OTL / ON YOUR GAME
Interview with Rick Rhoden STORY BY LEONARD FINKEL
Rick Rhoden was by far the best golfer on the celebrity golf circuit. He even played on the PGA Champions Tour. I ran into Rick at the celebrity tournament and began chatting with him. He said that he wasn’t the player he used to be and he’s having trouble hitting his irons these days. It was the perfect opportunity to come into Club Champion. Rick wound up getting new irons. He also agreed to sit down for an interview. Here’s what Rick had to say. Leonard Finkel: Rick, you had a long illustrious career as a major league baseball player. What would you consider your highlights? Rick Rhoden: Biggest highlight was getting to the major leagues at all. I hurt my leg when I was eight years old on a slip-n-slide. You hooked up the hose to a 40ft. piece of plastic, you shot water on it and you run and dive on it. I hurt my knee and looked down it was bleeding. There was a pair of rusty scissors and they cut my knee. I went to the hospital and got a tetanus shot and got stitched up. I was on bedrest for three months. I had osteomyelitis and needed an operation. It’s a bone disease. Mickey Mantle had that. I went to Shriners hospital in Greenville, South Carolina. Stayed there like 2 or 3 months. They made a leg brace for me, which I had to wear for 4 years. I couldn’t play any organized sports. I didn’t start playing organized sports till I was 14. I was just hoping to get a college scholarship. Getting to the major leagues was a hope of mine but I never thought it was possible. Getting to the big leagues was a bigger accomplishment for me than it would be for most guys. Finkel: That makes a lot of sense. Do you want to point out any of your highlights from your playing days? Rhoden: I was fortunate. I played on some really good teams, I played on some really bad teams, but I also played for the probably the best two organizations in baseball, the Dodgers and Yankees. I feel really
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fortunate that I was drafted by the Dodgers. The Dodgers always had great pitching, so I got to see all kinds of pitching at the big-league level in spring training. I tried to pay attention and I did the same thing when I started playing golf, play with guys who are better than me and just paid attention to how they were doing their work. With baseball, as a kid I always played with older kids because that’s what I was around, and I think if you have any talent, it’s better to be the youngest then to be the oldest and best player. You got to do a lot of things to compete with older guys. My first year in the big leagues as a rookie was, 1975 and they put me in the bullpen because the Dodgers led the big leagues in ERA for like 11 straight years. I was on the All-Star team in 1976 with the Dodgers and then my next year in 77 and 78 I was in the World Series. I thought this is pretty easy. Four years and I have one All-Star team and two World Series. Then I got traded the next year to the Pirates. I was hurt, my shoulder was messed up and put on the disabled list. They won the World Series that year and I never got in another playoff game. But I was in two All Star Games. I think one of the things I’m known for is my hitting. I was probably one of the best hitting pitchers when I played. I had like an 11-game hitting streak as a pitcher which is like I think 5th or 6th all time. And I had 28 hits in 1986. I still think that’s the most hits by a pitcher since then. Finkel: You won more than 150 games in your career and had 69 complete games and there
