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Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio Breaking News.

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump does not own the White House. Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: does not own the United States of America. Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: does not own the world. Nothing Trump has done in

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Speaker 1: sending in thugs and military to attack people that did

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Speaker 1: not vote for him in cities and states that do

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Speaker 1: not support him is legal. Nothing Trump has done in

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Speaker 1: having his nosferatu Stephen Miller threatened Governor Pritzker of Illinois

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Speaker 1: with seditious conspiracy is legal. Nothing Trump has done in

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Speaker 1: his attempt to begin ethnic cleansing of Hispanics in this

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Speaker 1: country Gestapo like raids, kidnappings, deportations is legal. Nothing Trump

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Speaker 1: has done in sending so called election monitors to interfere

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Speaker 1: in the voting in California and Jersey on behalf of

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Speaker 1: the MAGA is legal. Nothing Trump has done to enable

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Speaker 1: the passive self neutering of the House and Senate is legal.

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Speaker 1: Nothing Trump has done to let him say, supposedly jokingly

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Speaker 1: for The New York Times yesterday, I'm the Speaker and

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Speaker 1: the President is legal. Nothing Trump has done in his

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Speaker 1: demolition against destruction of attack on the East Wing of

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Speaker 1: the White House is legal. Nothing Trump has done in

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Speaker 1: murdering citizens of other nations in international waters without evidence

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Speaker 1: and without a declaration of war, without any congressional oversight.

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Speaker 1: None of that is legal. Nothing he has done to

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Speaker 1: send battleships to Latin America is legal. Nothing he has

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Speaker 1: done to accept money from international sources for himself and

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Speaker 1: his family is legal. Nothing he has done to try

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Speaker 1: to buy the election for the fascist Malay in Argentina

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Speaker 1: is legal. Nothing Trump has done in selling one hundred

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Speaker 1: and thirty million dollars worth of influence in the army

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Speaker 1: to someone aptly described as a weirdo Nepo baby is legal.

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Speaker 1: Almost nothing about the Trump administration, about his presidency, about

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Speaker 1: his forming unilateral dictatorship, is legal, and thus it is

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Speaker 1: time to cut him off financially, to take the one

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Speaker 1: measure that will force an end to this trumpion madness

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Speaker 1: for the Blue States to follow up on Governor Newsom's suggestion,

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Speaker 1: on the suggestion of others including me in this forum,

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Speaker 1: and stop transmitting federal taxes from the States to the

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Speaker 1: National Treasury until Trump resigns as president period. We must

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Speaker 1: have a state led tax payment boycott, and it must

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Speaker 1: be led by governors and other state officials, so that

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Speaker 1: there can be no attempt by Trump or his enablers

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Speaker 1: and flunkies and whorees to prosecute or further threaten democracy

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Speaker 1: loving civilians. For more than our two hundred and fifty

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Speaker 1: years as a nation, we have proudly recited the phrase

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Speaker 1: no taxation without representation, and it is pastime to apply

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Speaker 1: it here. And it is essential that governors like Newsom

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Speaker 1: and Pritzker and Hokel and others in the majority states

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Speaker 1: protect their citizens who are being subject to taxation without

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Speaker 1: representation and without democracy, and for them the governors to

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Speaker 1: take responsibility for these acts. The state of California must

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Speaker 1: refuse to send any funds it can control to Washington.

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Speaker 1: The state of Illinois must refuse to send any funds

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Speaker 1: it can control to Washington. The state of New York

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Speaker 1: must refuse to send any funds it can control to Washington.

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Speaker 1: And if it wrecks the world economy, so be it.

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Speaker 1: That will be better than what we have now and

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Speaker 1: what is coming under Trump. Donald Trump is now a

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Speaker 1: rogue dictator. He is almost completely and fully outside the law.

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Speaker 1: He is engorging himself with public funds. He is insisting

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Speaker 1: the government fix the twenty twenty election when it was

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Speaker 1: his government and everybody he has demanded be prosecuted for it,

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Speaker 1: except as FBI director was not in the government in

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty. That's how effing crazy this ass whole is.

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Speaker 1: He is destroying not just government buildings without any legal authorization,

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Speaker 1: He is destroying symbols of the American nation without any

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Speaker 1: legal authorization. He is deranging our public discourse. He is

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Speaker 1: destroying our public safety. He is threatening the lives of

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Speaker 1: everyone in this country and the only that works in America.

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Speaker 1: Right now, money used as a weapon must be used

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Speaker 1: to freeze him where he stands so that this nation

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Speaker 1: can roll back the years and decades of damage he

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Speaker 1: has done. Now now, now dfund Donald Trump. That quote

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Speaker 1: I mentioned from the New York Times story yesterday, quote,

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Speaker 1: I'm the speaker and the president, mister Trump has joked.

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Speaker 1: According to two people who heard the remark, that may

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Speaker 1: be the least surprising news item of the year. But

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Speaker 1: seeing Maga go on the record in that Time story,

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Speaker 1: Steve Bannon is quoted. Representatives Kylie and Van Dine are

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Speaker 1: quoted seeing him go on the record to carve up

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Speaker 1: Mike tiny flaccid Johnson suggests Trump is not only forcing

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Speaker 1: this impotent Johnson to do all the dirty work, but

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Speaker 1: then blaming him for the inevitable results. I have no

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Speaker 1: sympathy for Johnson. This is the hell he has created

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Speaker 1: for himself. It's just interesting, as in, He's going to

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Speaker 1: throw Johnson overboard soon, isn't he. We're going to go

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Speaker 1: through all that again with the Speaker of the House. Now,

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Speaker 1: the headline today should not be that. It should be

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Speaker 1: this story that Trump is sending election observers to New

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Speaker 1: Jersey and California. It's straight up Jim Crow Southern voter intimidation.

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Speaker 1: But I can understand and give a pass to the

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Speaker 1: fact that it's difficult to pick out the headline from

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Speaker 1: this kaleidoscope of shit Trump drops on us all every day.

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Speaker 1: I'm beginning to suspect the video was not AI hell,

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Speaker 1: I didn't lead with the election observers. Plus, it is

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Speaker 1: tough when you realize Trump announces he's building an arc

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Speaker 1: the election observers in a moment, let's let's let's let's

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Speaker 1: talk arc. I don't know if he's crazy enough to

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Speaker 1: think he's building Noah's arc. I don't know if he's

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Speaker 1: crazy enough to think he's building a space arc like

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Speaker 1: Musk wants. I don't know if he's crazy enough to

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Speaker 1: think the word arch A R C H, common everyday

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Speaker 1: English word like the thing he wants to build to

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Speaker 1: march troops through in DC. The arc to Trump, I

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Speaker 1: don't know which crazy it is. He thinks it's arc

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Speaker 1: as in French, but it's arch. But he says he's

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Speaker 1: building an R and he's going to illegally spend some

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Speaker 1: of the illegal money for the illegal ballroom on this

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Speaker 1: illegal arc. You think I'm exaggerating.

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Speaker 2: You know, we're building the arc, and maybe we use

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Speaker 2: it for the arc. Looks like we might. You know,

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Speaker 2: we're going to be building the arc now. We've raised

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Speaker 2: a lot of money for the ballroom, so maybe we'll

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Speaker 2: But the ARC is going to be incredible for Washington, DCA,

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Speaker 2: so maybe we use it for the arc.

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Speaker 1: So you're building an arc, hi, buddy? Okay, how many

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Speaker 1: things a week does Trump say that we get anybody

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Speaker 1: else in this country forcibly committed. Then there is the

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Speaker 1: latest on the ballroom and the destruction of part of

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Speaker 1: the White House. You know, Trump bringing to fruition the

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Speaker 1: nine to eleven terrorist plot of Osama bin Laden the

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Speaker 1: new ballroom and airplane hangar. It's going to cost two

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Speaker 1: hundred million. Oh no, t oh no, three hundred Oh,

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Speaker 1: I said three hundred and fifty. But it's privately funded

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Speaker 1: with corporate bribes, meaning it's fine because it's privately funded.

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Speaker 1: But of course No Kings is a communist plot because

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Speaker 1: some of the logistics for it were privately funded. Privately

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Speaker 1: funded communism. Plus, what is the problem about how much

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Speaker 1: it's gonna cost? A woman named Cheryl Cassone on Fox,

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Speaker 1: who once was an actual CNBC business reporter and is

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Speaker 1: now at the I'll say anything to stay in the

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Speaker 1: TV business stage, emitted this perfectly symmetrical sophistry in defense

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Speaker 1: of what are certain to be endless cost overruns on

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Speaker 1: the only building big enough to house Trump's ego quote

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Speaker 1: that going after him about the cost. Initially he said

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Speaker 1: it was going to be two hundred million. Now it's

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Speaker 1: like three hundred million. Oh no, construction cost, You're higher

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Speaker 1: than what the original budget or quote was shocking. Let's

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Speaker 1: call the National Guard in give me a break unquote

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Speaker 1: national Guard, you say, miss Cassone. Interesting reference. Trump does

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Speaker 1: call in the National Guard for everything else. Why isn't

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Speaker 1: he calling in the National Guard here? It's only fifty

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Speaker 1: seventy five percent over the cost Social Security has been

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Speaker 1: cut passive aggressively. Starting in January, the cost of living

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Speaker 1: adjustment will be two point eight percent. The average annual

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Speaker 1: increase in the last decade had been three point one percent,

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Speaker 1: so it's ten percent less and with inflation at three percent,

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Speaker 1: Trump has just made seventy one million Americans ten percent poor.

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Speaker 1: Seventeen million Americans will pay thirty percent more for the

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Speaker 1: Trump version of Obamacare. He makes billionss arches and ballrooms.

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Speaker 1: We pay thousands. We sent twenty billion to try to

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Speaker 1: save Milay of Argentina without even getting a guarantee that

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Speaker 1: he's going to get a grown up haircut, one that

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Speaker 1: would make him not look like the late great comedian

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Speaker 1: Marty Allen. Google Marty Allen. It'll be worth it. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: and he's declared he can kill people at whim, murder them,

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Speaker 1: but happily they're just foreigners right now. Anyway, if you

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Speaker 1: are declaring war against these cartels, and Congress is likely

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Speaker 1: to approve of that process, why not just ask for

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Speaker 1: a declaration of war.

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Speaker 2: Well, I don't think we're going to necessarily ask for

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Speaker 2: a declaration of war. I think we're just going to

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Speaker 2: kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. Okay,

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Speaker 2: we're going to kill them.

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Speaker 1: You know, they're going to be like dead. He can't.

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Speaker 1: By the way, those will be war crimes. All the

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Speaker 1: next president has to do is turn him over to

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Speaker 1: the International Court. I really would like to see one

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Speaker 1: of the hopefuls on the democratic side swear right now

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Speaker 1: that they will turn him over to the international Court.

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Speaker 1: This whole idea about moderation and don't run against Trump

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Speaker 1: is bullshit. It is deliberately designed by people whose money

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Speaker 1: depends on the infrastructure of politics continuing unchanged. Doesn't matter

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Speaker 1: if we're fascist, communist, democratic, doesn't matter who's in charge,

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Speaker 1: just as long as all of their jobs at the

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Speaker 1: Washington Post still exists or at the State Department. There

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Speaker 1: is a deep state. It is not nefarious. It is

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Speaker 1: simply self preserving. Do not say, oh, we need to

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Speaker 1: be moderate Democrats, don't run against Trump. The guy who

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Speaker 1: says I will put Trump behind bars, come hell or

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Speaker 1: high water is the one who gets the nomination. And

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Speaker 1: I'm using guy generally. Man, woman, I don't care. Speaking

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Speaker 1: of which, there's Harmeit Dillon, who also should be turned

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Speaker 1: over to the International Court. One of the worst of

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Speaker 1: the Trumpsts, a tenth rate lawyer used to represent Tulsey

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Speaker 1: skunk Air Gabbard is now in charge of civil rights

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Speaker 1: at the DOJ that would be protecting white people from

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Speaker 1: laws the civil rights It's her department that will be

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Speaker 1: asked to monitor polling sites in Passaic County, New Jersey,

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Speaker 1: and five California counties La, Orange, Kern, Riverside, and Fresno

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Speaker 1: to quote insure transparency, ballot security and compliance with federal law.

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Speaker 1: In other words, those counties that did not vote Republican

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Speaker 1: and Trump wants monitors there will they be accompanied by

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Speaker 1: the National Guard, and the monitors and whoever is with

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Speaker 1: them will intimidate Democratic voters. Just a coincidence that California

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Speaker 1: will be voting on redrawing the election map. In recent elections,

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Speaker 1: we have received reports of irregularities in these counties that

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Speaker 1: we fear will undermine either the willingness of voters to

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Speaker 1: participate in the election or their confidence in the announced

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Speaker 1: results of the election, writes the MAGA GOP chairwoman Korn

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Speaker 1: Rankin of California. I'll translate that from MAGA to English.

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Speaker 1: The irregularities are Republicans can't win in those counties. There

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Speaker 1: aren't enough of them. This is how voting works. You

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Speaker 1: have more votes, you win. So the translation is we

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Speaker 1: can't win, so we have to fix the election. You

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Speaker 1: want to send election observers into New Jersey to find

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Speaker 1: out why the Republicans keep running candidates even worse than

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Speaker 1: the Democrats find in New Jersey, I'll listen to that intervention.

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Speaker 1: As to California, korn Rankin, shove it up up your ass.

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Speaker 1: One note from twenty twenty two and twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: The DOJ wanted to send monitors to actual troubled voting areas.

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Speaker 1: They were prevented prevented by local officials local Republican officials

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Speaker 1: in Missouri and Florida. As to California and Jersey, governor's

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Speaker 1: Newsom and Murphy should get on the jump here, call

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Speaker 1: out the National Guard in their states and arrest the

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Speaker 1: quote election observers as soon as they get off the plane,

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Speaker 1: or if they're not going by plane, climb out of

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Speaker 1: the closest HARMEI Dylan Sewer in a totally different kind

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Speaker 1: of election observation Here is my observation about the main

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Speaker 1: Senate election. Graham Plattner had to drop out last week.

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Speaker 1: He did not. He has to drop out even more

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Speaker 1: this week. Yes, he has a Nazi tattoo. He's covered

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Speaker 1: it up. Now, the Nazi tattoo did not bother as

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Speaker 1: many many people as I thought it was gonna. I

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Speaker 1: had to admit surprise there. I'm not easily surprised anymore.

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Speaker 1: But how about this? Does this bother anybody? It looks

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Speaker 1: like he lied about not knowing it was a Nazi

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Speaker 1: symbol in his tattoo on his body. Get out. His

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Speaker 1: supporters renounced him, including Bernie Sanders, renounce Graham Plattner. Graham

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Speaker 1: Platner has no judgment, no hesitation to lie his way

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Speaker 1: out of a problem. We already have enough people like that.

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Speaker 1: CNN reported that he knew about it more than a

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Speaker 1: decade ago, talked about it, wrote about it online. I'll

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Speaker 1: just read the k file report quote. Jewish Insider first

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Speaker 1: reported about the former acquaintance who recalled Platner referring to

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Speaker 1: the image as my totin cough unquote in a joking way.

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Speaker 1: More than a decade ago. CNN spoke with that same

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Speaker 1: acquaintance who reiterated the recollection. CNN also spoke with an

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Speaker 1: acquaintance of Platner for more than a decade ago, who

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Speaker 1: said Platner spoke about his tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol.

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Speaker 1: A second person told CNN that they learned of the

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Speaker 1: tattoo years ago from the acquaintance, who told them that

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Speaker 1: Platner had described it as a Nazi style design. CNN

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Speaker 1: also reviewed a text chain between the acquaintance and another

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Speaker 1: person discussing Platner's Nazi liank tattoo several months ago before

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Speaker 1: the story became public, using to continue the CNN report

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Speaker 1: his longtime Reddit handle p Hustle. The former Marine infantryryman

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Speaker 1: and future Democratic Senate hopeful, also argued in a twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty online discussion that SS lightning bolt tattoos were a

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Speaker 1: culture marker within Marine Scout sniper units, not an expression

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Speaker 1: of white supremacist ideology. When commenters in the twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: thread described the lightning bolts as a Nazi or racist symbol,

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Speaker 1: Platnir dismissed the criticism, writing that outsiders quote have no

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Speaker 1: idea what they're talking about, and added I will be

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Speaker 1: sure to inform the black guys I know with bolts

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Speaker 1: that they're Nazis now, so the symbol he didn't know

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Speaker 1: was believed to be was interpreted as was a Nazi

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Speaker 1: symbol he was denying was a Nazi symbol five years

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Speaker 1: ago and making reference to the word Nazi. If somehow

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Speaker 1: you still don't think this is disqualifying or that there's

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Speaker 1: some kind of other explanation, let me ask you this.

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Speaker 1: The guy's response to the story breaking was to cover

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Speaker 1: it up figuratively first then literally, So what's the next story,

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Speaker 1: and what's he going to do about that story? And

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Speaker 1: who knows that story? Right now? Who knows that story

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Speaker 1: and is just saving it so it can be used

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Speaker 1: at the right moment to give us another six years

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Speaker 1: of Susan fing Collins Now another edition of It's called

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Speaker 1: a news medium because it's neither rare nor well done.

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Speaker 1: Bill Maher, Olivia newsy Comcast, Cheryl Hines, Brett Bhar, Brett

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Speaker 1: Behar first to CBS to do the CBS Evening News,

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Speaker 1: the latest ratings at Fox for the Brett Baer News

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Speaker 1: Propaganda caston eight hundred and sixty two thousand viewers. Latest

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Speaker 1: CBS Evening News viewership three million, six hundred and sixty

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Speaker 1: one thousand. If there is one move to make to

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Speaker 1: kill off the CBS Evening News before the end of

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Speaker 1: the year, maybe it is to alienate the audience which

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Speaker 1: agrees with its producers, whether or not you or I do.

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Speaker 1: Aliena the audience which agrees with its producers that the

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Speaker 1: CBS Evening News is a good and politically accurate or

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Speaker 1: politically neutral newscast. Alienate them by putting on someone scene

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Speaker 1: as a right wing nutjob who is quoted in the

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Speaker 1: lawsuits which Fox had to settle for umpteen million dollars

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Speaker 1: as an unapologetic, utterly biased right wing propagandist. TV executives

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Speaker 1: experienced TV executives, not the dozens of Barry Weiss's who

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Speaker 1: have been put in charge only to fail almost immediately,

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Speaker 1: the ones who come and go every eighteen months or so.

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Speaker 1: Somewhere in television. They have always believed that an audience

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Speaker 1: can be picked up and moved from one network to

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Speaker 1: the other without losing any viewers. It's madness. This is

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Speaker 1: why they hired Megan Kelly at NBC. Look at all

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Speaker 1: those viewers will get years before they'd hired Rita from

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Speaker 1: Fox News on the weekends and said, look at her

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Speaker 1: numbers on the weekends. They're bigger than our numbers on

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Speaker 1: the week We'll put her on MSNBC and she'll get

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Speaker 1: those numbers. She didn't get those numbers because she was

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Speaker 1: any good. She got those numbers because she was on Fox.

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Speaker 1: It is madness. We're gonna move that audience from one

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Speaker 1: network to another. We're gonna move Brett Beher's audience to CBS.

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Speaker 1: It's like deciding you're gonna move a river by picking

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Speaker 1: up the water in the palms of your hands. Thirty

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Speaker 1: years ago, when ESPN launched ESPN two, the thought was

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Speaker 1: all the younger viewers in America, all the sports fans

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Speaker 1: under say thirty five, they're gonna go watch the new

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Speaker 1: hip ESPN two. You can tell it's hip, it has

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Speaker 1: two in it. Well, just before we launched ESPN two,

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Speaker 1: the executive who postulated this, who, by the way, was

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Speaker 1: not originally television. He was a newspaper and magazine guy.

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Speaker 1: He had many good eydea is, but probably ninety seven

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Speaker 1: out of one hundred of them were disasters. The other

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Speaker 1: three put them in the Hall of fame. But this

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Speaker 1: executive postulated that it would be a great idea that

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Speaker 1: we should start a network for fans under thirty five.

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Speaker 1: He asked me if I knew which program in all

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Speaker 1: of television Hall already had that audience. Which program, he

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Speaker 1: asked me, in all of television has the audience with

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Speaker 1: the highest percentage of its viewers who are under thirty five.

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Speaker 1: I said, I assumed that had to be some show

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Speaker 1: on MTV, and the executive laughed and proudly said, No,

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Speaker 1: it's your show, the eleven PM SportsCenter. I thought for

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Speaker 1: a second, and then I said, wait, that's the show

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Speaker 1: you're taking me off to go do this You already have.

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Speaker 1: We already have the audience under the age of thirty five,

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Speaker 1: and they're watching me on the show I'm doing now.

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Speaker 1: They live at SportsCenter, and you're going to start at

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Speaker 1: ESPN two, and you're kicking them out of SportsCenter and

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Speaker 1: kicking me out of SportsCenter and expecting us to go

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Speaker 1: watch this new thing. Most of them don't even get

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Speaker 1: on their cable systems. You already have these viewers, and

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Speaker 1: you just told them to get lost, and you just

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Speaker 1: paid me more money to go do this other show

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Speaker 1: to get the audience we already have. He paused, and

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Speaker 1: then a blank look crossed his face, which was pretty

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Speaker 1: blank to begin with, and he said, hmm, I have

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Speaker 1: to go make a few phone calls. I was back

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Speaker 1: on SportsCenter seven months later. I know Bret Bhar a

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Speaker 1: little bit. He's not a journalist. He thinks he's a journalist.

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Speaker 1: He might be tempted to go anchor the CBS Evening

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Speaker 1: News because Cronkite did, unless he thinks about it. And

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Speaker 1: while he is not a journalist, he's also not a moron.

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Speaker 1: I am not convinced I can say that about Barry

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Speaker 1: Weiss and the people who just took over CBS News, who,

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Speaker 1: if they put a right wing ideologue in the anchor chair,

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Speaker 1: will be able to lose even more money more quickly

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Speaker 1: than anybody believes possible. Meanwhile, over at NBC, Comcast has

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Speaker 1: been identified as one of the firms playing for Trump's

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Speaker 1: ballroom and memorial airplane hangar, paying and playing, but playing

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Speaker 1: that makes NBC News and MSNBC and CNBC and all

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Speaker 1: the rest untrustworthy. That is what Bob Eiger bought for

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Speaker 1: ABC News. Then he swerved away somewhat anyway over the

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Speaker 1: Kimmel and Disney plus subscriptions disaster. He may have avoided

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Speaker 1: the acts CBS has not. It already went there irretrievably.

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Speaker 1: But the question is comcast in. They're right on the precipice.

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Speaker 1: Does a company, especially a company that does news for

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Speaker 1: money in many different venues, does it have the right

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Speaker 1: to pay a bribe in order to avoid unjustifiable and

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Speaker 1: retaliatory prosecution. I'm not sure the answer is no. If

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Speaker 1: there is no other way to save yourself from getting shot,

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Speaker 1: do you give the hold up man the money? The

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Speaker 1: key is, is there no other way? Bill Maher In

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Speaker 1: the New York Mayor's race, my old college frenemie has

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Speaker 1: endorsed the sheep in sheep's clothing. Andrew Cuomo may not

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Speaker 1: be that exciting, mar said, and that inspirational, but for

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Speaker 1: a party that said we want to go back to normal,

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Speaker 1: he's kind of normal. Yeah, yeah, Bill, You hear the

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Speaker 1: word normal a lot when people mention Cuomo. Guests then

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Speaker 1: pointed out that Cuomo resigned as governor of New York.

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Speaker 1: A federal investigation concluded that he had been a sex

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Speaker 1: pest or worse to at least thirteen female staffers. Plus

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Speaker 1: there were all those dead people in the nursing homes.

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Speaker 1: That's not normal for a governor. Bill mar said, Oh no,

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Speaker 1: I did my own research before having Cuomo on his show.

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Speaker 1: Quote a lot of it's kind of bullshit. I mean,

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Speaker 1: maybe he was a little too handsy, a little too Italian,

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Speaker 1: a little too touchy. You know. Why would Bill Maher

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Speaker 1: defend Cuomo and dismiss all of that and those thirteen

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Speaker 1: women with the phrase maybe he was a little too handsy. Well,

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Speaker 1: take a guess. Also, it's time to confess for the

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Speaker 1: last six or seven years that I would go to

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Speaker 1: LA to appear on Bill Mahers show, like the yearsenty

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Speaker 1: ten to twenty seventeen, I did it. I did it because,

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Speaker 1: as many of my fellow guests would admit to one another,

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Speaker 1: but only out of earshot. Maybe we're in the parking

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Speaker 1: lot going to have a smoke or something. We went

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Speaker 1: because because they spent money, they would fly us round

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Speaker 1: trip from the East Coast first class. Hell. I used

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Speaker 1: to plan my business trips and vacations around it. I'm sorry. Plus,

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Speaker 1: back to the hands the part when I went on

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Speaker 1: his old ABC show. An acquaintance who was one of

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Speaker 1: the producers who had called me and asked me to

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Speaker 1: be on it, told me, whatever I did, do not

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Speaker 1: shake Bill's hand before we taped. He's he's probably uh.

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Speaker 1: Took her a long time to get the rest of

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Speaker 1: her remark out. He he's probably uh just warmed up,

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Speaker 1: if you get my meaning. But they flew us first

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00:28:12,675 --> 00:28:17,355
Speaker 1: class on the same subject and not the airplane part.

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Speaker 1: How do insane confidence men and alleged on camera masturbators

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Speaker 1: like Robert Kennedy Junior survive? Let alone succeed because a

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Speaker 1: thousand people on the fringes do nothing about him. One

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Speaker 1: of those people is Cheryl Hines. She went on the

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Speaker 1: podcast of the Almost as Strange, wife of Stephen Miller

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Speaker 1: Katie Miller, who asked her about quote rumors or speculation

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Speaker 1: about her marriage. Miller was asking about how much her

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Speaker 1: husband f surround.

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Speaker 2: Ms.

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Speaker 1: Hines, who I do not know, answered in perfect Stepford

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Speaker 1: wife manner. I think you always have to consider the source, right,

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Speaker 1: So that's where I start. Then Miller asked about my

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Speaker 1: ex Olivia. The denial doubled quote. Bobby had been running

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Speaker 1: for president and it was an exhausting year and a

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Speaker 1: half of headlines and rumors and articles in chaos, and

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Speaker 1: at that time I thought, Okay, this is more chaos

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Speaker 1: and more rumors, and it was a lot. I don't

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Speaker 1: know this person, don't know their intentions. I could guess,

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Speaker 1: but I won't, but you can if you want. Cheryl

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00:29:29,795 --> 00:29:36,595
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if you know her. It matters that Kennedy

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Speaker 1: knows her and how he knows her. How close to

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Speaker 1: the Biblical knows is this? And consider the source. You're

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Speaker 1: married to Bobby Kennedy Junior, possibly the worst source in

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Speaker 1: America next to Trump. But consider the source. I don't.

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Speaker 1: I think perhaps I've noted here that I'm not attacking

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Speaker 1: my ex, but I'm certainly not carrying water for her.

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Speaker 1: But consider the there's a publisher putting out her book.

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Speaker 1: The publisher can be sued if any of her allegations

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Speaker 1: are untrue, and she is going to go into the

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Speaker 1: whole Kennedy thing. And then there's her more recent ex

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Speaker 1: whom she did sue, who she tried to get arrested,

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Speaker 1: and then something happened and suddenly she wasn't suing him,

428
00:30:31,555 --> 00:30:33,915
Speaker 1: and she was quote leaving her job, and oh, the

429
00:30:33,995 --> 00:30:36,395
Speaker 1: FBI was no longer involved, and we all know what

430
00:30:36,475 --> 00:30:39,755
Speaker 1: that something had happened had to have been to get

431
00:30:39,755 --> 00:30:44,755
Speaker 1: her to drop all the theatrics. That's something that had

432
00:30:44,755 --> 00:30:48,275
Speaker 1: to have happened that provided all those exquisite details and

433
00:30:48,475 --> 00:30:54,195
Speaker 1: quotes about her interactions with Kennedy and all the I

434
00:30:54,275 --> 00:30:59,435
Speaker 1: want to impregnate you stuff and the other stuff that

435
00:30:59,675 --> 00:31:01,835
Speaker 1: led me to say, I'm still grossed out. And I

436
00:31:01,875 --> 00:31:09,875
Speaker 1: lived with her for three years. Somebody has a transcript

437
00:31:10,075 --> 00:31:18,155
Speaker 1: of or more likely a recording of them on on

438
00:31:18,475 --> 00:31:30,755
Speaker 1: FaceTime or some part of the body time. Hey, you

439
00:31:33,675 --> 00:31:38,635
Speaker 1: also of interest here, Anna Paulina Luna? Could she be

440
00:31:38,875 --> 00:31:42,955
Speaker 1: the dumbest Republican congresswoman? What do your rankings look like?

441
00:31:43,235 --> 00:31:48,075
Speaker 1: How is your bracket? Could she really be dimmer than McCain,

442
00:31:49,795 --> 00:31:54,795
Speaker 1: McLain that was a Freudian slip, Bobert Green and the others?

443
00:31:55,395 --> 00:31:58,635
Speaker 1: Could she be dumber than them combined? Let's ask the

444
00:31:58,635 --> 00:32:03,555
Speaker 1: California congressman with whom Anna Paulina Luna had an online

445
00:32:03,595 --> 00:32:06,595
Speaker 1: fight over the funds for No Kings. All right, we

446
00:32:06,795 --> 00:32:09,795
Speaker 1: can't ask the California congressman with whom she had an

447
00:32:09,795 --> 00:32:12,835
Speaker 1: online fight over the funding for No Kings Because, unbeknownst

448
00:32:12,835 --> 00:32:16,115
Speaker 1: to Anna Paulina Luna, the California congressman with whom she

449
00:32:16,155 --> 00:32:18,515
Speaker 1: had an online fight over the funding for No Kings,

450
00:32:18,875 --> 00:32:23,515
Speaker 1: does not actually exist. He's a satirical character and she

451
00:32:23,675 --> 00:32:32,395
Speaker 1: doesn't know this. That's next. This is Countdown. This is

452
00:32:32,515 --> 00:32:57,835
Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Oberman still ahead on this episode of Countdown.

453
00:32:57,875 --> 00:33:02,275
Speaker 1: The anniversary was last week, in fact, the twenty fifth anniversary,

454
00:33:03,195 --> 00:33:06,435
Speaker 1: and it was during the World Series. And today this

455
00:33:06,595 --> 00:33:09,235
Speaker 1: is still during the World Series. And after a number

456
00:33:09,235 --> 00:33:12,395
Speaker 1: of years in which this saga had cooled in importance,

457
00:33:12,715 --> 00:33:15,835
Speaker 1: it seems to have reasserted itself as a part of baseball.

458
00:33:15,955 --> 00:33:19,555
Speaker 1: Loar that I was in the middle of the night

459
00:33:19,755 --> 00:33:24,035
Speaker 1: Roger Clemens of the New York Yankees, through Mike Piazza

460
00:33:24,275 --> 00:33:27,755
Speaker 1: of the New York Mets, broken bat at Mike Piazza

461
00:33:28,275 --> 00:33:31,515
Speaker 1: during the World Series, or didn't throw it at him,

462
00:33:32,195 --> 00:33:35,515
Speaker 1: or threw it at me in the Yankee dugout. And

463
00:33:35,595 --> 00:33:39,315
Speaker 1: it all ends with Mike Piazza threatening to sue me.

464
00:33:40,235 --> 00:33:44,595
Speaker 1: And next in Things I promised not to tell but

465
00:33:44,915 --> 00:33:49,235
Speaker 1: so long that I will start it immediately after the

466
00:33:49,355 --> 00:33:52,195
Speaker 1: end of Worse Persons, Then there'll be a commercial and

467
00:33:52,235 --> 00:33:56,195
Speaker 1: then part two. First Believe it or Not there are

468
00:33:56,235 --> 00:33:58,435
Speaker 1: still more new idiots to talk about the roundup of

469
00:33:58,475 --> 00:34:01,515
Speaker 1: the miscreants, morons and Dunn Kruger effects specimens who constitute

470
00:34:01,515 --> 00:34:07,075
Speaker 1: two Day's other worst persons in the world World. We

471
00:34:07,115 --> 00:34:10,995
Speaker 1: have a tie at bronze for worse Ice in DC

472
00:34:12,475 --> 00:34:16,755
Speaker 1: with Oh no, you want details. American Isis arrested a

473
00:34:16,755 --> 00:34:21,595
Speaker 1: man named Sam O'Hara in a raid in DC at

474
00:34:21,675 --> 00:34:26,915
Speaker 1: Logan Circle. He was arrested for playing Darth Vader's theme music.

475
00:34:27,155 --> 00:34:34,035
Speaker 1: The Imperial March arrested. The ACLU has sued on his

476
00:34:34,155 --> 00:34:40,755
Speaker 1: behalf because guess what, satire is still legal. Also, if

477
00:34:40,795 --> 00:34:44,355
Speaker 1: you're wearing masks, how do we know you're not members

478
00:34:44,635 --> 00:34:50,875
Speaker 1: of the Imperial thing? From Star Wars. But it's what

479
00:34:50,955 --> 00:34:55,275
Speaker 1: they wrote about Ice that I'm quoting here point four.

480
00:34:55,315 --> 00:34:57,795
Speaker 1: The law might have tolerated government conduct of this sort

481
00:34:57,835 --> 00:35:00,355
Speaker 1: a long time ago in a galaxy far far away,

482
00:35:00,755 --> 00:35:02,635
Speaker 1: but in the here and now, the First Amendment bars

483
00:35:02,755 --> 00:35:06,315
Speaker 1: of government officials from shutting down peaceful protests, et cetera,

484
00:35:06,355 --> 00:35:11,995
Speaker 1: et cetera. I just like the formal use of the

485
00:35:12,035 --> 00:35:14,995
Speaker 1: only part of Star Wars I stayed to see. Yes,

486
00:35:15,035 --> 00:35:16,955
Speaker 1: you're looking at the guy who walked out in nineteen

487
00:35:16,995 --> 00:35:20,595
Speaker 1: seventy seven. I'm not saying I was physically triggered. I

488
00:35:20,715 --> 00:35:23,035
Speaker 1: just didn't really. It did give me a headache. I

489
00:35:23,075 --> 00:35:25,355
Speaker 1: just didn't like it. But I still find the reference

490
00:35:25,395 --> 00:35:29,835
Speaker 1: to it in illegal Action reassuringly funny. We may all

491
00:35:29,875 --> 00:35:36,075
Speaker 1: be making our jokes inside concentration camps where the guards

492
00:35:36,075 --> 00:35:40,115
Speaker 1: where logos with Donald Trump's face on them, but at

493
00:35:40,155 --> 00:35:43,795
Speaker 1: least we'll still be having fun. That's tied with somebody

494
00:35:43,835 --> 00:35:46,955
Speaker 1: who'll be there in her little Ilsis she Wolf of

495
00:35:46,995 --> 00:35:52,675
Speaker 1: the SS outfit? Kaylee mcinaney smiling all the way through.

496
00:35:53,835 --> 00:35:58,075
Speaker 1: Kaylee macinaney, one of Trump's lying, lying lawyer and laying

497
00:35:58,155 --> 00:36:05,795
Speaker 1: things gefflingen Flungen Kaylee macinaney, one of Trump's lying liars

498
00:36:06,035 --> 00:36:09,875
Speaker 1: from the first time around. No, I'm not doing a

499
00:36:09,915 --> 00:36:14,595
Speaker 1: second take on this, smiling all the way through as

500
00:36:14,595 --> 00:36:20,675
Speaker 1: she always does, because Jesus saydist This is the reaction

501
00:36:20,875 --> 00:36:24,715
Speaker 1: to Trump trashing the economy, particularly the economy for food,

502
00:36:24,755 --> 00:36:28,915
Speaker 1: particularly the economy for lower income television viewers and the

503
00:36:29,035 --> 00:36:33,155
Speaker 1: elderly people like my age and older who watch a

504
00:36:33,195 --> 00:36:35,395
Speaker 1: lot of Fox News. Not that I do, but they do,

505
00:36:36,075 --> 00:36:39,115
Speaker 1: and smiling all the way through this I cannot possibly

506
00:36:39,435 --> 00:36:42,515
Speaker 1: even if I played this clip and risked a lawsuit

507
00:36:42,555 --> 00:36:46,155
Speaker 1: from Fox in playing it, I could not possibly possibly

508
00:36:47,395 --> 00:36:52,195
Speaker 1: convey to you Kayley mcinnaney's desperate smile all the way

509
00:36:52,275 --> 00:36:56,275
Speaker 1: through this everything sign they have a gun of my work.

510
00:36:56,475 --> 00:37:00,555
Speaker 1: They're gonna shoot. They're gonna put me in the concentration

511
00:37:00,715 --> 00:37:08,275
Speaker 1: crip too, Kaylee mcinnaney quote one tried and true brand

512
00:37:08,355 --> 00:37:11,995
Speaker 1: is making a big comeback as consumers tighten their wallets.

513
00:37:12,755 --> 00:37:17,395
Speaker 1: Hamburger Helper, the mix of mac and cheese and ground

514
00:37:17,435 --> 00:37:22,435
Speaker 1: beef is seeing a surge in sales. Isn't that great?

515
00:37:22,915 --> 00:37:26,555
Speaker 1: People are starving to death already. Isn't that great? And

516
00:37:26,715 --> 00:37:34,275
Speaker 1: you helped Daily mcahaney the runner up, the priceless Anna

517
00:37:34,355 --> 00:37:37,235
Speaker 1: Paulina Luna, who, if she did not exist, would have

518
00:37:37,355 --> 00:37:41,155
Speaker 1: to be created. This may be the dumbest person in America.

519
00:37:41,595 --> 00:37:44,395
Speaker 1: I know. I keep going back and forth among the

520
00:37:44,475 --> 00:37:47,435
Speaker 1: various members of the House of Representatives, in the Republican Caucus,

521
00:37:47,475 --> 00:37:51,435
Speaker 1: in the House, in the Senate, and I keep saying, no, no, Ultimately,

522
00:37:51,555 --> 00:37:56,675
Speaker 1: it's still Bobert, No, No, It's it's McLean from Michigan,

523
00:37:57,595 --> 00:38:00,635
Speaker 1: who once demonstrated in the past week the idea that

524
00:38:00,675 --> 00:38:05,035
Speaker 1: there were protesters. She demonstrated this by moving her arm arms.

525
00:38:05,115 --> 00:38:07,875
Speaker 1: She bawled up her fists and did her little arm march.

526
00:38:08,835 --> 00:38:16,715
Speaker 1: Lisa McClean absolute IQ none detected but the original one maybe,

527
00:38:16,755 --> 00:38:25,795
Speaker 1: Anna Paulina my Hoff Luna. Anna Paulina posted this at Rep.

528
00:38:26,035 --> 00:38:29,115
Speaker 1: Jack Kimball asked me for receipts, but blocked me before

529
00:38:29,155 --> 00:38:33,715
Speaker 1: I could respond. Weird flex So here are the receipts.

530
00:38:33,835 --> 00:38:34,115
Speaker 2: Jack.

531
00:38:36,875 --> 00:38:42,715
Speaker 1: Anna Paulina Luna posted that there were receipts showing the

532
00:38:42,755 --> 00:38:46,475
Speaker 1: No King's protests were backed by dollars signed two hundred

533
00:38:46,475 --> 00:38:51,035
Speaker 1: and ninety four million by the Sarrows Foundation buffet. I

534
00:38:51,115 --> 00:38:58,395
Speaker 1: presume Jimmy Aclu indivisible and planned parenthood. This wasn't grassroots,

535
00:38:58,555 --> 00:39:02,115
Speaker 1: It was a billionaire funded. She doesn't say what it was.

536
00:39:02,155 --> 00:39:04,675
Speaker 1: She just has a picture of herself grabbing my mind

537
00:39:04,915 --> 00:39:09,155
Speaker 1: and looking intently like her car is on fire in

538
00:39:09,195 --> 00:39:13,235
Speaker 1: the parking lot. And this Rep. Jack Kimball of the

539
00:39:13,235 --> 00:39:16,635
Speaker 1: fifty fourth District of California wrote, this is large. Anna

540
00:39:16,635 --> 00:39:19,835
Speaker 1: Paulina has foung proof that No Kings marchers were paid

541
00:39:19,875 --> 00:39:26,995
Speaker 1: nearly forty two cents each for participating. So she reposted

542
00:39:27,035 --> 00:39:29,835
Speaker 1: all of this a screenshot of what Jack Kimball wrote

543
00:39:29,835 --> 00:39:33,195
Speaker 1: in response to hers and just turned it into a

544
00:39:33,195 --> 00:39:37,595
Speaker 1: fight and said that Jack Kimball asked her for receipts,

545
00:39:37,795 --> 00:39:40,835
Speaker 1: which he did not. But the most interesting part, of course,

546
00:39:40,955 --> 00:39:46,035
Speaker 1: is there is no representative Jack Kimball. The giveaway is, Anna,

547
00:39:46,555 --> 00:39:51,035
Speaker 1: you never met him, and he's supposedly a Republican and

548
00:39:51,075 --> 00:39:53,595
Speaker 1: he's from the fifty fourth district of California. And I

549
00:39:53,635 --> 00:39:57,315
Speaker 1: know for people like Anna Paulina Luna, the number fifty

550
00:39:57,355 --> 00:40:00,355
Speaker 1: four is might as well be the same as two

551
00:40:00,395 --> 00:40:04,115
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety four million. It's an inestimably large number.

552
00:40:04,915 --> 00:40:09,555
Speaker 1: It's double or triple her IQ fifty four the fifty fourth.

553
00:40:09,955 --> 00:40:13,235
Speaker 1: There is no fifty fourth congressional district. Jack Kimball is

554
00:40:13,355 --> 00:40:18,515
Speaker 1: one of the oldest satirical accounts on Twitter x and

555
00:40:18,555 --> 00:40:22,995
Speaker 1: she fell for it. But a screenshot is forever Congratulations

556
00:40:23,035 --> 00:40:28,515
Speaker 1: on reclaiming your crown. Here's your crown, moron, but our

557
00:40:28,555 --> 00:40:34,115
Speaker 1: winner as always Cuomo. I'm sure you heard something about this.

558
00:40:35,835 --> 00:40:40,755
Speaker 1: Andrew Cuomo's self defenestration campaign continues apace, right down to

559
00:40:40,795 --> 00:40:43,475
Speaker 1: election day. He's going to make sure that nobody in

560
00:40:43,515 --> 00:40:46,475
Speaker 1: the city of New York, other than possibly in Staten Island,

561
00:40:47,035 --> 00:40:50,995
Speaker 1: thinks well of him. Ever again, he will bring down

562
00:40:51,075 --> 00:40:53,595
Speaker 1: his brother, who is already pretty much down as it is.

563
00:40:53,755 --> 00:40:56,475
Speaker 1: He will bring down his late father's name. There will

564
00:40:56,515 --> 00:40:59,155
Speaker 1: be a bid to remove his late father's name from

565
00:40:59,195 --> 00:41:02,115
Speaker 1: what is actually the tap and Z Bridge connecting Terrytown,

566
00:41:02,155 --> 00:41:05,155
Speaker 1: New York, and Rockland County across the Hudson. They will

567
00:41:05,195 --> 00:41:08,595
Speaker 1: do it. He is destroying the Cuomo family name, and

568
00:41:08,755 --> 00:41:13,355
Speaker 1: his father was actually a very good governor Andrew Cuomo.

569
00:41:14,035 --> 00:41:17,075
Speaker 1: According to reporter Nick Garber, talking to conservative radio host

570
00:41:17,195 --> 00:41:20,315
Speaker 1: sid Rosenberg this morning, sid Rosenberg, you may have seen

571
00:41:20,675 --> 00:41:24,195
Speaker 1: has the darkest ten of anybody who was not injured

572
00:41:24,235 --> 00:41:30,715
Speaker 1: in some sort of radiation accident. Cuomo asked this in

573
00:41:30,755 --> 00:41:33,115
Speaker 1: an interview about the man who's going to defeat him

574
00:41:33,115 --> 00:41:35,155
Speaker 1: in the mayoral election, as he defeated him in the

575
00:41:35,155 --> 00:41:41,395
Speaker 1: mayoral primary. Zoraon Mamdani quote, God forbid another nine to eleven.

576
00:41:41,795 --> 00:41:46,555
Speaker 1: Can you imagine ma'm donni in the seat, sid Rosenberg,

577
00:41:47,195 --> 00:41:53,715
Speaker 1: scumbag looks like a burn victim. Sid Rosenberg replies, he'd

578
00:41:53,755 --> 00:42:00,795
Speaker 1: be cheering. Cuomo paused and chuckled before saying that's another problem.

579
00:42:03,235 --> 00:42:05,155
Speaker 1: I was here on nine to eleven, and I was

580
00:42:05,195 --> 00:42:06,955
Speaker 1: here in the months after nine to eleven, and I

581
00:42:06,995 --> 00:42:08,955
Speaker 1: have been here, in fact in this city. I got

582
00:42:08,995 --> 00:42:11,955
Speaker 1: back from Los Angeles in late June or the beginning

583
00:42:11,955 --> 00:42:13,635
Speaker 1: of July of two thousand and one, and I have

584
00:42:13,755 --> 00:42:17,155
Speaker 1: lived here ever since without interruption. I don't think I've

585
00:42:17,155 --> 00:42:19,395
Speaker 1: been away for more than three weeks at a span

586
00:42:19,595 --> 00:42:23,275
Speaker 1: since then. And the one thing that has not happened

587
00:42:23,275 --> 00:42:27,435
Speaker 1: in this city since then has been problems created by

588
00:42:27,475 --> 00:42:31,035
Speaker 1: people of the Muslim faith of all the religions in

589
00:42:31,075 --> 00:42:33,355
Speaker 1: this city that have done the most to try to

590
00:42:33,395 --> 00:42:36,515
Speaker 1: outreach to other groups, to try to heal the wounds,

591
00:42:36,555 --> 00:42:41,555
Speaker 1: and practically speaking, to invest their money in the areas

592
00:42:41,595 --> 00:42:45,515
Speaker 1: that were blighted after nine to eleven. Members of the

593
00:42:45,555 --> 00:42:51,395
Speaker 1: Islamic faith. I just I don't get the enmity. It's

594
00:42:51,515 --> 00:42:55,715
Speaker 1: probably from people who were not adults on nine to eleven,

595
00:42:56,515 --> 00:42:59,795
Speaker 1: who have now conflated everything because of scumbags like Trump

596
00:43:00,555 --> 00:43:05,675
Speaker 1: and scumbags like Andrew Cromo. Andrew Como is not a Democrat.

597
00:43:06,835 --> 00:43:09,475
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's a Republican. I don't know

598
00:43:09,475 --> 00:43:12,235
Speaker 1: if he has any convictions whatsoever. Though I think he

599
00:43:12,275 --> 00:43:15,715
Speaker 1: should have been convicted of something. I just think to

600
00:43:15,835 --> 00:43:17,915
Speaker 1: say this about somebody who is likely to be the

601
00:43:17,915 --> 00:43:20,675
Speaker 1: next mayor of New York indicates a total lack of

602
00:43:20,715 --> 00:43:26,715
Speaker 1: responsibility or interest in anybody alive except himself. I think

603
00:43:26,755 --> 00:43:29,515
Speaker 1: he should go to hell. All I know for sure

604
00:43:29,555 --> 00:43:32,795
Speaker 1: about his convictions and how you would describe Andrew Cuomo

605
00:43:32,995 --> 00:43:38,075
Speaker 1: is the following. He is Andrew Cuomo two Day's worst

606
00:43:38,355 --> 00:43:52,675
Speaker 1: person in the world. Before the World Series ends, I

607
00:43:52,715 --> 00:43:54,915
Speaker 1: have to tell this thing I promise not to tell,

608
00:43:54,955 --> 00:43:57,235
Speaker 1: because by the time of the next one of these segments,

609
00:43:57,355 --> 00:43:59,795
Speaker 1: no matter how long it lasts, the World Series will

610
00:43:59,835 --> 00:44:02,435
Speaker 1: be over. So here is our number one story things

611
00:44:02,475 --> 00:44:06,675
Speaker 1: I promise not to tell my favorite topic me and

612
00:44:06,715 --> 00:44:08,595
Speaker 1: the series will be over, which is more than I

613
00:44:08,595 --> 00:44:11,395
Speaker 1: can say for this story, which is chronologically and in

614
00:44:11,515 --> 00:44:14,875
Speaker 1: terms of storytelling time, the longest one of these I

615
00:44:14,915 --> 00:44:18,835
Speaker 1: can not only imagine having told, but ever telling. It

616
00:44:18,955 --> 00:44:22,675
Speaker 1: started on the night of October twenty second, two thousand

617
00:44:23,275 --> 00:44:25,995
Speaker 1: and it ended well. I'll let you know if and

618
00:44:25,995 --> 00:44:29,115
Speaker 1: when it ever ends. I was enjoying the second night

619
00:44:29,155 --> 00:44:32,115
Speaker 1: of one of my childhood dreams come true. I was

620
00:44:32,235 --> 00:44:35,075
Speaker 1: the host, not just of the telecast of the World Series.

621
00:44:35,275 --> 00:44:37,635
Speaker 1: But it was an all New York City series, a

622
00:44:37,675 --> 00:44:42,155
Speaker 1: Mets versus Yankee series, a subway series. I'd literally dreamt

623
00:44:42,155 --> 00:44:45,715
Speaker 1: of it since nineteen sixty seven. The manager of the

624
00:44:45,795 --> 00:44:48,955
Speaker 1: Yankees had been the first person I ever interviewed on TV.

625
00:44:49,555 --> 00:44:52,435
Speaker 1: Fifteen years earlier, I had worked with him in TV.

626
00:44:52,595 --> 00:44:55,475
Speaker 1: He was a friend of mine. I had just covered

627
00:44:55,475 --> 00:44:57,635
Speaker 1: the Mets through their playoff run and knew all of

628
00:44:57,675 --> 00:45:00,795
Speaker 1: their players. My face had been on an advertisement in

629
00:45:00,875 --> 00:45:03,835
Speaker 1: dead center field in the Mets Stadium for the entirety

630
00:45:03,915 --> 00:45:06,315
Speaker 1: of the year before, and the players all knew me

631
00:45:06,395 --> 00:45:10,315
Speaker 1: my name. Where we were that night, Yankee Stadium was

632
00:45:10,355 --> 00:45:12,515
Speaker 1: not only where I saw my first baseball game, but

633
00:45:12,635 --> 00:45:15,115
Speaker 1: was about seven eighths of a mile from the hospital

634
00:45:15,115 --> 00:45:18,355
Speaker 1: in which I had been born, and my first home

635
00:45:18,995 --> 00:45:23,675
Speaker 1: was four subway stops away. The night before this event,

636
00:45:23,755 --> 00:45:25,675
Speaker 1: as I hosted the start of the first game of

637
00:45:25,715 --> 00:45:28,795
Speaker 1: this Keith of palooza, I was supposed to introduce the

638
00:45:28,795 --> 00:45:32,835
Speaker 1: public address announcer of Yankee Stadium, Bob Sheppard, whose voice

639
00:45:32,915 --> 00:45:35,795
Speaker 1: I had heard nearly every day since I was eight

640
00:45:35,875 --> 00:45:38,955
Speaker 1: years old, so he could then introduce the players and

641
00:45:38,995 --> 00:45:41,315
Speaker 1: this epic World Series would begin, and it dawned on

642
00:45:41,395 --> 00:45:43,995
Speaker 1: me in the seconds before I was supposed to do

643
00:45:44,035 --> 00:45:47,395
Speaker 1: this that I literally had the power to stop the

644
00:45:47,435 --> 00:45:50,595
Speaker 1: two thousand World Series from ever happening if I just

645
00:45:50,715 --> 00:45:55,875
Speaker 1: kept talking and never actually said, here is Bob Shephard. Well,

646
00:45:55,915 --> 00:45:57,915
Speaker 1: I could delay it briefly until they cut my mic

647
00:45:57,995 --> 00:46:00,315
Speaker 1: off and then fired me on the spot. Anyway, this

648
00:46:00,475 --> 00:46:03,795
Speaker 1: was Game two, and now that our pregame show was over,

649
00:46:03,835 --> 00:46:05,995
Speaker 1: and I had waved to my mother, who had seen

650
00:46:06,035 --> 00:46:09,235
Speaker 1: her first game at Yankee Stadium just ooh sixty six

651
00:46:09,315 --> 00:46:12,155
Speaker 1: years previously, and she was seated in the family seats

652
00:46:12,155 --> 00:46:15,155
Speaker 1: that were just nine rows up from our on field set.

653
00:46:15,835 --> 00:46:18,035
Speaker 1: I had crawled into the position I would assume for

654
00:46:18,075 --> 00:46:21,315
Speaker 1: the entire game as the dugout reporter. I was hunched

655
00:46:21,315 --> 00:46:24,115
Speaker 1: over on a stool, squeezed between the far end of

656
00:46:24,155 --> 00:46:27,475
Speaker 1: the Yankee dugout and our Fox Sports first base camera.

657
00:46:27,955 --> 00:46:31,515
Speaker 1: A thin chicken wire fence separated me from the dugout himself.

658
00:46:31,875 --> 00:46:34,155
Speaker 1: In fact, it was a formality. I was more or

659
00:46:34,235 --> 00:46:37,115
Speaker 1: less in the dugout players, coaches, and that night, as

660
00:46:37,115 --> 00:46:39,235
Speaker 1: I settled in, my friend, the Yankee manager, all came

661
00:46:39,275 --> 00:46:43,395
Speaker 1: over to say hello. Roger Clemens of the Yankees, who

662
00:46:43,395 --> 00:46:45,675
Speaker 1: I had also known since we were both rookies in

663
00:46:45,755 --> 00:46:49,955
Speaker 1: Boston Sports in nineteen eighty four. He lasted, I didn't

664
00:46:50,515 --> 00:46:53,235
Speaker 1: Roger Clemens had struck out the first two Mets hitters.

665
00:46:53,675 --> 00:46:56,115
Speaker 1: Clemens was a strange man about whom I had heard

666
00:46:56,155 --> 00:46:59,475
Speaker 1: a strange tale of teammates in a college summer baseball

667
00:46:59,555 --> 00:47:03,395
Speaker 1: league who were all wearing their wallets in their uniform

668
00:47:03,515 --> 00:47:07,235
Speaker 1: pants back pockets during a game because one of them

669
00:47:07,275 --> 00:47:09,835
Speaker 1: explained to a friend of mine, we have this crazy

670
00:47:09,915 --> 00:47:12,355
Speaker 1: kid Clemens from Texas on this team, and we don't

671
00:47:12,395 --> 00:47:16,515
Speaker 1: trust him. In Boston, I had found him a little nervous,

672
00:47:16,995 --> 00:47:20,435
Speaker 1: little standoffish, but doing his best to be professional. But

673
00:47:20,595 --> 00:47:24,155
Speaker 1: by now there were rumors swirling around Roger Clemens about

674
00:47:24,155 --> 00:47:27,635
Speaker 1: amphetamines and performance enhancing drugs, and you knew not to

675
00:47:27,715 --> 00:47:29,915
Speaker 1: talk to him before or after a game unless you

676
00:47:29,995 --> 00:47:32,235
Speaker 1: had to, and if you had to, you chose your

677
00:47:32,275 --> 00:47:35,875
Speaker 1: words very carefully, then made sure that whatever you did,

678
00:47:35,915 --> 00:47:39,115
Speaker 1: you had to start with something mundane, like the score

679
00:47:39,155 --> 00:47:42,035
Speaker 1: of the game, and if you could let him bring

680
00:47:42,155 --> 00:47:47,395
Speaker 1: up anything controversial or complex, he would then probably do it.

681
00:47:48,315 --> 00:47:51,115
Speaker 1: So now, as this game continued, after two batters had

682
00:47:51,115 --> 00:47:54,675
Speaker 1: struck out, Lee Mazzilli, the former Mets star now Yankees coach,

683
00:47:54,715 --> 00:47:56,795
Speaker 1: another friend of mine, was on the other side of

684
00:47:57,275 --> 00:48:00,875
Speaker 1: a little fence, and as Mets superstar Mike Piazza stepped

685
00:48:00,915 --> 00:48:03,115
Speaker 1: in as the third batter of the game, Mozilly leaned

686
00:48:03,155 --> 00:48:06,675
Speaker 1: in and said, conspiratorily, let's see if Roger flips him again.

687
00:48:07,475 --> 00:48:10,675
Speaker 1: In Midsummer two thousand, Roger Clemens had beamed Mike Piazza

688
00:48:10,675 --> 00:48:14,915
Speaker 1: with a fastball. There was a hospital visit involved. Nobody

689
00:48:14,995 --> 00:48:17,595
Speaker 1: was convinced it had not been intentional, or that Clemens

690
00:48:17,635 --> 00:48:19,075
Speaker 1: would not do it again, even though it was the

691
00:48:19,115 --> 00:48:23,155
Speaker 1: World Series. Mozilli and I leaned forward. Piazza was a

692
00:48:23,155 --> 00:48:26,475
Speaker 1: deeply complicated guy too. During the playoffs, he had walked

693
00:48:26,555 --> 00:48:27,835
Speaker 1: up to me and asked me if it was true

694
00:48:27,875 --> 00:48:29,515
Speaker 1: I was from New York, and then he quizzed me

695
00:48:29,515 --> 00:48:31,755
Speaker 1: about the relative merits of the suburbs, and then he

696
00:48:31,795 --> 00:48:33,955
Speaker 1: wanted to know if I had really taken up residence

697
00:48:34,315 --> 00:48:37,235
Speaker 1: in his favorite southern California hotel, and we talked for

698
00:48:37,315 --> 00:48:40,715
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes about that. The next night I saw him smiled,

699
00:48:40,755 --> 00:48:42,755
Speaker 1: said heloon, and he looked at me like I had

700
00:48:42,835 --> 00:48:46,675
Speaker 1: just sworn a vendetta against his family. For a long

701
00:48:46,715 --> 00:48:49,315
Speaker 1: time I thought it was me until about ten years later,

702
00:48:49,595 --> 00:48:52,595
Speaker 1: the great Vin Scully said that Piazza was with the Dodgers,

703
00:48:53,155 --> 00:48:55,555
Speaker 1: and when they were both together there in Los Angeles,

704
00:48:55,795 --> 00:48:58,955
Speaker 1: Vin had had the identical experience with Piazza. Best friends

705
00:48:58,955 --> 00:49:02,075
Speaker 1: on the team bus one day, and then no indication

706
00:49:02,195 --> 00:49:05,035
Speaker 1: Piazza remembered even meeting him the next I mean that

707
00:49:05,155 --> 00:49:09,035
Speaker 1: was Ben Sculley. Clemens, as it turned out, did not

708
00:49:09,195 --> 00:49:12,275
Speaker 1: throw a baseball at Piazza, but instead pitched him inside

709
00:49:12,275 --> 00:49:15,115
Speaker 1: in on his hands, and Piazza tried to stop a

710
00:49:15,155 --> 00:49:18,235
Speaker 1: swing that was half self defense, but instead the odd

711
00:49:18,275 --> 00:49:21,195
Speaker 1: angle and the force of the pitch shattered Piazza's bat.

712
00:49:21,635 --> 00:49:24,195
Speaker 1: The ball veered to the right, describing a circle into

713
00:49:24,195 --> 00:49:27,555
Speaker 1: foul territory. The head of the bat shot out towards

714
00:49:27,555 --> 00:49:31,635
Speaker 1: Clemens on the mound. A second piece flew briefly into

715
00:49:31,635 --> 00:49:34,995
Speaker 1: the infield. Piazza was left holding just the handle, and

716
00:49:35,035 --> 00:49:37,635
Speaker 1: it looked as foolish as that sounds. But lost in

717
00:49:37,635 --> 00:49:39,595
Speaker 1: this description is the fact that all happened at once,

718
00:49:40,195 --> 00:49:43,155
Speaker 1: and even from our signe angle in the Yankee dugout

719
00:49:43,195 --> 00:49:46,195
Speaker 1: it looked to Mozillion me as if Piazza's bat had

720
00:49:46,195 --> 00:49:50,435
Speaker 1: simply exploded, like it was a trick device of some sort.

721
00:49:51,115 --> 00:49:54,115
Speaker 1: I saw Clemens reach for the baseball. I thought it

722
00:49:54,155 --> 00:49:56,235
Speaker 1: was the baseball right in front of him, and then

723
00:49:56,355 --> 00:49:58,675
Speaker 1: just as quickly he and I at the same moment,

724
00:49:58,835 --> 00:50:01,155
Speaker 1: realized it was not the baseball. It was the barrel

725
00:50:01,195 --> 00:50:03,635
Speaker 1: of the bat, which was slightly rounded, just a little

726
00:50:03,715 --> 00:50:05,955
Speaker 1: darker than a baseball, but could in the heat of

727
00:50:05,995 --> 00:50:09,955
Speaker 1: an instant following a bat explosion, it could be mistaken

728
00:50:09,995 --> 00:50:14,675
Speaker 1: for a ball. So far, so good. But right then Clemens,

729
00:50:14,915 --> 00:50:17,835
Speaker 1: realizing it was part of a bat and not a ball,

730
00:50:17,955 --> 00:50:22,595
Speaker 1: promptly threw that part of the bat at me. Jesus Mas,

731
00:50:22,875 --> 00:50:25,075
Speaker 1: I said to Mizilly, why did Clemens throw that bat

732
00:50:25,115 --> 00:50:28,355
Speaker 1: barrel at me? The Yankee coach looked incredulously at me.

733
00:50:28,395 --> 00:50:29,875
Speaker 1: He didn't throw it you. He threw it at me.

734
00:50:31,195 --> 00:50:34,515
Speaker 1: That's what it looked like. We were lined up perfectly.

735
00:50:34,755 --> 00:50:38,115
Speaker 1: Roger Clemens had thrown the barrel of Mike Piazza's bat, say,

736
00:50:38,195 --> 00:50:40,915
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty feet instead of just six or

737
00:50:40,955 --> 00:50:44,155
Speaker 1: seven feet, he would have hit either me or Lee

738
00:50:44,275 --> 00:50:48,595
Speaker 1: Mozilly in the Yankee dugout as it was, since nobody

739
00:50:48,635 --> 00:50:51,955
Speaker 1: knew exactly what was happening. Piazza had started to run

740
00:50:51,995 --> 00:50:54,915
Speaker 1: down to first base in case the ball was fair.

741
00:50:54,995 --> 00:50:57,315
Speaker 1: He didn't know where the ball was either. For that

742
00:50:57,515 --> 00:51:02,355
Speaker 1: initial split second, you really couldn't tell which flying object

743
00:51:02,475 --> 00:51:05,435
Speaker 1: was the ball, and also whether the ball was fair

744
00:51:05,675 --> 00:51:10,595
Speaker 1: or foul. So Roger Clemens's throw certainly looked like it

745
00:51:10,635 --> 00:51:13,475
Speaker 1: was aimed at Piazza as Piazza went down the first

746
00:51:13,515 --> 00:51:16,835
Speaker 1: baseline and as Piazza took umbrage, and there was another

747
00:51:16,875 --> 00:51:19,355
Speaker 1: split second of confusion when it looked like Piazza might

748
00:51:19,435 --> 00:51:21,635
Speaker 1: charge out to the mound to try to sock Clemens

749
00:51:21,715 --> 00:51:25,035
Speaker 1: for this and for the Midsummer beating. I said to Missilly, wait,

750
00:51:25,395 --> 00:51:29,715
Speaker 1: did he throw that bat at Piazza? Miszilly just shook

751
00:51:29,715 --> 00:51:32,715
Speaker 1: his head. I don't think so. Whun hell knows. He's

752
00:51:32,715 --> 00:51:34,835
Speaker 1: been here two years. I haven't figured out anything he's

753
00:51:34,835 --> 00:51:38,995
Speaker 1: done so far. As the umpires then got involved, Clemens

754
00:51:39,075 --> 00:51:42,875
Speaker 1: repeatedly tapped his own chest, and not in a bragging way,

755
00:51:42,955 --> 00:51:45,595
Speaker 1: but in a kind of what looked like that's on

756
00:51:45,875 --> 00:51:49,635
Speaker 1: me way. Two bat boys collected the three main pieces

757
00:51:49,635 --> 00:51:51,835
Speaker 1: of the bat and a bunch of smaller shards, some

758
00:51:51,875 --> 00:51:54,995
Speaker 1: of them smaller than a toothpick. The Fox play by

759
00:51:55,035 --> 00:51:57,795
Speaker 1: play man threw it to me in the dugout well,

760
00:51:57,835 --> 00:51:59,635
Speaker 1: I said, I can tell you the Yankee dugout doesn't

761
00:51:59,675 --> 00:52:03,275
Speaker 1: know what happened or why. Joe Missilly laughed quietly and

762
00:52:03,275 --> 00:52:04,595
Speaker 1: then hit me in the arm. While I was on

763
00:52:04,595 --> 00:52:07,275
Speaker 1: the air, I postulated that Clemens was looking for a

764
00:52:07,315 --> 00:52:10,115
Speaker 1: ball hit back to him, instead found the piece of

765
00:52:10,115 --> 00:52:12,435
Speaker 1: the bat, and then discarded that piece of the bats

766
00:52:12,395 --> 00:52:15,155
Speaker 1: so he could keep looking for the ball. That he discarded,

767
00:52:15,195 --> 00:52:18,475
Speaker 1: it kind of where Piazza was running, might have been delivered,

768
00:52:18,635 --> 00:52:21,835
Speaker 1: might have been a coincidence. I do remember suggesting that

769
00:52:22,115 --> 00:52:25,315
Speaker 1: if Clemens had really aimed the bat at Piazza, that

770
00:52:25,395 --> 00:52:28,395
Speaker 1: from that distance, with the strength and accuracy of a

771
00:52:28,435 --> 00:52:30,835
Speaker 1: major league pitcher, he clearly would have hit him with it.

772
00:52:31,795 --> 00:52:34,315
Speaker 1: Piazza then promptly grounded out to end the inning, and

773
00:52:34,355 --> 00:52:37,195
Speaker 1: as Clemens came back towards the Yankee dugout where Mozilly

774
00:52:37,195 --> 00:52:40,075
Speaker 1: and I were, he again stopped to talk to the umpire,

775
00:52:40,075 --> 00:52:43,475
Speaker 1: who was Charlie Reliford. Over the noise of fifty six

776
00:52:43,555 --> 00:52:46,195
Speaker 1: thousand fans, at Yankee Stadium. I couldn't hear a damn thing,

777
00:52:46,475 --> 00:52:49,195
Speaker 1: but it sure looked like Clemens was again saying that

778
00:52:49,475 --> 00:52:52,275
Speaker 1: was on me. I asked Mizillly if he could find

779
00:52:52,275 --> 00:52:54,315
Speaker 1: out if that's what Clemens was doing, And half an

780
00:52:54,355 --> 00:52:57,475
Speaker 1: inning later, Missilly reported that Clemens indeed thought for a

781
00:52:57,475 --> 00:52:59,515
Speaker 1: second it was the ball, and that he threw it,

782
00:52:59,795 --> 00:53:01,475
Speaker 1: and that it was on him, and that it was

783
00:53:01,515 --> 00:53:05,435
Speaker 1: not intentional and it was not directed at Piazza. Now

784
00:53:05,475 --> 00:53:08,155
Speaker 1: I did something kind of stupid. I suggested to my

785
00:53:08,315 --> 00:53:11,835
Speaker 1: bosses that I should go ask the commissioner Baseball, who

786
00:53:11,875 --> 00:53:14,235
Speaker 1: in a World Series game had the power to eject

787
00:53:14,275 --> 00:53:17,035
Speaker 1: any player for any reason, although that power had not

788
00:53:17,075 --> 00:53:20,195
Speaker 1: actually been used since nineteen thirty four. What he thought

789
00:53:20,235 --> 00:53:23,315
Speaker 1: of all this? The producer said yes, And I thought

790
00:53:23,675 --> 00:53:27,075
Speaker 1: me and my big mouth, I now had to crawl

791
00:53:27,155 --> 00:53:30,195
Speaker 1: out of that little space between camera and dugout, and

792
00:53:30,235 --> 00:53:34,755
Speaker 1: I mean literally crawl hands and knees to exit back

793
00:53:34,875 --> 00:53:38,275
Speaker 1: into the seats via where the groundskeepers kept all the

794
00:53:38,395 --> 00:53:42,035
Speaker 1: extra dirt. I knew where in the stands the commissioner

795
00:53:42,075 --> 00:53:44,755
Speaker 1: was sitting. I went there. I got to him, I

796
00:53:44,875 --> 00:53:47,715
Speaker 1: asked him. He assured me there was no discipline coming

797
00:53:47,715 --> 00:53:49,755
Speaker 1: for Clemens, and they'd look at the tape of the

798
00:53:49,795 --> 00:53:51,795
Speaker 1: game again that night or in the morning. But he

799
00:53:51,835 --> 00:53:54,035
Speaker 1: really didn't think Clemens had tried to hit Piazza with

800
00:53:54,075 --> 00:53:56,115
Speaker 1: the bat. Well, they would look at the tape and

801
00:53:56,155 --> 00:53:58,235
Speaker 1: they decided both that Clemens did not try to hit

802
00:53:58,275 --> 00:54:01,235
Speaker 1: Piazza with the bat and that he should be fined

803
00:54:01,275 --> 00:54:05,035
Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars for I don't know, not trying to

804
00:54:05,075 --> 00:54:08,035
Speaker 1: hit him with the bat. So I made it back

805
00:54:08,075 --> 00:54:11,715
Speaker 1: to the dugout, reversing my crawl like I was recreating

806
00:54:11,755 --> 00:54:15,955
Speaker 1: the movie The Great Escape. As it turned out, Piazza's

807
00:54:15,995 --> 00:54:18,555
Speaker 1: little squib shot that caused all the trouble with the

808
00:54:18,635 --> 00:54:21,675
Speaker 1: exploding bat was about the hardest thing they hit off

809
00:54:21,715 --> 00:54:25,155
Speaker 1: Clemens all night. Over eight innings, he struck out nine

810
00:54:25,235 --> 00:54:28,315
Speaker 1: Mets batters, he walked none, he gave up only two hits,

811
00:54:28,355 --> 00:54:31,515
Speaker 1: and he only hit one batter. And then, incredibly, after

812
00:54:31,555 --> 00:54:35,115
Speaker 1: Clemens left the game, the Yankees almost blew a six

813
00:54:35,115 --> 00:54:38,275
Speaker 1: to nothing lead. In the ninth inning, a Met outfielder

814
00:54:38,355 --> 00:54:41,435
Speaker 1: named Jay Payton hit a three run homer off future

815
00:54:41,475 --> 00:54:44,595
Speaker 1: Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera, and the Mets had a

816
00:54:44,675 --> 00:54:47,475
Speaker 1: chance to tie the game or go ahead off Rivera

817
00:54:47,555 --> 00:54:49,675
Speaker 1: in the top of the ninth and then he got

818
00:54:49,675 --> 00:54:50,955
Speaker 1: out of it, and the final score was six to

819
00:54:51,035 --> 00:54:53,355
Speaker 1: five Yankees. And with the game over now it was

820
00:54:53,755 --> 00:54:57,835
Speaker 1: Keith interviews Clemens' time. I went to the pre arranged

821
00:54:57,915 --> 00:55:00,195
Speaker 1: spot at the other end of the Yankee dugout, where

822
00:55:00,235 --> 00:55:03,715
Speaker 1: another friend of mine, the Yankees PR director, had guaranteed

823
00:55:03,755 --> 00:55:05,795
Speaker 1: me he would go in get Clemens and they would

824
00:55:05,795 --> 00:55:09,115
Speaker 1: emerge after Clemens left the clubhouse to do what was

825
00:55:09,395 --> 00:55:15,275
Speaker 1: a contractually obligated interview with Fox and me. Apparently, Roger

826
00:55:15,315 --> 00:55:17,835
Speaker 1: Clemens started making his way towards me the moment the

827
00:55:17,915 --> 00:55:21,875
Speaker 1: Yankees finally won that game. Unfortunately, at that exact moment,

828
00:55:22,515 --> 00:55:26,595
Speaker 1: security closed the only runway from the Yankee dugout to

829
00:55:26,675 --> 00:55:29,755
Speaker 1: the clubhouse so that a dignitary could use it as

830
00:55:29,795 --> 00:55:35,915
Speaker 1: an exit from his seats. The dignitary was Mayor Rudolph Giuliani,

831
00:55:36,555 --> 00:55:41,115
Speaker 1: noted front running Yankees fan and ticket freeloader. And while

832
00:55:41,155 --> 00:55:43,915
Speaker 1: Fox literally delayed the start of every newscast on every

833
00:55:43,955 --> 00:55:45,795
Speaker 1: one of its stations in the country, even on the

834
00:55:45,795 --> 00:55:48,715
Speaker 1: West Coast, and Joe Buck and Tim McCarver kept showing

835
00:55:48,755 --> 00:55:52,355
Speaker 1: replays again and again, and promising my interview with Roger Clemens,

836
00:55:53,035 --> 00:55:57,355
Speaker 1: Rudy Giuliani took his goddamn time leaving the field. His

837
00:55:57,515 --> 00:56:00,675
Speaker 1: idiot son Andrew grabbed some dirt from the field. I

838
00:56:00,715 --> 00:56:03,315
Speaker 1: half expected him to eat it. Instead, he stuffed it

839
00:56:03,355 --> 00:56:08,155
Speaker 1: in his jacket pockets. Giuliani now waited for his entire entourage,

840
00:56:08,595 --> 00:56:11,475
Speaker 1: one of his wives, some of his I guess they

841
00:56:11,475 --> 00:56:15,795
Speaker 1: were friends, assorted political riff raff, and as my producer

842
00:56:15,915 --> 00:56:19,915
Speaker 1: screamed in my ear, where is Clemens? Giuliani waited until

843
00:56:19,955 --> 00:56:23,435
Speaker 1: they were all together on the field, and finally he

844
00:56:23,515 --> 00:56:26,035
Speaker 1: marched them down into the dugout and up through the runway.

845
00:56:26,595 --> 00:56:29,995
Speaker 1: And after all this delay, Clemens came out and finally

846
00:56:30,035 --> 00:56:32,315
Speaker 1: I could ask him about throwing the bat shard at

847
00:56:32,435 --> 00:56:35,915
Speaker 1: or near piazza. And at that moment I remembered what

848
00:56:35,955 --> 00:56:38,635
Speaker 1: I had learned about Clemens in Boston. If you started

849
00:56:38,675 --> 00:56:43,555
Speaker 1: an interview with something controversial, he might very well walk away. If,

850
00:56:43,595 --> 00:56:46,875
Speaker 1: on the other hand, you did the boring game outcome question,

851
00:56:46,955 --> 00:56:48,955
Speaker 1: he would answer anything you asked, and he might even

852
00:56:48,955 --> 00:56:51,475
Speaker 1: bring up anything controversial himself. But you had to do

853
00:56:51,835 --> 00:56:56,755
Speaker 1: the stupid game stuff first, So which was harder work. Roger,

854
00:56:56,915 --> 00:56:59,795
Speaker 1: I asked eight innings of two hit ball or watching

855
00:56:59,875 --> 00:57:02,915
Speaker 1: the Mets nearly tie it in the ninth. His answer

856
00:57:02,995 --> 00:57:04,635
Speaker 1: was not bad, but he did not bring up the bat.

857
00:57:04,795 --> 00:57:07,075
Speaker 1: So I asked another question about what he thought of

858
00:57:07,115 --> 00:57:09,795
Speaker 1: his performance in that game. Well, that did it. He

859
00:57:09,875 --> 00:57:13,555
Speaker 1: started talking about having to overcome his emotions in the

860
00:57:13,595 --> 00:57:15,675
Speaker 1: first inning, and now I could say, well, since you

861
00:57:15,755 --> 00:57:19,755
Speaker 1: brought up the emotions the bat throwing incident, did you

862
00:57:19,835 --> 00:57:23,315
Speaker 1: throw that piece of broken bat at Mike Piazza. There

863
00:57:23,355 --> 00:57:25,835
Speaker 1: is a freeze frame from that interview in which Roger

864
00:57:25,875 --> 00:57:31,795
Speaker 1: Clemens eyes are bugged wide open. Well, Glemons basically confirmed

865
00:57:31,795 --> 00:57:33,555
Speaker 1: what the guys in the dugout had told me. He

866
00:57:33,635 --> 00:57:35,675
Speaker 1: had told them. You can believe him or not, but

867
00:57:35,795 --> 00:57:38,235
Speaker 1: he thought the thing he grabbed was the ball, and

868
00:57:38,275 --> 00:57:40,595
Speaker 1: when it wasn't, he threw it away just in case

869
00:57:40,635 --> 00:57:42,675
Speaker 1: the ball was somewhere else near him and he had

870
00:57:42,715 --> 00:57:44,875
Speaker 1: to have a free hand with which to pick it up.

871
00:57:45,395 --> 00:57:47,675
Speaker 1: He explained the chest taps he was indeed saying to

872
00:57:47,715 --> 00:57:51,955
Speaker 1: the umpire Umpire Charlie, as Clemens called him, accompanying his

873
00:57:52,035 --> 00:57:54,315
Speaker 1: apologies to the umps for throwing the bat. He said

874
00:57:54,355 --> 00:57:56,395
Speaker 1: he didn't even know where Piazza was at the point

875
00:57:56,435 --> 00:58:00,155
Speaker 1: he threw the bat. It was as straight and nonpartisan

876
00:58:00,315 --> 00:58:05,195
Speaker 1: and frankly, as informative an interview as I've ever conducted. Meanwhile,

877
00:58:05,755 --> 00:58:09,435
Speaker 1: everybody else in that stadium, everybody else in that city,

878
00:58:09,795 --> 00:58:12,835
Speaker 1: everybody else in the Tri State area, was convinced of

879
00:58:12,915 --> 00:58:15,915
Speaker 1: one of only two things. Roger Clemens had tried to

880
00:58:15,955 --> 00:58:19,955
Speaker 1: impale Mike Piazza with a shard of his own bat,

881
00:58:20,635 --> 00:58:23,715
Speaker 1: or the Mets were crybabies who could not tell that

882
00:58:23,755 --> 00:58:26,715
Speaker 1: Clemens obviously did not try to impale Mike Piazza with

883
00:58:26,715 --> 00:58:30,555
Speaker 1: his own bat. There was no middle ground. I found

884
00:58:30,555 --> 00:58:33,755
Speaker 1: this out specifically the next day when the TV sports

885
00:58:33,755 --> 00:58:36,075
Speaker 1: columnist of the New York Times, Rich Sandomir, who was

886
00:58:36,115 --> 00:58:38,915
Speaker 1: a friend of mine, called to interview me about the interview.

887
00:58:39,155 --> 00:58:41,315
Speaker 1: Why didn't you ask him about the bat first? Nobody

888
00:58:41,315 --> 00:58:44,555
Speaker 1: cared about how he pitched he threw a bat Piazza.

889
00:58:45,355 --> 00:58:48,155
Speaker 1: I said, you're a Met fan, and I explained the

890
00:58:48,155 --> 00:58:50,595
Speaker 1: theory of not making Clemens end an interview before he

891
00:58:50,635 --> 00:58:52,275
Speaker 1: said what you needed to know. I went through the

892
00:58:52,275 --> 00:58:55,035
Speaker 1: whole thing I just recited here. It was amazing to

893
00:58:55,075 --> 00:58:59,675
Speaker 1: see those few days, how every sports reporter and columnist

894
00:58:59,795 --> 00:59:02,955
Speaker 1: in New York self identified as either a Met fan

895
00:59:03,075 --> 00:59:05,715
Speaker 1: or ex Met fan, or a Yankee fan or ex

896
00:59:05,795 --> 00:59:08,715
Speaker 1: Yankee fan. And you can still see it today as

897
00:59:08,795 --> 00:59:12,035
Speaker 1: this story from twenty two years ago is recollected by others.

898
00:59:12,835 --> 00:59:17,315
Speaker 1: They wrote what they felt as kids Clemens was the victim,

899
00:59:17,795 --> 00:59:23,275
Speaker 1: or Clemens tried to kill Mike Piazza like he was

900
00:59:23,355 --> 00:59:26,715
Speaker 1: a dracula, and they had the wooden steak to go

901
00:59:26,835 --> 00:59:31,715
Speaker 1: through his heart. Meanwhile, we learned recently from Joe Torri,

902
00:59:31,795 --> 00:59:34,155
Speaker 1: the Yankee manager, another one of my friends, that they

903
00:59:34,195 --> 00:59:37,795
Speaker 1: all hid something from us that night, the thing about emotions.

904
00:59:38,275 --> 00:59:40,875
Speaker 1: After the incident in the first inning, Roger Clemens went

905
00:59:40,915 --> 00:59:45,195
Speaker 1: back to the Yankee clubhouse and started to cry. This

906
00:59:45,395 --> 00:59:47,835
Speaker 1: might have had something to do with embarrassment or grief.

907
00:59:47,875 --> 00:59:50,075
Speaker 1: But since he had noted that he had had to

908
00:59:50,195 --> 00:59:53,155
Speaker 1: check his emotions, I always thought, well, he might have

909
00:59:53,235 --> 00:59:58,355
Speaker 1: been a little overamped for that game, naturally or otherwise.

910
01:00:00,115 --> 01:00:02,715
Speaker 1: All right, So before I present anything else out of

911
01:00:02,795 --> 01:00:05,475
Speaker 1: chronological order, let me go back to the I thanked

912
01:00:05,555 --> 01:00:07,915
Speaker 1: Roger Clemens for the interview and threw it back to

913
01:00:08,035 --> 01:00:10,435
Speaker 1: Joe Buck and Tim McCarver in the Fox booth because

914
01:00:10,475 --> 01:00:14,635
Speaker 1: this is when the real trouble started. They were pretty

915
01:00:14,715 --> 01:00:16,515
Speaker 1: much done for the night, but I had another two

916
01:00:16,595 --> 01:00:19,675
Speaker 1: hours to go in a live postgame show on Fox's

917
01:00:19,715 --> 01:00:22,915
Speaker 1: cable Sports network. We had about four minutes until that

918
01:00:22,955 --> 01:00:25,275
Speaker 1: show started, and it suddenly occurred to me that although

919
01:00:25,275 --> 01:00:27,075
Speaker 1: this was not the most important event in the history

920
01:00:27,075 --> 01:00:29,795
Speaker 1: of the World Series, the bat would become part of

921
01:00:29,875 --> 01:00:33,955
Speaker 1: the iconography of baseball. I had been at Yankee Stadium

922
01:00:34,035 --> 01:00:36,795
Speaker 1: often enough over the years to know the two kids

923
01:00:36,795 --> 01:00:39,875
Speaker 1: who ran the visiting clubhouse, and right then they were

924
01:00:39,955 --> 01:00:42,475
Speaker 1: still packing up the Mets bats and equipment, and the

925
01:00:42,515 --> 01:00:45,595
Speaker 1: Mets dugout, so I ran over and asked the senior

926
01:00:45,715 --> 01:00:49,355
Speaker 1: of them what happened to the pieces of the Piazza bat.

927
01:00:50,155 --> 01:00:53,835
Speaker 1: The answer to that question has haunted me for twenty

928
01:00:53,995 --> 01:00:57,675
Speaker 1: two years. It resulted in me being threatened with a

929
01:00:57,795 --> 01:01:00,955
Speaker 1: lawsuit by Mike Piazza. The owner of the Boston Red

930
01:01:00,955 --> 01:01:03,995
Speaker 1: Sox said he was threatened by Piazza over the same bat.

931
01:01:04,435 --> 01:01:06,715
Speaker 1: And then came the moment during that World Series that

932
01:01:06,795 --> 01:01:12,675
Speaker 1: Mike Piazza confronted me and we talked about restaurants. The

933
01:01:12,675 --> 01:01:21,875
Speaker 1: rest of this crazy story after this, So back to

934
01:01:21,915 --> 01:01:24,395
Speaker 1: our number one story on the countdown and the saga

935
01:01:24,435 --> 01:01:26,675
Speaker 1: of the night in the two thousand World Series and

936
01:01:26,795 --> 01:01:30,315
Speaker 1: all the nights since, when the bat of Mike Piazza

937
01:01:30,355 --> 01:01:34,715
Speaker 1: of the Mets shattered should be and Roger Clemens of

938
01:01:34,715 --> 01:01:36,715
Speaker 1: the Yankees picked up the barrel of that bat and

939
01:01:36,795 --> 01:01:39,195
Speaker 1: tossed it at him, or just tossed it away having

940
01:01:39,235 --> 01:01:42,275
Speaker 1: mistaken it for a baseball, or made up a story

941
01:01:42,515 --> 01:01:45,075
Speaker 1: that he had mistaken it for a baseball. And I

942
01:01:45,235 --> 01:01:47,435
Speaker 1: was in the Yankee dugout as the reporter, and I

943
01:01:47,475 --> 01:01:50,235
Speaker 1: was hosting the game for Fox, and I interviewed Clemens afterwards,

944
01:01:50,315 --> 01:01:53,515
Speaker 1: and then before our two hour postgame show on Cable,

945
01:01:54,435 --> 01:01:56,275
Speaker 1: I went over to the Met dugout and asked the

946
01:01:56,315 --> 01:02:01,555
Speaker 1: clubhouse attendant there what happened to the pieces of Piazza's bat. Well.

947
01:02:01,595 --> 01:02:04,235
Speaker 1: The guy explained that Bobby Valentine, the Mets manager, had

948
01:02:04,315 --> 01:02:06,835
Speaker 1: asked that one of the pieces go to a friend

949
01:02:06,835 --> 01:02:10,555
Speaker 1: of his in the stands, and he, the clubhouse attendant,

950
01:02:10,675 --> 01:02:13,275
Speaker 1: had handed it to the guy. A second piece he

951
01:02:13,355 --> 01:02:15,955
Speaker 1: believed was kept by the Yankees. He wasn't sure about that.

952
01:02:16,275 --> 01:02:19,875
Speaker 1: The third piece, the handle was where was it. Where

953
01:02:19,955 --> 01:02:22,635
Speaker 1: is it? He asked the other attendant. It's here in

954
01:02:22,675 --> 01:02:25,515
Speaker 1: the garbage, the kid said. I did a double take

955
01:02:25,675 --> 01:02:28,755
Speaker 1: the garbage. Yeah, the kid said, under the dugout bench,

956
01:02:28,875 --> 01:02:31,435
Speaker 1: and there it was, stuffed in amid all the empty

957
01:02:31,475 --> 01:02:35,075
Speaker 1: bags of sunflower seeds and the crushed gatorade cuffs. I said,

958
01:02:35,115 --> 01:02:37,875
Speaker 1: what happens to it? Now? Gets thrown out? They clean

959
01:02:37,875 --> 01:02:41,315
Speaker 1: out the dugouts first, so I said, look, can I

960
01:02:41,355 --> 01:02:43,795
Speaker 1: borrow it? This would make a great prop for our

961
01:02:43,795 --> 01:02:47,755
Speaker 1: postgame show? And the attendant says sure, and he pulls

962
01:02:47,795 --> 01:02:49,355
Speaker 1: it out of the pile and hands it to him,

963
01:02:49,475 --> 01:02:52,195
Speaker 1: just about seven inches of a baseball bat, and all

964
01:02:52,235 --> 01:02:54,875
Speaker 1: there is is Piazza's uniform number thirty one written in

965
01:02:54,915 --> 01:02:57,995
Speaker 1: magic marker on the bottom. Listen. I said, I won't

966
01:02:58,035 --> 01:02:59,515
Speaker 1: be able to bring this back to you for like

967
01:02:59,555 --> 01:03:01,715
Speaker 1: two hours. We're on for two hours. Will you still

968
01:03:01,755 --> 01:03:03,755
Speaker 1: be in the clubhouse? And he said, are you kidding?

969
01:03:04,315 --> 01:03:06,515
Speaker 1: We have to be here at eight. He and I'll

970
01:03:06,515 --> 01:03:08,755
Speaker 1: be out of here in ten minutes. And I said,

971
01:03:08,955 --> 01:03:10,475
Speaker 1: you want me to bring it back to you for

972
01:03:10,555 --> 01:03:13,595
Speaker 1: game three? And he says, garbage. You're going to bring

973
01:03:13,635 --> 01:03:16,155
Speaker 1: back garbage? Throw it out, keep it whatever, what do

974
01:03:16,235 --> 01:03:20,755
Speaker 1: I care? So I use the bat fragment as a

975
01:03:20,835 --> 01:03:23,555
Speaker 1: prop in the show repeatedly, and I stuck it in

976
01:03:23,635 --> 01:03:25,995
Speaker 1: my shoulder bag, and I thought, I'm not a scrounger,

977
01:03:26,635 --> 01:03:29,755
Speaker 1: but this is a valuable piece of memorabilia and I'd

978
01:03:29,795 --> 01:03:32,515
Speaker 1: like to keep it. So either I'll auction it off

979
01:03:32,515 --> 01:03:35,795
Speaker 1: for charity and bid against myself or something, or I'll

980
01:03:35,795 --> 01:03:38,155
Speaker 1: make a donation to a baseball charity and I'll keep it.

981
01:03:38,195 --> 01:03:41,115
Speaker 1: And that was it. And two days later, as the

982
01:03:41,155 --> 01:03:43,715
Speaker 1: World Series shifted from Yankee Stadium to Shay Stadium, I

983
01:03:43,715 --> 01:03:45,915
Speaker 1: got a phone call from one of the PR guys

984
01:03:45,955 --> 01:03:49,115
Speaker 1: at Fox Sports. Did you see the paper? And I said, no,

985
01:03:49,195 --> 01:03:51,475
Speaker 1: not yet. And he says, Piazza told the guy from

986
01:03:51,555 --> 01:03:55,115
Speaker 1: Newsday that you stole his bat and he wants it back.

987
01:03:55,875 --> 01:03:58,955
Speaker 1: And I said, what if I hadn't asked about it, it

988
01:03:58,955 --> 01:04:01,195
Speaker 1: would be on a garbage scale right now, being towed

989
01:04:01,235 --> 01:04:03,955
Speaker 1: out to be dumped in the Atlantic Ocean. And he says,

990
01:04:03,995 --> 01:04:06,515
Speaker 1: maybe so, but Piazza told this John Hayman, He's going

991
01:04:06,555 --> 01:04:10,075
Speaker 1: to sue you to get it back. So now I

992
01:04:10,155 --> 01:04:12,995
Speaker 1: go to the ballpark with extra excitement on my plate.

993
01:04:13,155 --> 01:04:15,195
Speaker 1: I'm waiting for Mike Piazza to tell me he's going

994
01:04:15,275 --> 01:04:17,715
Speaker 1: to sue me. So I go out onto the field.

995
01:04:17,835 --> 01:04:19,875
Speaker 1: I'm wondering how long it's going to be before I run

996
01:04:19,915 --> 01:04:22,035
Speaker 1: into Piazza, And like two minutes after I step on

997
01:04:22,075 --> 01:04:23,835
Speaker 1: the field, I turn around and he's walking towards me.

998
01:04:23,955 --> 01:04:26,555
Speaker 1: He looks at me and he says, hey, Keith wild

999
01:04:26,555 --> 01:04:28,875
Speaker 1: One the other night, huh say listen, when you lived

1000
01:04:28,915 --> 01:04:30,995
Speaker 1: at Shutters, did you ever eat at Ivy at the

1001
01:04:31,035 --> 01:04:35,275
Speaker 1: Shore in Santa Monica? Nothing about the bat. We're talking

1002
01:04:35,275 --> 01:04:38,595
Speaker 1: about restaurants in Santa Monica, California. And I say, well, yeah,

1003
01:04:38,595 --> 01:04:40,635
Speaker 1: but did you ever eat at Shae Jay's. And a

1004
01:04:40,795 --> 01:04:43,475
Speaker 1: big smile from Piazza, Oh, man, I love Shade Jay's.

1005
01:04:43,555 --> 01:04:45,955
Speaker 1: I love Jay. Give me your number this winter when

1006
01:04:45,955 --> 01:04:48,595
Speaker 1: I'm home, Let's go eat at Shaye Jay's. And I said,

1007
01:04:48,595 --> 01:04:50,515
Speaker 1: I'll pay for it and I'll order the sand dabs.

1008
01:04:50,915 --> 01:04:53,635
Speaker 1: Now we're talking about sand dabs, how to prepare sand

1009
01:04:53,715 --> 01:04:56,515
Speaker 1: dabs at a restaurant. And then he says, hey, sorry,

1010
01:04:56,515 --> 01:05:00,075
Speaker 1: I gotta go ahead, have a good show. That was it.

1011
01:05:00,955 --> 01:05:04,195
Speaker 1: He's in the paper threatening to sue me. We see

1012
01:05:04,235 --> 01:05:06,795
Speaker 1: each other on on the field. He starts the conversation.

1013
01:05:07,635 --> 01:05:11,515
Speaker 1: No mention of suing me, not one word. Next day

1014
01:05:11,555 --> 01:05:14,115
Speaker 1: in the paper, more Piazza quotes about how he's going

1015
01:05:14,195 --> 01:05:16,915
Speaker 1: to sue me for stealing his bat. Next night, Game

1016
01:05:16,915 --> 01:05:18,915
Speaker 1: four of the World Series, we're just about to go

1017
01:05:18,955 --> 01:05:20,875
Speaker 1: on the air with the pregame show, and now Piazza

1018
01:05:20,875 --> 01:05:23,395
Speaker 1: comes over again, coming in from the outfield to the dugout,

1019
01:05:23,395 --> 01:05:25,315
Speaker 1: and he says, hey, this must be really cool to

1020
01:05:25,355 --> 01:05:27,395
Speaker 1: do what you guys are doing. Have a great show.

1021
01:05:28,315 --> 01:05:29,875
Speaker 1: And by now the only thing I can think of.

1022
01:05:30,195 --> 01:05:32,915
Speaker 1: He does not know I'm the same Keith Olberman. He

1023
01:05:32,995 --> 01:05:36,835
Speaker 1: keeps threatening to sue. So the World Series ends and

1024
01:05:36,875 --> 01:05:39,195
Speaker 1: the Yankees beat the Mets, and if you look for it,

1025
01:05:39,235 --> 01:05:42,115
Speaker 1: there's this photo of the traditional postgame awarding of the

1026
01:05:42,115 --> 01:05:45,795
Speaker 1: World Series Trophy and the Most Valuable Player award and

1027
01:05:45,875 --> 01:05:48,875
Speaker 1: its commissioner, Bud Selig and Derek Jeter, the Yankees and me,

1028
01:05:49,475 --> 01:05:51,955
Speaker 1: and just before it happened, George Steinbrenner was the owner

1029
01:05:51,955 --> 01:05:55,795
Speaker 1: of the Yankees. He's crying, leans in and I give

1030
01:05:55,835 --> 01:05:57,835
Speaker 1: him a hug and reassure him. And he asked me

1031
01:05:57,875 --> 01:05:59,835
Speaker 1: if my mother went to the game, and I said,

1032
01:05:59,875 --> 01:06:01,915
Speaker 1: you know, my mother she'd never come to Shay Stadium.

1033
01:06:01,955 --> 01:06:04,155
Speaker 1: She hates it more than you do. And he says,

1034
01:06:04,795 --> 01:06:08,515
Speaker 1: I love her more than ever before. Now, So the

1035
01:06:08,595 --> 01:06:11,155
Speaker 1: series ends, and it's not been that greatest series, but

1036
01:06:11,195 --> 01:06:14,515
Speaker 1: it's been exciting and it was the dream from my childhood.

1037
01:06:14,555 --> 01:06:17,235
Speaker 1: And the Yankees have won and my friends are happy.

1038
01:06:17,315 --> 01:06:21,075
Speaker 1: And I've not heard another word about this lawsuit, nothing

1039
01:06:21,115 --> 01:06:24,115
Speaker 1: from Mike Piazza. And I told the Fox people, well,

1040
01:06:24,195 --> 01:06:25,915
Speaker 1: if I'm not going to hear anything more from them,

1041
01:06:25,955 --> 01:06:28,235
Speaker 1: it's easy. I'm going to keep the bat and I'm

1042
01:06:28,275 --> 01:06:31,555
Speaker 1: going to donate twenty five thousand dollars to this charity,

1043
01:06:31,595 --> 01:06:34,555
Speaker 1: the Baseball Assistance Team, which helps ex ball players in

1044
01:06:34,595 --> 01:06:38,355
Speaker 1: financial need, because A I'm not a scrounger. B it's

1045
01:06:38,355 --> 01:06:41,675
Speaker 1: a great cause. C that's actually much more than the

1046
01:06:41,675 --> 01:06:43,755
Speaker 1: bat handle would be worth on the open market. And

1047
01:06:43,875 --> 01:06:47,995
Speaker 1: D the acronym for the Baseball Assistance Team is bat

1048
01:06:48,675 --> 01:06:52,755
Speaker 1: bat and that's perfect. It's about Piazza's bat, you get it.

1049
01:06:54,195 --> 01:06:57,835
Speaker 1: And then nothing for a month, whereupon Fox gets another

1050
01:06:57,915 --> 01:07:01,435
Speaker 1: letter now from Piazza's agent fellow named Manzan and he

1051
01:07:01,515 --> 01:07:03,995
Speaker 1: threatens to sue again, and that's the end of it.

1052
01:07:04,195 --> 01:07:07,355
Speaker 1: Never heard from him again. So now it's the next year,

1053
01:07:07,395 --> 01:07:09,035
Speaker 1: two thousand and one, and I'm back in New York

1054
01:07:09,155 --> 01:07:11,555
Speaker 1: working for CNN doing the news, and I go to

1055
01:07:11,635 --> 01:07:13,675
Speaker 1: a Mets game and I see Piazza and I give

1056
01:07:13,755 --> 01:07:15,515
Speaker 1: him a big smile and I offer my hand and

1057
01:07:15,555 --> 01:07:17,915
Speaker 1: I say, still all of those sand dabs from shayj

1058
01:07:18,275 --> 01:07:20,835
Speaker 1: And he just stares at me and walks right past me.

1059
01:07:21,635 --> 01:07:23,435
Speaker 1: And I see a cop I know who works next

1060
01:07:23,475 --> 01:07:25,875
Speaker 1: to the Mets dugout, and the cop says, Mike has

1061
01:07:25,915 --> 01:07:29,355
Speaker 1: been asking him about me? Is that Keith Olderman the

1062
01:07:29,355 --> 01:07:33,515
Speaker 1: one who stole my bat? So now I'm not just

1063
01:07:33,635 --> 01:07:37,955
Speaker 1: keeping the bat. I want to sue Mike Piazza for

1064
01:07:38,155 --> 01:07:41,635
Speaker 1: being a pain in the ass. And then nine to

1065
01:07:41,635 --> 01:07:45,195
Speaker 1: eleven happens, and ball players are doing charity things, and

1066
01:07:45,235 --> 01:07:49,155
Speaker 1: sportscasters and newscasters are doing charity things, and I think, well,

1067
01:07:49,475 --> 01:07:52,435
Speaker 1: this is the time when the baseball season resumes. I

1068
01:07:52,475 --> 01:07:54,195
Speaker 1: throw the bat handle in my bag and I go

1069
01:07:54,235 --> 01:07:55,955
Speaker 1: out to a Mets game and I go up to

1070
01:07:56,155 --> 01:07:58,395
Speaker 1: Piazza's locker before the game, and I pull the bat

1071
01:07:58,475 --> 01:08:01,515
Speaker 1: chart out and I say, take this, Mike, auction it

1072
01:08:01,555 --> 01:08:03,595
Speaker 1: off for charity. Let's do some good with this, or

1073
01:08:03,595 --> 01:08:06,275
Speaker 1: if it's too much trouble, you sign it and I'll

1074
01:08:06,275 --> 01:08:08,075
Speaker 1: auction it off. We can leave my name out of it,

1075
01:08:08,115 --> 01:08:10,595
Speaker 1: whatever you want, however you want to do it. And

1076
01:08:10,635 --> 01:08:13,275
Speaker 1: he looks at me like I've just insulted his mother

1077
01:08:13,515 --> 01:08:16,355
Speaker 1: and says, no, it's too complicated, and he turns away,

1078
01:08:16,995 --> 01:08:21,635
Speaker 1: and I think to myself, this is the strangest athlete

1079
01:08:21,755 --> 01:08:25,595
Speaker 1: I have ever met. And just before the season ends,

1080
01:08:25,595 --> 01:08:27,915
Speaker 1: I go to another Mets game. Now this time it's

1081
01:08:27,915 --> 01:08:29,955
Speaker 1: one of his teammates who takes me aside and says,

1082
01:08:30,195 --> 01:08:32,755
Speaker 1: you know, Piazza never stops talking about you stealing his

1083
01:08:32,795 --> 01:08:35,035
Speaker 1: bat from the Clemens game last year. He says, he

1084
01:08:35,075 --> 01:08:38,435
Speaker 1: still wants to sue you. Didn't you try to give

1085
01:08:38,515 --> 01:08:40,715
Speaker 1: him the bat back in the clubhouse to auction off.

1086
01:08:40,755 --> 01:08:42,995
Speaker 1: Didn't I see that? And I say, yeah, I did,

1087
01:08:43,235 --> 01:08:45,435
Speaker 1: and he refused to take it. And the guy laughs

1088
01:08:45,475 --> 01:08:48,955
Speaker 1: and he says, great player, excellent catcher. I love him,

1089
01:08:49,235 --> 01:08:53,115
Speaker 1: strangest player I have ever met. Comes two thousand and two,

1090
01:08:53,515 --> 01:08:57,115
Speaker 1: nothing happens. See Piazza at several Mets games. Nothing happens.

1091
01:08:57,115 --> 01:09:00,315
Speaker 1: Two thousand and three, nothing happens. Now I can't pin

1092
01:09:00,435 --> 01:09:02,675
Speaker 1: the year down on this. It's one of the Red

1093
01:09:02,715 --> 01:09:05,675
Speaker 1: Sox Yankees' playoffs series either too thousand and three. We're

1094
01:09:05,675 --> 01:09:08,155
Speaker 1: two thousand and four and I'm leaving the field as

1095
01:09:08,155 --> 01:09:10,875
Speaker 1: they're clearing the media off just before the game starts,

1096
01:09:10,995 --> 01:09:13,315
Speaker 1: and I'm going out through the Red Sox dugout, literally

1097
01:09:13,395 --> 01:09:16,475
Speaker 1: at the same spot where the kid handed me Piazza's

1098
01:09:16,515 --> 01:09:19,755
Speaker 1: bat handle three or four years earlier, where the trouble

1099
01:09:19,795 --> 01:09:22,675
Speaker 1: all began. And I see the new owner of the

1100
01:09:22,715 --> 01:09:25,195
Speaker 1: Red Sox team approaching from the other end of the dugout,

1101
01:09:25,435 --> 01:09:28,315
Speaker 1: Keith John Henry, Nice to meet you. Have you got

1102
01:09:28,355 --> 01:09:31,635
Speaker 1: a minute? And I said, well, yeah, they're kicking the

1103
01:09:31,635 --> 01:09:33,675
Speaker 1: media off the field, so and he laughs and he

1104
01:09:33,675 --> 01:09:35,475
Speaker 1: says I can take care of that. And he yells

1105
01:09:35,515 --> 01:09:37,835
Speaker 1: at the plane clothes coop and he says he's with

1106
01:09:37,995 --> 01:09:40,435
Speaker 1: me and the cop nods and John Henry, the owner

1107
01:09:40,435 --> 01:09:42,355
Speaker 1: of the Red Sox, and I sit down on the

1108
01:09:42,355 --> 01:09:44,475
Speaker 1: Red Sox bench before the start of a Red Sox

1109
01:09:44,555 --> 01:09:47,315
Speaker 1: Yankees playoff game, and there are no other reporters out there,

1110
01:09:47,315 --> 01:09:49,715
Speaker 1: and I think, Okay, what did I say about the

1111
01:09:49,715 --> 01:09:54,155
Speaker 1: Red Sox? What is he pissed off about? Instead? John

1112
01:09:54,195 --> 01:09:58,915
Speaker 1: Henry says, can I ask you about Mike Piazza And

1113
01:09:58,955 --> 01:10:03,635
Speaker 1: I laugh and I say, sure, what about him? And

1114
01:10:03,675 --> 01:10:06,115
Speaker 1: he says, you have part of his bat from the

1115
01:10:06,115 --> 01:10:08,875
Speaker 1: World Series with Clemens right, And I say yeah, and

1116
01:10:08,875 --> 01:10:11,875
Speaker 1: he says, tell me the whole story. So I do

1117
01:10:12,035 --> 01:10:15,435
Speaker 1: what you've just heard, and John Henry says, that's what

1118
01:10:15,515 --> 01:10:18,715
Speaker 1: I was told, Thank you, huh. I thought it was me.

1119
01:10:19,475 --> 01:10:21,355
Speaker 1: So that other piece of the bat that was handed

1120
01:10:21,395 --> 01:10:23,715
Speaker 1: to a friend of Bobby Valentine's during that game, that

1121
01:10:23,795 --> 01:10:25,595
Speaker 1: friend is a great friend of mine. And after nine

1122
01:10:25,635 --> 01:10:27,315
Speaker 1: to eleven he said, wouldn't it be great to get

1123
01:10:27,355 --> 01:10:29,635
Speaker 1: Mike Piazza to sign this and then we can auction

1124
01:10:29,755 --> 01:10:31,795
Speaker 1: it off for the victims' families or the cops or

1125
01:10:31,795 --> 01:10:34,595
Speaker 1: some other charity. And he gives me the bat and

1126
01:10:34,635 --> 01:10:36,395
Speaker 1: I call the Mets and they approach Mike and they

1127
01:10:36,435 --> 01:10:38,315
Speaker 1: call me and they say, Mike loves the idea and

1128
01:10:38,315 --> 01:10:39,955
Speaker 1: I should come to one of the spring training games

1129
01:10:39,955 --> 01:10:42,315
Speaker 1: and he'll sign it. So the next March, I go

1130
01:10:42,315 --> 01:10:44,195
Speaker 1: to one of the Mets spring training games and I

1131
01:10:44,235 --> 01:10:45,835
Speaker 1: go up to him in the clubhouse and I introduce

1132
01:10:45,915 --> 01:10:48,315
Speaker 1: myself and he looks at me like I'm from Mars

1133
01:10:48,795 --> 01:10:50,355
Speaker 1: and I say, well, I brought the bat and he

1134
01:10:50,395 --> 01:10:53,115
Speaker 1: says what bat? And I explained that we had arranged

1135
01:10:53,115 --> 01:10:55,315
Speaker 1: to have him sign the bat from the World Series

1136
01:10:55,755 --> 01:10:57,955
Speaker 1: for a nine to eleven charity and he erupts at me,

1137
01:10:58,115 --> 01:11:01,035
Speaker 1: I'm not signing that bat? Sure for charity? You think

1138
01:11:01,035 --> 01:11:05,835
Speaker 1: I was born yesterday? And say something to John Henry,

1139
01:11:05,875 --> 01:11:08,355
Speaker 1: owner of the Red Sox, like welcome to the club.

1140
01:11:08,595 --> 01:11:11,555
Speaker 1: Did he threaten to sue you too? And he laughs

1141
01:11:11,595 --> 01:11:14,715
Speaker 1: and says yes. That's the next part of the story.

1142
01:11:14,835 --> 01:11:17,635
Speaker 1: So while we're trying to straighten that out, his agent

1143
01:11:17,715 --> 01:11:19,555
Speaker 1: calls me and asks if I will give them the

1144
01:11:19,595 --> 01:11:22,115
Speaker 1: bat to auction off for charity, and I say sure,

1145
01:11:23,115 --> 01:11:25,315
Speaker 1: and I go to another Mets game and I go

1146
01:11:25,355 --> 01:11:27,515
Speaker 1: to the clubhouse and I have the bat again. Now

1147
01:11:27,555 --> 01:11:30,275
Speaker 1: Piazza says, no, I can't take the bat because of

1148
01:11:30,395 --> 01:11:34,475
Speaker 1: pending litigation, but if I want him to, he'll sign

1149
01:11:34,555 --> 01:11:36,675
Speaker 1: it for me. All I have to do is come

1150
01:11:36,715 --> 01:11:39,875
Speaker 1: back a couple of weeks later. So this is what

1151
01:11:39,915 --> 01:11:43,675
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask Keith. Is he the strangest ballplayer

1152
01:11:43,675 --> 01:11:48,115
Speaker 1: you've ever met? Or is it just me? There's one

1153
01:11:48,155 --> 01:11:54,195
Speaker 1: more part to this. Flash forward to twenty fourteen, I

1154
01:11:54,235 --> 01:11:57,515
Speaker 1: still have the Piazza batthandle the one I unsuccessfully tried

1155
01:11:57,515 --> 01:12:00,115
Speaker 1: to give back to Piazza. The middle portion, the one

1156
01:12:00,195 --> 01:12:03,355
Speaker 1: John Henry unsuccessfully tried to give back to Piazza, has

1157
01:12:03,395 --> 01:12:07,155
Speaker 1: been sold, with the proce going to charity. So where

1158
01:12:07,195 --> 01:12:09,715
Speaker 1: is the third piece, the barrel of the bat, the

1159
01:12:09,755 --> 01:12:11,995
Speaker 1: part that Clemens through at Piazza if you're a Met

1160
01:12:12,035 --> 01:12:15,075
Speaker 1: fan or was unfairly accused of throwing at Piazza if

1161
01:12:15,075 --> 01:12:18,115
Speaker 1: you're not a Met fan? And the answer finally arrives

1162
01:12:18,155 --> 01:12:21,595
Speaker 1: in a sports memorabilia auction catalog that year. While one

1163
01:12:21,675 --> 01:12:24,075
Speaker 1: of the visiting bat boys was handing the middle part

1164
01:12:24,075 --> 01:12:26,675
Speaker 1: of the bat to a friend of Bobby Valentine and

1165
01:12:26,755 --> 01:12:30,475
Speaker 1: John Henry's in the stands, the barrel, which landed near

1166
01:12:30,515 --> 01:12:33,395
Speaker 1: the Yankee dugout, was scooped up by the Yankee bat boy,

1167
01:12:33,795 --> 01:12:36,515
Speaker 1: who put it in the pile of Yankee broken bats.

1168
01:12:36,995 --> 01:12:38,955
Speaker 1: And as it turned out, right at that point, the

1169
01:12:39,035 --> 01:12:43,235
Speaker 1: Yankee strengthen conditioning coach Jeff Mangold, who was on the bench, said,

1170
01:12:43,515 --> 01:12:46,115
Speaker 1: wait a minute, that's the pile of broken bats they're

1171
01:12:46,115 --> 01:12:48,675
Speaker 1: going to throw out. They shouldn't throw it out. It's history.

1172
01:12:49,195 --> 01:12:51,595
Speaker 1: And he grabs that part of the Piazza bat and

1173
01:12:51,635 --> 01:12:53,395
Speaker 1: puts it up in his home office. And now it's

1174
01:12:53,395 --> 01:12:55,795
Speaker 1: fourteen years later and he wants to auction it off

1175
01:12:55,835 --> 01:12:59,075
Speaker 1: for charity. So he auctions it off, and I think, well, hell,

1176
01:12:59,635 --> 01:13:01,795
Speaker 1: it should be alongside the other piece of the bat.

1177
01:13:01,875 --> 01:13:05,275
Speaker 1: My other piece of the bat, the handle, win the auction.

1178
01:13:06,515 --> 01:13:09,315
Speaker 1: There it is on my wall, complete with a baseball

1179
01:13:09,355 --> 01:13:12,875
Speaker 1: card showing Roger Clemens about to throw the barrel. Reasons

1180
01:13:13,035 --> 01:13:17,395
Speaker 1: left to your imagination, two thirds of the famous bat.

1181
01:13:18,235 --> 01:13:21,275
Speaker 1: I'll sell it someday, I'm sure, but I'll always have

1182
01:13:21,315 --> 01:13:26,035
Speaker 1: the memories, my memories and John Henry's memories. And if

1183
01:13:26,035 --> 01:13:28,555
Speaker 1: you're wondering, No, unlike John Henry and I, that Yankee

1184
01:13:28,555 --> 01:13:31,555
Speaker 1: strength coach Jeff Mangold never tried to give it back

1185
01:13:31,595 --> 01:13:34,155
Speaker 1: to Piazza, or get it signed by Piazza, or auctioned

1186
01:13:34,195 --> 01:13:36,715
Speaker 1: off for charity with Piazza, which means that, on top

1187
01:13:36,755 --> 01:13:41,075
Speaker 1: of everything else, Jeff Mangold is smarter than John Henry

1188
01:13:41,075 --> 01:13:58,035
Speaker 1: and I put together. Yes, the story took three hours,

1189
01:13:58,075 --> 01:14:01,835
Speaker 1: but I think you'll agree it was worth it. Hello. Hello,

1190
01:14:01,915 --> 01:14:05,755
Speaker 1: you're still there. Hello, HELLI I've done all the damage

1191
01:14:05,795 --> 01:14:07,635
Speaker 1: I can do here. Thank you for listening. Most of

1192
01:14:07,675 --> 01:14:10,315
Speaker 1: our countdown music was arranged, produced and performed by Brian

1193
01:14:10,435 --> 01:14:13,715
Speaker 1: Ray and John Phillip Schanel. Our musical directors have Countdown

1194
01:14:13,715 --> 01:14:16,675
Speaker 1: and it was produced by TKO Brothers. Mister Ray was

1195
01:14:16,715 --> 01:14:20,235
Speaker 1: on the guitars, bass and drums. Mister Chaneale handled orchestration

1196
01:14:20,275 --> 01:14:23,875
Speaker 1: and keyboards. Our satirical and fifty musical comments are by

1197
01:14:23,915 --> 01:14:27,515
Speaker 1: my friend and the best baseball stadium organist ever, Nancy Faust.

1198
01:14:27,915 --> 01:14:31,395
Speaker 1: The Olderman theme from ESPN two written by Mitch Warren

1199
01:14:31,475 --> 01:14:34,835
Speaker 1: Davis Pier's Curtisy of ESPN, Inc. And it's the sports music.

1200
01:14:35,155 --> 01:14:38,235
Speaker 1: Other music arranged and performed by the group No Horns Allowed.

1201
01:14:38,515 --> 01:14:42,395
Speaker 1: My announcer today, keeping with the baseball theme was Tony Kornheiser.

1202
01:14:42,835 --> 01:14:47,155
Speaker 1: Everything else was as always my fault. That's countdown for today.

1203
01:14:47,195 --> 01:14:49,755
Speaker 1: Day two hundred and eighty one of America held hostage again,

1204
01:14:50,435 --> 01:14:54,195
Speaker 1: just eighty two days until the scheduled end of his

1205
01:14:54,315 --> 01:14:57,155
Speaker 1: lame duck and lame brained term unless he is removed

1206
01:14:57,235 --> 01:15:01,995
Speaker 1: sooner by Maga and Epstein, or that patch of pavement

1207
01:15:02,035 --> 01:15:05,275
Speaker 1: on his hand, or a stuck escalator or a kopathy

1208
01:15:05,395 --> 01:15:07,915
Speaker 1: test or tail and all, or his jet made out

1209
01:15:07,955 --> 01:15:12,035
Speaker 1: of poop, or the arc he's building. He's building an arc.

1210
01:15:12,395 --> 01:15:16,275
Speaker 1: He thinks he's pronounced arc. He thinks arch is arc.

1211
01:15:18,555 --> 01:15:23,035
Speaker 1: Now he's fine, He's fine. The next scheduled countdown is Thursday.

1212
01:15:23,075 --> 01:15:25,795
Speaker 1: Until then, I'm Keith Alderman. Good morning, good afternoon, good night,

1213
01:15:26,435 --> 01:15:43,315
Speaker 1: and good luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production

1214
01:15:43,555 --> 01:15:48,835
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

1215
01:15:48,915 --> 01:15:52,315
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.