Talkin' BB with our heroes....tell us of your experiences ?

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Posted By: Steve

This has got to be one of the best threads I have read in forever. Thank you all for sharing your stories, they have all been a joy to read.

I've not had the luck of hanging with any HOF'ers, I do have a close friend who played ball, Carl Willey. He was never a superstar by most standards, but he did pitch against the Yankees in the 1958 World Series and spent 8 years in the major leagues. I've never been to a World Series game, never mind pitched in one, so to me that is pretty impressive.

I've had the pleasure of spending countless hours at Carltons house talking baseball. To sit and listen to stories about playing with Aaron, Spahn, Burdette and facing guys like Clemente, Mays and Musial has been so much fun to an old time baseball fan like myself. One of my favorite stories of his is the first time he faced Stan Musial. Carlton said the first pitch he threw him, his foot slipped off the rubber and he threw the "greatest changeup I ever threw" which Stan swung and missed. He said that he thought to himself, "This Musial guy ain't so bad, I got him figured out already!" Well the next pitch he threw Stan was another change up that "is still probably flying today!" He has story upon story like that which he has shared with me, I just wish I could tell them like he does, because there are some great ones.