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Transcript

Untold Stories - Volume 3 · Pittsburgh Sports Memories

0:00
SPEAKER_05: Hi everybody, welcome to the Pittsburgh Sports Memories Podcast.
0:03
SPEAKER_05: My name is Tim Hannon, and with me as always is uh Steve Wirt.
0:08
SPEAKER_05: The very affable Steve Wirt.
0:11
SPEAKER_03: Affable.
0:12
SPEAKER_03: Nice.
0:13
SPEAKER_03: I've never been called.
0:14
SPEAKER_03: I don't know if I've ever been called affable.
0:16
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
0:17
SPEAKER_05: You've been called lots of other things.
0:19
SPEAKER_03: Well, yeah, yeah.
0:20
SPEAKER_03: I mean lots of a hole and nuts.
0:23
SPEAKER_05: Lots of other words that start with A.
0:25
SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah.
0:25
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
0:25
SPEAKER_03: Hey, you stop going through my garbage.
0:28
SPEAKER_03: You know, quit cutting me off in traffic, you know, lots of stuff.
0:34
SPEAKER_03: I've been called number one a lot.
0:35
SPEAKER_03: A lot of people like to call me number one.
0:38
SPEAKER_03: But they always use the the finger in the center of their you know hand.
0:42
SPEAKER_03: I just figured I take it as a compliment.
0:45
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I think that's that's probably how it's meant.
0:47
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, all right.
1:03
SPEAKER_05: Well, in this episode, uh, we're gonna do Untold Stories.
1:06
SPEAKER_05: So we've done a couple other episodes like this before.
1:09
SPEAKER_05: Um we're gonna call this one volume three because it's the third time we've done it.
1:13
SPEAKER_05: I don't think we've called the other episodes volume one or volume two.
1:16
SPEAKER_05: It's kind of like World War II, Steve, where you know we they didn't call World War I World War I because they didn't know there was gonna be other ones.
1:24
SPEAKER_03: Well, they they called it the world to end all wars, and then like 20 years later it's like, hey, let's do it again.
1:29
SPEAKER_03: Sweet.
1:32
SPEAKER_05: So in the same vein, let's do some more like the so the theme here is just stories that um, you know, uh either you never heard before or maybe you just forgot about, and some really interesting, fascinating Pittsburgh sports history here.
1:48
SPEAKER_05: So uh let's start with a 1976 playoff game between the Steelers and the Baltimore Colts.
1:55
SPEAKER_05: This is before there was a Baltimore Ravens and before the Colts had moved to Indianapolis.
2:01
SPEAKER_05: So they're playing this game at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.
2:05
SPEAKER_05: There's not much to say about the actual game.
2:07
SPEAKER_05: The Steelers dominate from start to finish.
2:09
SPEAKER_05: It's a 40 to 14 victory.
2:13
SPEAKER_05: They even let center Ray Mansfield kick an extra point near the end of the game for some reason.
2:19
SPEAKER_03: Nice techno, like take that.
2:21
SPEAKER_03: I didn't they uh didn't Indianapolis have that quarterback Burt Bell or whatever it was.
2:26
SPEAKER_03: Burt Jones, yeah.
2:27
SPEAKER_05: It was really good.
2:28
SPEAKER_03: He was the league MVP at one point, maybe even this year.
2:32
SPEAKER_03: Burt Bell, of course, was the commissioner of the league, the first commissioner.
2:35
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah, that's true.
2:36
SPEAKER_05: Um but they but but the Steelers defense is all over Burt Jones.
2:41
SPEAKER_05: Uh so yeah, nothing real memorable here except when this happens.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Tom Davis back at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, and a plane has just crashed into the upper deck.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: It's a private plane, it's a single-engine plane.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: Chuck Thompson has the binoculars on it.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: The plane has crashed into the upper deck around section one or forty-one behind home plate.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: The plane came inside the horseshoe of the stadium while we were out on the commercial, and the plane went into the upper deck as it tried to ride.
3:09
SPEAKER_05: So, oh my god, a plane crashes into the stadium.
3:12
SPEAKER_05: Is this not a massive tragedy?
3:14
SPEAKER_05: How does no one remember this?
3:16
SPEAKER_03: Because no nothing happened, yeah.
3:18
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah.
3:19
SPEAKER_03: So it was after the game.
3:21
SPEAKER_05: Right.
3:21
SPEAKER_05: So yeah, so number one, the game had ended, but I mean it it had like just ended, Steve, because that's why they were still broadcasting.
3:28
SPEAKER_03: Well, I think they were doing the post-game, weren't they?
3:31
SPEAKER_05: They were they were going into the post-game, but I mean it was like five minutes before that the game had ended.
3:35
SPEAKER_05: But I think I think number two and most importantly blowout, yeah.
3:39
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, well, no one was killed, right?
3:41
SPEAKER_05: Even the pilot survives this.
3:43
SPEAKER_05: And and to your point, it's really a testament to the Steelers being so dominant that day because they saved lives by uh by winning big, yeah.
3:53
SPEAKER_05: That's no that's actually very they had a 26 point lead.
3:56
SPEAKER_05: So a lot of fans had left already, and also the game ends early because when it's that much of a blowout, you're not using your timeouts, you're not trying to stop the clock, right?
4:05
SPEAKER_05: The game ends pretty quickly when it's when it's 40 to 14.
4:10
SPEAKER_05: And had this game been close, it likely still would have been going on when that plane hit the stadium, and then this would have been a a horrible catastrophe.
4:18
SPEAKER_05: Unfortunately, it's it's kind of just a footnote.
4:22
SPEAKER_03: That would I I mean, uh was there ever any explanation why this guy decided like was he just flying?
4:28
SPEAKER_03: Like, who flies that low?
4:29
SPEAKER_03: And like that's like in Baltimore, like it's not like in the middle of a field somewhere in Maryland, it's in Baltimore, isn't it?
4:36
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
4:37
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like Yeah.
4:39
SPEAKER_05: I I I don't know.
4:40
SPEAKER_03: I mean, it was a pretty small plane, maybe he just lost control or ran out of fuel or I don't know if the NTSB or was around back then or the FAA, somebody had to investigate this, right?
4:51
SPEAKER_03: Or it was the 70s, like, eh, whatever.
4:57
SPEAKER_03: It happens.
5:00
SPEAKER_05: That's a good teaser because we're gonna we're actually gonna end this episode with like a peak 70s story that's very similar.
5:06
SPEAKER_05: So hang on to that thought.
5:09
SPEAKER_05: Uh next on this list is the time that Sidney Crosby was booed when he was introduced to the home fans at the Civic Arena.
5:17
SPEAKER_05: What?
5:17
SPEAKER_05: We booed Sidney Crosby.
5:19
SPEAKER_05: He deserved it.
5:20
SPEAKER_05: Why would we do that?
5:22
SPEAKER_05: Well, uh in this case, he kind of did, because this so this happens before a game between the Penguins and the Sabres on March 2nd, 2010.
5:33
SPEAKER_05: And not only is Crosby booed when he's introduced, but Buffalo goaltender Ryan Miller is giving a huge standing ovation.
5:41
SPEAKER_05: So what's going on here?
5:42
SPEAKER_05: Well, two nights earlier, this had happened.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: Crosby up with it there.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: Crosby star!
5:52
SPEAKER_06: It's over the gold medal to Canada.
5:59
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so the the gold medal game of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver is between Canada and the United States.
6:07
SPEAKER_05: And the U.S.
6:07
SPEAKER_05: that year probably has their best chance to win a gold medal since 1980.
6:13
SPEAKER_05: And that's primarily because of their goaltender, the aforementioned Ryan Miller, who just stands on his head for that entire tournament.
6:19
SPEAKER_03: We had pretty good forwards too.
6:21
SPEAKER_03: Like didn't they have Parisi and Yeah.
6:24
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
6:24
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, Zach Parisi was really good in that tournament, too.
6:28
SPEAKER_05: Uh and that gold medal game was a thrower.
6:30
SPEAKER_05: It goes into overtime.
6:32
SPEAKER_03: I think the US Ed scored late, too, to send it to overtime, if I do.
6:37
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I think that was Parisi that actually sent the game into overtime with like a they might have even had Miller pulled or something.
6:43
SPEAKER_05: It was yeah, it was very dramatic.
6:45
SPEAKER_05: But as you heard in the audio, Crosby beats Miller with the golden goal to win the tournament for Canada.
6:51
SPEAKER_05: And that really sucked.
6:52
SPEAKER_05: I remember a bunch of us had a big party to watch that game, and it was just like, oh, so this is what it feels like to be on the other end of Crosby Magic.
7:01
SPEAKER_05: That's no fun.
7:03
SPEAKER_05: So when the Pens and Sabres play two days later, people in the United States are still a little salty about that, so we booed.
7:13
SPEAKER_05: Ryan Miller, on the other hand.
7:15
SPEAKER_02: From the Buffalo Sabres, part of an MVP.
7:19
SPEAKER_02: Ryan Miller.
7:28
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
7:28
SPEAKER_03: In a way, crowd standing ovation.
7:32
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
7:32
SPEAKER_03: That's pretty cool.
7:33
SPEAKER_03: I remember that happening.
7:34
SPEAKER_03: That was pretty neat.
7:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
7:36
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
7:36
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it was.
7:37
SPEAKER_05: And too bad we couldn't cure him for winning the gold medal, but it is what it is.
7:44
SPEAKER_05: So yeah, I I never want to be on the other side of Crosby beating us again.
7:50
SPEAKER_05: All right.
7:50
SPEAKER_05: Our next story is about a pirate's pitcher named AJ Burnett.
7:53
SPEAKER_05: Steve, do you remember A.J.
7:55
SPEAKER_05: Burnett?
7:55
SPEAKER_05: And if so, how would you kind of like describe his personality?
8:00
SPEAKER_03: Uh cantankerous.
8:03
SPEAKER_03: I wonder which clip.
8:04
SPEAKER_03: I don't know which clip you're gonna show.
8:05
SPEAKER_03: He used to call himself Batman.
8:07
SPEAKER_03: There are so many great AJ Burnett clips.
8:09
SPEAKER_03: You got a lot of choice.
8:10
SPEAKER_03: Is this with the pirates?
8:11
SPEAKER_05: This is this is with the pirates.
8:13
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
8:14
SPEAKER_03: So it's not the one in the Marlins where he throws a wild pitch and breaks the window in the car.
8:19
SPEAKER_03: Have you ever seen that one?
8:21
SPEAKER_03: I think it was with the Marlins, or he was playing in Florida and he threw like he was warming up and he threw I he might have done it on purpose, knowing, but it was hilarious.
8:32
SPEAKER_03: He breaks the window in a car.
8:35
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's it's also not the incident where he tells Hanley Ramirez to sit the F down.
8:41
SPEAKER_05: That was with the Pirates.
8:43
SPEAKER_03: Was that after he struck him out and he was like walking back to the dugout?
8:47
SPEAKER_03: There's one where he got doesn't he get kicked out?
8:49
SPEAKER_03: Is this the one where he gets kicked out like two pitches into the game or something like that?
8:54
SPEAKER_05: None of those things.
8:55
SPEAKER_05: So so yeah.
8:56
SPEAKER_05: So needless to say, as Steve as Steve said, AJ Burnett, you know, what did you say?
9:01
SPEAKER_05: Kintakerus, yeah.
9:04
SPEAKER_05: Doesn't really care what people think.
9:06
SPEAKER_05: Uh but none of those are the untold stories.
9:09
SPEAKER_05: It instead it's the stories.
9:11
SPEAKER_05: So so Burnett, he has a problem, which is that he keeps having trouble finding a place to park his car on game days at BNC Park.
9:20
SPEAKER_04: Oh no.
9:20
SPEAKER_05: And apparently, you know, all the people working there, the players, the front office people, the hot dog vendors, they all share the same parking lot.
9:28
SPEAKER_05: And Burnett notices that this one spot, even though it says reserved, is like always open.
9:34
SPEAKER_05: So one night he's just like, whatever, I'm gonna park there.
9:37
SPEAKER_05: Well, it turns out that that spot is reserved for the owner, Mr.
9:41
SPEAKER_05: Bob Nutting Jr.
9:45
SPEAKER_03: This is gonna be interesting.
9:48
SPEAKER_05: So a pirate's employee, a pirate's employee comes in and tells Burnett, hey, you gotta move your car, that's the owner's spot.
9:55
SPEAKER_05: And Burnett just says, like, look, I'm getting ready for the game.
9:58
SPEAKER_05: If he shows up, here's my keys, you can move it.
10:01
SPEAKER_05: Well, Bob Nutting doesn't show up.
10:04
SPEAKER_05: So Burnett's like, Well, this guy's never here.
10:08
SPEAKER_05: I'm just gonna park there again.
10:12
SPEAKER_03: So it's just like a standing order.
10:14
SPEAKER_03: Like, if he shows up, move my car.
10:17
SPEAKER_05: Well, and and the next time he he shows up, this time they actually have the parking spot roped off with yellow tape.
10:25
unknown: Yeah.
10:26
SPEAKER_05: So Burnett cuts the tape, parks his car in that spot, and then ties the tape back together.
10:34
SPEAKER_03: Like around this car, like it's a police like a like a crime set or something.
10:42
SPEAKER_05: Uh well, this time Bob Nutting does show up and he apparently tries to confront Burnett in the dugout.
10:48
SPEAKER_03: What?
10:49
SPEAKER_03: Why?
10:50
SPEAKER_05: And and Burnett is like getting ready to go out and pitch, and he has never met Bob Nutting before, doesn't even know what he looks like, which says everything you need to know about what kind of owner Bob Nutting is.
11:01
SPEAKER_05: And Burnett just like blows past him.
11:03
SPEAKER_05: He's like, I don't know who's this guy.
11:04
SPEAKER_05: I'm pitching, you know, get out of my way.
11:07
SPEAKER_05: And later his teammates are all like, dude, you big league the owner.
11:11
SPEAKER_05: And he was like, I didn't mean to, I didn't even know who that was.
11:14
SPEAKER_05: Um Burnett does say that they do eventually talk and that nutting was very nice.
11:19
SPEAKER_05: So so there's that at least.
11:22
SPEAKER_03: But did he get his own parking spot finally?
11:26
SPEAKER_03: They could just put a Batman symbol over it.
11:29
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
11:30
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
11:31
SPEAKER_05: I just love that.
11:32
SPEAKER_05: He's like, whatever.
11:33
SPEAKER_05: Like I love how they the pirates' employees are like, well, we'll put up tape so that he knows not to park there, and he just like takes the tape down and then ties it back up.
11:45
SPEAKER_05: All right, next we have a story about the legendary Myron Cope.
11:49
SPEAKER_05: Man, we could probably do a whole episode of stories about Myron.
11:53
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, probably.
11:53
SPEAKER_05: Um, this one comes courtesy of our buddy Dan Joseph.
11:57
SPEAKER_05: Uh, Dan was a guest on our show a while ago.
11:59
SPEAKER_05: We had him and Myron's daughter, Elizabeth Cope.
12:03
SPEAKER_05: We had them on the show to talk about a book they co-wrote about Myron.
12:06
SPEAKER_05: So check out that episode and check out that book if you haven't already.
12:10
SPEAKER_05: But Dan Joseph, he also started a YouTube channel with all this great lost footage that he got from Elizabeth Cope.
12:18
SPEAKER_05: And this channel, it's it's a just an absolute treasure trove of Pittsburgh sports history.
12:24
SPEAKER_05: Like, seriously, if you haven't checked this thing out yet, you really need to.
12:27
SPEAKER_05: We'll put a link in the show description.
12:29
SPEAKER_05: And and one of the things he has in there is a confrontation between Myron and Bengals head coach Sam Weich.
12:38
SPEAKER_05: And and we've talked about Sam Weish before.
12:40
SPEAKER_05: He was kind of like AJ Burnett Steve.
12:43
SPEAKER_05: Would you say?
12:44
SPEAKER_03: I don't think he was that cantankerous.
12:47
SPEAKER_03: He was a little weird.
12:48
SPEAKER_05: He he was he was very what's the word I'm looking for?
12:52
SPEAKER_05: Like unapologetic.
12:53
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
12:54
SPEAKER_03: Well, this is in Cleveland, that's for sure.
12:57
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
12:59
SPEAKER_05: Exactly.
13:01
SPEAKER_05: So so in 1989, the Steelers are playing the Bengals, and Pittsburgh quarterback Bubby Brewster goes down with an injury.
13:09
SPEAKER_05: And Weish actually comes onto the field when that happens to check on Brister, which is not something that opposing coaches normally do.
13:17
SPEAKER_05: But you know, coaches normally don't get on a live microphone in the middle of the game to scream at their fans, and Sam Weish did that too.
13:24
SPEAKER_03: So yeah.
13:26
SPEAKER_03: I mean, I guess that it could be like the Belichick when the Steelers remember there was like a Patriots player got hurt one time and Belichick was like, get away from my player.
13:35
SPEAKER_03: Like he thought they were like spying to see how bad he was injured and go back to like Bill Cower, like, ooh, he's really injured, he's not coming back.
13:44
SPEAKER_03: Even though that's against league rule, you have to disclose in this injuries, but yeah, this one that was Belichick, that was with his own player.
13:53
SPEAKER_05: This was Weiss checking on Bubby.
13:56
SPEAKER_03: So I don't know if Chuck Knoll or whoever thought, well, maybe he's spying on us.
14:01
SPEAKER_03: I I doubt Chuck Knoll doesn't seem like the paranoid type.
14:04
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, Chuck Knoll didn't care.
14:06
SPEAKER_05: You know who cares?
14:06
SPEAKER_05: Myron.
14:08
SPEAKER_03: He thought they was spying, or that's the only thing I could think of, like why would we get upset about it?
14:13
SPEAKER_05: He really goes off on Sam Weiss during the broadcast.
14:16
SPEAKER_05: He just he I don't think he says it's spying, he just says it's Bush League.
14:19
SPEAKER_03: Really?
14:20
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
14:21
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
14:22
SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's hard to get a context for this.
14:25
SPEAKER_03: What you know?
14:27
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
14:28
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
14:28
SPEAKER_05: It it it seems like an odd thing to get really upset about.
14:31
SPEAKER_05: Well, a couple of nights later, Weiss actually calls into Myron Cove's radio show to talk about the incident.
14:37
SPEAKER_05: Wow.
14:38
SPEAKER_05: And and Myron tells Weiss he thought it was Bush League, and and Weich says, you know, he he says, I did that because they were gonna cart Bubby off, and I wouldn't I I knew I wouldn't get to see him after the game.
14:50
SPEAKER_05: And he says he even calls Bubby the next day to check on him, talks to his dad.
14:55
SPEAKER_05: And and here's what um Sam Weiss thinks of Myron's criticism.
15:00
SPEAKER_07: Frankly, it's just a cheap shot that you happen to be taking because I suppose you don't like uh me for one reason or another, and it really doesn't make a dime's worth of difference what you think about it.
15:12
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I get the feeling that this was genuine, because that sounds like a person that's like, you know, this is ridiculous, you know.
15:19
SPEAKER_03: I wasn't like doing anything untoward or out of yeah.
15:24
SPEAKER_03: Maybe he had a relationship with Bubby.
15:26
SPEAKER_03: I I there has to be some sort of context to this.
15:31
SPEAKER_03: Was Bubby really hurt?
15:32
SPEAKER_03: Like, was it like Bubby really got knocked out or something?
15:35
SPEAKER_03: He had because it sounds like he was genuinely concerned.
15:39
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
15:41
SPEAKER_05: I I I hate to side with the Bengals on anything, but I it's sort of like I'm not sure.
15:46
SPEAKER_05: I I'm not sure Myron's I think Myron's a little out of line here.
15:50
SPEAKER_05: Well, well, that's also Steve, not the end of the conversation.
15:54
SPEAKER_05: Because Myron also brings up a quote where Weiss said, quote, I would love to coach Bubby Brister, which Myron says is a subtle shot at Chuck Knoll.
16:05
SPEAKER_03: What?
16:06
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, okay.
16:07
SPEAKER_03: Was Myron hurting for ratings or something?
16:11
SPEAKER_03: I I I guess I guess that sounds like a compliment to Bubby Brister.
16:15
SPEAKER_03: I mean, I don't know.
16:18
SPEAKER_03: I mean, I would make it more of like, hey, who's his quarterback?
16:21
SPEAKER_03: Like, was it Boomer at that point?
16:23
SPEAKER_03: Like, oh, he doesn't like Boomer Osaias in the that like I could see like somebody playing that angle more than you know this.
16:30
SPEAKER_05: The only thing I think what the way Myron read that is um this this Bubby's a really good quarterback.
16:38
SPEAKER_05: I'd love to coach him because then you know he would actually succeed instead of in Pittsburgh where he's failing.
16:44
SPEAKER_05: You know.
16:46
SPEAKER_05: I think that's what Byron probably thought.
16:48
unknown: Uh
16:49
SPEAKER_05: Anyway, here's here's Sam White's response to that accusation.
16:53
SPEAKER_08: You've got one of the most warped opinions of uh what people say.
16:57
SPEAKER_08: You know, when people are in the business of twisting things, as apparently you seem to be in that business, then sometimes you never really get back to reality.
17:05
SPEAKER_08: There's nothing wrong with that.
17:08
SPEAKER_01: Well, I I can't grow up, coach.
17:09
SPEAKER_01: I'm only five foot five and I've given up on the hope of doing that long ago.
17:19
SPEAKER_03: That's a heck of a response.
17:22
SPEAKER_05: It is.
17:23
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I just I think Myron was you know made for good radio.
17:27
SPEAKER_05: It it did.
17:28
SPEAKER_05: And and I don't, you know, Sam White called in.
17:30
SPEAKER_05: It wasn't like they'd play, you know, he had planned this and tried to come up with all like he had criticized all this before.
17:36
SPEAKER_03: Maybe they both just like decide, hey, let's make a good radio show.
17:39
SPEAKER_03: Maybe it's like a wrestling shtick.
17:41
SPEAKER_03: I I don't know.
17:42
SPEAKER_03: It's it's just odd.
17:44
SPEAKER_05: It it is very odd.
17:45
SPEAKER_03: And they're very calm about it.
17:47
SPEAKER_03: They're not yelling and screaming, they're just kind of matter-of-fact about it.
17:51
SPEAKER_05: It's it's a good so that's that by the way, that's just a sampling.
17:55
SPEAKER_05: You really have to listen to the whole thing.
17:56
SPEAKER_05: It's like five minutes, five or six minutes long.
17:58
SPEAKER_05: We'll put a link to that on our website.
18:00
SPEAKER_05: Again, you really need to check out Dan Joseph's YouTube channel if you haven't already.
18:04
SPEAKER_05: That's just so much great lost Pittsburgh sports nostalgia on there.
18:08
SPEAKER_05: But yeah, I I do, I I can't help but kind of thinking Myron's out of line on all that.
18:13
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
18:15
SPEAKER_05: All right.
18:16
SPEAKER_05: Well, since we're plugging YouTube channels, another really good YouTube channel is the JG9 um channel.
18:23
SPEAKER_05: Steve and I have talked about this one before.
18:25
SPEAKER_03: Even though he's a Jacksonville Jaguars fan.
18:29
SPEAKER_03: He is a Gators fan.
18:30
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we'll get cut him some slack.
18:32
SPEAKER_03: No, it is it is a really he he he does like NFL history better than we do, uh quite frankly.
18:40
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's really good.
18:41
SPEAKER_05: And he has like a video, a new video like every single day.
18:44
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
18:44
SPEAKER_05: Uh so again, check out his channel, we'll link to that on our website.
18:49
SPEAKER_05: Um, but he does he did a good story on this next item on our list, and it again involves the Steelers and the Bengals.
18:56
SPEAKER_05: So in 1993, the Steelers beat Cincinnati, which was pretty common in those days.
19:02
SPEAKER_05: But after the game, Steelers cornerback Rod Woodson is livid.
19:07
SPEAKER_05: He reportedly throws a punch at Bengals receiver Carl Carl Pickens.
19:12
SPEAKER_03: Carl's Jr.
19:13
SPEAKER_05: Carl's Jr., as Chris Berman would say.
19:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
19:17
SPEAKER_05: And then he goes up to Cincinnati head coach David Chula and wags his finger right in his face and yells something at him.
19:24
SPEAKER_05: So what was Woodson so upset about?
19:27
SPEAKER_05: Well, it was because Pickens made some racially charged taunts at Woodson during the game.
19:32
SPEAKER_05: And in a little context here, Woodson was biracial.
19:35
SPEAKER_05: He had a he had a black father and a white mother.
19:38
SPEAKER_05: And back when Woodson was growing up in Indiana, that was not a widely accepted accepted thing by society.
19:46
SPEAKER_05: And and Woodson like heard it from all sides.
19:49
SPEAKER_05: His family got threats from the KKK, but then the black kids also made fun of him for having a white mother.
19:56
SPEAKER_05: So it like he got it from all sides.
19:59
SPEAKER_05: And as an adult, Woodson then marries a white woman.
20:03
SPEAKER_05: So obviously the idea of being part of a mixed-race family was a pretty sensitive topic for him.
20:09
SPEAKER_05: Well, during this 1993 game, Pickens taunts Woodson about this and he keeps shouting jungle fever at him, stuff like that.
20:18
SPEAKER_05: And that really upsets Woodson.
20:20
SPEAKER_05: He's like, you know, if you want to talk trash on the football field, then fine.
20:24
SPEAKER_05: You know, if it's about football or or whatever.
20:27
SPEAKER_05: But making fun of my parents is just so over the line.
20:30
SPEAKER_05: And and Woodson's teammates all come out and say they're really upset too.
20:34
SPEAKER_05: I dug up some of the the newspaper articles from this.
20:38
SPEAKER_05: You know, there was a lot of comments and and anger from from a lot of his teammates that this had happened.
20:44
SPEAKER_05: And and Pickens never really says anything in the immediate aftermath.
20:48
SPEAKER_05: But later that season he goes back home and he hears it from both of his parents.
20:52
SPEAKER_05: He said that his parents were really upset with him for that.
20:55
SPEAKER_05: And Pickens says, quote, that's when I realized I made a terrible mistake.
20:59
SPEAKER_05: And he said he planned to talk to Woodson about it to presumably apologize.
21:03
SPEAKER_03: Don't know if that ever happened or not, but mom and dad gave him a scolding, huh?
21:10
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
21:12
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
21:12
SPEAKER_03: Could you imagine if that happened today, boy?
21:15
SPEAKER_03: Carl Pickens would be like blacklisted from the NFL.
21:19
SPEAKER_05: Oh yeah.
21:20
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, there would be suspensions, there would be fines.
21:23
SPEAKER_05: Oh yeah, there it would be a it would be a a whole mess.
21:27
SPEAKER_05: And and and and like, you know, Woodson's experience growing up.
21:31
SPEAKER_05: I mean, I full disclosure, I'm I'm part of a mixed race family now, and and fortunately, you know, my kids have grown up in an era where they haven't had to endure that kind of garbage, right?
21:43
SPEAKER_05: And and but he he grew up in Indiana in the in the 70s, and that that was in the 80s.
21:49
SPEAKER_05: That was a different time of you know of of that kind of stuff being accepted.
21:53
SPEAKER_05: So definitely understand the the sensitivity there.
21:58
SPEAKER_05: All right, let's talk about a non-speaker.
22:00
SPEAKER_05: So glorious time in pit football history.
22:02
SPEAKER_05: It's the second stint of Johnny Majors.
22:05
SPEAKER_03: Woohoo! I lived it.
22:08
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, we we've talked a lot about this era.
22:10
SPEAKER_03: This is a lived experience.
22:12
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, we both sat through a lot of real bad games at Pitt Stadium during that time.
22:18
SPEAKER_05: So, Steve, Johnny Majors was a coach for four years during that time in the 90s.
22:25
SPEAKER_05: They played 28 games in the Big East.
22:27
SPEAKER_05: How many of those 28 games do you think that they won?
22:31
SPEAKER_03: Five?
22:32
SPEAKER_03: Maybe six.
22:33
SPEAKER_05: That's close.
22:34
SPEAKER_05: Seven.
22:35
SPEAKER_03: Hey, I was close.
22:37
SPEAKER_03: I mean, you figure they beat Rutgers and Temple every year, so that's two.
22:41
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
22:43
SPEAKER_05: Yep, they could beat Rutgers and Temple, and that was that was that's the list.
22:48
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
22:48
SPEAKER_05: So so in 1996, Pitt is playing Boston College on Halloween night.
22:54
SPEAKER_05: And since Boston College isn't Temple or Rutgers, they're an 11-point favorite to Walla Pitt, just like all the other big East teams did.
23:02
SPEAKER_05: And and Boston College isn't super good that season, but they do have a star quarterback named Matt Hasselback, who later goes on to get cheated by the refs in a Super Bowl against the Steelers.
23:16
SPEAKER_03: He gets cheated by his own team, that's right.
23:21
SPEAKER_05: So so this should just be another one of your typical pit blowouts, right?
23:25
SPEAKER_05: Right?
23:27
SPEAKER_02: The junior and the Northwood Man.
23:30
SPEAKER_02: Intercepted with Sean Whitmill, his second of the lake.
23:36
SPEAKER_02: Not only the pick, but much better field condition.
23:40
SPEAKER_02: That was a big play.
23:42
SPEAKER_05: So Pitt wins.
23:44
SPEAKER_05: It's a shocker.
23:45
SPEAKER_05: And after the game, Boston College head coach Dan Henning explodes in the locker room.
23:52
SPEAKER_05: And he says, I know there are guys in here involved in gambling, and he demands that the players involved come clean.
24:00
SPEAKER_05: And a few days later, between 25 and 30 BC players come forward and admit to betting, and ultimately 13 of them are suspended.
24:09
SPEAKER_05: Wow.
24:10
SPEAKER_05: Now, no one admits to betting against Boston College, and officials say that they believe, you know, after their thorough investigation, that only two of them actually did bet against BC, and that those players had no impact whatsoever on the pit game or any of the other games.
24:25
SPEAKER_03: Sure, they didn't.
24:27
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
24:27
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
24:28
SPEAKER_05: I mean, speculation persists, obviously, that it was much more rampant.
24:32
SPEAKER_03: Was uh what's his name?
24:34
SPEAKER_03: Oh God, the guy from Goodfellas.
24:36
SPEAKER_03: Was he involved?
24:36
SPEAKER_03: No, he's in the Henry Hill.
24:38
SPEAKER_03: Henry Hill was it remember him in Boston College in the um the basketball player?
24:42
SPEAKER_05: That was basketball, yes.
24:43
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah.
24:44
SPEAKER_03: And he had his Pittsburgh connection, so that's true.
24:49
SPEAKER_05: That's true.
24:50
SPEAKER_05: That's true.
24:51
SPEAKER_05: Maybe, maybe Henry Hill was involved in some way.
24:54
SPEAKER_05: Uh but I I I actually remember watching that game, Steve.
24:57
SPEAKER_05: I remember watching that game in between trick-or-treaters coming to my door.
25:02
SPEAKER_05: And I also remember thinking, like, wow, this is like the best win that we've had in in years.
25:08
SPEAKER_05: And then, of course, it was tainted because, you know, Pitt.
25:13
SPEAKER_05: They beat Records and Temple and one win against Boston College in those seven big east wins.
25:19
SPEAKER_05: Wow.
25:20
SPEAKER_05: So so six plus one with an asterisk.
25:23
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
25:25
SPEAKER_03: So this was Johnny Major's final year.
25:28
SPEAKER_03: This was the 65 to nothing blowout year and all that good stuff.
25:31
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah.
25:32
SPEAKER_05: I think this was the year that was it Notre Dame or Ohio State that returned a punt for a touchdown.
25:37
SPEAKER_03: With ten people.
25:38
SPEAKER_03: That was Ohio.
25:39
SPEAKER_03: That was oh that was Ohio State.
25:41
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
25:42
SPEAKER_03: Do you believe that was Joey Galloway or one of the one of the Yeah.
25:46
unknown: Yeah.
25:46
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
25:46
SPEAKER_05: Pit Pitt was bad.
25:48
SPEAKER_05: That's why, again, this was so shy.
25:49
SPEAKER_05: That's why Dan Henning was like, wait a second.
25:52
SPEAKER_03: Something's not right.
25:54
SPEAKER_03: Something's not right.
25:57
SPEAKER_05: All right.
25:58
SPEAKER_05: Next, let's talk about a guy named Billy Tibbetts.
26:00
SPEAKER_05: Steve, do you remember Billy Tibbets?
26:02
SPEAKER_03: The name sounds familiar.
26:03
SPEAKER_03: I'm sure when you go into the story, I'll remember.
26:07
SPEAKER_05: So he's a guy that the penguin sign in 2000.
26:10
SPEAKER_05: And at the time, he is a convicted rapist.
26:14
SPEAKER_05: Like he had actually served a suspended prison sentence for rape.
26:17
SPEAKER_05: Then he served an actual sentence for assault and battery with a deadly weapon.
26:21
SPEAKER_03: Oh, this guy sounds like a uh choir boy here.
26:24
SPEAKER_05: He also had charges leveled against him for beating a police officer and intimidating a witness.
26:30
SPEAKER_03: So I'm assuming he's gonna be an enforcer on the team of some sort.
26:36
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, he's definitely has some violence in his past.
26:38
SPEAKER_05: And and when the penguins sign him, he has to register as a sex offender in Pennsylvania.
26:43
SPEAKER_05: Oh my god.
26:44
SPEAKER_05: And for a while he can't travel to Canada for road games.
26:48
SPEAKER_05: And and people aren't real happy about this at the time.
26:52
SPEAKER_05: There's women's groups who and journalists who come out and bash the penguins.
26:56
SPEAKER_05: Uh Sally Calson at the Post Gazette writes multiple columns expressing outrage over this.
27:02
SPEAKER_05: Gets really ugly because Mark Madden, who was a columnist at Post Gazette at the same time, kept writing rebuttal columns.
27:09
SPEAKER_05: Like the two of them were going at it inside the Post Gazette.
27:14
SPEAKER_05: It doesn't help that the pens make a couple of kind of tone-deaf statements about it.
27:20
SPEAKER_05: Craig Patrick kind of gloats about how they beat other teams to the punch to sign Tibbets.
27:26
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, he even says like a few other teams called him like upset that you know he signed them first.
27:32
SPEAKER_05: And Mario Lemieux says it's a great story of someone who, quote, overcame adversity.
27:39
SPEAKER_03: So so and I I think I know what Mario meant there, but man, it doesn't sound like I think he I maybe he cleaned up his act after having some bad things.
27:48
SPEAKER_03: Well, that's what I think.
27:50
SPEAKER_05: I think that's what they were trying to say.
27:52
SPEAKER_05: Um, but it just it just again a little tone-deaf making those kinds of statements.
27:58
SPEAKER_05: It it also doesn't help that Tibbetts is a pretty dirty player during his first season in Pittsburgh.
28:03
SPEAKER_05: He has a bad habit of sucker punching people, and he also gets suspended multiple times for keep shots.
28:09
SPEAKER_03: What a shock.
28:10
SPEAKER_03: What a shock.
28:12
SPEAKER_05: And and I don't so is this you know, we had this like 14, 15 years later with the Michael Vick controversy, you know, where on one hand, okay, what this person did was horrible, but you know, we have laws, we have prison sentences, we've all agreed as a society that this is the punishment for said horrible acts.
28:37
SPEAKER_05: So do we have a right to be upset when that person tries to earn a living after they've served the punishment that we all agree to?
28:44
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I've I I said that about Michael Vico, the this guy's charges were a lot more severe.
28:50
SPEAKER_05: Fair.
28:51
SPEAKER_03: But if he's served the time and did everything he's supposed to and he hasn't re-offended, I I don't know what else to say.
28:59
SPEAKER_03: I mean, what what else do you want the guy to do?
29:02
SPEAKER_03: I mean, if you're if you're not happy that the jail term wasn't long enough, then that sounds like something you should write your legislator about, not the penguins.
29:12
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
29:13
SPEAKER_03: I mean, I I'm just saying, yeah.
29:15
SPEAKER_05: No, I I I don't disagree with you.
29:16
SPEAKER_05: I mean, now to play devil's advocate, do we take that stance just because it's a professional athlete, can they can help our team?
29:24
SPEAKER_05: Like, like if our kids preschool wanted to employ a convicted sex offender would be like, hey, sort of.
29:30
SPEAKER_03: I think that's different.
29:31
SPEAKER_03: I a preschool or a school.
29:34
SPEAKER_03: I mean, but if the guy wants to go work at freaking McDonald's, I mean, what what are you gonna do?
29:38
SPEAKER_03: The guy's not allowed to make a living, or you know.
29:41
unknown: Yeah.
29:42
SPEAKER_03: I mean, I guess if he was driving a school bus, maybe people wouldn't be crazy about it, but yeah, yeah.
29:48
SPEAKER_05: I mean, there should probably be some boundaries around you know being alone with kids and stuff like that.
29:53
SPEAKER_05: But you're right, if it's if it so maybe the kids preschool isn't a good example, but maybe like the place you frequent often, like you said, like a restaurant or uh you know Yeah, I mean he has to do something to earn a living.
30:05
SPEAKER_03: I mean, I guess he can work, you know, somewhere where there isn't a lot of kids.
30:09
SPEAKER_03: I I I don't know.
30:10
SPEAKER_03: I I I don't know.
30:12
SPEAKER_03: It's just it's just like you said, like it doesn't you put these people in limbo and what are they supposed to do?
30:18
SPEAKER_03: Like, you know, I guess, you know, I guess it's a lesson to everybody else.
30:22
SPEAKER_03: It's a deterrent.
30:23
SPEAKER_03: Don't do that.
30:24
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's it's it's that's a tough one.
30:27
SPEAKER_05: And and like uh Sally Kelson, those articles she wrote was really around like what about the victim, you know, uh what if she you know, he gets to make millions of dollars, what did she get?
30:39
SPEAKER_05: That kind of stuff.
30:40
SPEAKER_05: I I don't know.
30:41
SPEAKER_03: I I I I don't know what else she wants out of it.
30:45
SPEAKER_03: I mean, if if he what what do you want him to do?
30:47
SPEAKER_05: Well that's kind of what Mark Madden was saying.
30:49
SPEAKER_03: Like I said, the two of them, if if you go back like okay, it it the so what what punishment would be good enough for you?
30:56
SPEAKER_03: Right, right, right.
30:59
SPEAKER_03: I would ask.
31:00
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
31:00
SPEAKER_05: Well, and I and I get like I the the this is gonna come up again.
31:04
SPEAKER_05: I was just reading about this recently with Henry Ruggs.
31:06
SPEAKER_05: Remember Henry Ruggs, that receiver for the Raiders?
31:09
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, is that the guy who ran somebody over?
31:12
SPEAKER_05: Well, he he crashed into a woman and it killed her and her dog, and he's gonna be released from prison in a couple of years, and he's talking about wanting to resume his football career.
31:23
SPEAKER_05: If you're the family of that woman, I could see being a little outraged by that, right?
31:29
SPEAKER_03: But I mean, he once again it's you know, manslaughter, he's gonna go to jail for a couple years.
31:35
SPEAKER_05: I mean Yeah, but but but I I just I I can I guess I'm just saying I can see both sides of this.
31:41
SPEAKER_03: The NFL too, like you know, they have an image to serve, and you know, some companies just can't hire people like that.
31:48
SPEAKER_03: It hurts their business, you know.
31:50
SPEAKER_03: Right.
31:51
SPEAKER_03: Maybe he is gonna have to go take a more low profile something or other.
31:56
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know.
31:56
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
31:57
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
32:00
SPEAKER_05: So that's the story of Billy Tibbetts.
32:02
SPEAKER_03: Whatever happened to him.
32:03
SPEAKER_03: Like, I wonder what he uh is he is he working at McDonald's now?
32:07
SPEAKER_03: He's a kindergarten, he's a kindergarten teacher in Saskatchewan.
32:11
SPEAKER_03: It's like, oh no.
32:12
SPEAKER_05: I I did look that up.
32:13
SPEAKER_05: I mean, he only played maybe two or maybe two, three seasons for the penguins.
32:17
SPEAKER_05: And I did look him up.
32:18
SPEAKER_05: He did have a little bit of legal trouble uh after this, but it I mean it was nothing to the extent of you know beating a police officer, intimidating a witness, rape, assault and battery.
32:33
SPEAKER_05: It wasn't that level of stuff.
32:34
SPEAKER_05: So not not sure what happened to him, but um and I'm not defending, I'm not defending Billy Tivits.
32:41
SPEAKER_03: He you know, he sounds like a generally not good person.
32:44
SPEAKER_03: I hope he changed his ways, but and it's always hard to gauge those things.
32:48
SPEAKER_05: Like like we did that episode about Gabe Rivera, and we talked about how they would always do like these, you know, five-year retrospectives or ten-year retrospectives, and Gabe's gonna earn he's earning a degree and he turned his life around.
33:00
SPEAKER_05: Meanwhile, he was like addicted to drugs and he wasn't working and he was you know at borderline suicidal.
33:06
SPEAKER_05: Like it so you never really know has the person turned their life around.
33:10
SPEAKER_05: And even when they do, sometimes there's still struggles, you know, nobody's perfect, so who knows?
33:16
SPEAKER_05: Hard to gauge.
33:19
SPEAKER_03: Well, we went a lot deeper there than we normally do on the test, but we did.
33:24
SPEAKER_05: But hey, that's what you have to expect from such intellectual sauce.
33:29
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
33:30
SPEAKER_05: All right, well, here's another controversy that people will probably not remember, and it involved late-night talk show host David Letterman.
33:37
SPEAKER_05: Steve, were you a were you a Letterman guy?
33:40
SPEAKER_03: Uh I liked Letterman.
33:41
SPEAKER_03: I liked Leno too.
33:42
SPEAKER_03: I I liked both of them.
33:44
SPEAKER_03: I was one of those odd people.
33:45
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
33:46
SPEAKER_03: I I liked Conan better, quite honestly.
33:49
SPEAKER_03: I don't know why.
33:50
SPEAKER_03: As it went on, I liked Conan better, but I don't know.
33:54
SPEAKER_03: Letterman was fun with the top ten lists.
33:56
SPEAKER_03: I I have a couple of his top ten list books.
33:59
SPEAKER_03: So I think it as he got later and more jaded, he lost a little bit of his just fun, you know.
34:06
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, he he definitely got crank ears.
34:08
SPEAKER_05: He got as he got older.
34:09
SPEAKER_05: His his humor kind of got a little grating sometimes too.
34:12
SPEAKER_05: He would like beat things into the ground.
34:14
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
34:14
SPEAKER_05: Um, but I I I watched him for years back when I could, you know, actually stay up late.
34:20
SPEAKER_05: And I I did like Letterman, but but I'm with you.
34:22
SPEAKER_05: I Conan was always my favorite.
34:23
SPEAKER_05: He I just to this day, I and I love Conan's podcast today.
34:27
SPEAKER_03: I think he's very silly.
34:28
SPEAKER_03: He's more silly than Leno or Leno isn't bad.
34:33
SPEAKER_03: I you know, he's more vanilla and yeah, I don't know.
34:37
SPEAKER_05: I never really watched Leno.
34:39
SPEAKER_03: I mean he I Letterman was more like spicy than if if Leno's you know plain girl chicken, Letterman's the spicy chicken, I don't know.
34:52
SPEAKER_03: I just remember he one time sent a guy in like a um dog suit into uh tax like place, and then like he sent like five of them in.
35:01
SPEAKER_03: He like he was like the bet the the bit was like how many guys in dog suits will they allow into like a tax place?
35:10
SPEAKER_03: Nice, or like he'd throw stuff off the roof of the building, remember that?
35:14
SPEAKER_05: Right, or they would do Does It Float, and they would do that one too, yeah.
35:19
SPEAKER_05: Well, anyway, what does any of this have to do with Pittsburgh sports?
35:23
SPEAKER_05: Well, in August of 1988, Steelers founder, Art Rooney, passes away at the age of 87, and that's a big deal here in Pittsburgh, because as we've talked about on the show numerous times, the chief is really a mythical figure here.
35:38
SPEAKER_05: So so obviously a lot of people are very sad about that.
35:42
SPEAKER_05: Well, on August 30th of that year, Letterman makes this joke concerning Rooney's death during his monologue.
35:50
SPEAKER_05: Quote, it's terribly sad, and there's a little controversy with this because he died during the preseason, so does it count?
35:58
SPEAKER_05: And the audience all groans, no one laughs, and and there's a bunch of angry calls that come into WPXI, which is our NBC affiliate here in Pittsburgh.
36:09
SPEAKER_05: Uh, people are not happy about that joke.
36:12
SPEAKER_05: Letterman does apologize on the next evening show.
36:16
SPEAKER_05: He says it was in poor judgment.
36:19
SPEAKER_05: My heartfelt apologies to the people of Pittsburgh.
36:22
SPEAKER_03: So he was kind of making like a football preseason joke there.
36:26
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
36:28
SPEAKER_03: Huh.
36:29
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
36:30
SPEAKER_03: I I mean because I remember people used to make like now I haven't heard anybody make fun of the preseason the way they used to.
36:36
SPEAKER_03: Like remember, they used to call it mythical football and stuff like that.
36:40
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
36:41
SPEAKER_03: People don't like those jokes anymore.
36:43
SPEAKER_03: I guess maybe they're out of style.
36:45
SPEAKER_03: We take our preseason seriously now, gotta find out which quarterback the Cleveland Browns are gonna select.
36:52
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
36:54
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
36:54
SPEAKER_05: Well, I guess tying it to Art Rainy's death was not very popular at the time.
36:59
SPEAKER_03: So no, fair enough.
37:02
SPEAKER_03: That was in poor taste.
37:03
SPEAKER_03: I would say I call it in poor taste.
37:05
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, poor taste.
37:07
SPEAKER_05: I mean, not egregiously horrible, but definitely in poor taste.
37:12
SPEAKER_05: Alright, next we're gonna talk about Super Bowl 37, which was not a particularly good Super Bowl.
37:18
SPEAKER_05: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers just completely boat race the Oakland Raiders.
37:23
SPEAKER_05: And Steve, do you remember who the MVP was of that game?
37:26
SPEAKER_03: Yes, I do.
37:28
SPEAKER_03: It was one Dexter Jackson.
37:30
SPEAKER_05: Ding ding ding.
37:31
SPEAKER_05: Very good.
37:32
SPEAKER_05: Good memory.
37:33
SPEAKER_05: Yep.
37:34
SPEAKER_03: I know what you're gonna.
37:35
SPEAKER_03: I I I don't even have the notes on this show, and I know what you're gonna talk about.
37:39
SPEAKER_03: Because this was a big this was a big to-do.
37:42
SPEAKER_05: It was so so yeah.
37:44
SPEAKER_05: As Steve said, Tampa Bay safety, Dexter Jackson is the MVP, and that's great timing for him because guess what?
37:52
SPEAKER_05: He's a free agent after that game.
37:54
SPEAKER_03: Time to cash in, much like uh who is the guy Larry Brown.
37:58
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, Larry Brown.
37:59
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I I try not to mention his name.
38:03
SPEAKER_05: Just get a little shiver every time I say it.
38:07
SPEAKER_05: So the Steelers are are at that time, they're coming off of a 2002 season in which they were completely impotent against the pass.
38:15
SPEAKER_05: They gave up 30 plus points in both of their playoff games that year, and they've decided to part ways with longtime safety Lee Flowers, who I I think Steve was m much more of like a run stopping safety than he was a pass defending safety, right?
38:30
SPEAKER_03: That was the problem with that defense that was that they had Brent Alexander, him, like they had a bunch of like they had that one guy that Travis, uh oh, what was his guy?
38:40
SPEAKER_03: The guy that has the longest Travis Davis.
38:42
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, they had him hanging around, Scott Shields.
38:46
SPEAKER_05: So so yeah, so so the Steelers are definitely in the market for safety.
38:51
SPEAKER_05: And who better than the guy that was just MVP of the Super Bowl?
38:55
SPEAKER_05: So the Steelers make him an offer, Jackson verbally accepts the offer, he's gonna sign with the Steelers, they fly him to Pittsburgh to officially sign the contract, and while he's in Pittsburgh at the Steelers' offices, the phone rings.
39:10
SPEAKER_05: It's the Arizona Cardinals.
39:13
SPEAKER_05: So Jackson actually ducks into a bathroom at the Steelers' offices to take the call, and it turns out that the Cardinals want to offer him more money than the Steelers are offering him.
39:24
SPEAKER_05: And believe it or not, Steve, we have footage of what happens next.
39:29
SPEAKER_05: This is this is very rare footage obtained directly from the steers' offices.
39:34
SPEAKER_05: This is what happens when Dexter Jackson's.
39:37
SPEAKER_03: They have cameras in the bathroom, Tim.
39:38
SPEAKER_03: That would be in violation of Supreme Court rulings.
39:42
SPEAKER_05: Not in the bathroom.
39:43
SPEAKER_05: This is what happens when Dexter Jackson comes back from the bathroom from taking that phone call.
39:47
SPEAKER_05: All right.
39:48
SPEAKER_05: And the team's like, okay, just sign right here, and you'll be a Pittsburgh Steeler.
39:52
SPEAKER_05: And here's what Jackson says.
39:54
SPEAKER_05: Oh.
39:56
SPEAKER_02: Fine.
39:58
SPEAKER_02: Let me just get uh something out of my car.
40:08
SPEAKER_04: I don't think it's coming back.
40:11
SPEAKER_03: You know, that sounds an awful lot like Leonard Nemoy.
40:15
SPEAKER_05: Oh, Dr.
40:16
SPEAKER_05: Jackson has other voices.
40:19
SPEAKER_05: And Kevin Colbert's a temply faced teenager, by the way.
40:26
SPEAKER_05: Back then, you know, he grew up a little bit over.
40:28
SPEAKER_03: That's a great episode of Simpsons too.
40:30
SPEAKER_03: Because they all sing like Good Morning, Star Shy, at the end of the episode.
40:34
SPEAKER_03: Let it led by led by Leonard Dimoy.
40:37
SPEAKER_03: Get Jammu out of here.
40:39
SPEAKER_03: It's the feds.
40:40
SPEAKER_05: He's at the feds, yeah.
40:42
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, that was the X-Files themed episode, yeah, with Molder and Scully on it.
40:47
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
40:48
SPEAKER_05: So anyway, yeah, Jackson, Jackson spurns the Steelers literally at the last minute and signs with the Cardinals.
40:55
SPEAKER_05: And the Stewart are really upset about this.
40:58
SPEAKER_05: They they feel like he and his agent use them to leverage a better deal from the Cardinals.
41:02
SPEAKER_05: And the worst part is they still don't have anyone to play safety.
41:06
SPEAKER_05: So now they have to pivot.
41:10
SPEAKER_05: And a few weeks later, here's what they pivot to.
41:13
SPEAKER_06: With the uh 16th selection in the 2003 NFL draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers select trolling Palomalu safety from Southern California.
41:23
SPEAKER_03: I don't know who this Paula Malu guy, but he certainly looks like Palomalu.
41:28
SPEAKER_03: If he's half as good as that guy, we're good.
41:32
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
41:33
SPEAKER_03: It's Paul Malu.
41:34
SPEAKER_03: Palomaloo.
41:38
SPEAKER_03: No, I mean it's it's the best thing to ever.
41:42
SPEAKER_03: Like, what did Dexter Jackson ever do after that Super Bowl?
41:45
SPEAKER_05: Like I can tell you.
41:47
SPEAKER_05: Nothing.
41:48
SPEAKER_05: He's a complete bust in Arizona, and they release him after one season.
41:54
SPEAKER_03: Oh, I'm sorry, and I laughed and I laughed.
41:57
SPEAKER_03: Well, does this Palomalu guy turn out?
42:00
SPEAKER_03: How does he do how does he turn out?
42:02
SPEAKER_05: He does okay.
42:03
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
42:03
SPEAKER_05: And and and oddly enough, do do the Cardinals end up playing the Ravens in the Super Bowl if they don't steal Dexter Jackson away?
42:12
SPEAKER_05: Because then Paul Amalo's not there to make that interception in the championship game.
42:17
SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay.
42:18
SPEAKER_03: I see.
42:19
SPEAKER_03: I see what you're saying.
42:20
SPEAKER_05: Right?
42:20
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I I guess.
42:22
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
42:23
SPEAKER_03: So what this is like a what it's a wonderful life thing.
42:27
SPEAKER_03: He wasn't there to save all those men on that transport.
42:30
SPEAKER_03: What what what are we doing here?
42:32
SPEAKER_03: What are we doing here?
42:33
SPEAKER_03: Well, I'm just saying it's either.
42:36
SPEAKER_03: So they would have been playing Joe Flacco instead of Ben Rothesburger.
42:41
SPEAKER_03: Well, maybe Joe Flacco drives them down the field and wins.
42:44
SPEAKER_03: Maybe.
42:46
SPEAKER_05: But but but but the the the Cardinals being like conniving and scheming and and stealing Jackson away directly leads to the Steelers getting Palomalu.
42:56
SPEAKER_03: So and why does this sound like the plot of Jerry McGuire, doesn't it?
43:03
SPEAKER_05: Maybe that's who maybe that's who called Dexter Jackson in the bathroom.
43:07
SPEAKER_03: But the bottom line is we get Troy Palomalu and it works out way better.
43:11
SPEAKER_03: So I remember they were really pissed because that was kind of like a skeezy thing to do.
43:16
SPEAKER_03: Like on like were I mean, were the Cardinals allowed to call him that?
43:21
SPEAKER_03: I guess it was still like an open negotiation.
43:23
SPEAKER_05: Like Yeah.
43:25
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, this was I don't think it violated anything.
43:27
SPEAKER_05: He hadn't signed the contract yet.
43:29
SPEAKER_05: But I mean he literally was at the offices to to sign the contract.
43:33
SPEAKER_05: I dug up John Clayton from ESPN.
43:36
SPEAKER_05: There's an article out there still from him saying, you know, Jackson, five year deal with the Steelers, like it's done.
43:44
SPEAKER_05: And and so this this is really the like the last minute.
43:47
SPEAKER_05: Like it was a done deal.
43:49
SPEAKER_05: And they do that today.
43:50
SPEAKER_05: Remember how like the first day of free agency it's like, oh, you know, two minutes into free agency.
43:54
SPEAKER_03: Well because there's a legal tampering.
43:57
SPEAKER_05: Legal tampering.
43:57
SPEAKER_05: But but technically
44:00
SPEAKER_03: Because everybody was doing that before they would talk to people.
44:03
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it just gets stupid.
44:05
SPEAKER_05: But but technically that could happen today where you have like the team announces that they've signed so and so, but if they haven't officially signed them yet, they they technically could change their minds.
44:15
SPEAKER_05: And I wonder if that's probably you could probably find other examples of something like this happening.
44:19
SPEAKER_05: But at the time that really stunk because you know we were gonna get the Super Bowl MVP safety from Tampa, and uh and instead we had nobody, but like you said, kind of worked out okay.
44:33
SPEAKER_03: Well, he I mean in the immediate, it's like kind of one of those things too, like because he was hurt, Paul Mahler was hurt that whole first season, this whole rookie season.
44:42
SPEAKER_03: He really doesn't play, so everybody's thinking, oh, he's a bust, and this and that.
44:46
SPEAKER_03: Not maybe not a bust.
44:47
SPEAKER_03: People were getting skeptical of like whether he was even gonna turn out to be a decent player.
44:52
SPEAKER_03: Never mind the player he ended up being.
44:55
SPEAKER_05: Oh, yeah, one of the one of the probably top five, top ten Steelers of the World.
45:00
SPEAKER_03: Oh, he'll be oh, he'll be in the Steeler Hall of Honor if he isn't already.
45:04
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
45:04
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
45:06
SPEAKER_05: Alright.
45:07
SPEAKER_05: Uh Steve, remember when baseball had that big steroid scandal?
45:12
SPEAKER_05: And guys like Mark McGuire and Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were all accused of juicing.
45:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
45:19
SPEAKER_05: Did you know that was not the first time that happened in baseball?
45:24
SPEAKER_05: Did you know?
45:25
SPEAKER_05: Do you know when the first instance of accused doping happened?
45:29
SPEAKER_03: Doping.
45:30
SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
45:31
SPEAKER_03: I don't uh I don't know.
45:33
SPEAKER_03: 1893?
45:34
SPEAKER_03: I I don't know.
45:36
SPEAKER_05: You're close.
45:37
SPEAKER_05: Really?
45:38
SPEAKER_05: 1889, and it was a pirates Hall of Fame pitcher, Pud Galvin, who What was he drinking, like, you know, spinach drinks or something?
45:47
SPEAKER_03: And they're like, no, that's against the rules.
45:49
SPEAKER_05: So so at this point in his career, Pud Galvin's 32 years old.
45:53
SPEAKER_05: He is starting to slow down a bit because he's 32.
45:56
SPEAKER_05: And there's this doctor, and I kind of put doctor in air quotes.
46:02
SPEAKER_03: Well, it is 18.
46:03
SPEAKER_03: What do you say?
46:04
SPEAKER_03: 1889?
46:05
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
46:05
SPEAKER_05: Named Charles Charles Brown Sequared, and he comes up with this elixir, which is a concoction of testicular fluid from dogs and guinea pigs.
46:16
SPEAKER_03: Oh my gosh, why?
46:18
SPEAKER_03: Oh man, you gotta okay, Tim.
46:21
SPEAKER_03: Let's put this in context for 1889.
46:24
SPEAKER_03: All right.
46:24
SPEAKER_03: The uh what is it, the Food and Drug Administration wasn't around, and the um was the Controlled Substances Act.
46:32
SPEAKER_03: I think that was until the 70s, and I and even the one before that, where you had to put labels on stuff, wasn't until like I think I want to say 1914 or 17, somewhere in there.
46:45
SPEAKER_03: So they would have all these they call them patent medicines.
46:49
SPEAKER_03: And so they you didn't have to list the ingredients, and you gotta remember cocaine was legal.
46:54
SPEAKER_03: So like they like you can find old advertisements of like cocaine bitters, it's good for your child's cough.
47:00
SPEAKER_03: You know, people were Coca-Cola literally had cocaine in it.
47:06
SPEAKER_03: So I mean, this isn't I mean it's crazy, and they didn't have to list their ingredients.
47:11
SPEAKER_03: And the biggest thing that happened was in I forget, I forget when the act was fought.
47:16
SPEAKER_03: I think it was during the Woodrow Wilson administration, I want to say, or Roosevelt.
47:20
SPEAKER_03: And that's they had to list their ingredients, and like the ingredient, the main ingredient is like morphine.
47:26
SPEAKER_03: It's like, oh, okay, well, yeah, maybe we don't want to be taking that.
47:31
SPEAKER_05: Well, well, Dr.
47:33
SPEAKER_05: Brown Siccard says that not only does this elixir of testicular fluid from dogs and guinea pigs make you stronger.
47:40
SPEAKER_03: Hey, here's what how is he obtaining this?
47:45
SPEAKER_05: The the I don't want to really know the answer to that.
47:50
SPEAKER_03: Clarks, you ever walked to Clarks?
47:52
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
47:54
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah.
47:56
SPEAKER_05: Could be that.
47:58
SPEAKER_05: So, so yeah, you know, gonna make you stronger, gonna give you more energy, also provides you with rejuvenated sexual prowess, according to the doctor.
48:08
SPEAKER_03: Well, I don't even want to know.
48:11
SPEAKER_03: They were doing some wild stuff in the late 19th century.
48:15
SPEAKER_05: So Pud Galvin takes an injection of this elixir and then proceeds to pitch a two-hit shutout over the Boston Bean Eaters.
48:24
SPEAKER_03: Have you ever heard of the placebo effect, Tim?
48:29
SPEAKER_05: Well, well, the Washington Post disagrees, Steve, because the next day they write this quote if there still be doubting Thomases who concede no virtue to the elixir, they respectfully refer to Galvin's record in yesterday's Boston.
48:44
SPEAKER_05: It's the best proof yet furnished of the values of the discovery.
48:48
SPEAKER_03: Uh I'm getting the feeling this isn't FDA approved, peer-reviewed, anything.
48:56
SPEAKER_03: This is kind of like remember when the Eagles are drinking pickle juice?
49:01
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
49:01
SPEAKER_03: I mean, at least that's like harmless.
49:03
SPEAKER_03: It's just vinegar and pie.
49:05
SPEAKER_03: You know, it's like Yeah.
49:06
SPEAKER_05: Well, this this stuff was probably harmless too.
49:09
SPEAKER_05: It's it's it's later proven to be ineffective.
49:11
SPEAKER_05: Medical experts say, like you said, Steve, it was probably a placebo effect.
49:16
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
49:17
SPEAKER_05: Um, but there you go, Bud Galvin, baseball's first user.
49:22
SPEAKER_03: Um, I I could you imagine trying to peer review this crap?
49:26
SPEAKER_03: It's like, what am I gonna find to study on the effectiveness of guinea pig sperm and humans?
49:35
SPEAKER_03: Like, who does us and who who's the people studying this?
49:42
SPEAKER_03: Who gave who who what what government agency gave you a grant to do it?
49:49
SPEAKER_05: And who are the test subjects?
49:52
SPEAKER_03: Like Elon, if Elon would have found that, that would have been a scandal.
49:58
SPEAKER_00: Oh, so there you go.
50:00
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I I also want to note I was I was a tiny bit unfair to the good doctor.
50:04
SPEAKER_05: He actually made some pretty significant discoveries in regards to the spinal cord that that I guess are still taught in med school, but this elixir stuff was some you know, horseman or it goes to so that like people could have a mixed track record.
50:17
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
50:18
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
50:18
SPEAKER_03: Like so, I mean, we're not all right about everything.
50:21
SPEAKER_05: Right.
50:22
SPEAKER_03: Right.
50:25
SPEAKER_05: Okay, for our next story, let's go to a 2008 game between the Steelers and the Browns.
50:30
SPEAKER_05: And Steelers Safety Ryan Clark gets injured on a play, and while the medical staff attends to him, NBC goes to commercial break.
50:39
SPEAKER_05: And when they come back from the commercial break, something odd happens.
50:44
SPEAKER_02: Tony Correnti has just called a taunting foul just before we came back from commercial.
50:50
SPEAKER_02: It was against the Steelers, and they were in their defensive huddle when they called it.
51:04
SPEAKER_02: So that penalty is on James Farrier.
51:09
SPEAKER_05: Wait, what how do you get a taunting penalty when no one was playing football?
51:13
SPEAKER_05: Like when they when they come back from the break, you know, they they're you can see they're taking Ryan Clark off the field.
51:19
SPEAKER_05: He's okay.
51:20
SPEAKER_05: But but there wasn't a play, it wasn't like we missed a play.
51:23
SPEAKER_05: So how do you get a taunting penalty?
51:25
SPEAKER_05: Well, what actually happens here, Farrier flips off a Brown's fan, and the refs throw a flag on him for doing that.
51:36
SPEAKER_03: Uh that's kind of out of character.
51:39
SPEAKER_03: Generally Potsey was pretty, you know, well controlled.
51:43
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah.
51:44
SPEAKER_05: He does come out and and say, you know, that was stupid, I should know better.
51:48
SPEAKER_03: Maybe he was just mad that they were taunting a hurt player.
51:52
SPEAKER_05: Well, that's what he says, yeah.
51:53
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
51:53
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, he says the fan the fan was celebrating the fact that Clark got hurt, and so he just got angry and gave him the finger, and he's fined$7,500 by the NFL and and assessed that penalty, um, which is important because like as you heard there, they gave him a first and goal.
52:11
SPEAKER_05: Uh but the Sears win the game anyway because, you know, Cleveland.
52:16
SPEAKER_03: Cleveland.
52:17
SPEAKER_03: Well, I mean, good for Potsey.
52:20
SPEAKER_03: Uh I and maybe I bet knowing him, he probably maybe he matched it and gave some extra money to a charity.
52:26
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
52:26
SPEAKER_03: Probably.
52:27
SPEAKER_03: He he was always a good guy.
52:28
SPEAKER_03: Underrated.
52:29
SPEAKER_03: I know we said this many times on this podcast.
52:31
SPEAKER_03: One of the key parts to our defense of those years.
52:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
52:36
SPEAKER_03: Very underrated player.
52:38
SPEAKER_05: Yes, for sure.
52:41
SPEAKER_05: All right.
52:42
SPEAKER_05: Let's uh our next story.
52:44
SPEAKER_05: Uh we're gonna talk about a woman named Marge Shot.
52:47
SPEAKER_05: Steve, do you remember her?
52:49
SPEAKER_03: Uh wow.
52:50
SPEAKER_03: Uh there's a lot to talk about with Marge.
52:53
SPEAKER_03: She did run a good baseball team, the Reds.
52:56
SPEAKER_03: She she she was a very good owner that way.
52:59
SPEAKER_03: And she did like her her the players loved her, like for all her racial comments and such.
53:08
SPEAKER_03: And she would like, it was the best.
53:10
SPEAKER_03: She would like sit there and smoke cigarettes.
53:12
SPEAKER_03: Like, she didn't sit up in the owner's box, she would sit right in the first row, and like there's like literally shots of her just sitting there smoking watching the game.
53:19
SPEAKER_03: It's like it's like if you're like, I don't know, well, your grandmother, your grandparents were different, but like just some of the grandparents I that would what they would have done.
53:30
SPEAKER_03: Just smoke a cigarette and watch.
53:32
SPEAKER_03: Jane smoke the entire game.
53:33
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, and like make like crazy comments just because that's who they are.
53:38
SPEAKER_03: And but they're endearing and they're they're really are good people.
53:42
SPEAKER_03: They just, you know, like like the like the doctor guy, they just had yeah, mixed bad, like you say.
53:47
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but people are complicated.
53:49
SPEAKER_03: It's just it's just like the other that Tibbets guy is not all good or not all bad.
53:54
SPEAKER_03: Right.
53:54
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
53:55
SPEAKER_05: People, people that's that's a really good point, Steve, because I think in our culture today especially.
54:02
SPEAKER_05: Right, right, exactly.
54:04
SPEAKER_05: So yeah, Mary Shot, very controversial, has a lot of racist kind of statements over the years.
54:10
SPEAKER_03: But the players loved her, like even the African-American player, they loved her.
54:15
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
54:15
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
54:16
SPEAKER_03: I mean, and she always put a winning, like, compared to what whatever the ownership is in Cincinnati now, she always put a winning team on the field.
54:23
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, they had some really good teams.
54:25
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
54:26
SPEAKER_05: One of those really good teams is in 1990 when they're playing the Pirates in the National League Championship series.
54:34
SPEAKER_05: And and one of the other things about Marshot was she was notoriously cheap.
54:39
SPEAKER_05: Um, she was when the when the Reds eventually won the World Series that year, she was upset because the Reds won that in four games.
54:47
SPEAKER_05: And and they didn't get to have like game five and at home.
54:51
SPEAKER_05: So she refused to pay for like the celebration, whatever, because she's like, Well, I had to lose money because it was a sweep.
54:58
SPEAKER_05: So she was very, very cheap.
55:00
SPEAKER_03: How can we lose a game?
55:02
SPEAKER_03: Oh my god.
55:03
SPEAKER_05: So in so so back in the NLCS when they're playing the Pirates, um i in that series, and I I'm guessing this is probably still the case today, it's the home team's responsibility to accommodate the visiting team's families.
55:18
SPEAKER_05: So when the Reds come to Three River Stadium, the Pirates sit the Cincinnati players' families right behind home plate.
55:24
SPEAKER_05: Well, when the pirates come to Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Marshot made the Pirates players' family sit in the high-level keep seats.
55:34
SPEAKER_03: That is the most Marge Shot move ever.
55:37
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and the Pirates are really livid over this.
55:40
SPEAKER_05: Um, Doug Baer, the pitcher for the Pirates, he says, What am I supposed to do with my eight-year-old daughter?
55:44
SPEAKER_05: Just tell her to go up to the to the upper deck by herself.
55:48
SPEAKER_05: Gary Redis says he shot seat us.
55:52
SPEAKER_03: He played for he played for her, too, didn't he?
55:54
SPEAKER_03: He played for Cincinnati.
55:55
SPEAKER_03: I think he did, yeah.
55:56
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
55:57
SPEAKER_05: So maybe he was used to it.
55:59
SPEAKER_05: Bob Walk says, We're lucky our tickets aren't on the roof of the hotel.
56:04
SPEAKER_03: Bob Walk.
56:05
SPEAKER_05: And then Wally Bachman says, quote, Mark Shot is the cheapest human being on earth.
56:10
SPEAKER_03: I love Wally Bachman.
56:12
SPEAKER_03: He was good, yeah.
56:14
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
56:14
SPEAKER_05: So yeah, that not not, you know, again, one of those stories probably nobody would remember, but the pirates are pretty upset.
56:21
SPEAKER_05: But the Reds are are not giving their families prime seats.
56:25
SPEAKER_05: And again, that was because all the seats you have to give up behind home plate are seats that you can't sell to fans for an exorbitant price.
56:32
SPEAKER_03: So well, it's you don't even have to put them on those, you can put them in a like a luxury, maybe even extra luxury.
56:38
SPEAKER_05: Well, then you have to give up that revenue also.
56:41
SPEAKER_05: See, that's the easy yeah, but the but the upper deck seats, those are the cheapest seats in the house.
56:47
SPEAKER_05: So if you're losing money on those, it's all that profit mark.
56:52
SPEAKER_05: Bob nodding somewhere is like slow clapping this podcast.
56:57
SPEAKER_05: All right.
56:58
SPEAKER_05: All right, we'll end with a fun story, and this is like this is the one that I kind of teased earlier.
57:03
SPEAKER_05: This is this is just peak 1970s.
57:06
SPEAKER_05: So in 1975, there's a team playing in the Civic Arena called the Pittsburgh Triangles.
57:12
SPEAKER_03: Yes! They're one of the championship teams of Pittsburgh history.
57:16
SPEAKER_05: Yep.
57:17
SPEAKER_05: Yep, they're part of a pro sports league called World Team Tennis.
57:20
SPEAKER_05: Steve talked about them on our Teams That Aren't Here Anymore episode.
57:24
SPEAKER_05: So on July 26th of that year, the Triangles get a huge win at home against the New York Sets, which was a big deal because the Sets had the best player in the league.
57:33
SPEAKER_05: It was Billy Gene King.
57:35
SPEAKER_05: Yep.
57:36
SPEAKER_05: And and Vitas Garolitis, who was a star player for the Triangles, he's excited, not only because his team won, but also because it's his birthday.
57:46
SPEAKER_05: And he wants to celebrate those two things in style.
57:49
SPEAKER_05: So he gets on the PA system at the Civic Arena and he invites 10,000 people back to his hotel for a late night party.
57:59
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
58:00
SPEAKER_03: How many people showed up, I wonder?
58:03
SPEAKER_05: They estimate several hundred people showed up, fortunately not 10,000.
58:08
SPEAKER_05: Mostly young ladies.
58:10
SPEAKER_03: Because Vetus is is kind of like European and then yeah, in hair.
58:15
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
58:16
SPEAKER_05: Uh
58:18
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
58:19
SPEAKER_03: Good for him.
58:20
SPEAKER_03: Hey, hey, yeah, yeah.
58:22
SPEAKER_05: There is some physical damage to the hotel, but other than that, no other reported issues.
58:27
SPEAKER_03: So there's lots of 1970s.
58:30
SPEAKER_03: Was it all from the platform shoes and disco balls and yeah, whatever else?
58:38
SPEAKER_03: Probably.
58:39
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
58:39
SPEAKER_05: But I just love that.
58:40
SPEAKER_05: Like he's like, gets on the case system.
58:42
SPEAKER_05: He's like, everybody back in my place.
58:44
SPEAKER_05: We're gonna celebrate in style.
58:47
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
58:47
SPEAKER_05: Garolitis, by the way, does go on to have a pretty successful tennis career that gets cut short by a tragic accident that kills him in 1994.
58:57
SPEAKER_05: And there's a lot of debate, actually, over whether or not he belongs in the Hall of Fame.
59:01
SPEAKER_05: Recently, both Jimmy Connors and B.
59:03
SPEAKER_05: Warren Borg came out and said that if Garylitus was not inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, they would both consider rescinding their inductions.
59:12
SPEAKER_03: Can you do that?
59:15
SPEAKER_05: Apparently you can.
59:16
SPEAKER_03: Tennis.
59:17
SPEAKER_03: Who knew tennis?
59:18
SPEAKER_03: Who knew they were so passionate in tennis?
59:21
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
59:21
SPEAKER_05: So he ended up being a really good tennis player after his career with Pittsburgh.
59:27
SPEAKER_05: Uh, because he was only like 20, 21 years old at the time.
59:30
SPEAKER_03: Right, yeah.
59:31
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
59:31
SPEAKER_05: But again, yeah, great story.
59:33
SPEAKER_05: And Steve, only instead.
59:36
SPEAKER_05: All right.
59:37
SPEAKER_05: Well, that's that's our list of stories.
59:39
SPEAKER_05: Uh, thanks everybody so much for listening.
59:41
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59:43
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59:45
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59:46
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59:50
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