It's time for coffee and Company. Fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine
day, Holy crap, I don't know who the hell we think when we
are get off our show, idiot. The kids are playing a trail off
and the coaches are screwing it up. Gold Play Inner Murals, Brother,
gold Play Inner Murals. They're supposed to be mature adults, but they're really
not. Who's the kid here? Who's the kid here? Are you kidding
me? Now? Here's Nick Coffee? Well, not exactly, Nick Coffee.
You got the substitute teacher for the next day. It's like walking into
the classroom and seeing the projector up there and you're like, oh, man,
could have been quite the day, isn't it. Hey, I'm Scott
Fitzgerald. I'm back, yeah for a second day. Last day here,
Knick's back with you on Monday. He's off on vacation. When he went
down to the Land of Whoop Pig. He went down to Arkansas, I
believe correct, John Alden good direct, Yeah, good afters and Bobby Petrino,
That's what it was. He's Is he back there now? Is he's
their offensive coordinator? Now? Oh my god? I couldn't think of he
was at Missouri State stillor if he was, he's got to be super awkward
for the head coach of Arkansas whose name I'm it's fleeting my mind right now.
But to be the guy who Arkansas fans kind of, you know,
worship in a sense, Bobby Petrino being him, it's kind of odd if
you're the guy like you're not really in charge, but you are right right,
that's exactly right. I wonder if he's going to go try to get
a vibe check with Bobby. That'd be something, wouldn't that be cool?
But boy, yeah, good to be back here. It is a Friday.
It is the be as we put out on X you know, high
five check out. Let us take you home, Let us get you home
on the right home, because I know you got that cold brew. Folks
sitting at home or whatever. It is your libation of choices, there's not
I always notice John when I'm driving home, especially in the Waterston people driving
a little bit faster on Friday. It's it's different. It's got a different
much more. There's a high level of urgency to get home on Fridays.
There is, and I notice it and The nice thing is that getting up,
Like I'll get up tomorrow morning and come down here because we do the
Saturday show on HS what we call Radio Study Hall. So it kind of
keeps me in check a little bit because I don't partake of libations. If
I have to get up that early the next day, it just it doesn't
work out. My body disagrees. Uh, So it kind of keeps me
in check. It's awesome. So I've now replaced going home and having that
libation with heading to the gym, which is a good feeling now, very
healthy alternative. Right the Saturday, that's a different story. Bro Saturday is
my day of gluttony. The gloves are off. I mean, I walk
out of here and it's I'm back to I'm back to who I was.
I indulge. Although I have discovered through through this journey that califlower pizza and
I know people collectively roll their eyes is not bad. And I don't even
want to call it pizza, to be honest with you, because it's not.
I get that I'm a pizza snob. I love pizza. I just
you gotta have good. There's one place in town that I go to that
is amazing. Like, it's one of those where my wife goes, Okay,
where are we going to dinner tonight? What do you feel like?
I go? I feel like pizza. Okay, where are we going?
Well, we're going here, and so we go there because the pizza is
amazing. But what I've discovered now is that I did this while I was
trying to lose the weight. That is, I make my own cauliflower crust.
You go, you get yourself a big old headed cauliflower. You dice
it up, use the food process or stick it in the steam it in
the microwave for about seven minutes, get it moist, let it cool off,
take it out, season it however you want, however you want.
And I'm a spicy kind of guy, so I tow some Hobernaro Italian seasoning
in there. You take the crush, you put some egg in with it,
whatever you want laid out, put it in the oven, bake it
for about ten minutes. Makes a nice crust. Pull it out. Put
whatever you want on there, dude, whatever you want, I'll load it
up. I get the regular thing of sausage, ground it up, put
my own spices in it. Make that hot too. Comes out boom,
you got your pizza. Dude. You're making me hungry on that fright.
So I'm not I'm not a cauliflower pizza god, but you're making it sound
pretty good. That's what I'm saying, dude. That's what I'm saying.
And I found out over time that I didn't miss the doing and I'm sitting
or eating and going, this tastes pretty damn good because and it helps that
I have the beers I've been waiting on all week. And it's funny because
there's times where where do we go. We went one from oh, I
know it was, oh I amc the local Iron Union Workers awards banquet at
This was last two saturdays ago. I think I put it up on X
and it was at the Blind Squirrel. So I'm looking. It is during
the day, so I'm MCing, so I don't want to drink anything.
Abou'm MCing. But afterwards, I'm sitting down with my wife's sitting at the
bar and she's partaking ABU is it a white claw? What are those?
And I'm looking at the taps and she goes, you're not going to get
a beer, and I go, I really really want to I'm looking at
them. They're all my favorite beers. But this was like three in the
afternoon. If I start now by about seven o'clock, I'm gonna be ready
for bed. And it's not that I'm going out and getting tanked. It's
just that when you get up, like I'll get up at two thirty in
my morning to come down here, And when you get up that early and
you start, if you start drinking that early, after just a few beers,
man, you're gonna be done. You're gonna be tired. But I'm
looking at the tap and you know, my wife goes, that's not like
you Usually we go out to these things and you'll be part, especially if
they got the beer you want. Well, what I did was what I
found out, is that right about when I have that pizza, when I
pull that pizza out there, I'm starting to prepare it. There's something about
that first beer when you haven't had one all week that just tastes amazing.
And that's called respecting the SuDS. I mean, that is just straight up
respecting the beer and treat it like that. So that's the nice thing.
So long story short, how we got here, I guess is if if
you're heading for home. A lot of you want it. Particular my wife,
she loves Friday Happy Hour. She goes. She says to me all
the time she goes, let's just meet. She wants a glass. She's
a red wine drinker. We'll sit at the We'll sit at the bar people
now because we don't have kids, they're doing their own thing, and she'll
get like, she wants one glass, maybe too, if it's been her
strong week, and then we'll either split a pizza if that's what she wanted,
or we'll split something and then she wants to go home ship put up
jams on and read a book and go to bed and see for Fridays.
For me, I'd rather go to the gym now Saturdays. I'd like to
go on Saturdays. She kind of wants to chill out. So we've got
to figure out a happy medium there and how we want to navigate those waters.
But yeah, if if there are ways to go. Some of the
other things I made with cauliflower too, I made some Asian wings with cauliflower,
which are amazing. They're amazing, dude. You throw some some sesame
seeds and you season them with you know, whatever you want Terioku sauce or
whatever. And once you get past the idea that it's calflower, you don't
even notice it. I feel like it's probably a mental thing. That's all
it is. It's all, it is, all it is. And and
when you look at the carbs, the big thing for me was because and
everybody's different. But see, I'm not carbs, and I do not get
long. Carbs and sugar are like my kryptonite. Which sucks because if I've
had a few beers, I incessantly crave chocolate. I just want chocolate,
and like I'll go, It'll be about midnight on a Saturday, after I've
had a few beers, and I'll be going through the house just looking for
all this chocolate. And that's the thing. And carbs are the same way.
So the payoff is once you've had, for instance, the calflower pizza,
you've satisfied that craving for the pizza, and then you look and you
go, I barely eve injest today, carbs. I'm okay with that.
I'm all right. But then again, everybody's body is different. Some people
can't. Some people from my wife, for example, example, she's on
the high blood pssure medicine. She can't handle the sodium content on what I
eat. But I've got my blood pressure is so low it's a healthy low.
But I can get away with that one day a week. So you
know, whatever you do. What's your go to there, John, when
you guys head out on a Friday, just going out for a night on
the town type of thing. So for me, so first of all,
I'm not a big beer drinker, right, I do enjoy and this is
gonna make me sound pretty lame, Honestly, I enjoy on occasion the point
five percent or lower alcohol type beers. Nothing wrong with that. I don't
know what it is. I think I just like the beer flavor without the
taste of the alcohol. Yep. And it's one of those things where I
mentioned the swim spot yesterday. If I'm hanging out at the d Laws and
I'm hanging out in the swim spot and I can get one of those point
five percents, that's a good way to relax in a week. See that's
awesome. And see that works for you, That's awesome, dude. That's
see, that's where I was going. Everybody's got their own way to unwind.
On a Friday. And you know, I see people that are at
the gym on Friday, very light day at the gym on Friday, mind
you, but I see people that untwind that way. And like you said,
you can go and partake of that. And I'm gonna look, I'm
a beer snow, but I'm gonna throw my hand up and say, you
know, we keep a fridge full of Trulies at home. And because and
be honest with you, the carb count is down. And because I'm not
as big as what I was, you know, I can get by with
the five percent stuff. It used to be my sweet spot was getting up
to seven, nine, sometimes ten percent with some of these bruis Man just
because I was bigger, and you know I could handle those. You can't
do that all the time now. For example, like Great Legs just came
out. I saw Lake Ey Beer Snobs, and know what I'm talking about.
Great Lakes Brewing came out with Lake Erie Monster, which is one of
my favorite IPAs well. Now they have a double and I saw it when
I was out at Total Wine. I grabbed that bad boy. Those are
sitting in my fridge and those are nine point five. And if you start
out with that boy, you're you're cooking. If you're not careful, you
got to make sure you got something in that stomach. Like instant mashed potatoes
don't take very long, right exactly. So the nice thing is too,
we got a waiting to go to tomorrow night, which is nice looking forward.
I'm actually looking forward to this because, and I hate to say this,
but it's a non church wedding so it won't go on long. And
it's it's gonna be at the Speed Museum, which is awesome. I've never
been to the Speed Museum. This is my first time getting head over there,
and it's with somebody my wife works with. And you know, weddings
are cool. I'm like, when did I graduate from that point in my
life? When I was younger, in my twenties, I loved weddings because
I loved hanging out at wedding receptions. I would always meet somebody always.
It's an awesome place to meet somebody, you know, because that was still
when I was in my twenties. That was long before you had the whole
app dating type day. Oh yeah, so you had to go out and
physically talk to people. That was the way to mingle. It's right.
So you mentioned kind of like feeling like you've outgrown the weddings. So I've
mentioned this probably a couple of weeks ago when Nick was here. Yeah,
something about once you've already had your own wedding. I've been married now for
four four and a half years, something like that, and something about going
to weddings after you've already you know, you grow up, you go to
the you know, family weddings, friend weddings that you maybe have gotten married
before you that kind of thing, but once you've already had your own wedding,
or something about I guess remembering the stress that you went through to you
know, put it all together, make it look nice, that kind of
a thing. And it was a great day. My wedding day was one
of the most fun days I ever had. But at the same time,
it's it's a it wears on, it's a it takes a toll on your
body that day, as they say, it sure does. Now what month
did you all get married, So I don't want to get too deep into
the weeds. Yeah, we got married right as COVID was kind of firing
up. We were supposed to get married in April of twenty twenty, and
once we realized that everything was shutting down, we had to kind of move
everything up a couple of weeks. We had a very private ceremony, if
you will, in March, March twenty first of twenty twenty, and that
was our official wedding, but we had we ended up had doing the reception
all that kind of stuff. I think it was a year or two later,
I remember, because I think might have been twenty twenty two. Did
in April, the end of April of twenty twenty two. That was the
actual celebration, if you will. So we got married right before COVID and
then kind of celebrated it a couple of years later. So, oh,
beauty, where'd you guys do it? I mean, what did you guys
have it? It was out in Bardstown, so okay, we both grew
up in big Catholic family. Actually, well her family's a massive Catholic family.
Yeah. I kind of was a grandfather into it a little bit whenever
I was younger, into my own family's Catholic stuff. But uh so we
got married out in Bardstown Saint Gregory Church. Oh yeahs yes, Coxs.
Yeah, good people down there. Great, Yeah, Bartstown, great stuff.
So that's when we got married. At the reception, it was no
a good time. Oh that's awesome, dude. Yeah, that was That
was the fun part for me because both my wife were Catholics. So when
we got married and we invited our and most of my family is Catholic,
but there are some that aren't. I remember one of them going, you
people, up down, up down, up down, give me a give
me a decent program. So I know what's going on. No, you're
right, so it was. It is to your point. It is wedding
season. In fact, my wife and I just celebrated ours. We got
married on June twelfth that year. It was at Saint Aloysius and Peewee Valley,
and I will never forget because it was about as hot as what it
is right now out there, and I just remember it being so hot and
it was one of those days where it was really hot and then the storms
would come through. So what we did was we got married in the old
chapel out there, which was nice because this was before they did all the
paintings. I mean, everything was all original and that bad boy still you
know. When we got married. So the heat of the day had been
building had been building, and our reception was at Owl Creek. You're familiar
where that is. It's a little bit of a dry but it was at
Owl Creek and it's kind of off the beaten path. So the storms built
up and built up, and my wife and I had this brilliant idea we
were gonna do the traditional thing, that is, once your wedding's over,
you leave for the airport and you go on your honeymoon, dude, And
we went to We went to the Cape for our honeymoon. We went to
Falmouth, Massachusetts. In part I saw. I saw my wife cause I
wanted to see some cake Codball and I'm like, you know, she goes,
can we stay at Bed and Breakast Because at the time Bed and Breakfast
and brb's weren't a big deal. Then yeah, we can stay there.
I like, I would preferred to stay in a hotel, like a nice
hotel, but yeah, I said, as long as I can go see
Cape Codbald, Okay, dude. We went back and watched our wedding video
a couple of years ago, and it was like it was like a scene
out of one of those Mate for TV like rescue movies. Oh yeah,
you had. The Anchorage fire department came in and told everybody they could finally
leave after a like two in the morning. And it was my wife's and
or somebody gave him a big old kiss like she was being rescued, and
I mean trees were falling all over the place. Long story short, you
know, we ended up we obviously we didn't make our flight to Boston.
And in the airlines were great, they were like, look, we totally
understand. We'll get you out in the morning, that's no problem. But
you know, but by the end of the day, to your point,
dude, it was like, man, I am gassed. I am straight
up just gassed. So I you know, I didn't mean to turn this
into wedding talk or anything, but but it is. It's that time of
year. It's happy hour. It's time for everybody to have a good time.
Time to let you let your hair down a little bit. We do
have a big show planned for you today. We are going to talk about
yo. L Hoops just announced they're heading to the Bahamas this summer. That's
good news for U of L fans. We'll get a chance to see that.
We'll have reaction to what Reggie Jackson said last night. I thought Ian
vert reason now we're talking in the hallway. I thought Fox did an amazing
job with the Negro League tribute last night. John Batiste was just unbelievable as
always. That didn't surprise me. We're also going to talk a little Caitlin
Clark versus Angel Reyes Part three. Dude, ticket prices are insane. They
are insane. I checked them before we got on the air, and it
is unbelievable with people. I can't imagine they're going to get these prices.
I can't imagine people are asking a large amount whether people will pay them.
I'll give you a little teaser. Cheapest ticket price to get in the door.
At least when I checked, it was one hundred and fifty one dollars.
And that's up in the corner. That's way up in the corner.
So that'll give you an idea. We'll put perspective on on that. We'll
talk about that. We're gonna do a little mascot trivia with John. We're
gonna get his lowdown because football season's coming out. I love that. Yeah,
football seasons come in fact, Fletcher Long, who I do our high
school football podcast with every Saturday morning. Just reached out to me and texted
me today. He goes, you know what, guess what. It's getting
to be that time? And I go, are you kidding me already?
I said, dude, we're still in June. Slow your role Beavis.
But he says, no, it's getting to be that time. He says
he's gonna do a little previous show. So we're gonna do that, but
we're gonna talk a little mascots, get everybody's favorite mascot. I see that
your boy there at Western's impressing folks do My son said he was impressed.
They got the new look Western Kentucky. The new Big Red is out.
They oh the little he's kind of the new logo, know what you're saying,
Yes, you're talking about Yes, So they they updated the logo,
I believe, and it's it's uh, you know, it's it's it's always
been the same, the hill top. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Did you like when they put him on the helmet? Uh? I
mean he's always kind of look like a tellotubby, So I thought it.
I was thinking toy box and yeah, that's fine. So it's one of
those things. It's it's it severally bothered me. Yeah, you know,
it's part of who I am as an alum of Western Kentucky, So you
know it lives with me a little bit. Man. They got to be
feeling good at Western. We're gonna talk a little bit about. You got
a new basketball coach there, you got things going on with the volleyball team.
Dude, I mean Tyson Helton. Tyson Helton has got did you see
how many people are on the West are on the All Conference USA preseason team
from Western Kentucky. It is crazy, dude. I mean, it's crazy
to think what he does. And obviously Tyson's been able to recruit talent to
come through there, especially at the quarterback position. I was really hoping Bailey
Zappi would really pan out for the Patriots, But right now, the Patriots
are a giant, you know what show on every level. And I feel
bad for Bailey because he's caught up in all that. But you know,
if you're my son's good friend from high school is a Hilltopper. Now he's
wrapping up his He wrapped up his freshman year and said he just loved it.
He loved everything about it down there and Bowling Green and I have yet
to get down there for a game. I want to go down and see
a game. I wanted to go down and see a basketball game. When
Rick Stansbury was there. I was a big Rick Stansbury guy. I know,
I know he didn't pan out and he'd never lived up to expectations in
our boss, Gus s All, and he, you know, he had
his own thing thoughts about about Rick Stansbury, but he was down there whenever.
I was kind of on the beat, if you will, not professionally,
but as an intern that kind of a thing. And he was always
very kind to me. He's always very kind to the students in general.
And he was just a professional human being for coach at WKU, and he
was just I just enjoyed. He really epitomized basketball culture. He fit the
Kentucky college basketball scene, if you will. It's just unfortunate that he himself
was never able to break through the Hilltoppers. Obviously, with Steve Lutz last
year they were able to do that and then he moved on. So good
for WKU, but it wasn't fortunate to see it not work out with Rick
Stansbury. You know. And the thing I liked about Rick dude was that.
And that's all I did was in the press conferences because I do a
lot of it for what we do on HAS. He was my favorite press
conference to listen to, and he just the way. There were times you
could almost understand him, but he's got their aspe voice. But he always
knew and if he saw someone in the press conference he didn't recognize, he'd
ask who they are. I don't know who you are? Who are you?
And I've seen coaches do that before, which I think is kind of
cool because they, well, they want to know who's out there, for
one and who's writing about him. But the fact that he knew that.
But you know, I was telling Tony, I was sitting there watching Old
Miss was playing Memphis this year and I'm watching the Old Miss Memphis game and
I'm looking on the sidelines and there's Penny Hardaway and I looked at go,
is that Rick Stansbury? I said, that is no way it's Rick Stansbury.
And of course they wouldn't show him for like ten fifteen minutes after that,
and sure enough, excuse me, there he is on the sidelines.
I didn't know he went to Memphis because when he left Western for health reasons.
At least that's what I thought. And evidently he's better now because he's
down there with Penny Hardaway. So fun factoid about Rick Stansbury. He used
to always take its recruits to Cracker Barrel. Did he realize something that does
not surprise random? That does not surprise me? So it's like one cracker
Barrel and bowling Green. Yeah, right off. One of the exits what
I do love. What I do love is because my son goes to Xavier
and it's taken a while to get him warmed up to campus life because the
girl he was dating at the time she went to UC. So I was
we're trying to get my son, Hey, look, why don't you hang
out on campus more at Xavier. Instead, he was spending every weekend her
dorm room over at U SEE. And so they split up for mutual reasons.
I mean, it's good, it was a good split up. They
just were doing their own things. They're still friends and whatnot. So he's
finally doing his own stuff and he's going to more basketball games now because literally
centtas centers. You step outside his dorm and you're right there, which is
a beautiful arena. By the way, never let it be said that you
can't build a beauty before Rena on campus U of L Centas Center is gorgeous
and the weirdest thing, man, when you're when you're watching those games,
when your kid goes to school there, because they're always on f S.
Warner Fox. We're sitting there one night and we see him all the time.
He's like texting while he's walking down to his seat. So it's the
most bizarre thing to see your kid, you know, texts at a basketball
game. So anyway, I was going with this was David McKnight, the
longtime Hilltopper of course from here in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, played for Xavier
last year and he knows that I covered Kentucky News Network and he's like,
Dad, did you see David McKnight was going to to Xavier. I said,
oh, yeah, I did, dude. So it was it was
exciting because I got to watch him playing, got to watch he was one
of my favorite Hilltoppers, just just to watch him play. And and you
know Western, there's just a culture John at Western. I told Gus this,
your boss, our boss Uh, everybody who comes out of Western are
just good people. I'll put it that way. And it's it's known for
theirjournalism. It's known for their sports journalism. Really, and everybody I know
in this business that comes out of Western they're just they're good people. They
just they get it. They understand it. Yourself, Gus included. And
every time I meet somebody that's got that Western logo on, you kind of
perk up a little bit and you go, that says something, that says
something about you. So that's good stuff. Hey, we're just getting started.
We got a lot to talk about, a lot to unpack here when
we come back. We'll get that reaction from Reggie Jackson last night, and
what about that when we talked to Matt Melosevich. Remember Matt and I said
yesterday it was going to be something special. It sure was and it's impressed
a lot of people and everybody's talking about it today. I'm scoff and strolledon
for Nick coffee. He'll be back with you monday. John Holden is working
hard down the hall putting this all together for us. We're back after this
on Sports Talk seven ninety. Hey, welcome back. It is three point
thirty on a Friday, it's quitting time. Let's pack it up, let's
head home. And for those of you who are still working, big salute
to you as well as we salute you all, especially the ones who are
working with this on a Saturday morning too, Saluting our whack pack who get
up with us and check in with us on Saturday morning. By the way,
Coach Scott Davenport at Bellarman and part of the whack Pack, a member
in good standing. He's up on Saturday mornings listening to us as he goes
out for his run through Crescent. Well was it Crescent? Where's the water
park? Creston Hill? Thank you? Yeah? Coach gets up and does
his run through there. I don't know if it'd be running tomorrow. It's
gonna be a little warm. I'm Scott fitz GERALDA he is John Alden.
Of course, Nick Coffee will be back with you on Friday. I think
he's officially made it to Arkansaw now, all safe and sound with his family,
certainly enjoying great time away. Absolutely appreciate everything Nick does. Again,
had a great chance to catch up with Nick under the grandstands there at Churchill
Downs during Kentucky or no, it was Oaks Day. Nick and I had
a chance to talk about a lot of off the air stuff, which is
really nice. And it was clearing. Nick and I see I and a
lot of stuff. And we're in good hands with Nick Coffee here on seven
ninety and I really really hope he doesn't go anywhere. I'm not saying he
is. I'm just saying that we need him here. We're lucky to have
him in our back pocket. He's one of the good guys in sports talk
radio, and they're few and far between. It seems like in twenty twenty
four, Nick's one of the good guys. So as as they like to
say, John, pay the man, they should not the thing they have,
but they should if they all know if they're not paying more, because
we got to keep him with us. So Nick, hope you're enjoying,
buddy, be glad to turn this back over to you when you come back
on Monday. All right, We did have Matt Melissa is John WKA.
What great conversation with him. By the way, we posted up on next.
When I come on these shows like this, when I get a little
long form, I like to bring in folks here locally that you can see
in a different light. For example, coming up, I'm talking to Hockey
Nation. Major Mikelines is going to join us at four point thirty to talk
Stanley Cup and all things hockey. A lot of people hear him with us
on news radio eight forty whs. He's a military analyst for CNN and he's
a major. He's fought the Gulf War. But he's all serious. Well,
now he's going to kind of let what little Harry has down and we're
gonna have a little fun because he knows a thing or two about the NHL.
We'll find out why that's so important. But last night we were talking
about yesterday were talking aout Matt Melosa bitch about the Negro League tribute on Fox.
So I left here, got in the gym, got on the treadmill,
dialed up Fox, and the great Reggie Jackson sat at the round table.
Big Poppy was there, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, and you know
Reggie jacks That was the first World Series I watched. I believe it was
seventy eight is what it was. It's the first one I remember is Yankees
Dodgers. So I was endeared to Reggie Jackson. I mean I didn't bandwagon
as a fan or anything. He just he was larger than life to me.
So when he stepped to the table last night to sit down and talk,
I listened, and I got to admit, not only was I blown
away, I was impressed one. And here's a little bit of what he
had to say. I would never wanted to do it, want to do
it again. I walked into restaurants and they would point at me and said,
I can't eat here. I would go to a hotel, oh,
and they said, can't stay here. We went to Charlie Finley's country Club
for a welcome home dinner and they pointed me out with the N word.
He can't come in here. Finley marched the whole team out. Finally they
let me in there. He said, we're going to go to the diner
and eat Hamburger's, or go where we're wanted. Fortunately, I had a
manager in Johnny McNamara that if I couldn't eat in the place nobody would eat,
we'd get food to travel. If I couldn't stay in a hotel,
they'd drive to the next hotel and find a place where I could stay.
Had it not been for Raleigh Fingers, Johnny McNamara, Dave Duncan, Joe
and Sharon Rudy. I slept on their couch three four nights a week for
about a two month and a half. Finally they were threatened that they would
burn the our apartment complex down unless I got out. Now, what you
heard bleeped out was the N word only wasn't bleeped out on the national broadcast.
The Fox went through it on their official site, where we had permission
to grab their audio from. They bleeped it out. I would have bleeped
it out here, obviously, But when Reggie Jackson used it in context,
even I was on the treadmill and I were oh, and you could just
see everybody took a collective pause. But this was Reggie and he was talking
about life in Birmingham, Alabama. He played for the Birmingham A's at the
time, and it was just I'm listening to this and this is an ancient
history. I think this is what's important to remember. This didn't happen like
two hundred years ago. And what an ugly time to be alive, and
what a great time I was thinking it is to be alive. Now we
look at the Pride Festival, they sold out, sold out, and how
we're becoming more accepting of people in twenty twenty four. And if you think
that's a bad thing, I can't help you. I feel bad for you,
but I can't help you. Because what was interesting was joh iok I
was reading some of the Pride posts that were up. They were talking about
the success of the Pride Festival, and now this the hatred that's still there,
and not all of its hatred. Some of it's misunderstanding, some of
it's just people being naive. And I'm thinking, Okay, I can't change
the way people think, but I'm thinking how far did we come? And
so after reading all that on Pride Festival last week, and then hearing Reggie
Jackson tell these stories about Birmingham, I'm like, how far have we come?
We have a long way to go, but how far have we come?
And then then I started thinking, how could someone live like that day
in and day and then still go out and play baseball? I mean,
I get upset when I forget my coffee cup and that throws my whole morning
off. Listen to Reggie Well, I'm thinking how do you keep your wits
about you? How do people like Willie Mays keep their wits about him?
And then here's what Reggie had to say, And this is where it kind
of all made sense. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. At the same
time, had it not been for my white friends, had it not been
for a white manager and Rudy Fingers and Duncan and Lee Myers, I would
have never made it. I was too physically violent. I was ready to
physically fight some I'd have got killed here because I'd have beat someone's ass.
And you just saw me in an oak tree somewhere. I mean, come
on, Reggie, preach, and I mean, that's just raw anger that
if Reggie had to live with it, imagine those that came before him that
had to live with it. And then go out and baseball, and then
Reggie becomes one of the greatest of all time to play the game. It
took me back to a time I remember growing up. I was talking to
my wife and daughter and I were having this conversation yesterday after I got home,
and it took me back to a time I remember sitting around the table
with my relatives, some of my relatives and just using language that at the
time, you know, that's that's what they said. And I just remember
sitting around and thinking, now in twenty twenty four, I'm like, haw,
is that Why? Why did we live that way? And my wife
responds to me, she goes, I was in the same boat. She
said I had relatives, and she said that was life. Then in fact,
there's during the week, there's three things I watched while I'm on the
treadmill because it helps pace out my time. It's Taxi, followed by All
in the Family in mash and Man, you start watching All in the Family
now in twenty twenty four, and you realize how far ahead of his time
Norman Lear was and how Norman Lear addressed these ugly conversations that people were like
this, that they were like this, So now the beauty. I was
telling Ian out in the hallway that I was pricing out Negro League jerseys because
I just I'm a big I just since I became aware of the Negro Leagues,
I've just really kind of embraced this. At two hundred and ten dollars,
bro two hundred, that's how big this phenomenon has become. And as
I told Tony on the show this morning. He started bringing up stories about
Jackie Robinson. I do not Jackie Robinson was the band I have. You
know, my Brooklyn Dodgers had as one of my prize possessions, and that
movie was great and I love that entire story. But I told Tony,
I said, if you really want to go on an adventure, and I've
been doing this now for the better part of two years, because we're got
to talk about that here coming up in just a bit if we have time.
If not, then we'll get to it. I'll probably talk about it
tomorrow. I take just a couple, three, four, or five Negro
League players at random, dive into their lives, dive into their stat lines,
take a look at who they are. I mean, Louisville was home
to the Negro Leagues in the thirties. Well, we get to it.
We'll talk about a couple of the players that played for them. And so
one was born right here in Louisville. One was born in Uniontown, Kentucky.
You know, it's right over along the banks of the Ohio. But
dive into these and get to know these people. And this is where I
think on Slugger Museum uncovered the Louisville Unions around nineteen oh nine. That is
a great story in itself that they were able to embrace this, But you
look at just some of the what these players had to endure, and I
think, going back to Jackie Robinson, what brings it all home? Have
you seen the movie forty two yet? John, I haven't. Okay,
when you see it, I'm not gonna play spoiler here, but there's a
scene in there where they played the Philadelphia Phillies. Very telling, and I
immediately thought about that when I heard that second sound bite from Reggie Jackson,
because it's a point where the Phillies manager just keeps going and going and going
in Finally, finally Jackie Robinson snaps. He goes into the locker room and
he just snaps, And I just I don't know how this generation of players
did this. And when John Batist came out and sang last Night, and
they did, when the Saints come marching in and there was dancing and everybody
was happy and they were wheeling out the Negro League, the surviving Negro League
players, I'm like, they finally are getting their due. They're finally getting
the respect they deserve. And it gave me goosebumps, It really did.
And it was a night for the ages. It was a beautiful night of
baseball. John Battist who couldn't have asked anybody better to do it. The
national anthem was on point. The flyover it hit like dude, they threaded
the needle. I've seen good flyovers, this one they threaded the needle with.
And just everything about the night was just a beautiful night. It was
a beautiful celebration of baseball. And of course lost in all of that is
they did honor the great Willie Mays. He of course was from Birmingham,
Alabama. That's where it all got started. The last Negro League game was
held there in nineteen forty eight. Reggie did speak what's everything? Once you
call him down the emotions, Reggie had a chance to talk about, well,
what Willie Mays meant to him, The way that he showed the love
of the game, the way he respected the game, even when he had
a complain about what may have been going on with minorities or whatever in his
era, you didn't speak about it. He loved the game so much that
he refrained. But my admiration for him was how he went about it and
how he showed people like me following him how to play. That was it.
And there's a SoundBite in there where it was Derek Jeter and I want
to say Ken Griffy Junior, don't quote me, and I was in the
mill of bit on the treadmill. But I think those are the Yeah,
those are the two asked. They asked Willie Mays. They said, well,
how do you want to be remembered? And WILLI said, not for
what I did in baseball. What I did outside of baseball is how he
wanted to be and that's that's Willie Mays. And for me, that brought
it all home. But okay, so if those storylines weren't enough for you
last night, well let's fast forward to the game itself. Okay, the
Cardinals are playing the Giants, right, Cardinals come up to the plate.
Brendan Donovan steps up and the f Rogers checks the runner at second. Now
comes to the plate, he ex choose me swing, that's a base it
up the middle. Here comes a runner around third, that's Burlasman. He's
going to score. And Goldschmidt goes into third base. So on RBI for
Brendan Donovan his third of the night. Calling KMOX sounds like a routine play,
right RBI. Brendan Donovan's an Alabama native. He's born and raised just
south of Birmingham. He goes three for four with a home run. Those
three RBIs that clutch one right there? Win the game for him. My
man comes home and Alabama native and wins this thing in a place known for
baseball and Alabama. And afterwards, even as skipper Ali Marmle says, that
was kind of a big deal. He's been taking much better at basketball.
For him to come home, that's special. It really is. So you
love seeing it. I know he came into the dug on his side welcome
home. And even Giants skipper Bob Melvin talks about playing on the field kind
I can feel what transpired here a long time ago, and the players have
played on the field, and you know, you just don't get to experience
something like this in the move season much so it was just telling. When
I ran into Ian in the hallway before we started the show, he goes
said, you watch last night ago, Yeah, and everybody has this whoa.
That was amazing reaction. So I don't know what baseball's going to do
to top that. I mean, it just everything seemed to work out the
way it did. But just to kind of bring you up to speed,
Louisville has its past with the Negro leagues. Now, there was, of
course the Louisville black Caps. They played in nineteen thirty and then they transferred
their name over to the Louisville White Sox in nineteen thirty one. Then in
nineteen thirty two they played in the Negro the Southern League as the black Caps
again, but unfortunately, five months into the season they moved out and they
moved to Columbus so but the team did feature players like say Spoon Carter his
real name was Ernest C. Carter Junior. He went one for three.
He was one and three with the black Caps in nineteen thirty two. He
tossed twenty seven innings will striking out twenty six with a three point zero er.
He'd go on to play sixteen years before leaving the league. In nineteen
forty eight, he played for the Memphis Red Sox. He passed away in
nineteen seventy four. He was seventy one years old. He's laid the rest
ironically in Birmingham, Alabama. And then of course there's lefty Willie Geisentanner.
He was born in eighteen ninety nine in Ozark, Alabama. He played for
the Black Caps and the White Sox in nineteen thirty and nineteen thirty two,
and after runs with teams like the Kansas City Monarchs, probably one of the
famed Negro teams, then one of the more known Negro teams. He went
nine and three with sixty seven strikeouts, and some accounts, if you read
some stories on him, he did it with a mangled left hand, which
that does not surprise me. I mean, it's it. And then the
team, as we mentioned, had two local players. It was catcher Lewis
English. He was born in Louisville in February twenty fourth, nineteen oh two.
In addition to playing in Louisville, English also played with the Detroit Stars
and the Baltimore Leite Giants. He finished his career here in Louisville. He
had one hundred and twenty four hits in his short four year career, while
hitting two forty seven lifetime. He passed away at the age of seventy four
in Butte County, Georgia. And then finally there was one other player from
Kentucky, Henry Harris. My man was five to three, one hundred and
thirty seven pounds. I mean nothing like what you see in these players that
are out there now. Harris was born November twenty fifth, nineteen hundred,
Union Town, Kentucky. If you know you're Kentucky, if you know,
it's about one hundred and fifty miles west of Slugger Field. It's along the
banks of the Ohio. He enjoyed a modest career. He played just four
games with the Saint Louis Giants in nineteen twenty four before a season with the
Memphis Red Sox. A lot of them appeared to have play. They went
through Memphis for whatever reason. Before He hit two forty four with Louisville,
we'll scoring four fifteen runs. He notched twelve RBIs in nineteen thirty. He
died May seventeenth, nineteen seventy nine, in his hometown of Uniontown, where
he's laid to rest. So it's pretty incredible. You just dive into these
players and you get to know them, and you get to know the Negro
League tradition. I'm so glad Major League Baseball has brought this to the forefront,
also addressing some of the social issues that we still face in this country.
So big tip of the hat to all involved. All Right, I'm
Scott Fitzgerald. He's John Alden. We're gonna take a quick break. I'm
gonna get a bit of water here and refresh, and we'll come back.
We'll talk some more. We'll test John's knowledge with mascot trivia too, coming
up next hour. We'll have some fun with that. I'm Scott Fitzgerald.
He's John Alden. We're back after this on Sports Talk seven ninety. Oh
good stuff, John Alden. That's good stuff right there, John Alden playing
it for us in the studio. I'm Scot Fitzgerald, filling in for Nick
Coffee. He'll be back on Monday. Man, I gotta tell you,
bro, there are days where I get in the car and I'm in a
Motown mood. Oh yeah, I am in a Motown mood. There's this,
you know. Motown just really always put me in a good mood.
And if you ever get the chance, if you ever venture up to my
home state and you're in Detroit, sometimes do stop in on the Motown Museum.
It's Walworth. What part of Michigan is it Detroit that you're from Green
Rapids, So I'm on the west side of the state. So but get
up there and hang out to the Motown Museum. They do a great I've
always wanted to see a show at Van Adel. Oh it's nice arena,
dude, beautiful, beautiful, made for hockey. Just saying, just saying,
it's beautiful. But yeah, man, I love me some Motown you
get in the right mood. I could listen to that all day. Hey,
quickly before we go to break news, just coming out this. I'm
getting this from the University of Kentucky this afternoon. Outfielder Ryan Waldschmid has been
named a Baseball All American. Congratulations to Ryan Waldschmid. That, of course,
he's already been named in All American by Perfect Game by the Baseball College
Coaches Association rawlings as well, So congratulations to Ryan. Good job. Wish
the Cats were playing for a College World Series, but hey, look,
Tennessee and Texas A and m you can't beat him. That's for darn sure.
We're gonna take a break. When we come back, We're going to
talk. Well we might well. At some point we're gonna test John's mascot
trivia and it's Caitlin Reese Part three. You won't believe the ticket price is
for this too. We'll talk about that and more. I'm Scott fitz Jolie,
John Alten. We're back after this. On Sports Talk seven ninety