Bob Costas | Club Random with Bill Maher

love random Bob Costas you were very nice diminutive virtuoso of the sports casting world there that's correct you have that picture I gave to you in your not only do I have it I gave Bob a picture you mentioned it to Stephen A I did yeah right well I'll mention it again because I had it for 50 years I cut it out a TV Guide it was an ad for Howard Coast for ABC News like on at 6 30 local in New York right Eyewitness News eyewitness news and it had the picture of the two news twinks or the weather guy and then yeah I guess the two news guys and then Howard Cosell uh oh no no no no I'm sorry it was Jim bout and Frank Gifford right it was the two athletes yeah it said two guys who got there because they played ball and one guy who got there because he never played ball and you said to Stephen A Smith that you gave it to me which I appreciated very much it was a lovely touch after uh the taping of real time after 50 years in my file and you said that you've regretted it ever since so no there it is no no I don't no no oh there it is yep I don't regret it at all it has a place of honor in my office you have to put it back there oh that's where it's going crack this over your head this is so it's so good so awesome you know what that reminds me of though when you almost did a spit take when you were on later oh this is like 30 years ago on NBC 94 almost yeah um after David Letterman on NBC and we scarcely knew each other then right we had a very good show and somehow we're talking about these old comedy tropes one of which was the spit take and Danny Thomas was famous for the spit take never absolutely so uh no we agreed the spirit tank is not Danny's home never never funny right right but I then think I'll demonstrate a spectator Danny Thomas and I say and about one percent of the people watching this will get this reference you know uncle tanus is coming from Toledo on Tuesday yeah and I take a swing but it was orange juice just yeah [ __ ] the whole thing up well it's good to hear you say [ __ ] there you go I feel like you're liberated here are you drinking can I [ __ ] yourself I have some Cabernet I was gonna go Renee yeah it was in The Green Room I didn't even know you were gay Bob but that's fine I like it oh it's a very being open-minded very diverse oh by the way I was reading Richard Belzer's obituary yeah and they actually quoted in the New York Times um I love this and I mean this is a deep chair that paper is horrible to me but they got this right um bells are you know was my mentor when I started I catch a rising star and so it kind of Hit me hard when he died I should have talked about this with Deepak uh and uh they wrote about him being Detective Munch on all those shows and that's how people knew him but what they didn't know was that was not Belzer that's what he did he make it was he fell into something that let him buy a house in France that's right it's wonderful but that what he was the he was the the Black Knight of Comedy you know when I was at categorizing the bells I mean he never was able to like get it find a way to get it out of that little rat scalar called catch a rising star and have it translate to the rest of the world very well but in his element He was amazing and it's it quoted one night the guy don't said you know you didn't want to Heckle Bells I remember bells are once saying it's hey it's like kissing the Cobra Bay and a guy said nice jacket and and Belzer said apparently thanks I got it on sale in your mom's vagina somebody you'll hear from you know Uncle milty uh who actually he was kind of funny he could be funny multi could be funny um should I tell him about these stories when I was 13 he was funny if kids don't know miltonborough who was he Bob Mr Tuesday night he dominated early television in the 50s right even before our time I don't remember him except when he was a little over the hill but he was still famous and he'd be doing things like the Hollywood Palace right you know he'd be like guest hosting you know this this Arc to show business and boy the ride down is less fun than the ride and he went down hard he did yeah well he did yeah he he wasn't he he wasn't ushered out with his with his full blessing well no very few are I mean show business is addictive and you have to often drag people off the stage there are very few Greta Garbo's who uh quit early or Johnny Carson's Johnny Carson yeah um never look back no no remember the last show he said maybe someday when I find something I'd like to do yeah I'll be talking to you again and he never did right well he died so that that that kind of puts an end to it yes yeah but not immediately but yeah he had maybe another eight nine years of life something like that but he uh I bet you he wasn't well because he was like a four pack a day I mean he would be like playing tennis but you know not too long ago like your guys on the Mets Keith Hernandez is going to be in the corner of The Dugout taking a drag you know what there was a cover of Sports Illustrated I don't know why I saw it because we didn't get Sports Illustrated because it probably cost a dollar but uh there was a cover in 1972 I bet you I still have that too but you're not getting that one that I think I saved all these here because I thought it was the coolest thing Richie Allen you remember Richie Allen right Dick Allen dick alley he was a I thought he was the baddest dude in the world because he was a bad boy he was but he was great when he when he played right okay what was he on the Indians and we started with the Phillies Phillies in 64. and then he was with the Cardinals with the White Sox okay so in his prime there he is on the coverage Sports Illustrated batting helmet on juggling two Baseballs in The Dugout with a cigarette in his mouth yeah you remember that yep I do I just thought I want to be that guy yeah he was you know he's one of those guys and there's a long list and we've talked about baseball a lot guys who are better than guys who are in the Hall of Fame but somehow they're not like Don Mattingly Dave Parker Keith Hernandez if they're all not in all not in if Keith Hernandez who doesn't have enormous batting statistics because of a different era but he's the greatest defense of first baseman ever Brooks Robinson's the greatest is that right yeah I think so and Brooks Robinson is the greatest defensive third baseman ever and he was by acclimation of Hall of Fame I have no problem with that but if he's in then Keith Hernandez should be in and Dick Allen is certainly better and was a more feared hitter than many of his contemporaries who wound up in the Hall of Fame that's the end of that people can hear me say that anywhere not you don't have to believe what they can hear is that I heard Keith Hernandez yes what what I don't know where you're going with this I thought in his Heyday he was just like the ultimate dog like there I am not I am not going to contradict that I'm not going to elaborate it on necessarily but I will not contradict it it's I mean Keith Hernandez with the cocaine yep and he just had this kind of like you know Swagger he brought the Swagger to the Mets right I mean they really he was kind of like the Dave de buscher of of that team like he was this guy who comes in and gives them a kind of a grit right he knew how to win and he would hold other players to account right you know you look at that team a lot of teams in sports now even if they're good they don't have a vivid team personality you think of that met team strawberry and Gooden yeah both Dynamic sort of poignant because if you asked any general manager in the game you could pick one pitcher and one position player for the next 10 years almost unanimously they would have said Gooden and strawberry and both of them seemed Bound for the Hall of Fame and neither fulfilled their potential but they're Unforgettable they weren't just dynamic they were beautiful to watch and yet Gary Carter and you had rain night and you had Keith Hernandez that team had Personality yeah to it yeah Mookie Mookie Wilson right yeah I remember watching it in the bar at the Improv the 86 80 series I when I was I was only out here a few years and just I think Seinfeld was there and like all the New York guys yeah no I've been to games with him it's uh you know where I was when the ball went through Buckner's legs calling it in the Red Sox Clubhouse now Vin scully's calling it oh Red Sox clubhouse oh yeah because they were going to win they were going to win for the first time since 1918. there'd never been an interview of a winning Red Sox team because even radio didn't exist then for the World Series and I'm up on a platform and the cameras are in place and they put the plastic over the lockers anticipating the champagne spray and then comes the commissioner who was you Rothman and frail Mrs Yawkey Tom yaki's widow she looked like a stiff breeze would blow her from Queens to the Bronx and she comes in and here's the trophy on the stand and there's two outs and nobody on base and the Red Sox are up by two and it all unravels and by the time the ball goes through Buckner's legs they'd broken the whole thing down it was like changing a set and a Broadway show they broke the whole thing down in like what seemed to me like a minute I slide out the door because I say to Mike Weissman who's the producer what do I do if the Mets tie the game and he says get the hell out of there as fast as you can and I get out and I'm standing in the hallway while the Red Sox are coming down the tunnel and not not a word is spoken until one guy crashes a bat against the concrete wall and only one word punctuates this entire scene and I'll say it again [ __ ] and that was it it was complete Ashen phase silence well they probably didn't want to make their teammate Buckner feel worse than he did but well they all respected him he was a gamer he was he was gritty and he was a very very good player yeah I mean that just shows the wow life can be just a brutal mistress because like one mistake and that's just I mean he will always be he could find the cure for cancer tomorrow it would be Bill Buckner cancer curer let ball go through it right you know he got two hits in game seven after that came six he had like 2700 hits in his career he was a near Hall of Fame player why are why are pitchers today I guess all athletes to a degree but especially I see it with pitchers like why are they so much more frail if we're so much more advanced now we have better nutrition in this like when you read about out pictures of yesteryear shall we say uh like I believe in the 1905 World Series I'm recalling this from either George will or the or from or from Club random with Stephen A Smith only about a month ago I mentioned that Christy Mathewson in 1905 three complete Game shutouts yes okay so how is that possible that he could have done that and today's pitchers can't go seven Innings while I'm watching you with Stephen A Smith I'm thinking of what my answer is part of it is the size of the contracts and both the player and the team don't want to risk injury so they protect them the analytics say that even the best pitchers third time through the lineup they lose something pitchers used to Pace themselves even the best pictures Pace themselves right through the course of a game I remember Tom sieber saying to me late in his career I can still throw 95 but I've only got about six or seven of them per game and I'm not going to waste them on the number eight hitter in the fourth inning with two outs and nobody on base I'm saving it for when I need it but they don't know what I'm going to use it wow now the average pitcher and certainly a relief pitcher comes out and just lets the throttle out right for 90 pitches 100 pitches to your starter for that one inning if you're a reliever that's why so many guys that and improved biomechanics why so many guys are thrown in the high 90s even the low 100s and so that's what the managers in the front office want them to do another part of it though is this this is true in the early stages of any sport the greatest players are more dominant against the average player because the overall quality has not caught up the uh the mechanics of the game the approach of the game so Christy Mathewson let's say Chrissy Matheson's a rough equivalent of Justin Verlander today Justin Verlander is facing better competition than Christy Matheson faced in 1905. right right well it was all white all white yes but also but also the game itself the techniques of the game itself have not developed I must say I am sorted down on Sports because of like I mean we could talk about this even overrefing but what what makes me up about what I love about sports is I feel like in a society that is increasingly full of [ __ ] yeah it is the last place where I know I trust Merit winning out is what which is kind of connected watch why I hate roughing mistakes so much what is the last place where Merit will always win out I have complete trust that with all the [ __ ] and Corruption those are the 12 best basketball players that team could find or the 45 best players the best there's no such thing as a nepo baby in sports there there are Bay there are certainly the Scion of players right yes of course right like but but they had to be good Ronnie James right play no he's not going to be in the NBA very long Dale Berra right Dale Barra as opposed to Ken Griffey Jr who is better than Ken Griffey's senior right this is now of course if you were if your father was a great player you have advantages like DNA in the genes and also you've been around the game they were the bat boy or something so they're not like oh my gosh I'm on a Major League field they grew up with it all that is an advantage but you still have to have the goods and the discipline and lots of other things there are no nepo babies which is you know this term they have now which I look I have I'm agnostic on liking them I don't dislike them I just always want to say to them just don't say you had to work harder or uh you know it really wasn't an advantage or once you get the job you have to do the work most of show business is getting the job so okay [ __ ] nepo baby but well they can open the door for you but eventually exactly and you've got the goods or not is going to be exposed but opening the door is not that hard I mean opening door is hard it's the work is not that hard acting is not that hard I could act right now I could be mad at you Bob that was a little kid in there or I could be very upset I'm sad Meryl Streep you have been exposed you have been outed anybody can do what you do no not anybody can do what she does but anybody can do it like 95 of them do ORS on the on the top level you're right I couldn't uh think of a lot of people who could do Sophie's Choice yeah or in comedy there's you know I don't think anybody else but Jim Carrey could have done Ace Ventura for for example well that's a wild kind of yes there's there are certain things where but in general it's it's a bunch of [ __ ] anyway what was my point I don't know we were talking oh that you like sports because it's a meritocracy which is why a person who's willing to shrug their shoulders about manifest Injustice in society will become all Bonkers over something that shows on replay that by a micro millimeter that guy should have been safe instead of out I see this just drives me crazy because again it's so great to have some place in society where you have this trust like we don't have it in government I don't know I don't trust government I don't trust you know why the religion come on I gave up on that a million years ago you did I didn't know that yeah quiet um you know I trust some friend close friends and but uh trust is not a big but I trust those are the best players they can find yes and that and it cuts across there's no equity there's no uh you know ratio whatever wherever in the world you are you know that's true I mean basketball is a lot of European players now and yes for Africa everywhere you know it's like wherever you are we will find you is it that's why when people say about Major League Baseball which once had a much larger African-American presence than it does now now it's in single digits I don't know eight percent something like that but players of color there's a huge number of players of Hispanic background and increasingly pairs of age and background so you you can't make a plausible case that the reason there are relatively few black players compared to Generations ago is because baseball doesn't want them baseball wants whoever can play best wherever they can find them see and this is the kind of thing I think you and I are eye to eye on like we're old school liberals yes you know we were always there for the cause and but then there's people now who just want to like always make a thing where there isn't a thing I I had somebody try to tell me that this was a thing we uh and it is for a lot of people a project they should work on getting more African-Americans to play baseball it's like why if they want to play baseball it would be a problem if there was a law against them playing as there once was that would be a problem but they are free to play baseball if they want or to choose another sport or no sport at all it's not a problem and gifted black athletes by and large are migrating toward basketball and football but baseball has made efforts to involve you know inner city academies that sort of sort of thing uh the RBI program Reviving baseball in the inner cities that sort of thing because they want talent I want to fight racism I don't want to fight non-problems masquerading as racism that's that's you you know I'm with you know I'm with you on that and I think the commissioner's ruling I don't think I don't think that in in order to prove that you're down with a cause that we basically have been down with since childhood and millions of people like us that in order to prove that you have to nod in solemn Ascent or at the very least keep quiet over any assertion even if that assertion is fact challenged disproportionate or illogical but Bob we can't even be having this conversation because we're two white men right so before we're even though that's that of all the ways of shutting off debate you got to give the credit to that one you know I said uh I heard someone I I can't remember where as maybe three or four years ago and you were the subject it happened to be a black woman with some sort of academic credentials and they said if you took any 11 year old African-American child off the street by their lived experience they have more credibility to address any racial issue than Bill Maher as if intelligence familiarity with the world itself including literature of the pet as if being a sentinent human being with a with an observant eye doesn't count for anything yeah I can't even Bob yeah am I supposed to am I supposed to nod in a sense of something that profoundly stupid just to prove that that I'm down with the general cause I can answer that yes you are supposed to I stand corrected you are supposed to but I'm glad that you don't but yeah I mean it's uh it's it is it's galling I think a lot of the younger people they just don't you know they they shut off at their white or they're older or which is ironic because that itself is a Prejudice like when people come after me it's very often especially on you know Twitter and that kind of stuff which is younger voices um it's just they don't ever engage with the argument it's just you're old it's like okay I could be a thousand but am I right because you're not even engaging with that because they can't because they usually don't have an argument which is it's hard to make an argument when you don't know anything so often they just don't know anything you're not going to engage on in the argument on its merits you're just looking for something that you can put out as a disqualifier you're done don't have to consider it if you know me you know that I am big on sleep in fact I'm asleep right now you know what helps with sleep a set of buttery soft sheets from bowl and Branch made with 100 organic cotton threads that get softer with every wash it's the kind of quality you'll feel immediately the quality somehow improves after washing and the sheets look and feel like a good night's sleep and they are the perfect gift for that special person who wants a lady in the streets and a well-rested freak in the sheets their sheets are made from organic cotton for a superior softness and a better night's sleep loved by millions of sleepers they're so luxurious they've been used by three U.S presidents and if a president can sleep at night they must be awesome bowl and Branch signature sheets come in 10 versatile colors in all sizes from Twin up to California King made without 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best place to feel good about race in America I Feel Again Sports that's another big check in their favor when you see the guys on the team I don't think they're acting for the camera I don't think they're Faking It camaraderie yes yes I also talked about that with Aaron Rodgers in these very chairs and he was like absolutely you know they you can see guys on the team of course they're young guys and uh we're not in a of course a post-race racial era or even a post there is racism era but we are in an era where if you're 22 years old racism is about the uncoolest thing in the world yes which is not it was not the uncoolist thing in the world when we were 22. that's a huge difference so I just think there's a reason why those locker rooms look as chummy as they do on Hard Knocks and you know and on the field and you they're not faking it also because you have to prove yourself right you really can't fake it and there's no nepo stuff there you can't fake it it's where that uh Venn diagrams with the Merit thing because it's when the guy who's not your race but still got the big hit and has the good the game for you exactly the respect they have such respect for each other when when you hear when you hear someone who's and now maybe we sound like geezers but someone who follows Sports closely maybe they're on some platform or other they're 30 years old Larry Bird was pretty good but he was overrated why was he overrated because he was white okay this is when Dominique Wilkins and Charles Barkley and every black player who played against him says shut the f up you have no idea what you're talking about this guy Not only was good he he was tough he was we look at him as an individual or the vast majority of modern NBA players who are great black yes but isn't the idea to look at somebody as an individual somebody could be black and they could be a nerd but a good nerd a good nerd they're become a scientist why can't a white guy be an exception to be a really good basketball player so why did you go back to saying the S I don't know I don't know because I went two [ __ ] in and you gave up well I figured my limit was three and I want to save one for when it really counts No Limit that's I mean that's all right then [ __ ] it exactly good there you go um you realize what happens here not to you but to me this will be like it'll be somewhere on YouTube YouTube let's watch Bob Costas say [ __ ] for a minute but you sat down and said I'm 70. I don't give a [ __ ] anymore okay so like what what is it are you going with that or not because I think you've got nothing to lose what are they going to do throw you off Major League uh you might be in TV jail are they uh like do the do the people who are listening to you and I listen to you I mean I you're one of the few maybe the only guy I've ever oh Tim McCarver I used to love too but like well we'll have a game on just to hear the announcer you know I think Vin Scully was like that for a lot of people Vin Scully I never liked him oh that there there there's a bold statement I didn't I'm sorry I didn't like that noise it just it graded on me see most people found it melodic melodic no he was not my favorite I know rest in peace nothing let's not have a few to my [ __ ] 89 years of memory of then and to his family yeah I was close to him I loved him I revered him oh he was you know but you know what it's a matter of taste exactly not everybody's my fan either even the most popular [ __ ] apologize even the most popular are not universally popular and he's not here anymore to be insulted by it and he shouldn't be insulted anyway because I'm allowed not to like him did he watch every episode of real time I doubt it he might not have watched one oh stop I can't I can't recipient proximity to this kind of sacrilege oh suddenly a [ __ ] [ __ ] guy I'm 70. he is apologizing on to camera okay um but uh but you I will listen to again you know they're really are you gonna get in trouble how about then no about anything but no no yes no it just sucks people will have people have fun if they think somebody could call a game better than you that's what I always say to these people who are like you're old I'm yeah then do it better that's what you can't do well you're old yeah well a couple of tickets a couple of things you've always been very kind about this I was doing a game a few years ago in Chicago Cub game at Wrigley Field and I got texts during the game which I'll look at them sometimes during a commercial like within five minutes of each other from you and from George Will saying how much they enjoyed the broadcast um because when I get it right I hope it has a certain texture too you know you can make an apple pie with basic ingredients right or you can have a recipe that has a few additional ingredients but sometimes when you try that you don't get it exactly right and since you brought this up and this is always something that you have to be careful about if you care at all which is this you say something no matter how well you say it and then somebody takes it and either knowingly misrepresents it or just through their own clumsiness you get a version of it that makes it seem as if it's not it's not worth the effort that it took to say it but since we're sitting here and we're talking about baseball for the for the moment this past October I did the Yankees and the Guardians uh in the division series and I felt like I was off my game sort of like a pitcher who still has good stuff but somehow as they say he didn't have command that night and I could feel it like in the first five or six Innings of the first game it's the same philosophy same approach but I wasn't nailing it it didn't have the same flow and Rhythm to it there were a few awkward moments I hadn't worked that much with Ron Darling only two or three games very smart guy a guy I really like you must like him that's broadcast Keith Fernandez and Gary Cohen they're a terrific group Okay so now I don't I don't Place much stock in what two or three people say you know on Twitter or something because on Twitter there's no misdemeanors there's only felonies right but when I knew myself that it just wasn't what I've generally been able to do and I wasn't comparing myself to 1995 when I'm doing the World Series I was comparing myself to August and September of last season when things were as they usually were and somehow it might have gotten a little better as the five games went along but it wasn't what I intended to do now why do I care about that and answer your question I'm back if I want to be back to do it I'm only doing as much as what I want to do of I've I did a dozen Olympics it's time to leave that all most of what I've done is in the past but I only want to do a handful of things and one of the things I want to do is a little bit of baseball why because I've always liked it and because it's gratifying to me when people say the sort of things you say well because you do it differently and I appreciate that I don't need a parade I just like that so I felt like I dropped the ball on that right and so I feel bad about it for that reason right you well first of all I don't know what the [ __ ] you're talking about because I watched that series and I because I watched the playoffs in baseball not watch a lot of regular season but occasionally if you're doing one if I see it's on yeah um especially if it was the Mets um but I never I'm trying to think back to it's only October I did not have that thought in my head oh Bob's office game yeah I had a few missteps but just characteristic well first of all you know don't flatter yourself we're watching the game how can a sandwich you know we're not it's not like an episode of photo you know we're we're not hanging out you're right every it's it's not the born identity you know so like do do I does the average person notice if you're off your game a little bit you know you're the kind of pro who Carson was like this like I try to be like this I don't know if I am but my goal is when I'm at my best I'm at a hundred and when I'm at my worst I'm at 95. and I don't think you were too far off that I don't know what you're talking about there was certainly I just I just feel like yes there's only one reason to do it they're now I'm not trying to build a career I'm not doing it for the money the only reason to do it you enjoy it and you want to get into the bullseye or close to it the people who always have appreciated your work so I don't want to let anybody down okay everybody goes through this in every sphere of life we're athletes exact same thing is what we're talking about I feel it on real time there are some nights where I'm like I don't have my good fastball okay but I can get batteries out with junk you're right that's an apt analogy it really is oh the analogy I always use is to [ __ ] that in pitching I've had I put it in my my novel I think but it always made so much sense to me that pitching was like [ __ ] like you want to be a power you start out as a power pitcher and like like and then at some point you're like you're like Thompson I can throw seven good fastballs and uh wait for it wait for it and look I gotta be honest I'm working on a knuckle curve so change the subject you know who doesn't get enough credit your your writers are great the people who write the captions underneath the new rules it's so funny you've said this before and this is so funny to me because I am a micromanager you know I'm essentially my own head writer I mean I have a wonderful head writer Billy Martin who does amazing things but I have to it's my voice I have to like it has to sound like you yes I mean I'm a I don't like some guys have the head writer read stuff from the other writers and then get a version of their I read every word everybody writes sure okay so um what was my point new rules captions yes the one part of the show I have no part of is your favorite part of the show that's not my favorite part but it's a part I like it's a quirky thing I love it and you know what I used to I used to do uh I dropped the ball on this but for years I would actually phone in my choice for the best caption and they had a little trophy that they passed around really this week you Bob osak had the best caption and next week it's Billy Martin or whatever right and they passed the trophy around they called it the Costa something or other I don't know what it was I mean I have been so lucky with my riding crew I've said this before but I'm going to say it again Paul McCartney once said that he would rather have a band than a Rolls-Royce and I so far away about a writer's room you know like of course some of these guys we've been together for I mean Chris Kelly's been there 30 years I mean since the day one since I laid the foundation with my Tomahawk um but uh Billy you know a lot of these get Brian I mean just long some people 20 years and it's like when I did my I think it was my 60th birthday show it was the one I was like begging Obama to finally come on which he did which he did um and I was like family I don't have time for a family this is my family you know my relationship with my life is with my audience yeah and you know and these are the people who are like in on that relationship you know it's a it's a it's a you know we I'm not the kind of person who ever wants to look back because it scares me I was talking to Deepak Chopra about watching the monster that's chasing me so I only look forward so we don't get sentimental because I I feel like you can't afford to get sentimental because then you're looking back and then you're kind of dead already I know Deepak has a different approach for me I don't know if I can handle that one um but you know so we don't like tell each other we love each other but like it's a lot it's a long-term family style relationship we have little fights but we never really turn our back on each other you know it's it's it's special you know it was now I'll get a little sentimental a blessing for me and you may remember this you were appearing in Saint Louis where I lived most of my adult life yeah I remember being at your house yeah came to the house was a Sunday so we were watching some football and my son Keith who's now producer of the Major League Baseball Network is probably eight years old right and he's walking through the house um and you famously do not do not have much affinity for kids but you you recognize what a what a joy he and his sister were for me and at that and he said something to that effect I can't remember exactly what it was like and again it works for you works for you so right around that time Letterman goes to CBS when he doesn't get The Tonight Show and Jay Leno does and David controlled the hour after his and he offered me based on my having done later following him on NBC oh he offered me that hour and to sweeten the pot CBS offered me a corresponding spot on 60 Minutes so there's nothing more prestigious than that yeah you could have been a 60 Minutes course yes yes you're not you're not old enough now right yeah I would have been really the new kid on the Block hello hello are you kidding hello Andy hello Mike oh my God the average age of the CBS correspondent is between 65 and Deke they've tried to add some new blood now you know John John why do they need news and Cooper you know whatever put me up so anyway but part of my thinking was my kids under seven and four you can say to a kid hey let's go to the Bulls game which I could be calling all right you'll meet Michael Jordan let's go to the Olympics let's go to the ball game we'll hang around with us again I had the privilege of access it might so my kids had access to all this you can't say to a kid I'm interviewing a secretary of state you want to come with me right and that was a that was a big part of the decision so you made that decision based on your kids in part in large part yeah wow this kid thing it's really something I mean I I always say you know like well a marriage first of all like I understand why poor people do it but celebrities it's just not gonna make any sense to me and it's sort of the same with kids but like it's just it's such a universal thing but I I don't feel it at all um and we know that so why should you even worry about oh no no absolutely no I mean I'm sure deepak's gonna enjoy it for you change it yeah exactly it's everything and uh you know you're happily remarried right yeah I mean that's been a long-running Broadway show right yep how long has that been going on that is that will be 19 years so long in a couple of weeks wow you got to do something big for 20 don't you yeah yeah 20 will be a big thing I mean you got to go out of town no really I remember out of town or out of the country remember Bob Newhart once on The Tonight Show telling Johnny Carson about I think it was their 25th anniversary and flying to San Francisco or something and he said you know you just can't go to Jason's such an inside west coast Showbiz thing Jason's what yes it's been gone for many years yeah but I I was even I was too young I remember it existed I don't think I was there but one time because I remember like they did not take credit cards wow Jason's only took cash usually that's a mafia operation that would be almost the reverse you know they're they're definitely going to try to get rid of probably currency and right you know everything will be digital which you know I don't want to be one of those conspiracy theorists but it is a level of government control you actually have everything on you what you'll have everything they will and they'll be able to shut things off automatically there's going to be lots of you know shut off you know without you being in your car can already be shut off sure by the robot or overlords who are going to be taking over very soon are you are you uh you were particularly bothered by the GPT Chachi BT thing where the robot is actually a adult teenager who says I love you and yeah you saw that story basically you could I guess in theory write a memoir just talk to them and they'd rearrange your words and they'd give you at least some version at least the first draft that you could work with right are you plugging anything no no because anyone who knows me knows how technophobic I am I had a flip phone until like five years ago so you know I'm not really oh yes you know I remember I didn't I still don't email you no but I I can get emails now but it used to go through my assistance you exactly yeah the world go through my assistant it's like bumming a cigarette it's gross no I have an iPad now and I have an iPhone I have an iPhone congratulations look at that right welcome to the 90s yeah um okay so what's yes you're good at texting yes these are my dates okay I'm going to be March 11th Bally's oh Tahoe Lake Tahoe March 11th March 12th at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco uh and April 22nd uh oh I can't San Francisco I'm so anxious to go back I've been there in so long April 22nd the theater at MGM National Harbor Washington DC oh that should be good um okay so and by the way March 12th San Francisco that's the night of the Oscars so right if you want to laugh don't stay home you know what the problem is with the Oscars I mean this is not an original observation just as sitting at home and getting all excited about the Oscars there's so much spread out in so many niches on so many platforms much of it is very good but the average person can't say I saw all these movies or I know all these stars and I have a feeling about it it's okay but it's a lot that it's also movies we don't want to watch because I did an editorial about this last year they used to know how to make movies that were about something something real something important not something frivolous and also make it entertaining yeah it wasn't just the lady [ __ ] in the bucket or the Korean Grandma burns down the house you know these are just like scoldy like virtue signaling we're on the right side of this issue they're just sad and we call them the downers in addition to the Debbie down or the Debbies I have the Debbies so this is not sounder from a long ago yeah but they used to know how to make a movie that was about something and and it was not it was still not normal which had a message but it's a great movie exactly yeah yeah three days of the Condor I mean I couldn't have a millionaire The Godfather I mean there's just lots of them anyway there's one more podcast I never plug other people's podcasts but my friend Barry Weiss Albert the Free Press and I totally want to frequent real-time guest and fantastic that she and Nelly Bowles or wife have started this [ __ ] great organization that is you know the this this is what we're always talking about these are basically liberal people who somehow have been cast cast out they were cast out of the New York Times as conservatives everybody who doesn't agree with the farthest fringy thing of the woke is not a conservative a republican anyway correct so the Free Press and they pre they have this amazing podcast now the uh which Trials of JK Rowling we don't have to talk about it but I mean I read I mean even the New York Times found the guts uh which is yeah I saw that to print a piece from one of their Pamela Paul I think wrote it and it was if you just read the quotes forget her opinion if you want if you just read the quotes from JK Rowling you would be hard for us to say oh this is a person who hates trans people she doesn't hate trans people everybody has to stop saying they hate the thing that they don't hate like a pro-life people don't hate women that's another one they hate women they don't hate women they think it's murder and it kind of is I'm just okay with it I'm totally okay with that kind of murder but it is kind of it's becoming a life but they don't hate women that's not why pro-life people are against abortion they think it's murder and JK Rowling doesn't hate trans people I don't know why I'm yelling at you yeah lets Jerry fall let's move it into a specific area where and I've seen you address this many times and you always put in all the provisos about yes of course trans is a thing of course it's a thing and and we have to be understanding and respectful and a certain percent protection of the law yes and dignity of course that's the old school liberal point of view correct correct way back when it seems like way back when I don't know maybe seven eight years ago yes that's at the Espy Awards there's something called the Arthur Ashe courage award okay all right and they awarded it to Caitlyn Jenner seemingly only moments after she had uh transitioned and I'm on The Dan Patrick radio show and I don't I'm not riding in on a white horse looking to make a proclamation it's about the fifth or sixth topic he brings up and he says I don't have blaming Dan Dan's great he's what what do you make of Caitlyn Jenner getting the Arthur Ashe courage award and I take every precaution you can take I stipulate everything we we need to be understanding you're the best at it I did all all the stuff okay in the disclaimer yes that's like how to protect my own ass here so what I said but I say look Arthur Ashe exuded class Arthur Ashe seems to me at to be at odds or the the person who until two minutes ago was was the the the father of the Kardashian family that seems to kind of be at odds with what Arthur Ashe represents Plus Bruce Jenner's Sports exploits are in the 70s at the Olympics and now we're into some place in the 2000s 2012 or whatever whatever it was um so it seems to me that this is a tabloid play but does that make me transphobic I I later said you know what they can do if you want the eyeballs because after all it is television why don't you have Caitlyn Jenner present the award to Renee Richards who once was Dr Richard Raskin of course and this is not irrelevant when he Richard Raskin Dr Richard Raskin was playing on the pro tour he was like the 400th ranked player right when he became Renee Richards don't ask me ask Martina Navratilova yes she was like the 10th or 12th best and Martina says she could beat her but it was tougher than she would have thought okay this is this is a reality that has nothing to do with phobia or bigotry or unkindness in any way and we're not we're not denigrating these people no who made their change which obviously takes balls [Laughter] I didn't know Bruce Jenner that well but unlikable enough guy talked to him a few times and I have no problem with Caitlyn Jenner other than maybe her politics in some respects but there's there's no problem here here's he's an adult she made a decision she's she has all the of the autonomy to make that decision no problem Dan's question was what do you make of her receiving the Arthur Ash courage award am I not allowed to make a distinction right here even with all the stipulations without being called transphobic or a hater Bob you're apparently not you're an idealist bomb that is your problem you're like you're like Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca exterior but you're a Sentimental wishy-washy idealist so I have never once brought anything into uh Club random including a thought no really I've made this point many but like when I asked HBO if I could do this they graciously said yes and I said I promise you it will be nothing like my real job which I treasure the most but uh and and I will not take one minute away from what I normally work uh I would normally take a break in the middle of the week it's Wednesday for a couple of hours to get high with friends um now I'm just doing it with a camera somewhere uh so like there is no preparation I've never once brought a piece of paper into Club random but because you're so special to me yeah I thought I would break my rule and I have a piece of paper and I have talked with hair Hitler and that's a Neville Chamberlain joke I didn't know you did Magic BoB I thought it was gonna be like Ed McMahon for Karnak by holding my hand the envelope that was the shittiest Dove I've ever seen okay so I brought this in because we covered this on our show yeah a and it's it's of course I did because I thought of you in sports but also because we all we see so eye to eye on this like old school liberal versus woke Insanity yeah and there's this article in the Atlantic which is you know look the Atlantic has broken a lot of great stories and they have great writers I'm not going to [ __ ] on the Atlantic I mean I think I made a snarky joke about them at the time but I couldn't believe that they printed a article called separating Sports by sex doesn't make sense let me say first of all yes it does yes it does it sure as hell does and I thought no this is a nightclub this is club brand and we don't do anything for but I just I just wanted to get these quotes right so I brought this in this is the people actually printed this in this serious Magazine first it talks about this woman who was trying to join a boy's sport uh the panel then set out to determine whether Mendel's was essentially strong development athletic enough to play a contact sport with boys even though those boys needed to prove No Such Thing yes they did when they tried out for the team that's right that's why I didn't make my high school basketball team right and you were six eight at the time at the time yes it's a tragic thing that's happened yeah yeah Bob Costas Dominion story [Laughter] I'll we'll Circle back to it but you're doing the Cosell here a little bit so oh I like when you use the word truculence I'm doing Billy Crystal's Cosell right that's what people who are non-impressionists do they do Impressionists impression where we can't do it for real of course we can only [ __ ] bite the [ __ ] you're doing Frank gorshin's Jimmy Cagney exactly for the 80 year olds in the audience but when you use the word truculent I'll take you off course here this is a famous moment Monday night baseball on ABC and euchre's in the booth with Cosell Bob Uecker Bob you loved him but he's still still doing Brewers games on the radio I thought he was dead no he's 89 years old you I'll be texting you tomorrow God damn it he's alive and Vince gully's dead it's just wrong continue with your story anyway so you youke is sitting alongside Cosell and Cosell says something that you finds questionable about strategy and you challenges him and Cosell says you you're awfully truculent tonight but then you probably don't know what truculent means and Euchre says yes I do Howard if you had a truck and I borrowed it that would be a truck you lent which proves he's way smarter than Howard goes out I mean I loved Howard Cosell I gave you that whole thing but I mean that's just a level that above although I will say this um my father was in radio okay yeah and he had to do this was the era when every radio station had news at the top of the hour and you rip the news off the wire there was no you know cell phones we used to call it rip and read rip and read and he had to do a newscast that came in at five minutes I think I mentioned this on CNN the other night uh I had to come right out on time yeah and I remember my father talking approvingly and admiringly of the fact that Howard Cosell used to do his speaking of spunks on ABC this was the station I listened to because it was the rock and roll station it was Cousin Brucie and Dan Ingram and Ingram okay so all these guys and and the music but then there was speaking of sports and it was the same thing he had to do three minutes it had to come in right on time he had never done it before and it was a commentary it wasn't just reading facts that is kind of a special skill Cosell was incredible with that the Monday night halftime highlights which really were much more meaningful then because there's no ESPN there's no highlights everywhere that's what you waited for on Monday night for kind of your capsule of what happened over the weekend the best moments and he did all of that without a script right I'm I was when I did it on a regular basis pretty good at that the kind of clock in the head but the two best that I'm aware of were Cosell and Brian you know what Bryant was great at that too you remember Brian Gumbel is a giant Talent yes he is anyway coward Cosell yeah something that I think really uh uh is interesting about cancel culture because you reminded me of something that was a long time ago before we even had the term cancer I think I know where you're going he used the term monkey little monkey yeah you just made it worse but he did not mean it racially about a running back who and like my father used to say call me a little monkey yeah like you it was like a term of a certain parents would say to me and my sister come on you little monkeys exactly little monkey it was in no way intended nor and Howard because that was a very he was a liberal New York Jewish defended Muhammad Ali defended Tommy Smith and John Carlos at the 68 Olympics he was a real New York liberal yes he was so and they did not give him the benefit of the doubt as I recall and that many did if I had to like make a uh okay moment where it began it's probably not that exact moment but that's close that's a long time ago and it was exactly what is characteristic of today which is no no Grace no sense of you made an honest mistake we understand that's not what's in your heart we're not stupid we get it no today it's just like I'm going to fake being very outraged at that even though I know I'm not and I'm not going to take into account the massive amount of evidence there is about you and your life right prior to this well that would take work looking into the past or or just honesty because in cocell's case it was pretty well known at least in a general sense where his sympathies were um even in the late 1970s or whatever it was that was a pretty clumsy thing to say he should have been more aware but he should also have been granted understanding hey that was wrong I'm sorry it was a bad choice of words but there it says nothing about his motivations because he's got all kinds of merit badges on the other side it's kind of a pretty thing sir don't you think yeah I I do and you know what here's something I'm interested in years later HBO does a documentary about Cosell and somehow Ross Greenberg and his people at HBO found an obscure broadcast of a Northwestern football game that Mike adamly was playing in Mike Adam was like a five foot nine running back white guy Ai and Cosell said that little monkey is really deceptively fat or something okay so which indicates look it's just a Dopey anachronistic thing that he said well on behalf of all white people I'm offended and I would like to start a lawsuit back to the Atlanta I mean from my my paper no I'm Neville Chamberlain in Munich Hitler promises me Germany is only interested in peace what could go wrong if we trust Hitler no that's not what this paper is this is an Atlantic article okay Jen's ears are more likely than members of previous generations to reject a strict gender binary altogether true that yep that was me stalking through that maintaining this binary in Youth Sports reinforces the idea the idea that boys are inherently bigger faster and stronger that's just a notion the crazy notion somebody had in a competitive setting and Notions that's been challenged by scientists for years where where are these scientists Professor pepperwinkle from Superman where are the scientists I mean again Atlantic everybody we were just Bob and I were just talking about the fact that you can have a bad day sometimes you just don't have your fastball I'm working on the knuckle car but seriously you printed this on paper like you typeset this and you looked at it I mean and you weren't High may I continue yeah Decades of research have shown that sex is more complex than we may think okay again starting off with the banality no one disagree with and those sex differences in sports show advantages for men researchers still don't know how much of this is due attributable to biological difference versus the lack of support provided to women athletes to reach their Highest Potential right I bring this paragraph up because in 2002 you were doing your show on HBO the first right version of it yep I did a piece for it Title Nine yes you did Title IX would you like to explain Title IX Bob Costas well Title IX which was a progressive piece of legislation and the best sense of the word again Progressive and the Nixon Administration bad progressives base basically created the quality stupid ones and Scholastic Sports what but that funds and resources would go towards girls and women's sports in equal measure to men it was 1971 Nixon was President yep and it basically said you have to no there was a downside to it which is part of my piece I did on your show in 2002 by saying that you have to devote equal funding to women's sports as well as men's there's a lot of women who didn't want to wake up at 5am to row in a canoe so they would just get rid of the men's team because that was a consequence it was sort of a precursor what Equity is it's not the same thing as equality Equity is this like okay well we have to be equal so we get rid of here's here's what we have in one generation I wasn't the world's greatest athlete a little better than some people might assume I wasn't a bad street you know stickball player or yeah it's in the backyard yeah but but clearly I wasn't going to get a college scholarship but the point is that I played lots of organized Sports my sister two years younger than me played none I have a son and a daughter and my daughter played pretty much the same number of organized Sports within a school setting as my son did that's in one generation that's real progress that's a great thing no one can say it isn't a great thing it's just I mean yeah women just don't want to do the exact same things as men the fact that we have to explain as a group just the fact that we have to explain this to children who have taken over the internet is really ridiculous let's take the Atlantic's position or at least that writer in the Atlantic's position to its logical collusion then it should be this okay hey why don't we just have one basketball team well exactly Ohio State or at UCLA and everybody goes out for the team can you imagine what would happen if the worst NBA team and again this if you this is some sort of put down of women it's a put down of God or whoever created this species you know and women obviously have other attributes that we don't have hopefully it evens out this is just one where it's undeniable we're different we are stronger and bigger and taller and if LeBron James team which is not even in the playoffs yet played against the best team in the WNBA it would be stop the fight yes I mean what would the score be yes this is just this is just reality it's just reality maybe the better example to give is an individual Sport and even Serena Williams I believe has acknowledged this she has Serena Williams Serena Williams the greatest female tennis player arguably in history would not be among the 50 best men among her contemporaries maybe that's generous Mcenroe said the best 700 and you know macano sometimes makes provocative statements but we like John hey we own a pot store together no no no we last time I saw him was backstage at your show at uh at the Hulu theater at Madison Square Garden the woods uh Woody Harrelson's gonna love me for this but yes I do have a pot store and uh I mean we share it it's mostly his I'm trying to get more um but the woods you know look distinctions matter so here's here's an issue related to that the women's uh soccer team the U.S women's soccer team has for a long time lobbied for equal resources and equal pay and the reflexive argument coming from the right or anti-worksters is to say wait a minute they're not as good as the men and the men's World Cup generates x times more money than the Women's World Cup yes this would be a good argument in Brazil this would be a good really but it's not a good argument here because it's a pretty simple Google search if you haven't been paying attention it's the U.S men can't even get into the quarterfinals the women win the world cup and they win the Olympic gold medal on a regular basis even if you think Megan rapino is at times a little obnoxious that has nothing to do with it in this particular in this particular context they deserve to be compensated who's making Megan rapino is the most prominent player on the women's team purple hair you know very outspoken testing yeah but so you know I don't watch women's sports and if you think that's sexist let me put this into the mix I also don't watch college sports I watch Pro Sports I already think that I spend too much time watching you're not going to watch and I can watch the final four and I don't watch any basketball did you watch bird and Magic when they were in college absolutely not you waited for them to get to the NBA they didn't even know who they were who's this guy on the Celtics when I already feel I waste too much time watching sports and avoided too much of my life watching sports the last thing in the world I want to do is increase my amount of sports I have to monitor I watch the American Sports not hockey not soccer oh I watch baseball football and basketball and only the playoffs in each one really well football I watched I'd say but it's only watch the Mets it's only once a week Monday plus Thursday right sometimes on Saturday but other than that at the Olympics which I know a bit about by the way at the Olympics I'm watching the women's track and field I'm watching the women's gymnastics I'm watching the women's soccer in that context that's you um yeah I do I watch I only I want to watch less so I'm only going to watch the top of the top of the best the playoffs of the best players okay that's what I'm gonna watch and I'm sorry that does not include College here's the great the the best players from college will make it to the pros and then I'll watch them and women's sports is very good for you know it's a different but it's a different level and I'm used to the NBA level and it's different and I'm allowed to make that choice I am a bad guy I am glad there's lots of people who don't watch my show what's your [ __ ] excuse I'm glad that there's a WNBA because these women deserve a place to play and be rewarded to whatever extent is there a place to play Beyond college and there's an audience for it but no one should apologize or scold somebody because the audience for that is not as large as for the NBA because as Bill Burr has pointed out the the female audience for the WNBA is not as large as the female audience for the NBA that's right that's just in the stands all right let me finish uh here on this um the strict segregation we've instilled in sports at all levels gives the impression that men and women have completely different capabilities again this is a quote from someone but obviously someone they find credible the fact that you would write this down on a piece of paper just astounds me the strict segregation is uh gives the impression these are ideas Impressions how about this one the researchers hypothesized that the Gap they did find between girls and boys was likely due to socialization yeah socialization that's why the NBA and the WNBA are so different it's what happened in high school we're talking about also at the elite level Allison Felix fastest woman in the world runs faster than 99.999 of all men but not as fast as Usain Bolt not as fast as high school Runners who are men well that she's pretty you know not some of them well some of them but maybe that's not right but I've heard people in the know maybe they don't know tell me that that's the the case that that male the Top Male High School Runners and I don't know why they wouldn't because you're probably the best you are when you're in high school I mean you're 18. yeah you get edition whatever it remains that women and men are different biology magically as far as strength and stuff that matters in sports and the fact that we are debating if you obliterated that if you obliterated that then all the really admirable female athletes would be off the stage Allison Felix would not have a gold medal she wouldn't even be in the field but how can we solve our problems when we're like stuck debating things that shouldn't be debatable to begin with right like you can't like we we it's like being stuck in that place in a relationship we're like we can't get back to the Bliss because we're still arguing about what happened in the diner but here look if I have to re-stipulate this then I will I am really glad that my daughter got to play it was a great she had a great time right it's a socialization thing it was fun and there are levels of skill she got coaching she got better at it this is a good experience and I'm glad that there's a place at the Olympic level and at the professional level for people to pers to pursue it I applaud it I admire it and I watch a fair amount of it but if we're gonna go where this wants us to go then women's sports is dead because they'll be playing against boys and men well it's the opposite of Title IX which was the question the reason I brought yes and then that it just epitomizes that here I am in 2002 doing this thing about on your show about Title IX which at the time all liberals thought was the greatest thing and I still think it's great I do too and but what the woke again not what liberalism is so you can have your thing just don't take our word because you are a different thing you are not the same thing so you can't have the word it's I can name ten different examples of this where woke is not building on liberalism it's the opposite of liberalism yeah it's not by degree with Warren Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders Maybe by degree yes further along a certain track than other liberals but a lot of what we now call woke is an entirely different mindset it's entirely different I saw Elsie Granderson the other night I don't know him but I've read a lot of his stuff in the LA Times and I've seen him on television and generally I I'd certainly respect him but he was making the point that the meaning of woke has been distorted and what woke used to mean was a certain awareness so if you were if you were a woke white person alert it's an injustice alert to Injustice you the woke white person was aware that that with the Civil Rights Act racism didn't end was aware and yeah and pathetic and observant to all these little nuances that was woke but now despite lz's protestations it's been hijacked to mean something else and he can't pull it back so when you say woke we know you're not talking about that so we're good with the original definition but we're we're somewhat at odds with those who claim now to be woke and this is why when you call a game it is different because you use words like protestations and like the combination of like a baseball game which is very old school and then somebody who's like Debonair and sophisticated and bringing that to a baseball game is just it's just it's just one of those do-sy does that its days are numbered because people are people just get continually less sophisticated less intelligent and you know I mean I'm hanging on to my audience but I it's not it doesn't it doesn't not worry me that the or the crap the country people coming out of school get dumber and dumber and no less and less and can read lessons and don't read they only scroll and this is just not good for people who like um want to like engage people on this sort of level which you engage them on like somebody like me is your perfect audience for calling a baseball game because I'm getting a baseball game but I'm also getting these sort of witty repartee it's like Cary Grant is doing the baseball game you know or or no coward or something that's a little even your partner in the broadcast mode doesn't know what you're talking about you know like you're making these jokes and these references and he's like yeah that's what that's why I specifically wanted to work with Ron Darling Yale graduate he is good roughly of my generation yes you know we get each other's references the thing is we need to do a few more games together to fall into a rhythm I always say that one of the ways you can tell if your relationship is working is if you can watch a movie with your partner in bed um preferably after you've had sexual intercourse because then you're in a good mood nobody's crabby unless you had to go to the knuckle curve too often I Bob as long as you can get battered out okay all right all right who's that better one that saw young and then they traded him all right Dickey all right Dickey Dickey okay I think but he was a right-hander not a legendary I think I've made my point um but if you can watch a movie with someone and you know one of the joys of watching a movie was with someone as opposed to a loan is that you can comment on it you can if it's terrible you can share laughs about how right funny it is and how Superior you are to the people who wrote this movie and it becomes a very bonding experience I mean if you're if you're newly bonding or if you're have bonded for a while this is like hey we are laughing at the same piece of [ __ ] don't you remember especially when you were younger the movie you took someone you were dating to the first movie you saw with that girl not so much a thing now because they're getting Netflix and everything else but you know when you're 20 years old and you're taking a girl out on a date you remember what movie you took her to the French Connection I remember it it was January 7th 1972. I remember it was my first date I wouldn't say the girl's name because she probably wants to hide from me he doesn't want to fame but I haven't talked to her really since we broke up I would love to connect people who are like in the 21st century or on Facebook and do this but um you know you never forget your first love so uh I'm just putting it out there in a bottle in there you know let me say this bill if she wants to find you you're findable yeah she doesn't want it yeah but we had a wonderful year and three months and then I guess reacting is so not hard Bob but what was I talking about before that I really wanted it was very important to me oh a frame of reference and whatnot and point that I was going to make is there are a lot of people out there now that you know references and something I said or a word that I used there's a lot of people now if it's not in their frame of reference they resent it it's not just I don't get it wait a minute he referred to something absolutely I'm 25 years old he referred to something exactly that's pertinent and connected but it happened in 1956. not only am I not engaged by that it's stupid that he said that nothing this is always happening on TMZ where I get all my news oh well all my TV news I stopped watching cable news basically it's it's just two it's two it's it's two it's too much but TMZ I love I love Harvey I like it's gonna be on this show soon really yes and I feel like it it engages me with exactly what like the average person yes they're mostly interested in gossip but they will cover stories that bleed over into the popular they break some stories and it's and it's Harvey who is like he's the character in the play who I relate to and then there's like all these Millennials who are his reporters and like they just say some very stupid things you know it's exactly what you were talking about and like I just want to shout at the TV when Harvey knows something that they don't and they're like you're the [ __ ] and I exactly saying wait I'm the [ __ ] because I know something you don't that makes me the [ __ ] and you resent it or you feel challenged by it but look this has to be somewhat generational but it's totally General the way a lot of this stuff is rewired people's minds and sensibilities because if it's 1965 and I'm 13 years old and you say to me who was Rudolph Valentino I knew I mean I might not have known it right as much as as much as bankowitz on Turner Classic Movies interested me yes and by the way to the to the 15 or 20 if I'm lucky of young people who like find a show like this engaging and it's not everybody most of them are like that but that there's a certain percentage of kids who are the same as we were which is when we heard something we didn't know it didn't make us go what stupid thing that could be I don't know about it it made us go what's that and want to know more and we look I looked up to people who knew more than I did who were older than you wanted to be around some [ __ ] other 17 year old loser masturbating in his bedroom you want to be around them you remember how every family if they could every striving middle class family had the Encyclopedia Britannica or the Collier's encyclopedia the world you spent the 300 bucks or whatever it was hard but it was there right so your dad would say if you asked a question you didn't know the go look it up go look it up that was our Google yes but you had to work a little bit right and see the stupid young people look at that and go oh my God that's so hard yeah well it was life you know things happened before you were were born and you know but the smart kids are like oh that's interesting how about this and they how it's interesting that they got smarter than we did without Google yeah yeah maybe just something to look into or at least in their self-contentment they can they can think that here's an example game one of the series we were talking about Yankees Guardians happened on October 11th last year 74 years to the day that Cleveland last won the World Series in 1948. so I'm making a larger Point here are the Yankees they've won the world series 27 times and won the pennant 40 times here is Cleveland now that the Red Sox White Sox and Cubs have broken through in the 21st century Cleveland has waited the longest next year it'll be three quarters of a century if they don't win this year what did they win 1948 1948. so so I say it's 74 years ago today that they last won the World Series and who was a rookie on that team Ray Boone he's Aaron Boone's grandfather and there's Aaron Boone managing the Yankees now to me those are the kind of things when we were kids those are the little baseball things that were interesting that's what an announcer does that's right that's right if somebody says I don't care about the 1948 Indians yes then once the game with some [ __ ] I kind of think that's their problem so what happened then I moved on to the next story and then a guy hit a ground ball to second base that's all I had so listen Before I Let You Go and I could do this all night but I probably will do this but um I have to because you're Mr Sports this has been mostly early Mr smoke uh Mr Sports and Mr smoke have to talk about this okay I was apoplectically angry at the end of the Super Bowl I mean I know it's not something that should engage me for even two seconds because again I wish I could watch Zero sports because I feel like it's an addiction that was put into me as a kid you know what I also have did this feeling about it you need things that are completely mindless that don't mean anything to de-stress you and relax you so okay I'm not that on the other hand at its best it's a Showcase of Excellence I I I add that too and it's just interesting it's programming and I don't it's a drama without a script It's a drama it's great and uh it's from my childhood and whatever it makes me feel good I'm not getting rid of it no matter what deepak's it I'm just not uh but and I feel like I have do I watch as nearly as much as a sports nut no but I watch a lot so I don't really want to watch a lot but football it'd be hard to give up so I'm not going to like sit here and pretend I'm going to stop watching because some things you do annoy me but could I just tell you yes some things that really annoy me one this rule about a guy makes an incredible catch on the sidelines I mean just this amazing ballet in motion and they have to zipruder film it and watch it right nine times and if the ball moves like an angstrom unit while he's holding on to it close enough and so they nullified this gorgeous athletic play that no one could ever do any better and it just makes me [ __ ] hate football hate Roger Goodell hate every it just makes me have what for a a minute until the you know the commercial Replay in all sports was originally designed to do was to correct egregiously missed calls which you could see were missed on the first replay previously in the most important games how about to Kentucky egregiously yeah one of the things I love about you is like you'll say that and then you'll say and I'm in Birmingham Alabama tomorrow night actually did I read my plugs I guess I did okay um all right yeah uh complaint too yes the end of the Super Bowl the holding call just I you know I did not go to any Super Bowl parties it had nothing to do with the fact that I was not invited any I could have jumped my way into a number of Super Bowl parties I chose not to yeah okay but I was super happy to be home because you know when you go to a party and I've been to two Super Bowls in person and it's like you don't really watch the game it's about we watched it with another couple it's about a nice dinner the guy though is a huge Philly Philadelphia fan so he's a he was unhappy about the Eagles but okay if you're eating shrimp and watching a game you're not watching a game you're eating shrimp you can't do both so okay so I'm watching at home thrilled about that and uh you know it was 35.35 so like something like unlike some Super Bowls which are blowouts which are uninteresting it's a great game it's a it right just what you want like I have no rooting interest in either of these cities I could give a [ __ ] the giant if the Giants or the Jets aren't in it I don't give a [ __ ] who wins I just want to see it good game and what one team like oh we're down we're gonna come back and that's what happened it just haven't been in it since 1969. yeah and we're not hopeful Joe Namath yeah anyway where were you so so the last play comes and like they just took away a great dramatic ending because some dick in his zebra outfit thinks that no he's more important or like the letter of the law I don't know what was going through this guy's mind but this is the the ultimate the penultimate moment of the big game of the year all these people have set aside this day we've all invested this much time in the game you know it's it's of course if it's an egregious as you say uh foul but on at that moment at that time and why the other refs couldn't have said you know what we all get it wrong we all sometimes don't have our good fastball we're all working on a knuckle curve he got it wrong and let's play the rest of the game as it should be played fair and square between the the Gladiators who were doing the judge general rule in sports has been for officials umpires that you try to let the players decide the game exactly block or charge could be called on a huge number of plays a guy driving through the lane in the NBA in the fourth quarter again unless it's obvious you want to let them play you don't want the game decided at the foul line you don't want to call a buck in the ninth inning of the seventh game of the World Series unless it's a blatant book correct I remember a game and this may lose a portion of your audience but you remember because it involved the Mets who lose my audience how bad is the story 1990 1999 LCS I'm doing it with Joe Morgan on NBC it's the Braves and the Mets okay game six the Mets come back from a big deficit game goes to Extra Innings the Braves load the bases in the bottom of the 10th or 11th Kenny Rogers is pitching for the Mets Kenny Rogers Andrew Jones is up for the uh bases no not that guy not not the Gambler guy not the Kenny Rogers and the first edition guy no this is the left hand this guy with the Texas Rangers yeah okay it was with the Rangers now he's with the Mets okay and so Andrew Jones is up and the count goes to three balls and three either three and o or three and one I think maybe three no and the next pitch is a little bit High and a little bit outside and it's called a strike it's the right thing to do the the UMP does not want the pennant decided on a walk in that situation it's a little bit I mean it you could have called it a strike you could have called it a ball I see it looked to me like it would be called a ball most of the time yes but he's going to let the players decide great and then Kenny Rogers given that reprieve threw one way out of the strike zone on the next pitch and the season was over for the Mets and he walked in the winning run and that was the end of it but but at least you didn't feel like something that was marginal took it away when these two teams had gone to the wall all season long and all series let them decide it that holding call was the only holding call in the whole game against either team offense or defense and it had no effect on the play I would have thought so much better if I could have called you and heard that Kenny Rogers you have my number I know but it's like Bob could you comfort me at the end of the Super Bowl with a Kenny Rogers Story I mean it's no Gift of the Magi but I I feel like it really never it helps me Kenny Rogers remember Kenny Rogers on the first edition Don't Take Your Love to town oh yes there's an extraneous reference I know it's very we're deep in the minutia now it was a Vietnam song yeah that's right the Soldier's gone off to war and comes back it was uh I definitely had that taped on my little wall and Sack tape recorder that I could tape songs off the rats how we listened to music and tape them off the radio yeah you know is the even though Cousin Brucie was more famous Dan Ingram was the best talk over guy ever he would hit the instrumental budding up against the vocals and he was witty yes he was very witty I even as a child who was looking to be a comedian I knew and I say child I was like 12 when I started listening to the radio I gravitated toward Dan Ingram he was sardonic anyway did you have a good time here at Club random I did uh it was everything I thought it would be as long as it's at the bar at medium height it was probably everything you thought it should be because I had a whole you have anything to play I had a whole no I have nothing to plug yeah I had a whole Fox News CNN thing that I was gonna load up on but it can wait let's hear it what do you mean well there's there's a no I'm intrigued it's a false equivalency and I'm a CNN yeah usually it's Fox News msnb that's an equivalent but false yes even the even there MSNBC well they're certainly ideological oh yes they're much more facts there's a much more journalistic I've made this happen absolutely and CNN CNN for whatever its flaws and uh blind spots might be and there are certain things that don't fit a narrative that they're not comfortable introducing even though they're factual and pertinent that happens sometimes at CNN but if you watched if you were someone from outer space and somehow you understood English and you watch CNN for a week and you watch Fox for a week you'd have a much better understanding of what was happening in the world from watching CNN than from watching Fox and what's happened lately with the Dominion thing and the lawsuit and all the stuff that's come out all that is is what has been obvious to any reasonable person all long writ large right you know and Greg Gutfeld may be a very nice guy saw his Club random with you maybe a nice guy to hang around with but I heard him say once with a straight face the difference between us and CNN is we apply the same principle no matter what the situation is I want to talk about a moment for a spit take are you kidding me are you kidding me you who not only covered for Donald Trump but not you Greg Gutfeld but you and the whole thing not only covered for Donald Trump but demonized anyone who dared to criticize him even when they had all the evidence at hand I couldn't agree more you guys are so in the bag and such a propaganda outfit that the idea that and as you know one one of the one of the kind of Articles of faith with Fox and their viewers is the mainstream media the mainstream media the mainstream media is flawed and could use a course of Correction but the idea that you're getting this instruction from Fox News is perverse yeah oh I agree with all that Bob there you go so we ended on a note of agreement no I do when they came into resistance in the mid 90s no they had a chance you remember Bernie Goldberg you spent on CBS News and for a long time it was on Real Sports with Brian Gumbel yeah yeah a thoughtful conservative Bernie wrote a book called bias back in the 90s and his premise was that there were good journalists Dan Rather Walter Cronkite people he worked with at CBS people in 60 minutes but there was there was an implicit leaning left bias um at CBS on other places he didn't think it was malicious but he thought that it got in the way of Bullseye journalism and he he tried to present a corrective if that was the guiding principle of Fox News when they came into existence in the mid 90s that not only would have been okay that would have been a great thing here's a thoughtful right Honest journalistically responsible right of Center Alternative this is the Wall Street Journal of the air but it's got to be entertaining because it's television so we'll have some Lively personalities that's not the way it went there's a new phrase to use advocacy journalism have you heard that uh yes and so it's just another example of them saying the quiet part out loud that like we're not I mean the New York Times used to try to be right down the justifacts and the news that fits a print and now it's like the people in that Newsroom who are of a different generation than us and just think we're wrong and automatically because we're not in their generation because obviously younger people know more than older people that only makes common sense but um they like they're not trying not to be advocacy journalists they see that as the the paper has a mission and it's advocacy journalism okay that's fine but it's not what you that's that's what the op-ed page is for right exactly that's how it used to be and by the way and on the right they have long been doing this you know you know that I mean the the New York Post and you know it's just it's entertaining and I I think sometimes they have things in there that are more uh accurate than the New York Times but they also like are reflexively everything biting does is horrible and it's just so boring and tediously that way it's just so obvious and predictable everything he does is horrible one of the reasons one of the reasons why and I'm not saying this because I'm sitting here you and I have been on the same page basically for a long time and we've commiserated about it on many occasions and one of the reasons why I think that you're an important social commentator is that we cannot predict where you're going to come down except that where you're going to come down is in opposition to stuff that is just not common sense exactly that is just at odds with common sense there are people who are very funny who I admire um who I can tell you if you this is their topic this week I know what they're taking and some of them are and it's very some of them are people we both would admire for their careers we won't mention names the main difference between me and everybody else who does this kind of thing is I am willing to lose audience I think that is actually whatever you've lost has also in turn drawn audience audience to you this is this is what they're looking for gotta stick with your brand the people that used to groan when you occasionally went across kind of the liberal yeah gospel they're now gone and they've been replaced by people who applaud yes not reflexively because they're your fans but because they get your point yes exactly you know so that this this Fox News Fox News could have been a really good thing and I'm not saying that over time there weren't people there who said worthwhile things and there's so much idiocy on the left the extreme left right that it feeds them material on a daily basis all right that's that's always my thing when people say you know what why do you make fun of the left more because I'm a comedian and you're giving me material okay pregnant men is funny right you didn't used to give me material okay a comedian is a guy with a divining rod and it's going to go where the comedy is and this this is why the conservatives have to the Fox News crowd has to recognize this yeah Trump was unique Trump provided so much material you can't expect Saturday Night Live he's not gone no words but you can't expect Saturday Night Live where Jimmy Kimmel or whatever to do as much anti-democrat stuff as anti-trump stuff if Trump isn't Bob Dole he isn't Mitt Romney he he was he was a comedy Bonanza as tragic and awful as it was right he was everything a comedy Bonanza and crazy and racist and horny and [ __ ] his daughter right you know well mushroom dick whatever those were the jokes and Melania was like I always tell my writers you know some of my writers might yeah I do there's a thing called like I call it writer's room disease where like they do a joke and maybe it works or something because we explained enough to make it work and then they take it as like a premise that now everyone understands for example Melania came in a crate in their world everyone understands the concert that she can I understand where it comes from She's the mail order mail order bride but like then they start doing jokes on jokes on you know like like we all know it's a crate you're the goalie you've you've got you've got to make sure that whatever you know that what gets through is what will resonate right with enough of the audience but you know when I'm sure you've heard this yeah you you want to get up and end this but now I'm on a roll I'm sure you I'm five minutes and we're done it's my show now it's it's all random uh the the idea have you heard I wish I was on you later boy when I think of how much that meant to me in 1994 I felt like I had more than even The Tonight Show like I had really arrived because it was like a you know it was a very prestigious thing it was a one-on-one it was it was there aren't shows like that anymore I've never missed an episode YouTube YouTube you put in Bill Maher on later it's it's on YouTube oh I can't the first time I spoke with you was after I interviewed Paul McCartney and you called me to tell me how much you admired it but you were such a Beatles expert that you started pointing out things that I'd missed it was an appreciative call I don't even remember Paul McCartney I remember you talking to um Glenn Frey yeah I don't know why I remember this for you I remember you asking him like John Henley and he was like so diplomatic an important artist right and like wow that's that's where they are in their relationship but it was I think right before they got back on tour maybe that was for to promote the tour because 94 the Eagles got back together right around there Hell Freezes Over a tour right that's right um but I remember Paul Simon yeah we did three with Paul that they were awesome I mean I remember him saying uh you said like what songs do you you know do you not want to do anyway it's like well I don't think I'd like to be singing feeling groovy in Las Vegas and I am a rock and whatever you know yeah I am a Ryan I actually made friendships grew out of that people I had never met before sat down and it was a different kind of program that's why we're friends right one of the great perks of doing a talk show is that you get to meet almost everybody yeah and the secret though is to make sure that if friendships do grow out of them they grow organically yes not like the first time hey what's your number dinner and I want to meet your wife it's like like it takes years like they are if you like them they come on your show again and then you know over time it's like I don't know things just happen I mean I remember Salman rushy and I were ones at a bar and somebody came up to us and said hey it's great to see you guys I'm a fan of you both and like how long have you been friends and we went you know neither one of us can come up with the answer because it was organic now I don't know I shouldn't even say this but that kind of ties into something we were talking about a while ago in 1989 Blue Jays are playing the A's in the American League Championship Series and the Blue Jays lose the first two games in Oakland and they're down like by four runs and Eckersley comes in in the ninth inning and I say they put his stats up on the screen and the microscopic era and all the wrestling I say boy all things considered Elvis has a better chance of coming back than the Blue Jays okay so now Toronto the Toronto Toronto fans are nuts they they already think the American announcers are against them and I get off the plane in Toronto and it's like that scene in King Kong where the old-time photographers stop stop he thinks you're trying to hurt the girl right and so there's on the on the back page of the tabloids the next day it's an off day in the series Jay's hater Bob Costas disembarks in Toronto okay so game three the new Sky Dome radio station passes out 40 000 Bob Costas masks and they hold them up the whole thing okay and now I have to I have to register under an assumed name at the hotel because they're going to get getting death threats and Tony kubek says boy it's really reached a boiling point when you have to register under an assumed name and I said yeah and when you feel safer registering as Salman Rushdie things have taken an ugly turn Tony kubeck said that yeah no I said the salmon Rusty part kubeck had them had the setup unwittingly Tony kubek was a announcer Tony kubeck was great he was yes I remember when I was a kid he was this Jordan stop for the young New York Yankees when I was in he worked with Kurt Gowdy oh Joe garagiola and then me at NBC Tim McCarver was kind of an amalgam of garagiola and Quebec analyst and anecdotal a member of The Beatles documentary they interview the uh forget the publicity guy I think and he's talking about when Paul and John went to New York to announce Apple Core was forming Apple they had the word before the other application by the way and uh oh and they went on he went on The Tonight Show and Johnny Carson wasn't there that night it was Joe DiMaggio right all right I gotta go I gotta go back to work [Music] do we do we have an exit is there like a theme song it's nothing

Channel: Club Random Podcast

Views: 237,570

Keywords: club random podcast, club random, podcast, bill maher, bill, maher, club random with bill maher, real time, real time with bill maher, Bob Costas, MLB, Bob Costas Olympics, bob costas nbc, bob costas interview, in depth with graham bensinger, sports interview, graham bensinger, sports journalism, feature interview, bob costas olympics, bob costas career, mlb, later with bob costas

Id: ZNcI1vA3JZ4

Length: 100min 41sec (6041 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 05 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/Tahoeclown]

Bob seems like such a good dude

[u/Bruce_Hale]

"On today's episode Bill talks about wokeism with.......Bob Costas!"

[u/CMonetTheThird]

This was another good one, CR had been a definite success.