Latest / Pittsburgh Sports Memories / Random Pittsburgh Sports Stories
Transcript
- 0:00SPEAKER_06: Hello and welcome to another very random episode of Pittsburgh Sports Memories.
- 0:05SPEAKER_06: I'm your co-host, Steve Wirt, and I'm joined by my other co-host.
- 0:09SPEAKER_04: I'm Tim Hammond.
- 0:10SPEAKER_06: I basically spun the wheel of uh topics and uh this is what they came up with.
- 0:15SPEAKER_06: So um it's time to clean out the uh closet or the kitchen junk drawer here.
- 0:20SPEAKER_06: And we just had like kind of a bunch of me and Tim had like fragments of ideas or stuff that maybe wouldn't make a whole podcast, but they aren't related, but hey, it's just gonna be a bunch of stuff that happens.
- 0:32SPEAKER_06: So this should be should be fun, huh?
- 0:35SPEAKER_04: Let's do it.
- 0:51SPEAKER_06: All right, without further ado, um do you remember when uh Jim Rooker walked from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh?
- 1:01SPEAKER_04: Yes, I do.
- 1:03SPEAKER_06: Well, here's the story behind that.
- 1:05SPEAKER_06: So in um I think it was July of '89, there is a pirate game.
- 1:10SPEAKER_06: The Pirates are playing in the old veteran stadium in Philadelphia, and they are playing the Philadelphia Phillies, and in the first inning, they batted around and they actually scored 10 runs in the first inning.
- 1:23SPEAKER_06: And uh, there's been a couple other podcasts have done whole deep dives that are probably way too long or way too boring to watch, quite honestly.
- 1:32SPEAKER_06: I tried to watch it, it was like, oh my goodness, I'm falling asleep.
- 1:35SPEAKER_06: Um, but apparently that's a very like scoring 10 runs is like almost guarantee you're a win.
- 1:41SPEAKER_06: So Jim Rooker said, Boy, if they lose this game, I'll walk back to Pittsburgh.
- 1:46SPEAKER_06: Just, you know, because I think in the bottom of the first, um, I think they scored a run or they hit a double or something, the Phillies.
- 1:55SPEAKER_06: And um what ended up happening is I think a guy named Steve Jelts hits two home runs that uh catapults the Phillies to a 15-11 victory.
- 2:06SPEAKER_06: So the Pirates scored one more run the rest of the way, and uh unfortunately the uh Phillies scored 15 the rest of the way, and um you know it just goes to show you you never know what can happen in sports and baseball.
- 2:21SPEAKER_06: And um, but the more interesting part outside of the the weirdness of the game, and what was funny is uh Pirates broadcaster Bob Walk was the starter who had a hand in giving up a bunch of runs in that game, too.
- 2:36SPEAKER_06: And uh Bob Kipper was a pitcher, like I think I remember that was 89, and I think I remember that because I remember this game growing up, and I remember like me and my friend, I was over my friend's house, and he we were like 10 to nothing.
- 2:51SPEAKER_06: Oh man, let's go uh let's go out to eat or something or we went out instead of watching any more of the game, and when we came back, his dad came, like it dropped us off somewhere and came back, and it was like, oh, the pirates are losing.
- 3:02SPEAKER_06: And we're like, what?
- 3:03SPEAKER_06: Like, huh?
- 3:05SPEAKER_06: And so it was kind of like one of those deals.
- 3:07SPEAKER_06: So um it's very rare occurrence, and uh and Jim Brooker, true to his word, actually walked all the way from the veteran veteran stadium in Pittsburgh to um Three River Stadium in Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia at the three stadium in Pittsburgh, uh distance of 300 and some miles, I guess you can Google map it.
- 3:29SPEAKER_06: And they couldn't walk on like the Pennsylvania Turnpike because you're not allowed.
- 3:33SPEAKER_06: So he had to do like Route 30, which is like the old Cumberland Trail.
- 3:38SPEAKER_06: It's basically like an old Indian trail, the way and it doesn't sound well, you know, 300 miles, people do that, but uh you gotta remember in the middle of Pennsylvania there's all these mountains.
- 3:48SPEAKER_06: So he had to walk up and down all these mountains, and you know, he did train a little bit, but um, you know, he he said his feet were really sore.
- 3:57SPEAKER_06: He went through four pairs of shoes, and they did it in I think 13 days, which they did 24 miles a day.
- 4:05SPEAKER_06: They walked, which that's really impressive to walk 24 miles a day.
- 4:09SPEAKER_06: That's almost doing a marathon every day.
- 4:11SPEAKER_06: I mean, now they weren't doing a marathon in like three hours, but you know, that was probably over eight to ten hours every day.
- 4:18SPEAKER_06: That's that's pretty impressive.
- 4:19SPEAKER_06: Two and a half miles, two and a half miles an hour, you know.
- 4:23SPEAKER_06: So not bad.
- 4:24SPEAKER_06: Uh Tim, do you so do you do you think you could walk from uh here to Philadelphia, Tim, in two weeks?
- 4:31SPEAKER_04: So the the distance, I think, even though it's really long, the the actual mileage I could see potentially doing, but like you said, the how it's more about how he had to do it because of the terrain and because of the of the roads, right?
- 4:45SPEAKER_04: It wasn't just a it wasn't like you were walking on a trail, you know what I mean?
- 4:49SPEAKER_06: Right, right.
- 4:49SPEAKER_06: Because it's old Route 30, which I say I which I mean I think part of that was well no Route 40 was built by General Braddock in the French and Indian War, but it's the same concept.
- 4:58SPEAKER_06: They they built those following old Indian trails because that's the way, you know, they obviously knew the land better and knew the spots to get through, but still, and a lot of the roads didn't have wide um what you call like what do you call the shoulders, you know, the area where you didn't have it, or and like it was some point, like he Jim Brooker almost got hit by a truck.
- 5:22SPEAKER_06: Like there was a big semi coming down, and like he had to get out of the way, but the truck slammed on the brakes because it you know there was you know some horse and buggy or who knows what.
- 5:31SPEAKER_06: You know, you know how it is in Pennsylvania on those backstage roads, they're fun to drive, especially in the fall.
- 5:36SPEAKER_06: The foliage is beautiful, but the walk is probably a little more treacherous.
- 5:41SPEAKER_06: So but um good for I think it raised over a hundred thousand dollars for pirates charities and children's cancer.
- 5:48SPEAKER_06: So it ended up being a fun, and you know, there was a there are people like you know, but on both the Philadelphia organization with you know waved goodbyes.
- 5:57SPEAKER_06: He walked from Philadelphia, and the people in you know Pittsburgh were there and they broke like a ceremonial uh tape at the end, and you know, there was a big crowd.
- 6:05SPEAKER_06: And I remember that.
- 6:06SPEAKER_06: I remember commercials for it, like him, you know, because you know they obviously did it for charity and raised a bunch of money.
- 6:13SPEAKER_06: They had to wait till October because they had they had to wait till the season was over to do it.
- 6:21SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I I rem so I mean that was really cool because like you said, it was like, okay, hey, you know, obviously everybody knew that was just like a uh throwaway comment, right?
- 6:31SPEAKER_04: Oh, I'll I'd walk home if the Zero's lost or if the pirates lost this game, and then they do.
- 6:36SPEAKER_04: And for him to kind of like stick to that and then make it something that that ended up being very positive.
- 6:42SPEAKER_04: Good on Jim Rooker for that.
- 6:44SPEAKER_06: I think the other guy they uh there was another guy that walked with him.
- 6:48SPEAKER_06: I don't know if he was like another commentator or whatever, but there was another person that did walk with him.
- 6:54SPEAKER_06: So good good for them.
- 6:56SPEAKER_06: And uh apparently he got blisters on his feet, and which I would imagine doing twenty twenty-four miles a day.
- 7:01SPEAKER_06: I just impressed.
- 7:02SPEAKER_06: I'm impressed.
- 7:02SPEAKER_06: Twenty-four miles a day is that that's that's a lot to do.
- 7:07SPEAKER_04: It it's it's a lot, and I I remember this game too, Steve, because I I really hated the Phillies back then.
- 7:14SPEAKER_06: It was fun when they arrival, weren't they, before we left the division.
- 7:18SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean it was yeah, it was a fun rivalry, but I I just that's that was like the Vaughn Hayes and and Juan Samuel and uh Mike Schmidt had retired, I think, at that point.
- 7:27SPEAKER_04: But I just didn't I didn't like the Phillies.
- 7:29SPEAKER_04: And 1989 was like a disappointing season because the Pirates had this great year in 88.
- 7:34SPEAKER_04: They finished in second place, they almost made the playoffs, and you thought they were gonna build off of that, and then they they didn't.
- 7:40SPEAKER_04: But but then it's like, well, at least we're gonna blow out the Phillies, and and then they they lose that game.
- 7:46SPEAKER_04: And Steve Gelts, you mentioned him.
- 7:49SPEAKER_06: Uh I think he had hit like 10 home runs in his career or something.
- 7:52SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
- 7:53SPEAKER_04: So I actually have it here.
- 7:54SPEAKER_04: Steve Jelts played in the majors for eight seasons.
- 7:58SPEAKER_04: He hit five career home runs.
- 8:01SPEAKER_04: Five.
- 8:03SPEAKER_04: So give up two home runs to Steve Jelts.
- 8:06SPEAKER_04: I I remember this.
- 8:07SPEAKER_04: Uh if you're into sports podcasts, if you're listening to this one, I'm guessing you are.
- 8:12SPEAKER_04: A really, really great podcast is the 1988 Tops Podcast.
- 8:16SPEAKER_04: They they go through every baseball card in the 1988 top set and they tell the story of the player.
- 8:22SPEAKER_04: And they did an episode on Steve Geltz, and they they talked a ton about this game because it was just so shocking.
- 8:28SPEAKER_06: I'm pretty sure he wasn't even supposed to play in that game, or maybe he was I think there was an injury, and he was more of a defensive infielder than he was a they might have even put him in after they were losing 10-0.
- 8:40SPEAKER_04: I I can't recall, but they they the two guys that do that podcast, they did a really good job just detailing that stuff.
- 8:45SPEAKER_06: I think John Cruck played for the Phillies too.
- 8:48SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
- 8:49SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 8:50SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 8:51SPEAKER_04: So yeah, that that hurt losing that game.
- 8:53SPEAKER_04: Uh but yeah, it it that story about Jim Rooker, him actually then walking back.
- 8:58SPEAKER_04: Uh that that that's kind of one of those like all-time memories that that will always stick because of that.
- 9:05SPEAKER_04: So cool that he turned that into something positive.
- 9:07SPEAKER_06: Probably, I mean, and it's an all-time, it's considered an all-time MLB game.
- 9:11SPEAKER_06: I don't know if it's the greatest comeback in Major League Baseball history.
- 9:15SPEAKER_06: I did not look that up, but that's got to be up there, 10 to nothing.
- 9:18SPEAKER_06: But it kind of shows you where like maybe teams got the idea for the opener, like a guy that just pitches one inning.
- 9:26SPEAKER_06: Because even if you give up like, you know, a couple runs, of course, is an extreme example.
- 9:31SPEAKER_06: You know, you have 27 outs to make up 10 runs, and they certainly did.
- 9:38SPEAKER_04: Yeah, baseball, baseball's the only sport where technically you could be down by the biggest score imaginable, then you always have a chance to come back.
- 9:48SPEAKER_04: No other sport can say there's a clock in every other sport.
- 9:50SPEAKER_06: Yeah, you can't run out the clock in baseball.
- 9:53SPEAKER_06: You have to get the other team out.
- 9:56SPEAKER_06: Right.
- 9:56SPEAKER_04: If you if you're losing by 45 points at the two-minute warning in football, you're just it's it's physically not possible to come back and win.
- 10:04SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 10:05SPEAKER_04: But in baseball, it you could be down by 45 runs with two houses involved in the ninth.
- 10:10SPEAKER_04: And technically, even though it's incredibly unlikely, technically it's possible.
- 10:15SPEAKER_04: And and that is one thing that's pretty unique about baseball.
- 10:19SPEAKER_06: Yeah, fun game and uh fun fun memories and uh back when baseball of our childhood and yeah, we yeah, I think we uh both enjoyed that one.
- 10:28SPEAKER_06: Maybe not so much that game, but not at the time.
- 10:31SPEAKER_06: I remember in '89 too, I think that was the year the Pirates didn't have a bullpen, if I remember.
- 10:37SPEAKER_06: Their starting pitching wasn't terrible because I remember that summer, like every game it seemed like they would have a five-run lead and they would blow it in like the sixth.
- 10:46SPEAKER_06: And I think that was this was that was kind of the problem with that '89 team.
- 10:50SPEAKER_06: And then the next year, because like they had people like Bob Tipper and a couple other, you know, I I forget who the actual losing pitcher, but people just that just they had a really bad bullpen that year.
- 11:03SPEAKER_06: Obviously, when you give up a 10-run lead, you know that's probably true.
- 11:08SPEAKER_06: Um, so next up is staying with the pirates.
- 11:12SPEAKER_06: Um, a monkey got buried in the on the north side.
- 11:16SPEAKER_06: I mean, I don't know how many times this has happened.
- 11:18SPEAKER_06: I mean, monkeys are not native to North America, never mind Pittsburgh.
- 11:24SPEAKER_06: Uh so I don't imagine that might be the you know one of the first ones ever, but apparently in good old 1887, before the pirates were even the pirates, they were the what, the Alleghenies.
- 11:37SPEAKER_06: Uh, some guy named Fred Carroll had a pet monkey and it is it had offici as the unofficial team mascot for the team.
- 11:46SPEAKER_06: And uh I guess the uh guy um he had died, the monkey had died or something, and he decided to bury his friend at uh home plate with full honors.
- 11:59SPEAKER_06: They actually had a pregame serious ceremony and he buried the monkey beneath home plate at then recreation park.
- 12:08SPEAKER_06: And it was presumed so that uh mister Mr.
- 12:11SPEAKER_06: Carroll could be close to his departed friend, at least when the opposing team was at that.
- 12:18SPEAKER_06: So um you know, if it apparently this is on the site of the old business records management facility on the corner of Allegheny and Pennsylvania Avenues.
- 12:28SPEAKER_06: So uh that's where the monkey's buried somewhere down there.
- 12:32SPEAKER_06: I think I know where that is on the north side.
- 12:34SPEAKER_06: So I mean, maybe we should erect a plaque.
- 12:37SPEAKER_06: We like to elect a plaque to everything around this town.
- 12:40SPEAKER_06: Maybe we should put a plaque for the uh dead monkey that's somewhere you know on the north side.
- 12:45SPEAKER_06: Um I mean it's weird.
- 12:47SPEAKER_06: It's kind of an odd thing, and um I I'm not sure what the what the make of all this, Tim.
- 12:53SPEAKER_06: Should they buy should they bury a parrot on the uh in the PC Park and home plate?
- 13:00SPEAKER_06: It was the 19th century, things were a little different.
- 13:03SPEAKER_06: They weren't even the pirates yet, so I I don't know.
- 13:06SPEAKER_04: I I just love the the image of like they had a pregame ceremony.
- 13:11SPEAKER_04: So like and they and they actually did the burial before the game.
- 13:14SPEAKER_04: So like people weren't stepping on the monkey.
- 13:17SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you're like coming off the bat.
- 13:18SPEAKER_04: Home plate can't be like the dirt can't have settled by that point, no matter how nice of a job you did covering up the hole and putting home plate on top of it.
- 13:27SPEAKER_04: Like I can't imagine that that was a uh you know, that that was a very clean burial.
- 13:32SPEAKER_04: So you're playing like probably with a little bit of a mound of dirt there on home plate.
- 13:36SPEAKER_04: I guess like you said, it was 1887.
- 13:38SPEAKER_04: It wasn't like, you know, this this multi-million dollar official thing stuff that they have today.
- 13:45SPEAKER_04: But yeah, that weird is the best word for that.
- 13:48SPEAKER_06: I mean, I guess Michael Jackson was the next famous person to have like a pet monkey.
- 13:54SPEAKER_04: So are you allowed to have pet monkeys?
- 13:58SPEAKER_04: I don't even think you're allowed.
- 13:59SPEAKER_04: Well, I guess again, 1887, probably.
- 14:01SPEAKER_06: I don't know.
- 14:02SPEAKER_06: I I was on vacation in Honduras and a guy had a pet monkey that he was having people take pictures with, so I don't know.
- 14:08SPEAKER_06: But once again, that's Honduras.
- 14:10SPEAKER_06: So I don't know if we maybe I should have asked him what he does with the monkey when it passes away, what kind of services he provides.
- 14:20SPEAKER_06: Well, what's the standard for monkey burials?
- 14:23SPEAKER_06: Like what's the uh you know cultural or whatever?
- 14:27SPEAKER_06: I don't know.
- 14:29SPEAKER_06: Sticking with uh mascots that didn't uh make it too long.
- 14:32SPEAKER_06: Um the penguins actually had a live penguin, and I think the penguin uh Tim covered this briefly in another podcast.
- 14:40SPEAKER_06: Um Penguin Pete because we love to have alliteration.
- 14:44SPEAKER_06: This was back in the 60s, and they they actually had a mascot of a penguin, and it was an Ecuadorian born humble penguin on loan from the zoo.
- 14:57SPEAKER_06: And the penguins officials even had special skates made for Pete by the Canadian skate manufacturer CCM.
- 15:08SPEAKER_06: And uh a skater from the University of Pittsburgh taught Pete uh how to skate at the arena, so I don't know why.
- 15:17SPEAKER_06: I guess they don't really ice skate, they just kind of slide around on their belly on the ice or walk.
- 15:22SPEAKER_06: And then they swim mostly in the ocean, don't they?
- 15:25SPEAKER_04: Uh yeah.
- 15:26SPEAKER_06: I don't know what the Ecuadorian penguins do.
- 15:30SPEAKER_06: So Pete uh had made his first appearance in 1968, and then he unfortunately that was February, unfortunately, then he died in November of 1968, um, because um they think they kept the uh the inhabitat where he lived too warm, so he caught pneumonia.
- 15:49SPEAKER_06: So uh I guess I thought it was the opposite.
- 15:51SPEAKER_04: They kept it he was an Ecuador, he was a so you said he was an Ecuadorian penguin.
- 15:55SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it says they kept the nesting area too warm.
- 15:58SPEAKER_06: That's that's according to Wikipedia.
- 16:01SPEAKER_06: I'm not arguing.
- 16:02SPEAKER_04: I would have thought the opposite.
- 16:03SPEAKER_04: If he if he was from Ecuador and they had him out on the ice all the time, speaking him how to ice skate, I'm guessing that's bad because Ecuador's not caught.
- 16:12SPEAKER_06: I didn't know they could have I mean, I know they're indigenous to South America, but I didn't know that penguins came that far.
- 16:18SPEAKER_04: I I don't know really much about penguins, but I I believe you have again your your northern hemisphere of penguins and your southern hemisphere penguins.
- 16:26SPEAKER_06: No, you don't have it, there's no penguins in the north.
- 16:28SPEAKER_06: There's not.
- 16:29SPEAKER_06: No.
- 16:31SPEAKER_06: There is zero.
- 16:32SPEAKER_06: That's why there's never polar bears and penguins.
- 16:35SPEAKER_04: Oh, because it's it's the South Pole.
- 16:38SPEAKER_06: Yes.
- 16:38SPEAKER_04: Okay.
- 16:39SPEAKER_04: Okay.
- 16:39SPEAKER_06: There's no polar bears in the southern.
- 16:42SPEAKER_04: Okay, okay.
- 16:42SPEAKER_04: So, like I said, I know squat about penguins.
- 16:45SPEAKER_06: There's no polar bears roaming the shores of Patagonia and Argentina.
- 16:49SPEAKER_06: Let me put it this way.
- 16:51SPEAKER_04: You have your you have your cold weather penguins and your hot and your warm weather penguins.
- 16:54SPEAKER_04: And this was a warm weather penguin that they they didn't realize was that like that those are two different, very different things in how you take care of them.
- 17:02SPEAKER_04: So pneumonia.
- 17:05SPEAKER_06: Instead of and burying him in the ice in uh Pacific Arena, they decide to take him to a taxidermist and stuff him.
- 17:13SPEAKER_06: So in uh Penguin Pete would uh was stuffed and would hang out outside the uh what's it called, the offices at the Civic Arena.
- 17:21SPEAKER_06: And uh I guess people well, yeah.
- 17:26SPEAKER_06: Unfortunately he he went away.
- 17:28SPEAKER_06: They don't have him anymore.
- 17:30SPEAKER_06: Yeah, do you know do you know why?
- 17:32SPEAKER_06: I guess Pita or somebody objected.
- 17:35SPEAKER_04: Well, the people did object.
- 17:37SPEAKER_04: Um the animal rights people did object, but what happened was somebody actually stole them.
- 17:42SPEAKER_06: Oh, that's right, yeah.
- 17:44SPEAKER_04: And I don't I don't think they ever found them.
- 17:46SPEAKER_04: So I don't know.
- 17:46SPEAKER_04: Penguin peats probably still around somewhere.
- 17:49SPEAKER_06: Yeah, so so there's penguin pitas in somebody's basement in like Bluefield or something.
- 17:54SPEAKER_04: Right.
- 17:58SPEAKER_04: That would be a that would be a fun find.
- 18:00SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
- 18:01SPEAKER_06: It's like today on Antiques Roadshow.
- 18:06SPEAKER_04: That's pretty morbid.
- 18:07SPEAKER_04: You could you could put him next to the remains of the monkey and put it in Heinz History Center.
- 18:12SPEAKER_06: That's what the sports set.
- 18:15SPEAKER_06: So uh Pittsburgh and their mascots uh not working out.
- 18:20SPEAKER_06: I mean, the only real mascot that's really worked out are the two, probably what, the pirate parrot and the Pit Panther.
- 18:26SPEAKER_06: I don't think the Pit Panthers have ever had a real Pit Panther.
- 18:30SPEAKER_06: They just have a guy dressed up in a costume and yeah, that wouldn't be a good idea to have a real Panther.
- 18:35SPEAKER_06: Just roaming the sidelines or a parrot flying around the stadium.
- 18:40SPEAKER_06: So also not a good idea.
- 18:42SPEAKER_06: Although parrots do live to set live to 70, so they could could be a long-term investment.
- 18:47SPEAKER_06: Oh no, don't tell Bob Nutting that.
- 18:51SPEAKER_06: But um, you know, so Steely McBeam's still hanging around there, but he doesn't say uh you don't see much of him lately.
- 18:59SPEAKER_06: So in the pantheon of uh Pittsburgh mascots, uh R.I.P.
- 19:05SPEAKER_06: the the monkey, whatever his name was, and Penguin Pete, the pirate monkey.
- 19:11SPEAKER_04: Hashtag never forget.
- 19:13SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
- 19:15SPEAKER_06: So um so switching to a um to coaches almost interfering in football games, um there's uh there's a shot of uh so in 1997 the Steelers were playing the Jaguars in Jagsville, and unfortunately at that moment, um they were in a close game, and I do believe they were trying to kick a game tying or game-winning field goal, Tim.
- 19:45SPEAKER_06: Was it I think it would I think it was 17 to 19, wasn't it?
- 19:49SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it the Steelers drive, they're they're gonna they're lining up for a field goal that's it's gonna win the game if they like it.
- 19:55SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and and so when Norm Johnson kicks the ball, it gets blocked, and uh a guy named Chris Hudson for the Jaguars picks it up and is returning it down the field.
- 20:05SPEAKER_06: And as he's returning it, Bill Cower channels his inner Woody Hayes, and like he literally, if you watch the video, he cocks back with his fist.
- 20:14SPEAKER_06: Like he wasn't gonna tackle him, he was literally gonna punch him.
- 20:18SPEAKER_06: And he thank goodness for Bill Cower and the rest of us Steeler fans, he does not punch Chris Hudson and he lets him go for I don't know if he got fined for that because he really didn't interfere with the play, but it definitely was a bad look for Bill Cower, and thank goodness his he came to his senses in time.
- 20:41SPEAKER_06: So Chris Hudson, uh I don't did he score?
- 20:44SPEAKER_06: I can't remember he didn't score a touchdown.
- 20:47SPEAKER_04: I mean, it didn't matter.
- 20:47SPEAKER_04: They like that was the last second field goal, so even just blocking it ended the game.
- 20:51SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so it's like what Cower was upset about is like yeah, he blocked the field goal, that means, and that was a big deal because remember that was when the Stewart and Jaguars were in the same division.
- 20:59SPEAKER_04: Same division, yeah.
- 21:00SPEAKER_06: And then I think Cordell had come had they gotten the fourth and eight call too, because I watched the highlights from this.
- 21:07SPEAKER_06: They had gotten the penalty call on like roughing the passer, so they'd kind of gotten a little lucky to get there.
- 21:14SPEAKER_06: And um, yeah, it was it it was really could have been a lot worse for Bill Cower.
- 21:19SPEAKER_06: Could you imagine if Bill Cower would have done that?
- 21:21SPEAKER_06: He would have been run out of the league.
- 21:23SPEAKER_06: He wouldn't have been allowed to forget.
- 21:25SPEAKER_04: That's a really good what if because you know what if what if he does tackle the guy or punch the guy?
- 21:31SPEAKER_04: Like you said, it wasn't even a tackle, he like had his arm out to like like he had it, it was cocked, it was a punch.
- 21:36SPEAKER_06: It was gonna be a punch, Tim.
- 21:38SPEAKER_06: If you watch the which you can't show you the replay on podcast, but yeah, you can see his arm was cocked.
- 21:44SPEAKER_04: Like I don't know how you punch a guy with a helmet anyway, but well, I I don't think he was like to your point, I don't think he was like had a bunch of time to like process like okay, he's running down the field.
- 21:54SPEAKER_04: Now, if I wanted to tackle him, you know what would be the best way to do this?
- 21:58SPEAKER_04: He just it was just a one of the Those emotional re and like I think we've all had those kinds of things where like we want to like like you're just mad about something you you you're about to like I don't know throw your cell phone down to the ground because you're so mad that you kind of stop yourself because you're like, well then I'll need a new cell phone, right?
- 22:14SPEAKER_04: Or or something like that, right?
- 22:16SPEAKER_04: I think it's just one of those moments that just happened to be on national TV because that was a Monday night football game back when Monday night football was like the game of the week.
- 22:25SPEAKER_04: And so everybody saw that.
- 22:27SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it was a big, big thing.
- 22:29SPEAKER_06: It was I mean, it wasn't really a big thing.
- 22:32SPEAKER_06: I don't I don't remember did the I don't remember the media making a big deal.
- 22:36SPEAKER_04: It was it was it was so 1997 doesn't seem like that long ago, but it in terms of 24 by seven football coverage, there was no real internet back then.
- 22:46SPEAKER_06: Because like yeah, too, like I watched the Sports Center clip of it, and they don't even talk about it.
- 22:52SPEAKER_06: Like, and you can clearly see that Coward's about to do that, but they mentioned it on the broadcast too, whoever was doing Monday night football back.
- 23:00SPEAKER_06: They did.
- 23:01SPEAKER_04: I remember it being a little bit of a thing, but uh today.
- 23:04SPEAKER_06: Because he didn't do anything because and it didn't interfere with the play.
- 23:07SPEAKER_04: He didn't, but but remember when Mike Tomlin almost tripped the guy from Baltimore?
- 23:12SPEAKER_06: That's the next one on my list.
- 23:13SPEAKER_06: Okay.
- 23:14SPEAKER_04: So so we can we can compare those two things because the reactions are very different because of the 24 by seven football coverage and the internet and everything else.
- 23:22SPEAKER_06: Yeah, Mike Tomlin in 2013, there's a kickoff, and I think the Steelers had scored.
- 23:30SPEAKER_06: They hadn't taken the lead, but I think they had narrowed the lead that Baltimore was up 13 to nothing, I do believe.
- 23:35SPEAKER_06: And Jacoby Jones is running back, and as he's running, Mike Tomlin is not he's not all the way out in the field, but like I would say half his body is out on the field, and he's running up the sideline.
- 23:49SPEAKER_06: He's not in the middle of the field, Jacoby Jones.
- 23:52SPEAKER_06: And because he's running up the sideline, Tomlin gets in the way, but at the last minute, Tomlin realizes it and he moves out of the way back onto the sideline, but it's too late.
- 24:03SPEAKER_06: Jacoby Jones has to kind of swerve into the field to play a little more than he would have had to if Tomlin hadn't been there, and he gets tackled, and that's that that it the Steelers end up losing anyway, 22 to 20.
- 24:18SPEAKER_06: Um, Toddlin talked about it on a podcast with um Ryan Clark and I forget who else.
- 24:25SPEAKER_06: And they they said um he said that he had he didn't realize he was standing on the field.
- 24:32SPEAKER_06: He was watching the jumbotron, he watched the kickoff, and then he switched the jumbotron to see what was going on, and he thought that Jacoby Jones was running up the Baltimore sideline, not the Steelers sideline, and he didn't realize it until he saw himself on the big screen, and that's when he moved.
- 24:50SPEAKER_06: He was like, uh oh.
- 24:51SPEAKER_06: And he he just moved real quick, and unfortunately, he uh he got he got he did get fined$100,000 for that, and uh it and because I think that actually did affect the play.
- 25:04SPEAKER_06: I don't know if Jacoby Jones probably scores, maybe he doesn't.
- 25:08SPEAKER_06: I I don't know.
- 25:09SPEAKER_06: They could have awarded Baltimore a touchdown that's they could have, yeah.
- 25:13SPEAKER_06: It has been done before.
- 25:15SPEAKER_06: Like I think there's an incident where this is in college football where a guy ran off the sidelines and tackled somebody that was like in the open field heading for a touchdown, and they tackled him, and they're like, Yeah, they just awarded that guy a touchdown.
- 25:30SPEAKER_06: So yeah, I it was this got way more coverage, and like there were internet memes and stuff, and like I remember like Tomlin was like dan like they'd have because I he kind of shuffled, so there was like a little dancing Tomlin and yeah.
- 25:47SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it it so again, and that was what 2012 you said?
- 25:51SPEAKER_06: 2013.
- 25:52SPEAKER_04: 2013, and that was also a nationally, that was a Thanksgiving night game.
- 25:56SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so again, the difference between 1997 and 2013 was not a ton of years difference.
- 26:02SPEAKER_04: This wasn't like the difference between like the 40s and like, you know, but in today it was it was only what a little over maybe 15 years, but it was a huge difference because by 2013 you had social media and you had and you had this 24 by seven, you have all these football talk shows on the radio and podcasts and NFL network, and they have to fill up the entire week with football talk.
- 26:28SPEAKER_04: So that was a way bigger deal only because of that.
- 26:31SPEAKER_04: And really, when you think about it, um what what Coward, I mean, what Tomlin did was was just like absent-minded, kind of dumb.
- 26:40SPEAKER_04: What Cower did was like almost intentional, like he wanted to tackle the guy.
- 26:46SPEAKER_04: So I think you're right.
- 26:47SPEAKER_04: I think if that if Cower does that 15 years later, it is a way bigger deal.
- 26:52SPEAKER_04: It it shouldn't have been, but it would have been.
- 26:56SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I think Cower would have taken more heat.
- 26:59SPEAKER_06: I don't know, I don't remember if he ever got fined for that.
- 27:02SPEAKER_06: I didn't really look that up.
- 27:04SPEAKER_06: I don't even know if he could.
- 27:06SPEAKER_04: I I don't remember.
- 27:07SPEAKER_04: I don't think he did.
- 27:08SPEAKER_04: Well he he technically didn't do anything.
- 27:10SPEAKER_04: So I mean it'd be hard to find him, but that would be another thing.
- 27:14SPEAKER_04: They would they would spend there would be like three days in a row of talk show fodder over should he or shouldn't he be fined, right?
- 27:21SPEAKER_04: And what kind of example does that set for the players and blah, blah, blah, blah.
- 27:24SPEAKER_06: Like, I mean, it would have just no wonder this team takes so many holding penalties.
- 27:29SPEAKER_06: Right, right.
- 27:30SPEAKER_04: It just would have been beaten to death.
- 27:32SPEAKER_04: So, yeah, interesting comparison between those two incidents.
- 27:37SPEAKER_04: Steve, do you also um do you also have the note about um Cower?
- 27:45SPEAKER_04: Do you remember what stadium that happened in with Cower?
- 27:48SPEAKER_06: That was down in Jacksonville.
- 27:50SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that was the old Gator Bowl.
- 27:52SPEAKER_06: Oh, that was the Gator Bowl?
- 27:54SPEAKER_04: Do you know what happened in the Gator Bowl in 1978?
- 27:58SPEAKER_06: No, what happened?
- 27:59SPEAKER_04: The guy you mentioned before, Woody Hayes.
- 28:02SPEAKER_06: Oh, that was that's right.
- 28:03SPEAKER_06: Yeah, that's related to the case.
- 28:04SPEAKER_04: Punch is the Clemson player.
- 28:05SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
- 28:06SPEAKER_04: Cower said years later, he was giving an interview.
- 28:09SPEAKER_04: He said it was pretty much on the same spot of the field where he almost hit Chris Hudson.
- 28:16SPEAKER_06: So uh maybe it's just in that stadium, then that's it's just eerie.
- 28:21SPEAKER_04: That's eerie to think that Woody Hayes punched in the because that was exactly what you said, you know, kind of channeled as inner Woody Hayes.
- 28:26SPEAKER_04: He Cower said it was pretty much on the same spot on the sidelines where Woody Hayes punches the Clemson player that he almost punches Chris Hudson.
- 28:33SPEAKER_04: So that that's just kind of eerie.
- 28:36SPEAKER_06: It's just it's weird like how coverage has changed things and our perception of people, you know, it's just it's just too much.
- 28:46SPEAKER_06: Is it just too much?
- 28:47SPEAKER_06: Am I getting old?
- 28:48SPEAKER_06: Like, can't we just let people be like, you know, stuff that people did back then, like, even like with the quarterbacks and stuff, like Ken Ken Stabler used to go out and drink all night and come and play.
- 29:01SPEAKER_06: And if he did that now, he'd be like, oh yeah, what are he so terrible?
- 29:06SPEAKER_06: Or like because like Johnny Manzel kind of like was the same kind of quarterback.
- 29:11SPEAKER_06: It's just I don't know, maybe Ken Stabler was just better and get away with it, him and Bobby Lane and all them drinking and parallel.
- 29:21SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I it it's definitely the media coverage is just too much for sure.
- 29:27SPEAKER_06: All right, uh switching.
- 29:28SPEAKER_06: Well, we're gonna stay with football, but more off-the-field stuff.
- 29:33SPEAKER_06: Um so Myron Cope, we all know knows to love 'em, right?
- 29:40SPEAKER_06: And apparently Myron Cope one time gotten gotten a little bit of a tiff with Danny Snyder, the former owner of the uh old Washington Redskins.
- 29:51SPEAKER_06: I don't know.
- 29:51SPEAKER_06: Well, I guess we can call them the Redskins, right?
- 29:53SPEAKER_06: We're talking historically, Washington football team.
- 29:57SPEAKER_06: But it does play in.
- 29:58SPEAKER_06: So I guess, you know, back in back in the old days, like in the 2000s, like remember like Washington.
- 30:06SPEAKER_06: Well, they still aren't that good, but they really stunk.
- 30:08SPEAKER_06: Like he would sign, like remember he tried to sign like Bruce Smith and Deion Sanders and like a bunch of guys that were like well past their prime.
- 30:18SPEAKER_04: They would always they would always every year.
- 30:20SPEAKER_04: Yeah, every year they would win free agency.
- 30:23SPEAKER_04: Like whoever was the biggest free agent, like one year it was like Albert Hainsworth.
- 30:26SPEAKER_04: Remember that guy?
- 30:27SPEAKER_04: It's like, oh, the Washington sign, Albert Hainsworth.
- 30:30SPEAKER_04: Like they always won free agency, quote unquote, and then they they just always stunk.
- 30:37SPEAKER_06: So, you know, and they were never very good at like dealing with people, like they they just always seemed to embarrass themselves.
- 30:43SPEAKER_06: Like they had that email scandal that eventually cost Snyder the the team, and yeah, just just a lot of bad it did just really bad ownership.
- 30:54SPEAKER_06: Like, how you screw that because they were really good.
- 30:56SPEAKER_06: If you the Redskins are well, well, I don't even know what to call them anymore.
- 31:01SPEAKER_06: That team down in Washington was really good way back like with Joe Gibbs, like they went the they won three Super Bowls.
- 31:08SPEAKER_04: Yes, and they were always competitive, the 80s and 90s.
- 31:11SPEAKER_04: They they just you could always count on them being one of the best teams.
- 31:14SPEAKER_06: I mean, they weren't as good as the 49ers or maybe even the Cowboys in the 90s, but they were always in the mix, like you said, you know.
- 31:23SPEAKER_06: But anyway, um, so I guess during a game, uh Myron Cope decided like he would call the Cincinnati the Bungles when they were bad instead of the Bengals.
- 31:34SPEAKER_06: So he started to call them the red faces, like you're red faced, embarrassed.
- 31:39SPEAKER_06: It's an old expression for the if anybody is younger, which they probably wouldn't understand that.
- 31:45SPEAKER_06: And um and I guess you know, he he just he just like Danny Snyder got mad and Byron in his own Myron way said, if that boy billionaire, Danny Snyder, thinks he can shut me up, said Cope, he should stick his head in a can of paint.
- 32:07SPEAKER_04: Yeah, they Dan Snyder actually sent uh like a PR guy.
- 32:12SPEAKER_06: Uh Steve Balducci up to the to the radio booth to to tell Cope to knock it off.
- 32:18SPEAKER_04: In the middle of a game.
- 32:19SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 32:20SPEAKER_04: Imagine being that insecure and hung up about stuff that you're listening to the other teams broadcast and up to the city.
- 32:27SPEAKER_04: How would you even know?
- 32:28SPEAKER_04: Yeah, how well that's because again, like I said, you have to because you're you're that insecure and and worried about what somebody's saying about you that you're literally listening to the other team's broadcast and then sending up a guy in the middle of the game to tell him to stop.
- 32:41SPEAKER_04: Like, what do you think was going to happen?
- 32:43SPEAKER_04: I I guess I guess when you're a billionaire and you tell people what to do, you're just used to them saying yes, Steve, probably.
- 32:51SPEAKER_04: Right?
- 32:52SPEAKER_06: Well, I guess that season too, I'm looking at this article.
- 32:55SPEAKER_06: The Redskins PA announcer said Ravens fans suck when when the Ravens were there.
- 33:03SPEAKER_06: And uh they got fined for that to$20,000 for saying that.
- 33:09SPEAKER_04: So and they're worried about what Myron Cope's saying.
- 33:12SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah.
- 33:13SPEAKER_06: So uh I I I don't know.
- 33:15SPEAKER_06: Like it's it was definitely a weird organization there for a while.
- 33:20SPEAKER_06: Uh hopefully the new moaner can clean them up and bring them back to glory.
- 33:25SPEAKER_06: Because they they do have a rather large fan base.
- 33:28SPEAKER_06: Like they're probably one of the bigger fan bases in the NFL, quite honestly.
- 33:32SPEAKER_06: And them not being good is really hurting the NFL because you know, I'm sure you know, this long you probably lost some fans.
- 33:40SPEAKER_06: So if they get good again, I think the you'll you'll see them, the uh the fans will probably re-engage and stuff.
- 33:46SPEAKER_04: So yeah, it's it's sad, it's sad.
- 33:50SPEAKER_04: I mean the they they were probably for for about 20 years there, they were probably the most toxic organization in maybe in sports.
- 34:02SPEAKER_04: And that's saying a lot when you have the Raiders and the Cleveland Browns and the Pittsburgh Pirates and franchises like that.
- 34:09SPEAKER_04: But uh they might have been they might have been the worst, and he was really at the center of all that, and they finally were able to force him out.
- 34:17SPEAKER_04: I'm not sure what it took to do that, because there was a lot of there was a lot of talk that like they wanted to force him out years earlier, but he had all this dirt on all the other owners, and that's why they couldn't do it.
- 34:28SPEAKER_04: And you know, I mean you know, it it in the end, uh you know, Daniel Snyder really got his because you know he only got seven billion dollars to sell the team.
- 34:38SPEAKER_04: So they showed that guy.
- 34:41SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 34:41SPEAKER_04: He's at home really sulking a lot.
- 34:45SPEAKER_06: Well, he doesn't own the Washington football team anymore.
- 34:48SPEAKER_06: Remember when you heard the Washington football team for like a season?
- 34:52SPEAKER_04: If you gave me$7 billion to not own something I owned before, I would not be too upset.
- 35:00SPEAKER_06: But that's uh yeah, sticking with football, but here's something completely different.
- 35:06SPEAKER_06: Um, we're gonna talk about some pit backup quarterbacks from the University of Pittsburgh, Tim, who doesn't love them backup quarterbacks.
- 35:15SPEAKER_06: Um there's a gentleman named Luke Getze, and uh I don't know if anybody remembers this guy.
- 35:21SPEAKER_06: He played briefly for Pitt.
- 35:24SPEAKER_06: And uh I found an LAR Times article because I remember I was at this game.
- 35:30SPEAKER_06: Um nobody will remember this, but Rod Rutherford got in trouble because he broke a car window and grabbed a woman by the arm.
- 35:40SPEAKER_06: And uh I guess they said that the woman threw a glass at him in the parking lot.
- 35:46SPEAKER_06: He never I don't remember anything ever becoming of that.
- 35:51SPEAKER_06: Besides so Rod Rutherford's big punishment was.
- 35:56SPEAKER_06: Can you remember, Tim, what Rod Rutherford's big punishment was?
- 36:00SPEAKER_04: Um was it one of those like he was suspended for the first quarter or something like that?
- 36:04SPEAKER_06: Yep, he was suspended for the first quarter against that major pit rival that we always look forward to playing every year, Kent State.
- 36:14SPEAKER_04: Uh well, I'm sure he learned his lesson after that because to miss such a huge game and to miss a whole quarter.
- 36:21SPEAKER_06: Although the first quarter of it.
- 36:23SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 36:24SPEAKER_06: So so that's this which brings in Mr.
- 36:28SPEAKER_06: Getze.
- 36:29SPEAKER_06: Luke Getze comes in and he wants to, you know, impress, and he actually wasn't bad.
- 36:35SPEAKER_06: And I remember like he threw a lot of passes right on the money, but the receivers kept dropping the ball.
- 36:40SPEAKER_06: And I remember my dad saying he thought that the team was doing it on purpose.
- 36:45SPEAKER_06: Now, I I don't know.
- 36:47SPEAKER_06: I I just thought maybe they just had a slow start.
- 36:50SPEAKER_06: I get it is either the I think it might have been the first or the second game of the season.
- 36:55SPEAKER_06: So after the first quarter, Rod Rutherford comes in and throws like four touchdowns, and they take a 28-7 lead into the half.
- 37:03SPEAKER_06: And Luke Getze comes out, he doesn't play much that the rest of that season.
- 37:08SPEAKER_06: And then I think Harris quits after another year or two, and he's still floating around when one stack comes and brings in.
- 37:18SPEAKER_06: Yeah, because he's sitting behind Tyler Palco, and instead of waiting for I guess Tyler Palko to leave, he went to Akron and because he didn't want to back up, because he knew it wouldn't be a fair.
- 37:31SPEAKER_06: He was supposed to have a quarterback competition with Tyler Palko, but everybody kind of knew, like, between him and Joe Flacco, but everybody knew that he was never they were never gonna get a shot.
- 37:42SPEAKER_06: So Luke Getze goes to Akron, has a pretty like mediocre to not great career with Akron.
- 37:50SPEAKER_06: But more interestingly enough, he goes into coaching.
- 37:55SPEAKER_06: And he um he goes and he ends up being he floats around for a while, and currently he is the offensive coordinator of the Chicago Bears.
- 38:04SPEAKER_06: So keep that in the back of your mind for one minute, too.
- 38:07SPEAKER_06: Okay?
- 38:09SPEAKER_06: Because he does come back and he coaches Pitt actually under Wadstat in like 2010, I want to say, 2008 to 2010, and he's like a like a like a defensive assistant or uh offensive assistant of some sort.
- 38:24SPEAKER_06: So the next quarterback we'll talk about is Andrew Jinoko.
- 38:30SPEAKER_06: Every and he was a holder and backup quarterback for Pitt.
- 38:33SPEAKER_06: He was from Clearfield.
- 38:35SPEAKER_06: His father had been a head coach, head football coach at Clearfield for years.
- 38:39SPEAKER_06: He basically didn't do much of anything at Pitt as far as quarterback-wise, except for Tim knows the answer to this.
- 38:49SPEAKER_06: There was a game against Cincinnati in 2009.
- 38:52SPEAKER_06: It's a it pit had a huge lead and blew it, and they were they drive down the field with under like two minutes to go.
- 39:00SPEAKER_06: They score a touchdown after like overcoming all kinds of bad penalty calls, but it's a it's a snap that really isn't bad.
- 39:09SPEAKER_06: He drops the snap and Pitt doesn't kick the extra point, and Cincinnati probably goes down the field and scores and beats Pitt and they go to the was it the Orange Bowl and get blown up.
- 39:25SPEAKER_04: Sugar bowl against Tim Thibault.
- 39:27SPEAKER_06: Yeah, sugar bowl and get blown up by Tim Tebow, right?
- 39:31SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 39:31SPEAKER_06: So whatever happened to Andrew Jinoko.
- 39:34SPEAKER_06: So he actually goes to Rutgers and works for Shiano for a couple years, and he ends up in Minnesota being a uh I think like a QB coach or offensive assistant.
- 39:45SPEAKER_06: And um now, guess where he is uh coaching a quarterback coach for?
- 39:50SPEAKER_06: Guess what team in the NFL this season, Tim?
- 39:55SPEAKER_06: Um Green Bay.
- 39:58SPEAKER_06: He was with them, yes.
- 40:00SPEAKER_06: But now he is with the other AFC NFC North team, the Chicago Bears.
- 40:06SPEAKER_06: So you have two pit quarterbacks coaching the Chicago Bears.
- 40:10SPEAKER_06: That would be Andrew Jinoko is the QB coach, and uh Luke Getze is the offensive coordinator.
- 40:19SPEAKER_06: And um, you wonder why the Bears are having um offensive trouble.
- 40:24SPEAKER_06: Actually, they're not that they've been doing well with that backup guy from West Virginia, so maybe it's more Justin Fields, I don't know.
- 40:32SPEAKER_06: So uh it's just interesting that both there's two backup.
- 40:36SPEAKER_06: I think Getze kind of knew Jinoco from when he coached at Pitt briefly under Wanstatt, so maybe there's some connection there too.
- 40:46SPEAKER_06: But you know, good for Andrew Jinoco and Luke Getsey, definitely finding a niche in uh NFL coaching, and I hope they have a long coaching career.
- 40:54SPEAKER_06: It's good for them.
- 40:55SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Getze is actually um a guy that is sometimes rumored as a head coaching candidate, which I don't really understand because anytime I've watched the Chicago Bears game, their offense is like unwatchable, but uh apparently.
- 41:11SPEAKER_06: They've been okay with that.
- 41:12SPEAKER_06: I've seen some of them with that that kid and the division two guy.
- 41:16SPEAKER_04: Yeah, they've won a few games without Justin Fields, and uh and and so and that's been killing my fantasy team because Justin Fields is my fantasy quarterback.
- 41:26SPEAKER_06: But uh that's what you get for picking Ohio State quarterback.
- 41:29SPEAKER_04: I know, I know.
- 41:30SPEAKER_04: Lesson learned.
- 41:31SPEAKER_04: Uh uh but yeah, he's apparently one of the upper up and comers.
- 41:36SPEAKER_06: Uh you know, so maybe he'll replace Matt Canada.
- 41:40SPEAKER_04: Oh boy, that's something to look forward to.
- 41:42SPEAKER_06: You're not really excited about that prospect, are you?
- 41:44SPEAKER_04: Well, it it's it's yeah, and it's just interesting that pit quarterbacks are are making you know uh strides as coaches because you know you also know who the offensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns is, right?
- 41:57SPEAKER_06: Uh is it still Alex Van Pell?
- 41:58SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
- 41:59SPEAKER_06: We could have an all-pit offensive coaching staff.
- 42:03SPEAKER_04: Yep.
- 42:04SPEAKER_06: You know, yeah.
- 42:06SPEAKER_06: So what Alex Van Pell will be head coach, you know, uh what's it?
- 42:10SPEAKER_06: Get see could be the coordinator and Janoko could be the uh all-pit all the time.
- 42:15SPEAKER_06: And Kenny a quarterback, Tim.
- 42:18SPEAKER_06: I don't know.
- 42:19SPEAKER_06: He could be in heaven or hell, I don't know.
- 42:26SPEAKER_06: I don't see Alex Van Pelt becoming the fourth Steelers head coach in like 70 years.
- 42:32SPEAKER_06: So no, I don't either.
- 42:35SPEAKER_06: If that happens, I should have bet money on it.
- 42:40SPEAKER_06: So um switching, no, we're staying with football, but um we're we're we're switching gears here a little bit.
- 42:46SPEAKER_06: So, Tim, what would you think if every year we decided that the team that won the Super Bowl should play a team of college all-stars?
- 42:58SPEAKER_06: What would you think of that?
- 43:00SPEAKER_04: I think it would make for good TV.
- 43:02SPEAKER_04: And uh I don't know, I think I'd watch it.
- 43:05SPEAKER_04: It would be interesting.
- 43:07SPEAKER_04: But I don't see anybody's union.
- 43:09SPEAKER_06: Well, number one, the the players union or like high draft, like Caleb, the guy who's like what's what's a percentage of an NFL team is gonna go out there and play like an exhibition game, right?
- 43:20SPEAKER_04: Right, and risk your your draft health and everything else.
- 43:23SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you you you'd never see anything like that, right?
- 43:27SPEAKER_06: So back in the 30s and 40s, they decided it was a good idea, and really it was more of probably a benefit to the NFL than it was college.
- 43:37SPEAKER_06: Now, just for some perspective, like college football dating back to like the like early 20th century, like the 1900s, was much more popular than the NFL.
- 43:49SPEAKER_06: It was considered a pure sport, the gambling wasn't considered as much.
- 43:54SPEAKER_06: It was just the more talented players were considered in that because a lot of guys.
- 44:00SPEAKER_06: didn't go to the NFL, they would just go, I guess, have a career or whatever.
- 44:04SPEAKER_06: So the NFL was kind of conceded as this fledging league of you know Barnstorm.
- 44:10SPEAKER_06: And even if you look at the early NFL like franchises, the teams, you know, where are the decoder the decatur staleys right now?
- 44:19SPEAKER_06: You know, they're they're gone, or the Pottsville Maroons, or so teams came and went.
- 44:26SPEAKER_06: And, you know, I think this is a way to kind of legitimize the NFL.
- 44:30SPEAKER_06: And apparently this game actually continued all the way to 1976, and that was the last one.
- 44:38SPEAKER_06: And it featured the Pittsburgh Steelers, who were the Super Bowl champions, and they played an NF the college all-stars.
- 44:47SPEAKER_06: And in this game, it actually got it was played in like a horror, it was played in the summer because that way both leagues would be not in season.
- 44:57SPEAKER_06: And actually with this the pros only won 24 to nothing.
- 45:01SPEAKER_06: I mean, I realized the college team didn't score, but 24 to you would think it would be that more of a blowout.
- 45:08SPEAKER_06: And that it there was a torrential downpour, people were running onto the field.
- 45:16SPEAKER_06: I mean, Frank Gifford called it a carnival.
- 45:19SPEAKER_06: The game actually never even finished.
- 45:21SPEAKER_06: They they just called it in the third quarter.
- 45:24SPEAKER_06: But it ran it ran for a long time.
- 45:26SPEAKER_06: It ran from 19 well, let's see, I think 1934 to 1976, so it was like a 40-year transition.
- 45:35SPEAKER_06: And attendance at the 1947 game was 100,000 people.
- 45:41SPEAKER_06: And it's kind of weird, like you would think this wouldn't be, but being a member of the College All-Stars was the comp was competition that as a kid I dreamed of.
- 45:53SPEAKER_06: And that was Pro Football Hall of Fame receiver Paul Warfield, who played in the game as an all-star and with the Cleveland Browns.
- 46:00SPEAKER_06: And actually how they picked the get the team was kind of interesting, was a panel of 30 sports writers would just choose the first all-star team.
- 46:10SPEAKER_06: So that it's kind of interesting.
- 46:13SPEAKER_06: And then, you know, I guess in 34 they put lights on Soldier Field and everybody's like, ooh, they actually got 79,000 people to attend that game.
- 46:22SPEAKER_06: So I mean, it's an interesting concept, but I don't think for football, like you said, it would it would work.
- 46:31SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I can I can see why it was popular.
- 46:34SPEAKER_04: I mean, again, if they did that today, I think it would draw, I think people would definitely be interested in watching it.
- 46:39SPEAKER_04: But again, nobody we're now at the point where uh preseason NFL games aren't taken seriously.
- 46:48SPEAKER_04: Players don't don't even play in those most of the time.
- 46:50SPEAKER_04: And then for the college players, the postseason or non-regular season games for them, they don't play in if they're if they have any kind of NFL prospects.
- 47:00SPEAKER_04: So even if you even if you somehow got everybody to agree to that today, no one wants to play an exhibition game.
- 47:05SPEAKER_04: They don't even like playing the Pro Bowl anymore for that same reason.
- 47:08SPEAKER_04: No one wants to get hurt.
- 47:09SPEAKER_04: There's too much there's too much liability involved.
- 47:13SPEAKER_04: I think I think that would work better as like an NBA exhibition game.
- 47:17SPEAKER_06: Like if you got like all like the This is this is my idea for the NBA because they're having this ridiculous the NBA's having like an in-season tournament, which doesn't even make any sense to me.
- 47:27SPEAKER_06: And now in soccer, what they have is they call it the FA Cup.
- 47:31SPEAKER_06: And it's basically like you know what the US Open is in golf.
- 47:35SPEAKER_06: Like it's an a like if whatever, if you play golf, you can like tech, you know, now I suck at golf, and I don't I know, you know, you're probably if we if we could go out there and play a good enough round of golf, we could qualify to be in the U.S.
- 47:50SPEAKER_06: Open, right, Tim?
- 47:52SPEAKER_06: Right?
- 47:53SPEAKER_06: You that's how it works, right?
- 47:55SPEAKER_06: What?
- 47:56SPEAKER_04: No, definitely not.
- 47:57SPEAKER_06: No, but you I mean, conceivably we could.
- 48:00SPEAKER_04: Oh, oh, I like if we were able to play that well, is that what you're saying?
- 48:04SPEAKER_06: Yes.
- 48:04SPEAKER_04: Yeah, okay, yes, of course, yeah.
- 48:06SPEAKER_04: I'm just saying I wouldn't.
- 48:08SPEAKER_06: Well, I'm not saying I could.
- 48:10SPEAKER_06: I'm horrible at golf, but yeah, I can't even play mini golf, but yeah.
- 48:14SPEAKER_06: No, you're right.
- 48:14SPEAKER_06: Pretty much anybody can qualify as an amateur, yeah.
- 48:17SPEAKER_06: So it's the same concept in Europe, only with FA Cup is like any, like it could be 11 guys down the street that just play on Saturdays, can play and they play like a tournament.
- 48:29SPEAKER_06: And they have it soccer in the United States, it's called the Lamar Hunt Open Cup.
- 48:35SPEAKER_06: And so I think an open tournament at a bat on a basketball level would be incredible if you could get everybody to buy in, like an early season like this time of year, like if you could do everything from the NBA teams down to five guys from the rec center, get all the college teams involved, like, and you just play it on, like, and it's just one and done.
- 49:00SPEAKER_06: So it's literally one more game to your season.
- 49:04SPEAKER_06: And, you know, uh, what are you adding?
- 49:07SPEAKER_06: One more game to everybody's season.
- 49:09SPEAKER_06: I mean, I guess the team that keeps advancing will have to play four or five more games, but normally what they do is the higher level teams don't come in until like the fourth or fifth round of the playoffs, so that you've already gotten rid of most of the amateur teams.
- 49:26SPEAKER_06: But wouldn't it be cool to see like Duke or whoever the best team in college basketball play the LA Lakers or the Knicks or somebody?
- 49:34SPEAKER_06: And it's a one and done, so it wouldn't like, yeah, somebody could get hurt, but it's only one game.
- 49:41SPEAKER_04: Well, yeah.
- 49:41SPEAKER_04: No, it it would be interesting.
- 49:42SPEAKER_04: It'd be interesting to see, you know, football Georgia take on the Los Angeles Rams or something like that.
- 49:50SPEAKER_04: It just it but you're you're right.
- 49:52SPEAKER_04: It could gimmicks like that could work in basketball because you don't or soccer.
- 49:56SPEAKER_06: Or hockey.
- 49:57SPEAKER_06: Uh hockey even maybe, you know.
- 49:58SPEAKER_06: Well, I I don't think hockey's as popular.
- 50:01SPEAKER_06: I think basketball would be the perfect one for us.
- 50:04SPEAKER_04: But but it it it can only work because the sports they're physical, but they're you don't have the risk.
- 50:09SPEAKER_04: Football, I mean, any given play, somebody can blow out their knee, and and that's that's the end of their if you're a college player, that's the end of their NFL dreams potentially.
- 50:20unknown: Yeah.
- 50:20SPEAKER_04: And if you're if you're an NFL player, imagine if you're again like the Steelers in 1976 playing in that torrental downpour.
- 50:27SPEAKER_04: Imagine if Joe Joe Green blows out his ACL in that game, and then you're hosed for the next season.
- 50:33SPEAKER_04: I mean, that would just that'd be awful.
- 50:36SPEAKER_04: So you they didn't really think about stuff like that back then, but that's that's the kind of stuff that where you you just would never see it today.
- 50:43SPEAKER_04: So you're right.
- 50:43SPEAKER_04: It could work in basketball or soccer.
- 50:45SPEAKER_04: It will never you'll never see something like that again in football.
- 50:48SPEAKER_04: So that's definitely a uh an interesting thing that they used to play, but that you'll just never see it again.
- 50:56SPEAKER_06: Well, sticking with uh things that are totally random, uh the Penguins and Islanders, they've played a lot of interesting series and games.
- 51:05SPEAKER_06: And basically what happened was there was a lot of fights.
- 51:10SPEAKER_06: And I'm not sure what all started it, but I think it they say it was a hit on Rick D Pietro by okay, it was 2011, and there the game before this game when all heck broke loose was I think Rick D.
- 51:29SPEAKER_06: Pietro, the goalie for the Islanders, who was like their top pick.
- 51:32SPEAKER_06: And I think that didn't they sign him to like a 10-year contract?
- 51:36SPEAKER_04: 10-year contract, yeah.
- 51:39SPEAKER_04: No, but he was he was like their when you have a when you have a 10-year contract for a guy, and this is before he had kind of been flushed out as not going to work, at that point he was like literally like their like expensive vase that's in the middle of the room that you don't like keep the kids away from.
- 51:58SPEAKER_04: You know, don't don't don't mess with this because this that literally was like the the islander's entire future was in this kid.
- 52:05SPEAKER_04: And so to your point, when things start going sideways with perceived um physical acts towards the goaltender, that's that's why it ramped up as quickly as it did.
- 52:17SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I mean a couple people kind of nudged him, like Matt Cook kind of hit him, but that was the dirtiest.
- 52:24SPEAKER_06: But then DPHO comes out and like decides to fight Brent Johnson, and Brent Johnson knocks him out, and I think he was out for like he was always hurt.
- 52:33SPEAKER_06: That was his biggest problem.
- 52:35SPEAKER_06: He was just like always hurt, and like and like it wasn't like okay, what was Brent Johnson supposed to do, not fight him?
- 52:43SPEAKER_06: I I don't know.
- 52:44SPEAKER_06: So the Islanders were really ticked off about that, and so on the next time they played on February 2nd, the Islanders definitely were looking for the penguins, and it was just ridiculous.
- 52:57SPEAKER_06: I mean, everybody got in a fight with everybody.
- 52:59SPEAKER_06: I I think Gilly, they had the guy Gillies, he knocked out a penguin and like was literally standing on the doorway because they had kicked him off, but they hadn't pushed him, like he was standing in the doorway of like where you come in, and was like yelling at the penguin who was like out cold on the ice.
- 53:17SPEAKER_06: And it was like they came like for some reason, like Brent Johnson started the game, got pulled, and then got put back in the third period, and it was like literally just so the islanders could fight him.
- 53:29SPEAKER_06: I think by the end of the game, the penguins only had two guys left on their bench.
- 53:35SPEAKER_06: I I don't have the uh a total of like how many penalty minutes were given out in this game, but um yeah, it was it was a lot.
- 53:45SPEAKER_06: I remember this game.
- 53:46SPEAKER_06: I think that there was a lot of fines handed out, and it's weird to think that like the Penguins and Islanders really like you could see like a the Philadelphia Flyers or somebody like that, like that kind of goons it up a little bit.
- 54:01SPEAKER_06: But it was definitely kind of out of character, and and for this series, out of character, and that was Dan Balsma's team, which they weren't always the most disciplined.
- 54:12SPEAKER_06: The Penguins, I think, ended up losing the game like eight to two or something.
- 54:16SPEAKER_06: So uh I it was an interesting, it just like so many fights and just over like not it just kind of spiraled out of control very quickly.
- 54:26SPEAKER_06: It was just a weird, weird game with it had to be over hundred penalty minutes just in one game.
- 54:33SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it was it was really ugly.
- 54:35SPEAKER_04: It was it was kind of a callback to another era.
- 54:38SPEAKER_04: It was like like 70s hockey.
- 54:40SPEAKER_06: It looked like something out of slapshot out of the movie.
- 54:42SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly.
- 54:43SPEAKER_04: Something out of slapshot.
- 54:44SPEAKER_04: I mean, it's really what it was.
- 54:46SPEAKER_04: And you're right, there was a ton of fines.
- 54:48SPEAKER_04: I think there might have been some suspensions.
- 54:50SPEAKER_04: I mean, the league.
- 54:51SPEAKER_06: Well, when somebody came off the bench to defend Brent Johnson, one of the penguins, and now I know that's an instant like one game suspension.
- 54:58SPEAKER_04: Yeah, they they kind of had to get control of that because those two teams are in the same division.
- 55:02SPEAKER_04: They had to play each other more that year.
- 55:04SPEAKER_04: They couldn't, I mean, it was it was a complete farce.
- 55:07SPEAKER_04: I mean, it was just it was like it was like a playground thing where it's like these group of kids are mad at these group of kids, and they're just gonna keep fighting until a teacher steps in and physically separates them.
- 55:19SPEAKER_04: And uh and that's what it was.
- 55:20SPEAKER_04: It was really, really ugly.
- 55:22SPEAKER_04: And and like you said, it wasn't necessarily like one person's fault, or you can't trace it back to one exact thing.
- 55:28SPEAKER_04: It just was one of those things where it just kept ramping up and ramping up, and then it turned into this just absolute melee.
- 55:34SPEAKER_06: I think there was one islander that got in two separate fights during the game.
- 55:38SPEAKER_06: How do you and like uh like Brent Johnson gets pulled and then gets put back?
- 55:44SPEAKER_06: What was Bowelsman doing?
- 55:46SPEAKER_04: Like it was it was just a combination of like you said, the penguins of that era were very easy to rattle.
- 55:55SPEAKER_04: Like we talked about that before.
- 55:57SPEAKER_04: How that that that Balzma team in that era, you could just get under their skin very easily.
- 56:02SPEAKER_04: You combine that with again the the prize possession goaltender for the Islanders getting punched in the face, which you know it was his choice to fight.
- 56:13SPEAKER_04: And and Brent Johnson, I mean, uh Brent Johnson will no 30 years from now, I can't tell you one important save that Brent Johnson made, but everybody will remember that he's a guy that fought Rick DPH row, you know, and and so the the combination of all those things is just what led to that.
- 56:30SPEAKER_04: And it was it the funny thing about it, Steve, though, like typical to hockey, it was like it was this huge thing.
- 56:36SPEAKER_04: It was everybody hated each other, and then like the next time they played, it's like, okay, well, we're over it.
- 56:43SPEAKER_06: They got it out of their system.
- 56:44SPEAKER_04: They got it out of their system, and now they're you know, they're yeah, we're fine.
- 56:48SPEAKER_04: You know, it wasn't like you would think that would have lasted like years and years, or at least months and months, where it's like, oh, these two remember like the the Red Wings and Avalanche back in the 90s, it was years of that.
- 56:58SPEAKER_04: Every time they played each other, it was like, oh man, they're gonna fight and Claude Lemieux and and and Draper and all these guys.
- 57:05SPEAKER_04: Remember that?
- 57:05SPEAKER_04: Like, yeah, that's what you would have thought this would have turned into, and it it was over before it even it was over in that one game.
- 57:12SPEAKER_06: I think sometimes like if you just have a big blow up like that, it gets everybody gets it, the energy kind of leaves the room and it just gets it out of their system.
- 57:19SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
- 57:20SPEAKER_06: At least with men, I I they whoops, there I go again.
- 57:24SPEAKER_06: But yeah.
- 57:25SPEAKER_04: I'm not going to agree with whatever you're gonna say next.
- 57:29SPEAKER_06: I'm going to talk about Coach K yelling at a crowd of dukes.
- 57:33SPEAKER_04: Okay, let's let's pivot, yes.
- 57:34SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
- 57:37SPEAKER_06: Um, so uh Coach K he's been well, was a coach at Duke basketball for years and years and years and years.
- 57:47SPEAKER_06: And how how many national championships he win down there?
- 57:49SPEAKER_06: Five, four, it was twenty, sixteen and a half.
- 57:52SPEAKER_06: I don't know.
- 57:53SPEAKER_06: He won a lot.
- 57:56SPEAKER_06: He you know, iconic game, Christian Leitner hitting that shot over at Kentucky, or yeah, whatever.
- 58:02SPEAKER_06: Right?
- 58:03SPEAKER_06: So uh apparently, so you know, because Pitt Duke is such a big basketball rivalry.
- 58:10SPEAKER_06: I mean, it's almost on the level of Duke, North Carolina, sure.
- 58:14SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah.
- 58:14SPEAKER_04: I mean, think about all those years of.
- 58:17SPEAKER_06: I mean, LeVance Fields hit that shot in Madison Square Garden at one time.
- 58:21SPEAKER_06: That was pretty cool.
- 58:23SPEAKER_06: I mean, yeah.
- 58:25SPEAKER_06: I mean, I mean, there was that one time like two, like Duke came up that when Jamie Dixon was here and like Pitt had been winning a lot of games in the ACC, and you don't do that because Pitt sits there for football and you're supposed to be a doormat in basketball.
- 58:38SPEAKER_06: And how how dare you not be a doormat in basketball and beat like Clemson and teams that aren't good really traditionally.
- 58:46SPEAKER_06: So they had to send Duke up here to teach us all a lesson, and a lesson we were taught.
- 58:51SPEAKER_06: But this is not that game.
- 58:54SPEAKER_06: Um so like I guess for some reason, like I know the Cameron, the fans in that what they call them the Cameron Crazies, which is the student section and that their what a Cameron is the Cameron Field House or whatever the name of that.
- 59:10SPEAKER_04: Yeah, their arena, yep.
- 59:11SPEAKER_06: Whatever their it's probably the name of like, you know, you know, expedia.com or something now.
- 59:16SPEAKER_06: But but I so whatever the name of that stadium is, they they sit there and they do stuff like I've heard of like when the the uh visiting team comes out, they'll sit there and read the newspaper and act like they don't exist, and just like normally like more clever stuff like that.
- 59:35SPEAKER_06: But apparently they were yelling.
- 59:37SPEAKER_06: This is when Jeff Capel was the coach and Duke was ranked ninth, and Jeff Capel is the coach of Pitt, and he had played at Duke and been an assistant and fairly successful, and I guess well liked, right?
- 59:49SPEAKER_06: Found it, Duke.
- 59:50SPEAKER_06: Like oh yeah.
- 59:51SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah, well in in the night, so so full disclosure, I I was a huge Duke basketball fan back in back in the well then maybe you'll be add some more context.
- 1:00:01SPEAKER_06: I don't really understand this at all, but yeah.
- 1:00:04SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but but Jeff K so Jeff Capel, when he played for Duke, it was it was like the the mid to late nineties.
- 1:00:11SPEAKER_04: It was after Kristen Leitner and Grant Hill and Bobby Hurley and all those those great teams that that had won national championships were in the final four, and Duke kind of had this lull in the mid-90s where they didn't really have very good teams.
- 1:00:27SPEAKER_04: Uh they they got it back together in like the late 90s, early 2000s, and they won a another national championship in 2001.
- 1:00:34SPEAKER_04: But in in in Jeff Capel's time, he was kind of like the poster child of you know, really good Duke player that they had always gotten, but he didn't really have a good team around him.
- 1:00:44SPEAKER_04: He he was a good player, but that was just he was there at a bad time.
- 1:00:50SPEAKER_06: So that's the background.
- 1:00:52SPEAKER_06: So Jeff Capel comes back, and I guess when an opposing team comes with like a player or a coach that used to be a Duke, obviously they would have been an assistant coach, not a head coach.
- 1:01:03SPEAKER_06: Um I guess they the fans yell sit with us or something.
- 1:01:08SPEAKER_06: Is that some sort of Duke?
- 1:01:11SPEAKER_06: No idea.
- 1:01:11SPEAKER_04: I don't get what that means, but sure.
- 1:01:13SPEAKER_06: I does that mean come back to Duke?
- 1:01:15SPEAKER_06: Does it mean sit with us?
- 1:01:17SPEAKER_06: This your team that you're so I don't it must had to be something else that was said, but that in the media that's what they're saying.
- 1:01:26SPEAKER_06: That's that's what they're saying was said.
- 1:01:29SPEAKER_06: And so maybe there was something else that was more insulting, but in the middle of the at I think after the halftime or something, uh Coach K goes and yells at the his own fans, the student section, saying to stop that, and then goes to the pit bench and apologizes to the pit coaching staff and players for this.
- 1:01:51SPEAKER_06: So I I think it's something something was said more serious than that.
- 1:01:56SPEAKER_06: So I don't know what was said that there's never been any reliable media reporting, but apparently enough to I mean I don't think like he coach K never really did stuff.
- 1:02:08SPEAKER_06: He wasn't Bobby Knight throwing chairs and stuff like that.
- 1:02:12SPEAKER_06: So I I don't know.
- 1:02:14SPEAKER_06: I I don't know, Tim.
- 1:02:15SPEAKER_06: Any clue what what that was about?
- 1:02:17SPEAKER_06: You're more of a Duke fan than than I ever was, or yeah.
- 1:02:22SPEAKER_04: I so I think probably um there had to be something else that was I I'm sure I mean he's he's right by the the student section, so he's hearing everything, right?
- 1:02:33SPEAKER_04: And and the pit coaching staff is hearing everything.
- 1:02:37SPEAKER_04: Um so I I'm sure something else was said that that we don't know.
- 1:02:42SPEAKER_04: Some something obviously really upset Coach Kay.
- 1:02:45SPEAKER_04: And I think, like you said, he wasn't Bobby Knight, right?
- 1:02:48SPEAKER_04: He wasn't one of these guys that yelled and screened.
- 1:02:50SPEAKER_04: And I think what happens, I think to me the big advantage of having that kind of personality is whenever you do get angry about something, I I think people tend to take it more seriously.
- 1:03:02SPEAKER_06: If that's what I think something's really, yeah.
- 1:03:05SPEAKER_06: It's like the guy that never misses work.
- 1:03:07SPEAKER_06: It's like when that like you have the guy that always misses work, you go, oh Joe, he's late again.
- 1:03:12SPEAKER_06: And then like you got the guy that doesn't miss where you're like, oh Joe, whoa, what's wrong?
- 1:03:16SPEAKER_06: Something must be going on.
- 1:03:17SPEAKER_06: He must be really sick or something, you know.
- 1:03:20SPEAKER_04: Right.
- 1:03:20SPEAKER_04: So so obviously um, you know, him him getting upset there, there it had to have been like a better reason.
- 1:03:26SPEAKER_04: It wasn't like he just flew off the handle there.
- 1:03:29SPEAKER_04: And then, you know, kudos to him for defending the pit coaching stuff.
- 1:03:34SPEAKER_04: I I will say that you you you have to wonder, I mean, Jeff Capel was his guy.
- 1:03:40SPEAKER_04: Uh if that were if that were Kevin Stallings, right?
- 1:03:44SPEAKER_04: Uh or some other pitch coach that does Coach K still get upset and still yell at the fans.
- 1:03:50SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
- 1:03:51SPEAKER_04: You'd like to think that it was more about the principal than it was about the person, but certainly Jeff Capel was his guy.
- 1:03:57SPEAKER_04: Again, coach had coached him, had had he had been an assistant coach.
- 1:04:02SPEAKER_04: You know, there was some talk it's at one point of Capel, because Coach Kay was you know getting up there in years, there was some talk of Capel, you know, potentially taking over at Duke when Coach K retired.
- 1:04:12SPEAKER_04: So I I think that um again, if that's not his guy, I don't know that he he has the same reaction.
- 1:04:18SPEAKER_04: But uh anyway, kudos to him anyway, for for sticking up for the pit the pit coaching staff.
- 1:04:25SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I I don't understand it, but um hey, whatever.
- 1:04:28SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
- 1:04:29SPEAKER_06: Um Coach K definitely a class hack compared to some of the other basketball is such a skiing sport on at the college level.
- 1:04:37SPEAKER_06: So um all right, switching to something totally different, and I don't know if we've ever covered this before.
- 1:04:44SPEAKER_06: Stop me if you've heard this before.
- 1:04:47SPEAKER_06: So we're gonna talk about the Pittsburgh Pirates, and I'm actually gonna play a video.
- 1:04:52SPEAKER_04: I think we've talked about the pirates before.
- 1:04:54SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 1:04:56SPEAKER_06: And this is like 1981, and the pirates are rumoring to be talking to another to another town named New Orleans.
- 1:05:06SPEAKER_06: And apparently some representatives of the Louisiana Superdoom came up and talked to the Pirates President Dan Galbraith for two hours and attempted to steal them away to said Louisiana Superdoom.
- 1:05:20SPEAKER_06: So um I'm gonna share.
- 1:05:22SPEAKER_06: This is a really it's more really a cool report by Adam Long on Channel 4.
- 1:05:28SPEAKER_06: Who am I?
- 1:05:29SPEAKER_06: He has like one of those voice of God reporter guys.
- 1:05:32SPEAKER_06: Uh listen to the it's great, it's great reporting, too.
- 1:05:37SPEAKER_01: Usual at the stadium yesterday, but the behind the scenes maneuvering attracted more attention.
- 1:05:42SPEAKER_01: Pirate President Dan Galbreath met with the executive director of the Louisiana Superdome for two hours and then told reporters something has to break in his dispute over the terms of the stadium league.
- 1:05:53SPEAKER_00: But those that we've tried to talk to don't really appreciate what a major league franchise means to a They've taken it for granted.
- 1:06:02SPEAKER_00: And they say, well, the Galvers can afford it, so let's don't worry about it.
- 1:06:06SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, that's we've come to the end of that road.
- 1:06:08SPEAKER_00: And if they think there aren't viable alternatives out there, there might be some very surprised people.
- 1:06:14SPEAKER_01: This morning, Mayor Calagure wasted no time in blasting what he called an illegal move by that New Orleans group.
- 1:06:21SPEAKER_02: The federal uh court that we filed the suit in is saying to them, and I'm saying to the City of New Orleans, to butt out of our business.
- 1:06:29SPEAKER_02: We have a binding agreement between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the City of Pittsburgh to the year 2000, and that under this lawsuit and under a point of law, a third party is not permitted to try to entice one of those parties to either leave or break that lease.
- 1:06:48SPEAKER_02: So very simply, I'm telling them to stay out of our business.
- 1:06:51SPEAKER_02: We'll work out our differences up here.
- 1:06:52SPEAKER_02: Uh, if they want to come to Pittsburgh, let them buy a ticket and watch a game.
- 1:06:55SPEAKER_01: That produced this reaction from Pirate Marketing Director Jack Trom.
- 1:06:59SPEAKER_03: Our feeling is this that New Orleans people came up.
- 1:07:02SPEAKER_03: Uh they came up to talk to the really the whole world of baseball and to say that if there's ever a franchise available, they'd be interested in having it.
- 1:07:08SPEAKER_03: But they also said they're here with a big if and they'll talk to us again.
- 1:07:12SPEAKER_03: There's nothing scheduled, and they'll talk to us again if something should happen in our court case.
- 1:07:16SPEAKER_03: So I think all that has really been settled.
- 1:07:18SPEAKER_03: That they're just waiting to see if anything happens.
- 1:07:20SPEAKER_03: If it does, they're interested.
- 1:07:21SPEAKER_03: If it happens in another city, if it would happen before Pittsburgh, uh, you know, they'd they'd go that direction.
- 1:07:26SPEAKER_03: They're really talking to the world of baseball on it.
- 1:07:28SPEAKER_01: One wonders what the great pirate shortstop Hannes Wagner would have said about all this.
- 1:07:33SPEAKER_01: The ball club suing the city, and now in this lawsuit, the city suing another city, veiled threats to leave, warnings you better not, and the possibility on top of all that of a player strike at the end of next month.
- 1:07:45SPEAKER_01: Wagner, you had it easy.
- 1:07:47SPEAKER_01: You lived in a simpler time.
- 1:07:49SPEAKER_01: Adam Lynch, Channel 4, Action News.
- 1:07:52SPEAKER_06: I mean Adam Lynch, not Adam Long.
- 1:07:54SPEAKER_06: I'm comparing I was combining Paul Long and Adam Lynch there.
- 1:07:59SPEAKER_06: Boy, what a great report, though.
- 1:08:01SPEAKER_04: Yeah, what and a great forgotten story.
- 1:08:04SPEAKER_06: Like And I love Mayor Caligeri, man, giving them the business.
- 1:08:08SPEAKER_04: Yeah, suing suing the city of New Orleans.
- 1:08:11SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's that's crazy.
- 1:08:13SPEAKER_06: So what they were gonna play baseball in the Superdome?
- 1:08:16SPEAKER_04: Well, sure.
- 1:08:16SPEAKER_04: They played baseball in the Astrodome and the Kingdom and this.
- 1:08:19SPEAKER_06: I mean, could you do that?
- 1:08:21SPEAKER_06: Is the Superdome set up to do that?
- 1:08:23SPEAKER_06: I I guess it could be.
- 1:08:25SPEAKER_04: I guess it I guess it was, yeah.
- 1:08:27SPEAKER_06: I mean, they play they play baseball in that ridiculous dome down in Tampa, so it can't be any worse than that.
- 1:08:35SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean it it's just and it was interesting.
- 1:08:38SPEAKER_04: I mean, obviously the pirates were pulling a little bit of like the Mary Oli going to Kansas City thing there.
- 1:08:43SPEAKER_04: You know, like, oh well, hey, they're we're just saying, hey, if something opens up, they're interested.
- 1:08:47SPEAKER_06: So, you know, hey, we were just pirates.
- 1:08:50SPEAKER_06: They wouldn't have to change the name at all.
- 1:08:52SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 1:08:53SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 1:08:54SPEAKER_04: But uh, I mean they obviously they were just there was some positioning on their part.
- 1:08:58SPEAKER_04: But then yeah, the city the city's like, nope, you're not, you're not.
- 1:09:03SPEAKER_06: 2000, and that was 1981.
- 1:09:05SPEAKER_06: They had like that was like what a 20-year agreement.
- 1:09:09SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 1:09:10SPEAKER_06: And uh what they ended up, the Galbrus ended up selling anyway, didn't they?
- 1:09:15SPEAKER_04: Well, they they did, and I think I think the the remember the what what Caladory was saying was the agreement was that that not necessarily that the pirates couldn't get out of it, the agreement was that other cities weren't allowed to come and make offers and entice them to come.
- 1:09:29SPEAKER_04: That's what that's what he was upset about.
- 1:09:31SPEAKER_04: That's what he was suing the city of New Orleans for, was that you know, the agreement is binding where you can't just come up and be like, hey, uh you guys interested in playing in the Superdome?
- 1:09:41SPEAKER_04: Because we would like to have a baseball team.
- 1:09:44SPEAKER_06: And how many baseball teams does New Orleans have as of this day?
- 1:09:47SPEAKER_04: Well, yeah, they never did get their baseball team.
- 1:09:50SPEAKER_06: Although they're talking about expansion, so but nobody ever mentions New Orleans.
- 1:09:54SPEAKER_06: They mentioned Nashville more than New Orleans, so I don't know.
- 1:09:58SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but that's that's a that's a great find because that's one of those things that again nobody would ever really remember.
- 1:10:06SPEAKER_04: Uh uh you know, unless unless you just kind of told that story.
- 1:10:10SPEAKER_04: It's just one of those things that I don't know where the lawsuit went, or it was probably just it was probably just more political posturing than it was anything.
- 1:10:17SPEAKER_06: I would say I know my dad loved Richard Calligerry, he loved Mayor Calligerry.
- 1:10:23SPEAKER_06: It's stuff like that, and he paved the street in front of our house.
- 1:10:26SPEAKER_06: Our street was brick in front of our house until 1986.
- 1:10:30SPEAKER_06: And like he literally, yeah.
- 1:10:32SPEAKER_06: He then he died enough.
- 1:10:34SPEAKER_06: It was so sad.
- 1:10:34SPEAKER_06: And it's funny they would be building them a stadium less than 20 years later.
- 1:10:40SPEAKER_06: So I mean it it did it he did kind of start that too, like with uh the public right, like the Galbras that was the way things have gone, is like you know, the public pays for the stadium, like owners figured that out that the white elephant is the facility and the the moneymaker is the team.
- 1:11:01SPEAKER_06: People are gonna come and see the team, it doesn't matter where they play.
- 1:11:04SPEAKER_06: I mean it does, but it doesn't.
- 1:11:06SPEAKER_04: And the threat of another city, right?
- 1:11:08SPEAKER_04: That's that's that's the other thing.
- 1:11:10SPEAKER_04: That's the the always the X factor.
- 1:11:12SPEAKER_04: It's like, oh well if you're not gonna take us seriously, then we're gonna listen to these people from this other city.
- 1:11:18SPEAKER_06: Well, that's all I got for this episode, Tim.
- 1:11:21SPEAKER_06: It was definitely a lot of stuff that happened that was it wasn't random enough for you, Tim.
- 1:11:29SPEAKER_04: Yeah, good, good, good kind of some some of those stories, like we said, just stuff that uh I mean I don't think I could have done 30 minutes on the Pirates in New Orleans or an hour on the Pirates in New Orleans going back.
- 1:11:40SPEAKER_06: No, these these are all I could have tried, but it wouldn't be.
- 1:11:43SPEAKER_04: No, you're right.
- 1:11:43SPEAKER_04: These you couldn't have done a whole episode on any of these stories.
- 1:11:46SPEAKER_04: I mean, Luke Getsey is worth an hour just on himself.
- 1:11:49SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 1:11:49SPEAKER_04: Yeah, let's analyze the Chicago Bears offense.
- 1:11:52SPEAKER_04: That would make a we'd get lots of downloads on that episode.
- 1:11:56SPEAKER_06: Well, thank you for listening, and uh thank you for letting us clean out our uh kitchen junk drawer here.
- 1:12:02SPEAKER_06: I hope you enjoyed it.
- 1:12:03SPEAKER_06: Um please uh you know give us word of mouth and check us out on all your podcast services and uh recommends on Facebook or whatever.
- 1:12:11SPEAKER_06: You know, social media you can.
- 1:12:13SPEAKER_06: And uh thanks for listening all these uh a couple years now, and uh we'll uh see you next time here on Pittsburgh Sports Metra.