MLB Prime 9: What Could Have Been's

[Music] welcome to prime9 the countdown show that covers the very best in baseball guaranteed to start arguments not in them this week we look at the nine most compelling could have been why nine well it's baseball nine players nine innings prime nine [Music] the history of baseball is brimming with heroes men who became stars and performed record-setting feats i'm the greatest of all time some went on to lead their teams to world series titans [Music] others are enshrined forever in the national baseball hall of fame but one of those who seem destined to achieve greatness only to have it slip away their major league baseball legacy short-circuited by illness just don't take it for granted because you never know tomorrow's not promised to any of us an accident an injury or a cruel twist of fate stratton lost his leg in a hunting accident in this episode we'll showcase nine players who we think could have been great he got him 16 strikeouts but who never fulfilled their promise and another wild one so here then are our top nine could have been starting with number nine on primeknit swinging a miss he got him rick and keel has done it again when rick and keel came back up from the miners in 2007 he impressed the cardinals as a power-hitting outfielder with all the tools to become a startled rick ankio is a tremendous athlete the strength and power that he brings at bat speed is you know it's remarkable but the first chapter of rick's baseball life was no less remarkable i don't think we've ever seen the arc of a career quite like the one of rick and keel see you later swinging a miss struck him out you see and keel began his major league career as a pitcher one often likened to sandy koufax another strikeout here tonight for rick and keel he is just mowing them down [Applause] he just had a presence about him that people were recognizing him as a top pitcher you know he had electric stuff what a big curveball that was in a one two three first inning as a rookie in 2000 he won 11 games and had almost 200 strikeouts and he got it and helped lead the cardinals to the division title strikeout rick entered the playoffs living the dream of every young pitcher [Applause] but his fantasy quickly turned into a nightmare when he simply could not shake when he got into the postseason with the cardinals something clicked there where he just totally lost confidence lost the feel for being able to throw the ball over the plate it became painful to watch him pitch wow man keel is holding on by a thread right now for reasons still unknown today rick just lost his grip we faced him in our game the first batter was timo perez and the first pitch was right at him right at his head and another wild one you just know the kind of pain and could feel the kind of pain that he was going through it's almost a helpless situation it's almost like someone falls off the boat and can't swim 35 pitches tortured pitches in the inning his career as a pitcher was over but rick was determined to cultivate a new one so he returned to the minor leagues and over three years he refined the skill he was always good at hitting and kill down the right field [Applause] rick is resurfaced as a strong position player but as a pitcher he will always wonder what could have been he makes a sense he's doing fantastic as a position player but if he would end up throwing strikes it could have been one of the most dominant left-handed pitchers you never know [Music] ray fossey was an up-and-coming young catcher in the american league and gosh he was really a a good-looking young player good enough to make his first all-star team at the age of 23 one of the finest young catchers in all of baseball his future was filled with promise he could hit he could throw he called a great game it was just unfortunate that he lost out on a major portion of his career the winning run was heading home at that all-star game when ray's catching instincts kicked in [Applause] i could hear that sound in the outfield it was scary [Applause] all of a sudden i'm hit by this thundering whatever and all of a sudden i'm on the ground i'm rolling over flipped over my shoulder felt my left shoulder felt like it's on my right side i mean it did hurt that much [Music] it seems like every time i go out on the field to either break up the fight or get involved i come out bleeding hurt or something so i try to avoid it although he would play eight more years and win two championships with the oakland a's fosse never did sustain his all-star form injuries would dog him throughout his career but it was that 1970 collision that left folks wondering what could have been he was the exciting young catcher that had come onto the major league scene and so you were excited it's just disappointing when you see something like that happen to someone welcome back to prime nine featuring the nine most compelling could have bins in the game you've heard the stories behind nine and eight we now continue with number seven in 1941 everyone's attention was commended by joe dimaggio's 56-game hitting streak in ted williams pursuit of a 400 batting average but in brooklyn a promising 22-year-old rookie named pete rieser was tearing up the national league pete was a great editor there's no question about that he loved the national league and hitting his first year in the major leagues his experience as a brooklyn dodger in the early 40s showed him that he could hit 20 homers 20 triples 40 doubles he was going to be a perennial all-star he was going to be a hall of famer pete would lead brooklyn to the world series for the first time in 21 years and also led his league in hitting the next year reserve was hitting over 380 and threatening to challenge ted's mark of 406 but pete knew only one way to play the game and it cost him riza played each game each inning each fly ball as if the fate of western civilization depended upon it he would chase a fly ball as far as he could run and in those days the walls were made of concrete pete was carried off the field on a stretcher 11 times in his career and once was administered last rites in the ballpark pete racer could have been one of the greatest ball players of all time if he only knew how to find a wall ravaged by his injuries pete averaged just 246 his final five years nowhere near his early numbers and nearly a hundred points less than his rookie year it was manager leo deroser who once said that while willie mays had everything pete rieser had everything but luck pete reaser was a great great player i think he could have been an awful lot better had he not been so prone to injuries because he only knew how to play one way and that was to play the game the way he thought it should be played [Music] when lyman bostock first broke into the majors in the mid 70s he was compared to some of the game's greatest hitters like teammate rod kuru simon boston peru's most garden disciple he came up in the twins organization you could almost see right away he was a cross between rod carew and tony oliva a guy that could just flat out hit there's a line drive to center field shot bostock was a solid line drive hitter good outfielder uh excellent base run he had good speed to steal bases bostok got better his first three years in minnesota culminating with a 336 average in 1977 his growth enabled him to become one of the game's first big money free agents and gave him the chance to hit pay dirt with the california angels i think the people here appreciate me a lot more because i'm from the area and i hope i can please the people here lymon did not even please himself his first april with the angels and proceeded to donate that month's salary to charity but he soon recovered on the fastball for a base hit come september he led the angels with a 296 average but following a game in chicago he walked off the field for the final timer [Music] it was in gary indiana when a bullet intended for someone else struck lyman in the head and he was gone when tragedy struck and he was murdered certainly the wrong place at the wrong time it was just made everybody stop and think [Music] as a manager of a ball club you lose a player but as a man you lose a friend in four big league seasons bostock had a 311 average it's one estimate that had he played his entire career he would have finished with more than 2100 hits right into center field but the truth is we'll never know it's unfortunate that uh you know his life was shortened and and we never really saw what this guy could really do [Music] welcome back to prime nine featuring the top nine could have beens of all time rick and keel was number nine followed by catcher ray fossey then came the original wall banger pete rieser and the tragic story of lyman bosnock which means it's time for number five [Music] when a fastball rockets off a bat no one on the field is closer to it than the pitcher it really hurts there's a line in the face off the bat taps it before he's down it was a blow like this that altered the career of a promising young pitcher in the 50s herb score came on like a comet he was the most dominant pitcher in the american league big tall lanky had a big slow movement going back but when he came forward he really shut him down a young left-handed with kofax likability and perhaps even better than kofax score set a modern rookie record for strikeouts with 245 and won 20 games his sophomore year seemingly on the way to a hall of fame career he was a major league winner from day one his first two years he had 500 strikeouts and then at the beginning of the third year tragedy struck a pitcher plays with fate every time he throws the ball and against yankee shortstop gill mcdougall herb score lost he threw me a pitch that nine out of 10 times i would have missed and i just flicked my back and it hit him on the right eye all i remembered was seeing blood flow you know and i don't i went into shock it took something out of me i know well you know some people overcome those things herb never did in other words when you go back on the mound again that's got to be in the back your mind it took nearly a year before herb was back in the majors and he was never the same after winning 36 games his first two years he won just 17 after the injury who knows what could have been had that ball been inches to the right the score would have been the mickey mantle of that period i.e the man you would not trade a team for there's no doubt in my mind that curb score had a long career we'd be talking about him as a hall of famer [Music] likewise the batter is just 60 feet 6 inches from a 90-plus mile per hour pitch and it was a pitch he couldn't avoid to change the career of a boston legend in the making tony congliero came up with the red sox he was just 19 years old [Applause] [Music] he had a lot of poise he wasn't intimidated at all by the major league scene tony see it had a fantastic year in 1965 leading the american league with 32 home runs becoming the youngest player in major league history to lead his league in home runs and the future looked boundless he also became the second youngest man to hit 100 career home runs at the tender age of 22. [Applause] but it was tony's aggressive approach to hitting that would do him in he was fearless not afraid of anything if you check back on tony's records you'll see he had a lot of injuries by hitting pitches and it was a pitch by the angels jack hamilton that struck tony flush on his cheek he suffered broken facial bones and blurred vision and the prognosis was bleak he will not recover to the point where he will go jogging or doing anything that is within within the realm of possibilities for the average citizen but tony defied that prediction and he did in fact jog back onto the field after missing one full season he was out all of the 1968 season came back and it looked like he was going to be fine he was comeback player of the year [Applause] but yet the vision began to deteriorate and he was never the same but while tony c never did alter the baseball record books his injury did change the game in a manner that has impacted every player sense [Applause] [Music] for he began to wear an ear flap and it has saved others from suffering the same split-second fate it's just a shame that that had to happen because of the fact he had a chance to be one of the great home run hitters in the history of the game tony could have been an all-time great power hitter [Music] j.r richard was one of the game's great power pitchers it was in 1975 that richard became part of the astros starting rotation for good and immediately instilled fear throughout the league here's another bob gibson he scared the daylights out of you six eight 250 can hold five baseballs in his hand at one time i threw a fastball clock in the hundreds that is really rushing it up there my slider was 98 miles per hour which is the fastest slider known to man i was definitely in a world by myself from 1976 through 79 he was arguably the best pitcher in baseball he won 18 games three times won 20 once and twice topped 300 strikeouts an hour when nolan ryan joined the staff in 1980 houston had a most daunting duo facing jr and nolan ryan back to back that was never a picnic things played out as expected through the season's first half ryan and richard were dominating the astros were tied for first and jr was the starting pitcher at the all-star game 3-2 coming it appeared as if richard was on top of the world [Music] but appearances can be deceiving richard has been experiencing stiffness he uses the word fatigue to describe it i had started coming out of games early i couldn't figure out what was going on then while richard was playing catch on july 30th it finally hit him all of a sudden i heard a loud high-pitched tone ringing in my right ear and a few minutes later i lost my balance and my equilibrium was off eventually i guess i passed out because i don't remember anything else jr had suffered a stroke due to a blood clot in his neck and his life was completely changed makes this muscle here i had to learn to walk again because my total left side was paralyzed just halfway right down the middle was paralyzed richard could only watch as houston lost one of the all-time great championship series to the face [Applause] and while richard would make a valiant attempt at a comeback he'd never pitch in the major leagues again but those who saw him those who faced him have no doubt that he could have been one of the greatest power pitchers in the history of the game anybody's going to go down as one of the best pitchers of all time it was going to be jr anytime somebody's career is shortened like that that's blessed with so much ability and you just always wonder what could have been we now return to prime nine where this week we're focusing on the nine most compelling could have beens in the history of baseball these are the poignant stories of players who appeared to have a great future in the game only to have it cut short by fate so now it's time for the top two the men we think could have been major league superstars but never got the chance we begin with number two when bo jackson made his major league debut in 1986 he was already a college football legend but we soon discovered that bo knows baseball too god blessed me with speed like a deer you want to see some speed folks watch this and i could throw a baseball like somebody shot it out of a rifle i don't believe it he made an absolutely perfect throw the greatest athlete i've ever seen toy jackson he could run faster than anyone i've ever seen one speed that is incredible and hit a baseball way further than anybody i had ever seen the distance on this thing it's got to approach 450 or more we want this guy's freak need a little firewood he isn't even human [Applause] what a catch bo jackson [Applause] bo was the first man ever to become an all-star in both pro football and baseball and it was at the 89 all-star game where bull put an exclamation mark on his legend on the second pitch of the game beau joined willie mays is just the second player to hit a home run and steal a base in an all-star game he was also named mvp bo's for real he's missed he's god as far as i'm concerned but gods well they're immortal and beau proved to be just human for during the playoff game with the raiders in january of 91 he suffered an injury that led to hip replacement surgery [Music] the first thing that i thought about was was i going to be able to have a normal life in fact beau's resolve was so strong he resumed his baseball career playing in parts of three seasons but the injury in his new hip had taken away both his prodigious power and lightning speed of course i was disappointed but not to the point to where it ruined my life i was thankful to have done the things that i did in the short amount of time baseball was cheated when i didn't have the opportunity to see bo jackson play just baseball if he would have done that you were looking at it without a doubt hall of fame player but while beau never made it to the hall of fame our first choice actually did [Music] i am the proudest man on earth right today and i didn't know where i was going if you want me to tell you the truth i didn't know anything about cooper sun at all i just heard the name gold in 1971 satchel page became the first negro leagues player inducted into the national baseball hall of fame when you talk about satchel page you're talking about arguably the greatest pitcher to have ever played this game of baseball page of course couldn't join the majors in his prime due to segregation but when he did get there in 1948 at the age of 42 he went 6-1 with a 2.48 era and then comes cleveland's ageless satchel page and those who were close to page would say that he was probably closer to 52 than 42. satchel's major league career lasted just six seasons but he played professionally for almost 40 and he's remembered not only as the greatest pitcher in negro league history but also as a master schumann the satchel page all-stars are playing a all-white team and satchel's on the mound and satchel turns and he motions for the outfield and says bring them in bring them all the way in seven guys kneeling round the mountain satchel paige strikes outside on nine consecutive pitches there was a negro league all-star game at yankee stadium and satchel had pitched into extra innings in winning that game the next day paige was advertised to pitch and sure enough satchel pitched the first five innings they couldn't hit him and this was paige about 40 years old heaven knows what he was like 15 years before the negro leagues were filled with many players who no doubt would have been major league stars but because satchel offered us a glimpse we can only wonder what could have been would he be better than christy matthewson or walter johnson he'd been up there with them i'll say that had the doors open soon and we got a satchel page in his prime the cy young award might have been named the satchel page award he was that good before we turn the page on another show one final fun fact about old satch in 1965 the agent's wonder started a game for kansas city who were then called the athletics paige pitched three innings of shutout ball allowing one hit and recording one strikeout and he was only 59 years old when he did this the oldest man ever to pitch a major league game that's our prime nine what's yours

Channel: cacable7

Views: 29,761

Rating: 4.9030304 out of 5

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Id: hsZfC3QtEt0

Length: 25min 6sec (1506 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 02 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/dilly_dill428]

I’ve been sorta binging these videos on that channel but it’s too bad the lists are dated from 2009-2011 or so

[u/WetGrundle]

This is what's on the PlutoTV channel. I'm enjoying them so far