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Monday, January 19, 2009

Ex-Posse manager talks about Rickey being Rickey

“We’re in Boise, and I said, ‘Rickey, you’re on your own to run. You’re fast. I want you to be aggressive. I want you to be fearless. I want you to be really confident in what you are doing.’ “

” ‘OK, OK, OK,’ Rickey said to me,” Trebelhorn added.

“So he’s not running,” Trebelhorn continued. “Finally I said, ‘Rick, why aren’t you running? And he said, ‘Well, you know I really need the sign to go.’ “

At this point, Kennedy begins to chuckle in the background.

“All right, I’ll give you the sign,’” Trebelhorn said.

“So he gets on first base and I go through the whole signs,” Trebelhorn said. “At the end, I take all the signs off—and he steals second.

“So I said (to Henderson), ‘All right. Watch. Look at me,” Trebelhorn said. “I give him the same signs again, and I give him the ‘take off’ sign. I take EVERYTHING off. Nothing is on. He steals third.”

Kennedy chuckles some more.

“I said, ‘Rick, god dang it. Back to back pitches this is what I want you to do on your own, but I didn’t give you the ‘steal’ sign,” Trebelhorn said. “You don’t even know the signs.”

“And (Henderson) said, ‘Man, man, Treb, man. I know the signs. Rickey knows the signs. Rickey knows the signs.”

“So I said, ‘Well, what’s the sign then?’ ” Trebelhorn said.

Henderson then tells Trebelhorn, “Man, it’s the ‘take off’ sign. So I ‘took off’ to second, and I ‘took off’ to third!”

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Griffin (Vlad) Posted: January 19, 2009 at 09:36 PM | 8 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
  Tags: hall of fame, minor leagues

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   1. Juan V Posted: January 19, 2009 at 10:26 PM (#3055442)
We should have a Rickey! tag.
   2. Mayor Blomberg Posted: January 19, 2009 at 10:39 PM (#3055457)
"(Henderson) had a more exaggerated crouch than he did later on," he said. "He had a strike zone that I think was about 18 inches from top to bottom."


Didn't think it was possible.
   3. You Know Nothing JT Snow (YR) Posted: January 19, 2009 at 11:44 PM (#3055500)
We should have a Rickey! tag.


Seconded.
   4. Northpaw Posted: January 20, 2009 at 01:03 AM (#3055555)
Rickey was Rickey before Rickey was cool. Except Rickey was always cool.
   5. Miko Supports Shane's Spam Habit Posted: January 20, 2009 at 01:48 AM (#3055588)
I love this story. I wonder if it's apocryphal.
   6. RJ in TO Posted: January 20, 2009 at 01:53 AM (#3055593)
I love this story. I wonder if it's apocryphal.


I don't care. Much like the Rickey/Olerud story, even if it proves to be false, it's still real to me, dammit.
   7. Slinger Francisco Barrios (Dr. Memory) Posted: January 20, 2009 at 05:08 PM (#3056047)
I wonder if it's apocryphal.

I heard a story one time very much like it. Went like this:

Some rookie pitcher was pitching for Muggsy McGraw. He got his guy 0-2, and McGraw met him on the mound and said, "Now waste one." The kid grooved one down the chute and it went for four bases. When he got back to the dugout, a fuming McGraw asked him what the hell he was thinking. "I did what you said, Skip," replied the quivering youngster, "I threw it right level with his waist!"

Yowsah!
   8. Boots Day Posted: January 20, 2009 at 05:14 PM (#3056055)
I've heard the "waist pitch" story told with Babe Ruth as the pitcher.

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