Duel Vision

Ben Maller starts right now that it does. I hope your stave staying healthy, and we are going to get you through the dead zone if you will the weekend time Here bonus editions of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller and David gascon As. We are back at it again this weekend, and we're gonna do something a little different now. Last week, on a previous episode of the show, we welcomed in Lenny Distro, and I love talking to Lenny.

Lenny was great, a lot of profanity, a lot of wild stories from his days with the Mets and the Phillies, and it was wonderful time. I think the best part about all that, Ben is you got the reviews of either really good or really bad. There was no in between for any of him and his performance. I'm still amazed by the people that listen to the podcast like I can't listen to profanity, and I my god, I'm like, okay,

all right, calm down. Every won't calm down. So today it's all about me, Gascon, and I'm going into my rolodecks of old radio friends. And this is a guy that used to be a talk show host at kf I in Los Angeles news talk station. Uh. He did some radio in Philadelphia. He worked at Fox Sports Radio very briefly. I did shows with him in my early days in sports talk radio in l A. Did a show with him and after him, Lee Klein is his name, Lee was. It was a Clipper talk show host post

game back where they were terrible. Uh. He also did some Dodger programming around the time that I was doing some stuff with the Dodgers. And we've known each other forever. I've known him longer than just about anybody in the radio business. He knows where all the bodies are buried in my in my career and whatnot. And so it's I think we'll just it's it's just gonna play some grab bass, is what we're gonna do, right, Descon. That's the plan with Lee, just me and him shooting the

shooting the ship. It feels like and all I need is a cocktail, maybe some tacos, because you guys have a long history together and a lot, a lot of juvenile things, which is great to hear because this is all the behind the scenes stuff that that people won't ever get to hear because usually you're talking about the games at hand, but this is the games before the game. Yeah.

So we're gonna get into some of the crazy things that happened in local radio when we first got going the days at the l A Sports Arena back and you know, covering the Clippers, being around the Clippers when they were lousy forever, and some of the characters. We'll have some stories about Benoit, Benjamin In, about Donald Sterling and some things, uh the Cardinal Rule and radio that was broken by my friend Lee, and we'll get into some of that. Um So, I hope you enjoy it.

It's a it's a good guy, Lee Klein, their longtime radio personality in southern California and Philadelphia and some other places. But we began, I guess we'll start with this Lee, the news of the week. You used to do some stuff with the Dodgers. They announced this week that they have ended their TV uh blackout. They're gonna be on satellite television of all weeks this week with no sports going. What do you think about that? Lee? So let me

get this right. That Spectrum, which is Charter company, they decided to finally relent and give Dodger broadcast to the rest of the country and also to Direct TV and the baseball packages that they finally decided to let it loose other than their own company. Only E D s now that there's no baseball season, that was the time to do it. Well exactly. Yeah, it's it's wonderful and it it announced on April Fool's Day. They announced it

on April one, which is even better. It's even better. Uh, But listen, I want to I got before we get into what's going on today, I got we gotta get into some of these old radio stories lead because, uh, for those that don't know, and it used to work at Fox Sports, right, how long were you at Fox Sports Radio? It wasn't very long. He was briefly at Fox Sports Radio, right. Well, you know, I was on regular radio for about twelve fourteen years and Fox for

about six months. And for those that are listening that do not know, Ben and I have been going to games together and have known each other for now, it's incredible, for over twenty five years. And so I know everything he's done in sport and where he's gone. He knows everything that I've done. So we're close. And so whatever you're gonna hear, and this is unrehearsed, whatever you're gonna hear, it's truly going to be bottom line truth, isn't it

that Well? Yeah, But but I guess we should start at the beginning because I first started going to games. I was I was going to Saddleback College. I was working at the college radio station, and I got credentials to go to like Clipper games, you know, at the l A Sports Arena, and you were there and you were the first person that ratted me out because you knew my scam. You knew that I was not really a real member of the media, and you called me on it. And I remember that day at the sports arena.

We're like, hey, k s br, I know where that I know at that station. Well that that's absolutely true, But you have to admit I didn't tell anybody I ratted you out to you. I didn't rat you out to anybody with the Clippers or anybody in the media. Yeah. And uh, and then you did Clipper talk. I remember you did that for several years and the Clippers were horrible most of that time, and you you were polishing

turds on a nightly basis of not terrible the Clippers were. Yes, the job of doing that for six or seven years when they were horrendous would be equal to what Dr Fauci has to do speaking two minutes after the President to walk a tight rope across the Grand Canyon. Yeah, it was. It was wild. And the sports arena, to give an idea for those that are young and don't remember, the l A Memorial Sports are where the Clippers played truly was the masoleneb We would be sitting there and

there would be more fans in the second half. They would let the homeless people in that part of l A come into the arena to warm up on a cool night. It was wild. It was crazy back then. They were and this is not an exaggeration for your listeners. Um, and then you would agree, the biggest crowd other than if they were playing Michael and the os or Larry

bird and and the Celtics or the Knicks. Because there's so many New York fans here aside from those three teams, you would have at most at most four thousand or under for every single home game, year after year. I remember they were playing an exhibition game against the Atlanta Hawks. This is in the like the early nineties, and I counted the crowd at the Sports Arena in the first quarter of the game, and I counted about five people.

And I think I was high on that. I think I might have counted uh several people multiple times, uh to get to get to that five number. And uh it was it was just insanity that they did that for so long at that particular arena. But uh, I gotta I gotta go back to some of the early days when we were working together at A M eleven fifty, the big sports station, and like my my favorite League Cline story, No, no, this is great. You broke the cardinal rule of talk radio. Ohay, and people listen to him.

It's absolutely I admitted it's true. So we were both doing shows on a Saturday, I think it was a Saturday morning, and that we I was doing the Ben and Dave Show. We hated it because we were doing a nighttime show on Friday, and then we had to do a remote every Saturday morning. We had to do a remote somewhere and it was a disaster. And because we were tired, we don't want to do it. You know, we would go to some like some warehouse or some you know, tire shop or whatever. But you were also

doing those remotes. You were also doing that kind of thing. And uh, I recall the day that the phones went down, the day the phones died, and the one the only line into the building working was the hotline, which is the inside number. It's it's, it's. You must protect the inside number at all costs. You can't give out the inside number. And I remember you saying, Lee, I am

not doing a show without taking phone calls. And you then proceeded to give out the hotline number your entire show because that was the only incoming call a line that you could take. It was an amazing daily and you broke the cardinal rule radio and you live to tell talk about it another day. Um. You see the one thing that you did in these remotes that you did and those Saturday shows that go way back is

that you had a partner to talk to. I did my show by myself, so I did not on a Saturday morning, and you knew what it was to get up on a Saturday because we had weekday jobs to begin with work on a Saturday. I was not going to do a monologue and talk with nobody for a con for the entire two hours of that show. So yes, I gave it out. But here's the good point. People

use that number. They called in. I had callers, and at the very end of the show, I actually said this on the air, the phone number that I've been given out, never use it again. I think you said it was like today only or something like that. Today it whatever, it was like, I was trying to erase inc not pencil. And then there's a couple of things I remember from that period of my bloviating career with you is hold it, hold it back off. Let me

tell the story about this. Okay, you and I were sitting at the sports arena, and we always sit next to each other, and as empty as we've had described it was at all times. One night during a game, so empty in the upper deck in the far corner, there was a guy and a girl sitting on the guy's lap. And Jim Hill, who is a very famous uh news reporter for thirty five years on television here and still is in Los Angeles, that knows both then and I very very well. Yeah, he grabbed my binoculars

to take a look at this. Help people what was going on during the game. Yeah, None of us, the all of all the radio row or TV row or whatever that part of the press box, none of us were watching the game. We were all fascinated by the people stooping in the upper deck at the sports arena. And uh yeah, and we only had one pair of binoculars. Remember we were passing the binoculars around across the road. We were Everyone wanted to their binoculars and uh and

there was only one pair to go around. So we're all fighting for the binoculars to see what was going on in wild and and it was a girl sitting on a guy's lap. And anybody with an imagination can understand and think and whatever you're thinking, Yes, that was what was happening. Yeah, and it was it was rather bold too, because there was nobody in the arena like they stood out. They went to the very top row

and there was no one around them. They were like they were isolated the very I guess they figured nobody would look king up there because everyone's looking at the court. But surprise, surprise, surprise, surprise. So say what they were sitting in like next to the top row in the back, and there wasn't a human being within any three sections of them? Yeah, exactly, I mean, this is no one

at those games. It was. It was insane. Why don't why don't you tell him the story when you went to the World Series in Cleveland, you in uh, you in bigsie and when you had to do a phone show, Oh yeah, we well we had gone, we had flown into Cleveland, and then we were supposed to broadcast from the Indians Ballpark and there was some kind of calamity that had taken place, some kind of snaffoo, and so we this is this. You couldn't even do this today. I guess you just have to do on your cell phone.

But we found a bank of pay phones out in suburban Ohio, not even in Cleveland, was outside of Cleveland, and we re seeded. We we I was on one pay phone and uh and he was on the other pay phone and we did the show from a bank of pay phones in in beautiful suburban Ohio. They're outside of Cleveland, and direct me if I'm wrong. It was during that World Series that you were there that it was actually at times during the day snowing. Yeah. I got very sick after that because I was the ninety

seven World Series. I was in the Marlins and the Indians and it was like eighty five degrees in Miami, and then we went to Cleveland and there were snow flurries in uh in Cleveland at that uh So some of the other stuff I remember, we used to those remotes like I talked about in the early days, and and I recall we we would have we would be so upset during the show, me and Dave that we were just pretty much bash you the entire time that you were out. Did a great job. You did a

great job of that. And then of course the term jackass became famous because of what one of the two of you did as a fake call in call. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app. Search f s R to listen live. Yeah, well, we can get

to that. But I remember you. We were doing a show from a tire shop, a tire like oil were placed and and we were just slaying Lee on the radio and you drove by the remote and I can still visualize, I have this memory years later, and the lead drove by. Are We're doing a remote rom the here and lead drives by in this big I think it was the Mercedes that I think the Mercedes then, but I had the top down to my Mercedes convertible. Yeah, yeah,

convertible with Mercedes. He drives by and he's got Lee's got pretty long arms and he extends his arm all the way up full bird, driving down the street in l A giving us the bird there and I I can still visualize, like I have that tattooed in my brain. Lee, is your arm fully extended giving me and Dave of the bird. It was wonderful. And the reason I was there is because in those days you had the show

on Saturdays before me. You were doing the remote, and I decided to stop off, do what I did, hunk the horn, give you the bird, and continue to the station to do my show, which was directly after you were done. Yeah, yeah, Oh. The other one I remember from that those remotes is and I think you were on remote this day and we were not. We were in the station and there was a problem, a glitch, and man, this is I know. I know what you're

going to say. And again, let me express to the people listening to this podcast every word that's been said before and will for the rest of this podcast with me on it then, and I are absolutely telling you the truth. So Lee does this entire heartfelt monologue. God only knows what it was about. But you were ranting and raving like a lunatic, and and you did about fifteen fifteen minutes of radio and the entire time you

were not on the air. And I remember I went up behind the engineer and I hit the button on the talk back you're on a remote, and I think I said something to the effect, h Lee, that was a wonderful monologue. That was a great monologue. Can you do it over again? Nobody heard it? And you were very of you were you were rage. You were so angry that you were furious. Yes, I remembered distinkly because

I was doing a remote. It was like, I'm gonna guess sometime in like a February or March, and you know that the salespeople that used to get these remotes and never pay us for being out there, that's for sure. They would let us know last minute, like on a Thursday, when that Saturday remote was going to be and we had to be there right well, yeah, and a Katie we were in those days. We would show up and they wouldn't know who we were there. They didn't know who why we were there, or who we who we

were there was. There was a lot of confusion. Uh So in this particular case, it was in like a February or Mar early March type period where it was about in the morning, because we were Ben and I were doing these shows before noon. I mean we were doing them like seven o'clock in the morning till eleven

or something between the two of us. And it is cold as hell, and I am outside the remote was totally outside, and I'm really cold, and I'm doing this monologue and there's like five people that are there that that are watching because they promoted the remote so well that five people showed up for the show. And you've got two people that are handling from our and as you well know, you know, sending up the equipment and monitoring,

you know, all of the meters and stuff. So there's about a total of eight people, of which I and two others are from the station and maybe at best five other people. I'm talking, I'm talking, I'm doing. And you know that we had like ten eleven minutes between certain breaks and stuff, and I go through this entire anger monologue of whatever it was about what was happening that was so stupid and not intelligent about a team or the league or whatever. And we go into a break.

As we go into the break, in my head set, I hear Ben and then says exactly what you said. He said, that was a tremendous monologue. He did. Great. You were screaming and yelling. By the way, nobody heard you because the antenna is down and nobody is getting a broadcast signal at all. We'll let you know when

it's back up. And I am outside, freezing my ass off and thinking, now I'm mad because I had just been angry for ten straight minutes of real passion, and then immediately I hear that, which now blows me into real anger about us. Yeah, it was. It was crazy in those days, you know, also some of the stories with the Clippers when you were doing the Clipper talking and even before that, when we were just going to the game's covering the Clippers in the early days for

us in the back in the nineties and whatnot. I remember, Uh, Benoit, Benjamin, the great Benoit Benjamin. Uh, this was one of the all time great stories. Uh, Benoit. You had known Benoit a little bit. He was actually at this point he wasn't in the NBA, right he was, he is on he was on hiatus. He'd been playing in overseas, right, he'd been playing overseas. And you went up to Benoit and asked him a question and it led eventually to one of the funniest, funniest moments I can recall involving

an athlete after a game. It was hilarious. Um, I remember that distinctly. It was at the sports arena, perhap ups like in ninety nine, the final year that they were there, in nine, and he was standing outside the year arena, not in the in the sports arena, but outside where people were walking that you go into your seats and I saw him. How can you miss him? He seven foot one and I hadn't been in the NBA for about a year or two and he was playing in Europe, You're correct, And I asked him he was.

He was with his wife and his wife was like five ft three, so you're looking at five ft three versus seven ft one. He said, hey, annoys, how the hell are you? Bro Now? He would never remember my name, based on the fact that I don't think he could remember anybody's name, but he recognized my face, so he knew who I was, but not by name. That I don't take that personally, because anybody Donald Sterling could be in the front of him and he would know who it was by name. So I asked him how you

been doing? Where have you been? And he told me, well, I was in Europe. I was playing in Germany. So to be nice and to keep the conversation going, I said to him, well, you must have gone in Europe to a lot of nice cities. Uh what cities did you tour and take a look in? And he says to me, oh, I went to France, Belgium. So he's giving me countries, not cities, right, And then he says to me the most astonishing thing an athlete has ever

said to me in my lifetime. And then you and I have talked to whether it's on air or whether it's just personal in a clubhouse. We've talked to hundreds and not thousands of athletes in our career correct over the years. Sure, he says to me, uh, you you know any team that needs a center? Okay, which at that moment in time, I knew Ben was nearby, but

he wasn't part of this conversation. I said, just one minute, and I ran as mad as I could to where Ben was about twenty yards away something like that, wherever he was talking to and I grabbed him and I said, come here, come here, come here. You gotta believe this. You gotta believe this. And I'm dragging you. And then you come over and I said, I want you to do me a favor. This is Ben mallor he's on

Fox Sports Radio, whatever it was at the time. I said, I want you to ask him the same question that you asked me. And he looks at you and goes, you know anybody to use the center in the NBA like you? Like you and I are his agent? Right? It was outstand there's so many but Benjamin stories. I remember the story we heard that he had he lived. I guess it was in Louisiana or he bought up. He bought. This is with his rookie money that he got up front when he was he was picked as

the first round draft for number one. He was the number one draft pick and the Clippers always had the number one draft pick and they selected Bennoit Benjamin. Yeah, I think he was like the third overall pick or somebody. But but so he bought with his rookie contract, he bought a cigarette boat, which is like, and I'm not really into boats, but apparently this is like a racing boat. But it's only designed right, what is it? It's not

designed for the ocean, right is that? Or no? No, no, it's designed for the lake races that they still may have. But we're large at the time with people with drug money and big money that we're buying these cigarette boats that were smuggling things uh into the coast of Florida or racing them in the real racing league of UH

National or International cigarette boats. They were the ones in Miami Vice that you see in that old TV show, and they cost at the time back in those days, in in the late eighties, I'm gonna say around thirty or forty dollars then, so this is a very expensive item. But now, for as Paul Harvey would say back in the day, the rest of the story, Now, why was this so unique? Why was it so amazing that Benoit Benjamin, former NBA player in that era, bought one of these

cigarette boats? What pay off? The rest of the story, Lee, Why was this a problem for Benoit? Because we're Benoit, they believe I'm saying this because it's so stupid. Right where Benoit lived in Louisiana, there was a small river of which he had a place that was off of a little stream of the river, and he wanted to

dock it in the stream. And the stream is only about three ft deep, so it was it was totally impossible for him to take that vote and navigate through the stream about a half a mile to where the river was, and the river was tiny and thin to begin with. This wasn't a Mississippi path. This was like a drip from a faucet into a glass. And he wanted a cigaret boat that costs forty dollars the race, and that was the That's the beginning of how we knew the insanity is about him. And one more thing,

and you tell it. We were at the Pond in Anaheim. It was called the Pond the Pond, and the Clippers would play six or eight regular season games. Uh, not in the sports arena, but go down to the Pond to Orange County and play regular season games. And during one of those regular season games, they were playing the Vancouver Grizzlies before they moved to Memphis, and Benoit was

the center on the Vancouver Grizzlies. And you and another buddy that was in San Diego on the air in San Diego doing sports talk that you were very friendly with. The two of you walked into the Vancouver locker room and you pick up the story. Yeah. So I was with my my, my guy, Dave Pala from San Diego, and so I had known Benoit every time he came back to l A after he left the Clippers. Uh. He was very easy to provoke. UM. And he was because all you had to do was bring up the fans,

and Benoit would just ignite. Uh. He would be in flame because he was so upset with the fans. And so I asked him because a random question was something to do with you know, you know, what do you think about the fans you know, still booing you or something like that. And Benoy then he's sitting in his locker. He starts out kind of calm at first, and he

starts answering the question. And then as he's talking, things are escalating, right, He's getting angrier and angrier, and he slowly building up and then he starts punching his hand like he wants to punch me. And uh, it's it's like I just poured lighter fluid on top of this. And he starts he goes on this rant about how you know, I'll play you anywhere, United States or Canada. He's going on this old big rant about how he's you know, he's the greatest. It was unbelievable. It was

absolutely insane. I have it on tape somewhere, but I think it's on like cassette tape because it was so long. Yes it is. And and he he said, I'll fight anybody, I'll fight you. I'll fight two fans. And he was pounding his fist into his other hand so loud that when you came out of the locker room you had that dape recorder of cassette that you had recorded him on and you gave it to me and you played

it so I could hear it. And it was only like a minute after you left that you told me you won't believe this, and I listened to it, and that's exactly what it was. It was so loud that you could hear, literally without hesitation, several times, his hand pounding, his fists, pounding into his hand. And remember he's seven ft one, so he has gigantic hands to begin with. And you hear him pounding and pounding and talking and talking I'll fight anybody, I'll fight you. And he's pounding

and pounding. It's like, oh my god, this is like a w W E WrestleMania in the locker room before they walk out. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two a m. Eastern eleven p m. Pacific. Yeah, alright, one other story then we'll we'll bring in guests on here in a second, because he's letting me just talk here, which is good because he's gonna he's gonna complain later that I'm not letting him talk. But you're my friend. You're not his friend.

You're my friendly and um. The other story with with the Clippers that I must tell, We're gonna have you on again down the line. But the other story I have to tell is when we ended up in the V I P Suites in Scottsdale hanging out on the in the owner's suite with the inflamous Donald Sterling, who has been banned for life from the from the NBA.

But this is when the Clippers were playing the Suns in the NBA playoffs and we had gone I think we were there for Game seven, right, We had traveled to Phoenix for Game seven and we were at the Clippers hotel and we ended up in the elevator with a friend of yours that I think was the equipment guy for the Clippers, and and he invited us to to go to like the luxury the owners. We we we we weren't supposed to be there, and I remember we got off. You haven't have a special card. It's

it's the access is limited. You you have to be in the elevator, but you have to have a special access card to get to that particular floor. And it was the entire floor. Donald Sterling's room was the entire floor at the upper floor of that hotel in Scottsdale, the Rich Carlton or whatever it was. It was not yes, it was the rich Carlton. It was the upper floor.

You're absolutely right, and tell everybody when the elevator door opened into the entire floor being taken by Donald Sterling, the owner, who wasn't banned by far at that point of time. You pick up the story. Oh yeah, I remember, well, the elevator opened and there was like there was like a take kind of a buffett table of food. But remember Sterling was wearing because he had like pajamason he

had like he wasn't at the beginning. He wasn't there for at first he came in a yeah he was there after, but he had pajamas and remember him having pajamas, and but we had walked out and and I remember your conversation with with Elgin Baylor, who was the GM at the time, who would end up suing Sterling, And uh, you were not holding back, you were you were throwing. They were trying to get you to calm down because they were were you were going to get them in trouble.

That's correct. What I said was and I remember you in this because when we walked into the big room there there was a table like a like Ben said, of effect, but this piffet because it's Donald Sterling, multi multimillionaire. Instead of having your normal wedding or bar Mitzva type of spread, they had caviar with crackers and champagne on ice core. They had all kinds of expensive seafood, and yeah, they a bunch of that. There's nothing I would want

to eat. I don't find any of an appetizing. But if you're very well, you want to eat all that, right, And and so I feeling the same way as Ben. I don't eat caviare. I don't want it. I didn't want these jumbo shrimps that I had to peel. I didn't want even touch it. So, sitting off to the side, there were only a small amount of people. Elgin Baylor, who was the general manager for twenty five years, was sitting with his wife, and there was some else there

from the team that was the company. I don't know who it was. And then it was the three of us that had gotten off the elevator. So there was hardly anybody in this gigantic room. So I said hello, to Elgin, who I talked to many times and it was rare, and if he remembers another story, we went to a a Jerry Delian Westwood and saw Elgin eating with his daughter one time. Remember that, I remember that, okay,

But his daughter wasn't there at the time. It was his wife and I had only seen her met her on rare occasions because she really never came to the games. So she's sitting next to Elgin, and I started talking to Elgin because we're open and free and talking. He's a great guy, and you know that he's a great human being. So I'm talking. I go, you know, all these years you've worked for the company. We're here for

Game seven and it was the second round. So the next day, whoever won that game between the Suns and the Clippers would be playing in the conference finals, which is unheard of for the Clippers. So I was talking to him about that, and I said, you know, twenty five years, you're working for the cheapest man in the history of the NBA. And that's the conversation and elegance staring at me, he's listening, and his wife's shaking her head up and down. So she's the one who is

actually acknowledging with an answer to everything I'm saying. Well, he doesn't want to commit himself for whatever reason, but he knows I'm telling the truth. And then, after about three or four minutes of this Donald Sterling cheapness of which we all knew was true, including him and his wife shaking her head, he looks at me and very calmly, in a soft voice, says, want you to say, Donald has just walked in. And then we all turned around and as Ben had said it, and I'll add one

more thing to it. Donald Sterling was wearing a bathrobe, a very very expensive bathroom with crushed velvet slip okay, and walked over to us in his normal like in his in his own mind the planet that only he lives on, and says would you care for in the champagne? Thank you? And I don't even think he recognizes anybody in this room, except perhaps Elgin, even though he's probably seen us a million times and doesn't even know that.

For the previous five years I've worked for him, broadcasting halftime and postgame shows for an hour, including doing my regular show on another station, and he's even written me letters congratulating me because he would listen to my show in his limo on the way home because he always

goes to the game sitting next to Billy Crystal. And so that story is paramount because it is so absurd, so obscene, and it's giving you the audience in this podcast to understand that a lot out of things that I have never said on radio because I would never want to do it in trust of some of the people that have told me things. And then it's the same way would never tell the certain personal stories because he did not want it to go over the year,

but he knew what was happening. You're listening to behind the curtain of OZ, the things we've been through, and we're just scratching the surface of the reality of human beings that are part of sports. Absolutely had some crazy I have some more Donald Sterling stories. I remember, we're getting to it now, but I remember being the elevator one time with him after a game and he was looking at the box score and it seemed like he

had not watched the game. He was like shocked by some of the stats he could he couldn't believe it. I'm like, you just you owned the team. You were just outside watching the game. He was like blown away by by some of the stats. But uh, well it's been Dovis entire interview has been dominated by me. But Gascon is he's hanging out. I'm doing the podcast with him, and he wants to be the Doom and Gloom guy. Right, Gascon knew the Doom and Gloom. I'm not really the

Doom and Gloom. I just don't have as an extensive relationship with Lee as you do. I will I will say bringing Leon, I was waiting for two things to happen. One, I was waiting for the apology from him after he ambushed me at your holiday party in December. And two I was waiting for him to mention the podcast because at said holiday party when I was ambushed, the first thing he said to me after he took in a deep breath, he was like, so you're just making any

money on this podcast? All right, what are you doing? And so I just wait, let me ask you. Are you getting any money you go from this podcast? Well he's been five months, four months since then, and uh, still making the same amount of money. Well, technically Ben is actually getting paid to do this podcast because his contract actually has a provision in there that allows him to make money on any kind of new media or digital money that our performances that he obviously is encountered with.

So this actually falls under the umbrella of Ben Mallory's podcast anything and everything that he does is I'm not getting paid for this. Well, you've got a salary, You have a salary, have an this is separate the podcast deals a separate deal. I gotta have a deal with Fox to do the radio show, but this is a separate deal with I Heart Media, which is not paying dividends right now. Let me tell you. Listen, Lee, I'm trying my darnest and my hardest to to help this

man out patting him. I'm trying. I know. Look, first off, since we had never met until that, we didn't want to say that you personally. We did, Lee. We we actually had a late night snack together, you, Ben and myself at Tito's off of Washington, and I remember we were going to talk until probably about two or three in the morning about the FEDS and the government and the FBI call you at your radio station. When Ben broke up the ruckis so it was an unfortunate breakup

that night. But uh, I negress because yes, we we had a long, engaging conversation one side of that Ben's holiday party. Well, I I'll say this on a personal level to you, In no way, shape or form have I ever disliked or disrespected you. You do a good job. I'm not just saying that. I actually feel that. And if there was any animosity towards you to me, it's only because you just didn't know how I talk and what I really truly am as a person. And there

is nothing nothing negative about for me to you at all. Ever, though I thought it was great because I told Ben after the holiday party was over, I said, you do realize that Lee and I taught for probably two and a half hours, And he said, on more than one occasion he looked me dead in the eye and says, are you even listening to me? Do you give a

shit about what I'm saying right now? Said yes, Leah, I'm asking you questions because I care and I want to want to know exactly what you're thinking of where you've been through so well. The stuff that I said on the side is because for the podcast people, Uh, while doing sports for all these years, I was also doing political talk on KFI, which is I Heart radio and the number one I Heart station in all of Los Angeles. No sports at all, just talking about the

government things that are going on. And I told you those private stories and I'm not going to sing on the air about the FBI, but they're all true, and so uh, you know, I try to be I'll put it to you this way, and Ben knows me a lot longer than you. There's probably twelve things in life. Music being one, sports being another. Politically, what's going on is another. There's twelve things that I am on a ten scale, a nine on, but there's ten thousand things

that I'm a one or two on. I just don't go into it because I don't that's not my forte. So what I know, I really know. But there's a lot that I don't know about other subject matters that at my state of life, age and experience, it's I had no interest in it. But what I have interest in, like Ben Ben's interests, it's centrally focused on a few things. He's very well aware and has historical value on a lot of things too. So that's who I am. I'm

not saying I'm smarter than anybody. And I've said, over the year, the dumber, our society gets smarter. I look, be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven p m. Pacifect on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Yeah. Well, and I remember Lee back in you'd always complain about the Mallard militia. You would always take cheap shots of the Mallamis. I've always tried to explain to you that

there's no i Q test. To listen to a radio show you don't, or to call into a radio show doesn't matter. And uh, and you've always been a bit of an elitist when it comes to that kind of stuff. You'd admit that. And you you'd always brag about how your calls were more intelligent than my callers and all that. I don't really care. It doesn't matter, ye, And I

understand that. Look, anybody out there, Ben knows this. I do listen even though you know the time frame is the overnight for Fox, and we have three different time zones, and are four different time zones in the United States. And I listened to him, and he Ben knows the time frame it is here, and I do listen to at least on a daily basis, or by daily basis, at least a minimum an hour of his show, uh Eddie the Voice of Reason Ben. I know all of the gimmicks and all of this stuff. I hear all

the callers, Ben knows, I know them by name. I know all about the people that are banned or don't call or finally call in. The other night, you had somebody that disappeared for like a year and a half and finally called back in and he called himself Mr Coronavirus, who remember I was very classic of okay, So you know, I listen so I get a kick out of his callers. It's also the time that it's on of it would be up that that calls in, And I am aware and and I it's not that I accept, it is

my decision to accept. I like then, I like a show. I like what he does. And unfortunately for then, he is now live every single night, five nights a week, doing alone. And I did a show alone, so I can relate to this. He's doing a show for four hours, five nights a week with unrehearsed material. This ain't television.

Where you cut tape, cut tape edit. No, this is live every single day, a different show with nothing to talk about sports and having to contrive things to make the time go quick and to keep people entertain and interesting. And then you are doing under this set of circums fance is a beyond congressional Medal of honor. Job of what you are doing. Well, all of the people that are involved in your show also well, listen, thank you.

It is crazy right now. And I know a lot of people not to suck up to you, but you haven't been in our place for a long time. And I know you were had a great career in radio and you should be on radio somewhere still today. But people randomly, I will get emails. I tell you this all the time. I got emails and people people on social media like, hey, where's Lee? I gotta I want

to hear Lee Klein. Where's Lee? And I like, I mean, I talked to him every once so while I check in with Lee once a week or so, and but you are missed, Lee. People are still trying to find you around the radio dial. Look. I appreciate those people, and you know it is what it is. I still look for anybody that cares. I work for Serious XM and I'm a program manager, so I'm still involved in

in a different type of radio. But it's okay, I mean, I'm not there's no complaints here, and again, you do a great job above and beyond the call of duty under this set of circumstances, as most anybody that's doing talk radio and sports is that is unable to get people on his guests because of the time frame you're on. It's nearly, if not impossible, to have any live guests that's part of the sports world to come on your

show based on the time it is. Well, this is it's not it's not a guest there, it's a it's just a but we do the guests. We're not really guess where you're hanging with us, Lee, You're not really guess you're hanging with us. We don't do the guest thing, but the overnight. Yeah, it's just me bloviating. So we'll put the baby to bed now, Lee, listen, thank you. Well, have you on again. And you're not a social media gright, so nobody can get ahold of you. This is the

only way people can hear you. Yes, I'll give out my email addresses I always had on the radio. Anybody new, old and different that wants to stay in contact with me or find out anything or me about you. My email address has always been clippers Man. It's within sk clippers man at yahoo dot com. All right, there you go. You can contact Lee and send and tell them old stories from back in the All right, thank you ly appreciate. Hey,

listen to two of you. Stay healthy. That's more important than anything