Speaker 1: It's nice eyes. I'm going easy Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Madison. Hope all of you had
Speaker 2: a great weekend and are ready for another week of
Speaker 2: night side, starting off tonight on Monday Night with Rob
Speaker 2: Brooks back at the control room. Rob still recovering a
Speaker 2: little bit from his under the weather period last week,
Speaker 2: but he's getting better, that's for sure. Sound died great
Speaker 2: when I talked to him tonight, and I hope all
Speaker 2: of you are doing as well as we hit. We're
Speaker 2: a little bit past the halfway point in June, believe
Speaker 2: it or not. It's unbelievable actually that we are halfway
Speaker 2: more than halfway through June, as in one of my
Speaker 2: texters mentioned to me today, And we really haven't had
Speaker 2: any great weather. I mean it's been rather rainy or hot.
Speaker 2: So anyway, we'll talk about that. We have a bunch
Speaker 2: of things to talk about. We will be talking about
Speaker 2: the trade of I don't know if you want to
Speaker 2: call it a trade or the salary dump of we
Speaker 2: hardly knew ye. I'm gonna be talking with Dan Watkins
Speaker 2: at eight forty five of the WBZ Newsroom. Dan is
Speaker 2: a big sports guy in a big radio news guy
Speaker 2: as well, and we will then spend the nine o'clock
Speaker 2: hour talking about this swap, if you want to call
Speaker 2: it that. But first we're going to talk with Mark Coscenza.
Speaker 2: Mark is a senior vice president at Global Partners. Global
Speaker 2: Partners is urging the Massachusetts Department of Transportation Voard of
Speaker 2: Directors to reconsider a recent recommendation to award the redevelopment
Speaker 2: of some eight eighteen highway service plausas to a privately
Speaker 2: equity backed foreign owned corporation. That's a mouthfill for anyone. Mark,
Speaker 2: You're a senior VP at Global Partners. I can understand
Speaker 2: why you're disappointed.
Speaker 3: Hey, Dan Oia, Yeah, I'm happy to have you on.
Speaker 2: And I can understand you're a local, your big, strong,
Speaker 2: local company and apparently the company that won this is
Speaker 2: a company that comes to us via Ireland.
Speaker 3: No, that's correct. You know, when you think about Global,
Speaker 3: we're a fourth generation, family owned company right here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 3: We've been here for over ninety years, for nearly a century,
Speaker 3: we've been providing fuel and energy to the commonwealth reliably
Speaker 3: through every storm and season. Right We're we're more than that.
Speaker 3: We run our all town Fresh Concepts as well as
Speaker 3: our honey farms market convenience stores. And it's really about fresh, local,
Speaker 3: and we're building around the guests and the experience. We're
Speaker 3: not just based there. We built here, Our families are here.
Speaker 3: This is our state. You're all our neighbors and our future.
Speaker 2: So then what can be go I'm wrong? What could
Speaker 2: have gone on here? I assume that everybody had a
Speaker 2: chance to apply what they call it RFP, a request
Speaker 2: for proposal. Why were you guys not at the top
Speaker 2: of the class.
Speaker 3: Well, that's that's a that's an interesting question. We're we're
Speaker 3: a little puzzled ourselves. The team here worked really hard
Speaker 3: with a lot of local companies to prepare and submit
Speaker 3: our bid, and as we as we think about it
Speaker 3: and comparing our offer to what we read in the
Speaker 3: Globe late last week, our offer was fifty percent higher
Speaker 3: from revenue to the state. And when you think about
Speaker 3: that over the over the thirty five year period of
Speaker 3: the contract, that's over five hundred million dollars of lost
Speaker 3: revenue to the State of Massachusetts. And as a practical matter,
Speaker 3: that money could go to roads, bridges, and tunnels and
Speaker 3: to increase the infrastructure and rebuild the infrastructure of Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: How many of these? There's eighteen of these locations? I think?
Speaker 2: Is it fourteen a run the turnpike and four off
Speaker 2: the turnpike on one eight? Is that the numbers? Is that
Speaker 2: of the breakdown?
Speaker 3: There's a lot on the mass Pike, two on one
Speaker 3: twenty eight, two on route twenty four and then went
Speaker 3: up in Beverly and went down and don and Barnstable.
Speaker 2: Okay, So this this was this was a bid all
Speaker 2: in it was winner take all.
Speaker 3: Correct, Yes, okay?
Speaker 2: And how much experience have you guys had, I know
Speaker 2: that's a big Massachusetts company. How much experience have you
Speaker 2: had running plazas like the ones that you were bidding on?
Speaker 3: Sure, I'll take a step back for one second if
Speaker 3: I may. Since two thousand and nine, we were part
Speaker 3: of and continue to run the Connecticut Turnpike and Mayor
Speaker 3: Parkway locations from a fueling and convenience store perspective, but
Speaker 3: focusing in on the Commonwealth. We stepped in uh later
Speaker 3: in the contract due to some of the other tenants
Speaker 3: leaving and stepping in and working with the with the Commonwealth.
Speaker 3: We operate the convenience on the mass Pike and we
Speaker 3: are the master tenant to the state on the Route
Speaker 3: twenty four Barnstable and Beverly locations, and we stepped into
Speaker 3: those locations late in the contract, which I believe was
Speaker 3: signed back into the year two thousand, the original contract.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you have experience in Connecticut, which is another
Speaker 2: New England state. No problems. I assume in Connecticut that
Speaker 2: every every place is going to get some criticism it.
Speaker 2: No substantive problems you dealt with down there, No substantive
Speaker 2: problems you've dealt with here, Nothing in the skeleton in
Speaker 2: the closet or anything. As I'm referring to. I'm referring
Speaker 2: to John Cesto's piece in the Globe from last week.
Speaker 2: So you you come to this thing with some experience
Speaker 2: in state and out of state. You have clean hands.
Speaker 2: You actually may have bailed them out if you stepped
Speaker 2: in for other groups that were not fulfilling their commitments previously.
Speaker 2: You're gonna your contract would generate an extra you tell me,
Speaker 2: five hundred million dollars for the coffers of the common Wealth.
Speaker 2: It's not like we're fleshed with money. Why would we.
Speaker 2: It's there's something not mist there's something missing here and
Speaker 2: I'm assuming you can put your finger on it. But
Speaker 2: someone from the Commonwealth I think has to step up
Speaker 2: and explain why they would go across the Atlantic to
Speaker 2: a company uh and give them the entire deal here
Speaker 2: at a higher price than a great local company or
Speaker 2: am I missing something? If I'm missing something, please tell me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that was that was an excellent recap. We're
Speaker 3: extremely puzzled and we'd like to get to the bottom
Speaker 3: of it, especially as we reconciled our proposal to the
Speaker 3: Global article late last week, being very taken back not
Speaker 3: being the success full uh recommended bidder by the committee
Speaker 3: and and understanding and knowing that our that our rent
Speaker 3: structure over the term of the contract was worth another
Speaker 3: five hundred million dollars to the Commonwealth.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm going to ask you the tough question now
Speaker 2: that that you're probably not ready for. But but I'm
Speaker 2: going to ask it, and I hope you give me
Speaker 2: an answer. Uh. Are you at this point sitting down
Speaker 2: with attorneys and saying, hey, we might get we may
Speaker 2: have been jobbed here. What can we do about it?
Speaker 3: Look, we're we're we've digested the feedback we got late
Speaker 3: last week, and we're exploring all of our options. But
Speaker 3: we're we're looking first and foremost for the for the
Speaker 3: for the masks, doot to explain and reconcile for us
Speaker 3: the differences from the article that was disclosed to our
Speaker 3: to our offer and our bid during the process.
Speaker 2: Okay, you're not naive, and I'm not naive. I'm assuming
Speaker 2: you you're going to have attorneys involved.
Speaker 3: Here, Like what like, I know, tell me what you
Speaker 3: tell me?
Speaker 2: All options. I know what all options means. Okay, but
Speaker 2: there's nothing like you know. I want you to be
Speaker 2: straight with me, to be really honest with you. I'm
Speaker 2: being straight with you. I think you would be fools
Speaker 2: if you didn't have lawyers looking at this, because there
Speaker 2: there's too many questions here.
Speaker 3: Well, we're looking. We're just looking for answers, and I
Speaker 3: think communication with the mascot should be able to reconcile
Speaker 3: that for us.
Speaker 2: Well, I would still have lawyers. That would be my advice,
Speaker 2: simple as that. I know you don't.
Speaker 3: Well, I like anything, we'd like, we'd like to we'd
Speaker 3: like to solve it commercially and just get a reconciliation
Speaker 3: and an understanding of the of the big gap, not
Speaker 3: only global being local, working with local contractors and local
Speaker 3: uh you know, food providers and and and partners, but
Speaker 3: also the gap and the economics to the to the
Speaker 3: to the commonwealth.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it just seems to me that that
Speaker 2: even if it was a close call, you might want
Speaker 2: to give it to the home team. And it doesn't
Speaker 2: sound to me as you have described it. I haven't
Speaker 2: looked at these documents, but I'm assuming you're being honest
Speaker 2: with me, which I know you are, it doesn't look
Speaker 2: like a close call. I mean, if the other company
Speaker 2: was just beat you on the bid, I'd say, hey,
Speaker 2: you know, sharpen your pencil next time. But this one again,
Speaker 2: John Cesto's piece in the Globe caught my eye last week.
Speaker 2: Masked Dot to overhaul pike service plazas. That's a good thing,
Speaker 2: but selects Irish firm to redevelop all eighteen of the stops.
Speaker 2: They swept the board here. I don't know what can
Speaker 2: what can listeners do if they want to, you know,
Speaker 2: rattle a cage or shake a tree. Any any advice?
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, most people.
Speaker 3: Absolutely dam There's a final vote on Wednesday, June eighteenth,
Speaker 3: at noon. The public is allowed to attend, and we
Speaker 3: encourage you to attend. You know, the decision affects all
Speaker 3: of us, you know, residence travelers and the business owners.
Speaker 3: So we encourage folks to go down and voice their opinion.
Speaker 3: You know again, you know we're we're just looking for answers.
Speaker 3: Global is a local company that that we're just trying
Speaker 3: to understand a large gap in the in the revenue.
Speaker 2: Okay, So who in who is it that makes this decision?
Speaker 2: Is it the Secretary of Transportation and the governor? Who
Speaker 2: who makes this decision on Wednesday? If this is the ultimate.
Speaker 3: Decision, it's the mask top board.
Speaker 2: How many members.
Speaker 3: I I don't know for certain. I believe around a dozen.
Speaker 2: Is that public knowledge? Who these folks are? Is there
Speaker 2: a website we could direct people to if they want
Speaker 2: to send an email and say, hey, we want answers?
Speaker 2: Just giving you an option?
Speaker 3: I would think so, but let me get back to
Speaker 3: you on that. I don't have it off the top
Speaker 3: of my head.
Speaker 2: Okay, well this is the one. If people are interested,
Speaker 2: that's what they should be doing. All right, Thank you, Mark,
Speaker 2: I appreciate your time tonight. I wish your best of
Speaker 2: luck as a local company. Thank you. Very much.
Speaker 3: Thanks Dan, appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Welcome, good night. Well we get back when we talk
Speaker 2: about older adults being scammed, which is a problem. It's
Speaker 2: an honest to God problem, and we want you to
Speaker 2: listen up. If you're an older it out, or if
Speaker 2: you have an older it out in your family, it's
Speaker 2: as simple as that. My name's Dan Ray. This is Nightside.
Speaker 2: Can I remind you, as I do every night here,
Speaker 2: please consider going to the app store on your phone,
Speaker 2: your device, on your tablet or wherever and pull down
Speaker 2: the new and improved iHeart app. Because once you do that,
Speaker 2: you'll only be a fingertip away. Make us your first preset.
Speaker 2: And then in addition to that, there's a microphone button
Speaker 2: on there which you can X, you can utilize and
Speaker 2: send a thirty second a message. I hope they're positive,
Speaker 2: but if they're not, if they're critical or their ideas
Speaker 2: for us, send them and they will. They will be
Speaker 2: screened by Rob Brooks, and some of them, if not
Speaker 2: all of them, will get on the air. No bad language.
Speaker 2: You know how that works. My name is Dan Ray.
Speaker 2: No bad language. Back on night Side after this, It's.
Speaker 1: Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News radio.
Speaker 2: With us is Darius Kingsley. He's the head of consumer
Speaker 2: banking practices and a Chase Bank, and we're going to
Speaker 2: talk about older adults getting scammed. How big a problem
Speaker 2: is this, Darius, I actually think it's a huge problem.
Speaker 4: Thanks Dan, thanks for having me delight. He'll be here tonight. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it is a giant problem. Scams are rising across the board,
Speaker 4: and elder Americans are particularly targeted.
Speaker 2: The reason for that is, in my opinion, and I
Speaker 2: assume in yours, that elder Americans have you know, saved
Speaker 2: some money, they're in their retirement years, and they also
Speaker 2: are nice people. They've they've known people who have hit
Speaker 2: hard times. Uh, and they're willing to help. They're they're
Speaker 2: generous of nature, generous of spirit. That makes them ripe
Speaker 2: for the picking by these scam artists. How far off
Speaker 2: am I with that analysis?
Speaker 4: No, you're you're you're spot on. I mean, older Americans
Speaker 4: have worked hard their whole lives. They've got savings, hopefully
Speaker 4: some investments if they're lucky, you know, and scammers know that.
Speaker 4: And so if scammers look to target people, they're going
Speaker 4: to go after the people with some assets, which are
Speaker 4: our older citizens. The other thing is kind of to
Speaker 4: your point. Older people answer the phone, right. We come
Speaker 4: from a generation. I'm a gen exer, but even I
Speaker 4: come from a generation where we have phones in the kitchen.
Speaker 4: You answer the phone called when someone calls you. Younger
Speaker 4: generations don't do that as much. I think a lot
Speaker 4: of older people do you know, we open our mail,
Speaker 4: We you know, look at emails. I think that there's
Speaker 4: a lot of things about these generations that make us
Speaker 4: particularly susceptible to get into conversations with scammers.
Speaker 2: Well, one of the things I like to do when
Speaker 2: I get these phone calls, and I do because I
Speaker 2: have a telephone. I had a call tonight. I'm in
Speaker 2: the middle of dinner. The phone rings, you don't know
Speaker 2: who it is. I pick it up, and so and
Speaker 2: so and we'd just like to take a few minutes
Speaker 2: and ask you a few questions about a poll. Now,
Speaker 2: I don't know where that's going to lead. Maybe they're
Speaker 2: trying to get information on me, whatever, So I immediately tell them, wonderful,
Speaker 2: thank you so much for calling, because I am a
Speaker 2: professional poll taker. Where can I send my bill for
Speaker 2: this experience? And that studs it puts it right back
Speaker 2: on the heels and they'll say, well, no, we don't
Speaker 2: pay for the I said, well I would want I
Speaker 2: would have give you a poll. That's what I do
Speaker 2: for a living. I'll answer whatever question you have. But
Speaker 2: where can I send my bill? And they eventually hang
Speaker 2: up on me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, what I told the other night.
Speaker 2: What I told the other night. I forget what they
Speaker 2: were looking to do. But they they called me and uh,
Speaker 2: I said, why are you calling me? I'm in jail.
Speaker 2: What do you mean you're in jail? I said, I'm
Speaker 2: in jail. I'm incarcerated. How do you have a phone.
Speaker 2: They let me have a cell phone. I said, why
Speaker 2: don't you take me off your call list? You just talk,
Speaker 2: you know, just talk to them and and mess with
Speaker 2: them and they'll eventually take you out. And of course
Speaker 2: you also can block those those those paint of the
Speaker 2: neck phone. Yes, but they they have a million ways
Speaker 2: to get to you. What's the what's the latest scam
Speaker 2: that that that you've heard that you've heard about, Darius?
Speaker 2: Is the old? Is that the grandchild scam where some
Speaker 2: youngster calls and Grandma grandpa, I'm under arrest. I know
Speaker 2: I shouldn't have been doing this. But I was smoking
Speaker 2: marijuana or I was drinking behind this school. I don't
Speaker 2: want my parents can know. Can you send me some money?
Speaker 2: Is that? Is that the That's the way I'm most
Speaker 2: concerned about Dan that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I wouldn't say that's the top scam these days,
Speaker 4: but it's certainly very common, you know. And and with
Speaker 4: the top and so so these days we're really seeing
Speaker 4: a rise in what we call bank impersonation scams. So
Speaker 4: you know, the scammers know that so many Americans bank
Speaker 4: at a lot of our larger banks, and they'll send
Speaker 4: you a text, you'll get an email, maybe a phone call,
Speaker 4: and they can spoof the number. They can spoof the
Speaker 4: number of Chase and or you'll get that text and
Speaker 4: it'll say, hey, there's fraud on your account, Chase fraud.
Speaker 4: You know, did you make a charge? If not, call
Speaker 4: this number, and they'll give you a number or maybe
Speaker 4: a link in the text or in the email which
Speaker 4: you should not call back. That's what they do to
Speaker 4: trick you. And so you pick it up, you call
Speaker 4: back that number you got in whatever your email, your text,
Speaker 4: and it's the scammer. And you get into a conversation
Speaker 4: with scammer and they're good, they're professionals, they're English is excellent.
Speaker 4: You don't realize you're talking to someone, probably in a
Speaker 4: scam call center in Southeast Asia, and you know they'll
Speaker 4: tell you, oh, I work for Chase or a Bank
Speaker 4: of America, whoever it is, and so you think you're
Speaker 4: talking to the bank and you're trying to resolve a
Speaker 4: fraud problem. In reality, unfortunately, you're often handing over personal
Speaker 4: information that the scammers need to hack into your account.
Speaker 2: You're probably talking to somebody in Chetshniya or Kazakhistan. Well,
Speaker 2: some places that you've never heard of. It's unbelievable. Well, yeah,
Speaker 2: thank you for blowing the whistle on this. I just
Speaker 2: think these sorts of interviews, if we've saved one person
Speaker 2: from getting scammed, it's been worth it tonight, that's for sure.
Speaker 2: A Darius and I really enjoyed the conversation you you
Speaker 2: broke it down really clearly. Thank you so much.
Speaker 4: Great, Well, thanks for having me dance. They say, is.
Speaker 2: There somewhere that you can direct my listeners to to
Speaker 2: find out more information?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'd be happy to so you can learn a lot.
Speaker 4: You don't have to be a Chase customer. We actually
Speaker 4: have all of the information on our website. It's Chase
Speaker 4: dot Com Forward Flash Security, or if you just type
Speaker 4: in Chase Security, you'll take you'll go to what we
Speaker 4: call the Security Center. We keep it updated, We keep
Speaker 4: it updated with the latest scams. We also tell you
Speaker 4: what to do if you think you might have fallen
Speaker 4: for one, or maybe you've gotten into conversation with a scammer.
Speaker 4: We'll give you tips on next steps and you know
Speaker 4: exactly what it is you should do, and we'll give
Speaker 4: you some helpful reminders, things like making sure you go
Speaker 4: in and turn on your fraud alerts at your bank.
Speaker 4: You may not have them all on, you may not
Speaker 4: realize that there's additional fraud alerts, or maybe you can
Speaker 4: add a family member to those alerts that you had
Speaker 4: an attitude before. So there's a lot of to that website. Again,
Speaker 4: it's Chase dot Com Forward Slash Security.
Speaker 2: Sounds great. I really appreciate it, Darius, looking at that tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 4: It's great.
Speaker 2: Thanks Dan, talk again. Thank you very much. Here comes
Speaker 2: the news at the bottom of the arrow. We're about
Speaker 2: a minute late. We get back. We're going to talk
Speaker 2: with the author they call him the Sultan of Garbage.
Speaker 2: Tips on how to properly dispose of waste, recycle, and
Speaker 2: how to be a responsible consumer. I believe in this stuff, actually,
Speaker 2: and I practice it, and I hope you do as well.
Speaker 2: We'll talk with Brian Bellefont right after the news at
Speaker 2: the bottom of the hour on Nightside.
Speaker 1: Night Side with Dan Ray I'BZ Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, back to the phones we go, and back
Speaker 2: to another again, particularly as we get towards summertime. I
Speaker 2: think an important subject with us is Brian Bellfhant. Brian
Speaker 2: is the author. Is this the name of a book,
Speaker 2: the Sultan of Garbage? How are you? I've heard of
Speaker 2: the Sultan of Swat, but never the Sultan of Garbage.
Speaker 5: Thanks for having me on. Yes, that's the name of
Speaker 5: the book, the Sultan of Garbage.
Speaker 2: Okay, So first of all, how'd you get into How
Speaker 2: did you become the Sultan of Garbage?
Speaker 5: Well, I don't think I became the Sultan of garbage.
Speaker 5: I'm the guy who wrote the book about a guy
Speaker 5: who's the Sultan of garbage. Story a story about a
Speaker 5: guy who's dealing with the waste and consume, consumption, in
Speaker 5: his life and he deals with it, and it echoes
Speaker 5: kind of the waste and consumption that we have going
Speaker 5: on in the world. I guess I agree that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with that. I sometimes will go to
Speaker 2: the dump and I'll say, where's all this stuff ending up?
Speaker 5: Oh my god, it's amazing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I know. And look, the bottom line is
Speaker 2: that we love the convenience. I'm somebody. I'm not going
Speaker 2: to tell you old I am, but I'm on the
Speaker 2: wrong side of fifty. I still take my cans. We
Speaker 2: have a bottle and a can bill here in Massachusetts
Speaker 2: only nickel. But if you buy a uh twenty four,
Speaker 2: you know, case of beer, that's another buck twenty And
Speaker 2: if you buy a twelve pack of some sort of
Speaker 2: soft drink, that's sixty cents, right, And I want my
Speaker 2: money back. And I also I washed the can or
Speaker 2: the bottle out. You put it in a plastic bag
Speaker 2: and I hand carry it to the either to the store,
Speaker 2: liquor store or whatever. But I'm a huge believer in
Speaker 2: this because you've heard, I've seen these stories about the
Speaker 2: floating islands of garbage in the oceans.
Speaker 5: Which, yeah, you know, it's incredible, and it's not just
Speaker 5: the one ocean, because everybody talks about the great specific
Speaker 5: garbage patch, which is the big one. Every ocean has them,
Speaker 5: some oceans have more than one. It's with a current
Speaker 5: swirl that draws all that crap together.
Speaker 2: And I don't know what the what the answer is.
Speaker 2: Obviously recycling is the answer. But you know, every day,
Speaker 2: you know, every week, I'll go through a gallon of milk.
Speaker 2: I love milk, and I will I will rinse out
Speaker 2: that milk, that that empty, empty the carton, and I'll
Speaker 2: make sure it goes into the green pit trash bin,
Speaker 2: which is recycle. So I assume that gets crushed somewhere, right,
Speaker 2: But but how long does it hang around? How can
Speaker 2: how can that not be used for more recycling as
Speaker 2: opposed to just getting crushed? What's You probably know so
Speaker 2: much more about this than I do, but I'd love
Speaker 2: to answer that, Like that question. The car takes up
Speaker 2: a good amount of space, Like it's like one foot
Speaker 2: by eight inches, it's like, you know, almost a foot
Speaker 2: squares up square feet. Yeah, well, how can can we
Speaker 2: recycle more effectively?
Speaker 5: Well, there's a lot of there's a lot of parts
Speaker 5: to that. I mean, yeah, on one hand, you could
Speaker 5: get yourself a cow, then you wouldn't need the classic container,
Speaker 5: or you could buy your milk the cow.
Speaker 2: The cow flatulence, the cow flattery would are you attacting
Speaker 2: the atmosphere. So I'm going to stick with the I'm
Speaker 2: going to stick with the gallon and milk at the store. Go.
Speaker 2: You know, that's weird.
Speaker 5: It all gets so complicated because every time you come
Speaker 5: up with a solution, sometimes the solution creates another problem.
Speaker 5: And it's just we're in a very complex world where,
Speaker 5: you know, as our culture loves to consume and we
Speaker 5: don't think much about waste. You said it right at
Speaker 5: the top. It's like you go to the dump and
Speaker 5: you don't know where all that stuff is going. A
Speaker 5: lot of most I don't know where all that stuff
Speaker 5: is going. Where is all that stuff going? It's going.
Speaker 5: A lot of it that doesn't end up with the
Speaker 5: dump goes, you know, gets taken up by rivers into
Speaker 5: the ocean. And the statistic I read is that sixty
Speaker 5: percent of the plastic and we talk about these floating
Speaker 5: islands of garbage, sixty percent of it sinks.
Speaker 4: To the bottom.
Speaker 5: So that's never going to get a dressed.
Speaker 2: You would hope that at some point it might deteriorate.
Speaker 2: But I don't know that then is what's going to
Speaker 2: be in the in the system. I don't know. We've
Speaker 2: been fighting this for fifty years in America. I can
Speaker 2: remember smoking the bear, don't litter and all of that.
Speaker 2: You still see people literally, you still see cigarette butts
Speaker 2: on the side of the road. You still see knuckleheads
Speaker 2: who throw, you know, coffee cups out the window as
Speaker 2: you're driving down the road. I mean, what's wrong with it?
Speaker 5: It's true, But I do think it's getting better. Well,
Speaker 5: you know, I grew up in a place where.
Speaker 2: But it's long cast the time, Brian, where simply should
Speaker 2: be getting better. It should be perfect at this point.
Speaker 5: I agree, But I don't think it's going to be
Speaker 5: I know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Oh, so tell us about the book. So the
Speaker 2: book is about an individual who's the who's the hero
Speaker 2: in the book.
Speaker 5: The hero of the book is this guy. He's a
Speaker 5: commercial photographer, which means he goes around should do products,
Speaker 5: and his life has gone off the rails. He's got
Speaker 5: a girlfriend who doesn't appreciate him, and people who.
Speaker 3: Take advantage of them, and.
Speaker 5: He realizes sort of deep inside that he's helping perpetuate
Speaker 5: this this situation where he's encouraging people to consume things
Speaker 5: and sort of something. At the beginning of the story,
Speaker 5: it's just this uneasy that he has. So he comes
Speaker 5: into some money, decides he's going to go out and
Speaker 5: check out this island of garbage floating in the ocean.
Speaker 5: And the island of garbage turns out to be a
Speaker 5: metaphor for his life, but it's also sort of a
Speaker 5: reflection on our society of the consumption and waste and
Speaker 5: waste and consumption. And I'm not going to tell you
Speaker 5: how it ends, because I want you to read the book.
Speaker 2: Oh, I totally get that, So that's what that's why
Speaker 2: you're here. Come on, Garbage fifty fifty or more recycling
Speaker 2: facts and stats for twenty fifteen. Okay, I assume that's
Speaker 2: all in the book. I know that book.
Speaker 5: Actually they're not. It's an all affection book, So I
Speaker 5: mean these things are alluded to. But no, I don't
Speaker 5: make a very I'm not preaching. I don't believe people
Speaker 5: really respond to preaching unless they already believed the mess
Speaker 5: just being given, And so I'm not going to try
Speaker 5: and turn to change your mind by you know, hammering
Speaker 5: you with facts and statistics. I'm going to tell you
Speaker 5: a story, and the story is going to just make
Speaker 5: you feel sympathetic for the character, and you're going to
Speaker 5: think about it. When you're done. You might go, you
Speaker 5: know what, I should think about this a little bit deeper.
Speaker 5: I should think about what happens to my milk carton.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think about it all the time. And again,
Speaker 2: if it gets crushed, that's one thing. But yeah, I
Speaker 2: would think there would be some way you can't they
Speaker 2: We used to burn garbage. We don't do that anymore
Speaker 2: because of the atmosphereic concerns, but we used to burn leaves.
Speaker 2: When I grew up, they would burn leaves. I live
Speaker 2: in the city and you know, a part of Boston,
Speaker 2: and you would rake the leaves into the gutter. And yeah,
Speaker 2: first of all, you jump on the leaves as kids
Speaker 2: on the lawn, and then you have to rap and
Speaker 2: put them and then you would light them up. And
Speaker 2: I thought myself, oh my god, if anyone did that today,
Speaker 2: they would have to you have Marshall down there the
Speaker 2: whole bit. Okay, so the books available I assume on Amazon.
Speaker 2: That's the easy way. Do you have a website. You
Speaker 2: Sometimes people have a personal website and they'll get the
Speaker 2: author to autograph the book for them and maybe even
Speaker 2: a little cheaper than they get her on Amazon.
Speaker 5: Go ahead, Oh, here's the thing.
Speaker 2: Good.
Speaker 5: But the website is Sultan of Garbage dot com.
Speaker 4: All one word.
Speaker 5: Okay, but I'll tell you this. If you don't want
Speaker 5: to like kill a tree, I the digital version.
Speaker 2: I like that. Okay, Okay. Do you make more money
Speaker 2: in the digital version of lesson?
Speaker 5: I make the zero money on the digital version.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, Well good for you. Then you you're
Speaker 2: a man who practices what he preaches. You know what.
Speaker 5: I wish I was a little better, but yeah, I
Speaker 5: try it.
Speaker 2: Okay, Brian, nice to talk to me. That is pronounced bellefont,
Speaker 2: Yes it is. Oh, how about that? I am Sometimes
Speaker 2: I think his name's right. I surprise myself. Sometimes the
Speaker 2: book is the Sultan of Garbage. Brian. I appreciated. Keep fighting. Okay,
Speaker 2: we'll have you back. Thank you much.
Speaker 5: Yeah, thanks for having me on, Dan.
Speaker 2: You're very welcome. Good night. When we get back, we're
Speaker 2: going to talk about kind of a difficult issue to
Speaker 2: talk about for me anyway, and that is the Red
Speaker 2: Sox trade yesterday of Raphael Devers. Boy, I'm telling you
Speaker 2: I don't understand this one. I'm not sure that Dan
Speaker 2: Watkins understands it any better. But Dan is as much
Speaker 2: of a baseball fan as I am, and he, of
Speaker 2: course you know him as the WZ news radio anchor.
Speaker 2: He's also good sports guy. So we're going to talk
Speaker 2: with Dan Watkins about the Raffie Devs trade. And at
Speaker 2: nine o'clock I'm going to open it up for open
Speaker 2: lines on the Raffie Devers trade. I've looked at it
Speaker 2: about twenty different ways. I can't figure it out. I
Speaker 2: really can't. But maybe Dan will give us some insight
Speaker 2: that I haven't thought of. And we'll talk with Dan
Speaker 2: Watkins right after this break on Night Side. My name's
Speaker 2: Dan Ray, not Dan Watkins. I'm Dan Ray. He will
Speaker 2: be Dan Watkins. And you're listening to Night Side with
Speaker 2: Dan Ray on WBZ ten thirty on the AM dial
Speaker 2: here in Boston. And you also can listen to us
Speaker 2: on the iHeart app. Very easy. All you have to
Speaker 2: do is pull down the new and improved iHeart app
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Speaker 2: preset and we're in business. You'll be with us every
Speaker 2: night from Monday through Friday, from eight until midnight. And
Speaker 2: we do a great show here on Nightside. And I
Speaker 2: hope you tell your friends about it. Little bragging doesn't hurt.
Speaker 2: But if it's the truth, it's not bragging. Coming back
Speaker 2: on Nightside.
Speaker 1: You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
Speaker 1: news radio.
Speaker 2: Well, a big story in Boston today. Also the big
Speaker 2: story in sports is the trade of Raffie Devers. Now
Speaker 2: the Red Sox have just I guess they're still holding
Speaker 2: a news conference on our own. Dan Watkins has been
Speaker 2: monitoring that conference, that news conf Before we get to
Speaker 2: Dan his analysis of what was and wasn't said and
Speaker 2: what sort of questions were asked. Dan has pulled for
Speaker 2: us a forty five second sound bite from Red Sox
Speaker 2: team president Sam Kennedy.
Speaker 6: Hit it Rob, you know, in the end, I think
Speaker 6: it's pretty clear that we we couldn't find alignment with Ralphie.
Speaker 1: Is the truth.
Speaker 6: We we we we all worked at it over the
Speaker 6: last several months, going back to the off season.
Speaker 1: Starting with Alex Cora and Craig and the staff, and
Speaker 1: then up to the to me and all the way
Speaker 1: up to John Henry.
Speaker 2: We worked at it. UH.
Speaker 1: We had a different vision for him going forward than than.
Speaker 2: He had, and we couldn't get there.
Speaker 5: We couldn't find alignment, and we reached that inflection point
Speaker 5: and made the decision.
Speaker 1: To UH to make a big move.
Speaker 2: Dan Watkins is with us. What was their vision? Dan,
Speaker 2: because it seemed to me that the vision was switching,
Speaker 2: and once Bregman came, Raffie was told he was no
Speaker 2: longer that third basement, he was the DH and then
Speaker 2: when the first baseman gets hurt and they ask him
Speaker 2: to play for a space, he's not thrilled about that.
Speaker 2: What was the vision?
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, Dan, I think this all just kind
Speaker 6: of comes back to some miscommunication in the offseason with
Speaker 6: the approach and trying to sign Alex Bregman and eventually
Speaker 6: signing him and just not really you know, letting Devers
Speaker 6: know what their plans were. So he arrives to spring
Speaker 6: training and if you remember, Bregman signs like three or
Speaker 6: four days after they get to camp, and then Devers
Speaker 6: is pretty much told that he's going to be moved
Speaker 6: to DH, and he's very adamant, and he was very frustrated,
Speaker 6: saying that he's the third baseman of the team. He
Speaker 6: left camp for a few days to go cool off,
Speaker 6: comes back and agrees to be the DH. And then,
Speaker 6: as you just mentioned, Tristan Cossis gets hurt in May
Speaker 6: and they kind of want him to try to play
Speaker 6: first base now and pick that up in the middle
Speaker 6: of the season, and he is furious about that. He
Speaker 6: basically tells Craig Breslo that he needs to go do
Speaker 6: his job and bring in more players and to stop
Speaker 6: relying on him to change positions all the time. So
Speaker 6: I think there was some hurt feelings here on both sides,
Speaker 6: But I think this comes down to Devers wanted to
Speaker 6: be a DH now at this point in the Red
Speaker 6: Sox didn't want to pay thirty one million dollars a
Speaker 6: year for a designated hitter and a guy that wasn't
Speaker 6: going to play the field.
Speaker 2: Okay, so let's assume you decide you want to get
Speaker 2: rid of him. Is this the best that they could
Speaker 2: get for him at this point? I mean, it sounds
Speaker 2: like they got a couple of minor league players and
Speaker 2: a couple of pitchers who one has already been sent
Speaker 2: to Worcester and the other guy. Neither one of them
Speaker 2: looked like that candidates for the Cy Young Award, Let's
Speaker 2: put it that way.
Speaker 6: Definitely not from what I've heard and understand. Kyle Harrison,
Speaker 6: who was sent to Worcester last night, he was supposed
Speaker 6: to pitch on Sunday Night Baseball for the Giants, but
Speaker 6: ends up getting scratched. That he's a you know, a
Speaker 6: mid rotation guy at best, your number three, number four starter.
Speaker 6: And then Jordan Hicks is a guy kind of like
Speaker 6: Garrett Whitlock who's tried to be a starter, gets hurt,
Speaker 6: probably better off in the bullpen. And then you got
Speaker 6: their first round pick from a year ago. But the
Speaker 6: Red Sox, the big thing Craig Breslow kept preaching tonight
Speaker 6: during this press conference that went on for forty five
Speaker 6: minutes was that they really like the roster flexibility that
Speaker 6: they have now where they can get some of these
Speaker 6: younger guys into the lineup, and they this is a
Speaker 6: quote from Breslo saying, quote, I do think there's a
Speaker 6: real chance at the end of the season, we're looking
Speaker 6: back and we've won more games than we otherwise would
Speaker 6: have with Devers on the team. So it's a really
Speaker 6: interesting situation that's played out of Fenway here. I'm not
Speaker 6: personally a fan of the move, taking out a potential,
Speaker 6: you know, a perennial All Star and a guy that
Speaker 6: is building a Hall of Fame resume in his own endeavors.
Speaker 6: I don't think they're a better team today, but we'll
Speaker 6: see what happens.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, again, you think back to the Gosky pair
Speaker 2: of trade back in two thousand and four, which worked
Speaker 2: out for the Red Sox. Then you think about the
Speaker 2: Mookie betste which has only worked out for Mookie Betts.
Speaker 2: I mean, most of the players that they got from
Speaker 2: Mookie Betts have now moved on themselves, and Bets is
Speaker 2: playing really well and has played very well for years,
Speaker 2: as we expected he would. In Los Angeles with the Dodgers,
Speaker 2: what were the tone of the questions? A lot of
Speaker 2: the sports guys in town tend to be very respectful
Speaker 2: when they're say, talking to Bill Belichick or something like that,
Speaker 2: a little different than a lot of the political reporters,
Speaker 2: who kind of have a mor of ad age to
Speaker 2: their questions. Were the reporters, what were the tone of
Speaker 2: the questions.
Speaker 6: They were going directly at Kennedy and Bresla pretty well tonight,
Speaker 6: I thought. I mean, the fact that this thing went
Speaker 6: on for forty five minutes, I think was a good
Speaker 6: sign from the beat. You know, they got Breslaw to
Speaker 6: say that they're not waving the white flag on the
Speaker 6: twenty twenty five season, which I have a hard time
Speaker 6: believing personally, just with the way the Red Sox have
Speaker 6: handled themselves here in the past half a decade now,
Speaker 6: or how they've been a you know, a five hundred
Speaker 6: baseball team since really since they traded Mookie Betts, and
Speaker 6: how they keep talking about this long term vision and
Speaker 6: keep telling fans that, you know, it's it's gonna happen
Speaker 6: in the long term, and then they go and pull
Speaker 6: the you know, pull the rug out from underneath Red
Speaker 6: Sox nation here this weekend by doing it well.
Speaker 2: Having the three young guys come up also, Dobbins has
Speaker 2: been a pretty good surprise. I think that Fits is
Speaker 2: going to get himself squared away at Worcester, So I
Speaker 2: think they're going to have some young people. You look at,
Speaker 2: you know, cut of Crawford hasn't thrown a ball yet Tanner,
Speaker 2: howk Is is amongst the missing at this point, So
Speaker 2: they lost two good guys who would have been potential
Speaker 2: guys in the rotation. Their rotation with Dobbins now in
Speaker 2: seems to have set it down. Bao pitched well yesterday.
Speaker 2: Geelito some good, some bad. Same with Fuel. Yeah, with
Speaker 2: Buell or two, but Geolita was more. Buell has been
Speaker 2: more consistent. I think that Gelito Crochet has been great.
Speaker 2: So you know, they have they have a starting rotation here,
Speaker 2: which they didn't have a year ago. But now they're
Speaker 2: just taking a big out out of the lineup and
Speaker 2: at some point, uh, someone's good. I guess maybe uh
Speaker 2: Toro plays third base for the rest of the season
Speaker 2: until until Bregmant comes back.
Speaker 6: So it looks like Meyer's there tonight and I can't
Speaker 6: It's it's crazy. So they put out the lineup card
Speaker 6: for tonight and they got rookies hitting three, four, five
Speaker 6: in the lineup, which is crazy to think about for
Speaker 6: a team that says that they do want to make
Speaker 6: the playoffs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know, okay that you know, Meyer had
Speaker 2: a couple of couple of dingers the other the other
Speaker 2: night in the game, and uh, you know Anthony's going
Speaker 2: to hit. I don't. I mean, he's he's not, he's
Speaker 2: I think he's he's he's.
Speaker 6: For him giving away from Fenway, I think is a
Speaker 6: good thing for him, let him kind of get some
Speaker 6: hits on the road where there's less pressure.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, Well, Dan, I appreciate it so much. You're
Speaker 2: talking to us. You're doing double duty tonight, news duty,
Speaker 2: sports duty. It's going to be interesting. I mean, they
Speaker 2: they made this trade. Uh after a five game winning
Speaker 2: streak and and sweeping the Yankees. What Devers was at
Speaker 2: the airport heading to Seattle? Did they pull him off
Speaker 2: the plane?
Speaker 6: They did, and they put him in a taxi, which
Speaker 6: was just crazy. I don't know if you saw the footage.
Speaker 6: I believe Channel five got it and and him coming
Speaker 6: back in the in the taxi they pulled him off
Speaker 6: the plane, he hops in his car, his range Rover,
Speaker 6: and just heads right out, doesn't talk to anybody. It
Speaker 6: was quite the sight. I mean, that's something you're gonna
Speaker 6: that's one of those things where you remember where you
Speaker 6: were when that happened. If you're a big sports fan.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and San Francisco is not playing tonight. They they're
Speaker 2: home tomorrow night, so he'll be well received. And uh,
Speaker 2: I would say this, I think that that that San
Speaker 2: Francisco got a better player with Devers going there than
Speaker 2: we did getting Sandoval Pablo Sandoval coming here. I say
Speaker 2: bet if they were both third basement two. So we'll see.
Speaker 6: Hopefully Raffi's belt holds up. I'm like unlike the pandas yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 2: Dad Watkins as always, thank you, my friend, you pinch
Speaker 2: it for us tonight. That's great. Thanks Pop. Talk soon. Okay,
Speaker 2: well we get back. We're going to open up the conversation.
Speaker 2: What do you think if you're a Red Sox fan
Speaker 2: out there, and even if you're a casual Red Sox fan,
Speaker 2: do you like this idea? I mean, it's been hanging
Speaker 2: out there for about three months now, from spring training on.
Speaker 2: Something had to give. We know what gave. Please feel
Speaker 2: free to jump on board and let us know what
Speaker 2: you think. You have the numbers back on Night's side,
Speaker 2: We're gonna talk a little baseball for the next one hour.