#014 Ron Rightnowar - Toledo Mud Hens

Join host, Brad Reiger, in a conversation with color analyst and former Mud Hens player, Ron Rightnowar, discussing his former playing career, how he joined the broadcast booth, and more!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, hi everyone. Thank you for joining us. And today's guest is uh Ron Reitner. And most of you know Ron from his uh analyst role with the Mudheads. He works alongside uh Matt Melzac and does a great job. But he has a really rich uh and interesting path. And um he played in major leagues uh and uh played for a year for the Milwaukee Brewers, but the context around how he got there and uh is really a historic uh ride, and he was right in the middle of that, and uh I had a bunch of questions for him, and I didn't really know how um how well he was gonna do with some of the questions as far as what what he would share, and to his credit, he was really candid, and um it's a very interesting conversation, and I think you're really gonna enjoy it. Well, Ron, thanks for uh joining us and uh give us an opportunity to get to know you a little bit better. A lot of people know you from the booth, but uh I find your path uh really interesting and um just thanks for being open to having a conversation.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Uh it's been such a lifelong endeavor for me being a part of the Mud Hens and the organization. I couldn't pass it up.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

So, Ron, uh let's say roughly six decades six decades of uh on this earth, you've had many memorable and meaningful uh experiences and moments. Uh, but I'm gonna take you to 1995 when you were pitching for the uh Milwaukee Brewers, and during that season, um you struck out uh Wade Boggs, Don Mattingley, and Mark McGuire. Some pretty iconic one of them in the Hall of Fame, the other two pretty close, right? Um so the question I have for you is two, what pitch did you get strike three on? And was that strike three uh uh swing and a miss, or was it a called strike on all three?

SPEAKER_02 2:18

I remember it like it was yesterday, and they were both split fingers because that's the pitch that got me to the big leagues. I had a really good one. I developed it in double-A. Um, I had tried to throw it for years and develop it. Uh, prior to that, I was primarily a sinker-slider guy and a guy who had to pitch to the edges, and you know, but once I developed the split finger, I had my answer for left-handed batters. And actually, the story about Boggs and Mattingley was in Yankee Stadium and back to back. I got them back to back, both swinging at split fingers that just dove down into the dirt, and they were two of the top 10 hardest to strike out in all of baseball. And I got them both in the same inning, so that was a big deal for me.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

That's a big deal. And McGuire, was it a swing or a call?

SPEAKER_02 3:03

Swing and miss, yeah. Just a fastball away, swing right through it, which he was prone to do. I didn't the guys I didn't have a lot of trouble with were the the Albert Bells, the Frank Thomas, Mark McGuire, the big right-handed power guys, because they're free swingers, they want to hit the ball a long way. So I could always entice them to swing it something off the plate or in the dirt or something. So I didn't have as much trouble. I just happened to throw one by him.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

Wow. So that was 95. Um, my frame of reference, being a Cubs fan, is that uh Bruce Souter was big in the split finger.

SPEAKER_02 3:33

Yeah, exactly. I'm glad you mentioned his name because when I was developing it in double A, that was in London, Ontario. Chris Chambliss, the great Chris Chambliss from the Yankees, he's the 70s Yankees teams, uh, was my manager and a great guy, really great guy. And I was a huge Yankee fan. My nickname in high school was Reggie after Reggie Jackson. So I was I was all about those 70s Yankees teams and that be able to be playing for Chris was great. But he also had experience with Suter. And he he said when I first started developing it, and it I mean it was really good. I it just kind of came finally started to the action started to go, and I was throwing it in the low 80s, the split, and it it was just going down really hard, it was really tough to hit. And he told me then, he said, you know, your split finger is as good as Sutter's. Wow, and I was like, High compliment. Yeah, I was like, Oh, come on, it's not that good, but no, but it was really pretty good, but you know, and as you go up, then you know you tinker with it and everything, and then the idea becomes people knew it was really good, so they wouldn't swing at it. If they could pick it up, they wouldn't swing at it. So the key for me was to learn how to throw it for a strike.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Wow. All right. This question here, I'm kind of foreshadowing that um I feel like your path, your baseball path, and your whole life path is really interesting. So, Ron, if uh a movie was made about your life or a book written about your life, what would it be called?

SPEAKER_02 5:00

Well, I I have given that some thought. And I did start a couple of chapters with a local sports writer in the early 2000s, got a couple couple of chapters into that before he was relocated to another part of the country. So we never finished it. And I've thought about that some, and I think it I think it has to be something like um high calls, low calls, and the ones down the middle. And uh that seems like a working title for me for right now.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

That covers the spectrum, right? Yeah. Uh Ronnie, you're a local guy, grew up in Toledo, uh, went to Whitmer High School, but early on in your life, who were the people that shaped your baseball path, or just who you are as a person?

SPEAKER_02 5:43

Well, my parents and my family for sure. Um, dad was a hardworking union local 50 pipe fitter, went to work every day, you know, just worked hard. Mom was a stay-at-home mom, different era, and mom really took care of us, really loved us kids a lot. I was the talented little brother, you know. My brother Rick was the baby, but I was number four of five. And and, you know, we were a basketball family, as you know. Rick played at the UT, and I played in high school. My brother Jim played in high school. But um, I just happened to be able to throw. So throwing for me, throwing a baseball for me was like some people can run, some people can jump. I could throw, I could do it, and I never loved it. I just did it because I could do it. When did you start pitching? Like eight years old.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

And I never, I mean, and one of the things I never had an arm. I pitched till I was probably 35, actively from eight years old. And I never spent one day on the disabled list because my arm was hurt. I never had a surgery, never had a scope, never had anything. My arm's the same today as it was when I started. And um, so those that family bond, we were my dad was a boxer, golden gloves boxer, so he liked sports. Um, and we just grew up playing in the neighborhood like a lot of all of us did back then, you know.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

And um Was there some right now or boxing matches?

SPEAKER_02 7:00

Oh, yeah, there was a famous one with my older brother Jim and you like and my father. Uh my father was a big man, and he was he was talented as a boxer. Well, he got us some gloves, and my brother Jim decided, you know, he my brother's pretty quick and put the gloves on, was gonna spar a little bit with my dad and my brother's quick hands. And so he's there sparring around, just jabbing around, boxing around. My brother reached up and tagged my dad a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Not good.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

And dad didn't like that very much, and so he said, Okay, he just reached up and he just went, snapped my brother across the head, boom, down he went. Gloves came off, and that never happened again. That's it, it's the end of the boxing. Yeah, that'll put the boxing away.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

When uh as a kid, uh, who did you cheer for? Who are your idols, sports idols, and teams?

SPEAKER_02 7:46

I love Ron Gidry, the old Yankee, Louisiana Lightning. Left he was left-handed, but what an athlete. I loved his athleticism. Um, fast, one of the fastest guys. He and Mickey Rivers in those 70s Yankees team was one of the fastest guys on the team. He's a pitcher. Right. But real athletic and just electric stuff on the mound. And then, of course, my hero is Reggie Jackson. I just, everything about him, his vibe, even though his bra, you know, braggadocious style and and what he's known for. But as an athlete, as a competitor, to be able to come up in the situations and rise and be the straw that stirs the drink. I don't know if you're the one that's supposed to say that about yourself. But the ability to do it, to rise up in big moments and put the team on your back and care enough about your teammates to to win a game like that always just impressed me.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Mr. October, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:37

Oh, yeah. He was he was Mr. Everything to me, man. I I just I just thought, you know, that if I was able to be play with a guy like that, it would be incredibly special get to watch him play every day.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

Yeah. Whitmer High School, what did the baseball experience there, how did that fit into your overall path?

SPEAKER_02 8:56

We had great programs there. Rob Rose um was the head coach at the time. Coach Dave Hall at Perry's Burg was my JV coach. I actually played for Dave, which is amazing. He was fresh out of UT and young guy coaching for Coach Rose as his JV coach. We were, but then we had so many kids in our grade. I think I graduated with just under 900 kids in my class. So, and it was a baseball community, and so we have we're bound to have a bunch of talented guys when you, you know, you need 25 guys out of 900. You you can you can find some. Right. So we were really good, and we had you know state rankings and you know, 27 and 2. I think remember one season, my sophomore year. The varsity was in the state final four. Um, we were a regional team, you know, it was just it was a really competitive um with three division one pitchers, guys that went division one in my class. Yeah, and and so it was just a really competitive environment, which made us all really good.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Where did you play in the field when you weren't pitching?

SPEAKER_02 9:58

I couldn't hit a lick, I'll admit it. I readily admit I couldn't hit at all. Some of it was because I didn't break your news.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

If you're if you're gonna emulate Reggie Jackson, I couldn't hit.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

I mean, I I guess I could a little, but I couldn't hit really hit, but I could feel. I really love to feel that's actually my favorite part of baseball. And again, I was a basketball player back then. I spent all my waking moments playing basketball. I didn't do anything with baseball, I just showed up and did it. So, but I love taking ground balls, I love playing short stuff, so I played short a lot. And a lot of times when we get in the tournament, they would DH for me, let me play defense and put a better hitter in the lineup for me. But I was a pretty good defender, so that was good. It's shortstop, first base some, you know, because I was tall.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

So you played basketball? Did you want to play basketball beyond high school?

SPEAKER_02 10:44

Desperately, desperately. I was I was certain I was actually. I was gonna go to Division II school uh in the glee. I was gonna go to Saginaw Valley, I was gonna play basketball and baseball. I was gonna be on the and um and I just decided I was better than that, and I wanted to go push myself a little bit, but I wasn't gonna be able to do it in basketball. And um, so I went to Eastern Michigan on a whim on a one Saturday afternoon, say, you know what, I'm a Division I player and I'm going to play Division I and I called the baseball coach. They had been down to watch me pitch. Um that day I had a no-hitter with two outs in the seventh inning and gave up a double off the wall that I thought was gone.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

But um you seem to remember that.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

Oh, it's crucial because I was popping off like Reggie Jackson and the Doug, oh, it's in the bag, it's in the bag. And sure enough, the kid hits it, smokes it over the left fielder's head for a hit. Next pitch is out. But the Eastern was there to see that game. And obviously I pitched pretty well, but I I really wasn't all that interested. You know, I could do it, but I I didn't love it.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

And um so then I said, Well, let me go try baseball. So I go up there and I was miserable. I was in the gym in the rec facility playing with the varsity basketball players at Eastern at the time. Jim Boyce was the head coach, um, Fred Caulfield, Grant Long, some of the players that played. You know, I mean, I'm playing in the gym with them every day. That's all I wanted to do. And I'm on the baseball team. So my first couple years, I didn't get much time here and there, pitched a little bit. And then I started to grow up. I was a 17-year-old freshman at Eastern. So I was probably a year ahead. I started school early. So being so young, I really hadn't physically matured, but then I started to gain weight, 15, 20 pounds. By the time I'm a end of my sophomore year, junior year, becoming a young man, and all of a sudden the velocity starts to creep up. You know, I was probably low 80s at the time, 83, 80, 45, maybe. And all of a sudden it's going 88, 89, 90. And I'm starting to throw the ball by people, and people starting to notice, and they're going, hey, wait, what's going on here? You know, so we get in Mac play, then my junior year, I'm our number one starter now. I've matured that much. But I'm going against guys like Kevin Tappeny. If you remember Kevin Tappeny, he pitched the World Series for the Twins, and he was from Central Michigan, and I would always end up getting matched up against those guys. And, you know, he threw 94, 95 and was electric, and they were really good. So um my junior year was rough because I was I was now in the number one seat, but at least it it sparked an interest in me in baseball. Like, okay, maybe I can do something with this, and then had a pretty good senior year, ended up signing after my senior year uh with the Tigers.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

With the Tigers, yeah. And when you sign with the Tigers, Ron, you kind of went into it like I'll do this for a little bit so I can tell my friends back home that I played beyond beyond college, but you discovered something when you went to spring training.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

Oh yeah. The um I I really had no plans for it, no, I didn't really project myself into the big leagues. Again, I'd never really thought about baseball that way, but it was I was competitive enough and been in sports long enough that like, look, as if I got a uniform or I got a job to do, I'm gonna I'm gonna go for it. So the very first day of spring training in uh I guess it was 87, spring training of 87. Um, I get to camp and I I'm expecting some super talented guys, you know, first, second, third round picks, and sure enough, they were there. You know, see the there's the first round pick from last year, there's the third round pick from this year, and they're bigger guys, athletic dudes just like me, like they and throwing 95, 96, and I'm like, oh, okay, I'm not that. But then there's all these other guys. You know, there's there's the elite guys for sure, but there's about 150 pitchers or so, I think, at the time in the minor leagues with the Tigers that are in camp. And I'm looking around that first day and I'm seeing these guys, and I and I'm watching, and everybody's throwing, you know, they're throwing to catcher, everybody gets a little bullpen work in or whatever, and I'm watching, and I'm and I'm thinking, oh, if this is if this is the competition, I I can do this. I knew a couple hours into our first workout that I was gonna pitch in the big leagues. I know I'm the only one who thought that. The Tigers think that. Probably my family and friends didn't, but I knew I could. And as long as I thought I could, um, I was gonna do it because I didn't I didn't see anything that was so above my ability that I couldn't make it happen.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Yeah, and you maintained that belief, Ron, for eight or nine seasons. Oh, yeah. How did you uh persevere? Because it's a that's a grind, it's an amazing grind.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

The going in the minor leagues, what these guys do every day, riding those buses and making it even to this level in Toledo at the Mudhens is is quite an accomplishment. But you gotta, I was getting better. If I had leveled off or plateaued or um just started to stagnate at all, I think I probably would have hung it up and the split finger came what third, fourth year of the minors? Yeah, it would have been my so my low way in Fayetteville, North Carolina, high A in Lakeland, Florida, third year double A London, Ontario. Wasn't that first year double A, it was my second year. So yeah, it was my fourth year. I remember the day it popped off for me. I was we were in Albany, New York. I'm playing catch before the game, like you see the Budhem players do before every game here. I'm out there playing catch with my friend, just loosening up, and I would always throw a few just to see if I could get it to come out of my hand right. And all of a sudden, it starts coming out of my hand and going whoop, whoop. And I'm like, and I said, I mean, I said to I got it. I took it into the game that night, and that was JT Snow, um, Gerald Williams, Bernie Williams, all those guys were on that double-A Yankees team. And uh Buck Show Alder was the manager. Um I took it right into the game, and it's a catcher ready. Oh, yeah, yeah. They yeah, they could they, you know, once I they got to see it, they could adjust to it. It's no different than a you know, hardbreaking curveball, but um just the deception because of the arm action and all that stuff is a little different, but um it changed everything because now even though I had the belief in myself, now I had the belief in my stuff, right? You know, now I had something that I could this'll work again. I don't care if Ted Williams goes up there. If I throw this, he ain't hitting it. It's it's moving down that fast. He's they're gonna roll over it, I'm gonna be able to get outs with it. Right. Because but prior to that, like how are you ever gonna get those guys out up there? Yeah, and one of the things I was always I I think that I learned in my career as a pitcher, what I think guys need to do, and I would tell every guy here to do, is I always evaluated myself honestly. If I made a bad pitch, if that you know, just because I got it out, but it wasn't the pitch I was trying to make, I just got lucky and got it out. I was honest with myself to say that wasn't the right pitch. You that's a mistake. Because you make that mistake in the big leagues and you probably just gave up a home run.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Right.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

So being be able to evaluate your performance and your ability honestly and using a style that will work in the big leagues. Because up there they don't, you know, everybody swings at bad pitches, but for the most part, they know the strike zone and they're not gonna come out of their zone just because you throw them some nasty split finger or curveball or change up down and away out of the zone. Most of the time they just spit on it and they say, Throw it again, throw it at come on, throw it over the plate. Right. So you have to be able to get people out on the plate in the big leagues. If you walk people or you're constantly behind in the count because you're nibble, nibble, nibble, they will eat you for lunch and you won't be there for long.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

Right.

SPEAKER_02 18:38

And I played with guys who would go get called up and they were dominating double A, triple A, just doing really, really well because guys are swinging at everything. Yeah. And then they would go up there and walk the world because they couldn't they couldn't master the strike zone, so they get sent down.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

Right. Uh, Ron, part of your um minor league career was with the Mud Hens, three years, a full season and two partials.

SPEAKER_02 19:03

Yeah, parts of four, actually. Yeah, 90, 91, 92, and 93 when I finally got them to trade me to Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

So before we get to the trade part, how was it being a hometown guy playing for the Mud Hens? Obviously, it wasn't fifth, third stadium, but it was at Ned Skeldon.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

It was it was the best. I mean, at the very least, when I started out, like if I can at least make it home to play for the Mud Hens, that would be really cool. Because I was the little kid. I used to go to the Mud Hen camps when I was a kid. I remember being out at Shortstop at Skeldon, and Alfredo Griffin was the shortstop for the twins at the time. Alfredo hit a big gold tooth and a blue glove, and he was teaching us how to play shortstop. I remember like it was yesterday. And then all these years later, I get to come back and I'm in the uniform. Now I'm actually instructing, I'm instructing kids at the Mud Hen Clinic as a player. Years later, I end up running them down here a couple of times. You know, it's just been amazing. So um coming home to play, obviously, the family and friends and people got to come out. Somebody every night would say, Hey Rod, good to see you, you know. Somebody would always, and what a blessing to be able to do that for my mom and dad. My father-in-law came every night, sat right behind the screen, every night, every night. And uh he was so proud, and and uh it was just a great time, but that gets old quick, you know. Like, you know, we got this far and it's great. And part of what I felt like as a player may not may or may not be true, somebody would have to tell me, but it felt like they did that. They had me here. They just they were content to just have me here. He's the hometown kid, you know, like I'm a little novelty, I'm like muddy and Madonna. You know, I'm I'm part of the scenery, right? You know, as the local kid, but you know, I have aspirations. I, you know, at times pitching for the hens, I was as good as anybody we had, and I thought for sure I was getting called to the big leagues, only to really discover that they really didn't have any any plans.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

You know, I did you discover that, or did you just figure it out?

SPEAKER_02 20:54

Just I mean, it just couldn't be, you know, like I'm pitching better, you know. Then they need, you know, at the time I remember the tiger bullpen was struggling, they had a rough time, and you know, I was pitching really well. There was there's nobody here better than like if you're gonna go get somebody, it's gotta be me. I'm pitching better than all these guys. And it didn't, it wouldn't happen. And it'd be kind of like, okay, well, it's don't seem to be being good enough. And I have to eat that. I have to I have to live with that. I'm not uh they don't think I'm good enough. I think I am, and I think I could help, but it's okay. They don't. And and that became so abundantly clear when we had a guy get hurt. This is when I was pitching for Joe Sparks in '93. We had a guy in the rotation get hurt. He called me and got me into rotation because I I could do a little bit of everything as a really, you know. I I ended up being more of a setup closer late inning guy, but most of the time I was a middle reliever, spot starter. I would get 10 spot starts a season. So I did a little bit of everything. I was kind of like the utility pitcher. So um I got into the rotation when one of Our starters went down because we needed a spot starter, did pretty well. And I had six straight starts, each one progressively better. Like I, every one, I went a little longer, gave up less hits, less runs every time, to the point where the sixth one was a home game against the Rochester Red Wings at Skeldon. I went eight shutout innings, and then you know, all my buddies were all over me because they wanted me to pitch get the shutout pitch the ninth. But I took myself out, I was gas of pitchers were I was tired. So put in a guy pitch the ninth, we get the shutout. After the game, um I go in and they call me in the office. I mean, I just pitched six consecutive starts in a row really, really well, each one better. And I just threw a shutout. I'm thinking, I got a chance. And sure enough, they call me in the office after the game. And I was like, Am I gonna get called up? Is this it? Is this the call? And um they said, Well, we're gonna put you on the disabled list. And I said, I'm not hurt. They're gonna put you on the disabled list because we really don't see you pitching for us in the big leagues. And we feel like we're just we're leading you on, and we really want you to be in the organization as a coach. Come, you know, go for the rest of the season. This is early August, go for like maybe about this time of the year, maybe a few weeks from now, go to our other minor league affiliates, work, work with the pitching coaches there and see if you're gonna like being a pitching coach and come back to spring training next spring as one of our coaches.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

That's tough to hear.

SPEAKER_02 23:34

I was crushed. Yeah. Crushed. Because I knew I was getting better. I was getting better, I was getting better, I was getting better, and I I know I can do this, I know I'm not done, but what am I gonna do? I said, So, what are my alternatives? I asked him, I don't know, you know, what what are my options? He said, Well, you could sit here for the rest of the year on the DL because we're not gonna pitch you. You're going on the disabled list, or you can go to these other minor league facil um uh franchises and work with it and see if you're gonna like coaching. But that's really it. But you're we're kind of done with the pitching part. So I went. I actually went and coached. I coached with for Larry Parrish and Erie. I went to Bristol, Tennessee with the AA, came back to work with Jeff Jones for the Mudhens. Now I'm on the coaching staff, I'm in the coach's office, and all my teammates are looking at me like, what are you doing? What is going on with you? And then sure enough, as Iron He has it, they have another injury. And I haven't pitched in three weeks. I was gone for three weeks coaching, come back to the, and I'm still coaching, but I'm coaching in Toledo. And somebody goes down, and Joe Sparks calls me at two in the afternoon. Imagine this time of this taping, two in the afternoon. They have a game that night, two in the afternoon, he says, Hey Ron, I'm gonna get you activated. We so and so's heard we need somebody, and I'm gonna get I'm gonna get you activated, and you're starting tonight. Oh well, I was like, What? I haven't been on the mound in three weeks. And when I was on the mound, I was throwing two and three innings tense. Now you're now I'm starting. Okay, whatever. I get a chance. I'm active. I got a shot. As long as I'm active, I got a chance. So sure enough, I go report to the field. I'm getting my gear on all my teammates are looking at me like going, What are you doing? I said, I'm active, I'm starting tonight. They're like, You got to be kidding me. So I start, I went five innings against Syracuse. I'll never forget it. It was against Syracuse Chiefs, went five innings. I think I gave up three or four runs, but I went five. They needed a body, and I gave them five. You know, that's we have a hard enough time doing that now. And um after the game, I'm thinking, okay, I'm active again. Sweet. I'm I'm back on the track, I'm going. After the game, they call me in and tell me, okay, thanks. Pat me on the back, say you're back on the deal. Thanks for coming. Now I'm getting angry.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

Right.

SPEAKER_02 25:53

You know, and so um Joe Sparks was a big advocate. He was the manager of the Hens at the time. He um really liked me, appreciated the fact that I would take the ball when a lot of guys wouldn't. You know, I think I pitched nine days in a row, one one season for the Hens, like nine consecutive nights. And um, he just respected that. And so he was a big advocate for me and he wanted to activate me. He wanted, he thought I deserved to be active. Well, it wasn't gonna happen, and there's a few other aspects to that story, but finally, I just finally said, if somebody else wants me, will you let me go? If I'm able to find a trade partner, I I call I had a little agent, wasn't much of an, but he would reach out. I think he sent a fax to all the teams or something, you know, like, hey, old right hander available. And the Brewers needed somebody in AAA. You know, they were they were trying to make a playoff push. I don't know if they had an injury or whatever. So they orchestrated a minor league trade, I'll never forget it. We were in Richmond playing the Braves, and um Jonesy comes down the bullpen and says, Hey, you're out of here. You got traded. I'm like, sweet, you know, I was like, okay, well, CFL has been real, you know. So I flew to Oklahoma City um to meet the New Orleans Zephyrs team, the triple-A team of the Brewers.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

And that was at the end of the 93 season, right?

SPEAKER_02 27:14

End of 93, right. And then um finished that season with them, was now a six-year minor league free agent, so I could go anywhere I want, signed back with the Brewers. Brewers Cecil Cooper. If you remember Cecil Cooper, the real good hitter and player for the he was affiliated, had a relationship with a team in Venezuela. Um, so they liked what they saw in that little bit. They only got a little tiny bit of me at the end of the season, right? So they sent me to Winter Ball in Venezuela, went down there to pitch, did pretty well, came back to spring training in '94. Had a great season, had an unbelievable season. I mean, when I tell you that I could, I mean, I could throw my slider blindfolded and it would go exactly where I wanted to. It's just one of those, like when you're locked in as a shooter, you can't, you like you're in the zone. All of '94, I was.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

You must have got some starts because you were like eight and two.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

I had about four or five. Like I just did everything. I had some starts, but I I came into so many one-run situations. In fact, that season in '94, people don't believe this stat, but it's true. I came into 10 bases loaded or first and second situations with nobody out. Okay. Ten times I come into the game, bases loaded, or at least first and second, nobody out, and didn't give up a run. None of those inherited runners scored. That's hard to do. And it was mainly because of the split finger because I could come in and get the strike out. They didn't put the ball in play. Anything scores a run, right? A little ground ball, a little blooper, anything. Well, the split finger was so good that it I was just getting punching guys out all the time over the place. So make the triple A All-Star game in '94.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

You know, I'm ERA's around two.

SPEAKER_02 28:53

Just about to go under two, like two, one, two or something like a two-two-five, something like that. And um, really dominating. I mean, I'm also I'm leading in appearances too. I've been in more games than anybody else. And so I was unanimous selection to the triple A All-Star game in Nashville. I closed that game. Um, Julian Tavares was our starter. If you remember him with the Indians, and I closed it. Um, Garrett Anderson was in that game. Carl Everett, um, some great players.

SPEAKER_00 29:20

And the Brewers are giving you hints like, hey, yeah, hang on, we're barberry.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

You're better than some of the guys we got here now, and you, you know, you've we like you, you know, and it was the first time in my entire career. So now I'm in my seventh year, eighth, whatever it was.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

And you're 29.

SPEAKER_02 29:37

Yeah, and it's the first time I any had anybody in professional baseball look me in the face and say, you throw like that, you're gonna pitch for us in the big leagues. Nobody ever told me that before. For the seven years that I was with the with the Tigers, not one person had ever said, We think you can pitch in the big leagues. I knew I could. I knew I could. I needed to get better for sure. I was not ready my first three, four years. But after that, I was pretty good. And but it wasn't happening, and um so that inspired me. I always and I've tried to do that as a coach later on in my life, as I've coached high school ball and with kids and stuff, my own sons, the power of inspiration. Yeah, your words matter, right? That words matter, though, and it it elevated me when he's it was Chris Bando who said it. When he said that to me, I said, thank you. Finally, somebody said what I really believe is true. And sure enough, so now the brewers are calling and wanting to call me up, and um, but I wasn't on the roster, so I was a non-roster guy, so they only have a 40-man roster. Some minor league guys, obviously, all the 25 big league guys. So they're trying to figure out a way who they're gonna take off the roster to be able to add me to call me up because I have to be on the roster to get called up. So, well, kind of all that was going on. I was still pitching well, waiting, waiting. It sounded like pretty obvious I'm gonna get called up. You know, it's looking pretty good. And then August 14th, 1994. Player strike, right? August 12th, maybe it was August 12th. Yeah, but early August 94.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

And so that dashed the opportunity to come up in September, obviously. Yeah, because that's because that strike went into 95.

SPEAKER_02 31:26

I was so waiting for that call, and then when that happened, they're like, hey, we know I broke down. I broke down, I was bawling. I thought, what do I what do I have to do? And I just could not believe it. And um they're just saying, don't worry about it. You know, we'll call you up in September. Once this gets resolved, we'll call you up in September. Well, we know there was no September, no October, no World Series, no nothing. And I'm just, you know, that was that was the the high call right then for me. And that was a spiritual thing because it was like I couldn't do anything more. I couldn't, there's nothing more. I could I couldn't create a new pitch, I couldn't get stronger, I couldn't, I I was what I was, and it wasn't good enough. It's not good enough. And I just, you know, I just heard it was just like this is not about you, Ryan. I heard that still small voice in my head that I believe is God, and calling in my life, and his calling me is just saying, like, look, you have to do things my way. You've always had the ability to do this, but I'm not gonna allow it. And I'm so thankful today that he didn't allow it because I don't know that I would have had time for him. And so when I when I realized that, I was just like, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do everything I can. I'm just gonna dedicate myself to learn, to being the best guy I can, to, to following Christ and to be the Christian man that he's called me to be. I don't I stumble and fall, I fail, but this is I know this is right. And I just heard it like a still small voice in my in my heart and my head that just said, now you understand. Now watch what I do. Now that it's not all about you anymore, Reggie Jackson. Now that you understand, this has always been about me and what I will do in and through you. Watch what I do.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

And we just went and we could stop this conversation right here and be very interesting. But it got even more interesting for you. Oh my gosh. So um you were put in a really um challenging position.

SPEAKER_02 33:46

Yeah, I was so that winter then, because there's no World Series, so I went to Winter Ball in the Dominican. And I'm playing with Manny Ramirez and um Felix Fermin, it was an Indians-based team, Moises Aloo, Louis Polonia, Stan Javier, all these guys on my team. Julian Tavares was on my team, Bartolo Cologne. So I'm in Dominican and I start getting these phone calls from Fred Stanley, Chicken Stanley, the minor league coordinator for, you know, played on those great Yankee teams that I saw. I knew Fred, but now he's working for the Brewers. He's calling me saying, hey, you know, looks like this thing's gonna last a while. We're trying to put some guys together to play these spring training games because we don't know if it's gonna get resolved or not. They're digging in their heels, it's getting pretty ugly. So we got to assemble a group of guys to at least play these spring training games. Uh no, no, no, no, no. I just stand way clear of that. Because I've never got on the roster. Had they called me up, had the strike not happened and I'd been up one day when I should have been, because I earned it, I would have been a major league player at that time and I'd have been out on strike with them. But because I've never had a time in the big leagues and I never got called up, I'm still outside. I'm not on the roster. So I have to report to spring training. The organization owns me. So I have to go to spring training, and I had, and I was good, I was already a non-roster invitee to camp. They had already extended that to me because I was AAA All-Star. I was expected to be make the team anyway. So I was going to big league camp. And I was like, I'm I have spent my life getting this to earn this opportunity. And I didn't, nobody gave it to me. I earned it. And I was gonna take it. And so I said, okay, I'll report, I'll go to these spring training games. And if you remember that spring, that goofy spring of 95. Um, you know, guys that were playing, you know, they're old, some retired guys, some just minor league veteran guys form these replacement teams that they were, they seemed prepared to open the season with. As you talked, I listened to the pod you did with Tom Runnels, and he was kind of in the middle of that too. And and so, you know, I'm I pitched, I pitched really well. The big league pitching coach needs to see a throw. He wants to see a throw. I pitched, I pitched really well, was doing really well, and then they solved it. I had already told them I'm not, I'll pitch in spring training because I had earned this opportunity. This is what I was gonna have anyway, but I'm not if you go, if these replacement games actually happen and they start a regular season, I'm out. I'll go to AAA. It was my I'd earned that opportunity to pitch in front of the big league coaches and staff, and Phil Garner was the manager, and he's sitting next to me at my locker saying, Hey, you know, we really need to see a throw. What am I supposed to do? So I I pitched, but I wasn't gonna play in the regular season. I made that clear. I would just go to AAA and wait it out. So it got resolved. Like the last week of spring training, it got gets resolved, right? So the big regular guys come back, and I'm like, oh, thank God. So I'm ready to like, okay, I'm they're coming back. I was gonna be a uh in camp with them. So I'm ready to stay. And they're like, oh no, no, no, no, you gotta go. Because there was such hard feelings, and the union had postured so much about these scabs and all these you know names and all the things they were calling these guys in replacements who were anything but um they didn't have any choice. And so they say, You gotta go to AAA while we have a shortened expedited spring training and get the season underway, and then maybe we'll figure out a way to get you up after that. And I was like, Are you kidding me? I gotta go do it all over again. I gotta go, I gotta go be a triple A, I gotta do it again. So I went down in '95, and I was leading all of AAA in appearances again. And I was doing pretty well. I had, I don't know, seven, eight, nine, ten saves, and I was I was straight out closing now. And um, sure enough, one of the guys after that shortened spring training, one of the guys didn't come out of the gate real good, and he was wasn't quite ready. And so May 20th, 1995, I get the call. The call. I was so pumped, and I was had to fly to meet the team in Texas, the ballpark at Arlington and Texas to play in the Rangers, and it was happening. It's the real thing, the real McCoy. But I was first, I was the Jackie Robinson of the replacement players because I was first, and I knew from the very beginning that because of the year I'd had previously, I knew I was squarely in the bullseye of that whole thing between the union and the owners. I was dead in the bullseye of it. That's why I was first. And um, so I get to the field in Arlington, and if you ever seen the movie The Rookie with Dennis Quaid, and the last half hour of that movie is him reporting to the ballpark at Arlington. It has him pulling up in a cab and he gets out of the cab and he looks up at the stadium and everything. And I saw that movie, I just started crying because that was me. That was exactly the scene. I'm like, there is no way I'm here right now. So I go in, go to the clubhouse, you got to report to the manager's office, go in to see Garner. He's telling me, he said, okay, you know, we know the situation, so just do what you've been doing. You've been doing great, you've been throwing the ball great. Just, you know, if you perform, nobody's gonna care. So I'm in his office doing this. I had a locker, you know, kind of assigned to me. Go in the come out of his office after that initial meeting, got to get dressed for batting practice. So I'm getting my stuck. When I come out of his office and I look, everybody that had been anywhere near my locker that was assigned to me had moved their locker to the other side of the room. So I'm like, okay, this isn't gonna be great. And so a couple of my friends from AAA the previous year in '94 played together. Friends were kind of like, they didn't know what to do. They didn't know if they were allowed to come talk to me or not, because I was like persona non grata in the clubhouse.

SPEAKER_00 39:47

So no one welcomed me and walked into that club.

SPEAKER_02 39:49

No, and then and then we went outside for BP. So I'm out there just loving it though. I mean, I don't care. I'm still loving it, like walking around just looking at the stage. And then slowly, you know, Scott Carl, Mike Matheny, who was my roommate and catcher, and Steve Sparks, Knuckleballer, kind of made their way over and was like, congrats, man, congrats. You know, it's really cool. So they were supportive, but they couldn't. The rookies too, they didn't want to tick off the veterans, so they're like kind of keeping their distance. So I understood it completely. And you know, I'm not a kid anymore. And I've had this all happen at 22, 23. Um, I might have reacted some type of way. But I'd come too far. I was an adult man with a couple of little boys, husband, and this was my shot, and I'm taking it because I earned it. And um so that we go in, BPNs, I go in the clubhouse, and Kevin Seitzer, strong Christian man, Christian believer, comes up to me and he says, Look, you know, but he's also a veteran, veteran player, and one of the voices of the club. So he comes up to me and he says, Hey, he says, if you want to address the team, I'll I'll call a meeting and you can address the team after BP in the in the clubhouse. First day in the big leagues. So I said, sure, I'll do it. So he says, Hey guys, you know, gather up, get your lock, whatever, finish up. You know, we got a new player today, and he's got something to say for you. There you go. Have at it. That was it. That was the introduction. Okay. So I just told the story. Like, who am I gonna trust? I have to trust somebody in this situation. And and for me, it was easy to trust you, the players, my peers, who might possibly understand the person, the position I was. Were you getting eye contact? Or do you oh they're glaring burning holes in me? Burning holes. Yeah, it was it was not not warm, not even close. It was they're gonna have at it. I know as soon as I'm done talking, they're having at me, I'm sure. So I just told the whole story like I had to choose to trust somebody. Do I trust management? But do I not choose not to play in those games and they release me because I'm not doing what they're asking me to do. They're the boss. Or do I trust you to play in the games and trust you to understand the dilemma I was in? I chose you. I chose to trust you who could possibly understand what it was like in that situation, who where I was in the crosshairs. And then finished up. I said, That's my beat, I'm just here to pitch. I'm gonna figure if I can't do my job, I'm gonna be out of here anyway. Then I could leave me up here if I can't get anybody out. But if I'm here, I'm here to help, and uh we'll see. And um they start one by one firing at me. Well, if you thought this and you thought that, or what you you know, you just so about 10 or 15 minutes of that, and they're at answered every guy. They weren't happy, but that was it. Time to get ready for the game, so call that off. And it did earn a bunch of respect in the room because a few of the guys came up and said, Hey, let's just go to work, okay? Let's just go to work, do your thing, and then you know, we'll see what happens. Got through that.

SPEAKER_00 43:06

That's a hell of a first day.

SPEAKER_02 43:07

Yeah, it was amazing. Amazing first day. And I was like, so I get to watch the first night. The second night I'm there. Now, this is my second day in the big leagues. It's a great story. Bill Wegman starts. If you remember Bill Wegman, Cincinnati, great guy. He's now a pastor in Cincinnati, just wonderful guy. He starts the game and he hits a guy early in the game. Okay. I'm not sure if it was on purpose. Maybe Noam Wegge probably was. Um, he didn't like him or something. And then the guy came up again, he hit him again. So he gets tossed in the game. It's early, maybe third, fourth inning. So I came up the day before, and a young guy, draft pick, who wasn't a replacement guy, came up the next day, right after me, a little left handed guy named Sid Roberson. So this is absolute his first day in the big leagues. And he's like 22, 23, 24 years old. You kid. And he gets so he hasn't thrown a pitch in the bullpen, but when a guy on the mound gets thrown out, what happens? They got to pull somebody out. You got to go warm up on the mound. So in his major, I'm sure he's the a couple of firsts. I'm sure he's the only one to ever have to come in to in his major league debut like that. And then two batters later, he hits Mark McLamore in the foot because now the game's under a warning. Anybody else gets hit, pitcher's gone, you know, manager's gone. So he comes in, he hits Mark McLamore in the foot with a curveball. Just it just snapped it. It hit him in the foot. They throw him out. He got thrown out in his major league debut. So now we're all sitting there. So now our starting pitcher's gone, our reliever's gone, and we're all sitting out in the bullpen, which is out in left field in Texas. And I'm just sitting there like, whoa, this is crazy. And they call down to the bullpen and I go, You're in. And I'm like, and I haven't thrown a pitch, haven't done anything. And I'm like, oh, here we go. This is it. So I go running out there. And remember, everybody in the place, there's probably 30,000 people there. Everybody in the place knows who I am. I'm that guy. I'm I've been on the fabulous sports babe radio show niche. There's a lot of media. A lot of media around it. And and you know, like, oh, here comes the scab guy, here comes the replacement dude. So there's a segment of the people who were all over me, and there was a segment of the crowd who loved me because I was the ultimate underdog. You know what I mean? They loved it, yeah. Go show them. I was the every man. I represented them out there. So they saw in me maybe what would happen if they had to go pitch, you know. So it was kind of cool. So I get out there, and now that we've had two guys thrown out, the manager's been thrown out, and I jog in from left field, get there, and they're playing the Beatles. He's he's a real nowhere now living in Yeah, yeah, that's the song they chose. So I'm like, oh, this is great. So I get out there, and Drew Cosk is the umpire, and he's a very arrogant guy, and he's throwing the ball up and down, waiting for me to get there. I get there and he tosses me the ball and he says, Don't hit anybody, but you're gone too.

SPEAKER_00 46:11

Like, okay, good to know.

SPEAKER_02 46:13

Yeah, I'm like, hit anybody. I just trying to hit the catcher. I'm you know, I'm like, can't even feel my arm. So I warm up, I warm up, throwing great, just it's just so ecstatic to even be in that situation. Finish warming up and turn and look to center field. And the camera must have been behind home plate on my back because it said, right now we're 33 was my number. And I could see it on the jumbotron in center field, and I was rubbing up the ball, I was looking, and I was just like, God, you're amazing. There's no way this is that I'm here without you. And he says, Now you understand, now you get it. This is what it's been about because I got something more for you to do later on. So that was the debut, man. It was unbelievable.

SPEAKER_00 46:57

And and your season with uh with the brewers, you were two and one, you had about a five-point ERA. And at the end of the season, they decide not to re-up you. How does that work?

SPEAKER_02 47:10

Yeah, the it had we gone and after a couple of weeks. I pitched pretty well up there. I was in like 36, 37 games, was one of the primary setup guys out of the bullpen. I did pretty well. Uh I had a couple games that were bad, but I didn't have a lot of innings, so my ERA was a little higher. But I overall, I probably pitched in 32 out of 36 games I was in, I pitched pretty well. Um, but they had baseball had wanted to put the strike thing in their rear view mirror. They had let's get this behind us, let's move forward. Let's, you know, we got you know, Meguiar and Sosa and the whole home run, let's forget the strike. This is it was ugly.

SPEAKER_00 47:47

Was there any other replacement players playing in?

SPEAKER_02 47:49

And subsequent guys, Ron Mayhe with the Red Sox came up. We brought up Brian Givens, a left-handed pitcher. Okay, so there was smattering throughout you were the first one. But I was the first one, and um, they wanted all that to go away, they wanted no remnants of that left if they could, you know. And so at the end of the season, I'm you know, gonna sign back. I'm talking to Sal Bando, who was the was the GM of the Brewers. And Sal said something, you know, about signing. And and uh I said, you know, what's the deal? You know, I want to am I gonna get it offered a contract? What's the deal? And he said, Ron. And he hesitated. And he said, if I were you, I'd just I think I'd just move on with my life. What I just I just spent a year in the big leagues. And this is a man I respect and admire. And in fact, his brother was the one who told me I was gonna pitch in the big league. And he said, it was just odd to me that he said it that way. He said, I think I'd if I were you, I think I'd just move on. Which says what if we sit back and think about it? Which says to me that a decision had been made and that don't waste your time trying to do they're gonna, you're not this is not going anywhere for you. I think he was telling, yeah, exactly. I think he was saying, don't put yourself through it, man. There's there's forces involved in this that are bigger than you and me, and you know, just go get on with your life.

SPEAKER_00 49:21

How long did it take you to realize my playing days are done? Like after that conversation.

SPEAKER_02 49:26

That was like late October, November in the fall, after the season was over. I still was trying to, okay, who can I get hooked up with, but I couldn't. In the last two years, I mean, there wasn't a there wasn't a lot of better setup relievers out there, and there's some awful bullpen's out there. Somebody would I couldn't get a job. I couldn't, there was nobody gonna sign me. So that decision really effectively ended my career. Yeah, I wouldn't trade it for a thing because it um transformed me, made me more confident as a man, it made me more confident as a Christian man. Um, that God does care in the about the affairs of men and the details of our lives, and and maybe he has something more for me to do. Yeah, and um, so then I got became the founding area director of Fellowship Christian Athletes in Northwest Ohio. There'd never been an office here, so Clint Longnecker and Gary Pinkle and Gus Yeager and John Harbaugh and all these wonderful people, John Ross, um helped me get FCA started. And um, so I went around, start putting these things in high schools and junior highs and place for kids to go and and find a foundation for living that is real and could really help them grow up and be fine people. So um did that for a few years, was approached about coming at Toledo Christian, and then spent 15 years as an administrator and AD and admissions guy and marketing and yeah, coached high school sports, basketball, baseball at Toledo Christian for 14 years, and and then um was approached about going into banking. Marty Sutter at Genoa Bank reached out and said, Hey, you know, I could use somebody like you at the bank and went into banking in 2011. And so, you know, I'm constantly kind of reinventing myself, but it's fun. God's kept it kept it fun and kept it real. And um, you know, I'm just but the one constant throughout my whole life has been this organization right here.

SPEAKER_00 51:29

The money and and obviously now you're an analyst in the boot.

SPEAKER_02 51:33

You get to Yeah, when Matt asked me to do that, I was excited. That was fun.

SPEAKER_00 51:36

What do you enjoy about being about being an analyst?

SPEAKER_02 51:40

I I have a knack, and I don't know how much people like it or not, but I have a knack for understanding the game like before things happen. It really helped me as a high school coach too to anticipate what was going to be about to happen so I could react accordingly. And in the booth, that to me, that's the most in interesting thing about baseball because for a lot of people who don't know the game, don't play the game, it's boring, it's too slow, it's uh yeah, baseball, you know. Oh no, it's anything but some people most people see checkers when they watch baseball. I see chess. And so my job as an analyst really is to help them understand the chess, and so they go, I want them to have that oh moment. That's ah, now I understand why they do that. That makes sense. So it gives them an insight, an intrigue into the detail that these guys have to prepare, prepared their whole life to be able to pull off in an instant um to help them see that that's he was ready for that, and this is what caused him to be ready. And so all the permutations that can happen in a given situation are too numerous for anybody to handle in the moment. But if you've trained yourself and you know and you anticipate, you'll react properly most of the time. So I try to do that for the fans, and I think they appreciate it, they're like, Oh, yeah, that is kind of interesting. I never really thought about it that way. You know, they just see the game, so that's what I like about it.

SPEAKER_00 53:06

How much interaction do you uh have with the players, coaching staff?

SPEAKER_02 53:10

I don't stay out of the way with I do. I I really I I have been asked, I did this year, spoke at the Faith and Family event here. Some of the players were interviewed by um chaplain Dave Rainier, who I know and coached against it, Emmanuel Baptist and uh dear friend. He asked me to to speak, and I saw I spoke at that, but and I interacted with some of them there. Um I don't want to intrude there into their space. I've been in that space, I know that space. I want to leave them alone. Um, if it if the job ever called for that, I certainly obviously would do it, but um, it really doesn't. My job is not them necessarily, is to watch them play and not to help them, although I think I could with some of them. I think I have something to offer them, but that's not my role. My role is to analyze what happens and explain that to the people listening. So I kind of keep it at that.

SPEAKER_00 54:01

You have a favorite blooper in the booth?

SPEAKER_02 54:04

Oh maybe you're mistake free. Yeah, no, no, no, no. Um, I I have a bad habit, and I'll confess it. I have a bad habit of like if I get a drink of water or something, you got the headset on, you got the microphone right here, right? So I'll flip the microphone up, get a drink of water, take a bite of a hot dog, get a scoop of ice cream or something during the broadcast. And then Matt will ask me a question and I start answering him. Well, the microphone's on top of my head. And he'll look at me and I'm like, oops, sorry. So I have yeah, I have a I do that a little too regularly, unfortunately. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 54:40

Last question for you. So you've had this very colorful, rich path. If you had an opportunity to go back and talk to 22-year-old uh Ron Reitnauer as he was exiting Eastern Michigan with this goal or hope or dream of playing in the majors, but there's no guarantees, what would you tell to that young Ron?

SPEAKER_02 55:08

Regardless of how it turns out, it's worth it. What it what you teach what you learn along the way in the effort in trying and giving the effort to do it will last you forever. Because no matter how well you do, it's gonna be for this long. Maybe you play till you're 30, maybe you play till you're 32, it's over, you're still a young man. But what you learn along the way, remember it. Who you meet along the way, remember them and be grateful for them for the input they've had in your life. Learn to be grateful, learn everything you can learn because those lessons, the lessons between 22 and 32, are gonna be the ones that carry you the rest of your life. And they have. They have, they've set me up beautifully for the things that I've done since, and I'm really thankful for that.

unknown 56:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:07

Well, uh Ron, I'm really thankful for this time here with you, and I really appreciate your candor sharing uh the goods, bad, the highs, the middles, and lows um of your career and life path. And it seems like you should pick that book project back up. Uh, I I I need to.

SPEAKER_02 56:24

I for my I have like I said, I have five sons. They're all graduated college now. In fact, the youngest is uh Derek. Uh what a blessing. He's um starting med school next month uh in August at Ohio State, gonna be an eye doctor. And all of them are successful and professionals and starting to have babies. We've got seven little grandkids running around now. So um I'm I'm really thankful and I need to do it for them. So one day when I'm long gone, that there's there's this uh memento of this this one guy who who did a couple of things.

SPEAKER_00 57:00

Sounds like a great, great legacy to leave behind. But Ron, thank you for this and we'll listen and see you in the booth. All right.

SPEAKER_01 57:08

Thank you.