July 25, 2025 • 39 mins
Fenway Park concession workers went on strike Friday, ahead of a highly anticipated weekend series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. UNITE HERE Local 26, the union representing the concession workers, said the strike will last 3 days through the weekend. Despite the strike, Aramark, the workers’ employer, insists that they have contingency plans in place and will be ready for fans this weekend. Fenway concession workers are asking fans to boycott food, drinks, and souvenirs in support. Do you have plans to attend the Sox/Dodgers series this weekend? What do you plan to do?
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Night Side with Dan ray ONELLBS Boston's news.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Radio banks Al. I'm writing that down two times, one
and a half times. Yeah, it's been going on a
long time, I suspect, but obviously the NFL is tightening
up some rules. Well, we are going to talk not football.
We're not going to talk baseball, but we are going
to talk about strike. Normally a Fenway Park, strikes occur
(00:30):
on the field during the ball game, as you know,
probably I don't know, and twenty strikes thrown whatever an
average baseball game. Well, there's a big strike being thrown
outside the ballpark right now, and that is a strike
by the men and women who are in well, who
are the what's called the concessionaire. It's okay, the game
(00:51):
is going on, as Al mentioned, and I'm hoping that
if we talk about this for a little while that
we'll have some people who will have been in the ballpark. Now,
the ballpark looks pretty full to me, so it would appear,
as I look at it, it would appear as if
people did cross the picket line. Now, if you've flown
(01:17):
halfway across the country, as some people have, or actually
all the way across the country, from Los Angeles and
they bought tickets to see their team play here at
Fenway Park. You know, you get that. But if you
are a Red Sox season ticket holder or a Red
Sox fan, yes, the question is the across that picket
(01:41):
line or not? And I think the story that is
going on tonight is that the vast majority virtue looks
like everyone has crossed. Now the folks on strike and
the people who want strike are the people who serve
you at Fenway Park. Okay, some people from behind the
(02:03):
scene cooks and bar backs, and they're also, by the way,
not only just people who work at Fenway Park, but
also people who work at the MGM Music Hall, which
is now part of well, the whole Fenway Park apparatus.
It's right across the street, Lansdown Street, right right near
the ballpark. So you have again cooks, bar backs, souvenir vendors,
(02:30):
utility workers, cashiers, people who walk through the stands carrying
you know. You know you've been a ballpark. You know
who the beer vendors are. You can either go to
a stand and get a beer, or you can wait
for them to bring it value bring it to you.
(02:51):
The same way with hot dogs you can go to
the stand. Now, there is one development which is kind
of interesting, and that is that at Fenway Park. One
of the articles I read says that the company, and
it's not the Red Sox, it's it's error Mark, which
is the company that provides the the food and beverages
(03:15):
at Fenway Park. And incidentally, I would I would be
quick to tell you that the people who have the
the license to sell those products, they they sell them
at a pretty good price. So they make a pretty
(03:36):
good amount of money on those sales of beer and
hot dogs, and the Red Sox get a piece of
the action as well. Uh so, so everybody makes money,
including the people who work there. But the question is
why or not why are the concession not being paid
(04:03):
a more princely sum. An article that I'm reading here
says that according to US Senator Bernie Sanders, he writes,
if Aramark can afford to pay you eighteen point seven
million in compensation, he wrote a public letter to the
Aramark CEO his name is John Zilmer, in compensation and
(04:27):
provide nearly one hundred million in dividends for your wealthy shareholders.
It can afford to pay all of your workers a
living agent, not threatening to take away their jobs and
their income with faceless mas. Mash Gin touchscreen computers. Okay,
what is the maskin touchscreen computer? They are AI powered
(04:48):
kiosks that dispense beer and popcorn without the need for
human staff. And Local twenty six members say these machines
they're called mash gin. I have no idea what the
derivation of mass gin is, but whatever, I certainly know
what they're called alcohol mash or hoochs and mass gin
(05:13):
does sound like an alcoholic dispensing machine. But these apparently
dispense beer and popcorn. Again, it shows where we're headed
as a society. And one of the questions that I
have is at Fenway Park, you cannot pay for anything
(05:34):
with cash. Fenway Park has gone cashless, so you have
to have some sort of an electronic payment card. I
guess whether it's a credit card, visa card, maybe Venmo
or you know. Some of that stuff I don't even understand. Okay,
I do understand pictures of dead presidents. So my question
(05:55):
and last night when we talked to some of the
workers who all of whom predicted they would go on
strike tonight, there wasn't any question about that they were
going to go on strike. The workers said that the
introduction of the no cash circumstances where if you were
(06:19):
walking through the stands you had to collect. It's even like,
for example, you see it on airlines. You know, try to,
you know, buy a beer in an airline with ten
bucks or twenty bucks or whatever they want. Nope, you
can't do that. Now. I I'm troubled by that. It's
a cashless they talk about a cashless economy, So I'd
(06:42):
like to talk about the impact that has on the
tips most of these folks. They're saying that, I think
the average salary at Fenway Park for the concessionaires, I've
seen different statistics, but it sounds like they get paid
on a shift basis, and they get paid so much
(07:02):
for shift. So in order to figure out we learned
last night, in order to figure out the hourly wage,
you got to figure Okay, how long is the shift?
I guess every shift is a minimum for maximum seven whatever.
And you do the long division or the short division
or whichever division you want to do seven hours into whatever,
you get paid for the shift. So it works out
(07:22):
to about eighteen dollars plus a little bit per hour.
Now they're saying that in just up the street at
Boston University, the people who do the same job at
a college make twenty six dollars to twenty six to
twenty eight dollars an hour. So these folks feel not
only are they being underpaid, but their jobs are going away.
(07:46):
And I think that is probably the key to this strike.
So from you, you're not If you're a worker and
you want to talk about it, feel free. If you
are a rit Sox fan, what if you cross the
picket line tonight again, they played the door. They're playing
the Dodgers big team. Mookie Betts is not in the lineup,
but Otani is and some of the other, you know,
(08:08):
folks from the West coast. Freeman the first basement. Would
you have crossed the picket line? Number one? And when
you were inside? Apparently Ara Mark hired I'll use their
word replacement workers. The union are calling them scavs, people
who are staffing and providing the refreshments to the patrons inside.
(08:33):
If you crossed the picket line and were inside, would
you have purchased a beer or a hot dog? And
it's essential part of going to a baseball game or
a pepsi or coke whatever. I think it's coca Fenway Park.
I don't think they do pepsi. So that is where
we are. I'm going to open up these phone lines
and I hope to hear from as many of you
(08:54):
as possible. There are implications to this strike which affect everyone, everyone,
because if you work for a living, what happens to
this group of union people who are kind of on
the lower end of the totem pole. They're great people
and they provide a great service, but these are not
(09:15):
full time, year round jobs. These are seasonal jobs for
many people, kind of aside hustled, you know how that
how that goes. Many of them are school teachers who
can spend some time in the summer. They like to
be outdoors, like to be at Fenway Park. Who wouldn't
like that? Six one seven, six seven nine. Let's get
it rolling here on a Friday night, we're heading toward midnight.
(09:36):
Stick with us for the.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Ride night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Okay, so we're talking about the strike, and I alwas
want to talk a little bit about a cashless society,
A cashless economy. I don't think that's good. Maybe some
of you agree, maybe some of you disagree. That's what
the show is all about. In Tewksbury, Chris, you are
next on night Side.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Hello, Dan. I was wondering the last time I went
to a game big staff that had to pay and
uh for for food and all that. And if we
go to a cash society, that means we would have
to pay with a credit card. Yes, and I'm not
(10:23):
sure how that would we will work out?
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Well, let me ask you, do you have a credit card? Sure?
Speaker 3 (10:29):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Okay, Well, if you're going to go to a Red
Sox game, uh, and you know you don't have a
credit card unless you're with someone who will allow you.
I mean, if you've got, you know, twenty bucks in
your pocket and you say to you, buddy, hey, you
got a credit card. But if you go yourself or
you go with someone who doesn't have a credit card,
(10:50):
you can't use cash. That is a It's it's as
simple as that. They won't accept cash, which to me
is crazy. I don't know. I don't know. They're concerned
about people stealing stuff. Maybe that's what it is, pilfridge,
or maybe they feel that it's better to be able
(11:11):
to have a record. I don't understand what the advantage
is to be honest with you. I told the story
a week ago. Maybe you were listening. I went a
couple of weeks ago to buy at a product at
a at a fish market, and the fish market was
(11:32):
a nice place. And when I went to go pay,
the guy behind the counter said to me, well, you're
kind of an exception. And I said, what do you
mean by that? I thought you'd like what I was
wearing that day or something. He says. Nobody pays them
with cash anymore. He says about two percent of his
customers pay with cash. Everybody else is paying now. Again,
(11:53):
if I'm gonna pay three hundred dollars for something, I'm
gonna put on my credit card. But if I'm gonna pay,
you know, fifty dollars, I just assume pay with cash.
So maybe we're heading in towards a different world than
you and I grew up in Chris exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Maybe maybe this person sized you up and are what
you look like.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
It thought.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Maybe it's a parently for saying this as Senior Citizen's Day,
you know, give this man a break.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Now there was no break involved in I don't look
like a senior citizen. I looked like a young boy.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
I understand that, Dad, all right, I understand that.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
All right. Chris, you hanging there, Okay, my friend.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I know that you're the child. I remember you told
that lady that you were a child of the sixties
and that you were not going to tell her tell
her your age.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Yeah. Yeah, I will just say I'm on the wrong
side of fifty. It's as simple as that.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Chris.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Thanks doctor, you soon. That's a great night.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Let me go next to Bill in Danvers. Hey, Bill,
how are you tonight? Welcome? Good.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
I'm make sure on the way to the gym.
Speaker 5 (12:59):
I worked all day. I get to say, I'm a
little biased with this Fenway thing, Dan, because I have
a lot of cousins that work there, and they've been
there for years. And I'll tell you they hustle in there.
Speaker 6 (13:11):
Now.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
For some of them, it's a side gig. They got
jobs during the day, but you know, they leave the
house at seven in the morning, and then they got
that at night, and they hustle for years, Dan. And
you know, I kind of had a feeling this was
in the works. You know, I read a few things
and I texted my cousin Heidi, and she goes, yeah,
(13:32):
it's probably gonna happen. And you know, I talked to
a few of them, So.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
I gotta ask you. I got a question. I have
a question for you. Where Bill, Where do your cousins?
Where do they live? Because if you work at Fenway
Park and you're working Red Sox games to park your car,
there's got to be forty or fifty dollars And unless
(13:59):
they live in Greater bar When I say Greater Boston,
I mean downtown Boston or or they can take them.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
They're on the North Shore, I should ever ask them.
I think I don't have the coppool. I mean, they've
been there for years, Dan, I'm telling you, I'm talking
twenty five years of more.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
No, No, I get that going. You know, you go
to the games and you see the faces. They're familiar people. Yeah. Absolutely,
I'm very sympathetic to them as well. I mean, first
of all, the prices at Fenway Park. You know, I
still have a little bit of difficulty. I haven't been
I haven't been a Red Sox game, and I'm going
(14:38):
to say six or seven years for a whole bunch
of reasons. Okay, but you know that's that's neither here
nor there. But I know when I went and the
beers were expensive then, and you know, I know how
much a beer costs. And you know how much a
beer costs. You buy a case of beer, a thirty pack,
(14:58):
and it costs you, you know, five bucks. You know
I'm talking. You know good stuff. You know, you know,
course light for example, So it costs you when you go,
when you're reaching your refrigerator, it's less than a dollar
for a beer when you think about it. Okay, you
go to Family Park, it's ten bucks, oh maybe twelve.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
Well, you know it's the I guess, the ballparket experience.
And but you know, I mean, I like, I.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Bought a ticket for the way. Well, well, like I said, Bill,
I'm with you, but I bought a ticket for the
ballpark experience. I'm in the ballpark. I want to buy
a beer. I don't mind paying three, four or five
bucks for beer. But there comes a point in time
where you say, wait a second. You know this beer,
the cost of this beer is really retail about eighty
five cents is what it works out to. How much
(15:48):
would I guess people would pay twenty bucks if they
charge them. You want a beer, you want the experience,
you want a hot dog. That's that's eleven dollars and
the beer is twenty dollars.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
So but you know, even the nice car coffee. Now,
where I was at dunkin Donus this morning's four bucks.
And I was at a small place and and over
the other day and it was six you know, I
said to the girl, and I'm thinking, mouths a smaller
place on it. It's probably five bucks or four something,
you know, and I'll throw a five and Tim it
was six sixty nine. Damn yeah for a medium ice coffee.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Well, I think I think part of it. I mean,
that's the capitalist system we live in. I don't have
a problem with that. I really don't, because guess what,
I make my own dunkin Donuts coffee at home. I
used to be one of these guys that went and
got to bought the coffee when it was like a
buck eighty nine. And at some point it dawned on
me and I said to myself, what am I doing this?
(16:40):
I'm driving to a dunkin Donuts to grab a coffee,
and I'm bringing it home, so I buy and I
brew my own coffee. Uh and uh, I'm I'm not
ashamed to say that I would prefer I don't have
to stand in line. I don't. Yeah, you know, it's
(17:03):
all good, it's all good. You figure it out. That's
that's the system. But I feel badly to these these
folks who are out of the picket line tonight because
I think got to bust the union.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
And you know, as far as the cash list thing, Dan,
I think you should do a whole separate show on
that because there's a lot of moving pots into that.
I can tell you when I opened sixteen years ago,
twelve percent of my business with CODs and as of
tonight tonight, Friday is a steady day. Eighty nine of
my business was gods and in Europe is very prevalent,
(17:40):
and it's not even credit cards now. A lot of
it is people don't even have to wallet or a
credit card on They use the phone Apple peg and
then they'll transfer money to each other, the kids, and
then or to one person and then pay for all
the smoothies at once, or they'll wait and they'll call
the parents. The parents transfer the money to them and
anybody the drinks at the count the whole New World.
(18:02):
I can't believe it.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
I mean, I hear you, I totally hear you. I
wish I wish I had a good explanation for it.
I told the story last night. I went into a
high end ice cream place where they were charging like
ten dollars for an ice cream col. I have my
grandson with me, and when I went up to pay
(18:26):
with cash, the young woman looked at me and kind
of recoiled in horror. And she said to me, oh,
we don't take cash. It's dirty. And I said it's what, well,
you know it has germs on it. I said, well,
I have a credit card. She said, well, we'll take
a credit card. Okay, she said, if you want to
get some clean cash, you can go over to the
(18:48):
atm over there inside the store. Now you and I
know that the ATM is going to charge you a
little feed to get you know, twenty dollars in cash.
You'll probably get eighteen back or something. So I said, no,
I'm okay, pay with the credit card. So now by
time I pay for a couple of ice it was
like eighteen bucks. And I said to her, I said,
(19:09):
do you accept cash for a tip, And she looked
at me and said, of course, yeah, oh yeah, if
I want to pay pay with cash. You don't want
the excuse, She said to me, the little cash is dirty.
And I was stunned at that. Don't one never said
that to me before.
Speaker 5 (19:31):
You know, well, it seems since since COVID, especially with
younger people. Dan, I don't know whether they took it
to high fires the money that, because I've had comments
to the account they showed you take cash. They'll come
over and they're really amazed if I if I even
take it at all, which I do because I don't.
Speaker 6 (19:47):
I mean, this white fee is on a small.
Speaker 5 (19:48):
Business, Dan, you know that said, you know, you know, yeah,
I gets uh you know, no, No, I get it.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
I totally get Bill. We'll figure it out in some
way in some form of fashion. Thanks my friend. We'll
talk soon.
Speaker 6 (20:01):
Yep, thank you, Yep.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Hook him. I got the news coming at us at
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(20:25):
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(20:49):
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(21:11):
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Speaker 1 (21:24):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
We're talking about the strike at Fenway Park, which is ongoing.
I'm assuming right now there are people the concessionaires who
have gone on strike. They voted about ninety five percent
to go and strike. These are the people who sell
things at Fenway Park, not the ushers, but the folks
who are the vendors in the stands and the vendors
(21:51):
in the underneath the stands. This is I think a
serious issue to be really honest with you. I know
most people say, what doesn't affect me, Well, it affects
everybody in my opinion, and it does open up the
broader question of a cashless economy. And I know that
(22:12):
one of the benefits of a cashless economy is that
you're not going to get robbed. But all of us
are concerned about losing our identities and having our identity stolen.
So why are we going in the direction of having
more devices, whether it's your phone or your credit card?
(22:33):
I mean, keep it simple. Anyway, Let's let's roll on here.
Let me go to Susan in Middleton. Susan, how are
you tonight? Welcome?
Speaker 6 (22:42):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (22:42):
Very good? Hell are you da?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
I'm doing fine, trying to figure out this whole cashless
economy thing, and also what's going on. You know, these
these people at Fenway Park, I mean they're not you know,
the ballplayers are making millions and millions of dollars. They're
the attraction. I get that. But part of the game
is also being able to participate and enjoy, you know,
(23:04):
a refreshment or whatever. And I guess they do have
still some people in the stand who have crossed picket lines,
who are who were who were called scabs there, you know,
the company replacement workers. But but they're not you know,
we're not in my in my view there, and they're
(23:27):
trying to break the era Max, trying to break this union.
So I don't know. It looks to me just looking
at the ballpark tonight, the ballpark is full. I have
no idea if people have been able to to to
go to the game and not purchase concessions, because that's
that would be the the most most important statement that
people could make. Go right ahead, Suitsan, I'm on my
(23:47):
high horse, and I want to get off my high
horse in here from Lucie.
Speaker 7 (23:50):
You want to get well, I've gone both with corporate
from my husband's company, which is several boxes to Red
Sox being Patriots. No matter what it is, I believe
they have machines you could put cash. I mean, they
popped out a car that you can use there too
as well.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
I'm sure.
Speaker 7 (24:11):
It is incredibly expensive though to buy anything, no question.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Well, my understanding is that box in Hold on for
a second. My understanding. I'm not maybe as familiar as
you are with the boxes up top, the boxes up top,
and I've occasionally sat in one of them, not often.
Any person who's been a server in the box up
in one of the box up top, you know, the skyboxes,
(24:37):
it's it's it's nice to give them a twenty dollars,
you know, as a thank you when you're.
Speaker 7 (24:41):
Leaving, because that's all that's almost all free.
Speaker 6 (24:44):
Like question, Yeah, you're eating your drinking for free.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Yeah right, but but but but my understanding is that
where people have to buy stuff, whether it's buying a
sandwich downstairs or a beer in the steam hands that
at Gillette, and I believe it then well it's it's cashless.
You got to have some sort of plastic mhm.
Speaker 7 (25:09):
You do. But I'm just saying I believe, I know
that timeway, and I believe it's It's also what I
went recently to.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Well, it was a jelly roll.
Speaker 7 (25:20):
Post alone, but that's the same idea. Doesn't have at
the game or a concert. The piece of pieces like
eleven dollars.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Oh yeah, absolutely, you know fifteen popcorn.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
I'm like, what, No, you're.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
A you're a captive audience. Okay, you're a captive audience.
You you can lay I want, but you can't get
back in.
Speaker 7 (25:45):
We are they? Why are the players entitled to a dime?
I don't understand that.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
What was your question? Why are the players entitled?
Speaker 6 (25:55):
Yeah, well, the players can.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Do something that most people can't do. They can hit
a ninety seven mile one hour fastball four hundred feet
into into the into the bleachers.
Speaker 7 (26:06):
Well I'd like to try you know what you.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Could try, but I can tell you right now. You
could also try to fly a seven forty seven airplane,
but that ain't gonna happen either.
Speaker 8 (26:20):
No.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
I know, I'm just saying.
Speaker 8 (26:23):
I'm even like the like last time I went to Fenway,
Not the last time, but I went when Orchi came
back with injuries.
Speaker 7 (26:32):
That first game, it was a third row behind the dagout.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
That's a few years ago. Go ahead, Yeah, that was.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
A few years ago.
Speaker 8 (26:40):
But it was two kids in me and my house
and it was like four hundred and fifty dollars later.
Speaker 7 (26:45):
Yeah, they had to have the Baseball Cup at the
Airstream minute.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
That's like that twenty bucks.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
I'm like what, well.
Speaker 6 (26:53):
Again, Yeah, memorabilia?
Speaker 2 (26:57):
What and what it cost you to park your car
assuming you drove in?
Speaker 7 (27:02):
Do that on the app? We always do that on
the app, or they have designated parking spaces. If we
go to Corver, like Jill, we'll have it blocked off
for the company. So good for you.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
You live the life. You'll live in the life, Susan.
You shouldn't plain about anything.
Speaker 7 (27:17):
I wasn't living the life when I was younger and
went to conscious all act. That's what these.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Games all right?
Speaker 2 (27:24):
No more bragget Susan.
Speaker 6 (27:27):
Yeah, thanks for the call.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
I wish I wish you'd take me with you, to
take me with your family. I've just tagged along.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Thanks who socks.
Speaker 8 (27:36):
We got fourteen tickets lunch and dinner included.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
That's good. But that's a good time, bags, Susan. I
got a run, I got mad break coming up, so
I'll let you go. Thank you much for calling in
on this Friday night. I appreciate it. Thank you much. Okay,
we're going to go next. Let me go to Bernie. Bernie,
I don't want you have to wait. You've been hanging
on here for a while. Go ahead, Bernie. What's your
take on all of this?
Speaker 6 (27:59):
Are we going from?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Dan? I think I'm doing fine. I'm trying to get
people excited and understand that the world is changing underneath
our feet. We're heading towards a cashlest society. And oh
I don't think that's a good.
Speaker 9 (28:15):
I borrowed twenty Well I'm this morning. I said, I
got to run by the thing.
Speaker 6 (28:19):
My daughter says, what do you need that?
Speaker 9 (28:21):
I says, I just want to grab a little cash.
He says, I have twenty dollars. I said, oh I don't.
When I go to a bank, I'll give.
Speaker 6 (28:27):
It back to you.
Speaker 9 (28:28):
She says, not just shoots cash app. I said, yeah,
you might as well just tell me to tie it
full of pigeon's leg and might send it to you
because I don't do it the cash app or a
Vemo out of that stuff. I'm old school.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Yeah, look, I'm small. I'm small enough and sophisticated enough
to move money between my bank accounts, okay, But I
don't want to have a lot of different accounts out
there because I don't want my identity stolen.
Speaker 9 (28:55):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
And that is the ultimate nightmare I've never done. Ven
I've never done. Whenever you talk about carry a pigeon
cash whatever, I mean, Yeah, I just you gotta have
some cash in your pocket at any point. Yeah, it's
as simple as that.
Speaker 9 (29:15):
But guess what was a strike? Then I feel the
plight of them people. But you know what, I'm like you,
I go to the Red Sox team, I'm getting a
hot dog of soda and a popcard. And if that
popcorn is in a patent helmet, it's even better.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
But I get you on that, But I'm gonna be
honest with you. If I had been to that, going
to that, if I had gone to that game tonight,
I wouldn't be buying because that's the only way I
could deliver a message to a mark.
Speaker 9 (29:47):
And the only problem with that is Arara mark is
if they w I get it. I understand like a
free society economy, But then I'm gonna they weighed some
people set who's paying for that?
Speaker 2 (30:01):
You're right, But but guess what, maybe the next time
I go to Fenway Park, I don't need to drink
two beers for fourteen dollars apiece or whatever they're charging.
I can get by with one, you know, I mean
I can, I can. I can play the capitalist game
as well as Aeronmark. That's all I say.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
That's a good point.
Speaker 9 (30:20):
No, that's a good point.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Yeah, it's beer has been expensive at Fenway for a
long time, for a long time, ever since the Red
Sox started winning. And that's the way it goes. More
people want to go, the prices go up. If the
Red Sox had a really bad few seasons, I guarantee
you those those ticket prices would be going down.
Speaker 9 (30:39):
Yeah, but we're not talking about ticket prices because that's
a regional team. They're gonna they're gonna sell them tickets
no matter what. They're just gonna sell them tickets, you know.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
But then they won't sell them at the level if
all of a sudden, the Red Sox became the Washington Nationals.
Remember the Washington Nationals won the World Series in twenty nineteen,
and they're now, you know, kind of a vagabond baseball team.
They're a bit of a joke. Cincinnati's a bad team.
The White Sox are a bad team. Major League Baseball
(31:09):
could have some trouble here if they do not have
parody of competition. You know, you don't want every team
to finish eighty one and eighty one, but you don't
want some teams winning one hundred and fifteen games and
some team winning, you know, set, I don't know, forty
five games, in my opinion. In my opinion, you got
to keep it competitive.
Speaker 6 (31:30):
No, I understand that.
Speaker 9 (31:31):
But the Kansas City Royals have been doing that. But
aren't they the Yankees farm system since the bodies?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
No, they were the Yankees farm system in the forties,
fifties and sixties. There's no doubt about that. I mean,
believe me. I can. I can tell you the trades,
and I know the players who were traded back and forth.
You know, Roger Marris was with the Indians, went to
Kansas City, got himself together, and the Yankees brought him back.
They they traded Billy Martin, and you know that. It's yeah,
(32:00):
that was Kansas City is a pretty good team right now.
They're not sending Bobby with to the Yankees, the shortstop,
the kid that grew up in Canton. Trust me on
that one. Okay, Hey, Bernie, I got to run here.
I got to pack lines. They gotta keep going. We
just lost Bernie. Actually, Bernie, we did not hang up
on you. We'll be back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
It's night Side with Dan Ray on Won's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Okay, let's keep browling here. See we get at least
a couple of folks in before we got to wrap
this hour, and we're going to continue to talk about
this next hour. By the way, John and dam John,
you're next on Nightside, Hey John, how are you?
Speaker 6 (32:33):
Hey? Dana? Really a couple of quick stories here. Back
around two thousand and seven, excuse me. I took my
daughter to our first Bruins game. But buddy of mine
had season tickets. It was offered me free tickets all
the time, but the Bruins were so prophetic we never
took them. So one day I said, we're going because
of who was coaching the other team. That is the
closest I'll ever get to the great Ones when Gretzki
(32:53):
was coaching. But I said to my daughter, and I
said to my daughter, So listen, Jacob's these tickets are
pay for. Jacob's not getting a dime of my money.
He does not put the money back to the team.
We're gonna go in. We're going early support the local
economy gets the feet of soda. But once we're in
went up buying anything.
Speaker 5 (33:09):
Never forget.
Speaker 6 (33:10):
There was like four guys maybe twenty feet from us.
There was so many empty seats I could tell. It
seemed like every five minutes two of them were going
up and get beers for everybody, and they probably bought
eight to ten beers each. And I looked at my
dog and said, this is why Jacob will never change.
It's the only prerogative to make money, and they're making
money if people are stupid enough to pay. I won't
(33:31):
put plenty of money to buy tickets. The product are
not worth it, the concession's not worth it. And I'm
like you, an identity feft paranoid. I use cash or
wherever I can, because I think these businesses today are
so lack of days ago. With our financial information, people
get the visit getting hacked all the time. And then
one last thing, as far as Auto Mason goes, I
(33:52):
don't know maybe you have your fact checkers check this.
Back when cars were first being built, I think there
it was full maybe except one of his people said
to him was like listen, they talkt him with the
assembly line or automation that hey, this could take the
place of like twenty workers or forty workers. Yeah, And
then he said to him, yeah, but those are the workers,
those are the ones who buy our cars.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Absolutely. I mean I know that story. I'm familiar with
that story. And there's a lot of people, when you
think about it, who are needed to make cars and
all of that. The United Auto Workers a huge union,
and it's a huge industry. So he actually created tens
of thousands of jobs with his invention of that internal
combustion engine. Absolutely, and that's what capitalism should be. And
(34:36):
that's what capitalism is at its best.
Speaker 6 (34:39):
And I think, you know, if I went to that
game tonight, I would have not bought a thing. But
I know people have to have their twenty dollars beers
or ever they know. I took my daughter that game
when she was fifteen. Six years later she turned to
twenty one that bought her first beer at Legends at
the Garden nineteen dollars for two butt lights. That was
like twelve years ago.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
And that's a bye today.
Speaker 6 (35:03):
Imagine want to make today?
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Hey, thanks John, Thanks Greg, Carl, thank you so much.
Thank you. Let me go to Taylor in the South End. Taylor, welcome,
How are you?
Speaker 4 (35:12):
How are you doing?
Speaker 3 (35:13):
To him?
Speaker 2 (35:14):
I'm doing great, Taylor, go right ahead.
Speaker 4 (35:16):
Listen. I worked in the sunway back in the nineties,
the early nineties. I've bit the parking back then. Naturally,
that's ancient history and things go a lot a lot different.
But in light of all the technology now, and it's
getting more and more seemingly every day. I still use
(35:37):
cash almost seventies and eighties kids. A lot of people
don't like it when I pay, but I said, well,
as long as it's here, I'm going to use it.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
I don't really has anyone else. Let me ask you this, Taylor,
has anyone ever refused a tip in cash when you
offered it?
Speaker 4 (35:58):
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Yeah, I know that no one does, so.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
I mean, uh, but I'm just going to say, uh,
if you're going to markets, everybody goes in the market.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
There.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
You know you have a lot of automation. I've seen
a robot security guarden there. I thought it was kind
of funny and scary at the same time.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Robot security guard, great.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
Robot security guard. Okay, yeah, that's the indication of Mardern
Day jetsons or whatever you want to call it. But
for a space odisty or whatever, I.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Guess you have to talk robotic to be able to
communicate with the robotic guard.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
Well, the funny thing about it when it got down
I was in it stopped and started making these whirling noises,
and I said, I got any metal on you or
something that you know, uh.
Speaker 6 (36:55):
You know, but uh yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
There are some people who love cash. They don't use
it because they say I've heard people say it's a
waste of time. I say, well, you know what, it's
a waste of time. Drop a twenty or fifty on
the ground and see what happens.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
You bet you, you bet you drop drop a drop
a twenty on the ground, and the bleachers at at
Fenway Park or in the Grand Stated at Fenway Park,
you'll let people fighting over that twenty with greater ferocity
than a foul.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
Ball pouncing a piece of leg meat to a shock.
You ain't gonna get it back. Okay, But I mean,
the fact of the matter is, but I'm feel bad
for those concession workers. Yeah, I feel real bad for
them because I think this is an indication I hate
(37:46):
to see this that they're not going to be around
a lot longer.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Well, they're fighting, they're fighting for their jobs and they're
fighting for better pay. And part of it is that
they are literally putting uh automatic beer dispensaries and popcorn
dispensaries where not only there's no one pay cash it's
a cashless ballpark, but in addition to that, there's no
one there. They just go up. It's like, look, I know,
(38:13):
when I go to an ATM machine in the old days,
used to go to the teller. Well, the tailers have
been removed ATM machine. I can deal with that. I
don't want to buy a beer from from a mass
gin machine or popcorn. But that's.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
A movie. A few weeks ago and seeing a film
and they asked me where do you want to sit?
And I said, I want to sit in the theater.
You know, I didn't know what they were talking about.
I said in mind that old fashion and all people
were looking at me, you know, but I mean I
just said wow, and the guy who took the ticket holder.
(38:59):
I said, our whole teams around for a lot longer.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
It's a job, no doubt about that. Hey, Taylor, I'm
up on the ten o'clock news. That's one thing I
got messed with. Do me a favorite, Carl Moore, Roff
and I enjoyed the conversation. Thank you, have a great
one coming back on nights Side right after the ten
o'clock News on WBC
It's Night Side with Dan ray ONELLBS Boston's news.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Radio banks Al. I'm writing that down two times, one
and a half times. Yeah, it's been going on a
long time, I suspect, but obviously the NFL is tightening
up some rules. Well, we are going to talk not football.
We're not going to talk baseball, but we are going
to talk about strike. Normally a Fenway Park, strikes occur
(00:30):
on the field during the ball game, as you know,
probably I don't know, and twenty strikes thrown whatever an
average baseball game. Well, there's a big strike being thrown
outside the ballpark right now, and that is a strike
by the men and women who are in well, who
are the what's called the concessionaire. It's okay, the game
(00:51):
is going on, as Al mentioned, and I'm hoping that
if we talk about this for a little while that
we'll have some people who will have been in the ballpark. Now,
the ballpark looks pretty full to me, so it would appear,
as I look at it, it would appear as if
people did cross the picket line. Now, if you've flown
(01:17):
halfway across the country, as some people have, or actually
all the way across the country, from Los Angeles and
they bought tickets to see their team play here at
Fenway Park. You know, you get that. But if you
are a Red Sox season ticket holder or a Red
Sox fan, yes, the question is the across that picket
(01:41):
line or not? And I think the story that is
going on tonight is that the vast majority virtue looks
like everyone has crossed. Now the folks on strike and
the people who want strike are the people who serve
you at Fenway Park. Okay, some people from behind the
(02:03):
scene cooks and bar backs, and they're also, by the way,
not only just people who work at Fenway Park, but
also people who work at the MGM Music Hall, which
is now part of well, the whole Fenway Park apparatus.
It's right across the street, Lansdown Street, right right near
the ballpark. So you have again cooks, bar backs, souvenir vendors,
(02:30):
utility workers, cashiers, people who walk through the stands carrying
you know. You know you've been a ballpark. You know
who the beer vendors are. You can either go to
a stand and get a beer, or you can wait
for them to bring it value bring it to you.
(02:51):
The same way with hot dogs you can go to
the stand. Now, there is one development which is kind
of interesting, and that is that at Fenway Park. One
of the articles I read says that the company, and
it's not the Red Sox, it's it's error Mark, which
is the company that provides the the food and beverages
(03:15):
at Fenway Park. And incidentally, I would I would be
quick to tell you that the people who have the
the license to sell those products, they they sell them
at a pretty good price. So they make a pretty
(03:36):
good amount of money on those sales of beer and
hot dogs, and the Red Sox get a piece of
the action as well. Uh so, so everybody makes money,
including the people who work there. But the question is
why or not why are the concession not being paid
(04:03):
a more princely sum. An article that I'm reading here
says that according to US Senator Bernie Sanders, he writes,
if Aramark can afford to pay you eighteen point seven
million in compensation, he wrote a public letter to the
Aramark CEO his name is John Zilmer, in compensation and
(04:27):
provide nearly one hundred million in dividends for your wealthy shareholders.
It can afford to pay all of your workers a
living agent, not threatening to take away their jobs and
their income with faceless mas. Mash Gin touchscreen computers. Okay,
what is the maskin touchscreen computer? They are AI powered
(04:48):
kiosks that dispense beer and popcorn without the need for
human staff. And Local twenty six members say these machines
they're called mash gin. I have no idea what the
derivation of mass gin is, but whatever, I certainly know
what they're called alcohol mash or hoochs and mass gin
(05:13):
does sound like an alcoholic dispensing machine. But these apparently
dispense beer and popcorn. Again, it shows where we're headed
as a society. And one of the questions that I
have is at Fenway Park, you cannot pay for anything
(05:34):
with cash. Fenway Park has gone cashless, so you have
to have some sort of an electronic payment card. I
guess whether it's a credit card, visa card, maybe Venmo
or you know. Some of that stuff I don't even understand. Okay,
I do understand pictures of dead presidents. So my question
(05:55):
and last night when we talked to some of the
workers who all of whom predicted they would go on
strike tonight, there wasn't any question about that they were
going to go on strike. The workers said that the
introduction of the no cash circumstances where if you were
(06:19):
walking through the stands you had to collect. It's even like,
for example, you see it on airlines. You know, try to,
you know, buy a beer in an airline with ten
bucks or twenty bucks or whatever they want. Nope, you
can't do that. Now. I I'm troubled by that. It's
a cashless they talk about a cashless economy, So I'd
(06:42):
like to talk about the impact that has on the
tips most of these folks. They're saying that, I think
the average salary at Fenway Park for the concessionaires, I've
seen different statistics, but it sounds like they get paid
on a shift basis, and they get paid so much
(07:02):
for shift. So in order to figure out we learned
last night, in order to figure out the hourly wage,
you got to figure Okay, how long is the shift?
I guess every shift is a minimum for maximum seven whatever.
And you do the long division or the short division
or whichever division you want to do seven hours into whatever,
you get paid for the shift. So it works out
(07:22):
to about eighteen dollars plus a little bit per hour.
Now they're saying that in just up the street at
Boston University, the people who do the same job at
a college make twenty six dollars to twenty six to
twenty eight dollars an hour. So these folks feel not
only are they being underpaid, but their jobs are going away.
(07:46):
And I think that is probably the key to this strike.
So from you, you're not If you're a worker and
you want to talk about it, feel free. If you
are a rit Sox fan, what if you cross the
picket line tonight again, they played the door. They're playing
the Dodgers big team. Mookie Betts is not in the lineup,
but Otani is and some of the other, you know,
(08:08):
folks from the West coast. Freeman the first basement. Would
you have crossed the picket line? Number one? And when
you were inside? Apparently Ara Mark hired I'll use their
word replacement workers. The union are calling them scavs, people
who are staffing and providing the refreshments to the patrons inside.
(08:33):
If you crossed the picket line and were inside, would
you have purchased a beer or a hot dog? And
it's essential part of going to a baseball game or
a pepsi or coke whatever. I think it's coca Fenway Park.
I don't think they do pepsi. So that is where
we are. I'm going to open up these phone lines
and I hope to hear from as many of you
(08:54):
as possible. There are implications to this strike which affect everyone, everyone,
because if you work for a living, what happens to
this group of union people who are kind of on
the lower end of the totem pole. They're great people
and they provide a great service, but these are not
(09:15):
full time, year round jobs. These are seasonal jobs for
many people, kind of aside hustled, you know how that
how that goes. Many of them are school teachers who
can spend some time in the summer. They like to
be outdoors, like to be at Fenway Park. Who wouldn't
like that? Six one seven, six seven nine. Let's get
it rolling here on a Friday night, we're heading toward midnight.
(09:36):
Stick with us for the.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Ride night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Okay, so we're talking about the strike, and I alwas
want to talk a little bit about a cashless society,
A cashless economy. I don't think that's good. Maybe some
of you agree, maybe some of you disagree. That's what
the show is all about. In Tewksbury, Chris, you are
next on night Side.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Hello, Dan. I was wondering the last time I went
to a game big staff that had to pay and
uh for for food and all that. And if we
go to a cash society, that means we would have
to pay with a credit card. Yes, and I'm not
(10:23):
sure how that would we will work out?
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Well, let me ask you, do you have a credit card? Sure?
Speaker 3 (10:29):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Okay, Well, if you're going to go to a Red
Sox game, uh, and you know you don't have a
credit card unless you're with someone who will allow you.
I mean, if you've got, you know, twenty bucks in
your pocket and you say to you, buddy, hey, you
got a credit card. But if you go yourself or
you go with someone who doesn't have a credit card,
(10:50):
you can't use cash. That is a It's it's as
simple as that. They won't accept cash, which to me
is crazy. I don't know. I don't know. They're concerned
about people stealing stuff. Maybe that's what it is, pilfridge,
or maybe they feel that it's better to be able
(11:11):
to have a record. I don't understand what the advantage
is to be honest with you. I told the story
a week ago. Maybe you were listening. I went a
couple of weeks ago to buy at a product at
a at a fish market, and the fish market was
(11:32):
a nice place. And when I went to go pay,
the guy behind the counter said to me, well, you're
kind of an exception. And I said, what do you
mean by that? I thought you'd like what I was
wearing that day or something. He says. Nobody pays them
with cash anymore. He says about two percent of his
customers pay with cash. Everybody else is paying now. Again,
(11:53):
if I'm gonna pay three hundred dollars for something, I'm
gonna put on my credit card. But if I'm gonna pay,
you know, fifty dollars, I just assume pay with cash.
So maybe we're heading in towards a different world than
you and I grew up in Chris exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Maybe maybe this person sized you up and are what
you look like.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
It thought.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Maybe it's a parently for saying this as Senior Citizen's Day,
you know, give this man a break.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Now there was no break involved in I don't look
like a senior citizen. I looked like a young boy.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
I understand that, Dad, all right, I understand that.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
All right. Chris, you hanging there, Okay, my friend.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I know that you're the child. I remember you told
that lady that you were a child of the sixties
and that you were not going to tell her tell
her your age.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Yeah. Yeah, I will just say I'm on the wrong
side of fifty. It's as simple as that.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Chris.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Thanks doctor, you soon. That's a great night.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Let me go next to Bill in Danvers. Hey, Bill,
how are you tonight? Welcome? Good.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
I'm make sure on the way to the gym.
Speaker 5 (12:59):
I worked all day. I get to say, I'm a
little biased with this Fenway thing, Dan, because I have
a lot of cousins that work there, and they've been
there for years. And I'll tell you they hustle in there.
Speaker 6 (13:11):
Now.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
For some of them, it's a side gig. They got
jobs during the day, but you know, they leave the
house at seven in the morning, and then they got
that at night, and they hustle for years, Dan. And
you know, I kind of had a feeling this was
in the works. You know, I read a few things
and I texted my cousin Heidi, and she goes, yeah,
(13:32):
it's probably gonna happen. And you know, I talked to
a few of them, So.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
I gotta ask you. I got a question. I have
a question for you. Where Bill, Where do your cousins?
Where do they live? Because if you work at Fenway
Park and you're working Red Sox games to park your car,
there's got to be forty or fifty dollars And unless
(13:59):
they live in Greater bar When I say Greater Boston,
I mean downtown Boston or or they can take them.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
They're on the North Shore, I should ever ask them.
I think I don't have the coppool. I mean, they've
been there for years, Dan, I'm telling you, I'm talking
twenty five years of more.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
No, No, I get that going. You know, you go
to the games and you see the faces. They're familiar people. Yeah. Absolutely,
I'm very sympathetic to them as well. I mean, first
of all, the prices at Fenway Park. You know, I
still have a little bit of difficulty. I haven't been
I haven't been a Red Sox game, and I'm going
(14:38):
to say six or seven years for a whole bunch
of reasons. Okay, but you know that's that's neither here
nor there. But I know when I went and the
beers were expensive then, and you know, I know how
much a beer costs. And you know how much a
beer costs. You buy a case of beer, a thirty pack,
(14:58):
and it costs you, you know, five bucks. You know
I'm talking. You know good stuff. You know, you know,
course light for example, So it costs you when you go,
when you're reaching your refrigerator, it's less than a dollar
for a beer when you think about it. Okay, you
go to Family Park, it's ten bucks, oh maybe twelve.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
Well, you know it's the I guess, the ballparket experience.
And but you know, I mean, I like, I.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Bought a ticket for the way. Well, well, like I said, Bill,
I'm with you, but I bought a ticket for the
ballpark experience. I'm in the ballpark. I want to buy
a beer. I don't mind paying three, four or five
bucks for beer. But there comes a point in time
where you say, wait a second. You know this beer,
the cost of this beer is really retail about eighty
five cents is what it works out to. How much
(15:48):
would I guess people would pay twenty bucks if they
charge them. You want a beer, you want the experience,
you want a hot dog. That's that's eleven dollars and
the beer is twenty dollars.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
So but you know, even the nice car coffee. Now,
where I was at dunkin Donus this morning's four bucks.
And I was at a small place and and over
the other day and it was six you know, I
said to the girl, and I'm thinking, mouths a smaller
place on it. It's probably five bucks or four something,
you know, and I'll throw a five and Tim it
was six sixty nine. Damn yeah for a medium ice coffee.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Well, I think I think part of it. I mean,
that's the capitalist system we live in. I don't have
a problem with that. I really don't, because guess what,
I make my own dunkin Donuts coffee at home. I
used to be one of these guys that went and
got to bought the coffee when it was like a
buck eighty nine. And at some point it dawned on
me and I said to myself, what am I doing this?
(16:40):
I'm driving to a dunkin Donuts to grab a coffee,
and I'm bringing it home, so I buy and I
brew my own coffee. Uh and uh, I'm I'm not
ashamed to say that I would prefer I don't have
to stand in line. I don't. Yeah, you know, it's
(17:03):
all good, it's all good. You figure it out. That's
that's the system. But I feel badly to these these
folks who are out of the picket line tonight because
I think got to bust the union.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
And you know, as far as the cash list thing, Dan,
I think you should do a whole separate show on
that because there's a lot of moving pots into that.
I can tell you when I opened sixteen years ago,
twelve percent of my business with CODs and as of
tonight tonight, Friday is a steady day. Eighty nine of
my business was gods and in Europe is very prevalent,
(17:40):
and it's not even credit cards now. A lot of
it is people don't even have to wallet or a
credit card on They use the phone Apple peg and
then they'll transfer money to each other, the kids, and
then or to one person and then pay for all
the smoothies at once, or they'll wait and they'll call
the parents. The parents transfer the money to them and
anybody the drinks at the count the whole New World.
(18:02):
I can't believe it.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
I mean, I hear you, I totally hear you. I
wish I wish I had a good explanation for it.
I told the story last night. I went into a
high end ice cream place where they were charging like
ten dollars for an ice cream col. I have my
grandson with me, and when I went up to pay
(18:26):
with cash, the young woman looked at me and kind
of recoiled in horror. And she said to me, oh,
we don't take cash. It's dirty. And I said it's what, well,
you know it has germs on it. I said, well,
I have a credit card. She said, well, we'll take
a credit card. Okay, she said, if you want to
get some clean cash, you can go over to the
(18:48):
atm over there inside the store. Now you and I
know that the ATM is going to charge you a
little feed to get you know, twenty dollars in cash.
You'll probably get eighteen back or something. So I said, no,
I'm okay, pay with the credit card. So now by
time I pay for a couple of ice it was
like eighteen bucks. And I said to her, I said,
(19:09):
do you accept cash for a tip, And she looked
at me and said, of course, yeah, oh yeah, if
I want to pay pay with cash. You don't want
the excuse, She said to me, the little cash is dirty.
And I was stunned at that. Don't one never said
that to me before.
Speaker 5 (19:31):
You know, well, it seems since since COVID, especially with
younger people. Dan, I don't know whether they took it
to high fires the money that, because I've had comments
to the account they showed you take cash. They'll come
over and they're really amazed if I if I even
take it at all, which I do because I don't.
Speaker 6 (19:47):
I mean, this white fee is on a small.
Speaker 5 (19:48):
Business, Dan, you know that said, you know, you know, yeah,
I gets uh you know, no, No, I get it.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
I totally get Bill. We'll figure it out in some
way in some form of fashion. Thanks my friend. We'll
talk soon.
Speaker 6 (20:01):
Yep, thank you, Yep.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Hook him. I got the news coming at us at
the bottom of the hour. And again I'm going to
remind you that we do have this wonderful way in
which you can communicate with us. Do we owe them
another read on this this hour? Rob Okay, we have
a very cool way for you to be a part
of our Nightside broadcast. You can always be a part
(20:25):
by calling the show. That is easy, but you also
can utilize our new talk back feature on the iHeartRadio app.
You can make sure you download and have the free
iHeartRadio app. While you're listening to Nightside Live on WBZ
News Radio, tap the red microphone talkback button in the
top right corner and you can send us personalized audio messages. Well,
(20:49):
you don't have to send one every day, but you
can send one whenever you is, whenever the spirit moves you.
We'll play it back on Nightside as long as it's
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hit that red microphone button in the top right corner
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(21:11):
And as long as it's usable on ere. You know
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we'll play it. Feel free. We'll be back right after
the news at the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
We're talking about the strike at Fenway Park, which is ongoing.
I'm assuming right now there are people the concessionaires who
have gone on strike. They voted about ninety five percent
to go and strike. These are the people who sell
things at Fenway Park, not the ushers, but the folks
who are the vendors in the stands and the vendors
(21:51):
in the underneath the stands. This is I think a
serious issue to be really honest with you. I know
most people say, what doesn't affect me, Well, it affects
everybody in my opinion, and it does open up the
broader question of a cashless economy. And I know that
(22:12):
one of the benefits of a cashless economy is that
you're not going to get robbed. But all of us
are concerned about losing our identities and having our identity stolen.
So why are we going in the direction of having
more devices, whether it's your phone or your credit card?
(22:33):
I mean, keep it simple. Anyway, Let's let's roll on here.
Let me go to Susan in Middleton. Susan, how are
you tonight? Welcome?
Speaker 6 (22:42):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (22:42):
Very good? Hell are you da?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
I'm doing fine, trying to figure out this whole cashless
economy thing, and also what's going on. You know, these
these people at Fenway Park, I mean they're not you know,
the ballplayers are making millions and millions of dollars. They're
the attraction. I get that. But part of the game
is also being able to participate and enjoy, you know,
(23:04):
a refreshment or whatever. And I guess they do have
still some people in the stand who have crossed picket lines,
who are who were who were called scabs there, you know,
the company replacement workers. But but they're not you know,
we're not in my in my view there, and they're
(23:27):
trying to break the era Max, trying to break this union.
So I don't know. It looks to me just looking
at the ballpark tonight, the ballpark is full. I have
no idea if people have been able to to to
go to the game and not purchase concessions, because that's
that would be the the most most important statement that
people could make. Go right ahead, Suitsan, I'm on my
(23:47):
high horse, and I want to get off my high
horse in here from Lucie.
Speaker 7 (23:50):
You want to get well, I've gone both with corporate
from my husband's company, which is several boxes to Red
Sox being Patriots. No matter what it is, I believe
they have machines you could put cash. I mean, they
popped out a car that you can use there too
as well.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
I'm sure.
Speaker 7 (24:11):
It is incredibly expensive though to buy anything, no question.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Well, my understanding is that box in Hold on for
a second. My understanding. I'm not maybe as familiar as
you are with the boxes up top, the boxes up top,
and I've occasionally sat in one of them, not often.
Any person who's been a server in the box up
in one of the box up top, you know, the skyboxes,
(24:37):
it's it's it's nice to give them a twenty dollars,
you know, as a thank you when you're.
Speaker 7 (24:41):
Leaving, because that's all that's almost all free.
Speaker 6 (24:44):
Like question, Yeah, you're eating your drinking for free.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Yeah right, but but but but my understanding is that
where people have to buy stuff, whether it's buying a
sandwich downstairs or a beer in the steam hands that
at Gillette, and I believe it then well it's it's cashless.
You got to have some sort of plastic mhm.
Speaker 7 (25:09):
You do. But I'm just saying I believe, I know
that timeway, and I believe it's It's also what I
went recently to.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Well, it was a jelly roll.
Speaker 7 (25:20):
Post alone, but that's the same idea. Doesn't have at
the game or a concert. The piece of pieces like
eleven dollars.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Oh yeah, absolutely, you know fifteen popcorn.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
I'm like, what, No, you're.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
A you're a captive audience. Okay, you're a captive audience.
You you can lay I want, but you can't get
back in.
Speaker 7 (25:45):
We are they? Why are the players entitled to a dime?
I don't understand that.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
What was your question? Why are the players entitled?
Speaker 6 (25:55):
Yeah, well, the players can.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Do something that most people can't do. They can hit
a ninety seven mile one hour fastball four hundred feet
into into the into the bleachers.
Speaker 7 (26:06):
Well I'd like to try you know what you.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Could try, but I can tell you right now. You
could also try to fly a seven forty seven airplane,
but that ain't gonna happen either.
Speaker 8 (26:20):
No.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
I know, I'm just saying.
Speaker 8 (26:23):
I'm even like the like last time I went to Fenway,
Not the last time, but I went when Orchi came
back with injuries.
Speaker 7 (26:32):
That first game, it was a third row behind the dagout.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
That's a few years ago. Go ahead, Yeah, that was.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
A few years ago.
Speaker 8 (26:40):
But it was two kids in me and my house
and it was like four hundred and fifty dollars later.
Speaker 7 (26:45):
Yeah, they had to have the Baseball Cup at the
Airstream minute.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
That's like that twenty bucks.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
I'm like what, well.
Speaker 6 (26:53):
Again, Yeah, memorabilia?
Speaker 2 (26:57):
What and what it cost you to park your car
assuming you drove in?
Speaker 7 (27:02):
Do that on the app? We always do that on
the app, or they have designated parking spaces. If we
go to Corver, like Jill, we'll have it blocked off
for the company. So good for you.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
You live the life. You'll live in the life, Susan.
You shouldn't plain about anything.
Speaker 7 (27:17):
I wasn't living the life when I was younger and
went to conscious all act. That's what these.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Games all right?
Speaker 2 (27:24):
No more bragget Susan.
Speaker 6 (27:27):
Yeah, thanks for the call.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
I wish I wish you'd take me with you, to
take me with your family. I've just tagged along.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Thanks who socks.
Speaker 8 (27:36):
We got fourteen tickets lunch and dinner included.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
That's good. But that's a good time, bags, Susan. I
got a run, I got mad break coming up, so
I'll let you go. Thank you much for calling in
on this Friday night. I appreciate it. Thank you much. Okay,
we're going to go next. Let me go to Bernie. Bernie,
I don't want you have to wait. You've been hanging
on here for a while. Go ahead, Bernie. What's your
take on all of this?
Speaker 6 (27:59):
Are we going from?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Dan? I think I'm doing fine. I'm trying to get
people excited and understand that the world is changing underneath
our feet. We're heading towards a cashlest society. And oh
I don't think that's a good.
Speaker 9 (28:15):
I borrowed twenty Well I'm this morning. I said, I
got to run by the thing.
Speaker 6 (28:19):
My daughter says, what do you need that?
Speaker 9 (28:21):
I says, I just want to grab a little cash.
He says, I have twenty dollars. I said, oh I don't.
When I go to a bank, I'll give.
Speaker 6 (28:27):
It back to you.
Speaker 9 (28:28):
She says, not just shoots cash app. I said, yeah,
you might as well just tell me to tie it
full of pigeon's leg and might send it to you
because I don't do it the cash app or a
Vemo out of that stuff. I'm old school.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Yeah, look, I'm small. I'm small enough and sophisticated enough
to move money between my bank accounts, okay, But I
don't want to have a lot of different accounts out
there because I don't want my identity stolen.
Speaker 9 (28:55):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
And that is the ultimate nightmare I've never done. Ven
I've never done. Whenever you talk about carry a pigeon
cash whatever, I mean, Yeah, I just you gotta have
some cash in your pocket at any point. Yeah, it's
as simple as that.
Speaker 9 (29:15):
But guess what was a strike? Then I feel the
plight of them people. But you know what, I'm like you,
I go to the Red Sox team, I'm getting a
hot dog of soda and a popcard. And if that
popcorn is in a patent helmet, it's even better.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
But I get you on that, But I'm gonna be
honest with you. If I had been to that, going
to that, if I had gone to that game tonight,
I wouldn't be buying because that's the only way I
could deliver a message to a mark.
Speaker 9 (29:47):
And the only problem with that is Arara mark is
if they w I get it. I understand like a
free society economy, But then I'm gonna they weighed some
people set who's paying for that?
Speaker 2 (30:01):
You're right, But but guess what, maybe the next time
I go to Fenway Park, I don't need to drink
two beers for fourteen dollars apiece or whatever they're charging.
I can get by with one, you know, I mean
I can, I can. I can play the capitalist game
as well as Aeronmark. That's all I say.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
That's a good point.
Speaker 9 (30:20):
No, that's a good point.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Yeah, it's beer has been expensive at Fenway for a
long time, for a long time, ever since the Red
Sox started winning. And that's the way it goes. More
people want to go, the prices go up. If the
Red Sox had a really bad few seasons, I guarantee
you those those ticket prices would be going down.
Speaker 9 (30:39):
Yeah, but we're not talking about ticket prices because that's
a regional team. They're gonna they're gonna sell them tickets
no matter what. They're just gonna sell them tickets, you know.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
But then they won't sell them at the level if
all of a sudden, the Red Sox became the Washington Nationals.
Remember the Washington Nationals won the World Series in twenty nineteen,
and they're now, you know, kind of a vagabond baseball team.
They're a bit of a joke. Cincinnati's a bad team.
The White Sox are a bad team. Major League Baseball
(31:09):
could have some trouble here if they do not have
parody of competition. You know, you don't want every team
to finish eighty one and eighty one, but you don't
want some teams winning one hundred and fifteen games and
some team winning, you know, set, I don't know, forty
five games, in my opinion. In my opinion, you got
to keep it competitive.
Speaker 6 (31:30):
No, I understand that.
Speaker 9 (31:31):
But the Kansas City Royals have been doing that. But
aren't they the Yankees farm system since the bodies?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
No, they were the Yankees farm system in the forties,
fifties and sixties. There's no doubt about that. I mean,
believe me. I can. I can tell you the trades,
and I know the players who were traded back and forth.
You know, Roger Marris was with the Indians, went to
Kansas City, got himself together, and the Yankees brought him back.
They they traded Billy Martin, and you know that. It's yeah,
(32:00):
that was Kansas City is a pretty good team right now.
They're not sending Bobby with to the Yankees, the shortstop,
the kid that grew up in Canton. Trust me on
that one. Okay, Hey, Bernie, I got to run here.
I got to pack lines. They gotta keep going. We
just lost Bernie. Actually, Bernie, we did not hang up
on you. We'll be back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
It's night Side with Dan Ray on Won's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Okay, let's keep browling here. See we get at least
a couple of folks in before we got to wrap
this hour, and we're going to continue to talk about
this next hour. By the way, John and dam John,
you're next on Nightside, Hey John, how are you?
Speaker 6 (32:33):
Hey? Dana? Really a couple of quick stories here. Back
around two thousand and seven, excuse me. I took my
daughter to our first Bruins game. But buddy of mine
had season tickets. It was offered me free tickets all
the time, but the Bruins were so prophetic we never
took them. So one day I said, we're going because
of who was coaching the other team. That is the
closest I'll ever get to the great Ones when Gretzki
(32:53):
was coaching. But I said to my daughter, and I
said to my daughter, So listen, Jacob's these tickets are
pay for. Jacob's not getting a dime of my money.
He does not put the money back to the team.
We're gonna go in. We're going early support the local
economy gets the feet of soda. But once we're in
went up buying anything.
Speaker 5 (33:09):
Never forget.
Speaker 6 (33:10):
There was like four guys maybe twenty feet from us.
There was so many empty seats I could tell. It
seemed like every five minutes two of them were going
up and get beers for everybody, and they probably bought
eight to ten beers each. And I looked at my
dog and said, this is why Jacob will never change.
It's the only prerogative to make money, and they're making
money if people are stupid enough to pay. I won't
(33:31):
put plenty of money to buy tickets. The product are
not worth it, the concession's not worth it. And I'm
like you, an identity feft paranoid. I use cash or
wherever I can, because I think these businesses today are
so lack of days ago. With our financial information, people
get the visit getting hacked all the time. And then
one last thing, as far as Auto Mason goes, I
(33:52):
don't know maybe you have your fact checkers check this.
Back when cars were first being built, I think there
it was full maybe except one of his people said
to him was like listen, they talkt him with the
assembly line or automation that hey, this could take the
place of like twenty workers or forty workers. Yeah, And
then he said to him, yeah, but those are the workers,
those are the ones who buy our cars.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Absolutely. I mean I know that story. I'm familiar with
that story. And there's a lot of people, when you
think about it, who are needed to make cars and
all of that. The United Auto Workers a huge union,
and it's a huge industry. So he actually created tens
of thousands of jobs with his invention of that internal
combustion engine. Absolutely, and that's what capitalism should be. And
(34:36):
that's what capitalism is at its best.
Speaker 6 (34:39):
And I think, you know, if I went to that
game tonight, I would have not bought a thing. But
I know people have to have their twenty dollars beers
or ever they know. I took my daughter that game
when she was fifteen. Six years later she turned to
twenty one that bought her first beer at Legends at
the Garden nineteen dollars for two butt lights. That was
like twelve years ago.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
And that's a bye today.
Speaker 6 (35:03):
Imagine want to make today?
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Hey, thanks John, Thanks Greg, Carl, thank you so much.
Thank you. Let me go to Taylor in the South End. Taylor, welcome,
How are you?
Speaker 4 (35:12):
How are you doing?
Speaker 3 (35:13):
To him?
Speaker 2 (35:14):
I'm doing great, Taylor, go right ahead.
Speaker 4 (35:16):
Listen. I worked in the sunway back in the nineties,
the early nineties. I've bit the parking back then. Naturally,
that's ancient history and things go a lot a lot different.
But in light of all the technology now, and it's
getting more and more seemingly every day. I still use
(35:37):
cash almost seventies and eighties kids. A lot of people
don't like it when I pay, but I said, well,
as long as it's here, I'm going to use it.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
I don't really has anyone else. Let me ask you this, Taylor,
has anyone ever refused a tip in cash when you
offered it?
Speaker 4 (35:58):
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Yeah, I know that no one does, so.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
I mean, uh, but I'm just going to say, uh,
if you're going to markets, everybody goes in the market.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
There.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
You know you have a lot of automation. I've seen
a robot security guarden there. I thought it was kind
of funny and scary at the same time.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Robot security guard, great.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
Robot security guard. Okay, yeah, that's the indication of Mardern
Day jetsons or whatever you want to call it. But
for a space odisty or whatever, I.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Guess you have to talk robotic to be able to
communicate with the robotic guard.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
Well, the funny thing about it when it got down
I was in it stopped and started making these whirling noises,
and I said, I got any metal on you or
something that you know, uh.
Speaker 6 (36:55):
You know, but uh yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
There are some people who love cash. They don't use
it because they say I've heard people say it's a
waste of time. I say, well, you know what, it's
a waste of time. Drop a twenty or fifty on
the ground and see what happens.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
You bet you, you bet you drop drop a drop
a twenty on the ground, and the bleachers at at
Fenway Park or in the Grand Stated at Fenway Park,
you'll let people fighting over that twenty with greater ferocity
than a foul.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
Ball pouncing a piece of leg meat to a shock.
You ain't gonna get it back. Okay, But I mean,
the fact of the matter is, but I'm feel bad
for those concession workers. Yeah, I feel real bad for
them because I think this is an indication I hate
(37:46):
to see this that they're not going to be around
a lot longer.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Well, they're fighting, they're fighting for their jobs and they're
fighting for better pay. And part of it is that
they are literally putting uh automatic beer dispensaries and popcorn
dispensaries where not only there's no one pay cash it's
a cashless ballpark, but in addition to that, there's no
one there. They just go up. It's like, look, I know,
(38:13):
when I go to an ATM machine in the old days,
used to go to the teller. Well, the tailers have
been removed ATM machine. I can deal with that. I
don't want to buy a beer from from a mass
gin machine or popcorn. But that's.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
A movie. A few weeks ago and seeing a film
and they asked me where do you want to sit?
And I said, I want to sit in the theater.
You know, I didn't know what they were talking about.
I said in mind that old fashion and all people
were looking at me, you know, but I mean I
just said wow, and the guy who took the ticket holder.
(38:59):
I said, our whole teams around for a lot longer.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
It's a job, no doubt about that. Hey, Taylor, I'm
up on the ten o'clock news. That's one thing I
got messed with. Do me a favorite, Carl Moore, Roff
and I enjoyed the conversation. Thank you, have a great
one coming back on nights Side right after the ten
o'clock News on WBC
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