Steve Blass

He never blew his own horn because, you know, he got it acknowledged enough.

And I know how proud he was of it.

But, yeah, when he was around the young players, there was always a sense of awe.

And I saw that since I was 18 years old.

And I saw it through the ongoing years.

when somebody came around him because he was so darn approachable, this guy that did this spectacular thing that, uh, uh, polarized a city.

Uh, and it's a regular guy.

He's a guy who loves to have a beer with and talk a little baseball, talk a little ball.

And, uh, I think, you know, a lot of that was where it came from.

He didn't come from a, you know, a glamorous baseball, um, situation like Florida or Arizona or California.

And I think he never forgot where he came from.

Never, ever forgot where he came from.

Absolutely.

You know, one quick story.

When we roomed together, we roomed together for two or three years.

And on his birthday, September 5th, 1969, I pitched and I hit my only career home run.

And it was on his birthday.

We were in Chicago, one of the great drinking cities, by the way, in America.

I'm sure there's a ton of stories there, Steve.

Well, we celebrated all night long.