Park Bench Perspectives - Beek's Pizza, Babe Ruth Baseball, and The White Shadow

Park Bench Perspectives - Episode 16: Beek's Pizza, Babe Ruth Baseball, and The White Shadow

Episode Summary: In this episode of Park Bench Perspectives, hosts Carlos Figueroa and Mike Hammer welcome a very special guest to the bench: their lifelong friend from St. Louis Park, Joe Riley. Take a trip down memory lane as the trio swaps hilarious and heartwarming stories about growing up in the 1970s and 80s, the drama of youth sports, and the enduring camaraderie of childhood friendships.

Key Topics Discussed:

The St. Louis Park Bubble: Joe shares his memories of shifting between grade schools (Park Knoll to Aquilla) and his eventual, reluctant transfer to Benilde High School, which ultimately opened his eyes to a wider world beyond their hometown.

Growing Pains & Pizza: The guys laugh about their early days as "giant" kids bonding over all-you-can-eat 99-cent deals at Beek's Pizza, and the hilarious revelation that both Carlos and Hammer dated the same girl several years apart.

Babe Ruth Baseball Drama: A deep dive into the highs and lows of their youth baseball all-star team. They recall the coaching tension between Brian Hartman and Carlos's  dad, the agony of a championship loss to Edina where Joe made the final out at third base, and the lasting connections born in the dugout.

Life Lessons on the Diamond: Carlos shares the funny, unconventional advice his dad gave him to calm his nerves during high-pressure games: "Remember Lee Trevino".

Pop Culture Nostalgia: The guys discuss which TV shows and movies best capture their youth, drawing comparisons to Dazed and Confused, That '70s Show, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and Stranger Things. They also shout out Steve Rushin's nostalgic book about 1970s Bloomington, Stingray Afternoons.

Be sure to stick around to the end to hear a teaser for Joe and Carlos's other podcast, Forgotten Television, where Hammer might just make a future guest appearance as his childhood moniker, "The White Shadow"!

00:00 Podcast Introduction
01:02 Meeting Joe Reilly
01:51 Growing Up in St Louis Park
02:40 School Transitions and Friendships
04:14 The Pizza Eating Contest
05:27 First Party Memories
06:31 The Shelly R Story
07:48 Coach Mikey Gavron
08:39 Going to Benilde
09:28 Eighth Grade Geography Class
10:46 The Benilde Decision
11:58 Babe Ruth Baseball Finals
13:09 Home Run Memories
15:10 Brian Hartman's Hockey Story
15:42 Coaching Dynamics and Dad Managers
16:38 Mike's Coaching Experience
17:38 NBA Playoffs Discussion
17:57 Karl-Anthony Towns Trade Talk
19:25 NBA Salaries and Contracts
19:56 Babe Ruth Baseball Memories
20:37 Sports Building Character
21:20 Dad's Coaching Philosophy
21:49 Lee Trevino Pep Talk
22:33 Lasting Friendships from Sports
24:19 Random Airport Encounter
26:08 Benilde School Experience
27:39 Embarrassing Basketball Game
28:29 Steve Rushin's Books
29:29 Movies That Captured Youth
31:38 Wrapping Up the Bench

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Hey Mike Hammer, how you doing this week?

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Carlos Figueroa. I'm top-notch, A-OK, doing pretty good, above average at best. And all those other puns. How are you, my friend?

SPEAKER_03 0:43

I'm doing really well. Excited to be here back on the bench with you. What a lovely bench it is. We got something special this week.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

I like special.

SPEAKER_03 0:52

Not the short bus special, but we have a special we have a special guest on this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Special friend.

SPEAKER_03 1:01

All right. We have our old friend from St. Louis Park, and and we played youth sports together, Joe Riley. How are you doing, Joe?

SPEAKER_04 1:10

I'm very good. Thank you. This is much more exciting than Carlos and my White Shadow Forgotten Television podcast. I usually go with a shirt, but Mike Hammer, he's got a whole different thing. These are really exciting. We know I'm glad to be here. Thanks for the invite.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

I was gonna say for an audio podcast, being topless is a is an interesting way to go about it, but Hammer says he'll do anything for ratings.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

And it's summertime. Summer in the city. And Joe, he didn't mean old friend, like you're old. We've been friends for a long time. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:40

Well, I always get that the quote Beatles quote wrong, but what is it? We have memories that extend farther back than the road ahead. We'll just put it that way.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

There we go. Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_03 1:51

So, Joe, you were born and raised in St. Louis Park, is that correct?

SPEAKER_04 1:54

Correct. So our first house was I grew up on Texas Avenue, right down the street from Park Knoll, where I went to grade school, which is now part of the Knowlewood, whatever you want to call it these days.

SPEAKER_03 2:05

It was plaza, then it became a mall, and now it's back to the when they tore down Park Knoll, I think it became a uh Montgomery Ward. It did indeed. Then through Knowlewood's transition, it then became a cub.

SPEAKER_04 2:18

Correct. And uh in the Park Knoll used to sit on a hill where all of that as you look down into so it's quite quite the change, and then in 73 we moved two blocks further north, and then one street over to the right, and then we're in Sumter Avenue, and that was only two blocks away, but we moved school districts. So I went to Aquila School.

SPEAKER_03 2:40

So did you start in third grade then at Aquila? Or they tore down Park Knoll by then, or no?

SPEAKER_04 2:45

No, Park Knoll was still around when I moved out of Park Knoll into the Aquila School, and so then but that was only two and a half blocks away. So, for example, the woman at the end of our block, Liz, I forget her last name, but uh that it would stay down the air. Yeah, she was just across the next block and she went to Park Knoll's Knolls. So it's quite interesting.

SPEAKER_03 3:03

That's a that's a traumatic change for a kid, right? All your friends and everything else. And so did you know anybody at Aquila, or was it a new experience? Was it a new kid in school kind of thing?

SPEAKER_04 3:13

That's a good question because it goes way back to I can I can't don't have any of the memories. I have a little bit of memories of the Park Knoll, have pictures and things, but I don't remember being a particular difficult transition because I did make friends and so and Hammer knows these guys too as well. But at that particular time, Mike Smith would have been not too far from me down the street. And then a few years later, and I don't know what grade it might have been, fourth grade, Brian Madge moved in. And then for my group grade school years and early junior high years, it was myself, Madge, and Mike Smits who used to hang out a lot at in our neighborhood. So that was my transition.

SPEAKER_03 3:53

But no Joe, I don't know if it's a nickname you've tried to lose. Back then, I was to my friend's Coss, not Carlos, and you were to your friend's Mo. Correct. I was so it comes.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

It's Mojo Riley. He was like Carlos, he was like you. He was bigger than most at an early age.

SPEAKER_03 4:12

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

You guys were like giants.

SPEAKER_03 4:14

And I'm gonna you've got a story for us, Joe, but I do want to share my story since it's already been aired, I think, on our first or second episode. When I first met you, Joe, was in junior high. You did go to Westwood Junior High, and everybody said you can't eat pizza. Joe, like Mo Mo can eat more pizza. So Joe and Carlos, the two biggest guys, we we first met eating pizza at Beek's Pizza.

SPEAKER_04 4:36

Yeah, we ate a Beeks Pizza, and then that was one place where I would go. It was, and I'm gonna really we're gonna sound like we're old people, but I guess we are. It used to be 99 cents and a small drink, all you could eat. Yep. Then it became $1.99. Then they got rid of the small drink, but it was that was the place to go because as you say, Pam, we were uh Carlos and I were not small children in terms of our height. And we're not exactly thin and lathe like you are, Mr. Hammer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Funny, you guys did I ate a lot. I don't know, it just never it never stuck with me.

SPEAKER_03 5:11

You know what? Enjoy your metabolism.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Yeah, thanks for rubbing in Hammer.

SPEAKER_03 5:17

Joe, you have a story that involves Mr. Hammer?

SPEAKER_04 5:21

And I the both of you. I'll give you my memories of uh both of you of kind of my biggest memories. So I never, you know, sixth grade, I went to Aquila, then we all went to Westwood Junior High back in the seventh grade, and my first party that I ever went to was at somebody's house, and I can't remember who it was, and but you were there, Carlos. I can't remember if Hammer was there, but Hammer, I'll get to your part here in a little bit. But on the music on the turntable was the Ramones, which was a very Carlos band. And the second particular thing was that Carlos was dancing with a young lady, and it was his girlfriend at the time. Okay, and I had no no concept of having a girlfriend at that particular time. So Carlos was quite the quite the man uh having a have a girlfriend at this particular time. And I remember she did not live too far from me, but again, she was just one street over, but her name was Shelly R. And she had she just she went out with Carlos, but as I recall, it was like five days, so it was a seventh grade relationship. There we go. But Mr. Hammer and I would play Mickey Mantle Ball when we were 16. Oh and I remember at that particular moment in time, who was the man Michael Hammer was dating was one Shelly R. No way. Yes, so you two gentlemen dated the same woman four or five years apart. Okay. I mean, let's say hold on, hold on, let's go back.

SPEAKER_03 6:53

So this is seventh grade. We skated once at Roller Gardens want to go out, we break up five days later. So let's not make more of this 16-year-old romance than we have. I think when Hammer was legitimate dating.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

I was nice. I waited until he got over it. Yeah, I yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:09

So it was quite a while, but yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:11

But no, that that's kind of my big memory because I knew Shelly, and she didn't live too far from me, and and then I just and then I remember Hammer just she was at one of our games, I think, is how I remember talking to her. But that was just that's my butch Carlos, why I remember it was because you were the first guy that really had a girlfriend in it. I mean at that particular moment in time could have been five days for you. It's a lifetime memory for me.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Yeah, he also shaved before all of us.

SPEAKER_03 7:34

Yes, I did, I did. I remember after seventh grade, I think at the end of seventh grade, I shaved my mustache, and I remember going to tournaments with my mom in the stand saying, He is my son, and he is 12.

SPEAKER_04 7:47

But no, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

So those were You know, we had a lot of memories uh early on of Mikey Gavin. Yes, yes, our coach, our basketball coach traveling basketball and the he was a crotch itcher and he was a joke teller, and he had those funny euphemisms or whatever to us they put their pants on one leg at a time, just like you.

SPEAKER_03 8:12

They're just bigger than they got the windows open at hospitality house. You guys stunk up the gym so bad last time you were there.

SPEAKER_04 8:20

Those are the days, and he just recently passed.

SPEAKER_03 8:24

Yeah, that's too bad. He was a great guy.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

He didn't have he didn't have a horse in the race, so to speak. He did not, yeah, and he was great.

SPEAKER_03 8:31

My dad did a lot of remodeling, and I did too, and so he did plumbing work for us. So I got to spend some time away from basketball, and he was he was funny. I I was one of those people who did not pursue sports in high school, and we'll talk about our high school experiences, Joe, because you uh you went to the other school in St. Louis Park, you went to Benilde, right? So from junior high, so we were together basically just those two years, seventh and eighth grade at Westbrook, correct, and then and then obviously all the sports and stuff, and then you are a class of 84 for Banilde as well.

SPEAKER_04 9:00

Correct, we are all in the same graduating year.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Hey, you I don't know if you know this, Joe, but when you kind of mentioned all of us, because this is Babe Ruth and the baseball, and you mentioned you were going. I remember there was like no, you're not. There was some animosity, I wasn't, you know, it was like fleeting first. I was like, what do you mean? That no, that doesn't happen, and then you're like, All right, well, there's nothing we can do about it.

SPEAKER_03 9:27

So go ahead, Carl. I do real quick want to share a memory, and I have no idea if you remember this or not, but I have a distinct memory of eighth grade geography class with Mr. Baum. And Joe and I sat next to each other, and so he would do a little, we would discuss a different part of the world. And I remember when we did Afghanistan. One of the things we read is one of the games the kids play is they grab onto each other's earlobes and yank until someone quits. So Joe and I thought, that's a great idea. We should do that for about five seconds, and it hurt too much, and we stopped. But I don't know if you have every memory of that, Joe, but I've tugged on your earlobes before.

SPEAKER_04 10:01

I have two memories of that. That remember, and then I also remember that we would Daryl Dawkins was big at that time. Yeah. And then that Mr. Bomb had a Lennon pin because he went and saw the gray when it was still around on where they had him under glass. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

I remember one of his comments if you would go up to his desk and stand behind him. A few times I heard a utter, don't stand behind me, flashbacks, because he was a Vietnam ref. Don't stand behind me, flashbacks.

SPEAKER_03 10:35

So I didn't, I just wanted to get that one out. I didn't. So sorry, Joe. You you were talking about going, everybody couldn't believe you were going. No, was that something that was not a choice you made, or were you just told where you're gonna go? Give us a little bit of the of the Riley home drama related to that decision.

SPEAKER_04 10:51

Yeah, so that was not my decision. So I fought it tooth and nail. Yeah. My older brother, who was a graduate of nine, he went to St. Louis Park. But apparently in his youth, yeah, he had done some sort of religious sort of stuff that my brother Mike, who's a class of 81, and I did not do. Yeah. So we they were we were told that we were both gonna be going to Benil.

SPEAKER_03 11:17

To help with your spirituality so you can be an older brother.

SPEAKER_04 11:19

Okay, and this was mostly coming from my mother at this particular point in time. Yeah. And so I didn't really have a choice, and I didn't really want to go. And as as Hammer, it kind of when he brought that up about Bay Ruth, it was maybe the all-star game that we were in. And you were there, Carlos. That was the year that we uh we went to dining, and you're that was the coach you took over from Brian Hartman.

SPEAKER_03 11:40

Yes, and uh which by the way did not sit well with Mr. Hartman.

SPEAKER_04 11:44

No, I remember yeah, but it was that so that's why I ended up at Benil. But and I can expound on this later because I want to kind of dive into that Bay Ruth thing, but uh I'll tell you what my experiences with Benil, what I thought was very positive about it, too. But yeah. And it and yeah, but that Babe Ruth that we talked about, that all-star game was the pinnacle of my baseball career. Yeah, yeah. Uh in terms of that, I played Mantle Ball with Hammond when we were 16, but we went to the finals. Yeah. And I don't know if you guys remember, do you remember how we lost? I don't.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Braymar. Was it at Braymar?

SPEAKER_04 12:17

Yeah, it was at Braymar. You know how we lost? I'll never forget it. I was on first base, we had a win two against Edina, hated Edina. Yeah, and we because we were coming out of the losers bracket, and I tried to go first to third, and and I'm not the most fleet of foot. And then I made the third out, and your dad goes, What were you doing? You're already at second base, you were already in scoring position.

SPEAKER_03 12:43

Don't make the first or third out at third base.

SPEAKER_04 12:45

Yeah. And but I just remember that was Carlos, you were there. You played first base, and the Heidegger, I that was my position, but I got shoved out to right field so Parrington could help me so he could run center and right field. Yeah. Chris Parrington is a guy who's a year younger than us, just to be clear. And then and one of the best athletes that we played with. Craig Breitkreitz was on that team. Yeah. And me and me and Hammer had the opportunity to hit home runs during that kind of series.

SPEAKER_03 13:14

I saw that. I remember the game where there were a bunch of home runs, and I think it was New Hammer, where my dad crossed the line of sportsmanship and had you slide into home runs.

SPEAKER_04 13:25

I was gonna say that.

SPEAKER_03 13:26

I was gonna say I was the one who did not slide. Yeah, I I if I had gone back, that is actually there are very few moments where that's where I'm like, on yeah, dad, that wasn't cool.

SPEAKER_04 13:35

Do you know what your dad did to me on my home run, Carlos? No. He thought I missed second base. So he goes, Stop, turn around, touch second base, and come back around. So I was that was that was sort of the most fun I had on the f on the baseball field. And we were all playing the Hidee Dinah.

SPEAKER_03 13:55

I don't know if you guys remember this, and I have no idea why. I have no idea who the announcer was at Braymar, but he would do, and now Betting, Carlo, and he would announce it like that.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

And I'm like going, dude, I'm like 15. Less attention. Less attention. I don't want to be the center of attention. Please stop doing that.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

I'm not Kirby Pucket, I am not Ed Figaroa's nephew, but I don't need the fanfare.

SPEAKER_03 14:22

I actually did use to claim Ed Figaroa, the former Yankees pitcher, as an uncle when he was pitching, and then for a very long time he held the highest DRA in the history of the World Series, and I said, Of course I'm not related to that loser.

SPEAKER_04 14:34

I do remember, Carlos, you mentioned it, Brian Hartman getting really upset for whatever reason.

SPEAKER_03 14:40

He was technically the coach. So here's the thing is that he was actually a paid coach. I think he was getting paid by Al to coach the team. Because we were doing daytime practices every day.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

He got that turn on the electric or turn on the automatic sprinklers type job.

SPEAKER_03 14:55

And so my dad, so actually, I think in that championship game, my dad, like I feel like Hartman went to Al and said, No, I'm the coach. And then he took over in that season. I could have sworn that happened in that last game that he coached it and not my dad. But anyways, I get it. And Hartman is an interesting cat, man. I don't know if you know his backstory. He was a bit older than us. Yep. He was probably considered one of the best hockey players for his age in the state of Minnesota. Um and then he had an accident that messed up his equilibrium and he couldn't play again. But he was considered elite. I know nothing about hockey, and he was having to deal with the fact, and then he died real young, and I don't know what that was about. But if I was a young man who thought I was gonna be a superstar and legitimately, not just in my driveway, but legit was a huge prospect, and all of a sudden it went away, that would be tough to deal with. And Brian was right, my dad was not supposed to be the manager, but he just kind of took over, and I think my dad was maybe a better manager, but I I'm trying to I'm trying to be open to the feelings of the other folks.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

I think because he coached our team before the all-star team folks. Yeah, and I think that's because at the time your dad was real busy. Yeah, and his dad would show up, but Brian was there because he could we could have practices during the summer, during the morning. Yeah, and we would have fun. And I think when we got to the all-star game, some other dads were rumbling that he's not serious enough to palley palli with the players. Yeah, and I think part of what your dad did was to buffer it a bit for Brian was to say, I'll take the key from the parents and I'll step up in here. Yeah, and I think I'm not gonna name some of the names of the parents that were more intense. Yeah, some of the other dads that coached Little Lee or Babe Ruth, but didn't coach the all-star too.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

Now, Mike, I know you coached your kids. Did you ever coach Joe?

SPEAKER_04 16:44

Did I ever coach? Yeah, mostly it was basketball. Yeah, I did coach Little Lee or here's my favorite story of baseball. My my oldest son, that none of them are really sports-oriented. He was playing shortstop, and with my heart in my throat, every time the ball would get hit, yeah, some guy just rocketed one at him and he stuck his glove out and he caught it, and he said, All right, I can retire right now. Because he had a positive experience of snagging that ball at shortstop. And that was uh and I did basketball and actually just talked about that with my son last night. He said, Hey, you they're shooting hoops at this grad party, right? So you should go there. And he goes, Oh, I'm not that good. I said, Hey, you were you I coached you, and he goes, Yeah, but I didn't I didn't like it. Yeah, but uh but no, so yeah, I did coach, but that was one thing, props to my dad.

SPEAKER_03 17:32

I never did anything I didn't want to do.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

I just real quick segue, and we'll back it back out of it. Hell of a game last night. I'm on the next bandwagon. Hell of a lot. The first two games have been great games.

SPEAKER_04 17:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

Oh, Walt Frazier.

SPEAKER_04 17:48

It's yeah, I'm happy for Carl. He he's didn't need him. Oh, did you? Okay. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 17:54

Didn't we didn't need him, is what he said.

SPEAKER_04 17:56

I didn't need him, I got it.

SPEAKER_03 17:57

Which actually is kind of going, this would be the second time a former that the Wolves could not build a championship around a player that other teams could.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

He's gonna Sam Darnold us too. I was thinking more of KG. I know, but the term's been out lately. Are we gonna get Darnold? Are we gonna get Darnold again?

SPEAKER_03 18:14

Yeah, yeah. And then you know what? I don't know. I I think building a team around, I don't know. I listen, I'm gonna shut up because I'm talking out of my ass. I don't know anything about basketball, but it felt like if it was we need to build a team around ant or cat, I don't know. Ant strikes me as the right one too.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Superman meets Carl Anthony Thomas has no problem being Robin to Brunson. He had no problem being the second, he said no problem being a pippin to ant. Bring up the money thing. I will say I'm not gonna defend Sam Taylor that much, but he had no problem going into that second apron.

SPEAKER_03 18:48

He didn't. He didn't. He proved it. He proved it. It was not for lack of resources, but that's the interesting thing about I've been writing a lot about baseball, is that in in football and basketball, it's an even playing field, right? And so you don't have that built-in excuse that our revenue does not, you know what I mean? It's the choices that you've made as a team that determine stuff.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Oh, but football wholeheartedly, because there is a hard cap. Basketball, they can go above it and pay a penalty to a certain degree.

SPEAKER_03 19:20

Yeah. But still, it's still there, there are it's a possibility, you know what I mean? You can and in the NBA, if you're lucky enough to get one of those first or second draft picks, you can draft a championship.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

I just heard a weird static. My son Ben told me. Next year, 15 or 25 players will be making 50 million or more next season.

SPEAKER_03 19:41

That wouldn't surprise me because that's where the that's what the NFL is with gap money, right? Elite quarterbacks are getting 50-60 million a year. That's just it's it's it's crazy. And kind of post post Kirk Cousins, a lot of that money now is getting guaranteed.

SPEAKER_04 19:54

Yeah, yeah. To bring it back, I'll wrap up the Babe Rue thing. Yeah, you the point where you said Brian Harton was a little loose, he can friends with the players. I remembered this distinctly because we had a lot of free time sometimes in the dugout.

SPEAKER_03 20:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 20:08

I remember talking to one of the players, I can't remember who it was, but he was expounding the virtues of some relative of his who got received government grade marijuana because he had guacamole. He had glaucoma. He had glaucoma. So we had a lot of time on our hands back then at those practices. So your dad instituted a little bit of discipline is one. Yeah. And what I always thought, too, was expectation. When you're out there playing personal.

SPEAKER_03 20:37

Well, that's the thing, too, right? It's like when a coach maybe it's just me, but it's like you don't want to disappoint your coach, particularly when he's your dad, but you don't want to disappoint your coach, right? You don't want to embarrass him, you want you want to have some pride or your teammates. That's the that was the I've had the debate with people whether sports builds character or reveals character, but I think it I think there is something about working with a group towards as a joint effort that is healthy for people to experience. It doesn't have to be in sports, but it's a good example. It's a good example of hard work paying off because most amateur sports at that age, it's not really about skill, and you've got some people that are skilled, but it's about organization and effort and discipline and preparation, which is building confidence, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

Your dad always had a great way of getting his point across, whether it a stern point like Hummer, and he'd come out to the mound many times with me. Why don't you throw the ball over the plate? It's not that hard. Just grab the ball, throw it over the plate. That's all I ask. Okay. And I'm like, and I knew most of it was just coming out, give me a break, a re a reset. Hey, I got you, but just throw the ball over the plate.

SPEAKER_03 21:49

I remember a dad pick talk, and I'm just gonna share it now because it's in my mind. I don't know that it fits, but I remember playing minor leagues in little leagues. So it would have been my dad coached one year of club baseball. We lost the championship game. And then in the little league, in the minors, and it was the first game. And I think we were tied, and I was up, and my dad, third base, calls me over and he goes, Do you know Lee Trevino? When he's at the final hole when it's for the championship, right when the other guys are putting, he lets out a big fart. And so he goes, So remember Lee Trevino. He's trying to calm me down because he knows I get in my head too much. But I will, and so then for the rest of my career, beyond being a kid, my dad, if he saw me worked up, he'd go, remember Lee Trevino.

SPEAKER_04 22:32

There we go. The other thing, you know, about the you know, you talk about the character reveals it or builds it. Commodity was one of those things because obviously we're still friends, but we don't see each other very often on a regular basis. And even to this day, I've probably seen Chris Parrington who played center field, I played right field in that tournament. In we haven't seen 42 years was when we when we had that. And maybe I've run into him once in those 42 years, but we have immediately have a connection.

SPEAKER_03 22:58

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 22:59

Because we spent those times chasing down hammers, moonshots that he gave up. No, I'm teasing you.

SPEAKER_03 23:06

And I know places where I've worked too, or even the law school experience, you build friendships. It's and once again, this is I am not making this as a direct analogy, okay? Playing sports or working is not the same as war. At the same time, you get the foxhole basic training bonding that happens when you go through stuff together. It's just natural. And like you said, you got something in common right there.

SPEAKER_04 23:31

Yeah, yeah, I think that's good.

SPEAKER_03 23:33

And those memories stand, right? We remember the stuff. I sometimes people remember stuff I don't remember. Like Carlos Grew into the Ramones. I don't think that happened, but okay.

SPEAKER_04 23:42

Well, Carlos, I was in a I was in a at a brewery in Indiana.

SPEAKER_03 23:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 23:47

I was we're I was out on a sales call with something, and I and they and I had a beer and they put on the Ramones album, the first album. And the first thing I thought of was in the it wasn't like I'd seen you in the last five years for that or whatever it was, but it was interesting.

SPEAKER_03 24:01

It's funny, it's a and I we've discussed on my music episodes. It was my cousin Susie when I was like 12 or 13 that got me into the Ramones, and it was like and that was a couple years before then rock and roll high school comes out, and everybody's like, oh, Ramones, and I'm like, okay. Charles wasn't that wacky.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

Joe, you talk about camaraderie. A couple years ago, we had a weird encounter. Not weird that it was a chance encounter that was just random. I don't know. Go ahead. I don't know how you did the recognizing, but I have a feeling that I knew right away who it was. I don't know why.

SPEAKER_04 24:35

But yeah, so I was flying to Denver and I was gonna see the Wolves play Denver. This was two years ago, and I'm walking onto the plane, and there's this tall guy standing in the aisle, and I go, Mike Hammer. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

You put your arm on the back of my shoulder, like you, like your left arm on my right shoulder. And I'm like, huh? And then I'm like, it seemed like that was a I know that, Pa.

SPEAKER_04 25:04

And then we got off the plane and we did something I've never done before. Is he goes, Joe, let's go over here. Here's this place. Camera knows it very well. For for he goes there often, and they goes, let's go get a shot. And so that was great. Hold on. So checks out.

SPEAKER_03 25:19

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 25:21

So no, that was great. So it was a weird sort of happenstance, and I'm now hopefully sometime I can do some of the more of that kind of traveling going forward because I I like to go see the wolves somewhere each year. I did Memphis two years ago, or not this year, but last year, and then Denver two years ago. So we'll see.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Maybe maybe next year if they play when they play in Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_04 25:44

Oh, yeah, that could be great. I would love to do that. Yeah, that'd be a good road trip too as well.

SPEAKER_03 25:50

So there must be something about hammers in Denver, because about 20 years ago, I go out to see the Vikings Broncos, and I'm sitting in a bar in downtown Denver the night before, and all of a sudden I look over and there's Mike's little brother Marty.

SPEAKER_04 26:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:01

He just happened to be with it going to the game with a bunch of his buddies, and this is where they were gonna pre-game. Oh, that's small world.

SPEAKER_04 26:06

It is, it is. At the beginning, you kind of asked me about Benilde and what my experience is being a fond of the park bench podcast.

SPEAKER_03 26:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:14

I know that Carlos, you talk about the world of St. Louis Park up until your high school years. Yeah. And even in my junior high years, right? We didn't really have much outside of that bubble of St. Louis Park, right?

SPEAKER_01 26:28

Great town.

SPEAKER_04 26:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

Great town, the best.

SPEAKER_04 26:30

And I was glad that I grew up there. And for me, the biggest education I got from Benil was not so much the school work because I was a middling student at best at this particular point in time, but I we had to I had friends who lived in Minneapolis, Minnetonka, all over the metro area, which opened my eye, all different types of before I had got out for college and sort of this. So it was just a I still remember because we had a nice house, but it was an older house. And the first time I remember going to this house in Minnetonka, I said, Wow, they got a fan in their bathroom. We didn't have a fan in our bathroom way back then.

SPEAKER_03 27:08

And but I just it was just by opening that as the nine or nine or ten and going and playing kind of like neighborhood baseball and going into one of your Beniled classmates, Adam Graziano's house. Oh yeah, feeling central air for the first time and going, Okay, now this is living. I think it was like two or three years later we got central air at our house, but it's like going the first time you experience it, I'm like, damn, that's nice.

SPEAKER_04 27:31

But uh, I always the but on occasion Benilde would play St. Louis Park in sports in terms of basketball, which was my thing. So here's my most embarrassing story about that. Sophomore year, we are gonna go and we're gonna we we play St. Louis Park, a sophomore B squad game. Hammers on that squad. Oh wow and I am just hyped to the nines for this game, right? So we start the game, we go up 10 to 2. They call timeout. I'm like, man, we got these boys. We lost 62 to 25 or something like that. And it's so bad at halftime, our coach, who's a fiery character, took us into the locker room and we didn't have a chalkboard, but so he went on the side of one of those lockers and just started writing things like you people are an embarrassment on the side of that. And excuse me, but I got pulled out of the game early, and I said, I did not show very well on my my return to St. Louis Park.

SPEAKER_03 28:29

Oh it's been a pleasure having you here on the bench, Joe.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

Yeah, that was that that great memories. The funny uh things about like we've talked about why we talked about park bench perspectives, it was a great time, but every time I read parts at my birthday party, Joe brought me two books. Yeah, oh yeah, and uh Stingray Afternoons and Nights in White White Castle. Castle. And it and we've talked about Carlos a little bit. It's uh that I can't even think of his name now. Russian Rushin? Steve Rushin. Steve Russian, yeah. Yeah, well, Bloomington's yeah, and he grew up in Bloomington, and it's just a it's a picture of our youth in this book, just not in Bloomington, but in St. Louis Park. Yeah, and every time I write it, read it, I'm thinking about this podcast talking about the things just a different different characters and different geographic by 12 miles, 15 miles.

SPEAKER_03 29:29

I was gonna wrap this up, but I have a question for you guys. For you, what movie or TV show best exemplified what your youth high school experience was? Oh god. I can tell you mine while you're thinking. To me, the closest was dazed and confused. With it, you take out that sorority, fraternity stupidity, that party at the moon tower, that was my high school experience. It's like, where's the keg this weekend? Party, try to talk to girls. That was my high school experience. And once again, if you forget that fraternity stuff, the stuff at the party, that very much felt authentic to me.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

This is kind of gonna be weird in a sense, because I got roped into watching one show with by my daughter during COVID, and the other show it originated supposedly in a state real close to us. And the one show was about the and it was kind of named that 70s show.

SPEAKER_03 30:31

Okay, yeah, that basement scene was pretty accurate.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

I would say there wasn't a lot of athletes in that show, but a lot of the things just seemed to hit home and the basement and certain things like that. And then my daughter got me into watching One Tree Hill. Okay, but I remember the sports parts of that, the competitive sports and who you're showing off for yourself.

SPEAKER_03 30:54

I'll just throw one more out there just for the work aspect, but I thought Fast Times at Regemont High did a good job of the hierarchy of where you work. If you worked in the mall, it was better than if you worked in a greasy kitchen, and so there was just rip different rankings. The rest of the stuff in that movie didn't relate to, but I thought that part was accurate.

SPEAKER_04 31:11

I guess for me, it's on the nostalgia end, though we were two years older than the kids, and obviously we didn't have the same experience as they did, would be Stranger Things, right?

SPEAKER_03 31:20

That was kind of that was that had the 80s nostalgia button a million different times, right? So that either of you watched that Burroughs show, it's supposed to, it's made by the Duffer Brothers. It's not Netflix, it's called The Burroughs, and it's supposed to be Stranger Kids with Adults.

SPEAKER_04 31:35

Oh, okay. I'll have to check it out, but no. But uh thanks, gentlemen, for inviting me on the bench, and I'm impressed with your podcast, and I wish you all the best.

SPEAKER_03 31:44

And uh, before we leave if Joe and I have another podcast called Forgotten Television, and so we're talking about the the White Shadow, and we might even have Mike Hammer as a guest star because he was known to us as the White Shadow.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Or we could talk about the old Mike Hammer TV show.

SPEAKER_03 32:02

There you go. That would be a special episode. I like that. All right, guys, Carlos Joe, and Hammer out. Out!

SPEAKER_00 32:11

Out watching all the world go by now underneath the hazy sky now. Got my ticket for the long ride. Yeah, from my heart bench perspective, got that water be on light.