Inning 9: The Man Behind the Philly Phanatic Dave Raymond

He’s a sports icon, a mascot hall of famer, and the original Philly Phanatic... Dave Raymond joins Parney Time! 

Parney is joined by Dave, Cheats, MP and MP's dad to talk legendary mascot moments. From Tommy Lasorda fights to helping bring Gritty to life in Philly. Listen for behind-the-scenes stories from Dave's Phillies days, his favorite player run-ins, and a surprise question from Richmond’s own Nutzy.

Follow us on social media!

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.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, sports fans and event organizers, Welcome to Enraiko, where
the Inniko Sports Entertainment Authority is turning heads and packing stands.
From national futsal championships to elite basketball matchups and high
energy festivals. Henriiko is where competition meets community and every
event becomes a moment to remember. Planning your next tournament

(00:20):
or live event That've got you covered. With state of
the art venues like the Henriiko Sports and Event Center,
Glover Park and Dorry Park. Design for champions and built
for crowds. Whether you're looking to host, compete, or just cheer,
Henriiko offers the experienced, support energy to make your event
a standout. And trust me, folks Parney lives in Henriiko County.

(00:42):
I know these people personally and they do an amazing
job of making you feel comfortable and welcome in Henroiko County.
So check out their website for more information or connect
with their team to bring your next big idea to life.
Visit Henriiko Sea dot org, that's h E n R
COO SCA dot com or follow them on social to stay.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
In the game.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Everybody Party for the Party Time podcast Here the first
you get from this sitting of Party Time is quixed
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 Sandbridge Beach, on the couch watching ball,
or in party's pubs celebrating a squirrel's victory, nothing tastes

(01:30):
better than an ice cold Boolight. So go visit your
local convenience or grocery store and grab yourself some bush Light.
You won't regret it. Booh, the official beverage of Parny's
Throat and the Party Time Podcast. This ending of the
Party Time Podcast is brought to you by Performance Food Service,

(01:51):
delivering fresh ingredients, innovative products, and unmatch support to restaurants
all across the Great United States of America. Whether you're
running a local diner or a five star kitchen, Performance
Food Service has your back with quality you can taste,
and service you can count on. Fuel your menu with
performance and trust me, I know their service, I know

(02:13):
their products, I know they're people. And nobody does it
like my man Robbie and Performance Food Service. Party Time
loves Performance Food Service all right, everybody, what time is it?
It is time again for party time. You never know
what's gonna happen on party time. So today we have

(02:34):
another great guess for an inning of season two. We've
had five six different Hall of famers already in a
season and a half. This guy's probably in some kind
of Hall of fame.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
I don't know what it is. But before we get
to our guest, we have Joe t behind me. Hell yeah,
we have Wyat.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
The producers somewhere out there in the atmosphere and from Kansas, Wichita, Kansas.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
We got MP who.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Brought his dad.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Today is bring your dad to workday.

Speaker 4 (03:05):
Daddy is a Hall of Famer, Hall of Famer Hall
of Fame is that Wichita Sports Hall of Fame.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Okay, stop laughing at me, Quit laughing.

Speaker 5 (03:15):
Damn it.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
It's a big deal in Whichita.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
It's the big deal in Wichita, besides the shockers. But
don't get me started. Cheats may join us. That's the
beauty of that's the beauty of party time. You don't
know when the party pub club is going to join
us or not.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
So David Raymond, Dave Raymond, the original Philly fanatic, but
he's much more than that. He's on this show.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Folks because I have friends, and I have friends in
low places, and Dave Raymond is definitely one of them.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
David, Welcome to the show, buddy.

Speaker 5 (03:46):
Yeah, party time. That deserves a hell yeah, hell yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
There you go.

Speaker 5 (03:53):
It's been a pleasure to know you for what a
little over thirty years, and you've never disappointed.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
I'll leave it a well, get ready, today's the day,
today's day we were talking about it.

Speaker 5 (04:06):
Look compared to me, there's a low bar for anything.
So as far as I'm concerned, you're a Hall of Famer.
But that's to me so and by the way, I am.
I'm in the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame, tiny little
state with a tiny little induction, with a tiny little congratulations.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
So we got the Delaware Hall of Fame, we got
the Wichita Hall of Fame, we got the Jo T
Hall of Fame. We were rolling here. Let's let's let's
start with that. Because MP has his dad with us today,
and you grew up in Delaware. Let's talk about even
before we met, growing up because your dad is a
Hall of famer.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Talk about that well.

Speaker 5 (04:45):
I mean, I like to say, since I was six
years older, my earliest memory, I wanted to be my hero.
I wanted to go play football for my hero, and
I wanted to be a football coach. Talk my hero
was my dad, Tobby Raymond. Look him up when I
geek out on him. There's a couple of facts that
you gotta love. Number One, Peyton Manning will mention his

(05:07):
name at least once a year saying that's the tubby
Raymond wing t So, if you know anything about high
school football specifically, many high school teams still run the
wing tea, the modern wing tea, which is what my
dad was the author of. But he stayed at Delaware
for fifty years. He won three hundred games in his career,
all at Delaware. He's in College Football Hall of Fame.

(05:29):
But the thing I love the most about what he
was recognized. When ESPN came out to celebrate the one
hundred and fiftieth anniversary of college football, they listed from
one to one hundred and fifty the most influential, most
successful college football coaches in the history of college football,
and Dad was number twenty five. You would think I'd

(05:50):
be happy about that, but then I looked at twenty
three and said.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
What, who was it? I don't want to say come on.

Speaker 5 (05:57):
No, no, no, And I'm like, come on, come on,
you know that I get it, you know, but you
know Dad's winning percentage right up there, just a hair under,
you know, eighty percent. I mean he was. He was
amazing and brilliant. And the thing, the thing that's again

(06:17):
continue to geek out on Dad, you know, since we
have MP's dad here, so that he just he knew
everybody in cost football. He was best friends with Bear Bryant,
hung out with him. The stories he can tell about
that did I did not. I did not because he
was always going to Bear's home to to have his

(06:37):
little Bear celebrations, which are pretty storied discussions. You know.
Joe Paturno used to say, I'll retire when Tubby Raymond retires.
I just I appreciate him so much because of the
effect he had in college football. But I really believe
that he was meant to be on this planet to
coach players. So, you know, Rich Gannon says it, My

(07:01):
dad was the first one to tell him that. He
when he was a sophomore, after he lost a football
game for US by throwing a couple of interceptions, told
rich that he wished he could be rich and Rich
was like confused because he thought he was going to
get chewed out, and he said, you have so much
football ahead of you. Hear, but also beyond here. And
Rich says, that's the first time anybody ever suggested to
me that I could play pro football. And the only

(07:24):
other coach that comes close to Tubby is Little Chucky.
So he and Chucky had a good relationship and won
a Super Bowl with the Raiders.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
And if you don't understand what he's saying right now,
David's speaking in code already. So you're growing up and
that you did play football for your dad.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
What was that like?

Speaker 5 (07:47):
Well, it was well, first of all, he's the one
that told me when I was ten, look, you've got
my jeans, so you're going to be small and slow.
Doesn't set you up well to be a football player.
And he said, he gave me a bag of football.
It's both my brother and I go learn to kick.
And who knows, you might be able to play football,
but if you can kick and you're a good kicker,
you will play on a football team. You know. Offensive

(08:09):
lineman would tell me that that's not true. I'm not
a football player if I'm a kicker. But f them
now that they're not here to squash me. But in
any event, my high school career was a good one.
My senior year, I was a starting wide receiver, the punter,
and the placekicker for my high school team. I made
the Delaware High School All Star Football Game, which is

(08:31):
a really important to milestone for any high school football
player in Delaware, and I went to play at Delaware
in my freshman year. We couldn't play with Division two then,
so you couldn't play. NCAA wouldn't allow you to play
in varsity. But I was a placekicker on the freshman
team and I played wide receiver a little bit, And
as soon as I walked on my sophomore year, I

(08:52):
realized in the wing t the best athlete on the
team is the wide receiver in the wing tea. So
I wasn't going to work there. But I played demonstration offense,
got the ever loving shit kicked out of me for
a year, but got a lot of props from the
juniors and seniors because he said, here's a coach's son
and he's running demonstration offense where they show you a

(09:13):
card the first time you've seen this, and it's based
on a play that the opposition that week is gonna run,
but you're looking at a card for the first time. Yeah,
you do this, you know, and then what you're doing
is you're going out and you're just getting whacked. And
I love doing that. Hardened me up, toughened me up.
And then my sophomore year, I punted it for on
one game because our starting punter, who was a senior,

(09:36):
was out. And you'll love this, you know. My dad
Pat's rich Gannon on the back after a loss and says,
I wish I could be you when I was about
to go in the first time, instead of pointing at
me and said kick it, he looked past me and
looked at the offensive coidator and said, is that all
we've got? And you know, he knew I needed it.
This is what was so amazing about him, because I

(09:58):
was petrified. I was standing there on the sidelines going,
why have I wished for this my whole life? Because
I'm I'm gonna crap my pants before I actually could
run out there, catch a snap and punt a ball.
I was just petrified. And as soon as he said
that to me, I went, my cute little son of
a bitch, punch you right in the notes. And I
ran out on the field so angry, caught the snap, kicked.

(10:20):
It was a sixty yard punt, my first punt. And
I came off the field and he goes like this,
and I went up. I watched him do that as
a kid, do this to these, you know, giant human
beings that were giants to me because I was younger,
and I saw him do that and motivate people. And
now today people come up to me say, you know
what your dad said to me? Do you know what
your dad did for me? And I still use that

(10:42):
with my kids, with my organization, with my employees. You know,
he prepared people to be to do bigger things on
the football field at Delaware, but also set him up
to graduate and do amazing things outside of Delaware and
it has come true. And I just you can tell
I love him. I miss him. He passed away eight
years ago, but he lived until he was ninety two

(11:03):
and he was sharp as attack all the way up
into the end. So but he did make his mark
in college football.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Well that's that's an amazing way to start this conversation
because there's two titles. I'm parting to the world. But
there's two titles that have been my favorite title. One
was son to my dad, who for some reason was
introverted and now, like you know, I'm an introvert too,
and then being a dad to our kids. Those are

(11:30):
my two favorite titles. So a good way, and especially
with MP having his dad here, MP, do you agree
with everything Dave said? I mean, you're your dad is
Dave too, and he's sitting right there, so you can't, like,
you gotta say nice things about your dad today, Jack, Yeah,
we can just skip this part, all right, So we're
back with Cheats.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
Cheats. Welcome buddy, glad to have you here.

Speaker 6 (11:52):
Cheats a better late than never party. I am excited
to sit down and visit with everyone.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
It's always good to have you. Joe to your happy
chiefs is here, Yes, sir, well yeah, Joe To you
have one.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
Job, figured it day out?

Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yeah, this is only this is only like our second season.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
Maybe by the time the show's actually popular ten years
from now, will no Whatdy's doing?

Speaker 3 (12:19):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (12:19):
So after Delaware and you know, punting for your dad?
What happened in your life David Raymond?

Speaker 5 (12:26):
Well, again, I had a lot of really fortunately some
enlightened leadership. So my dad was explaining to me that
if I wanted to be a football coach, he would help,
but that the chance of me keeping my family in
one place and trying to build that career was virtually impossible.
I wasn't He was at Delaware for almost fifty years,
so thirty six is a head coach and he came

(12:47):
as the backfield coach and head baseball coach, and so
he said, why don't I help you get a job
of the Phillies because he knew he knew the Carpenter family,
which who were the owners, because the Carpenters were very
invested in the University of Delaware in their football program.
There's two beautiful buildings on campus named Carpenter Carpenter Sports
Building and what we now affectionately referred to as a
Little Bob. So I get a two year summer internship

(13:09):
in seventy six and seventy seven. The All Star Game
happened to be in Philadelphia in seventy six. I was
there for two weeks and I'm like, what, I could
have a career working for my Phillies. So I completely
threw away the idea of coaching when I realized I
could have a job there, so I did everything they
asked me to do, which is what my dad said, you.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
Know, do whatever they tell you to do.

Speaker 5 (13:32):
Prove your value, then you'll be valuable. Okay, okay, okay.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
So yeah, I'm a stupid yes picker.

Speaker 5 (13:42):
He was Everything that he came out of his mouth
was with a little bit of force and pressure, but
it was almost brilliant. So I did everything that he
yelled at me to do. But then I was a
two year summer internship. So after seventy seven I had
to go back and finish my senior year and the

(14:03):
Phillies didn't give me an offer, and I was bummed.
I thought, shoot, well, you know, I don't know what
I'm gonna do. If I I had two options, I
was going to go into teaching and coaching, or I
was gonna, you know, maybe get a job with the Phillies.
And in the early spring of seventy eight, Bill Giles
actually calls my the payphone in the stairwell of my

(14:25):
of my fraternity house, Sigma fy epslong go speed Dogs.
If anybody's listening, that's this, that's a speed dog. I'll
meet you at the bar in an hour. So I
called mister Johbs back reluctantly because I thought.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
Well, I gonna think about is Anama house round? What
are you going to live your life? The fat, dumb
and stupid?

Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (14:43):
No, yeah, son, being living life being fat, dumb and
stupid is no way to succeed.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, So I was kind of and yet here I am.

Speaker 5 (14:52):
Yeah, well you disproved something that we all thought was
fat party. Well done. So I call the Phillies back
and I thought that they were just gonna let me
down easy. And here's here's Tubby's son work for us,
and we don't have a job for him, so we'll
say thank you and and you know, maybe reapply when
you're done with school. Instead, Bill asked me if I
wanted to come back in seventy eight, and of course

(15:14):
they said yes. What do you want me to do?
He said, you need to go to New York and
get fitted for the costume. So I went, what you
got me costume? I not, Hey, just go to New
York and get fitted for the costume for you know,
Dad saying do whatever they tell you to do. So
got a train, went into West thirty and ice treat
the Garment District at the time in New York, and
I walked into Geppetto's puppet studio. I meet the Muppet

(15:37):
people because Bill called Jim Henson. He didn't call Pier's
costume shop in South philadelph and he calls Jim Henson
said you need to help me, and he said, well,
one of my original designers actually has a business, Bonnie Erickson.
And you know, they measured me and they they kicked
me out of the studio said go home, and they
sent showed me the drawing and I went home. My gosh,
I'm gonna get paid to be a Muppet like I was. So,

(16:00):
I was so excited. And the thing that I in
my keynote, I tell this particular story party you love this,
I just I go. So I jump on the train.
I'm all excited. I have I have no fear. And
for all of you people that have heard about us
knucklehead fans in Philadelphia and how we're the bad actors,
and I never once thought about, oh gosh, you know

(16:22):
the Phillies fans are so mean. They threw snowballs at
Santa Claus. You know why, because I was there at
Franklin Field that day and Santa sucked and I had
a harping the Phillies fan in my chest. I'm like,
you know, you show up and try to do a
job in Philly, you don't do it, Well, that's we're
gonna tell you.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
You suck, so right and right now in the North Pole,
Santa's gone Dave Raymond Naughty List twenty five.

Speaker 5 (16:45):
Yeah, but let's let's be sure. This is one of
Santa's helpers. And he had helped himself to a little
bit of a too much adult beverage, and his costume
was dirty and he smelled. He sucked, so you know
he we kicked him out of there, and Santa should
be happy because we got one of his bad actors
out of the way. So anyway, I just I felt
this was going to be easy. I really didn't have

(17:06):
a lot of fear until I realized the costume was delayed.
I didn't try it on until April twenty eighth, nineteen
seventy eight, which was the fanatics birthday, and Bill jos said, look,
go have fun. Don't worry about it. You can't make
a mistake. G Rated fun. G Rated fun. Because I'm
like brilliant. I'm a college student, I'm a professional idiot.
I can have fun. And that was what was so

(17:28):
great was the collaboration. I think is the reason why
the fanat is going to last forever is that it
was built on trust of a twenty one year old.
And once Bill was showing me trust, you know, being
my father's son, I go, I better better not betray
that trust. And it was just beautiful. You know. I
can talk a little bit about the skill set that

(17:48):
I had that made me good at this that I
had no idea I had that skill set because it
was naturally induced because of my mom. But we can
get to that story later. But that's how it started,
and it was you know, the enlightened leadership is always
so upfront in my memory because I look back and
think about Bill Joss trusting a twenty one year old
to put on this costume and go have fun, and

(18:11):
that my dad recognizing that while I might have been
a good football coach, this might be a better path
for me. And he knew me, you know, well enough
to be the amazing coach that he was for me.
So I really think that that foundation is what made
has made this the greatest mascot in sports. I just
don't think there's any question about it. They cared for

(18:32):
it like it was alive and breathing, and continue to
do that today.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
The first day, April twenty eighth, nineteen seventy eight, was
that right?

Speaker 5 (18:41):
All right?

Speaker 1 (18:42):
When you stepped onto the turf at Veteran Stadium. What's
the first thing you did?

Speaker 5 (18:47):
Well, you know, after Bill gave me that, you know
the you know, the direction of having fun. Well, what
was fun for me? Well, the Three Stooges, Warner Brothers cartoons,
the Coyote. So all I thought was I need to
be frenetic. And the people in New York said, now
you know, it's really gonna be hot in there. This

(19:08):
is the first time we've created a character that's actually
gonna work out in the elements. Because they were creating
characters for movie sets, for stage shows, and their performers
were all in a relatively protected environment. Well, I'm gonna
go outside, and I went, I've done double sessions at football.
Do you know what type of shape I'm in? This

(19:28):
is a bunch of this is child's play. Five minutes
in that costume, I was ready to yack and I'm
like and I had worked my way down to the
railing of the field. There was an area in Veterans
Stadium which will never be created in any stadium ever. Again.
It was the picnic area. So it's one of the
best seats in the house. But they just put picnic
tables and you could bring your food and just walk

(19:50):
into that area and sit down. And needed the picnic
table for the game. So I'm on those picnic tables,
jumping from one side the other trying to beat Daffy Duck,
and I go, I'm gonna die and I'm not walking
back up there. So third outs made, I jumped over
the fence onto the field because I knew if I
ran out behind home plate that was very close to
where you know my bait it was. It was just

(20:12):
a room with the ground crew where I was my breakroom.
And as I jumped on the field, people went nuts.
I was looking around, like, what happened. Well, the Muppet's
loose and he's on the field and one of the
umpires had his arms folded like this, and he turned
around and looked at me and went like this, and
I went like that to him. Everybody went nuts. I'll
look the umpire, you know, waved at the Muppet, and

(20:35):
so from that, you know, have fun. But then I
knew I wasn't having fun because I thought I was
going to throw up. So I went to take a break,
and that turned into oh, I got to get on
the field more. I mean, if I in between innings,
I'll get on the field and pregame and and all
of that wouldn't have happened if it weren't for Bill.
Just say, just go, go, do whatever. And a few
minutes later he called the phone down behind home plate

(20:56):
and said, go out with the ground crew and help
him change the bases. Because if anybody remembers Veteran stadium,
it didn't have a full dirt infield or you know,
dirt runways around the bases. It just had the little
aprons around first, second, and third and home plate. So
I ran out with the ground crew, and one of

(21:17):
the ground crew when he was picking up the bass,
accidentally tripped, not on purpose, but accidentally tripped over the
fanatic shoe and fell in his face, and then the
bass went tumbling. People went, whoa man? These people were
starting for entertainment, And so that turned into the whole
fifth inning routine that still continues today that at the
bottom of the fifth, last out in the fifth from
the home fifth, the fanatic comes out in the field

(21:39):
and does something. And it's all because Bill said, had
just go out with the ground crew and see what happens.
And that turned into you know, jumping at the woodside
was the song that Jeene Gene the Dancing Machine. It
Chuck Barris his production of The Gong Show that that
was the biggest show every production in the United States
went down about twenty five percent at one o'clock afternoon

(22:00):
because that's when The Gone Show came on. Everybody stopped
doing work and went and watched the TV. That's that's
how famous that show was. And so with the ground
crew we would do the Gene Gene the Dancing Machine.
We'd get done standing innovation. So we had no idea
what we were doing. We were just having fun, which
was the which I think is the superpower that has
fueled the fanatic from that first day to you know,

(22:22):
to forty forty eight years later.

Speaker 1 (22:24):
Man, that's crazy, that's absolutely crazy. When I think about that,
and I'm sitting here listening to you talk. You're my friend,
David Raymond. But you're also the original Philly Fanatic, which
is what we're talking about. And I can't remember the
Phillies without the Philly Fanatic like I saw him play.
But the Philly Fanatic has become such a big part

(22:45):
of the fan experience. I want to say maybe that
the Philly Fanatic was the first person character to bring
the fan experience to life more because it was more
than just about the game. And now and our industry
in minor league baseball, we're all about the fan experience.
I mean, we're sitting here right now in Richmond with

(23:06):
a team that's won like twenty games so far this season,
but we're setting all kinds of attendance records. People want
to have fun, and I think that's what the Philly
Fanatic has brought to you. But what you're saying is
it was you were just doing it kind of by
the seat of your pants.

Speaker 5 (23:18):
Yeah, and I yes, for sure. You know, with the
guidance of Bill, I mean he would ask me if
I did something that he might question. He would never
say don't do that. He'd sit me down and talk
to me, why do you do that? And probably seventy
five percent of the time I would be allowed to
continue to do it because I explained to him, the
fans like it, this is why I do it. It

(23:40):
made me start to think, why is the fanatic going
to do this before I did it? So I started
to pay attention to building this personality. And Bill was
just so accommodating. And you know he was my boss's
boss at the time. I don't know if you I
mean just to quick geek out on Bill. No, he
helped cat the astrodome for the judge I Hoffin Hiles.

Speaker 2 (24:04):
Bill Giles as that we're talking about.

Speaker 5 (24:06):
Yeah, everybody, Yeah, Bill Giles. His dad, Warren Giles, was
name on the on the National League Championship Trophy and
and Bill grew up his mother passed away when he
was seven. He'd wait at Crosley Field for his dad
to get done, and he said he was loved riding
the wicker wheelchairs up and down the rams, and he goes,
that's why I first started realizing that baseball was fun.

(24:27):
It's just it's amazing stuff in his But he lived
like a forest Gump. If anybody gets a chance to
read his book Pouring six beers at a time, which
is an ode to Parney to minor league baseball, but
learning how to pour six beers at a time because
it was important to sell as much beer as you
could and so people you know, had even more fun
at the ballpark. But he he helped create the build

(24:48):
the Astrodome. His job was to put the Easter eggs
inside the Astrodome, so there was a VIP area where
there was a bar well. He designed the bar to
be slanted so that when you stepped up to the bar,
you fel like you had an adult beverage before you did.
I mean, he threw so much stuff against the wall.
He it was also Muhammad Ali hired him to be

(25:08):
his pr agent when he came in and fought in
the in Texas, he discovered Dan Rather. Dan Rather was
the first PA announcer for the Astrodome. This is a
guy who believed that fun was part of building a family,
not a business. Fund was an underutilized tool to turn

(25:29):
non baseball fans into baseball fans. And the Fanatic was
just the latest of a string of like kite Man
and the Ostrich races and couchip throwing contests, all the
things that were done for years in minor league baseball.
But also you know Bill Veck and his son Mike
with Disco Demolition Knight. You know that got that had

(25:50):
his father fire him, which is another beautiful thing about
minor league baseball. You just you know, you find a
place where you belong, and that's where Mike has, you know,
flour all these years doing great things for mind league
sports and you learning from of all people, Joe Bussa
and how much he loved cheap fun.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
It was.

Speaker 5 (26:12):
It was fun that he didn't have to pay a
nickel for, but you know, he had fun.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
And Joe Muses used to take the foul balls from
the night before whether and he had an eraser and
you'd walk into his office and he'd be erasing the
marks off of it and he put him back into
the ball bag to make the umpires think that they
were fresh fresh pilotos. We're getting ready for a one
shot from our from our party's pub club here, So
out went Chita, Kansas. You Phillips boys get ready and

(26:37):
Cheeks is here. But I want to ask this question
before we before we go to these guys, there was
really no like I'm thinking about the finatic. The chicken
was still was doing his thing. Max Packett was doing
his thing. But would you say that the fanatic was
really was there anybody else when you started it in
nineteen seventy eight.

Speaker 5 (26:57):
No, I mean, I think, look, there's no question the
Chicken ope the eyes of many people that were paying
attention that a character walked into a ballpark, an expansion
franchise and was getting more attention than the baseball was.
I mean, the players used to call San Diego Stadium
a military base with a beach was you know was

(27:19):
and that's where the stadium sat, and so it was
a raucous, crazy crowd and the Chicken played, you know,
well beyond PG he was. He moved towards R rated
material and they loved it and at worked. But it
was sponsored by a radio station, not by the Padres.
He actually came in because the radio station had access

(27:40):
by being a partner with them. And one of the
last things that the Chicken did on a two week
stint of that was supposed to be a two week
promotion was they went to a Podters game and he
did an amazing job. So Denny Lehman, a junior executive
on the Phillies who was traveling with the team at
the time kept coming back to Bill and say, we
got to do this. You can't believe what his chicken

(28:00):
is doing in San Diego. And Bill kept pushing him off,
push him off, until Denny just continued to pester him,
and he finally said, Okay, all right, Denny, We're going
to do it. And that's when he calls Jim Henson.
He doesn't look at it of like this is a
stupid idea on paper. You know, our fans are going
to light this thing on fire. All the things that
you know, us Phillies fans, We look back say how

(28:22):
did that work? So the Fanatic was the first character
that was sponsored by the team that was designed to entertain,
not just waves. So there was a mister met before that.
There was actually somebody in Baltimore Oriole costume well before that,
but they just stood around and wave. They didn't go
out during breaks in the games or in the stands

(28:45):
during the game. And I think the Fanatic broke ground
with that type of entertainment being sponsored by the team
and then becoming you know what I described collectively as
a billion with a bee, a billion dollar brand extension
for the Phillies. That and and that has nothing to
do with baseball other than the fact that he's a

(29:06):
Phillies fan. I mean, it is a phenomenal success story
about marketing, branding, uh sales, leveraging the brand into something
more than just the sport itself, becoming a mascot for
the city of Philadelphia and really a mascot for baseball.
And you know, he the Fanatic shows up and I

(29:27):
don't care whether you're celebrating or suffering in life. You
feel better when you're around him. And that's truly what
minor league sports do too. Come and enjoy yourself and
forget about your struggles in Philadelphia, Come and watch the Phillies,
and and walk out and and and you want to
slit your wrists every now and then.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
The Fanatic just ug me.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
You'll feel better even if they're in first place. H
let's go to what Chita for a one shot or
from the Phillips fellas.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
Ahead.

Speaker 5 (30:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (30:01):
I think that probably the two most famous sports mascots
of all time would be Dave the Fanatic and my
When I was the general manager of the witch Dowing
soccer team, Score the Dinosaur, and I could see Dave
nodding his heads Of course, legendary scored the dina that
we were the witchital Wings because which it does a
big airplane town. But those mascots were expensive, so we

(30:23):
didn't call Jim Henson. We looked in the catalog and
on clearance for five hundred dollars was an orange dinosaur
and our team color was orange, so we got him
and his most famous moment with a fan. A woman
came and grabbed me and said, your mascot is offending
my children. This is during the game, so I'm so sorry.
I'll be right over to take care of it. She said,

(30:45):
I think you might want to come now, and I
asked why. She said, well he has tucked his tail
up between his legs and has it in front of
him and is pleasuring himself in front of the children.
And so I said, okay, I'll get on that. So
I ran over and grabbed the kid. I said, Richard,
did you tuck your tail up front?

Speaker 5 (31:01):
Do this?

Speaker 3 (31:02):
He said, yeah? Why? Because the ref sucks? So that
guy I got, I got a question for I would
have promoted him.

Speaker 5 (31:14):
What do you thinking as Tommy Lasorda is running at you? Well,
you know that there is a I'll tell you there
is a ten second version of the story and a
twenty minute I will I will tell you that the
ten second version is quicker, and it was given to
me by Johnny Marx, who who was a broadcaster for

(31:36):
WIP for a while. And when Tommy passed away, they
had me on the talk about the twenty minute story.
I got done with the twenty minute story. He goes, oh,
so Tommy was okay with it until he wasn't, which.

Speaker 3 (31:47):
Is perfect way to just cut right to the chase.

Speaker 5 (31:53):
And Tommy was was so kind to me, but he
just hate he hated the fan fanatic. So he would
see me in person. I just I love I love
being around him. There was nothing like being around him.
He was an amazing ambassador for the sport.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
But you know he was right.

Speaker 5 (32:09):
Yeah, And and some of his family's still there. They
they run the same tavern that you know that Tommy
first grew up with. That That's why people in Philadelphia
hated Tommy was you know, he was a Philadelphia guy
until he went to LA and then he had Frank
a picture with Frank Sinatra up in his you know,
in his uh in the manager's room. And you know,
he went to Tinseltown, right, so, and suddenly it's defaming

(32:31):
Dodger Blue and all this, and we're like, you know,
so he's the typical person for the Phillies fans, not alike.
But he would meet me out of the costume, you know,
years after that event, which what I don't know how
many four or five million people have watched that video,
and he would come up to me and he'd say,
how's your dad doing?

Speaker 3 (32:51):
How's your dad?

Speaker 5 (32:52):
I mean, because he knew my dad's history and my
dad was a coach and they're in the same profession.
And I would tell him my dad was doing great,
and thank you for asking. And then he would grab
me and put my arm around me. And then, of
course he has an entourage everywhere he goes, and he
pointed everything. He pointed everybody, and he'd pointed me, and
he goes, see this guy, He's lucky, he's alive. And
then he would tell the whole story, and I went, oh,

(33:13):
my gosh, I haven't been in belishing any of this.
He told the story just the way I told it,
but oh my god, Parney, like here. The thing was
he met me. I got to know him when I
was asked to go and be the mascot for the
American League National League All Star teams from the United

(33:34):
States that went over to Japan for six weeks in
nineteen seventy nine. So Bill lobbied for the Fanatic that
I think the Chicken had gone the year before, and
Bill lobbied for the Fanatic to be the mascot that
represented baseball, and I went. It was an amazing time,
and Tommy was our manager, Chuck Tanner was the bench
coach from Pittsburgh, and so I see these I it's

(33:56):
weird in Japan. The players don't shower or change in
their the from in the locker room. They come from
where they're coming from in their uniform going to the
locker room, kind of like of a holding area. They
get done playing the game and they jump in their
cars and they go home. So our players were getting
dressed at the hotel and then going to the ballpark. Well,
I had to take the costume and get dresser. So
I was there before the players and I see these

(34:17):
baseballs in there, and I start signing them as the
Fanatic because I want everybody to know the Fanatic was there.
But I was signing the sweet spot where the manager's
supposed to sign them. So Dommy finds this out and
he stages an intervention. Now get this, this is this
is a man on a mission when he wants to
really get at somebody. He and Chuck Tanner knew that

(34:38):
I would get there, you know, a good forty five
minutes to a half an hour or to an hour
before the players get there, So they got there an
hour and a half before. Hid in the manager's locker room.
I came in with my costume. Hang the fanatic up,
you know, fluff him up, there's brush, make sure he's clean,
and then I go at the baseballs and I started
signing the baseballs. All of a sudden, boom, he comes

(35:00):
out of the manager's office, runs right at to be
nose to nose, And it was like an Afrod Hitchcock
movie because I see Tommy running towards me. It's like
slow motion and he's going, what are you? And he
gets in my face and he goes yeah already starts
screaming at me and Harry, and I'm like leaning back, going,
oh my god, Tommy Lasorda, the manager of the Dodgers,

(35:22):
is going to kill me. And Spittle's coming out of
his mouth, and then all of a sudden, out of
the corner, I see Chuck Tanner come out of the
room again, and he's just laughing and thesorda reaches to
grab me by the collar and just starts cracking up, and.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
He goes, you're twenty four years old, now right now?

Speaker 3 (35:38):
No, No, I was twenty.

Speaker 5 (35:39):
I was twenty two, twenty two, and so I was,
you know, petrified, he screen, and then he starts slapping.
He hugs me. He says, he said, look, you can
sign the baseballs, but you just can't sign here. This
is where the manager signs, you idiot. And so then
he made me sign every single baseball for those six weeks.
Like I would be ready to get home, go to

(36:01):
wherever we were going as a group, and they go,
oh wait, there's twelve dozen baseballs you gotta sign, Dave
at the standards sign. So I started to realize why
players didn't like to sign baseballs, because it's not easy,
takes up a lot of time. So that's how our
whole relationship started. He loved it when the Japanese fans
would react. I would sneak up behind him, and he
was a physical anomaly. You know he was bow legged,

(36:23):
pigeon toed and knock kneed at the same time. The
Lord made him to have a little belly on top
of that because it just you can't make it up.
So I would try to walk behind him like that
with my belly stuck out, and then he would flip
around to look at me, and of course the fanatic
would stop and look around like I'm not doing anything,
and the fans would go crazy. And then he grabbed

(36:43):
one of the the tongue you know, it was actually
a party favor. He got one from me, and he said,
next time I do this, I'm gonna blow the tongue
out of it. And they went crazy. So I think
Tommy learned that he could get a reaction not only
from the fans, but when he realized his players would
really crack up when he would scream at me. And
this is where the conversation started. He wouldn't call me, hey, fanatic,

(37:03):
he'd go, Dave you m f.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
And got bad.

Speaker 5 (37:07):
He would just, I mean, Scott, kick your fucking he.
I mean it was just, I mean, no one could
speak an expletive deleted is the way he could. He
he was a master linguist, would come to that yeah yeah,
hell yeah, and then the players would be rolling over
in the dugout watching him scream and obscenities at a uppet.
And so I think he really truly realized that when

(37:29):
he would come to Philadelphia that it was a way
to relax his players. I just thought that he did
it just to you know, because that's baseball. That's the
way you get ready for these games. And so then
I just started getting the best of him. And when
I started coming out with the dummy, I had to
buy my own Lasorda jersey because he stopped. He would
come to Philadelphia with just one jersey and he would

(37:51):
wear it no one else could have it. But he
didn't know Steve Sacks was getting me his backup jersey.
So when Steve didn't have one, I.

Speaker 2 (37:57):
Went Steve Sacks was your accomplice.

Speaker 5 (37:59):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like it was from
the shining. He would knock on the door and open
the door crack, and he'd stick his face in and
then he'd hand me the jersey. Goes, if you ever
tell the old man I gave it this jersey, I'm
gonna kill you. So that was and so like Johnny
Mark said he was okay with all this until he
wasn't he was they were not playing well. It was

(38:21):
in August. He was on a weight loss challenge with
oral Hrscheizer, so he came into filled.

Speaker 3 (38:28):
He lost that.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
Yeah, he lost that.

Speaker 5 (38:31):
He's not a happy man with no pasta.

Speaker 1 (38:33):
So hell yeah, every Thursday j pasta shoot. Sure, buddy,
what you got for Dave Raymond?

Speaker 6 (38:42):
Hey, Dave, I see in the background you have some amazing,
amazing like trinkets and gifts and so forth. Obviously the
career is extensive and massive when you think back at it,
what was the most meaningful kind of fanatic related gift
that was presented to you, either from a fan or
the organization.

Speaker 5 (39:02):
What's the one that you cheets. That's a good question.
We need to hire this guy. Party times much better
with cheats party. I'm sorry, we.

Speaker 3 (39:10):
Whoa good question that's been asked.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
Question David.

Speaker 5 (39:23):
Well, after the first year, they had a birthday party
for the Fanatic and Mountie from Dodge. I'll give him
a plug gave the Fanatic and again I'll age myself.
The first bragg and wagon. It was a van that
was all outfitted with the tires with the raised white letters.
It had a CBE radio, it had the Fanatic painted
all over it, and it was all customized inside so

(39:45):
that I could dress in the back of the van.
There was the far back of the area the van
was where you could hang up the costume. It had
a fan that would you know you needed ventilation after
that after using that costume for a while, And I
remember driving it up the ramp at the end of
that day thinking I'm the luckiest human being on the planet.
I've got the most amazing job. I'm getting paid more

(40:07):
money than I would be in a teacher for sure,
and I've got this van that you know, probably in
today's world, would be one hundred and ten thousand dollars
worth of vehicle and it was mine. I mean I
drove it didn't cost me anything that the Phillies paid
for the gas. I mean that was phenomenal. But I
got to share something with you which you're any Philadelphia

(40:30):
fan will appreciate. So this right here, this I have
the best story. I believe it to be one hundred
percent correct. This is the ball that Tud McGrath threw
and the sixth game of the World Series to win
the World Series and if you can read. I don't
know if you can read what it says, but I

(40:50):
will read it to you. So he I was best
friends with him. He said he would marry me if
I only drank Jamison because I was left handed. That's it.
He was not discriminating with his friend. If you were
left handed, you're into the club. So this is my
Mom's name was Susie says Hi, Susie, Peace and love
and Happy, nineteen eighty one. And it's got his signature there.

(41:11):
And I knew that mom had this. I have in
the other case. It is a World Series ball from
the same nineteen eighty series. When I was sitting on
the bench for the bench for both the National League
playoff game against Houston but also the World Series against
Kansas City. I'm sitting in the bench and you can
see I've got providence because you can see in the

(41:31):
game tapes that they'll play near the end of that
game the fifth game we were going home.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
We win it.

Speaker 5 (41:36):
In the sixth game, a ball gets fouled off tug
Is pitching. I think it was Jose Cardinell was a
right handed batter, and he actually swung and fouled it.
The opposite way into the dugout. I've got that ball,
so I know exactly what a ball in play from
the World Series in eighty looked like. Well, I knew
my mom had this, but I had no idea what
the ball was. My dad called me after long after

(41:59):
my mom had passed to where he had a bunch
of these tubs in this basement. He had a flood
in the basement. He said, you come here and get
the stuff for you, your brother and your sister. It's
going to be yours anyway, but I need to get
it out there, out of here because it's going to
get ruined if it doesn't. And we got to clean
up the basement. Well, I got all this stuff, and
one of the things I took was this ball and

(42:19):
I put it up on my credenza, and my daughter, Carly,
who's twenty four now, came in and said, oh, is
that the ball that Tug signed to Nana? And I
said yes, And she takes it like this and starts
to read it, and there's the marking that the first
year that Bajor League Baseball marked the World Series ball
to the Worldary logo, and I went, oh, my gosh,

(42:43):
could this be well, I went to Mark McGraw carry Phyllis,
his wife and his two kids, and said, when Tug
passed away, ironically died of the same glioblastoma brain tumor
that my mom died from, you can't make this stuff up.
He always loved my mom. My mom was deaf. He
would always go and do something special, so this would

(43:05):
make sense. And they said, we never found any World
Series balls in Tug's effects. There's nothing and we don't
know where it is. And Bob Boone a few years
before this, we were talking about it and I said,
I think I have it, and he said, well, when
I was giving it to Tug in the locker room,
because watch it, he throws the ball, Bob's got it

(43:26):
in his glove. And Tug waits to hug Mike Schmidt
because they had planned that the day before, because Mike
was bitching about how the fact that catcher always hugs
are the pitcher all tugs to catcher. So Mike is
bitching about it, so Tug says, Okay, if I'm in
and we win, I'll wait for you. So he hugs Mike.
They go into the clubhouse and Bob is thinking Number

(43:46):
one I got to give this to Tug. As he's
walking across the locker room, he's also thinking, Tug is
not going to appreciate this ten years from now. This
is going to be in a bucket in his garage somewhere,
So maybe I shouldn't give it to him.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
But I did, and then.

Speaker 5 (44:00):
Tug was certifiably insane, so this is perfect for him.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
In his mind.

Speaker 5 (44:05):
He goes, I'm gonna sign it to Susie, who he loved,
and I'm gonna give it to her, and I'm not
telling anybody. So that's my story. I can't prove it,
but I have two baseballs because if you look at
the browning, that that's the mud from the Delaware River
that the umpires rub up every baseball still today they
do that, and it looks exactly like the one that
I'm that Tug also threw in the fifth game in Kansas.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
City that I caught.

Speaker 5 (44:31):
Put it in my bag and I've always had it
up there. So that's so cheats. That's why you asked
the best question, because I got to say I have it,
don't care what anybody thinks. I'm never selling it. I'm
not I'm not telling you know, but I'm I'm I'm
ninety nine percent certain this is the last ball. So
this is why we hire cheats.

Speaker 2 (44:50):
You never know about party time. Check this out.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
You can't see it if you're listening to the show.
But that's a picture of me, my dad and Tug McGraw.
Ah nice because my dad loved Tug McGraw and he
got to meet him a few times. I did a
bunch of stuff with Tug McGraw. Remember when Tum McGraw
used to do like the readings of Casey at the bat? Yeah,
well had he had like twenty seven beers one night
team went out in front of nine thousand.

Speaker 5 (45:13):
Oh that was a light night for him.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
Well he said, I said, Tug, are you sure, And
he's like, oh, this is an appetizer. Just wait till
after the game. Then we're going to really get rolling.
So let's go back. We're going to starting to wind
down a little bit. There's a lot more we have
to talk about, though, So one more eat for each
of you guys, the Phillips, the Phillips family, and then
also Cheats. But your favorite player to ever work with

(45:38):
is the Philly fanatic and your favorite manager to ever
work with and then real quickly the least favorite and
the least favorite manager. So best and worst manager, okay,
best and worst player.

Speaker 5 (45:51):
Well, I think the best manager by far was with
Tommy Lasorda. The worst was a guy I loved, but
it was worst because he just didn't do anything. It
was is the Pirates manner. Jim Oh my gosh, help me,
I'm having a ball summer moment.

Speaker 3 (46:07):
Jimmy Lally, Jim Laylyn. Yeah, so I would should.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
Have brought him a pack of smokes and do anything
you want.

Speaker 3 (46:13):
So he would.

Speaker 5 (46:14):
I would pull up outside of where the manager would
stand pregame, and he would almost be there like this,
and you know, when he'd smoke and he'd blow out
the smoke and I would just I'd be standing and
I would just imitating like I'm smoking him. He never smiled,
he never looked at me, never said anything, and so
I knew he was not happy with me. So it's

(46:34):
not that I disliked him as a person or as
a manager. I just didn't like anybody that played with
me because when I would when I when I did
that with Joe Tory when he was managing the Mets,
I would be doing the same type of thing, imitate him,
and he would stop and he'd fold his arms and
he looked at me, and again he'd say, hey, David,
and you know, in the fanatic would stop and look
at him, and he he would point to the phone.

(46:55):
He goes, see that phone right there. I make one
call and three guys will be here to break your
legs tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (47:02):
Hell yeah.

Speaker 5 (47:03):
And so I went on and then I would I
would run and jump on the bike and I'd ride
right away. So you know, that's the response that I
that I loved was because I felt like, you know,
they were they were playing with me. So that's the
best and worst manager Jimmy just because he didn't do
anything but Tommy, because hey, you can't argue with four
million plus views player, do.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
You say, yeah, best best player and worst player.

Speaker 5 (47:26):
The best player would have been many sang Gian because
he was the first one that actually when I would
come out pregame and the players were warming up along
the the right the left field line, that he he
got down in a three point stance and I looked
at him like what's he doing?

Speaker 3 (47:40):
Like come on, like he wanted to raise me.

Speaker 5 (47:42):
And so then that he was the one the best
all time best because one he continued to do that
all the time, but too he started a whole process
that I had where I could engage the visiting players
and really break that fourth wall between the fans and
these these players. So so he was the best only
because it was first. But there are many, you know,

(48:03):
and the Pirates, the Mets, the Cardinals at Los Angeles
were four of the teams that all was responded well.
Always had a group of players that would come to
me before as they got to the stadium for the
first of a three game series and they would say,
I want you to do this. Here's a prop I'm

(48:24):
gonna do this to you. I mean, they'd have it. Oh,
I didn't have to work on anything. They would come
to the stadium with all the gags and jokes that
they wanted to play on me. The worst was Barry Bonds.
But Barry was also the one that did one of
the funniest things ever to me. He would just pull
me into the dugout so the Pirates looked like they

(48:46):
were beating me up, and he would say, I'm not
gonna let you go. You know. He was being mean
spirited about it, and so the way. I got out
of his grasp once I said, oh wait, wait, Barry,
I got a great idea. Just hold on, let me
go for a second. And he had pulled me into
a part of the dugout where the fans couldn't see me.
I unsnapped my head and I spun it around backwards.
Now I was blind, I couldn't see, but it was
funny because I snapped it all in. So now now

(49:07):
the players could throw me back out on the field
and I would stand up and I would be looking
this way, and the fanatic would be looking that way,
and I would moon walk to be able to and
and so then what what Barry did was he like
that so much that when whenever the pirates are come,
he said, come on, spend your head around, he grabbed
me in and throw me and he'd say to the
other players, watch this. So but you know, Barry was

(49:29):
just he was. He was not the nicest guy. Jimmy
Leland almost came to physical blows with him three or
four times. One time because he dissed Richie Ashbourn for
his pregame shows. You don't you don't ditch a Hall
of Famer, you idiot, he's trying to drag Barry out
of the locker room. And you know, so he just

(49:49):
was was ultimately a bad actor. But but but spinning
my head around would turned into a good routine. So
I got to give him that. So I think best manager,
worst manager, best player, worst player. I think that was it.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
That's Awesomes, Phillips, Fellows, last last call, one.

Speaker 5 (50:05):
Shot, worst injury you had in the suit. I got lucky.
I twisted an ankle. I got kicked in the wrong
place by a couple of thirteen year old kids every
now and then because they wanted to see if there
was a real person in there. They learned very quickly
there was. But no, you know, Tom brigoing is the

(50:26):
best friend of the fanatic now. He broke an orbit
bone in his eye twice, had some pretty serious bumps
and bruises. But I got out of him. I was lucky, lucky,
lucky lucky. So well, no, no, let me say it
the way part of my league. I was just a
great athlete. I was so strong and so powerful nobody
could hurt me.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
You're still in my line. You don't get a body
like this by not being a great athlete.

Speaker 3 (50:50):
Baby, I'm just glad I went before Cheats.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
That's his award winning questions.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
By the way, before Cheats goes shout out to the
great I'm going, what a wonderful person. He's been a
friend of Parney Time for a long time as well.
We've had a lot of great times in the costume
or excuse me with the Fanatic as well with Tommy.
So Tommy, if you're listening to this, we love you
and shout out to you as well.

Speaker 5 (51:15):
Best friends.

Speaker 3 (51:17):
Yeah, another mother man.

Speaker 6 (51:20):
Cheats no MP along those lines and Parney, I can't
help to think about what McGee said about some of
the minor league kind of mascot dareduvil activities and explosions. So, Dave,
was there ever a bit where you just said, I
don't think I can do this. This is just too

(51:41):
over the pale, two off the wall? Like were they like,
let me strap you to a rocket? You're like, no,
let's not do this. Is there one that you had
to draw the lot? Was there a line that you
ever had to draw out the phillipinet.

Speaker 5 (51:52):
Before I answer that question, Cheats, I believe that Cheats
Time podcast is in the office.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
I think that he does.

Speaker 3 (52:04):
It Cheats.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
Tim.

Speaker 5 (52:04):
I'm sorry, Parnie, but come.

Speaker 1 (52:06):
On, suck it, David. This is a black baseball mixtape.
Is Cheats his own podcast and check it out. It's
award winning Black Baseball mixtape. Is Cheats his podcast. Now
answer the fucking question.

Speaker 5 (52:22):
Well, the answer is no. I never said no because
I was too stupid. Let's be clear. And uh, and
they alwas on a birthday party would have a lot
of circus acts, and many times they were you know,
the the culmination of the birthday party was the fanatic
had to prove his bravery or something, and and so
I had to go be involved on two things that
I probably should have never done. One was called the

(52:44):
wheel of death. But you've all seen that. It's it's
the two wheels with the one bar in it. Person
can get inside the wheel in it and it goes
like this, and they they jump outside the wheel and
inside the wheel. Well, they strapped the fanatic in once
and spun it around twice. But that wasn't anywhere near
as scary as what I would like to call the
motorcycle of death, because it's a motorcycle with a trapeze

(53:07):
bar underneath it on a wire that was strung from
the top of the phillies dugout all the way up
to the seven hundred level, and I'm all I had
were the two wrist straps and and and they asked
me when I got there the morning of that of
that birthday party, do you want to try this out
of costume? And I go no, because I won't do
it out of costume. I'll put the costume on. I'm

(53:28):
the fanatic, you know whatever. So I just I didn't
even I just sat on it, that's all, you know.
I said, Okay, don't need to go up on it.
We'll do it in the during the game. And so
I was thinking this will be fine. I don't know
why I was thinking this, but I forget. Yeah, We're
gonna go up to the seven hundred level and I'll
jump off the bar and then just walk my way down,

(53:50):
you know the ramps what I would normally do, or
have my you know, my four wheeler up there and
take me down. Well, no, no, he drives you all
the way up and then he comes down backwards. So
that was and my father was actually there and he
got angry. It was like the old the old commercial.
Don't tell Mom don't ever tell your mother you did that.
What type of an idiot are you? I said, you know,

(54:13):
it's show business. If I die, they'll they will. If
I fell from there and died, they would never forget me.
They would call Tommy, Tommy, be next Tommy. No motorcycle
of death. I'm done.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
I actually remember that, Dave. I remember that as a kid.
I remember because we just moved to Philadelphia. I forget
what year it was, but I remember that whole thing
called such a ruckus in the Philadelphia area. That that's
like another example of how the Philly fanatic. You made
the Philly fanatic as bigger, bigger than the Phillies at times,

(54:46):
and year round and year round as well.

Speaker 5 (54:48):
Yeah, the fanatic has never been bowed in a town
that booing is a hello. So you know, that's the
thing that I think is amazing, and and he does.
You know, it's so powerful. You know, we've both Tom
and I talk about this numerous times. And of course
certainly Tom. You walk into a hospital room and there's
a family that's dealing with, you know, tragedy that we

(55:10):
can't imagine how we would overcome that, and the fanatic
shows up and in that room, in that moment, it's
a celebration, hugs, a gratitude, you know, teary of joy.
And then that the parents would look at me and
me and say, you know, I said, I just showed up,
and they go, thank you for giving us the best
medicine we could have ever had. That that sort of
stuff goes on on, you know, unreported purposefully in many cases.

(55:33):
You know. So I look at the silliness, and I
always tell people, don't be distracted by the silliness. There's
there's a superpower embedded inside of the fanatics, you know,
green fur, that we all can have, and that's just
to value the importance of fun or what we call
powerful fun. And that My whole keynote is all about
how I learned this from the fanatic and how we

(55:54):
all can do this regularly, make the world a better
place and and really save some lives, because there are
people suffering that just don't like to talk about it.
And if you have the ability to understand how to
do the work this fanatic does, which is relatively easy,
be kind, express gratitude, you know, take your focus off yourself.
Help somebody in your neighborhood, call out a friend that

(56:17):
you know is struggling and ask them how they're doing.
I mean, these are all the things that the fanatic
is doing every single day. So I look at it
as bigger than silly furiness. It's it's a.

Speaker 1 (56:26):
Superpower, unbelievable. And so as we close, I have two questions.
Here kind of ties into that from our very own
NATSI here at the Flying Squirrels. NATSI can't speak, but
Nazi learned how to type. Cheats must have taught Nazi
how to type, because Cheats is obviously the most talented
member of the party crew. No offense to the Phillips Fells.

(56:47):
Number one, what is your favorite character that you helped create?

Speaker 5 (56:51):
Oh, Gritty by far, I mean.

Speaker 1 (56:53):
Gritty is the Philadelphia Flyers mascot, and he was.

Speaker 5 (56:57):
And I told the Phillies that they were going to
have to have six months of negativity before. As long
as they did that did follow the process, that it
would be successful. But they'd have to wait with six
months of hate that turned into forty eight hours of
hate and then it's become this sensation. So it was
the most fun program to work with because the Flyers

(57:18):
really bought into the process and did it amazingly, and
Gritty and the Fanatic, both in the city Philadelphia, are
going to go on long before you know, We're going
to expire a long time before Gritty and the Fanatic.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
Does the second question, I think you just answered it
earlier from Natzi, who worships the Philly Fanatic. By the way,
what is a life lesson that the Philly Fanatic taught you?

Speaker 5 (57:42):
Well, I mean, I you know that the powerful fun
was the is the lesson he taught me. But at
the time I thought I only had it because I
got to disappear into the personality that the Fanatic was.
But the best lesson is that we are we are
all in charge of our own happiness. That we just
have to decide that we're worth it. And you have

(58:04):
to practice it every day, and the practice is relatively simple.
Things about self care, get some sleep, go open the
front door, get some exercise, put your devices down, Tell
somebody close to you you love them, Tell somebody that
helped you in your life thank you very much before
they're not here. And express gratitude, you know, express a
gratitude for things you have, not the things that you're

(58:26):
trying to get. That all of that stuff is based. Now,
I thought I was living a lucky life, but it's
positive psychology. I've studied that deeply and those are the
things that positive psychology tell us to do. And guess what,
we don't do it very often because the busyness of life,
but also a lot of times because we don't think
we're worth it and we don't spend time taking care

(58:46):
of ourselves. And we got to do that before we
can take care of the people around us.

Speaker 1 (58:51):
Heymen, Mascow Hall of Fame, we didn't get into that,
but you were very heavily a part of starting the
Mascot Hall of Fame. I'm happy to be on the
board of the Mascot Hall of Fame. As we close,
one minute or least talk about the Mascal Hall of
Fame and how people can get involved with that.

Speaker 5 (59:09):
Well, I think it's now since you know, we had
an amazing facility in Whiting, Indiana. It's not there only
because British Petroleum wanted to buy the land and Whiting
doesn't say no to British Petroleum, and and we understood that.
We were but we were bummed. It's still alive and active.
We just inducted the five new characters.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
And what we I voted as a board member, I
voted you.

Speaker 5 (59:35):
Were as an executimmittee member. You were very very instrumental
in doing that well. So just go to Mascal Hall
of Fame dot com and look at what we're doing.
See who is inducted. We are. We're not a nonprofit,
but we aren't asking anybody for any money either. We
were in this transition phase. So support us because the
Mascot Hall of Fame is going to in some way,
shape or form, is going to be around for a

(59:56):
long long time. So go to Mascal Hall of Fame,
take a look at it, see what we're doing. Connect
with the organizations who whose characters have been inducted in
the Hall of Fame to learn about them. And you
know that's what we need the most is awareness.

Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
And finally, if people want to this is the shilling
part of this show where you get the shield your wares.
People want to buy your your your book, your latest book.

Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
How do they do that?

Speaker 5 (01:00:21):
Just go to Dave Raymondspeaks dot com and if you
have an organization or a community event where you want
to hear a message about caring for ourselves and building
sustainable happiness. I'd be happy to come and talk to
you that all that informations area. You can join the
The Evolution of Happiness newsletter which costs nothing. That released

(01:00:42):
every last Friday of the month at five point thirty
to kick off your weekend. So go to Dave Raymonspeaks
dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:00:49):
I'd love for you to learn about what I'm doing
there and the power of fun.

Speaker 5 (01:00:53):
Yes, that's the process.

Speaker 1 (01:00:56):
Well, we had a lot of fun here this show.
And one of the not only MP on the mic,
but his father, Dave the Hall of Famer from Wichita, Kansas,
for joining us cheets bringing the award winning questions Black
Beaksball Mixtape.

Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
Joe T. You Joe enjoy this episode?

Speaker 3 (01:01:14):
Hell yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
Joe T is being very forceful, which means it's probably
time for him to eat. Well, somebody please feed Joe T.
Why back at the studio? Why back at the studio?
Thanks for everything you do for Octagon. This sending a
party time. You never know what we're going to talk about,
You never know who's going to be here.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
We love you.

Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
Thanks for coming, Dave, You're a bit a great friend
for many years. I'm looking forward to anymore. Thanks for
the show, party time, we're out.