Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Wally Backman | Staten Island FerryHawks Manager | 06-15-26

Transcript

Wally Backman | Staten Island FerryHawks Manager | 06-15-26 · Sid & Friends In The Morning

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Are you okay, love, I'm I'm just tired. I can't sleep.
• 0:06
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• 1:00
  Speaker 4: This is a very exciting morning here at WABC Radio.
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: Our Staten Island FerryHawks baseball team has done something today
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: which even.
• 1:07
  Speaker 6: Got me excited.
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: I got to say, this is a huge day. We
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: want to win and in the city we're about to
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: celebrate a championship team on Thursday. This Nickerbocker team built
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: on grit, built on toughness, built on united being together.
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: Our next manager, this man sitting to my right, knows
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: all about that because that was his team back in
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: nineteen eighty six, when the New York Mets, our New
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: York Mets, captured the heart of everybody in this city
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: and won their first World Series at that point in
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: seventeen years. The Mets had won in sixty nine, not
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: fifty three years like the Knicks. But this guy sitting
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: next to me was the epitome of toughness, that great
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: second baseman getting on base, not afraid of anybody. There's
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: a scuffle with the Cincinnati Reds, this guy right in
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: the middle of it, and believe it or not, folks,
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: he is now now the manager of our very own
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: Staten Island Ferry Hawks, the great former basement of the
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: New York Mets. Wally Bachman, Good morning, Wally.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: Thanks guys.
• 2:05
  Speaker 7: It's it's a privilege to come back to New York
• 2:09
  Speaker 7: because there's never been a city that I ever played in.
• 2:12
  Speaker 7: It's like New York and we you know I came
• 2:16
  Speaker 7: here for not only Gary's reason, not only John's reason,
• 2:20
  Speaker 7: but I came here to win, and we were.
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: Struggling right now. But we're here to win.
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  Speaker 7: We're going to make some changes, do the right things,
• 2:28
  Speaker 7: try to get the community more involved. You know, I'm
• 2:32
  Speaker 7: actually challenging the community to come out and give us support.
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: Well, it's a great community. I know these guys all
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: want to speak, but I did bring up the Knicks
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: only because they just won. And you want to take
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: a tape parade too. I was there, Okay, good and
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: wasn't I was. I loved what He's still a good
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: friend of mine. So we're about to experience it again.
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: But you experience it in New York. Winning in New York.
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: Maybe you'll be there on Thursday. You pub up the
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: manage the game. What are your thoughts on our ladies
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: to champions here?
• 3:00
  Speaker 7: You know, it's been a long time since the next one.
• 3:02
  Speaker 7: When I see him, and I watched the games, and
• 3:04
  Speaker 7: I've always been a New York fan, and I'm from
• 3:07
  Speaker 7: a po dunk town in Oregon. But when I watched
• 3:10
  Speaker 7: them come back from a twenty nine game or twenty
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  Speaker 7: nine point deficit, I said there's no way anybody's gonna
• 3:17
  Speaker 7: beat these guys, and it It was a great team.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: It was a huge challenge.
• 3:22
  Speaker 7: And I don't follow basketball as much as I follow
• 3:24
  Speaker 7: other sports, but to follow the Knicks and see what
• 3:28
  Speaker 7: they accomplished this year is just it's tremendous.
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: And coming back through a mind a little bit of
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: the playoff game against the Houston Astros, one straw hit
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: the major home runt, well, the big one on that
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: rainy night against the Boston Red Sox.
• 3:39
  Speaker 7: One hundred percent. You know, there was no on the
• 3:42
  Speaker 7: eighty six team. There was no quit. It was total grit,
• 3:45
  Speaker 7: no quit. Didn't matter if we fell behind. We were
• 3:48
  Speaker 7: there to win no matter what. And that's what I
• 3:51
  Speaker 7: seen the Knicks did this year. To win a championship,
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  Speaker 7: the way that they did it reminded me a lot of.
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: The nineteen eighty sixteen.
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: I thought somebody else was gonna jump in here some point.
• 4:00
  Speaker 6: Hey, I mean, this is John Katsman Tides. I'm here
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  Speaker 6: and we uh uh we own the team along with
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  Speaker 6: the Yankees and u uh some other shareholders, and uh uh,
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  Speaker 6: then we're gonna make a big comeback. We're looking forward
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  Speaker 6: to Quali being with us and and picking the right
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  Speaker 6: players and uh uh and uh well, if the mixture
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  Speaker 6: make it comeback, they're gonna make it.
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  Speaker 3: I think sea here if.
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  Speaker 6: That's what it's all about, and and that that's what
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  Speaker 6: we're doing, and uh.
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  Speaker 3: Well it's I.
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  Speaker 6: Love baseball, you know, you know, I hate said I'm
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  Speaker 6: not a soft affair. I'm you know, baseball is my
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  Speaker 6: number one boy. And you know, from the time my
• 4:51
  Speaker 6: grandfather took me, uh to the New York Yankees in
• 4:54
  Speaker 6: nineteen fifty five and we sat in the upper up
• 4:58
  Speaker 6: upper bleachers and I those breed section, Yeah, and Mickey
• 5:02
  Speaker 6: Mantle was up, and then later on Roger Morris a
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  Speaker 6: few years later. And I was a baseball fan forever.
• 5:09
  Speaker 6: And then when the Yankees called me and said we
• 5:11
  Speaker 6: want you to be a partner in the Ferry Hawks,
• 5:14
  Speaker 6: well I said, of course, something come on.
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: That one's easy. So what Baseball time just said, he
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: wants to win again. What are some of the biggest
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: challenges walking into a team that has not been successful
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: so far this year? How did I know you were
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: a great player? You want a World Series? But how
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: does Wally Bachman make a difference?
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: Right away?
• 5:34
  Speaker 7: Well, I think I'll change the attitude of the team
• 5:37
  Speaker 7: number one. But pitching is always the key, and we're
• 5:40
  Speaker 7: working vigilantly at trying to make get new pictures.
• 5:44
  Speaker 6: Uh.
• 5:45
  Speaker 7: You know, Unfortunately, some guys come into this league and
• 5:49
  Speaker 7: they don't understand how good the league really is. Then,
• 5:52
  Speaker 7: so you look at a lot of the pitchers that
• 5:55
  Speaker 7: we have right now are of college guys that weren't
• 6:02
  Speaker 7: really good in college. Oh really, And so you know
• 6:05
  Speaker 7: right now, potentially since Gary and I have been talking,
• 6:09
  Speaker 7: potentially I got four major leaguers that might come in here.
• 6:12
  Speaker 7: Three pitchers, a position player. His name is Jose Alexander Lopez.
• 6:20
  Speaker 7: He he either set the record in twenty four for
• 6:23
  Speaker 7: most consecutive hits when he was with the Minnesota Twins.
• 6:26
  Speaker 7: We got a chance to bring this guy in hopefully
• 6:29
  Speaker 7: he was currently in Triple A. He's a big leaguer
• 6:33
  Speaker 7: and he needs to get back. He's from Puerto Rico.
• 6:36
  Speaker 7: But potentially he would be the best I would say
• 6:41
  Speaker 7: right now, he'd be the best hitter in this league
• 6:43
  Speaker 7: by far.
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: You are a real baseball guy, so minor league baseball
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: for example, You've you've managed minor league baseball before, so
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: you got to do a lot of sticky stuff because
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: you want the kids to come out there and the
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: families to come out there.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: But you would have right and it's.
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: Affordable, right, Well, you don't care about that stuff, Like Wally,
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: you're you're a real baseball guy. You're all about we're
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: gonna win this baseball game today. I don't care if
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: the kids have a good time and not. I'm sorry,
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: we're gonna win this baseball game.
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: I don't want to win. I can't catch it. I
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: want to win.
• 7:10
  Speaker 7: But you know, like John said, it's affordable there. We're
• 7:13
  Speaker 7: gonna get our players involved in the community, which I
• 7:16
  Speaker 7: don't think they've done in the past.
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: And that's something that.
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: When you say get all players involved in the community,
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  Speaker 4: what exactly youre talking about, Well.
• 7:24
  Speaker 7: Go to schools, go to go to different places to
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  Speaker 7: meet and go to reading clubs for the young kids,
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  Speaker 7: things like that. That's those are things that with an
• 7:34
  Speaker 7: affiliated team is required and even it should be required
• 7:39
  Speaker 7: in Staten Island too, for those guys to go meet
• 7:42
  Speaker 7: those people, see the kids, try to get them out
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  Speaker 7: to the ballpark and and like I said, again, challenge
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  Speaker 7: the people of Staten Island to come support the Staten
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  Speaker 7: Island fairy Hucks.
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  Speaker 4: Now what about your former relationships or current relationships with
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: former met players. So not that it matters, but Staten
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: Island Berry Hawk bands count on a couple of times
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: this summer showing up at the ballpark and maybe seeing
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: Donald Strawberry or Dwight Gooden or your counterpart a second base,
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: Tim Tupple. I'm mu sure which guys you luck at,
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: which guys you don't, But can we count on seeing
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: some of those guys?
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  Speaker 7: I would guarantee some of them would come out. I
• 8:17
  Speaker 7: couldn't tell you exactly who might come out, but you know,
• 8:19
  Speaker 7: it's a big thing. We're a very tight knit group
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  Speaker 7: from eighty six and we do a lot of things
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  Speaker 7: for each other. We do a lot of card shows
• 8:27
  Speaker 7: and things together and might be speaking engagements things like that.
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  Speaker 7: But we've been very close for forty some years or
• 8:34
  Speaker 7: whatever it's been, and we enjoy each other. You know,
• 8:38
  Speaker 7: we had our internal fights, but we were still brotherhood.
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  Speaker 7: It was still a family, and that's what we got
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  Speaker 7: to create in Staten Island is when you're with each
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  Speaker 7: other for six months, it's your brother, it's your father,
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  Speaker 7: it might be whatever, yeah, but you have to have
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  Speaker 7: that type.
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  Speaker 3: Of mind thought. You know, the chemistry of a team
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: is very important.
• 9:00
  Speaker 6: Two percent.
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  Speaker 4: Now this you know about this guy who I love,
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: Deally on Katsu matitis like a father.
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: I love this guy. He's ruthless.
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: Okay, we have not been through seven managers in about
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: four years. So you want a World twoies with the Mets.
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: But if you don't win on Seaten Island, you don't
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  Speaker 4: care what happened to eighty six.
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: It doesn't matter. I'm here to win. If I don't win,
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: send me home.
• 9:21
  Speaker 6: He's gonna bring in He's gonna bring in the Mets
• 9:25
  Speaker 6: us and the Yankees will bring in some Yankees too.
• 9:29
  Speaker 6: And I got him the other thing this year, the
• 9:31
  Speaker 6: food is ten times better than any any time before.
• 9:36
  Speaker 6: We have valet parking. Uh if you should find a
• 9:39
  Speaker 6: vale and uh uh you know it's uh.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: I love Valet parking, you know why.
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: I mean?
• 9:45
  Speaker 6: I just want to puck my car and go into
• 9:48
  Speaker 6: the stadium and and the same hot dogs you get
• 9:54
  Speaker 6: a Yankee stadium we have at the Ferry Hawk.
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: Stuff about that? How about that?
• 9:59
  Speaker 6: I love those hot dogs.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: I love that popcorn. And you know, play.
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: Ball, play ball, So what's the what's the first order
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: of business. I know you're going to the stadium. Lit'm
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: on this Stay Afternoon with Steve Klein, don't know, the
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: great baseball guy, and Gary Parone. What's your first orto
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: of business?
• 10:14
  Speaker 7: Well, the first thing is not to really address the
• 10:17
  Speaker 7: players today, but to address them tomorrow when I got
• 10:20
  Speaker 7: some time, because I don't want to really scare them
• 10:22
  Speaker 7: right before a game, right because I have high expectations
• 10:25
  Speaker 7: for these guys and they're going to know it.
• 10:27
  Speaker 6: Uh.
• 10:28
  Speaker 7: That's the first thing that I'll get across to them
• 10:30
  Speaker 7: is what I expect.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: You know, I expect the team.
• 10:34
  Speaker 7: You're not gonna win every game, but we will not
• 10:37
  Speaker 7: get out hustled. And if we do, those players, I'm
• 10:40
  Speaker 7: going to have problems with those guys, just like I did.
• 10:43
  Speaker 7: You know, I look back at the pitchers that I
• 10:46
  Speaker 7: had when I was the tripa a manager in Las Vegas.
• 10:50
  Speaker 7: You know, I had that hole Ban's pitch of staff.
• 10:52
  Speaker 7: I had to drum Syndergaard, Harvey, I had all those guys,
• 10:54
  Speaker 7: Steven Mattz. We were good. We were very good, you know,
• 10:59
  Speaker 7: but they all went the big leagues. But you know,
• 11:01
  Speaker 7: I want to treat all these players and they'll know
• 11:04
  Speaker 7: I'll treat them just like they're a big leaguer if
• 11:07
  Speaker 7: they conduct theirselves and handle thesselves in that manner. So
• 11:11
  Speaker 7: it's important for me not only to win, which is
• 11:16
  Speaker 7: number one on my list, but for these guys to
• 11:18
  Speaker 7: be good citizens in the community, you know, and and
• 11:21
  Speaker 7: and get out like I said before, and visit people
• 11:24
  Speaker 7: and do different things at schools and stuff to get
• 11:27
  Speaker 7: the community. I'd like to get the community really involved
• 11:30
  Speaker 7: at Staten Island. So that's a challenge for for them
• 11:34
  Speaker 7: to get out there support us. Uh, it's gonna We're
• 11:38
  Speaker 7: gonna show them good baseball and then we might show
• 11:40
  Speaker 7: them some bad baseball's day to day.
• 11:42
  Speaker 6: We want to bring in the people from Brooklyn. You've
• 11:44
  Speaker 6: got a you have a fast ferry going on now,
• 11:48
  Speaker 6: and you want to bring into people from New Jersey
• 11:50
  Speaker 6: and you want to bring if you if you come
• 11:53
  Speaker 6: in from Manhattan, all you have to do is to
• 11:56
  Speaker 6: get to the ferry, and the ferries for free, yep.
• 11:59
  Speaker 6: And on the other side of the ferry in Staten Island,
• 12:02
  Speaker 6: it's five minute walk uh.
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: To the stadium.
• 12:05
  Speaker 6: And yeah, you're not gonna get a better deal in
• 12:08
  Speaker 6: Minor League baseball than than the Ferry Hawks. And it's
• 12:12
  Speaker 6: a lot of fun. I also when introduced and Coxe,
• 12:15
  Speaker 6: who's a baseball fan forever, and Cox's member of five
• 12:19
  Speaker 6: o'clock team, and he's the New York State g he
• 12:21
  Speaker 6: chairman besides, but he enjoys baseball.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: What do you look at the Uh? Not only irewbar
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: Son enjoys baseball.
• 12:28
  Speaker 8: He was eight years old when the Nitty Gritty Mets
• 12:31
  Speaker 8: won the World championship. Not only captured the art of
• 12:35
  Speaker 8: the New York City like the next now, but I
• 12:38
  Speaker 8: captured the heart of her son. And he later after
• 12:41
  Speaker 8: got a driver's license. He's he took me around to
• 12:44
  Speaker 8: the minor league parks going off from down to Louisiana.
• 12:49
  Speaker 6: I didn't know that and he was only his son
• 12:52
  Speaker 6: was only marriage with my daughter.
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: Baseball is fun, It is fun. It is yeah, yeah,
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: game more, you know.
• 13:01
  Speaker 6: But we between the relationships we have with the medicine,
• 13:04
  Speaker 6: relationship with the Yankees. Maybe we can get the Ferry
• 13:07
  Speaker 6: Hawks to play the side Tones someday and we have
• 13:10
  Speaker 6: a Staten Island Brooklyn.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 13:13
  Speaker 6: I love that.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: Steph Cohen, Yeah, that can happen. Steve colemen, let's Garry
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: Parones guy. So what do you think.
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: I think it's great. I think it's great that we
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: have Wally here.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: Is just good to be back with Wally again and
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: benching brook Wait all we always had a good time
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: in Brooklyn. This is the one thing that Wally brought
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: to Brooklyn back then. Just they know he's gonna bring
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: to Steate iswand you know we we had a fiery
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: team back then and some we won. I think going
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: forward now, I think State Alle's is retreat. But one
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: thing about the Five Boroughs, we know Stan Allen loves
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: baseball and the personage that Wally carries is my next
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: door neighbors. So my next third nighbers is just like
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: Waller being love them, you know some of them last
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: night you took my last night after the answer out
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: the people. But we're excited about it and the Communiy
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: should be happy toom Mick, thank you once again for
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: a thing you do for us.
• 13:58
  Speaker 6: Well, we want to be the best. I mean you
• 14:01
  Speaker 6: you know us and the Yankees where we all used
• 14:03
  Speaker 6: to being the best, and that's that's our object.
• 14:07
  Speaker 7: No, one hundred percent, I agree with you. I'll re
• 14:12
  Speaker 7: say it again. Then I'm here to win. I'm here
• 14:15
  Speaker 7: to make it enjoyable. I hate to lose. You're going
• 14:18
  Speaker 7: to see me get thrown out of games. You can
• 14:19
  Speaker 7: YouTube me and see the things that I've done. Yeah,
• 14:23
  Speaker 7: you know we'll get a fine jar. I already talked
• 14:27
  Speaker 7: to the president of the League, Rick White. I said, Rick,
• 14:29
  Speaker 7: you got to give me five or six easy, easy ejections.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: But I'm again.
• 14:36
  Speaker 7: I'm here not only because Gary and John. I'm here
• 14:39
  Speaker 7: to win, and I take the things that I've accomplished
• 14:44
  Speaker 7: in baseball as a manager. I take a lot of
• 14:47
  Speaker 7: pride in that, and I take a lot of pride
• 14:49
  Speaker 7: in winning. I've won eight championships over the course of
• 14:52
  Speaker 7: my career as a player or as a manager, and
• 14:56
  Speaker 7: I want to get number nine here before I decide
• 14:58
  Speaker 7: to retire.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: I want number nine right here. All right? Sounds good?
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: There he is, ladies and gentlemen, the new manager of
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: Ourstaten Island FerryHawks. As you just told you, eight championships,
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: including one you may remember, the nineteen eighty six New
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: York Mets, the great second baseman Wally Batman. Molly, Welcome
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: to Staten Island.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: Thanks sir, Glad you nations, thanks for listening.
• 15:21
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• 15:24
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• 15:47
  Speaker 9: so you never have to wonder
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: What the heck is going on here