May 14, 2025 • 52 mins
ESPN’s Ryan McGee joins Parney Time for a celebration of all things minor league baseball.
They swap stories on the best promotions ever pulled off, what makes teams like the Richmond Flying Squirrels so special, and why Ryan has one of the coolest gigs in sports with Marty & McGee.
Plus, Ryan shares stories from his life on the road, reveals which sporting event he’d pick if he could only attend one for the rest of his life, and a whole lot more—including Parney’s dream to guest-star on Marty & McGee one day.
Follow Cheats @BBallMixtape on Twitter @blackbaseballmixtape on Instagram and listen to the Black Baseball Mixtape
Follow Michael Phillips @michaelpinRVA
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody party for the Party Time podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Here.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
The first you get from this inning of Party Time
is quiched only by Boolight. Bush Light is my favorite
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(00:25):
So go visit your local convenience or grocery store and
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(00:50):
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Fuel your menu with Performance and trust me, I know
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(01:11):
Food Service. Party Time loves Performance Food Service. Welcome back
to Parney Time, season number two. Excited about today's inning
with someone that I've admired for a long long time
from Afar and then are pathsive cross and we have
(01:32):
become friends, especially when I dive bomb his show on
Saturday Mornings of Marty and McGee. Please join me in
welcoming along with the Parney Pub Club. There's cheats, and
there's Michael Phillips along with Joe t.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Hell.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, yo, Ryan McGhee, Ryan McGee, welcome to Parney Time, buddy.
Appreciate you being with us.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, what's up guys? Yeah, and just everyone who's clear
on this when you say like you crash Marty McGee.
Literally every Saturday I get I get texts from my dad,
I get texts from like the producer of the show,
and uh, and I get text from party. Like. That's
literally and and and and then and then the tail
(02:16):
is so when you write stuff, or you you know,
you host a TV show, whatever, you learn who your
actual friends are. Because a lot of times I'll just
get a random text during the show, Hey man, what
are you doing? Hell, I don't know, man, turn on
the radio, turn on television. Thanks for watching, right, But
you every week, dude, I hear from you, and I
appreciate you. Always want to know which minor league hat
I'm wearing, and uh, and I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
But well, let's let's start right there. Ryan. Today you're
wearing the Ideas Bullador's hat, which is the uh, the
Flying Squirrels alter ego on Friday nights.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Uh, And you have been on the Marty McGee show
saying that that is your favorite hat. So let's let's
start right there. Because my relationship and party times all
about relationship. My relationship with you is because of minor
league baseball. You've had a great career and you're nationally
known and all that. But but you and I connect
because of my league baseball. So why are you wearing
that hat today? And you're still cheating on me by
(03:09):
wearing that damn Rocket City trash pan of hoodie?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
So well, all right, so full disclosure, you guys know
you guys, I collect myor league hats, but also collect ballparks,
and I had never been to the ballpark in Huntsville
until last week. I was in Oxford, Mississippi for work
at Ole, miss doing some some spring football stuff. And
(03:31):
then I had to be at Vanderbilt two days later,
so I went kind of around the horn and I
went by and I finally got to go see the
trash pan. But I wore that for you because you
get a little sensitive. That's part of it when you
ask about what hat I'm wearing. I know that part
of it is you just really know. And then part
of it is you want to make sure I'm not
wearing a hat of some you know, rival or whatever
or some but no, I just I like this hat
(03:53):
and tip you guys know I'm a I'm a I'm
a dad hat guy. Like all my hats. All my
hats are a low profile. You know, this is a
new era. Most of the ones I have are those
those forty seven you know, clean up caps. I mean
that's that's that's ninety percent of what I have. I'm
not a high hat guy. I'm not like, I respect it.
I can't the shape of my head like cheats. I
(04:15):
love that that pirates hat, but my my, the shape
of my head does not conform well or compliment is
not complimented by you know, a rectangular shape on top
of it. So you know, and a lot of teams
will send me hats and it's great, or fans will
send me hats and it's great. But if they send
me a hat like that, I'm not gonna wear that
on the show for three hours. Like I can't break
(04:35):
it in, if I can't lay it down, I'm not
gonna wear it. But yeah, much to my wife's chagrin, dude,
they're all over the house, like they're in drawers. I've
got I have storage bags that I keep them in.
We have a in my too much information. But in
our bedroom, our master bedroom, there's this big right at
the foot of the bed, there's this big box and
it's supposed to be for shoes and it is full
(04:56):
of nothing but minor league hats. So it's just yeah.
But I collect ballparks too. I'm I actually hit two
last week. The trash Pans gave me a tour, which
was awesome, and they just had an Alabama just played
there the night before college baseball game. And then, believe
it or not, I had never been to and the
ballpark's been there ten years now. I had never been
to the I still say New Ballpark in Nashville, And
(05:16):
so I was in Nashville and I went, and it
was actually the morning of their of their opener, and
so I got I walked in the ballpark and I
gave you a tour and everything. And then that night
I was at the Charlotte Knights opener. So so yeah,
I hit. So I got two new ballparks last week.
But Nashville's one of the road. Every time I'm in town,
I'm working, and you know, I can't get over there
(05:39):
or nobody wants to go or whatever. And so I
finally made it over there. And but yeah, so I'm
cheating on you a little bit. But yeah, that I
just liked that color. Man, I like that that that
that color, I just like it. And it's got kind
of got, you know, kind of got a superhero sci
fi thing going which is in my wheelhouse. And I
love this one.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Hey cheets, tell me gee what that had is before
go any further, tell me what.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
This is the Pittsburgh Pirates. If you look closely, it's
called the doc Yellis because it has the LSD type
nice following on it.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
But it could be LSD or or party after eighteen
bush Lights at the beach House.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
That was me. That was me over the weekend at
the beach. I said, you guy's got an All Star
game logo on it on the side.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
As a little seventies we are family.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
There you go, all right? I love it well. So
my so my love of minor league baseball started with
the Pirates because when I was a kid, my dad
worked at Garden Web College and we lived in the
Running Bulldogs and we lived in uh, we lived in Shelby,
North Carolina, and the ballpark now that's like the show
(06:49):
Palace where they play the American Legion World Series every year.
When I lived there, and I'm dating myself, when I
lived there in the late seventies, I was a little kid.
Uh you know that's Shelby Howhigh School. That's where the
Shelby High School Lions play the Western Carolina League and
that was kind of the precursor of the South Atlanta League,
and we know South Alanta League, and so we would
(07:09):
go to minor league games. It was the Shelby Pirates
and then it became the Shelby Reds and and yeah,
those guys I love to catch her named Pat Rabino.
And my brother's favorite player was a guy named Eddie
Vargas who got a cup of coffee, uh, with pirates
in the big leagues. And then but we would we
would do y'all, it would be us and it's just
(07:30):
wooden bleachers, right, and it would be us and a
couple of scouts and maybe a girlfriend of a player,
and that was it.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
And you know what I say, McGee, A minor league
ballparks like that, they don't announce the attendance. They named them.
I see Bill, I see George, I.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
See that's it. That's Darrel Walter. Remember one year they
ran the NASCAR All Star Race when it was called
the Winston. They tried to run at Atlanta Motter Speedway
one time instead of Charlotte and Darrel Watchers line was
all ways it would have been, it would have saved
time to instead of doing driver introductions before the race,
just do fan introductions to the drivers. Because but yeah,
(08:09):
but I love but that's where my love for it.
That's what those guys. Those guys were like superheroes. Man.
I remember clear as a bell Eddie Vargas, My brother
would have been like four or five years old, and
every night we're out there, and every night Eddie Vargas
would come over and talk to us. And one night
told Sam's gonna home run for him, and he did.
And then fast forward to years later and my brother
(08:31):
was a grown adult and Eddie was like a roving
hitting instructor and there was somewhere and my brother spotted
him and he walked down and Eddie argus not seeing
my brother since he was five six years old, and
as soon as he spotted Sam my brother, he goes,
is that Sam? I mean, you know what, those guys
are superheroes and they were right there, and we would
we'd have spaghetti dinners at the high school, you know,
(08:51):
with the Booster Club, and my dad would take it
and we just couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
You said, spaghetti, McGee, say anything about spaghetti or Italian field.
Jo T's gonna say, hell yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I saw his head pop up over your shoulder and Itsgett.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
I don't know if that was his head or not,
but something sure.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
But that's but that's where my love of Marley baseball
came from. And you know, growing up in Carolinas, every
single town has had at least has had one team
or a time or another. And and that's what my
family would do. Man. We'd be like, all right, they
got a team in Fable, never been there. Let's go.
You know, they got a team in Kingston, they got
a team wherever, and we and we just chased ballparks
my whole life.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Dude, you were in you were, you were, you were
grown already when I got to Kannapolis. But you mentioned
the Western Carolina League. John Henry Moss was the was
the president. This is my plaque from two thousand and
one the South Atlantic League General Manager of the Year,
John Henry Moss, Boss Moss right there, autograph that plaque.
(09:52):
Thanks to my assistant Joe t for finding that plaque
underneath my desk.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Well, we would see miss We see mister Moss because
he lived in King's Mount, which is one town over
and Moss Lake is where we used to fish and
when I was a kid, and so we would see
John Henry Moss like at all these Shelby Pirates games,
the Shelby Reds games. And then you know, one of
my favorite things to do to this day is going
(10:16):
to ballparks all up and down the East Coast. When
the South of the League got so big and they
all got that one plaque for John Henry Moss. If
they were a member of the league, you know, in
the nineties, and I always take a picture of that
plaque sider my dad, my brother. Mister Moss was good
to me. He was really good to me.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
He was one of my favorites. I've traveled with him
in later years. John Henry Moss Party's Pub Club was
the league president of the South Lank League and the
owners of the South Lank League. When I was there
in Kannapolis from nineteen ninety six to two thousand and two.
They gave him a lifetime contract. He was about what
McGee one hundred and thirty seven years old? Yeah, yeah,
(10:51):
oh oh no, that was Frank Sinatra, fake Sinatra hunts
eight years old.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah yeah, you ain't ever meet no Frank Sinatra. But
I used to I used to talk to Uh. I
used to joke around with mister Moss, you know when
he would coak to the one summer I worked for
the Ashvil Tourists and he would come and set a
press box whatever. He loved Ron McKee or former boss
of mine and and uh. But I would always joke
around with John Henry Moss. I said, mister Moss, what
was it like watching you know? Mordecaia three finger brown play,
(11:17):
you know, and all of sudden he just laughing. Oh yeah,
but he but it was you know, I go to
games in del Marva. I go to games all up
down the coast and there there you know that you
know the plaque I'm talking about there it is, you know,
in honor of John Henry mother.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah, the man.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
And what was the coolest thing is the one Winter
meetings I attended was I was then there looking for
a job and I was at one lunch, got in
there by accident. I actually kind of snuck in. And
when he walked in, man, it was like, I mean,
it was like the king walked in.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Everybody white, had his white saddle shoes on probably yep, yeah,
walk walked in with his with his suit on. And yeah, yeah, yeah,
I'm very familiar with what winter meetings were you at
McGee nine.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
It would have been December ninety three. That was the
winter meetings.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Man.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
You talk about uh, you talk about a gut check.
You go to winter meetings and get told no six
hundred and fifty times in the course of thirty six hours.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
You're just like, that's like Joe t with the women
appens all the time.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Women, Yeah, you to think, you to think if you
knew my dating record high school, I was used to it.
But did it makes it? I thought? But yeah, but
it was like problem all over again.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
But but I but I.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
That's when I landed my job with with the tourists,
my internship, and I got offered two positions, one paid
money and one not paid money, and I took the
one to paid money that was closer to home. And uh,
you know, it's best summer I ever had.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Well, let's let's go right there. We got a ton
to talk about. And I never prepare for these shows
because I just wanted to be organic, like the chicken
that Joe t ate for lunch today. Welcome to the
circus of baseball. You mentioned ram and Key at thirty six,
thirty six or thirty seven years of minor league baseball.
Ramen Key, to this day is still one of the
(12:56):
most influential people that I've ever met. Miss him terribly.
He's not with us anymore. But talk a little bit
about your year there, but also why did you write
the book?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Like?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I know you and your partner in crime, Marty Smith,
are both really good at writing books. But what why'd you?
Why'd you do. Welcome to the Circus of Baseball.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
It's the book I always wanted to write, you know.
And and it was again, I grew up loving minor
league baseball. I grew up collecting ballparks. I grew up
collecting hats, you know. And uh and again my family,
I mean, that's what we do. Let's look, we're at
the beach, and you know, there was a team in Woman'ton,
North Carolina temporarily for one year. So we went, you know,
(13:39):
that's what we did. And so and one of the
ballparks that we love the most because my dad worked
at Furman uh, you know, just down the mountain from
Ashville and uh in travers Fors South Carolina, go Devil Dogs.
And we would go to McCormick old McCormick Field, you know,
before they before they renovated. It was in the early nineties,
right before I got there. And but yeah, I wanted
to write that book because the goal was to tell
(14:03):
the stories that I've always told about that summer. You know,
almost got killed by the tark twice. I almost got
killed by the dairy Queen machine, you know. Uh, you know,
stealing beer and stealing food and getting paid one hundred
dollars a week, and you know, capt.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
You you're talking about my life in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
That's what I was saying, and it's why I took
that book as much as that. The goal of that
book was to tell those stories, but it was a
supposed to be hopefully is how people take it. It's
a love letter to manor league baseball. And the reason that,
you know, with the dedication to the to when you
the first page one, the dedication of that book is
to you, guys. The dedication of that book is to
(14:41):
the people who still grind it out because the reality
was I was only in the middle of for about
some months, eight months, and I love, love, love everyone
who gives their lives to minor league baseball. That's why
I stopped, you know, to ballparks just last week, just
to meet everybody. And so that's I'm glad to hear
you say that, because that my biggest concern. I wasn't
even worried about, like should I tell this story about
(15:03):
this person or should I tell this story about this player.
What I was my biggest concern was when it was
over with, I wanted to do right by y'all who
have made my life so amazing through your work in
minor league baseball. And I appreciate you saying that because
that was the goal.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Well, that means that means a lot to me as
a as a minor league baseball lifer. And you know,
I read it. I was sober most of the time
when I read it at the beach, but I really
felt like you were writing it to us, honestly, and
I felt like you and I were having beers together
and you were telling me about your life with Ron
McKee and Ashville. So many of those names are people
that you know, that that I've that I've shared meals
(15:40):
with and all that. Is there any one particular story
that your your fans of Marty McGee and Ryan and
Ryan McGee have have told you they enjoyed the most
about about the Welcome to the Circus of Baseball.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Yeah, well, there's two things that people keep going back to.
Are you know I write about this cat that just
showed up at the ballpark one day, Julio who the
the cat? And so you know it's we named named
Julio because you know, you know Julio down at the
you know, I said down at the ball yard right
now sitting down at the playard or whatever it is.
The song, but the deal was, are uh and you
(16:20):
knew you probably knew Grady Gardner. He was the ground
screw guy there for years and Grady, you know every
time nights it went went line dancing. He went. Yeah,
And so he left us and there was gonna be
some a little bit of rain that night and some moisture,
and he said, y'all, make sure you put out some
speedy dry just on the infield for the dirt. Just
(16:41):
you don't need to tarpet, you just need to throw
a little dry out there so it'll be okay in
the morning. Well we put we didn't know what the
hell were doing, and we put about fourteen bags of
that stuff out there. And the next morning we all
come rolling into work at seven am or whatever, and
the field is completely covered in cats and they're just
those cats are and on and those cats were like taking,
(17:02):
i mean, just used they were using the infield as
a as a bathroom and they're just I mean, it's
just they're crapping and scooping and crapping and kicking dirt.
And that's when I suddenly realized, oh, this speedy dry
is just kitty litter, like that's all that is. Like
it's got corn cobs in it, and it's got it's
kitty litter. And so we run all the cats out
of there, you know, and everything. And this one cat
(17:24):
just hung around, this orange cat, and I named Julio,
and you know, and as the book goes along, Julio's
kind of always in the background and I fed Julio
and Wholo kind of came my cat. I don't even
like cats, but he was my cat. And then he
Julio dies, you know, during the book, because Julio was
old and you know, never clearly never had any medical attention.
(17:44):
And I end the book long Live Julio the cat,
and and people at the airport. I'll be sitting at
the gate as somebody I'll walk over and I say,
long Live Julio, Like I get it all. I get it.
It's it's the it's the coolest thing to me. And
then the other part, the other story I get all
the time is I tell the story about when the
dairy Queen machine and I had to just fight and
(18:05):
damn near killed me. Like I thought I was gonna
break my back.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
And who is going to go into a connemption McGee
because Joe t goes to dairy Queen eight times a week.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Up. Yeah, but but but but but Julio helped me
clean up after I spilled that that what that is
basically this milk mix, after I spilled it all over
this little room, and uh, and I go running down
the hallway because nobody has seen it. But but long
story short, I slipped and busted my ass and fell
(18:33):
off the ladder and I lay it up like a
turtle on his back. And so Juli and know, I
hose this room down and we clean it up, and
I my clothes are sticky, like they're covered in this
this milk stuff. I run down to the clubhouse. Team's
not there yet, and I throw my clothes into the wash.
I don't have anything to wear. There's no towels. The
towels are all, you know, uh, in the in the
driveway and the wash too. And so I'm standing there,
(18:56):
you know, naked as the dow was born, waiting on
my My clothes are dry. I hoping nobody will is
gonna walk in. All of a sudden, I hear, you know,
what the hell I'm trying to look and jack La
maybe was our pitching coach, and jack La maybe he
pitched with Bob Gibson with the Cardinals in the World Series.
Jack La maybe was the was the last coach at
LSU before skip Bertman got there and turned them into
the And he's like, uh, he caught me glasses because
(19:19):
I wore glasses. And he's like, glasses you all right?
I was totally naked standing. I go, yeah, coach him not,
I've got a tough day that the Derrek Queer machine
almost killed me. And I'm drying my clothes and he goes, well,
you need to know this looks pretty screwed up. And
he just walks off and that was that. But but
but people will send me all the time pictures of them.
I mean Dairy Queen. You know, Uh, my son's working
(19:39):
at Dairy Queen. People are at ball games and l
see when they go to games at McCormick Field, the
soft serve machine is in the back back there is that,
And they'll send me a you know, this is the
machine that almost killed you. I'm like, yeah, so long,
little Julio the cat and uh and a lot of
people love to see me Derreck Queens, but I still
eat a hell a lot of Darey Queens. It didn't,
it didn't. It was traumatic, but it was so traumatic
that I don't get get me a blizzard.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
I got you the hell yeah, McGee, I got you,
hell yeah. We're gonna bring the Pub Club in here
in a second. Cheets, I don't know where the hell
MP went, but he'll bring him back. And McGee. What
we do with these guys is the Pub Club gives
you quick little hitter questions. We call them shots. It's
not the kind of shots that we probably did over
the weekend, but it shots nonetheless. But before we do that,
(20:24):
I just want you to talk a little bit about
Ron McKey. And you talk about him a lot in
the book, and he was a larger than life figure.
One of the cool things that's happened to me in
my career is, you know, somebody will introduce me as
someone with a larger than life personality, and to me,
that's what Ron my key was all about. Just tell
our parting time listeners in the Pub Club a thing
(20:46):
or two about Ron McKey as a baseball lifer and
what he meant to you.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
You can't make a guy out run up. You know,
as a writer, if I were to you, my wife
and I both writers, if we made up a character
like Ron, you know she writes scripts and stuff, they'd
send it back and go, this person isn't real. You can't,
we can't. He was totally real. And you know, he
looked like a bowling ball on stilts walking around. He
wore those coaching shorts with the snaps in the front,
(21:13):
and he'd always come out to pull the tarp and
and magically he'd always get a phone call, like right
before we're all lined up to pull the tarp, all
of a sudden, Ron, do you run?
Speaker 1 (21:25):
You got a phone call?
Speaker 2 (21:26):
All sorry, guys, you got to pull it out. And
I gotta go like, why did you even change clothes?
Because you were never going to do this.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
But but like for folks, one was in good shape. Guys.
McGee says, he was a bowling ball with on stilts.
That's exactly what he was.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
And he knew it and loved it. And uh, but
but every every lunch was a three marguerita lunch with Ron,
and and but he had this gigantic Chevy convertible that
I mean looked like but he was he just when
he walked in the room, he commanded the room, whether
he said a word or not. I say this all
the time about like Dell Earnhardt and like a couple
(21:59):
of times been in the room with like us presidents.
Is there's a bubble around these people. And if we're
where if we were in a hotel conference room when
five hundred people were all facing the front of the room,
and there's certain people when they walk in the back
door without saying a word, everyone in the room just
turns down and looks because the air changed in the room.
And that's how it was. Roun and Ron took nothing
(22:20):
off of anyone. Ron cleaned that game up. You know,
what we know is minor league baseball now isn't what
it was in the seventies and even in the eighties,
because it really was just a place for you know,
for scally wagers to go get drunk and smoke and
fight people. And Ron cleaned the McCormick field up. It
had been like that for fifty years and he turned
it into a family friendly place.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
But yeah, he was.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
But for folks we see Bull Durham and when they say,
you know, greatest show on dirt and a lot a
lot of those stories. Ron Shelton, and he'll tell you
this who wrote and director bull Derham, They came from Ron, right.
I mean, you know the greatest showing dirt, you know,
which is what they called the Bulls. That was Ron
came up with that for the tourists. Now the NC
double A owns it. They use it for college wull
(23:04):
series and Thursday Thursday. Anybody that gets tipsy on the
cheap at a ballpark on a Thursday night you can
thank Ron McKey. And I mean the framed uh, the
frame government issued trademark is hanging in the office to
this day at McCormick field. So without the Ron mckeys
of the world and the parties of the world, the
(23:26):
rest of us will be looking for something to do
all summer. And and that's why, that's why he's the.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Man Ron McKee called. We got along great and I
loved him and he loved me. But when I got
to Kannapolis, we were gonna do Thurstay Thursday, and I
got a phone call and he's like, son, you know
why you haven't done yet? And I go, what's that? Ron?
He goes, you haven't asked me my permission to do
Thursday Thursdays. Yeah, and I'm like, well, screw that, then
(23:51):
we're gonna do fire them down Fridays. He got so
mad at me. He custs my ass out. It was great,
you go, you go first with McGee. No good, Ryan,
you got something.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
No, He's the best. And I miss him every day.
And it's but you know the impact he had on
my life. And I end the book with some regret
because when Ron passed away, I had a chance to
go by his house and see him just a little
bit before that, and then I wasn't able to attend
the funeral because I think we were doing Martin. It
was in the fall. We're doing Marty McGee somewhere on
(24:22):
the road, and I could not get to Ashville in
time for the service. And I felt so guilty about
all that, and I wrote it in the book. And
then when the book came out two years ago, they
had me in for opening day at the Cornwick Field.
I thought the first pitch and all that, but I
sat with Carolyn, Ron's wife, and she put her arm
around me and she goes, you need to She gives
if you could erase that the last thing you wrote
(24:43):
the book. You need to do it. She goes, she goes,
nobody's mad at you. She goes, nobody's disappointing you. She
goes ron N. She gives, Ron, followed everything you did
from the time you left out ballpark, and it just was,
there's there's a You got two handfuls of people that
completely altered the direction of your life. Right ten people maybe,
and Ron is Ron is always and will always be
(25:04):
in that group.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
For me, I was trying to think over the weekend
down the seventh inning stretch. I'm pretty sure, Ron McKee,
I'm almost positive Ron and Key told me about you
in nineteen ninety four. I'm almost positive about that. When
you were talking.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
He tried to hire me. It was he offered me
a job to stay, and I was going to agree
to it, and then ESPN literally called me like at
the exact same time. And I wrestled with it and
wrestled with it and wrestle with it, and finally he
called me maw in his office and he goes, I said,
he said, what's going on with you? I said, well,
I said, here's my situation. And he goes, what the
(25:41):
hell are you even talking about? And he said, he said,
what's the phone number for ESPN? And he picked up
his phone and he goes, we're calling him right now,
and you're taking the job. He goes, this is stupid,
and he goes and then he said, if it doesn't
work out, he just call me. I know people we
can find you about a job in baseball. And so
I've never I wouldn't go on to ESPN. Sat there
and told me that, and obviously I've been there ever since.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Amazing cheets, your first fall by MP one shot time
for Ryan McGee.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
They're a tough act to follow, but I'm gonna I'm
gonna ask you've seen a lot of major league baseball
games and stadiums and and promotions. If you can think back,
what's your favorite minor league baseball promotion? One that you
might not have figured it out, but just when you
went the crowd's going nuts because something's happening in a
(26:31):
minor league baseball ballpark.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Well, I mean, and I opened the book with this.
We had Captain Donnamite and his exploding cough and of
death on in Ashville and that's some bitch. I still
you can't make that up. So so now right about
that that's the opening story in the book. But they
would he come rolling up in a station wagon like,
(26:54):
oh my god, it was the greatest thing of all time.
Cigarette in his mouth, oh my god, and so like
the family truckstress, like the wood panels on the side.
And he was rolling up and it was him and
his wife and I assumed his grandkids, and they unload
and like you know when acts come in, they got
riders and you look, you take care of them, and
they need this or they need that, or you know,
(27:15):
we got to go get him at the airport or
or not. Captain Dynamite just rolled up and so he
and the kids assemble this coffin of death air quotes,
which was basically just like three m gator board, you know,
spray painted black out it out behind second base, and
then they put like these two explosives in it, and
they looked like the old wily coyote, like you know,
(27:37):
exploding like cannonball things. And then they run it down
like a wire with the big teeth. You remember the
box Wally Ketty would push the thing down to blow
like you see old old movies. We used that here.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
That's how we set the fireworks off. In Richmond for
the Flying Squirrels games.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yeah, yeah, except you did have. Except the fireworks were
strapped to some guy's ass. That's what That's what this was.
So so Captain Dynamite cl was into this thing and
they put it and I remember, I remember you because
McCormick field the you know, the dougouts are sunk, you know,
and there's a little fence and everything, and so they
set it up and there and they're all doing the countdown.
We had this great pa announcer, you know, he's ten
(28:13):
nine and their countdown and we're in the dugout. All
of a sudden, the reality of it starts to settle
in and we all kind of stepped down into the
dugout and there was the guy, uh John thompsonthing. His
name Guy was picture for the Braves forever. He was
on the scenes from Mississippi. He started handing out batty helmets.
Everybody put these helmets on. I said, why do you why,
(28:33):
what do you want about it? He goes in case
some of the damn guy's body parts come flying into
the But so they just had the thing off and
it was I mean, it was concussive, and you know,
the ballparks up against this mountain, so the sounds got
nowhere to go but into the city and all the
car alarms are going off, and he just laid there, just,
I mean just laid there. He like the smoke clears
and there's crap floating everywhere. And this before the games
(28:54):
when I got to clean up the field. But he's
laid there, and we're all like, and now I remember
in one of the players in the dug out go
is I think it's some bitch is dead. And we
really thought he was gone and so but eventually, so
the wife and the kids go running out there and
they put the smelling salts to him, and he wakes
up and the crowd goes crazy and they start carrying
him off the field and I'm never forget. I go
(29:15):
run out. There's a big trash bag and to pick
up all this stuff. And we walked past him and
he had like a crash helmet and the whole thing on,
and I go, I go, hey, great job. And he
didn't even hardly look at me, and he kind of
looked over at me, and he's got his arm round
his wife, and he looked at me like, whatuld you say?
And his wife goes, he.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Said, great job.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
That's when you're other. You can't hear an amn thing.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
He can hear nothing.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
You know, he's had dynamite. And then they loaded up.
So then they load up in the family structure. And
I'll never forget that one of those little kids that
I assume was the grandkids, they're like picking up stuff
and they're packing up to leave. I think we paid
him five hundred dollars cash and the kid kid looks
right at me and he goes, my daddy donet blown
himself up. I'm all right. So that was it, and
(30:00):
there's been some great ones, but that was the all timer.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
That was.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
That was back in the day. Ryan. He was so
difficult to book because later on in life he was
living by himself in Houston, and he lived in like
this trailer park kind of place and he couldn't hear
the phone ring, so like you had to you basically
had to find like a neighbor or somebody that would
hear his phone ringing so much that they would answer
the phone, so then you could book him to the
(30:23):
show for for that particular summer.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
And then there was Lady Dynamite. So ninety four.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
He was.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
You know, the Lady Dynamite wasn't around quite as long.
When Lady Dynamite was very she was around, trust me.
Lady Dynamite had had a big old head of hair
and was built like a Coca Cola bottle, and she
had a but she she went with. She chose to
go like Captain Dynamite. He had an old like green
like like you know, coveralls that had like you know,
(30:52):
kept his name on it. She had a very spangly
uh I think I wrote in the book it was
thong anchored deal that she wore, and so she was.
It was it was I saw her the drag strip
one time, like not a drag I want to make sure.
I want to make sure you understand the proper term
strip here. It was a drag strip is where I
saw her NHR event And it was like, yeah, she
(31:14):
would lay down and blow her stuff up, and it
was I don't anybody's doing that anymore, but uh, I
hope not. But yeah, Captain Donamite exploded.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Well we got that nowadays, McGee, we got we got
the human canniball. He goes around my League Baseball shooting
himself out of a cannon. He walked in here one
day and he's like, party, You and I are a
lot of like, I'm like, no, bro, I don't shoot
myself out of a damn cannon for a living. We
ain't got nothing to like.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
You know, you ain't like anybody know that. That was
the best part, Like that's somewhere. We had the Blues
Brothers in. We had Elvis Himselvice, which was and you know,
I love Mayan Neutleman I had. I went to a
game at Hagerstown one time and Maya Neutleman was there
and he basically was like if you go watch him
like a nineteen sixties Jerry Lewis movie, that's basically what
(31:59):
my I was doing. And yeah, exactly. I ended up
at the air center at the airport that guy one
time and just talking to him about it, and he
was the nicest guy in the world. And yeah, but
it was just do But but those people just are
the best, like like like the people that spend their
summers doing that stuff.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
And Max max Packing, Max Packing.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
I've got a autograph baseball uh with Max Packing Winter
meetings in ninety four ninety three. When I went, I
kind of talked my way into this lunch and I
write about it in the book, and Max packing and
up center at our table. And the thing about Max
was he was in bull Durham and been around forever,
and his act was kind of based on some other
guys that preceded him in Major League Baseball. But Max
had the foulest mouth and a human been around, unbelievable,
(32:46):
like screaming in the like, like all these kids came
to see him, and he's all, you have him dead, d.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
You people don't know what the hell you're doing.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
And if he's at Duncan Park in Spartanburg, we can
all hear him, right and so but it was, yeah,
I got it, I got it right and perfectly. I
got him a sign of baseball for me that summer
that is just the ball looks like we found it
underneath the bridge somewhere.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
And he's not.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
It's the nastiest baseball in my collection, but he's he's
a man.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Unbelievable. MP. You're on for one shot with Ryan McGee.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
What kind of cap back do you go for?
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Are you fitted? Is it the snap back? What makes
it go?
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Yeah, it's funny. I'm not a fitted guy. I mean,
if it works, it works. But but again, the fitted
hat seem to be more like the high hat deal, right,
So the dad hat, I mean, you know, the my
prototypical like you know, forty seven, uh, you know, the
lowrider hat that's typically you know, you know it was
funny too. I was never a trucker hat guy, like
(33:45):
even like I'm old, right, like I was around when
trucker hat, when the trucking thing was the thing. And
so I've lived through like two or three iterations of
trucker hats. But trucker hats now, if they're done right
like I was, I got one in Nashville. I got
one from the sounds, just a couple of days going
all there. As long as the profile is love right,
as long as it's a head hugger, you know, I
don't care. But the snapbacks, that's kind of where I
(34:07):
am now is the ones I struggle with, honestly, as
much as I love this hat, the ones I struggle
with these.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Deals right here, Yeah, me too, I'm not I don't.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
I'm not smart enough or have enough dexterity to properly
do that.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
And so's like a whole thing when you got to
change the hat size on those. It's like, God forbid,
you have a couple of bush lattes before.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
You do that.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
And I'll wear it looser tight because I'm too lazy
to screw with the with the slide rule thing back there.
But yeah, that's all right, Ryan, were we.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Don't want to keep you too long, and we're gonna
give these guys another another one shot at you. But
minor league baseball is and what our relationships all about.
But your career has been awesome. And one of the
things I love about you particularly is you're just a
You're just a dude doing your thing on the national level.
Like guys, I was sitting at my house, uh, I
(34:54):
think it was two years ago now, Ryan and I
get a text and it's from our friends, say am Ravich,
who used to be a Flying Squirrels broadcaster, and I
guess Sam was doing something of the Rose Ball and
McGee was doing some of the Rose Bowl and we
got a I got a selfie from both of those guys.
On the sideline. My wife's like, what do you what's
who's texting? And I'm like, these guys are like at
(35:15):
the Rose Bowl and they're sending me a text that's
cool as hell, right, So I wanted to ask you
about that whole, like, what what are some of the
coolest moments? You talked a lot about cool moments in
minor league baseball, whether it's the Marty and McGee show
or just being you all around the country. Is there
a thinking too about your job at at ESPN that
just like you pinch yourself and go, I can't believe
(35:37):
I get paid to do.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
This every day, every single day. And that's not exaggeration,
and I in fact, I'm tweeted this last week. I
like my deal. Last week I was I was at Oxford,
Misissippi talking to Jackson Dart and Alane Kiffin, and I
went to I saw all misplay that night against Memphis.
And the next day I drove to Tupelo and went
to els Pruss's house where he was born and had
(36:00):
a Hamburger at the place where he used to go
as a kid. And then I drove up to Huntsville
and got to see the ballpark there and they gave
me a well, they gave me a Christian Moore biblehead
because I went to Tennessee and all that. And then
I drove to Nashville, and the next day went to
practice at Vanderbilt and got to hang out with with
Diega Pavia, who I have a huge man crush on
the quarterback of Vanderbilt, who I covered no and I
(36:23):
you know, I wrote, I write the Bottom ten of
college football for ESPN dot com. I covered a lot
of New Mexico State football. And so when he did
what he did, I was like what And then went
over saw my friends at the sounds, and he came
home and I thought, you know, I got paid in
the American dollars and and but what I tweeted was,
and I genuinely mean, this is the job now is
to make the reader and the viewer feel like they
(36:46):
were with me. Because I take that very seriously, which is,
you know, I get to go to the Rose Bawl,
and I get to go to the College Real Trees,
and I get to go to Indianapolis five hundred, and
I get to go to the Daytona five hundred. But
my job is to make the viewer and the reader
feel like they're with me, because because I take that
(37:06):
very seriously, because it's it's the dream man. When I
was when I was twelve years old, I have my
first sideline credentials for a college football game. My dad
was an acc referee, y'all. Anybody listening out there, I'm
sure you boot him in Charlottesville least a few times.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
And so I.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
But I have my first Island conder when I was twelve,
and that day I went, all these people here getting
paid to be here, like everybody on the sideline, trainers, coaches,
media members, whatever, Like, how do I get paid to
go to games and knock on wood boys when we
when we Martin and I say this all the time
when we leave the set of Martin McGee, whether we're
on the road or whether we're in the Wilderness Lodge
(37:41):
studios in Charlotte. After every show, he looks at me
and he goes, you think we'll get to do it
again next week? And I go, well, And so that's
that's the part of it I just can't believe, is
the places I get to go and the people I
get to talk to. And but then the job is
to make sure that you know that I share that correctly,
you know, with the audience, because in the end, that's
really all that matters. You're not different to work on
(38:02):
my oleague baseball team. You do it because you love it,
and you can't believe you're getting paid to go this
coote for Bulder and you can't believe you're gettingaid to
go to the ballpark every day. But then your job
is to make everybody in section twelve feel the exact
same way, right, And that's why you guys are so
good at what you do well.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
And that's why I feel that. A lot of times
I say it's because of the pants I wear, but
I feel that, particularly in Richmond, because I'm authentic and
how I feel good, I feel bad, whatever, and the
fans see that. But nobody does that better than you
and you and Marty together every Saturday morning. A lot
of times my wife because she hears you too when
(38:38):
I'm watching it on TV at the house. But I
feel like I'm sitting with you guys having a cold
beer at seven o'clock, eight o'clock in the morning, which
is you know, a beer for breakfast is a great thing.
So there's two things in my life that somebody asked me.
A report asked me the other day, what are two
things in your career that hasn't happened yet. Number One,
I said, I haven't gotten fired with three years left
(38:58):
on a five year guaranteed on track. These coaches that
get pissed off about doing that, I'm like, please fire
me with three years left on a guaranteed contract. And
the other one I'm gonna beg you right now is
to be a guest on the Marty McGee show, something
I've always wanted to do. So I'm just throw it
out there right now.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
When you do we need to do? You know, now,
we kind of got them trained the list, like when
Martin and our you know, Martin are both on the
road all the time, and a lot of times one
of us is in the studio and one of us
is somewhere else. And now you know, used to be
you have to book a satellite truckle and we do
on Zoom now right, we can do it ripside, We
do it on any of these on these platforms. And
so so yeah, maybe one day we'll get to do
(39:36):
the y'all getting that new ballpark. Maybe I'll I'll get
up there and uh and do the show from.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
There CarMax Park. Baby. Oh yeah, now, Joe t woke
up all right, good cheats, one last one hitter and
and make Ryan. I know we're running out of time,
so you can make this a short one, both both
of these guys. But cheats your last one shot with
uh with with Ryan for today my last one shot.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
But I wanted to thank Ryan owed us to thank you, Parney,
because that we had lunch last week and I told
you one of these shows I was knocking to miss
was Ryan McGee because I'm a big fan of what.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Thank you, man. I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
So you've been to a lot of things, you get
moving forward, you have you can only go to one
major sporting event for the rest of your life. What's
this morning event you've been?
Speaker 1 (40:18):
Whoa, that's a shot. That's a tequila shot right there?
Speaker 2 (40:23):
Tough. Well, and and now I'm at that age where
and I keep track of all this stuff. Man, I've
got I got. I got a drawer back here has
every credential I've ever had for any event. And I've
got another drawer that's full of every ticket I got
ticket stubs going back when I was a little kid
going to to you know, games regarding web or minor
league games whatever. You no, dude, the same thing, my wife,
bus her heart, I thown nothing away and the uh.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
But but I this is horner level guys. You got
you got it.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
You gotta clean it up, you gotta clean it up.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
It's tough though, man, because but like like like I'm
at that age now where like I just I just
covered my thirtieth day time of five hundred. You know,
I think this may all be like my twentieth and
d you know, I'm at that point. I've covered a
NAST championship game every year. Only when I missed in
the last fifteen years was COVID.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
The uh.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
But man, it is hard to top to College World Series,
you know, you know, And and the reason I love
it is because it feels like myor League Baseball, right,
but it's with the National Championship on the line, and
especially if you go opening weekend, well, all eight teams
are there, and you got to Omaha Tailgators, and then
you got to l s U people and the Texas
(41:29):
people who show up whether they're teams there or not.
And you know, the Boudreau Thibodeaux boys from from Louisiana
there support LSU and they're a bunch of old rig
workers and it's the best. It's the best Cajun food
you've ever had that was cooked out of the back
of a truck. And but it goes on like that
for a week and happen.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Isn't there a bar that does shots for each team?
They count how many shots?
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Yeah? The deal is so the yeah, the deal is
they keep a board. It's right across the street from
the ballpark and they keep it. They keep a score
or a score panel. If you're a fan of a
certain team and you buy a shot, and so what
you get is you get like, you know, Tennessee's in it,
and all of a sudden, one of their billionaire you
know boosters will call and go buy the bar five
hundred shots, you know, because they're just trying to run
(42:08):
the score up. But yeah, but it goes back to
I started going to I started going to College World
Series gosh twenty almost twenty five years ago at Rosenblack Stadium,
which you know was the home of the of the
of the Omaha Royals and the Spikes I think they
were called at one point. But you know, that ballpark
was way too big for minor league baseball, but it
(42:28):
felt like minor league baseball when you were there, and
in the old neighborhood and now that and I still
call it the new Ballpark even though they've been at
more than a decade. But it's for baseball lovers. It's
hard to top that. And the reason is because it again,
I love college baseball, but it feels like you're in
a minor league baseball game and you're going to two
a day for a week and a half. So it's
(42:49):
it's pretty good if you get a chance to get
to Omaha. And and I also go see my friends,
you know, down the road with storm Chasers, and they
do they got a great ballpark. Warn't parks of a
great ballpark.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
Marty Cordero confession time, Fellas, I've never sniffed the College
World Series because that's in my life. That's kind of
a busy time, so I've never sniffed it. So maybe
one of these days I'll join you in my semi retirement. Yeah,
and I'm surprised you especially if Brian O'Connors actause he's
one of my.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Favorite he's the best in the And you know, Virginia
is into thing about every other year right all the time.
But yeah, but I always try to catch up with Marty,
you know, for years, they would never schedule the game
against the College World Series. The Omaha team went because
they shared the ballpark and so the rules. We hit
the road for two weeks while they had the College
World Series. But now every now and then, particularly tour
(43:38):
to end, you know, I can't I've made it out
to the Storm Chasers probably two or three times in
the last five or six years, and back in the
day you couldn't do that. So yeah, but it's a
great place.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Yep. I've been friends with Marty a long time MP
last shot with Ryan McGee.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
Baby, right, you've been You've been to so many minor
league steams.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
People.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
What is it about these teams and guys like Barney?
Speaker 1 (43:59):
It just makes them so important to the communities there.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
It's the anchor. I mean it is. I mean you
think about like Spartanburg that there was there's been a
hole in that town, uh since the Phillies left for Cannapolis,
which which they should have done. And I loved that
ballpark and I love I mean, I got a ball
Weevil's hat somewhere in the house, you know, and the
and the intimidators and everything.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
I know, but we're unbelievable I came up with that
McGee I.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
I used to have it. I used to have a
T shirt with it on there and then. But but
it's but but it's been missing something right, spartanburg has
and now I cannot wait to get down there to
see the Spartanburger's this year. And you've seen it in Hickory,
and you've seen it in a lot of these towns
around work Canapolis. We were that's that that ball that
the new ballpark in Cannapolis. That thing has revolutionized what
(44:50):
was a dead downtown and has been dead since they
tore down Plant One twenty years ago. And so so
it's that's what it is. It's the spiritual center of
these towns. You know, even as Charlotte, where I live
and I've been a pro seizon my dad. I've been
prou season ticket holders in Charlotte Knights since the nineties.
And even as big as Charlotte is, and it's got
an NFL team literally three blocks away, and it's got
(45:13):
an NBA team literally a five minute walk away. You know,
the anchor of that city all summer long is the
ballpark that sits in the middle of the city. Even
with a million and a half people, and so, you know,
and then you go into a small town and it
and it feels even more the bes's what it is.
It's just it's it's the it's the it's the spiritual,
(45:33):
you know, it's the center in town. And that's why
that's why so many towns, you know, want it, need it,
and they build ballparks even if they're not getting the
team because they're just trying to they're trying to have
that that community center. And that's that's when those places
are the best.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
And and yeah, for some reason, guys, it took us
twenty damn years in Richmond, Virginia to get CARMACKX Park, right,
but we got it. It's coming and I've heard I
think I heard Ryan McGee say he was gonna come
to Carmacks Park in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
Soon, I'm coming. I'm definitely. I'm definitely. I bought a
carbon Carmack, so I feel like that I bought a
car Carmacks, and I weared, I got about four different
flying squirrels ats. I feel like, hell, I should be
worth a ticket, right, And so yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
Even put a couple extra cole beers in the party's
pub for you when you come. I appreciate my final question.
I grew up in Locus, North Carolina, and my grandpa
Dewey Barbie used to take me to Charlotte Park Center
for the taping of the mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling by
Cock Crockett Promotions. What are you talking about growing up
in North Carolina? Do you have a favorite wrestler from
back in the day?
Speaker 2 (46:35):
Yeah, and uh, you know, as funny is you kind
of took it for granted, like growing up in the North,
you know, I'd always lived I've spent my whole I
lived in Raleigh for a little while, but for the
most part, my whole life has been lived right on
the North Carolina South Carolina line, right shelby Rockingham, where
I was born, where I live here in Charlotte Monroe,
right on the state line, and the wrestlers are just
around all the time, right you go to I remember
(46:56):
when I remember when I moved when I lived in
Connecticut for a couple of years to start with the ESPN,
and then I moved back to Charlotte. I remember I
went to the belk at the South Park Mall to
get some you know, socks or something and I remember
I was standing there. I've been I've been in Charlotte
this point, like two weeks. Like I'm looking. I was
buying stuff like my apartment with my mom, and all
of a sudden, the the like the double doors open
(47:19):
and the wind blows in on a cold winter day
and like some dry leaves blowing whatever. And Rick Flair
comes walking in wearing a tank top and Zubaz pants
and he comes walking in and I just automatically trying,
I go, I go nature boy, and he goes. I said, woo,
he goes nature board needs underwear and he just kept walking.
But that but that's living in Charlotte, right, And so no, dude,
(47:42):
I was a h I loved Hands of Stone Ronnie
Garvin because he didn't talk. All he did was kick
your ass. And so so that those those are the
guys that I liked. Somewhere, Oh yeah, right here here,
right here in my place, I've got so this want
to talking about.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
So this is.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
On my birthday, almost twenty years ago. I went into
the Walmart down here to Arboretam and Ivan Coohloff was
in there sitting at a card table sign an autograph.
So that's me on my birthday with Ivan Coloff. Yeah,
I saw, I saw Arn Anderson. That's you the craziest thing,
and I'm my I refer to myself as uh, there's there.
(48:25):
The word famous is not attached to me in any way,
shape or form. I am what I call contextually recognizable.
So like, if I'm in Start with Mississippi the night
before the LSU game, somebody might go, hey, it's McGee,
you know. But but if I'm into Airport, nobody knows
like I'm I like, I like RAM. But I had
the coolest through the looking glass moment. I went to
our big Heroes comic convention here in Charlotte, and I hear, hey,
(48:49):
it's it's McGee. And I turned around and Arn Anderson's
standing there and he he watches Martin McGee, and I
just like, come on, man, because my my my, my
best friend from college. I don't have the picture of him,
but bestings for college. We call ourselves the Horseman because
we lived on the fourth floor, and any picture you
see of us, most pictures you see of me. I
(49:09):
thought the four fingers and so yeah, me and Arna
Anderson took a picture throwing up four fingers. But yeah,
I was Hands of Stone, Rodney Garvin and uh, and
I loved even though he was he was he was Soviet.
I loved the key to cole Off, who lives Canedy
Ni Kitty lives up in Cannapolis.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
Not he used to come to the games when I
was like a preacher.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
Now yeah, he's like a preacher's selling something preacher and
saving souls. So God bless him and his His actual
name is Nikey to call Off. The summer I worked
for the tourists. We went to some big charity golf
term or wherever. We just had like a booth for
the tourists and the Key to call Off walked over
and we're like, hey to key to call Off. And
then he had just retired from wrestling, and we start
(49:49):
talking to him and he gave us his business card.
I was like, oh, so you use your stage name,
you know, even though because no, no, that's my that's
my name, man, I legally changed Nikey to call Off.
I was like, okay, because my uncle's really Ivan. I
was like, awesome, So yeah, seeing those guys all over town, dude,
it's to this day. You see him, I mean used
to see uh, you used to see uh you see
(50:09):
him at the airport. I remember as a kid, we
got on a plane to go somewhere, and we get
on the plane and we walk through the first class
and Dusty Rose was sitting with Rick Flair and Magnum
t A and the three of them are sitting there
getting drunk on the plane and they're all laughing, and
I'm like, yes, hate each other. What we all hanging
(50:31):
on an airplane? And Dusty kind of sensed it. And
so later on in the flights, you know, Dusty goes
back to use the bathroom. He's like, young man, don't worry.
He goes this is all this show.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
He we hate each other.
Speaker 2 (50:41):
I was like, okay. He winks at me like it's okay.
I'm like, all right, Dusty, Like he made me feel better.
Like y'all, y'all supposed to be friends.
Speaker 3 (50:48):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (50:49):
We should. We can talk. We can talk about wrestling
with you the whole day. I can't believe it brought
at the very end. Jeff Jarrett's a great friend. Jeff
Jarrett also, but he's going to be in season two.
And another good friend of mine, friend of ours on
Party Time is Kevin Nash.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
As well yeah, oh yeah, goodalls, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (51:08):
Absolutely yeah, coach DeVoe in the face. Well listen, Ryan McGee,
we can talk to you forever. Awesome guest on Party
Time season two. Thank you very much for being with us. Cheats,
thank you for being part of the pub club. MP
on the mic, thank you for being here as well.
And Joe teenage enjoy Ryan McGee, Oh yeah, all.
Speaker 2 (51:32):
To every single week, not a week goes by that
I do on at some point just randomly just yell out,
I'll repeat that story that Will Clark told you, guys,
Ricky gone, Ricky Gone, I say it all the time.
I mean, I have rewaked that that clip shows up
in my Instagram feed at least once a week, and
I don't know how long ago y'all recorded it all
(51:53):
the time, Ricky Gone, Ricky Gone.
Speaker 1 (51:56):
I appreciate you should be in Party's pub sometime, Clark.
It's like a two hour comedy show, Will just telling
stories and drinking beers. Hell states so, Ryan, thank you
very much. Why we're done for this one, buddy, Thank
you very much. Everybody, Party Time Out
Hey, everybody party for the Party Time podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Here.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
The first you get from this inning of Party Time
is quiched only by Boolight. Bush Light is my favorite
beer winter, spring, summer, or fall. Whether I'm sitting out
on the dock at the beach house in Sandwidge Beach,
on the couch watching ball, or in party's pubs celebrating
a squirrel's victory, nothing tastes better than an ice cold Boolight.
(00:25):
So go visit your local convenience or grocery store and
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(00:50):
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Fuel your menu with Performance and trust me, I know
their service, I know their products, I know their people,
and nobody does it like my man Robbie and Performance
(01:11):
Food Service. Party Time loves Performance Food Service. Welcome back
to Parney Time, season number two. Excited about today's inning
with someone that I've admired for a long long time
from Afar and then are pathsive cross and we have
(01:32):
become friends, especially when I dive bomb his show on
Saturday Mornings of Marty and McGee. Please join me in
welcoming along with the Parney Pub Club. There's cheats, and
there's Michael Phillips along with Joe t.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Hell.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, yo, Ryan McGhee, Ryan McGee, welcome to Parney Time, buddy.
Appreciate you being with us.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, what's up guys? Yeah, and just everyone who's clear
on this when you say like you crash Marty McGee.
Literally every Saturday I get I get texts from my dad,
I get texts from like the producer of the show,
and uh, and I get text from party. Like. That's
literally and and and and then and then the tail
(02:16):
is so when you write stuff, or you you know,
you host a TV show, whatever, you learn who your
actual friends are. Because a lot of times I'll just
get a random text during the show, Hey man, what
are you doing? Hell, I don't know, man, turn on
the radio, turn on television. Thanks for watching, right, But
you every week, dude, I hear from you, and I
appreciate you. Always want to know which minor league hat
I'm wearing, and uh, and I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
But well, let's let's start right there. Ryan. Today you're
wearing the Ideas Bullador's hat, which is the uh, the
Flying Squirrels alter ego on Friday nights.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Uh, And you have been on the Marty McGee show
saying that that is your favorite hat. So let's let's
start right there. Because my relationship and party times all
about relationship. My relationship with you is because of minor
league baseball. You've had a great career and you're nationally
known and all that. But but you and I connect
because of my league baseball. So why are you wearing
that hat today? And you're still cheating on me by
(03:09):
wearing that damn Rocket City trash pan of hoodie?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
So well, all right, so full disclosure, you guys know
you guys, I collect myor league hats, but also collect ballparks,
and I had never been to the ballpark in Huntsville
until last week. I was in Oxford, Mississippi for work
at Ole, miss doing some some spring football stuff. And
(03:31):
then I had to be at Vanderbilt two days later,
so I went kind of around the horn and I
went by and I finally got to go see the
trash pan. But I wore that for you because you
get a little sensitive. That's part of it when you
ask about what hat I'm wearing. I know that part
of it is you just really know. And then part
of it is you want to make sure I'm not
wearing a hat of some you know, rival or whatever
or some but no, I just I like this hat
(03:53):
and tip you guys know I'm a I'm a I'm
a dad hat guy. Like all my hats. All my
hats are a low profile. You know, this is a
new era. Most of the ones I have are those
those forty seven you know, clean up caps. I mean
that's that's that's ninety percent of what I have. I'm
not a high hat guy. I'm not like, I respect it.
I can't the shape of my head like cheats. I
(04:15):
love that that pirates hat, but my my, the shape
of my head does not conform well or compliment is
not complimented by you know, a rectangular shape on top
of it. So you know, and a lot of teams
will send me hats and it's great, or fans will
send me hats and it's great. But if they send
me a hat like that, I'm not gonna wear that
on the show for three hours. Like I can't break
(04:35):
it in, if I can't lay it down, I'm not
gonna wear it. But yeah, much to my wife's chagrin, dude,
they're all over the house, like they're in drawers. I've
got I have storage bags that I keep them in.
We have a in my too much information. But in
our bedroom, our master bedroom, there's this big right at
the foot of the bed, there's this big box and
it's supposed to be for shoes and it is full
(04:56):
of nothing but minor league hats. So it's just yeah.
But I collect ballparks too. I'm I actually hit two
last week. The trash Pans gave me a tour, which
was awesome, and they just had an Alabama just played
there the night before college baseball game. And then, believe
it or not, I had never been to and the
ballpark's been there ten years now. I had never been
to the I still say New Ballpark in Nashville, And
(05:16):
so I was in Nashville and I went, and it
was actually the morning of their of their opener, and
so I got I walked in the ballpark and I
gave you a tour and everything. And then that night
I was at the Charlotte Knights opener. So so yeah,
I hit. So I got two new ballparks last week.
But Nashville's one of the road. Every time I'm in town,
I'm working, and you know, I can't get over there
(05:39):
or nobody wants to go or whatever. And so I
finally made it over there. And but yeah, so I'm
cheating on you a little bit. But yeah, that I
just liked that color. Man, I like that that that
that color, I just like it. And it's got kind
of got, you know, kind of got a superhero sci
fi thing going which is in my wheelhouse. And I
love this one.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Hey cheets, tell me gee what that had is before
go any further, tell me what.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
This is the Pittsburgh Pirates. If you look closely, it's
called the doc Yellis because it has the LSD type
nice following on it.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
But it could be LSD or or party after eighteen
bush Lights at the beach House.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
That was me. That was me over the weekend at
the beach. I said, you guy's got an All Star
game logo on it on the side.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
As a little seventies we are family.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
There you go, all right? I love it well. So
my so my love of minor league baseball started with
the Pirates because when I was a kid, my dad
worked at Garden Web College and we lived in the
Running Bulldogs and we lived in uh, we lived in Shelby,
North Carolina, and the ballpark now that's like the show
(06:49):
Palace where they play the American Legion World Series every year.
When I lived there, and I'm dating myself, when I
lived there in the late seventies, I was a little kid.
Uh you know that's Shelby Howhigh School. That's where the
Shelby High School Lions play the Western Carolina League and
that was kind of the precursor of the South Atlanta League,
and we know South Alanta League, and so we would
(07:09):
go to minor league games. It was the Shelby Pirates
and then it became the Shelby Reds and and yeah,
those guys I love to catch her named Pat Rabino.
And my brother's favorite player was a guy named Eddie
Vargas who got a cup of coffee, uh, with pirates
in the big leagues. And then but we would we
would do y'all, it would be us and it's just
(07:30):
wooden bleachers, right, and it would be us and a
couple of scouts and maybe a girlfriend of a player,
and that was it.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
And you know what I say, McGee, A minor league
ballparks like that, they don't announce the attendance. They named them.
I see Bill, I see George, I.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
See that's it. That's Darrel Walter. Remember one year they
ran the NASCAR All Star Race when it was called
the Winston. They tried to run at Atlanta Motter Speedway
one time instead of Charlotte and Darrel Watchers line was
all ways it would have been, it would have saved
time to instead of doing driver introductions before the race,
just do fan introductions to the drivers. Because but yeah,
(08:09):
but I love but that's where my love for it.
That's what those guys. Those guys were like superheroes. Man.
I remember clear as a bell Eddie Vargas, My brother
would have been like four or five years old, and
every night we're out there, and every night Eddie Vargas
would come over and talk to us. And one night
told Sam's gonna home run for him, and he did.
And then fast forward to years later and my brother
(08:31):
was a grown adult and Eddie was like a roving
hitting instructor and there was somewhere and my brother spotted
him and he walked down and Eddie argus not seeing
my brother since he was five six years old, and
as soon as he spotted Sam my brother, he goes,
is that Sam? I mean, you know what, those guys
are superheroes and they were right there, and we would
we'd have spaghetti dinners at the high school, you know,
(08:51):
with the Booster Club, and my dad would take it
and we just couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
You said, spaghetti, McGee, say anything about spaghetti or Italian field.
Jo T's gonna say, hell yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I saw his head pop up over your shoulder and Itsgett.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
I don't know if that was his head or not,
but something sure.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
But that's but that's where my love of Marley baseball
came from. And you know, growing up in Carolinas, every
single town has had at least has had one team
or a time or another. And and that's what my
family would do. Man. We'd be like, all right, they
got a team in Fable, never been there. Let's go.
You know, they got a team in Kingston, they got
a team wherever, and we and we just chased ballparks
my whole life.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Dude, you were in you were, you were, you were
grown already when I got to Kannapolis. But you mentioned
the Western Carolina League. John Henry Moss was the was
the president. This is my plaque from two thousand and
one the South Atlantic League General Manager of the Year,
John Henry Moss, Boss Moss right there, autograph that plaque.
(09:52):
Thanks to my assistant Joe t for finding that plaque
underneath my desk.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Well, we would see miss We see mister Moss because
he lived in King's Mount, which is one town over
and Moss Lake is where we used to fish and
when I was a kid, and so we would see
John Henry Moss like at all these Shelby Pirates games,
the Shelby Reds games. And then you know, one of
my favorite things to do to this day is going
(10:16):
to ballparks all up and down the East Coast. When
the South of the League got so big and they
all got that one plaque for John Henry Moss. If
they were a member of the league, you know, in
the nineties, and I always take a picture of that
plaque sider my dad, my brother. Mister Moss was good
to me. He was really good to me.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
He was one of my favorites. I've traveled with him
in later years. John Henry Moss Party's Pub Club was
the league president of the South Lank League and the
owners of the South Lank League. When I was there
in Kannapolis from nineteen ninety six to two thousand and two.
They gave him a lifetime contract. He was about what
McGee one hundred and thirty seven years old? Yeah, yeah,
(10:51):
oh oh no, that was Frank Sinatra, fake Sinatra hunts
eight years old.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah yeah, you ain't ever meet no Frank Sinatra. But
I used to I used to talk to Uh. I
used to joke around with mister Moss, you know when
he would coak to the one summer I worked for
the Ashvil Tourists and he would come and set a
press box whatever. He loved Ron McKee or former boss
of mine and and uh. But I would always joke
around with John Henry Moss. I said, mister Moss, what
was it like watching you know? Mordecaia three finger brown play,
(11:17):
you know, and all of sudden he just laughing. Oh yeah,
but he but it was you know, I go to
games in del Marva. I go to games all up
down the coast and there there you know that you
know the plaque I'm talking about there it is, you know,
in honor of John Henry mother.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah, the man.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
And what was the coolest thing is the one Winter
meetings I attended was I was then there looking for
a job and I was at one lunch, got in
there by accident. I actually kind of snuck in. And
when he walked in, man, it was like, I mean,
it was like the king walked in.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Everybody white, had his white saddle shoes on probably yep, yeah,
walk walked in with his with his suit on. And yeah, yeah, yeah,
I'm very familiar with what winter meetings were you at
McGee nine.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
It would have been December ninety three. That was the
winter meetings.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Man.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
You talk about uh, you talk about a gut check.
You go to winter meetings and get told no six
hundred and fifty times in the course of thirty six hours.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
You're just like, that's like Joe t with the women
appens all the time.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Women, Yeah, you to think, you to think if you
knew my dating record high school, I was used to it.
But did it makes it? I thought? But yeah, but
it was like problem all over again.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
But but I but I.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
That's when I landed my job with with the tourists,
my internship, and I got offered two positions, one paid
money and one not paid money, and I took the
one to paid money that was closer to home. And uh,
you know, it's best summer I ever had.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Well, let's let's go right there. We got a ton
to talk about. And I never prepare for these shows
because I just wanted to be organic, like the chicken
that Joe t ate for lunch today. Welcome to the
circus of baseball. You mentioned ram and Key at thirty six,
thirty six or thirty seven years of minor league baseball.
Ramen Key, to this day is still one of the
(12:56):
most influential people that I've ever met. Miss him terribly.
He's not with us anymore. But talk a little bit
about your year there, but also why did you write
the book?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Like?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I know you and your partner in crime, Marty Smith,
are both really good at writing books. But what why'd you?
Why'd you do. Welcome to the Circus of Baseball.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
It's the book I always wanted to write, you know.
And and it was again, I grew up loving minor
league baseball. I grew up collecting ballparks. I grew up
collecting hats, you know. And uh and again my family,
I mean, that's what we do. Let's look, we're at
the beach, and you know, there was a team in Woman'ton,
North Carolina temporarily for one year. So we went, you know,
(13:39):
that's what we did. And so and one of the
ballparks that we love the most because my dad worked
at Furman uh, you know, just down the mountain from
Ashville and uh in travers Fors South Carolina, go Devil Dogs.
And we would go to McCormick old McCormick Field, you know,
before they before they renovated. It was in the early nineties,
right before I got there. And but yeah, I wanted
to write that book because the goal was to tell
(14:03):
the stories that I've always told about that summer. You know,
almost got killed by the tark twice. I almost got
killed by the dairy Queen machine, you know. Uh, you know,
stealing beer and stealing food and getting paid one hundred
dollars a week, and you know, capt.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
You you're talking about my life in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
That's what I was saying, and it's why I took
that book as much as that. The goal of that
book was to tell those stories, but it was a
supposed to be hopefully is how people take it. It's
a love letter to manor league baseball. And the reason that,
you know, with the dedication to the to when you
the first page one, the dedication of that book is
to you, guys. The dedication of that book is to
(14:41):
the people who still grind it out because the reality
was I was only in the middle of for about
some months, eight months, and I love, love, love everyone
who gives their lives to minor league baseball. That's why
I stopped, you know, to ballparks just last week, just
to meet everybody. And so that's I'm glad to hear
you say that, because that my biggest concern. I wasn't
even worried about, like should I tell this story about
(15:03):
this person or should I tell this story about this player.
What I was my biggest concern was when it was
over with, I wanted to do right by y'all who
have made my life so amazing through your work in
minor league baseball. And I appreciate you saying that because
that was the goal.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Well, that means that means a lot to me as
a as a minor league baseball lifer. And you know,
I read it. I was sober most of the time
when I read it at the beach, but I really
felt like you were writing it to us, honestly, and
I felt like you and I were having beers together
and you were telling me about your life with Ron
McKee and Ashville. So many of those names are people
that you know, that that I've that I've shared meals
(15:40):
with and all that. Is there any one particular story
that your your fans of Marty McGee and Ryan and
Ryan McGee have have told you they enjoyed the most
about about the Welcome to the Circus of Baseball.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Yeah, well, there's two things that people keep going back to.
Are you know I write about this cat that just
showed up at the ballpark one day, Julio who the
the cat? And so you know it's we named named
Julio because you know, you know Julio down at the
you know, I said down at the ball yard right
now sitting down at the playard or whatever it is.
The song, but the deal was, are uh and you
(16:20):
knew you probably knew Grady Gardner. He was the ground
screw guy there for years and Grady, you know every
time nights it went went line dancing. He went. Yeah,
And so he left us and there was gonna be
some a little bit of rain that night and some moisture,
and he said, y'all, make sure you put out some
speedy dry just on the infield for the dirt. Just
(16:41):
you don't need to tarpet, you just need to throw
a little dry out there so it'll be okay in
the morning. Well we put we didn't know what the
hell were doing, and we put about fourteen bags of
that stuff out there. And the next morning we all
come rolling into work at seven am or whatever, and
the field is completely covered in cats and they're just
those cats are and on and those cats were like taking,
(17:02):
i mean, just used they were using the infield as
a as a bathroom and they're just I mean, it's
just they're crapping and scooping and crapping and kicking dirt.
And that's when I suddenly realized, oh, this speedy dry
is just kitty litter, like that's all that is. Like
it's got corn cobs in it, and it's got it's
kitty litter. And so we run all the cats out
of there, you know, and everything. And this one cat
(17:24):
just hung around, this orange cat, and I named Julio,
and you know, and as the book goes along, Julio's
kind of always in the background and I fed Julio
and Wholo kind of came my cat. I don't even
like cats, but he was my cat. And then he
Julio dies, you know, during the book, because Julio was
old and you know, never clearly never had any medical attention.
(17:44):
And I end the book long Live Julio the cat,
and and people at the airport. I'll be sitting at
the gate as somebody I'll walk over and I say,
long Live Julio, Like I get it all. I get it.
It's it's the it's the coolest thing to me. And
then the other part, the other story I get all
the time is I tell the story about when the
dairy Queen machine and I had to just fight and
(18:05):
damn near killed me. Like I thought I was gonna
break my back.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
And who is going to go into a connemption McGee
because Joe t goes to dairy Queen eight times a week.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Up. Yeah, but but but but but Julio helped me
clean up after I spilled that that what that is
basically this milk mix, after I spilled it all over
this little room, and uh, and I go running down
the hallway because nobody has seen it. But but long
story short, I slipped and busted my ass and fell
(18:33):
off the ladder and I lay it up like a
turtle on his back. And so Juli and know, I
hose this room down and we clean it up, and
I my clothes are sticky, like they're covered in this
this milk stuff. I run down to the clubhouse. Team's
not there yet, and I throw my clothes into the wash.
I don't have anything to wear. There's no towels. The
towels are all, you know, uh, in the in the
driveway and the wash too. And so I'm standing there,
(18:56):
you know, naked as the dow was born, waiting on
my My clothes are dry. I hoping nobody will is
gonna walk in. All of a sudden, I hear, you know,
what the hell I'm trying to look and jack La
maybe was our pitching coach, and jack La maybe he
pitched with Bob Gibson with the Cardinals in the World Series.
Jack La maybe was the was the last coach at
LSU before skip Bertman got there and turned them into
the And he's like, uh, he caught me glasses because
(19:19):
I wore glasses. And he's like, glasses you all right?
I was totally naked standing. I go, yeah, coach him not,
I've got a tough day that the Derrek Queer machine
almost killed me. And I'm drying my clothes and he goes, well,
you need to know this looks pretty screwed up. And
he just walks off and that was that. But but
but people will send me all the time pictures of them.
I mean Dairy Queen. You know, Uh, my son's working
(19:39):
at Dairy Queen. People are at ball games and l
see when they go to games at McCormick Field, the
soft serve machine is in the back back there is that,
And they'll send me a you know, this is the
machine that almost killed you. I'm like, yeah, so long,
little Julio the cat and uh and a lot of
people love to see me Derreck Queens, but I still
eat a hell a lot of Darey Queens. It didn't,
it didn't. It was traumatic, but it was so traumatic
that I don't get get me a blizzard.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
I got you the hell yeah, McGee, I got you,
hell yeah. We're gonna bring the Pub Club in here
in a second. Cheets, I don't know where the hell
MP went, but he'll bring him back. And McGee. What
we do with these guys is the Pub Club gives
you quick little hitter questions. We call them shots. It's
not the kind of shots that we probably did over
the weekend, but it shots nonetheless. But before we do that,
(20:24):
I just want you to talk a little bit about
Ron McKey. And you talk about him a lot in
the book, and he was a larger than life figure.
One of the cool things that's happened to me in
my career is, you know, somebody will introduce me as
someone with a larger than life personality, and to me,
that's what Ron my key was all about. Just tell
our parting time listeners in the Pub Club a thing
(20:46):
or two about Ron McKey as a baseball lifer and
what he meant to you.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
You can't make a guy out run up. You know,
as a writer, if I were to you, my wife
and I both writers, if we made up a character
like Ron, you know she writes scripts and stuff, they'd
send it back and go, this person isn't real. You can't,
we can't. He was totally real. And you know, he
looked like a bowling ball on stilts walking around. He
wore those coaching shorts with the snaps in the front,
(21:13):
and he'd always come out to pull the tarp and
and magically he'd always get a phone call, like right
before we're all lined up to pull the tarp, all
of a sudden, Ron, do you run?
Speaker 1 (21:25):
You got a phone call?
Speaker 2 (21:26):
All sorry, guys, you got to pull it out. And
I gotta go like, why did you even change clothes?
Because you were never going to do this.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
But but like for folks, one was in good shape. Guys.
McGee says, he was a bowling ball with on stilts.
That's exactly what he was.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
And he knew it and loved it. And uh, but
but every every lunch was a three marguerita lunch with Ron,
and and but he had this gigantic Chevy convertible that
I mean looked like but he was he just when
he walked in the room, he commanded the room, whether
he said a word or not. I say this all
the time about like Dell Earnhardt and like a couple
(21:59):
of times been in the room with like us presidents.
Is there's a bubble around these people. And if we're
where if we were in a hotel conference room when
five hundred people were all facing the front of the room,
and there's certain people when they walk in the back
door without saying a word, everyone in the room just
turns down and looks because the air changed in the room.
And that's how it was. Roun and Ron took nothing
(22:20):
off of anyone. Ron cleaned that game up. You know,
what we know is minor league baseball now isn't what
it was in the seventies and even in the eighties,
because it really was just a place for you know,
for scally wagers to go get drunk and smoke and
fight people. And Ron cleaned the McCormick field up. It
had been like that for fifty years and he turned
it into a family friendly place.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
But yeah, he was.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
But for folks we see Bull Durham and when they say,
you know, greatest show on dirt and a lot a
lot of those stories. Ron Shelton, and he'll tell you
this who wrote and director bull Derham, They came from Ron, right.
I mean, you know the greatest showing dirt, you know,
which is what they called the Bulls. That was Ron
came up with that for the tourists. Now the NC
double A owns it. They use it for college wull
(23:04):
series and Thursday Thursday. Anybody that gets tipsy on the
cheap at a ballpark on a Thursday night you can
thank Ron McKey. And I mean the framed uh, the
frame government issued trademark is hanging in the office to
this day at McCormick field. So without the Ron mckeys
of the world and the parties of the world, the
(23:26):
rest of us will be looking for something to do
all summer. And and that's why, that's why he's the.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Man Ron McKee called. We got along great and I
loved him and he loved me. But when I got
to Kannapolis, we were gonna do Thurstay Thursday, and I
got a phone call and he's like, son, you know
why you haven't done yet? And I go, what's that? Ron?
He goes, you haven't asked me my permission to do
Thursday Thursdays. Yeah, and I'm like, well, screw that, then
(23:51):
we're gonna do fire them down Fridays. He got so
mad at me. He custs my ass out. It was great,
you go, you go first with McGee. No good, Ryan,
you got something.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
No, He's the best. And I miss him every day.
And it's but you know the impact he had on
my life. And I end the book with some regret
because when Ron passed away, I had a chance to
go by his house and see him just a little
bit before that, and then I wasn't able to attend
the funeral because I think we were doing Martin. It
was in the fall. We're doing Marty McGee somewhere on
(24:22):
the road, and I could not get to Ashville in
time for the service. And I felt so guilty about
all that, and I wrote it in the book. And
then when the book came out two years ago, they
had me in for opening day at the Cornwick Field.
I thought the first pitch and all that, but I
sat with Carolyn, Ron's wife, and she put her arm
around me and she goes, you need to She gives
if you could erase that the last thing you wrote
(24:43):
the book. You need to do it. She goes, she goes,
nobody's mad at you. She goes, nobody's disappointing you. She
goes ron N. She gives, Ron, followed everything you did
from the time you left out ballpark, and it just was,
there's there's a You got two handfuls of people that
completely altered the direction of your life. Right ten people maybe,
and Ron is Ron is always and will always be
(25:04):
in that group.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
For me, I was trying to think over the weekend
down the seventh inning stretch. I'm pretty sure, Ron McKee,
I'm almost positive Ron and Key told me about you
in nineteen ninety four. I'm almost positive about that. When
you were talking.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
He tried to hire me. It was he offered me
a job to stay, and I was going to agree
to it, and then ESPN literally called me like at
the exact same time. And I wrestled with it and
wrestled with it and wrestle with it, and finally he
called me maw in his office and he goes, I said,
he said, what's going on with you? I said, well,
I said, here's my situation. And he goes, what the
(25:41):
hell are you even talking about? And he said, he said,
what's the phone number for ESPN? And he picked up
his phone and he goes, we're calling him right now,
and you're taking the job. He goes, this is stupid,
and he goes and then he said, if it doesn't
work out, he just call me. I know people we
can find you about a job in baseball. And so
I've never I wouldn't go on to ESPN. Sat there
and told me that, and obviously I've been there ever since.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Amazing cheets, your first fall by MP one shot time
for Ryan McGee.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
They're a tough act to follow, but I'm gonna I'm
gonna ask you've seen a lot of major league baseball
games and stadiums and and promotions. If you can think back,
what's your favorite minor league baseball promotion? One that you
might not have figured it out, but just when you
went the crowd's going nuts because something's happening in a
(26:31):
minor league baseball ballpark.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Well, I mean, and I opened the book with this.
We had Captain Donnamite and his exploding cough and of
death on in Ashville and that's some bitch. I still
you can't make that up. So so now right about
that that's the opening story in the book. But they
would he come rolling up in a station wagon like,
(26:54):
oh my god, it was the greatest thing of all time.
Cigarette in his mouth, oh my god, and so like
the family truckstress, like the wood panels on the side.
And he was rolling up and it was him and
his wife and I assumed his grandkids, and they unload
and like you know when acts come in, they got
riders and you look, you take care of them, and
they need this or they need that, or you know,
(27:15):
we got to go get him at the airport or
or not. Captain Dynamite just rolled up and so he
and the kids assemble this coffin of death air quotes,
which was basically just like three m gator board, you know,
spray painted black out it out behind second base, and
then they put like these two explosives in it, and
they looked like the old wily coyote, like you know,
(27:37):
exploding like cannonball things. And then they run it down
like a wire with the big teeth. You remember the
box Wally Ketty would push the thing down to blow
like you see old old movies. We used that here.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
That's how we set the fireworks off. In Richmond for
the Flying Squirrels games.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yeah, yeah, except you did have. Except the fireworks were
strapped to some guy's ass. That's what That's what this was.
So so Captain Dynamite cl was into this thing and
they put it and I remember, I remember you because
McCormick field the you know, the dougouts are sunk, you know,
and there's a little fence and everything, and so they
set it up and there and they're all doing the countdown.
We had this great pa announcer, you know, he's ten
(28:13):
nine and their countdown and we're in the dugout. All
of a sudden, the reality of it starts to settle
in and we all kind of stepped down into the
dugout and there was the guy, uh John thompsonthing. His
name Guy was picture for the Braves forever. He was
on the scenes from Mississippi. He started handing out batty helmets.
Everybody put these helmets on. I said, why do you why,
(28:33):
what do you want about it? He goes in case
some of the damn guy's body parts come flying into
the But so they just had the thing off and
it was I mean, it was concussive, and you know,
the ballparks up against this mountain, so the sounds got
nowhere to go but into the city and all the
car alarms are going off, and he just laid there, just,
I mean just laid there. He like the smoke clears
and there's crap floating everywhere. And this before the games
(28:54):
when I got to clean up the field. But he's
laid there, and we're all like, and now I remember
in one of the players in the dug out go
is I think it's some bitch is dead. And we
really thought he was gone and so but eventually, so
the wife and the kids go running out there and
they put the smelling salts to him, and he wakes
up and the crowd goes crazy and they start carrying
him off the field and I'm never forget. I go
(29:15):
run out. There's a big trash bag and to pick
up all this stuff. And we walked past him and
he had like a crash helmet and the whole thing on,
and I go, I go, hey, great job. And he
didn't even hardly look at me, and he kind of
looked over at me, and he's got his arm round
his wife, and he looked at me like, whatuld you say?
And his wife goes, he.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Said, great job.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
That's when you're other. You can't hear an amn thing.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
He can hear nothing.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
You know, he's had dynamite. And then they loaded up.
So then they load up in the family structure. And
I'll never forget that one of those little kids that
I assume was the grandkids, they're like picking up stuff
and they're packing up to leave. I think we paid
him five hundred dollars cash and the kid kid looks
right at me and he goes, my daddy donet blown
himself up. I'm all right. So that was it, and
(30:00):
there's been some great ones, but that was the all timer.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
That was.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
That was back in the day. Ryan. He was so
difficult to book because later on in life he was
living by himself in Houston, and he lived in like
this trailer park kind of place and he couldn't hear
the phone ring, so like you had to you basically
had to find like a neighbor or somebody that would
hear his phone ringing so much that they would answer
the phone, so then you could book him to the
(30:23):
show for for that particular summer.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
And then there was Lady Dynamite. So ninety four.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
He was.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
You know, the Lady Dynamite wasn't around quite as long.
When Lady Dynamite was very she was around, trust me.
Lady Dynamite had had a big old head of hair
and was built like a Coca Cola bottle, and she
had a but she she went with. She chose to
go like Captain Dynamite. He had an old like green
like like you know, coveralls that had like you know,
(30:52):
kept his name on it. She had a very spangly
uh I think I wrote in the book it was
thong anchored deal that she wore, and so she was.
It was it was I saw her the drag strip
one time, like not a drag I want to make sure.
I want to make sure you understand the proper term
strip here. It was a drag strip is where I
saw her NHR event And it was like, yeah, she
(31:14):
would lay down and blow her stuff up, and it
was I don't anybody's doing that anymore, but uh, I
hope not. But yeah, Captain Donamite exploded.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Well we got that nowadays, McGee, we got we got
the human canniball. He goes around my League Baseball shooting
himself out of a cannon. He walked in here one
day and he's like, party, You and I are a
lot of like, I'm like, no, bro, I don't shoot
myself out of a damn cannon for a living. We
ain't got nothing to like.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
You know, you ain't like anybody know that. That was
the best part, Like that's somewhere. We had the Blues
Brothers in. We had Elvis Himselvice, which was and you know,
I love Mayan Neutleman I had. I went to a
game at Hagerstown one time and Maya Neutleman was there
and he basically was like if you go watch him
like a nineteen sixties Jerry Lewis movie, that's basically what
(31:59):
my I was doing. And yeah, exactly. I ended up
at the air center at the airport that guy one
time and just talking to him about it, and he
was the nicest guy in the world. And yeah, but
it was just do But but those people just are
the best, like like like the people that spend their
summers doing that stuff.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
And Max max Packing, Max Packing.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
I've got a autograph baseball uh with Max Packing Winter
meetings in ninety four ninety three. When I went, I
kind of talked my way into this lunch and I
write about it in the book, and Max packing and
up center at our table. And the thing about Max
was he was in bull Durham and been around forever,
and his act was kind of based on some other
guys that preceded him in Major League Baseball. But Max
had the foulest mouth and a human been around, unbelievable,
(32:46):
like screaming in the like, like all these kids came
to see him, and he's all, you have him dead, d.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
You people don't know what the hell you're doing.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
And if he's at Duncan Park in Spartanburg, we can
all hear him, right and so but it was, yeah,
I got it, I got it right and perfectly. I
got him a sign of baseball for me that summer
that is just the ball looks like we found it
underneath the bridge somewhere.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
And he's not.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
It's the nastiest baseball in my collection, but he's he's
a man.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Unbelievable. MP. You're on for one shot with Ryan McGee.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
What kind of cap back do you go for?
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Are you fitted? Is it the snap back? What makes
it go?
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Yeah, it's funny. I'm not a fitted guy. I mean,
if it works, it works. But but again, the fitted
hat seem to be more like the high hat deal, right,
So the dad hat, I mean, you know, the my
prototypical like you know, forty seven, uh, you know, the
lowrider hat that's typically you know, you know it was
funny too. I was never a trucker hat guy, like
(33:45):
even like I'm old, right, like I was around when
trucker hat, when the trucking thing was the thing. And
so I've lived through like two or three iterations of
trucker hats. But trucker hats now, if they're done right
like I was, I got one in Nashville. I got
one from the sounds, just a couple of days going
all there. As long as the profile is love right,
as long as it's a head hugger, you know, I
don't care. But the snapbacks, that's kind of where I
(34:07):
am now is the ones I struggle with, honestly, as
much as I love this hat, the ones I struggle
with these.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Deals right here, Yeah, me too, I'm not I don't.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
I'm not smart enough or have enough dexterity to properly
do that.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
And so's like a whole thing when you got to
change the hat size on those. It's like, God forbid,
you have a couple of bush lattes before.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
You do that.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
And I'll wear it looser tight because I'm too lazy
to screw with the with the slide rule thing back there.
But yeah, that's all right, Ryan, were we.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Don't want to keep you too long, and we're gonna
give these guys another another one shot at you. But
minor league baseball is and what our relationships all about.
But your career has been awesome. And one of the
things I love about you particularly is you're just a
You're just a dude doing your thing on the national level.
Like guys, I was sitting at my house, uh, I
(34:54):
think it was two years ago now, Ryan and I
get a text and it's from our friends, say am Ravich,
who used to be a Flying Squirrels broadcaster, and I
guess Sam was doing something of the Rose Ball and
McGee was doing some of the Rose Bowl and we
got a I got a selfie from both of those guys.
On the sideline. My wife's like, what do you what's
who's texting? And I'm like, these guys are like at
(35:15):
the Rose Bowl and they're sending me a text that's
cool as hell, right, So I wanted to ask you
about that whole, like, what what are some of the
coolest moments? You talked a lot about cool moments in
minor league baseball, whether it's the Marty and McGee show
or just being you all around the country. Is there
a thinking too about your job at at ESPN that
just like you pinch yourself and go, I can't believe
(35:37):
I get paid to do.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
This every day, every single day. And that's not exaggeration,
and I in fact, I'm tweeted this last week. I
like my deal. Last week I was I was at Oxford,
Misissippi talking to Jackson Dart and Alane Kiffin, and I
went to I saw all misplay that night against Memphis.
And the next day I drove to Tupelo and went
to els Pruss's house where he was born and had
(36:00):
a Hamburger at the place where he used to go
as a kid. And then I drove up to Huntsville
and got to see the ballpark there and they gave
me a well, they gave me a Christian Moore biblehead
because I went to Tennessee and all that. And then
I drove to Nashville, and the next day went to
practice at Vanderbilt and got to hang out with with
Diega Pavia, who I have a huge man crush on
the quarterback of Vanderbilt, who I covered no and I
(36:23):
you know, I wrote, I write the Bottom ten of
college football for ESPN dot com. I covered a lot
of New Mexico State football. And so when he did
what he did, I was like what And then went
over saw my friends at the sounds, and he came
home and I thought, you know, I got paid in
the American dollars and and but what I tweeted was,
and I genuinely mean, this is the job now is
to make the reader and the viewer feel like they
(36:46):
were with me. Because I take that very seriously, which is,
you know, I get to go to the Rose Bawl,
and I get to go to the College Real Trees,
and I get to go to Indianapolis five hundred, and
I get to go to the Daytona five hundred. But
my job is to make the viewer and the reader
feel like they're with me, because because I take that
(37:06):
very seriously, because it's it's the dream man. When I
was when I was twelve years old, I have my
first sideline credentials for a college football game. My dad
was an acc referee, y'all. Anybody listening out there, I'm
sure you boot him in Charlottesville least a few times.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
And so I.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
But I have my first Island conder when I was twelve,
and that day I went, all these people here getting
paid to be here, like everybody on the sideline, trainers, coaches,
media members, whatever, Like, how do I get paid to
go to games and knock on wood boys when we
when we Martin and I say this all the time
when we leave the set of Martin McGee, whether we're
on the road or whether we're in the Wilderness Lodge
(37:41):
studios in Charlotte. After every show, he looks at me
and he goes, you think we'll get to do it
again next week? And I go, well, And so that's
that's the part of it I just can't believe, is
the places I get to go and the people I
get to talk to. And but then the job is
to make sure that you know that I share that correctly,
you know, with the audience, because in the end, that's
really all that matters. You're not different to work on
(38:02):
my oleague baseball team. You do it because you love it,
and you can't believe you're getting paid to go this
coote for Bulder and you can't believe you're gettingaid to
go to the ballpark every day. But then your job
is to make everybody in section twelve feel the exact
same way, right, And that's why you guys are so
good at what you do well.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
And that's why I feel that. A lot of times
I say it's because of the pants I wear, but
I feel that, particularly in Richmond, because I'm authentic and
how I feel good, I feel bad, whatever, and the
fans see that. But nobody does that better than you
and you and Marty together every Saturday morning. A lot
of times my wife because she hears you too when
(38:38):
I'm watching it on TV at the house. But I
feel like I'm sitting with you guys having a cold
beer at seven o'clock, eight o'clock in the morning, which
is you know, a beer for breakfast is a great thing.
So there's two things in my life that somebody asked me.
A report asked me the other day, what are two
things in your career that hasn't happened yet. Number One,
I said, I haven't gotten fired with three years left
(38:58):
on a five year guaranteed on track. These coaches that
get pissed off about doing that, I'm like, please fire
me with three years left on a guaranteed contract. And
the other one I'm gonna beg you right now is
to be a guest on the Marty McGee show, something
I've always wanted to do. So I'm just throw it
out there right now.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
When you do we need to do? You know, now,
we kind of got them trained the list, like when
Martin and our you know, Martin are both on the
road all the time, and a lot of times one
of us is in the studio and one of us
is somewhere else. And now you know, used to be
you have to book a satellite truckle and we do
on Zoom now right, we can do it ripside, We
do it on any of these on these platforms. And
so so yeah, maybe one day we'll get to do
(39:36):
the y'all getting that new ballpark. Maybe I'll I'll get
up there and uh and do the show from.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
There CarMax Park. Baby. Oh yeah, now, Joe t woke
up all right, good cheats, one last one hitter and
and make Ryan. I know we're running out of time,
so you can make this a short one, both both
of these guys. But cheats your last one shot with
uh with with Ryan for today my last one shot.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
But I wanted to thank Ryan owed us to thank you, Parney,
because that we had lunch last week and I told
you one of these shows I was knocking to miss
was Ryan McGee because I'm a big fan of what.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Thank you, man. I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
So you've been to a lot of things, you get
moving forward, you have you can only go to one
major sporting event for the rest of your life. What's
this morning event you've been?
Speaker 1 (40:18):
Whoa, that's a shot. That's a tequila shot right there?
Speaker 2 (40:23):
Tough. Well, and and now I'm at that age where
and I keep track of all this stuff. Man, I've
got I got. I got a drawer back here has
every credential I've ever had for any event. And I've
got another drawer that's full of every ticket I got
ticket stubs going back when I was a little kid
going to to you know, games regarding web or minor
league games whatever. You no, dude, the same thing, my wife,
bus her heart, I thown nothing away and the uh.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
But but I this is horner level guys. You got
you got it.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
You gotta clean it up, you gotta clean it up.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
It's tough though, man, because but like like like I'm
at that age now where like I just I just
covered my thirtieth day time of five hundred. You know,
I think this may all be like my twentieth and
d you know, I'm at that point. I've covered a
NAST championship game every year. Only when I missed in
the last fifteen years was COVID.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
The uh.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
But man, it is hard to top to College World Series,
you know, you know, And and the reason I love
it is because it feels like myor League Baseball, right,
but it's with the National Championship on the line, and
especially if you go opening weekend, well, all eight teams
are there, and you got to Omaha Tailgators, and then
you got to l s U people and the Texas
(41:29):
people who show up whether they're teams there or not.
And you know, the Boudreau Thibodeaux boys from from Louisiana
there support LSU and they're a bunch of old rig
workers and it's the best. It's the best Cajun food
you've ever had that was cooked out of the back
of a truck. And but it goes on like that
for a week and happen.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Isn't there a bar that does shots for each team?
They count how many shots?
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Yeah? The deal is so the yeah, the deal is
they keep a board. It's right across the street from
the ballpark and they keep it. They keep a score
or a score panel. If you're a fan of a
certain team and you buy a shot, and so what
you get is you get like, you know, Tennessee's in it,
and all of a sudden, one of their billionaire you
know boosters will call and go buy the bar five
hundred shots, you know, because they're just trying to run
(42:08):
the score up. But yeah, but it goes back to
I started going to I started going to College World
Series gosh twenty almost twenty five years ago at Rosenblack Stadium,
which you know was the home of the of the
of the Omaha Royals and the Spikes I think they
were called at one point. But you know, that ballpark
was way too big for minor league baseball, but it
(42:28):
felt like minor league baseball when you were there, and
in the old neighborhood and now that and I still
call it the new Ballpark even though they've been at
more than a decade. But it's for baseball lovers. It's
hard to top that. And the reason is because it again,
I love college baseball, but it feels like you're in
a minor league baseball game and you're going to two
a day for a week and a half. So it's
(42:49):
it's pretty good if you get a chance to get
to Omaha. And and I also go see my friends,
you know, down the road with storm Chasers, and they
do they got a great ballpark. Warn't parks of a
great ballpark.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
Marty Cordero confession time, Fellas, I've never sniffed the College
World Series because that's in my life. That's kind of
a busy time, so I've never sniffed it. So maybe
one of these days I'll join you in my semi retirement. Yeah,
and I'm surprised you especially if Brian O'Connors actause he's
one of my.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Favorite he's the best in the And you know, Virginia
is into thing about every other year right all the time.
But yeah, but I always try to catch up with Marty,
you know, for years, they would never schedule the game
against the College World Series. The Omaha team went because
they shared the ballpark and so the rules. We hit
the road for two weeks while they had the College
World Series. But now every now and then, particularly tour
(43:38):
to end, you know, I can't I've made it out
to the Storm Chasers probably two or three times in
the last five or six years, and back in the
day you couldn't do that. So yeah, but it's a
great place.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Yep. I've been friends with Marty a long time MP
last shot with Ryan McGee.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
Baby, right, you've been You've been to so many minor
league steams.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
People.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
What is it about these teams and guys like Barney?
Speaker 1 (43:59):
It just makes them so important to the communities there.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
It's the anchor. I mean it is. I mean you
think about like Spartanburg that there was there's been a
hole in that town, uh since the Phillies left for Cannapolis,
which which they should have done. And I loved that
ballpark and I love I mean, I got a ball
Weevil's hat somewhere in the house, you know, and the
and the intimidators and everything.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
I know, but we're unbelievable I came up with that
McGee I.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
I used to have it. I used to have a
T shirt with it on there and then. But but
it's but but it's been missing something right, spartanburg has
and now I cannot wait to get down there to
see the Spartanburger's this year. And you've seen it in Hickory,
and you've seen it in a lot of these towns
around work Canapolis. We were that's that that ball that
the new ballpark in Cannapolis. That thing has revolutionized what
(44:50):
was a dead downtown and has been dead since they
tore down Plant One twenty years ago. And so so
it's that's what it is. It's the spiritual center of
these towns. You know, even as Charlotte, where I live
and I've been a pro seizon my dad. I've been
prou season ticket holders in Charlotte Knights since the nineties.
And even as big as Charlotte is, and it's got
an NFL team literally three blocks away, and it's got
(45:13):
an NBA team literally a five minute walk away. You know,
the anchor of that city all summer long is the
ballpark that sits in the middle of the city. Even
with a million and a half people, and so, you know,
and then you go into a small town and it
and it feels even more the bes's what it is.
It's just it's it's the it's the it's the spiritual,
(45:33):
you know, it's the center in town. And that's why
that's why so many towns, you know, want it, need it,
and they build ballparks even if they're not getting the
team because they're just trying to they're trying to have
that that community center. And that's that's when those places
are the best.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
And and yeah, for some reason, guys, it took us
twenty damn years in Richmond, Virginia to get CARMACKX Park, right,
but we got it. It's coming and I've heard I
think I heard Ryan McGee say he was gonna come
to Carmacks Park in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
Soon, I'm coming. I'm definitely. I'm definitely. I bought a
carbon Carmack, so I feel like that I bought a
car Carmacks, and I weared, I got about four different
flying squirrels ats. I feel like, hell, I should be
worth a ticket, right, And so yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
Even put a couple extra cole beers in the party's
pub for you when you come. I appreciate my final question.
I grew up in Locus, North Carolina, and my grandpa
Dewey Barbie used to take me to Charlotte Park Center
for the taping of the mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling by
Cock Crockett Promotions. What are you talking about growing up
in North Carolina? Do you have a favorite wrestler from
back in the day?
Speaker 2 (46:35):
Yeah, and uh, you know, as funny is you kind
of took it for granted, like growing up in the North,
you know, I'd always lived I've spent my whole I
lived in Raleigh for a little while, but for the
most part, my whole life has been lived right on
the North Carolina South Carolina line, right shelby Rockingham, where
I was born, where I live here in Charlotte Monroe,
right on the state line, and the wrestlers are just
around all the time, right you go to I remember
(46:56):
when I remember when I moved when I lived in
Connecticut for a couple of years to start with the ESPN,
and then I moved back to Charlotte. I remember I
went to the belk at the South Park Mall to
get some you know, socks or something and I remember
I was standing there. I've been I've been in Charlotte
this point, like two weeks. Like I'm looking. I was
buying stuff like my apartment with my mom, and all
of a sudden, the the like the double doors open
(47:19):
and the wind blows in on a cold winter day
and like some dry leaves blowing whatever. And Rick Flair
comes walking in wearing a tank top and Zubaz pants
and he comes walking in and I just automatically trying,
I go, I go nature boy, and he goes. I said, woo,
he goes nature board needs underwear and he just kept walking.
But that but that's living in Charlotte, right, And so no, dude,
(47:42):
I was a h I loved Hands of Stone Ronnie
Garvin because he didn't talk. All he did was kick
your ass. And so so that those those are the
guys that I liked. Somewhere, Oh yeah, right here here,
right here in my place, I've got so this want
to talking about.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
So this is.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
On my birthday, almost twenty years ago. I went into
the Walmart down here to Arboretam and Ivan Coohloff was
in there sitting at a card table sign an autograph.
So that's me on my birthday with Ivan Coloff. Yeah,
I saw, I saw Arn Anderson. That's you the craziest thing,
and I'm my I refer to myself as uh, there's there.
(48:25):
The word famous is not attached to me in any way,
shape or form. I am what I call contextually recognizable.
So like, if I'm in Start with Mississippi the night
before the LSU game, somebody might go, hey, it's McGee,
you know. But but if I'm into Airport, nobody knows
like I'm I like, I like RAM. But I had
the coolest through the looking glass moment. I went to
our big Heroes comic convention here in Charlotte, and I hear, hey,
(48:49):
it's it's McGee. And I turned around and Arn Anderson's
standing there and he he watches Martin McGee, and I
just like, come on, man, because my my my, my
best friend from college. I don't have the picture of him,
but bestings for college. We call ourselves the Horseman because
we lived on the fourth floor, and any picture you
see of us, most pictures you see of me. I
(49:09):
thought the four fingers and so yeah, me and Arna
Anderson took a picture throwing up four fingers. But yeah,
I was Hands of Stone, Rodney Garvin and uh, and
I loved even though he was he was he was Soviet.
I loved the key to cole Off, who lives Canedy
Ni Kitty lives up in Cannapolis.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
Not he used to come to the games when I
was like a preacher.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
Now yeah, he's like a preacher's selling something preacher and
saving souls. So God bless him and his His actual
name is Nikey to call Off. The summer I worked
for the tourists. We went to some big charity golf
term or wherever. We just had like a booth for
the tourists and the Key to call Off walked over
and we're like, hey to key to call Off. And
then he had just retired from wrestling, and we start
(49:49):
talking to him and he gave us his business card.
I was like, oh, so you use your stage name,
you know, even though because no, no, that's my that's
my name, man, I legally changed Nikey to call Off.
I was like, okay, because my uncle's really Ivan. I
was like, awesome, So yeah, seeing those guys all over town, dude,
it's to this day. You see him, I mean used
to see uh, you used to see uh you see
(50:09):
him at the airport. I remember as a kid, we
got on a plane to go somewhere, and we get
on the plane and we walk through the first class
and Dusty Rose was sitting with Rick Flair and Magnum
t A and the three of them are sitting there
getting drunk on the plane and they're all laughing, and
I'm like, yes, hate each other. What we all hanging
(50:31):
on an airplane? And Dusty kind of sensed it. And
so later on in the flights, you know, Dusty goes
back to use the bathroom. He's like, young man, don't worry.
He goes this is all this show.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
He we hate each other.
Speaker 2 (50:41):
I was like, okay. He winks at me like it's okay.
I'm like, all right, Dusty, Like he made me feel better.
Like y'all, y'all supposed to be friends.
Speaker 3 (50:48):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (50:49):
We should. We can talk. We can talk about wrestling
with you the whole day. I can't believe it brought
at the very end. Jeff Jarrett's a great friend. Jeff
Jarrett also, but he's going to be in season two.
And another good friend of mine, friend of ours on
Party Time is Kevin Nash.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
As well yeah, oh yeah, goodalls, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (51:08):
Absolutely yeah, coach DeVoe in the face. Well listen, Ryan McGee,
we can talk to you forever. Awesome guest on Party
Time season two. Thank you very much for being with us. Cheats,
thank you for being part of the pub club. MP
on the mic, thank you for being here as well.
And Joe teenage enjoy Ryan McGee, Oh yeah, all.
Speaker 2 (51:32):
To every single week, not a week goes by that
I do on at some point just randomly just yell out,
I'll repeat that story that Will Clark told you, guys,
Ricky gone, Ricky Gone, I say it all the time.
I mean, I have rewaked that that clip shows up
in my Instagram feed at least once a week, and
I don't know how long ago y'all recorded it all
(51:53):
the time, Ricky Gone, Ricky Gone.
Speaker 1 (51:56):
I appreciate you should be in Party's pub sometime, Clark.
It's like a two hour comedy show, Will just telling
stories and drinking beers. Hell states so, Ryan, thank you
very much. Why we're done for this one, buddy, Thank
you very much. Everybody, Party Time Out
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