Eric was a close friend of mine. I play music for a living. He was an exceptional musician, and a sweet man. I miss him terribly.

R.I.P. Eric Show

Heartbreaking story

It was the year before Eric Show was asked to play full time for the Padres when their farm team came to Modesto, Calif. to play the farm team we sponsored here in those days. I worked at a pro music shop at the time and was mind-blown when this regular looking guy walked in and picked up the absolute worst guitar in the store, tuned it perfectly to A440 (perfect pitch) and played Little Wing flawlessly. I felt so out of place asking this monster player "Excuse me, is the there anything I can help you with?". For the next couple of hours he showed me what the various classic rock tracks of the day would sound like if performed by the various levels of musicianship. He showed me Hey Joe as performed by Robert Johnson thru Miles Davis. I finally said "Who are you?". He told me about the Padres and it was his off night and he wanted to jam. I set that up. I had to call the best guys I knew and we all took a very entertaining lesson....After the dust settled I was taking him back to his motel and I asked him why he wasn't playing music as a pro.....I told him he was the best player I'd ever seen or heard and he told me "Well that's because I'm a better pitcher". All those many years ago........................................................

Show's solo guitar CD "Oh Holy Night is a favorite of mine. I can see him playing when ever I play it. He is in my prayers even now.

Not a "Gibson"...That is a Fender.

I remember him beaning Andre Dawson. He was lucky Sutcliffe didn't get to him..lol

so sad, esp with the modern meds avail ES helped me a lot on an article i wrote about jazz and baseball, and i'm grateful for his generosity. RIP~

3:58 Add Tony Gwynn to that list now. Obviously he died way too young, and he was on that team as well.

Show was blessed with enough talent for three people, and as with so many other gifted people he had a corresponding allotment of weaknesses and eccentricities. I think it's entirely possible, as another comment suggested, that he was afflicted with Bipolar Disorder, something I have seen (in the more acute form of Schizo-affective Disorder) ravage the life of the person who is closest to me. He was obviously an immensely talented guitar player. I do need to point out that the instrument he was playing in this clip was a Fender Stratocaster, not a "Gibson."

I remember when the news about his death came across the wires 12,000 years ago. I knew almost nothing about him, but I instantly pictured his face in my mind, so he was a memorable dude in the league.

I had a tape of his guitar music, and it was really good. I'm looking for his music somewhere.

Doesn't look like a Gibson. Appears to be a Strat or Strat-style of some type.

RIP God Bless you and your family

i like how olbermann brought up al wiggens, that "just one person from baseball went to his funeral", wiggens also another intellectual type, tested with the second highest i.q. on the orioles. also an avid reader, it is said he and eric show got into many debates, (wonder how many revolved around race?) that wiggens also had difficulties getting along with people. both show and wiggens had drug problems, which is pretty common place with athletes. both were defended by tony gwynn as "misunderstood". al would be the first mlb player to die from aids.

At Jack Murphy Stadium at age 12, for some reason when Show was pitching one time I concentrated as hard as I could for him to drop the ball on his next pitch. He wound up, went to pitch, and the ball dropped right by his side. It was the only time in my life where I felt something like that.

I believe that is a Fender.

Drug abuse killed Eric Show for a baseball pitcher who is involved with the ultra-conservative John Birch Society which is highly ironic. The same Eric Show who sat down on the pitcher’s mound after Pete Rose hit his 4,192nd career base hit at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. The same Eric Show who beaned Andre Dawson at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

It seems to me his message pitch to Dawson wasn't actually meant to hit him, but rather brush-back like almost all such pitches are. The Padres' reasoning was to make Dawson aware that they noticed all his immediately prior success against them. A message pitch that has a simple meaning. Show doesn't seem like the kind of guy who ever wanted to hurt anybody, and his teammates of various ethnicities said so.

very cool to see a young Bruce Bochy

I remember Eric Show, didn't know a thing about him other than being a pitcher for San Diego back in the 1980s, and wasn't aware that he had died many years ago until recently. Since then, I've read a few articles about him and watched a few videos about him on here- what an amazing man with many talents, who accomplished so much in his short time on earth and had so much more to offer outside of baseball. He seemed like a good man that marched to the beat of his own drummer. I totally respect and admire that. Like all of us, he had his faults. I'm sure his teammates didn't know about his personal struggles and probably didn't know what to make of him. Both he and Alan Wiggins left this world far too soon.

Remember Show fondly miss him

Eric "Win, Place, And" Show.

One of the things Eric Show is most known for as a pitcher... he actually wasn't responsible for. Yes, he gave up Pete Rose's 4,192nd hit. But thanks to an error in statistical recordkeeping of Ty Cobb's career stats, Cobb had only hit safely 4,189 times rather than 4,191. So while in a technical sense he gave up a record-breaking hit, it was actually just a case of Rose extending a record he (unknowingly) already held.

I grew up in San Diego- I remember seeing him pitch many times. Just sad his demons got the best of him

I just read an ESPN article on him. I think this guy deserves an entire biography. Very misunderstood.

His Gibson🤣 More like a aftermarket Stratocaster.

Wow this is so weird!! This video is 11 years old and I have never seen it. I am watching literally on the anniversary of his death.

what a shame Eric Show had so many talents away from baseball well read & a Jazz musician for example Chris Welsh who played with him in San Diego said he was a great guy it's terrible that drugs wrecked him like many other people!!!

Never knew much about Eric Show, really thought it was a bush move when he sat down when Pete Rose broke the hit record. Looking at this now you can see he was a troubled soul who marched to the beat of his own drummer, so sad. R.I.P.

Why are drug addicts glorified???

That's a Fender not a Gibson I think

He was a pretty good pitcher in his time, especially for a guy pitching for a mediocre to pretty decent Padres team. He was probably wrapped a bit too tightly for a baseball player.

Much more to this story than what is told here. Eric did not take drugs until he was prescribed them for his physical pains. For some people, prescribed drugs become addictive. For some, this can lead to even more drugs for stimulation. #1 problem in this country and others is drugs. ALL drugs.And, it's not by accident.

Bip Roberts

People never beat addiction. It's spiritual in nature. It's 1 day at a time. 12 steps works.

...that's not a Gibson by the way

Great pitcher for a stretch...I guess God couldn't help him!

God is always testing us....He is always calling us to be soldiers in the fight for our own salvation. The cost of being a soldier can be burn out from the physical world. It can consume you. But, that doesn't make you less a person. Show was a fighter that burned out. Pray for him even though he's been gone almost 25yrs.

He came to one of our Campus Crusade events in Riverside in the 80s. 84 or 85 I think. He was really nice and pretty calm and chill. I enjoyed chatting with him even though he didn't say a whole lot. Both he and Rusty Conerly were star pitchers for Ramona HS in the 70s and now they are both gone. I knew Rusty from church. RIP to you both you mighty Rams

he was a very decent pitcher

Good looking guy

Beaning Andre Dawson in 1987 is what I will always remember about Eric Show!

Something fishy about this story...

He hit Dawson with a 92 MPH fastball. It was no accident by any means...AD had dinged him for two homers in previous two at bats....It was a shitty and cheap shot, and Dawson is a class act. Never understood these players with their demons and hot heads. We all got demons.....he could have killed Dawson. Show was a excellent pitcher, talented musician, and a very cerebral individual..He threw his life away. Bad choices

@ 2:50 Can you call the ghetto or the barrio "seedy", or is that racist?

No, he'll also be remembered for hitting Andre Dawson in the face in 1987

an awfully looking Fender for a Gibson....

too bad he only remembered for the rose incident

KEITH OLBERMANN! 👹🤣

Andre Dawson got the last laugh.... he’s still alive 25 years later.

In the end, just another dead junkie, that's all he'll be remembered for- Show, Caminetti, Rod Scurry....

The only thing I remember about Eric Show was him sitting down on the mound after Pete Rose broke Ty Cobbs hit record. Pretty weak and poor sportsmanship imo.

Here we go again….glorifying a drug addict

But the jon birch society was racist so he was or he wasn't as smart as people claim he was.