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The Fifth Hour: Aloha Destitute Darlings · The Ben Maller Show

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  Speaker 1: Kaboom if you thought four hours a day 1200 minutes
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  Speaker 1: a week was enough think again he's the last remnants
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  Speaker 1: of the old republic a sole bastion of fairness he
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  Speaker 1: treats crackheads in the ghetto gutter the same as the
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  Speaker 1: rich pill poppers in the penthouse wow the clearinghouse of
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  Speaker 1: hot takes break free for something special the fifth hour
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  Speaker 1: with ben maller starts right.
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  Speaker 2: Now In the air everywhere. The Fifth Hour with me,
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  Speaker 2: Ben Maller. And we thank you for hanging out with us.
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  Speaker 2: The weekend has begun. It is the 25th day of September.
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  Speaker 2: Did the overnight show and took a little bit of
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  Speaker 2: a pause. Now back into the pod studio, the remote
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  Speaker 2: pod studio on the 268th day of the year. There
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  Speaker 2: are 97 days left. And this is the 39th week
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  Speaker 2: of the year. On today's episode of the Fifth Hour,
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  Speaker 2: I continue my new obsession with talking to random broadcast
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  Speaker 2: friends of mine. This is our third week in a row.
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  Speaker 2: I believe we had Ross Porter on and Eddie Garcia.
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  Speaker 2: And this week, we catch up with the one and
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  Speaker 2: only Mel Proctor. Now, some of you might be asking,
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  Speaker 2: who is Mel Proctor? Bad job by you. Mel is
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  Speaker 2: a comrade of mine, a fellow man with a microphone,
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  Speaker 2: and enough stories to fill a target. And I'm not
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  Speaker 2: talking about one of those little city targets, those itty-bitty
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  Speaker 2: city targets. I'm talking about a full-size grown-up target. Now,
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  Speaker 2: Mel has been in the air everywhere calling Major League Baseball, NBA, NFL,
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  Speaker 2: college football, college basketball, boxing. You name the sporting event
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  Speaker 2: over his career... 40-plus years, there's a decent chance Mel
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  Speaker 2: called it, and he worked for networks like NBC, CBS, TNT,
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  Speaker 2: and enough radio stations over the years. I'm guessing if
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  Speaker 2: you were to go into Mel's home, you'd be arrested
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  Speaker 2: for doing that. But if you opened up the junk
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  Speaker 2: drawer in Mel's home, he has guaranteed station key cards
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  Speaker 2: from at least seven or eight radio stations in the
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  Speaker 2: junk drawer. We're talking 5,000 plus sporting events, more than
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  Speaker 2: 2,000 interviews. This is not a resume. This is also
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  Speaker 2: a cry for help. Now, Mel lived the vagabond broadcasting
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  Speaker 2: life before people started calling themselves digital nomads, which is
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  Speaker 2: all the rage because they answered emails from a Starbucks.
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  Speaker 3: No. No.
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  Speaker 2: Mel's done it in baseball. He has done play-by-play for
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  Speaker 2: the Texas Rangers, the Baltimore Orioles, the Padres, the Washington Nationals.
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  Speaker 2: Mel's got an attitude in basketball. It was the Washington Bullets,
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  Speaker 2: longtime play-by-play guy for the Bullets, the New Jersey Nets,
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  Speaker 2: and the people's team, the Clippers. The man collected franchises
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  Speaker 2: like normal people collect those little souvenir refrigerator magnets. Now,
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  Speaker 2: Mel is most closely associated with the Washington, D.C. sports
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  Speaker 2: scene spilled over to Baltimore. That's where he spent many
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  Speaker 2: years behind the microphones in that area, back when broadcasters
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  Speaker 2: actually had to know things and couldn't just scream into
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  Speaker 2: an iPhone and call themselves content creators. Imagine a world
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  Speaker 2: like that. So Mel has also written several books, including
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  Speaker 2: the wonderfully titled memoir, I Love the Work, But I
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  Speaker 2: Hate the Business. Mic drop. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. That should
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  Speaker 2: be handed out with your employee key when you get
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  Speaker 2: hired on the first day you work in broadcast. You know,
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  Speaker 2: like the little badge thing, plastic thing they give you.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome aboard. And here's your parking pass. Here's your employee handbook.
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  Speaker 2: And here's Mel Proctor's book explaining why eventually you'll hate
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  Speaker 2: everyone in management when they stop giving you raises and
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  Speaker 2: and they stop telling you that you're doing a good
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  Speaker 2: job and they don't give you any positive feedback, you'll
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  Speaker 2: hate the business. Now, Mel joins us to spin some yarn,
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  Speaker 2: spin some yarns from his career and talk about his
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  Speaker 2: new book. And I got to tell you, it is
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  Speaker 2: a good read. I just got my copy the other day.
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  Speaker 2: The advanced copy, which I guess is out now, Destitute
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  Speaker 2: Darlings is the name of the book. Destitute Darlings. Oh,
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  Speaker 2: is this about some kind of like women thing? No.
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  Speaker 2: The completely bonkers story of the Hawaii Islanders. What are
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  Speaker 2: the Hawaii Islanders? Oh, they were a AAA team in
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  Speaker 2: the Pacific Coast League, and they had improbable back-to-back games.
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  Speaker 2: PCL championships in the mid-1970s. A long time ago. It's
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  Speaker 2: been 50 years plus. And understand, this was not exactly
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  Speaker 2: George Steinbrenner opening the checkbook. The Islanders were playing baseball
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  Speaker 2: in paradise. while the franchise's finances were being held together
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  Speaker 2: with duct tape, chewing gum, and an IOU written on
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  Speaker 2: a cocktail napkin from a little shack down on the
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  Speaker 2: beach where they sold frozen ice. Paychecks were late. Some
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  Speaker 2: bounced higher than a racquetball. Creditors were circling. Back taxes
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  Speaker 2: were piling up. And at some point... At some point,
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  Speaker 2: you expected the clubhouse spread to be whatever somebody found
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  Speaker 2: in a dumpster behind a 7-Eleven. And then came the masterpiece,
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  Speaker 2: the piece de ressance, or whatever you say. The IRS
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  Speaker 2: showed up and padlocked the offices of this team. You
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  Speaker 2: got to read the book. It's all in the book.
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  Speaker 2: They were like $ 30, 000 worth. in the hole on taxes.
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  Speaker 2: Now that is minor league baseball. Nothing says professional sports
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  Speaker 2: franchise quite like arriving at the office and discovering Uncle
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  Speaker 2: Sam had changed the locks. Imagine winning a championship while
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  Speaker 2: wondering whether your paycheck is going to clear. Forget launch angle,
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  Speaker 2: which is all the rage and exit velocity, the most
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  Speaker 2: important statistic, available balance back in those days. And yet
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  Speaker 2: somehow amid all the financial problems Quicksand, bouncing checks, creditors,
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  Speaker 2: General Tomfoolery, the minor league team, the Islanders, they kept winning.
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  Speaker 2: And so Mel tells the whole story. Paradise on the outside,
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  Speaker 2: financial Hindenburg on the inside. Mel Proctor was there. He
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  Speaker 2: survived it. And unlike most people who tell stories from
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  Speaker 2: the 1970s, he actually remembers what happened. So fire up
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  Speaker 2: the old pod machine like you're doing now. No hocus pocus,
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  Speaker 2: just focus. You got to hear the part of the
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  Speaker 2: story where Mel Proctor, he actually had a similar experience
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  Speaker 2: to former President Ronald Reagan calling baseball. He'll explain. Mel
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  Speaker 2: Proctor joins us now on the Fifth Hour, this edition
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  Speaker 2: of the Fifth Hour podcast. So, Mel, let's start with this.
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  Speaker 2: As a man who worked in regional cable television all
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  Speaker 2: those years calling games on TV, what do you think
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  Speaker 2: of the current state of sports and cable television, which
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  Speaker 2: appears to be going away.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I was very fortunate to work for Home Team
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  Speaker 3: Sports in Baltimore, Washington area. And it was kind of
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  Speaker 3: the model for a lot of the regional sports networks.
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  Speaker 3: But as you said, they've gone away. Now it's tough
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  Speaker 3: for me to keep track of what's on the air
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  Speaker 3: because it seems like everything is televised somewhere on some
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  Speaker 3: streaming service or cable network or whatever. And it's a
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  Speaker 3: challenge just to figure out where an event is.
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  Speaker 2: I know it's everything's online with all the different streaming
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  Speaker 2: services and all that. It is a, it is a
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  Speaker 2: big pain, but you were in the golden age. All
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  Speaker 2: those years. And you broadcast games. We've had you on before,
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  Speaker 2: but for those who don't know, Mel, I guess you're
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  Speaker 2: most associated with the Washington, D.C. area because of your
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  Speaker 2: time there.
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  Speaker 3: Right. Washington, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Actually, my radio show, The Overnight Show, this
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  Speaker 2: week just went on a news station in Baltimore. Do
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  Speaker 2: you have a favorite restaurant? Any spots in Baltimore you miss?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: Favorite restaurant, Sabatino's in Little Italy. God, I first went
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  Speaker 3: there when I went for a job interview back in
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  Speaker 3: the 1970s. And Frank Cashion, who was general manager of
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  Speaker 3: the Orioles at the time, took me there for dinner.
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  Speaker 3: And once after we moved there, it seemed like every
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  Speaker 3: Sunday we would go there. And one night, Jim Palmer
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  Speaker 3: and I were doing an Oriole game. And we said,
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  Speaker 3: let's test the power of television and see if we
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  Speaker 3: can make reservations at Sabatino's for tomorrow night. So we did.
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  Speaker 3: On the air, we made reservations, showed up at Sabatino's
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  Speaker 3: the next night, and they greeted us and welcomed us.
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  Speaker 3: And we were there about every Sunday. So be sure
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  Speaker 3: to go there and tell everybody hi. All right. There
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  Speaker 3: you go.
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  Speaker 2: You just dropped Mel's name, and then they'll be like, yeah, Mel,
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  Speaker 2: I remember Mel.
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  Speaker 3: Come on.
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  Speaker 2: You know what I loved about your style? I've told
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  Speaker 2: you this before, Mel, but you had fun. when you
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  Speaker 2: were doing these games you know some of these guys
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  Speaker 2: are all buttoned up you know you take everything very
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  Speaker 2: seriously and i love the fact that you you could
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  Speaker 2: tell when you watched when i watched you do a
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  Speaker 2: game and even at you know you the clipper games
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  Speaker 2: at the end of your run in broadcasting but i
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  Speaker 2: i love the fact that you were enjoying it and
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  Speaker 2: i wish more guys would act like that. There's a
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  Speaker 2: lot of guys these days that I feel are more
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  Speaker 2: buttoned up. But your approach, what led to that? Did
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  Speaker 2: you always do it that way, or did something change
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  Speaker 2: along the way that inspired that?
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  Speaker 3: Well, when I first started out in Hawaii, I think
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  Speaker 3: I was very serious about And then I worked with
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  Speaker 3: a guy named Hank Greenwald, who eventually became the longtime
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  Speaker 3: broadcaster for the San Francisco Giants. It was very big
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  Speaker 3: in the Bay Area. But at the time I worked
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  Speaker 3: with him, I mean, he had a great sense of
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  Speaker 3: humor always. But here was a guy making wisecracks on
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  Speaker 3: the air and laughing. And I thought, wait a minute,
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  Speaker 3: it's okay to have fun. So I jumped in there
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  Speaker 3: and started having fun. I figured if it was fun
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  Speaker 3: for me, then it would be fun for the listener
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  Speaker 3: and the viewer. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And what was it like? I know when I got
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  Speaker 2: into the business, it was very difficult to kind of
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  Speaker 2: get your foot in the door. I can only imagine
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  Speaker 2: what it must have been like when you were getting
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  Speaker 2: started in the 70s and the 80s and had to
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  Speaker 2: work your way up the broadcast ranks. What was that
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  Speaker 2: process like when you were trying? I mean, you had
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  Speaker 2: a lot of great jobs, but to get your foot
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  Speaker 2: in the door, what was that like?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I had gone to Colorado College, which also had
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  Speaker 3: produced Steve Sable, who's, he and his father, Ed, ran
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  Speaker 3: NFL Films. So I was able to work through a
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  Speaker 3: connection there, somebody that knew Steve, and I bombarded him
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  Speaker 3: with letters and ideas. And finally, they said, come on
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  Speaker 3: back for an interview. And I went back and I
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  Speaker 3: got the job. So I stayed at NFL Films for
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  Speaker 3: five years. And it helped me with my writing and
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  Speaker 3: editing and that type of thing. But I get to
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  Speaker 3: work with some of the great announcers like Pat Summerall
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  Speaker 3: and Charlie Jones and Tom Brookshire and people like that.
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  Speaker 3: And I was thinking to myself, you know, it's great.
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  Speaker 3: They come in here after doing a game on Sunday
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  Speaker 3: and tell these great stories. And I wish I'd been
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  Speaker 3: there and had some stories. So I kind of got
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  Speaker 3: the urge to actually be at the event. So I
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  Speaker 3: approached a local radio station, WEZ in Chester, Pennsylvania, and
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  Speaker 3: explained to them that I was an expert on football
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  Speaker 3: because I worked at NFL Films. and convinced them at
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  Speaker 3: $ 25 a game to put me on as an analyst.
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  Speaker 3: So I did that for about two games, and then
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  Speaker 3: the play-by-play game, Bob Brinker, who went on to great
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  Speaker 3: things at ABC Radio, He said, I'm sick. I can't
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  Speaker 3: do the game tonight. You're going to have to be
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  Speaker 3: play-by-play guy. So that was my first play-by-play game. Well,
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  Speaker 3: then I did that for about a year. I left
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  Speaker 3: NFL Films. It was a huge decision to go to
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  Speaker 3: work for this little radio station. I set up all
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  Speaker 3: their programming, high school sports, college sports. We did Widener
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  Speaker 3: College football when Billy White Shoes Johnson was there. And
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  Speaker 3: so I did that for a couple of years. And
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  Speaker 3: then I went to Hawaii on vacation. I thought, well,
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  Speaker 3: I was there and I loved it over there. I thought,
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  Speaker 3: let me see if I can find a job. So
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  Speaker 3: I contacted KGMB Radio and TV in Honolulu. And Earl McDaniel,
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  Speaker 3: the general manager, said, you know, come on down for lunch.
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  Speaker 3: So I went down. I met with him. And we
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  Speaker 3: just seemed to hit it off. And he hired me.
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  Speaker 3: So I moved to Hawaii.
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  Speaker 2: That is a drastic move. That's awesome, though. And obviously,
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  Speaker 2: you have a book here we're having you on. You
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  Speaker 2: wrote a book, Destitute Darlings. about one of the crazier
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  Speaker 2: times in minor league baseball. I bet a lot of
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  Speaker 2: younger people don't even know Hawaii had a minor league
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  Speaker 2: baseball team back in the day, but it's a great story.
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  Speaker 2: And of everything you covered, you've been... doing this for
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  Speaker 2: so long, doing sports broadcasting. Why do the mid-70s, the
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  Speaker 2: Hawaii Islanders still stand out to you that inspired this book?
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  Speaker 3: Because the 75 and 76 seasons proved to me the
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  Speaker 3: most unique thing I'd ever been around. I felt that
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  Speaker 3: way when I experienced it And it stayed with me
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  Speaker 3: throughout my career, regardless whether I was doing NBA finals
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  Speaker 3: or covering the Super Bowl or Major League Baseball. It
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: stayed with me. It's so unique. So I went back
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  Speaker 3: in 2026 and and called up some of the remaining
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: players that could still locate those that were still alive
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  Speaker 3: to discuss the season. But what made the season so
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  Speaker 3: interesting was in 1975, they had been in Honolulu Stadium.
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  Speaker 3: The stadium was 50 years old and was rotting away.
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  Speaker 3: It was known as the Termite Palace because termites were
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: eating away at it. And they were going to tear
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: the stadium down and build a new one, Aloha Stadium.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: So they were going to close the stadium. They were
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: getting ready to move into the new stadium, but they
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: couldn't get it done in time. So they had to
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: scramble to get back in the old stadium. The state
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  Speaker 3: had to buy it back. They had to refurbish it.
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  Speaker 3: So he got into the stadium in 75 and jumped
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  Speaker 3: into first place pretty early, went on to win the championship.
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  Speaker 3: But then the next year, in 76, the stadium was
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  Speaker 3: finished and open to much fanfare, a 50,000-seat stadium for
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  Speaker 3: a minor league baseball team. It was unheard of. We
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  Speaker 3: moved in there and figured it'd be a great year.
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  Speaker 3: But early in the season, they had a game against
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  Speaker 3: the Tacoma Twins, Minnesota's farm team. And... The owner or
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: the general manager of the stadium, Mackie Anagasawa, had said
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: that there was an edict that no baseball spikes could
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: be worn on the astroturf field, which I knew was
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: complete BS because there were many astroturf fields on major
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: league fields. So anyway, Tacoma pitched around to take the
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: mound and Mackey sent some of his guys out there
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  Speaker 3: to tell them that he couldn't wear spikes on the mound.
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  Speaker 3: And so the guy walked off the field. The umpire said,
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  Speaker 3: that's a forfeit, a loss for Hawaii. And that ended
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  Speaker 3: up costing them winning the league championship outright because they
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  Speaker 3: wound up tied at the end of the season with Tacoma.
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  Speaker 3: But by then they had Dire financial problems. The IRS
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  Speaker 3: had padlocked the team doors. Players were not getting paid.
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  Speaker 3: Many of them had to be paid by the parent team,
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  Speaker 3: San Diego Padres. The stadium was proving not to be
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: such a great thing. It was too far out there
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  Speaker 3: to drive. Attendance began to drop off. They were losing
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  Speaker 3: money fast. It got to be the end of the
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: regular season. They were tied with Tacoma. But because Hawaii
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: had no money left to travel, they couldn't play a series.
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  Speaker 3: So they had to play one playoff game in Tacoma.
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  Speaker 3: They went in there and they beat them as Bobby
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: Valentine hit a home run to win it. Well, then
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: they had to move on to the overall championship against
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: Eastern Division champion Salt Lake City. But again, they could
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: not afford to travel at all. They couldn't afford hotels.
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: They couldn't afford planes. So they couldn't play any home games.
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  Speaker 3: So they shortened the series from best of seven to
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  Speaker 3: best of five, all games being played in Salt Lake City.
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  Speaker 3: So they had no home games. So they played the
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  Speaker 3: entire series in Salt Lake City. But because a couple
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: of players weren't getting paid, they quit right before the playoffs.
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  Speaker 3: The two best players, pitcher Diego Segui and the power
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: hitter Adrian Garrett. They both left the team. So the
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: team goes into the playoffs, shorthanded, underdogs to win it all.
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  Speaker 3: And in five games, they ended up beating Salt Lake City.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, it was incredible. They came from behind several
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: times to win games. And it was miraculous that they
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: were able to overcome just a mountain of obstacles and
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  Speaker 3: the players stuck and win the championship. And it stayed
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  Speaker 3: with him because I thought this could never happen today.
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  Speaker 3: Can you imagine telling players, well, you're not going to
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  Speaker 3: get paid next week, so why don't you just go
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  Speaker 3: ahead and play for free? Come on now. They wouldn't
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: do that. They'd take a hike. So it was a
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  Speaker 3: unique situation that I knew would Only existed then because
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  Speaker 3: they had a group of major leaguers and young prospects
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  Speaker 3: that just seemed to meld together and decide to be
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  Speaker 3: ballplayers rather than anything else. They played through the obstacles
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  Speaker 3: and won the championship. And it stayed with them forever.
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  Speaker 3: And so that's why I wrote the book.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's a great story. It was obviously a different
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  Speaker 2: time back in those days, but Hawaii is such a
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: great place to be. Were there guys on that team
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  Speaker 2: that didn't want to end up back in the major
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  Speaker 2: leagues because they loved being in Hawaii? What was that like?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. They had one player, Rod Gasper. I think
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  Speaker 3: he played there for I don't know, eight years. He
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  Speaker 3: had played with the New York Mets in the 69
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  Speaker 3: World Series, but never got back to the big leagues.
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  Speaker 3: He played there his whole career, which would never have,
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: they wouldn't let that happen now. One guy continued to
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  Speaker 3: play that long. But the Padres were not very good
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  Speaker 3: at that time. They were the parent team. So quite
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: often a player would call up to the Padres and
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: really didn't want to go. He'd just stay in Hawaii
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: the rest of the particularly somebody who had the taste
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: of Major League Ball and knew that it was going
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: to be temporary anyway. So, yeah, it was a great
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: place to play. I mean, the weather was great. The travel, though.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: The travel was the real problem because they had to
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: travel you know the closest city was 3,000 plus miles
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: away and they had to pay for half of the
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: visiting teams travel when the team came to Hawaii for
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: games so that almost broke them in itself but yeah
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: so but they were Jack Quinn was their general manager
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: and looking back on it they a great job, like
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: a juggler, keeping balls in the air and keeping his
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: team solvent for so many years. And he ended up
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: getting fired by the team several years later because the
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: attendance began to drop. The team moved away to the
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: Colorado Springs and began the Sky Sox.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: OK, there you go. And then you had to do recreations, right?
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: I was reading this and you. What was that like?
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: This is I remember Ronald Reagan. He had to do
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: that like in Iowa. So explain for those. I'm guessing
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: there's younger people, Mel, have no idea what that is.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: But you you had to recreate what was going on.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: Explain exactly how that worked and how often you had
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: to do that.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: Well, we did it for most of the road games,
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: which is half the schedule. So that's 70-some games. And recreation, basically,
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: what you're doing is because the team and the radio
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: station couldn't afford to send the announcers on the road
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: and pay for flight and hotel and food and all
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: that stuff, they just decided to do recreation. So we'd
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: stay in the studio in Honolulu while the team would
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: be on the roads in Salt Lake City. We would
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: make contact with a reporter who was at the game.
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: We would have him call us like every three innings.
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: And he'd call us just basic facts like Gasper, single
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: to center field, Turner, fly ball to left, home run,
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: one to nothing. So it's just basic stuff. So we
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: would make up the game. We'd sit in front of
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: the microphone, and we would make up the game, the
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: count and everything. So that's one strike would become, well,
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: here's the windup and the pitch is on the way,
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: fastball flung out of the mess, and it's 0-1. And, ah,
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: good crowd here tonight, there, you know, 15,000 people, possibility
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: of some rain, as usual, but here's the pitch, strike two.
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: So we basically fake our way through the game, but
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: we had sound effects, actual sound effects recorded at games
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: that we used. We had an engineer who would punching
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: the sound effects and background was a crowd that ran
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: the whole time. But then you heard people yelling and
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: things like that. But one problem, what we had was
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: these guys would call with reports like every three innings,
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: but say it got to be the sixth inning in
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: one game. This is a true story. Got to be
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: the sixth and Hawaii was ahead, I think, four to nothing.
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: And the phone call never came. Apparently, the reporter had
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: finished his job, closed up his typewriter and had gone
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: home and forgot to call us for the final score.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: So we said, what the hell are we going to do?
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: We looked at each other and said, well, fuck it,
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: let's just fake it. So we did. We faked the
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: last three innings, and thank God nobody scored, and the
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: score stayed the same, and our score agreed with what
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: was in the paper the next day.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: That's great.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: That's great. A lot of times we had to stall
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: because we were waiting for a phone call and we
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: didn't have it yet, so we'd have to stall. Somebody
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: would fall out of the stands. There was Morgana the
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: Kissing Bandit who would cry on the field, give the
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: pitcher a kiss. There were problems with the mound. All
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: kinds of ways to stall. But then when the game
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: was over and we were above a.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: Bar hung blue. So after the game's over, we go
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: down to the bar and have a couple of cold
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: ones and people would see us and think, well, how'd
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: you get back so fast? We were at Salt Lake
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: City tonight and you're back here. How's it possible?
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: You teleported.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: You teleported. Yeah, I was going to ask you, did
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: people know that you were not at the games? I
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: guess they thought you were at the games.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's great. Because it sounded good. yeah so real
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: i mean the crowd sounds were the same and uh
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: you know our excitement was although was very high and
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: they were hard as hell to do mentally they really
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: were you had to concentrate you had to keep track
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: of the count the outs uh you know come up
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: with colorful stories and So it was really a mental
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: challenge to try to do it. So they, they did
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: that for the most of the season until we got
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: to the playoffs. And then they, they began to broadcast
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: them live and actually televised the final series in Salt
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: Lake city. It was the first time they televised baseball.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: That's great. And you also described, and I love this.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: I want you to tell this story. It's in the book.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: So when people buy the book and again, Mel's hanging
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: out with us here, And I don't know if this
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: is in the book. This might be in the book.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: I think I read this. I was skimming after the
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: overnight show. And I haven't read the whole thing. But
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: Mickey Mantle, right? This is a childhood hero. Young Mel
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: Proctor loved Mickey Mantle. And you had a chance to
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: meet Mickey Mantle. It did not go as planned, though.
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: Am I correct?
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: Can you explain that story?
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: That is correct. Mantle was long retired at the time.
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: But he had come to Hawaii and he was going
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: to put on the home run hitting exhibition before the game. So,
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: you know, he did. He did a bunch of home
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: runs wearing his Yankee uniform. And I had been a
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: huge Mickey Mantle fan as a kid. I couldn't wait
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: to interview him because they said he was going to
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: join me during the broadcast. So we're there on a
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: little stadium doing the game. And I see Mantle coming
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: up the stairs to my broadcast location. He was kind
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: of wobbly at the time, and I knew he'd like
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: to have a few cocktails. But when he sat down,
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: the combination of his Oklahoma accent and whatever he'd been drinking,
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: you couldn't understand a word he was saying. It was
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: like he was speaking foreign. And I did an interview
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: with him, and it broke my heart because he was
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: my idol, and he's obviously just... hammered and so we
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: did the interview and I let him go I had
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: tears on my eyes I watched him go down the
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: stairs and he was stumbling all the way he stopped
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: to hit on one of the Hawaii Islander ball girls
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: and she said she said no so he kept stumbling
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: down went into the clubhouse went into the clubhouse after
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: the game and Mano was leaning up against the wall
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: passed out And I still remember my tears that came
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: to my eyes. I thought, ah, this is terrible. You know,
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: I debated whether to even write about the incident in
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: the book because I thought so highly of Mickey Mantle,
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: but I wrote about it because it was unique.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I mean, absolutely. I guess they do say,
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: isn't the quote, Mel, don't be careful, you know, getting
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: what you want in life, meeting your heroes.
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: You might not want to meet your.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: Heroes because they might... They might be.
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it does.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: It does happen.
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: I should have at least gotten his autograph because it
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: would be worth a lot of money. I was so
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: turned off by his being drunk that I just decided,
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: how the hell was it?
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: Well, you came across, you know, you've written a bunch
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: of books. Obviously, this one is about the Hawaii team,
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: but you've written about your career. And you've been able
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: to meet, like, the biggest legend. Muhammad Ali, guys like that,
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: and Will Chamberlain. You've run across these guys in your career.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: What was it like being around Earl Weaver? That must
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: have been wild. You got a good Earl Weaver story
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: for me, Mel?
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. Earl was a classic. He was a great manager. Really,
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: this was before analytics, but there was a team dentist
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: named Charles Steinberg who went on to work with several
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: major league teams after that. He's now running a team
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: in Pawtucket. But Earl hired him, I think he was
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: an intern, to just keep basic stats, like how a
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: hitter had done against a particular pitcher, that type of thing.
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: It was just numbers, you know, like this hitter, we
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: had 10 hits and 14 bats, that type of thing.
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: He'd keep track of it, but he'd use the information
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: to prepare his lineups. And so, and he platooned a
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: lot based on that. And so, you know, he was
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: a great manager, handled pitching staff well, had some great
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: pitchers like Jim Palmer and and many others. But Earl
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: loved to have a cocktail or two or three. And
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: he liked to take the broadcasters and the writers out
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: to dinner once in a while. A famous story is
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: Earl was in a restaurant and was hammered. And telling
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: stories in a loud voice with foul language And some
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: guy sitting nearby with his family got up and came
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: over and said, well, Mr. Weaver, I really respect you
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: as a manager, but my family's here. And, you know,
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: it's embarrassing when the language you're using and everything. So
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: Earl said, okay, I'm sorry. I'll quiet down. So the
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: guy went back to his table. Earl sat down again
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: and started telling stories. And the volume started to increase again.
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: And so did the foul language. And it came over
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: and again complained about it. Earl said, you know, I
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: asked you once, can you please curtail all this behavior?
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: And Earl said, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the guy
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: went back and sat down again. Well, then Roe was
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: sitting there eating and he passed out and his face
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: fell flat into his food. He just passed out face down.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: Uh, that's great. Uh, the, the old days now they
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: would be on TMZ, right? These days, Mel, it would
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: be on social media, like the stuff that you were
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: able to experience that you can't like, you just can't
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: recreate that. And I got to tell you, yeah, go ahead.
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: I said, uh, The things we said on the air,
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: you could never get away with now either. I mean,
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: our bosses at Home Team Sports, they were liberal in
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: starting a new cable system, needed viewers, so they were
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: willing to give us some leeway. So we said things
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: on the air that would get us fired today. Yeah.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: And I got to tell you, the Earl Weaver Manager's Corner,
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: which I know never aired, that blooper was all my...
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: It is a masterpiece, Mel. It is a masterpiece. from Earl.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: It's on YouTube, so if somebody wants to go check it,
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: it's called... I've got that.
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: It was he and Tom Barr, radio announcer, faked a
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: pregame show that Earl normally did, and Earl used every
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: foul word in the book. And, I mean, it sounded
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: like a real show, but it's hilarious.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: Oh, it is so good. And I did come across,
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: when I was preparing for this, I want you to know, Mel,
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: I do prepare... I came across the fact that the
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: Washington Bullets, you were a promotional item at a Washington
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: Bullets game back in the day. Do you still have,
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: I guess it was a coffee cup, is that correct?
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: Do you still have the coffee cup with your face
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: on it?
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. I mean, Hockey Sports gave away some. coffee
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: cups with a bullet insignia on one side and my
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: face on the other. Yeah.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: That's great.
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: That's a collector's item.
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: That's a great giveaway. That's outstanding. Back in the day
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: with the.
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they were... Home Team Sports was... a great job
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: because I was doing the Orioles, the Bullets, many college events,
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: did some boxing, and they gave me the freedom to
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: do network stuff. So I was out doing football for
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: CBS and NBC or basketball for TNT and eventually baseball
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: for Fox and making all this money on the side.
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: and had a full-time job. So it was, it was great.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: Wasn't there a story too? I, I, I read somewhere
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: that you, your flight, there was some fog or something.
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: You had to take a very expensive cab like that. Well,
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: can you explain, explain what happened? You were doing a,
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: it was an NFL game you were doing, I believe.
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah. It was an NFL game for mutual radio. And
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: I was working with a former Oakland Raider, uh, Dave. And, um,
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: We were supposed to do a game in Seattle. So
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: I was doing a bullet game in Chicago the night before.
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: So he flew into Chicago and met me. We were
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: going to fly out that morning, the day of the game. Actually,
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: we're coming off the coast. So it was a Sunday morning.
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: So we were going to fly to Seattle. But the
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: flights were delayed because it fogged in and There was
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: another one a little later on American Airlines, but it
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: was full because all the people had gotten off the
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: canceling flight to get on it. But we convinced American
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: Airlines big cheese to get us on the plane. So
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: he pulled two people off the plane, got us on,
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: and we flew, but we couldn't fly to Seattle. We
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: had to fly to Portland because Seattle was fogged in.
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: So we got to Portland and... Now it's getting closer
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: to game time. The game, I think, is at one o'clock.
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: And by then it's probably 10 o'clock in the morning.
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: So we had to somehow get to Seattle for the game. Well,
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: Dave and I looked at each other and said, well,
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: what are you going to do? Well, let's take a taxi.
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: So I asked the cab driver, I said, what will
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: it cost to go? all the way from Portland to Seattle.
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: And he said, oh, geez, you know, several hundred dollars.
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: And I said, I'll tell you what, you shut down
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: this cab for the rest of the day. We'll pay
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: you $ 250 if you take us to Seattle. So we
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: jumped in the cab and this guy called into his
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: company and said, I'm unavailable for the rest of the day.
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: So he drove, you know, 95 miles an hour. We're
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: looking at it. Seattle. And it's now it's maybe an
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: hour before the game. Okay. So he gets us there
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: and we give him a big chip. But we had
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: all our luggage to carry, too, and the stadium was
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: starting to fill up at the time. So it's crowded,
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: and we can't get in. I mean, we had to
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: wait in the line to get in. Finally, we just
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: ran through security and yelled, NBC Radio or NBC Mutual
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: Radio or whatever the hell it was, and ran up
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: to our broadcast booth. By then, it's almost game time.
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: And there were two replacement announcers that were ready to
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: make their debut. They were sitting there with their headsets on,
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: just ready for the producer to count down and tell
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: them to go. And we rushed into the booth, pulled
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: the headsets off their heads, and took it away from
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: them and ended up doing the game. So we got
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: the broadcast in. But then after, we were supposed to
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: fly back, but you couldn't get out of Seattle because
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: of the fog. And so... We were stuck in Seattle,
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: so I called our boss. Actually, it was NBC Radio.
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: I called NBC Radio and explained to them the problem.
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: Flights weren't getting out of there. We probably would be
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: stuck in Seattle for two days, and they didn't want
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: to pay for a hotel on the extra expense. I said, look,
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: I'll see if I can find a private airline that
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: will do it. We tried to call a lot of
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: charter services and they wouldn't fly either because it was
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: too dangerous for the weather. Finally, I found one. One service,
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: the guy said, well, I can get you from here
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: to San Francisco and then you can get a flight
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: out of San Francisco to Washington, D.C. or wherever you've gone.
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: We paid this charter service, I think it was $ 1, 000
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: or something to take a plane. Well, we didn't find
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: out until This company was near bankruptcy, and the guy
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: needed the money desperately. So he decided to ignore the
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: warnings of danger and fly anyway. So he flew. Oh,
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: he couldn't see a damn thing. There was so much fog.
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: But he stayed low, and he somehow got us to
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: San Francisco, where we made connections with our flight crew.
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: I didn't find out until I was in Seattle for
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: another game. And this girl who had worked for the
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: airline company came up to our booth to say hello.
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: And I, of course, took her out to dinner. Over
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: dinner and a few cocktails, she told me the story
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: about how the owner of the airlines was going broke
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: but desperately needed the money, and so he risked our
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: lives to fly to San Francisco. Wonderful.
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: Oh, boy. Well, Mel, how can people find the book?
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: It's called Destitute Dogs. Again, Mel Proctor, longtime voice of
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: The Washington, D.C. sports scene and all that. But this
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: story is a fascinating story. Not a lot of people
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: know about it. And it's a great, great read. A
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: lot of good stories in here. And how can people
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: find the book? Where do you want them to buy it, Mel?
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: Where do you make the most money from the book, Mel?
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: That's the question.
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: Amazon. Contact Amazon.
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: Okay. Amazon.
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: It's available in the hardback, the paperback, and e-book. I
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: think it's well worth the purchase and I hope folks
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: will enjoy it. It was fun to write and it
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: was fun to interview all those old players again.
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: Buy the book.
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: Buy the book. Mel, we love you. I've always enjoyed
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: watching you over the years and when you did all
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: the games and even got to know you a little
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: bit with the clips at the end there. Thank you
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: and we appreciate it.
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: Ben, I thank you. You do such a great job
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: and You were one of the first people I wanted
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: to turn to to talk about this because you do
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: such a great job interviewing. So thank you so much
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: for your friendship.
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: Appreciate it. The great Mel Proctor.