previous interview on Seamheads with Fritz Peterson<\/a>).<\/p>\nGeorge Culver, who threw a no-hitter for the Cincinnati Reds against the Philadelphia Phillies on July 29, 1968, was the only player to write to me again wondering on the status of the book. While I was unsuccessful on getting it published, I feel I owe it to Culver to at least publish our conversation here.<\/p>\n
Culver talks about his no-hitter in detail, but also about pitching on the day of Robert F. Kennedy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s funeral, hurting his arm with the Reds, the 1972 strike and pitching in Japan.<\/p>\n
Culver<\/strong>: My memory is kind of fading, but I do recall the day of the game, it was a doubleheader. I was pitching the second game so I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to go to the ballpark for the first game so I had like a late lunch. I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t eat anything, my stomach was all messed up. Didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what to do when something\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not right with your stomach. But anyway, I ate very little.<\/p>\nI caught a cab and went to the ballpark. At the park, the first game was a real long game. I think the score might have been something like 10-9, it was a real long game. It didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get over until about 10 o\u00e2\u20ac\u2122clock at night if I recall.<\/p>\n
[The Reds won the opener, 7-6, in two hours, 58 minutes. The next-longest game in the National League that day, not including Culver\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no-hitter which lasted two hours and 48 minutes, was two hours and 17 minutes. Most games that day were played at a two-hour pace.] <\/em><\/p>\nCulver<\/strong>: So I was just sitting and watching the game. So when I went out to warm up my toe \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I had bad toe, it had been bothering me but nothing like that \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and all of a sudden this toe is going to act up, too. So everything is crumbling on this one day.<\/p>\nSo I run up into the clubhouse, I could hardly even put my shoe on, so I go up into the clubhouse and had the trainer inject me with Novocaine. He put Novocaine \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not even sure they can do that now, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure they could put a needle in you now with all the stuff going on. He put a needle in me, put Novocaine in there and so when I went back down to warm up I hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even thrown a pitch – and the umpires are already on the field getting the lineups.<\/p>\n
So now I have to warm up as fast as I can warm up. In those days a pitcher could warm up in front of the dugouts. So in a lot of those parks, not all them, but a lot of those parks you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d warm up right in front of the dugout.<\/p>\n
This was in Connie Mack Stadium, the old ballpark in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
[Also once known as Shibe Park, Connie Mack Stadium was home to the Philadelphia A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s from 1909-1954 and to the Phillies from 1938-1970 (as well as part of 1927)]. <\/em><\/p>\nCulver<\/strong>: I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I threw but 20 pitches warming up. (Normally he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d throw) at least twice as many.<\/p>\nSo when the game started my only thought was to try not to overthrow it in the game because I knew I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t loose and didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to hurt my arm.<\/p>\n
I started the first inning just making sure I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t overthrow and so I got three kind of simple outs.<\/p>\n
[Tony Taylor grounded out to shortstop, Roberto Pena struck out and Johnny Callison fouled out to first].<\/em><\/p>\nCulver<\/strong>: Because the bullpen was so far away, I still couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go down and throw. The bullpen was all the way down in the left-field corner. So I still was basically hardly loose.<\/p>\nI guess it was the second inning there was a ground ball hit to Tony Perez at third. In fact Richie Allen hit it [Allen was leading off the inning]<\/em>. It bounced up and Tony Perez went right to Woody Woodward, who was the shortstop, and Woody Woodward threw it in the stands at first base. Because it was Richie Allen and because it was Philadelphia I just assumed it was a hit and probably an error on the throw. I never really looked up at the scoreboard again until about the fourth inning.<\/p>\nBut anyway, eventually he scored on a fly ball. They hit a ground ball and he went to third and then a fly ball, he scored. So I was losing 1-0.<\/p>\n
[Bill White grounded out to first, with Allen going to third. After Don Lock walked, Cookie Rojas flied out to right field, Allen scoring]. <\/em><\/p>\nCulver<\/strong>: I happened to look up at the scoreboard in the fourth inning and I think we were losing 1-0 [actually, the Reds had scored three times in the third inning, so perhaps it was then Culver looked at the scoreboard, prior to the Reds scoring]<\/em> and they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any hits up there for them and I thought, if they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give him a hit on that then this would be a good one to pitch a no-hitter and lose. It was the first time it occurred to me that I could pitch (a no-hitter) \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 For some reason it just popped into my head.<\/p>\nI kept looking every inning to see if they were going to change it to a hit, and they never changed it to a hit. So now the fans are starting to get into it. Plus it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about midnight or after midnight now in Philadelphia and the fans had been there the whole day and half of them had been drinking all night. They were standing behind my dugout over there rooting for me at the end of every inning.<\/p>\n
They were on my side. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if they were rooting for me or against the Phillies but in either case they were making a lot of noise and cheering me on.<\/p>\n
So all of a sudden now this thing became a possibility and I got really nervous. I ain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t never pitched a no-hitter anywhere \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not in high school, not in college, nowhere. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not exactly something you train for. How do train for how you act when you pitch a no-hitter? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not something you go out and practice (laughs).<\/p>\n
So there I was, a guy who probably should never have been in the big leagues, and there I am standing on the mound with three outs to go. (laughs) Actually, I started getting really nervous around the seventh inning. Every pitch was like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make a mistake.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I was way too terrified. I ended up walking five guys, I think three of them in the last couple of innings.<\/p>\n
[Besides Lock, Culver walked two batters in the sixth and two more in the eighth.] <\/em><\/p>\nCulver<\/strong>: Just started getting real careful. Ended up lucky to go ahead and do it.<\/p>\nOh yeah (his teammates stayed away from him in the dugout), one guy, his name was Chico Ruiz, a reserve infielder. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know this was going on at the time but because they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a hit in the first inning he went to go to the bathroom. And the manager [Dave Bristol]<\/em> said where are you going and he said I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to the bathroom.<\/p>\nAnd (the manager) said you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go until they get a hit. Teasing him, you know. So he made him sit there. In the ninth inning he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still sitting there. So when the game\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s over with everyone else ran on the field, he ran to the bathroom. The manager wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let him leave his seat, wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let him move until they got a hit.<\/p>\n
I think the game was over at 1:30 morning or so. By the time I got done with a couple of interviews here and there \u00e2\u20ac\u201c because there wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a lot of press covering in those days, not anything like they have now \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I think about 1:30 or so I asked the clubhouse guy for a beer and he said we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any. I said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What do you mean?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re out.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d They were all gone. I think he sent someone to one of the corner pubs and brought me back a couple of beers.<\/p>\n
Hell, I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go celebrate anywhere. All the bars were closed. By the time we got back to our hotel it was 2 o\u00e2\u20ac\u2122clock in the morning and all the bars were closed. Probably lucky because I still would have been celebrating. But what a heck of a night, you know?<\/p>\n
(When the no-hitter was over) I jumped up and down. I recall saying \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I did it! I did it! I did it!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Like, how did I do that? One of them days the good Lord points his finger at you and says it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be a good day for you.<\/p>\n
Yeah (it was opposite of what he expected), because I felt lousy all day. Sometimes that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when you actually perform your best.<\/p>\n
I know I had different times in my career where you had a cold or whatever and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re out there and for some reason you seem to concentrate more. If that was the case, maybe you ought to make yourself sick before every game. Quite often you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see that happen. A guy will have a great game and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll say, I was sitting all day puking or whatever. Michael Jordan, that one game in the playoffs when he scored 60 points, didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t he have a fever? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a freak thing, a freak of nature. I was very, very fortunate.<\/p>\n
I took the glove out \u00e2\u20ac\u201c here in Bakersfield there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Hall of Fame, so I gave it to them. That and the ball. I gave them the ball that was the final out. I kept the lineup card, I kept the key to my room.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia probably had the most newspapers of any town in the National League at that time. I think there were four or five dailies at that time. So I obviously took all those papers and kept the clippings.<\/p>\n
People sent me clippings from all over America. I had quite a collection of newspaper articles. Basically the same one \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it was Associated Press and UPI. In this day and age now, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be on ESPN. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have put the last three innings on ESPN. I would have gotten a lot more national press, not sure I deserved it anyway.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just something that happened. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think of the game inning-by-inning or pitch-by-pitch. I remember the last pitch like it was yesterday. It was kind of strange because the guy hitting was Cookie Rojas, who had been my manager in winter ball the year before. So he knew me like a book. I mean, he managed me. Of all people, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got to be the guy to hit. Because he was a tough out. He didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t strike out, good contact hitter. I threw him a slider and he topped it to first base.<\/p>\n
[Culver threw his no-hitter in 1968, when the mound was raised and pitchers, it turned out, had a decided advantage. In 1969, with the mound lowered, Culver\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ERA went from 3.22 to 4.26, albeit he pitched half as many innings.]<\/em><\/p>\nCulver<\/strong>: I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t notice it (a difference in the mound height). I think the only guy that would have noticed the difference would have been guys that were more over the top. I threw more of a lower-arm thing, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t throw that much over the top. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it had that much effect on me. The next year I was hurt quite a bit. I had hepatitis the next year so I sat out over two months of the season.<\/p>\n[Culver pitched for the Reds for two seasons. In the offseason of 1969, he was dealt to St. Louis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c meaning he was around for the formation of the Big Red Machine, but wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t there when things started to click. The Reds went to the World Series in 1970 and 1972.]<\/em><\/p>\nCulver<\/strong>: While I was there they had good teams but we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any pitching. It seemed like the entire pitching staff was hurt all the time. There was only two or three of us that was healthy all the time. It ended up hurting my career because I was doing a lot of pitching I shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have been doing.<\/p>\nI was volunteering to take \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 in fact, in \u00e2\u20ac\u212268 I started 35 games and relieved in seven more [with five complete games. Culver went 11-16 with two saves, pitching 226 1\/3 innings].<\/em> You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d never hear of such a thing today. Somebody would get fired.<\/p>\nIt wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t anybody\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fault but my own. I was the one who kept saying I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll do it. Several times we had seven-, eight-, nine-man pitching staffs.<\/p>\n
There were some horror stories about our pitching staff. To this day I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand the reason why they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t keep a complete staff there. I think it could have been a financial thing. Cincinnati wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exactly big spenders when it came to that type of stuff. They just didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to spend the money.<\/p>\n
I think we started the season with seven healthy pitchers, if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not mistaken. They didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t use the disabled list like they do now. A lot of it was financial. They kept close tabs on the money you were spending in those days. If you got a $500 raise it was like pulling teeth.<\/p>\n
I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t notice it [a dead arm] until the next year. I started noticing I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have it \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 and the worst part was I just got through pitching four years in winter ball. In those days we all made more money in winter ball than we did during the season. Combine that with abusing the arm, I probably cut four or five years off my career. In 1968 we played a doubleheader in San Diego [this must have been in 1969, which was San Diego\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first year in the majors]<\/em> and I pitched seven innings in the first game. In the second game, we were short a pitcher and I volunteered to pitch in the second game and ended up pitching in relief. That was on a Saturday or a Sunday, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t recall.<\/p>\nBut in any case, on Wednesday I started the game on two days\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rest. Then there was another case where I pitched in Cincinnati on a \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 we had a Saturday doubleheader against the Cardinals. It was the same day that Robert Kennedy was going to be buried. Major League Baseball agreed not to play any games until after he was buried. Well, the train he was on kept getting delayed. It went about two or three hours longer than it was supposed to. I warmed up at least three times to start this game then the player reps would come back and say we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not playing.<\/p>\n
So we go into the clubhouse and we sit around and have these meetings and the general manager [Bob Howsam]<\/em> came in and said we have a full house here, we need to play this game.<\/p>\nSo our guys would vote and said no, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going to play. So the manager finally says I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll tell you what, who wants to play? Just give me nine guys and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll go play. So who do you think volunteers? All the pitchers. They wanted to go play. So he put a lineup out with all pitchers.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t all pitchers, but there was a lot of pitchers, because some guys just chose to play. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to play, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m pitching.<\/p>\n
So I go out and warm up again. Now they decide we can go ahead and play, so now they make a regular lineup. I think I pitched five innings or somewhere in there. It was one of them long things. And so I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember if we won or lost, but we ended up playing a single game that day then they decided to play a doubleheader the next day.<\/p>\n
So the next day, I ended up pitching relief in the second game, it was a Sunday afternoon. We go to Chicago and I started on Tuesday. One days\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rest and pitched on Tuesday. Stupid stuff like that every year.<\/p>\n
[On June 8, 1968 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the day of Robert F. Kennedy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s funeral \u00e2\u20ac\u201c George Culver started and went 3 2\/3 innings in a 7-2 loss to St. Louis. On June 9, Culver pitched one inning in the second game of a doubleheader, and getting the win. On Tuesday, June 11. Culver started at Chicago and lasted, again, 3 2\/3 innings.]<\/em><\/p>\nCulver<\/strong>: One day I threw batting practice and was sitting in the bullpen listening to the game on the radio because we were playing the Dodgers. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a big fan of Vin Scully\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. When the Dodgers came to Cincinnati they broadcast the games over the Armed Forces Radio Network.<\/p>\nSo I was sitting in the bullpen with the radio. I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even supposed to be down there. I just got done throwing batting practice that day. Didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even have baseball shoes on, didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a jock on, sitting there listening to the game. I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even supposed to be in the bullpen.<\/p>\n
It was one of them 11-10 type games and we ran out of pitchers. So the phone rang and I happened to be sitting there and picked it up. It was Dave Bristol, the manager. He said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153George.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What are you doing there?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I was just sitting in the bullpen relaxing, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to tell anybody I was listening to the game.<\/p>\n
And he says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Can you throw?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And I said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well, I can try.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well, start warming up.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I had to go into the clubhouse and get my shoes on. By the time I got back out there and started throwing, they called down there and told me to hurry up and get ready because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to put me in the game. Sure enough, I got to go into the game.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the eighth inning (and) I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m our last pitcher. Eighth inning, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a tie game, bases loaded, nobody out. I get out of it. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t score in the bottom of the eighth. Next inning, they got bases loaded nobody out off me and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sitting there thinking, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to be kidding. Here I am volunteering to pitch and now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to end up getting a loss in this stupid game. Just snuck it out of that inning. Then we scored in the bottom of the ninth and I win the game (laughs).<\/p>\n
[On May 29, 1968, Culver was called into pitch with none out and the bases loaded in the seventh inning. He then struck out Wes Parker, got Willie Davis to hit into a force, the runner out at home, and finished it off by striking out Len Gabrielson. After an eighth inning in which he walked one, Culver loaded the bases in the ninth (after retiring the first batter) on two hits and an intentional walk. He then got pinch-hitter Rocky Colavito to pop out to shortstop and Ron Fairly to do the same to third. The Reds plated the winning run in the bottom of the ninth on a two-out error.]<\/em><\/p>\nCulver<\/strong>: And I mean after the end of the year I was totally spent. My arm was shot. It didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hurt or anything, but I was just so spent. The next year I could tell I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the same stuff.<\/p>\nAfter that year I had surgery on my elbow, at the end of the \u00e2\u20ac\u212270 season. And I was never the same after that. I still pitched three or four more years, but never the same.<\/p>\n
I had bone chips. It was a pretty simple surgery, even then. For some reason, the combination of all those things \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the four years of winter ball, the abuse, not exactly being the hardest trainer in the world. I was kind of a guy that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take real good care of myself. You add all those things up and your career gets shortened in a hurry.<\/p>\n
[Culver was around for the first strike to wipe out major-league games. In 1972, over the issue of pensions, 13 days of baseball \u00e2\u20ac\u201c equaling 86 games \u00e2\u20ac\u201c were missed.]<\/em><\/p>\nCulver<\/strong>: Actually they had one in \u00e2\u20ac\u212269 also. It didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make it to the start of spring training, but we were told not to sign our contracts until they agreed.<\/p>\nI was broke. I was flat broke. I wanted to sign my contract because I wanted to get a $500 advance.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sitting there in Tampa waiting for them to say it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s OK so I can sign my contract. I was flat broke. Finally they agreed and I went in and signed. As soon as they said OK I was right there in the door getting my contract signed.<\/p>\n
So then in \u00e2\u20ac\u212272, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember when we went on strike, I guess it was right at the end of spring training [April 1-13]<\/em>, but we had team workouts. I was with the Astros and we had team workouts at this complex, if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not mistaken I think it was a softball complex over in Houston somewhere.<\/p>\nWhen we first started everybody was out there, religiously showed up every day. The player rep was Larry Dierker and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d give us the latest news and what was going on. It just kept going.<\/p>\n
And each day there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be two or three more guys not show up. Guys started dropping out of the workouts, everybody started losing interest. I think it might have been two weeks, we finally settled in two weeks. But it was not fun. It was not fun.<\/p>\n
Again, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s two weeks salary. We didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make that much money. You lost two weeks salary, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to hurt you. It was one of those things where you almost have to do it or else you lost a lot of friends on your team.<\/p>\n
That was one thing, we were all going to stick together and hope for the best. Look what happened to those guys who jumped the line on that replacement deal. Even the umpires. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still going through it. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something they have to live with. The guys that jumped the line on that replacement deal, the umpires, those guys are still suffering with that. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still dealing with that decision in their own mind. A lot of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcem if they had to do over again, would not do it. I understand, like those umpires, a lot of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcem still won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have anything to do with them. Still won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t talk to them.<\/p>\n
[Culver went from Houston to the L.A. Dodgers to Philadelphia. His major-league career ended when the Phillies released him on June 28, 1974.]<\/em><\/p>\nCulver<\/strong>: I went to Japan in \u00e2\u20ac\u212275. I was pretty well done by then. I was supposed to stay there for two years and they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t honor the second year of my contract, which is very unusual for the Japanese. They are usually very honorable.<\/p>\nIn this case, I was lied to and cheated out of money. The Nippon Ham Fighters, they told me I was going to have a two-year contract. I only pitched 20-some innings the first year I was there. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do very well in a lot of the games. I did OK in two or three of the games, but it was a tough adjustment for me because of the high strike zone \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and I was a low-ball pitcher \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get any low strikes. I had to pitch higher and I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do it.<\/p>\n
So I got thumped around pretty good. I had a few good games, but I had some other games where I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have good games. I was still sort of adjusting and was obviously looking forward to going back for the second year and never got a plane ticket. I finally got a letter that said they were releasing me.<\/p>\n
I thought, well, they still have to pay me. Then they claimed I signed two one-year contracts. This is very un-Japanese. I mean, you can trust Japanese people with your lives. This was just a stab in the back for them to do this was totally out of character of Japanese. Japan is the only place where you can lay your wallet in the middle of your bed in the hotel room and with money laying all over the place and the Japanese people will walk right into your room and not touch a thing. You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be any more honest than that.<\/p>\n
I had no recourse. I talked to Bowie Kuhn, the (MLB) commissioner at the time and I talked to Marvin Miller, who was the players union guy, and I explained to them the whole story and sent them all the contracts and all the documents and they said, well, you know what, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll probably collect on this but you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to have to go to Japan to do it. By the time you go over, get a lawyer, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to end up with nothing left anyway.<\/p>\n
So I have a feeling the team knew this. If they had just come to me and said we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want you back, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not any good, I would have understood that. But still they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re the ones who signed me to a contract. If they said, look, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll pay you half or do a severance thing, I probably would have done that. The way they did it, I lost all confidence in Japanese baseball.<\/p>\n
It (the social adjustment) was not that hard. I thought it was going to be a lot like Latin America.<\/p>\n
Latin America is tough on American guys who go down there for the first time. The language is a problem, people drive cars fast, they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t obey the laws, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a little different adjustment. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like Helter Skelter.<\/p>\n
In Japan, everything is the opposite. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s real laid back, nobody is in a hurry, they give you interpreters. The people really like baseball over there, they make you feel at home. Everybody is real respectful, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a totally different atmosphere.<\/p>\n
The other guy on my team was Garry Jestadt. He had a family there, I was single at the time. I still see Garry quite a bit.<\/p>\n
[Jestadt played 176 games in the majors mostly for the Cubs and Padres in 1971-72. He also played in six games for the Expos in 1969]. <\/em><\/p>\nCulver<\/strong>: It was the most enjoyable baseball ever, except I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have good results pitching. If anybody ever gets a chance to go to Japan it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a wonderful place. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a great experience, very expensive, though.<\/p>\nI tried to hook up with some teams here and I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any luck. So I finally thought I might try to do something locally. I did different odds and ends jobs. Then I met this gal, who is my wife now, and she had a son who was a freshman in high school. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a baseball player.<\/p>\n
So I got him and some other guys and formed a little travel team. I started getting interested in coaching. The local team in the California League hired me as their manager in 1978.<\/p>\n
It was actually an independent team, they had players from six or seven organizations. A new owner came in so they brought in a new manager. In other words I got fired.<\/p>\n
A friend of mine named Ron Clark was managing in the Phillies organization. We had played together [both Clark and Culver were property of the Phillies in 1974].<\/em> He was managing a Double-A team and said he could use help. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how I got started.<\/p>\nI was with him in \u00e2\u20ac\u212281 and in \u00e2\u20ac\u212282 when he got the jump to Triple-A. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go with him and he got fired (laughs). He was with them one year and got fired and I ended up being with them for 18 years. I got fired in \u00e2\u20ac\u212298. I was out again for three years and went with the Dodgers in 2004.<\/p>\n
Oh yeah, I see (Vin Scully) all the time. Sit there and talk baseball stories, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the greatest. In fact, he always tells the story about how if it hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been for him, one of my wins was because of him. If it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t for him, I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have been in the bullpen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
George Culver pitched for the Cleveland Indians (1966-67), Cincinnati Reds (1968-69), St. Louis Cardinals (1970), Houston Astros (1970-72), Los Angeles Dodgers (1973), Philadelphia Phillies (1973-74), and Nippon Ham Fighters (1975), and tossed a no-hitter in 1968.\u00c2\u00a0 He only led the league in one category once in his career \u00e2\u20ac\u201c hit batters (1968). In nine seasons, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":355,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-touring-the-bases-with"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/355"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2034\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}