Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / One Leg Up With Fmr. Yankees PR Man and Baseball Digest Editor-In-Chief Rick Cerrone 10-1-24

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One Leg Up With Fmr. Yankees PR Man and Baseball Digest Editor-In-Chief Rick Cerrone 10-1-24 · OneLegUpAlex Media

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Here's your host, Alex Garrett.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: All right, well we're back here on the Alex Garrett
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Podcast one on the Gout Network, and with me today
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: rejoining is the one and only Rick Sarone. Rick, of course,
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: the PR director of the Yankees at the most incredible time,
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: right eleven seasons during that time it was ninety six,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: ninety eight, nine, two thousand and he even was there
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: to help the Yankees, you know, through the crisis of
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: nine to eleven, as they were helping the community through
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: nine to eleven and so much more. Rick Saron, thanks
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: for rejoining me today.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: Well, Alex, it's great to be back with you, but
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: you got one correction. I don't think you can say
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: the one and only Rick Sarone.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Here is another one that spells.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: His name with one R and was a catcher for
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: many teams but also the Yankees, which made my life
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: a living hell when I was you know, try George Bush,
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: the president. When I met him, his first words to
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: me were Seaton Hall and I had to say, no,
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: that wasn't me, that was the other.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Rick Saron, and he looked at me like I had
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: three eyes. So anyway, but.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Actually, you know, your NIU just beat Notre Dame. I
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: was looking absolutely went to NIU and they just had
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: an incredible win over there, and I.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Was there and it was one of the great days.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: Of my life. Never in a million years did I
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: think that what ever happen. I went to a Notre
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: Dame football game when I was actually a student at
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: Northern Illinois, and that was exactly fifty years ago when
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: I went to see number five Notre Dame play number
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: seventeen pick. And oddly, when we played Notre Dame three
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: weeks ago on September seventh, they were ranked fifth in
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: the nation. So number one, I never thought we would
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: get on that field with them, and number two, I
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: could never have imagined that we would outplay them and win.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: The game, now, you know. And by the way, they
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: were paid one million dollars I think to play that game,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: and look what they did.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, actually it was one point four million. But you know, people,
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: I mean I read in Phil Mushnick's column we said
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: that's what Notre Dame gets for scheduling a cupcake.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Well, I wouldn't hardly call.
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: Northern Illinois a cupcake, since they've beaten twenty Power five teams,
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: including Alabama, over the years, and two weeks after the
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: Notre Dame game, they you know, they went toe to
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: toe with North Carolina State and thoroughly outplayed them and
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: just happened to turn the ball over twice inside the
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: ten yard line and resulted in two touchdowns and they
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: had lost by seven.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: So hardly a cupcake, but it was a great.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Day, by the way, I think as a Notre Dame
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: pan I should thank you because I think that fired
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: up the Irish. They're now on a two game win
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: streak the last week.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: There you go, well, that'll do it.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: But anyway, well, you know what's interesting.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: I was looking through what you've been up to, and
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: obviously you're the historically the fourth editor in chief, which
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: is pretty cool of the Baseball Digest. But I want
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: to start out, you know what about ninety nine in
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: a minute, But I know that you and Richard Neer
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: had a radio show together. Yeah, and of course I
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: love listening to Richard on wfan. First of all, do
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: you stay in touch with him?
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah? And actually he still does some shows on WFAN,
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: and he frequently has me on as a guest, usually
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: whenever an issue of Baseball Digest is about to go
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: on sale, He'll pop me on and we and we
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: you know, it's like the old days when we were
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: doing it every night from six.
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: To nine or six to eight, five to eight.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: On wn W. And that was back in nineteen eighty seven.
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: And you know, I'm very bad the show only.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: Lasted a year because the station changed its format. But
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: I'm very proud of that because I was basically tasked
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: with creating a sports talk show for WNW, which was
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: the home of the Giants. Back then. It was a
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: big am station whose audience was literally dying off because
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: it was kind of like Music of your Life, you know, Sinatra,
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: Tony Pettitt and that King Call, and they wanted to
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: change formats and have a daily three.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Hour sports program.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: Well, in those days, Alex, there was only two other
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: sports talk shows on and they were both from six
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: to nine. I believe one was Art Russ Junior and
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: the other was Dave Simms, now the voice of the
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: Seattle Mariners.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: And it was basically a man with a phone and
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: a guest.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: And we kind of rewrote the template for sports talk
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: shows when we basically said, well, you need two hosts
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: so we can go back and forth and the station
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: manager looked at us like, we had three hour so
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: to speak to two hosts.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: It's a sports talk show. We want to interrupt the program.
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: Every twenty minutes with scores and news, and they thought
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: that was crazy. And we also had reporters covering the
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: different teams, like we go to our Yankee reporter, we
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: go to our Mets reporter, our Giants reporter. I'm very
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: proud of that because that's basically the template for what
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: sports talk shows became. And we also started a number
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: of careers like Bob Poppa. We basically gave him his
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: first job, and you know, Steve Cangelosi and others. We
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: had Peter king On back in the nineteen eighties as
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: our und guy.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: You know, it was a great time.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: But what happened was we learned that WHN, the country
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: music station in New York, was going to go all
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: sports had become wfan and I thought at the time, well,
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: number one, this will never last. Twenty four hour day
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: sports will not last, you know, forever. But I also thought,
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: but it'll lasts long enough to kill us off.
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: So basically I was one for two.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: On those opinions.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: But at the same time, July of nineteen eighty seven,
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: I got a chance to become the vice president of
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: public relations for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and I kind of
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: longed to get back into baseball, so I took that
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: job and the show didn't last the rest of the year,
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: but great experience.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't trade it for anything, And it's just, you know,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: it's part of.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: What I've done in.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: My career, which was kind of diverse.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, I want to talk about the Pirates real quick
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: because obviously Jimmy Lewand in the hall, Now, what was
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: your connection with him, like as the involved in that organization.
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, this is going to sound crazy, but
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: I was very close to Joe Torri with the Yankees,
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: but compared, the Pirates were a family. It's you know,
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: it was a business, but everyone in the front office
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: was friends. We were friends with players. You know, we
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: were younger. We we had players over, uh to your
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: house for barbecues and went to their houses. Uh, you know,
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: we went on a cruise together, we went on on
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: vacations together. It was a different time, it was a
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: different market, it was a small town. It was a
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: wonderful experience, and you know, Jimmy Leland was. You know,
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: he was the best, I mean, different than Joe Tory. Well,
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: you know, I had two managers. They're both in the
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Hall of Fame. I called. I called Jim's wife Katie,
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: a week or two weeks before the election, and she said,
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: Jim is very worried. He feels like he's going to
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: let a lot of people down if he doesn't get in.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: I said, Katie, He's getting in, there's no doubt. She was,
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: how do you know that. I said, well, I've had
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: two managers. I've never had a manager that's not in
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: the Hall of Fame. And she laughed. But you know,
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: he was. He was a piece of work. He was.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: He was a character and you know, we had a
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: lot of lot of laughs, a lot of tears, and
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: it was just Pittsburgh to me, was a very very
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: special time. Not that the Yankees were not, it was
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: just very different.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm sure. And by the way, I remember him
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: in the six era of Jimmy Leeland and on the
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Tigers managing the Yanks out of the playoffs. Basically the
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: way he ran that Alds, I mean it was he
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: got to the World Series. You know, he even though
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: he was a little older he still had it, didn't
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: he back in six Oh?
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: He absolutely did. He still does. But he's going to
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: turn eighty in December. You know.
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: He and Katie came over for dinner.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: About a month ago and we were reminiscing, and I
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: reminded him that.
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: The first time I met you was literally an.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: Hour and a half before the first game you ever managed,
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: because Peter you ber Off, the Commissioner of Baseball, I
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: was working for him at the time. He said, tomorrow,
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: let's go down fly down to Pittsburgh on his private
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: on a private plane, by the way, and he wanted
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: to go to the first game with this new ownership group,
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: the thirteen companies and private individuals that banded together to
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: save the franchise for the city of Pittsburgh. So we
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: went down to the game and we're in the front office,
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: which within a year would be my home, and we're
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: there with the president, Mac Prime, and through this door
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: comes this guy in a Pirate's spanking white Pirates uniform
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: and he's making his way down the hall and I'm like,
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: that's Jim Leland, the manager. He'd never managed a game
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: at that point, and he comes up to our group
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: and Mac prime.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: The president says, oh.
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: Jim, I'd like you to meet the Commissioner of Baseball
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: and his wife Jenny. And he says, yeah, it nice
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: to meet you. Hey, there's some about this line up. Yeah,
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: the best they gotta get done. Twenty five players. There
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: are twenty six plays or twenty six players, a lot
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: of cards. And he's going like he's like he's engaged.
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: With an umpire. Now, I don't know what he.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: Wanted mac Prine to do, and I don't know what
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: mac prian did. But when he turned and left, Peter,
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: you brought nudges mac Prane and says, your new guy
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: there has a real fire in his belly. I like that.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: I think you got a good one.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: Well, Peter was right, but that was my introduction to
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: Jim Leland, and we both laughed when we recall that
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: little encounter.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: You know you mentioned in the Commissioner's office and uh,
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: you worked for two commissioners. Tell us a little bit
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: about that as well.
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: Well. I I was hired by Bowie Kune, you know,
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: by Booey Kuwan's public relationship.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: And by the way, I'm talkingbout this because maybe people
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: know you as only the yankeest p you were so
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: much more, you know.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: And people don't know me at all.
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: So I started, I went to work.
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: I had started a Baseball man magazine when I got
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: out of college through a series of happenstance or as
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: I like to say, opportunity.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: That I seized.
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: So I did the magazine Baseball Quarterly became Baseball Magazine,
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: and I did it for five years. And as I
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: told someone who interviewed me for a local newspaper very
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: early on in the process, I said, at the very least,
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: this is a very expensive resume. Well, when I couldn't
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: do the magazine anymore, I mean the circulation was like
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: sixty thousand, twenty two thousand subscribers, but couldn't get advertising.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: Different world back that couldn't get advertising. So I closed
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: the doors, and eventually an opening came up in the
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: commissioner's office on the staff of Buie Kun and I
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: got the job. And I worked for Booie for probably
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: two years before he was kind of ousted by the owners.
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: Wasn't reelected Peter Youbrov, who was at the time the
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: time magazine Man of the Year. He ran the Los
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: Angeles Olympics in nineteen eighty four, and we were so
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: worried about Peter that he was going to come in
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: like a whirlwind. And we worked for this man, and
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: you know, I to me, it was the best thing
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: that ever.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Happened, because you know, I liked Booie Kune. I admired him.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: I respected him. I would argue with anyone that says,
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: how could he be in the Hall of Fame? Well,
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: I'll cite all the reasons, but you know, Booie was
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: kind of pompous if you you know, he didn't you know,
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: and I was a nobody, and you know, Booie was
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: the kind of guy that would walk in the rain
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: with somebody behind him holding an umbrella. Uh, Peter ue
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: was Somebody once said, well, the difference between Bowie and
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: Peter is that Bowie wants to be king and.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Peter wants to be president. Well not totally inaccurate, but
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: I was working for Peter eu Broth. He was very challenging.
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: He kind of prepared me a little bit for working
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: for George Steinrenner, because you know, George Steinrenner was you
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: you had to have a battle plan to survive that job.
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: And in those days, surviving the Yankees for eleven years.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: That was a pretty you know, he had gone through
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: twelve PR directors before me in the twenty five years
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: that he owned the team. Yeah, that's two years of man.
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: The longest serving PR director under George Steinrenterer before me
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: was Harvey Green, who was known as the Lou Garrett
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: of Yankee PR directors, you know, because he was three seasons.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: It was like he ran through PR directs, he ran
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: through managers at times.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: It was exactly right. Like George Costanzas said, he fires
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: people like it's a bodily function, usually his managers and
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: his PR directors.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: So but I had a game plan. I kind of assessed.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: Him, and I you know, I had a definite strategy
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: of how I was going to attack that job. Rick.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: It says that you counseled mister Steinberger, now I call
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: him Minch Steiberuse. He brought me to the family and
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: so do what.
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: I do too.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: I highly regard him, obviously, But you know, you counsel them,
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: and not many could counsel him during that era. So
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: how are you able to do it?
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: Look, I'm going to take you back to nineteen seventy
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: seven when I was doing the magazine. I landed an
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: interview after the Yankees won the World Series with mister
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: Steinbrenner for a Q and A section of our magazine.
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: So I'm sitting across and it was in his office
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: in November of nineteen seventy seven.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: My god, that's forty seven years ago.
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: So we're sitting.
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: Across that table he had in his office, that roundtable,
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: and I'm interviewed and I'm asked some questions.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: And I went back and listened to the.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: Tape a couple of years ago, and boy, I got
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: to pat myself on the back for how I pressed
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: him on certain topics like free agency and things like that.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: But at one point I asked him about.
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: The way he managed people, and his response resonated with me.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: He says, Rick, there are two types of leaders. Some
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: are eyes and hours, and some are patents, he said,
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: referring to the two very different World War Two generals.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: He said, I guess I'm a patent. So now I
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: desperately wanted to be the PR director of the Yankees
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: since I was in high school, you know, seven years
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: earlier than that. And I left the office that day.
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: I still remember being in that parking lot at dusk,
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: thinking if you ever get this job, that's the way
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: you're going to play this. He's general patent and you're
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: like a lowly corporal.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: And you love that also a lot over the years
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: as owner. I remember that well.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: It was always to me. I answered the phone, yes, sir.
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: I prefaced everything I said with sir, so it became sir,
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: if I might, sir, if I can.
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: Tell you this, Sir.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: I can't let you do that, Sir.
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: Are you out of your mind? You know?
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: It was always preface with sir.
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: But the thing I learned about George Steinrenter is you
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: just had to give in your opinion. Know, you had
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: to do what you thought was best for him and
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: the Yankees. So you know, the first crisis I really
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: ever had with him other than the one that happened
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: on the day after I met him, when I got
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: the job, and he's pressing me about why are all
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: these why are we feeding all these media guys for
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: free in our press dining room? And I looked at
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: the lit I said, would you explain that to me?
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: And I said to him, I said, hey, I didn't
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: work for you when you designed this building with the
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: new spring training facility in Tampa. I didn't. I wasn't
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: part of the decision to have a media dining room,
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: and I certainly wasn't part of the decision to feed
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: the press every day for free.
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: Other than that, sir, I don't know.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: What to tell you.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: And it looked at me and he said, get out
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: of here.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: So I went back to my office and the guy
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: that was in the office with him, which was the
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: guy that ran the press room, Max Margolis, the phone
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: rings and it's Max and he says, you know, great job.
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: Don't take any you know bs from him. So I
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: always thought, what the heck was that about? Why would
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: And you know what, Alex, it was a test, he says,
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: I'm going to test my new PR guy. I had
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: just met him read you know, I met him obviously
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: when I did the interview in seventy sevens, but as
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: my boss, I had just been introduced to him the
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: day before and he was great. Oh, you know, Lenn
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: Burman says great things about.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: You, Len Burman, the great you know, sportscaster.
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: Lenn. I don't know what you said, but thank you
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: and if you need it and go get him going there.
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, this is a piece cake. Well, the
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: next day he's got me down in Max Margolis's office
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: and he's he's wondering why we're feeding the media for free.
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: But I look back, and it.
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: Was a test.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Let's see what this kid's made of.
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: And I think I, according to Max, I passed the test,
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: and I.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: Him as a summer because I see the quote here.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: I always found reassurance knowing that you were part of
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: my team. Thanks for everything you've contributed. Now when did
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: he say that quote?
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: He wrote that to me at the end of a
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: letter he.
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: Wrote me a letter.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: I had given him a book.
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: I believe about Ted Williams, and he sent me a
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: thank you note and that was the second paragraph, which I, wow,
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: holy crap. But I was telling you about the Second Crisis,
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: that we were in Oakland, but we're staying in San Francisco,
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: but we're playing Oakland.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: And apparently.
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: Ruben Seer not in the starting lineup, and he went
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: off on Joe Torre before the game.
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: So when you're on the.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: West Coast in those days, it's not like today, when
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: news gets out in twenty minutes. They have a let's
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: say a nine o'clock or seven whatever.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: The deadline is because remember you're.
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: Three hours behind.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: So it didn't matter what happened in the game or
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: after the game, because the writers already filed their story,
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: and the next day's headline was Joe's a liar, Ruben
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: Sierra and all these horrible things that Rubin said. And
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: after the game they kind of like worked it out.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: And everything was great and the writers knew it.
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: But that wouldn't be in the paper till now Sunday.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: So next morning, George Steinbergner calls me in my hotel room.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: You get a piece of paper and a pencil, and
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: you write down what I'm going to say, and you
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: get this to all the writers, into our broadcasters, and
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: he just trashes Ruben Sierra. He's saying things like, you know,
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: this is why he's never won anything. I said, he goes,
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: You got that, I said, sir, Before I hang up,
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: I need to tell you that after the game, Joe
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: met with Ruben for like a half hour. Ruben has apologized.
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: Everything is great. I don't care. I still want this
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: out there. We've got to teach this man a lesson.
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: I said, sir, you're basically throwing fuel on a fire.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: That's already out.
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: So this will be on the broadcast tomorrow and it'll
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: be in Sunday's paper. If you say this, that will
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: be in Sunday's paper, and we'll be back to school.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: And he went back and forth, and finally he says
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: to me, all right, so what you're saying to me
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: is I should say nothing. I said, yes, sir, that's
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: what I'm saying. And he said, okay, but you better
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: be right. And he said that a lot, but you
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: better be right and he hung up. So we kind
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: of dodged the bullet of George mister Steinvener ripping on
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: a player. And it's now, what twenty eight years later,
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: So you.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Know, I don't think it's a big deal that it's out.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: But the player, I mean the rab situation I'm thinking
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: of as we're talking about this and other times. How
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: did you handle those crises?
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: Also? Well, the Rabu situation. I looked at her DECKI
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: Arabu as my biggest failure, but there was really nothing
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: I could do.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: I think he was a troubled guy.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: He had a terrible relationship with the Asian media coming in.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: They just didn't get along well.
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: Now they were a constant presence, and I felt so
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: bad for a Rabu, but I liked him in fact,
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: oh god, maybe ten years fifteen years ago I went
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: out to a card show where they were bringing back
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: Yankees and he was one of them, and I went specifically.
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: To see him, and Na Block was.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: There, who I liked, and different guys click Clay Bellinger
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: was there, you know, uh, and and the woman who
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: ran the show said, I'm sorry, but you know, a
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: Deckie is done. I said, oh, that's too bad. Well
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: you want me to call him? I said no, no, no,
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: don't bother him. And I'm walking through the lobby and
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: the elevator opens and a guy gets out and he
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: goes soon and it was a Deci or Rapu and
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: a big hug and this and that, and then he
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: you know, sadly he took his life.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: And I was very upset by that.
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: But I don't know that. I mean the thing with.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: There were times where his quotes wouldn't be in the media,
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: and how would you.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: Have Well, well, when he called him a fat toad
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: after the last training game, which I'm thinking, we you know,
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: a robber's pitching, we're you know, we're doing great, and
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: I see his interpreter in the corner of the dugout
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: when the game ended, and because I had missed the
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: end of the last couple of because I was making
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: my way from the press box down to the clubhouse,
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: and his interpreter George Rose, who sadly has since passed away, says, oh,
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: we got a problem, and DECKI didn't cover first. And
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: then the medium met mister Steinbrenner on his way to
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: the clubhouse and he called him a fat toad and
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: they were in So now Don Zimmer's managing the club
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: because Joe Tory is dealing with.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Cancer, so he closed.
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: Mel Stottlemeyer, the pitching coach. Uh yeah, Zimmer, Ravu and
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: George Rose and Cashman. They go into the manager's office
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: and close the door.
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: They were in there for an hour and.
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: A half and the team is waiting to leave to
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: go to Los Angeles. I mean they were there so
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: long that David Cohn ordered Pizza's for everybody.
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: So they come out and they.
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: Explained that Deckie will stay behind and work on his issues.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: Blah blah blah. And we get on the plane and.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Zimmer says it calls me to the front of the
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: plane and gives me to rotation and we're playing Oakland
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: to start the season.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: After we play an exhibition game at Dodger Stadium, and
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: he basically says, you know, a robber was supposed to start, like,
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: let's say Thursday, and he goes, Mendoza's pitching Thursday. That
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: was the big thing.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Mendoza's pitching Thursday. Well, then the next.
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: Day we get a call that a robber will rejoin
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: the team and the boss expects him to pitch thirty Thursday.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: Well to Zimmer, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: he's not pitching Thursday. You know, Mendoza is. So that
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: became a big, big deal and I'm kind of in
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: the middle of it, but there's nothing I can really
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: do advising them.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: And so Mendoza.
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: Started, and he brought a rabbu in late in the game.
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: So he said after the game, Zimmer said, hey, he
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: wanted him to pitch Thursday.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: He pitched Thursday.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: So this is abo this whole thing. It sounds like
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: you were able to filter him a little bit more
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: than maybe the media. It makes it sound like, in
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: the sense of you were able to keep mister s
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: at bay more so than people might realize.
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: Right, Well, I will tell you that. People ask me
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: a lot about you know, that time they asked me like,
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: what's the biggest crisis you ever averted?
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: And I said, well, if I tell you, then I
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: really didn't avert it, did I. Now, I just told
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: you the one about the Ruben Sierra situation. I mean,
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: that's not even on the chart of the.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Of the biggest crisis, you know. But I can't remember a.
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: Time where he said to me.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Like, bs seroon.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: Were doing it my way, but I can kill you
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: ten or twelve times where and sometimes it took pleading,
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: sometimes it took resigning. I mean there was a time
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: in two thousand and three where I resigned three times
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: in a five week period, and one of them was
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: over something that he wanted to do that I basically said, well, sir,
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: if you're going to do that, I think you're going
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: to need to find a new media relations director. And
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: he said to me on the phone, yeah, you're probably right,
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: and he hung up.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, did I just quit? Did I just
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: get fired?
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: So I went home and I told my.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Wife, Karen, who also worked in baseball.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: When I met her, she worked in the broadcasting department
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: under buwik Un and peuter you Bruck. I told my
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: wife when had happened, and she said, I think you
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: should just go back to work tomorrow, like nothing happened,
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: like George Costanza.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Did on Bankshel Well, if.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: You remember the episode, is back to work like nothing happened,
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: and the boss be rates him in front of the
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: whole company. You know. So I'm like, didn't work out
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: very well for George Costanza. But Karen said, well, that's
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: my recommendation. So I went back the next day like
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: nothing happened, and I don't hear from him, And we
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: got a press conference the next afternoon to introduce Jose Contreras,
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: and at the end of the day, mister Steinbrunner is online.
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: One yes, sir, and he starts saying on the press conference, like, are.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: You all set for tomorrow?
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: You'll focus on how he'll represent the Steinbrenner family. I said, He.
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: Said, okay, anything you need?
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: I said, well, you and I had word yesterday. Heause,
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: oh yeah, I thought about that. We're not doing that.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: You were right, and so you know, sometimes you know
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: you have to I mean, but the bottom line is,
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: I mean he wanted and he did not want you
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: to cower or he did not want you to give
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: him an answer. He wanted, you know, he wanted you
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: had to go toe to toe with him, which.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: Every time we should have been like the eighth inning
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: because we weren't sure how how we get up there.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: He's like, it took you so long, right, and he
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: meant that, you know what I mean, he met that
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: type of thing.
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean, look, I love the man.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: I loved working for him. It wasn't always easy.
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: But he was fair.
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: He treated me very.
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: Well, and you know, it was a it was a
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: great time that you know, it changed over the years
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: because at.
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: The end of my run there, he wasn't.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: George Steinbrenner anymore.
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: It had issues, you know, physical issues and stuff.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: And he kind of backed off and I believe he.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: Kind of collapsed at the autogram funeral, is that right?
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, And it's you know and there.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: But you know what, he he was around to see
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: that last World Series and oh nine, And I think
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: that means so much to everybody in that family that
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: we that you got to see it one more time.
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: You know. Yeah, well, i mean I'm sure it was
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: but you know, the last time I saw him was
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: when in two thousand and six they broke round on
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: the new stadium.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: And that's the last time I saw him.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: I know, how how today that was. It was so
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: hot that day.
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: And my father in law died that day, so I
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: remember that day very well, and it was the last
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: time I saw him. And I mean he didn't look well,
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: he didn't carry himself well, and I was concerned. But
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: at the end of that season, I was told that,
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: you know, by not by mister Steinbrenner, but by others.
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: You know, we're not renewing your contract. So my year
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: with the Yankees, uh, and did And I didn't look
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: at it and say, oh why aman, how did this?
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: Because I didn't say, why am I here ten years?
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: Why am I nine years?
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: Why don't no? You know, I didn't expect to be
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: there two years, So you know, I never looked back
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: on it, like you know, but you know, she wasn't
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: the mister Steinbrenner that I had been dealing with for
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: all those years, and it was very sad for me.
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: We know, Brick, I'm going to air this starting in
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: October because October and the Yankees have just such a
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: special connection because of the World Series one in October
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: and whatnot. So I brought you on also to talk
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: about the twenti fifth anniversaries that we're going through right now.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: Ninety eight was last year, twenty five years of ninety nine,
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: and then next year's twenty five of two thousand. First
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: of all, I just love that that whole team's maintained
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: the same pretty much through those championships. So what could
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: you tell us? We didn't have you on for the
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: twentieth anniversary in ninety eight, but I want to make
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: it up in the ninety nine era here. So those
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: teams repping those teams, I mean, winning helps, but they
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: were just great personalities off the field as well, weren't they.
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: Well, it was a rare election of people to maintain
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: that over those years. I mean, teams come and go,
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: now they win, and then two years later.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: They're you know, they're not even contending.
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: But I mean we I mean to think that we
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: basically were right there for I mean, I mean the
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: eleven years I was there. I mean, starting in ninety six,
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: you get down two games to none in the in
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: the World Series, and you know, and that's when the
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: famous quote from Joe Tory that I was standing there for.
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: In fact, when Joe Torre said it to mister Steinbrenner,
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: mister Stimer looked at me like that he just say
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: that that we're down one game.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: To none against the Braves.
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: And mister Steinmerer pokes his head in Joe's office before
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: the game and says, this is a must win, Joe,
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: or we have to win. And Joe says, yeah, I
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: don't think we're ready or whatever, We're still whatever, whatever,
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: you know, but don't worry.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: Don't worry, boss.
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: We're going to Atlanta, that's my town. Will take three
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: from them there and come back and win it here
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: for you next Saturday. And mister summer Returnament looked at
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: me like, come on, but that's exactly what happened.
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: That's what we did.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: And that story is.
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: You know, people have said to me all that he
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: didn't say that. Oh no he did, because I was
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: standing there and I heard it. But then to do it,
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: you know, ninety seven we kind of stubbed our toe
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: in Cleveland. Then ninety eight was you know, come on,
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: the greatest season maybe in Yankees history.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: Did you like Jack Curry's book, By the way, I
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: thought that was so well done. Did he ask you
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: for any input on that? In the ninety eight A book?
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: He did?
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: Like, did he what?
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: Did he ask you for any input in the book?
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: He did?
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: No, I had no part. No, I was not asked,
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: which a little surprising, but I was not asked.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: So jumping ahead.
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: To ninety nine, we just kept winning and we expected
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: to win. I remember one year I said to my son,
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: who must have been five years old at the time,
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: I need to appreciate these parades because they don't happen
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: every year. And my son said, at five, yes they do.
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, they did, you know, I mean we
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: got to the point where it was on the calendar,
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: like what date the parade would be. So listen, very
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: special people. They all combined very different personalities. You know,
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: Juter was different than Pasada, and El Duque was different
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: than Cone, and O'Neil was different than Wells, but they
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: all Ambrocious was different than Nablock, but.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: They all kind of combined.
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: To create this great team. But you know, over a
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: period of years and you know that run in my opinion,
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: I mean you could say it went to two thousand
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: and three because we did get to the World Series,
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: but different people at that time, different people not the core,
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: you know, not you know, you know.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: We lost people in two thousand and three. We didn't
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: have O'Neill, we didn't have Cone with but.
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: We didn't have you know, Brocious.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: It was.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: It was a different group.
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: So I kind of like separate the two kind of
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: runs there.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: Well after we oh one, it was like the end
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: of the era because they all kind of started retiring,
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: leaving and yeah, you know and splitting up really and
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: that was I had someone growing up watching all that.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: That was kind of emotional to see, you know, that
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: one's in his locker room one last time, and yeah,
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: it was. It was. It was a lot to to unpack,
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: as they say today, but you know, it was.
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: A great chapter in Yankees' history. So different than today,
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: you know today. And I'm not trying to be critical
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: because they the Yankees have the best of everything. Everything
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: they have is the best, whether it's travel, the clubhouse,
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: elements of the club house. That wasn't the case back then.
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: That wasn't the case in the nineties. You know, Yankee Stadium,
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: even though it had been renovated, it was an older building.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: The club alls was somewhat spartan.
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: There wasn't there wasn't a lot of you know, you had.
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: To walk that way down all to go to the
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: batting cage, which they just kind of like stuck in
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: this room. And it was it was a different era,
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: which I wouldn't trade for anything, but it was just
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: a very special time that that can't be replicated.
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: No, it's certainly not. And uh, I was gonna say,
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: you keep referencing Costanza. Were you involved with getting Jeter
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: and Williams on the Seinfeld? Did you have any involvement
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: with that?
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: I had No. I had no involvement with Seinfeld whatsoever.
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: I think I know Debbie Timon, who ran the marketing department,
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: the vice senior vite now senior vice president of marketing.
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: She is in charge, and they would go through the
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: scripts and everything. But I'll tell you when I saw
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: that for the first time was when we went to
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: a theater. I want to say it was the Letterman Theater,
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: but I could be wrong. Where they were screening the
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: World series video. You know, every year MLB does a
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: World Series video, and before that screening they showed that
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: clip and that was the first time. Maybe that I
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: even knew it had happened, so you know, it was
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: a big It was a big deal. We got to
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: kick out of it and everything. But no, I was
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: not involved with Seinfeld other than to talk to mister
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: Steinerunner about it. And he loved it because his grandkids loved.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: It, and he yeah, and he just loved I know
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: he loved that. He was also on SNL and that's
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: turning fifty this year. He was on SNL back in
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: the nineties as well. You know, Rick, I gotta say
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: a lot of these players have built up foundations, and
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: I wonder if you know their time as players and
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: their experience even with the media world and through the
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: PR help them make these foundations. Do you think you
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: help these guys through your training, your your working with
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: them build out these foundations.
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: Well, I wouldn't.
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: No, I wouldn't give myself credit for that. These these
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: were good people, and if I'm not there, I think
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: they're still starting their foundations. But I do look back
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: and I'm very proud of for the most part, how
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: I helped players or try to help players navigate, you know,
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: playing in New York when I was with the Pirates,
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: you know, under my direction. We were the first professional
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: sports team to counsel the entire team with media relations training,
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: and back in nineteen eighty eight, you know, we break
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: the team down into different smaller groups and we talked
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: to them because many players didn't understand like the difference
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: between an AM newspaper and a PM newspaper, and you
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: know now that doesn't exist, but you know that continued
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: and we counseled the Yankee players on dealing with the media.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: And I know that Jason Zillow, you.
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: Know who I hired and my successor at the Yankees,
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: I believe still does it and probably has enhanced it
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: what we did because technology has changed so much. You know,
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: what we couldn't do back then, they can do now,
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: you know. I you know, I used to counsel players
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: like you see these writers every.
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: Day, Yeah, every day they.
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: They know your name, they know they a Paul am joker,
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: you know, find out their names. Don't be talking to
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: people every day and not know even show them the
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: respect of knowing what their first name is.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: And one person.
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: That I remember with, you know, would come up to
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: me and say, what's his name? What was it? Okay,
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: it was Chuck Knabloch. He really tried to, you know,
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: to utilize that. I used to also tell players that,
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: you know, if you want to disarm a member.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: Of the media when you're being interviewed on.
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: Camera, find out what the guy that's interviewing his name
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: is and.
• 39:20
  Speaker 4: Put his name in front of every answer.
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: Now, I think, I think they have such a great
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: core with Meredith, Susan Wallman, I mean, and of course
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: Stirling and Brian Hoak, who really is a great reporter
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: for mb dot com. They seem to all be kind
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: of a family. Now again in that Yankee callback, I mean,
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: that's what I look at from a farm. Maybe I'm
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: wrong on that wreck, but it seems like they're close.
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: The relationship between the players and the media, taking away
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: the Susans and the Meritis and the people that are
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: part of the Yankee family, so to speak, it's not
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: the same as it once was because number One, you
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: don't get the time the clubhouse is open for a
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: to the media for a far shorter period of time. Uh,
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: players are not at their locker. In the old Yankee Stadium,
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: there was no place for a player to go but
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: be it his locker.
• 40:11
  Speaker 4: Either in your locker or in the training room. Now
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: you really you.
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: Rarely see the players in the main clubhouse. So there's
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: not a relationship really with with the media like there
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: once was. Uh, it's just changed. The world has changed,
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: sports has changed, and you know that that Hera is gone.
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm very fortunate to be aby interview Nester and Oswalder,
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: and they they sort of welcomed us with open arms,
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: you know, just to see them at different places.
• 40:44
  Speaker 4: People don't get me wrong, but the.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: Access is in what it once was.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: Well and and to the point of you you you know,
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: my dad and I used to stay outside the press
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: gate every game. That doesn't happen anymore. Everybody's in their
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: cars out of the stadium right away. And that's why
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: all these events they do outside of you you said,
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: it means so much because it's really the only time
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: to get to see them unless you have connections and whatnot. Now, Rick, Yeah,
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: I got to say another member of the media that
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: is basically Yankee Rosey. At this point, John Sterling is retiring,
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: he's back at home. He was back home this week.
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: He's into the playoffs. Any interact, any memorable interactions with him,
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: because you know, he was the voice of that team
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: in the nineties right there.
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: Oh absolutely.
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: And in fact, Baseball Digest in its November December issue
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: has a big feature a Baseball Life on We have
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: a regular feature goal to Baseball Life, and the subject
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: for the November December issue a terrific story by Anthony
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: mccaren of s n Y. It is on John Sterling,
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: and Oh, I know. I met John Sterling when I
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: was a junior and going to be a senior in
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: college in nineteen seventy four, left Say and John.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: Was doing a.
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: A talk show on WMCA radio that I listened to
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: every night.
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: And I work at every day. I help out. I'm
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: out there every day.
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: John had a talk show every night at five or
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: six o'clock, and I would listen religiously. Here and I'm
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: sitting in the press I had gotten credentials. I think
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: it was the first time I was ever in a
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: press box. I had gotten credentials somehow, that's not important.
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: And I'm sitting in the press box at Shay Stadium,
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: where the Yankees were playing for two years, and walking
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: through the press box behind is John Sterling. And I
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: summed up all the courage I could, and I say,
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: excuse me, mister Sterling.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: I told them who I was, told him. I went
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: to Northern.
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: Illinois University and then in my senior year, I was
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: going to be the sports director of the radio station
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: campus radio station, and I would have a five minute
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: report every night at five point thirty. And I wondered
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: if you could give me any advice without Patty and I.
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: He said to me, oh, yes, I can. Don't give scores.
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: And I said, excuse me. He goes, well, if you
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: give scores, it's not going to show up your personality,
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: and you want people to notice your personality. So that's
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: my advice, don't give scores. And I think that was
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: good advice because without it, I might have just read
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: off scores. I don't know how I would have got
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: the scores, but you know, so I gave opinion, I
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: gave features this and that. So that was my first
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: meeting with John Sterling, almost fifty years ago. And then
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: you know, I would see him again when I was
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: with the Pirates and he was come through with TBS
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: with the Braves. He was one of the Braves broadcasters,
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: and then he was doing radio when I started with
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: the Yankees with Michael ka as his you know, his analyst.
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: And you know, I mean, there's nobody like John Sterling.
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: I don't think I've ever met anybody quite like John STERR. Eleven.
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: He's very unique. I mean, Domamory, we were the writer
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: for the Hartford Kernan, my dear friend. We were talking
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: about John when he retired, and and Dom said, you know,
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: nobody sounds like John. It's a very unique style. And
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: you know, I mean, I'm here in Pittsburgh now.
• 44:20
  Speaker 4: And you know, the other day, get in my car
• 44:22
  Speaker 4: and I put the.
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: Inche game on its back where back it was John's
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: shooting again, which was wonderful. And He's right, you know,
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: he doesn't sound.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: Like anybody else.
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: Very unique person, almost like, look, everybody's got problems, everybody
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: he's got kids, But John seemed like he didn't have
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: a care in the world. Every every day he came
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: to the ballpark to do the games on the radio,
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: he wore a suit.
• 44:51
  Speaker 4: I don't think I've ever seen.
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: Him outside of maybe at the pool at the hotel
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: or something, him without a jacket and tye on. And
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: he's on the radio.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 45:03
  Speaker 3: You know. A funny story was that one time we
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: were flying into somewhere and it was a hohllacious flight.
• 45:10
  Speaker 3: We had hit a storm.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: I think it was when we were approaching Minneapolis, and
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: the plane is all over the place.
• 45:16
  Speaker 4: And all of us and John is sitting to.
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: My right reading a book, okay, reading a book as
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: he did on every flight, and.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: Something is so hard like that all of.
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: The oxygen things came down and then and the players
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: are yelling and screaming, and the and the so picture
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: in front of everybody. Your oxygen is hanging in front
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: of you, swaying from left to right. John John never reacted.
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: So I look over and John is reading his book
• 45:50
  Speaker 3: like nothing happened, with all of the oxygen masks swaying
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: back and forth. And I'm like, that's John. That's that's
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: who he is.
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: Very interesting story, no, I know, you know, and you
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: could tell on the air he's well read because he
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: loves to give those stats and all that. He's just
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: very very well rounded. That's a that is a funny story.
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: Although I'm glad you guys survived that.
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: I hope it.
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: Wasn't too long of a turbulence there.
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: Well, we I think we blew it. That wasn't the
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: time we blew the tire.
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: But the guy with the equipment.
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: Truck that was waiting for the plane down load saw
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: us land and said, you know, your left wing was
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: about three feet off the But you know what, as
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: our traveling secretary said to me, Hey, you got thirty
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: nine flights, you're gonna have the best and the thirty
• 46:39
  Speaker 3: ninth that was the thirty knife.
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: Oh my, was that costanza? I'm just kidding. Anyways, Anyway,
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: you know, I got to say in this modern era, also,
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: we have Aaron Judge and if you were a PR
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: guy during that run in twenty two, how would you
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: have either you know, shielded him from the media or
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: you know, made sure that connection was smooth and even
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: counseled him through that because he looks stressed the last
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: two weeks, didn't he Well, I.
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: Don't think you could help but be stressed, because that's
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: a lot of pressure that you're putting on yourself, and
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: you know, there's just a.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: Lot going on.
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: And I look, I think that the Yankees under Jason Zillah,
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: I mean, I'm sure they did a terrific job with
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: with Aaron. I don't know if I would say, well,
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: I would have done this or what I would have
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: done that I would have I would have and I'm
• 47:30
  Speaker 3: sure they did that. I would have sat down with
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: him as things got you know, you could see that
• 47:34
  Speaker 3: this was going to be a unique year.
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: And said what do you want it?
• 47:38
  Speaker 4: What do you want to do? What's your you know?
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: And if he says I don't want to talk to him,
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: I don't, you know, well that's not going to work.
• 47:45
  Speaker 3: This is why you want me to set something up
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: where you talk the first day of every series and
• 47:51
  Speaker 3: then after games or you know, I mean, I'll give
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: you a perfect example of how you deal with players.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: Whatever.
• 47:58
  Speaker 3: So well, we got Roger Clemens back in nineteen ninety nine.
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: First of all, I was not happy as the PR director.
• 48:08
  Speaker 4: Because I mean, you know, we just we just came
• 48:11
  Speaker 4: up the ninety.
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: Eight season, right, World Championship, and now we're going to
• 48:15
  Speaker 3: add this very polarizing guy that half the team aided,
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: and you're going to make my job harder.
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: So you're being a little selfish, you know.
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: You know. But so the first day I met him,
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: I met him the first day he was there, and
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: we had a press conference. I'm sure whatever, and he
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: was fine. So the next day I went up to
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: in a clubhouse and said Roger, as you can imagine,
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: I have about five dozen requests for your time for
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: various things. Now I can scream a lot of them,
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: like I know you're not going to do this, or
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: you shouldn't do this, whatever, But I'm down to about
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: ten things that I don't feel comfortable making the decision
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: on because you may want to do it, and you
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: may say no, I don't want to do this. So
• 49:00
  Speaker 3: because well, here's what you do, Rick, write him out.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: On our piece of paper.
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: Write each one of them, give it to me when
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: I leave tomorrow. When I come in, we'll go through
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: it and I'll tell.
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: You which one do you want to do?
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: Which I said, fine, I wrote him out, blah blah blah,
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: gave it to him, put it in his pocket.
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: He left it for the day.
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: Next morning he flags me over to his locker and
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: he hands me back the paper.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: Without a word other than good morning.
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: I go outside, look at the paper and it would
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: say like Bob Costas interview for the All Century Team video.
• 49:37
  Speaker 3: And he would write underneath it Thursday eight a m.
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: This interview Friday three pm.
• 49:45
  Speaker 3: He had put he didn't turn one of them down
• 49:49
  Speaker 3: and he had all you know, I mean, that's who
• 49:51
  Speaker 3: Clements was. So I helped him and he certainly helped me.
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: Well, well, you know, the story of Clements is that
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: when he passed Walter Johnson. I don't even know this,
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: but George Seimer, who took my dad and I down
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: to the clubhouse to get his autograph, that was really
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: special and we waged around for him. He was icing
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: his arm and he did it and he was very
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: very nice, and we were there for the three hundred
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: for his uh three hundred win as well.
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: I mean, that was a funny story about passing people.
• 50:20
  Speaker 3: I remember when he passed Walter Johnson. I remember when
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: he passed Lefty Grove. I remember when he passed different
• 50:25
  Speaker 3: guys because he would say to me, well who's next,
• 50:28
  Speaker 3: and I would put a picture of them. I had
• 50:31
  Speaker 3: a guy that you know, I pictures of all these guys.
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: So when he was approaching Lefty Grove, there was a
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: picture of Lefty Grove in his locker, and then when
• 50:40
  Speaker 3: he passed him, there was a picture of Walter Johnson,
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: you know, and he appreciated that because he loved the history.
• 50:47
  Speaker 3: So that was a fun time with with clements approaching,
• 50:51
  Speaker 3: and he got his three hundred win and three thousand
• 50:53
  Speaker 3: strikeout in the same one four thousand strike out in
• 50:56
  Speaker 3: the same game, which.
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: I thought was kind of that was amazing, and I yeah,
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: that was a special night. You know one other guy
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: that we just talked about real quick because I got
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: to meet him over the year and he's just he
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: is good with his time. Although with the Yankees, everybody
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: had different reactions about him, but a Rod is always
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: going to be the continual conversation because they keep giving
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: his number away now Jettism has it. I feel like
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: he'll always be in the news because of the number alone.
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: But he came in, oh for the press conference, was
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: a rock star kind of press conference. I mean, my goodness,
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: what were your thoughts? What were interacted with a Rod?
• 51:32
  Speaker 4: Well another guy.
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: I thought, well, this is going to make my job harder,
• 51:35
  Speaker 3: but it didn't because I thought a Rod was.
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: A really good person, really good guy.
• 51:44
  Speaker 3: You know. I think he didn't have the self esteem
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: that I would think of for his stature, and I
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: was you know, I counseled him and he had He
• 52:00
  Speaker 3: would always approach me on things, you think I should
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: do this, What do you think about how how did
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: I do blah blah blah blah blah. And I remember
• 52:10
  Speaker 3: I told him one time, when you have a group
• 52:12
  Speaker 3: of reporters, make eye contact with the person that's that's
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: that's asking the question that you're answering, because he tended
• 52:20
  Speaker 3: to like answer questions but look around to look elsewhere.
• 52:24
  Speaker 3: And I tried to get him to work on that,
• 52:26
  Speaker 3: which he did. But you know, when you get down
• 52:28
  Speaker 3: to retiring numbers, the Yankees are in a very bad
• 52:30
  Speaker 3: spot because this is a player that was suspended for
• 52:33
  Speaker 3: a year while he was with the Yankees, therefore hurting
• 52:38
  Speaker 3: the team's chain. And also he sued the ball club.
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: So it's always funny the teenager always supposed to forget,
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: Like the Pittsburgh you know.
• 52:47
  Speaker 4: The player gets to do whatever they.
• 52:49
  Speaker 3: Want, and then the team's supposed to forget it. And
• 52:52
  Speaker 3: like I'm seeing that here in Pittsburgh where everybody's you know,
• 52:56
  Speaker 3: the Pirates treat Dave Parker like royalty because they've moved
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: on from when he sued the team or you know,
• 53:05
  Speaker 3: the disparaging things he said about them, and then you
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: know that that's kind of all supposed to be forgotten.
• 53:10
  Speaker 3: It's very it's very tough. Teams are in a tough
• 53:14
  Speaker 3: spot there.
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, absolutely, And of course having him old Timer's
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: Day this year, I'm sure meant a lot to see.
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: But no, I I just I don't know they're going
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: to keep that number open for whoever has it. Maybe
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: Jess has it for a while. He might say Yankee
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: for a while. We'll have to see about that.
• 53:30
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, listen, I'm of a mind that you know,
• 53:34
  Speaker 3: I wrote a kind of a funny column last year
• 53:36
  Speaker 3: about retiring numbers where when they retired the first one
• 53:42
  Speaker 3: in nineteen thirty nine for lou Gerrig, I kind of
• 53:45
  Speaker 3: fabricated that some young guy comes into at Barrow of
• 53:49
  Speaker 3: the GM's office and says, I don't agree with this
• 53:54
  Speaker 3: retiring of number four for lou Gerrig and Ed Barrow says, well,
• 53:58
  Speaker 3: why not? What's wrong with it? Well, you're setting a precedent. Well,
• 54:01
  Speaker 3: what about Bill Dickey or Catcher when he retires, and
• 54:05
  Speaker 3: what about Babe Ruth and this kid Demaggio. And then
• 54:08
  Speaker 3: the guy says to Ed Barrow, if we keep going
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: at this rate, someday the Yankees' best player is going
• 54:13
  Speaker 3: to be wearing number ninety nine that's what's happened.
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: The Yankees have no single digit numbers left.
• 54:22
  Speaker 4: And this is going to keep going on and on and on.
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: Because I can name you five other people that you
• 54:27
  Speaker 3: could make the case for, you know, I mean, I'm sure.
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: CC Sabbathia is next. And you know what we've got?
• 54:34
  Speaker 4: People say, what about a Rod?
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: Okay? Well that Thanksgaring Ober thirteen.
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: You know, so how about Matt Suey. Now, Matt sue
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: is an interesting one because I mentioned him because he
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: came in three of course at the Grand Slam, won
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: the World Series MVP inh nine. Uh is he a
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: candidate too? I mean, it seems like all these guys
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: could be candidates, right.
• 54:54
  Speaker 3: I just I just think you have to draw the
• 54:56
  Speaker 3: line somewhere. There's got to be some kind of, you know,
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: some kind of a very strict criteria that you have
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: to meet.
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: Which there once was.
• 55:07
  Speaker 3: But and I'm not saying anybody whose number has been
• 55:11
  Speaker 3: retired isn't deserving of it, but at some point it
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: gets you know, we got players now regularly wearing eighty seven,
• 55:20
  Speaker 3: ninety three, ninety five, you know, and maybe that doesn't matter,
• 55:25
  Speaker 3: but my god, I remember when there was you know,
• 55:29
  Speaker 3: Mickey Mantle was like the third number retired.
• 55:33
  Speaker 4: And you know three, four, five.
• 55:35
  Speaker 3: And seven, so the fourth number retired. But and then
• 55:39
  Speaker 3: Casey Stengel and.
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: Then you know, I mentioned Matsui by the way, because
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: what was that like covering him because now he had
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: another media from Japan? Japan. I mean, that might be
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: a whole other episode.
• 55:51
  Speaker 3: When when we got now listen, you got to remember, Alex,
• 55:53
  Speaker 3: I'm coming off of having had the not pleasant experience
• 56:00
  Speaker 3: what I considered a failure with Decki Urabu, so I
• 56:05
  Speaker 3: don't have a great track record.
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: With Asian superstars and Asian media.
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: And now I'm told that we're getting Matsui, who Ricky
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: is not only the most he's not the most popular
• 56:17
  Speaker 3: baseball player in Japan. He's not the most popular athlete
• 56:21
  Speaker 3: in Japan. He's the most popular person in Japan. So
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: the first thing I had to do was convince the
• 56:29
  Speaker 3: Yankees who wanted to welcome him to the Yankees with
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: a Yankee Stadium press conference. And I said, you can't
• 56:37
  Speaker 3: do that, and they said why not? I said, because
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: people will die.
• 56:42
  Speaker 4: What do you mean?
• 56:43
  Speaker 3: I said, well, in that room that we use the
• 56:45
  Speaker 3: stadium club, you can accommodate maybe one hundred people, one
• 56:48
  Speaker 3: hundred and twenty and ten cameras. We're going to have
• 56:50
  Speaker 3: five hundred people and forty cameras, fifty cameras. And then
• 56:55
  Speaker 3: for the you can't, you can't do it. So they relented, thankfully,
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: and we made a deal with the Marriott Midtown Hotel
• 57:06
  Speaker 3: the Mary Marquis, and we got their ballroom and I'm
• 57:08
  Speaker 3: going to tell you, Alex, we used every square foot
• 57:11
  Speaker 3: of it.
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: You know, Oh yeah, I remember they used to do
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: the whole lower dining room of the stadium club. First
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: press coming a rod filled up to the gills too.
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: I remember that exactly.
• 57:24
  Speaker 3: This was not going to suffice. Now, this was before
• 57:28
  Speaker 3: a rod, so a rod was probably pushing it as
• 57:31
  Speaker 3: far as capacity goes. But we filled every and we
• 57:34
  Speaker 3: had this massive press conference at Yankees at the Mary Marquis.
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: But from the minute he got here, Like, if you
• 57:43
  Speaker 3: asked me today, what's the worst thing you can remember about.
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: Having a Deckie Matt Suey.
• 57:49
  Speaker 3: Like, if you asked me that about a rob who
• 57:50
  Speaker 3: I could cite this. I could cite that. I can
• 57:52
  Speaker 3: site that.
• 57:53
  Speaker 4: If you asked me.
• 57:54
  Speaker 3: What's there was nothing I couldn't think of a single
• 57:57
  Speaker 3: bad thing the deck.
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: Mat Suey was.
• 58:01
  Speaker 4: A total joy, total pro.
• 58:05
  Speaker 3: Total joy, wonderful guy, embraced my son who was a
• 58:11
  Speaker 3: little kid. And if Jeki Matsui is the reason my
• 58:15
  Speaker 3: son who now works for the Florida Panthers and got
• 58:18
  Speaker 3: measured for his Stanley Cup Championship ring last week, congratulations. Yeah,
• 58:22
  Speaker 3: that he's a sports fan because up until.
• 58:25
  Speaker 4: Ten years old, he really wasn't into.
• 58:28
  Speaker 3: It, but he loved Godzilla. He was a Godzilla fanatic.
• 58:34
  Speaker 3: So we get this player called Godzilla. Well, my son
• 58:38
  Speaker 3: is intrigued and.
• 58:40
  Speaker 2: Doesn't know that he had a grand Slam that started
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: his career as a Yankee and opening day.
• 58:44
  Speaker 3: I'll never forget my son being introduced to Matsui in
• 58:48
  Speaker 3: spring training and peppering matt Sui with questions about Godzilla,
• 58:54
  Speaker 3: like what movie did you like better? Did you like
• 58:57
  Speaker 3: this movie? And got mass who is this kid? So
• 59:01
  Speaker 3: he bought my son. He imported from Japan. They got
• 59:05
  Speaker 3: a mechanical Godzilla from Japan and gave it to my son. Well,
• 59:09
  Speaker 3: he was hop but Mattsoui was a prince still is.
• 59:13
  Speaker 3: But what it was a wonderful experience. He handled it.
• 59:18
  Speaker 3: He did the US media first at his locker, and
• 59:22
  Speaker 3: then I had a Japanese media persona Aruka, and Isau
• 59:27
  Speaker 3: would take Matsui outside somewhere right right and he would
• 59:33
  Speaker 3: do the forty or thirty whatever it was Asian media,
• 59:37
  Speaker 3: and that was it. It was.
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: It was wonderful, one last thing and that that's beautiful,
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: one last thing. And I'm making which way to go here?
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: But I'm gonna go this way? Uh October in New York.
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: I do always think about knowing Jimmy's what happened with
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: George W. Bush when he threw out the first pitchy
• 59:54
  Speaker 2: He said him, what what do you remember about that night?
• 59:56
  Speaker 2: And how involved were you when making so that all
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: went off without a hit?
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: Well?
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 3: I remember the security, right, I mean, I remember nine
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 3: to eleven.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: There's so much to it, from watching the tower.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 3: Fall, from my card, going driving to work and horrific
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 3: feelings like why am I going to work here too?
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 4: You know, the days before we.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 3: Worked out on that Saturday, and to fly to Chicago,
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 3: to being in Chicago, to the World Series, and you
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 3: know the George Bush.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: When we had met at the White House.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 3: In fact, I told you the story that he thought
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 3: I was the catcher.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 2: Oh that's right, that w Bush.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yes, yeah, he had interaction with me, you know,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 3: the previous April. So when he was standing in the
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 3: hole on the steps of the dugout, he saw me
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 3: and he wanted to get my attention. He wanted me
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 3: to get.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: The person next to me attention.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 4: So he yells out, a wreck, a wreck. I turned away.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 3: It was George Bush. He remembered my name, amazing, and
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 3: he pointed to the person next to me, Phyllis Marriage.
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: He wanted to get.
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 3: Her attention, and then he walked out there and it
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 3: was one of the great moments.
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, oh my god.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 3: I mean if he had thrown up, you know, a
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 3: bad pitch or whatever, but God bless him. He threw
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 3: that perfect strike wearing a bulletproof vest. And somebody the
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 3: funny thing was somebody nudges me and says, count the
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 3: umpires because they were all standing on them, you know,
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 3: lined up, and they're supposed to be six because you have.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: That right, two outfielders and there were seven.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 3: There were seven, and one of them was armed. It
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 3: was a secret service, you know person And.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: Uh, well, that's like Enrico Palazzo. Right, that's interesting, that's what.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, there you go.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 3: Well, Enrico Palazzo had a gun under his under his
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 3: his umpire's jacket. But it was a great moment. But
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 3: I wish it had never.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: Had to happen for sure. Of course. One you know,
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: I keep, I keep, I keep, want to ask all
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 2: these questions. We got to do another episode at some point, right,
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 2: But one last thing Oakland is and their public relations,
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 2: even Fisherom's I was not done a good job, you know,
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 2: keeping in the fans graces. But I want to go
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 2: back to the Yankees Oakland series because there were so many,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: you know, back in the day, in the in the playoffs.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 2: I mean you probably remember all of them.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 3: Well, they all kind of run together. And I remember
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 3: the one when we went to Oakland down two might
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 3: have been oh one, two thousand or two thousand and one,
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 3: and we lost both games at Yankee Stadium and we
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 3: go to Oakland and you know, everybody around the club
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 3: is doom and gloom. You know, I thinking, ah, well,
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 3: well we'll run the table here. And I remember Joe
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 3: having a pregame uh talk with the team and he says,
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 3: we don't have to win three games. Don't think about that.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 3: All we have to do is win tonight. That's all
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 3: we gotta do. Just win tonight. And if we win tonight,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 3: then we'll win tomorrow and then we'll go back.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: And that's what happened.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 3: But yeah, yeah, those were great series. And you know,
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 3: I mean I always felt bad for the A's because
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 3: they played in that awful you know building in a
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 3: in a you know, in an industrial area, and.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: You know, the city really wasn't supportive.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 3: They can say they were, but they're not because I've.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 2: Been well, there's a reason why three teams have left now, right,
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 2: there's that.
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 3: Feeling too, And it's just a very sad situation that
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 3: whenever a team relocates, whether it's the Expos or the
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 3: Oakland A's or it looks like Tampa's resolved a situation
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 3: down there, it's just it's just terribly sad. But it's
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 3: happened throughout the game's history.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: So well, absolutely, all right, Rick serone, this has been
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: really special. Who you obviously been into baseball your whole life.
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 2: Who did you idolize growing up?
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: Like?
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 2: What was your who was your guy?
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 3: Well, my early guy was Mickey Mantle and followed by
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 3: Bobby Mercer. Those were my guys. And then lo and behold,
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 3: I'm I'm in the clubhouse, you know, and there's Gidrey,
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 3: and there's Munson and Reggie and and I knew all
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 3: those guys, you know, I mean, you know, covered all
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 3: those guys.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 4: So but I would have to say.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: That Mantle and May's were the you know, the players.
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 3: Of my youth. But you know, back in the early
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 3: sixties when I was starting to become a baseball fan,
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 3: how many times did you see Willie Mays? I mean, luckily,
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 3: you know, the New York had a nationally team, so
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 3: that whenever the mess played the Giants, you saw him.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 3: But a lot of times they're playing at ten eleven
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 3: o'clock at night, and you're not staying up.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: On a school night.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 3: So I think back to those players and how lucky
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 3: I was to see those players in a good part
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 3: of their prime.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: Not so much.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 3: Mantle because he, you know, he you know, he was
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 3: not the same player after.
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: Like sixty three sixty four.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 2: Did you ever intend to interview May's by the way
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 2: at all or talk to me?
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 3: Oh? I was with him a couple of times. In fact,
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 3: I just wrote a column for Baseball Digest about how
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 3: in nineteen seventy seven at Old Timer's Day, he was
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 3: there along with Vick Wurtz, who's the guy that hit
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 3: the ball that May's made that miraculous catch, and I.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 4: For some reason, was hell bent on.
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 3: Getting their autograph on a ball. So I got Vic.
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 3: It was Old Timer's Day. I shouldn't have done it, probably,
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 3: but everybody was doing it, you know. So Work signed
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 3: the ball first, and I told him that I would
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 3: get Willie Mayde and he didn't seem like it was
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 3: a big deal.
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 4: I thought it. And then I went over to Willie.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 3: And very sheepishly said would you sign this ball? And
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 3: he takes the ball and he looks at it. He goes,
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 3: you want me to sign a ball with Vic Wurtz
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 3: And I said, yes, yes, if you would. Hey, Vic,
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 3: this kid wants me to sign a ball with your
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 3: name on it. Are you kid? I'm going to make
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 3: you a star. He just thought it was the funniest
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 3: thing that he ever heard. And I'm saying to myself,
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 3: he's probably never been asked to sign a baseball with
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 3: Vic Wurtz because it wasn't really done. Then there weren't
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 3: card shows and things like that.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 2: There wasn't a Fanatics best either, you know what I mean.
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 2: So so anyway, by the way, I'm just following you
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 2: guys on X right now, Baseball Digest, at Baseball Digest
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 2: and one thing because I am playing on writing a
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 2: book possibly on this whole experience, because I've known you
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 2: for twenty five years. I've known this time when mister
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: s first brought us up and when you got to
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: know him, my dad and I. What was that like
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 2: from your perspective, I might inclose in the book. What
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 2: was your thoughts on it, all.
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 3: Of you and your dad.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just mister Simon was able to welcome us in
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 2: like that.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 3: Well, mister Steinmer had welcome you to the family. So
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 3: in my opinion from day one. And I don't think
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 3: I ever did or said anything that would make me
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 3: look bad saying this, but you were part of the family.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 4: You know, you were part of you and your dad, who.
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 3: I certainly remember very well. Sorry that we lost him.
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 3: I lost my dad two years ago, and I'm so
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 3: happy that he got to enjoy, you know, the fruits
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 3: of my job with the Yankees, got to ride.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: In a ticker tape parade one year.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 3: Yes, but.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 4: You were part of the Steiner and Er family.
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 3: You were part of the Yankee family, and we we
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 3: you know you were.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 4: Part of it. You know if you were not there,
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 4: you would.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 3: Have been missed.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 4: So you know, we you know, And I don't.
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: Know a single player that said, what are these guys?
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 4: No you want one of us?
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 2: Well, that means a lot, Rick, and it still continues.
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 2: The gracious of the Yankees still there. And I'm glad
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 2: you've been part of this run for twenty our years.
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 2: And it's so funny a media pitch brought us back together.
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 3: How about that.
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: Let me be really honest with you. My run ended
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: in six.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 3: I ain't part of any run now, okay.
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 4: You know they won and O nine they you know,
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 4: I'm not part of.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: That, which is fine.
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 2: I shouldn't be well and you're but you're part of
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 2: my twenty five year history and that's what matters more.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: That means a lot, That means more than anything else.
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 2: So there you go, Rick serone, Thanks for joining me
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: once again. And you know, last time, I think we
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 2: talked about your book. How was the book going? I
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 2: think it was because you had a book book out right.
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 4: No, I don't have a book out, no, no, no no no.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 3: I was kind of pooling around with a book. But
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 3: then you get to what should you put in it?
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 3: What should you not? Who's going to read it?
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: So I'm kind of like dickering around with it.
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 2: So well, if you get one, let us know and
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 2: we'll have you back on.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, you can count on that out And.
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 2: If I do find something eye popping on Baseball Digests,
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 2: I might ring you up and say, let's talk about this.
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 3: That's great. Well, I'm sure I'm sure you will. So
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 3: I'm counting the ballots from my Blue Ribbon twenty four
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 3: member voting panel for the Player Pitcher of the Year.
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 3: So it's gonna be let's say, Judger Otani. But which
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 3: one it's going to be a story.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 2: We'll have you back on for that. Rick Sarona, C. E.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 3: R R.
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 2: O N. E. Of the Baseball Digest and of course
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 2: Yankees pr man from for eleven years. Thanks so much, Rick,