Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Jason Hammer from the number one rated Hammer in Nigel
Show joins us now and I know you, like me,
are a massive Chicago Cubs fan, and a rough day
for Cubs fans everywhere.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I think you would say arguably the.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Most beloved Cubs, certainly of the modern era.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
The cable TV era. Right right when cable TV first
really started becoming mainstream. You know, it was the super
station WGN. Those were the stations, right, TBS, WGN. All
the Braves games were on TVs. All the Cubs games
were on WGN. So by default, if you were a
sports fan at all, you started to identify with a
(00:45):
lot of these people because they were on your TV
all the time. And as a Cub fan like Ryan
Sandberg was part of the group that was like my
babysitter growing up, because I'd go to my grandparents' house.
Both of my parents worked, so I'd go to my
grandparents house and they got this new thing called cable television,
so they plopped me right down in front of that.
Then Harry Carey, Steve Stone, and Rydo were basically my
(01:08):
babysitters growing up.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
You know, it's weird, like Case said, I were talking
about earlier, to start the show.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
The Sandford thing.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
It feels like a massive deal because you're right, millions
of people saw this guy every day because there were
so few options. I mean, obviously Cable you had, you know,
fifty sixty channels, but in terms of you wanted to
watch baseball nationally, you really did have two options. And
the Cubs, because they were Chicago, had such a loyal
following that so many people. He was such an integral
(01:37):
part of their childhood and he was.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
The perfect ambassador for it right like, right place, right time.
You could say the same thing about hal Cogan right
right place, right time when Cable first started going into
the mainstream. Hawl Cogan was this bigger than live character,
and you know, USA was the benefactor of that same
thing with WGN. Here's this good looking guys dig him,
(02:01):
Guys like him because he's an amazing ballplayer on a
team that's honestly not very good. You know, the whole
time Rhino was in Chicago, I think they made two
playoff runs. That's it. They had some awful teams, but
he was really good, handled everything with class and defensively
with the bat. You know, he wasn't a trash talker,
so he didn't rub people the wrong way. He was
(02:23):
just the perfect ambassador.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
You know that you're special when forty years forty one years,
like if you look at somebody who is remotely knowledgeable
about baseball in the Midwest and you say the Sandberg game, yes,
they'll know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Well, it's been forty I was barely born when that happened.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I'm a full fledged, grown ass adult man. And yet
when I see the clip of that roll through, I mean,
I'm not even talking about yesterday like obviously was everywhere,
but I'm saying every year it'll pop up. You'll just
stop and watch him crank two bombs off Bruce Soiter,
and you know what's gonna happen, right, all the great
players that have played baseball.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
You know, there's not a Mickey Mantle game, There's not
a Johnny Bench game. Great players may have been better
than Rhino, I don't know. We can debate that, but
that game, it was the national game of the week
when everybody would watch it on network television. I think
NBC Bob Costas had the call. Great rivalry. Cubs and
Cards packed howls. Cubs were finally getting good. Rhino was
(03:25):
having an MVP season and I think he went like
five for six or four for five something like that.
Two bombs off one of the best closers in baseball,
Cubs win and extra innings, and that put him into
the stratosphere.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
And it's the like baseball so different from every other sport.
The call is so legendary. You know the costs. Do
you believe it? This is a tie ball? Like I
mean it, it's just so. It's this perfect June day
in Chicago. It's those nasty awful Cardinals, and it's just
like it's so and it's like the crazy thing about
And this is when you know people were special. When
(03:59):
we were talking about this with whole Kogan, you know,
a couple of days ago, like the memories that it
floods back and I was thinking this morning and by
the way I told Casey, I guess I told her
audience like ESPN did this fabulous video tribute to and
I think maybe Kirchen. Tim Kirchen was the narrator and
it's just phenomenal, Like I just totally lost it watching it.
But like little things that you don't think of and
(04:20):
then you realize what a big part of your childhood.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
They were so when I was a kid.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Roger Clemens MVP Baseball was a Nintendo game like the
original Nintendo and for whatever deal they had, they got
Roger Clemens name to license. Right, he's the star of
the game, but they were too cheap to pay for
the rest of the players.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
They sped it all on Roger.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
So the names were made up for each team, like
it was just Chicago, but they made the names close enough.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
To where you knew it. So like Mark Grace was G.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Mace I think, and Ryan Sandberg was R Bergison and
you knew like the talent level of the player.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
It is like based three.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
But to me, in my mind every time as a.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Kid, when I heard the name Ryan Sandberg, I would think,
let's burguson on my.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Game.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
And it's such a trip down nostalgia lane.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Right.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
We were kind of talking about this with Happy Gilmour,
you know, yesterday or the day before, and uh, you
know it just it's more than baseball. Like if you
grew up watching this kind of stuff, if you're around
my age or Rob's age, you grew up watching these
Cubs teams on television. It takes you back to when
you were younger and who you were with, not necessarily
even about the game. But I remember hanging out with
(05:37):
my grandparents and you know, they would go to all
my baseball games, and if I had a good day,
you know at the plate, he'd call me rhino if
I actually pitched and did well. Oh, Sutcliffe's out there,
like it just takes me back, and man, that one hurts, right,
and we knew what was coming. He had been rumored
to be in bad shape for a while. Beat it
(05:58):
at one point was incomplete remission, but then it came
back very aggressively.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
You know what's crazy about him too.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
So one of the things that I watch from as
far I think is interesting as people who collect stuff.
So I'm so enamored with Casey's husband because he's so
into collecting sports illustrated magazines. I don't collect things, but
I admire the people that do. And there's a group
of people who collect autographed baseball cards, Like they'll send
(06:25):
a card in the mail like we used to in
your kids. It's kind of weird grown adults do it,
but whatever, right, Yeah, And so I enjoy there's a
whole like Facebook pages of people who will do their submissions.
And up until like a few weeks ago, people were
still getting Ryan Sandberg autographed cards in the mail. And
it knew even signals like that is pretty cool that
(06:46):
even you know, guys clearly not doing well, people up until,
like I said, a few weeks ago, were still getting
those cards back in the mail.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Dude, he loved baseball and he loved being a part
of it. Right, and again, he was never one of these, hey,
I want to deal with Gator eight people. But you'd
always find him in Chicago, like a bunch of my
buddies that live up there. They would go to Murphy's
at the Cubby Bear and there's Rhino. It's just kind
of hanging out like and anybody that wants a picture,
you know, he'll get it. He was never a big
(07:14):
timer to people and would go to show up to
these little leagues whatever. And I can't imagine he's getting
paid a lot of money or even at all to
do this kind of stuff. But he's like, yeah, you
know what, screw it. They gave me a great life.
And what we kind of forget is even with these athletes,
how good they actually are at the sport. Right, Rhino
was an even better dude. But if you go back
(07:36):
and read about him in high school, he was like
all state and football, basketball, and baseball. Could have played
any sport in college that he want, chose baseball and
I think it worked out.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Won the nineteen ninety home run derby at Wrigley Field
because he was the only guy smart enough to realize
how big the win factored in. And if the wind's
blowing in, you gotta hit it low, baby.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Low, and slow baby, turn on it Lin.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Drive bombs coming up this afternoon, uh Bo Duke.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
John Schneider will join us. He's got a show coming
up in Indy. Jeff Boggs will join us and call
a roulette this afternoon. Thanks Hammer. It is Kenne La
Casey on ninety three WIBC
Jason Hammer from the number one rated Hammer in Nigel
Show joins us now and I know you, like me,
are a massive Chicago Cubs fan, and a rough day
for Cubs fans everywhere.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I think you would say arguably the.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Most beloved Cubs, certainly of the modern era.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
The cable TV era. Right right when cable TV first
really started becoming mainstream. You know, it was the super
station WGN. Those were the stations, right, TBS, WGN. All
the Braves games were on TVs. All the Cubs games
were on WGN. So by default, if you were a
sports fan at all, you started to identify with a
(00:45):
lot of these people because they were on your TV
all the time. And as a Cub fan like Ryan
Sandberg was part of the group that was like my
babysitter growing up, because I'd go to my grandparents' house.
Both of my parents worked, so I'd go to my
grandparents house and they got this new thing called cable television,
so they plopped me right down in front of that.
Then Harry Carey, Steve Stone, and Rydo were basically my
(01:08):
babysitters growing up.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
You know, it's weird, like Case said, I were talking
about earlier, to start the show.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
The Sandford thing.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
It feels like a massive deal because you're right, millions
of people saw this guy every day because there were
so few options. I mean, obviously Cable you had, you know,
fifty sixty channels, but in terms of you wanted to
watch baseball nationally, you really did have two options. And
the Cubs, because they were Chicago, had such a loyal
following that so many people. He was such an integral
(01:37):
part of their childhood and he was.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
The perfect ambassador for it right like, right place, right time.
You could say the same thing about hal Cogan right
right place, right time when Cable first started going into
the mainstream. Hawl Cogan was this bigger than live character,
and you know, USA was the benefactor of that same
thing with WGN. Here's this good looking guys dig him,
(02:01):
Guys like him because he's an amazing ballplayer on a
team that's honestly not very good. You know, the whole
time Rhino was in Chicago, I think they made two
playoff runs. That's it. They had some awful teams, but
he was really good, handled everything with class and defensively
with the bat. You know, he wasn't a trash talker,
so he didn't rub people the wrong way. He was
(02:23):
just the perfect ambassador.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
You know that you're special when forty years forty one years,
like if you look at somebody who is remotely knowledgeable
about baseball in the Midwest and you say the Sandberg game, yes,
they'll know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Well, it's been forty I was barely born when that happened.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I'm a full fledged, grown ass adult man. And yet
when I see the clip of that roll through, I mean,
I'm not even talking about yesterday like obviously was everywhere,
but I'm saying every year it'll pop up. You'll just
stop and watch him crank two bombs off Bruce Soiter,
and you know what's gonna happen, right, all the great
players that have played baseball.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
You know, there's not a Mickey Mantle game, There's not
a Johnny Bench game. Great players may have been better
than Rhino, I don't know. We can debate that, but
that game, it was the national game of the week
when everybody would watch it on network television. I think
NBC Bob Costas had the call. Great rivalry. Cubs and
Cards packed howls. Cubs were finally getting good. Rhino was
(03:25):
having an MVP season and I think he went like
five for six or four for five something like that.
Two bombs off one of the best closers in baseball,
Cubs win and extra innings, and that put him into
the stratosphere.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
And it's the like baseball so different from every other sport.
The call is so legendary. You know the costs. Do
you believe it? This is a tie ball? Like I
mean it, it's just so. It's this perfect June day
in Chicago. It's those nasty awful Cardinals, and it's just
like it's so and it's like the crazy thing about
And this is when you know people were special. When
(03:59):
we were talking about this with whole Kogan, you know,
a couple of days ago, like the memories that it
floods back and I was thinking this morning and by
the way I told Casey, I guess I told her
audience like ESPN did this fabulous video tribute to and
I think maybe Kirchen. Tim Kirchen was the narrator and
it's just phenomenal, Like I just totally lost it watching it.
But like little things that you don't think of and
(04:20):
then you realize what a big part of your childhood.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
They were so when I was a kid.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Roger Clemens MVP Baseball was a Nintendo game like the
original Nintendo and for whatever deal they had, they got
Roger Clemens name to license. Right, he's the star of
the game, but they were too cheap to pay for
the rest of the players.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
They sped it all on Roger.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
So the names were made up for each team, like
it was just Chicago, but they made the names close enough.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
To where you knew it. So like Mark Grace was G.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Mace I think, and Ryan Sandberg was R Bergison and
you knew like the talent level of the player.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
It is like based three.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
But to me, in my mind every time as a.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Kid, when I heard the name Ryan Sandberg, I would think,
let's burguson on my.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Game.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
And it's such a trip down nostalgia lane.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Right.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
We were kind of talking about this with Happy Gilmour,
you know, yesterday or the day before, and uh, you
know it just it's more than baseball. Like if you
grew up watching this kind of stuff, if you're around
my age or Rob's age, you grew up watching these
Cubs teams on television. It takes you back to when
you were younger and who you were with, not necessarily
even about the game. But I remember hanging out with
(05:37):
my grandparents and you know, they would go to all
my baseball games, and if I had a good day,
you know at the plate, he'd call me rhino if
I actually pitched and did well. Oh, Sutcliffe's out there,
like it just takes me back, and man, that one hurts, right,
and we knew what was coming. He had been rumored
to be in bad shape for a while. Beat it
(05:58):
at one point was incomplete remission, but then it came
back very aggressively.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
You know what's crazy about him too.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
So one of the things that I watch from as
far I think is interesting as people who collect stuff.
So I'm so enamored with Casey's husband because he's so
into collecting sports illustrated magazines. I don't collect things, but
I admire the people that do. And there's a group
of people who collect autographed baseball cards, Like they'll send
(06:25):
a card in the mail like we used to in
your kids. It's kind of weird grown adults do it,
but whatever, right, Yeah, And so I enjoy there's a
whole like Facebook pages of people who will do their submissions.
And up until like a few weeks ago, people were
still getting Ryan Sandberg autographed cards in the mail. And
it knew even signals like that is pretty cool that
(06:46):
even you know, guys clearly not doing well, people up until,
like I said, a few weeks ago, were still getting
those cards back in the mail.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Dude, he loved baseball and he loved being a part
of it. Right, and again, he was never one of these, hey,
I want to deal with Gator eight people. But you'd
always find him in Chicago, like a bunch of my
buddies that live up there. They would go to Murphy's
at the Cubby Bear and there's Rhino. It's just kind
of hanging out like and anybody that wants a picture,
you know, he'll get it. He was never a big
(07:14):
timer to people and would go to show up to
these little leagues whatever. And I can't imagine he's getting
paid a lot of money or even at all to
do this kind of stuff. But he's like, yeah, you
know what, screw it. They gave me a great life.
And what we kind of forget is even with these athletes,
how good they actually are at the sport. Right, Rhino
was an even better dude. But if you go back
(07:36):
and read about him in high school, he was like
all state and football, basketball, and baseball. Could have played
any sport in college that he want, chose baseball and
I think it worked out.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Won the nineteen ninety home run derby at Wrigley Field
because he was the only guy smart enough to realize
how big the win factored in. And if the wind's
blowing in, you gotta hit it low, baby.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Low, and slow baby, turn on it Lin.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Drive bombs coming up this afternoon, uh Bo Duke.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
John Schneider will join us. He's got a show coming
up in Indy. Jeff Boggs will join us and call
a roulette this afternoon. Thanks Hammer. It is Kenne La
Casey on ninety three WIBC
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