Vol. II,
Issue #4 - October 2014
**
Interview with Billy Sample, ex Major Leaguer,
Baseball Broadcaster and Movie Producer
**
(conducted by Wolfman Shapiro
mid-September,
our 2nd chance to visit with Mr. Sample)
(Wolfman's Comments:
This is the second time that Mr. Sample has agreed to do an
interview with us, his first time was in April of 2013 {see link
to the prior interview below}. I have to say of all the ex-Major
Leaguers I have spoken to, "Billy" has been the most open and
friendly. But now, as we will explain at the end of this
interview, he will have a chance to learn about our world of
Baseball so hold on. To once again remind you, for those not
familiar with Billy when he played in the Major Leagues, he played for the Texas
Rangers from 1978-1984, the New York Yankees in 1985 and the Atlanta
Braves in 1986.
His accomplishments included making the Topps
All Rookie team in 1979, was fifth in stolen bases with 44 in
1983, was not easy to strike out and had a career .272 batting
average and .982 fielding average. After he finished his
playing days he became a broadcaster/writer for the Braves,
Mariners and Angels. And finally last year, he helped to
create a movie that was about his life in baseball.
The Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter is very proud to welcome
back Mr. Billy
Sample.
-- To our members: If you didn't have a chance to read Billy's
first interview as we will be expanding on what Billy shared
with a bit before, go to:
http://www.ultimatestratbaseball.com/usbn-4-2013/BillySample-April2013.htm
)
--------------------
|
Baseball Card of Billy in his Prime when he
played
for the Texas Rangers from his Facebook Pages |
Wolfman:
I would like to thank our good friend Billy Sample,
for
granting to us this second interview for our
newsletter. Once again we will have a chance to
learn about the life of a MLB player from the
inside. So
Billy let me welcome you back to the Ultimate Strat
Baseball
Newsletter ...
So the last time we spoke Billy (Spring of 2013) you
were involved with making a movie called "Reunion
108" - I understand the movie has been released now.
How did the movie do? What response did you get to
it? Is it possible for our members to view the movie
on-line? What was the key messages given by your
film or was it just a comedy? Did you star in your
own film?
Billy:
Wolfman, the movie has been shown in four theaters,
(both theater chain and indie theaters) in four
different states (Illinois, Virginia, New York and
New Jersey) and is open for more. The word of mouth
reviews were very good, though we didn't break any
attendance records. At the moment I am working on
finishing the mo-vie's soundtrack for Internet
distribution. With any luck that should be finished
in the next week or so.
|
After the soundtrack, I'll work on the secondary
market for the movie itself, DVDs, Blu-rays, online, etc.
Yes, I am an actor in the movie, next time I'll give myself
fewer lines. There are a few messages to glean from the edgy,
satirical comedy. The use of indigenous American nicknames for
sports teams, particularly the football team in the nation's
capital is in the news, and it's addressed in Reunion 108 from a
script that was written in 2012.
Wolfman:
Now in our first interview you
said, during the time you played during the 1970's and 1980's,
the salary of the players (unless of course you were an elite
player) wasn't very high, that is as compared to what the players
are making these days. So does that mean to you, when you
did play it was just a job? Or, as it would be for most of the members of our
newsletter, if we had a chance just to be in Majors for even a
day we would be very excited! Did your time in the Big Leagues
mean anything for you as with your
God given talent, you did have this special chance to play
baseball for
several years? Is there any pride of accomplishment that you feel
about this?
Billy:
Just last week I was at a baseball camp in Boston, sponsored by
the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association, and the
subject of salaries came up; I told the campers that my first
contract back in the late 1970s was $21,000. And that was gross,
not net, so the take home pay was roughly $18,500, and that was
in the majors, during the double digit inflation days of that
time period. It took me until my third year in the big leagues
before I made enough money that I didn't have to find income in
the offseason. Nowadays, the minimum salary is a half million
dollars, which should be enough to at least spread through the
twelve months of the calendar year, even after taxes.
I'm not all that sentimental about having played in the majors.
It was a goal, took a lot of hard work, and I understand the
selectivity of the profession, but while playing it, like most
people I imagine, I was trying to be the best I could be and win
as many games as possible. And even with that goal and
realization, I never got an opportunity to play in the post
season, which was the first of my ultimate goals. Well, let me
modify that first sentence; the older I get, the more I do
indeed appreciate being in such a select profession.
Wolfman:
For you, what would a
normal day be like when you were playing for a major league
team? Did you have a routine you followed? How did you prepare
for a game you knew you would be playing in?
Billy:
I was a late sleeper
or is that a late riser? I would get to the ballpark around
two-thirty, lift some light weights, eat a light meal, answer
some fan mail, work on an area of the game such as bunting for
base hits, though playing most of my career in
Texas, I didn't spend too much time outside working on anything,
as the heat was often so oppressive, that energy needed to be
conserved for the nighttime.
Wolfman:
Was
it difficult to play 162 games, and do all the traveling you had
to do for at least six months during the year? Did playing a
full season of baseball take a lot out of you to go through such
an intense time? If so, does this mean that when the season was
over, you looked forward to relaxing then? What did you do in
the off-season?
(Billy Sample's Advanced Strat-o-matic Baseball Card for the
1983 Texas Rangers, apparently he had more
power this year vs. Right Handed pitching - good fielder, good
stealer, a bit better on-base vs. RHP --
this card was a gift to the editors of the newsletter by Chris
Rosen, Moonlight Graham's Marketplace. )
|
(Elementary Version of Billy's 1983 Strat-o-matic
Baseball Card) |
Billy:
Ha,
well, I never played in more than 147, but there wasn't anyone
playing 162 in Texas. One year we had over 43 consecutive days
of over a hundred degrees in which more than five hundred people
died in the state due to heat related issues. It's easier for
Rangers players nowadays as the infrastructure of the 'new'
stadium allows the players to get almost all of their work
completed inside.
Most of the time in the offseason, I spent more time with the
kids, took a class or two of personal interest (one of those was
an acting class), took a vacation or two to Hawaii, which often
coincided with the locale of our union meetings which I attended
as a player representative or license committee member.
Wolfman:
What would
you say is the most favorable aspects of being a Major League
Baseball Player - What is the least Favorable aspects of being a
Major League Baseball Player?
Billy:
Playing well and/or the team performing well, you just couldn't
get enough of this ... to me that is the most favorable and the
opposite of that statement is the least favorable aspect of
being a major leaguer. The public's passion and the media's
scrutiny adds to my somewhat stark analysis about what is
favorable.
|
Wolfman:
You
mentioned in your interview last year that on youtube we could
view some of the unbelievable catches you made in the majors
which you didn't know how you did it? Do you know where our
members could view some of these catches?
Billy:
I
have a youtube subscription page in which some of my highlights
can be viewed, but one doesn't have to subscribe to see some of
my highlights. They are out there in cyberspace somewhere though
the two-strike nasty slider swings have been edited out of the
video ;-)
(Note
from the Wolfman:
- I tried to see if I went on Youtube if I could find one of
Billy making some of his great catches but unfortunately I
couldn't. However I did find the following videos which I think
our members will enjoy that do provide some other looks at Billy
as a player and broadcaster, enjoy:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0rm_aEw8JU
(Billy hits a home run for Texas against the Chicago White
Sox)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwmw29WVIaE
(Billy first hit in MLB ...)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9cxQjPlLss
(Billy interviews Willie Mays during Spring Training of
2004)
Wolfman:
Is there
an all time player from any era of the game, who you personally
admired or rooted for? Is there any MLB player of the past that
you modeled yourself after linked to your baseball gifts and
abilities?
Billy:
No, never modeled my game after anyone, not easy to do with different body types and such, although one could model after another player's work ethic or style. I had 195 teammates in the majors and another
sixty or so in the minors and I admired that talents of so many of them, and many of them never made it to the majors.
Wolfman:
As we are
coming up now to the MLB playoffs to decide the opponents in the
World Series and which team will be the champion in 2014, do you
still follow baseball or because you were so involved when you
were younger, it doesn't hold much interest now?
Billy:
Yes, I still follow the game, not as much as I did when I played
or broadcasted, but I follow all sports, and still marvel at the
talent the players emit.
Wolfman:
If any of our younger members have an aspiration
to become a major league baseball player - perhaps they are
playing in little league, high school or college - what advice
would you give them to help them have a better chance
to succeed?
Billy:
Oh, very little substitute for hard work. In the end, scouts are looking for skills and talents that are major league worthy, great arm, speed, bat, power, velocity, breaking balls, and throw in attitude and heart ... heart is hard to measure, but some players like Dustin Pedroia, seems to have more than most.
Wolfman:
Now one thing which our members are able to do with the table
top/computer baseball simulation game we play called
Strat-o-matic is to replay past seasons. This gives us, the
strat-o-matic game player a chance to know the great teams and
players of the past or just to replay say a team we root for
like since I was young I have always been a Chicago Cub fan. Is
this something that you might have an
interest to do some time? Would doing these replays be of
interest to the average professional player do you think? Might
a ball player not learn some new strategies into the game of
baseball by doing this?
Billy:
I
can't speak for anyone else, but I'd be interested in trying my
hand at a finite series of Strat-o-matic. I have only played
APBA with my cousin Stan, when we were teenagers. He was
serious, I just offered competition for my two week visits. I
was too busy playing in my own games, which didn't leave a lot
of time for other types of strategies.
Wolfman:
Would you ever consider to play a game of Strat-o-matic with a
team you were on against another member of our newsletter?
Perhaps a best of seven series?
Billy:
Bring it on!
(He says with faux confidence!)
(SPECIAL
NEWS
from the Wolfman:
- It has been a kind of dream to see if either we could find an
ex-MLB player who already plays SOM to play against a member of
our newsletter or to find an ex-player who never has played
Strat to try and Billy just answered my wish. So I started to
speak to Billy via Facebook how we could do this (to discover
the area he lives) and then I also checked with my old friend
Tom Nahagian, who we did interview last year and has all the
Strat Baseball cards if he might have a team with Billy on it we
could borrow. However, his cards were not where Tom currently
lives but he did direct me to Chris Rosen of Moonlight Graham's
Marketplace. I called Chris and he quickly called me back
and not only gifted our newsletter with a card of Billy's which
we have shared in this article but sent out to Billy as a gift
the 1983 Texas Rangers, for the team he will use in what we call
now
"THE BILLY SAMPLE CHALLENGE".
Stay tuned as in our next issue we hope to give the full report
of what happens as one of our members takes on Mr. Billy Sample
in Strat {after of course teaching him how our game works}. We
also wish to thank Tom and Chris for their help and if you are
seeking a strat team to get for your collection Chris Rosen is
your guy, visit his website at:
www.moonlightgrahamsmarketplace.com
-- we hope to interview Chris in November.) Also prior to the
release of this issue, our volunteer has been found and he will
be revealed in the next issue.
Wolfman: Is there anything else new that has happened to you since last year, that might be of interest of our
members linked to any new projects you are doing or maybe some new insights you have gained about baseball?
Billy:
Oh, right now still concentrating on Reunion 108, soundtrack and DVDs, will be made available to the public in the next few weeks.
Wolfman:
Once again Billy, thank you so much for spending
a little time with us, to share with our members a few more
insights into the game of Baseball and your stories about a very good Leftfielder
during his time in MLB that helped his team win some special games.
For those who wish to contact Billy directly you can do so
at his facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/billy.sample.75
