Latest / The Brewery Underground Podcast | Craft Beer Interviews, Reviews and Beer Travel / 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings: Vintage Baseball & Cincinnati Reds History | Episode 83 Part 1

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1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings: Vintage Baseball & Cincinnati Reds History | Episode 83 Part 1 · The Brewery Underground Podcast | Craft Beer Interviews, Reviews and Beer Travel

• 0:33
  You know the Brewery Underground podcast?
• 0:36
  We talk beer and we talked about a lot of other things and Scott
• 0:40
  Taron, I think today, this episode, we're going to knock
• 0:44
  this one out of the park. What do you think?
• 0:48
  You've been waiting all day to you I.
• 0:49
  Have I? Have?
• 0:50
  You see what I did there, right? This Yeah, I see exactly what
• 0:54
  you did, dude. This is there are three things
• 0:57
  that I love the most, and they all start with B, and though
• 0:59
  maybe in no particular order, but beer, baseball, and bourbon.
• 1:03
  We could throw babes in there too, but that's probably a
• 1:05
  distant fourth anyway. But we're going to cover two of
• 1:10
  those four things today. We are.
• 1:13
  And the reason we're doing this is because, and this, this, it
• 1:18
  hits home for me, man. We have on, we're doing an
• 1:22
  episode. It's the 1869 Cincinnati Red
• 1:26
  Stockings vintage baseball team and we have two guys that
• 1:30
  represent them. It is Dave Juggles Fisher and
• 1:34
  Dan Mutter Thomas coming to you from Cincinnati and their
• 1:39
  vintage uniforms. Guys, I don't have a vintage
• 1:42
  uniform, but as you can see, I'm still a little decked out in my
• 1:46
  Cincinnati you're. You're representing the daddy we
• 1:48
  like. Trying to do it.
• 1:49
  Trying to do it guys. He slept in that outfit.
• 1:52
  Yeah, guys, welcome. We, we appreciate you joining us
• 1:56
  today. Thank you very much.
• 1:59
  Yeah, very much. And thanks for thanks for
• 2:00
  putting the uniforms on. Man, this is that's even more
• 2:03
  than I could even imagine. That's great.
• 2:04
  We wanted. Wanted to be official here.
• 2:07
  It's official. And I'm glad you said uniforms
• 2:10
  because we've had people, we've done a lot of parades, a lot
• 2:12
  with the red. Oh, I like your outfit.
• 2:15
  Oh, you know my outfit. It's a uni.
• 2:18
  That's right. That's right.
• 2:21
  Get it straight, everybody. It's a uniform, for God's sakes.
• 2:24
  That's right. Yeah, I told, I told mother a
• 2:27
  couple weeks ago I was going through a a drive through and I
• 2:30
  didn't have my hat on. I don't know if she saw the Red
• 2:32
  Sea or not. She's very nice of drive
• 2:34
  through. And she was, oh, have a good
• 2:36
  day, exercise, you know, have a good day painting.
• 2:38
  You're a painter, right? I'm like, not really.
• 2:44
  What's the company name on the frontier?
• 2:47
  Oh my gosh, that is funny. You know, Scott said in the
• 2:50
  beginning that that the things he likes is baseball and what
• 2:55
  bourbon and beer, right? Guys, I'm telling you what, I
• 2:58
  came prepared tonight. Look at this.
• 3:01
  I have I have some bourbon Cincinnati red shot glass.
• 3:07
  There you go. Toasty, you guys.
• 3:09
  In fact that. Is beautiful.
• 3:11
  In fact, I have several Cincinnati red shot glasses.
• 3:14
  Whenever I come up there, I go to the Reds gift shop and you
• 3:17
  know, I try to see what else they've got.
• 3:20
  As you can see in my background, You know, I painted this room
• 3:23
  red about 7 or 8 years ago hoping that maybe that would do
• 3:28
  it. Maybe that would get the world,
• 3:29
  the World Series champions, the Reds to victory.
• 3:32
  But you know. Well you brought your A game so.
• 3:38
  Try to do it. Try to do it.
• 3:40
  I like that. The memorabilia on the wall back
• 3:43
  there, I got a whole bunch of it myself.
• 3:45
  I just got to finish my basement and then maybe you guys can come
• 3:48
  to my house and we'll do a live broadcast from there.
• 3:52
  Oh man, that would be awesome that.
• 3:53
  Would be awesome, I love that. That would be awesome.
• 3:57
  Thank you for the invite, Steve. You've got some in your glass.
• 3:59
  So I started with some. It's already it's gone now, but
• 4:03
  I'm going to I'm going to ask for a.
• 4:04
  Refill. I got a bourbon bar down in New
• 4:06
  Richmond, down the hill from my house.
• 4:07
  I'm up on top of the hill. I.
• 4:11
  Would never leave other than to go play baseball.
• 4:16
  He does live in God's country, there's no doubt about it.
• 4:19
  That's awesome. Yeah.
• 4:21
  Are you guys drinking anything tonight?
• 4:23
  No, I'm not, No. I I have I have enough trouble
• 4:27
  with the King's English by myself being so, and that
• 4:31
  probably wouldn't help if I started slugging some down, but
• 4:34
  we'll certainly raise a toast to you.
• 4:36
  Well, that's OK. A toast to you guys and my
• 4:40
  water. Yeah, I've, I've actually, I've
• 4:45
  actually also got some beer here tonight.
• 4:46
  This is Masthead Brewing up in Cleveland that we were in
• 4:50
  Masthead. We were at Masthead Brewing a
• 4:53
  couple of months ago, so. I've got a masthead too, Mr.
• 4:57
  Jalapeno Mypa, you got to realize we grew up and we're a
• 5:00
  little bit older than you guys, but we grew up with Stroh's
• 5:04
  Schlitz PBR. I mean, Judy, we get Weedeman.
• 5:09
  So Weedeman. Hey, you guys want to hear a
• 5:14
  funny story about Weedeman? In fact, the last time we were
• 5:18
  in Cincinnati, we went to Weedeman.
• 5:21
  And one of the funny things is I have a lot of history at
• 5:25
  Wiedemann Brewery. My family, well, I, I grew up on
• 5:30
  the West side of Cincinnati, but like my grandparents, they all
• 5:34
  grew up in Saint Bernard and we had the, we had the funerals for
• 5:40
  like our grandparents and a lot of relatives at, at Wiedemann
• 5:45
  Brewery. Well, when it, when it was a,
• 5:48
  when it was a Funeral Home. So back in the day.
• 5:50
  So it's kind of funny to go there now.
• 5:51
  I'm going, yeah. I remember when growing up I
• 5:53
  came to funerals here, you know? What I believe that that is the
• 5:57
  bar now is it? Is that the?
• 5:59
  One, that's what I mean. Yeah.
• 6:00
  Wait a minute. Yeah, one of our players, we had
• 6:03
  a party there for one of our players.
• 6:05
  Very cool place, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
• 6:08
  Yeah, it's pretty. Great.
• 6:09
  You know, I'm sure you grew up listening to Marty and Joe like
• 6:11
  the rest of us. Oh.
• 6:12
  My gosh. But one of my favorite
• 6:14
  commercials was, you know, like whatever year it was in 1869,
• 6:18
  George Williams come up the Ohio River and he's got a monumental.
• 6:22
  Thirst, yeah. And and for people that are
• 6:26
  tuning into our podcast and will be and they're like who's Marty
• 6:29
  and Joe and Marty Brenneman and Joan Duxall, who were, you know,
• 6:33
  together on the radio broadcast for so many years.
• 6:36
  And I mean, they're just absolute legends in in the
• 6:40
  Cincinnati area. Yeah, yeah.
• 6:44
  We're also involved with the Nuxall Joe Nuxall Foundation.
• 6:49
  We, Dave and I had Dave. He knows the family personally
• 6:53
  and it's a great organization. Yeah, yeah.
• 6:57
  They are just, you know, Kim Nuxall's, you know, Joe's son
• 7:00
  and his wife Bonnie. They're they're just absolute
• 7:03
  Saints of people. And Kim was a high school jib
• 7:07
  teacher for many years and they always started, you know, Joe
• 7:10
  always talked about character and working on character
• 7:12
  education. And they had this idea which I
• 7:14
  was still alive. And now it's, it's just blossom
• 7:17
  unbelievably, it's it's the greatest thing around.
• 7:20
  They always thank us. We always show up and do stuff
• 7:22
  in uniform and help out. And it's like we get way more
• 7:25
  out of it than we put into it. You know, they, they've got
• 7:27
  fields for children with disabilities and handicaps.
• 7:30
  They're building a whole state-of-the-art, you know, for
• 7:33
  basketball, volleyball, different events for that.
• 7:35
  They got a little putt putt miracle league field thing.
• 7:38
  And it's just, it's just just wonderful.
• 7:41
  Absolutely. Just a wonderful.
• 7:43
  It it was a a few years ago when Sean Casey brought the kids in
• 7:47
  on a bus. You talk about a great day.
• 7:49
  There's it was it was just amazing.
• 7:52
  Just. The mayor.
• 7:55
  Sean Casey is, he's like the best ambassador for baseball
• 7:59
  possibly. This guy, he's amazing.
• 8:01
  He is such a nice young man. And him and Joe were very tight.
• 8:06
  There's a story that that Joe and, and Sean were, you know,
• 8:10
  coming up to the school where Tim Kim taught and the kids were
• 8:15
  all excited, all excited. And Sean's going well, I guess,
• 8:17
  you know, all exciting meeting. Like, no, no, no, it's Joe, It's
• 8:19
  Joe Knoxall. So Joe, he this, this was his
• 8:23
  town. And one more funny story that my
• 8:27
  dad, my brother always went to the Knights of Columbus.
• 8:29
  They always had an annual stag. And in Hamilton, where Joe was
• 8:32
  from originally. And you know, Joe was just in
• 8:35
  his element, just one of the guys, you know, he'd come up,
• 8:37
  walk in, you know, go straight to the bar, burn a heater and,
• 8:41
  you know, sit up at Deus. And there's a local game called
• 8:44
  Pitch. It's it's similar to Euchre, but
• 8:46
  it's only very local to Hamilton.
• 8:47
  It's a card game. So after the event, everybody's
• 8:49
  hanging there. So we're playing Pitch and here
• 8:51
  comes Joe walking down, you know, to the tables and my dad
• 8:56
  and myself and to it, wherever somebody got up and, and my
• 8:59
  brother's going to join it. And Joe goes, mind if I sit and
• 9:02
  play Pitch? I told my brother to get the
• 9:04
  hell out of here. I'm going to play with Loxy.
• 9:09
  Well, and for people that you know for that aren't of the age
• 9:14
  or may not know the history, not only was he a broadcaster for a
• 9:18
  long time, he also was the youngest player ever to pitch a
• 9:24
  Major League Baseball during have I have I got this right
• 9:27
  during World War 2. Correct.
• 9:30
  Yeah, he was 15 years old. Yep, yeah, I just stood.
• 9:35
  Athlete knew the guys were after war and you know, he, I mean
• 9:39
  just raw talent, raw, you know, just a great athlete, but you
• 9:44
  know, involved in the Reds for like 50-60 years of his life,
• 9:47
  you know, or 70, almost unreal. I remember seeing an interview
• 9:51
  one time when I believe he said one of the first batters he for
• 9:55
  few batters he faced was Stan Mutual.
• 9:58
  So you know, Can you imagine being 15 years old facing Stan
• 10:02
  Mutual? It's amazing.
• 10:04
  I couldn't even throw the ball. I'd be so nervous.
• 10:07
  Well, you know, it's funny. We were talking before we came
• 10:10
  on about the young pitcher Chase Burns that just came up to the
• 10:14
  Reds. And Scott is Scott is not a,
• 10:18
  he's not from Cincinnati. He's actually a Yankees fan.
• 10:21
  I'm sorry about your luck. Yeah, I'm back to the 76 workout
• 10:25
  for you. But I was going to say, but I
• 10:32
  was going to say how intimidating it had to be for
• 10:34
  Chase Burns a few weeks ago to make his debut against the
• 10:36
  Yankees and to to also be like, you know, he had the face Aaron
• 10:42
  Judge and some of the other ones, and he struck him out.
• 10:44
  Right. Yeah, that that was awesome.
• 10:46
  That that was a good night to watch baseball.
• 10:49
  I mean, that kid come up here and he was still in missiles
• 10:53
  and. And Scott, that was a shot.
• 10:55
  I have to apologize early because we've got a guy in our
• 10:57
  ball clubs from New York and his response to me is like, well,
• 11:00
  how many you want since then? Well, we have one in 1996 or 8,
• 11:05
  you know, whatever. Yeah, you know, in our comebacks
• 11:07
  a lot of times. Oh, go ahead.
• 11:09
  I'm sorry you guys say that because I just got an e-mail
• 11:12
  from our captain not long ago. We're actually playing ball next
• 11:15
  year in Cooperstown. Oh nice.
• 11:19
  Yeah. What did you have before?
• 11:21
  Yeah. Double AC highlight.
• 11:24
  Unbelievable. Holy crap, is that like, is that
• 11:27
  part of like an invite or something I was working towards
• 11:31
  or just part of a tournament or something?
• 11:34
  You know, I don't know how we got there, but this is a number
• 11:36
  of years ago and vintage baseball is pretty big in the
• 11:39
  Northeast as well. Yeah.
• 11:41
  And we got we got a couple guys that were just unbelievably
• 11:44
  involved. It's called VBBA, Vintage
• 11:46
  Baseball Association, and they were very involved.
• 11:48
  And his brother was well known in New York.
• 11:50
  And so I think, you know, of course, you know, 1869 Red
• 11:53
  Sockings, you know, very, very popular, but yeah, we've done
• 11:57
  unbelievably neat stuff. And that that was one of the
• 11:59
  highlights. Oh, that is so cool.
• 12:01
  That is so cool. I, I hope there's a way we can
• 12:04
  watch that or, or or or see a replay or something when that
• 12:07
  happens that. 'D be cool.
• 12:08
  That was a last. Last year we finished the season
• 12:13
  off plan at the stadium where they filmed the movie A League
• 12:17
  of Their Own. Oh, nice.
• 12:19
  And that was. So that was.
• 12:21
  In Evansville? That was in Evansville, right?
• 12:24
  In Indiana, yes. Yeah.
• 12:27
  And it is so cool there and on the side of the stadium they
• 12:31
  got, there's no crying in Baseball Rd. on the stadium.
• 12:33
  And, and it was just fun. It was just a good time.
• 12:37
  And this is an old, you know, and that's what's fun about
• 12:40
  vintage baseball. We played so many different
• 12:43
  places. We've been all over the place.
• 12:46
  And remember, we went to Boston and we we stayed out of the
• 12:50
  downtown of Boston and we caught the subway and we came up in the
• 12:54
  Commons Park. We had our uniforms on with bats
• 12:58
  in the subway. People are looking at us like,
• 13:01
  what the heck is this, You know? And we still call that the
• 13:04
  Boston Massacre to this day, because they kicked our butts
• 13:08
  pretty good. But.
• 13:09
  But we had a lot of fun. Absolutely.
• 13:12
  After we played ball, we walked straight across the street and
• 13:14
  went to Cheers Bar. How nice.
• 13:17
  Yes, it's the experience in those cases, right?
• 13:20
  Just the whole experience has got to be phenomenal.
• 13:22
  We got to play at the Jake. We played down in Lexington,
• 13:25
  Louisville, some, you know, triple EA stadiums.
• 13:28
  And so Jose Rio, you remember, you know, Jose Rio from the
• 13:34
  1990. Oh yeah.
• 13:35
  And it's me and my brother and my dad were all the way down
• 13:38
  there. And, you know, I'm just bitching
• 13:40
  about Rio. God, he's he's lost.
• 13:42
  He doesn't have this. Doesn't have this.
• 13:44
  Yeah, We got to figure this out and everything.
• 13:45
  So they had us. They called us out like to go,
• 13:49
  you know, go up in the field. I want to suck up.
• 13:52
  I am. I ran up right.
• 13:53
  Right to Rio. Like he was my hero and my best
• 13:55
  friend in the world after trash two hours.
• 13:57
  And right. And then Jose Rio, funny guy.
• 14:00
  He had the best, best line ever. He was married to Juan
• 14:03
  Marashel's daughter. And unfortunately, they got a
• 14:05
  divorce. And he goes, well, you know, Oh
• 14:09
  my God, she's taking everything else.
• 14:10
  I wish she'd take half my ERA. Great line.
• 14:15
  I'll tell you what though, he burned them up in the World
• 14:18
  Series, I mean. I'm so fortunate.
• 14:21
  I was at game one of 1990 World Series and it was him and Dave
• 14:25
  Stewart and Jose was just throwing beebies.
• 14:27
  And then Eric, Eric Davis, you know, bottom first launches a
• 14:31
  shot to straightaway center and they're like, wow.
• 14:35
  Yeah, we're going to get back there one day, right?
• 14:37
  We're going to get back there and win again.
• 14:39
  Before me and mother die, we hope.
• 14:41
  Hopefully in our lifetimes, gosh almighty, and I hope well, we
• 14:45
  want it, yeah. I hope it's a Great American
• 14:48
  ballpark too. We hope so.
• 14:50
  We hope so. I know Scott's got some
• 14:52
  questions because we, you know, we really wanted to dive in as
• 14:55
  we say of, you know, the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, which
• 15:01
  was the original name of the team.
• 15:02
  And for people that are not familiar, the Reds were actually
• 15:05
  the very first Major League Baseball team.
• 15:08
  And for you guys, basically it is kind of a, a tribute to all
• 15:14
  of that. And you know, you, you, you're a
• 15:17
  vintage baseball team and you play by the rules of the 1860s.
• 15:21
  And let's let's really talk about that, about what you guys
• 15:25
  do, where you go and, and things like that, OK?
• 15:30
  Well, this year, I mean, we're, we're, we're ending our season
• 15:34
  this year in Gatlinburg to see, I got my schedule in front of
• 15:39
  me, which is pretty intense. But a few weeks ago we're in
• 15:45
  Detroit and we played in Detroit and that was amazing.
• 15:49
  They got a place there. It's called Deerfield Park
• 15:56
  Greenfield, Greenfield Village, and it is if you guys ever get
• 16:01
  there, I highly recommend. It's very cool.
• 16:03
  But I was there as a kid. Yeah, we play I'd say probably
• 16:08
  around 35. I would say it's 35 to 50 games
• 16:14
  a year somewhere in there, sometimes double headers.
• 16:18
  And we matter of fact we play this Sunday up in Tip City, so
• 16:25
  that's it. And it's a double header up
• 16:26
  there too. So, you know, we, we, we enjoy
• 16:29
  the game. I mean, and juggles.
• 16:32
  He played longer than me. I'm, I, this is my 19th year and
• 16:37
  him and his brother Dave. And it's just something we truly
• 16:42
  love to do. You know, once you, you get
• 16:45
  through the your your not hole and then your high school.
• 16:48
  And if you don't go farther than you, you know, most people wind
• 16:52
  up playing softball. But this is my my buddy got me
• 16:57
  into this and I'm just stuck. It just stuck.
• 17:01
  I mean, it's the game, man. I mean, you know, if you love
• 17:05
  the game, it's in your heart, it's in your blood.
• 17:09
  You just got to be around it. Well, and the thing of us too,
• 17:13
  and I don't see if you remember Rumpke, the softball fields.
• 17:17
  Oh yeah, I got coring out your neck of the.
• 17:18
  Woods. Are they still there?
• 17:20
  Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, you've seen it.
• 17:23
  You know, if you've been there, you've got angry softball guy.
• 17:27
  He wants to, you know, he wants to slog in, get in a fight,
• 17:30
  everything. And and Vintage is the total
• 17:32
  opposite. We do try to recreate as the
• 17:36
  game as it was played, but it was the gentleman's game.
• 17:39
  If one on pirate stands, you know, off to the side, whether
• 17:41
  they're first or third base side and he'll make the call.
• 17:44
  And if it's a questionable call because he can't see everything
• 17:47
  from that angle, they ask the players involved.
• 17:50
  And nine times out of 10, everybody's a good sport in
• 17:53
  vintage. They really are the good dudes.
• 17:54
  And like, yes, Sir, I was out, you know, and he he takes his
• 17:57
  medicine and walks off, you know, because he was out, you
• 17:59
  know, so very rarely do you get, you know, any kind of
• 18:03
  confrontation now between the white lines.
• 18:05
  The guys want to win. There's no question, you know,
• 18:07
  And it's just, you know, where do you get that opportunity at
• 18:11
  this age to play ball? And again, you get that feeling,
• 18:14
  you get little butterflies. The game, it's game on.
• 18:17
  And you know, we, we could, mum and I both play first.
• 18:21
  And you know, I'm kind of like Sean K said, just talking
• 18:24
  everybody down there. But I've often said, guys, if
• 18:27
  you see us laughing on the bench, we could be up 20, down
• 18:29
  20. And if we're up 20, we're not
• 18:31
  laughing at you, we're laughing ourselves.
• 18:33
  You wouldn't. Nobody's going to be on the hot
• 18:35
  set and. We and we also, we get on each
• 18:38
  other all the time. I mean, let's face it, as you
• 18:42
  get older, everything slows down on you.
• 18:44
  I mean, sometimes people ask if I'm even moving when I'm still
• 18:47
  running. The first they say, is that guy
• 18:49
  moving? Is he OK?
• 18:50
  But it's, you know, you can still have fun with it.
• 18:55
  That's it's it's, it's a good time.
• 18:58
  One of our good buddies, he was still a good hitter and his son
• 19:00
  was playing. And so I got married and, you
• 19:02
  know, children stuff. So they both said they weren't
• 19:05
  going to play the following year.
• 19:06
  I said, I said pop. I said what, you can still hit.
• 19:09
  You know, he, he guy could place the ball like a cue ball
• 19:11
  magician. It was unreal.
• 19:14
  And he goes, juggles, he goes, I'm getting, they throw me out
• 19:16
  from right now. I'm getting out before they
• 19:18
  throw me out from left. So, you know, I mean, by the
• 19:22
  time undefeated, United, unscored upon, he gets us all,
• 19:25
  you know. And but we've seen guys late
• 19:28
  70s, we had a couple guys into their 70s and you know, you
• 19:32
  just, you don't, you know, there's probably going to be an
• 19:35
  out, but you don't care because he's still out there playing
• 19:37
  ball. Yeah.
• 19:38
  You know, the one story we talked about Cooperstown a
• 19:40
  little bit before the recording and you know, I was raising two
• 19:44
  boys and busy with work and everything and I was like, gosh,
• 19:47
  do we keep on playing? You know, and we went to a, a, a
• 19:50
  shop, a bat shop and I just picked up a bat and it just felt
• 19:54
  like, gosh, you know, I should buy this bat.
• 19:56
  It just felt so great. I took a couple like little
• 19:59
  practical swings there and I'm thinking, what are you thinking?
• 20:01
  This is the greatest game of the face worth.
• 20:03
  Why in the hell would you ever think about quitting?
• 20:05
  You know, it's just motor's right.
• 20:06
  It just, it just grabs your heart and it won't let go.
• 20:10
  You just want to be around it. Go back to the gentleman part of
• 20:13
  the game. I and I listen to something on
• 20:15
  YouTube. And another example was if the
• 20:18
  other team might make a good play on something, you guys may
• 20:21
  even applaud that too at the same time.
• 20:23
  Is that kind of part of that? Same, Yeah.
• 20:25
  Yes, yes, we do. They make a good play.
• 20:28
  It's it's a it's a gentleman's game.
• 20:31
  And and when you see somebody all out effort, you let them
• 20:35
  know that you appreciate that they they always says playing
• 20:40
  the game the way Pete would play it.
• 20:43
  And everybody knows he played hard.
• 20:46
  Oh yeah. Yeah.
• 20:49
  A great quote of Pete was in the Hall of Fame and they had, you
• 20:51
  know, all this, this hits of the balls representing his number of
• 20:54
  hits. And one of the sayings was I'd
• 20:56
  walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball.
• 20:59
  You know, that's kind of how you feel.
• 21:01
  I don't believe. That.
• 21:02
  Yeah, yeah, I was. When you see somebody make a
• 21:05
  play like that and you know, I played a ton of softball, loved
• 21:08
  it. And my brother moved back here
• 21:09
  first. We were still up.
• 21:10
  I was in Columbus and he was he moved back and came back and he
• 21:14
  was there's this thing you want to try this vintage baseball.
• 21:17
  So, you know, I had pretty good wheels back in the day and I was
• 21:19
  always an out theater. So I played left and you know,
• 21:23
  we don't use gloves. You know, it's it's just and you
• 21:26
  know, trying to, you know, catch it just even while you're
• 21:28
  standing there stationary much just running catch.
• 21:31
  And I would get to the point where, you know, I'm used to
• 21:33
  that glove and I hit and basically I'd be juggling the
• 21:37
  ball and try to and that's how I got my nickname of juggles ball.
• 21:41
  You're trying trying to say it. And Speaking of, I don't be able
• 21:44
  to see it, but this is the ball we use.
• 21:47
  Yeah, and let me tell you hard, it's hard when you first started
• 21:51
  and you're not wearing any gloves.
• 21:53
  Matter of fact, last year I tell the story.
• 21:55
  The first game of the season, the guy playing right field took
• 21:58
  a line drive and it broke his finger in in right field.
• 22:02
  Oh wow. Yeah, well, we hope the old
• 22:04
  vintage home has straws because we all are just matter of fact.
• 22:09
  Another story is back up in Tipp City.
• 22:11
  And our little buddy, you know, the, the for the earlier I
• 22:14
  involved, he's playing sack and he throws once real low and I go
• 22:17
  down and you remember, you just call it stoving your finger, you
• 22:20
  know, But we've all had that and it's, it is bad, you know, next
• 22:25
  inning, you know, worse and black and blue.
• 22:27
  And then it looked like AZ, you know, and my mother goes, well,
• 22:30
  he goes, hell, I'll just pull that for you.
• 22:31
  I'm like, I don't know, it's getting worse and worse.
• 22:35
  And I'm in pharmaceutical sales. I've been around medical my
• 22:38
  whole life and like, you know, this thing's it's bad.
• 22:41
  So, you know, I'm leaving. I drove and go back home and go
• 22:45
  to the ER. They come in and they're
• 22:46
  looking, oh, that's a good one, you know, and it's that and they
• 22:49
  do everything I'm like, I'm ready for like, OK, where's the
• 22:51
  hand specialist? Where's the operation that comes
• 22:54
  in and goes, yeah, get ready, we're going to pull it?
• 22:56
  Damn it, man. My buddy could have done it for
• 22:58
  free. I get hit with a $50 copay here,
• 23:00
  $100 copay there, and I'm like, you can give me a towel bite on
• 23:03
  did. You still be at the ballpark.
• 23:06
  I didn't want to walk around with that thing, you know what
• 23:09
  I'm saying? Oh my gosh, Oh, man.
• 23:13
  Hey, the ball that the ball that you show that you're using now
• 23:18
  what? What's the difference?
• 23:20
  Do you know what the difference is between that ball and what
• 23:24
  they use now in Major League Baseball?
• 23:28
  I would say the stitching is not raised like a regular hardball
• 23:32
  and the hardball obviously is a little harder.
• 23:34
  The core of it is a little harder otherwise.
• 23:38
  I mean, there's no way we could catch a hardball bare handed as
• 23:42
  hard as guys hit. But let me tell you, I can come
• 23:47
  home after a game and it'll take a week or more for the bruises
• 23:51
  to go away on my hand. But.
• 23:53
  You know that. But you know what?
• 23:55
  I I still love it. And.
• 23:57
  I come back again for more. And the other thing is too, I
• 24:02
  mean, they're factory made and once they come off the factory,
• 24:05
  a new ball, it's like tell Alfie to say back up couple steps,
• 24:08
  that ball jumps off there. But after, you know, a hard hit
• 24:12
  game or if there's any kind of moisture, that ball start
• 24:15
  feeling the effects, you know, a little bit more.
• 24:17
  Not that it gets mushy, but it won't hold it up to the
• 24:20
  consistency like a hardball would for, you know, for a
• 24:23
  majority of the game. But yeah, Mutter's right.
• 24:25
  It's those balls are coming at you and you got a runner coming
• 24:28
  at you and it's like, you know, it's, it's not for the faint of
• 24:31
  heart. Do you have a technique when you
• 24:35
  try to catch, you know, a line drive is one thing that's kind
• 24:37
  of reactionary sometimes, but say a pop up or something in the
• 24:39
  outfield. Sometimes I'll use my my body if
• 24:42
  you will. If it's a line drive coming at
• 24:44
  me, I'll let it hit my hands, but I'll trap it against my
• 24:46
  body. OK to help tongue and depending
• 24:49
  on I've never really taken one in the gut real hard yet If I do
• 24:55
  that and probably some biscuit and gravy might come up but you
• 24:59
  know, but luckily I haven't done that yet.
• 25:03
  My my technique is this. Just just try to keep it away
• 25:10
  from your face maybe. And that would be.
• 25:13
  That would be bad. Yeah, I was in sales from
• 25:18
  Jordan. My career.
• 25:19
  I'm like, I don't care about pants.
• 25:20
  Like don't hurt the money maker. Come on now.
• 25:22
  Don't hurt the money maker. I tell you, one of the greatest
• 25:26
  things to me is when we travel, we go out of town.
• 25:29
  Some certain people, they really lay out the red carpet for you
• 25:32
  and that's so much fun. Remember, we went to, was that
• 25:37
  Philly? We played at the Lafayette
• 25:40
  Square where they used to, where they used to train Civil War
• 25:44
  soldiers before they go out. And we played there and they
• 25:48
  brought us in on like Clydesdale pulling a carriage.
• 25:52
  We were on the carriage and the whole square and brought us
• 25:56
  back. That was so much fun to let
• 25:58
  people do stuff like in Saint Louis and Boston, NY, I mean.
• 26:04
  Well, and the other thing is too, we had a really good travel
• 26:07
  squad and for vintage to work you have to have a home.
• 26:10
  At home you just can't. And we're biased.
• 26:12
  We think we have the most beautiful field and see if
• 26:14
  you're probably you're familiar with Sharon Woods if you ever
• 26:17
  went back to what's called Heritage Village.
• 26:20
  We had some of the, the houses and, you know, stuff from, you
• 26:22
  know, 1800 sign, but the field just out late.
• 26:25
  It's just we're so biased. But we, you know, you have to go
• 26:28
  and visit. And we had a great, great run of
• 26:30
  a number of years that it was the family would go, you know,
• 26:33
  people bring their kids and we all stayed at the same hotel
• 26:36
  and, you know, go swimming and, you know, do stuff with the
• 26:39
  kids. And it was a family affair.
• 26:42
  You know, we, we included the whole family and I'd be remiss
• 26:45
  if I don't give my little buddy Claire shout out.
• 26:47
  You know, she's Danny's grandchild.
• 26:49
  She's a sweetheart. I just she's.
• 26:52
  Bill, Bill Dickman is, is one-of-a-kind.
• 26:54
  He he was our president for many years and he is an absolutely
• 26:59
  wonderful man and a wonderful friend.
• 27:01
  And I got to tell you, I'd be lost without.
• 27:06
  Yeah, we've had just been blessed with so many guys.
• 27:08
  It was him and you know, Big Dog and and Knuckles stick with the
• 27:12
  nicknames that really did a lot of work and did a lot of work
• 27:15
  for VBBA and scheduling. And you know, our reputation is
• 27:19
  pretty pristine around the game and and those 3 gentlemen have a
• 27:22
  lot to do with it. This league has been around
• 27:27
  since 2000, is that right? In my I thought it was before
• 27:32
  that even maybe it was before that.
• 27:34
  They they actually used to be the shamrocks.
• 27:36
  That was before me. OK, yeah.
• 27:38
  When they became the Cincinnati Reds Talking Joe.
• 27:41
  Yeah. How many, how many teams
• 27:44
  participate now in this? Oh.
• 27:46
  God, you know, they were everywhere.
• 27:48
  I knew you were going to ask and I was going to lick it up and I
• 27:50
  got so busy. That's.
• 27:51
  OK. But heavy in the Northeast,
• 27:54
  places like Nashville grown. We tried to create the the Reds,
• 28:01
  you know, 1869 trip and we did a couple years ago and we did get
• 28:04
  to play some places. We talked about California, but
• 28:08
  it just didn't pay out. But there are teams out there,
• 28:10
  I'd say maybe what, a couple hundred across the country,
• 28:12
  every bit of. Yeah, it's big.
• 28:16
  They and now they do the World Series up in where we played in
• 28:19
  Detroit a few weeks ago. They have the World Series up
• 28:22
  there. And from what I hear, it's
• 28:24
  haven't, haven't done that yet. But what I hear is very nice.
• 28:28
  And that's that's the cool part. Good venue to play at.
• 28:31
  But by far, Heritage Village and Sharon Woods is the best, better
• 28:37
  than any place I've ever played. That's amazing, you guys.
• 28:42
  Yeah. When you play other teams like
• 28:43
  that from across the country, do you guys have to settle on a set
• 28:46
  of rules because they're are they playing in the same era,
• 28:48
  they're playing a little bit of different era?
• 28:50
  Are there certain things you have to work out ahead of time
• 28:52
  rules wise? Yeah, we we play different,
• 28:55
  different rules. Sometimes we play the one bound
• 28:57
  rule where if they catch it on one bounce, you're out.
• 29:00
  I mean, you can hit AI can't tell you how many times a good
• 29:03
  line drive the left field and left field or just play it on
• 29:06
  one bounce and you're out and I'm not.
• 29:08
  I'm not a big fan of that unless I'm playing defense.
• 29:15
  But you're right, it's, it's depending on your home rules and
• 29:18
  people usually know it and we'll go over the game, the 2 captains
• 29:21
  and, and just go over some rules.
• 29:22
  But you know, some guys have, you know, just and which is kind
• 29:26
  of neat. It mixes it up.
• 29:28
  We always say if a man, you know, catches on the fly, that's
• 29:30
  a manly catch and, you know, instead of like, we bounce, but.
• 29:34
  Yeah, we played up in, oh, what was it when they had a lot of
• 29:40
  Civil War up there? What was that at Gettysburg?
• 29:43
  Gettysburg. We played in Gettysburg.
• 29:44
  Gettysburg rules there. They steal basis.
• 29:48
  Well, I'm here to tell you it wasn't.
• 29:50
  We had fun. We're going to have fun no
• 29:52
  matter what we do. But our catcher and our pitcher,
• 29:57
  they would have to do a relay to get it second base.
• 30:00
  So anybody got a hit, they were most likely going to wind up a
• 30:04
  third base. So it wasn't our kind of game,
• 30:07
  but we still have fun. And we were like 1:00 and 3:00.
• 30:11
  So we were OK for that. We and there's so much history
• 30:16
  there. My God, you can and I got it.
• 30:18
  We did an interview with a guy up there.
• 30:21
  He he was from forget what sports channel he was.
• 30:25
  And you can look it up on Venice Baseball, Gettysburg 2014.
• 30:31
  We were there and it was great to do the interview with them
• 30:35
  and and talk finish baseball and man, what a place.
• 30:38
  So you ever get a chance to go to Gettysburg?
• 30:40
  I highly recommend it because they set up a whole little town.
• 30:43
  The ball players do and they they put up tents.
• 30:46
  I'm not talking tents like today, old time tent.
• 30:50
  And they stay there for the whole weekend, 3 or 4 days they
• 30:53
  camp out there and all they do is eat and play baseball and
• 30:57
  dream. Hey, we're going to get back to
• 30:59
  the podcast episode in just a minute, but Scott, right now we
• 31:03
  want to talk about our proud sponsor, Nashville Brewpass.
• 31:07
  We love them, don't we? We do, we do and tell everybody
• 31:10
  what Nashville Brewpass is. Nashville Brewpass and if you
• 31:13
  haven't seen us hold this booklet up 100 times, Here's
• 31:16
  101. That's what it is.
• 31:18
  It's a passport. It's got multiple breweries in
• 31:20
  here. I think we counted 40 plus or
• 31:23
  something at one time, Steve. There are many many breweries in
• 31:26
  here. There is even AQR code in this
• 31:29
  book that shows you a map and list of all the breweries that
• 31:33
  are in Nashville Brew Pass. Yeah, and it's great.
• 31:36
  It's got over 60 bucks worth of beer and whiskey discounts in
• 31:39
  this thing alone. So in that $60 worth of
• 31:42
  discounts, that includes like buy one, get one, freeze half
• 31:47
  off pints, free whiskey pour at one of the local tap rooms.
• 31:51
  Yes. Pays for itself twice over.
• 31:53
  That is a great thing, man. If you don't have this yet, go
• 31:57
  online at nashvillebrewpass.com. Also go on their Instagram
• 32:02
  account and you can get one of those as well.
• 32:03
  Get it and put in the code Brewery Underground podcast.
• 32:07
  Get your $5 off all right. That is awesome.
• 32:10
  The other things you get too, Steve, is when you go to one of
• 32:13
  the events, you don't even have to register, you just show up
• 32:16
  with it. It's like you're AVIP.
• 32:17
  You just show up with your brew pass, you're already on the
• 32:19
  guest list. And boom, you know what they're
• 32:21
  going to do? They are going to give you a
• 32:23
  stamp. Bam, a stamp.
• 32:27
  Well, I can't, I'll tell you this much right now, my friend.
• 32:30
  I love the savings. I love the fact that Nashville
• 32:33
  Brew Pass is very involved in the beer community in Nashville.
• 32:37
  Also, as you said, they're also involved in distilleries in
• 32:40
  Nashville and a couple of cideries as well.
• 32:43
  So we love. I thought of something cool
• 32:46
  today, Steve. If someone were new to Nashville
• 32:49
  and didn't know where to go, this would be something great
• 32:51
  for them to pick up or be gifted so that they would know all the
• 32:55
  best places to go in town. That's right.
• 32:57
  Fantastic resource. So if you're coming into
• 32:59
  Nashville, go online and get this right now.
• 33:03
  Right. It takes the guesswork out of
• 33:05
  it. You don't have to get online and
• 33:06
  say, where are all the breweries out of Nashville?
• 33:08
  They're all right here. You just get your booklet and
• 33:11
  like you said earlier, there's a map.
• 33:13
  You look up the map tells you exactly where everybody is.
• 33:16
  That's our proud sponsor, Nashville Brew Pass.
• 33:19
  Now back to the show. Now back to the show.
• 33:22
  Obviously you guys are are having fun, but how important is
• 33:27
  it for for the both of you and for everybody that's involved in
• 33:31
  your league and on the team to go back and look at the purity
• 33:36
  of the game and play the way it used to be?
• 33:41
  Yeah, we tried. When it first started.
• 33:42
  Yeah, we try to do that to the best of our knowledge.
• 33:45
  We we have the guys are some of the guys on the team are,
• 33:49
  they're like historians and they they get deep into it and they
• 33:53
  make sure that it's followed as closely as possible.
• 33:59
  Yeah, again, when I try to tell people about it, I think the
• 34:03
  easiest way to get people to identify, especially if they're
• 34:06
  not big sports fans, is, you know, many people have seen the
• 34:09
  Civil War reenactment group, you know, go on the fields and dress
• 34:12
  in uniform and etcetera. And I say it's kind of like that
• 34:15
  we want to reenact how it was. But yeah, it's, it's two of the
• 34:18
  games closest possible. And you know, 3 gentlemen I
• 34:22
  mentioned earlier, our reputation is Sterling.
• 34:25
  And you know, he always, you know, would remind us we have
• 34:29
  two meetings a year. It's like, you know, guys, let's
• 34:31
  let's let's not have Nike, you know, logos, let's have, you
• 34:34
  know, black cleats and and, you know, bats and, and keep it the
• 34:37
  way it is because, you know, some people, they may, you know,
• 34:40
  think, oh, this is just a bunch of, you know, baseball players,
• 34:42
  whatever. But we do want to, you know,
• 34:44
  spread the word about how baseball was in 1869 and, and
• 34:47
  the various years we've played. And yeah, I think we've done a
• 34:50
  good job of that. But again, between the light and
• 34:53
  the line, the white lines still want to win.
• 34:56
  Yeah, it's not. It's not a reenactment per SE.
• 34:58
  You're you're doing it by those rules from the day, but you're,
• 35:01
  you're legitimately playing the game without a doubt.
• 35:03
  Yeah, I mean, it's once the game starts, I mean, you know, it's
• 35:06
  just you get balls to the wall. It's like, you know, you go
• 35:08
  everything you can. And you know, it's funny.
• 35:10
  We, you know, I was, we've all been baseball crazy in our
• 35:14
  lives. And you know, I never heard the
• 35:16
  word oblique until like five years ago.
• 35:20
  These guys, they roll out bed and they're on the DL for, you
• 35:23
  know, six months. But so we finally figured it out
• 35:26
  to our guys like, well, we play, we're weakened warriors, we
• 35:29
  play, we go hard and it's like we never get hurt.
• 35:32
  So we kind of figured out that, well, you can pull muscle, but
• 35:35
  you can't pull fat. So that's that's the way we
• 35:37
  think. That's we've gone by without
• 35:40
  killing ourselves. You figured it out.
• 35:43
  You know, it's funny because we could talk, we could talk this
• 35:47
  whole podcast and we want to focus more on you guys, but we
• 35:50
  we could talk this whole podcast about how much the game has
• 35:53
  changed even from my own perspective, right?
• 35:56
  So I've been a lifelong Reds fan.
• 35:58
  I grew up as a kid, I sort of remember the big Red Machine,
• 36:02
  but I really remember you mentioned Pete Rose earlier and
• 36:06
  and I'll tell you, I'll give you I'll give you an example.
• 36:09
  So I remember when Pete came back to the Reds as player
• 36:12
  manager and I was at a game and I knew it at the time that I was
• 36:16
  witnessing history when they played the Houston Astros and he
• 36:20
  went up against Nolan Ryan and and I.
• 36:24
  And so I'm like, so here I am watching a game where, you know,
• 36:29
  basically one of the best hitters or probably the the
• 36:31
  greatest singles hitter ever and arguably the best pitcher ever.
• 36:36
  And The thing is, Nolan Ryan was known as a guy that would do the
• 36:42
  brush, pack, pitch and even even that in Major League Baseball
• 36:46
  has changed now. I mean, you throw out a guy's
• 36:49
  head and you're getting thrown out of the game.
• 36:51
  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Back in the day.
• 36:54
  I mean, I go all way back and so does Dave.
• 36:56
  I went to games with my father across the field and Pete was
• 37:00
  playing left field. But back then you had guys like
• 37:03
  Bob Gibson, you didn't want to dig in against him.
• 37:06
  Drysdale. Yeah.
• 37:08
  And it has changed. And most of the time now if they
• 37:11
  throw a close to somebody, they're charging the mound or
• 37:14
  doing something. It's part of the game.
• 37:16
  It's it's like it just happens. It's like running a catcher over
• 37:21
  like Pete did Fosse in the All Star game.
• 37:25
  It's part of the game. But now they, I don't believe, I
• 37:28
  don't think that's even part of it anymore.
• 37:30
  They got to you got to me. It I'm old school.
• 37:34
  I like I like that. I mean, I've seen Pete one time
• 37:38
  when he's with Philadelphia, come home and I forget that
• 37:43
  catcher's name. He he won the World Series with
• 37:46
  the Giants as a manager. But he Pete, Pete didn't have to
• 37:50
  hit him, but he did. He just wanted to hit him, you
• 37:52
  know, But that. Yeah.
• 37:54
  And, and that's how he played the game and, and Larry Boas at
• 37:58
  one time he said, I've never played with anybody with so much
• 38:02
  intensity in my life. He said every game is the 9th
• 38:06
  inning of a seventh game of the World Series, 9th inning.
• 38:10
  And Pete plays every game like that.
• 38:13
  And you know, Johnny Bench, Johnny Bench said the same
• 38:15
  thing. He goes Pete.
• 38:17
  He said he had to be the best at everything.
• 38:19
  He said, whether it was basketball, if it's bowling, he
• 38:22
  even said if it was unisex. He said he's got to be the best
• 38:26
  of everything. You know, I mean, we, we need to
• 38:29
  do just a whole Pete podcast because you open up Pandora's
• 38:33
  box and Pete is my guy. Both of our bases are all
• 38:37
  decorating Reds memorabilia, but my bathroom is strictly just
• 38:40
  Pete. So I let me go off the rails
• 38:42
  just a little bit here. Just a couple of things.
• 38:46
  Played 500 games at 5 different positions.
• 38:51
  People talk about sports records that that'll never be broken,
• 38:53
  ever. In 75, the Reds were 20 and 20
• 38:57
  in May and Sparky always called in.
• 39:00
  Peter Edward was Peter Edward. He gives you a plane left, he
• 39:02
  goes. We need to get George Foster's
• 39:04
  line up. He's got this thunderous.
• 39:05
  Bat and. He goes, would you play third?
• 39:07
  He goes, sure, skip, no problem. Took ground balls, numerous
• 39:11
  ground balls. They went on a tear.
• 39:13
  After that. They won 88 and 34 with Pete
• 39:17
  moving to 3rd, you know, and, and just yeah, I mean, anytime
• 39:21
  Pete talks, you know, I could listen all day long, of course,
• 39:23
  you know, so sad earlier, you know, last fall when we lost
• 39:27
  Pete, you know, I mean, I could listen to him all day long.
• 39:29
  So he was doing an interview and this guy was just kind of a
• 39:32
  young pup, you know, cub reporter, you know, type of
• 39:34
  thing. And and he was kind of all, you
• 39:36
  know, flushing. Pete knew every single one of
• 39:37
  his stats. Now if you guys remember Phil
• 39:39
  and Joe Necro, the Necro brothers.
• 39:43
  Knuckleball. Knuckleball, right?
• 39:45
  This guy's doing the interview and he said this about hits and
• 39:48
  Pete correcting this, and he said something about where you
• 39:50
  hit this against the Negro brothers.
• 39:52
  He goes, yeah, he goes, I wish Mama Negro would have two or
• 39:54
  three more boys. I'd had another 500 hits.
• 40:00
  You know when Pete died? When Pete died, I was, I was in
• 40:04
  my car, I was out doing errands and I got 3 text messages within
• 40:08
  like 5 minutes. One was from Scott, another one
• 40:12
  was for my sister, and another one was a buddy of mine who
• 40:15
  lives in Dallas, who's from Cincinnati.
• 40:17
  And they're all texting me at the same time.
• 40:19
  And I'm like, what is going on? And I had looked at my tent and
• 40:22
  I'm like, Pete died. And he had just been in
• 40:25
  Nashville the day before for a card signing or some event where
• 40:30
  the Big Red Machine had gathered.
• 40:32
  Yeah, I saw the picture of him and all the guys from the Big
• 40:36
  Red Machine behind him. He was sitting down.
• 40:38
  Pete was sitting down and and I was, you know, he was like a
• 40:42
  hero to me, so. My guys.
• 40:48
  So should he be in the Hall of Fame, guys?
• 40:50
  Yeah. Oh yes, without a doubt.
• 40:53
  Depression, you know. You know, I say the, I, I say
• 40:58
  this, though, isn't he already in the Hall of Fame?
• 41:00
  Because they already have his memorabilia in there.
• 41:03
  You know, it's just, I mean. It's a shame.
• 41:05
  And you know, the thing that really, really upsets us is.
• 41:07
  Did you know, did you guys, did you guys ever watch his reality
• 41:11
  show? I think once or twice.
• 41:15
  OK. He was with his wife and they
• 41:18
  had the kids and they're in Cooperstown.
• 41:22
  And I remembered watching that. And she said, let's go on in.
• 41:25
  You want to go on in? He said no.
• 41:27
  He said not until I'm invited. And that just that was hard.
• 41:32
  That was that was rough because, like Jogo says, the man should
• 41:36
  be there. Well, and the thing, what do you
• 41:39
  did with? The lines come.
• 41:41
  And and the thing now that you and I love Major League
• 41:44
  Baseball, but the hypocrisy of those guys that in bed with
• 41:48
  FanDuel and DraftKings and, you know, all the betting stuff and
• 41:51
  you bet from your seat and, you know, bet.
• 41:53
  And I'm like, how hypocritical can you get?
• 41:56
  I mean, my God, you know, I mean, I it just it really
• 42:01
  rankled me. And on that point now I'm like,
• 42:03
  I don't, you know, I was going to go no matter what.
• 42:06
  I'd have walked Cooperstown to see Pete induction and now I'm
• 42:08
  sure I just don't know. It's, it just seems like it's
• 42:12
  almost hollow at that point, you know?
• 42:14
  They. Had for me, for me, it's always
• 42:16
  been one of those things where you go, you wish in the
• 42:19
  beginning he would have just come out and told the truth and
• 42:22
  he, you know, he didn't help himself there.
• 42:25
  But as time gone on and time had gone on and made it such a
• 42:28
  bigger deal and they were never going to put him in because, you
• 42:33
  know, when he was alive, because if they would have, he would
• 42:37
  have legitimately overshadowed anybody else that would have
• 42:39
  gotten in during that same during that same year.
• 42:43
  But it's also, it's also crappy that they wait till he dies and
• 42:47
  they're Oh yeah, by the way, you could be eligible now.
• 42:49
  So it's a damn if you do and you damn if you don't, you know?
• 42:53
  It's sad because if they do elect him, he does get in and we
• 42:57
  play ball there next year. You know, in here, you got Dave
• 43:01
  Parker going in. Another local Cincinnati kid.
• 43:04
  Who just recently passed away. Exactly, and he won't get to
• 43:08
  enjoy that day that he should have.
• 43:11
  It's sad. It's just.
• 43:13
  I never understood. It's like the stats are there.
• 43:15
  All of a sudden. You keep him out for 20 years,
• 43:17
  you put him in. I don't get that.
• 43:19
  What's changed? You know, some of these writers?
• 43:23
  Yeah. You're either in or out, and it
• 43:24
  shouldn't take years. Our veterans committee, I've
• 43:26
  never understood that. But but indulge me with, indulge
• 43:30
  me with one more thing with Pete, because again, I can go
• 43:32
  all night and I don't want to Bogart the mic or anything here,
• 43:34
  but. It's OK, all right.
• 43:36
  So it's the seventh game of the World Series, bottom of 9th
• 43:40
  you're at home. OK, tie game man.
• 43:44
  On 2nd I'll give you 3 guys to pick from who you want up the
• 43:47
  bat. OK Obviously for me, you know,
• 43:50
  one be Pete, the other one's Teddy Ball game, Ted Williams or
• 43:54
  Tony Gwinn. Who do you pick?
• 43:57
  Yeah, yes, that's, that's good company.
• 44:00
  Who do you pick to have that AB if you're the manager?
• 44:04
  Yeah, I would always go with Pete, but I'm just because I've
• 44:09
  got to meet him a few times and he's my hero.
• 44:12
  But I mean, Tony Gwynn, come on. That guy was amazing.
• 44:16
  I I I can't did my homework 338 lifetime battery damage.
• 44:22
  He fakes. He fakes.
• 44:23
  Maddox, Gladden, Smoltz 287 times, struck out three times.
• 44:28
  I got Maddox. Never got him.
• 44:31
  Rat batting twice and Smalls cutting once.
• 44:34
  That's unbelievable. Ellie De La Cruz, tremendous
• 44:37
  ball player, 300 games in 460 strikeouts.
• 44:42
  Gwen career 338. It's staggering.
• 44:45
  For career. Yeah, well, and that's another
• 44:49
  thing that, you know, again, part of a larger conversation of
• 44:52
  how the game has changed now. I mean, Ellie, Ellie will end up
• 44:56
  probably going to the Dodgers or hopefully not the Yankees.
• 44:59
  Scott. But.
• 45:01
  You know better. We'd rather go to Dodgers.
• 45:04
  I don't. Know, I don't know, it's all.
• 45:06
  About the money. Yeah, it's all about, it's all
• 45:08
  about the money. But I but I look at it and I go
• 45:11
  your point there, Dave, where he he struck out so many times.
• 45:15
  But now a guy that has struck out that many times but ends the
• 45:19
  season and he's got like 38 home runs or you know, 28 home runs
• 45:24
  and he's got a 270 average, is considered one of the more
• 45:28
  premier baseball players. We're back in the day that
• 45:32
  wouldn't have flown at all. Right, I saw.
• 45:35
  A clip of Pete recently and he goes, I can't watch baseball
• 45:38
  today. He goes, there's no hit and run.
• 45:40
  There's no strategy. There's no moving a man over.
• 45:42
  These guys strike out way too much.
• 45:44
  And, you know, it's like chicks dig the law ball and that's
• 45:47
  where the money's at. You know, the mother said old
• 45:50
  school. I mean, you give me a good old
• 45:51
  one, nothing pitcher's duel or, you know, fundamental baseball,
• 45:56
  you know, bun him over, get him in, you know, take that all day
• 45:58
  long. But the game has changed.
• 46:00
  There's no doubt about it. Yeah, when, you know, when I was
• 46:03
  a kid, we Big Red Machine, everybody loved Don Gullett and
• 46:07
  and I mean, he could throw mistles in there.
• 46:09
  And I'm almost positive to say he was sewing over 100 miles an
• 46:13
  hour back then. Of course, they didn't have the
• 46:16
  radar gun, but you know, you and I was fortunate enough last week
• 46:23
  to meet Fred Norman. He was one of the Big Red
• 46:26
  Machine players, Gary, Gary Nolan.
• 46:28
  They were all at the museum, the Reds Museum downtown because the
• 46:34
  big Red machine was in town. So I got to meet them and of
• 46:37
  course George Foster I've met before.
• 46:39
  But the big, big Red machine I actually got to sit and talk
• 46:43
  with with George Foster one time And I said, you guys, it's
• 46:46
  almost like watching them play. It's almost like they toyed what
• 46:51
  people were they they would if they had a one run lead on it
• 46:54
  and they thought they were going to beat them.
• 46:56
  Then they they'd wind up pulling it out and you know, it was
• 46:59
  just, they were that good. Sparky was known as Captain
• 47:03
  Hook, but Bench recently came out and said, you know, he goes,
• 47:06
  hey, it was me. I was Captain Hook.
• 47:08
  He could spark get somebody up because he's out of gas.
• 47:11
  And you know, Johnny was that good of a catcher, you know,
• 47:14
  revolutionize the the position. But I would digress.
• 47:17
  I didn't get your answer Scott and Steve, I need your answer
• 47:20
  for who do you want AB that last AB?
• 47:23
  Well, I'm going to go with Pete. With who?
• 47:26
  I'm going to go with Pete. Pete for getting that hit, yeah.
• 47:29
  Scott. It's not a bad choice either.
• 47:32
  And you know what, I'm going to go with you guys, let's go with
• 47:34
  Pete. Although Gwynn Gwynn is it's
• 47:36
  1A1B because Gwynn is not going to strike out in that situation
• 47:39
  either. So.
• 47:40
  Yeah. And then give me one more
• 47:41
  because I did my homework. So Game 7 again, you're starting
• 47:47
  pitcher and I'm not even going to give you the two I'd said.
• 47:50
  But who do you have of all time, all throughout the history of
• 47:55
  the game up until you know today's pitcher, whoever you can
• 47:57
  start, anybody you want to win that Game 7 for you, who do you
• 48:00
  pick? That's a tough one.
• 48:03
  That's. A tough one.
• 48:05
  I mean. Back through history, huh?
• 48:07
  Yeah. There's there's five guys that
• 48:12
  come into my head, OK, One of them I just mentioned was Nolan
• 48:16
  Ryan. Another one who played for the
• 48:19
  Reds and the Mets? Tom Seaver.
• 48:21
  Yep. Sandy Koufax.
• 48:23
  Cincinnati boy. Yeah, Randy Johnson or Tom
• 48:28
  Glavin. Oh man, that's that's good.
• 48:33
  What about Yeah, Tom Glavin? What about Maddox?
• 48:37
  Yeah, I mean, there's no wrong answers when you're in that
• 48:40
  stratosphere. How about you guys?
• 48:43
  Yeah, Sandy Koufax, Pittsburgh University of Cincinnati.
• 48:46
  That's. Right.
• 48:47
  Yeah. So he yeah, he it was tough.
• 48:51
  Matter of fact, Pete, Pete always said he was one of the
• 48:53
  toughest to hit off of him and Jr.
• 48:56
  Richard, remember him? Yes, Yeah.
• 49:00
  If he wouldn't have had a stroke, who knows?
• 49:02
  Yeah, play for the Astros, right?
• 49:04
  Yes. Yes.
• 49:06
  So Scott, who? Who you?
• 49:07
  Who's going to tell the rubber for you?
• 49:08
  Yeah, yeah. Just so I don't repeat some of
• 49:10
  your answers, but somebody like maybe a Clemens in his heyday,
• 49:14
  you know, maybe Rodger Clemens. Yeah, I'm going to be a little
• 49:19
  bit but hungry. But Andy Pettitte, during that
• 49:22
  run we had with the Yankees, that guy was when we were in a
• 49:24
  stretch and that guy came out here, he would he would change
• 49:27
  the game, man. He could.
• 49:28
  Shut him down. How those pictures of the
• 49:29
  camera, you can't remember that from that you.
• 49:31
  Know yeah if we were on a losing streak or something you put him
• 49:34
  out he was the showstopper man he would he could end that that
• 49:37
  straight for his so pet it and and and go back to 1 you guys
• 49:40
  mentioned earlier Bob Gibson man that guy scared the shit out of
• 49:43
  you. He would.
• 49:45
  I, I just jotted this down. In 68, he went 22 and nine. 268
• 49:50
  strikeouts, 28 complete games. Yeah, himself.
• 49:55
  That's crazy. That's crazy. 34 ounces. 5th
• 50:00
  inning they get pulled. Yeah, 304 innings.
• 50:02
  And that year they won the he won the National League Cy Young
• 50:05
  Award and NL MVP. And in 1969, they lowered the
• 50:08
  mound from 15 to 10 inches, caused the Bob Gibson rule.
• 50:12
  That's dominance. You know, you have to sweat
• 50:15
  bullets because if he comes up and inside, you know, you don't
• 50:19
  want to, you know, cross that man.
• 50:21
  So I get no wrong answers you. Know that's what's going to
• 50:24
  happen when this thing ends. I'm going to wake up tonight and
• 50:27
  think, God, I should have said this guy.
• 50:28
  Or I should? Have said somebody else.
• 50:30
  You've got the power of the in it.
• 50:32
  There'll. Be another 100 guys, I'll think
• 50:34
  of it. Why didn't I say this?
• 50:36
  Let's think too. I mean, when we get done with
• 50:37
  games, there's a core of this and we'll sit around and just,
• 50:42
  you know, just chew the fat, tell stories, you know, have
• 50:45
  some beers and cigars and every single guy is just a baseball
• 50:49
  savant idiot. Call whatever you want.
• 50:51
  And again, that's the greatest thing about baseball.
• 50:53
  You can talk and talk and, and, and no wrong answers and you
• 50:57
  know, generational type of thing.
• 50:58
  And then one thing I was going to say that if we'd had like a
• 51:02
  2O clock game or whatever, use the games for a couple hours and
• 51:06
  a good night for us was, you know, in the heart of
• 51:09
  summertime, you're, you're drinking your beers and it's all
• 51:11
  great. Next thing like, uh oh, we've
• 51:14
  been here a while. There's the fireflies are out.
• 51:16
  So if you had a Firefly day and night at the yard, not a bad way
• 51:20
  to spend it. Oh, that's beautiful.
• 51:23
  Yeah, that's a, that's a summer day.
• 51:24
  Isn't it I'll tell you a quick story kind of cute.
• 51:27
  My grandson was little Timmy, Timmy, and we were at Reg Fest
• 51:33
  and because of our uniforms and representing, you know, the
• 51:39
  Cincinnati Reds from 1869, we get to meet a lot of the old
• 51:43
  players. So we're in behind the curtains
• 51:46
  and I got my grand. I'm holding my grandson.
• 51:48
  And Lee May said, hey, let's bring that boy over here.
• 51:51
  So we held my grandson for a little bit and then Eric Davis
• 51:54
  did bring him over here. So I took him over.
• 51:56
  I gave him to Eric Davis. Now that day, Eric Davis is
• 51:58
  wearing all black. Yeah.
• 52:01
  And the gold chain and Eric held him for a little bit and he gave
• 52:04
  them back to me. I literally just walked out
• 52:08
  behind the curtains and he threw up everywhere.
• 52:11
  And I thought to my What would have happened if Peter threw up
• 52:14
  Harry? Davis.
• 52:16
  Oh my gosh, that's. I never heard no.
• 52:18
  That's a good one. That'd be another story though.
• 52:22
  Well, you know, Speaking of that, I would, you know, we'd
• 52:25
  had Reds Fest and we would get like, you know, Danny said
• 52:27
  behind the curtain. And my boys thought it was like,
• 52:30
  well, doesn't every, you know, 810 year old do this, you know,
• 52:32
  go back and talk to Barry Larkin and Marty Brenneman and Eric
• 52:35
  Davis and, you know, whoever else.
• 52:37
  And they were like, you know, it just was like, yeah, does every
• 52:40
  kid do something? Yeah.
• 52:41
  Get home. I'm busting ass down the highway
• 52:44
  and trying to get in there and get on time and everything.
• 52:46
  And, you know, just. But one night they, yeah, I let
• 52:49
  him loose and gave him some money.
• 52:50
  And they went, you know, bunch of baseball cards.
• 52:53
  And they got to, you know, meet people and came back home.
• 52:56
  It was almost like Halloween night when you sit down and,
• 52:58
  like, trade candy or they were trading baseball cards.
• 53:01
  And my eldest thing goes, Daddy goes, this was the greatest day
• 53:03
  of my life. Oh, my gosh.
• 53:07
  Think of doing something right as a father here.
• 53:09
  You know it's his scoreboard. That's great.
• 53:12
  You know I'm the shirt I'm wearing.
• 53:14
  I don't know if you can see it or not #19.
• 53:16
  Lovato, Joseph. And I'll tell you what, man, he
• 53:22
  will go down as one of my favorite players.
• 53:25
  I love that guy. I, I hope he gets in the Hall of
• 53:27
  Fame. He really should.
• 53:29
  Yeah. Class that I'm surprised he's
• 53:31
  not doing some announcing because when he did when he was
• 53:33
  on, he was fantastic. Tremendous.
• 53:37
  So we just put that the other day to my wife.
• 53:38
  Where is Vado? Have anybody heard anything from
• 53:41
  him? Pretty much off the radar off
• 53:43
  the grid, but you know, we we'd be playing.
• 53:46
  He was my favorite reader of this.
• 53:47
  You know, this last, you know, current crop seemed to be a big
• 53:51
  gravitate to the first baseman guys, you know, Pete, Tony
• 53:53
  Novato, but he had a saying that and we'd be sitting there, you
• 53:57
  know, he gets 6th, 7th inning and he goes my boys is head.
• 54:00
  He goes, it gets late early. And that expression, I stuck
• 54:04
  with him like, yeah, we got hit now, you know, because it gets
• 54:07
  late early on, you know, the next thing you know, they Oh my
• 54:10
  God, make my thinning. And you know, I just thought
• 54:12
  that was one of the coolest expressions.
• 54:14
  So here's a question for you guys.
• 54:16
  If you're if you're fielding the all the all time Cincinnati Reds
• 54:22
  team as to who is playing every position, is Joey Votto in the
• 54:26
  starting lineup? Who I.
• 54:29
  Mean, hey, let's face it. And PD just said it himself.
• 54:34
  Novato could have played with the Big Red Machine for sure.
• 54:37
  Yeah, wow. You know, I, I.
• 54:40
  I mean, as much as I love him, but Tony Perez was the glue to
• 54:44
  the Big Red Machine. So yeah, you know, I mean, yeah,
• 54:48
  he just, you know, see the ball, hit the ball.
• 54:51
  I mean, that was Tony best of ice ever in baseball.
• 54:53
  So, you know, as much as I, you know, again, no wrong answer.
• 54:56
  But boy, you have the glue with all those superstars and unsung
• 54:59
  hero you know. Scott tell the Scott tell the
• 55:03
  story that we were at the Reds game two years ago and Pete was
• 55:05
  there. You remember that?
• 55:08
  Oh, when? When they were playing the
• 55:09
  Yankees. Yeah, we didn't know until the
• 55:11
  next day we were coming back to Nashville.
• 55:13
  Yeah, he was sitting, I guess he was sitting somewhere really
• 55:16
  close to home plate, right? Yeah.
• 55:17
  Again, we didn't see it till we saw it on ESPN or something.
• 55:19
  And Aaron Judge, apparently, when he's on deck, just kind of
• 55:22
  walks up and just starts talking to Pete through the net, like
• 55:25
  right there at the wall. We had no idea until we saw it
• 55:28
  on like Sports Center or something.
• 55:29
  I was like, that's cool. We were there.
• 55:31
  I remember seeing that on Sports Center I've.
• 55:33
  Never seen. Aaron Judd, do that.
• 55:35
  And that was. A cool let's chat him up.
• 55:38
  Well, and I said this when when we were at that Yankees Red
• 55:42
  Series and you know, I'm sitting next to Scott, who's the Yankees
• 55:46
  fan, and there's all these Yankees fans around.
• 55:48
  This is what I said. I went whenever, whenever Aaron
• 55:53
  Judge came up to bat, everybody, well, the Yankees fans all stood
• 55:57
  up, right? And there were a lot of them
• 55:59
  there. How many players in Major League
• 56:01
  Baseball now come to plate, come to the plate, and everybody is
• 56:05
  standing up because they know something big's going to happen.
• 56:07
  And. That's that's there's not many.
• 56:11
  He's it's cool to watch that and and to be a part of that.
• 56:17
  There's not many that they do that he's he's one-of-a-kind.
• 56:21
  I I think when it's all said and done, I don't know you, you
• 56:24
  might be looking at the the home run king after his career is
• 56:28
  over. You, you never know him.
• 56:29
  You got to stay healthy. But the one thing too that I
• 56:33
  like is if you never hear anything bad about him in their
• 56:35
  personal life, you know, and it's not, you could probably say
• 56:38
  with, you know, with the captain, with Jeter, you never
• 56:40
  have anything bad. About him.
• 56:41
  That's right, yeah. You hold yourself to a higher
• 56:44
  standard in that. Role, you know, and I do think
• 56:46
  you know the pride of putting on the Yu.
• 56:49
  There's something about that. Worst trade ever when we had
• 56:53
  Paul O'Neill for Roberto Kelly. Worth, my God, yes for us.
• 56:58
  I know. And here you go.
• 57:00
  Paul O'Neill. He's he's with a monument with
• 57:02
  the greats, you know? But he's, and he's he, he
• 57:06
  announces with the Yankees, too. I think he's up there with
• 57:08
  Michael Kay. So we love him.
• 57:09
  We love. Paul O'Neill's great.
• 57:10
  He's a good, He's a good guy. You know, he's like a warrior
• 57:13
  type. Yeah, and I think, you know,
• 57:15
  guys like that, they're easy to root for instead of some of the
• 57:17
  knucklehead knuckleheads today's pro sports.
• 57:19
  And you know, when he had his rough run in the World Series, I
• 57:22
  I just felt bad for the guy, you know, because, you know, I say
• 57:26
  he's a good guy and people have no idea how hard that game is.
• 57:30
  You know, I mean, it's if people don't, oh bum, you can't hit or
• 57:33
  whatever, you try it, especially like a a Gibson or Grizel or
• 57:39
  Raina Johnson. The other thing was Raina
• 57:40
  Johnson was a great story. He said he goes, I don't have a
• 57:43
  gun in my house. I don't have a gun under my bed.
• 57:45
  He goes, but you might not want to break in here because I do
• 57:47
  have a bag of baseball sitting right next to my bed.
• 57:52
  He's pretty deadly with those. That's that bird.
• 57:55
  Just going to say the bird. Here's another one.
• 57:58
  I don't know where Scott ranks on this, but I know the three of
• 58:01
  us probably agree. Is there any better catcher ever
• 58:04
  in Major League Baseball than Johnny Bench?
• 58:08
  Nope, he set the standard and nobody can live up to it.
• 58:11
  I mean, the guy was he was amazing and then he earned over
• 58:16
  300 home run, lifetime home runs.
• 58:18
  I mean, come on. And the.
• 58:20
  Only one you know, for me, you know, go back and look at is
• 58:23
  would be Yogi Berra. I mean you look at his stats and
• 58:26
  the number World Series, you know unbelievable.
• 58:30
  But yeah, motors, right. He just revolutionized the
• 58:33
  position, you know, just Yeah, unbelievable.
• 58:36
  Yeah, Smart again. He was he was Captain Hood
• 58:39
  wasn't Sparky so much. And he he, he ran that, you
• 58:41
  know, like a general on the field, you know, and pretty good
• 58:44
  run there, I tell. You well, yeah, go ahead.
• 58:48
  I was going to say Johnny just he said a standard so high it
• 58:52
  was just hard to to live up to like Sparky said, he said Johnny
• 58:56
  Bench was the bet as far as position players, the best
• 59:00
  pitcher that he's ever seen in his life.
• 59:02
  Now you're talking about a man that's seen a lot of people play
• 59:05
  baseball and coming from a world of two time or three time world
• 59:10
  champion, once with Detroit and twice with the Reds.
• 59:13
  That's saying something. I mean.
• 59:16
  Well, and, and, and the further on that, and I haven't looked at
• 59:18
  the stats of, you know, comparison, say Utah Yogi Berra,
• 59:22
  who's obviously right up there too.
• 59:24
  What a lot of people may not realize is that Johnny Bench
• 59:28
  actually was he the last year, I think it was the last year of,
• 59:33
  of his playing career, he played third base because his knees
• 59:36
  were basically shot. And so he was 35 when he
• 59:40
  retired. And, you know, so basically he
• 59:44
  spent 34 years, well, not 34 years, but he was 34 when he
• 59:48
  quit catching. And a lot of guys have, you
• 59:52
  know, deeper in their careers, they're still playing.
• 59:54
  I mean that that alone, I mean over that period of time, it's
• 59:57
  amazing. Yeah.
• 59:58
  But the guys today, let's face it, they're bigger, they're
• 1:00:01
  stronger, faster. They have, they have more, more
• 1:00:07
  things that they can do to put them at that level.
• 1:00:11
  Yeah, it's hard to compare errors.
• 1:00:13
  I mean, travel and weights and equipment and dining and all
• 1:00:17
  that stuff. It's very hard to compare
• 1:00:18
  errors. And not to get off because it's
• 1:00:21
  a different tangent, but when you talk about MJ versus LeBron,
• 1:00:27
  to me, there's just, there's just no experience.
• 1:00:29
  There's none, you know. To me it's MGA all day.
• 1:00:33
  You have to call yourself the goat.
• 1:00:34
  You may not be the GOAT if you guys know or something.
• 1:00:37
  Well, you guys mentioned, I think it was Steve mentioned
• 1:00:40
  Yogi Berra. I mean, what a career that man
• 1:00:43
  had. I mean, I look at all the World
• 1:00:45
  Series he won. He was.
• 1:00:47
  He was a good catcher. Those guys.
• 1:00:50
  Think Bench was just a little. He definitely had a better arm.
• 1:00:57
  I just, I just give the edge to bench.
• 1:00:58
  But Yogi Berra? By far.
• 1:01:00
  And again. He was a good catcher.
• 1:01:03
  Scott, you probably correct me if I'm wrong here, but didn't he
• 1:01:05
  serve in World War 2 as well? He did.
• 1:01:07
  He did. Like Teddy Ball game, those guys
• 1:01:09
  got lost couple years out of their career and again, yeah,
• 1:01:13
  they don't make them like that. You know, you're unbelievable.
• 1:01:15
  You're a major ball player and you go serve your country and
• 1:01:17
  and no easy things. You know, both I think were
• 1:01:20
  aviators and fine missions. I just don't make them like.
• 1:01:23
  And you got to give it to the old timers.
• 1:01:25
  You you think about these guys didn't make much money, not like
• 1:01:29
  they do the day, not even close. And they would get winter jobs
• 1:01:36
  when it. Was the offseason they were
• 1:01:37
  doing something else or barnstorming or something?
• 1:01:39
  They were on the country. To make some.
• 1:01:41
  Actual money. I always wondered and see what
• 1:01:44
  you guys think about. And Steve, you're from
• 1:01:46
  Cincinnati, Arnold's Bar, downtown Cincinnati.
• 1:01:52
  Yeah. I always heard stories that the
• 1:01:55
  original 1869 Reds will go there and have a beverage now.
• 1:01:59
  And. Then I wonder.
• 1:02:00
  Wow. I wonder if that's true.
• 1:02:03
  I don't know, that would be cool.
• 1:02:05
  To find out what do you think, Dave?
• 1:02:07
  I would venture to say yes, because probably far this side
• 1:02:11
  of the Mississippi been around forever and you know.
• 1:02:14
  Yeah. I mean, you talk about Fred
• 1:02:15
  Watterson, the Wright Brothers, those guys.
• 1:02:19
  I mean, those are those guys were players, you know, first
• 1:02:22
  year they wore their 57 and O. Yeah.
• 1:02:25
  I mean, it's, it's crazy how those guys played.
• 1:02:30
  And you know, they got the plaque in front of the Union
• 1:02:33
  terminal. You know about that, right?
• 1:02:35
  Yeah. It used to be the Union grounds
• 1:02:37
  where they actually played baseball.
• 1:02:39
  The the Red Sock in 1869. That was their home field.
• 1:02:43
  Yeah, you know, back then I've, I've heard stories of 20,000
• 1:02:47
  people showing up to watch them play ball.
• 1:02:50
  Yep. That's crazy just and you know,
• 1:02:53
  it goes from that and then the the palace of the fans and was
• 1:02:58
  it the great knockings land and then it went Crossley Field and
• 1:03:02
  then on to riverfront. It'll always be riverfront to
• 1:03:05
  me. And now we're at.
• 1:03:07
  Oh yeah. Now we're a Great American, so I
• 1:03:10
  guess, you know, you're really getting old if you're steaming
• 1:03:13
  and been to three different stadiums in your hometown.
• 1:03:18
  How do you better getting old went back to I was driving
• 1:03:21
  through, I went to college at Marshall University in
• 1:03:23
  Huntington, WV and went back to his, you know, just physical
• 1:03:27
  campus. I was driving through there and
• 1:03:29
  I'm like, it was right here. My dorm was right here.
• 1:03:33
  So you know, when the hospital you were born in and your dorm
• 1:03:36
  room of college both gone, you know, you're old.
• 1:03:39
  Ouch. Hey, the guy when we when we
• 1:03:42
  played in Boston and we played at the Commons park there and
• 1:03:47
  some of the guys that went to Harry Wright's house because he
• 1:03:50
  ended up in Boston, right? Wow.
• 1:03:52
  I actually got one of the guys brought me a shingle when I fell
• 1:03:55
  off his roof. I still got it.
• 1:04:00
  What was Speaking of? Arnold's going back there for a
• 1:04:01
  minute. Great little meat bar.
• 1:04:03
  And there's a really, really dear friend of ours.
• 1:04:06
  His name is. His name was Ben is Jake Speed
• 1:04:09
  and the Freddies. We've had some nights, you know,
• 1:04:12
  we used to have a kind of like opening for the baseball season
• 1:04:15
  and and you know, Jake's an English teacher and unbelievable
• 1:04:19
  really him and this guy is very talented, kind of like old timey
• 1:04:21
  music tote, so to speak. And he's written songs about,
• 1:04:24
  you know, Reds and red sockings and one is Azago the men.
• 1:04:28
  And it's a it's a great song if you look it up on Spotify or
• 1:04:31
  YouTube or whatever. But Jake Speed and Freddy's and
• 1:04:33
  sings about the 1869 Red Sockings and you know how neat
• 1:04:36
  it was. But we'd have those nights at
• 1:04:38
  Arnold's and, you know, we'd be in there and we'd just be
• 1:04:41
  throwing out crack jacks. We'd all be in uniform and Jake
• 1:04:43
  was singing and, you know, again, stuff like that.
• 1:04:46
  Who has that? You know, that the benefits, the
• 1:04:49
  spillover, you know, the travels and relationships and
• 1:04:52
  friendships and events. And we've played at Riverfront.
• 1:04:55
  We've played at Great American. We get, you know, used to give
• 1:04:57
  us two or three innings to a year.
• 1:04:59
  And the first time I'm there, you talk about nervous.
• 1:05:02
  You know, I said my my pregame speech is like, well, boys, you
• 1:05:06
  know, make your decision, make an outer an air, but you're
• 1:05:08
  going to make one and two, you know, so get ready for it.
• 1:05:11
  You play in front of, you know, 20-30 thousand people pre game,
• 1:05:14
  but you know, just things that have brought to our lives and
• 1:05:16
  our families and we were just blessed beyond to do a big part
• 1:05:20
  of it. Oh yeah, you know when the Big
• 1:05:23
  Red Machine was rolling 7576 after they won the World Series.
• 1:05:28
  That might never forget my father saying you want to go
• 1:05:31
  downtown with all the other crazies.
• 1:05:33
  I said let's go. It was such a blast to be a part
• 1:05:37
  of the the 70s with the Reds. I was, I went to the event in
• 1:05:43
  1990 when they won, when, when Chris Sabo got up there and he's
• 1:05:48
  like, we want everything. The hell with them, you know?
• 1:05:51
  We're at the rings. Got everything?
• 1:05:52
  Yeah. Yeah, it was funny, you know,
• 1:05:56
  going back and thinking to my mind, when you were talking
• 1:05:58
  about Johnny and Pete, I remember the restaurants that
• 1:06:01
  they had, and since Johnny Bench's home plate and Pete's, I
• 1:06:06
  don't remember the name of Pete Rose's restaurant, but I
• 1:06:10
  remember going there. Wasn't that it?
• 1:06:12
  Pete Rose's Restaurant I. Thought it may have been.
• 1:06:14
  That may have been what? The name of it?
• 1:06:15
  Yeah. Yeah, and it funny you talk
• 1:06:18
  about Chris Sabo now, his daughter's.
• 1:06:22
  Annie. Funny, she does a great job.
• 1:06:24
  She really? Does.
• 1:06:25
  Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so it's a growing up
• 1:06:33
  Cincinnati was. I wouldn't change a thing.
• 1:06:35
  I know Scott, you're from New York and you had it.
• 1:06:39
  I mean, let's face it, the Yankees were how many World
• 1:06:42
  Series went through that place and the team they had, I mean,
• 1:06:46
  you, you, the stars there, the Mickey Mantle, so Babe Ruth, Lou
• 1:06:51
  Gehrig's, those guys. Name it like you said that with
• 1:06:54
  the Aaron Judds now and Judge and then they just had so many
• 1:07:00
  good players. Yogi Berra.
• 1:07:02
  So baseball, I mean, come on. I always tell everybody it's the
• 1:07:06
  greatest sport in the world. We get a lot of criticism
• 1:07:11
  because, you know, football is is kind of starting to take over
• 1:07:16
  a little bit here. But Cincinnati will always, I
• 1:07:20
  don't care what they do, will always be a baseball city.
• 1:07:24
  You're right and and America's game is football.
• 1:07:27
  I mean, there's no doubt you look at the numbers and
• 1:07:28
  everything. But I was you know, we have a
• 1:07:31
  discussion to ask people. I said, what do you think means
• 1:07:33
  more to the city and surrounding tri-state area Reds winning
• 1:07:36
  World Series or Bengals Super Bowl and so many people say
• 1:07:39
  Bengals Super Bowl. I said, well, but you don't know
• 1:07:43
  about a little old lady in, you know, Western Hills that's
• 1:07:47
  sitting there and keeping a scorecard at her game.
• 1:07:50
  Listen to the radio, you don't think about the guy down on
• 1:07:52
  Indiana farm and it just plow on fields and listen, you don't
• 1:07:55
  think about the guy from West Virginia.
• 1:07:56
  It saved a whole weeks of some just to bring his kids up, you
• 1:07:59
  know, to attend the game. And there's a lot of clouds of
• 1:08:02
  fans and a lot of people you know, they can't afford that,
• 1:08:05
  you know, couple $100 ticket go down.
• 1:08:07
  See, you know, 1 of the 810 home games in football.
• 1:08:10
  So, you know, I mean, I, it pains me to say that America's
• 1:08:13
  game is football, but I think modern China, since I we are a
• 1:08:16
  baseball town. And I have to capitalize on that
• 1:08:19
  question or that, that statement with this, that and you guys, I
• 1:08:24
  know and I want you to talk about this because you've been
• 1:08:26
  involved in it. I've been to them.
• 1:08:30
  There is nothing that I've ever attended, ever in my life that
• 1:08:34
  comes bigger than Opening Day in Cincinnati.
• 1:08:37
  It's the best. I got to tell you a story quick
• 1:08:40
  before Danny helps on to it. So you talk about his little
• 1:08:42
  talk about his little grandson. Was he 3 Danny or Tenny?
• 1:08:46
  Joey was or Timmy was. He was walked.
• 1:08:50
  So he, you know, he gets a uniform made.
• 1:08:52
  We had a lady, you know, with some of these uniforms.
• 1:08:54
  And so he got to his size. He's an opening day parade.
• 1:08:58
  And Timmy, a precocious little fellow, he was able to walk.
• 1:09:02
  And you know, so he let him walk and people are just going crazy
• 1:09:08
  And and I I told you, you know, Dan, his wife and everybody, I
• 1:09:11
  said that little guy had the whole Cincinnati in the palm of
• 1:09:16
  his hand. It was the part of the show that
• 1:09:19
  day. We always say that, of course.
• 1:09:21
  Now Fast forward. Is 1617 just a wonderful.
• 1:09:24
  Yeah, he's 15 now. He's 15.
• 1:09:26
  And I got his uniform framed up with the front page of the paper
• 1:09:30
  to inquire. And that's and my granddaughter
• 1:09:34
  the next year. And she was in a commercial her
• 1:09:37
  first year doing opening day parade.
• 1:09:39
  But those are memories you can't replace.
• 1:09:41
  Those are. And that's what's vintage
• 1:09:43
  baseball. If it wasn't for vintage
• 1:09:45
  baseball, none of that would have happened.
• 1:09:47
  And that's why I love the game so much.
• 1:09:51
  Baseball in general, but the things that come along with it
• 1:09:55
  would be in a Cincinnati Red Stock and vintage ball players.
• 1:09:58
  You can't beat it. You can't.
• 1:10:00
  You just can't go. It's a.
• 1:10:02
  Don't know if you guys are hackers, you know, we're hackers
• 1:10:04
  for golf in the offseason type of thing.
• 1:10:06
  And you know, I've never had a hole in one and I would love to,
• 1:10:09
  but you know, if you you set me down and you can only play one
• 1:10:13
  of the two, there's no question would be baseball.
• 1:10:15
  I mean, it's just that, you know, you're out there and
• 1:10:18
  you're looking around on a beautiful sunny day and if
• 1:10:22
  you're having a good day, makes it easier.
• 1:10:23
  But it's like this is this is heaven.
• 1:10:26
  This is no fun. We did go out to the Field of
• 1:10:28
  Dreams. That's another one which was a
• 1:10:30
  highlight. You know, we're out there and
• 1:10:32
  we, you know, we got pictures like we're coming out of the
• 1:10:34
  cornfield. And then my son didn't know it
• 1:10:36
  enough, but they were younger. But if he he was probably
• 1:10:39
  thanking him, it's like, hey, dad, can we have a catch?
• 1:10:45
  Field of Dreams and we were lucky, unfortunately, since they
• 1:10:48
  started playing Major League games out there and there's been
• 1:10:51
  some issues with commercial versus the family, you know,
• 1:10:53
  kind of thing. But we were there and it's
• 1:10:54
  really it's it's pure purity of of, of, you know, the, the field
• 1:10:59
  before a lot of stuff, how it's grown now.
• 1:11:00
  But, you know, again, just probably the the greatest
• 1:11:05
  baseball movie ever and there's been a lot of them, you know?