We are back for another dose of Minnesota Nice that is desperately needed.
We're taping. No, we, you didn't say it way. We go there. There's no taping. And welcome back to the ness Chronicle, season three, this is what we call the premier episode of season three. Wow, kindness Chronicles, where we hope to inject the world with the dose of the Minnesota. Nice that it desperately needs, blah, blah, blah, blah. We are back. Uh, those of you that have decided to, uh, to give us another chance, we thank you. We'll do better. Um, we, uh, three's a charm life got in the way. Yeah. Life got in the way since February, right? Since February, February 18th was our last, uh, recording. We'd like. Blame the pandemic, but we're not gonna do, we're not gonna do that, but we let's just talk about life's changes. Uh, once again, John, Schwetz here with, uh, your favorite drive through celebrity. Yay. Kevin Gord. Hi guys. Steve peaked in the nineties. Brown. I don't like that. I'm sorry. You're just in the eighties. You're head of me. I'll take it. And we have a special friend in studio today. Scott Berg. One of the kindest people you could ever meet, he's got a smile. That'll light up a room. Yes, he does. And a necklace to go with it and a necklace to go with it. But, uh, we brought Scott in today because, uh, you know, we all those of us that, that anybody that knows Scott likes him likes Scott. That's true. And when you look at Facebook friends, I always look to see if Scott Berg happens to be friends with really, I'm not kidding you because. Uh, just very quickly before we get into this, I have a quick Scott Berg story. I feel like I know a lot of people you do. You're kind of a mayor of learner in Monte. I feel like I know a lot of people. Well, Scott, um, Scott and I have known each other a long time. Our boys played baseball together when they were 10 years old. And Scott moved from smoke Dale to, oh, I mean, Oakdale to, uh, to Mai, uh, back, when was Jamie a freshman in high school, he was a sophomore, sophomore. And, uh, Jamie and Jack played baseball together, went to a couple of state tournaments. Didn't win any until Jack graduated. That's a whole nother story, but Scott invited me to go to a twins game with him. And I always, you know, make fun of Scott cuz of all of his Facebook friends and stuff. And I said, here's the. let's see, who knows more people at the twins game. Wow. And you're bringing the GAT, just laid it down. Just give it a try. Let's give it a try. Wow. So we walk in and, and, and I'm not kidding you. We walk in and when Tony Oliva came up and gave an, an open mouth kiss, that was, and then boom. And then we, uh, Dave St. Peter, the, the president of the twins. Hey, Scotty, how you doing? I knew that I wasn't gonna have a chance stay there waiting like, Hey, how about, how about me, man? Hey, I'm Dave St. Peter. I'm somebody we're in rotary together in apple valley back in the early nineties. No, but, uh, you know, Scott is a, is a great friend and, uh, we just wanted to, uh, invite him in and, uh, share some of his insights as it relates to, uh, our project, our kindness project. And, um, but first gentle. It's been a long time. What you've been up to kg, let's start with you. It's been a few months, right? Yeah. Um, well, we got through the hockey season and we were just talking, Steve and I were, uh, before we started the show here. Uh, it was a nice season. It was a fun season. It, it ended too soon ended too soon, way too soon. But, uh, yeah. And then perfect timing got damn blues. Blues have always had our number, but the timing was perfect because the wild season ended, I think the week after the Kentucky Derby and Canterbury park opened the next week. So I had like three days. Segue from hockey to horses and I'm back out doing the TV thing at Canterbury and the paddock and loving it filling in for Paul Allen when he's out called the races a couple nights already this year. And yeah, so you're, you're, you're back at the Canterbury doing the paddock guy too. I'm back as the paddock analyst. What happened? I, with the gal that was there? Uh, well, she's still with in the mix, but remember Brian eOne was the main guy. Okay. He got hired by horseshoe, Indianapolis mutual friend of ours stole him. And it's good because he's got six kids hill Murray guy, as you know. Yeah. Um, married, a gal that had a couple kids. They've had a couple sets of twins and now they have six. So he needed to be home on the weekends. Well, horseshoe, Indianapolis worked where they raced Monday through Thursday and he could do it remotely. Another one of the back of the pandemic. This is how we're gonna do things. So he has a home office with a camera and a desk, and he's the track analyst in Indianapolis, but he does it from smoke Dale, as you call it, smoke deal. Very nice. We love smoke Dale. I'm back at the track and that's really all I want. And you're not doing the tip sheets anymore. The tip sheets have been handed off to super stats. Dave, who is the guy that you see on TV court side at the wolves games, any stat you hear on the radio or TV broadcast comes from him. Super stat. Dave, super stats. Dave is the stats man for the, for the Timberwolves and for the NBA. And he's doing the tip sheet and Macy Paulson who worked for me is now working for him. Wow. How about that? It all ties together. And you have a daughter that graduated from high school, Anika just graduated. Um, she's gonna be going to Oak Claire. And, um, and as you know, you've gone done that dog and pony show there's dinners and grad parties and graduation ceremonies and all night parties and yada yada yada. But yeah, it's been great. She's excited. Um, and off she goes to O' Claire and off she goes and speaking of grad parties, Steve. Yeah. Has a son that graduated. Yay. Yep. My son, Ben just graduated from, uh, um, east Ridge in Woodbury. He's a Raptor, he's a Raptor. And uh, we had the big party last weekend, so I was, I've been preparing for that. So that's why that was good. Yeah, it was beautiful. It, it poured one at one moment, but otherwise it was just a beautiful day. And we were beneficiaries of the leftover bars. Yes. That, uh, Steve's mom and aunt. Made, and we won't say on the air whose were better. It's bit of a contest. Both delicious. Yeah. Both delicious. Yes. As the diabetic in the room, I'm feeling very frisky. Good about things right about now. Yeah. But Steve, you, you, you have a new job. Yeah. So a lot, a lot has happened since we saw each other. And I made a little list of things that just a big bullet points come up. Yeah. You I'm a bullet point guy. Oh, good. The pandemic slowed down, which is an amazing thing. Right. It's still kind of going, but it slowed down. Wait a second. Did you do show prep? A little bit. Wow. I'm so excited to see you guys again. That's awesome to be actually together too. It's cool. Pandemic slowed down politics, heated up. Um, I got a new job, which I love I'm whatever in white bear for be tail communications. Um, done some traveling. I've been around a little bit and actually got out of the, got out the state, which is kind of nice to do for a while. Um, I saw some concerts which I had done for a long time. Um, saw, uh, lemme see, I saw the revivalist at the new Fillmore. If you've seen anything. It's an amazing, I don't even know what that means. It's the, the Fillmore's down down below the, by the state, by the, uh, the twin stadium. Really? It's an amazing club. You'll you'll go to something there you have to. I bet I won't. I, no, you do. You need to, I saw Martin Zeller this summer sitting outside. Um, Nope. Not going to that one by the lake. It was beautiful. Hold on. I saw Nathaniel Ray lift at rock the garden. Oh, RA Rafer. That's my, that's my band. Really? We're gonna see them again in red rocks again. Okay. What about trampled by turtle? I saw them too. I heard they're fantastic in concert. That was last spring. Anyway. Yeah. Through saw some concerts actually got out, been doing some things. And is Gordon Lightfoot playing anywhere these days? I love Gordon. I think he still does play. I love Gordon. Canada's best. I'm so old. Um, and yeah, so it's been grad party season, so it's, I've been busy, but I've been really dying to get back and hang with you guys and do this again. Yeah, we gotta get this, uh, rolling again. It's uh, it's it's big fun. How about you Berg? What's new with you? Not a lot new. I mean, we've been, uh, my wife and I did a lot of traveling over the winter here. And, uh, you saw that on Facebook? Yeah. We've had some fun there and had, uh, Scott's got a place down in Naples, by the way. We spent some time down there. Our, uh, we have, I have two boys, my youngest. Breck and his college roommate came down, visited us and had good time there. And the Schwetz just came down and visited, just came down and visited us just about. Yeah. So here's the difference between Scott Berg and John schwas. I'm just gonna, this is, this will narrow it down for you. Well, we already know that you're less popular. We know that you've establi that mine is as popular as Scott Berg, but all. Scott bought this beautiful place down in Naples, Florida. And he had people there damn near every single day. He's living the kind of chronic during, during the month of months of January, February, March, I mean, not quite January and most of February, most of February, but then we started doing creeped into Mar March. It did, but then you started following Jamie playing baseball, but if I had a place in Naples, I'm not sure I'd be inviting many people to show up. It's like, I'd be getting acquainted with the couch, but it's like oxygen for you, Scott. It, it got a little exhausting that time. It did. Okay. Well, we were on the early side of it. Eyes. You're still enthusi. It was great having everybody, but it's, it's certainly some work and, uh, but we had a great time. It was awesome. Well, you realize what's happening is we're all getting older. We're starting to realize deep. The well you guys are, we're realizing the, uh, the brilliance of the Minnesota snowbirds that go to Florida in the winter. Like every year I go, that's, that's brilliant. You leave after Christmas and you come back in, like, I miss all the crap weather. Like winter's, that's the only way to do it here. Winter gets long. It's very smart and I love winter, but it gets long. It does. It does. And the really smart ones go down there for six months in a day, because then they, uh, tax purposes. Oh, Kinda nods guy. Like, don't worry about it. What I like to say is, I didn't know what I didn't know. Yeah. If you don't know it can't be wrong. That sounds good. Yeah. I, um, yeah, so things are, uh, things are going well. We all seem, oh, how about you, John? I have a new job. Yes, I have job about what's the title? Uh, um, I am the chief operating officer at Minnesota Mason charities, ed. Hello. And one of the things that I'm very excited about. Is, um, part of my responsibility is we have this heritage center, which is where we usually beautiful spot mm-hmm Um, and we got a 450 seat auditorium. And what we are going to do is we're going to start ramping up the, uh, the use of that auditorium for charitable purposes. And what we'd like to do is hire some bands to come in. And, uh, that's why I'm looking to you, Steve, you know, you might have some ideas, you know, maybe. Can get the, uh, the Johnny clueless of a revival tour rev. Yes. Oh, I, I didn't say we got a couple dates on the books, actually, even the 12, what a couple, a private show and a, and a show not far from here in, in November, the dugout, the dugout, November 12th, our child wise. And is, is that Johnny clueless? That's play there or is this the Rumage kinsman? No, no, no. Johnny clueless. Johnny Rumage kinsman that we don't. Get together as much anymore. Yeah. That was a fun little project that you had when you were in high school, right? Yeah. Okay. But we had a revival of it a bit, but I, I remember. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Johnny clueless. That's it's and that's kind of just a, but you were a drummer with the, the kinsman, right? Yes, I was. And then you transitioned to being the front man? Yes. Gotta be way more fun to be the lead singer. Let's be honest. Come on it, you, you do more observing as a drummer, you watch, you kind of see the whole night unfold. You see people it's kind of fun to people watch from, from that seat, cuz you're no one's behind you. You see all the, you see everything, um, as a singer you gotta kind of focus and you gotta like, you know, Pointed people. He, with the underwear they throw on the stage hit, gotta watch. It's gotta be really taxing. That's interesting. You know? No, that's funny. Have to go to their, I just saw the Elvis movie. They were throwing panties on the stage. I'm sorry. Is that wrong? Oh God, it must have been a thing. Yeah. I, I don't know anything about song or a thing. Oh, I'm sorry. You've talked derailed. This. My daughter is here for God. See, I thought she went upstairs. Let's right behind you. Cheese, keep it cleaned. God. Sorry about that. Wait until I see Anna connects time says the guy that 10 minutes go before. Did this, did this, I mean, come on. No. No. Okay. That's not. This will be added to out. Good Lord. Well, it's been a long, it's been a long time. I guess we gotta take another break. So there have been the world too much. All kidding aside. The world is, uh, is somewhat upside down these days. Yeah, yeah, no doubt. And if there's a time that we need a dose of Minnesota. Nice. It's gotta. Now, and we're not gonna get into politics, but what I'd like to talk about about we're not is the byproduct of politics, and that is this, this chasm, this division that seems to exist. And we're not gonna talk about Roe V Wade, but there's a, because of it, there is. And the thing that I, I just, I gotta tell you that just really irritates me more than anything is when people go on Facebook. And decide that they want to essentially alienate half of their quote, unquote, Facebook, friends by bringing up their, you know, either side of the, of that issue. You're gonna alienate a lot of people. Now I understand that that Twitter, I mean, Twitter is a great place because Twitter, you have followers and people, you cannot unfollow. Facebook has decided it decided that what they were going to do is create a community of friends. Yeah. And I just, it just drives me nuts that people use that, that medium, that platform as a place to, I won't any platform, I won't bring it up. I, I don't want a part of that discussion. It's it's to me, it's not a platform or platform. Or I want to alien or make people feel bad. That's not, I'm not into that. What point? I think people wanna express themselves, but there are better ways to do it. And you don't do it on social media. I think that is just causing an issue, but people like to do it. So that's enough about that. yeah, it brings you down, doesn't it? It just does. Yeah. It's definitely a weird time. It just, I've never felt this kind of thing before. One thing that I've done, that's actually kind of entertaining is, is there is a channel on, on cable that will show like six different news channels broadcasting at the same time. Fascinating, really? So you can watch Fox, CNN, MSNBC, What is the one in England? Uh, BBC, BBC, BBC. Yeah. Uh, the Canadian broadcast channel and then the weather channel And when you watch all six of'em at the same time, and you, you just see how. nobody is telling the same story. That sounds like an art installation. It sounds like a political art. It seriously. That's pretty cool. I never heard of that. It is insane. Um, and then, you know, what you do is you click on one of'em, you can toggle between them. Yeah. And then you hear the audio, but one channel is focused on this. The other channel is focused on that and it's no wonder people are nuts. Yeah. Because there, if, if you're watching one channel. All you're getting is the one side of the story propaganda from that side of the story. Mm-hmm if you're watching the other, all you're getting is propaganda from that side of the story it's overwhelming. And whenever anything happens in our society. And unfortunately, since we got together in February, uh, multiple mass shootings, that's where that social study of those different broadcasts probably gets magnified. To the ath degree. Oh boy. And I stay out of it. I have my own opinions. Um, and you know, it's, it's a no win situation to have an opinion right now. Uh, because like Roe V Wade, it's, you're one or the other, you can't, there's no mingling. And that's the sad part of politics in this country right now is. All or nothing. And that's not the way it's really supposed to be. Yes. Every everyone's vilified, vilified, everybody. Who's whatever it goes so fast to what? Well, thank God for us. Right. I mean, thank God we're making everybody just think about being kind, think about kindness and all those kind of things. I'd like to turn our attention to, uh, Mr. Berg. Yeah. Over here. So Scott, you have had an interesting career. You and your, uh, family have been in the car business for pretty much my whole life, your whole life. And when did your dad start the car business? Uh, my dad started, he came and my mom and dad came to, um, Minnesota. My dad decided he wanted to be a, told a car salesman and made my, uh, My mom's mother, a little worried because he had, uh, my older brother and sister, they had two, two kids and he said, no, this is what I wanna do and set his mind to it. And, uh, he came from somewhere, South Dakota. I was gonna say beyond smoke, small, small, small town in South Dakota called lions. And, uh, and, uh, so worked his way up into a management position with, um, a Ford dealership. And, uh, he and the other manager there got together and they found this dealership. Inver Grove Heights, which back then nobody knew where it was 1973, and was in the business for many, many years and, uh, sold, uh, sold his dealership back in, uh, 2007. I think it was now. So let let's go. 1973. Yeah. I was five car salesman. Did he have the plaid jackets probably, but my dad certainly wasn't a plaid jacket. He's not a, he's not a plaid jacket kind of guy. No, no. Now, if anybody knows Linberg you understand where Scott Berg got his, uh, his personality, because Len is about as gentle and thoughtful and kind of a guy as you'll ever. I mean, he really is. He is truly, you know, obviously I'm biased, but both my parents are just unbelievable and your mom is as lovely as can be. Um, so we're very, very fortunate. No question. So in your experience, in the car business, I would imagine that you've experienced damn near every personality type. Just absolutely walk us through, your experience as a, almost a pseudo psychologist. Uh, the range. Yeah. Tell us about the range of people. Well, I mean, they're all over. I mean, it's, uh, you know, it's a career favorite customers, you, John? Yeah, of course. About Cardi, I think, uh, yeah, you too. Yeah. Bacardi. Yeah. Guardi. Yeah. Guardi is the best. Yeah. Yep. Yep. The best. Yeah. CA you're talking about Ron garden. Ron Toby actually. Oh, Toby garden hire. Okay. But no, there's just a lot of different personalities and you're, and you're not just dealing with the personalities you're dealing with. Very, um, it's very, when you're talking to anything finance wise, it gets very emotional mm-hmm and, uh, so, you know, you do have to be, you know, kind obviously, but you have to be very careful to make sure that you're understanding we're selling these, you know, cars every day. These people are only buying once every, you know, somewhere, once every couple years, some once every. 15 years, you know? And so it's an emotional thing and you have to understand that, and it's a big deal for that. Well, it's a big deal and you have to understand that it, what a big deal that it actually is to people and, the biggest thing, you know, now, can I just interrupt for just a second? That right there tells me everything that I need to know about Scott Berg seriously, because he thinks of the other person's perspectives. I, I had never even considered the fact that when a person buys a car, it's. It's something that they do, you know, once every five, 10 years, whatever the thing is. Yeah. We're doing it every, you know, we're, you're doing it every day. Yeah. But the fact that you recognize that, and maybe that's in car selling 1 0 1, if you're good, it should be, it should be. Yeah. Okay. I interrupted you. No, it's fine. No, it should be that, that, and then, you know, I always consider myself and I would, what I would get in a position of actually training sales people and, and hiring and training people. One of the first things I'd see is we're not in the sales business as much as we are in the service business. So we're gonna provide service. We're gonna provide our service. First. One of the things that I did, uh, I, I, I said earlier 2007 where, uh, my, my family sold their dealership. I actually ended up starting or buying a small store out in mono, Wisconsin in 2009. And one of the things I said is we're gonna provide a service that is, we'll bring the car to you. and if you like it, great, if you don't, you know, we'll bring it back, you know? And so I'm, you know, completely joking a little bit, but it's, it's Carvana before it was car Carvana, you know, way time. And we'd say you. Most of the people that I knew from the twin cities from, or my family's business was, you know, I'd give'em the car overnight or whatever, but there'd be people we'd do. We wouldn't know who they are, but you know, we'd just go meet'em, we'd say we're gonna meet at a public place, gonna be in McDonald's it's gonna be a coffee shop, you know, whatever the case. And what made you, what made you come to that? Because it is more of a service idea. The concept is more of a service, I think. Well, I think we, the biggest thing was, you know, I came from a store in the twin cities. Yeah. I, and now I go to a small store in Menominee instead of saying, okay, you. Come out and see me Saturday and you wanna buy something, you better come see me. Right. Right. I just turn that around the other way. Cool. And make it easier. And yeah. And it worked out really well. It was very, very few times that we'd bring, uh, when I say we, as I had a great, I, I had a great management staff with me that a lot of'em came from our dealership in St. Paul and, and, and, and we would just. Very very few times. Would we go bring a car to him? Cuz we would tell'em look, if there was something wrong with it, um, it had a dent in the door. It, you know, it was scuffed up the tires weren't brand new, whatever. We'd let'em know right up. So that they knew that what they were dealing with, Hey, you know, I can add tires to it, but it's gonna add, you know, it's gonna be this much more and we try to price our cars accordingly. And, and as long as you're front with somebody said, listen, anything as long as you let'em know upfront what it is, and there's no surprises, the deal goes down pretty smooth. And it, it was interesting. The biggest thing was we would take in trade-ins based off of what the customer would say that they wanted, excuse me, the way that the customer would say, okay, it, it needs this, it needs. And usually they were. The customers were worse, uh, harder cars. They were harder on their, on their trade-ins. I was, which is shocking. Yeah. and so it was, it really was a two-way street. So I really, there was very few times that we'd bring a car to someone didn't finish up that we'd have the deal done before we'd go there. And then if they wanted to do it, they could sign the paperwork. And how often would there be a tradein involved? Because trade ins are general, generally you'd try to take something in at least 50% of the time and we need further. You need a ride after you drop off the cart. Well, you know, I had a lot of, it's not hit back, John. You know what my wife would help me a lot and, come, pick me up or you didn't have a chopper or anything like that. No, but I had a lot of people that, uh, that, that, that worked with me that are from this area also, and we would all, it was a coordinated effort for sure. And so it was good. A, a, an honest, Car salesman. Is that what we talking to? Right. They're all honest. They're all honest. So there were, but genuine above, there were some that I would say the ones that, that aren't are no longer around and I worked at a dealership during COVID. I think you guys know, I helped out over at Wal Toyota. I got a good friend named John Bai. That's still there. And I enjoyed the experience of learning about it. I enjoyed, I loved the people I worked for and worked with. I was overwhelmed by the actual idea of it, because at this particular dealership, we did the, like the salesperson did the finances with the customer and then turned it in and got it approved. And so the technology aspect and, you know, learning cars for somebody like me, that Scott can testify. knew very little. I mean, I, I knew nothing going in. It was a six month period where I was swimming every single day. I was in way over my head. But back to, to what Scotty said, you have to know how to treat people because people nowadays can get a car wherever they want. You bet. They come see you because of the way you treat them. And I'll guarantee you, he had a loyal list of customers, including. Some pretty famous people and, and athletes in town because of the way they were treated. They didn't need to go to Menominee. They wanted to, because of the Berg family, because of Scotty. So you sold Toyotas. Did you ever see the curb, your enthusiasm? I was gonna ask that too episode where Larry decided you wanted to sell Toyotas. Great episode. I gotta, I gotta see it because I'm a signed episode and you've never seen crossed over to. To that point. We've talked about this before. It's I think it's a season where he's gotta start watching curb. I gotta get into it. It's it's just, so does he actually end up at a dealership? Yes, he gets a job. So I will say this, the Toyota seemed like a great product. I, I, I mean, I think again, I learned on the go, uh, and I know you don't, you drive a Toyota. I have a Toyota. Oh, they're fabulous. Yeah, that's right. They go forever. There's there's really not, not any product again. Same thing. There's not any products that are out right now. That aren't good. I mean, they, they. You know, the, the walls organization's fantastic organization, good people for, oh, they're great. Yeah, but I still am driving the car that I got from Scotty and I love it. My Chris, I noticed that hundred. I know is that when I came in, did I, I love that car. Like I love it. And I'm gonna ride it until we saw the smoke. When, before you showed up this smoke, that's okay. It's very gangster. I very attached to things that matter to me. And I spent a lot of time in a car. I mean, clearly I'm driving to, and from the rink in the winter and to, and from the track in the summer and I'm moving. And I, I love that vehicle. I love my Chrysler. Wow. How does that make you feel, Scott? I think it's great. He picked the car out by the way. It's great. He picked the car up. Yeah, absolutely. He did. It's it's a wonderful vehicle. Anyway, one of the things that's funny about being friends with a guy who is a car dealer is every time you go over to his house, there's a different car in the parking, in his cool in his driveway because he, I mean, you gotta try ever, did you ever like. I mean, you owned a lot of cars but did you ever like buy a car in between when we sold my family's business in 2007 and I, and I 2009, but the, the new one in 2009? Yeah. You had to buy a car? Yeah. What was that like? And where did you go to buy it? I, well, I bought it for myself before. I You gotta get the commission commission. I dunno about the commission. he's not dummy. I probably got a good deal, you know, I bet bet you did so, yeah, that was good. What kind of car was it? Um, well I got my, my wife, a van, you know? Uh, yeah, because Chrysler town and country, cuz the kids, kids were very young. Well we machine the whole bit. Yeah, yeah. Yep. And, um, I think, I think I got, I was gonna say a van infinity. You're really leaning into that, uh, suburban dad vibe. So soccer mom, soccer dad. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Chrysler town and country. I think my kids were seven and nine years old. It was perfect. One of the safest vehicles you can drive. It was perfect. Listen to this guy. I rolled the mini van up and black tuck one time and survived to talk about it because how. Minivans are built. Oh, anyway, we're not getting into that. I wanna, I wanna hear more about the relationships that he fostered with some of these famous people, famous players. You wanna hear a great kindness story on yeah, pretty famous person. I, uh, well this is the kindness. Dante CU pepper, um, got a Dodge Durango from a speck. And when he was a rookie, I don't remember what year it was. And it was a one year lease and it was a, it was a trade out thing with Dodge, the, all the Dodge dealers. He did, uh, he was advertising spokesperson and, and he did a good job. I know, you know, we talked earlier about some people, you know, you get bad raps on some things or whatever the next year he, uh, it was just a one year thing. So the next year he wanted to get a Durango and this time he had to get it. You know, our dealership directly, he liked, you know, liked the car and everything like that. So he went to turn in his one year lease, which was part of his compensation with the Vikings when he signed his contract. Okay. So he went to turn in his one year lease, get his new one, uh, his new Durango from, from me. And I met him over at winter park and, um, I was waiting and, you know, he was a little bit late, which I didn't, I didn't care, you know, but I was just waiting for him. And then he pulled up and got out and apologized and I said, Hey, no big deal. Everything's fine. And I got out just to look over the car and I, uh, the one that he was turning back in and it was spotless and, and I said, wow, it's all clean. He says, it's clean. And it's completely full of gas too. And I said, well, I appreciate that. You didn't need to do that. He says, that's the way he gave it to me. That's the way he gave it back. My grandma told me that, oh, Dante Cal pepper. Yeah. Yeah. I love to hear that. Yeah. Yeah, no, he was, uh, very. Genuine guy who was a really good guy, you know, a gentleman. Yeah, he was, yep. Probably doesn't happen anymore. with gas prices. maybe with certain contracts, they can still handle it. Now. I'm pretty sure fact could have handled the, no, that is cool. It was really a neat, a neat thing. Yep. Yeah. That's great to hear. Yep. Who are some of your other, uh, clients favorites? Yeah, your, your. Oh boy. Um, well, one of my first ones with the Minnesota, nobody listens to this. So you don't have to worry about offending anybody. One of my, one of my first ones, uh, who I, you know, became friends with over Andrew Burnett. And, you know, you talk about a great guy. I mean, you talk about a quality person. I mean, there's just, there's, don't get better than him. He, so he was one of the very first ones. Um, and, uh, I think I ran into you and Andrew Brunett at the dugout. We were probably wait, Bruno had a couple beers. No, we were prob no, whenever he would need like a, you know, a little service work or if he'd get a new car or something like that, you know, that was always our place to go and do our paperwork. Best belly laugh I've ever heard. Yeah. I mean, literally really when him and Darby get going out on the town and start giving each other, the jabs, his belly laugh, it's undefeated. You cannot beat his belly. Laugh, such a neat. Darby is another client or customer of ours. And he, again, just, he's a lot, lot like you quiet guy, Darby's guy, nice to a fault and knows everybody like you and Darby. I mean that like, The same in a good way. Like they're same phenomenal people. Right? Darby's the best I winning quality, smile, quality guy. Mm-hmm for sure. Yep. Honestly, most of the hockey guys were just tremendous and that's not a shot at anybody else, but they're, there's just something about this hockey guys. They're just, they're just quality solids. Yeah, they really are. Yep. So it's been kg. Those hockey guys are solid guys. So says the hockey guy. I'm not a hockey guy anymore. I'm a no, no, no, no, no hockey. He's a podcaster right now. Yeah. I have a podcaster. Um, since we're talking about hockey, just switching gears, um, I've come to learn. So one, we have a mutual friend, Matt Bens. Oh, is the, uh, what is he? The assistant equipment manager, something like that for the wild there forever. A long time. And, uh, Mattie's dad passed away this spring. And he was just talking about how wonderful the guys on the wild were when they found out that his dad died and they there's, some something happened. And I don't know the, the, the details behind it, but like the guys really went out of their way to make sure that they acknowledged Matt and Matt's family. And Matt's dad, who was just one of these guys. I mean, you could see where Matt became the guy that he is because his dad was as, as, as good as they get. Um, well, I think it ties together with watching game six there night and the way that the avalanche handled the cup in the hour or two after the event, guys like Matt Bens are a part of the team, make no mistake about it. Like they are a part of the team. And when something that like, that would happen to a teammate. To a coach or to Matt Bens. It's no different. And to me that is pretty damn impressive because you know, a guy like Matt Bens, the average wild fan, probably wouldn't know unless they watched the broadcast and look down the tunnel right behind the coaches, because that's where he is. But he's the guy when a guy has a skate issue in the middle of the game and needs a skate sharpened or fixed within like a minute and a half. So the guy. Miss, miss a shift. He's the guy that grabs it from Tony DeCosta, the head equipment guy runs back, gets it. I mean, you think of a pit crew and he's a car racing racing. He's, he's a guitar tech, a guitar tech, and you know how important these, these folks are. That's right. And so he is literally looked at as a teammate. Yeah. And so when something like as traumatic as a, as a dad passing away, those guys. it's no different, like they're one of their own teammates and I think it's pretty cool. That's pretty amazing. And I think that Dean Evison and, and bill Garon have kind of magnified how that whole thing works together and made sure that everybody realizes just how important everybody else is. And I think, you know, hockey is you watch the cup and the celebration of their night and just the way they went about that. And it's the best in sports, in my opinion, is some of those moments because the, the unsung heroes, so to speak. Make this thing go and it's great to see them acknowledge them and, and make them feel so special. Yeah. How do you like looking through that, that thing in the, I don't love it, but you know, it, it, the mic is where it needs to be. So I'm kind of like, I feel. Judge Smails when they're in the meeting. And then, then he finally just takes the flowers. Danny, are you you? My friend, Danny. I'm gonna first get Danny mm-hmm mm-hmm so, um, my pal, one of the things that I noticed when watching you, uh, you know, through the, through the end of the season, the playoff season, you would do your interviews and let's just, let's just put the mask thing. Oh God. To bed. I know that people. Like rode your ass about wearing the mask you were required to wear the mask. That was not a choice. And I think we saw the young lady that worked for ESPN, um, throughout the entire balance of the playoffs through the Stanley cop. If she was interviewing a coach or a player, she had the mask on. And I think what got confusing for people is when, when I was just around the rink doing something, you know, whether I was doing highlights or, you know, pumping up this or pumping up that I, I can have the mask off. But if I. Within six feet of a, a coach or a player. The league mandated that I wore the mask and the one time throughout the entire season, we were in Carolina, late in the year. And we had just interviewed Matt Z. Carello about a milestone he had achieved. And as I got done with Z Carlo, I took my mask off to kind of recalibrate and Jonas bro was walked over by the media guy, Aaron Sigman, our PR guy, and I forgot to put the mask. and I'm not kidding you. Before we got on the bus, 10 minutes later, the league had sent a text to our, uh, PR staff saying, Hey, remind your guy. Wow. You have to have that Mascon. So the league was really, really on every team to make sure that anybody on the broadcast side of things, if they were with the players or coaches had the mask on. And yeah, it, unfortunately going back to where this whole conversation started about politic. It was not a political statement by me. I was following guidelines. I know. I don't look good either way, but I especially don't look good. I've watched it back wearing that mask. It's a terrible look, terrible mask, but I wanted to be with the guys I wanted to be around the team and that's the price you pay. And that's, I'm, I'm good with it by next year. I think we'll be cool. I figured it was something like that too. I, I, I was wondering too, but I figured he, it was maybe a rule, like when, when the camera wasn't on, did you have to keep the mask. no. Okay. I had to think about that. Like who's listening. No, like I'm the team bus in the hotel. No, no. So, I mean, it was really all for show. Yes. Okay. But the league, you know, they, and that's the corny thing because we're on the charter, you know, we're on the bus. Um, yeah, there was a time during the season. I will go back to more of the start of the season. When the pandemic spiked again, we couldn't leave our hotels. So we had to wear a mask on the flight around the guys. We had to wear a mask in the hotel. And normally when, when you get to whatever city, pick your town, St. Louis, you know, the media guys go up dinner here, the players go up dinner and we're all da, da, da for a month or two in the early part of the season, you could not leave your room. So the team provided a meal. You would go down and they'd give you the time where you could go down, you'd get one of those to go boxes. Yeah. You'd get your food. And then you'd go back to your room and you could not leave the hotel. And we did that for 6, 7, 8 weeks. That sounds fantastic. The players did not care for that, but they were trying to keep people on the ice. And then the whole thing changed towards the end of the year. When the outside of Canada, the league finally said, we're not gonna test these guys every day. Cuz we got tested all the time. At the end of the year, they finally said, okay. If a guy has symptoms, test him otherwise. Well, we're cool. Yeah. Well, the players are like, I'm feeling good. No, no worries. You know, all fine. But when they were testing every day or when you left the country, went into Canada, we had to go into the rink and get tested before the flight. And then you'd wait for the phone call within an hour later saying, yeah, you're, you're not able to fly, which never happened. Thank God to me. Wow. Um, when I was at the, uh, the wake for Matt's dad, he just talked about, you know, how special this group of guys were, you know, and it wasn't. In the context of how kind they were to him when his dad passed away, but just there was a, a vibe in the room. that was something that he hadn't experienced in all of his years with the wild. Was that your experience as well? I I've had this conversation with my family and friends. Now, since the season got over, I've been doing this job since 2006 and I will tell you, they all have been great. There hasn't been a bad group in the bunch, but this specific team with bill Garrin and with Dean eon, kind of running the. I have never seen anything like it, like above and beyond kindness, class inclusion. And I don't know if it's the pandemic. I don't know if it's just the people that are leading, but thi this group was bar none top to bottom, the nicest group of professional athletes that I have ever encountered. And I've had some good ones. I mean, there wasn't a bad bunch in Gardis tenure with the twins ever. Um, I've been very lucky, but this group of wild players, staff, the management team, I have never seen any. John I've never seen anything like it. And, uh, I think that's kind of the way this is gonna go moving forward. I just had a quick story about the wild this spring. My daughter Lucinda has never been to a game. She hasn't watched a lot of sports. Ever. One of her friends bought her a ticket to one of those playoff games. I don't remember what game it was. It was was only six serious. It was probably, it was probably like four or so. It was really exciting. She said she had no idea where she's in for. She sat down, they had great seats and people were crazy around her. She said, I don't know what that was, but, uh, she left how the fans are intense. She became a fan. She came home. And then now she's telling us all about how works she became. Filo. Let's be honest. Uh, yeah. Um, smitten for that young man. She was came home. She bought gear. She has a Jersey. She's just a sweater as they call it. Right. Sweater, sweater. Nice call. Yeah. She's way into it. So, well, there's not a bad seat in that seat happens. Yeah's not a bad seat in the house. I, she was blown away. I, I was jealous. I didn't get to go to a game, but anyway, it was a great season and she freaked out about it. So we have a mutual friend, right? Tony DeCosta is the head equipment guy he's been there. I believe since day one, since day one, he was the first guy wanna pick jets back in the day. Um, Damn funny. I like one of the funniest, not as funnies as you, John, but he's pretty funny. Um, Hey, what are you talking about? how long have you known Tony? I met Tony. He was the first person for the Minnesota while that I met. And, uh, he and I went out to breakfast, um, when he first got the position because he was new and wanted to get a vehicle and his name was given, my name was given to him and we went out to breakfast and we've been friends ever since, you know, such a good guy. Yeah. He's he's as quality as they get, you brought his name up earlier and I'm like, well, there's, there's one, he'd be a fun guy to have on the show. Oh, he'd be a great guy to have on the show. Well, let's go. What are we waiting for? Scott? Was it the ride back from a nominee? You guys became friends. No, this was, uh, actually when we were in Inver gro in time to make friends with somebody, no, it was, uh, 2000. Was that when the wild 2000 when they were born? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's amazing. It's unreal. Yeah, he's a, but he's a jokester. You gotta, you gotta be careful around him. He got me once. It's not, not for the show here, but, uh, I'll tell you after the show he he'll and I guarantee you he'll, he'll probably tell the story on the air, but, uh, Yeah, he got me in Boston a couple years ago in the hallway and the whole crew, including Ben was in on it and got the videotape it and, oh, it's brought up frequently now how gullible I am and I know I'm gullible. Um, but I, yeah, this, this was, this was too bad. I'm intrigued. That's well, as soon as we get off the air, I'll, I'll, I'll demonstrate, we'll have a special, uh, episode. Well, one of the things that I noticed, and I don't think I talked about it was when you get done interviewing guys. The way that they sort of greet you as you depart, you know, they're always very familiar. Like they, like you are part of the team. Yeah. They do treat us that way. And I, I always kind of feel like, you know, some of those guys, cuz you're so short compared to them, especially with their Jordan Greenway and FENO the guys like they wanna take their glove and just sort of mess up your hair. what hair I have left. What hair you have. Yeah. You know, it's funny because. You know, you, you get to know these guys on a professional level, but when you travel, you get to know'em on a personal level and you end up conversing with them about anything but hockey when you bump into'em right. The last thing they wanna do. Yeah. When you see'em in the hotel lobby, or if you're out at a restaurant and you bump in,'em the last thing they wanna do is talk hockey is that's the one thing I've learned in, in my time there. And so you end up hearing about their kids and hear about their golf game and hearing about anything. The hockey team. And it's amazing, you know, when you get this, this many quality people in a room and you get the right guys that are wearing the, the C's and the A's like Spurgeon and, and FENO, and Dumba just good people, right. They kind of set the tone and you mention. The way, those interviews end. Well, they there's, there's a specific way these guys treat all of us and they don't have to do that. They don't that's because of who they are. They're really just solid humans. Well, and it doesn't take a, a PhD in math to, to figure out that you could be the father of yeah. All of those players. No, no, like there's not a player on that team. My oldest daughter is 27. Uh, my middle daughter's 25. My youngest is 17. So if you look at. The roster right now and look at the key players like Matt Boldy is 20 years old. He's younger than two of my kids and it's not close. Wow. Um, yeah. It's and so one of the funny things that happened during the season is. Brian Carter sat down with Marcus FENO and they had footage of me. He's got great hair by the way, Brian Carter. It's a, he's got good hair. Anyway. They watched footage of the 1985 state turtle and I played goalie and FENO was obsessed with the equipment, right. Because he's lived in an era where the goalie equipment is completely different. Yeah. And classic. So he pulled me aside and he's like, tell me about your gear. Like tell me. What that was like, how much, I mean, it's just, it, it, it just, sometimes it blows you away, right? That they just, they have no idea. Like 85 for them is before most of these guys even have were born, were watching even highlights kg. Did you ever have to explain Cooper alls to them that has come up and they have an opinion on the Cooper alls, and it's not something they ever wish. They got to wear, but they like, the footage is sold. I mean, I know they weren't born, but I'm like, the footage is just it's. They, it just blows them away. Like, is it the flyers that were the, the Coopers at the Cooper LS and, and you know what spun that in the other direction is Gordy. How son mark, how was a defenseman? And he slid got checked and slid into the net. I remember the old school. Had that thing that jetted out in the middle yeah. To cup the puck and make it go around the pipe that went through his Cooper rolls and up his backside. Ooh. And had some internal damage. Oh man. On his back door. And, uh, that changed Cooper rolls and the nets forever because neither were back the nets from that point on didn't have that bar in the middle and the Cooper rolls went. Bye. Bye. How, how did mark do he recovered, but he recovered. Let's just say that the next couple months. It wasn't a lot of fun when oh boy. Number two came calling She says, okay, well, um, that's it for the kindness Chronicles for, uh, for season three um, I think that maybe you should, uh, bring back our favorite segment. Yes. The clueless quiz and put Mr. Berg through the clueless quiz. Oh boy. Yeah. Should we do that? Let it off. Let's try and do this. Oh, there you go. Get it all out. Get it ready. Let's right. I forgot about I'll. I'll roll off this, the letter, the scroll on roll this first. First. Question's not gonna move and let's let's let's do it. Rapid fire. You tend to. Hey, I know saying I have to give our guests a chance to answer questions and that's the I, what you really kinda superfluous with me therein lies the interesting part of it. You gotta get them talking, telling a good story. You gotta get a rapid, but so, you know, trying to I'm a journalist. I know you are a journalist. I'm a shepherd. Go ahead. You ready? Scott? I'm ready. I'll because I'm picking through, see here. Yeah. I'm trying to make it, help me rapid fire with a muske gun from the civil war. uh, okay. Scott, you ready? Iced tea or Kool-Aid Ooh, iced tea, Corki or bowling, bowling, saddest movie of all time. It's a no brainer. It's a no brainer. I I'm. Brian song Brian song. Oh yeah. Okay. It's kind of a sponsor of this program. I brought you by Brian song. I'm I'm I'm glad I didn't say Charlotte's web. Um, okay. Uh, George or Kramer. Oh, Kramer, Kramer, live band or DJ live band. Cool. Okay. Greatest concert of all time. What, what's your favorite show? What that I've been to? Yeah. Yeah. What you've been. I went to, um, uh, my wife, Tony and I went to prince at the myth. Oh, wow. So it was wow. Close and cool prince played the myth. He played the, I didn't know that either when it first opened or something or no, this was, this was just shortly before his passing. Really? We heard that private show. Well kind, I mean the myths kind of a private show, but no, I mean, we went up there and got tickets. It was two shows. One. Earlier in the day. I mean, I just can remember that one was probably, I mean, when I say earlier, one was probably at eight o'clock at night and then the other one was probably at whatever happened to the night. Is it just closed? It's closed. Yeah. I don't know. It's still closed. I dunno. I drive by all the time. Gold Bri guy still. I have no idea. Oaks, no idea. A whole different show. I'll tell you. It was, uh, it was really cool cuz there wasn't a ton of people we were out close. Yeah. That's something special. That was awesome. Uh, chess or video games. I'm not huge on either one. So I wanna say video games, I'm a big chess guy. Are you, what did you say chest, or, sorry, sorry about that. Why would you compare chest with video game? Uh, pudding or jello pudding. All right. Chocolate. What flavor? Pudding. Chocolate chocolate snack pack talk. kind of a vanilla. Yeah, I go that's. I like the butterscotch backpack. Butterscotch is good. Cut your mouth on that thing. Ouch. Taco Tuesday or fish Friday, Scott taco Tuesday. Uh, okay. Spring or fall. spring baseball. Oh yeah, there you go. Of course. What you're you're summer, you're a car salesman. You're a guy, you're a manager. You're, you're involved in the sailing selling of cars when, when you're an owner. You're everything. You're everything. Right, right. Yeah. So when are you most productive on your job? Morning. Morning, not even close. Okay. You're a morning guy. Yeah. Okay. Um, now this might, I dunno if this is your category, but I'm just gonna ask star wars or star Trek. star wars. Star wars. Yeah. Mm-hmm yeah. Yeah. We're on the table. Yeah. Be one, um, city or country living. Uh, I'm more of a city person. Okay. And you could live in any city in the world. What, where would you wanna live? Naples, Florida. Ah, it's pretty nice. Well, I didn't say Monte, at least. It's pretty nice. It's pretty, pretty good. All right, Terry, David. All right. Um, would you say you are, are you book smart or a smart ass? The second? no question in a good way. 4th of July or labor day, 4th of July. Um, I can't ask some of these, um, Crestor Colgate. Scott's got a winning smile. So, you know, Colgate Colgate of course. Yeah, the right answer. Okay. This is one of those good long ones that you guys, oh, here we go. Here we, here we go. Okay. Make a sandwich stepping on a two by two squared Lego in the middle of the. oh, when, when walking to the bathroom or, and you have kids, right? Yeah. So, you know, this feeling or getting eaten by a shark, which one would you rather? I crying out. Wow. I think I do the Lego so I don't wanna be eaten by a shark. I'm just, you have to have a strong dislike of Legos to want to get point of that, right? Shark. Yeah. It's it's the middle of the night and you're like stepping. It's not good. I get it. It's like the worst thing. All that's kind of the bit behind it, but it's not. I mean, if you really think about it, Shark. I mean a shark. Wouldn't be that bad. How about you? It's a shark bite. Not yeah, but you don't, you're dead. Your shark is dead. Step on a, okay. I keep, keep going. Get back to the quiz. If, if your friends would give you an award, what would they give you an award for? Best smile. Obviously, I'll go with that with kg. Yeah. Wow. Best smile. All for sure. All rate your handshake. One to. 10 being the best. He's a fucking car. He's a car sales boy. I'm gonna say nine or 10. You got a nine or 10. He's got a good grip. You do a double, you do like a handshake and you do the embrace. So I've always turned my hand up just a little bit to be more submissive to somebody. Oh my God. I wanna be the person that. Hey, I'm the car salesperson that I'm taking over, over. Yeah. So I've always turned my head. Psychology. Psychology. Yeah. John Guy, life I've turned my hand up. He's not all the way, but just a little, I like the submissive thing. That's I like to put my hand out. So they'll kiss it. John, you were very submissive back in your day, weren't you? Yes, I, and then, and then, and then as far as how, how, how much you grip would be yep. Based off of how much they do. All right. And also. Do you fist bump if it's like younger people and maybe it's not the handshake. Yeah. Yep. Hey, wait a second. Now it's funny. You should bring this up. Yeah. Uh, oh, fist bumps. Are the first circle of hell, I think fist bumps. So I, I, I'm just gonna tell you this really quick. Wow. I go to these grad. We go to a lot of grad parties. Yeah, you do. Yeah, I do too. I've been going a lot this year and I, I don't know if I, if I've turned into kind of a Larry David, but if somebody goes to gimme the fist bump, I, I, I said this the other day to a couple guys, I. Yeah. I'm not doing that. wow. Old curmudgeon. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not doing that. You make statement. Huh? That's that's kind of a Larry David thing. That is a Larry David. After I said it, I thought that's he just go? I'm not doing, I don't think so. You ever, ever actually wrapped someone's hand by accident. You go shake their hand and they give fist, you do like Sheldon Cooper, like it's awkward. They give you the knuckles and you just take, well, I think the fist bump started getting bigger because of cause COVID. Yeah. Yeah. So I still that fan, um, All right. What do you put on a hot dog? Ooh, ketchup, sometimes ketchup and mustard. Oh, wouldn't that be cool. If ketchup and mustard could come in the same boat. Hey, wait a second. That's an idea. That's an idea. That's a million dollar idea. Why would you call it? it'd be orange. That's for sure. That's for sure. CRA America industry Scott, you know both these guys. Oh, here we go. A fair square. This is not, this is not a fight. No, this is a wrestling match. A fair square wrestling match. Who would win John EKG? Well, we, someone already answered the question to that, right? No, no, one's the question. No. This is the first episode of the season. Yeah, we're gonna cut. gotta get back in time. I say that they would, it would be a tie. They would both be like so tired after a couple minutes. That is true. And go. You done would the best answer you're done. I'm done. I'm done. Part of the problem with, with wrestling with me is I would get so sweaty so fast. Like you could never get a good that. Ball when you go into the hoop and you're like slid sliding into slipping right off. I think the reason, so it doesn't, it's not really fair because Scott and you know, both these guys, but I think it's an interesting question because just judging by people who don't know you or they just hear your voices. Yeah. I just wanted to hear what they think. Interesting questions. I just think it'd be awkward, John and I are we'd probably start good, bud. Yeah. Well, we sogging no mouth to mouth. I think my answer was correct. Yeah. Yeah. Good call. Okay. One, one more just to kind of bring it on back together. To the kindness of, of it. Uh, who would be your inspiration for kindness in your life? I know who's an inspiration. It's my parents. Your mom, dad. Yeah. Gotta be, not even close. Yep. It's my parents. Well, well, I'm gonna, I'm going and my wife, she's Tony, Tony, Tony. She's as nice of a person and quality of a person as you'll ever meet. She's awesome. So, thanks for taking this, John, would you agree? I absolutely would agree. Yeah, Tony's awesome. I would agree. I, um, you know, the, the Tony question answer is sort of weak because you know, but it's true, but let's face it. Your parents are, my parents are yeah. As good as they do. Very fortunate. And, yep. And I mean, just for marital bliss, you probably wanna say Tony, so I understand she's listening overall is listening. Well, this has been another, yeah. Fun. We're back adventure where feels good. We're gonna, we're gonna do one a week. Okay. Just everybody plan on. Hey, I ought say too, it feels nice to be at the, in the, in the Schwetz home, sitting at the table, sitting at the table. Great. Eating some break bars, some bread together, pizza, some bars covered cheese and non-alcoholic beverages. I'd been invited to be, uh, over at the, um, in Bloomington a few times. And I like this better, John it's the, the commute is the commute is much easier. There's no doubt about it for some well, on that note, that. Welcome back to the kindness Chronicles. Uh, we hope that, uh, you will, uh, tune in, tell a friend and off we go, oh, by the way before off we go, our next, uh, next guest we're gonna have on is a guy by the name of Steve Adelman. And Steve is a, a, a buddy of mine who recently wrote a book called OC turnal admissions, nocturnal admissions. okay. Yeah. It's clever title. It's a very clever title. And let's just say to give you a little tease, this guy takes you behind the velvet rope, and I've always wanted to go behind that velvet rope. I can't wait. And he wasn't a strip club guy. No, no, but there was some of the biggest, uh, clubs in New York city, Boston, Los Angeles, Singapore. He's a fascinating guest, very fascinating guest. And, uh, look forward to talking to him and off we go.