Charley Walters

We enjoy a chat with legendary St. Paul Pioneer Press Columnist,  former Minnesota Twin and all-around great guy Charley Walters

Transcript

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Welcome to the Kindness Chronicles, where once again we hope to inject the world with a dose of the Minnesota nice that it desperately needs. Had a long weekend. We're here with Steve Brown. Hey! Hello Steve. Good day. Our boy KG. Kevin, where are we calling you at? I'm out in the beautiful city of Plymouth, Minnesota, uh, getting some errands rung. And after the podcast, I think everybody will be shocked to realize I'm going to do another movie. I know shocker, One of my favorite actresses is Elizabeth Banks. She's a huge horse racing fan. A know that about her. Anyway, she's got a new movie called. a mistake and she plays a doctor who makes a critical error on the surgery table. And unfortunately, the patient passes away and then there's all kinds of litigation and drama from that point on. I love her, so I didn't want to know too much about the movie. But, um, since we always talk, you know, in my segment of the intro, Movies and sports. That's the direction I'm headed tonight. That's fantastic. KG got us a guest this time. Yeah. KG, why don't you introduce your friend? Well, I'm very excited about this show. Uh, Charlie Walters is a name that I think people are very familiar with here in the Twin Cities. Nearly five decades, he's been a sports columnist. At the pioneer press. And, you know, we talk about this on the show on a regular basis. You know, we all have different careers and we come across different personalities, different people, and in the sports world, I'm going to tell you, there's a lot of really good people, but there are just a select few that go above and beyond when it comes to kindness. And I look at Charlie Walters. And the kindness he's shown me now for the better part of two decades, every time I saw him at the ballpark or at the rink or around town, um, out of his way to help me out, but I've watched him when he doesn't even know I'm watching dealing with, you know, young kids, they're just starting in the business. Pulling them aside, helping them out. Um, this is the genuine article when it comes to kindness. And let me tell you, I know young people listen to our show and they get their updates on Twitter. Before we had Twitter, um, you had to go. to shooters column to get any rumors, any updates. If there was a coaching change, percolating it, Joel Maurer is rumored to be, uh, the twins first pick in the draft, even though he had football opportunities, any scuttlebutt you needed, forget Twitter. This is the guy. This is where you found it. And for five decades doing the same job, you know, you're damn good at it. Charlie Walters, welcome to the show. Kevin, thanks. Yeah, thanks, guys. I love the Welcome to you guys. I love the Kindness Chronicles. I love that, wanna start by mentioning, uh, I have to acknowledge our friend Scott Berg. Scott, is the one that Connected us with Charlie. Charlie is the neighbor of, uh, Scott's parents. And, uh, anybody that knows Scott understands that, the original kind man is, Len Burg. And, uh, and his bride, yeah, you couldn't have nicer people than the Burgs, so. Yeah, we hit the lottery on that one. So do you live right next door to them? Yep, right next door, and Scott will tell you that many evenings, when the weather is beautiful, we have what we call Club Berg. We're out in the front, and we might have a beer or a cocktail or something, and This is a few weeks ago in the Florida, so we'll miss them a lot, but they are, they're just the best. Wonderful. They are going to escape, they're going to escape for the winter. I know that, uh, Scott, Scott's been missing them. So, your loss is Scott's gain. He's Yeah, he's a wonderful guy. Him and Tony are wonderful. You know, he's like, he's almost like Kevin. He knows everybody. Yeah, he does know a lot of people. Well, I'm amazed that, uh, we'll be chatting out when he's around at Club Bergen. And, uh, I'm just astounded that, uh, he's quite a sports fan. Better more of a sports fan than me. he's a good kid and his brother Brian is terrific too. I just want to go back to the 80s for a second. Charlie, when did you become a writer for the Pioneer Press? What year was that? Well, uh, it was 1975, I think it was. 1975 is when I began at the newspaper. I've retired five times, but they keep sucking me back in there. So, uh, it's been a wonderful place to be, and I've got great people. For whom to work, and work with, and I'm, I'm really glad I accepted the, the last deal. Nine years old back in the mid seventies. And my dad was, you know, huge sports fan, huge, uh, you know, St. Paul guys. So the pioneer press, that other newspaper, we didn't even know what that, that, that, that even existed, but, um, absolutely. But I became very acquainted. When did you start doing the, uh, the, you know what, let's go way back for a second. Charlie Walters has one of the most interesting, multifaceted career, multifaceted career. And, um, the Schweitz family, we are a baseball family. I have two boys that, uh, that played baseball at St. Thomas. Uh, they're still playing town ball, Montimedi high school. Uh, and they, they, they play for this air freight baseball team that, uh, The Maurers were involved in that years ago. The rumor, and maybe you could put this in your column, that Joe Maurer might come back and play with Air Freight for a couple of games next year. Ooh. That's, that's That's a six pack column headline. Well, and what's super funny is my son Ben is a catcher, and he's not the catcher, he's a catcher. The catcher is a guy He'll get booted? Is actually a guy from Matamedi. Uh, named Charlie, uh, Bartholomew, fantastic baseball player. But the idea of Ben starting in front of Joe Maurer at catcher Oh my God! Well, that's a, that is a big problem, by the way. That's pretty neat. But, so, back when you were in high school, did you go to Edison? Yeah, I was in Edison High School, uh, bottom quarter of my class. Maybe, let's say, top 75 percent of my class. Me too. And, uh, but I was, this whole thing, I don't know if you guys are interested in that, but the whole thing Very interested. When we were kids at the Northeast Minneapolis High School. And we'd have about a dozen of us playing ball games, uh, uh, all summer long, every day. And so, on Christmas, my mom, uh, got me a typewriter, a little typewriter. And I, you know, I, I deliver newspapers, the Minneapolis newspaper. I'd be up there about 5. 30, 6 in the morning. And, uh, before I just, uh, started delivering them, packing them into a bag, I'd, uh, I'd read this guy, Sid Hartman, and I thought, well, this is kind of interesting. He wrote about people and he's trying to string eight one syllable words together with a period, but it works. And, and, uh, and I thought, oh, this is kind of neat. And I thought, this guy can do this. I might have a chance to do this kind of thing. So I, we play these ball games and I pretend I was a sports writer. That's probably. 12 years old, 11, 12 years old. Then I went down to the local dime store after my mother got me a typewriter for Christmas and I got a stencil and I stenciled on the top of the, I got carbon paper and I stenciled. At the top of the typewriting paper than my neighborhood news and these are the days when you could go around and open people's screen door and I'd do a page or two of my sports reporting from the game from the games above with the kids the day before and I'd pretend there was a portrait so I did the whole thing and then I And then I, I go to high school and I was a sports editor of the, uh, of the Edison Record, uh, of the high school newspaper. And then I, uh, somehow I won a few writing awards at the Minnesota State Press Association and so on. Then I think, uh, well, I'm gonna,, go to college. You know, they're the only two things I ever wanted to be. As a youngster, and that was to be a newspaper guy and a Major League Baseball player. Maybe you guys wanted to be a Major League Baseball player. Mission accomplished! What is that? A hundred thousand, a hundred thousand and one odds to become a Major League Baseball player. Kidding. And when you're not very smart, the same way for the newspaper thing. But I pursued that and I loved it. And then I, uh, and then all of a sudden, I'm 18 years old, just graduated from high school, and the Minnesota Twins are having a tryout camp at Old Metropolitan Stadium, and it was a two day tryout, tryout camp, and, uh, we had a guy at our high school as assistant principal, Hal Young, who had some minor league baseball background, so this was a two day thing. I wouldn't dare go to a Twins tryout camp, uh, because I just didn't think that I would qualify enough, and, but Hal called about 9 o'clock one night. at our house in Northeast Minneapolis and said, uh, Charlie, uh, I watch you in high school a little bit. You got a live arm and all that stuff, you know. Why don't you go out to that tryout camp? I said, it's for young hands. It's the second day. I don't think that's worth it. He says, well, think about it. And so then I hung up. And my dad was in the living room. I remember this distinctly. And my father said, who was that? And I said, that's Mr. Young, assistant principal at Edison. And he said, what did he want? And I said, well, he suggested I go out to the twin trial camp. And my dad said, well, that's awfully nice. If he was kind enough, thoughtful enough to ask you to do that, you, you do it for him, not for you, you do it for him. So, uh, so I went out there and they, there's about 300 kids and they We, I'm standing in line with all these guys, there's an 18 year old American Legion baseball and the pants and the jersey and the gloves and this lap of number on it, on our back, I think I was like 273 or something. You sit in the stands and then they wave the pitchers over here and so on. And then finally I go out there, I'm throwing, you know, wild. In fact, I was throwing the ball all over the place, so I figured if I'm going to do anything here, I might as well give it all I got. So I'm throwing as hard as I can. I remember my last year in the minor leagues, I played 7 years in the minor leagues. And last year, I remember a writer, reporter in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, class double A team, wrote If home plate were high and outside, Walters would be in the Hall of I was at that tryout camp and there was a disadvantage to the hitters because they couldn't walk so I'd throw a ball over the backs off and the next one near the strike zone and the next one wide and outside and all that stuff and they liked the fact that I was throwing hard and then all of a sudden that allows me to throw a guy named Joe Haynes to it. Played at the Calvin Griffiths, who owned the Twins at the time. Uh, he, I get an announcement. Well, Charlie Walters come by and home plate. I go back there. He says, how'd you like to play baseball? Minor league baseball. I said, a professional baseball. I said, yeah, sure. And he says, uh, and he said, well, we'll send you a contract. 400 a month to play at a place called Thomasville, North Carolina. Now I'm 18 years old. So I looked up Thomasville and, uh, that's the place where they, they closed up the zoo one summer because the frog died. So I'm in a place called Thomasville, North Carolina, and then a week later, I come home a week later, I got a contract in the mail, Minnesota Twins minor league contract to play at Thomasville, which is about as low as you could get in class D. I think it was the equivalent of then, and there was a check in there for a hundred dollars. And I said, yeah, look at this. And so it's a bonus payment, paid in full, and it had Calvin Griffith's name on it. And so I showed it to my dad. I said, Dad, what do you think? He said, well, did the twins say anything to you about getting a bonus? And I said, no, and this is, it's 100. My dad said, well, let's keep it for a week. And if they don't call or say anything, Then you can cash it. You can keep it. Oh my God. Then you can cash it. I've got a copy right here in my, uh, I would hope so. The twins made a copy of it for me, a replica. So anyway, and then I, uh, started going on there and playing. And, I did pretty well. I played a bunch of different places and all of a sudden, uh, 1969, I get invited to the, uh, Twins Major League Camp in Orlando, Florida, and Billy Martin, I don't know if you remember Billy Martin. Who doesn't remember Billy Martin? Even I know who that is. Okay, and uh, and so um, and so my first two years Big League game, we're in Lakeland, Florida, playing against the Detroit Tigers. They had just won the World Series the year before, 1968. Billy's bringing me in, I don't know, fourth or fifth inning or something. And so I, I, I go out there to face major league hitters for the first time and the first guy I face is a guy named Al Ceylon. Oh no. I, I throw three strikes right by him. One, one on the knees, one the belt, one high and, and uh, struck him out. I remember turning around. And look in the center field and actually saying a little bit, Dear Lord, if nothing else happens with this deal, this is just enough for me. You can stop right here, and I don't need any more of this. That's unreal. And then it's all in the hall of fame. And then I'm pitching Pittsburgh City. Pirates, I'm going to strut out Willie's Dodger, another Hall of Famer, and I'm going to pitch against the Dodgers and the Walterhoffs and all that stuff. So Billy comes time to, uh, cut down a 25 man roster and, and, uh, and Billy says, I'm in the outfield one day, you can go call your parents, uh, uh, tell them you're coming home. Anyway, made the club. Wow. And, uh. Oh my. I just turned 23 years old. So on the first five ballgames, he put, put me in a, uh, uh, uh, didn't give up a run. And then, uh. Six or seven game. I can't remember what it was in my last game. I pitched it against the Baltimore Orioles and, uh, at Metropolitan Stadium, and that was, again, the fourth or fifth inning. I think we were losing at the time, and Billy breaks me in. First guy he faces is a guy named Brooks Robinson, Brooks Robinson, now this is real Major League, not spring training. First pitch, uh, Brooks winds down the left field line for a single. The next guy up is Frank Robinson, another Hall of Famer. Oh my god. Takes my ear off. Let me guess. Takes my ear off the line drive. Then Boo Paul comes up. Oh. Takes my next pitch on the right field line. Billy comes out. Takes me out of the game. He's just giving me the ball. And he said, Billy, I'm not third. He said, yeah, but our outfielders are third. Oh god. And, and John Roseboro, the catcher, I don't know if you remember Roseboro, Kopecks, right, they don't know those guys, Dodgers. He's got all those great pitches. So, as I'm walking off the mound, I hear Billy say, Rosie, what was he throwing? I don't know. I haven't got one yet. Oh my God. So that's the end of my Major League career. And then I got, then Billy gets fired, and I get traded to Washington Senators, and for a guy named Brant Elyea, who came in here and hit, had seven RBI's his first game, and I remember Calvin saying, It's the best deal I've ever made, trading Walters for Elyea. Oh my God. And then, uh, And then I played three more years and all of a sudden I'm 25 years old. And during the winter, I played four years of winter ball, but I was able to accumulate a few, uh, quarters. And then I, uh, uh, finally got, I couldn't get enough money to play, continue playing in the minor league. So I went back, registered at the University of Minnesota, and a year and a half later, I I finished my journalism degree in journalism school and here it is boys, 49, uh, 49 years later. Wow. I gotta ask, I gotta ask you, Charlie, do you have multiple or at least one Charlie Walters rookie cards? Because I have to imagine for a youngster like yourself, that had to be a moment in time when you could see your own baseball card. Yeah. Well, that's a good question, Kevin. And I sort of had that, they took a team picture. I have the team picture of 1969 Twins. I'm in the team picture of top bubblegum card. In those days they'd send you a coupon thing, a little booklet that says you could have 500 from top, uh, for the, for the, until we can make your baseball card. Or you, you get it, this little magazine that says there are all kinds of appliances and that kind of stuff. So, yeah. I was living, living with my mom and dad just 22 years old. I said, mom, anything in this thing you, this magazine you need? And she said, yeah, it's uh, we need a new dishwasher, I said, they got one in here, mom, it's yours. And that, that's top, uh, baseball bubblegum. But I don't have, do not have an individual card outs gone after 40 days and 40 nights. And, uh, and, uh, but I do have the, in my office here where I am, I do have, uh, copies of the, of the, of the top, the official top team picture of the Minnesota Team in 1969. So, it's kind of neat. You know, I think back to when you were, uh, when you, when you struck out Al Kaline on three pitches. Yeah. It had to have crossed your mind that maybe this is time for the first pitcher's walk off in the history of baseball. It's like, you know what? Struck out Al Kaline, this guy is going to be a hall of famer. This has been great. I got to tell the greatest walk off story and this is, uh, I may have mentioned this in the past, so my son, Jack, who played at St. Thomas, one of his roommates and teammates for a couple of years. he was a teammate only for a couple of years and you'll understand why in just a second. Name is BJ Hulls and I love BJ. Great kid. BJ was a center fielder. But St. Thomas had a, a, another guy who also incredible athlete, great center fielder. B. J. wasn't getting a lot of playing time and B. J., pretty smart kid, academic guy. And during fall practices, B. J. launches the longest home run ever hit at the field on the corner of Creighton and Selby. And as he's rounding, Third base, he takes off his helmet and he walks over, he crosses the plate, walks over to the head coach, hands him the helmet. Takes his jersey off and says, gentlemen, it was a pleasure playing for you, And he walked off. Wow. That was the greatest walk off home run. Wow. Wow. Is that a true story? That's an absolute true story. What's his reasoning? What's that? What's his reasoning though? Just he, he, he, he knew he wasn't gonna get playing time. That's it. And he was gonna focus, it's, it was division three baseball at the time. And he's like, you remember who the coach was? Yeah. Chris O'Lean. Oh, that's fairly recent. This was dad. This was just, this was four or five years ago. Classy. What a classy move. Yeah. I love that. But he handled it with class and BJ, you know, BJ's, uh, he's in law school right now in Chicago. He's doing just fine. But I, I'll tell you, I knew his dad and I called his dad, Jack called me. Cause that, that is like a legendary story. Yeah. And B. J., he said, you know, he just decided that this baseball just wasn't for him. And he thought, I'm gonna get into one of these pitches one of these days, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do. But, you know, going back to your story, Charlie, after striking out Willie Stargell and, uh, and, uh, facing some of those guys, did you ever face Paul Blair? Yeah, Paul Blair hit a homerun off me at, uh, at, at, at Palm Stadium. It cleared by about one inch. Oh, no kidding. Left field feet and, uh, I feel, uh, Yeah, I, I would say that, uh, Blair was pretty lucky there, but, uh He was a great player, and uh, they played the Mets in the World Series that year, you know, 1969. Yes, yep. The Orioles. My dad started collecting baseball cards for me, at a very young age. So I've got all those cards, the Frank Robinson, Boog Powell, Brooks Robinson. Oh, so cool. And the Paul Blair card, for whatever reason, I loved Paul Blair. He's a neat player. Yep, he's a good player. He kind of galloped around. He's very smooth. Very smooth. He was just cool. He kind of loped around. Yeah, he was a cool guy. I'm speaking as an observer, I don't think. Yeah, he's a good player. First run I gave up was in the big leagues, Paul Blair. No kidding. Well, if you're going to give it up, give it up to somebody cool. So, one of the reasons, Charlie, that we wanted to have you on, well, for starters, I just want to mention, You know, you mentioned the fact that the only thing that you wanted to be as a youngster was a professional baseball player and a writer. And that was mission accomplished. Yeah, you know I'm not an optimist. And I'm not a pessimist, but I am a realist. Yep. I, those things are, I was figuring, these are probably unattainable. But one thing I can do is I can try hard. And I tried hard, and that all came. So it's been an improbable career, but it's been pretty neat. Well, let me ask you this. 77 now. Are, are there any. Other writers that, you know, part of the, what is it called, the Baseball Writers of America? That we're Writers Association. We vote for the Hall of Fame. Yeah, do you guys I still vote for the Hall of Fame. So, any other of those writers have time in the major leagues? No, not at all. In fact, there was a guy, and I'd have to look at my bookcases here, but there's a guy, Holtzman, what was his full name? His last name was Holton. He was a long time Chicago baseball writer. He thought that that was pretty neat that I played in the big leagues and then became a sports writer. I'll say, yeah. If there's ever been another one, credibility. There might have been one other guy way, way, way back. I'm not sure. But it is a, it is kind of unique. Yeah, it certainly wasn't Patrick Royce down in Fulda, Minnesota. He never That's a lot of talent, that kid boy, I'll tell you. Yeah, that's right. Like I say, it's an improbable career. It's been pretty neat. So in all of those years I would imagine that you've had the, the pleasure of encountering countless famous athletes. Yeah. Yep, yep. Um, just tell us some of the, uh, of your favorites, you know, the people that, that just struck you as, as the kind of people that you'd want to spend more time with. I, I, you know, I, I was on the field with five Hall of Famers, uh, Harmon Co car, and. But of 49 years in the sports writing business, and even playing before that, I played seven years total, uh, cutting the minor leagues. I can tell you that the nicest guy I've ever met was Carmen Killebrew. And I don't know if Kevin had a chance to meet him, but he'd probably say the same thing. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't just plain nice guys. And of course, the. Uh, right next to him, the smartest guy I've ever been around was Paul Molitor, you know, he's, he's, and a really good friend of, uh, even Mahler, you know, both those kids went to Creighton Jerram High School, and they're the nicest guys of all the guys I've, I've, uh, I've been around, I could say those two guys, you know, I remember when I was in journalism school, I sat in the front row, Uh, because I didn't hear very well. And, uh, we had a professor named Stephen Harkin. He gave us Harkin rule number one, journals of class 1101. those of you who graduate here, those of you who make a career out of interviewing people, Uh, remember my rule, Harkin rule number one, he said, whenever you're interviewing anybody, whenever you're asking anybody questions at the same time, be asking yourself, why is this SOB lying to me? And so that's the best advice I've had in this 49 years. But I, you know, it's. I mean, they're just, most of the guys, and Kevin will attest to this, you run into, if you're fair and a decent guy, they're really good to you too. I've come across some jerks and all that stuff, but,, you know, I got a call one day, uh, I'm sitting in the office. This is about, I don't know, 15 years ago, 12 years ago or something. Somebody called me and said, uh, Charlie, if you call this, and I still to this day don't know who it was, but if you call this telephone number, uh, you'll be talking to Walter Payton. Well, Payton was dying. He died like a week later. So I called his telephone number. The guy lit me a tip and he said, he's in a Chicago hospital. So I called him and, uh, I called his number and I said, who's this? He says, Walter Payton. So he died in about a half an hour before he died. I don't know who helped me out on that. What a thrill. Yeah, it was, it was. One of the funniest things, uh, I've encountered. We had a guy who's managing the twins by the name of Billy Gardner. And, uh, one of the funniest guys I've ever, ever met. And I got a call from Gardner. This was about 11 o'clock in the, or 11 o'clock in the morning. We had two newspapers in those days. It was the St. Paul Dispatch, that's the afternoon paper. And I got a call from Gardner. He called me Chaz, and his nickname was Flick. But he says, Chaz, and I said, this is Flick. I said, yeah, what's up, Billy? And he said, he's the manager at Twix. He says, uh, I said, what, what are you, what's going on? He says, well, I'm in the Maplewood jail right now. I said, what, what? And, uh, and I says, what's that? He says, you just had a reporter up here. Uh, going through all the, you know, the news stuff, the information and, uh, the records. And I'm wondering, is there any chance you can keep this on the paper? Oh my god. And at that moment, there were a bunch of that kind of stuff. And anyway, at that moment, a guy was walking past with the afternoon paper, and I looked at the paper, it had a six volume headline. Gardner arrested for drug driving. Oh. Paper I just flick it's a six pound headline. You want me to read it to you? He said no No, he says I was just hoping there's somebody could keep it out of the paper So I said well tell me about this because they put me in a cell and with the thought with this other guy Who was in there for being drunk and he's bought he's vomiting and all this stuff until it So he put me in the cell and, and this guy lift his head up and he's loaded and all that stuff. And he says, who are you? And Gardner says, my, he referred to everybody as pal. He says, my name's Billy Gardner pal. And the guy says to him, well, what do you do? And Gardner says, well, I'm the manager of the Minnesota Twins. And the guy says, are you're the manager of the Minnesota Twins? And governor says, that's what I do. And the guy says, Oh yeah, well, I'm Calvin Griffiths, the guy says, are you really the manager of the Minnesota twins? And Gardner says, yes I am. And then the guy in the cell says, Any chance I get two tickets for tonight's game? Oh, come on! I'm sorry, I wrote all this stuff, you know. And so they, and so uh, Gardner says, I don't think you're gonna be in shape for tonight's game, pal. And uh, I said, what? That's funny stuff. Can I write that? Yeah, go ahead. Well, and, and what I recall of the writing that you do, is that is it tends to be more on the positive side of things. you're not like a critic. No, I'm not interested in that. I'm just interested in news. And fun news! Uh, yeah, well, it's interesting. I hope it's interesting. I hope it's, uh, uh, readers enjoy it. They seem to enjoy it. You've been doing it for 50 years. Somebody's reading it. Yeah, it's been fun. But there's also, there's so many different episodes and stories and unforgettable things and all that stuff and, uh, you know, I'll tell you the greatest, I've covered World Series, Provo Seats, the World Series, uh, NBA, All Star Game, U. S. Open, Stanley Cup Finals, uh, Ryder Cup, you know, the whole, uh, Super Bowl, So, The greatest story in my 49 years I can tell you is this is probably, oh gosh, 40 years ago. I'm out at, uh, Cuomo Lake in St. Paul, and it's January and it's cold late January, and I'm standing there because in those days our paper covered a lot more than we do now. We have more space and all that. Yeah, I'm covering the National Outdoor Speed Skating Championship at the finish line, hanging around. The youngster comes by, he comes skating, skating through the finish line, he must have been, I don't know, 10, 11 years old, wearing a parka and all, a grey parka, I remember that, and he comes, he finishes the thing, and he goes, finishes the race, he wins the national championship for his age, and he skates right over to his father, and I was standing next to him, I didn't know it was his father, he skates right over to his dad, he puts out his hand, he says, Dad, you promised, And his dad took out a case of, a package of Marlboro cigarettes and he gave them to his son the kid, uh, made his dad promise and his dad told him if you win the national championship, I'll quit smoking. Oh, wow. So that's probably the, uh, you know, all the things I've covered. I mean, stuff like that. And the fact that you were there to witness that. I just happened to be there. Talk about serendipity. Yeah, Serendipity. Pretty good, pretty good story. That kind of stuff is what I'm interested in more than stats and numbers and analytics and all that stuff. Yeah, that's human stuff. That's cool. Can you tell us, can you tell us about, you wrote a story back in the early 80s about Johnny Padres. Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, I'll tell you, now Padres and Gardner lived in the Super 8 in Maplewood. Kelvin, believe it or not, Kelvin was the only, this was early in the season, their wives were back in. Their homes. Their homes. And so pod and, uh, Gardner, uh, lived together at Super eight because Calvin would pay their, you know, on the road he'd pick up the tab, but they had, they had to pay at home. It didn't matter to them, uh, where they lived. So these two guys are roommates at a super eight. Yeah. And yes, maple Times changed. Well, yeah. Gardner's, yeah, right. Gardner's telling us a story about how, uh, the night before, uh, uh, about 3:00 AM a truck driver backed into their room. That the Super 8 knocked the wall out. And, uh, we're laughing. And so somebody says, uh, Flick, uh, uh, where are you going to sleep tonight? The wall goes knocked down, and Flick says right away, Gardner says right away, Tonight, boys, we're sleeping. Sleeping at the or staying at the super seven Stepping up Speaking of funny things down. I covered i've covered all kinds of guys little holtz came up here. I think it was 1984 Yep, and they fired him in arkansas And so we had a news conference And somebody said to him, Lou, are you going to get take some of those kids that committed to you at Arkansas now that you're the Gophers coach, trying to get them to come to Minnesota. And this true story holds is, uh, oh, that wouldn't be ethical. Well, two days later, he's got these kids from Arkansas, uh, in his office, and I ran into Holtz, and I said, you said that wouldn't be ethical, Lou, and he says, that's right, but I didn't say I wouldn't do it. That's fabulous. Uh, I mean, you know, we, Holtz was a beauty too, but, uh, anyway, and now he's 80, I think he's 87 years old, I saw the other day. Where did the nickname Shooter come from? That was a, you know, that was in spring training that we talked about earlier, 1969. And I was throwing really hard. If you, if Kevin asks Tony Oliva, he probably knows that. You ask him how, what was Walter, what was Walter's like as a pitcher, Tony would tell you, BBs. He'd throw BBs. So I was throwing, I was throwing fastballs. I was striking a lot of guys out in the spring training and that's how I made the club and Bob Allison. I don't remember Bob Allison. He's a great guy. Great player. And he, he was, I, I spoke to a couple of guys in spring training and he came up to me later and he just started yelling and he said, you are the big shooter. Referring to my fastball. We had a, we had a writer then, uh, Arnold Gaethel at the St. Paul paper and he heard all this stuff and he started referring to me in his, in the newspaper in this column as the big shooter. Until that all, that's how that happened. Everybody started calling me the Shooter. I never referred to myself as the Shooter. But, uh, other people have. Well, it certainly has stuck, that's for sure. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Real quick, um, it is Viking season, and the Vikings have, uh, have the, the community all abuzz. Tell us about some of the Vikings over the years that you've covered that, you found particularly enjoyable to be around. Well, You know, I was talking to Chuck Foreman last week, you know, we were talking about the great Vikings and so on. Adrian Peterson was a great running back. He's going into the Hall of Fame in a couple of years as soon as he's eligible, but I was talking to Foreman and I really believe this is all the greatest running backs in the history of, uh, of the Vikings. Number one would be Chuck Foreman. Absolutely. If you look at his, if you look at his numbers, you know, he not only ran, he could catch and, and, uh, and he could, he'd block and Adrian was just, just a hard running. Yep. Straight ahead back and he fumbled a lot and he, uh, and he wasn't a pass catcher. He didn't block it or anything. So Foreman and I were talking about this kind of stuff. And one of the things we were talking about last week was that. I don't know if you guys watch, I'm sure you have, you watch the games, even the Vikings game, now, uh, last time you see these guys, after the game, you just got beat, and, uh, and they're embracing Yeah. You know the opponents, oh, open mouth kisses. They over. Yeah. And they're laughing. I noticed that too. Trading jerseys, all that stuff paling around said, so I said Foreman. How was Bud taking that? Oh God. He said, he said, you know, he couldn't coach these guys because you weren't allowed. I mean, if you lost the game, you put your head down, get outta there. And I played for Billy Martin. Billy was the same way. You know, we had a rule. Yeah, the pre, before the season started, he had all these rules that he had. One of them was that if, uh, if I see you, uh, talking to the opposition on the field, you can do that all alone someplace, but not, these are the guys that we're playing against and it's friendship stuff. They're the enemy. And, uh, and so, so getting back to the Vikings, Ron Ury was a terrific guy to play with. To be around, uh, uh, I didn't know Tarkadin very well. Bud was great. I used to tell Bud, uh, uh, about his hunting. I'd see him, I'd say, Bud, first, my first remarks were, Bud, what are you killing this week? And he'd get real upset. You know, he'd say, I'm not killing anything. I'm hunting. And I said, no, you're killing things, bud. That kind of, I kind of, that, that, that perturbed him. But, uh, uh, I don't know. We had, we had Red McCombs, you know, Mike Tice was the neatest guy. Oh yeah. I remember we'd have drafts. It'd be draft week and Tice came up to me one time and he said, uh, Shooter. Another guy referred to me. He said, Shooter, come here. And I said, What do you want? He said, This is draft week, Shooter. I want you to know everything I tell you this week is a lie. But he was, he was good. You know, he had Dennis Green was a coach. And, uh, I go into, in those days you could walk in. Now it's like Fort Knox, but in those days you could walk in. It's a bit. Like these offices and I'd, uh, might help me on a lot of stuff and, uh, I'd say, well, you're interested in drafting this guy or trading this guy or what he was the office coordinator at the time. I used to poke his head out of the hallway and see if Green was in this office looking and if he wasn't, he'd say, he'd give me a nod or something and then, uh, and yeah, here's what we're doing. So I was, you know, they trust you and it's all in confidence, but no, we want, we want a full surprise there. One of the biggest sports, the biggest story that I've been around, one of the, we, uh, we covered the greatest, the biggest academics, you know. Oh, Gangle Hoff. Gangle Hoff at NCA, and that was kind of an exciting thing. It's like when the, you're a newspaper guy, it's like winning the Super Bowl or World Series. Absolutely. Uh, and I was, I was a good part of that thing too. Very cool. The Viking and other things, you know, we had Tug, we had Kramer, those were a bunch of good guys, uh, and then these guys today are a bunch of good guys, but you don't know them because those guys were around for many years now, and they're so transient that Yeah, right, they move pretty fast. Yeah, but it was fun covering the Vikings. It has turned into It was fun covering the Twins. It has turned into big business. We had, um, Tom West. Oh, yeah. Do you know Tom West? At the Vikings. So we, he's a friend of the podcast. Steve's uh, good buddy is Tom West and, you know, he just talked about how, just what a nice culture it is for those retirees to come back and how the, the, the, the younger guys there is. And it really kind of started with Red McCombs as I understand it, that there was a, yeah, it did. That's exactly right. This reverence for the history of the vikings and the whole purple pride thing Became a very real deal and I just I love that The wilson kept it going the wilson Are some pretty good guys. They've got first class facilities out there in egan the u. s. Bank stadium. They spend a lot of money Uh, you know, uh, I guess all they need they've got everything you could have except for that lombardi trophies, but the the uh, They're good. They're good people and uh And McCombs was fun too, but he didn't get typing, you know, I think I had like seven or five, had six or seven assistants and I don't think I had many more. Red didn't want to spend any money for the pride and all that stuff. But I enjoyed Red McCombs. Wheelock, Whitney, and all those guys. I'll tell you, I got to tell Kevin's story real quick, Kevin's a golf guy, your dad and all that stuff. And, uh, I remember, uh, one of the owners of the Vikings at that time was Wheelock Whitney. Did you know him? No, my dad did though. Kenny, Kenny, I think he played out of Lafayette. I think Kenny would go golf, uh, with Wheelock out there back in the day. And that's how Kenny got to know our, uh, mutual late great friend, Dark Star. Yeah. Well, Dark Star too. But so I remember Wheelock, uh, this was after, uh, Uh, after Wheelock, uh, left the Vikings as well. Initially, he was one of the twins initial owners, too, way back in 61. But, I got a, we were in, uh, Fountain, Fountain Hills, uh, Arizona, it was December. And I get a call from Wheelock Whitney, and he says, Charlie, this is Wheels. Yeah, I had gotten to know him real well, I said, he's a member of, you know, he's a member of Augusta National, he was a member, which isn't bad. And so I, he says, uh, I said, yeah, what's up? We're unpacking the clubs out of a band. He said, when he called, he said, Charlie, uh, May 8th or whatever it was, May 9th to May 12th, Augusta National. You in or out. That's what I said. What are you in or out? I said, wow, you mean we're going to go play? You got the national? I said, yeah, we're going to go on it for four days. I said, has anybody ever told you no to that? Wheelock? And he says, you'd be the first. So I called my dad. It was a love golf. This was December. We're going to be going in May. And I called my dad and I said, dad, I just got invited to go. Uh, I got the national in May. My father says, wow, now Charlie, all you gotta do is stay alive. Just, yep, don't leave the house wrapped up in bubble wrap. Yeah. That's a bucket list thing. We stayed in, played six rounds there, stayed on the Tennessee cabin on the top of 10th fairway and all that stuff. That's pretty neat. We had a private jet down, three guys, private jet that. Pretty neat. You guys ask about the sports writing stuff? Those are, I don't know if you call them perks or what, but it's, that's part of the deal, you know. Incredible. I only bring that up because it's part of the sports writing. But Kevin is a golf guy too. golf guy would really appreciate that. That's incredible. My dad got to play at one time. He still has the scorecard. He shot 80. He said he played well to shoot 80 same type of deal. He got invited down there. He was a pga Rules official and you know, I mean, that's right It was a thrill like of a lifetime like that scorecard, you know, Kenny won some, some big events locally. My dad played on a couple of PGA Tour events. He doesn't have any of those scorecards, but he has the scorecard from Augusta. That's the Holy Grail. If you're a golfer, that and the old course at St. Andrews are the Holy Grail. The difference is it's a lot easier to play the old course in Scotland. You can't play Augusta. You have to have that connection. Before I forget to ask you, you know, I was thinking about my dad and you and some of the connections in the sporting world. One of my dad's dear friends over the years was Frank Quillacy. And I just wondered how much, yeah, how much time did you have around him because you know, we talk about this in the Kindness Chronicles. You meet certain people and when I first got to know Frank, I had his baseball card and I idolized him, could not have been, I mean, just one of the sweetest human beings I ever encountered. Absolutely right. And Frank, we were teammates and then he became the, uh, in fact, it's funny because when Frank became the manager of the twins, well, before I forget the We'll go back in a moment, but before I forget this, you mentioned the score, scorecards. I'm looking right now at five, five scorecards from what I've got in glass mounted on the wall. I'll tell you something else about that. That's the thing. Remember Glen Mason was coaching the Gophers? Oh yeah. So I did Mason's office a lot and, and, but we mostly talked golf, but he's a golf nut and he has the longest place, exclusive place in Ohio called Double Eagle or whatever it was. I told Mace this story, the same thing I was telling you guys about. Hey Mace, guess where I'm going Saturday? Where? To the National. And, and he said, just a minute, are you really going there? I said, yeah. He goes up in his cabinet and he gets two dozen golf balls, brand new golf balls. And it says, Gopher's football coach, Glen Mace, and I'm on it, inscribed on the ball. He says, do me a favor, take these and just drop them around Augusta so people think I was there. I dropped 24, I dropped 24 golf balls around Augusta National Mesa's name on them. That's great. I love that. I dropped a couple in the par three by the, uh, on the edge of the par three. Oh my God. Quality, quality was great. And I'm, one of Frank, one of the things I remember most about Frank is, you know, players, players, he became a broadcaster afterwards. Getting these enormous contracts toward the end of Frank's career and broadcast it. I remember him saying, saying this, he said, uh, I don't mind these guys getting all this money to play these big contracts. What I do mind is that they're acting like they deserve it. And I thought, you know what? That's really true. You know, I mean, this is pure narcissism. Now, you know, the guy gets a home run with his gold chains around. Oh God. I mean, it's hard for me to go back to 1990, 1969 to handle some of this stuff. But, uh, that's the way, that's the way things are. But Frank was terrific. Really missed him. That's awesome. I was at his funeral. Oh my god. Remember, of course, Kevin, you remember Herbie and all that stuff. I love Herbie. Yeah. Oh. Honestly, Herb Brooks was uh he was one of those guys like as the movie clearly uh demonstrated, he was hard on his players. He was a very um strict coach and had all those, you know, II think held everybody to high standards. I know his son Danny real well but when you got behind the curtain and II think I've told the story on the Chronicles before. 1985 state tournament. We're the last game on the docket at the Civic Center. We're supposed to play it, uh, the late game at nine o'clock. The game in front of us goes into eventually five overtimes. Well, Kirby was working for the channel for broadcast crew and I had gone to his hockey schools because he and my dad had made a deal down in Faribault because Kirby ran Minnesota hockey schools out of Shattuck St. Mary's campus. So the coaches would get to come golf for free You know, Kenny's son got to go be at the hockey school for free all summer. And so anyway, he remembered that and he pulled me over and saw I was a nervous wreck. Right. And he spent a whole night waiting for that game to end, telling me funny stories, talking about the Olympic experience. This was five years removed from in my eyes, the greatest sporting event. And he could not have been nicer. When you see, when you, when you watched him deal with the media and you see the movie and how hard he was on his players, you got one vision of Herbie, but there was a whole different version of Herbie. And I just, I always recant that story because. Behind all most of what people see on TV or at the ballpark or at the rink is still a dad is still a husband and Herbie was the best. The absolute best. You're absolutely right. You know, it's funny. You know, Billy Robertson, right? I love Billy Rob. So Billy Rob was, uh, this is, I don't know, 20 years ago or something. I'm in the press box for the game. Billy is the communications guy for the, uh, For the, uh, while at the time. But anyway, he said, you see that guy sitting by himself down there, uh, at the end of the press box? I said, yeah, I think you might want to go over and say hi to him. I said, who is that? He says, that's, tretyak. He says, I said, I said, you're putting me on. He says, no, that's him. He's done it for the, uh, yeah, that's what I thought. Wow. I got it for the Chicago Blackhawks. They both had himself. So I go down. Yeah, that is an unbelievable moment in my sports writing career, but I'm chatting with this guy and he's been a bit nicer and I said, you know, I take Why he took you out, he says, to this day, after the first period, you remember, Kev? I remember. Biggest coaching blunder I've ever seen. That's right. And I said, you know why he took you out? He says, to this day, I have no idea why he took me out. But let me tell you this. If he would have kept me in, the USA wouldn't have that gold medal today. Oh boy. That's what he said. He was the best goalie in the world. He was. He was the best goalie in the world. In fact, when they took him out, remember what Herbie said? He said, men, uh, they just took out the gold. The best goal center in the world. I just put him on the bench. You just put him on the bench and it gave the, I think it gave the US team the belief like we just did this. We benched the best goal in the world and the Russian guys, I think, probably lost a little confidence like, that's our guy. That's our leader. Yeah. It honestly, in all my years of watching sports, it's the biggest coaching blunder I have ever seen and I, it's, it's remarkable but in the heat of the moment. You know, that's the one thing that that team was able to do. They, they were able to dictate fear in a team that had no fear. And Herbie was the only coach that was willing to put together a team that could skate, and even though the Russians were still better, I mean, they were blowing out NHL teams in preparation for the 80 Olympics. But we had a team that could skate and skate with them and tried to play aggressive hockey where everybody else just went into the shell and and basically the Russians would just circle the wagons and and possess you to death. Herbie wouldn't let that happen and I mean, a remarkable coach but again, you know, back to the the kindest side of things, you know, he spent that night with me basically understanding that this high school kid was you know, crapping his pants waiting to go play a hockey game and he's been waiting for all his life. I'm going to make him laugh and giggle and take that pressure off of him. And then by the time I hit the ice, I mean, I had wings. I was just sitting there for two and a half hours talking to in my eyes, the greatest hockey coach in the world. That's right. Hey, Kevin, Kevin who won that game? Do you recall who won that game? Listen, I was a passenger on that team. Chaz will remember how good the 85 Burnersville hockey team was. I was just walking up to be the guy, they got to make sure he said watch it. That was a hell of a hockey team. That's right. But you know, Herbie loved the little guy. Yeah. He was for the little guy. He used to go to Madison Square Garden when he had the Rangers. And, uh, you know, they had the players have the broken hockey sticks and all that stuff. He'd pick them up. He'd give them to the guys cleaning up the arena and stuff like that. A bunch of stuff like that. And, uh, I love that about them. And you know, then what was the 2002 or something like that Salt Lake City, uh, the Olympic team is lighting the torch. What was the year? Early 2000s. Yeah, I do. So they're, so they're lighting the torch. They got the Olympic guys, the 80 winners Gold and then this is shown around the world. And there's no Herb Brooks. And I think you know Neil. She don't Oh, I know Neil quite well. Yeah. Okay, so, so Neil told me that the whole world wondering where the great Herb Brook is, her coach, he had promised bartender and North Saint Paul, VFW, that he'd be there for his, uh, birthday. Oh, come on. Oh, that's a Neal phone. Neal and Herbie are in the, well, that stuff's going on there in the VFW in North St. Paul. Nobody knows what to do about it. So what kind of guy is that? Yeah, loyal. Loyal as can be. Absolutely. He's awesome, man. Oh, east cider, east side of St. Paul. That's where that comes from. Side pride. Oh yeah. Absolutely. Right. Absolutely. He, he was something really, I was honorary ball bearer at his, uh, at his funeral. Oh, wow. I remember that. I do remember that. What a, what a beautiful service. And then number That was beautiful. Remember Charlie at the end with the hockey sticks and, and having a procession. That was so cool. Honestly. What a beautiful service. Remember, did you know John Malone, the priest who did the thing? Yeah. He's a St. Thomas guy. He officiated my wedding. Wow. Wow. Speaking of characters. Oh my God. I know. Look how beautiful he is. But we're holding up our sticks for Herbie, but it's often to come through there and Malone's leading the way and he says, as he's walking past, he says, Walter, get that stick up higher. Sharpen up. Oh God, what a beauty. It wouldn't be appropriate for this show. I can tell you that. I know, I know. Okay. I know, he's an Alzheimer. I gotta give you a John Malone story real quick. Alright. So, I am a Catholic. I went to Hillmurray High School. There it is. And, uh, about 20 years ago, I was hired to, uh, to work for this organization called the Masonic Cancer Center Fund as a consultant for this fundraising campaign. And my grandfather, who is a Lutheran, was a member of the Freemasons, Secret Handshake guys. So I'm at an event in, uh, downtown St. Paul at the, uh, at the River Center. It's for the United Hospital. It was their gala. And I run into Father Malone, who had officiated our wedding, and he was my business law professor at St. Thomas. And I said to Father Malone, I said, Father, um, I am wondering, would it be okay for me to join the Freemasons? Because sometimes you read things that say that the Catholics are against the Freemasons because the Freemasons tried to overthrow the papacy, whatever. And in the, this moment of, genuine concern, he says to me, what I know about the Freemasons is, they're really just about making good men, the best version of themselves. It really is a, you know, it's all about the, the, the community stuff and really being charitable in the community. And I thought, Oh my God, this is the first time in my life that he's given me a straight answer. And he starts walking away and he turns around and he says, Well, you know, they're going to have to circumcise you again. That's Malone. So the rest of the night, every time I saw him, he would give me the scissors thing with his, uh, index and middle finger. We should have father Malone on. Why don't we need to have, we should be terrific. He was, he was, uh, you know, we were members of Tonic Country for 19 years, my wife and Paul and I. And, uh, I don't know if you know Mike O'Connell, uh, he was the, he ran the, uh, Basilica in, uh, Minneapolis. Yep. And we were, we were ready to tee off one day and there were two or three groups behind us at Town and Country. And on the first tee I went over to Malone and O'Connell. I said, you guys going to have a game today? They were playing golf. And Malone says, talk to me after the game. So after the game, they get in that card room at Town and Country. I said, how did I, did you guys have a little game? And Malone says, Yes, I now own the Basilica. I say, you know, that's pretty funny. And I said, can I use that in my column? He said, yeah, go ahead. So I write it, and about two weeks later, I run into him where he calls me or something, and he says, you know, you got me in all kinds of trouble with that. I said, no, I didn't. You got yourself into a lot of trouble. That's right. Yep. You know, he did, Malone did, uh, Paul's dad's funeral. And, uh, at the wake, I was standing in the back room there, and Malone comes over, and he didn't know anything about Paul's dad, and, uh, or the background or anything, and so he comes over, and he says, Hey, uh, Charlie, I'm doing the funeral tomorrow. Give me some bullshit on Bob. That's how he approached it. I said, yeah, you're well, blah, blah, blah. But anyway, yeah, he's, you guys would be, he'd be a wonderful kid. Yeah. I'm going to, I'm going to reach out to father Malone. Yeah. He, he, uh, he would qualify as the least pious priest in the history of the, uh, Minneapolis, St. Paul archdiocese. Straight shooter. It's very straight. One last question. The, uh, the world of, uh, sports writing has changed so much over the last ten years. You know, once upon a time, the ultimate goal was to be a writer for a newspaper.. Now everything is online, what advice do you have for people that are going to J School, that want to become sports journalists, because the landscape is just so different. Great question. Well, I have a simple answer, you know. Do your best, try hard, read everything you can, write all you can, I had, I wrote for a little news magazine in North Minneapolis, I wrote for the Pioneer Press as a, what do they call it, freelance stuff, I wrote for the Minneapolis paper, uh, I cover a high school game for 15 bucks or 10 bucks or something like that and spend 4 or 5 hours on there and give me 10 or 15 bucks and then get to know the people who make the decisions and just be around all the time and ask all the questions. You know, it is really hard to, especially now, you know, our industry is fading, the print part of it, and uh, so I don't know how, How, uh, what are the chances are for longevity and that kind of thing that makes it even harder. But it's such a wonderful career. And I, I just say that, uh, outwork everybody, when I play baseball, I always told myself as long as I play, which was seven years professionally, never will I run, uh, will walk after baseball on a field, never will I practice or anything. And I was always going to tell myself, I'm always going to be the last guy. Uh, on the field off the field during practice and all that kind of stuff and I was, and it's a newspaper thing. I'm always the last guy in the press box because I wanted to go right up to the deadline. And if I send in a column with a three, as I do now with a 3pm deadline on Saturday, I don't send it in until 259. There's some news there might be a chance. Or something else going on, or a phone call, or a Walter Payton, that type of item. And so, I, you want to be, you want to work, you don't have to be smart to be a sports writer. Because, and you don't have to write, but you have to report. And to do that, you have to, Be around, I'll work everybody else. And that's, that's, that's simple. I mean, there are guys in Minneapolis who got racy, and Suhan, and we got some guys, we had some guys, Tom Powers for a while. I mean, some guys are just excellent writers, but uh, but uh, reporters are what's important. If you build a relationship, or if people like you, if you like them, or if you're fair, get to know these people. And if they like you, boy, that can take you a long way. But, but then, of course, the You have to be honest and ethical. I mean, I can tell you stories about people in my history, some who are not that way. But I just outwork everybody. It's a simple thing. Try hard, do the best you can, and, uh, and relationships and all that stuff. I think the brilliance of your writing is that it's not about you. The simplicity of, of the way that you put your column together, it's so readable, and it's so full of so much information. And sometimes I feel like the modern sports writer, it's an opportunity for them to show how they can use these words that the rest of us don't really use. And I think that, that the Charlie Walters columns of the world just aren't They're not there anymore. Sid Hartman did it as well. You know, he had his notes. He was really great. And, you know, people love to see their name in the paper, even if you're the biggest sports hero in, in town, but they want it to be genuinely or generally positive. And I always felt like you were fair with people. And still are. You know, some people have lied to me, and I don't want to waste your time on that, but I generally get them back for that. But most people, if they're fair, and they trust me, and, uh, you know, as I mentioned eight times, 81 silver words on the period is what I'm trying to do. It's just to tell you something, and I don't care about, uh, You know, we had a guy, we had a guy in St. Paul who went to work, uh, at the Minneapolis newspaper and he told one of, one of our sports editors, he said, Well, I don't, it's better over there because I can build my brand over there. I'm thinking, oh no, how arrogant is that? And I said, well, then you're in the wrong business if you, because then it's about him. Well, reporting should be about people you're writing about, not you. And, uh, and I could care less about, uh, about me. I want, I want people to read it because it's news to you. I got, I was talking to that Quincy picture the other day about something. He said, well, Charlie, you can write that if you want. It was about the TV stuff and the sponsorships and how they, you know, Tomcat, but how they weren't getting it. For months, they didn't get, people couldn't get any. So you can write that if you want. You can be, uh, you can write that negative stuff if you want. And I said, I'm not interested in writing negative stuff. So tell me, I want the news. Tell me what's going on here. That's, that's the deal. I don't care about the positive or negative. I want the news. And, uh, and that's my objective and that's, and that's where we are. We're reporters, not many of us are writers. it's been a wonderful career. KG, I just want to a, I want to take a exception with your comment about the greatest coaching blunder that you've ever witnessed was. The Russian coach taking Trediak out in the 1980 Olympics. Couple of weeks ago, our Minnesota Twins manager, Rocco Baldelli. Oh, here we go. Took Bailey Ober out. Got a lot of heat for that. After 83 pitches, and I'm telling ya, We're now a half a game behind the Tigers and the Royals for that wild card and taking ba So I just, real quick, this is it, and then I promise we'll be done. The Sports Chronicles. Jerry Bell belongs to the same golf course that I, that I belong to. Uh, Indian Hills, yes. And I ran into, to Mr. Bell, and I said, Mr. Bell what's going on with your twins? And he looks at me and he goes, those are my twins. He says, he says, my twins never would have taken Bailey over out after 83 pitches and one hit, and he said, he said, we're so concerned about winning next week, let's win today. Right. It's just insane. I'm not so sure that. That was Paul Delling's movie there. No, I agree. There's so much analytics now involved over there and that's kind of what's frustrating me about following this team. It's just not here. I mean, I was lucky enough in my brief time broadcasting on the twin side of things. To work with Jack Morris and Burt Bly 11 and the best part of the best part of the gig was the conversations that never made air and I think he knows both those guys well enough to know their opinion on analytics and baseball and how this whole thing has played out. They're not fans. I'll just leave it at that. Yeah, well, that's well said, Kevin. That's exactly right. Things have changed, and you know, I'm sad to say that, uh, it's not the same game, so. No, it's not. You know what? That reminds me. It was fabulous. We should get Jack Morris on. You know, he lives right out here, and his kid's actually at St. Thomas playing baseball. Jack would love to be on. Jack would be great. He would. He'd be fabulous. Another guy that Yeah, he's just another guy that comes across very gruff and you know, he's intense and again, you get him away from the ball field and away from competition and he's a sweetheart of a guy. I had, uh, I had a relative and I think John, you're the one. Um, your son as well. I've got a couple of different people that love Jack Morris and wanted an autograph picture and I, I would, I would text or call Jack and whatever I needed, whenever I needed it, just here I am. Come, come find me and I'll sign this. I'll take care of you there. Um, you know, a lot of these, a lot of these athletes and, and coaches and managers come across one way when you watch them, I don't know if I can compete but there's a whole other side. Jack was that guy. He'd be a great candidate to be on the show for sure. Yeah. So, you would. He's uh I really miss him. Boy, he was I love love is a candidate. Oh, me too. Me too. And uh but anyways, that's that's what we got. We we we play play with what we got but anyway, I'm just uh and Bly too. Bly's great out there and I, you know, we played, we were in the minor leagues together. 1968, Florida I think we didn't finish until the end of November, and I'd come home, and my dad would say, What was it, what were those kids like that, uh, that you played with? And I said, Dad, we got an 18 year old, or 17, I think it's 17, out of high school. He's got a pretty good fastball and a curveball. Starts with the shoulders and ends up on the knees. You know, it's really fun to see. I have to remember this name, Dad. And he said, what's your name? I said, Burt Blythe. My dad said, Charlie. So I said, Charlie, nobody could be this, have, be that good as a 17 or 18 year old kid. And I said, Dad, do you remember his name? So anyway, Blythe goes into the hall of fame and I call my dad. I say, here's Dr. Blythe. My dad would say to Burt, Charlie, oh, you still ain't, you know, remember your name and all that stuff. But, uh, he's, you know, but as Kevin said, you know, I wish one thing about him, and I told him this, uh, he just couldn't, he, he's so good off the air and he had all these great anticopes and everything and then Bremer kind of drowned him out. Yes. He takes up a lot of air time. I told him once, you know, why don't you, I suggested, why don't you tell some of that stuff on the, uh, on the air, and he said, I, I just don't have time to do all that. He's really good off the air. Oh, is he good off the air? Oh my gosh. The greatest Chris Berman name in the history of ESPN, Bert B. Holm Bly Levin. I know, I know. Greatest name. So good. So good man. 11th's a good guy. He really is. Charlie, thank you. Thank you so much for your time. This has been great. Thank you, Charlie. What a career. You're welcome. All you guys keep it going. And, uh, and, uh, I, I'll be tuned in. And, uh, this is really fun. Well, maybe we'll run into you at the, uh, what do we call it? The Berg, Berg Pub. Berg Pub. Oh, uh, Club Berg, yeah. Club Berg, here you go. Yeah, we gotta stop by next summer and have a beer with Charlie at Club Berg. Give Mr. and Mrs. Berg a kiss. I will, and Len's got, uh, I will. And, uh, Len's got some, brings out some, uh, pretty good tequila. Oh, yeah. That would be good stuff. We'll tip on that. All right, guys, thanks for having me. Off we go. Thanks, see ya. Bye bye.