Interview with Ralph Kiner

Ralph Kiner is a 1975 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee. The Pittsburgh Pirate outfielder led the National League in homeruns. Kiner's name is synonymous with the Pirates all-time offensive records along with Willie Stargell. As Willie was the greatest offensive threat from the left side of the plate, Kiner was their greatest threat from the right of the plate. His 10 year career statistics speak for themselves: twice he hit over 50 homeruns, drove in 100 or more runs six times, ranked first in slugging percentage three times, and averaged over 100 walks. In 1949 his 127 RBI was tops in the league.

Here is the interview:

BW: What was it like being in an organization with Honus and Branch Rickey? What were they like?

RK: Honus was a nice coach, great ballplayer, and you couldn't find a nicer guy. Branch was not very nice, didn’t care about the players, didn’t put money into players or ballpark, and wasvery political but still a very smart man.

BW: What was it like being inducted into the HOF?

RK: It was a great thrill, and a real honor to be one of the select thousand players to be in HOF. a tremendous honor.

BW: How did you become such a legendary announcer?

RK: I was looking for a job after the general managing job with the San Diego Padres. The Mets called and said if I was interested in talking about Mets games and I assumed it would be a good job and a great way to extend my baseball career.

This is the start of a whole load of interviews. Every day at 3:04 PM ET there will be a new interview so constantly check back. There will be no alerts of new interviews besides this one. Thank you Ralph.