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Speaker 1: Is this a great game or what? Episode nine? Thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for joining us and following and subscribing

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Speaker 1: wherever you listen.

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Speaker 2: We really really appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: And today we've got a very special guest Steve Russian

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Speaker 1: is going to be our guest today.

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Speaker 2: Best writer ever.

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Speaker 1: In fact, my mom, who married to my dad probably

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Speaker 1: the definition of opposites attract Mind you, that's not an insult,

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Speaker 1: by the way. My mom is an extremely smart former lawyer, right,

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Speaker 1: married a dinky sports writer, love your dad. But when

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Speaker 1: she heard we were having Steve Rushan on, she paused

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Speaker 1: and said, oh my goodness, he is one of the

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Speaker 1: best writers I have ever had an opportunity to read,

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Speaker 1: which is what you said too. So if he's able

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Speaker 1: to write these incredible pieces, these incredible books and span

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Speaker 1: demographics from my mom to my dad, you know he's

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Speaker 1: going to be funny.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 4: And today is May the twenty first, so it's five

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Speaker 4: twenty one, So that's an important day.

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Speaker 2: In baseball history for a lot of reasons.

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Speaker 4: And as a can to Steve Russian, five point twenty

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Speaker 4: one is the number of home runs that Ted Williams hit,

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Speaker 4: that Frank Thomas hit, and that Willie McCovey hit three

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Speaker 4: five hundred homer guys with the exact same number. And

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Speaker 4: Willie mccovey's nickname is famously Stretch, which is the nickname

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Speaker 4: for Steve Russian. At least from me, I'm the only

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Speaker 4: person in the world that calls him Stretch. He will

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Speaker 4: explain later also, and I know this by heart. Five

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Speaker 4: hundred and twenty one is the number of hits that

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Speaker 4: my dear friend David Ross got.

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Speaker 2: In his major league career.

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Speaker 4: And he's always making fun of himself, which he never should.

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Speaker 4: But the beauty of David Ross is the last hit

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Speaker 4: he got in the major leagues was a home run

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Speaker 4: in Game seven of the World Series, and no one

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Speaker 4: that ever hit a home run in Game seven of

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Speaker 4: the World Series and then retired.

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Speaker 2: And his first home.

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Speaker 4: Run of his career was hit off of a position player,

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Speaker 4: Mark Grace. So Mark Grace is pitching in a blowout.

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Speaker 4: He looks up into the press box to our friend

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Speaker 4: Rick Sutcliffe because he doesn't know who David Ross is

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Speaker 4: and says, like, what should I throw him? And Sutcliffe says,

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Speaker 4: throw him a curveball, and Grace yells back, I don't

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Speaker 4: have a curveball, so he threw him a fastball, and

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Speaker 4: David Ross hit a home run, So his first career

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Speaker 4: homer was off a position player, and his last home

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Speaker 4: run was in Game seven of the World Series, in

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Speaker 4: the lasted bat of his career.

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Speaker 1: That game we were both at together in Cleveland. One

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Speaker 1: of the greatest games ever played, twenty sixteen. And I

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Speaker 1: want to just shout out one listener real fast who

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Speaker 1: chimed in great game or what dot com.

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Speaker 2: His name is Bill.

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Speaker 1: Last week we talked about Jim Palmer never gave up

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Speaker 1: a Grand Slam in his entire career Hall of Fame pitcher.

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Speaker 1: He would intentionally walk some play right because he didn't

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Speaker 1: want to give up a Grand Slam, wanted to face

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Speaker 1: somebody else. But he he did tell me, he wrote

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Speaker 1: Bill on our website. He gave up one Grand Slam

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Speaker 1: in the minor leagues.

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Speaker 4: Sorry, sorry to be a pedantic little twit again. Johnny

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Speaker 4: Bench hit the Grand Slam off of Jim Palmer in

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Speaker 4: the minor league.

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Speaker 1: One of the chances of the one he gave up

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Speaker 1: in the minor leagues ended up being against a fellow

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Speaker 1: Hall of Famer.

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Speaker 4: Eventually, of course, this is the beauty of baseball, and

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Speaker 4: the other never giving up a Grand Slam.

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Speaker 2: Note also applies.

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Speaker 4: To Gary Peters and Joaquin Anduhar, both of whom pitched

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Speaker 4: over two thousand innings in their career. Never gave up

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Speaker 4: a Grand Slam, Jeff, But they hit a grand slam.

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Speaker 2: Think about that for a second.

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Speaker 1: That's unbelievable. Let's get to the takeaways and what's going

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Speaker 1: on in Major League baseball right now?

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Speaker 4: All right, you, Darvish won his two hundredth game Sunday night.

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Speaker 4: That's two hundred, meaning one hundred and seven in the

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Speaker 4: major leagues and ninety three in the Nippon Professional League.

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Speaker 4: So he's the third player ever to get two hundred

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Speaker 4: wins between Japanese and American baseball. And he did it

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Speaker 4: while extending his scoreless inning streak to twenty five. That

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Speaker 4: guy is on a roll, and that's why the Padres

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Speaker 4: are still in this and yet he hasn't been the

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Speaker 4: best Japanese pitcher this year. Kaushota Imenaga of the Cubs

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Speaker 4: just lowered his RA to zero point eighty four, which

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Speaker 4: is the lowest DRA through a pitcher's first nine starts

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Speaker 4: in the history of baseball, passing even the incomparable Fernando Velenzuelo.

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Speaker 2: So it was a great week for Japanese pitchers.

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Speaker 4: Of course, it was a great week for all pitchers, Jeff,

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Speaker 4: because the pitching today is just ridiculous. Paul Skeens had

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Speaker 4: another second start of his career, six innings, no hits,

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Speaker 4: eleven strikeouts, fifth rookie pitcher ever to strike out ten

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Speaker 4: and not allow a hit in a game.

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Speaker 2: That's how good that guy.

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Speaker 1: And he actually occupies the top eight fastest pitches thrown

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Speaker 1: by any starting pitchers this year. All of them are

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Speaker 1: eight pitches by him.

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Speaker 4: Right and again, he's made two Major League Star Trek

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Speaker 4: Skouble of the Tigers has been great six and oho

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Speaker 4: one point eight oer and has a change up that

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Speaker 4: is so so good and we have to at least acknowledge.

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Speaker 4: One hitter, Luis Matos of the Giants came from the

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Speaker 4: minor leagues. I mean, he didn't make the team. He

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Speaker 4: comes up from the minor leagues. He drives in seventeen

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Speaker 4: runs in his first seven games, the only two players

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Speaker 4: in the history of baseball that have seventeen RBIs in

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Speaker 4: their first seven games of a season. Where Pat Burrell

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Speaker 4: in two thousand and five and Chris Davis in twenty thirteen.

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Speaker 4: But they started the season with the team. They brought

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Speaker 4: Matos up and he went completely through the roof.

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Speaker 1: That's unbelievable when you think about the expectation of a

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Speaker 1: player joining a team that that's like one Soto esque

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Speaker 1: at the beginning of this season with the Yankees. How

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Speaker 1: great he was right, This is totally different in the

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Speaker 1: beginning of the season or middle of the season.

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Speaker 4: And of course our game changer is another pitcher, because

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Speaker 4: pitching is just overwhelming today. Chris Sale of the Braves

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Speaker 4: is now six and one with a two point eer.

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Speaker 4: His last three starts through Sunday, he had struck out.

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Speaker 2: Nine or more and allowed one ear and run or less.

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Speaker 4: He's the first picture in the history of the Braves

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Speaker 4: franchise that goes back well over one hundred years to

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Speaker 4: do that, meaning Smoltz, Glavin, Maddox, Warren Spaond. No one

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Speaker 4: else did that except for Chris Sale.

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Speaker 2: And Chris Sale.

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Speaker 4: You got to remember, Jeff, he has been so banged

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Speaker 4: up thirty nine starts total over the four seasons combined.

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Speaker 4: But through determination, through perseverance, young people listen to what

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Speaker 4: Chris Sale had to do to get back, and now

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Speaker 4: he's back at age thirty five, he's throwing mid nineties again.

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Speaker 4: A really good, feel good story. He got traded to

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Speaker 4: Atlanta and has resurrected his career.

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Speaker 1: Our quirk Gins are the opportunity to talk about the

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Speaker 1: ins and outs of baseball, the game that we love.

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Speaker 1: And I can't even begin to tell you the amount

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Speaker 1: of quirk gins that come in through our website, Great

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Speaker 1: Game or what dot com. If you want to go

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Speaker 1: check that out. You can also watch this on YouTube.

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Speaker 1: If you want to watch podcast as opposed to just listen,

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Speaker 1: you can watch and listen.

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Speaker 2: But I love that.

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Speaker 1: The first one on our list has to do with

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Speaker 1: Alec Bohm, right of the Phillies, one of which was

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Speaker 1: asked on our Great Game or What website. They said,

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Speaker 1: is this possible with how often this guy gets hit

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Speaker 1: by a pitch? That there's a quurt sin here?

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Speaker 4: Of course there is, And for anyone who's following our

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Speaker 4: quirt gins, please send them in. There's so much out there.

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Speaker 4: I can't spot everything in the box. Or if you

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Speaker 4: see something, send it to us. We'll use it, I promise.

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Speaker 4: So Alec Bohm got hit with a pitch with the

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Speaker 4: bases loaded in consecutive games. And you called me and said, Dad,

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Speaker 4: what's the last time that happened. Well, I checked the

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Speaker 4: Alive Sports career. Nate McLoud two thousand and eight is

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Speaker 4: the last player to get hit by a pitch in

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Speaker 4: consecutive games with the bases loaded. And Bob got hit

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Speaker 4: with a pitch for the base load three times in

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Speaker 4: a month. So the last guy to do that was

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Speaker 4: McLoud also two thousand and eight, and Jose Vedro in

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Speaker 4: two thousand and one. So if you look closely at

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Speaker 4: up you'll see all sorts of crazy stuffs.

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Speaker 1: And as of right now, he's the RBI leader in

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Speaker 1: Major League Baseball and an MVP candidate in the National League,

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Speaker 1: although the Dodgers may have that covered at the moment.

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Speaker 4: So Jeff I covered the game over the weekend. The

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Speaker 4: Mariners and the Orioles did the game on Saturday on

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Speaker 4: the radio. So Friday night I go to the game

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Speaker 4: and I watched the Orioles.

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Speaker 2: They go in.

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Speaker 4: Four consecutive at bats triple, triple, double, double, and I

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Speaker 4: think to myself, that's unusual. I promise you that hasn't

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Speaker 4: happened too many times. So next morning I call the

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Speaker 4: Elia Sports Bureau and I say.

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Speaker 2: Has this ever happened?

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Speaker 4: So they can only go back to nineteen sixty one

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Speaker 4: and covering every precise movement in a game. This is

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Speaker 4: the first time since nineteen sixty one that any team

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Speaker 4: went like this in consecutive at bats.

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Speaker 2: Triple, triple, double double.

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Speaker 1: Now I have a quick question, and I'm sure people

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Speaker 1: wonder this too. You were calling that game on ESPN

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Speaker 1: Radio right in that moment when you see that happen.

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Speaker 1: Are you texting somebody to try to get this stat

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Speaker 1: during the broadcast or are you like I'm gonna have

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Speaker 1: to wait for this one.

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Speaker 4: It was nine o'clock, it was eight o'clock at night.

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Speaker 4: I thought i'd give Frank from the Elias a chance

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Speaker 4: to get a good night's sleep and that I would

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Speaker 4: text him in the morning. Of course, he found it

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Speaker 4: in a matter of minutes.

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Speaker 2: It was just amazing. But that's the beauty of baseball, Jeb.

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Speaker 4: Every night you go to a ballpark, you might see

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Speaker 4: something that you've never seen before. And speaking of that,

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Speaker 4: Mason Miller, who we've talked about plenty of times on

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Speaker 4: this he pitched on Sunday he pitched an inning and didn't.

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Speaker 2: Strike anybody out.

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Speaker 4: You know, he throws one hundred and four miles an

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Speaker 4: hour with elite command. He's the most overpowering pitcher in

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Speaker 4: the major leagues right now.

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Speaker 2: So I looked it up.

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Speaker 4: He's now pitched in twenty five major league games. Granted

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Speaker 4: some of them have been as a starter. That's the

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Speaker 4: first game he's ever pitched in in which he didn't.

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Speaker 2: Strike out a major league hitter. I mean, like, how

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Speaker 2: great is that.

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Speaker 4: It just jumped off the page to me that Mason

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Speaker 4: Miller won and all zero's across.

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Speaker 2: With no strikeouts. That's how dominant that guy has been.

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Speaker 4: Ellie de la Cruz, who is a walking cork gin

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Speaker 4: Jeff as you know. Against the Dodgers last week he

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Speaker 4: went four to four and stole four.

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Speaker 2: Bases in one game. Wow.

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Speaker 4: And then the next three games he went over twelve

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Speaker 4: and struck out eight times. The beauty of baseball, the

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Speaker 4: degree of difficulty, including a four strikeout game, and I

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Speaker 4: love this guy's and we'll get it this wrong. He

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Speaker 4: also made his tenth error of the season, So I checked.

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Speaker 4: No one had ever gotten to ten errors and thirty

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Speaker 4: stolen bases in a season this early, like Ellie de

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Speaker 4: la Cruz. Again, everything he touches is a great note

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Speaker 4: because everything he does is absolutely spectacular, sometimes not always great.

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Speaker 1: That's not the devil w want thirty and ten got

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Speaker 1: a good double double, right.

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Speaker 4: And the last thing, Jeff and the names in baseball

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Speaker 4: is you know, I'm just fascinated. So James McCann is

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Speaker 4: the backup catcher for the Orioles and one of my

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Speaker 4: new favorite players. Really smart, really insightful, helps me on

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Speaker 4: a lot of levels. So there have been five guys

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Speaker 4: named McCann who have played in the major leagues, and

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Speaker 4: the last three have been catchers, and none of the

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Speaker 4: three is related. Really, So we have Brian McCann, great

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Speaker 4: player with braves, astros and others, James McCann, and now

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Speaker 4: Kyle McCann is up for the Oakland A. So I

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Speaker 4: told James McCann this and he just looks at me like,

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Speaker 4: what an idiot you are that you would actually look

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Speaker 4: this up, even though we laughed, but he said, if

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Speaker 4: Kyle mccannon has a ten year career, he said, there's

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Speaker 4: going to be a three decade stretch where there's a

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Speaker 4: catcher of the major leagues named McCann. These are the

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Speaker 4: little things, right, I love it. It's the little things

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Speaker 4: that make everything great.

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Speaker 1: Well, we have Steve rushing on as we mentioned, and

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Speaker 1: one of his all time favorite players. I wish we

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Speaker 1: could have planned this and made this on purpose, right,

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Speaker 1: but it just happened to fall this way. That it's

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Speaker 1: a happy birthday to one of his favorite players, if

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Speaker 1: not his favorite player of all time.

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Speaker 4: But first we're going to get to Bobby Cox's birthday.

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Speaker 4: Bobby Cox's eighty three years old today. Bobby Cox won

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Speaker 4: twenty five hundred and four games, and Bobby Cox's team,

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Speaker 4: the Braves, lost to Ken Herbeck's team in the nineteen

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Speaker 4: ninety one World Series, the greatest World Series I've ever seen,

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Speaker 4: and Steve Rushian and I covered that and he's going

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Speaker 4: to talk about it very very well on this podcast.

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Speaker 4: But it's also Ken Herbek's birthday. He's sixty four years

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Speaker 4: old today. He makes me laugh. You know, he's the

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Speaker 4: guy who we talked about in episode one that when

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Speaker 4: he retired, he took his protective cup and nailed it

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Speaker 4: up against his garage inside his garage, and you know,

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Speaker 4: forty years later, it's still there.

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Speaker 2: So this is how much. This is why ken Herbek

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Speaker 2: is so great. So there used to be an.

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Speaker 4: Infielder named Craig Graybec who is five seven and one

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Speaker 4: hundred and forty pounds, which is roughly what I weigh

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Speaker 4: and roughly how tall you are. Little guy could really

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Speaker 4: really hit and he wore number fourteen, which is the

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Speaker 4: same number that ken Herbeck wore. So I go to

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Speaker 4: the Minneapolis Metrodome to do this story on this really

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Speaker 4: little guy who can really hit number fourteen, Craig Greybec.

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Speaker 4: So I'm walking up to talk to Craig Graybec and

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Speaker 4: ken Herbeck interrupts and he looks at Craig gray Beec,

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Speaker 4: who's half his size, and he goes, hey, you should

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Speaker 4: put a slash between the one and the fool and

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Speaker 4: then you would be one fourth. So I go there

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Speaker 4: to do a story about how little this guy, as

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Speaker 4: ken Herbeck writes the lead for me by saying, this

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Speaker 4: guy should be one fourth instead of fourteen.

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Speaker 2: Love him for that.

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Speaker 1: It's in the cards here on is this a great

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Speaker 1: game or what? Let's rip him or it's in the cards.

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Speaker 1: And we start off with oh, Aaron Judge of the

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Speaker 1: New York Yankees.

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Speaker 4: He is red hot ever since he got ejected from

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Speaker 4: his first game in his entire career. So the other

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Speaker 4: day he had four extra base hits, the second time

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Speaker 4: he's had four extra base hits in one game.

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Speaker 2: And the only other Yankees.

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Speaker 4: That have had multiple four extra base hit games are

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Speaker 4: Babe Ruth, lou Gerrig and Joe demagu pretty good company.

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Speaker 1: Great company. And then Colton Cowser of the Baltimore Orioles

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Speaker 1: sign in the AL East.

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Speaker 4: Young guy, really good young player, and every time he

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Speaker 4: comes to the plate, the people yell move because his

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Speaker 4: nickname is cow. So I asked him the other day,

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Speaker 4: I said, has anyone ever moved you before this year?

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Speaker 4: Because it sounds like booze, but it's moods And he said, no,

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Speaker 4: it happened in the big leagues. And he got off

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Speaker 4: to a pretty good start. And Jeff, people come to

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Speaker 4: games in Baltimore dressed as Milkman. And I was walking

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Speaker 4: around town the other day briefly, and I saw a

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Speaker 4: guy dress up like a milkman because Milkman, because he

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Speaker 4: was going the Orioles game as a tribute to Colton Kowser.

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Speaker 1: You know, he got a burger named after him at

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Speaker 1: a local Baltimore.

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Speaker 2: Really, yeah, so great.

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Speaker 1: That's I think that's when you know you've made it. Yes,

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Speaker 1: Snatt in a bobblehead.

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Speaker 2: Oh look who we got here.

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Speaker 1: This is a son of a star.

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Speaker 4: Calvin Bigio. Yes, so two father sons have hit for

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Speaker 4: the cycle in their careers, Darryl and Gary Ward and

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Speaker 4: Cavin and Craig Bigio.

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Speaker 2: And I'm going to tell you this again.

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Speaker 4: Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth never hit

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Speaker 4: for the cycle, but Cavin Bigio and his dad did.

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Speaker 2: Love that.

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Speaker 1: What about the Mariners? George Kirby. George Kirby is one

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Speaker 1: of the great control pitchers in the game. He's one

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Speaker 1: of the great young pitchers in the game. A couple

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Speaker 1: of years ago he the first twenty four pitches of

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Speaker 1: a game. He threw or strikes twenty four.

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Speaker 4: And he is so intense that Scott Service, the manager

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Speaker 4: of the Maritors, told me the other day, no one

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Speaker 4: talks to him on the day that he pitches. Scott

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Speaker 4: it looks at me and he goes even I don't

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Speaker 4: talk to him. I'm afraid to talk to him.

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Speaker 2: He's so much in his zone. He's so intense.

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Speaker 4: You don't talk to George Kirby on the day he pitches,

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Speaker 4: anybody talk to Clay Holmes on the day he pitched.

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Speaker 4: Y So Clay Holmes has one of the great hard

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Speaker 4: sinkers in the game, ninety six miles an hour, and

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Speaker 4: he now, through Sunday twenty innings pitch this year zero

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Speaker 4: earned runs, and through Sunday, the Yankees last six games

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Speaker 4: had allowed a total of six runs, and their ERA

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Speaker 4: through Sunday was the lowest at this point of the

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Speaker 4: season of any Yankee team since nineteen fifty two, and

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Speaker 4: that Yankee team won the World Series. And last, but

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Speaker 4: not least, we've got Grey Kessinger, a great Kessinger. I

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Speaker 4: really had some nice chats with him last year. He's

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Speaker 4: a young infielder for the Houston Astros. He's a shortstop

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Speaker 4: and his grandfather is Don Kessinger, who I grew up watching,

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Speaker 4: one of the really good shortstop and Don Kessinger was

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Speaker 4: the last player manager in the major leagues. I mean, Jeff,

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Speaker 4: can you imagine a player manager today?

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Speaker 2: So Gray and I started.

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Speaker 4: Talking about his grandfather called him all the time about

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Speaker 4: after a game, show him this, show him that, and.

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Speaker 2: Gray looked at me.

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Speaker 4: He goes, it's impossible to play in today's game, it's

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Speaker 4: impossible to manage today.

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Speaker 2: My grandfather did both.

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Speaker 1: That's kind of incredible. He's got a lot to think

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Speaker 1: about when you've got to do that right.

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Speaker 4: It's kind of like you on this show, Jeff. You're

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Speaker 4: part of the talent and you're the producer.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: For those who watch on YouTube, maybe you see me

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Speaker 1: always when I look over to my left, it's because

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Speaker 1: I'm looking at the soundboard. I'm just making servers, still

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Speaker 1: rolling and recording because trust me, we've had mistakes and

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Speaker 1: had to record a whole episode in boy Boy. I'm

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Speaker 1: not easy on myself. Okay, League in Lids, are you

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Speaker 1: ready for another edition? We put all the Major League

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Speaker 1: Baseball teams in our fancy new lids lid, and this

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Speaker 1: week we've got the Seattle Mariners.

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Speaker 4: The Mariners are the only currant team that has never

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Speaker 4: played in the World Series, and I just saw them

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Speaker 4: two games over the weekend in Baltimore. Their starting pitching,

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Speaker 4: especially is tremendous. They have enough starting pitching to get

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Speaker 4: to and win the World Series this year, but they're

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Speaker 4: going to have to go find some offense. Somewhere because

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Speaker 4: they simply don't score enough runs. So when I saw

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Speaker 4: the Mariners the other day, I ran into Mike Blowers,

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Speaker 4: who's one of their former Mariner who's their you know,

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Speaker 4: color commentator on TV. So we get to talking and

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Speaker 4: he said that he just spoke to Jay Buhner the

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Speaker 4: other day. Jay Buner is not the greatest Mariner ever.

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Speaker 4: Of course, Ken Griffy Junior is. Jay Buner is one

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Speaker 4: of the great characters of all time. So, you know,

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Speaker 4: thirty years ago at the MEP at the Kingdome in Seattle,

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Speaker 4: back when they used to do these things, they had

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Speaker 4: Jay Buner buzz Cut night because he had just gotten

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Speaker 4: a buzz cut. So four hundred and twenty six people

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Speaker 4: sat in a barber's chair at the ballpark that night

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Speaker 4: and got a buzz cut as a tribute to Jay Butter.

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Speaker 2: And Butter told me, he said.

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Speaker 4: Tim, there was hair flying everywhere. He said, I should

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Speaker 4: have collected some of it in case I needed a

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Speaker 4: weave someday. Jeff, those were the days when we had

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Speaker 4: cow milking contests and bubblegum blowing contests and haircuts at

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Speaker 4: the ballpark. We don't do much of that anymore, and

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Speaker 4: it makes me sad.

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Speaker 2: You know it's coming up this week.

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Speaker 1: What is that It's a National Brother's Day, well secondly

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Speaker 1: National Brother's Week, but it's on May the twenty fourth.

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Speaker 1: And I think one thing that makes baseball amazing, and

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Speaker 1: you know, sports across the board, but is the amount

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Speaker 1: of brothers that have played Major League Baseball together.

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Speaker 4: Right, and again, I'm very close to my two brothers,

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Speaker 4: Matt and Andy. Late Matt and Andy both are in

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Speaker 4: the Hall of Fame at Catholic University.

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Speaker 2: So brothers really matter to me.

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Speaker 4: We have a new team on every show. You know,

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Speaker 4: we had the All Fruits and Vegetables team. It's really ridiculous,

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Speaker 4: but you inspired me to come up with the the

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Speaker 4: All Brothers teams. So I found at every position on

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Speaker 4: the field a Hall of famer who had a brother

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Speaker 4: who also played in the Major League.

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Speaker 2: So Rick Ferrell is.

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Speaker 4: Our catcher, and he's a Hall of Famer because he

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Speaker 4: was a great defensive catcher. But the joke always was,

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Speaker 4: and I'm not sure it was a joke, his brother,

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Speaker 4: Wes Farrell was a pitcher, and Wes was a better hitter.

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Speaker 4: That is, Hall of Fame catcher Wes Farrell is one

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Speaker 4: of the great hitting pitchers, if not the greatest hitting

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Speaker 4: pitcher of all time. Okay, At first base, we had

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Speaker 4: Eddie Murray. Again, these are all Hall of Famer.

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Speaker 1: You're telling me, These are all Hall of Fame baseball

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Speaker 1: players that happened to have a brother brother who played

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Speaker 1: in the Major leagues.

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Speaker 2: Right, wow, Right, so his brother Rich played in the

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Speaker 2: major leagues. Of course.

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Speaker 4: Our second baseman is Roberto Alomar, whose brother Sandy Alamar.

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Speaker 2: Caught for years really good with the.

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Speaker 4: Indians and others. Our third baseman is George Brett. Ken

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Speaker 4: Brett pitched in the Major leagues, and George told me

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Speaker 4: one hundred times my brother Ken was the best hitter

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Speaker 4: in our family. He decided to go and become a pitcher.

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Speaker 4: Ken Brett hit a home run Jeff in four consecutive

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Speaker 4: starts as a pitcher. No pitcher has ever done that.

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Speaker 4: Think about that.

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Speaker 2: For a second.

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Speaker 1: That's insane, right.

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Speaker 4: The shortstop, of course, is cal Ripken Junior, whose brother

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Speaker 4: Billy played second and played it exceptionally well. In the outfield,

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Speaker 4: we had Hank Aaron, whose brother Tommy had a brief.

440
00:21:23,359 --> 00:21:24,320
Speaker 2: Major league career.

441
00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:28,520
Speaker 4: Accounts centerfielder of course is Joe DiMaggio, who had two brothers,

442
00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:31,600
Speaker 4: Vince and Dom who played in the major leagues. And

443
00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:36,160
Speaker 4: our last outfielder are Lloyd and Paul Wayner, who are

444
00:21:36,320 --> 00:21:39,639
Speaker 4: both Hall of Famers. It's the only pair of brothers

445
00:21:39,960 --> 00:21:42,520
Speaker 4: who are both Hall of Famers. And then of course

446
00:21:42,560 --> 00:21:47,399
Speaker 4: we have an entire pitching staff basically tire rotation. Gaylord Perry,

447
00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:50,720
Speaker 4: whose brother Jim who also won a cy Young Phil

448
00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:54,119
Speaker 4: Nicro and his brother Joe who won over two hundred games,

449
00:21:54,960 --> 00:21:57,840
Speaker 4: Dizzy Dean his brother Paul, who pitched in the same

450
00:21:57,920 --> 00:21:59,160
Speaker 4: rotation for the Cardinals.

451
00:21:59,200 --> 00:22:00,480
Speaker 2: I'll never get over that pairing.

452
00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:04,280
Speaker 4: Dizzy and you're Paul, right right, I'm Dizzy, You're Paul.

453
00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:08,960
Speaker 4: And of course Pedro Martinez with Ramon Martinez. So the

454
00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:12,360
Speaker 4: Allu brothers Jeff are not Hall of Famers.

455
00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:13,920
Speaker 2: Although they were all really good players.

456
00:22:13,920 --> 00:22:16,040
Speaker 4: But you have to have a shout out to the

457
00:22:16,080 --> 00:22:20,280
Speaker 4: Alu brothers because they played in the same game and

458
00:22:20,359 --> 00:22:22,960
Speaker 4: were in the lineup. They didn't start one, two, three

459
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:25,520
Speaker 4: in the order, but they all during one game with

460
00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:28,280
Speaker 4: the Giants in the early sixties were in the lineup

461
00:22:28,440 --> 00:22:31,080
Speaker 4: at the same time in one game. I mean, that's

462
00:22:31,160 --> 00:22:34,080
Speaker 4: just amazing three brothers playing in the major leagues in

463
00:22:34,119 --> 00:22:35,840
Speaker 4: the same game on the same team.

464
00:22:36,080 --> 00:22:38,439
Speaker 1: Steve Rushan is going to be joining us next anything.

465
00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:41,320
Speaker 1: We should prepare our listeners for again.

466
00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:44,159
Speaker 4: Steve Russian is the best writer I've ever seen, and

467
00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:46,600
Speaker 4: please take this right way, Jeff. I was sitting with

468
00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:49,080
Speaker 4: him at a Braves game one night and this woman,

469
00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:53,439
Speaker 4: another sports writer, comes over and like comes in between

470
00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:56,520
Speaker 4: Steve and I and she looks at Steve Russian and says,

471
00:22:56,600 --> 00:22:59,639
Speaker 4: you are the greatest writer I have ever seen.

472
00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:01,879
Speaker 2: And she knows who I am. She looks at me

473
00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:04,880
Speaker 2: and she goes, uh, oh, oh, you're good too.

474
00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:08,920
Speaker 4: But then she went right back to complimenting Steve Russian

475
00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:11,240
Speaker 4: because that's what you have to do.

476
00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:12,280
Speaker 2: So Steve.

477
00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:15,720
Speaker 4: Wherever Steve goes, great things happen and great things follow

478
00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:17,000
Speaker 4: because that's just who he is.

479
00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:19,040
Speaker 2: He's like Forrest Gump, only he's brilliant.

480
00:23:19,119 --> 00:23:23,120
Speaker 4: So in two thousand and one, on Halloween night, this

481
00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:25,560
Speaker 4: is the year when everything got pushed back because of

482
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,920
Speaker 4: nine to one one, Steve rush and I go play

483
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:33,480
Speaker 4: basketball at the Reebok Club in the Upper West Side,

484
00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:36,840
Speaker 4: where he belongs. So Steve's a really good basketball player.

485
00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:39,040
Speaker 4: So we're just shooting around and we're just about ready

486
00:23:39,080 --> 00:23:41,760
Speaker 4: to leave and these two guys walk in and say,

487
00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:44,719
Speaker 4: you guys want to play two on two And one

488
00:23:44,800 --> 00:23:49,760
Speaker 4: of the guys was Adam Sandler. So we played two

489
00:23:49,840 --> 00:23:53,640
Speaker 4: on two with Billy Madison and we just crushed their

490
00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:55,520
Speaker 4: bones because the guy who was with him was the

491
00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:59,920
Speaker 4: worst basketball player I have ever seen, and Adam Sandler didn't.

492
00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:03,360
Speaker 4: So we won like six straight games, and Adam Sandler

493
00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:05,399
Speaker 4: was pissed that he kept losing it. Well, he's a

494
00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:08,760
Speaker 4: good player. He's a pretty good player. So I called home.

495
00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:11,639
Speaker 4: I called you and Kelly, who were like seven and

496
00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:14,679
Speaker 4: five at the time, and I said, you're not gonna

497
00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:17,399
Speaker 4: believe what I did today. And I said, I played

498
00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:20,760
Speaker 4: basketball with Happy Gilbour. And you guys thought that was

499
00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:23,520
Speaker 4: the greatest thing ever because it was. It was so

500
00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:27,280
Speaker 4: much fun, and we introduced ourselves and we talked baseball

501
00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:29,760
Speaker 4: a little bit. It was fabulous. But really, the only

502
00:24:29,800 --> 00:24:32,119
Speaker 4: Steve Russian story you need to know was in nineteen

503
00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:35,320
Speaker 4: ninety two, he and I are covering the National League

504
00:24:35,359 --> 00:24:39,080
Speaker 4: Championship Series. The winner of this game goes to the

505
00:24:39,119 --> 00:24:42,480
Speaker 4: World Series. It's the Pirates and the Braves in Atlanta

506
00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:45,280
Speaker 4: at Game seven, one of the most famous games ever.

507
00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:48,760
Speaker 4: The Braves are down by one run with two outs

508
00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:53,240
Speaker 4: in the ninth inning and Francisco Cabrera comes to the plate.

509
00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:56,119
Speaker 4: Now he's the twenty fifth man on the team. He's

510
00:24:56,240 --> 00:24:59,240
Speaker 4: not even supposed to get into this game, but because

511
00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:02,400
Speaker 4: of all the line changes, he is now coming up

512
00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:05,360
Speaker 4: with two outs, two on, with a chance to win

513
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:06,960
Speaker 4: the game. On a side note, this is why you

514
00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:08,720
Speaker 4: and I love baseball, is what we always say. You

515
00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:12,359
Speaker 4: can't just give the bat to Mike Trout or Bryce Harper.

516
00:25:12,400 --> 00:25:14,439
Speaker 4: You can't, like you give the ball to Lebron or

517
00:25:14,480 --> 00:25:16,440
Speaker 4: Steph right right, and it could be anybody. And the

518
00:25:16,560 --> 00:25:19,840
Speaker 4: last player on an NBA roster is not in the

519
00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:21,879
Speaker 4: game for the final shot. And if he is in

520
00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:25,680
Speaker 4: the game, there's no way he's taking it because Michael Lebron,

521
00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:29,280
Speaker 4: Larry Steph Curry, they're gonna take the final shot. But

522
00:25:29,359 --> 00:25:32,960
Speaker 4: today it was up to Francisco Cabrera. So if he

523
00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:36,320
Speaker 4: makes an out, the Braves lose. If he gets a

524
00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:39,560
Speaker 4: hit and drives in both runs, the Braves win. And

525
00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:42,600
Speaker 4: of course he hits a hard ground single into left

526
00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:44,960
Speaker 4: field drives in both runs. One of the most famous

527
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:49,159
Speaker 4: games ever. And I'm standing next to Steve Russian and

528
00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:54,679
Speaker 4: the Atlanta Fulton County Stadium is exploding around us. And

529
00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:58,720
Speaker 4: thirty seconds after that big hit, he looks at me

530
00:25:58,800 --> 00:26:03,040
Speaker 4: and goes Cabrera, and I thought, oh, my gosh, I

531
00:26:03,080 --> 00:26:06,040
Speaker 4: could have thought of that for thirty years and not

532
00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:08,719
Speaker 4: come up with it. He came up with it in

533
00:26:08,800 --> 00:26:13,520
Speaker 4: thirty seconds. That is our guest, Steve Russian coming right up.

534
00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:21,560
Speaker 2: Is this great game or what? And we're welcoming in.

535
00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:25,159
Speaker 4: My dear friend, Steve Rushan, one of the great writers

536
00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:28,200
Speaker 4: of all time, my favorite author ever.

537
00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:29,679
Speaker 2: Sorry to embarrass you, Stretch.

538
00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:32,760
Speaker 4: I've read every one of your books more than once.

539
00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:37,800
Speaker 4: Knights in White Castle, my caddy was reined here. It's great, Stretch.

540
00:26:37,840 --> 00:26:39,199
Speaker 4: Good to have you on the show.

541
00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:41,560
Speaker 3: Oh, it's so great to be here. Thank you Tim,

542
00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:43,040
Speaker 3: Thank you Jeff love being here.

543
00:26:43,119 --> 00:26:44,280
Speaker 2: Our pleasure. All right, Stretch.

544
00:26:44,359 --> 00:26:46,880
Speaker 4: I know you're not a baseball dope like I am,

545
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:50,760
Speaker 4: but I know as a kid that you loved baseball.

546
00:26:51,160 --> 00:26:53,760
Speaker 4: Where did that come from in your house?

547
00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:55,280
Speaker 2: Your love of the game.

548
00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:59,240
Speaker 3: Well, it's funny because I grew up in Bloomington, Minnesota

549
00:26:59,280 --> 00:27:02,400
Speaker 3: in the seventies where Metropolitan Stadium was where the Twins played.

550
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:06,119
Speaker 3: The Twins were terrible during the nineteen seventies. They didn't draw,

551
00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:09,840
Speaker 3: they didn't have any reason to draw. And I fell

552
00:27:09,880 --> 00:27:13,280
Speaker 3: in love with baseball there and then I think the

553
00:27:13,320 --> 00:27:16,639
Speaker 3: big event in the seventies as a Twins fan as

554
00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:19,399
Speaker 3: a kid was Eddie Bain had a few good starts

555
00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:22,159
Speaker 3: for the Twins, and maybe nineteen seventy five and that

556
00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:26,159
Speaker 3: was like what, you know, Mark Fidrich Mania became a

557
00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:28,840
Speaker 3: couple of years later the next year for US, and

558
00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:32,280
Speaker 3: then nineteen seventy seven, Rod cru you know, was flirting

559
00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:34,840
Speaker 3: with four hundred all summer and ended up at three

560
00:27:34,880 --> 00:27:38,320
Speaker 3: eighty eight. And I was there on Rod krue souvenir

561
00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:42,280
Speaker 3: shirt day when the Commissary ran out of soda. That's

562
00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:45,280
Speaker 3: that's what a cataclysmic event it was. And when I

563
00:27:45,359 --> 00:27:48,280
Speaker 3: later worked in that commissary seventy nine, eighty and eighty one,

564
00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:50,760
Speaker 3: the last three years that Twins played at met Stadium,

565
00:27:50,760 --> 00:27:52,760
Speaker 3: I worked in the Commissary and it was like a

566
00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:56,000
Speaker 3: Willy Wonka factory for baseball, and you'd walk in and

567
00:27:56,080 --> 00:27:59,919
Speaker 3: there'd be batting practice balls just lying there, like falling

568
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:02,040
Speaker 3: apples on the orchard floor. You could just pick them up,

569
00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:08,680
Speaker 3: broken bats, palettes of Schmidt beer, and garbage bags full

570
00:28:08,720 --> 00:28:11,200
Speaker 3: of popcorn. And we made the food that the vendor sold.

571
00:28:11,320 --> 00:28:13,040
Speaker 3: But it was also a Lord of the Flies like

572
00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:15,880
Speaker 3: place where they lock you in the walk in freezer

573
00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:20,840
Speaker 3: and punishoe. Our managers, who are our older brothers, put

574
00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:24,280
Speaker 3: in that walk in freezer were frosty malts and schwigered

575
00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:26,639
Speaker 3: hot dogs, and to me it was this is punishment.

576
00:28:27,119 --> 00:28:29,280
Speaker 3: You know. I knew that it was the greatest job

577
00:28:29,320 --> 00:28:32,119
Speaker 3: I'd ever had, and I've had some great jobs, but

578
00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:33,960
Speaker 3: it remains the greatest job I ever had. So I

579
00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:37,600
Speaker 3: fell in love at baseball, working at Mets Stadium and

580
00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:38,880
Speaker 3: attending Mets Staius and stretch.

581
00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:41,120
Speaker 2: Who was your favorite player back then?

582
00:28:42,280 --> 00:28:44,520
Speaker 3: Well, I had from a very early age. It was

583
00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:46,920
Speaker 3: George Mitterwall that was born in Chicago, and this guy

584
00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:50,040
Speaker 3: played for the Cubs and the Twins. It later became

585
00:28:50,280 --> 00:28:55,600
Speaker 3: a series of non Twin stars, a Bombo Rivera I loved,

586
00:28:56,040 --> 00:29:00,440
Speaker 3: I loved Dave Ingel and a thing for Twins catchers,

587
00:29:00,520 --> 00:29:03,160
Speaker 3: I guess. But my favorite favorite player as a kid,

588
00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:06,000
Speaker 3: and I'm fudging a little bit because all of our cousins.

589
00:29:06,600 --> 00:29:08,640
Speaker 3: All of my relatives lived in Cincinnati, so we would

590
00:29:08,680 --> 00:29:11,320
Speaker 3: go to Cincinnati every other summer in the seventies, and

591
00:29:11,400 --> 00:29:12,800
Speaker 3: so I would see the Big Red Machine. And I

592
00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:15,640
Speaker 3: had a Joe Morgan poster on my bedroom door, and

593
00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:18,520
Speaker 3: he was far and away my favorite player as a kid.

594
00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:22,040
Speaker 3: Loved Rod Crew, but I loved George Joe Morgan and

595
00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:24,880
Speaker 3: the elbow flap, and we would imitate both Rod Crew

596
00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:26,640
Speaker 3: and Joe Morgan in the backyard.

597
00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:30,640
Speaker 1: Steve, I've noticed that my dad has called you Stretch

598
00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:35,160
Speaker 1: multiple times in this interview and before we were talking.

599
00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:38,880
Speaker 1: You and I actually have never actually met, at least

600
00:29:38,920 --> 00:29:41,560
Speaker 1: that I can remember. But I've heard legendary stories about you,

601
00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:44,240
Speaker 1: and I'm sure you've heard stories about me as well.

602
00:29:44,280 --> 00:29:45,680
Speaker 1: But where does Stretch come from?

603
00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:46,360
Speaker 2: What's that name?

604
00:29:46,400 --> 00:29:48,480
Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you two people call me Stretch. I

605
00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:51,720
Speaker 3: remember I did a long profile of Sparky Anderson for

606
00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:54,880
Speaker 3: Sports Illustrated, and you know his name is George. And

607
00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:57,040
Speaker 3: he said, I always know one am at the ballpark.

608
00:29:57,040 --> 00:29:58,960
Speaker 3: If somebody else George, if somebody else Sparky, I don't

609
00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:00,960
Speaker 3: turn around. But if somebody else George, I turn around

610
00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:02,920
Speaker 3: because I know it's an old friend of mine from childhood.

611
00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:05,400
Speaker 3: So two people have called me Stretch in my life,

612
00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:10,440
Speaker 3: and the first was Peter Carey, an editor at Sports Illustrated,

613
00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:13,360
Speaker 3: who I'm certain when I was a fact checker, there

614
00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:16,120
Speaker 3: had no idea what my name was. So when I

615
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:19,080
Speaker 3: would have to go be summoned to his office to

616
00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:20,760
Speaker 3: go over a story that somebody else had written and

617
00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:22,640
Speaker 3: I was fact checking, he would turn to me and

618
00:30:22,680 --> 00:30:26,200
Speaker 3: he would greet me with Stretch. Because I'm six or five,

619
00:30:26,280 --> 00:30:29,440
Speaker 3: and you know, it was the most obvious thing to

620
00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:32,120
Speaker 3: call me. And so when I told this story to

621
00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:36,240
Speaker 3: your dad that he howled and he said and he

622
00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:39,960
Speaker 3: instantly and from that day forward started calling me Stretch,

623
00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:43,600
Speaker 3: which I love. So I know now I haven't talked

624
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:45,280
Speaker 3: to Peter Carey in years, so I know now if

625
00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:49,640
Speaker 3: somebody calls me Stretch, it has to be tim right Stretch.

626
00:30:49,760 --> 00:30:54,120
Speaker 4: Going back to your childhood, I know you loved baseball cards.

627
00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:57,240
Speaker 4: You are fascinated by them, but you were mostly fascinated

628
00:30:57,240 --> 00:30:59,360
Speaker 4: about what was on the back of the cards.

629
00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:03,200
Speaker 3: Agreed, well, absolutely, I mean I love the little line drawing.

630
00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:05,400
Speaker 3: So the nineteen seventy four tops was when I started

631
00:31:05,400 --> 00:31:08,200
Speaker 3: collecting and to this day, and I've got the full

632
00:31:08,240 --> 00:31:11,040
Speaker 3: set that I collected in my basement still the seventy

633
00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:14,400
Speaker 3: five tops, those mid seventies tops, and I loved the

634
00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:17,440
Speaker 3: little line drawings on the back where you know they

635
00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:22,120
Speaker 3: they would depict baseball players in full uniform doing their

636
00:31:22,120 --> 00:31:24,720
Speaker 3: off season job. You know, Lou Broock. Lou owns a

637
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:27,800
Speaker 3: flower shop in Saint Louis, and there's Low in full uniforms,

638
00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:30,520
Speaker 3: you know, with a bouquet of flowers. And as a kid,

639
00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:33,400
Speaker 3: I thought, how cool is this. There's the guy's a

640
00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:35,800
Speaker 3: major League baseball player and he has to wear his

641
00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:39,160
Speaker 3: Cardinals uniform in the off season when he's selling flowers.

642
00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:42,520
Speaker 3: I just I remember that vividly. One of the twins,

643
00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:44,320
Speaker 3: I think it may have been George mitterwell, but but

644
00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:47,520
Speaker 3: it was his hobby is he likes to take home movies.

645
00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:49,360
Speaker 3: And it had a little home movie camera and it

646
00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:54,120
Speaker 3: had a kind of a sinister you know as an adult,

647
00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:56,320
Speaker 3: but as a kid, it's like, you know, we take

648
00:31:56,360 --> 00:31:59,360
Speaker 3: home movies too, but he's in his full uniform. But

649
00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:01,440
Speaker 3: you know, the the front of some of those cards

650
00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:03,920
Speaker 3: were pretty amazing as well. And do you remember the

651
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:06,640
Speaker 3: Kurt Bavaqua tops when he won the bubble gum blowing

652
00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:10,920
Speaker 3: contest and there was the bazooka calipers measuring the size

653
00:32:10,920 --> 00:32:13,480
Speaker 3: of the bubble, the circumference of the bubble. I mean

654
00:32:14,720 --> 00:32:19,280
Speaker 3: that stuff. As the rest of my brain turns to oatmeal,

655
00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:23,920
Speaker 3: that stuff remains. I think it'd be the last thought

656
00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:27,040
Speaker 3: that I had before I expire is is the nineteen

657
00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:31,160
Speaker 3: seventy four horizontal Steve Garvey card that my dad came

658
00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:33,720
Speaker 3: home from a business trip and he was gone for

659
00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:35,920
Speaker 3: a long time, and I'm sure he bought it at

660
00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:38,280
Speaker 3: the airport or at the gas station on the way home.

661
00:32:38,560 --> 00:32:41,760
Speaker 3: But it was a the tops three pack that you

662
00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:44,560
Speaker 3: could see through the first card in each of the

663
00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:49,280
Speaker 3: three windows, and Steve Garvey's horizontal card was one of those.

664
00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:51,560
Speaker 3: And that doubled the size of my collection because there

665
00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:55,600
Speaker 3: were probably thirty cards in that pack. And it remains

666
00:32:56,640 --> 00:32:59,160
Speaker 3: a vivid memory of my childhood when so many other

667
00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:01,120
Speaker 3: memories have stretch.

668
00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:04,400
Speaker 4: But when you, like you grew up watching Ken Herbek

669
00:33:04,560 --> 00:33:08,760
Speaker 4: play and then then you're covering your writing about Ken Herbeck,

670
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:12,480
Speaker 4: what was that like to cover a local hero like that?

671
00:33:12,680 --> 00:33:15,280
Speaker 3: It was insane? And so my older brother I went,

672
00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:17,320
Speaker 3: I graduated from the high school Bloomington, kind of the

673
00:33:17,360 --> 00:33:21,000
Speaker 3: high school that Herbek attended and played at. And and

674
00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:25,600
Speaker 3: my brother, oldest brother played baseball at Lincoln High School.

675
00:33:25,600 --> 00:33:27,560
Speaker 3: Lincoln closed after my sophomore year, so I had to

676
00:33:27,560 --> 00:33:31,200
Speaker 3: go to Kennedy. But my brother was a left handed pitcher,

677
00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:34,200
Speaker 3: and he always said that he owned owned Hrbek in

678
00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:37,400
Speaker 3: high school. So you know, when the Twins were great

679
00:33:37,520 --> 00:33:40,080
Speaker 3: and you know, winning the World Series, and then I

680
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:43,040
Speaker 3: was covering the Twins, I said to Herbeck in the

681
00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:45,280
Speaker 3: first of all, I introduced myself to him one time.

682
00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:46,920
Speaker 3: He said, oh, yeah, you're You're the guy from Kennedy,

683
00:33:46,960 --> 00:33:50,440
Speaker 3: aren't you. Yes, And I loved Herbak and he said

684
00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:52,920
Speaker 3: to me, he said, you know, I've been getting Sports

685
00:33:52,920 --> 00:33:56,400
Speaker 3: Illustrated for seven years, but I've never gotten one of

686
00:33:56,400 --> 00:33:59,200
Speaker 3: those free videos that they offer in the commercial. How

687
00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:00,320
Speaker 3: do I do that to you? I have to cancel

688
00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:02,840
Speaker 3: my subscription and restart it. And I said, I think,

689
00:34:02,880 --> 00:34:04,920
Speaker 3: I said, you know, I can get you one of

690
00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:08,480
Speaker 3: those videos. What are you looking for, like Baseball's Greatest

691
00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:10,640
Speaker 3: says no, No, he wasn't a baseball fan. He made

692
00:34:10,640 --> 00:34:15,880
Speaker 3: that clear. NFL's hardest hits, that's what you wanted. I

693
00:34:15,880 --> 00:34:17,839
Speaker 3: think he was making three million dollars a year at

694
00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:20,480
Speaker 3: the time. So I said to him, I got to

695
00:34:20,520 --> 00:34:23,839
Speaker 3: ask you. My brother always says he owned you as

696
00:34:23,880 --> 00:34:26,600
Speaker 3: a picture at Lincoln and Herbeck thought about for a second,

697
00:34:26,640 --> 00:34:28,239
Speaker 3: and he, of course he's heard this from so many

698
00:34:28,239 --> 00:34:29,680
Speaker 3: people in the Twin Cities over the years. He thought

699
00:34:29,680 --> 00:34:31,480
Speaker 3: about it for a second. He said, left hander, and

700
00:34:31,520 --> 00:34:33,359
Speaker 3: I said yeah. He said, like you have like a

701
00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:37,000
Speaker 3: red afro. And I said he did, And Herbert went

702
00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:41,439
Speaker 3: like that, just like whatever. And and so I told

703
00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:43,360
Speaker 3: my brother that, and he took that and has taken

704
00:34:43,360 --> 00:34:47,640
Speaker 3: that ever since. That's confirmation. Why do you think he

705
00:34:47,719 --> 00:34:49,480
Speaker 3: remembered me. It's not because I owned him.

706
00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:53,600
Speaker 1: So it wasn't because of the distinct red afro he had.

707
00:34:54,239 --> 00:34:57,759
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, I mean and exactly like like a clown dude.

708
00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:04,080
Speaker 3: But I sat in Rod Carew's home, in the house

709
00:35:04,120 --> 00:35:06,440
Speaker 3: that he was staying in when he was in need

710
00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:10,439
Speaker 3: of a heart transplant, and and we were both were

711
00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:17,000
Speaker 3: in tears, and I found myself imitating Rod Kruz batting

712
00:35:17,040 --> 00:35:21,360
Speaker 3: stance through Rod Cruz like an idiot moron. And I

713
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:24,040
Speaker 3: told about our friends, my friends and I growing up.

714
00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:30,080
Speaker 3: We would put buttig brand pressed lunch meat, really thin

715
00:35:30,520 --> 00:35:33,439
Speaker 3: pistromi into our into our cheek to imitate the off

716
00:35:33,440 --> 00:35:37,680
Speaker 3: tobacco and uh and you know, and he of course

717
00:35:37,680 --> 00:35:41,279
Speaker 3: had gone out, had had a long anti tobacco crusade

718
00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:45,440
Speaker 3: appropriately so. But I just found myself battling to one

719
00:35:45,480 --> 00:35:47,960
Speaker 3: of my you know, childhood heroes. But then I had

720
00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:50,799
Speaker 3: so many of those moments, and Tim, you had a

721
00:35:50,840 --> 00:35:55,239
Speaker 3: million more than I have. But where I'm standing on

722
00:35:55,280 --> 00:35:59,680
Speaker 3: the front porch of Mark Fitrich's house doing Aware Are

723
00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:04,759
Speaker 3: they now story? And We're just sitting there having beers,

724
00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:08,280
Speaker 3: and he's urinating off of one end of the reports

725
00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:10,280
Speaker 3: and I'm off the other, and I'm like, I cannot

726
00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:14,920
Speaker 3: believe this has happened to me, you know what's going on? So,

727
00:36:16,160 --> 00:36:18,279
Speaker 3: you know, there's just there's just so many of those

728
00:36:18,280 --> 00:36:21,400
Speaker 3: and I'm super fortunate to him lived through that.

729
00:36:21,680 --> 00:36:24,680
Speaker 1: I just wish that story had led with I found

730
00:36:24,719 --> 00:36:28,680
Speaker 1: myself peeing off one end of the fort Now.

731
00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:30,480
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I mean I don't know that the I

732
00:36:30,520 --> 00:36:32,239
Speaker 3: know what the etiquette is like in a bank of

733
00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:34,360
Speaker 3: urinals at the airport, you know, you try to space

734
00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:38,880
Speaker 3: yourself off. But at Mark Fidrich's farm, you use separate

735
00:36:38,960 --> 00:36:42,319
Speaker 3: ends of the support and just.

736
00:36:42,239 --> 00:36:44,399
Speaker 4: Staying with the twins for one more minute. Jeff, we

737
00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:47,640
Speaker 4: covered the World Series together several years, but in ninety one,

738
00:36:47,719 --> 00:36:50,280
Speaker 4: he and I are sitting in the auxiliary press box

739
00:36:50,360 --> 00:36:53,360
Speaker 4: at the Metrodome and this is the greatest World Series

740
00:36:53,400 --> 00:36:56,279
Speaker 4: I've ever covered. Stretch, tell us what it was like

741
00:36:56,600 --> 00:37:01,440
Speaker 4: that day, how loud that crowd was as we're watching

742
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:04,360
Speaker 4: one of the greatest Game sevens in Major League history.

743
00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:06,800
Speaker 4: And then of course he wrote the greatest game story

744
00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:07,640
Speaker 4: I've ever seen.

745
00:37:08,040 --> 00:37:12,000
Speaker 3: Well, the game was, the series itself was unbelievable, and

746
00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:16,920
Speaker 3: the Game six ended with Kirby Pucket's home run and

747
00:37:16,920 --> 00:37:18,360
Speaker 3: we'll see you tomorrow night and all that, and it

748
00:37:18,400 --> 00:37:20,600
Speaker 3: was just in the place was vibrating, and Jack Morris

749
00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:22,560
Speaker 3: of course said that night, you know, in the words

750
00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:24,560
Speaker 3: of the late great Marvin Gay, let's get it on.

751
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:26,960
Speaker 3: So it was like twenty four hours of just you know,

752
00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:30,840
Speaker 3: just tension building and then this great tenoning one nothing

753
00:37:30,880 --> 00:37:35,920
Speaker 3: game and the Pucket home run. It was as loud

754
00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:38,920
Speaker 3: as anything, louder than any team I ever heard, And

755
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:40,560
Speaker 3: I have a permanent ringing in my ears from a

756
00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:44,719
Speaker 3: car accident in twenty eighteen. The EMT said it was

757
00:37:44,719 --> 00:37:46,640
Speaker 3: on a Friday. They said this might last until Monday.

758
00:37:46,640 --> 00:37:50,319
Speaker 3: It has lasted for six years now. But it's very

759
00:37:50,360 --> 00:37:52,920
Speaker 3: similar to what I experienced. For a week after that

760
00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:56,640
Speaker 3: World Series, the ringing in my ears, and I had

761
00:37:56,640 --> 00:37:58,279
Speaker 3: a rental car, but I was staying in the house

762
00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:04,560
Speaker 3: that I grew up in Bloomington, and I remember leaving

763
00:38:04,840 --> 00:38:06,920
Speaker 3: the Metrodome, I don't know, one in the morning or

764
00:38:06,960 --> 00:38:08,719
Speaker 3: two in the morning to go home to go to

765
00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:10,120
Speaker 3: the house that I grew up in to write. And

766
00:38:10,160 --> 00:38:13,840
Speaker 3: I remember seeing a drunk on top of a city bus,

767
00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:17,560
Speaker 3: an MTC city bus, like surfing the on top of

768
00:38:17,600 --> 00:38:20,440
Speaker 3: the moving bus. And I know that's not good, but

769
00:38:20,480 --> 00:38:22,920
Speaker 3: that was the sort of atmosphere in which all this

770
00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:24,920
Speaker 3: took place. And then I went home to the basement

771
00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:27,600
Speaker 3: of the house that I grew up in where growing up,

772
00:38:27,600 --> 00:38:29,840
Speaker 3: I would watch Twins games on TV in that basement

773
00:38:29,880 --> 00:38:33,719
Speaker 3: and I would write game stories on a mom's royal typewriter. Well,

774
00:38:33,760 --> 00:38:37,480
Speaker 3: now I've got a laptop, but that probably weighed sixteen pounds.

775
00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:41,080
Speaker 3: But I wrote that game story in the same basement

776
00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:44,400
Speaker 3: where I wrote five years earlier. I was writing stories

777
00:38:44,440 --> 00:38:47,160
Speaker 3: about twins games I had watched on TV, so it

778
00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:50,520
Speaker 3: was a surreal you know, if you set the bar

779
00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:52,560
Speaker 3: low enough, you can make your dreams come true kind

780
00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:55,520
Speaker 3: of moment for me and still one of the most

781
00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:57,000
Speaker 3: memorable nights of my life.

782
00:38:57,760 --> 00:39:00,799
Speaker 1: Steve, you we all have some think in common here

783
00:39:00,840 --> 00:39:05,840
Speaker 1: that we played stratumatic and I actually created a league

784
00:39:05,840 --> 00:39:08,799
Speaker 1: with my uncle, his son, my cousin, and the two

785
00:39:08,840 --> 00:39:11,279
Speaker 1: of us. We created a little league. But I got

786
00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:15,720
Speaker 1: really excited, so I made a card for caw Rupken Jr.

787
00:39:15,760 --> 00:39:17,799
Speaker 1: Because at that time he wasn't in the Hall of

788
00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:20,919
Speaker 1: Fame and we were playing with the Hall of Fame cards, right,

789
00:39:20,960 --> 00:39:23,160
Speaker 1: so only Hall of famers have cards, so it was

790
00:39:23,160 --> 00:39:25,480
Speaker 1: a year before he got inducted. And I also made

791
00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:30,440
Speaker 1: a card for our grandfather. And these cards were not

792
00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:33,680
Speaker 1: statistically accurate whatsoever. I mean, I think it made it

793
00:39:33,719 --> 00:39:36,360
Speaker 1: look like cow Ripken Jr. Would have hit twelve hundred

794
00:39:36,360 --> 00:39:39,319
Speaker 1: home runs in his career, so there's no accuracy to it.

795
00:39:39,560 --> 00:39:42,160
Speaker 1: But adding them to the deck of the actual players

796
00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:45,320
Speaker 1: was ridiculous of me to do at age ten. However,

797
00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:48,440
Speaker 1: you are a stratumatic player and you also played with

798
00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:50,440
Speaker 1: fictional players is this true.

799
00:39:50,600 --> 00:39:55,320
Speaker 3: Well, a buddy of mine who's who's done a bunch

800
00:39:55,320 --> 00:40:01,200
Speaker 3: of work at our house, building cabinets and building a

801
00:40:01,239 --> 00:40:05,160
Speaker 3: deck and all that he played and may still play

802
00:40:05,239 --> 00:40:08,560
Speaker 3: in a stratomatic league that had fictional players and the names.

803
00:40:08,640 --> 00:40:10,000
Speaker 3: I mean, I wish I could remember the name, the

804
00:40:10,080 --> 00:40:13,080
Speaker 3: name for just the best. But what you say about

805
00:40:13,960 --> 00:40:16,000
Speaker 3: you know, Kylerookan would have hit twelve hundred home runs

806
00:40:16,040 --> 00:40:18,000
Speaker 3: when I played as a kid. I played the entire

807
00:40:18,360 --> 00:40:20,480
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty Royal season, and I don't know why I

808
00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:24,400
Speaker 3: chose the nineteen eighty Royals, but I got George Brett

809
00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:26,719
Speaker 3: to hit four hundred that year. He hit like four

810
00:40:26,760 --> 00:40:30,160
Speaker 3: to twenty one, and those Royals won like one hundred

811
00:40:30,200 --> 00:40:34,560
Speaker 3: and twenty four games. So I do think that when

812
00:40:34,600 --> 00:40:37,400
Speaker 3: you're playing as a kid and you think you're playing

813
00:40:37,440 --> 00:40:40,759
Speaker 3: completely above board, I must have had my thumb on

814
00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:44,800
Speaker 3: the scale massively to achieve. But either that or I

815
00:40:44,800 --> 00:40:47,319
Speaker 3: would have made the greatest baseball manager of all time,

816
00:40:47,320 --> 00:40:48,600
Speaker 3: and I don't contest the case.

817
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:51,280
Speaker 4: So Stretch, I just looked this up because I wrote

818
00:40:51,280 --> 00:40:55,040
Speaker 4: this could to be Leicester was the best?

819
00:40:55,040 --> 00:40:59,239
Speaker 3: Do you remember that I remember that name? Yeah, my

820
00:40:59,320 --> 00:41:03,439
Speaker 3: friend Steveartman is going to love this because he's he's

821
00:41:03,480 --> 00:41:07,360
Speaker 3: a baseball nut, He's a Phillius nut. And and the

822
00:41:07,400 --> 00:41:10,359
Speaker 3: fact that Katuby Leister came out of Tim Kirschian's Now

823
00:41:10,719 --> 00:41:13,279
Speaker 3: this is going to blow his mind because now it's

824
00:41:13,360 --> 00:41:14,239
Speaker 3: kind of made him real.

825
00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:17,640
Speaker 2: Right, And there are a couple others. Bend Dover was.

826
00:41:20,080 --> 00:41:24,560
Speaker 4: And my favorite street Steve Threepenny Franklin.

827
00:41:24,080 --> 00:41:25,439
Speaker 2: In nineteen seventy four.

828
00:41:29,560 --> 00:41:30,319
Speaker 3: Oh, I love it.

829
00:41:30,520 --> 00:41:32,920
Speaker 1: You know it's worth noting for your buddy too that

830
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:34,840
Speaker 1: when he when dad said he's looking it up, he

831
00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:38,840
Speaker 1: pulls his own book off of the shelf here to

832
00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:42,080
Speaker 1: look up and finds the exact page where these players

833
00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:43,879
Speaker 1: are written in Is this a great game?

834
00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:44,120
Speaker 3: Or what?

835
00:41:44,239 --> 00:41:45,040
Speaker 1: His second book?

836
00:41:45,440 --> 00:41:47,919
Speaker 3: I felt like I was in a in a court

837
00:41:47,960 --> 00:41:50,800
Speaker 3: of law and he was pulling out some transcript. But

838
00:41:50,800 --> 00:41:53,400
Speaker 3: do you know what you do about that? Tim? That book?

839
00:41:53,840 --> 00:41:58,239
Speaker 3: So Katooby, Leicester, Bendover, and Threepenny Franklin are in that book, right,

840
00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:01,120
Speaker 3: And and I don't know if Jeff knows, but years

841
00:42:01,160 --> 00:42:04,400
Speaker 3: ago I was at a white House Christmas party for

842
00:42:04,480 --> 00:42:08,920
Speaker 3: reasons that don't bear going into. Now, George W. Bush

843
00:42:09,520 --> 00:42:13,560
Speaker 3: became wrote me a letter while he was president. I

844
00:42:13,640 --> 00:42:17,719
Speaker 3: ended up going down to a White House event. I

845
00:42:17,760 --> 00:42:21,239
Speaker 3: walked into a receiving line at the White House, and

846
00:42:21,600 --> 00:42:25,680
Speaker 3: the President of the United States, the sitting president of

847
00:42:25,680 --> 00:42:29,600
Speaker 3: the United States at the time, greeted me with mister

848
00:42:29,640 --> 00:42:32,600
Speaker 3: sports illustrated. I was just reading you about you in

849
00:42:32,719 --> 00:42:39,560
Speaker 3: Kirkchean's books, page thirty eight or whatever. He had nice

850
00:42:39,560 --> 00:42:42,240
Speaker 3: things to say about you. You know, your phones are

851
00:42:42,320 --> 00:42:44,000
Speaker 3: seized or don't work at the White House? That want me.

852
00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:45,759
Speaker 3: As soon as we got out of the White House

853
00:42:45,760 --> 00:42:50,040
Speaker 3: and my phone was working again, I called you, Tim

854
00:42:50,120 --> 00:42:55,040
Speaker 3: and told you that and we howled. I mean, he

855
00:42:55,160 --> 00:43:00,319
Speaker 3: was reading your book at you know, while he.

856
00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:03,560
Speaker 2: Was president, so you know, one of my favorites.

857
00:43:03,600 --> 00:43:05,319
Speaker 3: So he read about he read about kab Lees.

858
00:43:05,680 --> 00:43:08,640
Speaker 4: He knows him to Threepenny Franklin, the leader of the

859
00:43:08,680 --> 00:43:14,440
Speaker 4: free world, exactly knows about a fictional stratamatic.

860
00:43:13,719 --> 00:43:17,600
Speaker 3: Player figures at the White House.

861
00:43:19,560 --> 00:43:22,400
Speaker 4: So so, Jeff what I used to get such a

862
00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:25,040
Speaker 4: big kick out of Steve Russian because I told him

863
00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:28,719
Speaker 4: that some of the baseball writers that preceded me at

864
00:43:28,760 --> 00:43:32,799
Speaker 4: the Baltimore Sun had a rather odd way of presenting

865
00:43:33,080 --> 00:43:37,560
Speaker 4: like certain things in the newspaper stretch. Do you remember

866
00:43:38,160 --> 00:43:41,200
Speaker 4: any of those that say lou hatter? My dear friend

867
00:43:41,239 --> 00:43:44,719
Speaker 4: would write, just tell us the ones that tickled you

868
00:43:44,800 --> 00:43:45,240
Speaker 4: the most.

869
00:43:45,719 --> 00:43:48,080
Speaker 3: One of my favorite ones were, you know, a visiting

870
00:43:48,120 --> 00:43:50,719
Speaker 3: picture was towing the alien humpback?

871
00:43:55,320 --> 00:43:58,200
Speaker 2: What does that mean? As he would say, we know

872
00:43:58,200 --> 00:43:59,200
Speaker 2: what that means?

873
00:43:59,680 --> 00:44:04,440
Speaker 3: And and anybody thrown out at the plate had expired

874
00:44:04,520 --> 00:44:11,640
Speaker 3: at the cash register. I mean. And I have to say,

875
00:44:11,760 --> 00:44:13,560
Speaker 3: I think some of that stuff was still sort of

876
00:44:13,560 --> 00:44:15,239
Speaker 3: in the Sporting News when I was a little kid

877
00:44:15,239 --> 00:44:17,279
Speaker 3: and would get the Sporting News. And as part of

878
00:44:17,360 --> 00:44:20,640
Speaker 3: what I loved, I liked the backs of the baseball cards.

879
00:44:20,760 --> 00:44:24,200
Speaker 3: It was part of the weird secret handshake of romance

880
00:44:24,600 --> 00:44:27,359
Speaker 3: of baseball to me, you know. I just I was

881
00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:30,360
Speaker 3: at my son's high school the other day and he

882
00:44:30,440 --> 00:44:33,400
Speaker 3: was doing a basketball workout, and I got there early

883
00:44:33,440 --> 00:44:35,720
Speaker 3: to do the carpool, and the baseball high school baseball

884
00:44:35,719 --> 00:44:39,080
Speaker 3: team was playing, so I watched. I watched half an inning,

885
00:44:39,400 --> 00:44:41,680
Speaker 3: and as I was leaving, I saw the mother of

886
00:44:41,800 --> 00:44:44,840
Speaker 3: the picture just pulling in a lot and I texted

887
00:44:44,880 --> 00:44:50,200
Speaker 3: her and I said, I said, Thomas just got himself

888
00:44:50,200 --> 00:44:53,719
Speaker 3: out of a bases loaded jam. And as I'm typing that,

889
00:44:53,800 --> 00:44:56,520
Speaker 3: I'm thinking, I don't even know she knows what this means.

890
00:44:56,560 --> 00:44:59,120
Speaker 3: You know, it's such sort of newspaper ease at a

891
00:44:59,120 --> 00:45:02,200
Speaker 3: different time. But I love it, you know, he he he.

892
00:45:02,560 --> 00:45:05,600
Speaker 3: You know, the the sacks were drunk with east windsor

893
00:45:06,400 --> 00:45:08,960
Speaker 3: Highlanders or whatever. But but he worked his way out

894
00:45:08,960 --> 00:45:11,239
Speaker 3: of the jam. And and I can still slip into

895
00:45:11,280 --> 00:45:13,040
Speaker 3: that and and kind of love it right.

896
00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:15,399
Speaker 2: And stretch when a game went to extra innings. Those

897
00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:17,480
Speaker 2: were called bonus panels.

898
00:45:18,520 --> 00:45:21,719
Speaker 3: I mean, the beauty, what what I miss? I mean?

899
00:45:21,800 --> 00:45:24,200
Speaker 3: I love baseball. I love I watched games. I took

900
00:45:24,239 --> 00:45:26,440
Speaker 3: my son to Fenway a few weeks ago, and I

901
00:45:26,480 --> 00:45:29,799
Speaker 3: love everything about it. It's my favorite sport. I love

902
00:45:29,840 --> 00:45:33,000
Speaker 3: all of it. But what I miss most about covering

903
00:45:33,000 --> 00:45:35,919
Speaker 3: it on a on a regular basis is just sitting

904
00:45:35,960 --> 00:45:39,480
Speaker 3: in the press box and and talking nonsense, this kind

905
00:45:39,520 --> 00:45:42,040
Speaker 3: of nonsense. And I remember being at a Yankees playoff

906
00:45:42,080 --> 00:45:46,720
Speaker 3: game back during their you know, nineties dynasty with Steve

907
00:45:46,800 --> 00:45:51,200
Speaker 3: Knel of Sports Illustrated, and we worked up this, we

908
00:45:51,200 --> 00:45:54,680
Speaker 3: were we worked up the outgoing voicemail for Yankee Stadium.

909
00:45:54,760 --> 00:45:57,000
Speaker 3: It was it was Bob Shepherd's voice, of course, and

910
00:45:57,080 --> 00:46:00,640
Speaker 3: he was saying, uh uh, press one, you know, you know,

911
00:46:00,840 --> 00:46:04,360
Speaker 3: you've reached the New York Yankees. Press one for Mickey Mantle,

912
00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:09,720
Speaker 3: Press two for Mickey Rivers, Press three for Mickey Klutz,

913
00:46:10,360 --> 00:46:14,959
Speaker 3: for all other Mickey's best Star, you know, and we

914
00:46:15,640 --> 00:46:20,920
Speaker 3: that stuff was my favorite. Meanwhile, you know, meanwhile, we're

915
00:46:20,920 --> 00:46:22,880
Speaker 3: missing all kinds of game action, you know, in the

916
00:46:22,920 --> 00:46:25,080
Speaker 3: World Series. But that's the kind of stuff that I

917
00:46:25,080 --> 00:46:26,640
Speaker 3: loved about baseball the most.

918
00:46:26,840 --> 00:46:27,640
Speaker 2: Right now, stretch.

919
00:46:27,719 --> 00:46:29,920
Speaker 4: One of the things that did happen to you was

920
00:46:29,960 --> 00:46:33,640
Speaker 4: in the Angels managerial clubhouse when you were doing a

921
00:46:33,800 --> 00:46:35,080
Speaker 4: story of the Angels.

922
00:46:35,280 --> 00:46:38,040
Speaker 2: Can you explain what hit you in the head that day?

923
00:46:39,200 --> 00:46:41,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was so I was doing I was doing

924
00:46:41,040 --> 00:46:45,520
Speaker 3: a story in Chuck Finley, and this didn't happen very often,

925
00:46:45,560 --> 00:46:48,960
Speaker 3: but I was told my marching orders were, we want

926
00:46:49,000 --> 00:46:51,080
Speaker 3: to put him on the cover as the best left

927
00:46:51,080 --> 00:46:54,840
Speaker 3: hander in baseball. Can you get somebody to tell you

928
00:46:54,920 --> 00:46:56,920
Speaker 3: that he's the best left hander in baseball? So I

929
00:46:56,960 --> 00:46:59,839
Speaker 3: went on one hundred and fifteen degree day to fen

930
00:47:00,160 --> 00:47:02,880
Speaker 3: where the Angels were playing in Boston, and I was

931
00:47:02,880 --> 00:47:06,720
Speaker 3: talking to Angels skipper Doug Rader before the game about

932
00:47:06,800 --> 00:47:09,399
Speaker 3: Chuck Finley, and I said, you know, would you say

933
00:47:09,440 --> 00:47:11,640
Speaker 3: he's you think he's the best left turn in baseball?

934
00:47:11,680 --> 00:47:14,080
Speaker 3: What I wouldn't say he's the best left tender in

935
00:47:14,120 --> 00:47:19,359
Speaker 3: her steff about Ryan Stanley's Jim Abbott and okay, so so,

936
00:47:19,600 --> 00:47:23,360
Speaker 3: but I kept I kept at it. Anyway, you can

937
00:47:23,440 --> 00:47:25,759
Speaker 3: look up the box score and I'm pretty confident that

938
00:47:25,760 --> 00:47:28,839
Speaker 3: I'm right. Chuck Finley lasted one third of an inning

939
00:47:28,880 --> 00:47:32,080
Speaker 3: that day. He gave up something like seven or eight runs,

940
00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:34,680
Speaker 3: and they still had to play three more hours of

941
00:47:34,719 --> 00:47:38,760
Speaker 3: baseball in one hundred and ten degree heat and lose.

942
00:47:39,480 --> 00:47:41,600
Speaker 3: And so after the game, I go into Doug Rader's

943
00:47:42,160 --> 00:47:48,560
Speaker 3: office and he sees me, and understandably it triggered some

944
00:47:48,840 --> 00:47:51,359
Speaker 3: kind of internal rage. Here's the guy who was telling

945
00:47:51,400 --> 00:47:55,719
Speaker 3: me how great Chuck Finley is three hours ago, and

946
00:47:56,160 --> 00:47:58,880
Speaker 3: he took off his pants and he threw them across

947
00:47:58,920 --> 00:48:03,080
Speaker 3: the office and struck me in the head. Doug Rader

948
00:48:03,080 --> 00:48:04,759
Speaker 3: threw his pants that he was what I'm trying to say,

949
00:48:06,360 --> 00:48:08,839
Speaker 3: And you know, the static cling they kind of those

950
00:48:08,840 --> 00:48:10,880
Speaker 3: doubled it polyester they kind of took a while to

951
00:48:11,160 --> 00:48:15,279
Speaker 3: to fall off, and he later he later apologized and

952
00:48:15,320 --> 00:48:16,840
Speaker 3: said he was trying to throw them in the hamper,

953
00:48:17,080 --> 00:48:20,680
Speaker 3: and I completely understood why he was not thrilled with me.

954
00:48:21,040 --> 00:48:23,840
Speaker 3: But I told that story to a Chuck Nevius of

955
00:48:23,840 --> 00:48:26,239
Speaker 3: the San Francisco Chronicle once and he'd covered Rader with

956
00:48:26,320 --> 00:48:29,000
Speaker 3: the a's and he said once he Rader was going

957
00:48:29,040 --> 00:48:33,040
Speaker 3: on a rant in the Oakland Clubhouse and Chuck was

958
00:48:33,080 --> 00:48:37,040
Speaker 3: following him around taking notes, and Rader threw his pants

959
00:48:37,080 --> 00:48:39,800
Speaker 3: in the air while removing them during the rant, and

960
00:48:39,840 --> 00:48:42,480
Speaker 3: they landed on his Chuck's head, and Chuck's inte like

961
00:48:42,480 --> 00:48:45,480
Speaker 3: when somebody spits a fleck of lettuce on your shirt

962
00:48:45,600 --> 00:48:47,000
Speaker 3: or something during lunch and you have to pretend that

963
00:48:47,040 --> 00:48:49,600
Speaker 3: it's not there. Chuck continued to just take notes and

964
00:48:49,680 --> 00:48:51,400
Speaker 3: nod with the stands on his head because he said

965
00:48:51,800 --> 00:48:53,960
Speaker 3: if I had, like a you know, remove the pants,

966
00:48:54,320 --> 00:48:55,879
Speaker 3: he worried that it would send him, you know, into

967
00:48:55,920 --> 00:48:59,680
Speaker 3: a into a further rage. So, uh, I just love

968
00:48:59,760 --> 00:49:02,239
Speaker 3: that somebody, when I had Doug greatest pants thrown at me,

969
00:49:02,320 --> 00:49:05,319
Speaker 3: another professional colleague could say, oh, yes, the same thing

970
00:49:05,400 --> 00:49:09,800
Speaker 3: happened to me. That's covering baseball right.

971
00:49:09,640 --> 00:49:12,440
Speaker 4: Well, one of my favorite Chuck Finley stories was about

972
00:49:12,480 --> 00:49:15,600
Speaker 4: fifteen years ago at least. He was with the Indians

973
00:49:15,600 --> 00:49:18,520
Speaker 4: and they'd been through like thirty six pitchers that year,

974
00:49:18,560 --> 00:49:20,719
Speaker 4: which isn't much these days, but back then it was

975
00:49:20,760 --> 00:49:23,799
Speaker 4: a lot. So he put together a contest who could

976
00:49:23,960 --> 00:49:28,120
Speaker 4: name as many of the thirty six pitchers that played

977
00:49:28,160 --> 00:49:31,080
Speaker 4: on them so they were all teammates, and Chuck Finley

978
00:49:31,160 --> 00:49:34,359
Speaker 4: won because he gets thirty one out of the thirty six.

979
00:49:34,440 --> 00:49:38,160
Speaker 4: But he said, we had a big debate whether one

980
00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:42,160
Speaker 4: of the pitchers' names was Caine Davis or Davis Kane.

981
00:49:42,200 --> 00:49:43,080
Speaker 2: They weren't sure what.

982
00:49:43,080 --> 00:49:45,920
Speaker 1: His name was, and he was on the team.

983
00:49:46,040 --> 00:49:49,879
Speaker 2: It was Caine Davis. That's what Chuck Finley did.

984
00:49:50,440 --> 00:50:00,680
Speaker 3: I think. I mean that that is like analog, immaculate

985
00:50:00,719 --> 00:50:04,280
Speaker 3: grid that you know before before there was an Internet.

986
00:50:04,280 --> 00:50:07,359
Speaker 3: And Jeff wanted to understand this. But guys would lug

987
00:50:07,400 --> 00:50:14,400
Speaker 3: around giant suitcases with the Baseball encyclopedia and you know,

988
00:50:14,520 --> 00:50:16,960
Speaker 3: all the media. You're one of them. And Jeff, your

989
00:50:17,040 --> 00:50:20,600
Speaker 3: dad told me during the nineteen ninety one play National

990
00:50:20,640 --> 00:50:24,920
Speaker 3: League Championship Series or the World Series, we were in Atlanta,

991
00:50:25,160 --> 00:50:28,440
Speaker 3: flying back to I think Minneapolis during the World series,

992
00:50:29,040 --> 00:50:32,400
Speaker 3: and we saw a couple of people with wheeled luggage

993
00:50:32,719 --> 00:50:36,560
Speaker 3: rollerboard suitcases, not flight attendants and which used to be

994
00:50:36,600 --> 00:50:38,600
Speaker 3: flight attendants and pilots had them, but nobody else we

995
00:50:38,640 --> 00:50:42,480
Speaker 3: saw civilians. And your dad sticked at me and said, Stretch,

996
00:50:42,880 --> 00:50:46,680
Speaker 3: if you ever see me pulling real luggage through an airport,

997
00:50:47,160 --> 00:50:52,960
Speaker 3: just kid. And within a year he was had real luggage.

998
00:50:53,960 --> 00:50:55,080
Speaker 2: So I don't know.

999
00:50:55,239 --> 00:50:57,760
Speaker 3: The one thing that I remember vividly about that World

1000
00:50:57,760 --> 00:50:59,920
Speaker 3: Series is not the games, but that that's when real

1001
00:51:00,120 --> 00:51:01,919
Speaker 3: luggage first became a big thing.

1002
00:51:02,280 --> 00:51:06,960
Speaker 1: You know, Steve, this is so evident. My dad a

1003
00:51:07,080 --> 00:51:09,720
Speaker 1: year before we bought him a pair of air pods,

1004
00:51:09,760 --> 00:51:12,719
Speaker 1: which he calls his iPods by the way that he

1005
00:51:12,760 --> 00:51:15,080
Speaker 1: puts in his ear. He said to me, if you

1006
00:51:15,200 --> 00:51:18,480
Speaker 1: ever catch me talking on one of those headphones in

1007
00:51:18,520 --> 00:51:21,520
Speaker 1: a public place, just kill me. And then a year

1008
00:51:21,600 --> 00:51:24,640
Speaker 1: later he said, Hey, I'm at the grocery store and

1009
00:51:24,680 --> 00:51:28,360
Speaker 1: I'm talking to you without my phone. So it seems

1010
00:51:28,400 --> 00:51:29,720
Speaker 1: like it's far for the course.

1011
00:51:30,400 --> 00:51:34,239
Speaker 3: He's on his knife life for sure. Real luggage in

1012
00:51:34,280 --> 00:51:35,160
Speaker 3: air pods.

1013
00:51:35,000 --> 00:51:40,200
Speaker 1: Right, Oh, So I think one thing that you know,

1014
00:51:40,400 --> 00:51:43,719
Speaker 1: my dad has praised your writing ability and says you're

1015
00:51:43,760 --> 00:51:46,200
Speaker 1: the best writer he's ever been able to read. And

1016
00:51:46,239 --> 00:51:48,680
Speaker 1: he's made sure that we didn't emphasize that too much

1017
00:51:48,680 --> 00:51:51,239
Speaker 1: because you're so humble and you won't accept that. But

1018
00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:55,040
Speaker 1: I heard that you wrote an article about a hot dog.

1019
00:51:56,680 --> 00:52:01,920
Speaker 3: I think, I think I've written multiple articles on hot dogs,

1020
00:52:02,040 --> 00:52:04,200
Speaker 3: but I did. I did write it, a long, long

1021
00:52:04,480 --> 00:52:07,680
Speaker 3: what we're called bonus pieces that sports illustrated on on

1022
00:52:07,800 --> 00:52:13,239
Speaker 3: the hot dog. You know, uh, it is the it

1023
00:52:13,320 --> 00:52:16,480
Speaker 3: is the staple food of the ballpark. So I always maintained,

1024
00:52:16,840 --> 00:52:19,400
Speaker 3: as a somebody covering baseball that what you ate at

1025
00:52:19,440 --> 00:52:25,160
Speaker 3: the ballparks physically exempted you from any ill health consequences

1026
00:52:25,280 --> 00:52:27,319
Speaker 3: just because you were eating it in front of a

1027
00:52:27,320 --> 00:52:32,120
Speaker 3: baseball game. And yeah, I think it was Humphrey Bargart,

1028
00:52:32,160 --> 00:52:35,839
Speaker 3: who's had a hot dog at Dodger Stadium beats you know, uh,

1029
00:52:36,160 --> 00:52:38,960
Speaker 3: prime rib at the Ritz and and that's the way

1030
00:52:38,960 --> 00:52:42,960
Speaker 3: I feel about it. And I remember interviewing what's his name,

1031
00:52:43,840 --> 00:52:48,400
Speaker 3: the Nathan's Annual hot dog eating Champion, Chestnut, Joey Chestnut,

1032
00:52:48,800 --> 00:52:51,400
Speaker 3: and Joey Chestnut said, this was a this is a

1033
00:52:51,440 --> 00:52:53,840
Speaker 3: separate article, mind you. This was an article about the

1034
00:52:54,160 --> 00:52:58,080
Speaker 3: hot dog eating contest, and Joey Chestnut big at least

1035
00:52:58,080 --> 00:53:01,320
Speaker 3: he was big Oakland, Oakland, a fan and a regular

1036
00:53:01,360 --> 00:53:06,360
Speaker 3: attendee at AS games. And he told me that, you know,

1037
00:53:06,400 --> 00:53:08,480
Speaker 3: I said, you are you recognized? Are you mobbed at

1038
00:53:08,480 --> 00:53:11,000
Speaker 3: AS games? And he said no, I just sit there

1039
00:53:11,040 --> 00:53:14,880
Speaker 3: watching the game until I get a hot dog. And

1040
00:53:14,920 --> 00:53:16,200
Speaker 3: then you know, if I get a hot dog from

1041
00:53:16,200 --> 00:53:18,879
Speaker 3: a vendor, and then people the light bulb goes on,

1042
00:53:19,160 --> 00:53:20,840
Speaker 3: and it's when they see the hot dog in his

1043
00:53:20,920 --> 00:53:25,759
Speaker 3: hand that they recognize him as Joey Chestnuts. So and

1044
00:53:25,760 --> 00:53:28,359
Speaker 3: I said, isn't that a busman's holiday eating eating hot

1045
00:53:28,360 --> 00:53:30,439
Speaker 3: dogs at a baseball game? Isn't this you know, don't

1046
00:53:30,440 --> 00:53:31,920
Speaker 3: you feel like you're back at work? And he said no,

1047
00:53:32,040 --> 00:53:34,560
Speaker 3: he loves hot dogs. He gets the dollar forty nine

1048
00:53:34,640 --> 00:53:39,040
Speaker 3: or whatever it is at at Sam's Club or Costco.

1049
00:53:39,560 --> 00:53:43,440
Speaker 3: And and so I think it's a universal impulse. I'm

1050
00:53:43,480 --> 00:53:48,080
Speaker 3: here in roughly equidistant between Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park,

1051
00:53:48,160 --> 00:53:50,960
Speaker 3: and I still feel obliged to get a Fenway frank

1052
00:53:51,040 --> 00:53:52,839
Speaker 3: when when I'm at the game, whether I want one

1053
00:53:52,920 --> 00:53:56,040
Speaker 3: or not, whether I'm hungry or not. And I think

1054
00:53:56,080 --> 00:54:01,960
Speaker 3: the only more evocative baseball food for me is uh,

1055
00:54:02,080 --> 00:54:05,680
Speaker 3: you know, the helmet Sunday. Obviously, anything served in a

1056
00:54:05,760 --> 00:54:08,600
Speaker 3: Sunday I mean, I'm anything served in a helmet is

1057
00:54:10,200 --> 00:54:13,720
Speaker 3: the best, you know. And and uh and of course

1058
00:54:13,960 --> 00:54:16,920
Speaker 3: not Joe cheese, the cheese with the z the molten

1059
00:54:17,600 --> 00:54:21,239
Speaker 3: school bus orange stuff that that you get with with

1060
00:54:21,360 --> 00:54:23,799
Speaker 3: Nacho chips of the game. So so that's what I

1061
00:54:23,840 --> 00:54:28,719
Speaker 3: love it. And and as Tim knows, I love he

1062
00:54:28,760 --> 00:54:32,000
Speaker 3: loves you love Jeff everything about baseball, and so much

1063
00:54:32,040 --> 00:54:34,759
Speaker 3: of that is has nothing to do with whatever is

1064
00:54:34,800 --> 00:54:37,520
Speaker 3: going on on the field oft and that oftentimes that's

1065
00:54:37,600 --> 00:54:38,719
Speaker 3: just an ancillary thing.

1066
00:54:39,000 --> 00:54:41,759
Speaker 1: Steve, I would love to see Joey Chestnut's tops card

1067
00:54:41,800 --> 00:54:44,480
Speaker 1: from when you were growing up of Joey Chestnut loves

1068
00:54:44,520 --> 00:54:48,120
Speaker 1: to Low Moe's lawn on Saturdays and he's there and

1069
00:54:48,120 --> 00:54:49,600
Speaker 1: he's he not hot dog while.

1070
00:54:49,440 --> 00:54:52,120
Speaker 2: He's mowing his lawn. Well that's the only way they

1071
00:54:52,120 --> 00:54:52,560
Speaker 2: know him.

1072
00:54:53,280 --> 00:54:55,680
Speaker 3: The I would love to see, you know, because that

1073
00:54:55,680 --> 00:55:00,480
Speaker 3: that that Kurt Pavakua bubble gum things, that was the

1074
00:55:00,560 --> 00:55:04,120
Speaker 3: that was the Bazooka bubble bubble gum blowing contest. And

1075
00:55:04,200 --> 00:55:06,640
Speaker 3: so we have the Nathan's contest on the fourth of July.

1076
00:55:06,640 --> 00:55:10,520
Speaker 3: I bring back the Bazooker or the double bubble or

1077
00:55:10,520 --> 00:55:15,160
Speaker 3: whoever wants to sponsor contest, because that that, you know,

1078
00:55:15,400 --> 00:55:18,319
Speaker 3: I mean, that should be part of the All Star

1079
00:55:19,080 --> 00:55:20,279
Speaker 3: experience along with Homer and.

1080
00:55:20,280 --> 00:55:22,680
Speaker 4: Dirty Really shit again, Jeff, this is what you missed

1081
00:55:22,719 --> 00:55:25,279
Speaker 4: growing up when when Stretch and I were covering and

1082
00:55:25,320 --> 00:55:28,239
Speaker 4: growing up, they would have cow milking contests on the

1083
00:55:28,280 --> 00:55:29,160
Speaker 4: baseball field.

1084
00:55:29,239 --> 00:55:31,640
Speaker 2: Stan Belinda reliever for the Pirates.

1085
00:55:32,000 --> 00:55:34,800
Speaker 4: He was like a real farmer, so he won, although

1086
00:55:34,920 --> 00:55:37,960
Speaker 4: rich Donnelly, our dear dear friend, said, well he cheated.

1087
00:55:38,000 --> 00:55:39,360
Speaker 2: He was using skim milk.

1088
00:55:39,400 --> 00:55:42,319
Speaker 4: I'm not exactly sure what that meant, but yes, we

1089
00:55:42,400 --> 00:55:46,759
Speaker 4: would have cow milking contests on the field. Bubble gum

1090
00:55:46,800 --> 00:55:51,080
Speaker 4: blowing contest, got it, say, Stretch, we missed those days, correct.

1091
00:55:50,960 --> 00:55:53,760
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, completely completely. When I walked into Fenway

1092
00:55:54,280 --> 00:55:56,440
Speaker 3: a couple of weeks ago, I made sure that my

1093
00:55:56,520 --> 00:56:01,680
Speaker 3: son venerated the the baseball cap, pen, buggy, golf cart,

1094
00:56:01,719 --> 00:56:04,120
Speaker 3: whatever you want to call it. And and those were

1095
00:56:04,120 --> 00:56:07,200
Speaker 3: the things that as much as Rod carew or Joe

1096
00:56:07,280 --> 00:56:10,800
Speaker 3: Morgan captured my imagination as a kid. The bullpen car,

1097
00:56:11,120 --> 00:56:16,839
Speaker 3: you know, fungo bats, the word fungo. You know, I mean,

1098
00:56:18,120 --> 00:56:20,480
Speaker 3: no pepper. What is pepper? And why is it? Why

1099
00:56:20,560 --> 00:56:22,920
Speaker 3: is it? Why can't we have it? You know that

1100
00:56:23,040 --> 00:56:28,760
Speaker 3: stuff just completely bewitched me as a kid and still

1101
00:56:28,760 --> 00:56:29,880
Speaker 3: does in many ways.

1102
00:56:30,040 --> 00:56:32,440
Speaker 4: Yeah, and back to hot dogs for a minute. Of course,

1103
00:56:32,800 --> 00:56:36,600
Speaker 4: Stretch is married to Rebecca Lobo, and Rebecca had some

1104
00:56:36,719 --> 00:56:40,239
Speaker 4: beautiful tweet a few years ago, like, my husband just

1105
00:56:40,320 --> 00:56:44,480
Speaker 4: wrote a five thousand word story about hot dogs.

1106
00:56:44,160 --> 00:56:46,200
Speaker 2: And she thought she got the biggest kick.

1107
00:56:46,520 --> 00:56:49,520
Speaker 4: I'm married to this guy and that's what he's writing about.

1108
00:56:49,800 --> 00:56:51,880
Speaker 3: Let me just tell you her experience of baseball. So

1109
00:56:51,920 --> 00:56:53,800
Speaker 3: she grew up a Red Sox finish, she got Carlton

1110
00:56:53,840 --> 00:56:56,319
Speaker 3: Fisk's autograph on a baseball and told me, you know,

1111
00:56:56,719 --> 00:56:59,000
Speaker 3: Carlton Fisky was such a nice guy. And then she

1112
00:56:59,000 --> 00:57:00,799
Speaker 3: met Roger Clemens and he was such a nice guy,

1113
00:57:00,800 --> 00:57:02,880
Speaker 3: and said, let me tell you, I had very different

1114
00:57:02,880 --> 00:57:06,600
Speaker 3: experience for covering these guys. The very first story I

1115
00:57:06,640 --> 00:57:09,120
Speaker 3: did for on the baseball beat for sports Ulcra, they

1116
00:57:09,200 --> 00:57:12,520
Speaker 3: sent me out this week. I went to cover the Brewers.

1117
00:57:12,520 --> 00:57:14,719
Speaker 3: I interviewed I think everybody on the roster, and then

1118
00:57:14,719 --> 00:57:16,080
Speaker 3: they said, no, we don't want to do the Brewers

1119
00:57:16,080 --> 00:57:17,440
Speaker 3: this week, we want to do the White Sox going

1120
00:57:17,480 --> 00:57:19,440
Speaker 3: on the Chicago. It was the last year of Old

1121
00:57:19,480 --> 00:57:21,600
Speaker 3: Comisky and I was standing on the field talking to

1122
00:57:21,600 --> 00:57:25,160
Speaker 3: our photographer, Ron Madra, and Karl and Fisk came over

1123
00:57:25,240 --> 00:57:27,240
Speaker 3: to Ron and said, Hey, those pictures he took me

1124
00:57:27,240 --> 00:57:29,720
Speaker 3: in spring training? Could I get a copy? So I

1125
00:57:29,760 --> 00:57:31,440
Speaker 3: didn't come up to his conversation. He came up to

1126
00:57:31,480 --> 00:57:34,360
Speaker 3: our conversation, and so I introduced myself, mister fess Coon,

1127
00:57:34,480 --> 00:57:37,000
Speaker 3: Steve Rushing from Sports Illustrated. You know, I'm twenty two

1128
00:57:37,040 --> 00:57:39,520
Speaker 3: years old and I'd love to interview you today. And

1129
00:57:39,840 --> 00:57:41,960
Speaker 3: he just turned and walked away without a word and

1130
00:57:42,000 --> 00:57:44,360
Speaker 3: just started And I said, did he not hear me?

1131
00:57:44,920 --> 00:57:47,840
Speaker 3: And so I followed him, and he's going down into

1132
00:57:47,880 --> 00:57:51,520
Speaker 3: the dugout and down the clubhouse tunnel, and he said,

1133
00:57:51,680 --> 00:57:53,880
Speaker 3: I got meetings all day today. And I said, well,

1134
00:57:53,920 --> 00:57:55,800
Speaker 3: I'll be here for the next three days, and he said,

1135
00:57:56,240 --> 00:57:59,720
Speaker 3: and he said, I've got meetings for the next three days.

1136
00:58:00,360 --> 00:58:05,560
Speaker 3: So that's that's when I knew that I was going

1137
00:58:05,600 --> 00:58:08,440
Speaker 3: to be a very highly strung, stressed out guy for

1138
00:58:08,480 --> 00:58:10,840
Speaker 3: the next three years. And Ron Madra, by the way,

1139
00:58:11,040 --> 00:58:14,680
Speaker 3: our baseball photographer. He and I were leaving Riverfront Stadium

1140
00:58:14,680 --> 00:58:16,720
Speaker 3: once at the end of a three or four game

1141
00:58:17,040 --> 00:58:19,440
Speaker 3: series that I was writing about, and he was photographing,

1142
00:58:20,000 --> 00:58:22,080
Speaker 3: and we were late for our I think we're on

1143
00:58:22,120 --> 00:58:25,640
Speaker 3: the same flight back to LaGuardia, and we relate and

1144
00:58:25,640 --> 00:58:27,160
Speaker 3: and he said, let's just grab a cab and I said,

1145
00:58:27,160 --> 00:58:30,280
Speaker 3: what about your rental car. He's we'd parked his rental

1146
00:58:30,320 --> 00:58:33,120
Speaker 3: car in a garage in your Riverfront Stadium in downtown

1147
00:58:33,160 --> 00:58:37,600
Speaker 3: since he said, hurts will find it and so, and

1148
00:58:37,640 --> 00:58:39,240
Speaker 3: I was like, I didn't That was something I didn't

1149
00:58:39,240 --> 00:58:41,600
Speaker 3: know you could do. You could just leave your rental

1150
00:58:41,640 --> 00:58:46,480
Speaker 3: car somewhere downtown a scooter. Yeah, that believe me. The

1151
00:58:46,520 --> 00:58:48,440
Speaker 3: expense accounts then were, you know, if he had to

1152
00:58:48,520 --> 00:58:51,320
Speaker 3: charge an entire rental car, so be it. And it

1153
00:58:51,360 --> 00:58:54,080
Speaker 3: would probably And that may have been the same trip

1154
00:58:54,120 --> 00:58:56,520
Speaker 3: to Riverfront where they announced in the press box we

1155
00:58:56,560 --> 00:58:59,400
Speaker 3: have a set of keys here. If anybody lost their keys,

1156
00:58:59,400 --> 00:59:01,520
Speaker 3: come claim them. And whoever I was sitting next to,

1157
00:59:01,520 --> 00:59:03,440
Speaker 3: and I had a good laugh, and you know, kind

1158
00:59:03,480 --> 00:59:05,440
Speaker 3: of a schmuck loses his keys in the prospects. I

1159
00:59:05,480 --> 00:59:07,400
Speaker 3: got back to New York, got to my apartment. I

1160
00:59:07,400 --> 00:59:09,200
Speaker 3: didn't have my keys. I couldn't get into the building.

1161
00:59:09,680 --> 00:59:12,200
Speaker 3: I went to the Time in Life building and slept

1162
00:59:12,280 --> 00:59:14,960
Speaker 3: on my boss's couch because I could get into the

1163
00:59:15,200 --> 00:59:18,040
Speaker 3: building and her office had a couch. So I was

1164
00:59:18,040 --> 00:59:19,960
Speaker 3: the guy who left his keys at Refront Stadium.

1165
00:59:20,240 --> 00:59:24,320
Speaker 4: And speaking of Refront Stadium, Caesar Geronimo used to play

1166
00:59:24,360 --> 00:59:26,800
Speaker 4: for the reds at Stretch wrote in one of his books,

1167
00:59:27,120 --> 00:59:30,320
Speaker 4: what does Caesar Geronimo yell when he jumps out of

1168
00:59:30,320 --> 00:59:33,440
Speaker 4: a plane?

1169
00:59:34,960 --> 00:59:35,760
Speaker 2: Sorry? Stretch.

1170
00:59:35,920 --> 00:59:39,120
Speaker 4: That has made me laugh four times at almost anything

1171
00:59:39,360 --> 00:59:42,520
Speaker 4: I can remember. I getting back to Rebecca for a minute,

1172
00:59:42,720 --> 00:59:46,720
Speaker 4: what is it like being married to a trailblazer in

1173
00:59:46,760 --> 00:59:50,840
Speaker 4: the history of women's basketball and someone who's still deeply

1174
00:59:50,880 --> 00:59:54,640
Speaker 4: involved in the calling of games and the analysis of games.

1175
00:59:55,240 --> 01:00:00,080
Speaker 3: Well, it's funny. Rick Riley, our former colleague, was doing

1176
01:00:00,280 --> 01:00:03,240
Speaker 3: a book event somewhere and he opened it up to

1177
01:00:03,360 --> 01:00:07,360
Speaker 3: questions after a forty minute talk, and the one hand

1178
01:00:07,400 --> 01:00:10,000
Speaker 3: went up and the guy said, what's it like being

1179
01:00:10,040 --> 01:00:14,040
Speaker 3: married to Rebecca Lobo? And people would often get us

1180
01:00:14,080 --> 01:00:17,240
Speaker 3: confused because we've both had York said, it comes in

1181
01:00:17,280 --> 01:00:19,000
Speaker 3: handy when you need to get something off the top

1182
01:00:19,040 --> 01:00:23,640
Speaker 3: shelf of the grocery. But she and I are the

1183
01:00:23,680 --> 01:00:26,560
Speaker 3: same height. But it's wonderful. We were at an AAU

1184
01:00:26,600 --> 01:00:29,320
Speaker 3: basketball tournament this weekend with our with our eighth grader,

1185
01:00:29,840 --> 01:00:34,120
Speaker 3: and you know, people still want her picture and still

1186
01:00:34,160 --> 01:00:38,000
Speaker 3: want to tell her, you know how much what she

1187
01:00:38,040 --> 01:00:40,120
Speaker 3: has done for women's basketball has meant to them, men

1188
01:00:40,160 --> 01:00:44,520
Speaker 3: and women, kids who see her on TV now, you know,

1189
01:00:44,560 --> 01:00:45,880
Speaker 3: and Tim, I'm sure you get a lot of this,

1190
01:00:46,800 --> 01:00:51,840
Speaker 3: you know, just from from your work on ESPN's it's

1191
01:00:51,880 --> 01:00:54,280
Speaker 3: really uh, you know, we joke about it a lot.

1192
01:00:54,280 --> 01:00:56,240
Speaker 3: In our eighth grader is like rolling her eyes and

1193
01:00:56,320 --> 01:00:58,960
Speaker 3: like we're never going to get out of here. But

1194
01:00:58,960 --> 01:01:03,360
Speaker 3: but it's it's it's wonderful. It was almost thirty years

1195
01:01:03,360 --> 01:01:05,880
Speaker 3: ago now that she won the national championship with Yukon

1196
01:01:06,000 --> 01:01:11,320
Speaker 3: in nineteen ninety five, and you know, the male and

1197
01:01:12,280 --> 01:01:17,040
Speaker 3: the comments in the public have never never waned in

1198
01:01:17,080 --> 01:01:18,920
Speaker 3: that time. She came home from the Final four in

1199
01:01:18,960 --> 01:01:22,160
Speaker 3: Cleveland and was at the grocery store doing self checkout,

1200
01:01:22,160 --> 01:01:26,360
Speaker 3: and from the next self checkout register a woman said, Hey, Rebecca,

1201
01:01:26,400 --> 01:01:28,720
Speaker 3: I heard you said you don't think Caitlin Clark is

1202
01:01:28,760 --> 01:01:31,960
Speaker 3: the goat, And Rebecca said no, No. What I said was,

1203
01:01:32,240 --> 01:01:35,960
Speaker 3: I think all goat conversations are stupid. You know, nobody

1204
01:01:36,040 --> 01:01:38,520
Speaker 3: was shooting threes before there was a three point shot.

1205
01:01:38,720 --> 01:01:43,680
Speaker 3: It would have been strange. And the ladies, the lady said, yeah, well,

1206
01:01:43,800 --> 01:01:47,160
Speaker 3: you're never going to go live that down. And so

1207
01:01:47,720 --> 01:01:51,040
Speaker 3: every time we go out there's a there's a you

1208
01:01:51,160 --> 01:01:53,160
Speaker 3: come back with an anecdote, and as a writer, you know,

1209
01:01:53,680 --> 01:01:55,240
Speaker 3: that's that's what I like best.

1210
01:01:55,360 --> 01:01:58,840
Speaker 1: Steve. How did you to meet and ultimately get together?

1211
01:01:59,280 --> 01:02:01,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, we met the old fashioned way we met. You know,

1212
01:02:01,920 --> 01:02:04,200
Speaker 3: I'm a sportswriter, she's an athlete. But we met in

1213
01:02:04,240 --> 01:02:06,560
Speaker 3: a dive Irish bar in New York, the Dublin House

1214
01:02:06,600 --> 01:02:10,920
Speaker 3: on the West seventy ninth Street. She was playing for

1215
01:02:10,920 --> 01:02:14,400
Speaker 3: the New York Liberty, but they always lived across the

1216
01:02:14,400 --> 01:02:16,920
Speaker 3: street from Madison Square Garden, and in her third season

1217
01:02:16,920 --> 01:02:19,040
Speaker 3: she didn't want to do that. She wanted to sublet

1218
01:02:19,560 --> 01:02:23,280
Speaker 3: an apartment. So she was sub letting an apartment. I'd

1219
01:02:23,280 --> 01:02:26,000
Speaker 3: gotten the keys to that apartment, and the person she

1220
01:02:26,040 --> 01:02:28,360
Speaker 3: was sub letting from, who I happened to know, though

1221
01:02:28,600 --> 01:02:31,720
Speaker 3: that was a total coincidence, took her to the neighborhood

1222
01:02:31,760 --> 01:02:34,920
Speaker 3: bar after turning over the keys, I was out with

1223
01:02:34,960 --> 01:02:37,560
Speaker 3: a friend of mine. He was meeting our mutual friend

1224
01:02:37,840 --> 01:02:42,000
Speaker 3: at this bar later and suggested I come along. So

1225
01:02:42,120 --> 01:02:47,000
Speaker 3: I did, and that's where I met Rebecca. I introduced myself.

1226
01:02:47,040 --> 01:02:50,320
Speaker 3: She recognized my name from Sports Illustrated and asked if

1227
01:02:50,320 --> 01:02:53,480
Speaker 3: I had just if I had recently written some disparaging

1228
01:02:54,240 --> 01:02:58,000
Speaker 3: potshot one liner about women's bath or the WNBA, and

1229
01:02:58,040 --> 01:03:00,840
Speaker 3: I blushed and said I had. She asked me how

1230
01:03:00,840 --> 01:03:03,640
Speaker 3: many games had I had attended, and I said zero,

1231
01:03:04,600 --> 01:03:08,520
Speaker 3: and she invited me to a game. I went, and

1232
01:03:09,200 --> 01:03:13,280
Speaker 3: twenty three months later we were married. So wow, yeah,

1233
01:03:13,320 --> 01:03:16,360
Speaker 3: I benefited from as you can see now, I benefited

1234
01:03:16,400 --> 01:03:19,800
Speaker 3: from the very poor lighting at the Dublin House, dark

1235
01:03:19,880 --> 01:03:21,640
Speaker 3: Irish bar. She did not get a good look at me.

1236
01:03:23,800 --> 01:03:26,280
Speaker 2: Stretch. We could keep you all day here.

1237
01:03:26,880 --> 01:03:30,040
Speaker 4: Let's just finish with when you look back at your

1238
01:03:30,200 --> 01:03:33,960
Speaker 4: years that you covered baseball where you were a primary

1239
01:03:34,080 --> 01:03:34,880
Speaker 4: baseball guy.

1240
01:03:34,960 --> 01:03:37,080
Speaker 2: Now you do everything you did everything back then.

1241
01:03:37,640 --> 01:03:40,680
Speaker 4: What is your biggest takeaway from baseball and the time

1242
01:03:40,680 --> 01:03:41,960
Speaker 4: that you covered.

1243
01:03:42,160 --> 01:03:44,200
Speaker 3: The time that when I was doing it, and I

1244
01:03:44,200 --> 01:03:46,160
Speaker 3: can say this honestly, when I was doing it, I

1245
01:03:46,320 --> 01:03:49,160
Speaker 3: was some percentage of me was just mind blown that

1246
01:03:49,520 --> 01:03:51,400
Speaker 3: I'm allowed to do this, and then I'm getting to

1247
01:03:51,400 --> 01:03:55,800
Speaker 3: do this, and another percentage, maybe slightly larger percentage of me,

1248
01:03:55,960 --> 01:03:59,240
Speaker 3: was in constant stress. I would walk into a baseball

1249
01:03:59,280 --> 01:04:02,440
Speaker 3: clubhouse and and I would get I would get I

1250
01:04:02,440 --> 01:04:05,200
Speaker 3: feel like I was getting an ulcer, and not not

1251
01:04:05,840 --> 01:04:08,600
Speaker 3: just because of the circumstances. I walked into the visitor's

1252
01:04:08,640 --> 01:04:10,400
Speaker 3: clubhouse at Wrigley Field and I was just I can't

1253
01:04:10,400 --> 01:04:14,160
Speaker 3: believe I'm here. And then Jerry Royce takes my grabs

1254
01:04:14,200 --> 01:04:17,960
Speaker 3: my press tag and says working press. That's like jumbo shrimp.

1255
01:04:18,120 --> 01:04:22,720
Speaker 3: And you know, today I would completely embrace that, you know,

1256
01:04:23,000 --> 01:04:25,000
Speaker 3: But then I just felt like, this is a reason

1257
01:04:25,000 --> 01:04:26,560
Speaker 3: they call it a clubhouse. You know, I'm not a

1258
01:04:26,600 --> 01:04:29,280
Speaker 3: member of the club. But looking back now almost all

1259
01:04:29,320 --> 01:04:32,640
Speaker 3: of that has washed away, and looking back, it is,

1260
01:04:33,760 --> 01:04:38,400
Speaker 3: you know, here I am, I'm, I'm I'm sitting in

1261
01:04:38,440 --> 01:04:42,200
Speaker 3: the in the dugout at Wrigley Field, or I'm talking

1262
01:04:42,240 --> 01:04:45,760
Speaker 3: to you know. I'm with Jim Leland in his house

1263
01:04:46,960 --> 01:04:52,680
Speaker 3: in Pittsburgh in December and for so for so long.

1264
01:04:52,960 --> 01:04:55,800
Speaker 3: At some point six hours into it, and his wife

1265
01:04:55,880 --> 01:04:58,280
Speaker 3: is pregnant wife comes home to talk about her check

1266
01:04:58,360 --> 01:05:00,000
Speaker 3: up with a doctor, and he says to me, Stay,

1267
01:05:00,800 --> 01:05:03,640
Speaker 3: you're gonna go at any point, you know, at some

1268
01:05:03,640 --> 01:05:07,560
Speaker 3: point and and uh and so those memories, you know,

1269
01:05:07,600 --> 01:05:11,920
Speaker 3: Mark Fidrich or or you know, covering the World Series,

1270
01:05:12,080 --> 01:05:16,240
Speaker 3: those things are just just it feels in some ways

1271
01:05:16,280 --> 01:05:19,360
Speaker 3: like like like I dreamt it and uh, and you know,

1272
01:05:20,240 --> 01:05:22,120
Speaker 3: in some ways I still think I did.

1273
01:05:22,680 --> 01:05:27,120
Speaker 1: Steve Russian or so admirably put stretch. Thank you so

1274
01:05:27,240 --> 01:05:31,200
Speaker 1: much for joining this show, my dad. I have not

1275
01:05:31,280 --> 01:05:34,400
Speaker 1: seen him laugh that hard.

1276
01:05:33,760 --> 01:05:37,360
Speaker 3: Oh you guys, Jeff, you're now in the circle of Stretch.

1277
01:05:38,520 --> 01:05:39,440
Speaker 3: Guys call me that.

1278
01:05:39,720 --> 01:05:42,400
Speaker 2: So it's an honor.

1279
01:05:42,480 --> 01:05:44,640
Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you for having me. Guys love this.

1280
01:05:44,760 --> 01:05:47,960
Speaker 2: Thank you, Stretch. We had a great time. See you soon, okay, please,

1281
01:05:48,040 --> 01:05:48,440
Speaker 2: let's hope.

1282
01:05:48,480 --> 01:05:52,240
Speaker 1: So all right, Thank you so much Steve Russian for

1283
01:05:52,320 --> 01:05:55,240
Speaker 1: joining us. That was I've never seen you laugh that hard.

1284
01:05:56,000 --> 01:05:58,240
Speaker 1: Some of those stories were amazing. And he told that

1285
01:05:58,320 --> 01:06:00,840
Speaker 1: great story about Mark Fidrich. Do you have a little

1286
01:06:00,840 --> 01:06:02,360
Speaker 1: more on this guy, because I don't know.

1287
01:06:02,600 --> 01:06:02,720
Speaker 3: So.

1288
01:06:02,800 --> 01:06:07,840
Speaker 4: Mark Fidrich in nineteen seventy six became a cultural phenomenon

1289
01:06:08,040 --> 01:06:11,040
Speaker 4: in baseball. He won nineteen games that year for the Tigers,

1290
01:06:11,440 --> 01:06:15,560
Speaker 4: completed twenty four games, finished second in the Cy Young voting.

1291
01:06:16,000 --> 01:06:17,240
Speaker 2: But it wasn't just that.

1292
01:06:17,280 --> 01:06:20,080
Speaker 4: He was the most colorful guy in the game at

1293
01:06:20,080 --> 01:06:22,200
Speaker 4: the time and one of the most colorful of all time.

1294
01:06:22,280 --> 01:06:25,280
Speaker 4: His nickname was the Bird because he had flowing hair

1295
01:06:25,320 --> 01:06:29,040
Speaker 4: and he looked like Big Bird from Sesame Street. But

1296
01:06:29,120 --> 01:06:31,200
Speaker 4: he used to play with the dirt on the mound.

1297
01:06:31,280 --> 01:06:32,680
Speaker 2: He used to talk to the ball.

1298
01:06:32,760 --> 01:06:36,520
Speaker 4: He was arguably the most entertaining pitcher that I've ever seen.

1299
01:06:36,640 --> 01:06:39,960
Speaker 4: I'll never forget when Monday Night Baseball came out in

1300
01:06:40,000 --> 01:06:41,360
Speaker 4: the mid seventies.

1301
01:06:40,960 --> 01:06:42,400
Speaker 2: Like, what a glorious thing.

1302
01:06:42,440 --> 01:06:45,040
Speaker 4: We don't have to just watch. We get more than

1303
01:06:45,040 --> 01:06:47,400
Speaker 4: a Saturday game. Now we get a Monday night game.

1304
01:06:47,480 --> 01:06:51,560
Speaker 4: And Mark the Bird fiedridch Is pitching on National TV

1305
01:06:51,800 --> 01:06:55,360
Speaker 4: on a Monday night and he threw an absolute gem

1306
01:06:55,640 --> 01:06:59,640
Speaker 4: and we were all. The entire country was mesmerized by

1307
01:06:59,680 --> 01:07:04,680
Speaker 4: this guy. He's gone now terrible life after baseball in

1308
01:07:04,720 --> 01:07:08,320
Speaker 4: a lot of ways health wise, but he's a picture

1309
01:07:08,440 --> 01:07:10,040
Speaker 4: that I will never forget.

1310
01:07:10,360 --> 01:07:12,720
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening. We're looking forward to

1311
01:07:12,840 --> 01:07:16,400
Speaker 1: next week because we'll have a Memorial Day episode, including

1312
01:07:16,920 --> 01:07:20,520
Speaker 1: the granddaughter of a truly amazing one of the most

1313
01:07:20,600 --> 01:07:24,200
Speaker 1: legendary Baseball Hall of Famers of all time, will be

1314
01:07:24,280 --> 01:07:27,000
Speaker 1: joining us. We're going to talk to her, and it's

1315
01:07:27,040 --> 01:07:29,960
Speaker 1: going to be a powerful day to remember those we've lost.

1316
01:07:30,040 --> 01:07:32,600
Speaker 4: Right next week, Lindsay Bear will make you laugh and

1317
01:07:32,680 --> 01:07:33,720
Speaker 4: she will make you cry.

1318
01:07:33,920 --> 01:07:36,960
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening always. Thank you for being a

1319
01:07:36,960 --> 01:07:37,960
Speaker 1: part of our families.