Crime in Sports - #232 - Bad Famous - The Haughtiness of Petr Klima
Episode Date: November 3, 2020This week, we explore the crazy life of a man who was snuck out from behind the iron curtain, to live his dream of playing professional hockey. As soon as he got to the US, he turned into a l...oud, arrogant, show boating, irresponsible alcoholic, who refused to obey laws, or rules. Good news is, he fit right in, but the bad thing is, he got arrested way too much. Does he turn it around, or was he better off on a bread line? Sneak away from a communist nation in the dead of night, immediately turn into the worst American stereotype, then be clueless as to why no one likes you with Petr Klima!! Check us out, every Tuesday! We will continue to bring you the biggest idiots in sports history!! Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman Donate at... patreon.com/crimeinsports or with paypal.com using our email: crimeinsports@gmail.com Get all the CIS & STM merch at crimeinsports.threadless.com Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things CIS & STM!! Contact us on... twitter.com/crimeinsportscrimeinsports@gmail.comfacebook.com/Crimeinsportsinstagram.com/smalltownmurder See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another wild, crazy, death-defying edition of Crime and Sports.
Oh, hello, hello.
We're excited. We're going to be visiting a sport that we haven't been to in a while.
Been to, like it's a location.
We haven't played it.
We haven't talked about this sport in a long while so that'll be fun definitely a brain damage sport and just kind of an asshole just a good you know
asshole or idiot that will play is he more of an asshole more of an idiot asshole all right 99th
percentile of just just kind of an asshole it's rarely do we come across people where everyone
that meets them are like yeah that's kind of an asshole usually it's like half and half maybe or
something but this is just like oh yeah no he's a huge asshole absolutely that's that goes without
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We really do appreciate everything that
you do that said let's appreciate somebody else let's appreciate an asshole let's do it uh let's
get into this and a foreign asshole which is we always for so we love foreign yeah we love the
foreign episodes it's a it takes place in america mostly but the foreigners are always fun yeah and
we like doing the other country episodes and
everything so this we kind of get the best of both worlds we get a foreigner in america so
fun everybody we get to make fun of detroit and czechoslovakia at the same time how often do you
get to make fun of detroit and czechoslovakia in the same sentence very rare it's rare only on crime
and sports everybody you're gonna get this kind of shit here let's do it here a hockey player
into the brain damage what's the last time we did a hockey player a year ago maybe uh who was it
it wasn't probert no couldn't have been somebody close by it might have been no you know what it
might have been probert really it might have been that long ago that long ago that we did it no it
wasn't probert it had to be somebody else i don't remember you know what i'm just remembering that
we talked about the calgary flames recently recently. That's all I remember.
That was a bummer.
It was a while ago, though.
We have not talked about the hockey player in a long time.
And so let's get...
Honestly, there is not a lot of hockey criminals.
Yeah.
Most of the hockey criminals are like one...
You know, they were totally...
Everyone's like, hey, what a good guy there.
He's a good guy.
And then he...
Keep it on the ice.
He had like...
You know, he crashed into a tree one time in Nova Scotia. right you know and that was like oh okay you're gonna look at reckless
driving or something and that was it no real story behind it not a lot of uh there's not a lot to it
there's not really a need is it canadians are nice is that it i don't know if it's canadian it's a
lot of the guys that do it are very rural they come up hockey's almost like a hockey's almost
like a military thing because they start at a very young age and that's all you have time to do it's what
kept him out of trouble it keeps people out of trouble in general a lot of times which i mean a
lot of sports do that but i don't know hockey just seems to be a uh i don't know what it is
for a long time too that was it's a booze culture instead of a which publicly is taken as like a
boys will be boys type of shit.
Whereas it used to be.
Yeah.
Whereas other sports were more into other drugs and the public had to,
you know,
could look down on that while they could be like,
Oh,
the drinking,
that's just being LB was after Probert,
wasn't he?
Oh,
I think so.
Yeah.
Maybe in our last one,
I don't remember,
but it was over 30 episodes ago.
I know that much.
So it's been a while.
So it's's it's time
for another one it's peter klima oh do you know him no peter klima he was on the he's on a bunch
of teams we'll get into it peter p-e-t-r oh wow he just doesn't need that second battle of it
it's just i mean why bother with it yeah you know pete and then what is what else what's it
gonna sound like right it's it's her it's served its purpose fuck it we know what you mean that's it's about it's like license plate peter that's great
efficiency of language is what it is thank you czechoslovakians not bad i can't time for these
fucking no what are we doing here all these extra consonants and back in the day behind the iron
curtain and everything yeah they didn't have they couldn't afford extra consonants yeah or extra
vowels you had to wait online for those there's a bread line there or extra vowels. You had to wait on line for those. There's a bread line.
There's a vowel line.
We had to decide between milk, cheese, bread, and an extra vowel for young Peter.
So we decided he...
The amount of time for the rest of his life that he's going to be writing that E, he could have earned another dollar.
That's what I mean.
So that's what they figured.
You know, he could have toiled more for the state and it would have been better for him.
So, yeah, Eastern Bloc, little communist Peter there who's a bread line in the vowel line what are you gonna do so that's
what it is he's born december 23rd in 1964 okay which um i would say that was a nice joyful time
but it was czechoslovakia in the 60s so there is no joy even just before Christmas. Joy is not allowed. Joy, that's, you'll be.
Get back to work.
You'll be told you're a dissident and shot in a field for joy.
That's what they say.
Without even a last cigarette.
There's nothing.
You show Christmas spirit, we shoot in head.
Line up.
No Christmas spirit.
Joy to my balls.
How's that?
Joy to your job. Joy to my balls. How's that? Joy to your job.
Joy to my balls.
This bullet has come.
Let's go.
Into the fields.
Unreal.
I'm not saying, I don't know what a Czechoslovakian accent sounds like.
But I assume it's something.
Yeah.
It's smoke affected.
It's got smoke.
We smoke.
We sometimes have pieces of, you know, Chinese carpet sample in them. In cigarette. That's okay. Make a little raspy, but I feel make you more masculine. Make you like man this way. Otherwise-
That minimum will make you angry. Smoked Chinese carpet sample been thrown out. The dissident's been shot upon. I said, why?
You some kind of pussy here.
Ridiculous.
I smoke three pack a day.
God damn it. Make me man with hard penis.
So he's...
The anger.
December 23rd, 64 in Chamutov, Czechoslovakia.
Chamutov.
Chamutov is where he was born.
So yeah, Czechoslovakia.
Sounds lovely.
This place sounds bleak, man.
And this is a bleak time.
Sounds cold.
It is.
It's cold.
It's bleak.
It's gray.
I see, you know, like smoke coming from factories,
but all the houses have it too.
Like they're making things in there.
I don't know.
They have kilns going at all times.
It's Czechoslovakia. People now go, it's uh czechoslovakia if you don't
people now go what the fuck is czechoslovakia if we have young people listening there hasn't
been a czechoslovakia since they were born right so they might not know what the hell that is or
like you mean the czech republic no i don't i mean goddamn czechoslovakia it existed it was a
sovereign state that existed from october 1918 a bunch of people getting pulled over and screaming
things huh that's what it is that's it it uh it's i'm a sovereign state god damn it
i don't go for them central european laws i wasn't driving in my car i was traveling in my vehicle
that's what i do i travel in my vehicle not have jurisdiction over me oh my god
so we've gotten into that before yeah that's whoa it's so annoying
i hate those people that's one where when you see that you want to go you want to stop with
the cop and go allow me and pull him out of the car beat the living shit out of him and go proceed
sorry at least it wasn't you yeah because I don't want police fucking brutality at all.
Listen, I get that you have to deal with this person.
Normally, I'd say, you know what, fucker, that's your job.
Deal with pain in the ass people.
But this particular kind of asshole, I don't feel like that's in anybody's job description
to have to deal with this fucking guy in a nonviolent manner.
Do that non-threatening.
Zero tolerance for that. fuck that guy i was
driving him out i was traveling him oh shit jesus christ that should shut the fuck up yeah that
should be it shut up you so uh yeah it existed from 1918 when it uh declared its independence
from the austro-hungarian, as we all have at some point.
Every young person, every young man, every young lady at some point
must declare your independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
During a pandemic, they are sovereign.
It's right after the war.
They were like, hey, we're sovereign, motherfucker,
once that all kind of broke up.
And then until its peaceful disillusion into the Czech Republic and slovakia they just split the name in half basically in
january of 1993 so that was after the you know the whole eastern bloc fell and the whole russia
fell and all that kind of shit so times it was yeah it was it was ugly times here so yeah that that lasted to there now that's who they are so when peter grows
up it is 100 soviet controlled you know communist eastern block czechoslovakia lord so not a fun
time to grow up this is not great here started playing hockey when he was four i don't know if
he was assigned to play hockey by the state or what. That's all you got. He looks like he's sturdy on skate.
Sturdy ankle boy, stand there, hit puck.
He's got sturdy ankle.
Go get a crooked branch.
They sit there, oh, look at the ankle on that boy.
Like Vince McMahon looks at fucking vascularity, the same thing.
He's so vascular.
I like his ankle.
His ankle very, very nice, yes. Picture them hanging out together. That's so vascular. I like his ankle. His ankle very, very nice.
Yes.
Picture them hanging out together.
That's the team right there.
The perverted Czechoslovakian state hockey coach.
Judging four-year-olds.
And Vince McMahon going over there.
I just thought I'd take a look.
Looks great.
Look at that kid.
Even for their age, they're very vascular.
I'm enjoying this.
This is very good.
Our four-year-old.
The ankles and all children in here, very nice, I tell you what.
Would you like carpet Chinese dissident cigarette?
Have Chinese carpet sample dissident bone.
It's good.
It's for you, kid.
Make you talk like men, like me.
kid make you talk like men like me so yeah his father joseph uh managed an ice rink and also played left wing and center on the czech national team oh that's awesome so yeah he comes from hockey
stock yeah so he's a he's a i mean right yeah this guy's gonna make his kid play hockey and
especially if he's managing a rink right he's got the ability he's got ice time right that's the
expensive part of hockey sure the equipment's he's got ice time right that's the expensive part of
hockey sure the equipment's expensive but the ice time is even more expensive so valuable that's
valuable so he uh he did that and uh this he's from he grew up grows up in a city called kadan
kadan k-a-d-a-n yep i don't know i don't know get down yeah get know. Get down. Get down. You go there. It's Caden.
It's about 25,000 people there.
Peter says, quote, my father was my teacher.
And this is later on when he's in the NHL.
Even now, he gives me advice on the phone.
So even his father was always like his coach, always.
So he comes up playing over there, being a pretty goddamn good player.
He's a goal scorer type. He he's not a uh he's not doesn't like the physicality really as we'll talk about a little little fast guy
yeah he's fast he's about six foot 190 when he grows up and he's uh he's a score he's a
he's an artist he's a he's a guy who kind of likes to go out on his own and kind of freelance
and do exciting do some stuff
yeah kind of guy the whole team hates because he's not with the program yeah yeah so it takes
plays off sometimes sometimes kind of like early career randy moss he got a bum rap later on because
randy moss would he was a great fucking player and people took a lot of shots at him but when
he first came in he'd take some plays off if the fucking ball wasn't going to him.
They're running, bro.
He wouldn't act like he didn't really put a lot into the fake.
Or if he knew the play was going the other way,
he'd just kind of half-ass run his route.
That's how Kleeman would do his thing.
And then sometimes he would show these flashes of brilliance
that he's got the talent.
So you're like, do that all the time, stupid.
And he's just like, I go over here.
I don't want.
I don't want to do there.
Why?
You're running to the right.
Why would I do that?
Okay.
I come back on ice, but I still not do what you want.
I skate.
But come to me, maybe I score.
I'm a body.
I do.
Maybe I score.
I'm a body.
I do.
So in 1982, 81, 82, well, 82, they win the European Junior Championships.
They win the silver medal there.
And I guess he's on that team.
And this is, you know, he's fucking young here.
This is 16 years old.
We're talking about 81, 82. He Litvinov is the team he plays for in the Czech League.
He's 17 years old. Litvinov is the team he plays for in the Czech League. Czech League, he's 17 years old.
Litvinov.
I don't know.
He plays in 18 games, has seven goals and three assists.
Not bad.
It's pretty damn good for a kid there.
Then he had five games played in the junior championships there in 82
where he had seven goals and two assists.
Seven goals in
five games pretty fucking good not bad that's more than a goal a game that's that's exciting
82 83 he played for litvinov again litvinov he gets litvinov sounds like a center for the
knicks he does yeah litvinov we got him with the pass we got him from lithuania
living off of the rebound he's a seven foot three lithuanian who's never played basketball before and the knicks drafted
him number three overall i can't name a player for the knicks now so that's who he is that's
there's a reason for that there's a fucking reason for that so uh that year this is when he plays a
little more he's 18 44 games played 19 goals 17 assists so not bad almost a point a game which
is pretty impressive there uh 8283 the
czechoslovakian juniors here they win the silver medal again he has four goals and four assists
in seven games he's doing great he's yeah he's a scorer and over there too apparently back then
i don't know about now but the game was not the same as it is in north america uh over here fighting clenching all that shit was a huge
part of the game in the 80s to a lesser extent as time goes on but in the 70s it was really like
that you could murder people for fuck's sake yeah and in the 80s it was still still pretty wild
westy out there as far as the violence goes and apparently eastern europe or the european leagues
he was playing in it's not like that it's more set up on speed and eastern europe or the european leagues he was playing
and it's not like that really it's more set up on speed and plays kind of like european basketball
style european basketballs was especially now it's all kind of getting the same because our
basketball here is more like europe now but in the 90s european pro basketball and our pro basketball
weren't the same sport so different yeah if you watched like the o Olympics, you'd see our guys physically just throwing these guys around.
They didn't know what the fuck to do because that's not how they play over there.
So they weren't used to, you know, Charles Barkley slamming you with his ass before he gets a rebound.
Just wasn't a concern that they usually have.
Yeah.
They're like, Jesus, these guys play fucking rough.
And now I can't walk.
Yeah.
Now I'm fucking limping up the court the rest of the time
but that's how it is we had more of a there was the playground style was in our game a lot whereas
it wasn't like that in europe that's interesting i have wondered that uh why it was legal to just
bash the living shit out of some somebody's face when that's really not the object of the game
that is pretty wild that that's legal in hockey yeah yeah
that that's not i don't know an arrestable offense well we we're gonna do a bonus episode actually
on hockey players that have been arrested for in-game incidents because there's a shitload of
them it makes sense tons of them i mean the stick because they have weapons that's why yeah which in
baseball though i've seen people go after people to fucking bat they don't get arrested but it's true i guess with the razor blades on your feet and the stick in
your hand it's you got to keep the violence to a stand up put up your dukes type of thing or else
it's going to be an issue they should stop calling that a hockey stick because if you've ever held
one that shit's dense yeah yeah those are heavy fucking logs well also there's they on the end
they're light so you can whip them right they're dangerous weapons it's a blade on the end that's why yeah that's why it's called slashing when you
fucking hit somebody with it there's a reason for that shit because you're slashing them with a
fucking thing on the end with it's it's a good uh half inch to an inch thick right it's taped up to
no it's not that thick but you tape it up the the the end of the stick is flexible right so it's got
it's not that thick because it's got some flex to it i'm talking about where you're holding it oh
where you're holding it's kind of good oh yeah it's like it's squared off too it's not rounded
it's got a good edge it feels really like well i could do some damage with this fucking kill
somebody with this that's what i mean so he over there this is much more suited to his style than and when he comes over here
it takes him a while to adjust to the violence of the game luckily for him he's got bob probert
with him the whole time is that right oh this is bob probert's running mate everybody so
if you liked bob probert yeah this is this is his boy this is this is his eastern european boy so
these two hanging out must have been the weirdest thing in the world because they're
very different people, too, as we'll talk about.
Yeah.
Bob Probert was like a redneck guy.
This guy's not bad at all.
He's like kind of a weird, like kind of stylish European guy.
Classic.
Yeah.
He's the type of guy that would have had like a body length leather duster that he wore.
You know?
He's one of the wild and crazy guys
yeah that's what i feel like he's gonna come over and try to pick up women in a bad way
you know that old joke yeah yeah i want to be on you
hello i want to make fuck on you i want to make fuck in your eye
yes i make fuck between your legs we go now i have sports car i have red sport car i make
fuck between leg and in condominium i buy condominium very nice very comfortable to
make fuck between leg huh okay come to Sport Car. Get in. What?
Why are you scared?
I don't understand.
So what, you husband right there?
I don't care.
I say, hello, how are you?
I'm very nice to meet you.
I'll buy him a drink.
Hey, come, you stop, drink.
I return.
I send back in cab.
I'm gentleman, no?
Come on, make fuck between legs.
Let's go. Wow. Okay. I'm going gonna have a lot of fun with this yeah so uh 80 he plays there 83 84 he's in the
Czech juniors again where they I don't know what the fuck that means g lava g i h l a v a oh what
the fuck does that mean you lava are they the champions or does that mean i don't know
what that means that's what that was his award that's that's like the team's position in the
tournament is g g have lava i don't know they're jihadding the tournament so that's a problem i
guess i don't know he then plays for dukla g havla againla again. G. Lava. Sorry. G. Havlava.
I don't know.
41 games, 20 goals, 16 assists.
He continues to play for the...
He plays in 84-85 in the Canadian Cup.
The Czechoslovakian team comes over to Canada,
which is very, very important to note
because that's a big deal in his life there
in terms of him being able to escape from the Czech Republic.
Really?
Coming over there.
Yeah, he was meeting with people while he was over there.
From about early 83, there's feelers being sent out.
He wants to come to America.
Teams want him over here.
And back then, you basically had to steal a guy because they weren't letting him go.
He was in a country where they weren't allowed to fucking leave so yeah if a guy wanted to defect he had
to like secretly run away there wasn't like he couldn't just go and get on a plane and go over
and land in jfk and be like hey i'm here now i realized the government put him in jail it's a
very dumb american thing but i i'm i'm blown away that that's a thing anywhere that's fucking wild yeah
and if you hear some of like the stories of the cuban baseball players yeah how the fuck they got
here they had to fucking i mean the teams could give them the resources could send them a few
bucks to bribe this guy and do this but but i mean otherwise they had to fucking get over here
had to fucking figure it out and that's kind of how it was over there but with the with eastern
europe communism
this is cold war era so this is a totally different thing like there's you know major
attorney generals and major government figures getting involved trying to pull
strings and really oh it's wild how they could get these guys yeah it's crazy so the 1983 nhl
entry draft here and we've talked about this this draft before for a couple of times, actually.
We had Pat LaFontaine go number three.
Geiserman there.
Red Wing star went number four.
A lot of Cam Neelys in this draft.
A lot of good guys here that we've talked about.
The definitely, absolutely not brother of Mario Lemieux, Claude Lemieux.
Got it.
Is drafted also in this.
Did I mention he is not Mario's brother?
You know, I've heard that there's no relation.
No relation at all, as a matter of fact.
I've never been more positive about any fact in my life.
That they are not brothers.
I'm pretty sure when my birthday is.
Yeah.
Pretty sure.
But I'm not as sure about that.
Nearly as sure as I am that Claude Lemieux-
Never spent a birthday with.
It certainly did not fall from the same vagina as Mario Lemieux.
Their mothers probably never met.
Never met either.
Entirely different women.
Different women.
Fathers too.
Not even the same dad.
Incredible. Different people. just so everybody knows in case you were wondering but i have heard that mario's
son plays hockey also yeah i've heard that i've heard things i've heard things i'm almost as well
versed in the lemieux family i know it's so well maybe that's why we haven't done a hockey
episode in so long it is hard to get past no so many it's funny it's just hilarious i i like the
hockey fans are very passionate yeah that's a good thing i love a passionate fan base that's
great but you know who's also really passionate rugby fans and cricket fans and soccer fans those
people kill each other they fucking hockey players yeah you guys go and drink beer and cricket fans and soccer fans those people kill each other they
hockey players yeah you guys go and drink beer and sing songs and shit they will stab each other
and then fucking stampede the fallen herd before them to do what i don't know to get a better look
they'll take a fucking wall down just with a the force all of us can take the wall down and then
push it over on to another 100 000 people it's insanity
just to see and when we fuck up anything with that they think it's hilarious and they love it
and they don't give two fucks because they know that's not what the episode about but god forbid
if you say that claude and mario lemieux may yeah not that they are yeah They may possibly be related. Possibly.
Based on the fact that they have two men named the same last name that I've never heard of anybody being named anywhere else.
That both play hockey really good.
It would be crazy if they were related.
Yeah.
It just feels like...
I found later on that there's Brent Gretzky, his Wayne's brother.
I fucking made sure. I'm like, yeah is wayne's brother i fucking made
sure i'm like it might be wayne's brother but maybe not i looked it up i looked up like three
different sources and i'm like okay it's wayne's brother i wanted like childhood pictures at
birthday parties together with their arms around each other before i fucking looking up his fucking
phone number before i would say are you his brother or not yes i got a podcast what'd you do
god damn it who fucked your mother who so yeah so we love the hockey fans passion and we do we
dig that a lot because they do it's a it's an it's an insular sport any of those sports that
are kind of yeah that are smaller and i'm not saying that it's a tiny thing but it's not the
nfl right you don't have people doing
hockey pools at work right it's just not that sort of thing you don't have anybody picking this you
don't have anybody paying in the united states amounts of money for uh the the stanley cup
commercial exactly yeah it's not in the u.s anyway in canada might be a different thing but not here
so that's the way it is but anyway finally in the fifth fifth round, Joey Coker's picked also in the fifth round.
Who's a brawler like a motherfucker.
Yeah, he's the guy who got arrested for some on ice incidents.
I was at a Ranger game one time and he got in fucking, I want to say three fights before he finally got thrown out.
And I was like, I love this guy.
This is fantastic when I was a kid.
But number 86 overall in the fifth round, the Detroit Red Wings pick Peter Klima here.
So he's over there.
It's 83.
He's still over there.
He plays in like the juniors and everything.
So they have no way of getting him.
They just pick him.
So they have the rights to him.
Who was it that got him?
Detroit.
Detroit.
The Red Wings.
So yeah, it's one of those deals.
So now they have to figure out how the fuck to get him out of there.
How do they get him out?
And this is a pretty pretty you don't hear you
just don't hear stories about this this sounds like some shit from like a you know an 80s like
spy movie how they got him out of here uh first of all a little bit on his background he's known
as an asshole over there really yeah like they call him uh he's like a rebel and he's this and
he's that and he's a rule breaker and all this shit but this is all like off the ice he's like a rebel and he's this and he's that and he's a rule breaker and all this shit but this is all like off the ice
he's just a dick everybody thinks he's a dick
he's a real prima donna but in
America and we'll get a quote on this
but in America they looked at that as
oh good he's not just a
you know a communist do what you say
he's an American yeah you say
he's an asshole eh
you're hired I know where it would
be perfect for him.
America.
Yeah.
Where he'll fit in with all the other assholes.
You're telling me he's got a certain level of arrogance?
He's going to thrive here.
We'd love to talk to him.
He's going to thrive here.
Let me tell you something.
He is going to thrive.
Yeah.
So, yeah, he was like that.
The last thing he did, we'll talk about it at the end of this big harrowing ordeal right at the
end of it he goes i think i want more money by the way let's let's talk let's revisit the car
it's like this crazy escape from alcatraz fucking thing and then he's like i think i think i might
not go still right i did all that but i need a couple more bucks like so this is the kind of
dick he is oh boy um yeah and they gave it to him too because the the lengths you they got went to getting him out they weren't going to go no go
back through the woods and traipse back to your hotel here that's what i mean so yeah he was 20
years old apparently the team officials over in czechoslovakia knew that the detroit red wings
drafted him so if they wasted a draft pick on him, they apparently have some plans of trying to...
That's basically putting them on notice
that they're going to try to steal him now.
So all that does is make them lock guys like that down more.
Makes them now, if they go overseas,
if they go out of the country for any tournaments,
they have like minders
and make sure they don't make a run for it.
You showed us your cards.
Yeah, that's what it was.
But the NHL has to do that so they have rights.
Otherwise, you can't spend millions of dollars to get somebody out
and don't have the rights to them and some other team gets to have them.
Unbelievable is that.
It's a fucked up system.
It's a crazy system.
Any system.
All of the drafts like that.
We draft that guy and now we have all the rights to him.
The rights to tell him what to do and where to go yeah it's so it sounds
normal too like people are like yeah well i mean you're right you're lucky to be there and all that
but no when if you go to law school right let's say you go to harvard law school yeah and then
you you know you you're the top of your class and you pass the bar and all this shit you don't have
to go to cleveland no you don't have to you to Cleveland. No. You don't have to. You can go anywhere the fuck you want.
You don't have to do anything, really.
If someone said,
that guy should have to live in Cleveland
or that guy should have to go to Jacksonville for this month,
you'd be like, why?
Yeah.
He fucking worked his balls off
to have the,
or she or she or whoever
to have the fucking choice
to go wherever the hell they want to.
Really?
He doesn't even have to be a lawyer.
That's what I mean.
He can go do anything.
Go open a hot dog stand if he wants to.
That's what I'm saying. Like, it's a silly it's wild the draft system is very weird it's fascinating that's for sure i don't know how else you would do it honestly
you do have to declare for it as well where you're nhl draft they can just draft you just
pick people oh yeah because you can you can do that anywhere so you don't have to declare for
shit baseball they pick people that haven't declared wow yeah they pick uh like you'll see guys get drafted out of high school all the
time where in baseball where they know they're going to college yeah the guys didn't declare
for a draft they just draft them and they go yeah we'll see if we offer him 200 grand maybe he'll
decide not to go to college and it works a lot what a weird fucking business strange right
hockey's really weird hockey they grab the kids at 16 sometimes.
It's really young.
So anyway, there's all these rumors around here that the Red Wings started off by trying to pay off Czech authorities.
Basically, they were like, all right, well, maybe we can grease the wheels a little bit.
And maybe these guys are corrupt and we can just pay them off.
But that was a little bit and maybe these guys are corrupt and we can just pay them off, you know?
But that was a little bit difficult and the Czechoslovakian,
the authorities kind of clamped him down for a minute
and then once when the draft happened
and there was all these rumors
and then after a minute, they just kind of,
I don't know, they just kind of didn't have
the same level of vigilance with it.
They were just like, that's over. He's fine, I guess.
I don't know what.
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They were thinking, so they let their guard down a little bit,
and he ends up secretly agreeing to a $2.5 million 10-year contract to play for Detroit.
That's cheap and great for them.
Well, for the 80s, that's great money, though. For the 80s, hockey players didn't make a million for them well for the 80s that's great money though
for the eight hockey players didn't make a million dollars a year in the 80s at all 50 a year at
best yeah that's what i mean it's escalating but still the first five years are guaranteed and it's
an option for the second five years but still 2.5 million dollars if you live in communist
czechoslovakia is where are you going to make 2.5 million dollars in 10 years never ever ever
in slovakia unless you're king that's what i mean you'd have to be like you know some corrupt
communist official to make that kind of money so uh this was over in 1984 when he was there for
the canada cup they snuck and had a conversation with him and had him agree in principle and you know whatever
sign an intent letter or some shit for that contract so i find that that's pretty interesting
when they came over there under the dead of night well that was during a tournament so it was fine
but then in 1985 it's uh this is when it kind of when shit starts to happen his friend ron's uh
peter svoboda uh ron svoboda is a baseball player
that's why he fucked me up peter svoboda is his name here s-v-o-b-o-d-a so peter peter yeah same
thing same way same way we know another one just don't need it no time i ain't got no time for
vals unreal uh he defected from the czech republic from czechoslovakia earlier and was playing for the
montreal canadians so they knew each other from over there and so that was kind of the blueprint
of how to do it and uh klima says that quote we want we both wanted to defect at the same time
but we couldn't because i was in the army he said i would never go awol he was part of their
fucking arm he was in the army yeah it, you had to be. That was awesome.
He was still in the army.
So he was playing on all these teams and he's in the army.
And he said he wouldn't go AWOL from the army.
That was a bridge too far for him to do.
Well, there's punishment in that too, I think.
Oh, there's punishment for leaving anyway.
But over there, I imagine the punishment for leaving when you're enlisted.
It's probably a little more steep.
Well, I know for a fact where that if he
once he left if he went back if they got a hold of him he's going right to prison there was no
no anything else he's going to prison for escaping but i don't know if you if you ditch out on the
army that might be desertion they might shoot you yeah that might be so that's that's what i mean so
but either way i think you're banking on not going back at that point so i would think it's
in for a penny that
time yeah that might have just been he was in the army with a bunch of guys and you kind of all make
a commitment together to not skip out on it maybe that one maybe might have been more about the
people but the way he is i don't feel like that's the way it is because he's kind of a loner really
he's not really one that's a doesn't have a real big communal spirit which is strange for a communist anyway it should be very just just by
definition alone so um yeah the red wings couldn't couldn't get him here because he had these two
years of military service and he said he could be shot as a traitor if he went awol and that was
that was the only risk was if you try to escape and get caught it's one thing you'll go to prison
but then you can try to escape again but if you try to run away from the army then they'll just shoot you and then you can't escape again
so he said that also quote this is from a team official he was afraid that something would
happen to his family if he left the army i thought about that too reprisals reprisals on his family
which yeah he's a high profile figure that would be embarrassing to the government so that might
they might end up taking it out put his fucking dad in prison or something who knows so um they won't be no one
ever knows what he did in the army he says it's a military secret and then all of his documents
are classified so we have no idea what he was doing in the army either sounds like just playing
hockey anyway no clue yeah i don't know if that was just some weird smoky Iron Curtain thing or what.
But he then one of the this is the team official for the Red Wings saying that he's an it's a good thing.
He's an asshole.
He says, quote, I had heard there that he was a bad kid, that he was always in trouble with the team.
I was happy to hear that because I figured he wasn't a good communist.
He's like a typical typical American or Canadian kid.
Fun, fun, loving and happy go
go lucky but the communists like their players to all look uh sad all the time yeah true but no he's
not a happy go lucky no no he's just an arrogant it's just a dick he's typical like if you
picture 80s movies euro trash yeah like somebody's like you know just overly i'm wonderful and i am that's who
he is like that's it arrogant he's just an arrogant asshole like yeah i feel like if you're a good
athlete over there you're probably treated a little bit different oh i'm sure that because
you're treated different here but over there everybody's you know smaller population smaller
population yeah gifted in that that's and there's only a few things that that real that you would
be boosted to any sort of recognition for there so and when it comes to hockey and he's
representing the country and he's doing well at it he's probably pampered pretty well that's what i
mean so i feel like he thinks he's better than a lot of people and his scores just a lot of times
feel like they're they have a reputation scores and hockey i mean you can have all the defense
in the world if you don't put one point on, you can have all the defense in the world,
but if you don't put one point on the board, you'll lose.
Yeah.
So apparently they met, like I said, with him at the Canada Cup in September 1984.
It was in London, Canada.
And they also met in Buffalo before signing him to the secret contract there.
And they said that the 2.5 million 10 years there the team official said
quote it's an average contract in the national hockey league but it's just a little bit longer
than most he's well taken care of you have to remember that he can never go back home again
so that makes sense he's got if you're going there you can't be like you can't cut me next
year i have nowhere to fucking go at that point and you got to give me money that's like forever
money yeah otherwise i can't go back there i'm gonna get fucking killed if i go back there so yeah so they said yeah five year
deal with the option and um he said uh this is fucking funny i came here to play hockey not to
get money money wasn't the reason i came hockey is something that i like doing it's fun keep that
in mind uh he said he uh the team official said he assured him that he wanted to
come it apparently cost uh the red wings about a quarter of a million dollars in logistics to get
him the fuck out of there basically just in terms of a bribe here a thing here yeah just to set the
whole thing up so apparently they had a guy on the inside a czechoslovakian contact and the team
got a phone call from this guy on wednesday august 14th 1985 telling him that klima was ready to
defect they're like all right he's ready to go like are you guys ready to grab him so um yeah
they were the czech team was training in rosenheim west germany which was you know non-communist obviously that was in the western
world which is so strange fucking that was that was 30 years ago which is a long time but not
that long ago where germany was two fucking places that were very different i was alive
it's weird i remember watching that shit watching that wall come yeah i'm like whoa that's weird
what the fuck does it Why is that so symbolic?
Yeah.
Yeah.
If it was kids for us, it's not like it wasn't a big deal.
It was like, oh, yeah, they're taking a wall down.
But I guess if you were around for a long time, since World War II, it was probably a-
Those bricks mean something to you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I knew it would have meant symbolically, but it wasn't like it didn't affect my life.
So as a 10-year- year old kid you're not like oh
i see the global you know impact of the yeah you know you're like all right that's cool why is why
is night rider singing what's happening i'm american i don't get this yeah this yeah we
we don't have this so he was there and they'd be staying in a small hotel the team would near the town of neustorf okay so a little hotel there
and apparently the officials for the uh red wings got on a plane and flew to west germany right away
and they had their first meeting was in the woods behind the hotel awesome yes this is
clandestine and shit he had to sneak out of the window of his room and sneak into the woods.
He's trying to get a blowy.
Yeah.
To meet high level professional sports team officials, probably wearing suits and ties,
traipsing around in the woods, praying that they don't get deer ticks.
Didn't meet a Twitter hooker.
This is real deal life.
Yeah.
This isn't rest stop blowjobs.
This is something completely different.
So, yeah, they're in the woods on Friday night, August 16th.
So they got the call on the 14th.
By the 16th, they're in Germany in the woods meeting with this guy.
That's how bad they wanted him.
That night here, he was supposed to go into his hotel room where they were training and everything.
So anyway, the Detroit officials, once they're over there, it's so funny that they're training and everything. So anyway, the Detroit officials,
once they're over there,
they're talking.
It's so funny that they're in the woods.
So they end up having another meeting
with him the next night
where Clem was instructed
to sneak out of his hotel room
and take a car provided
that was going to be in the parking lot for him
to hop in the car.
And the car takes him to another location
where he has to walk about a
half mile to the car where they're going to talk to him there's all these different in case they're
followed so weird it's fucking crazy this is this is wild shit um so this is he comes out of the
woods and the uh the team official for the red wing says quote we didn't know what was going to
come out of those woods i think that deep down none of us really thought we were going to be able to pull this off they're sitting out there like waiting
like i guess our hockey player is going to come out of the woods now emerge from the woods like
what a weird thing to show up like casey jones like yeah i can mask and everything it's so
fucking strange it's just gonna be a dude walking in the woods going i'm clumber you guys looking for me yeah nicely dressed guy just like hey how you doing hey i'm peter without a knee hey pete
how you doing peter oney yeah we're all over dressed hanging out in the woods peter oney
hope you guys are looking for me i'm peter with oney oney no i yeah or oh or a or just an E, but one. You find out where it goes.
Think about it.
That's a great one.
You find out.
I'll send you there staring upwards for a minute.
Yeah.
Is it?
Okay.
It really wouldn't matter either way because both ways it kind of works.
How about just P-T-R?
We could just skip all the E's.
Peter.
Fuck E's.
If you saw a guy's name was P-T-R, you'd go, Peter.
Wouldn't you? You wouldn't go, your name's P-T-R a guy's name was ptr you go peter wouldn't you you wouldn't go your name's peter you'd go hey you're peter right that's peter that's how you put it together
everybody if you're any pregnant or yeah gonna be expecting soon people are trying to have children
that are listening to this right now name your kid ptr just tell everyone it's peter this is peter and if you have
an uncle uh any any any random peter in your life you're now named ptr that's true and it's christmas
gift if you do that and prove it with a birth certificate you get two free tickets to a live
show of your choice any live show you want just ruin your child's life, and you can save $40. Forever. So there you go.
That offers forever.
One show, but forever.
Forever.
You pick any show.
Any show till the end of time, you can come to.
You pop up with that five years from now.
We'll honor it.
You betcha.
They named it PTR.
I'm sorry.
We got to do it.
So the team officials wanted to leave with Petereter right then but klima had another sticking
point he asked if the red wings could get his girlfriend out too he's like i got this girlfriend
and you know i kind of need her to come too i'm not leaving her over here so he's like if i go
she's gotta go god damn it what are you doing, man? They're like, fuck.
Okay.
So they said there's, you know, it's going to be difficult to do this.
Yeah.
Because she was back in Czechoslovakia and they were like, how the fuck do we do that?
So they're like, you're not going to be able to leave at the same time.
We'll work on one and work on the other and we'll figure it out.
So apparently they had to meet again.
And the team
official said we had a pre-arranged meeting place but it was a little scary he wanted to go over his
contract again this was the time where everything's set and everything's ready to go and okay you're
gonna get in a car and pop out of the woods and he's like but before we go a friend of mine told
me somebody else made this much i would like to discuss yeah how important am i to you that's what
i mean i know you the fuck peter someone told him you know one of somebody told him hey look
they're in for this much if they're gotten way more if they're waiting for you in the middle
of the night and outside the woods in west germany they want you fucking bad yeah you can get whatever
you want dude they're not gonna waste all this money they've already put into this you made guys
in fucking colthorn shoes stand in the dirt there's bribed there's
czechoslovakian officials that will be killed yeah if the five what they've done comes to light over
this like you're going to gotten three yeah probably uh so then they said um once they got
that settled the team official here said the decision to leave took five minutes he just
looked at us and decided to go they said
he didn't have much with him just a t-shirt and the jeans he was wearing he went back to the hotel
and grabbed some stuff it was the longest five minutes of my life because they had to wait for
him to go back to the hotel and hope he didn't get caught right because he had to sneak back in and
sneak back out with his shit so if anybody saw him leaving with his shit he's busted yeah that's it
i mean he's done he could say i'm going out for a walk around the building otherwise,
but not if you're carrying
a duffel bag.
You're done.
So they said that
they had one of the team officials
at the wheel
and they had a rented Mercedes.
He hopped in the back
with all his shit
and they took off
doing 120 miles an hour
on the Autobahn.
Wow.
That's fucking, yeah.
So cool.
Middle of the night.
Yeah.
Escape with a
blazing
communist defector with just a bag full of hockey gear running away from
his life, asking to have his lovely Czech girlfriend brought to the U.S. as well.
Very smart to get a place that logistically you get to take the Autobahn.
Yeah.
That's so rad.
Take a Mercedes and go $1.20 on the Autobahn?
That sounds fun.
I want a Mercedes on the Autobahn.
Yeah.
I want both of those things.
That sounds like a good time.
They said, quote, we wanted to put a lot of distance between us and the team.
We figured that they would be looking for him after the 11 o'clock bed check.
Yeah.
So they had to do all this.
Yeah, they had to do it all before bed check because then they would know he was missing.
I don't know why they didn't wait until after bed check.
That's a smart idea.
I think by then they would have noticed if he left.
He could come and go out of the hotel just to walk around before bed check.
You're allowed to leave.
It depends on how much money they have.
Does he have his own room?
It doesn't matter.
After bed check, though, if you're seen leaving, you're fucked.
Then they'll actually watch you to make sure you're not leaving after.
But beforehand, you can go walk around, I think.
They're not going to let you go to the soda machine in the lobby, I assume, if you want to.
Maybe.
Probably not.
Maybe not.
Yeah.
We get for you.
Yeah.
No, no.
Get back in the room.
No, only orange soda.
That's the only thing you can have.
Why?
Because you don't want orange.
That's why you get orange.
Or root beer.
What flavor do you want?
Exactly.
That's why you get orange.
If you wanted 7-Up, if you want orange, I give you 7-Up. But you don't. You want. That's why you get orange. If you wanted seven, if you want orange, I give you seven up.
But you don't.
You want seven up.
You get orange.
Nobody's choice is orange unless there aren't any others.
And that's why you get orange.
Go to bed.
Go to bed.
Because there's no caffeine in orange.
That's why.
That's why.
You go to sleep.
No caffeine.
So they do that.
caffeine so uh they get they do that um later on by the way he a week later that once they get him out he he loves fast cars as we'll get into really it's really some foreshadowing here uh a week
after this he wrecks a sports car when he takes it out no license wow destroys a car as soon as
he gets here unbelievable wrecks a car without a license
so you know driver like he oh no he bought a car or had somebody's car and just fucking went out
and crashed it wow just got here didn't have a license obviously didn't even fucking speak
english at all just fill out a thing or i don't know if they had it in check in 1985 or what but
he uh had no license so obviously he's basically you know he's in in trouble a week into the country he's
already has like a driving without a license reckless driving all that shit on his record
so that's nice he's gonna make fuck he's gonna make fuck between legs car first you have to go
fast to condominium otherwise maybe she changed mind maybe husband catch up with car. That's why you drive very fast.
He's behind you.
Hey, bring wife back to me.
Like, oh, you know.
Say what?
Heartbroken.
Yeah, my heart's broken.
The kids are at home.
They're going to cry.
Where's mom?
I bring her back.
I bring to you.
I make fuck.
And I bring to you.
Why?
I send back. I don't want keep i don't want i don't want to keep just a minute i send back sign say close so uh yeah he does that and the team official that
got him over here said quote peter just laughed when he said he had his car the car had been uh
wrecked but the lady at hertz didn't think it was very funny.
Oh, it was a rental.
He had a fucking rental car that he destroyed.
And they also said, quote,
thank God it was a Mercedes because it's built like a tank,
so he wasn't hurt.
Otherwise, yeah, he just rented a Mercedes
and crashed the fuck out of it.
Unbelievable.
That was it.
He laughed later on, reminded about it years ago.
Peter Clemas said, quote,
it was a big car and I wasn't used to driving big cars.
So, yeah, he had the little tiny.
That's the one you get for sure.
You got like the two-cylinder, 42 horsepower, some eastern block piece of shit lawnmower.
It's got five seats.
Nobody can fit in those other three.
That's what I mean with little tiny bubble car.
Then they go, here's a Mercedes.
Here's a V12 Mercedes. Enjoy. Like, holy shit, he's definitely going to crash that shit. That's a I mean, a little tiny bubble car. Then they go, here's a Mercedes. Here's a V12 Mercedes.
Enjoy.
Like, holy shit, he's definitely going to crash that shit.
That's a lot of car.
That's way too much car.
If you're used to driving a dune buggy, that's going to be a little too much for you.
So, yeah, for five weeks, they had to hide him in different hotels in West Germany.
So they would just move him all the time in case anybody saw him or got back
because he could still be kidnapped
by the Czechoslovakians and taken back.
So they had to do all this
before they could arrange his immigration
with the United States.
Even the NHL, it took more than a day
to arrange immigration.
So yeah, from Neusdorf,
they went to Stuttgart, to Koblenz,
and to Frankfurt.
And they waited a week in Frankfurt before going to the U.S. Embassy
because they were afraid that the Czech officials were watching it
and they were going to accost him on the way.
Literally, they were worried about going from the car to the front door
because they thought he'd be snatched and taken in some fucking black van somewhere
and taken back to Czechoslovakia.
He's not holding secrets to nuclear fission.
He plays hockey.
No, that's what I mean.
Well, let him go.
But it's an embarrassment to them when somebody runs away,
because why would they want to run away?
It's supposed to be paradise.
That's the point.
There's not $2.5 million collectively amongst this country.
But for them, they're saying you shouldn't want $2.5 million,
because this is more than you should want.
You should play hockey for the love of the you know of of dressing in burlap you know i mean
jesus yeah it's it's there's extremes what's the dollar figure on country and family pride i i'm
all for you know everybody having something but at some point it's like you know he i bread lines
are another issue so That's terrifying.
Yeah.
So, yeah, this is like hardcore communism, literally Russia.
This is a different story here than, you know, normal stuff.
So they hit him out and all this time.
And finally, they said that they were they never feared they were in, you know, like the official said said we were never in physical danger but we feel
felt like they were going to snatch him up and try to pressure him basically and uh the peter
clemenceau i'm sorry the uh the uh team official says a lot of red tape was cut by my boss uh mr
illich that's the red wings owner who had contacts in was in the Reagan administration. They said that apparently an attorney who's married to the owner's daughter
serves as general counsel for the hockey team,
was connected with the White House, so it's all...
That'll help.
Everybody's finger-fucking each other there.
So apparently they granted him a humanitarian purposes visa.
It's like, you know, because he was in a communist country and uh the team official
said if he hadn't been a major hockey player we probably wouldn't have gotten him out no shit
right i'm sure there's a lot of other people there would have loved to fucking follow apparently her
girlfriend was a different story here or his girlfriend peter's girlfriend they had to hire
basically professional kidnappers to get her out of the country.
In West Germany, it was easier to snatch them.
In the Czech Republic, in Czechoslovakia, it's different.
You're right there, so they can get you at any time.
You have to sneak past the border at that point.
So they had to hire coyotes, basically.
Incredible.
But these are like a professional team of international kidnappers to voluntarily kidnap her so we do yeah she wanted to go but it's a voluntary kidnapping
to get past all that shit the team official here says quote i can't go into any details
but it was very expensive he hadn't made any arrangements for her he had just said we would
send for her so that was that uh yeah unbelievable so they had to sneak her out
after they get her out they met her in vienna to confirm that she was the right woman
oh that would have been a bitch if they kidnapped the wrong woman yeah so they had to be like you're
his girlfriend right no why am i here oh my god these men kidnapped they took me and said you know
why you're doing this i don't know what's happening please i have children who is this old woman my mother's very sick she needs her medication
please take me home you guys just snatched the oldest woman in town who is she what are we
we're supposed to give that girl to peter she's like she's like 12 she's like i have to be at
school in the morning and they're like i don't think this is the right girl you haven't been
fucking peter cleaver have you please tell me You haven't been fucking Peter Cleveland, have you?
Please tell me you haven't been fucking.
If you were, if he, if this is true, we got to send him back.
Yeah, he's going to go home.
We can't have this.
This is going to be bad.
So they said, the team guy said, quote, you're damn right.
It was scary.
I didn't know who I was dealing with.
Peter had given me birthmarks to check for.
Stop it. Yeah, because they don't know. i was dealing with peter had given me birthmarks to check for stop it yeah because they don't know anybody could say they're her so and they don't have any other you know they
couldn't facetime it's 1985 samantha depends you're getting samantha the fuck out of here
because then that's me yeah peter is this her yes okay you couldn't do that with a phone you could
do that very easily now point this the one right yeah all right that cool see you later click done
here we go we're on our way.
But no.
So Peter had given me birthmarks to check for, but after I saw the way- Drop your pants, girl.
Yeah.
Now, not for nothing, Peter said on your left, how do I put this?
How do I be delicate?
Yeah.
On the left side of your snatch.
That's delicate, right?
All right, sweetheart.
It is a nice mark there that tells me who you are.
It's going to be a nice shape of a strawberry.
Now, take the pants off and let's take a look, sweetheart.
Hike that skirt off.
Let's go.
Jesus Christ.
He says you've got a little bit of a hemorrhoid on the left side i'll take a look i
don't know let's take a peek hold on let me get my magnifying glass i really want to get in there
so he had birthmarks to check for unbelievable he said but after i saw the way she reacted when i
showed her his picture i didn't have to look at them so yeah she knew it was the right one
they uh they didn't want to say
how they won't say exactly who they hired or how they got her out apparently it was this is an
older article and apparently this was like you know these people could still face reprisals for
what happened and shit like that so uh they said that they they're gonna they kept her in a western
european country while they were waiting and all that sort of shit so he has to leave behind though his
parents his older brother and sister all these people are still stuck there talks to him on the
phone and all that sort of shit but he knows he's not gonna be able to see them for years ever again
yeah for yeah who knows he chose to wear 85 the number 85 why which is a high number it's funny
because every article about him says it's that's because
that's when he came to america and he loves america so much he wore 85 he says quote the
papers wrote that i chose number 85 because i was liberated in 1985 i'm gonna be honest it was just
my favorite year of the camaro you know what it's the highest number it's the most number of women
i ever banged in a month i'm not gonna lie
that's what it is one month i got 85 it was pretty good i was doing two a night for a while you know
and a couple nights i had a few parties i'm not gonna lie like a good number it's a good number
and he said that's not true i'm i am glad to be in america but i chose number 85 because
because it is the year when i chose to leave coslovakia. When I left, I left everything behind.
I did what I did for hockey.
Nobody else in the world would do it.
What?
I think everybody would if they had your talent.
Tons of those people came.
Absolutely.
That was a huge normal.
People ran from Russia.
Happened all the time.
He's just the best in the world at escaping,
and he wants to document that.
But that's to him.
He's like, nobody would do what I did.
That's how he is.
Nobody would do that normal thing.
I had a ham sandwich for lunch.
Nobody would do that.
That normal thing.
Nobody else would do that.
Do you understand?
And what's the difference between 85 being the year you chose to leave?
The year you got here or the year you chose to leave?
What's the difference, man?
I think you're really splitting hairs.
That's the kind of dick he is, though.
Someone asked him that, he'd just try to be disagreeable and then give the same exact answer, pretty much.
Contrary, fuck.
It's not the year I was liberated, it's the year I chose to leave.
That's why I use it.
It's the same goddamn thing.
Sir.
Sir.
You son of a bitch.
He has a rough start to his early career.
85, 86 Detroit here.
The team is 17-57-6.
Bad.
Fifth in the Norris division that year.
Not too good at all.
This year, let's see.
Geiserman, obviously, is a rookie.
They have Probert there also.
There's a decent young core here, actually,
of players that they'll have for a while
that'll be in the league for a while as well.
It takes him a while to adjust, apparently.
First of all, he doesn't speak English, like, at all.
That's not good.
So that's rough.
No one on the Red Wings,
they didn't even hire a translator.
I think they'd hire a guy to be like
for all that money you invested throw somebody 30 grand a year to be his shadow and tell you
what the fuck he says but in detroit those arrogant americans probably just think he's
french canadian yeah he'll pick it up they're screaming french in his face he's gonna pick it
up said poutine yeah he knows he knows. He knows. They fucking know.
Don't worry about it. He gets it.
He gets it.
Have a cigarette, you French fuck.
Look at him.
Goddamn frog.
Fucking perverts.
All of them.
All of them.
Check, you bunch of jerks.
Yeah, jerks.
So no one speaks Czech.
He said later on, quote, it was a big problem.
I can't learn English in two months.
But on the ice, we understand each other he said that he had like at the time he was always carrying around a
check to english dictionary god damn it trying to tell you know oh um search through it trying
to find for like that sounds awful it does that sounds terrible think about that doing that as a
ordered the wrong thing a bunch of times no yeah a guy that he he finally
makes a friend named ivan toth who's a czech immigrant and i found another czech immigrant
that's helpful who works as a construction manager construction project manager for little
caesar's pizza that's not positive which little caesar that's who he finds to hang out because
he speaks czech so they're buddies he's like i think what
is he 40 he's 48 at the time too so he's more than twice peter's age this old man that he builds
pizza shacks like cheap build shitty this is he stands back and goes terrible pizza will be made
here someday with pride that guy and a guy that plays for the red wings are hanging out someday
yep that's their buddies well apparently
the little caesar's pizza was owned by the owner of the red wings okay same company so he's like
i know a guy who speaks czech i know another guy who speaks czech my construction project
guy who builds all my shit tell you what why don't you do that i want to see that movie
that these two hangouts well he ends up ivan toth ends up basically being hired to
accompany peter on the road and hang out with him unbelievable so this like old czech man and peter
klema 21 year old kid hanging out together on the road must have really been quite the awesome fun
odd couple here so yeah he did that for his first few trips, tried to get a translator a little bit for him.
And Klima also moved in with Tote's family in Birmingham, Michigan.
Wow.
So, yeah, even like for a little while.
And that's a nice area.
Yeah, just to get acclimated to the whole, you know, just that they could kind of give him a little estuary as far as, yeah, it's America, but there's Czech here.
Right.
The food you're used to, you know we'll tell you how to do things and shit
like that so uh yeah he'd been in the united states for 18 years and he had four children this
toth including a 21 year old son which is peter's age so then mark and uh his name is mark the 21
year old son and they him and peter become good friends so there you go and um yeah just mrk no it's he uses an a's okay you
know we're american now it's uh mrk he knew where they were coming three years later he uh he says
toth says quote i deal with peter almost like i do my own son peter is a very nice kid and uh
right after that though peter ends up purchasing a house on three acres of land in Birmingham,
and he's going to get his own place.
On the road, he rooms with a goalie named Greg Stefan.
Stefan, Stefan, I don't know.
The goalie here says, Greg, he says, he's learning a lot of English.
He's done quite well.
Hockey-wise, he's adapted quite well.
He's been quite an asset to our team.
I like the word quite.
I'm going to use that in every sentence I fucking utter because he did in that one we get it yeah he might it's his favorite
word he just said that means that he's just that's like his press word yeah it's going quite well
yeah quite means you know right sort of it's not a superlative no it's good it's not too much
hyperbole doesn't go too far yeah just quite
that's right so he had trouble adjusting to the nhl as well um in europe apparently from what i
read here in 1985 defensemen didn't hold forwards as much as they did in the nfl and nhl there wasn't
a lot of holding and not a lot of physicality guys there was a little more space on the ice
kind of a thing and uh europe Europeans play a faster-paced game.
Not as much checking, hitting.
Not as much of that shit.
More like an open style.
There's more scores.
More scoring was faster, yeah.
They just say it's a faster game.
So in his first six games with the Red Wings, he only had one goal,
which he scored in the first game of the season.
So he wasn't doing very well uh they
sat him out for a game uh they sat him uh they sat he sat next to assistant coach colin campbell
in the press uh in the press box there and he said quote they wrote in the papers in detroit
that it was an educational move for me no it didn't help me out it didn't help me to sit out
just the contrary it made it worse so like go up there and talk to him and like see the game from above and maybe that'll help you a little more
to see what people are doing almost like watching film during the game type of deal
with no skates on obviously just hanging out yeah just watching so um yeah then he got a little bit
better he scored uh five goals and four assists in an eight-game stretch. Awesome. So that was pretty good, and people started to like him
because as a crowd, if you're watching as a fan,
and a regular fan is not very discerning,
you don't even notice if guys fuck off half the time.
You see that exciting goal that he scored, that's all that you saw.
You know what I mean?
If you're just an average fan, that's all you're going to see,
and you're going to go, that guy's awesome.
I saw him do this great move. Keeping your eye on the puck, and if he's got it a lot, you're just an average fan that's all you're gonna see and you're gonna go that guy's awesome i saw him do this great move keeping your eye on the puck and he's got it a lot you're
watching what he's doing you didn't see the bunch of times that he fucked off and he was hanging out
over there and wasn't supposed to be there and shit like that that's so that's a different thing
so they started to enjoy him he was kind of like he would make fancy moves he would like you know
put the puck like pass between his legs and shit like that yeah
a little hot dog in him they were saying the whole time there and he likes to be stylish and he wants
the fans to like him and all that sort of thing he says quote during this period though i am not
satisfied with the way i've been playing in my opinion i am not as good a player as i used to
be back home so he's he's he's used to playing better he says he really doesn't like
all the fighting in the nhl that's well you're the only one peter that's the thing he doesn't
well it's cool wayne gretzky didn't like it either probably you know guys like that probably right
scorers don't need it but yeah it's necessary so they don't get killed it's also necessary for
fans because i don't want to watch the puck go back and forth across the ice for fucking 50 minutes. It's the car accident
of the NASCAR. It's what that
is. It's the same type of thing,
but it's it's and it's
got a real kind of old
school thing to it. A hockey fight
because everybody clears out. Yeah, the
refs let him do it for until they go down.
They hold each other. Nobody
does anything real dirty. You can pull a jersey
and you can fucking
punch in the face and that's it there's no cheese dick moves nobody's leg diving anybody it's just
stand here and sock each other in the face until somebody gets punched too much it's just rock
them sock them robots yeah and it is one-handed with a hold with the other hand full of collar
yeah both of you have it yeah otherwise you get away it's a respect thing you nod to each other you got the fucking collar and you start swinging well i
assume that holds them both up yeah because otherwise if you hit it's gonna push you on
the skate so you're probably holding so you're both right it's like mutually assured like i
hold you and you punch you know we punch each other to my fist my fist you pull me to yours
it's a weird thing but it makes sense because in hockey we've talked about it like probert the reason why a peter klima could operate is because a guy like
bob probert if you take a cheap shot at a pussy like klima bob probert will beat the living shit
out of you and the next time he sees you yeah he's gonna take a cheap shot at you and then fight you
for it too on top of that he's gonna he's gonna hit you in the back of the fucking head yeah
something cheap and then when you throw your gloves off he's gonna pound you that's why enforcers wayne gretzky
always had an enforcer around him they all always if you had a gretzky you go well fuck who are we
gonna get to protect him because other they'll just kill him if we don't have somebody who
people are scared of you don't have a marty mcsorley out there is willing to take a stick
to somebody's head then you know your score, your score is going to get murdered.
What a game.
Crazy fucking game, man.
The wait is over.
So far, you're not losing.
The only thing you're losing is my patience.
Quickly, I see that.
Ding!
The queen of the courtroom is back.
I didn't do anything.
You wouldn't know the truth if it came up and slapped you in the face.
I see he's not intimidated by anything.
I can fix that.
New cases.
She wanted to fight me.
Leave her.
A long.
Okay, so, um...
This is not a so.
This is a period.
Classic Judy.
Did you sleep with her?
Yes, Your Honor.
You married his cousin.
His brother.
That's not him.
Yes, ma'am.
I would make a beeline for the door.
The Emmy Award winning series returns.
How did I know that?
I have a crystal ball in my head.
It's an all new season.
It's streaming.
You can say anything.
Judy Justice.
Only on freebie so uh yeah he says um the uh quote the basic difference between european hockey and the nhl
is that the nhl is more forceful what don't i like about the game the fights the fighting
shouldn't be there it doesn't belong in hockey in europe we don't fight
as much most people here want to see fights and not hockey i'm gonna say yeah arrogant american
thing ever go the fuck back why don't you go back where you came from where people just skate around
all fancy and go skate fast want to make figure eights and triple axles and shit before you score
why don't you you don't
lack a fat the fuck out trying to play a sport you don't like somebody punching you in the mouth
while you're doing it pussy i don't want to watch your fast-paced horse shit no oh my god that's
fucking funny jesus christ terrible he also says quote i'm afraid to fly i comfort myself by saying that
it can't fall okay but that's it can no that's the thing oh boy can it that's the only way it
can be dangerous rapid speed that's the only time it's dangerous really is if it falls right
otherwise if you stay in the air and then land when you want to i think that's those are both
good yeah that means it worked those are the symptoms it is super heavy i'll tell you that
right now i don't know how it flies that is the one of the heaviest things i've ever seen
get in the air that's incredible when you see that it's like when you when you see a boat and
you're like how does that float right how does that stay in the air that doesn't make sense well
good thing i'm not smart enough to know why it does because i would worry about it if i did i just go smart people
must know why do my thing somebody's paid very well to make this happen no shit so he right away
becomes a douchebag also he uh he has black hair but he frosts a bunch of it blonde oh no he's got
blonde frosty hair gold because black yeah it doesn't go blonde it's kind of a yeah that weird
yeah harvest gold yeah like a 70s kitchen appliance it's not good not terrific at all
uh he said that uh uh you know he always wanted to do that he also they were saying like he'd wear
a bunch of fashionable shit like he's trying to be real fashionable wearing like bracelets that
like young people wore his favorite movie is rambo
okay once he got here because he loves sylvester stallone of course of course he does because they
speak about the same amount of english he's only one that speaks more funny than me well i we both
need the subtitle that's i like it's good both of us both have english rosetta yeah same thing
i think he probably speaks better than Stallone, I would assume.
Probably.
Because if you teach him the words, he can get them out.
Whereas Stallone, he knows the words.
He just says them again terribly.
I don't know.
Jimmy, I like to play hockey.
I dye my hair.
It's like a harvest of gold.
You know what I mean?'s the way it stings on my wrist
you know
somebody corrects Sylvester Stallone he goes
yeah that's what I said
you know
Jimmy
you still here
alright good I don't know I thought you left
I heard it
I don't know
Christ he's annoying I don't know. Christ, he's annoying.
Pauly?
Yeah.
What?
I don't know what's going on.
That's just a character I didn't realize.
Jimmy, I'm frightened.
I'm not going to lie.
I'm frightened.
I haven't had a clear thought since like 1972.
I don't know what's going on.
Look at me.
I look like a fucking freak
and today it's so much worse
my face is
my face is tight
my body's saggy
I don't know what's happening
people mistake me for Travolta
they think Travolta's been lifting weights
who what
you here
I thought you was Travolta
I don't know what happened
you're not travolta i've been signing travolta's headshots for 12 years oh man
it's weird except you know olivia noon john didn't notice so you know we did an event
so he likes rambo I'm mid fucking thoughts you know I tell her about make fuck you know
she said Travolta never did that you know that's how she knew it wasn't him
she said he never was interested you know what I mean
but I you know I make the fuck you know what i mean
they have similar faces somewhat somewhat so he really likes fast cars he wanted to get a corvette
oh but he settled for a z28 camaro at first camaro all right so he's getting himself he is
gonna be an american douchebag yeah immediately what do you think t-tops on that
z28 you bet absolutely you're fucking ball sack every foreigner comes in and looks at guidos and
goes that there it is every single group that comes in for some reason in the late 20th century
looked at guidos and said that's what i need to be yep give me it exactly that i'm gonna do whatever
my version of that is. It's so weird.
He said, quote, my greatest hobby is cars.
But when I look at the papers and see how many accidents there are, it scares me.
Okay.
Especially since you crashed your car in a fucking minute.
He loves American shit junk food.
He said he is just it's like he landed and he was like, I am the Bart Simpson.
It's like the weirdest. Right. No no cowabunga dude yeah he was like candy frost fast cards and frosted tips frosted tips
douchey fucking yeah just douchey he said in czechoslovakia we don't have pizza no in russia In Russia, pizza eats you. He gave one of those.
Oh, man.
Toth there, his hangout buddy translator.
His pizza friend.
His pizza pal there.
The builder of the Little Caesars.
Yeah.
Shacks.
Would they be huts or shacks?
It's the same thing.
I don't really want to call it a hut.
You know what?
They might have pizza in Czechoslovakia, but he's meaning fucking little caesars he means so no they don't have that no
no i would honestly then i don't think they would have had pizza there really no
no wow it's not they didn't have that kind of system so totes said quote i took him to pizza
hut once because little c little caesars doesn't have beer
but afterward he said little caesars is better he also loves kentucky fried chicken too
he just likes shit yeah he's gonna drive his z28 with the t-tops down in the middle of the
detroit winter with his frosted tips blowing in the harvest gold frosted tips blowing in the
winter breeze dropping through kfc drive-th. Fucking stripping a leg of its fried goodness while he puts a Little Caesars on the seat next to him.
Hold this, honey.
You hold pizza while I eat chicken, okay?
There's so many herbs and spices.
I can't hold it.
I drive too fast to hold everything.
What do I do?
Is it 27?
Is that how many is in it? Herbs and spices? Oh, fuck. I don't remember. It's so many. that how many is it herbs and spices oh fuck i don't know so many
it's a lot of herbs and spices it'll make a check man's head spin i don't know there's at least uh
chinese carpet samples or dissidents were murdered i know that's on there i'm sure nutmegs in it it's
on positive yeah some sort of cumin yeah i don't know so yeah, yeah, he likes shit. Now, Tote says that Klima prefers that he also likes Tote's wife's home-cooked meals,
but he likes American shit food a lot.
He also loves pop music, and his favorite artist is Michael Jackson in 1985.
I feel you.
Michael Jackson was kind of like king of the music world in 1985, so everybody kind of liked him.
And he also likes, quote italian rock stars i don't
know who those are i don't know he's i mean like madonna i think me like madonna and um i see he
doesn't know times he's like dion very good he's very good italian rock stars i think from actually
italy i think he's into like italian music He does say he misses his family, though, back home.
And he misses his girlfriend, too.
He's riding around with douchey blonde tips, probably cleaning up in the fucking.
Yeah, he's doing his wild and crazy guy routine all over town.
Probably Detroit.
Yeah.
He says, quote, In the beginning, it was terrible, but now it's a little better.
How do you expect a mother to feel when she has raised a son for 20 years i've talked to them on the phone and naturally i miss them um saying obviously
you know whatever and the toth guy there he said quote i've been here for 18 years and i still miss
my family too so yeah you're just leaving shit there december 26th 1985 so a couple months later
he's reunited with his czech fiance fiance oh yep he gets her back here uh
she is back uh her name is arena zelenik and uh she'll stick around really yeah i guess if you
those who defect together stay together one of those things it was the christmas gift from the
team right not bad he's like and i'm allowed to celebrate yay Yay. So she's reunited. She says, quote, he didn't say anything when he saw me.
Yeah, he said he didn't have to say anything.
I knew the last time they were together was in August.
They were very excited.
So he, oh, by the way, he's, oh, yeah,
he's been good for the Red Wings since then.
This was after his little streak.
They were like, he scored some goals.
Let's get his fiance over here.
He's doing pretty well. She said, just want peter to play good hockey i hope he scores
a lot of goals he loves playing at home in front of all these people that's her whole thing
apparently he uh uh she oh what is this yes quote i was very impressed by the phone call because
before peter left for germany he told me that he'd be back she said i started crying when he called i was wishing that we would come back that he would
come back because it all happened so fast after the call i knew that i had to go too so he just
called her up and was like go to america tonight so i'll send for you in a couple months your whole
life will be different bye click huh what yeah that's that's how it was it was just out of the blue that happened so her father
apparently uh they were all on vacation her family was and so she couldn't defect immediately
because she had her family wasn't there she said i at least wanted to say goodbye to my family
that's why she couldn't go with him and so uh yeah she went to hungary and then to austria
and then ended up uh you West Germany to New York.
She said she was
every day in West Germany was the same.
She said the people I was staying with had
a little boy, so I would take him to preschool.
Then I would go shopping or just go walking,
but it was the same thing every day.
She's very excited to
be here, obviously.
She said he noticed me in the street
and asked me if he could
take me home with him. He knew that I me in the street and asked me if he could take me if uh
he could take me home with him he knew that i lived across the street but i didn't know what
i didn't know that he lived across the street that's how they met apparently they met when he
came home on leave for his mother's birthday the year before so um yeah she ends up being there
and that year he plays in 74 games has 32 goals and 24 assists so a goddamn good rookie year he's
seventh in the uh like rookie of the year voting the calder award it is a rookie of the year shit
uh he does have two hat tricks this year great so that's amazing three goals in the game if you
don't know he uh two different times in may march 5th and 22nd. He had three goals in each game.
June 1986 is when he buys his house.
He's got a big house that he buys now.
He's got a bunch of cars.
He's living the American dream, the way he puts it anyway.
He says, this is it.
This is wonderful.
And then he starts, there's an article about him discovering the joys of homeownership.
He said it was a dream.
And then on the July 4th holiday weekend, his water pump broke in his house.
Fuck.
He said no water for five days.
Yeah.
Why?
He's got a bunch of cars.
He's got the Camaro still.
The Z28.
He also has a Chrysler laser for some reason.
Remember those 80s Chrysler lasers?
Tiny little piece of shit.
Yeah.
That's her car for arena.
That's a piece of shit.
Those lasers.
It is.
Some, it was like the, uh, the lasers were like, um, it was the Plymouth version of the,
of the stealth without the, without the wings and shit.
No, no.
The 80s version of a laser though was a different thing.
It's a little shit box. It's a little shit box, but it was, it's the Chrysler. No, no. The 80s version of a laser, though, was a different thing. It was like, it's a little shitbox.
It's a little shitbox, but it's the Chrysler version of a Dodge.
Is it a Daytona?
Daytona.
That's what it is.
The Daytona.
That's what it is.
Yeah, the Dodge Daytona.
Thank you.
I couldn't remember the fucking name of the goddamn thing.
It's the American version of the Z270.
The 270Z.
Yeah, they had those.
There's a bunch of cars.
There's a tiny little shit that's a bishi motor in it. Yeah. It was a garbage car. The lasers. It was the Yeah, they had those... There's a bunch of cars.
It had a tiny little shit Mitsubishi motor in it. Yeah, those little...
It was a garbage car.
The lasers, it was the same time as all those fucking cars.
I didn't get into cars in the 80s forever.
So, anyway...
He's getting American cars, though.
Oh, all American cars.
He also leased a black GMC Jimmy truck.
Why would you?
I am American now.
I drive big truck with harvest gold hair you know but in the 80s
it was a tiny like a s10 rs15 blazer i make fucking your pants between leg why you're doing
back of truck now he's got a jimmy jimmy yeah it's hilarious uh it's fucking hilarious man he
he said uh he went to dinner him and his wife went to dinner and uh to eat
and uh they fucking came out and the car was gone which one it got the truck okay the truck got
stolen yeah he says quote was was gone when we came out of restaurant we go to police it was
two in morning they say what can we do cars stolen here all the time in russia cars
steal you so they told him it's two o'clock in the morning in detroit and they're like all right
your car's stolen and we'll do some paperwork unless you were stabbed in the process of it and
i mean like a good stabbing too not a fucking graze and i mean like hit a major organ or an
artery or something we're not even gonna fill out any paperwork i'll be honest with you
we'll keep an eye out we'll be real we gotta go be real honest with you here if someone parks it
in front of the station right we'll give you a call other than that i don't know it's detroit
it's detroit don't worry they can't go far our roads are fucked yeah don't worry it'll it'll be
completely destroyed by the time it's back it's airborne by now no shit uh they did find it two days later completely cleaned out and
fucked up and everything he says still though uh they quote they feel happy for uh his family says
they feel happy for me they know i have a good life here not even i they know i have good life
here i love it at this point he's doing during
the interview he's pounding cores beer yeah pounding cores beer says he's glad to be living
in america so america yeah that's they said he says quote i like it language hard at first
now i feel more comfortable people are friendly he says uh what do you like most about detroit and he laughs and then he says uh then he says
quote they steal car here and he was laughing at that so he thought that was kind of funny
he likes to he likes to drive very very fast basically he uh he hates the speed he doesn't
understand why there's a 55 mile an hour speed. He doesn't understand it.
Peter, somebody died.
That's why.
A lot of somebody.
I don't understand that.
So right away, as soon as he gets his license, he's fucking fine for speeding a million,
like just all the time.
Drives like me.
He drives as fast as he can be to not crash into other cars.
So open spot.
Let's go a buck 20 till we get to some cars
he just he's a fucking maniac so he's not used to driving with speed limits or with cars that can go
that fast so yeah he was fined 60 for one speeding offense steep he says quote no speed limit in
europe is what he said so and he's there the guy who's with him the reporter says he's weaving in and out of traffic like just weaving like almost stop traffic he's just weaving through it like a
psychopath he says in europe everybody drive 140 150 kilometers an hour tourists go there they drive
like that too it's game big race that sounds like a dangerous game yeah people who don't know how to
drive come and do it too
it's great we all just fucking tourists see what happens people unfamiliar with these vehicles and
definitely unfamiliar with those speeds and the roads too let's do it let's drive real fast so
he's a fucking just driving like an asshole so already he's had a bunch of speeding fines he's
been uh taken in for crashing a car with no license. A rental, by the way, that he doesn't even fucking own.
So not going well so far for him on the legal front.
Cars will continue to always be a problem for him.
86-87, the Red Wings are a little better.
34-36-10, they finish second in their division this year.
They go to the playoffs.
They sweep Chicago in the first round, win a seven-game series over Toronto in the second round, and then lose to Edmonton 4-1 in the conference finals.
So they don't get all the way to the Cup, but that's a pretty good run for a young player who's new here.
January 87, during this run, he's playing like shit, and there's trade rumors for him.
Yeah, they're talking about trading him, And yeah, the manager here, general manager,
says we haven't offered Peter Klima to any club,
and his name was only mentioned in the very casual conversations
with some of the better teams.
They look for the same people all the time.
And then the coach, Jacques Demers,
says we don't want to trade Peter Klima.
So yeah, they don't want to trade him.
They said if we knew we could get one player
we thought we needed get one player we
thought we needed to help us in the playoffs we'd make a trade but that's not going to happen so
we're not going to trade peter klima basically uh not gonna not gonna do it so uh he says quote i
don't want to trade i was very happy in the summertime he said that uh um what is this oh
when jimmy d said i was what's the long word that means nobody can touch me?
Untouchable. Yeah. Because that's what they told him. You put un in front of the word.
That mean no one can touch me? What's the word that mean I cannot be touched? Not between leg,
you can touch there if you want. I mean like on contracts, you know. I'm not touchable,
what does that mean? And so the reporter said untouchable and he says, yes, that's it,
I'm not touchable.
What does that mean?
And so the reporter said, untouchable.
And he says, yes, that's it, untouchable.
Then he says, I like that.
That's what he wants.
All right.
And then the coach or the general manager said, in order to be an untouchable, you have to be performing. And Peter has had a very, very bad stretch.
They're saying maybe not here.
He says, quote, I don't know what happened.
Ten goals in ten games, then 30 games and six goals.
I can't find out the problem.
I hope I start to play better and they say, Peter, not to worry.
This guy's fucking hilarious.
Some days you're up, some days you're down.
Now I'm on the ground and everybody step on me.
This is fucking hilarious.
Oh, I love this guy. what an idiot and i love him already
a homeless immigrant in new york said the same thing exactly last week to somebody everybody
step on me the coach said he tried to talk several times with peter who complains peter
complains to his teammates at the coat that to his teammates that the coach never talks to him and the coach says i keep trying to talk to him he won't talk to me
he says when and then clema ended up complaining about it in the newspapers and that's when the
coach got pissed off and so yeah he says peter says quote last year they last year they let me
play the way i want i like it this year is different it's hard i never have i never have played defense before
i feel better now i get more ice time i take hits check back check too so that's what he's doing
he's um he's still just basically totally inconsistent yeah and he's a fucking mess
86 87 he plays in 77 games 30 goals 23 assists 23 assists. So 56 points his rookie year, and then 53 the second year.
So pretty consistent at least, but very streaky.
They don't like that.
Yeah, they'd like some consistency.
In March, on March 2nd against Boston, he has a hat trick, though.
And a 4-3 game, too, so that's the difference in the game, actually.
The other two that he had the year before were like in eight to two games or something.
So they didn't even matter.
But these matter.
And he's so popular in Detroit that he gets an endorsement.
Oh?
He gets an endorsement, Jimmy.
It's a little Caesar.
It is not.
It is Werner's Soda.
What?
Really?
The ginger ale.
The ginger ale.
It's so good.
I love ginger ale.
I am a fucking ginger ale enthusiast to the fucking max. And you like it with no booze. You're a weird one. I like ginger ale it's so good i love ginger ale i am a fucking ginger ale enthusiast to the fucking max
so and you like it with no booze you're a weird one i like ginger ale yeah i don't really like
yeah but if you get like like if somebody tries to give you like a fucking johnny walker black
or something you throw a little ginger ale in there it makes it palatable yeah because that
shit's terrible i'm a single malt guy you can't be throwing that fucking 10 year old blending
shit at me.
Fuck out of here with that.
I don't drink often, as you know, so if I have a scotch, it's going to be something really nice, and that's that.
It'll be ice.
That's all.
That's it.
Yeah, no ginger ale in it.
You won't want to ruin it.
Yeah.
So this one, though, Werner's Ginger Ale, which is delicious.
Apparently, it's a Detroit company.
Is that right?
Werner's, yeah.
It's very popular there, all of their sodas.
I know it's up there somewhere.
They have different flavors than ginger ale, too.'ve seen like orange i think and shit like that
yeah and cream something like that probably probably you probably have a whole line yeah i'd
imagine probably right all the normal stuff i've only seen it in the green cans yeah the yeah that's
all they have out here i know that i've ever seen i've gotten it it's good it's always in like
fucking trader joe's or or sprouts or some shit like that or it's in with
like the generics where you're like it's not a generic it's not no it's a good one name brand
good shit look for it in the generic section put that next to your whiskey you'll sell more you
what get it the fuck out of this big case bullshit he does a commercial on television in detroit for
verner soda it's fucking hilarious it's like in the locker room. He's got all his pads on.
Yeah, he's got a stupid accent.
There's a guy like next to him pitching it.
Unbelievable.
It's pretty fucking amusing.
So he just got a hat trick and then follows that with an endorsement.
They're paying him to drink soda.
That's the American dream.
You know what else that is?
Grace.
That's grace as fuck.
That is grace as fuck.
Hardcore grace. So that's that is grace as fuck hardcore grace so that's march 87 he will never fail to follow
something good with something terrible you have to celebrate something good in order to do that
you must end up obviously a celebration will always end up in a disaster yeah so may of 1987
here uh he is in birmingham and he is arrested near his house for drunk driving
and apparently about double the legal limit.
No, it is just injuring.
I drink Vernors.
Very good.
I smell like booze sometime.
You want some?
I keep in trunk.
Very nice.
It's good for you.
They tell me you put it in Jack Daniels.
You can drink more Jack Daniels. More sorry double the limit double the limit or so damn it so he pleads guilty to a lesser
charge of a drive of impaired driving and is placed on probation that's nice so so far it's
all driving he's got he crashed the car He's got a bunch of speeding tickets.
Drunk driving.
Hopefully, they sit him down and go, Pete, shit's different in America with the fucking driving, dude.
Like, the States, Europe, you can fuck around driving, apparently.
I don't know.
At least in Czechoslovakia.
Over here, take a cab.
People are a little more jammed together in this area.
Just take a cab.
We take that shit more seriously.
You see any friends don't
let friends drive drunk commercials in czechoslovakia no here all the time so your friends
are driving 120 they're drunk yeah don't do that here they'll get mad if they'll play over if you're
not driving fast enough shit face so 87 88 the team is 41 28 and 11 so much better much better
finishing first in the norris division
this year so they've gone from you know worse to first here not too shabby they win the first round
of the playoff six game series against toronto they beat the st louis blues in a five game series
in the second round conference finals they play edmonton again and again lose a five game series
to edmonton got their number that was gretzky's Edmonton Oilers.
So that was like Gretzky and Messier.
And they were a pretty fucking good squad there for the late 80s,
mid to late 80s.
So they dethroned the Islanders on their run of a few championships in a row.
That's all I know.
I know shit about hockey.
I know the Red Wings are pretty consistently good.
Now, yeah, yeah.
That says hockey
town on their fucking ice they really like it they love it they love their hockey they're good
sports fans they're almost canada may as well be it's just it's right there yeah it's an hour and
a half away to cross a bridge so that year he plays in 78 games 37 goals 25 assists for a career
high 62 points that year not too bad at all he has two hat tricks that year and one in
april well both in april the 7th and the 21st of april in a 6-2 game and a 6-0 game he has those
may of 1988 he violates team rules and which are also violations of his probation as we'll talk
about here he and guess who bob probert yeah him and probert
violate team rules are supposed to stay in the hotel they completely blow that off and instead
go out to a bar cause a huge ruckus and then miss the team flight the next morning oh no so
fucking strike one strike two strike three one night and probert was has been in trouble for his alcoholism and his
problems and cleem is coming off a drunk driving arrest and is still on probation so these two are
two guys are supposed to be real clean and you know nose is clean good little boy stay in the
hotel and instead they are tearing the fucking town up right now uh probert is supposed to be
he's supposed to be in recovery at this point too
and he's apparently not he was one of six players that the red wings said went out drinking at
edmonton alberta well past curfew on what the coach called the eve of the biggest game of the
season oh jesus so not smart they had they had missed a team flight to get there and then did
this i reversed the thing there probert said to the press quote not me you sure
you got the right guy yes bobbert you were pretty positive here we got you then the red wings lost
eight to four that's after that so that wasn't great and we're eliminated from the playoffs that
was the last game of the playoffs why would you why what so you lose the last game of the playoffs
and then you're not allowed to go out and so the
players are found drinking at about 2 a.m yeah well past curfew there three hours past the curfew
as a matter of fact an assistant coach colin campbell and the chief scout found them coach
demmer said quote i honestly believe we could have won the game and come back for game six in detroit
if it if only it weren't for six idiots so that's fucking amazing so i said
idiot or asshole yeah you know what maybe there's some idiot in him i guess according to he knows
him better than i do so you know what maybe nothing better than when somebody that's not
the person is uh just saying like that get like when manning called his kickers saying he run
our idiot kickers running a stupid mouth?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I can't get enough of that.
It's fucking hilarious.
And they're right.
They're right.
That's the thing.
When they're fucking right.
He is absolutely right.
Yeah.
It wasn't for six idiots.
Just another week.
You could have, even if the game, the series goes seven, then it's over.
Right.
You could be champions.
Right.
You could party all you want.
You could have drank out of the Stanley Cup till 2 a.m., you fucking morons.
Yeah.
Demers, the coach, said, quote, Bob Probert has been made into a hero in Detroit.
He doesn't deserve it one bit.
But it wasn't just Probert.
How about the others?
They're all guilty.
He said that Darren Veach, Vetch, John Shabbat, Peter Kilmer, Joey Coker, and Darren Elliott,
the number of the backup goalie, were all there.
He wasn't playing anyway.
A couple of them were injured, apparently, but it doesn't matter.
They were mad.
Klima also denied that he was out, even though the two coaches caught them.
He goes, I wasn't there.
And they were like, oh, so they don't know which six players you were, even though they're the coach.
You fucking idiots.
you were even though they're the coat one of the fucking idiots so that immediately gets him in court because that drinking anything is a violation of his probation he's not supposed to be out
drinking so the judge judge sosnick here extends clema's probation for driving while impaired for
breaking curfew uh he says quote the alleged drinking did not involve additional driving if it had involved
driving he would be in jail period and absolutely so the judge is not fucking around with this guy
you've barely been here two years and you've already wrecked a fucking car and got a drunk
driving and been speeding all over the place and you're still drinking stop it yeah so september
1988 he's being a huge pain in the ass overall, has to make an apology to the team.
He's a star on the team.
The crowd loves him, but the team wants to,
they all want to kick him in the dick.
So September 23rd, 88,
this was another breaking team rules incident here,
and he's suspended for a while,
and he misses the start of the 88-89 season before being reinstated.
So this is a suspension from the previous year's deal.
It was over.
Yeah, there was nothing more the season was over for him.
There was nothing to suspend him to.
So he finally comes in on November 6th.
That's his first game.
He offers a heartfelt apology in his first practice back with the team to the whole team.
He says that his behavior has been alcohol-related, offers a heartfelt apology in his first practice back with the team to the whole team he says it
is our behavior's been alcohol related and um you know he's just he's been he was rooming with bob
probert and probert's trying to keep his shit under control and i'm trying to keep my stuff
under control and we both just had a bad night at the same time off the rails we're sorry about that
we're so sorry our bad but it was really probert's fault that's kind of what he said
so everything's fine hey you know what i'm good now incredibly that's what he says it's all good
all right so october 9th 1988 he's arrested yeah obviously because he's good now yeah um yeah they
were just about to reinstate him like he was coming back in two days the red wings and he's out
drinking uh late on a saturday night as he's leaving a bar it is the i'll find the name of
the bar here in a second not really important there is something uh jukebox bar in royal oak
michigan yeah there is something about uh the the notoriety and it's not even notoriety because
that word's about when you do something bad it It's just the fame and the level of recognizability.
He knows it's not going to last forever,
and he's got to enjoy it now, and he's loving it.
He loves being out as a Red Wing
and getting the attention that he gets.
It's got to be what it is, because otherwise,
if you drink and you love drinking, stay the fuck home.
Stay home, take a cab.
There's a lot of different ways to do it.
He could go out, drink all night, and then take a cab home. No one lot of different ways to do it he could go out drink
all night and then take a cab home no one cares but he's celebrating that he's about to be
reinstated that's got to be what it is it's the thing and that's what he always does whenever
something good's happening he celebrates it goes over the edge and gets arrested for it he's a
fucking moron unbelievable i don't get this guy like he's really very self-destructive in these
ways like it's almost it's almost like the worst times possible he gets arrested.
It's fucking wild.
So anyway, he leaves shit-faced from the jukebox in Royal Oak at four in the morning and backs
into some lady's Mercedes.
Oh, no.
With his truck, okay?
Bashes into it and fucking speeds away.
Yeah.
Everybody in the parking lot saw him.
They saw his license plate.
They call the police. He felt the car and goes,. They saw his license plate. They called the police.
He felt the car and goes,
that's my ass.
Whoops.
I'm in trouble.
And especially, too,
you hit somebody's Mercedes,
especially.
He didn't hit a fucking,
you know,
a Geo Metro back then or something.
He didn't hit a laser.
Yeah.
Didn't hit your wife's laser here.
So they end up stopping him.
The police catch up to him
and they stop him uh his blood alcohol
level is 0.156 which is well over the legal limit back then the legal limit was 0.10 i'll bet that's
tipsy yeah like that's the that's wild a lot of cities a lot of places now it's 0.6 yeah which is
like a beer right and then point which is too low and then 0.10 is like 0.6 you're you could be
completely fine and you're 0.6 you know whereas 0.10 you'll feel it you're feeling something
that's a pretty good buzz and uh 0.156 is a real good buzz you betcha and he's uh so he gets
arrested for that obviously operating under the influence of liquor fucking it he's only 23 just getting
arrested all over the place here yeah backs his car into this lady the woman paula struzzoni
number she's 24 years old she had just left the jukebox with a friend and uh basically watched
this guy back into her car and drive away oh that's the worst it was like boom go she was like
oh fuck that guy just hit my fucking car. Hey, that's mine.
Oh, no.
You ever seen somebody hit your car?
That sucks, man.
Stop, stop.
Very helpless feeling.
Nothing you can do.
Watch the man back into my car in a parking garage.
I was like, you son of, no.
Worse, my mother and I, when I was a kid kid we were sitting outside the grand union grocery store in wappingers
falls new york and we were hit by the loop bus while we sat there the what the loop bus what is
that it's the fucking metro bus like city of poughkeepsie and all that shit around there so
it's a fucking city bus goddamn bus that while we sat there it came from around us and just went
all the way down the side of my mother's car took
the fucking you know side view mirror off and destroyed it and there was nothing we could do
about it well we were in the car and it's just shaking they're like oh god we're being hit by
the loop bus this is the worst thing ever guy hit my car assume it feels like that my car was a five
year old black car in arizona they're never matching that paint ever oh
that's been faded seven shades by now they're gonna put a brand new fender on this shit and
it's gonna be very obvious very obvious because right now it's a charcoal gray right and i traded
that in two weeks later probably smart yeah somebody else deal with that that's your problem
mismatched fucking paint so obviously this is like the team's starting to
be like okay this is now like two years in a row and every year you're getting arrested what are
you doing he says that he doesn't know what his future on the team is he says uh he says a decision
of management it's beyond my control the coach demers this guy's honest as shit he's hilarious
he says i don't understand why peter
clema would do a thing like that this is just beyond me i don't understand what's going on here
there's no question drunk driving should not happen a lot of people get killed because of
drunk driving i hope he pays a price so he's fucking pissed at him for it yeah he's very mad
he says that he's going to suspend him and he's going to probably spend time in jail
and he says that doesn't concern him at all the coach says he says quote he's really created a monster for himself
talking about peter peter's going to do time now this time being a hockey player isn't going to
help him fuck man he is not sounds like it doesn't sound like he is the not the least silver man we've
ever encountered yeah i hope they throw the fucking
book at him we've never heard a coach say that before legit black hair which i don't give a
fuck fuck him dinger and a lady's mercedes and put him in jail jail him forever lock that
motherfucker send him back to czechoslovakia put him in the gulag for this fucking shit
but it is drunk driving he sped away too which who knows what he would
have hit there he says uh they talked about uh you know a jail sentence and the coach said quote
right now i don't particularly care it's in the hands of the law he broke the law again and he
has to pay the price like anybody else would does not give a shit uh klima wouldn't answer
any questions about it he wouldn't answer the the press. They were knocking on his door.
The whole deal.
It's a three counts here charge with operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol,
leaving the scene of an accident and improper backing.
Yeah, because you hit somebody. That's pretty improper.
What?
You know how you can tell if it's proper or not?
If you end up in someone else's car, then it's improper.
That's very funny.
That's an interesting charge. It's a weird one.'s very funny yeah interesting charge it's so weird
backing very weird one it's uh yeah the the woman here that's so fucking funny uh she what happened
here oh the woman who cleaned oh that's right i forgot about this part too when he was pulled over
for this he tried to switch seats with the woman he was with so she's also charged
with uh she's charged with uh interfering with an officer as well it's pretty funny yeah they
all saw him driving which he tried he was like no you sit here worse than that when you pull over
the time that you switch and by then they've got a spotlight in your car they see it happen yeah that's what i mean and she's like her seats all the way back yeah reach the pedal pedals or
she's like no i've been driving the whole time he's fucking kissing the windshield over on the
passenger side so also the problem is he's got this threatens his verner's job oh as well verner's
is worried about it they're like like, I don't like this.
The advertising agency said it may not renew his contract to do the ads when his deal expires.
And the commercials already made featuring Klima will not be aired at this time.
They're going to cut him.
So they might disappear his ass from the ginger ale empire.
You don't want to be a drunk and a drunk driver when you're advertising for something that
it's a mixer yeah it's a fucking mixer yeah you got to ignore that fact i like it clean and crisp
right out of the can with no alcohol at all so listen cranberry juice my favorite
delicious i will tell you what so december the 3rd 1988 he is in court and the judge same judge
sosnick rules that clem is second arrest on drunk driving charges violates the terms of also the
terms of his probation yeah and uh peter was remorseful he said quote i've had much time to
think about what happened through all of this i I have learned and I have changed. Yeah,
he's good.
Now,
let's just say that the judge said in his whole sentencing deal,
he said,
quote,
you're no longer a hero to anyone in this situation.
I was like, this is not a heroic move here.
He said that,
uh,
you know,
for violating terms of his shit and all that sort of thing,
he,
uh,
is sentenced during the sentence.
He can only
leave well because i'm going to give you a hospital sentence that's in there too he's only allowed to
leave it to fulfill contract contractual obligations to his team meaning he can practice and play home
games so his sentence is you sir may fuck off 31 days in oak County Jail to be served as following. One day of time served is to go to jail for one day.
A stay not longer than about four hours, basically.
So he's just kind of hanging out there.
Nine days at a children's hospital, the Children's Hospital of Michigan, working with disadvantaged children.
And he'll be able to practice and play home games there.
20 days in jail at the end of the Red Wings season as well.
This could be suspended depending on his work at the hospital
if he shows up and has a good attitude.
If it's suspended, he'll work 100 hours community service
at the Children's Hospital over 20 days of the next spring.
He will lose his driver's license for six months which seems light
i'd say two years on this yeah two duis two years he's 23 he hasn't learned a lesson yes fuck off
sorry you're not driving 200 in court charges and 25 to the probation department continued
counseling at henry ford hospital twice a week sessions they're reporting to a probation officer
an eight-week alcohol seminar at Farmington Area Advisory Council.
No alcohol or drugs.
Continued use of medication.
And he's supposed to take antabuse every other day to not drink alcohol.
So they are chemically making him not drink.
They're going hard on.
Yeah, they're not putting it like it's up to you.
We're going to make you take something that'll make you sick if you drink.
Do you think it's because he's not American that they're going so hard on him?
I don't know.
I think it's because he's so young.
Maybe.
He just got here and he's still doing this.
Just trying to hammer him hard to make sure he learns.
In three years, he wrecked a car driving recklessly.
So many speeding tickets, two fucking DUIs, fleeing the scene of an accident, trying to switch.
It's not like innocent things
that's getting like a you're kind of shitty and you think you're above the law right i think that's
kind of what it is is this guy clearly thinks he's above the law it's fascinating that they're not uh
that they're going this hard on him and they haven't really i mean he hasn't he hasn't hurt
anybody right sunny lane shit she's got nine duis you know what i mean no no you're right you're right i yeah i agree um so he yeah
he says that um you know he's he's upset about this he wants to apologize to everybody he says
he wants to apologize to the team yeah to arena irena his wife to his teammates most of all to
the public and to his fans he said you know he's again he said he's learned and changed. And the judge asked him, will it ever happen again?
And he says, I do everything I can not to let it happen again.
And then the judge gave him the sentence here.
The judge said, it would be easy for me to look at you and throw away the key, but you are in a position to do good things as well.
You could help people from making similar mistakes, which is true.
help people from making similar mistakes, which is true.
They said that the children he'll be working with at Children's Hospital are children and adolescents who have lost their physical abilities,
some as a result of drunk drivers.
So you're going there.
You're going to help some kid learn how to walk
who got fucking crippled by a drunk driver.
That's what the judge basically says.
Hey, I mean, if you want to get through to him i
guess that's a way to do it man he says you can you can uh help those people perhaps regain their
skills i want you to see what happens to that what happens to them maybe you can help some people
some younger people and their families so i mean he's trying to get a point across to him anyway
it's unbelievable yeah that's it's fucking ridiculous
the whole thing is just crazy he's an asshole in there it's wild so uh he says that uh later on
they talked to the team official uh about the whole thing the one who brought him over here
this lights guy and he says that he feels bad he feels like he's let klima down basically he said
quote he made a heroic decision as as heroic a decision
as i've ever seen by leaving his family his friends and his teammates behind to come with
us to detroit to play hockey we told him we would take care of him how is that heroic we left he
left everybody behind to make a lot of money selfishly he made the easiest decision of his life
yeah you left everybody behind, but okay.
And I'm not saying it's a bad thing.
Anybody would want to get out of there, but it's not heroic, really. Generally, heroism involves helping others.
Sacrifice.
Yeah, yeah.
And saving for the good of somebody else.
Not just harvest gold tips and a fucking Z-top.
T-top Z-28.
Yeah.
So heroic.
It's heroic. It really makes, and Yeah. So heroic. It's heroic.
It really makes,
and humble.
So humble.
Those two words,
perfect for that.
He said,
the red.
He came here to shovel shit food in his face.
That's it.
Eating Kentucky fried chicken.
The most heroic way.
I have sex between American leg.
He says,
oh,
the Red Wings realized that Peter's actions
are totally inappropriate, illegal, and irresponsible, but they are problems we helped create.
We are part of the problem, and we hope to be part of the solution.
We brought Peter to a hockey-crazy town.
We didn't monitor him close enough.
We didn't give him proper supervision.
We offered him many things, money, the adoration, and the adulation of of fans but we didn't provide him with enough
discipline and uh this team official said that in court and he promised the court that the red
wings would take a more active role in his rehabilitation including providing a counselor
and making sure that he follows everything to a t that's impressive basically they'll they'll
oversee his what the judge just said they'll make sure he does it uh he says he later said uh
that this team official said that the thought the judge's appropriate sentence was appropriate
and very well thought out he said that clement will benefit greatly from his time at children's
hospital he said if you've got a heart that's a tough place to go and peter has a big heart
so we'll see uh during all of this in the end he said to said to the judge, his last words to him were, quote,
I will never sit behind the wheel again after I've been drinking, not even in my driveway.
Okay.
Never going to happen.
I'm good now.
Good.
Yeah.
Right?
Okay.
So December 6th through the 14th, he lives at Children's Hospital.
He's got to stay there.
He lives there uh does that december 16th he's allowed to finally plead guilty since he completed
that part to a lesser charge of drunken driving uh he pleads guilty to leaving the scene of an
accident improper backing all that shit they dropped the improper backing charge mighty nice
of them there so kind yeah he says the toughest part is losing his license
that's the hardest part a red yeah it's really he loves to drive so a red wings official said
quote that's going to kill him this is hilarious that's a laser yeah they said when he first he's
got a he's got a chrysler man he said when he first got here one of the things he most looked
forward to was buying an American sports car.
And he bought a Camaro, and then he recently bought a Trans Am.
Oh.
Got himself a Pontiac, boy.
It's time.
And then Klima said, in May, he said, quote, I just bought a new truck, a 1988 GMC Jimmy 4x4 4.3 liter engine.
Lots of power.
I am flying on highway now that's what he said
right before he got arrested he said that in early may i am flying on highway now and then
i am flying into parked cars and driving away and making women switch seats with me now
um yeah so no driving for him 1988-89 the red wings-34-12. They lose in the first round of the playoffs.
He plays in 51 games, has 25 goals, 16 assists, so not too bad here.
He also is sent down.
He starts out in Adirondack for a while.
I don't know what happened there. I think this was during his whole jail shit here.
February 6th, he's sentenced to two days in jail rather than the two months
and he serves his term immediately on a couple of days off he's also ordered to pay 400 fine
and 150 in court costs and he's given an he's given an 18 month probation and 48 hours of
community service fucking guy he's got a lot he's got a lot to do he's very busy though he's got a lot of community
service and meetings and ant abuse and uh balance he's got to be very he's gonna be very busy with
alcohol related activities and and hockey yeah he's got a lot going on and uh in in four like
less than four short years he really has made a disaster of what could have been something great
for him he really has fucked it up good so i mean it's a mess man at one point he's out there and uh
he's got his aunt abuse and he took it and he doesn't know you know he's just sitting around
he's like jesus christ what the fuck man this isn't what i thought it was i want to fly on the
highway right i want to drink i want to party this doesn't get me high at
all oh i want to bleach my tips i want to fucking put a swatch watch on and a hyper color shirt and
get out there and boogie you know what i mean that's all i want to do and then fly on the highway
yeah and i can't he was just pondering just everything he's sitting there pondering and
out of nowhere he hears dogs barking he hears dogs barking and it turns around and you know who it is
it's bobby colorado
animal trainer from fredericksburg texas and he says
how is it you come to arrive here what the fuck is wrong with you what do you do you sit you come
here is it you're lonely is that your problem problem? Tell you what, you came over here. They brought you, you fucking, they imported you a woman.
Do you understand how fucking difficult?
They imported you a human being that you wanted.
Nobody's ever been that sweet to me.
No.
And I noticed, too, you don't say, oh, bring my mother over here.
She's older.
She's this, that.
Oh, bring my brother.
No, you say, bring my fuck toy over here.
Girlfriend.
Why don't you do that?
You ain't even
married to this fucking bride anyway i'm not gonna say that let's just say you want to go out you want
to party you want love you want affection i'll tell you what'll give you love and affection a
fucking dog get yourself a goddamn dog you put him in the front seat yeah you switch places the cop
will believe he was driving you know what i mean maybe they'll believe it a little bit easier i
don't know but you need a fucking dog more than anybody i've ever seen because you apparently
something's missing from inside your soul my friend and here it is poof and in a poof of
dog shit and marinara sauce he's gone yeah and peter's you want to talk confused why who i don't
right you have the the the dog man talk about things that happen to you.
Offer a dog, tell you you're bad?
Where did he come from?
This ant abuse is nuts.
Oh, boy.
Side effects so much.
Is that shit a pill?
Yeah, I think so.
I think it's a pill.
Probably, right?
Probably.
It's not a drink.
No, it's a shot.
Sure, it's not a drink.
Like a polio vaccine.
Don't check for ant abuse. Oof. Throwing it back. Give me another one. Line them up. No, it's a shot. Sure, it's not a drink. Like a polio vaccine.
Don't check for antivirus.
Poof.
Throwing it back.
Give me another one.
Line them up.
No, no, no.
Line them up.
So March 1989, Bob Probert gets busted with coke at the airport, which was a big deal because they were like kind of running partners.
Poor bastard.
Peter Klima said, quote, I was so surprised when i hear this morning i started
shaking oh he says i like that guy i feel bad for him and i feel bad for the guys in this room
feels very bad for bob probert getting busted for coke i like him i feel bad for him he's um
yeah he says other people said they feel bad for bobby and one guy the uh the left wing said quote
i feel bad for bobby even though it's not like it
wasn't his fault you feel sorry for him but he's had his chances and he's got to realize that for
himself i never expected that this could happen we knew he drank and all of that but we never had
idea any idea this sort of thing so uh yeah as we talked about in the bob probert episode he was a
fucking menace he was a mess yeah so may 14th 1989 he and
some other players are trying to give advice to other players that are defecting because this is
still the wall hasn't fallen yet i think it's alexander mcginley mcgillney is coming over
and they're talking about him and uh there's it's so fucking funny because they're telling him about
they're using peter kleem as like a cautionary tale they're like you got to be careful when you come over here you could end up like
peter klema and just go crazy and go full rambo in the first two years you're here right you can't
go full rambo you know what i mean um the one guy's advice was quote never forget where you
came from a lot of people this is to mcgillney a lot of people come over here do well and forget
where they came from.
They start playing the role and doing stupid things.
Never forget how it felt to be on the bottom.
Where he came from was the bottom.
Guys like Klima, he's my friend, but a few years ago he was nobody, and now he's getting a second chance and he abused it.
So just, that's what it is.
He said that when Klima first came to detroit that he was what he called
a quote a kid in a candy store he was just taking it all in as much as he want he immediately wanted
to drive a fast car have a big house he says all of a sudden all of a sudden they have money in
their hands and they want everything he said they're in a free country and they almost want
to be too free you have to keep an eye on them and slow them down yeah this is like you know
this is like sometimes when you sometimes when kids when you repress them and repress them then you send them to college and they're like right they go fucking crazy because they're finally out
of the clutches and they ruin everything if yeah if the if john lithgow from footloose is your dad
you're gonna go fucking dance with Kevin Bacon eventually.
It's going to happen.
You're going to freak the fuck out because nobody can live like that.
And that's what they do.
They come over here and freak the fuck out.
So May 25th, 1989, Peter is doing community service.
He's doing service at the youth club in Royal Oak, Michigan, as part of his sentence.
And he's talking to the kids there.
And he promised them, quote, promised them never to drink and drive again he said kids i promise you i will not let you down
i am good now yeah four days later yeah four days later may 29th 1989 he's arrested again
just this one time just except for four days from now this weekend i'm really gonna party but then after that
clean and sober so uh he is driving his truck as he's not supposed to right at all at uh on long
lake road in bloomfield or bloomfield township where an officer ran officer randy randy oliver
said he clocked him going 57 in a 40 and went to pull him over and said oh boy you're a little stinky aren't you
sir pulled his ass out of the car uh breathalyzed him at a 0.17 oh no which again the highest score
yet the highest score he's like i'm improving i've had more goals this year than last year
and a higher breathalyzer look at me he blew an all-time high all-time high yay
peter look at you what a dipshit coming through in the clutch when you have to blow that
breathalyzer he came through with the high score is what i mean he's a clutch player doing almost
20 over the limit this is yeah in a big truck he's not supposed to be driving shit-faced um
it gets better so they another
off there's another officer there that pulls up all this all while they're giving him a breathalyzer
and everything so as they're doing this they tell him that you know you fucking failed that
miserably that was really bad and uh we're gonna cuff you now and all that shit so he goes all
right you know they put his hands behind his back and they go to cuff him he's being real cool the
whole time i guess he didn't just quiet being back and they go to cuff him. He's being real cool the whole time.
I guess he didn't just quiet being normal as they go to take their cuffs out.
He fucking runs away.
He runs away down the road.
Okay.
Try to get to check.
Yeah.
Down the road into a field.
God damn it.
With two cops chasing behind him going, stop now.
Stop now.
Yeah.
And he's fucking booking zigzagging trying
to like lose them and shit like just running like a fucking they said he was like waving his arms
like a crazy person just yeah like he was escaping a communist country awesome so they had they
chased him for over 150 yards before they finally fucking caught him he got tired and they finally
tackled his ass and that drunk can run away from
you 150 yards is due to football fields 100 yards an entire football field that's far another
fucking half a football field it took to catch this guy that's how far he was planning on he
was in for the long haul yeah he was gonna keep running eventually they finally tackled his ass
and then he tried to fucking squirm away and everything. He didn't even give up then.
So they had to fucking wrestle his hands behind.
I guess he thought if he got away that he wasn't drunk.
What's the thought here?
If you don't have me, you can't convict me.
Yeah, like they knew who he was.
It wasn't like they pulled him over and he ran away right away.
Who's that man?
He had done his paperwork already.
He was fucking done.
They called it in.
It's over. Awesome. He's a fucking idiot. who's that man he had done his paperwork already he was fucking done they called it in it's it's
over awesome fucking idiot so that's the the escape charge is going to be the most serious
charge on here because it's a it's not great because he was technically in custody at the
time and he escaped so uh it's uh yeah he the allegation will be that he was informed he was
under arrest submitted to the arrest and, and then the quote is,
broke away and, quote, took flight.
Which makes it sound like he's amazing.
That makes it sound like he was drunk,
they tried to cuff him,
and then he literally soared from the ground.
Which would be, why did you need your car to begin with?
Which is amazing.
So he's arrested for resisting obstructing a police
officer operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol um all sorts of shit that's
there's a a bunch of shit here he loves escape from lawful custody driving with a suspended license
yeah he loves it to his own fucking yeah oh so then they put him in jail yeah and then at that
point i guess they went to his house for something on may 25th which is uh i'm sorry four days
beforehand when he was making that speech yeah during that time he's also now arraigned on a
different charge that happened where he is on a one charge of maintaining a vicious dog in connection with somebody getting bit on May 25th at his house.
So he keeps two Great Danes and a German Shepherd in his yard there,
and apparently one of them attacked somebody.
Probably talked him into it.
There you go.
See?
Hey, I told you, you got to be nice to these fucking dogs
and teach them how to be with people.
You see any of my dogs biting?
I got 14 on a leash right here. Not one of bitches the owner not the breed they don't even pull these
fuck i got 14 of them they could pull me down the street right they don't even pull then i have to
go over here and they just make a turn there it is so uh the general manager of the red wing said
quote it's really a personal matter he has to deal with his personal problems and that's the gist of it he's got to decide how he wants to handle his personal life we have nothing to do
with him basically yeah uh in court he appeared disheveled and near tears everybody said his hair
was fucked up and uncombed his jeans were like wrinkled and his shirt was twisted and he he
looked like he just ran 150 yards and was wrestled down in a field by two cops is
what he looks like it's like leaves in his hair and shit not great so uh yeah the resisting arrest
charge is punishable by uh two years in jail and a thousand dollar fine uh also these the uh driving
under the influence is uh punishable by a year in jail because it's a second offense and escaping
lawful custody which could result in one
year in jail and a 500 fine so not terrific uh also he could get a bunch for 90 day jail term
for his revoked license driving so if they were to ridiculously you know bang him concurrent in
the whole or i'm sorry consecutive sentences and everything he's looking at almost you know over
four years at this point so that's not wonderful may 31st 1989 in the detroit pre-free press his coach again getting not silver with the press
giving him hell he says peter right now has to deal with his problems he said we're realizing
today that we have a young man with big problems and that he has to deal with those problems before he can decide to play hockey so he said uh the the uh judge in the case said quote i do not know what it will take to get the
defendant to stop his unlawful behavior death death yeah i don't know what it will take he
can't take away his license june 89 his future with detroit is unclear the general manager said
let's put this thing to bed right now. Peter Klima has a personal problem
that he has to address.
Other people have to decide his fate
before I do.
So it's like, let him get sentenced first.
He said, I don't want this thing
dragging on and on for weeks on end
the way the Bob Probert situation dragged on.
I will let matters take their course.
We'll let the law decide
and we'll take it from there.
There's no way I can say Klima
is through with the Red Wings as some people are trying to get me to say.
Running the hockey club is a business and Peter Klima is a valued commodity.
Nobody will ever say it's a perfect world.
No shit, man.
So, yeah, Probert's awaiting trial, federal drug charge trial.
Klima can't be let out of your sight for two seconds or he'll get shit-faced and crash into something and run away.
Red Wings are in trouble. They're in trouble.
He ends up doing 35 days
in jail for probation
violation here. Wow. So you
sir may fuck off actually
to jail for 35 days.
He does, which is
they want to make some sort of example.
He has to go to rehab
do an inpatient deal october 5th 89
he's doing alcoholics anonymous too he's doing that they actually they have a like a press at
the alcoholics anonymous meeting which is weird to like document it that seems supposed to be very
private but all the people there i guess agreed to it ahead of time that it was okay to document
and they wouldn't use last names and shit like that um but yeah he's there was a woman there was her first time
and peter tells her quote i remember my first meeting like this it was in jail so you're doing
pretty good this isn't jail you came here uh on your own this is of your own volition that's
amazing good for you yeah i had to do it in jail the judge told me i have to yeah this is i i know i have to be here
i'll get i'll get put right in jail if i don't he said about the meetings the first meeting in jail
he said i just looked around and said you people are crazy but i went again the next day and the
next and i started to hear things that matched my things then i started to listen he says he
plans on attending regular meetings even after he satisfies the judges. He said it's going to be a part of his new life.
Good, because you need it.
You're crazy.
You're a fucking nut.
If they're crazy, you're crazy.
He said, if I want to stay sober, I have to come.
I need to listen, especially to the older people, because all of my years are in front of me.
I haven't killed anybody when I drink and drive yet.
My fiance hasn't left me yet, and i haven't lost my job yet
so smart yeah uh he says uh he says that in jail he felt like he felt like a shame it was all shame
he said i felt so bad i was embarrassed look at me see how i'm doing in america look at me i come
all the way to america i'm sitting in fucking jail uh he says that he's an alcoholic and by the way
a lot of people in the press,
there was Mitch Albom, who's a famous sports reporter,
has this article just fucking torching Peter Klima.
Really?
I'm talking torching him and saying,
now people are going to say that he's an alcoholic
when we know he's not.
He's just a fucking idiot and he's a drunk and he's a moron.
But he's diagnosed, you know he's not an alcoholic.
I think he might be an alcoholic.
I'm just saying.
Peter said so.
I mean, I feel like if you're doing things,
this is the definition of being an alcoholic,
is doing things repeatedly detrimental to yourself
and not quitting alcohol,
not realizing that's a problem.
That's what they ask you
when you're trying to figure out if you're an alcoholic.
Do you do this?
Do you do that?
Are you a function alcoholic
or is it like ruining your fucking life this that's the big one yeah if it
fucks up things like that well yeah if you're you lose your job suspended from your job get put in
jail and aren't allowed to drive you probably have a fucking problem sounds like the uh that author
uh probably has a few drinks from time to time yeah it might be a functioning one that's what
i just thought that was really of that era that era was the era of if someone said they were going to rehab you roll
your eyes right because celebrities had started going to rehab so i was like oh he's going to
rehab that means he's fine now okay whatever i'm sure that's just a way to you know whenever
anybody has problems people at first understand about it and then if it persists for more than
a day people like oh
fucking everybody's this and that right yeah it's a thing now you fucking moron we know about it now
so it's obviously going to be more happens to be a problem dummy yeah fucking oh i hate people
so anyway uh it's just it it's not a thing unless it happens to them you know what i mean that's
what it is it's no it is closed- minded people living in a bubble that refuse to admit that there's a whole fucking world that
exists outside of you yeah it's just certain people and it's a lot of different people in
every aspect of you know it's the uh dick cheney doesn't isn't for gay marriage and he's like well
my daughter's a lesbian you know what let me rethink this gay marriage thing i mean all my
other views will stay conservative but that one thing because it affects right someone i love personally door then it's a
different story that's how a lot of people are though it's not i'm not talking politics
that's why i used a non-political example just happened to be a person who was in politics but
yeah so he uh well it is politically it is it is it is it shouldn't be it's so stupid to think about it like that yeah so peter says some
days i ask myself why did this happen to me well because you drank a lot he says why sometimes i'm
so embarrassed everybody knows me knows about this i'm bad i'm bad famous he says that's
bad fame hold on writing that down name of this episode is bad famous without a fucking doubt
there's a lot of people that are bad famous that's amazing i'm bad famous he said about that's that's
the best that's called infamous he says i'm embarrassed everybody know me know this about me
i'm bad famous and i gave the red wings a bad name i'm sorry for that it's hard
to accept what happened sometimes i just wish it was a nightmare a bad nightmare but every morning
i wake up and it's there waiting to get me again um yeah he says that fuck he said after last
season i started drinking again i wanted to stop i know i was still on probation but i said no
beer was my best friend
yeah that's all there is to it beer is his best friend and uh he's famous as the immigrant can't
speak the english notorious that's what that is that's exactly i'm bad famous immigrant notorious
yeah he said that drinking helped him uh acclimate when he got here because the guys go out and drink so that
was the way he'd go out and drink with the guys and he drank anyway but you know it really became
a crutch because that's what he could have in common with people and he said it get him get
much worse and worse and worse he says for two years i fooled people i just didn't want to tell
them my problems and then in jail he had you know he was just sitting in there and he said in jail i
looked around and thought what am i doing here am i stupid or what either i'm stupid or i'm having
big problems a disease so i mean i have a disease one way or the other either stupidity or alcoholism
one or the other he says i'm working on the 12 steps of alcoholics anonymous now i believe in
the 12 steps it has worked for others why not me? I feel better physically and mentally. I feel a lot stronger than before. When you're hiding something from somebody,
you never feel good. And he says that he and his fiancee plan their days around his meetings.
He goes to at least three a week. He said, one thing I learned, I don't have to please anybody.
I only have to please myself. I don't want to play the game anymore. When I say, Hey, look at me,
I'm doing fine. Just fine. And now I know that if I don't change, I only fool myself.
The only person who gets burned is myself.
Only I can control the problem.
So, yeah, and people are hearing, the team's hearing good things about her, about him, and everything like that.
And Peter's teammates, though, are a little skeptical about the whole thing.
You know, they say, quote, you know, as much as I hate to say it, I really think he's figured it out this time.
That's what one of them says.
As much as I hate to say it.
What does that mean?
As much as I can't stand the guy, I think he might be okay now.
His roommate on the road said, quote, just give him a chance.
He'll be all right.
Once he convinces himself, he'll start convincing other people.
And I think he's starting to do that.
So there's that.
So this turnaround here of him actually taking responsibility and recognizes it, I'm kind of shocked about it.
I am.
I'm surprised.
And it's shocking a little bit, but not as shocking as the sales, Jimmy.
The sales are the most shocking.
Head down to Cosen's Big and and tall where is that for a bunch
michigan for a bunch of really ugly late 80s clothing we have a sweater sweater is fantastic
a big v thing on it is fucking hideous looks like dan marley's wearing it too big cardigan
jesus says the visual impact of black and white is further dramatized by rich leather and this
sensational sweater.
Oh, that's a leather V.
It's not even a cardigan.
That's a pullover.
Yeah, that's a pullover.
That's God awful.
Yeah.
Of exacting craftsmanship with leather accents.
Sweaters don't need leather to provide the extra dash of to savor all seasons.
Seventy five bucks.
Leather bomber jacket.
Just a plain jacket. Supple butter soft leather sergio
valente uh 289 there look at this guy yeah he's like fucking got his fist up that's what i'm
talking about it looks like a country club door marvelous crew neck sweater marvelous 39 dollars
and then a black diamond cashmere coat. A pullover with a fist pump.
That's crazy.
What's up?
With a plaid button down on under it.
The collar coming out and everything.
$198 on sale, the cashmere coat.
Don't forget about another bomber jacket here.
This is a brown one, this distressed leather.
This is more of like a pilot jacket.
$269. distressed leather this is more of like a piter of like a pilot jacket 269 and then the pace setter
a top performer uh designed exclusively for cosins plush velour jogging suit
just the right size just the right speed with a 2x tall all the way up to whatever 98 bucks
the pace setter the walker the pace setter setting the pace and i found some electronics that
are just amazing at murphy's video with like a whole console tv that goes on the floor like a
piece of furniture for 615 dollars and that meant that weight also 475 dollars for a vcr
shit was expensive in the 80s you believe that that shit? That's fucking crazy. So, 89-90 season, November 2nd, 89, he's traded to Edmonton for a bunch of people who we've never heard of, so it doesn't matter.
So he's traded to Edmonton here.
And, yeah, he said that he kind of was happy to go because he said, quote, this was a long time ago, but I did stupid things.
And after I got traded to Edmonton, I could turn my life around.
I think I had my best years there.
And basically, his wife told him, stay sober or she's going to fucking leave him.
And that was it.
Basically, he was, you know, he said he knew start.
He said he was a loner, though, on the team.
He wasn't really just in very quiet.
Now he's not a drinker.
He's not sociable really
anymore now he's like quiet yeah they said one of his teammates said you know uh you know peter was
not a bad person to talk with to get along with then there were times at the rink where he'd do
something and you just shake your head he's a happy-go-lucky guy but there's times when you
have to work and it just didn't happen he's not a good worker like i said he just flakes out
and he says i play the way i think i do
my job best if somebody thinks i'm taking it easy well that's the way i am this is how i played all
my life in europe and growing up i come here i come here and tell people and people tell me i
have to change this and change that i tell them i got here because of how i play in europe yeah
in russia hockey play you so the oilers this year they win the stanley cup
he's a champion he's a goddamn champion unbelievable they beat the bruins in five
to win the stanley cup uh grant fuhrer's on this team playing goalie this is a lot of people on
this team it's pretty stacked squad here and uh jeff buk boom there's your enforcer on that squad i was looking
for the enforcer there's one uh so a lot of lots of good players on this team he uh this year he
plays 63 games for the uh for the oilers 25 goals 28 assists makes 150 000 bucks this year too
in court august 3rd 1990 he pleads guilty to all four charges
stemming from his last drunk driving where he ran away and all that.
He pleads guilty to everything there, sentencing later.
1991, he's again with the Oilers.
They go to the conference finals that year.
He has 40 goals this year.
So that's the big where you want to be, 40 goals.
It's like a 300 season, I guess.
So that's a big deal for him to be. 40 goals is like a 300 season, I guess. So that's a big deal for him.
He hits 40 goals, 28 assists.
So 68 points in 70 games is pretty fucking good.
He has four hat tricks this year.
See what happens when you're sober?
Wild, right?
Fucking sober and not old enough to be out of his prime yet.
He has one in January, one in February, one in March, and one in May. I think the one in february one in march and one in may i think the one in
may was a playoff game too so not too fucking shabby here 214 250 91 92 the they get swept
by the blackhawks in the conference finals he has 21 goals in 57 games so kind of a down season that year from 40 to 21 uh he doesn't quite fit in still um one of
the players said uh later on in the mindset of the group that we had here peter was a little bit
different him putting up with us and us putting up with him well it resulted in some good moments
i just don't know what's in peter's. Guys like that are like artists or something. Absolute enigmas.
You can't figure them out, so you don't try.
Being around guys like that, well, you learn about patience.
So that's on the ice even when he's playing well.
They're still annoyed with him.
$261,900 this year.
$92.93, still with Edmonton.
He has 32 goals in 68 games.
Not bad.
$248,000 he makes that year.
Even better.
May 1993.
This is wild.
A 23-year-old Inuit hunter.
A hunter who happens to be Inuit, not a man who hunts Inuits.
Okay.
He had to make that clear.
Yeah.
And he also is a soapstone carver named Isaac Sala.
Makes a fucking Peter soapstone carving what and i'll show it to you favorite player here it is oh it's so bad it's just this fucking yeah it's bad and
peter's looking at it like he's gonna fuck it that's me i fucking your pants now that's what
he looks like good for him though nobody's ever soapstoned me
no this guy now they will maybe you will anybody soapstone soapstone us damn it
so uh yeah he was there this solid guy said i wanted to try to carve out one of the hockey
players i asked my friend which is the best hockey player in edmonton he said number 85
peter klima so that's what he did he did the whole thing gave
it to him peter klima got it uh he there's it's they put it in an art gallery apparently wow that's
on sale he visited the gallery to see the carving and he says quote it's a real honor the first time
i heard about it i was excited but he didn't want to pay the 565 to buy it so he didn't it seems a smidge overpriced a little bit over
price so yeah june 16th 1993 he's traded to tampa so a month later after this guy carves this whole
fucking thing in a soapstone he's fucking not even there anymore yeah so oops i hope he sold
it before that because it doesn't work shit now is this the expansion lightning i think a couple
years into their into their expansion team here they said this is a very positive step for us to be
competitive this year so yeah they're they're yeah they're just trying to terrible yeah they're an
expansion you know a longer team here so uh yeah peter says that if handled properly it should be
fine peter they said that they think he should calm down he's now gotten married and he's had a daughter now he has some sons that we'll talk about as well um so they
said quote you can probably describe peter in 100 different ways he has talent to burn unlimited
potential i just found it very frustrating on the nights that he didn't always show up to play yeah
that's his old uh team there so i mean yeah you feel bad for that i mean you feel i feel bad for
his wife this this woman.
They got her from Czechoslovakia, and she comes over here.
She's like, you're fucking blowing it.
Stop.
This is good for us.
Stop fucking this up.
We have money.
Don't do this.
And he could have killed people.
And then all the teammates that have had to deal with them.
I feel bad for all these people, Jimmy.
But not nearly as bad as I feel for P.E-t-r's too i wouldn't even take a
real i wouldn't even take a peter with an a unbelievable peter klima alternative medicine
professional in orange county california his alternative medicine is fucking booze booze
that's that's him see peter klima director at 2010 enterprise ll LLC in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Peter Klima, owner of Zebora SRO.
He's a lawyer in the Czech Republic.
Look at that.
Peter Klima, co-founder CSO Breadway by Imperial Food Services in Prague in the Czech Republic.
Peter Klima, team leader, team lead at Oracle in Kitchener, Canada.
And Peter Klima, quote,
active student looking for challenges
in the Czech Republic.
So there you go. I think Peter Klima,
our guy, is an active student looking for challenges.
93-94, he's
in Tampa again.
Let's see here. He's in Tampa that
year, makes $700,000.
Has a good year, 28 goals, 27 assists. Next year, 94-95, he's see here. He's in Tampa that year, makes $700,000. There you go. Has a good year, 28 goals, 27 assists.
Next year, 94-95, he's in Tampa.
We'll buzz through the Tampa, who cares.
13 goals, 13 assists in 47 games.
He had an injury that year as well.
And there was a lockout this year.
So he goes to play in Europe during the lockout.
He ends up playing for some Czech Republic team there.
Makes $428,000 because of the lockout. It's pror some czech republic team there makes 428 grand because of the lockouts
pro-rated sure 95 96 there he is uh in tampa again makes 800 000 has 22 goals and 30 assists
now he's starting to have more assists than goals yeah playing a different game august 22nd 96 he's
traded to los angeles by tampa bay for a draft pick and then october 25th 1996 he's traded
to pittsburgh by los angeles so that's interesting he's getting traded all around here and then
pittsburgh he has a problem with they end up sending him down he gets along with nobody in
pittsburgh he later would say quote if pittsburgh was the only team in the world to play hockey with
i wouldn't go i would rather work in a car wash they treated me like i was some guy from the
minors like i was just up from the east coast hockey league or something so he hates pittsburgh
he says that they ended up buying out his contract really they offered him a buyout for 835 000
and he said i took the buyout so I'm free.
He said,
in LA there was no problem,
nothing.
They were going with different players.
In Pittsburgh,
well,
I never really got a chance.
So,
May 26th,
or February 26th,
97,
he signed as a free agent
by Edmonton.
So,
back there,
1997,
he has twin boys.
Oh boy.
Twin boys.
Oh no.
Know what their names are?
No.
They're not bad.
No?
Well,
they're not Peter. So, no juniors. Kevin and Kelly? No. They're not bad. No? Well, they're not Peter.
So no juniors.
Kevin and Kelly.
Okay.
Double Ks here.
I don't know why, but whatever.
It happens.
835 grand he makes that year.
So 97, 98, he doesn't play in the NHL.
He's kind of in Europe a little bit.
He plays for Kriegfield-Pinguin in Germany.
98, 99, he's waiting for a job nobody's called him yet he says i don't have a lot of answers there's a lot of guys out there who've
got 15 points in 50 games i thought i was on a good track but i'm still sitting here i know i
can play i just want to go to a team where i can play my game i don't want to go to a team just to
win the stanley cup i want to work at it i just want a chance play my game. I don't want to go to a team just to win the Stanley Cup.
I want to work at it.
I just want a chance.
And he's like, I don't need to be a great team.
I just want to go somewhere.
So January 11th, 1999, the Detroit Red Wings sign him again.
So they're going to try him here for, you know, kind of finish out his career here.
This year, he, what does he do here?
He only plays in 13 games, and he has one goal.
So that's that.
So his career is over.
In 13 years in the league, he played in 786 games, 313 goals, 260 assists.
Pretty good career.
Yeah, not bad. Not bad.
No fighting.
Not that much.
So 2001 through 2003, he goes to play in the Czech Republic
before he's done playing hockey for good, finally.
But he plays, yeah, has a good year, too.
52 games, 24 goals, 10 assists in the one year.
So not bad.
2015, his twin sons, Kevin and Kelly, sign.
They're with the Springfield Junior Blues.
What?
There.
Yeah, they're trying to you know get exposure here uh to get to they
want to go to be drafted by the nhl basically peter's kind of their coach uh kevin the kid
says quote hockey's always been a huge part of our lives obviously he said he has always
encouraged us but we love the sport anyway we've just stuck stuck with it. And so they end up, they were on the London Knights
of the Ontario Hockey League,
and now they're on the Junior Blues.
And the coach says, quote,
the Clemas are trying to be pros.
Bottom line, their dad was a pro.
He says, quote,
he asked if I had any interest
in bringing the boys here
just to get them more ice time and experience.
We talked as a staff,
and we figured anytime we can get players
of their skill ability,
along with that playing at this level for several months months we had to take a shot at it so
there they are um they're playing uh you know getting more ice time and peter's they said peter
was here that first weekend and he's been to a few of our road games we were in uh sous saint marie
one night and we just weren't scoring i said to peter hey you want to come in the locker room here and tell our guys how to score some goals and he said he just laughed but anytime the kids
can talk to a dad that has that kind of nhl experience it's a plus um so they were talking
about uh they wanted they were going to send them to springfield the next season and kevin says
we've never heard of springfield before this we've heard of a blink in a little bit so that's that okay so june june 2017 his boys get sent to oilers developmental
camp which is what he wants yeah they play for edmonton and so he's pretty uh he's pretty excited
he says quote uh i want them to just go there as two players not somebody whose dad played there
you know what i mean just show show their stuff, how they play.
Just leave the last name here in Michigan.
So, yeah.
By the way, he is the only Klima ever to play in the NHL.
No kidding.
Yeah, if his kids make it, they'll be the second and third Klimas to ever play in the NHL.
It's impossible to leave that name in fucking Michigan then when you're the only one that's done this.
He just said, you know, don't act like you're a big shot because i'm your dad basically uh one of his kids ended up like uh having a bad injury the one
year but then he made it all the way back out which is uh which is good and uh what has happened
zamboni oh yeah never mind so uh yeah i guess he oh he broke his spine jesus uh because peter said
quote scary he was crashing the net and the defenseman pushed him and twisted him.
So he went backwards into the boards.
It was at the end where the Zamboni goes out and the crack of the door was sticking out.
Oh, fuck.
And that's where he broke his spine.
Oh, my God.
Oh, yeah.
But he said that there he's OK.
He recovered.
Sweet Jesus.
He said, you try to give them some pointers, but they have to chase their own hockey career.
I cannot chase it for them.
They've had their ups and downs like everybody else.
They just have to stick with it.
You can help them when they're down, pat them on the back when they're up, but they have to have their own careers.
Then in 2017, when they're out playing hockey, I found this is not reported in any newspapers or anything.
I found this doing background searches.
Peter was arrested again in 2017 for what for
breaking and entering uh entry with intent uh entry without entry without and breaking with
intent and then assault and battery as well on the same day of who don't know all i have is the
arrest records but i don't have the reports or how it happened because it wasn't reported anywhere so this just all i know is it happened in michigan uh in michigan in august of 2017
breaking and entering an assault and battery so i don't know what the fuck happened but that is
he went you know 27 years without getting in trouble and then that's a pretty big
fucking jump back into the mix there he got a hat trick of duis and he runs this game no shit so
2019 his twin son signed a
one-year contract with the tucson roadrunners no shit don't you find that interesting yeah so
they're they're here so we peter may be wandering around the desert so if he is we're not afraid of
him fuck him he didn't want to fight anybody in the nhl anyway so can't get enough of peter i
found on gamewarnauctions.net you can find a i got a uh 93 94
peter klima tampa bay lightning game worn jersey fucking 389 dollars that seems steep it's a little
steep for a fucking tampa bay jersey that's where he did his best though didn't he like made the
most money uh well they're edmonton yeah but everybody remembers him for detroit he's just
one of those guys he sticks in the detroit memory bank i don't know why that's how i thought of him too in his name clemo's like oh detroit
yeah and it was so that is peter clema that is how you escape from behind the iron curtain to
come over here and fuck up way worse than you would have anywhere else there it is everybody
leave the iron curtain for the steel reserve yep that's where he is is that what we call detroit now the steel
reserve that's the city and the beer so uh if you enjoyed that tell us about it tell the world about
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hold of the show that said god damn it jimmy i need to hear a list of the people who would never
run away while we tried to handcuff them for drunken driving jimmy hit me with them right now this week's executive producers are danielle with no last name tyler nye miller i
think that's right gavin zamiello yep hey nice uh bert 1094 might be his address i don't know
ashley with no last name carrie gage drew bittner nope what is that what did i do bittner i think
god damn it betiner wow i'm a terrible we're fourth we're
like five names in i write so terrible chantelle george brianne solu i think katie howell nope
that's hayley or hail kip soosley sarah schumer uh tyron with no last name david meisner nicole
and ashley thompson austin ford kelsey hebert is sticking around. Hey, Kelsey. Good to see you. Remember when we got her super fucking stoned?
Yeah, really?
I felt bad.
She wandered the city?
I feel bad.
She just disappeared and wandered off into the Chicago streets that night.
Sam Haflin, Madison Lilly, Shana Rogers, John Sardo, Michael Dietrich, Aaron Sinkovich,
Elizabeth Wolfinger, Jordan Bennett, of course, and Donnie Keene.
Thank you guys so much.
We can't do it without you.
Other producers this week are Terry Money, Antonio Menzies, Taylor Phillips, Adam would know the last name, Heather would know the last name, D.E. at Bulach.
Bulach? Is it D.E. at?
I don't know what I did.
What did you do?
I don't know.
Warner Swope, Savannah Showalter, Brendan Boyle, Jessica Durden, Brooke Kemp, Mick Quinn,
Elliot Bressler, Deborah Waddell, Joel Van Arsdale, J.D. Bricker, Lucas Folks, Justin
List, Zachary Lee, Benjamin Page, Not Here. Was that right?
Damon Smith, Stephanie Donovan, Pat Fox Leonard.
What is this?
Tenley Wells, Sabine Bechtold, Leah Creeter.
Tough run this week, Jimmy.
It is.
Michael Muiz, Lucy Carter, Rohan Bajaj.
He donated twice, both ways.
I think it's Rohan Bajaj. He donated twice, both ways. I think it's Rohan Bajaj.
I saw he was laid up or something.
Yeah, he does the hospital stuff because he's got a bad heart.
Yeah, I feel bad for that guy.
Thanks for hanging with us, brother.
He's amazing.
Thank you.
Appreciate you.
Annalise Dupil.
I'm sorry, Annalise.
I'm so bad at that.
Sarah Ostaforoff.
What?
No.
Stephanie Heron and Billy Johnson.
Holly Flowers. Billy Johnson. jimmy can get that got
it michael weber or weber samuel nope that's samuel ruby probably jack's head i assume ronnie
kumar james roberts zach taylor with an x zach that's i think is that cool is that be zacks
it's z x a c that's right? Not on this planet, no.
But thank you for your money.
I can't tell if it's cool or not.
It's cooler than regular Zach, I guess.
But it's like, let's take a name like Zach, which is meant to try to be cool and try to really cool it up.
You're going to rock star this. It's probably James Taylor's kid.
Probably.
That's why. No last name. Nathan Simon. Derek Cooper. Jorge Torres.
Andrew Young.
Luis Fernandez.
Jessica McKinney.
Anastasia Bergheimer.
Bergmeier.
God damn it.
Mike Himes.
Stefan.
Nope, that's Steph.
Davis.
Brian Dixon.
Kristen Hecker.
Aaron Fifield.
Dustin Thornton.
John with no last name.
Joonhee Kim.
Jana Ray. Jonathan Head. Sue Tufts, Sam Hewn, Andrew Santos, Nicole Winkle, Winkle Seth, what?
Winkle?
I don't know what it is.
Stephanie with no last name, Amanda Short, Amy Nicole, nope, that's Sean.
Sean Banner.
Hey, Sean, what's up?
One of the four horsemen.
Right.
Narelle O'Connor.
Roe with no last name.
G with no last name.
Sean McConnell, I think.
Nelson Brandon.
Philo Brandano.
Fuck.
Paul with no last name.
What are you talking about?
Carly Boyd.
Michael Scott.
Pat Bement.
Brendan Jones.
Chance Ferguson. D- Sonia Montgomery,
Alicia, with no last name,
Jose Tresero,
Tyler Jorgensen,
I'm so bad at
this. Why am I so... Heather Watson,
Alex Ames, Robin Meyer,
Nick Porter, Michael White,
Shelby, with no last name, Michelle Hilson,
Mike Raby, Maureen Moran, what? What?
What?
What? What? Blanxia what did I do Justin Elliot Judd Rachel Dean Michelle Mazuris
Steven Faubel
what
Ben Brown
Michael Bright
what you got there
say again
Gus Zazo
Jamie English
yes
Lucas Wayman
Wayman
Cassie Divine
Georgia with no last name
Kayleen Greninger
Tracy Ainsworth
Nancy
Nancy
McKee
Kate Smith Blake Dove, Alyssa
Judds.
You can't do S-Z-C-Z.
That's not words, right?
What is that?
Somebody from Czechoslovakia.
Alyssa Juzek.
It's nice that the God Bless America lady gave us money.
That's very nice.
Thank you.
Alicia Haskins, Corey White, Christy Breanne, Amanda Scherer, Heidi Hesse, Dominic Fontaney, Katie Rose Morris Cole, Rachel Lammary, Dominique Jackson, yes, Carl Lively, Lynn Quabo, Cara Outs, Cornfield Lee, Jim Comiani. caro outs corn uh corn fieldley jim uh comiani yep uh joshua a what a heasy
brian martin daniel daniel bellucci danielle i don't know i think it's a guy and i'm fucking
his name up i'm sorry or it's a i don't know i'm an asshole is what it is. You are in a hole tonight. Nicole Merchant, Zane Hall, Christine Caskella, Martin Knightsbridge, Teresa Brockman, Catherine
Brizoni, Sarah Vidal, Jamie Barthold, David Kupar, Albert and Avila, Kira Heinrichsen
Morgan.
Amanda with no last name.ave with no last name lieben osman ryan poots uh tyler carter sheree sherry bower sheena elliott ryan harold uh anna cusack
yeah what yeah mark faden kevin blaylock Mandy Brown. I'm really hitting the brakes.
Dweb07, Ayla Indigo, Rob with no last name, Vinny Lester, Brian Leal, Matthew Troy, Glenn
Glenn.
Okay, new page.
Yep.
Deep breath.
Here we go.
Nicole Danzer.
New day.
Mackenzie Merjochi.
Nope, same day.
Mersochi.
That's what it is.
Same day, same time time just after lunch bailey maple beck would know last name stephanie diddy black in the day podcast kenzie would know
last name desmond uh nelson care would know last name brian lempa sarah adair angela uh gilmer Adair Angela Gilmer, Misty Boyd, Thomas Ward, Andrew Battaglia, Battaglini, Heather Peterson,
Liz Cernowitzki, Sirwinski, Lauren Ocello, Saranda, is that Saranda?
Lindsay?
What?
It's got to be a first name last, right?
I don't know.
Maybe.
Phil Irving, Mike Sheehan, Doug Manning, Ellen Medley, Jonathan Hooling, Ashley with no last name, Don Bray, Brannon, Keely, nope, Khalil Kelly, Kevin Stanley, Tim Pendle, MM, Gunlogger, Gunporsen, what?
Daniel Morgan, Mona Pomona, MSCMO, Miss CMO, CMO, CMO? No. is that what we pronounce in the letters county sheriff's office
oh i don't know katherine vasunda uh jesslyn jesslyn reinhardt corinne ryan andrew betts
augustus lerma melanie maline uh mitch barter jacqueline hewitt kendra ch Kondria Jones, Taylor McMorris, Becca Waters, Force of Nature podcast,
Margaret Feltner, Braley H. There's no last name, just H. That's what that is.
Katerina Apolinova, Ann Owens, James Burress, Scarlett Horbeast Jr., Lindsay Shaheen, Anthony uh lindsey shaheen uh anthony verdine congratulations scarlet war beast anthony verdine
chelsea rumpia rumpcia what did i do uh christine hansen rj with no last name noreen jones
and janky anna janky janky sarah romano uh lisa arrow smith probably uh yeah the band's daughter
they all had a daughter one daughter daughter. They all ganged.
One cup.
No.
You never know.
Louise Ord, Yelena, Mike Rabe, CT Hamilton, Lucas Russell, Jason Copeland, Daniel Erhard,
what?
Charles Cone?
When Steven Tyler came, he went, why?
Kim JMJ91, Orion Howard, Julie Magiacom Carrera, Nicholas Kerstein, Ben Bird, Robert Milligan,
Andrew Hunt, Jamie Dimon, Chris Carazas, Matthew Litz, Maria Hurlifson, Homestretch, Nicholas Walchowski, Sanalasui Nintini, that's not right either.
Katerina Nielzolka.
Christina.
Nope, that's Christine Hudson.
Cole Hinson.
Peyton Meadows.
Alicia Stambach.
Tracy Apple.
Demaris.
De Jamaris.
I'm never going to get it right.
It doesn't matter.
Amanda Knight.
Jordan with no last name.
Aaron Wilson.
Tina Wolf.
Suzanne's Townies.
Rachel Kiskaden.
Steve Schnell.
Thanks, Steve.
Steve.
Jeff Salagi Salagi
it's Italian
he's gonna fuck that up
Cameron Close
and I'm way off
Matthew Wilkins
Joanna
Joanne Ahern
happy birthday
Jen Armstrong
and Aaron Alston
happy birthday
Brendan Ables
Susan Olges
happy birthday
Tracy Mullet
Susan and Brandon
Mullet Mashie Blade Marissa, Lacey's Sweet Creations,
Catherine Glancy, Tracy Jacobs, Mark G, Christophe Oliwa, Mindy Schompert, Tracy Ainsworth, Alexander Boll,
Matthew Grazder, Jonathan Rice, Alexander Alexander Bull, Christina Brayton, Alicia.
Nope, that's Alex Fisher.
Jimenez, Stacy Kathleen Coomer, Vidar Logue Sam, Samuelson.
The Suck Up, Marsha McCorkle.
Happy birthday to Nia from Joey Pivarnick.
Happy birthday.
He said he loves her, but I could have just said from Joey because there's no Pivarnick happy birthday he said he loves her but I could have just
said from Joey because
there's no Pivarnicks right
how many other are there Hallsfeller TV
Marsha McCorkle I said that
Tyler Rine Viviana Alex
Hopper Andrea
Sabolik Addison Hendricks
Allison with
SZSZ again what
Sipanski?
Sopanski.
Yeah, sure.
Michael Johnson.
Michael S. Johnson.
There's a ton of those.
Paul with no last name.
Janice Hill.
John Helms.
Chloe Campbell.
Thomas Smith.
Carter Harris.
Melissa Atheson.
James Marder.
Deanna Grimes.
And Tuesday Brews crew.
Jude Kendall.
And obviously all of our other patron supporters.
But also Shelly Aldridge-Roberts' birthday is this week.
She's from Gun Barrel, Texas.
She sends us all the Gun Barrel shit.
Thank you.
Karina Serdel, Emily, and Nick, happy anniversary.
Elizabeth Smith and Clay Thorson and his wife.
Thanks, brother.
Thank you both so much.
You're amazing.
Give the wife a big hug and a kiss.
It's either their anniversary or it's her birthday. Because you know what i did is not write it down perfect so thanks clay
you're amazing and all of our patron supporters you guys are amazing thank you everybody so much
from the bottom of our hearts honestly we really really just thank you guys we appreciate everything
very grateful for you everything that you do for us and again thank you for everybody that hung out
with us for that live show more to come we're going to find different funky ways to do that
we're going to do like actual episodes of the real show we got some blends for you guys it's
going to be fun stuff so thank you for that what if people wanted to thank you for anything yeah
look how could they find me on social media at westman sucks where can they find you i am at
jimmy p is funny or just find my name and paste it in
there you'll find me eventually so that said it's been a fun fun week through the brain damage
blender and uh through the through the iron curtain is that success or not i think so i mean
he made a lot of money after he fucked up and then he cleaned himself up we think no more drunken
drive he stopped driving anyway which is really all I care about.
Those boys turned 16.
Yeah, I don't care if he fucking passed out drunk every single night.
He didn't get on the road or at least get caught for it.
So good for him.
I don't know, though.
But either way, man, that was a wild episode.
Love a foreigner in the States.
It's always fun.
Fish out of water story.
Fish out of water.
That said, everybody, enjoy.
And live from the Crime and Sports studios, we will see you next week.
Bye.
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