SmartLess - "Al Michaels"

Episode Date: March 13, 2023

In the words of Al Michaels, “please God, when I open my mouth, let air come out.” Join us for some punchball, stickball, Ringolevio, stoop ball, and motorcycles on ice. It’s the game of life, and it’s called SmartLess. Now, play ball!Please support us by supporting our sponsors.Disclaimer: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Refund issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY), or visit www.1800gambler.net (WV).See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Good morning. Good morning listener. Good morning listener. It's crowded on the 605 and the weather looks balmy. It's bumper to bumper. Well what's it look like up in the copter? We're all going to be here having yourself a great weekend. It's an all new smart list. Jason why do you look like you're skiing? You look like you're skiing clothes. Well because I just dropped the kids off at school. It's cold out. You know we're going to have temperatures below freezing here in Southern California this week. I heard that. That's not below freezing, but it's going to be cold, right? Yeah, below freezing in parts of our great city. Wow. That's what they say. I can't wait for that. The LA Times says, I don't know if you guys read that, you Philistines. You know, first of all,

I argue with Scotty all the time. He's like, I like when it gets super cold here because he's like, I hate it. Where's the sun? It's like the sun's going to happen for eight months and it's going to be 110 degrees. So keep me enjoyed like the cool. No, I agree with you. Nothing worse than sweating on Christmas Day here in Los Angeles. Hey, Jay, did you get, you know, plus you get to accessorize and when it's cold, like the little hat you guys just shamed me on. You didn't shame. You were just wondering, you just looked like you were taking a break from the slopes. You just had a good run. Looks like you had a couple good runs and you came in to warm up. Yeah. Hey, Jay, did you know, is Jason's birthday a while ago as we all know back in January? Did you, and I finally

sent you my present late. You got my present. So, you know, I often complain and I'm always jealous of how much money Will has and then also how much he spends on himself. And particularly in fashion, he's fond of Laura Piano or Piana, whatever it is. Laura Piano, but that's okay. Does anyone know who that is? Well, it's really expensive. And so he sends over two boxes of this. Oh, it was in those boxes. That's right. And then beautiful brown sort of that. And I think, oh, well, this makes sense because he feels bad about flaking on my birthday dinner that you guys went to. Yeah, back on your birthday because I was sick. Claims to be sick for because he still doesn't look or sound sick. And then he flaked again on a golf yesterday morning with daddy's because he still

doesn't look sick or sick. And by the way, it should be noted also, I had a year ago for Christmas, gave you something from Laura Piano. Yeah. So let's just start with the nice part, which is, you know, what was it? Was it sweater? Sweater. Thanks. Yeah. Thanks. Probably returned it. Anyway, so I open up these things and what's in the box, Sean, three tubes of Pringles. Yeah. And one box. And then in the other one, there's just shit from his terrible pantry, which is nothing but Oreos and Fritos. And you know what? And he said to me when he said he was going to send it to you that he goes, and now it's fucking stuck in your house. And now you're going to have to eat. Oh, no, well, it's already out, it's already in the trash. But here's the

problem. I trojan-horst it. I trojan-horst it into the house. This is what you didn't factor in, is that you got a grin out of me, but you got rage and fire from my wife, who, you know, is all about, you know, well, listen, if we got a gift for him, he's got, he's got, better get you a nice gift, you know? And then, and so she saw the box, she's like, oh, this is so good, good for him. You know what? He's good for him. And then she saw this. Just rerouted to my house. You pissed off, you poked the bear. But you know what? She sounds like she needs to lighten up first of all. Well, she's talking, you're talking my language. So, you know, right off the bat,

she needs to lighten up. I did get you a nice gift. I got her real nice gift for her birthday. Well, we're not talking, hang on. Well, back up to me. Where is my nice gift? It's, it's, dude. It was mine. It was mine. It's from both of us. Oh, I'm looking at it. Got it. Oh, thanks. No, it's the gift of gab. I don't need gifts actually. I'm just, I'm just, you expressly said, you expressly said, you got me a beautiful, beautiful spa day. Right. Yeah. And you know, I like to keep my myself well massaged and hydrated. Does it remind you of being on that school bus just cruising along LA city streets and giving each other massage, massage bus. That guy's got to be in jail by now. Right. The guy who ran that

who ran the kitty massage bus. Yeah. I think that they might've taken a look at him. The guy who started the experimental school was the first red flag. Yeah. Hey, by the way, we should be pointing out how excited are you guys about today is the big March day opening. Yes. It is. I think it's called merch day. Is it called merch day officially? It's called merch day. We should call it merch madness. Oh, God. That's so good. Merch madness is great. Come on. Merch madness is happening at, at, at the Wondery shop. Right. What is it? W, W, W. Do we still say www.wondryshop.com slash W, W, W dot. I think nowadays you can just, you can just click the address thing.

You just wondryshop.com slash smartlist. Wondry shop. Wondry shop. Wait, wait. Say it one more time. What is it? Wondry shop.com slash smartlist. So that would be W-O-N-D-E-R-Y-S-H-O-P. Yep. Dot com slash slash smartlist. And that's where you get all like, what do you get? You get t-shirts, phone cases, water bottles. By the way, we have so many. Look at this. We got this. Look at, look at my new, look at the new phone. You can't use it on, we can't use any of this stuff. Imagine walking around with a smartlist phone case. I wear a smartlist t-shirt all the time. You can't do that. Why? Because you're on smartlist. But let me tell you, nobody who's going to see him, he's in the living room and then the TV room. The guys at Chin Chin will say, hey, cheesebag,

get out of here. And he just, he pulls outside of Chin Chin. He doesn't even go in. He honks three times. He has a special honk. And then they, and I raise my chair. I raise my chair so they can see the smartlist logo on my t-shirt. No, license plate friend that says smartlist. I'll put it on. I don't care. I don't care. He puts it on the hood of his car and he put it in backwards so people can see it in the rear views, you know, like an angel. But let me tell you something. I would buy this stuff. I've had nothing to do with this. It's the t-shirts are great. There's this pretty weird that we've got t-shirts and sweat water bottles and stickers and what's going on. You know what are the hats too? Because as a, the hats are very, the hats are great. They're super

cool. But let me tell you something really quick about the blankets. So when we were talking about it, they called it a throw blanket. And I was like, I don't understand a throw blanket. Like it's, a throw blanket is like the size of just one foot. Like it's made one foot warm. So it's like, can we do like full blankets? And we have full sized blankets that are sure for blankets are super. They cover your whole body. You know what I like about that? Those blankets is that they're quite, that they've got a little bit of weight to them. They're not weighted, but they're nice and big. And they're, they're on one side, it's that sort of softy, like, like, softy fleece. And the other side of what is it? What is that on the other side? It's like a, I don't know. It's another

soft something. Yeah. It's a real soft. Anyway, the merch, it's merch madness. It's merch madness. It's www.wonderishshop.com slash smartly. So you'll find some great stuff. Please enjoy. Okay. Shall, shall we? Let's, let's, let's do it guys, because you're gonna want to talk to this fella for, this could be a double session. Tuck in. Okay. Now we've had some pretty fancy folks on here as guests and even a few that are the undisputed best at what they do. Goats. Sean, do you know what that acronym stands for? Yes. It's good all time around fun time. Pretty close. Greatest of all time. Our next guest is the goat of his field. And if you love sports, Sean, I know you do. This is going to be a treat. And if you don't love sports, sit tight because you're going

to love this man anyways. Got a voice you've heard your whole life, a friendly face that's been on your TV, your whole life, and a golf swing you don't need to see your whole life. He has eight Emmy awards. He's in the pro football hall of fame, the television hall of fame, the sports casters hall of fame. He's the only sportscaster to have called play by play for the championship series of all four major professional. Six super bowls, eight world series, two NBA finals, three Stanley cups. He's born in Brooklyn, started in Hawaii, and now joins us here on smart list. Folks, please welcome one of my favorite people, our national treasure, Mr. Will. Oh, my God. No way. Bring him in. No way. Yeah. This man, he just brings a smile to my face.

Same here. Hi, Al. Even my face. You know, Sean, you know, this is on one hand, a tremendous honor. I know it. When I go back and I look at the fact that you guys have done Spielberg. You've done Bono. You've done the president of the United States. You've done Clooney. You've done Bradley Cooper. You've done my buddy Joe Buck. I mean, the truth has to be told, guys. What took so long? So who got sick last night, and who am I coming out of the bullpen for? Couldn't make you deal, Al. We could not make you deal. Yeah. So, listener, so we do play some golf together. Oh, you and Al do? Oh, yeah. I've been threatening to pull him on this show for a while. And finally, our schedules collided because you are a little busy, Al. And let's talk a little

bit about that. How do you, I mean, you must not mind travel that much. Now, I know you're not, you're not, you're not humping it on a steamer. 36 J. Yeah. You're not in the back of the plane often, but still time zones and packing bags and leaving family and all that stuff. How do you do that all these years? You know, early on, I was so intent on, you know, doing, getting to the top of this business that I traveled a ton, didn't really think about the burden of traveling. You know, at a certain point, I think when you're young and you're going to new places, you're excited. And I'm not saying I'm not excited to go to Pittsburgh, but the first or second time I've been to Pittsburgh or was in Pittsburgh, it was fun because I like to get

into what the city's all about and learn about the city and meet some people there. Well, the 80th time is a little bit different. The 80th time is, you know, make sure that you get night turn down service. That's the important thing on the 80th trip. So yeah, this is part of, you know, if this is the worst part of the business, and I've been doing this for, well, 55 years now, starting in minor league baseball in Hawaii back in 1968. And we're going to get into that. This is the worst thing. This is one of the great jobs of all time and believing. I don't want to come back in the next life because if God wants to get even with me in my next life, I'll be working in a sulfur mine in Mongolia on the night shift. Yeah. Well, well, you know, Al, one of the things that's

so striking about you, and it's so great to see you man. And, you know, obviously you've called so many iconic games over the years, maybe none more than the miracle and ice, do you believe in miracles call, which is so famous. And I don't know if you remember last year when we played together with, I gave you shit about it. And I said, as a Canadian, I feel like, you know, a lot of our pros Gretzky at the time, they weren't playing on that team. And you're like, just let us have this. Why do you have to? And you're just basically in my face. You're like, shut up. But one of the things I love, Al, is that you obviously, and because I want to get into how you started doing this, you obviously have a love of sport. And the way that I confirmed

your real love of it was the first time I went to, I used my buddy Louis K's tickets for a Kings game. And I go and I sit with my buddy and who's sitting behind me, but Al and his son. And I'm like, on his off nights, just taking the game. He's taking it in a game. He's at a Kings game. And he's not calling the game. You're there as a fan. I'm like, this is a sports fan. What if you turned around and he was calling the game from that scene? Just in the sun's ear, just whispering. Will and I both know that hockey is fantastic. And I'm sorry we had to take, you know, the gold medal and even though Canada may have had better players at that time, but will, I mean, sooner or later, your ship's going to come in. The Toronto Maple Leafs will, will in our lifetime

win a Stanley Cup. Yes. That's been a, you're in a desert right now, but I'm feeling the oasis, Will, maybe this year. I mean, Anna hands up, you know, in charge. Our buddy, Shani, who we've had on the program, he's trying as hard as he can. Let's hope. But it is, and thank you, Al. I mean, to Leaf Nation, thanks you. Gosh, maybe we get, maybe we need Al to come up and call some of the games in tandem with our great guys who do it. And that will be the magic touch. You know, like, do you believe in miracles for the Leafs would be incredible. But, but now I do want to get back to you. You're just, your fandom is so deep that there are no offnates because you're always watching sports, right? It's your, it's, is that your true love? I mean, I don't want to put words

in. Well, I've always loved sports and my father, look, I grew up in Brooklyn and how many kids can grow up within walking distance of major league baseball. The Brooklyn Dodgers are playing about a 10 minute walk from my apartment. So my father walked me over there when I was a kid. It's the first thing I remember in life. I walked into Evansfield on a Saturday afternoon. The colors just blew me away. I mean, the green grass and, and the Dodger uniforms, which Vince Scully always described as wedding cake white and the signage on the outfield fence and the organist playing and all of this and Jackie Robinson is in the game and Duke Snyder and people like that. So right off the bat, I mean, I could, I can imagine my tongue was out of my

mouth and I just wanted to be there every night. And that was the Genesis. That's where it started. I knew I wanted to do this forever. And you know, you can dream about something as a kid when you're six or seven. And then, you know, I, I was always confident that I'd be able to do it. And so I set my sights on, on doing this, getting to that point and got there. But I will tell you this, though, it's one thing to look at it from a kid's eyes and say, I can do this. And then when it happens, I look back and I go, holy mackerel, are you kidding me? Do you realize naivete was a great thing because you're so naive, you think you can do it. And then I went, oh boy, and I need about 400 breaks along the way. But why, why, what, why was it about,

why wasn't it the dream to play the game? Why was the dream to call the game? Well, it was both actually. So I wound up playing, remember in Brooklyn, there's not a lot of green grass to play. So our games were the street games, punch ball, stick ball, ring, Olivia, stoople, all that stuff. Ring, I didn't have access to real, to real, to real, to real baseball. Ring, Olivia was a game. That's what Will has right now. It's a game where you have to it's a cream for that. I think you put you put people in jail, like in the basement of an apartment building by by bear hunting them, holding them for three seconds, count out cork cork ring, Olivia, one, two, three, they go into jail. And then everybody else has to extricate you from

jail. So one day I extricated like all four guys on my team. I was the big hero. But I turned out to be the bomb. He said, cost us the game in the end. But you should have joined the Navy Seals or the Green Berets, it sounds like. Oh, but of course. So that was my second dream, trust me. So then is it safe to say that Vince Scully was the first voice that really kind of sparked your passion for it? Without a doubt. Yeah. So I listened. Vinny was 21 or 22 when he took over. Yeah, that was right when Vince Scully started. He did. How long did he, what was he doing the Dodger stuff? 67 years. 67 years. And one of the great thrills and honors for me in my career was when they asked me, Vinny was going to do his last season in 2016. And they called me to emcee

at Dodger Stadium before a packed house on opening day, the tribute to Vinny. And all of the old Dodgers, the guys that I've grown up watching play were there. And of course, Vinny came out of the crowd went crazy. And a great thrill, obviously for me was not only to hear Vinny early on, to listen to him as a kid, to hear him all the way through when I first got into do, got to do Major League Baseball. But knowing him, knowing him for so many years, and he was, he was special. He was one of a kind. He was the greatest that ever lived. And nobody will ever exceed that. And when you think about it, how many guys have 67 year careers in anything? And the thing about Vinny too, to the very end of his life, I mean, I used to drive around in

2014, 15, 16, when he's coming down the stretch of his career. And I'd be listening to the game and the game really wouldn't be that interesting. But Vinny would make it 10 times more interesting. And if he was telling a story, and I pulled into the driveway, before I opened up the garage door, I had to sit in the car, letting it idle. And let me hear Vin finish that story. He was phenomenal. Nobody liked him. And it occurs to me, you must have played a ton of golf with him, right? Because you're all up at the same, the same golf course. Was he much of a golf player? I play, I hacked it around with Vinny. When I first joined the club in 93, Vinny was still playing a lot at that time. And one time on number 10, and you guys know, you have to hit it across the

ravine about 120 yards. And so many balls wind up not going over. And, you know, I had a terrible shot went about 40 yards and right down into the gully and finish it. They write songs about that swing. They're usually sad country songs. Right. Right. He was a wonderful man to play golf with, wonderful man to know, wonderful man to have a meal with. And I'm so thrilled and honored to have been a part of, you know, a part of an industry that he really sits at the top of. Yeah, he'll always be my favorite dodger. We'll be right back. SmartLess is brought to you by FanDuel. Hey guys, the midway point of the NBA season is here, and now is the perfect time to download FanDuel America's number one sportsbook,

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you're extracting. But then so you're there and you're doing all this stuff and you have a love for sports and a love for calling sports and you know how do you make that leap? How does a kid from Brooklyn become Al Michaels? What's the first thing that you go, I got to take this step? Yeah, what got you out to Hawaii? You started in Hawaii, right? Calling minor league baseball out there? Before that, I went to Hamilton High School here in Los Angeles, met a girl named Linda George in the 10th grade. Love Linda. Okay, that's, yep, you love Linda, you know Linda. No, we all knew Linda. She's in love with my life. Right. And we, oh, Linda from Hamilton. Linda Hamilton. All right, remember something? Right, we were ties on 10th grade. And then I,

my father loves sports as well. And so when I was ready to go to college, we looked up some schools that, remember, this is in the 60s. Every school right now has a radio and TV program and right, you can major in it. Not in those years. No, there were, there were only a couple of schools that had had that type of program. And we had moved from New York to Los Angeles in 1958, when I was in the 10th grade. So that's what got me here. And so we looked at all of the schools and I liked it out of West. I didn't want to go back East, love the weather. So there were, there were only two schools that had that sort of a program at that time. One was USC, and one was Arizona State. And USC was going to be a commute for me, live at home, go to school,

you know, 10 miles away. No, I wanted to have the, the full experience. So we went down to ASU in Tempe, met with some people. I said, I want to broadcast sports. They say, well, you come down here, we have a campus radio station and we broadcast the games with students. So if you come down, if you come down, maybe, you know, by your third year, we can get you into, into that mix. I go down there and within six days, within six days, guys, I'm on the air, I'm doing Arizona State, Colorado State, because somebody dropped out on a campus radio station. It was known as a carrier current in those days, which meant you could pick up the signal in the women's boiler rooms, perhaps, and maybe a block and a half away. That's as far as it went. But I wound up doing games. And of all

things, I wound up going to school with a national championship baseball team, a guy named Sal Bando, who 10 years later I announced in a, in a World Series when I'm with the Reds and he's with Oakland. Rick Monday comes in, Rick is still on the Dodger broadcast. And when I'm a, when I'm a junior, we have a freshman by the name of Reggie Jackson. So Reggie comes in. That's crazy. We had great football teams, Charlie Taylor, Curly Culper in the Hall of Fame, and I wound up doing football, basketball, baseball. I probably announced 200 baseball games going nowhere on the campus station at Arizona State. And that helped me get my first professional job, which was in Hawaii, because I at least had a tape to give to the general manager, a man named

Jack Quint, to whom I own everything, for giving me the opportunity to come over to Hawaii in 1968, do minor league baseball. And by the time that was all said and done, I was doing everything over there, basketball, baseball, volleyball, you name it, I'm on television twice a day. What is the audience size of minor league Hawaii baseball? I mean, is that more than 100 people? No, no, they were in the Pacific Coast League. So we were playing at teams like Phoenix and Tucson and traveling. And Seattle did not have a major league team at that time. Neither did San Diego, Denver's in that league. So the Pacific Coast League teams would come over and play Hawaii. So our big rival was the Spokane Indians. And Spokane in those years was the Dodger farm club.

They were the president was Peter O'Malley. They were managed by Tommy LaSorta. No, the players included Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell, Bobby Valentine, Bill Buckner. And I'll just give you one quick story from LaSorta. Because LaSorta always took credit for my career. So our big rival is Spokane. So in 1970, we're over there. And because of travel expenses and restrictions, teams would come over not for three days or four days, but for seven days, they spend the whole week there. So I got to know these teams very well. So in the third game of a seven game series between Hawaii and Spokane, LaSorta gets thrown out of the game in the third inning. You know, Tommy, Tommy's all over the place. Now in Hawaii, there's no dugout access to a clubhouse. You walk

480 feet throughout through this out the center field fence. And the clubhouse is 100 feet beyond that. So you can't sneak back into the game like a lot of managers used to do. So LaSorta is gone. He's out in the clubhouse. You can't be seen the next night. He's so angry that he comes out and as he exchanges lineup cards with all people, Bruce Frimming, who would go on to like a 37 year career as a major league umpire, he gets thrown out of the game with the exchange of lineup cards before the game before the game starts. So there he is. He makes that walk again. The crowd is singing to him. He'd last one more game. Now the sixth game, he gets thrown out again at about the sixth. Okay. So he's been thrown out of three games in six nights. He always tells the story

about how he calls Al Campanus, who's the general manager after every game to report Campanus, the GM of the LA Dodgers at that point to tell him how the guys did. Valentine went two for four, Buckner did this, so-and-so pitched six innings, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So LaSorta tells, according to LaSorta tells Campanus in one of those calls, hey, you know, hey, Al, I know you got Vince Gully, Vinny's great. He's going to be there a long time. But there's this kid over here. There's this kid. He's announcing baseball. And this kid is, this kid's, this kid's really good. His name is Michael's. It's Al Michael's. You should keep an eye on this kid. The conversation goes on. They're ready to end the conversation. Campanus says to LaSorta, hey, Tommy, this guy,

Michael, is this kid you're talking about? How do you know he's any good? Tommy said, I've been thrown out of the last four games of sitting down in the clubhouse listening to him. So LaSorta died that on that story. It's a little bit of an embellishment, but a lot of truth to it. I love that he got thrown out with the lineup cards. I don't wonder if that's ever happened again. Unbelievable. Speaking of being thrown out, and you just mentioned Bobby Valentine, one of the all-time great throwouts. Bobby Valentine, Sean, I don't know if you know this. When he was the manager of the Mets, he got thrown out of the game and he came back in in disguise. He wore a fake mustache and glasses. True story. In Major League Baseball, like in the 90s, right out.

For sure. I remember that very well. You know, it's so funny because on that Dodger team, which was so good, this is the team of Garvey and Russell and Buckner and Lopes. And they'd go on to, you know, in championships when they all got called up. I thought, and I think Tommy did, and I think a lot of the Dodger organization people felt, Valentine was the best of the players. But Bobby kept getting hurt. Bobby's whole career was injury prone. So Bobby had, you know, five or six very significant injuries. And so he never quite lived up to what was expected of him as a player. He's a great athlete, though. And then he becomes a great manager. So, Al, so you're there and you're in Hawaii. You're calling all these games. You've had all this experience kind of goes to that idea of

like the 10,000 hours. You're calling, you're talking into a vacuum in Arizona State. There's nobody listening. But you're getting those hours under you. And then you go and you're calling minor league games and you're getting more experience. So then what is the big break moment where you start going on a national stage? What's that first gig? Three years in Hawaii. So it's the end of the 1970s season. We had had a very successful year. We launched the Spokane and the championship series, but we drew over 400,000 people in Hawaii. So we were at, you know, we were putting a lot of people in that stadium every night. And it was a big, big deal in the sporting news that a big story on Hawaii baseball. And the Cincinnati Reds were looking for a new

announcer. I don't know what happened to the guy who was there before, but somebody in Cincinnati, somebody, a man's name was Dick Wagner, who was in charge of trying to find somebody to come in and be the broadcaster. And he had called somebody at NBC who knew about me and said, you should look at this kid. So I get a call from the Reds in November of 70. I mean, it's a weekend when I'm doing five football games. I'm doing four high school games in the University of Hawaii. I'm doing five games in a weekend. But now they put me on a red eye after the fifth game on that Saturday night. They fly me to Cincinnati to be interviewed for the Reds job. Now this is the Reds coming into the 1971 season. They had just been in the World Series. They lost to Baltimore. That's the Brooks

Robinson series where Robinson is fantastic. So all of a sudden I'm in Cincinnati. I'm 26 years old, and I'm going to get the Cincinnati Reds number one job. I'm going to a team with Pete Rose in his prime, Johnny Bench coming into his prime, Tony Perez in his prime, Davey Concepcion, Joe Morgan getting traded over the next year, and Sparky Anderson, Hall of Fame manager. I'm coming to that team. Wow. So it was kind of crazy because you know, it was really weird though. In Cincinnati, it's like November the 16th, and I meet the team or I meet the brass in an office downtown of the Central Trust Tower, and I walk outside and it's like 38 degrees and it's sleeting, and I'm walking back to Stoffers Hotel, which is about three blocks, and Linda's in Hawaii,

and we have our son, our baby, as a year or two old at that time, and I walk by standing on the corner waiting for the light to change. I'm freezing to death, and you know, the colors in Cincinnati at that time of year are two colors. They're brown and gray. That's it. And I'm thinking of Hawaii where it's all, you know, blue and green and beautiful and flowery. And I look into the window of a travel agency, and I can see my apartment at Diamond Head in the poster, and I'm looking now, I look across the street, I look back at this, I'm going, huh, I'm making a leap. Of course, I had, you know, I'm lying in bed that night, they're going to announce the thing the next day. Joe Nuxol is going to be my partner. I can't sleep at all, at all, but I'm thinking to myself

at about five in the morning, you know what, I'll go, I'll get up, I'll do this press conference, I'll get on the plane, they'll never see me again, I'm going back to Hawaii, and I'm not coming back. But of course, you know, it all worked out well, I got on the plane, and then they get off in Hawaii, and I go by one of those racks, you know, seven or eight hours later, I land in Honolulu, and one of the newspaper racks is there, and there's the Honolulu store at Bolton, and there I am on the front page, Islanders losing their voice to Reds, and I'm going, I've got, I gotta go, I can't stop now. Anyway, you can't go now, you can't, no, I could not, that would have been the end of my career. But talk about two opposites, yeah, from Hawaii to

Cincinnati, that was, now speak to Cincinnati. Jason, did you notice something though before you said, did you notice something great that Al just did in that story? He remembered the month, you remembered the day, who does that sound like? That sounds like Mary Lou Henner. Al, I do the same thing, I can remember dates, I can remember the actual day of the month, I do the same thing. He's a one-trick pony, guys, so Al, my next question. Hey, wait a minute, wait, before we get off Mary Lou Henner, because this reminds me, I've never met her, Jimmy Burroughs is a great friend of all of ours, another guy you've had on the podcast. The great, the good, the great, the fantastic, the over-the-moon Jimmy Burroughs,

we all love Jimmy. Been a long time friend of mine, you guys know him well. So his book party, and you guys sent him on to promote his book, fantastic book. And he wanted me, he always wanted me to meet Mary Lou Henner, who was there, but I had to be back in New York for a wedding that weekend, so I couldn't do that. But it reminded me of, you know, Mary, one day I've got to meet Mary Lou, I think she, she's deeper into this thing than me, because she seems to remember like everything she was doing every minute of the day. I'm only good for about three hours each day. Just tell my sister Tracy, Mary Lou Henner, and now Will Arnett, are famous for this kind of recall, recalling days and dates and all that. I can't do it on the same level, obviously,

that Mary Lou can, and I don't even know if I can do it the way Al did. Like Al, Al just said, the date, November 16th, Stofer Hotel, 38 degrees, walking three blocks to the thing. And I know that detail is important. I love the way Al paints the picture, and when he puts those details in, they make it more complete, rather than you two schmoes who go like, yeah, I was there the other day, whatever, and that's why nobody's interested when you talk, because you guys are just these boring and you're so self-involved that you don't paint a picture. If you're a real schmoe, though, you've got an incredible talent, and you haven't figured out how to monetize it, you know? I mean, Al's making money with it, you're just wasting it, you know? That's true,

that's fair, that's fair. Hey, well, I messed up. I looked it up. It was 37 degrees that day. Oh, wow, that's all out the window. The whole thing falls apart. Anyway, so Mary Lou reminded me of Jimmy Burroughs, and I wanted to talk about Jimmy, because I talked to Jimmy yesterday, and I told him I'm coming on the show, and he described you guys as my three sons is what he said. He said, those guys, yeah, meanwhile, you know, Sean, he really is like a, he's like a father to me. Well, I said to him, and Sean was excited about this, but I said, you know, I said, are they in your will? And the phone line went dead. Yeah. There's enough room for us in that will. I always tease them.

By the way, you know what Jimmy was doing yesterday? He was out, he was putting in a new mailbox piece, the old one, there was some such spillover from the residuals and the royalties that they were dropping into the street. All right, now, this is going to be one in a series of questions that you're so tired of answering. I apologize, but I have probably questions I have too. Yeah, but what do you want for dinner? Right? Well, so, you know, how about your favorite sport to call or the hardest sport to call your choice there? I'll bet the hardest is hockey, just because of all the shift changes. Absolutely. See, because in every other sport, somebody has the ball and the other teams on defense. Yeah. And that is the case, obviously,

in baseball. That's the case in football. For the most part, it's the case in basketball. There are takeaways and turnovers. But in hockey, you could have a change of possession six, seven, eight times in a minute. Yeah. So to do hockey on radio to me is like impossible, because your brain can't work around, wait, wait, who has the puck? And then in a shift where, you know, your team may play Carolina once a year or Florida, you don't really know those players. Wait, who has the puck? Where is the puck? So hockey on radio, on radio is by far the toughest. TV's hard, but better. The reason it's harder on radio is because you have to say where the puck is and who's got it all the time. Exactly. With television, you can assume they can see it. Right. And in basketball, it's only 94

feet, hockey is 200 feet. In baseball, there's a pitch and something happens after the pitch and football is a play. They are easy to describe in terms of where they are relative to the field of play. In hockey, neutral zone, just across the blue line, I mean, behind the net, I mean, you're trying to describe who has the puck. The puck is forever going to somebody else's stick. You have so many shots on goal that are blocked by 18 guys. Right. Well, only, you know, only 10 guys, obviously, with two goals. Don't you want to just tell the audience, just turn your TV on? Turn your television on. Now, is it easier for you to keep track of it by actually looking at the ice or you looking at the television like we are? What gives you the best view of tracking

the puck? Well, I've only called, you know, probably 25 hockey games in my life, most of them in the Olympics in 80, 84 and 88 and a couple of NHL games. Including the most famous hockey game. And a couple of Stanley games. Well, yeah, I mean, that should have been the one and done. I mean, believe me, that was, you talk about I have 18 rabbits feet dangling from my pants during that game. That was, that was, that was the one game to call. But with hockey, you pretty much have to call it with your naked eye, where football, I set it up so that the monitor is right in front of me and I can look over the top of the monitor. So I can, I want to see as much as I can with the naked eye. But every time there is a shot change on television and that's what the viewer is

seeing, I want to know, what is he seeing in that shot change? So I've changed, I've trained myself, I've been doing this for so many years that I know how to do it. It comes to me as second nature. Baseball is so vastly different because there's so much dead time that enables you to tell all these great stories. You can get so many stories. Yeah, that's what I want to know about the stories. Coach one. No, no, I have a question, because I have a question about the art of what you do, because I believe it or not, I love watching football. I think it's like a super entertaining fast paced on great shows to watch. It is. And so what's that? Sorry, you said believe it or not. So I just said or not. Sorry, but go ahead. No, I do believe it. No, but the art of what you do

is, I assume this is why there's not a lot of Al Michaels and there's only one, because the way your brain functions to your point, what you just said, which is to fill the space, like in baseball, if there's a lot of space, or even in football, if there's like a long delay and whatever, it's kind of mind blowing that you can endlessly have this information in your head to fill the space for the audience at home. I mean, that's got to be like a skill not a lot of people have. It's a ton. I mean, I liken it really to taking a final exam every week. And in the old days, old days, 20, 30 years ago, whatever, you had maybe 15% of the information that's available to you now. What's happened now with analytics and all the rest, there are too many pieces of information.

So, you know, it's wonderful to start, you know, go that this the average depth of target and all that. Whoa, I think you have to back off. I don't think too many people in an audience of 20 million are sitting there concerned about the average depth of target. I mean, that is deep, deep, deep insight. Has there ever been a time where you couldn't, you didn't fill the space and you're just like, I have nothing left. Like it's so long. Like it's five minutes. I have nothing else. I have nothing else. I'm out. Right now. Yeah. But I'm interested that you said that because I was watching the game the other day, one of the playoff games and NFL playoff games. And, you know, I watch a lot of hockey and I watch a lot of European. I watch a lot of soccer. And what the,

one of the differences I know, and I was thinking like, is this because of the Madden football games or, you know, the video games, et cetera, the way that, not just in the game, but in the breakdown in between at halftime when they go back to the studio for all the networks and all the different stuff, the way they break down, they talk about the nickel defense or what these guys are doing. And they break it down in this way that I'm like, at a certain point, I'm like, hey, man, I just want to watch the game. Why are you telling me about the, the package and the guys coming into the, yeah, I don't care. Who gives a shit? I mean, it's good. It's cool. But I don't need to know. That's why I didn't become a football coach because I didn't want to have to

listen to that. Well, you're, you know, you're, you're preaching to the choir. I mean, to me, see, I believe in the less is more theory, especially on television. You're seeing it. You don't have to scream the game at people. You don't have to yell the game at people. You don't have to holler. You don't have to do it. To me, I always try to, if I can speak in captions and ellipses, you don't need full sentences to describe what people are seeing. You don't do a radio, a completely different animal. You have to describe everything because nobody can see it. On television, you can see it. And so I've always been of that mindset to try to call a game that way. Something fantastic happens. Say what you have to say with an economy of words

and get out of there. I mean, in Lake Placid, you know, I look into the greatest moment in American sports history. So the game ends and I had six words. Do you believe in miracles? Yes. And I'm the hell out of there for the next minute because the pictures were so good. What you do is you, you just, you, it's like throwing junk at the, at the wall to try to overwhelm or, or, or to be even in concert with those pictures. You can't let it play, let people exalt, let people enjoy what they're seeing. I think that that's why I'm first of all, I mean, obviously for years on, on Sunday night, when you started doing Sunday night football years ago, it was just the perfect way to end the week because you, you called it, it was the classiest game of the week always without

calling it. And now you're on Thursday nights. It's the same deal. You finally make Thursday night at night. I really like this site. Like you said, this economy of words and you don't, and you, when an incredible play happens, you're not like freaking out. You're like, what an unbelievable catch. And then that's it. Cause it's an unbelievable catch. Now, which, which, so there's two months that are the great, great sport months every year, right? Isn't it October? And then I want to say February, maybe where? Well, January, February, it's a, it's a mix because the Super Bowl is only normally in February, but all the games that lead up in January. But that, but there's also other sports that are either starting or ending in both of those two months there, that October and,

and February, I think, right? Right. Basketball and hockey started in October. Right. Baseball finishes. Football is in, you know, the fourth or fifth or sixth week. Right. And college football is going full blast. Right. I know the baseball months because of the musical damn Yankees, April, May, June, July, August, September. Right. Six months. We'll be right back. SmartLess is brought to you by BetterHelp. Getting to know yourself can be a lifelong process, especially because we're always growing and changing. For me, I remember this one time I was in my twenties and I had this job with this really horrible boss. And I knew he kept pushing me around and pushing me around, kind of abusing me. And I knew

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Right. Because I can go down to the 405. Or rams. You said raiders, rams. Well, the raiders at the rams. That's what I meant to say. Raiders at rams. There goes my memory already at shot. You see, it's the off-season. Off-season. You're going to Vegas soon. Yeah. Right. I'm thinking about, of course I am. Are the A's going to move to Vegas? They probably should. That has been going on for 30 years. Oh, really? 30 years. It's a horrible ballpark. It's the worst ever. Yeah. The worst ever. The old one. The oldest. And they've been talking about this for years. Yeah. And, you know, it's kind of funny how the Giants, and remember, I did, I've left the Reds to do the Giants in 74, 5, and 6. And that ballpark was the worst ever. Candlestick Park. Just a complete garbage

dump. And the Giants threatened twice to move out. Will might remember to Toronto. They were going to go to Toronto in 1976. Oh, my God. Labasse was going to buy the team the brewery before the Blue Jays got the expansion franchise. Wow. I did not know that. There's something Will didn't know. So they almost did. They were saved by a guy named Bob Lurie. And then in 93, St. Petersburg came in before the Tampa Bay Rays got their team. And they almost bought the team. And it was saved by a guy named Peter McGowan from Safeway Stores. Wow. Then they went ahead and they built this stadium in downtown San Francisco, which is beautiful. Fantastic. You have a view of the Bay Bridge. It's, it changed everything. They went from the worst stadium

where you couldn't draw flies to the best stadium where this sold out every night. This was Pac-Bell and now Levi's, right? Well, whatever it is, it's a, they changed the, they changed, I can't, I can't keep track of the right. So with that, is that your, do you think that's the best stadium currently right now? It's all a matter of, you know, choice and you can argue it. But yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's in the converse. It's in the conversation is a place you love to watch a baseball game. Right. And great. Let's put it that way. Those garlic fries, right? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Whatever it is, a quiche. Now, what, what the newest one is what SoFi, right? And I feel like there's another one being built too. Oh, anyone? What do you think

of the, like the Sofis in these stadiums, these incredible sort of like shopping malls that host sporting events? I think Sofi is terrific. I think they did a fantastic job there. And of course, you know, living in the city as we do, we had old and decrepit facilities. The Coliseum has been around 100 years. The Rose Bowl has been around around for more than 100 years. Dodger Stadium has held up a Dodger Stadium is almost 60 years old. Third oldest. We needed a, we needed a facility and, and Stan Crocky built it. And, and this is how all of these stadiums are now being built these days, because they try to take all of the land around it and then build up, you know, either retail or housing or other, you know, or other entertainment venues. I mean, you go down

to Anglewood right now, it's kind of crazy. You got Sofi and they can do not only concerts in Sofi, they have a smaller addition to that building. We can do them. The form still exists across the parking lot. Steve Bomber is building a place for the Clippers across Century Boulevard. They're going to have concerts. So I mean, that's going to become like, right, you know, the entertainment, I don't want to say the entertainment capital of the world, but boy, oh boy, there's going to be something going on there every night. Looking forward to the traffic. Now, what happens when you're spoken like a true Angelino? Now, what happens when you are, when you're calling a game for a team that you love? Who's,

who's, who's your, who's your favorite sports team? I mean, you, you, is it, is it the Reds? Because you started back with them? No. No, I have an affinity with, remember the Dodgers were my team as a kid. Right. And we're until I got the, the Reds job. I had the Reds for three years. I had the Giants for three years. You know, I'm, I'm really kind of an impassive observer. Maybe in my heart of hearts, I want to see one win over the other, but I'm really not a fan fan, except as Will knows, and since they have nothing to do with it, the Kings. When I go to a hockey game, I am all in on the Kings. And when the Kings won the cup in 12 and 14, and Will, it's an amazing thing when your team gets to lift the cup. Just in case you're wondering, I know.

I was, by the way, I was there when the Kings won. You know, I'm such a fan in general. So I was there. I wanted to burn it into my memory so that I can get ready for what was to come. But you don't have to, but you don't have to give extra thought to hiding your bias when you're calling a game, right? You're, you're, you're too much of a pro for that. You must have. You can't. Yeah. I mean, I'm really, the only thing I'm rooting for when I go out to do a game is drama. Right. Yeah. I want, I want drama. I want a game to go to the end of the game. I want, I want there to be in a lot of excitement. I want there to be. And I love how unapologetic you are too, when there isn't drama, because, because you know,

the audience knows that there's no drama going on right now. And you're not insulting their intelligence by pressing and forcing some drama in that you just like, well, this game sucks. And it makes it worth watching. Yeah. No, no, no, no, you're selling a bad bill of goods if you're trying to do that. Fans, no, they know when the game is good. They know when the game is great. They know when the game is average. They know when the game is terrible. And I know, you know, I got, there was a lot of talk about the way I did the Denver Indianapolis game, which was a very bad football game in week four last year. Terrible. Terrible. I mean, every part of the game was awful. Tons of penalties, no scoring. And, you know, I just,

I couldn't help myself at the end of the game when Fred Godelli, our producer, punched up a shot of the crowd is leaving before overtime. And, and then there was a shot, there was a shot from outside of the stadium in Denver and you saw another thousand people streaming into the parking lot. And, uh, my partner Kirk Herb Street, who had only worked with a few weeks, you know, and Kirk was still learning my sense of humor, said, I can't believe, you know, they're leaving. It's overtime. I said, they'd seen enough. Sometimes you just got to beat the traffic. I mean, which I think, which I think, I think reflected the view of the fans at that point. What are you gonna say? Exactly. That's why we love you. Al, you've called games with so many of the great, you've had so

many great co-conspirators with you in the booth over the years. I mean, the greatest. And I don't want to ask you to pick favorites, but if you, if you have any highlight, highlight guys or moments over the years that just, you know, I don't know. I mean, you've had the greatest. I don't know, you know, yeah. Well, you've had them all or they've, they've all learned something from you. Um, you know, I mean, who's, who's had more, more partners broadcasting than you? Probably no one. Well, I probably, I probably had over a hundred beats. I've done things like motorcycles on ice and all that other stuff that, you know, are done with different people. But yeah, but I never got to do a game with Vince Scully, but I, you know, heard Vinny thousands of times.

I loved Kurt Gowdy, who was back in the 70s. And I got to do the World Series with Kurt on NBCBs when the Reds won the pennant. And I'm there in those years, the local team's number one announcer, which I was, got to work with Kurt on the World Series. So here I am, a kid, and I'm doing the World Series with Kurt Gowdy. And we're coming on the air, uh, you know, on, in October of 1972, Saturday afternoon, it's, it's the Reds and the A's in the World Series. And guys, when the camera came on and I'm sitting with Kurt, and it's a one shot of Kurt, and they got to pan out and, uh, uh, and bring me in. And all I could think in my brain was, please God, please God, when I opened my mouth, let air come out. That's how nervous,

that's how nervous I was. But sure enough, and then once he introduced me and away we went, and then there's like, wow, this is the greatest thing of all time. God, you can take me now, but at least wait until a week from Wednesday, Sunday, which, you know, oh man, that was out of all of those people that, that you've, you've announced with their called games with, is there one moment that stands out with us? Is either like the funniest, like mishap, or just the funniest person that you've called a game with? Well, yeah, I mean, I just, I just wanted to go to a couple of partners that want to mention that. And then I got the, that, that funny story for you. But Ken Dryden, who of course was an iconic hockey figure, the great Ken, Ken and I did

three Olympics together. He was with the, the miracle on ice was great. I love, love, love. By the way, Al, Al, do you want to know one thing quickly about Ken Dryden? Here's a stat. Went to Cornell, uh, was drafted by the, by the Canadians, by the Habs, but so he joined the Habs in the spring after Cornell's hockey season, goes to the playoffs, wins the Stanley Cup, and wins the consmith MVP of this playoffs before he's played a regular season game, and then wins the Calder next year for rookie of the year. The resident Montreal during that period. I saw Ken Dryden with my own eyes as a rookie at the forum. Yes, I did. So there he was. Eight years later, we'd be together. I did baseball with Jim Palmer and Tim McCarver. Loved

it. I had football with Frank Gifford and Dan Deardor for years. Then I had football with, with John Madden for seven years. I had Chris Collins for 30 years. I mean, I have had some fantastic partners, but, but Sean has the question about funny, Bob Uker. Bob Uker may have been the second funniest man of all time, topped only by Don Rickles. And we can totally, and Don was a great friend and loved that. Never did a game with Don, but we loved him. Mr. Belvedere. Anyway, so Bob, Bob Uker. I did an episode of Belvedere, by the way, with him. Here we go. Oh my God, he was fantastic. So Uker and I are doing a game in, in Houston with Howard Cosell, another one, I forgot to mention, the one and only. And we are, we're trying to, you know, talk Howard out

of what Howard was, was talking about, because Howard always thought baseball was such a simple game. They make it so complicated, but Howard really never understood the game. And Howard, in this game, is calling for a butt in a situation where nobody in the world, the manager, if he called for a bun in that situation, would get fired. Faces loaded, no outs. And whatever it was, it was just a ridiculous situation. And Uker, Uker and I are trying to, you know, kind of ease, ease, ease it down a little bit from where Howard's going, you know, and Uke says, well, Howard, you know, I understand what you're saying. He really didn't. But, you know, you got this thing and that thing and he's in the bullpen and blah, blah, blah. He reads, he writes about eight examples.

So Howard, you can picture Howard. Howard says, he's going to play with Uker now. He goes, okay, Uke, I get your point. You don't have to be so truculent. You do know what truculent means, don't you? And without hesitation, Uker says, Howard, of course, if you had a truck and I borrowed it, it would be a truculent, right? That was Bob Uker. And then the other one was, remember, baseballs are horse hides, right? Or there used to be none of the cow hides with their horse hides in those years. And we're talking about Charlie Finley wanted to have the alert orange baseball. Fans could see it easier, much like the tennis ball. And this became, you know, a topic of conversation. So one night, Uker and I are doing a game and it's an eight run game or

it's, you know, it's over. And we start to fill time talking about that. And Uker says, well, you know, at the end of the day, that could never be done. And I said, well, why not? He said, you couldn't find enough diseased horses. So I mean, this was, this was Bob. This was Uke. Are you talking to anybody specific in your mind when you're calling a game? Or are you just, or are you kind of having a conversation with your, with your, with your color announcer? You know, do you, or do you think that you're talking to all of America? Like, is there a perspective that, that, that you're in when you're, when you're, when you're talking? You know, that is a great question, which I've thought about a lot. And I still

don't have the exact answer to it because there are times when you don't, it's not like you have a megaphone and you're talking to a hundred million people. You really have to think more in line of I'm talking to one person. And I've tried to think that way because I've done 11 Super Bowls and I know you have an audience over a hundred million people watching and you can choke to death when you come on the earth thinking about, I'm talking to a hundred million people. But I try to think to myself, I'm talking to one. And I'm also saying to myself, you play mind tricks here, you have 330 million people who live in the United States of America, a hundred million are watching, 230 million don't give a damn. Right. Yeah, half full or half empty. Mine games. Now,

do you get to keep all those handsome clothes you get to wear? I mean, every time they put the trim on you guys in the, you look like Will Arnett up there with the Bruno Cuccinelli and the fucking Laura Piana. I mean, you guys are wearing like $3,000 outfits every day. You don't get to take it home. No, because I buy my own clothes because the clothes they gave us for the last couple of years have been not, you know, look like Army Navy fire sale surplus. So I'm not going that way. So you're packing a nice garment bag every game. I'm paying. What can I tell you, man? You know, that's it. I go out and I buy a couple of, you know, sport coats and away I go. Al, speaking of sport coats, the one thing I want, you can't make this promise to me,

but I'd love to come over one day and just you keep all the blazers with the various insignias from all the networks and stuff in the wide world to sports over the years. Well, the yellow, Monday night football one. Oh, I love those. No, I had one, I had one yellow one. We tried to find it. We were going to go to a, you know, a Halloween party or something. And I couldn't fish it out of the, out of the closet. Imagine that you're at a Halloween party and Al Michael shows up on Monday there. We looked like a bunch of canaries. Best. Who's got the best dog or meal? Yeah. The best hot dog. Yeah. The best hot dog. Dodger Stadium sells the most. People will be surprised to hear. Frankly, to be honest with you, the old, the old dodger dogs

were fantastic. Thank you. You're okay right now. Thank you. Oh, as, as Vinny would, as Vinny would say, farmer John, farmer John, old beef wieners, Eastern most in quality, Western most in flavor. I make a good hot dog. I cut it up and put it in a mac and cheese. It's good. Yeah. Do you really? Yeah. Sometimes. What about us? You know, to me, there's nothing better than a big, juicy steak. Nothing. Yeah. Well, what's stadium service? You know, it's, it's well known. I don't, I don't eat vegetables. I just eat, you know, I eat meat. I eat meat. I eat chicken. I eat fish. You don't eat any vegetables. Some starches. Zero. What's the matter with you? Zero. I'm, I'm notorious for that. I've heard that about you. Yeah. No. You and Sean are going to get along

marvellous. Why don't you eat vegetables? I hate them. I don't like to look at them. I don't like to smell them. Hang on. A gun to your head. You have to have one vegetable. Which one would it be if you had to have one? A steak. A steak. Wait, wait, wait. Al, I bet you, I bet you I'm right at the, Al, would you eat, would you eat a wedge salad like at the Palm? Would you have the wedge? Oh hell no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Your body's got to be so clean. Thank you. You could, you could probably sneak something into the middle of pasta maybe. You're right. Some tomato sauce. Maybe. You would, you would, but that's a fruit. Well, I like tomatoes. I like tomatoes are fruit and, and I'll eat potatoes. That's a starch,

but everything else. Now, the only time I came close is Michelle DeFoyer, our sideline reporter for years. We're in Baltimore one night. We had a couple of nights off. We had a long day and it's about, you know, four or five martinis and she sneaks me some French fries, which turned out to be Brussels sprouts that were so deep fried, they might as well have been. So I actually put that down into my body and, you know, that's the closest I've ever come in. Trojan horse. The Trojan horse. By the way, that's the second Trojan horse I've heard during the podcast. It's the Trojan horse episode. I'm here for, I'm here for quality control. You know that. Well, Jason, Jason, Jason is, and his wife are, they're, they're like living up in this castle

and they, and they've eliminated all food and all they do is think about is eating nuts and cardboard and such. And so I said, Jason, you heard the story. I sent him all this junk food because I know how much he loves. He'll come into my house every once in a while. He'll walk in and he'll go straight to the pantry and he starts going, who bought this? As he's eating it. I just shoveled as much junk as I can get in. And I'm like, I got two, I got three boys here who live here, four actually. So anyway, um, Al, boy, we can just talk to you forever. It's like hanging out with it. Well, it is hanging out with an old buddy. We really appreciate your time. Pick this up. I'm gonna go afterwards. It's really cool to meet you, Al. Al, you're the best.

Thank you for doing this. Yeah, you are the best. You're legend. I mean, Sean, I even got you into this thing. I was, I was, I was worried. I was concerned. I don't know how much you liked sports. Sean's become a huge football fan. You should know. Yeah. I'm a big football fan. He and Scotty are watching football every weekend. Yeah. But, but I, I, it's an honor to meet you. I mean, there's no one bigger in the, in your field. Let me get your question on this. And if it's too controversial, we can cut it. You can tell us, but it's talking about the Reds and we've got all this gambling now that has become legalized, right? In fact, they're even making you guys give plugs to,

you know, the draft kings and all this other stuff on, on area. You're telling these guys to go ahead and gamble. Now that gambling is kind of a partner of professional sports, do you see any path to Pete Rose finally being led into the hall of fame with a little bit of a sort of a, well, I guess the, the past gambling is not that big of a deal anymore. Where, where do you stand on that? Does he have your vote? It's such an interesting question. I mean, now that you say that, I look at it this way. Then I saw Pete for three years, every at bat have known him for years, but he did. I mean, he broke a record that couldn't have been broken. In my mind, he's in my

hall of fame. Yeah. Let's put it that way. I mean, he's one of the greatest players of all time. So I know there is a real hall of fame and then there's the hall of fame of your mind. And I don't know if he ever gets to the one in Cooper's town. I, you know, it's, people say it's tragic. It's not tragic. It's sad. It's just a sad situation. Yeah. And will Pete ever get in, you know, I don't, I don't know, but I'm afraid that if he does, it's going to be posthumously to put them in. These things will change. The more raised will be different. They've started to become different right now. But you know, to me, if I'm as a fan, who's in your hall of fame, he's in mine for sure. Yeah. Just be based on what you did when you were there, when you were playing.

Did you, did you have that record? Yeah, you did. Did you do the great, you know, incredible thing? Yeah, you did. Okay, great. And that's what he should be on. And that's why other players are not because of stuff that they did while they were playing that affected their play. And we don't want to get into that. But there's also like, we don't want to get into this either. There's a lot worse crimes that we can all think of that would, you know, justify that. He's talking about murder, Sean. Fuck you. Here he goes with murder again. Yeah. It's such a bad rap. God, he just loves getting into murder. Al, big, huge thank you. Thank you, Al. And I mean, we could do a two-parter on this.

I know we could. We're going to have you back at some point, Al. You're the greatest. The greatest of all time. Al Michaels. G-O-A-T. We're back on Thursday. I'll see you guys there. Okay. On to Bel Air now, right? Yes, sir. Let's do it. I love it, guys. I love it. And by the way, I'm going to, I'm spending the rest of the day, I'm going over and rifling Jimmy Burroughs' mailbox. Yeah. Get us some. Spare us some. Yeah. All right. Thanks, Al. Have a great day. Have a good day, guys. Bye. Bye-bye. That was really interesting. I mean, the greatest. I mean, are you as calm, settled, and comforted by his voice as I am? Yeah. I was going to say, sitting here, just listening to him tell a story, you're like, you just sort of think,

come on, just keep talking, Al. I just want to hear you talk. But like, I touched on it before. It's like he's a savant. Like it's crazy. So then he goes, he goes like, you know, June 1994, he's making a date and I was thinking, and he goes, yeah, and I didn't want to embarrass because he was like, June 94, I was in LA because that was the same month that OJ went on that crazy ride in this Bronco. Oh my God. And I was here staying at my friend Rob's place and that was also the Knicks were in the playoffs and the Rangers won after 40-year drought in June 94, the Stanley Cup. That's all that shit came into my head. I think it was 95. Well, there's a pill for that guy. I'm just elevate your feet. Lay back flat. It's like I'm doing, it's like I'm

living in Bradley's movie. What was the movie? Limitless. Limitless, but I don't have to take the pill. You know what I mean? Right. No, I know. You're already broken. So wait. So, but, but I can't believe how long Al Michaels has been doing it and still is doing it and like. At the top of it. At the top of it. Yes. For how many decades? That's crazy. And not sick of it. Like he's like, yeah, let's go. Let's go. Like every week. How many shows do you think he does a week? Uh, shows. Like, well, I mean, well, he's got the matinee, right, Sean? He does. He does. Well, now he does in football and his regular skating. Now he's moved over. He does 17. Does he, or do they do 18 on, on Amazon? I think they do one a week, don't they? Anyway. Yeah. But I think

that the last week or two, they know. Anyway, he could do, he could do three a day. I mean, he's, yeah, nothing slowing him down. We played, we played this golf tourney last week, short for tournament and we, he and I, yeah, yeah. And, um, I got to play with Al and, uh, our buddy, uh, Skip Bronson, who's getting another mention on the podcast. This guy, Jason, and, and Coke Rack is a great guy and it hits the ball a million miles. But Al is the guy that everybody wants to see. And he were out there walking the course and everybody, and, and you just realize everybody, man, woman, child, grandpa, everybody, everybody wants to talk to Al Michaels cause he's been in their homes their whole life. He's been your tour guide for some

of your favorite moments. He does. And Jason, you enjoy the tour guide for stuff. You said that. You said, when you hear his voice, it's like, yeah, it's like warm and cozy and it's like, you're being a kid. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's great. Yeah. You know, I think, I think, like you said, you can hear him do anything. He's such a icon. Here comes. It's just that anything. He's back into one right now. Yeah. Go ahead. Well, I got one. I wish somebody would play him once and like, and like some like movie. Yeah. And what would, you know, those movies that are like, you know, when they play somebody famous, they're called like, what are they called? Autobiography films kind of. You just hijacked my vibe for that.

Wait, no, no, no. What was it? No, no, no. Let's hear yours. Let's hear yours. I just think you would, you'd want, you'd listen to anything that was narrated. Bye. Pretty decent. Pretty decent. I think there's a way we can combine those. Oh, nice. Combine. Maybe there's a way to combine those. There's a way to combine. See, again, I go up and I put, I put my body in a vice. Why do I have to go up high? Because that's a people, that's how you say it. You accused us of doing it. Now you're doing it because it's natural. It's natural. It's just what people do. SmartLess is 100% organic and artisanly handcrafted by Bennett Barbaco, Michael Grant Terry,

and Rob Armjurf. SmartLess. Our next episode will be out in a week, wherever you listen to podcasts, or you can listen to it right now, early on Amazon Music, or early and add free by subscribing to Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app.