Former Texas Rangers pitcher John Burkett joined The Dallas Morning News’ SportsDay Rangers podcast with longtime beat reporter Evan Grant and Rangers senior advisor and team historian John Blake.
They discussed Burkett being the first Ranger to ever win a postseason game, his post-career bowling ventures and more.
Here are some highlights of the conversation, edited lightly for clarity.
You can listen to the full conversation here.
Rangers
You have bowled all your life. Where did your interest in bowling come from?
John Burkett: I grew up in Pittsburgh, so the wintertime, there wasn’t a whole lot to do, so I picked up bowling when I was young kid. My dad bowled, so I did. I started bowling probably when I was five or six. I bowled junior leagues competitively when I was eight, that was the first year you could do it. So when I joined Little League, I joined junior bowling leagues, which was kind of the same thing. So bowling in the winter and baseball in a summer was my whole life.
I’m on the senior bowling tour, bowling with guys like Pete Weber and Norm Duke and Brian Voss and Parker Bohn III, people probably have heard of some of those guys. Just all my life I wanted to bowl, find out if I could compete with these guys. I found out that I am able to compete, and I actually have two national titles. I just won one three weeks ago.
When you were pitching, did certain teams put restrictions on you bowling in the offseason?
Burkett: I got invited to bowl a PBA of my rookie year, I had a good rookie season in San Francisco, and then I got a letter in the mail in my fan mail, and I was the one that answers my fan mail. So fortunately, I was able to see that the PBA had sent me a letter. I opened the letter, and it was an invitation to the Pinole Valley Open in January of 1991 and so I accepted without even thinking about it. I bowled my whole life, so I never thought about the Giants getting upset about it, but [San Francisco Giants executive] Al Rosen never really liked me for some reason, and so he made it a point to let me know that wasn’t something I was permitted to do, but it was after the fact. So one of those things where you asked for forgiveness, not permission. Kind of worked out in my favor.
When you got to Texas in 1996, you went 5-2 in 10 starts down the stretch. Did you feel pressure coming into a pennant race when the Rangers traded for you?
Burkett: The night that I got traded was the night that I was packing my stuff and Gil Heredia gave up the home run in Detroit, right? I don’t know what happened the next game. I can’t remember, because I was traveling and all that, but I pitched Sunday in Toronto with a one game lead. To answer your question about the pressure, I was coming from 18 games back with the Marlins, we were 18 games out of first place. That’s why I remember with the Rangers, they were one game back after they lost that night. So I gained 17 games in the standings. I was super excited. Bobby [Witt] was one of the reasons. It was so cool to get back with him. I really enjoyed being around him. So I was excited about it, and to be on a team that was competitive, I was just thankful to be out of Florida, which the next year they win the World Series of course.
As competitive as you are, both a competitive bowler and as a major leaguer, was it not so much the pressure you felt, but the excitement when the trade was made that sent you to the Rangers’ playoff push?
Burkett: I was super excited to be involved and be thrown into this situation. Obviously, there’s a little nerves there, and you want to make an impact right away. Fortunately, I mean, sometimes you walk out on the mound and you just have your stuff that day. And that was one of the best games I ever pitched in my life, was that game in Toronto. I think it was a six-hit shutout on a Sunday getaway day. So everybody was super happy. There’s nothing like winning on getaway day in the big leagues. Everybody’s happy on the airplane and having a couple cocktails and traveling to the next city. So it’s a great atmosphere. When you’re able to come in and pitch a game like that, you’re accepted right away. So that was a big key in my getting a comfort zone for me.
For the first 49 years in the franchise’s history, it had one playoff win, and that was Game 1 of the 1996 ALDS in New York. In that game, you threw a 10-hit complete game in Yankee Stadium. What do you remember about that night.
Burkett: First of all, I remember, I’d never been to Yankee Stadium before, and I’m a little bit of a baseball historian, so I showed up at the ballpark early so I could walk around and take in all the monuments and all that stuff. So I got to suck that all in. I was excited to take part in a playoff game there at Yankee Stadium. What an atmosphere that place is. I mean, it was just amazing. People are throwing stuff at me during warmups and so it was a very pleasant experience. What sticks out to me is, I think I had first and second, nobody out. Might have been second and third, nobody out and Dean Palmer made a fantastic play down the line that ended up minimizing the damage in that inning. I think I gave up one run in the first and so that gave me a lot of confidence moving forward. That play was a huge play. That’s 2-0 with nobody out if that ball gets by him and he made an unbelievable play, just a parallel dive, toward the line.
Do you remember anything about your emotions or where your head was throughout the game?
Burkett: I mean, everybody says it’s like any other game, which it is, kind of. You can only pitch the way you know how to pitch. But I just always liked that responsibility, even though my talents probably didn’t say that I should like that responsibility. I wasn’t the most gifted guy. But I always believed in myself, so I didn’t have that issue of worrying about things. Whenever I first started a game there, I walked out on the field like 20 minutes before the game. I’d throw like 10 minutes of long toss, and then maybe 15 pitches in the bullpen, and I was ready. So it didn’t take me long. I didn’t like thinking about the game too much. I like to just go out there, and now I’m ready to go. I was loose the clubhouse. I messed around the clubhouse. I didn’t take it too seriously. But then when the game started, I was ready to go.
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