THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION ALMANAC INTERVIEWS

BILL "LEFTY" WIGHT

BORN: William Robert Wight was born April 12, 1922
at Rio Vista, California

DATE OF INTERVIEW: JULY 14, 2005

MAIN TOPIC: PITCHING AT BLUES STADIUM IN KANSAS CITY

INTRODUCTION

In his lone season in the American Association, Bill "Lefty" Wight led the mound corps for the first-place Kansas City Blues with his 16 wins. Losing nine games in his 25 decisions, Wight led the American Association with 17 complete games as well as with his 5 shutouts (tied only with Frank Hiller of the Blues). His 2.85 led the Blues staff in 1947.

As a major leaguer, Wight had his best season with the Chicago White Sox in 1949 when he had 15 wins against 13 losses in 245 innings of work with 14 complete games. The 6'1", 180 lb. southpaw gave up only 9 home runs that year, walking 96 while striking out 78 with a 3.31 ERA. His composite record in the majors was 77-99 in 12 seasons
from 1946-58 with a 3.95 ERA.

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SO YOUR KANSAS CITY STINT in 1947 WAS JUST A BLIP ON THE OVERALL RADAR OF YOUR CAREER.

Actually, I got traded the next year to the White Sox after that year when I won 16 games with the Blues, but we were winning the pennant and Larry MacPhail of the Yankees said he wouldn't take anybody off the team as long as we had a chance to get in the [Little] World Series, but we got eliminated by Milwaukee in the playoffs. Then I got recalled [by the Yankees] but by that time I'm too late to be eligible for the World Series [Yankees vs. Brooklyn] and they only had about an 18 game lead so they let me pitch one game and I pitched a five-hit shutout against Philadelphia. Bucky Harris was the manager by that time and he said 'I'm really counting on you for next year,' and then next spring I was traded to the White Sox along with Fred Bradley, a good curve ball pitcher we had there on the [Blues] club, for Eddie Lopat. I really think the Kansas City club was better than the White Sox club I went to! If you look at the lineup as near as I can remember it we had Souchock [Steve] at first-base and Jerry Coleman at second [actually third-base] and Otie Strain, a great shortstop, who didn't hit much but he was a good shortstop and mean too, too light in the bat to get in the big leagues, but he was a good, good shortstop and he was mean on the double-play coming across the bag sidearm and those guys would hit the dirt about ten feet out...(chuckling)...so they wouldn't get hit in the eyes with the throw...he wouldn't give an inch on anybody...And we had a real good outfield with Hank Bauer and Eddie Stewart in right-field, and Harry Craft was our fourth outfielder and he was still a good player even though he was over the hill, but he could play yet, and we had a center fielder, Cliff Mapes, who the Yankees expected a great deal out of. He had tremendous power and a real good arm ... he was a low-ball hitter who could hit the low balls over the flag-pole but he had a little blind-spot up high on the guys with a good fast ball and that kind of stopped him. He never did reach his total potential, you know?

I CAN SEE THAT MAPES LED THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION IN STRIKEOUTS THAT YEAR SO THAT MUST SAY SOMETHING. HE HAD 104 STRIKEOUTS BUT HE ALSO WALKED 119 TIMES AND HIT .308...

Yeah, some of those intentional I would imagine, but I'm surprised he walked that much.

SO WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT BLUES STADIUM AND PITCHING THERE?

Well, it was a sunken field, you know, and it was a good park to pitch in as far as that goes, good sized. But it was hotter than hell because you couldn't get any air down there! I remember there were a couple of umpires who had to stop to avoid heat prostration, and give em a little breather, you know? I wasn't there at the time, but one time Bill Meyer came out after a pitcher came down there, who was sent down from New York, and in his first start, he pitched about three innings at Blues Stadium there, and he reached back for his windup and he just kept goin' back, and he fainted...on the mound (chuckling)...they had to bring him in and put cold towels on him, I can't think of the guy's name now, but Bill Meyer was telling me about that...

BILL MEYER WAS THE BLUES' MANAGER AT KANSAS CITY IN 1947...

And he was some kind of a manager, too. He was in McCarthy's [Joe] shadow, you know, and they paid him well to stay because they wanted to keep him at triple A, but he had some major league offers even then but they wanted to keep him there...

WHAT ELSE DO YOU RECALL ABOUT BLUES STADIUM, BILL?

It was a big ball park.

WAS THAT AN ADVANTAGE TO YOU?

Not particularly, I didn't throw the home run ball much. They hit 'em outta there alright, the air being hot the ball could carry pretty good. But other than that it was a nice field, they kept it up good, but the fact that it was sunken made it more noticeable, as far as the heat's concerned, and then they had plenty of heat there anyway, and the wind didn't help me much, for one thing. Some ball parks, like Wrigley Field, with the wind blowing out everybody can hit home runs, but in Kansas City there wasn't any wind and it was blocked off before it got there, pretty much. It was kind of a quiet air, there, you know. So the fact that it was a pretty good sized park didn't hurt at all because you never had to hit into a wind, or anything like that, either, the ball carried pretty true all the time.

I'M THINKING ABOUT THE SCOREBOARD IN LEFT FIELD. DID THIS POSE MUCH OF AN OBSTACLE FOR HITTERS?

Only the power hitters seemed to hit home runs much, Bauer, and Mapes and those guys...Souchock at first-base, he had good power so he was a right-handed power hitter, but Coleman and Strain...and we had two real good defensive catchers, Ken Silvestri and Gus Niarhos [NYR-house] both big league receivers, both of those just a little bit light with the bat too.

NIARHOS HIT .321

Yeah, he was a smart hitter, and a pretty good contact hitter, and he could run good! And he would bunt sometimes too! He'd look around, he knew how to play, he was very smart. And a great guy to pitch to 'cause he wasn't all that tall, you know, and he gave you a real low target and he'd kind of feel that low strike for you pretty good because he never had to move his hands, and that umpire could see good over him, so that helped the pitcher, but he was an outstanding defensive catcher. I think the Yankees wish they would have stayed longer with him than with Charlie Silvera.

WHAT WAS DIFFERENT ABOUT BLUES STADIUM FROM THE OTHER AMERICAN ASSOCIATION PARKS AS FAR AS THE PITCHER WAS CONCERNED?

They varied alot, you know. Minneapolis had short right-field -- even I hit a home run in Minneapolis, it was 265 feet, something like that, and I was able to flop one over there.

YOU WERE BATTING FROM THE LEFT SIDE SO YOU WOULD HAVE HAD THAT ADVANTAGE.

And as I remember, the Milwaukee park was kind of deep in center and narrow on the right, kind of a Polo Grounds-ish...

BORCHERT FIELD.

Was that it? That rings a bell. If you kept the ball away from the lines you were alright there. I can't remember Louisville, I think that was a pretty nice ball park as I recall.

YES, PARKWAY FIELD, BUILT THE SAME YEAR BLUES STADIUM WAS IN 1923.

It was kind of standard, a nice park. That was a Boston [AL] farm, still is, I guess. For years and years they were always with Boston.

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT PITCHING IN BLUES STADIUM?

I guess because we had a good ball club. We were winning, and it's a happier year when you're winning and when you know you've got a good ball club and it felt good all year long, you know.

GOOD CROWDS COMING OUT?

Yeah, everything was good.

EVERYBODY GOT ALONG WITH BILL MEYER?

Oh, yeah. He was really a smart manager and he could handle players real, real well.

DID YOU HAVE PITCHING COACHES THEN?

No, but we had the veteran guys, like Marius Russo, come down there for a while.

RUSSO JUST DIED.

I did see that. He and I liked to play chess in spring training when I was with the Yankees. He was sure a nice guy. He was a great fielding pitcher. Bill Meyer told me, when he was coming down, he said, "Talk to him and see if you can pick up a few pointers about things." He was a very smart pitcher, but he had arm trouble, and he had been a real good pitcher for the Yankees, but he was fighting arm trouble and they were trying to get him back in shape, but he never did totally get over it. They always had to ask him if he was able to pitch on a given day, you know, so he started relieving. But he was a backstop on pop flies, I mean, foul balls? He's right back there with the catcher on foul balls, yeah. Right near the screen, you know (chuckles), and great on a bunt, he was like a cat, he'd get a good jump. He showed me how to get on top of the ball, to stride as you're comin' up, and quick things like how to get rid of the ball well.

BLUES STADIUM HAD A LOT OF FOUL GROUND.

It did pretty good, yeah, that helped anybody. You'd get foul balls all the time, especially with a guy like Tommy Byrnes. He could get half a dozen foul balls, when guys were just kickin' the ball...He threw more pitches and had some long games, he struck out a lot of guys and they would foul off a lot of pitches and it [having lots of foul room] was a big help for a guy like that. Guys would hit the ball in the air pretty often off him. He was a fly-ball pitcher who tried to make 'em hit any kind of a pop-up ball...

BYRNES LED THE TEAM WITH 138 STRIKEOUTS.

Yeah, he could throw.

WHICH AMERICAN ASSOCIATION PARK WAS YOUR FAVORITE TO PITCH IN?

I liked Blues Stadium as well as any, except I'd o' liked it a little cooler! I liked Louisville pretty well, the Minneapolis one was a tough one, Nicollet. I just tried to pitch well wherever I went, I didn't worry too much about the size of the ball park, I mean, you can't, you have to concentrate on what you're doing.

YOU COMPLETED 17 GAMES THAT YEAR, WHICH LED THE LEAGUE.

I didn't know that.

AND YOU HAD FIVE SHUTOUTS, AND YOU SHARED THAT DISTINCTION WITH FRANK HILLER.

I'll be darned. Frank Hiller went to the Cubs, I think. Then we had another guy, Carl DeRose [he pronounces it "DaRooz"] I thought was going to be an outstanding pitcher for the Yankees and he had nasty stuff. I think he got some arm trouble or something. He got killed a while back. He got in some kind of accident or got run over, car may have broken down or he mighta been trying to fix a spare tire, he got hit with a car. Cal McLish was an interesting guy -- he could throw with either hand, you know, ambidextrous, he's a big guy. He'd often throw batting practice left-handed and you couldn't tell the difference but he always pitched right-handed. He was named after Calvin Coolidge -- he's an Indian! I don't know why the Indians liked Calvin Coolidge...must be because he didn't steal anything from 'em!

WHAT MIGHT HAVE MADE BLUES STADIUM A BETTER PLACE TO PITCH?

Well, I think the fact that you had the players to win and the fact that it was one of the better pitching parks compared to the rest of 'em. It was kind of standard, wind didn't help you or hurt you, but you had good defensive guys out there...even when Harry Craft was out there you didn't' worry a bit -- he could play center field yet when they wanted to give Mapes a rest, and he's also another veteran guy that had good advice for ya and you learned from him...you learned from each other in baseball, but you learned from the older players...they didn't have any pitching coaches then. The Yankees didn't have a pitching coach until the late forties, about '48, something like that, '47 or '48.

YOU STARTED OUT IN 1941 WITH IDAHO FALLS IN THE PIONEER LEAGUE.

Yeah, I was 18 years old, then I went to Binghamton [New York] and I stayed there for awhile, then they sent me to Norfolk [Piedmont League], then they were going to send me to Kansas City at the end of the year [1942] but I had a little arm trouble so they sent me home.

YOU HAD A FEW YEARS IN THE MILITARY.

Navy. I didn't go overseas though. Went through flight school, like a country club compared to what some of those poor guys went through. It was for Navy cadets mostly, they'd come through there and it was a physical training thing, basically, for 'em, so we only had 100 enlisted men there. We did the work around there; Bill Rigney was fixing sports equipment there. I was in the post office, a left-handed mail man. We had a good club. Me and Charlie Gehringer managed the club and Bill Rigney was on shortstop, Ray Perry was quite a player who would have gone to the White Sox was played third base, Jackie [Johnny] Tobin...we had quite a few guys who could play.

AND WHICH BASE WERE YOU AT?

It was at St. Mary's College, then after the Navy took it over it was St. Mary's pre-flight school. They shared a post office with the Christian Brothers there, in California near Moraga, a little town about 15 miles out of Oakland. Beautiful area.

WHAT DID YOU LIKE BETTER, PITCHING DURING THE DAY OR NIGHT?

I liked it at night because it was cooler! The lights there were pretty good -- most of the parks had good lights, there weren't many complaints. You get in the lower leagues, though, and it can get dangerous in some of those Class A leagues as far as the lights are concerned. Imagine hitting off a guy like Virgil Trucks in a Class A league! In those days they called them B, C and D; there's nothing below A now except Rookie League, back then they really broke them down...But the lights were pretty good there [at Blues], I didn't hear anyone complain about it--if the hitter don't complain about it, they're alright (chuckling).

WHAT WAS THE MOST CHALLENGING THING ABOUT PITCHING AT BLUES STADIUM?

Keeping your endurance. You had to be in good shape, I mean you really did. And little things, like changing your t-shirt two or three times because you didn't realize how heavy they got ... I'm talking about the summer there...but you'd feel pretty good when you came back out

YOU WERE WEARING WOOL.

Yeah, it was the lightweight wool. But you had to change the shirt two or three times -- you'd be surprised at how heavy they'd get when you'd go into the clubhouse to take it off -- you'd feel pretty good when you come back out with a new shirt on (chuckling)!

BILL, WHAT DID YOU DO AFTER BASEBALL?

I scouted for the Atlanta Braves for 30 years, 32 years to be exact. I signed some pretty good players, Joe Morgan, Dale Murphy, Dusty Baker, that sort of thing...I got several guys into the big leagues, so I had a pretty good career there. I really have avoided work all my life, I guess. I retired in 1999.

CHUCK KONEY, A FELLOW SCOUT, TOLD ME YOU HAD ONE OF THE BEST PICK-OFF MOVES HE'D EVER SEEN. TELL ME ABOUT THAT.

My natural delivery was kind of a low three-quarter and I learned that from Walter Mails [Kansas City pitcher 1933]. He had a great move to first. He gave me a couple of tips on that when the Yankees...and he said 'Keep your weight on your back leg longer, and I didn't have to change my delivery at all because I was kind of coming out that way anyway, I kept my weight back on my back leg and turn my head toward the plate, just one of the particulars even if you never threw to first base. I'd still have balance and that's what was deceptive because the base-runner is always trying to look you in the eye. So I had that little extra move so I was able to pop it over there. You remember Jerry Coleman, he's a broadcaster for San Diego now, in fact he's going into the Hall of Fame as a broadcaster, played second-base, when he went to the Yankees and I was traded to the White Sox, some of those Yankees didn't see me, except for that one game in '47 that I pitched there, so he was warning them that I had a good move and to be careful...I got Mantle two or three times (chuckles), not in one game but during the season. But anyway, he was warning them that if they weren't used to me I'd be liable to pick them off, you know, and I didn't get anybody, except Jerry Coleman! He said, when he got back to the dugout they really ribbed him--he warned them and he was the only one I got!

YOU MENTIONED WALTER MAILS.

He was called "Duster" Mails, he pitched for Cleveland in the '20's. But he was always ragging me...and he never even saw me pitch! But I had the information on him from Joe Devine, the old Yankee scout, and learned about that balance thing and keeping your weight back longer. But you know I never could teach that. When I was with the White Sox they wanted me to teach Billy Pierce, and I forget their other big left-hander who went to the Yankees, big Polish guy. But they both threw overhand, dead overhand, and I never saw an overhand pitcher with a good move to first base except Warren Spahn. And I says, 'You guys wanna learn how to throw to first you'll have to talk to Warren Spahn because he's the only one I've ever seen who could throw over the top.' These guys almost spiked themselves trying to throw to first when I was trying to help 'em! It was just kinda natural for me and I couldn't teach it to anybody. The Braves had me doing that too (chuckles), with their left-handers, and I could give them the basics of it, but they'd still have to do it themselves and have a feel for it.

WHO WAS A TOUGH PITCHER FOR YOU TO FACE IN THE ASSOCIATION?

Oh boy, that's a tough one there, there were some nasty ones there. Remember that Marv Grissom, I think he pitched for Minneapolis, wasn't that a Giant farm? He had nasty stuff, he was overpowering with his fastball, and he was kinda mean too (chuckles).

WHO WAS YOUR TOUGHEST BATTER TO FACE?

I think it was the shortstop for Milwaukee, he managed in the big leagues for quite awhile, Alvin Dark. He was a tough out. He could handle a bat, and he was kind of a bad ball hitter. He was up there swingin'! No, he didn't take too many, he could handle a bat and he could go to all fields, he could hit and run, he could pull, he could run, you know, he was a tough out. There were some good hitters there. There was a first-baseman there in Milwaukee who couldn't do much else but he could swing the bat, Heinz Becker, that's the guy. Yeah, he was a tough out for me too. He could hit.

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