The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 467 - The San Jose Bees

Episode Date: February 9, 2021

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine the San Jose Bees baseball teamSourcesTour DatesRedbubble Merch

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network. This is a bilingual American History podcast for each week. I, Dave Anthony with my dogs barking, read a story from American history to my friend. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about and has no background distractions because he's professional. Well all right well you do have a seal that waddles around the house. I do not have a seal that waddles around my house. I have 100% seen the seal and it waddles around your house and I've seen the seal bite you. I've seen it bite you like you're a fish. I have a cat that you have called of seal in a terrible fashion and I

don't know if you know Dave but that's caught on and and he's a cat and he's a little bit of a chunky monkey but barely and he's not a seal and he sure he's bitten me but you know what Dave I've bitten him and I frankly I would want to be in a relationship with a cat where we weren't biting each other. It's good course correction. I need it. He needs it. We need it. So this used to be funny but now this fantasy world that you're living in where you think a seal as a cat is... No let me stop you there. No no it is a cat. I just think it's just good. We need to get you some mental health help. No you don't. No you don't. At least not

for this. Well it's not it's not great. It's not a great look. It's it's... Well you're the one who keeps making up that he's a seal when he's a cat you know. That's what I was talking about. Yeah it's... I don't feed him fish. He doesn't... None of that happens. So we're aware that you're not feeding the seal fish. It's one of the problems and what I'm gonna have to do is call some sort of animal department. Animal department in Los Angeles. Yeah go find your animal department. Yeah call them. Yeah go call your go call your animal department. Animal services I guess it would be. Go call animal services. Yeah let them know your problem.

Yeah and then when they get over to my place and then when they see that it's a cat and not a seal you're gonna be on the hook for faulty reporting. You can't just call them false reports like that. That's a crime. Waste and taxpayer dollars during a pandemic. God you're selfish. God you're so selfish. And called it quote is jam-packed. Jam-packed? I'm the fucking hippo guy. My name's Gary. My name's Gary. Wait is it for fun? And this is not gonna become a tiggly podcast. Okay. This is like an a five-part coefficient. Now hit him with the puppy. You both present sick arguments. No sleep dog. That's like a hippo. Action partner. No I can't. No I see

that my friend. No. No. Rona. Rona in the corn. I just want to throw a shout out to the person who emailed me and told me I was a fascist. Oh cool. How are you a fascist? What how it's a I think America's gonna end like the end of reservoir dogs where everybody's just accusing everybody of a fascist and everyone just dies. Yeah I mean it's where I'm pretty aware what fascism is. I actually read a lot about it. Yeah. I feel like I don't fit the mold but who knows I could be a fascist. This could be a fascist podcast this is what we've been preaching the whole time. Yeah well we do fascist week when they do fashion week

that's what we do here. That's right. Our whole new line. 1981 the year of our lord Jesus Christ. James Cameron. Oh damn it I knew it was a JC. Hey so. 81 this is late. Yeah it is. Peter Kern was a 34 year old nursing home owner living in Ohio. Okay. And in 1981 he bought a minor league California baseball team. Okay uh oh. What? That's just you know these have a track the baseball ones have a track record. A lot of a lot of stuff's going on. Spouse swapping rock throwing fire truck chasing. Yeah there can be a lot in a baseball one. High fives being invented. That's right. The San Jose missions were bought for $65,000. The San Jose missions. Yeah that's the name

of the team. That is a clunky. I already have a note for the team for the rebrand. It's not called the missions. Are they going to be like is this a Christian baseball team? Uh no. No he just bought it. Then the name is preposterous. Okay. I get it. I don't like it. We're the missions. It's just a journey. It's just a terrible name. It's a terrible name. Yeah we're the maps. We're the San Francisco maps. So the team signed a they very quickly signed a player development contract with the Montchel Expos of Major League Baseball. So Montchel's a team that plays in the top you know biggest league the pros. So they'll have them be there. Yeah so they're going to now be what's known as a farm

team. This means they'll help to develop young astro players. So it's like kids that are just starting out or guys that are working on stuff. Yeah people aren't ready for the Expos are now part of the missions. That's right. So they're no longer called. They're no longer called. After that they're no longer called the missions. Now they're the San Jose Expos. That's how that works. Okay. Better. So I'll explain how this works for this. So there's Major League Baseball teams. Each Major League Baseball team has a bunch of lower teams playing below it where they have players that they hope are going to turn into Major League Baseball players. And there's three levels. There's AAA. There's AA and there's AAA is the best. And then down at the very bottom

there are the A teams. Scrappers, the new kids, raw players. This is the level of the San Jose Expos. Okay. So Kern hired Harry Stavrenos to be the team general manager. So he makes all the decisions. He runs the team. He's not just the coach. He's the guy who does all the buys the players and does all the stuff. Is he also the coach? No, he's not the coach. Okay. He's just the jam. Okay. So Harry's cigar smoke in 26 year old dude. He had a bit he had a bit of experience working in baseball with the Miami Amigos and the Macon Peaches. Sure. Absolutely. Yep. The Peaches. Go Peaches. Go. I like the Miami friends. We are the Miami friends. Hi. Hello. Good to meet you. Yes. What are you doing this weekend? Oh, you must come to the house. You just must.

Hello. Is that your wife? Good to meet you. We've heard so much about you. Gosh, you have to come to this house this weekend. We're having a party. We're having a swimming party. Come on, everyone. The Peaches will even be there. It's going to be quite a weekend. You are not going anywhere until you shake this hand, friend. Do we even need to play the game? I feel like it's just a waste of everybody's time. Let's braid each other's hair. Let's make friendship bracelets. I love it. Yay. So, Harry doesn't know a lot about baseball. One player said, quote, he reminded me of the guy who started the gong show. Wow. That is a terrible comparison. That is in what way, in the sense, in the way that, I mean, well, OK, if you are 26 and smoke cigars, I mean, I'm not saying it doesn't

happen. I know it happens. But to me, it's, I feel like you graduate to cigars. To me, it feels like a child trying to be a businessman. 100%. Yeah. So, the team is not good. They had a 66 and 74 record in 1982. Media in San Jose doesn't pay attention at all. Fans don't go. At one point, Harry gave out 30,000 free tickets to local businesses and only 120 were used. So, there's not a lot of demand. Oh, my God. It's just, you know, San Jose is a big city and a thing like a minor league team is not what people get excited about. So, sure. Clearly. After that season, the Expos pull out of the deal. So, they're without a major league team. So, they become an, that means they're an independent club. They're not anything. Now they're just like,

we are just looking for, we're basically just going town to town looking for games. Well, no, now that they can be in a league, but they're just not, they're just not associated with the team, which means no money. Number one, you're not getting money. You have to make all your money off of ticket sales and no upside for player prospects. That's right. It's really hard to sign players. It's, it's basically really hard to survive without a major league contract. So, they change, Kern and Harry changed the name of the team to the San Jose bees. Better. Really. Very fills everyone with fear right away. It's, we sting you and die with a bee. I didn't put that deal here, but this is right around the time of the killer bees fear. I wonder

if that, now see, it really shows you how one word changes the whole team name. Killer bees. That's a bad ass name. Bees. Come on. What are you guys going to do? Put honey on my cereal. Let's go. So, because of the money problems, they're trying to figure it out. So, Kern leased the bees to Harry for $25,000. So, he leases the beekeeper. Yes. Harry's the beekeeper. So, now Harry is posing as the owner. He pays the bills, but he can also keep the profits, but he's not the owner. And this, according to Harry, was quote, totally illegal. It's right there in the national association blue book. So, they're, they're breaking the rules of baseball immediately. It's completely illegal to do this.

Right. Right. Okay. Right. So, using connections, Harry made a deal with a Japanese professional baseball team. Okay. The Saibu Lions. What, what the Lions did was they sent five players and $25,000 to cover the players costs. And then in 1983 and 84, that went up to $50,000 a year. Again, the bees finish in last place in 83. I'm sorry. The name is so non-threatening. It is. It's not. It's not threatening. So, they finish in last place. Where the flies. The San Jose moths. Yeah. They finish in last place in 83 and 84, 85. Okay. America is in the Ronald Reagan drug war hysteria years. Best years we've had. Nancy Reagan is pushing her ridiculous just say no campaign, which if you don't know what it is, it means that we just tell

children to just say no to drugs. They still do it. It worked. Dare is very active in California. Yeah. Dare kids to try drugs. That campaign worked for me. Well, it certainly helped us with marijuana and that stuff. Yeah. People deserve life sentences for that. Anyway, not to get political. After his success right in the Olympics in 1984, Peter Yubaroff became the Major League Baseball Commissioner. Okay. So Yubaroff, if you don't know, he was like the savior of the 84 Olympics, but he's actually a total right-wingy douchebag. So, he decided to crack down on drugs in baseball hard. Every employee in baseball was randomly drug tested from the owners to the secretaries to the bad boys, except for the players because that makes sense because if the bad boys, no, no, no,

if the bad boys are on drugs, people are going to get the wrong bats. That's right. If the players are on drugs, nobody cares. That's correct. Nobody pays attention to the players. Yeah. Perfect. Perfect system. We want drugs out of these athletes. So we're testing everybody who's been around them. So cocaine was big with the players. We talked about this in the Pittsburgh Pirates episode. Tim Reigns was doing a great player, played for Montreal, was doing coke in the dugout, bathroom during games. He kept cocaine in his back pocket and he was known for sliding headfirst. The reason he started sliding headfirst into bases was because he didn't want his cocaine to come out or, you know, the back to break his pocket. Now, people probably are like,

how do you know when you have a cocaine problem? When it changes your sliding form. How hard is it to get another pocket? Or put it, I mean, how hard is it to just hide it in the dugout? Yeah. Lonnie Smith. You don't need it on you. Are you doing lines on like out there? All right, let's meet at second base and we'll do a bump. Lonnie Smith, when the team would travel, he got socks that had pockets in them so he could put his coke in his sock pockets. Sure. In his sockets. No problem. Great. The Pittsburgh Pirates cocaine scandal had blown up and in 1985, they were now all testifying in court cases. Other players are being arrested and suspended for doing coke. So,

Uberoth said of a Major League Baseball quote, we're going to remove drugs and be an example. So, he suspends a bunch of players and other players who were suspected of doing coke were forced to take drug tests. Basically, word got out, stay away from these players. Teams don't sign these guys. Okay. So, all these players are marked. Harry sees this as an opportunity for the San Jose bees. Oh my, why did, why, why do I sometimes just float along and not see where it's come from? I'm just like, okay. Yeah. So, there's a bunch of people doing coke. Well, they're on the black list. Well, okay. Yeah. Well, of course, he's going to take a bunch of co-kids to the bees.

These bees don't make honey. They snort lines. So, Steve Howe was a, a top, top baseball player with a serious cocaine problem. He had been rookie of the year in 1980. He won a world series. And then in 1981, he tried blow. A year later, he was spending $1,000 a day on cocaine. Oh my God. He was doing it in the bullpen during games. So, if you don't know what that is, the pitchers sit out in the outfield and wait until they get called in. So, he's just sitting with the other pitchers. He's doing blow. In, in 1982, he came out and he publicly announced that he had a cocaine problem and he was going to rehab. So, he did that all on, he did that. It's actually a Bhab. Bhab. That's right. By 1985, he had been in rehab four times.

Sure. The Dodgers had cut him from their team and then the Twins cut him. He was, he was at this point, 28 years old and working as a radio DJ in Montana. Sure. Yep. Logically, easy to see how that happened. So, Harry flew out there. You're going to be our morning pitcher. So, Harry flew out there and offered how $2,000 a month. How said no because he was expecting major league teams to come and make an offer. He's still, he could still pitch this guy. He's 28. He's in his prime. None came. He went to, he went to the winter meetings. No one would talk to him. So, he's clearly been blackballed. So, he takes Harry's offer. Yes, he's been able. So, he takes Harry's offer. News makes front page

of the San Jose, Mercury news. Harry quote, I knew then we were on our way. So, finally, they're getting just attention in San Jose, but also nationwide, like whenever Steve Howe did something of this point, it was news. So, how is now living in a hotel under a fake name in San Jose? Okay. Now, these blackballed players, they have two choices. They can play in another country or they can play for an independent team, but there's no other option. The lions need a player. So, in 1986, there were only two independent teams, the Miami Marlins and the San Jose Bs. After Howe signs other players start calling Harry. Mike Norris made it to the big leagues in 1975 when he was 20. That was huge amphetamine time in MLB. The first day there was a speed pill in

his locker for him to take before the game. Sure. And he didn't know what it was. He just threw it out. Players, if they didn't take speed and they played, the other players called that playing naked. So, that's how common, that's how common speed was. It's just crazy to assume that someone's going to take like your professional athlete. Like you're, the whole thing is that your body already seems like it's on speed, but the idea that your interventions are for the people who aren't like, you know, look, we understand, we saw you out there today playing naked and we just were a little concerned, obviously. I mean, the only thing we're trying to get across to you is that this way the team works is, you know, a lot of ways like a body, like we're all pieces in this body

and we all together form a super body and that's what we're really going for. But the idea that you're not putting a little speed in your body before that makes us all a little worried, honestly. I mean, look at us. We're kind of freaking out a little bit. But yeah, the fact that you're yawning right now is not good. I've played five double headers and I still, I'm not done talking yet, and I still have not had, I haven't even blinked. I don't even blink anymore. I just put eye drops in it. Sort of like clockwork origin around the clubhouse all the time. That's kind of the way I'm rolling right now. We're all rolling like that a little bit. But yeah, again, the idea that we see a speed pill in your locker, then we see that speed pill in the garbage,

that's not a good indicator. That's not showing us that you're a bee. And what we bees do is we flap our wings a bunch and that's metaphorical, but that's also literal because if you think about it, we do have wings. I mean, we're all angels. I mean, I am angels, we're Los Angeles angels, we're the angels on earth, right? We're the angels in the outfield. That was in movies, any movie I've ever made yet? I don't even know. But the point is, can you get a little like a knife so I could rip some of the froth off the side of my mouth here? Like how they used to put froth off in that ale, sit back in the day in the old West. Do you ever see a movie? Do you like movies? Have you seen Tombstone? Kurt Russell's a hell of an actor. That felt Kilmer's pretty good

too. My nostrils hurt. Oh, my body hurts. All of our bodies hurt. Listen, come here, hug me, bring it in, bring it in. On three, we're going to do speed. One, two, three, speed. All right. I'm going to take, it's midnight, so I'm going to take off. It's midnight already. I didn't realize it. We were talking for six hours. Well, how about this? How about this? Get on my back. I'll run you home. Okay. It's not going to be a problem. I don't need, I'll run right through those walls right there. We'll go out that way. I don't know how far away you live, but if you're under 40 miles, I can get you in there 20 minutes. So in Norris's very first game in the Major Leagues, he threw a three hit shutout. Very, very rare. Like he's very good. Three years later,

he finally tried speed. He's the second best pitcher in baseball in 1980. In 1982, he tried smoking cocaine. So that just takes off. Soon he's connected to a drug dealer in Kansas City who exchanges blow for baseball memorabilia. Sure. Sure. I mean, as a manager, you're like, isn't there a table here? Didn't we have a cart? Didn't we have a car table here? Hey, Frank, where's your locker? Your whole locker's gone. Yeah. I don't know. I've just been kind of putting my stuff in this pile. It wasn't sure. Hey guys, we're out of bats. There's not a bat here. I mean, there's not a bat. We don't have any bats. All right. Look, we don't have any bats, but we do have balls. We have two balls. All right. With two balls, Frank doesn't have a locker. It's fine.

Things are just, we probably just don't remember where we put it last. Anyone know what happened to uniforms? Oh, I should point that out. Most uniforms are gone. So we're going to wear sheets that we've put marker on. By 1985, Norris had gone to rehab five times. So no teams will offer him anything. The A's offer him a contract, but it's for, it's for the miners and he's insulted. He turns it down and then he finds out no one else will offer him anything. So he gets arrested in the Dominican Republic for having pot on him. He gets two DUIs. He's arrested for doing coke in a motel. So he's really hitting the fucking skids. Right. He's blackballed from baseball. Harry offers him a contract.

Darrell Schoeners had been considered the next big thing. Reggie Jackson, one of the all-time great players called, called Schoeners quote, maybe even a better pure hitter than Bill Matlock. Schoeners started smoking crack. In 1985, he didn't show up to the Anheim Angels spring training for 17 days. When he did, he admitted he had a drug problem. So he again, he came out on his own and said, look, I have a problem. I need help. Right. He told the press, he goes to rehab. His family stopped speaking to him. Wife divorces him. Baseball pushes him out. The Angels released him a year later. You broth named him as a player who would always be drug tested and then no one would sign him. So once you're on that fucking list that you brought

us, that's it. Right. You're screwed. It's a blackball list. Yeah. Except for the really great guys, the Keith Hernandez's who gets suspended for a year and then get to keep playing baseball forever. There's a very, I didn't know he's a very top tier guys get to do whatever the fuck they want sort of thing. And then other guys are being punished. Yeah. It's not great. So when Ken writes first went to the St. Louis Cardinals clubhouse in 1982, he could not believe it. Quote, cigarettes, chewing tobacco, candy gum, a cooler full of beer. It was as if baseball promoted being a degenerate. I love that gums on there. He's like, gum. What's next? Sunflower seeds. That's terrible for your teeth. writes is an amazing fielder. He won a golden glove in 1975

and 1977. He set an major league baseball record for fewest errors by a third baseman. They nicknamed him the Samboni because he cleaned everything up boy. Well, that was yeah. And he also also took in a lot of snow in 1978. He was in the locker room and the guy next to him pulled out a vial and writes, asked what it was. The guy said, quote, quote, let me try that. And off he went. I can't believe I like, I can't believe how after school, especially these moments really are like, that's what like, like film, films in school would make me think how it would happen. You know, someone would be like, this, it's cocaine. Do you want to try some? And I'd be like, I will try some of your cocaine. Like it just seems very sterile. It's like scripted. It is,

but it's totally 100%. It just, it has that feel and they all have that story of like, Hey, what is that? It is cocaine. Do you want to ruin your life with it? Yes, I should try to ruin my life for some of that. So he moves around from team to team in Chicago. He met the same guy who traded memorabilia for drugs. So this guy is all over major league baseball. The memorabilia guy. Hey, awesome, man. Nice jacket. You want a line? Right. So that guy got rights hooked on pills. So he's taking everything. His marriage ends. He drinks all the time. One day in Chicago, after a two day speed binge, he was driving and he thought a stranger was hiding in his back seat. So he jumped out, pulled out a shotgun,

and just started shooting the car. Jesus Christ. You imagine seeing that? Oh, that'd be amazing to see. I don't mind. It's just my jacket. How do I, what should I mark this on ways? It says, it's there. I would just do construction. Just do construction or vehicle pulled off the side. So rights goes to rehab, but his career is toast. No one, no one wants him. And then his dad mentions the San Jose bees and rights became the oldest player on the bees and the captain quote. Harry was the only one. Harry was the only one in all of baseball willing to give me a fourth second chance. Wow. Yeah. When rights got there, he started calling the team the bad news bees and the game stuck. Okay. And there's other bees with substance abuse issues. Daryl Thomas had been part of the

Pirates Coke scene. Todd Cruz was an alcoholic who played for 16 and six years. They're also a bunch of younger players trying to make it. And then there's the five Japanese guys. So it's just kind of crazy. Just those five Japanese guys like, boy, Americans do a lot of drugs. Just a lot, just from my sampling alone, a lot of drugs. And in Japan, like if you're caught with pot, like you go to jail, like they're, they're really strict. So it's just weird, you know, all right. On one of the very first long road chips, rights taught the Japanese players the song jingle bells and how to say cow six pack Hulk Hogan and blow job. Oh my God. That's immediate corruption. The important things. Yeah. What an amazing list of things to do right away.

No, don't worry. I'm going to handle it. It's look, it's culture shock for these guys. So it's baby steps. I'm going to teach him about jingle bells and what getting your dick suck means in the back. So Mike Norris is like a team favorite. Everybody loves him. He's funny. He's got an infectious laugh. The guys would tease him about his, his coke problem. A reliever once asked Norris quote, do you ever go through the drive through of a fast food restaurant and just order a straw? That's a good bet. And Norris would just fucking laugh at these things. He thought they were very funny. Right. But Norris is also always late because he kept having to go to the IRS, the DMV and court and his license was suspended. So he couldn't drive. Okay. So that

was making him late for everything. So he asked Harry to sign a career minor league guy who had a car named Kenny Foster. Kenny hadn't played baseball in a year, but he did own an old green dented Buick that he nicknamed best. Wait, he is getting him to sign a player because he has a car? Yes. Well, that's a pretty low bar. How is he at a baseball? It's fundamentals are weak. Can he hit? Not really. Is he a pitcher? Not good. Fast, slow. What's the upside? It's got a green car. I'll sign this man. Harry signs it. We'd like to give your car a number two. The manager was Frank Verdi who had jumped around

baseball for years. He had only one shot in the majors. The Yankees called him up on May 10th, 1953. He played an inning in the outfield and then he was sent in to pitch hit. The other team, when he came up to bat, switch pitchers and then the manager took him out before he saw one pitch. That was his only major league at bat. After that game, he was dropped. He didn't even have a taste. Someone just like put it in front of him and he tried to bite it and then they took it away. I mean, it's just like, it's like fantasy. It's like they were like, what's it like to set foot on a major league ball pitch and have the feeling that you're about to swing one and crack it out of the ballpark? Well, you can come down for an extra $500

and experience that feeling this Saturday. Wrigley field. Feel what it's like to almost be a ball player. Like his parents, maybe we're there. Oh, shit. He's scared. He's stepping up to bat. He's up to bat. Honey, he's up to bat. How do you boys about to bat in the main? They switched the pitcher. Oh, I think he's going to be able to hit a lot easier off of this guy. I tell you, I'm not ever, I'm just taking him out. Oh, wait, I'm sure I'll be back up later. So Verdi agrees to be the team manager, but five days before training camp, the Yankees offer him a job to be a scout and he takes that and quits the beat. Great. Okay. So Harry is like, well, I don't have any fucking money and

I'll just manage the team. So he knows nothing about managing, but he's now going to manage the team. Okay. At the beginning of training, this is how big it was that all these players have been signed, right? The press is going crazy for it. It's so big that a CBS news helicopter lands in the parking lot of the stadium because everybody is coming to see this team that is full of these players that used to be great. That all got drummed out of baseball because of drugs. That just also seems like news team ego. We've got the chopper. This news is breaking so hard. We need chopper. The London news came rolling stone, New York times, Los Angeles times, Philadelphia daily news, Washington Post. They all send reporters to see the misfits,

this band of misfits and the bees lean into it. A reporter asked how if the bees were actually bad news and how said, quote, if that's what we were, we'd paint the team bus in black and put fuck me on the front of it. Excuse me. I'm sorry. Sorry. I think I might be at the wrong place. You said you're not fuck me on the front of the bus. The first day all the reporters are there. Norris writes how and Esconias put on bandanas to look like outlaws and posed for pictures. Okay. The picture made it on the front page of USA Today's sports section. Norris frisked Thomas at the outfield wall. I was leaning against the wall for other pictures like they're just leaning into

it. Yeah. The parking, the parking lot is full of fancy cars. Harry, quote, Mercedes Porsche problem was they went nowhere. A lot of the guys couldn't drive them because they all had their licenses suspended. So those are the player cars. Yeah. These guys all made money playing major league baseball. So it just looks like you're open to Mercedes dealership because they can never leave. They can't drive them. Right. Okay. Sure. Of course. I mean, they're signing players based on the fact that they have active licenses. So, you know, you're not the best part only one of our players can drive to this one. He doesn't hit either. And then on the other side of the spectrum, you know, it's the minor league. So this guy's who have no fucking money whatsoever,

like a 34 year old, a 34 year old pitcher is sleeping in his van that he would drive and park in a stadium tunnel every night. Oh my God. Ritz couldn't drive. So he rode around on a girl's 12 speed bike. What? What? And he lived in the stadium utility room with two other players. What? He had this. Come on. It couldn't afford a boys bike. The utility room had beds with sleeping bags on top of them, a hot water heater, a black and white TV, six broken stadium chairs and carpet they had taken out of a dumpster, a neon core sign, a Led Zeppelin poster and a washing machine. I'll tell you what, it sounds a lot better than I thought it would. It's kind of got most of the things you need. I mean, considering we are in America, a lot of people are like, fuck, I take

that right now. Yeah. I mean, that the washing machine sold me on the unit. Well, the reason they had the washing machine in there was because it was the utility room. So the players have to everyone did line there. Their rent was doing the team's laundry every morning. Oh God. And I guess it's not great laundry. There was no bathroom. So they peed outside. Sure. The bees called it the stadium Hilton. It's under a grandstand. So it has the pattern of a grandstand on the roof. You know, when you're under a grandstand. One roommate had been a private detective in Atlanta for the previous two years. He hadn't played in eight years. He was so bad, he was cut after five games. The third roommate was Daryl Sias, who looked exactly like Jimmy

Buffett. Where'd the parents stay? Sias once had a sporting news cover photo of rights on his wall. So he's literally rooming with a guy that he used to idolize who was on the front cover of sporting news. If you told me we'd be living in a utility closet together, I just said that's madness. He had been a decent MLB player, but was cut to make room for younger guys. The A's cut him. But two months later, the A's came back looking for him because they had a bunch of injuries, but no one knew where he was or how to get a hold of them. So they actually would have brought it back on the team, but he had no idea. Couldn't find him. Yeah. No one had his number. It was the 80s. So how you get a hold of a guy in this? Well, you shouldn't have cut

your private investigator. So Sias was an artist. He painted the sponsors names on the outfield walls, the bees logo on the team bus, and inside of the stadium Hilton door, he painted Charlie Manson. Oh, Jesus Christ. What is going on? He said he wasn't a fan of Manson, but this is just a convert. This was just a conversation starter. Boy, boy, howdy was it? You couldn't find many people who didn't want to know why you had a homage of Charles Manson on your door. Sias was also known to put on a Superman cape and jump from the outfield wall, and he would play golf in the outfield. Just like Superman. He told the reporter, quote, they tell you you're not supposed to take the game home with you, but that's tough to do when

you live at the ballpark. Fair, fair. By the way, what as far as proximity to your job just can't beat it. Oh, people packing up their bags. You're like, All right, I'll be in there. So opening night was exactly what Harry expected. 5,000 fans came out. Huge turnout. The previous season, they would get an average of like 700. So as the team warmed up, CS was throwing incredibly fast, just firing the ball. One of the younger players was just like, I can't, this is amazing how fast this guy can throw. But he was doing a little too hard because he immediately blew out his arm. Oh shit. Right. Quote, couldn't throw the ball back to the pitcher after that. Oh, God. Steve Howe was still as good as he had been in the majors. Big League scouts came to see him pitch.

He's the star of the team. Harry would bring him to luncheons to meet businessmen in San Jose, and Howe would charm the shit out of him. Harry, quote, everything was more fun with him. He even made the most routine events fun. He had a magnetic personality, and that's why he got nine chances or however many he got. Let's face it, if he were a jerk, nobody would have wanted to help him. But the guys who had had previous problem with drugs saw Howe in a completely different light. Wrights thought he was a smart ass and rub players the wrong way. Quote, he acted like he didn't have a problem. He was in and out of treatment about 25 times, and he's walking around like nothing happened. You can't do that. You need a support group. So these guys are also

acting like this is the kind of stuff you hear in an AA room, right? They're a support community also. Right. Like a sponsor of some kind, but he's, yeah, okay. I mean, I guess it is just one of those weird things you would probably never think of when you're putting this team together, like, oh yeah, they're going to critique each other's sobriety because they all have been through so much, you know? Yeah. So, um, oh, so Norris, Norris and Howe was a con man. He once talked Norris's mother into making him a soul food dinner, which she brought to the ballpark. And then Howe did not show up. Quote, he charmed her like a snake. Those demons, he just never shook. Wow. So there's two sides to see how, which you get a lot with addiction. Like there's a, some people have a

charming personality, but then you get the dark side. So it's, you know, it can be fairly common. C.S. painted a mural on the door of the stadium, a long black ribbon with home of the bad news bees, and a swarm of bees coming out of a hive. Each player signed the mural. So every player on the team signs the mural near the very bottom is the name Rooster. Uh-huh. Sure. Of course. Every, every team needs a Rooster. Rooster's not a player. Rooster was this guy who was just hanging around. And of course Rooster. Mostly he's hanging around with Howe. Rooster has a Mohawk. No one knew what he did or what his actual name was. Okay. Norris, quote, I stayed away from Rooster. He looked like an egregious character. He didn't look like anybody I wanted to know. And I'm from

the street. Rooster was giving cocaine to Steve Howe. I had a feeling that, uh, right. Okay. Right. Quote, Rooster would show up and then Steve would disappear for three days and everybody covered for him. Family emergency, whatever, but he still had great stuff. He still had great stuff. What does he mean? Great stuff. Like great ability or great. He was still a really good pitcher. He was a really good pitcher, but it could have been either way. Yeah. I mean, Rooster. I know why they call him Rooster because he keeps you up. The first week of the season, Harry had a San Jose cop come and talk to the players about avoiding trouble in San Jose. At one point the cop said, quote, there's this bar

called PJs. It's on market about four blocks in the stadium. If there's one place in town, you don't want to go. Who is this cop? What is he doing? That is the worst way to, what is he? I mean, honestly, you know, there's one place where you can party hard. I'm going to tell you where it is and how to get there and how easy it is to go in. That's where you don't want to go, gentlemen. That's exactly what he did. Three days later, Harry is driving past the restaurant. Oh, PJs. Let's go in there. Quote. And I saw basically everyone of their cars was in the parking lot. That was their hangout for the rest of the year. Oh, God damn it. What? The cop should have just done that with like a pizza hut. There's a pizza around here. It's

a little wild. Don't want you guys going to that pizza hut on fifth. That is a wild pizza hut. But a couple of weeks into the season, Foster and Norris, so they're, they keep coming late still, even though he got the car, right? And God, I got Foster on the team. They're still coming in. You're going to be pretty pissed off if you signed a player just for his car and it has not relieved the situation. It hasn't helped at all. It has no one bitch. You know what I think we need to do is hire a watchman for the driver. Dad, what? Just sign another guy who can't play to watch the driver. Who drives me? So Norris keeps missing starts. Like he's supposed to start pitching on that day and he comes a couple of minutes before the game and they have to have someone else

pitch. Right. So they, a couple of weeks in the season, they come late again. He's got a case of the Waddells. That's right. Harry calls Foster in his office and he cuts, he cuts Foster. Okay. So Norris comes in right after and he tells Harry that Foster is one of the biggest gangsters in Oakland. He's like, dude, you just cut one of the baddest motherfuckers on earth. I mean, you're like, well, I'm making like talent decisions. Like, well, you better stop. Now, this is not remotely true. Oh, okay. He's just telling you that. Okay. The next day Foster came back to Harry's office and he's crying, quote, my mama told me to come in and apologize to you and to pray to the Lord that you'll take me back. And he promised Harry he would always be on time.

So Harry took Foster back. Okay. Two weeks into the season, they head to Fresno for their first away games. Now, in baseball, you play like 12 games at home and then you hit the road and you play against like three teams over another 12 days and come back or whatever, nine days. So it's the first road trip. Harry has Norris as the first starter in the first game. It would be his very first start, even though he's missed like three, but once again, Foster and Norris arrive late in best. So all the players are on the bus and they drive up in best and they're late. That game, there are 1500 fans in Fresno to watch, but seconds into the first pitch, it starts to rain and they keep playing in the rain. It's muddy. It's terrible. But the seventh

inning, there were 23 fans left. Eight of them were drunk and topless. One came all the way down near where the field is behind the plate and yelled, quote, Hey, how you're a douchebag, a real douchebag. Yeah. Real fucking douchebag. And then he dumped a full beer over his head. How it just sat quietly in the dugout. Oh my God. So things have changed since the majors. Uh-huh. Yeah. That access. Like, I can't believe I get to pour a beer on this guy. No, he poured a beer on his own head. Oh, he poured on his own head. Yeah. Even better. That is the moves of a drunk in a game. On the way back, on the way back to San Jose after the, after the road trip, the team

bus passes something burning on the side of the road. Uh-oh. It was best. What? The car caught on fire. What? And then they keep driving at about a mile down the road. Norris and Foster are walking on the highway. I mean, this, this is who you signed for the car, right? Yeah. I mean, this, this is app. This is crazy. This is such a terrible indicator of management that like the prospect, the idea of signing a person because they have a car is crazy. Yeah. Then the idea of not being like, yeah, no, you had one job and that's to drive him. I mean, you need to have a short leash on this role. It's a very replaceable role. It's, yeah, it really is. Well, Foster bought a new car. He bought a new shitty car.

That's not the solution. No, a new foster is what you need. Well, and they were still constantly late. So he warns them one last time and then one day Norris doesn't even show up and, and Harry cuts both of them. He's like, you're both fucking done. Foster had played a total of five games. Norris had not thrown one pitch the whole time he was there. It's like two or three weeks in the press asked Harry if it was due to drugs and Harry made it very clear it was not drugs. It was their attitudes. Yeah. So besides packing out San Jose stadium, Harry really thought the roster of all these well known sort of misfit players with problems would pack out stadiums on the road. He thought wherever

they went, there'd be tons of fans, right? But the cocaine problems in baseball were upsetting the fans. And with the hyper sort of drug awareness, every government message coming out, people are mad. So the crowds on the road were small and they were angry at the players, writes, quote, we'd go into these towns like Bakersfield, and there'd be signs across the road. We don't want these drug addicts, these degenerate players. By now, Harry had actually changed. He originally signed these guys to win games and to bring in fans, right? But then he gets to know them, quote, once I got to know these guys, I took a personal interest. I'd like to see these guys beat the system and forget about their pass and go on from here. So he gets to know them. And what

was originally just a financial decision is now I want these guys to succeed emotional investment. Yeah. Yeah, he's got empathy for him. So after Norris and Foster left, the team gets hot and starts to win. They move up to second place. How is on fire? And he's passing his drug tests. In mid May, the presidents of the San Francisco Giants and the Toronto Blue Jays were coming to a game just to watch how pitch. Okay. So by the time it gets there, that means the scouts have seen him and now the head guys are coming to get one final look, sign them. It means he's legitimately got a real shot. Right. And if anybody got signed, how Harry would take a huge cut, like 50% of the money upfront money or whatever it was, right? Yeah. So the day of the game,

the president of the National Association, which oversees the miners calls and says, how's latest drug test had a discrepancy and told Harry he could not pitch that night. So Harry didn't understand why he, he didn't say he'd flunk the test. He didn't know what discrepancy meant. And he's pissed because it took 13 days to get the result of the drug test. So he thinks something's really fucked up, right? Because you can get the drug test overnight. Sure. So Harry, Harry told how not to come to the stadium. He goes, you're not dressed in tonight, just stay at the hotel. But this is his huge night. And then Harry starts thinking it over. And he's like, discrepancy, discrepancy, fuck it. And he calls how at the hotel at 615 pm,

45 minutes before the start, and tells him to come pitch. The next morning, Harry was suspended for two weeks by baseball because house test was positive. Okay. How, quote, I have used nothing. I have no involvement with drugs since I've been here, zero, none. I think it's a conspiracy to keep me out of baseball. You were off office, barred how from playing pro baseball. So they lose their best player, team falls apart, quickly sinks back down to last place. What do you, was he using? Do you know? We'll get back to that. Okay. Now, at this point, either Norris came to apologize or Harry called him up. But either way, the team needs a great picture. Norris is still a great pitcher. He's back on the bees. You just got to sign my buddy who drive me.

Okay. This time I got a guy who's got a bicycle. I got, I know this guy's got a wheelbarrow. It's perfect. Now the Japanese players, as we said, they're not into drugs. They have this amazing work ethic. They're working out all the time. They don't speak English. Probably for the best. Had come with a pitching coach and come with them from the Cebu Lions from joke. Okay. So there's this Japanese pitching coach. He also served as chaperone, their driver, acupuncturist and disciplinarian. That's fucking great. Little Swiss army knife. It's funny. It makes sense though. When you think about it, like a minor league coach, he's got to wear all these different hats. Yeah. Yeah. But I love these also acupuncturists.

It's great. Yeah. Well, they were probably like, this is really helpful actually. So just routine mistakes brought fucking screaming from this Japanese coach. Wow. And often slaps on the face. Oh my God. What? He's a grown man, sir. One player was slapped for talking on the phone. Right. It's quote. He would line guys up and in Japanese, he would scream at them and slap them in the face and tell them how, how horses they were. It was interesting how they did it. A royal quote. One time one of the Japanese players struck out and he threw his helmet, not hard. He just tossed it. They called him into the office and they made him stand there

in front of the coach and they slapped him. Okay. So wait, there are people actively doing cocaine on this team and the guy drops his helmet and gets slapped. Oh, shit. That is just a coat. Like you just, it wouldn't fly anymore, but man, what a time when you just, when we, oh, is that the team of the slapping coach? Yeah. Yeah. The guy slapped. Yeah. He'll slap you. He doesn't like what you do. And he'll slap you right across the mouth. No questions asked. Now this is obviously in stark contrast to the American players. You know, we don't slap so much here is the thing you're going to find. I don't know about

in Japan, but here we don't hit him as much. We've not been slapping the players. We do not hit them like that. Like one day, Sconeers borrowed writes his 12 speak bike to go to the store and he did not come back for three days. Come on. When he did, he told writes, he had seen a car drive by and he just knew the people inside had cracked. So he rode the bike six miles chasing them down. Apparently they had crack as he didn't come back. Wait, wait, wait. I'm sorry. This is right. No, you need more fucking crazy. So he went missing for three days because he borrowed a bike and on the bike, he just had like his crack spidey sense go up and he just knew there was crack in a car. And so he on pedal, crack chased his gut instinct was

right. And therefore he missed three days just to smoke and crack because of his hunch. That's right. His crack hunch. Either way, he must have gotten cracked because he was gone for three days, right? Sure. Yeah. I mean, you're going to get the shit slapped out of you if you take a bike on a crack run. One day they were getting ready for a road trip and they were, uh, the players were all coming to meet the bus in the parking lot and they had a young player nicknamed throw baby and he pulled up in the parking lot to get on the bus. He opened his car door and just fell out and rolled onto the ground. His face was covered in scrapes and he was bleeding. Harry asked him what happened and throw baby said he had been jumped. Harry quote, who knows.

They fixed him up and got him on the bus. I bet you that slap coach. I bet you slap coach just beat the shit out of him. Japanese slap coach. It's just another day in the life of the bees. All right. Well, this one's let's roll him in, get him on the bus. Come on guys. We're going to weekend to Bernie and behind home plate. The team went to Bakersfield on a road trip while Harry was suspended. Norris actually arrived on time and started the fourth string catcher used chalk from the foul line to make what looked like four lines of coke on the pitching rubber. Oh my God. So he walks out to the mound and on this little white strip, there's four like what looks like lines of coke and Norris fucking laughs his ass off. He just thinks it's so good

and funny and he's not anymore, not anymore. Harry's in the bleachers watching the game and he's wearing a bee shirt. So local drunk see him and they start heckling him and it gets worse as the game goes on. Sure. The bees hear it on the field and they tell the guys to stop but the guys keep at it and after a little while they start making threats. So when the game ends, the bees run over towards the bleachers and climb the wall and a massive ball starts between a massive brawl starts between the bees, the drunk fans and then the security guards. Two security guards are hurt. Harry is cut under his eye. Police have to escort Harry and Norris to the press box to keep them safe. As they do, the crowd is booing and throwing garbage at them.

At that moment, Harry thought, quote, we are on the baseball map. Can you imagine your eyes bleeding? We're back. The bees are back. He thought it would generate tons of attention. Yes, I believe it will. Bring people out. It would bring people out, right? Yeah. After the game, seven bees went to a local bar and the four drunk fans who had started the whole thing were there and they jumped the team's 24-year-old shortstop and broke his jaw. Oh, shit. Now, I searched every newspaper from this time period. I massive search in newspapers. The only thing I could find about this event was in a paper was that the shortstop had been attacked on the street and his jaw broken. They were just like, oh, he was jumped on the street.

That was the only. The brawl wasn't in there. Nothing about the fight at the stadium. What was really going on was the bees weren't really news anymore. The excitement of these drug users coming together on a team had worn off. The media came. They wrote stories and now they were gone. Harry thought his team would draw huge crowds. It didn't. Harry, quote, I thought everywhere we went, there'd be 3,000, 4,000 people every night. Frankly, I was disappointed. Harry's worn down. During his suspension, he decided to step down as manager. He hired to be manager. Japanese slap coach. He hired the son of the guy who had left the first manager. Oh, okay. Right. Okay. The guy quit because he got a different kid. Yeah. It's like,

hopefully abandoning the job is not genetic. Harry stays on a GM, though. He's still working in his GM. So the players all really like Harry. He started out, as we said, like a guy trying to make a buck, but he had empathy. Norris, quote, I love Harry. If Harry would have said no to me, that would have been the end of my career. The compassion that he showed, I'll always love him for that. He was also giving an opportunity to marginal black players. So there's not many black players on the bench in Major League Baseball. Mostly just starters and stars, but on the bench, all white guys. Right. So Harry. Yeah. I mean, you got to make sure people are doing cocaine. That's right. Well, so, yeah. So like one of my favorite players when I was growing up as a kid

was Terry Whitfield and Terry Whitfield eventually got older and he was on the bench. And so that meant he would just come in to hit a couple of times a game or something like that. And he was actually a great pinch hitter, but the Dodgers still cut him because he's a black guy. Pinch hitters were almost all white guys. So he starts signing those guys. He also signed Ted Milner, but Milner was floundering after 32 games and Harry had to cut him. Milner told Harry he had no way to get back to LA after being cut. So Harry loaned him his car and told him to bring it back whenever he could. If Harry has seen so many, I mean, he's seen a bike go missing for three days because of a crack chase and he's like, take my car. I don't know if he'd give it to a

drug guy, but Milner was just like a dude who played a lot and didn't have a team anymore. Right. He should have signed a driver to drive him. Yeah. We have a bunch of pinch drivers here too. We have pinch hitters, pinch drivers. Harry signed at X MLB player Todd Cruz who had a history of drug problems. He told the San Jose McCree news quote, I went the devil's road cocaine and alcohol. So he's still in the middle of the season signing guys who are drug guys. So Wright started thinking about his time in rehab when he got straight and became a counselor and then he liked working with young people. And so now he's thinking I could be a really good coach. Like I know how to work with young people.

At the same time, it turns out he was drinking every single game. He was a drunk third baseman. Right. On June 25th, the league cleared Steve Howell on the cocaine charges and he was reinstated as a player. So that's all that was in the papers. Big deal. But they just said, no, the test was okay. And he was back. Okay, sure. Whatever. No explanations given. So he's back on the bees. How was always joking around on the team bus. The bus was an old 1959 GMC. He was known to break down once doing once it broke down on a mountain pass as they were going to Palm Springs and it took two

days to fix. Wolf. One of the things how love to do on the bus was pull the players nose hairs while they were sleeping. Oh my God, what a horrendous prank. So this is the worst guy on the team, right? Well, I mean, can you imagine being woken up from that? It's a terrible way to wake up. I'd rather the slap coach hit me. Yeah. It never stopped being amusing to Steve Howell, no matter how tiresome it became to everyone else. Good Lord. A lot of good. That's how you could that would be like your own just on the fly drug test. That's right. Rip out their nose hairs if there's a little dandruff drip and you're like, Oh, he would usually sit on a cooler full of beer in the aisle at the front of the bus looking back at the team. He acted sobriety was embraced.

Well, yeah, that's the interesting thing is I, you know, it's the 80s. So I don't think they're connecting like all sobriety with drug. They're just like, just drink, but that'll be it. Like there's no, we're all sober. So we only drink alcohol. I don't drink alcohol. Jim, I just drink beer. Oh, geez. Well, all right, father. I mean, do you remember that ad the, the, um, what's called promo, but the, it played for a while. It was a guy on TV and he was like, I used to say, I didn't drink. I didn't, I didn't drink alcohol, you know, but I was drinking three, six packs a day and that's the same thing. And you're like, they had to explain to people. They hadn't actually had a promo to explain to people that drinking three, six packs a day was

bad and alcohol. It's probably just trying to unwind years of branded marketing of how acceptable beer drinking, you know, like, yeah, I don't know. It's a, it's a testament to how well they've advertised maybe in a terrible way. So he would sit there on the cooler and entertain everybody and, um, but in the July road trip to Reno, uh, he was a little quiet and the trips to Reno were always super exciting and fun. Everyone was up because they were going to casinos and brothels. Right. But on this trip, how was very, very quiet during one of the games in Reno, Norris was pitching and he waved right silver from third base to come to the mound and he told him, quote, roomy, I left my dope in the room. It's in the curtain in the corner where the curtain

ends at the bottom after the sinning, um, going to the hotel to get it. Oh my God. So he makes the final out and then he runs to the hotel to grab his pot and makes it back just in time to start the next inning. I mean, that is a serious addiction to pot. It really is. Like I've been without pot. He just wanted to be high though. I mean, sure, but that is some stoner motivation. So soon they knew why Steve Howe had been so quiet on the bus. He failed another drug test. Oh Jesus. When the positive test was announced, he left the team with the understanding he would go to rehab and then he flew home to Montana and told the press quote, I'm pondering retirement right now. I really don't know what's going on. Uh, he was suspended from baseball until

December 31st. So he's suspended for the rest of the calendar year. Right. The bees just flounder in the league. Another former major leaguer on his way down signed with the blee bees and he played for the team for three weeks. And then on a road trip to Southern California, he just left without saying anything. Sure. Yeah. That's normal, right? To ghost your team. Is that possible? That guy actually ended up siding and still playing in the majors. Oh my God. So they were just like, Hey, he's on TV. He is alive. Uh, the rest of the year, Norris pitched really, really well. He struck out 62 batters. He still had major league stuff. He could still pitch, but no major league team would take him. He's black ball. Right. Sconeers was also playing

very well, but no one wanted him. He greatly regretted ever admitting publicly that he was a drug addict. Quote, if I knew then what I know now, I probably wouldn't have stepped forward like I did. I asked for help and I got it, but then I got this. Right. So both him and Steve, how the first time they people found out they were drug addicts was because they came out and told the press, I'm an, I'm an addict and I need help. And then baseball did this to them. Yeah, it is. I mean, I'm just thinking about how shit that is obviously, but also in the just say no campaign, right? I mean, like, shouldn't you have a contingency plan for when people publicly tell people they said yes, but

now say no. Well, there wasn't one. The contingency plan was fuck off. You're a bad person. Yeah, of course. So we've come a long way. Well, the truth is that I know, I mean, it is, it is just, it is trying to find, like it's almost like when, you know, when people are like, yeah, the coronavirus is up to the States. You're just like, yeah, you deal with it. Yeah. You handle it. You figure it out, you know? Yeah. So I mean, it's on you. It's better now, but you know, it's still not great. Well, at least now, like if you, at least now there's a connection to mental health and addiction. Yeah. You know, like it wasn't just like you were someone who partied. It was, you know, it's like you, there is an actual, you know, there's a problem. There's

a health problem. Yeah. In September, President Reagan gave a speech on TV with Nancy and he called for a national crusade against drugs and quote, those who are killing America and terrorizing with slow, but sheer chemical destruction. And the Reagan's then endorsed the death penalty for drug dealers. So that's the mindset, right? Yeah. Well, it's also, it really is nice now because America has really done a 180 because we now are able to profit off of getting people. And that's better. The bees finished that year 65 and 77 in last place. Harry quote, the year didn't come across as great as I thought. When the year ended, it was depressing because I knew that was a one time thing. And without a working agreement, the future wasn't very bright.

Right. Their attendance had increased though. It went from around 700 to around 1300. Kern never asked Harry to pay that $25,000 lease fee for the team. Okay. Ken writes played with the 1987 bees and then he retired. He had been playing drunk every game. He had, he's been sober since 1988 and became a public speaker about sobriety. Darryl Sconeers, he should also become a public speaker about how to do your job drunk for him. Love to know the technique. Darryl Sconeers played for more minor league seasons, but never made it back to the major league baseball. His stats were good enough for him to make it back. How was given a lifetime ban, but then it was reversed. He made it back to major league baseball in 1991. So why not just ban him? Why?

Well, you know, why the caveat? Uberoth wanted to crack down, but then a new, they would appeal it and there's an arbitration thing. So it was a, you know, went through the legal channels. He makes it back into major league baseball in 1991 with the Yankees who he played with until 1996. I think they won the first championship in 1997. So in that era, in 1997, Steve Howe played on the Sioux Fall Canaries, an independent team run by a guy named Harry Strathvere-Renry. So Harry Steve, it changed his name and was back to where he was working in baseball and he brought Steve Howe. Okay. He had, but Harry had become a scout for the San Francisco Giants and then an owner, a general manager, manager, executive. He's just in the independent baseball sort of

circuit. Right. In the game. On April 28, 2006, Steve Howe rolled his pickup truck in Coachella, California and died. The autopsy found methamphetamine in his system. He was 48 years old. Wow. Wow. Daryl Sconears was last seen in San Bernardino, California. It's not a good start. In 2011, he was homeless at the time. No one ever heard from him again. God damn. Mike Norris made it back to the majors with Oakland in 1990. He pitched 14 games. He had back surgery in 2000 and had to go on pain pills again, but he seems to be doing okay. He goes to A's functions and stuff. So he's still kind of a guy around. Yeah. So that's the, that's the story of the San Jose B's. That is crazy. I don't think it could happen today. Yeah. I don't think it could either because

I would, this is what I was going to say. I would imagine, I would have imagined people would have turned out for those games to see those players. I do think you're right. I don't think that would happen today. But I also think the team wouldn't even happen because you get, you get a different response now when you have a problem. Like that guy for the angels who had the heroin problem, Hamilton. Yeah. Like he, and that was one where I was like, this is kind of fucked for the team because he was making like $20 million a year. And then he would be like, I have, I'm back on heroin. I'm going to take time off. And it was like, oh, you're still making $20 million a year. Yeah. So that was always, I was like, well, that's weird. Maybe you should not take your salary if you're,

if you're doing that, but then you're like, well, I mean, I don't know. They knew it when they signed them. It's a very complicated thing. But you know, he went and he went to rehab. And then the angels cut him. But then he signed with the, the Texas Rangers. Like he got a job and he went to the playoffs and stuff. So I don't know. Is it different? I don't know. What happens with players who do drugs now? There are a lot, it seems like a lot fewer players are being caught or outed about it that we know of. I, well, I also think that it's, I mean, you know, it's like, in leagues like the NFL, you know, it is purely talent-based. If you, no matter what you have done, no matter what you have done for the most part, if you have the talent, someone will sign you, you will play. The NFL is

full of barbarians, like just terrible, terrible violence. There is actually an NFL player named, I think his name is Darren Waller. And he was one of those guys who was signed by the Ravens and had a hero, I think heroine. And then he got re-signed and he's like the best player in Oakland. But, um, yeah, I mean, I don't think, I don't think rehab was as good back then as it maybe is now. I know a lot of rehab is still bullshit, but, you know, it's just a way to suck money off of people. But there's good ones. There's good ones too, obviously, you know, that help people. And also, I mean, you, addiction was just framed in such a, you know, it was like a personal deficiency. Whereas now it is acknowledged as a, you know, mental health problem. Right.

So, so could Mike Norris have gotten the help he needed and gone to a decent rehab and maybe, you know, that's why I don't think the bees could exist today, because I don't think the fucking, the cutest name for a bunch of guys who are just doing coke with rooster and losing pot in their hotel curtains. Where are the bees? Yeah, it's an, it's an interesting, it's a really interesting sort of look at how we've changed society wise, which, because, you know, like I said, with Reagan and with Uber off running the league, like they were just authoritarian douchebags to these people as opposed to being like, especially the one that really gets me is this, this Sconeers kid, because he's young and he has this beautiful natural baseball swing.

And like a guy like Reggie Jackson is admiring, which Reggie Jackson might have the most beautiful sort of all time. And, and they're like, and they just, they, they, they, he never got a shot. Like he came out and said, I'm an addict. And then I'm sorry, but he never, he was never given a second opportunity. He was just like, fuck this guy. Well, also, I mean, to what I think you were saying before, I mean, that would be like, if you were, if you were serious about trying to fix drug addicts and stuff, I mean, that would be a great story to embrace and like lean into and highlight, you know, as a good story. Yeah, this guy came clean. You can, you can get over this and you can, and you get rewarded for that and share, you know, opening up about something like that.

Yeah, you, you get rewarded. And these, these players were very aware that there was a different system for different players, you know, the, they're just like steroids. There's, you know, players that got caught doing steroids and in the hall of fame. And there's other ones that are like, they will never let you in the hall of fame. So a lot of people think that's why Sammy Sosa turned white. They think that that was the play. But yeah, so it's a, yeah, you just wish it, you just wish it, you just wish that at the time they had an understanding, a better understanding. So yeah, and I mean, this country's still just like, we're not great. I mean, well, our ability to, you know, we don't have an interest in solving the drug problem. Well, country. So yeah,

everyone knows how to do it. Everyone knows what we need to do. Portugal has done it. Of course, beautifully. I mean, yeah. And really, I mean, while I don't know a ton about it, it doesn't seem that it was that difficult. It seemed like it was kind of, it just kind of goes with like reading the numbers and just saying, yeah, they, they, they, they legalized everything, decriminalized it. And then, and then all the crime went down all over the country. And, and, you know, everything's better. It's a wild, wild success. It's not hard. Not hard to figure out. It's just like coronavirus. We actually can see the map on how to do it. There's countries that are doing it fine. Australia, Vietnam, South Korea. I don't understand. How are people not so fucking pissed?

How are you not so pissed? I am. When I see Australia, I am so pissed. I mean, it's just, it's, and the, and like, I was, I emailed the Fawzi yesterday and he was just like, yeah, I went to a pool party last weekend and I was like, yeah, I get it. I understand that things are going really good there. Yeah. I, I was, I was going back and forth to the comedian who was trying to figure out whether or not to do a show this year at a festival. And one of the things was, she was like, what should I just, I also feel bad that you guys are watching us. I'm like, no, everybody in other countries who's, who's living a fine life needs to constantly post pictures so Americans can see how fucking shitty we are, how shitty we are as a society.

It just keep throwing that shit up there. Well, and then, I mean, you watched the Super Bowl yesterday and you're like, this country just doesn't, I mean, it just doesn't give a fuck. Doesn't care at all. Just doesn't give a fuck. There is absolutely no, like, like I was talking to my dad about, you know, when Churchill asked all the, you know, like for Dunkirk when he had to like ask people to like get their boats and like drive, you know, you know, take their boats to go. I mean, can you imagine anything near that today? No, like people be like, uh, no. Well, then they'd done Kirk to bad move. Yeah. The lack of empathy in this country is

really horrifying. Yeah. Understand it. And it isn't just, I mean, I, you know, it's well, whatever. I'm not even going to get into it. Nope. Okay. Done. Wrapped. Self wrap. All right. All right. Go bees. Go boys. What? What? Sources for this episode. John Shulian is booked Twilight of the long ball gods dispatches from the disappearing heart of baseball from Rolling Stone, Neil Carlin's the bad nose bees. And in Sports Illustrated by Tom Burducci, weirdest team ever, drug users, has beens and never worse on 1986 San Jose bees.