Bob Walk Weilding 'Hex Stick' To Help Bucs
PITTSBURGH (93-7 The Fan)- Pirates broadcaster Bob Walk is a long-time baseball man. He spent 14 years in the Major Leagues as a pitcher, 10 of them for the Pirates. He has been a part of the Pirates' broadcast crew for 24 years.
Naturally, Bob has met and interacted with many "baseball people" along the way and has learned a few things.
That includes how to properly hex someone from the booth.
Bob joined "The Fan Morning Show" in his weekly spot at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday and expounded upon his technique.
"You know, I'm always having to prove to these play-by-play guys that there's some things that go on in baseball that you learn when you're brought up in it," said Walk. "Putting the hexes on players is something Ray Miller showed me years ago. He had little things, triangles, arrows and circles and different things written down on the inside of the bill of his hat."
But, Walk wasn't done there.
"And he would pull it down and he would set different geometric designs on the top of different opposing players to put different hexes on them during the game," said Walk. "So, that's when I understood exactly that there was more going on to this game than what we've always thought and I need to learn about this stuff."
So, what about this "hex stick" that he used in the bottom of the fourth inning on Saturday night when Padres' pitcher Dinelson Lamet was throwing a perfect game?
"Somebody designed the stick for us and we have it up there in the press box now. You have to put the opposing player inside the gold loop and then you just concentrate on what you need to have done," Walk said. "The first hitter walked, so there went the perfect game. Next guy got a base hit, there went the no-hitter. I put the stick the aside and 'OK' and that's how it works."
Did he have the hex stick out when Tabata got plunked by that Max Scherzer pitch a couple years ago to break up his perfect game bid?
"No, we were on the road I didn't have the stick with me so there wasn't much I could do right there, but the perfect game was gone because...Tabata doesn't move."
You can hear the entire interview with Bob Walk (which isn't just all about hexes) from "The Fan Morning Show" above.
