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September 21, 2020 17 mins

A failed attempt at scoring Kirstie Alley's underwear leads the Red Sox third baseman to enlist his mistress in an attempt to win a spring training bet. But when the spurned mistress dishes a tell-all to Playboy magazine, Boggs' deceitful ways are exposed. 

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Trickeration, a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
back to another week of the Trickeration podcast. I'm your host,
Matt Waxman, and this week we've got an extra special
episode that, maybe more than any other, is really what
this show is all about. Deep dives into totally entertaining nonsense.

(00:23):
I hope you like hearing this episode as much as
I did making it. And if you listen to last
week's episode, we are one step closer to solving the
mystery of the fan and the trench cook who helped
the Patriots seal of victory in a game in ninety one.
We're hoping to confirm the identity of that lunatic fan soon,
and please keep sending in ideas for future apps. Some
other stories I'm currently pursuing the greatest purposely misput in

(00:46):
golf history, and Ivy League cheerleader caper, and the story
of how each Erose interpreter was able to earn a
second income from eating ants. So keep an ear out
for all those stories. All right onto the show. I
think there were some pranks. I was probably not privy

(01:08):
to them. The episode with Wade Boggs, which is all
about practical joke, and we thought, Okay, well, what if
Rebecca comes into her office and it's filled with sheep
and we're like, oh, okay, let's let's do that. Took
us like two minutes to write it into a script,

(01:29):
and this truck comes and they have to bring in
all these sheep and we're like, hey, we did that.
During the Two Hitters, Wade Boggs and Tony Quinn stood
out above the rest. These guys were both batting machines,
and while Gwen's legacy as a hitter has remained, Boggses
has somewhat dimmed over time to the younger generation. The

(01:52):
former Red Sox Third Basement is better known for drinking
over a hundred miller lights on a cross country flight
than he is for hitting almost four hundred for an
entire season. But this is a podcast about deception, and
I'm interested in either of those things. What I'm interested
in is a dirty laundry Wade bog story I found
tucked in a two thousand nine Hollywood and Levine blog

(02:13):
post hen by a former Cheers writer, involving a Bogs
cameo and Kristie Alley's underwear, and later in the show
that Cheers writer Ken Levine details the sitcom worthy training
regimen he devised to help segue from writer to MLB
play by play announcer, Take it Away, Ken. Of all
the athletes that I've worked with, you know, guesting on

(02:38):
television shows, Kevin McHale, who was far and away the best,
and we didn't write that much for him. We certainly
didn't give him a lot of joke lines. But then
the week of rehearsal, so you know what, he's really
good and we just we we gave him a bunch
of jokes and the Bogs episode. Can you tell me

(02:59):
a little bit about how that went, I'll tell you
the story behind that. It was the end of the
season and we're working out the story and we thought, okay,
wouldn't it be fun if some Boston athlete comes into
the bar and they think that they're being punked and
so they like pants them and chase them off. And said, well, okay,

(03:25):
who can we get And at the time, Way Boggs
was the guy, so he said, well, Wade Boggs. But
this was March and I said, well, they're in spring training,
and I said, well, let's try anyway. Start Casting director

(03:47):
goes off to try to make a deal, and he
calls up an hour later and says, Okay, he'll do it.
The manager gave him like three days off. I mean,
when you read Boggs and are leading the world in hitting,
it's not like he needed the extra three days. And
of course I'm thinking, man, I just mentioned Wade Bugs

(04:09):
and and there he is on an airplane. So we
shoot the scene. There was a practical joke war between
Cheers and Gary's oldtown tavern. He comes into the bar
and he was pretty stiff, and at first the guys like,
oh my god, Waite Bogs. And then they go, no,

(04:29):
that's not Wade Boggs, that's an impersonator, and they chase
off Wade Bogs and the pranks just kept escalating. And
a year later, this Playboy article comes out by Margot Adams,
who is this woman who had a long time affair

(04:50):
with Wade Boggs, and she lived in Orange County, southern California.
She talks about the fact that, you know, Wade called
her one day and said, hey, I had a free
trip out to l a And to do those Cheers thing.
We got three days. So it's like that's the reason

(05:15):
he took a job not to be on chairs. It
was just to go see his girlfriend and get laid.
So I went and bought this old issue on eBay
and it's a delightful read. Adams is five page tell
all is chock full of eye opening acts of deception,
including the fact that, according to her, fan mail sent
to the Socks was signed by bat boys, So that

(05:38):
trove of Marty Barrett autographs you're sitting on might not
be as valuable as you think. But the most delightful
bit of deceit involved Bogs asking for Margot's help to
pull off an underwear switcheroo, and she mentions in the
article where he said to her, can I have a
pair of your panties? Because I I bet the guys
that I could have a get a pair of Christie

(05:59):
out these panties, Okay, so putting the pieces together after
the cheers cameo, Boggs returns from the taping in l
A to winter Haven, Florida, where the Socks held spring training,
with a pair of Margot Adams underwear. He then tells
his Socks teammates Clemens Dwight Evans, Calvin Schiraldi etcetera. That,

(06:20):
as promised, he was able to persuade Christie Alley to
give him her underwear. But what Boggs couldn't have foreseen
is that his spurned mistress would later blab to Playboy
that he tricked his teammates back then, and those dys
didn't belong to Christie Alley, but rather to a baseball
groupie slash mortgage broker from Orange County Oil Camp. Boyd

(06:40):
probably flipped his lid when he heard the truth. So
I come in and I'm reading the article in the morning,
and I said, what time does the cast come in?
And so well, the cash should be coming in. And
about five ten minutes, I said great, and I ran
down to the stage and Kirsty is just sitting there

(07:03):
having a cup of coffee, and I said, hey, Kirsty,
you're mentioned in an article Playboy magazine. She goes, I am.
She reads the article and she goes, what the fuck.
Once or twice a year I would go up to

(07:24):
her and I'd go, hey, Kirsty, look, could you do
me a favor. I'm going to my high school reunion
and I bet the guys that I can get affair
of your panties. And and so that became kind of
a running gag between me and Kirsty for the next
few years. So how does this story end? In two

(07:48):
thousand seventeen, Out of the Blue Box tweets a screenshot
of him and Ali on the set of Cheers, to
which Ali replies, we had some fun that week, huh,
with a kissing emoji. Ali then follows up with a
arefying tweets saying they were both happily married at the
time and nothing happened, to which Bugs tweets back strictly professional.
So in other words, as with everything, everyone is lying

(08:10):
here about everything the end. After the break, Ken Levine
explains the sitcom worthy training regiment he underwent to become
a Major League Baseball play by play announcer. I'm sure
there were probably people who didn't say anything to me,

(08:32):
but pointed and thought, look at this idiot. Well, I
had always wanted to be a baseball announcer from the
time I was eight years old, and uh, I reached
a point in my mid thirties. I was comedy writer
by then, but I figured if I don't pursue it now,

(08:54):
I never will. So I went to the upper deck
of Dodger Stadium with a tape recorder for two years
and just broadcast games. I started in eighty six, so
I did games in the stands in eighty six and
eighty seven, but they were never broadcast anywhere. They were
just for me for my training purposes. So you're in

(09:20):
the upper deck with a tape recorder that, can you
pay me a picture of what this looked like? Well,
I would buy two seats. It was general admission, which
in those days the seats were like three fifty and
the upper deck of Dodger Stadium, you're above home played,
but there weren't reserved seats. So I would come and

(09:43):
take two seats right in the front row. And I
figured if people didn't like having an announcer sitting next
to them, and just get up and move somewhere else.
I had my Marands tape recorder, I had headset microphone,
I had a battery operated mixer, and I had a

(10:03):
crowd mike that I dranked over the railing so that
I had a good full crowd sound. And I took
three by five cards and I wrote out the defensive alignment,
and I take those to the front railing and away
I went Ken's Bootleg Dodger broadcast quickly found an audience

(10:25):
in the upper deck. I found that they were like
regulars who would come and sit right around me because
they liked hearing me, And eventually I would buy them
all of beer, and they brought binoculars and they would
like scout for me. They'd hand me notes as to

(10:47):
who was warming up in the bullpen, or if there's
a pinch runner, they'd be pointed out. So I had
my own spotters, which I needed up there because the
players are just ants. But it was radio, so I'd say, Oh,
he's got a good late break on that palm ball.
I couldn't see them fucking palm ball. Were you ever

(11:10):
able to interview any of the players? Would they ever
give you that kind of access? No? No, I never
got three miles close to the players. And was there
ever any moment when you were in the stands where
anyone yelled anything or said anything to you that sort

(11:30):
of gave you pause, like what the hell am I
even doing here? The only time I really hated going
up to the stands was during a series against the Mets.
It would be some of those angry New York Mets
fans that would be sitting around the funk you think
you're Viscully the fuck whore you. So I would get

(11:51):
shipped from them. And and I'm sure there were probably
people um who didn't say anything to me, but pointed
and thought, look at this idiot. Um. Well, I mean
that that comes with the territory. And what would you
do with those tapes from the games in the stands?
Would you then go back and re listen to them

(12:12):
and and try and learn from mistakes. Yes, I wouldn't
take Vince Scully because I didn't want to be influenced
by Vince Scully. So many announcers grew up wanting to
be Vince Scully and you hear them and it's, you know,
on the on one pitch of low. So it's like

(12:33):
I didn't want Scullies inflections to be in my subconscious
and the Angel announcer al Conin at the time, it's
very good announcer. I would take the radio and I
would take my own games, and then I would compare
my innings to his. And I remember there was one

(12:55):
in particular, one game where they're playing the the Day's
and there was like a fly ball to deep left
center field and to the a's converged Dwyn Murphy and
Mike Davis and they collided, and I'm calling there's a

(13:15):
drive to right field, and Murphy's after it and Davis
after Oh, they collide and they're lying there, and then
you know, they look like they're both hurt, and there
run scores and do that. I'm describing this whole thing,
and I thought I did a pretty good job. And
then I listened to Al's call and he goes, there's

(13:37):
a drive to deep right field. Murphy and Davis collide,
and he goes and the ball lands at their feet,
and such and such comes over and retrieves the ball.
And this guy is going to third and the throw
into third and it hit me. It's like the ball. Okay,

(14:00):
that's the key to that play is where the hell
is the ball. I have all the time in the
world to recap and talk about what happened and how
they hit their heads and they're lying there and they
can't move and everything, but as the play is unfolding,
it's the ball. And it's something that Al just instinctively

(14:21):
did because he had called many many games, and so
it was really just a matter of learning the technique
and polish and how to fill time between pitches, and
how to work in stats and how to tell the
story and how to be descriptive and that sort of thing.

(14:44):
Ken Levine graduated from bootleg broadcasting legend to the real thing,
eventually becoming the full time play by play man for
the Baltimore Orioles and later the Seattle Mariners. And to me,
that was the value, you know, of doing those games
in the stands in eighty six and eighty seven. Um,
it really helped my confidence in in going to the

(15:07):
big leagues because I would see a play and I
would immediately go, oh, yeah, I fucked this playoff in
the upper deck at Dodger Stadium. Okay, I know what
this is and I know what not to do now.
And were you just naturally born to do this? But

(15:27):
no one had given you an opportunity, or you were
someone who had no idea what they were doing, and
then through these bleacher games that you were calling, you
figured the whole thing out. No, I think it's more
the latter. Um. I started announcing baseball because I loved
doing it and I love the process of it and

(15:51):
being able to call these games every day. You know
I was achieving my goal. My goal was not to
get to the major leagues, and if I didn't get
to the major leagues, all of this would be a failure.
If your goal is to be the next announcer of

(16:13):
the New York Yankees, chances are you're going to be disappointed.
So I would say two people, if you're following your bliss,
if you're enjoying the learning process and you're enjoying what
you're doing, and you're getting satisfaction out of that for

(16:36):
that sake, then I say go for it. All right.
That is it for this week. Hope you guys enjoyed
the show special thanks to Ken Levine. Make sure to
check out Ken's podcast, Hollywood and Levine, in which you
reveal some really insightful inside baseball stuff about bringing into

(16:57):
the TV business as a writer. I highly recommend this
body us. It's actually really good and as always, if
you're enjoying the show, please take a minute to rate
and review wherever one does that kind of thing. For
more of this nonsense, follow along a trickeration on Twitter
and Instagram, And as we do every week, we check
in with the legend Chris Matt, Doug Russo. Chris, how
do we do this week? Maddie, good job, keep up
the good work now all right, Thanks Chris, See you

(17:18):
guys next week. Trickeration is a production of I heart Radio.
For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i
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