Meet Mr Arnie Costell

[splitterpfj]

Arnie found my name somewhere on the web today, and he called me, before that I had never heard his name.

 

We went on to have a truly FUN conversation, here it is...

 

http://www.baseballintheblood.com/?p=747

[reillymcshane]

Great interview.

 

As a note, here's Arnie's stats:

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=costel001arn

 

He walked 148 guys in 100 minor league innings. Had a 7.11 ERA and a 2.280 WHIP.

[splitterpfj]

Arnie was just great on the phone, and that came out of the blue, I had no idea who he was when he called me. He's as big a fan of baseball as anyone you'll ever meet, you can hear the love of the game in every word he says.

 

He sent me a message this morning, it reads, "Todd, you did a phenomenal job, thank you, I'm off to throw a bullpen." He's 61, and he's had one hip replacement and two Tommy John's...and he's off to throw a bullpen.

 

What's not to love?

[TooLiveBrew]

The Leyland/HR cannon story was hilarious. Thank you for sharing this.

[splitterpfj]

Arnie's a quote machine, I talked to him again yesterday...

 

“It was my last spring training, I was with Houston. They asked me if my arm was ok to throw BP, and I said it was. Cesar Cedeno was the batter, and he was complaining because he didn’t like what I was throwing up there. I got tired of it, so I threw one behind his back. With that, Cedeno charged the mound, and everybody started jumping in there to break up the fight. When it was over, Preston Gomez, who was the manager, walked out to me and said, ‘We got about a million bucks invested in Cedeno, we got a plane ticket invested in you. If you throw another pitch like that last one…it’s gonna be two plane tickets.’” -Arnie Costell