Six, twenty seven hundred WLW Welcome into the RNL Carrier Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevroleham, Lance McAllister Man. I can't wait to talk with my next guest. He's an award winning columnist and author who's covered just about everything there is to cover in the world of sports over the years. A while back, we talked with him about a book he wrote, Red Brick Legacy, wonderful book about Miami's cradle of Coaches. I'll never forget his story about
calling Walter Alston at home one night. His new book is another must read, My Big Red Machine, The Tails, Drama and Revelations of a fan term journalist covering Baseball's greatest team. What a treat to welcome in, Terrence Moore, Terrence.
How are you? I?
I'm doing quite well, LANs And there's always great to talk to you. And even beyond the fact that you and I have that self in Indiana connection.
No doubt, and we have a connection to loving the Big Red Machine. And this book hits my spot and you live this kind of trace the timeline for listeners of growing up with the Big Red Machine and the path to covering the Big Red Machine.
I want to tell you something to last. I'm getting chilled right now because you know, I'm somewhat biased obviously because I wrote the book. But whenever I think about the Bigger Red Machine, whenever I think about this book, whenever I think about what I'm going to tell you, it's just it's almost an outer body experience. But the answer question, you know, I grew up itself in Indiana. My dad was an act supervisor. And I got to also say this, I'm a very spiritual person. I don't
think there's anything that's by coincidence. So he gets transferred by dad to Cincinnati in nineteen sixty eight and the fall sixty eight, and you know, twelve years old, and from that point quickly became a die hard Rent fan, and certainly the Bigger machine started coming into play that next year of sixty nine, the first four year Johnny bench. But to make a Losstoy sword, we're gonna talk about
more details. I go from being that diehard Ritch fan going to crawsley Field River Front Stadium, devouring anything about in the rids, to going up the school up there at the Great Miami, Ohio Miami University of OXVI Ohio, thirty five miles away, and a week after graduating from Miami, Ohio and May of nineteen seventy eight, started working full time for the Siscid Inquirer. I mean, you can't make this stuff up. And one of my primary beats was
covering my childhood heroes. And I won't bury the leading last. I'm not going to bear the lead. You know what to to saying you should never meet your heroes. I did, and unlike others, it was fantastic.
Tren Tai.
I got chills when I read your account of it, and I want to say, this was May fourteen of seventy six. You're a sophomore at Miami and you're in the Reds Club ass for the first time ever and you meet Pete Rose.
What was that moment?
Like? Well, and let's backtrack, okay, sixty eight. I bought these posters, two posters from an old place called I think it's called field House, those sporting goods in Cincinnati, and one was the Pete Rolls one of was the other one was Hank Aaron and I started these posts to this day and that perfect condition. But anyway, I was a die hard Ped Rolls fan. My all time
favorite player. So in May of May fourteenth, nineteen seventy six, on a Friday, sophomore Miami, as you pointed out, and Joe Nuxhall got me into the clubhouse, and that's another story that's.
In the book.
And I'm just overwhelmed because these are my heroes. I'm saying Tony Friz, I'm saying Johnny Mess, I'm saying Joe Morgan. But I don't see my guy, Pete Rose. So it's about time for me to leave. At least in my mind. I probably couldn't stay Downre a little bit longer if I was getting kind of nervous. I'm twenty years old,
you know, I shouldn't be here. So I'm trying to leave and Pete Rose, who does not know me from Adam, walks straight toward me and six out of his hand with a smile, and he says, my name is Pete Rose. What's your name? I'm like any more? And he says, do you work for the cists that inquirer? I said no. He said, okay, well you work for the Mquire someday, and I'm like, is he serious? A year after that, a year after that, I'm an intern at the cists
that Inquirer. This is summer nineteen seventy seven. I'm in the Red club House and you can't make this stuff up. Pete Rose seized me. Come up to me. He says, I'm going, Terry. You work for the Empire. Yet I said, I'm just an intern, and he said I'm just an intern. He says, you worked there full time. Next year after that. This is unbelievable because May of seventy eight, two years after I first met him. And now I'm going to be proactive. You know, my first week at assist that Inquirer,
I go up to the sports editor, Jim Montgomery. Pete Rose had just come up with this soft ring called Pete and as you remember, it was god awful. Let us another shirt. So after the sports editor, I think I story beyond Petere rows in the soft DrAk. He said, sure, So I go with river Front Stadium. You know what was heading. So go to river Front Stadium, kop House. Peter sitting at his locker, phineas back. He looks up at me without missing a beat. Lass he says, I'm gone, Cherry,
and said, you work for the Inquirer. Right, I'm like, gosh, I I know this, and I said yes. He said, well, you're here to talk to me about my soft drink. I'm like yes. And now it went from there for the next decades after that, he's here's my guy.
You pick up.
You picked up so many nuggets for this book along the way that I'm just fascinated by. To the late in life, Bob Housem really let you in with background on the on the end of the Big Red Machine. And even Sperky told you about the sense he had for the end of the Big Red Machine.
After nineteen seventy six.
He did, he did, And I'm sat with Bob Housem and this is the past example of how this book was meant to be. And I'll give you this short version of this. The long version, of course, is in the book. But Bob Housem and last you probably know going up as a Dihard Big Red Machine fan. He was the architect of that machine. But he said nothing. I mean, he gave nothing of interest to the prey. He was a like a banker, you know, he was
a poker face and what have you. So it's near the end of his life and I was spelling him for another matter that had nothing to do with baseball, and I tracked him down and you know, no one had heard from him in years. At this point, He's like eighty seven or eighty eight. And at the end of what I put him for, he was very gracious. I just told him about me being this Darhart big Red Machine fan, and he kind of remembered me at the inquire and he just spilled his guts for the
next hour. I was like, oh my god, I kept just tell me this stuff from the real story about Tony Perez, about how he said that was the worst decision in his life to let twenty Prayers go after the nineteen seventy sixth season, and how it just ruined them for winning more World Series. The real reason behind why Pete Rose ended up going from Cincinnati as free agent, at least why they allowed him to go from Cincinnati
to you know, to the Philadelphia Phillies. That went on and on and on, and then you listened Sparky, Sparky, and again, I should say this part for some reason, and I've buen like this all through my life. People have always had a tendency to open up to me all my life, you know, as a sports genalist, and
Sparky was one of those individuals. And I saw him with Sparky one day, and this was when he was with the manager of the Detroit Tigers, and Dick Wagner had just gotten fired from people who made not know Dig Wagner became a jailal manager after Bob Howisen and basically ruined the franchise. But that's a whole other story. So Dig Wader gets fired in eighty four, Bob Howison takes over, and so now everybody's asking what would have happened if the Big Red Machine had been kept together
Pete Rose and King Griffy and Tonys. I talked to all these guys and they all said what everybody thought, that they would win like two or three more World Series besides the back to back once the seventy five and seventy six. So I brought the Sparky and I'm thinking, Okay, well, he's gonna be more the same, and he for me.
I said, Sparky, how many more World Series would you guys hasn't won had you not traded twenty Press after the seventy sixth season and started to break up du Old Gang, He said, we would have never won another World Series. We will never want anything. And I thought he was I thought I was kidding, and he said that that team had gone as far as it could go. He said, we were absolutely bored. He says, figure to my figuring myself. He said, I was more interested. This
is Sparky talking. I was more interested in football than I was and trying to win another World championship. And he went further than that in the book, as you'll see. But it's little things like that.
I'm going to try to squeeze in two quick ones before I run out of time. And I laughed when you got tips along the way, including one from a groundskeeper at Riverfront in nineteen seventy eight who said, hey, you should do a story on King Griffy.
Yeah, and I'll give you a short birdion on this for time constraints. But when he told me that, I said, I'm many stories before King Griffrey. I thot, I saw abou King Griffrey Senior. So no, no, the sun and I said, and I said, I mean it was the sun. It is like eight years old. He said, oh yeah, but he's this great not hole League player. And we know the rest of the story. I ended up doing the story. I did the first story ever about King Griffrey Junior and the rest is history.
Oh fantastic.
Oh, there are so many stories that just just made me smile and think about that team. I know you've got a book signing coming up around the area. Toe listeners how they can get the book, how they can show up at a book signing as well.
Well the book signing I'm having, because I'll have one in Birmingham, Alabama tomorrow, that one at the universaidor Dame believe it or not, they happen me for book signing. But the one in that area that's coming up is on October the twenty ninth, and that's at the Lane Library in Hamilton, Ohio. And that's going to be at let me find out at the time. That's going to be at from six to seven. But in the meantime, and I'm telling you last I've been blessed. The pre
sales have been incredible. You can get a book signed by me, Great Christmas President. I'm just saying at my big redmachine dot com and I will personally autograph for you. And one fust thing I got to say this, Tom mcfoy Hall of Fame baseball writer and covers Big Red Machine. He was saying this stuff in this book that he didn't know about. Marty Brindleman, who did the foward to
the book. Marty Bridman said the same thing. He says, seventy percent of the stuff that Bob Hogle told me has never been said before, and he goes on and on.
It is a wonderful read. It is so cool to catch up with you again. Congratulations on this book and best of luck with it. I hope we can talk again down the road.
Thank you. And I know he's talking to about critical coaches guys afterwards, and tell them I said, hello, I.
Will do that. Thanks Terrence.