Welcome to the Nightcap on seven hundred wl W Garry Jeff Walker was one of
my rare chances to talk to you during the summer months, and Reds Baseball
on Joy. We're at the All Star Break and tonight at Arley contextas at
Worldwide Field, the home run derby tomorrow night, the Al versus the NL
And I thought, you know, just as a special kind of thing,
how about we get somebody who not only loves baseball, but has been to
numerous ballparks around the country to talk baseball and traveling. And there is no
greater than well, let's introduce him this way. The wiz Kids had won
it, Bobby tom Sinning had done it, and you will be ready the
comics, all who won the Rock and Roll was being born to marijuana.
We would scorn so down on the corner of the national pastime went on traps
talking ball. That's right. It's great, Terry Cashman talking basketball. That's
right, with Willie Mickey and the Duke and more and more and more ever
since Flash Phelps joins us the host of sarius XM sixties Gold in the Mornings,
and again a guy who's been to all fifty states all but a few
hundred counties in the entire country. And I know he's a huge baseball fan.
Flash you are you are a guest for this first hour on the All
Star Break and oh, this is so nice. Uh. I know that
you sent me a picture of you in the broadcast booth in Boston during a
Red Sox game. Do you have a that was Yeah, that was actually
here in Baltimore. That's joke is Stiglion and the uh. And he's getting
ready to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Saturday. So I'm
I'll be on my way to Cooperstown so later in the week, and he
wants to see me. Inductor is very cool. In the mail, I
get a thing from the Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York.
You are quarterly invited to be here thanks to Jokestigli and his wife Jen,
and they invited me. So I'll be out there. This is coming Saturday
for broadcast because he started with Cleveland and then he went to Boston over forty
years. So it's just really amazing. And here's how let me can I
tell you how we met? This is actually really cool. Sure, So
Sostiglia on the Voice of the Rights, and by the way, before that,
and I'm going to start with the guy right before that, Marty Brenneman,
who you obviously know, who's also in the Baseball Hall of Fame,
and then Ford Frick Wing of Broadcasters. So let me first tell you that
story. I'm on the air and I get a call and I see a
five to one three area code, so I know it's the Cincinnati area and
he said, Flash, it's Marty Brenneman. And now at this point I
didn't know who he was right away, and I go, okay, hey,
Marty, what are you doing? He goes, I'm driving up I
seventy five to go to see the Dayton Dragons. I'm talking up there.
I say, wow, what do you do he said, I'm with the
Reds. I said, what do you do with Reds? He said,
I'm the voice. I said, oh jeez. So so that's how I
met Marty. So Marty and a man that we and by the way,
he just went, they're overseas right now. They just left this weekend.
Oh so that was it. So now I get this message from our MLB
channel and they said, Flash, do you know who joke Astiglio is.
I said, you mean the Red Sox, the voice of the Red Sox.
They said, yeah. All he wants to do is not talk baseball.
When he calls in, he just wants to talk about your travels.
He listens to you and then goes out and does the games. So he
said, can I just let you two talk? So when that he came
down to play in Baltimore, he came down to d C, took the
train and hung out with me because he wanted to meet me. And then
I brought him back to Camden Yards. He said, come on back and
be in the bill in the booth with me. So I went to the
booth with him a number of times. Come to Fenway, let's meet here,
let's and so I started meeting him in all these different places because he's
just a big fan and I'll listen during the day. And then I was
there friendly with him. But this last time he said, Hey, I'm
coming down the Baltimore and can you be in the booth. And it was
Memorial Day, so I was there with Jokistiglio and again going into the Baseball
Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Congratulations Joe, and he and Marty Brenneman are
such good friends. Marty flew into Boston to hang out with him. Oh
that is fantastic. I love the fact that you're a baseball fan. But
he didn't want to talk about baseball. He wanted to talk about your travels,
much like me. I mean, yeah, tonight, tonight we're talking
baseball a little bit. Because of your travels around the country. How many
ballparks have you been to? Flash, you're ready for this, all right,
There's thirty MLB stadiums. I've been to all thirty of them. There
are two hundred and six MiLB stadiums for a total in MLB and m ILB
for two hundred and thirty six stadiums. You want to take a guess how
many I've been to? How many? Two hundred and thirty three? I'm
only missing three. You say, m ILB. What is mi ILB for
the uninitiative? Okay, that's the minor leagues underneath so underneath the red so
you would have all the different whether or not you're talking about Louisville and all
the way down, so all the different ones that because what happens, they're
independent, so and including your Florence Yawls, so that's independent, though I've
been to the stadium. I've been to almost all the independent ones as well.
But see, MLB had so many teams that they could have under it,
and then they said, okay, here's going to be the cutoff,
so a couple of years ago and they made it two hundred and six teams
and it used to be more than that. So that's why all these other
leagues are in there. But here are the three that I'm missing of all
the MLB stadiums and m ILB for minor league. The three I'm missing are
Hillsboro High Tops, which a lot of people probably couldn't even tell you where
Hillsboro is. That's Oregon. It's a suburb to Portland. It's Portland,
Oregon's minor league baseball team, the Vancouver Canadians. I've been to Van,
but I didn't go to the stadium. So I've been over there, and
the only one in the East is and I've been to their old stadium but
then't been to their new one, and that's the Augusta Green Jackets known after
the Masters, and they built the stadium now on what's called them what they
called that such as Central Savannah CSRA is what they call it, standing for
the Central Savannah River Area at Augusta, Georgia. So it's built on the
South Carolina side. So those three stadiums would then complete the two hundred and
thirty six stadiums. So I've seen some credit, I go all over.
I just love seeing all these stadiums. And you know how I got into
it because my dad, my dad. Now you've heard of the Savannah Bananas.
Yes, okay, my dad played at that stadium is called Grayson Stadium.
So when my dad, this is how my mom and dad met.
So my dad from Baltimore and he goes to World War Two. Once he
gets back, he gets into baseball and he starts playing under the Philadelphia Athletics
in nineteen fifty and he plays for West Palm Beach and then Savannah. These
are both under the Philadelphia Athletics. And you're dad were known as the my
dad did, yeah, so the Indians. So this is Will Phelps and
so as he's playing there, he is playing in Tampa and he's at the
hotel and he sees the telephone operator and that becomes my mom. So that's
where they met, then they married on the diamond. They right there at
home Plate. They got married at home Plate on July fifth, nineteen fifty.
And it took him sixteen more years just to even have me. After
that, I was going to say, so he played. Yeah, it
took a little while. So I should have probably been born in the early
fifties and then really have played all these songs originally. But that's that's where
it all started. And so growing up he was all about He wasn't about
the Colts or because you know, we had them here in Baltimore at that
time. He was all about the Orioles. It was just all baseball.
Everything was baseball, and he was so into it. And then I played
for a while. But then I realized he got me into a radio station
locally, and I said, oh my gosh, I love radio more than
a ball and these are like you just do whatever you love. It's better
to get paid for whatever you love doing. And that's how I got into
radio, because he gave me thumbs up, even though I think he would
have rather had me play baseball. I agree, do what you love,
and you there's a chance that you will never work a day in your life
really now, are they what it was? Yeah? Are the Orioles your
favorite team? Do you have a favorite Major League GA? Yeah? Yeah,
I see. I grew up here and then I got into radio and
going all over the place. But I was always in some of the smaller
markets, so I was not in Major League cities, but I was close
enough to others. But I stayed as an Orioles fan even when I was
in the US. Virgin Islands was ninety seven great year for the Orioles,
and then but I was there in eighty three. I was there in seventy
nine when they lost in Game six in the World Series of the Pirates,
and then they lost it again in Game seven. But it was so cool
to go with that World Series game at Memorial Stadium. And then after that
in eighty three, I went out there for the big celebration after they had
beaten the White Sox and they came back to Baltimore. And then that was
when they played Phillies too. When the last time they even won a World
Series is As you know, it's not an easy thing to get even get
to a World so well, it's been it's been since, it's been since
nineteen ninety that the Reds have won a World Series and that was the wire
Away. That was the wire to wire team that led from the beginning of
the season to the end and then swept the A's in the World Series in
nineteen ninety. So Flash, we're trying to Flash Phelps, a serious XM
radio who's joining us tonight to talk about his baseball travels around the country.
And Flash, I wanted to ask you I started. I started my radio
career in the Nashville area, Nashville, Tennessee, and for a long long
time, the owner of the minor league club there, the Nashville Sounds.
It was a sound great guy named Larry Schmidow, and he petitioned the major
leagues. I mean, he never stopped. And he built this new stadium
thinking that maybe, just maybe they'd finally award him a Major League Baseball franchise.
And I think there's still an opinion now that Nashville is a major league
town in hockey and in football obviously that one of these days maybe one of
these fledgling or failing MLB teams will move to Nashville. What did you think
about Sound Stadium in Nashville? The new owner of the old one either one.
I liked it. I liked the giant guitar, and I like the
fact that they kept it. I don't know if you know this, but
they kept that giant scoreboard that looks like a guitar. Did you know they
have that on the south side of Nashville. You can still get your photo
with that. But uh, I mean, I like the sounds, but
I do like the way they built this new stadium on the north side.
It's an area that needed to be redone, and I just think both stadiums
were just fantastic in the Nashville area. Did you know Knoxville is getting the
new state for the Tennessee Smoky No. Yeah, that's being built right now.
So as soon as they start building them, I want to go and
like field the dreams oh Man out in Iowa, you go to Dyersville and
you just I mean, even though it's not a stadium, you go there
and you just relive baseball and walk into the corn good time of the year,
Nashville Sun. Since we're in the state of Tennessee, real briefly,
I can tell you something about the old Ingles Stadium in Chattanooga that you may
know, let me tell you something you do not know. You probably okay,
yeah, tell me. I was working in Chattanooga on the radio and
we had a celebrity softball team for the radio station. We are in close
proximity proximity to Fort Payne, Alabama, where the group Alabama is from,
and they had a celebrity softball team to the band, did Alabama, Randy
Owens and all those guys. Yeah, and so at the time, this
is this and Yetty Entry, Yes, and so we're we're playing all of
their records. At the early nineteen eighties, even though we were a rock
station, we played all the Alabama stuff because they were immensely popular there in
that area. You know, they're from there. So we played all of
the big Alabama hits. And somehow we got the chance to host them at
the old Ingles Stadium, which was about to fall in on itself then forty
years ago, and it held like nine thousand people something like that. That
stadium had never been sold out until KZ one oh six played Alabama in a
softball game and we had over nine thousand people and you know what, flash,
we got booed off the field at the end of the game because we
beat Alabama seven to six. What a great story. And that is a
fantastic one because I always loved the group Alabama as well. And you know
what country radio is how I started in radio. My first on air job
was playing country, but I wanted to be on KZY one O six.
I got the chance to be up at WOKI in Knoxville for one night before
they said no, oh wow, that was. That was a quick audition.
Yeah I was. I did five hours on the air and they said
no, no, I was. I was. I was on the wings
of rock and roll as they call it, for three and a half years
in the early eighties, my first big radio job away from home. Well,
see, my mom grew up there. My mom grew up right there
in Chattanooga. That was her whole area as well. Yeah, so that
was I love going over into that area because even you know, what I
need to do is go back. My grandparents are buried there. I never
got a chance to meet them. Oh they passed before I was even born,
but I now know where they are thanks to my uncle. He's actually
giving me some info. So Chattanooga, I love it, Oh soakouts.
So it's right Camden Yards is your baseball home now when you're at home,
which you never are since you're traveling all the time, and the Orioles your
favor team. Is there anything else that really stands out on the East Coast
as far as as baseball fields as stadiums go, that you really love to
go there? The it's not that you hate the rest, but what do
you really like to go when you're traveling and you're visiting a baseball stadium on
the East Coast? What's your favorite? Well, see a lot of them
are the m ILB save the minor League. I love trying to find all
the minor league ones, which I've done. But they just built a brand
new one right here in Hagarstown, Maryland. So if you're coming in on
I seventy, you always go through Hagar'stown and they have a new one they
just built in downtown and they just renamed the team the Flying box Cars,
and they built it all around these buildings. They had to take out the
buildings and put it right in. It's kind of the way they did Camden
Yards, having to take it out but leaving the warehouse. So I really
like the ones that bring in the atmosphere. And you know, I don't
know if you realize this, but they always have to put home plate in
the left in the southwest corner or the southern corner of the stadium. If
you're playing outside, it's always the right fielder that gets that sun right in
its face. Did you realize that? So you'll always notice home plate is
always southwest corner or the right in the south that's exactly where they put them.
So it's kind of tough where Sometimes they'll put them in cities and they
want to have that opening in the outfield to the skyline, but sometimes they
just don't have that area on the southwest side. Baltimore they did, and
having Camden Yards, let's get that view towards the skyline. With Cincinnati you
get a chance for it as well, though the uh you get that more
of that opening towards the Ohio River right there. Yes, exactly that shot.
But so they put that home plate, if you notice, in Cincinnati
more in the northwest corner. As long as you put it on the west
side of the stadium, it doesn't affect those batting during those evening games when
usually they're at seven or eight o'clock or like six o'clock, So that's why
they do that. But yeah, you guys got a beautiful view out of
the Ohio River and the and to be able to see that purple bridge down
the road, Yeah, the purple people Bridge. So yeah, that's the
one. I Likewport so word yet, that's right. I work in Newport
and live just about it. I live about a mile and a half away
from the stadium there on the Riverfront. I remember the Riverfront, the Riverfront
Stadium that used to host both the Reds and the Bengals at one point.
Uh right, and yeah, and and I got to tell you, I
just love Great American Ballpark over Riverfront. Riverfront was one of those nineteen sixties
nineteen seventies kind of cookie cutter round stadiums. It looked like it looked like
like it looked like exactly a bush. Yes it did. But Great American
Ballpark, and I know you've been there, is so different. The great
thing about Great American Ballpark to me as a fan going is that you can
be anywhere in the stadium and you don't have an obstructed view of the field.
I mean, the site lines are unbelievable. Yeah, isn't it.
Amazing how they can build that, Unlike in the past where you had to
oh, you might be behind a post right here in the old stadiums and
you have a bad view. But now it's like, how do they architecturally
build them where everybody can see you and these people are hanging above you and
all that weight. It's amazing what they do building them for the views that
we get today. I tell you what, Flash Phelps, let's sit and
do another another segment if you don't mind. We've only made it to just
about a third of the country in the ballparks. This is like when we
were so we were on the last time and I was going all through all
the states and get you give me one thing, and we got about I
don't know, maybe twenty five states. Then the time was over. So
if you will be indulgent indulgent of me, we will take a break and
come back more with Flash Phelps on his travels around the country to America's great
baseball parks. He's been to all but three of the MLB and the MiLB
stadiums and parks around the country. It's the Nightcap and it continues here on
this All Star Week on seven hundred WLW US America with the one the Only
Flash Phelps from Sirius XM. He is our guest once again on his travels
around the country, and he has been literally, well, if not everywhere,
very close. So in the last half hour football Stadium, right in
the last half hour, we talked about Camden Yards, we talked about the
Orioles and being at Fenway Park in Boston a little bit. We didn't get
to Yankee Stadium. What are your thoughts on Yankee Stadium probably the most prestigious
historic ballparks around the country. Yeah, the first time I ever went,
I went to the old Yankee Stadium and I was just hoping everything would be
all right, And the same thing when I went to the other one,
because I the terrible thing is where people put things in your mind going,
oh it's the Bronx, and you sit there and go, oh my gosh,
should I even go well, and then all of a sudden you go
and you go, hey, this is a great place. So that it's
like me going to Coney Island and I love going there right now, So
don't let anybody put something bad into your mind. And it is just such
a really incredible area with their monument Park, but the way they built it
just up the street. I like the views from there as well. So,
yep, another great stadium. I don't have anything, you know,
incredible to say about it. I've been to Steinbrunner as well, if you've
ever been down to Steinbrunner Field, which is down in Tampa. So where
they because I've been to all the spring training stadiums as well. So I've
done all the spring training. And by the way, if you drive around
in Phoenix, you can in about seven hours you can drive from every stadium.
You can't do that in Florida seven hours. You can go to every
stadium in Arizona. Well, you know for Reds fans, since they're in
Goodyear now for spring training. Yeah, they moved from Florida. And the
only thing is it's problem more problematic to be in Cincinnati and go to Arizona
for spring training baseball than it was to Florida. I mean, I know
you're there with clean in the same Yeah. Yeah, I know scads of
people who used to trek down to Florida every year when the red spring training
was down in I think Sarasota perhaps, or wherever it was, and and
that was that was kind of like one of those vacation trips that everybody planned
on making who was really into baseball was was going to Florida to spring training.
But you say, it's it's once you get to Arizona, once you
get to Phoenix, all of the ballparks where the teams are training are pretty
close proximity, right, Yeah, it was. It was up until about
twenty ten, twenty eleven they made the move. Colorado Rockies and the Arizona
Diamondbacks used to play down the in Tucson, so they were the furthest away
and they decided, let's build Salt River Field, so they built that over
on the east side. So if you're familiar with the loopuan oh one,
so you have Cincinnati and Cleveland out on that side. Then you have where
the Phoenix Raceway is, that's right next to it. And now you come
in and Milwaukee is next, and then you go around Loop wana one and
you'll go by every one of the stadiums almost on Loop one on one,
you just have to hop off for a little until you finally get over to
the other side where the Cubs are and the Oakland A's or the A's whatever
they're going to be after this, So that's all in that area. So
you can do that a lot faster. So for Cincinnati Reds fans, if
you haven't gone out to Phoenix, if it doesn't matter where they're playing,
that's the best thing. So you go to Florida and your team's down there,
Oh, your team's going to be playing. They try to keep them
pretty close now, but sometimes you may be playing on South Florida side and
not Southwest Florida side, or you'll be playing up with the Tigers in Lakeland
or Toronto, which is up in dun Eden. So they're usually the furthest
away because as you know, the Atlanta Braves, they left the Disney World
area and they moved down to Northport, which Northport is right there next to
the north of Port Myers right there, so there almost everybody's near each other.
Flash as a kid, I grew up in Chicago for we were there
in the West side of Chicago for about six years and my dad, my
dad did take us once to the old Komiskey Park, which wasn't a really
bad part of Chicago. I mean it's still the South Side is not exactly
exemplary of somebody you want to take a family to necessarily. But as you
mentioned earlier, see for yourself. Don't listen to the warnings of other people
before you make a judgment. But I will tell you that in third and
fourth grades both years, our field trip as kids, coming from Naperville,
Illinois to downtown Chicago consisted of seeing all of the museums in the morning downtown
and then going to a Cubs game because they were still all played during the
daytime. Then yeah, and there is there is absolutely nothing like Wrigley Field
being a six seven year old kid and walking into that environment the first time
on a field trip from school. Not only was I getting out of school,
but I was getting to walk into this environment that has its own atmosphere,
the ivy colored walls, and you know just how Wriggly Field is.
Give me your thoughts on Chicago Cub's Wriggly Field flash. See. I always
love it because do you remember there used to be the McDonald's across the street.
I remember because I was watching the movie The Blues Brothers. Yes,
this is prior to me going so in nineteen eighty and that Dan Ackroid says
to John Belushi, what address did you give him? And he gives them
the address right there on Addison, and dan Ackroyd sits back. He goes,
that's wriggly Field. You gave him a wriggly Field, Do you remember
that? And the cops showed up and there at wriggly Field and they're like,
oh my gosh. But so when I got to Chicago, the first
time I ever won was nineteen eighty three, and this was the year.
I'm pretty sure the All Star Game was a Comiski that year as well.
And so here it is the summer and I get a chance to go over
and I see Wrigley Field for the very first time. So and then years
later I was doing a tour with the Sally Radio and I made a stop
there as well. I got a picture right in front. I went back.
Last time I went back was about five six years ago. But just
a fantastic you know what. I love that whole area. When we talk
about Wrigleyville, it's just it's the experience when they can put these baseball stadiums
and have a field. It's the same thing with Cincinnati. You have places
to walk around, you have all the restaurants, right there on the riverfront,
and the same thing with Chicago. You have other places to go besides
walking around seeing that Harry Kerry statue were and seeing all the statues all the
way around. But that's one thing. I love how classic it is.
So that's one of the things that you like and go, gosh, I
hope they never build another stadium, even though what's going to happen now that
it's over one hundred years old. Same thing with Fenway. But I don't
think that we'll ever, probably in our lifetime, see them build another stadium
because I think there would be an uprising if they ever got rid of it.
Wasn't they Oh yeah? I mean they are doing work constantly to bolster
the current structure to make sure that they can preserve that history and that tradition
in those places because it means so much to the locals and to baseball purists
in general. Saint Louis Bush Stadium, the new one, What do you
think? Oh? The new I love the new one. I like the
way that they had built that in there as well, and that they had
to build it over top of the other one. And when you're walking down
and you have everything in there in the dotted line. So you'll go over
to the Jack Buck statue and when you see his bust, you'll see right
there there's the dotted line. This used to be where the field was.
So it shows you how they had to build one inside the other. Same
thing with Shay Stadium and with City Field where they had to overlap them because
of the area, and they couldn't finish one until they had the other one
done. So I do like Bush because I enjoy going over there. And
by the way, I was talking about DeNora on my show Pennsylvania, which
happens to be the home of stam Usual. Stam Usual Also Ken Griffy Senior
and Ken Griffy Junior are all from Donora, Pennsylvania. Together those three have
it more MLB home runs over a thousand than came from any other city.
All three were born in Donra, Pa, just south of Pittsburgh. Did
you realize that amazing? That was a very cool thing. And being in
Cincinnati. Being in Cincinnati, I should know where the Griffies came from originally,
and the entwers Donor on the Monoga Hill River and stam Usual and this
statue is you know, there's two of them that are out there, and
I love that plaza with all the statues out front of the stadium. So
I enjoy it. Because if you do, like it's like when you go
to Pittsburgh, Hey, sit me in the upper deck so I get the
view. I want to be an upper deck on the leftfield, on the
leftfield side, so I have a view of Pittsburgh. Same thing in Saint
Louis where you go, Well, sit me down here on the right field
side, because I want the view of the art. Sometimes I want to
sit in a place where I get the view more than the game because it's
like, oh, I love the experience of just this view. Sure lots
to see besides baseball when you go to these parks. So you're going to
Cooperstown, home of the Baseball Hall of Fame, later this week. Tell
me about Cooperstown, New York. I've never been. Oh, it is
so cool. So if you're ever in upstate New York. So you got
Buffalo out on the west, and the next city's of Rochester, Syracuse,
and then you come up to Uticorome. Right below Uticorome, this will be
west of Albany. I just took you right across the New Jersey State through
it. Then you have Binghamton, which is on that northwest corner of Pennsylvania,
a little northeast. I eighty eight is what connects Binghamton up to Albany
Schenectady, and then right there in these hilly areas, and this happens to
be the start of the Susquehanna River, which is really weird. I live
on the Susquehanna River in Maryland. Now that river runs from Cooperstown and it
goes all the way down through pennsyl comes down through Harrisburg until it finally dumps
out at the Chesapeake Bay, which is where I live right here, at
the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay on the same river. So all I have
to do if I could go up the river backwards, I'd end up in
Cooperstown. But it's this, it's this really small town. I just I
just had this image of you at a rowboat growing backwards up the river,
and the eventually, if I could do it, I would get to Cooper's
down that It'll be a lot quicker in my four or five, five six
hours to drive up there. But here's one thing I've never been to Cooper'stown
during the Baseball Hall of Fame weekend. So this is going to be the
experience I'm used to driving in and then going, oh, this is really
cool. I can drive around. I'll just park here. Now I have
no idea what do you expect for this weekend. I just know that the
induction ceremony for Joe's going to be on the north side, So I may
have to go into a loop into Utica Rome and then come down from the
top because our event is going to be on the north side, right there
before the Susquehanna River. But I love it though, walk through. You
know what made me want to go to the Baseball Hall of Fame In the
movie A League of their Own, A League of their Own, which is
film not too far away from you out there in Huntingburg, Indiana and in
Evansville. They were the two stadiums that were used. And then when they
did the All for the Women for the Baseball Hall of Fame, and I
saw it in the movie, I said, I'm going to go find that
part, and I went to it and they have a bigger section. It's
not the one that they used in the movie. That's not where it is
now. They did a big section now for the women, but that's another
section. But I found it right at the bottom of the escalators. So
I love that place. It's fun to see flash phelves from Sirius XM is
our guest. We're talking about baseball across the country on this Hall of Fame
and also All Star Week in Major League Baseball. Just because our time is
women, let's do a couple of quick snapshots out on the West coast since
we haven't been there yet. Flash Candlestick Park. Tell me something about Candlestick
Park. Well, it's not there now, I know. You go there.
It was very windy that was right there and then became three m But
what a great view to look out, and because you almost see Oakland from
there, it was a great view on the Bay side to be able to
see Candlestick before they had built all the way up there with the Willie May
statue in downtown. But no, I like Candlestick. I stopped by twice.
I've been there. I was there twice and then finally it was sad
to hear it was gone. You know what I was thinking about the earthquake
nineteen eighty nine. Yes, Oakland a San Francisco Giants are playing, and
then that earthquake hits at Candlestick, So every time I would go back,
I think of that. But yeah, I like the park, but I'm
glad they now have this with the McCovey cove out there where I can be
in their kayak and try to get nkefield home run over the wall. That's
fun. Tell me about Seattle where the Mariners play. That was a good
one. I saw the Orioles play there with them because I moved out there
in nineteen ninety nine, and so the summer of two thousand and I finally
got a chance to go. It's called t Mobile now a safe go back.
When I went there, Yeah, and it's just it's a very nice
one because that's the one with the retractable roof. They can move that roof.
And luckily I got a chance to have a game with a doll because
it wasn't raining that it was amazing. It wasn't raining, and I was
in Western Washington, So that's always a great place. But yeah, I've
had a good time because there it's just like Cincinnati, where you have your
football stadium right next door and it's right there. On the south side and
the buildings and it's a great walking area. Seattle always a lot of fun
to be able to be around. So yeah, I did enjoy that.
Tacoma their Triple A right down there. I went to go see a Tacoma
Rainiers game when they played Salt Lake Beeves. So I tried to go see
as many of these as I can. If not, I definitely walk around
all the outside of the stadium and do as many photos as I can if
I can't get in. Yeah, you're big on that. I love the
photo. I love that you put out Denver where where the Rockies play.
Yeah, that is a fantastic place. In fact, just a little a
couple of miles west of there, they did a replica to the stadium as
well, horse Field, So if you want to see a little version of
it, somebody was able to put it together as well, so look up
the little version of Corsefield. But again they built that in another neighborhood right
there on the west side of downtown, northwest side of downtown. You got
six flags right there as well, and it's just in a very nice area.
And that again being a mile high, being at the two hundred and
eighty feet. It's amazing to watch how the balls do fly there. I
always like Denver, Denver. I always wanted to work there, but I
went to Colorado Springs and they never put me on the air, so I
never got to work in Colorado. Dodger Stadium, Dodger Stadium, I went
there and this was back and I had just started working here. So this
is about two thousand and two three, And you know what amazed me.
I got there early, so I could walk around even the perimeter of the
parking lot because they had the views that looked over Echo Lake and you could
look back into downtown LA. But I was there on the mezzanine to be
able to watch watch that game and it was one of those that I had
always seen on TV, whether or not they were doing celebrity games. And
it was so cool because I saw George what's his name, George from the
TV the star, I can't think of his last name. He was,
you know, the comedian George Lopez. George Lopez. He was there,
so I got a chance to see George. Yeah, that was very cool.
And Tommy Lasorda was sitting right near him, and I had had Tommy
Lasorda on my show. So George and Tommy Lasorda. I was excited just
to see them. Oh that's a great pairing. And you know who I
didn't see was Mary Hart. And Mary Heart usually sits right behind home plate,
but I didn't see her. All right. So finally where the home
run Derby was taking place this evening as we're speaking, and where the All
Star Game would be played, Globelive Field in Arlington, Texas. Tell me
about that. Yeah, now, right across the street. If you're familiar
with going into Arlington, very crowded because that's where Six Flags started. Why
is it called six Flags because Six Flags flew over Texas. Right next to
there, they have the stadium where they used to play. Now they have
soccer in there. They built the new baseball stadium directly across the street,
and they built it to look like a warehouse. It was one of the
weirdest things where they were building that thing. It was like, this is
not going to be good. It wasn't until it was done and then you'd
see the inside to go, oh, this is a great area because if
you've ever been, you know, the Cowboys play at at and T on
the west side. Then now you have their stadium for the Rangers, and
then on the north side is the old Rangers stadium. So it's just a
really nice thing that they built them all next to each other, so a
big growing area. And they only opened up that in twenty twenty. And
now when I was down there a couple of weeks ago, I didn't go
back over, but the last time I was there was twenty twenty one.
It was the year. It was right after they had opened it. So
fantastic And we'll look forward to Home Run Derby All Star Game and just see
how it comes out. Hey, Gunner Henderson was the ohs. He's in
the home runder well, and we got to La de la Cruz in the
game tomorrow night and Hunter Green appearing talking those shot. Some incredible people that
are in this game. Yeah, well they call it the All Star Game
for a reason. These guys are good. And you know what they somebody
just told me that there's never been over twenty one run score during a game
of any All Star Game. So there's a lot of good defense in pitching,
Yeah, no doubt about it. Well, you got the best in
the game playing, Yeah, and I got the best in the game of
travel on my show again, and I thank you so much. I thank
you profusely for making time to talk to us today. Flash Phelps keep humping
the hits on Sirius XM sixties Gold and keep on traveling because the stories are
priceless and I really appreciate you sharing them with us tonight. All right,
I got to get back to those three stadiums I'm missing, all right.
Yeah, well we'll get an updake soon, maybe at the end of this
summer. All right, Flash, thank you so much, take care all
right, thank you so much. Here Jee, you got it. The
Nightcap continues in moments here on seven hundred WLW the great honor of being able
to chat with a man who has sold more books in his career than small
public libraries haven't stocked. From what I understand, over four hundred and fifty
million books sold on counting right now for the great James Patterson, who joins
us to talk about his new book, Tiger Tiger Ge What's that about?
And you know, as many people people I thought it about the poet to
like, it's it's about tiger woods. Yeah, as many believe that we
are watching the final chapters of his book being written right now, at the
end of what has been just an incredible career that surpasses anything that many of
us has ever seen in our lives. The new book is out now,
But you know, people thought that was going to happen before he won the
last Masters. They said there's no way he's going to win anymore, and
then he shocked everybody. So I don't expect him to win another major.
I don't expect him to win the British Open, but I wouldn't be totally
surprised. Well, okay, stupid question number two, James, what moved
the needle for you to write this biography about Tiger Woods. I just felt
that. I mean, there were books about him, but I didn't think
anybody sat down and tried to really capture the flesh and blood Tiger Woods tell
his story. That's what I do. That's what I try to do.
I've done him about John Lennon and the Kennedy family, just things that kind
of interest me, and and he interests me. I just think he's been
fascinating from the time he was two years old and started swinging a club in
his garage with his father and then you know, when he was five,
he was on Mike Douglas watching that. I remember watching it. He vowed
I don't know if I saw the original or just a clip, but but
he vowed he would he would beat Jack Nicholas and Tom Watson by the time
he was twenty, and he came close. Uh, not by beating them,
but you know, closer to to Nicholas in terms of majors. How
impactful was his father's passing on Tiger Woods? Uh, and he's look,
you know, it's interesting in general, people they talked about going to the
therapy. I go, you know what, immediately like the first session,
start talking about your father and your mother. Yeah, don't let this,
don't let this shrink, waste a lot of time, get right into it.
And his father and mother were hugely impactful. I think his father probably
had a dream initially that Tiger would could be a nice golfer, and then
he saw all his talent, uh, very very young, I mean unbelievably
young, and and then his dreamed got you know, Earl's stream got bigger
and bigger. His mother actually was in some ways as influential, or maybe
even more, because she was the one that taught him to crush the opponent.
Realist. If you're up nine strokes going into the fourth day, I
want you to end at fifteen strokes up. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
And that's a piece of of who he is as a as a golfer,
as a competitor. Well, just crush the opponent. James Patterson is
our guest. The book is Tiger Tiger. It's now out abo of course,
the phenomenal Tiger Woods. I wanted to ask you, James, this,
this what you just spoke to his mother, teaching him how to be
that fearless, relentless just you know, once you've got your foot on their
neck, keep it on there. Yeah, crush your opponent. That was
part of the reason he was so successful, because we watched, you know,
tournament after tournament where somebody's in the last pairing with Tiger and maybe they've
got a one or two stroke lead going into the last three holes, and
you'd see him just melt down. And it was all because of that aura
that he carried with him, wasn't it. Yeah, Well, and he
delivered. Yeah. It wasn't just an aura. It was with an aura
and a two iron that he could hit two hundred and eighty yards and stick
it five feet from the pen. That helped. But you know, it
just has a story. It's it's fascinating and I think a lot of people
and that's what I think. I think, whether you like off or not,
it's it's a very very cool story. I mean, you know,
as a little kid, he was a stutterer, he was nearsighted. When
he went to Stanford, his friends called him Rkle, which was that kind
of nerdy character on television. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's I mean, that's what he was. There's a little noted there's
a little story in there about him going out with one of his agents and
he couldn't buy stuff of the credit card because he didn't how to activate it.
So he It was funny talking to one of the writers from England and
they said, to some extent, the way he was brought up, it's
like the royal family, the way those kids are brought up. They're so
shielded from the public and you know, so they don't know how to do
stuff. And I think even in terms of the of his marriage, I
think that I don't know that he really didn't date much. I don't think
he was ready. I think she's a very smart, beautiful woman. I
don't think he was ready for it. I don't think he was ready to
be a husband. I think he was ready to be a day art because
I think he learned from his father and mother, and I think he approved
of what they did, and I think he really did try to be a
very good dad. As far as the public perception of that breakup and what
happened in the immediate aftermath, you talk about him being the comeback king over
and over again. How much do you think that impeded his career? And
do you think he would have won the eighteen Majors if he had not gone
through that or going through that. I I think that the big issue with
him in terms of of uh the eighteen Majors is just his physical health.
Uh. He just kept pushing, pushing, pushing, and the human body
can only do so much. And there's a certain you know, even some
of the things like uh, going and uh and working out with the seals
or I forget exactly, but I mean even that some people know that that
was not good for him. Uh. He didn't protect his body as much
as he should have. And and you know, I mean, he just
he just whacked at the ball. So yeah, so I think the physical
side of it gotten away more than than uh well, and that's I think
that the physical thing was I think a big part of our behind the car
crash in California. You know, he had been taking up pillars for pain
for a long time on and off, and uh so, I don't think
he would. I don't think he should have been driving your car that day.
Do you believe that there is anyone else on the stage that has those
same kind of qualities and maybe someday will become as iconic and golf, well
in any sport. I mean, I compare Tiger Woods with Michael Jordan in
his sport. Yeah, absolutely, obviously with Muhammad Ali, but he is
one of those James Bryant James is in that ballpark. Yeah so yeah,
yeah, Ali absolutely And maybe no, I don't see anybody right now.
Well, you know, maybe this kid from Spain. We'll see how that
works out. The tennis player, Oh yeah, we'll see. He's still
a baby, he's twenty one, but the potential is there. And once
again, I mean injuries, injuries turn it all around or so yeah,
or he just gets tired of it. You know, he's twenty one now,
the kid from Spain, I don't yeah, no, you know,
well the quarterback for Kansas City, oh, Patrick Mahomes. Absolutely he can't
achieve that that icon status and probably has and who knows what will happen.
I'll tell you that the WNBA never had a better ambassador than their rookie Caitlin
Clark. She has affected that league in just a few months. She has
been I mean they now have private charter flights where they used to fly commercially.
The money is and they're getting I mean they're getting seventeen nineteen thousand people
where they used to get like three four thousand attendance. Yeah, you know,
it is stunning. Women's sports is about to just blow wide open.
It's just happening. I think it's going to happen with women's soccer too.
I actually have some investments in women's sports soccer and volleyball, believe it or
not, but I think those it's just going to happen. It hadn't happened,
it's and there's a a lot of things, but I think men are
starting to watch it and go this is this is pretty kind of fun to
watch. Women's volleyball is incredible to watch. I don't know if you ever
watch it on television. It's really really good. Yeah. I don't mean
this stuff in the say and I mean a college seems to play indoors.
Well, I'm more partially at the University of Nebraska. They play it.
I know they played eighty thousand people. Yeah, uh huh. Never something
I thought i'd see ever in my life. James Patterson, I'm sorry that
there's a stupid delay James with his phone system, So I apologize. James
Patterson's our guest. The brand new book is Tiger Tiger, detailing the incredible
life and career of the Great Tiger Woods. And do you think that he
has finally come to the realization that he may never challenge for a major title
and may not win anymore? Do you think that? And do you think
that he will pursue a career in the Champions Tour when he turns fifty.
I think that he knows he's capable of surprising himself. I don't think he's
totally given up. I think he has days when he'll go out there and
and and have it and go okay, and he plays with, you know,
still some great players. So I think he still thinks he might be
able to put together four days in a row. I think he recognizes that.
You know, it's maybe not likely, but I think he's he's no,
I don't. I don't think he'll play in the Champions, but but
you know, who knows. Maybe I would. I would think not.
And but you know it's you know, they send people's blood and I don't
know if he'll give it up or not. We'll see you talk in the
book about and it's one of those obvious things. Uh. We were talking
about Kaylin Clark changing the WNBA. Tiger Woods totally changed not only the face
of golf, not just because of his ethnicity, but because he was such
an iconic figure and he inspired so many players. You see the Scottie Scheffler's
and you see the young players that are out on the course today as young
kids, they were watching Tiger Woods ripped through these majors. That impact may
be the greatest impact that Tiger Woods has had in a game, don't you
think? Yes? Yeah, percent. And he's been pretty generous with young
people in terms of helping. You know, a lot of these people you
know get better and better as golfers, working with the Ryder Cup team,
et cetera, et cetera. That's something to interests them and turns them on.
And it's going to be interesting to see if he can find enough things
to do that he that he likes to do. Obviously he's close with the
kids. There's another image that I love, uh, getting back to Sam
the daughter, which which people don't know that much about, but he but
it just says a lot to me. This particular, I'm a short thing
in the book. He he's never slept very well, which I'm part of
That is the paying part of it is I just think he's an anxious human
being and uh so a lot of times when when she would wake up as
a baby and start crying, he'd be the one that would go into her
because he was pretty much up anyway. And then and then and then what
he would do sometimes is he'd have her on his on his lapp or on
his chest and he'd be doing lake presses, uh and she would go to
sleep as he was doing lake presses. I just think that's kind of the
perfect image of him as a as a a part of a part of what
he is as a human being a good day and obviously has great relationships with
Charlie so far, which was his nice a son. Yeah. Do you
think that either one of them will follow in those famous footsteps? Nope,
no one who knows. Who knows. I'm sure changing Charlie. But uh,
you know, that's a tough one. It's like Lebron's son. I
mean, geez, he's pretty good, you know, decent call. I
mean maybe he would have been better if he stayed a little longer. Uh
I we'll say, we'll see what happens. But I mean, you know,
no, is he going to be another Lebron James. I don't see
that happening. And that's a tough thing. It's an interesting thing. I
mean even with our son. Uh it's good writer, but he had no
interest in it. So you know, just kind of like I'm gonna do
something else. Yeah, Like I just I can see this iconic image of
if his back permits, of Tiger carrying the bag for Charlie some you know,
in fifteen years or whatever. Uh huh yeah, yeah, yeah,
that'd be great. And that was another little thing with the Masters with uh
that last oney one, and and and having the family come and that that's
that's very cool, very very cool moment, just to see that. Do
you have any other sports books in your in your future you think, or
was Tiger just something you couldn't have? One novel that I'm working I did
uh with Mike Lupica's Sports Writers is one of my best friends. We did
so Wolves together with, which is about a football franchise in San Francisco.
And we're thinking about another one which is about an unbelievable athlete out of North
Carolina, free sport but ultimately football, and it's a pretty cool story.
All right, Well, I think we'll do that one. I don't think
that, you know, it's like when people were three four years ago just
writing at nauseum books about Donald Trump. I don't think this is one that
you can miss with on Tiger Woods, because the subject matter is so it's
still so top of mind for people that whether they play golf or interested in
golf or just generally the culture celebrity and the iconic measure of the man that
you're writing about. Plus and the story. The story, it's just a
fascinating story. And it goes from when he's two years old to the present
fantas, which is you know, that's unusual. It certainly doesn't help to
have James Patterson's name on the cover of the book either. Yeah. Well,
I hope hopefully people will hold that against Tigers. All right, James,
thank you so much for your time. Tiger Tiger book. This is
great. Get it and enjoy. And I you know that I interview a
lot of authors, James, this is one that I just before it we
even spoke, I'll want to read this, so I'm very interested. Great,
thank you. Now that we've spoke and you don't want to read it
anymore, but that's no okay, all right, be good you too.
Bye bye. It's the Nightcap and it continues in moments here on seven hundred
WLW are in the heart of baseball season, and in this particular instance,
we are hearkening back to fifty years ago, this baseball season in nineteen seventy
four, when at a point it was kind of inevitable by the time the
nineteen seventy four baseball season started that Hank Aaron Homer and Hank was going to
finally break the Babe Ruth career home run record, and to talk about seven
point fifteen. The one that did it is our guest Randy Lewis Cox,
who I believe is an Atlanta natives, so he got plenty of plenty of
flavor from those days being a Braves fan. I'm sure we'll get into that
in a moment. But Randy, welcome to the show. How are you
well? Thank you so much for having my own, Gary. I appreciate
appreciate you having me own. You know the one of the big home runs
was rought there in Cincinnati. Yeah, in nineteen seventy four. That was
the one where he tied fash record. I was just gonna get to that,
Randy. The record got tied on April fourth, nineteen seventy four at
the Old Riverfront Stadium and right our legendary Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Brenneman.
It's a classic call. I'm gonna try and dig that up at some point
and get Marty's call is seven fourteen on But uh, seven point fifteen happened
just four days later. I mean, Hank didn't waste any time getting right
to it in the season of nineteen seventy four. Now, were you living
in Atlanta at the time. No, I had just moved to Alabama.
UH. It was a small newspaper that I worked for Lynette, Alabama.
It's about ninety miles from Fulton County Stadium, and I decided to drive the
to that to the game that night, which of course was the first home
game after he tied the record. I gotta I gotta tell you one one
thing about the seven fourteen that was the first home run hit a Horsehide baseball.
They had just switched over UH, and there's a there's a segment in
the book about that. I thought that was kind of interesting trivia. And
then of course that was the first game of the season. That was the
opening opening game seven fourteen, and Buie Kwan was there along with the vice
brother at Ford and then we were getting ready to switch over to Atlanta Fulk
County Stadium, but there was two more games remaining in Cincinnati, and UH
manager Eddie Matthews wanted to hold out Aaron so he would hit it at home.
But Buie Kune, the commissioner of baseball, had other ideas, and
he said, you know, you need to play him one more game.
So Matthews played him on that Sunday and he went over four and that set
up the Monday night game in Atlanta at Fuld County Stadium. It was a
coup cool, rainy night that the game was finally sold out at the last
minute, so people in Atlanta could see their their hometown guy hit the home
run and the Braves win the game, beat the beat the Dodgers that night.
But uh, it was it was so exciting that night and as ah
as a young sports editor I was twenty four, really probably one of my
biggest assignments. I would say it is the biggest assignment. And I was
lucky enough to get uh press press passes and photography passes in the photo booth
right in front of where Hank Aaron and the other Braves had their own deck
circle, so I was able to get real good pictures and uh trying trying
to we give a moment by moment account in the book of what happened that
night and try to illustrate it with the photos and some of the interviews with
some of Hank Aaron's teammates like Ron Reid, Buzz Capra, and Dusty Baker
some of the others. Well, how long, tell me about your career
a little bit. Randy Lewis Cox is our guest on his new book seven
fifteen at fifty about Hank Aaron's record breaking home run that broke Babe Ruth's career
record. So tell me about your background of your career. You were a
young sports editor when this happened back in nineteen seventy four. What else did
you go on to do in your career? Randy, Well, actually,
I was kind of like Hank Aaron. I moved on the next year or
two, about seventy six, and I was in radio for a while in
Aniston, Alabama. They had a twenty four hour radio station playing rock and
roll music and we did newscast, and then I went down to Selma,
Alabama, where I did sports and news, and then back up to Atlanta
for a weekly newspaper. And then I got a job with a Georgia Department
of Agriculture in nineteen eighty and worked with them for thirty four years, mainly
as one of the editors for the agriculture newspaper. So it was a little
different. I did cover the ninety six Olympics, that was my sports thing
with a bulletin. But I did my early career mainly with sports and news.
But then went into agriculture, and I've done some freelance work for some
of the local papers, football football coverage and some other things. But I
always enjoyed covering sports. I've enjoyed playing sports, baseball and basketball, and
it's been one of my first loves. When I first saw Hank Aaron in
nineteen fifty seven playing the Year Keys and Mickey Mannlin and the World Series,
I was hooked. I was hooked on the Braves and I was so lucky.
Hey, the Braves are coming to Atlanta. In nineteen sixty six,
they finally made it after a year's litigation with Milwaukee County, and it was
a dream come true. And I'll have to share with you. My dad
and I went to the sixty nine first playoff game League Championship. The SATs
played the Mets and Tom Seaver, and of course we lost. But two
years later, nineteen seventy one, Henry Aaron was sitting on five ninety nine
home runs and I managed to get a press pass as a journalism student and
was able to cover his six hundredth home run against the Giants. That was
exciting. I mean, I was lucky to be at those games, you
know. Oh, there's no question. Sometimes the stars just all a ligne
and things fall into place, and you're there for history. Hank Aaron,
and I'll get into this here in the second part of our chat, Randy,
But Hank Aaron endured so much garbage on his way to that milestone,
and it was kind of a sign of the times in America. People weren't
ready to accept that a black man had broken Babe Ruth's record. And Babe
Ruth just looms today. Even today, Babe Ruth looms as large as anybody
who ever played the sport professionally in this country, and he should. But
I think about all of the pressure. And have you ever seen the movie
sixty one about Roger Marris and the Quest for all Right? Because you know,
there's a point in that movie at the end of the season as he's
getting closer to breaking Bay Bruce single season record where his hair is falling out.
The guy is just a mental He's entirely discombobulated. I tell you what.
Let's take a break when we come back more with Randy Lewis Cox on
the new book seven fifteen at fifty about Hank Aaron's record setting home run and
the season of nineteen seventy four. As we continue in moments talking to Randy
Lewis Cox, the author of seven fifteen at fifty, about Hank Aarons record
setting seven hundred and fifteenth home run that broke Bay Bruce record in Atlanta's Fulton
County Stadium April eighth, nineteen seventy four. Just four days before that in
Cincinnati, the Braves in town playing the Reds and Hank tied the record.
What a way to start a season. And it was not only the start
of the season and a tie for Hank Aaron, but it was also the
first game that a fellow Hall of Famer was calling on seven hundred WLW man
named Marty Brenneman, and he has reflections on what it was like to be
calling Hank aaron seven hundred and fourteenth home run on his first Reds broadcast.
Marty, Well, you know, for one thing, Gary, you don't
expect it to happen. I mean, I can reflect back to what Joe
Nuxhall said after the first half and he began, he said, what the
hell do you do for an encore? And I said, I don't know.
I had no idea. So the last thing in the world I effected
was to see Aaron Tye Roofs record right there in the first at bat of
the season. I didn't dwell on in the event that it did happen if
I was what I was going to say, because I've never done that.
If I try, I'm not good enough to have done it, not to
have it sound contrived. So you know, you hope that you don't fumble
over your words and it flows easily and it conveys what's happening at the moment.
Jack Billingham is one of my dear friends in my life. He and
his wife Jolena are good friends with a hand of mine, and he and
I exist on a relationship of digging each other about everything under the sun.
And I used to and I accuse him all the time of letting Henry know
what pitch was coming when the count was three and one, so he'd go
down to the record book for something because he's sure Zack wasn't going to go
down on anything that he achieved. Marty Brenman has that way of always getting
little digs in at people that one of Jack Billingham for giving up Hank seven
fourteen. I was mentioning to you before the break about the immense pressure that
surely was on Hank Aaron and surely weighed on him and made the task all
that much more difficult. Do you talk about that in the book at all,
Randy, Yes, I do. In fact, you mentioned Roger Morris
earlier and his year trying to get beat Baby Bruce record. You know,
his his hair starting falling out, he got where he just didn't want to
talk to the news media. But this was only a year for him.
Hank Aaron really started getting pressure about two or three even three years, I
would say, when he hit his six hundredths. You know, we talked
about that at seven he hit a six hundreds and seventy one. And for
those three years he started, you know, forty forty five home runs a
year, and you got closer and closer to the seven fifteen, and it
got to the point that last year, right before he hit the home run,
he got more mail than, according to the Post Office, than eight
other person non political person. And I got to tell you, Bob Hope,
the publicity director said that the secretary they couldn't do personal letters anymore,
had to do form letter. But most of the letters were positive. He
did get some really really vile letters in the mail and he got death threats.
Yes, yes he did. And if you read Hank Aaron's autobiography If
I Had a Hammer, it's a bestseller, and he had some of the
letters in there as as they came in uncensored. He wanted people to know
what the letters were, but wanted to reiterate that those were the minority that
were very vile and just added to all the pressure from the media, I
mean, he had had to handle the media all the time, pressure coming
in and by the time he hit that seven fourteen, he was ready on
that Monday night to go ahead and break the record. And in fact,
he told Buzz I mean Dusty Baker and Ralph gar when they were having batting
practice before the seven to fifteen game, that he was going to do it
that night. So that was that was his way of calling his shot.
And the first time he swung in the game, the fourth inning, it
was a home run. The first swing and the first first thing he said
after he finished his home run trot was I am so glad it's over with
And it was incredible pressure, incredible, and we tried to give some of
the insights into how that built up, and we trying to Troy to tell
a moment by moment counting of the of the of that game and the preliminary
before the season. Waiting around for that seventy four season to come up.
That was a long winner for Henry Aaron and his fans because he was sitting
on seven thirteen at the end of the seventy three season. So, but
it was it was one of those magic moments. Kurt Goudi, one of
the legendary broadcasters, that it was the greatest moment in sports history. Well,
Hank Aaron actually played at that historic ballpark in Birmingham as a teenager,
did he not. He's like seventeen, I believe so, yes, I
believe. So. He played with the first the Mobile Bears. His high
school did not have a baseball team, so he played semi pro and they
played with Mobile. He played with the Indianapolis Clowns ye for a year.
The Braves were able to get his sign him for a contract. They were
competing with the Giants and Willie Mays was in that mix, and the Braves
paid two hundred and fifty dollars more and they got Henry Aaron, and they
were gonna send him to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and he ended up over
with the Braves, and Bobby Thompson was in the was in the lineup for
the Milwaukee Braves, and he got hurt, broke his ankle sliding into second.
So Henry Aaron replaced the man who the shot heard around the lost.
Yes. Yeah, and he and he had always, uh he had dreamed
of playing in the major leagues. Jackie Robinson was his idol, and uh,
he he actually got hurt. Hank Aaron did his rookie season and and
Bobby Thompson replaced him, and then the next year, I believe it was
fifty three, is when he really started to get get going on his swing,
and and uh the rest was history history. Do you still consider Hank
Hank Aaron the all time career home run leader? I mean, so many
questions about Barry Bonds and the performance enhancing drugs and all of that. Uh,
do you still think Hank's number one? In your heart? Well,
in my heart he is, and in a lot of fans, Uh,
he he was. He was, he was the man, he was the
home run king, and uh, it's he he was not only a great
baseball player, but a humanitarian as well, civil rights leader and uh he
as an executive with the Braves, he helped develop players like Kiffer Jones,
Tom Glavin. He took the Raise to the championship in the nineties. So
he was all around baseball player, the complete baseball player and also uh just
a humanitarian, top executive, and just a role model, a good role
model for the kids. And Dusty Baker said that Hank was the most influential
person in his life and he Dusty Baker and Bob Hope were the two Paul
Bears at his funeral in twenty twenty one. It was such a sad day,
but he had lived such a wonderful life. Indeed, Well, Randy
Lewis Cox, I really enjoy our time together and I appreciate you coming on
to talk about seven fifteen at fifty. The book is out now, lots
of great pictures and fantastic stories about a record setting day fifty years ago this
baseball season. I'm sure it's available everywhere and people can look for it.
Seven fifteen at fifty is the title of the book. And Randy Lewis Cox,
thank you so much. For being with us. Well, thank you
so much for having me. And this is a wonderful time of year for
baseball people, enjoy it. We're going to actually be at the Milwaukee Brewers
in the next couple of weeks. We're going to be set up at the
Baseball Asm store, So if anyone wants to come by and get a signed
book, I'd love to see him. All right, thank you so much.
Twenty twenty four, it's All Star Week. You had the home run
derby tonight, and that means that Gary Jeff gets some time on the air,
which is always a good thing for me and my ability to pay rent
and buy groceries. This guy is, of course, independently wealthy and doesn't
need this. He doesn't need me interrupting his evening. But yet he is
generous enough, magnanimous enough to come on the air with me and fill some
airtime, fill a couple of segments tonight. It's the one, the only
Furball, the man they call Furman because that's his name, Andy Furman.
Hello, how are you well inside? I do need you because without you
I can't kind of spew my information out on a big stage that you have.
And I just got back from the Point Arc Golf Tournament, which has
been renamed the Mike Dias Golf Classic right now for the first time, named
after the founder and president, former president who passed away last year of Sterling,
cut Glass and Erling in Kentucky. His son Brooke was there presenting trophy.
So it was a wonderful day, something like thirty one forces at Triple
Crown in northern Kentucky. So it was a great day for the Point Ark,
a big fundraiser. The weather was great, everybody had a great time.
And now it's even bet because I'm talking to you now, do you
think that God forbid if you should pass away? With all the fine work
you've done for the Point Arc over the years, they will rename the Golf
Classic after you? Could? We mean a lot a golfer. I mean,
look, the thing with the Point Arc and Sterling cut Glass and the
late Mike Dias was the fact that his love of life was golf trophies and
the Point Dark. He was on the board for years. He passed away
in twenty twenty two, and you know it was big, big doing and
you know, really and truly I had his friend's son chat with me just
the other day and he told me that fifty percent of their businesses trophies involving
golf LPGA tournaments, whoever it may be, across the country, So it's
a golf thing. I'm not a golfer, you know, and I'm a
PR guy. I'm a behind the scenes guy, and PR guy has never
give any notoriety, although I will tell you this much, you know,
kind of steering in a different direction. I watched that show on HBO all
the time, Hard Knocks, and this year they have a really wonderful one
because they have like the the Indianapolis clinics and the tryouts and the situation where
they interview the players and the access that these HBO people are getting is unreal,
the questions that are asked. And as the New York Football Giants this
year, and they were talking about Caleb Edwards, the first round draft to
go the Chicago Bears, and they interviewed Caleb probably before the draft. Obviously,
the combine Indianapolis and the Giant personnel, the scouts whoever it may be,
were saying that, you know, the guy won his first five games
at the USC last year, but he dropped five out of his last six
sort of speak at the end, and he wouldn't talk to the media,
refused to talk to the media, and they said, you know what,
that wouldn't play in New York. Can't do it. And that was a
big ex mark on the boxes of Caleb Williams because really and truly, when
you want to draft these guys, I guess they do everything top to bottom.
And I was shocked, and I was really shocked with the access that
HBO has been given to the Giants operation. It really was wonderful. Oh,
the Hard Knock series is wonderful. I've seen several of the different documentaries
they've done under that banner, and they're all good, you know, talking
about golf and not being a golfer and Andy, I think you'd even agree
that a book, a biography about Tiger Woods would interest almost anyone that's been
alive the last forty years or so in this country and watching what goes on,
not just in golf but in the general public sphere. You'll have to
go and check the podcast. Last hour, I had James Patterson on about
his new book about Tiger Woods, Tiger Tiger. The interview is great.
So anyway, just heads up, you ought to check out the podcast because
he tells me stuff that I never knew or never even would think to ask
about Tiger Woods. So I mean, would you be interesting? I'll ask
you this question, all right, God, I would be interested, and
I probably would be interested in reading the book as well, because I'm interested
in athletics. I'm interested in the people that are involved in athletics, and
yah know doubt about that. But why would Tiger Woods perhaps the greatest golfer
of all time? Well, maybe in a top three, whatever it may
be. I don't want to get to that situation right now. But why
would Tiger Woods be so shown on with a bright light where a guy like
author Ash is not? Author Ash was great, right, other is a
great tennis player. I don't hear the accolades for Arthur Ash as they do.
Tell me why, I don't know why. Well, I mean,
Arthur Ash was great, but we're talking about a greatness and then iconic above
all else greatness. And I don't think Arthur ashe quite clified and that doesn't
detract anything. Oh, come on, what did Tiger what did he do?
First? He want he want he wanted he want to he want to
masters he wanted Masters at the age of forty three. With people off the
golf course, he has influenced an entire generation of golfers. You see out
there now in the PGA, that's what he thinks. Yes, absolutely,
you don what influenced them. No, you don't want to influence those golfers.
Money. Money influenced those That's basically what it did. They grew up,
they grew up as little kids, and they they grew up as little
kids watching tiger Woods, and they weren't thinking about money at all. They
were just watching this greatness unfold before them. Why why are you? Why
are you? Why are you peeing on tiger Wood? I'm not degrading.
I'm not degrading that. I mean, Arthur ash was a great. Well,
what does it have to do with him being a saint or not?
What that tim to a saint? No, I'm not guy basically run off
the road when he had a d U I basically he got got the case
thrown out. Really he was drunk problem. I mean, come on,
he's You're a natural born hater, just a natural born hater of anybody who
is that great, above, above and beyond anybody else in his sport.
Arthur ashe was not the Arthur ashe was not the greatest tennis player alive when
he won. He was a guy. He won as a whole. I'm
looking at the whole person, the whole person. You're not looking at the
whole person. I'm looking for what they've done in the sport, look and
the influential aspect of their persona no good in the sport, good in the
sport period. That's it's good. Great Arthur Arthur h yes, a greatness
sport. All right. I want to talk about that college football, college
football, about about five weeks away from college football right now, about Oklahoma
State Football, almost State University, and their coach of twenty years right now,
Mike Gundhy, who's a bit of a character. All right. I
love I love Mike Gandhy. I do too. I lived in Oklahoma.
I love Mike Gundhy too. He's a character. He speaks his piece,
and maybe he speaks his piece so much because he's got so much juice.
He's been there twenty years, whatever it may be. But his running back,
his star running back with me eventually get the Heisman Trophy this year,
Ali Gordon, who ran all over. You see last year in football,
got a duy, got a duyl Okay, and as last week watching ESPN,
watching the Big twelve Media Days, and the media was questioning him and
drilling Mike Gandhi, why didn't you suspend this guy? All right, Okay,
that's the first issue. We'll get into what my Gandhi had to say
after that. I have a real problem when media people tell coaches what to
do, number one, And also when coaches suspend a player, because when
you suspend a player, obviously you're punishing it for sure, but you're hurting
the other thirty five forty players on the team and you can create a problem.
So I don't I'm not into the suspension part, certainly. I'm sure
Ali Gordon lost his driver's license. He's you have to pay a fine,
and he's got public humiliation. That's enough of the punishment as well, all
right. The fact that the athletic director are president of Oklahoma State never intertwined
or intervened with basically the situation tells me that my Gundy's got the power and
they believe in my Gandi. That's number one. Your take on the suspensions
in college football or basketball, all right, My take is these same any
of people who are asking the questions, how many of them have things shoved
under the rug when they drink and drive and get caught. It happens a
lot andy and many of them do not get fired or get suspended. You
know that their organization stands behind them in the media, and yet their arrest
oft times get shoved under the rug, and nobody even knows about it except
their immediate family and the people that they work with. So my answer to
the media, you know, I've been a member of the media now just
because of my involvement in radio for over forty four years, for that long,
and I can't stand media generally. Of course I'm different. Well,
that means that means you can't stand me. I'm in the media. No,
no, it means I can't stand myself. I'm a self hating media
guy. I guess that's what I'm saying. But I really, generally,
when it comes to putting other people's feet to the fire, I think the
media needs to take a step back. That's right, needs to take a
state step back and go, okay, will we be that tough on one
of our own or ourselves? And my answer is generally No, that's right,
That's how I feel me. Let me continue with this, with this
Ali Gordon situation. Certainly he's he's a personality. Oklahoma States and still Water,
Oklahoma. I'm showing Alli Gordon walks down the street. Little kids are
looking at him. They wants to autograph, they want a picture. Okay,
if the third string quarterback of Oklahoma State got a duy and walk down
the street, probably don't want to know who he was, so he would
not be suspended. So basically, you are representing the school, and you
were in the school colors, the school image, and there's a I guess
I don't know anything. I don't know any to represent that. Let me
play Devil's advocate. I think if you were the third string quarterback and you
were holding the clipboard, you might as well get suspended. Yeah you know
what I mean. Maybe the fourth string defensive lineman, whatever it may be,
if you're on the roster of the team, off the team, and
you know what that may have happened. Who knows, but I would let
me go one step further. These are scholarship players basically paid by the school,
earning money now at nil name, image and like this. Let's move
over to the band. The band's a big operation in most major colleges,
and most band members are on scholarship. What if a band and most of
them and most of them and most of them most of them smoke pot at
least, well, I mean, you're giving the broad brush over there.
I don't know. I will not say an a'm I'm sure there are some
due but the music songs listen if you're if you're a tuba player and you're
marching on a field for a college band, you got to have something to
take off the ad andy. I'm sure they're stone so they can make they
can make Louis Louis sound groovy in their ears underneath those helmets that well,
you know, you may get some comments from people from Ihole State University or
any any university band. Well whatever, But here's the deal. So if
a guy in the band or a woman in the band gets a duy,
there's a good chance that A no one's going to know about it, or
B you're not going to get suspended a thrown off the band. Really so
so I mean there's a different, I guess rule for for different people.
Now what Oklahoma states should do, and maybe what most colleges should do,
because I think start players on various teams and various colleges get duy are controlled
by the coach. The coach wants to win. They bring in a lot
of money to these teams baseball, basketball, football, whatever they be,
and they can't lose these guys with their money. People, they bring the
money in good. They're paid for money right now, right And what they
should do is have I guess a ruling from coming down from the athletic department
or the president, whatever it may be, that here's zero tolerance to be
a duy. You suspended for a day, spend it for a game,
or thrown off, whatever it may be. And this way the coaches off
the hook. He doesn't have to answer questions like my gandy did my gunniesay
ISOK, guys, here's the rule. I didn't make it up. It
comes down from above. You know, if you get caught with a duy,
you miss one game, well you're off the team, whatever it may
be. That's the way it should be. It takes the pressure off the
coach and he does a dance of these media clowns at these big meetings.
Well, you said it right there, media clowns. But what is it
Those who can do do, those who can't teach, and those who can't
teach become members of the media. That's that's that's a succession that I have
right there. Go ahead, and my Gundhy basically, and you know you
and I know him. I like him, I really do. But he
really put himself in a hole yet because he came back at these meetings and
said that the blood alcohol content was zero point one. Zero would have been
translated to maybe two or three beers or maybe four. He said, okay,
and he says, quote, I'm not justifying what all he did.
I'm telling you what decision I made. I thought, okay, and get
this, I've probably done that a thousand times in my life and it was
just fine. So I got lucky. People get lucky. Now. I
don't think anybody. I don't care if you're a coach forever. Maybe when
you're talking about drinking and driving in a duy. For a coach to say
that he has done that not good. That is not good. It's not
a good look. It's not a good thing for my Gundhy. You know,
maybe you could tell the kid Ali Gordon privately, Hey look Ali,
I know what you did. I've done it, just don't do it again.
But to say it on ESPN to a media guy that you did it,
I mean, great thing. Honesty is wonderful, but the stupidity is
even worse and worse. What do you think Bob Huggins would say? He
doesn't have to say that he's done, he's got duys, You don't have
to say anything. Does look at the record? Really do you think?
I mean, do you think when Bob's Bob Huggins was coaching, do you
think that he would suspend a player for getting a d U I broby beginning
a d Y with the player. I shouldn't say. And I love Huggs,
I really do. But you know what, it's a disease when you
think it is alcoholism? Does he's not not at one d U I go
out and party and drinking A mean, that's not a disease. No,
that's not. No. But alcoholism is a disease. But drinking at a
party a duy is not a disease. Drinking alcohol is not a disease.
Let's just drinking alcohol is Alcoholismisa, So where do you draw the line between
alcoholism and drinking icon alcohol Alcoholism is call it by drinking alcohol? Right?
Alcohol drinking can't create a disease, you know, excessive alcoholic drinking can't create
alcoholism. What would you what would be what would be Andy Furman's line that
you say gets crossed and you become from someone who's just a social drinker drinking
at a party and has a few too many and an alcoholic what what's what's
the defining line there, Andy, I'd like to know getting getting up eight
o'clock and they want to brushing your teeth and having a shot in the beer.
What about if you're having the shot while you're rinsing with alcohol while you're
brushing your teeth. Okay, well what if you put the shot and beer
in your corn flakes? Say that's that's that's a dietary. I mean,
that's not something that that doesn't sound actually very appealing to me. And I
enjoy the occasional alcoholic beverage, but I would never put it on my corn
flakes. No or no. But I think having alcohol prior to the noon
hour on Okay, So this is where I was getting to. What is
the demarketing line of becoming an alcoholic or just enjoying alcohol. And you say
any time before noon, no, because you can't have a drink before noon.
I mean, if it's a hot day today and you're at the pool
and you want to have a cold beer, what about you? What about
if you're on vacation in Florida and you decide to have a bloody Mary with
breakfast. That's not an alcoholic necessary no, no, not at all.
No. But I think if you do it on a regular basis, if
you have more than one, if you crave it, I think this is
a fine line. But I think that you know, those people who are
quote alcohol alcoholics will never admit that they are, because you know, people
don't want to say that they are. I mean, I think that if
you do it every day, I don't know what the number is. And
I think everybody's body is a different tolerance to alcohol. Thank you, that's
the difference. I mean, Uh, you know, I could see somebody
who's had eight beers. I have no idea that he's intoxicating. I have
no idea. I mean because he is a different control level, I guess
a different uh, and he as a bartender, I see it all the
time. And I know who the alcoholics are, and I know who are
people who just enjoy the occasional alcoholic beverage or maybe a few beers. Do
you cut them off when they ask for a drink? What do you do?
Well? It depends on how bad off they are. I mean,
I have they coming to the bar already? No? No, no,
here's here's here's my line in the sand. If you come into the bar
and you're ping ponging through the door and I can tell that you're already plowed,
no, I'm not serving you. And I've done that numerous times,
and most of the time I get an argument because they and I say,
now see you're arguing with me, which tells me that I am absolutely correct
in upstainings from serving you. Listen, I am absolutely correct in the fact
that we have no more time for this segment, but going to come back
and do a little bit more because I know you've got more grist for the
mill, You've got more things that are burning, seething underneath that school boy,
and you want to get off your chest, all right, Andy Furman
to you, he continues, Because I'm your like psychologist, I'm your radio
psychologist Gary Jeff. Sit on my couch, Andy and tell me your troubles
and we'll be right back with more of that on seven hundred WLW on a
Monday night. Are you excited for the All Star Game tomorrow night with La
de La Cruz and Hunter Green playing Andy? You don't want, though,
I will tell you this much. I'm not going to give you a yes
or no answer, because whatever I do, you swing at me with a
bat. Okay, I'll tell you what. I love baseball. I love
sports altogether. I love all sports, and I think that as as we
discovered in the last segment, you don't necessarily care for tiger Woods. But
anyway, continue, No I do. I respect you on the golf course,
a great golfer, but don't make them do a saint because I don't
think he is. He has the problems with his life other guys have.
When we move on here. But as far as Major League Baseball in the
All Star Game, I think it's been diluted. I think it's not the
same as it once was. And you know, I think, sounding like
my my mom and dad when I was growing up, everybody thinks it was
better with Ben, But I honestly, do think it was better then.
I think they had better players, They're more recognizable players. They can't even
promote the stars in Major League Baseball. I don't know what they do or
who does it or how they do it. But there's something missing in Major
League Baseball is the fact that a lot of these players don't speak English.
I don't know what it is. I really don't. When I was a
kid, it was Mantle, it was Maze, it was Maris, it
was Eddie Matthews, it was Warren Spotts. Wow, you named four players
in a row that had ms at the start of last names Mars and today
you know you know O'johnnie from the Dodgers. I mean, you know it
just it's a different day. It's a different day and age, and there's
they're not bad ball players. I don't think they, MAXI no, hold
on, hold on, Andy, I know what you're getting at. You're
talking about the difference between American born players and players that are foreign. So
you're Zeno. You're Zeno. But you didn't mention. You didn't mention Roberto
Clementi until I pointed out that you were stressing how these great American icons of
baseball were all American born players and then you go to the right exactly.
So that's that's the difference. No problem. Could your name a great American
player? Now, who's a great American player right now? And I don't
really care. A Green is a great American player. Hunter Green is a
great an add on to the All Star team with great player, I mean
Jonathan Andy, Jonathan Jonathan India is a great American player up and coming right
here in Cincinnati. The problem, so that's the problem with you and many
fans in this area, is overused. Yeah, the word great is over
that. Great. P Rose was great, Okay, I mentioned were great.
Okay, don't put them in the same connotation as as Hunter Green.
Hunter Green is not great. Sandy Colfax was great. And you're standing very
old right now, do you understand that, Yeah, I'm not Look,
Bob Gibson was great. He was. Yeah, these guys were great.
I got to see I see, I got to see Bob getson pitch.
And when I when I lived in Saint Louis as a kid, he was
still with the Cardinals. I got to see Bob I got I got right,
no doubt, Okay, Elie de la Cruz, a tremendous player worth
the admission because he's exciting. You never got to see, you know,
you don't know what to expect them home runs the last two games he played.
He's great? Is he great? No, he's exciting. He's a
great person to watch. He's one of those guys that you will not go
to. The story is still and the story is still being fifty. The
story is still. This is right, So don't call him. He's been
here for a year, he's been in the majors for just over a year
and now so so yes, I understand that he's a great class. It's
been full, but right the back of his baseball club has not been full
yet. I agree with you. Okay, so don't call him great yet.
We don't know. Okay. He's on the All Star team, which
is wonderful for the Raids. But the guy's fight in two fifty when you
were a kid, a guy betting two fifty couldn't get a ticket to the
All time? Was Kim Griffy or great Andy? He was great? Was
joe was Joey Vodo? Was Joey? Was Joey Vodo? Great? Excellent
hitter? Not great? Not great. I don't think. I don't think
he's going to be a first ballat Hall of Famer. I really don't.
There's gonna be a big backup at first baseman. And I don't think he's
definitely not not a first ballot Hall of Famer, that's for sure, but
not great. You got guys like David Concepcion was great. He can't even
get it to the Hall of Fame. He was great. No, maybe
maybe was great. Maybe if he'd been an American born player he'd be great.
Then Andy, he is great. Sin was great. Don't play that.
Don't play that because it makes me. It makes me one of those
like like a hater for people who are not born. That is not true.
No, I am a hater, but not because I am a hater,
but not because the people who are not done here at least because I
think I'm honest. You're a hater. I'm honest. That's that makes you
know. I hate. I hate things that basically people think are great.
And then I'm one of those guys that's kind of really you win, give
you logic. I'm a logical guy. Told me earlier that Tiger Woods wasn't
great. Come on, I said, he's a great col don't put words
in my mouth. He's a great golfer. He's not a saint that you
made him. He's not a great person. He's a great golf Well,
you made him up to be the saint. I wrote a book about him,
and this Why would you write a book about Tiger Woods? What I
mean? I don't know it, and I'll get the book. But why
why? Why would you give me an answer? Give me three reasons why
anybody would write a book. Besides the money, besides the money, Why
would anybody want to write a book about Tiger Woods. People don't. We
don't know that, we don't care. People don't you really care? People
do not. People do not, especially people like James Patterson, don't write
books if they don't think they're gonna sell andy. Because Tiger Woods is a
name that sells books. It sells books. That's why you would write a
book. Else it's just sell books. People don't write books, so they
sit on a cell but nobody ever reads them. What's wrong with you?
Of course no, of course he wrote the book for money. How you
answer my question? He wrote the bookcause he thought he could make money off
tiger Woods. Not because he respects tiger Woods. Listen to the interview.
Listen to the interview. He respects tiger Woods, Believe me he does.
Well, yeah, because he's making money off the guy. Do you think
he's a bum? I don't think there's pet people out there to really care
about Tiger Woods, life, walk the golf boards. Really I don't,
I really don't. I'd like to know why he got started in golf,
what what got him interested in the game of golf, and how he became
so good at golf. Now you're making andy. You're making me rethink my
whole effort in booking this guest now because apparently I spent half an hour with
James Patterson on tiger Woods. And you don't think anybody will care. You
don't think anybody who will. No, you care for two reasons. Number
one, he cares because he's making money off Tiger Woods. You can't because
the's twofold. Number one, you're getting the book free. And number two,
he filled the void. He filled the segment for you. So there
are two things for you. That's why you care. So are there?
It was all so it was all self aggrandizing for me. It was because
the void you got to, You got a segment done, and you got
a free book. Don't you know that I do this strictly for the public's
benefit, Andy, Don't you understand that. Yeah, I get paid,
but that's secondary to all of it. I know that I'm people like you
that other people will want to listen to and this will help them shape their
opinions. And you're not getting right. You're not getting anything free from me,
nothing under the table for me, and I'm not getting anything from you.
You know, this is straight from the heart. That's basically what it
is. I'll give you an example. Here's a deal. You know,
as much as I love sports as a kid, you have those big white
eyes. Your eyes look like silver dollars because you think these guys could do
no wrong and everything's on the up and up, and everything is clean.
Okay. I look at these colleges that are moving from conference to conference and
last year's you know, Deon Sanders coach prime and Colorado the University of got
into the Big Twelve, where you see, isn't right? So then I
find out the other day that the Big Twelve conference and their commissioner, Brett
yourmap gave Colorado two point five million dollars as a signing bonus from the Big
twelve conference as an editor indictment enticement to get the Buffalos to leave the PAC
twelve and join the Big twelve instead. All right, so now I'm thinking,
like the PAC twelve was down the two schools Washington State and Oregon State,
why doesn't the PAC twelve sue the Big twelve for what they did?
They stole teams from their conference, they paid them off to go to the
Big twelve. This is ugly, This is ridiculous. This is under the
table garbage. And more than that, the other schools that followed Colorado into
the Big twelve did not get the two point five bonus. That's unbelievable.
Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah didn't get a dime for moving out of
their conference to go to the Big twelve. But Colorado, did you sound
like red buttons with a Dean Martin roast. So and so did this and
never got a dinner and never got a dinner? Yes, well yeah that's
true. No, but I mean these underhanded things under the table. To
me, it just hurts the word. It hurts the world. Of sports,
which I always thought was on the up and up. It's clean as
this now with gambling. I'm hearing guys are getting thrown out of the NBA
games because they're, you know, gambling, and same when they heard that.
Just it's everything is turning ugly. Do you think sadly? Andy,
it's it's not the nineteen fifties or the nineteen sixties anymore. You're correct.
Oh no, there was his big ambling in nineteen fifty the big scandals in
the New York City college basketball is unbelievable. So really it was just as
corrupt then it's just changed its face of how corrupt it is. And the
and the names are different. Well maybe what Bethey is more so, I
mean it's it's easier to get involved, get well. You new the phone,
Andy, Thank you, thank you for helping me fill two segments tonight.
You've been wonderful. So that's who I am a plug. That's why
I'm a plug. At least you're not a hair plug in Joe Biden's head.
And thank you very much, sir. Back to wrap up the nightcap
in just a moment, Monday Night and seven hundred W l W Gary Jeff
Walker with a few closing thoughts on what has transpired in our country over the
last seventy two hours, including, of course, the mostly peaceful assassination attempt
of President Trump Saturday in Butler County, Pennsylvania, and thank god Donald J.
Trump is still with us, and of course presiding over the Republican National
Convention happening right now in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Of course, the mostly peaceful
assassination attempt was a joke, not too funny a joke, by the way,
but I'm sure that's some in the liberal media's focus. This was a
mostly peaceful assassination attempt, like the riots that destroyed the five hundred and seventy
four riots that destroyed entire city blocks of downtowns across this country in twenty twenty,
the burning of police stations to the ground, the fire bombing of federal
courthouses, the taking over, as I mentioned, of several city blocks in
cities like Seattle, Washington. They were all most peaceful protest, weren't they,
Like Black Lives Matter and Antifa and total anarchy in our streets, all
for political purposes. These were all domestic terrorists being paid by people from out
of our country from people inside of our country. Kamala Harris, the Vice
President, currently starting a bail fund for the Black Lives Matter protesters who wrought
so much havoc in the wake of the death of George Floyd in that city,
collecting millions of dollars to bail terrorists out of jail because it fit her
political bent and agenda. Was talking with Willie Cunningham earlier today and he used
the term mostly a peaceful assassination attempt to President Trump, which I think is
genius and right on point. And many liberal publications that are still trying to
blame Donald Trump for someone trying to take his life at that rally this weekend
absolutely disgusting. President Biden striking the only tone he could strike in his address
to the nation last night and during the day yesterday, about unity and about
turning down the rhetoric, turning down the temperature of our political discourse. If
he meant it and if people adhere to it, fine, My idea is
that they probably won't because, as you have witnessed over the last couple of
years, ever since it was clear Donald Trump was running for president again,
they will stop at nothing. And they being the Democrats, being the far
left nut jobs that are now controlling the Democrat Party in this country. They've
tried to bankrupt him, made a pretty good attempt, pretty good dent in
that. I hope that that thing in New York is reversed in tai and
he gets all half a million dollars back or half a billion dollars back,
excuse me, the convictions in New York, which very well will be overturned
and should be overturned. With the news today earlier that Eileen Cannon, the
federal judge in Florida, has totally dismissed the document's case against President Trump because
Jack Smith was an illegitimate, unconstitutional, unlawful appointment as special counsel in the
case, and he's got his fingerprints all over everything. So Merrick Garland and
the DOJ didn't have to catch direct fire. So they've tried to bankrupt him.
They've tried law fair and now there is an element of the Democrat Party,
and believe you me they are. They are members of the left wing
of our country have now tried to kill President Trump. You can't bankrupt him,
you can't put him in jail. And as evidenced by Saturday. Apparently
you aren't gonna have a hard time putting him down because President Trump always fights.
And I don't mean a fistfight. I don't mean with weapons. I
don't mean using the National Guard to impose martial law if he becomes president.
I don't mean a blood bath. I don't mean dictator for one day.
He fights for all of us and has consistently ever since he took office the
first time. God blessed Donald Trump, and God help anyone who further tries
to eradicate this beautiful, beautiful country that was put together two hundred and forty
eight years ago by our founding fathers and their declaration of independence and then the
ensuing constitution that sets this nation up art from every other country on the globe.
You can't keep a good man down. Apparently, even with bullets,
the Secret Service has a lot to answer for. We will have more reaction
from the Republican National Commission, Committee and Convention tomorrow night on the night Cap
immediately after the All Star Game, plus reactions how did La de la Cruz
acquit himself? Did Hunter Green get in the game, and all of the
rest of that, And will have a special hour live tomorrow night after that.
But just closing, I am so grateful to God Almighty for sparing the
life of the man who I believe will be the next president of these United
States, and I pray to God that he continues to protect him because he
has a special purpose here on earth, and it is to lead this nation
back from the abyss that has been created over the last three and a half
years by this current regime. And it is a regime, and it's not
Joe Biden, it's the people who are the puppet masters behind Joe Biden.
It's obvious that the current president is incapable of doing anything on his own,
and has been from the very beginning. He can sign executive orders, but
after that, executive orders that are put in front of him and he is
told to sign, by the way, But other than that, he's incapable
of walking, chewing gum, and being president. And that has been clearly
obvious, not just since the debate, but since the very beginning. God
bless Donald Trump, God bless the USA, and real patriots continue to fight
not with riots, not with fists, not with guns, but continue the
fight for the might of the right. God Bless. Here is the Star
Spangled banner to honor America as we close out on this nightcap on seven hundred WLW