Speaker 1: Boom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes a
Speaker 1: week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants of
Speaker 1: the old Republic, the sole fashion of fairness. He treats
Speaker 1: crackheads in the ghetto Cutter the same as the rich
Speaker 1: pill poppers in the penthouse, the clearing House of hot takes,
Speaker 1: break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben
Speaker 1: Maller starts right now that it is the Fifth Hour
Speaker 1: with Ben Mallor back at it again, a spinoff of
Speaker 1: the Overnight show. We are so happy you have found
Speaker 1: us is we are in the air everywhere, the vast
Speaker 1: power of I heart, the global reach of podcasting. As
Speaker 1: we are together again. It is the weekend and we
Speaker 1: were back at it now. This is an interview podcast.
Speaker 1: And there's a couple of things you need to know
Speaker 1: about this. You are giving You're being given a gift
Speaker 1: here because this weekend. Why is this weekend like most
Speaker 1: other weekends, Because David Gascon is not here. So it's
Speaker 1: you just stuck with me on this Friday podcast. Now,
Speaker 1: on Saturday and Sunday, I'll have my trustee sidekick, not Gascon.
Speaker 1: Somebody's actually good uh in here. But this particular podcast,
Speaker 1: it's all about me in the interview and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: So welcome in our a friend, a broadcasting friend here
Speaker 1: in a minute. But a couple of things to take
Speaker 1: care of. If you have not like this podcast, please
Speaker 1: do that. That helps us out. I know it seems ridiculous.
Speaker 1: It's a pain, and that took us. I understand that.
Speaker 1: But five stars. If you have some time to write
Speaker 1: a review, I know you've got to come up with
Speaker 1: the name and all that. That helps us out as well.
Speaker 1: Positive reviews. We don't need negative reviews. Positive help us out. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then Cameo dot com. If you're on the internet,
Speaker 1: and which obviously are, you'll see your podcast. But if
Speaker 1: you if you have a big fan of the show,
Speaker 1: if you have a relative that's a fan of the show,
Speaker 1: and you want a video monologue, a Mallard monologue just
Speaker 1: for you, uh, we can do that on cameo. It's
Speaker 1: not free, but it's not very much there on Cameo
Speaker 1: dot com and obviously all of the social media channels.
Speaker 1: Ben Mallar on Twitter, we use that a lot during
Speaker 1: the weekday radio show, on the overnight Instagram, Ben Mallar
Speaker 1: on Fox and the Facebook page which is Ben Mallard Show.
Speaker 1: So I am very excited. I admit it's one of
Speaker 1: my guilty pleasures. I love talking to broadcasters, especially people
Speaker 1: that influenced me, that I watched and listened to in
Speaker 1: my younger days. And we have pulled out of the
Speaker 1: ethos Mel Proctor. Now, if you're from the Washington, DC area,
Speaker 1: if you're from Baltimore, chances are you are well aware
Speaker 1: of Mel Procter because for years he was the play
Speaker 1: by play voice of the Washington Bullets. That's right, they
Speaker 1: used to be the Bullets and the Baltimore Orioles. And
Speaker 1: I most associate Mel with the Orioles. I actually was
Speaker 1: around him a bit a few years ago. I spent
Speaker 1: a long time now, but he was the radio guy
Speaker 1: for the Clippers for several years, and that's where I
Speaker 1: got to know Mel a little bit, and I had
Speaker 1: lost track of him. I was like, I wonder what
Speaker 1: Mel proctors up to. And for those that have not
Speaker 1: seen his work, if you're younger, you can actually find
Speaker 1: some old Orio games on YouTube and very entertaining fun broadcaster.
Speaker 1: Did everything, did network play by play, did NF for basketball,
Speaker 1: did play by play boxing football. He was all over
Speaker 1: the place, so let's welcome in now, Mel Procter joining
Speaker 1: us here on the fifth Hour with Ben Maller and Mel,
Speaker 1: thank you for doing this. I guess we want to
Speaker 1: talk about you, who make this all about you, at
Speaker 1: least most of it. So how old were you Mel
Speaker 1: when you realized you wanted to be a broadcaster? Well,
Speaker 1: when I was growing up, but it was the last
Speaker 1: thing that I thought of. I wanted to be amazing
Speaker 1: League baseball player, and uh, it was good enough to
Speaker 1: play in high school and college, but I had a
Speaker 1: little trouble hitting the curve ball. So when I graduated
Speaker 1: from college, I had no idea what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: I took a real job in Denver for about six months,
Speaker 1: and uh, there was a football player who just retired
Speaker 1: from Denver Proco's named Lionel Taylor, and he worked at
Speaker 1: this company C A. Norgren. He was, you know, he
Speaker 1: kissed babies and shook ads and stuff. And I got
Speaker 1: to know him and we both admitted that we missed
Speaker 1: being in sports and had to get back. And he
Speaker 1: showed up one day and said, I'd like you to
Speaker 1: meet the new wide receiver coach the Los Angeles Rams,
Speaker 1: and he left for that job, and I thought, well,
Speaker 1: I gotta get out of here somehow. Code and tie
Speaker 1: seven thirty in the morning were two coffee breaks a day. No,
Speaker 1: thank you, I can't do this. So uh, Steve Sable
Speaker 1: of NFL Films had gone to Colorado College, where I
Speaker 1: went to school. I didn't know Steve, but he was
Speaker 1: several years ahead of me, and some of my fraternity
Speaker 1: brothers knew Steve. So I started writing letters to his father,
Speaker 1: Ed Sable, about a job, and they said that out
Speaker 1: there's nothing there, and so I just kept sending stuff anyway,
Speaker 1: ideas for shows and that kind of thing. And I
Speaker 1: happened to call one time talk with a friend of
Speaker 1: mine new works there, and I said, I gotta come
Speaker 1: back there for a wedding. Would it be worth stopping
Speaker 1: buy in Philadelphia to see NFL films And he goes, yeah,
Speaker 1: You're timing may be perfect. So I went back, Uh,
Speaker 1: talked to Ed Sable, he hired me. I spent three
Speaker 1: and a half years at NFL Elms as a writer producer,
Speaker 1: still having no thoughts of being a broadcaster. But I
Speaker 1: got to know a lot of the guys who came
Speaker 1: into their age films like past summer and Charlie Jones
Speaker 1: and Tom Brookshire and those guys. And I heard him
Speaker 1: talking about the games they've done that day, and I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, I would really rather be out of the
Speaker 1: game somewhere, but in a dark editing room or writing
Speaker 1: a script. So I cont the local radio station into
Speaker 1: let me do some high school football. I was a
Speaker 1: coling man at first, and then one day to play
Speaker 1: by play guy called and said, no, I can't do
Speaker 1: the game. I'm sick. Gonna have to do play by
Speaker 1: play and I can still to this day remember it.
Speaker 1: It was the Upper perky Omen Indians and in Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: against somebody. That was the first game I did, and
Speaker 1: I said, God, I could do this for the living.
Speaker 1: So I went from there to doing high school again
Speaker 1: for for a team for a year or so and
Speaker 1: who lollly advertising did everything and then uh, to make
Speaker 1: a long story showed, I guess. I went to Hawaii
Speaker 1: on vacation and fell in love with the place, and
Speaker 1: I had written a letter there to the radio station
Speaker 1: but never got an answer. So I called the guy,
Speaker 1: Earl McDaniel, who was general manager of k g MP,
Speaker 1: and he said, come on over and we got together
Speaker 1: for lunch, and he liked me and we hired me,
Speaker 1: and so I love for Hawaii Wire spent five years
Speaker 1: and that's where I really got online experience. So to
Speaker 1: answer your question, I never really thought about being broadcast
Speaker 1: until after I got out of college and the real
Speaker 1: world kind of hit me. Yeah, well, it certainly beats
Speaker 1: having having a regular job. But I didn't even realize
Speaker 1: he would have worked in NFL films, And I knew
Speaker 1: you had done all the different play by play stuff.
Speaker 1: But I loved, you know, growing up, it influenced me
Speaker 1: as a sports fan the stuff that NFL films turned out.
Speaker 1: And like a lot of guys around my age before
Speaker 1: high school football games to fire up the team, they
Speaker 1: were putting an NFL films, you know, season and review
Speaker 1: documentary and and it was an amazing thing that you know,
Speaker 1: and you worked and you were part of it. I
Speaker 1: they would make the most mundane, boring team that was,
Speaker 1: you know, like a typical little six and ten and
Speaker 1: five and letter, but they were it seemed like gladiators
Speaker 1: in the uh in the NFL films. What was it
Speaker 1: like behind the scenes there in those days putting those
Speaker 1: videos together? Oh? It was. It was a great place
Speaker 1: to work. They basically you didn't have hours. You just
Speaker 1: showed up and work when you wanted to go on
Speaker 1: your films. As long as you got to work done.
Speaker 1: You could work from midnight, day in the morning, or
Speaker 1: anytime you wanted. Really, so it's perfect and it just
Speaker 1: lets you do your own thing. And I got to work.
Speaker 1: You know, I worked with Jonathan Sounder, the great voice
Speaker 1: of God, who narrated those films, you know, Cooling Durn Green,
Speaker 1: and you know, I came up doing but it was
Speaker 1: it was funny that all all these announcements would come
Speaker 1: in to narrate the various films. So I got to
Speaker 1: know them. And some of the more NBA podcasters would
Speaker 1: come into town, and I talked him into letting me
Speaker 1: be their statman. So I go out to the games
Speaker 1: with them, like Jack Brickles to the Chicago Bulls and
Speaker 1: people like that Van Miller of the Buffalo Bills and
Speaker 1: Buffalo Braves. Um Marty Grickman was a big influence. The
Speaker 1: guy from New York was well known. So I got
Speaker 1: to know all these guys, these these podcasters, top of
Speaker 1: line broadcasters, and I thought, God, this is this is
Speaker 1: really what I wanted to do, So I just I
Speaker 1: was in a good spot to to learn from some
Speaker 1: of the best, and it was It's a great place
Speaker 1: to work. It tough us decision I ever had to
Speaker 1: make was sitting on the back steps at NFL Films,
Speaker 1: trying to decide whether to stay in this prestigious job
Speaker 1: in the NFL with great people and creative and fun
Speaker 1: and or quit and go full time to a little
Speaker 1: five thousand water radio station in Chester, Pennsylvania, like a
Speaker 1: broadcast sports full time. And uh, I took a leap,
Speaker 1: and it was very difficult and time be sure to
Speaker 1: catch live editions of the Ben Maller Show weekdays at
Speaker 1: two am Eastern Pacific. How hard was it, mel when
Speaker 1: you you find your networked obviously worked at the NFL
Speaker 1: films and you met all these people, but then and
Speaker 1: to do stats, to go from the stat guy, and
Speaker 1: then you went out to Hawaii, and then to get
Speaker 1: that first big league play by play opportunity? How how
Speaker 1: how did that work back in those days as opposed
Speaker 1: to what's going on in you know today? Well, I
Speaker 1: was in Hawaii for five years and and loved it
Speaker 1: and married a girl from there from Maui, and you know,
Speaker 1: as I'm truly sure that I was probably gonna stay there,
Speaker 1: but I wanted to do big league sports. And I
Speaker 1: was doing minor league baseball for the Hawaii Islanders, which
Speaker 1: are the Padres Cripple a affiliate, and so i'd go
Speaker 1: to spring trending. I get to know their announcers Jerry
Speaker 1: Coleman and Rob Chattel, and are those guys. Um, So
Speaker 1: I started applying for a few jobs. I'm more than
Speaker 1: a few accident, I think. I I applied to the
Speaker 1: Houston Astros when in they're and interviewed. The balt Memorials
Speaker 1: flew me into Oakland for a series because they thought
Speaker 1: Chuck Thompson was going to retire. Well it went on
Speaker 1: for another thirty years like chever uh, And then the
Speaker 1: Angels talked to me. I came down the number two
Speaker 1: guys there. Um. I'd applied for some NBA jobs and
Speaker 1: I was getting close to things, but it was so frustrating,
Speaker 1: you know, looking back at it, I had no idea
Speaker 1: how hard it is to advance to that level of broadcasting.
Speaker 1: But one Sunday we were sitting out on there my
Speaker 1: lan I having a glass of wine my wife and
Speaker 1: I are wife to be and in the phone rang
Speaker 1: and it was w t Op in Washington, DC. The
Speaker 1: call and asked me if I wanted to be the
Speaker 1: Playboy play announcer for the Washington Bullets were just one
Speaker 1: NBA championship, and I said sure, yeah, let's go. Well,
Speaker 1: about about two hours later, I get another phone call
Speaker 1: the merv Kings. It was general manager of the San
Speaker 1: Diego UH Clippers, and he says, we like you that
Speaker 1: we are player by playguy on radio. I said, oh Jesus,
Speaker 1: I don't understand. This is after years of trying. Suddenly
Speaker 1: I get two calls within twenty four hours offering me
Speaker 1: NBA jobs. I said, I'd really rather come to San
Speaker 1: Diego because it's warmer, and my wife says, from Hawaii,
Speaker 1: I think it'd be an easy your adjustment for her.
Speaker 1: But earth Caves became a good friend. Said I'll be
Speaker 1: honest with you. He said, the Bulls suggested on the
Speaker 1: championship it's a bigger market, there's more exposure, UH, And
Speaker 1: to be honest, I'm not sure how long we're gonna
Speaker 1: be in San Diego. So he said you have to
Speaker 1: take the Bullets job. So that's how I got my
Speaker 1: first day of league job. Wow, that's that's a wild,
Speaker 1: wild story. And and and then you know, I always
Speaker 1: associate you because in my age, I associate you with
Speaker 1: the Orioles, but you were with the Bullets, you in
Speaker 1: that area back and for when you run across people
Speaker 1: that recall your career. Do people associate you more with
Speaker 1: the Orioles or the Washington Bullets or somebody else? I
Speaker 1: think both? Really, yeah, because I was sitting at Baltimore
Speaker 1: Washington Market for almost twenty years. So uh, you know,
Speaker 1: my first day with the Bulls a seventy seventy nine.
Speaker 1: They went to the finals and lost to Seattle after
Speaker 1: winning the previous year. But that franchise has never made
Speaker 1: it back to the NBA finals since then. What is
Speaker 1: that forty two years or something? They evilid it back?
Speaker 1: I happen to be part of it, so that was
Speaker 1: wonderful and they haven't and they have a new name now.
Speaker 1: See they seemed their name and number of years ago.
Speaker 1: So there no no more Bullets anymore than yeah, but
Speaker 1: I was there when they had great teams with Wes
Speaker 1: Unseld and Elvin Hayes and Bobby Dandridge and Dick Motto
Speaker 1: was a coach, and it was a great time to
Speaker 1: be there. And then of course I was for the
Speaker 1: Orioles and got to see most of Cal Ripken's career
Speaker 1: and they had some great teams there. I did that
Speaker 1: for fourteen years um and then came to the cable network.
Speaker 1: I worked for Home Thing Sports was being sold and
Speaker 1: everything was up in the air, so I didn't know
Speaker 1: what I was gonna do. But Loyal Lakino, who had
Speaker 1: run the Orioles, was president of San Diego Padres, and
Speaker 1: they offered me a job doing the TV games. And
Speaker 1: I've always learned to live here, so I said, let's go.
Speaker 1: So we headed to San Diego. I think maybe a
Speaker 1: Padres be the Padres forever. It lasted five years. Then
Speaker 1: Larry got pushed out by the owner, John Moore's, and
Speaker 1: everyone who worked for him out the door too. So
Speaker 1: far in our life works sometimes. But yeah, and you
Speaker 1: have you know you so you've you've done play by
Speaker 1: play across I know you did network stuff. You did
Speaker 1: some football play by play, if you don't any hockey,
Speaker 1: whereas if you hockey is the only thing I've never done.
Speaker 1: I've done boxing for Turner, uh, T n T and
Speaker 1: TBS uh. You know, did the good World Games boxing.
Speaker 1: I've done everything except hockey. Yeah, I mean all the
Speaker 1: sports that you've done, What do you find the easiest
Speaker 1: and what is the most difficult as a play by
Speaker 1: play guy. Well, I I think the easiest thing comes
Speaker 1: easiest for me for some reason, and it's the most fun.
Speaker 1: It's doing NBA basketball and a radio by myself, which
Speaker 1: I did for many years, no color man, just me,
Speaker 1: and it could get so lost and doing it's just
Speaker 1: a wonderful feeling. And I think I had a feel
Speaker 1: for it because I had played college basketball and kind
Speaker 1: of sense the rhythms of the game and developed in
Speaker 1: an orthodox style of describing things that seemed sitting well
Speaker 1: with people. And I think that was probably the thing
Speaker 1: I did best. Baseball is the most difficult because well,
Speaker 1: it's every day for one thing, so you have to
Speaker 1: you have to be around the batting gage and find
Speaker 1: out what the latest is. It's easier now with all
Speaker 1: the information, and but you know, in those days you
Speaker 1: had to really work at it to get fresh information
Speaker 1: because you can't just keep the same thing every day
Speaker 1: about the same players, the same teams. You have to
Speaker 1: come up with the press material and baseball games can
Speaker 1: get didn't get slow. I'm free to have our game
Speaker 1: with you know. I still remember the game in Texas
Speaker 1: when the Rangers beat the Oils twenty six to seven
Speaker 1: whatever for that game, and I don't think I've ever
Speaker 1: drunk so much there in my life. And after that
Speaker 1: game they saw asuly your question. Yeah, I think baseball
Speaker 1: was the most difficult. Yeah. And I used to watch
Speaker 1: you on the satellite during the Oil Again, you always
Speaker 1: seem to have a good time even when the Oils
Speaker 1: had terrible teams. Occasionally you seem like you were enjoying yourself.
Speaker 1: You you were not you weren't taking it too seriously.
Speaker 1: You had the fun. I feel like you had a
Speaker 1: pretty good balance of having fun and then you know,
Speaker 1: calling the game. How did you get to that point,
Speaker 1: mel Because a lot of it is like two types.
Speaker 1: Those guys have fun there the guys that are kind
Speaker 1: of hard old types to take it way too serious.
Speaker 1: I felt you had a good time. You were you
Speaker 1: were having fun doing the games even when they were terrible. Well,
Speaker 1: a couple of things happened, but like for many years,
Speaker 1: I think I I emulated different broadcasters or tried to
Speaker 1: steal things from different people, and did things to please
Speaker 1: the people I work for. And at one point I
Speaker 1: realized this is not gonna work. This business is so
Speaker 1: fickle that you know, we can't please your boss or
Speaker 1: you know who your boss is gonna be next year,
Speaker 1: or the hell with it. If I can please myself
Speaker 1: and have some fun, that's all I care about. So
Speaker 1: that's the attitude I took. I'm just gonna go out.
Speaker 1: I want to have fun. I'm gonna try to have
Speaker 1: much excitement as I had experience if I was at
Speaker 1: a ballpark. And then when I got to Baltimore, they
Speaker 1: had a crazy ex player named John Lowenstein retired and
Speaker 1: he became my partner. And John is about the most
Speaker 1: awful walk character I've ever met in my life. And
Speaker 1: that we just hit it off and it was like
Speaker 1: it was love stopfter after that. Yeah, that's outstanding. And uh,
Speaker 1: and some of your some of your old games are
Speaker 1: on YouTube, but I don't know if you ever check
Speaker 1: those out. But every you know, I occasionally, especially last
Speaker 1: year during the pandemic, I'd flip on some of the
Speaker 1: old games and they you know, the random old like
Speaker 1: mid eighties orios and A's game will be on and
Speaker 1: you'll you'll be doing the playoff. That it's pretty cool
Speaker 1: to check out some stuff. But you mentioned getting information,
Speaker 1: and I think we have a bunch of young guys
Speaker 1: that listen, that want to be They want to follow
Speaker 1: in your footsteps, guys like yourself that have had big
Speaker 1: careers and play by playing with not but but put
Speaker 1: in perspective, and now I can go on Twitter and
Speaker 1: social media and have content coming out of my ears
Speaker 1: and my you know, my nose and my eyes miss everywhere.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't like that. You had to depend on
Speaker 1: the newspapers and you had to depend on getting information.
Speaker 1: So so kind of walk me me what it was
Speaker 1: like when you're preparing and you had to get, as
Speaker 1: you said, new information. How difficult was it to obtain
Speaker 1: new information on the teams. Well, that's a good question.
Speaker 1: It was. It was difficult. I used to carry around
Speaker 1: like a huge, well just scrapbook was filled with newspaper
Speaker 1: clippings and stories taken out of magazines and about different
Speaker 1: players and teams, and that was constantly updating that looking
Speaker 1: for stuff and books and wherever I could find it.
Speaker 1: It was all in print then, but it was not
Speaker 1: on the internet. That what's the internet or as I know,
Speaker 1: And uh so that's why I had most of the stuff.
Speaker 1: And some of my broadcast partners you just laugh. I mean,
Speaker 1: like the late Mike Clinic and Baltimore said, I can't
Speaker 1: believe to carry all the stuff around, like the big
Speaker 1: book full of clippings and stuff that I would refer
Speaker 1: to from time to time and you know, pullout and
Speaker 1: nugget to talk about. Then I I just spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time around the Bad Engage in the clubhouse,
Speaker 1: just you know, getting to know the players and the
Speaker 1: manager and so forth, and just just working at it.
Speaker 1: But I always loved the research in the things for
Speaker 1: some reason, which I think is what let me into
Speaker 1: writing some books. Be sure to catch live editions of
Speaker 1: the Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern Pacific. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right, if I wanted to talk about that, because
Speaker 1: for those that don't know mel long career as a
Speaker 1: play by play guy, but you've you've written several books.
Speaker 1: The one that they caught my attention. I'm still in
Speaker 1: the middle of it, so I have not been able
Speaker 1: to fish it. But it's a few years old. But
Speaker 1: love the work, Hate the Business is the headline on this,
Speaker 1: and it's one of the several books that you've written
Speaker 1: over the years that really resonated with me because I
Speaker 1: have a similar perspective. Mel I am a little younger,
Speaker 1: but I love working in sports radio. Some of the
Speaker 1: politics of it. Uh, yeah, I'm not a big fan,
Speaker 1: so kind of you know, sell me on the book here.
Speaker 1: Obviously I'm a fan. I'm a believer in the book play.
Speaker 1: But for those that considering it, why should somebody buy
Speaker 1: that book? Well, I should point out that the book
Speaker 1: originally came out on ten twelve years ago, but I
Speaker 1: just recently released an audio book where I narrated the book,
Speaker 1: and I think it's better than the pret work because
Speaker 1: you know, my voice is there in the emotion of
Speaker 1: some of the things that I felt. So that's available
Speaker 1: now from audible, Amazon and iTunes for those who want
Speaker 1: to get it sparted. But yeah, I I just what
Speaker 1: what happened was how this book thing came about? It
Speaker 1: was Well, first book I wrote was a book called
Speaker 1: The Official Fans Guy That Affused It, which is about
Speaker 1: the old TV to television show in the nineties sixties,
Speaker 1: which is my all time favorite show, and it was
Speaker 1: one whether when I had some spare time, so I
Speaker 1: I always wanted to write a book, so I said,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna research this thing and see if I can
Speaker 1: come up with a book. So when we take road trips,
Speaker 1: I would try to schedule them with interviewing people who
Speaker 1: had worked on the show. UM, like Barry Morris who
Speaker 1: played Lieutenant Gerard. He lived in Toronto. When I was
Speaker 1: up there for a game, I got together with him
Speaker 1: and UM, all these different stars that were on the show.
Speaker 1: I interviewed a lot of them. They wrote the book
Speaker 1: and got it published. So that was the first time.
Speaker 1: But then what really inspired the book you're talking about
Speaker 1: was in two thousand seven, Uh, I had broadcasts for
Speaker 1: both the Orioles are most of cal Ripton's career, also
Speaker 1: for Tony Gwinn's three thousand hit last game of his career,
Speaker 1: which was my last in San Diego. But I went
Speaker 1: to a bookstore in San Diego, Warwick's well known bookstore,
Speaker 1: where cal Ripken was signing the book. I went down
Speaker 1: to see cow and say hello, and I was talking
Speaker 1: with John Maroon, who was the pr director to the team,
Speaker 1: and we figured out that I was the only person
Speaker 1: not only in the universal, the world or anywhere, to
Speaker 1: a broadcast for both Ripken and Tony Glenn and to
Speaker 1: call Ripken's record setting game when he broke through Garrett's
Speaker 1: record and Tony Gwinn's the three thousand hit, and both
Speaker 1: of them were going in the Hall of Fame that
Speaker 1: year two thousand seven. So I paid my own way
Speaker 1: back to Cooperstown and said, I'm just gonna experience this.
Speaker 1: It's a one of a lifetime thing, and almost say
Speaker 1: if I can write a book about it. So that's
Speaker 1: how it began. I just kind of went from there
Speaker 1: and thought, looking back on my career, how much I'd
Speaker 1: enjoyed it. But I started from the big I think,
Speaker 1: I just, you know, give a chronical chronological history of
Speaker 1: what I had done, and it turned up to be
Speaker 1: a book. Yeah, And you were around Ripken and Gwynn.
Speaker 1: I was around Tony a little bit, uh and he
Speaker 1: was like the coolest star most you know, down the
Speaker 1: earth star that I recalled being around in those days
Speaker 1: because he just seemed to have a really good perspective
Speaker 1: on on everything. What was it like being around him
Speaker 1: with the Padres in those days. Ah, he was the best,
Speaker 1: one of the best human beings God ever made. Unfortunately
Speaker 1: lost him too early. And you know, but he was.
Speaker 1: He was so talented, such a wonderful person. Um. One
Speaker 1: of my favorite Tony Gwen stories is my son was
Speaker 1: in high school at the time and he was playing
Speaker 1: baseball and he was in a slump. He wasn't hitting.
Speaker 1: So mord Rettenan was the Podres hitting coach and I said,
Speaker 1: lord of my son's had a whole trouble with his hitting,
Speaker 1: but you help him out. He said, sure, bring him
Speaker 1: in Sunday in the morning before a game and I'll
Speaker 1: help it. So I brought my son in. We went
Speaker 1: down to the batting cages inside the stadium and Tony
Speaker 1: Groom was already there at about nine o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 1: and they had played a late game the night before,
Speaker 1: and he was Tony working up a sweat in the
Speaker 1: batting cage swing Balay early the morning when all of
Speaker 1: his teammates are probably sound asleep. And I remember saying,
Speaker 1: I said, Tony, what what are you doing here? And
Speaker 1: they were playing Seattle that night, so he said, I'm
Speaker 1: trying to figure out a way to hit Randy Johnson
Speaker 1: the big unit, but he was one of the few
Speaker 1: guys who gave Tony's trouble. But that's how dedicated Tony
Speaker 1: was to his craft to be there early in the
Speaker 1: morning after a night game the night before, and that
Speaker 1: just showed the kind of person he was. And by
Speaker 1: the way, morv did help my son get out of
Speaker 1: the slump. But always impressed about Tony. Yeah, and now
Speaker 1: you were in with the oils felt were you there
Speaker 1: when they had that one star? When you're there? They oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: what do you? What do you do as a broadcaster
Speaker 1: when you're already buried a month into the season, Like,
Speaker 1: how do you? How do you? How did you handle
Speaker 1: that night? Was I think was the year in the tea?
Speaker 1: How walked me through what that was like as a broadcast?
Speaker 1: It's painful thing back on it. But they were, you know,
Speaker 1: they were losing in every possible way, being there or
Speaker 1: here or hit bast on the bases, loaded or fan
Speaker 1: interference or I mean any thing you could imagine that
Speaker 1: They just kept losing and losing. And I remember John
Speaker 1: lowinstyme my partners, saying to me, he said, you know
Speaker 1: the best thing that could happen to this team is
Speaker 1: they keep losing because if they win a game, people
Speaker 1: are gonna stop covering them. But the more they lost,
Speaker 1: the more the coverage in East and there were writers
Speaker 1: and reporters showing up from everywhere including Japan. I think
Speaker 1: that the chronicle this team going one start this season.
Speaker 1: It was just unreal. And uh, I can still remember
Speaker 1: a picture of Billy Ripton leaning on his bat with
Speaker 1: his forehead on his novel of his bat and looking
Speaker 1: just so sad during that time. Um, but it's amazing
Speaker 1: what happened. They were all in twenty one and they
Speaker 1: came back after finally winning a game, and Larry Latino
Speaker 1: was president of the team and he had been working
Speaker 1: UH with ed were Benn Williams, who owned the team,
Speaker 1: and the mayor of Baltimore on a on an agreement
Speaker 1: to get a new stadium built. So when the team
Speaker 1: came back into town they finally won a game to
Speaker 1: end the losing street, they made this dramatic announcement about
Speaker 1: the new stadium, which turned out to be calmed in
Speaker 1: the arts. So they turned into an amazing positive and
Speaker 1: the next year in they came within a few days
Speaker 1: of winning American League ease, Yes, it was. It was
Speaker 1: a great turner. And that eight Oil team for those
Speaker 1: that are young and don't I mean they had a
Speaker 1: Hall of famer Cal Ripken, Eddie Murray was on that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: a young Kurt Schilling who was not a Hall of
Speaker 1: Famer but a very good player, and Chilling, Brady Anderson.
Speaker 1: Um yeah, and and still owing twenty one to start
Speaker 1: the year. But uh no, just a word of advice
Speaker 1: that if somebody breaking in right now, what would you
Speaker 1: say to a young broadcaster who wants to, as I
Speaker 1: said earlier, following your footsteps, what advice would you give
Speaker 1: him go out and win twenty games or win a
Speaker 1: Heisman trophy? That does help? I yeah, I mean it is.
Speaker 1: It is difficult for a guy without your professionally always, right,
Speaker 1: I mean it's very you know, I deal with the
Speaker 1: same thing in my you know, doing sports radio. It's
Speaker 1: you know, it's a little a little difficult. But it
Speaker 1: is also networking, right, I mean, you got to know
Speaker 1: people and you did a great thing. As you said,
Speaker 1: you started in the NFL films. You networked. That's a
Speaker 1: big dealt of it too, right. You gotta meet people
Speaker 1: and usually the people you start out with, the people
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, end up, you know, moving up, and
Speaker 1: then they can help you out, right, he had to
Speaker 1: some degree. But when I got the Bullets job, I
Speaker 1: was working in Hawaii and I used to have a
Speaker 1: game called the Rainbow Classic where they bring in teams
Speaker 1: from all over the country to play. And all the
Speaker 1: NBA general managers would would use this as an excuse,
Speaker 1: you take a tripto Hawaii party for a week. And
Speaker 1: so I you know, I hung out with these guys
Speaker 1: and I got to know them. So in the case
Speaker 1: of Washington team, Bob Perry was a general out at
Speaker 1: your well, I heard about this opening in Washington. I
Speaker 1: I called Bob and I said, you know, there's this job.
Speaker 1: There's an involved played by played for the Bullets And
Speaker 1: he said, yes, do you want to do it? And
Speaker 1: I said hell yes, he said all right, So he
Speaker 1: made a call and I had a lot to do
Speaker 1: with my getting iron absolutely all right, and again promote
Speaker 1: the pull out the book, the audio book, and uh,
Speaker 1: how can people find it? And he said only ten bucks? Right,
Speaker 1: that's a good that's the deal. They love your work.
Speaker 1: I love the work. Hate the business is the name
Speaker 1: of it, and again where can they find it now? Uh,
Speaker 1: it's a audible Amazon or iTunes? All right? So where
Speaker 1: do you get your audio books your audio content there?
Speaker 1: And where do you go to? W w www dot
Speaker 1: audible dot com? All right, Amazon obviously, Yeah, And then
Speaker 1: what do you want? What have you been up to you?
Speaker 1: I mean, I haven't talked to him about you would
Speaker 1: do for those I was around you with you doing
Speaker 1: the Clippers. You actually ended up doing the l A Clippers.
Speaker 1: You did some some work with the clips, and I
Speaker 1: was around you a little bit then. But what have
Speaker 1: you been up to recently? You're living in San Diego, right,
Speaker 1: You're enjoying life. Is a beautiful place to live, wonderful city,
Speaker 1: the whole thing. Oh yeah, uh yeah. I I did
Speaker 1: the Clippers for three years and I probably was stayed forever,
Speaker 1: but they weren't paying me much and so I had
Speaker 1: a chance to go to Washington to be the first
Speaker 1: television voice of the Washington Nationals. But it was only
Speaker 1: a one year deal because the team had no ownership.
Speaker 1: They were being run by Major League Baseball, so they
Speaker 1: could only offer a one year contract. And uh, looking
Speaker 1: back on it, it was a mistake, but I took
Speaker 1: the job and went there and had a ball working
Speaker 1: with Ron Darling went on to have a great career
Speaker 1: as a good friend. But that's where things pretty much ended.
Speaker 1: And so I just, you know, came back here. I
Speaker 1: wrote another book about Gene Mark, former major league manager,
Speaker 1: and well did it. Little list little that did some
Speaker 1: college games for the University of Y and a few
Speaker 1: other things. But basically I'm just ticked back now and
Speaker 1: spending time with my dogs and trying to think of
Speaker 1: another book to write. There you go, you gotta come
Speaker 1: up with another. And when you come up with the book, Mail,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have you back. We're gonna sell the book, Bell,
Speaker 1: We're gonna move a product for your mail, is what
Speaker 1: we're gonna do. Okay, all right, Well, don't forg you.
Speaker 1: We've got official fans guide to the Fugitive. I love
Speaker 1: to work when I hate the business and the little
Speaker 1: general baseball life of Gene Mark, which is very interesting. Awesome. Hey, no, thanks,
Speaker 1: thanks for your time. I appreciate it, and we'll catch
Speaker 1: up again soon. Thank you. Then, anytime, it's been a pleasure.
Speaker 1: Thank you.