Rick Sutcliffe On Bill Murray's Bet That Got Him The Lone Stolen Base Of His Career

Tuesday, May 27, 2008


Rick Sutcliffe is back in full swing as an announcer and every paper out there is trying to get an interview with him following his bout with Cancer. I'm pretty sure the ones that follow the one in the KC Star won't be able to top this tidbit that the paper got when asking Sut about his friendship with Bill Murray....

Sitting in the booth, [Steve] Stone and [Bill] Murray had to stall while a new pitcher warmed up. Murray looked at Stone and said, “I betcha a case of beer Sutcliffe steals second.”

Stone laughed and pointed out Sutcliffe had never even attempted to steal a base. He pointed out Sutcliffe had a bad hamstring. He pointed out Sutcliffe was not exactly the world’s fastest human being.

“But,” Sutcliffe remembered Stone saying, “I’ll take the bet because I’d like to win a case of beer from you.”

The pitcher was still warming up when word spreads and a fan yelled, “Hey Sut, Murray just bet Steve Stone a case of beer you’ll steal second!”

Standing on first base, Sutcliffe decided: Screw it. I’m going.

“All of a sudden the pitcher comes down and I tell my mind to go but my body won’t move and I literally almost fell down,” he said.

Then Expos manager Buck Rodgers yelled to first baseman Andres Galarraga, ‘Play behind him, he ain’t frickin’ going anywhere!’ ”

Sutcliffe took off running. All 6-7 of the Red Baron hauling ass for second base just to mess with Cubs announcer Steve Stone.

“I am gone,” Sutcliffe said. “He comes down and looks over. Well I’m halfway to second. I’m going, ‘Ah, he got me.’ Well the dummy goes to home so now I’ve got to get going again. But there’s still a play. That’s how slow I am.”

The throw. The slide. He’s safe.

“I look up into the booth and Murray’s going crazy and I kind of gave him a little whatever,” Sutcliffe said, reenacting a manly head bob. “I throw a shutout, I steal a base, and we were locked for life.”
How awesome is that? What happened to the days in Baseball when there was drinking and betting in the booth??? I would certainly poke fun at it, but I'd rather have those type of play-by-players over people who don't care about their job as an announcer. Good times.

As Rick Sutcliffe fights cancer, he treasures the connection with his hometown the most (KC Star)

Posted by Awful Announcing- at 12:54 PM

3 Comments:

Any time Stoney gets taken down a couple of notches, it's a good day for me. Attaboy, Sut..

UnHoly Diver said...
May 27, 2008, 1:33:00 PM  

That's a great story.

Jay said...
May 27, 2008, 3:31:00 PM  

What happened to that?

Half of the '86 Mets, Joe Namath, Josh Hancock, Tony LaRussa, Jim Leyritz, etc.

Bastards ruined the boyhood fun of the game.

GMoney said...
May 27, 2008, 4:08:00 PM  

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