In this episode of PLAY BALL with Dan Hirshberg, he catches up with Jim Riggleman, a manager and coach in the major leagues for 13 seasons which was highlighted by his leadership in taking the Chicago Cubs to a Wild Card spot in a memorable 1998 season that included one of his players, Sammy Sosa, in a clash with Mark McGuire to see who would break Roger Maris' single season home run record. In all, Jim, who was a minor leaguer in the St. Louis Cardinals system, fell short of the making the majors as a player. However he did go on to make it to the majors as a coach and a manager with five different teams. BIO Jim Riggleman has been the manager of five major league baseball teams, winning 726 games, has been a coach on seven different MLB squads, and led the Chicago Cubs to a Wild Card playoff spot in 1998. Ask him what memories come to mind about his career, however, and he doesn't hesitate - quickly pivoting to his playing days in the minor leagues. Originally signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1974 as an infielder and outfielder, Riggleman two years later moved on to the St. Louis Cardinals organization which he played with through 1981, making it as high as Triple-A before he retired as a player."The money wasn't good, the travel was really tough and the playing conditions were sometimes not great," said Riggleman, a longtime resident of the St. Petersburg area. "We understood that this is minor league baseball. It's a grind. But I loved it.""Maybe I can remember five or 10 at-bats out of 3000 plate appearances over parts of eight seasons, but what I really remember is my teammates, the bus rides, the laughing, pranksters, the personalities and the relationships. More than stepping up to hit it was that everybody was pulling for each other even though we all wanted to get ahead."ABOUT YOUR HOST Play Ball!! with Dan Hirshberg dannybaseball56@yahoo.comhttps://tombolobooks.com/events/3226220250930When it comes to Baseball, Pinellas County has plenty to brag about. In this first installment of Play Ball!! with Dan Hirshberg, Dan brings those bragging rights to life. The author of the newly published book, Baseball in Pinellas County, Dan covers a lot of ground in the book and in this podcast, highlighting people like Casey Kotchman, Bobby Wilson, Toby Hall, Patrick Boyd, Tom Zimmer, Tom Kotchman, and Boof Bonser, as well as legendary coaches Bill Brinker and Todd Vaughan, and three very special high school championship teams, 2001 Seminole High, 2017 Calvary Christian High and 1979 Clearwater Central Catholic. Dan also refers to the untimely death of Steve Giorgiadis, a promising left handed pitcher at Seminole and later at the University of Florida. Real people, real stories. It's what makes Play Ball!! with Dan Hirshberg something special. #playball #baseball #jimrigglesman #danhirshberg #pinellascountybaseball #stpete #stpetefl #tampabay #radio #radiostpete #cityofstpete #dtsp #downtownstpete
