Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast
8am Hour - Ted Leitner Joins The Show In-Studio!
you go halfway home on a throwback Thursday, welcome back in on Ben Woods with Woodsy on vacation. It's been Ben and Paul and Paul's about to head down to retrieve our special guest who's going to be joining us in studio this hour looking forward. Potray's Hall of Famer Ted Leitner is going to be here a story time with Teddy and I will I will carry us until you bring him back. So Paul, head down and fetch our bet your guests. Thank you very much. Potray's of course one last night eight to one over the Los Angeles Dodgers sweeping the two game series and clinching their first season series over the Dodgers since 2010 which also happens to be the last time they were this close to first place this late in the season that was the year they ended up finishing a two game short of the San Francisco Giants after they lost the Giants on the last day of the year had a chance to tie him up. Who knows Potray's have one more three game series late in the season at Dodger Stadium against the Dodgers. How important could that series end up being if you're if you're only two or three games back you know harkens back to the 1996 San Diego Padres really one of the best endings to a regular season when the Padres were two games back I think of the Dodgers so the only way they could win the division was to sweep the series now they clinched the wild card but they went on and of course they swept the series Chris Gwen Tony Gwen's brother had the big hit and they ended up winning the division back in 1996 they won in 1998 then again in 2005-2006 but the Padres have not won an LOS title since that 2006 season so it's it's been a long time and it's very much in play at four and a half games back and now with the tiebreaker there's no game 163 anymore so they have the tiebreaker at the end of the season there he is come on in so it could be a very interesting September for the Padres and the Dodgers coming up later in the show you know Sarah's is going to join us we'll talk about some of the new additions to the Padres bullpen at the trade deadline looked really good last night I saw a couple of the newcomers who came in late in the game Padres have some big-time arms that Mike Schilt can go to now late in the games it's it's the riches that you've got after a trade deadline which is great did Polly miss you on the way down so okay so Adam found Ted on his way up upstairs while Paulie was in the elevator going down to get Ted the other way which is why I've got Adam Klug and try to figure out what's happening Paulie is probably the most confused person right now he's gone down and he's thinking Ted Leitner's gonna be downstairs and steady looking around uncle Teddy good morning it is so good to see you can control your own microphone right there as a radio professional there's your button you want to turn it off and cough whatever you've got the control thank you for this little orientation this is a radio studio and this is the microphone and you've been in one or two of these there's the clock the almighty clock it's all about time selling time so yeah here's a here's a great orientation it's over how you been I've been really good I mean this has been a really fun season how do you look great by the way I feel great have you been spending your time this baseball season I sit at home and I eat my liver because I'm thinking hey hey all the baseball teams I had they weren't this good they were playing like this the noise level the noise level Tuesday Wednesday was back to the Dodgers in 22 and into playoffs it was just make your skin crawl kind of noise and that was just you can't buy that man you can't buy it they got it it is fun when the when the potters and Dodgers are like this and they're competitive because so many years you know they weren't you know the Dodgers just handed the potters their hat so many times it was just 13 consecutive years yeah taking the series until this year but I was you know reminiscing like 1996 what what an ending that year winning the last three games of the season to beat the Dodgers my favorite memories of all time but my favorite memories of all time and going in into the the old Dodger Stadium visiting clubhouse which is now by the way R&D you go in there and the entire locker room it doesn't look like a locker room it's offices now with little 14,000 cubicles for these little guys there that sit there in the laptops research and development analytics metrics all that stuff that I was so big into not and it's just I have to tell myself this is where it was all going and and Trevor one game two game three game done sweep if the Padres win they get the division title if the Dodgers when they get it and the loser gets the wild card three of the greatest days of all time in Dodgers Stadium and the last two here were quite nice Paulie how confused were you when you went down the elevator you have no idea I had just texted me and I went down with three elevators and I went down one I look around I'm like he's not in the lobby all the buildings are very similar looking I go maybe he's in a different lobby I'm literally walking around the courtyard as I was going down the elevator him and Adam were coming up and I just missed him I'm going where the hell is everybody it's like a roaming old man now you know to be my kids go through the same thing like my grandchildren with the same thing where's pop up where's that and it's just that you know when I'm walking along trying not to run into the walls and trying to be where I'm supposed to be on time well this age thing I mean I got to figure it out it's so nice to have you Ted thanks for coming in thanks Paul I appreciate it I texted you when it happened but let me officially congratulate you on the upcoming retirement not yet though you got one more basketball season to call and saw Dutch at the game last night he was sitting in the seats right behind home plate it enjoying I mean some of the success these had to the to the winner go the spoils and that that must be that's nice seats man that must be so satisfying though for you after so many years of I mean let's let's be honest Aztec basketball before Steve Fisher and Brian Dutcher was it's pretty pathetic actually it was it was pretty pathetic and to get to see what you've done the run to the national championship the sweet 16s the the NCAA tournaments every year you you probably never thought you'd live to see that day but that is incredible no no I never thought two things that the Aztecs would be a powerhouse basketball program they are I never thought there'd be a campus type even though it's it's off campus but it's the campus is going out to meet the football stadium I never ever thought there'd be a football only okay football slash soccer stadium for San Diego State those two things would never happen in my lifetime and they've happened I quoted unnamed Aztec coach who I had on the radio the very first game in 1999 when fish and Dutch came here with a program that so many coaches tried good coaches who tried to build successful coaches sweet 16 coaches who could not build this into anything and the late great Alma Guire the great basketball commentator before that coach who worked with my buddy Dick Inburn for years and years and years they were like brothers and Al always said you can't succeed here because of the bell the what now the bell what do you mean the thing thing the sailboats the sailboats sound hard the sunshine nobody gives a big frosty crank about basketball it's got to be a cold environment someplace where they all come in and the entire city goes around this arena and and practice arena every game Kansas, New York Indiana and you'll never do that you'll never do that Al told me never never never Steve Fisher Brian Dutcher did that and I'll give you another another quote from an unnamed and unnamed Aztec staff member with that first game in 99 with with Fisher and Dutch and well five and twenty three season where Steve used to go around the campus and hand out tickets I told him one day Steve if I took two tickets at Channel 8 and put him on the bulletin board the next day there be four tickets up there nobody goes nobody wants to go and a unnamed coach after that first game on the beginning of the post-game show leaned into me and he said I have a question when my predecessor gave these guys scholarships had he seen them play it was not bad it was not bad and I said I assume so he's a lovely guy and a tremendous junior college championship type coach but no one could do this Steve Fisher and Brian Dutcher did this and I will admit I mean I had my doubts when when Brian Dutcher was going to take over you worry like okay Steve Fisher will be gone without the big name the guy who came from Michigan at the head of the program and I just wondered all right is it going to have the same cash a Dutch has not only carried it on but he's actually taking it to another level and I mean as suitcases full of cache a boxes in his garage for the cache and it goes to show you that a lot of Steve Fisher success not take nothing away from a coach Fisher who's a great tier one listener of the show probably listening right now but Dutch was so instrumental to all the success he had at Michigan recruiting the fab four and every fat five and everything see and people thought the C word they always use the C word culture culture and everybody wants to have culture everybody thinks they have culture these guys had culture at Michigan the truth of the matter is people thought that that defense with Steve Fisher and Brian Dutcher began here oh no no it didn't matter who you were you could be Jalen Rose you could be Chris Weber if you didn't defend you sat right next to Dutch you had a good seat it was a good lovely seat you had a great sight line of the game you had a chance to relax and win bring some water and watch the game but you didn't play you didn't play that that culture started there because those cultures those coaches had the culture in their minds and the way they coach and they had the success there and Dutch was huge in recruiting the fab five and I was going to interview I did interview with Dutch and I put a call at the fab four I know it's the Beatles it's not there on the Beatles that the fab five and thank God we were taping because Dutch kind of leaned in while we were taping and I said what what you call them the fab four hey yes that's the Beatles you old man you I would use an old man then it's a fab five oh no I know I know I know I just slipped I didn't hear me I just did it too so it's fine and what I want Dutch has done has been absolutely unbelievable it's impossible to have filled those shoes of Steve Fisher by gosh he filled him and like you said move to the next level but he's done it and as you said the culture of you get to play defense and to get on the court but he's also not the dictator he's not Bobby Knight and he respects the players he lets them be themselves just like with the fab five and their long shorts and they were able to you know it gives them a lot of freedom on offense if you miss a shot you're not just coming right out of the game that's part of that culture as well it's a lot different than some other college basketball coaches out there and think of how important that is and how overlooked it is and I'm glad you brought it up Ben because in this day and age just like in baseball free agency players talk it's a fraternity it's a union in this particular case even closer it's it's been going on forever and when people hear about not just the city of San Diego they visited they know what it's like and their wives and their family oh gonna go to San Diego it's wonderful but then they they learn about the clubhouse there's been so I mean you talked about the 96 team and the 98 team that 98 team texts each other multiple times every week they're brothers and see there's another it's a brotherhood it's a brotherhood but not all teams most teams are not the Aztecs and the Padres have brotherhoods in those club houses in those locker rooms and they truly are like that and that is something again you cannot buy it's like Jade Ladid when I when I talk to him how did you get how did you find out well you know the way Jaden works out like a maniac with those huge guns and amazing body and a friend of his says hey you know you're looking for a school a friend of mine went to San Diego State man those guys are a brother those guys are in the in the practice of the you go in at three o'clock in the morning you think you're gonna shoot by yourself there's nine guys already there when you get there at two o'clock in the morning Jaden you would love San Diego State they work like crazy they have each other's back it is a family and they play defense that's perfect for you that's how they get a Jaden Ladid because of their reputation around the country which in the final four when Charles Barkley started saying oh my god these are grown men look at these guys number one Alabama they beat that you know what at home in the second half then everybody now not just here knows why didn't you didn't Andy Ashley tells they've got like a text thread oh yeah just a ton of those 98 guys and they just constantly they're all just on that same thread as texting each other constantly I get a panel discussion when they brought the 98 club home and I forget what room wherever at Petco and there was about six guys there was Finley and and go go Gomez and all those guys up on the podium and Greg Vaughn and on the emcee and their their phones are going off through the entire thing and I said how that's pause here who we who we get in text from our teammates and he would they would name them and I said well this is because they know you're here no no this goes on every day of our lives we are with that 98 club we will always be with them as we were with the fans and the Aztecs during the NCAA run did the same thing and they had that same brotherhood one of my favorite coaching moments came in Houston in the in the final four before I forget which game what might have been a championship game might have been the game before that and I come in the locker room and Dutch in terms of his pregame pep talk the final one merely had written on the score on the on the blackboard be us and they're nasty they understand what that means we're not odd we're tough we're tougher than they are we play defense like nobody's business just today don't worry don't overextend don't get nervous be us that was a great great moment I thought I am I'm thrilled to have you here we're going to take a time out we're going to talk some pod raise get your you're an ambassador for the party so with a cap of leg you're gonna do a little ambassador you know in our next segment I want to get your thoughts I could ambassador with the best of them thoughts on Mike Shelton this year's team and then since you're here in studio gonna be here I've got some questions just story time about your career oh on television on radio yeah I am just I am thrilled to have you here so many people have already chimed in in the last 15 minutes it's great to see you we're on YouTube they said you look great you're the voice of so many people's childhood they said and this is just a wonderful trip down memory lane it is something speaking to you can't buy Jerry Coleman always told me that when I was with him as number two for a long long long long time and enjoyed every second of it and he was saying hey you'll be here long enough and people you'll have you'll be amazed at the impact you can have like I've had meeting Jerry on their families and listening to games with their grandma and their grandfather and now they hear you and they you're reminded of that and I thought yeah yeah whatever sure and Jerry was right and it's the greatest of warmest warmest of the cockling of my heart of all time it's so wonderful more in studio with uncle Teddy Ted Lightner when we come back right after a check of traffic here on 97 3 the family will be right back special treat this morning we are in studio with Padres Hall of Famer only 17 Padres Hall of Famer's in the 55 years of franchise history Ted Lightner is one of them they never take that away from you wow that is that that says it it really does I can't tell you I it's I had never expected it I never ever expected it thank you Peter Seidler thank you so much that was just unbelievable to me and when Peter and I talked and I said I I my eyesight starting to go for trying to track that little white baseball and all the travel and all that I had gone and fell down the steps at the western hotel in San Francisco on Union Square we came in like a two o'clock in the morning and we go in the side entrance with the team buses with the Padres and I'm carrying one suitcase in one hand and a carry on in the other and I'm going down the stairs a long staircase and I think oh oh and I lose my balance old people use lose their balance sometimes and I go boom tumbling butt over tea kettle all the way down embarrassed and the players of course they've got there no mercy now of course now it's like which is a good thing is they treat you like a teammate now because you've been there so long and and the the Hispanic called me Hovin young man which layman Viejo so either they call me Hovin to be ironic or they called me old man and it was what's wrong and just just one comment after another come I could just get up get up get out of get down the staircase and I told Peter I got to get out of here and Peter said hey and I'll never forget it as long as I live and I'm not boasting I'm not patting myself on the back but it was Peter and myself and his office for an hour before Sunday game during that final season of 2020 for me and he said hey you're an icon you're a legend camanetti's gone Tony Gwyn is gone Jerry Coleman's gone and I want you with the ball club I want you around the ballpark and and and I was I had tears in my eyes trying not to ball like like a little boy but no one ever said that to me and and I never heard that before I never considered myself an icon a Padre legend that's the players as far as I'm concerned and for Peter Sideler to tell me that and to treat me the way he did so so lovely so nice and it's hard man because I missed everything about it win or lose even when I had losing scenes I couldn't wait to get to the ballpark and see Jerry Coleman laugh and have fun and travel with Jerry right of course the aisle there in the first row and coach it was just spectacular so Peter thank you for everything I'm glad you brought up Peter because I don't know how much I believe in in karma and fate but certainly remember 1984 after Ray Crock passed away and they were wearing the rate a RAK patches and now they've got the PS hearts that they're wearing and they keep in the in the dugout and there's undoubtedly compared to last season my magic about this year's team that was just missing last year and it wasn't there and I don't know why and now it is and you know believe what you want and what do you believe one year soon the baseball gods will smile on the San Diego Padres and you'll have a parade I mean someone's looking over this team right now it feels like I've been so lucky in my life I worked for Ray Crock as you mentioned and Joan Crock and Joan and I were extremely close much closer than me and Ray and it was he was like a sister to me it was just unbelievable and and and had John Moore's one of the great people of all time and then I get to work for Peter Seidler I don't know what I ever did in a former life to be so lucky and to work for people that they were gonna make it a family here and like culture and basketball team they all say that but they're not they're not families corporations it's hard to be a family we were family with John Moore's we were your family with Peter Seidler and now the Seidler family and I just I find it to be pinch pinch how did this happen to me but Peter you go you you watch over these boys and they'll get to that parade obviously you've seen many Padres managers come and go you know Dick Williams a lot of them in the in the late 80s and 90s and then you know Boach came in obviously for a long time buddy black Mike Chilt does the first one in a long time that you're not talking to every day what's your what's your impressions though of Mike Chilt I love you do I mean I just and I had never met him when he was with the Cardinals for whatever reason when they were playing the Padres so I go and in April I go downstairs in the clubhouse I see Manny I just Manny's one of my favorite Padres of all time gives me a big hug I see Tati and those guys and I don't know that Joe Musgrove of course grew up here and then I've known him you know but it's just it's just it's it's like I said it's different you miss it you're not traveling with them you're you're not part of it and you have to transition for that and so you do that but you miss all of that in the clubhouse and and on the charter planes and and just the whole thing and seeing other other broadcasters that come here and you go there and but I can't complain I had 41 years so I go to the office in the clubhouse and I walk in and I say Mike I'm Ted Leidner I know who you are I know who you are congratulations on Hall of Fame and hey listen I want you around here I want you to come in don't be a stranger and I'm thinking we've done it again like you said we had Bruce Bocey for a decade I got to travel with him and do the managers report same thing with Bunny Black and now you got Mike Chilt here and and look what he's been doing without Taty without Musgrove without Darvish this unbelievable and they love him and I went to the dinner on the diamond once again which raises up like a million dollars I never you know all my associations doing charger football and then Aztec football and basketball and the Clippers where they were here never has there been a banquet that raises so much money that is so entertaining as having that dinner right on the field the dinner I might give a tremendous talk and it was amazing that this is your day off I went through that where people would call you and say hey can you come and talk to us on so and so date well I have to check my schedule no we already so your toast your toast you want to spend some time with your with your children your family and they say no we already checked you're off that day it's the day off that yes it's the one day off at a month and a half my family but they got you and so you go and talk because you represent in the ball club and you try to do those things and here were here was the pottery team their day off their day off long road trip all that stuff and they're all there to raise money for the different pottery foundations and charities that's the culture that's been in the clubhouse like I said before 896 and still there it's um and you can credit Mike Schultz but it's a it's a good brand of baseball and it's not necessarily the one that modern teams subscribe to true it's making contact at the plate you know hitting for average which everyone says doesn't matter hitting for average but they they hit they make contact they played fundamental good defense most of the time really good a defense throw strikes I mean that's what Mike Schultz old school about all of that and people say that's not going to work in the modern day but it's working for the San Diego pond it does and Mike was in that cardinal system the cardinal system I remember when the gang of 15 whatever they were called with Tom Warner those guys the ownership here and to act them in all those guys because they all were basically I don't know the structure how it's in in in law but they were all partners in this thing and in Tom Warner who would come down he was doing the Cosby show then and he would come down and and be around but he needed those other owners to run the club and then do all that along with Dick Freeman a CEO so same thing same thing they took everybody on opening day of that season in the early 90s and they flew to St. Louis to study the Cardinals because it was like the Dodgers always said the Cardinal Dodger way the Cardinal way everybody doing the same thing through the farm system Padres did not have that way way way back when you know in the 70s and then into the 80s then they did now they do so it's the Padre way but Mike Mike has been there and is doing it his way and that's the old fashioned kind of manager that uses the analytics uses the metrics incorporates them takes what he wants but he all still has the old school the old school way and I love that we've got we got a lot of people listening we've got some people who are nostalgic and are loving hearing Ted's voice we've got some younger audience members who don't even really know Ted Leitner's story so we're going to take time out when we come back we're going to hear a little bit more about Ted's career here in San Diego on radio and television and where it all started and I'm going to ask him how he survived it all because he did even more than I do and everyone knows no one seems to be on air more than I am right now but Ted did more than I did when he was when he was back in the 80s and 90s you couldn't turn on a TV or radio on San Diego without Ted Leitner there I got a good that was a good thing and it was a bad I'm very polarizing as well so we're going to get into some of those questions and some of a Ted's history coming up next don't go away more here on San Diego's number one sports station 97-3 the fam you want to be the liner while you're here now I'll take care of it uncle Teddy baseball coverage on 97-3 the fan is presented by T-Mobile switch to T-Mobile you can get tons of benefits still save on every plan versus AT&T and Verizon use their savings calculator to find out how at t-mobile.com/switch you probably read I don't know 250,000 of those during your your your baseball calling career and radio career yeah yeah I did and I enjoyed it because as you and I and Paul were discussing this is commercial radio and the money is important here and I always bought into that big time and it was simply wonderful I tried to pattern myself after Dan Ingram who was the disc jockey 2-6 on W.A.B.C. in New York when I was growing up and was and is considered by the way he's gone now he was considered the greatest disc jockey of all time so funny great voice he would do all those ad libs I'd never heard him kick a word in the 20 years he was at W.A.B.C. and just I thought oh my gosh if I could have that and be that good and I'm not and I never was but I tried to do it like he did in a conversational tone not reading it and try to ad lib as much of it as possible and he was just a god there with a small g at doing that and a great influence on me and getting into broadcasting and I was able to send him an email through a mutual friend late in his life and thank him like I have for so many people who helped me and guided me and got me in love with with broadcasting that's what they say about me Paulie right never never kicks a word never floves anything he's always precise and perfect on the air Paulie says every mistake I heard him Paulie says every mistake I make we actually have a segment where they just play them all back because they love you that's why all right so that's you started obviously in New York I want to hear about coming out to San Diego via Oklahoma when you when you got here and a little more about your career first quick check a traffic with Kelly Danick here on 97 through the fan Ted Leitner in studio with us and so when you made your way out to San Diego via via Oklahoma did you have via bus I was used at standard answer people said how do you get out to Oklahoma on a Greyhound bus for 39 hours stopping at every little hamlet around the around the country a lovely tour and that's literally how I got there did you ever think though at the beginning that this would be the last stop that you'd be here forever were you like most broadcasters right do San Diego for a couple years then maybe I'll get back to the big apple or you know Chicago you know get to it to a big spot or did you know like right away no I want to I want to settle down I want to stick around here well I knew because I'm a son worshipper I love that I always got a great tan you tan what love that all the time love that all the time there were radio morning shows years ago that used to do that on the air that others Ted Leitner get it's a phony tan right it's a phony tan how does he get it is it man tan that stuff used to wipe on I was just like mustard man tan on his great tan and then they would take calls and people wondering about that and but I loved that so I flew to Detroit a friend of mine a former news director of mine was a news director channel two in in WJBK in Detroit and I literally fly in at a blizzard they closed the airport as we're taxing the pilot says unless I if you know where the terminal is bring your call button because I can't find it blinding snow can't do it and they just closed the airport with the last team last plane to get in and so they offered me twice the money in Detroit but it's Detroit it's it's the old radio comedian Fred Allen used to say the definition of Detroit is to Newark's they get on this place is bleak let me never mind this no storm look at this place it's Detroit and then I come to San Diego and that was that that was when there was no terminal to just turn little one and you walked off the plane onto the tarmac and then you walked from the plane down the steps that into the into that I just thought look at this place I'm walking off the plane into sunshine I love this place I would love to be here forever so you come in you know on on television and you kind of shake up this town a little bit with your style of broadcast it was a very nice you for Mr. Thank you Hola rising obviously not everybody did because you're still here so yeah I have the final laugh I need to ask you about it because you know obviously I've been I've been a channel 10 now for 20 years right as the sports director but I probably you probably got in one night what I get in about a week on the air with one of your sports segments on channel eight and I'm always amazed by the story so no prompter no just just you got up and you had your your video and you may be a thought or two and just just go how did how did that evolve how did that happen because I am always in awe of thinking about that I was leaving Oklahoma City and and the CBS affiliate there and going to the CBS affiliate in Hartford owned by post-newsweek and I and and that interim couple of weeks I thought well I'm Oklahoma City I need to put pressure on myself so I won't feel pressure when I get to Hartford I mean that's not a big market but it's a huge a station with a huge ratings and I'm over here and Chris Berman is that the UHF that channel 39 which we talked about is VHF and UHF no I'm dating myself that I remember the difference between Paul has no idea what we're talking about and Chris and I have talked about that a long long many many times about our young days and he was not doing any nicknames or anything like that back then or any of that stuff and but I thought how can I put pressure on I'll get rid of my script which I did use in Oklahoma City until the last two weeks and then I told the director listen I'm going to start with Oklahoma football we'll do an interview with Jimmy Johnson the Oklahoma State Coach then we're going to have this and that but I'm just going to bounce around and add a little bit or try to and get it all and then we'll do it that way why you're driving me nuts why because I want to put pressure on myself going into a new a new market because I know me I'll be nervous because of the news surrounding so I did that and then got rid of the script forever and would tell the director what I was going to do and the important thing was when they did the marketing research at channel eight in San Diego people who need and even care about sports would say it's fascinating I don't care about sports but he's looking right at me it's like he's talking right to me he's not doing that head up and down thing reading a script and he's talking to me I've never had that happen before I didn't plan that I didn't know what happened but it was really something important to me during that love hate thing because the truth of the matter is and I just saw my former news director Jim Holtzman in retirement where he lives in North Carolina when I had a vacation in the last month or early we had Jim June and Jim told me well you didn't know but the CEO of the channel eight came to me at the end of your first year you have a one-year guaranteed contract and that's it and he came to me and said I think we're going to have to find a new sports guy I don't like this guy and my friends at the country club don't like this guy he's given his opinion all the time he's got a big mouth typical New York big mouth and it looks like and here's where people are there for you and you don't do it on your own no matter how much ego you have and you have to have ego as you know and think you're pretty good or you can't you'll get crushed in this business so some ego is necessary so he tells the news director we're going to have to probably get a new sports guy I don't like this guy and Jim Holtzman says to him well when you're getting the new sports guy get a new news director too because I talk about somebody standing behind you with character I brought this guy in I hired him if you get rid of him after one year and I know it's working I know it's going to work I know that I hear that from people even the one that hate him keep saying I hate him I'll never why you hate him he said this this this this and Jim says well they quote me seven things he said they will still be watching even though they didn't I think this can work and he had to talk the CEO into it by threatening to quit that's the only reason I'm here now I think you know nowadays there are sports TV personalities the you know Skip and Shannon and Stephen A who revel in being the villain and I never got that sense for me you would antagonize people you're doing you're trying to but the person usually sits in that chair woods Howard Stern is one of his heroes the radio heroes he was he was in Hartford when I got Howard was on radio and I was in Hartford and there's a scene from the movie private parts where the executive comes in and goes half the audience loves you they they listen two hours a day it's incredible and they go in the other half they hate you and they listen four hours a day it's true and that is common answer I want to hear what he's going to say next all of us who made it had to thank Howard Cosell it wasn't Howard Stern it was another Howard Howard Cosell put up with all the slings and the arrows there was a little bar in Pittsburgh for every Monday night football game they would buy an old black and white television they did draw straws at each guy with who lost got the short straw would have to bring in an old black and white television and they would all bring in bricks and they gather around and then hello again everyone Howard Cosell and the guy who drew the straw again was able to take the brick run up on the television and throw it and smash the TV when Cosell was on that's hate that's hate and he did that he stood up for Muhammad Ali when it was unpopular to do that he defended the black athlete beginning with Jackie Robinson and Cosell did all that and people loved him or hated him and Howard Stern jumped on that they didn't believe in it I am not smart enough to have planned it I did not plan that or plan to be Howard Cosell I am an opinionated obnoxious person and that's what that's what I was and so I it just if I had planned it I would have screwed it up it just happened it just more talented than me probably didn't make it but I was at the right time the right station with the right boss who would protect me which he did and that's the only reason I made it we're talking to Ted Ligner when you when you are opinionated though and you've got a TV platform and a radio platform and your calling games athletes will hear that we had a story earlier today where there was a host in Tennessee and one of the Titans players came up and got into argument with him just sitting there because of something he had tweeted I know you had some of those experiences what we're we have we have done founds to come on Fridays and Mondays before and after charger games to do the preview and then the post mortem on Monday and we pay him for that so Dan calls me one time and says I can't come in live we got to tape it so I meet him at the old stadium and we're taping in the middle of the taping Raleigh fingers comes out of the pottery clubhouse out of the dugout and he walks across and he stops he looks at who's doing it me and Dan fouts interviewing and in the middle of the interview Raleigh what Raleigh yells out hey Dan what are you talking to that bastard for and I thought okay Danny we got to start over and I got it and so that's good and this one all the time when Jerry oh gosh I can see him and I can't think of his name right now Jerry gross no no no a player who would Dave Winfield Jerry Royster no no I'll feel her left feeler she hairy short Jerry Turner turner Jerry Turner they announced that Jerry Dave Winfield is going away as a free agent and Jerry Turner will replace him so I go on channel eight that night and I say you know you understand with Jerry Turner replacing a Dave Winfield if you enter a Volkswagen at the Indy 500 you better know a hell of a shortcut and boy was he happy so I forgot about that I go down to the ballpark and I'm on the field and I hear Volkswagen huh huh what and it's Jerry Turner in my face Volkswagen and I don't I don't remember what that means but what he's talking about and Jerry what are you saying Volkswagen that's what you think and he's ready to punch my lights out this happened many many times because the players hated my guts and the only guy who ever came up and said Steve Garvey in the clubhouse I know what you're doing I know that you give those opinions people don't like it they can read a newspaper editorial but when you're right there looking at them and telling them that in their living room they don't like it but and Garvey was complimentary and encouraging to stick to your guns do what you do and that was the one one and then Ken Kaminetti came up to me one time sitting on the dugout bench and he said really like what you do I said that's because you're not watching that's because you've got batting practice at that time at five o'clock and you're on the road that when you can't see me on the road no he laughed and he said no people tell me the things that you say and I know that you say enough good things about us as well as the criticism and I appreciate that and coming from Kaminetti that meant a lot to me we were talking about this just randomly came up a few days ago that you didn't like the Dodgers when you were calling games and the Dodgers didn't like you either they hated me more than I hated them that was the first thing Rick Monday said when the Harry Rick Monday former Dodger to be a broadcaster and I worked with him and Jerry Coleman and then and of course Bob Chandler and Mo would say oh you have no idea he said Reggie Smith I believe will kill you someday I'm almost convinced of this because he hates you so much and here's that Howard Stern thing and Reggie would get dressed well like social and all those Dodgers and they would get to the hotel to see what the hell you're going to say that night to piss him off and and but like messochism they they wanted to be they wanted to hear what you had to say more so they could hate you more so that was but made it work and he would always say that then Sosha became a Padres for one spring training in Yuma and I said Mike I'm to I know who you are I don't want to talk to you I mean if this were then it's a little different nowadays but if this were like the 90s Max Muncie would have already punched woods in the face oh yeah some of the things that he says about the Dodgers name no and I always referred to them as the Dodger crybabies even on the scoreboard that they have the names up there for the teams at night before the internet and all that way back when the show old I really am and I the the very same thing I'd always call them the crybabies because they wind one time that the Padres are doing too much celebrating and so for the one but he crossed this home plate and points to the fans now and the Dodgers are just ready to kill him back then you didn't get away with any of that stuff without getting a fastball behind your head and so when I talk to the Dodgers back then and Reggie Smith was the worst but there were so many of them that hated me much more than I hated them I'm gonna do something unprofessional can you stick around one more segment sure thank you so much because I need to ask you how you survived it and got all the way through doing mornings and nights because I'd like to keep doing this and you know get to your age at some point so a little more with Ted Lightner when we come back here next Ben Woods a 97-3 to fan trying to figure out what to eat for dinner yet again with nor sides and bullion as you're not so secret ingredient you can skip the drive through and do dinner at home nor taste combos provide a menu of delicious affordable and well-balanced meals that you can prepare in 30 minutes or less visit nor.com to get quick and easy recipe ideas for your home 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