The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 470 - Frank Verdi

Episode Date: March 2, 2021

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine baseball's Frank VerdiSources Tour DatesRed Bubble Merch

When you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. That in-law sweet guest house where your parents stay only part-time Airbnb it and make some money the rest of the year whether you could use a little extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.ca slash host. All right you're listening to the dollop on the All Things Comedy Network. This is

a bilingual American History podcast where each week I, Dave Anthony, read a story from a macaw history to my friend. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be. About? It's about puppies. People have been giving us a lot of feedback so I have decided to make this a puppy podcast. A pup cast. So each week I am going to describe a puppy to Gareth and Gareth will comment on. I'm in the Rube role. Yeah yeah you're in the Rube role so you'll comment on the puppy and whether or not you like the puppy. You're just going to describe the puppy to me. I don't get to see it. Yeah yeah I'll be like so this puppy has. I think that's the best way to go. This puppy has long ears, big eyes, I would say bigger eyes, front-facing as opposed to backward-facing eyes. Sure it's a front-facing dog. It's a

front-facing dog. It's got a mouth, it's got a nose. Beagle. Yes! How did you know? It's boy I'll tell you what who's not gonna stick around for this and called it quote his jam-patch. Jam-patch? I'm the fucking hippo guy. Dave okay. My name's Gary. Wait. Is it for fun? And this is not gonna come to Tigglypod, Gary. Okay. Now hit him with the puppy. You both present sick arguments. No sleep, no hippo. That's like no hippo. Actually partner. Hi Gary. No, I sleep done my friend. No, no. Ronda, Ronda in the car. So I just say it. June 2nd 1926 year of our Lord Jesus Christ. Okay. So look we did a we did the San Jose B's episode recently and as I was reading about the San Jose B's I stumbled across this story. So it's related. So this is okay. Is it a two parter or a three parter? Is it gonna be a Trilla B? It's just one. It's just one more addition. Frank Michael Verde was born in Brooklyn,

New York to Michael and Ada Verde. Most of his childhood obviously during the Great Depression, which was really great. That's why I got the name. Verde sad time. Verde sad time. Frank's dad was a butcher and Frank delivered meat for his dad on his bike. Okay. So just like a little bike meat. Just a kid cruising around with meat on his bike. Did you hear that slap on the door on it sounded like the kid through the bacon. It was the bacon boy. Italian and Jewish neighborhood Frank's other job was riding his bike from Jewish household to Jewish household lighting candles and turning on electric lights for people inside who couldn't do it during the Sabbath. Oh, wow. This you said this happened to me when I first moved to LA. My fiance, God rest her soul. She she's not dead. We just didn't make it. But we live next door to some Orthodox Jews and sometimes they would come out and ask her if she could come in and turn on the lights. Well, when I painted this Orthodox Jewish woman's home once and she wouldn't let me take the Mazzuzas off the door. Sure. And then eventually she was very

old. She couldn't do it. She was like, Oh, fuck it. Go ahead. Around 1940, they moved to Crown Heights, about a mile from Abbott's Field, which is where the Brooklyn Dodgers played. So the general manager who the general manager I will from now on refer to as the GM GM of the Dodgers was way ahead of his time. He was the first guy to put lights in a ballpark so games can be played at night. Is it amazing to think that nobody had done like that's just crazy? Yeah. Well, they didn't have a night. It's too dark. But no solution. Like that was that. Well, there was great resistance like people. Oh, people thought baseball meant daytime game. And I don't remember when Chicago when the Cubs finally put lights in and like the 1980s or 90s. And and everyone was there was a big don't do this thing. And but it also it also opens it up to people who work during the day. So it's like, it's almost like it's more privileged, right? People who can get away from the day and go to a game. It's an interesting sort of thing.

But also just amazing. The like the things that we have to get done. And then hearing that like night baseball was a struggle. It's like, God, I mean, we're talking I want to say it was the 90s that they put lights at Wrigley Field, and it was a big it was a big deal. People were and also it's because of the playoffs like if you sleep at night, if your team was playing the Cubs in the playoffs, well, now your whole day is fucked up. Like you're talking about like a week of games for the playoffs. And then you get it has to be during the day because it's Chicago like it's a mess. Right. So not anymore. So he all the GM also talked to owners into putting $400,000 into renovations in the ballpark. So in 1941, the Dodgers won the pennant for a kid living a mile away. This is an amazing time, right? This ballpark, this lights, this renovate. It's it's like, great. We're orthodox. So we can't watch the television tonight. Could you act out the game pitch by pitch? Sure. From the top, do the

anthem. Who's tossing out the first pitch? Do it all now. Don't skip a goddamn moment. So Frank is and his buddies is they're just kids that would hang outside ebbs by a gas station to catch baseballs that were hidden to the street by players during batting practice. Right. Obviously, there's other groups of kids that are there and they're all fighting over the balls because they want to get a ball to go play baseball in a lot because they can't they can't afford a baseball. These kids, it's a pretty poor area. Wow. Okay. So Frank is a good athlete. In high school, he played soccer, basketball and baseball. And he told everyone that he wanted to be a major league baseball player. And some people really laughed at him. Even his teachers would be like, I'm just waiting. I'm waiting for him to hit a glove out of the park. And then I'll start when when World War Two came, he's graduate. He graduates in 44. So he immediately joins the Navy. I think

that was a lot back then. Right. And he ends up playing baseball on the base team. And then he's getting ready to be shipped out of his. So wait, they're playing base baseball? Yeah, base base baseball. It was really hard for me to write those sentences. But yeah, it's base baseball. Playing base baseball. So he's put on a train, he's about to ship out to go to California to then be put in the South Pacific to fight. I thought he was going to fight Californians. No, hopefully that comes later. Right. Yeah, that'll happen in like 10 years. So he's on the train, we hear someone yell his name and then say, get the hell off the train.

Because Admiral Nimitz had called and he had requested the base shortstop be sent to Hawaii to play on the admiral's team. And Frank is the backup shortstop. So if both short stops are gone, then the base doesn't have a shortstop. So so he got he was on a train to war. And then instead they're like, you're going to be a shortstop. Basically, you mentally prepare yourself for like bet you're like, it's gonna fuck it. Look, it's good. It is what it is. It's gonna be really hard. I mean, I'm gonna have to dig deep. But these are my brothers. And you know, you've got to be there for your brothers. You want to play baseball instead? Give me that bag. Give me the goddamn bag. Hand me the bag. So that was it. He never he never had to fight in the war. Oh, Grandpa, tell us about your war train story again.

Well, this guy, this guy hits a ball of me. I'm talking about the war. This guy hits a ball of me and I go to my left. There we were out of hot water in the tubs. We needed a shower after a badic practice. We didn't know what to do. So Frank is discharged in 1946. And he gets offered a basketball scholarship to New York University. He's good. He's just good athlete. Right. Some said Frank could have played professional basketball. But after a semester in college, New York Yankees offer him a contract. So he drops out and he joins the Yankees. His contract was for $200 a month, which would be about 2300 a day. So that's decent. I think there's plenty of minor leagues, leagueers not making that today. Sure. After the deal was signed, the scout tried to be respectful by buying some meat from

his dad's chop. Wait, so signed it. He signed the contract in. He must have signed it in the butcher shop, or maybe the butcher store was right above the house or whatever. But anyway, you have me that cleaver. I'll sign it with that, that bloodied cleaver. There you go. Just my initials. Is that and that is that to sweeten the potter? That's just like to celebrate. I think he was just trying to be like super. He's like, Hey, oh, you got meat here. Y'all buy some meat. Look at this. I'm gonna sign your boy. Give me two pounds of corned beef. So yeah, and the dad was like, his dad said, quote, I don't want any money. Just please take care of my son. Look,

don't worry about them. Don't worry about the beef. Don't worry about the beef. I just I think it's just the same. I'd rather just buy some meat and not really be that overly concerned about everybody. Yeah, yeah, that. Okay. Can you buy that? I'd rather do the meat and leave him to himself a little bit. You know what I mean? Yeah, I think you should probably get primer. Oh, let me get one of these deli mustards. That'll be great. I'm gonna have a sandwich. Where's your kid? Haven't seen him in a while. So Frank kicks around the lower levels of baseball leagues. At this time, they're called BC and D. Okay. So those are the ones that are not the major leagues. So one of his roommates is Whitey Ford, who would go on to have a huge playing and managing career, big, big name at baseball. And they would always remain friends for the rest of their life. And Whitey Ford introduces Frank to Pauline Pasquale. Okay. Now, Whitey's

dating her sister. And when Frank meets Pauline, she is shooting baskets, making shot after shot. And it turns out she also played tennis and could throw a baseball 80 miles an hour. Okay, so she's probably not going to go to war either. She's not going to war either. She's an all around athlete. And Frank and Pauline hit it off, they get married on February 1951. She's 18. Okay, which is pretty, I think he is 1020 25. So not that. Okay, nothing. It's not not that it's still kind of creepy, but it's not that creepy. Oh, for that time, that's like, Well, you're really on the up and up 18. You're going old, huh? Well, all right. Yeah, I just can I still can't believe people get married at 18. But whatever, we'll talk about that. Oh, yeah, crazy. I that is crazy. My mother got married at 18. And there's the case where it always works. It always, yeah. Name one thing that went wrong. So Frank's a good player, solid

hitter, very, very good on defense, very good on defense. There's something called the hidden ball trick in baseball. So there's a player, there's a runner, there's a runner on the base. I used to be really good at this too. There's a runner on the bases. Of course you were. This is a total you move. I see you pulling this once every three batters all the time. And a player on the field pretends he doesn't have the ball. There's a bunch of different ways fake throws it in basically can fake 30. You can also walk in to have a meeting on the man with the pitcher and take the ball go back to base. And but either way, you tag the runner when he steps off the base when he's getting ready to lead off. And Frank became known for the hidden ball trick. And it made him a fan favorite. Even though players knew he was going to try it, he would still get them out doing it. That's very

frustrating if you're a player. You're like, God damn it. And then Frank had a really like one of the strongest desires to win. A columnist described him as quote hollering, hustling, fighting kind of ball player that fans naturally take to. Right. If you have a player who hides the ball a bunch that probably adds like an hour to the game. It always it always has time. I mean, you're like, Jesus Christ, where's who actually has it, Frank? I think he's doing the bit again. Who's got the ball? Frank, they know. I haven't seen it. I haven't seen the ball in a while. There's so many great tricks in baseball. So he's a fan favorite. When he was playing in Birmingham, his team had a Frank Verde night and gave him a quote nice hunk of cash from the sons of Italy and his teammates. Every sunset. What is that? The mob? Every time he gets something that I read, it would, there would

always be like a and then the Italian guys in the in the town gave him a thing like it was always is that of any relevance or that's just Italian guys. I think they're just proud of their Italian player. They're like, Hey, let's give him something with it. Well, like, it's always it seems like being like I like I'm English. There's never any you never like all right, like Italian. So like you just it is like your family. It's the Olive Garden. Yeah, they're there. They're very they're very close. I'm Italian. Get over here. You buy you a drink. You're English. Fuck off. That's right. Well, there's a reason for that. English or Terry, you're Terry of a terrible history. Oh, good name. 75 back. So in 1953, Frank makes it all the way to the Yankees spring

training. So what that means is it's before the season, they're getting ready for the season. It means if you get invited there that you're in the upper echelons of players like you're you have a possibility of making it if not now in the future, they consider you one of the top guys. So he kind of makes the team back then. So he's not on the official roster, but each team has four extra players that they can keep on the team till May 15th, and then they have to let those four players go. Right. So he's a he's a Yankee, but only for home games because those guys aren't allowed to travel with the team. Okay, he's a part time Yankee. He's a I even read something I read it. It was even like and reporters didn't even know he was a part of the

team. Like it's just a weird. It's what we call a half Yankee. It's just such a weird thing that they had. Yeah. And so he pretty soon he learns the Yankees just have him on the team hoping that another team, specifically the Phillies will trade for him. So he's kind of like trade bait. So okay. In April, he was listening up before a game and they're playing the Reds and practicing hiding the ball, hiding the ball, eating the sandwich, tagging the guy. Right. Johnny Temple is a player on the Reds and he just comes running up to Frank and he is fucking livid his hands are in fists. And it turns out two years before there was a huge brawl during a game between two teams and someone stepped on Johnny's head and he had to get

12 stitches and ever since two years. Yeah. Ever since Temple had been searching out players who had been on that other team because quote, I want to punch the dirty word on the nose just one punch. That's all I want. You won't say it. That's not how you do it. That's not how you do language. That's how you do it. No, that's like a mad that's like an unanswered mad lib. Yeah, no, you say you say it. I'm going to get you your dirty word. Yo, go. If you don't come out here in dirty word, I'm going to drink your dirty word across the street that I'm going to hammer your dirty word with my hand. Show your wife a dirty word or two and then I'm going to dirty word in your dirty word dirty dirty words then don't dirty word with me. Yeah, mom's a dirty word.

Your mother's a dirty word. My mother's a saint. Your mom's the dirtiest word there is. Yes, she's the dirtiest word. Your mother's the dirtiest word. I can't believe what I'm hearing. Your mother's the dirtiest word. You are a dirty word. This whole system is a dirty word. I'm moving neighborhoods because I'm surrounded by you dirty words. That's it. We're leaving. We're going to Nashville where there's not as many dirty words around you dirty word holes. But it's great that a guy who gets his head trampled on his name temple. He charges into Frank fist balled and demands he says quote. Are you the guy who stepped on me in Texas? And Frank says no, I wasn't that guy. I was in the fight, but I didn't. There's no way

I stepped on you. I don't do that kind of stuff. And temple temple then goes well who did for two years every game I've played someone passes the buck. It's just going to be my career. And then Frank says if I knew Johnny I'd tell you but I swear I don't and temple's like yeah, okay. I'll cross you off the I'll cross you off the punch list. And then he that's it. He was like all right. So that guy didn't do it. Who's the next guy? This is the worst vengeance story that has ever happened in the history of America. Yeah. Yeah. Well, because if you just lie to temple, then he goes away. It turns out it's going to be really hard. It turns out a guy who stepped on your head also might lie to you. Yeah.

Temple didn't learn about lying until 1963. You know, I think that was the thing some of those guys was doing to me for a long time. Lying on May on Sunday, May 10th, 1953. The Yankees and Red Sox are playing in Boston. Now for some reason, Frank is on the team. Maybe someone got hurt on the team and he filled the spot or whatever. But so he's in Boston. And in the seventh inning, he's put in the game as a shortstop. No one hits the ball to him. Then that any he goes up to hit and the bases are loaded. And Frank walks to the plate and stands in and then the Boston manager deals time out comes out. He takes out the pitcher. Now the reason to do this is because a right handed pitcher pitches better against a right handed hitter. So you want

to switch to a left handed hitter or a left handed pitcher. So he brings in strategy. Right. So he brings in a pitcher that is, I assume Frank was right handed. So he bring in a right handed pitcher and then Frank stand there. He gets in again and then time out and then his manager yanks him out of the game. So that was Frank's only time as a major leaguer. He played one inning. No balls hit to him. He didn't even get to swing the bat. And then that was his entire talk about this on the other one. Yeah. He was in the San Jose. That's that's how I found out. That's I was like, this is very familiar. Yeah. Well, whatever bid I did last time, will you cut it in here? So it's May 13th. So two days before he sent to AAA Syracuse and

he was. So that happened two days before that that deadline hits right of the May 15th. Right. And so what does that mean? That means that he he was on that expanded roster and he's those four players and those four players are cut from the Yankees. And now okay. So he so he it really is quite, I mean, like it sucks. It sucks. It sucks. It sucks. It sucks. Yeah. So he goes to Syracuse. At Syracuse, he's known. He's known for his temper. During a game in June, he was angry at the umpire for a couple of bad calls. So he threw a ball at the umpire, barely missing him. Jesus. And then he ran. And then he ran over and argued with the umpire and kept bumping into him. And he was kicked out of the game, find $25 and spend three games.

Throwing a ball was like, yeah, that's worse. Throwing a ball at an umpire is crazy. And then you argue and he's like, that's it. Yeah, bump it. Get out of here. It's like, I threw a 80 mile an hour ball at your head. Yeah, I understand. Now you used to also be able to plow into the catcher and baseball. Like the catcher would be waiting to catch a ball at home playing. And if you were a runner, you could just crush it. Line drive him. Yeah. So in July, Frank was trying to score and the catcher, the ball is thrown towards third base. So the catcher is moving towards Frank. So Frank did what he was taught and he just fucking leveled them and knocks the catcher out.

Catcher has a concussion, a broken left cheekbone and loses four teeth. Oh my Lord. It's just Jesus. That's quite a hit. Frank scored. And then the next guy scored because the team couldn't find the ball because it was under the catcher. Oh, I was going to say Frank had it like, but I don't know. My patent did move. Dave, I'm starting to think he stepped on this guy's head. Yeah, he could have been the stepper header guy. He played a couple mornings, but Frank also was taken out because of a quote severe headache and dizziness. So this is when you could just hobble yourself and keep playing. Heads were helmets. Yeah. He did the same thing. He just got another catcher in August, but he hurt himself that

time and his season was over. But at the end of the year, the Yankees won the World Series and the team voted to give Frank a five $500 prize money. So for that one at bat, when he didn't do anything, he got. Yeah, but there was a lot. There was a lot going on there. There was a real chess match. He was caught in the middle. So he kicks around baseball for different teams the next three years in 1955. He was in Columbus. He's an all star. So he's a good player. Okay. He was in a massive brawl between the Columbus Jets and the Toronto Maple Leafs. One player on Toronto, Lou Limmer was the center of all the fighting. He started arguing with one of the Jets and then another jet came over and decked Limmer. Okay. So the next inning,

Limmer's mad and he's going into second base and he slides hard and takes out the second baseman, Spook Jacobs. It's not racist. It's not racist. He's a white guy. He's a white guy. It's just, it just is a different era. It's they called him Spook because he hit balls really light and they would just go over the shortstop and drop and they called and they thought it was spooky. I don't know. I have many issues. Don't worry about Spook. He'll get the ball over there. He hits haunted balls. He's got a ghost swing. So anyway, he slides in his Spook and Spook quote got up quickly and decked Limmer with a series of four blows. Okay. So Limmer, Limmer's having a bad fucking day. Limmer's having a real, he's been knocked down twice.

Yep. And then he retaliated and he's been punched. Well, so now a full on brawl breaks out between the two teams. In the middle of it, quote, Frank Verity floored Limmer a third time. So, and there's a picture of this in the newspaper of just Frank standing over a decked Limmer and then the cops have to rush on the field to stop the brawl. 11 sheriffs and seven cops to stop the players from fighting. 11 sheriffs. That cop number is crazy. Who can order who? Two players were hospitalized. One, another one, a completely different guy had a broken arm from punching Limmer. And Limmer in the, in the paper was described as quote, bruised.

Okay. So, all right. So the fuse got bruised. So with Columbus each morning, players got a special meal to the special. They just got a meal ticket that they had to use at a local restaurant. Okay. So there weren't a lot of menu options. And after having scrambled eggs for 17 days in a row. Oh, well, this is when I can forgive any sort of behavior that anybody has. He asked the waiter for something different and the waiter snaps back quote, nah, scrambled eggs. That's it. Oh my God. What? That's not how it works. Here we order to you. Yes, you fuck off, play the eggs. There you go. Eight days, dickhead. So Frank stood up and threw the scramble scrambled eggs

in the waiter's face and walked out. Wow. I did, you don't get to see scenes like that too much anymore. Someone just like, tell them what they're going to order and someone else put the eggs in their face. So he's walking up the street and a car pulls up beside him and it's the team GM who he's friends with and the GM rolls down his window and tells Frank that he's been sold to Rochester. Not traded sold. Sold. I think you could sell players back then. We sold you. What you get? Some scrambled eggs. What? Yeah. You're not very good and I love eggs. So it goes to Rochester. He plays for three seasons and he makes the All-Star team. So he's a good player. Like he keeps making the All-Star team. Now, you know who else was

really an athletic kid was Fidel Castro. Dave, you just were saying he's a good player so many times that I was like, the turn is coming. Fidel Castro played on the basketball team. He was a track star. He played baseball. He was on the Houston castras. Yes, and he was a ping-pong champion. Is that true? That's what I read in this book. I couldn't, I, yeah. Interesting. As a pitcher, he threw hard, but he didn't have great control. He tried out, but did not make the University of Havana team. It's been reported by many that he was scouted by Major League teams and had a tryout with the Washington Senators, but that's all false. He was not that good. That stuff's just all made up probably by Castro and his crew trying to make

him seem better than he was at baseball for some reason. Right. That's what we do. We inflate the backstories of leaders. Yeah, that's right. Because they need to be superheroes. So the main scout in Cuba, there was like this main guy, he had no idea. He doesn't have any notes about Castro, but Fidel did go to the scout two times. He went to his camps without an invitation. Anyway, nothing comes of it. So at the University of Havana, Fidel played basketball. Also, Fidel was from a richer family. So baseball was mainly played by poor. It was mostly the ancestors of people who had been slaves. It was definitely an economic thing there. Right. But he obviously spent, Fidel obviously spent most of his time on politics and the

Roof Revolution instead of sports. And on July 26, 1953, Castro let a failed attack on Army barracks in Santiago de Cuba. A couple, they get like, come on a yacht. I mean, it doesn't go well. Yacht attacks normally work. A couple years later, Castro and other revolutionaries formed the revolutionary organization, the 26th of July movement. So like saying that that attack was the beginning of the revolution. So they're sort of... Is that just a safe face for a revolution? I think they're just saying that was only the beginning and there's going to be a lot more coming. We have more yachts. That's right. Many more yachts. Yeah. They became known as, they became known as Barbudos. Okay. The bearded ones.

That I like. The length of the beard indicated how long you had served the revolution. Oh, this is, yes. Yeah. This is some shit. That's right. Yeah. So on January 1959, Castro basically takes control of Cuba. There was a Havana triple A team called the sugar kings who were part of the Washington senators organization and they played in the Florida league. So it's just like any other, at that point, it's just like any other place, it's full of Americans that have been put in the triple A organization and you know, it's just, it's just a minor league team. Yeah. Happens to be in Cuba. So five days after taking over, the Barbudos were invited to attend a sugar kings game for free.

It's a big love fest between the fans and the Barbudos. When one of the sugar kings hit home run, our Barbudos jumped the fence and ran onto the field and hugged him. And one of Castro's, one of Castro's first acts is to underwrite the debt of the sugar king, sugar kings. The team won the title that year to raise money for the club. The 26th of July movement put together a team to play exhibition games and they named the team Los Barbudos. They, and why did they make the team to play against the sugar kings? To, no, to, no, to play exhibition matches to raise money for the sugar kings. Oh, okay. All right, gotcha, gotcha. Okay.

For the anniversary of the 26th of July, Castro set up an exhibition game between Los Barbudos and the Cuban national police. Everyone wants to see the national police play that. Who wouldn't? I mean, that's, like, I'm, I'm right now so excited. That would be great. Yeah, that would be great. We challenge the police to a game of baseball. So the police are going to play the bearded guys in an exhibition game to raise money for the sugar kings. That's right. Okay. The day after that, there would be a game between the sugar kings and Frank's Rochester red wings. Now that, okay. All right. So worlds are colliding. Now they're also going to play, they're also going to finish a game that had been suspended.

I don't know why, but they, there was a game that got stopped in the seventh inning, so they're going to pick that one up, finish that one, and then play the next one. That's going to be so weird to play like two innings to finish a game. Oh yeah. It's super weird. So the game between the Barbados and the police, it's basically PR for Castro. He practiced all day in his hotel room for his brief game. Yes, I don't look. What is he doing? I keep doing, I can't tell you how many times I tried to figure out what this meant, but he practiced baseball in his hotel room. Practice baseball in his hotel room? Look, he can do it. He's the fucking leader, but yeah, in his hotel room. I throw this orange into that couch pillow over and over again, warming up for the

big game today. Then after that batting practice with this towel, I'll swing it like it's a bat. It's time to slide into the tub. Then I'm going to run the bases by putting pillows at each corner of the bed, and then I will be ready for the big game today. So most pictures of Castro, this is another thing about his, the myth of him playing baseball is they mostly come from this game. All the pictures have been playing baseball. That's the best. I love that stuff. It's the largest, it's the largest baseball crowd of the year. There's 26,532 fans in the stadium. So Castro came in and pitched an inning and he struck out two. He also apparently covered first on a ground ball to shortstop. Now, for those who don't know baseball, that's not something you ever do. It's something

you learn not to do in like when you're six. You don't cover first when you're on a, when you're a pitcher. It's a ball. No, you don't. So when he struck out the second guy, he actually, it was such a bad call that he ran down and shook the umpire's hand. Wow. I just, the, it's very, it's out there. It's obvious. So that umpire must have been like, I made the wrong call. You know, when a pitcher shakes your hand at Thanksgiving, you fucked up. That was great. Thank you so much. So that's the, that's the game of the, of the Barbados versus the police, right? So that's the big thing. Now, the next day, the Red Wings and Sugar Kings are finishing the suspended game and then playing the full game after

that. Right. So the stadium is packed with Guajiros, Guajiros who are peasants from the countryside and Barbados, right? So it's, it's, it's, it's the communist base of the, right, of the country. Okay. Okay. The Rochester manager realized this might not be a great night. So at the beginning of the game, they have a, they have a meeting with the umpires and the managers at home plate and they mostly just talk about the lineups and, and if there's anything they need to know. And at this home plate meeting, the umpires are talking about what they would do if there was too much fan interference. Wow. That is amazing for you to be like, so let's walk you through the lineup. We're just trying to figure out what's going to happen when the fans throw in

the field. If you run over there, what we'll do is we'll kind of switch places and then I think we'll be able to make it through some of those emergency exits. A lot of the players are going to die. Would you want to talk about lineups? Yeah. Yeah. Great. So what are you doing? Is there anything strange we should know about? We're probably not going to make it past the third inning. So who do you have for the first two? Oh, uh, yeah, it's just, we got a lot numbered here one through nine. That's how we usually do it. Okay. Great. We'll use those and they're all, they all have, they're armed obviously. No, no. My guys don't have weapons. Okay. All right. Good luck out there. So they play the suspended game. The next game goes into extra innings. It's in overtime. It's

three to three. Okay. As it gets later, the crowd gets bigger and bigger. I mean, people are just packing in the stadium. So now it's 35,000 people at midnight. It's the 10th inning. So they're supposed to be gone already. It's the stadium goes dark and then a spotlight lights up the Cuban flag in center field. And then the national anthem is played all the way through because it is July 26th, the anniversary. Oh my God. They're playing into the anniversary. Well, the anniversary is just, it's midnight. It just happened. So lights come back on and people start shooting their guns into the air. Jesus Christ. Inside and outside the stadium. Everyone's just fucking shooting their guns. Jesus Christ. Okay. A one Cuban guy said a man sitting next to him near the visitor's dugout

stood and shot his pistol into the on deck circle until it was empty. What the f... So if you're out there, I mean, there's, I mean, what do you do? Do you go to the mound? Just duck behind it, hold up home plate above your heart. The on deck circle is a circle near the dugout where batters practice their swings. 30,000 people are firing guns. And it's not all 30,000, but there's a lot of guns being shot. 10,000 guns. The Rochester manager said a soldier shot a pistol into the ground in front of their dugout. Now, the Rochester players have no fucking idea what's going on. They don't know about the revolutionary date. They don't know. They're like, we're going to die tonight. Frank quote bullets were falling out of the sky everywhere. We didn't know what

in the hell was happening. Oh my God. After a while, everything settles down. The shooting mostly stops. Mostly. There's still one guy's like, come on. It's like the guy who keeps the wave going too long. Stop. Dude, we're not doing the wave again. Come on. We'll do the wave again. One, two, three, fire guns again. Keep shooting. If you've ever been to a baseball game, you know, here in America now, they shut off drinks in the middle of the seventh inning because people got too shit-faced over nine innings and it was just too crazy. But it is a so that that again is a good it's a nice try. But the loophole is again, very simple. You just right before that load up on a ton of beer. Yeah, you buy four beers. Yeah, you got to camel it back to your seat. But then you're like, gentlemen,

we have 18 beers for 45 minutes. So I'm assuming these people are also just shit-faced. Yeah, okay. Sure. So everything settles down. So they start the game again, but there's still an occasional gunshot. So that's fine. That's fine. Oh, wait, sorry. I'm a little jumpy because they shot me. In the 11th inning, Rochester homers and takes the lead. Oh, no. So no, no, no. Havana comes up in the bottom of the inning and a player hits a double. Now the Rochester manager thinks the player did not step on first base. And so he should be out. So he charges out and starts an argument with the umpire. He's convinced this guy did not step on the base. It's getting heated. I mean, you know, baseball arguments are too is a manager just fucking screaming as loud as he can

at an umpire. Yeah, yeah. Now the umpire is obviously not going to change the call because it's a stadium full of people with fucking guns. And he's not going to be like, yeah, that guy missed the base. He's out because then they'll kill him. Like he's not, he's not going to do it. Like this is a pad. It's not Kevlar. But the Rochester manager is so into the fucking game that he's just absolutely not thinking of this. And then the then the umpire throws him out of the game. He's like, you're out. Crowd goes fucking crazy shooting guns. They they're so excited. So he says Christ saw the guns are being shot again. And then they start playing again. And the Havana player scores crowd goes crazy. So now it's tied up again. So it's going to keep the game

is going to keep going. Good. Yeah. Play into the play it into the 27th. That's the move. So Frank couldn't play because he had been hit by a pitch a couple weeks before he's injured. Okay. But he still travels with the team. That's pretty customary. So he's the older guy. So he takes over as manager when the managers kicked out of the game. Wow. Okay. What a what a great day. What a good first step into the manager. All right. So we're in extra innings on their revolution holiday and they're all drunk and armed. Let's go win this one. So he goes out to coach third base at the beginning of the bottom of the top of the inning. So basically that means that in baseball there's a coach at first and third and they tell

the runners whether to run to the next base or not and to slide and shit like that. So as the next inning starts he's standing in the third base box and a bullet hits Frank in the head. Now. Okay. So a now the it is from a gun or a hand. Well it's not from a hand but it's also kind of not from a gun. So he has a hard plastic. Not from a gun. Well it is but it's not. So it took a longer route. It took a longer route. So oh it's like the bullet that killed Kennedy. It's the same one. It's the same bullet. It's that same animated bullet that's just been making its way through the world slowly like I go back and I go forth and I go in and I go out and I go fast and I go slow. I'm a magic bullet you. So Frank has a plastic a hard plastic insert in his

helmet. Some players use them instead of a batting helmet back then. So it's like a hard plastic thing. It's protective. So the the insert saves him. The bullet hits the insert goes through part of his ear and then bounces off his shoulder. So he gets shot in the head. Well it turns out the bullet had been shot into the air and come down and landed on his head. Oh my god. That is if that I mean I know that is something that happens but on a night like that if that happens you've got to be like well we're in a lot of trouble. Like they're just shooting in the sky like they're going to come back down. There's always in America there's always like six people that die on New Year's Eve when people shoot into the sky. Oh that is that is that I think that's how I want to go.

Yeah. So Frank so Frank goes down. Frank quote if that bullet had been two inches to the left the boys on the ball club would have had to chip in five dollars a piece for flowers. Dave what lasted longer his major league batting career or his managerial career short shelf life wise. So moments later after Frank is hit the Havana shortstop is grazed on the shoulder by a bullet and he's like he's like hurt like he's like down. So the Empire is called a game. They're like that's it. And two players have been shot. You know the rule boys only two could be shot. One player gets shot and you take a timeout. You regroup but to that's it. That's it. Yeah. It's a warning. That's a warning shot. So Frank is carried off the field by some teammates and

into the locker room is doing it like over the head like I think that's still the way you should do it even if it's a bullet. Come on. Put them on the shoulders. Make them feel good. So the Rochester players are absolutely terrified. Frank and the manager quickly realized if the manager had been out there he would have been hit by that bullet and died because he didn't wear a plastic insert in his helmet. I mean as tragic as that would have been you also have to think about the runner who would have no clue what to do. I assume he just runs home and scores. Yeah. He just keeps running past the base through a wall. Tanny. Tony. No. The the umpires start calling the league president to try to figure out what to do.

They don't. They're like can we call this game because of a shooting like how does one of the rules that I'm not in the league or in the era. And the answer is yes you may. But the Rochester manager and GM are not about to find out. They get to the team on a bus into the hotel and quickly buy tickets on the next plane headed from Miami. Yeah. Which is going to be the next day. Right. Cuban baseball officials immediately say the crowd was not out of control and no no saying Rochester has to play the rest of the game. What you're at the hotel like you're showered potentially. So throughout the night it continues Cuban officials throughout the night keep pressuring them to stay and play the game finish the game. This would be like

that show that we were going to do in San Francisco. You ate garbage food at the airport and got food poisoned and we had to cancel the shows for someone to be like Dave you got to do the second one. We're going to wheel a toilet out there on there for you. You'll be fine. So the next day is is the 26th. So it's anniversary day. So the whole city they're just shooting guns all the time and the players who at Rochester is in charge of the traveling schedule. They have to be like this was a real big bad. Sorry. What what baseball guy is going to know about the beginning of the communist revolution from seven years before. Like he has no you know it might not be a good idea to finish the one and play into the other on the day of the

communist revolution but works out real good. So they're at the hotel as the shooting's happening. It's very tense. They're very freaked out. Two Cuban government officials come to the hotel. They meet the GM and the manager in the GM's hotel room. They quote pleaded cajoled and then even threatened to convince them to play. I love the last one. The idea of ending on a threat after trying to be charming is fantastic. Come on please. All right. Well you really dug your heels in on this one. We're going to kill your family. What. Kill your family. Kill you. Cut your dick off. Maybe. Is that helping her. No. No. I have you. No I don't want to. We offered you free tickets to any games you wanted to come. You heard that part right. Yeah I don't. I don't want to be here

or do this. We're going to hang you. We'll hang you tonight. No problem. We will do it. No I'm not. I'm not. Why would I play if. Cut. Take my balls. Take all all. We're going to take all the players balls and now we're not talking about the ones you hit. We're talking about you genital ones. So let's you play. Just so I understand this. You're a Cuban baseball league official. Yes. And I am just merely suggesting that I will remove your testicle. I tried to be nice please. Look we don't need to get that. I don't want to make threats. Let's just do it for fun. I think we all it got a little crazy back there. Yeah. But everything's fine. Please. No. We're going to cut you from your anus through your spine to the back of your head. Every player.

We will do that too. This doesn't seem like baseball stuff. Do you guys like strawberries. Yeah. We have some of the best strawberries in the world here. You have to try them. I would love I think if you have some of that but this would give you guys a bunch of strawberries and then you guys try those and then you come back out and and you play. No Frank almost died. We're going to take your brains out of your bodies. Jesus Christ. You understand us. I guess this is the worst negotiation I've ever been a part of. Just come down there and just get out three times real quick. Come on. Don't be weirdos. It was everybody said they were going to calm down on shooting.

No I'm not doing it. I'm not not not doing it. I'm not doing it. One to seven up. Nope. They just refused to play. The Cuban officials finally leave just angry furious. They fucking live it. These Americans are just such babies. The team was able to get transportation to the airport later that day and they left the game officially a 4-4 tie. When they landed in the U.S. Frank called Pauline in Long Island and she said quote I read in the paper you got shot in the head. Yeah yeah they shot me in the head. We tied two. One the first one but yeah I was shot in the head. He assured her he's fine. It's like no honey it's yeah I just got hit in the head but I'm fine. It's just a bullet. It's fine.

They were they were shooting the moon. So landed on me. It's far different. It's like a bullet rained on me. It's like hail. So the Cuban minister the Cuban sports minister sent Rochester an official apology the next week and assure them that Havana was safe and their security would be guaranteed the next time they came. Come in June. But that was pretty much it for the Havana Sugar Kings and the International League. The next season the Sugar Kings moved to Jersey City. Sure which is far the Cuba of America. Yes it's far more beautiful. I would much rather be in Jersey City. New England Havana. That's right. So Frank moved on to a Charleston team and in 1960 became a player coach in Syria. So he's getting older. Right. His wisdom is needed. Player coach.

He didn't do well as the player coach and the next year he recommended like you felt like you were building him up a little bit like a player coach. I was like all right. He recommended another manager take over and the team agreed and they picked Frank's pick to be manager. He was like what about what if Frank Jeff Jeff takes over and they're like yeah OK Jeff will take over. OK. So the one good managerial decision was I should fire myself. Yes. I'm not I'm not working out. He kept playing baseball for another three years and then retired. So at this point he played 18 seasons. Yeah it's respectable. Yeah. So now he starts managing his entire family was involved. The first job in Syracuse Pauline played the organ for home games. Oh wow. His four sons

worked as bat boys scoreboard operators ground crew and one even helped the announcer call road games by making sound effects. Wow. We're trying to have another to give the players water. That we talked about in the Reagan episode where they would fake that the game was happening and hit the sound of bats and call it. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Switch is fantastic. Now picture as manager. We really got underneath that one. Look at that one fly. You can probably hear it on your dial. So Frank at this point often drank homemade wine with the grounds crew as they played Bocci in the field. So. I mentioned he's Italian right. Yeah. That's what you said were like some Italian things and then drinking tub hooch. So he would drink homemade wine and play Bocci ball

after games with the grounds crew in the field. Yeah. Or a day's off. Yeah. Sure. Sure. Reporter J. David Herman said quote visit the Verdi home at any point during his career and you'd likely see homemade pasta noodles draped over the back of the couch and be offered a glass of homemade wine. Who is eating couch spaghetti. What are you talking about. What like how do you put that in an article and have another thing to say right away. How is that possible. Anyone wants some sofa tortellini. Who wants a love seat lasagna. Let me know. I'm draping it on the back of these couch cushions that we put our heads on. So that'll be fine. And then I got the meatballs stuffed in the mattress

the couch bed. So the meatballs are down there. And then if anyone needs any parmesan I've just put it in the springs of the couch. So the meatballs are hibernating. They're almost ready. Yeah. Right now we're just sitting on the meatballs to heat them up. We do it like hen's eggs. Yeah. We just sit on the meatballs and then we basically just turn our couch into a pasta holder. Is that fine. Do you want some wine from our turlet. Oh God. Yeah. Take a glass of wine from our toilet. Do yourself a favor. Have some rigatoni from in between these pillows. Look at that. How good is that. Take a meatball from under my bottom. Warm isn't it. So his teams won his teams won the division in 69 and 70 and 69. They won the junior world series.

Frank is manager of the year of the league. Sports writer Dick young noted quote if some club in the majors is looking for a man with a Vince Lombardi style of discipline that players seem to appreciate Frank Verdi is their man. Just don't go to the showers. He's making pasta. I mean players like playing for him. He's he's he's does have a hard edge but then he's a nice guy on top of it. He's like a dad type guy. So all right. Yeah. And Frank also thought he deserved a chance at the majors or a pay raise one or the other. He was like you know it's it's time for me to get my due. He wasn't being paid well enough to take care of the family and he wanted his raise to keep up with inflation. He wanted a fifteen hundred dollar raise. Right. So he goes

and manages a winter that'll never pass both houses. He goes and manages a winter team in Puerto Rico and while he's in Puerto Rico in the winter managing this team he kept ripping articles out of the paper about the economy getting worse and mailing them to the Yankees GM and sometimes he'd write comments in the side like you know I deserve fucking more money. Everything's going to shit. Wow. Strangely that did not work and instead of getting the raise he was fired. Wow. So you're not it's not cool to send your boss ransom letters. I mean that definitely sounds like the move a kidnapper would make. Look at this. I deserve more.

Okay. So after that no no other job offers came. Since he's a winning coach just on the World Series that means that there's some sort of thing out there about him right. Bad attitude bad something bad whatever. Right. Because to have a to have a good minor league manager is fantastic like you know right. So he ends up getting a job as a steam fitter. A steam fitter. Oh that steam is not going to land in this room properly. Isn't it steam doesn't it just leave. Yeah it yeah but it this room is too cramped. You need to kind of move some of the things out of here otherwise you're not going to get a lot of steam in here at all. I guess I don't know what you do. I'm giving you an estimate on

your steam and how it will be contained in this area. So it's not going to work as is. But I've had steam in here before. Well it's not regulation steam. Frank thought he thought he put so much into the game and he should be giving something back. Well I've been in this game for 27 years and I don't have five cents to show for it. This is why you have to fight for a raise sometimes. And he feels like he's been blackballed. So he manages in the Puerto Rican Winter League and he wins the Caribbean series. He then has a sporadic time. He then he gets a year off that he he manages in Syracuse again and then two years off and then he manages Denver and then he's off for two years. So it's like fading away. And in between he works at construction

in the World Trade Center. A car salesman. He worked as a Pinkerton at Aqueduct and Saratoga Race Tracks. So he's just picking up any job he can. Right. One of his sons said quote he needed baseball. Taking away baseball was like taking heroin away from a junkie. So then in 1977 he gets a call to manage the Tidewater Tides in Florida. That's right. Tidewater in the name of the team is Tides. It came to us in a late night brainstorming session. We wanted to be called the Tidewater Waters. It didn't seem right. And that's when my friend Randy came up with a great idea. Tidewater Tides. Like the laundry detergent. No. Nothing like the laundry detergent. Tide is a laundry detergent.

We don't acknowledge that here. If that's something you're going to acknowledge you're not going to work out here. I'm thinking we are named we are named Tidewater after Tidewater. And just hear me out. I'm thinking some sort of phrase. Come on down. Watch some ball. Let's clean your clothes. Look if if this is how you're going to be get the fuck out of here. Tidewater Tides. Fresh whites. Great baseball. You know when the Tampa Bay Tampas called themselves that nobody made any weird connections like that or the Fort Lauderdale Forts were the Tidewater Tides. And we deserve respect. Well Tampa isn't another isn't like a cleaning product. Sure it is. Haven't you ever tamped your car. You've never spilled something and had to tamp it

out of your rug. No. I don't know. You got a lot to learn Amigo. Welcome aboard. I got hired. Yeah. We've drink we drink and wine we made. So the Tidewater Tides are a Mets team and Frank spent tons of years in the Yankee organization and still all his friends are Yankees. So at first he doesn't want the job. He's been out of baseball forever and he's like I don't want to play for the fucking Mets totally reasonable that that's the most reasonable shut up Dave. You're crazy. That just shows you like the level of connection people feel it's in your bones. You feel it's a sport. I mean yeah the idea that like your livelihood as well as your general joy depend on a move like this.

And you're like who is it the Mets. No. Well my wife asked me the day because my her and my son brought it up and he said it would be so amazing if I ever got drafted by the Dodgers because dad would have to root for the Dodgers and my wife told me that and I was like I wouldn't root for the Dodgers and she's like what are you talking about. I was like what are you talking. I can't root for the I would root for him to win a game or do well and then lose Dave Dave. No absolutely not Dave. Listen here you see season one maybe that's your policy for sure. No not happening. Yes season two you're going to be in bullshit. No absolutely not. Yes you will you'll be like oh nothing like a Dodger dog. No I was literally the way I was born. You'll be buying those little

bats. Oh come on. When I was born I came out and the doctor said you hate the Dodgers. No the doctor said you hate. All right so Pauline ends up Pauline ends up talking him into taking the job. So he's now she's just like hey that's really stupid to say no. Okay you're right. We got we got fucking pasta hanging off the furniture. Honey take a seat on this linguine. So he's in his fifties. He still doesn't shy away from a fight during one game he was arguing with an umpire when a ball thrown out of the opposing dugout flew by his head quote quote very removed his jacket cap and spectacles and charged Charleston's bench. So he's ready to fight the whole bench. He is I love also how he Mr. Rogers is stuff off of

himself you know he's like take the shoes and take the jacket the hat the glasses excuse me gentlemen I'm on a suicide mission and he gets he gets held back by the umpires and players so he doesn't get in there but he's still fucking Frank like he's in his fifties and he's still going during another guy in another game Frank just liked to call and ran out to argue and he said to the ump quote how can you call the son of a bitch safe and then the player tapped Frank on the shoulder and said quote this is what Frank said quote he had a very hurt look on his face and says why did you call me a son of a bitch and I said no no I was just calling you a son of a bitch it's a figure of speech and he says no I heard you what did I do to you and the

umpire starts laughing and walks away and then I have to stand there and apologize to this kid because I had hurt his feelings it killed the whole argument oh my god wow that feels that is like I mean that's that feels like a generational divide now you know well it's all it's also a geographical divide because I think and like probably religious divide because I think you're talking about some kid from the streets of Brooklyn who grew up in a fairly rough neighborhood and then shot in the head in Havana and then some kid who you know maybe grew up in a farm and went to church every week and can't cuss right and now there's together on a field and this guy's just just swearing the other kid's like wait a minute what well how come you call me a son of a bitch

and skip because you I you're not really a son you never even met my mother I know I'm trying to let look right now is not the time boy I'm sure not how to hurt a fella I'm sorry this is just god damn it uh Frank doesn't like umpires sure author j david herman quote he could respect an ump who reached a certain standard but very few did in his eyes even mentioning the profession could make Verdi cross to hear him to hear him tell it their incompetence threatened his livelihood and he resented them I mean it is it is true but it's also like you know you are I mean like I love watching the NBA because it's like I don't know the last time a player thinks he committed a foul in the NBA like it has been like five seasons since like a guy's owned a foul every

fuzz like their their hands are on their head going what what how how and then you see the replay and you're like 100% a foul he almost killed that guy during arguments he would turn his cap around backwards so he could get as close to the umpires face as possible while screaming and they're saying now with baseball with COVID rules you're not going to do that anymore so he lasted one season with the tides he was hired then again by the Yankees to manage AAA Columbus Ohio the team was very good the Yankees spent a lot on players and owner George Steinbrenner expected all of his teams to win George Steinbrenner is a lunatic when things got tense during games Frank would go uh it would sit in the dugout and sip wine or sometimes he would

leave the dugout and go to his office and have some brandy and Dave I you know more about baseball than I it seems strange to go to your office to drink during a game is that correct that that is frowned upon I don't know how normal that is I mean I think there's a lot of stuff that happens in games that we don't know about in the clubhouse and in the because I remember you know a couple years ago Pablo Sandoval got in trouble because in the middle of the game he was taking a shit and he did an Instagram post that is crazy um so I don't know a lot of stuff goes on now Frank's just like the team's designated drinker well back then there was a shitload of drinking in baseball like we can get it during games I well we've already talked about like the

Pittsburgh Pirates I think that you know drugs and drinking are just it just seems drinking seems like such a dumb one I know drugs I'm not not like saying you should do drugs when you play sports but you know you could see like an amphetamine advantage you could understand versus like someone like I'm gonna do a little heroin before the game really lock into it all it takes is you having two beers and then going four for four and then you're gonna drink for the rest of your life during games like there that's also there's also that thing where it's just superstition and yeah I've I've gone through versions of that with stand up where I'm like it's good to have one then you're loot you know but I remember it never it's by the way it's never true in the

San Jose bees episode we did a couple weeks ago there's a third baseman who was never not drunk you know I mean it's just you know there's obviously some alcoholism going on here I think that specifically during this time there's a lot of alcoholism in baseball I'm not going to say whether or not Frank is but there are signs that we might have an issue right such as going to your office to drink brandy during a game and sipping wine in the dugout yeah those are probably two two we're skip he's getting blackout wine drunk at the end of the bench oh okay in 1981 at spring training there was a party at whitey Ford's house and they were all eating chili when Frank made a joke and everyone started laughing and whitey started laughing and he sucked a bean down his

windpipe and started choking oh Jesus Christ and then he collapsed and started turning purple uh wrong color Frank then punched whitey in the chest as hard as he could okay so he's obviously not familiar with some tactics just punches like sniffing around techniques that we're familiar with what are you supposed to do spit down his ass and punch him in the chest nothing happens so he punches him as hard as he can again and then the bean popped out and whitey took a breath I want to say two things first of all really crazy way to save someone's life but number two who dies from a chili bean how small is your fucking windpipe like a chili bean bro yeah also how do you feel if you crack a joke so good it kills a friend like for me that

would be a very difficult position I'd be like god damn it I miss Andy so much he was such a good friend of mine but man the timing with me is getting better and better I mean that was right on but he saved whitey Ford's life and whitey Ford that decade would go on to be an amazing manager right he was the manager in the 80s so some somebody Frank never got a shot because of his behavior an ex player of his quote maybe he rubbed some people the wrong way he was not always politically correct sure politically incorrect would be an understatement for Frank okay sometimes Frank would do a mock Native American dance to summon rainouts when they were losing okay and next

his favorite saying was quote kiss a fat lady's ass what is in what is is there context that that would work I what I don't know how that would work I didn't get an example of it probably be something like you know well if you want to switch the lineup then go ahead but if you think that's gonna work you may as well go kiss a fat lady's ass yeah I think that's right but then even then you're like okay I don't uh he called people who upset him cockknockers uh come on you cockknocker put knocking my cock so much and give in I think cockknockers is when two cocks are knocking together it's a gay guy thing right the cockknocker as opposed to as opposed to a guy just walking up and knocking on a cock hello I I prefer that one and then you

undo your fly and you're like hello uh one practice he was sitting next to the team's GM and an infielder made a terrible play Frank quote you see him feeling that ground ball it looks like he's fucking a beach ball so he just that one actually kind of works that kind of works but he's not you know he's not subtle he's like no no no no and it's also just a crazy you know thing to think like he's fucking a beach ball cut to the guy literally fucking a beach ball yeah ah it's gonna cost this I'll be in my office branding uh on top of all this Frank had a temper when he was managing in Syracuse he got so angry one day that he tore his office door off its hinges wow could you imagine that is Hulk that is fucking crazy yeah I think he could still

play another time during a road game he was so upset with an umpire's bad call he quote went berserk turned beat red and refused to leave the field after he was ejected the umpire summoned a sheriff a deputy sheriff handling security at the ballpark get him off the field the sheriff orders deputy you get him off the deputy responded nobody wanted to go near him what deputy like that is a very public shillacking you get him off the field all right this deputy is not very awkward what I'm in charge I'm in charge you are a deputy right I'm gonna get him out of here I'm the deputy sheriff I'm above you deputy sheriff you're not you don't have an extra word you just have sheriff I'm deputy sheriff because I'm above you don't need a qualifier of two words above you man it's not a

go get him you're fired I did not how it works I appreciate if you didn't talk to the deputy like that Frank also hated losing the Rochester GM said he'd never seen anyone who hated to lose as much as Frank uh Herman quote family members said each time Frank lost a baseball game a little bit of his soul was lost too Jesus Christ yeah I mean you know I get it but buddy it's a game it is I mean come on you're still gonna have pasta on your couch and you get imagine being that guy's player you get in the dugout and he's like a little piece of me died today well I'm not comfortable with this level of guilt I'll see you boys tomorrow hey how about tomorrow you as a team don't try to kill a little part of me it's just very hard to look at it like that it's not inside you're as a team

like my personal cancer let's get out there and hit boys I'm not in the mood to try to be honest well now you know how that little dead part of me feels okay all right I think we're all quitting so yeah let's go boys team quits so by 1982 he is openly sipping wine in the dugout it's nice to get to that but that's you got to reprimand someone yeah at some point someone has to say hey you don't get drunk during the game otherwise he's like all right here's the plan is I'm gonna be a bottle of them or low and then well I'll be at the end of the dugout with a bunch of seeds and you guys will go out and we'll we'll make it work okay but the first thing is has anyone ever sees a grown man in his approximate 50s open a bottle of wine with a shoe raise your hand if you

have I raise your hand if you haven't raise your hand if you had a raise your hand if you hadn't if you hadn't about the wine question coach hold on hold on hold on because this is important who knows um what a cork this is and this is going to relate to the game today friend I see the eye rolling um it the cork is a very is basically the catcher of the bottle and my mouth is the fastball okay coach so when I open this hold on this is really this is gonna be a very relevant lesson and so it's a certain amount of time and then you get a and then if you can get the shoe under the wine and you get the cork out you can have a bottle of wine okay you haven't told us who's pitching okay we know right off the bat I said there's not going to be a pitcher today um today

there we were not even going to worry about that okay so what we're going to do is we're we're going to get a bunch of appetizers and we'll just make an afternoon of it in here I'll pitch who I let's do this who's our pitcher who's a pitch before you haven't told us who the who the pitcher is today we got a bunch of pitchers we got eight ten guys at pitch did okay we'll have it all ten guys will pitch today so be fair about it because this is and this team is about the one true thing which is does anyone know how to get coke can anyone get coke today he drinking out of a small club a cup in the dugout and the trainer Steve Donahue had the job of bringing him wine frank would just shout Donahue grapes grapes I am going to

absolutely use that when the world opens excuse me can I see a grapes list grapes he's still a great he's he's having a really good year he's a good manager they finished second that year so in 1982 Steinbrenner and they don't have a good team and they finished second so Steinbrenner has a meeting with the other Yankee hires up to decide who's going to coach where next year and Steinbrenner says he thinks Frank it's time to bring Frank up to the majors everyone nods except one guy Clyde King Billy Martin and there will be a Billy Martin doll for sure at some point Billy Martin once called King a quote Bible toting hypocrite Stan Williams called him quote a con man and an asshole and the worst backstabber in

baseball but for some reason Steinbrenner likes King and King does not like Frank okay in uh so King after Steinbrenner says it's time to move up to the majors King says Frank he had one of their best best pitchers pitch on three days rest so he just blurts that out it's a lie it didn't happen and it also doesn't matter that much but Steinbrenner flips out Steinbrenner's crazy flips flips out about this information that's fake yes yes it's a total lie and Steinbrenner says what fire him wow what uh George can we just talk about um what balance so the other people are like no wait that's harsh that's not a firing offense kill him kill him in the streets like the dog is but that's it Frank's out of the job he's fired because some guy just lied about him who

is a backstabber great he should so in 1983 he should have been coaching in the majors instead he's looking for a job because of one asshole Clyde King King don't be a Clyde that's all we're saying yeah that's why we're that's why here at the dollop we do not like monarchy so where does Frank end up in 1983 managing the class A San Jose bees oh now this is before Harry Steve took over two years later right Frank then after that coached in Rochester in 1984 and he's fired 1985 and then he accepts then Harry takes over the San Jose bees and he accepts the job managing the San Jose bees but at the same time Whitey Ford goes to Steinbrenner and is like he got a higher Frank Frank's a good guy and really pushes him and Steinbrenner says okay and hires Frank as a scout

and that's like five days before the season starts so Frank bails on managing the San Jose bees so George Steinbrenner is just like a vacant sale there can definitely be a I never thought about this there can be a Steinbrenner for sure because I want to do a Billy Martin but then you get into Billy Martin you get into Steinbrenner Steinbrenner is super rich out of his fucking mind how did he get rich I don't remember but I I think it's real estate right but I you know we should do a Steinbrenner one because it's there's also so much drinking in those days I don't know if he was a drinker but it's really like that like just I mean a guy would a guy would win the world series and be like you're fired like it was just the craziest what are you out of your mind get out of

here the point is to losing six I think he I think he fired Billy Martin like five times like it's really just bananas okay so Steinbrenner hires him on as a scout and Frank bails on the bees like five days before the season starts and that's how our bees episode you know begins yeah and he takes a scouting job at the Yankees he did that for a little bit after that he was assistant manager at St. Leo College in Florida then in 1993 Harry is now the owner of the San Jose the Sioux Falls Canaries an independent team and he hires Frank to be manager Frank's now 67 but then later that year or the next year he had a quadruple bypass and Frank comes back but Harry sees him on the bus and is like fuck if this guy has any sort of heart problem on the bus he's just gonna die we're not

gonna be able to get him to a hospital because we'll be in the middle of nowhere so he decides to demote Frank to hitting instructor which is a position that doesn't go on the bus and travel sure so Frank's like this is only about saving money and he blames Harry for the position this puts him in quote if you want to know the truth Harry cut my legs out from under me who's gonna hire a 69 year old man that people say is sick and Frank filed age discrimination charges against Harry the equal opportunity the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission dismissed the charges but Frank was right it was his last job managing he's also 69 you know it's hard to keep a job when you're that old especially in the the miners Frank Frank had been a manager for and a player for

50 years and he was now getting a pension of 142 dollars and 60 cents a month part of that is because pensions didn't kick in until much later in his career so he didn't you know they didn't have pensions before that so now retired he moves to Florida he helps coach high school players and then in 2002 for some reason the Newark team in the miners offers him a job as pitching coach and the team goes to the championship series and in the final game the manager gets suspended for being in a brawl and Frank manages one last game in his career it's the title game and they win the title wow that's the last shot in the header he did not he did not and that's the last time he ever put on a uniform uh Frank was inducted into the Syracuse baseball hall of fame in 1999 the Bingham

baseball shrine in 2004 the international league hall of fame in 2008 and then Frank Verity passed away on July 9th 2010 at the age of 84 Frank's son said he quote considered himself blessed that he could do what he loved he loved the thinking part of the game Billy Martin once said it was a sin he didn't get to manage in the big leagues one day one of Frank's ex-players was in a cab in New York City when a car cut them off and the cabbie yelled quote you cockknocker whoa and the ex-player told the cabbie one of the people he was closest to in the world used to say that that and the cabbie asked who and the player said Frank Verity and the cabbie responded that cockknocker turns out he'd grown up with Frank and they played a lot of pool together

in Brooklyn wow what can you imagine saying cockknocker and then like looking in the back seat of your cab and seeing a guy like go like are you crying it's just cockknocker really always um takes me back to a simpler time I used to know homophobic guy that cockknocker um that's crazy done a story uh yeah I you know it's like like it's it's really tough because like I mean obviously like this guy was a flawed individual but if he did deserve to have a role a bigger role in his occupation it is I mean there's just this in life there's just so much bullshit like yeah the idea that this guy says something and that completely can change the trajectory of your life you know and there's just so much

shit that's like that that is totally unfair and like you look at it I mean even when you look at like the landscape today it's just like yeah I mean you know it's it's a terrible thing when you have to depend on other people for your livelihood and it's even worse when they people can just be dishonest and undercut you yeah and I think people would say well but look about look at how he acted but it was but you look at baseball and the baseball was just littered with guys like this so he was really singled out sports makes exception for character flaws oh come on every year yeah I mean there it goes on and on and on you know and um there are very very few times where someone does something and is held accountable because it's the right thing to do it's like normally it's

the person is you know not worth the headache or they don't have the talent to put up but it's never like it really is I mean it's just it's uh it's disgusting in many ways but um yeah I don't know it's just weird like it's a weird little a weird little existence you know yeah and then it's also like why you know as a as a country we need we need safety nets like yeah you can be fucked for something that's got nothing to do with how good you are at something and also you know what if you're just not good at stuff then you should also not have to live in poverty and be like what does that mean that means yeah sorry nice try next time yeah you have to help yeah we should just we should I look at this guy and you know he's living in poverty he's making pasta on his couch or whatever

and he says he can't take care of his family and it's like well you know everyone should be able to take care of their family it really is and like the way the landscape is today it's just that you know you yeah I mean it is less there's just less and less of that I mean that is like such a foreign thought now I mean again we've like talked about it before but it is you now live in a world where you operate from a place of fear not a place of hope yeah and that was like the whole that was the whole thing the whole idea was that it would be like a hopeful existence one where you're like hey what do we what can't we do and now it's like what can I afford it's just fucking nuts yeah it's funny because you know as stand-ups you you know when you when you decide to be a stand-up you're

you're jumping without a net like you can oh yeah we both know plenty of guys who got into their 40s and it just didn't work out and now they're you know doing a hundred night gigs in a bar and stuff and it's it's tough yeah and some of that's you know some of that is just you know luck a lot of yeah a lot of entertainment is luck I mean yeah I was I can't remember what I was talking to but they were saying like I mean you know with entertainment it's like you you go in and you kind of don't have a choice I mean if you get involved in this industry it is very much like sports it's like you've pretty much carved your path and it is what it is and you are you are at the mercy of so many people who have you know opinions that are wrong not just about you but

about tons of shit yeah and they're the gatekeepers yeah so it is true gotta take care of people um so a couple of main sources uh I mentioned him a couple times but J. David Herman the book Almost Yankees the summer of 81 and the greatest baseball team you've never heard of and then there is a website uh the Society for American Baseball Research and I took some articles out of that um interesting stuff though another baseball one people were like oh I love the baseball ones I was like yeah so do I uh I love the baseball ones so maybe we'll get more baseball I love I love them well it was really good to meet you man nice to meet you hope to see you again sometime we uh anyway we sell uh baseballs we signed baseball thank you we signed baseballs

yes go stand outside of your house and they'll fly out thank you thanks everybody gobble gobble