You are viewing the chat in desktop mode. Click here to switch to mobile view.
X
Live Chat With Former MLB Outfielder Billy Sample
powered byJotCast
Prev Page View Full Chat Next Page
Billy Sample
12:06
I liked the 1963 Chicago Bears and the late sixties Boston Bruins ... baseball I know more about the Yankees as that was the team I seemed to see most on the Game of the Week and it was neat interacting with some of those players as I got older ... the takeaway: you don't want to speak after Bobby Richardson.  He has that evangelical minister delivery and can speak for an hour without an 'and or ah'.  As a broadcaster you can't beat Tony Kubek to the ballpark, I tried.  At a charity even in Greenwich, Ct., Joe Pepitone will bust on me as if we were teammates and I was seven years old when he was first in the majors.  It's a great fraternity that way
Homer
12:07
Dang, your minor league OPS was 1.012 with 2x more walks than strikeouts. You could be forgiven if you thought you were headed to Cooperstown back then. What did the majors do to your game?
Billy Sample
12:09
They have scouting reports in the majors and pitchers who can hit their spots better.  I made the Topps All-Rookie team with my career high .292 average and it was challenging after that ... in and out of the lineup didn't help and when I had my time, I'd do things like break the ulna styloid bone in my wrist making a diving catch
Guest
12:11
Fellow JMU alumni here! What was the program like when you played?
Billy Sample
12:18
Hello fellow Dukes ... I believe the program was four years old.  You may know that it used to be an all-female institution until the late 1960s.  Brad Babcock was the coach and a tremendous recruiter ... Dean Ehlers was the Athletic Director and gave us tremendous support as did President Ronald Carrier who would often come into the dugout before games.  I was the first player drafter in 1976, the second male athlete drafter after soccer goalie Alan Mayer, and six of my teammates signed pro contracts; five tool centerfielder Todd Winterfeldt made it to Triple A with the Mets, first baseman Jim Barbe (Rangers) and shortstop J.W. Mitchell (Cubs) played Double-A ball, third baseman Mike LaCasse was a minor league teammate of Cal Ripken Jr. and Tim Semones and Roger Lee played Independent Ball.  And you know last year JMU had Cleveland's first pick in the draft
Scott H
12:18
Hi Billy.  I used to attend all the Orioles games when I was a kid and I remember you well in the 1979 season.  I wonder, was colusion a reason why you did not play after 1986? I think you needed 10 years for a pension in those days.
Billy Sample
12:21
Yes, I detailed some of what happened in an earlier response ... when I started a player had to have four years before accreditation for the pension, shortly thereafter it started with the first day.  Obviously a player playing two years gets more than someone who played five months and so on.  Now a player maxes out at ten years, before it was twenty
my late father said he knew you
12:21
He was in the Cubs organization. Growing up in San Diego as a huge fan of contact hitters like you, Tony G, Rod Carew, etc... I modelled my game (in high school, college) after guys like you. Would you approach the game the same way today? Or would your K-rate climb in exchange for HRs!?
Billy Sample
12:23
Who was your Dad?  If the ball is going to be as hard as it is today, it's hard not to go for the long ball.  I understand that they are trying to put small ball back in the game, then soften the ball a bit, but they don't want that because the home run still attracts the fannies in the seats
Guest
12:24
George Wright in CF, you in left, Parrish in RF…… looked very promising….. why did the Rangers not excel and what about George back in particular?
Billy Sample
12:27
Ah, George Wright, what a player.  One of the best short-lived careers.  He hurt his shoulder taking a grand slam away from someone in a mid-western park and was never quite the same.  Played 162 games a year in that heat ... wow ... and with a body like Adonis  ... I'd go in early lift my weight, relax a bit and then my outfield mate would come in (we had stalls side by side) peel off his shirt and it was like someone stuck a balloon in my triceps (LOL)
knuckleballers
12:28
You faced some good ones, who threw the best knuckler in your playing time?
Billy Sample
12:29
When Charlie Hough needed some extra work I'd go to the cages with them, thinking in the back of my mind it might help me against Phil Niekro ... it didn't
a fellow journalist
12:29
I'm curious, looking back, what career has been richer for you, MLB or writer/producer?
Billy Sample
12:33
Well, let's see, we didn't make any money back in the day on the diamond.  People are shocked when I tell them that the gross my first year in the majors was $21,000 so you're taking home after taxes $18,000 and that was in the majors ... I think the minimum now is in the $700-$800 thousand range ... anyone have any good lottery numbers?  The money that football analyst are getting now and the talking heads on TV wow!  a
And I don't mean to sound envious
Scott H
12:34
I remember you well when I attended all the Orioles games in 1979. Kingmans career ended from collusion too.  So no other team offered you even a minor league deal?. Didn't you need 10 years in MLB to collect a full pension in those days?
Billy Sample
12:36
Yes, players max out a ten years now and you can take it at any time between 45 and 62 (I believe 62 is the top end). I think one has to live until 77 to have 62 be more money in the end that taking it at 45
Doug
12:36
Hello Billy.  I am a high school teacher in Roanoke, VA.  Do you ever come back to this area?
Billy Sample
12:38
What school?  I get back ever so often.  I was going to try to meet my brother in Salem tomorrow, but it appears that you're getting bad weather or maybe the bad weather is up here in northeast New Jersey ... I have an aunt who still lives in the area
Brew88
12:39
as an ex baller with some ambitions to write about the game I love (baseball!), what tips would you give?
Billy Sample
12:43
I was fortunate that I knew Murray Chass and Steve Wolf, the latter working at Sports Illustrated and I got an article in there which really gave me some cachet and credibility as a writer.  Then Baseball Weekly started and they wanted a former player who could write and I was there for a couple of years at its inception ... there are others Larry Dierker comes to mind as a player, broadcaster who can write as well
Guest
12:43
Really loved you as the Angel announcer back in the 90s. Have you thought about doing MLB Network or anything like that ??
Billy Sample
12:49
Oh, thank you for much for that.  I couldn't open the show worth a darn, but I think I did everything else well.  I enjoyed interviewing all of the different people who were at the stadium.  Who else makes their guest feel good enough like Dick Enberg to say that he would get so nervous before some events that he would throw up ... or slightly annoy Tim Daly for intimating that having his Dad and sister preceding him might have helped him in the craft :-). I didn't make the cut at MLB Network but I wasn't good enough.  I love listening to those guys, knowledgeable and entertaining
BonDrone
12:50
Without naming names (unless you want to) were you ever happy to see a teammate get traded?
Billy Sample
12:52
Oh, that is so funny.  And no, not really, but there is a backstory to some of that ... if you saw my movie Reunion 108 on IMDb.com you could probably figure out why I'm laughing
Wily Coyote
12:53
Interested to know if you had many interactions with Hank Aaron and your impressions. He seemed so humble and gracious despite his immense success.
Billy Sample
12:54
Wile E. Coyote, one of my favorites ... shamelessly plugging my book from 2018 ... 'A Year in Pinstripes and Then Some' (Amazon, kindle) I have a Hank Aaron anecdote in there
John
12:54
Was there any form of cheating in your time playing? Statute of limitations applies so you’re good
Billy Sample
12:56
Old baseball axiom, 'If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying' ... if a pitcher changes his position on the rubber for a fastball to a curve and you notice it, it's not cheating ... but banging the trash can seems over board to about everyone
Yourself
1:01
Do you/did you collect your own baseball cards?
Billy Sample
1:05
No, I didn't but people have collected them for me.  My New York City cousin used to play APBA and I would play with him when I visited as a youngster.  It was interesting to have a card from a game I saw from back in the day, arguing with the card now, "What do you mean 66 is not a homer?"  Or, "I hate that nickname!"  I still get about eighty envelopes per month of baseball cards to sign.  Every once in a while I'll siphon some from the collectors and give it to a kid who might have only one.
Guest
1:05
I have your baseball card!   Thanks for doing the chat.   :)
Billy Sample
1:06
Your welcome, this has been fun ... I don't often have two hours in my day.  I stay busy couldn't begin to tell you what I do
Oakland
1:06
Ever think of coaching or being a manager
Billy Sample
1:09
The great baseball man Joe Klein thought that I'd be a good candidate for coaching with a psychology background but no.  I admire people who play the game, love its history and thought for the most part I gave the audience a blue collar's days work, but I was never dirt under my fingernails crazy about it.  Broadcasting and writing was a good skillset for me in relationship to the game of baseball.
Bill
1:09
Get replies, like hearing about your days in majors.  Canadian here, what was our proud Canadian Fergie Jenkins like.
Billy Sample
1:12
Bill, I just got choked up.  What a tremendous teammate ... the veteran players took such good care of us youngsters when we came up and Fergie was super is many ways ... ah, the former hockey player and Harlem Globetrotter
Ron Vorpe
1:12
What was it like playing for Doug Rader
Billy Sample
1:15
Oh dear, I've already been on here for three hours it would take me another three to detail that ... one of the strongest people you'd ever want to meet ... extremely well-read too
Connecting…