When there were just eight teams in each of the big leagues, I was always told, 'It's hard to come up, but it's just hard to stay in the big leagues.' That's because there's always somebody. The Cardinals had so many minor league clubs and had so many good ballplayers.
The pay in the minor leagues, I think it's terrible, it's disgusting, it's exploitative.
If you go back to the minors, you have to start swinging and hitting the ball again. I've been in the minors since the '70s semipros, let's put it that way.
Not many people get to the major leagues and succeed right away. There are some struggles. Everyone seems to struggle.
Everybody in the minor leagues - if you're a player, an announcer, whatever - wants to be in the big leagues.
The last thing I wanted to do was get buried in Triple-A behind prospects.
I played ball for the Hollywood Blues of the Pacific Coast League, and I thought I was going to be a major leaguer. But I was the only one who seemed to think so.
Wheaties was the big sponsor in those days (1940s). They sponsored almost all the baseball games in the majors and the minors. That was a lot of Wheaties. I think there were twenty-four boxes in a case and some of these guys were hitting twenty-five and thirty home runs a season. We had a dog in those days named Blue Grass and the players used to give us their Wheaties for him. Blue Grass loved Wheaties and so did I.
Too bad integration didn't come sooner, because there were so many ballplayers that could have made the major leagues. That's why, you look back, and - not to take away anything from Babe Ruth or some of those other guys - they didn't play against the greatest ballplayers in the world.
Young pitchers don't throw enough in the minor leagues, and when they get to the majors, they don't have the stamina; their arms haven't been built up.
I played good ball in the minor leagues, and that's why they called me up to the major leagues.
Once you make the majors, it's never a great feeling to go back to the minors - no matter what the circumstances.
I was not bitter by not being allowed to play in the major leagues. I just said, 'The time has not come.'
I couldn't believe I hit .342. I hit .333 one month in Triple-A. Otherwise, I hit .279 in the minor leagues. I'm proud of myself.
There are more second-, third-, fourth-, fifth- and so on in the big leagues than first-round picks.
I don't know how the 'Richie' started. My name is Richard, and they called me Dick in the minor leagues.
The minor leagues were great. When you first sign, that is your big leagues.
When I was a minor league player, my goal was to be a major leaguer. It's no different as a minor league manager.
I kept listening in the minor leagues, and even earlier than that, people would say, 'If you don't hit the fastball, you're not going to get to the big leagues.' Every game, you're going to get a fastball.
I didn't know if I could make it to the big leagues without going through Triple-A.
I learned a lot in the Minor Leagues, spending six years there. I honed my skills, as far as coaching goes. I was able to work with the players in a lot of facets of the game.
I can remember going to see the minor league Orioles. Until I was 15 years old, we'd go down with 3,000 people to watch them play the Syracuse Chiefs or the Jersey City Little Giants. That's what passed for Baltimore sports.
In the minor leagues, previous to 2008, I took a lot of pitches. I prided myself on on-base percentage. I made sure that I made the pitcher work.
I've never seen radio as the minor leagues, where I'm just really preparing to be in the show that really counts, namely, television, which is, I think, what people often assume. I've never felt that way.
Even after I played ten years of ball, I still felt like I had to play well or somebody might take my place. They had plenty of players in the minor leagues who were good enough to come up and take your job, and I think that kept us going all of the time. I hustled and put that extra effort in all of the time.
