It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZY, Boston's news radio.
Thank you Nicole. The Bruins are in Keeba Quah. Used to be the Nord Deeks. Well no more Nord Deeks, but they'll get hopefully an expansion team up there again at some point. My name is Dan Ray, host of nights Side, and we have a great show coming up for you tonight. We'll be talking with Joe Kistigleone, the forty two year radio voice of the Boston Red Sox. Right after the nine o'clock news, Joe called his what would probably be his last regular season game for the
Red Sox. He's going to be doing some work for the Red Sox going forward. Joe will explain that. But a great broadcaster and probably even a greater guy. We'll talk with Joe and you'll be able to call in and thank him for all the calls. He's had four pretty good years, well he had forty two good years, but four of them ended up in World Series. So he was there when the curse was broken in two thousand and four, two thousand and seven, in twenty thirteen,
and again in twenty and eighteen. And we'll get to them. All of that other stuff later on. There's a week of rage schedule on college campuses next week by a group of students who I believe are more pro hamasd than they are pro Palestinian. But we'll deal with that. We have four really interesting guests this hour, and I got to tell you I'm so looking forward to talk
with our next Our first guest this hour, Jeff Rohdemer. Jeff, along with another co author, Dave Brown, have written a great book, timed well called Shadows of Glory, Memorable and offbeat World Series Stories. So Jeff, welcome to Night's Side. You're talking to an audience in Boston, but around the country. We've had more than our share of World Series here in Boston during this century. I still think the Red Sox lead the league in World Series championships during the
twenty first century. How are you tonight?
I'm doing good as a Yankee fan, Dan, thanks for rubbing that in.
No. No, I'm sure the Yankees will be back at some point. But uh, I think we I think we got four. They only have one if I'm not mistaken about but they're pretty good shape. The Orioles have been tipped over by the Royals, which is an interesting development in the playoffs. We could talk about that, but let's talk about I think.
I think the Yankee fans are Yeah, they're they're They're They've learned to be cautiously optimistic in the last couple of years.
They open up at home and when I don't like about the new which I haven't liked some of the beginning. No, a team like the Orioles plays really well all year and they they lose two out of three games and they're done. They're done. You know. I know the playoff system has its positives, but I don't know that that's fair when a team plays so well for one hundred
and sixty two. And I'm not an Orioles fan. I'm just saying I think there's there's a little bit of in equity here when I don't know if you have a thought about that or not.
Well, it is a tough beat, but it is far better than just the one and done wild card game. To me, that I really that really, I really, I'm a little bit more of a traditional life traditionalist, I guess, and that that was always to me sort of you know, well, that was the problem need to be fixed.
I know MLB is trying to keep more teams involved in it. I get that. But at the same time, I go back and you do. You as well, go back to the days of a seven game World Series when you have the American League pennant winner against the nationallygue pennant winner. And let's talk about that some of those games, because some of those games are in your book. Where did the idea to do this book come from? There was always a point in time where the idea comes to the forefront of your mind.
Yeah.
So, so Dave and I met in college at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, back in the seventies, and we discovered we had this kind of shared love of baseball, baseball trivia, history, the statistics of it, and you know, hardcore fans know that
you can't separate one of those from the other. It's all sort of you know, how you grew up as a baseball geek, and you fast forward to around two thousand and days started writing in addition to his day job as a lawyer and has since had six books published, and many of them were either about baseball or about sports. And he called me at the end of twenty eighteen and just said I really want to get back to
writing about baseball. His last book had been a true crime book, and he had a couple of ideas, and the one to me that kind of floated to the top was this idea of lesser known, odd maybe curious, underreported, less remembered stories about events that took place during the World Series. We both agreed on one thing, there's nothing
that we can add about Don Larson's perfect game. There's probably nothing that we can tell anybody about Carlton Fisks home run or Bill Mazeroski's some of that Reggie Jackson three home runs his finale. So the idea really appealed to me. A few months later, he called me back and said, I think that's the idea that I want to write about. And at the time he asked me if I wanted to help him write it, and I told him I was just about to retire and I
didn't want to take on any homework assignments. I didn't want any deadlines, commitments, obligations, and so I declined. And fast forward another nine months, circumstances for us both had changed. The guy that was going to write the book with him had gone dark. He was kind of struggling with some early chapters, and I suddenly had time on my hands.
Winter was approaching here in the East, and slowly but surely I started working with him, kind of around the edges at first, and then finally to the point where we were co writing and working on everything in the collaboratory way, and the result were these eighteen chapters.
Okay, so that's how the book crystallized. Give us a couple that some of my listeners might remember, others might not. But again, you're talking about memorable and offbeat world series stories. Give us a couple.
Yeah, So two of my favorites and needs go back to the early chapters that Dave had had pitched in one. Well, I remember both world series, but one of the stories I did know pretty well, which was the seventy three world series between the Mets NBA's and going into the world series. Mike Andrews, who Boston fan remember well.
And even a better human being as the head of the Jimmy fun for many years.
Yeah, and he was brought over from the White Sox. Dick Williams was managing the A's and he liked Mike. He remembered him from the sixty seven team and thought he would be a great additions as a hitter and also as a backup second basement. Charlie Finley, the owner of the A's, was not so crazy about it, but in any event, Mike was on the roster, and when it came time for the playoffs, Finley actively tried to get Mike removed from the roster, and for the American
League Championship Series he did that. He got the permission from the Baltimore Orioles to replace Mike with Manny Trio, and when the World Series came around against the Mets, he wanted to do the same thing, except the Mets declined, and so the World Series starts off. The Mets are big underdogs. They were probably the worst team record wise ever to get to the World Series at that point. But they had good pitching and they had pretty good defense.
They couldn't hit. But after losing Game one in Oakland in a wild back and forth game Game two, and Charlie Finley's nightmare comes true. All of a sudden, you know, Mike Andrews is in the game. He came in as a pinch hitter, I think in the ninth inning, and now he's out there is the second baseman, and sure enough, after each team scores in the tenth in the twelfth inning,
Mike makes well he was charged with two airs. I looked pretty closely at the video replays of that game, and really the second one was a blown call at first base, but in either event, it opened up the floodgates. The Mets won the game, and so after the game, Finley, in a rage, asked the team doctor to write a letter that he wanted Mike to sign, saying that he was injured and couldn't play, and from all accounts, he
basically browbeat Mike until he signed it. Mike was so despondent that he left on a plane for Massachusetts to go back home. He never even got on the team plane, and Finley thought he had what he wanted. But eventually this all came out. First of all, the guys that were sitting on the plane on the runway ready to leave Oakland were waiting for Finley and his wife to show up, and meanwhile, Mike is not on the plane,
and right away they know something's up. And by the time they get back to New York, the truth has surfaced. And on the off day when they're working out at Shay Stadium. Sal Bando and some of the other as now have these makeshift patches on their arms with Mike's number on it, and the New York Press starts getting into the story and the next thing you know, the
whole thing blows up into a circus. There are press conferences, and finally Buie Kune gets involved, and Charlie Finley hated Louie Kune, and Bouie Kuen didn't like Charlie Finley, but Bouie said, no, you can't do this unless the guy was hurt before the World Series. He's on the roster, you can't. You can't remove him for another player. And the A's players were outraged because they thought Finley was trying to scapegoat Mike, and they had threatened to boycott
at least one of the games coming up. And then finally, you know, cooler heads prevailed and they realized that they were going to lose that pr battle, and they went ahead and they played. But in Game four, with Andrews reinstated, he comes up as a pinch hitter at Chay Stadium and the Mets fands give him this like three minute standing ovation and clips, Yeah, sitting there like, yeah.
Well, the the A's win that world series, so Mike, Mike gets a ring, Finley gets a world championship.
Well, and it was a crazy story, and sal Bando was very generous with his time, the late sal Bando. It turns out, you know, he'd given us a couple of interviews and he also told us a story that didn't make it into the book. And I'll share it with you guys, because it's it is interesting. Uh, it's gonna be crazy.
I hate to do this. I hate to do this to you, Jeff, but I'm running over a little bit. I could talk to you all night. But give us the Bandeau story if if you can.
Well, the quick, the quick, dirty version of it was that Charlie Finley's wife got on the plane before Charlie and she had a pair of oversized sunglasses on and had two black eyes, and Charlie had gotten into a rage, got into a fight with his wife and he hit her, and the next spring training he confessed to sal how it all unfolded when she had filed for divorce. So
that was not reported in the papers. You can't find any reporting on that, but that Schau told us that that had happened and told us the you know, the aftermath of it in spring training in seventy four.
Finlan was a Shelman, no doubt, and he did bring Satchel Page onto the major league roster sometime in the mid sixties. It probably when Sachel was in the mid sixties. But other than that, not a great guy. The book is Shadows of Glory, Memorable and offbeat World Series Stories. Maybe what I'll do, Jeff, is have you come on later as we get to the World Series and let's do an hour. We can take some phone calls. You up for that.
Oh you got it, man, I'd love to do that.
All right. Jeff rodemir Ho, along with Dave Brown, wrote this great book, Shadows of Glory, Memorable and offbeat World Series Stories. We'll get back to you, Jeff. I appreciate. I wish I had more time. I could talk to you all night long, but I.
Got three other pleasure all right, you.
Hit late off tonight. Thank you, Jeff, appreciate it. Will we get back when we talk about a major high school in Boston, Cathedral High School been around for a long time and they have a one million dollar fundraiser. We're going to talk with the president of Cathedral High School, Dan Carmody right after this break.
Now back to Dan ray Line from the window World Light six Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Anyone who has been around Boston for a while certainly knows Cathedral High School. Joining us now is the president of Cathedral High School, Dan Carmody. Dan, My first question is how many years this is now getting close to one hundred years old as a Catholic high school.
Correct, Yeah, you got it. Thanks for having me, Dan. We're at ninety eight years, so the centennials right around the corner.
Well, obviously the school has changed over the years in terms of the young people who have been educated there. Is it co ed at this point?
Yeah, we're co ed. We're seven through twelfth grade. We're about three hundred and fifty students co ed. And you're right, so much has changed over the years and almost one hundred year history. But actually the mission hasn't changed at all. And so you know, to be.
All boys, it used to be an all boys high school if I recall.
Correct, If it was, it was a long long time ago. We've been co ed for as far back as that I'm aware of.
Oh, okay, okay, I could be wrong on that. I'm sure one of my some of my listeners would know. Only nine percent of your revenue comes from tuition because a lot of kids who go to the school, the vast majority of them end up going to college on scholarship. As I say, you have a very special mission for kids in Boston and you are going you have a gala coming up on October twenty third. You hope to
raise a million dollars. Where is the gala and do you have to have a connection to Cathedral High School to contribute or tend tell us about the gala.
Yeah, So the gala is, when's October twenty third. It's at the Seaport Hotel. And we've been doing this gala for years and you're right, the goal is to raise a million dollars. We have a pretty a unique, remarkable mission at the school and it's simple. It's to provide a strong, transformational Catholic education for families who may not otherwise have access. And the only way we're able to do that is through incredible generosity of so many people
that make the mission happen. And you know, most as you're I know you're aware of most you know, independent schools, seventy five eighty percent of the revenue comes through tuition, and we sit at nine. And so the gala is really an opportunity. It's to celebrate the impact of our mission and what we're able to do for students and with students. But it's an opportunity to bring so many generous people together and celebrate the mission and to raise the funds to make it possible. So we have we
have an unbelievably loyal donor base. But yeah, it is, it is open. We would always love to welcome new people to our community. It's the only way our mission thrives is when new people find out what we're doing and they say, yeah, that's something I want to get behind and something i'd love to support.
Well, the fact that only nine percent of your revenue comes from the tuition of students, there's a lot of students there who I'm sure are on full of partial scholarships. And I guess for over twenty years now, every senior who has graduated, and every senior has who's graduate has been accepted to college. Last year's class earned over six million dollars in college scholarships, which is an extraordinary nuance number number one. But then you're looking at another number.
You hope to raise sixty million dollars to endow the feats of the school in perpetuity. Yeah, you got to do that. That's that's that's the Catholic Cathedral Forever campaign. Sixty million dollars. That is quite an ambitious efforts.
It's a big number and it was a little daunting when we first came up with it, but yeah, it's a sixty million dollar Cathedral Now Cathedral Forever campaign And the short version we're inches from the finished line on it, actually, which is incredible thanks to so many amazing people. But the school has been around forever and we've had some generous folks in a particular alum who kind of said, hey, I want to make sure the school survives for the next century, and what do we need to do to
make sure that happens. And you know, it came up that we needed to really grow an endowment to support our annual budget and perpetuity, and the number we needed was sixty million dollars, and he said, okay, I'll provide a thirty million dollar match dollar per dollar until you get to the sixty million, and so it's unheard of in a small Catholic school. It's just it's life changing generosity.
And so where is that supporter remaining anonymous or would you.
Like, Well, I won't say his name because he'll get mad at me, but he is. So he remains anonymous although so many people in our community know who it is. He remains anonymous simply because he just says, it's not about him, it's about the mission and it's about the students. Yeah, it's pretty admirable.
Actually we respect that. And how many So you're seven through twelve? How many kids are in the school this year?
Yeah, we're about three hundred and fifty students.
Okay, see three hundred fifty students is seven through twelve. I did some long division short division here a plus sixty kids in every class and you know, seventh per grade.
Yeah yeah, yeah, it's a little bit different balance. But yeah, that's that's it.
And you've got a pretty good athletic program. I hope.
We do. Yeah for a pretty small school, are our pride and enjoys. There's always our girls basketball team, back to back state champs, and I think like six out of the last eight years. But we have an awesome We have an awesome athletic department. But really, I think, you know, one of the things I'm most out of our school is really our entire faculty and staff. No one comes to Cathedral by accident, you know. Everyone comes
because they're committed to our mission. And so it's a really awesome group of people who are are there just to make sure it happens for our kids.
And so here's the most important question of our time tonight, and that is one how can people buy tickets and go to the event on October twenty third, which is going to be down in the seaport. And how can people who might be inspired and maybe want to reconnect, so maybe want to make a connection and would like to help contribute, give us a couple of ways or a single way in which they can get access, either as a contributor or as someone who will attend the gallap.
Yeah, awesome. The singleiest way is obviously to go to our website, which is brand new. We love it. It's Cathedral Boston dot org and it tells the story of our mission and the testimonials and the success stories of what we've been able to do. But I guess the one request I'd always have for people is come visit. We always say that no one gets to know our mission through our students, by being in the building and kind of seeing the magic of cathedral. That's not then
somehow motivated to be a part of it. And that can be financially, but it can also be through mentorship, through internships, through just being present in our building and with our students. So there's so many ways to contribute. We'd love to have folks at the gala. It's an awesome testimonial to what we're all about. But if that's not possible, come visit the school. We're right in the
South End. Awesome location, awesome community, and then you know, the door is always open for folks who want to learn more about the mission.
So great to talk to you. Sound like an inspirational leader. You answered the questions directly. You did a great job tonight, Dan Carmandy. How long you've been principal there on? How long you've been doing this?
About five years?
Wow?
Yeah, it's a blessing.
Your enthusiasm is infectious, and I hope a lot of people have been infected by enthusiasm for Cathedral High School and the upcoming gallop on October twenty third at the website Cathedral Boston dot org. Dan Carmedy, thanks very much for stopping buying. We'll keep keep tabs on Cathedral Awesome.
I appreciate you bringing so much exposure to our mission.
Very welcome. Thanks again. Okay, when we get back, we're going to talk about another great mission, and that is an event coming up this weekend, I believe. Yeah, on this Sunday, October sixth, the annual Jimmy Fund Walk. We'll be talking with Caitlin Fink. She's an assistant vice president of event fundraising for the Jimmy Fund Walk at Dana Farber. We'll be talking to Caitlin in just a few minutes, right after the news and a couple of commercials at the bottom of the hour.
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Well, one of the big charity events in Boston years, the Jimmy Fund Walk you can walk, you don't have to run, coming up this Sunday, October sixth with us as Caitlin Think, she's the assistant vice president of event fundraising for the Jimmy Fund walk slash Dana Farber. Now, I know that there's a big election coming up and different elections in November, and everybody disagrees. This is one we all agree on. Welcome to night side, Caitlin. How are you.
Tonight, Hi, Dan, Thanks so much for having me.
Yeah. I want to put it in the context here, okay, that no one, no one disagrees that that Jimmy Fund is just this great organization that has been around our parts for seventy seventy five years, all to cure children and find the cure for cancer in kids. How many people will be walking? And by the way, the weather this Sunday is supposed to be spectacular. How many walkers will you.
Have looking good? Yeah, So we are expecting about eighty five hundred walkers to join us on Sunday. We're so excited to be back on the Boston Marathon course. And we have four routes along the course that walkers can choose from. So we have walkers starting right and early out in Hopkinton and walking that full marathon route.
So that's that's the long route.
Okay, that's the long route. Get up right and early for that one.
Okay, And like the marathon, do do you with the marathon, they provide bus transportation. Do you have to get yourself? Do you have buses there? Or people have to actually get to a Hopkinton uh that day by themselves.
You're gonna, yeah, well get out to Hopkinton by yourself, and then we will have bus service from the Common back out to Hopkinton at the end of the event.
Great, okay, you can sleep in the bus going back. That's good. The logistics are important that I didn't mean to interrupt. We're are a couple of the shorter routes. Go ahead.
Yeah, for those of you who don't want to do the full rout there's a half marathon option that starts at Wellesley High School, and we also have a ten k option that starts at Boston College and a five k start that's right outside of Dana Farber Cancer Institute on Brookline Apps. And all four of those will culminate in Boston Common this year. So down on the Common, we'll have a wonderful celebration with commemorative metals and team
photos and lots of wonderful food and entertainment. It's a really fun festivities for all do.
You still need Is it too late for people to sign up? Tell us what you know? It's Thursday and we're talking Sunday here, so Sunday's coming at us pretty quickly, Hocket.
Folks don't absolutely, there's still an opportunity. Our online registration is closed at this point, but we are encouraging people to come down to early registration at Wellesley High School on Saturday between one thirty and three thirty. You can register then or come down to any of those start
lines on Sunday and you can register day up. So we are excited to have as many people as possible join us this weekend and looking forward to, like you said, some great weather and a really inspiring day for all.
Unlike the marathon, where you have start times and all of that, I assume you get there, you register, and you step off.
You step off. So we do have a rolling start. So, for example, the people who are starting out in Hopkinton, some are starting as early as five thirty and we hope to get everybody onto the course by seven thirty am and similar to some of the other starts.
But all of the.
Information, everything you need to know is at Jimmyfundwalk dot org. So I encourage everyone to write that down, check it out and you can find all details there for start times, arrival times, and all of the fund activities that'll be taking place throughout the day.
How does this year's turn out? And I don't know how much? How much do you hope to raise this year? What's the goal?
Yeah, so last year we had a record breaking year. The Jimmy Fund Walk has raised more than one hundred and seventy six million dollars for Dana Farber in its thirty five year history. Last year we had a record breaking year with nine point four million. So we are hoping to surpass that number this year, and we are certainly on track to do so. And that's really because of those eight thousand walkers who are already registered and those that we know will register this weekend. So we're
confident we'll hit those goals. And really a big goal for us on Sunday is to use it as an opportunity to celebrate the impact that this event has, not only in raising those funds, but in how it inspires others, how it supports our patients and their families on a whole different level.
And I assume that the way you raise money is you get the walkers to pledge donations from their friends, in large part for how many miles they walk, and there's no limit on that. So if you have a friend who wants to contribute one hundred dollars for every mile, great. If you have a friend who wants to contribute one dollar for every mile, that's great too. Is that the way it works. I'm making an assumption here, and if I'm wrong.
Correct, that's right.
No, you're spot on. It's every dollar makes the difference. And I think the significance of the walk is that it really represents the power a community can have when it rallies around a single cause. So it's pretty incredible to see how this event has grown from a few hundred walkers to the largest single day one aca the nation.
And I'm assuming that there'll be some water stations along the way, and you'll there'll be some medical people along the way if somebody twists an ankle or absolutely whenever. You guys have done this so well, you have it down. And I hope that everybody goes to the website if they just want to be able to say, hey, I spend Sunday raising money for the Jimmy Fund. And what a, what a what a great way to send us this first Sunday in October. The weather's going to be beautiful,
no problems with rain or anything like that. Give us the website one more time where people can can check it out if you would, Caitlin.
Thanks so much. It's Jimmy fundwalk dot org. And we are excited to see many of your listeners out joining us on Sunday. And Dan, thanks so much just for letting us come on each year and being such a great advocate for this event and for Dana Farber and then Jimmy Fun year after.
Yes, you're always welcome. Those of us who know anyone who has been touched by childhood cancer, and even those of us who don't know, certainly understand that there's there's no more crueler disease than to have a child, you know, suffering with cancer early and early in their lives lives uh. And the Jimmy Fund is just a godsend. Again, it was you know, founded through the Red Sox. It's so closely associated with the Red Sox and it's I I
think it's the greatest charity. Uh. In in Massachusetts, perhaps even New England. So Caitlin, thank you for your work and best of luck on Sunday. And I promise you I've watched all the way the forecast tonight. It's going to be a beautiful day. Beautiful day.
Thanks Caitlyn, great, Thanks so much. Dan, have a great night.
All right, we get back. We're going to talk with a editor of a of a company called lawn Starter about the fact that one in three Americans plan to display some sort of a pleadical campaign signed this year on the lawn and I think this would be kind of a fun conversation, obviously in the context of a very serious political campaign that is now ongoing. My name's Dan Ray. Please stay with us here on Nightside. Coming
up at nine o'clock. Red Sox Hall of Fame radio broadcaster, the radio voice of the Boston Red Sox for forty two years. Joe Castiglione, a New England native. By the way, we'll get into that a little bit with Joe, and we'll take some phone calls if you want to get on early and say hi to Joe and congratulate him on his Hall of Fame career. Back on Nightside, one more segment coming up here. During the eight o'clock Nightside News Update,