welcome to the Kindness Chronicles, where we hope to inject the world with a dose of the Minnesota nice that it desperately needs. I am, uh, gonna start with a quick apology. I either have COVID, I'm going through puberty again, or I am going to audition for Screech in the remake of Saved by the Bell. So the voice is gonna crack a little bit today. There it goes. There It went bad. Hey, John, do this for me. And it's time to change. Time to change.
We've got to rearrange who you are and what you want to be. Oh, wow. You know, I got that falsetto cooking. Yeah. Okay. We'll be editing that out. Hi. How have you guys been? Yeah, it's the end of summer and. I love the fall, uh, in the Midwest, so I'm looking forward to the, uh, temperatures coming down, football season starting, and then, uh, rotating from Canterbury to the, uh, Minnesota Wild, which happens here later this month. Wow. When does, uh, Canterbury wind down completely?
We have, right now, as we record this, three days left of racing. September 9th, September 13th, and September 16th. And so we wrap up on the 16th and the Wild have, uh, training camp, uh, slash media day where we gather with the coaches and players and tape a bunch of stuff. I think the 19th and 20th before camp starts on the 21st. So are you going to go to Europe for the three days that you're going to have off? Um, no. Probably not.
No, I'll be just, just catching my breath and getting ready and. I don't know about you guys, but I, I do love the cadence of the four seasons here, and I know Minnesota winners can be tough, but the State Fair, kind of the, uh, the symbol of the end of the end for, you know, the school kids and for all of us, kind of getting into the mode of approaching fall, I love the fair, went a couple times. Did you guys go? Uh, I went to the fair. You didn't go to the fair, Steve? I went twice.
Um, maybe that's where I got the COVID or whatever I have. You know, this probably isn't consistent with the kindness chronicles, but there's some weird looking people out there. But that's what makes it so fun. I mean, I that's a big part of the reason I love to go to the fair. The people watching is amazing. Like it's so good. And I'm with you. I actually, I haven't been to the fair this year.
Um, and I've, I've driven by people, You know, trying to get on, on that ramp on Snelling and it just, oh, it makes me stressed with me out. I don't like that whole process of getting there, parking, all that, but you know what, once I'm in, I love it. I love walking around. I love the smells. I love the music. I love, I love all of it, but I don't like going there or, you know, parking and all the logistics that go with it.
I don't know, KG, did you notice the smell of marijuana just about everywhere you turned? Yeah, it was aggressive. I don't love that part of it, uh, when When Stevie's talking about the smells, it's the Sweet Martha's cookies, it's the roasted corn. Um, I, I love, I do, I love all that. The marijuana thing I could do without.
And it's funny because we took my dad out there a week ago Monday and went from like the early part of the morning through the mid part of the afternoon and there wasn't as much of that. And then Chrissy and I went on Sunday night this past weekend and were there from like 6 until 10. And there was far more of that at that point. And then, you know what? Yeah, what do you got a lot of jet a lot of jazz cigarettes. What are jazz cigarettes?
I don't even know what that means Let's go on a cigarette jazz cigarettes those doobies. Oh, I Yeah, I don't know. I can do without it. But I mean if you're gonna get the munchies and do that I mean, there's not a better place to be than the Minnesota State Fair Oh, that is the land of the munchies. What, uh, what are your, uh, highlights from the fair? What are the best foods that you guys, uh, generally consume while you're there? Well, I'll start with, uh, Veggios.
It's a tradition for me when I go to the fair. I always swing by Veggios near the grandstand and get the bucket of rigs, which is, uh, a kind of a cup, just like a cup of soup, but inside it's got the rigatoni noodles and a, a meatball with some red sauce. I love that. The roasted corn, uh, an absolute staple. Can I just stop you on the bucket of rigs? Yeah. I mean, oh, Ricky Don, isn't it just, I mean, isn't that one of those things that you can make in your own kitchen? You know what?
I get that, but I, I love vegetables for some reason. Okay. Um, you like the sauce? I just love their sauce and I, it's a good, you know, it's a good portion, but it's not a huge portion and it's, it's, you can walk and, and nibble at it. I don't know. I, I just, it's my tradition. It's a tradition. Shame on me. But you know what? Yeah, I'm with, I'm with you Kevin. I've, I've, I've been doing, what I have been, I go to that show seriously and I get The, uh, jalapeno ravioli.
I get a little thing of those. I love those and it's across the grandstand, right? So good. Yeah. The pizza bread is really good. Christy gets that. It's, it's got the dipping mechanism with it. It's, it's just delicious. Um, it's like garlic bread with pizza, you know, the sauce and the pepperonis and the cheese, and then you got the marinara to dip in. Veggios is a must for me. What are some of your go to's, John? Well, I always start at the big fat bacon.
You know, I, I, I, I require it to be well done because, you know, I like, you know, George likes his chicken spicy. No, I like my, uh, my bacon cooked. Then we, uh, we, we saunter down to the corn, corn land. The only problem with the corn is I tend to like to over butter things and you know, you get one dip. I mean, I'd like to go back and you know, double dip, sort of like, there's a Seinfeld. What I you look when you're eating it. You're, you know, corn, it's falling everywhere.
You got stuff on your shirt. I mean, people laugh at me, but I, I mean, I get after it. It's so good. And you get the, yeah. Don't get all buttery after it. I love, yeah, your face is all shiny and you've got, you know, from the, Yeah. From the char on the, uh, on the, you get that, those black speckles all over your face. It's the only time I ever look like I've got a beard, you know, like a man. Like a swashbuckler. Yeah. Yeah. I, uh, oh my, um, I also am a, uh, a big fan.
Of the, uh, the Euro, which is right next to the, to the big slide. Um, and it's just like any other Euro, but the sauce that they have, the Suzuki sauce or whatever you call it, is the best. I also had the Euro this year and it was really good. Did you try anything new? Did you try anything new this year? Uh, I did. I went down to giggles and they've got a great campfire set up kind of off the beaten path by machinery Hill. And they had these walleye fries and, uh, I love walleye.
If you like, if you like that sort of thing, um, you know, think about a, it looked like a French toast stick, but instead of a French toast stick, it was walleye. Oh my goodness. Was that tasty? Was there some sort of a tartar sauce to dip it in? They give you the tartar sauce. I'm not a big tartar sauce guy. I ate them plain. I'd rather have cocktail sauce, but they didn't have that available. And cheese curds? Are you guys cheese curds guys? I like them.
I don't want to eat the whole, like, I like the jeram. The whole thing is too much. You might as well just go straight to the restroom if you eat a whole bucket of those things. You know. And then the line for the cookies blew me away. So it's, it's Sunday night. We're, we're walking towards, uh, our exit and we go by Free Martha's and I am not kidding you. 945 on a Sunday night, they had formed, I want to say 10 different lines on each side of the facility. And each line had 20 to 25 people.
And I thought to myself, and these folks are coming out with these 25 buckets of cookies. I mean, they're just The money that that, the cash that they take in, in that 12 days, I mean, that could last a human a lifetime and you probably still couldn't spend it. The cookies are great. Let's face it. They've, they've really. When they're fresh. I will also say this, they really hire some quality. at Sweet Martha's Cookies. They've got a pipeline.
I don't know where they're getting these kids, but man, it's a sharp group of kids. Um, my favorite thing though, at the fair, number one with the bullet is the Tennessee hot chicken from the blue barn. So good. He loves that. Yeah, it is good. It is good. And the, uh, the Nordic waffle. Steve, um, yeah, one of the challenges with going to the fair, and I think that it works really well with the upcoming fall winter season, to me, it's sort of the start of the letting myself go again season.
Starting with the butter face. Yeah, but the butter face, the bacon, I mean, it is truly... It is a cardiac event when you go to the State Fair, and I just... Well, I find myself, you know, like, I try not to eat... Uh hardly at all before I get there and I always overdo it there. I'm with you Um, and this time of year we can layer once those temperatures Cool down, but I mean the fair is just you have to go there and strap on the feedback Otherwise, why would you go?
Yeah, the one thing that i'm To, to, to bring this back to the Kindness Chronicles, the one thing that I'm always amazed at at the fair is as many people as you have there, generally speaking, people are pretty damn polite, you know, it's, I would agree. I, um, and I do have one Kindness Chronicle, uh, related story to relate from the fair.
And it's a little heartbreaking for me to tell this story, but I have to give the folks, um, there's a gate Where it's handicap accessible, uh, where you pick up the electric scooters, which my dad now needs at age 84. He just celebrated his birthday ten days ago. And so he has gone to the fair and he added up the years, either 75 or 76 years total. Now we missed a year during COVID like everybody else, but it's his favorite thing to do. So he turned 84 on August 27th.
We took him out there Monday, the 28th. And for the most part, it was great. We got the scooter. We got to our spot. Uh, he spends a day at Lani Lodge, the Lani Lodge. We have a bunch of bands that shuffle through there. There's a military band. My dad's a Navy guy. He loves all of that. Um, End of the day though, we've been out there six, seven, eight hours and it's getting really warm in the afternoon.
And I, I told him, you know, you should, we should get one more bathroom trip in before you go. And now I know I'm fine. I'm fine. So we get all the way back to the eggs. I'm going to help, um, get him into the car. My sisters are bringing the vehicle around and His legs gave out and he overheated and he couldn't get up. And so I got to call you the security staff at that door. And there were patrons there too. But we had to basically carry my dad into the vehicle. It was embarrassing for him.
He felt terrible, but, um, I, I had a conversation with him a couple of days after, and he said that indeed was the last actual trip to the fair. So we're going to try to do something next year. I talked to my sisters and we've got, he's got eight grandkids between us three. And we're going to try to bring the state fair to their backyard. They've got a pool there where we're going to have all his favorite food set up, but I don't know how we're going to pull this off.
But there's eight grandkids. Maybe we'll have eight different stands and then, uh, serve them. Yeah, we're going to we're going to bring the fair to Burnsville for him because he's he's heartbroken. But he kind of at that point now knows.
It just it isn't easy you guys know getting around there and the scooter was helpful But it just it isn't gonna work out for him now at age 84 It just isn't in the cards and I think he feels bad, but I think he's at peace with it Well, and it's also a great idea going that that's a cool idea. Kevin get bring it to him. Yeah At the house, that's really cool. But those people were so nice you guys. I mean it was a debacle And you know, this wasn't an easy thing.
We had to carry him and get him through the The turnstile and it was it was a complete fiasco and he's upset he's embarrassed and i'm you know my sisters are there my daughters are in tears you know they've never seen anything like this so it was yeah you know 15 20 minutes of pure hell but I will say the, the gentleman that worked the security there went above and beyond like these guys were so darn nice and I just, if they're, I mean, I doubt they're listening, but if they ever caught the
Kindness Chronicles, um, to me, that just made. My whole fair experience worth it to see that kind of kindness out there. And I, again, I go back to why we started this podcast, you know, it was a little part of their day. It was a huge, um, the bottle for our family and they made it so much better with the kindness they showed. That's cool. Don't you think though that those debacles are, uh, they really give people the opportunity to bring out. the best in themselves.
You know, I mean, debacles are, are, are what lead to those type of moments. And I think that those moments, make people feel good. Whether you're on the receiving end of the, uh, the kindness or you're the person delivering it or the person witnessing it, because it creates that, what do we call it? Steve oxytocin. Very good. Yes. We had, there were a lot of also think that they are, they're waiting for stuff, that they're ready to help for stuff like that.
They maybe have done that a couple times with people, so they want to help. Like you said, that's what they want to do, and they're, they know how to help, help take care of it. Try to be discreet and quick, and make sure everyone's safe all around, and let's, they're doing good work. So, Kevin, I have to ask, I, I, one of my favorite things to do is to go to the State Fair with you.
Uh, we were planning on going on Sunday, but, uh, As I mentioned, the, uh, the, uh, our two sons play on a baseball team that actually won the state class A and B amateur championship, the town ball championship. Wow. And it was super fun. Way to go, Jack and Ben. It was super, super hot. I mean, my... God, it was hot. It was. But in the semi finals, we beat Minnetonka, which is always fun beating Minnetonka, because they're, you know, they're usually pretty stacked. They're always good.
But, KG, one of my favorite things about going to the fair with you is witnessing the magic of Kevin Gorg and his adoring fans. The magic of Kevin Gorg No, no, the, the, the magic of Kevin Gorg, the way that people come up to you... And want photographs taken with you and you're always so nice about it and then I get pissed off that nobody wants a picture with me. And I'm like, what is it about him? You're making it sound like there's, I mean there's like three or four people in a day.
Is there a line? No, there's not a line. He does... He does wear a hat, and he pulls it way down, and he walks really fast. But... What's super... You're a minor local celebrity. We know. The MLC. But, what's really funny... Yeah, so these, these people will come up to Kevin, and they're clearly Minnesota Wild fans, and it's like these people know you, and it's gotta be tough, and I always say when we go in, what's it gonna be today? Is it going to be, hey champ? Hey chief? Sport.
Boss. Boss is a good one. Partner. Partner. What, what was it this year? What was the chosen term of endearment for your adoring fans? I went with dude this year. Dude. Which most of the time it is a guy. Hey dude, what's up? Um, and the tricky part for me, Steve, is... I, some people have that unbelievable gift of remembering names and faces. John Schweitz being one of those guys. Our mutual friend, Mark McAfee, another one of those guys. You either have it or you don't, and I don't.
And so when they'll, they'll yell, Gord, what's going on? Sometimes I think I, like I went to high school or college with this person. Oh, you don't want to show them. And 10 times, it's just, it's a wild fan, right? And they want to talk hockey, which is great because... Yeah. Um, I love that they want to talk hockey and, and recognize me from watching the games, but sometimes it actually is, so, yeah, I don't want to disrespect them and act like I don't know them when maybe I do.
But you don't like talking hockey. You never talk hockey. Oh yeah, right. That and horse racing, that just sucks. No, it's, it's very, it is very fun and I missed that this year. Um. You did. I did. And, uh, I'm looking forward to doing that again. Sometime next year. Steve, you, uh, moved your daughter into school at the University of Minnesota. I moved, I moved mine into Madison and KG, yours moved into Eau Claire, right? Yeah, she went down there with her sisters.
Yeah, the oldest was, Trina, was home from Florida, so the three girls took two cars. And moved her in a couple of weeks ago. She's an RA this year. John, you can relate to that. Yes. So she had RA camp and then band camp. And now the tour finally starts tomorrow. Yeah. There's a whole campy thing. Um, so yeah. How did the move in go guys? So ours, um, you know, my daughter had moved out before she went to Concordia and lived in the dorms for, for one year.
And then she's been back going to the U from, from home. And so it was more of an emotional one this time because she got an apartment. She's not in the dorm. You know, she's kind of, I mean. They never really move out for a long time, but this was kind of emotional for my wife.
She was like, this is, you know, the dynamics change and we have our son here, he's living here and going to school, but it's already been kind of different, but we've been out there and this is already brought her more stuff. And it was great, but it was, uh, I don't know, it's exciting for her. She's, she's actually really close to the stadium, so she's going to be um, enjoying all the games and hearing all the music and all, whatever's going on. It's going to be cool. That is very fun.
Outstanding. Yeah, Riley's uh, move in. I just have to tell you about my uh, Let's just call it lack of manliness moment. So we had a lot of stuff to bring out there so I got a U Haul and I have never, I have never, for starters you know I've always had cars that have that thing that you can put the hitch into but I've never had a Had a hitch. So I had to go out shopping for a hitch and one of those ball things that you put on it. Oh yeah.
And then I get the U Haul and I said to my wife, I said the whole way, I'm like freaking out. I'm like. How am I going to part this goddamn thing? I don't know how to back it up. I'm just... Yeah, it's the whole thing. And parking in Madison is terrible. Oh, just park it in the ramp. I already called. They said it would be okay to park it in the ramp. Well, we rolled in there at about 10 o'clock in the evening for the next day move in.
And, uh, let's just say the parking ramp was almost completely full at that point. And with a trailer, you have to have two consecutive spots the long way. Gotta have two spots, right? The long way. I've been in that, yeah. There were none of those. There were, fortunately, two spots down at the very end in the corner of the parking ramp. Did you have to take the trailer off? Well, let me tell you how it started. So I decided...
I'm gonna back this thing in, and you're supposed to turn it the opposite of the way that you'd normally turn it. It was a complete disaster, and there are these two women from, uh, from, uh, Philadelphia, we learned. Let's just say they wouldn't have been candidates for being on the Kindness Chronicles. They, they were making fun of me. And I get out of the car and I said, What are you people looking at? You know, and I kind of had the Jerry Seinfeld crack in my voice. I said, I'm not a man.
Is there a man anywhere near here? Anybody that has a boat? I have no business doing these manly things. So I just said, F it. I stopped, I stopped trying. And I told my wife, I said, Let's take it off. I'm just gonna push it into the corner. And she's like, Yeah. This thing's like 800 pounds. I had super human strength. I, I was, I was so frustrated that I, I unhooked the thing and I literally pushed it and I, I swear it was uphill. It felt uphill.
It was uphill, like 45 degrees and I put it in the corner. But here's the issue. What do you do? About, like, could somebody come in, hook it up, and take all of Riley's stuff? Yeah, they have a lock for that, John. I didn't know that. I didn't know that part. Okay, so what I did... What did you do? I parked car over the chains that you would hook onto the... There you go. Oh! I get it. So, pretty. It was a great solution.
Next day, I, uh, you know, we go and we unload the U Haul and I of course tell Becky, why don't you do the unpacking? I gotta get this U Haul back. Um, I wish I would have gotten the U Haul place like in Chicago, so I could have, you know, driven to Chicago and dumped it off. But I bring it back to the U Haul place, and, you know, the guy comes out to unhook it, and he kinda whistles at me, he goes, You gotta come back here and look at this. The... What happened to the chain?
The ball, well, for starters, you're supposed to cross the chains, I didn't cross chains, I didn't know what the hell I was doing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then the ball... On my deal, you know, you have to tighten it up with the, the big nut on the bottom. Oh no. Almost not just loose, almost off. And the guy is like, you are so lucky.
And I said, well, I said, I did tell the guy at the, uh, when I picked it up that I want as much insurance as I can possibly get, because I got no business driving one of these things. I love that. Could you have just rented like one of those bigger trucks and not had to deal with the trailer thing? You know, like they have those U Haul things you can just drive and then go or is that just not cost effective? Well, it's it's not the cost.
It's the comfort and you know the princess and yeah, and and her daughter I'm referring to Becky as the princess, you know, they're, they want to be able to, you know, they, you know, they, they need to nap on the way there. It's like, it's a four hour drive. I don't get to nap. What is this all about? But no, it, uh, we got the move in. It went great. It was emotional. Um, it's a big deal, man. And now you guys are empty nesters. That's, that's a big adjustment.
Yeah, it's, um, and Becky's got a lot of travel, so it's really quiet around here, which is kind of nice, actually. Oh, you love that for nap time. You think that there might be, uh, an afternoon, evening nap, uh, mixed in once in a while? No chores, it's fantastic. And it's, it goes along with my theme of letting myself go. You know. There aren't going to be any vegetables consumed. None of that crap. Nope. It's going to be a double cheeseburger. That's technically a tomato. That is a tomato.
No kidding. Um, well, John, next time you take the trailer, I'll give you the rundown. I drove a van and trailer for all of my twenties and most of my thirties. So I've owned different trailers and a lot. So yeah, I know how to. I can back up a, I parked a, I parked a trailer, I, I did a, uh, uh, parallel park of a trailer in New York City. You know what, you're kind of flexing right now. This isn't, this isn't the Kindness Chronicles. It is flexing. I did. It's awesome. It's kind of fun.
It's always scary because some, yeah, sometimes they do loosen up. You got to be careful with all that stuff. You got to. I can't imagine parallel parking in one of those things. I don't know how I did it, but I did it. Yeah, it's not fun. Well, I think next year I might pop for, some people, like hire some men to go out and unload. I mean, wouldn't that be just classic, you know? Sit in a lawn chair and watch them do their thing. Sit in a lawn chair, next year, it's like vacation.
The camera swoops around and John and your daughter and your wife are sleeping in the back and there's two guys driving you. Uh, to Madison. I, I, Until these two, you know, young swatchbucklers that are like 25, 30 start hittin on the princess. Then we're gonna, True, yeah, I guess that's not good. Yeah, that's not good. Okay, we've, we've, we've stepped over a line once again. So I was gonna, I was gonna, I'm just saying, you need a chance to nap.
I was gonna leave the band camp comment alone, but, uh, Well, I guess, we're just gettin back into the flow here. We are. We are. So, hey, real quick. Speaking of kindness, uh, Kyle Rudolph has retired. And I guess he retired as a Viking. I don't know how they do that, but... Well, he played here the longest and, uh, very charitable, uh, human being. He's gonna go into TV. I think he'll do really well. Um, I've had a chance to interview him a couple different occasions.
Uh, one time at the NFL draft party, the Vikings throw. Could not be a nicer, more down to earth human being. Him and Chad Greenway, both are guys... That I've had a chance to get to know on the Viking side of things here in the last five, 10 years. So, yeah, you talk about a guy that would be. Uh, the epitome of a professional athlete exemplifies the Kindness Chronicles, that's the guy. I mean, him and the Zucker family and all the charitable stuff they do, it's outstanding.
Well, he and his wife Jordan are huge advocates of the Masonic Children's Hospital. Oh, yeah. And I've been to a number of events, a number of events with, uh, the Zuckers and the Greenways and the, uh, I mean, I'm not, like, hanging out with them, but we're in the same, like, general vicinity. And, uh, the thing about Kyle Rudolph is for starters, he's humongous, gigantic. His hands are like the size of garbage can covers. They're huge. They're huge.
And, but he's, but he still wears like really kind of fancy. suits and they're very tailored and they're, you know, like the short pants with the no socks look and, Oh, I know the look. It's for the athletic folks. It's a little baggy. It's a little precious if you ask me, but he's still a good guy. Good guy. Really, really good human being. And, uh, Yeah, I, uh, I'm happy for him.
It was a hell of a career that he, uh, he carved out for himself and, you know, he looked at his time with the Vikings and the impact he had and I think, uh, well, he looked at Kirk Cousins and, uh, you think of the one, uh, real shiny moment they had is winning a road playoff game and that overtime touchdown that Cousins do to Rudolph, that was pretty cool. Yeah, and to uh, I think Rudolph is in the top 10, maybe he's number 10 or 11 for all time receptions for the Vikings.
So he, he'll end up in the uh, the ring of honor or whatever they call that thing. For sure, and well deserved. Yeah, very, very good guy, like up for the Walter Payton Man of the Year thing a number of times, and I think Chad Greenway was too, so. Yeah, sure. There's a lot of that going on. Uh, anything else you think that we need to cover? What was that, Steve? Oh, I was going to say, well, Tom West will be, we'll be talking to him soon then. He'll be part of the... Uh, the alumni. Absolutely.
Kick, kick in and start working with them and it's great stuff. Yeah, now that the football season is starting and they got a whole bunch of new guys, maybe we could see if we get to, he was a really fascinating guy to have on. I'd love to have him back on. Really good. Probably gets busy. That's the problem.
We probably can't, well, maybe, I dunno, how come, you know, um, he's a good, did you guys see that, uh, that the US Bank Stadium was, uh, was voted the number one football stadium in the country, professional football stadium in the country. I did see that and I, I think it's a great facility. What I like about.
Um, the views there, the overall optics is even though you're indoors, they have enough glass and enough natural light that you don't feel like you're indoors, like the Metrodome, but had a different feel. And in its time, it was spectacular. But it really at the end there was like, Oh, my God. I don't want to be trapped in there, there's no light coming in.
This place, they did a hell of a job, um, making it feel, they can open up those, those windows and you can have some fresh air, it's a really cool place to watch a football game. we as Minnesotans love when, uh, when we're on the west, you know. Oh, do we ever. Yeah, we love when they show us some love nationally, we don't get it a lot cause we're stuck here in the cornfields, but, uh, yeah, it's good to see, you know, I will say this and.
I watched the Gophers play the other night on national TV against Nebraska. It wasn't a great football game. They found a way to win. And I think, you know, PJ Fleck is a guy that gets a lot of attention and a lot of flack. In town because of his shtick and his antics. But I really like the way he runs this program. And I, and I think we've now seen enough data where it's been seven or eight years he's been here. Yeah. The football program's good. They're not, oh my God, good.
They're not, you know, rose Bowl this, and, you know, nationally ranked that. But they're good. They're consistently good. But to me, what really I, I am most impressed with is the young man he is, uh, Uh, he is, you know, developing and, and the team they are off the field, uh, I've seen a lot of different stories on social media with the things they do a lot of times behind the scenes to help out on the charity side.
And, uh, I know Thanksgiving is a big thing they do where they feed the, the hungry and the homeless. And I think he should be really well respected in this town for the way he's run this program and the kids that he's sending out there, um, from the university when their time is done. And so. Congrats to them for winning that game, but I think that the program is in a really good place, and it starts with the head coach.
he's another one of those guys that's been a supporter of the Masonic Children's Hospital, and, he and his wife... Offer up, dinner with the Flex and, you know, some other fancy people. I just think that's the way he is. I don't think it's a shtick. I think he's just nuts. I think that he is, I think he's got enthusiasm that most normal human beings can't even wrap their heads around. Yeah, I would agree. I would agree. I think the passion he has for that job.
I think he's that's part of the, he can't almost control it. So it rubs some people the wrong way. They're running up and down the sidelines, running out of the locker room. But who are we to criticize the guy that loves this job? Um, that seems to be a really good leader and creates an atmosphere where the kids are doing great things, especially off the field. I mean, the out of field stuff will. Take care of itself. We're never going to be Michigan. We're never going to be Ohio State.
That's not who this university is ever going to be. And I think I've lived here long enough to come to grips with that, but I like the product they put out there. They're a fun team to watch. And more importantly, I think they're really good kids. And I think he and his coaching staff deserve some credit. And, you know, here we are on this Kindness Chronicles podcast. I think it's important to shine a light on those things, because I think those guys are, look at Tommy Olsen.
Like, I love Tommy Olsen. There's a guy, right? Um, but I mean, if you don't love him, then you just don't know Tommy Olson. But that's the kind of guys I'm seeing in our community that come out of that program that are ready to do good things. And so good for them. Did Tommy pay for PJ? He had to, cause PJ has been there for what, eight years? Has he really? And Tommy's, Tommy's within three or four years of maybe five. You're probably right, congratulating and just, I love him.
Like I, I've only met him a couple times over at, uh, the fan. Well, you know, he's a mad guy. I know he is a ze. That's why I brought his name up. And I, he's such a lovable, uh, human being. I just think he makes me smile. Just like saying his name makes me smile. He's just great. I love the guy. He's, uh, he's another guy that, uh, I saw his wedding pictures on Facebook and. You know, what is he like six, five, six, six. I mean, he's just, just enormous man.
And he, uh, his, his, and his, his wedding tuxedo, you know, we would have used to call them floods. I mean, his pants were six inches too short and I thought, oh, they, they couldn't find a tux that fit him. And it's like, no, that's, that's how it was tailored. My God. But I have a, before we depart for the, for the day, I have a, uh, don't be that guy story that I think is pretty fun. Um, okay. imagine the state baseball championship, the playoffs.
It's a single elimination thing, and, uh, the Air Freight Unlimited, which is the team that my boys are on, um, I was careful to say that my boys play for. They're on the team, but that's not true. They actually both have played quite a bit, a bit, but Jack, uh, on Friday night in the quarterfinals, it was, uh, air freight against Hopkins. And the two guys that they pitched was this kid named Willie Coburn.
Who's, uh, uh, Graduated from high school and he's a swimmer, like a nationally ranked swimmer. And he pitched and Jack pitched and they beat this Hopkins team. At the same time, uh, Minnetonka beat St. Patrick. And Minnetonka was the number one seed. And they are almost always the number one seed. They've got just this group of studs. And they were so upset. That we didn't pitch our number one guy in the quarterfinals.
Our number one guy is this guy named Graham Lobsher this was the hundredth year of the state amateur baseball tournament. He set a record for the most strikeouts in a tournament. He struck out in three games, 60 people. Oh my. So against Minnetonka who's upset that they have to face Graham, he struck out the first 10. Okay. He ended up, that's unbelievable. He ended up striking out 21 of the 27 outs were strikeouts and it was against the number one seated team. Is it John?
Is it heat, is it, is it fastballs? Is it curve ball? So he's what? What does he do? So he's a lefty. He's got some heat, but he has a, what has been described as a plus plus slider. He was, uh, he was an All American at St. Thomas. I mean, the guy is just an absolute stud. I was there with this old timer, sitting next to this old timer, and he goes, That guy is legitimately better than Dallas Keuchel. He's legitimately better than Kenta Maeda. Why is he playing town ball baseball?
And the thing about the kid, he was one of, uh, my son, one of my son Jack's roommates, and we were really good friends with his parents. He's the most humble guy. Like, it was one accolade after another, and he was just embarrassed by the accolades. It was really cool. Now the don't be that guy part. Those Minnetonka parents. Oh my god. Are you serious? Oh yeah. Some of these guys that are playing in this town ball are in their 40s. I mean, they are men.
And their parents are there and they're, oh no, they're heckling. They're heckling, they're chirping. So, oh, come on. Oh, it was unbelievable. And the thing was, is they now, you know, you always feel like the umps are trying to screw you. So I don't think that Graham had very many. Um, strikeouts where it was a called third strike.
There were plenty of third strikes that weren't called, that they were called balls, and he would come back with a a slider and these guys would whiff at it, but I'm telling you I have never had more fun at a baseball game than that one. So then we get into the finals and uh... You know, we're running out of arms. Jack, you know, who, you know, he doesn't pitch that often. You know, he threw a couple of innings, and he's like, I'm cooked.
We, uh, get to the seventh inning, and our two last pitchers are, uh, you know, they, they, we're winning like four to two. And, uh, the coach asked Graham if he could go out and throw two more innings. And I think he went out and threw six more strikeouts. I think he struck everybody out. I mean, after That wasn't the same day. Same day? The next day. Same day. What? Same day.
After throwing like a And we got, we got major league guys over at Target Field that throw 78 pitches and the manager says that's enough for one day for a professional athlete in their prime and yet in a, in a, in a town ball game this guy throws twice? Well and imagine KG when you throw 21 strikeouts. The minimum number of pitches you're throwing are 63. I mean, just for those strikeouts. And there were a lot of 3 2 counts. I mean, it was nuts.
I mean, I bet you threw 150 pitches in that first game and came back out a couple hours later and threw two more innings. But they won. Oh God, the guy's just a stud. But yeah, I will probably lose a few Minnetonka listeners. But you know what? Too bad for you. We'd beat ya. Yeah, but don't be that guy then. I mean, honestly, it's like, listen. Enjoy that you're outside at the end of summer. Watching. I mean, I love some talent. I love that type of baseball. I played Legion Ball back in the day.
It's so chill. It's not supposed to be about the umps or the calls or the stats, or the wins or the losses at this point. Everybody's playing for the love of the game, man. Yeah. These guys are done with their dreams of being the, they're just, they're playing for the love of the game, and that's why Don't be that guy or that gal. Come on. And it was at, it was inel. What the hell is Dassel, by the way? Dassel is out towards Litchfield. Litchfield to the drive in, yeah.
The, the, the Dassel ballpark is exceptional. It's beautiful. I love those type of ballparks. Like Meesville. Litchfield's got one of those fields. Delano's got one of those fields. Jordan does. Jordan's got a great one. Yep, the mini mat. Yeah, they're phenomenal. It's like, it's like a walk back in time. You know, I mean. Oh, God, what fun you must have had. And let me tell ya, Pops were, er, sodas, Pops, whatever, were a dollar. Popcorn was a dollar. Hot dogs were two dollars.
Where'd you go in between games for dinner? Like, what was the meal spot? So, we went to, it's, it's really funny, because our, right? We went, we went to this, uh, this, this bar in Dassel called, Thirsty's. Of course, it was called Thirsty's and we, we, I, we walked in there, Becky and I got there first and it was so funny, the, the people at the, the, the dealer like, well, we got a bar in town, but it's way on the other side of town and we put it into our GPS 0. 2 miles away.
I'm not kidding you way on the other side of town. We go into Thirsty's and they got one waitress and one bartender and I went up to the waitress and I said, here's the deal. We're We're going to be bringing in like 25 people, but we're very patient. We will help, you know, serve, we will, you know, sir, you know, we'll come to the, and she's like, well, as long as you're patient. And they did a fantastic job. They've called in an extra waitress. Um, yeah, it was, safe. I went with.
the buffalo chicken salad because I figured, you know, you want me to salad at thirsty? Well, you're calling that safe. So I think your trailer hitch was more safe. Summer is over. Ah. Yeah. Give her some thoughts. I'd like, I'd like to talk to some more people. Um, um. Me too. I like, I like what we have in Fort Lauderdale. Prepping for the holidays. You know, that kind of stuff. Like, what are they doing for holiday prep kind of stuff? What's going on for people?
What are they doing for people that are in need this season? I'd like to just have some random nice people on with us. You know, they don't, they don't have to be do gooders that have got, you know, non profits. By the way, the, the JP4 Foundation, you know, we had that, uh, Jeff Huthon. And I'll tell you what, I've gotten so much feedback from people that have listened to the, uh, the podcast and, uh, they obviously promoted.
The, uh, the podcast, cause there were a lot of people listening, uh, to that one in particular, but, uh, yeah, I think that, uh, we can, uh, ramp up our, our support of that organization. Cause you talk about a, a worthy group. It's pretty cool. Yeah. I'm super impressed with that golf tournament, man. They struck all the right course. And, uh, yeah, I love stuff like that. I love Steve's idea.
Uh, getting ready for the holidays and shining the light on people that are helping out at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Um, we've got a lot of options here and, uh, whether I'm traveling or in town, we can, this is going to be good. We can get a lot of good people on. Absolutely. I got one more thing. you know the deal at Wisconsin, uh, the Badger games, uh, before the fourth quarter, the jump around thing. Yeah, it's awesome. Go to YouTube and the guy from house of pain.
Last year was invited to Camp Randall, the Badgers Stadium, uh, the fourth oldest college stadium in the country. He was very grateful that, the University of Wisconsin has kept the jump around thing, in the centerpiece of culture. spectacular to watch. It really is. I've been to a couple of Badgers football games. It is... A blast. All right. Enough of our personal business. We'll talk to you guys later and off we go.