Latest / The Ben Maller Show / The Fifth Hour: Robby Inc. - Sacred Grounds Book

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The Fifth Hour: Robby Inc. - Sacred Grounds Book · The Ben Maller Show

0:00
Speaker 1: Cutbooms.
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Speaker 2: If you thought four hours a day, twelve hundred minutes
0:05
Speaker 2: a week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants
0:09
Speaker 2: of the old Republic, a sol fashion of fairness. He
0:12
Speaker 2: treats crackheads in the ghetto gutter the same as the
0:15
Speaker 2: rich pill poppers in the penthouse. Wow to Clearinghouse of
0:19
Speaker 2: hot takes, break free for something special. The Fifth Hour
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Speaker 2: with Ben Mahller starts right now.
0:28
Speaker 1: In the air Everywhere.
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Speaker 3: The Fifth Hour with Me, Ben Mahler and Danny g Radio.
0:36
Speaker 1: A Happy Friday to you as.
0:39
Speaker 3: We are back in the remote studio after a successful
0:42
Speaker 3: week on The Overnight Show, and we begin a new
0:47
Speaker 3: today on this Friday podcast only edition, celebrate National Oreo
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Speaker 3: Day today. The Oreo Cookie, which first debuted way back
0:59
Speaker 3: in nineteen twelve by a grocer in Hoboken, New Jersey.
1:05
Speaker 1: Before that, think about.
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Speaker 3: If you lived in nineteen ten or eighteen eighty eight,
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Speaker 3: no Oreo cookies. But it was a grocer in Hoboken,
1:14
Speaker 3: New Jersey that gave us the Oreo cookie. And originally
1:19
Speaker 3: they had a lemon moraine flavor which was not very popular.
1:23
Speaker 3: Not very popular, so they discounted that or they discontinue
1:26
Speaker 3: that and it's been around over one hundred years. Over
1:30
Speaker 3: well over one hundred years. The Oreo cookie. Today is
1:34
Speaker 3: also a day that you are not participating in. It
1:36
Speaker 3: is the National Day of Unplugging. We thank you for
1:41
Speaker 3: not participating in the National Day of Unplugging. It does
1:47
Speaker 3: mean mean a lot to us. They say that seventy
1:50
Speaker 3: seven percent of people own a smartphone. It's got to
1:53
Speaker 3: be more than that. There was a study done somewhat recently.
1:55
Speaker 3: Seventy seven percent of people own a smartphone and use
1:59
Speaker 3: it constantly. So never put it down, always have it.
2:04
Speaker 3: The whole thing cannot unplug, no digital detoks.
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Speaker 1: I use it a lot. Occasionally I can put the
2:12
Speaker 1: phone down.
2:13
Speaker 3: I am able to put the phone down for a
2:15
Speaker 3: few minutes. Anyway, enough of that, let's get to the
2:17
Speaker 3: meat of the matter and a chance to hang out
2:20
Speaker 3: with a buddy of mine, someone that I've known for many,
2:25
Speaker 3: many years. His name is Robbie Ink mccowsky. He is
2:29
Speaker 3: a broadcaster TV guy, has had a long career in television.
2:35
Speaker 3: Is a listener to the Overnight Show. And if you're
2:39
Speaker 3: in Minnesota or if you're in Pittsburgh, you know who
2:43
Speaker 3: this guy is. He's lived the life, and Robbie has
2:48
Speaker 3: been a broadcaster, spent several years with the Minnesota Twins,
2:52
Speaker 3: long run with the Pittsburgh Pirates, has done some work
2:54
Speaker 3: with the Texas Rangers as a TV sideline guy. And Robbie,
3:01
Speaker 3: I've known him for so long. He wrote a book.
3:04
Speaker 3: I'm going to get into that at some point here
3:06
Speaker 3: with Robbie. We're going to talk about that. The book
3:08
Speaker 3: called Sacred Grounds. It's awesome. I love baseball stadiums, and Robbie,
3:14
Speaker 3: all his years traveling around the major leagues, he went
3:17
Speaker 3: and took photos and did a bunch of interviews and
3:20
Speaker 3: things like that.
3:21
Speaker 1: The book's called Sacred Grounds.
3:23
Speaker 3: I will tell you about that where you can get
3:24
Speaker 3: it on Robbie's website robbiec dot com.
3:31
Speaker 1: But right now, let's start before we get to the book.
3:34
Speaker 3: Before we get to the book, Robbie, I've not talked
3:37
Speaker 3: to you in a long time, and you're one of
3:39
Speaker 3: those people that came into my life. And I know
3:42
Speaker 3: you've been around, You've been someone that I've known for
3:45
Speaker 3: a number of years.
3:46
Speaker 1: But I do not remember how we met.
3:48
Speaker 3: I assume we met in a press box, probably somewhere
3:52
Speaker 3: in LA but can you let me know, Robbie, do
3:55
Speaker 3: you remember when we first met that, Well, that was.
3:58
Speaker 4: In person, been at the Dodger Stadium press box for
4:03
Speaker 4: the first time, and it was one of the finest
4:05
Speaker 4: moments in my career because you know, like a lot
4:10
Speaker 4: of your listeners, they're devoted and their maniacs and their psychos,
4:14
Speaker 4: and I was one of them. Ben, So it just
4:17
Speaker 4: brought me so much stoy to meet you. And now
4:19
Speaker 4: I have the honor of putting you in my book,
4:21
Speaker 4: which is even cooler. And you know, we've stayed friends
4:23
Speaker 4: through these years, you know, probably about fifteen seventeen years,
4:26
Speaker 4: somewhere around that area. It's been a lot of fun, man,
4:30
Speaker 4: and I'm just tightful to be back on again with you.
4:32
Speaker 1: Well, it's great. And Robbie.
4:33
Speaker 3: The thing too, is like when you said you were
4:35
Speaker 3: a listeners, like, oh yeah, right, you know you're not
4:37
Speaker 3: a listener. And then but you were like quoting things
4:39
Speaker 3: from the show, which was really cool because you did
4:42
Speaker 3: you're a late night guy, right, you say up late,
4:44
Speaker 3: but when you had that job as a sideline guy
4:46
Speaker 3: as a reporter in baseball.
4:48
Speaker 1: You're up all night, right, You're up late at night,
4:51
Speaker 1: not all night. But you're up all night doing so they.
4:53
Speaker 4: Go to bed two three am a lot of nights.
4:55
Speaker 4: And you know what am I listening to before I
4:57
Speaker 4: go to sleep? I'm listening to Ben Maller, of course,
4:59
Speaker 4: not SA And you put me to sleep bend. That
5:01
Speaker 4: never happened.
5:01
Speaker 1: Oh of course not.
5:02
Speaker 3: I know that would that would never happen. But man,
5:04
Speaker 3: you have had quite the run. I did not realize this.
5:07
Speaker 3: I was I was looking some stuff up the other day,
5:10
Speaker 3: and I've known you for all these years. I didn't
5:12
Speaker 3: know that you You're a Philadelphia guy, and you did
5:16
Speaker 3: stuff with the Eagles as a kid, right, you.
5:18
Speaker 1: Had a you had a little gig as I was.
5:20
Speaker 4: A ball boy for the Eagles. Yeah, growing up, when
5:22
Speaker 4: I was a kid, I used to sneak into the
5:26
Speaker 4: Eagles practices. So they had a practice field at the
5:30
Speaker 4: old so remember the old Veterans Stadium where they played,
5:33
Speaker 4: right in South Philly. So I grew up about roughly
5:35
Speaker 4: a half a mile three quarters of a mile away
5:38
Speaker 4: from the Old Veterans Stadium. And my buddy and I
5:42
Speaker 4: used to collect aluminum cans and then we would bring
5:45
Speaker 4: them to the Camp Bank. Get a little money, grab
5:46
Speaker 4: a little snack here and there, And there used to
5:50
Speaker 4: be a hole in the gate of the practice field
5:52
Speaker 4: and it was right along Packer Avenue. So those in
5:54
Speaker 4: South Philly and Philadelphia know exactly what I'm talking about
5:57
Speaker 4: right now. And I stuck into practice one day and
6:01
Speaker 4: I saw Reggie White, I saw Randall Cunningham, I saw
6:04
Speaker 4: Buddy Ryan, the head coach. I saw Clyde Simmons. I
6:07
Speaker 4: thought it was the coolest thing in the world. And
6:09
Speaker 4: then they could never get rid of me. And that's
6:11
Speaker 4: how it all began for me. They hired me as
6:13
Speaker 4: a ball boy. Then I worked in the training room,
6:15
Speaker 4: and then I get into entertainment, television, radio, all that.
6:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome.
6:20
Speaker 3: And then like you couldn't do that now, Like if
6:23
Speaker 3: you snuck into practice now, you'd probably be arrested like today,
6:26
Speaker 3: right I would be.
6:28
Speaker 4: I would be in handcuffs if I got past the
6:30
Speaker 4: shrubbery of the Eagles facility. In twenty twenty six, Ben
6:35
Speaker 4: So and I used to sneak. I used to I
6:37
Speaker 4: literally snuck in the practice and hung in the corner
6:40
Speaker 4: and was yelling at the players. That's how long times
6:44
Speaker 4: have changed. I was back in nineteen eighty seven, when
6:46
Speaker 4: there was a strike here for the NFL.
6:48
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, for sure. When I was a kid, I
6:51
Speaker 3: didn't as it wasn't a ball boy. But I have
6:53
Speaker 3: a funny story, kind of funny. So I was a
6:55
Speaker 3: RAMS fan and the Rams would practice. I grew up
6:58
Speaker 3: in Orange County. They have training camp in Orange County
7:00
Speaker 3: and NFL training camp in the nineteen and you were
7:04
Speaker 3: there in the nineteen eighties. Much different than NFL training
7:07
Speaker 3: camp in twenty twenty six.
7:09
Speaker 1: It was just.
7:10
Speaker 3: Mom and pop. There was I got dropped off the
7:12
Speaker 3: RAM training camp. My mom would drop me off. I
7:15
Speaker 3: was at UC Irvine, so I'd wander around and there
7:20
Speaker 3: was like one security guard there and he was sitting
7:23
Speaker 3: on a folding chair and there was there was a
7:25
Speaker 3: little there was a little bit of like a rope situation.
7:27
Speaker 1: That was it.
7:28
Speaker 3: So I would always go over to the offensive lineman
7:30
Speaker 3: and watch them practice, and no one else cared about
7:33
Speaker 3: the There were a few.
7:34
Speaker 1: People there, but nobody really cared.
7:36
Speaker 3: And I remember watching Jackie Slater was the big star
7:40
Speaker 3: lineman froh yeah, and a couple other guys there and
7:42
Speaker 3: they would curse and fart, and I was a little kid,
7:45
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, man, and I actually had Jackie
7:48
Speaker 3: Slater on the I did radio show or an interview
7:51
Speaker 3: I think I had on this podcast, and Jackie's.
7:53
Speaker 1: Like the coolest guy in the world, and he was laughing.
7:56
Speaker 1: You know, you thought it was funny. What the world?
7:58
Speaker 1: That's the old Jackie Slater line.
8:00
Speaker 3: And so last year, so you go from ball boy
8:02
Speaker 3: and I'm sure you met a lot of cool people
8:03
Speaker 3: with the Eagles, right doing stuff around there. That must
8:05
Speaker 3: have been an amazing You mentioned some of the names there,
8:07
Speaker 3: but just people that went on to have great runs
8:10
Speaker 3: in the NFL, you know, in the front office and
8:12
Speaker 3: things like that, right, you must have been around a
8:13
Speaker 3: lot everybody there in Philadelphia.
8:16
Speaker 4: Oh, it was great. Reggie White would give me fifty
8:18
Speaker 4: dollars for every A I got in my report card,
8:21
Speaker 4: and that fifty dollars was game changing money. Now I
8:24
Speaker 4: didn't didn't cost him a locks. I didn't get a
8:26
Speaker 4: lot of a's, but but the ones I got, I
8:28
Speaker 4: made sure I showed him that's great. So it was
8:31
Speaker 4: great those teams that Reggie White was obviously the best
8:36
Speaker 4: player on the defense. But then you know you had
8:39
Speaker 4: Andre Waters, Seth Joyner, they had Anthony Tony Keith Byer's
8:43
Speaker 4: with the running backs. I mean, there were some pretty
8:46
Speaker 4: good teams that they had back in the day. And
8:49
Speaker 4: Buddy his defense, you know, he was known for his
8:52
Speaker 4: defensive coaching. And they had some big time players in
8:55
Speaker 4: those days. And I still stay in touch with a
8:57
Speaker 4: decent amount of those guys. So yeah, man, it was
9:00
Speaker 4: a lot of fun and it was a great time
9:01
Speaker 4: in my life. I was a kid. It's how I
9:03
Speaker 4: learned work ethic and you know, and that's what it
9:05
Speaker 4: was like being in locker rooms. You know, I was
9:07
Speaker 4: at a locker rooms, you know, hanging out in locker
9:09
Speaker 4: rooms at an extremely young age.
9:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, there is a there's a way you have to
9:14
Speaker 3: act right. People don't understand like there's like there's a
9:16
Speaker 3: code of the locker room. Like you have to kind
9:18
Speaker 3: of understand the code of the locker room. If you
9:19
Speaker 3: don't understand it, you're gonna get crushed. It's not pretty
9:23
Speaker 3: if you don't understand it. It's its own unique world
9:27
Speaker 3: in there.
9:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's just like you have to be like, you know,
9:31
Speaker 4: like people, you know, fans out there. I don't know,
9:34
Speaker 4: I don't even realize if they have friends that work
9:37
Speaker 4: for teams or people that work in locker rooms, you know,
9:39
Speaker 4: whether it's a clubhouse assistant, an equipment manager, a trainer.
9:43
Speaker 4: I mean, you've got to be slightly whacked in the head,
9:46
Speaker 4: you know, which is why I love your show, because
9:48
Speaker 4: a lot of your listeners, a lot of your callers,
9:49
Speaker 4: are just slightly whacked in the head and they have fun.
9:53
Speaker 4: So those are the people. I spent my years growing
9:55
Speaker 4: up with those kind of people, and that's why I
9:57
Speaker 4: loved your show.
9:57
Speaker 1: The Wackadoodle, the Wackadole crowd, I love the I could
10:00
Speaker 1: do it all right, but.
10:01
Speaker 4: I mean in the good way. I mean in a
10:02
Speaker 4: complimentary way.
10:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean exactly exactly. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, So how
10:07
Speaker 1: did you end up?
10:08
Speaker 3: I met you, you were already doing TV, Yes, you
10:11
Speaker 3: were the Pirates at the time. So how did you
10:13
Speaker 3: end up like in that world from bald Boy with
10:18
Speaker 3: the Eagles and then you know, down the line, you're
10:21
Speaker 3: doing television.
10:21
Speaker 1: That's pretty cool.
10:23
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's pretty crazy. Well, first of all, it's great mentors.
10:27
Speaker 4: Kurt Menefee, who hosts the Fox NFL Sunday pregame show,
10:30
Speaker 4: Brian Baldinger Baldi, you know, famous for Baldy's breakdowns. Those
10:35
Speaker 4: are the two guys that got my career going, and
10:38
Speaker 4: those two have been very close friends for man since
10:42
Speaker 4: since the nineties, over thirty years, those two have been extremely,
10:45
Speaker 4: extremely close friends, and they both kind of took me
10:47
Speaker 4: under their wing because when I was in that locker room,
10:50
Speaker 4: Ben Baldy played for the Eagles. He was an offensive lineman.
10:53
Speaker 4: I don't know if you know people realized Baldy spent
10:56
Speaker 4: twelve years in the NFL as an offensive lineman and
11:00
Speaker 4: after free agent coming out of Duke, played for Steve Spurrier,
11:03
Speaker 4: and he got into broadcasting and just took me under
11:07
Speaker 4: his wing. And that's kind of how I made that transition.
11:10
Speaker 4: Kurt Menafee was his broadcast partner doing games for the
11:13
Speaker 4: NFL and Fox, and obviously kurtis since transition to become,
11:16
Speaker 4: you know, the face of the franchise on the studio show.
11:20
Speaker 4: But Baldy was doing games and I tagged along with
11:22
Speaker 4: him and my first job, Ben, How about this first
11:25
Speaker 4: job I ever had in television was with Fox Sports.
11:29
Speaker 4: I was a spotter for Pat Summer all the last
11:32
Speaker 4: year that he did games in the NFL. So if
11:35
Speaker 4: you remember, they called Tom Brady's first Super Bowl that
11:38
Speaker 4: was the last Super Bowl Madden summer All did together.
11:41
Speaker 4: Remember when they upset the Saint Louis Rams, the greatest
11:43
Speaker 4: show on turf, the Adam Vina Terry Field goal to
11:45
Speaker 4: walk it off.
11:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, for sure, that was.
11:48
Speaker 4: Pat summer Awl and John Madden's last Super Bowl together.
11:51
Speaker 4: So Baldy and Pat Summer All were broadcast partners the
11:55
Speaker 4: next year, in two thousand and two. That season, and
11:59
Speaker 4: that's kind of how it all started. And that's where
12:00
Speaker 4: the bug bit me. So I just kind of tagged
12:02
Speaker 4: along and had some great mentors. Crazy story how a
12:04
Speaker 4: lot of people realized Baldy and Pat Summer All were
12:07
Speaker 4: broadcast partners.
12:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember, because Matt did Madden? Did he leave
12:12
Speaker 3: or they broke I know they broke him up obviously,
12:14
Speaker 3: but did he leave Fox?
12:16
Speaker 1: Is that? Yeah?
12:16
Speaker 4: Madden? Madden stopped doing television. Yeah, and some are all
12:21
Speaker 4: he had done a couple more games, but I think
12:22
Speaker 4: it was more like guest appearances he did. I think
12:24
Speaker 4: he did some Sunday Night football on ESPN, might have
12:27
Speaker 4: covered a few games from Mike Patrick back in the day,
12:30
Speaker 4: but primarily that's who it was.
12:33
Speaker 3: The legend two of Pat Summer All it's awesome. You
12:36
Speaker 3: got to be right next to him and watch him work.
12:38
Speaker 3: But I remember it'd be like Emmett Smith with the Cowboys,
12:41
Speaker 3: be hand off to Emmett and then touchdown Cowboy, and
12:45
Speaker 3: we like ninety yard touchdown running. It was like four
12:47
Speaker 3: words from Pat summer All.
12:49
Speaker 4: It was as we always said, it less is more,
12:52
Speaker 4: and that's what it was with with with Pat summer
12:56
Speaker 4: All where he would say Montana Rice touchdown and like
13:00
Speaker 4: that's it. It's crazy, isn't it crazy?
13:02
Speaker 1: Yeah?
13:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, So now you get a word salad. A lot
13:06
Speaker 3: of times you get like a word sub. So you're
13:08
Speaker 3: doing the silent stuff. You worked for the Twins for
13:11
Speaker 3: a while, right, you were beloved in Minnesota years.
13:13
Speaker 4: I don't know about beloved.
13:15
Speaker 1: Come on, you know it's time. Let me tell you. Robbie.
13:18
Speaker 3: I was in Vegas a couple months back and the
13:24
Speaker 3: morning show, the Power Trip Morning Show from Kfan was there.
13:27
Speaker 3: They were doing a remote at I got done with
13:30
Speaker 3: my show at three in the morning, and then they
13:33
Speaker 3: invited me to come over Data Place at New York, New.
13:36
Speaker 1: York, this restaurant over there.
13:37
Speaker 3: So I show up thinking there's gonna be about three
13:39
Speaker 3: or four people there. This was after the Vikings played
13:42
Speaker 3: the Chargers in LA but they were in Vegas.
13:46
Speaker 1: I walk in.
13:47
Speaker 3: There were like three hundred people at four in the
13:50
Speaker 3: morning at this restaurant, all Minnesota people. It's different you
13:54
Speaker 3: live there, Bobby, It's a different animal. They're in Minnesota. Man,
13:56
Speaker 3: These people love they loved it. They were there going crazy,
14:00
Speaker 3: eating food, drinking at four in the morning, talking about
14:03
Speaker 3: the Vikings and whatever else was going on at that time.
14:06
Speaker 3: Was next level. And so you lived that life in Minnesota.
14:09
Speaker 3: But the Twins were not very good, Robbie, right, they
14:11
Speaker 3: were not particular.
14:12
Speaker 4: They were good my first two years when I was
14:14
Speaker 4: there twosand and nine, twenty ten, and then twenty eleven,
14:17
Speaker 4: things kind of went against them. So, yeah, they won
14:19
Speaker 4: the Al Central. They had to remember the crazy game
14:23
Speaker 4: in the metro Dome. It was a walk off single
14:26
Speaker 4: by Alexi Cassia against the Detroit Tigers. It was one
14:29
Speaker 4: of the absolute craziest playoff games ever played. It was
14:32
Speaker 4: a game one. I shouldn't say playoff. It was a
14:34
Speaker 4: game one sixty three is what it was. Yeah, and
14:39
Speaker 4: that was the last year the Metrodome. The Twins won
14:41
Speaker 4: the division that year under Ron Garden higher and then
14:44
Speaker 4: they won it again in twenty ten, their first year
14:46
Speaker 4: in target field. Then the struggles began in twenty eleven.
14:50
Speaker 4: So they were good for two and then they struggled
14:52
Speaker 4: for two after that.
14:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then obviously your time in Pittsburgh the Pirates,
14:57
Speaker 3: it was a tough run. It's not it's been well,
15:00
Speaker 3: how was it for you, Robbie, When you're doing the
15:03
Speaker 3: sideline stuff and you're doing the interviews and the team is.
15:08
Speaker 1: Be honest, you they're out of the race by the All.
15:10
Speaker 4: Star break if you're well, here's the thing. So the
15:13
Speaker 4: first three years the Pirates, they were really good, twenty thirteen,
15:16
Speaker 4: fourteen and fifteen, Right.
15:17
Speaker 3: Really, I don't even remember that they were. They had
15:19
Speaker 3: good teams, really, I don't remember.
15:20
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, they won ninety eight games in twenty fifteen.
15:22
Speaker 4: The problem was is Saint Louis Cardinals won one hundred,
15:25
Speaker 4: So that was the problem there. And then they ran
15:28
Speaker 4: into some buzzsaws pitching in the NLDS. In twenty thirteen,
15:33
Speaker 4: it was at a Wayne Wright in Game five, and
15:35
Speaker 4: then in twenty fourteen, Medicine Bumgartner Matt Bum had that
15:38
Speaker 4: crazy run began at the Wildcard game at P and
15:40
Speaker 4: C Park, and then twenty fifteen wild Card game again
15:43
Speaker 4: they ran into Jake Arieta. So we're in in the
15:45
Speaker 4: two consecutive buzz saws in the playoffs and that's what
15:50
Speaker 4: ended their run, and then they started to struggle in
15:52
Speaker 4: twenty sixteen. But you raised an interesting point, Ben, and
15:55
Speaker 4: people have asked that question. When you're a field reporter
15:59
Speaker 4: for TV like I was, when a team is bad,
16:02
Speaker 4: that is when you have to be at your best
16:05
Speaker 4: because when a team is good, the baseball carries itself.
16:08
Speaker 4: When the team is bad, that's when you have to
16:10
Speaker 4: keep viewers and have fun. So you had to dig
16:12
Speaker 4: a little bit harder when you're covering a team that's
16:15
Speaker 4: not winning a lot of games in baseball, because it's
16:17
Speaker 4: every day and there's such a loyal fan base and
16:20
Speaker 4: people are watching day in and day out, so you
16:23
Speaker 4: got to put on three hours of entertainment every night. Brother,
16:25
Speaker 4: So you end up meeting a lot of people having
16:27
Speaker 4: a lot of fun. And that's how was end up
16:29
Speaker 4: able to write my book because I created all those relationships.
16:32
Speaker 4: So I guess, in a backhanded way, I have to
16:33
Speaker 4: thank the Pirates a little bit for losing so many
16:35
Speaker 4: games because I got to meet so many people, because
16:38
Speaker 4: I did so many cool stories on them.
16:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, for sure.
16:41
Speaker 3: And we'll get to that bay, Like, what is that
16:44
Speaker 3: what makes a good silent reporter? To see you were
16:46
Speaker 3: able to find some really goofy things in your time.
16:49
Speaker 3: I mean I saw some of the stuff. Obviously I
16:51
Speaker 3: don't live in Pittsburgh or Minnesota, but I saw some
16:53
Speaker 3: of the clips on the internet and stuff. So you
16:56
Speaker 3: were able to track down a lot of kids stories,
16:58
Speaker 3: right right, People love kids.
17:00
Speaker 4: All the time, all the time. It's just, you know,
17:04
Speaker 4: it's entertainment, man, and you get that, Ben. You know
17:07
Speaker 4: base there's so much that goes on around the game
17:09
Speaker 4: of baseball. So our job, you know, look, you asked
17:12
Speaker 4: me what makes a great TV reporter? Just my personal opinion,
17:14
Speaker 4: only people that humanize these guys. We know what they
17:16
Speaker 4: can do is baseball players, but dig deep a little bit,
17:19
Speaker 4: make me root for them, People root for who they like.
17:21
Speaker 4: So my job was to make people like them, you know.
17:23
Speaker 4: So that involved humanize them, talking to their parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles,
17:28
Speaker 4: high school coaches, youth league coaches, brothers and sisters, everybody.
17:33
Speaker 4: It was a combination of everything. So you know, we
17:35
Speaker 4: just humanize these people, you know, and hopefully people realize that,
17:39
Speaker 4: you know, yeah, they're great baseball players, but they're also
17:42
Speaker 4: regular human beings like the rest of us. For sure,
17:45
Speaker 4: that was a job, that was a job.
17:46
Speaker 3: Who's your of all the players you dealt with, Robbie,
17:50
Speaker 3: who was like the coolest guy to deal with? Who
17:52
Speaker 3: is the guy that you really as a TV guy
17:54
Speaker 3: that you connected with when you were doing that stuff.
17:57
Speaker 4: So to stand out, one is currently playing, one is
17:59
Speaker 4: doing television. Actually three standout and two that aren't playing
18:03
Speaker 4: anymore are in media. Number one probably the current players.
18:08
Speaker 4: Joe Musgrove with the San Diego Padres pitcher through the folks,
18:12
Speaker 4: no hitter in the history of the Padres.
18:15
Speaker 1: Yeah.
18:15
Speaker 4: He just a real cool guy, a real introspective guy,
18:18
Speaker 4: gets along with everyone, treats everyone with respect, comes from
18:22
Speaker 4: a great family, wonderful parents, Mark and Diane, sisters, Tara, Marisa,
18:26
Speaker 4: brother Aaron. I mean, just you know, just a really
18:29
Speaker 4: down to earth guy who happened to be great at
18:32
Speaker 4: throwing a baseball. So we were able to, you know,
18:35
Speaker 4: fortunately develop a really good relationship. And then you know,
18:38
Speaker 4: another guy that was really good to deal with is
18:40
Speaker 4: Cole Tucker. He was a first round pick, played for
18:43
Speaker 4: a couple of teams, and now he's doing some shows
18:46
Speaker 4: on radio, doing some podcasting and stuff, and he's just
18:50
Speaker 4: a wonderful, wonderful guy to deal with. And then Stephen
18:54
Speaker 4: Brall played a couple of years for the Pirates and
18:57
Speaker 4: then went to the Cups first season, and now he's
18:59
Speaker 4: doing television here in Pittsburgh as well. So we had
19:02
Speaker 4: some cool guys throughout the years. Man and baseball has
19:04
Speaker 4: a lot of good human beings and it ben you
19:07
Speaker 4: don't run into a ton of guys who are like
19:09
Speaker 4: bad guys. Some people don't really enjoy doing media, but
19:13
Speaker 4: that's okay. It's part of the business. But you just
19:17
Speaker 4: meet so many different people. And some are funny, funny characters,
19:21
Speaker 4: and some are pretty straight and narrow, and some prefer
19:23
Speaker 4: to stick to themselves. So you meet all kinds of people.
19:26
Speaker 4: But those three stand out as well. Well.
19:28
Speaker 3: You, Robbie, is because your personality, Like I when I
19:31
Speaker 3: was in locker rooms all the time, I did have
19:33
Speaker 3: dust ups. There were dust up situations that took place,
19:36
Speaker 3: and but I think you are so likable that hard
19:40
Speaker 3: to be upset with you, Robbie, because you're just a
19:43
Speaker 3: great guy.
19:43
Speaker 1: People love you. You look at me, I'm a schlub, right,
19:47
Speaker 1: I'm draggled.
19:49
Speaker 3: I mean, I and my one of my funniest you know,
19:54
Speaker 3: I had a few guys that got really upset with
19:56
Speaker 3: me back when I was a radio reporter, before I
19:59
Speaker 3: got into.
20:00
Speaker 4: Why would anybody dislike you? You don't do controversy?
20:03
Speaker 3: Oh not at all, no, no, But the funniest was
20:07
Speaker 3: I got yelled at you. Remember Todd Hunley who played
20:09
Speaker 3: with the Mets and the.
20:10
Speaker 4: Coach I remember Todd Hunley.
20:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, he came to the Dodgers and he had had
20:15
Speaker 3: an operation with the Mets and they screwed up his arm.
20:18
Speaker 3: He couldn't throw anymore, and they put they tried to
20:19
Speaker 3: put him the outfield, didn't work.
20:21
Speaker 1: The Dodgers got him.
20:22
Speaker 3: But this was a weird time for the Dodgers because
20:24
Speaker 3: they had Mike Piazza, who was beloved. They got rid
20:26
Speaker 3: of Piazza and then they had Charles jon But anyway,
20:29
Speaker 3: they brought Todd Hunley in and he wasn't that good
20:32
Speaker 3: at that point. He had a few home runs, but
20:35
Speaker 3: he yeah, really bad defensive player. So I had made
20:38
Speaker 3: some comments. I just started doing a talk show. I
20:40
Speaker 3: was doing a midday show in LA and I'd made
20:44
Speaker 3: some comments that you know, he was not good, he
20:47
Speaker 3: was and he wasn't Onley was not playing very well
20:49
Speaker 3: for the Dodger.
20:49
Speaker 1: So I made some comments.
20:50
Speaker 3: And I was in the locker room a couple days
20:52
Speaker 3: later and Todd came up to me and he starts
20:57
Speaker 3: reading me the riot Act, right, you know, it's kind
20:59
Speaker 3: of getting in my face.
21:00
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh boy.
21:01
Speaker 3: But then the funniest thing, Robbie is he said, I
21:03
Speaker 3: do not listen to your show, but my family does.
21:11
Speaker 1: I was like, okay.
21:14
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, fair enough, fair enough, but but enough
21:19
Speaker 3: about that. Let's get to the good stuff.
21:21
Speaker 4: Oh that's great. I love those stories though. By the way,
21:23
Speaker 4: I can't tell you how many players over the years
21:25
Speaker 4: have pulled me aside and go who is that guy?
21:28
Speaker 4: And they and they would say, I thought that was him.
21:30
Speaker 4: I can't stand that guy.
21:32
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure, for sure.
21:35
Speaker 3: So you contacted me a while back.
21:37
Speaker 1: You said, hey, I'm working on this thing and I
21:39
Speaker 1: want to chat with you.
21:40
Speaker 3: I said, okay, sure, whatever, fine, So we chatted for
21:44
Speaker 3: a little bit about some of my experiences at Dodger Stadium.
21:47
Speaker 3: And then somewhat recently you contacted me. He said, Hey,
21:52
Speaker 3: the project is done. And that project I thought, well,
21:55
Speaker 3: this is probably some rinky dink thing, this is nothing,
21:58
Speaker 3: but no, it's uh, it's a book called Sacred Grounds,
22:02
Speaker 3: and this is your baby here, and if you're a
22:05
Speaker 3: baseball person, it's just amazing.
22:09
Speaker 1: You did a great job. You nailed it. And it's
22:12
Speaker 1: all about all.
22:12
Speaker 3: The different ballparks and all your experiences, some of the stories. Right,
22:16
Speaker 3: You've got a bunch of You've interviewed a bunch of
22:18
Speaker 3: people that you know and met over your time with
22:20
Speaker 3: the Pirates and the Twins, and so explain I'm not
22:23
Speaker 3: doing a great job. Explain Sacred Grounds, Robbie, what this
22:27
Speaker 3: project's all about.
22:28
Speaker 4: So, Ben and I appreciate you having me on and
22:31
Speaker 4: give me a chance to talk about this, because the
22:33
Speaker 4: reception so far that we've received for Sacred Grounds really
22:38
Speaker 4: has just blown me away, and I'm so thankful for it. So,
22:42
Speaker 4: as I've described to you before, I spent sixteen years
22:47
Speaker 4: as a TV reporter and host in Major League Baseball.
22:50
Speaker 4: So I spent four years with the twins eleven with
22:52
Speaker 4: the Pirates, and in twenty twenty four, I took a
22:56
Speaker 4: backup role with the Texas Rangers on their TV broadcast
23:00
Speaker 4: before they switch networks to the Ranger Sports Network. And
23:05
Speaker 4: you spend all this time getting to know the players,
23:08
Speaker 4: the coaches, the trainers. But as you know, Ben, how
23:12
Speaker 4: many characters are there around the game of baseball that
23:15
Speaker 4: nobody knows about? Right? Like for sure, you know, there's
23:20
Speaker 4: just so many of them. And I never thought in
23:24
Speaker 4: my life I would be writing a book on ballparks
23:27
Speaker 4: with photos from all thirty ballparks and then interviewing the
23:31
Speaker 4: press dining server in Cincinnati, Ohio. And that's one of
23:34
Speaker 4: the stories in my book. So I tried to shed
23:38
Speaker 4: a light on the stories that happen in baseball that
23:42
Speaker 4: people really don't know a lot about. They don't really
23:44
Speaker 4: know that they exist. So we tried to get the
23:48
Speaker 4: story behind the story a lot of times. So I'll
23:50
Speaker 4: give you an example. Everybody obviously remembers when Cal Ripken
23:55
Speaker 4: broke the Major League Baseball record for consecutive games played, Right,
24:00
Speaker 4: everybody remembers that, Sure, I interviewed the guy that played
24:02
Speaker 4: third base next to him that night and I just
24:05
Speaker 4: wanted to know what that was like that night, what
24:07
Speaker 4: was your day like? What's it like being remembered as
24:10
Speaker 4: the guy that played next to Cal Ripken at third base.
24:13
Speaker 4: The problem is not a lot of people remember it.
24:15
Speaker 4: Jeff Houston is his name, and he's a wonderful guy,
24:18
Speaker 4: and he starts telling me some of these stories and
24:21
Speaker 4: he sent me a couple of photos. We end up
24:23
Speaker 4: getting a great story for the book. You know, you
24:25
Speaker 4: remember in August seventh, two thousand and seven, Barry Bond
24:28
Speaker 4: sets Major League Baseball's home run record. Well, my broadcast
24:31
Speaker 4: partner with the Texas Rangers was Mike Basseck, the guy
24:34
Speaker 4: that gave up the home run, and he's very open
24:37
Speaker 4: about it and he owns that part of history. So
24:39
Speaker 4: why not dig into that side of the story. We've
24:41
Speaker 4: heard from Barry a ton, we've heard from Cal Ripken
24:45
Speaker 4: a ton about breaking the streak record, but what about
24:47
Speaker 4: the people on the other side of that. So we
24:49
Speaker 4: looked into that a little bit and just tried to
24:51
Speaker 4: talk about the game day experience at each place and
24:54
Speaker 4: give people a tour of all thirty ballparks from their
24:57
Speaker 4: own couch.
24:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, it's great. And of course I love
25:00
Speaker 3: it because I'm in the book, Robbie. I made the
25:02
Speaker 3: book Who the Dodger Stadium section there you're going to
25:07
Speaker 3: the behind the scenes on Chavezervin some of the stories
25:10
Speaker 3: there from Dodger Stadium, but it's every every ballpark and
25:13
Speaker 3: this is this and you have I love that you
25:15
Speaker 3: have a checklist in the back there too, Robbie. So
25:17
Speaker 3: if like you're traveling, a lot of people love to
25:19
Speaker 3: go to I haven't even been every ballpark. You've been
25:22
Speaker 3: there because you did the TV stuff. I've been most
25:25
Speaker 3: of them, but i haven't been to every ballpark, and
25:28
Speaker 3: I'd like to get to every ballpark before I'm done
25:30
Speaker 3: here and check it out. And you have, you know,
25:33
Speaker 3: obviously stories, you get things to look at when you
25:35
Speaker 3: go to the ballparks, and in the back you have
25:36
Speaker 3: the little checklists so you can check out the dates
25:39
Speaker 3: and write down the dates and all that. And you
25:42
Speaker 3: brought up a great point though about the people behind
25:45
Speaker 3: the scenes. I know, for my years at Dodger Stadium,
25:48
Speaker 3: when I was there every night, the most important people
25:52
Speaker 3: are often like the for the players, it's the clubhouse
25:55
Speaker 3: attendants and the people like that.
25:56
Speaker 1: But for the media.
25:57
Speaker 3: It's the person that cooks the food, it's the the
26:00
Speaker 3: press box attended, Like those are the people that really
26:03
Speaker 3: that moved the needle. And you were always running I
26:05
Speaker 3: remember always you were run around taking photos. You were
26:08
Speaker 3: you were multitasking while you're doing the TV stuff all
26:10
Speaker 3: those years, right, I mean this was something yeah, you
26:13
Speaker 3: were Were you planning this like or did this just
26:15
Speaker 3: kind of pop up?
26:17
Speaker 2: It was.
26:18
Speaker 4: It's kind of crazy because it was a little bit
26:20
Speaker 4: of everything.
26:21
Speaker 1: It was.
26:22
Speaker 4: I didn't really plan it. I had taken a bunch
26:24
Speaker 4: of pictures. I started at Fenway Park in twenty seventeen
26:27
Speaker 4: when the Pirates had opening day there, so I thought
26:29
Speaker 4: that would be kind of cool, so I bought a
26:31
Speaker 4: digital camera. But I've always been fascinated with ballparks because
26:34
Speaker 4: you know how they they connect. You know, baseball stadiums
26:38
Speaker 4: connect a city with its baseball team. You know, when
26:42
Speaker 4: you look at you look at football, it's one hundred
26:45
Speaker 4: yard field and the end zones ten yards, and then
26:47
Speaker 4: you look at a hockey it's two hundred and by
26:50
Speaker 4: eighty five. You look at basketball, same dimensions, but baseball
26:54
Speaker 4: is so unique in that way, and you look at
26:57
Speaker 4: the character and charisma of each ballpark. It ties a
27:01
Speaker 4: city to its team. And I've always been fascinated with
27:04
Speaker 4: baseball stadiums for one reason or another, and I've loved them.
27:07
Speaker 4: So I made sure I took pictures at all thirty
27:09
Speaker 4: ballparks when I traveled. So from twenty seventeen to twenty
27:12
Speaker 4: twenty four, I did that and thought I was just
27:14
Speaker 4: going to do a little you know, you know, a
27:16
Speaker 4: little Shutterfly album for my friends to check out when
27:19
Speaker 4: they came over. And then I met my author, Kyle
27:22
Speaker 4: Feger and his team at a sender book services and
27:25
Speaker 4: they said, oh, this is going to be pretty good.
27:28
Speaker 4: And we worked our tails off and called one hundred
27:31
Speaker 4: and probably one hundred and thirty one hundred and forty people.
27:34
Speaker 4: We end up getting one hundred and twenty into the book.
27:37
Speaker 4: So we just we put the work in. We worked,
27:39
Speaker 4: you know, extremely hard. We're extremely proud of the product
27:42
Speaker 4: that we produced, and I don't know, man like it
27:46
Speaker 4: just it kind of all came together a little bit.
27:49
Speaker 4: You know, people love retelling stories and they loved talking
27:51
Speaker 4: about with the ballpark experiences, so that's kind of how
27:55
Speaker 4: all this came together. And it's been a lot of
27:57
Speaker 4: fun doing it.
27:58
Speaker 1: It's a great point because we were kids.
28:00
Speaker 3: We're about the same age, and we had there was
28:02
Speaker 3: that era, you know where if you watched a Philadelphia
28:05
Speaker 3: Phillies game or a Cincinnati Reds game or a Cardinals game,
28:09
Speaker 3: you didn't even know what ballpark.
28:11
Speaker 1: They all looked the same.
28:12
Speaker 4: They were all cookie cutter back in those days.
28:15
Speaker 3: And you look at and you know, you spent a
28:17
Speaker 3: lot of time in Pittsburgh PNC Park, and I've never
28:20
Speaker 3: seen a game there, Rubbie. I went to Pittsburgh years
28:22
Speaker 3: ago and the Pirates were out of town or whatever,
28:25
Speaker 3: and so I was walking around.
28:26
Speaker 1: I looked at the view and it's just it's amazing.
28:28
Speaker 3: The apps, the bridges and the skyline in the background.
28:32
Speaker 1: It's like a painting. It's like a Bob Ross painting,
28:36
Speaker 1: if you were amazing.
28:41
Speaker 3: The view from PNC Park in Pittsburgh is just next level, Like.
28:46
Speaker 4: It's the most beautiful ballpark in America. It's gorgeous. Yeah,
28:51
Speaker 4: there's another way to really say it. The way it's situated,
28:55
Speaker 4: looking at downtown Pittsburgh, right along the banks of the
28:57
Speaker 4: Alleghany River, not far from the Point State Park. It's
29:02
Speaker 4: just beautiful. The Clemeny Bridge is right there beyond center field.
29:06
Speaker 4: Roberto Clemenny's statue. You see it as soon as you
29:08
Speaker 4: come down into the north shore. As soon as you
29:11
Speaker 4: step off the bridge, the first thing you see to
29:13
Speaker 4: your left is the big statue of Roberto Clemente. You
29:16
Speaker 4: keep walking, you see Willie Stargel's statue, and if you
29:19
Speaker 4: make your way down the river walk, you go down
29:21
Speaker 4: the steps and along the river walk, there's a bunch
29:23
Speaker 4: of giant numbers, giant baseballs, and then you see the
29:26
Speaker 4: Bill Mezerowski statue. It's just an amazing, amazing place. And
29:31
Speaker 4: any baseball fan that has not had a chance to
29:35
Speaker 4: see PNC Park, you absolutely have to put this on
29:38
Speaker 4: your ballpark tour and it has to be at the
29:40
Speaker 4: top of the list.
29:41
Speaker 3: I completely agree. And Pittsburgh underrated city too. By the way,
29:45
Speaker 3: I thought i'd heard some terrible things back in the
29:47
Speaker 3: day about Pittsburgh.
29:48
Speaker 1: When I visited, I think it is really cool.
29:49
Speaker 4: It's a lot now now all that stuff has gone. Man,
29:52
Speaker 4: Pittsburgh's a beautiful city. It's a great city, full hard workers,
29:56
Speaker 4: great sports town. Ben they love their sports in Pittsburgh.
29:59
Speaker 4: The it the insers, the insers, the insurers. There are
30:03
Speaker 4: so many insurers, and I love them all their beauties,
30:06
Speaker 4: man stealer flags outside their house. They complain about the
30:10
Speaker 4: Pirates when they struggle. It's it's it's incredible. I love it.
30:14
Speaker 4: I love this town. I love living here. I love
30:16
Speaker 4: it as a city, and I love it as a
30:18
Speaker 4: baseball city even more.
30:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, I gotta get the Pirates good again, though, got
30:21
Speaker 1: to get the Pirates.
30:22
Speaker 4: They're gonna be good this year. Ben, They're going to
30:24
Speaker 4: make the playoffs in my opinion, Brother, I hope.
30:26
Speaker 3: So all right, how can people now, Robbie, where do
30:28
Speaker 3: you want people to buy the book?
30:29
Speaker 1: It's called Sacred Grounds. It's do you want them to
30:33
Speaker 1: go to your website?
30:34
Speaker 4: Is it? Yep? My website, that's it's the only place
30:36
Speaker 4: it's available right now. We're working on changing that. Uh
30:39
Speaker 4: my name first three lovers of my last name, Robbie
30:42
Speaker 4: R O B B Y I n C. So Robbie,
30:44
Speaker 4: it is R O B B Y I NC dot
30:46
Speaker 4: com and uh we'll get the book out to you,
30:49
Speaker 4: you know, depending on the time of day. If the
30:51
Speaker 4: post office is open, it's going up that day, If not,
30:54
Speaker 4: it's going out first thing the next morning.
30:56
Speaker 1: All right, Yeah to you.
30:57
Speaker 3: It's really cool. It's you know, it's a hearty book,
31:00
Speaker 3: and it's great because you can you know, you know,
31:02
Speaker 3: you can sit down and whether you want to sit
31:04
Speaker 3: down and look at the whole thing or maybe you know,
31:06
Speaker 3: you got a few minutes. I do a lot of
31:08
Speaker 3: my reading, Robbie on the throne. I'm going to admit it,
31:11
Speaker 3: I do. And you know, I might take that and there,
31:14
Speaker 3: read it, check it out a little bit, and then
31:16
Speaker 3: I'll look at the Marlins Ballpark because I don't know
31:18
Speaker 3: I want to go see that stadium, but I'll check
31:20
Speaker 3: it out because you've got stories on that and everything.
31:24
Speaker 1: So I guess.
31:24
Speaker 4: Stories on all thirty brother, all thirty ballparks. You get
31:27
Speaker 4: to see them all, all.
31:28
Speaker 3: Right, So check it out again, Robbie, as he said,
31:31
Speaker 3: R O B. B Y I NC dot com. It's
31:35
Speaker 3: called correct Sacred Grounds.
31:37
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Robbie the man appreciated.
31:40
Speaker 4: Thank you you are the best, Ben. Thank you brother,
31:42
Speaker 4: and I am honored to have you in my book.
31:45
Speaker 1: Got a murder. I gotta go