May 9, 2026 • 40 mins
Big Ben talks about the two Game 7s in the NBA Playoffs on Sunday that did not live up to the hype with the Pistons easily dispatching the Magic and the Cavs beating the Hawks, legendary Yankees broadcaster John Sterling passing away, Maller's Mountain of Money: Adele Edition, and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mahler
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
We'll start out in Motown. We'll start out in the
state of Michigan where Caid Cuttingham who had a hiccup,
he had a glitch in his game earlier in the series,
kept turning the ball over. Well, that'll all be forgotten,
cutting him with thirty two points, filling up the box
score thirty two points, twelve assists and a partridge into Paratree.
Tobias Harris Journeyman Tobias Harris had thirty points. The Pistons
(00:57):
make the magic disappear. No, no Na, good bye, I
see it later. Orlando out of the playoffs one sixteen
to ninety four in Game seven on Sunday. So that
means that the Pistons have won a playoff series. If
you're eighteen years old. This is like the first time
pretty much in your lifetime they've won a playoff series.
(01:18):
It had been eighteen years the last time. How's that
possible that they had won a playoff series? But there
we are in cutting him thirty two points. He averaged
thirty two point four points per game for Detroit in
this series. And they last won a postseason series against
the aforementioned Orlando Magic way back in eight barely a
(01:42):
memory of that. Barely a memory of that. And so
the Pistons now advanced, they will play the Cadavers in
game number one of that series. That'll be coming up
on Tuesday. That would be tomorrow. I know it still
late Sunday night in the West, but there'll be a
quiz on this, so it's late Sunday in the West,
but it's gonna be early early on on on Tuesday,
(02:03):
which is tomorrow. So it's almost Monday, so that means tomorrow.
So there you go. The Pistons will take on the
team from Ohio. The better story, though, is in the
losing locker room on this once, so we're going to
focus on that. Where Paulo Boncherro was asked he had
a big stat line. Was asked about the status of
the Magic franchise. They don't seem to do anything in
(02:26):
the playoffs. I've been in the playoffs a few times
here recently, and they haven't really made any noise, made
their mark any of that. And he was seated there
at the postgame news conference on stage at the Dais
and Bonchero. He paused a little bit before answering the question,
and he was asked the question, he said, I want
(02:47):
to say yes. When asked the question, he said, but
this is the third straight time we haven't gotten out
of the first round. Bon Chero said, So if you're
going off the last three years, the answer is no
talking about whether or not the Magic can get it
done this group of players. So if this is going
off for the last three years, obviously not. I can't
(03:07):
say we're good enough to be in the finals of
the Eastern Finals, he said, because of the last three
years we've had the same results. So that's your answer. Okay,
thank you, good jumping off point. Let us discuss the question.
Now here's the question. Can you explain what's wrong? Because
we have all the answers doing overnight talk radio. What
(03:28):
is wrong? With Paul all Voncero's Orlando Magic in the playoffs. Playoffs.
So on this one, we'll bounce around a little bit.
We've got co workers Warning Label and George Nori, and
we will combine all of these things together and we
(03:50):
are going to put the biscuit in the basket, is
what we're going to do. So a the Orlando Magic.
After a minutes long review of the available information, I
have determined, and I'm never wrong about these things, the
Orlando Magic are not cursed. They are not cursed. Okay,
they're not. They're stuck in the worst possible place, the
worst possible place in sports. That mushy middle, that mushy,
(04:13):
mushy middle. That's where they are. That's where they're Lando
Mets are. They're not bad enough to bottom out. They're
not trying to bottom out. They did that a few
years ago. And they've got a bunch of players that
are high draftics. They traded five draft picks to get
Desmond Maine. Did anyone see him do anything good? I
didn't see anything in this game against the Pistons. But
in terms of the question getting back to it, they're
(04:35):
in the middle. The Orlando Magic are in that mushy
middle there, and it's essentially the way I interpreted what
Bonchero said. He basically gave you the corporate to prove truth,
which is that the team is good, they're just not
that good. And that's the Magic in a nutshell. They're good,
they're just not that good. And it's the the Disney honesty,
(04:59):
I said, the honesty there from a team that plays
its home games down the road from the Magic Castle
there in Florida, and all that their playoff identity. Here's
the Orlando Magic playoff identity. They had this series, they
had a choke hold on it, and they gave it
all the worst Game seven. You said, well that was
bad Game six though they were kicking the tail of
the Pistons and it all went to hell. All of
(05:22):
it went to hell. And their playoff entity identity, they
show up, the Orlando Magic. They show up, they try hard,
they lose very politely. They're very polite when they lose,
they're very polite. It's very important to be polite. There's
no closer. They don't appear to have that guy. You're
not that guy, pal, they don't have that assassin out there.
And it's a committee it's a group project. Maybe we'll
(05:44):
do it next year. Maybe we'll get it done next year.
That'll be what we do. We're going to get it
done next year. And so they're not out there as killers.
The star players, the forever players that the Magic got,
Desmond Main and Aven bon Chero, and it's like they're
just kind of clocking in and out. La la la
la la la la la la la la la la
la la la la. And when that happens, all right,
(06:06):
when that happens, you and I both know what happens next.
Say bye bye to the head coach. You know that's
gonna happen. Jamal Moseley. There were rumors that the players
were at loggerheads with Mosley prior to the series, and
it was guaranteed he was gonna be out. Well, now
this cements it, and that's it. That's all she wrote there.
(06:27):
And you know he's hearing footsteps, Jamal Mosley, the whispers,
the friction behind the scenes and all that for Orlando.
So the the NBA, they try to sell hope. They're
big on hope. It's all about hope. We're selling hope, hope, hope, hope, hope.
Orlando sells layaway. It's it's like, well, we'll get to
it eventually. Just pay a little beach here, We'll get
(06:48):
to it eventually.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Meanwhile, to Cleveland we go where the late game on
the basketball card on Sunday, Jared Allen getting it done.
He Toddy playoff career. I had twenty two points and
nineteen rebounds, and the Cleveland basketball team advancing to the
Eastern Conference semi finals as they win by twelve. The game,
(07:12):
Toronto led early and then they had to play the
rest of the game, and very early on the Raptors
looked like they were in good shape, and then by
halftime it was all tied up, and then after that
forget about it. So that sets things up. Donovan Mitchell
was the big man on campus. He had twenty two points,
tied with Jared Allen for the lead. There James Harden playoff.
(07:36):
Harden did not play that great. He had eighteen points.
And so that's it's. Scottie Barnes face of the NBA,
Scottie Barnes All Stars. Scottie Barnes. He played well. He
had twenty four points for Toronto, nine rebounds. RJ Barrett
twenty three as well for the Raptors, who were in
the playoffs for the first time way back in twenty
(07:57):
twenty two. I barely remember that also two. So the question,
let's focus in on the Cleveland side of things here
on this one, as they were one of the better
seeds in the East. He had a lot of excitement
when they got James Harden. I don't know why they did.
And so the question is the glass half full or
is the glass half empty? For the Spider Mitchell calves
(08:24):
all right, so you'd say, well, they won, so it's
half full. But I'd say no, You'd say, well it's
half empty because they didn't play that well. I'd say
the answer is neither. I'm gonna go with none of
the above. The glass, I'll put it this way. The
glass is not half full. It's not half empty. It
is cracked. The glass is it cracked, it's leaking, and
(08:44):
somehow James Harden keeps dropping it while Donovan Mitchell goes
over there and he's got some duct tape and he's
trying to put the thing back together and all that.
At this point, Cleveland's claim to fame here the pro
bouncy ball team in Cleveland is surveability is what it is.
They don't win clean. Then, were any of these games
(09:06):
just a surgical take that I don't remember? Maybe the
first game. I don't feel like that was the case, though.
So they're able to survive and escape and all that,
And this Toronto series not a victory lap. This was
not some kind of statement that was made said here
we are, We're on our way. This is not a
statement situation at all. It was kind of like, Okay,
(09:29):
you won the series. Congratulations. It's like crawling out of
a bad escape room and you have no clues left
except one that you couldn't solve. Well, I couldn't you
solve it? I couldn't solve it. Well, will you get
back in there? What are you doing? And so that's
where a lot of turnovers. Ugly basketball, shaky basketball, The
(09:50):
shooting was not good. Defensive laps is all over the place, here,
there and everywhere. It's like the greatest Hits album for
the cadavers on bad habits in this series. Yet they win.
They did everything they could to lose until the end,
and then they pulled that out Cleveland and they win
the game. So it does appear they are allergic to comfort.
They do not appreciate comfort here. And you build a
(10:12):
lead up and immediately Pop goes the lead, just like that,
Just like that, Pop goes the lead like a cheap
bubble wrap. That's how that went. So if the Cavaliers,
if they were on Wall Street and you say, okay,
what kind of stock are they, Well, they're not a
penny stock. They're not a gold standard stock like a
(10:35):
stock's been around forever, you know, is gonna make your money.
They're not that. They'd be the stock that comes with
the big black and yellow, black and yellow, black and
yellow warning label volatile, high risk. It's a high risk stock,
emotional damage guaranteed. So I keep hearing Championship Window. The
Calves are going for it with James Harden. I did
(10:55):
not see any anything in this matchup that leads me
to blee that team is on their way to a
magic carpet ride the Cavaliers to go to the NBA Finals.
I see nothing, in fact, just the opposite. I see
this is a team that gonna be lucky if they
get past the Pistons in round two. And people are
about Championship Window, this, that and the other thing. But
there's no frame it's just a draft and a prayer
(11:18):
at this point. That's where we are, all right. Meanwhile,
we now go to Boston where the if you are
the Celtics winning the NBA Championship, you're a loser, as
they were decommissioned from the playoffs over the weekend. And
then we got some really wild conversation from Jalen Brown,
(11:39):
the star of the Celtish now Jalen Brown claiming on
Twitch where I get all my breaking sports news on Twitch.
I wonder if he was playing games with Blake Snell,
the guy that is a gamer that sometimes pitches for
the Dodgers, but not really just more of a gamer.
I don't know about that. Jalen Brown, though claimed on
Twitch at the NBA referees had a targeted agenda against him.
(12:05):
Do do do Do Do Do do do? Yep uh
in the playoffs playoffs, that's right, saying they called offensive files.
Cording to Jalen Brown, they called offensive files every time
he put his hands up, possibly due to the regular
season outsmoking criticism of the Zebras and that rant following
(12:26):
the Celtics, who blew a three games to one lead
in their playoff series as they have been exterminated by
the Sixers, who had that at Philadelphia look beating and broken.
They were people calling each other's names in the locker room.
And now the Sixers came back, they win that series.
In Brown had also been critical of Joel enbad floppy
(12:48):
mcflop uh and and all that. Al Right, I guess
we have the other. All right, let's go to the
audio here. Let's go to the audio tape. Take a list.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
This is my personal opinion on basketball. Some of y'am
might disagree, but argue with your grandma. Flopping has ruined
our game. Joel Ebid is a great player, one of
the best bigs in basketball history.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Flops.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
He know it. This ain't breaking news. It is what
it is. I can clip it up, like I said,
y'all can post it on these paid accounts that he's
bought whatever.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Okay, there you go, wonderful Jalen Brown right there. It's
all of course, this has been This is not new.
This has been going on for thirty years, at least
twenty five years. At least twenty five years. All right,
So question, how does Jalen Brown come across with his
grumbling over the NBA referees and the whole thing. This
(13:38):
guy's flopping. I'm not getting any calls here. They're out
to get me. The man's holding me down. That's essentially
his argument. The man's holding me down. That's Jalen Brown,
all right. So Jalen Brown out here talking like the referees.
We're tapping his phone. There was a wire tap on
Jalen Brown's phone. And it seems a little deeper than
(14:01):
just frustration, like there's it's more than just frustration there.
This is a full blown the league is watching me.
Paranoia is what that comes across to me. And it
appears that Jalen Brown this offseason should spend some time
picking up a little side hustle. And I recommend the
number two chare. I know George Nori works alone over
(14:22):
on Coast to Coast, but why not put Jalen Brown
in there as a coast so at least you can
host the weekend version of Coast to Coast and can
talk about the Kim Trails and the little Gremlins and
all that. Not to get him who says no. I
don't know anyone would say no. Jaylen Brown acting like
(14:42):
every whistle was not just a foul, but a coordinate
surveillance operation against him, because of course the NBA doesn't
want the Celtics that have a national fan base to
advance in the playoffs and all that stuff, of course,
and he can lose a series. Jalen Brown lose a
series here, he lost a battle with the imaginary Boogeyman,
(15:06):
is what happened. So he's essentially accusing the referees of
some kind of psychological warfare, describing a conspiracy thriller back
in the old days when they made good movies in Hollywood.
And it's that not just a random playoff series where
you gagged away, you played with your food and you lost.
It's a bad job by you. So Jalen out there
talking like the officials had a dossier on him, convinced
(15:32):
that every whistle was actually not just a whistle, it
was a dog whistle coded message from the illumina, the
deep state of the NBA. Now, do I think sometimes
this stuff happens? Absolutely, of course I do. Do I
think the NBA was out to get Jalen Brown? No,
And does that explain why every other guy in the
Celtics in that last game it was a brick house yeah,
(15:55):
I don't think so. I don't think so. So. Anyway,
did he think the referees were hiding in the bushes
before tip off outside the arena? Is that what was
going on here? So we'll see. Get him on some
of those meds that blind Scott's got, he'll be all right.
Of course he doesn't doesn't really take those either.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Mellor
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
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Speaker 4 (16:20):
Steve Gotts here, I have a podcast empire. It continues
to grow, and I have brought it here to iHeart.
I'm also doing a live radio show from three to
five pm Eastern because my wife wanted to kick me
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(16:44):
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Speaker 1 (16:45):
I love you guys the show. It's one of my favorite.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
A lot of interact shit guys, not taking themselves too seriously.
Those are just some of the things that you can
expect from Stu gottson Company and Stegotson Company Live. So
listen to Stu Gotson Company Live ed our original podcast.
Please subscribe, rate and review Steve Gottson Company and God
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(17:09):
today and you can check all of those out on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
We did lose one of the great voices of baseball.
Depending on how old you are, this guy somebody's been
around a long time, did it very well and has
now unfortunately crossed over the pearly gates. I assume you've
heard by now, but possibly not. John Sterling, the exuberant
radio voice of the New York Yankees radio broadcasts. He
(17:43):
did it with a flare and just had his own
spin to it, the home run calls, as he was
known for a big part of Yankee baseball in their
last glory days when they were winning the World Series
every couple of years there, when they had Jorge Pasada
and Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter and those guys, and
(18:04):
we're winning all the time. Yiy cays waiting BAI gays
when all of that. So that's what he said after
wins would say it after losses, and he has died,
crossing over the parlygates there on Monday eighty seven. Tributes
coming in here, there and everywhere from around baseball. Yankee legends,
(18:26):
young and old, young and old, all had something they
wanted to say about John Sterling. Seems everyone has a
story about John Sterling, the golden voice of the Yankees
for all of those years on the radio. So that
is a good jumping off point. I would like to
join in. I have some thoughts on this, as some
(18:47):
of you know that we've had John on the podcast,
and I had had John when I used to do
a weekend show here. We had John Sterling on a
few times, very very kind to me over the years.
I didn't interact with him all that often. I did
put me a handful of times in person, and was
always really cool. Was always really cool. So let's get
(19:09):
into it the question how are you going to remember?
How are you going to remember Yankee broadcaster John Sterling.
So there's always the micro and the macro on this.
I've got bedazzled kool aid Man and Rare Spice, and
we'll combine all of these things together and we are
(19:30):
going to make a Broadway show, because that's one of
the things that pops in my head when I think
about John Sterling calling Yankee baseball now number what number one?
Number one? Number one? Okay. I think of John Sterling
as what I would call a broadcasters broadcaster, if you
know what I mean. Uh, And don't don't kid yourself,
(19:54):
and we don't need to go too deep on this.
He wasn't playing it straight down the middle. That wasn't
the way he did it. Many ways to make a bed,
there's more than one, and there's more than one way
to do a broadcast. Now. I grew up with Vin
Scully who attempted to play it right down the middle
and all that. John Sterling never attempted to play it
(20:16):
right down the middle. You always knew where John Sterling
was in relationship to where the game was, the score
of the game, how the season was going for the Yankees.
And Sterling took that approach, the play it down the
middle approach, and he took it like a piece of paper,
and he kind of he crumbled up the piece of
(20:37):
paper and he tossed it into the Hudson, possibly the
East River, but I think it was the Hudson, and
he went full opposite. He went the other direction there,
and it worked for him. He was a debonair guy,
well dressed, obviously charismatic as the Yankee play by play guy.
And in my conversations with John Sterling the few times
(20:59):
that we had him on the radio and whatnot, he
was fully aware that his audience was not the NPR
audience they wanted to show. Okay, they wanted to show.
You can think, who's listening to Yankee baseball in the
radio as people driving around, It's people at work that
are working the night shift, because most Yankee games are
(21:20):
at night. People that don't have access to television blind,
I mean, those are the people that are listening to
Yankee baseball. So yeah, guys listening to you, they're likely
going home from work, driving to work, they're working the
late shift and all that. These are Yankee hardos, and
Sterling embraced that he did, and he did that broadcast
for the die hard, the faithful Brox Bomber fans, and
(21:45):
he fed them a study diet of theater. His play
by play technique was theatrical is the word I will
use here. He was not a broadcaster per se He
was a one man Broadway productive Yankees winn Yankees, and
(22:06):
he had a press box seat. And most announcers just
described the moment, They just describe what's going on. Sterling
decorated it. He did. He bedazzled the broadcast. And I
have just having some conversations via text with some friends
of mine who do that kind of work for a living,
and the thing that was noted to me, and I
think it's a fair point. Most of Sterling's career as
(22:29):
a broadcaster was before social media. Yet he provided In
the old days, we used to play a lot of
those those cuts, the play by play cuts on the radio.
He had updates, live updates, the old days stations had
live updates, and so we'd play those things at night.
And the late great Frank Pollock, may he rest in peace.
Frank's probably busting John Stirling's balls right now. It's some
(22:52):
kind of a buffet on the other side right there,
yapping to each other. But Frank Polk was my board
op for years, and Frank was a legend. He was
a chick hern famous Lake broadcaster, his boardop and we
had so much fun when Frank was my board up
because we would just do the Yankee rundown. And it
wasn't because we were just trying to kill time. We
just loved all the stupid drops that John Sterling provided us.
(23:14):
But he bedazzled the broadcast. He put jazz hands off
the whole thing. He didn't just call the game. He
accessorized the broadcast. And in the Big Apple, you know,
you got a guy like Sterling said, well, this is
what are you doing. It's just the Yankees, this is
the Wall Street crowd, like the Mets of the Long
Island construction workers and the Yankees of the Wall Street
(23:35):
people and all that. And he laid that that shtick,
as my grandfather would say, that shtikla. He laid that
on thicker than a piece of cheesecake, just really thick
the New York cheese cake every night. And to his credit,
and this is the way you're supposed to do it.
And the people that know what they're doing every night,
you treat it like it's the most important broadcast and
(23:57):
not just Game seventy seven, one hundred and sixty two.
And you're playing in Seattle and it's ten thirty at
night in New York and no one's listening. You treat
it differently, you treat it as it matters. And he
was larger than life, he louder than life, and unapologetically
just gave you more. John Sterling the last true ringmaster
(24:21):
of the theatrical baseball radio broadcast. And people die and say, well,
they'll never be another one like them. And that's generally
true for all of us. We're all individuals, right, We're
all individuals in terms of the skill set. Though there
can never be another John Sterling. He would not be
allowed to work the corporate bullcrap. John Sterling is a
(24:41):
product of his era. Obvious, we're all products of our era.
And he came in when sports was a mom and
pop operation, which meant people that owned teams were regular people.
They weren't conglaborants, they weren't hedge funds, and they appreciated
that type of work. Now, oh my god, you're embursing
the brown what are you doing? And even no, George Steinbrenner,
(25:04):
the guy that was there that hired John Sterling, has
been dead for many years. It's still a family business.
The kids kept John Sterling employed up until just a
few years ago when he could no longer do it. Now,
flipping the page, but not far as it is the
hour of tribute to the Great John Sterling, the late
great John Sterling, who passed away this week at the
(25:26):
age of eighty seven. So what was the secret sauce
that made John Sterling such a unique character in Yankee broadcasting.
He's just baseball broadcasting in general, So this is simple.
He didn't just call a game, he performed it. Now,
I worked with a guy and I forget his name.
I did a TV show with him for a couple
(25:46):
of years and he said to me, this is not
John Sterling. But he said to me, the key is
to make it all about you. I think his name
was Looney or something like that. Well, anyway, it turns
out that John Sterling made it all about him and
it worked. It worked right, And most broadcasters kind of
melted into the background and you're whispering the game, and
(26:06):
you're giving the out of town scoreboard and you're reading
all that like it's a library. John stolen, though, he
broadcast the game as if he was crashing through a
wall like that picture shaped kool aid Man, shouting oh yeah,
loud and proud, and you weren't tuning in for the
Yankees per se, you were tuning in for the Sterling
(26:29):
cinematic universe, where every at bat, every at bat was
what it was, a brand launch, and every player had
a Marvel style origin story, every one of them. Right,
home run, please, come on? That wasn't just a home run?
What do you naive?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
No?
Speaker 1 (26:47):
That was a fireworks show with catchphrases attached. Hey mom
from a rod Burn, baby burn, all of them all rise,
Here comes the Judge, the Gum, the thriller from Godzilla
for Hideki Matsu. Now, my two favorites are not mentioned
(27:10):
very often because they're not great ballplayers. My two favorite
calls that John Sterling had that I repeated for many years.
Of fact, I often still repeat them is one for
Curtis Granderson, the Grandee Man Can the grand de Man
Can loved it. And Robbie Cano, and all that was
when Cano would hit a home run, he'd say, Robbie Cano,
(27:33):
don't you know? And that was it. And when the
game dragged, Sterling said, we need more juice. I'll give
you some more juice. I remember it was visiting my
brother who lives in New York, and I was we
were in a with my car, but we were driving
around and the guy who in the car it was
like a taxi a long time ago, and they had
the Yankee game on and it was just the start
(27:54):
of the Yankee broadcast and John Sterling did about ten
minutes of commercials. At the start he'd be like, Yankee
Baseball is not to you, but I BMW and then
you know, you're like seventeen different car dealerships. He'd do
a bunch of financial companies because of the Wall Street
crowd and all that. It was just it was hilarious, right,
but he was unapologetically himself. And you know why fit in?
(28:16):
As the I learned this from doctor Seuss. Why fit in?
We were born to stand out right? And Sterling didn't
describe the moment he became the moment. Now, in closing
on this tribute to John Sterling, the question now, is
is it true that John Sterling was a friend of
the show. So I would say, yes, John Sterling was
not listen. We didn't have him on all the time
(28:37):
and all that. John Sterling, I interviewed him a few
times and when you chatted with him. The thing I
will say about this Sterling, and I've been lucky enough
to meet some of these people that are big time broadcasters,
and a lot of them are total schmucks. They're just douchebags,
complete a holes. You don't want to deal with these people,
just bad people. John Sterling, My interaction with was very positive.
(29:02):
I met him in Anaheim at an Angel Yankee game
back in the glory days of the Yankees, when I
was out of the games all the time, and I
introduced myself and he seemed to genuinely care what I
was doing. I'm sure he didn't give a rats ask
what I was doing, but he seemed he seemed to
care what I was doing. And he gave me his
phone number, say if you never need anything, give me
(29:22):
a call. I'd love to go on your show or whatever.
So I said, okay. And did I use the call
the number all the time? No, it was like a
rare spice, you know, rare spice you don't use all
the time. It's a rare spice. Only certain recipes require
a rare spice. So I didn't call him all the time.
And the fact that just gave me the number and
he always answered or either called back, and that that's
(29:42):
very And he had to leave a voicemail. He didn't
do text, didn't do the text, so you had to
do the voicemail and all that, and he'd call you
right back and he'd a hello, this is John and
all that. And we had him on Fox Sports Radio
a couple times when I was doing some weekend shows.
We had him on the fifth hour a couple of
years back. And every time I reached out to him,
(30:03):
he was like, I can do it. Here's the times
I can do it. I'd love to do it. He
never turned me down one time, and he certainly could
have and he didn't. And I think part of it
was he was kind of lonely unfortunately at the end
there he was just kind of hanging out watching reruns
of old movies and stuff at night. I don't know,
but he was very nice to me, and I would
give him on my report card, John Sterling. I wrote
(30:25):
down mensch with a not a you know, not a
capitol M mench, A mensch on the bench if you
will here underline it twice if you want to. Just
a good guy. And he once told me, and I
mentioned that when I was driving around, I wasn't driving.
Somebody else was driving. We were in New York in
a cab and they had the beginning of the Yankee
broadcast and they had like ten minutes of commercial. Was like,
(30:46):
my god, was this ridiculous? Which sometimes sounds like our
show during super Bowl week or whatever, but I was
like whatever, And John gave me this whole lecture about
how he's like, listen, the most important thing. He summed
up this tremendous wisdom. He said, the most important thing
is to sell the soap. You gotta sell the soap.
And that's the line I took away from that conversation,
(31:08):
the last one we had on the podcast a couple
of years ago, and that's it. I mean nine words.
The most important thing is to sell the soap. That's it.
Nine words. That's all you got. And the Hall of
Fame wisdom by John Sterling. And you can't do that
with an algorithm. I don't care how great your AI is.
You can't recreate John Sterling, and not a focus group.
(31:32):
You can't. You just can't do it. It'll never happen again
because until baseball, these sports leagues go back to the
mom and pop days, which I don't see that ever
happening in my lifetime. The corporations won't allow it. If
you say anything on the edge, you get a phone call,
you get a text message, Hey, ease up on these guys. Well,
even when I did it, there was a game there
(31:55):
was like seven errors in a game and I was
ripping the defense and I pointed that out and then
they they got upset with me. But anyway, Sterling, good
for a life well lived for John Sterley. Too many
broadcasters today sound like elevator music and they're afraid to
wake up the baby, and there they're whispering like they're
(32:16):
golf announcers. And John Sterling woke up the whole building
and didn't care. And that was it. And there were
some tremendous bloopers. You know, John's vision wasn't very good effect.
The last time I saw him in person was a
Yankee Dodger game at Yankee Stadium a couple of years
at Dodger Stadium, rather a couple of years back, and
I kind of snuck in the back of the Yankee
radio booth and John was calling the game off the television,
(32:40):
which was fine, except sometimes the TV is a little
delayed on that and of course, the most famous John
Sterling Blooper was when I think it was Justin Turner
was playing for the Red Sox and he fouled the
ball back to the press box and it joinked off
John Sterling's head while he was calling. He didn't even
he was like because he wasn't paying attention. It was like,
but rest in peace, John Sterling just a tremendous character
(33:04):
in our lives, and it was great to I didn't
obviously grow up in New York, didn't live in New York.
I heard him on the internet and whatnot over the
years and when I visited family there. So rest in peace,
John Sterling.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Should we introduce our contestants real quick? You want to
do that? Let's do that all right? We don't need
the production and no production. Jed, who fled is gonna
be one of our contestants? Hello Jed from the Redneck Riviera.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Yeah, I'm here Redneck Riviera. Dude, I gotta give it
my mouth for sure.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Who do you want to partner up with? Quickly? Jesse? Okay,
all right, that's a first bad decision. Well, not the first.
You've made many bad decisions. Lorena. We have one, two
or three? Lorena, one two or three? Number three? All right?
You have picked far Out Dave, who was a no
show at the Mallard meet and greet despite saying he
was going to be there. Hello, far out Dave.
Speaker 5 (34:01):
Hi, I was gonna be there till my girlfriend said
she wouldn't take me.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
She had to give her boyfriend a ride somewhere.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Wait, so your girlfriend has a boyfriend. Yep, huh interesting, Okay,
but you would you? That's why you're far out there?
Would you? You're partying with me or Lorena?
Speaker 4 (34:20):
I mean, Lorena's awesome, But I guess Hi, Lorado, I'm
gon gonna.
Speaker 6 (34:23):
Go with you, bess?
Speaker 1 (34:23):
All right, quickly, what are the categories here? Coop quickly please?
Speaker 5 (34:27):
All right, gentlemen, this is the Adele edition of Mallard's
Amount of Money.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
Think sports Radio, You think Adele. That's right. She turns
thirty eight years old today. Oh my gosh, she's so old.
Speaker 5 (34:37):
The categories are hometown glory, rumor has it someone like you?
And turning tables. Oh and let's see, Jed, which category
would you like? I would chee.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Rolling in the deep.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
So I guess I'll turn the tables.
Speaker 5 (34:52):
All right, and Dave, how about you?
Speaker 1 (34:59):
All right? Okay, everyone, hold on, okay, do not hang up,
or you are disqualified. We will have Malors Mountain of Money.
We'll get to that. We'll do it next.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Now, Mailor's Mountain of Money?
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Do you have what it takes to get to the top? Probably?
Speaker 5 (35:32):
Not?
Speaker 1 (35:32):
All right? Right to the game. We've got Jed who
fled from the Redneck riviera and he is matched up
with Coop and far out Dave, whose girlfriend would not
take him to the Malor meet and greet because her
boyfriend or his Yeah, I guess her real boyfriend didn't
want that to happen. Hey, all right, let's go. What
are we doing here? Coop? Quickly?
Speaker 5 (35:53):
All right, Jed? We have turning tables. These athletes all
ended up playing for sworn rivals.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Are you ready, weird?
Speaker 5 (36:02):
Al R?
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Are you on speakerphone? Get off speakerphone?
Speaker 5 (36:05):
All right, forty five seconds, let's begin, all right, Hall,
of Fame quarterback for the Packers, wor number four Red Barker. Yes,
this guy his nickname was the Big Cactus. When he
left uh the Lakers and played for the Celtics.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Center with Kobe that's a terrible crew.
Speaker 5 (36:24):
Yes, yes, yes, this guy was a wide receiver for
the Eagles. He played in the Super Bowl with them,
then he went to the no then he went to
the Cowboys. He also played for the forty nine ers. Yes,
this guy was a cornerback for the New York Jets,
and then he went to the Patriots. You don't want
to be stuck on his island. Yes, this guy was
(36:45):
a legendary drinker for the Red Sox and then the
Yankees can be anyway, No, all right, we'll skip it.
This guy was on the red size.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
All right.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
You should have said ate fried chicken every day?
Speaker 5 (36:59):
Do you get a Wade Boggs was the one that
we wait box chicken every day?
Speaker 1 (37:04):
There was a famous cheating scanner with Margot Adams.
Speaker 5 (37:07):
All right, we don't have time for.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Alright, I just remember that. What do we do far out? Dave?
You picked something? Why is everyone talking? I'm trying to
do a damn game.
Speaker 5 (37:16):
Yeah, David right in the middle of a game show.
What are you doing, Dave, get your.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
Grandma's I'm getting yelled at, but oh my getting yelled
at by the girlfriend.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
I'm gonna go. All right, go ahead, let's go, okay,
something like you. These athletes all have children who followed
in their footsteps. Are you ready, Dave? Al right? Forty
five seconds? Run away. His nickname is prime Time. Yes, uh,
great boxers, sting like a bee, float like a butter belly. Yes. Uh.
(37:46):
He's on the NFL on Fox. He played for the
old La Raiders. He's still on there with Yes his uh.
His kids are Peyton and Eli. He played for the Saints. Yeah,
that is correct. Old manager of the Montreal Expos. His
kid is Moyses. He also was a great player for
(38:07):
the Expo. What's his first name? We need the first name,
gol say Warrior player, shot foul shots underhanded in the
seventies and the eighties. White there. Yeah, his kids clay
for the Warriors. He's a Laker legend, not really a legend.
What heiti? All right? We got the lead?
Speaker 5 (38:24):
All right, Jed, would you like rumor has it? Or
hometown glory?
Speaker 1 (38:28):
I know it's Felipe Lou Okay, j Ohn't you I
didn't touch it? Jed?
Speaker 5 (38:34):
Would you like a hometown glory? Or rumor has it
all right? Rumor has it you're losing. These athletes were
all rumored to have used peds. Uh oh, forty five
seconds on the clock.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Lets began.
Speaker 5 (38:46):
Quarterback for the Colts and the Broncos. Yes, this guy
was a slugger for the Cardinals than the Angels.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Oh Albert.
Speaker 5 (38:55):
Yes, this guy's nickname was the Rocket.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
He pitched for the Red Sox and the Yankees.
Speaker 5 (39:00):
Yes, this guy was a bald linebacker for the Steelers.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
He was huge.
Speaker 6 (39:05):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (39:07):
Yes, this guy had blonde hair, long blonde hair. Linebacker
for the Packers. Yes, this guy was the brother of Aaron,
the manager of the Yankees. Yes, this guy was married
to Halle Berry. He was an outfielder for the Braves
and then.
Speaker 6 (39:25):
Yes, whoa, all right, let's go. Here we go, far
out day, Here we go, far out day. All right,
shut up, you're on hold, far up, alright, alright, all right,
far out day, here we go. They all won championships
in their hometowns. Linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers. His last
name is a Canned Meet in the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
Great linebacker, Yes great. I picked off Peyton Manning to
win the Super Bowl for the New Orleans Saints and
know night. No safety for safety for the Saints, closer
for the athletics. Seat gave up, gave up Dennis gus
Lee's home run. That's delay. We was all shop go
crab to be shot up. Cot strewed up the clock,
(40:09):
that's all
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mahler
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and to find your local
station for the Benmatlers Show at Foxsports Radio dot Com.
You can find it there or stream us live every
night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
We'll start out in Motown. We'll start out in the
state of Michigan where Caid Cuttingham who had a hiccup,
he had a glitch in his game earlier in the series,
kept turning the ball over. Well, that'll all be forgotten,
cutting him with thirty two points, filling up the box
score thirty two points, twelve assists and a partridge into Paratree.
Tobias Harris Journeyman Tobias Harris had thirty points. The Pistons
(00:57):
make the magic disappear. No, no Na, good bye, I
see it later. Orlando out of the playoffs one sixteen
to ninety four in Game seven on Sunday. So that
means that the Pistons have won a playoff series. If
you're eighteen years old. This is like the first time
pretty much in your lifetime they've won a playoff series.
(01:18):
It had been eighteen years the last time. How's that
possible that they had won a playoff series? But there
we are in cutting him thirty two points. He averaged
thirty two point four points per game for Detroit in
this series. And they last won a postseason series against
the aforementioned Orlando Magic way back in eight barely a
(01:42):
memory of that. Barely a memory of that. And so
the Pistons now advanced, they will play the Cadavers in
game number one of that series. That'll be coming up
on Tuesday. That would be tomorrow. I know it still
late Sunday night in the West, but there'll be a
quiz on this, so it's late Sunday in the West,
but it's gonna be early early on on on Tuesday,
(02:03):
which is tomorrow. So it's almost Monday, so that means tomorrow.
So there you go. The Pistons will take on the
team from Ohio. The better story, though, is in the
losing locker room on this once, so we're going to
focus on that. Where Paulo Boncherro was asked he had
a big stat line. Was asked about the status of
the Magic franchise. They don't seem to do anything in
(02:26):
the playoffs. I've been in the playoffs a few times
here recently, and they haven't really made any noise, made
their mark any of that. And he was seated there
at the postgame news conference on stage at the Dais
and Bonchero. He paused a little bit before answering the question,
and he was asked the question, he said, I want
(02:47):
to say yes. When asked the question, he said, but
this is the third straight time we haven't gotten out
of the first round. Bon Chero said, So if you're
going off the last three years, the answer is no
talking about whether or not the Magic can get it
done this group of players. So if this is going
off for the last three years, obviously not. I can't
(03:07):
say we're good enough to be in the finals of
the Eastern Finals, he said, because of the last three
years we've had the same results. So that's your answer. Okay,
thank you, good jumping off point. Let us discuss the question.
Now here's the question. Can you explain what's wrong? Because
we have all the answers doing overnight talk radio. What
(03:28):
is wrong? With Paul all Voncero's Orlando Magic in the playoffs. Playoffs.
So on this one, we'll bounce around a little bit.
We've got co workers Warning Label and George Nori, and
we will combine all of these things together and we
(03:50):
are going to put the biscuit in the basket, is
what we're going to do. So a the Orlando Magic.
After a minutes long review of the available information, I
have determined, and I'm never wrong about these things, the
Orlando Magic are not cursed. They are not cursed. Okay,
they're not. They're stuck in the worst possible place, the
worst possible place in sports. That mushy middle, that mushy,
(04:13):
mushy middle. That's where they are. That's where they're Lando
Mets are. They're not bad enough to bottom out. They're
not trying to bottom out. They did that a few
years ago. And they've got a bunch of players that
are high draftics. They traded five draft picks to get
Desmond Maine. Did anyone see him do anything good? I
didn't see anything in this game against the Pistons. But
in terms of the question getting back to it, they're
(04:35):
in the middle. The Orlando Magic are in that mushy
middle there, and it's essentially the way I interpreted what
Bonchero said. He basically gave you the corporate to prove truth,
which is that the team is good, they're just not
that good. And that's the Magic in a nutshell. They're good,
they're just not that good. And it's the the Disney honesty,
(04:59):
I said, the honesty there from a team that plays
its home games down the road from the Magic Castle
there in Florida, and all that their playoff identity. Here's
the Orlando Magic playoff identity. They had this series, they
had a choke hold on it, and they gave it
all the worst Game seven. You said, well that was
bad Game six though they were kicking the tail of
the Pistons and it all went to hell. All of
(05:22):
it went to hell. And their playoff entity identity, they
show up, the Orlando Magic. They show up, they try hard,
they lose very politely. They're very polite when they lose,
they're very polite. It's very important to be polite. There's
no closer. They don't appear to have that guy. You're
not that guy, pal, they don't have that assassin out there.
And it's a committee it's a group project. Maybe we'll
(05:44):
do it next year. Maybe we'll get it done next year.
That'll be what we do. We're going to get it
done next year. And so they're not out there as killers.
The star players, the forever players that the Magic got,
Desmond Main and Aven bon Chero, and it's like they're
just kind of clocking in and out. La la la
la la la la la la la la la la
la la la la. And when that happens, all right,
(06:06):
when that happens, you and I both know what happens next.
Say bye bye to the head coach. You know that's
gonna happen. Jamal Moseley. There were rumors that the players
were at loggerheads with Mosley prior to the series, and
it was guaranteed he was gonna be out. Well, now
this cements it, and that's it. That's all she wrote there.
(06:27):
And you know he's hearing footsteps, Jamal Mosley, the whispers,
the friction behind the scenes and all that for Orlando.
So the the NBA, they try to sell hope. They're
big on hope. It's all about hope. We're selling hope, hope, hope, hope, hope.
Orlando sells layaway. It's it's like, well, we'll get to
it eventually. Just pay a little beach here, We'll get
(06:48):
to it eventually.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Meanwhile, to Cleveland we go where the late game on
the basketball card on Sunday, Jared Allen getting it done.
He Toddy playoff career. I had twenty two points and
nineteen rebounds, and the Cleveland basketball team advancing to the
Eastern Conference semi finals as they win by twelve. The game,
(07:12):
Toronto led early and then they had to play the
rest of the game, and very early on the Raptors
looked like they were in good shape, and then by
halftime it was all tied up, and then after that
forget about it. So that sets things up. Donovan Mitchell
was the big man on campus. He had twenty two points,
tied with Jared Allen for the lead. There James Harden playoff.
(07:36):
Harden did not play that great. He had eighteen points.
And so that's it's. Scottie Barnes face of the NBA,
Scottie Barnes All Stars. Scottie Barnes. He played well. He
had twenty four points for Toronto, nine rebounds. RJ Barrett
twenty three as well for the Raptors, who were in
the playoffs for the first time way back in twenty
(07:57):
twenty two. I barely remember that also two. So the question,
let's focus in on the Cleveland side of things here
on this one, as they were one of the better
seeds in the East. He had a lot of excitement
when they got James Harden. I don't know why they did.
And so the question is the glass half full or
is the glass half empty? For the Spider Mitchell calves
(08:24):
all right, so you'd say, well, they won, so it's
half full. But I'd say no, You'd say, well it's
half empty because they didn't play that well. I'd say
the answer is neither. I'm gonna go with none of
the above. The glass, I'll put it this way. The
glass is not half full. It's not half empty. It
is cracked. The glass is it cracked, it's leaking, and
(08:44):
somehow James Harden keeps dropping it while Donovan Mitchell goes
over there and he's got some duct tape and he's
trying to put the thing back together and all that.
At this point, Cleveland's claim to fame here the pro
bouncy ball team in Cleveland is surveability is what it is.
They don't win clean. Then, were any of these games
(09:06):
just a surgical take that I don't remember? Maybe the
first game. I don't feel like that was the case, though.
So they're able to survive and escape and all that,
And this Toronto series not a victory lap. This was
not some kind of statement that was made said here
we are, We're on our way. This is not a
statement situation at all. It was kind of like, Okay,
(09:29):
you won the series. Congratulations. It's like crawling out of
a bad escape room and you have no clues left
except one that you couldn't solve. Well, I couldn't you
solve it? I couldn't solve it. Well, will you get
back in there? What are you doing? And so that's
where a lot of turnovers. Ugly basketball, shaky basketball, The
(09:50):
shooting was not good. Defensive laps is all over the place, here,
there and everywhere. It's like the greatest Hits album for
the cadavers on bad habits in this series. Yet they win.
They did everything they could to lose until the end,
and then they pulled that out Cleveland and they win
the game. So it does appear they are allergic to comfort.
They do not appreciate comfort here. And you build a
(10:12):
lead up and immediately Pop goes the lead, just like that,
Just like that, Pop goes the lead like a cheap
bubble wrap. That's how that went. So if the Cavaliers,
if they were on Wall Street and you say, okay,
what kind of stock are they, Well, they're not a
penny stock. They're not a gold standard stock like a
(10:35):
stock's been around forever, you know, is gonna make your money.
They're not that. They'd be the stock that comes with
the big black and yellow, black and yellow, black and
yellow warning label volatile, high risk. It's a high risk stock,
emotional damage guaranteed. So I keep hearing Championship Window. The
Calves are going for it with James Harden. I did
(10:55):
not see any anything in this matchup that leads me
to blee that team is on their way to a
magic carpet ride the Cavaliers to go to the NBA Finals.
I see nothing, in fact, just the opposite. I see
this is a team that gonna be lucky if they
get past the Pistons in round two. And people are
about Championship Window, this, that and the other thing. But
there's no frame it's just a draft and a prayer
(11:18):
at this point. That's where we are, all right. Meanwhile,
we now go to Boston where the if you are
the Celtics winning the NBA Championship, you're a loser, as
they were decommissioned from the playoffs over the weekend. And
then we got some really wild conversation from Jalen Brown,
(11:39):
the star of the Celtish now Jalen Brown claiming on
Twitch where I get all my breaking sports news on Twitch.
I wonder if he was playing games with Blake Snell,
the guy that is a gamer that sometimes pitches for
the Dodgers, but not really just more of a gamer.
I don't know about that. Jalen Brown, though claimed on
Twitch at the NBA referees had a targeted agenda against him.
(12:05):
Do do do Do Do Do do do? Yep uh
in the playoffs playoffs, that's right, saying they called offensive files.
Cording to Jalen Brown, they called offensive files every time
he put his hands up, possibly due to the regular
season outsmoking criticism of the Zebras and that rant following
(12:26):
the Celtics, who blew a three games to one lead
in their playoff series as they have been exterminated by
the Sixers, who had that at Philadelphia look beating and broken.
They were people calling each other's names in the locker room.
And now the Sixers came back, they win that series.
In Brown had also been critical of Joel enbad floppy
(12:48):
mcflop uh and and all that. Al Right, I guess
we have the other. All right, let's go to the
audio here. Let's go to the audio tape. Take a list.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
This is my personal opinion on basketball. Some of y'am
might disagree, but argue with your grandma. Flopping has ruined
our game. Joel Ebid is a great player, one of
the best bigs in basketball history.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Flops.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
He know it. This ain't breaking news. It is what
it is. I can clip it up, like I said,
y'all can post it on these paid accounts that he's
bought whatever.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Okay, there you go, wonderful Jalen Brown right there. It's
all of course, this has been This is not new.
This has been going on for thirty years, at least
twenty five years. At least twenty five years. All right,
So question, how does Jalen Brown come across with his
grumbling over the NBA referees and the whole thing. This
(13:38):
guy's flopping. I'm not getting any calls here. They're out
to get me. The man's holding me down. That's essentially
his argument. The man's holding me down. That's Jalen Brown,
all right. So Jalen Brown out here talking like the referees.
We're tapping his phone. There was a wire tap on
Jalen Brown's phone. And it seems a little deeper than
(14:01):
just frustration, like there's it's more than just frustration there.
This is a full blown the league is watching me.
Paranoia is what that comes across to me. And it
appears that Jalen Brown this offseason should spend some time
picking up a little side hustle. And I recommend the
number two chare. I know George Nori works alone over
(14:22):
on Coast to Coast, but why not put Jalen Brown
in there as a coast so at least you can
host the weekend version of Coast to Coast and can
talk about the Kim Trails and the little Gremlins and
all that. Not to get him who says no. I
don't know anyone would say no. Jaylen Brown acting like
(14:42):
every whistle was not just a foul, but a coordinate
surveillance operation against him, because of course the NBA doesn't
want the Celtics that have a national fan base to
advance in the playoffs and all that stuff, of course,
and he can lose a series. Jalen Brown lose a
series here, he lost a battle with the imaginary Boogeyman,
(15:06):
is what happened. So he's essentially accusing the referees of
some kind of psychological warfare, describing a conspiracy thriller back
in the old days when they made good movies in Hollywood.
And it's that not just a random playoff series where
you gagged away, you played with your food and you lost.
It's a bad job by you. So Jalen out there
talking like the officials had a dossier on him, convinced
(15:32):
that every whistle was actually not just a whistle, it
was a dog whistle coded message from the illumina, the
deep state of the NBA. Now, do I think sometimes
this stuff happens? Absolutely, of course I do. Do I
think the NBA was out to get Jalen Brown? No,
And does that explain why every other guy in the
Celtics in that last game it was a brick house yeah,
(15:55):
I don't think so. I don't think so. So. Anyway,
did he think the referees were hiding in the bushes
before tip off outside the arena? Is that what was
going on here? So we'll see. Get him on some
of those meds that blind Scott's got, he'll be all right.
Of course he doesn't doesn't really take those either.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Mellor
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Steve Gotts here, I have a podcast empire. It continues
to grow, and I have brought it here to iHeart.
I'm also doing a live radio show from three to
five pm Eastern because my wife wanted to kick me
out of the house. It's called Stu Gots and Company Live,
which is available in podcast form right when the show
finishes every single day. Some of the biggest names in sports.
(16:44):
A lot of phone calls.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
I love you guys the show. It's one of my favorite.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
A lot of interact shit guys, not taking themselves too seriously.
Those are just some of the things that you can
expect from Stu gottson Company and Stegotson Company Live. So
listen to Stu Gotson Company Live ed our original podcast.
Please subscribe, rate and review Steve Gottson Company and God
Bless Football. Taylor's livelihood depends on it. You do it
(17:09):
today and you can check all of those out on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
We did lose one of the great voices of baseball.
Depending on how old you are, this guy somebody's been
around a long time, did it very well and has
now unfortunately crossed over the pearly gates. I assume you've
heard by now, but possibly not. John Sterling, the exuberant
radio voice of the New York Yankees radio broadcasts. He
(17:43):
did it with a flare and just had his own
spin to it, the home run calls, as he was
known for a big part of Yankee baseball in their
last glory days when they were winning the World Series
every couple of years there, when they had Jorge Pasada
and Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter and those guys, and
(18:04):
we're winning all the time. Yiy cays waiting BAI gays
when all of that. So that's what he said after
wins would say it after losses, and he has died,
crossing over the parlygates there on Monday eighty seven. Tributes
coming in here, there and everywhere from around baseball. Yankee legends,
(18:26):
young and old, young and old, all had something they
wanted to say about John Sterling. Seems everyone has a
story about John Sterling, the golden voice of the Yankees
for all of those years on the radio. So that
is a good jumping off point. I would like to
join in. I have some thoughts on this, as some
(18:47):
of you know that we've had John on the podcast,
and I had had John when I used to do
a weekend show here. We had John Sterling on a
few times, very very kind to me over the years.
I didn't interact with him all that often. I did
put me a handful of times in person, and was
always really cool. Was always really cool. So let's get
(19:09):
into it the question how are you going to remember?
How are you going to remember Yankee broadcaster John Sterling.
So there's always the micro and the macro on this.
I've got bedazzled kool aid Man and Rare Spice, and
we'll combine all of these things together and we are
(19:30):
going to make a Broadway show, because that's one of
the things that pops in my head when I think
about John Sterling calling Yankee baseball now number what number one?
Number one? Number one? Okay. I think of John Sterling
as what I would call a broadcasters broadcaster, if you
know what I mean. Uh, And don't don't kid yourself,
(19:54):
and we don't need to go too deep on this.
He wasn't playing it straight down the middle. That wasn't
the way he did it. Many ways to make a bed,
there's more than one, and there's more than one way
to do a broadcast. Now. I grew up with Vin
Scully who attempted to play it right down the middle
and all that. John Sterling never attempted to play it
(20:16):
right down the middle. You always knew where John Sterling
was in relationship to where the game was, the score
of the game, how the season was going for the Yankees.
And Sterling took that approach, the play it down the
middle approach, and he took it like a piece of paper,
and he kind of he crumbled up the piece of
(20:37):
paper and he tossed it into the Hudson, possibly the
East River, but I think it was the Hudson, and
he went full opposite. He went the other direction there,
and it worked for him. He was a debonair guy,
well dressed, obviously charismatic as the Yankee play by play guy.
And in my conversations with John Sterling the few times
(20:59):
that we had him on the radio and whatnot, he
was fully aware that his audience was not the NPR
audience they wanted to show. Okay, they wanted to show.
You can think, who's listening to Yankee baseball in the
radio as people driving around, It's people at work that
are working the night shift, because most Yankee games are
(21:20):
at night. People that don't have access to television blind,
I mean, those are the people that are listening to
Yankee baseball. So yeah, guys listening to you, they're likely
going home from work, driving to work, they're working the
late shift and all that. These are Yankee hardos, and
Sterling embraced that he did, and he did that broadcast
for the die hard, the faithful Brox Bomber fans, and
(21:45):
he fed them a study diet of theater. His play
by play technique was theatrical is the word I will
use here. He was not a broadcaster per se He
was a one man Broadway productive Yankees winn Yankees, and
(22:06):
he had a press box seat. And most announcers just
described the moment, They just describe what's going on. Sterling
decorated it. He did. He bedazzled the broadcast. And I
have just having some conversations via text with some friends
of mine who do that kind of work for a living,
and the thing that was noted to me, and I
think it's a fair point. Most of Sterling's career as
(22:29):
a broadcaster was before social media. Yet he provided In
the old days, we used to play a lot of
those those cuts, the play by play cuts on the radio.
He had updates, live updates, the old days stations had
live updates, and so we'd play those things at night.
And the late great Frank Pollock, may he rest in peace.
Frank's probably busting John Stirling's balls right now. It's some
(22:52):
kind of a buffet on the other side right there,
yapping to each other. But Frank Polk was my board
op for years, and Frank was a legend. He was
a chick hern famous Lake broadcaster, his boardop and we
had so much fun when Frank was my board up
because we would just do the Yankee rundown. And it
wasn't because we were just trying to kill time. We
just loved all the stupid drops that John Sterling provided us.
(23:14):
But he bedazzled the broadcast. He put jazz hands off
the whole thing. He didn't just call the game. He
accessorized the broadcast. And in the Big Apple, you know,
you got a guy like Sterling said, well, this is
what are you doing. It's just the Yankees, this is
the Wall Street crowd, like the Mets of the Long
Island construction workers and the Yankees of the Wall Street
(23:35):
people and all that. And he laid that that shtick,
as my grandfather would say, that shtikla. He laid that
on thicker than a piece of cheesecake, just really thick
the New York cheese cake every night. And to his credit,
and this is the way you're supposed to do it.
And the people that know what they're doing every night,
you treat it like it's the most important broadcast and
(23:57):
not just Game seventy seven, one hundred and sixty two.
And you're playing in Seattle and it's ten thirty at
night in New York and no one's listening. You treat
it differently, you treat it as it matters. And he
was larger than life, he louder than life, and unapologetically
just gave you more. John Sterling the last true ringmaster
(24:21):
of the theatrical baseball radio broadcast. And people die and say, well,
they'll never be another one like them. And that's generally
true for all of us. We're all individuals, right, We're
all individuals in terms of the skill set. Though there
can never be another John Sterling. He would not be
allowed to work the corporate bullcrap. John Sterling is a
(24:41):
product of his era. Obvious, we're all products of our era.
And he came in when sports was a mom and
pop operation, which meant people that owned teams were regular people.
They weren't conglaborants, they weren't hedge funds, and they appreciated
that type of work. Now, oh my god, you're embursing
the brown what are you doing? And even no, George Steinbrenner,
(25:04):
the guy that was there that hired John Sterling, has
been dead for many years. It's still a family business.
The kids kept John Sterling employed up until just a
few years ago when he could no longer do it. Now,
flipping the page, but not far as it is the
hour of tribute to the Great John Sterling, the late
great John Sterling, who passed away this week at the
(25:26):
age of eighty seven. So what was the secret sauce
that made John Sterling such a unique character in Yankee broadcasting.
He's just baseball broadcasting in general, So this is simple.
He didn't just call a game, he performed it. Now,
I worked with a guy and I forget his name.
I did a TV show with him for a couple
(25:46):
of years and he said to me, this is not
John Sterling. But he said to me, the key is
to make it all about you. I think his name
was Looney or something like that. Well, anyway, it turns
out that John Sterling made it all about him and
it worked. It worked right, And most broadcasters kind of
melted into the background and you're whispering the game, and
(26:06):
you're giving the out of town scoreboard and you're reading
all that like it's a library. John stolen, though, he
broadcast the game as if he was crashing through a
wall like that picture shaped kool aid Man, shouting oh yeah,
loud and proud, and you weren't tuning in for the
Yankees per se, you were tuning in for the Sterling
(26:29):
cinematic universe, where every at bat, every at bat was
what it was, a brand launch, and every player had
a Marvel style origin story, every one of them. Right,
home run, please, come on? That wasn't just a home run?
What do you naive?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
No?
Speaker 1 (26:47):
That was a fireworks show with catchphrases attached. Hey mom
from a rod Burn, baby burn, all of them all rise,
Here comes the Judge, the Gum, the thriller from Godzilla
for Hideki Matsu. Now, my two favorites are not mentioned
(27:10):
very often because they're not great ballplayers. My two favorite
calls that John Sterling had that I repeated for many years.
Of fact, I often still repeat them is one for
Curtis Granderson, the Grandee Man Can the grand de Man
Can loved it. And Robbie Cano, and all that was
when Cano would hit a home run, he'd say, Robbie Cano,
(27:33):
don't you know? And that was it. And when the
game dragged, Sterling said, we need more juice. I'll give
you some more juice. I remember it was visiting my
brother who lives in New York, and I was we
were in a with my car, but we were driving
around and the guy who in the car it was
like a taxi a long time ago, and they had
the Yankee game on and it was just the start
(27:54):
of the Yankee broadcast and John Sterling did about ten
minutes of commercials. At the start he'd be like, Yankee
Baseball is not to you, but I BMW and then
you know, you're like seventeen different car dealerships. He'd do
a bunch of financial companies because of the Wall Street
crowd and all that. It was just it was hilarious, right,
but he was unapologetically himself. And you know why fit in?
(28:16):
As the I learned this from doctor Seuss. Why fit in?
We were born to stand out right? And Sterling didn't
describe the moment he became the moment. Now, in closing
on this tribute to John Sterling, the question now, is
is it true that John Sterling was a friend of
the show. So I would say, yes, John Sterling was
not listen. We didn't have him on all the time
(28:37):
and all that. John Sterling, I interviewed him a few
times and when you chatted with him. The thing I
will say about this Sterling, and I've been lucky enough
to meet some of these people that are big time broadcasters,
and a lot of them are total schmucks. They're just douchebags,
complete a holes. You don't want to deal with these people,
just bad people. John Sterling, My interaction with was very positive.
(29:02):
I met him in Anaheim at an Angel Yankee game
back in the glory days of the Yankees, when I
was out of the games all the time, and I
introduced myself and he seemed to genuinely care what I
was doing. I'm sure he didn't give a rats ask
what I was doing, but he seemed he seemed to
care what I was doing. And he gave me his
phone number, say if you never need anything, give me
(29:22):
a call. I'd love to go on your show or whatever.
So I said, okay. And did I use the call
the number all the time? No, it was like a
rare spice, you know, rare spice you don't use all
the time. It's a rare spice. Only certain recipes require
a rare spice. So I didn't call him all the time.
And the fact that just gave me the number and
he always answered or either called back, and that that's
(29:42):
very And he had to leave a voicemail. He didn't
do text, didn't do the text, so you had to
do the voicemail and all that, and he'd call you
right back and he'd a hello, this is John and
all that. And we had him on Fox Sports Radio
a couple times when I was doing some weekend shows.
We had him on the fifth hour a couple of
years back. And every time I reached out to him,
(30:03):
he was like, I can do it. Here's the times
I can do it. I'd love to do it. He
never turned me down one time, and he certainly could
have and he didn't. And I think part of it
was he was kind of lonely unfortunately at the end
there he was just kind of hanging out watching reruns
of old movies and stuff at night. I don't know,
but he was very nice to me, and I would
give him on my report card, John Sterling. I wrote
(30:25):
down mensch with a not a you know, not a
capitol M mench, A mensch on the bench if you
will here underline it twice if you want to. Just
a good guy. And he once told me, and I
mentioned that when I was driving around, I wasn't driving.
Somebody else was driving. We were in New York in
a cab and they had the beginning of the Yankee
broadcast and they had like ten minutes of commercial. Was like,
(30:46):
my god, was this ridiculous? Which sometimes sounds like our
show during super Bowl week or whatever, but I was
like whatever, And John gave me this whole lecture about
how he's like, listen, the most important thing. He summed
up this tremendous wisdom. He said, the most important thing
is to sell the soap. You gotta sell the soap.
And that's the line I took away from that conversation,
(31:08):
the last one we had on the podcast a couple
of years ago, and that's it. I mean nine words.
The most important thing is to sell the soap. That's it.
Nine words. That's all you got. And the Hall of
Fame wisdom by John Sterling. And you can't do that
with an algorithm. I don't care how great your AI is.
You can't recreate John Sterling, and not a focus group.
(31:32):
You can't. You just can't do it. It'll never happen again
because until baseball, these sports leagues go back to the
mom and pop days, which I don't see that ever
happening in my lifetime. The corporations won't allow it. If
you say anything on the edge, you get a phone call,
you get a text message, Hey, ease up on these guys. Well,
even when I did it, there was a game there
(31:55):
was like seven errors in a game and I was
ripping the defense and I pointed that out and then
they they got upset with me. But anyway, Sterling, good
for a life well lived for John Sterley. Too many
broadcasters today sound like elevator music and they're afraid to
wake up the baby, and there they're whispering like they're
(32:16):
golf announcers. And John Sterling woke up the whole building
and didn't care. And that was it. And there were
some tremendous bloopers. You know, John's vision wasn't very good effect.
The last time I saw him in person was a
Yankee Dodger game at Yankee Stadium a couple of years
at Dodger Stadium, rather a couple of years back, and
I kind of snuck in the back of the Yankee
radio booth and John was calling the game off the television,
(32:40):
which was fine, except sometimes the TV is a little
delayed on that and of course, the most famous John
Sterling Blooper was when I think it was Justin Turner
was playing for the Red Sox and he fouled the
ball back to the press box and it joinked off
John Sterling's head while he was calling. He didn't even
he was like because he wasn't paying attention. It was like,
but rest in peace, John Sterling just a tremendous character
(33:04):
in our lives, and it was great to I didn't
obviously grow up in New York, didn't live in New York.
I heard him on the internet and whatnot over the
years and when I visited family there. So rest in peace,
John Sterling.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Should we introduce our contestants real quick? You want to
do that? Let's do that all right? We don't need
the production and no production. Jed, who fled is gonna
be one of our contestants? Hello Jed from the Redneck Riviera.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Yeah, I'm here Redneck Riviera. Dude, I gotta give it
my mouth for sure.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Who do you want to partner up with? Quickly? Jesse? Okay,
all right, that's a first bad decision. Well, not the first.
You've made many bad decisions. Lorena. We have one, two
or three? Lorena, one two or three? Number three? All right?
You have picked far Out Dave, who was a no
show at the Mallard meet and greet despite saying he
was going to be there. Hello, far out Dave.
Speaker 5 (34:01):
Hi, I was gonna be there till my girlfriend said
she wouldn't take me.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
She had to give her boyfriend a ride somewhere.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Wait, so your girlfriend has a boyfriend. Yep, huh interesting, Okay,
but you would you? That's why you're far out there?
Would you? You're partying with me or Lorena?
Speaker 4 (34:20):
I mean, Lorena's awesome, But I guess Hi, Lorado, I'm
gon gonna.
Speaker 6 (34:23):
Go with you, bess?
Speaker 1 (34:23):
All right, quickly, what are the categories here? Coop quickly please?
Speaker 5 (34:27):
All right, gentlemen, this is the Adele edition of Mallard's
Amount of Money.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
Think sports Radio, You think Adele. That's right. She turns
thirty eight years old today. Oh my gosh, she's so old.
Speaker 5 (34:37):
The categories are hometown glory, rumor has it someone like you?
And turning tables. Oh and let's see, Jed, which category
would you like? I would chee.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Rolling in the deep.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
So I guess I'll turn the tables.
Speaker 5 (34:52):
All right, and Dave, how about you?
Speaker 1 (34:59):
All right? Okay, everyone, hold on, okay, do not hang up,
or you are disqualified. We will have Malors Mountain of Money.
We'll get to that. We'll do it next.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Now, Mailor's Mountain of Money?
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Do you have what it takes to get to the top? Probably?
Speaker 5 (35:32):
Not?
Speaker 1 (35:32):
All right? Right to the game. We've got Jed who
fled from the Redneck riviera and he is matched up
with Coop and far out Dave, whose girlfriend would not
take him to the Malor meet and greet because her
boyfriend or his Yeah, I guess her real boyfriend didn't
want that to happen. Hey, all right, let's go. What
are we doing here? Coop? Quickly?
Speaker 5 (35:53):
All right, Jed? We have turning tables. These athletes all
ended up playing for sworn rivals.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Are you ready, weird?
Speaker 5 (36:02):
Al R?
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Are you on speakerphone? Get off speakerphone?
Speaker 5 (36:05):
All right, forty five seconds, let's begin, all right, Hall,
of Fame quarterback for the Packers, wor number four Red Barker. Yes,
this guy his nickname was the Big Cactus. When he
left uh the Lakers and played for the Celtics.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Center with Kobe that's a terrible crew.
Speaker 5 (36:24):
Yes, yes, yes, this guy was a wide receiver for
the Eagles. He played in the Super Bowl with them,
then he went to the no then he went to
the Cowboys. He also played for the forty nine ers. Yes,
this guy was a cornerback for the New York Jets,
and then he went to the Patriots. You don't want
to be stuck on his island. Yes, this guy was
(36:45):
a legendary drinker for the Red Sox and then the
Yankees can be anyway, No, all right, we'll skip it.
This guy was on the red size.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
All right.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
You should have said ate fried chicken every day?
Speaker 5 (36:59):
Do you get a Wade Boggs was the one that
we wait box chicken every day?
Speaker 1 (37:04):
There was a famous cheating scanner with Margot Adams.
Speaker 5 (37:07):
All right, we don't have time for.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Alright, I just remember that. What do we do far out? Dave?
You picked something? Why is everyone talking? I'm trying to
do a damn game.
Speaker 5 (37:16):
Yeah, David right in the middle of a game show.
What are you doing, Dave, get your.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
Grandma's I'm getting yelled at, but oh my getting yelled
at by the girlfriend.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
I'm gonna go. All right, go ahead, let's go, okay,
something like you. These athletes all have children who followed
in their footsteps. Are you ready, Dave? Al right? Forty
five seconds? Run away. His nickname is prime Time. Yes, uh,
great boxers, sting like a bee, float like a butter belly. Yes. Uh.
(37:46):
He's on the NFL on Fox. He played for the
old La Raiders. He's still on there with Yes his uh.
His kids are Peyton and Eli. He played for the Saints. Yeah,
that is correct. Old manager of the Montreal Expos. His
kid is Moyses. He also was a great player for
(38:07):
the Expo. What's his first name? We need the first name,
gol say Warrior player, shot foul shots underhanded in the
seventies and the eighties. White there. Yeah, his kids clay
for the Warriors. He's a Laker legend, not really a legend.
What heiti? All right? We got the lead?
Speaker 5 (38:24):
All right, Jed, would you like rumor has it? Or
hometown glory?
Speaker 1 (38:28):
I know it's Felipe Lou Okay, j Ohn't you I
didn't touch it? Jed?
Speaker 5 (38:34):
Would you like a hometown glory? Or rumor has it
all right? Rumor has it you're losing. These athletes were
all rumored to have used peds. Uh oh, forty five
seconds on the clock.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Lets began.
Speaker 5 (38:46):
Quarterback for the Colts and the Broncos. Yes, this guy
was a slugger for the Cardinals than the Angels.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Oh Albert.
Speaker 5 (38:55):
Yes, this guy's nickname was the Rocket.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
He pitched for the Red Sox and the Yankees.
Speaker 5 (39:00):
Yes, this guy was a bald linebacker for the Steelers.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
He was huge.
Speaker 6 (39:05):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (39:07):
Yes, this guy had blonde hair, long blonde hair. Linebacker
for the Packers. Yes, this guy was the brother of Aaron,
the manager of the Yankees. Yes, this guy was married
to Halle Berry. He was an outfielder for the Braves
and then.
Speaker 6 (39:25):
Yes, whoa, all right, let's go. Here we go, far
out day, Here we go, far out day. All right,
shut up, you're on hold, far up, alright, alright, all right,
far out day, here we go. They all won championships
in their hometowns. Linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers. His last
name is a Canned Meet in the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
Great linebacker, Yes great. I picked off Peyton Manning to
win the Super Bowl for the New Orleans Saints and
know night. No safety for safety for the Saints, closer
for the athletics. Seat gave up, gave up Dennis gus
Lee's home run. That's delay. We was all shop go
crab to be shot up. Cot strewed up the clock,
(40:09):
that's all
Host
Ben Maller
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