Doc, The King, and The Clubhouse

 

Doc Emrick and Jim Leyritz -- "The King" -- were the guests on "The Clubhouse" tonight.

I realize I sort of implied in the post title. I decided to not bowl you over with originality.

I'll nitpick it ten ways to Sunday, of course, because I'm me, but it was certainly a thrill to talk to both of them. Doc, of course, is on my broadcasting Mount Rushmore, I suppose it's safe to say.

Vin, Doc, and then it gets tough after that. Mel Allen? Red Barber? Dick Enberg? Bob Costas? Can I cheat?

Anyway, it was such a thrill to hear his voice, though I'm concerned that I might have goofed. In asking Doc about minor league hockey I mentioned (or at least meant to mention) that I had done SOME Bridgeport Sound Tigers games in the past, but that's a distant past at this point. If I implied that I was nothing more than a (brief) fill-in and number two to Phil Giubileo, I apologize.

I gathered Doc also thought I was a kid. Well, you know I'm hardly that. My path has led me to where I am now for a lot of reasons and I'm OK with it.

Anyway, these are the kinds of things I nitpick.

It just wasn't enough time. An hour might have sufficed to cover a legendary career and all the things that we wanted to touch on.

I was able to ask him about the joy I hear in his voice when he called a game. You can feel it. Listen to his voice at the end of this segment.

The same can be said of Leyritz. I was able to ask him about the huge home run against Mark Wohlers in 1996 but that was only the beginning. I wanted to talk about the electricity of Game 6 of that World Series back in the Bronx, when there was a hunger that burned through the TV set that night. I've never seen a fan base more ravenous.

Or the '95 home run in extra innings of Game 2 against the Mariners.

Or what it was like to be on the Padres in '98 and come back to New York as the Yankees won that title. 

Yes, I know Leyritz's story includes some unfortunate stuff that he was acquitted of. I would have been interested to hear his story of turning his life around. He seemed in a good place on the show tonight.

Time just wasn't on our side. We have hard breaks to hit due to our format so that, in reality, our hours is a 53 previous minutes. Some nights it's just not enough -- like tonight.

So listen for yourself. It's a keeper.