot of that. I'm not big on the avocado.
Yeah. Okay, Well, thanks for being here, said, look
forward to its a semester with you. Yeah, I appreciate it, man,
And again, it's always nice to have another Dodger fan in you.
Not enough of you guys, No, man, and the Backs are in
the race as well, so I'm not they've they've come back. Yeah,
okay, okay, we got about a minute. I already got a call
from our guy and Mike Carry and he's ready for us. All right,
Well this would be fun, you know. You know, he was on
the Cactus Litle League All Stars that went to the went to the Little League
World Series, played in the championship game. They were on ABC the whole
bit. Uh. You know, I don't want to make this about me,
but their little league team the year before. Okay, so a couple
of guys from that team were on the year before and my All Star team
played them in the district championship and they and they beat the hell out.
Now they beat us four to one, but they beat us to go to
the state tournament. I think since then, there's another team that went down
to the Williams Sport, right, Yeah, the International Years eighty five eighty
five team that iky, So the International Little League went there. But I
didn't want to make sure they were two different teams. But you know,
twelve years apart, not bad for two sons. Couple of teams in there
with this team. So the year I played against Cactus, Eddie Fosborg,
for instance, wouldn't have been on that team because he was an eleven year
old on the World Series team. So he had another year Literle league after
he was done with that. Okay, but he but he was, you
know, he was there. He was their number two pitcher on that team.
The reason I remember all this is because I followed that team because I
had played them the year before. You know when when they well asked him
about the airport greetiing they got a massive gredient at the airport when they came
in, and you know, my mom my mom took me to that,
and you know, all that was really cool. I mean, I found
d a little sense of pride that I played against those guys. Yeah,
it's fine. What'd you go? Would you hit? I? Well,
I didn't want to say this part because I didn't want to pack myself on
the back. But our only run was on Hitler And that's not true.
I thought you never I was. I was checked. Hey, trump check
as a twelve year old, I tied for the league lead and homers and
whoa, what the hell happened to you? I did? I was little,
but I could still hit Well. Give the fact check it on this.
That was we lost four. We lost, we lost four to one,
and our only run was it was a solo homer in the last city.
Check it out, chickens. We got to stop the newspaper. We
gotta go, We gotta go and contact Mike. All right, let's say,
let's go. We're talking a little league will seriously in just a second,
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Somns they have their I on the board on Tucson sports station Fox Sports fourteen
fifteen. Hey, welcome back to you on the ball. He on Fox
Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Vera. He's jakels OUs Now on the phone.
We have Michael carry On from the nineteen seventy three Little League World Series.
Michael, how are you. I'm good. Thank you Stephen Jay for
having me on your show today. It's a great and I appreciate that.
Great to have you. Let me remind you that there's no crime in baseball
as we go back in time. Yeah, so mikel wait and we're talking
about the fact that this is fifty years since that since that time for you,
before we ask you know how you think about it today. Just think
back to that time and going through that some of the I don't know some
of the highlights or some of the things that stick in your mind about that
time, but you know that you're in the All Stars. You're going making
your way through and you get all the way to the Little League World Series.
Well, I had shared recently that one of my most memories, memorable
memories uh the year the regular season played leading up to the All Stars.
I had hit a home run off of Mike Martinez, who was one of
our All Star pitchers. And he was a strong kid and he ended up
throwing a no hit or later later on in high school at for South Point.
But he was a real strong kid through very hard and he was playing
on mister Atlantic Team, which was who was our our head coach, and
I actually got ahold of a fastball and I sent it over the left center
field fence and my dad was watching. He was He used to sit out
there in the crowd, because I mean away from the crowd, out there
beyond the fence, and I was rounding second. I could hear him say,
oh a boy, and he was. That was one of my most
favorite memories of the leading up to the All Stars. And I want to
say that most of us we all played together for you know, about three
or four years prior to that final year because the Major's back then was like
a four year span, So we started at nine and we ended at twelve.
So most of us were twelve at the end of that regular season game
in seventy three and then and then we had like an All Star tryout.
Mister Lantick was the number one team, so he was the head coach,
and that's when we started our tournament play here in Tucson. Were there any
I'm sure there had to be some scary moments that almost prevented you not to
get there. Yes, I think our most well, there was two that
I remember we played four games in Tucson, and I don't remember any scary
moments. In Tucson. We beat some of the East Side teams like Pantano,
and so I believe it was our PALAVERTI uh. And then after the
four games, we went to the state playoffs and Phoenix, and we actually
stayed with like Foster family and and we we had a tight game against Fort
Wachuca in Shoenix, but we ended up winning our four games there and then
we moved on. We were going to catch a bus to Tamberddino, California
for the Western regionals. And the only other scary moment up to that point
was the championship game against California, which I think Ative Offer pissed a person
at game that day, and we won one to nothing. Wow, wow
nice. And So at what point was it kind of a game by g
You just would win the next game and just play the next gamer. Was
there a point that you started thinking about the Little League World Series? No,
not at all. Mister Atlantic was such a such a legendary coach.
He didn't let us get happy or get real comfortable after each victory. You
know, I think we had we had pizza after the game and then that
game was like an instant memory. He didn't want to say, hey we
won as far, or we won the city championships or the state championships.
It was, hey, we're gonna focus on the next game starting tomorrow.
You know, we'd have a practice or whatever. But the gaps between games
were very minimal. I want to remember. I want to say there was
only like, you know, maybe one or two days in between each game
because it was pretty fast paced and back then it was single elimination. Yeah,
no question. Oh yeah, you lose one game, you were done
very tenseily. Do you watch are you watching it now? Have you been
watched it? I've seen some of it on I've seen some of it as
I've been walking by some of the TVs. Not not here at home,
but you know, like when I'm out out and about. So so let
me ask you this. Let me ask you this, so we know that
you guys are very good obviously for the time. Do you often think we
could have taken this team or how how different or do they play today?
Uh? They're well, I think they're there's they're pretty some pretty high caliber
twelve year olds out there. Now. I want to say, maybe back
then. I think now they have these, uh, these club leagues that
the kids are involved in. Yeah, so they're playing basically playing year around
and they're traveling. So that's a lot more events than we were because we
only played a regular season of about fifteen games and then we tried out for
the All Stars and then if we if we lost in the All Star play,
it's not until next season, you know. So now these kids are
playing year round. Yeah. So now so you've won the regional, you're
in the Little League World Series. First of all, when you won that
game, well, what's going through your mind? Like, you know,
we're going to Williams Sports. What's the first thing that you thought of when
you realize that? For me, it was pretty shocking. I mean,
I thought it was pretty amazing that we were all of a sudden, we're
playing a team from Oregon, and then we're playing a team from Montana,
and then we're playing a tough team from Hawaii, and I think Hawaii,
we only beat them like three to zero. They had a pretty Italian a
team, and I'm like, here we are in California. I had a
bunch of families there because that's where I'm from. I was actually born in
San Ferdino, and my mom and dad were far from that area, and
we moved to Tucson when he got traded to the Cleveland Indians. So that's
how we ended up hear in Tucson. But sam Radino, I had a
ton of cousins and aunts and uncles and family that was there at the regionals.
That was the home of the Western Regionals, right there in sam Radino.
So so we beat Oregon, Montana, and Hawaii and then all of
a sudden, you know, we're facing off the big, the tough California
team. I think they were from Concord, California. And after that first
inning we scored a run, I think we scored a running a first inning,
and then both sitchers pretty much silenced the hitting after that. And as
I was running into the dugout at the end of the game, you know,
a couple of my teammates were in tears, and I said, Hey,
what's going on? They were like, hey, we're going to the
World Series. We're flying to the Pennsylvania tomorrow. Also, it was right
away you should so yeah, I was right right away. So I'm wondering
if if you guys are ten twelve. You know, eleven twelve years old.
The scene didn't hit you, but the parents surely did, you know,
Like, hey, now we got to get ready to go east.
Yes, well, at that time, there wasn't There wasn't a lot of
parents, you know, because of economics or affordability. Only a couple of
the families were able to go, because we were going to board the plane
right away and head out to Williams Fort. And what I do remember is
I think we celebrated, you know, we normally celebrated with pizza after the
games and family time, and we stayed like in a dorm in California.
And what I remember most is and seventy one. I was a Pittsburgh Pirate
fan and I really loved watching Roberto Clementi. So I said, Hey,
we're flying to Pennsylvania. And I was like, I wonder if there's any
chance I'll see any Pittsburgh Pirates out there. I mean, how many of
you guys were getting on a plane for the first time, right, Yeah,
that was like the first time trip for several of us. And like
I said, only a couple of the families were able to go. So
we flew into Pittsburgh, And that's when I was hoping to see some of
the pirates walking around, but you know I didn't see any video. Of
course, many saying Gain or Roberto Clemenni walking around. So this reminds me
of this is seventy three, right, seventy three, I think when Bud
Bad News Bears come out, like seventy six, seventy seven around there where
were you just had a bunch of dudes, a bunch of dudes who were
playing really well, and they go to Houston the Astronaut and all that stuff.
How did it feel? Was it that much fun with a bunch of
twelve year olds? Uh? Yeah, it was a blast. But like
I said, mister Lantin he was he was really strich with us. He
was very disciplinarian. I mean, he's these days of the All Stars in
the Little League were they were like life lessons, you know, they were
they went way beyond the baseball field after after the playing days, because we
were structured, Hey, we want today, but we're gonna we're not gonna
sit back on our hills because we want today. We're gonna be ready for
tomorrow now. So that's what how he kept us focus for tomorrow. So
he didn't let us get cocky or comfortable, and we were focusing on the
next game tomorrow. We were you know, doing bad in practice and we
were going to gear up and we uh, he never let us get cocky.
He always wanted us to hustle. So a lot of those lessons we
carried on and into our lives afterwards. So we get to Pittsburgh and we
were going to catch a smaller plane to Williamsport, So we had to go
on to like a shuttle plane, you know, just a small passenger plane.
And I want to tell you when I got to Williamsport and we were
pulling up into the camp there, because that's the little legue headquarter camp,
it was the first time that I ever saw fireflies. Wow. Okay.
So so you get so you get to Williams Part and you see there's a
stadium. You know, the whole thing. I mean, it's kind of
they've they've really I'm fixed it up. But you know you're playing in the
stadium now, the whole deal. You know, talk about walking on walking
out there the first time, what that was like, and then we're actually
playing a game on that field. Yeah, what what happened was what I
remember most is we were we were shuttled from the smaller airport in Williamsport,
like on twelve paths of your vans, and we get into the complex and
we get out and the stadium is kind of sunk camp and because if you
look at the games now, you'll see that it's kind of sunk in on
a hill. There's there's hills that kids would slide down to the outfield fence.
And then you can look at the stadium and nowadays there's another stadium behind
that stadium, but because I think they have two stadiums there now. But
what I noticed most it was green, it was humans, It was kind
of overcasting, and you know, it was the first time we saw fireflies
buzzing around the camp because it's kind of like a almost like a cabin style
camp. Brown. So you win a lot of games, then you get
to the finals, right, Well, the first game, the first game
on deck was against New York, so we I think we had a quick
practice the next day and then we were going to face New York. And
I can't quite remember the team where they were from. I knew they were
near like Rochester. I believe I thought it was Albany, but I wasn't
sure about Albany. But so I think we beat New York. It's like
four to nothing and not of a big deal because I mean, here we
are playing a team from New York now on that field in the stadium,
and that stadium for US, I mean that was I think it has like
a ten thousand person capacity or something like that. It was pretty pretty a
pretty big step up from our neighborhood Lileague Field in Cactus, you know here
in Tucson. I'm looking it up as a team from Colony, New York.
Colony, New York. Yeah, I don't know where that is.
So then well I had a guy right to me yesterday because I posted my
post on the Vintage Baseball Post and he said that they were defeated by Colony
in Rochester, New York, and then Colony went on to play US.
Okay, got it? Okay. So the teams that were there were from
Michigan, New York, Florida, and UH and then Arizona. So what
happened was we would have they had these practice fields outside of the stadium,
kind of like High Corbett has their practice fields in the background like an annexed
fields. They have the list of the minor leaguers practice beyond the stadium,
but the major league's practice in the stadium, so they had these warm up
fields in the background outside the stadium. So after we beat New York,
we didn't know but we were facing Michigan next, so and that's when I
had it. I think that's when I personally had my best game because I
was two for three and I hit a double off the left field wall there
and I was pretty excited because I also I hit a line drive between the
shortstop and the third basement, so I ended up two for five going into
that final World title game. But it was exciting because there was big crowds.
The other teams were watching us, and of course there was a lot
of families and I even had I even had a girl that asked me for
my address and she became a pen pal for me after. Well, I
liked the story. Now let's go on. So you guys, you guys
get the championship game. You're gonna be on wide world of sports. You
know, on national TV. Are you playing this Taiwan team at a time
when Taiwan was just killing everybody. I'm up on Wikipedia here it says that
Taiwan had three no hitters, didn't allow a hit or a run in the
right in the tournament. And but going into that game, I mean,
just what do you guys think and how do they look? They looked they
looked very militant, and they looked very professional. They had these warm up
jerseys that they were wearing for their practices. I mean almost like the Tokyo
Giant type of uniforms. And they ate at a table with their own catered
food in and they had their own interpreters, they had the whole entourage.
Did they look did they look like they were twelve? Uh? Well,
it's kind of hard to tell sometimes, but according to our coaches, you
know after the fact, I mean I think their picture was like six foot.
You know, he was a big dude. I remember him. Yeah,
I was batting and he looked like a giant compared to me. And
he was thrown like the equivalent of over one hundred miles an hour. You
know who pitched in that game? Was that Martinez or bus there? Who?
Well, that was another amazing story because Vosburg and fip No, Martinez
was our third pitcher. We had two lefties, Eddie Vossburg who went on
too the Major League and Mike Fimbers, who was also a very, very
tough and dominant pitcher. And I actually had a really tough time hitting off
Novembers regular season, but he baffled the Taiwan East for like three innings and
was zero to zero and they finally but Dailier problem is he was fighting in
like a flu virus, and mister Lattick was really hesitant about leaving him in
the game, and I think once one of them connected for a home run,
he pulled him out of the game at that point. And I think
it was like in a third inning because it was zero to zero and we
were like, hey, these guys are dominant, but we're right here zero
to zero, you know. And Fimbers in his curt he had a nasty
curveball and he threw hard. He had he had the Taiwanese baffles compared to
the other two teams that they played. Yeah, so you had the roster
or whatever. Are you still friends with many of the guys? Do you
keep in touch? I know this is kind of like a sappy question,
but no, no, it's not happy. I think Eddie and I stay
in touch the most. Eddie Bosbury Mike members. I don't you know,
he's on on social media, but I've you know, we've keeping We've kept
in touch over the years because he played a lot of the city league ball
here in Tucson with my brother Manny and Gerard Paisa. He moved to He
was also a firefighter like myself, and we stay in touch a little bit
on Messenger and Facebook and also David Meash yeah remember and so we uh so
right now, we were notified that they're gonna induct us into the team of
County Hall of Fame and they're gonna do news press conference in October I think,
and then a banquet in November. Have you absolutely deserved that, you
guys, I'm sure a couple of teams have ever done that. You know.
I remember the big welcome home them at the airport, A big crowd
of people went over there. You know, I went to you know,
my mom took me to for that. You know, I was a year
older than you guys. But just talk about that whole thing. What what
is a kid your age thinking when all of a sudden there's this mob of
people. They're welcoming you, you know, at the airport. But what
if I could take you back to the World Title Game just for a second.
They had a tape delay thing on the Wild World of Sports. I
mean, back then they did have the Agony defeat the Thrill of Victory,
and it was on Saturdays, and that was the only televised game was the
World Title Game. Right when they show they show play at the beginning of
the highlights, and so after the game they were like, Hey, if
you guys want, you can watch the tape lay game. And and then
we you know, we felt kind of mad. It was our first loss
ever, you know, and we didn't we didn't hang our heads down or
we weren't really too depressed because these guys were dominant. Yeah, and they
I mean they were thrown you know, over one hundred miles an hour.
They hit like four five home runs off of us. No, the team
had ever done anything like that stuff. And then and then all of a
sudden, the suspicions kind of came up about the age and they ended up
getting suspended for like four years after that, but they still let them keep
the title that year, right, but then they said, well, since
we're here and we're here in the area it's part of the World Series tread,
we're gonna take you guys to the Baltimore Oriole Games. So we saw
the Baltimore Orioles and the Royals play at Memorial Stadium, and we went to
go see the Money in Factory where they make the money at the Mint.
And then we went to the White House. So we got a tour of
the White House and then uh, and that's when we we boarded the plane
to get ready to come back to two some come back home to family and
friends that we loved. That's very nice, very nice. Well what great
memories, right, I mean what every little boys dream. Yeah, it's
not every day you get to We'll go to the White House and walk around
in the Rose Garden out there and stuff and get to be pent pous with
another little girls, you guys. Yeah, So we we boarded the plane
backs, you know, to Susan. I know it was a long flight,
but I think most of us kind of caught naps on the way back
home. And we arrived in Tucson. I'm not sure exactly what time it
was, but I want to say it was maybe around ten o'clock and there
was a huge thousands of people waiting at the airport. And then they had
all the dad's line up as we boarded off the plane and they placed this
on their shoulders and carried us through the crowd. So I sent a couple
of pictures where my dad is the one that actually had propped me up as
we walked through the airport crowd. And then Jim Jim Click provided a police
escort to another location. So they gave us a police escort to some other
location, and then we ended up going to several events in Tucson shortly after
that. Like back then, boxing was big, so I remember we were
introduced at a boxing match at the TCC and stuff like that. They took
us a couple of VIP events here and then we before you know, we
were starting junior high and in our house field of area. Very cool,
very cool, great, great memories. I'm great to share that. I'm
again as a little kid, I just remember you remember you guys doing that,
And you know I would watch the Littleague World Series every year because you
know, I love baseball and I played baseball at the time, so it
was it was very cool. And I remember I just remember you guys doing
that. I remember Vossberg, you know, left hander Fambers and all those
games. Very cool. Well, from from that era, there was three
major leaguers that came out of that that cohort group. Eddie Vossers went on
I think he pits like fourteen years in the majors and he was the only
pitcher that went to the Little League at college and the Major League World Series.
And and then my brother was was drafted by the Met's oude of South
Point. And then Tom pi Nazi was drafted out of Arkansas from rink On
and he went on to be an All Star catcher for the Cardinals. You
know, right, Yeah, there's a reason you guys got to the World
Series. Yeah, we had peg Narzian last year. So we have added
every now and again. Thank you, Mike and Michael. We appreciate it,
man, that was very fun, very fun. Yes, I really
appreciate it anytime we get to share some memories of my teammates. We're looking
forward to getting together for the Hall of Fame induction coming up in a month
or two. All right, we'll part. It'll be nice to see whoever
can show up. Yeah, yeah, we'll get back to that. Okay,
thank you again. Appreciate your time. Stephen Jay, thank you so
much. It was an honor to be here. I really appreciate it.
Yeah, thank you. Cool dude, cool dude, cool memories. Very
cool. All right, we got it. We were way long, so
we got to get the head out and we'll come back. We'll break.
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dot net. Steve Ravera and Jakin Salez they have their eye on the ball
on Tucson Sports Big Chap, Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live on the iHeart
Radio Wire. They welcome back to Valla Bus Spots fourteen. Cookie. I'm
Steve Rivera, He's chicken sauce. He's got about seven minutes. Give a
quick call if you want. We got a little time. But that was
a lot of fun. We ran a little along with that was fun,
fun conversation. Brought back a lot of memories. Just remember that time watching
that team, go do, go do what they did. And the coolest
thing was that they were on you know, they were on National TV on
Saturday. And I don't recall that. I guess Mike, Mike would would
have known, but I don't recall that it was tape delayed when we saw
it and the game was already over. But you know, we didn't have
the internet and stuff to be able to know what was You got three you
got three channels. I remember wh I remember watching it as if I was
watching it live and very disappointed to see how they they got crushed. But
that team, it was the final scores from twelve. Both both Tucson teams
lost twelve and nothing. I think it was only one persons from the team
got on the first pasi and that was it. Yeah. Yeah, but
hey, come on, this is fantastic because because one loss, I mean
one loss in your home. Yeah. And you know I and I told
you you know when I when I covered the eighty six team from international,
you know, when I saw those kids after the you know, after they
lost the championship game, you had never known they had lost the game.
They were having a block. I just could think, like I said about
news bearers, I knew how you know, kind of stilly and fun that
was. They're just kids wanting to have fun, right, and they were
and and that was awesome. And so what a memory, I mean,
what a memory for you know, every kid who ever played a little Sure,
sure, you know you thought about Williamsport. I'm sure defeat hurts,
But when you look back and you think, God, look at what we
did. How many teams didn't get there? Right? Right? Because you
see him now and they're just fantastic players. Uh. You know, of
course there are twelve year olds and they make mistakes, but but some fantastic
plays, some fantastic talent. Wow wow, well again three major leaguers coming
out of that uh, coming out of that group of guys. I mean
there was a reason they were really good, right sure? Sure, and
like you said, his brother peg Nazzi and then Vosburg Vosburgh. Well,
I guess I didn't really realize that peg Nazzi was in there. Yeah,
the catcher you know who's good friends with him? Are our referee guy?
No, the other one Scofield? Scofield close here like brothers. Uh.
Yeah, we had to be had. I want to know what took so
damn long to get these guys into the Sports Hall of Fame. Fifty Yeah,
you could have done it at twenty five years whatever, was nice memory
We get on handsome about you said eighty six, right, so that's eighty
six, eighty six, so that would be thirty seven years now, so
they'll play wait for forty Come on, man, you gotta get on the
stick. That's that's a little long to have to wait to get in there.
I mean, I mean, you know, I hope all these guys
are still around. Yeah, right, sixty two they're probably really he's like
a bodybuilder. Have you seen You've seen that. He's a big body.
He's like a champion body, like a world powerwerfer's doing like killing it and
killing it a world record rights. I think so cool. Good to have
him on the show. Uh. Now next next hour, we're gonna have
Adye Smith from the U of a form of UA, one of the big
recruits for LOOT and one of the guys here for the Fantasy Bat basketball camp
which is this weekend. A bunch of those guys in town. I saw,
I saw the picture, Uh, Tommy Lloyd hanging out with all these
guys. I get one more thing, and I know these guys. It's
great that these guys are here. But one more thing that you see that
Tommy does going out and shows and braces these guys who were here, you
know some of them forty years ago, you know, sure hanging out.
He knows the legacy. Let me say this. I said this to somebody
either today or last night. You know Tommy gets it. Tommy, it
doesn't take much to go out and say, hey, shake your hand,
Hey, thanks for thanks for coming to see us, coming to you,
thanks for being here, thanks for carrying on the tradition. Right, not
even the public, you know, even the public say thanks for showing up.
Pretty simple. No, it's very cool and it's uh, it's really
cool to see him do that. But you know, I saw Bennett Davidson's
here, don Al Harris. Who else did I see in there? Oh
yeah, Eddie, Eddie, let me see Pete Joe. Uh their practice,
Reggie was coaching today. Uh yeah, Andy Brown and oh upilling,
Bennet Davidson. There was one more, Harry Thompson. Harry Thompson. Yeah,
yeah, wow, all right, very cool, good, good group.
All those guys played for Luke. Yeah, and the stories last night
were very, very compelling, you know. Uh. Motang Gara given a
very moment, moved in here talking about his time and how Luke saved him
kind of like not from poverty, but his he grew up with nothing and
Luke found him and brought him here, and just those type of stories.
Yeah again, you know, I mean, you know, you see those
guys, they've been successful, a whole ton of them. Yeah, you
know, with Steve Kirby and the Golden State Warriors coach if he had come
and play for yeah, who knows the course of your life. Yeah,
I mean, you know the things that can happen, you know, you
know Sean Elliott in the NBA now he you know, we've been living in
San Antonio doing this radio stuff and just and it cruising along having a great
time. Yeah. You know. One of the things that there's so many
doing radio and coaching that I thought that and I think this is very important
that let them be dudes who were able to do this. Steve was on
it forever, t and T Sean does it, uh mule Bach, Reggie
dew All. These guys have careers because they were allowed to talk to us,
develop skills that we skill this type of deal and and just a feel
for it right right, you know, the game rights to people. You
get good at it at some point exactly, and people trust you and what
you say. Corey another one. There's a lot of a lot of dudes
coaching and then doing the media's right absolute with that. I've always thought that,
you know, I mean there's I mean, like you know, there's
some schools and my kids schools wonder them where they make you start doing speeches
and presentations, you know, in the fourth, fifth, sixth grade.
By the time you get and I'll tell you what, that's fantastic Like that,
you can you can do a lot of stuff that's fantastic, especially when
you're in this business. The last thing you can be is shy. Yeah
exactly. You know. Look, see, no, when when I'm in
a group of people with my friends and everything, you gotta know when they
let loose and when quiet. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure your
dad said. You know, you get to know your time and circumstance.
Yeah, yeah, time and circumstance. Okay, cool, all right,
Well let's let's take a break here. At the top of the hour,
sit says he's got some some breaking news for us, So we're gonna find
out how good he is at this right out of the shoot. So I'll
stick around breaking news. There's a little kind of stuff as we head to
the weekend and the start of the college football scene, So stick around.