Speaker 1: Boom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes a
Speaker 1: week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants of
Speaker 1: the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He treats
Speaker 1: crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the rich
Speaker 1: pill poppers in the penthouse, to clearing house of hot takes,
Speaker 1: break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben
Speaker 1: Maller starts right now, nine nine night. The light is flashing.
Speaker 1: That that on air light is flashing, and that means
Speaker 1: it is time for another addition of the Fifth Hour
Speaker 1: with Ben Maller, because four hours a night are not
Speaker 1: enough eight days a week. And we thank you for
Speaker 1: subscribing to the podcast. We're finding it first of all,
Speaker 1: listening to it, telling friends about it. The only marketing
Speaker 1: budget we have is none. We have no marketing budget.
Speaker 1: But with the way we promote the podcast is to
Speaker 1: make a fuss about it, get you to tell friends,
Speaker 1: and of means we don't care anyone that might be
Speaker 1: able to download the podcast, spread the words, spread the gospel.
Speaker 1: And I like to say, and I believe this is
Speaker 1: true that if everyone listening, if you listening, and the
Speaker 1: other seven people listening, so we have eight people that
Speaker 1: download the podcasts. But if all eight people tell eight
Speaker 1: other people to listen to the podcast, and then those
Speaker 1: eight people do actually download the podcast, we've now doubled
Speaker 1: the audience. We've doubled the market share. It's that simple.
Speaker 1: It's mallar math and that's the way we do things.
Speaker 1: But this week we start the Friday podcast. I am
Speaker 1: very excited to talk to somebody who has known me
Speaker 1: since I was a teenager when I first started in radio,
Speaker 1: and has been very kind me over the years as
Speaker 1: I navigated my way as a radio reporters to hang
Speaker 1: out in press boxes with this gentleman. And he has
Speaker 1: a new book out and I said, you know what, Ted,
Speaker 1: I gotta promote this book, your friend of mine. Not
Speaker 1: normally I don't do these book interviews. I don't normally
Speaker 1: do these book interviews. But it's really just telling story worries.
Speaker 1: That's all it is, telling stories, and that's always a
Speaker 1: good podcast. That's solid podcasting, broadcasting in general, telling stories.
Speaker 1: And so the name Ted Sober, if you're in southern California,
Speaker 1: you likely know who. That is a staple of the
Speaker 1: l A media scene. He worked in news radio at
Speaker 1: the iconic KF WB as the sports director for many
Speaker 1: many years. Currently he is nationally known as the studio
Speaker 1: host for the Sports USA network. I think that's what
Speaker 1: it's called. But he does the NFL and college football,
Speaker 1: and I believe they've got the NHL rights now on radio,
Speaker 1: and he is called minor league hockey. He lived in Wisconsin.
Speaker 1: Uh did some University of Wisconsin hockey broadcast back in
Speaker 1: the day, worked for the Mighty Ducks. He's been all
Speaker 1: over the place. I've known him for a very long time.
Speaker 1: He's got a new book out called Touching Greatness, and
Speaker 1: Ted has had a very interesting life. He has met
Speaker 1: pretty much everybody who's anybody in the sporting world. But
Speaker 1: it's not just about sports, and more importantly for our purposes, Ted,
Speaker 1: you are part of the fs ARE Alumni Association. We
Speaker 1: were briefly teammates. How long it's been a while. How
Speaker 1: long did you work It wasn't long. How long did
Speaker 1: you work at Fox Sports Radio, Ted? I was there
Speaker 1: Ben at least two shifts. Seriously, uh I was there
Speaker 1: for a handful of months. I don't remember exactly, but
Speaker 1: uh I left around Thanksgiving after I did some things
Speaker 1: in the summer, So it was just a handful of
Speaker 1: months there. It was just bad timing, that's all. And
Speaker 1: plus U, I was only working the very very late
Speaker 1: overnight shifts. And when I say overnight, you were long gone,
Speaker 1: so you know, even the sun was a rumor at
Speaker 1: the time, and it just didn't work into my My
Speaker 1: body was saying, what are you doing? You're too old
Speaker 1: for That's what I tried to listen. And you've had
Speaker 1: prime radio jobs, right, I remember you on kf WB
Speaker 1: and you were like the prime time guy and all that.
Speaker 1: But three years but who's counting. But the overnight, though, Ted,
Speaker 1: That's that's where you really get your hands dirty. In
Speaker 1: the overnight you are insane. I would have been I
Speaker 1: would have been laid out in a casket decades ago.
Speaker 1: Well we're all headed that way one way or another.
Speaker 1: But uh, you know what I mean. Yeah, we wanted
Speaker 1: to delay that as long as possible. So we now
Speaker 1: we have known each other. You have known me Ted
Speaker 1: since I was a teenager, since I was a teenager.
Speaker 1: Full disclosure. I would actually like to thank you because, uh,
Speaker 1: you know a lot of you know, there was some guys,
Speaker 1: not a lot, there were some guys that kind of
Speaker 1: gave me the cold shoulder when I started and I
Speaker 1: was out covering some Dodgery games and stuff around the
Speaker 1: town when I was nineteen, and you were not. You
Speaker 1: were pretty cool all along. And uh, I love the
Speaker 1: way you say that. That too cool, just pretty cool.
Speaker 1: He remember, you sort of earned the cold shoulder at
Speaker 1: times too, So let's let's be honest with the folks
Speaker 1: out there. Well, I disagree with that, and I do
Speaker 1: have to agree with that position at all. I was
Speaker 1: just because I got lost one time at Dodger Stadium
Speaker 1: and I didn't know where to go, and I followed
Speaker 1: somebody and they turned out to be the biggest asshole
Speaker 1: that I'd ever done with. But other but other than that, no, no,
Speaker 1: it was not you with somebody else. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I had not been in the bowels of Dodger Stadium before,
Speaker 1: so I had I gotten lost, and I figured, well,
Speaker 1: there's another reporter, so I just kind of follow them
Speaker 1: and they all know where to go and get out
Speaker 1: of here. And then it turned out to be the
Speaker 1: the one, the one guy who hated me the rest
Speaker 1: of my life because of that that activity. But but
Speaker 1: you have covered the l A sports scene. I mean,
Speaker 1: you've seen and done it all. I know you've got
Speaker 1: a book. We're gonna talk about that, but go to
Speaker 1: book again. Oh it's the I think it's called touching greatness?
Speaker 1: Is that right? Look at look at that? I got
Speaker 1: it right, and I got it right in front of
Speaker 1: me here. But that But now, I started in the nineties,
Speaker 1: you were, you were covering the game's way before that,
Speaker 1: and so what kind of paint the picture for those
Speaker 1: that are wondering when the how much did it change
Speaker 1: from the seventies, eighties to the nineties there and obviously
Speaker 1: today it's a totally different situation. But when you when
Speaker 1: you were covering like the Dodgers in the nineteen seventies,
Speaker 1: compared to covering the team's you know, the years for
Speaker 1: what was it like then? Was it obviously was a
Speaker 1: lot different. There wasn't the internet and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: So kind of paint the picture what that was like? Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, not just the Dodgers, any team. They
Speaker 1: wanted us there. Now they don't even want to know
Speaker 1: we exist, So it's a big difference, you know, just
Speaker 1: the fact remember food was free to the media then
Speaker 1: because they absolutely needed us in the house. Remember I
Speaker 1: tell us everybody, and people never think of this, but
Speaker 1: it is the most important thing when it comes to
Speaker 1: promoting sports. From a media standpoint, it is the only business.
Speaker 1: And I mean you talk about movies, you talk about
Speaker 1: anything else that gets free twenty four seven publicity and
Speaker 1: they don't have to spend one penny, not one penny.
Speaker 1: And it's the only business on the planet. It probably
Speaker 1: in the universe, and maybe every universe. So they wanted
Speaker 1: us there because if we're there, we're giving them constant
Speaker 1: free publicity. By the second, Now, if you were a
Speaker 1: shoe store owner and you had somebody from the l
Speaker 1: A Times, for example, say I'm gonna come over to
Speaker 1: your place every day at six o'clock, right around the
Speaker 1: time you close, and just find out how your sales went,
Speaker 1: and and talk to your people and what kind of
Speaker 1: what kind of patrons did you have today? Blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna write a little story about you every
Speaker 1: single night. I would send a limo to that person.
Speaker 1: And that's who we were for the sports, uh, for
Speaker 1: any club, whether it was college or pro. So again,
Speaker 1: now they don't need us as much. But in the
Speaker 1: seventies of bent, I started in nineteen seventy three, my
Speaker 1: first credential. Uh. It was it was to a point
Speaker 1: where if you had access to the room, they you
Speaker 1: were wanted in there, not by every player, but by
Speaker 1: the organization. And it was so different. It was it
Speaker 1: was accommodating. It was, Hey, what can we do for
Speaker 1: you now? Is say, how can we get you the
Speaker 1: hell out of here? And maybe never give you a
Speaker 1: credential again. It's a whole different ball game. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: you you one of your good friends. And I was
Speaker 1: reading in the book. I knew you had known Paul
Speaker 1: old in a long time. I didn't realize you met
Speaker 1: him in school, which you talking about. Yeah, and l
Speaker 1: A City College. And for those who don't know, Paul
Speaker 1: Olden is the public address announcer for the New York Dickies.
Speaker 1: But I I for for me, for me, he's the
Speaker 1: he's the Kingman rant guy. He's the guy that recorded,
Speaker 1: for posterity's sake, the Tommy sorta rant when he flew
Speaker 1: off the handle over Dave Kingman, Uh getting out. And
Speaker 1: and I've heard stories said that there's other rants that
Speaker 1: in those days that weren't recorded from Losorda. You you
Speaker 1: were there covering the Dodgers with Tommy? Is that true?
Speaker 1: Can you confirm deny that there were other rants that
Speaker 1: did not get saved, that we're actually better than the
Speaker 1: Kingman or the Bibacua. Well, let's put it this way.
Speaker 1: First of all, I love the way you said. Is
Speaker 1: that true? You said a little bit like Healey, But
Speaker 1: that's okay, Jim Healey. For those of you who don't know,
Speaker 1: classic legendary radio voice in l A and My Hero
Speaker 1: and My Hero, you know it? It uh that one
Speaker 1: was a classic because the way it happened, because of
Speaker 1: the timing of it, and because I always loved that.
Speaker 1: Tommy used to say I never used an F word
Speaker 1: in my life, and that was, like you mean, in
Speaker 1: the last five seconds, Tommy was. He was a classic.
Speaker 1: He was unbelieved. You never knew what moods you're going
Speaker 1: to get him in, except for he was always in
Speaker 1: one specific type of mood, and that is I want
Speaker 1: the attention mood, and he got it at that time.
Speaker 1: I am sure he didn't do it intentionally, he just
Speaker 1: lost it. And by the way, in a future volume
Speaker 1: of Touching Greatness, there will be a chapter called what's
Speaker 1: your opinion of Kingman's performance, and I got the whole
Speaker 1: story exactly what happened and why it happened that day,
Speaker 1: But no, I never heard any specific one. I mean
Speaker 1: I've recorded him a thousand times. He you know, he
Speaker 1: drew an F bomb in there, of course, whenever he
Speaker 1: was in the mood, but not like that. I never
Speaker 1: I don't recall anything being would have stood out to
Speaker 1: this point. And remember in those days, there were times
Speaker 1: when maybe radio was not in the room at the time,
Speaker 1: so that would be a good question to ask uh
Speaker 1: newspaper writer who covered them regularly in the early days,
Speaker 1: because they may have gotten had a few really classic rants,
Speaker 1: but nobody was there to record it, so it didn't
Speaker 1: really matter. Yeah, And what I remember from covering the sort,
Speaker 1: I was there at the end his last few years
Speaker 1: when he was managing the team, so he'd already established
Speaker 1: himself and he was this bigger than life personality, and
Speaker 1: which he always was. But having won the World Series
Speaker 1: a couple of times and having success and all that.
Speaker 1: But I remember ted when we would go into the
Speaker 1: locker room to interview him, and if the Dodgers had won,
Speaker 1: we'd get jolly happy Tommy. That would be bouncing off
Speaker 1: the walls. They he was, you know, in his office
Speaker 1: there he'd be standing up in front of his desk
Speaker 1: and want to talk to everybody. And then when they lost,
Speaker 1: he would be downtrodden behind his desk and usually eating
Speaker 1: some kind of food that he had in his office
Speaker 1: and and spitting all over the microphe. I remember having
Speaker 1: to clean my microphone because Tommy spit. Yeah, there was
Speaker 1: a lot of garlic on my microphone. Freak. It was
Speaker 1: like a red sauce. It was. It was wild and
Speaker 1: of course, of course I was sort of selling it
Speaker 1: back in the was the eighties, right, he sold pasta
Speaker 1: sauce at And then also he had a diet program
Speaker 1: that he was well sure, he also had his own
Speaker 1: wines too, you know, which was pretty pretty neat stuff.
Speaker 1: But that was that was much later on. Look, Tommy,
Speaker 1: if you didn't smell garlic, then Tommy was out of town.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was always classic to walk into that
Speaker 1: room into his office after a game. You get the
Speaker 1: closure you got to him, the more you could smell
Speaker 1: his breath and uh, and you're right, there was something
Speaker 1: about him eating slowly in front of us after a loss.
Speaker 1: He seemed to be I'm going to enjoy the food
Speaker 1: more than your damn faces in this room, the way
Speaker 1: it always seemed to be. Yeah, Now, all I do
Speaker 1: want to get to the book touching Greatness. And you've
Speaker 1: got some of the stories about all these you know,
Speaker 1: the sort all the great characters that you've covered over
Speaker 1: the years. Being around beginning. I am jealous, though ted
Speaker 1: I I'd love to write a book someday. But then
Speaker 1: I found out how much time you spent on this.
Speaker 1: You said three this is a three year project. How
Speaker 1: many hours do you think would you estimate that you
Speaker 1: put in? Because you didn't have a ghostwriter, I saw
Speaker 1: this was all you cast for the friendly ghost. Unfortunately, No,
Speaker 1: you know what, I don't want to count the hours
Speaker 1: because if I do, I'll probably shoot myself that time back.
Speaker 1: All I know is that and and I and I
Speaker 1: thoroughly am prideful about doing this because it's not an
Speaker 1: easy thing. But remember, it depends on kind of book
Speaker 1: you're writing. I did something about literally decades of my
Speaker 1: life from the beginning and trying to remember stuff that
Speaker 1: I wanted other people to know of. And I've told
Speaker 1: these stories forever and everything. But I should write a book.
Speaker 1: One day I finally have and I got to the
Speaker 1: point where there were so many things I had to
Speaker 1: look up. It took hundreds of hours, no exaggeration of research,
Speaker 1: because I wanted everything to be one thousand percent accurate,
Speaker 1: the date, the time, what exactly happened, if it had
Speaker 1: anything to do with the story. And that's what took
Speaker 1: as much time as just writing itself. I'm talking hundreds
Speaker 1: of ours. And how often was your memory a little off?
Speaker 1: You have a very good memory, But I they I've
Speaker 1: read STA again exactly, but I read study. I read
Speaker 1: studies like that what we remember and then like the
Speaker 1: timing is usually awf a little bit like version of
Speaker 1: what we remember is not completely right. How accurate was
Speaker 1: the memory the mind of Sobel looking back? Keep your
Speaker 1: life in the damn good question? You know what? It
Speaker 1: was actually very good. I'm a little surprised myself. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I took some notes about twenty years ago,
Speaker 1: and I thought, Okay, if I'm ever gonna do this,
Speaker 1: let me write down a few things. And I literally
Speaker 1: had several just plain white sheets of paper where I
Speaker 1: would scribble a little note on just to remember something
Speaker 1: and throw it in a file and put it in
Speaker 1: the drawer and totally forget about it. And I literally
Speaker 1: forgot about No. I remember he's good, but I could
Speaker 1: remember where the notes were and and and I finally
Speaker 1: found him. I was like, oh, yeah, here's the book,
Speaker 1: all these scribbles, and that's pretty much how I started.
Speaker 1: It was not some organized, great, perfect outline or anything.
Speaker 1: It was like, I want to write about Don Drysdale,
Speaker 1: I want to write about Lasorda, I want to write
Speaker 1: about Jerry West And it was whatever that little specific
Speaker 1: note was put on a scribble sheet and put away.
Speaker 1: So um. But no, my memory was actually very good.
Speaker 1: But I want to pacifics where it would really because
Speaker 1: once you look it up you see a box score
Speaker 1: from fifty years ago, it brings back memories that you
Speaker 1: would never ever recall. Yeah, and I've known you for
Speaker 1: many years, but obviously I don't know your entire life
Speaker 1: story and all that. And now you know I now
Speaker 1: I have the the full volume, which is like it
Speaker 1: or not, and it is appropriate me at the very
Speaker 1: beginning here, uh that you go in And I didn't
Speaker 1: know that Jim Tunney, the legendary referee when you were
Speaker 1: in high school in l A. He was your principal
Speaker 1: at Fairfax High School? That is uh, that is crazy.
Speaker 1: Did you know was he in official at the time
Speaker 1: he was the principal was of course yeah, oh he
Speaker 1: was the deed of NFL refs. He was our principal. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: we used to talk. He would stop in the hallway
Speaker 1: in high school and every you know, a sports guys,
Speaker 1: other people who run into sports. I didn't even know
Speaker 1: what the NFL wasn't remember. It was not the NFL
Speaker 1: like it is now. It was it was not the
Speaker 1: national pastime like it is now. Every was baseball then
Speaker 1: and and everything else was okay whatever, if you enjoy it,
Speaker 1: good for you. Um. It was so different. And he
Speaker 1: would stop, and sports guys would like to get him,
Speaker 1: like during a lunch break or whatever nutrition and he
Speaker 1: would stop and we'd just all be talking. He but
Speaker 1: do you covered the Packers Bears game yesterday? You know
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff? So absolutely, and I and I
Speaker 1: hate it up because I was totally into it more
Speaker 1: than most. And he invited us, and I was fortunate
Speaker 1: to be one of them. And I basically wouldn't allow
Speaker 1: no answer to the fact that if you, if you,
Speaker 1: you might even be too young to remember Sports Challenge,
Speaker 1: the old dick Enberg Game Show. Do you remember that
Speaker 1: at all? I've seen clips on the internet, but it
Speaker 1: is before my time. That's what I thought, Well, not
Speaker 1: from a different generation, the classic show. I mean the
Speaker 1: first show. They had Joe DiMaggio and and and UH
Speaker 1: and Jerry West and el Jim Baylor and Duke Snyder
Speaker 1: and it was unbelievable. Uh and those are the guys right. Well.
Speaker 1: I was invited by Mr Tunney as we called him
Speaker 1: of course then and Jim now that he's a friend,
Speaker 1: and he's I think he's ninety two years old now,
Speaker 1: and he's just a phenomenal guy. And he's one of
Speaker 1: the endorsers of the book, by the way, and he
Speaker 1: was the one to open the door to get my publisher.
Speaker 1: So that's a big deal of what he's meant to
Speaker 1: my life. But at the time Jim invited me, as
Speaker 1: I almost insisted on it, to be one of UH
Speaker 1: six guys that from Fairfax High in l A. To
Speaker 1: sit down and be one of the the pretend UH
Speaker 1: superstars on the show. It was before the first airing
Speaker 1: of the show, and they had to do the angles
Speaker 1: and check out the video clips and make sure everything
Speaker 1: was working perfectly. So it was the practice show that
Speaker 1: I was on, and I sat in Tommy Hendrick's uh
Speaker 1: seat at Former Yankee and he was there for the
Speaker 1: first game, and then after that we got invited to
Speaker 1: the actual taping of the first two shows, and it
Speaker 1: was it was just that that show was unbelievable. I
Speaker 1: mean it was because they had you know, almost everybody
Speaker 1: who was anybody was on that show, including Jackie Robinson
Speaker 1: was on that show. Yeah, And I mean I like,
Speaker 1: I you told the story that in the book about
Speaker 1: when you were a kid meeting Ted Williams at a
Speaker 1: uh what a store somewhere he was a Sears Yeah
Speaker 1: he was. Was he signing autographs or something like that? Ted,
Speaker 1: This is like nineteen sixty one or two. Um, he
Speaker 1: had just retired and he was there to promote everything
Speaker 1: in those days. Been for a couple of years, maybe
Speaker 1: five years, I don't know. He signed a contract with
Speaker 1: Sears around the time he retired, and everything said Ted
Speaker 1: Williams on it, and forget baseball. I mean we're talking
Speaker 1: like he was a big hunter and fisherman and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. So the entire sporting goods department at sears.
Speaker 1: It said that Ted Williams name and his signature was
Speaker 1: on everything. It was Ted Williams, barbecues, it was Ted Williams.
Speaker 1: Whatever's anything there. So my father heard he was gonna
Speaker 1: be there. And this was in uh in Hollywood, here
Speaker 1: in l A. And he says, I want to take
Speaker 1: it and go meet Ted Williams. And I said that'd
Speaker 1: be great. And I was in a little league at
Speaker 1: the time. So we went there and as we're going
Speaker 1: through the store, um, my father looks at his watch.
Speaker 1: He goes, you know what, has run a little late.
Speaker 1: And we look over and Ted Williams is standing up
Speaker 1: and he's starting to walk out like he was done.
Speaker 1: And so whatever he was doing was he was finished
Speaker 1: with his shift. And when he was finished, he was finished.
Speaker 1: And my dad hustled over and he was not exactly
Speaker 1: an athlete, and he hustled his ass over there and said,
Speaker 1: Mr Williams, please stop for one second. I want you
Speaker 1: to meet my son Teddy. And I and I hustled
Speaker 1: with him and and he looked down he goes, oh,
Speaker 1: it's very nice to meet you. Another Teddy ball game.
Speaker 1: He shook my hand and walked away. He wasn't rude.
Speaker 1: He was just leaving, you know. And to me that
Speaker 1: was like that was the first touching Greatness moment. Even
Speaker 1: though he didn't sign an autograph for me. I didn't
Speaker 1: ask him. I mean, he was literally walking out the
Speaker 1: door and he was very nice. But but Kurt, you know,
Speaker 1: real quick and and I looked at my father and said,
Speaker 1: this is like the greatest thing of all time. I
Speaker 1: just shook Ted Williams hands and that gave me that
Speaker 1: feeling like, you know what, I don't want to hang
Speaker 1: out with Joe Smith on the on the street corner.
Speaker 1: I'd rather hang out with Ted Williams. And that was
Speaker 1: the start of things, and touching Greatness is evolved decades later.
Speaker 1: Look at that, And that's cool because if we have
Speaker 1: heard stories that Ted's been gone for a while, what
Speaker 1: you've heard stories that he had been very aloof at times.
Speaker 1: So that's cool that he at least stopped to acknowledge
Speaker 1: a kid in the in the series the aloof Athletes,
Speaker 1: so we've all been around them, and you probably can
Speaker 1: write a book just on the aloof Appney, you know,
Speaker 1: that would be a good, good one for you. By
Speaker 1: the way, write that down there you that could be
Speaker 1: thirty five volumes. But you know, one of the most
Speaker 1: aloof guys in the history of sports, maybe the history
Speaker 1: of the universe, is Joe Di Maggio and I have
Speaker 1: a great story in the book. I always stuck into
Speaker 1: Dodger Stadium after Martin Luther King charity game in nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy and I just had a great, uh wonderful interaction
Speaker 1: with Roberto Clementi getting autographs at the team bus as
Speaker 1: they were leaving, and it was it's probably the greatest
Speaker 1: compilation of Hall of Famers on the field at one
Speaker 1: time in this one game that's almost forgotten in the
Speaker 1: history of of baseball. And when the game was over,
Speaker 1: it was late late in the afternoon. Um, I was
Speaker 1: a teenager. I was ready. I wasn't ready to go home,
Speaker 1: and I just want to hang out at the Ravine
Speaker 1: and there's no security guys or anything in those days.
Speaker 1: I just wandered back into the stadium, looked around and thought,
Speaker 1: you know what, it would be sort of fun to
Speaker 1: see if anybody's left. I started wandering downstairs, ended up
Speaker 1: at the Visitors Club, at the old Visitor clubhouse at
Speaker 1: the at the Ravine, and the door was slightly opened,
Speaker 1: and I looked inside and there was an old man
Speaker 1: sitting there in his uh, in his shorts and uh
Speaker 1: a tank top. And I looked a little closer. It
Speaker 1: was Joe f and DiMaggio sitting there all by himself,
Speaker 1: staring at a wall, doing nothing. And I knocked down
Speaker 1: the old that giant if you remember the old visitor's locker,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you do that, that huge metal door when
Speaker 1: we walked in and I knocked on the thing, and
Speaker 1: he looked up and I said, excuse me, Mr DiMaggio,
Speaker 1: can I get your autograph? And instead of him being
Speaker 1: a jerk like I've heard he could be many many
Speaker 1: many times, he wasn't just a you know, really easy
Speaker 1: relaxed attitude. Ah, sure, kid, And then he said what
Speaker 1: the hell are you doing here? How did you get in?
Speaker 1: And all that kind of stuff, And he signed my book,
Speaker 1: my my program and my autograph book, and we had
Speaker 1: a little small talk. He was very house school, all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, and then he said, sent me
Speaker 1: on my way. That was the end of it. But
Speaker 1: that was another neat time. Nothing like sneaking into the
Speaker 1: ravine and Joe DiMaggio is there and say, it's the
Speaker 1: only time to as you ever signed his autograph and
Speaker 1: his underwear, including Marilyn Monroe. Be sure to catch live
Speaker 1: editions of The Ben Meller Show weekdays at two a m.
Speaker 1: Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app. Well that's great because when I
Speaker 1: was in high school, I tried to get to Maggio's autograph.
Speaker 1: I we found out he was appearing in San Diego
Speaker 1: at a card convention. The National Trading Card Convention was
Speaker 1: in San Diego. So a buddy of mine found out
Speaker 1: what hotel the Maggio was like, a lot of the
Speaker 1: people were staying there. So I went down with some
Speaker 1: friends to try to get to matt. We were we
Speaker 1: were stalking the hotel, sitting in the lobby when when
Speaker 1: we wanted autographs, right, yeah, yeah, So I wanted to
Speaker 1: get to Maggio's autograph, and so I sat for as
Speaker 1: I remember now, it might not have been this long,
Speaker 1: but it felt like hours, as you know, sitting in
Speaker 1: the lobby and and uh and security tried to get
Speaker 1: us out of there, and then we came back and yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so finally we to Magic. It was like the White whale,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, how can we you know, it's
Speaker 1: elusive and all that. So I remember the Maggio. We
Speaker 1: saw him get off an elevator with like two other people.
Speaker 1: But he was supposed to we were We had it
Speaker 1: all planned out in her head. Tad that he was
Speaker 1: gonna walk right through the lobby and out to the
Speaker 1: front where the cars were, except he made a right
Speaker 1: turn and walked to a side door, and he walked
Speaker 1: through the kitchen, and we weren't allowed. Fact, as he
Speaker 1: snug we saw I saw like a side shot of
Speaker 1: the Maggio, like the back of his head as he
Speaker 1: walked through the kitchen to get out of the hotel,
Speaker 1: to a voice like an idiot sitting there waiting for hours,
Speaker 1: of course, as we all did. But you got your
Speaker 1: little brief you of Joe di Maggio, And if it
Speaker 1: was today, you'd have your cell phone taking pictures. He say,
Speaker 1: there he goes, it's also like the Suppruter film. After
Speaker 1: a while, exactly exactly now, I have not I have
Speaker 1: not read the entire book here, but the one. You know,
Speaker 1: certain things that stand out ted and we have we
Speaker 1: actually have a similar background. And the fact that you
Speaker 1: went to l A City College. I went to Saddleback
Speaker 1: for radio and stuff. And you the chapter ten about
Speaker 1: radio one oh one in my d n A that
Speaker 1: if you're a radio kind of kind of nerd radio geek,
Speaker 1: we we have a lot of people that listen that
Speaker 1: love radio, and people do radio well yeah, exactly even
Speaker 1: on a podcast a rip off of radio live radio.
Speaker 1: But you go into great detail there and you're you
Speaker 1: got to go as a like a college kid. You
Speaker 1: got to go watch a broadcast of Dodger postgame program.
Speaker 1: That's pretty cool. Your was it your professor? That was
Speaker 1: the guy that was doing it? Is that is that right? No?
Speaker 1: I mean all that stuff we did it on our own,
Speaker 1: and that was older than me, and we just we
Speaker 1: would go to games and literally sit and practice play
Speaker 1: by play. But I think one of the things you
Speaker 1: might be referring to was the nineteen seventy four World Series. Well,
Speaker 1: I was already out of l A City College by
Speaker 1: then about a year. Uh, and I was actually credential
Speaker 1: to the seventy four World Series. That's how long ago
Speaker 1: that was. Uh. But No, what we would do is
Speaker 1: we would hang out in the press box area and
Speaker 1: wait for them to leave their notes, you know, whatever
Speaker 1: their reads were in their their assignments and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: They would leave it on the desk because it was
Speaker 1: just trash when the game was over, and we would
Speaker 1: pick it up and read it, thinking that we just
Speaker 1: found gold as we were trying to figure out how
Speaker 1: to be broadcasters, and we just got Vince Scully's notes
Speaker 1: from his NBC broadcast with Joe Garagiola, and so that's
Speaker 1: what we would do, and then we would read it
Speaker 1: and pun and use it during our fake broadcast when
Speaker 1: he's sitting in the stands calling a game every damn night.
Speaker 1: So it was it was a blast. But uh, we
Speaker 1: would do everything on our own. I mean literally, we
Speaker 1: went to like maybe fifty Dodger games a year, some
Speaker 1: Angel games too, not as much because it was a
Speaker 1: drive to Anaheim. And then we go to the Forum
Speaker 1: and we do thirty or so Lakers games and King's games,
Speaker 1: and we would have those notes from NBC, from the Dodgers,
Speaker 1: from the Lakers and bug the hell out of the
Speaker 1: p our guys. And they hated our guts after a while.
Speaker 1: So some of them actually got it and they knew
Speaker 1: that what we wanted to do, and we were sincere.
Speaker 1: We weren't just messing around, and others used to be like,
Speaker 1: can you guys get the hell out of here? Your
Speaker 1: college students and you're bothering us, and so uh it was.
Speaker 1: It was fascinating, but again it was whatever it takes, right,
Speaker 1: give me notes. And if you're eighteen, nineteen, twenty years
Speaker 1: old and you're trying to get into the business and
Speaker 1: you've got Vince Scully's read on the air, I mean, please,
Speaker 1: I gotta have this. Did you keep any of that stuff?
Speaker 1: Do you have any of those? You know what? I didn't.
Speaker 1: I have one thing I kept that the nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: four World Series notes. I still have because it was
Speaker 1: in a World Series MLB. He used to have it
Speaker 1: like a little folder and it would just say World
Speaker 1: Series on it or something, and it was the game notes.
Speaker 1: And I stuck some of the whatever I we took
Speaker 1: off the table we would put I put inside there
Speaker 1: and just put it away and totally forgot about. I
Speaker 1: found it about five years ago. It was sitting in
Speaker 1: a folder somebody gave to me and said, Roboski's name,
Speaker 1: how's that for old? And he was the best reliever
Speaker 1: in the busines at that time. Uh so, yeah, there
Speaker 1: was some St. Louis stuff and uh and and then
Speaker 1: the seventy four World Series and we actually had Salve
Speaker 1: Bando if you remember that name. He was an All
Speaker 1: Star for the Oakland A's in nineteen seventy four, third baseman.
Speaker 1: And this is how it was been. How it's totally different.
Speaker 1: I don't think you ever lived this, because I think
Speaker 1: it was gone by the time you showed up. We
Speaker 1: were literally in the A's dugout twenty minutes before the
Speaker 1: start of the World Series game because there's nobody here,
Speaker 1: I mean nobody cared. Yeah, the guys are coming off
Speaker 1: the field. We got sal Bando to come on our
Speaker 1: fake pregame show. He sare the World Series game started.
Speaker 1: He walked over, he was a guest. We got it
Speaker 1: for like two or three questions. He was fantastic. He
Speaker 1: was a really nice guy. And then we said, well, okay,
Speaker 1: and we'll be back with the startup game one after this,
Speaker 1: and then we went upstairs and and practice in the stands.
Speaker 1: That's outstanding is that is a great story. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I I was there a little bit in those you know,
Speaker 1: it started to turn over around the time I started, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: so a lot of that stuff went away and I
Speaker 1: got away. A quick little note on the sal Bando thing.
Speaker 1: That game is, that is the famous game when Reggie
Speaker 1: Jackson hit the fly ball to right field where Joe
Speaker 1: Ferguson ran in front of Jimmy Winn and made one
Speaker 1: of the greatest throws in the history of the World
Speaker 1: Series to throw a guy out of at the plate.
Speaker 1: Do you remember seeing the video on that thing, the
Speaker 1: toy cannon? Uh so not. Now we should point out
Speaker 1: here touching greatness that you both you and we mentioned Paul,
Speaker 1: you know, the Yankee guy, and he did play by.
Speaker 1: Both of you guys, you did play by play. You've
Speaker 1: done play by playing for college and and minor league
Speaker 1: hockey and a bunch of stuff over the years. And
Speaker 1: you're a network. So both you guys made it and
Speaker 1: and you would hang out in what the upper decade
Speaker 1: Dodger Stadium doing mock broadcast the very time at Dodger Stadium,
Speaker 1: we were at the field level. We sat in the
Speaker 1: same seats almost every night. We got to know the
Speaker 1: ushers at the Forum and Dodger Stadium, and if nobody
Speaker 1: showed up with a season seat or a regular seat.
Speaker 1: They let us sit on the last role behind home
Speaker 1: plate in section five O five and we would sit
Speaker 1: there and it would be um, it would be next
Speaker 1: to because we needed this next to an electric plug
Speaker 1: so we didn't have to use our batteries because we
Speaker 1: couldn't afford them for our set player. So we could
Speaker 1: plug into the wall, you know, which they use basically
Speaker 1: for the clean up crew. Afterwards we used it. We said, hey,
Speaker 1: this is great. We get to use Dodger Stadium electricity
Speaker 1: for our cassette recorders. And that's we sat the same
Speaker 1: seat almost every night, and the same seats at the
Speaker 1: Forum as well, because in those days the games weren't
Speaker 1: sold out, so we sat up high at the Forum,
Speaker 1: but again right by the place where we could plug in,
Speaker 1: and we it was on office and people knew us
Speaker 1: up there. The regulars up there used to turn off
Speaker 1: Chickern and Bob Miller and listened to us to the
Speaker 1: play by play, and we we ate it up. It
Speaker 1: was a blast. Well, I was gonna ask you that
Speaker 1: because I've heard stories back in the old days it
Speaker 1: like a Dodger stadium in particular, like Vince Scully, everyone
Speaker 1: was listening to Vin call the game. It was like
Speaker 1: you didn't have to have headphones on. So when you
Speaker 1: were doing the play by play in the back, there
Speaker 1: were people receptive and we're like, hey, it's shut up.
Speaker 1: I want to hear what Vin has to say. What
Speaker 1: do you do a great question? And there was always
Speaker 1: every once in a while you get somebody like, hey,
Speaker 1: I I paid my four dollars or whatever the hell
Speaker 1: it was in those days to to come to this game.
Speaker 1: But almost everybody, I guess we sounded good enough. They
Speaker 1: enjoyed it and they could see that we were we
Speaker 1: were just screwing around. I mean, we were trying to
Speaker 1: be as as keen a broadcaster as possible and just
Speaker 1: learned after game after game after game, and almost everybody
Speaker 1: was nice to listen. A lot of them say yes,
Speaker 1: soon as we come, we in the radio off. We
Speaker 1: just listen to you guys, and they were having a
Speaker 1: blastom By the way, nobody was wearing headphones in those days.
Speaker 1: Headphones didn't exist. All right, well, fine, you called me on.
Speaker 1: So now another thing that I had like a lightbulb
Speaker 1: moment here because you you and a chapter of hanging
Speaker 1: out with Elgin Baylor and we both have a mutual
Speaker 1: friend who passed away a few years ago, Dave Stone,
Speaker 1: who worked at Fox Sports Radio, who I always I
Speaker 1: remember we were in his service. Like to me, he
Speaker 1: was the biggest Elgin Baylor fanatic I had ever. He
Speaker 1: knew everything about el He he used to tell me
Speaker 1: Elgin was better than Michael Jordan's or Kobe Bryant or
Speaker 1: any of these guys. And and but I didn't see
Speaker 1: I didn't see el I only knew Elgin as the
Speaker 1: Clipper GM. So that the problem. Yeahn't see him. So
Speaker 1: they're all dead. Now what can I tell you? But
Speaker 1: you saw him, and you you became friends with him,
Speaker 1: right you you knew him them you stopped Joan Masual.
Speaker 1: But I got to hang out with Elgin for fifty years.
Speaker 1: And Joe, you're still waiting for Joe to sign your
Speaker 1: damn book. Difference. Uh. When I went to Fairfax High
Speaker 1: I moved into a neighborhood that I had had no idea. Uh.
Speaker 1: When I was playing B and C basketball in school,
Speaker 1: and one of the guys my first year says, hey,
Speaker 1: you moved into a neighbor where Elgin Baylor lives. Remember
Speaker 1: he was playing at that time. This is nineteen sixty eight.
Speaker 1: I'm losing track of this year. So he was still
Speaker 1: the superstar. I mean, he was Michael Jordan before Michael
Speaker 1: Jordan was a sperm. I always say, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: it was, it was that simple. And uh so when
Speaker 1: he got to the point where I realized, g I,
Speaker 1: if Elgin really lives here, I gotta find this guy.
Speaker 1: And uh, I used to hitchhike up the hill. It was.
Speaker 1: It was a very steep hill about Sunset Boulevard, and uh,
Speaker 1: I didn't drive yet, so I had to hitchhike to
Speaker 1: get home, and it was too long to walk. And
Speaker 1: one day, uh, in this story, in the chapter Dela Reese,
Speaker 1: the the late great Dela Reese, the actress, singer. She
Speaker 1: used to pick me up regularly and drive me half
Speaker 1: the way home. She lived up that hill and she
Speaker 1: was really nice to me. And one day she dropped
Speaker 1: me off and I'm walking the rest of the way
Speaker 1: home and I look, I look over as cars are
Speaker 1: coming by, and I could have sworn that's that's gotta
Speaker 1: be Elgian Baylor. I couldn't believe it. He was driving
Speaker 1: an old giant Buick, a brown one and and I'm
Speaker 1: staring at the car, thinking, I gotta find this car
Speaker 1: I have And that was my whole life the next
Speaker 1: several weeks, Where the hell is this car? And I
Speaker 1: walked up the hill, uh, and sideways and every which
Speaker 1: way I was running into rattlesnakes. I was past houses,
Speaker 1: just trying to find and one day I finally it
Speaker 1: was only two blocks away from me, but it was
Speaker 1: a hidden could de sac that he lived at the
Speaker 1: end of the cul de sac and uh, and he
Speaker 1: had to continually walk up this this grueling hill and
Speaker 1: there was a house with that car sitting right there
Speaker 1: in the driveway. And I said, I just found gold.
Speaker 1: This is the greatest thing. Okay, now, what the hell
Speaker 1: do I do? What am I gonna do? Knock on
Speaker 1: the door and say, hey, I'm here. I'm your new
Speaker 1: best friend. You know, it's great. I found his far
Speaker 1: who cared right anyway, I did knock on the door,
Speaker 1: and Mrs Baylor Ruby, his first wife, answered the door.
Speaker 1: She was so nice and she says, Teddy's um, he's
Speaker 1: taking a nap right now. And Reverence during the season
Speaker 1: while he was playing, So I said, uh, is there
Speaker 1: any chance he goes? You know what, come back tomorrow
Speaker 1: about the same time. He should be Uh, everything should
Speaker 1: be great. You can be just They were very neighboring.
Speaker 1: All right, it was great. So I came back the
Speaker 1: next day. I was so excited. And I write in
Speaker 1: the book how nervous I was that if I was
Speaker 1: if I was my age, then I would have keeled over.
Speaker 1: It would have been all over. I would add cardiac
Speaker 1: arrest with him saying I can feel my heart pounding
Speaker 1: out of my chest. I was so nervous. And then finally, Uh,
Speaker 1: I got up enough nerve to hit the door again,
Speaker 1: and she answered to hold on one second. Elgin came
Speaker 1: over and he looked down at me, and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm about three ft tall at the time, and I'm
Speaker 1: not that much taller now. And he looked down him
Speaker 1: and he goes, hi, I'm Elgin, and I'm looking at
Speaker 1: him like no ship, I guess anyway, So it was fantastic,
Speaker 1: and he invited me into his his He had this
Speaker 1: trophy room where he had the m v P and
Speaker 1: all these Seattle University and unbelievable trophies everywhere. And this
Speaker 1: was towards the end of his career, but he was
Speaker 1: still playing, and it I was. I was about to
Speaker 1: leave the house, so I spent about fifteen minutes with him.
Speaker 1: He was really nice, and Tommy Hawkins once told me
Speaker 1: the former Laker in his his his one time roommate
Speaker 1: for a long time, said to me, I'm surprised Elgin
Speaker 1: is not usually like that, but I think maybe his
Speaker 1: wife was a good influence on him in that department.
Speaker 1: So uh. He spent some quality time with me and
Speaker 1: then basically said, hey, it was nice to meet you,
Speaker 1: and now good luck to the rest of your life.
Speaker 1: And as Mrs Baylor was about to close the door
Speaker 1: and I mean literally it was almost closed, and saying
Speaker 1: thank you, it's nice to meet you, and you know,
Speaker 1: good luck, I turned around. A light bulb went off
Speaker 1: my head Ben and I said to myself, this can't
Speaker 1: be it. There's got to be more to this than that.
Speaker 1: And I quickly turned around. Excuse me, Mrs Baylor. Would
Speaker 1: it be possible for you guys to take me to
Speaker 1: a game sometime? I don't drive you. He looked at
Speaker 1: me like I was insane, and I didn't know what
Speaker 1: to say, and she says, well, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: have to ask Elsie watch you come back another time
Speaker 1: and we'll bring it up. And that's all. Oh, thank you,
Speaker 1: And I walked away and I'm laughing running back down
Speaker 1: the hill to my place. They can they just invited
Speaker 1: me back. I'm on my way back, and I did,
Speaker 1: and they did, and they took me. They started taking
Speaker 1: me to games. And I used to hang out with
Speaker 1: their kids, uh at their house and shoot baskets in
Speaker 1: his backyard. And the one time that Al and his
Speaker 1: son invited me over and said, let's shoot some baskets.
Speaker 1: Um Elgin was there practicing his free throws and I
Speaker 1: thought I was gonna die. So anyway, it was just
Speaker 1: an incredible time. And you can't do that anymore. You
Speaker 1: you have to get through the sixteen security guys with
Speaker 1: the machetes and the machine guns and you know, all
Speaker 1: that stuff, get over the moat and good luck. So
Speaker 1: I imagine imagine a kid today going up to Lebron,
Speaker 1: because elm was like the Lebron of his days. Hey,
Speaker 1: you go up to Lebron's house in bel Air. Hey, Lebron,
Speaker 1: I want to hang out and see your trophies. Good luck?
Speaker 1: Can you come up? Can you take me the games?
Speaker 1: From now on? It's like now those days are over.
Speaker 1: But that's it wasn't only amazing to me, but because
Speaker 1: it's decades later and the world has changed so much,
Speaker 1: I think it's a it's sort of a time piece
Speaker 1: there where I can say, this is the way it
Speaker 1: used to be, at least potentially. Not everybody went over
Speaker 1: to Aldam Baker's house, I hope, But you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. You know, you had that beach balls to
Speaker 1: do it in the first place, and then it just
Speaker 1: worked out so great well. And I remember ted Tommy,
Speaker 1: you bought Tommy Hawkins name up and he told I
Speaker 1: love Tommy. He told me a story one time when
Speaker 1: he was on the Minneapolis Lakers when they came to
Speaker 1: l a and he said, in the early days the Lakers,
Speaker 1: it's amazing to think about this because I I'm surrounded
Speaker 1: by Laker area historians that love to brag about the
Speaker 1: Lakers and us. But when the Lakers moved from Minneapolis,
Speaker 1: basketball was not very popular like pro basketball, and the
Speaker 1: Laker players, Tommy said, would have to go out, you know,
Speaker 1: the day of games. They'd ride around in the back
Speaker 1: of trucks or flatbed trucks and try to get people
Speaker 1: to come to the game that night. Uh, I mean,
Speaker 1: that's that's insane to think about now, considering how popular
Speaker 1: the Lakers were and and imagine if you had players
Speaker 1: today to if you told again Lebron or these guys,
Speaker 1: can you go out and promote the game that night,
Speaker 1: said we can sell some tickets before. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's insane to think about, but then it's totally
Speaker 1: a sane I mean, as a matter of fact, they
Speaker 1: would say, talk to the union, get I'll get back
Speaker 1: to you about twenty years when I'm retired. You know
Speaker 1: that not one person would do it. And uh, but
Speaker 1: you had to do it that I mean, remember these guys,
Speaker 1: a lot of them had jobs on the side. This
Speaker 1: was not big money in those days, so this was
Speaker 1: their seasonal job and then they go back being a
Speaker 1: lifeguard in a car wash or something after that, you know,
Speaker 1: until the next season. So it was really a lot
Speaker 1: of amazing stuff in those days. And I used to
Speaker 1: go to the sports Arena, not your Clippers sports arena,
Speaker 1: but when the Lakers played there, and it was a
Speaker 1: dump when it was new. I never how we thought
Speaker 1: in places it died that I was there and was
Speaker 1: half full for a Lakers game, and so yeah, it
Speaker 1: was just a different world. Uh people, remember it wasn't.
Speaker 1: The media wasn't what it is now, or forget now,
Speaker 1: even thirty years ago. Uh, you couldn't. There was no
Speaker 1: important game of the week that was on all the time.
Speaker 1: It was just so different. So of course, early on
Speaker 1: when they moved to l A, you had to establish
Speaker 1: the fact that hey, we got a professional basketball team here.
Speaker 1: And you guys, if you don't read the sports page,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna know it exists. So yeah, hawkey to
Speaker 1: talk about that where they drive up and down, and
Speaker 1: it was also sometimes I think it was a convertible
Speaker 1: and they'd have their little megaphones out and say, hey,
Speaker 1: well it's a seven thirty start tonight at the sports Arena.
Speaker 1: The New York knickerby hers are in town. And I
Speaker 1: love those stories. I think it's great because it's it's
Speaker 1: it's impossible to imagine today, but it's the way it was. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's wild. So now you you're a great storyteller, Ted,
Speaker 1: which is wonderful radio guy. No, but we if somebody's
Speaker 1: still undecided Ted right now listening to this and and
Speaker 1: this far into this podcast. Well, I know, but you've
Speaker 1: covered You've covered l A obviously mostly l A sports,
Speaker 1: but you worked in with you were in Wisconsin for
Speaker 1: a while at one point. You've traveled all over the place.
Speaker 1: But why tell the guy sell the book ted? Because
Speaker 1: I want to see this do well, I'll tell you
Speaker 1: why in a second. But touching greatness here, Uh, somebody
Speaker 1: in Sheboygan or Punksitani or Springfield, like, why why would
Speaker 1: they want to read a book that's mostly about you know,
Speaker 1: you know, el Jin Baylor in l A type sports.
Speaker 1: Why why would they want to buy this book? Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, it's not just l A. It happens
Speaker 1: to be my memoir plus a lot of other stuff.
Speaker 1: But there is a lot of people in Sheboygan, and
Speaker 1: not that I hang out there, so I don't know
Speaker 1: for sure. But if you're listening to this in Sheboygan,
Speaker 1: you're probably fascinated by stuff that goes on in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: That's why we have too many damn people, because the
Speaker 1: second you come here and visit, ten minutes later you're
Speaker 1: living here and we've got four billion people in one
Speaker 1: lane on the freeway. This is part of the problem.
Speaker 1: So remever, I used to live in Wisconsin, and there's uh,
Speaker 1: there'll be a future volume of Touching Greatness with some
Speaker 1: stuff about my Wisconsin days. But there's also a football
Speaker 1: chapter right now with a lot of Aaron Rodgers and
Speaker 1: Bart Star because I grew up a Green Bay Packers
Speaker 1: fan as a little kid when they were great during
Speaker 1: the Vince Lombardi era. So I talked about getting a
Speaker 1: chance to meet my idols, and that's a lot of
Speaker 1: what this book is about. It doesn't matter you're from
Speaker 1: l A or from Mars. There's a lot of um.
Speaker 1: I hopefully it'll be inspirational stuff, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: just make you smile stuff, because it's the kind of
Speaker 1: thing that the average person who might be a sports
Speaker 1: fan walks down the street and if they got a
Speaker 1: chance to meet Ted Williams or or Joe them as
Speaker 1: you or anybody in between, Colfax Drysdale from the other era,
Speaker 1: or Kobe and Tiger Woods from this era, Um, you're
Speaker 1: gonna you're gonna love it. I mean this, you're it's
Speaker 1: a moment you'll never forget. Well. I write about many, many,
Speaker 1: many moments I never forgot in that vein, and it's
Speaker 1: There's there's also music in here too. I talked about
Speaker 1: being around. There's a chapter called Laurel Canyon Days, and
Speaker 1: I was there in the late sixties when I went
Speaker 1: to Fairfax High School. I lived not far away from
Speaker 1: Loyal Canyon. When it was the place it is, it
Speaker 1: was the capital of music, Uh in the world. Everything
Speaker 1: was based on a Laurel Canyon. You know, the Birds
Speaker 1: and the Beach Boys and everybody was living there, and
Speaker 1: and the and the bands like um, like the Eagles
Speaker 1: and all those guys were formed there. And I have
Speaker 1: stories about I break a couple of stories on how
Speaker 1: two of the songs from the Eagles, Uh, New Kid
Speaker 1: in Town and Tequila Sunrise were written by around the
Speaker 1: guy that is former l A King's player Geane Carr,
Speaker 1: and Jean gave me an exclusive story that's something he's
Speaker 1: never told anybody else before. And he just thought he
Speaker 1: felt comfortable with me, and it was great. He's a
Speaker 1: super guy and uh he told me the history New
Speaker 1: Kid in Town was written about him when he got
Speaker 1: traded to l A from the New York Rangers. Uh.
Speaker 1: And he did, and Glenn Friday became extremely close friends.
Speaker 1: Glenn fry the Eagles, who passed away a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago. And Glenn Fried. You probably ever seen him.
Speaker 1: He was always a Laker games and King's games and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Um, he was a season ticket older.
Speaker 1: He's a big sports fan and and I love to
Speaker 1: play golf regularly. So a lot of that stuff is
Speaker 1: in the book. And it's unusual stuff. I mean, you
Speaker 1: just don't see this anywhere. And I just happened to
Speaker 1: live through. And again I've told people's stories forever about
Speaker 1: this and that, but I go into uh, literally, there's
Speaker 1: a where were you when JFK was shot? Well, I
Speaker 1: know where you were. You didn't exist yet, right, A
Speaker 1: lot of people will still ask that question. We're still
Speaker 1: were around today. Where were you? It's one of these
Speaker 1: It's one of the events of all time, of course,
Speaker 1: negative or positive. And it got to the point where,
Speaker 1: you know what, I remember that moment like it was yesterday,
Speaker 1: and I thought it was an interesting thing to recall.
Speaker 1: And I tied it in around my favorite baseball player,
Speaker 1: Don Drysdale, who was just a phenomenal guy and became
Speaker 1: just an icon around here, and the Drysdale Cofax hold
Speaker 1: out of the sixties and how how much that meant.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot more than just because it's l A.
Speaker 1: But I talked about Tiger Woods and UH covering him
Speaker 1: at the at the British Open at St. Andrews, and
Speaker 1: and UH and Kobe this first game that he played,
Speaker 1: his first I should say, his first season that he played,
Speaker 1: and his last game of his first season was his
Speaker 1: air ball game when he shot four air balls in
Speaker 1: the last few minutes and he looked like the worst
Speaker 1: player who ever lived. I just happened to be in
Speaker 1: Utah that night because I was announcing a minor league
Speaker 1: hockey game the night before and the night after, so
Speaker 1: I got a credential to come for that game, and
Speaker 1: I was there and I I ended up winning a Golden
Speaker 1: Mite for the damn thing, and I talked about that story.
Speaker 1: So look, there's just tons of stuff. It's not just
Speaker 1: l A. It's mostly icons that I discussed, and even
Speaker 1: Vegas the rat pack era. I mean, even Ben Mallard
Speaker 1: knows that the rat back. Yeah, they were all ninety
Speaker 1: years old by the time you showed up. That is true.
Speaker 1: I remember Sinatra occasionally going to a Dodger game when
Speaker 1: I first started. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But even have seen
Speaker 1: him a few times over there. I did, right, I did. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was why I remember the last time I remember
Speaker 1: him showing up. There was a rumor in the press
Speaker 1: box that he was going to be there, and then
Speaker 1: like the it was at that time he was bigger
Speaker 1: than life by the end of his career and stuff.
Speaker 1: But exactly you exactly, exactly exactly thing like you used
Speaker 1: to it all. But he's Frank Sinatra, so that nobody
Speaker 1: cared exactly. Uh. And you I also love and this
Speaker 1: is how I consume books dead. You know, I don't
Speaker 1: read too many books, but I love the fun facts.
Speaker 1: Did you know? Because you know I those are right
Speaker 1: in my wheelhouse, little nuggets that you can, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of wrap your mind around. One of them that
Speaker 1: stood out to me in touching great because I did
Speaker 1: not know. My mom was a huge Sandy Kofax fan
Speaker 1: used to regale me with stories about Sandy Kofax and
Speaker 1: all that. But he he actually owned He owned a
Speaker 1: hotel in that Laurel Canyon, uh chapter of Santa Monica Boulevard,
Speaker 1: right down the street from the Troubadour. He owned a
Speaker 1: little kind of roads like roots sixties six hotel type
Speaker 1: thing is that it was just it was literally like
Speaker 1: a motel motor in kind of a place. It was
Speaker 1: sort of a cheap, old place. But uh, for a while,
Speaker 1: his name was not on it, and then it became
Speaker 1: the Sandy co Fax whatever it was, I can't remember anymore.
Speaker 1: Something in it was only for a few years, maybe
Speaker 1: five years or something like that. But that's where the
Speaker 1: bands used to stay and party and do whatever the
Speaker 1: hell they did back in the sixties. Who played at
Speaker 1: the Troubadour and the Whiskey a Go Go Someone were there,
Speaker 1: including Jim Warrison was a regular. He used to stay
Speaker 1: at that hotel all the time. And I have a
Speaker 1: fun interview and they're a little quick Q and A
Speaker 1: with Robbie Kreeger, who was the guitar player for the Doors,
Speaker 1: who was also a golfer, and I've known him for
Speaker 1: a little bit for a several years. He's a really
Speaker 1: good guy and he loves talking about the old days.
Speaker 1: And he gave me the answer. I said, did you
Speaker 1: guys know the Sandy Kofax on this? And what would
Speaker 1: Jim Morrison have said? And it's in the book. I mean,
Speaker 1: when's the last time you read anything with Jim Morrison
Speaker 1: and Sandy Kofax's name in the same damn sentence. It
Speaker 1: ain't never gonna exist again. No, it's it's a tremendous
Speaker 1: I I really stuck with me as a fun factory.
Speaker 1: Sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show
Speaker 1: weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific, Ha and
Speaker 1: Dou got the The podcast is called All Ball. We
Speaker 1: usually talk all basketball all the time, but it's more
Speaker 1: about the stories about what made these people love their
Speaker 1: sport and all the interesting interactions along the way. We
Speaker 1: talked to kill we talked to players, We tell you stories.
Speaker 1: You download it, you listen to it. I think you
Speaker 1: like it. Listen to All Ball with Doug Gotlieb on
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or ever you
Speaker 1: get your podcast. So now full disclosure. We need this
Speaker 1: book to do well because I need the second I
Speaker 1: need the second edition of Touching Greatness because Ted, one
Speaker 1: of the cool things about knowing you, you worked with
Speaker 1: one of my idols, one of my inspirations to get
Speaker 1: into radio, Jim Healy, and you knew him and you
Speaker 1: were around him, and uh, it's not in this book,
Speaker 1: but you've told me that if there is a second book,
Speaker 1: that if this does want, I believe it will do well. Ted,
Speaker 1: You're gonna write an entire chapter about Jim Healey, my
Speaker 1: my radio hero. So I can't written, Oh good, Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you got a chance to even
Speaker 1: it yet. I'm trying to get people to buy the book, Ted,
Speaker 1: so I I want you to get the second book
Speaker 1: so that yes, but I did write it already, and
Speaker 1: maybe it's I sent you the unedited version. If you
Speaker 1: haven't listened to Jim Healy and you're too young, or
Speaker 1: you just didn't know of him, or you certainly if
Speaker 1: you're not from l A. There's a good chance you've
Speaker 1: never heard of him. There's stuff online and I'm sure
Speaker 1: that you could pass people send him to links and whatever.
Speaker 1: Listen to these shows. There's a million stuff out there.
Speaker 1: He was unbelievable, he was. But I started when he started,
Speaker 1: when I was in college in nineteen seventy three is
Speaker 1: when he started doing his stick on the air. That way,
Speaker 1: and Paul Olden the following several months after that worked
Speaker 1: at k l a C in l a UH in
Speaker 1: the news department there while he was still going to college,
Speaker 1: it was like, hey, they found an opening there. And
Speaker 1: it wasn't just an internship, it was actual job in
Speaker 1: the in the news department. And he started getting this
Speaker 1: sound off the newsreels for Healey to use, and he
Speaker 1: started using them. And one of the early things was
Speaker 1: there was a there was a sound effect album, one
Speaker 1: of many, many, many volumes where there was a sound
Speaker 1: effect of a man falling down the stairs. You can
Speaker 1: hear them hitting the stairs, each stair and every time
Speaker 1: he hit him. All right, uh, do you remember that
Speaker 1: at all? So yeah, he would use that when like
Speaker 1: let's say, for example, Uh, in those days, let's say
Speaker 1: Ali punched out Joe Frazier and he went down, and
Speaker 1: he would play that sound effect as a guy falling
Speaker 1: down and getting the crap beat out of him. Well,
Speaker 1: that sound effect came from me because I heard that
Speaker 1: when I was a kid on the Dave Hole Show.
Speaker 1: Was my radio idal as a non sports radio aonal
Speaker 1: one of the great DJs in the history of l A.
Speaker 1: The hullabalooor and Dave used to play that all the time.
Speaker 1: So when I got into radio, and I forget professionally,
Speaker 1: when I got into the radio department at l A.
Speaker 1: City College. I looked everywhere for that sound effect. I
Speaker 1: couldn't find it, and we finally went to a library
Speaker 1: one where where they had old albums of sound effects,
Speaker 1: and I went through dozens of them and I finally
Speaker 1: found it. And I didn't know that it was labeled
Speaker 1: as man Falling down stairs. That was the title of it.
Speaker 1: And it last like four seconds and we're not talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, a whole album here. And so I found
Speaker 1: it and I said, Paul, I said, you gotta give
Speaker 1: this to Heally. I know he could use it a
Speaker 1: million times. The next night it was on the air
Speaker 1: and he used it for the next twenty years. So
Speaker 1: that was my first contribution to his show. And then
Speaker 1: I did a thing where um, when wald Alston was
Speaker 1: the manager of the Dodgers, Uh, we used to be
Speaker 1: sitting in the stands doing our practice play by play
Speaker 1: and there was one game where I was just fed up.
Speaker 1: Alston was almost literally falling asleep in the dugout. I
Speaker 1: mean it was just you could see his head like
Speaker 1: nodding off. It was embarrassing. And we had good seat,
Speaker 1: so I was close enough to tell and uh, and
Speaker 1: I think he was half asleep when he left whoever
Speaker 1: was in the game at the time, these guys getting bombed,
Speaker 1: and we're saying what they we're doing our practice play
Speaker 1: if I played, what is he doing? How do you
Speaker 1: not have any believer? Bring him in off the bus?
Speaker 1: Stop anybody right now getting his ass kick? And finally
Speaker 1: that he brought somebody in and Allston's walking out to
Speaker 1: the mound after way too many runs were scored and
Speaker 1: I stood up and I yelled, your stupid Allston. And
Speaker 1: it because where we were, the whole the hall was
Speaker 1: right behind us at the stadium. It was this incredible
Speaker 1: like an echoing sound. And we would listen to our
Speaker 1: broadcast every night on the cassette tape, and Paul listened
Speaker 1: back and he goes, wow, I shut up. Just happened
Speaker 1: to be you yelled your stupid Alston. That came out
Speaker 1: so good. I'm giving that to Healey and Jim used
Speaker 1: that for years seven every time a Dodgers screwed up,
Speaker 1: You're stupid Alston, and he would and that would be me,
Speaker 1: although my name wasn't on it. He called it. He
Speaker 1: called the voice of that man, the I rate fan,
Speaker 1: And now the irate fan is all over Austin again
Speaker 1: that I Boom, You're stupid all and that was the
Speaker 1: start of a lot of other stuff. We were totally
Speaker 1: involved in that show. That's awesome. And yeah, Jimmy, there's
Speaker 1: a bunch of Jim Healy clips on YouTube. There's actually
Speaker 1: if you google the right words, there's a Jim Jim Healy.
Speaker 1: There's a web page that still exists, has a lot
Speaker 1: of his old sounds. Right. You know when Kirk Ipson
Speaker 1: at the big home run, uh, and then the following year,
Speaker 1: I remember that was the last at bat that he
Speaker 1: had for many many months because he went and had
Speaker 1: surgery on his I think it was his knee at
Speaker 1: the time, and uh, when he came back the following season.
Speaker 1: I was there that night working for the Dodgers audio wire.
Speaker 1: You might remember the name Jimmy Pell's. You knew him, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: absolutely so. Jimmy ran the Dodger audio wire and I
Speaker 1: used to fill in for him a lot whenever he
Speaker 1: just needed an extra body or he was on vacation.
Speaker 1: And that night happened to be the night that Kurt
Speaker 1: Gibson made his comeback first game since the home run.
Speaker 1: It of course, it's like around I don't know, mid
Speaker 1: season or something. He missed a lot of the early
Speaker 1: part of the season in eighty nine, so he came
Speaker 1: back and and uh he didn't do that much and
Speaker 1: the Dodgers lost, so it wasn't a big deal, but
Speaker 1: the story was he's back. So I besides the fact
Speaker 1: I'm working for whoever, I was working for maybe a
Speaker 1: P or U P. I getting my twelve second sound bites.
Speaker 1: I needed something for the Dodger audio wire. So we
Speaker 1: waited and waited for him. He finally showed up. Never
Speaker 1: forget he had the big, giant white towel wrapped around him.
Speaker 1: And he's just the typical piste off Kirk Gibson. He
Speaker 1: was possible to deal with. He was a total jerk
Speaker 1: to most of us on a regular basis. I know
Speaker 1: he's a lot of people's idols and hero but uh,
Speaker 1: if you had to deal with him, he would be
Speaker 1: off that list pretty quick. Anyway. Uh So I got
Speaker 1: to the point where we were waiting for him to
Speaker 1: give us a five seconds, so we just get a
Speaker 1: couple of questions. So one of my questions was, Hey,
Speaker 1: I just spoke to Kenny Howell, who was a former
Speaker 1: Dodger pitcher who's pitching for the Phillies that night. And uh,
Speaker 1: and I said, because I ran in there first, got
Speaker 1: howl sound, and he said that I didn't have my
Speaker 1: best stuff. Blah blah blah blah. You know, figured out
Speaker 1: a way to win that kind of junk. So I
Speaker 1: came back in there and I said, I just spoke
Speaker 1: to Kenny Allen. He said he didn't have his best stuff,
Speaker 1: and he went all over He starts cussing me out.
Speaker 1: It's a ramp that ended up on Jim Healy Show.
Speaker 1: And uh, it was. There weren't a lot of f
Speaker 1: bombs or anything, but there are a couple of little ones.
Speaker 1: But it was this attitude. It was like, gee, what
Speaker 1: it's great to have you back. You haven't played since
Speaker 1: the big old running. The total jerked everybody and Healy
Speaker 1: was all over him. And and that thing is posted
Speaker 1: online somewhere. You can find that, and you can hear
Speaker 1: me answer the question. It's not again, not as famous
Speaker 1: as what's your opinion the King's performance, And it's not
Speaker 1: about being famous. Basically, Healy said, the guy's working for
Speaker 1: the Dodger audio wire and he's still ripping it. That's outstanding.
Speaker 1: We got we gotta have this up there. But the
Speaker 1: book Touching Great is where can people find is everywhere?
Speaker 1: Is this available all over the place? Do you want
Speaker 1: to direct people to a certain website or just direct
Speaker 1: people to Amazon. That's the easiest place. It's also on
Speaker 1: Coaches Choice and that's plural Coaches CEO, A, C. H. E. S. Choice.
Speaker 1: That's the publisher and you get it directly from them.
Speaker 1: But it's on Amazon right now. It is not in
Speaker 1: bookstores yet. It's very new. Not sure when it will
Speaker 1: be because that's the whole political thing on how to
Speaker 1: get your book and from a smaller publisher into the bookstore.
Speaker 1: So it may or may not ever get into any
Speaker 1: of the big bookstores. Will that's all to be determined.
Speaker 1: But just go to Amazon Touching Great instead. Sobel it's
Speaker 1: right there, and uh, I hope you and check it
Speaker 1: out for whatever reason, if you're into sports, if you're
Speaker 1: into music, if you're just into the history of southern
Speaker 1: California the way it was in the sixties. I go
Speaker 1: back and talk about growing up in Culver City with
Speaker 1: restaurants the way it was my favorite food then MGM
Speaker 1: Studios and how it used to be and I used
Speaker 1: to sneak in there and my favorite shows like Superman
Speaker 1: and UH and the Andy Griffith showing all that stuff.
Speaker 1: We're all recorded down the street from where I lived,
Speaker 1: and we tried to sneak into the studios and it
Speaker 1: was just a lot of fun stories like that. No,
Speaker 1: that's a great book, Ted, Thank you so much. We'll
Speaker 1: hang on at some point again, I appreciate I'll see
Speaker 1: it a game or something. Thank you, you got it,
Speaker 1: Thanks be. I appreciate it.