Author, Rick Vaughn shares stories on Cubs, Smokers, Reds, White Sox & Red Sox @ historic Plant & Al Lopez Fields

Rick Vaughn’s book "Tampa Spring Training Tales," brings the past to life  & opens up a wealth of enjoyable stories including the Chicago Cubs, Tampa Smokers, Reds, White Sox & Red Sox @ historic Plant & Al Lopez Fields
Ted Williams, Wade Boggs, Pete Rose and Al Lopez are just a few of the people we discuss this week on Florida BaseballBiz with Rick.

• “Chubby” Cubs owner is enamored with Tampa
• 100th years of Spring Training
• Tampa Mayor McKay was also Publisher
• Wrigley moves Cubs from Tampa to out West
• 1952 – Yankees celebrated their 50th anniversary at Columbia restaurant
• 1955 World Series winners receive their awards in Tampa
• Reds extraordinary long-lasting relationship with Tampa Bay
• Big Red Machine first gathers in Tampa
• Al Lopez Field tore down as interest in Major League team rises
• Yankees Core Four
• Wade Boggs discovers he is going to the show from Johnny Bench
• 100 Major Leaguers came through Plant Field & Al Lopez Field
• 1940 All-Star game in Tampa for Finnish Relief Fund with Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Jimmy Foxx, Hank Greenberg and Bob Feller
• Segregation of players by color – they could not stay at the same hotels
• Cardinals bought Outrigger motel in St. Pete so they could house all players at 1 location
• Tampa Bay Hotel proximity to Plant Field
• Babe Ruth’s longest Home Run, 587 feet, hit at Plant Field on April 4, 1919
• Ted Williams spits at fans first in Tampa
• Tim Kurkjian of ESPN – good friend and sounding board
• Frank Howard & Ted Willams story
• Tampa Smokers, St. Pete Saints and a bull fight
• Baseball as a unifier amongst the many cultures in Ybor / Tampa
• 1963 – Pete Rose – Rookie Year – Charlie Hustle emerges
• JFK at Al Lopez Field
• Charitable work with Metropolitan Mission, Clearwater Youth & the Homeless Empowerment Program.
• Rick also keeps score for Florida Complex League

Special Thanks to Williams Ross Chernoff's Nomads for the music Makie Elkino
Notes generated in part by DeScript

Transcript

Florida BaseballBiz Rick Vaughn's book -  Tampa Spring Training Tales

[00:00:00] Mark Corbett: Here we go. Yeah, uh, I've, I've got two shows, I got baseball biz on deck, but I've started this other one, Florida baseball biz, and I got a feeling this show could probably go on both because, uh, it has such a wide spectrum of, of teams that it affects, but I'm trying to do more too on the history, anything from like, I had the, uh, coach from Jesuit, On most recent.

[00:00:24] Mark Corbett: Yeah. And we talked quite a bit on Florida baseball biz, but you know, today I'm excited because here I'll go ahead and do an intro so we can make it for real. Welcome to baseball biz on deck. I'm Mark Carpenter, your host and with me today, I have Mr. Rick Vaughn. I love this guy. Okay. Let me tell you, first off, I met Rick shortly after, I guess, uh, did a few shifts at the Tampa baseball museum.

[00:00:51] Mark Corbett: And. I saw his book sitting there on the shelf. I hadn't met him yet. And there it is. And, and I'm learning all about St. Pete and spring training. And then I got to meet the man. Hey, how you doing, Rick? 

[00:01:03] Rick Vaughn: Doing great, Mark. Thanks for having me on. 

[00:01:06] Mark Corbett: Oh, brother, I tell you what, it's great to have you back again. I mean, I enjoy talking with you about that.

[00:01:10] Mark Corbett: We've said had so much to say about Al Lang and everything. And it went over in St. Pete and bringing the, the, the teams in. And, uh, and then of course the babe and the fact that all of that made on tourism. It's interesting because when I look at that book, Rick. I think about the personalities and when I read your current book, I think about the fields.

[00:01:33] Mark Corbett: Oh yeah, for sure. I still think of personalities. You can't get away from it. I mean, Al Lopez, good gravy. Yes. Uh, you know, talk about Pete Rose talking about some Curtis Hickson and some other ones. And I can just spew names, blah, blah, blah, the rest of the day on things. Let me stop for a second, tell folks when you get a chance to read Rick's book and I'll make sure I promote this, uh, show an image of it, because the one thing you're going to discover is that you stay glued to it.

[00:02:00] Mark Corbett: Rick, as I opened up Tampa spring training tales, I find two or three things I didn't know before on each page. And. Brother, you do a great job of, and you, you find the words as you go through time in Tampa with the spring training. Um, by that, I mean, you find either some quotes for people, interviews that you do with someone, something from the sporting news of that time.

[00:02:26] Mark Corbett: And you give us the color of what's going on at that time. It isn't just a iteration of facts. And so thank you for that. 

[00:02:35] Rick Vaughn: No, thank you for mentioning and noticing that. Thank you. 

[00:02:37] Mark Corbett: Well, it does make a difference, but, you know, like I said, we talked about LA with you on the other show, but on this one, looking at some of the beginnings of even like Plant Field and trying to get those first teams here, you think of the climate and the control some people had, what was the mayor of Tampa was also the publisher.

[00:03:02] Rick Vaughn: Right. It's been a publisher of the tribune. Yes. McKay. 

[00:03:07] Mark Corbett: And so why he is, uh, trying to negotiate with the Cubs, he's offering everything, I guess, and he, the, who was the owner of the Cubs that time? I cannot remember the gym is named chubby fella. 

[00:03:21] Rick Vaughn: Yeah, he was, uh, what was his 

[00:03:23] Mark Corbett: name? They called him chubby. I remember that much.

[00:03:26] Rick Vaughn: Yeah he was not a, he was not a super respected guy. No, he wasn't all that respected. And eventually. The other owners kind of forced them out of the league. 

[00:03:36] Mark Corbett: Yeah, but he, he goes home and says, Hey guys, you're not going to believe how fantastic it is in Florida. You know, I'm getting feedback here. Not sure if it's what's happening.

[00:03:46] Mark Corbett: I don't know if you're hearing it too. 

[00:03:48] Rick Vaughn: I'm not hearing anything. 

[00:03:49] Mark Corbett: Okay. Well, we'll go ahead and proceed. I'll just find a way to clean it up later. But the thing of it is, man, I mean, I'm, I'm looking at this and I'm saying, boy, you talk about old time politics. You got your mayor, you got your publisher and the Cubs owner is telling everybody back in Chicago.

[00:04:07] Mark Corbett: Hey, this field's perfect. It looks great. He sends his dad down here and it's a swamp. 

[00:04:12] Rick Vaughn: Yeah, yeah, it needed a lot of work. He clearly was, uh, was overselling, uh, you know, what was going on there and they had a really difficult time at first. Uh, getting that place the way they wanted it, you know, and, um, but eventually, you know, it, it worked out, um, it was the beginning of, you know, uh, really spring training.

[00:04:32] Rick Vaughn: I, I looked it up. There's this year will be the 100th time. The 100th spring that Tampa will host a spring training and really, you know, having the Cubs there at the beginning, uh, I think really, really, really did help because we, we went one, one year, I think, without a team. And then the Red Sox and Babe Ruth came in 1919.

[00:04:54] Rick Vaughn: And then it really much, pretty much went from there. You know, we. Other than, um, you know, into the, it really into the eighties, you know, when the, uh, when the Reds left, so you really had a team from almost, you know, every year, pretty much from 1919 till the mid eighties, other than the war years where no one was able to come South for spring training.

[00:05:13] Rick Vaughn: So the Cubs was really, it was important. It was very important. And up to that point, they'd had a good club, you know, and they had, you know, tinkers to Evers to chance the spring that they came to. Tampa was the first year. Those three guys weren't together. 

[00:05:27] Mark Corbett: So it was 

[00:05:27] Rick Vaughn: kind of an odd thing, I guess, for them going to camp without, you know, those three, you know, just really, really pedestals for them over the, you know, the years before seven or eight years before, 

[00:05:40] Mark Corbett: there's a lot of events that came to Plant Field and what you're talking about, the different players who were there at different times, spring training, my first introduction to Plant Field was coming to the Tampa baseball museum and seeing that mural and that huge mural.

[00:05:59] Mark Corbett: I love that picture. It's It's great. It captures a moment in history, but you know, the thing of it was, is the first person I met there only could tell me, said, see Jackie Robinson. I said, yes. And that became the depth of my knowledge of playing field that plus the, the, uh, highway marker I saw about Babe Ruth when I drove by, but my gosh, man, you, you wake us up to a real full history in this book of what all that is and Well, kind of take us through what happens after the, with the Cubs.

[00:06:34] Mark Corbett: What's the next deal after that? 

[00:06:36] Rick Vaughn: Yeah, the, the, um, there was a year, there was a year there where there was no club, um, and the Cubs really at that point, they only left because the team got sold and one of their investors at the time, he wasn't the main owner, but he was one of their investors was a guy named Wrigley and a Wrigley ended up, of course, taking over eventually.

[00:06:56] Rick Vaughn: But he had a real interest in wanting the team to go to the West because that's where his interests were. And that's so that's why they ended up leaving. I, from all indications that I was able to research the Cubs, they really liked playing there. And you'll find out the thing that everybody really enjoyed playing there.

[00:07:17] Rick Vaughn: And really, it's, it's strength. And for me, was, you know, Tampa didn't have the Yankees and the Cardinals training there like St. Pete did. Yeah. But the location was huge. You know, it was, it was in a perfect spot, um, not only for the teams, but all the scouts who came south to scout spring training, they all used camp as their headquarters, all the national writers that came through to cover spring training, go to all the camps.

[00:07:43] Rick Vaughn: They all use Tampa because of its central location, um, as its headquarters. And so what ended up, and then the hotels there were very accommodating, very good hotels, very good restaurants. And so you had a lot of what really kind of kept that timeline moving, I think, from the teams that came in was the fact that it was, it was century located.

[00:08:06] Rick Vaughn: It was great venues there. And so a lot of important league meetings were held there. Um, you know, the thing that I really loved reading about was. The Yankees did their 50th anniversary of their team, uh, which was 1952. And they, uh, they, they unveiled their all time team and they didn't do it in New York.

[00:08:28] Rick Vaughn: They, they did it at the Columbia restaurant in Tampa. That was their big media event for that. So I thought that was awesome. But, you know, after the, uh, the Red Sox came in and Babe Ruth, you know, and that was obviously a, a pretty historical thing, even though they, they were just there for a short time.

[00:08:42] Rick Vaughn: And babe hit the, the long home run there, which is marked by a. State historical marker and all, um, but then the senators came in and they had Walter Johnson and that was a big deal. They won the, um, they won the World Series in 1924. So in 1925, what was kind of a cool event and it was a really huge event for Tampa was the commissioner came in during spring training and back at that point, the World Series winners got medals.

[00:09:10] Rick Vaughn: They didn't get rings. But they did the medal awarding at, uh, at Plant Field for the world champions. And it was a huge media event, you know? So that was the other thing, because, uh, with Ruth here with the Cubs here, with good, good Cubs teams here, there was a lot of national attention that got brought on to Tampa.

[00:09:28] Rick Vaughn: So the senators, um, they left the Tigers were here for one year, but it was kind of a, it was kind of a cool year because that was the first time that Hank Greenberg. wore a tiger's uniform and major league uniform was at Plant Field. It was his first season. Um, and he did not disappoint. He had a great spring training and he immediately caught the eye of many, many people.

[00:09:50] Rick Vaughn: And then of course the Reds came in and they were here, you know, they were in Tampa forever, you know, and didn't leave. And they had an extraordinary relationship with the city. You know, the Reds didn't win a whole lot during that time until the big red machine came along. And but but Tampa and the front office of the of the Reds really had a great understanding, a great relationship, a lot of trust and honesty to do the right thing by the city.

[00:10:18] Rick Vaughn: And that's why that lasted for a long time, because there were other teams that wanted to come into Tampa because of the reasons that I mentioned. And so you had the Reds there forever. Great history. Again, especially towards Pete Rose coming in and, um, and Johnny Bench and the gang, uh, that formed the Big Red Machine.

[00:10:39] Rick Vaughn: And the first time that group ever got together was right there in Tampa. You know, the first time all the parts. Or assembled was, was in, uh, was in March of, I think it was like 69 67, but that was the first time they were all together. And then when they ended up eventually leaving, and if you know the history there, Tampa was trying to get a major league team and expansion team, and they really put spring training on the back burner and they went full, you know, full throttle after a big league club.

[00:11:10] Rick Vaughn: And the Reds did not like what was going on. Didn't, you know, like what the future meant. It couldn't get, you know, finally, after all those years, the relationship went sour and, uh, so they left. And then lo and behold, they tore down Al Lopez field to make room for a major league stadium. Then they didn't get a team, unfortunately.

[00:11:28] Rick Vaughn: Uh, so, uh, we were without a club in Tampa for eight years. And then, and then George Steinbrenner and the Yankees came in and have been there ever since, uh, starting in, uh, in 88 and they've been a great team. you know, neighbor, great citizen to have. I mean, they, you know, they, they have a 10,000 seat ballpark and they sell it out most of the time.

[00:11:50] Rick Vaughn: You know, they, they really do. And they've been a great neighbor. And then again, you know, the, when the, you know, they call it the Core Four, you know, the Yankees Core Four that sort of started that whole dynasty in the, in the late 90s. Um, first time they ever got together was right in Tampa. And so there's a, there's a lot of cool history there.

[00:12:10] Rick Vaughn: And I'm, I appreciate that you, um, noticed, um, the detail that I tried to bring and the things, you know, that I've tried to bring to each really every sentence. And that comes back from my beginnings with the Orioles. Bob Brown was the PR director there. I was the assistant and he always. You know, said to me, don't put anything.

[00:12:29] Rick Vaughn: We used to have to do game notes every night. He said, don't put anything on that sheet that people aren't going to use. If TV or radio or newspapers, not going to use it. Don't put it in there. And so I sort of took that approach when I was writing the book. You know what I mean? I'm like, don't just throw something in there.

[00:12:44] Rick Vaughn: You know, don't throw your opinion in there. People don't care about your opinion. You're not a great writer, but you are a pretty good researcher and you have a good, uh, you know, way to put it into perspective. So. I tried to make every sentence in that book. Maybe somebody learned something for almost every sentence in that book.

[00:13:00] Rick Vaughn: That's kind of my philosophy of writing. 

[00:13:04] Mark Corbett: Well, I got to tell you, we have a mutual friend, Josh Weaver, and I told him, I said, Josh, exactly. I said, when I read it. Uh, there's a fact there, but it's, it's told in a way that it has color to it to you keep it condensed, where you're not expounding on and on and on with something, but you still give it color and the sense of importance that came with it.

Rick Vaughn: Well, thank you.

[00:13:27] Mark Corbett: I do want to point out something you just mentioned, because it was actually going be a question, man. That was like. The opportunity to find a major league team for this area. Was that the death of Al Lopez field? And from what you just said, it sounds like it was, 

[00:13:46] Rick Vaughn: I think it was, you know, I mean, you go back, I wasn't living here then I didn't experience it firsthand, but just from what I've read and the people I've talked to over the years that I've lived here for 27 years, um, You know, the competition between two cities really didn't help.

[00:14:00] Rick Vaughn: You know, there were there, they really were, there was the ST Pete side and the Tampa side, and there really wasn't a whole lot of cooperation. And I think that hurt us, you know, not getting a team where the Marlins got the team in the South instead of us. And, and yes. And I think the fact that everybody was so focused, I mean, we sort of, you know, I, I read a couple of columns and a couple of stories, Tom McEwen had a column basically said that Major League Baseball kind of gave Tampa a wink and said, hang in there, you're getting a team.

[00:14:31] Rick Vaughn: And they took that as gospel. And I think that's, you know, that was their motivating factor for the TSA, the Tampa Sports Authority. And I think they, they moved forward thinking that was going to happen. And unfortunately, Yeah, Lopez had gotten, you know, pretty old by that time. It was built 1955. So it was over 40 years old.

[00:14:53] Rick Vaughn: But, um, but it was sad that that's how it went down. And I think a lot of the guys that I talked to who played there, they felt that way too. You know, yes, it was, it was, like, you know, a crack, a cranky old ballpark and all, but you know what? A lot of guys who played legion ball that went on to play big league baseball played in that ballpark is a lot of American Legion games were played there.

[00:15:15] Rick Vaughn: Not everybody, but a lot of guys played there. And, um, you know, my talking Wade Boggs about how much that ballpark meant to him for a bunch of different reasons. But one of them was that he, he played there when he, when he played legion ball. And so I think it hurt a lot of, a lot of people, especially of course, Al Lopez, you know, was probably devastated that this monument was getting torn down.

[00:15:37] Rick Vaughn: And And I think from what I read, I think he thought something else was going to come up eventually in its place. And of course it never did. So. 

[00:15:46] Mark Corbett: Yeah. You, you see something like that. You said, well, there's my legacy and now it's a parking lot. And that I was glad what Tony Saladino and the others who, who did a lot to make sure he had the Al Lopez park.

[00:15:59] Mark Corbett: And what I love about that park is not a postage stamp. You know, it's, uh, you drive by some places and there's a name that's to a certain park and you figure, well, I can see all four sides of it in three trees. But it's a place, a very beautiful place and a nice statue. But going back to what you were saying about, as far as people who played there and liked Wade Boggs, was it he also got some of the news about being brought up to the majors while he was?

[00:16:30] Rick Vaughn: Well, it was funny. He, um, first thing he told me was, uh, when they, when the draft, you know, the day of the draft. The Temperature Bune asked a couple of the guys who were local that were gonna supposed to be pretty early pics. They asked them to come down to the offices that day so they would be there and they could interview him and take their picture for the story the next day.

[00:16:51] Rick Vaughn: And Wade was there for all afternoon and didn't get taken. And by like four o'clock, he's like, I got to go. I have a lesion game tonight. So he, um, you know, he goes to the ballpark and they're taking infield or batting practice. And the woman who is still his wife after almost 50 years, Debbie Boggs, Debbie.

[00:17:09] Rick Vaughn: Was his girlfriend at the time. She comes running down through the bleachers while Wade's out on the field like taking infield and she's screaming, Wade, you got drafted in the seventh round by the Red Sox. So, so, you know, his father was there and the three of them kind of stood by the fence and kind of assessed it for, you know, just really on the surface, just for a couple of minutes.

[00:17:30] Rick Vaughn: And, you know, Wade said, my dad said to me, you know what, Wade, that's a great place for you to go. You know, the way you hit the ball that way, you're going to, you were going to hit 300 there. Of course he certainly did. Um, so he, and then the other part was, was after he signed with the Red Sox, was in their minor league system for six years and hit 300 pretty much everywhere he went, uh, in spring training, the year that he made the club, you know, he didn't know he was going to make the club, but they were playing the Reds.

[00:17:57] Rick Vaughn: And it was one of the next to the last games at the Reds home games and the Red Sox were put with a visiting team. But when he was there, he sees Johnny Bench on the field and, and Johnny Bench says to him, Hey, congratulations on making the club. And Wade's like, what are you talking about? Because I haven't made the club yet.

[00:18:14] Rick Vaughn: And he goes, I think you have. And as it turned out, the scout that signed Wade was at the game and he knew what the Red Sox were going to do and he had kind of blurted it out to many people in the stands and it got all around. And he said, my dad knew, Debbie knew, I didn't know. Everybody else in the park didn't know.

[00:18:34] Rick Vaughn: So that's where he found out that he was going to make the big league. So he had some really good Cool stories about, um, about a Lopez field. 

[00:18:41] Mark Corbett: I mean, when you look at all the players who came through there one time at another, was there somewhere where you, I can't remember if it was you or somebody else talking about the number of hall of fame players who have come through Plant Field was, was immense.

[00:18:57] Mark Corbett: I can't remember. 

[00:18:58] Rick Vaughn: Well, well, well over a hundred, you know, it wasn't in the same. Um, it wasn't close to what Al Lang was, Al Lang Field and Waterfront Park in Al Lang Stadium was actually over 200. But you had two teams training there. And, you know, uh, Alope, uh, Plant Field never had more than one team. And Al Lopez had the White Sox and the Reds for like five years at the same time, and that was it.

[00:19:21] Rick Vaughn: The White Sox were there, and then they left to go to, um, Sarasota. So you didn't have that opportunity. Um, but yeah, I mean, there was still so many, so many great players that, that played there. And then you had the all star game there, the famous all star game, the spring training all star game. And in 1940, which, you know, there were 11 teams training in spring in Florida at that time.

[00:19:46] Rick Vaughn: And there were six nationally clubs and five American league, and they put the All Star game on to benefit the Finnish relief fund. They were involved in a war called the Winter War with Russia. And we were, the United States was trying to raise money, uh, to help Finland. Um, And the all star game that they put on with, uh, from 11 teams was really good.

[00:20:08] Rick Vaughn: I mean, it was really good. The American league had DiMaggio and Ted Williams and Jimmy Fox and Hank Greenberg and Dickie and Bob Feller pitched and, and, um, and the national league was, was stacked too. I mean, but it was a great all star game. So think just how many hall of famers played in the game in that game alone.

[00:20:26] Rick Vaughn: You know, that was pretty amazing. 

[00:20:29] Mark Corbett: Well, thank you for that. Cause when I saw that, I loved it. Cause I read that chapter. About the same time as I was reading the Tampa Bay Times that morning and Romano was saying like, you know, the Rays have never had an all star game. There hasn't been one here in Tampa.

[00:20:43] Mark Corbett: I think it, well, sort 

[00:20:46] Rick Vaughn: of, I was going to drop them an email, but then I thought better of it. But you know, what was cool about that game too, is that it was so successful. Yeah. You know, the reason that it probably got the game, Miami was trying to get the game. St. Pete was trying to get the game. You know, the father of St.

[00:21:02] Rick Vaughn: Pete baseball, uh, you know, Mr. Sunshine was heartbroken that they didn't get the game, um, partly because he was such a, uh, an influencer, an influential person in major league baseball at the time, but one of the reasons they got it was because they could put 13, 000 people in there, which was more than they could put at the other two ballparks.

[00:21:20] Rick Vaughn: So, but the really cool thing is it was so successful. It, you know, and even to the point where the only Tampa native in the game. Scores the winning run, you know, in the ninth inning in the bottom of the ninth inning on a walk off. But the game was so successful and they raised the equivalent of about half a million dollars today.

[00:21:41] Rick Vaughn: That's what they raised for the Finland Relief Fund. But it was so successful, a lot of the national writers, Pretty much all of them, uh, were big fans of making that the all star game every year, playing it in spring training and playing it in Tampa. And it got to, it got a lot of momentum. That was primarily from the pundits and all, but it, but it got a lot of momentum.

[00:22:04] Rick Vaughn: And when they went to the winter meetings that year in Chicago, it was, it came up for a vote amongst the teams and it lost. Um, and I, and they, and the reason it lost. I think is the same kind of thing that going on today, you know, with the World Cup is, uh, the risk of injury, you know, the game, especially back then, I mean, they played that game as if it was a world series game.

[00:22:27] Rick Vaughn: They didn't want to lose to the other league and they played really hard. And I, I think, I'm not sure I put this in the book, but I think DiMaggio's first game that spring in 1940 was the all star game. He hadn't, he had been late to camp. And so you could see where the, you know, the owners had a point, you know, to risk injury.

[00:22:45] Rick Vaughn: And you know, that early in the year probably wasn't worth it. So it got defeated by the teams, but it got all the way to a vote. It was that serious. And everybody had such a great time. The weather was great. Um, you know, so many things went well that day. And, um, I thought it was, it was, and it was a great day for Tampa.

[00:23:07] Rick Vaughn: There's no question about it. Um, I think I look, I think I did put this in the book. The Tribune had 19 stories. around that all star game in their paper the next day and 21 photos. So the whole newspaper was just devoted to the game, which was pretty cool. But there was so many national media there and they were all writing great things about, about Tampa and the effort that they put into it.

[00:23:32] Rick Vaughn: And they really did a, they did a terrific job as hosts, you know, and, um, and they raised a good, a good amount of money. 

[00:23:40] Mark Corbett: You know, you can see that with different eyes than most of us, because you have been in the front office for several years, both with the Oreos and with the Rays and probably other teams.

[00:23:50] Mark Corbett: I'm not thinking of at the moment. I apologize for that. I get, okay, the, the thing of it is, though, you can see with a vision that rest of us don't have. We don't, we don't have that perspective. But when I was read your book, there's certain things that click to my head. There's a lot of clicking in my head, but in this particular instance, uh, it was about.

[00:24:13] Mark Corbett: Well, how does this look today? There was looking at some of the fields are getting, uh, not being, they were not being maintained, you know, did the, did the cactus league evolve from segregation or did it evolve from, because we just didn't pay enough attention to the teams that were here and the fields were kind of let to go lateral, not keep the great shape or both of those things.

[00:24:40] Rick Vaughn: Well, I think, um, I think it was a couple of things. I think. I think that might be true. I think the fields were probably okay, but they, they, I think some of the teams, I mean, you know, having a major league club for spring training was kind of a big deal. You know, it got you a lot of publicity. It certainly helped St.

[00:25:00] Rick Vaughn: Petersburg drive a whole tourism bus for them. Um, but I think maybe some of the teams felt like they were getting taken for granted, which. You know, you, you want to have a team here, you kind of got to do the little extra things that are, you know, or maybe a little more than you want to do, but that's what you have to do if you want to keep teams.

[00:25:18] Rick Vaughn: And I think they felt a little bit neglected. I think the teams that were out there, they were probably out west. They were like four teams or whatever it was at that time, or maybe a couple more. And I think they were out there primarily because of their ownership had some interest out west and it was in their best interest to have a team out there.

[00:25:35] Rick Vaughn: Yeah. Um, as I mentioned, the Cubs moving out there where they and they were out West for a long time. I think that was more of it. I think it was more that the teams felt a little bit neglected. And then, I mean, then once, um, the 60s rolled around and you still had Jim Crow laws in the South, you still had, uh, up until 61 or 62, um, you still had teams whose Black players couldn't stay in the same hotel as the White players.

[00:26:05] Rick Vaughn: And that didn't exist out west. And so I think that was kind of a lever. Um, you know, I talked to Bill White, who, God bless him, he's such a great baseball ambassador in his own way. He was first baseman with the Cardinals at, at Owl Lane. He was, uh, went on to become the president of the National League and he was the first African American, uh, play by play broadcaster in baseball for the Yankees.

[00:26:27] Rick Vaughn: But he, I talked to him and he was like, You know, he had been in, he had been with the Giants out West and when he came, you know, East and South, he was, he was, he was taken aback by, by what was going on and there was, I think there was a question or an issue where some of these teams could put pressure.

[00:26:47] Rick Vaughn: The West West could put a little pressure on the Southern teams because they didn't have to deal with any of that. That wasn't going on. That wasn't an issue out there. And the black players appreciated that. And I think that helped put a little bit of pressure on the Florida teams. And I think that's why they eventually started to finally change.

[00:27:05] Rick Vaughn: It was very slow movement. This was before the Civil Rights Act of 1964., but it started to finally change., in the early sixties and St. And St. Pete was kind of in the middle of that because the Cardinals are there and, their players started to become outspoken about it. And then it kind of, you know, it got, it caught on to other teams.

[00:27:25] Rick Vaughn: You know, Bill Veck was with the white socks. They were in Sarasota. They, they, Bill Veck, he got it, you know, he made sure they had a hotel that accommodated their team. And then the Yankees ended up leaving St. Pete, uh, in 60 after 61. And they went to Fort Lauderdale. Now they went because. They didn't have to share a facility anymore, like with the Cardinals.

[00:27:46] Rick Vaughn: They were the, they were the only, you know, show in town. They had a larger training facility, a bigger stadium. But, one of the other reasons was, they wanted a hotel where all their players could stay, and they found that in Fort Lauderdale. So, I, you know, I think a lot of people may, back in those days, I was born in 55, so I was too young, but I think a lot of people may have Gathered that with Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier that everything was fine when it wasn't, you know, it certainly wasn't.

[00:28:17] Rick Vaughn: I'm sure it wasn't around the league, but it definitely wasn't in the South. Like I said, where they still had these very restrictive laws with regards to race. 

[00:28:29] Mark Corbett: Yeah, I mean, I remember 1 story I think was it again probably Plant Field and Jackie's walking off and over by the plant hotel. He's asking about the minutes.

[00:28:41] Mark Corbett: And they asked him boy, what are you doing here or something to that effect? And it's like. Like, wow. You know what I mean? It's, it's hard to imagine today. And you mentioned the Cardinals team is wound up taking, well, I say extreme just because society wasn't doing what they should been doing. They took extreme measures because they bought a freaking motel.

[00:29:01] Mark Corbett: They bought the outrigger over in St. Pete. So they could have all their players at one place, uh, you know, that's, it's very commendable about the team. It's a damn shame about the league and everything else around it that it wasn't doing what it needed to do and make that disappear. But, uh, I'm not surprised if that is a part of why the cactus league grew more.

[00:29:23] Mark Corbett: And if also where the, some of the teams may have felt like they were being neglected. And between those couple of things, I could see why that may have done that. Yeah. Wow. So as I'm going through this book, I swear, Rick, I kept trying to think, where'd I start? Where'd I stop to talk with you? There was so much cool stuff in here and folks, when you get the book to this, one thing that's really neat, there's some great photos in here.

[00:29:49] Mark Corbett: One of my like, is it actually has a depiction of what Plant Field looked like, I think what it may have been actually a drawing. But you see, tell folks what, how Plant Field came to be or what it was, what it was contained and all that. Can you give us a brief description? Yeah, it 

[00:30:06] Rick Vaughn: really started out, um, you know, at the hotel there at the time, the Tampa Bay, uh, hotel, which opened up right even before, uh, the start of the 20th century.

[00:30:17] Rick Vaughn: And it was, I unbelievable hotel, you know it for a for a number of years. It was the place to go, you know, in Florida was the Tampa Bay Hotel and they had, they built a racetrack there. I mean, it was a, the grounds were immense. I mean, that was part of the allure of the hotel was the grounds. Um, and they build a racetrack, but then they also, uh, as the turn of the century came along, they started looking at other sports there, including putting baseball there.

[00:30:46] Rick Vaughn: And so they built like a baseball field pretty much in the middle of the track. Uh, it sounds really bizarre, and if you see pictures of it, it does look pretty bizarre, really. Um, but it was You know, it was the ballpark. It was, you know, for major league clubs. The other, the other thing that allured and I mentioned to it briefly early on was the hotels in Tampa at the time when the Cubs came in.

[00:31:11] Rick Vaughn: Well, the hotel that everybody stayed at for the first, like, 20 years was that Tampa Bay Hotel, which is. You walked to the field and believe me, that was an expense that the teams had to incur. If you didn't have a hotel right now, the ballpark, you had to get your players to, to the ballpark. So there was a transportation cost that went away if you stayed in Tampa.

[00:31:30] Rick Vaughn: And that was one thing that actually really helped bring the Reds, uh, in, uh, in 1931 was, uh, you know, with the depression going on, they were, uh, the owner of the Reds was looking, you know, ended up losing the team at the time, but he. They were looking for any way they could, you know, to save money and they were in Orlando at the time, but they love the fact that they could do everything on the grounds.

[00:31:54] Rick Vaughn: You know, they ate at the hotel. They stayed there. They played there. So, that was like, kind of the beginning of having an all in one kind of facility and it stayed that way for a good number of years until the hotel eventually for a bunch of different reasons ended up going out of business. Um, but the, uh, it was taken over by the city, but the ballpark remained and, um.

[00:32:18] Rick Vaughn: You know, it, it, it is kind of amazing in a way that it stayed that long. I mean, it, you know, it wasn't until 1955 that Al Lopez, uh, you know, field was built and, and the teams moved from plant over to, uh, to Al Lopez field. But anyway, that, that Plant Field was, it was pretty extraordinary and it's definitely worth trying to find a picture of it.

[00:32:41] Rick Vaughn: Um, there were a number of different, um, things that happened to it over the years, you know, with, uh, other parts of the, of the, uh, infield using that as like little practice fields. You know, you can see these other little fields that were out there. It was just, it was really, uh, it was really kind of a strange looking place.

[00:33:03] Rick Vaughn: And the picture that we were talking about over at the museum is a good picture. It shows you, you see the racetrack there. You can see how the brand stands were made for racing and they had a lot of thoroughbred racing there. They had auto racing there early on, you know, um, so it had an early on the, uh, you know, the, the, um, the fair, the state fair was there for many, many years at Plant Field.

[00:33:28] Rick Vaughn: And that actually became an issue several years where. The fair ended right before spring training started and they've had, you know, thousands of people traipsing around on the ground that they were going to be taking infield on and playing games on. So they had, the city had to really get the thing turned around.

[00:33:45] Rick Vaughn: Fast. And that was one of the things that hampered the Cubs when they first came in that first year is that place was was pretty beat up from the fair that, you know, I guess nobody bothered to tell the Cubs that that was going to happen. But, uh, but what an interesting, uh, ballpark, you know, what, and that was where Babe Ruth hit the longest, you know, potentially.

[00:34:07] Rick Vaughn: Uh, the longest home run of his career at that, at that park. And I read a lot of stories about it. Some, some were, some, some were consistent, some were not consistent, but it's clear that the ball was, was really, uh, you know, was, was an amazing home run. And the great thing too, that, that came as a result of that was that, uh, the Red Sox at that time realized that, you know what, this guy can hit, uh, really hit.

[00:34:37] Rick Vaughn: And they started realizing that they would be a better team with him playing every day than pitching every four days. And that, uh, I think that home run was one of the, um, One of the things that, that changed that whole dynamic for him, you know, that that year, that was 1919, that year, he began playing legitimately in the outfield quite a bit.

[00:34:59] Rick Vaughn: He, he, he played the most he'd ever played in the outfield. And I don't know if it was, it, it made it, you know, there were a couple guys that wrote, writers that wrote that the home run had a whole lot to do with that, that he, he became a, you know, more and more of a full-time guy in 1919. Then he had before in the home run really woke everybody up about it.

[00:35:19] Rick Vaughn: So there was a lot of history there. The other thing that was really, I love finding out found out, but really by accident, you know, was, um, you know, Ted Williams played there and he had this famous spitting incident at Fenway Park in 1956 where he spit at the fans and he got fined 5000 and. This is big deal, you know, and so I was reading this column that Tom McEwen wrote in the 70s.

[00:35:44] Rick Vaughn: Ted came in, he was managing the Senators, and they came in and played a game at Al Lopez, and McEwen was interviewing him, and just out of the blue, Ted, well, you know, Ted said, uh, well, this was the first place I ever spit at the fans. And I'm like, What? I read that and I'm like, that's crazy. And he, now it had been in, it had been 1951.

[00:36:06] Rick Vaughn: This was like 20 years afterwards. And he was a little off on the details. You know, he told McEwen what happened. So I went back, found the game, the Boston Globe wrote a lot about it. And, um, the local papers hardly touched it, but the Boston papers wrote a lot about it. And, um, it was amazing, you know, that this was the first place he got really upset with the fans who they booed him because he didn't.

[00:36:29] Rick Vaughn: He, he, uh, his first time up, he hit a ball back to the pitcher and he didn't run it out very hard and the fans got on him about it. And then the next time up, he hit a home run. And as he got to home plate, he spit at the thing. So, and that happened right at Plant Field, you know, so that was pretty, you know, that was interesting.

[00:36:47] Rick Vaughn: I love those kinds of stories. You know, it's a lot of people say, ah, it's spring training. Who cares? But that, and maybe the, um, statistics don't care, but the stories are just as good, you know, there's still really good stories. I think. And I was happy to find some of these things that I know, you know, Tim Kirkjian is a very good friend of mine from ESPN.

[00:37:06] Rick Vaughn: We, we've worked together for many years. And, I would find something, I would email him like a little note and say, did you know about this? And if he said he didn't know about it, I was like, oh, this is gold, man. If he doesn't know about it, I know no one knows about it. So here's a great sounding board for me.

[00:37:27] Mark Corbett: Well, it's good if you get, you know, other professionals that you respect, respect you to be able to, well, to, to have that sound, that's huge. That's 

[00:37:35] Rick Vaughn: huge. Yeah. It was really big. 

[00:37:38] Mark Corbett: I want to ask you later, you can tell me better now, but I think you have another Ted Williams story that you can tell us a little later if that's okay.

[00:37:44] Mark Corbett: Sure. Yeah. Like, you know, when you shared at the, um, signing at the museum. Yeah. 

[00:37:49] Rick Vaughn: Yeah. That was, um, you talking about the one with Frank Howard? 

[00:37:54] Mark Corbett: Yeah. 

[00:37:54] Rick Vaughn: Well, Frank Howard. Yeah. That, and you know, it was funny. Was that, um, uh, both guys, Frank Howard and Ted Williams, because I got to spend some time with Ted Williams, which is another story.

[00:38:07] Rick Vaughn: But, uh, both of them told me that story. So I know it happened and it was funny. You know, it was, um, when Ted was managing the senators, um, for his 1st year managing the senators. Was in the late sixties and the day before opening day, they were working out at R. F. K. You know, getting ready to open the season.

[00:38:26] Rick Vaughn: And so Ted Williams had not been in that ballpark and I think he'd been at Griffith Stadium, but I don't think he'd ever been at at D. C. Stadium anyway. So they were taking batting practice and Frank Howard gets done and he comes around behind the cage to talk to Ted while the next guy gets in there.

[00:38:45] Rick Vaughn: And, and it, it, I grew up in that stadium, so I knew every inch of it. And in the upper deck, the seats and the upper deck was a long ways away there. You had to really hit a ball to get in the upper deck there. And they were all, all the outfield seats out there in the upper deck were green. And so Hondo comes around and he says to Ted, he goes, Hey, Ted, you see the seats up there that are painted white.

[00:39:08] Rick Vaughn: And there were about seven seats, seven times he had hit home runs into the upper deck and the ball club painted the seat white to mark it, you know, and it was kind of a cool thing, you know, you could, you look up there, you could see those seats and you were like, holy cow. So he says to Teddy, you see, you see those white seats up there?

[00:39:25] Rick Vaughn: He says, those are balls. Every time when I hit a home run up there, they painted them white. And Ted Williams did not miss a beat. And he goes, well, did they paint him green? Every time you struck out 

[00:39:37] Mark Corbett: dad, I love that 

[00:39:41] Rick Vaughn: story. And they both, uh, both told it to me. So I knew that it, I knew it was real. 

[00:39:48] Mark Corbett: Oh, that's, that's great.

[00:39:51] Mark Corbett: Rick, I tell you, Oh my gosh. You know, we're talking about Rick Vaughn and we're talking about his book, Tampa Spring Training Tales and looking down the list of all the, I said, with me, one of the things that comes. The big part of it is the, are the fields Plant Field was, is just a huge part of this book and as you mentioned, whether it be the Cubs, Red Sox, but you've also got minor leagues like the smokers.

[00:40:17] Mark Corbett: And I want to ask for another story from you and believe this was a time. It may have been in the St. Pete book about a time that the smokers were going to have to play. I think St. Pete over at Plant Field, something had already been scheduled. A bull fight. A bull fight. They had a bull , they had a bull fight scheduled at a Plant Field, and therefore the smokers couldn't play.

[00:40:46] Mark Corbett: That's, that's what I remember anyway, so, uh, 

[00:40:48] Rick Vaughn: well it was, you know what, that kind of thing actually, not a bull fight so much, but that kind of thing seemed to happen a lot back in those days. You know, there was no central clearing kind of thing, you know. Um, you know, they're just, uh, things sometimes got a little bit away from people, but, uh, uh, the history there, I, I loved, I, the St.

[00:41:12] Rick Vaughn: Pete book was really about how the city depended upon baseball, you know, whether they knew it or not for their tourism, you know, it was one of the things that drove, it wasn't the only thing, of course, but it was the main thing. And the thing that I loved about Tampa, it was, you know, they, they They weren't a tourist town, so they didn't have a lot of tourists coming into Tampa to go to the games, to fill up the ballparks, you know, so they did not draw really well, and those ballparks, you know, we were talking about these two ballparks, they didn't draw well in comparison to St.

[00:41:46] Rick Vaughn: Pete, who also, again, happened to have the Yankees and the Cardinals, and they all brought a lot of people down. The Reds did not have a huge traveling group that came down and they dominated the time most of the years here. Um, so, you know, if you looked at their attendance numbers, you would say, well, they really weren't.

[00:42:03] Rick Vaughn: They didn't draw. No, that city wasn't really. But the people loved it. You know, the people loved the game and it was so ingrained in who they were, you know, going, going back to the Cigar Factory. I loved reading. And I didn't write a whole lot about it, but I loved reading about how important baseball was as a, I wrote a little bit about it, but how much of a unifier it was in the late 1800s, early 1900s, how much of a unifier it was to a community that was made up of many different cultures, you know, Italians, uh, Spanish, Cuban, uh, heritage folks that were here as a part of the cigar industry that, you know, making the cigars.

[00:42:50] Rick Vaughn: And how it was so important to them, you know, how it really, you know, uh, how those cigar factories were just, they were so dependent on the game, I think, and the people that ran those cigar factories were smart enough to know that, to realize it. And, um, so, it may not showed up in the, maybe it didn't show up in the attendance numbers or anything, and, And all but the love that the people had for the game back then was, was huge, you know, and one of the things, one of the reasons that the Cubs came, the city went after the Cubs and they went after him hard.

[00:43:28] Rick Vaughn: I mean, they got a lot of criticism because they paid the Cubs to come. And that was like, if You know, the sporting news had this big story about how this was terrible. This was the beginning of the end that they were paying teams to come in and how awful this was. And, but they did it, but they did it for a good reason.

[00:43:48] Rick Vaughn: You know, the city had just gone through a really bad labor strike in 1911. And McKay, who was the publisher of the paper and all, and the mayor, he saw it as a way to help heal the city. And maybe, maybe they can make a little bit of money off of it. But he, but he, but he looked at it as a healing thing, you know?

[00:44:07] Rick Vaughn: And so, um, I think that to me, I loved reading about that, that the baseball was, was pretty important back then, you know, to keeping, uh, community unity through, you know, with, with, with the heartbreaks that they had, and it was a very bad labor strike that left a lot of people out of, out of work and it, and it really fractured the city, but they, but they thought of baseball as the one, you know, as the thing that could heal it.

[00:44:33] Rick Vaughn: So. To me, uh, the love of the game and, and you talk to people like Tino Martinez and Lou Pinella and people like that, and how it just, it just runs through the veins of their family. You know? They all played it and it was, it was nothing, you know, it was, it was just a, it was a part of their lives. It was nothing.

[00:44:51] Rick Vaughn: It was not a big deal. It was what they were all about. I love reading about that. 

[00:44:57] Mark Corbett: It's, it's really great. Again, I'll suggest this thereby. Oh, and quickly on top of that, you're talking about supporting of it. You mentioned even early on that Vicente Martinez, Ybor, the Godfather, the man who created the Ybor's that carries his name, you know, he was proponent of bringing the baseball and making things happen, I mean, starting even with that.

[00:45:18] Mark Corbett: So I thought that was interesting. 

[00:45:19] Rick Vaughn: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's not a hundred percent sure where it actually started. You know, it, it probably was brought over. With some of the, some of the Cuban folks that came to work. But there was also some baseball being played prior to that. And it was rumored that maybe going back into the like 1870s, late 1860s, where, uh, returning civil war veterans brought it back from the North.

[00:45:46] Rick Vaughn: To the south that maybe that had something to do with it as well. Um, so, you know, it's hard to pinpoint exactly where it started, but, uh, but, yes, um, Mr. Ybor certainly had a heck of a lot to do. With it, and I really had a fun going through the archives. Of some of the newspapers and Ybor and, you know, reading about some of that, uh, it was, it was very, uh, interesting.

[00:46:11] Rick Vaughn: The owner of the Cubs was Charles Murphy, by the way. 

[00:46:14] Mark Corbett: Okay. 

[00:46:15] Rick Vaughn: Murphy. Yeah. 

[00:46:16] Mark Corbett: I just remembered Chevy. I can't 

[00:46:17] Rick Vaughn: remember. I think he was kind of a, he was kind of a buffoon, I think. 

[00:46:24] Mark Corbett: So I don't know, but, uh, Rick, I can't think, you know, is there a, is there one story in here that you think it's one of your favorites in the book?

[00:46:34] Rick Vaughn: Yeah, I mean, I kind of liked, um, I sort of like writing, I kind of maybe, you know, I, I might have taken a few liberties, uh, in terms of trying to draw parallels here, but I really enjoyed writing about 1963, and that was Pete Rose's rookie year, and how, how his, you know, he, it was one, they had, um, it was really kind of his introduction to the, to big leagues, and he talked, you know, I, I found a quote from him later that said, This particular incident that I'll give you was really kind of jump started his career into the big leagues.

[00:47:11] Rick Vaughn: And that was, it was a spring training game in Tampa. The Reds were playing a game and he wasn't, he wasn't involved in the game that day. He was just, he was doing a workout on the other field. He wasn't on the game day roster and he was getting ready to go to the clubhouse. He was done, the game was going on, but he was done with his work.

[00:47:30] Rick Vaughn: And one of the coaches saw him and said, you know what, you, but you should probably stick around. And so he did, he went, he, he went in and got a drink of water, went back out, sat the dugout and in like the 11th inning, they get, they end up going extra innings. And back then they would play 15, 16 innings that they had to, to finish these games.

[00:47:51] Rick Vaughn: So it wasn't nowadays, if you don't have enough pitching, they just end the game in a tie. But so it's like the 10th inning, he ends up going into pinch run. They don't score. Uh, he gets up the first time he gets a hit, but he doesn't score. And now it's like the 12th inning. And he got up and here he wasn't even going to be in the game, you know, he was just a pinch runner in the ninth inning and, uh, he got a double.

[00:48:14] Rick Vaughn: And then the next guy hit a fly ball to center field, routine fly ball. He tagged up and went to third, kind of caught the center fielder sleeping and ends up scoring the winning run in the game. And he talked about how that was kind of like maybe the first spark of his nickname. Charlie Hustle came from that game.

[00:48:32] Rick Vaughn: And it really got solidified when they were playing the Yankees later on that spring. And I think it was Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle kind of gave him that nickname, but he's, you know, he, he really, and I wrote something in the sporting news was like, that's kind of that game. That he played in that he didn't even think he was going to be playing and was kind of like the beginning of his career.

[00:48:53] Rick Vaughn: You know, that's what got people all of a sudden realize this guy plays pretty hard and he plays pretty good. And then, um, I sort of drew the, you know, so that happened in 63 and I kind of wrote about later on in the year, like Rose, um, you know, goes on to have this great year, but then later on in that year, uh, John F.

[00:49:12] Rick Vaughn: Kennedy comes to. Lopez field to speak. And, um, obviously this was four days before he was assassinated. There was a huge crowd of people. It was the It was the biggest crowd at Lopez field. It was in November. You know, it's just before he was killed and how they had to move the games. You know, they had the instructional league games going on at that time.

[00:49:39] Rick Vaughn: They had to move the game because all of a sudden, no, the president's coming gallop has field Reds. You have to go play somewhere else. So they ended up moving the game to Clearwater, but you know, he comes in and he speaks and he gets assassinated. And there was a lot written about how Tampa took it very hard because even though they didn't know him that well, they had just met him and they really felt like, you know, he had spoken to them and, and then, you know, here at the, in, in, uh, Jan, the following January.

[00:50:10] Rick Vaughn: They named the highway, you know, after Kennedy, you know, Kennedy Boulevard. And then a month later, Pete Rose gets his rookie of the year award, you know? So, but I tried to kind of write about all that happening in one year, you know, and how it was, you know, they were pretty, you know, those were things that were pretty huge in our life.

[00:50:32] Rick Vaughn: I mean, you know, Pete Rose and John F. Kennedy. No, I get it. You can't compare them. As if you're a baseball fan, you know, you kind of see, you know, I mean, who had a bigger impact on the game and, you know, it rose for a long time, you know, so I just, and it all happened right on the same field, you know, so that's kind of, I enjoyed trying to find a little bit of a.

[00:50:53] Rick Vaughn: Way to put that into one chapter. I'm not exactly sure it worked, but, um, but I really enjoy it. And then, you know, when Kennedy was assassinated, um, how the baseball world responded, um, you know, the, the, the, the, the instructional league games, like I said, I think the Bay area, we took it hard because he had just been here.

[00:51:15] Rick Vaughn: Uh, and so they, You know, they can't, they postponed a number of days of games because of what happened. And I never even knew anything about that. No, I didn't know any of that was going on. We all, you know, we knew the NFL was playing at that time and they didn't play their games, I think one Sunday, but I didn't know anything about even the instructional league stopped playing their games for a while.

[00:51:35] Mark Corbett: I didn't realize. So 

[00:51:37] Rick Vaughn: I really enjoy, you know, researching that and and reading and reading about that and then trying to make some sense out of it. 

[00:51:47] Mark Corbett: Well, I again, appreciate all your hard work and how you are able to tell the story in a way that. Sometimes I'm reading it. It's like so burdensome. I myself, I read my stuff.

[00:51:59] Mark Corbett: I say, good Lord, Mark, stop. You know how to run on sense. Come on. But you are able to put a lot of color and a lot of, uh, the story in a short piece here or there. And for people like me who have a hard time with attention, uh, The chapters are short enough that I can continue on with it too. So it's a great book.

[00:52:21] Rick Vaughn: I mean, I, I wanted to keep it simple. I didn't want this to be a burden thing to read. You know, I want it to be fun. I wanted you just to learn stuff that you didn't know, but I didn't want it to be like a history lesson either. You know, I just wanted it. I mean, one of the reviews I got on the book, the first book was like, it was a breezy, it was a breezy look.

[00:52:40] Rick Vaughn: And I liked that because that's kind of what I was going for. A lot of information, but, but not overwhelming and written kind of in a pretty simple style. Cause that's me. Keep it simple. You know, that's me keeping things simple. 

[00:52:53] Mark Corbett: Well, I can tell you as a baseball fan and somebody who loves this stuff, you achieved it and man, we, we appreciate it.

[00:53:01] Mark Corbett: Great deal, Rick. 

[00:53:02] Rick Vaughn: Well, it's been therapy for me too, Mark. I've been out of baseball now for eight years. It's hard, you know, that's your life, you know, and you I'm fortunate married to the same woman for 45 years who was very independent when she had to be when I was on the road a lot, but it's hard to get it out of your blood.

[00:53:17] Rick Vaughn: And so this is a way that keeps me connected to the game. And I'm happy people like yourself enjoy reading the book for me I just enjoyed writing it. 

[00:53:29] Mark Corbett: Well, once again, people were talking with Mr. Rick Vaughn, author of Tampa spring training tales. And also we talked before the other book he had written about St.

[00:53:38] Mark Corbett: Pete and Al Lang and how spring training started there. I strongly advise all of you to make sure that you read these because it's great stuff. And my gosh, like I said, I have a hard time putting it down. But thank you, Rick. I appreciate it, man. Thank you for being here today on baseball biz on, uh, telling this story.

[00:53:59] Rick Vaughn: Really appreciate it, brother.