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Pittsburgh Sports: The Way it Was · Pittsburgh Sports Memories

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to another uh remet reminiscent.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: Is that a word, Tim?
0:05
SPEAKER_00: Reminiscing?
0:06
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: Is that just a song by the little little river band, maybe?
0:10
SPEAKER_00: Um on this episode, we're gonna take a really trip down memory lane lot.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: We don't do that every episode, but we're really gonna get into the weeds here.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: This is stuff that like probably as a fan, you definitely experienced more than you know a team or a you we're not gonna like you know go over a season or a team or anything like this, but just things that you saw in general in sports or experienced as a fan and how the game has changed from how we consumed and experienced it to now.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: And it really has with the with the you know invention of the internet and you know, 24 hour news, like even at you know, even sports center, you know, we'll we'll get into that.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: All right, so we're we're this is like you know, kind of things we we probably won't see again.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I I don't know.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: Is they always say, you know, nostalgia, you know, it's you kind of look at the past through rose-colored glasses and you always think it's better.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: So as I said, this is Pittsburgh Sports Memories.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm your co-host, Steve Wirt, and I'm joined by as usual.
1:27
SPEAKER_01: I'm Tim Hannon, and back in my day things were better.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: I think I think like sometimes like things work better, but then there's sometimes there's things that are better now.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, I wouldn't want to live back in the 1800s, you know.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there were some things that were better, like closer family relations and stuff, but heck, I probably wouldn't have made it to eight years old.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: I would have been one of the kids that got like you know, polio or something or the croup.
1:58
SPEAKER_01: I I I always think, Steve, of like things that are even within our lifetime that people get nostalgic for, like like going out and renting a movie.
2:07
SPEAKER_01: Like I man, you go online and people are like, remember, you know, Friday night you went to Blockbuster and you saw what the new movies were, the new video games were, and you you rented something for the weekend, and what a great experience that was.
2:20
SPEAKER_01: And now everything's just streaming, and everybody like reminisces about that.
2:24
SPEAKER_01: But then if you brought back Blockbuster, nobody would go there.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: Well, because it wasn't well, because like I remember trying to rent Groundhog Day, and we could not get Groundhog Day for three months for whatever reason.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: Some like I don't know if like the blockbuster on Green Tree Road was just hoarding it, but like now that wouldn't happen.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: You could just you could just pay for it on streaming or get it, and that that is the nice part about streaming, and you could still have a nice weekend, right?
2:55
SPEAKER_01: You know, there's something about the experience of going to the video store.
2:58
SPEAKER_01: Now, to your point about rose-colored glasses, what we remember is going to the video store and oh, look at all these movies, and which one should we pick?
3:06
SPEAKER_01: Is it comedy?
3:06
SPEAKER_01: Is it a drama?
3:08
SPEAKER_01: What we don't remember is the the they didn't have Groundhog Day for three months.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: Or like organically just finding things.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: Like now you like if you like, I don't know, I just don't like the suggestions that you get on the front page.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: It's like nothing that appeals to me.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: And it's just I I don't know.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'm getting old, maybe they just the algorithm hasn't figured out my tastes yet, but whatever.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: Um so uh, you know, do you remember when we were watching the NFL Tim?
3:42
SPEAKER_00: And there were hold your n hold your uh hands on there are three NFL games on Sunday.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: Three, Tim.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: One, two, three.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: That's the number.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: And I guess you could count four with right the Monday night game.
4:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: And all the games were played on Sunday between one and seven o'clock, except for one game on Monday.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: Am I crazy?
4:16
SPEAKER_00: Am I the only one that gives a you know what about the rules around here?
4:20
SPEAKER_00: I hate it.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: I mean, come on now.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: I I just I I liked it much better.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: But I mean, I will say once again, this is kind of like one of those blockbuster kind of stories.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like, oh, it was, you know, it was great, but it wasn't great because you know, you would only get to see the Dallas Cowboys every week.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I remember that.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: Or like, you know, whatever team was kind of doing good or they thought would get ratings was the team you would see every week.
4:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
4:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
4:51
SPEAKER_01: I used to I used to love Barry Sanders back when he was playing.
4:56
SPEAKER_01: And I remember it was so rare if they had a Detroit game on.
5:00
SPEAKER_01: And I remember how excited I would be to if there was a Detroit Lions game on because I never got to see Barry Sanders.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: Well, if they played the Dallas Cowboys in Thanksgiving, you got to see them once a year, Tim.
5:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
5:11
SPEAKER_01: And you're right, it was a lot of the same teams, and it was always Madden and Summerall, and and it was the same.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: But it was there was a there, I don't know, there was a familiarity to that.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: And I think and it was a bigger audience, and like I don't think that the like culture was as fractured or didn't seem like there wasn't all these little subcultures like it is now.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, I'm like like there's so many weird subcultures, and I I I can't even give an ex you know, like, oh, I'm in the you know, building ships in bottles that are the replica of the USS Constitution.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: I mean it just and I'm sure there's a whole Reddit page of people that do that, yeah.
5:53
SPEAKER_01: I I think those things probably existed in the past, but but without an internet it was really hard to build a community.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's like there there's maybe like a couple thousand people in the whole country that are into that.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: And right, and how do you connect with each other before there was an internet?
6:12
SPEAKER_00: So Yeah.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: Well, you get your you know, magazine out and there's another thing that's gone.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: Um do you remember uh watching NFL Primetime for the highlights?
6:24
SPEAKER_01: That was every single week for probably 15 years.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: Yep, yep.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: That was like I remember that before Sunday night football.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then they would go longer during the World Series because remember, here's something weird.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: The NFL wouldn't play Sunday night games during the World Series.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
6:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there was always that one week where they'd like, I remember Chris Berman saying, Oh, you know, we're gonna go longer tonight, and he'd be kind of like wink wink, there's something else you should be watching, you know.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: And you know, of course me and my dad would just keep watching Chris Berman.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: But Chris Berman, they still do NFL primetime, and I I do I am guilty of like I'm so I I love that show so much.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: It it's kind of lost a little bit of its luster.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: Tom Jackson didn't come back after COVID.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: Um Booker McFarland's good.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: He he's good, and it it's a fun way to keep up with the league because I just can't stand I I can't stand sports center.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: It's that it's not for me.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: They don't program for me.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: So I I and NFL prime time seems to be more geared towards my age group, so that's what I go with.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: I I you know.
7:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it I was I was trying to find highlights, I think it was a couple weeks ago, of NFL games, and there's no real good source for that now.
7:48
SPEAKER_01: And I I used to watch um football night in America.
7:52
SPEAKER_01: It's it's basically NBC's like seven o'clock free game show.
7:55
SPEAKER_01: I never liked it.
7:56
SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's about it's an hour-long show, hour and fifteen minutes, I think.
8:02
SPEAKER_01: And it's um it's about 15 to 20 percent highlights, and the rest is like analysis and previewing of the Sunday night game.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: It's not even it's not even previewing team, it's the way they like they'll sit down and let's talk about Matthew Stafford's wife.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: It's like that's cool, and my mom would be interested in that.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: And if that's the audience you're gearing towards, God bless you.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: But I'm not going to watch it.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: And you know, if you're someone that's into watching Matthew Stafford talk about, you know, whatever that isn't football related, or I don't know.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: I I never liked the big dramatic sit-down interviews because they would do that on what was it, NFL Game Day, which was before.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: Like, I I used to try I tried to watch that for like half a season and I just couldn't.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I just wanted to see I I just wish there was a show again, like Primetime that just had it's still it still exists if you pay like I pay the ten ten dollars for ESPN's app just to watch that during the football season.
9:07
SPEAKER_01: I might have to do that because because the highlights that the NBC show sometimes it's like one play.
9:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like one play from a game and that's it.
9:17
SPEAKER_01: And then the other thing you can do is you can go on YouTube and the NFL has complete highlights of every game, but those are like 18 minutes long.
9:23
SPEAKER_01: Like I didn't I don't want to see 18 minutes of Titans versus Jaguar.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to see 30 seconds, but I don't want to see 18 minutes.
9:30
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly right.
9:31
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly right.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and they and that's the one thing that prime time does well.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: Besides, Berman was always clever, and it's funny because as he gets older, like his cultural references are like you or me are probably the only one.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: Like I mean, he'd be like, you know, when who's Malik neighbors for the um Giants would catch a touch up and be like, well, Gali or Shazam, and it'd be like, dude, me, I'm about the only person that's getting these jokes, you know.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: Because like there's no way anybody in their 20s even knows, like, what's that all about?
10:05
SPEAKER_01: You know, right?
10:07
SPEAKER_00: Or like, you know, like the Chuba, uh Chuba good, what's the running back from Carolina?
10:12
SPEAKER_00: Chuba Hubbard.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the Chuba, Chuba missile crisis.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I mean I I highly I like it.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: And if you're of our age, which I think most people listen to this, and if you aren't, yeah, you you and you like good highlights, that's a great way to keep like that's like I found if I can watch that every I I'm pretty up to date.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: I know what's going on in the NFL.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: And like I remember one time, a long time ago, they were um they're what I was highlighting the Tampa Bay and Detroit, speaking of Barry Sanders, and they showed three plays where like they ran Barry Sanders into the line the first two plays, and then on the third play, like he comes right into the middle and it's a highlight, and John Lynch like goes to tackle him, and John Lynch is like the last guy, the last man standing.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: And like, and John Lynch is is John Lynch in the Hall of Fame yet?
11:11
SPEAKER_00: Or probably go yeah, he he faked John Lynch out of his shoes and goes for 80 yards.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: If you watched any other highlight show, that's the only thing you saw.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: But if they were like, we're gonna show you all these other runs because like, yeah, they went for one negative one, but then he went for 80 yards because they just kept giving him the ball, and it was it was like kind of like they're proving a point, and you would never see that on any other highlight show.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: So well, I guess our require for NFL primetime.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what they're gonna do when uh Chris Burman retires.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: I I think I guess that show will probably go away once he goes away.
11:49
SPEAKER_01: I would imagine.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: So uh do you remember illegal gambling before you know DraftKings and all the other stuff, Tim?
11:57
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: I and and I also remember now this is recorded, Tim, and this can be used in evidence.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: No, I anything you can or say will be, you know.
12:07
SPEAKER_01: It it's amazing because the lines for sporting events have been there forever.
12:13
SPEAKER_01: Uh but you know, as far as the the leagues were concerned, gambling was such a negative thing to be avoided at all costs, and it's amazing the 180 that everybody's done.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think because they were afraid the players would start like throwing games.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: And there's no evidence that it isn't happening.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: I I don't know about the NFL, but I guarantee in college, especially basketball, there is no way somebody isn't point shaving in college basketball somewhere.
12:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and there's there's a history.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that literally I think Well, Boston College, yeah.
12:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, Boston College with the college basketball, but honestly, this this really all dates back to 1919.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Black Sox.
12:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, that's where this all blew up, and and uh professional sports leagues realized like you can't there's no point, your your whole product is out the window if there's any question about the integrity of it.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's that's for sure.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: If he it's not like you know, like you said, going to see Hulk Hogan where you knew it was all fake and Hulk Hogan was probably gonna win.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: No, you expect a fair game and you know, people think it's all fixed, they're not gonna go there.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: Although, I mean, I don't know.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like the Harlem Globetrotters, you know.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: You know, are people just there to be entertained?
13:40
SPEAKER_00: But what about do you remember Super Bowl Square numbers?
13:43
SPEAKER_00: I think people still do them, right?
13:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, people still do.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like you get like one out of a hundred, like you might get like really great numbers, like I don't know, thirty-seven and fifty-three, which uh or what's the worst numbers you could have, like two or not thirty, but you would get like a zero to what ten?
14:05
SPEAKER_00: So you could get like you know, a two and a four or something done.
14:10
SPEAKER_01: Right.
14:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's some bad numbers.
14:12
SPEAKER_01: I I um I remember do you remember the Patriots ran Super Bowl that I think was like three to nothing through the through the third quarter?
14:20
SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
14:21
SPEAKER_01: Those were the numbers I had.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: So it it have to be Oh my gosh, how much money they wow, can I borrow can I borrow some money too?
14:28
SPEAKER_01: So that that was my favorite Super Bowl square thing I ever had because and and I remember at the end of the game, I think the Rams missed a field goal that would have won me even more money.
14:39
SPEAKER_01: I I don't remember exactly, but yeah, it was a um it was a terrible Super Bowl.
14:44
SPEAKER_01: It was low scoring, no one would ever remember.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: But you were entertained.
14:49
SPEAKER_01: But I was entertained.
14:50
SPEAKER_01: I won some money from that.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: You can thank Sean McVeigh and Bill Belichick for that.
14:55
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: Uh I also do you remember people just like I remember people just walking around with like pieces of paper and like going to find your local bookie?
15:04
SPEAKER_00: Like I I don't know.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you did.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: I know that was maybe I don't you grew up in a different neighborhood than I did.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that was maybe that was more of a city thing.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: I just remember having a local bookie.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: Not that I placed a lot of bets or anything like that.
15:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I never placed any bets, but I mean I that's that's what you had to do.
15:22
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there was no, like you said, there was or you or you had to go out to Vegas.
15:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:26
SPEAKER_01: Right, or Atlantic City.
15:27
SPEAKER_01: Those were the two.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: Now yeah, you just got onto the sports book and yeah.
15:31
SPEAKER_01: Or just log onto your phone.
15:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:34
SPEAKER_01: And you know, and that's the scary thing, is now, I mean, I get it.
15:40
SPEAKER_01: Like it it if the the the the concept for all for everybody was, you know, okay, if we can't beat them, we might as well join them and make money off of this, and everybody gets rich.
15:50
SPEAKER_01: But man, you can bet on everything in game, you know.
15:54
SPEAKER_01: Next place, he's gonna get a first down or not.
15:56
SPEAKER_01: You can make all these instant bets.
15:59
SPEAKER_01: Um if if you have a a problem with it, um it's a little dangerous for sure.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that that could be the way that you know the NFL loses its credibility, you know.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: Although I don't know, maybe we'll just people won't care.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh who knows.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: Um, how about painted end zones for the away team?
16:20
SPEAKER_00: Do you do you do you remember that, Tim?
16:22
SPEAKER_00: No, because it was 1972 and neither of us were alive, but uh there's something that would never happen again.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: Like I guess it was for the championship game in after the Immaculate Reception, and they decided to paint the Dolphins on the Three River Stadium turf.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: Why, why?
16:40
SPEAKER_00: Why?
16:41
SPEAKER_00: And why are the undefeated Dolphins playing in Pittsburgh?
16:44
SPEAKER_00: That that makes a lot of sense.
16:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
16:48
SPEAKER_01: So two there were two issues here.
16:49
SPEAKER_01: One was the the role was the home field was all based on like a rotating system.
16:55
SPEAKER_01: It didn't matter what the record was, it was it was like this division's turn to play the championship game at their stadium, and then next year was the other division.
17:04
SPEAKER_01: Uh but the but yeah, the the so in the 72 AFC championship game, you're right, they had the Dolphins Steelers in one end zone, Dolphins in the other end zone, like like they would for the Super Bowl.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: That's what they do for the Super Bowl, because it's but that's a neutral site game.
17:18
SPEAKER_01: Because it's a neutral site game.
17:19
SPEAKER_01: But um that was not the only instance of that.
17:22
SPEAKER_01: If you look, there's several other games if you watch in the 70s, not just in Pittsburgh, but in other cities, where they literally paint both end zones based on who's playing.
17:32
SPEAKER_01: And I think that was typically for like a playoff game or a big game, not necessarily for like all the regular season games.
17:39
SPEAKER_01: But you can find more than one example of that.
17:41
SPEAKER_01: And it's just a really kind of uh a goofy thing that I don't think anybody would ever remember, and that that we noticed when we were just watching some of these old games for for research.
17:50
SPEAKER_01: It's like, wait a second, that's that's at the other team stadium, yet the the the away team is painted in the one end zone.
17:58
SPEAKER_01: And and now if you look at like the Steelers, they don't even um paint the end zones for the Steelers, they just do like this generic Pittsburgh end zone because Pitt plays there.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: And then Well after Pitts after Pitt's season's over, they normally go.
18:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but but during the season they just do Pittsburgh in one end zone and diagonal lines.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: Until like November, yeah, when Pitt's season's over, then they go.
18:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but still, I mean that's so the end zones aren't even like fun anymore.
18:29
SPEAKER_01: They're just generic.
18:31
SPEAKER_01: That's how they were in the 80s, too.
18:33
SPEAKER_01: The after after the 70s, I remember Well, they I remember they were yellow.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: That was that was the nineties.
18:40
SPEAKER_01: That was in the 90s, so they were yellow in the 70s, I think.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: They were yellow in the 90s.
18:44
SPEAKER_01: In the 80s, they had this very generic plain end zone in the 80s, too.
18:48
SPEAKER_01: And then in the 90s, they started going back to the end.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: Didn't they even say Steelers?
18:51
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
18:52
SPEAKER_01: I don't I don't I think it just maybe had a logo or something.
18:55
SPEAKER_01: It was very just generic.
18:57
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, end zone painting.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: I've been I'm impressed by your your end zone knowledge.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: I just I just because you sat there for so many years.
19:05
SPEAKER_01: To be to be fair, I'm basing a lot of this off memory, and I I could be wrong on some of it, but I can tell you currently for sure that it's diagonal line from Pittsburgh.
19:14
SPEAKER_01: It accuracy or they don't paint the end zones anymore, and I'm sure that's a cost thing, and it you know, it costs a lot of money and time to paint the end zone for pit and then repaint it on a Saturday night if there's a Steeler game.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: Well, because normally, like I've seen that where they'll just paint over it, and then if you get any type of weather or just the general wear, then all of a sudden it's like the Steelers are the Panthers.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: What?
19:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: You know how obsessive the NFL is about image.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: So how about this?
19:47
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember appealing to the ref about crowd noise, Tim?
19:52
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I do.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and so apparently, you know, way back when, like the 90s, uh, there was a rule, at least in the NFL, I don't know about other sports, but the NFL where if you were making too much noise, you couldn't like the they would like the offense, the visiting or I guess I don't know the home team.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: I don't think it would be a problem with the home team, right?
20:16
SPEAKER_00: Because like I I know in the when I've gone to Steelers games, like though like if the Steelers are on offense and they're getting close to the end zone, they'll be like quiet, Ben at work.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: You know, be like, ooh, don't want to get too loud, mess up the Steelers.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: But but then you know, of course, when it's like you know, Baltimore, it's like you know, but anyway, I digress.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: Um, so like I guess there was a game the Jets were playing.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: I want to say the the Lions.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: Am I correct?
20:42
SPEAKER_00: I I think so.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: And it was in the Silver Dome at the time, and it's a dome, and domes were louder because they're obviously inside.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: And Neil O'Donnell was a quarterback, and I think whoever won this game had a chance to go to the playoffs.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: And Bill Parcell was the coach of the Jets, I want to say at the time.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: So Bill Parcell is kind of like Belichekian a little bit, Belichick light.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: So he like had Neil standing up, like, oh, I can't hear.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: So the officials get on the and go, like, please keep the noise down.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: And then they like they do it again.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: If you continue to make this noise, we're gonna take a timeout away from the home team, and you know, of course, nobody cares.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: It's like you know, it's like a little kid.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: It's like what they call that, the Streisand effect.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, don't look at that video.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: Don't look, you know, what was that?
21:36
SPEAKER_00: Don't look at my house, you know, and so everybody goes and looks at her house.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: So what say you, Tim, about the uh does that seem like a dumb rule?
21:45
SPEAKER_00: It's just like just deal with it.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it it's just you know, it's part of home field advantage, you know, it's no different than playing in the heat in Miami or the cold in Buffalo.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: It's just something that is, and both teams have to deal with it.
22:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean that was a a really um it's unenforceable rule is what it is.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: Like unless you're gonna play inside an empty stadium, I mean I don't know how you enforce that.
22:16
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the the it was really hard to enforce.
22:20
SPEAKER_01: Um and the the referee had the option to stop the clock, uh warn the crowd, and then potentially charge the home team with a timeout.
22:34
SPEAKER_01: Um and then if the home team was out of timeouts, they could penalize the home team for delay a game.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: Well, when they say penalty, Detroit Lions, fans.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: How do you put that in the stats?
22:48
SPEAKER_00: Fans got a penalty.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: The OR fans really took a lot of penalties this year.
22:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there was there was a there's an infamous you talked about the Lions um Jets game because that was a critical end of the season game.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: I just remember watching that live and thinking this is the dumbest rule ever.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna work, yeah.
23:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and there was an infamous um incident a few years before that.
23:12
SPEAKER_01: There was a preseason game in Indianapolis.
23:15
SPEAKER_01: And remember, Indianapolis had that dome that was super loud that may or may not have been pumped full of artificial.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: Now that's now that's fake, yeah.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
23:25
SPEAKER_01: But but there was a preseason game in Indianapolis where they gave the Colts two delayed game penalties because the crowd went and stopped.
23:32
SPEAKER_01: So and then it was a preseason game, so again, nobody remembers that.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: But I can't believe a crowd was that loud in the preseason game, Jesus.
23:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a good point.
23:44
SPEAKER_01: But you remember when everybody used to say the NFL stood stood for no fun league?
23:49
SPEAKER_01: That was why.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: Like that stuff like that.
23:52
SPEAKER_01: Like, come on.
23:53
SPEAKER_01: It's like you said, what's the point of having a home crowd then if you can't make noise?
23:57
SPEAKER_01: That's that's the home field advantage.
23:59
SPEAKER_01: It's literally why they call it home field advantage.
24:02
SPEAKER_01: And Steve, I always thought this was just limited to the NFL.
24:05
SPEAKER_01: But if you remember in our last audio episode, we found a clip of um Pitt playing at Florida State when Dan Marino was a quarterback, and Dan Marino was lining up to the line of scrimmage and and stopped everything and looked at the ref and said, You gotta quiet these people down, and the referee warned the crowd.
24:26
SPEAKER_01: So so even even in college they were doing that.
24:28
SPEAKER_01: It's hard to believe now, isn't it?
24:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think there's a difference too, like when you know people Buffalo throw stuff on the field, and I'm gonna I'm gonna use the word stuff.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: Um it's just you know that that's a way different, because that's actually dangerous.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: Or remember the snowball game in um that was I I want to say it was San Diego and New York, Giants.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: It was the Giants.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: Remember people got hurt.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: Like I didn't you think, oh, it's just a snowball, but if you throw like a pretty hefty snowball from the 600 level, that you know, especially if it's like frozen ice, it's it's probably gonna hurt somebody.
25:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there was an incident.
25:09
SPEAKER_01: Um, it was a Monday night football game in Denver.
25:12
SPEAKER_01: I believe they were playing the 49ers where they they missed a field goal because the snowball hit the holder in the middle of the pit.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: Oh geez.
25:21
SPEAKER_01: So so it yeah, I mean, you're right.
25:24
SPEAKER_01: That stuff, yes, absolutely.
25:25
SPEAKER_01: You have to get that stuff out of the game.
25:27
SPEAKER_01: I 100% agree, but but crowd noise, like you said, that's part of be playing at home.
25:32
SPEAKER_01: That's no different than the weather being a factor.
25:35
SPEAKER_00: And there's no danger.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing danger.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: Oh, maybe to your hearing.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: I wait, where are earplugs?
25:41
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
25:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
25:43
SPEAKER_01: Fortunately, that's a relic of the past.
25:44
SPEAKER_01: And I think people that don't remember that happening would be shocked to even realize that that was a thing.
25:50
SPEAKER_01: Like, wait, you weren't allowed to be too loud?
25:52
SPEAKER_01: Seriously, that was a role.
25:53
SPEAKER_01: You weren't allowed to be too loud.
25:55
unknown: Shh.
25:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: Like, what is this?
25:57
SPEAKER_00: Tennis?
25:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, or golf.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: Um, so uh, how about this?
26:02
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna switch to college for a minute.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember college?
26:05
SPEAKER_00: You remember like it was the best seven years of your life that uh Blutarski?
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Well, for a guy, uh, I think he's a tight end in Miami.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: Let's see, he is a tight end Cam McCormick.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: It'll be the best nine nine years of his life.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: He is tied for a historic ninth season, and that uh that is uh the longest tenure for any college player in FBS history.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: Why are people playing like having like pro careers in college?
26:40
SPEAKER_00: This is insane.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: It it it literally should be four years in a red shirt here.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: So five years you're hanging around the program max.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: I I just I mean, I I I understand why you had to like go to like it like the transfer portal a little bit, but even that's like I think uh this NIL has like screwed up college football worse than itself.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: Not not that I'm against it per se, but I just wish there was some like rhyme or reason to like where okay, you get five years in college, you get four years to play, one year.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: No, if you get your master's degree, that's great, you're on your own.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: You know, you get your master's or doctorate, that's great.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: You're not playing football during those times.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: Or, you know, like if you're just trying to I don't know, like not not be there for nine years, okay.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: That that's ridiculous.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: And I think Pitt had some player, like Kenny Pickett was there, what, six years, Tim?
27:43
SPEAKER_00: Was it he was there for yeah, 2017 was his the first year I remember.
27:49
SPEAKER_01: He was there for five years, five, yeah.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: So it was only five.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well that's average then.
27:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but he was starting he like the he wasn't a red shirt, he was starting all five of those years.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that was weird.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: So that's what was weird.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: And then they started doing these medical red shirts and stuff, and I'm sorry if you get hurt, you get hurt.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: That that sucks.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: It sucks, but you know, you get four years in school and you're done.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: You know, what what are you doing in college for nine years?
28:16
SPEAKER_00: You're what are you?
28:17
SPEAKER_00: You better be like a a plastic sur, you know, some sort of surgeon or medical degree.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: Like I doubt this guy from like, you know, Cam McCormick is not going to be Dr.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: Cam McCormick by the time this is over.
28:32
SPEAKER_01: The the answer, like you said, is now they get paid.
28:35
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's funny how it went from everybody did four years and then got drafted, to then guys started doing like three years, or like in the Larry Fitzgerald type cases, like basically two years, and and everybody was coming out early.
28:49
SPEAKER_01: Remember when the NFL draft was all like almost all underclassmen?
28:53
SPEAKER_01: And now it's kind of reverted back the other way because now there's a financial benefit to staying in college longer for some of these guys.
29:02
SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna be a day two or like a third, four, yeah.
29:05
SPEAKER_01: Why are you yeah, there's no reason to stay in another year, get and you'll get paid.
29:09
SPEAKER_01: Because the the the answer always was, well, if I stay in college another year, even if I'm gonna be a fifth round draft pick, it's more money than zero, and I can go back and get my degree at any point.
29:20
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly right.
29:21
SPEAKER_01: But now it's actually more money, depending on where you play, to stay in college than it is to come out and be a late-round draft pick and get cut and all that stuff.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: So that's why that's why I think is this an unreasonable rule for the transfer portal?
29:38
SPEAKER_00: You get one transfer free of charge.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: Like you don't have to sit out a year.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: And at unless, you know, and I the only exception I would make if they change coaches, you can transfer free of charge if your coach gets fired.
29:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
29:52
SPEAKER_01: Or or the use or or the use message that says he's leaving.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, head coach, not you know, oh, my strength and conditioning coach left.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: No, it has to be the head coach.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: And then beyond that, you get one.
30:06
SPEAKER_00: You get one freebie.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: You know, that way, you know, people are playing at like three different schools now.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: This is you know, this is ridiculous.
30:16
SPEAKER_01: And we we have a problem in this country.
30:19
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna I hate to get like way, way like on a soapbox, but we have a problem.
30:23
SPEAKER_01: We are old, so yeah.
30:25
SPEAKER_01: We have a problem where we we tend to overcorrect problems, and then we swing them way too much as a problem on the other side.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: It goes from one extreme to the other, yeah.
30:35
SPEAKER_01: Right.
30:35
SPEAKER_01: We we don't do nuance well, we don't do middle of the road well.
30:38
SPEAKER_01: And and so for years and years, colleges made all this money off of these athletes, and they're like, Well, we're giving you an education, which I get is is valuable.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: But they weren't giving them an education, they weren't making them go to class, they were just football players, and or they were letting people in that should have never been into college in the first place because they never got the correct education in high school.
31:04
SPEAKER_01: I mean if you watch the documentary they did on um Johnny Football, Johnny Manzel, uh he certainly he certainly created a lot of his own problems, so it's not a guy that you necessarily feel sorry for.
31:18
SPEAKER_01: But Texas AM made so much money off of him, they literally built a new stadium because of his career mostly, and he got nothing, nothing from that.
31:32
SPEAKER_01: And and so that was totally unfair.
31:34
SPEAKER_01: Like it was totally unfair that they were exploiting these players for years and years.
31:37
SPEAKER_01: So I get why and I NIL is important.
31:40
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't want to ever go back to the way it was, but now, like you said, it's wild west.
31:45
SPEAKER_01: It's like I play for I play for Michigan this year, you know, Ohio State next year, USC next year, and then Penn State the year after that.
31:53
SPEAKER_00: It's like that that's that's like imagine even even NFL free agents have to sign for like a couple years.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: Right.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm saying.
32:01
SPEAKER_01: Imagine if every single year every player player on the Steelers was free to go sign somewhere else.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: That's basically what it is, right?
32:09
SPEAKER_01: So so hopefully, again, I I I love the idea of the the making this forget conferences, forget all the stuff, make it a league, have a union, have contracts, just make it basically the minor leagues of the NFL.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's what it is.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: It is, yeah.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I would love to have levels, like I've said before, it needs to be levels.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: Relegate basically with relegate.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, because like Pittman.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: Like they do in soccer.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Pitt just cannot compete with Ohio State, Penn State, and those bigger schools, and neither can West Virginia for that matter.
32:42
SPEAKER_00: Like they just don't have the money.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: And I bet Georgia Tech and some of those other schools can't compete with Clemson or Georgia or you know, Alabama.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're just not gonna have that kind of money or fan base that cares that much.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: So just make it, you know, at least where the schools that want to spend a crap ton of money and compete at the high level can do it.
33:04
SPEAKER_00: And the schools that want to pay this much, they compete with those schools, and it's fair, and that's what you do.
33:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't know.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I I just college football is tough to watch right now because it's hard to follow the players, and it's just uh and then they still why do they play they just play still play crappy teams?
33:23
SPEAKER_00: Why did Pitt play Duquesne in football?
33:25
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that would give me a story.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: It's just so stupid.
33:27
SPEAKER_01: I I think I think I college football's at a weird spot for me because I feel like they're closer than ever to fixing decades-long problems.
33:37
SPEAKER_01: Like they had a playoff for the first time, they actually had a playoff of the championship.
33:42
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
33:43
SPEAKER_01: And it was great, yeah.
33:44
SPEAKER_01: And it was great.
33:45
SPEAKER_01: And and and the and the again, paying the having the players get paid, that's fair and equitable, and that should have happened a long time ago.
33:52
SPEAKER_01: All they need to do is just sort of self-correct, and just put some limits in.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: Just just put some limits, put some rules in where everybody knows, okay, this is what we do, this is how we play the game, yeah, this is how it works.
34:04
SPEAKER_01: And and then adopt adopt like one of those Super League proposals where you re you realign everybody, you you put Penn State, West Virginia, and Pitt all in the same division, so they play each other every year.
34:15
SPEAKER_01: That kind of stuff.
34:17
SPEAKER_01: Like they're so close to potentially fixing.
34:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you can put Missouri and Kansas back together.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: Right.
34:24
SPEAKER_00: Like that's a huge rivalry.
34:26
SPEAKER_00: I uh don't give me.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think do Oregon and Oregon State still play?
34:31
SPEAKER_00: I think they do.
34:32
SPEAKER_01: I they're not in the same conference anymore, right?
34:34
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, yeah.
34:35
SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, Oregon State's in like what a conference of one.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah but uh I'm sure Stanford's just gonna love when Pitt comes to play later this season.
34:47
SPEAKER_01: If you want to talk about the great historic matchup of Pitt versus Stanford, well, I mean they they did play in the Rose Bowl in like 1923 or something.
34:57
SPEAKER_01: Stanford, that great Atlantic Coast Conference team.
35:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's what I mean.
35:01
SPEAKER_01: Like they like they they just they're so close to fixing it, it just would take a little bit of foresight from these university presidents.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: And they don't have to do it next year, just like said, okay, this is we're gonna give everybody like five to seven years to adjust.
35:15
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: These rules are gonna go in slowly.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't even have to, you don't have to be like stalin, and this is it, tomorrow, you do it.
35:23
SPEAKER_00: You know, just just bring it in gradually, and then you know, things will work its way out.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: Oh well.
35:29
SPEAKER_00: We'll we'll continue to fix uh, you know, uh hunger, world hunger, and world peace, and you know, figure out the Middle East next week.
35:36
SPEAKER_00: Um, so uh how about uh getting back to more nostalgic things, uh turning down the sound and listening to the radio uh the radio on the TV.
35:45
SPEAKER_00: Now I know my parents did this.
35:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so what happened back in the day was you would have um, I don't know, who was it, Donk Cricky or whatever?
35:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Don Cricket and Beasley Reese were always the the team that seemed to do the Steelers game in the 90s on was that NBC?
36:01
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it was NBC.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: Because stay tuned for the fifth quarter with Sam Nover after the game.
36:07
SPEAKER_00: And so what you would do is what my parents would do, and I uh did your parents do this, Tim?
36:13
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
36:14
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you would turn it down, the sound, on the TV, and you would turn on your radio in the in your living room, and you would tune in to I was it I don't know who they are.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: Were they on AM then?
36:26
SPEAKER_00: Or I think they were on FM.
36:28
SPEAKER_01: They were on AM, 1250 AM.
36:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you would listen to Bill Hillgrove and Myron Cope call the game.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: And you would get to hear Myron's amazing young and you loved it, and it was great.
36:42
SPEAKER_00: It was great, it was just amazing.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I kind of miss that and with the technology, I do know this that the MLB, um I have a relative that has the MLB all access because they have a season ticket package of the pirates, don't ask.
37:01
SPEAKER_00: Um so so they they they give on the MLB all access, you have the choice of watching the home broadcast or the away broadcast.
37:10
SPEAKER_00: It would be nice if the NFL would offer something like that.
37:15
SPEAKER_00: But I guess they don't do that because there's only one broadcast of the games, or like why can't they have like the sound from the local radios like piped in you know with the NFL games?
37:27
SPEAKER_00: That seemed like something that would be worth some money and people would enjoy.
37:31
SPEAKER_00: And you're not gonna make you know a ton of money, but they always are talking about improving the fan experience.
37:37
SPEAKER_00: That would definitely seem with technology that would be pretty easy to do these days.
37:41
SPEAKER_00: Because what started to happen was there started to be a delay and you couldn't sync up anymore, and that's kind of why that that kind of went went away.
37:50
SPEAKER_00: Because like it'd be like it'd be like you'd see the touchdown, then like 30 seconds later, be like you'll grow up and be like, and they score.
37:56
SPEAKER_00: And like, oh, okay.
37:57
SPEAKER_01: I think I think it was the other way around.
37:59
SPEAKER_00: I think Oh no, the T that's right, the radio, you would you would you'd be like, and they score, and then you would see it happen.
38:04
unknown: Yeah.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: It's like you you knew the future.
38:07
SPEAKER_01: Right.
38:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's that's exactly what killed that.
38:10
SPEAKER_01: Um and and people we've had that on our Facebook page a lot.
38:15
SPEAKER_01: People um anytime I post something to Myron Cope, somebody will inevitably uh post in the comments, we used to always turn down the volume and put on Myron and Jack Fleming and or Bill Hillgrove.
38:27
SPEAKER_01: And um my parents did that too.
38:29
SPEAKER_01: And and I'm gonna be in the minority here, and this is a little bit of sacrilege.
38:33
SPEAKER_01: I hated it.
38:34
SPEAKER_01: I hated it.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: Well uh you're a big you're a big Beasley Reese fan.
38:39
SPEAKER_01: Well, it it just it just it was like because they'd be they would be like showing something during the game.
38:47
SPEAKER_01: They'd be like, you know, showing something on the sideline, you know, and talking about it, and you'd have no idea what they were talking about.
38:53
SPEAKER_01: You know, somebody was in your chairs, or or even the commercials, like even the commercials didn't sink.
38:59
SPEAKER_01: I just didn't like it.
39:00
SPEAKER_01: I just didn't like and then the it was an AM station.
39:04
SPEAKER_01: Yes, it would be fuzzy.
39:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it wasn't exactly like the best sound ever.
39:08
SPEAKER_01: It would go in and out.
39:10
SPEAKER_01: But but in my parents, my parents, God bless them, like they they they wouldn't just automatically put it on.
39:19
SPEAKER_01: They would wait until whoever the announcer was ticked them off sufficiently.
39:24
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
39:25
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
39:26
SPEAKER_00: They would just say something honest, like Bradshaw really threw an interception there, and then they'd be like, ah, that bums, I hate the Steelers, I hate Pittsburgh.
39:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and once we got into like the 80s, like the late 80s, a lot of the announcers were guys that the Steelers had beaten in the 70s.
39:44
SPEAKER_01: You know, it was uh Todd Christensen and Bob Trumpy.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: And he was so smarmy.
39:49
SPEAKER_00: Todd Christensen was so smart.
39:50
SPEAKER_01: And Sam Martigliano and Joe Namath.
39:54
SPEAKER_01: It was guys like that.
39:55
SPEAKER_01: And and so, you know, they they uh Bob Trumpy would say, you know, oh uh Mark Malone really, you know, really needs to, you know, not stare down his receiver and throw it right to the other team.
40:08
SPEAKER_00: Oh, they just take the Steelers.
40:10
SPEAKER_00: You know, and and so then and then you turn on like yeah, Jack, it was Jack Fleming back then be like, oh, what a great interception.
40:17
SPEAKER_00: It really wasn't Mark Malone's fault on that one.
40:20
SPEAKER_00: Right.
40:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so so I I never liked it.
40:22
SPEAKER_01: The other the other thing I didn't like about listening to the radio, I loved Myron, and everybody loves Myron, but Jack Fleming in those final years, if no one remembers this.
40:32
SPEAKER_01: I remember I can tell you my Kansas City's your Kansas City's playoff story where they can the field goal to end our season and the crowd cheered, and Joe Montana's like, you know, shaking hands with Bill Cower, and like Jack Fleming's like, and it's good.
40:48
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I I love that story that you have listening to that because that's exactly that was Jack Fleming.
40:54
SPEAKER_01: He just like no, really, Jack.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't tell it was good.
40:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and I don't want to disparage Jack Fleming.
41:01
SPEAKER_01: He was a great, great announcer.
41:03
SPEAKER_01: He just stayed maybe three or four years too long.
41:06
SPEAKER_01: I think Hellgrove did the same thing.
41:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and um uh but yeah, so that's another reason.
41:11
SPEAKER_01: Just just during that era, I did not like that.
41:14
SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, my experience turning down the volume, I like I said, that's sacrilege, but I did not like it.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: Uh now that's that's some good memories.
41:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there you go.
41:24
SPEAKER_00: How about how about bringing stuff to the game?
41:27
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember that?
41:28
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I have a lot of stories here.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: Like you could bring anything to the game back then.
41:34
SPEAKER_00: It's like there's literally an NFL films that I couldn't really find it.
41:39
SPEAKER_00: There's a guy named Specs who actually your dad bought his season tickets from way back when.
41:45
SPEAKER_00: And they did like an NFL films thing, like he had a whole row of seats.
41:49
SPEAKER_00: He would have like all these hoagies and bread and stuff.
41:52
SPEAKER_00: Yes, they'd have wine in like glass bottles in this thing, and flasks of whiskey.
42:00
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is like these people were drunk and they all steer classier than the people that are there, you know?
42:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and like you know, they would just do silly stuff like, oh, we're gonna put the juju on, you know, oh, you know, Bernie Kozars.
42:14
SPEAKER_00: You know, it it was just silliness.
42:16
SPEAKER_00: But but it was just fun.
42:18
SPEAKER_00: It was fun, it was Pittsburgh, and I'm sure like Buffalo had people like that, and you know, the old school Chicago, I imagine, did stuff like that.
42:26
SPEAKER_00: You know, I could see that going on in Baltimore.
42:30
SPEAKER_00: You know, just just fun stuff that went on at the games that you can't bring anything, and that was more of a 9-11 thing.
42:36
SPEAKER_01: Right.
42:37
SPEAKER_00: Like they're afraid, you know, and yeah, thanks a lot, terrorists.
42:41
SPEAKER_00: Took away our hoagies and sandwiches and bottles.
42:45
SPEAKER_00: Well, you can still I think you still take a bottle of water in a pirate game.
42:48
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure you can take can you you can't take one in a Steeler game.
42:51
SPEAKER_01: No, you can't take anything into a Steeler game.
42:53
SPEAKER_00: Because and I I think too, that's it's an excuse because they want you to buy stuff.
42:58
SPEAKER_01: 100% is an excuse.
43:00
SPEAKER_01: 100%.
43:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it we used to bring um when it when it was winter and it was really cold, we used to have these big thermoses, like there's ones that like would you know were like the staleys?
43:13
SPEAKER_00: Because they're they're worth a lot of money, Tip.
43:15
SPEAKER_01: The ones that like stood up real tall and you would like pump them from the top.
43:19
SPEAKER_00: They were almost like you're like you have them like at like a church function.
43:24
SPEAKER_01: Correct.
43:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
43:25
SPEAKER_01: So so my mom would make like chicken noodle soup.
43:29
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that sounds so good.
43:30
SPEAKER_01: And it would stay hot in there.
43:31
SPEAKER_00: So you're his mother is an excellent cook, by the way.
43:34
SPEAKER_00: She is 100%.
43:37
SPEAKER_01: And and and it would stay hot all the way to like the third or fourth quarter, and and then we would bring like plastic cups and we would just pump this chicken noodle soup, and that would keep you warm on these days where it was you know snowing and it was four degrees outside.
43:52
SPEAKER_00: You had to have that that that Houston game you were telling me about where like they weren't sure if the guy caught the ball in bounds and it was snowing.
43:58
SPEAKER_00: So you were sipping on.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: Your chicken noodle soup is Heywood Jeffries went out of bounds or for sure.
44:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and you could just and and if you you talked about like the hoagies, Kohlers.
44:09
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you if you walk around like the the Aquitore Stadium on a Sunday now, if you see what people have at their tailgates, people just brought all that stuff in.
44:20
SPEAKER_01: Like people have Kohlers, people have, like you said, like like alcohol.
44:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, people just brought it into the stadium, and it was it was fine.
44:28
SPEAKER_01: You you all you had to do to get in a three-river stadium was go through a turnstile and they would rip your ticket.
44:34
SPEAKER_01: There was no sec there was no um metal detector, there was no pat down of security, you just walked in.
44:41
SPEAKER_01: As long as you had a ticket, you just go through the turnstile and that was it.
44:45
SPEAKER_01: So you're right.
44:45
SPEAKER_01: 9-11 changed that, and and it's such a convenient excuse, like, oh yeah, sorry.
44:51
SPEAKER_01: I mean, safety and all.
44:52
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to just if you bring in a color, God knows what you could be putting in there.
44:56
SPEAKER_00: That was like they they started making do they make you pick up your hat?
45:00
SPEAKER_00: Now, like they they started doing that.
45:03
SPEAKER_00: And I I I remember one time at a pit game, they made me and my dad take off our hat.
45:09
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I looked at it, I gave the lady the like most what the heck look ever.
45:14
SPEAKER_00: And she's like, Well, somebody blew up a game somewhere.
45:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, yeah, I think I would have heard about that on the news.
45:20
SPEAKER_00: You're just making stuff up now.
45:22
SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, there's like a nuclear device under my hat, sure.
45:27
SPEAKER_01: There, there's there's they do have this machine now that's a lot better.
45:31
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to go through the little metal detector anymore.
45:33
SPEAKER_01: They have this machine that can take like a whole bunch of people at one time and and detect anything.
45:38
SPEAKER_01: So that's good.
45:39
SPEAKER_01: They at least they at least technologies move those lines faster, but you still can't bring anything in.
45:44
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think it's still do they they they still have it set up dumb like where it used to be like real open, and I always thought you wanted more of an open than a funnel, because if you create like a choke point, but now they put all that little fencing up, it's like they just created like 20 million choke points.
46:00
SPEAKER_00: I I don't understand like what they're afraid somebody's like that little fence is gonna stop if somebody gets through with a car.
46:06
SPEAKER_00: That's why you have like the big jersey berries at the parking lots and stuff.
46:11
SPEAKER_01: Going back to my mom, there was a game in the 2000s.
46:14
SPEAKER_01: So this was post-9-11, this was post when you couldn't bring anything in.
46:18
SPEAKER_01: She actually had um something that was similar to the thermos a hot soup.
46:23
SPEAKER_01: I think it was hot coffee or something that she she wanted to bring in with with with, I think, a like a whole blanket and some other stuff, because it was a cold day.
46:31
SPEAKER_01: And she actually talked the Heinsfield guy into letting him bring all in, which was so impressive.
46:38
SPEAKER_01: The guy totally violated all the the procedures to let my mom bring all this stuff in.
46:43
SPEAKER_01: Well, uh I knew I wouldn't recommend that.
46:46
SPEAKER_01: I doubt you'll get anything by them today, but she did.
46:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because she's a big Al Qaeda terrorist.
46:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean that was it's hard.
46:57
SPEAKER_01: I mean, remember, we went on we went through this with at the airports too, you know.
47:01
SPEAKER_01: Um, all the kind of ridiculous.
47:03
SPEAKER_00: Oh, they finally they finally got they finally got to where you don't have to take your shoes off anymore.
47:08
SPEAKER_00: One guy does it one time, and now forever.
47:11
SPEAKER_00: I remember thinking that so many times.
47:13
SPEAKER_00: This is so stupid.
47:14
SPEAKER_00: Like I literally bought shoes to go on a trip that were slip-on sketchers because I knew I was gonna have to take off my shoes and I didn't feel like tying them.
47:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, it was it was a lot of like overreaction.
47:27
SPEAKER_01: And to be fair, like you know, 9-11, I I it was gonna take a while to counterbalance and understand the right way to handle things, but but in terms of like sports teams, you're right.
47:39
SPEAKER_01: It was just a good excuse to be like, sorry, that bottle of water, that's too dangerous.
47:43
SPEAKER_01: Here, you can pay$8 for a new one inside the stadium.
47:47
SPEAKER_01: The same one that you got for 99 cents at CVS.
47:51
SPEAKER_00: Well, why do you think they're building like all those um parking garages down on the north side?
47:56
SPEAKER_00: Because they're trying to get rid of tailgating.
47:58
SPEAKER_00: You know, so that's the next move.
48:01
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, uh, do you remember paper tickets you were talking about them there?
48:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
48:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that was great because that made a great souvenir.
48:09
SPEAKER_00: Like, I have so many, like I think I've taken pictures of and say, like, every once in a while I'll go through and they're like, oh, look, I have Boston College and Pitt from like 1994.
48:17
SPEAKER_00: There was a 28 to nothing loss.
48:20
SPEAKER_00: But but I I do have some, you know, I have some interesting paper tickets.
48:26
SPEAKER_00: Now it's all on your phone, which is nice.
48:28
SPEAKER_00: There is a nice advantage.
48:30
SPEAKER_00: Like, if you and they do now, I don't know about the NFL because I've done a lot more baseball games recently.
48:37
SPEAKER_00: And like when I bought pit tickets, I buy them off resellers.
48:41
SPEAKER_00: Is on the MLB, if you go on the MLB's app, which is really handy to buy MLB tickets, they give you like a check-in.
48:49
SPEAKER_00: And if you go in their app, it gives you all the games you go into, the scores, and you can add pictures.
48:55
SPEAKER_00: Like if you take pictures on your phone, you add it to that game.
48:58
SPEAKER_00: So it makes a really nice memory and a way to remember it.
49:01
SPEAKER_00: So baseball is kind of ahead, like they've kind of realized that that was a thing, and they've kind of you know made it.
49:08
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like a paper ticket, but better.
49:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
49:11
SPEAKER_00: But so they've kind of like I think baseball's kind of figured that out.
49:15
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if the NFL does that to me.
49:17
SPEAKER_00: Do you have any any input on that?
49:19
SPEAKER_00: I I don't go to that.
49:20
SPEAKER_01: No, I don't, they don't.
49:21
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's it's the same with the penguins.
49:23
SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's just in your phone and you scan it, you scan the the little barcode.
49:29
SPEAKER_01: I I mean to be fair, it's more convenient.
49:32
SPEAKER_01: I I spent there was Yeah, it's easy to send it too.
49:36
SPEAKER_00: Like, let's say like you and you know, uh like like sometimes like my wife would be at work or something.
49:40
SPEAKER_00: I was like, okay, I'll buy the tickets, I'll just send you a ticket, and we'll just meet down there whenever you get there.
49:46
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
49:46
SPEAKER_01: Or you're selling your tickets to somebody.
49:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
49:50
SPEAKER_00: Well, that killed scalping.
49:52
SPEAKER_00: That that totally the apps totally killed scalping.
49:54
SPEAKER_01: It did.
49:55
SPEAKER_01: But it but my my dad and I had an ongoing joke for um probably 30 years, where um sometime at some point on the way to the game, if I was riding with him on the way to the game, or even if I met him there when I was older, um, I would I would call him and ask him this and always be like, Did you remember the tickets?
50:16
SPEAKER_01: Because it was always my worst nightmare that we would get up to the gate and he'd like be like fishing around his pocket.
50:21
SPEAKER_01: Oh no, I left the tickets at home.
50:22
SPEAKER_01: But that was a real thing.
50:23
SPEAKER_01: If you if you didn't bring your ticket with you, or if you like lost it somewhere, then you were host.
50:29
SPEAKER_01: Like you didn't have your tickets anymore.
50:31
SPEAKER_00: Or if you now it's if you don't, you better make sure.
50:33
SPEAKER_00: Like I always do that.
50:34
SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of paranoid, like, okay, I'm going to game to make my sure my phone's charged.
50:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
50:39
SPEAKER_01: Or or or downloading.
50:41
SPEAKER_01: That was another thing.
50:42
SPEAKER_01: My my dad, who is not technology savvy at all, I remember a few years ago him showing me how you could download your your tickets into Google Wallet in case you get up to the gate and there's like no Wi-Fi connection, or or you can't get your phone connected.
50:57
SPEAKER_01: And and I'm like, wow, he actually showed me that.
51:00
SPEAKER_01: Um I'm an IT professional and I he's showing me how to use Google Wallet.
51:04
SPEAKER_01: So it it's just funny how things change over the years.
51:08
SPEAKER_01: Um but so it's more convenient, but like you said, you don't have that souvenir.
51:12
SPEAKER_01: I have a whole bin of paper tickets from my favorite games that I that I saved that you know, when I die, my kids will throw out the day after.
51:20
SPEAKER_01: But it was still cool to have.
51:23
SPEAKER_00: It means something to you, right?
51:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
51:26
SPEAKER_00: Especially because like, you know, if you're going, I think baseball realizes that a lot of people do like ballpark tourism, and I think that's why they kind of like they realize people do that.
51:36
SPEAKER_01: That makes sense.
51:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
51:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, speaking of member buying those paper tickets for like two dollars to get into a game.
51:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
51:45
SPEAKER_00: Like I remember 1987, and this says something about my father.
51:51
SPEAKER_00: He was unemployed at the time for the whole summer, and I was out of school for the whole summer.
51:58
SPEAKER_00: So we saw a lot of Pirates Baseball for the whole summer.
52:04
SPEAKER_00: Because if you drank Diet Coke and you showed up, I think it wasn't on, I don't remember if it was on the weekend.
52:09
SPEAKER_00: I think it was mainly during the week.
52:12
SPEAKER_00: During the week, you went down to the River Stadium, show them your Coke can.
52:16
SPEAKER_00: You could get the tickets.
52:17
SPEAKER_00: Remember the brown seats out in the outfield?
52:20
SPEAKER_00: Like they were they weren't there when they built the stadium, but they built them later.
52:23
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
52:24
SPEAKER_00: And you would sit there and you would pay like, I don't know, for two people.
52:29
SPEAKER_00: I made for two people four dollars, maybe five.
52:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
52:33
SPEAKER_00: And and you'd sit there and you know, and he'd get I still have the books we kept score in.
52:39
SPEAKER_00: You know, we'd we'd buy a scorecard and he'd keep score and tear for the pirates.
52:44
SPEAKER_00: And that was a fun year too, because they kind of stunk at the beginning, but then at the end they got really good.
52:49
SPEAKER_00: That was a fun, that was a fun team to watch.
52:51
SPEAKER_00: So because they had they had some guy named Barry Bonds and Andy Vance.
52:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was really the beginning of that era of them having a good team.
53:00
SPEAKER_01: And they had Buck Knight too.
53:02
SPEAKER_01: Remember they had Buck Knight.
53:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
53:04
SPEAKER_01: Where it was literally a dollar for the ticket.
53:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you'd never see stuff like that again.
53:11
SPEAKER_00: Uh speaking of baseball, do you remember pitchers actually like, you know, nowadays you have like actually have the opener, which is you know the opposite, like one guy that comes in and pitches one inning, and then he pitches not one inning, the first inning, and then it's like, okay, I'm out.
53:28
SPEAKER_00: See ya.
53:28
SPEAKER_00: Deuces, here's this other guy.
53:31
SPEAKER_00: Um, it pitchers would pitch a whole game, like Steve Carlton or Nolan Ryan, or Cy Young, or I don't know who else does that.
53:39
SPEAKER_00: Maybe Roger Clemens.
53:41
SPEAKER_00: Now it's like once you get to the sixth or seventh inning, it's like, okay, start warming up the bullpen, boys.
53:47
SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, they do pitch counts.
53:49
SPEAKER_01: Now everybody's on a pitch count, and you don't want to once you exceed your pitch count.
53:53
SPEAKER_01: It used to just be you're in there until you start to lose or you start to get in trouble.
53:59
SPEAKER_01: But if you don't ever get in trouble, which you know, a lot of pitchers, a lot of games just were good the whole game.
54:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you pitch complete games, and now that doesn't really happen anymore.
54:10
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't even exist.
54:11
SPEAKER_00: Like you'll have a no-hitter in the ninth, and if you hit a hundred pitches, they're yanking ya.
54:16
SPEAKER_01: Right.
54:18
SPEAKER_00: It's actually has happened.
54:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm not like just exaggerating or being hyperbolic.
54:23
SPEAKER_00: It was that has really happened.
54:26
SPEAKER_00: Uh how about uh ooh, everybody's favorite turf.
54:31
SPEAKER_00: Astroturf.
54:33
SPEAKER_00: And on that on that note, dual purpose stadiums.
54:37
SPEAKER_00: Remember, remember AstroTurf, Tim?
54:40
SPEAKER_00: I loved playing on it.
54:41
SPEAKER_00: It was the best.
54:42
SPEAKER_00: We kind of had AstroTurf in our gym at high school.
54:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
54:47
SPEAKER_00: It was it was more of a carpet.
54:49
SPEAKER_00: It was like a multi-purpose carpet.
54:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
54:53
SPEAKER_01: That's that's that was brutal.
54:55
SPEAKER_01: You you had a bad injury on that.
54:57
SPEAKER_00: And and it built character, Tim.
55:01
SPEAKER_01: And and that's really what AstroTurf was.
55:03
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it I you had a chance to walk on the Three River Stadium turf once or something.
55:08
SPEAKER_01: It was kind of spongy, like I remember being a it was spongy, but man, if you like fell on it, it was hard.
55:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
55:14
SPEAKER_01: And and it didn't have any room for give.
55:18
SPEAKER_01: So if you were trying to like there's guys athletes trying to cut back.
55:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
55:23
SPEAKER_01: Um, you your your foot kind of got stuck.
55:26
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
55:27
SPEAKER_01: Like it didn't literally get stuck, but it it's kind of the the the effect that it had.
55:33
SPEAKER_01: And lots of guys got hurt on that.
55:35
SPEAKER_00: Because if you try and make like a zigzag, like a diagonal cut, you're right.
55:39
SPEAKER_00: That's when you get hurt.
55:40
SPEAKER_00: Your foot gets planted and it can't give way.
55:44
SPEAKER_00: Whereas if you're on the dirt, like normally the dirt'll go flying up.
55:48
SPEAKER_01: And and AstroTurf came about because of the Houston Astronomy, because they started building indoor stadiums, and they're like, well, you can't have grass.
55:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, they tried to grow, they tried to grow grass the first year and it died.
56:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it died.
56:01
SPEAKER_00: Because you need you need natural light.
56:03
SPEAKER_00: Like you would think, well, they have big lights, just leave the lights on long enough.
56:07
SPEAKER_00: But if it's not like if you've ever grown plants like or other type of plants, you need a grow light, and it has to I it have for some way they tint the light, it gives off certain UV rays that the plants need to grow.
56:23
SPEAKER_00: So and that's as much as I know about it, people.
56:26
SPEAKER_01: And now they have now they have retractable roofs, or like even in some cases, I believe the Arizona Cardinals that stadium, the whole field like rolls out of the stadium.
56:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
56:36
SPEAKER_00: I know I I think uh the Astros in their new stadium that is natural.
56:42
SPEAKER_00: I think that is grass, but they the grass does get kind of brownish, even like when I was there, it wasn't in great shape, and I've been to the Astros baseball stadium.
56:52
SPEAKER_01: I I would say that's one thing on this list where we we we came up with one problem, we overcorrected, and now I feel like we've actually settled into a good nuanced middle ground because now you have hybrid turf and everything else.
57:06
SPEAKER_01: Well, they're complaining about that turf at Met Life, saying because like a lot of people have torn their Achilles up there, Aaron Rodgers included, but there's been a lot of other people too, and they're not sure if like that's the turf or something, or but if you think about like what Heinz Field, you know, like here in Pittsburgh, we went from the concrete through River Stadium AstroTurf to absolutely god-awful whatever turf they had to begin with.
57:31
SPEAKER_01: Right.
57:31
SPEAKER_01: So they went back to grass and it turned into mud.
57:34
SPEAKER_00: Well, they but that's why they went to AstroTurf in the first place.
57:37
SPEAKER_01: Right.
57:38
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
57:38
SPEAKER_01: That's what I'm saying.
57:39
SPEAKER_01: We we overcorrected a bunch of times.
57:41
SPEAKER_01: I think we finally found the right nuance.
57:43
SPEAKER_00: Well, they tried that grass in like um Denver and it didn't work because it I guess it grows better in Denver, but you gotta remember like different climates, different elevations, different seasons, you know.
57:54
SPEAKER_00: It's I'm sure it's a whole science, and don't people go to college at Virginia Tech for this in Penn State, like the the Hick schools for this?
58:03
SPEAKER_00: I mean, oh whoops, did I say out loud?
58:05
SPEAKER_00: I meant those five.
58:07
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, whatever.
58:08
SPEAKER_00: You know, we need we need doctorate of agriculture, they're important and grow our food.
58:14
SPEAKER_02: That's true.
58:17
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, uh dual purpose stadiums.
58:20
SPEAKER_00: Who didn't love a big donut?
58:22
SPEAKER_00: Like, remember like when Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati all built the same stadium and called it three different names?
58:30
SPEAKER_00: I.e.
58:31
SPEAKER_00: let's start from the east to the west, uh, the veterans stadium, three rivers stadium, and riverfront stadium.
58:37
SPEAKER_00: If I put you inside there and I didn't tell you where where you work, but you know where you were.
58:44
SPEAKER_01: No, you literally couldn't.
58:46
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they were they were replicas, they were exactly replicas.
58:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, somebody made a lot of money doing it, and then they kind of did it again.
58:53
SPEAKER_00: Like, I noticed like, although I guess whatever Cincinnati's Pacor, Gaya, whatever, whatever their stadium called now, it is kind of similar to the Heinz Field, and so is Lincoln Financial.
59:07
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of similar, but it doesn't look exactly the same.
59:10
SPEAKER_01: It's not, yeah, it's it's probably incorporating because they were all built around the same time, so I'm sure they incorporated some of the same design concepts.
59:17
SPEAKER_01: But we don't have an escaler here at in Pittsburgh.
59:20
SPEAKER_00: So how about smoking during games, Tim?
59:25
SPEAKER_00: I know you love the fire one when you're like 10 years old.
59:28
SPEAKER_00: Hey, dad, give me a pack of Moorboro Reds for my baseball game here.
59:33
SPEAKER_01: I I hated that when I was a kid because I didn't mind it.
59:37
SPEAKER_00: I never it never bothered me.
59:38
SPEAKER_01: I I it bothered me a lot.
59:40
SPEAKER_01: My my my parents did not smoke.
59:42
SPEAKER_01: My parents did smoke before they had kids and then they stopped.
59:46
SPEAKER_01: So I did not grow up in a house with cigarettes like a lot of other kids my age did.
59:51
SPEAKER_00: My parents did not smoke either.
59:53
SPEAKER_01: Didn't not both I just wasn't used to it.
59:56
SPEAKER_01: And I and when I went to games, and and there's nowhere to go.
59:58
SPEAKER_01: You just sit there and it blows in your face the whole game, and you sort of have to say, okay, well, there's a guy in front of me smoking, what can I do?
1:00:06
SPEAKER_01: You know, you can't ask him to put it out because that would have been absurd back then.
1:00:10
SPEAKER_01: Like it's like asking somebody to stop talking in the middle of a crowded, you know, store.
1:00:15
SPEAKER_01: It's like, please be quiet.
1:00:16
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to shop for groceries.
1:00:17
SPEAKER_01: Like you couldn't do that.
1:00:19
SPEAKER_01: That's literally what it was like.
1:00:20
SPEAKER_01: And no one, no one thought to make laws back then or anything like that.
1:00:25
SPEAKER_00: I so I think that you should be allowed to smoke wherever the heck you want.
1:00:29
SPEAKER_00: I don't care.
1:00:29
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't bother me.
1:00:30
SPEAKER_00: If it bothers you, you know.
1:00:33
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm not gonna I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you on that stance.
1:00:37
SPEAKER_01: I'm glad there's laws to protect people from secondhand.
1:00:41
SPEAKER_00: Then you must not go to the casino because I walked through the casino the other day and people would smoke them if you got them.
1:00:50
SPEAKER_00: How about we just let everybody make their rules in their like own little business?
1:00:55
SPEAKER_00: And if they want to have smoking in their business, they can have it there.
1:00:58
SPEAKER_00: If they don't, they do.
1:01:00
SPEAKER_00: And if you go to a business and they have smoking, you know what?
1:01:03
SPEAKER_00: There's a business down the street you can go to.
1:01:05
SPEAKER_00: Remember smoking sections?
1:01:06
SPEAKER_00: They used to be non-smoking.
1:01:08
SPEAKER_00: They used to let you smoke on the plane, the airplane.
1:01:12
SPEAKER_00: My wife, like a funny story.
1:01:14
SPEAKER_00: My wife works at the airport, and people hide at the airport and smoke on the tarmac.
1:01:20
SPEAKER_00: And I said, if you ever do that, I will be so upset with you.
1:01:25
SPEAKER_00: There is literally jet fuel.
1:01:28
SPEAKER_00: Freaking jet.
1:01:29
SPEAKER_00: What are you nuts?
1:01:31
SPEAKER_00: I I am the biggest, I don't care if you smoke person, except around jet fuel.
1:01:37
SPEAKER_00: Don't smoke there.
1:01:40
SPEAKER_01: And the casino, Steve, remember that the state had to make a law that protected employees and consumers from secondhand smoke, except when they were making the revenue.
1:01:53
SPEAKER_00: Well, except for when you're gambling, because it's like totally, I think there's a peer-reviewed study that says when you're gambling, the effects of gambling counteract the effects of secondhand smoke.
1:02:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
1:02:04
SPEAKER_00: It's much like when you're a running back and you have the football and you lower your head and hit a defender.
1:02:09
SPEAKER_00: The ball conjure effect.
1:02:11
SPEAKER_00: There's peer-reviewed studies, Tim, that say that when you have the ball, you can't concuss yourself or anybody else if you hit them in the head.
1:02:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
1:02:21
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly the way.
1:02:22
SPEAKER_00: The ball makes all the difference.
1:02:25
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you don't have the ball and you hit somebody in the head, that's a problem.
1:02:29
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
1:02:32
SPEAKER_00: I digress once again.
1:02:34
SPEAKER_00: And even like coaches were smoking on the field.
1:02:37
SPEAKER_00: They're like there was an NFL films like report where like they got upset that they were putting holes in the astro turf.
1:02:44
SPEAKER_00: Speaking of two things by smoking, they got upset with the coaches because they are melting, they're melting the astro turf.
1:02:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, you know, uh same with baseball.
1:02:57
SPEAKER_01: Jim Leland used to smoke in the dugout.
1:02:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's right.
1:02:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you in the dugout, and then he would just sneak down the hallway or whatever.
1:03:04
SPEAKER_01: He he would try to hide it.
1:03:06
SPEAKER_01: I remember that.
1:03:06
SPEAKER_01: He would try to like kind of put his hand over it to make it look like he wasn't smoking, but it's pretty obvious he was smoking.
1:03:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:03:12
SPEAKER_01: And and and it's just yeah, it's funny to just think about that.
1:03:16
SPEAKER_01: Bill Austin, who was the coach of the Steelers, he used to do that too.
1:03:18
SPEAKER_01: He'd smoke on the sidelines.
1:03:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:03:20
SPEAKER_00: You know, during call 33 wide right.
1:03:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:03:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:03:25
SPEAKER_01: But Bobby Lane, when he was a quarterback, reportedly used to smoke like in between, you know, commercial breaks or whatever in the huddle.
1:03:32
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it it's it's smoking was just a thing back then, and it just everybody just smoked all the time, everywhere and anywhere.
1:03:39
SPEAKER_00: Could you imagine if they let the players vape?
1:03:41
SPEAKER_00: There'd be like so many idiots vaping.
1:03:44
SPEAKER_00: I think vaping is way worse, like not health-wise, but just as far as the clouds it produced, like vaping is way cloudier than at least it's I guess at least it smells good.
1:03:55
SPEAKER_00: It'll smell like kiwi or oranges or whatever crap they put in there.
1:04:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think the moral of the story is if you get rid of one thing, people will just find another unhealthy.
1:04:06
SPEAKER_00: That's why I say it's just freedom.
1:04:08
SPEAKER_00: Freedom is the answer here.
1:04:09
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you it it if you have a business and you don't want people to smoke, don't let them smoke.
1:04:15
SPEAKER_00: If somebody comes in your house and you're a guest in somebody's house, you probably shouldn't be smoking.
1:04:19
SPEAKER_00: But if you're in your house and you go in somebody's house and they're smoking, I don't think you have the right to tell them not to smoke.
1:04:25
SPEAKER_01: I yeah, I can I can see that logic.
1:04:28
SPEAKER_00: You know, on their on their end, you know, if they're being a good host, you know, wouldn't it be considerate maybe not to smoke while you have guests or go outside, you know, while you have guests in the house.
1:04:37
SPEAKER_00: So it's you know, nobody wants to be a two-way street, nobody wants to be considerate of others.
1:04:41
SPEAKER_00: People just want to enforce their own rights.
1:04:44
SPEAKER_00: I'm getting old, Tim.
1:04:45
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, uh how about uh what else?
1:04:51
SPEAKER_00: Listening to the crowds instead of the PA system, those darn PA systems.
1:04:55
SPEAKER_00: It seems like the pirate game in every game, because now I've been to a lot of different stadiums now in my North American baseball stadium tour.
1:05:04
SPEAKER_00: Um it's like they just constant entertainment.
1:05:09
SPEAKER_00: Are we so like phone addicted that we can't just sit there and talk to somebody or just have a moment of what was that in pulp fiction?
1:05:17
SPEAKER_00: Like comfortable silence, you know?
1:05:19
SPEAKER_00: Like whatever happened to that, you know, the the comfortable silences.
1:05:23
SPEAKER_00: Now it's like, oh, I have to have my walk-up music.
1:05:26
SPEAKER_00: It's like, do we like they never had walk-up music?
1:05:29
SPEAKER_00: Like the most is like Vince LeChaye would play something on the organ that would make fun of your name, you know.
1:05:37
SPEAKER_00: That was about it.
1:05:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
1:05:40
SPEAKER_01: Same with same with football games.
1:05:42
SPEAKER_01: They have to fill the gap between every time there's a commercial break or a stoppage in place.
1:05:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's like here's you know something.
1:05:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, something on the scoreboard.
1:05:52
SPEAKER_00: Here's Max Starks to tell you about fan behavior.
1:05:55
SPEAKER_01: It's like Yeah, or here's like this super loud club dance music.
1:06:00
SPEAKER_01: So that you can't hear anything else.
1:06:02
SPEAKER_00: I I you know Well my it used to annoy my dad too because like at Pit Games they have a band and it's like, well if you're gonna do that, why don't you just let the band play?
1:06:10
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:06:10
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:06:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:06:11
SPEAKER_01: I mean and and they've always done that.
1:06:13
SPEAKER_01: Like there's always been kind of like the background music or the um i it what I remember from at least for from football games specifically was like in between quarters is when they would have the the you know they would come on and do something.
1:06:29
SPEAKER_01: You know, they used to do like the here's a here's a picture of one of the players as a baby, and you try to guess who it was, and then they would show you that it was, you know, oh that was you know that was Keith Willis when he was a baby.
1:06:40
SPEAKER_01: And and and it so like they would do stuff like that like in between quarters, but not every single time there was a there was a stop it.
1:06:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:06:48
SPEAKER_01: And and now it's like you have to fill up the time.
1:06:50
SPEAKER_01: You're right though, it's it's indicative of we're a short attention span culture.
1:06:55
SPEAKER_01: And and to be fair, Steve, I'm I'm not above it.
1:06:58
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I can't No, I'm just this bad.
1:07:00
SPEAKER_01: I can't ride up the elevator at work without like taking my phone out and scrolling for a minute.
1:07:06
SPEAKER_01: You know, like it's just well, this elevator is gonna take a few floors and it's gonna stop maybe once or twice to pick up somebody.
1:07:13
SPEAKER_01: So I can't just stand here.
1:07:14
SPEAKER_01: I have to be looking at my phone, right?
1:07:17
SPEAKER_01: So I I get it.
1:07:18
SPEAKER_01: I'm not above it, like I said.
1:07:21
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, and also like there seems to be fireworks and LED light shows, you know, you gotta have your bobbleheads and I literally like we went to a game and I think I forget it was a bobblehead.
1:07:36
SPEAKER_00: I forgot what bobblehead they were giving away.
1:07:38
SPEAKER_00: I think it wasn't even anything, it was like a Brian Reynolds bobblehead.
1:07:43
SPEAKER_00: And these people had two garbage bags full of Brian Reynolds bobbleheads.
1:07:49
SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, who goes to the game and brings garbage bags to fill up like with bobbleheads?
1:07:59
SPEAKER_00: And how do you even get that many?
1:08:00
SPEAKER_00: Like, do you just like go and bribe the usher or you know the gate guy?
1:08:05
SPEAKER_00: And it was crazy.
1:08:08
SPEAKER_01: That that started that kind of stuff started when we were kids.
1:08:13
SPEAKER_01: Whenever the market in the 80s, there was this whole market for collectibles, you know.
1:08:17
SPEAKER_01: That really started with like baseball cards and and stuff like that.
1:08:21
SPEAKER_01: But there became this whole market for collectibles because before that everybody just threw stuff away.
1:08:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and nobody kept anything.
1:08:27
SPEAKER_01: And and same with autographs.
1:08:29
SPEAKER_01: There became this whole thing where um there was a market where people would get autographs on on cards or on something else and then try to sell them.
1:08:38
SPEAKER_01: And then the athletes started getting very dated, understandably so.
1:08:42
SPEAKER_00: Well, because people would make up stories like, oh, it's for my brother and my cousin, and then like think or like they'll send up a little kid to get one and they'll sign then, the little kid will go back to give it to some guy.
1:08:52
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:08:53
SPEAKER_00: Like it's like that was such an obvious scam.
1:08:56
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:08:57
SPEAKER_01: Which is I feel like autographs have now kind of been replaced by selfies.
1:09:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:09:01
SPEAKER_01: You know, if I run into TJ Watata and Eagle, I'm probably gonna ask him for a selfie, not an autograph, and I think that's that's kind of the thing now that's and you can't really sell it because nobody's gonna want to buy a picture with you.
1:09:12
SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
1:09:13
SPEAKER_01: But that's that's that's a good I think that one's a good kind of correction because like you said, there's no that that's a that's that may still annoy the athletes, but at least that's a legit like that's for me.
1:09:27
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe to maybe show off on social media too.
1:09:30
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, but it's really for me.
1:09:31
SPEAKER_01: It's I'm not gonna turn around and make a profit off of it.
1:09:35
SPEAKER_00: Here's a good one, Tim.
1:09:36
SPEAKER_00: And I have an example, and I forgot I had this in the office until I just read this.
1:09:40
SPEAKER_00: Can you I I don't have my can you see this on camera, Tim?
1:09:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I have I know you know what this is, you know what this is.
1:09:48
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and I've actually used this to hit balls with.
1:09:52
SPEAKER_00: This is a J sponsored by Tim.
1:09:55
SPEAKER_00: Listen to these sponsors.
1:09:56
SPEAKER_00: This is Bat Day Giveaway.
1:09:58
SPEAKER_00: I went to a pirate game and I got this as I walked into the game.
1:10:05
SPEAKER_00: This is a full size bat.
1:10:09
SPEAKER_00: Me and 20,000 other lucky fans got a full-size bat.
1:10:17
SPEAKER_00: And it was sponsored by.
1:10:19
SPEAKER_00: No, I mean, I want you to run down and go to these companies, okay, Tim?
1:10:23
SPEAKER_00: JC Pennies, can you go to your local pennies?
1:10:26
SPEAKER_00: All right, and then after you're there, after you're done with that, could you go see Thrift Drug?
1:10:30
SPEAKER_00: Could you go pick me up uh some Tylenol from Thrift Drug, all right?
1:10:35
SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, I I don't I don't remember, I think there might have been an age limit.
1:10:39
SPEAKER_00: I think you had to be like 12 and under or something to get that bat.
1:10:43
SPEAKER_00: So at least smart enough to do that.
1:10:45
SPEAKER_00: Not that you know, a drunk idiot couldn't take a bat off his you know, 12-year-old kid, but yeah, giving giving a bat out seems like a bad idea.
1:10:55
SPEAKER_00: Or remember they used to have baseball giveaways, and then people would throw them all in the field and be like, oh, which one's the ball?
1:11:01
SPEAKER_00: Like there's like tons of YouTube videos of that happening.
1:11:05
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, there there was so we used to target the the bat day giveaway, because they did it more than one year.
1:11:13
SPEAKER_01: We would we would my brother and my dad and I, we would get the pirates schedule for the year, and then we would target whatever the best giveaway was, and then we'd try to get tickets for that game.
1:11:24
SPEAKER_01: And and they would give away bats, like you said, crazy that you just a bunch of people walking through a crowded stadium with weapons.
1:11:31
SPEAKER_00: You can't even take a bottle of water in now.
1:11:34
SPEAKER_01: And you're giving them weapons, but that's beside the point.
1:11:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we would get bats.
1:11:39
SPEAKER_01: They also had a batting helmet day.
1:11:41
SPEAKER_01: Now, these batting helmets were not the kind of batting helmets you'd actually want to get hit in the head with.
1:11:45
SPEAKER_01: But but but you could put together like a whole, you know, uniform or or like set of equipment of baseball equipment just from these giveaway days.
1:11:54
SPEAKER_01: And we did.
1:11:55
SPEAKER_01: You know, we we just thought that was the coolest thing ever.
1:11:58
SPEAKER_01: Uh and then what you said about the commemorative baseballs.
1:12:01
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember this was all the way into the 2000s, where the penguins would give away com commemorative pucks?
1:12:09
SPEAKER_00: I have one and it's on my other desk.
1:12:11
SPEAKER_00: Darn it.
1:12:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and so yeah, it was the size and weight of a regular hockey puck, but then it had like a metal engraving attached to it of Oh, I just have one that's painted.
1:12:22
SPEAKER_00: It was from a devil.
1:12:23
SPEAKER_00: I know it says devils some rather on it.
1:12:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they they would do like we're gonna honor you know Ron Francis Hall of Fame induction or something, and and it would have this, so it was heavier than a normal puck.
1:12:36
SPEAKER_01: And there was a game where somebody scored a hat trick and they threw the hockey pucks and everybody threw the pucks, and it was the most chaotic, dangerous thing ever.
1:12:47
SPEAKER_01: There were like divots in the ice.
1:12:48
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was it was horrible.
1:12:50
SPEAKER_00: Well, never mind, like you know, people underestimate their arm strength and you get people in the crowd.
1:12:55
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:12:55
SPEAKER_00: Like you always see that happen.
1:12:57
SPEAKER_00: Like, I remember like people throwing like drinks and stuff on the ice, like if like it was a bad call or at hockey games, and they'd be like, please stop throwing stuff on the ice.
1:13:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:13:08
SPEAKER_00: And you'd always see like people like not make it, you know, it'd hit somebody in the back of the head like three rows down, like stop throwing stuff.
1:13:16
SPEAKER_01: But I think that was the end of commemorative pox.
1:13:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:13:19
SPEAKER_01: You know, so uh at least like you said, at least with the pirates, it didn't take something horrible to happen to stop giving away, you know.
1:13:27
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think they they started like to like you could give away like a gift certificate or something, you know, like go get one, yeah.
1:13:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like for baseballs and bats and stuff if you wanted to do like here's a here's a like just go to your local dicks and get one.
1:13:41
SPEAKER_01: So July 28th, it's Pirates versus Cubs.
1:13:45
SPEAKER_01: It's pistol day for every first 10,000 fans.
1:13:48
SPEAKER_01: Get a loaded pistol.
1:13:50
SPEAKER_00: Get your own, get your own Ruger.
1:13:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:13:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh sponsored by Ruger.
1:13:56
SPEAKER_00: For all your shooting knees.
1:14:01
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, uh, how about this?
1:14:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh, when you would be sitting, I remember this more at uh Pit, it just kind of flows into the next little memory here, listening for public address announcer for out-of-town scores because you didn't have like this computer in your pocket that you would instantly be able to look up, like, hey, what's going on with you know, whatever, you know, especially during like well, I I guess for some reason I don't remember three stadium posting out of town scores growing up, or not very or me not noticing them.
1:14:34
SPEAKER_00: I don't remember that.
1:14:35
SPEAKER_00: I remember I know PNC Parks always done it.
1:14:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it it you're right.
1:14:40
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't done the there and Wrigley Field has always done it.
1:14:44
SPEAKER_00: I know that.
1:14:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they might have had like this little like corner scoreboard or something where they might have started doing that at one point, but I distinctly remember here's here's in pit games.
1:14:54
SPEAKER_00: I remember that distinctly because Pit Stadium, and we'll get more into Pit Stadium lately, had one like kind of crappy jumbo.
1:15:01
SPEAKER_00: I don't even I it was like a high school scoreboard.
1:15:04
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:15:04
SPEAKER_00: And it and it would like literally they couldn't even show the score, they maybe show the scores on there and they announce like scores of interest and be like, oh, West Virginia 13, Syracuse 28, and it'd be like, yeah.
1:15:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's what I was gonna say.
1:15:18
SPEAKER_01: I distinctly remember I was at a game, the Steelers were playing the Broncos in 1997.
1:15:24
SPEAKER_01: This was this was like the real late in the season, and the Steelers and the Jaguars were tied for first place in the AFC Central, and it's there's like it's like the two-minute warning uh of this game against Denver that the Steelers are winning.
1:15:39
SPEAKER_01: And the PA announcer comes on and announces that the Jaguars had lost.
1:15:45
SPEAKER_01: That like that the Jaguars game had just ended and they had lost.
1:15:48
SPEAKER_01: And the crowd just went ballistic.
1:15:51
SPEAKER_01: And they they actually there's actually footage of it.
1:15:53
SPEAKER_01: They come back from commercials and everybody's just cheering, and the whole remember the remember those seats they pulled out would bounce up and down.
1:16:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
1:16:01
SPEAKER_01: And that's what happened.
1:16:02
SPEAKER_01: Every those seats were bouncing up and down, and and they came back, and Dick Edinberg's explaining they just announced that the Jaguars lost, that's why everybody's going ballistic.
1:16:10
SPEAKER_01: But now, like you said, everybody has their phone, everybody would know that.
1:16:14
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but back then you needed to rely on the PA announcer to tell you.
1:16:19
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, I remember people would obviously cheer when at Pit Games, like especially like a Penn State, would lose, you know, like Yeah, woo.
1:16:27
SPEAKER_00: I remember the Appalachian State Michigan game.
1:16:31
SPEAKER_00: I did not have, like, they didn't have you still didn't really have smartphones per se that gets like flipping.
1:16:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:16:38
SPEAKER_00: And I we came to the game and and I'd watch some of it and they were winning.
1:16:43
SPEAKER_00: Apple was winning, and then the guy who sit next to us, you know, for all those years was like, Oh, Michigan's coming back, they're gonna lose.
1:16:51
SPEAKER_00: And then and then like later, he thought it was like, my god, they blocked a field goal at the end, they won.
1:16:56
SPEAKER_00: It was like it was kind of like stuff like that.
1:16:58
SPEAKER_00: Like, just like it was so organic, and it was just a different way.
1:17:03
SPEAKER_00: Like, you still found out what went on, it was just really organic.
1:17:06
SPEAKER_00: You didn't, you know what I mean?
1:17:08
SPEAKER_00: You you didn't need your phone to tell you what was going on necessarily.
1:17:12
SPEAKER_00: People don't really you could really live without your phone.
1:17:15
SPEAKER_00: People did it for millions of years, and it's not that that hard.
1:17:20
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't.
1:17:21
SPEAKER_01: I I'm too I'm too addicted now, so nice.
1:17:25
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm sure the phone companies are happy for that.
1:17:28
SPEAKER_00: Um how about uh walking off the field?
1:17:30
SPEAKER_00: I forgot about this.
1:17:31
SPEAKER_00: Like you used to to get now Old Pitt Stadium, you know, was one of my favorite places to watch a football game.
1:17:38
SPEAKER_00: I love that stadium.
1:17:39
SPEAKER_00: It was not up to date.
1:17:42
SPEAKER_00: Pitt did not put any money into it or keep it up or modernize it.
1:17:47
SPEAKER_00: If they would have, they they probably would have a great a better home field vantage than they do now.
1:17:54
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, I don't think it even had lights until like the 80s, I'm pretty sure.
1:18:00
SPEAKER_00: And so they had in the to get out of the one section on the end zone.
1:18:05
SPEAKER_00: I remember people would walk down into the onto the field and go out.
1:18:10
SPEAKER_00: Like now you can only do that after the game was over, but you could go out through that gate there, and it was just a quicker way to get out.
1:18:18
SPEAKER_00: Like, talk about stuff you could not do today, like like actually letting people just like not people that paid money.
1:18:26
SPEAKER_00: Now you gotta pay a ton of money to go down on the field, but I I just remember that so much.
1:18:31
SPEAKER_00: I remember do you remember the bathrooms at Pitt Stadium?
1:18:35
SPEAKER_00: Yes, the one the one or two bathrooms that they had I think there was, yeah, what and they were on either end, and I remember their line was really long, and there was a trough, and like people were going to the bathroom in the sink and the garbage cans.
1:18:49
SPEAKER_00: And like I just remember my grandfather saying that they're going to the bathroom from the garbage cans, it's crazy.
1:18:55
SPEAKER_00: It was just such a such a crazy experience, but that was Pitts Stadium.
1:18:59
SPEAKER_00: If they just would have put any little bit of money into that stadium over the years, it's three rivers wasn't a whole bunch better.
1:19:07
SPEAKER_01: The the corridors were real tight, the bathrooms were were just packed, and people used to go to the bathroom in the sinks all the time.
1:19:14
SPEAKER_01: I never once washed my hands at Three River Stadium.
1:19:16
SPEAKER_00: It was cleaner not to, it was cleaner to just not wash your hands, yeah.
1:19:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and walking on the field at Pitt Stadium, I remember that pretty fondly.
1:19:25
SPEAKER_01: In fact, even when it was more convenient for us to walk like back through the the up the steps, I used to ask my dad if we could walk on the field just because it was like fun.
1:19:35
SPEAKER_01: It was fun to just like walk on the field.
1:19:37
SPEAKER_01: And I, you know, I they'd be playing Boston College and you'd walk, you'd walk down on the field and you'd walk right past Tom Coughlin.
1:19:45
SPEAKER_01: You know, like you were just right.
1:19:47
SPEAKER_00: Hey, it's five minutes early, you know.
1:19:50
SPEAKER_01: You were you were literally just like side by side with all the players and coaches.
1:19:54
SPEAKER_01: Uh again, from a security perspective, they would never allow you to do something like that today.
1:20:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh radio, remember radio guy in the stands.
1:20:03
SPEAKER_00: This kind of goes back to the no phone.
1:20:04
SPEAKER_00: There was always the one guy that had like his radio.
1:20:07
SPEAKER_00: And like they wouldn't ever like I just remember the guy would never have like like the headphones like guy.
1:20:14
SPEAKER_00: It was always the guy with like playing it at full blast.
1:20:17
SPEAKER_00: It's like the people that listen to their phone on like a hundred percent when they're in public.
1:20:23
SPEAKER_00: But now sometimes it would they're listening to another game, but sometimes they are listening to like the pit game.
1:20:28
SPEAKER_00: Because I remember because sometimes you could ask that guy, like, hey, did that guy get injured?
1:20:32
SPEAKER_00: Or what like it was a weird call on the field, like what happened there?
1:20:36
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, they're saying this, or you know, they're saying, you know, what's his name?
1:20:41
SPEAKER_00: Hit punched somebody and he got kicked out, or you know, whatever happened.
1:20:45
SPEAKER_00: So that that was always informative.
1:20:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the the radio guy was always the go-to guy for hey, what's going on?
1:20:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, they would they would update the whole section on what's happening.
1:20:56
SPEAKER_00: It it was so organic and like you got to know your neighbors, like it's so much more like I think that's our whole society in general.
1:21:02
SPEAKER_00: It's so much more insular.
1:21:04
SPEAKER_00: Like you got to know like just random people, you just talk to like random people walking down the street or you know, talk beside you, be like, hey, what's good?
1:21:12
SPEAKER_00: You know, you're obviously both at a sporting game, you like sports.
1:21:16
SPEAKER_01: So we we we posted on our Facebook page a little while ago, um, kind of a tongue-in-cheek video of there there was a shot of a crowd from a game in 1975 at the River Stadium where a guy looked like he was holding up like a smartphone filming the action, and so we proposed it like this tongue-in-teek, like, oh, was there a time traveler at the Steeler game?
1:21:38
SPEAKER_01: And it was amazing how many people posted, you know, no, it was a transistor radio.
1:21:43
SPEAKER_01: I remember that.
1:21:43
SPEAKER_01: We used to bring our transistor radio in and, you know, or the guy that sat next to us always had his, and people just just so many people remember when people used to bring these little radios to the game.
1:21:54
SPEAKER_00: I think especially when you season tickets and it's like the same people over and over again.
1:21:59
SPEAKER_00: I know you can relate this going to Steeler games, but even when I was going to the pit game season tickets, like I watched the guy's daughters grow up down there.
1:22:08
SPEAKER_00: And it's just so and the people beside me, and like my dad, it just like they would ask about my dad if he didn't make it to the game, and I'm sure they'd ask my dad about me if I didn't make it to a game.
1:22:19
SPEAKER_00: Like it was a very communal experience, and you would always talk to them and like, oh yeah, hey, you know, i I don't know.
1:22:26
SPEAKER_00: Is it I I do miss that part, and I I don't know if it's still like that down there, Tim, or yeah, I'm I'm sure it is, and depending on where you sit and who you're with.
1:22:36
SPEAKER_01: I I we've moved around the last couple of years, so I don't I don't and even when we were where we were for 20 years, the people that were around us all changed.
1:22:45
SPEAKER_01: So I I'm sure it still is to some degree, but you also have a lot more I think turnover and a lot more selling your tickets now.
1:22:53
SPEAKER_01: You know, when you had those tickets, you went to every single game, it was the same people year after year.
1:22:57
SPEAKER_00: Well, they're it's so prohibitively expensive.
1:22:59
SPEAKER_00: They they've priced the average fan out of the game.
1:23:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
1:23:02
SPEAKER_01: And so be and and then it's all they've also made it easier, I I would say, to sell your tickets, right?
1:23:07
SPEAKER_01: You can go online, sell them to anybody.
1:23:09
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to just like ask around the office, hey, anybody want my tickets for this weekend?
1:23:15
SPEAKER_00: No, I got a wedding.
1:23:16
SPEAKER_00: Um Well, hopefully you didn't have any weddings that you missed for our podcast.
1:23:21
SPEAKER_00: But um, we appreciate everybody listening and taking this walk down nostalgic.
1:23:26
SPEAKER_00: Um thanks for uh checking in on Facebook and check us out at our website, Pittsburgh SportsMemories Beebly.com.
1:23:33
SPEAKER_00: And uh me and Tim appreciate all the views and listings over the years now.
1:23:38
SPEAKER_00: And um we'll catch you next time and God bless.