Transcripts

text | pdf |

---

SPEAKER: This weekend, some of baseball's biggest names are meeting in Sioux Falls for an event called Legends of Baseball. There are the usual card and memorabilia shows, a baseball clinic for 500 kids, and a golf tournament. But there's also an impromptu gathering of stars of the 1965 Twins 30 years after they went to the World Series for the first time.

In fact, that gathering happens right now on the radio as we're joined by pitcher Mudcat Grant and Hall of Fame hitter Harmon Killebrew. Hello, you two. It's a pleasure.

HARMON KILLEBREW: Hello, nice to talk to you. Mudcat, are you there? This is Harmon. Oh, it looks like we haven't got Mudcat.

SPEAKER: There he is. Mudcat Grant, can you hear me?

MUDCAT GRANT: Yes.

SPEAKER: OK. I don't know if you can hear Harmon. Can you?

MUDCAT GRANT: I can hear Harmon too.

HARMON KILLEBREW: All right, Mud.

SPEAKER: OK, well, I wanted to know this. You know, the Twins aren't doing so great right now, so take us back 30 years. What are your fondest memories of the 1965 season? And why don't we hear from you first, Mudcat Grant?

MUDCAT GRANT: OK. I really anticipated spring training because of '65 because I was traded to the Twins in June of 1964. And one of the things that was so pleasing to me was that I had a chance to get on the same team as Harmon Killebrew with the possibility of him hitting a three-run home run to start off the first inning and start off the fifth inning.

And I was really looking forward to it. And I don't think anybody expected us to do what we did. But spring training was a lot of fun, and we had the confidence that we would do well. And lo and behold, we did that.

SPEAKER: Mr. Killebrew, how about you?

HARMON KILLEBREW: Well, Mud, thanks. Thanks very much for those kind words. And we hit against Mudcat for a long time when he was with the Cleveland Indians. And he beat us so much, they decided that they'd better try to trade for him, get him on our ball club to help us. And boy, help us, he did.

Mudcat had a tremendous year in 1965 and then went on to win two games in the World Series. Hit a home run that helped us win a ball game. And it was great to have him on the club.

That was an interesting year for me because I dislocated my elbow in a play at first base on August 2 that year. And it looked like after all those years of playing ball on clubs that weren't winning, we're going to get a chance to play in the World Series, and I wasn't going to get a chance to play in the World Series.

But fortunately, at least for me anyway, I played the last 10 games at third base and then played in the World Series at third. And that, of course, was a big, big thrill to play against guys like Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. I guess it had to have been one of the highlights of my career.

SPEAKER: Yeah, I was going to ask about that. That must have been something special to hit against Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, those guys.

HARMON KILLEBREW: Well, it wasn't a treat sometimes, I'll tell you that. Those guys were--

SPEAKER: I meant more now than then. Mr. Grant.

MUDCAT GRANT: Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER: How did you get the nickname Mudcat?

MUDCAT GRANT: When I went to camp in the Cleveland Indians spring training camp, there was already some players in camp. And as you know, when a bunch of guys get together, it doesn't matter if it's baseball or if it's Army, if it's college, you have a tendency to rag on one another a little bit. And they took one look at me and really thought that I was from Mississippi, this little Southern, ragged kid coming in to try to become a baseball player.

And they started calling me Mississippi Mudcat before I even put on a uniform. And it was Mississippi mudflap, hubcap, flapjack. But Mudcat stuck, and I really liked it. For some reason, I liked it.

Nicknames back in those days was so enamored by everybody, and everybody loved nicknames. And I says, well, they gave it to me. I will take it.

SPEAKER: I guess Catfish Hunter didn't really like Catfish.

MUDCAT GRANT: I don't know because he wasn't around at that time.

SPEAKER: Yeah.

MUDCAT GRANT: Yeah, and that was the name given to him when he signed his contract too by Charlie Finley. But I tell you what, he's been wearing that name pretty good for the last 30 years.

SPEAKER: Yeah, it fit him perfectly. I wanted to ask you this too since you're around a lot of fans and you've probably been paying a lot of attention. A certain prominent sports commentator in town says that most fans now are mad at the players after the strike. Is that true, Mr. Killebrew?

HARMON KILLEBREW: If you're talking about present day players, that's probably a true statement. I think they're probably disappointed, maybe is a better word. Whether they're mad, I don't know. But a lot of people are staying away from the ballparks at this time.

I think maybe we've shot ourselves in the foot here with what's happened. But baseball has survived a lot of things over the years, and I just think that baseball is too great a game not to survive this situation. And I know Mudcat and myself travel a great deal, and we talk to an awful lot of people.

And people love the game of baseball. And I just feel that they're going to come back. And as this season goes on and the teams do well, we're going to see people come back to the ballpark like they have all these years.

SPEAKER: Thanks a lot for talking with us.