Manchester Life 2022 | Page 22

The Golden Touch
the record for longest time between championship appearances by any player in any professional sport . When my friend and teammate , Bruce Sutter , struck out the last hitter in the last inning in the seventh game of the 1982 World Series , I still consider that the most thrilling moment in my career . At the time , I had many individual awards , I had been in All-Star Games , but the one thing that I never had was a World Series Ring . I was 44 years old when we won that World Series , and it felt amazing to know I had contributed to that . Keeping that in mind , I was happy that Stephen Strasburg did end up eventually getting to a World Series , especially because Major League managers today are very protective of star pitchers . When I put myself in his shoes and knew that it took 17 years for me to get back to a World Series after my first one , I knew that I would have wanted that opportunity . That ’ s why I wrote that letter .
Q : I can imagine it was also an incredible moment when you learned that you were inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame . Take me through it – what was it like ?
A : I had missed previous Hall of Fame inductions by a vote or two twice before , so I wasn ’ t incredibly optimistic going into this year . This particular year , I remember I was waiting for the president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame , Jane Clark , to call with the news that I had been inducted . They don ’ t call with bad news , and I had experienced what it was like to wait for the call and not get it several times before . I got that call when I was 83 years old after coming so close several times , so you can imagine the emotions and satisfaction that I felt in that moment . It ’ s the same thing for my good friend , Tony Oliva , who played with me on the Minnesota Twins . He ’ s 83 years old , as well , and he ’ s been through the same thing that I have . It ’ s incredible that two 83-year-old players who once played on the same team are going to be inducted this year . I think that we will be the oldest still-living players ever to be inducted , and I ’ m very excited for it .
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