1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Happy Anniversary to the Pearsons!: June 25th, 12:00pm

Episode Date: June 25, 2025

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It's time to go one-on-one with D.P. Coming at you live from the heart of Lincoln America, a 93-7-a-ticket and the ticketfm.com. Here is your host, Derek Pearson, brought you by Canopy Street Market. Boom. In your... I have to say it like Eddie Murphy said it in... In the face. In the face.

Wednesday live on the ticket one-on-one. Appreciate you hanging out with me. 402464-5-6-85. The Sartre-Ram and text line, going to be a part of what we're doing. Hit us up. Give me a what's up on the text line. Greatly appreciate you hanging out with us.

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You know where to go every day all day. You don't have to think about it. You don't have to wait for a stream notification otherwise, and you should be following on all of the social media platforms so that you get the notifications of what's going on. You may have missed some interesting interviews and conversations that took place yesterday. You may have missed some,

and we don't want you to miss anything. I mean, you know, you miss Gifford on early break. yesterday. That was three full hours of spectacular radio. If you didn't jump on and catch Ridge Love it, talking about the transfer portal, Nebraska's place in collegiate wrestling and all the things that are going on. And it's just all of this information and data, you know, to help explain why things are the way they are and some of the ridiculous numbers that are in play. But fine, we will simplify it for you. And we will try to. to make it simple for you to follow what's gone on here on the ticket.

Again, Allo Channel 961. Simplicity. Today is a special day. I would say that it is my favorite day of the year. My favorite day of the year, every year, is June 25th. It is special, it is meaningful, and I have, a reason for it. I have a reason for it that 14 years ago today, I stood in Washington National's Park and got married to Rebecca. And while Becky and I have been a thing for almost 40 years, It was 14 years ago today that we made it official.

He said, you know, as they would say back, you know, make an honest woman. But 14 years ago today, we stood, we had Washington Nationals Park to ourselves. And it was just us and family and friends. We had friends that traveled. I think the count was 13 states. People came from 13 states, some of them very far away, some international even, to come and be a part of it. And again, Becky and I have been through several versions of ourselves together. And then in this particular case, we said, okay, let's just, let's go ahead and get married.

And then it was, if we're going to do this, we don't want to do the traditional wedding. We want to do something that is special, something that's memorable. And if you follow me on social media, you've probably seen some of the videos or some of the pictures. You can find them. And if you do not follow me on social media, that's fine. But if you would like to see wedding pictures from Washington Nationals Park, home of Washington Nationals, which is why that places, for several reasons, special to us, that, you know, we chose it. We said, okay, I don't know anybody that's done it.

So let's do a thing that is unique. And Bocke, as you probably know, Becky and I think, outside the box often. Sometimes we think about things differently. And in this particular case, we said, where can we be married? That would be one that our friends and family could get to. So we're both Northern Virginia DMV folks. so a lot of our friends and family are in that area and we said, okay, let's go there.

Like, let's do that. So we contacted the nationals went through and they set it up. Like we had to find time when the stadium was empty, first of all. Then figure out what it was going to take to pull this thing off because it wasn't that normal for the,

them to have this kind of event. So where to line up, where the, you know, where the holding spaces would be. And if you've ever been to Nats Park, have you been any, any major league park, you kind of know the, the suites, the VIP areas that they will have where there is a fine dining before game. Well, that was going to be the, that was going to be the reception room. That was going to be where the reception was. and then Becky and her dad

were going to walk out of those doors and they had two attendants who stood there and opened the door for you to walk out, for her to walk out. And I've said this on social media, but that my favorite moment of the day was, I mean, the first time you see, in Bach, you just went through ceremony,

like the re-seremony. So you understand the first time you see your lady on that day. Right? And I, without even processing, the photographer caught, it just, there's a tear running down my face because I'm just like, whoa, whoa. And then there's a million dots that follow that. Like, whoa, this is, hey, she's marrying me, man.

Like, what are we doing? Okay. Okay, God, you are showing off. Well done. Well done. I don't know how, I don't know why. But she said she's going to say yes. Cool.

And the chaos and calamity of it. So we had our rehearsal on that Friday. The Nats were home Saturday. They were home Thursday. So Thursday, we were invited to the game. And it was a getaway day. So it was a day game. And somewhere in my house.

is the official lineup that the Nats had in the dugout that day. Oh, cool. And it was left just as they had written, as Dusty had written on it, right? That, you know, and Dusty Baker was skipping the time. So you go through and you're just scratching through, like, who his substitutions are and who he replaced. And the day of the wedding, my friends being who they are, 100% absolutely. My friend, he comes to me. And so we got married June, but July of that year, my birthday is in July, and that was going to be my 50th birthday.

And my friend, there's no other way to steal it. He stole because we had access to the whole park. And we did pictures in the dugout and on the field. And everybody followed down and he just lifted it off the wall. So I had to go back to the nationals and apologize. and say, hey, by the way, there's something missing from your park and I've got it. Do you want me to bring it back? And they were like, no, congratulations, take it.

But we had the whole park. We had access to the whole park. So imagine the whole parking lot is us. It's just us. And then we realized that there's one of the attendants and he goes, hey, want to do something cool? I'm like, what? Sure. Sure.

He goes, I have the keys to the bullpen carts. Sir, on a day of great statements, that is a fantastic statement. So, of course, me and my friends jumped in the bullpen carts and drove them around the concourse of that's part with no one there. Like, there's, there's like two security guys and they're cheery. They're blotting. They're applauding this thing. And you're trying to be a grown-up. You're trying to be a grown-up.

But I'll ask every listener, if you had access, let's say you decided to get married at Memorial Stadium or Haymarket Park. And I don't know that, do they do that, Bob? I don't, I'm not sure if they have. I haven't seen anybody doing that, I guess. Right? Like that, that, that if you're looking for a really cool idea, get married at Haymarket or Memorial or PBA.

Like, do that. Do that. Yes. Do that. Because we had, so we went to the gate and then we sat in the VIP. We had the full buffet on the day game. All you can drink, right?

Every beverage. And it's a full group. so the entire wedding party. And then Friday was the rehearsal. So again, the park's empty. And you're just... And then wedding day, again, Bach, just think of your wedding day

and just think of all the things before, except for you're in... You're in Coffman Stadium or you're in Memorial Stadium. Yeah. It's a little different, right? You're just like... And I'm trying not to be... that do. But then a part of me, of course. So for all the groomsmen and my father-in-law,

I got them official batting helmets for their favorite team. And we had Louisville Slugger custom bats for them with their name on. Oh, nice. And so we have a picture of all of us with bats and helmets in the stadium. My father-in-law grew up wearing black Chuck Taylor. So we decided with the tucks, we were going to wear black chucktail. And it's so cool that in it, him walking down, he was the happiest person in the building for being able to wear this tux on his daughter's wedding day with these black tucker. Which spectacular, right?

You just spectacular. And then the reception. So we had a buddy mine and shout out to Dr. John Butler. who's a soloist who sang Luther Van Dross here now for us. Live. Live. And if you're on my Facebook, just jump on there. Somebody, they clip some of the scenes and they have him just singing.

Oh, chef's kiss. And then afterwards, we had the reception in the Lexus Club at Nat's Park. Bob. Come on. Like it's and for the wedding cake, drum roll, we had baseball cupcakes. Nice. Iceed baseball iced cupcakes and a baseball as the wedding cake. I got to know when you were, when you're planning this, was Rebecca always down for the baseball theme? Was she a big baseball fan? So let me tell, when I tell y'all how much I won, and I think the people who, the people who work here know how much. And I'm saying all, setting all this to set up a thing that we're, because, and I'm going

and I'm going to say now, that while I may be the face and voice of the ticket, the heart and brains of the ticket is my wife. and she doesn't get enough credit and she doesn't get enough applause and support because none of this happens without her and it's her boundary of me. Again, yes, I'm a grown man baby. And so often she just has to be

the grown up in the room and just go, Derek, no. No, no. You don't need every pair of new shoes. You don't need every jersey of every player you've ever loved. Sometimes enough is enough. But she's really good at saying yes to the brilliant good things. And the idea of being down here, like she will ask, okay, what's the vision?

Like, how do you see this? In a perfect world, okay, identify. how it would be ideally, and then let's see how close to it we can get. But let's set the standard at how good this can be. Well, the same thing with a wedding, same thing with a radio station. How good can it be? What's the ideal? And then she will go through and then all the things of,

well, here's why you can't have a hundred pair of new tennis shoes because you're going to want new speakers or new microphones or, okay, so let's make the choice. Together, let's do this. And the operations, the legalities and certifications and licenses, like Becky's a magician at holding this all down, contracts and agreements and et cetera. So there's no way this version of the ticket exists without her.

All the while, her lecturing at the university and running other businesses. and then, oh, by the way, being a 24-7 daycare worker for me. Right? And then multiply that by the number of athletes and radio hosts and producers who walk in the door here, which is a full-on. That's a 24-7 gig. But in this, choosing those things and then going, wow, this could happen.

And even that day, we were still like, wow, this is really happening. This is really happening. And to go through, and then we had, like, the reception was amazing. It was amazing. I mean, you have the, you know, it's just you in the stadium and all of the game day VIP buffet that you can stand, every beverage, every thing. And then as a baseball, so she was a coach's wife. I mean, this is a woman that sat in 20-degree weather watching football. A woman who sat in the snow to open baseball season,

because in Virginia, it's like Nebraska, if you went to opening day at a Nebraska baseball game and it was actually the first game, how cold would it be? Well, that's how cold it was in Virginia. And she sat through it watching high school baseball. right she sat through rain and thunderstorms for football when we moved to texas she sat in the sun yeah she sat in the texas son to watch sports to watch and her husband her her husband really i was loud and appreciative but imagine that her dad navy captain father-n-law would come to

this high school gym to root on these high school players. And then would identify, you know what? That's a, that's a Naval Academy appointee right there. Like he would identify, okay, that's a special one, D.P. That's a special young man. Ah, that, that young lady is brilliant. That's exceptional in the space. And then take them.

Sidebar story. Let me, that he identified my football and baseball cap. and said, that young man is a, that's what the Naval Academy is all about, that young man right there. So he asked me to ask him his thoughts on going to the Naval Academy. The young man said, oh, my God, that's a dream. I don't think I could ever pull that off. But, oh, my God, yes. And, but he had the conversation and was so fully invested in adding to the life of this young man.

my father-in-law graduate, he's a fighting CB class of 1957 in Naples. As a matter of fact, the row of the year ward at the Naval Academy is under Becky's dad's name. Oh, wow. Right? He went into his closet and pulled his letterman's jacket from the Naval Academy, 1957, and asked me to present it to this young man as a Roman. of what he was working for and what he was striving for. I still have that picture.

And that young man is now a Navy officer. Right? But that's the greatness of it. We go through this, this wedding, and then we plan. So we married on Saturday. On Sunday, we drove to Baltimore. Camden Yards. Orioles red.

We watch that on Sunday. Monday we drive to Philadelphia. We see Philly's Mets. No, Philly's Indians. We leave Philly on Tuesday, go to New York City. On Wednesday, we see the Mets. Thursday, we see the Yankee Stadium. I won.

I won. I won. Like I won. So when I talk about blessings and being grateful and being appreciative, one, I have a real partner. I have a true partner. I have a caretaker. When I was in ICU on a deathbed, this woman who is used to a certain way slept, curled up on a couch in the ICU.

This was when I couldn't walk, this woman gave me bed care. This woman, you know, I had a new spine and I had blood issues and she walked through it. You know, that's what it is. So if we don't go through all this stuff, like all the memories along the way, that getting to today, and I don't fear much, because I've faced 27 blood clots and a saddle embolism. Nothing that happens in Lincoln, Nebraska can really scare me. I face the hardest thing I'm going to face.

And I have the strongest support. I have the best partner. I have somebody who thinks differently than I do. We meet in the middle of the bridge often. right from her side my side we meet in the middle often and the fact that she's still willing to meet in the middle to get to the best like we agree on many things we disagree on a ton but we always meet in the middle and say okay what's best for us and she she said the night we met and i've told that story that i was actually on a date with

a friend of hers the night we met. But I saw Becky and I went, who's that? And she goes, it's her party. It's her house. And I told my date, I'm sorry, but I think I'm supposed to be with her. And we talked and then we agreed early on. First week, we're going to be, we're going to roll together. And so today is my favorite day because June 25th every year is my favorite day.

O.G. Eric, Craig, Cubs, Thank you guys. Thank you for the kind words and the happy anniversary. Appreciate it. But yes, I'm lucky. I'm also fortunate that I have a microphone that I can say to you, the listener, that you don't need to wait until your anniversary to say thank you.

You don't need to wait until your wedding day to be grateful. Today, y'all know I count my days. And today is day 22,890. It's the only 22890 I'm ever going to get. I title my days so that it gives them special meaning, today is titled, grateful. So you get a chance. Say happy anniversary to Rebecca.

She deserves it. She deserves it. That is the title. That Ms. Pearson title, earned. Earned. Earned. Earned. Love you back.

Thank you from all the ticket family and from my heart. Happy anniversary with a word of a comeback more one-on-one.