Speaker 1: If you thought four hours a day, hundred minutes a
Speaker 1: week was enough, I think again. He's the last remnants
Speaker 1: of the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He
Speaker 1: treats crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the
Speaker 1: rich pill poppers in the penthouse. It's the clearinghouse of
Speaker 1: hot takes. Break free for something special, the Fifth Hour,
Speaker 1: which Ben Maller starts right now. It's fifth Hour, and
Speaker 1: we are joined now by Dick Stockton, a legendary figure.
Speaker 1: What a career he has had over the many years
Speaker 1: on network television and calling all the big sporting events NFL, NBA,
Speaker 1: stunt baseball, you name it. And he joins us now
Speaker 1: for a special conversation here and a video chat. This
Speaker 1: is not only available on the audio format, but also
Speaker 1: in the video format. Dick, welcome, I'm looking at you.
Speaker 1: You look good here, and how you holding up? How
Speaker 1: you've been having a life here over the pandemic. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm doing great, pen and I appreciate you're asking. Uh,
Speaker 1: I'm doing the smart things. Uh. I haven't been. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not hunkering down. I'm living life, but I'm doing
Speaker 1: the smart things. Uh. And you know what they are.
Speaker 1: I don't have to go through the whole. It's here.
Speaker 1: We all hear it every day. But I'm doing fine
Speaker 1: and we're just all trying to get through this, right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what have you been doing? Is there anything special to
Speaker 1: pass the time? We had a lot of time these days.
Speaker 1: Is there anything that you've found? Are you well, you
Speaker 1: know a lot of a lot of interest and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, and uh and so watching games isn't you know,
Speaker 1: isn't the only thing in the world for me? You know,
Speaker 1: I played tennis and I played golf, you know, following
Speaker 1: the rules. Uh, you know. I I work out in
Speaker 1: my pool. Uh. I played the piano. I actually I
Speaker 1: played the piano, saying once in a while, but before
Speaker 1: very you people as little as possible. And I like
Speaker 1: to read a lot, you know, So you know, when
Speaker 1: you take everything the consideration, uh, you know, it's life
Speaker 1: and I just go through it, you know. So I
Speaker 1: enjoy what I do and I hope to get back
Speaker 1: to it and we hope that we have an NFL season.
Speaker 1: But you know, it's what I do. It's not who
Speaker 1: I am. And so life has been, you know what
Speaker 1: it is for everyone, but adjusting where it needs to
Speaker 1: be adjusted. Yeah. And and with that, I mean, are
Speaker 1: you planning on calling the games this year? I know
Speaker 1: there's some some guys have said they're not gonna do it.
Speaker 1: Do you know what the plan is for the NFL?
Speaker 1: Are you going to be in a studio somewhere if
Speaker 1: you do do the games? Are you actually go on site?
Speaker 1: You know? You know? Then, to be honest, we we
Speaker 1: have no definitive word from Fox Sports. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm under contract to do games, and I'm you know
Speaker 1: what I've planned to do the games. Uh, but we
Speaker 1: have not heard anything about how it's going to be done.
Speaker 1: And uh. You know the great thing about Fox Sports,
Speaker 1: and it's been this way through is my twenty seventh
Speaker 1: year with them, is that they call you when they
Speaker 1: want you to know something and there are no rumors. Uh,
Speaker 1: there are no innuendows and none of those things happen.
Speaker 1: And when they tell you, that's what it is. And
Speaker 1: so when they make a decision, uh, and you know,
Speaker 1: they have to decide how they want to you know,
Speaker 1: broadcast these games and hopefully we'll have them, they'll let
Speaker 1: me know. Yeah. And with that, just in general, I mean,
Speaker 1: you've been around the industry, uh forever, and you've seen
Speaker 1: seen so much here, Like, what is your gut instinct
Speaker 1: tell you on how this is gonna work out? I
Speaker 1: know there's a lot of doomsday people out there that
Speaker 1: this isn't gonna work. What what do you think can
Speaker 1: sports pull this come back off? You know, it's it's
Speaker 1: a It's a great question, Ben, because everyone has speculated.
Speaker 1: The amazing thing is when this thing started, they say,
Speaker 1: what's going to happen to sports? And we've seen some
Speaker 1: movement in a lot of areas. You know, baseball teams
Speaker 1: starting to practice and then stop practicing, the NBA gathering
Speaker 1: in the bubble in the Orlando, the NHL planning. We
Speaker 1: don't know about college football. The NFL is going according
Speaker 1: to what their plan is. I know that, you know,
Speaker 1: the preseason schedule to this point has been knocked down
Speaker 1: from four to two. Uh So, I don't have a
Speaker 1: gut feeling, to be honest, I I don't know. I
Speaker 1: can't predict. I don't think anyone can as to what
Speaker 1: it's really going to look like. There are so many
Speaker 1: reports coming out. I've read, you know, one today about
Speaker 1: the Ravens saying they're gonna allow fourteen thousand people in
Speaker 1: the stadium, the Chiefs will allow a number of people.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I really don't know, and so it's
Speaker 1: I'm fine with that. We all want to know. And
Speaker 1: when when the word comes down, that will be the word.
Speaker 1: And until it does, we just wait and see. Dick,
Speaker 1: have you ever been in a position in your long
Speaker 1: career that that rivals something like this? I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: the climate is drastically different, but just the the lack
Speaker 1: of opportunity to actually be at a you to call
Speaker 1: a game and maybe have to do things from a
Speaker 1: remote studio. Has that ever happened to you, whether it's
Speaker 1: for for baseball and football, basketball all never. Never, I've
Speaker 1: never had to call a game from a studio. If
Speaker 1: I had to, I would be prepared to do so. Obviously,
Speaker 1: they're going to be different things. I mean, you're not
Speaker 1: going to have all the people on site if you
Speaker 1: do that, um, and we could be on site if
Speaker 1: they separate your partner, you know, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the people up in the booth, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: mean I don't know any of them. Couldn't answers to
Speaker 1: whether they're going to piping crowd noise or whether they're
Speaker 1: going to have virtual fans in the stands. I have
Speaker 1: no idea what they planned to do. I think they're
Speaker 1: having big discussions, But I have never been under that
Speaker 1: circumstance before. I've always been at the games that I
Speaker 1: have broadcasts, and I've never done it off of a monitor.
Speaker 1: But if I had to in a studio, that's what
Speaker 1: I do, like all the other all colleagues wouldn't have
Speaker 1: to do the same thing. Yeah, And I was gonna
Speaker 1: ask you just a piggyback top of that, like during
Speaker 1: your long career and how you've performed, are there points
Speaker 1: in a broadcast who you actually use the crowd's emotion
Speaker 1: and how they've kind of gotten up or even down
Speaker 1: and use that as an extra tool for you, And
Speaker 1: how you actually sound while you're on Are you you
Speaker 1: feed into that emotion? That's a That's what I do.
Speaker 1: I actually, I mean I that is that is what
Speaker 1: I'm you know what I feel. And a lot of
Speaker 1: broadcasters have been that way. Been Scully of course, has
Speaker 1: been that way. The great Dodger broadcaster. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: Joe Buck is aware of that very much, and uh
Speaker 1: I even employed it. You know what I when I
Speaker 1: called called the fisks home run way back in the
Speaker 1: seventy five World Series between the Red Sox and the
Speaker 1: Cincinnati Reds when Fisk get the home run, and I
Speaker 1: remained silent for nearly a minute while the crowd was
Speaker 1: going crazy and the cameras were showing the fans and
Speaker 1: showing Fisk grounding the basis. And I think that's really
Speaker 1: what iportant part of a broadcast is. I personally feel
Speaker 1: that announcers talk too much, and that you know, they
Speaker 1: have so much information at hand that they want to
Speaker 1: give it out, but the fan at home doesn't want
Speaker 1: to be assaulted all the time. And you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: you know, the term too much information really fits when
Speaker 1: you're doing a broadcast. So I believe in that there's
Speaker 1: nothing better than the reaction of the crowd and the
Speaker 1: different pictures that a director would show, you know, at
Speaker 1: a sporting event after a touchdown or a home run
Speaker 1: or any of those things. So you know, that's the
Speaker 1: important thing, and so that comes into play a little bit,
Speaker 1: you know, if we don't have fans at the game.
Speaker 1: Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Speaker 1: Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and just to follow that up, you've done radio
Speaker 1: and television. I know you was the TV guy, but
Speaker 1: you've done a lot of radio. We're radio guys mostly,
Speaker 1: so did you You're great at television, But did you
Speaker 1: compare and contrast? Do you like radio more when you started?
Speaker 1: Or is it you've always enjoyed television. Well, I grew
Speaker 1: I grew up, then I grew up on radio. I
Speaker 1: mean I grew up on radio. I think baseball is
Speaker 1: a radio sport. I think it's meant to be a
Speaker 1: radio sport. The thing that I love about radio, and
Speaker 1: I've done, like you men in much more television than radio,
Speaker 1: is the fact that in radio you use your imagination.
Speaker 1: You're sitting in front of the radio, you know, set
Speaker 1: or whether it would be a transistor radio when I
Speaker 1: was growing up or whatever you now, and you imagine
Speaker 1: things and the announcment describes what is going on, and
Speaker 1: you're now imagining the runner running, uh, you know, towards
Speaker 1: the sun part of the field, or towards the open
Speaker 1: end of the stadium into the you know, whatever the situation.
Speaker 1: Situation may be in and a good broadcast to describe
Speaker 1: in football, especially the uniforms that the team was wearing,
Speaker 1: or in basketball before it starts, so you can imagine
Speaker 1: them in the colors that they're wearing. And so it's
Speaker 1: very important to do it. And you know, some of
Speaker 1: the best broadcasters on radio that I grew up with
Speaker 1: didn't talk uh end to end, They didn't fill every
Speaker 1: second of it. They'd let the crown come in there.
Speaker 1: There was a great baseball announcertain and you may have
Speaker 1: remembered named Ernie Harwell, and he worked for the Detroit
Speaker 1: Tigers for I don't know forty years, fifty years, thirty
Speaker 1: ye or whatever it was. And and the great sound
Speaker 1: And think that all of the Michigan people late at night,
Speaker 1: you know, outside listening to just the sound of the
Speaker 1: crowd for the moment when Ernie was doing a game
Speaker 1: and just saying what needed to be said. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's great. And you went you went to Syracuse.
Speaker 1: But now when you went to Syracuse, now it's broadcasting
Speaker 1: you is it because of you? Dick the guys like
Speaker 1: yourself there. Because now if you want to be a
Speaker 1: broadcaster in sports, you've got to go to Syracuse. Well,
Speaker 1: I suggest that they changed the name to the Stockton
Speaker 1: School of Broadcasting instead of the new House School of Broadcasting.
Speaker 1: But he paid for all those buildings and all those
Speaker 1: great facilities that they have, And so I wasn't the
Speaker 1: first one. Um uh, you know, I was one of
Speaker 1: the early ones. I think Marv Albert and I were,
Speaker 1: you know, synonymous. He was ahead, but I think I
Speaker 1: worked at the campus station before he did, W A. R.
Speaker 1: And uh. And all of them have come in since.
Speaker 1: And some of the great ones that we know have
Speaker 1: come from Syracuse University, and their facilities actually are as
Speaker 1: good as any networks facilities. That's that's how tremendous has become. Dick,
Speaker 1: is there anything professionally you you haven't done what you'd
Speaker 1: like to do? Well, you know, that's a that's a
Speaker 1: good question. I have no regrets. I mean I've called
Speaker 1: a World Series. I've called six Super Bowls on you know,
Speaker 1: the world feed of the NFL that went overseas. I've
Speaker 1: done nine NBA final I've done n c A tournament games,
Speaker 1: have won the host of the championship game. I've done
Speaker 1: a couple of Olympics. I've also done a couple of
Speaker 1: hockey games. And you know, the one thing that I wish,
Speaker 1: and it's not a regret, is that I had done
Speaker 1: more hockey because I really enjoyed hockey growing up in
Speaker 1: the suburb of New York City a Ranger fan and
Speaker 1: listening to a lot of the games, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: from out of town on the radio. And uh if
Speaker 1: I had an opportunity to two hockey games for Fox
Speaker 1: working with Mike Ruzione when Fox had the contract for NHL,
Speaker 1: and I would have enjoyed doing more hockey. That's the
Speaker 1: only thing. But I wouldn't call it a regret. What
Speaker 1: about Philly Olympics. What events did you call for the Olympics? Well,
Speaker 1: I I was I was blessed to call one of
Speaker 1: the great Olympic events of all time in the Winter Olympics.
Speaker 1: I called Dan Jansen's gold medal and world record speed
Speaker 1: skating event and in a in a great story because
Speaker 1: as you know, Jansen had competed and uh come up
Speaker 1: short in previous Olympics for various reasons, and he did
Speaker 1: not win the five hundred. He slipped and that was
Speaker 1: one of the problems he had falling. But his last
Speaker 1: event in the last chance to win a gold medal
Speaker 1: was the one thousand meter in Hammar in Norway, and
Speaker 1: uh Eric Heiden, the Great. Eric Heiden won five gold
Speaker 1: medals in the nineteen eighty Olympics in speed skating was
Speaker 1: my partner and he not only won the gold medal,
Speaker 1: he set the world record, so he finished on a
Speaker 1: high militon so that was great. And in Valda Sare
Speaker 1: I called the men's alpine skiing events the there So
Speaker 1: those are the two Winter Olympics I broadcast and it
Speaker 1: was a great thrill to do that. Fox Sports Radio
Speaker 1: has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
Speaker 1: all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com
Speaker 1: and within the I Heart Radio app search f s
Speaker 1: R to listen live. So I guess the question is
Speaker 1: obviously that you've called every type of sport imaginable. Which
Speaker 1: one is the hardest? Which one there from a play
Speaker 1: by play standpoint? What is the one that is the
Speaker 1: most difficult to call, whether it be on television or radio. Well,
Speaker 1: that's another another good question. Now I never called horse racing.
Speaker 1: I think that would be, uh, you know, a difficult
Speaker 1: one to call, and I never got into that. But
Speaker 1: I think you know honestly, and people think you the
Speaker 1: sports that you have to fill are the hardest, and
Speaker 1: I don't look at it that way. I mean, I've
Speaker 1: called a lot of baseball games, and baseball you just
Speaker 1: don't fill. You let the crowd and the ambiance take over.
Speaker 1: And when there's a big pitch in a big moment,
Speaker 1: you know, you call that and uh. And sometimes you
Speaker 1: just say they see it strike three and the picture
Speaker 1: walks off the mount and you really don't have to
Speaker 1: say anything. But I think, to me, the hardest is football.
Speaker 1: And the reason why, man is because you have a
Speaker 1: segment of moment of time to call a play, and
Speaker 1: when you call that play, it has to be correct.
Speaker 1: It has to be accurate, it has to be either
Speaker 1: right call, it has to have the right emotion under
Speaker 1: the moment of the game, and then you have to
Speaker 1: get out and let your partner come in and then
Speaker 1: you may play off your partner at the end. So
Speaker 1: I think that you have to make a short period
Speaker 1: count when you call a football game, and that's why
Speaker 1: I think that's the one that may be the most challenging.
Speaker 1: And I mean, what was it like in the early days,
Speaker 1: And I know what it's like now in the business.
Speaker 1: But when you were breaking in in the in the
Speaker 1: sixties and the early seventies and you were making your mark,
Speaker 1: what was how difficult was it? What was the process
Speaker 1: like compared to what it is now? Well, you know,
Speaker 1: it's all about experience and all about reps. And I
Speaker 1: wrote the other day in my in my column that
Speaker 1: I do, uh you know, the Stockton dot com, which
Speaker 1: I do one every week, and I talked about a
Speaker 1: lot of factors of my career Stockton says. And it's
Speaker 1: a column I also write for a newspaper called The
Speaker 1: Thousand Island Son. And I was talking about preseason football.
Speaker 1: And the first football game I ever called was a
Speaker 1: preseason game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the St. Louis Cardinals.
Speaker 1: And this was in before the Steelers became a powerful team.
Speaker 1: And I'll never forget I was calling the game and
Speaker 1: the game was going so fast for me that I
Speaker 1: felt like I wanted to put my arms out, stand
Speaker 1: up and say, can you just stop and slow down
Speaker 1: and let me catch up because I had to catch
Speaker 1: up to who ran the ball, who made the tackle,
Speaker 1: how many are to the game? What down is it?
Speaker 1: And this was the hardest thing for me to get
Speaker 1: because it was going too fast. And now, to me,
Speaker 1: when I call a football game, it's in slow motion.
Speaker 1: I see the receivers going down field, I know who
Speaker 1: they are. It's all about reps. It's all about experience,
Speaker 1: and so I think when you're doing things in the
Speaker 1: early days, then it's all about just getting the experience
Speaker 1: down and you get better with age and with time. Dick,
Speaker 1: on that note, you started to where you're at now.
Speaker 1: We see a lot of your content replayed over and
Speaker 1: over and over again, especially with the Lakers and Celtics
Speaker 1: and and obviously what not with the World Series. But
Speaker 1: you don't have a chapter. You have books of content.
Speaker 1: So when people obviously watch this material and now you
Speaker 1: see it on television some of the greatest games that
Speaker 1: you've ever witnessed and called, what does that mean to you?
Speaker 1: How do you feel when you watch those games just
Speaker 1: to replay? Well, I'm just I just say, what a
Speaker 1: what a blessed career I've had, and uh, and I
Speaker 1: just watched it. I mean, if we all saw the
Speaker 1: last Dance, I think a lot of people did of
Speaker 1: the Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls Championships and and uh, I
Speaker 1: guess my calls were featured sprinkled throughout it, and it
Speaker 1: was just fun to watch, and I would smile recalling
Speaker 1: those games. I remember calling Jordan the sixties three point game,
Speaker 1: the most points that he ever scored in a game,
Speaker 1: and it was at Boston Garden. And so what I
Speaker 1: do when I hear a lot of that is that
Speaker 1: I remember being there at the time, and I remember
Speaker 1: walking into Boston Garden for you know, that second game
Speaker 1: of that that brief, you know series between the Bulls
Speaker 1: and the Celtics, and uh, and I remember the circumstances
Speaker 1: of it. When I see the Lakers and the Celtics,
Speaker 1: I remember sitting down the courtside no air conditioning at
Speaker 1: Boston Garden, sweating through my clothes. And I know that
Speaker 1: the Lakers didn't have any air conditioning either, which is
Speaker 1: why they had to get I v s at halftime
Speaker 1: of their games against the Celtics in the those memorable,
Speaker 1: you know matches they had in the eighties. Be sure
Speaker 1: to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays
Speaker 1: at two am Eastern eleven p m. Pacific. Well, to
Speaker 1: follow that up. I grew up watching every great memory
Speaker 1: I think of with Bird and Magic you were calling
Speaker 1: the game. I remember you at the Boston Garden with
Speaker 1: Tommy Heinson and Pat O'Brien at the half and you
Speaker 1: know I remember is. I mean, you must hear this
Speaker 1: all the time, but you really when people see you,
Speaker 1: they it's like you flashed back to that wonderful time
Speaker 1: when you fell in love with sports. Uh. And you
Speaker 1: must hear that quite a bit when you're out and
Speaker 1: about talking to people. But are you known for that?
Speaker 1: Do you think the Celtics, Lakers is or just in general,
Speaker 1: the NBA and the eighties is what you're known for.
Speaker 1: You've done so much do you think that's what you're
Speaker 1: calling card is? Well, you know, it's funny. I've I've
Speaker 1: done uh you know, twenties twenty seven years with Fox
Speaker 1: doing NFL and I've done NFL with CBS before, And
Speaker 1: you're absolutely right, I'm getting to that point. I've done
Speaker 1: a lot of division, um you know, playoffs with Turner
Speaker 1: when I did those games for them along with games
Speaker 1: with Fox, and I did the Olympics. But I think
Speaker 1: that you know, people do uh you know tab me
Speaker 1: with the eighties because I called every Lakers Celtic Final
Speaker 1: in the eighties. So when you're doing them year in
Speaker 1: a year out, and uh, you know you art of
Speaker 1: course with the seventies Sixers and the Lakers, and you
Speaker 1: end up with the Detroit Pistons, the bad Boys winning
Speaker 1: their back to back finals. Uh, you know at the
Speaker 1: end of the eighties up in to the So I
Speaker 1: think people say, yeah, Lakers Celtics, and maybe more for
Speaker 1: that than for anything else. Yeah, I think I agree
Speaker 1: with you there. Yeah. And and also you did NBA
Speaker 1: games you set up until a few years ago, and
Speaker 1: you know, the guys today there's always this bar room
Speaker 1: controversy that that guys have. You know, could Lebron and
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard and these guys play against Burden Magic and
Speaker 1: the guys before that you've called those games. You've seen
Speaker 1: all these different generations of NBA players. What do you say,
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't get into that. You know then,
Speaker 1: And the reason why is that we're talking about different eras.
Speaker 1: I mean, you look at Jerry West and Oscar Robertson
Speaker 1: and Bill Russell and Will Chamberlain, and then you look
Speaker 1: at the athletes of today, the speed, the size, I mean,
Speaker 1: the centers were six nine at that time, the guards
Speaker 1: were six one. You're six one. You know, the chances
Speaker 1: are you're not gonna, you know, be able to see
Speaker 1: much action because who are you going to defend? And
Speaker 1: then when Magic Johnson came along as a six ft
Speaker 1: nine inch point guard or power forward or center as
Speaker 1: he played the one game that Kareema build your bar
Speaker 1: was out and you remember that, I think it was uh.
Speaker 1: You know, the size and the speed of these players,
Speaker 1: especially in football. You look at football highlights from the
Speaker 1: fifties and you look at football highlights now. I mean
Speaker 1: offensive lineman can run faster than running backs did in
Speaker 1: those days. So you know, time has made athletes bigger
Speaker 1: and faster, so to compare, you know, I think it's wrong. Uh.
Speaker 1: And and for the for the same token, I think
Speaker 1: it's wrong to forget about the era of Oscar Robertson
Speaker 1: and Jerry West. You know, an Elgin Baylor and if
Speaker 1: you were to say, and people saying, who who's he
Speaker 1: stick talking about? And then move into the sixties and
Speaker 1: you look at the chem Elijah Wan and Elvin Hayes
Speaker 1: and people say who are they? And then you move
Speaker 1: on to other years and now it's Lebron and so
Speaker 1: I think what you have to do, guys, is to
Speaker 1: just accept the era that you're in and not compare.
Speaker 1: I think personally, there's too much comparison all around. I mean,
Speaker 1: somebody wins and the greatest team of all time, he's
Speaker 1: the greatest player of all time. Uh, is this the
Speaker 1: greatest moment of all time? Let's enjoy the moment and
Speaker 1: say it goes with all of the great volumes of
Speaker 1: great sporting events that we've seen over the years. Look,
Speaker 1: I'll say, you know, Tom Brady, you know, is one
Speaker 1: of all those Super Bowls? You know has to be rated.
Speaker 1: You know, who would you say would be better? That?
Speaker 1: I couldn't find anyone better because of the number of
Speaker 1: championship Season one and the great success of the Patriots.
Speaker 1: But I don't think you can go down the line
Speaker 1: in many areas in many sports and say, you know,
Speaker 1: the greatest of all time. Let's just let's just honor
Speaker 1: the ones that are doing it at the h Well,
Speaker 1: dick On, with that being said, do you think leagues
Speaker 1: have gotten away from what made them truly good or special?
Speaker 1: I mean, I can think about what the way Major
Speaker 1: League Baseball is now there's so much put into saber metrics, exit, velocity,
Speaker 1: launch angle, and those are things you know, when you
Speaker 1: were calling games and calling the world serious, you wouldn't
Speaker 1: think about it. Use seven, eight, nine guys of the
Speaker 1: bullpen to record nine outs. Do you think certain leagues
Speaker 1: have gotten away from what made them truly special or
Speaker 1: do you feel like each league has progressed accordingly? Totally agree?
Speaker 1: I totally agree with you. I think sports are so
Speaker 1: different today and so many aspects. And you pinpointed launch angle.
Speaker 1: I mean, I remember seeing in the fifties, sixties and
Speaker 1: seventies teams would play in the World Series or played
Speaker 1: big games, and the game of baseball has changed dramatically. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, you gotta look at the baseball diamond and
Speaker 1: the geometry of what it is, and and the great
Speaker 1: romance of baseball position playing and the strategy of hit
Speaker 1: and run stolen basis uh sacrifice moving men in the
Speaker 1: scoring position. A basic gets the run home. But now
Speaker 1: it's home run or no count, or it's home run
Speaker 1: and strike out. And to me, that's not baseball to me,
Speaker 1: to be honest, that's I know, it's what it is today.
Speaker 1: I recognize it for what it is, but to me,
Speaker 1: it's home run or strikeout. And I think when they
Speaker 1: went to the you know, home run derby the day
Speaker 1: before the All Star Games and young kids and look,
Speaker 1: let's face it, young kids come up and they want that.
Speaker 1: So I don't. I'm not saying they should return to
Speaker 1: those days, but I personally, having been around for many,
Speaker 1: many years, appreciated the art of baseball when it wasn't
Speaker 1: just a home run, when it wasn't just a picture
Speaker 1: throwing and a strikeout or a walk or a strikeout
Speaker 1: or a home run. There's more to baseball than that,
Speaker 1: in my opinion. I mean Greg Maddox. You don't find
Speaker 1: a guy like Greg Maddox a whole of thing, picture
Speaker 1: and anymore who never have had a great fastball. But
Speaker 1: if you get you out with his ball placement, the
Speaker 1: way he would move pitches around, the way he would
Speaker 1: off speed pitches, the way he would change speeds, to me,
Speaker 1: that's the art. And in basketball, I have to say
Speaker 1: that it's now a three point or no count, and
Speaker 1: it's now who can hit the long shot. It's not
Speaker 1: about working the ball in it's not about power basketball.
Speaker 1: If that's the case, So I think there are a
Speaker 1: lot of elements to those games that are different today.
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not going to say they're no good anymore,
Speaker 1: and I won't say that because that's the way the
Speaker 1: games are. I just appreciate the way the games were
Speaker 1: in the other days, and I know that's a day.
Speaker 1: Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Speaker 1: Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. So
Speaker 1: when you were a kid, did you grow up in
Speaker 1: that cluster? I I have a lot of friends that
Speaker 1: are New Yorkers too, but it's like cluster. It's usually
Speaker 1: if you're a Yankees fan, you're a Rangers fan, you're
Speaker 1: a Knicks fan, and and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: Or if you're the way around, if you're a Mets
Speaker 1: fan and usually a Jets fan and you're an Islanders fan. Like,
Speaker 1: what kind of group were you usually affiliated with growing
Speaker 1: up as a kid. Well, I was a New York
Speaker 1: Giant fan actually before they moved to San Francisco and
Speaker 1: baseball uh, And I saw William May's make a great
Speaker 1: catch in the nineteen fifty four World Series over his shoulder,
Speaker 1: and so I saw a lot of baseball games in
Speaker 1: the fifties. Unfortunately, my team left there for only about
Speaker 1: six years and by rooting for them, and they moved
Speaker 1: to San Francisco, and that's what happened. Then the Dodgers
Speaker 1: moved as well. But I was a Giant fan, hated
Speaker 1: the Dodgers, and didn't pay any attention to the Yankees,
Speaker 1: who would win five streight World Series. I was a
Speaker 1: Nick fan, I was a Ranger fan, and I didn't
Speaker 1: live in the city. I lived in a suburb of
Speaker 1: the city. And now today, you know, it's interesting, it's uh,
Speaker 1: it's uh. You know the fantasy leagues. And an owner
Speaker 1: of an NFL team told me a few years ago,
Speaker 1: he says, you know, fans come to our game and
Speaker 1: they don't even remove for our kicker because they have
Speaker 1: another kicker that's their fantasy player. I can't, I can.
Speaker 1: I find that hard to you know, fathom, but I
Speaker 1: know it exists and I recognize it. Yeah, and uh,
Speaker 1: what do you call the Red Sox games and A's
Speaker 1: games in your career in addition to the network stuff
Speaker 1: that you've done A sixty eight season. People have complained
Speaker 1: for years that baseball there's too many games in baseball. Well,
Speaker 1: this year they're only gonna get sixty. Do you think
Speaker 1: that there's a chance we will see a shortening of
Speaker 1: the Major League Baseball season going forward? No? Oh no,
Speaker 1: you know, you know what this is all about, right, money,
Speaker 1: And it's all about opening up the gates. And it's
Speaker 1: not so much how great it would be to have
Speaker 1: a sixty or eighty game or a hundred game baseball season.
Speaker 1: Now open up those gates. Eighty one home games, eighty
Speaker 1: one road games, and that's what you do. And that's
Speaker 1: why they wouldn't change that. And it's a matter of
Speaker 1: you know, they want to increase the NFL season, and
Speaker 1: they probably will at some point, and that's gonna work
Speaker 1: when they do that. I think, uh, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of you know, ways you can look at that,
Speaker 1: but I think that they're not going to make it short.
Speaker 1: And I think that what people should do this year
Speaker 1: and we hope we do have a season, is that
Speaker 1: just adopted and acknowledge it, don't criticize it, don't pick
Speaker 1: it apart, don't nitpick everything that's going on. I know that,
Speaker 1: you know, when it comes to records, you know, someone
Speaker 1: may hit four or fifty by the end of the season.
Speaker 1: You know that doesn't mean they're Ted Williams who at
Speaker 1: four oh six and just except the year for what
Speaker 1: it is. I think the records aren't going to work,
Speaker 1: but everything else will and they're gonna play baseball and
Speaker 1: they're gonna have sports. Hopefully they do, and if they do,
Speaker 1: that'll be wonderful. That's great. And I can't talk to you,
Speaker 1: Dick without bringing up. You were a guest on The
Speaker 1: Blitz that I used to host on Fox Sports Radio
Speaker 1: on the weekends, and you had a lot. I've actually
Speaker 1: stolen it from you. It's one of the great lines. Uh.
Speaker 1: You were calling a game between a couple of teams
Speaker 1: in the NFL that we're not particularly good, and I
Speaker 1: asked you, I asked you a question, you know, because
Speaker 1: we had you on before the game and you were
Speaker 1: supposed to your job is to hype the game up
Speaker 1: and get people watch, and I I was like, giving
Speaker 1: all these numbers and statistics about how terrible these teams were,
Speaker 1: and you had the greatest comeback. It's so good that
Speaker 1: I stole it and I added it to my repertoire.
Speaker 1: And you said, Ben Snats, tell you what has happened,
Speaker 1: but not what's going to happen, and that is that's
Speaker 1: one of the great lines. I gotta I gotta credit
Speaker 1: you because that was a wonderful comeback to put me
Speaker 1: in my place. Well, I didn't mean to do that,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, I was just trying to talk
Speaker 1: about people that go by what the past performances. And
Speaker 1: last week he gained a d eighty five yards, and
Speaker 1: I said, this week will probably game sixty because teams
Speaker 1: look at film during the week and they say, we
Speaker 1: got to stop this guy's got a hundred eighty five,
Speaker 1: and they do and somebody else goes crazy. Oh wide
Speaker 1: receiver catches swell passes. So I don't really rely on
Speaker 1: a lot of statistics that well, but you brought up
Speaker 1: another point, a good point about a game between two teams,
Speaker 1: that a game doesn't mean anything. Now maybe nationally a
Speaker 1: game between two last place teams don't mean anything, But
Speaker 1: I remember growing up, you know, I wanted my team
Speaker 1: to win. They may have had a losing record, they
Speaker 1: may have been close to last place, but if they
Speaker 1: won that game, I felt good. And so what I
Speaker 1: do every week, and I don't get the top games. Now,
Speaker 1: you know, I've been around a long time and guys
Speaker 1: deserve their chance to move up, and they do. I'm
Speaker 1: glad to be doing games, but I don't get top
Speaker 1: games anymore. And it doesn't bother me, and I don't
Speaker 1: care because I know that the fans in those cities
Speaker 1: want that team to win that day. And if they're
Speaker 1: four and eight and they win and go five and eight,
Speaker 1: they feel good all week and the and the food
Speaker 1: taste good all week and they're five and eight, and
Speaker 1: so they want to win that game. And just think
Speaker 1: the players are practicing all week long and they're going
Speaker 1: through their paces. Why because they want to win the
Speaker 1: football game. So it has nothing to do with what
Speaker 1: does it mean nationally? Sure, they're out of the playoff phrase,
Speaker 1: but they want to get a victory. They want to
Speaker 1: get a win, And to me, that's the base of
Speaker 1: what sports competition is all about. It's a great way
Speaker 1: to say. And I gotta I read. I just was
Speaker 1: looking at your your blog here your column that you're
Speaker 1: right and you wrote about Muhammad Ali and you're a
Speaker 1: relationship with Mohammad Ali. What Obviously it's a tough question
Speaker 1: because he's not around anymore, But what do you think
Speaker 1: he would how do you get react. Everything's been going
Speaker 1: on in the in the world here in and he
Speaker 1: was a big part of in his day movement with
Speaker 1: society and it's it's been wild what's going on here in.
Speaker 1: How do you think he would react to what's been
Speaker 1: going on? You know, I don't know exactly. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know that the Mohammad Alibi Ali was a man
Speaker 1: for pe okay. I mean he was a man who
Speaker 1: talked about speech, speech piece. He wasn't a violent man.
Speaker 1: I know that. And uh, and I know that, you know,
Speaker 1: he stood up for his values and I know that
Speaker 1: whatever he said. I wish Muhammad Ali were here today
Speaker 1: because he could be a calming force. He could be
Speaker 1: a calming guy for society, because everyone loved Muhammad Ali.
Speaker 1: He had that smile, he had that magic. There was
Speaker 1: something about Ali that was tremendous. And so if Muhammad
Speaker 1: Ali could speak today, I wish he could. That's all
Speaker 1: I would say. Uh, it's been a pleasure. Dick Stockton
Speaker 1: and again the blog, You've got a column. Everyone's gonna
Speaker 1: check it out. Watch you on the NFL on Fox.
Speaker 1: It's d Stockton dot com. Correct, Yes, it is the
Speaker 1: Stockton dot com. And when you get that's the website,
Speaker 1: and Stockton says, is where the columns are. And I
Speaker 1: talked about, uh, stories inside stories of my career. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's not just then I did this, and then I
Speaker 1: did this. That's boring because people, you know, it's not
Speaker 1: a it's not a rundown of great games that I did.
Speaker 1: It's stories behind the scenes, things, interesting things of people
Speaker 1: that I've met along the way, and I think people
Speaker 1: would enjoy them very much. But I've enjoyed talking with
Speaker 1: you and David Ben and it's been great talking to
Speaker 1: you things a lot of fun. Thanks for joining us
Speaker 1: stick to the I appreciate it. Thank you.