I have the honor of meeting and hanging with the great baseball player, Phoenixville's own Andre Thornton, last night. Andre was in town for his 50th high school reunion. He joined a Hot Stove baseball discussion group I am a part of.It was an unbelievable 3 hours of memories and fascinating stories.
Andre was a two-time all star, playing 15 seasons in the big leagues. He played for the Atlanta Braves, Montreal Expos, Chicago Cubs, and, for ten years, the Cleveland Indians. He is in the Indians Hall of Fame. He once hit for the cycle, but is most proud of his inside-the-park home runs. He totaled more walks than strike-outs in his career, 876 to 851, an amazing feat for a power hitter.
Andre is one of only three players since 1918 to have six walks in a game, a feat rarer then an unassisted triple play or a perfect game.
I can't remember, verbatim, Andre's comments last evening, but here are some highlights which stuck out to me:
* I asked Andre who was the toughest pitcher he ever faced.He said there were more than one, but two that immediately came to mind were Tom Seaver and Bob Gibson. They are Hall of Famers, and what made them stand out from other hurlers was that both had outstanding fastballs, but they are an equally-great second pitch to keep batters off-balance. Gibson has a killer curve ball and slider, as did Seaver.
He said a lot of guys threw hard- J.R.Richard from Houston threw as hard as anyone in Andres' day, but having that great second or even third pitch is what separated the good from the great from the Hall of Fame pitchers.
* Cliff Johnson, the old catcher who played for Toronto and Houston, played a big part in Andre's career. Andre was struggling in the minors when he stepped to the plate one day and met Johnson playing catcher for the opposite team. Johnson was a somewhat quirky guy, and he asked Andre why he was struggling.
"I'm gonna tell you what's coming," Johnson said.
Johnson called out "Fastball!", and sure enough, the pitcher threw a fastball , which Hinton took for a trike. "Why didn't you swing?" Johnson asked the incredulous Thornton. Andre didn't think that Johnson meant it.
Johnson called out "Fastball!" again. This time, Andre clubbed it for a home run. After that, he got hot and starting tearing up the minor leagues until he was called up to the major leagues. And so, Cliff Johnson played a big part in getting Andre on track.
* Andre's favorite ballparks to hit in were County Stadium in Milwaukee and Fenway Park in Boston. it was at Fenway where Andre hit for the cycle, which he calls "luck."
Veteran's Stadium, like most astro-turf fields, was tough to play on. It wa splaying on concrete under a thin rug.
* Higher pitching mounds, like at Dodger Stadium, affected hitters like Thornton, even more so then tighter-wound baseballs.Andre, like most players in his era, used a bottle to rub down his bats and make them harder.
* His favorite manager was Andy Seminick, the ex-Phillie Whiz Kid, who managed Thornton after he was drafted by Philadelphia in 1967.
Andre recalled his signing. He tried-out for the Phillies at old Connie mac Stadium everyone was a free agent back then- no draft). He hit a couple of long home runs onto or over the roof of the massive grandstand at the famed ballpark. He signed for $10,000 ( big money back then), plus the Phillies paid for Thornton's education and National Guard duty.
* Andre's tip for hitting- keep ti simple. "See it and hit it" was how he was taught in the minors, which is his philosophy for kids today. "You can't hit what you can't see."
The toughest pitchers to hit against weren't necessarily hard-throwers. The pitchers who hid the ball well, who knew how to pitch, guys like Jim Kaat, Luis Tiant or Don Sutton, those were the toughest pitchers to hit.
Picking up the ball as quickly as possible out of the pitcher's hand was the key to success. Recognizing what pitch was coming was also key. Eyes see the ball, which tells the brain, which tells the hands and body to do the work.
Pitcher's were creatures of habit, so if you knew their tendencies, they rarely changed. If a guy likes to throw his fastball on a 3-2 count, he's going to do whatever he is comfortable doing. Guys who made mistakes were the vulnerable pitchers. You had to capitalize on those mistakes.Guys kept little books on pitchers and memorized their weaknesses and tendencies.
* Who is not in the Hall of Fame who should be? Dick Allen,Thornton replied. He called Allen a "great hitter.""He was all wrists." Thornton said.
* When Andre was traded to the Cubs form the Braves, he hit 17 homers in the minors before being recalled to Chicago. The sweet-swinging outfielder, Billy Williams, was watching Thornton in the batting cage . "You've got a 'helicopter swing;" commented Williams.
Williams has a short, compact stroke, as opposed to Thornton's big, loopy swing.
* What's the hardest part of being a major league baseball player? The everyday grind, getting in early in the morning after traveling, and expected to perform, every day. Making adjustments daily is also big. Baseball is a game of constant adjusting and re-adjusting.
* Thornton is old-school and not a fan of major changes in the game, even to speed it up. He's not a fan of instant replay either, saying mistakes of "part of the game" and "the human factor is part of the beauty of the game." He states that money rules, as in all professional sports, so you won't see the 162-game schedule being reduced.
* Andre played with great Phillies such as Mike Schmidt and Bob Boone in the minors at Eugene, Oregon.He remembered playing in the snow in Montreal at old Jarry Park. He called the St. Louis Cardinals organization the best at teaching and coaching players.And he noted the Cards' outfield of Lou Brock, Bake McBride and Reggie Smith as the "fastest" he ever seen.
Even with 3 hours of baseball talk, I thought of even more questions I could've asked Andre. What was it like playing at Wrigley Field- all those day games? What did he think of the recent Indians' 22- game winning streak? What was the longest winning streak he was ever involved with? What was the longest home run he ever hit or ever saw?
Andre Thornton throws out the first pitch in Cleveland tomorrow night before the deciding Game 5 of the Indians-Yankees American League Division Series.
A great guy who still calls Phoenixville "home" and was not only a great player, but remains an outstanding human being.
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