August 23, 2023 • 36 mins
SEASON 2 EPISODE 19: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: One of Trump’s Georgia co-defendants is already PRE-flipping on him. And his Mar-a-Lago “Employee 4” got rid of his Trump-supplied lawyer and recanted testimony that almost got him brought up on perjury charges and guess who he was lying FOR because after he changed his tune, that’s when Jack Smith added the new charges against Trump and the new co-defendant. The former Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party David Shafer – more importantly the former Quote “Chairman” unquote of the Georgia Fake Electors Slate - filed to switch his part of the trial to federal court and in his argument for doing so he added a small detail: this is all Trump’s fault. “Mr. Shafer and the other Republican Electors iin the 2020 election,”write Shafer’s attorneys, “acted at the DIRECTION OF THE INCUMBENT PRESIDENT and other federal officials. Attorneys for the President and Mr. Shafer specifically instructed Mr. Shafer, verbally and in writing,” write Shafer’s attorneys, “that the Republican electors’ meeting and casting their ballots on December 14, 2020 was consistent with counsels’ advice and was necessary to preserve the presidential election contest.”
Shafer even handed over evidence. Not just to Fonni Willis but to the public. That December 14th sham electors’ vote? Shafer released a copy of the TRANSCRIPT of that gathering of the coven and the guy who addressed them beforehand was Ray Smith, another one of Trump’s co-defendants and oh by the way Trump’s local attorney of record in Atlanta who walked the suckers through their part in the coup attempt.
And in the Florida case, Jack Smith answered Judge Aileen Cannon's confused query in a now-unsealed filing and revealed matter-of-factly that this was because the District of Columbia Grand Jury had been hearing evidence that maybe one of the witnesses – Mar-a-Lago Employee Number 4 – should be charged with perjury because while he still had Trump stooge Stanley Woodward as his attorney, he testified that he didn’t know nothing about nobody erasing no security video from no servers and never heard nobody say The Boss Wanted The Servers Deleted. And then somebody told Employee Number 4 that he’d just committed perjury and he DID see the light and doth repented and got a new attorney from the Public Defenders’ office. And the next thing you knew, Employee Number 4 – Trump’s I-T guy, Yuscil Taveras, was remembering clear as a bell and suddenly the guy who said “The Boss Wanted The Servers Deleted” had become the latest indicted victim of the maxim “Everything Trump Touches, Dies” and his name is Carlos De Oliveira and he is still a defendant but if you want to draft somebody in your fantasy Who Flips First in Florida league, pick him. And oh yeah, as soon as Taveras got his OWN attorney and not the same one Walt Nauta has, Smith filed three more counts against Trump.
B-Block (17:10) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Vivek, caught lying, on tape, the day before the GOP debate? He's the Ron DeSantis of Scott Walkers. The full pre-debate nonsense, and Jair Bolsonaro may have pawned two high-end watches given to him by other governments, and the "Rich Men North of Richmond" singer had his 15 Days of fame. Now they've discovered Oliver Anthony is the reverse Milk Shake Duck: he's NOT racist. (24:34) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The weekly Eric Adams disaster here in Fun City. Greg Abbott has an ugly soul. And the Republican National Committee and Jeanine "Hooters Pants On a 72-Year Old" Pirro attack Biden on... talking to a rescue dog?
C-Block (29:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I was reminded of him the other day so I thought it was time to tell a few stories about a man whose absence is still so shocking, so wrong, so something you wish you could correct: Tony Gwynn.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. So
it begins, one of Trump's Georgia co defendants is already
(00:27):
pre flipping on him and his Marri Lago employee four
got rid of his Trump supplied lawyer and recanted testimony
that almost got him brought up on perjury charges. And
guess who he was lying for? Because Actory changed his tune,
That's when Jack Smith added the new charges against Trump
and the new co defendant. So ignore for a moment
(00:50):
the Republican debate noise, and the Trump primetime surrender stunt noise,
and the Mark Meadows I am above the law noise.
I will get to each of them presently and focus
instead on the rather remarkable spectacle of East, one of
the defendants in Georgia and one of the key people
in Florida suddenly turning on Trump and doing so before
(01:12):
they even got plea deals from the prosecutors. I mean,
there is flipping and then there is pre flipping. The
former chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, David Schaeffer, more importantly,
the former quote chairman end quote of the Georgia Fake
Electors slate filed to switch his part of the trial
(01:33):
to federal court, and in his argument for doing so,
he added a small detail that this is all Donald
Trump's doing. Quote mister Schaeffer and the other Republican electors
in the twenty twenty election right. Schaeffer's attorneys acted at
the direction of the incumbent president and other federal officials.
(01:56):
Attorneys for the President and mister Shaffer specifically instructed mister
Schaeffer verbally and in writing that the Republican electors meeting
and casting their ballots on December fourteenth, twenty twenty, was
consistent with Council's advice and was necessary to preserve the
presidential election contest. Schaefer even handed over more evidence, not
(02:20):
just to Fannie Willis, but to the public that December
fourteenth sham elector's vote he just referenced there. Schaeffer released
a copy of the transcript of that gathering of the
coven and the guy who addressed them beforehand, who told
the electors what to do, was Ray Smith, who was
(02:40):
another one of Trump's co defendants in this case. And oh,
by the way, Trump's local attorney of record in Atlanta,
who walked the suckers through their part in the coup attempt,
and Schaeffer also released an email from another attorney named
Alex Kaufman with the joyously self incriminating subject line quote
Elector delegation reminder. Kaufman wrote Schaefer and copied at least
(03:06):
seven other electors that the group of frauds must meet
on December fourteenth, twenty twenty and quote cast their ballots
in favor of President Trump and specifically per the Georgia
election Code. It is essential, he wrote, that our delegates
act and vote in the exact manner as if Governor
(03:28):
Kemp has certified the presidential contest in favor of President Trump,
as if Kaufman's email describes this as the best chance
for Georgia to ultimately support the president's re election and
pay tribute to Barbie. As if an email from Kaufman
(03:50):
would seem to be an odd bit of evidence to
use in order to kick Trump in the groin, because
Kaufman insists he has no direct link to Trump and
was nothing more than an attorney for the Fulton County
GOP and a district council for the state GOP. Except oh,
by the way, Kaufman just happened to be on the
call when Trump called Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger
(04:13):
and asked her that eleven seven hundred and eighty vote total.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Oops.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Kaufman's email does not have big, flashing red arrows pointing
to a picture of Trump with the word guilty, guilty,
guilty stamped on his forehead, But only because that would
be redundant. Now, now, don't misunderstand David Schaeffer's motivations here.
He has not suddenly seen the light and doth repent himself.
(04:42):
Shaeffer says, it is all Trump's and Smith's fault. The
DA says, no, no, no, not just them. You knew
what you were doing too. But when the starting point
of your defense is to say, Hi, my name's David.
Here's Donald Trump. Please take him from me, I'm handing
him to you. Donald Trump is in bigger trouble than
(05:04):
and he can understand. And now we see what that
means in action. This bubblehead running the stolen classified secrets
case against Trump in Florida, Judge Eileen Cannon couldn't understand
why Jack Smith was still using the grand jury to
investigate the case that he'd already brought indictments on and
(05:24):
why there were now superseding indictments. Well, hell, she's still
been a judge presiding in a courtroom for less than
one month out of her life, so it's unlikely she
understands anything. She is far more experienced covering pre natal
yoga and why tomatoes might reduce tumors for articles she
was to write for the newspaper, the Miami Nuevo Herald. Boy,
(05:48):
I wish I was making that up. So Jack Smith
answered her query in a now unsealed filing and revealed,
matter of factly that he was doing this because the
District of Columbia Grand Jury had been hearing evidence that
maybe one of the witnesses, a Lago employee number four,
should be charged with perjury because while he still had
(06:10):
Trump's stooge Stanley Woodward as his attorney, Number four testified
that he didn't know nothing about nobody erasing no security
video from those servers, and never heard nobody say the
boss wanted the servers deleted. And then somebody told employee
number four, hey, you know what, you may have just
committed some light perjury. And he did see the light,
(06:32):
and he doth repented and he got a new attorney
from the Public Defender's Office in DC. And the next
thing you knew, employee number four, who is Trump's IT
guy at marri A Lago, you sealed Taveres was remembering
clear as a bell. And suddenly the guy who actually
said the boss wanted the servers deleted had become the
(06:52):
latest indicted victim of the maximum Everything Trump touches dies
and his name is Carlos Diliveria, and he is still
a defendant. But if you want to draft somebody in
your face, tannessy, who flips first in Florida League, pick
the Olivera And oh yeah, as soon as Taveres got
his own attorney and not the same one, Walt Nauda
(07:14):
has Smith filed three more accounts against Trump. Two. There
are two asides from Smith's submission to Judge Cannon. One
is that he wrapped up that DC grand jury last week,
which means it is not going to be filing a
third prong of indictments against Trump on say, the fundraising scam,
(07:35):
the fundraising to cure a stolen election Trump knew was
not stolen, although another grand jury could easily do that later.
The second aside is that this weasel. Stanley Woodward said
he knew exactly how to resolve the remaining conflict in
the case, namely that he used to represent you Sealed
Taveres and still represents Walt Nauda, and you Sealed Taveres
(07:59):
may testify against Waltnuda. Whatward suggested that the government should
not call you Sealed Tabaris as a witness. Problem solved,
Woodward and Trump did not add you picked a fine
time to leave me, you seeal.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Wait a minute, oh, Nancy.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
You make divine time to leave me, You seal, We've
already counts against me and your plea deal.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
The boss wants server to lead it, won't he? You
make divine time to leave me? You see, thank you,
NaN's ifiast.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
I don't know how you let me get away with
this now, speaking of plea deals and flipping for the
first time, I am wondering if maybe Mark Meadows hasn't
It seems to me and this is guesswork that if
Meadows really is a witness for the prosecution in the
federal cases, he could have come up with a more
(09:06):
elegant and self polishing excuse when he and his lawyers
demanded that Fani Willis delay his arrest and booking in
Atlanta until at least after the hearing on his motion
to have his part of the Georgia case moved into
federal court. And of course, almost any other excuse would
have been more elegant than the one they used, which
is about his revelatory and infuriating a statement, as we
(09:30):
have seen in this case and the other four thousand
nominees for that honor are all things Trump said. Willis
replied that Meadows would not get a delay that she
had given everybody two weeks as a courtesy, and he
was no different than anybody else, which is when Meadows
did his best Marie Antoinette impression. While I can understand
(09:51):
your assertion that mister Meadow's quote is no different than
any other criminal defendant in Fulton County, writes his lawyer,
we both know that is simply not true when it
comes to our request. He is a former federal official.
I mean, honestly, to say my client, Mark Meadows is
(10:13):
above the effing law is stupid enough, But to say
he is above the effing law because he was in
the Trump administration is imbecilic. That's more of a reason
to arrest him. It still, though may not be the
most imbecilic. At least John Eastman had the presence of
mind to just surrender and use the opportunity to whine
(10:36):
again about he and authoritarianism are the real victims here
and yay despotism and stuff like that. The most imbecilic
is from who else but Jeff Clark. That would be
ballot seizing would be Attorney General, who resembles nothing more
than a stumbling buffoon just looking for an airplane propeller
(11:00):
to walk into. Jeff Clark says his case should also
be switched to federal court because being in the Trump
administration makes him immune to state prosecution. What Clark was
immune to was a good legal education is what Clark
was immune to. Willis says she will enter arrest warrants
(11:21):
against Jeff Clark and Mark Meadows at twelve thirty Friday
afternoon Eastern daylight time, and the presiding judge has given
the DA until three pm today Wednesday to submit her
written reply, and then he will decide what to do
about the arrests of both of them without any further
back and forth. Based on the case so far, one
(11:43):
assumes Meadows will work something out and maybe delay the
arrest or maybe get a transferred to federal court or
who knows and Clark, Oh, too bad, Jeff, somebody starting
up those propellers. The defendants, by the way, were actually
offered some helpful scheduling advice from the DA's office on
(12:03):
this very subject yesterday. For the quickest turnaround, the fastest
smile for your mugshot, and then get back in your
lawyer's car for the buck. They were advised to turn
themselves in at the Rice Street Jail in Atlanta at
three am. And of course, Trump, never passing up an
(12:24):
opportunity to martyr himself, has picked tomorrow night, but in
prime time to turn himself in. Sergeants take him down
and book them. Sergeant take them down, Sergeant Bookham, Sergeant Bookam,
Sergeant take them down. The Guardian reported that reported it
had been set with the DA's office on Monday, still
waiting for him to finally go out of his gourd
(12:44):
and do the whole glorious wantson Norma Desmond march down
the staircase from the end of Sunset Boulevard thing and funny,
funny him bringing up fleeing to Russia in his private plane,
wasn't it Of all the things? What was all that about?
Send them in to cover all the airports. Trump may
be wearing a disguise like human Trumpe already has his
(13:07):
counterprogramming set for tonight and the Republican debate. He has
Tucker Carlson's flatulent lap sitting quote interview unquote with him,
which was recorded last weekend sometime. To add to the topicality.
Although I got to say this Republican debate with Vivek
Ramaswami lying about being a nine to eleven truther and
(13:28):
then getting caught on tape nine to eleven true thing
an hour later the day before the debate, and one
of the candidates, Larry Elder saying he was going to
sue the RNC because it had excluded him, because it
will not count the Rasmussen poles. The Rasmussen poles, the
ones that are run by the two Nebushas who founded
(13:48):
ESPN and then sold it for like twelve dollars. Oh man,
this is some compelling stuff. I might be able to
watch this debate tonight, sober I said, might the full
preview of the carnival in Milwaukee that's next. This is countdown.
(14:08):
This is countdown with Keith Elberman. Postscripts to the news,
some headlines, some updates, some snarks, some predictions. Date line Milwaukee, Hello,
and as the Republican primary looms. Rule one of politics,
(14:29):
even Republican politics, is hey, lie, what the hell? They're
only voters. But if your lie is a denial and
the thing you're denying is on tape, don't lie. The
Atlantic published an interview with the Vivek Ramaswamy. God knows
why he is the Ron Desantus of Scott Walkers, but
(14:51):
in it, reporter John Hendrickson quoted Ramaswami as delving again
into nine to eleven Trutherism and saying it was appropriate
to ask, quote, how many federal agents were on the
planes that hit the twin towers?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
On quote.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Ramaswami went on CNN Monday night and said the quote
was inaccurate and he didn't say it, and he was
talking about federal agents on January sixth, which is dumb enough.
But you heard this guy. He's another dumb guy with
money who thinks money means he's less dumb than he is.
He laughed about the quote. He mocked the quote. He
said his campaign had asked a reporter to provide the clip,
(15:27):
but the reporter couldn't do that because the clip didn't exist.
He never said anything about federal agents on the planes
on nihil even are you kidding me? And what do
you mean? Just because they didn't send it to us,
that doesn't mean the Atlantic didn't have the clip. There's
a different, switted trap. I think it is legitimate to
(15:48):
say how many police, how many federal agents were on
the planes that hit the twin towers?
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Like I didn't we wanted maybe the answer zero, probably
a zero for all I know.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Right, Absolute moron, Absolute flaming moron. You know, I've spent
my career just assuming that all the people who could
have done my various jobs better than I did just
didn't get the breaks somehow, and therefore I never had
to compete with any of them. This guy, who is
(16:19):
a flaming moron, believes he is actually smart because he
accidentally made some money and he might not be the
dumbest guy running for the Republican nomination. Miami mayor Francis
Suarez tweeted on August eleventh that if a candidate could
not make the requirements for the first debate that candidate
should drop out, even if that candidate was him. Well,
(16:43):
guess who didn't make the debate. Mayor Suarez has done
the right thing, of course, he's deleted the tweet. And
then there's Larry Elder, who in the horror movie would
be the first candidate laid low by the monster. In fact,
he would be the first candidate laid low by the
monster in a series of horror movies. He's been humiliated
(17:04):
in a Senate race, in a governor's race, and on
radio and television, And as of last night, he said
he was suing the Republican National Committee because it would
not recognize Rasmussen reports, which showed him above the polling
threshold for inclusion in the debate. Rasmussen is the Trump
friendly polster so unreliable the RNC does not even credit them.
(17:26):
And Elder is the guy who's actually just supposed to
be on stage to advocate for Trump in absentia anyway.
Perry Johnson is also suing, he says, but he of
course just wants a judge to make it mandatory that
you go and google who Perry Johnson is. And Carrie
Lake still bringing record profits to the world's camera filter
(17:47):
industry announced yesterday that of course Trump shouldn't be at
the debate because he's quote the Babe ruth of all
the politics. By comparing Trump to Babe Ruth, I am
assuming that Kerry means they are both fat and have
both been dead since nineteen forty eight, and carry lake
with the weather. And if there is not enough sleas
(18:09):
on the stage. There are the anchors, Martha mccownum and
Brett bar of Fox. It is Bear who has most
stridently defended his image for a decade or more as
the non opinion hard news guy on that propaganda channel,
even though the dominion file showed that after the twenty
twenty election it was Brett Behar who was trying to
convince management to retract Fox's experts call of Arizona for Biden,
(18:35):
and that rather than defending hard news and journalism and
you know, truth and risking his own status at Fox
by protesting the new circle of Hell to which Murdoch
relegated the channel now instead. Earlier this month, brettbar bought
a new house in Palm Beach, Florida for thirty seven
(18:55):
million dollars. So if you're going to make me watch
this thing tonight? I mean, is there anything special happening
at the end of it? It's the Republicans. Is the
candidate who does the poorest? Is he thrown onto the
razor wire in the Rio grand or something? Because then
maybe I'll watch elsewhere. Dateline the Willow Grove Park Mall, Pennsylvania,
(19:19):
How have the mighty fallen? A jewelry shop there in
that mall bought for sixty eight thousand dollars two watches
from a foreign gentleman. One was a Patek Philippe and
the other was a Diamond Rolex. And then they turned
out to be gifts that had been presented to the
former President of Brazil, JayR. Balsonaro, which is a crazy
(19:41):
coincidence because the guy who sold them to the watch
store was the former personal assistant to Jayre Balsonaro. What
are the odds Bolsonnaro may be arrested. Those were not
his property, they were property of the Brazilian state. And lastly, Dateline, Richmond,
(20:02):
hope you enjoyed the new darling of the Right singer
Oliver Anthony. The tour of the conservative protest anthem rich
Men north of Richmond, because after just fifteen days he
is no longer the new darling of the right. The
often racist song blames low wages on liberal politicians instead
(20:23):
of you know, conservative employers, and Oliver Anthony with his rich,
defiant southern twang was the new Joe the Plumber or somebody.
And then and then it turned out that the rich,
defiant southern twang is not his real voice.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
I mean, we are the melting pot of the world,
and that's what makes us strong, is our diversity, and
we need to learn to harness that and appreciate it
and not use it as a political tool to keep
everyone separate from each other, you.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Know, the online right reaction Now Oliver Anthony is a
psy op and he's the CIA's Millie Vanilli. I prefer
to call him the conservatives Milkshake Duck. I am sorry
to report to you that Milkshake Duck is not racist.
(21:27):
Still ahead on this all new edition of Countdown. He's
been gone nine years and it still feels wrong, like
it's a mistake somewhere. It's something that must be fixable.
Memories of my late friend Tony Gwynn coming up in
things I promised not to tell first time for the
daily roundup of the mis grants, morons and Dunning Kruger
effects specimens who constitute two days Whire's persons in the world,
(21:50):
the Bronze Eric Adams. They come here, they all come here.
How do these mayors find me? Gothamist reports that the
New York City mayor, who posted a selfie yesterday of
his hand touching the whaling wall, his b B wrist
almost clanking against its surface, has not only spent money
to make a video showing how great Adams is handling
(22:12):
the influx of migrants here, but that the city's Office
of the Mayor has ordered New York City agencies to
post that video and pump it, and has indicated city
officials will be judged on how well they distribute the video.
An email reads quote, we will be reporting to the
mayor who meets the deadline tomorrow. Don't blame me. I
(22:36):
voted for the garbage commissioner, Lady, not this guy, the
runner up, Governor Greg Abbott of Texas. Look, we know
he's a scumbag. He's an embittered scumbag working out his
psychoses against people who cannot defend themselves. But This is
bad even for him. Mayor Bass of Los Angeles reports
that another bus full of migrants arrived from Texas on Monday, which,
(23:01):
as she notes, means Abbot put them in the bus
at an hour at which he would have known the
bus would have to be traveling towards and through Tropical
Storm Hillary as it traveled towards southern California. Greg Abbott
really is among the worst humans alive. But our winner
is Janine Piro of Fox and the Republican National Committee
(23:22):
Research Group. They each took a clip of President Biden
in Hawaii saying hello to a rescue dog and the
dog was wearing boots, by taking a solid twenty seconds
to point out that the dog was wearing boots and
saying to the dog, that's some hot ground man, and
saying to the people, look at him wearing these boots.
(23:43):
The RNC tweeted that Biden had been quote distracted by
a dog, possibly because the guy who has raped their party.
Trump has never had a dog and never even said
something nice about a dog, and has made analogies about
dogs that make it clear he doesn't understand what dogs
are or that dogs are far more popular than he
(24:04):
is to say nothing of far more valuable and worthy.
And Pierro, who we last saw complaining that her jaguar
had broken down, was part of the Fox crew lying
about this by insisting Biden was talking about a firefighter's boots.
Pierro was corrected by somebody else on her show who
told her he was talking to the dog. Oh what
a guy, the disgraced ex judge snarled, talking to a dog.
(24:29):
I'm surprised Piro didn't demand he be impeached for it.
The RNC and Janine Hooters pants on a seventy two
year old woman Piro two days Worst Persons and the
World to the number one story on the Countdown on
(25:03):
Things I promised not to tell. I thought of him
the other day because somebody reminded me about the day
in August nineteen ninety four when the baseball season ended
after the owners forced the players out on strike, and
he went out without complaint, even though at that moment
he was batting three ninety four, and he was in
(25:23):
fact getting better as the season was wearing on. He
had hit four to twenty three in the preceding twenty
eight games, and his chances of becoming the first four
hundred hitter in half a century were increasing, and then
the season ended. Suddenly. His name was Anthony Keith Gwynn,
and I had met him one day in spring training
(25:45):
when he came up and introduced himself as if I
wouldn't have known who he was. And we stayed professional
friends for twenty seven years until his death in June
of twenty fourteen. And thinking of Tony gwyn whose absence
is still perceived in San Diego in baseball for that matter,
as a shock, as something that can't be right, something
(26:06):
that's desperately wrong that needs somehow to be corrected, I
thought of my best experience with him. It was the
night of October seventeenth, nineteen ninety eight. By then, Tony
had already played seventeen major league seasons. He had already
won more batting titles than anybody except Ty Cobb and
Hannis Wagner. The last year he had not batted three
(26:26):
hundred was nineteen eighty two, and by that night of
October seventeenth, nineteen ninety eight, he had already been to
the World Series once and to the All Star Game
thirteen times. He had already hit so well for so
long that when he shocked his admirers earlier that year
with the first OH for fifteen hitless streak of his career.
(26:46):
The then Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Ross Porter calculated that
Tony Gwynn could have extended that streak from OH for
fifteen to OH four one thy one hundred and nine
and still have a career batting average of three hundred.
He was about to bat five hundred in that World Series,
(27:07):
his second. He was about to hit a two run
homer in the first game and then a two run
single in the third game that gave his team its
only leads of the entire series. And with all that,
Tony gwyn was still nervous and excited before Game one.
You're telling me I'm going to get to meet Bob Shepherd,
the Bob Shepherd oh Man. As the nineteen ninety eight
(27:32):
World Series between Tony's Padres and the Yankees became a reality,
he had said something about how much he was looking
forward to finally getting to play in Yankee Stadium, about
hearing the legendary public address announcer Bob Shepard introduce him
as he came to bat for the first time in
Game one, how that was going to be one of
the thrills of his career, and he was absolutely serious.
(27:57):
So I took it a step further. I explained to
mister Shepherd, who I knew pretty well that the star
of the Padres was a huge of his, a huge
fan of baseball history, the one man I had ever
met in the game who seemed genuinely awestruck by people
whose greatness or prominence he had far since eclipsed. Bob said,
(28:17):
take me to him. They talked, as I remember it,
for ten or fifteen minutes, and Tony Gwinn sprayed questions
like he sprayed bass hits. Bob, you get nervous. What
do you do to stay focused? I know you're a teacher.
What do you try to convey to kids? I took
a couple of pictures of the two of them, actual camera,
pre phone days, Tony's beaming in all of them. I
(28:41):
walked mister Shepherd back up to the press box after that,
and then asked him for another favor. At some point
after that very brief world series ended, I heard from
Tony Gwinn, are you kidding me? How did you do this?
I had gotten Bob Shepherd to record his introduction of
Tony Gwinn coming to bat now budding for San Diego,
(29:02):
the right fielder number nineteen, Tony Gwynn, number nineteen. I
stuck it, and not me doing the impression, Actually, Bob Shephard.
I stuck it on one of those talking photo frame devices,
do you remember those? And I slipped in the photo
of Tony with Bob and I sent it to Tony. It's
(29:23):
in my trophy case. Tony giggled. I put it next
to my silver bats. I keep pushing play. I'm gonna
wear out the battery. I told him I hadn't made
another copy when that happened. But wait a minute, I said,
you put it next to your silver bats. Yeah, let
they give you for leading the league. This is the
coolest thing. I even try to say it along with him.
(29:46):
That was Tony Gwinn. I was privileged to witness a
couple of other of Tony Gwinn's great moments. You may
already know the story about Tony Gwinn and Ted Williams.
And Ted Williams remained the last man two hit four hundred,
at least in part because the strike of nineteen ninety
four that I mentioned at the beginning cost Gwynn his
best chance at it. You may also know about the
(30:08):
years of conversations between these two guys from San Diego
who just happened to combine for fifteen batting championships. It
culminated at the nineteen ninety nine All Star Game in Boston,
when it was in part to visit with Tony Gwinn
that Ted Williams even bothered to go to Fenway Park,
and he created a baseball history moment to transcend almost
(30:30):
all others when he was engulfed by all the present
day stars on the field by the mound and basically
they would not let him leave. I was the pregame
host and the National League dugout reporter for the Fox
broadcast of that All Star Game in nineteen ninety nine,
And so when Tony Gwinn bounded back from the Eternal
(30:50):
Love Inn near the mound with Ted Williams, he found me.
Did you see that he had to give somebody a hugs?
It was me? Did you see that that was us
with Ted Williams? Man, Tony didn't just treat the greats
that way. In spring training of nineteen eighty seven, as
I alluded to earlier, I was covering the Angels form
(31:12):
my station in Los Angeles, and I'll have to say
I was pretty good at it. But I could have
sat around the gene Autry Hotel in Palm Springs, California
for hours at a stretch without anybody knowing about it
or who I was. And one afternoon, the Padres arrived
at that hotel on the three to ten from Yuma
(31:35):
or something, and they stomped past the pool on the
way to their rooms, and I saw Tony gwyn who
at that point had already had won one of his
batting Championships and had one of his World Series trips
in the books and three of his All Star games.
I saw him peel away and walk towards me. Hey,
he said, tentatively, mister Olverman, my name's Tony Gwynn. I
played for the Padres. I watch you on Channel five
(31:56):
every night. It's an honor. I actually laughed. I know
you're kidding, mister Gwinn, but thanks, he wasn't kidding. I
had to ask him to stop calling me mister. Not
long after that he would start calling me mister, just
to needle me. If you ever saw Tony Gwinn or
heard him interviewed or heard him work for ESPN later
(32:20):
what you hoped Tony Gwinn was like he was like then,
I haven't even gotten into the charitable work, the health
awareness about smokeless tobacco and deep vein thrombosis that he did,
the fact that he stayed in San Diego when the
bigger stages beckoned via free agency. I doubt anybody in
baseball history, maybe sports history, ever handed out more respect
(32:45):
or and this is an odd thing in sports. I
doubt anybody in baseball history ever handed out more reassurance.
When he hit that batting slump I mentioned in the
summer of nineteen ninety eight, it was nothing. He would
have a higher batting average in nineteen ninety nine and
two thousand and two thousand and one than he did
in nineteen ninety eight. I did a little pe on
him for Sports Illustrated about the giving out reassurance part.
(33:09):
Let me just read you the end of that piece.
When I saw Gwinn in the dugout at Dodger Stadium,
he was holding a small metallic device in one hand,
so I asked him about the hamstring he had aggravated
reaching for cal Ripken's double at the All Star Game.
I pointed at the machine and asked, is that your
electric stimulator? Is that your stem? Gwynn laughed hard. Now, man,
(33:34):
that's my mini CD player.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Will you relax?
Speaker 1 (33:39):
What I would not give to have him reassuring me
that has that sense that something is wrong, that Tony
Gwinn is supposed to be in San Diego and he's not.
Has that sense surges up again in me as strongly
as ever, how I would pray to hear him reassure
me that I am just overreacting. What all of us
(34:02):
who knew him or just knew of him, would not
give to hear Tony Gwinn's little strangulated laugh again right now,
as he would say, will you relax? I've done all
(34:29):
the damage I can do here. Thank you for listening.
Countdown has come to you from our studios high at
top the Sports Capsule Building in New York. Here are
the credits. Most of the music arrange produced and performed
by Brian Ray and John Phillip Shanel. They are the
Countdown musical directors. All orchestration and keyboards by John Phillip Shanelle. Guitars, bass,
and drums by Brian Ray, produced by Tko Brothers. Other
(34:52):
Beethoven selections have been arranged and performed by the group
No Horns Allowed. The sports music is the Oldriman theme
from ESPN two, and it was written by Mitch Warren
Davis courtesy of ESPN Inc. Musical comments by Nancy the
best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer today was my
friend John Dean. Everything else is pretty much my fault.
That's countdown for this, the nine hundred and fifty ninth
(35:14):
day since Donald Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically
elected government of the United States. Arrest him again while
we still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Bulletin
says the news warrants till then. I'm Keith Oldremman. Good morning,
good afternoon, good night, and good luck.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
You make the bank time leave me.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
You seal were already counts against me and your plead.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
The boss wants server to lead it, won't he. You
make the band time to leave me.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
You see, Thank you and cephiost Countdown with Keith Oldreman
is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the Ihear Art radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. So
it begins, one of Trump's Georgia co defendants is already
(00:27):
pre flipping on him and his Marri Lago employee four
got rid of his Trump supplied lawyer and recanted testimony
that almost got him brought up on perjury charges. And
guess who he was lying for? Because Actory changed his tune,
That's when Jack Smith added the new charges against Trump
and the new co defendant. So ignore for a moment
(00:50):
the Republican debate noise, and the Trump primetime surrender stunt noise,
and the Mark Meadows I am above the law noise.
I will get to each of them presently and focus
instead on the rather remarkable spectacle of East, one of
the defendants in Georgia and one of the key people
in Florida suddenly turning on Trump and doing so before
(01:12):
they even got plea deals from the prosecutors. I mean,
there is flipping and then there is pre flipping. The
former chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, David Schaeffer, more importantly,
the former quote chairman end quote of the Georgia Fake
Electors slate filed to switch his part of the trial
(01:33):
to federal court, and in his argument for doing so,
he added a small detail that this is all Donald
Trump's doing. Quote mister Schaeffer and the other Republican electors
in the twenty twenty election right. Schaeffer's attorneys acted at
the direction of the incumbent president and other federal officials.
(01:56):
Attorneys for the President and mister Shaffer specifically instructed mister
Schaeffer verbally and in writing that the Republican electors meeting
and casting their ballots on December fourteenth, twenty twenty, was
consistent with Council's advice and was necessary to preserve the
presidential election contest. Schaefer even handed over more evidence, not
(02:20):
just to Fannie Willis, but to the public that December
fourteenth sham elector's vote he just referenced there. Schaeffer released
a copy of the transcript of that gathering of the
coven and the guy who addressed them beforehand, who told
the electors what to do, was Ray Smith, who was
(02:40):
another one of Trump's co defendants in this case. And oh,
by the way, Trump's local attorney of record in Atlanta,
who walked the suckers through their part in the coup attempt,
and Schaeffer also released an email from another attorney named
Alex Kaufman with the joyously self incriminating subject line quote
Elector delegation reminder. Kaufman wrote Schaefer and copied at least
(03:06):
seven other electors that the group of frauds must meet
on December fourteenth, twenty twenty and quote cast their ballots
in favor of President Trump and specifically per the Georgia
election Code. It is essential, he wrote, that our delegates
act and vote in the exact manner as if Governor
(03:28):
Kemp has certified the presidential contest in favor of President Trump,
as if Kaufman's email describes this as the best chance
for Georgia to ultimately support the president's re election and
pay tribute to Barbie. As if an email from Kaufman
(03:50):
would seem to be an odd bit of evidence to
use in order to kick Trump in the groin, because
Kaufman insists he has no direct link to Trump and
was nothing more than an attorney for the Fulton County
GOP and a district council for the state GOP. Except oh,
by the way, Kaufman just happened to be on the
call when Trump called Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger
(04:13):
and asked her that eleven seven hundred and eighty vote total.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Oops.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Kaufman's email does not have big, flashing red arrows pointing
to a picture of Trump with the word guilty, guilty,
guilty stamped on his forehead, But only because that would
be redundant. Now, now, don't misunderstand David Schaeffer's motivations here.
He has not suddenly seen the light and doth repent himself.
(04:42):
Shaeffer says, it is all Trump's and Smith's fault. The
DA says, no, no, no, not just them. You knew
what you were doing too. But when the starting point
of your defense is to say, Hi, my name's David.
Here's Donald Trump. Please take him from me, I'm handing
him to you. Donald Trump is in bigger trouble than
(05:04):
and he can understand. And now we see what that
means in action. This bubblehead running the stolen classified secrets
case against Trump in Florida, Judge Eileen Cannon couldn't understand
why Jack Smith was still using the grand jury to
investigate the case that he'd already brought indictments on and
(05:24):
why there were now superseding indictments. Well, hell, she's still
been a judge presiding in a courtroom for less than
one month out of her life, so it's unlikely she
understands anything. She is far more experienced covering pre natal
yoga and why tomatoes might reduce tumors for articles she
was to write for the newspaper, the Miami Nuevo Herald. Boy,
(05:48):
I wish I was making that up. So Jack Smith
answered her query in a now unsealed filing and revealed,
matter of factly that he was doing this because the
District of Columbia Grand Jury had been hearing evidence that
maybe one of the witnesses, a Lago employee number four,
should be charged with perjury because while he still had
(06:10):
Trump's stooge Stanley Woodward as his attorney, Number four testified
that he didn't know nothing about nobody erasing no security
video from those servers, and never heard nobody say the
boss wanted the servers deleted. And then somebody told employee
number four, hey, you know what, you may have just
committed some light perjury. And he did see the light,
(06:32):
and he doth repented and he got a new attorney
from the Public Defender's Office in DC. And the next
thing you knew, employee number four, who is Trump's IT
guy at marri A Lago, you sealed Taveres was remembering
clear as a bell. And suddenly the guy who actually
said the boss wanted the servers deleted had become the
(06:52):
latest indicted victim of the maximum Everything Trump touches dies
and his name is Carlos Diliveria, and he is still
a defendant. But if you want to draft somebody in
your face, tannessy, who flips first in Florida League, pick
the Olivera And oh yeah, as soon as Taveres got
his own attorney and not the same one, Walt Nauda
(07:14):
has Smith filed three more accounts against Trump. Two. There
are two asides from Smith's submission to Judge Cannon. One
is that he wrapped up that DC grand jury last week,
which means it is not going to be filing a
third prong of indictments against Trump on say, the fundraising scam,
(07:35):
the fundraising to cure a stolen election Trump knew was
not stolen, although another grand jury could easily do that later.
The second aside is that this weasel. Stanley Woodward said
he knew exactly how to resolve the remaining conflict in
the case, namely that he used to represent you Sealed
Taveres and still represents Walt Nauda, and you Sealed Taveres
(07:59):
may testify against Waltnuda. Whatward suggested that the government should
not call you Sealed Tabaris as a witness. Problem solved,
Woodward and Trump did not add you picked a fine
time to leave me, you seeal.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Wait a minute, oh, Nancy.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
You make divine time to leave me, You seal, We've
already counts against me and your plea deal.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
The boss wants server to lead it, won't he? You
make divine time to leave me? You see, thank you,
NaN's ifiast.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
I don't know how you let me get away with
this now, speaking of plea deals and flipping for the
first time, I am wondering if maybe Mark Meadows hasn't
It seems to me and this is guesswork that if
Meadows really is a witness for the prosecution in the
federal cases, he could have come up with a more
(09:06):
elegant and self polishing excuse when he and his lawyers
demanded that Fani Willis delay his arrest and booking in
Atlanta until at least after the hearing on his motion
to have his part of the Georgia case moved into
federal court. And of course, almost any other excuse would
have been more elegant than the one they used, which
is about his revelatory and infuriating a statement, as we
(09:30):
have seen in this case and the other four thousand
nominees for that honor are all things Trump said. Willis
replied that Meadows would not get a delay that she
had given everybody two weeks as a courtesy, and he
was no different than anybody else, which is when Meadows
did his best Marie Antoinette impression. While I can understand
(09:51):
your assertion that mister Meadow's quote is no different than
any other criminal defendant in Fulton County, writes his lawyer,
we both know that is simply not true when it
comes to our request. He is a former federal official.
I mean, honestly, to say my client, Mark Meadows is
(10:13):
above the effing law is stupid enough, But to say
he is above the effing law because he was in
the Trump administration is imbecilic. That's more of a reason
to arrest him. It still, though may not be the
most imbecilic. At least John Eastman had the presence of
mind to just surrender and use the opportunity to whine
(10:36):
again about he and authoritarianism are the real victims here
and yay despotism and stuff like that. The most imbecilic
is from who else but Jeff Clark. That would be
ballot seizing would be Attorney General, who resembles nothing more
than a stumbling buffoon just looking for an airplane propeller
(11:00):
to walk into. Jeff Clark says his case should also
be switched to federal court because being in the Trump
administration makes him immune to state prosecution. What Clark was
immune to was a good legal education is what Clark
was immune to. Willis says she will enter arrest warrants
(11:21):
against Jeff Clark and Mark Meadows at twelve thirty Friday
afternoon Eastern daylight time, and the presiding judge has given
the DA until three pm today Wednesday to submit her
written reply, and then he will decide what to do
about the arrests of both of them without any further
back and forth. Based on the case so far, one
(11:43):
assumes Meadows will work something out and maybe delay the
arrest or maybe get a transferred to federal court or
who knows and Clark, Oh, too bad, Jeff, somebody starting
up those propellers. The defendants, by the way, were actually
offered some helpful scheduling advice from the DA's office on
(12:03):
this very subject yesterday. For the quickest turnaround, the fastest
smile for your mugshot, and then get back in your
lawyer's car for the buck. They were advised to turn
themselves in at the Rice Street Jail in Atlanta at
three am. And of course, Trump, never passing up an
(12:24):
opportunity to martyr himself, has picked tomorrow night, but in
prime time to turn himself in. Sergeants take him down
and book them. Sergeant take them down, Sergeant Bookham, Sergeant Bookam,
Sergeant take them down. The Guardian reported that reported it
had been set with the DA's office on Monday, still
waiting for him to finally go out of his gourd
(12:44):
and do the whole glorious wantson Norma Desmond march down
the staircase from the end of Sunset Boulevard thing and funny,
funny him bringing up fleeing to Russia in his private plane,
wasn't it Of all the things? What was all that about?
Send them in to cover all the airports. Trump may
be wearing a disguise like human Trumpe already has his
(13:07):
counterprogramming set for tonight and the Republican debate. He has
Tucker Carlson's flatulent lap sitting quote interview unquote with him,
which was recorded last weekend sometime. To add to the topicality.
Although I got to say this Republican debate with Vivek
Ramaswami lying about being a nine to eleven truther and
(13:28):
then getting caught on tape nine to eleven true thing
an hour later the day before the debate, and one
of the candidates, Larry Elder saying he was going to
sue the RNC because it had excluded him, because it
will not count the Rasmussen poles. The Rasmussen poles, the
ones that are run by the two Nebushas who founded
(13:48):
ESPN and then sold it for like twelve dollars. Oh man,
this is some compelling stuff. I might be able to
watch this debate tonight, sober I said, might the full
preview of the carnival in Milwaukee that's next. This is countdown.
(14:08):
This is countdown with Keith Elberman. Postscripts to the news,
some headlines, some updates, some snarks, some predictions. Date line Milwaukee, Hello,
and as the Republican primary looms. Rule one of politics,
(14:29):
even Republican politics, is hey, lie, what the hell? They're
only voters. But if your lie is a denial and
the thing you're denying is on tape, don't lie. The
Atlantic published an interview with the Vivek Ramaswamy. God knows
why he is the Ron Desantus of Scott Walkers, but
(14:51):
in it, reporter John Hendrickson quoted Ramaswami as delving again
into nine to eleven Trutherism and saying it was appropriate
to ask, quote, how many federal agents were on the
planes that hit the twin towers?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
On quote.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Ramaswami went on CNN Monday night and said the quote
was inaccurate and he didn't say it, and he was
talking about federal agents on January sixth, which is dumb enough.
But you heard this guy. He's another dumb guy with
money who thinks money means he's less dumb than he is.
He laughed about the quote. He mocked the quote. He
said his campaign had asked a reporter to provide the clip,
(15:27):
but the reporter couldn't do that because the clip didn't exist.
He never said anything about federal agents on the planes
on nihil even are you kidding me? And what do
you mean? Just because they didn't send it to us,
that doesn't mean the Atlantic didn't have the clip. There's
a different, switted trap. I think it is legitimate to
(15:48):
say how many police, how many federal agents were on
the planes that hit the twin towers?
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Like I didn't we wanted maybe the answer zero, probably
a zero for all I know.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Right, Absolute moron, Absolute flaming moron. You know, I've spent
my career just assuming that all the people who could
have done my various jobs better than I did just
didn't get the breaks somehow, and therefore I never had
to compete with any of them. This guy, who is
(16:19):
a flaming moron, believes he is actually smart because he
accidentally made some money and he might not be the
dumbest guy running for the Republican nomination. Miami mayor Francis
Suarez tweeted on August eleventh that if a candidate could
not make the requirements for the first debate that candidate
should drop out, even if that candidate was him. Well,
(16:43):
guess who didn't make the debate. Mayor Suarez has done
the right thing, of course, he's deleted the tweet. And
then there's Larry Elder, who in the horror movie would
be the first candidate laid low by the monster. In fact,
he would be the first candidate laid low by the
monster in a series of horror movies. He's been humiliated
(17:04):
in a Senate race, in a governor's race, and on
radio and television, And as of last night, he said
he was suing the Republican National Committee because it would
not recognize Rasmussen reports, which showed him above the polling
threshold for inclusion in the debate. Rasmussen is the Trump
friendly polster so unreliable the RNC does not even credit them.
(17:26):
And Elder is the guy who's actually just supposed to
be on stage to advocate for Trump in absentia anyway.
Perry Johnson is also suing, he says, but he of
course just wants a judge to make it mandatory that
you go and google who Perry Johnson is. And Carrie
Lake still bringing record profits to the world's camera filter
(17:47):
industry announced yesterday that of course Trump shouldn't be at
the debate because he's quote the Babe ruth of all
the politics. By comparing Trump to Babe Ruth, I am
assuming that Kerry means they are both fat and have
both been dead since nineteen forty eight, and carry lake
with the weather. And if there is not enough sleas
(18:09):
on the stage. There are the anchors, Martha mccownum and
Brett bar of Fox. It is Bear who has most
stridently defended his image for a decade or more as
the non opinion hard news guy on that propaganda channel,
even though the dominion file showed that after the twenty
twenty election it was Brett Behar who was trying to
convince management to retract Fox's experts call of Arizona for Biden,
(18:35):
and that rather than defending hard news and journalism and
you know, truth and risking his own status at Fox
by protesting the new circle of Hell to which Murdoch
relegated the channel now instead. Earlier this month, brettbar bought
a new house in Palm Beach, Florida for thirty seven
(18:55):
million dollars. So if you're going to make me watch
this thing tonight? I mean, is there anything special happening
at the end of it? It's the Republicans. Is the
candidate who does the poorest? Is he thrown onto the
razor wire in the Rio grand or something? Because then
maybe I'll watch elsewhere. Dateline the Willow Grove Park Mall, Pennsylvania,
(19:19):
How have the mighty fallen? A jewelry shop there in
that mall bought for sixty eight thousand dollars two watches
from a foreign gentleman. One was a Patek Philippe and
the other was a Diamond Rolex. And then they turned
out to be gifts that had been presented to the
former President of Brazil, JayR. Balsonaro, which is a crazy
(19:41):
coincidence because the guy who sold them to the watch
store was the former personal assistant to Jayre Balsonaro. What
are the odds Bolsonnaro may be arrested. Those were not
his property, they were property of the Brazilian state. And lastly, Dateline, Richmond,
(20:02):
hope you enjoyed the new darling of the Right singer
Oliver Anthony. The tour of the conservative protest anthem rich
Men north of Richmond, because after just fifteen days he
is no longer the new darling of the right. The
often racist song blames low wages on liberal politicians instead
(20:23):
of you know, conservative employers, and Oliver Anthony with his rich,
defiant southern twang was the new Joe the Plumber or somebody.
And then and then it turned out that the rich,
defiant southern twang is not his real voice.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
I mean, we are the melting pot of the world,
and that's what makes us strong, is our diversity, and
we need to learn to harness that and appreciate it
and not use it as a political tool to keep
everyone separate from each other, you.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Know, the online right reaction Now Oliver Anthony is a
psy op and he's the CIA's Millie Vanilli. I prefer
to call him the conservatives Milkshake Duck. I am sorry
to report to you that Milkshake Duck is not racist.
(21:27):
Still ahead on this all new edition of Countdown. He's
been gone nine years and it still feels wrong, like
it's a mistake somewhere. It's something that must be fixable.
Memories of my late friend Tony Gwynn coming up in
things I promised not to tell first time for the
daily roundup of the mis grants, morons and Dunning Kruger
effects specimens who constitute two days Whire's persons in the world,
(21:50):
the Bronze Eric Adams. They come here, they all come here.
How do these mayors find me? Gothamist reports that the
New York City mayor, who posted a selfie yesterday of
his hand touching the whaling wall, his b B wrist
almost clanking against its surface, has not only spent money
to make a video showing how great Adams is handling
(22:12):
the influx of migrants here, but that the city's Office
of the Mayor has ordered New York City agencies to
post that video and pump it, and has indicated city
officials will be judged on how well they distribute the video.
An email reads quote, we will be reporting to the
mayor who meets the deadline tomorrow. Don't blame me. I
(22:36):
voted for the garbage commissioner, Lady, not this guy, the
runner up, Governor Greg Abbott of Texas. Look, we know
he's a scumbag. He's an embittered scumbag working out his
psychoses against people who cannot defend themselves. But This is
bad even for him. Mayor Bass of Los Angeles reports
that another bus full of migrants arrived from Texas on Monday, which,
(23:01):
as she notes, means Abbot put them in the bus
at an hour at which he would have known the
bus would have to be traveling towards and through Tropical
Storm Hillary as it traveled towards southern California. Greg Abbott
really is among the worst humans alive. But our winner
is Janine Piro of Fox and the Republican National Committee
(23:22):
Research Group. They each took a clip of President Biden
in Hawaii saying hello to a rescue dog and the
dog was wearing boots, by taking a solid twenty seconds
to point out that the dog was wearing boots and
saying to the dog, that's some hot ground man, and
saying to the people, look at him wearing these boots.
(23:43):
The RNC tweeted that Biden had been quote distracted by
a dog, possibly because the guy who has raped their party.
Trump has never had a dog and never even said
something nice about a dog, and has made analogies about
dogs that make it clear he doesn't understand what dogs
are or that dogs are far more popular than he
(24:04):
is to say nothing of far more valuable and worthy.
And Pierro, who we last saw complaining that her jaguar
had broken down, was part of the Fox crew lying
about this by insisting Biden was talking about a firefighter's boots.
Pierro was corrected by somebody else on her show who
told her he was talking to the dog. Oh what
a guy, the disgraced ex judge snarled, talking to a dog.
(24:29):
I'm surprised Piro didn't demand he be impeached for it.
The RNC and Janine Hooters pants on a seventy two
year old woman Piro two days Worst Persons and the
World to the number one story on the Countdown on
(25:03):
Things I promised not to tell. I thought of him
the other day because somebody reminded me about the day
in August nineteen ninety four when the baseball season ended
after the owners forced the players out on strike, and
he went out without complaint, even though at that moment
he was batting three ninety four, and he was in
(25:23):
fact getting better as the season was wearing on. He
had hit four to twenty three in the preceding twenty
eight games, and his chances of becoming the first four
hundred hitter in half a century were increasing, and then
the season ended. Suddenly. His name was Anthony Keith Gwynn,
and I had met him one day in spring training
(25:45):
when he came up and introduced himself as if I
wouldn't have known who he was. And we stayed professional
friends for twenty seven years until his death in June
of twenty fourteen. And thinking of Tony gwyn whose absence
is still perceived in San Diego in baseball for that matter,
as a shock, as something that can't be right, something
(26:06):
that's desperately wrong that needs somehow to be corrected, I
thought of my best experience with him. It was the
night of October seventeenth, nineteen ninety eight. By then, Tony
had already played seventeen major league seasons. He had already
won more batting titles than anybody except Ty Cobb and
Hannis Wagner. The last year he had not batted three
(26:26):
hundred was nineteen eighty two, and by that night of
October seventeenth, nineteen ninety eight, he had already been to
the World Series once and to the All Star Game
thirteen times. He had already hit so well for so
long that when he shocked his admirers earlier that year
with the first OH for fifteen hitless streak of his career.
(26:46):
The then Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Ross Porter calculated that
Tony Gwynn could have extended that streak from OH for
fifteen to OH four one thy one hundred and nine
and still have a career batting average of three hundred.
He was about to bat five hundred in that World Series,
(27:07):
his second. He was about to hit a two run
homer in the first game and then a two run
single in the third game that gave his team its
only leads of the entire series. And with all that,
Tony gwyn was still nervous and excited before Game one.
You're telling me I'm going to get to meet Bob Shepherd,
the Bob Shepherd oh Man. As the nineteen ninety eight
(27:32):
World Series between Tony's Padres and the Yankees became a reality,
he had said something about how much he was looking
forward to finally getting to play in Yankee Stadium, about
hearing the legendary public address announcer Bob Shepard introduce him
as he came to bat for the first time in
Game one, how that was going to be one of
the thrills of his career, and he was absolutely serious.
(27:57):
So I took it a step further. I explained to
mister Shepherd, who I knew pretty well that the star
of the Padres was a huge of his, a huge
fan of baseball history, the one man I had ever
met in the game who seemed genuinely awestruck by people
whose greatness or prominence he had far since eclipsed. Bob said,
(28:17):
take me to him. They talked, as I remember it,
for ten or fifteen minutes, and Tony Gwinn sprayed questions
like he sprayed bass hits. Bob, you get nervous. What
do you do to stay focused? I know you're a teacher.
What do you try to convey to kids? I took
a couple of pictures of the two of them, actual camera,
pre phone days, Tony's beaming in all of them. I
(28:41):
walked mister Shepherd back up to the press box after that,
and then asked him for another favor. At some point
after that very brief world series ended, I heard from
Tony Gwinn, are you kidding me? How did you do this?
I had gotten Bob Shepherd to record his introduction of
Tony Gwinn coming to bat now budding for San Diego,
(29:02):
the right fielder number nineteen, Tony Gwynn, number nineteen. I
stuck it, and not me doing the impression, Actually, Bob Shephard.
I stuck it on one of those talking photo frame devices,
do you remember those? And I slipped in the photo
of Tony with Bob and I sent it to Tony. It's
(29:23):
in my trophy case. Tony giggled. I put it next
to my silver bats. I keep pushing play. I'm gonna
wear out the battery. I told him I hadn't made
another copy when that happened. But wait a minute, I said,
you put it next to your silver bats. Yeah, let
they give you for leading the league. This is the
coolest thing. I even try to say it along with him.
(29:46):
That was Tony Gwinn. I was privileged to witness a
couple of other of Tony Gwinn's great moments. You may
already know the story about Tony Gwinn and Ted Williams.
And Ted Williams remained the last man two hit four hundred,
at least in part because the strike of nineteen ninety
four that I mentioned at the beginning cost Gwynn his
best chance at it. You may also know about the
(30:08):
years of conversations between these two guys from San Diego
who just happened to combine for fifteen batting championships. It
culminated at the nineteen ninety nine All Star Game in Boston,
when it was in part to visit with Tony Gwinn
that Ted Williams even bothered to go to Fenway Park,
and he created a baseball history moment to transcend almost
(30:30):
all others when he was engulfed by all the present
day stars on the field by the mound and basically
they would not let him leave. I was the pregame
host and the National League dugout reporter for the Fox
broadcast of that All Star Game in nineteen ninety nine,
And so when Tony Gwinn bounded back from the Eternal
(30:50):
Love Inn near the mound with Ted Williams, he found me.
Did you see that he had to give somebody a hugs?
It was me? Did you see that that was us
with Ted Williams? Man, Tony didn't just treat the greats
that way. In spring training of nineteen eighty seven, as
I alluded to earlier, I was covering the Angels form
(31:12):
my station in Los Angeles, and I'll have to say
I was pretty good at it. But I could have
sat around the gene Autry Hotel in Palm Springs, California
for hours at a stretch without anybody knowing about it
or who I was. And one afternoon, the Padres arrived
at that hotel on the three to ten from Yuma
(31:35):
or something, and they stomped past the pool on the
way to their rooms, and I saw Tony gwyn who
at that point had already had won one of his
batting Championships and had one of his World Series trips
in the books and three of his All Star games.
I saw him peel away and walk towards me. Hey,
he said, tentatively, mister Olverman, my name's Tony Gwynn. I
played for the Padres. I watch you on Channel five
(31:56):
every night. It's an honor. I actually laughed. I know
you're kidding, mister Gwinn, but thanks, he wasn't kidding. I
had to ask him to stop calling me mister. Not
long after that he would start calling me mister, just
to needle me. If you ever saw Tony Gwinn or
heard him interviewed or heard him work for ESPN later
(32:20):
what you hoped Tony Gwinn was like he was like then,
I haven't even gotten into the charitable work, the health
awareness about smokeless tobacco and deep vein thrombosis that he did,
the fact that he stayed in San Diego when the
bigger stages beckoned via free agency. I doubt anybody in
baseball history, maybe sports history, ever handed out more respect
(32:45):
or and this is an odd thing in sports. I
doubt anybody in baseball history ever handed out more reassurance.
When he hit that batting slump I mentioned in the
summer of nineteen ninety eight, it was nothing. He would
have a higher batting average in nineteen ninety nine and
two thousand and two thousand and one than he did
in nineteen ninety eight. I did a little pe on
him for Sports Illustrated about the giving out reassurance part.
(33:09):
Let me just read you the end of that piece.
When I saw Gwinn in the dugout at Dodger Stadium,
he was holding a small metallic device in one hand,
so I asked him about the hamstring he had aggravated
reaching for cal Ripken's double at the All Star Game.
I pointed at the machine and asked, is that your
electric stimulator? Is that your stem? Gwynn laughed hard. Now, man,
(33:34):
that's my mini CD player.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Will you relax?
Speaker 1 (33:39):
What I would not give to have him reassuring me
that has that sense that something is wrong, that Tony
Gwinn is supposed to be in San Diego and he's not.
Has that sense surges up again in me as strongly
as ever, how I would pray to hear him reassure
me that I am just overreacting. What all of us
(34:02):
who knew him or just knew of him, would not
give to hear Tony Gwinn's little strangulated laugh again right now,
as he would say, will you relax? I've done all
(34:29):
the damage I can do here. Thank you for listening.
Countdown has come to you from our studios high at
top the Sports Capsule Building in New York. Here are
the credits. Most of the music arrange produced and performed
by Brian Ray and John Phillip Shanel. They are the
Countdown musical directors. All orchestration and keyboards by John Phillip Shanelle. Guitars, bass,
and drums by Brian Ray, produced by Tko Brothers. Other
(34:52):
Beethoven selections have been arranged and performed by the group
No Horns Allowed. The sports music is the Oldriman theme
from ESPN two, and it was written by Mitch Warren
Davis courtesy of ESPN Inc. Musical comments by Nancy the
best baseball stadium organist ever. Our announcer today was my
friend John Dean. Everything else is pretty much my fault.
That's countdown for this, the nine hundred and fifty ninth
(35:14):
day since Donald Trump's first attempted coup against the democratically
elected government of the United States. Arrest him again while
we still can. The next scheduled countdown is tomorrow. Bulletin
says the news warrants till then. I'm Keith Oldremman. Good morning,
good afternoon, good night, and good luck.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
You make the bank time leave me.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
You seal were already counts against me and your plead.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
The boss wants server to lead it, won't he. You
make the band time to leave me.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
You see, Thank you and cephiost Countdown with Keith Oldreman
is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
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