Bill Schlesinger: An Oral History

Abstract

Bill Schlesinger:An Oral History Bill Nowlin (bio) Bill Schlesinger, who still lives in his native Cincinnati, is one of those cup-of-coffee players who had but a sip—he appeared in one Major League ballgame on May 4, 1965. One at-bat, without a hit. He's in the record books as Rudy Schlesinger. • Signed as an amateur free agent by Boston Red Sox (1964) • Claimed on first-year waivers by Kansas City Athletics from Boston Red Sox (May 7, 1965) • Traded by Boston Red Sox with cash to Chicago Cubs in exchange for Ray Culp (November 30, 1967) • Traded by Boston Red Sox to Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for Don Lock (May 5, 1969) Interview Conducted July 23, 2003 Rudy? That's a slang word. When I was playing, when somebody would get mad, upset about striking out, breaking up water coolers, breaking up bats—they would always say that you're a red-ass. They just called me Rudy Redass. I didn't care what they called me. I started playing baseball when I was four, and I played every day. Hardball. I was born in '41. My mom and dad got me started. See, back then we couldn't even get on a diamond—on these playfields—because these playfields were just packed. Today they're vacant. Nobody's around; it's like night and day. I've got a sister, ten years older than me. My dad had to work; he had a retail hardware store. My dad passed away in '72. I just got done playing ball two years before that. I got hurt. I got hit in the face by a pitched ball. It was about the same injury as Tony Conigliaro, but Tony's was a little bit worse. I lost 40 percent of my vision, permanently. It's the same today as it was when I got hit thirty years ago. [End Page 151] My dad wasn't a scout or anything like that, but he knew a lot of baseball players. Every year at Crosley Field, my dad was head of Shrine Night. That's how he met all of these players, all the Reds players. When I was seven or eight years old, I always came in the hardware store after school, and he had guys in here working in the hardware store during the winter. They needed another job, some of them did. Ted Kluszewski, he was in here, working here. Roy McMillan. Johnny Temple was in here. Gus Bell. I couldn't wait to get out of school to come up here and see these guys. That was a big thrill. I didn't play Little League, I played in the Knothole. After that, when I was sixteen or seventeen, I went out for the high school team, [but] I got cut there. I wasn't good enough. I just wasn't good enough. No excuses. And then I went to the University of Cincinnati for two years, and I got cut there, too. I played first base; that's the only position I played. Then after that when I was nineteen or twenty, I was playing in this beer league. It was on Sunday, and it was a bunch of old guys in their thirties. If you're in your thirties and forties, that's old. These guys were drinking beer on the bench, and they were just having a good time. One of my dad's friends was Pat Patterson, a scout for the Yankees. He would come in the hardware store almost every day, and we would go to lunch. After high school I was up here helping my dad. Me and Pat and my dad and a sportswriter for the Cincinnati Enquirer, Lou Smith—the four of us would go to lunch. To Ted Kluszewski's restaurant, which was a few miles from [the] store. One day when I was twenty, I said, "Pat, I want to play professional baseball." He said, "You do?" And he took it very serious. My dad just laughed, and he said, "Yeah, OK." My mom, she took it more serious than my dad. My mom said...