The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 169 - Disco Demolition Night - (Live in Chicago)

Episode Date: May 2, 2016

Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds are joined by Chicago comedian Dave Helem to discuss disco demolition night.  @davehelem  SOURCES TOUR DATES REDBUBBLE MERCH

When you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. That in-law sweet guest house where your parents stay only part-time Airbnb it and make some money the rest of the year whether you could use a little extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.ca slash host big like Russell Crowe gladiator right now. Work the people up. It's actually Gareth. Is it? Yeah and even that is

getting old. At this point. But you never talking me never told me that. I've been very clear. I'm on record. Hi Chicago your city's hot. Good night guys. Good night everybody. Thanks for coming. This is a good show. Oh thank you. Should we bring out our guests? Say the thing and then do it. Okay. Now it's gonna be weird. I can't remember how it goes. Alright bring out the fucking guest. Look this is an American History podcast each week. I read a story from American history to my friend. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. That's it. A definite lack of excitement from you guys. Should have seen New York. So your comment coming out. I wanted to find a guy who was a local Chicago guy who I

thought was really funny. So I looked I watched a lot of YouTubeing. Whatever you guys call it. Looking at comics and this guy really made me laugh. So he is a local comedian. Well he's gonna leave soon. But you had your chance. You had your shot. You fucked it up. This is my way of saying you fucked it up. Sorry. You're Catherine Heigl. You've done fucked up. Waited too long and I was looking at you the whole time. Ladies and gentlemen David Hallam. What's going on? Yeah there's like the pockets of excitement. Don't expect a bunch so far as I felt. And two people are like oh good. Everyone's like this is like a cult following. Are we answering? Are we answering? What are we doing? I don't know how to be a good cult because they were very unenthusiastic for a

moment and most cults are ready to murder for you. Which we'll be getting to later. You guys should be ready to kill yourselves for us. Is that right? I think you definitely overstepped for sure. Meet you out in the desert. We'll get a bunker of some sort. Alright no way. Well I'll take a drink and we'll go to the spaceship. Actually I've come around. I've come around to the plan. Hey David. What's up Dave? February 9th, 1914. Now they're here. They love this shit. Bill Vick. She's already into it. I know. Best podcast I've ever heard. Is it Vick? Why does he have two E's in his fucking name? What kind of asshole spells his name V-E-E-C-K and it's called VEC? What? Well he's fucked up. He's a fucking asshole.

Who would do that? Alright, alright. V-E-E-C-K. Look. I was like, I read that one. I'm like there's no way that's anything but Vick. Alright. And then this guy's a total douche but I'm not doing this one. No, no, no. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Alright, we're gonna have some talks. I don't know how to read it. Alright, Bill Vick. He was already an asshole. His father William Vick, senior, was a sports writer. I think it's Vick actually. He was a sports writer who wrote a bunch of columns about how he would have run the Chicago Cubs better than the team's owner. The Cubs owner then took him up on it and gave him the job of president of the Chicago Cubs. Oh my god. This was a different time.

Alright, do it then. Yeah, you wanna fucking run it? Run the goddamn baseball team. Actually, wait. I might have misspoke. Well his dad ran the team. His dad's now the manager of the Cubs. Yeah. You know, he's the president. The president, sorry. So he hires the manager. Did they have CEOs back then? Like, was that a thing back in the 1940s?

Yeah, they must have. I would think so. I don't know. I never heard of a CEO like before. Yeah, that's true. When did CEOs start? 1983 or something. I don't know. Some guy was like, I'm the chief executive officer. People were like, what? What the fuck is happening? I don't know. What's this guy?

While his dad ran the team, young Bill worked as a popcorn vendor at the stadium. He continued to work for the Cubs, doing many jobs like groundskeeper and ticket salesman, learning all about the club, and eventually became the club treasurer. In 1937, he came up with the idea to grow Ivy on the outfield wall. Wow, that didn't stick. And that... Foolhardy. And that is the end of the podcast. So many twists and turns.

It was a shorty. In 1941, Vec became an owner. He partnered with former Cubs star Charlie Grimm and bought the AAA Milwaukee Brewers. Yeah. Woo! No one cares about the Brewers. I know. Bernie does. He'd feel the burn, and then he drops into a liter of beer.

There, Bill put his unique style of getting fans to games to work. He was the ultimate promotion man. He gave away prizes almost every night, and often it was a live animal. Jesus. That is... That's a real commitment gift. I don't want to raise a pig, sir. You did it!

He shouldn't have had seat number 14 in World B. You won a water buffalo. Aren't you excited and bring it home to your family? Play with it? No. It's going to change your life. You won't be able to remember life before you had a water buffalo domesticated in your home. No, you have to take it.

That is no. There's no negotiating. He goes with you. You sat at 44G. No. Now I'm dead. He gave away live lobsters. Oh, okay.

I mean, I'm hoping... That sounds about right. I'm hoping they were in, like, a water. Pigeons? What? That's such a weird leap. Lobsters, you're like, oh, okay, people like to eat those. What, a pigeon?

He's like, no! It's yours. Chickens? That's better than a pigeon. No, it's more realistic. I'm not saying pigeons aren't real. Yeah. I'm sorry.

Sorry. I mean, it's more realistic gift to get as far as what you can use. You can't really use a pigeon. Because they're not real, right? No, they're real. What about Tyson? I said, my Tyson had pigeons for pets. Oh, he did?

Yeah, he did that show. Pigeons are useful. I don't know how to get there yet, that's what I'm trying to tell you. What if we figure it out? Well, I think pigeons were more useful before phones. Oh, yeah. I feel like they've gotten less useful over time. They were nature's drone for a while.

He also gave away guinea pigs? What does this guy do? Did he just, like, hit an animal train and was just like, shit! Shit, how am I going to clean this mess up? Go away! And a sway-backed horse? A what horse? Some fucking guy went to a game and walked out with a horse.

What does a sway-backed mean? Sway-backed. What? Sway-backed? Oh, it's old? That just means an old horse? Oh, it's like a broken horse? Like, if you sit on it, it's just going to, like, stab in half.

Yeah, I think that's a big trick, too. That, like, cartoony, like, bend in its back. He's like, kill me! What a great gift. Hey, here's an almost dead big thing. What, you feed it for a while? Yeah. Oh, and no riding it.

No benefit. No. I mean, you can ride the lobster if you want to ride something. Yeah. Trust me. Or the pigeon, but again, we don't believe in those. Those aren't even real. Fake fucking bird.

Be a chicken. Most of the promotions were not announced in advance. He wanted the fans to come to games for the surprise. Clearly, yeah. It's almost like terrorism. That is spin, too. That's not like he was like, it'll be more surprising. He was like, people won't take it.

The World War was on, and so he scheduled morning games for overnight workers at war plants and served a breakfast of cornflakes to everyone. Oh. That's nice. That's nice, man. Such a weird era. How's everyone liking their cornflakes?

You guys liking them? All right, let's play ball. All right, let's play baseball. It's Tuesday. You know what I mean? He held weddings at home plate. The team was very successful. They won three pennants in his first four years.

Then he sold the team for a $275,000 profit. That's a nice job. Bill then went to fight in the war. He was assigned to an artillery unit. Did not go well. On a Pacific Island, a recoiling artillery piece crushed his leg and his foot was amputated.

He gave it away to a fan. He was like, take it. He asked the game's prize today. Yeah. It's all yours. That's the mold. Just cut. You keep fighting fresh flesh.

Keep trying. Next, Bill put together a group to buy the struggling Cleveland Indians. He put up $268,000 for a 30% share of the club. Now he was in the major leagues. He wanted to bring his fun promotion stunts with him, but the other major league owners did not care for that sort of thing and were very against it.

That's just... Oh, boy. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, boy. It's going to get weird. I got that feeling. When Bill proposed a baseball cap giveaway,

the Yankees general manager vetoed it saying, do you think I want every kid in New York walking around in a Yankee cap? Wow. Yes! It's amazing that there was a time when that was like a valid point. It'll be ridiculous.

They'll think that everyone's on the team. But Bill wasn't deterred. He continued with the promotions he'd been doing with his previous team. He moved the club to a bigger stadium, removed the door to his office, and listed his home phone number in the phone book. Oh, boy.

Oh, boy. Just go ahead and give me a call and tell me what you think of the team. What's going on with Jackson in second? Please stop calling. I'm not going to answer that question again. It's 3 a.m., sir. Yeah, give me a fucking answer.

His leg continued to get worse, and he had to have it amputated above the knee. Oh, so it just moved up over life, right? Yeah. So it's like, it's creeping up the... I don't know how that happens. I mean... I think that's bad doctoring.

He's not cutting enough off. The idea is you're staving it off by losing it. He's like, wow, it was really high turns out. Gonna need to lose that dick, okay? It's high. We don't know when it stops. Take that head, too, maybe. By the way, this is a different kind of operation.

You can't amputate it. Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor. Yeah, yeah, but excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. Yes, yes. Oh, God, amputating. Oh, my God, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me.

No teeth. He threw a party to celebrate his leg being amputated. Wow. What? I wonder what was on the flyer for that shit. Yeah, yeah. Come on down. We're getting ready in half for my fucking leg.

Can I have a party? A cake shaped like a leg. Right? Yeah, he ate the leg cake. The lamp from like a Christmas story. It was like his real leg, though. He started on it off. Don't sniff it.

Oh, shit. Bill would live with a series of wooden legs. Like roommates? Like hard legs, like guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was walking. What's up, guys? So he would get wooden legs every once in a while.

And being a smoker, he would cut holes in them to use as an ashtray. No. As disgusting as that is, you can't fight a guy who's ashing into his own leg. Oh, that guy's amazing. That's a good man. That's super gassed, though. You guys are like, you want a piece of me? Hold on.

Actually, never mind. Never mind. Put that out. In 1946, Bill signed the American League's first black player, Larry Doby. Doby said Bill got rid of the Cleveland players who refused to shake his hand. Max Patkin was known as the Clown Prince of Baseball. The Clown Prince of Baseball? Yeah.

You wouldn't remember him if you saw his face. He was like, you know, those guys, like a super rubbery face, can like stretch it all around and make goofy faces. Just good, fun stuff. What? What? You know, a guy who's got like a super elastic kind of, he's like, ooh, would they do all that shit?

So he's one of those guys, but he puts on a baseball uniform and he's like, entertainment at the baseball games. Why did they phrase it like that? The Clown Prince of Baseball? Yeah. Because that was his nickname. Oh, all right. Good answer.

That's like this guy we have here named Ronnie Woo Woo Jenkins. You all know Ronnie? Yeah. He was like a whinoe. You just see him like stumbling around the street, outside of Wrigley, like fucked up after every game. That's what he got. And everyone just knew him because he was drunk outside of Wrigley?

They love him. I don't get it. I don't know. Oh, he goes woo woo the whole game? He did a very good impression. Nobody shot him. Never happened? He's got a full uniform.

And he's a whinoe. Okay. He's a whinoe. And he's sexy. Yeah. He sounds like he could be doing other more productive stuff. I like the way it panned out. Woo woo.

Woo woo. And then he just goes home and sits in front of his wife. Woo woo. Fuck, just go to the game. Woo woo. Oh, man. So there's a clown prince of baseball who used to tour minor league stadiums. And he had a face that seemed like it was made out of rubber.

He wore a big baggy uniform and a hat that was always a skew. Right? So he's that guy. Woo woo. What is that guy you're talking about? He's an idiot. Yeah. He's okay.

As long as we agree that he's a professional moron. Right. Okay. He's just got a rubber face. People are like, you got to get a load of this guy. His face and his hat. So it's just very entertaining. Like he is the clown prince of baseball.

We always say that. Do you like a fake slide into third and fall over or that kind of stuff? He didn't make it. Yeah. He was basically just a big goofy idiot. And Bill hired him to be the Indians third base coach. That's a puzzling move. You're not going to meet a funnier guy.

He doesn't understand the metrics of the game. But he is very funny when he's telling people. Oh my God. When a player is running towards third and he makes one of those faces. He does. He does it by vesicles or through his. It's very distracting. It is.

The fans loved it. But the American League owners were furious. They were just furious that they hired him? Or just that. Yeah. They were just mad that he hired that guy. Right. Do you have any other questions?

Any more grilling that's going to happen? Well, I think grilling is a strong term for what was just occurring. Wow. In 1948, the Indians made it to the World Series. The combination of Bill's promotions and a good team led to an attendance record for the league. He then changed things up for the World Series. Tickets had always been sold in sets for all home games, which made it difficult for the common fan to attend.

And Bill sold single game tickets. How the fuck did they never think of that? Man, we can't get anybody into the World Series. It's just like half full. What about selling people tickets? I don't know. It seems like nothing's going to work. Yeah, next thing you know, everyone's going to be walking around a Yankee shop.

They'll be wearing the hats. It'll be a whole thing. Everybody will be on the team. But the payroll... More fans than ever watched the World Series that year and the Indians won. The next season, the Indians finished. Did someone just say yay? So someone here is excited about Cleveland winning a World Series in 1948.

Was that the last one? Was it the last one, the Cleveland one? Yeah. Alright. They're just dealing with stuff. Okay. That's good. Maybe it's a curse because you're...

The team name is a fucking racist. The Indians? Yeah, the Indians are named Indians. It's fucked up. I was going to say the Cubs is not racist against Bears. The Cubs is super racist against little tiny cute bears. Yeah. But you can't even fight like the Indians name when the Redskins are still...

No, I know the Redskins make everybody look horrible. I mean, you are like, we'll get to you. But what the fuck are you doing over there, please? Sir? Yeah. We're all offended by that. But put a pin in that because what... Um, so, right, we're...

Oh, right, so next year they finish third. They're eliminated from the playoffs. The day they're eliminated from the playoffs, Bill's stage is a funeral in the stadium and buried the 1948 World Series flag. It would have been... Imagine if you buried the guys. I'm pissed.

I am pissed off at their efforts. That's going to be so stupid. I'm just like some mental illness going on with this dude. It's not... It's definitely not normal. I'm starting to turn a little bit. I'm starting to come around. Bill's very bipolar.

Yeah. Uh, so when he buried the flag, it turns out a lot of the players were furious. You know, because they had won that three or four. Oh, I didn't understand. There was only one. Oh, that's interesting. But one of the reasons Bill buried the flag was because he was done.

He had already decided to sell the team. He needed money because he was getting divorced. Bill was out of... Don't look at me like that. He's Steve Carrillo from the office. Like, that's just some doofus. He is Steve Carrillo from the office. It's just like some dude who has no idea what the fuck he's doing.

It's just that shit. Well, come on. We're going to go bury the flag. You know how we do it. Uh, so... Anyone want a chicken? A foot? Bill was out of baseball for a little while,

and then he bought the St. Louis Browns in 1951. That's a baseball team. Okay. Uh, the first night, he gave a free beer or soda to everyone in the stadium. But Bill really wanted to blow people's minds. Quote. Jesus.

That already is a little crazy. So... Oh, boy. Oh, gosh. I'm tearing up. Oh, no. Quote, what can I do that is so spectacular that no one will be able to say he had seen it before?

The answer is perfectly obvious. I will send a midget up to bat. You sound like a fun guy to me, man. I don't know. There's so much to love about that. Uh, the idea that that... There was a time when people would be like, this is the...

You thought that rubber face third base coach was ahead. They got a little man who's a grown-up hitting the ball. Trying to. They got so regular balls with the little baby boy. It's just very fun. Oh, we lost him. See, I think it's like strategic because you had people who were probably getting in trouble for using the N-word.

So he brought out people that would have to use the N-word to try to just balance that. You know, I don't know. I think that's right. He can use the M-word, we can't use it because he could talk to other M's like, is this racist? What's going on? Are we heidists? What are we doing?

Six weeks into the season in a game against the Detroit Tigers, a three-foot seven-inch player walked out of the dugout and up to the plate. All right, it is funny. It is funny. It's funny. He's actually in the game. Oh, he is in the actual game. He's in the game. I didn't know.

I thought it was just like a little stunt. And I do mean little. No, he brought him up in the middle of the game. He comes out to pitch it. Can you imagine the player that you're pitch hitting what? Yeah, I'm going to go out there and hit it a fire. So he took somebody's spot. Yeah.

Peterson, you're not batting today. This little guy's here. He's going to bat. I'm sorry. We got him a baby's uniform. We put it on him and we're just going to send him up there. Peewee. Peewee.

He was coming. Come on, Peewee. All right, get on my back. We'll take you out to the dugout. And Peewee, don't watch your head, okay? He wore the number one eighth. Oh, God. Oh, God.

This is so demanding. And they're making it hard to fight against. It's very... The umpire stopped the game and demanded to see a contract. And then he pulled out like a note card. Here it is, sir. I think I'll find all the T's across from the eyes. I got it.

The Browns manager produced a contract to prove the small man was a legitimate player. The crowd went wild as the pitcher tried to hit the tiny strike zone. And of course, he walked the batter. Oh, my God. I didn't know the strike zone was proportional to your height. I didn't know it changed. It's all about your body size. So in this case, it's a tiny, tiny strike zone.

It's getting on base. I mean, it takes them a while to climb up. The next... The next day they made a rule against little tiny guys. But that's also fucked up. You could have a little... They rode it for the one that might have been good. You know what I mean?

They're... They're Jagi Robinson. Little guy's Jagi Robinson is never going to be because they were like, well, this can't be a thing. It could be a movie called 1A. The peewee story. And most of the movie is just the top of his hat. Five days later, Bill had what he called grandstand manager night.

He gave everyone sitting behind home plate dugout cards with yes and no printed on them. And during the game, they were asked whether to steal or punt or hit and run. What? While the manager sat in a rocking chair. What? The fans managed a game. But I would watch more baseball if this was going on.

I would watch that. This would be my team. I would watch that. They won the game. Bill then tried to move his team to Baltimore because the St. Louis Cardinals were the big money team in town. And his fellow owners vetoed the move. They hated Bill.

Bill was losing a lot of money. He sold the stadium and became a tenant in his own stadium. He sold a bunch of players to keep the team afloat. He sold us Ranch in Arizona. And by the last game of the season, the Browns ran out of baseballs. And they had to use scuffed up balls that they practiced with. He finally sold the club to a Baltimore syndicate and the owners immediately approved the team move.

He kept trying to buy his way back in. He tried to buy the A's and the Tigers. And then he tried to buy wrinkling brothers in Barnum and Bailey Circus. See, that's the problem, right? I mean, if you're like, I tried to buy two more teams, I'm going to buy the circus. He ran a AAA Miami team for a season. Finally, an opportunity rose in Chicago.

Easy. The White Sox ownership was in disarray. If you can believe that. The owner had died and her kids were fighting over control of the team. And after two years of fighting, the daughter who had been given the majority of controlling stock sold it to a consortium bill put together. He still had to fight off the other kids in court,

but eventually won. And now he controlled 54% of the White Sox. On his first day, he invited sportswriters to have 54% of a cup of coffee. Genius, man. He's the best. That is great. If you're a sportswriter, you're like, I'm glad you're back because

sometimes I don't know what to write about, but you're a train wreck. Have you met that? Yeah, that is true. Someone's probably actually 62%. Sorry. There's a lot more people than I thought there would be. At the 1959 home opener, the White Sox set off fireworks at the start of the game.

All 19,000 fans were given a free beer. Bill was back. Children too? He gave away orchids on Mother's Day, and on the same day, the fan sitting in the lucky chair was given 36 live lobsters. What just happened? You united. Yeah!

What in the fuck do you do with that? You have a lobster party. I know, but who? How many people do you know? You gotta make friends. They're gonna come over for lobster. You gotta have it quick? Yeah.

No, the true time is of the essence. I might set them loose in the... lake, I guess? Dave, they're all dead. They didn't take to lake life too much. They love lakes! Lobsters love lakes. Other fans got a thousand cans of beer.

You link up with that lobster man, have yourself a day, sir. A thousand pies? A burden. A total burden. That's a meal right there. That's the amount of pie where you're just like, God damn it. It's one week of nothing but pies,

and I still only got pies on the horizon. I fucking hate pie! A thousand cupcakes, and a hundred free dinners, not a thousand. Just, yeah. He had free days for cab drivers and bartenders, because he figured that they would talk about the team, right? When fans... someone was like, yep, okay.

Yes, I will accept that as his logic, yes. That is okay with me, that he did it for that purpose. This is Peter Griffin right now, okay? When the fans booed an outfielder named Al Smith, he gave everyone named Smith a free ticket as Al Smith's guests. Camiskey part set an attendance record that year for the stadium. And the most Smiths that ever attended a game, actually. In 1960, he added players' names on the back of their road uniforms.

This eventually became the norm all over baseball. He also built an exploding scoreboard. You take the good with the bad. You take the good with the bad. Quote, fireworks explode beneath the scoreboard while tape recordings give out virtually every sound imaginable. A Calvary charge, machine gun fire, two trains crashing head-on, subway screechings, jet bombers, and a woman screaming,

Fireman, save my child! If you're there for the first time, you're like, the apocalypse! What is the last one? Does it help save my child? A woman screaming, Fireman, save my child! You know, just to make sure. Fans loved it, the opposing players were enraged. As they should be, man. A Cleveland player threw a baseball at this scoreboard.

When in New York, after Mickey Mantle hit a homerun, the Yankees paraded in front of the White Sox dugout with sparklers. Oh, my God. And he was like, now that's a great idea. It's terrific. Sparkler Day. A thousand fans dead on Sparkler Day. Baseball was just better back then, man.

It is true. I mean, when you think about what the commissioners of sports have to do now, they really kill a lot of the fun. They take celebrating out of it. This is before they knew you could make rules about that. They were like, grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble. Let the dwarf bat. Let now the dwarf.

Dwarf, dwarf. That's what bobbleheads came from. Booble. Eventually, all clubs added sound and light shows to their scoreboards. The team said, help my wife's being murdered. They just start competing. My whole family was just murdered and killed by Mexican men. God, that was a weird homerun.

It sounded... A car just ran over my son. Help, my life has no meaning. Bottom of the six. Peewee Digman up to bat. Peewee's 2'9", weighs an adorable 46 pounds. Can't hit a curveball fastball, but can't have a strike zone hit. Exploded like a watermelon under a car tire.

He'll never shake this moment. That's very visual. It's got graphic. It got away from me graphically. But Bill's health was failing. He was a heavy smoker, and when sometimes coughed so much, he would pass out. I feel like I should stop smoking, but I love it so much. You are 100% the person who died. You're like, Bill's dead.

Who? That's what you thought. There's a great video on the YouTube's of this dude smoking a blunt and coughing so hard he drops out of his chair. It really hits it, and I think that helps contextually with this tale. I love your YouTube stories. I always have. I find they're almost as good as telling someone about a dream you had. Neck and neck. Doctors told Bill to retire, so he sold his share and he did. He was just 47.

He wrote an autobiography. I'm picturing an 81-year-old man. I had a good run. He wrote an autobiography and ended it by saying, I'll be back. He probably died. And in 1970, he wanted back in. He tried to buy... He's like, I want to try to own all the teams eventually. He tried to buy the team in Washington and then he tried to buy the Baltimore Orioles.

He didn't help himself when he testified in a player's lawsuit against the league and called the ball player's situation human bondage. Interesting. Then in 1975, the White Sox came up for sale again. The owner was close to bankruptcy. The team wasn't very good and the neighborhood around the park was deteriorating. Time for a chicken giveaway. Really? Really? Oh, no, I didn't even mean that.

No, no, no. And lobsters and pigeons and a thousand free dinners. All the things that were afforded the other neighborhoods prior to this. There we go. You gonna say watermelons? Racist son of a bitch. I enjoy watermelon personally. Everybody enjoys watermelon. That's true. And I agree. And everyone in my America is allowed to enjoy a fresh piece of watermelon.

So... Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. He doesn't know anything about history. And that's what makes me such an effective candidate. No one will know about our past. And we'll all live on watermelons. It's actually Garrett. Now we're gonna need, when we get to the convention, we're gonna need to iron that out.

The team was on the verge of being moved to Seattle. Bill, now 61, put together a group of 40 investors and put in a bid. America League owners rejected it. They said it was because of all the owners, but it was obvious they just didn't want Bill back in the American League. He got more cash and they voted his bid down again. But the American League was in a bit of a situation. They couldn't let the White Soxco bankrupt. They didn't want them to move. And finally, the Tiger's owner stepped up and said, quote, look, I don't like it any more than you do that we're allowing a guy in here who has called me a son of a bitch. Over and over and over.

But gentlemen, we've got to take another vote. Bill was voted in. When Bill heard, he kicked his prosthetic leg above his head. And he got cigarette butts all over his face. Don't do that, Bill. How happy I am. He was in the hotel where baseball's winter meetings were being held at the time. He put up a banner that said open for business in the hotel lobby.

And then he spent 14 hours making trades right there in front of the public. What? He just put a table in the lobby and started making deals for players. And the other owner's like, what the fuck did we do? This guy's mental. What? That's a power move. The guys who had just voted him in were furious. Bud Selig fumed. This is a meat market.

Fuck Bud Selig. Fuck Bud Selig. And the girl in agreement, even the people who don't like baseball. Fuck Bud Selig. My buddy Brett, who's here tonight, saw Bud Selig in a light and just honked his horn and he looked over and he went like that. Oh, that's great. Unfortunately for Bill, his timing wasn't great. Free agency hit the league, which meant players couldn't be bound to a team for life and that they were going to make a lot more money.

Bill didn't have much leeway as far as money went. He was already running on fumes. Imagine that. Yeah, shocking news. On opening day to celebrate America's bicentennial. He's just celebrating anything. He's like, come on. Well, it is the 200 year of our country.

A lot of people celebrated that. I mean, we made special money. Like, it was a thing. Bill reenacted the fame. What do you want, 30 lobsters? 36, bro. My lobsters come in packs of 12. Bill reenacted the famous painting.

Yeah, 12 pack of lobsters. Just going to go get a 12 pack of beer and lobster. Call it a day. Bill reenacted the famous painting, The Spirit of 76. He and two other employees walked across the field. They wore bandages and uniforms of the Revolutionary Army. Bill had his peg leg and played a fife. And we carried a fife?

Yeah, what? The entire season was an endless stream of stunts. There were belly dancers, parades of horse and cattle. Parades of horse and cattle? Yeah. Like during the game? Well, no, I haven't assuming before. I don't think that they're like, here's the third.

No, no, I don't mean the third. They're expecting to do... It's a stampede, gentlemen. Oh, you meant to wait. Sorry. And random prizes for fans. He had the players wear Bermuda shorts for some games. Amazing.

They have to slide. Not during that game. He had the 53-year-old manager play one day as DH. Why? Just because. Fair. The tenants went up 20%. It almost sounds like he's Brewster and Brewster's millionth,

and he's just got to like spend all this fucking money fast. He's just doing everything he can. But he still couldn't afford to pay free agents. Players paychecks doubled in three years, but worst of all, it was the disco era. Now you guys know where this is going. Steve Dahl was born in Pasadena. I know where it is.

You do? No. Steve Dahl was born in Pasadena on November 20, 1954. In high school, he started hanging around a local radio station and soon dropped out of school. Who does that? Who is like, man, radio, I don't want to get an education. Actually, that makes sense.

You guys have Man Cow here, right? There's no way he's educated. Fuck Man Cow. Fuck Man Cow. That's gonna be the name of this episode. I'm available to call in, man. Fuck Man Cow. Steve was soon told he'd never make it in radio

because he had too high of a voice. But eventually he landed a morning job in Detroit where he became very successful. Because of his high ratings, he was offered a job on a Chicago radio station. I almost said Chicago. Chicago. And he took it in 1978.

The hell's going on over there? What you talking about? Going a little, okay? I'm surprised you haven't done one yet. What are you gonna do? Now that I've found out this guy has a little high voice. That's right, coming up to bat. His morning radio show in Chicago did not go well.

His show is called Steve Dahl's Root Awakening Show. It never got very good ratings. Then 10 months into the gig, on Christmas Eve 1978, the station changed its format from rock to disco and Dahl was fired. Oh fuck. Now Steve Dahl was mad at his old station and he was mad at disco.

Interesting setup. I'm excited to see where we go. I think we were all a little mad at disco at one time or another. You like your disco? I like it. It's very funky. I like funk music.

So yeah. This is weird. I'm sorry. Dave, this is a safe place. Yeah, you're in a safe place. I like disco. It got so quiet, I was like, okay. I'm like, excuse me?

Sorry. I like disco too. Okay. And what about this story? In March, Dahl was hired by another station to do a morning show. He met and had a good on air banter with the overnight DJ, Gary Meyer.

Soon the two were teamed up. Yeah, anytime the name... I mean, it's like an uncomfortable event we don't talk about. So when you say Gary and there's a pause, we all think the same thing, which is that, you know, some should be said about it. I've already used the It's Gareth joke

a couple of times. I'm out of that one. His name was Gary Meyer. Soon the two were teamed up, but Meyer's on-air name was not Gary. It was Matthew. It was Matthew. Oh, what?

Oh! I think he wins. That all changed when Dahl accidentally started calling him Gary on air. I mean... Don't you touch me. I mean, don't you get in this situation? Don't you touch me.

Don't you get in this bed? Poor motherfucker. It was probably like, it's Matthew. Gary. It's actually Matthew. Gary. It's over. Your name's Gary from now on.

Soon Gary dropped Matthew and went with his name, Gary. I know to you, you're like, meh, be a little bit more like the Matthew. Right? How about a little flexibility, Gary? A little more understanding. On-air, the two relentlessly mocked

and attacked Disco and Dahl's former station. That must have been great to listen to. The station was W-D-A-I and they called it Disco Die. Get it? Yeah. You guys get it?

Yeah, yeah. That's some fucking morning radio comedy right there. How long can that sustain where people are like, you know what else, I really hate about Disco is you're like, these guys are the best Disco shit talk station in town. That's the slogan on the flyer.

The best Disco shit talk station in town. There's us, then there's the rest. Nobody talks shit. But you're doing country and jazz. Country and jazz? Mm-hmm. They were onto something. Dahl attracted a legion of fans

that he called the insane coho lips. They saw my trunk people. I don't know. I don't know. Like, we hate Disco. I know what you're really saying. I got you. The name referred to a local street gang,

the insane unknowns and a local fish, the coho salmon. Wait, wait. Wait. Does anybody know what's happening right now? Do you have a local coho salmon? Yeah. So he put those together

because that's the kind of shit that a morning radio DJ will do. He'll just take random shit and put it together and then people will follow that. They must have sold a lot of shirts. Are you part of the insane coho? Insane coho? I still can't wrap my mind around what's just been said.

Hey, there was this local gang called the insane unknowns and a local fish called the coho salmon. Put it together, bitch. Not call me bitch. It's very offensive. Yes, call me Cary. Thank you, my dear.

Ag Matthew has a nice ring to it. The slogan for Dahl's fan club became Disco Sucks. Well, that rings a bell. Well, that's clever. It is clever. It works on one level. Dahl started holding...

Dahl started holding small anti-disco rallies for his coho fans. At one rally, they threw marshmallows at a WDAI proportional van for a team disco and chased it into a nearby park. Wait, that's the radio station they worked for? That's their old one.

Oh, okay. All right. The W die. All right. W die. Thank you. So they threw marshmallows at it because these guys are fucking insane cohoes.

That's crazy. They also occupied a disco on another night. Oh, look out. You remember the occupied disco movement? That was big. That was big. The violence broke out at one rally when hundreds of cohoes

couldn't make it into a promotional event. It ended in fistfights and the police had to be called in to break up the crowd. I assume they were just fighting each other. You know why? Because it's fucking insane cohoes, bro. You know how a coho is.

Local salmon. Yeah, local coho. This local salmon is crazy. When disco singer Van McCoy died, suddenly Dahl destroyed his record on air. That's cool. That's cool. Morning teach.

I don't know if you guys know this about morning teachers, but they actually have no soul. Disco is hitting its peak. People are starting to hate it, particularly since performers like Rod Stewart were starting to dabble in it. Even the Rolling Stones had a hit with Miss You. At the 1979 Grammy Awards,

rock and roll performers lost to disco artists. People were starting to say rock was done and the anger was building against disco. I gotta say, I didn't think when we were talking... Make America great again. I got my hands on the floor. All this fucking disco. You don't know about it?

Yeah, I know about this. Thousands of people died in the disco wars. Terrible. In Seattle, hundreds of fans attacked a mobile dance floor. Who do you root for? I just want to see them. A mobile dance floor?

I just want to see them. Sorry about the heartbreaks, guys. This guy in traffic is a real bitch. To get out of the freeway, it'll probably be a lot easier for you guys to dance while I drive. Because that's what we're doing. Yeah, because cocaine.

All right, let's just keep... In Portland, a DJ destroyed disco records with a chainsaw in front of thousands of fans. I mean, it's just fun. Over at Comiskey Park, the White Sox are not having a great season and ticket sales were down. Oh, boy.

Boy. Is Bill... Is Bill still there? Bill's still there? Oh, oh, oh, Bill's there. He's got to be there. Don't forget about this. He's got to be...

He's seeing an opportunity. When you sit back together, son. Synergy. It's all coming from... When Bill took over the White Sox, he asked his son, Mike, to help him run the team. Mike was a chip off the old block

and strongly believed in promotions and bringing fun to baseball. Where did he get that from? A club. In 1978, Mike got a call from a guy who worked for United Artists Agency. He proposed a dance contest at Comiskey Park sponsored by Coke.

They put plywood stages down and 25,000 kids showed up to dance. Wow. Fuck. High on Coke. Yeah. One of them was actually the little batter from before.

Not a lot of people know that. Pee-wee. Pee-wee. Pee-wee Dingleman. Dingleman. Whatever his last name is that we invented an hour ago. It was a huge success.

Then the next year, the guy from United Artists calls back and told Mike to turn on his radio and listen to Steve Dahl on WLUP. The look. Oh, is that a good station? Oh, what? Is it gone?

What is it now? Rock? Classic rock? Horrible. Horrible. Mancow's on there. Mancow's fucking great. If you ever get a chance, really listen to that.

It's like, you know what it's like? It's like reading a book every morning. It makes you want to listen to Disco Hate Radio. Dahl was on the air talking about an event he was going to hold where he was going to blow up disco records at his shopping mall. Could not do that today.

I think that's fair to say. No, you probably couldn't. No, probably. My God. So many people be shot. How badly the mall needed business. Firemen save my baby. As soon as it blows up.

As soon as Dahl got off the air, Mike called him and asked him if he'd like to blow up the records at Kamiski Park instead. It's just, okay, so that's like an insane man who's been living on just insane juice for years, gets a call from an equally insane man being like, do you want to take your insanity

to the big leagues? And he's like, I knew I wasn't insane. His parents were like, that's the worst thing that could have happened to him because now he just really believes in it. He wants to murder the beachies. Mike said he could get 40,000 kids there instead of the 3,000 Dahl hoped to get at the mall.

Dahl said he was in. An earlier game against the Detroit Tigers had been rained out and was scheduled to be part of a double header on July 12th, 1979. Mike had already planned to have a team night that would allow kids to buy tickets for half price. The tents hadn't been high that year at the stadium. Dahl was concerned no one would show up

and he would be embarrassed. Yeah, God forbid. I didn't know morning DJs could be embarrassed. Quote, I was really just trying to get through the evening without being humiliated. I mean, how many people could you draw? A few thousand, the park would still look empty. This led Dahl to promote hard for weeks.

The promotion was simple. Bring a disco record and get in for just 98 cents. The ticket price matched WLUP's frequency, FM 98. You could give up the record at the gate and between the two games, Dahl would blow up the records in a bin on the field. All right, fair plan. They expected around 20,000 fans,

Mike Hart's security for 35,000 just in case. The game that I before had 15,000. Oh boy. The stadium capacity was 52,000. Oh boy. Bill Vech was in a hospital having tests done. But he had a bad feeling about the promotion. Bill, have you been ashing in your leg again?

You know what I asked in the real one. How, Bill? I was really drunk. You're not supposed to be drinking in here. No, I'm giving away free beers at the hospital. Oh my God. Everybody gets free beer, he's got a problem. There's a lobster in your bed pan.

Welcome to Fun Hospital. And then the rubber face guy just walks in, and he's like, You've got cancer. Sorry, you said cancer. I'm what? That's a funny face though. That is funny.

I love that Bill had a bad feeling about a promotion. Yeah. How fucked up is that? It's insane. It would be like Charles Manson being like, Take it easy. Slow down. Sounds a little outlandish to me, I'll be honest.

Bill checked himself out of the hospital, and his worries were confirmed when he saw lots of fans walking down the street holding records and signs that said things like, Fuck Disco. Oh, that doesn't, that seems very aggressive. During the first game, the stands kept filling up. Alan Trammell, the Tiger's shortstop,

noticed the atmosphere was a bit different. I remember from the get go, it wasn't a normal crowd. Between innings, the ground crew came out and cleared away debris that was being thrown on the field in the warning track. They were throwing lighters, firecrackers, empty liquor bottles, and they were throwing records like Frisbees.

You asked them to bring records in. Those things will fly. The game was stopped a few times to clean up the field. After the record bin had reached capacity, the workers of the turnstiles stopped taking records from kids coming in and just let them go in with them. Wait, why? I don't know, Chicago? I don't know.

I don't like Disco. Let's not take them anymore. You guys get to keep your Disco records. What can they do with the record? There's no record players up there. Me and Charlie, we're hanging out, right? Some kids brought more than one record, and they were now being tossed all over the stadium. White Sox Radio, Broadcaster, Harry Carey.

Oh, my God. Tremendous. Every report I read said people were just getting hit in the back of the head by records. That's why I'm saying you've got to be intoxicated for the fun, but you'd be like, I almost hit the shortstop again. I'm going to fuck that dude up. I never liked that motherfucker.

See where he looked at me? White Sox Radio, Broadcaster, Harry Carey. Yes, he was one time the White Sox Broadcaster. Said groups were just wandering around the stadium, not at all concerned about the game. Detroit Tiger Rusty Stop said, quote, they would slice around you and stick in the ground. It wasn't just one, it was many.

Dude, it just got like games of throny all the time. It's just like, just sticking in the ground. Shit, that one really was humming. That was a lot of air on that one. They're really, these guys have arms. They would slice around you and stick in the ground. It wasn't just one, it was many. Oh, God Almighty, I've never seen anything so dangerous

in my life. I begged the guys to put on their batting helmets. Oh, my God. And they did. As the innings were on, the outfielders were all wearing their batting helmets while in the field. Outfielder Ron LaFleur had learned

to play baseball in prison. So he was like, I'm back, baby. The moment I've been training for. He learned in prison. Yeah, for sure. And yes, sometimes the pitcher will stab the catcher, but that's usual, guys. That's the norm.

One guy dies every game. That's those are the rules. Happens. Three strikes and you get shived. Rules are rules. Ron had become a heroin addict at a young age to break into the Stroh's brewery and steal beer. Could you imagine breaking into a brewery?

Like, this guy's a fucking American hero. He's a heroin. Like, he's not breaking his stores. Oh. I'll give you a sound effect. Fireman saved my baby. Ron had dropped out of high school at 15 and was eventually sentenced to five to 15 years

for armed robbery. He tried out for the Tigers while on day parole. Wow. You don't hear these stories anymore. What a great story. How was the outside? Good. I'm a tiger now.

Fuck the Jackie Robinson story. I want to see this shit. Even Ron was afraid. And Trammel said he wasn't afraid of anything. The stadium reached capacity. The event was sold out. And they were somehow still coming. People were now reaching down

and helping others climb up the walls and over fences. People brought ladders and used them to climb in. It's like they're storming a fucking castle. And up above the guards are pouring hot oil. I knew we shouldn't do the ladder giveaway the same night. I said it in the meeting. It was estimated there were now 60,000 inside and 40,000 outside trying to get in.

Disco really sucked. Holy shit. The mob outside then began attacking the ticket booths. The ticket booths were mainly men... I think Jotra Volta's in here. Come on, you guys. The ticket booths were mainly men by older people and they were freestanding.

And the co-hosts began to shake them violently. Right? They're insane co-hosts. These are not sane co-hosts. Yeah, they're not sane co-hosts at all. You're looking for sane co-hosts. Look for another story. They're lawless.

They will murder an old person in a ticket booth because they want to get into a baseball stadium with their disco record to show their anger. You've heard it a million times. So Mike sent all of his security guards except about 30 outside to control the crowd. Wait, didn't he plan for like 30,000 tops, right? 35,000.

And now they're all outside. He was like, overestimate, he's like, that'll be fine. Disco done suck that much. Outside the stadium, they were now putting their records in piles and setting bonfires. Crazy hippies. They did not like disco. No.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Police Department tried to stop the flow of traffic to the stadium. They closed the expressway exit at 31st and 25th streets and traffic backed up for miles. Inside the stadium, everyone was pounding Schlitz beer. And everyone there agrees there was a lot of illegal drug activity going on in the stands.

And some people were there to see baseball. Some guys like, my son is a little uncomfortable with you junking up in front of him. Could you do it between your toes instead of your cock, is that possible? I don't mean to be a stick in the mud. It's just we've... I got one place left.

We just drove four and a half hours. He's never been to a game before. He was very excited and just to see a grown, you know why it's hard to watch? Do you understand what I mean? You know what? Maybe your boy needs to grow up a little bit. See, a man put a needle in his dick.

Okay, all right. Welcome to baseball, motherfucker. I put a hat on his head, but everyone think he's a tiger. Dahl was dressed in his usual outfit for disco record destroying. Sure, what is that? Like the Rocketeer. Military fatigues in a helmet.

Oh, my God. He's the general. Yeah. He was in the press room with co-host Gary. And a model they flew in from L.A. for the event Laura Lai. Who had a lot of questions? What is this again? I do a lot of runway.

And this is... Oh. Well, she did sexually suggestive ads for the radio station. So they flew her in. What does that even mean? You want your dick sucked? No, that's not... That's just straight up...

Oh, listen to... That's not really suggestive as much as this, like... Propositioning? Yeah. Oh, I don't know how it works. She would do them on TV. You think disco sucks? Well, so does your dick.

When it's in my... How does it work? I don't understand. What do you see me? When the first game ended, they were taken downstairs and put in a jeep with two bodyguards in the jeep and two more running alongside. They were driven around the stadium, waving to the crowd.

Then they got to the middle of the field and doll started chanting disco sucks over and over. The crowd joined in. One man said he went with his Boy Scout group. They were just... Scout leader Parker? What are these people so mad about? They were just eight years old

and didn't even know it was disco record blow-up night. The scout leader was hit in the back of the head by a record. Scout leader, the back of your neck is bleeding a lot. Just keep looking ahead, Timmy. You know what? I just got a badge. Look on the field, Timmy. Just keep looking ahead. Who got the lost in eye to a disco record badge this week? All right.

But even the young scouts got excited and joined the chanting. He's got to be like, oh, God. It's like Lord of the Flies. One of them is drinking beer and I can't tell him. No, right, no. Disco fucking sucks, man. Hold on. I'm going to do a bump real quick. Oh, shit, scout leader.

Oh, my God, Timmy. It's only the fourth inning, Timmy, and you've already developed a cocaine habit. I don't... Somebody got a bump badge. Boy. Meanwhile, the second game starter, White Sox pitcher Ken Kravick came out

and started warming up on the mound. The other White Sox sat in the dugout wearing helmets. People in this dance who were getting concerned found they had a hard time leaving because security had locked all but one gate. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. It's like they've never heard of the triangle factory fire.

I have not heard of that. Neither have you. Sure I have. This is an isosceles factory. On the field, Dahl said, this is now officially the world's largest anti-disco rally. Now, listen, we took all the disco records

you brought tonight and we got them in a giant box and we're going to blow them up real good. And the crowd was worked into a frenzy. That's exactly right. Dahl then blew up the bin of records that had been rigged with explosives. The bin was four by six by five feet. Huge explosion.

Records flew everywhere. A large hole was left in the outfield. This is like a mess, yeah? That is amazing. This is when the crowd... Incoming! This is when the crowd seemed to notice there weren't any security guards around.

They had all been sent outside to control the people. All 30 of them, man. Then one guy ran on the field. Oh, boy. And then immediately another. Oh, boy. And then it was on. Oh, God.

The pitcher Kravak ran off the field and he and his teammates went into the clubhouse and barricaded it. It's a walking denture right now. You're barricading yourself from the dugout. Lorelai said she was suddenly grabbed by two bodyguards and carried over to the jeep. Steve and Jerry...

Gary, sorry. It's actually Jerry. Jerry. They jumped in and they drove off as people streamed onto the field. At this point, there were so many people on the field they couldn't drive out the way they had come in. So the jeep was driven off the field

out of the park and onto the street. Oh, my God. It's like Jumanji. On the south side, though. Out on the street, the people saw Dahl and Lorelai and screamed and waved at them. They waved back. The jeep was then driven around to the front of the building

and they were taken back up into the press room and there they could see the chaos on the field. There are now thousands of people running around on the grass. Harry Carey watched from his broadcast booth. Oh, my God, the idea that he was... Holding the microphone against his yellow polyester shirt. The batting cage was being spun around in the outfield. There were shirtless guys who were climbing

high up on the foul poles. Fires were breaking out in the outfield. Fires breaking? Just imagine, sweet little old Harry Carey who just loves baseball and he's just watching this fucking madness. Commentating, bro. And I'm spinning this one.

Fires now? Another fire left field. There's two fires on the left, three on the right field. Holy cow! I've never seen more fires in my entire life. Harry then said what he always said when something really exciting happened. Holy cow! The crowd cheered.

He likes what we're doing! And no one left. The bases were ripped up and stolen. The dugouts were looted. Wait, the people stole bases? Yeah. Ahh! That's a fun staff.

Is this clever, this one? The playing field grass was being ripped up. Some even said people were having sex on the field. All right, now officially cover your eyes. You're gonna fuck a third. Oh my God. Maybe it's like we always dreamed about. Fucking on the pitcher's mound during an anti-disco rally.

There are now an estimated 7,000 people running around on the field. Oh my God, I didn't think that many could fit. Why have I never heard of this in my fucking life? Like, this is not... I'm 35, I've never heard of this shit at all. The crowd then destroyed the batting cage and set it on fire. Sure, sure, sure, sure. As you do.

Next to try to calm the crowd, the White Sox organist started to play take me out to the ball game. So it's like... They're all gonna be like, oh. But like, it's like you have a limited amount of signs to communicate something. You're like, what will make them appreciate baseball? This is your chance, Danny.

They didn't just shut it down, they just kept on going. Yeah, no, they were like, no, this sucks. Harry tried again. What say we all regain our seats so we can play baseball again? Fuck you, Harry! Okay, alright, it seems to be very angry out there. I'm gonna go over to the cubs. The crowd cheered again and again no one left the field.

They were tossing broken records around. Fans were now setting their own banners on fire. Steve Dahl got on the PA system and told them to stop, but even he had no control. What do you... Come on, guys, really? It's like, I mean... Yeah, he already, yeah.

We have your bases, motherfucker. Come get them. Meanwhile, in the Empire's room, Bill Vak was arguing that the second game should go on as planned. Let me finish! Great promotion! Let me finish! He tried to make the case that it was a happy crowd, not a mean one.

The crew chief disagreed. The Chicago police were called to clear the field. They came out in riot gear and with horses, and everyone who was sober ran off. As the baseball fans in the stands applauded. Six people were injured and 39 were arrested. The supervisor of umpires that night was named Nestor Chilek. Sure.

He also happened to be the crew chief on Tencent Beer Night. Oh, wow. That guy was like, I'm just gonna get a job at a bank, I think. I don't like baseball anymore. Yeah, baseball's gone a little weird. Ah, you know, just seen so many murders at the ballpark. You know what I mean?

Tencent Beer Night. I was fucking excited. He met with his umpires, Bill Beck, and the Tigers and White Sox managers. Home plate had been dug up and was gone, as were all the bases. Dug up. Yeah, seriously, I like this is gonna be a dig,

and we're gonna do it right, gentlemen. And the field was torn to pieces, and was in no shape to play on, even after the grounds crew tried to fix it for an hour. For an hour? Well, it's not great. You know, I asked the first time, I've tried to repair fires.

Let me ask you this. How fire-resistant is your left outfield? I'm gonna say don't play, then. Um, the Tigers manager won his argument. The second game was forfeited. It wasn't a hard call to make. Bill Beck complained, and asked,

what am I gonna do with all the tickets I have to refund? Nobody seemed to care. A dollar. Yeah, a dollar. As the crowd was informed, the second game had been forfeited, on the TV recording, you can hear Bill explaining,

please keep your rain checks. We'll tell you what to do with them once we figure it all out. Bill later told the press that just one vendor had been injured, he broke a hip. Quote, the great thing was all the kids were stoned. We...

It's really crazy that you don't know which way you mean. If we had drugs to deal with, then we've had some real trouble. These kids were really docile. I mean, except for the whole being on the field and fucking and setting fires. Steve Dahl and Gary Meyer went to a nearby holiday inn and holed up for the night.

They went to the local talk shows where everyone blamed them and said they should be fired. The next day they got up and went to work, Dahl kicked off a show by reading and mocking the headlines in the local papers. You believe this? They're saying we fucked up. Believe that? Crazy. Stand by it.

Quote, I think for the most part everything was wonderful. Some maniac co-hosts got wild and went down on the field, which you shouldn't have done. Bad little co-hosts. White Sox picture and Texas and Texan Rich Wortham said, this wouldn't have happened if they had country and western night. Fuck you.

Fuck you. Bilbeck received a lot of the scorn and his son Mike took the professional hit. Mike resigned the next year. Bill's money had run out and his health was failing. He was losing his eyesight and hearing. He had emphysema. Did you know he was a smoker? I knew his leg was.

And he had an operation on his good whole leg. He agreed to sell the team. Took me a minute. He agreed to sell the team, but once again his fellow American League owners were there to make himself a little bit more. They blocked the sale of the team to Eddie Di Bartolo because he owned race tracks.

Eddie thought it was because he was Italian and they associated with the mafia. He said, I've never been ashamed to be a member of the American League, but I am now. Really? Chicago real estate developer Jerry Reisdorf and TV man Eddie Einhorn bought the White Sox. At their first press conference,

Einhorn insulted Bilbeck by saying they would run a high-class operation. Einhorn later said, Bill called the park the world's largest outdoor saloon and he was proud of it. It is great though. I mean, it's true. It would be like a restaurant

that like a professional would come into fix. Like if it was, like, that's fun. He's the best owner that baseball's ever had. Ever. Ever. I want to see a 30 for 30 on this motherfucker. Right? Right? That's true.

We built this. Bill was insulted. He never went back to Comiskey Park. Then Bill went back to being a Cubs fan, like he was as a kid. He was a regular in the famous Wrigley Field bleachers. And then in 1984, he died of lung cancer. I can't believe smoking killed this guy.

Shocking. Mike was basically blackballed from Major League Baseball. No one would hire him. He started drinking heavily, lost custody of his son in a divorce and ended up in Florida hanging drywall. Ooh. That is a fucking bottom.

Hanging drywall in Florida. Holy fuck. That is tough. Drywall and Florida really hurt that outcome. Oh, my God. Then he found his way into advertising where he worked for 10 years. That's where he was working

when the owners of the Miami Miracle asked him to work for them. The Miami Miracle were a class A-level club owned by a group that included Bill Murray. He worked for the club and went back to crazy promotions. Mike found himself bouncing around baseball again. He was working for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays when the 20th anniversary of Disco Demolition Night

was approaching. He decided to have an anniversary Disco Demolition Night. What? Yes. Is he doing? Yes. Let's go back to that well. I'm kind of getting nostalgic

for all that picture mount fucking and fires. I just... We had some laughs. They were going to have an anniversary night when they got a cease and desist letter from Steve Dahl's lawyers. You stole... Because Dahl had copyrighted the term Disco Demolition Night

like a fucking monster. If they wanted to have an anniversary celebration, they would have to pay Steve Dahl. The club did not have an anniversary night. Mike is now owner with Bill Murray and others in five independent baseball clubs. He has run an umpire-less night. Ball nine.

Walk. Strike six. You are out safe. He tried to hold a vasectomy day on Father's Day. Wow. On Father's Day. What is his message even?

Oh, and you know those conditions weren't good. You're like, that knife looks dirty. Don't worry about it. What does that mean, though? Just get on the table. You mean this picnic table? They gave off vasectomies during his day or was it just like they gave off bobble heads of like...

They got like a coupon. They got a coupon to get a vasectomy. That was the idea. I thought they got it like live. I was hoping they would get it. No, no, they didn't like take him down to it. He's like the hot dog guy with vasectomies. Vasectomies.

Two, pass them down. What, I got to do this myself? Yeah, yeah, use those four steps. No, clamp the other vein. Oh. Unfortunately, there was so much religious opposition to vasectomy night, he had to cancel it. Oh.

Motherfuckers. Who do you root for? Motherfuckers. He had dogs and pigs deliver baseballs to the umpires. What? What the fuck are you talking about? What? That's awesome.

Why a pig, though? Why a pig? The umpire's just like, God damn it. Fucking pig. There's more where that came from, umpire. He had mimes perform instant replays. I mean, now you're just going with the hits. Now it's just rapid fire.

What? What does it even look like? I mean, yeah, you're like, I guess his leg did touch. His leg did touch if you watch it close. He once locked all the traps. They trapped in the batter's box. He once locked all the fans out of a game to set the lowest attendance record.

That really is. This guy's a hero. This guy's a hero. He's an American hero. And sometimes Bill Murray is a first base coach. Well, he's got that rubbery face. Bill Beck was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991. They waited until he was dead.

His plaque at Cooper's Town reads, a champion of the little guy. Steve Dahl continued on as a typical morning DJ. He made parody songs like A Parody of My Shrona called Ayatollah. Rhymes, it rhymes. Kind of. Ayatollah.

He parodied John Wayne Gacy with a song, Another Kid in the Crawl, sung to the Pink Floyd song, Another Brick in the Wall. But he stopped playing it after all the parents of the murdered children complained. Because morning DJs have nothing inside of them. It's hollow. And what's in there is black.

What was it called? Another Kid in the Crawl. The fucking monster. Worse than John Wayne Gacy. How is he not fired at that point? Yeah, what do you have to do to get fired? All right. Enough is enough.

Yeah, last warning. No more riots or murdered parody songs. Of children. Of children. Children. Oh, what a great child killer song. It's my favorite of the killer song puns for children. I really do.

We were about to record a Donner song. And it's, I guess we're not going to do that one. We're going to do a Domlop. Stephen, Gary. Stephen, Gary eventually split in 1993. Stop looking at me like that. Gary blamed it on dolls. Gary as much as you could.

Gary blamed it on dolls, alcoholism and associated behavior. Doll bounced around different stations, never rating that high. He was eventually laid off from Jack FM in 2008. Jack FM in 2008? He was the only DJ, like a live DJ on Jack FM. That they've ever had. Now they just have a recorded voice.

And since they still owed him money, he started podcasting. Oh, fuck me. He now has a podcasting network. What's it called? We don't want to promote it. Steve Dolls. I was going to make fun of it, but then I had a friend that has a show on there. I thought I'm glad we know now.

Used to. That's it, man. That's insane. It's the Bill Vex star. That's so crazy. I feel like he's here. I feel like he's here right now. That would be amazing.

And he's in the back right now. There he is. And we got Bill Vex wooden leg. He's dressed like a general and we're giving away stumps. You know what, who's in seat 48? You get a monkey. But not a good one. It's hitting my nuts.

I feel like my luck's finally turning around. You guys, thank you so much for coming. Thank you very much. There are still some tickets for the next show. If you want to come, there's still a few available. And we'll be signing posters right at the table right outside that door out there. And we'll sign cars. We signed cars.

Thank you so much, guys. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.