Club Random with Bill Maher - Bob Costas | Club Random with Bill Maher

Episode Date: March 6, 2023

Bill Maher and the great Bob Costas randomly riff on the passing of Bill’s mentor Richard Belzer, Bill’s favorite Sports Illustrated cover, why today’s baseball pitchers are so frail, the legendary announcer Bill never liked, the best example of racial harmony in our culture, Bob’s take on Fox News and CNN, Bob’s favorite part of Real Time, why Bob turned down doing 60 Minutes, and what Bill hates about the NFL.

Club and you. Club castus. You were very tongue. You were very nice. Dimension to virtue. Also of the sports casting world. There. That's correct. You have that picture I gave to you in here.

Not only do I have it. I gave Bob a picture. You mentioned it to Stephen A. I did. Yeah. Right. Well, I mentioned it again, because I had it for 50 years. I cut it out of TV guide. It was an ad for Howard Coast for ABC news, like on at 630 local in New York. Right. I witnessed news. I witnessed news and it had the picture of the two news twinks. The weather guy. I guess the two news guys, and then Howard Coussell.

Oh, no, no, no. I'm sorry. It was Jim Bouton, Frank Giffry. Right. It was the two athletes. Yeah. It said two guys who got there because they played ball and one guy who got there because he never played ball.

And you said to Stephen A. Smith that you gave it to me, which I appreciate it very much. It was a lovely touch after a taping of real time. After 50 years in my file. And you said that you've regretted it ever since. So, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, oh, there it is. Yep.

I don't regret it at all. It has a place of honor in my office. You have to put it back there. Oh, that's where it's going. This over your head. It's so, it's all the of fake and off. It's so, it's so awesome. You know what that reminds me of though? When you almost did a spit take, the, when you were on later, this is like 30 years ago on NBC. 94, almost. Yeah. After David Letterman on NBC, and we scarcely knew each other then, we had a very good show, and somehow we're talking about these old comedy tropes,

one of which was the spit take, and Danny Thomas was famous for the spit take. Never so, so, no, we agreed. The spit take is not Danny Thomas. Never funny, right? But I then think I'll demonstrate a spit-take. I'll add Danny Thomas and I say, and about 1% of the people watching

is when we get the reference. You know, Uncle Tannous is coming from Toledo on Tuesday, and I take a swig, but it was orange juice. Just, yeah, fuck the whole thing up. Well, it's good to hear you say fuck. There you go. I feel like you're liberated here. Are you drinking? Can I? I have some Cabernet. I was gonna go.

Cabernet. Yeah. It was in the green room. I didn't even know you were gay, Bob, but that's fine. I like all of it. It's a very... It's a very diverse... Oh, by the way, I was reading Richard Belzer's obituary. Yeah. And they actually quoted in the New York Times, I love this.

And I mean, that's a deep chair. That paper is horrible to me, but they got this right. Belzer, you know, was my mentor when I started a catcher rising star. And so it kind of hit me hard when he died. I should have talked about this with Deepak. And they wrote about him being Detective Munch and all those shows. And that's how people knew him. But what they didn't know was that was that Bill.

So that's what he did. He felt into something that let him buy a house in France. That's right. It's wonderful. But he was the black knight of comedy. You know, when I was at catcherizing, the bells. I mean, he never was able to like get it, find a way to get it out of that little rat scalar called catcherizing star and have a translate to the rest of the world very well. But in his element, he was amazing.

And it quoted one night, don't it would say, you know, you didn't want to hackle bells. I remember bells were one saying, it's like kissing a cobra babe. And a guy said, nice jacket. And bells are said, apparently, thanks. I got it on sale in your mom's vagina. got it on sale in your mom's vagina. I got it on sale in your mom's vagina. I got it on sale in your mom's vagina. I got it on sale in your mom's vagina. I got it on sale in your mom's vagina. I got it on sale in your mom's vagina. I got it on sale in your mom's vagina.

I got it on sale in your mom's vagina. I got it on sale in your mom's vagina. I got it on sale in your mom's vagina. I got it on sale in your mom's vagina. I got it on sale in your mom's vagina. I got it on sale in your mom's vagina. I got it on sale in your mom's vagina. I got it on sale in your mom's vagina.

I got it on sale in your mom's vagina. Classic come back. Well, it's not something you'll hear from Uncle Milti. I got it on sale in your mom's vagina. Classic come back. Well, it's not something you'll hear from Uncle Milti. Uncle Milti. He was kind of funny.

He was kind of funny. He could be funny. Milti, Milti, could be funny. Should I tell a Milti story? When when i was thirteen he was funny if kids don't know melton burl who was he bob mr. twos day night he dominated early television in the right right even before our time mhm i don't remember him except when he was a little over the hill but he was so famous he'd be doing things like the hollywood palace right you know he'd be like guest hosting you know this this is our tissue business and boy the ride down is less fun than the right and he was down hard he did well he did he he he wasn't he he wasn't ushered out with his with his full blessing

well you know very few are i mean show business is addictive and you have to often drag people off the stage there are very few few Greta Garbo's who quit early. Well, Johnny Carson. Johnny Carson, yeah. Never, never look back. No, no. Remember the last show he said, maybe someday when I find something I'd like to do,

I'll be talking to you again and he never did. Right. Well, he died. So that that that kind of puts it into it. Yeah, but not immediately, but he had maybe that that that got kind of puts it into it. Yeah. Yeah, but not immediately, but yeah, he had maybe another eight, nine years of life, something like that. But he I bet you he wasn't well because he was like a four pack a day. He was 12 more. I mean, he wouldn't be like playing tennis.

Blank tennis. Right. But you know, not too long ago, like your guys on the match, Keith Hernandez, going to be in the corner of the dugout, taking a drag. You know what, there was a cover of sports illustrated. I don't know why I saw it because we didn't get sports illustrated because it probably cost a dollar. But there was a cover in 1972. I bet you still have that too, but you're not getting that one.

That I think I saved all these jokes, and I thought it was the coolest thing, Richie Allen. You remember Richie Allen? Dick Allen? Dick Allen. Okay. He was a, I thought he was the baddest dude in the world because he was a bad boy. He was. But he was great when he played, right?

Okay. What was he on the Indians? He started with the Phillies in 64, and then he was with the Cardinals, with the White Sox. Okay, so in his prime, there he is, on the cover, it's for its illustrated, batting helmet on juggling two baseballs in the dugout with a cigarette in his mouth.

Yeah, you remember that? Yep, I do. I just thought, I wanna be that guy. Yeah, he was, you know, I do. I just thought, I want to be that guy. Yeah, he was, you know, he's one of those guys and there's a long list and we've talked about baseball a lot. Guys who are better than guys who are in the Hall of Fame, but somehow they're not. Like? I'm maddeningly Dave Parker, Keith Hernandez, if Keith.

Or all not in? All not in. If Keith Hernandez, who doesn't have enormous batting statistics, because of different era, but he's the greatest defensive first-basement ever. Brooks Robinson is the greatest defensive. Is that right? Yeah, I think so. And Brooks Robinson is the greatest defensive third-basement ever, and he was by acclimation

of Hall of Fame. I have no problem with that, but if he's in, then Keith Hernandez should be in. And Dick Allen is certainly better and was a more feared hitter than many of his contemporaries who wound up in the Hall of Fame. That's the end of that. People can hear me say that anywhere. Not, you don't have to belabor that and love random.

What they can hear is that I heard Keith Hernandez. Yeah. What? What? I don't know where you going with this. In his heyday, he was just like the ultimate dog. I am not going to contradict that. I'm not going to elaborate it on necessarily, but I will not contradict it. Keith Hernandez with the cocaine, and he just had this swagger.

He brought the swagger to the match. He was the Dave DeBusher of that team. Like he was this guy who comes in and gives them a kind of a grit, right? He knew how to win. And he would hold other players to account. Right. You know, you look at that team, a lot of teams in sports now, even if they're good, they don't have a vivid team personality.

You think of that met team. Strawberry and good and both dynamic, so to poignant, because if you asked any general manager in the game, you could pick one pitcher and one position player for the next 10 years, almost unanimously, they would have said goodin' and strawberry, and both of them seemed bound for the Hall of Fame and neither fulfilled their potential,

but they're unforgettable. They weren't just, they were beautiful to watch. And you had Gary Carter and and you had Rain Knight, and you had Keith Hernandez. That team had personality to it. Yeah, Mookie Wilson, right? Yeah, I remember watching it in the bar at the improv, the 86 World Series, I was only

out here a few years, and just I think Seinfeld was there and like all the New York guys. Seinfeld lots of sets. Yeah, no, I've been to games with them. You know where I was when the ball went through Buckner's legs? Calling it. In the Red Sox Clubhouse, no Vince Sculley's calling it. Red Sox Clubhouse.

Oh yeah, because they were going to win. They were going to win for the first time since 1918. There had never been an interview of a winning Red Sox team, because even radio didn't exist then for the World Series. And I'm up on a platform and the cameras are in place. And they put the plastic over the lockers, anticipating the champagne spray. And then comes the commissioner who is U-Roth, then.

And frail Mrs. Yawke. Tom Yawke's widow. She looked like a stiff breeze would blow her from Queens to the Bronx. And she comes in and here's the trophy on the stand. And there's two outs and nobody on base. And the red socks are up by two. And it all unravels. And by the time the ball goes through Buckner's legs, they'd broken the whole thing down.

It was like changing a set and a Broadway show. They broke the whole thing down in like was like changing a set in a Broadway show. They broke the whole thing down in like Would seem to me like a minute. I slide out the door because I say to Mike Weissman who's the producer What do I do if the meds tie the game and you just get the hell out of there as fast as you can and I get out and I'm standing in the hallway while the red socks are coming down the tunnel and not a word is spoken until one guy crashes a bat against the concrete wall and only one word punctuates this entire scene. And I'll say it again. Fuck! And that was it. It was complete ashen phase silence. Well, they probably didn't want to make their teammate Buckner feel worse than he did, but

well, they all respected him. He was a gamer, he was gritty, and he was a very, very good player. Yeah, I mean, that just shows the, wow, life can be just brutal mysteries, because like one mistake, and that's just, I mean, he will always be, he could find the cure for cancer tomorrow. It would be Bill Buckner, cancer cure, let ball go through. Right. He got two hits in game seven after that came six. He had like 2700 hits in his career.

He was a near hall of fame player. Why are, why are pictures today? I guess all athletes do a degree, but especially I see it with pictures. Like, why are they so much more frail? If we're so much more advanced, now we have better nutrition. Like, when you read about pictures of yesterday, shall we say, like, I believe in the 1905

World Series, I'm recalling this from either djorge will or the or from or from club random with steven a smith only about a month ago ice i mentioned that christie mathus and a nineteen or five three complete game shout out yes okay so how is that possible that he could have done that

and today's pictures can't go seven in the well, I'm watching you with Stephen A. Smith. I'm thinking of what my answer is. Part of it is the size of the contracts and both the player and the team don't want a risk injury. So they protect them. The analytics say that even the best pictures third time through the lineup, they lose something. Pictures used to pace themselves, even the best pictures,

pace themselves through the course of a game. I remember Tom Seever saying to me, late in his career, I can still throw 95, but I've only got about six or seven of them per game, and I'm not gonna waste them on the number eight hitter in the fourth inning with two outs and nobody on base. I'm saving it for when I need it, but they don't know when I'm gonna use it.

Now, the average picture, and certainly a a relief picture comes out and just lets the throttle out for 90 pitches, 100 pitches to your starter, for that one inning if you're a reliever. That's why so many guys that are an improved biomechanics, why so many guys are thrown in the high 90s, even the low 100s. And so that's what the managers and the front office want them to do. Another part of it though is this. This is true in the early stages of any sport. The greatest players are more dominant against the average player because the overall quality has not caught up the mechanics of the game, the approach of the game. So, Christy Matthewsson, let's say Christy Matthewsson's

a rough equivalent of Justin Verlander today. Justin Verlander's facing better competition than Christy Matthewsson faced in 1905. Right. Right. Well, it was all white. All white. Yes.

Right. But also the game itself, the techniques of the game itself have not developed. I must say, I'm sorted down on sports because of like, I mean, we can talk about this, you know, overreferring. But what makes me up about, what I love about sports is I feel like in a society that is increasingly full of bullshit.

Yeah. It is the last place where I know I trust merit Winning out is what which is kind of connected what why I hate Repping mistakes so much. What is the last place? Where merit will always went out. I have complete trust that with all the bullshit and corruption Those are the 12 best basketball players that team could find or the 25 best base, the best. There's no such thing as a nepot baby in sports. There are, there are certainly the sion of players, right? Yes. Of course. Right. But, but they had to be

good. If Ronnie James can't play, he's not going to be in the NBA very long. Dale Berra. Right. Dale Berra as opposed to Ken Griffey Jr. Who is better than Ken Griffey's senior. Right. Now, of course, if you were, if you were father was a great player, you have the bandages like DNA and the jeans and also you've been around the game. They were the Batboy or something. So they're not like, oh my gosh, I'm on a majorly, I feel they grew up with it. All that is an advantage. But you still have to have the goods and the disciplines and lots of other things. There are no nepo babies,

which is this term that you have now for a long time. Which, look, I have, I'm agnostic on liking them. I don't dislike them. I just always want to say to them, just don't say you had to work harder or it really wasn't an advantage or once you get the job, you have to do the work. Most of the showbiz is getting the job.

So, okay, fuck Napo, baby. But, well they can open the door for you, but eventually, if you've got the goods or not is gonna be exposed. But opening the door is not that hard. I mean, opening the door for you, but eventually if you've got the goods or not, is gonna be exposed. But opening the door is not that hard. I mean, opening the door is hard. It's, the work is not that hard. Acting is not that hard.

I could act right now. I can be mad at you, Bob. That was a little kid in there. Or I could be very upset. Sad. Merrill Streep, you have been exposed. And it's called, you have been outed. Anybody can do what you do. No, not anybody can do what she does, but anybody can do it like 95% of them do. Fair enough.

On the top level, you're right. I couldn't think of a lot of people who could do Sophie's choice. Or in comedy, I don't think anybody else, but Jim Carrey could have done Ace Ventura for example. Well that's a wild kind of thought. Yes, there are certain things, but in general it's a bunch of bullshit. Anyway, what was my point? I don't know.

We were talking about that you like sports because it's a meritocracy, which is why a person who was willing to shrug their shoulders about manifest injustice in society will become all bonkers over something that shows on replay that by a micro millimeter, that guy should have been safe instead of out. I see, this just drives me crazy because again, it's so great to have someplace in society where you have this trust, like we don't have it in government. I don't trust government, I don't trust, you know, a lot of religion come on.

I gave up on that a million years ago. You did? I didn't know that. Yeah, I tried to keep quiet. You know, I trust some friends, close friends, but trust is not a big, but I trust. Those are the best players they can find. Yes.

And that, and it cuts a, there's no equity, there's no, you know, ratio, whatever, wherever in the world you are. You know, that's, I mean, basketball is a lot of European players now. Yes. For Africa, everywhere, you know, it's like wherever you are, we will find you. Is it, that's why when people say about Major League Baseball, which once had a much larger African-American presence than it does now, now it's in single digits, I don't know, 8% something like that. But players of color, there's a huge number of players of Hispanic background and increasing

the pairs of Asian background. So you can't make a plausible case that the reason there are relatively few black players compared to generations ago is because baseball doesn't want them. Baseball wants whoever can play best wherever they can find them. See, and this is the kind of thing. I think you and I are eye on like we're old school liberals. Yes. You know, we were always there for the cause. And but then there's people now who just want to like always make a thing where there isn't a thing. I had somebody

tried to tell me that this was a thing we are and it is for a lot of people. A project they should work on getting more African-Americans to play baseball. It's like, why? If they want to play baseball, it would be a problem if there was was a long-density play. As there was was. That would be a problem. But they are free to play baseball if they want, or to choose another sport or no sport at all. It's not a problem. And gifted black athletes by and large are migrating toward basketball and football.

But baseball has made efforts to involve, you know, inner-city academies, that sort of thing, the RBI program reviving baseball in the inner cities, that sort of thing because they want talent. I want to fight racism. I don't want to fight non-problems masquerading as racism. You know I'm with you on that. That's the commissioner's ruling on that. I don't think that in order to prove that you're down with a cause that we basically have been down with since childhood and millions of people like us that in order to prove that you have to not in solemn ascent or at the very least keep quiet over any assertion even if that assertion is fact challenged, disproportionate, or illogical. But Bob, we can't even be having this conversation because we're too white men.

Right. So before we're even though that's of all the ways of shutting off debate, you got to give the credit to that one. You know, I heard someone, I can't remember where this may be three or four years ago, and you were the subject. It happened to be a black woman with some sort of academic credentials. And they said, if you took any 11-year-old African-American child off the street by their lived experience, they have more credibility to address any racial issue than Bill Maher, as if intelligence, familiarity with the world itself, including literature of the pet, as if being a sentient human being with an observant eye doesn't count

for anything. Yeah, I can't even Bob. Am I supposed to not in a sentence something that profoundly stupid, just to prove that I'm down with the general cause? I can answer that, yes. You are supposed to. I stand corrected. You are supposed to, but I'm glad that you don't. But yeah, I mean, it's a, it's, it's, it's galling. I think a lot of the younger people they just don't, you know, they, they shut off at their white or their older or, or, which is ironic because that itself is a prejudice.

Like when people come after me, it's very often, especially on Twitter and that kind of stuff, which is younger voices, it's just they don't ever engage with the argument. It's just your old. It's like, okay, I could be a thousand, but am I right? Because you're not even engaging with it, because they can't, because they usually don't have an argument, which is hard to make an argument when you don't know anything. So often they just don't

know anything. You're not going to engage in the argument on its merits. You're just looking for something that you can put out as a disqualifier. You're done. Don't have to consider it. If you know me, you know that I am big on sleep. In fact, I'm asleep right now. You know it helps with sleep? A set of buttery soft sheets from bowl and branch, made with 100% organic cotton threads that get softer with every wash. It's the kind of quality you'll feel immediately. The quality somehow improves after washing and the sheets look and feel like a good night's sleep. And they are the

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When you see the guys on the team, I don't think they're acting for the camera. I don't think they're faking it. The camaraderie? Yes. I also talked about that with Aaron Rogers in these very chairs. And he was like, absolutely. Yeah. You know, you can see guys on the table. And of course, they're young guys. And uh, we're not in a, of course, a post race, racial era or even a post, there is racism era. But we are in an era where,

if you're 22 years old, racism's about the uncoolest thing in the world. Yes. Which is not, it was not the uncoolest thing in the world when we were 22. That's a huge difference. So I just think there's a reason why those locker rooms, look as charming as they do on hard knocks and, you know.

Well, also. And on the field, they're not faking it. Also because you have to prove yourself. Right. You really can't fake it. And again, there's no nepo stuff there. You can't fake it. It's where that, uh, then diagrams with the merit thing

because it's when the guy who's not your race but still got the big hit. And has the good and the game for you at exactly the respect being they have such respect for each other when you when you hear when you hear someone Who's and now maybe we sound like geezers, but someone who follows sports closely maybe they're on Some platformer other they're 30 years old Larry bird was pretty good, but he was overrated Why was he overrated because he was white? Okay, this is when Dominique Wilkins and Charles Barkley and every black player who played against him says, shut the F up.

You have no idea what you're talking about. This guy not only was good, he was tough. He was, we look at him as an individual. Are the vast majority of modern NBA players who are great black? Yes, but isn't the idea to look at somebody as an individual right somebody could be black and they could be a nerd but a good nerd a good nerd they become a scientist why can't a white guy be an exception to be a really good basketball player so why did you go back to saying the s i don't know i don't know

because i want to fuck sin and you get all i figured my limit was three and I want to save one for when it really counts. No limit. I mean that's for sure. Alright then fuck it. Exactly. There you go. You realize what happens here, not to you, but to me, this will be like, there'll be somewhere on YouTube.

Let's watch Bob Costa say fuck for a minute. But you sat down and said, I'm 70, I don't give a fuck anymore. Okay, so like, what is it? Are you going with that or not? Because I think you got nothing to lose. What are they going to do? Throw you off major league. What me in TV jail?

Are they, like, the people who are listening to you, and I listen to you, I mean, I, you're one of the few, maybe the only guy I've ever, oh, Tim McArvore, I used to love too. But like, I love Tim. Well, we'll have a game on just to hear the announcer. You know, I think Vin Scully was like that for a lot of people. Vin Scully, I never liked him. Ooh, there's a bold statement.

I didn't, I'm sorry, I didn't like that much. It just graded on me. She most people found it melodic. melodic? No, he was not my favorite. I know, rest in peace, nothing. I know he was not my favorite. I know rest in peace nothing Feud about fucking 89 year old memory of then and to his family. Yeah, I was close to him I loved him. I revered him. Oh

Here's you know what? It's matter of taste exactly not everybody's my fan either even the most popular I'm not apologized even the most popular are not universally popular and he's not here anymore to be insulted by it And he shouldn't be insulted anyway because I'm allowed not to like him Did he watch every episode of real time? I doubt it. He might not have watched one Fuck Vince go. Oh stop. I can't I can't be in proximity to this kind of sacrilege Oh, suddenly a fucking guy. I'm 70 is apologizing on to camera. Okay I'm 70 is apologizing on to camera. Okay, but but you I will listen to again. You know, you've seen the really are you gonna get in trouble about then know about anything that's no no no no no just people will have people have fun with it if they think somebody could call a game better than

you. That's what I always say to these people who are like, you're old, I mean, yeah, then do it better. That's what you can't do. Well, you're old, yeah, well. Couple of things. Couple of things. You've always been very kind about this. I was doing a game a few years ago in Chicago,

Cup game at Rigglyfield. And I got texts during the game, which I'll look at them sometimes during a commercial, like within five minutes of each other, from you and from George Will, saying how much they enjoyed the broadcast. Because when I get it right, I hope it has a certain texture to it. You can make an apple pie with basic ingredients, or you can have a recipe that has a few additional ingredients.

But sometimes, when you try that, you don't get it exactly right. And since you brought this up, and this is always something that you have to be careful about if you care at all, which is this. You say something no matter how well you say it, and then somebody takes it, and either knowingly misrepresent it or just through their own clumsiness,

you get a version of it that makes it seem as if it's not worth the effort that it took to say it. But since we're sitting here and we're talking about baseball for the moment, this past October, I did the Yankees and the Guardians in the Division series and I felt like I was off my game. So to like a picture who still has good stuff, but somehow as they say, he didn't have command that night and I could feel it like in the first five or six innings of the first game It's the same philosophy same approach, but I wasn't nailing it

It didn't have the same flow and rhythm to it. There were a few awkward moments I hadn't worked that much with Ron Darling only two or three games very smart guy a guy really like you must like On the next broadcast And doesn't Gary Cohen they're a terrific group. Okay, so three games, very smart guy, a guy I really like. You must like him. I like it. I do. That's broadcast. I do like it. He's a man doesn't Gary Cohen. They're a terrific group. Okay. So now, men's gully though. Stop with them. But now I don't, I don't place much stock in what two or three people say, you know, on Twitter or something, because on Twitter, there's no misdemeanors.

There's only felonies. Right. But when I knew myself that it just wasn't what I've generally been able to do, and I wasn't comparing myself to 1995 when I'm doing the World Series, I was comparing myself to August and September of last season when things were as they usually were. And somehow, it might have gotten a little better

as the five games went along, but it wasn't what I intended to do. Now, why do I care about that? In answer your question, Am I to gotten a little better as the five games went along, but it wasn't what I intended to do. Now, why do I care about that? In answer your question, I'm back if I want to be back to do it. I'm only doing as much as what I want to do of, I did a dozen Olympics, it's time to leave that. Most of what I've done is in the past, but I only want to do a handful of things.

And one of the things I want to do is a little bit of baseball. Why? Because I've always liked it and because it's gratifying to me when people say the sort of things you say. Well, you do it differently and I appreciate that. I don't need a parade. I just like that. So I felt like I dropped the ball on that. And so I feel bad about it for that reason. Right. Well, first of all, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. Because I watched that series and I, because I watched the playoffs in baseball, I watched a lot of regular season, but occasionally, if you're doing one, if I see it's on, yeah.

Especially if it was the meds. But I never, I'm trying to think back to it's only October. I did not have that thought in my head. Oh, Bob's office game. Yeah, I had a few missteps, but just uncharacteristic. Well, first of all, you know, don't flatter yourself. We're watching the game. I know.

I know. We're making a sandwich. You know, we're not, it's not like an episode of Fauda. You know, we're not hanging on every, it's not the born identity. You're right. So like, do I, do I, just the average person notice if you're off your game a little bit, you know, you're the kind of pro who Carson was like this,

like, I try to be like this, I don't know if I am, but my goal is when I'm at my best, I'm at 100, and when I'm at my worst, I'm at 95. And I don't think you were too far off that. I don't know what you're talking about. There was certainly not. I just feel like there's only one reason to do it. There are now.

I'm about trying to build a career and not do it for the money. The only reason to do it. You enjoy it and you work to get into the bullseye or close to it for the people who always have appreciated your work. So I don't want to let anybody down. Okay.

Everybody goes through this in every sphere of life with athletes. The exact same thing is what we're talking about. I feel it on real time. There are some nights where I'm like, I don't have my good fastball. Okay, but I can get battered out with Jones. You're right. That's an apt analogy. It really is. Oh, the analogy I always use is to fucking that in pitching. I've had I put it in my, my novel, I think, but it always made so much sense to me that pitching was like fucking like, you want to be a power, you start out as a power pitcher. And like, like, and then at some point, you're like, you're like, Tom. I can throw seven good fastballs and

Wait for it wait for it and I gotta be honest. I'm working on a knuckle curve So change the subject. You know who doesn't get enough credit? Your writers are great. The people who write the captions underneath the new rules. It's so funny. You've said this before and this is so funny to me because I am a micromanager. You know, I'm essentially my own head writer. I mean, I have a wonderful head writer, Billy Martin,

who does amazing things, but I have to, it's my voice. I have to like help sound like you. Yes,. I have to like, help sound like you. Yes, I mean, I'm a, I don't like some guys have the head writer read stuff from the other writers and then get a version of the, I read every word, everybody writes. Sure. But okay, so what was my point? New rules, captions. Yes.

The one part of the show. I have no part of. Use your favorite part of the show. That's not my favorite part, but it's a part I like. It's a quirky thing. And you know what? I used to, I used to do, I dropped the ball on this, but for years I would actually phone in my choice for the best caption. And they had a little trophy that they passed around. Like this week you Bob Oshak had the best caption. And next week it's Billy Martin or whatever. Right. And they passed the trophy around.

They called it the cost of something or other. I don't know what it was. I mean, I have been so lucky with my writing crew. I've said this before, but I'm gonna say it again. Paul McCartney once said that he would rather have a band than a Rolls Royce. And I so forget about a writer's room. Of course. Some of these guys we've been together for, I mean, Chris Kelly's been there 30 years. I

mean, since the day one, since I laid the foundation with my Tom Ock, but Billy, you know, a lot of these get bright. I mean, just long, some people 20 years, and it's like when I did my, I think it was my 60th birthday show, it was when I was like begging Obama to finally come on. What she did. What she did. And I was like, family, I don't have time for a family. This is my family. You know, my relationship with my life is with my audience. And, you know, and these are the people who are like in on that relationship. You know, it's a, it's a, you know, we, I'm not the kind of person who ever wants to look back because it scares me. I was talking to Deepak. Shilpa about it. about it, the monster that's chasing me.

So I only look forward. So we don't get sentimental because I feel like you can't afford to get sentimental because then you're looking back and then you're kind of dead already. I know Deepak has a different approach for me. I don't know if I can handle that one. But you know, so we don't like tell each other. We love each other, but like it's a long-term family-style relationship.

We have little fights, but we never really turn our back on each other, you know, it's special. You know, it was, now I'll get a little sentimental, a blessing for me. And you may remember this, you were appearing in St. Louis where I lived most of my adult life. Yeah, I remember being at your house. Yeah, the Canterall House was a Sunday

so we were watching some football. And my son Keith, who's now a producer at the Major League Baseball Network was probably eight years old. Right. And he's walking through the house. And you famously did not have much affinity for kids, but you recognized what a joy he and his sister were for me. And at

that, and he sent something to that effect, I can't remember exactly what it was. Like, hey, it works for you. It works for you. So right around that time, Letterman goes to CBS when he doesn't get the tonight show in Jay Leno does. And David controlled the hour after his. And he offered me, based on my having done later following him on NBC. He offered me that hour. And to sweeten the pot, CBS offered me a correspondent spot on 60 minutes. So there's nothing more prestigious than that. Yeah. You could have been a 60 minutes car. Yes. yes, you're not you're not old enough now. Right. I would have been really the new kid on the block.

Hello, hello, more like you kidding. Hello, Andy. Hello, Mike. Oh, Mike. So the average age of the CBS car is one. It is between 65 and deep. And I'm trying to add some new blood now, you know. John, John worth time.

Why do they need new blood? Anderson Cooper, you know, whatever. So anyway, but part of my thinking was, my kids enter seven and four. You can say to a kid, hey, let's go to the Bulls game, which I could be calling. You'll meet Michael Jordan. Let's go to the Olympics. Let's go to the Olympics. Let's go to the ball game. Well, hang around with, I had the privilege of access.

So my kids had access to all this. You can't say to a kid, I'm interviewing the secretary of state. You want to come with me? Right. And that was a big part of the decision. So you made that decision based on your kids. In part, in large part.

Yeah. Wow, this kid thing. It's really something. I mean, I always say, you know, like, well, a marriage, first of all, like, I understand why poor people do it, but celebrities just make it, he's said to me. And it's sort of the same with kids, but like, it's just, it's such a universal thing,

but I don't feel it at all. And we know that. So why should you even worry about it? No, no, absolutely. No, I mean, I'm sure Deepak's going to do it for you. Change me. Yeah, exactly. It's everything and, you know, you're happily remarried, right? Yeah, I mean, that's been a long-running Broadway show, right? Yep. How long has that been going on? That is, that will be 19 years in a couple of weeks. Wow.

You've got to do something big for 20, don't you? Yeah. Yeah, 20 will be a big thing. I mean, you got to go out of town. No, really. I remember Bob out of town or out of the country. I remember Bob Newhart once on the tonight show telling Johnny Carson about I think it was their 25th anniversary and flying to San Francisco or something. And he said, you know, you just can't go to Chasins. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Such an inside West Coast showbiz thing. Chasins, well, yes, it's been gone for many years now.

But I was, even I was too young. I remember it existed. I don't think I was there, but one time, because I remember, like, they did not take credit cards. Wow. Chastins only took cash. Usually that's a mafia operation. I mean, now it would be almost the reverse.

You know, they're definitely gonna try to get rid of probably currency. Right, you know, everything gonna be digital, which, you know, I don't wanna be one of those conspiracy theorists, but it is a level of government control. You actually have everything on you. What? They love everything on you.

They will. And they'll be able to shut things off automatically. There's going to be lots of, you know, shut off, you know, without you being in your car can already be shut off. Sure. By the robot are over lured, so who are going to be taking over very soon. Are you, are you, are you a, are you a particularly bothered by the GPT chat GPT thing where the robot is actually a adult teenager who says I love you and you saw that story. Basically, you could, I guess in theory, write a memoir, just talk to them and they'd rearrange

your words and they'd give you at least some version, at least the first draft that you could work with, right? Are you plugging anything? No, no. Because anyone who knows me knows how technophobic I am, I had a phone until like five years ago. So I'm not really. Oh, yes, I remember. I still don't email you.

No, but I can get emails now. But you have to go through my assistant. You exactly. Yeah. The world goes through my assistant. It's like bumming a cigarette. It's gross. No, I have an iPhone. Okay. Now, and I have an iPhone.

Well, I have an iPhone right here. Congratulations. Look at that, right here. Welcome to the 90s. Yeah. Okay, so yes, you're good at texting. Yes. These are my dates.

Okay, I'm going to be March 11th. Bally's, oh, Tahoe, like Tahoe. March 11th, March 12th at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco. And April 22nd, oh, I can't, San Francisco. I'm so anxious to go back. I've been there so long. April 22nd, the theater at MGM National Army,

Washington, DC. Oh, that should be good. Okay, and by the way, March 12th, San Francisco, that's the night of the Oscars. So if you wanna laugh, don't stay home. You know what the problem is with the Oscars. I mean, there's not an original observation, just as sitting at home and getting all is with the Oscars. I mean, there's not an original observation just as sitting at home and getting all excited

about the Oscars. There's so much spread out in so many niches on so many platforms. Much of it is very good, but the average person can't say, I saw all these movies or I know all these stars. I'm gonna have a feeling about it. It's okay, but it's a lot that it's also movies we don't want to watch because I did an editorial about this last year. They used to know how to make movies that were about something, something real, something important, not something frivolous, and also make it entertaining.

Yeah. It wasn't just the lady shitting in the bucket or the Korean grandma burns down the house. So, you know, these are just like scol-dee, like virtue signaling, we are on the right side of this issue. They're just sad and we call them the downers. They shouldn't have the Debbie down or the Debbie's. I have the Debbie's. So this is not sounder. Right?

No. From along ago. Yeah, but they used to know how to make a movie that was about something and it was not, it was still, it's not normal. It's still in, which had a message, but it's a great movie. Exactly.

Yeah. Yeah, three days of the condor. I mean, I can name a million. The Godfather. I mean, there's just lots of them. Anyway, there's one more podcast. I never plug other people's podcast, but my friend Barry Weiss over I've read the free press,

and I totally want to frequent real-time guests. And fantastic that she and Nelly Bowles or Weiss have started this fucking great organization that is, you know, this is what we're always talking about. These are basically liberal people who somehow have been cast out. They've were cast out of the New York Times as conservatives. Everybody who doesn't agree with the farthest fringy thing of the woke is not a conservative

or Republican anyway. Correct. So the free press and they have this amazing podcast now. The witch trials of JK Rowling. We don't have to talk about it. But I mean, I read i read i mean even the New York Times found the guts uh which is yeah i saw that to print a piece from uh one of their Pamela Paul i think wrote it and it was j if you just read the quotes forget her opinion if you

want you just read the quotes from jk Rowling you would be hard pressed to say oh this is a person who hates trans people she doesn't hate trans people Everybody has to stop saying they hate the thing that they don't hate like a pro-life people don't hate women That's another one. They hate women. They don't hate women. They think it's murder and it kind of is I'm just okay with it. I'm totally okay with that kind of murder But it is kind of it's becoming a life, but they don't hate women. That's not why pro-life people are against abortion. They think it's murder. And JK Rowling doesn't hate trans people. I don't know why I'm yelling it. Yeah. Well, no.

Well, here's what you're doing. Here's what you're doing. You're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, let's Jerry fall well. Let's, let's, let's move it into a specific area where, and I've seen you address this many times, and you always put in all the provisos about, yes, of course, trans is a thing.

Of course, it's a thing. And we have to be understanding and respectful and a certain percentage. A protection of the law and dignity, of course. That's the old school liberal point of view. Correct. Correct. Way back when, it seems like way back when, I don't know, maybe seven, eight years ago.

Yes, that's a whole. At the SB awards, there's something called the Arthur Ash Courage Award. Okay. All right. And they awarded it to Caitlin Jenner, seemingly only moments after she had transition. And I'm on the Dan Patrick radio show. And I'm not riding in on a white horse looking to make a proclamation. It's about the fifth or sixth topic he brings up. And he says, I know I'm blaming Dan. Dan's great. He's what do you

make of Caitlin Jenner getting the Arthur Ash Courage Award? And I take every precaution you can take, stipulate everything. We need to be understanding. You're the best at it. You're the king of that. I did all the stuff, okay? But I can't wait. The king of the disclaimer.

Yes. I gotta protect my own ass here. So what I say, but I say, look, Arthur Ash exuded class. Arthur Ash seems to me to be at odds, or the person who until two minutes ago was the father of the Kardashian family, that seems to kind of be at odds with what Arthur Ash represents. Plus, Bruce Jenner's sports exploits are in the 70s at the Olympics and now we're into

some place in the 2000s, 2012 or whatever it was. So it seems to me that this is a tabloid play. But does that make me transphobic? I later said, you know what they can do? If you want the eyeballs, because after all it is television, why don't you have Caitlin Jenner present the award to Renee Richards who once was Dr. Richard Raskin. Of course. And this is not irrelevant when he Richard Raskin, Dr. Richard Raskin was playing on the pro tour.

He was like the 400th ranked player. When he became Renee Richards, don't ask me as Martina Navaritalova. She was like the 10th or 12th best. And Martina says she could beat her, but it was tougher than she would have thought. Okay. This is this is a reality that has nothing to do with phobia or migratory or unkindness in any way. And and we're not we're not denigrating these people who made their change, which obviously takes balls. No. Or the way.

Takes balls away. Yes. So glad you brought this up, because go ahead. Go on. So I have, I didn't know Bruce Jenner that well, but likable enough guy. Talked him a few times. And I have no problem with Caitlin Jenner, other than maybe her politics and some respect. But there's no problem here.

Here's an adult. She made a decision. She has all the autonomy to make that decision. No problem. Dan's question was, what do you make of her receiving the Arthur Ash Courage Award? Am I not allowed to make a distinction here, even with all the stipulations without being called transphobic or a hater? Bob nightly not your idealist bomb that is your problem you're like country you're like country boogard and castle blunder

you yeah all this doesn't amount to a hill of beans and this crazy war exterior but you're a sentimental wish you were idealist so I have never once brought anything into club random, including a thought. No, really, I've made this point many times, but like when I asked HBO if I could do this, they graciously said yes, and I said, I promise you it will be nothing like my real job, which I treasure the most. But I will not take one minute away from what I normally work I would normally take a break in the middle of the week. It's Wednesday for a couple of hours to get high with friends Now I'm just doing it with a camera somewhere

So like there is no preparation. I've never once brought a piece of paper into club or anthem But because you're so special to me. Yeah, I thought I would break my rule and I have a piece of paper into Club Random. But because you're so special to me, I thought I would break my rule and I have a piece of paper. Peace and all time. I have talked with hair Hitler and, that's a Neville Chamberlain joke. Yeah, I know.

I didn't know you did magic, Tom. I thought it was gonna be like, it's like Ed McMahon for Karnak. I hold in my hand beyond below. That was the shittiest dove I've ever seen. Okay. So I wrote this in because we covered this on our show. Yeah. And it's it's, of course, I did because I thought of you in sports, but also because we all, we see so eye to eye on this like old school liberal versus woke insanity. And there's this article in the Atlantic, which is, you know,

look, the Atlantic has broken a lot of great stories and they have great writers. I'm not going to shit on the Atlantic. I mean, I think I made a snarky joke about them at the time, but I couldn't believe that they printed a article called Separating Sports by Sex sex doesn't make sense. Let me say first of all, yes it does. Yes it does.

It sure as hell does. And I thought, no, this is a nightclub, this is club random, we don't do anything. But I just wanted to get these quotes right. Sorry, I brought this in. This is the people actually printed this in this serious magazine. First, we'll talk about this woman

who was trying to join a boy's sport. The panel then set out to determine whether Mendel Zs was essentially strong development athletic enough to play a contact sport with boys, even though those boys needed to prove no such thing. Yes, they did. When they tried out for the team. That's right. That's why I didn't make my high school basketball team. Right. And you were six

eight at the time. At the time. Yes. It's tragic thing that's happened. Yeah. Yeah. Bob Custis dominates him by two-per-difficent. Iconic. Don't let me leave here without giving it without giving you the Kosoah story. We'll circle back to it, but you're doing that Kosoah here a little bit. So I look at you. You use the word truck. You're doing Billy crystals. Kosoah. That's what people who are not impressionist do.

They do impressionist impression. We can't do it for real. Look at all. Of course. We can't do it for real. Look at all the, of course. We can only fucking bite the stick. You're doing Frank Gorshin's Jimmy Cagney. Exactly. And the 80-year-olds in the audience. But when you use the word,

truckulent, take you off course here. This is a famous moment, Monday night baseball on ABC, and Yookers in the booth with Kosell. Bob Yooker. Bob Yook loved him. But he's still still doing Brewer's games on the radio. I thought he was dead. He's no, he's 89 years old.

Yook, I'll be texting you tomorrow. God damn it. He's alive and Vince Gulley's dead. That's just wrong. So I'll tell you with your story. Anyway, so Yook is sitting alongside Kosell. And Kosell says something that you find questionable about strategy and you challenges him and Cocelle says you're

awfully truckulent tonight but then you probably don't know what truckulent means and you can says yes I do Howard if you had a truck and I borrowed it that would be a truck you lent. Which proves he's way smarter than Howard himself. I mean, I love Howard Cousel. I give you that whole thing. But I mean, that's just a level that- Above.

Although I will say this, my father was in radio, okay? And he had to do- this was the hour when every radio station had news at the top of the hour Mm-hmm, and you ripped the news off the wire. There was no, you know Cell phones were used to call it rip and read rip and read and he had to do a newscast and came in at five minutes I think I mentioned this on CNN the other night And that's come right on time. Yeah, and I remember my father talking approvingly and Admiringly of the fact that

Howard Cosell used to do his speaking of sports on ABC. This was the station I listened to because it was the Rock and Roll station. It was Custon Brucey and Dan Englund. Dan Englund. Okay, so all these guys and the music, but then there was speaking of sports. And it was the same thing. He had to do three minutes. It had to come in right on time. He had never done it before and it was a commentary. It wasn't just reading facts. That is kind of a special skill. Coach Cell was incredible with that. The Monday night half time highlights,

which really were much more meaningful then because there's no ESPN, there's no highlights everywhere. That's what you waited for on Monday night for kind of your capsule of what happened over the weekend, the best moments. And he did all of that without a script. Right. I was when I did it on a regular basis,

pretty good at that, the kind of clock in the head, but the two best that I'm aware of were Kosell and Bryant Gumball. Bryant was great at that too. You're Bryant Gumball as a giant talent. Yes, he is. Anyway, Howard Gasson. Yeah, something that I think really is interesting

about cancel culture because you reminded me of something that was a long time ago before we even had the term cancel culture. I think I know where you're going. He used the term monkey. Little monkey. Okay, he just made it worse. But he did not mean it racially about a running back who, and like my father used to say, called me a little monkey.

Yeah. It was like a term of a certain gender appearance. My grandparents would say to me and my sister, come on, do a little monkey. Exactly. Little monkey. It was in no way intended nor, and Howard Kusso was a very, he was a liberal New York Jewish defended Muhammad Ali. Yes, defended Tommy Smith and John Carlos at the 68 Olympics.

He was a real New York liberal, okay. Yes he was. So, and they did not give them the benefit of the doubt, as I recall. And that, if I had to like make a, okay, moment where it began, it's probably not that exact moment, but that's close. Well, here's a thing. That's a long time ago, and it was exactly what

is characteristic of today, which is no grace, no sense of you made an honest mistake, we understand that's not what's in your heart. We're not stupid, we get it. No, today it's just like, I'm going to fake, being very outraged at that, even though I know I'm not really... And I'm not going to take into account the massive amount of evidence there is about you

and your life prior to this. Well, that would take work looking into the past. Or just honesty, because in Kosell's case, it was pretty well known, at least in a general sense, where his sympathies were, even in the late 1970s or whatever it was, that was a pretty clumsy thing to say. He should have been more aware, but he should also have been granted understanding, hey, that was wrong. I'm sorry, it was a a bad choice words but there it says nothing about his motivations because he's got all kinds of merit badges on the other side of the things are nothing yeah i i do and you know here's something you're interested in years later hb o does a documentary

about kosel and somehow ross greenberg and his people at hb o found an obscure broadcast of a northern football game that Mike Adamley was playing in. Mike Adam was like a five foot nine running back, white guy, and Kosell said, that little monkey is really deceptively fat or something, okay? So which indicates, look, it's just a dopey

and agronistic thing that he said. Well, on behalf of all white people, I'm offended and i would like to start a lawsuit now i'm not fit to the itlant i mean fitning from my my paper i don't know what are the if you know i'm never jamblin in unic ha Hitler promises me Germany is only interested in peace what could go wrong if we trust it now that's not what this paper is. This is an

Atlantic article. Okay, Gen Zers are more likely than members of previous generations to reject a strict gender binary altogether. True that. Yep. That was me talking through that. Maintaining this binary in youth for its reinforces the idea. The idea that boys are inherently bigger, faster, and stronger. Yeah, that's just a notion. The crazy notion somebody had in a competitive setting, a notion that's been challenged by scientists for years. Where? Where are these scientists?

Professor Pepper Winkle from Superman. Where are the scientists? I mean, again, Atlantic, everybody, we were just, Bob and I were just talking about the fact that you can have a bad day. Sometimes you just don't have your fastball. I'm working on the knuckle curve. But seriously, you printed this on paper,

like you typeset this and you looked at it. I mean, and you weren't high, may I continue? Yeah. Decades of research have shown that sex is more complex when we may think, okay, again, starting off with a banality no one to disagree with. And those sex differences in sports show advantages for men.

Researchers still don't know how much of this is due attributed to biological difference versus the lack of support provided to women athletes to reach their highest potential. Right. I bring this paragraph up because in 2002, you were doing your show on HBO. The first version of it.

Yep. I did a piece for it on Title IX. Yes, you did. Title IX. Would you like to explain Title nine, Bob Costas? Well, title nine, which was a progressive piece of legislation in the best sense of the word. Again, progressive in the Nixon, in the Nixon, in the Nixon administration, the old

bad progressives basically created equality in scholastic sports that funds and resources would go towards girls and women's sports in equal measure to men. It was 1971, Nixon was president. Yep. And it basically said, you have to, no, there was a downside to it, which is part of my piece I did on your show in 2002, by saying that you have to devote equal funding to women's sports as well as men's.

There's a lot of women who didn't want to wake but 5 a.m. to row in a canoe. So they would just get rid of the men's team because they had to have equal. That was a consequence. It was sort of a precursor of this. And what equity is, it's not the same thing as equality. Equity is this, like, okay, well, we have to be equal.

So we get rid of. Here's what we have in one generation I wasn't the world's greatest athlete a little better than some people might assume I wasn't a bad street You know stickball player you know you're talking about that's in the backyard Yeah, but but clearly I wasn't gonna get a college scholarship But the point is that I played lots of organized sports my My sister, two years younger than me, played none. I have a son and a daughter, and my daughter played pretty much the same number

of organized sports within a school setting as my son did. That's in one generation that's real progress. That's a great thing. No one can say it isn't a great thing. It's just i mean women just don't want to do the exact same things is men fact that we have to explain as a group just

the fact that we have to explain it to children who have taken over the internet is well as that let's take the Atlantis position or at least that writer in the Atlantis position to its logical conclusion. Then it should be this. Hey, why don't we just have one basketball team at Ohio State, or at UCLA, and everybody goes out for the team? Can you imagine what would happen if the worst NBA team?

And again, if you think this is some sort of put down of women, it's a put down of God or whoever created the species. And women obviously have other attributes that we don't have, hopefully it evens out. This is just one where it's undeniable, we're different. We are stronger and bigger and taller. And if LeBron James team, which is not even in the playoffs yet, played against the best team in the WNBA, it would be stopped to fight. Yes. I mean, what would the score be? Yes. This is just this is just reality. It's just reality. Maybe the better example to give

is an individual sport. And even Serena Williams, I believe, has acknowledged this. She has. Serena Williams. Serena Williams, the greatest female tennis player arguably in history would not be among the 50 best men among her contemporaries. Maybe that's generous. Mackinaros said the best 700. And you know, Mackinar sometimes makes provocative statements, but we like John. Hey, we own a pot store together. No, no, no, no, last time I saw him was backstage at your show at the Hulu theater at Madison Square Garden.

The woods. Woody Halsons gonna love me for this, but yes, I do have a pot store. I mean, we share it. It's mostly his. I'm trying to get more, but the woods, you know, look, distinctions matter. So here's an issue related to that. The women's soccer team, the U.S. women's soccer team, has for a long time lobbied for equal resources and equal pay. And the reflexive argument coming from the right or anti-wokesters is to say, wait a minute, they're not as good as the men.

And the men's world cup generates X times more money than the women's world cup. Yes, this would be a good argument in Brazil. This would be a good, really, but it's not a good argument here because it's a pretty simple Google search if you have them paying attention. The US men can't even get into the quarterfinals. The women win the World Cup and they win the Olympic gold medal on a regular basis. Even if you think Megan Rapinoe is a times a little obnoxious, that has nothing to do with it.

In this particular context, they deserve to be compensated. Who's Megan Rapinoe? Megan Rapinoe is the most prominent player on the women's team. Purple hair, you know, very outspoken. I know that Bob, I was testing you. Yeah. But so, you know, I don't watch women sports.

And if you think that's sexist, let me put this into the mix. I also don't watch college sports. I watch pro sports. I already think that I spend too much time watching. You're not going to watch it. I watch the final four. I don't watch any basketball. Did you watch Bird and Magic when they were in college? Absolutely not. You waited for them to get to the M.D. They didn't even know who they were. Who's this guy on the Celtics? I'm the

scull and the Lakers. When I already feel I waste too much time watching sports and have wasted too much of my life watching sports. The last thing in the world I wanna do is increase my amount of sports I have to monitor. I watch the American sports, not hockey, not soccer. Ooh, I watch baseball, football, and basketball, and only the playoffs in each one, really. Well, football, I watch that, but it's only-

You watch the match. It's only once a week. Plus there's there's right. Sometimes that's out of it. But other than that, it's one way at the at the Olympics, which I know a bit about by the way, at the Olympics, I'm watching the women's track in field. I'm watching the women's gymnastics. I'm watching the women's soccer in that context. That's you. I'm the I don't I watch I only I want to watch less. So I'm only going to. I don't. I watch. I only want to watch less. So I'm only going to watch the top of the top of the best. The playoffs of the best players.

Okay, that's what I'm going to watch. And I'm sorry, that does not include college. Well, here's the great, the best player, some college will make it to the pros and then I'll watch them. And women's sports is very good for, you know, it's a different, but it's a different level. And I'm used to the NBA level and it's different. And I'm allowed to make that choice. Of course, I am glad, guys. I am glad there's lots of people who don't watch my show. What's your fucking excuse?

I'm glad that there's a WNBA because these women deserve a place to play and be rewarded to whatever it's done. Zerva place to play beyond college and there's an audience for it, but no one should apologize or scold somebody because the audience for that is not as large as for the NBA because as Bill Burr has pointed out, the female audience for the WNBA is not as large as the female audience for the NBA. That's right. That's just in the stands. All right, let me finish here this. The strict segregation we've instilled in sports at all levels gives the impression that men

and women have completely different capabilities. Again, this is a quote from someone, but obviously someone they find credible. The fact that you would write this down on a piece of paper just astounds me. The strict segregation gives the impression. These are ideas, impressions. How about this one? The researchers hypothesized that the gap they did find between girls and boys was likely due to socialization.

Yeah. Socialization, that's why the NBA and the WNBA are so different. It's what happened in high school. We're talking about also at the elite level. Allison Felix, fastest woman in the world, runs faster than 99.99% of all men, but not as fast as you say in Bolt. Not as fast as high school runners who are men.

Well, she's pretty, you know, some of them, some of them. But maybe that's not right, but I've heard people in the know, maybe they don't know, tell me that that's the case, that the top male high school runners, and I don't know why they wouldn't, because you're probably the best you are when you're high school, I'm in your 18.

Yeah, you get additional training, whatever. Whatever it remains, that women and men are different biologically as far as strength and stuff that matters in sports. And the fact that we are debating stuff. If you obliterated that, if you obliterated that, then all the really admirable female athletes would be off the stage. Alison Felix would not have a gold medal. She wouldn't even be in the field. But how can we solve our problems when we're like stuck debating things

that shouldn't be debatable to begin with? Like you can't, like we, it's like being stuck in that place in a relationship. We're like, we can't get back to the bliss because we're still arguing about what happened in the diner. But here, look, if I have to re-stipulate this, then I will.

I am really glad that my daughter got to play. It was a great, she had a great time. It's a socialization thing. It was fun. And there are levels of skill. She got coaching. She got better at it. This is a good experience.

And I'm glad that there's a place at the Olympic level and at the professional level for people to pursue it. I applaud it, I admire it, and I watch a fair amount of it. But if we're gonna go where this wants us to go, then women's sports is dead because they'll be playing against boys and men. Well, it's the opposite of Title IX, which was the question in the reason I brought,

because then it just epitomizes that here I am in 2002 doing this thing about on your show about title nine, which at the time all liberals thought was the greatest thing and I still think it's great. I do too and but what the woke again, not what liberalism is. So you can have your thing just don't take our word because you are a different thing. You are not the same thing. So you can't have the word. I can name 10 different examples of this where woke is not building on liberals and it's the opposite of liberals. Yeah. It's not by degree. It's still in the form of Warren, Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders may be by degree, further along

a certain track than other liberals. But a lot of what we now call woke is an entirely different mindset. It's entirely different. I saw LZ Granderson the other night. I don't know him, but I've read a lot of his stuff in the LA Times on a scene on television. And generally, I certainly respect him. But he was making the point that the meaning of woke has been distorted and what woke used to mean was a certain awareness.

So if you were a woke white person, it's a man just to... Alert to injustice. The woke white person was aware that with the Civil Rights Act, racism didn't end. It was aware and empathetic and observant to all these little nuances. That was woke. But now, despite LZ's protestations, it's been hijacked to mean something else. And he can't pull it back. So when you say woke, we know you're not talking about that.

We're good with the original definition, but we're somewhat at odds with those who claim now to be woke. And this is why when you call a game, it is different because you use words like protestations and the combination of a baseball game, which is very old school, and then somebody who's like debonair and sophisticated and bringing that to a baseball game,

is just one of those dosy-dows that it stays her number because people just get continually less sophisticated, It's just one of those dosy-dows that it stays her numbered. Because people just get continually less sophisticated, less intelligent. And, you know, I mean, I'm hanging on to my audience, but it doesn't worry me that the country, people coming out of school get dumber and dumber and no less and less and can read less and don't read They only scroll and and this is just not good for people who like

Want to like engage people on this sort of level which you engage them on like somebody like me is your perfect audience For calling a baseball game because I'm getting a baseball game But I'm also getting these sort of witty repartee. It's like, carry grand. Just doing the baseball game, you know, or no power or something. That's a little much. Even your partner in the broadcast moves, doesn't know what you're talking about. You're making these jokes and these references and he's like, yeah, blah, blah. Well, that's why I specifically wanted to work with Ron Darling.

Yale graduate. He is good. Roughly of my generation, you know, we can't each other's references. The thing is, we need to do a few more games together to fall into a rhythm. Well, I always say that one of the ways you can tell if your relationship is working is if you can watch a movie with your partner in bed, preferably after you've had sexual intercourse. Because then you're in a good mood,

nobody's crabby. Okay. Unless you had to go to the knuckle curve too often. I, Bob, as long as you can get battered out. Okay, it's okay. All right. All right. Who's that matter one that saw young

and then they traded it up to two? All right, Dickie. All right, Dickie. Dick one that saw young and then they traded it up to three. All right, Dickie. All right, Dickie. Dickie. Okay, I think it was a right hand or not a left hand. That's Dickie. I think I've made my point. But if you can watch a movie with someone and now one of the joys of watching a movie

with someone as opposed to a loan is that you can comment on it. You can, if it's terrible, you can share a laugh about how funny it is and how superior you are to the people who wrote this movie. And it becomes a very bonding experience. I mean, if you're, if you're newly bonding or if you're bond bonded for a while, this is like, Hey, we are laughing at the same piece of shit. Don't you remember, especially when you were younger, the, the movie you took someone you were dating to the first movie you saw with that girl. Not so much a thing now because you get Netflix and everything else, but, you know, when you're 20 years old and you're taking a girl out on a date, you

remember what movie you took her to. The French connection. I remember it. It was January 7th, 1972. I remember it. It was my first date. I wouldn't say the girl's name, because she probably wants to hide from you from one thing.

But I've often talked to her really since we broke up. I would love to connect people who are like in the 21st century or on Facebook and do this. But you never forget your first love. So I'm just putting it out there in a bottle in the air. Let me say this Bill, if she wants to find you, you're findable. Yeah, she doesn't want it. Yeah.

But we had a wonderful year and three months. And then I guess he acting. So not hard, Bob. But when was I talking about before that? I would really want it. It was I guess he acting. And so, not hard, Bob. But when was I talking about before that? I really wanted, it was very important to me. Oh, a frame of reference and what not. And the point that I was gonna make is there are a lot of people out there now.

Frame of reference. That, you know, references and something I said or a word that I used. There are a lot of people now, if it's not in their frame of reference, they resent it. It's not frame of reference, they resent it. It's not just, I don't get it. Wait a minute.

He referred to something, I'm 25 years old. He referred to something that's pertinent and connected, but it happened in 1956. Not only am I not engaged by that, it's stupid that he said that. Nothing. This is always happening on TMZ where I get all my news. Oh, well, all my TV news. Yeah, I stopped watching cable news, basically. It's just two. It's two. It's two. It's too much. But TMZ, I love. I love Harvey. I like it. It can be on this show soon. Really? Yes. And I feel like it engages me with exactly what like the average person, yes, they're mostly interested

in gossip, but they will cover stories that bleed over into the popular culture. They break some stories. And it's Harvey who is like, he's the character in the play who I relate to. And then there's like all these millennials who are his reporters. And like they just say some very stupid things.

You know, it's exactly what you were talking about. And like I just want to shout at the TV when Harvey knows something that they don't. And they're like, you're the asshole. And I exactly, it's like, wait, I'm the asshole because I know something you don't. That makes me the asshole. And you resent it or you feel challenged by it.

But look, this has to be somewhat generational. It's totally generous. The way a lot of this stuff has rewired people's minds And you resent it or you feel challenged by it, but look, this has to be somewhat generational and what is totally gender way a lot of this stuff has rewired people's minds and sensibilities because if it's 1965 and I'm 13 years old and you say to me, who was Rudolph Valentino, I knew. I mean, I might not have known as much as has much as mancoots on Turner Classic movies does. that's on Turner Classic movie stars. I'm interested in me. Yes. And by the way, to the 15% or 20% if I'm lucky of young people who like find a show like this engaging and it's not everybody.

Most of them are like that, but there's a certain percentage of kids who are the same as we were, which is when we heard something we didn't know, it didn't make us go, what's stupid thing that could be. we didn't know, it didn't make us go, what stupid thing that could be, I don't know about it, it made us go, what's that? And wanna know more. And we looked up to people who knew more than I did who were older than you.

You wanted to be around them. I wanted to be some fucking other 17 year old, the loser masturbating in his bedroom. You wanna be around them. You remember how every family, if they could, every striving middle class family, had the Encyclopedia Britannica or the calliers Encyclopedia. You spent the world book. You spent the 300 bucks or whatever it was. It was a big adventure. But it was there. Right. So your dad would say, if you asked a question, you didn't know the, go look it up.

Go look it up. That was our Google. Yes, but you had to work a little bit. Right. And see the stupid young people look at that and go, oh my God, that's so hard. Yeah, well, it was life. You know, things happened before you were born. And, you know, but the smart kids are like, oh, that's interesting. Well, how about this? And it's interesting that they got smarter than we did without Google.

Yeah. Yeah, they, or just something to look into. Or at least in their self- did without Google. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe just something to look into. Or at least in their self-contentment, they can think that. Here's an example. Game one of the series we were talking about Yankees Guardians happened on October 11th last year, 74 years to the day that Cleveland last won the World Series in 1948. So I'm making a larger point.

Here are the Yankees. They've won the World Series 27 times and won the pen and 40 times. Here is Cleveland, now that the Red Sox, White Sox and Cubs have broken through in the 21st century, Cleveland has waited the longest. Next year, it'll be three quarters of a century if they don't win this year. What day went 1948? 1948. So, so I say it's 74 years ago today that they last won the World Series. And who was a rookie on that team? Ray Boone. He's Aaron Boone's grandfather. And there's Aaron Boone managing the Yankees. Now to me, those are the kind of things when we were kids.

Those are the little baseball things that were interesting. That's what an announcer does. That's right. That's right. If somebody says I don't care about the 1948 Indians. Yes Then I kind of want the game with some mora. I kind of think that's their problem So what happened? Then I move on to the next story and then a guy hit a ground ball to second base So listen before I let you go and I can do this all night, but I probably will do this. But I have to, because you're Mr. Sports. This has been mostly your sports.

You're Mr. Sports. I'm Mr. Smoke. Mr. Sport, and Mr. Smoke, have to talk about this. Okay. I was apaclectically angry at the end of the Super Bowl. I mean, I know it's not something that should engage me for even two seconds because, again, I wish I could watch zero sports because I feel like it's an addiction

that was put into me as a kid. You know what, I also have this feeling about it. You need things that are completely mindless that don't mean anything to destress you and relax you. So, okay, I'm not that... On the other hand, at its best, it's a showcase of excellence. I, at that too. And it's just interesting. It's programming. Yeah. And I don't... It's a drama without a script. It's a drama. It's great. And it's from my childhood and whatever, it makes me feel good. I'm not getting rid of it, no matter what defects it.

I'm just not. But, and I feel like I have, do I watch as nearly as much as a sports nut? No, but I watch a lot. So, I don't really want to watch a lot, but football, it'd be hard to give up. So, I'm not going to like sit here and pretend. I'm going to stop watching because some things you do annoy me.

But could I just tell you? Yes. Some things that really annoy me. One, this rule about a guy makes an incredible catch on the sidelines. I mean, just this amazing ballet in motion and they have to zip root or film it and watch it nine times.

And if the ball moves like an extra unit, while he's holding onto it, close enough. And so they nullify this gorgeous athletic play that no one could ever do any better. And it just makes me fucking hate football, hate Roger Gidele, hate every, it just makes me fucking hate football, hate Roger Gidele, hate every, it just makes me hate what for a minute until the, you know, the commercial. What a replay in all sports was originally designed to do was to correct,

egregiously missed calls, which you could see were missed on the first replay, especially in the most important games. Tell that to Kentucky. Agreed. Justly. Yeah. Well, I love one of the things I love about you. Is like, you'll say that and then you'll say, and I'm in Birmingham Alabama tomorrow night.

Actually, did I read my plug? Like it said, I did. Okay. All right. Yeah. Complete two. Yes. The end of the Super Bowl. The holding call. Just I, you know, I did not go to any Super Bowl parties that had nothing to do with the fact that I was not invited

to any. I could have jumped my way into a number of Super Bowl parties. I chose not to. Yeah. Okay, but I was super happy to be home because you know, when you of Super Bowl party. I chose not to. Yeah. Okay, but I was super happy to be home because you know, when you go to a party and I've been to two Super Bowls in person and it's like, you don't really watch the game. It's about... We watched it with another couple. It's a nice dinner. It's a nice dinner.

The guy, though, is a huge fillet of Philadelphia fans. He was unhappy about the Eagles, but okay. If you're eating shrimp and watching a game, you're not watching a game. You're eating shrimp. You can't do both. So okay, so I'm watching at home, thrilled about that.

And you know, it was 35-35. So like, unlike some super bowls, which are blowouts, which are uninteresting. It's a great game. It's a, it, right, just what you want. Like, I have no rooting interest in either of these cities. I could give a fuck. The giant, if the giants or the jets aren't in it, I can give a shit of wins.

I just want to see a good game and want one team like, oh, we're down. We're going to come back. And that's what happened. And the jets haven't been in it since 1969. Yeah. And we're not hopeful. Joe Neymar. Yeah. Anyway, we're and we're not hopeful. Joe Neymar. Anyway, where were you?

So the last play comes and they just took away a great dramatic ending because some dick in his zebra outfit thinks that he is more important or the letter of the law. I don't know what was going through this guy's mind, but this is the ultimate pen, the penultimate moment of the big game of the year. All these people have set aside this day. We've all invested this much time in the game. You know, it's, of course, if it's an egregious, as you say, foul, but at that moment, at that time, and why the other reps couldn't have said, you know what, we all get it wrong.

We all sometimes don't have our good fastball. We're all working on a knuckle. He got it wrong. And let's play the rest of the game as it should be played. Farron Square between the gladiators who were doing the job. A general rule in sports has been for officials, umpires, that you try to let the players decide the game. Exactly.

Block or charge could be called on a huge number of plays, a guy driving through the lane in the NBA. In the fourth quarter, again, unless it's obvious, you want to let them play. You don't want the game decided at the foul line. You don't want to call a buck in the ninth inning of the seventh game of the World Series, unless it's a blatant buck. Correct.

I remember a game, and this may lose a portion of your audience, but you remember it because it involved the Mets. The loser's by audience. Not a bad influence. Story. 1999, LCS. I'm doing it with Joe Morgan on NBC. It's the Braves and the Metz. Game six, the Metz come back from a big deficit.

Game goes to extra innings. The Braves load the bases in the bottom of the 10th or 11th. Kenny Rogers is pitching for the Metz. Kenny Rogers. Andrew Jones is up for the... Not the Game-Braves. The Braves. Basis, no, not that guy. Not the Gamla guy. Not the Kenny Rogers. Andrew Jones is up for the, uh, nothing. The Braves. Basis. No, not that guy. Not, not, not, not the, not the gambling guy, not

the Kenny Rogers and the first edition guy. No, this is the left hand. This guy was pushing with the Texas Ranger. Oh, that can. Yeah. Yeah. I was with the Rangers. Now he's with the meds. Okay. And so Andrew Jones is up. And the count goes to three balls and three, the three and over three and one. I think maybe three and oh. And the next pitch is a little bit high and a little bit outside. And it's called a strike. It's the right thing to do. The ump does not want the pen and decided on a walk in that situation.

It's a little bit. I mean, you could have called it a strike. You could have called it a ball. It looked to me like a book. Right. It have called it a strike. You could have called it a ball. It looked to had gone to the wall, all season long and all series now let them decide. That's it. That's holding call was the only holding call in the whole game against either team offense or defense, and it had no effect on the play. I would have felt so much better if I could have called you and heard that Kenny Rogers. You have my number. I know, but like, Bob, could you

comfort me at the end of the Super Bowl with a Kenny Rogers story? I mean, it's no gift of the Magi, but I feel like it really, it helps me. Kenny Rogers on the first edition. My right. Don't take your love to town. Oh, yes. There's an extraneous reference. I know. I'm very well deep in the minutia now. It was a Vietnam song. Yeah, that's right. That soldier's gone off to war and come back. It was, uh, I definitely had that taped on my little Wollensack tape recorder that I could tape songs off the red tower. Listen to music and then tape them off the radio.

Yeah. You know, even though cousin Bruce, he was more famous. Dan Ingram was the best talkover guy ever. I know. He would hit the instrumental, butting up against the vocals of Milliseconds. And he was witty. Yes, he was very witty. I, even as a child who was looking to be a comedian, I knew, and I say, child, I was

like 12 when I started listening to the radio, I gravitated toward Dan Ingram. He was shardonic. Anyway, did you have a good time here at Club Random? I did. It was everything I thought it would be. I just set the bar at medium height. It was probably everything you thought it should be. I had a whole I had a whole no I have nothing to play. I had a whole Fox News CNN thing that I was going to load up on, but it can wait. Let's hear it. What do you mean? Well, there's, there's a, it's a tree. It's a false equivalency.

And I'm a CNN. Yeah, I'm excited. A couple of people mostly, usually it's Fox News, MSNBC, but even, false, yes, even the, even there MSNBC, well, there's certainly ideological. Oh, yeah, they're much more facts. Fact-based. There's a much more journalistic, I made this. E-thos there.

Absolutely. There's a much more journalistic. I made this. He closed there. And CNN, for whatever it's flaws and blind spots might be. And there are certain things that don't fit a narrative that they're not comfortable introducing, even though they're factual and pertinent. That happens sometimes at CNN. But if you watched, if you were someone from outer space and somehow you understood English and you watch CNN for a week and you watched Fox for a week, you'd have a much better understanding what was happening in the world from watching CNN. Of course.

Then from watching Fox. And what's happened lately with the Dominion thing and the lawsuit and all of a sudden has come out, all that is is what has been obvious to any reasonable person all along writ large. Right. You know, and Greg Gutfeld may be a very nice guy. Saw his club random with you, maybe a nice guy to hang around with,

but I heard him say once with a straight face, the difference between us and CNN is, we apply the same principle no matter what the situation is. I wanna talk about a moment for a spit take. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? You who not only covered for Donald Trump, not you, Greg Gutfeld, but you and the whole thing, not only covered for Donald Trump, but demonized anyone who dared to criticize

him even when they had all the evidence at hand. I couldn't agree more. You guys are so in the bag and such a propaganda outfit that the idea that, as you know, one of the kind of articles of faith with Fox and their viewers is the mainstream media, the mainstream media. The mainstream media is flawed and could use a course of correction. But the idea that you're getting this instruction from Fox News is perverse. Yeah.

Oh, I agree with all that, Bob. There you go. So we end up on a note of agreement. No, I do. When they came into existence in the mid 90s, they had a chance. You remember Bernie Goldberg? You spent CBS News and for a long time was on real sports with Brian Cumble. Yeah, yeah.

A thoughtful conservative. Bernie Goldberg, you spent CBS News and for a long time, it was on real sports with Brian Cumble. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A thoughtful conservative. Bernie wrote a book called Bias back in the 90s and his premise was that there were good journalists, Dan Rather, Walter Cronkite, people he worked with at CBS, people at 60 minutes, but there was an implicit leaning left bias at CBS and other places. He didn't think it was malicious, but he thought that it got in the way of bullseye journalism.

And he tried to present a corrective. If that was the guiding principle of Fox News, when they came into existence in the mid 90s, that not only would have been okay, that would have been a great thing. Here's a thoughtful, honest, journalistically responsible, light of center alternative.

This is the Wall Street Journal of the Air, but it's gotta be entertaining, because it's television, so we'll have some lively personalities. That's not the way it went. There's a new phrase they use advocacy journalism, have you heard that? Yes.

And so it's just another example of them saying the quiet part out loud loud that like we're not, I mean, the New York Times used to try to be right down the justifax and the news that fit to print. And now it's like the people in that newsroom who are of a different generation than us and just think we're wrong it automatically because we're not in their generation because obviously younger people no more than older people that only makes comments that. But they built like they're not trying not to be advocacy journal. They see that as the the paper has a mission and it's advocacy journalism. Okay, that's fine, but it's not what you that that's that's what the op-ed page is for. Right. Exactly. That's how it used

to be. And by the way, and on the right, they have long been doing this. You know, you know, I mean, the New York Post and, you know, it's just, it's entertaining and I think some of the times they have things in there that are more accurate than the New York Times, but they also like are reflexively, everything Biden does is horrible. And it's just so boring and tedious to do that way. It's just so obvious and predictable. It's like, I can't believe it. And it really does is horrible.

One of the reasons why, and I'm not saying this because I'm sitting here, you and I have been on the same page basically for a long time. And we've commiserated about it on many occasions. And one of the reasons why I think that you're an important social commentator is that we cannot predict where you're going to come down, except think that you're an important social commentator is that we cannot predict where you're gonna come down except that where you're gonna come down is in opposition to stuff that is just not common sense. Exactly.

That is just that odds with common sense. There are people who are very funny, who I admire, who I can tell you, this is their topic this week. I know what they're taking. And some of them are, and they're taking and some of them are And it's very some of them are people with we both would admire for their careers We won't mention names, but I would say that the main difference between me and everybody else who does this kind of thing is I am willing to lose audience

Mm-hmm, and they are now I think that as actually whatever you've lost has also in turn drawn audience to you. This is what they're looking for. Gotta stick with your brand. The people that you've grown when you occasionally went off kind of the liberal gospel, they're now gone and they've been replaced by people who applaud, not reflexively because they're your fans, but because they get your point.

Yes, exactly. You know, so that this Fox News could have been a really good thing. And I'm not saying that over time there weren't people there who said worthwhile things. And there's so much idiocy on the left, the extreme left, that it feeds them material on a daily basis. All right, that's always my thing when people say, you know, why do you make fun of the left more? Because I'm a comedian and you're giving me material. Okay, pregnant man is funny.

You didn't used to give me material. Okay, a comedian is a guy with a divining rod and it's gonna go where the comedy is. And this is why the conservatives have to, if I'm so proud, has to recognize this. Trump was unique. Trump provided so much material. You can't expect Saturday Night Live. He's not gone.

He's not gone. No was. But you can't expect Saturday Night Live or Jimmy Kim, or whatever to do as much anti-democrat stuff as anti-tron stuff. Trump isn't Bob Dole, he isn't Mitt Romney. He was a comedy bonanza as tragic and awful as it was. Right. He is everything, a comedy bonanza. And crazy and racist and horny and fucking his daughter.

And, you know, mushroom dick, whatever. All it all is. Well, those were the jokes. And Melania was like, I always tell my writers, you know, some of my writers, like, I do. There's a thing called, like, I call it writer's room disease where like they do a joke and maybe it works or something because we explained enough to make it work.

And then they take it as like a premise that now everyone understands. For example, Melania came in a crate. In their world, everyone understands the concept that she can, I understand where it comes from. She's the farm, male order. Right, but like, then they start doing jokes on jokes. On, you know, like, we all know it's a crate

Well, but you're you're no, no, it's a crate. You're the goal. You're the goalie You've you've got you've got to make sure that whatever you know that what gets through is what will resonate with The audience but you know when I'm sure you've heard this you want to get up and end this but now I'm on a roll I'm sure you five minutes and we You want to get up and end this, but now I'm on a roll. I'm sure you, five minutes and we're done. It's my show now. It's all random. The idea, have you had a help? I wish I was on you.

Later, boy, when I think of how much that meant to me in 1994, I felt like I'd more than even the tonight show. Like I had really arrived, because it was like, you know, it was a very prestigious thing. It was a one-on-one. It was, it was a very prestigious thing. It was a one on one. It was, it was, There aren't shows like that anymore. No, you, I don't know if it would be successful anymore.

I, I've never missed an episode. You, especially the rocks you took. YouTube, you put in Bill Maher on later. It's, it's on YouTube. Oh, I can, I can, I can't, The first time I spoke with you was after I interviewed Paul McCartney. And you called me to tell me how much you admired it,

but you were such a Beatles expert that you started pointing out things that I missed. I don't remember that in the last video. It was an appreciative call. I don't even remember Paul McCartney. I remember you talking to Glenn Frye. Yeah. I don't know why I remember this, but I remember you asking asking him like Don Henley and he was like so diplomatic an important artist And like wow, that's that's where they are in their relationship

But it was I think right before they got back on the tour Maybe that was to promote the tour because 94 the the Eagles got right together right around there Hell freezes over a tour right that's right, but I remember Paul Simon You did three with Paul that they were awesome. I mean But I remember Paul Simon. You know, we did three with Paul. That they were awesome. I mean, I remember him saying, you said, like, what songs do you, you know, do you not want to do anywhere? He's like, well, I don't think I'd like to be singing Feeling Groovy in Las Vegas.

And I am a rock in whatever, you know. Yeah. I am a rock band. I actually made friendships grow out of that. People I had never met before sat down and it was a different kind of program. That's why we're friends. Lasting friendships decades later came out of later. One of the great perks of doing a talk show is that you get to meet almost everybody.

And the secret though is to make sure that if friendships do grow out of them, they grow organically, not like the first time, hey, what's your number? It's up dinner and I want to meet your wife. Like it takes years. Like if you like them, they come on your show again. And then, you know, over time, it's like, I don't know, things just happened. I mean, I remember Salman Rushie and I were once at a bar and somebody came up to us and said, Hey, it's great to see you guys. I'm a fan of you both. And like, how long have

you been friends? And we went, you know, neither one of us could come up with the answer because it was organic. But I don't know. I shouldn't even say this. But that kind of ties into something we were talking about a while ago. In 1989, Blue Jays are playing the A's in the American League championship series. And the Blue Jays lose the first two games in Oakland. And they're down like by four runs and Echersley comes in in the ninth inning. And I say they put a stats up on the screen and the microscopic ERA and all the rest of it. I say, boy, all things considered Elvis has a better chance of coming back than Blue Jay. So now Toronto, that Toronto fans are nuts.

Toronto fans are nuts. They already think the American announcers are against them. And I get off the plane in Toronto. And it's like that scene in King Kong where the old time photographers are, stop, stop, you think you're trying to hurt the girl, right? And so there's on the back page of the tabloids the next day, it's an off day in the series, Jays Hader Bob Costas, Disembarks and Toronto.

Okay, so game three, the new Skydome, radio station passes out 40,000 Bob Costas masks, and they hold them up and they're supposed to pull me the whole thing. Okay, and now I have to register under an assumed name at the hotel because they're going to get getting death threats. And Tony Kubbeck says, boy, it's really reached a boiling point when you have to register under an assumed name.

And I said, yeah, and when you feel safe for registering a Salman Rushdie, things have taken an ugly turn. Tony Kubbeck said that. Yeah, no, I said the Salman Rushdie, things have taken an ugly turn. Tony Kubak said that. Yeah, no, I said the Salman Rushdie part. Kubak had the setup. I was gonna say. I was winning Lee. Tony Kubak was a announcer.

Tony Kubak was great. He was? Yes. When I was a kid, he was the shortstop for the New York. For the Yankees. He worked with Yankees. He worked with Jockegaura.

Joe Garajola and then me at NBC. Tim Macar worked with Yankees. Oh. Joe Garajola. And then me at NBC, Tim Macarver was kind of an amalgam of Garajola and Kubak, analyst and anecdotal. I remember in the Beatles documentary, they interview the, I forget the publicity guy, I think and he's talking about when Paul and John went to New York to announce Apple Corps was forming Apple. They had the word before the other Apple Company, by the way. And he said, oh, and they went on,

he went on the tonight show and Johnny Cawson wasn't there that night. It was Joe DiMaggio. Right. So garish, Ellen. He's like, he tore British guy. He was the guy who was the guy who was the manager. All right, I gotta go.

I gotta go back to work. Climb three. Do we have an exit? Is there like a theme song? No, I've never seen this before. There's nothing. you