Speaker 1: Ka boom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes
Speaker 1: a week was enough, I think again. He's the last
Speaker 1: remnants of the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness.
Speaker 1: He treats crackheads in the ghetto gutter the same as
Speaker 1: the rich pill poppers in the penthouse. The Clearinghouse of
Speaker 1: Hot takes break free for something special. The Fifth Hour
Speaker 1: with Ben Maller starts right now in the air everywhere.
Speaker 1: We are back at it yet again Friday, Friday, Friday,
Speaker 1: The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller as we bloviate the
Speaker 1: weekend away because four hours a night not enough on
Speaker 1: the overnight eight days a week. And before I get
Speaker 1: into Dad Day's podcast, remember that sharing is caring, and
Speaker 1: so give the gift of audio content the podcast and
Speaker 1: you guys have been doing a great job. I do
Speaker 1: thank you. The numbers continue to be solid for the podcast.
Speaker 1: I started this um well while back. I don't even
Speaker 1: remember what. Time just flies by, and we didn't know
Speaker 1: if we we'd have a big listenership, and the the
Speaker 1: audience has continue to grow. And that's that's nothing to
Speaker 1: do with me, certainly, nothing to do with gag On
Speaker 1: or McBain or anyone else. It has to do with you,
Speaker 1: So we thank you and keep that going, keep that
Speaker 1: ship going, and the podcast will continue three podcasts a week.
Speaker 1: But the Friday podcast, which you've already found, available on
Speaker 1: the I Heart podcast Network global reach of podcasting. Wherever
Speaker 1: you can get your podcast, you can find this podcast
Speaker 1: all the big podcast platforms. So on on Friday, we
Speaker 1: like to chat with someone who I like, someone I know,
Speaker 1: or someone I know nothing about. And I'm thrown into
Speaker 1: an interview with because somebody gets booked and I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I gotta talk to this. But this week I'm gonna
Speaker 1: talk to one of my my radio oh uh friends,
Speaker 1: one of my radio associates, a colleague of mine. We
Speaker 1: are excited now to welcome in a guy that you
Speaker 1: have heard for several years on the Fox Sports Radio
Speaker 1: National airwaves on Saturday. He also has been a long
Speaker 1: time member, believe over twenty years he has been bloviating
Speaker 1: on the local Philadelphia sports talk radio airwaves. And as
Speaker 1: someone that appreciates the art of sports radio, there's certain
Speaker 1: towns that do it right, and I like a little
Speaker 1: edge to my sports talk radio. Philadelphia is one I've
Speaker 1: never lived in Philly. I've talked to these guys. Listen
Speaker 1: to it a little bit online. Boston. Detta work in Boston,
Speaker 1: New York the axis of sports talk radio where they'll
Speaker 1: throw down the chainsaw on their teams, and Gargano is
Speaker 1: a big part of it. Anthony Gargano, he does a
Speaker 1: midday show in Philly in addition to all of the
Speaker 1: stuff that he does at Fox Sports Radio. So I
Speaker 1: thought it'd be fun to talk to Anthony and chat
Speaker 1: with him about the inner workings of radio behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: He's that very interesting career as a newspaper guy that
Speaker 1: went into radio. We'll get into all of it. Rather
Speaker 1: than me spoil the fun. Let's give it up now
Speaker 1: for veteran radio broadcaster and renaissance man Anthony Gargano. Anthony,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you for doing this. Everyone is I
Speaker 1: want to get into the meeting potatoes at radio. So
Speaker 1: everyone is different here and I want to I want
Speaker 1: to talk to some shops. So what are the ingredients,
Speaker 1: in your opinion that make for a quality sports talk
Speaker 1: radio Listen watch a great question, Benny. I gotta go authenticity,
Speaker 1: So don't give me hottakes, give me your real opinion. Uh,
Speaker 1: give me some fun cy when you're on the air,
Speaker 1: you're fun. Like I could actually hear of the smile
Speaker 1: along your face when you're doing your show, because the
Speaker 1: fun is an important piece I think of the program,
Speaker 1: and I can hear that. And you'll not only give
Speaker 1: me sports and good sports because you know what you're
Speaker 1: talking about, but you'll you'll make me laugh, you make
Speaker 1: me smile, You'll you'll tell me what's really in your heart.
Speaker 1: I never feel like you're just giving me something that
Speaker 1: will watch me shock the world, because you and I
Speaker 1: both know that people remember not your sports opinions, but
Speaker 1: they remember little things. And I think authenticity is a
Speaker 1: big part of it. Yeah, and I agree with you.
Speaker 1: I got to me and there are guys that do
Speaker 1: meet in potatoes sports radio and they give stats and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. But it's it is. You're absolutely the entertainment.
Speaker 1: And it is frustrating Anthony, because I'll you know, I
Speaker 1: do these rants the monologues every hour, and you do
Speaker 1: the same thing. I'm sure you're ranting Raymond on your show.
Speaker 1: And Philly and I I've heard John Fox a bunch
Speaker 1: over the years here and we ranked and rave and
Speaker 1: then we'll make some throwaway comment about like a bologna
Speaker 1: sandwich that we ate the other day or something like that.
Speaker 1: And that's the thing that people remember. It's not it's
Speaker 1: not our opinion on Lebron James or the Yankees or
Speaker 1: the Dodgers. It's that other stuff that that really sticks
Speaker 1: with people. Relating. Right, you're gonna be relatable. As you said,
Speaker 1: you gotta relate to people. Relatability. You took the word
Speaker 1: out of another I was just gonna say that. You know,
Speaker 1: that's something that is I think so crucial. Like they
Speaker 1: gotta feel like, oh, there's Dan then at the supermarket,
Speaker 1: like I'm at the supermarket, he's at the drug store,
Speaker 1: or he's got the kids out, and you know, they
Speaker 1: want either if they want to feel like, because radio
Speaker 1: is a very warm medium, they want to feel like
Speaker 1: they're leaving you in your home and they trust you
Speaker 1: you're one of them. And I think that's a key component. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And the great thing, Anthony, at least I know in
Speaker 1: my case and in your case, I thought you've had
Speaker 1: some big time gigs in Philly, But for me, I
Speaker 1: have kept it real. I'm a man of the people, Anthony.
Speaker 1: I've never tasted the real big time uh money like
Speaker 1: when I know when Jim Rome or Colin Cowherd, when
Speaker 1: they when they sell their house, it ends up in
Speaker 1: the real estate page in the newspaper, right because a
Speaker 1: big deal. When I when I just moved recently, no
Speaker 1: one even knows about it, right, No, if I didn't
Speaker 1: say it, no one would know about it because it
Speaker 1: keeps me relatable. But it's managements by design, by design, Anthony,
Speaker 1: it's their plan on that one. Man, I've missed out
Speaker 1: all them, all the property. Yeah, yeah, I remember we
Speaker 1: had uh you know Mike North who used to work
Speaker 1: at the network on He was like the highest paid
Speaker 1: guy in sports radio in Chicago, um years ago, and
Speaker 1: uh you know, he tasted like the very top of
Speaker 1: the money chain in radio. And I was like, I
Speaker 1: wonder that would be like I wonder if I would change,
Speaker 1: you know, I wonder I would be different if I
Speaker 1: made that like that, because you are what you are, man,
Speaker 1: You're you're you're all again, I go back to the world,
Speaker 1: Authanic And by the way, what what like, let's be
Speaker 1: real for a second. Unless somebody drop a voteload of money,
Speaker 1: right that you can travel the world and not work.
Speaker 1: You know, we're you gonna change that. You're not gonna change.
Speaker 1: You're gonna love your teams, you're gonna love your family,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna have fun. Yeah, and the other two
Speaker 1: Anthony and I can tell from from listening to you.
Speaker 1: I mean, you have the bug, You've been bitten by
Speaker 1: the radio bug. You love it, you enjoy it, and
Speaker 1: it's like it's one of those things like this kind
Speaker 1: of a job where you can do it pretty late
Speaker 1: in life. It's not like some of these other jobs
Speaker 1: where if you're you have a real job and you're
Speaker 1: laying down asphalt or concrete or you're working as a contractor,
Speaker 1: at some point you're gonna have to stop doing that
Speaker 1: because you know, it's physical labor. All we do is
Speaker 1: sit around and yap and rant and rave, which is
Speaker 1: kind of cool. Like if you can keep doing it
Speaker 1: pretty late in life, if you if you want, yeah,
Speaker 1: you log he lug around a lot of hot air
Speaker 1: is the only problem. We're We're blessed. We're blessing that thing.
Speaker 1: I love radio. I do. I started out as a
Speaker 1: newspaper a journalist, and so then I transitioned over to radio.
Speaker 1: And I love to write and I still write my
Speaker 1: screenplays and written a couple of books. No whole thing,
Speaker 1: but radio connecting with people is awesome, dude, Like you
Speaker 1: just the warrant comes across and I talked to a
Speaker 1: lot of callers. It's really called driven and so you
Speaker 1: and you learn so much and you know these people
Speaker 1: and it's a beautiful community that's not just you know,
Speaker 1: tweeted or texted. Yeah, and I gotta ask you know,
Speaker 1: you made the transition and successfully. They've been guys that
Speaker 1: have tried to get into radio. They just didn't have
Speaker 1: the gift forget. But when you were an honorable you
Speaker 1: worked at like this. I read you worked at the
Speaker 1: Associated Press in Chicago, and that's a big time gig.
Speaker 1: The New York Post, I think you worked. I mean,
Speaker 1: these are some big, big writing jobs. Like what got
Speaker 1: you to cross over to radio? Is there anyone that said, hey,
Speaker 1: you'd be good on radio or is this something you
Speaker 1: always wanted to do? Now you know? It was? Um
Speaker 1: So I'm in New York and I wanted to be
Speaker 1: a foreign correspondent. I wanted to transfer out of sports.
Speaker 1: I went for an interview at the New York Times.
Speaker 1: They said I had to leave the New York post
Speaker 1: to get cleansed, and I had to go to a
Speaker 1: like a real newspaper with a news department. So I
Speaker 1: got a job at the Philiphia Inquirer. And I'm at
Speaker 1: the Inquirer and I was in sports and I fill
Speaker 1: did for a week because newspapers you don't make any money,
Speaker 1: so I'm looking to hostile make a few dollars and
Speaker 1: I go fill in at w I P and like that.
Speaker 1: Two weeks later, the guy goes, you want the midday
Speaker 1: show and I got no, man, I'm a writer, blah
Speaker 1: blah blah whatever. And then like they're like, well you're sure,
Speaker 1: here's the offer, and it was like double my salary,
Speaker 1: which I was like, oh my god, not newspapers, you're
Speaker 1: making a lot. But uh, the first week I did it,
Speaker 1: I read immediate regret. When the guy said to me,
Speaker 1: you sound like you should be caught in pepperoni on
Speaker 1: the Italian market. I was like, I'm a journalist, an
Speaker 1: English major, and like, nobody can't you know used to
Speaker 1: be coming pepperoni, dude, let's let's because I always getting
Speaker 1: annoyed Anthony, because you know, you have a very distinctive cadence,
Speaker 1: which is great I think it's wonderful and it's it's authentic.
Speaker 1: But there there are some guys that do this that
Speaker 1: are the professional deep voice talk radio host and those
Speaker 1: guys just always getting it. It's just weird. It feels
Speaker 1: weird to me. You gotta to me, you gotta have
Speaker 1: a little a little more personality to it that you
Speaker 1: can't be just a big voice. You gotta go up
Speaker 1: and down right like your voice go up with excitement
Speaker 1: when you're truly into something, and then you know it's
Speaker 1: a Cadie, right, isn't it? Isn't it like a um?
Speaker 1: You know, if you think about a song, right, your
Speaker 1: voice should be up and down should be it shouldn't
Speaker 1: be just flat right like either as good as you
Speaker 1: know you listen. There's some great people in our business.
Speaker 1: We have blessed pikes that you know, you can introduce movies,
Speaker 1: you know in a town long ago. You know. But
Speaker 1: I think I wonder he is there sub success exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: You don't want to have the monotone voice and it
Speaker 1: is a musical instrument that that's all we have in
Speaker 1: talk radio is our voice. We don't have anything else.
Speaker 1: We play bumper music for thirty seconds or something like that.
Speaker 1: But it's it's all about the del me. But when
Speaker 1: you made the transition, I know, back in the old
Speaker 1: days when I got into radio, there was like a
Speaker 1: cold war when I would cover games between the newspaper
Speaker 1: guys and the radio guys, and they didn't like each other,
Speaker 1: and there was a lot of a lot of fighting
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. So when you made the transition,
Speaker 1: were you supported by your friends who were journalists or
Speaker 1: were they like, what are you doing? Why are you
Speaker 1: doing that? Yeah? I got a lot of that what
Speaker 1: are you doing? You Jordan, the dark side? You're in that.
Speaker 1: Luckily I always kept it real with people like I,
Speaker 1: you know, I like people by nature saw you know,
Speaker 1: and so I generally was just more ball breaking than
Speaker 1: you know, serious. But there were like a couple of guys.
Speaker 1: One guy who actually liked he got along with shut
Speaker 1: me out, man, I was I was the true enemy,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, yo, dude, you know, let me say, guy, listen,
Speaker 1: I respect that what you did, what you do because
Speaker 1: I did it so and I wouldn't steal your stuff
Speaker 1: like a lot of time times they would be upset
Speaker 1: with that, will blame them where you take somebody story
Speaker 1: here it on the air, and I like to make
Speaker 1: And I know you're like this where you know, you
Speaker 1: give credit Billity, you give exactly where your source material is,
Speaker 1: who you got it from, if you if you got
Speaker 1: it from somebody else, you read something. You gave him
Speaker 1: some love for doing the game. And I think that's
Speaker 1: why a lot of newspaper guys fell a certain way. Plus,
Speaker 1: you know, you go from doing the same job and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden it's a very public thing. It's
Speaker 1: like this and jealousy involved there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and
Speaker 1: there's and there's more money, as you said in radio
Speaker 1: than there is in Journalisabeth, you worked at the New
Speaker 1: York Post, and that I love the New York Post.
Speaker 1: I've never lived in New York. My brother lives in
Speaker 1: New York. But I loved the Post. I've read it
Speaker 1: online for years and years and years. So what what
Speaker 1: was it like behind the scenes, how they make the
Speaker 1: hot dogs at the at the New York Post? Anthony
Speaker 1: was it may It was the greatest shot. So I
Speaker 1: had the greatest job that you can have in newspapers.
Speaker 1: So I initially started covering the Mets, which was the
Speaker 1: worst job, all right, you saw a lot of bad
Speaker 1: baseball alright, Like it was like they were in terrible.
Speaker 1: So then I went from doing that to write and
Speaker 1: we had a we got a Sunday newspaper. Murdoch bought
Speaker 1: back in the paper and we added a Sunday edition
Speaker 1: and so they needed someone to write like five thousand
Speaker 1: words stories. So I became, uh that writer along with
Speaker 1: doing all other stuff like if the next played the Heat,
Speaker 1: I covered the Heat in the playoffs, right, So I
Speaker 1: would always do the national stuff, which meant I was
Speaker 1: on the road like three hundred nights a year. And
Speaker 1: the only I love. My editor was a great guy
Speaker 1: named Greg Gallo, and he used to get it at
Speaker 1: me because I love to write and I love to
Speaker 1: kind of string words together and I find it like
Speaker 1: artistic and whatever. And he seelling me take your bake
Speaker 1: panties off, or your right a right Anthony. But it
Speaker 1: was awesome because I used to be like, they go
Speaker 1: where you at. I go. I'm in l A. And
Speaker 1: they're like, why don't you go off to Portland's go
Speaker 1: up to cover this game, cover that, go write about this,
Speaker 1: And I would give my geas and and I would
Speaker 1: just Globetrot and I covered a lot of boxing and
Speaker 1: I would write these long pieces and I got to
Speaker 1: go hang with Jordan for two weeks. I just following
Speaker 1: the bulls as as they were the rock stars, right,
Speaker 1: you know, with all the coaches, pat Riley, you know,
Speaker 1: Phil Parcel, like I do all kinds of stuff like.
Speaker 1: It was interesting. It was a really cool job that
Speaker 1: you learned as a journalist. You're you're really inquisitive, like,
Speaker 1: which is why I love doing that job because I
Speaker 1: learned so many different things. I met so many different people,
Speaker 1: and I wasn't I didn't had to criticize him. I
Speaker 1: was just writing stories. So it was more like a
Speaker 1: profile of tell you know something, and so they lay
Speaker 1: into their world. You got have pancakes and down at
Speaker 1: the mc NAB's houses Chicago, and you know, you do
Speaker 1: all kinds of things with people, and it was it
Speaker 1: was a lot of fun. It was more it was
Speaker 1: fun because it was artistic, but it was also fun
Speaker 1: because you got to me only. I love to travel,
Speaker 1: so I was on the road all the time. I
Speaker 1: would sit next to Ben Mallor at events. That's right,
Speaker 1: we sat together for the people doing the story. The
Speaker 1: Dodger Phillies game years ago. I was trying to think
Speaker 1: what year that was. Everything runs together for me, Anthony,
Speaker 1: though I don't like before you before you turned into
Speaker 1: a movie star. You look like, Yeah, well I might
Speaker 1: have been a lot heavier at that particular a moment
Speaker 1: in time as I trying to remember exactly when that was,
Speaker 1: But uh was that? That wasn't like the Matt Stairs
Speaker 1: time was it was that before that? It was a
Speaker 1: Matt Stairs. Oh my god, as Joe Buck says, oh
Speaker 1: my god, great one of the great moments in Philly
Speaker 1: Sports issue, one of the worst for the for the Dodgers.
Speaker 1: There into the upper part of the pavilion. I was pissed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was. I was. I thought that team man Joe
Speaker 1: Tory was the manager of the Dodgers, that was the
Speaker 1: team was going to get to the World Series and
Speaker 1: then had to wait another twelve years or whatever, thirteen
Speaker 1: years whatever it was too to get back. But that
Speaker 1: was insane, man, That was in uh crazy time. But
Speaker 1: when you were I would go by to the post.
Speaker 1: So you're working on the post, like, how does it work?
Speaker 1: You tell me how this works? They give you a
Speaker 1: company credit card. You just do whatever you want or
Speaker 1: do you have to check back. And back then it
Speaker 1: was awesome because back then the budget for the Sports department,
Speaker 1: the travel budget was three million dollars. So you know
Speaker 1: that's late nineties, early two thousands, right, so you know
Speaker 1: we could go everywhere. I mean there was no listen
Speaker 1: and I was I and I stayed in my hotels.
Speaker 1: I didn galage them, but I stayed. I traveled nicely.
Speaker 1: And then you build up all those points Marriott Hill
Speaker 1: and you name it airline miles. You know I'm going
Speaker 1: I'm traveling to Europe for free because I was on
Speaker 1: the road so much and then you know everything. The
Speaker 1: only thing I would have is that to have these expenses,
Speaker 1: actually have to felt your expense report. So I would
Speaker 1: be on the road more than anybody. So I would
Speaker 1: come home and I was I'm not the most I'm
Speaker 1: like Oscar Madison when it comes to, you know, keeping
Speaker 1: all the receipts and everything. So I got crumpled up
Speaker 1: this in the hotel receipts before everything was online. And
Speaker 1: then so I'm trying to make heads tails of it.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm in Denver this day. Oh wait, did
Speaker 1: I spend a hundred miles at the bar. I can't,
Speaker 1: I can't do that one, all right, what about this one?
Speaker 1: And you know, and you're putting together your expense report.
Speaker 1: But it was it was crazy. It was wild. I
Speaker 1: mean I used to man, I my travel alone was like,
Speaker 1: you know, ten times my salary my travel. So did
Speaker 1: you know, now, Anthony, I, Anthony, I remember. I think
Speaker 1: it was Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe. I had
Speaker 1: heard a story from a writer that he had like
Speaker 1: the most Marriott points of all time, Like he had
Speaker 1: stayed at the Marriott, so you know, that was the
Speaker 1: only hotel chain that he would stay at when he traveled.
Speaker 1: And he worked at the Boston Globe forever, and he
Speaker 1: had this massive amount of Marriott points where he could
Speaker 1: have just gone anywhere. I assumed you had a similar
Speaker 1: massive amount there. Did you stay at the same hotel
Speaker 1: chain all the time or would you change it up
Speaker 1: and stay at different hotels? No? I you know, I
Speaker 1: stayed at the same hotel. And it's funny because it's
Speaker 1: true I had a massive amount. And probably Bob ran
Speaker 1: because he coached, um, he covered the NBA, so I'm
Speaker 1: sure he did a lot more playoff the whole thing.
Speaker 1: But it was the greatest because I mean they treated
Speaker 1: you like golds. Like dude, you know, there was uh
Speaker 1: baskets of fruit and all kinds of things in my room.
Speaker 1: Like I had a buddy of mine, so I'm like
Speaker 1: in my twenties, I got a body of mine who
Speaker 1: worked for an airline. He flew for free, so he
Speaker 1: we would meet everywhere. Like I got a dude, I'm
Speaker 1: going to I'm going to Denver. So then I would
Speaker 1: get in my room and I had the upgraded suite.
Speaker 1: He'd come to hang out, and there was a time
Speaker 1: where he looked at the basket and he sees a
Speaker 1: thing of hummus and he goes, Yo, dude takes some
Speaker 1: hummus and he throws the hummus. I don't know if
Speaker 1: he's doing that, and it hits my laptop. Bust my laptop.
Speaker 1: Now I gotta go get a new laptop. I was
Speaker 1: covered like broncos jet and whole thing floated off for
Speaker 1: the humus that I got for free at the Marriott
Speaker 1: in the bandsket. Be sure to catch live editions of
Speaker 1: The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven
Speaker 1: pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio app. So you were remember that movie from about
Speaker 1: ten twelve? Was it within the last fifteen years that
Speaker 1: it was the movie that George Clooney was up in
Speaker 1: there like that? Was you right? You were up in
Speaker 1: the air? Man, you were just flying. I kept at
Speaker 1: a fun job. He was. His job was the fire people.
Speaker 1: Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Speaker 1: Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven p m. Pacific
Speaker 1: on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app.
Speaker 1: Another time I was in Denver. I get woken up.
Speaker 1: There's a knock on my door. Now, you know, I
Speaker 1: had to go out at night, right, So I wake up. I'm,
Speaker 1: you know, in the room work city on Man. I
Speaker 1: opened the door. I see this beautiful girl right in
Speaker 1: my doorway. I'm going, who she says Anthony, I go, yeah,
Speaker 1: she was, Can I come in? I was like yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, like I don't know. I rubbed the band
Speaker 1: and brush my teeth. Right. What was does she takes
Speaker 1: over her her? It was like a jacket was winter
Speaker 1: was doing the playoffs and she's got like Alazer outfit on,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna wait a second, what's going on? There
Speaker 1: and she was hot, cause Betty like she was hot.
Speaker 1: I'm going away, something's up, right, And then she says,
Speaker 1: can I use your phone? I go guys, And the
Speaker 1: next thing she was, I'm in the room and then
Speaker 1: she hands me the phone and it was these radio
Speaker 1: dudes in the morning because they wanted to do the Jets,
Speaker 1: so they thought I was a member of the Jets media,
Speaker 1: so they they came to my room. So then so
Speaker 1: that way she was cool hanging out. How about the
Speaker 1: next day, this girl naked horse. This girl was just
Speaker 1: a random trip a drink. It nice, that's it, just
Speaker 1: one of the one drink the day. That's that's all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got you all right, uh Andy. So now let's
Speaker 1: get back to the radio stuff. Man, I love I'm
Speaker 1: learning all about you here. I'm learning all about bouncing
Speaker 1: over all over the place a little bit. So in
Speaker 1: the radio stuff. Now, you said you do like mostly
Speaker 1: in your local show and Philly a lot of calling
Speaker 1: stuff and that kind of thing. But I haven't seen
Speaker 1: some viral videos online from you ranting and raving and
Speaker 1: all that. Have you, either as a newspaper guy or
Speaker 1: as a radio guy. Have you had an athlete or
Speaker 1: coach that snapped at you like a famous incident where
Speaker 1: one of these guys just lost there. But what was
Speaker 1: the most famous one that you recall? Ibby Valentine and
Speaker 1: I when I was a writer, we almost got a fight.
Speaker 1: Uh what was that about? What? What did you do?
Speaker 1: What did you write that? Eating that? Like? No, Bobby
Speaker 1: V was it was a very political guy and he
Speaker 1: was always trying to win you over again whatever whatever
Speaker 1: way to use you. He tried to use you. He
Speaker 1: once had time of a sort of who I love
Speaker 1: carn me up and say, y'all you gotta go ease.
Speaker 1: You m the you know work with Bobby V. What's you?
Speaker 1: And I was friends with the this hitting instructor that
Speaker 1: was under Dallas Green staff. Anyway, long story, I picked
Speaker 1: up they fired him and I and I picked up
Speaker 1: for him, and we got into a shouting match. And
Speaker 1: in fact, one of the Mets players, Johnny Franco, says no,
Speaker 1: because there's a Franklin then if you died his I
Speaker 1: We're screaming yellow at each other. Two astros Can Cavin
Speaker 1: Nitty and who was the other guy? I had to
Speaker 1: be the second baseman who was yeah? And Cavin Ny
Speaker 1: and BJR walking by, and then the next thing, you know,
Speaker 1: because they were playing the Astros and and Tom McGraw
Speaker 1: was with the Astros. Now that's right. I walk into
Speaker 1: the other clubhouse and then Cavin Inny goes, mom, man,
Speaker 1: you dude, I was going to knock out Bobby V
Speaker 1: I started, Hey, Bunny, Bobby say, well, like he he
Speaker 1: was a colorful dude. But there was a lot of
Speaker 1: guys that, you know, we would they yell at you.
Speaker 1: I remember being definitely afraid of ourselves, but he would
Speaker 1: scream at you. And then you know, when you're a
Speaker 1: young reporter and you gotta go ourselves, Like, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, who am I to be challenging this dude
Speaker 1: about football? Right? Yeah? You know, like they're they're it's
Speaker 1: the bullie pulpit. Back then, it was way more like
Speaker 1: in your face. Now it's more docile or it's more
Speaker 1: social media driven, where you know, there's Twitter beefs. Back then,
Speaker 1: they were like real be I remember seeing guys fighting, fits, fighting,
Speaker 1: knocking people out. It was crazy. Yeah. Yeah, so you
Speaker 1: you covered the Mets in the were you there? We
Speaker 1: were there when Dallas Green was there, and then obviously
Speaker 1: Bobby Valentine there one of my favorite New York Post headlines.
Speaker 1: I was doing stuff with the Dodgers and they were
Speaker 1: playing the Mets in the midnight and the Rico Bronier
Speaker 1: years of the Mets, and when he was I went
Speaker 1: to Watertown, Connecticut to do a story where he was from,
Speaker 1: and I ate with his parents. That's great, it's random.
Speaker 1: I love that. So it was like Rico Bronia and
Speaker 1: Todd Hunley and the Mets were terrible, and uh, they
Speaker 1: had traded for Jeff Kent, who at that time was
Speaker 1: like a you know, he would come over from the
Speaker 1: Blue Jays and then I think he was the David
Speaker 1: Con trade. He'd been there for a little bit, but
Speaker 1: he was like a utility guy when he started with
Speaker 1: the Mets, and I remember they moved him positions and
Speaker 1: and against the Dodgers and he had like a bunch
Speaker 1: of errors on It was like it was like a
Speaker 1: Saturday day game and he butchered the ball. Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: So so anyway, it was he was terrible and the
Speaker 1: fans were booing. You know, it was ter It was hot,
Speaker 1: you know, August and the planes are flying over the
Speaker 1: landing at Laguardy. It was a nightmare. So so they
Speaker 1: interviewed you. Probably a guy that did it interviewed Dallas
Speaker 1: Green and he made some flip it remark about Jeff
Speaker 1: Kent's defense, and the headline on the post the next
Speaker 1: day was Kent Field and then it was great and
Speaker 1: it had a picture of him bobbling the ball on
Speaker 1: the back page and then it said, you know, Dallas
Speaker 1: Green's quote was like, uh, something like I forget I'm paraphrasing,
Speaker 1: but it was like he was as bad at third
Speaker 1: base as he was a second or somebody was great.
Speaker 1: It was awesome. He just buried the guy. I loved
Speaker 1: it Field. Yeah, it was all that. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: the best. It was all sides of stuff. I'll give
Speaker 1: you one du And so I'm in spring training. I
Speaker 1: was I was dating this girl and I'm I'm sitting
Speaker 1: next we're at it. There was only one place to
Speaker 1: go was Port St. Lucy and and so we're at
Speaker 1: this at this bar in Port St. Luci And next thing,
Speaker 1: you know, alex Ochoa remember that name, and yes, all right,
Speaker 1: or don't Yese had just affected from Cuba and they
Speaker 1: were in there and I knew Alex and there was
Speaker 1: somebody else too. Anyway, the girl I was with, let's
Speaker 1: say she was welling down and she and and so
Speaker 1: you know, it was whatever. She was a lovely lady.
Speaker 1: He starts saying stuff in Spanish and she starts turning red.
Speaker 1: Now she was Spanish, and she understood him right like
Speaker 1: so and then then she gives me the the interpretation,
Speaker 1: right like, she gives me what he said in translation
Speaker 1: and enter the translation. It was pretty loose, right, so
Speaker 1: you know, I started barking at him, I'm gonna break
Speaker 1: your you know, your au mission that you're never gonna
Speaker 1: play shortstop blah blah blah blah blah. You know, with
Speaker 1: one of those. It was crazy, but it was funny,
Speaker 1: right like, you know, and then I'm gonna gonna bust
Speaker 1: I gonna buck stop in shortstop. I don't track with
Speaker 1: any apology. It was no big deal. But it was
Speaker 1: just funny, how you know, like it's just real life.
Speaker 1: Back then, it was really real life. I had. I
Speaker 1: got a buddy of mine, in fact, was the Sixers
Speaker 1: equipment manager for like thirty five years, and he goes, dude,
Speaker 1: he goes, the difference. When I first started, he started
Speaker 1: like eight mintage AI years right, like, you know, crazy
Speaker 1: stuff the end of Barkley and Ai today, He's like,
Speaker 1: the biggest difference is the noise. Back then, when you're
Speaker 1: going on a bus plane, all the guys are together,
Speaker 1: it's loud, and guys are mocking each other, having phone
Speaker 1: breaking stone, busting stone, the whole thing. And now everybody's
Speaker 1: just on locked phone or headphones, and it's so different
Speaker 1: and just dudes way more like Plug did professional whereas
Speaker 1: back then it was like, you know insanity. Yeah, Ai
Speaker 1: falling asleep outside his hotel room, like outside the door
Speaker 1: of his room, curled up in the ball in the hallway,
Speaker 1: sticking enough just to in the hallway. You bring up
Speaker 1: a muld have been at five o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1: You know, everybody in the game that day, he didn't matter.
Speaker 1: You know. That's the amazing thing about ball players and anything.
Speaker 1: I traveled a little bit with the Dodgers back in
Speaker 1: the day, and I was a young guy and they
Speaker 1: kind of embraced me, some of the guys in the bullpen,
Speaker 1: so they take me. I got to tag along with
Speaker 1: them and go out a few times. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: not I'm an introver. You're you're an extrovert Anthony. I'm
Speaker 1: an introvert, so for me, this was like an eye
Speaker 1: opening experience and I loved it. I have great memories
Speaker 1: of that, but I was amazed. I was in my
Speaker 1: probably late twenties at this time, maybe mid twenties. So
Speaker 1: I'm traveling with the team and you know occasionally and
Speaker 1: they take me out and uh, it was actually in
Speaker 1: New York one of the trips, and these guys were out.
Speaker 1: We were they were club hopping, you name it, bars,
Speaker 1: strip clubs. Got back to the hotel at you know,
Speaker 1: it was after the sun had risen. It was a
Speaker 1: little after like six in the morning, something like that,
Speaker 1: and I'm just beat and the dot. The Dodgers had
Speaker 1: a day game with the Mets that day, and so
Speaker 1: we you know, go out to the ballpark and I'm
Speaker 1: having like a zombie and the guys I was hanging
Speaker 1: out with that were completely slashed that we're just boosting
Speaker 1: it up. Uh, And I said, well, those guys can't
Speaker 1: pitch today, and uh, they got called. You know, one
Speaker 1: of the guys got called into the game and even
Speaker 1: like a one, two, three inning. I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1: I was like, this is this is amazing to me
Speaker 1: that these guys are able to perform after living that life.
Speaker 1: It was just a few hours earlier we were out
Speaker 1: and getting back in a taxi cab getting back to
Speaker 1: the hotels and saying, how those guys are wired that way?
Speaker 1: The truth man, you know, I listen, I saw a
Speaker 1: Stone drunk one night, right blacked out of his mind
Speaker 1: and he a vegs day dropping forty wanted at a
Speaker 1: new game, right, like just incredible, such a great player.
Speaker 1: It's true, like those dudes that you know that was
Speaker 1: that was like a right of passage too for a
Speaker 1: lot of guys. You want to out you you know,
Speaker 1: you shampled the town. It was very more. It was
Speaker 1: a lot of social now where it hurts who was
Speaker 1: obviously longevity its found, pick care of their bodies. And
Speaker 1: you know you can look at Brady and that's why
Speaker 1: he's so great. Yeah, yeah, he doesn't. He doesn't go
Speaker 1: out much. He's get some some interesting things. As far
Speaker 1: as the great fruit that you mentioned Port St. Lucy,
Speaker 1: I got a great story of out there. Anthony all
Speaker 1: appreciate this because spending a lot of time in Florida
Speaker 1: for spring training. So when I was doing stuff with
Speaker 1: the Dodgers. They had an executive, Tommy Hawkins, the great
Speaker 1: Tommy Hawkins, wonderful guy, played in the NBA. Great guy,
Speaker 1: very personal guy. And we were in Virio Beach and
Speaker 1: I've never been to Viria Beach before, and so Tommy's
Speaker 1: given the lay of the Loveland you know, I was
Speaker 1: I was doing radio there and I had we were
Speaker 1: doing it back to l A. So it was late
Speaker 1: at night, but on the weekends we had some time
Speaker 1: to go out and try to mingle. And I was
Speaker 1: single and the guy was doing the show with were single.
Speaker 1: So we asked Tommy Tommy Hawkins were like, hey, where
Speaker 1: should we go? And Tommy named this bar in in
Speaker 1: Vero Beach. He said, this is the place, this is
Speaker 1: the place everyone goes to. Uh, you know, it's a
Speaker 1: few miles away from Dodgertown. Go there, have a have
Speaker 1: a great time. Boy, there's beautiful people where. He's really
Speaker 1: selling it. So we're all excited. My, my, me and
Speaker 1: this guy Dave that I was doing the show, and
Speaker 1: so we show up to the bar and we're thinking, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is gonna be great. You know, we were in Florida. Here,
Speaker 1: beautiful women, the whole thing, and the youngest we're in
Speaker 1: our mid twenties. The youngest woman in there was I
Speaker 1: think like sixty four or something like that was it
Speaker 1: was insane. We were like, wait a minute, what that
Speaker 1: That was the young hip spot in uh in Florida,
Speaker 1: at least in that part in Via b There was
Speaker 1: not going on socially there in Vio Beach. Anthony Beck
Speaker 1: in those dodge in town, Yeah, man, that was. That
Speaker 1: was a great place. They've been in Florida now for
Speaker 1: like twenty years or something like that. A lot of
Speaker 1: it's crazy how fast time guys goes by. Be sure
Speaker 1: to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays
Speaker 1: at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. It's me Rob Parker.
Speaker 1: Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for
Speaker 1: twenty two minutes of piping hot baseball talk featuring the
Speaker 1: biggest name to newsmakers in the sport. Whether you believe
Speaker 1: in analytics for the Eyecast, we've got all the bases cover.
Speaker 1: New EPI souls drop every Thursday, So do yourself a
Speaker 1: favor and listen to Inside the Partner with Rob Partner
Speaker 1: on the I Heart Radio app or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcast. But you mentioned the movies. I gotta get
Speaker 1: into that anything. I don't know a lot about this.
Speaker 1: So you've written screenplays and whatnot for for Hollywood, and
Speaker 1: and like, how's that? How's that work exactly? Have you
Speaker 1: had anything big picked up that I don't know about
Speaker 1: that I shouldn't know about. Uh. Well, we did a
Speaker 1: movie called I don't know if you've heard it. It's
Speaker 1: called The Mighty Max, The Mighty Max. Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: it was. It's about the first female um uh basketball team,
Speaker 1: Maculotti University cafee Rush who um made a really cool,
Speaker 1: really really really cool who uh say, won the first
Speaker 1: women's national championship. Her husband was Eddie Rush, the referee,
Speaker 1: and it was cool. So anyway, we did that movie.
Speaker 1: I have a couple. I had a lot of camp mrs.
Speaker 1: And I got a lot of mrs. And I got
Speaker 1: a couple right now that are hot, and I think
Speaker 1: we got a shot. One is called The Bottom, which
Speaker 1: is it's about loosely based off of the group called
Speaker 1: the Junior Black Mafia in Philadelphia in the eighties. Gangster movie.
Speaker 1: And I got another another show, a TV show that's
Speaker 1: getting traction. Um it's called in Blood. It's imagine it's
Speaker 1: the seving is nineties six Philadelphia, and it's a precursor
Speaker 1: to the jb M. And it's Game of Thrones meets
Speaker 1: like Scarface, right, so it's beats the Godfather. So it's
Speaker 1: got uh, Italian gangsters and African American gangsters and Jewish
Speaker 1: gangsters and the whole crowd of this world of bikers
Speaker 1: that really existed in Philadelphia. They all intersected during the
Speaker 1: seventies and eighties, um when casino gambling comes Atlantic City.
Speaker 1: So I had known a lot of these characters growing
Speaker 1: up there, and so I wrote these pieces pretty authentic
Speaker 1: and it's pretty cool. So I think we got a
Speaker 1: I think we got a good shot at that's supposedly happening.
Speaker 1: I got more, I'm hoping, but we'll see. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: so how's it where you have an agent or I assume,
Speaker 1: how do you sell these things? What's the what's the
Speaker 1: key is selling the producer? O. There's a producer that
Speaker 1: that's that deals with all the studios. So I worked
Speaker 1: with the stuff through a producer who's really well known
Speaker 1: as a bunch of projects. So it's the producer. They're
Speaker 1: the ones that I'm just the writer. I'm just the
Speaker 1: you know, I'm the nobody that comes up with the
Speaker 1: story and writes the story and then you know, hopefully,
Speaker 1: but the one supposed to go in the pre production suits.
Speaker 1: So we're we're it's it's a long grind and we
Speaker 1: got shut down by COVID, so it's it's it's pretty crazy.
Speaker 1: But I love the film world. I love film. I
Speaker 1: love story. That's probably my true passion, which is other
Speaker 1: than sports, which is storytelling. And are you more nonfiction
Speaker 1: as opposed to fiction when you're writing this stuff or
Speaker 1: is it either way? Go either way? Yeah, either way,
Speaker 1: And the fiction people like anytime you write it. Um,
Speaker 1: since it's not a documentary, you know, you're you're gonna
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to take literary license to make the
Speaker 1: story really you know, a lot more interesting. And that's
Speaker 1: sort of that's so to speak. But um, but the
Speaker 1: great stuff is is that when you meld a reporting
Speaker 1: background with creative writing, it gives you a lot. Right. So,
Speaker 1: you know, I was I was at a couple of jails.
Speaker 1: I was up in a couple of you know safe
Speaker 1: houses that the thaying rooms, talking to these old you
Speaker 1: know retired or whatever, gangsters, and you get stuff that
Speaker 1: you can't even make up, right, Like the beauty is
Speaker 1: if you know, when you really like research the story
Speaker 1: and talk to those that lived in you get stuff
Speaker 1: that you you realize you can't even make up. If
Speaker 1: they trust you, they they into the world. It's it's
Speaker 1: really kind of cool. So, I mean some of the
Speaker 1: stories I I barely even have to dress up for
Speaker 1: cinem You just gotta organize and put them together in
Speaker 1: a narrative form. But it's it's really interesting. It's it's
Speaker 1: a it's a pretty cool. That's cool. That's cool. I
Speaker 1: think what we need, Anthony, is like a you should
Speaker 1: write a movie about sports talk radio. There's gotta be
Speaker 1: something in sports radio that and you can go on
Speaker 1: the big screen and give it the make it a thriller,
Speaker 1: you know, like a caller. I've had I've had guys
Speaker 1: on my show, Anthony. I had a guy in Chicago
Speaker 1: that sent me a bloody goat head in the mail
Speaker 1: because he was a big He thought the Cubs were
Speaker 1: jenks the curse of the Billy goat, and so he
Speaker 1: bought part of a goat farm. This guy doc Mike
Speaker 1: and sent me bloody goat actually a couple of bloody
Speaker 1: goat heads. It got to a point, yeah, it got yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: And so it got to a point Anthony where the
Speaker 1: mail people at Fox at I Heart here in l A,
Speaker 1: We're We're like, we can't accept mail for you because
Speaker 1: it was like there was like stuff coming out of
Speaker 1: the box that was disgusting and they were like, you know,
Speaker 1: so so I had to tell the guy said, you
Speaker 1: gotta stop sending this because I'm getting in trouble with
Speaker 1: the mail rooms. So what are you doing? And uh,
Speaker 1: it was it was a nightmare. But anyway, I've kept
Speaker 1: you for way too long, Anthony, I love you, man.
Speaker 1: And and and now promote promote promoto. You're on Fox
Speaker 1: Sports Radio obviously on the weekends, but that's on Saturday, right,
Speaker 1: He's still on Saturday. And then what about the radio
Speaker 1: show in Philly if the fans want to listen to
Speaker 1: you on your local show with the Anthony Gargani Agano Show, right,
Speaker 1: which is what mid days in Philly? Is that? Right? Yeah,
Speaker 1: chen am the two pm Eastern time Ninete five The Fanatic.
Speaker 1: And then I'm at Anthony el Gargano on Twitter and
Speaker 1: uh at Anthony el Gargano on Instagram. So, yeah, I
Speaker 1: appreciate keep an eye on maybe the movie ship and
Speaker 1: I would love for you to talk about and we
Speaker 1: we talk further about it. But Betty, I love you, man,
Speaker 1: You're you're just great people. Oh you're good too. Man.
Speaker 1: I love you, and I'm glad we met years ago.
Speaker 1: And when you become the the movie hits and you'll
Speaker 1: be out of the red carpet and in Hollywood, I'll
Speaker 1: go hang out with you. We'll go to Google schmooz.
Speaker 1: It's all right, all right, man, Thank you, Anthony