My Interview With Burt Hooton

     There are lots of guys like Burt Hooton. 

     Well, not at your local bar, or at church or the grocery store.  Unless former pro ballplayers hang out there.  Former pro ballplayers who won the clinching game of the 1981 World Series.  Against the Yankees.  What I mean by Burt being like lots of guys is that the annals of baseball have so many players we tend to remember mostly the Babe Ruths and Ty Cobbs and –insert random player name here- and so on.  But the game is larger than even the biggest stars.  The game consists of so many players, so many games, so many stats, that unless a player was on your favorite team he may only garner a fleeting memory, an “oh yeah, I kinda remember him” reaction.  If you followed the Cubs in the early to mid seventies, or the Dodgers from 75 to 84, you remember Burt Hooton.  He’ll never get into the hall of fame, but his career is worth a look; there are definitely enough interesting moments to warrant it.  This isn’t some guy who had one or two moments of fame; he had a career’s worth.  Currently he is the pitching coach of the Round Rock Express, the Triple-A affiliate of the Houston Astros.

     I interviewed Burt Hooton a few days ago, and here is the transcript (with not a lot of editing).  I tried to represent his smooth central Texas manner of speaking as best I could.  Whenever you see “…” it is from one of his pauses, which he does a lot.  The “Ands” and “Ums” also sound completely natural coming from him, and shouldn’t be taken out of context.  He is a nice, intelligent man with the demeanor of a grandpa and the love of competition you see in a champion.  His resume speaks for itself.

     He was hesitant in the first part of the interview, as he had never met me and I don’t look like an athlete while I’m wearing a shirt.  But he loosened up, and gave me some information only a former champion could give.  I hope this is half as fun to read as it was to hear.

Keith Trussell: The first batter you ever faced, and you struck him out, was future hall of famer Lou Brock.  What do you remember about that?

Burt Hooton: (Laughing) It was the first batter I ever faced; I struck him out!  Pitching curveballs, struck him out.

KT: Where you nervous because it was Lou Brock, or did you even-

BH: I was pretty nervous, it was my first start.

KT: Well yeah, but-

BH: Gotta start somewhere.

KT: Yeah, good place to get started.  What about your first no hitter, in your fourth start ever?

BH: Well, I mean, it was my first start of the 1972 season, cold day, uh, my 4^th big league start, it was my first start after a 16-day big league strike, which started that season actually. Walked seven, struck out seven…uh, just, you know, happened to throw a no hitter.

KT: Okay. Very modest.  What about tying the all-time Cub record for strikeouts in a game?  That was September 15, ’72.  Do you remember who the other team was?

BH: The Mets in Shea stadium, I’d just come back from Triple-A, I had a unique curveball, they hadn’t seen it, everything was working that night, and, uh, I ended up striking out 15.  I mean, I don’t, I don’t…remember anything other specific about it, I remember we ended up winning the game, I think it was 3-2, I pitched all nine innings, I think I remember Billy Williams hitting a home run in the top of the 9^th to get me the win.

KT: Speaking of the Knuckle Curve (KT-I recommend looking up his unique curveball on Wikipedia), you’re one of the few pitchers to ever master that.  Do you try to teach the pitchers here that a little bit?

BH: Well, you can’t teach anybody something they don’t wanna learn.  If they ask, I’ll show it to ‘em, if they wanna pursue it, if they wanna teach it-I’ve never taught it to anybody that’s done anything with it significantly.

KT: Yeah, I could only find like one or two other pitchers listed who ever threw the kind that you threw.

BH: Yeah, I don’t even know who they are-

KT: Yeah, I can’t remember; I should’ve written it down.  (There’s only been one- Jason Isringhausen of the Cardinals.  He’s a reliever who’s been in the league 14 years now and posted decent numbers till injuries started hitting him the last few years).  And you also went directly to the majors without playing in the minors.  How did that work?

BH: Well, I signed out of college and I did go to the majors for about a month…wasn’t getting to pitch so they sent me to Tacoma, so I did play some minor league baseball, so I went to Tacoma in the Pacific Coast League (KT- Round Rock’s current league).  I pitched there for two months and then they called me back, and that’s when I struck out 15 against the Mets. 

KT: Sept 10^th 1982 you Hit a home run off Nolan Ryan (One of the owners of the Round Rock Express).  Do you have any particular memories about that particular incident?

BH: Well I think I hit the home run and it was the go-ahead run but I didn’t get the win in the game cause I didn’t go the required five innings; Lasorda took me out before the fifth inning was over, but we went on to win the game. I think it was 3-2 at the time and that’s the way it stayed, 3-2.

KT: Do you and Nolan Ryan joke about that?

BH: (laughing) uhh, he probably doesn’t like to talk about that a whole lot, so I don’t press the issue.

KT: I would imagine.  Um, you finished 2^nd to Gaylord Perry in the 1972 Cy young voting; did you think that was fair, or do you think you should’ve won it?

BH: (long pause) Well, he won 4 more games than I did that year I think.  I only won 19 games; he was the only 20 game winner in the league, and uh, you know, he was pitching with a team that wasn’t as good as our team.  I thought I pitched certainly well enough to win the Cy Young award, but…he just happened to pitch a little better.

KT:In 75 you passed Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale for consecutive wins by a Dodger.  Do you know if that record still stands?

BH: I don’t know.  I don’t keep track of a whole lot of things like that.  I’m always looking forward, I don’t, I don’t look backwards.

KT: So what about the 81 World Series, clinching the title with game six, especially after a tough loss in game 2.  What was your mentality going in after that loss?

BH:  Well, the big thing about that series was that whole year, I mean the whole playoff year, we had a mini-series- because of the strike that year- against the Astros.  We lost the first two games and won the next three.  We played Montreal in the NLCS; we won the first game, then lost the second game and lost the third game in Montreal, and won the next two to clinch that- that’s back when it was best-3-out-of-5 series, and then we went to New York, played the Yankees; lost the first two games there then won the next four, so we’d already won three in a row by the time I got to the sixth game of the World Series, and uh, you know, I think one of the things I think it was is that we had a rainout, uh, we went to New York and the sixth game was rained out one night, and we played the next night…I think it was that series…but, certainly that’s why we play the game, to win a world championship, we’d had two cracks at it in 77 and 78 and came up short and to finally accomplish it is certainly a thrill…it’s a thrill you can’t describe, it’s only…only, you know (long pause), it’s one of those things you have to experience to know what it’s like.

KT: Of course, of course.  I guess that’s the thing with interviews, is that you can never actually let people know what it feels like to be on the mound-

BH: There’s so many things that happen in the world that you can’t really; there’s no way that you can report on it and get the same feel for it as actually being there, or actually doing it.

KT: Yeah, that’s why we have to go by people like you that have actually been there to help us understand-

BH: Can’t describe it, really.

KT: Yeah, true.  And your career in college (at The University of Texas)-you left after your junior year with a 35-3 record and a 1.14 ERA.  Were there any particular memories from your college pitching, anything that sticks out?

BH: Well…I enjoyed college a lot, I always remembered…I was real good my freshman year…and it’s kinda like you come back your sophomore year and you go “What have I got to prove?”  Well I made up my mind then that I was gonna work hard at it and be better than I was the previous year.  I always looked at it with the mindset that what I did the previous year, the next year was a new year and the goal was to do…better. And uh, I think that mindset just pushed me right through.  I felt like I already had the job, I already had the mindset that I was, uh, willing to challenge anybody.  And willing to play against anybody, and uh, I always wanted to play against the best.  And I felt like I was one of the best and I always wanted to, you know, put my skills up against the best of every team.

KT: That seems to be one of the biggest things that separates, in my opinion, serious athletes and athletes that succeed is that a lot of people are scared of the competition. They get intimidated by it, you know, the good athletes welcome that, it seems they want it. I mean, I would be scared to death to get on the mound and face Lou Brock, you know?

BH: If you’re scared of the competition then you don’t really wanna do it, you know, you shouldn’t be there in the first place.

KT: Right

BH: That’s what it’s all about.  I mean, there are a lot of guys to me who play pro baseball that…don’t like competing.  They like everything that goes along with playing baseball but they don’t actually like getting out there and competing.  To me those guys shouldn’t be playing the game.

KT: Yeah.

BH: Because they don’t really enjoy what it’s all about.

KT: Yeah, I like athletes that look forward to going against the best pitcher, or pitching against the best hitter, I like athletes that step their game up whenever-

BH: Well, you’re gonna see better competition and see better games, that’s what people come and pay for, to see things like that.  They don’t wanna see guys who’re out there just hoping they do well, they wanna see guys out there that get after it and compete and…and actually do well.  I always enjoyed the competition; that’s the only thing I miss about my playing days is the competition.  I enjoyed that.  I’ve always enjoyed that.

KT: Do you play golf, are you still competitive at other stuff you do?

BH: I play golf, but I don’t play enough to be competitive at it, I just more or less enjoy it.  I have to play awhile to get my game going again every year, and then, you know, I get a little competitive with it.  You gotta be realistic sometimes too…lotta scratch golf.

     So there you have it.  A former Major Leaguer who still carries the competitive fire, a kindly older guy who absolutely HATES to lose.  A man with a world of experience and advice who will only give it out if asked.  A man who won't brag about his exploits unless you want to know about them.  Through my research Burt Hooton has become one of my favorite ballplayers ever, and I will always remember when he gave an aspiring sports journalist twelve minutes of his time.