Conch Pride with Legend Richie Garcia

We trade Key West memories with MLB umpiring legend Richie Garcia, then follow his road from Conch childhood stickball to a career that includes All Star Games and multiple World Series. We also get the inside story on the Jeffrey Maier play, what umpires go through after a spotlight moment, and why today’s rule changes are reshaping the strike zone and the pace of baseball.

• Growing up in old Key West with tight community ties and nonstop baseball
• The Marine Corps years and the pivot from coaching to umpiring behind the plate
• Breaking into pro ball and learning the travel grind of a Major League umpire
• The Jeffrey Maier incident, security pressure and earning respect through reputation
• World Series perspective, full circle moments and the 1989 earthquake experience
• What 109 ejections teach about fairness boundaries and manager psychology
• Thoughts on pitch clock replay and automated balls and strikes and how grading impacts umpires
• Favorite cities, food on the road and lessons from veteran umpires
• What Conch pride means and why knowing Key West history matters

If you enjoyed this episode, drop a like, share, and subscribe because there's a lot of good stuff on chat. You can also follow BringJoy on YouTube and Instagram or check my website at joynulisch.com. And go bring joy to the people in your world.

Transcript

Welcome To Conch Pride

Joy Nulisch 0:00

Thanks for tuning in to the Kong, a Bring Joy Podcast. I'm your host, Joy Newlick. I'm a first generation conk raised by a force. What does that add up to? A whole lot of conk pride. And that's what this show is all about. Celebrating the incredible people of Key West and their stars from every corner of our conk community. So sit back and relax, guys. Let's do this thing. Big shout out to Marissa Reddy and Patty McGraw for supporting the show and keeping Kong Pride alive. How are we doing, Conk fans? I got a good one for you today. We're talking with True Conk, a conk legend, Richie Garcia, 30 years in professional baseball as a Major League umpire. I'm so excited. I invited my friend Victor Galardo, another conk legend, to join us in the conversation. Welcome to the show, fellas. Welcome, boy. Thank you.

Richie Garcia 0:54

Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Joy Nulisch 0:56

Yes, sir. This is a dream. Um, since I started this podcast about a year ago, and I started making a list of who I wanted to be on the show, and you've been at the top of the list. So you're making my dreams come true today.

Richie Garcia 1:10

Well, I'm happy to I'm happy to be able to do that. I'm all that you're more than welcome, and uh I'm open for whatever you want to know.

Growing Up In Old Key West

Joy Nulisch 1:18

All right, that sounds good. You're a cunt, you're born and raised here on the island. I want to start talking about Key West. Let's take a, you know, uh a ride down memory lane. What was Key West like when you were growing up as a kid?

Richie Garcia 1:30

Oh, Key West was a paradise when I was growing up. Uh I tell my wife all the time, my grandmother used to go out and buy fruit at the store every day, fresh fruit. I get home from school and I sit in the porch and eat my plums. And uh we had some Spanish limes, apples, oranges, some different everyday grapes. I started out going to uh Mary Immaculate, which was very close to my house. My grandmother would walk me to school almost every day. Um I went to school every day except during the World Series. Never went to school during the World Series. Never. And some days I went half a day and that was it. Um if I couldn't get out, if I couldn't sneak out at a half a day, I wouldn't go at all. And um fortunately for me, my mom and dad were fine with that. They they never said, no, don't go. Um obviously I grew up being a baseball fan. I think coming out of the womb, I think I was, you know, that's all we ever did. We played, played baseball, baseball, baseball every day. We'd find some kind of lot where we could play, and we played.

Joy Nulisch 2:42

Victor, you you can relate to that, huh?

Victor Gallardo 2:44

Absolutely. As you know, I I in my podcast with you, Joy, I talked a lot about playing stickball with Richie and Louis Paso and uh the boys, and I actually had Wayne Garcia do that really impressive carving at Adela's house there on Duval Street of us playing stickball in a lot. Yeah, and corkball.

Richie Garcia 3:07

Used to play corkball. We used to tape the cork, tape the cork and flip it with your middle finger, and we try to hit it with a broomstick. That was fun. Those were fun. And uh uh I enjoyed my childhood there. Um, I loved it. I love Key West. As a matter of fact, um a couple months ago, actually it was uh, let's see, when was it? October, around October, um my two of my granddaughters were playing soccer uh in Miami. They they came down from Nashville to go to school in Nashville at Lipscomb, and uh they came, they played University of Miami, and they played FAU uh soccer. So we had a day in between. So we drove down to Key West, my daughter, my wife and I, and and what my other my one of the other granddaughters, the younger one, and my my daughter, my youngest daughter, surprised me and got us a room where I was born and raised, 417 Amelia, which is the Douglas house right now, right by the Cuban club. So she's she surprised me um by telling my telling my granddaughter, um, tell Papa you want to go see us, see where he was born. So we went there and walked around, and the lady was showing us, then all of a sudden the lady says, uh, you want your key. And I'm like, key to what? She says, key to your room. You're staying here tonight. Oh my God, what a um I could see, I could see my grandmother walking around. I could, I could see the backyard. I told her, I said, you know, I know you got a pool here, but this area here, there used to be a cistern back here, and that's where we used to get our water. We didn't have we didn't have a shower. All we had was a tub. My grandmother used to heat the water, but we loved it. We Key West was Key West. And uh it was a paradise. We all grew up together, everybody knew each other. Um even after I got into baseball back in 1970, when I when I used to come home, um I'd drive down to Wall Street and see all my friends. You know, I'd have to go, I didn't have to go to anybody's house. You know, you just drive down to Wall Street and you see everybody, go to a football game or go to a baseball game, or, you know, you you just see everybody's. And you know, I still have uh a couple couple guys, uh or Nary Fleetus lives like 10 minutes from my house here. He he just moved here to Florida. He was living in uh in Arizona, he just moved here. Uh he's a he's a he's a scout for the Phillies, uh International Scout. And he's always gone. I can never get a he calls me, he said, I'm here for one day, I'll I'll come back Monday, I'll come back Tuesday. And of all the times I've talked to him on the phone, we've been to lunch once. So my wife hasn't even met his wife yet, you know. So it's like, you know, we got to get together. And and of course, I keep in touch uh with Mingi Esconambo. You know, him and I grew up together, uh, went to school together. We were in every grade together. Uh, we were in every homeroom together. And so we're still friends. We're still big University of Miami fans. Uh, we talk about the games every, every after the game, we talk about the game and what they should have done and what they shouldn't have done, and you know, just like a just like the Conks do.

Joy Nulisch 6:52

And and and you mentioned you mentioned University of Miami when when I saw you back in December and introduced myself to you, you were you were speaking at George Myers m memorial. So you you were good friends with him and you grew up around that time, maybe a little couple years older than than him and Boog, but share

Friends Legends And Conch Community

Joy Nulisch 7:12

some of those stories.

Richie Garcia 7:13

No, well actually, Boog's uh Boog's a year older than we were. George and I are the same age.

Joy Nulisch 7:19

Oh, okay.

Richie Garcia 7:20

Actually, I'm gonna be 84 this month. So uh we're getting old. And thank you. Yeah, George was part of our group. George, uh, we were in class together. We used to tease George quite a bit. Um story I always remember we were at uh that middle school there, we rode our bikes to school. So Mingy and I were outside getting our bike, and we saw George's bike there. So we got his bike, put it in the bottom, and we piled up about five more bikes on top of his. So he was, we came out of there, we were hiding. We didn't want him to see us, we were hiding, and we're laughing and laughing. And I think it I think it took him about two weeks to find out who did it. Finally, when he cooled down, we let we let him know that we had done it. We didn't want to tell him when he was mad. You don't want you don't want to mess with George when he was mad.

Joy Nulisch 8:15

I remember in your in your speech, um, you said that he was quite the competitor.

Richie Garcia 8:20

Oh he he was amazing. He was an amazing athlete to begin with. Didn't what he never wanted to lose. He didn't want to lose. Uh he played hard. Uh obviously, his size, you know, to be able to do what he did on the football field was amazing. I'm so I was always so proud of him. And because of him, I think we were we became Miami fans, University of Miami fans, and followed him, followed his brother Joe, played there. Um, and even through the bad times, we're still fans. And then, of course, um they hit a they had a streak there where everything was going good, and now I think I think we're going back to those days. Um I'm kind of enjoying the University of Miami a little bit more than I have in the past. So even in even in their basketball team now, they're doing a little bit better. I root for them and everything, uh any sport. Uh I'm I'm a sports fan. Um, I watch whatever. Um I was in there one the other day watching a game. I had a women's softball, my wife's shaking her head. You're watching women's softball. I said, yeah, I play pretty good now. They don't not like the old days, you know. So, and they're making money. The college kids, the college kids now, you know. One of those girls from out, I want to say University of Oklahoma. I think, I think she got signed for a million dollars.

Joy Nulisch 9:46

Yeah, a pitcher, a pitcher. Yeah, yeah, Texas Tech Um uh Kennedy, Nigel Kennedy makes a million dollars. And now there's a professional league. Um, so they're definitely um very fun to watch, very fast game, very competitive, and some true, true athletes out there. In fact, the Lady Conks have a really good team. The last several years we've been very competitive and are in the regional tournament tomorrow night, right? Tomorrow night is it, yeah, Tuesday night, depending on when you watch this, Tuesday night. Um, there's a big game. So you don't get home very often, but I know you were also home for um Dinner on the Diamond a few years back. And Victor, you you you had a question about that because you were also a keynote speaker.

Victor Gallardo 10:34

Richie, you know, I was I was honored to be asked to be a keynote speaker at uh Dinner on the Diamond and uh to speak before those fans was uh an incredible uh feeling for me. Um I I was so proud of that. How did you feel about doing that in front of the key was fans?

Richie Garcia 10:54

Well, uh it was listen, it was an awesome night. Um I was sick that that weekend. Um actually I had been asked to come down and I was just getting over COVID. And and I called um Jackie Jackie. Jack Niles, yes, Jack Niles. I called him. I said, Hey man, I'm sick. I can't I can't can you change can you change a date? And he said, you know what, I'd like to do it, but I already sold like 1,500 tickets. And this is like on Wednesday. So I said, Well, I'm I'll I'll call you back, I'll see how I feel the you know the next couple days. Well, I wasn't feeling any better, but I was feeling good enough that I could drive down, and I spent my whole time there in my room in bed. And only time I went out, I went out Saturday. Um, I went over to the coffee shop over there across from uh Quickers Field to see some of the guys, some of the old guys. And then I did visit the baseball team. They were practicing that that day. I was there for about an hour. I watched the Super Bowl, because the Super Bowl was on that Sunday. I watched the Super Bowl in bed. I think I had so the night I ended up being the last, the last speaker, of course, because I was, you know, I was supposed to be the keynote speaker, and I was cold, I was chilly. I was honored, honored to be there. Of course, and they had so many guys there, they had so many ex-players, and they had um Brooks Carey was there, uh, I believe Boog was there, uh Sam Holland was there, you know, and I really, really enjoyed it, but I was sick. And I don't think I came across as as good as I normally would have, but uh it was a great feeling to be there. Um it was a great feeling to have my my wife there with me. And because she's not from Key West, so she got an idea about you know what Key West is all about. She's had to learn that the hard way, you know, through me.

Victor Gallardo 13:11

It is it is an absolute honor when you, you know, when you go back and when you get asked to talk about your days as a player and what it meant to you in front of, to me, what is the greatest fans in the world. Um, I know that I spent many a night, Richie, two o'clock, three o'clock in the morning in my house here in Atlanta, rehearsing my speech, going over and over and over and over and over. And my wife Sandy would say to me, You think you got it down by now? What? And uh it was wonderful. So I'm glad you I'm glad you got to do it because it is.

Richie Garcia 13:48

I've done it, I've done it, and I love doing it. I'm always um, they're never on time as far as telling you when they want you down there. They call you like three days before, then go, hey, uh, can you come down and and do this? And I'm like, when do you want me to do this? Uh Friday. It's Wednesday. Yeah. I can't, you know, I just can't drop everything and just take off and you know, right. It it's not not that easy. Give me, give me time. So that time they did, they did give me a lot of time to prepare. And uh, like I said, I normally don't prepare for talks because normally I everything comes out pretty easy. Um, and and a lot of my talks, what I do is I yeah, I tell a couple stories or whatever, and then what I do is I open it up to questions, simply because when I do a talk, I'd like for the people that are listening to leave knowing more than they did before I came on. Especially about umpires, umpiring, umpires, how you know what we go through, where we live, what what we you know, all these little things that people, you know, how we travel, you know, we're on the road every three days, every four days we're in a different city. You know, that kind of stuff. They don't even realize it. People don't even realize that. And uh it's, you know, uh I enjoy t I enjoy talking, I enjoy, you know, um educating people about the game of baseball. That's my passion.

The Leap From Player To Umpire

Joy Nulisch 15:24

So let's let's that's a perfect segue in the talk because my next question was share your journey to becoming a professional umpire. Where did it start? So you say you you didn't even go to school to watch the World Series. I agree, it should be a national holiday. It's like taking two weeks off, everybody.

Richie Garcia 15:44

Especially well, especially now, especially now that play at night, these kids, kids like myself, I wouldn't have been able to to watch the World Series. Because by the time the games are over, it's it's half it's midnight. You know, all the advertising and all the you know the whole thing that that goes on. Um well just uh a little bit on the on the World Series, you know, my dad and I drove from Key West to New York in 1954. I was 12 years old to go to the World Series. We saw the we saw the Giants and Cleveland four-game series. This it was a sweet. I saw Willie Mays make that catch in center field over Oh, I've got the picture upstairs. That I I was there, I saw that. I physically I physically Vic Works hit the ball. Um and I remember um as a kid I was a Yankee fan. So I was upset that that Cleveland had beaten the Yankees because back then they didn't have playoffs. Whoever won. Cleveland won 111 games that year. The Yankees won the Yankees won 103. So they won 103 games and never got a chance to play in uh in the postseason. So I got there. Al Lopez, Al Lopez was the manager for Cleveland at the time. Al Lopez is a Tampa native here. So my dad said, go over, let's go over there. Well, what once you once you get an autograph, let me sign a ball for you. I said, no, I don't want to go. I don't I don't like him. I don't like I don't like Cleveland. So he said, go over there, we're gonna go over there, and you're gonna say, well, I have a picture on the wall here when I was 12 years old of Al Lopez signing that ball for me. Then I got a picture of me and Al Lopez at his 90th birthday in Tampa. My neighbor, my neighbor across, my neighbor, that not not now, but because I just moved, but I lived out in in Clearwater Beach, and my neighbor across the street went to school with Al Lopez, was very good friends. So one day when he walked in my house and he sold a picture with Al Lopez, he said, Can I take that picture and have him sign it? And I said, sure. So about three weeks later, he invited me to go to Al Lopez's 90th, 90th birthday, and we went. And I got the got the meeting again for the second time. Then we went again in 1955. Saw the Yankees and the Dodgers, which will be one of to remind me, that'll be one of my stories that I'm gonna tell you before we hang up. Um where the Dodgers beat the Yankees for the first time in a World Series. It was 1955. And Johnny Padres was the uh I saw Jackie Robinson steal home play. I know you guys have seen that picture with Yogi Berra holding the ball, yelling at the um yelling at the umpire, because the umpire called him safe, and Yogi Berra was arguing with the umpire with the ball up, the ball up in his hand.

unknown 18:55

Yeah.

Richie Garcia 18:56

So so I also got to see Jackie Robinson play, which uh wasn't was amazing.

Victor Gallardo 19:03

Incredible history there, Joey. Yeah, especially for two Yankee fans like us.

Joy Nulisch 19:08

Exactly. I win my glory.

Richie Garcia 19:10

Well, I you lose you as an umpire, you lose that fanship. You're no longer you're no longer a fan of anybody because every it doesn't matter, everybody yells at you. And believe it or not, the team that I had the biggest problem with my first year in baseball was the Yankee farm team, the Fort Lauderdale Yankees. Pete Ward. Yeah, Pete Ward was a manager. He was one of the managers there. You know who else was a manager there? Bobby Cox, who just passed away. Bobby Cox was was the manager there in 1971, uh, Fort Lauderdale Yankees. Yeah. So when I got home, you know, I went in the Marine Corps right out of high school, uh, 18 years old. I went right out in October uh of 1960. I went in, I went in the Marine Corps. Fortunately, I got to play baseball in the Marine Corps for three years. And we had some very, very, very good teams, very competitive teams, very good teams. Um, I got offered a couple scholarships, University of North Carolina and Wilmington College, which at the time was a two-year school. It was like a junior college at the time. Now it's uh now it's Wilmington College, University of North Carolina at Wilmington College. So it's a four-year school now, and uh, and by the way, a very good baseball school still today. We used to play them quite a bit quite a bit, because I was stationed at Camp Le June in North Carolina. So we used to play those schools quite a bit. So the coach from Wilmington College took advantage of it. He he got a lot of us guys that were getting out of the service to come play for him. So but I went home, I went home and I got married, and back then you didn't go to school while you were married. If you got married, you had to go to work. So that part, the playing part kinda you know, went down the window. Went out the window, I should say. Um so I coached Mary Immaculate High School.

Joy Nulisch 21:23

I didn't know that.

Richie Garcia 21:24

For two years. Yes I did. Had Randy Sterling. Randy Sterling was in the seventh grade. I got him to go to Mary Immaculate, and he pitched and beat Kewz High School one year when we played them. Not surprised at all. No. I had a I had a great time being uh coaching um the kids, uh, we didn't have a good team, but they learned how to play the game. Those kids learn how to play the game. Um and I had a great time. So what happened consequently doing that. My neighbor down the couple houses over was uh Vince Zito, was an umpire. He lived like two houses from me. So he came over, came over one night and said, Hey, I got a doubleheader at the Navy Yard, fast-pitched softball. My partner got sick. Can you come out with me and stand on the bases for two games? You get paid, I don't know, 10 bucks, whatever it was. And I said, Yeah, I'll go with you. I said, but if I go, I'm gonna I want to work behind the plate. He said, Well, you can't do that. You've never umpired before. I said, I don't care. I'll get I want to get back there. He says, no. I said, well, if I can't work the plate, I'm not going. Well, finally I talked, I talked to him and they're letting me. And that started. I loved it. I fell in love with it right then and there. It was like I said, you know what? I'm not coaching, and I'm gonna stop coaching, I'm gonna start umpire. So I did a little, I did some little league games, I did some Holy League games. Uh uh Key West had a junior college just getting started. Just getting started. Bill Cates, I don't know if you guys remember Bill Cates and I. Oh, yeah. Bill Cates was a legend in Key West.

Speaker 3 23:16

Yeah. Wickers Field legend, sure.

Richie Garcia 23:19

Yeah, he played, you know, he played in the uh Dodger organization for years, never got to the big leagues, but he but he was in the minor leagues for quite a while. So I kind of worked my way in, and one day I worked a game at Wickers Field, the Key West Community College, whatever it was called at the time, against uh Miami Dade North. Demi Maneri was the manager for Miami Dade North. Well, in the first thinning, in the first thinning, I threw Bill Cates out of the game. So you and so in Key West, you you you know, you don't do that. You know, you don't throw you don't throw legends out of games. I didn't know that, but I did it. So I so after the game, Demi Baneri came over and said, um, gee, you did a great job tonight. He said, um, do you ever think about umpire professionally? And I thought, I said, no, no, I never have. He said, well, you should look into it. Because he said, anybody that can throw a key west manager out of the gate out of the game in the first inning has got guts enough to umpire professionally. So I said, well, I started looking into it, you know, just a curiosity. You guys don't remember, but let me tell you, you know how we used to get the baseball scores in Kiwas? The Western Union ticker. Ticker tape. Used to be a, they allowed me to go to the Cuban club and keep score when I was 12, 13 years old. I was the only kid that was let go in there because there was there was gambling going on, there was play guys playing pool for money, there was drinking, there were, you know, everything that you don't want your your your son to be around. I was in there. I was there, but my main focus was that ticker tape and getting the scores out of that ticker tape and putting them up on the scoreboard. Because they had a big plastic scoreboard up, and I would, I was the only one allowed, when I was there, I was the only one allowed to put the numbers up on the because there was a lot of gambling going on. Uh, and the guy didn't let anybody get near that ticker tape. So I, you know, baseball was everything. I mean, when all of a sudden we got teamed to in the Midwest, which was an hour behind us. Kansas City came in, and so my I my grandmother used to walk down to the Cuban club and call me. Come on, you gotta go to bed. You gotta go to school tomorrow. So let me stay one morning, let me see one morning, you know. No, I got paid. I used to go to Camor uh Camoras and get ice cream. Guy used to go over there and buy ice cream. El anon. El anon. Yeah. So that and basically, um, I guess about another year, a couple of years later, um, things didn't work out in my marriage, and I was working in the post office, and I decided I wrote going to umpire uh I said I'm going to umpire school, and I quit. I should have taken a leave of absence, but I quit. That's how crazy crazy it was. I said I'm I'm going to umpire school and I'm I'm going to I'm gonna be in the big leagues in a few years and uh God knew what he was doing, because in five years I was in the big league. So that's pretty quick for for an umpire.

Joy Nulisch 26:54

Yeah, for sure. And when you were in the Florida State League, um did you run into any of the key West guys? Was Randy was Randy there at that time?

Richie Garcia 27:04

No, Randy actually Randy actually was in the Forest State League before I went to umpire school. I umpired I umpired Randy Sterling in Triple A. When I was in Triple A, he was in triple A. So I caught him up. He started before me, but I I I actually caught him up. Um so but I did um you left Yeah, so I I did umpire.

Joy Nulisch 27:29

I told you he was a legend, you guys. A man's a legend right there.

Speaker 3 27:33

Not about it.

Joy Nulisch 27:34

Told you.

Richie Garcia 27:35

So anyway, so you know, um, I um part Boog. Boog Boog was his, I think his last might have been his last year. Um 1975, might have been Boog's 76, maybe, might have been Boog's last year when he was with Cleveland. I um I umpired him, you know, uh in a game which was really funny, you know. Uh Carl Taylor um actually was catching um for the Cardinals when I went to umpire school and I worked uh exhibition game behind the plate with him catching. So I didn't know Yeah, so I ran, you know, I ran across those guys. Um it wasn't it's not a real com it's comfortable, but it's not a real comfortable feeling because you you know, you know um, you know each other and it's kinda you know, kinda hard uh being um at that time it was difficult being able to do what you're supposed to do with somebody that somebody you know, you know.

Joy Nulisch 28:44

So a conflict of interest.

Richie Garcia 28:47

Kinda. Yeah, you don't wanna you don't wanna be there. It's compromising and it's um it's not a good feeling. Let's put it that way. You an umpire never wants to be in that in that situation where you know you uh you feel especially in a in a professional in a professional way. If it's just a regular game, it's okay, but in a professional way, you you

The Jeffrey Maier Call Fallout

Richie Garcia 29:10

know, you don't that's not a good feeling. It's not good.

Victor Gallardo 29:12

So Richie, definitely. You'd rather not have it. You you were a phenomenal umpire because I watched you many a times. Your strike zone was where it was supposed to be. Um and of course, uh this might be a sour subject, but the Jeffrey Mayer incident, you talk about being put in a situation um in Yankee Stadium. How did you handle what came after that? Well, you know in your heart you make the right call. How did you handle what comes after that?

Richie Garcia 29:45

Yeah, well that that that's a good question, and and uh um it was very difficult. Um because you know, we're very proud of what we do. Um nobody nobody wants to be in that situation no umpire wants to be in that those kind of situations. Um it was probably the worst winter that I ever had. Um it was very difficult um because it was at the end of the at the end of the year, it was very difficult after that working those games because I still had that was game one. So 96, right? Oh yeah. So yeah, no, was it game one or game two? No, it had to be game. It was game one. So it was it was a very difficult time after that because from then we got the next game there in Yankee Stadium, and then we got to go to Baltimore for three games. I never saw the outside of the stadium in Baltimore out at security uh take me to the ballpark, drive me right inside the stadium, drop me right in front of the door to the dressing room, and after the game, the same thing. So we had security around my family, my wife, my kids, because they were there, a couple of the kids were there, and um we had security around them the whole time. One of my one of my daughters who was oblivious to what was going on, kept saying, Mom, why all these men standing around us? What, you know, they were looking at us and standing around us, and my wife had to say, uh, there's security, they want to make sure nobody bothers you because of what your dad did the other night. So, and and again, uh I I really couldn't wait to spring training to see the Oreoles again. You know, because you have that, you live with that until you get to face that person again. You know, like when you have an ejection, my one of my things, one of the things I always used to do when I had an ejection the next day, I would look the guy, I would look that guy right in the eye. And let's let's talk about this. Let's talk about what happened last night. Now, we had some that would start laughing and come over and say, ah, bah, bah, bah, bah, this, that, the other. We had some that had the sourpuss. And what I used to say to them, I just say, hey, you want to keep fighting? We can keep fighting. You're not gonna win, but we can keep fighting if you want. And, you know, they look at you like, this guy's crazy. I'm not crazy, I'm telling you the truth. You ain't gonna win. I got the hammer. You ain't winning. You're not gonna win. But you I so that winter, you know, was very difficult. You know, I had some, I had to do, I had to do a press conference after that game. I don't even know how many people were in there. I'm gonna say 250, 300 writers. I got lights, all the lights on me. I never I had never done a press conference in my life. Now to do a press conference after that, I just barely, uh I was just able, just barely able to see the replay in the locker room, you know, after the game to see what, you know. So the PR lady from the league was there with me and she said, Don't worry if it gets out of hand, uh, I'll handle it. You know, we'll cut them off. We'll cut it off and we'll just go. But, you know, I really didn't know what to say, to be honest with you. And so when I got up there, what I said was, I said, I guess I'm the only umpire that can get in trouble working right field. Because in right field, you usually don't have any any issues. And everybody started laughing. And I thought, uh, it's not gonna be that bad. It's not gonna be bad. Good icebreaker. And it really, it really was not that bad. They did, they could have, they could have sliced me up, up and down, and they didn't. And it's all because of the reputation that I had in the game. The hard work, the hard work that I had put in all those years, the reputation that I had with the ball players and the managers and the writers and and whoever. And unfortunately for umpires, you don't know that until you do something like that. Something like that happens, then all of a sudden everybody says, Oh no, he's a good umpire. You know, you read about how good you are. But they don't do it. The only people will tell you how good you are is the guys you work with. You know, the guys you're working with, they we share, you know, what we do out there. So I remember the first game I had with the Orioles in spring training, because the Orioles were training in Sarasota at the time. So I went down there, I was I was at third base, and I remember um Brady um Brady Young? Brady Anderson, center fielder. Brady Anderson came out of the dugout, ran right by me, and said, Hey Richie, I was your there. You know, I said it was horseshit. And he looked at me and he stopped and he and he said, Well, what happened? You know, like what's wrong? I said, Well, you know, I had that that play I had last year in the playoffs. He put his arm around me and said, Are you kidding? That play didn't hurt us. They they had a better team, they beat us. That play had nothing to do with anything that happened in that series. So don't even don't even think about it. Cal Ripkin did the same. He wasn't as cordial as Brady Anderson was. Because Ripkin and Cal Ripkin and I really never had that good of a relationship. I don't know, he's a little surly. Everybody thinks he's you know the greatest thing since sliced bread, but he he he he's a little surly. But Brady Anderson, Tony Tarasco, Tony Tarasco, who who was the right fielder at the time, he came over, gave me a hug, and said, hey, forget about that. And that game, that game's over, they beat us, we had no chance, blah, blah, blah, blah. So after that, you know, that was you know, I got that with Legend Dixon. I've got to I got to I have not met him personally in person, but I did a podcast with Jeffrey Meyer.

Joy Nulisch 36:19

He's yeah, I saw I saw that.

Richie Garcia 36:22

He's one of the I'll tell you what, he is so nice. What a gentleman. You know, I mean, he's a man now, he's got kids, you know, he coaches his kids. And and he in in the podcast, if you he if you listen to Parker, um, you know, he was so uh I don't know what the word I want to use. He he felt so bad for me.

Victor Gallardo 36:42

Apologetic, yeah.

Richie Garcia 36:44

What you know what I after he heard what I you know what I went through and what I had to do and the whole thing, he he was like, um, and uh the guy that got us to do the podcast um was the guy who was a writer for the Yankees. He's no longer a writer for the Yankees, but he called me one day and he said, hey, could you would you do a podcast with Jeffrey Meyer? And I said, sure, why not? You know. And he did. Now this year we were supposed to do a banquet together in New Jersey. And he had a bail out because of his job. He had they sent him at that time that we were gonna do the the banquet. His job, they sent him to another to somewhere else, and he couldn't be there for that weekend. So hopefully we're gonna do it um this winter coming up. We're gonna do it again. If I'm still around, I hope I'm still around. It's gonna be, and well, it's gonna, you know, they're all Yankee fans up there. You know, they're gonna go nuts, you know. They'll go they'll go nuts in that uh in there, you know, and it's gonna be, it'll be a lot of fun. I think he's a great guy. And I tell people, you know, I would have done the same thing he did. You know, if I would have been out there with a glove, I would have gone out there trying to get that ball.

unknown 38:04

Sure.

Richie Garcia 38:04

So he didn't do, you know, he was a kid. He's 12 years old. He didn't he didn't do anything. I just wish he would have caught the ball. Because if he would have caught it, it would have been a whole lot easier to see.

Speaker 3 38:18

Right.

Richie Garcia 38:19

You I didn't see the I didn't see the ball. I saw I know the ball was over the fence, but I didn't see I didn't even see him, to be honest with you. I was standing there, I didn't even see him. So it was to me, it was an easy call until I saw everybody jumping.

Victor Gallardo 38:33

It was like, something's wrong. Well, you know, you you talked about what umpires go through, and that gave us some great insight on the life that an umpire goes through when they make a difficult call, whether you're for or against. And you know, and the fact that Brady Anderson put his arm around you and uh the right field to put his arm around you and said, hey, forget it. They they looked in the mirror and they said, Hey, that didn't make a that didn't make any difference. And that's just a tribute to the umpire that you were, because like I said earlier, you were one hell of an umpire. Thank you.

Joy Nulisch 39:08

Yeah, I've got I've got it. I don't know if the internet is right on this, but I've got three 3,398 games that you called. That's a hell hell of a career.

Richie Garcia 39:19

And 19, I think, if you look it up, and I think it's 19, I think it's 1976. I think I umpired a hundred, I think it was 167 games. All right, and there's only a hundred and and there's only and there's only 152 games. So I I must have worked some extra games. I didn't know that till I read it not too long ago. Um, because in one of those podcasts, the guy asked me, he said, I got it here, you work X amount of games. I said, I guess I did. I I you know, we don't count games, you know, we don't, you know, that's that number uh to me, uh 3,000 games or whatever it is, yeah, it's a lot, it's you know, it's a big number, but you know, it's it was just games to us. You know, we know what we do, we go out there every day, we're ready every day. Um it's uh uh kind of a a routine thing, but at the same time, with a we've done we do it with a lot of pride. All the guys do it with a lot of pride.

Joy Nulisch 40:22

And I I want to go ahead and add, because you probably won't, but I I'll I'm gonna add to it two all-star games, three division series, five league championships, and four world series. That that's that's a big career.

Victor Gallardo 40:36

Doesn't get better than that, brother.

Joy Nulisch 40:38

Yeah, yeah, for that. Yeah, back to the world. That's that's good stuff, sir.

Richie Garcia 40:43

Yeah, back, you know, and back then that was pretty good. I, you know, I worked three World Series in the 80s. I worked 81, 84, and 89. Um, so that was pretty uh pretty much a big highlight to be able to work three World Series in 10 years. That's uh not too many guys have done that. There are they have guys, there are guys that have done it, but not too many of them. Not too many.

World Series Nights And An Earthquake

Joy Nulisch 41:08

You talk about that full circle moment, you go into the World Series as a kid, and then now you're part of the World Series, four World Series. What is it do you even have a moment where you can be out on the field during pregames or whatever and and warm-ups and soak it up? And do your parents get to come? Do your family come? You you mentioned your your wife and kids were there, but what I mean, do you get to appreciate the moment or are you just in it and working it?

Richie Garcia 41:40

No, no, no, no. Um my first World Series was 1981. There was the Yankees and the Dodgers. So of course, growing up, like I said earlier, I was a Yankee fan. By then, by the 81, I was not a Yankee fan anymore, believe me. I was I was I was done with them, you know. Um, but um when I was a kid, the Yankees and the Dodgers were in the World Series almost every year. They they played each other a bunch of times. So standing, I remember stand going upstairs for whatever reason, I had to go upstairs from the locker room. We got there early before the game. Of course, we get there three hours before the game, and especially during big games, always real early. And I remember being upstairs looking at down at Yankee Stadium and seeing the banners, seeing the monuments from where I was standing, and and all the nostalgic moments that have happened in that stadium. And um I you you talking about soaking it in, yes. I I I thought about uh probably every any every and any moment that I ever had, you know, watching or or or listening to a game. You know, and it was just it was awesome. It was just a great feeling. Um uh working, I had my mom was there, my my mother-in-law was there, but my kids were too young to go at the time, um at 81. But they did um they did go in 84 and 89. And if you remember, in 89 was the earthquake, uh the earthquake world series. That's right. Yeah, that was that was uh a little a little shaky to say the least. No pun intended. So I'll keep you got a key west guy, you got a key west con earthquake. I had no idea what was going on. None. None. I was under a table. I had a like one of the guys on the crew was from California, and he he knew immediately. He knew. As soon as he heard the banging, he said, guys, you better get onto something because that's an earthquake. And there we were, we were under there, and it was a Amazing. Uh, you know, looking back at it, how you know, how really to us nothing happened. You know what I mean? We had no casualties, we had nothing uh at the stadium. We didn't find out what was going on to maybe probably forty-five minutes. We thought we were gonna play. You know, we were uh you know, it's just gonna be a little thing here, we're gonna play. Then when when the stories all started coming in, uh it was amazing. It was just crazy. Bridge collapsed, right? Crazy. Oh the bridge collapsed. There was fires. There was fires down in the marina where we were staying. It took us three hours to get home. There was no lights, there was no lights on the in the city. They took uh we were in a bus. My oldest daughter was pregnant at the time. Um like I said, I had my mom, I had my mother-in-law, um, my w my wife had her her side of the family there. I had my kid, all my kids were there. Um, and it was scary for us, you know, not knowing, you know, what's gonna happen. You know, you've never been like I don't mind hurricanes, you know. I don't mind being in a storm. I mean, I've been in them. I've never been in them. You know they're coming. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I know they c I know they're coming, and I know how to prepare for them. I buy that middle light right away, get that beer, like we used to do when we were kids. We had beer parties. That's it. That's it. That's correct. Yes, sir.

Joy Nulisch 45:34

Oh boy. So we had uh you talking about the World Series. Um, is there another game that stands out? We talked about one of the tough games, but is there another game that stands out as your favorite?

Richie Garcia 45:48

Well, um I am part of the perfect game with Lynn Barker uh in Cleveland way back in it was uh May of uh I think 81. May of May I think May of eighty eighty one. Um that was that was quite a game I you know, it's the first time I worked uh worked with a uh no-hitter. Um and the stuff that these guys have when they when they're on their game is unbelievable. Uh how they can throw a pitch wherever they want it. You don't see that off that that often, you know. But I I do have a little story. Um I'm gonna go back to the 1955 World Series where the Yankees were playing the Dodgers, and like I said, it was the first time the Dodgers ever ever beat the Yankees. And of course I was a Yankee fan when I was a kid. The Dodgers beat him. And of course I was uh 12 years old, 13 years old, whatever, 11, I don't know. I I was crying after the series because it got beat. You know, my dad said, What are you crying about? Get over it. So Johnny Padres had just come out of the Army and went to pitch for the Dodgers, and I believe he I believe he won either either won two games or he won three games in that series. So I got a game one day in in Minneapolis, and he's a pitching coach for the twins. And I hear him yelling from the dugout. He's because he has a very distinctive voice. I know I I know I know I was him. So I'm looking at the dugout, I'm looking at him, and he's he's like, you know, I'm doing like this. Next thing he comes out to talk to the pitcher. So I walk, I walk out there. Now I've known him for quite a while. So it's not like I don't know him and he doesn't know me. I've known him for quite a while. And I've never ever said this to him. He comes out and uh and I said, What are you gonna do? You're gonna change a picture or you go what are you gonna do? And he says, No, I'm gonna leave him in. Hey, he said, hey, there are a couple of close pictures there. And I looked at him and I said, I said, John, let me tell you something. I'm gonna tell you a story. When I was 12 years old, you made me cry. And I'm gonna tell you, I have never forgotten that. So you keep yelling at me from that dugout, I said, I'm gonna run your ass. And he's looking at me, his eyes were that big, looking at me. So he walks off the mound, he's shaking his head, like, what's he talking about? You know. So the next day he comes in the locker room and he says, What did I do? What did I make when did I make you cry? So I said, So I tell him the story. I said, Well, I went to the World Series in 55 with my dad. I said, I was a Yankee fan, and you beat the Yankees, so I started crying. He started laughing. I mean, he laughed and laughed and laughed. He said, I he said, I could never figure out what the heck you were talking about when you told me you were making me cry that I made you cry. Right in the middle of a ball game. Now, this is the middle of a, you know, this is going on during a game. So it was a it was a good time. I had I had a lot of fun. Um, I had a lot of fun on the field just like I did in school. I don't think anybody had more fun in school than I did. I didn't study, I didn't make good grades, but I had a lot of fun, and I never wanted to miss school. Because I had so much fun in school. I never, my, you know, my grandmother said, you know, you got fever. You shouldn't go to school. I said, I'm going. The only time I wouldn't go to school was during the World Series. That's the only time. That's it. And you turned out all right. Yeah. Uh, you know, hey, the good Lord knew what he's doing. You know, he put me, put me in the right place at the right time. That's, you know, that's just life. That's the way life is. And you, and, you know, we uh, you know, uh in October, I'm gonna have 50 years of being married. Um, I got four kids, and uh, I've got nine grandkids, uh, seven girls, and four of them are athletic as can be. Um, one of my granddaughters made All-American last year in soccer, Division I, All-American. She's gonna, I think she's on, she's in the portal right now, and I believe she's gonna go to Texas AM. Uh, and they're giving us some pretty good money. And I L. NIL, and uh, so I think she's gonna go, and uh my son-in-law is a major league umpire, also. He works right now. He's still he's got 15 years in. He wears my number. He wears my number. All the girls playing soccer wear my number. And uh wear their dad's number now, of course, but uh, you know, we've had we we got a good family. Um hasn't been easy, like everybody else's family. We have everybody has their ups and downs, but uh God has really taken care of us, you know. They're they're healthy, everybody seems to be healthy. You know, my mom, my mom lived to be 100, and my dad lived my dad lived 96. Tabaquito, cigar, say big cigar. Big cigar. Sigar was a character. We can write a book of say, we can write a book on Sigar. I heard a lot about him growing up. Yeah, I bet. Uh he was a character. He was uh they threw the mole over.

Victor Gallardo 51:25

I'll bring up a name real quick since we're talking about family. Um Ottilia Pazzo, Albert's wife. Yeah. I um, you know, when my mom passed away 10 years ago, she's become like my mom, and I I probably speak to Oti uh two to three times a week. Well, they were dead. They were good friends growing up, right? Yes, they were. And she tells me stories about all you guys hanging out together, and um, that was pretty cool. Yeah.

Richie Garcia 51:53

Well, let's see. Um one of the one of the girls owns a restaurant here in Dunedin, which is right on. Nina, Nina, Mothi's granddaughter. Yeah. Her grand, her granddaughter. Well, my daughter, my daughter went to the restaurant because they got they got Cuban food. She's got he made uh rope view sandwich or something. Right. Yeah, my daughter, my daughter's my daughter said to her, you know what, how'd you learn how to do this? She said, Well, I'm from Kiwas. And and my daughter goes, Well, my dad's from Kewest. And what's your name? So, but at and they're talking, and she's texting me saying, Dad, do you know the Paso family? No, I know the Paso family. So she tells me who she has. I said, Well, you tell her that her dad was named after me. That's correct. And my sister was uh her daughter, Othelia's daughter, was named after her after my sister. How about that?

Victor Gallardo 52:57

So uh talking about your sister, do you know that she was married to Dean? Correct? Still married, still going to be.

Speaker 3 53:18

Oh, yeah.

Richie Garcia 53:21

The purple one, the purple one, the purple one, was it purple, convertible? Yeah, yeah, it was. Yeah, let me let me he I don't know how he did that. It must have been it must have been before I I borrowed it. Because I borrowed it one night to go out on a date. I I was home from the Marine Corps on leave. You know where I ended up in the Boulevard with that, remember when they started digging for bottles? Yeah, Bottle Beach. I ended up in Bottle Beach in one of those holes because I didn't know anything about it. Had a walk. My mother was living in the my mother was living in the projects at the time. And I had a we had a walk home because I didn't want to call anybody because my my mother said, Don't borrow, don't borrow his car. And I said, Well, I don't have a car, I need a car, I've got going out with this girl. I'm not gonna tell you who the girl was because I know you know her, but um, and that's it. No, no, no, no names. So I ended up ended up in uh in one of those holes like this. I'm telling you, the the car was like this. Oh god, I can just imagine D. And it's so funny when you said that. Uh I'm thinking he if he did that after I had done that, after I took his car. Yeah, it's still going.

Victor Gallardo 54:44

They're still going. Yeah, that's awesome. Your sister worked for Dr. Scarlet and Dr. Scarlett. He was just he was the surgeon for everybody, and I was always in there. And Dean was gracious enough to do that. So please give them my best. I will. I love my will. You know, I'm gonna be 70 in October, but that was 1974.

Richie Garcia 55:04

Oh, man. Yeah. You're gonna be 70. My God, I remember when you guys used to be running around playing, playing little league in. You know, playing ball. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I left there in 1970. 70 was uh when I went down prior school. I came back for maybe I might have come back for another year, and then finally I moved. I stayed up here because I had everything up here. Florida State League. I worked two years in the Florida State League, which was right right here. All the teams are right right around here. I worked the instructional league, which is all all right here.

Winter Ball Chaos And Dominican Crowds

Richie Garcia 55:40

So I worked all year.

unknown 55:43

Yeah.

Richie Garcia 55:43

I didn't I didn't just work do I didn't just umpire during the season. I umpired after the season was over, all these extra leagues. Winter ball, yeah. Winnerball, I went to Dominican twice. You know, that's going to Dominican Republican umpire is classic to say to say the least. To say the least.

Joy Nulisch 56:05

Who's covered, conch fans or Dominican fans?

Richie Garcia 56:09

No, the there's no comparison. The conch fans allowed, but they're not physical. Dominican fans, physical. Yeah. They they're they're Dominican inventors the baseball there is is um completely different than uh anywhere else. They're so passionate they they're very, very passionate, very passionate. I mean there's uh they sell bottles of liquor, they sell they sell rum. They sell they sell bottles of rum. They don't sell a drink of rum. They sell bottles of rum. And everybody comes prepared. They bring the they bring their own little cups, their own little shot glasses, like booches, you know. Yeah. They they got them. They're all over and everybody does it. And I'm sure they become projectiles later on, right? Yeah, yes, they do. You learn as an umpire to stand at second base when all that stuff goes on. They start throwing stuff, you better go to second base because you can't they can't they can't reach you there. They can't reach you.

Joy Nulisch 57:18

That that's funny. I was gonna ask you what what position did you prefer calling behind home plate or the lines?

Richie Garcia 57:25

Where where'd you um behind home plate? Uh that's where the action is. That's where you want to be. Yeah.

Joy Nulisch 57:31

That's where you fell in love with with umpire and that's right.

Richie Garcia 57:35

That's right. Yeah, yeah. That's wrong.

Joy Nulisch 57:38

You mentioned uh Dominican Republic, uh, Billy Wardlow, another Key West guy who's had a tremendous career in professional baseball with the Blue Jays. He he was part of the world baseball classic team. The Dominicans hired him as their equipment manager, and and Victor and and Billy are are are tight.

Richie Garcia 57:58

Yeah, so I I see Billy quite a bit um during the spring. Um, we text each other every once in a while. His dad was up here this year uh doing spring training. So I got to see that. I think it was this year or last year. I mean, the years are getting so they they're piling up quick. So um, but I I did get to see him. I did get to see him. Uh I see him all the time during the spring. I see him three or four times during the spring. Um I'm I went over to Jesuit High School to see um Hernandez. Um I you know, I went over there. I've I've talked to the team. My son-in-law and I went over and talked to the team last year, his team. Um his dad made Moyetas for for me. Yeah, yeah. Did he make them good, brother? He made them. Nah, they were uh gave me eight. He made eight. So I gave my gave my youngest daughter four and we kept four. Because she, when we used to drive to Key West, when John had the store there, that was a that was the first stop. Before going anywhere, we drive in on Flagland and turn and go right in there and get

Family Stories Cuban Food And Home

Richie Garcia 59:10

Moethis. And my daughter loved them. She loved them.

Victor Gallardo 59:13

You want to hear a crazy thing? My wife, when we land in Key West, the first thing we do, get the rental car, go to the Boulevard, make a right, and we go to Miami subs because they got the best conch fritters on the island. Yeah. Yeah. Before anything, we got to go to Miami subs and get conk fritters. Yeah.

Richie Garcia 59:32

I used I used to get the I used to get the conk fritters, um, the sauce and stuff from George when when he was when he had the when he had the you know, they had the truck going around. Yep. So uh I miss that. I missed I miss talk. I miss talking to George. I miss talking to George.

Victor Gallardo 59:49

He was You know, the last time I saw Georgie, I was I was on a golf course in Boca Raton, Florida, and I'm on the putting green before the the before we get out, and I hit a ball, and a ball comes and hits mine, and I look, and it's George, Bill Trout, and Aldo Busant. And I said to them, they're letting anybody out here. And he was like, Victor, what are you doing out here? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, he was wonderful, wonderful man.

Richie Garcia 1:00:18

Wonderful. You know, we had a lot of talks about life, and you know, he he just uh true friends. True friends. Uh I'm uh I'm like on deck. I feel like I'm the I'm an old deck hitter every time I see well Bobby Cox is 84, you know. Bobby Cox is 84 years old, we're the same age. And you're looking into the like, oh man, how lucky am I? You know, being a big one.

Victor Gallardo 1:00:45

You're sharp as a jack right now, you know, listening to you to it. I play golf, bro. I play golf three times a week. That's awesome.

Richie Garcia 1:00:53

And keep drinking those boochies. I drink coffee every Cuban coffee every morning. That's it. And you know, and you know what? And you know what? I never drank coffee in my life until about two years ago. Never drank coffee. Just I would go out to if I if I had Cuban food at a restaurant, I would have coffee afterwards. Not that I didn't like it. I just wasn't that wasn't me. I wasn't a coffee guy. Now I can't wait. I I don't even want to go to sleep. I want to just I wanted to be morning talk and have coffee. And I got my and I got my wife on it too, because she didn't drink coffee either. So her and I yeah, now we're on a now we're on a we're on a streak. Yeah, baby. Cuban coffee, Cuban coffee, Cuban bread. I remember my grandmother, you know, I l we lived, we lived, um, my mother's house was on Margaret Street. Right. Right, right by the Cibonet. You know, you know where the Cibonet is a restaurant. Well that house that house behind it on Margaret Street, that was my mother's my mother's house. Okay. I remember my grandmother going to the bakery, used to be a bakery straight down on the other side of Margaret. She came home with that hot bread, and she put butter put butter on it, and then we scoffed that up. My mother, my mother loved bread. My grandmother loved bread. I love bread. I eat any kind of bread. But Cuban Cuban bread is, you know. It's the best. We got we got a couple restaurants in Tampa that we go to that have Cuban food. We got we couple here, close, probably about 10 minutes from here from my house, um, that it's not not like like we would what I would like. Like my wife cooks, my wife cooks, my wife learned to cook Cuban food from my grandmother. And she wrote all the she wrote all the recipes down. My grandmother had no recipes, but she sat there and watched her and wrote it down. Because they all did, but they all did things by hand. By the eye, my hand, no, no measurements, no nothing. Uh my mother made, my mother made the best, my mother couldn't cook. My grandmother did all the cooking in my house. But my mother made the best flan that you ever, ever, ever want to eat. And and she would put it in the oven, go to the store, come back, take it out. And my wife would say, how the hell does she do that? How does she do that? She said, I can't make it like hers. I'm trying to make it like hers, and I can't. But my wife cooks Ropovie, boliche, she makes a boliche out of this world. I'm telling you. And you know, we're happy. We're eating, we eat Cuban food as much as I can, as often as I can.

Speaker 3 1:03:55

Yeah.

Richie Garcia 1:03:56

Good for you. I don't know if you can get any any of that stuff in Atlanta.

Victor Gallardo 1:03:59

Where you in? We got some places up here.

Richie Garcia 1:04:02

Oh, do you?

Victor Gallardo 1:04:03

Yeah. Oh yeah. Where where are you in Atlanta? We're we're north of Atlanta, about uh 30 minutes north of the city, in um in Alpharetta. Oh, I know.

Richie Garcia 1:04:14

Yeah. I got some friends in Marietta. Okay, yeah. Uh we go visit them almost every year on our way. Brother, you'll have to get my number, you have to call me. You know I was up that way, uh, Mike Hughes. Okay. Mike Hughes lives a little bit east of uh Georgia, of uh, of Atlanta. A little bit east.

Victor Gallardo 1:04:33

And you know who lived over there too was Steve Thompson, flub that used to, you know, that caught in Key West. He moved down to St. Augustine now. But yeah, he lived out there, Marietta. Joy, I know you've got another question for uh Richie.

Fan Questions Pitchers And Ejections

Joy Nulisch 1:04:47

We might have to do more episodes, do this more frequently. But uh I do have a few questions that I wanted to ask. Like I said, we put it out on social media and we had a few fans uh that wanted to ask some questions. Harry Russell, he wanted to know uh which pitchers did you see play that you knew they were lights out, that they were gonna shut down the hitters.

Richie Garcia 1:05:09

Of course, anytime, anytime you work, um Nolan Ryan, it was always a classic matchup. Dave Stewart, who pitched for the Oakland A's, was also a guy that you really look forward, I'm parry. Um Roger Clemens, of course. You know, they there's there's so many great pitchers, and and a lot of these pitchers, not many last as long as Clemens did, Ryan for whatever reason, and you get a guy like Ron Gidry, who back in the 80s, for five years in the 80s, was probably the greatest pitcher in the game. Um and but again, it's it's only for four or five years. And longevity, um when you look at longevity, you gotta look at Clemens, you gotta look at Ryan. Um uh Randy Johnson was probably the toughest guy. guy the umpire in in my in my career um simply because he was so tall he was left handed and his his arm angle was completely different from anybody else where there was nobody that was that tall left handed that came from the side from the three quarter side that he threw from and his ball moved always moved I think I didn't didn't care what kind of pitch he threw uh he had a lot of movement in his pitches another question you mentioned Nolan Ryan do you remember how many games you called for him no we don't we don't really keep track I call quite a bit um I remember I remember working a game with him um when he was with the Angels when I first got in the league and he was kind of a a rookie um and he didn't know where the ball was going that was kind of dangerous because he threw so hard um and he pitched in California and most of the time um you know they're be they're three hours behind so they played if they were going to play a seven o'clock game Eastern time you know they start at four and there was all kinds of shadows um out there on the field and it and with him when he was pitching it was very very dangerous for the hitter um so it it's kind of because it was hard to see very difficult to see and um and that's nothing to play with you got to be careful.

Joy Nulisch 1:07:21

Yeah he he was he was my dad's favorite favorite player. Dalia Malbi wanted to know did you ever eject one of the Key West players?

Richie Garcia 1:07:31

Oh not that I can think of no no no I had you know I'd mentioned earlier that that I was a Yankee fan when I was a kid and actually my favorite player when I was a one of my favorite players when I was a kid was Billy Martin and Billy Martin was my first ejection in the major leagues. Uh my first play job in Texas when he was managing Texas I threw him out of a game. Of course I threw him out a couple other times.

Joy Nulisch 1:07:59

And before we started recording you were showing me around your home office there some of the memorabilia and you you have a painting there with you you and him going at it.

Richie Garcia 1:08:09

Yes we do that was yeah that that was a painting that one of my friends made he did it himself um also um as a side note um Lolan Ryan's only been kicked out of a game once and I I kicked him out of the game not because he was arguing or anything but because he threw at somebody that was a beanball thing and I I had to I had to throw him out but I liked Ryan I'll I I got along great with him.

Joy Nulisch 1:08:35

I did see you have again if the internet is correct right 109 ejections and I did see that he was on the list for hitting a bad intentionally yeah I'm proud of that too by the way I'm proud I'm proud of the 109 I'm proud of it.

Richie Garcia 1:08:51

Every one of them deserved it right that's right I don't regret any any one of those none none and there's probably some there's probably some that are not in there because sometimes at at some point in our careers we didn't write reports on injections because the because the league wouldn't do anything to them so we decided if the league's not going to do anything to them why am I going to take my time to write a report so we didn't write reports. So I'm sure there's it's probably more than 109 but I'll take that 109 uh and and be proud of it.

Pitch Clock Replay And ABS Debate

Joy Nulisch 1:09:26

During your career there's been a lot of changes to baseball currently between the bags getting bigger the ghost runner uh the tie game uh the pitch clock now the ABS two part question what what are your thoughts on those changes and what changes do you think we've yet to see and that question is come from my nephew Clay Frank.

Richie Garcia 1:09:51

Well there's two changes that I don't that I don't mind I don't mind the pitch clock I think the pitch clock has helped um get the game going a little quicker uh getting some of the nonsense of the game like a pitcher thrown to first base five or six times stepping up stepping off you know so that's helped that's help I would like to see them extend that time in the playoffs in the World Series a little bit. Because I I I I think that in crucial situations sometimes where you know it's a little bit too too quick. Um you know you you're in the World Series, you got the bases loaded, you know you gotta you you gotta try to think about what you're gonna do and when you don't have that that much time uh you you're very apt to make a mistake. And I hate to see a guy lose a game because he made a mistake uh because of the t because he had to do it so he had to make a decision so quick on what he's gonna throw or where he's gonna step or anything like that. I don't mind um I I'm I actually I'm kind of used to the replays um um which I I I guess I contributed to the introduction of the replay in 1996 when I had that play in Yankee Stadium. So I I'm not I don't mind that um I think we should get those plays so I don't I don't mind those I don't like I don't like the I don't like the ABS I think the ABS is embarrassing to an umpire. I think it's working on a psych because there's more attention on the umpires now than ever before um the whole idea is to let the umpire umpire the game and leave him alone so nobody knows who he is now every pitch is oh you should challenge oh you shouldn't challenge uh all that was close all this is that you know it's all about the the strike zone they have shrunk the strike zone down to nothing I the guy and and I just want to let the fans know that these umpires they're graded on every pitch every single pitch that's thrown they're graded and to have a strike zone that is so small right now they have they have no space to work to get to to get take the benefit of the doubt there's no benefit of the doubt for an umpire anymore you just it's uh it's 17 um 17 inches and that's it period and that up and down it has shrunk and it's just it's gonna be a lot of more walks this this year because of the ABS there's gonna be more walks there's gonna be more pitches thrown your starting pitchers are not gonna have big time records they're not gonna win fifteen sixteen seventeen games and if they do they're very fortunate because they're gonna throw too many pitches and then they gotta then they have to depend on the bullpen. You cannot depend on the bullpen every day. It just doesn't work. You you have to have start a starting pitcher has to has to get to the point where he's gotta pitch you got to have at least one or two guys that can pitch seven innings so that the bullpen is not stretched. That's why you see so much so many transactions as far as relief pitchers relief pitchers being sent down. They pitched that they work three innings the next day they're sent down to triple A. The reason they're being sent down is not because they're not any good is because they're gonna bring somebody else up to pitch in his place for one, two, three days, whatever they can can do. And then they'll bring the guy back up because once he pitches three innings they can't use him anymore for two days at least two days. That's just the way it is today. So that's cause it's gonna cause more pitches more bases on balls. I just I again and again the psychic part um I know what I'm ta I know what I'm talking about because I've been there I miss pitches I mean I missed I miss plays where I have to be out there on the field you know I know how I felt so now the umpire makes a call gotta they challenge the call he's gotta take his mask off he's got to turn around and he's got to tell the people this guy thinks I missed this pitch. And there's times where they are going to miss the pitch. And if you see the length of how they miss a pitch you know zero zero zero point one that's a that's a that's a a a hundredth of of a of an inch I mean you can't put a you can't put a uh a dollar bill between the ball and the and the strike zone and you know that's just the way I I have my own ideas. I don't know why they would have to do that um they crunched the numbers uh I think they crunched the numbers the wrong way they gave the umpires um less credit than they deserve they had the umpires averaging 90 94 percent the umpires are not averaging 94% those guys are averaging 97 98 percent um and the reason the reason they the reason they're making it so low is because they wanted to implement this system that's just the way it is and and now you got you have umpires umpiring a box they're not actually umpiring the game i mean you got you got a 3-0 count and you got a ball that's that far off the plate and now you gotta call that pitch a ball because otherwise you're gonna get a mark that says you miss the pitch. Where normally in the in in back in the day 3-0 the score is six to nothing who cares let's go let's call a strike make him hit the ball and let's Yeah I want as a fan I want to see the guy swing the bat not sit there and wait for the perfect pitch. So well well and and the the that's the thing the purpose excuse me the purpose of shrinking the strike zone is for them to hit the ball more often but that works the uh to me it works the opposite because once a hitter knows that that pitcher has to throw that ball in that strike zone he will not swing at that pitch until they do that. So consequently they're going to be taking more pitches because they they know how tough it is for the pitcher to get that ball in that strike zone. Once they get used to they haven't they're not used to it yet they're getting they're getting used to the system they're getting you once they get used to that the hitters once the hitters start getting used to it a guy like Aaron Judge will walk more this year than ever before he'll walk this he'll have a total walk and he swings at bat pitches but he's still gonna walk because they're not gonna pitch to it they're not gonna throw the ball down the middle to him they do sometimes I don't know why but I wish you would I I'm a Yankee fan so he can hit him out all day.

Victor Gallardo 1:17:23

Hey Joy can you hear me? I hear you now I'm thinking I'm glad you yeah I'm sorry about that and you know and Sandy disappeared on me so I had to figure out this thing on my own. Okay you did good welcome back for the wild rule change I got a I got a question for you Richie on in regard to that as hitters sometimes you say a guy like Aaron Judge swings at bad pitches.

Catcher Framing And Umpire Safety

Richie Garcia 1:17:48

Being such a great hitter he probably when he does swing at a bad pitch he has his mind made up to swing before he sees it do you guys see players do that sometimes have their mind made up before they see the pitch to call it a strike or a ball no you can't do it you you you can't um we we rely we rely so much we rely a lot on the catcher okay okay the catcher um but an umpire that's why that's why I think it's so so silly when a catcher catches a ball outside and tries to bring it back which they all do that now they move the ball the catchers are moving the ball all the time now all the time and they and actu they actually giving credit to catchers who say they influence the umpire more than the other guy and there's no such thing the umpire when that ball when that ball gets there the the umpire already knows what he's gonna call the fact that as a matter of fact the fact that he moved the glove should be a makes it worse makes it worse that means that you're telling me hey I had to move the glove because it was outside I gotta bring it in or I gotta bring it down or I gotta bring it up why move it the problem is that the umpires today are kind of handcuffed and talking to the catchers and and educating the cut the players like we did we used to tell the catcher don't move you move the glove I'm gonna call the pitcher ball that's it period I don't care where it is now did you like positioning yourself above the catcher inside shoulder outside no inside in the slot what we call this we call the slot. You work it if you work on the actually when you work in the top you're gonna get your head knocked off okay most of the foul balls most of the foul balls that go back straight back come they come back between the shoulders of the catcher okay not all of them but most of them will come back when they when a hitter swings and the ball comes back it's between the shoulders of the catcher most of the time so if you have your head over the top of the catcher's head you got a good chance of getting hit and we've had guys get hit a lot we have guys had to retire because they've gotten hit so many times that it's affected their neck and the concussion protocol in four or five times. So whenever I when I watch a game now even now today I watch a game I see a guy like I saw the other day I saw this kid over the top of the catcher I called one of the supervisors and I said hey do me a favor call this kid tell him to get in the slot otherwise he's gonna he's gonna get his head knocked off and his career is going to be shortened and he's gonna he's gonna have concussions and he's gonna have a problem they have them a lot it's not like it doesn't happen it's not like it happens once in a while it happens we got four or five guys that have had to retire because of getting hit in the mask and those guys are the guys that work over the top of the catcher over the almost on top of the catcher you know why they do that because they're getting graded they don't want to miss a pitch. They're take they're willing to take that chance so they can get a job so they can get hired and and keep their job they're willing to do that.

Victor Gallardo 1:21:32

So is is the zone Richie still corner to corner needs the letters or has it changed or does it vary per umpire?

Richie Garcia 1:21:40

Yeah I said earlier you missed that segment um that it was the the strike zone has shrunk okay the umpires the umpires these the the strike zone is is 17 inches the I mean the plate is is 17 inches the umpires when they started grading the umpires the umpires had it was 18 inches okay they had they had a half inch on inside half inch outside to play with okay the buff they call it a buffer zone so when them when the the ball was on the buffer zone it would it could either be a ball or strike whatever you called you got it right which doesn't make any sense but because I think you should just call a strike if it's that close you gotta call a strike that's just my thinking but they had a buffer zone they don't have a buffer zone anymore the strike zone is shrunk and that's why you see so many pitches on the outside part of the plate being called balls. There's more balls called now on the outside part of the plate than than ever before.

Joy Nulisch 1:22:45

Do you do you anticipate any other changes rule changes coming to Major League Baseball?

Richie Garcia 1:22:52

I that I I I'll be honest with you I wouldn't be surprised if they change anything and they they're willing to do whatever I understand now they got some kind of some kind of mechanism that's gonna call the half swing to tell them when they got when they got yeah check swing when the guy when the guy swung or when he didn't so I don't know how they're gonna do that but supposedly they've got they're experimenting with that now. So I don't know if they're gonna have some kind of mechanism on the bat I guess you know I don't know how they're gonna do it.

Victor Gallardo 1:23:23

I was talking to boy uh uh about the differences in the game itself with the hitting instructors teaching this and fielding instructors you know I don't understand why you had to take something that wasn't broke and try to fix it.

Richie Garcia 1:23:38

I don't understand I don't either I don't either but it's a phenomenal game baseball's an imperfect game and they want to make it perfect. They want to make the game perfect you can't it's an imperfect game there's all the the the history of the game you know there's been no hitters where the catchers miss the ball and the guy gets a base hit or something just all these little things like my play and and set up in right field you know all those things that's an imperfect game absolutely you know you know you I'll tell you a story milk remember milk papas a pitcher for Cincinnati yes he's pitching for well he's pitching in uh at the Cubs the umpires he's he's working a perfect game ninth inning two outs pitch comes in ball four so he doesn't have a perfect game anymore so he walks off the mound he comes to the umpire and says if you would have called that pitch a strike you would have been in the history books you would have been the seventh umpire to work a perfect game and the umpire looked at him and said well who was the guy that did it the sixth time what's the umpire's name you can't name him can you that's how that's how famous I would have been nobody would have known you know what I mean in other words yeah I I gotta I gotta do my job I can't stand there and go oh boy I'm gonna get I'm gonna give this guy the perfect game because I'll be in my name's gonna be in the history book that you don't that doesn't you don't we don't operate like that yeah you know that's just that just doesn't happen. So it's an imperfect game players make errors umpires make errors managers make it mistakes we all make mistakes everybody makes a mistake somewhere you know along the line someone failed on every play on every pitch in the game someone fails I mean you got you got guys playing today hitting 170 back in the day 170 you'd be working for UPS thank you very much you you're not you're not going anywhere you know today you look at the lineups look at yeah at least send his ass back down to single A and telling him to start over or something you look you look at at hitter the first hitter the second hitter and the third hitter then you go down they just barely someone just barely 200 some there's a line of one something a lot of them a lot of them below the dozzal line and back in back in the day you were in you were in double A or triple A if you were you didn't hit I mean that's just the way it was so but the game listen everything's different everything's good how about the pitchers throwing the ball up I mean they warm up they throw eight pitches with with the ball they they get ready to pitch the first pitch of the game they want they want a new ball back in the day they the pitchers wanted the whole the the old beat up ball yeah the one with that Mississippi mud on right Victor dark dark Mississippi mud dark Mississippi but used to make it grayish I used to rub them up pretty you told me how to rub them up in the clubhouse at Wicked Stadium well now if you look at the pitch you look at the balls now they're all white you can see how white they are they don't rub the mud in the ball no they just put a little mud on it but they don't they don't rub the ball you gotta rub the mud in but the pitchers like them slick I guess I don't know I don't get it so a lot of things I love the game I love the game I watch a game I watch a game every night at least one game I watch my uh I watch my son-in-law's game almost every night and if he's not if if he's not working that night I watch another game I'll watch whatever but I watch at least one game maybe two games a day a night sit there and watch it and I love the game but some of the stuff I see is like I mean I've seen like I've seen a pitcher throw eight straight balls eight guy comes up first pitch he's swinging What are you doing?

Speaker 3 1:28:01

Yeah.

Richie Garcia 1:28:02

What do you what are you doing? You wanna hit a home run? Take a pitch, for God's sake. Make him throw your strike.

Speaker 3 1:28:08

Yeah, because it Yeah, ball nine.

Victor Gallardo 1:28:09

The guy can't find it with a GPS and you're swinging. Absolutely. Absolutely. I don't know.

Travel Lessons And City Life

Joy Nulisch 1:28:15

Uh what was one of uh what was one of your favorite uh stadiums to call the games in and what was one of your favorite cities to visit? Because you traveled a lot. So did you have a favorite stadium and city?

Richie Garcia 1:28:28

No, the I I got scolded when I in uh my second year by Nestor Shylock, who is a Hall of Fame umpire. Probably the best umpire I've ever worked with or ever seen. And he heard us talking one day, uh, me and another young guy uh in Cleveland were complaining about the stadium in Cleveland and this, and he said, I don't ever want to hear you complaining about a stadium again. He said, You go out here, you do the same job, it doesn't matter what stadium you're in. You go out on the field, there's all the same dimensions, it's all the same, and all this. If you start talking negative about a stadium or you walk out in that stadium, you're gonna have a negative attitude, and you're not gonna you're not gonna do the job the way you're supposed to do it. And when people ask me that question, I tell them that story. So the answer to that is no. I didn't have any favorite stadiums, I didn't have any favorite feels. Um Did I have favorite cities? Yeah, I used to love to go to Chicago. Chicago um I had I had a good good friend of mine that owned a owned one of the best restaurants in the country. I used to go there after a game. Baltimore was another good city. We had good friends that owned rust Italian restaurants. Oh it was just according to the city to me is according to you know, where you eat.

Speaker 3 1:29:58

Right, exactly.

Richie Garcia 1:29:58

Where where you can go get a good uh uh you know, good lunch or good dinner. You know, that's some of 'em like New York, I didn't like to go to New York. I didn't really like to go to New York. It's too much of a huss hustle and bustle for me. To get from to get from Manhattan to the Bronx was a hassle at four o'clock in the afternoon, three thirty in the afternoon. You couldn't the cabs would the cabs wouldn't take you. If they knew you were going if you got a cab in Manhattan and you tell them you before you get in that cab, you tell them you're going to Yankee Stadium, they won't take you. You gotta wait. You gotta get in. And when he asks you where you're going, make believe you don't hear him. Wait till he gets going.

Speaker 3 1:30:51

And then he Before he throws you out, right?

Richie Garcia 1:30:53

And and then he gets if he gets mad and you you have to tell him, listen, don't worry about it, we're gonna take care of you. Because what happens is they can't get a fare back. You know, they get a fare they get a fare from downtown to Manhattan to the Bronx. They can't find somebody that's in the Bronx that wants to come downtown. You know, they're in a hustle, bustle, Yankee Stadium. You want to get out of that traffic. You don't want to be in that traffic.

Joy Nulisch 1:31:18

Yeah, you gotta give me my ticket to the game.

Richie Garcia 1:31:20

So it was hard. It was it it was difficult. Now, so when I became a supervisor, when I became a supervisor, I worked as a supervisor for eight years. I had a car service. That was that's better. They come pick you up, you walk out, you get in the car, they drop you at the stadium, the game over, you go out, get in the car, bring you bring you back. You don't have to worry about waiting for a cab or waiting for a car or that you know. That's the way to live in New York. You gotta have car service. So but a lot of the cities you could, you know, Boston you can walk. I mean, you can walk from the ballpark to your hotel. You know, it's not that not that far. Downtown area is, you know, kind of small. But I I enjoyed all the cities. I didn't I didn't I didn't mind there's hardly any that I I ever said because I had that you gotta have that frame of mind, that positive frame of mind. Cause you gotta go there anyway. It doesn't matter if you like it or not. You got a schedule, you that you're going there. You know, do did I really wanna go fly from you know, did I wanna fly from uh New York to Seattle? Hell no. You know, that's a long flight. But if it's in your schedule, you gotta go. You gotta do it. So we saw the portrait.

Joy Nulisch 1:32:43

You have any questions?

Victor Gallardo 1:32:45

Go ahead, Joy.

Weaver Martin And The Worst Abuse

Joy Nulisch 1:32:46

No, I was just I was asking you if you had any questions.

Victor Gallardo 1:32:49

Yeah, I I do. So you s I we see the portrait of you and Billy Martin going face to face um when you first came on. Would you rather go toe-to-toe with Billy Martin or with Earl Weaver?

Richie Garcia 1:33:01

Didn't matter. Either one of them. And they're the same, they're the same. You know what you're gonna get, you know. Um Earl Weaver, very seldom, then you get in an argument with him, then you weren't gonna throw him out of the game. Okay. You knew you knew that. When he started arguing, you knew that that's what he wanted to do. He wanted to get thrown out of the game. And he would make it a point uh for you to throw him out of the game. And that's because the league never really fined him like they should.

Speaker 3 1:33:36

Okay.

Richie Garcia 1:33:37

But then he somebody paid his fine. I think the teams paid his fine or whatever. Cause because these guys, once you hit them in the pocket, you hit him in the pocketbook, they won't argue much anymore. You can tell. You can tell who gets who when they get in their pocketbook or not. And they keep arguing, that means they didn't get in their pocketbook. They get in their pocketbook, they stop. Or they become a little bit more respectful, let's put it that way. So Martin, Billy, um, only thing with Billy is when he yelled, you had to yell back. Otherwise, he eat you up. He had to know that you were gonna take his crap, and once he knew that, he would, you know, kind of leave you alone. But if but if he knew you would let him yell at you, he would yell at you the whole game. He'd yell every pitch, and they didn't like this, they didn't like that. And I used to tell the guys, I used to tell the young guys, say if he yells at you, yell back. And if you've got to throw him out, throw him out. I mean, who hasn't thrown oh weaver or Billy Martin out of a game? That's true. In other words, you're not gonna, you know, you're not gonna get League President's not gonna come to you and say, hey, how come you threw Billy Martin out of a game? Uh I'm I'm one of a hundred. You know, the same with Weaver. Now, you got a nice, a a nice guy and you throw him out of a game, then you gotta explain why you threw him out of the game. Like Jeff Tolberg and, you know, those guys. Jeff Tolberg was a gentleman. He was a nice guy. So you're not, you know, if Jeff Jeff Tolberg came and said, wanted to talk to me about something, I would listen to it. You know, I'd give him the benefit of the doubt. I wouldn't yell at him. You know, I'd uh because I know he's not gonna yell at me. So he came out, he talked like a gentleman. You know, he asked the question, I gave him an answer. Um, he didn't come out of the dugout telling me what I saw. Like like Billy, you know, he would he would ask, you know, don't come out here telling me what I saw or what I didn't see, you know, and what I did or why I did it. And that's what they that's the way, you know, that's how they start their they started their arguments. That's the way they did it.

Victor Gallardo 1:35:48

And and what's the worst thing anyone ever said to you, uh, Richie, as an umpire? They get them thrown out.

Richie Garcia 1:35:55

Well, Dick Williams did it on air. Dick Dick Williams Dick Williams was probably the worst of all the guys, of all the managers that I ever uh had to deal with. With Oakland. He would get very he would get yeah, he he was Oakland, he was with um he was with Oakland, he was with um the Angels, he was with um Seattle. So I had him quite a bit. One day I threw him out. This is this is my first year. First year. And he said he said something like, I'm tired of you Cubans. Something like that. And he and he didn't even, you know, he didn't even know he's married to a Latin woman, right? So he just liked, you know, he wanted to get he likes to get personal. He liked to get personal. Yeah, he did. He did he liked to get personal. But I learned that real quick. You know, you learn who the who the guys are that I tell you a quick story about Dick Williams. I learned a lesson. I learned a lesson. They had had a rain out and he brought this young kid up to pitch. He got a double header the next day. So they brought a young kid up the pitch. Well the kid I'm working a plate. The kid's pitching the kid pitched six and two-thirds innings, which today he would, you know, he'd be Cy Young award winner. Absolutely. Pitching six six and two-thirds. Are you kidding? Yeah. Um, so anyway, so the kid pitches six and two-thirds innings. So Dick Williams comes out, so I run out, I'm going to the mountain, I said, Dick, what are you gonna do? And he he points out to the bullpen, he said, Bring me that SOB from the bullpen. You know, that's the way he caught. So I turn around, I take, I look at the kid, and I said, Hey, you did a great job today. Oh my god, he went crazy. He turned around and said, Great job, great job, my ass. You can't pitch nine innings in the big leagues, you shouldn't be here. He's going back to the mine leagues tomorrow. How about that? That's the kind of guy he was. Right in front of the kid.

Speaker 3 1:38:10

Wow.

Victor Gallardo 1:38:11

Right in front of the kid, right in front of the kid. Well, you know, we have that saying in Key West, when you're born to be a nickel, you'll never be a dime. That's really yeah.

Speaker 3 1:38:21

So he was he was terrible, terrible guy.

Richie Garcia 1:38:25

Terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible.

Joy Nulisch 1:38:29

So this has been like we we can talk all day. This is been phenomenal. So so good. It's something about baseball. I forget when I'm talking about baseball and I'm 58 years old and I feel like a little kid, little eight-year-old kid again.

Victor Gallardo 1:38:42

I knew you when I knew you then.

Joy Nulisch 1:38:45

Yeah, you did. You did. That's how I'm feeling right now, listening to this and being able to to watch you on TV because Boog had already retired when my memories start coming about, and you know, you'd be calling the game and run up to the TV and and point and and and try to see you, you know, because you couldn't pause the TV then and all that like you can now. Yeah, yeah. So it's it's it's been it's been wonderful to to hear all the stories and we'll we'll do this anytime you want, you know. You come back.

Richie Garcia 1:39:18

We're gonna do it again. We're gonna do it again sometime, no problem. I just got a flash of my phone, the battery's going down.

Speaker 3 1:39:25

Yeah, we've we've got a marketing.

Richie Garcia 1:39:28

Hopefully, next time we're gonna do it on the computer. Um, I don't I don't know what happened there today.

Joy Nulisch 1:39:34

So no, I appreciate I appreciate it all the stories that that you've shared and getting through the technical difficulties. It's been a real pleasure. Let me just ask you one more before we wrap

What Conch Pride Means

Joy Nulisch 1:39:45

up. What does conch pride mean to you?

Richie Garcia 1:39:48

Um it's awesome to be a conch. It is. And and it's good when you tell somebody I was born and raised in Kiwis, because they asked me, where are you from? I was like, Kiwis. Wow, you're a conk. Yeah, I'm a conk. Yeah, you sure am. I'm proud of it. Absolutely.

Joy Nulisch 1:40:07

You know, I'm and we're we're uh we're all proud of you. And I I remember you spoke when you spoke at uh George Meyer service, you talked about the importance of conks learning our history. And you are such a part of the history here in Key West, so it's been a pleasure to hear your stories and to record them. And like I said, anytime you want to come back, we'll do it again. Or if you come to Key West and you just want to go get a Cuba Mix and a booty, it's on me. I remember that. I remember that. I'm Join Doolis, and I appreciate you tuning into my podcast. My purpose is to bring joy to my life and the lines of others. If you enjoyed this episode, drop a like, share, and subscribe because there's a lot of good stuff on chat. You can also follow Bring Joy on YouTube and Instagram or check my website at joindoolis.com. And go bring joint to the people in your world. Until next time.