North Star

or not enough. We're doing this eight days a week, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, this being the Friday Podcast and for better or Worse, joined yet again by David Gascon. Yes, we will will get things out in the open pen uh social media handles right away. That's right, that's right. And by the way, this uh Father's Day weekend Guesston And if you want a cameo, I am on cameo. You can check me out. Just type my name Ben Mallor and their personalized video message if you want, I'm

the cheapest guy available. Among the guys from Fox Sports Radio that are on there, Clay Travis and Rob Parker and some the other guys. But I'm on there, so it's not free. But if you want to want to take part in that cameo dot com the c A M e O and then just type my name in and obviously on Twitter at Ben Maller, Instagram, Ben Maller

on Fox, the Facebook page Ben Maller Show. We use the Facebook page to get a lot of questions for the mail bag that we do on Sunday, and you can also email us if you don't have Facebook or Twitter or Instagram. Your old school a real fifth hour at gmail dot com and guesst on how can the Masses reach you? You can get me on Twitter at David J. Gascon. You can get me on Instagram at Dave Gascon, and you can also follow me and question message on cameo. Um No, you're not a big enough

name to be on you can't be on cameo. That's a big platform. I'm a part of a national platform, so I get to bleed on over there, and uh, writing my coat tails to cameo, writing my coat tails to cameo? How dare you you know? I think everybody else has done that. That you've worked with your producers certainly have your board ops that have gone on to other shows have done that apparently. Um so I'm doing

that too. And the nice thing is my retail price is now the cheapest of anybody at Fox Sports Radio. So it's cheaper than yours. It's well, how much is it? It's a little bit more economical, I'll say that, But the message is just as good and the face is much better looking. So I won't do any Father's Day messages. Actually I will, but I'm more inclined to do a

Mother's Day. You know, it would be funny if somebody contacted gag On over here and said, hey, can you can you say David gag On and have you just say that rapid fire? And then they paid you so you'd have to do it. Yeah, to think that choice, I think I'd rather fly out to New York and or some shake shack and identify as a cop. It's like drink some bleach that It's it's funny because, uh, you know the cameo. My my friend in Baltimore does radio.

Some guy sent him a cameo and told him to like say fuck you and you're an asshole, and you know you guys trying to bust his friends balls and my buddies like debating. Uh, He's like should I do it? Should I not do it? And he did it. He absolute he paid me the money. I'm gonna I'm gonna go down that road. I'm gonna do that. Um So, so yeah, you can really bust guests guns balls. And the cool thing about that is if the audio is good,

we can use that as drops. We can use those soundbutch which you do not want guests gun as drops on the on the show. So that's that's cool. But would that'd be awesome because I would take any kind of compensation and for my work actually been delivered here on air. Wow, man, I think that would be important, right, King narcissist Will and the narcissist. But I think I appreciate the the invite, the welcoming, the cameo. So I kind of piggyback off of of your your promo intro

um a couple other people. So we'll see how this thing turned it out. Yeah, it's fun, it's fun. I don't do a lot of them, and I don't I keep saying I'm gonna put it on social media, and I don't. The only way I really promote this is on the podcast. The only people that really know about this are the people listen to podcast, which is the p Onees, the King of the Kings that are big fans of the show. So dnyway, this is an interview podcast or hanging with friends podcasts. I love talking to

my radio friends. I love radio people. We've had hacks on he was great. One of my mentors from San Diego, Jerry Callahan a colleague briefly e I, and he got canceled. He was on last week. Jerry was wonderful. That's right. Lee Klein was another one. I gotta go through my phone here and find some more old radio people. We found one today and this is a colleague of ours

at Fox Sports Radio. He hosted our morning show prior to to Clay Travis taking over the morning show was Mike North and Andy Furman, and I love the hell out of these guys, a couple of radio legends. Andy Ferman dominant in the Cincinnati market. Mike North at one point was the highest paid sports talk radio personality in the entire industry, not just in Chicago, the entire country.

Mike North was the king of sports talk radio. Back in the early two thousand's, late nineties, he had a morning show in Chicago, and he is we have doc Mike. In fact, I think I I will probably reference Dock at some point because I hear Mike North. He bleeds Chicago, right, He's he's through and through. If you don't know his story, most of us do. But if you're you're new to Mike North. He started out as a hot dog vendor

in Chicago. He had hot dog stands and then he ended up he'll he'll, I'm sure we'll get into it and he'll tell the story here, but he ended up becoming this megastar and media and how that all transpired from you know, street smart hot dog vendor to the king of sports talk radio. It's a wild, wild tale of success. And Mike's lived through a lot of stuff. He's older than us, so he's experienced some craziness before we were around, and so we can get into that

as well. So let's give it up here for Mike North, a long time sports radio legend who joins us now on the fifth Hour with Ben Maller and David Gascon and so, Mike, it's been a while since we've caught up here and where are you at With the state of the world right now? We are living through some craziness. Wow. You know what. First of all, it's good to talk to both you guys again. Love you. Uh. I've been working at ESPN. I worked at ESPN one thousand on Friday,

and we have the Encore show on Saturday. It's uh called the Odds Couple of Common de Falco. I also have an interest in website called Bears battle Room that I helped promote with a great guy, Aldo Gandhi and who krul people and uh. I was basically making picks for Vegas scores and odds. But that's been closed down for now and see, we'll see until we see what happens with this. Plus, I I moved out of Chicago.

I moved about seventy miles west. I'm living in a nice little community called Huntley, Illinois, me and my wife and uh, just enjoying myself. To be honest with you, See, I'm a little older now. So if this is what this quarantine would happened to me when I was in my thirties or forties, that would have been hell to pay. But being my age. Now. You know, I I belonged

to the golf club out here. I played golf a couple of times a week, and I say home and watch television or look at or play with Twitter, look at what you guys are up to and see what's going on. Yeah, and and Mike, I mean it is wild. I mean, you've been through a lot of crazy things in your career doing radio and stuff. But the last the last hundred days here with everything shutting down, you know, on the planet mostly and obviously in our world sports.

I mean, what do you make of what's been going on here the last couple of months. I feel for you guys. Number one, See, they took my show off for about nine weeks at ESPN, and because there was no gambling, there was no games. And then they said there's gonna They must have gotten word. They brought us back May twenty second. Um, But I gotta be honest. I only do it once or twice a week, and I remember back and nothing's changed. You know, we used to call the days of like June July. You know,

the dregs are January and February. There's always a couple of slow months in sports radio. You guys have had uh your basic I mean lifeblood taken from you. And we've all done a good job. I think all the stations have adjusted. I know, some stations like Fox. We of course, I did radio from Chicago for Fox here for six years. Uh and we set up our own little studio. But you know, a lot of stations around the country still had their people coming in and it

took some time to uh adjust. But now it seems like everybody's uh, you know, trying to get a rhythm gone. But I feel for you guys, because basically every day is like a grounddog day. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Miller Show week days at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Yeah, and the odd thing, Mike and you did a great job. I loved you and in Fermint together. You guys were great. You made me laugh every ing. Yeah, we had a lot of fund.

It was a great show at Jonas you know, and it was Robert grierro was a great show. We had a lot of fun doing it. But we ran, you know, ran it's course, but yeah, it was a lot of fun. Yeah, but the weird thing about what's going on right now for us? And you know they give us the the online streaming numbers and all that stuff. Like Fox Sports Radio has had the high some of the highest ratings in the twenty year history of the network when there's been no sports going on. Like how that makes no

sense to me? Why why would someone listen to a sports ratios? Very odd? I mean, is there do you have any theory on why that would be true? If it is true? It seems like it's true. It seems odd too. Well, I know that streaming is the big thing right now. I mean that's what they're going on because a lot of the cars aren't in use. I mean, let's say so that the first month guys you're on the air, well this quarantine or the first two months, a lot of people weren't in their cars, so you

know they're holding onto streaming. Uh, it seems to me that people are tuning in. I don't know exactly how the ratings are. It doesn't hurt. And I remember when me and Angldy were doing mornings, we were an on I think you guys are on serious now, right? Are you on serious? We're serious? Yes? Well, we were there was no at that time, we were non serious. So

Dad helps two guys, I mean, Benny. It opened up a whole new thing that people, a whole new audience for you for your overnight shoe and David and everybody else. So I think that's helped. But you know, I'm a radio guy, and you know what, streaming is very, very important. But I've been hearing radio was gonna die for the last twenty years. The money still in radio, and uh, I think that's that's always going to be that way.

It's just more fragmented now. I think that the national radio stations and Serious next M have done a great job, and I think they've sort of hedged out the local radio markets if you will. UM what local radio used to be the boss. Now you know, it's up for grabs. It used to be in Chicago, syndicated radio didn't work at all, and uh now it works a little bit more than it used to. Uh. I think politically correctness

has hurt a lot of radio. And I think that basically all the stations Serious and and and x UM that really hurt the local radio market because there's so many great shows on those stations. My piggybacking off of that, and you mentioned the PC world. I told this to Ben a couple of different times off the air, but you know, I had never listened to Ben prior to during the network, just because hours and time slots are

completely different. And then when I got to the network and I started working the overnights and I started working in the morning shows. You know Jonas Knox, who was your producer of the time, he would tell me some wild stories because I didn't know who the funk you were. I don't know who Andy was because you guys in Chicago. But Jonas would tell me some of the best stories off the air about you guys. And then I started listening and I'm saying, who the funk are these guys?

And so it grew on me like it grew on him. But to be candid with how you are on the radio, and this is the personal question, because we had Callahan on last week with with Ben because they worked together W E E I, and he talked about some of the struggles about I remember Jerry. Yeah, absolutely so with the way that his show was derailed by by somebody, do you think personally, like you mentioned your thirties or forties. If you were on the air religiously like like you

were with Fox, do you think you'd survive in today's climate. Well, I made a twenty eight years, which is amazing, but you're you know, in the nineties and two thousand's nobody and I mean nobody when it came to sports radio. UM used the street talk like I did, used the branshness, used certain words that you can't even use now. Um. And you know when I would find out you can't use the words, when the media guy would write about it into sometimes or in the tribune, and then everybody

would get online, you know. But I mean I did stuff that you know, Uh how the Black Day, I remember our station was not doing any remote or anything in the black areas of town and it bothered me, and uh, I wanted to show my appreciation. So what we did was we set up soul food outside of the station and I had a salute the blacks, our black listeners, and it was called Hug a Black Day, And we had a line all the way down the street.

And what would happen is they come up, I give him a hug, say hey, man, it's good to see you, and man Jesse Jackson got on me. Operation purch got on me, said I was patronizing, which I wasn't. And then they started realizing this we could use that type of hugging right now. And I realized twenty years ago, did you want to see that? It bothered them? And they tried to put out you know, and our station didn't see anything wrong with it. But even back then, uh,

they you know, you'd face stuff I had. I know, I fund I raised a hundred thousand packs of cigarettes for the soldiers in Iraq, right and I did a remote from a restaurant called Jack's off of the Expressway on the north side of Chicago, and we had a dumpster set up and at the time, the the soldiers in Iraq weren't getting a lot of supplies and they were running short of cigarettes. So we had people drive by. We had a big sign drop cigarettes or carton's packs everything.

The dumpster was loaded a hundred thousand packs of cigarettes sent to Iraq. You want to know, the American Cancer Society came after me, the American Cancer Society, because they said I was encouraging smoking of the soldiers. I go, these people might be dead tomorrow and it just that's the way it was, so I faced a lot of stuff back then. You just had to be willing to try things. And I think nowadays people aren't willing to try things. They really aren't. And I think that now

it's just come to work. Do the best you can. Make sure you don't say something that might get you in trouble, even though it shouldn't get you in trouble. You've got to try to be your own filter. I always had a saying, if you're gonna think before you talk, you're in trouble. And I'm starting to see that with some people. They're thinking before they talk. And I think that's the way to be employed for a long period of tent but it's not a way to stand out

and make a lot of money. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Miller Show week days at two a m. Eastern eleven p m. Pacific. Well, yeah, I mean, and and this is something that I've been dealing with here. People are right now, Mike, And I'm sure it was somewhat the same then, but it seems like it's it's been cranked up here. People are are triggered by everything like that was the most benign things, and oh, I'm offended by that. And then like I'm

trying to figure this out. You've been around longer than me, But like, why are we supposed to bow down you? Just because you're offended by something does not make it wrong. You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying. It seems like we've gone so far. The pendulum has swung so far in the other direction. So I'm gonna ask you, the wise man of sports radio, a forefather, allegend, Mike North, how can we get back closer to what it used to be than what it is right now

where we've we've gone too far the other direction. You gotta have bosses that are willing to fight for you. When I started it in radio, I had a guy named Danny Lee and another guy named Seth Mason. And these guys had our backs. And that's why we were successful. Through those two things I described to you, they had my back and and other things they had my back, they had the other guy's backs, and better hirings um

start developing more talent from within. But the main thing is if you think that if you say something, you're not going to get backed up by your bosses, then you're gonna have a problem because it's always easy for the boss to say I didn't hear this or what happened here, and maybe you shouldn't have said this. I never used to hear that. You know, we were making money, we were kicking us in the ratings. I was ultly successful because I had bosses that said, this is working,

people like it, and we're gonna stick with it. And we were not politically correct. But it's two thousand twenty now and I'm seeing stuff, believe me, guys, that I thought i'd never see in my lifetime. I mean, nonsense and people, you know, just just right now, between the rioting, the protesting and the COVID everybody seems to have lost their mind a little bit, and everybody's got to take a step back. Yeah, you were mentioning some of the some of the bits you guys did back in the day,

and you mentioned Jesse Jackson. You're friends with Jesse, right, You became friends with him in over the years and guys have had a good relationship. What's that been, like, what's have you talking? I'll tell you what happened. He comes to the comes to the studio because because my program director rank Leason says to me, Jesse Jackson's coming. He wants to meet you. He wants to talk to you about this this situation. I said, Hella put him on the air him sit in with me. So they

called him. He sat in with me for about an hour and uh afterwards we uh had a little lunch and uh, all of a sudden, we started talking. He went to Illinois. He was a quarterback at the University of Illinois, third stringer back in the day, and we started talking about football and he's a sports fan. And the next thing you know, I'm at meeting him at restaurant two weeks later for for dinner and we became sort of friends. And then I met his family and

Stuffy and UH it was really crazy. And what's cool is about the or any Bank statue that's outside of Wrigley Field. Jesse Jackson calls me and he says, I think my that, Uh I want to get a statue for Banks And I said, yeah, okay, cool, I go. He goes. But I went to the Tribune board meeting who loved the team at the time, and they weren't paying any attention to it. So I need your help. I go, what do you need? He goes, well, you

need to get me out. We need to promote it in any banks a statue And I said, okay, but if you if we get this statue built, you better give me credit. You better not screw me. I'll never do anything with you again. I swear to again. I'm talking to one of the prominent civil rights guys of our of our time. Like that, right, But that's how the kind of thing we had and what happened was we I got ahold of John McDonough who has done the cups pr guy and him Jesse myself. Uh, I

had Jesse on the radio. It gained steam and the next thing, you know, Ernie got his statue. He gave me credit, Ernie did Jesse and it all worked out and there's a statue on the corner. So that's all. Good of friends we were. And I still am friends with the guy now, you know. So it was it was crazy. He goes, you know, when I first met him, I said, I gotta be honest with you. You know,

you're not a family favorite. You know. I grew up on the North side of Chicago, a lot of Poles and Germans, it was mixed, the standings, the whole thing. He goes. I understand that, man, he goes, but a lot of it's missions blah blah blah blah. So that's it. That's the kind of friendship we have. Mike. How does this how does this year compared to the sixties? What's

what's worse based on your experience? Oh, this is worse because you know what, I was a businessman for I had three hot dog stands um back in the seven l seventies, eighties, and early nineties, and I got mean, I can't imagine now having those three stands with everything closed up. But also there was nobody protecting their businesses.

Everything was closed, nobody was on the street. And so between the COVID and then the rioting and then I mean, to be honest, to see two police stations burned down, I thought I'd never seen that in my lifetime. So I think there's two thousand twenties probably um overall for this country worse than than the sixties. And the sixties weren't a picnic. Sixt sixty nine was not a picnic. It was bad too, um, but but not not like this, Not like this. I think social media has played such

a huge role in anything that's happening now. If you want to have a gathering and they can take minutes back, then you a word, you had to work if you were going to do some writing, or if you're gonna do some protesting, or if I remember when Martin Luther King came to down it was absolutely brutal. I mean, there was nothing but trouble. So uh, it was trouble back then. But this is like the combination of COVID people who forty million people losing their jobs and rioting.

It's just been crazy. So you mentioned the social media aspect. Do you like the way that athletes today are using their social media platforms for social injustice activism, things of that nature outside of their scope as a professional athlete was football, baseball, basketball, or hockey? Well, I I do know what we all do a little of it. I do a little of it. But I was in politics for fifty years. I worked for the first Mayor Daily. I mean I worked for a legend. I was a

precinct captain. I was a sixteen year old precinct captain. I worked for the City of Chicago. When I dropped out of high school, seventeen, the eighteen ninety until I got drafted into service. But yeah, you know what I mean, I'll tell you what's really getting old. And this is the truth. I don't know how you guys feel about the Kaepernick stuff. It's getting old. He's four years out of the league. I mean, are we gonna be seeing

in two thousand twenty eight? Kaepernick deserves a shot. I made you all bring back la Damian Thomas and bring back get a whole new bad field out there in lor Rangelo. But but you know, he seems the bad one there is getting old to me, and and people forget. I had nothing against him Neeland. I'm a veteran. I almost went to Vietnam, Nix and throws the orders. I didn't have a problem with him. Kneeland, I've been I've

been seeing people sitting there in the national anthem. In the sixties, I used to go to the Bulls games and I see people sitting there in the national anthem. Didn't bother me, absolutely, but I understood that they knew they had to write. The thing I didn't like is when he had the pigs with the police on his sox. That's that's when he went over because I was a military policeman. I like law in the order. I'm not perfect. I'd not say I've been arrested in my time. The

cops didn't treat me like a little either. I mean they treated me, you know, you know, pretty rough, and you know what, that's the way it goes. But uh, yeah, that's the one thing I didn't like it. I think the Kaepernick thing is getting old because any other quarterback that was four years out of the league that said I want to come back, people with snear it. Well and Doc, it's not you know, we were talking about Kaefrinck.

I'm tired of I'm worn out talking about Kaepernick. It's come back during the well he had an opportunity to People aren't even bringing this up. Oh and then Goodell says he's got to you know, anybody want to sign him? And and basically all I'm saying is, didn't we go through this last year? Didn't he have a trial and then he moved it? And it seems like everybody's leaving their tired out. And I had a guy that's very

passionate about Kaepernick. He's a restaurant owner. Uh, and he says to me, Uh, you know, Kaepernick, I thinks getting the law deal. I said, why, I said, I said the guy basically, you know, it is entitled to his opinion, but it was in the workplace it hurts the league. You think it hurts the league that much? I go, yell the radies, we're done and stuff like that. He said, I don't know. I go, well, why don't you hire messure major d And his mouth is still open. Okay,

so it's easy to talk. But but here's what you're doing. Your bring if they do the deal and stuff again, which like I said, I don't have a problem with I know millions of people do. But if they bring that up again, they're gonna have the same issues. There's gonna be a problem, and it just seems like we're gonna be living this whole thing all over again. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller Show

week days at two a m. Eastern eleven p m. Pacific. Yeah, and you bring up that's a great point, Mike, because I've been saying the same thing in the middle of the night here that there's a lot of the media, the the you know, the left wing media. It seemed to think that it's gonna be different now that people have changed and they're okay and they're not gonna be upset when the entire Houston Texans team takes a knee prior to a game with the Tennessee Titans. You know what,

I believe it's still it's still split. I don't know if it's fifty fifty or it's all sixty, but it's it's not. It's gonna be brutal. They got Kyler Murray saying, I'm gonna kneel. You know, you're just getting started and you want to put that type of feet on you. Did they forget what happened the last time? I mean, it wasn't pretty. I mean there was split front teams that we don't even know about. I was at the game with the Steelers where we're the one guy the

lineman ran out. He says, I'm a ranger. I'm a I was, I'm a veteran. So I mean, why do they want to dredge all this up again? And why do they under any other circumstances. Name me another quarterback that would be out four years who really started out good in his career and made it. I mean, you know, That's the one thing I think a lot of the sports media is missing telling the background story about Kaepernick and bringing up I mean, I don't know if you

guys have talked about it. He had an opportunity last year and he used everybody. Yeah, and I just don't understand why that's being left out. It's like nobody's given him a chance in four years. That's a bunch of ps. Well and no, not only that, Mike, just to follow up on the Kaepernet thing, I mean, when he started protesting, he sat on the bench, he was sulking because Blaine Gabbard had beat him out, and that part that probably the story. That part of the story does not get told.

They don't tell that part of the story because that's not sexy. People don't like to hear it. But at this point, what I have learned here, Mike, is that Kaepernick is no longer a football player. He's a demigod, he's a similar He's no, it's not about football, and what's gonna happen if Kaepernick got a job, and it would be good for guys like us who talked about boards, because it would be crazy to talk about not that

I said he should. But if he got a job, can you imagine if the coach didn't talk to him the right way or he you know, he had he had a bad practice and he went on Twitter and said something the kind of hell that that team is gonna have because of the power that Kaepernick now hasn't to be insane if that would have happened, I I just think, you know, and Anthony Lynn, I mean, the coach of the Charger said, you know where he should be taking. People should take a look at him. Will

you been for the last Cup? Why aren't you pick him up last year? Well, well we'll wait a minute. All of a sudden, now Kaepernick's a story again. I just don't get it. I think if you're people that are thrown to kaeper Nick game in, I mean especially sports people, I mean, how can you call yourself on air guys or writers when you know the game of football, if you're away from it for more than two years

for whatever reason, you ain't worth a damn. I mean, do we really think if he came back tomorrow that he's gonna be any good? I don't know. Maybe he will be, but I saw a guy that was diminishing by the time he left the National Football League and he's still he's still the stain on the shirt guys that even Tide can't get out. He shows up in the National Football League half of the I'm serious half of the populous way. That's the that's you make your bed,

you lie in it. That's just the way it is. Absolutely, And Mike, speaking of football, you're you're Mr Chicago Right, We've got to talk about the Bears a little bit there, Mitch Trobiskie. Is is he dead man walking at quarterback for the Bears, Mike, because he uh, it certainly seems like it from the outside that he's not gonna be around if he plays like crap again this year. Is

is that reality that you here around Chicago? Well, the reality is every sportswriter or every you know, first of all, the Bear media is a Chicago's and you know, most of the media in Chicago is and most of the media right now is on the Falls bandwagon, which makes me comfortable because they were all on the Coupler bandwagon for eight years and I didn't want him from day one. I do know this about the most of our media people.

They couldn't pick the quarterback if they had to. So they're on the bandwagon of a quarterback whose last game he had three interceptions through for ninety seven yards and was benched for the second time, the first time for injury. But then miss you started rolling. He could have come back a little earlier, but then he did come back. He was bent in the mean time. And Denny, this will be good for your rovernight stuff. This is exclusive, well not really. I saw it on Twitter, but that's

beside the band um. He Trabiski's working out with cold commeet the tight end, the new tight end, Allen Robinson, David Monk, all the skill position players, they're all working out together. Foals isn't working out. So let me ask you guys. See, I think it's Rabisky's job to lose, and I don't think you'll lose it. And I think he's still got the two guys that drafted a Ryan Pace and Naggie, But they brought in Foals because if he does struggle like he did last year, they will

bring in the relief pitcher. That's my way of thinking. I think it's Trabiski's job, while most of the media maybe se think it's gonna be false job, and by the way they go and ball fans are so funny. Although pay and Folls twenty million dollars for two years, that's chicken feed, that's chicken feed, that's nothing. That's back up money. So I think he's gonna back up. I'm gonna call Drabinsky starts the first game unless there's an injury.

Do you think Naggy survives this season though? I think that's the one question I have because when you're stuck with two quarterbacks that neither a caliber, do you think he survives the year or do you think they're quick to pull the trigger on him. Well, we gotta see what happens. But I think Trabisky is gonna have a good year. I think what they got to do though, I mean, they traded Jordan Howard for no reason. They got a running back named David Montgomery who was not

that good. Uh, their offensive line is suspect. I mean last year was not just the Bisky s Flaut each seemed to be the scapegoat. I thought the play calling by Naggie was not good. I thought he had a subtire year, But the year before they made the playoffs. So I think Trebiski has been working out of summer. He's been working out in the northern suburbs out here in Buffalo growth. And uh, I think they're gonna have a decent year. The over unders eight and a half.

I hear a lot of people like the under So you know, their defense. They picked up Robert Quinn, which is huge because now it's gonna be tougher to just concentrate on Khalil Matt. It was a huge pick up. They bolstered the defense a little bit, so we'll see what happens. They were the ninth ranked defense last year. But the thing that was trouble about the defense was they'd give up like sixty seventy yard drives in the fourth quarter, and uh, you know that that ended up

losing them a couple of football games. Yeah, so I'm I'm with you, Mike in the standpoint, if the Bears really wanted to replace Trabisky, they would have gotten somebody better than Nick Foles. I. Nick Foles sucks. I I agree with you had that one out of body experience with the Eagles in the playoffs. But the body of work outside of Philadelphia Foles has been been pretty That's a great point, Benny. He's never played a full season, Number one, number two. Philadelphia was built for him, huge

offensive line, decent skill position players. But with the Bears, it's a whole different story. You better have foot speed, which Trabisky has. I want Trabisky to take more chances this year, run a little bit more, but with you don't have foot speed. To me, Nick Foles is a great relief picture. He's never played a full season. He and here's another thing we got to get off the Philadelphia thing. He has been an unmitigated disaster, one of

the worst free agents in history. Four years eighty eight million at Jacksonville blew up in their face. I wonder, now, were you in your heyday and when you were dominating the airwaves of Chicago? Sammy Sosa? Sammy Sosa was dominating for the Cubs, and now there's this controverse. I'm sure you've seen it the last couple of years, but really it flared up the last couple of weeks with the

documentary Should the Cubs allow Sammy Sosa back? What's the real story there, Mike, What's really going on between Sosa and the Cubs. What are you hearing well? The Cubs. Let Salsa run the show. I mean when he was there, I lived this, and I was at the ballpark plenty, But uh, he got nose to nose with carry wood. Carry Wood smashed his boom box. He'd play his music loud,

Him and Joe Girardi. When added Sammy Solsa went from a hundred seventy pound guy that I knew what the clubs back in two to a guy I didn't even recognize at the end, a guy nobody ever got more out of steroids outside of Lance Armstrong than Sammy Salsa. Nobody Bonds was already an All Star even before he did it. Clemens was an All Star even before he did Sammy Salsa before Ken homers fifteen homers, eight homers, and all of a sudden he got bigger and bigger.

And don't forget he had the court bad incident where the super Boss flew up. He had actual friends dressed up in cub uniforms and shag fly balls before games in batty practice. So he was a mess. The team was a mess. I know that people want to bring him back. I don't like the fact that they. I don't understand the glorifying of meeters in baseball, and McGuire is Solsa to me didn't bring back good memories. I

knew it was a joke when it was happening. Soa it sits the home one three times, somebody said, well yeah, but you know, I go, wait, the numbers are indicting. That's when indicted Sammy. He had no business hitting forty homers in his career, but he got I've never seen a guy get beefed up like him ever, and I mean it, Mike. The only other guy that comes to my mind, and you mentioned or how he was prior to being on the juice is probably David Ortiz, right.

I mean he was in Minnesota, he had a lowly average, didn't hit for power, and then all of a sudden he makes his way to Boston and the guy can't be struck out. Well, you know what he didn't But you know what he didn't do date he didn't break records. He helped them win Tennant's World Series. And regardless of what we think he did, the bottom line is the guys that are facing the brunt Our bonds because he broke Aaron's record, Sosa because well, really they made a

mockery of the numbers. And uh, I remember Clemments. I I said, back in the day, I think pictures were doing it. They go, well, why do you think pictures are doing I go, well, if if if I hither can hit farther, why can't a picture throw harder? And I remember interviewing interviewing Ron Schuler, who was the GM of the White Sox, and I had asked him, why didn't you guys go after Clemmens. You let him go

to Toronto. He goes, well, he's damaged goods until we found out later that he's doing what he was doing. And then he didn't become damage Goods anymore than he had a whole new second career. Yeah, he goes to people forget this. I mean he was he was basically done with baseball. He had no zip on a fastball and his sinker, and then all of a sudden, he goes to Toronto and goes back to back on Cy Young's and that was that was a problem. And then

he goes to Houston. This is the best. And I knew a guy on the club's ground crew and he says, you know this, Clemments, Mike, he's got this cream that he keeps rubbing on his arm in between the He's like, what are you talking about. Well, the ground crew guys used to go in the dugout, especially during rain delays, and you know they'd sit there with some of the players, and the players would be in the clubhouse, but Clemmens would rub this white, creamy substance on his arm after

every inning. And the outside of it was a white too, but it was the tape they had tape over whatever the printing was on it. Well, I just put two and two together. He was putting creatina and or doing something like that, and and and then lo and behold. Years later we see him testifying before Congress, him and Paal Meryl wagging their fingers. I guess the one thing, though, Mike is a is you talking about the players that

should be getting into the Hall of Fame. But you look at bud Sea Lee, and you look at the owners. They're the biggest They're the biggest implication with all this, because I don't want to say they condone it, but they did turn an eye to it, and they ripped the rewards of it. The gates sales were up, the marketing was don't know what we were supposed to do. I mean, you know what, I didn't know what they were supposed to do. They didn't have testing in place.

They were all disorganized this and came out of nowhere. I will say, I thought Seela tried to do stuff, but the media did too. You saw that they treated these two guys like they were doing this legitimate on on on on the documentary, everybody turned the blind eye. It wasn't just see like it just it wasn't just the owners, it was it was the media, it was it was the ownership, it was the players, it was everybody.

And then when you hear Sammy Salsa say, well everybody was doing it back then, well that's not too good to hear. It really isn't. And and then when you see that, you know a guy like Frank Thomas, I mean, my my favorite thing is Frank Thomas. Where's the guy? He never did it and there's no reason to believe he did. And think Giobby got the m v P that your Frank should have got up in Giobbi, I mean, Giobby was. I'll never forget. It was like forty degrees at at at White Sox Park and Giommy was so

riddled with steroids. He was sweating like it was ninety degrees, but he was at the play and it was just he was so big. So all these guys just turned into different type of people, and that just, uh, it's it's screwed up baseball. The records are really I mean, I still used the old records. I still followed Maris's record, I still follow Errands. I don't regard the bonds as record or soulsice, I really don't. 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. What happens when you have people that make the argument, Hey, back in the day, these guys were taking greenies and they're taking other supplements that people may not be taken these days, but they were taking them back in the day and then in abolished by Major League Baseball. So where's the stance on that for you.

I don't think greedies makes you hit the ball thousands on. Pete Rose told me he took greedies all the time. They used to have him in the ball on the on the on the picnic table in the clubhouse. Yeah, but and and it did. They would party all night.

They would be dragging, especially for day games. I mean, you come into Chicago and you're playing all day games after you, you know, just played the three night games at St. Louis and now you're party in at night in Chicago, and you used to take the greenies to me. You know, the steroid thing is the thing that really has dragged the game. I never heard anybody say this

game sucks because the players around greedies. I guess the pushback though, for me would be this is that greenies are one thing, but that helps out with with where you're at in terms of alertness and recovery. And that's what Andy Pettitt had mentioned when he got popped because he was using h g H. You don't take the h g H to get bigger and stronger and faster, but you take it to recover. And as you know, availability is a lot of times better than just you know,

ability alone. And so when you're able to play nine percent of the time or percent of the time as opposed to having to take you know, once every four days off because you're laboring, you're lingered you're you're hurt and you're banged up. I think that does a lot. So you're talking about guys that come rolling on in because of a bad hangover or the flu or whatever it maybe, and you're popping something anything that gets you back in the diamond, you're gonna be. You're drinking coffee,

Cossie's got. I mean, I drink four Starbucks a day. I feel like could get again. After my fourth one, I want to go run around the block. I mean, you know, you know what I'm saying. So, I mean, there are artificial stimulants you are going to take, but when you're knowing the injecting stuff in you that you know. I mean, I looked at those home those guys, I don't know if you know. I mean, they weren't even swinging hard. Mccryon wasn't even swinging hard the balls going

out on the street. Solsa too, I mean, and I will say this it the Sammy Sulsa had one of the greatest motors. I never saw a guy play harder. But why was he able to play harder? Why was he able to maybe do things other guys couldn't do because he had an advantage It's sort of like if you play seven cards, stud you give me ten cards and you only get to have seven and I beat you every time. Am I going to the card playing Hall of Fame? No? I cheated, But but that did.

That's basically what I equated to. I just think that it was wrong. They have an edge, and I don't know how many players did it, but to hear Sammy Sulsa say everybody was doing it at the time was not a good look. Well, and I remember Mike with the Dodgers, Mike Piazzo. I go out and watch batting practice and he would hit balls out of Dodger state

him over the pavilion during batting PROCs right regularly. And but that brings up an interesting thing here, because if you look at the Hall of Fame, and I was just like you, Mike, I was like, these guys, ban them all. Nobody should get in the Hall of Fame, not you know, Bonds McGuire, so so Clem as any of these guys. But they've already let guys in like Jeff Bagwell, Mike Piazza, Ped Rodriguez, who many believed did steroids and were productive because in large part of steroids.

So how do you decide, I mean, this is my argument. If you're gonna let those guys in, then you have to let the other guys in. How do you how do you decide who gets in who doesn't get in when you already let some steroid users in the Hall of Fame. Well, first of all, those those guys once again, Danny, and I know what you're saying. They didn't really break any records, but I know they we feel they did performance enhancers. I mean, I saw Pudge Rodriguez lose thirty

five pounds over the winter get out. I mean, you know, you see these guys now, I still five bears walking around. I mean, Kurt Becker was a two somebody found Lineman now he's one eighty yet all uh, they've even told me they did the steroids. Uh, but but I think it was the records. It's crazy. If Bonds hit six, look at a Rod. A Rod's got six hundred and nine homers, right or something like that. I don't know, and and I don't know if he's ever going to get and I don't think he will because of the

suspension and everything else. I know that people will campaign hard for him. And uh, you know, we could talk another day about him being allowed on the baseball team. That's crazy. I mean, it just seems like the guys that aren't doing don't do the right things get rewarded. But I don't. I think it was the breaking of the records guys, And I think it was the ridiculousness of Soulsa's numbers and bonds break and Aaron's record and the arrogance at the congressional hearings with McGuire. Um. I

I just think that you're right. There is probably a two tier system where some guys snuck in and Piazza might be one of them. There's no doubt about it. Then he was. I used to hang with Tommy Withsorder when he was in Chicago, and they picked him. I don't know, at the bottom of the barrel. Nobody gave him a chance and Tommy was his godfather, and the next thing you know, he was in All Star Games. Yeah, it's it's it's crazy. Hey, I heard a rumor about you.

I want you to confirm it, and I I don't know how much you can say or not, but I heard a rumor in the hallways at Fox Sports Radio that there's some kind of movie project about you. Is that is that accurate? That just really there was a movie project that called raginge Mouth. But to be honest with you, because of his COVID everything's been shut down.

We were on a roll and I wanted to get We were in pre production at the time, and it's called Ragie Mouth, and uh, we're currently doing some rewriting of the script. You know, movies don't happen in a year or two. Uh, but we were on schedule. I just got the script back from Adam Rifkin, who's the director, and Jeremy Morrison, who's a screenwriter. I looked at it. We're making some changes, but yeah, that's in the works.

When it's gonna happen now, I have no idea. I really don't because this whole COVID thing has closed everything down. But that is what that rumor is correct. So who's gonna play you? That's awesome, your life story is gonna be Who's gonna play in the movie? Who do you want to play? As well? I have a guy in mind if it's if it's a movie where it's not gonna be there's there's big budget guys that I want, and there's small budget. Ike Baron Holts, who uh is

a great actor. He's from Chicago and he was a listener of mine. Uh. He was in Snatch with Goldie Horn. I don't know if you guys have seen it, and Namy schumer Um, but he was in that as he played the son. And Uh. Also my my wish list is justin Timberlake to play me in a big budget, will be with his wife to play my wife, Phoebe Jessica Bill. But uh, we have a lot of people in the pot that we're stirring around, and the first thing we gotta do is to have a good script.

And once you get the script, then you start chopping it around and then the actors start coming. Well that's great, doc, Doc Mike, let me let me tell you something. You You've got to when you have the red carpet, When you have the red carpet event there, I want to. I want to see that. I want to I want to see the spectacle when that becomes reality. That's gonna be awesome if it happens. Man, believe me, you're gonna bring it down. Maybe we're having at grounds. Hell, guys,

good walk down the Street Perfect. You know, Ben, do you think it'd be fair for me to ask Mike to be a part of this project since he defecated on my last name and it's been it's it's just I love that first of all sprise where I love that's just one of my favorite's. Just absolutely Mike, Mike, I forgot about that. I forgot you can't you know what it was all in it here here. I never want to put your anybody's name. But we had never worked together. I don't know if it worked together before

I go loose doing the updates. I think David Gaga doing the I think that's how I did it at the time. Yeah, Mike, I because I was working on the show with Ben that night, and then after I stepped in with you guys with you Andy and then Jonas, and there's a Starbucks down the streets. I was driving some Starbucks after the shift was over, and typically when you leave, there's about a delay on I Heart radio

from anywhere from about three or four minutes out. And so I get in my car and at Starbucks and then all of a sudden, like you guys are saying thing like you're one of the rare shows that actually like thanks the entire staff. You're identifying people, we say, I used to thank everybody, right, So you were thinking the board, ob, you're thinking Jonas, And then you got to me and I was like, what the funk was that? I texted? I texted Jonas, Hey, listen, we want to

thank Bobby Cara, we want to thank Jonas. Knock did a great, great job, bandy, you have a great time out there. Also updates David Gagan. I mean you know, yeah, it's one of the famous cuts. It's still played I think on a regular basis on Ben show, isn't it. It's played on every show. I think it the only shows not played on He's likes not played on it. Like, damn, yeah, that was that was defication of the last name. I am injecting myself choice David. It was a good day

for you. It could attention, didn't it didn't. Did you planned that with them? Did David put you up to them? I go, no, I got his name wrong, Yeah, but I got I got no residual payout from that. It was just it's just it just it just it's just a point of ridicule and and and funniness. Now, which is fun. I mean, you know, hey, look are you guys having any fun right now? Because every time I

was on the year, I had a great time. But I can't believe this last I know that the last one hundred days even I mean, I'm serious, it would have been brutal. I remember I was on after nine eleven and it was brutal. So anytime something like that happens, you know, it's it's it's it's tough. So you know, you guys, hey, I give credit to everybody. Everybody is stepped up well, and I give Mike, it's been a pleasure. I guess we gotta put the baby to bed here,

but you've given us some more. David Gagon drops here, so thank you for that. We will add that what I said, gag on right. But I know, and you know what, it became one of the most I think it's one of the most played cuts in Fox Radio history. That's amazing. Mike. I'm sorry, Dave Will I never forgot your name again. I will. I'll accept your apology once once they start working on a new project, I'll make that's that's your make good assignment for the for the year.

That is when I don't know. I I gotta live though, we can't. We can't make up a gag on I understand, how were you actually hot when? Right? And that's that's a surname. That that that that is not that is

not spitting on someone's face. Might that is like you on the South side of Chicago dropping your pants and just taking a huge dump on me, like that is exactly what you now, I'm I always thought you'd sort of ripe it, but it's following you around like right, yeah, but I see, Look, I mean you mentioned it, and I think the one the one area that we have, like working with Ben and work with Jonas and working one of the guys, is that we have a not

so serious space that we can operate in or other places. God forbid, if you did anything like that, I'd be raising my ass up to the hr right, like that's the This is the type of climate we're in nowadays, where something like that happened, people would get easily offended. And I think working with the guys we work with, we won't take a lot of these things seriously. We take our job series you know, you can't. I don't not that I know what bothers you that you know

that Boby to keep more than nice thoughts. I mean sort of like feel bad that sort of rented a condo in your head above your right here. Well, you know who are a certain amount you know who that's not gonna worry that the Bend is not gonna worry about it. If a no, you know it was the guy. I'll tell you the instigator that Joan is not. He's an instigator, damn little rascals an instigator. So you guys are all doing good man, that's all. That's all that counts. Yeah,

we're alive and well. And Mike again, for those that missed it, I don't know how you missed the beginning of this, but you're on the radio every Friday in Chicago, and you can hear every Friday night in Chicago for an hour from seven to eight, we do a wagering show called the Odds Couple of Comment to Falco and then to replace eight o'clock on a M one thousand ESPN. On Saterday morning, I do a podcast on Paris Bar Room and that's it. I just chilled, man, I chilled

place some golf hang out, you know. I see you guys on Twitter every so often, and you know, just hang out a little bit with the peeps. And that's off and north to north to north on Twitter, that's the number two, right you can you can follow absolutely had a number two and O R T. H. And I like engaging with the folks because those are the main people. The folks all go nowadays. Jeez, you're afraid,

you know, I just say, hi, how is everybody? I'm afraid I'm gonna get you all day, so forget about it. You know that's crazy, man, You go on Twitter going how's everybody? They go? What do you mean by that? Yeah, yeah, you know, Mike. We love you, man, be good. Thanks, thank you guys, Thank you both very much. I love you both. Thanks days. Thanks man. Thanks Mike.