Sitting here in 2024 listening to a recording of Smoky Joe Wood talk about his career is astounding to me.

This interview is absolutely priceless.

I could listen to him for hours, along with Satchel and Buck O'Neil.

It's great hearing the stories of these legends of the game

What an interesting conversation. He sounds like an honest man with a good memory.

When I was a kid, I was a pretty good pitcher myself in Babe Ruth league and to inspire me my mom bought me an issue of (I THINK) Baseball Digest or Sports Illustrated - and the issue focused on the greatest seasons ever for a pitcher up to the year '87 or '88 - Smoky Joe Wood had one of those seasons - he won 34 games against only 5 losses and had an ERA of 1.91 He also struck out over 250 batters that year. In his age 31 season - he played 66 games and had 60 RBI batted .366 with a .562 SLG (while only hitting FOUR homers) and a 1.000 OPS and an OPS+ of about 150. To go from an elite pitcher to an elite hitter is, well, Ruth-like.

This is amazing! Pure gold!

Only know about him cause of Field of Dreams. Thank u young Moonlight Graham for bringing him to my attention.

(Ty Cobb) "was one of my very best friends." 11:41

I found this video four years after it was posted; late night, having trouble sleeping, cruising around YT... I'm real glad the algorithm fed me this video. Well done and thank you.

Awesome interview, thank you

Words that will never be said again, "I never saw a big league game until I broke into the big leagues"

Joe Wood was a stud. Really

This is an amazing interview

that man said, what locker rooms?" haha tells you right there that we have been separated from the world our great-grandparents lived in. imagine ball players doing all this now.. it just blows my mind on our different this world is now. like leaving there fielding gloves on the field... thats just such a holdy type of baseball.. gotta love it man.

5:46, 7:18, 11:43 Smoky Joe comparing his speed to Walter Johnson's. Respect

This is part of an audio book called " The glory of their times" by Laurence Ritter, Many other audio clips including Rube Marquard. Look it up as it's an amazing listen.

Thank you for sharing this!

They had great nicknames, Babe, Big Six the Gray Eagle, Rube, Home Run, Chief. Big Train Prince Hal, Larrupping Lou, Bucketfoot Al. Yeah, great nicknames.

I saw him at Fenway when I was a kid he was about 90 at old timers game he didn't play but they announced him

Great stuff! Wish they would digitize all the other Interviews not featured on the cd set.

This is really good. Glad he mentioned how good Tris was in center. A lot of people don't know about Tris. I would have liked to have gotten his opinion about Mays though.

I love this! Thank you.

It's too bad that we have no way of knowing how fast Walter johnson or joe wood actually were. Radar guns didn't exist in those days. Unfailingly modest johnson was asked if he was faster than bob feller as he watched him pitch. His honesty won out. No, he said. Yet, the greatest arm ever for power and durability had to be nolan ryan. Ryan could throw into the mid nineties in his mid forties. Never a hint of arm trouble in his entire career. The most gifted pitching arm ever.

"Can I throw harder than Joe Wood? Listen, my friend, there's no man alive can throw harder than Smoky Joe Wood!"

love that pic with Cy Young in the dugout wearing the Old Timers jeresey

I sounds like he tore his rotator cuff.

Ok, the gentleman being interviewed IS Smoky Joe Wood. I wish that had been made clear from the beginning! He died in 1985.

Well done Yale

Interesting fact,in 1918,with the Indians Joe Wood hit more homers (5) than the rest of his teammates combined!

Walter Johnson is the greatest pitcher of all time

great interview... just checked, walter johnson vs smoky joe wood would face each other twice that year, 1912, the inaugural year of fenway park. wood shut out johnson and the senators twice. the first 3 series they didn't meet, then joe would beat walter 3-0 on june 26, 1912, 2nd game of a double header. tris speaker hit a 2 run triple in the 6th. wood struck out 9, walter 10, wood gave up 3 hits, walter 4. the big game joe talks about happened on sept. 6, 1912. walter johnson came into the game at 29-10, smoky joe wood was 29-4, joe beat walter 1-0 for his 30th win . doubles by speaker and duffy lewis accounted for the only run in the 6th. 29,000 announced. fenway held 35,000. i think joe might be getting the "crowd on the 3rd base line" game mixed up with a world series game against the giants, game 7, (it would go 8 because game 2 ended in a tie due to darkness) but the "royal rooters" caused a big commotion after their normal seats were sold, and were lined up along the left field line. the senators had a good year in 1912, they finished 30 games over .500. unfortunately for walter and the senators they were 14 games back of the red sox who would beat the john mcgraw/christy mathewson giants.

Willie Mays was a good center fielder too.

Nobody throws faster than Smokey Joe - Walter Johnson

I wonder what was wrong with his arm?

Baseball fans that dont explore baseball history are missing out!

Anyone know the year of the interview or who the guys are who are conducting it? Sounds really good for what I assume is the late 70’s/early 80’s

This is wonderful. May I ask who the interviewer is, and when this conversation took place?

Why so many non-Joe Wood pictures?

Cobb and Speaker were both accused of throwing games. The evidence was strong. It was covered up. The owners were notorious for not paying the players. They had it coming.

Hi. Who owns the rights to this interview?

Speaker had a higher career OBP than Cobb. Both of them very poor base stealing percentages.