Bill Gullickson spent portions of 18 seasons pitching professionally in the states, Canada and Japan. As Houstonian’s collectively held their breath with Tatsuya Imai, we caught up with Bill as part of our continuing legends series and began the conversation with the land of the rising sun.
Q: Imai has been getting a crash course in American baseball. Are the differences that stark by comparison or is this entire thing overblown?
A: Believe it or not, I think it’s much harder for Americans who are trying to get acclimated in Japan.
The balls there are different. Japanese balls are made from horsehide for better grip and durability, and of course we use horsehide. It’s a different feel on the ball, and I was constantly getting blisters all of the time. Lots of the infields are also all dirt.
More than that though, it’s a different feel for the game there. It’s more of a friendly game over there. If you hit a guy over there, you have to tip your hat. I didn’t initially understand that gesture, but once I started doing it, I got along much better, so I started tipping my hat.
Q: You officially signed as a free agent with the Astros in 1989 and won 10 games with them, what do you remember about that time?
A: I had actually just come back from Japan, had pitched there for a few years, so nobody had seen me pitch for a while. They made me an offer, and I didn’t hesitate, I signed and it was really fun for me to come back and play.
Q: Your children were competitive athletes in their own right. Did your household just possess that competitive gene?
A: That’s what I enjoyed the most about baseball was the competition. My kids all competing in a variety of sports and that’s just how it was.
When I grew up, there were 9 kids in my family, so it was football, basketball, baseball, everything. When you grow up on the east side of Joliet, Illinois, we would get up in the morning before school and go play whiffle ball. On weekends, we played all day long.
Q: Toughest hitter you faced in your career?
A: Pete Rose was always tough. Mike Schmidt was really good. Early in the game, I could find ways to get him out, but then later in the game, after he had studied everything I had that night, he would hit home runs off of me.
I think for my career, he took me deep like 10 times. Schmidt was tough, especially late in games.