Remembering Johnny Podres and Don Cardwell

Folks, I'm not sure how to say this to start off 2008, but the MLB world has lost a pair of legends. We'll get into a little bit about each one of them and both have been guests of the show, Lets Talk Sports so coming up on this friday night, we will take a step back and remember both of them and dedicate this weeks show in honor of the late Johnny Padres and Don Cardwell.

Johnny Podres, was a southpaw (lefty for those who don't follow baseball) for the legendary team; The Brooklyn Dodgers. He spent a couple of wonderful years with the team when they played at Ebbetts Field before moving out west to become the Los Angeles Dodgers. During the time of the 50's, the biggest rivalry in baseball was that of the Dodgers and the Yankees. In 1955, Johnny led the team in pitching to the World Series where they beat the Yankees. He became the leagues first ever World Series MVP. When the team left for LA, he went on to become a WS champ two times more and overall won the series in 55, 59, and 63. In 4 World Series starts, he went on to be 3-1. Johnny passed away at the age of 75.
Don Cardwell was a member of the 69 Mets championship team and helped them win the series by pitching a No Hitter. Before that year though, in 1961 he led the national league in most games started with 38 games. Don was a past guest on the show when the show was just starting out to build into what it is today and because of him, Jay Hook, Carl Erskine, Bobby Doerr and Ralph Branca. He passed away at the age of 72.
Folks, these are the players that helped build the foundation for todays players. If it wasn't for people of the 50's-70s baseball wouldn't be where it is. Whether they were a WS MVP, or a common star, they treated their fans the same. They would sit there for an hour or so and talk to you about what they loved. They didn't care about the money, most of them didn't make money, but they had the passion, they had 1 thing that most of the players dont have today and that was known as Loyalty to what they loved and that was the game of baseball.