We are all so close. We are godfather to each others' kids. I was the best man at Jesus' wedding.
You had to pitch in and out. The zone didn't belong to the hitters; it belonged to the pitchers. Today, if you pitch too far inside, the umpire would stop you right there. I don't think it's fair.
I faced Gibson many times and faced Sandy Koufax three times.
Those days were very tough. All my teammates are white, and it was a different time. I couldn't go out to eat with the white players; I had to wait until someone brought something out to the bus. We couldn't stay in the same hotels.
When he hit a ground ball to you, you knew you had to make a good throw because he was going to be running.
We used to look at Felipe as our guiding man that we listened to.
There is no way to have a strong arm if you don't throw enough.
The only way you preserve pitching arms is throwing; that makes the arm stronger.
If you are used to going five innings and then go six or seven, you won't have your good stuff. They need to start that from the minor leagues and give pitchers strong arms.
But when I stopped facing Sandy, I had to face Don Drysdale. No one on my team wanted to face him.
My manager said it would more effective against left-handed hitters. It seemed to me that was impossible to do without the high leg kick, which I started that day.
