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Speaker 1: Is this a great game or what with the Hall

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Speaker 1: of Famer My dad Tim Kirkchen, I'm his son, Jeff Kirkson,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to another episode. Today we have Hall of

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Speaker 1: Fame basketball writer Bob Ryan on the show that he's

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Speaker 1: also a huge seamhead baseball fan as well. Clearly you

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Speaker 1: get to hear that within the first five minutes of

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Speaker 1: talking to him, Jeff.

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Speaker 2: He knows more about the history of baseball that I do.

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Speaker 2: And he's the greatest basketball writer who ever lived. And

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Speaker 2: I just threw out an obscure nickname that I thought

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Speaker 2: would just go by the wayside, And not only did

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Speaker 2: he explain where the nickname came from, who gave it to?

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Speaker 3: Who?

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Speaker 4: I can't wait for everyone to listen to that.

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Speaker 1: And if you don't recognize his name from his years

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Speaker 1: with the Boston Globe and his writing on basketball, you

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Speaker 1: might recognize him from Around the Horn, the incredible ESPN

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Speaker 1: program that just last week is no more. They are

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Speaker 1: closing the doors on Around the Horn, and he is

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Speaker 1: on the Mount Rushmore, the original cast of Around the Horn.

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Speaker 2: If there was a Hall of Fame for Around the Horn,

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Speaker 2: he'd be in that one too, Jeff, for sure.

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Speaker 1: We have Bob Ryan joining us right now on is

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Speaker 1: this a great game or what?

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Speaker 2: The special guest this week is Bob Ryan, the greatest

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Speaker 2: basketball writer of all time, the quintessential American sports writer. Bob.

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Speaker 4: This is my son Jeff.

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Speaker 3: Hey Jeff, how are you doing?

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Speaker 1: And hey Bob, thank you for joining the show.

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Speaker 2: And Bob, in your honor, I am wearing my Walter

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Speaker 2: Johnson High School fleece pullover. Since I went to Walter

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Speaker 2: Johnson High School in Bethesda, Maryland. I worked for the

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Speaker 2: school paper. It was called The Pitch. I did some

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Speaker 2: work for the yearbook. It was called the wind Up.

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Speaker 2: So yes, and Bob's a great baseball orient.

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Speaker 3: Well, I've been to Humboldt, Kansas, your birthplace of Walter Johnson.

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Speaker 3: So so there you go.

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Speaker 4: That is that is so great.

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Speaker 2: And and I must say, Bob, Bob of course loves baseball,

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Speaker 2: loves basketball. When Jeffrey was in the sixth grade, he's

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Speaker 2: on her. He was a good little athlete, Bob. But look,

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna barrass it right off the top. He was

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Speaker 2: in a rec league game and he came in in

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Speaker 2: the second quarter and got like eight points in like

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Speaker 2: three minutes. All Right, which was out of character for him,

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Speaker 2: and he got the nickname the microwave after that. You

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Speaker 2: can appreciate that, of course, of course.

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Speaker 3: I can that. Danny Ainge. I think it's my favorite

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Speaker 3: nickname of the late twentieth century in sports. And the

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Speaker 3: way it came about was that yet once more time,

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Speaker 3: and I think the Celtics actually won this particular game,

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Speaker 3: but Vinnie Johnson had gone off as he often did,

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Speaker 3: and Danny Ainge said, and this is you can figure

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Speaker 3: out when this was. He said, if they call that

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Speaker 3: other guy the refrigerator, I called this guy Michael Wave

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Speaker 3: because you eat something a hurdle, and that is the

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Speaker 3: derivation of the nickname. And I think it's it's as

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Speaker 3: good a nickname as we came up with in the

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Speaker 3: late twentieth century in American sports.

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Speaker 2: How about that, Jeff, You're the microwave and Danny age,

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Speaker 2: I had no idea came up with the nickname.

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Speaker 4: I love that.

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Speaker 1: I have to say. It's embarrassing that that was my

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Speaker 1: season high and it was eight points. I didn't score

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Speaker 1: before that or after that in that game.

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Speaker 4: That was any that year for sure.

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Speaker 2: All right, Bob, we'll get back to basketball at a minute,

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Speaker 2: because we can't go too long without talking basketball with you.

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Speaker 2: But this is a baseball podcast, So just tell us.

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Speaker 4: You grew up.

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Speaker 2: You're seventy nine years old, you grew up in Trenton,

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Speaker 2: New Jersey. How did you get interested in baseball? Where

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Speaker 2: did your love of baseball come from?

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Speaker 3: It's so simple. I am a product of DNA. My

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Speaker 3: father was in sports. My father is like occupations, but

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Speaker 3: generally were in sports, and I was very small up

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Speaker 3: to the age of four. He was associated with the

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Speaker 3: Trenton Giants, the Class B Interstate League affiliate of the

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Speaker 3: New York Giants. We had a team in Trenton, and

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Speaker 3: the league disbanded after nineteen fifty. Okay, and so they

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Speaker 3: came back later on, but into Trenton, although now they

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Speaker 3: were the victim of that terrible evisceration of the minor

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Speaker 3: league two years ago. That they had one of the

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Speaker 3: many cities the forty that lost their team. Anyway, so

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Speaker 3: baseball was in the blood there. I am firmly believed

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Speaker 3: the belief that I was in the present present at

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Speaker 3: the ballpark at Dunfield and Trenton on the night in

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Speaker 3: the summer of nineteen fifty when the Giants signed, had

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Speaker 3: signed and sent to Trenton a young outfielder from the

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Speaker 3: Birmingham Barons in the Negro League named Willie Howard Mays Junior.

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Speaker 3: And so he then spent the rest of that season

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Speaker 3: to Trenton. Look it up. He had three fifty three

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Speaker 3: for Trenton and then advanced to Minneapolis Triple A next year. Anyway,

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Speaker 3: I was at every home game. My mother would and

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Speaker 3: went to the game, so she said, so I had

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Speaker 3: to be there. So I go back to William Mays

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Speaker 3: and Trenton, New Jersey. Now, as a result of his

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Speaker 3: affiliation with baseball with the Giants, he got to know

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Speaker 3: some Giants. He knew Mays, he knew Ray Cott, who

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Speaker 3: was a backup catcher. He knew Al Corwin, who was

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Speaker 3: a pitcher. He was in the wedding party of Bobby Hoffman,

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Speaker 3: who was an utility infielder who at one point in

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Speaker 3: time held the record for most pitching home runs in

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Speaker 3: the season with six. It's been eclipsed Big Cliff Johnson,

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Speaker 3: among others. Okay, but that's a name you cantainly relate

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Speaker 3: to course now. So then in nineteen fifty two, when

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Speaker 3: I was six, he takes a job at Villanova as

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Speaker 3: the assistant athletic director and becomes head of their promotion

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Speaker 3: department and comes up with his scheme whereby to help

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Speaker 3: fuild the Municipal Stadium in South Philadelphia, the home of

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Speaker 3: the Army Navy game all those years. If you bought

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Speaker 3: are you ready for this one ten dollars worth of

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Speaker 3: grocery at the Acame market, you got a Villanova ticket.

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Speaker 3: That's nineteen fifty two. Well, he filled the ballpark. I

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Speaker 3: mean he filled the stadium with sixty thousand people against

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Speaker 3: the likes of miss old Misson Kentucky. So I was

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Speaker 3: introduced to the Big Five before there was even a

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Speaker 3: Big five, and they were I wasn't codified until nineteen

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Speaker 3: fifty five. I started going to the Pluster when I

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Speaker 3: was six in nineteen fifty two, and I went to

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Speaker 3: Valanova football games. I went to Villanova the last game

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Speaker 3: that Fordham played at Villanova and again and before they

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Speaker 3: they disbanded football. They bought it back now, you know,

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Speaker 3: but at the Polo Grounds in nineteen fifty four. I

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Speaker 3: was at a Penn Navy game in nineteen fifty three.

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Speaker 3: So I have sports, you know, firmly in the DNA.

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Speaker 2: Bob, wait, we got to go back. You saw Willie

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Speaker 2: Mays when you were four years old.

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Speaker 3: I did. I can't testify that I remember it, but

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Speaker 3: I had to have been here. I know I was

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Speaker 3: there because they I was at every game. They took

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Speaker 3: me there every game.

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Speaker 4: That's amazing.

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Speaker 2: So, Bob, on your all time list of lists, where

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Speaker 2: is Willie Mays among the greatest small players ever?

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Speaker 3: Well, of course the handful of the arguments about all

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Speaker 3: around players, you know, Maze and and and Aaron of course,

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Speaker 3: you know the guy with the big head that that

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Speaker 3: I won't remember his name, his name, you know, but

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Speaker 3: he was a great player, obviously, whether he was aided

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Speaker 3: artificially or not. But I'm partial to Maze, you know.

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Speaker 3: I in fact May's up to the when he came

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Speaker 3: back out of the army in fifty four and joined

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Speaker 3: the Giants, I became a major Giant fan. He made

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Speaker 3: a Giant fan until the guy with the big head

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Speaker 3: came along and I said, I can't take it. I'm

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Speaker 3: not rooting for this team untill he's out of there.

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Speaker 3: And and so I stopped rooting for the Giants after

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Speaker 3: many years. But I was with them in fifty four

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Speaker 3: when they swept the Indians. I was with them in

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Speaker 3: sixty two when they lost to the Yankees, and and

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Speaker 3: and uh, all the way through. I was a big

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Speaker 3: giant fan. So anyway, I was a maze guy. And

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Speaker 3: and I'm you know, Mays versus Aaron, you know, I

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Speaker 3: think it comes down to those two in their time

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Speaker 3: all around. And of course, Mickey, you know, Nicky will

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Speaker 3: always be the what if? How would you really how

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Speaker 3: much more he could have accomplished? We know if he

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Speaker 3: had bothered to take care of himself, we know that.

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Speaker 3: So but I always took up for Mason. You know,

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Speaker 3: in his day, stolen basis that was that was the

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Speaker 3: station to station era. You know, Stolen bases were run

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Speaker 3: a part of the game. I mean, imagine if he

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Speaker 3: were twenty years from down the road in the Ricky

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Speaker 3: Henderson era, he would have stolen seventy or eighty basis

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Speaker 3: he's of.

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Speaker 2: Course, and hit fifty homers. He would have been the

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Speaker 2: first fifty eighty guy in baseball.

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Speaker 3: I'm gonna image Joe led the American League in stolen

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Speaker 3: basis with fifteen one year. That's how bad it was.

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Speaker 2: Joe DiMaggio stole thirty bases in his career, and it

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Speaker 2: just supports the point you're making here is that back

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Speaker 2: then it was stationed to stay and the Yankees were

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Speaker 2: so good, why would you risk an out on the

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Speaker 2: basis where the next guy was going to edit a

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Speaker 2: three run home or anyway.

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Speaker 3: Having brought this up, I'm gonna raise the flag for

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Speaker 3: somebody that gets overlooked in this discussion because people think

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Speaker 3: about Maury Willis. The guy who put the stolen base

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Speaker 3: back in the baseball was Louis Aparicio. He's the guy

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Speaker 3: that's that that that reversed the trend and started things

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Speaker 3: back on the the way they finally peaked up in

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Speaker 3: the in the you know, with Vicky Henderson. But and

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Speaker 3: now we've got this new kid coming up, o god

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Speaker 3: that the Rays have. You know, we'll see what he does.

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Speaker 2: Right, he can but he can fly right, Oh my god.

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Speaker 3: But anyway, so usaf Richo was the guy who put

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Speaker 3: the stolen base back in baseball.

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Speaker 1: Bob, you know, it's funny. I talked to my dad

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Speaker 1: about our guests that are coming on. We talked through,

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Speaker 1: you know, what we can you know, kind of a

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Speaker 1: roadmap of what we want to go with and he said, well,

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Speaker 1: we want to ask him what makes him a seam head,

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Speaker 1: because Bob Ryan is a big seam head. You have

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Speaker 1: proven throughout your career, but especially in the first eight

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Speaker 1: minutes of this interview, what a big seam heead you are?

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Speaker 1: What did you just pull off your desk?

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Speaker 4: What is that?

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Speaker 3: Good time to pump our books? Bill Chuck, and I

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Speaker 3: have a book called in Scoring Position, and in here

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Speaker 3: are one hundred and forty games that I have scored.

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Speaker 3: Among the fourteen one hundred plus or so that I've

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Speaker 3: scored or more or a fifth, I lost track, but

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Speaker 3: I've scored every baseball game I've been to, with one exception,

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Speaker 3: since the beginning of the nineteen seventy seven baseball season

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Speaker 3: when I was the beat me up for the Red Sox. Now,

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Speaker 3: one exception was a Cape Codley game a couple of

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Speaker 3: years ago that I didn't know I was going to

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Speaker 3: go to, and I didn't bring my score book and

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Speaker 3: they didn't have a proper score sheet.

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Speaker 1: Anyway, Bob, Bill Chuck was on our show. We had

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Speaker 1: your your writing partner there, Bill Chuck on our show

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Speaker 1: for the segment I am a seam heead and now

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Speaker 1: you guys have a book together. This is so perfect.

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Speaker 3: It came out a couple of years ago. It's called

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Speaker 3: in Scoring Position, and you have a representation of what

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Speaker 3: the score sheet that I allude to has and why

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Speaker 3: it's you know, why we were writing about it and

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Speaker 3: I and then Bill comes in and fills in the

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Speaker 3: blanks with history and things you didn't know and and

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Speaker 3: comparisons and all kinds of great stuff. And he's a

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Speaker 3: wonderful writer too. So anyway, this is the proof of

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Speaker 3: my baseball fidelity, that's for sure. I score every single

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Speaker 3: game I go.

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Speaker 2: To right and Bob, so do I. By the way,

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Speaker 2: and I was always told if you ever cover an

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Speaker 2: old timers game, you have to keep score at that

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Speaker 2: because you get a chance to write in the name

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Speaker 2: of Willie.

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Speaker 4: Mays or Mickey Mahl or Ted Williams.

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Speaker 2: And I never got the chance to do that, as

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Speaker 2: even though I've covered baseball for forty five years.

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Speaker 4: That makes sense also, right.

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Speaker 3: Well, you know, my first book in nineteen seventy three

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Speaker 3: was about minor league baseball. The first book I was

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Speaker 3: privileged to write was about called Wait Till I Make

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Speaker 3: the Show, and it was about my extensive travels through

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Speaker 3: minor leagues and that was a baseball PhD for me.

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Speaker 3: I learned so much baseball and that set the table

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Speaker 3: for the rest of my writing baseball career.

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Speaker 2: Right My first two years covering baseball Bob were Class

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Speaker 2: A in Alexandria, Virginia, and it really really prepared me

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Speaker 2: for what the big leagues was going to be like.

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Speaker 2: So anyone who's covered Mynor league baseball and has seen

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Speaker 2: a bunch of games, it's absolutely crucial. It's the lifeblood

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Speaker 2: of the major league Bob. I did a speech in

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Speaker 2: January in Cincinnati and I ran into a guy who

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Speaker 2: told me he had been to one hundred and ninety

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Speaker 2: seven baseball stadiums, like thirty Big leagues and then one

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Speaker 2: hundred and sixty seven minor league ballparks over the years.

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Speaker 3: Good for him, you know. Last year I wrote a

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Speaker 3: story for The Globe about the fact that I've been

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Speaker 3: to sporting events in all fifty states, and that's a

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Speaker 3: and I did a a breakdown of states at sport

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Speaker 3: by state and sports by number, and the two things

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Speaker 3: states so I've seen the most sporting events are my

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Speaker 3: two avocations over and above any job assignment. I've had

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Speaker 3: one is college basketball, where I've been to two hundred

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Speaker 3: and six venues to see college basketball in my life.

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Speaker 3: And the second was minor league baseball, where I've been

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Speaker 3: to games in thirty one states. So uh, I'm just

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Speaker 3: saying I love I love baseball, I love minor league.

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Speaker 3: I got to say one thing you'll love this, Tim.

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Speaker 3: I bet if I were a sports editor, If I were,

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Speaker 3: I want to be. You never wanted to be an editor.

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Speaker 3: But where I Two things right now? One my baseball writer.

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Speaker 3: Two things. One he or she would have to spend

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Speaker 3: two weeks of the year going to through the minor leagues.

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Speaker 3: They just just because all the things you would pick up,

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Speaker 3: the people, the things you'd hear, the things you'd learn,

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Speaker 3: the things you hadn't thought about, the things you should

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Speaker 3: know before you know. And two you have to rudiment.

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Speaker 3: You have to have a rudimentary knowledge of Spanish. I

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Speaker 3: don't see how you can cover baseball anymore if you

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Speaker 3: don't speak rudimentary Spanish.

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Speaker 2: My biggest regret in life is I took French in

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Speaker 2: high school and in college, and now that Eric Ganye

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Speaker 2: is retired, I don't have anyone to talk to anymore.

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Speaker 3: Where she'd probably, oh, she she she'd probably Let's spaniel. Yeah, obvious, moll.

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Speaker 2: I was not expecting friend from Bob today. Jama Pelle

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Speaker 2: dmote a mill Ken.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, never mind.

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Speaker 2: Enough of that, So Bob Jeff asked Bob the question

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Speaker 2: that we had on the podcast last year, because he's

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Speaker 2: the perfect guy to answer this question.

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Speaker 1: All right, So it was a short lived debate, Bob,

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Speaker 1: but we talked about, Okay, which major city has the

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Speaker 1: greatest combination of athletes in the four major sports? And

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Speaker 1: obviously you need four major sports to go through this all.

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Speaker 1: But is it that obvious that it's clearly Boston?

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Speaker 4: Right?

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Speaker 3: It sounds so parochial in my part, but I have

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Speaker 3: explored this topic. I think about it. I thought about

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Speaker 3: it several times over the years. What city can match us?

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Speaker 3: Let me just start with this, since nineteen twenty five

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Speaker 3: when Eddie Shore joined the Boston Bruins up to this,

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Speaker 3: at the present moment, it's up to like last year, Boston,

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Speaker 3: Massachusetts had on one of its four major sports teams.

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Speaker 3: And remember they didn't get a football team till nineteen

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Speaker 3: sixty okay, in the Mayor American Football League. But the

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Speaker 3: remember at least one, no doubt, first, no questions asked,

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Speaker 3: first ballot Hall of Famer in residence in the city

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Speaker 3: straight through from nineteen twenty five until two thousand and

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Speaker 3: thirty fourteen, and we lost. We lost. We have none

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Speaker 3: right now, we did. The last one we had was

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Speaker 3: Patrit Bergerwai, he certainly will go in. There's no question

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Speaker 3: w we had, you know, so let's start with that.

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Speaker 3: We haven't had that seven eight decade unbroken succession of

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Speaker 3: at least one resident Hall of Famer, our resident, our Rushmore.

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Speaker 3: For example, this isn't too bad, Ted Williams, Bill Russell,

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Speaker 3: of course, Tom Brady, and uh well, I'm trying to

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Speaker 3: you can go by Bobby or of course, okay, I

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Speaker 3: challenge any city to match that.

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Speaker 2: But Bob, we try to come up with a close second.

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Speaker 2: And I'm not sure we really came up with a

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Speaker 2: close second. Each one has one sport that just can't

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Speaker 2: match the four guys in Boston.

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Speaker 3: I just think of the guys that are also rans.

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Speaker 3: A guy named Bird, a guy named a guy named Bork,

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Speaker 3: you know, for example, a guy named well, you know,

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Speaker 3: just Stremsky. But certainly, but anyway, I think our rush Moore,

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Speaker 3: I spot put it up with anybody, absolutely positive, right.

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Speaker 2: All right?

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Speaker 1: But I don't even think there's a debate there, Dad, No,

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Speaker 1: I don't.

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Speaker 2: I don't see, right, there's so many loaded questions here, Bob.

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Speaker 2: And I'm going to ask you another one. Bill Russell

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Speaker 2: plays today, he is who is Bill Russell if he

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Speaker 2: plays today? Because I'm sorry, if Bill Russell is the

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Speaker 2: greatest rebounder and the greatest defensive player in the history

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Speaker 2: of the league, Bob, you know.

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Speaker 4: Way more than I do. Am I overstating this.

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Speaker 3: Bill Russell tay leads the league in shot blocking and

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Speaker 3: rebounding as if he never left in his last game

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Speaker 3: was April May fifth, nineteen sixty nine, and the and

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Speaker 3: the Forum when they beat the Lakers. He was an

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Speaker 3: athlete so far ahead of his time. People don't understand

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Speaker 3: this then, youngins don't get it. Nobody, they don't understand

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Speaker 3: it was definitely head of There's no rebounder like Bill

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Speaker 3: Russell today. Nobody that had the timing that he was

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Speaker 3: talking about athleticism as he told me my face, I

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Speaker 3: could kick the rim. I mean he was. He was

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Speaker 3: a high jumper.

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Speaker 4: He was jab Now have no idea he's a.

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Speaker 3: High jumper in college, and he could do that. He

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Speaker 3: and the rebounding. You know number one rule of rebounding.

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Speaker 3: Do you want the damn ball er, don't you? Well,

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Speaker 3: he wanted the damn ball number two? All right, then

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Speaker 3: it's it's time. It's positioning, timing, and the last of

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Speaker 3: that least and definitely least jumping. Well, he had all.

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Speaker 3: He had everything. He had everything, he wanted the ball.

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Speaker 3: He positioned himself. He had extraordinary timing and anticipation, and

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Speaker 3: he was a great leaper. H And unlike a lot

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Speaker 3: of you know, show offs today, he tried try to

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Speaker 3: knock the shot block into the third row. He tried

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Speaker 3: to direct the balls to a teammate to start a

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Speaker 3: fast break. And it's a technique that you don't know,

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Speaker 3: nobody has that technique to But.

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Speaker 2: He's block shots with his right hand and his left hand. Right,

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Speaker 2: there are some guys who just do it, Jeff, with

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Speaker 2: their dominant and he'd used both hands to block shots.

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Speaker 3: Thing about it in today's game in terms of pick

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Speaker 3: and roll, he was made to be a pick and

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Speaker 3: roll defender. His lateral mobility was extraordinary, right, so you

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Speaker 3: know he would he would have been he would have

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Speaker 3: flourished us as as as a pick and roll defender,

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Speaker 3: which a lot of sinners, you know, some are good

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Speaker 3: and some aren't. And he would have been perfect for this.

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Speaker 2: Guy, Jeff, Sorry, Bob is the I'm the ultimate list guy,

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Speaker 2: at least in our house. Bob's the ultimate list guy

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Speaker 2: in everyone's house, all right. So the five greatest Celtics

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Speaker 2: are Russell, Larry, Koozy, Halichek, and who is the fifth

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Speaker 2: gradest Celtic ever?

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Speaker 4: Because I struggle with this all.

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Speaker 3: You want to believe this, you won't believe this. But

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Speaker 3: I had this very discussion yesterday when I was being

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Speaker 3: interviewed for someone's project, just yesterday, probably twenty two i'd say,

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Speaker 3: twenty two hours ago from where we stick as we said,

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Speaker 3: I answered the same question. I have debated this one. Okay,

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Speaker 3: you have the right four and chronologically speaking, I always

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Speaker 3: listen to them as chronologically so people, don't you know Kouzy, Russell, Halichik,

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Speaker 3: Bird one question? Those are that's the Celtic Rushmore, no question? Okay,

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Speaker 3: Who's number five? Candidates include Cowen's Sam Jones, Paul Pierce. Okay,

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Speaker 3: that's it. That's the next, that's the next, the next, level,

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Speaker 3: I think, okay, and the there's a guy right now

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Speaker 3: that if he keeps going away, he's going is going

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Speaker 3: to end be entered into that discussion. And that's Jason Tatum.

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Speaker 3: I mean, he's on his way. He's only twenty seven,

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Speaker 3: He's got a lot more to give. Now. We don't

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Speaker 3: know how he's going to recuperate from this awful Achilles.

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Speaker 3: You know, we don't know what he's going to be like.

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Speaker 3: So but he was on his way. Okay. I am

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Speaker 3: mc cowan's guy personally, but oh one more michale, right, God,

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Speaker 3: i'vean Michale. Okay. I had come down on record and

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Speaker 3: said Pierce and I went on record early is twenty

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Speaker 3: twenty two or three after he had some great playoff

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Speaker 3: get performance, and I said, he is the greatest scoring

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Speaker 3: machine in Celtic history. And I know that. How about

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Speaker 3: check People don't want to hear it. Bird, people don't

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Speaker 3: want to hear it. And God knows, nobody love Larry

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Speaker 3: Bird more than me. But I'm talking about all around

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Speaker 3: the ability to get the ball in the basket. Paul

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Speaker 3: Pierce had more ways to get the ball in the

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Speaker 3: basket than, reliably than any Celtic ever. I mean he

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Speaker 3: could always get his own shot. There were guys that

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Speaker 3: could make Larry work a little hard to get his shot,

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Speaker 3: but Perce Pierce could always get his own shot. He

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Speaker 3: was an excellent three point shooter. The best finisher on

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Speaker 3: the fast break I've ever seen in Celtic uniform was

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Speaker 3: Paul Pierce. And don't foul because he's nearly a ninety

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Speaker 3: percent shoot.

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Speaker 2: What's left this is slightly mort.

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Speaker 3: Wasn't Larry Bird. He didn't have the passing ability, He's

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Speaker 3: not didn't have the rebound. He wasn't Larry Bird, he

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Speaker 3: was himself. But as a pure scorer, I think he

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Speaker 3: is the greatest Celtic scorer.

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Speaker 2: Wow, that's so cool. All Right, this is a little

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Speaker 2: more difficult the mount rushmore of Red Sox. Now, I

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Speaker 2: think we have to be clear here that it's got

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Speaker 2: to be Ted Williams, Carl Streemsky and David Ortiz based

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Speaker 2: on the championships in the postseason. Bob, you can argue

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Speaker 2: with me, but those are my three, and I have

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Speaker 2: really a hard time finding the fourth Red Sox because,

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Speaker 2: as you know, so many of them, including Roger Clemons,

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Speaker 2: played half of their career somewhere else who love my

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Speaker 2: missing on the Red Sox.

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Speaker 4: Red Sox very question.

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Speaker 3: That's a very good question because nobody is jumping out,

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Speaker 3: you know. So I'm just trying to think of old

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Speaker 3: you know. I I'm trying to go way back and

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Speaker 3: you and the way back, you know with Tris Speacher.

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Speaker 2: Jimmy Fox, Lefty Gross.

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00:22:11,760 --> 00:22:17,639
Speaker 3: And most finances career in Philadelphia. Uh, Bobby door Is

434
00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:20,000
Speaker 3: was a sirctly a Red Sox Hall of Famer and

435
00:22:20,040 --> 00:22:22,800
Speaker 3: he had to retire relatively young due to a bad back.

436
00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:24,919
Speaker 3: He was only like thirty one. He was on his

437
00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:26,119
Speaker 3: way to the hall and he made the Hall of

438
00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:28,080
Speaker 3: Fame for the committee, but he would have made he

439
00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:29,639
Speaker 3: was on his way on question to be a Hall

440
00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:32,240
Speaker 3: of Famer. You might you might throw him in there

441
00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:37,360
Speaker 3: because the most beloved Red Sox guy with associated was pesky.

442
00:22:37,760 --> 00:22:40,320
Speaker 3: Even though he had career with he didn't he played,

443
00:22:40,320 --> 00:22:43,320
Speaker 3: He was traded. He played and famous major trade. He

444
00:22:43,359 --> 00:22:46,359
Speaker 3: was traded to trade. But he had three hundred lifetime

445
00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:48,960
Speaker 3: as the Red Sox was a great table center in

446
00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:52,480
Speaker 3: the in the late forties. You mentioned, you know Roger.

447
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:55,600
Speaker 3: Roger won one hundred and ninety one games for the

448
00:22:55,680 --> 00:23:00,360
Speaker 3: for the Red Sox and uh and and the cy

449
00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:02,720
Speaker 3: Youngs did he won. That's a pretty good one, you know.

450
00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:05,600
Speaker 3: I I haven't pondered that one as deeply as I

451
00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:09,159
Speaker 3: find you know, but that's a very very good question.

452
00:23:09,320 --> 00:23:12,040
Speaker 3: And I think you're right. Uh, if he had been

453
00:23:12,080 --> 00:23:15,639
Speaker 3: here a little longer, you know, I mean Pedro, but

454
00:23:16,240 --> 00:23:18,960
Speaker 3: you know, the career was he came here ninety eight

455
00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:22,960
Speaker 3: and he's gone after four, so it's only seven years,

456
00:23:23,600 --> 00:23:25,560
Speaker 3: you know. I don't know, but but Roger, you know,

457
00:23:25,680 --> 00:23:28,720
Speaker 3: Roger had a decade, you know, a little twelve. Yeah,

458
00:23:29,880 --> 00:23:32,640
Speaker 3: might it might be. It's it's a good one. I'm

459
00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:34,640
Speaker 3: I'm I know, I'm babbling because I don't have any

460
00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:36,000
Speaker 3: I don't have a definitive There.

461
00:23:35,880 --> 00:23:38,320
Speaker 4: Isn't a definitive answer, Bob. That's the point.

462
00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:41,400
Speaker 2: And Pedro for ninety nine two thousand is the greatest

463
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:43,639
Speaker 2: picture for a short period that I've ever seen in

464
00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:44,000
Speaker 2: my life.

465
00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:45,399
Speaker 4: Am I over staving?

466
00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:49,080
Speaker 3: No, I'm glad just said that because there was it

467
00:23:49,119 --> 00:23:51,439
Speaker 3: was so electrifying. Every night out you wonder what he's

468
00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:53,679
Speaker 3: going to do. You wouldn't want to think about missing

469
00:23:53,680 --> 00:23:56,000
Speaker 3: the start of Pedro. With pitching in those days, some

470
00:23:56,040 --> 00:23:58,600
Speaker 3: of the stuff he did was just just ridiculous. And

471
00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:00,960
Speaker 3: and uh, you know that game he pitched in Yankee

472
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:03,320
Speaker 3: Stadium when he struck out the seventeen to give up

473
00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:05,840
Speaker 3: David Cohne. I was there the next day and David

474
00:24:05,840 --> 00:24:08,000
Speaker 3: Cone told me that's the best game I've ever seen,

475
00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:09,520
Speaker 3: including my perfect game. Bob.

476
00:24:09,640 --> 00:24:12,679
Speaker 2: I did that game on the radio. I did the

477
00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:16,320
Speaker 2: color on the radio that night. I'd never done color

478
00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:19,840
Speaker 2: on the radio before. It was me and Charlie Steiner.

479
00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:22,600
Speaker 2: And he went out and threw a one hitter, struck

480
00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:26,800
Speaker 2: out seventeen, most strikeouts ever by a.

481
00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:28,320
Speaker 4: Visiting pitcher at Yankee Stadium.

482
00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:32,080
Speaker 2: And Tino Martinez told me years later, I've never seen

483
00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:35,600
Speaker 2: anything anything like Pedro through that night.

484
00:24:36,040 --> 00:24:37,600
Speaker 3: Jillie Davis hit the foul point he did.

485
00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:39,560
Speaker 2: That was Jillie Davis hit a home run and that

486
00:24:39,640 --> 00:24:41,960
Speaker 2: was the only not only the only hit they got.

487
00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:44,280
Speaker 2: It was the only base runner they got, and it

488
00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:44,920
Speaker 2: was billy ball.

489
00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:46,200
Speaker 4: They hit hard all night.

490
00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:49,160
Speaker 3: It was a foul pole down at the shortest white

491
00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:51,159
Speaker 3: field in America, the second shortest white field in the

492
00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:51,919
Speaker 3: American League.

493
00:24:52,000 --> 00:25:02,760
Speaker 1: Amazing, Bob, for you and I want to I want

494
00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:05,200
Speaker 1: to get into basketball. We we this has been such

495
00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:08,240
Speaker 1: a great conversation, But I do. I would be remiss

496
00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:10,879
Speaker 1: if I didn't ask. So I'm thirty one years old,

497
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:15,679
Speaker 1: So I genuinely, honestly don't think I know a time

498
00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:19,439
Speaker 1: in my life I can remember vividly without Around the

499
00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:26,719
Speaker 1: Horn and you, I mean, obviously Rushmore, you are on

500
00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:28,600
Speaker 1: the right. It's exactly what I was gonna say.

501
00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:33,840
Speaker 5: You're a mount Rushmore member of Around the Horn, and

502
00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:38,280
Speaker 5: with that show now leaving programming it, you probably have

503
00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:42,800
Speaker 5: a million stories and a million moments you can recall, but.

504
00:25:42,840 --> 00:25:45,159
Speaker 1: You also must be a little sad like all of us.

505
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:48,000
Speaker 3: Okusa, I've definitely said, you know, as part of my

506
00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:51,320
Speaker 3: life is November fourth, two thousand and two, as a

507
00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:53,600
Speaker 3: charter member of this show. And I when we first

508
00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:55,600
Speaker 3: heard about it and they asked us, told us about

509
00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:58,240
Speaker 3: us skidding Volve couldn't imagine the format, you know, we

510
00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:00,159
Speaker 3: couldn't figure out what are you gonna get points? What

511
00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:02,480
Speaker 3: is this show? And the hall? I have to understand

512
00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:06,480
Speaker 3: the two things that people should know. One is that

513
00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:10,959
Speaker 3: we wouldn't exist without Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wibbon's success

514
00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:13,240
Speaker 3: on PTI. We are a spin off we were a

515
00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:16,800
Speaker 3: legitimate sports show, spin off Talking head spin off, the

516
00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:20,480
Speaker 3: first one you can truthfully say, you can accurately say

517
00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:22,719
Speaker 3: that's exactly all we were. We wouldn't exist if they

518
00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:25,000
Speaker 3: didn't exist, and they hadn't had a success. So that's

519
00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:28,679
Speaker 3: number one. Number two, the genius behind the format of

520
00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:31,200
Speaker 3: both shows is a man named Eric right Home and

521
00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:34,919
Speaker 3: Eric people. The public doesn't know Eric, but we worshiped ground.

522
00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:39,000
Speaker 3: He walks on with remark it was intellectual capacity. He

523
00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:41,560
Speaker 3: was phenomenal. He came up with all the all the

524
00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:45,600
Speaker 3: format gimmicks on both shows. Okay, so Eric, they were

525
00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:50,320
Speaker 3: they tribute to Eric ride Home. Oh, I mean, I'm

526
00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:52,040
Speaker 3: very proud to have been on this show all these years,

527
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:55,439
Speaker 3: and we watched the show evolved from the original five people.

528
00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:57,720
Speaker 3: There are only five of us when we started, and

529
00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:00,440
Speaker 3: the three originals that are left on myself to Calshow

530
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:03,359
Speaker 3: and Woody Page, and the fourth was Jy Marriotti, and

531
00:27:03,359 --> 00:27:06,239
Speaker 3: the fifth was TJ. Seimers of the La Times. We

532
00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:09,040
Speaker 3: were the original five. Now it's evolved into right now

533
00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:13,399
Speaker 3: as it ends or over twenty rotating palace and women

534
00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:18,280
Speaker 3: and men of color and Latinos, and I mean we've

535
00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:21,360
Speaker 3: touched all the appropriate basis and the show's better off

536
00:27:21,359 --> 00:27:23,840
Speaker 3: for it. And you know, some wonderful people have joined

537
00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:25,840
Speaker 3: the cast, but you know, the three of us are

538
00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:27,800
Speaker 3: proud to say that we were there from the beginning.

539
00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:30,240
Speaker 3: And of course the one, the person who took the

540
00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:32,720
Speaker 3: best advantage of it was Woody, no doubt about that.

541
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:35,560
Speaker 3: You know, what he came up with the chalkboard, what

542
00:27:35,760 --> 00:27:38,280
Speaker 3: he came up with the you know, really made himself

543
00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:41,560
Speaker 3: a cult hero, really, and and I say he became

544
00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:44,920
Speaker 3: America's funny uncle, you know, to all those college kids

545
00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:48,639
Speaker 3: out there. And it's like, I take it off. Salute Woody,

546
00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:50,719
Speaker 3: who I've known since nineteen seventy three when he was

547
00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:53,119
Speaker 3: working in Memphis and I was covering the Celtics and

548
00:27:53,119 --> 00:27:56,040
Speaker 3: I arrived in Memphis for an Aba NBA exhibition game

549
00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:58,200
Speaker 3: and we finally met after having written for the same

550
00:27:58,240 --> 00:28:01,080
Speaker 3: postseason publication, but we had never met. And so I've

551
00:28:01,080 --> 00:28:03,399
Speaker 3: know Woody Page now for fifty two years.

552
00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:06,320
Speaker 2: He said, Jeff, just to show you the power of television.

553
00:28:06,400 --> 00:28:10,080
Speaker 2: I saw Bob Ryan introduced somewhere or written about him,

554
00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:12,520
Speaker 2: and it says, Bob Ryan, you know, he's one of

555
00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:16,320
Speaker 2: the panelists on Around the Horn and then there's a comma.

556
00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:18,920
Speaker 4: He also writes for The Boston.

557
00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:21,680
Speaker 2: Globe, like that's an afterthought?

558
00:28:21,760 --> 00:28:23,639
Speaker 4: Are you crazy, Bob?

559
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:26,760
Speaker 3: What do you say when you say it here that

560
00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:31,159
Speaker 3: long ago, how long ago, had to reconcile myself, you know,

561
00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:34,040
Speaker 3: to that reality. Okay, I mean, you know people don't this.

562
00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:36,439
Speaker 3: Kids today don't have any idea. You know that I

563
00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:39,840
Speaker 3: wrote and I still do write periodically. I wait, every

564
00:28:40,480 --> 00:28:43,120
Speaker 3: doing every month with it could go Sunday calm, I've

565
00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:45,600
Speaker 3: been doing something for the globsess. I officially retired in

566
00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:49,080
Speaker 3: twenty twelve from full time duty. But that's the reality

567
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:51,120
Speaker 3: of it. But you know, the flip side is that

568
00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:54,840
Speaker 3: TV notoriety, you know, it just changes your life to me,

569
00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:57,840
Speaker 3: you you know, I mean I will be recognized I'd

570
00:28:57,880 --> 00:28:59,760
Speaker 3: say three hundred out of three hundred and sixty five

571
00:28:59,840 --> 00:29:03,760
Speaker 3: days a year somewhere anywhere. I've been recognized everywhere, from

572
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:08,920
Speaker 3: you know, Washington to San Diego to Amsterdam. You know,

573
00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:11,720
Speaker 3: I remember getting off the walking down the street in

574
00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:13,600
Speaker 3: Amsterdam and when he came up because it was an

575
00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:16,080
Speaker 3: American and you recognized me. And that's that's the reality

576
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:18,520
Speaker 3: of television to Power TV. Of course, it's amazing.

577
00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:20,760
Speaker 2: And Jeff, you may not know, but a bunch of

578
00:29:20,800 --> 00:29:24,840
Speaker 2: these guys Hall of Famers meet on Dan Shaughnessy's porch

579
00:29:25,400 --> 00:29:29,920
Speaker 2: in Newton, mass every Wednesday. Bob, how long has this

580
00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:30,800
Speaker 2: been going on?

581
00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:36,120
Speaker 3: It's been going on. Dan. They celebrated the two hundredth

582
00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:40,000
Speaker 3: annivers you know, which up here too, have not that anniversary,

583
00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:43,680
Speaker 3: the two hundred renewal of this thing a couple of

584
00:29:43,720 --> 00:29:47,640
Speaker 3: weeks ago last month. So it goes back to the

585
00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:50,000
Speaker 3: division of fifty two into the two hundred, and you

586
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:52,240
Speaker 3: get the answer. It's over. It's four you know, well

587
00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:55,680
Speaker 3: over four years. I'm not trying to remember. I came.

588
00:29:55,760 --> 00:29:58,360
Speaker 3: I stumbled into this a couple of years ago when

589
00:29:58,360 --> 00:30:00,760
Speaker 3: I was part of a group. It was invited to

590
00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:05,040
Speaker 3: go to a Worcester Red Sox wus Sox baseball game.

591
00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:08,160
Speaker 3: And Uh, it turns out that the group, the court group,

592
00:30:08,240 --> 00:30:10,920
Speaker 3: was this group that meets every Wednesday at dance house,

593
00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:13,880
Speaker 3: and I was invited to participate, and I became a

594
00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:17,240
Speaker 3: member of the club, you know, and uh, we have

595
00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:21,520
Speaker 3: met unbroken he had he has met unbroken a dance porch. Uh,

596
00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:24,800
Speaker 3: for over two hundred weeks now about you know, six

597
00:30:24,920 --> 00:30:29,800
Speaker 3: or seven weeks rainers, shine and holiday or not. This

598
00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:33,880
Speaker 3: year Christmas Day was a Wednesday, but they decided that

599
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:35,920
Speaker 3: a quorum was two people, and a couple of people

600
00:30:35,920 --> 00:30:39,160
Speaker 3: showed up, so we kept it going. It's uh, we

601
00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:42,000
Speaker 3: just sit and talk. There's no format. We just sit

602
00:30:42,080 --> 00:30:44,880
Speaker 3: in talk. Just guys that love sports, love music, love life,

603
00:30:45,200 --> 00:30:47,720
Speaker 3: uh you know, and and we just sit and talk

604
00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:50,480
Speaker 3: and and uh uh and we have t shirts putting.

605
00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:54,360
Speaker 3: But the genesis of it, if it was this, h uh.

606
00:30:54,800 --> 00:30:58,520
Speaker 3: Dan went dance from Groton, Massachusetts, little town north for

607
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:02,640
Speaker 3: northwest of Boston or northeast, and he went to holy Cross.

608
00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:04,240
Speaker 3: And he grew up with a couple of these guys

609
00:31:04,320 --> 00:31:07,160
Speaker 3: that went the holy Cross as well. And one night

610
00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:09,600
Speaker 3: they were there with their wives and they were yapping

611
00:31:09,640 --> 00:31:12,520
Speaker 3: about grotten, grotten this, grotten that. And one of the

612
00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:15,560
Speaker 3: wives said, oh, you guys always talking about grotten. Yeah,

613
00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:18,280
Speaker 3: you think everything arvolves around rotten. He said, well it does,

614
00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:21,840
Speaker 3: and she said name. She said, I'll tell you something

615
00:31:22,840 --> 00:31:26,680
Speaker 3: that doesn't revolve on grotteny Alta. Okay, Well guess what

616
00:31:27,240 --> 00:31:31,120
Speaker 3: guess where FDR went to prep school? No way, grotten

617
00:31:31,520 --> 00:31:36,360
Speaker 3: Grotton Academy. So that got them, that fired them up,

618
00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:39,680
Speaker 3: these guys and and uh they and they started this

619
00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:42,400
Speaker 3: group and and so at the end, two of these

620
00:31:42,400 --> 00:31:46,560
Speaker 3: guys are twin brothers, uh that are boyhood friends with

621
00:31:46,680 --> 00:31:49,200
Speaker 3: Dan's and the third one is the assistant coach. Then

622
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:51,560
Speaker 3: one of them with Mike Levine, was he had women's

623
00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:55,360
Speaker 3: soccer coaches, started the program at Boston College. Pete Counsel

624
00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:58,560
Speaker 3: around the group was his assistant. And anyway, the group

625
00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:02,760
Speaker 3: has expanded. It includes Richard Johnson of the Sports Museum

626
00:32:02,760 --> 00:32:07,080
Speaker 3: in Boston, Joe Britania who's mister Hockey, and so many capacities,

627
00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:11,640
Speaker 3: including former Commissioner of Hockey East and Bruins goalie coach.

628
00:32:11,840 --> 00:32:14,600
Speaker 3: But he's one of our guys. And we've got a

629
00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:18,680
Speaker 3: core group of about you know, about ten and so

630
00:32:18,720 --> 00:32:21,000
Speaker 3: we moved. We meet a Dan every Wednesday at Dance

631
00:32:21,040 --> 00:32:21,880
Speaker 3: House at two o'clock.

632
00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:26,240
Speaker 2: Dan, Bob the last time you met Dan. Peter Gammons

633
00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:28,320
Speaker 2: and you were there at the same time.

634
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:30,960
Speaker 3: Joined us yesterday. And of course Peter and I go

635
00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:34,200
Speaker 3: back to June tenth, nineteen sixty eight, when we were

636
00:32:34,240 --> 00:32:37,480
Speaker 3: fellows summer interns, starting day one at the Boston Club.

637
00:32:38,520 --> 00:32:41,800
Speaker 2: Well, tell us that story, Bob, isn't that's where it

638
00:32:41,840 --> 00:32:44,520
Speaker 2: all began, the two of you, right, you have to Yeah.

639
00:32:44,360 --> 00:32:46,640
Speaker 3: Well, I mean I I you know, he was this

640
00:32:46,760 --> 00:32:50,760
Speaker 3: guy from University of North Carolina. I was a kid

641
00:32:50,760 --> 00:32:54,400
Speaker 3: that just graduated one week earlier from Boston College. Now

642
00:32:54,480 --> 00:32:56,959
Speaker 3: I know of you guys that you know, internships are

643
00:32:56,960 --> 00:32:59,880
Speaker 3: generally for undergrads, but I was a grad. But I

644
00:32:59,880 --> 00:33:04,520
Speaker 3: got this internship at the Globe and the legitimate interview process,

645
00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:06,800
Speaker 3: and one of the guys I met, we were three

646
00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:08,480
Speaker 3: of us. The third guy named Dave Martin. I don't

647
00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:11,200
Speaker 3: even know whatever happened to Dave. But Peter Gammage and

648
00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:14,480
Speaker 3: I met that day and we hit it off and

649
00:33:14,520 --> 00:33:18,040
Speaker 3: we have our first story. You'll love this, guys, that day,

650
00:33:18,560 --> 00:33:21,680
Speaker 3: our first story. That was the weekend. That was the

651
00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:25,080
Speaker 3: Monday following the Bobby Kennedy assassination, which had taken place

652
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:28,080
Speaker 3: on Friday night, I believe. And our job was to

653
00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:31,479
Speaker 3: canvas newspapers around the country, and those days you had

654
00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:32,880
Speaker 3: to do it by calling them up because there was

655
00:33:32,920 --> 00:33:34,880
Speaker 3: no internet and there was no you know. That was it.

656
00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:38,600
Speaker 3: You called them up and find out what the columnist

657
00:33:38,880 --> 00:33:42,719
Speaker 3: if the columnist had addressed this topic on the subject

658
00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:44,880
Speaker 3: of whether or not baseball should have played that weekend. Remember,

659
00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:47,640
Speaker 3: there was a big yes controversy and some people did

660
00:33:47,680 --> 00:33:50,080
Speaker 3: I think Rusty Stobbed, for example, I believe did not play.

661
00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:54,160
Speaker 3: But somebody but and whether they had editorialized or had

662
00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:56,160
Speaker 3: a column write about it. And we put the story

663
00:33:56,160 --> 00:33:59,640
Speaker 3: together canvassing American papers. It was a joint byline by

664
00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:03,240
Speaker 3: Peter Gammons and Robert Ryan. And I was the one

665
00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:05,600
Speaker 3: and only time in the in all those years that

666
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:07,560
Speaker 3: I was ever Robert Ryan. I went in the next

667
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:10,239
Speaker 3: play and said, please, I'm not too formal, I'm Bob,

668
00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:15,799
Speaker 3: but we'll see that byline it was alphabetically. Uh, you

669
00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:18,839
Speaker 3: know Peter Gammons, Robert Ryan, and we've known each other

670
00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:20,120
Speaker 3: ever since.

671
00:34:20,520 --> 00:34:23,640
Speaker 2: Tell us who Peter Gammons is. If someone would ask

672
00:34:23,640 --> 00:34:26,080
Speaker 2: you who is Peter Gammons, how would you describe that

673
00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:27,680
Speaker 2: Peter Gammons?

674
00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:30,920
Speaker 3: Well, what, I don't know anybody who knows anything more

675
00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:34,200
Speaker 3: than Peter Gammons loves baseball. I've said that for forty years.

676
00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:38,000
Speaker 3: Peter Gammons, though, is also an accomplished musician who has

677
00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:41,839
Speaker 3: made up end roads in that world. Uh he he uh.

678
00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:45,840
Speaker 3: And but Peter is a he was with the Globe

679
00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:49,960
Speaker 3: and Sports Illustrated and ESPN and and and other entities.

680
00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:54,440
Speaker 3: Uh as accomplished debate and an inner sanctum of greatest

681
00:34:54,480 --> 00:34:58,719
Speaker 3: baseball writers of all time Peter, and Peter's contacts were impeccable.

682
00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:03,680
Speaker 3: Uh and he he was. His writing of baseball was extraordinary,

683
00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:06,040
Speaker 3: and we were, you know, the Globe was so lucky

684
00:35:06,080 --> 00:35:08,480
Speaker 3: to have it right. But said, his whole you know,

685
00:35:08,640 --> 00:35:12,319
Speaker 3: career hair has been about baseball. Although he did go

686
00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:15,200
Speaker 3: to Sports Illustrated twice. The first time he went they

687
00:35:15,200 --> 00:35:18,160
Speaker 3: actually had him do hockey right, And then came back

688
00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:21,279
Speaker 3: in nineteen seventy seven or seventy eight excuse me, and

689
00:35:21,680 --> 00:35:24,080
Speaker 3: resume what he should be doing, which is baseball. And

690
00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:26,160
Speaker 3: then he left again in eighty six to go to

691
00:35:26,160 --> 00:35:31,600
Speaker 3: Sports Illustrated from the Boston Globe. But you can't find

692
00:35:31,640 --> 00:35:33,440
Speaker 3: a better base First of all, I'm talking about not

693
00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:36,120
Speaker 3: just the knowledge and intro, but the pros, the ability

694
00:35:36,160 --> 00:35:41,360
Speaker 3: to describe a baseball game, ability to identify things. No

695
00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:42,759
Speaker 3: one was ever any better at Peter Gain.

696
00:35:43,200 --> 00:35:45,120
Speaker 2: I was the beat guy for the Rangers in eighty

697
00:35:45,120 --> 00:35:47,840
Speaker 2: five Dallas Boarding News. I knew my team was making

698
00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:50,160
Speaker 2: a trade, but I couldn't figure it out. I knew

699
00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:52,279
Speaker 2: a trade was coming, I couldn't figure it out. I

700
00:35:52,320 --> 00:35:54,880
Speaker 2: called Peter, who's the beef guy for the Red Sox

701
00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:57,600
Speaker 2: at the time. I said, Peter, my team is doing something.

702
00:35:57,640 --> 00:35:59,560
Speaker 2: I can't figure this out. He goes, oh, you're getting

703
00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:02,560
Speaker 2: Cliff john later today, and like two hours later, the

704
00:36:02,640 --> 00:36:06,600
Speaker 2: Rangers acquired Cliff Johnson. He was ahead of the beat

705
00:36:06,600 --> 00:36:10,000
Speaker 2: writer for the Dallas Boarding News and he's working in Boston.

706
00:36:10,320 --> 00:36:11,799
Speaker 4: That's who Peter Gambits is.

707
00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:15,799
Speaker 3: Yep, he was that and uh, you know, he and

708
00:36:15,800 --> 00:36:17,920
Speaker 3: I have been, you know, meeting friends. But he he

709
00:36:17,960 --> 00:36:20,480
Speaker 3: also loved basketball and I and we hit it off

710
00:36:20,480 --> 00:36:22,799
Speaker 3: immediately because first of all, it's a tar heel guy.

711
00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:25,520
Speaker 3: I loved basket right. He went to North Carolina and

712
00:36:25,600 --> 00:36:28,920
Speaker 3: he does any new basketball. And we both wrote high

713
00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:31,160
Speaker 3: schools for the several years, you know, while we were

714
00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:33,400
Speaker 3: still doing pros. That's the way I worked in those days.

715
00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:36,160
Speaker 3: I covered high school football in the fall four years

716
00:36:36,160 --> 00:36:37,800
Speaker 3: while I was still the beat man of the Celtics

717
00:36:38,040 --> 00:36:41,480
Speaker 3: and in the early seventies. So that's the way he

718
00:36:41,600 --> 00:36:42,400
Speaker 3: was in those days.

719
00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:45,960
Speaker 2: You covered the Celtics, and you covered high schools.

720
00:36:46,239 --> 00:36:49,800
Speaker 3: That's right, and uh yeah, and I covered high school

721
00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:53,200
Speaker 3: baseball and nineteen seventy two I picked what we called

722
00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:56,360
Speaker 3: the All Scholastic with all Eastern Massachusetts team, and I

723
00:36:56,440 --> 00:36:59,160
Speaker 3: had the duty of covering of picking the whole team myself,

724
00:36:59,160 --> 00:37:01,480
Speaker 3: with you know, with the eight of obviously my sources,

725
00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:04,439
Speaker 3: and I had a couple of a major league picture

726
00:37:04,480 --> 00:37:06,480
Speaker 3: on the team, Mark bomb back really and I had

727
00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:09,840
Speaker 3: yep and Glenn Tuffs, who would have made it definitely

728
00:37:09,840 --> 00:37:12,680
Speaker 3: a first basement with the giant organization set the broke

729
00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:15,520
Speaker 3: a leg and he never recovered properly. But I had

730
00:37:15,520 --> 00:37:19,120
Speaker 3: the responsibility of age twenty six of twenty five, of

731
00:37:19,120 --> 00:37:21,319
Speaker 3: of picking this all scholastic team.

732
00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:25,840
Speaker 1: Yeah wow, Now, Bob, maybe this is a bit of

733
00:37:25,840 --> 00:37:30,920
Speaker 1: a self serving question here, but talking about writers in Boston,

734
00:37:31,760 --> 00:37:34,680
Speaker 1: have you did you ever have any run ins with

735
00:37:34,680 --> 00:37:38,880
Speaker 1: with our family member Steven Kirkchin of the Boston Globe

736
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:42,120
Speaker 1: in the investigative area, so clearly not in the same

737
00:37:42,200 --> 00:37:43,840
Speaker 1: wing of the building, no.

738
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:46,600
Speaker 3: Running, But we were acquainted and and you know, I

739
00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:49,560
Speaker 3: knew Steven Casher. Would we knew each other a little bit? Yes,

740
00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:53,839
Speaker 3: And I remember, well anyway, so the answer is absolutely yes,

741
00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:59,359
Speaker 3: but no confront no reason for anything like that. Right,

742
00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:02,399
Speaker 3: Here's why the many you know, people that you know

743
00:38:02,440 --> 00:38:05,120
Speaker 3: that liked us and what liked the sports, and you know,

744
00:38:05,160 --> 00:38:06,680
Speaker 3: and we would converse times.

745
00:38:06,719 --> 00:38:09,879
Speaker 2: Sure, Right, Steven used to always tell me I want

746
00:38:09,920 --> 00:38:11,799
Speaker 2: to do what you do. Here's like he won like

747
00:38:11,920 --> 00:38:14,560
Speaker 2: three Pueliter prizes that he wanted to be a beat

748
00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:18,000
Speaker 2: writer at the Dallas Boardy News covering the Rangers. I said,

749
00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:22,000
Speaker 2: I think Steven, you're a little overqualified for this job.

750
00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:25,440
Speaker 2: Best investigative reporter the Globe has ever had.

751
00:38:26,040 --> 00:38:28,279
Speaker 3: Now he was. It was terrific and we had it

752
00:38:28,400 --> 00:38:29,920
Speaker 3: was a pillage to work for that paper. And I

753
00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:32,200
Speaker 3: say to people, I'm glad I did it when I

754
00:38:32,280 --> 00:38:34,760
Speaker 3: did it, as well as where I did it. And

755
00:38:34,760 --> 00:38:37,240
Speaker 3: and we know regrets there at all. It was wonderful.

756
00:38:37,320 --> 00:38:41,439
Speaker 2: Bob the Sunday Globe forty years ago, fifty years ago.

757
00:38:41,719 --> 00:38:43,600
Speaker 2: How do we how do we explain that to people?

758
00:38:44,600 --> 00:38:47,560
Speaker 3: Uh, there's nothing like it because people don't have the

759
00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:50,480
Speaker 3: resources that we were given and we were lucky enough

760
00:38:50,520 --> 00:38:53,280
Speaker 3: to have this talent. Well, well, I'll try to explain

761
00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:57,120
Speaker 3: it to people. At one point in time, the primary

762
00:38:57,120 --> 00:39:00,160
Speaker 3: people on each of the four major team sports. Uh,

763
00:39:00,320 --> 00:39:06,200
Speaker 3: you know where myself and basketball, Peter and baseball, Will

764
00:39:06,280 --> 00:39:09,600
Speaker 3: McDonough and football, and Ran Rosa in hockey. What do

765
00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:12,760
Speaker 3: we have in common? We're all in the writer's wings

766
00:39:12,760 --> 00:39:16,200
Speaker 3: of the four sports respectives Hall of Fame. And I

767
00:39:16,239 --> 00:39:18,520
Speaker 3: don't think any other paper, Well, no, it'll never happen again,

768
00:39:18,520 --> 00:39:20,880
Speaker 3: because you know the papers will never happen again. But

769
00:39:20,880 --> 00:39:22,520
Speaker 3: I don't think any other paper can make a claim

770
00:39:22,600 --> 00:39:24,760
Speaker 3: like that. And that was just one of our many clans.

771
00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:26,560
Speaker 3: We had a bench at the Globe and we'd have

772
00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:31,000
Speaker 3: assignments in the tournament stuff and whatever in the in

773
00:39:31,080 --> 00:39:33,560
Speaker 3: the eighties. You know, our bench of people like Ian Thompson,

774
00:39:33,640 --> 00:39:38,280
Speaker 3: Jackie McMullen, Mike Madden. Uh, these are all terrific people

775
00:39:38,280 --> 00:39:41,359
Speaker 3: of Jackies has claimed as any woman sports writer has

776
00:39:41,400 --> 00:39:44,960
Speaker 3: been in the last forty years herself. Mike Madden is

777
00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:50,560
Speaker 3: a wonderful, wonderful football writer and a columnists. Anyway, it

778
00:39:50,640 --> 00:39:53,319
Speaker 3: was it was a joy. But we the funny we're

779
00:39:53,320 --> 00:39:56,279
Speaker 3: talking about this just too. We owed it all not

780
00:39:56,360 --> 00:39:58,160
Speaker 3: just to the sports editor, but the editor of the

781
00:39:58,160 --> 00:40:01,000
Speaker 3: paper was a guy in Tom Winship, and he was

782
00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:04,840
Speaker 3: not necessarily knowledgeable about sports or crazy sports fan, but

783
00:40:05,200 --> 00:40:08,920
Speaker 3: he recognized the importance and impact of sports in Boston,

784
00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:11,719
Speaker 3: and he wanted to have a premier sports section, and

785
00:40:11,760 --> 00:40:14,960
Speaker 3: he provided our editors with the resources. I mean, you

786
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:16,520
Speaker 3: had an idea and I need to go here, I

787
00:40:16,520 --> 00:40:18,000
Speaker 3: need to go there. Unless you were asking to go

788
00:40:18,080 --> 00:40:20,160
Speaker 3: to Mars, they said, sure, see you later and let

789
00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:22,120
Speaker 3: me know when you get back. I mean, we used

790
00:40:22,120 --> 00:40:23,880
Speaker 3: to go out and do these wonderful feature stories that

791
00:40:24,080 --> 00:40:26,480
Speaker 3: you don't see papers anymore. You just don't see them

792
00:40:26,520 --> 00:40:29,520
Speaker 3: except the athletic Okay, that's the one place I'll give

793
00:40:29,560 --> 00:40:36,040
Speaker 3: them credit. But the average American paper doesn't have the resources,

794
00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:39,520
Speaker 3: sometimes not even the foresight of knowledge to do the

795
00:40:39,560 --> 00:40:43,279
Speaker 3: stories that we routinely did, routinely did forty years ago.

796
00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:46,640
Speaker 1: So now we're saying Boston Sports is the greatest Mount

797
00:40:46,760 --> 00:40:50,440
Speaker 1: Rushmore of athletes in all four sports, and the Boston

798
00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:54,279
Speaker 1: Globe has the greatest Mount Rushmore of sports writers of

799
00:40:54,320 --> 00:40:56,640
Speaker 1: all time, which I think is a claim to fame

800
00:40:56,680 --> 00:40:59,760
Speaker 1: and I can't disagree with it. It's incredible to cover

801
00:40:59,800 --> 00:41:03,440
Speaker 1: it and that team, those four writers, it's unbelievable.

802
00:41:03,719 --> 00:41:05,920
Speaker 3: Well, our Sunday paper end with the notes columns. We

803
00:41:05,960 --> 00:41:09,400
Speaker 3: had notes columns on all four major sports, note common golf.

804
00:41:09,680 --> 00:41:12,400
Speaker 3: We had the greatest tennis writer America has ever produced

805
00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:14,640
Speaker 3: in Bud Collins. That's not he was better. He was

806
00:41:14,719 --> 00:41:16,920
Speaker 3: our king of king. He was of all the people

807
00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:19,720
Speaker 3: on the paper, nobody had a better, bigger public profile

808
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:23,000
Speaker 3: or more notoriety within his world. And that includes Will

809
00:41:23,080 --> 00:41:25,520
Speaker 3: mcdunn and football as Bud Collins had. As you know,

810
00:41:25,600 --> 00:41:30,480
Speaker 3: he became a noted commentator on tennis for NBC, and

811
00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:35,879
Speaker 3: but before that he was a sensational sports columnist. And yeah,

812
00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:39,600
Speaker 3: we were. We had a tremendous staff and it was

813
00:41:39,640 --> 00:41:42,520
Speaker 3: a glorious time for sports writing in Boston.

814
00:41:43,239 --> 00:41:47,480
Speaker 2: All right, So, Bob, the Pope Leo is a white

815
00:41:47,520 --> 00:41:51,479
Speaker 2: Sox fan. He's American and he's a white Sox fan.

816
00:41:51,800 --> 00:41:55,279
Speaker 2: Does this intrigue you like it does the rest of us.

817
00:41:56,160 --> 00:42:01,040
Speaker 3: I learned about the Pope's election, I had X you

818
00:42:01,080 --> 00:42:03,520
Speaker 3: know Twitter, Okay what that dead that day? And I

819
00:42:03,520 --> 00:42:08,200
Speaker 3: said wow posts from Chicago and okay, uh and I

820
00:42:08,400 --> 00:42:10,320
Speaker 3: and then the first thing that came up was that

821
00:42:11,640 --> 00:42:13,840
Speaker 3: they were identifying it as a Cubs them and that

822
00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:16,200
Speaker 3: was quickly as we know, ya that was and and

823
00:42:16,239 --> 00:42:18,840
Speaker 3: he was shot that was shot down by his own brother.

824
00:42:19,160 --> 00:42:21,600
Speaker 3: So no, no, no white sox okay, And we saw

825
00:42:21,640 --> 00:42:24,600
Speaker 3: the picture that they posted about the five World Series thing.

826
00:42:24,640 --> 00:42:28,320
Speaker 3: You know, my question far more important from me? What

827
00:42:28,560 --> 00:42:31,600
Speaker 3: and I xed immediately couldn't be. This is the first

828
00:42:31,600 --> 00:42:34,400
Speaker 3: pope who ever set foot in the Poluster. And I

829
00:42:34,400 --> 00:42:37,919
Speaker 3: mean I'm because he went to Villanova. This hasn't been

830
00:42:38,200 --> 00:42:42,800
Speaker 3: categorically established. And yet that anybody said, oh yeah, he

831
00:42:42,840 --> 00:42:45,479
Speaker 3: went to a Villanova game. He went to Villanova games

832
00:42:45,480 --> 00:42:48,000
Speaker 3: in the Pluster. I got to know that that's because

833
00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:49,759
Speaker 3: that that that that was the one that mattered to

834
00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:51,720
Speaker 3: me more than oh yeah. I mean, I'm a baseball

835
00:42:51,719 --> 00:42:55,040
Speaker 3: person too, but the Pluster was my favorite of sports

836
00:42:55,120 --> 00:42:58,960
Speaker 3: venue of all of all time. And so I was

837
00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:01,200
Speaker 3: curious and still to make sure we want to verify,

838
00:43:01,480 --> 00:43:03,200
Speaker 3: somebody's got to ask him a direct question. One of

839
00:43:03,239 --> 00:43:06,759
Speaker 3: these Americans school business, Hey JD, when you go you

840
00:43:06,800 --> 00:43:08,040
Speaker 3: ever went to the Plastra.

841
00:43:08,480 --> 00:43:08,960
Speaker 4: So Bob.

842
00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:12,919
Speaker 2: Before I became a full time full time baseball writer, I.

843
00:43:12,880 --> 00:43:15,960
Speaker 1: Covered priest Oh no, I'm sorry.

844
00:43:16,840 --> 00:43:22,120
Speaker 2: I covered American University's basketball team with Gary Williams as

845
00:43:22,239 --> 00:43:26,120
Speaker 2: the coach, and they play the game at the Palastra,

846
00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:30,960
Speaker 2: and I covered a basketball game at the Polestra with

847
00:43:31,120 --> 00:43:34,600
Speaker 2: Gary Williams as the coach. It was like the coolest

848
00:43:34,640 --> 00:43:38,120
Speaker 2: thing ever. You've been there how many times too many

849
00:43:38,200 --> 00:43:39,440
Speaker 2: to count, knows.

850
00:43:40,040 --> 00:43:42,279
Speaker 3: I always said I wanted to be buried at a

851
00:43:42,320 --> 00:43:46,400
Speaker 3: half quarter of the Cluster, and I'm sure I'll be

852
00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:49,719
Speaker 3: a long list, aligned waiting list, you know, but I

853
00:43:49,719 --> 00:43:52,160
Speaker 3: wouldn't mind that. I mean, that would that would be

854
00:43:52,200 --> 00:43:56,760
Speaker 3: my ideal. You can't was what made it, the compact

855
00:43:56,840 --> 00:43:59,080
Speaker 3: nature of it, the way the seats are on top

856
00:43:59,080 --> 00:44:03,120
Speaker 3: of the but the way the scoreboard worked, the way

857
00:44:03,200 --> 00:44:07,920
Speaker 3: everything was those days. It was just amazing. And there

858
00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:10,839
Speaker 3: was nothing better than a Pluster doubleheader. In the first game,

859
00:44:11,560 --> 00:44:13,920
Speaker 3: one of the Big five teams played an outsider and

860
00:44:13,960 --> 00:44:15,880
Speaker 3: the second game was a Big Five game. That's the

861
00:44:15,880 --> 00:44:18,440
Speaker 3: way they arranged it so often in the seventies and eighties,

862
00:44:18,760 --> 00:44:21,719
Speaker 3: and and and so. I remember one night we were

863
00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:25,160
Speaker 3: I was there for Boston College in nine to sixty

864
00:44:25,200 --> 00:44:29,080
Speaker 3: seven and we beat We're beating Saint Jose and we

865
00:44:29,120 --> 00:44:32,120
Speaker 3: did win that game, but about five minutes to go,

866
00:44:32,520 --> 00:44:34,879
Speaker 3: it was the Temple of sal game was next, and

867
00:44:34,920 --> 00:44:36,880
Speaker 3: on the one side of the building they just started

868
00:44:36,880 --> 00:44:39,680
Speaker 3: to go, let's go Explorers, and the other side are

869
00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:42,479
Speaker 3: going let's go Owls and the Good and our game's

870
00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:45,600
Speaker 3: going on, and they're going back and forth and back

871
00:44:45,600 --> 00:44:47,120
Speaker 3: and forth and back and forth. You know. I mean,

872
00:44:47,160 --> 00:44:49,120
Speaker 3: that was just that, just that was just a just

873
00:44:49,160 --> 00:44:52,319
Speaker 3: another night at thirty third and Locusts at the Pluster, Right.

874
00:44:52,719 --> 00:44:55,839
Speaker 2: So, Bob, this is terribly self serving. But nineteen ninety seven,

875
00:44:55,920 --> 00:44:59,440
Speaker 2: I was covering the NCAA tournament for Sports Illustrated and

876
00:44:59,480 --> 00:45:02,200
Speaker 2: they had a regional in Kansas City. So I go

877
00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:06,040
Speaker 2: to this dicky little gym near the venue and I'm

878
00:45:06,080 --> 00:45:08,279
Speaker 2: the tenth guy in because I was the last guy

879
00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:11,040
Speaker 2: to get there. And I look around and Scott Wedman

880
00:45:11,320 --> 00:45:12,320
Speaker 2: is on my team.

881
00:45:12,520 --> 00:45:13,360
Speaker 4: Now he had.

882
00:45:13,239 --> 00:45:16,959
Speaker 2: Retired only a few years earlier, and I just got

883
00:45:17,040 --> 00:45:18,840
Speaker 2: such a charge out of this. He comes up to

884
00:45:18,880 --> 00:45:21,440
Speaker 2: me because I guess he recognized I'm the shortest guy here,

885
00:45:21,640 --> 00:45:24,719
Speaker 2: so maybe I'll be bringing the ball up the court.

886
00:45:24,800 --> 00:45:27,080
Speaker 2: He looks at me and he goes, look, I'm not

887
00:45:27,160 --> 00:45:30,279
Speaker 2: really gonna play in these games. I'm just gonna I'm

888
00:45:30,320 --> 00:45:32,879
Speaker 2: just gonna shoot I'm gonna be standing over here. I'm

889
00:45:32,880 --> 00:45:35,400
Speaker 2: not gonna guard anyone. I'm not going to the basket.

890
00:45:35,560 --> 00:45:38,560
Speaker 2: I'm not getting any rebounds. I'm just gonna shoot. So

891
00:45:38,640 --> 00:45:41,560
Speaker 2: we got it to Scott Webman for eight straight games.

892
00:45:41,640 --> 00:45:43,640
Speaker 2: And I'm not kidding you, Bob. It was like the

893
00:45:43,680 --> 00:45:46,879
Speaker 2: day he went fifteen for fifteen at the Garden and

894
00:45:46,920 --> 00:45:49,320
Speaker 2: we won eight straight games and all.

895
00:45:49,160 --> 00:45:51,840
Speaker 4: He did was shoot. It Does this sound like Scott

896
00:45:51,840 --> 00:45:52,440
Speaker 4: Webman to you?

897
00:45:53,360 --> 00:45:56,080
Speaker 3: Yeah? It does. I mean Scott Webman famously in the

898
00:45:56,280 --> 00:46:00,000
Speaker 3: Memorial Day massacre in nineteen eighty. You know, I guess

899
00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:04,279
Speaker 3: against the Lakers that he went eleven for eleven and

900
00:46:04,360 --> 00:46:08,080
Speaker 3: that game, and uh so, yeah, he could shoot the basketball.

901
00:46:08,080 --> 00:46:10,800
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I Bob. We got to finish with baseball.

902
00:46:10,840 --> 00:46:14,200
Speaker 2: We talked about the steam Heads. Now, did you once

903
00:46:14,280 --> 00:46:17,719
Speaker 2: tell me that you could name the World Series champion

904
00:46:17,960 --> 00:46:20,839
Speaker 2: every year back to the first year? Could you do

905
00:46:20,880 --> 00:46:22,560
Speaker 2: that at one point in your life?

906
00:46:23,160 --> 00:46:25,520
Speaker 3: Yeah? Oh yeah, absolutely, But I couldn't tell you the

907
00:46:25,560 --> 00:46:29,359
Speaker 3: last ten. I know that I could go. I could

908
00:46:29,360 --> 00:46:31,880
Speaker 3: probably get all the way up to two thousand, thousand

909
00:46:31,880 --> 00:46:33,680
Speaker 3: and one, and then.

910
00:46:33,680 --> 00:46:36,680
Speaker 2: From nineteen to oh three you could go one hundred.

911
00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:39,920
Speaker 3: Years Pirates and Red Sox and Crush. I mean I could. Oh,

912
00:46:40,600 --> 00:46:42,680
Speaker 3: I'll tell you my trouble. I have two trouble years

913
00:46:43,239 --> 00:46:47,040
Speaker 3: nineteen ten one area nineteen twelve with the Red Sox

914
00:46:47,080 --> 00:46:49,799
Speaker 3: and Giants in eight games by the way, and had

915
00:46:49,800 --> 00:46:54,200
Speaker 3: a tie game the uh ten and eleven and thirteen.

916
00:46:54,239 --> 00:46:56,160
Speaker 3: I have trouble for some reason. I know the Cubs

917
00:46:56,160 --> 00:46:59,040
Speaker 3: in the Ace are involved in in there and uh

918
00:46:59,280 --> 00:47:03,000
Speaker 3: but fourteen easily that's when the Miracle Braves swept the Ace.

919
00:47:03,080 --> 00:47:06,839
Speaker 3: Who doesn't know that? Right? So of course no, I could,

920
00:47:07,000 --> 00:47:07,800
Speaker 3: but I can't anymore.

921
00:47:07,840 --> 00:47:10,480
Speaker 1: But I could have this basketball writer of all time.

922
00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:15,360
Speaker 2: They every team that won the World Series until recently unbelievable.

923
00:47:15,760 --> 00:47:18,480
Speaker 1: We always say on the show Bob that only in

924
00:47:18,520 --> 00:47:21,000
Speaker 1: our sport that we love so much do we have

925
00:47:21,080 --> 00:47:25,480
Speaker 1: to divine whether fourteen is nineteen fourteen or two thousand

926
00:47:25,560 --> 00:47:26,239
Speaker 1: and fourteen.

927
00:47:27,960 --> 00:47:30,360
Speaker 3: That's pretty good, you're right. Yeah, Well, I that's a

928
00:47:30,360 --> 00:47:32,279
Speaker 3: fun thing because I have a hard time wrapping my

929
00:47:32,320 --> 00:47:34,160
Speaker 3: head of matter of fact, that one hundred years means

930
00:47:34,280 --> 00:47:37,279
Speaker 3: the twentieth century. To me, the hundred years means the

931
00:47:37,360 --> 00:47:40,319
Speaker 3: nineteenth century. I can't believe we're in. It was a

932
00:47:40,360 --> 00:47:42,719
Speaker 3: Centennial in nineteen twenty four. You can't meet a which,

933
00:47:42,760 --> 00:47:47,320
Speaker 3: by the way, was the senators and over the pirates.

934
00:47:47,719 --> 00:47:49,480
Speaker 3: But the pirates turned the tables the next day. Don't

935
00:47:49,520 --> 00:47:50,000
Speaker 3: worry about that.

936
00:47:50,000 --> 00:47:50,760
Speaker 4: Walter Johnson.

937
00:47:50,840 --> 00:47:53,440
Speaker 2: We started with Walter Johnson, will end with Walter Johnson.

938
00:47:53,440 --> 00:47:55,440
Speaker 2: By the way, Bob, not only did I go to

939
00:47:55,480 --> 00:47:59,320
Speaker 2: his high school. Get this. He died on December tenth,

940
00:47:59,600 --> 00:48:04,880
Speaker 2: nineteen forty six. I was born on December tenth, nineteen

941
00:48:05,120 --> 00:48:09,920
Speaker 2: fifty six, ten years to the day that Walter Johnson died.

942
00:48:10,440 --> 00:48:13,440
Speaker 2: I was born, and then I went to his high school.

943
00:48:13,719 --> 00:48:16,799
Speaker 2: And now I wear the Walter Johnson shirt. Jeff, how

944
00:48:16,840 --> 00:48:19,200
Speaker 2: often do I wear this shirt? You could tell the truth.

945
00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:23,560
Speaker 1: It is by far the most used piece of clothing

946
00:48:23,600 --> 00:48:27,560
Speaker 1: my father has ever worn. I mean the amount of

947
00:48:27,600 --> 00:48:30,879
Speaker 1: times I do all the social media for the show, Bob,

948
00:48:30,960 --> 00:48:33,759
Speaker 1: so I cut videos up, I produce all the episodes,

949
00:48:33,960 --> 00:48:37,759
Speaker 1: the amount of times we have on our feed multiple

950
00:48:37,960 --> 00:48:40,520
Speaker 1: times of him wearing the same sweatshirt.

951
00:48:40,160 --> 00:48:43,560
Speaker 5: On different recording days.

952
00:48:43,640 --> 00:48:45,600
Speaker 4: Just weed changing, but not him.

953
00:48:46,640 --> 00:48:49,480
Speaker 3: Am I correct that he hit fourth thirty seven in

954
00:48:49,560 --> 00:48:50,399
Speaker 3: nineteen twenty three.

955
00:48:50,560 --> 00:48:53,840
Speaker 2: Yes, Bob, eight years in a row. He had a

956
00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:58,360
Speaker 2: higher batting average than he did an er. Think about

957
00:48:58,400 --> 00:49:01,640
Speaker 2: that for a second. He hit forty one forty one

958
00:49:01,800 --> 00:49:05,440
Speaker 2: triple which is the most in the modern era nineteen

959
00:49:05,560 --> 00:49:09,279
Speaker 2: one hundred on. He wasn't just a and he bob.

960
00:49:09,400 --> 00:49:13,920
Speaker 2: He threw one hundred and ten shutouts. He had thirty

961
00:49:14,120 --> 00:49:19,959
Speaker 2: eight one to nothing shutouts. So Kurt Schilling and Peter

962
00:49:20,200 --> 00:49:26,440
Speaker 2: Martinez combined had thirty seven shutouts combined by any score,

963
00:49:26,760 --> 00:49:30,320
Speaker 2: and Walter Johnson had thirty eight one to nothing shutouts.

964
00:49:30,320 --> 00:49:31,880
Speaker 2: That's how great the Big Train was.

965
00:49:32,480 --> 00:49:36,520
Speaker 3: The Big Train, Absolutely, I know, and mat he he

966
00:49:36,680 --> 00:49:38,359
Speaker 3: I think it was twenty three and seven that year

967
00:49:38,520 --> 00:49:40,719
Speaker 3: in twenty three when he hit four thirty seven, So

968
00:49:41,520 --> 00:49:43,919
Speaker 3: that is absolutely. I would leave you at this piece

969
00:49:43,960 --> 00:49:46,839
Speaker 3: of trivia. Yes, as you mentioned Walter Johnson and home runs,

970
00:49:46,840 --> 00:49:49,359
Speaker 3: and this is my favorite, one of my absolute all

971
00:49:49,400 --> 00:49:54,279
Speaker 3: time favorite pieces of Warren Spahn hit a home run

972
00:49:55,440 --> 00:49:58,920
Speaker 3: in seventeen consecutive seasons, at least one home run in

973
00:49:59,000 --> 00:50:02,200
Speaker 3: seventeen and second seasons ending at age forty three.

974
00:50:02,840 --> 00:50:03,600
Speaker 2: Is that right?

975
00:50:04,480 --> 00:50:08,280
Speaker 3: Yes? And I want to know how many guys ever

976
00:50:08,600 --> 00:50:12,960
Speaker 3: hit a home run in seventeen consecutive seasons, let alone

977
00:50:13,080 --> 00:50:13,959
Speaker 3: a picture.

978
00:50:13,680 --> 00:50:17,080
Speaker 2: Right, Hey, maybe the greatest left handed pitcher of all time,

979
00:50:17,160 --> 00:50:19,839
Speaker 2: certainly the winningest left hander of all time, the most

980
00:50:19,920 --> 00:50:22,680
Speaker 2: durable picture of all time. Bob, he used to throw

981
00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:27,440
Speaker 2: VP in between his starts. He pitched in relief here

982
00:50:27,480 --> 00:50:29,280
Speaker 2: and there in between his starts.

983
00:50:29,960 --> 00:50:31,239
Speaker 3: No, we love him because you know he had the

984
00:50:31,239 --> 00:50:33,840
Speaker 3: famous line about Casey Stengel, who we played for in

985
00:50:33,880 --> 00:50:36,400
Speaker 3: nineteen forty two with the Braves and in nineteen sixty

986
00:50:36,400 --> 00:50:38,719
Speaker 3: five with the with the Mets, and he said, I

987
00:50:38,800 --> 00:50:46,000
Speaker 3: knew Casey Stengel before and after. He was a genius.

988
00:50:46,040 --> 00:50:49,239
Speaker 2: So, Bob, we kept you for forty five minutes. We

989
00:50:49,280 --> 00:50:51,959
Speaker 2: could have kept you for three hours and forty five minutes.

990
00:50:51,960 --> 00:50:53,800
Speaker 2: There's still a million questions ago.

991
00:50:53,680 --> 00:50:54,880
Speaker 4: But we're gonna leave you here.

992
00:50:55,080 --> 00:51:00,560
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining our podcast, Baseball, Basketball,

993
00:51:00,920 --> 00:51:01,760
Speaker 2: Everything Else.

994
00:51:02,120 --> 00:51:05,560
Speaker 4: Willie Mays at age four. Jeff, I had no idea.

995
00:51:05,920 --> 00:51:09,880
Speaker 3: What a cool thing. My pleasure, guys anytime.

996
00:51:11,200 --> 00:51:14,440
Speaker 1: Thank you to Bob Brian for being our incredible guest

997
00:51:14,560 --> 00:51:16,560
Speaker 1: this week on is this a great game? Or what

998
00:51:16,920 --> 00:51:19,040
Speaker 1: laughing great stats?

999
00:51:19,040 --> 00:51:20,080
Speaker 4: He gave you a cork.

1000
00:51:19,920 --> 00:51:23,200
Speaker 2: Gin at the end there, Jeff, so typical of Bob Brian,

1001
00:51:23,360 --> 00:51:24,719
Speaker 2: greatest basketball writer ever.

1002
00:51:24,840 --> 00:51:27,080
Speaker 4: Told me a couple of things about baseball that I

1003
00:51:27,320 --> 00:51:28,160
Speaker 4: did not know.

1004
00:51:28,360 --> 00:51:32,319
Speaker 2: That is who Bob Brian is and always has been.

1005
00:51:33,280 --> 00:51:36,359
Speaker 1: Don't forget to subscribe and follow wherever you're listening right now.

1006
00:51:36,360 --> 00:51:40,000
Speaker 1: A new episode tomorrow Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday here on the Feed.

1007
00:51:40,040 --> 00:51:41,879
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening, and as always, thank

1008
00:51:41,920 --> 00:51:43,280
Speaker 1: you for being a part of our family.