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00:00Ah, man.
00:30They've won their sixth NBA championship.
00:33Gibson, swing.
00:34This is going to be an all-round.
00:36Unbelievable.
00:37You don't believe what I just saw.
00:51Hello, I'm Chris Fowler for SportsCentury.
00:53He came into a game like Wyatt Earp striding toward the OK Corral.
00:58He had a menacing mustache, a dark-eyed scowl, and a flair for the flamboyant.
01:03Dennis Eckersley was, in other words, meant to be a receiver.
01:06Yet the side-arming right-hander excelled in that role only after 12 years as a stylish but sometimes sporadic
01:13starter.
01:14In Oakland in the late 1980s, he found a home, and he found himself.
01:19The ball seemed to obey him.
01:21His control was such that he referred to himself as the paint master.
01:25But first, he had to gain control of himself.
01:36He was kind of the car keys reliever.
01:38When Eckersley comes to the mound, people start reaching for their car keys.
01:45As soon as he came in the game, the guys that wrote the newspapers just started doing the story right
01:49there.
01:51He was so dominant because he had such great control.
01:54He could paint.
01:56Almost looked like he just was looking through one eye.
01:58He closed the other eye.
01:59It looked like he was shooting a gun.
02:01He hit a gnat's ass with a pitch.
02:02He got a reputation from umpires where he couldn't walk anybody.
02:06I said, Eck, the last two years, you have allowed fewer baserunners than you have saves.
02:12And he looks at me and he goes, if anyone ever does that again, I'll kiss your ass.
02:17He got him!
02:18And the ball game is over!
02:19He kind of fashioned an image for himself.
02:22He reminded me of like one of the musketeers coming out there.
02:25Okay, zip, zip, zip.
02:27He struck him!
02:28It's not even Eckersen, it's the Eck.
02:31It's like facing Elvis.
02:33This is like Muhammad Ali as a closer.
02:35You know, how Muhammad used to pick the round in poetry and then do it in the fight?
02:39Well, Eck was kind of like that.
02:41He was going to pick how many pitches he was going to strike you out on and then do it.
02:46I didn't like it when he would strike somebody out and shoot them as they were going back to dugout
02:50or when he would do that thing with his hip when he would get the third out of a game.
02:55Drove me crazy.
02:56I hated him.
02:56Am I supposed to wave to the guys going, how's your wife and kids?
02:59I had a chip on my shoulder.
03:01I didn't like who I played again.
03:06In the bottom of the ninth inning of game one.
03:09We can't cry about that in baseball.
03:11Any little celebration, we cry about it in baseball.
03:16It's a game.
03:17Let the guys have fun.
03:19In the 1988 World Series, Dennis Eckersley disposed of the first two Dodgers.
03:24But then the reliever with the unerring control walked pinch hitter Mike Davis, just the 14th base on balls he
03:31issued all year.
03:32It allowed a gimpy Kirk Gibson to bat.
03:35When you come to a one-run game, a World Series, first of all, you're trying to calm down.
03:39Sometimes you don't even realize who's coming up.
03:42You just sort of get there and then, oh, he's up.
03:45I saw Gibby coming up the steps of the dugout with a bat and he used the bat as a
03:51cane.
03:52It took a half an hour for Gibson to get there.
03:55Even then, I wasn't really concerned.
04:00Eckersley is throwing him pitches and he's swinging and fouling them off.
04:05It was almost remorseful to watch.
04:07I mean, it was sad.
04:08It was sickening.
04:10Four-three-A's.
04:11Two-out ninth inning.
04:13Three and two.
04:14Eckersley's looking right back at me and saying, I got you.
04:17So I said, well, we'll see.
04:19Gibson swings and a fly ball to deep right field.
04:22This has got to be a home run.
04:24Unbelievable.
04:29Everybody's standing up.
04:30Just ecstatic.
04:32And you're at the opposite end of this whole deal.
04:38And you're almost looking for somebody to make eye contact with and everybody's ducking you.
04:43It's a lonely feeling.
04:45The team has got the game won for nine innings and then you come in and throw something.
04:51And the guy juices you.
04:54It's such a responsibility behind that.
04:56And it's not easily forgotten.
04:59Where do you go from there?
05:01Well, in 89, he was getting the last job in the world championship.
05:05The envy by Young.
05:08The casual fan.
05:09Hey, that's Eckersley.
05:09He's the guy who allowed that long home run to Kirk Gibson.
05:11And the fact that Eckersley saved almost 400 games and won 200 kind of falls through the woodwork.
05:17Huh.
05:18From 1988 through 1995, Eckersley walked only 75 while striking out 545 and averaging 38 saves a season.
05:28Yet behind that sneering swagger festered a phobia.
05:32He looked at me and he goes, I am scared to death to fail.
05:35So I am not going to go out there and fail because that will just crush me and I'm not
05:40going to let that happen.
05:41He was a nervous wreck.
05:43He'd just go look in his locker before we went and pitch.
05:45He had probably 35 cigarette butts.
05:48I knew the more nervous he was, the better he was going to pitch.
05:52If you act confident, then everybody thinks that you're not scared.
05:56And it sort of worked.
05:58The next thing you know, I started believing it.
05:59Confronting his fears on the mound was easy compared to the demons Eckersley faced away from the ballpark.
06:06Dennis could always differentiate.
06:10This is life.
06:12This is a game.
06:14He had much larger struggles in his life than giving up a dinger on the 9th.
06:20Dennis Eckersley was born October 3rd, 1954 in Oakland, California.
06:25The middle child of Wallace, a warehouse foreman, and Bernice.
06:29Growing up in nearby Fremont, he and his older brother, Glenn, were inseparable.
06:34We lived in the same room.
06:35We had bunk beds and, you know, I was on the top and he was on the bottom.
06:40You could talk to him any time of the day.
06:42I was there for him and that was the way we were.
06:45The two boys both loved sports.
06:48They used to go to school and knock balls around.
06:51They played basketball in the garage out here and football in the street.
06:55We'd go to the schoolyard and I'd pick him first.
06:58And we'd play on the same little league teams and the pony league teams and high school team.
07:03When your brother's two years older, he's a great player because he's much bigger and stronger.
07:08So I remember just being like, can you let me play with you guys?
07:13At Washington High School, Dennis played three sports, starring in baseball.
07:18His brother had a different priority.
07:20I started drinking when I was 12.
07:22At one stage of the game, I was about 15 and Dennis was about 13 and I know we got
07:27drunk together at that time.
07:28Dennis was involved in sports.
07:30He's not going out and get drunk all the time.
07:33And Glenn had nothing else to do.
07:35Dennis got drafted third round to the Cleveland Indians.
07:39And I remember he got 35K.
07:41And he went out and bought himself a nice blue Challenger.
07:45I was so proud of what he did and what he accomplished.
07:48But it was difficult.
07:51You'd still hear all the gossip back and forth and whatever happened to you and that kind of thing.
07:56It does hurt a little bit, to be perfectly honest.
08:00The brothers grew apart, Glenn marrying and moving away.
08:05Dennis embarked on a promising baseball career.
08:10Despite objections from the front office, Eckersley, only 20, made the Cleveland Indians in 1975 at the insistence of first
08:18-year manager Frank Robinson.
08:20He shut out his hometown...
08:21Oh, really?
08:22Oh, they're going to argue with the word of all-time great player Frank Robinson.
08:28Like he doesn't know what he's talking about.
08:32Give me a break.
08:34On team, the A's.
08:36Part of a run of 28 and two-thirds scoreless innings.
08:39A record to start a major league career.
08:42It was amazing.
08:43Then he started calling himself the ace after that.
08:47At that point in my career, every time I used to go to the mound, I wanted to throw a
08:51no-hitter.
08:51As soon as the guy would get a hit, I'd go, oh.
08:56Memorial Day 77, I was covering the Angels.
08:59It was a great game because Frank Tanana was pitching for the Angels and he was just as cocky as
09:03Eckersley.
09:04They would come off the mound taunting each other.
09:06I remember at one point about the seventh inning.
09:08I said, Eck, forget about Tanana.
09:10Don't waste your energy on yelling at him.
09:13And he looked at me and he went, this is my no-hitter.
09:16I'll act any way I want.
09:19So there's two outs and this guy, Gilfors, is the last out.
09:22And so he's taking his time.
09:24He's looking around and it's like, I had enough.
09:27You know what I mean?
09:27So I said, get in there.
09:30They're not here to take your pitcher.
09:32You're the last out.
09:34Get in there.
09:42In all, Eckersley was literally unhittable for 21 consecutive innings, only three shy of Cy Young's record.
09:50Still, there were doubters.
09:52Because of the violent act in which he did throw.
09:55There was a lot of skeptics out there that thought that he was going to have some arm problems along
10:00the way.
10:01Even though he had 40 wins his first three seasons, Eckersley was traded by the Indians to Boston just before
10:07the start of the 1978 season.
10:09The circumstances behind his departure reportedly revolved around his teammate and close friend, Rick Manning.
10:16My wife, Denise, and I were not getting along.
10:18So when I got traded, I called home.
10:20And I remember she said she didn't love me anymore.
10:22I was like, what?
10:24Wow.
10:25I was crushed.
10:27It was one of the most devastating times of my entire life.
10:31I kept wondering, you know, back then, you know, like, what was it?
10:34Is it somebody else?
10:36And it took a long time, but finally it came out.
10:39She had fallen in love with Rick Manning.
10:41And the Indians were very conservative.
10:43And if there was any kind of scandal, I'm liable to send you packing just to avoid the embarrassment.
10:49No one ever came to me from the front office and said, hey, we've got to get rid of this
10:53guy because of this thing.
10:54I said, well, it may have, no, because I know Manning stayed in Eckersley when he went.
11:00We used to think, you know, we used to think, you know, is that going to hit him?
11:03Will he drill it?
11:04And then there was one game in Cleveland where he literally threw one where Manning's helmet went up.
11:13His head went down and the ball went right between the helmet and the head.
11:20That would have been really tough, having to still play there under those circumstances.
11:25But life's gone on and they ended up getting married.
11:28We have Mandy in common.
11:30She's like got two fathers.
11:32I could look at him right now and he would be the exact same to me as we were back
11:38in 1972.
11:42Refocused on the mound with the Red Sox, Eckersley had his best season as a starter.
11:47Spike Craig.
11:48Oh!
11:52He won 17 the following season and married a model, Nancy O'Neal, in 1980.
11:58But beneath the success were ominous signs.
12:02There was a day when he gave up six home runs in the Yankee Stadium.
12:05Wow.
12:05And I wrote that as he was whirling around the mound watching the home runs, he looked like he was
12:10dancing at Studio 54.
12:12And the next day he was really angry with me.
12:14Turned out that's where he was.
12:15It was really late into the night.
12:17From 1980 to 1983, Eckersley was five games under .500.
12:22In May of 1984, when he was unable to pull out of his tailspin, Eck was moved to the Cubs
12:28in a trade that sent Bill Buckner to Boston.
12:31I needed a new environment anyway, the way things were going.
12:33I didn't have a good year last year and I wasn't going anywhere here.
12:36I watched the performance of Dennis Eckersley start to deteriorate and wondered, as all of us did, why this is
12:43happening.
12:43And then we found out the whole story, it's a much more difficult foe to defeat than anybody standing in
12:50the batter's box.
12:51I was a wild kid.
12:53Alcohol was very much the lifestyle and that kept a lot of fun.
12:56It's easy to go back and say, when?
12:58You stop being a kid when you grow that mustache.
13:02You're not a kid.
13:04It became a problem.
13:05Probably a problem right away.
13:07I'd been out to dinner many times with Eck, where I knew at the end of the night, he'd had
13:12too much to drink.
13:13I didn't know that it was a day after day after day problem.
13:15The day that becomes a problem is the day that you don't want people to know how much you drank.
13:20He would get to the point where he was forever hiding alcohol and there were times when he couldn't even
13:25talk to his daughter or sometimes he'd be falling down.
13:29I remember one time that I said, give me a double.
13:31I felt uncomfortable with it.
13:34Like, ah.
13:37That's not right.
13:38He would state, if you win, you have to celebrate your victory.
13:42If you lose, you have to drown your sorrow.
13:45I think he enjoyed the opportunity to either win or lose.
13:49In 86, the baseball people were saying his arm is gone, he's drinking too much, he's washed up.
13:55No one ever thought Dennis was going to go to the Hall of Fame, especially in the mid-80s.
14:00In 1986, Dennis Eckersley went 6-11 for the Cubs.
14:04His personal life was also in shambles.
14:07What?
14:07Just in time, he had an epiphany.
14:10Christmas of 86, went, took my daughter to my sister-in-law's house and just tied one on.
14:16Just drank, I don't know, whatever.
14:18I just drank a ton.
14:20And when I woke up the next morning, my sister-in-law had a videotape of the night before, focused
14:26on me.
14:27What an awakening to see yourself.
14:31Well, I made a comment to my stepmother saying that, you know, I wasn't, I didn't like dad like that.
14:37And I didn't want to see him like that.
14:39It made me uncomfortable.
14:41My wife told me what she said and it just went to my gut.
14:44That was the telling moment.
14:46It's like, did you get sober for your daughter?
14:48I'm like, kind of.
14:50But ultimately, you get sober for yourself.
14:53Forced to confront himself after seeing his drunkenness, Eckersley checked into Edge Hill, Newport, a treatment center in Rhode Island.
15:00He stayed six weeks.
15:02He called the experience very painful, but he also said that the pain allowed him to restore his life.
15:08He said it was just the grind that they put you under.
15:11I mean, you really have to peer into yourself.
15:14When he came clean on his alcoholism, he was just sick and tired of pitching with hangovers.
15:21Where he was sick and tired of needing a drink in his hand to feel good about himself.
15:28Eckersley received another chance with another team.
15:32Just before the 1987 season, he was traded to the Oakland A's.
15:36And I remember when they came in and said, well, we got Dennis Eckersley.
15:40And I said, well, is that the best you can do?
15:42The first conversation was literally, we've got five guys we're going to start the season with.
15:47We'll use you out of the bullpen.
15:49And he had that look on his face like, you know, man, I'm not buying it.
15:55Michael, he said, I am scared to death that once I go into the bullpen, I'll never come out.
16:02Eckersley went to the bullpen and also stayed sober.
16:07His brother, however, was in free fall.
16:10I checked out of life.
16:11I just quit the job.
16:13Quit it all.
16:15And just drank.
16:17I made it to the Skid Row bomb stage.
16:20Living on the street.
16:21Don't take a shower for four or five days.
16:24Panhandling.
16:26Dennis had seen what his brother went through and he feels for him.
16:31He tries to help him, but, well, he's playing ball and he can't really be there for him.
16:37Every once in a while, I'd go to a ballpark where he'd be in town.
16:40We'd visit for a few minutes and then it'd be done because I was just not what he wanted me
16:49to be.
16:49When he did come around, I was really anxious and I wanted him to leave right away.
16:55I'd pick up the sports page and find out what Dennis is doing and just be amazed that he's doing
17:01what he's doing.
17:03And we started out the same way in life.
17:10Glenn Eckersley hit bottom in 1987 when he was arrested for second-degree attempted murder,
17:15second-degree kidnapping, and aggravated robbery of a 60-year-old woman in Colorado Springs.
17:21My brother was going to trial and I think that was the time that I finally said,
17:25I've got to say something.
17:27He was the only one that testified that day.
17:29He came into the courtroom.
17:31We hugged each other.
17:33And it was really emotional and he said he'd do whatever he could do.
17:39Dennis testified at what alcohol had done to both of them
17:42and how it had made his brother someone different than he really was.
17:47They were just trying to embellish his alcoholism,
17:50saying he was an alcoholic, you know, as if that was a very good defense.
17:56By testifying on his brother's behalf, Eckersley made public his alcoholism.
18:00But it didn't help Glenn in his involuntary intoxication defense.
18:05He was found guilty and is serving a 40-year term.
18:08They both were alcoholics.
18:10It's in the family.
18:11My wife's father probably was an alcoholic.
18:14I've had uncles that were alcoholics.
18:17All I know is it runs in my family.
18:18Maybe it skips a generation.
18:20Who knows?
18:21The thing about the disease is that I think it affects everybody.
18:26The beauty of Eck is that he is a flawed guy.
18:28We know he's had his problems with alcohol.
18:31He feared failure.
18:33He worried so much about falling back to that place he came from
18:37but it drove him and it drove him to be the best in the game.
18:46Dennis Eckersley started in an all-star game.
18:48He threw a no-hitter.
18:49He won 20 games as a starter.
18:51He wins a Cy Young and an MVP as a reliever.
18:54And that uniqueness is what puts him in the Hall of Fame.
18:59High fly ball into right field.
19:02She is gone!
19:05Dennis was such a great pitcher.
19:08One blot on his escutcheon would not demean him in any way, shape, or form.
19:12You want to talk about living with pain.
19:15How about Ralph Branca, who served up the home run,
19:18rolled to Bobby Thompson.
19:26He knew that ball was gone as soon as he was hit.
19:30He turned as soon as the ball went by him.
19:35You can see if you zoom in the film.
19:38It's a feeling, you know, to throw a home run in a crucial situation.
19:42I mean, you feel lower than a skunk.
19:44If I was a drinking man, I would have gone to drink.
19:47He stayed the path.
19:49Somebody driving by him on the highway recognized him.
19:52They rolled down the window, and they yelled out two words.
19:55Kirk Gibson.
19:56And Eckerstich just laughed.
19:58I was two years sober, and I was thrilled.
20:02I was appreciative enough to know where I'd come.
20:06And so for me to look at it like, poor me.
20:09You kidding me?
20:10Poor me.
20:10I'm a new man.
20:13And I said, Eck, that has to be the most humiliating moment of your career.
20:17He says, you know something?
20:18It really isn't.
20:19When I gave up the home run to Roberto Alomar in the 1992 ALCS, I was established.
20:27I was the MVP.
20:28I went home and cried all night.
20:30It's going to be tough to sleep tonight.
20:34This doesn't happen very often.
20:36He's given up two of the biggest home runs in playoff history to Gibson and to Alomar.
20:40And he stood at his locker.
20:42And they came and waited.
20:44Raised him in the estimation both of teammates and the media who covered it.
20:49Because after that game, he just sat there explaining that one backdoor slider.
20:52When he blew a save, it was like group therapy at his locker.
20:57They were fascinating sessions where he, you know, it was almost like, you know, I'm Dennis and I blew a
21:02save.
21:04I think recovering from alcoholism taught him humility.
21:10Traded by Oakland to St. Louis before the 1996 season, Dennis Eckersley amassed 66 saves the next two years.
21:18Returning to Boston as a free agent, he set the record for most appearances by a pitcher, 1,071.
21:25On that high note, he retired after the 1998 season, having amassed 390 saves and 197 wins.
21:34I never saw a guy who had more pleasure out of the game.
21:36I talked to him at the clubhouse and his feet were up, but nobody was around in there.
21:39And I said, what's it going to be like without this?
21:42And he said, it's going to be like dying.
21:43Eckersley was elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot in January of 2004,
21:48joining Raleigh Fingers and White Wilhelm as the only firemen in Cooperstown.
21:54Today, I'm glad I'm sober and nothing could have happened without that.
21:58And I got a second chance, man.
22:03And I made the most of it.
22:06I was in my room watching ESPN and the bottom line came on and I said, whoa, the inmates in
22:13here came by and it was, it was heavy.
22:21When I got on the phone with him, we couldn't talk for very long.
22:31I feel great about having a relationship with my brother again because he's a changed man.
22:36Part of being sober is helping somebody else.
22:39It juices me when that happens.
22:43Fighting to stay sober since 87, Eckersley enters the Hall of Fame, a changed man, but not without scars.
22:50After 23 years of marriage, he and Nancy are planning to divorce.
22:55I went to a lot, man.
22:56You know, it wasn't all like, yay.
22:59It took its toll on marriages.
23:01It took its toll on having a normal family life.
23:04And I've got the Hall of Fame to show for it.
23:06It validates for me what I did.
23:11You don't just say, oh, well, I don't drink anymore.
23:14He follows through and he's working on it day by day.
23:20It was really exciting to see that when you make positive changes in your life, look at all the amazing
23:25positive things that can happen to you.
23:27His life is testament to that.
23:32Dennis Eckersley, in concert with a Cleveland teammate, pitcher Pat Dobson, widened the lexicon of the game.
23:38From that collaboration was born X-Speak.
23:42Over the years, Eckersley popularized such words as yakker for a sharp curve,
23:47walk cheese for a fat,
23:48for alcohol,
23:50and walk off for a game-winning homer.
23:52A pitcher who had lost his stuff was said to be salad because he was just tossing it up there.
23:58As a reliever, Eck was rarely salad.
24:01And once he conquered oil, he was able to redeem and reinvent himself.
24:06For SportsCentury, I'm Chris Fowler.
24:09Let me talk about a guy who really benefited of longevity.
24:15He was okay his first 13 years in the league.
24:18His next 11, he was a champion, Cy Young winner, MVP, multiple saves leader.
24:30And that's why he got in the Hall of Fame.
24:33Because of the last half of his career.
24:35And that's why he got in the Hall of Fame.
24:35And that's why he got in the Hall of Fame.
24:36And that's why he got in the Hall of Fame.
24:37And that's why he got in the Hall of Fame.
24:38And that's why he got in the Hall of Fame.
24:39And that's why he got in the Hall of Fame.
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