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Live Chat With Former MLB Outfielder Billy Sample
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Joe
11:01
What's your go-to Texas Tavern order?
Billy Sample
11:04
LOL, sounds like someone who knows me, well, back in Hank on the Hill in Arlington it was the cheese burger, I don't know how they'd do it, but it would melt in your mouth ... wait, was Texas Tavern known by another name?  Remember, I'm old and that was nearly forty years ago ... then again, I can remember the call of plays of high school football games
SBs
11:04
You had 44 SBs in 1983.  With the new bases and rules, how many MLB players will steal 44 in 2023?
Billy Sample
11:07
I was talking to the speedy Brian Hunter years ago and he led the league in steals with 44 or 46.  Back in the day 44 was a distant fifth ... well Rickey was stealing over a hundred, Julio Cruz and a few other in the vicinity ... if the bases are closer to home plate there should be a great stealing percentage and with only two throw overs.  I try to understand the changes, but I have to admit I still retain some old school philosophies
Dr Dback
11:08
It seems 1983 was your best year, but was is your funnest year?
Billy Sample
11:09
In Texas there was always fun.  If you had a shrinking violet personality that may not have been the place for you.  The drive from the tarmac to the hotel could be the most brutal forty-five to fifty minutes you'd ever want to experience when players started getting on each other ... the coaches and media were riding the same buses too
11:14
One day traveling on an off-day from DFW to Minneapolis we had to prepare for a crash landing.  The ghost white attendants took our shoes and so forth.  It was a commercial flight and I think the players' devil may care attitude calmed the rest of the passengers.  Normally, back then the sportswriter would travel on the charters, but since this was an off day the reporters left on later flights or the next day.  I was genuinely annoyed that the sportswriters who had been killing us all year, were now going to kill us after we'd been killed.  And as the fire trucks lined up outside of the runway, the pilot said, "This will be the end of Flight 461... ". I thought what a great sense of humor
MLB Pension
11:14
Hi Billy, I remember you from back in the day. Congrats on a great career. Did you qualify to draw an MLB Pension and if so, are you still getting pension benefits today? Your era really helped build MLB into what it is today so I hope you are still getting benefits for all of your hard work!
Billy Sample
11:17
When I started you had to have four years of service to qualify for the pension.  Shortly after I was in the league it was negotiated that you started accreditation with the first day.  Obviously if you play six years, you'll get more than a person who played two year ... players used to max out at twenty years, now the max is ten ... and thanks for the compliment ... I believed in workers rights
Coop
11:17
Billy, in '83 you stole 44 bases but the following year only 18. Was injury the reason for the drop-off?
Billy Sample
11:22
I would have liked to put an asterisk by that year.  My wife had a serious multiple sclerosis attack and was at Johns Hopkins for a couple of months before transferring to a hospital in Dallas and taking care of two young kids drained me in the season part of the season.  The club and everyone around me were extremely helpful, but I ran out of gas.  Not complaining, everyone has situations that doesn't, in itself, help to get the most out of their talents
Coop
11:22
Billy, I know that steroids didn't come until later. But was cochise iuse fairly rampant during your time as a big leaguer?
Billy Sample
11:23
There were a handful of guys who were ahead of the curve that 'roided up ... but you're correct not many
CJS
11:23
What was the hardest part of being a ML player? What did you like least about it?
Billy Sample
11:25
When you and the team are going well, I can't find a better feeling ... when you and your team are not, hard to find a worse feeling, especially if you internalize your contribution to the game.  I learned to leave the game at the yard the older I got
Guest
11:25
Billy, just a quick hello to you from a blast from the past, Mike Wallace
Billy Sample
11:28
Hey Mike are you still with the Nationals?  I remember just how sweet your Mom was sewing our uniforms and such ... thanks for the hello ... great memories ... I still think about Stan Reynolds from time to time.  Wish I had spoken to him more before the ALS ... oh, and about the time that the club only voted Joe Macko a half share and I tried to override the club's decision but they were adamant and I had to tell Joe.  I tried to avoid him for two months (LOL)
Coop
11:29
You're an accomplished writer since leaving MLB. Where can we go to see some writing 'samples' (pun intended!)? Thanks.
Billy Sample
11:31
I mentioned at the start that I have a book "A Year in Pinstripes ... And Then Some" from 2018.  It's still on Amazon and kindle.  It's not a long book, probably read it in a day and a half ... ha-ha with the pun, I like puns but still had to read it twice, not the sharpest tool in the shed over here
Jake
11:31
Since you played before the Walk of Music phenomenon, what would have been your walk up tune?
Billy Sample
11:36
Jake, I've asked myself that tens of times and I don't think I can come up with one.  I liked McFadden and Whitehead's 'Ain't No Stopping Us Now' but I never seem to get enough hits when that played in the clubhouse ... about the only song I can sing outside of "O Canada is 'Brandy' from the Looking Glass circa 1974 but that's not really a walk up song.  Maybe 'That's the Way I Like it" from K.C. and the Sunshine Band ... When Ken Griffey Jr. played I remember his walk up song was from Naughty By Nature ... I thought the second line was 'Now Batting Ken Griffey Jr' ... I don't think I've ever heard the entire song
Ed
11:36
You were  traded on this day how did you  find out  no cell phone  or internet
Billy Sample
11:38
My former agent ... and the agent and I ended up having a very contentious and for me, costly relationship ... I didn't have to move as then the Rangers were in Pompano Beach, (lovely city, but the worse spring training facilities ever) to the Yankees who were in Ft. Lauderdale at the time
Chuck M
11:38
You played when steals were a much bigger part of the game, and were clearly excellent at it. I'm curious if you think the rule changes to make the bases bigger will increase stolen bases - do you think it would have helped you?
Billy Sample
11:39
I think it'll help everyone's base stealing percentage and limited throw overs?  Let me see if these hamstrings will stretch
Nolan
11:39
Did you ever play against Lyman Bostock?
Billy Sample
11:41
No, he was killed during the month in which I was called up but the club had finished the season series with the Twins ... I can picture Kurt Bevacqua informing a couple of us that Bostock was dead and I had trouble believing it
All Kaline Battery
11:41
What was harder to play in, the Texas heat or the cold springs in the Midwest/Northeast
Billy Sample
11:45
We were sleeted out of opening day in Detroit in 1979.  The following day I went in for defense but got one at bat and could not feel the bat in my hands.  I swung my shoulders and blooped a hit to left ... and Bill Veeck if he had fifteen thousand advanced tickets sold, you were playing no matter what ... I saw Big Leaguers damn near cry because it was so bitter cold .  I didn't know any better I grew up in cold mountains and played college in cold mountain chains ... though one day in college I almost walked off the field right into my dorm room.  That kind of cold that you don't care how well you do as long as the team wins (ha)
Altuve’s Buzzer
11:45
Hey Billy! What was your experience like playing in front of New York fans in New York as a Yankee. Intimidating? Or were you energized by it?
Billy Sample
11:49
Well, I didn't feel the ghost of Joe DiMaggio, might have helped :-) ... I had played against the Yankees so it just a different team.  I think the more people watching helps the energy and though we didn't sell out like they do today, the average crowd at Yankees Stadium was significantly larger than at the old ballpark in Arlington.  One of the annoying aspects of the crowds and I understand it, but still didn't appreciate it, is when the Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles came to Arlington they had more fans than we did or it seemed that way
Paul
11:49
Thanks for chatting w/ us.  You played for my Braves in 1986 when I first became a baseball fan and later did play by play for us for a couple years.  Any good EJ Sr. or Ted Turner stories you can share?
Billy Sample
11:51
I thought Ted was very easy to talk to, wasn't any pretentiousness to him I thought.  It was similar to when I was on a charity plane ride with Slim Pickens, I just liked to hear him talk
Hall of Fame
11:52
I was so happy when Jim Rice got elected into the Hall of Fame in 2009 (too late if you ask me). Which player(s) in your era do you believe should be in the Hall of Fame who currently are not in?
Billy Sample
11:53
The only player that I really championed for the Hall was Jack Morris ... I would love for Don Mattingly to get in and I hear there is a movement for Keith Hernandez too.  I don't know where the bar is anymore
Homer
11:54
Watching Sandy Koufax (before your time), you can see he had incredible velocity and stuff. And until 10 years ago, players still could pitch 88-92 and have a lot of success. Bronson Arroyo had a wider repertoire, as an example. Are pitchers today leaving strategy on the table for all velo? How do you react to today's game? Also, do you like the pitch clock and shift rules?
Billy Sample
11:56
I was watching film of Koufax pitching to the Yankees in 1963 and I think my knees buckled on one of his curveballs ... and I was sitting ... I'm not big on pitch clock changes and what's next, can outfielders not move in the direction where they think the hitter might hit?  Then again I'm old (school) as I tell people as long as my pension is well-funded, I'm good
All Kaline Battery
11:57
Back in your playing time, which ballpark was your favorite to visit and which did not like to play in?
Billy Sample
12:02
Fenway was my favorite and Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, the light stanchions were so low that every line drive went into the lights, well, for that matter so it did in Arlington too.  I could blow up that stadium, they forget to call me to help control demolition the Kingdome ... wasn't crazy about Astro-Turf or in some cases like Montreal, painted green concrete.  I got turf face one day in the Metrodome ... Exhibition Stadium in Toronto was a visual nightmare; hard turf, baby blue seats with silver metallic numbering, with stands behind home that leads to the sky with very little overhang ... and a fast team ... is it too late to get hazard's pay?
Guest
12:02
Who was your favorite team growing up?
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