Showdown
Showdown Episode 24 3-21-24
(upbeat music) This is Thursday, the 21st of March, and I have with me right next to me here, Cameron Clayborn, and Cameron is with me here at Cardinal Ritter College Prep High School. - Hey. - And you're broadcasting here from the high school. We also have Alan Horton, and Alan, of course, a very well-known sports broadcaster here in St. Louis, who often goes by the name Babyo. Hi, Babyo. - How you doing? And how you doing, Cameron? - Who are you? - Well, of course my mother, of course my mother, I always go be a baby, so. - Exactly. But let's not forget one thing, and that is that you are onions, sun. - That's correct. - And, you know, I may have been with onion for 25 years, but you were with onion for a whole lot longer than that. - Almost 60 years. - There you go, and of course we love onion, and we have a lot to talk about, not so much tonight about it, but there's some things going on here in town to honor onion, and I'm really excited about that, and it's all through Washington University, and so that's really outstanding. Now, let me tell you, well, first, let me ask you, I've been told that you have family members who went to Cardinal River. - Yes, I did, my nephew, Richard, went, and his sister went, that's my sister, Cara, went. That's my brother's children. - Awesome. - They both graduated, and in fact, they both went to St. Louis University, and they both graduated from St. Louis University. Richard is working with charter on spectral communications, and Cara is a teacher, she's especially a teacher. Certainly not surprising, not at all. Anyway, Cameron here is one of my students, has been a student of mine for years here at the school, and you're a senior this year, right? Yeah, senior, and he's also a football player on this team, which I'm guessing that you probably know this, Alan, that the football team here is lights out fabulous. - And we also gotta congratulate the girls basketball team also. - Well, there you go, so you know about, we're gonna get to that in a minute, you know, so there's no question. In fact, they had a big ceremony today that honored the basketball team, because, I mean, football and basketball, obviously I think it's fair to say, this school is a power amount. - Yeah, girls and boys, girls and boys teams are doing very well. - Yeah, that's very true. - I consider, I'm sorry, consider almost your moment is changing all around the city. You know, it's nice to know, it's nice to see all the red are still doing well. You're still getting good athletes. And at the station, it's the same time. - No, listen, this school keeps expanding more and more kids going here, and kids on waiting list to get into here, because this is a phenomenal school, 45 years, and it is great. So talk to me for a second, Cameron. Tell us about the football team. Why are you so good? And remember now, you hear me, you got to speak out and sort of lean into it a little bit. Other than that, you're good. - So I've been a football team since my sophomore year. I loved it, it's a great experience. One, I became the first team in the corner of the history to become state champions for the back-to-back. It was phenomenal, loved it, and I think we paid the way for the younger guys to set the top 1-8 to get ready to go to state. - Yeah, you really are leaders. I mean, people say that all the time, but in this case, you all lead and mentor the other players on the team, right? Who's in charge of the team? I know who it is, but tell us who. - Me. - See you. - Two. - Two. - Yeah. - Okay, gotcha, and who's the coach? - The coach brings me in. - Yeah, Spain is terrific. He and I taught at Vashan together for a number of years. And then here we are at Cardinal Ritter and we love her very much. So Alan, here's what my question is for you. Are the Cardinals going to be in place again? - Are they going to be what? - Are the Cardinals going to be in the last place again? What do you think? - You know, actually, I don't think so, but the problem is I think they may finish third at best because they have too many question marks. So when I listen to people around town talk about the, it seems like every player they mention, they follow it with the word "if." And if you say "if" more than two or three times, you may have a problem with each player. They're going to be better than last year. They can't be worse. They finish 20 games under 500, which are 71 wins and 91 losses. So I think they'll be better than that. But the question is, are there going to be 20 games better than last year? And it's going to take 85 to 90 wins to win this division. - I would think so. Can you follow baseball? - No, but what I'm hearing from the Cardinals, the organization, I think they can put his hat on. - Okay. So you think they're going to look really good. - You know? - Yeah. - Oh, you're right. - No, okay, I don't know much about some of the new ones, either. Let's start with Sonny Gray, Alan. Obviously, he's hurt. How hurt do you think he is, or do you know? - You know, I'm going to tell you something more. With the Cardinals, you never know how hurt he is. Now, he had a little issue, but he was pitching in this free training game. He said he felt a little tightness, but he's working on the sidelines. So that's a good sign, because the first I thought that he made me out for awhile, but maybe they're just sitting them out, just making sure he's 100% healthy. So it's not as bad as I thought it was, because he was throwing on the sidelines in the bullpen about a week or so afterwards. He hasn't gotten back in the game yet, but right now, he's listed as our best pitcher, and it's not good to have your best pitcher on the injured list going into the season, because he was supposed to be open and they started, but now he's not going to do the miles. Michael has got to be open and they started now. So it's just waiting to see. And according to Lauren, the greatest in reporting injuries either. So that's why when they say something about the injury, we all kind of cringe open it. If they say day to day, it could be six months. - By the way, I've got Michael over here on the feed, saying, and he happens to be my cousin, by the way, he's in Arizona too. And he says, and I think that this is a concern of a lot of people. He says, don't these guys need a new manager? - You know, the problem about Carter, I need a new manager. It sounds good, but the problem with the Cardinals is, a lot of the managers stuff now is done through what they call analytics. So basically what's on a tablet, basically is how managers manage. So some of the moves that a manager makes, he would have to criticize him for them, but he's basically going on a spreadsheet or what is coming for the analytics department. So if they get rid of Ali, they're gonna bring in a manager. First of all, who's gotta go by what they're doing now? So I'm not sure if another manager will make a difference. The days of the old school manager is over with where man image, you just go by gut feeling and say, this guy will put this guy here because I got a hunch. Both days are over with. - Well, you know, it was funny too because I heard somebody talking the other day about Sandy Cofax and Ron Dryz deal. And by the way, do you know what I mean? Do you know who Sandy Cofax was? - Ron Dryz deal. - You know, I'll tell you what's funny about, let's start with that. You know, a historic memory is so short, Alan. It's beyond belief and I teach history up here. And I can tell you right now, people forget very, very quickly. I did an interview two nights ago with one of the top scholars in the United States, actually in the world who researches and does work related to James Baldwin. And we were commenting on how, you know, people's names just disappear. Now Baldwin's name has stuck around pretty good, but a lot of names disappear. James Baldwin is a famous black author who was more than a black author. He was an author, great author. And he happened to be black, but he was a great author. And he was a leader in many ways, a fought leader during the civil rights movement in the United States. Now, that's on the literary and the political side, but, you know, to have people forgetting Don Dryz deal and Sandy Cofax, that, yeah. And I know that people don't know those names, but let me say this. - Oh, yeah. - When you gave them the ball, Alan, they pitched the game. - In addition, I'll throw another name out there, Bob Gibson, our home. - Who's gonna say that next? - Sure. - You know, can you imagine in the fifth inning, Bob Gibson got two runners on base and the manager comes out talking about, we think the next guy is a left-hander. We're gonna bring in Stephen match with somebody to get him out. Bob Gibson would knock him off that mound and tell him to get out of here. - How's it gonna say Bob Gibson would probably throw the ball at the manager before he threw the ball next at the batter? - You know, an amazing stat. The year Bob Gibson had the ERA of 1.12. First of all, they lowered the mound a year after that. You know, Bob Gibson, Bob Gibson changed the way pitchers pitched because of that season. And I believe that same season, Danny McLean had 30 victories for the Detroit Tigers. But it was funny, I believe that year, now my number could be a little off, he pitched over 30 complete games. There are teams that don't pitch that many complete games now doing a regular season. - Yeah, and I was just gonna tell Cameron, you know, what Gibson did, do you know that name? Okay, well that's a black pitcher, okay? And what he used to do is he throw the ball at the batter and push him off the plate. - Oh yeah. - He pitched would be on the outside corner and no one adjusts to it. I mean, he just went through the lineups with no problem. He wiped them out. He was a team. - And it's funny, it's funny because if a guy gets a home, he had a home run on Bob Gibson, which already happened. The next batter who came up knew he was gonna get plucked. (laughs) Bob Gibson was sitting in a mess and he wasn't gonna wait for eight batters to come up for the go-around. But that next batter come up. He would brush the other guy off the plate or he would hit him in the rib cage. It was almost like if the guy has a home run, when he comes to the plate, scores, the next batter on the own big circle is looking at him. Why did you do that? And I gotta go here and face this guy. - I'm gonna explain this to Cameron for a second and I'm just gonna talk to somebody real quick and I'll be right back, go ahead. - Sure. Yeah, Bob Gibson was an excellent pitcher man. I mean, he won a sigh on the ward. He had a 3000 strikeouts. He didn't get to the magical 300 victories, but he had like 270 or 280, but he was definitely the best pitcher St. Louis ever saw. And he was actually one of the best pitchers of the 60s, of the 60s and mid-70s. But back then, they had like the pitcher, Mark Mitchell, Sandy Colfax, they had to get in one more shell, that pitch with the San Francisco Giants, both pitchers, they pitch man innings. When they came in the game, they took the mound, didn't nobody expect to come in and relieve them unless they were really having a bad day. And even after that, they didn't wanna come out. They would argue with the managers on the mound and say, I could get this next batter, manager will walk away, next guy comes up, he would strike a mound. Yes. Yes, it was really good. I'm on camera to ask you a question, though, why are we waiting for Mark to come in? Can you hear me? Okay. Cameron, can you hear me? - Yeah, I can hear you. - Okay, about the football team. How many seniors you got coming players you got coming back from this year's team? - We're looking around 50 to 45 to 50 for number five. - That's almost everybody, isn't it? That's almost everybody, isn't it? So basically you had a young team that won the second state championship in a row and you got most of the starters coming back. So you feel pretty good about number three, don't you? But I have a three in a row, don't you? - Yeah, I think Coach Payne's game plan, it's phenomenal, I think whatever he has in that game plan, I think it'll work, work and work and work until he's getting ready to leave. - Yeah, once, you know, what I like about him, he notices a player, sometimes he don't get the player to try to finish his system. He will try to coach where he can make this player better, better or that player better, because everybody is not gonna be the same when it comes to be able to be on the football team. And that's work for him and I have to come in over there. - Yeah, it's nice to have, it's nice to have, nice to have, what position you play? - I played exactly. I kind of figured you was, I figured you was some kind of lineman, an office of defensive lineman. I'll be okay with all you. - Six foot, 250 pounds. - Six foot, 250 and you're a junior. - I'll see you. - Yeah. - Are you a senior? - Yeah. - Okay, so you'll be back next year to enjoy the third state championship. - I won't be back next year. - Yes, so where are you going? - I don't want to be more house college. - Oh, no, that's terrific. - Yeah. - That is right for me. - Why'd you say he was going? - More house college. - You're going to be a more house man. - Yeah, I think I need to go to a more house. - Oh, he'll be a more house man. So he's going to have it good. I really congratulate you on that, man, Cameron. - And where do you know our students are terrific here? - Yeah, more house, more house man, got a lot of respect, man. - Yup. - No, that's absolutely true. So, Alan, tell us a little bit about, and we'll get back to the Cardinals here in a second, but tell us a little bit about what you're up to these things. - Well, you know, I'm still doing my DJ business. In fact, I can plug my cousin's spot. It's called the Gavo 8745 Jenny Station Road. I'm there every Wednesday night. I just started last night. But we have good music, we have great food, great drinks, and we do karaoke always. And this is an adult, but you're a crowd, no kids in there, no twerking or anything like that. It's basically a 40 and over crowd. So, I'm really having a lot of fun. And I'm working, I'm really healthy now too. And I think that's going to go a long way. I went to the doctor yesterday. My blood pressure was 130 over 76. - It's good seeing my heart's in good shape. I mean, everything is going well. Because remember, when I had my stroke back in 2013, my blood pressure was 260 over 140. - Oh my God. - Yes, and I talked to the doctor yesterday. She said the only thing that saved me back then, because I'd never drank, I'd never smoked, never did any drugs. And my heart was in perfect condition to continue to pump oxygen to my brain. So, I was really blessed. And it proved once and for all I did, I did have a brain. - No, that's fabulous. And, you know, one of the things I was going to ask is, do you ever do jazz like your dad did? - Oh yeah, yeah. Now, the jazz I do is more, it's more traditional. I mean, more contemporary now, but you know, you know, dad, he liked Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker and all of those guys. And I still got all that in my computer, though. - Yeah. Well, you know, one thing your dad always said about the music, and I was just going to ask Cameron, I guess you probably listened to the regular music and all the kids listened to, right? - Yeah. - You know, and I don't know, you probably heard this Alan, but you know, Alan's dad was incredible. Amazing broadcaster. Yeah. And he used to say that he couldn't believe that the kids in the future would be talking about the music that they hear today. And, you know, they'd be married for 30 years and they'd say, hey, you remember the song that we used to listen to, and I can't even say the words because I'm not in the comments here, but you know the kind of language. And, you know, it's just, it's-- - I can see somebody in 2014, too, say it. Remember that sexy red concert we went to? But you know what, but Mark, I'm gonna tell you it all. - Hang on, I'm gonna be right back for a second. - Okay, and Cameron, you know this, all the music they play is not like that, though. There are still some great artists, great R&B artists. I can just go down the line with her and people like that, you know, and even people like Chris Brown, Chris Brown and Drake, you know, they do R&B music also. So I enjoy that, you know, sometimes people, they concentrate on the negative stuff that we hear, and it's facing Cameron. When I was growing up in the 90s, we had a Reverend A. Little Kim. We had a Reverend A. Foxy Brown. We had a Reverend A. Kaya. All the stuff that's sexy, all the stuff that's sexy red is saying, they said the same thing 30 years ago. But people my age now are criticizing them with some of the people who are dancing to Little Kim and some of the people. So the music just evolves, you know, and I enjoy it all, you know, of course, I can't, you know, I can't play Pound Town at some of the parties I do, but what I do is I do enjoy a lot of artists that are around now. - Yeah. So that's a great question though. Tell me about how you ended up doing both sports and the music. How did all that happen? - Well, you know, sports was natural because my dad loves sports, you know. - Listen, your dad was doing sports way back before anything else. - He was doing sports before he actually did his regular talk show. It was KK, it was called KKSS there. That turned into magic stations and he used to do a sports show with a guy named Scott St. James. It was called Sports of All Sorts. It came on Sunday evening at seven o'clock. - Yeah, so let me interrupt his second help. Cameron's got a run, so we want to say goodbye to him and thank him for joining us here, which was really very nice. So Cameron, you'd be good. - Yeah, take care of Cameron, it's nice talking to you. Congratulations on your state championship and being a more house man. - No, one of the things I was going to say to you is are you familiar with the loss of cooking over at Harris though? - I've heard about it, but I haven't really gotten a much detail on it. - Okay, well do me a favor. I got to walk away just for one second. So if you will give a little rundown on some of the players on the Cardinals right now and I'll be back in a second, can you do that? - Sure. - Okay, excellent. - Yes, the Cardinals, they pitch a stab, basically has a new look now. They sign Lancele and Sonny Gray and they got Middleton in the bullpen. Now I think the bullpen actually improved better than the starters did, and let's face it. We love Adam Wainwright, but the Cardinals a lot better went off without him because he did nothing last year. Well, I mean nothing, he did nothing. But they was trying to get him to his 200 victories and fortunately and unfortunate at the same time, he actually got his 200 victories because the Cardinals were playing so bad. Because once they were out of the race, they just decided to go and put them out there every four to every fifth day so he could try to get his victories. And at one point, he had lost like nine games in a row. He had lost like nine games in a row and it was a struggle for him. But he went out there and kept fighting and his ERA, I think was, which is earned right average, was the highest in a national league of all starters with the number innings that he pitched. It was like mad. I think I could have pitched almost as good as that. So he's gone now and his buddy Yaudhia Molina is gone which I really don't understand the Yaudhia Molina thing because he couldn't wait to get out of St. Louis people. They have hired him as some kind of special assistant to John Mosalei, but we haven't seen him. He had to show up at spring training. He had to show up in the front office but you know, which is his prerogative. And everybody's saying, well, maybe we need Yaudhia as a manager. Yaudhia doesn't want to manage to card him. I don't believe. I've heard Rumblin say he might want to manage but I haven't heard him say it itself. He's got a baseball team down in Puerto Rico. He's got a basketball team in Puerto Rico. So he spent most of this time down there and if people remember when Molina was hurt year before last, a lot of his rehab was done away from the Cardinals in Puerto Rico. He wasn't even with the team. And I'm not criticizing him. I'm just stating a fact. So, you know, all the people want Molina to come back and he was great for the Cardinals. Him and Wayne Wright was a good tandem and a good tandem. They set the, I will say record. It was just a milestone with 200 starts with the picture and catch it together. But Belia didn't, actually didn't want to come back for his final year. He had to be talked in the coming back. So him and Wayne Wright could get that milestone. - Yeah. Well, you know, opening day this year, of course, is now going to be Miles McCombs. - Michael, it's... - Yeah, what do you think about him? 'Cause he's actually been pretty good for us. - Yeah, he's been pretty, that's what it was. He's been the most consistent as far as... One's about staying healthy. And, you know, he's not a strikeout pitcher. But, and people say, oh, he's the innings eater. You know, but the thing about the innings eater is, if you give up, if you switch six innings and give up five or six runs, what difference does it make where you give a lot of innings? All it does is save the bullpier. But, yeah, he's gonna... - I'll be right there. You go ahead. - I love live streaming. So we could do this a live streaming. There's no program director screaming at us. What are you doing in everything? What we had this conversation before we came on here. But I love this format, though. Just kind of digress for a minute. I love this format. We just, we just be our sales. We just be our sales and we don't have to... We don't have to, I'm not gonna get on here and give a whole bunch of stats because nobody wants to hear stats all the time. You could go on the internet and get all the stats you want. And besides, if I give a wrong stat, there's somebody out there waiting. Just waiting for me or anybody else who doesn't show to make a mistake. Then there are all the social media saying, "Oh, you got dead wrong. "He didn't do this. "He didn't hit that thing in your home run." So this format here is pretty good. I love talking baseball, though. I love my team, though. That would be a nice. I room for the Cardinals to win, but if they don't win and if I see something wrong, I'm gonna say something. I'm not gonna bash. I'm not one of the bash people. I don't do name calling. And also a lot of my Facebook friends are probably listening to me right now. And they know it's something I've never done. I've never called for a manager to be fired. (audience laughs) I didn't call for my potato to be fired. I didn't call for my chili to be fired. And I haven't called for a lead to be fired because I know how the team is run in the front office. I don't come up with my buddies. I know Mike Fitzsimmons and Scotty Walters and Robert Hellington, Robert Helly, Eric Weathersme, just to name a few CL Matthews. I know you're probably out there. So, because I tagged, these are all people I tagged before I came on the show. So, if you're listening out there, you know how we do, we have great conversations about the Cardinals. We have one for you. And he said, we're kind of being negative. But my thing, I'm not negative if I'm telling the truth. And there's a certain things that I'm concerned about. But I always say, at the end of the season, every criticism, I have the Cardinals, I would be so glad to come on the air or Facebook or social media and say I was wrong. Because most of us want to be wrong when it comes to the baseball team. Because we wanna see a win. But the problem to me is, you know, sometimes things don't work out. Everybody said, well, we're in a weak division. The problem with the weak division now is, with the new schedule they got, it's a ballast schedule now. We don't get to see Pittsburgh and Cincinnati at Chicago 18 times a year. The schedule is ballast now. And if you look at the Cardinals where the season started, our schedule is brutal starting off. We got the Dodgers, we got the Marlins. You know, we got, I believe we got the Padres. You know, this team could be five games under, five or 10 games, 'cause it's not that many. We could be well under 500, that after three weeks of the season. But on the other hand, we could get off to this, a little of the Dodgers are doing now. They're not putting, their pitch is sure not doing the greatest. They're 30 million, they're $125 million pitch on a sign. He got rocked this morning. But you know what? I got a pretty good feeling. He's going to do better than that during the regular season. And I just wish that we had a guy like him. And I know we don't have to finance this, to sign a picture like him. And the Dodgers can do that. They have a $700 billion, they have a $7 billion TV contract. But you know what, is there a reason we can't get Montgomery? - You know, that's a head scratcher. You know, I don't think Montgomery wants to come back to St. Louis. And I don't think you have anything to do with the aging. People are talking to Scott Bors, Scott Bors, you know, Scott Bors, you know, he has some of the highest price clients in baseball. But the season starts the next week, and Montgomery doesn't have a job. And I'm sure the Cardinals have reached out to him. See, one thing about the Cardinals, they're very quiet and left about who they talk to or who they want to negotiate with. So just because the Cardinals haven't signed him, it doesn't mean that they haven't made him an offer. But I just don't think Montgomery was, 'cause when he was traded, I'm not too sure he wanted to leave St. Louis when he was traded. Now it worked out for him because he, you know, getting traded to the Texas Rangers. And now he's got a World Series ring. But the Rangers haven't resigned him either. - Right. So that makes, and the Rangers have a lot of money. So that makes all the red flag too. - So maybe, and I don't know, maybe they just don't have the personality skills. I don't know, but it seems to me that they could go to Montgomery and say, "Look, we really want to come back this year, big time. "We need you, not only do we need you, "but you could use us and get yourself another ring." - But yeah, the problem is, when you're finished 20 games on the, when you're finished 71 and 91, throwing a spin out there about another ring, might be like, "Now you can say, "if you sign with us long term, "you know, we can start building our team up." Because the Cardinals have some excellent young callers. (audience laughs) They have some excellent young players. And you know the nice thing about them are, the Cardinals top three young prospects of prospects are African Americans. They said we in Jordan Walker and Victor Skye, who I think is going to end up making a roster this year by default because the, bringing the Cardinals to the field is a hurry. And it's interesting. Mark, I gotta stand for you. You know how many African Americans are playing in Major League Baseball right now? - It will be full of the team. - Wait, before you tell me that, I'm gonna sell a couple of things here. - Sure. - And then after I do, we're gonna go right to the statistic on blacks and baseball. And then I got another question for you as well. So first of all, I'm all the way in the city right now, but I can tell you that I'm still hungry. And I'm thinking about Wendy's, which is in Chesterfield Valley, at 18,000 Chesterfield Airport Road, and the food is phenomenal. In fact, I'm so far away from Wendy's right now, that I'm really craving it because it's just, you know, if you're right next to it, you know, you can always get it, but when you're 20 miles away, you're sitting here thinking, I'll never eat again. But anyway, Wendy's is out there on Chesterfield Airport Road, and they've got wings and all the great smoked meat that they've got here. And they've got pizza, and they've got a baby back ribs and onion rings and patty melts. I mean, I would say that probably sounds good to you, Alan, 'cause it sounds great. And one of the great owners who's out there, Ben, he just welcomes everybody. And it's just a great place to go to eat. And that's 20s on Chesterfield Airport Road in the valley. And next, I'll tell you where I am. I'm over here by grand and in right. And it's a lot closer where I am right now to 4506 Hampton, which is where Jules on Hampton is. And the owner is Al in his son, A.J. And they're there all the time and they have great jewelry. They create their own jewelry. They also will make things for people. If people say, look, this is what I would like. They'll help you with that. They'll repair watches. They buy and sell coins. It's just a great place to go and do business in jewelry. It is Jules on Hampton. That's the name. And that is the business. And we tell you, you can go out there and say hi to Al any time, 4506 Hampton. That's Jules on Hampton. - There's nothing like supporting a family on the business. - Say again? - Nothing like supporting a family on the business. - Yeah. Oh, listen. I tell them all the time, you know, if you go into these businesses where the owner is there, they'd beat the heck out of these other places. They just, you know, it's not like going into some, you know, chain store. - It was a big name jewelry store. - Absolutely. And then finally, you know, St. Louis suit company. And, you know, I'm wearing one of my suits and I got a nice tie and, you know, it's a pink shirt with a pink tie. It's, you know, I, you know, you may not know this, Alan, but I happen to be a color blind. But, you know, they help me out at the store. They help me to, you know, put things together. So anyway, I'm in good shape. And I'll tell you right now that I wear, you know, nice suits and ties because of them. And, and their ties are $5 a tie. And I'm sitting here wearing a silk tie that costs $5. And, Alan, did you know that you could buy this tie from Donald Trump? He'd sell it to you for $50 and it, and it would choke you. - Just admitted that Donald Trump's name choked me. - That's on foresight and central in Clayton. And that is the great St. Louis suit company where-- - They've been there a long time too. - They and Nick are there all the time and they've been there for 29 years. - Yeah, that is true. - Okay, so go ahead. You're gonna give me some numbers on black players in baseball. - Okay, you know, most major league rosters, the full roster has 40 people on it, 40 players on it. That's, that's the regular roster and they have, they have the extra regular roster of at least 20, 26, and they have 14 other people on their roster. Multiply that by 30, 30, 30. That's 1200 players, I believe. (audience laughing) 59 African Americans. - That's amazing. - That's 59 total. And the Cardinals have three of them. - Right, they have three or four. And it's, they're gonna have four. It has started on the starting roster this year. And I always say that because we hear, I hear people are saying, well, why don't the Cardinals get more black players? They aren't trying to get black players. And I try to tell people, black people aren't playing baseball. African Americans aren't playing baseball. You know, it, and if I go to the store, if I want some bananas and they don't have any, I can't get any. So, you know, I mean, it'll be nice to see a bunch of, you know, nice to be seeing players, but they aren't, they're playing others. And I look at St. Louis baseball. All of the black kids like public schools, a lot of public schools do have baseball programs anymore. - You can't play in the summer camp. - We have a program here. And I'll tell you, we got some, we got some good kids, 'cause you know, our kids love sports. That's for sure. - Yeah. - Yeah. - You're a private school too. - No, that's true. But I'll say this, you know how many people go to, how many black people go to baseball games? The percentage number across the league. And it's the same in St. Louis. - It's less than five percent, isn't it? - It is, it's three percent. And remind me now, and I think you probably know the name, but the guy that onion and I used to go to on the Cardinals, who was trying to pump up the black community participation on the team. Do you remember his name? - Oh God, it's right on the top of my toes. - Yeah, it's on mine too, I can see his face. I just did it. - Did he run the RBI program? - He what? - Did he run the RBI program? - Yes. - I think he did. - Yes. - And you know some of my Facebook friends are probably, probably beat themselves on the head because I said, I said no that name. - Because I remember what we did back then is we had the KWK day at the ballpark back when we owned the 1380. - 1380, right. - And he actually, that guy actually set it up. But it is amazing how few black people are involved in baseball in so many ways, which is incredible when you start thinking back to, you know, you've already talked about our great pitch. - Who? - I'm sorry, I'm sorry. - No, Bob gets, of course. - Yeah. - But how about great players like Clemente and, - Oh man. - And Mayes and Hank Aaron. - Hank Aaron, Willie and Sergeant. - Willie, Sergeant, and you know that in Florida, they actually banned books about Clemente and Hank Aaron. - Is it in or something? - And I was asking at the time, what reason could they have for banning books on those baseball players, except I can only think of one reason. Right? - What is that? Yeah, racism. - Exactly. - And it's funny because Clemente with the Hispanic population and Latino population down in Florida, you would think those people would love to hear about Roberto Clemente. - Absolutely. - And it's funny because Roberto Clemente, he joins the 3,000 hit club last, last game of the year. - That was his last hit. - He made his 3,000, last hit was 3,000. Then he went to a, they had a disaster in Managua, Nicaragua. And he was on a plane and the plane crashed. And that's why he ended up with just 3,000 hits. Because he made-- - He had 300. - Yeah, he had 300. And he may have been up there, I won't say Pete Rose was Pete Rose's, but he may have been called to stay a museal because he was fairly young. He was fairly young when he, when he, when he, when he died. I mean, he was in his early, in his early 30s, 30 and mid 30s. - That's true. Now I'll tell you another name that's sort of interesting in baseball and I know that you know the name Elston Howard. - Oh yeah, yeah. - You know, he was the first black player for the New York Yankees. I believe it was maybe 55, but somewhere around there. And you know, he went to Vacheron-- - Right, in the Wolverine. - He was. And if you go to Vacheron High School today, the gymnasium is the Elston Howard gymnasium at Vacheron High School. And you know, here's a story for you. When I was there, I called the family, the Elston Howard family, they live in New York. I found them there and I invited them to come to St. Louis and come into the auditorium at Vacheron to watch, at that time, the Jackie Robinson movie 42 came out and they said, "We would love to come." - Oh yeah. - I arranged this whole thing. And when we went to the leaders at St. Louis Public Schools, what do you think they said? - They would know. (laughing) They said, "No way, we're not doing that." (laughing) You know, and listen, Alan, the worst thing to say about that is, those people were black. - Yeah. - I mean, I don't know. - I'm not surprised, Mark. You know, my daddy's just talking about that all the time. - Just like your dad always said, like the time he went to get your books. And he went down and he said, "Look, "I don't want to talk to any of these blackies. "I want the white man who runs this place." - And you're just so funny because it was about, it may have been school and started in about two or three weeks, and that's it. They all ever knew any homework. So, can't we give us any books yet? (laughing) And that's when he, that's when he went, that's when he went, when it talked to people. But I remember, I remember it like yesterday, he said, "We went to the office." He said, "I want to talk to somebody white." And those are those almost the exact words. And a week later, all the classrooms in our school had books. - Well, yeah, but listen, don't forget. First he said, "I want to talk to the white man "who runs this place." And then the second thing that he said is that if you don't get them their books right now, he says, "Don't worry, don't be upset. "I'm just going to go out and make a phone call "to channel two, four, five, two, 11, "and tell them there's a race right here." (laughing) - They said, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no." - They said, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no." - But it was interesting though, and like you say it, rolls around head there, rolls around head books, but Kenley head books, Southwest head books, Cleveland head books, you know, all the schools south of highway 40, had books. But for some reason, and he checked with some of the other high schools too, he just didn't check with high school, he kind of called around, and the other schools didn't have some books, but they didn't have all the books that they needed. - It's unbelievable. Well, you know, also, I told you that Washington University has all of those old DVDs from showdown, the TV show that we did over on KDA Tech's five years, and they're putting them all up online right now, and they're gonna do a whole big thing honoring your dad, and of course, we'll get you involved in all of that as well. - Oh, I appreciate it. - No, it's very exciting, and it's just sad that Onion isn't here to enjoy it, but certainly he looks so good on those programs. I'm telling you, it brings back those days in a way that is just beyond imagination. I'm telling you. - Well, you know, he looked like a son, that's why he looked so good on there. - Exactly. Well, he was young for you all right now, I'll tell you that. - Yeah, but Mark, you know what, you mentioned it about it being sad that he's not here, and we had this conversation the other day. It's even more sad that nobody in St. Louis barely talks about Onion now. With the subject of me, you, Maury Scott, and a few other people, there isn't much talk about my dad around now, but you know-- - No, I will say, I will say I got on the air with Freeman Bosley. - Oh yeah, I mentioned him, Freeman does too. Some weeks ago, and Freeman of course, was very excited about it. And Freeman, just, it's so funny, I told him what we were doing, and he didn't even realize, in fact, here, hold on one second, talk about Freeman in a second, I'll be right back. - Oh yeah, we all know Freeman did, he goes, he has a radio show, I believe it's a 100.3 if I'm not mistaken. Somebody, somebody, somebody will come in, and they also scream, but you know, Freeman of my dad, they had a great, they had a great day, and Big Jake, we were Big Jake had the barbecue place, we used to go to the barbecue place to do the show. So, I want to thank Freeman also for keeping, you know, just for keeping my dad's memory alive. And my thing is, you know, there's some people who don't have to do it, that's basic, because a lot of people were jealous of my dad. And they were jealous of him, but you know, they were smiling at his face, you know, it was old song call, back on smiling faces, sometimes pretend to be your friend. Now, that was a lot of people with my dad, because I know my dad got sick, you know, there was, there were a lot of, you know, people, we go support your dad, we go pray for him everything, which was great. But when my father passed, you know, we didn't, the phone calls didn't come in like I thought they would, his service was wonderful, everybody who should've been there was there. And, you know, I never really had a chance to thank people publicly, you know, for the support that he did have, 'cause a face of mark, his advertisers were the best. Now, we'll give you, we'll give that to them. You know, two people I think of, Andrew Gordon and Phil Person. - Absolutely. - You know, two of the best people, two of the best people around, because you've heard this story before, I know one time Phil Person had mentioned to my dad, he said, this relationship they had, he said, on, you know, business kinda slow was winter time, he said, you know, I'm gonna stop, I'm gonna stop advertising for a while. So, dad said, okay, next morning, dad gets on the air, runs a Phil Person ad. Next day he does it again. And, you know, and Phil called him and said, you know what, I told y'all, so he said, look man, he said, I'm gonna keep your name out there, we have that relationship. So, you know, but he did that for a lot of people. Politicians, he had a lot of politicians on the air that some of these other stations wouldn't dare let on air. And either people he disagreed with, you didn't have to agree with him. And Mark, you know that, you know. - Absolutely. - He always felt that whatever he could to help black people, you know, even if he didn't agree with him, Phil. So, obviously, now he wouldn't let somebody like Tim Scott on his show. (laughs) - No, wouldn't have done that. - Yeah, but I'm just glad I get the opportunity, not only talk about my dad, but to talk about sports with you, 'cause sports is a passion to me. I love it, you know, my TV is all right now. I got the NCAA tournament on my TV in a row. I will be watching basketball till 11 o'clock tonight. - Yeah, and the thing about it is, your dad knew everything about every sport. I mean, there was no limit. Why don't you talk about that for a minute and I'll be right there. - Yeah, he knew a lot about sports. And that's why he got to do the shows. And it's funny because dad used to go to 71 and my father would go down to the St. Louis Public Library. Library opened at nine o'clock. He was there at 8.50. With that door open, he stayed at the library all day, just reading out of town newspapers. See, now you can just get online and do it now, but he would read out of town newspapers. He read sports sections because he used to always come. He used to call the post dispatch, the fish rapper. So, you know, people, people younger than us know what he meant, that in the old days, people would take a bite of fresh fish and they're wrapping a newspaper, 'cause when dad would get on the air and just read the headlines, he'd say, let's check the daily fish rapper and see what's going on in St. Louis. And that's how he got his show started. And he would do a sports section the same way, but, you know, anything he talked about, you know, he already had knowledge of it because he had a thing. He said, he's never asked a question that he didn't already know the answer to. And if somebody asked him a question, if he didn't know the answer, he would tell him. You know, I hear so many people on the radio now, they want to try to impress people with what they think they know, but they don't know. And with the internet nowadays, you have to be right. You have to be right in whatever you say because people will listen to you, they'll applaud you. A lot of people won't say anything, but the moment you make a mistake, they are out there, they put your name online, say it. This person was wrong about this, or this person was wrong about that. That's why, you know, radio or what we're doing now, internet broadcasted, it looks easy, but you better know what you're doing. You better do your homework. It's like, like in the days of KMOX sports over line, if they call to ask the question, the Bob Burns and Bob Brig or whoever, you ask the question, they hung up, they can tell you whatever, but you didn't have the tools to research whatever they say it. Now don't get me wrong, they were right most of the time. Bob Burns and Bob Brig, they were very knowledgeable in sports, but if they happen to make a mistake, there was no internet, there was no Facebook, there was no Twitter, no X Instagram, or whatever means you use internet, there was nothing to let them know that they made a mistake. They didn't realize that they made a mistake, or after the show, and maybe the program director or something would call them, but the audience never had a chance to call them out. So this, I mean, this internet thing is great. I love the format. I have several people who have internet shows, and sometimes I just listen to them, and one of my favorites was, of course, was a late-term issues Johnson, who was also very involved in sports. Then it's got a new sports, you know, sometimes we bumped heads, we bumped heads about some things, but as far as a local sports guy was concerned, he was very dedicated to what he did, and I got to do a couple of his events for him, when he had the charity basketball games, you know, I wouldn't support him because I knew what he was giving back to the community. This didn't have anything to do with us. We agreed that the Missouri football team may not be any good this year, or maybe I criticized him for missing a tackle. So, you know, it was just about support, and that's what I would like to see more people do. You know, just try to support each other, and not just because we look alike, just because it's the right things to do. I've got a couple of white friends, who I could mention what is the name of Scotty Walter. This guy here is one of the best people that I know. We talked offline about sports, about racism. He could talk to me openly about racism as sports all the time, and I don't judge him, because sometimes I disagree with him, but we come to state we have a mutual respect for each other, because at the end of our conversation, it's all he'll always say, you know, I didn't know that, I learned something from you, or I learned something from him. So, I just think that this thing, this is just a social media thing, a lot of older people don't get it, but I get it. I've got 3,700 Facebook friends. And the scary part is, I think I know 3,600 of them. So, it's a good format to interact with people every morning. We get on there, our sports buddies, John Sloane, Mike Fitzsimmons, Eric Wethersby, Craig Wethersby, no, there's a name. Oh yeah, Craig Wriggens, if I don't miss a Craig Wriggens, he'll, my phone will be ringing after the show. Oh, you miss everybody will be, I've got to show them. Yes. We've got 10 seconds anyway, so we're going off. Okay, hold up. We're gonna get off of here. I'm Mark casein, this is Showdown. Good night. God bless you. (upbeat music) (gentle guitar music) (gentle guitar music) (guitar music)