July 10, 2020 • 38 mins
Subscribe directly to the Fifth Hour podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fifth-hour-with-ben-maller/id1478163837. Keeping it in the family, Ben and David pay a visit to broadcasting legend, Dick Stockton. With over 50 years of service and nearly three decades with FOX, Dick has lived a fruitful life behind the golden microphone. A career that has left no sport unturned, Dick talks to the guys about the evolution of each respective league, his path to prominence, what some of his personal hobbies are, and he also takes you down memory lane with revisiting a handful of the greatest games in sports history.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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fifth Hour, which Ben Maller starts right now. Nine all
it's fifth hour, and we are joined now by Dick Stock,
a legendary figure. What a career he has had over
(01:06):
the many years on network television and calling all the
big sporting events, NFL, NBA, It's done, baseball, you name it,
and he joins us now for a special conversation here
and a video chat. This is not only available on
the audio format, but also in the video format. Dick, welcome.
(01:26):
I'm looking at you. You look good here and how
you hold it up? How you've been having a life
here over the pandemic. No, I'm doing great, Ben, and
I appreciate you're asking. I'm doing the smart things I
haven't been. You know, I'm not hunkering down. I'm living life.
But I'm doing the smart things, and you know what
(01:47):
they are. I don't have to go through the whole
it's here. We all hear it every day. But I'm
doing fine and with just all trying to get through
this right. Yeah, What have you been doing? Is there
anything special to pass the time? We had a lot
of time these days. Is there anything that you've found?
Are you well? You know, I have a lot of
a lot of interest, and uh, you know, and and
(02:10):
so watching games isn't you know, isn't the only thing
in the world for me? You know, I played tennis,
so I played golf. You know, following the rules. Uh,
you know. I I work out in my pool. Uh.
I played the piano. I actually I played the piano
sing once in a while, but before very few people,
(02:30):
as little as possible. And I like to read a lot,
you know, So you know when you take everything and consideration, Uh,
you know, it's life and I just go through it,
you know. So I enjoy what I do and I
hope to get back to it, and we hope that
we have an NFL season, But you know, it's what
I do. It's not who I am. And so life
has been, you know, what it is for everyone, but
(02:53):
adjusting where it needs to be adjusted. Yeah. And with that, Dick,
I mean, are you planning on calling the game just here?
I know there's some some guys have said they're not
going to do it. Do you know what the plan
is for the NFL? Are you going to be in
a studio somewhere if you do do the games? Are
you actually got site? You know? You know? Then, to
be honest, we have no definitive word from Fox Sports. Um,
(03:15):
you know, I'm under contract to do games, and I'm
you know, and I'm planned to do the games. Uh,
but we have not heard anything about how it's going
to be done. And you know, the great thing about
Fox Sports, and it's been this way through is my
twenty seventh year with them, is that they call you
when they want you to know something and there are
(03:38):
no rumors, there are no innuendos, and none of those
things happen. And when they tell you, that's what it is.
And so when they make a decision, h and you know,
they have to decide how they want to you know,
broadcast these games and hopefully we'll have them, they'll let
me know. Yeah. And with that in just in general,
(03:59):
I mean, you been around the industry forever and you've
seen seen so much here. What does your gut instinct
tell you on how this is going to work out?
I know there's a lot of doomsday people out there
that this isn't going to work. What do you think
can sports pull this come back off? You know, it's
it's it's a great question, Ben, because everyone has speculated.
The amazing thing is when this thing started, they say,
(04:22):
what's going to happen to sports? And we've seen some
movement in a lot of areas. You know, baseball teams
starting to practice and then stop practicing, the NBA gathering
in the bubble in the Orlando, the NHL planning. WE
don't know about college football. The NFL is going according
to what their plan is. I know that, you know,
the preseason schedule to this point has been knocked down
(04:44):
from four to two. So I don't have a gut feeling.
To be honest, I don't know. I can't predict. I
don't think anyone can as to what it's really going
to look like. There are so many reports coming out.
I've reatten, you know, one today about the Ravens saying
they're going to allow fourteen thousand people in this stadium.
The Chiefs will allow a number of people. I don't know.
(05:07):
I really don't know, and so I'm fine with that.
We all want to know. And when the work comes down,
that will be the word. And until it does, we
just wait and see. Dick, have you ever been in
a position in your long career that rivals something like this?
I mean, obviously the climate is drastically different, but just
the lack of opportunity to actually be at a venue
(05:30):
to call a game and maybe have to do things
from a remote studio. Has that ever happened to you,
whether it's for baseball, football, basketball, all never. Never, I've
never had to call a game from a studio. If
I had to, I would be prepared to do so. Obviously,
they're going to be different things. I mean, you're not
going to have all the people on site if you
(05:51):
do that, and we could be on site if they
separate your partner, you know, and the people up in
the booth. I don't know. I mean, I don't know
any of the could answers to whether they're going to
piping crowd noise or whether they're going to have virtual
fans in the stands. I have no idea what they
plan to do. I think they're having big discussions, but
(06:14):
I have never been under that circumstance before. I've always
been at the games that I have broadcasts, and I've
never done it off of a monitor. But if I
had to it a studio, that's what I do, Like
all the other colleagues wouldn't have to do the same thing. Yeah,
And I was going to ask you just a piggyback
off of that, like during year long career and how
you've performed, are there points in a broadcast or you
(06:36):
actually use the crowd's emotion and how they've kind of
gotten up or even down, and use that as an
extra tool for you and how you actually sound while
you're on. Are you feed into that emotion? That's that's
what I do. I actually, I mean I that is
that is what I'm you know what I feel. And
(06:56):
a lot of broadcasters have been that way. You've been.
Scully of course, has been that way. The great Dodger broadcaster,
you know, Joe Buck is aware of that very much.
And I even employed it, you know when I when
I called carton the Fisk's home run way back in
the seventy five World Series between the Red Sox and
the Cincinnati Reds, when Fisk get the home run, and
(07:17):
I remained silent for nearly a minute while the crowd
was going crazy and the cameras were showing the fans
and showing Fisk rounding the bases. And I think that's
really what an important part of a broadcast is. I
personally feel that announcers talk too much, and that you know,
they have so much information at hand that they want
(07:40):
to give it out. But the fan at home doesn't
want to be assaulted all the time. And you know,
sometimes you know, the term too much information really fits
when you're doing a broadcast. So I believe in that
there's nothing better than the reaction of the crowd and
the different pictures that are direct or would show, you know,
(08:01):
at a sporting event after a touchdown or a home
run or any of those things. So you know, that's
the important thing, and so that comes into play a
little bit, you know, if we don't have fans at
the game. Be sure to catch live editions of The
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and just to follow that up, you've done radio and television.
I know you was the TV guy, but you've done
a lot of radio. We're radio guys mostly, so did
you You're great at television, But did you compare and contrast?
(10:37):
Do you like radio more when you started, or is
it you've always enjoyed television. Well, I grew I grew
up then I grew up on radio. I mean, I
grew up on radio. I think baseball is a radio sport.
I think it's meant to be a radio sport. The
thing that I love about radio, and I've done, like
you mentioned, much more television than radio, is the fact
(10:58):
that in radio you use your iagination. You're sitting in
front of the radio, you know set or whether it
would be a transistor radio when I was growing up
or whatever you now, and you imagine things and the
announcer describes what is going on, and you are now
imagining the runner running, you know, towards the sudden part
(11:20):
of the field, or toward the open end of the
stadium into the you know, whatever the situation situation may
be in And if a good broadcast describes in football,
especially the uniforms that the team was wearing, or in
basketball before it starts, so you can imagine them in
the colors that they're wearing. And so it's very important
to do it. And you know, some of the best
(11:41):
broadcasters on radio that I grew up with didn't talk
end to end. They didn't fill every second of it.
They'd let the crowd come in. There was a great
baseball announcer that you may have remembered named Ernie Harwell,
and he worked for the Detroit Tigers for I don't
know forty years that the year, thirty year, whatever it was.
(12:02):
And the great sound and think that all of the
Michigan people late at night, you know, outside listening to
just the sound of the crowd for the moment when
Ernie was doing a game and just saying what needed
to be said. Yeah, it's it's it's great, and you
went you went to Syracuse. But now when you went
to Syracuse, now it's broadcasting you. Is it because of you, Dick,
(12:23):
that guys like yourself there, because now if you want
to be a broadcaster in sports, you've got to go
to Syracuse. Well, I suggested they changed the name to
the Stockton School of Broadcasting instead of the new House
School of Broadcasting. But he paid for all those buildings
and all those great facilities that they have. And so
I wasn't the first one, uh, you know, I was
(12:46):
one of the early ones. I think Marv Albert and
I were, you know, synonymous. He was ahead, but I
think I worked at the campus station before he did.
Wa Er and and all of them have come in
sin and some of the great ones that we know
have come from Syracuse University. And their facility actually are
(13:07):
as good as any networks facilities. That's that's how tremendous
has become. Dick. Is there anything professionally you you haven't
done but you'd like to do? Well? You know, that's
a that's a good question. I have no regrets. I mean,
I've called a World Series. I've called six Super Bowls
on you know, the world feed of the NFL that
went overseas. I've done nine NBA finals. I've done NCAA
(13:33):
tournament games, have won the host of the championship game.
I've done a couple of Olympics. I've also done a
couple of hockey games. When you know, the one thing
that I wish, and it's not a regret, is that
I had done more hockey because I really enjoyed hockey
growing up in the suburb of New York City a
Ranger fan and listening to a lot of the games,
(13:53):
uh you know, from out of town on the radio.
And if I had an opportunity, I did two hockey
games for Fox, working with Mike Ruzione when Fox had
the contract for NHL, and I would have enjoyed doing
more hockey. That's the only thing. But I wouldn't call
it a regret. What about Philly Olympics. What events did
you call for the Olympics. Well, I was blessed to
(14:17):
call one of the great Olympic events of all time
in the nineteen ninety four Winter Olympics. I called Dan
Jansen's gold medal and world record speed skating event in
a great story because as you know, Jansen had competed
and come up short in previous Olympics for various reasons.
And he did not win the five hundred He slipped
(14:40):
and that was one of the problems he had falling.
But his last event and the last chance to win
a gold medal was the one thousand meter in Hammar
in Norway. And Eric Heiden, the great Eric Heidn, who
won five gold medals in the nineteen eighty Olympics and
speed skating, was my partner. And he not only won
the gold medal, he said at the world record, so
(15:01):
we finished on a high Milden. So that was great.
And in nineteen ninety two in Valvasare, I called the
men's alpine skiing events sare So those are the two
Winter Olympics I broadcast and it was a great thrill
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So I guess the question is obviously that you've called
every type of sport imaginable. Which one is the hardest,
which one to do? From a play by play standpoint?
What is the one that is the most difficult to call,
whether it be on television or radio. Well that's another
(17:12):
good question. Now I never called horse racing. I think
that would be, you know, a difficult one to call,
and I never got into that. But I think, you know, honestly,
and people think you the sports that you have to
fill are the hardest, and I don't look at it
that way. I mean, I've called a lot of baseball games,
and in baseball you just don't filled. You let the
crowd and the ambience take over, and when there's a
(17:35):
big pitch in a big moment, you know you call that,
and sometimes you just say they see it strike three
and the pitcher walks off them mount and you really
don't have to say anything. But I think, to me
the hardest is football. And the reason why, man is
because you have a segment of moment of time to
(17:55):
call a play, and when you call that play, it
has to be correct, It has to be accurate, it
has to be the right call, it has to have
the right emotion under the moment of the game, and
then you have to get out and let your partner
come in and then you may play off your partner
at the end. So I think that you have to
(18:17):
make a short period count when you call a football game,
and that's why I think that's the one that may
be the most challenging. And I mean, what was it
like in the early days. I know what it's like
now in the business, But when you were breaking in
the in the sixties and the early seventies and you
were making your mark, what was how difficult was it
(18:37):
was the process like compared to what it is now? Well,
you know, it's all about experience and all about reps.
And I wrote the other day in my column that
I do you know the Stockton dot com which I
do one every week, and I talk about a lot
of factors of my career, Stockton says and it's a
column I also write for a newspaper called The fou
(19:00):
An Island's Son, and I was talking about preseason football
and the first football game I ever called was a
preseason game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Saint Louis Cardinals.
And this was in nineteen sixty eight, before the Steelers
became a powerful team, and I'll never forget. I was
calling the game and the game was going so fast
(19:23):
for me that I felt like I wanted to put
my arms out, stand up and say, can you just
stop and slow down and let me catch up, because
I had to catch up to who ran the ball,
who made the tackle, how many are to the game,
what down is it? And this was the hardest thing
for me to get because it was going too fast.
And now, to me, when I call a football game,
it's in slow motion. I see the receivers going down field,
(19:46):
I know who they are. It's all about reps. It's
all about experience, and so I think when you're doing
things in the early days, then it's all about just
getting the experience down, and you get better with age
and with time. Dick, on that note, when you started
to where you're at now, we see a lot of
your content replayed over and over and over again, especially
(20:09):
with the Lakers and Celtics and obviously what not with
the World Series. But you don't have a chapter. You
have books of content. So when people obviously watch this
material and now you see it on television some of
the greatest games that you've ever witnessed and called, what
does that mean to you? How do you feel when
you watch those games just to replay. Well, I'm just
(20:31):
I just say what a blessed career I've had, and
I just watch it. I mean, if we all saw
the last Dance I think a lot of people did
of the Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls Championships, and I guess
my calls were featured sprinkled throughout it, and it was
just fun to watch and I would smile recalling those games.
(20:53):
I remember calling jordan sixty three point game, the most
points that he ever scored in a game, and it
was a ball and garden. And so what I do
when I hear a lot of that is that I
remember being there at the time, and I remember walking
into Boston Garden for you know, that second game of
that brief series between the Bulls and the Celtics, and
(21:18):
I remember the circumstances of it. When I see the
Lakers in the Celtics, I remember sitting down the courtside
no air conditioning at Boston Garden, sweating through my clothes.
And I know that the Lakers didn't have any air
conditioning either, which is why they had to get IDs
at halftime of their games against the Celtics in the
those memorable you know matches they had in the eighties.
(21:42):
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(23:11):
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and the AD Council. Well and Dick to follow that up.
I grew up watching every great memory I think of
with Bird and Magic. You were calling the game. I
remember you at the Boston Garden with Tommy Heinson and
Pat O'Brien at the half and you know I remember this.
(23:32):
I mean you must hear this all the time, but
you really when people see you, it's like you flash
back to that wonderful time when you fell in love
with sports, and you must hear that quite a bit
when you're out and about talking to people. But are
you known for that? You think the Celtics, Lakers is
or just in general the NBA in the eighties is
(23:54):
what you're known for. You've done so much do you
think that's what your calling card is? Well, you know,
it's funny. I've done, you know, twenty twenty seven years
with Fox doing NFL and I've done NFL with CBS before,
and you're absolutely right, I'm getting to that point. I've
done a lot of division you know, playoffs with Turner
when I did those games for them along with games
(24:15):
with Fox, and I did the Olympics. But I think
that you know, people, do you know tab me with
the eighties because I called every Lakers Celtic final in
the eighties. So when you're doing them year in a
year out, and you know, you start, of course with
the seventy six ers and the Lakers, and you end
up with the Detroit Pistons, the bad Boys winning their
(24:38):
back to back finals. You know, at the end of
the eighties up into the nineteen ninety so I think
people say, yeah, Lakers Celtics, and maybe more for that
than for anything else. Yeah, I think I agree with
you there. Yeah. And also you did NBA games, you
just set up until a few years ago, and you know,
the guys today, there's always this bar room controversy that
(25:01):
that guys have. You know, could Lebron and Kawhi Leonard
and these guys play against Burden, Magic and the guys
before that. You've called those games. You've seen all these
different generations of NBA players. What do you say? I don't.
I don't get into that. You know, then, and the
reason why is that we're talking about different eras. I mean,
(25:21):
you look at Jerry West and Oscar Robertson and Bill
Russell and Will Chamberlain, and then you look at the
athletes of today. The speed, the size, I mean, the
centers were six to nine at that time, the guards
were six to one. You're six to one. You know,
the chances are you're not going to be able to
see much action because who are you going to defend?
(25:43):
And then when Magic Johnson came along as a six
foot nine inch point guard or power forward or center,
as he played the one game that Kareema built your
bar was out, you remember that, I think it was
in nineteen eighty. You know, the size and the speed
of these players, especially in football. You look at football
highlights from the fifties and you look at football highlights now.
(26:06):
I mean, offensive lineman can run faster than running backs
did in those days. So you know, time has made
athletes bigger and faster. So to compare, you know, I
think is wrong. And for the same token, I think
it's wrong to forget about the era of Oscar Robertson
and Jerry West, you know, and Elgin Baylor. And if
(26:28):
you were to say, and people say, who's stick talking about?
And then you move into the sixties and you look
at a chem Elijahan and Elvin Hayes and people say
who are they? And then you move on to other
years and now it's Lebron and so I think what
you have to do, guys, is to just accept the
era that you're in and not compare. I think personally,
(26:51):
there's too much comparison all around. I mean, somebody wins
at the greatest team of all time, he's the greatest
player of all time. Is this the greatest moment of
all time? Let's enjoy the moment and say it goes
with all of the great volumes of great sporting events
that we've seen over the years. Look, I'll say, you know,
Tom Brady, you know who is one of all those
Super Bowls? You know has to be rated. You know
(27:15):
who would you say would be better? And I couldn't
find anyone better because of the number of championships, He's
one and the great success of the Patriots. But I
don't think you can go down the line in many
areas in many sports and say, you know, the greatest
of all time. Let's just let's just honor the ones
that are doing it at the time. Well, dick On,
with that being said, do you think leagues have gotten
(27:37):
away from what made them truly good or special? I mean,
I can think about what the way Major League Baseball
is now. There's so much put into saber metrics, eggit, velocity,
launch angle, and those are things you know, when you
were calling games and calling the world serious, you wouldn't
think about it. He used seven, eight, nine guys of
the bullpen to record nine outs. Do you think leagues
(28:00):
have gotten away from what made them truly special or
do you feel like each League has prograssed accordingly. Totally agree.
I totally agree with you. I think sports are so
different today in so many aspects, and you pinpointed launch angle.
I mean, I remember seeing in the fifties, sixties and
seventies teams would play in the World Series or played
(28:20):
big games, and the game of baseball has changed dramatically.
You know, you got to look at the baseball diamond
and the geometry of what it is, and the great
romance of baseball position playing and the strategy of hit
and run, stolen bases, sacrifice moving men into scoring position.
(28:43):
A base hit gets the run home. But now it's
home run or no count, or it's home run and
strike out, And to me, that's not baseball to me,
to be honest, I know it's what it is today.
I recognize for what it is, but to me, it's
home run or strikeout. And I think when they went
(29:03):
to the home run derby the day before the All
Star Games and young kids and look, let's face it,
young kids come up and they want that. So I don't.
I'm not saying they should return to those days, but
I personally, having been around for many many years, appreciated
the art of baseball, when it wasn't just a home run,
(29:25):
when it wasn't just a pitcher throwing ninety six miles
an hour and a strikeout or a walk or a
strikeout or a home run. There's more to baseball than that,
in my opinion. I mean Greg Maddox. You don't find
a guy like Greg Maddox a whole of same picture anymore,
(29:45):
who never had a great fastball. But if you get
you out with his PSI ball placement, the way he
would move pitches around, the way he would off speed pitches,
the way he would change speeds. To me, that's the art.
And in basketball, I have to say that it's now
three point or no count, and it's now who can
hit the long shot. It's not about working the bowl
(30:05):
in it's not about power basketball. If that's the case. So,
I think there are a lot of elements to those
games that are different today. I'm not going to say
they're no good anymore, and I won't say that because
that's the way the games are. I just appreciate the
way the games were in the other days, and I
know that's a day by gone. Be sure to catch
(30:29):
live editions of the Ben Maller show weekdays at two
am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. And so when you were
a kid, did you grow up in that cluster. I
have a lot of friends that are New Yorkers too,
but it's a cluster. It's usually if you're a Yankees fan,
you're a Rangers fan, you're a Knicks fan, and so
on and so forth. Or if you're other way around,
if you're a Mets fan, or usually a Jets fan
(30:49):
and you're an Islanders fan. Like, what kind of group
were you usually affiliated with growing up as a kid. Well,
I was a New York Giant fan actually before they
moved to San Francisco in baseball, uh, And I saw
Willie Mays make a great catch in the nineteen fifty
four World Series over his shoulder, and so I saw
a lot of baseball games in the fifties. Unfortunately, my
(31:10):
team left after only about six years, and by rooting
for them, and they moved to San Francisco, and that's
what happened. End the Dodgers moved as well, But I
would say a Giant fan hated the Dodgers and didn't
pay any attention to the Yankees, who would win five
straight World Series. I was a Nick fan. I was
a Ranger fan, and I didn't live in the city.
I lived in a suburb of the city. And now today,
(31:31):
you know, it's interesting. It's it's a you know, the
fantasy leagues. And an owner of an NFL team told
me a few years ago, he says, you know, fans
come to our game and they don't even remove for
our kicker because they have another kicker that's their fantasy player.
I can't. I find that hard to you know, fathom,
but I know it exists and I recognize him. Yeah,
(31:54):
and uh, do you call the Red Sox games and
A's games in your career and the network stuff that
you've done a sixty eight season. People have complained for
years that baseball there's too many games in baseball. Well,
this year they're only going to get sixty. Do you
think that there's a chance we will see a shortening
of the Major League Baseball season going forward? No? Oh, no,
(32:17):
you know you know what this is all about, right, money,
and it's all about opening up the gates. And it's
not so much how great it would be to have
a sixty or eighty game or one hundred game baseball
season now open up those gates. Eighty one home games,
eighty one road games, and that's what you do, and
that's why they wouldn't change that. And it's a matter
of you know, they want to increase the NFL season,
(32:40):
and they probably will at some point, and that's going
to work when they do that. I think there are
a lot of, you know, the ways you can look
at that, but I think that they're not going to
make it short. And I think that what people should
do this year, and we hope we do have a season,
is that just adopted and acknowledge it, don't criticize it,
don't pick it apart, don't nitpick everything that's going on.
(33:03):
I know that. You know, when it comes to records,
you know, someone may hit four or fifty by the
end of the season. You know, that doesn't mean they're
Ted Williams who hit four O six and nineteen forty one.
Just except the year for what it is. I think
the records aren't going to work, but everything else will,
and they're going to play baseball and they're gonna have sports.
Hopefully they do, and if they do, that'll be wonderful.
(33:24):
That's great. And I can't talk to you, Dick without
bringing up. You were a guest on The Blitz that
I used to host on Fox Sports Radio on the weekends,
and you had a line. I've actually stolen it from you.
It's one of the great lines. You were calling a
game between a couple of teams in the NFL that
we're not particularly good. And I ask you, I ask
(33:47):
you a question, you know, because we had you on
before the game and you were supposed to your job
is to hype the game up and get people watch,
and I was like giving all these numbers and statistics
about how terrible these teams were. You had the greatest comeback.
It's so good that I stole it and I added
it to my repertoire. And you said, Ben, stats tell
(34:07):
you what has happened, but not what's going to happen.
And that's one of the great lives. I gotta I
gotta credit you because that was a wonderful comeback to
put me in my place. Well, I didn't mean to
do that, you know. I mean, I was just trying
to talk about people that go by what the past performances.
And last week he gained one hundred and eighty five yards,
(34:28):
and I said, this week will probably Game sixty because
teams look at film during the week and they say,
we got to stop this guy got one hundred and
eighty five, and they do, and somebody else goes crazy. Oh,
wide receiver catches swell passes. So I don't really rely
on a lot of statistics that well. But you brought
up another point, a good point about a game between
two teams, that a game doesn't mean anything. Now, maybe
(34:49):
nationally a game between two last placed teams don't mean anything,
but I remember growing up. You know, I wanted my
team to win. They may have had a losing record,
they may have been close to last place, but if
they won that game, I felt good. And so what
I do every week and I don't get the top games. Now.
You know, I've been around a long time, and guys
(35:10):
deserve their chance to move up, and they do. I'm
glad to be doing games, but I don't get top
games anymore, and it doesn't bother me, and I don't
care because I know that the fans in those cities
want that team to win that day. And if they're
four and eight and they win and go five and eight,
they feel good all week and the food taste good.
(35:30):
All week and they're five and eight, and so they
want to win that game. And just think the players
are practicing all week long and they're going through their paces.
Why because they want to win the football game. So
it has nothing to do with what does it mean nationally?
Sure they're out of the playoff race, but they want
to get a victory. They want to get a win.
(35:50):
And to me, that's the base of what sports competition
is all about. It's a great way to say. And
I gotta I read it. I just was looking at
your blog here. You're a column that you're right, you
wrote about Muhammad Ali and you're a relationship with Muhammad Ali.
What he Obviously it's a tough question because he's not
around anymore. But what do you think he would how
(36:12):
do you react everything's been going on in the in
the world here in twenty twenty, and he was a
big part of in his day movement with society and
it's it's been wild what's gone on here in twenty twenty.
How do you think he would react to what's been
going on? You know, I don't know exactly. I mean,
I know that Muhammad Ali Ali was a man for peace, Okay,
(36:34):
I mean, he was a man who talked about speech,
speech piece. He wasn't a violin man. I know that,
and uh and I know that. You know, he stood
up for his values and I know that whatever he said.
I wish Muhammad Ali were here today because he could
be a calming force. He could be a calming guy
(36:54):
for society. Because everyone loved Muhammad Ali. He had that smile,
he had that magic. There was something about Ali that
was tremendous. And so if Muhammad Ali could speak today,
I wish he could. That's all I would say. All right,
it's bet pleasure. Dick Stockton and again the blog. You've
got a column. Everyone's gonna check it out. Watch you
(37:15):
on the NFL on Fox. It's d Stockton dot com. Correct, Yes,
it is d Stockton dot com. And when you get
that's the website. And Stockton says, is where the columns are.
And I talk about stories inside stories of my career.
It's not just then I did this, and then I
did this. That's boring to people. You know, it's a
(37:39):
it's not a rundown of great games that I did.
It's stories behind the scenes, things, interesting things of people
that I've met along the way, and I think people
would enjoy them very much. But I've enjoyed talking with
you and David Ben and it's been great talking to
you today, a lot of fun. Thanks for joining us,
Dick today. I appreciate it. Thank you. Get right to
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one eight hundred flowers dot com slash tune in. Come
boom boom. If you thought four hours a day, twelve
hundred minutes a week was enough, think again. He's the
last remnants of the old Republic, a sole fashion of fairness.
(00:42):
He treats crackheads in the ghetto gutter the same as
the rich pill poppers in the penthouse. Wow, there's a
clearinghouse of hot takes. Break free for something special. The
fifth Hour, which Ben Maller starts right now. Nine all
it's fifth hour, and we are joined now by Dick Stock,
a legendary figure. What a career he has had over
(01:06):
the many years on network television and calling all the
big sporting events, NFL, NBA, It's done, baseball, you name it,
and he joins us now for a special conversation here
and a video chat. This is not only available on
the audio format, but also in the video format. Dick, welcome.
(01:26):
I'm looking at you. You look good here and how
you hold it up? How you've been having a life
here over the pandemic. No, I'm doing great, Ben, and
I appreciate you're asking. I'm doing the smart things I
haven't been. You know, I'm not hunkering down. I'm living life.
But I'm doing the smart things, and you know what
(01:47):
they are. I don't have to go through the whole
it's here. We all hear it every day. But I'm
doing fine and with just all trying to get through
this right. Yeah, What have you been doing? Is there
anything special to pass the time? We had a lot
of time these days. Is there anything that you've found?
Are you well? You know, I have a lot of
a lot of interest, and uh, you know, and and
(02:10):
so watching games isn't you know, isn't the only thing
in the world for me? You know, I played tennis,
so I played golf. You know, following the rules. Uh,
you know. I I work out in my pool. Uh.
I played the piano. I actually I played the piano
sing once in a while, but before very few people,
(02:30):
as little as possible. And I like to read a lot,
you know, So you know when you take everything and consideration, Uh,
you know, it's life and I just go through it,
you know. So I enjoy what I do and I
hope to get back to it, and we hope that
we have an NFL season, But you know, it's what
I do. It's not who I am. And so life
has been, you know, what it is for everyone, but
(02:53):
adjusting where it needs to be adjusted. Yeah. And with that, Dick,
I mean, are you planning on calling the game just here?
I know there's some some guys have said they're not
going to do it. Do you know what the plan
is for the NFL? Are you going to be in
a studio somewhere if you do do the games? Are
you actually got site? You know? You know? Then, to
be honest, we have no definitive word from Fox Sports. Um,
(03:15):
you know, I'm under contract to do games, and I'm
you know, and I'm planned to do the games. Uh,
but we have not heard anything about how it's going
to be done. And you know, the great thing about
Fox Sports, and it's been this way through is my
twenty seventh year with them, is that they call you
when they want you to know something and there are
(03:38):
no rumors, there are no innuendos, and none of those
things happen. And when they tell you, that's what it is.
And so when they make a decision, h and you know,
they have to decide how they want to you know,
broadcast these games and hopefully we'll have them, they'll let
me know. Yeah. And with that in just in general,
(03:59):
I mean, you been around the industry forever and you've
seen seen so much here. What does your gut instinct
tell you on how this is going to work out?
I know there's a lot of doomsday people out there
that this isn't going to work. What do you think
can sports pull this come back off? You know, it's
it's it's a great question, Ben, because everyone has speculated.
The amazing thing is when this thing started, they say,
(04:22):
what's going to happen to sports? And we've seen some
movement in a lot of areas. You know, baseball teams
starting to practice and then stop practicing, the NBA gathering
in the bubble in the Orlando, the NHL planning. WE
don't know about college football. The NFL is going according
to what their plan is. I know that, you know,
the preseason schedule to this point has been knocked down
(04:44):
from four to two. So I don't have a gut feeling.
To be honest, I don't know. I can't predict. I
don't think anyone can as to what it's really going
to look like. There are so many reports coming out.
I've reatten, you know, one today about the Ravens saying
they're going to allow fourteen thousand people in this stadium.
The Chiefs will allow a number of people. I don't know.
(05:07):
I really don't know, and so I'm fine with that.
We all want to know. And when the work comes down,
that will be the word. And until it does, we
just wait and see. Dick, have you ever been in
a position in your long career that rivals something like this?
I mean, obviously the climate is drastically different, but just
the lack of opportunity to actually be at a venue
(05:30):
to call a game and maybe have to do things
from a remote studio. Has that ever happened to you,
whether it's for baseball, football, basketball, all never. Never, I've
never had to call a game from a studio. If
I had to, I would be prepared to do so. Obviously,
they're going to be different things. I mean, you're not
going to have all the people on site if you
(05:51):
do that, and we could be on site if they
separate your partner, you know, and the people up in
the booth. I don't know. I mean, I don't know
any of the could answers to whether they're going to
piping crowd noise or whether they're going to have virtual
fans in the stands. I have no idea what they
plan to do. I think they're having big discussions, but
(06:14):
I have never been under that circumstance before. I've always
been at the games that I have broadcasts, and I've
never done it off of a monitor. But if I
had to it a studio, that's what I do, Like
all the other colleagues wouldn't have to do the same thing. Yeah,
And I was going to ask you just a piggyback
off of that, like during year long career and how
you've performed, are there points in a broadcast or you
(06:36):
actually use the crowd's emotion and how they've kind of
gotten up or even down, and use that as an
extra tool for you and how you actually sound while
you're on. Are you feed into that emotion? That's that's
what I do. I actually, I mean I that is
that is what I'm you know what I feel. And
(06:56):
a lot of broadcasters have been that way. You've been.
Scully of course, has been that way. The great Dodger broadcaster,
you know, Joe Buck is aware of that very much.
And I even employed it, you know when I when
I called carton the Fisk's home run way back in
the seventy five World Series between the Red Sox and
the Cincinnati Reds, when Fisk get the home run, and
(07:17):
I remained silent for nearly a minute while the crowd
was going crazy and the cameras were showing the fans
and showing Fisk rounding the bases. And I think that's
really what an important part of a broadcast is. I
personally feel that announcers talk too much, and that you know,
they have so much information at hand that they want
(07:40):
to give it out. But the fan at home doesn't
want to be assaulted all the time. And you know,
sometimes you know, the term too much information really fits
when you're doing a broadcast. So I believe in that
there's nothing better than the reaction of the crowd and
the different pictures that are direct or would show, you know,
(08:01):
at a sporting event after a touchdown or a home
run or any of those things. So you know, that's
the important thing, and so that comes into play a
little bit, you know, if we don't have fans at
the game. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. Get
(08:23):
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(09:06):
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And now the eldest daughter, who looks to be about
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and just to follow that up, you've done radio and television.
I know you was the TV guy, but you've done
a lot of radio. We're radio guys mostly, so did
you You're great at television, But did you compare and contrast?
(10:37):
Do you like radio more when you started, or is
it you've always enjoyed television. Well, I grew I grew
up then I grew up on radio. I mean, I
grew up on radio. I think baseball is a radio sport.
I think it's meant to be a radio sport. The
thing that I love about radio, and I've done, like
you mentioned, much more television than radio, is the fact
(10:58):
that in radio you use your iagination. You're sitting in
front of the radio, you know set or whether it
would be a transistor radio when I was growing up
or whatever you now, and you imagine things and the
announcer describes what is going on, and you are now
imagining the runner running, you know, towards the sudden part
(11:20):
of the field, or toward the open end of the
stadium into the you know, whatever the situation situation may
be in And if a good broadcast describes in football,
especially the uniforms that the team was wearing, or in
basketball before it starts, so you can imagine them in
the colors that they're wearing. And so it's very important
to do it. And you know, some of the best
(11:41):
broadcasters on radio that I grew up with didn't talk
end to end. They didn't fill every second of it.
They'd let the crowd come in. There was a great
baseball announcer that you may have remembered named Ernie Harwell,
and he worked for the Detroit Tigers for I don't
know forty years that the year, thirty year, whatever it was.
(12:02):
And the great sound and think that all of the
Michigan people late at night, you know, outside listening to
just the sound of the crowd for the moment when
Ernie was doing a game and just saying what needed
to be said. Yeah, it's it's it's great, and you
went you went to Syracuse. But now when you went
to Syracuse, now it's broadcasting you. Is it because of you, Dick,
(12:23):
that guys like yourself there, because now if you want
to be a broadcaster in sports, you've got to go
to Syracuse. Well, I suggested they changed the name to
the Stockton School of Broadcasting instead of the new House
School of Broadcasting. But he paid for all those buildings
and all those great facilities that they have. And so
I wasn't the first one, uh, you know, I was
(12:46):
one of the early ones. I think Marv Albert and
I were, you know, synonymous. He was ahead, but I
think I worked at the campus station before he did.
Wa Er and and all of them have come in
sin and some of the great ones that we know
have come from Syracuse University. And their facility actually are
(13:07):
as good as any networks facilities. That's that's how tremendous
has become. Dick. Is there anything professionally you you haven't
done but you'd like to do? Well? You know, that's
a that's a good question. I have no regrets. I mean,
I've called a World Series. I've called six Super Bowls
on you know, the world feed of the NFL that
went overseas. I've done nine NBA finals. I've done NCAA
(13:33):
tournament games, have won the host of the championship game.
I've done a couple of Olympics. I've also done a
couple of hockey games. When you know, the one thing
that I wish, and it's not a regret, is that
I had done more hockey because I really enjoyed hockey
growing up in the suburb of New York City a
Ranger fan and listening to a lot of the games,
(13:53):
uh you know, from out of town on the radio.
And if I had an opportunity, I did two hockey
games for Fox, working with Mike Ruzione when Fox had
the contract for NHL, and I would have enjoyed doing
more hockey. That's the only thing. But I wouldn't call
it a regret. What about Philly Olympics. What events did
you call for the Olympics. Well, I was blessed to
(14:17):
call one of the great Olympic events of all time
in the nineteen ninety four Winter Olympics. I called Dan
Jansen's gold medal and world record speed skating event in
a great story because as you know, Jansen had competed
and come up short in previous Olympics for various reasons.
And he did not win the five hundred He slipped
(14:40):
and that was one of the problems he had falling.
But his last event and the last chance to win
a gold medal was the one thousand meter in Hammar
in Norway. And Eric Heiden, the great Eric Heidn, who
won five gold medals in the nineteen eighty Olympics and
speed skating, was my partner. And he not only won
the gold medal, he said at the world record, so
(15:01):
we finished on a high Milden. So that was great.
And in nineteen ninety two in Valvasare, I called the
men's alpine skiing events sare So those are the two
Winter Olympics I broadcast and it was a great thrill
to do that. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
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at foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app
(15:23):
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So I guess the question is obviously that you've called
every type of sport imaginable. Which one is the hardest,
which one to do? From a play by play standpoint?
What is the one that is the most difficult to call,
whether it be on television or radio. Well that's another
(17:12):
good question. Now I never called horse racing. I think
that would be, you know, a difficult one to call,
and I never got into that. But I think, you know, honestly,
and people think you the sports that you have to
fill are the hardest, and I don't look at it
that way. I mean, I've called a lot of baseball games,
and in baseball you just don't filled. You let the
crowd and the ambience take over, and when there's a
(17:35):
big pitch in a big moment, you know you call that,
and sometimes you just say they see it strike three
and the pitcher walks off them mount and you really
don't have to say anything. But I think, to me
the hardest is football. And the reason why, man is
because you have a segment of moment of time to
(17:55):
call a play, and when you call that play, it
has to be correct, It has to be accurate, it
has to be the right call, it has to have
the right emotion under the moment of the game, and
then you have to get out and let your partner
come in and then you may play off your partner
at the end. So I think that you have to
(18:17):
make a short period count when you call a football game,
and that's why I think that's the one that may
be the most challenging. And I mean, what was it
like in the early days. I know what it's like
now in the business, But when you were breaking in
the in the sixties and the early seventies and you
were making your mark, what was how difficult was it
(18:37):
was the process like compared to what it is now? Well,
you know, it's all about experience and all about reps.
And I wrote the other day in my column that
I do you know the Stockton dot com which I
do one every week, and I talk about a lot
of factors of my career, Stockton says and it's a
column I also write for a newspaper called The fou
(19:00):
An Island's Son, and I was talking about preseason football
and the first football game I ever called was a
preseason game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Saint Louis Cardinals.
And this was in nineteen sixty eight, before the Steelers
became a powerful team, and I'll never forget. I was
calling the game and the game was going so fast
(19:23):
for me that I felt like I wanted to put
my arms out, stand up and say, can you just
stop and slow down and let me catch up, because
I had to catch up to who ran the ball,
who made the tackle, how many are to the game,
what down is it? And this was the hardest thing
for me to get because it was going too fast.
And now, to me, when I call a football game,
it's in slow motion. I see the receivers going down field,
(19:46):
I know who they are. It's all about reps. It's
all about experience, and so I think when you're doing
things in the early days, then it's all about just
getting the experience down, and you get better with age
and with time. Dick, on that note, when you started
to where you're at now, we see a lot of
your content replayed over and over and over again, especially
(20:09):
with the Lakers and Celtics and obviously what not with
the World Series. But you don't have a chapter. You
have books of content. So when people obviously watch this
material and now you see it on television some of
the greatest games that you've ever witnessed and called, what
does that mean to you? How do you feel when
you watch those games just to replay. Well, I'm just
(20:31):
I just say what a blessed career I've had, and
I just watch it. I mean, if we all saw
the last Dance I think a lot of people did
of the Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls Championships, and I guess
my calls were featured sprinkled throughout it, and it was
just fun to watch and I would smile recalling those games.
(20:53):
I remember calling jordan sixty three point game, the most
points that he ever scored in a game, and it
was a ball and garden. And so what I do
when I hear a lot of that is that I
remember being there at the time, and I remember walking
into Boston Garden for you know, that second game of
that brief series between the Bulls and the Celtics, and
(21:18):
I remember the circumstances of it. When I see the
Lakers in the Celtics, I remember sitting down the courtside
no air conditioning at Boston Garden, sweating through my clothes.
And I know that the Lakers didn't have any air
conditioning either, which is why they had to get IDs
at halftime of their games against the Celtics in the
those memorable you know matches they had in the eighties.
(21:42):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
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and the AD Council. Well and Dick to follow that up.
I grew up watching every great memory I think of
with Bird and Magic. You were calling the game. I
remember you at the Boston Garden with Tommy Heinson and
Pat O'Brien at the half and you know I remember this.
(23:32):
I mean you must hear this all the time, but
you really when people see you, it's like you flash
back to that wonderful time when you fell in love
with sports, and you must hear that quite a bit
when you're out and about talking to people. But are
you known for that? You think the Celtics, Lakers is
or just in general the NBA in the eighties is
(23:54):
what you're known for. You've done so much do you
think that's what your calling card is? Well, you know,
it's funny. I've done, you know, twenty twenty seven years
with Fox doing NFL and I've done NFL with CBS before,
and you're absolutely right, I'm getting to that point. I've
done a lot of division you know, playoffs with Turner
when I did those games for them along with games
(24:15):
with Fox, and I did the Olympics. But I think
that you know, people, do you know tab me with
the eighties because I called every Lakers Celtic final in
the eighties. So when you're doing them year in a
year out, and you know, you start, of course with
the seventy six ers and the Lakers, and you end
up with the Detroit Pistons, the bad Boys winning their
(24:38):
back to back finals. You know, at the end of
the eighties up into the nineteen ninety so I think
people say, yeah, Lakers Celtics, and maybe more for that
than for anything else. Yeah, I think I agree with
you there. Yeah. And also you did NBA games, you
just set up until a few years ago, and you know,
the guys today, there's always this bar room controversy that
(25:01):
that guys have. You know, could Lebron and Kawhi Leonard
and these guys play against Burden, Magic and the guys
before that. You've called those games. You've seen all these
different generations of NBA players. What do you say? I don't.
I don't get into that. You know, then, and the
reason why is that we're talking about different eras. I mean,
(25:21):
you look at Jerry West and Oscar Robertson and Bill
Russell and Will Chamberlain, and then you look at the
athletes of today. The speed, the size, I mean, the
centers were six to nine at that time, the guards
were six to one. You're six to one. You know,
the chances are you're not going to be able to
see much action because who are you going to defend?
(25:43):
And then when Magic Johnson came along as a six
foot nine inch point guard or power forward or center,
as he played the one game that Kareema built your
bar was out, you remember that, I think it was
in nineteen eighty. You know, the size and the speed
of these players, especially in football. You look at football
highlights from the fifties and you look at football highlights now.
(26:06):
I mean, offensive lineman can run faster than running backs
did in those days. So you know, time has made
athletes bigger and faster. So to compare, you know, I
think is wrong. And for the same token, I think
it's wrong to forget about the era of Oscar Robertson
and Jerry West, you know, and Elgin Baylor. And if
(26:28):
you were to say, and people say, who's stick talking about?
And then you move into the sixties and you look
at a chem Elijahan and Elvin Hayes and people say
who are they? And then you move on to other
years and now it's Lebron and so I think what
you have to do, guys, is to just accept the
era that you're in and not compare. I think personally,
(26:51):
there's too much comparison all around. I mean, somebody wins
at the greatest team of all time, he's the greatest
player of all time. Is this the greatest moment of
all time? Let's enjoy the moment and say it goes
with all of the great volumes of great sporting events
that we've seen over the years. Look, I'll say, you know,
Tom Brady, you know who is one of all those
Super Bowls? You know has to be rated. You know
(27:15):
who would you say would be better? And I couldn't
find anyone better because of the number of championships, He's
one and the great success of the Patriots. But I
don't think you can go down the line in many
areas in many sports and say, you know, the greatest
of all time. Let's just let's just honor the ones
that are doing it at the time. Well, dick On,
with that being said, do you think leagues have gotten
(27:37):
away from what made them truly good or special? I mean,
I can think about what the way Major League Baseball
is now. There's so much put into saber metrics, eggit, velocity,
launch angle, and those are things you know, when you
were calling games and calling the world serious, you wouldn't
think about it. He used seven, eight, nine guys of
the bullpen to record nine outs. Do you think leagues
(28:00):
have gotten away from what made them truly special or
do you feel like each League has prograssed accordingly. Totally agree.
I totally agree with you. I think sports are so
different today in so many aspects, and you pinpointed launch angle.
I mean, I remember seeing in the fifties, sixties and
seventies teams would play in the World Series or played
(28:20):
big games, and the game of baseball has changed dramatically.
You know, you got to look at the baseball diamond
and the geometry of what it is, and the great
romance of baseball position playing and the strategy of hit
and run, stolen bases, sacrifice moving men into scoring position.
(28:43):
A base hit gets the run home. But now it's
home run or no count, or it's home run and
strike out, And to me, that's not baseball to me,
to be honest, I know it's what it is today.
I recognize for what it is, but to me, it's
home run or strikeout. And I think when they went
(29:03):
to the home run derby the day before the All
Star Games and young kids and look, let's face it,
young kids come up and they want that. So I don't.
I'm not saying they should return to those days, but
I personally, having been around for many many years, appreciated
the art of baseball, when it wasn't just a home run,
(29:25):
when it wasn't just a pitcher throwing ninety six miles
an hour and a strikeout or a walk or a
strikeout or a home run. There's more to baseball than that,
in my opinion. I mean Greg Maddox. You don't find
a guy like Greg Maddox a whole of same picture anymore,
(29:45):
who never had a great fastball. But if you get
you out with his PSI ball placement, the way he
would move pitches around, the way he would off speed pitches,
the way he would change speeds. To me, that's the art.
And in basketball, I have to say that it's now
three point or no count, and it's now who can
hit the long shot. It's not about working the bowl
(30:05):
in it's not about power basketball. If that's the case. So,
I think there are a lot of elements to those
games that are different today. I'm not going to say
they're no good anymore, and I won't say that because
that's the way the games are. I just appreciate the
way the games were in the other days, and I
know that's a day by gone. Be sure to catch
(30:29):
live editions of the Ben Maller show weekdays at two
am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. And so when you were
a kid, did you grow up in that cluster. I
have a lot of friends that are New Yorkers too,
but it's a cluster. It's usually if you're a Yankees fan,
you're a Rangers fan, you're a Knicks fan, and so
on and so forth. Or if you're other way around,
if you're a Mets fan, or usually a Jets fan
(30:49):
and you're an Islanders fan. Like, what kind of group
were you usually affiliated with growing up as a kid. Well,
I was a New York Giant fan actually before they
moved to San Francisco in baseball, uh, And I saw
Willie Mays make a great catch in the nineteen fifty
four World Series over his shoulder, and so I saw
a lot of baseball games in the fifties. Unfortunately, my
(31:10):
team left after only about six years, and by rooting
for them, and they moved to San Francisco, and that's
what happened. End the Dodgers moved as well, But I
would say a Giant fan hated the Dodgers and didn't
pay any attention to the Yankees, who would win five
straight World Series. I was a Nick fan. I was
a Ranger fan, and I didn't live in the city.
I lived in a suburb of the city. And now today,
(31:31):
you know, it's interesting. It's it's a you know, the
fantasy leagues. And an owner of an NFL team told
me a few years ago, he says, you know, fans
come to our game and they don't even remove for
our kicker because they have another kicker that's their fantasy player.
I can't. I find that hard to you know, fathom,
but I know it exists and I recognize him. Yeah,
(31:54):
and uh, do you call the Red Sox games and
A's games in your career and the network stuff that
you've done a sixty eight season. People have complained for
years that baseball there's too many games in baseball. Well,
this year they're only going to get sixty. Do you
think that there's a chance we will see a shortening
of the Major League Baseball season going forward? No? Oh, no,
(32:17):
you know you know what this is all about, right, money,
and it's all about opening up the gates. And it's
not so much how great it would be to have
a sixty or eighty game or one hundred game baseball
season now open up those gates. Eighty one home games,
eighty one road games, and that's what you do, and
that's why they wouldn't change that. And it's a matter
of you know, they want to increase the NFL season,
(32:40):
and they probably will at some point, and that's going
to work when they do that. I think there are
a lot of, you know, the ways you can look
at that, but I think that they're not going to
make it short. And I think that what people should
do this year, and we hope we do have a season,
is that just adopted and acknowledge it, don't criticize it,
don't pick it apart, don't nitpick everything that's going on.
(33:03):
I know that. You know, when it comes to records,
you know, someone may hit four or fifty by the
end of the season. You know, that doesn't mean they're
Ted Williams who hit four O six and nineteen forty one.
Just except the year for what it is. I think
the records aren't going to work, but everything else will,
and they're going to play baseball and they're gonna have sports.
Hopefully they do, and if they do, that'll be wonderful.
(33:24):
That's great. And I can't talk to you, Dick without
bringing up. You were a guest on The Blitz that
I used to host on Fox Sports Radio on the weekends,
and you had a line. I've actually stolen it from you.
It's one of the great lines. You were calling a
game between a couple of teams in the NFL that
we're not particularly good. And I ask you, I ask
(33:47):
you a question, you know, because we had you on
before the game and you were supposed to your job
is to hype the game up and get people watch,
and I was like giving all these numbers and statistics
about how terrible these teams were. You had the greatest comeback.
It's so good that I stole it and I added
it to my repertoire. And you said, Ben, stats tell
(34:07):
you what has happened, but not what's going to happen.
And that's one of the great lives. I gotta I
gotta credit you because that was a wonderful comeback to
put me in my place. Well, I didn't mean to
do that, you know. I mean, I was just trying
to talk about people that go by what the past performances.
And last week he gained one hundred and eighty five yards,
(34:28):
and I said, this week will probably Game sixty because
teams look at film during the week and they say,
we got to stop this guy got one hundred and
eighty five, and they do, and somebody else goes crazy. Oh,
wide receiver catches swell passes. So I don't really rely
on a lot of statistics that well. But you brought
up another point, a good point about a game between
two teams, that a game doesn't mean anything. Now, maybe
(34:49):
nationally a game between two last placed teams don't mean anything,
but I remember growing up. You know, I wanted my
team to win. They may have had a losing record,
they may have been close to last place, but if
they won that game, I felt good. And so what
I do every week and I don't get the top games. Now.
You know, I've been around a long time, and guys
(35:10):
deserve their chance to move up, and they do. I'm
glad to be doing games, but I don't get top
games anymore, and it doesn't bother me, and I don't
care because I know that the fans in those cities
want that team to win that day. And if they're
four and eight and they win and go five and eight,
they feel good all week and the food taste good.
(35:30):
All week and they're five and eight, and so they
want to win that game. And just think the players
are practicing all week long and they're going through their paces.
Why because they want to win the football game. So
it has nothing to do with what does it mean nationally?
Sure they're out of the playoff race, but they want
to get a victory. They want to get a win.
(35:50):
And to me, that's the base of what sports competition
is all about. It's a great way to say. And
I gotta I read it. I just was looking at
your blog here. You're a column that you're right, you
wrote about Muhammad Ali and you're a relationship with Muhammad Ali.
What he Obviously it's a tough question because he's not
around anymore. But what do you think he would how
(36:12):
do you react everything's been going on in the in
the world here in twenty twenty, and he was a
big part of in his day movement with society and
it's it's been wild what's gone on here in twenty twenty.
How do you think he would react to what's been
going on? You know, I don't know exactly. I mean,
I know that Muhammad Ali Ali was a man for peace, Okay,
(36:34):
I mean, he was a man who talked about speech,
speech piece. He wasn't a violin man. I know that,
and uh and I know that. You know, he stood
up for his values and I know that whatever he said.
I wish Muhammad Ali were here today because he could
be a calming force. He could be a calming guy
(36:54):
for society. Because everyone loved Muhammad Ali. He had that smile,
he had that magic. There was something about Ali that
was tremendous. And so if Muhammad Ali could speak today,
I wish he could. That's all I would say. All right,
it's bet pleasure. Dick Stockton and again the blog. You've
got a column. Everyone's gonna check it out. Watch you
(37:15):
on the NFL on Fox. It's d Stockton dot com. Correct, Yes,
it is d Stockton dot com. And when you get
that's the website. And Stockton says, is where the columns are.
And I talk about stories inside stories of my career.
It's not just then I did this, and then I
did this. That's boring to people. You know, it's a
(37:39):
it's not a rundown of great games that I did.
It's stories behind the scenes, things, interesting things of people
that I've met along the way, and I think people
would enjoy them very much. But I've enjoyed talking with
you and David Ben and it's been great talking to
you today, a lot of fun. Thanks for joining us,
Dick today. I appreciate it. Thank you. Get right to
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(38:00):
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Host
Ben Maller
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