About 45 minutes later, he came and knocked on my door, |
About 45 minutes later, he came and knocked on my door. He had two tears from his eyes. He got mad at me because I laughed. I said, 'I told you not to go. |
Before I threw the ball I prayed a little bit to God; `Please let this pitch be in a good spot for him not to hit it too hard.' I think I was lucky enough to throw the ball in a good spot. It was a ground ball out, ... I remember one time in Pittsburgh, I struck him out three times. I think that was the greatest day in my life. |
Every time we played in Pittsburgh or he came to San Francisco, I used to have an adjustment from him before the game, ... He said, `if my manager sees me getting you ready to beat us, he'll go crazy.' |
He was really good, |
In 1968, I won 26 games and completed 30 games, but I couldn't get one vote for the Cy Young, because Gibson had a 1.12 ERA, ... So, you know how big the rivalry was back then. |
In my day, it was very, very hard for a Latino player to make it to the major leagues and establish himself at that level, |
Oh yes, many times, |
One day I overheard him talking to a bunch of the hitters on my team in the dugout, and he said, 'Well, the pitch I really have trouble with is up and in.' So that's where I'd go with Clemente. |
That man helped us so much. We stopped in some places to eat and that man used to go from the back door through the kitchen with us to make sure we had something to eat, ... I don't think without that help from Buddy Kerr we could have made it. We would never have come back. |
Those days were very tough, ... All my teammates are white and it was a different time. At times when we traveled, I couldn't go out to eat with the white players; I had to wait until someone brought something out to the bus. We couldn't stay in the same hotels or live in a different neighborhood. |
We are all so close. We are godfather to each others' kids. I was the best man at Jesus' wedding. |
We used to look at Felipe as our guiding man that we listened to, |
We were Latins and we were black, |
When he hit a ground ball to you, you knew you had to make a good throw because he was going to be running. |