[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign the following program is brought to.
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The Daily Gazette Company presents the parting Shots Podcast. Now here's your host, Daily Gazette Sports Editor Ken Shot. Thank you Scott Gezy, and welcome to the Parting Shots Podcast, available wherever you get your podcast. Subscribe today. Thanks for joining me. From the Parting Shots Podcast studio in Schenectady, New York. We have another great show for you. Bob Belber, the general manager of MVP arena, has had a few other names along the way, is going to stop by. He's going to talk about his behind the scenes memoir, Life with the Stars. That should be an interesting chat. I've known Bob for many years and our our children went to Mohonisson High School together. So it'll be great to talk to Bob about his experiences running MVP arena and some other interesting experiences. We'll ask him about maybe drinking tequila with Willie Nelson back in the day, but we'll talk about that. Ken Fag of Awful Announcing will join me. We'll talk a lot of media sports topics, including the main one I'm going to ask him about is the Major League Baseball ESPN divorce or maybe not divorce. Some interesting comments by Carl Ravitch on a Monday conference call. He believes that they're going to work things out with mlb, but we'll get Ken's opinion on that plus some other media topics as well. And then Mike Schaefer, the soon to be retiring head coach of the Cornell men's ice hockey team, will join me. We'll talk about winning his seventh ECAC hockey tournament title on Saturday in Lake Placid against Clarkson. That was his second in a row and a bit of symmetry for him. He won his his first two years as head coach at Cornell in 1996 and 97 won the title when he closes out his ECAC hockey portion of his coaching career with back to back ECAC hockey title is the first team to do so since Union when they won three straight and from 2012 to 2014. So speaking of college hockey, I might as well give you my thoughts on the NCAA Men's Hockey tournament, which will get underway Thursday. Cornell is playing Michigan State, the number two seed in the tournament. They'll be playing in Toledo, Ohio on Thursday. I'll give you my predictions of the semifinal and regional semifinals as well as the regional finals and we'll see who goes to the Frozen Four in St. Louis in a couple of weeks.
April 10 through April 12 will be the Frozen Four at the Enterprise center, the home of the St. Louis Blues. So my bracket looks like this. Let's start with the Toledo region where Cornell will be playing. And I hate to say it, Cornell fans, I think Michigan State's going to beat the Big Red and that'll be it for Mike Schaefer. And in the other semifinal between Boston and U and Ohio State, I'm going with Ohio State and I'm going with Michigan State to advance to the Frozen Four.
The other Thursday semifinals, that'll be the regional in Fargo, North Dakota, where Western Michigan will take on Minnesota State. And I got Western Mich. Advancing. They had a nice double overtime win in the Denver in the NCHC championship game on Saturday. And then the other semifinal out in Fargo is Minnesota against UMass, a de facto home game for Minnesota. Although the North Dakota fans, even though they're no longer playing the same conference, you know that they had been years ago in the wcha. I think there's still a lot of hatred for Minnesota and the Golden Gophers, but Minnesota wins that game. But I'm going with Western Michigan to take down Minnesota in the regional final.
The Friday semifinals will start with the Manchester Regional where Boston College been sitting around for a couple weeks after they got ousted in the Hockey east quarterfinals. They'll be taking on Bentley. And of course, if you know Bentley, that's Dan Rubin, who covers Stacy Hockey vs. USCHO.com also does the play by play on radio for Bentley so he'll get a chance to call and NCAA tournament game. Great for Dan to do that. But I tell you, Dan, B.C. is going to beat Bentley on Friday, I think, although a lot of people are probably hoping for an upset by Bentley. And then defending champion Denver takes on Providence and former Union men's head hockey coach Nate Lehman and former Union player Joel Beall, who was also assistant coach at Union. He's an assistant coach at Providence. I have Denver winning that game and then the regional final there. I got BC heading to the Frozen Four. And then Friday's other semifinals down on Allentown, Pennsylvania, where Ben Barr and the Main Black Bears, the hockey tournament champions, will be taking on Penn State. Sort of a home game for the Nittany Lions being in Allentown, a couple hours away from State College, but I think the Maniacs will make a strong presence down there at the PPL center in Allentown. Maine's going to beat Penn State. And then the other semifinals, a battle of the Nutmeg State between UConn and Quinnipiac.
Quinnipiac.
I can't figure this team out. They've won their fifth straight ECS Yaqui regular season tournament. Regular season title.
You know how many tournament titles they won during that stretch? Zip. None. Zero. That's truly amazing that they cannot get to Lake Placid and cannot win up there. That's just astounding. Although, as I said, say, for the last four years have been in Lake Placid. The COVID year in 20, 20, 21, they played at campus sites and Quinnipiac hosted the ECA's hockey tournament championship game and lost in overtime to St. Lawrence. So you got to wonder what, what goes through Quinnipiac's mind when it gets through the postseason meeting? Did they just not care? I mean, I, I don't think so, but you gotta wonder. It's just they felt in the years they've been in the ECAC hockey, they've won just one tournament town that came in 2016. So. But in this nutmeg battle in between these Connecticut schools, I'm going with UConn and then it'll be a Hockey east rematch there and I'm going with maine to beat UConn in the regional final. So my final, my Frozen Four will be BC against Western Michigan and Maine against Michigan State. So it's a sort of a New England flavor versus a Michigan flavor. That'll be a lot of fun in a couple weeks in St. Louis, Missouri. So we'll see. Of course, my predictions, I've been known to be wrong. That's why I don't gamble. That's why I don't. I don't like to lose my money. So we'll see what happens there. Of course, everything. The puck drops on the NCAA men's hockey tour on Thursday. I'll be watching a lot of that as well. So that'll be a lot of fun. So coming up, we're going to talk to Bob Belver, the general manager of MVP Arena. We'll talk about his behind the scenes memoir, Life with the Stars, next here on the Parting Shots podcast.
Hi, I'm Stan.
[00:07:27] Speaker D: And I'm Shen.
[00:07:28] Speaker E: And each week we bring you the Stan and Shen Show. And each week we talk about fun things through our travels throughout the capital region. We touch on food, we touch on news, try to touch heavily on good news. And Shen's always available with hot takes. Yeah.
[00:07:45] Speaker D: So if you could follow along and listen to us every week on DailyGazette.com or on all major streaming platform, we'd love to have you join us. Hi, this is Matt Dubre, the play by play voice of Union College. Hockey. You're listening to the Parting Shots podcast with Daily Gazette sports editor Ken Shot.
[00:08:05] Speaker C: Welcome back to the podcast. My next guest has been associated with the MVP arena for a long time. I've known this man, of course. He's a neighbor of mine in Rotterdam, New York, and our kids went to Mohanneson High School together. And he's written a memoir about his life in the business of MVP arena and dealing with celebrities is called Life with the Stars. I'm bringing up our general manager of MVP Arena, Bob Bellwerd. Bob, welcome to the podcast. How are things going?
[00:08:32] Speaker E: Very good, Ken. Thanks for inviting me to come on.
It's been quite a ride.
[00:08:37] Speaker C: I appreciate that. What inspired you to write this book?
[00:08:41] Speaker E: You know, every time I had been out socially at receptions or, or, you know, at neighborhood parties or whatever it might be, you always hear from people saying that they went to a concert, they enjoyed the show, but they will always ask what happens backstage? You know, what, what is, what have you had in the way of an experience with the artist? And when I start telling about some of the crazy and wacky stories that I've, you know, had, whether it be, you know, being on Willie Nelson's bus and, and, you know, having a bottle of Jose Cuervo sent to you or tossed to you and, you know, drinking out of the bottle with them and, and, or whether it's Michael Buble and playing ping pong in the backstage area and getting your ass kicked.
You know, he's, by the way, he's a very good table tennis player.
But there's so many stories that I've had over the years and, and everybody would say to me, you should, you should rent a book someday. And so during COVID unfortunately, we, you know, we all had more time on our hands. And so I started, started writing it then. And it took me a good three years to put everything in the way I wanted it with the right, you know, look backs and so forth. And I say look back, and I think that's important because it's not just stories about backstage encounters with artists. It's also, I shared some stories, and these are crazy stories of growing up in Montauk as a son of a commercial fisherman. And so my father had a trawler and we used to tow nets. And, you know, there were some crazy times. In 1965, I was only 8 years old, and we had a Russian submarine come up right next to us just off the Montauk Point. Wow. On Long Island. It was about maybe a couple of miles off the Point right in US Waters between Montauk and Block Island. And Person, there was a sailor that came down the ladder of, you know, where the turret is and had a big red star on it. And he came. Came down the ladder and he went to what was a cannon on the top of the deck in the. On the bow of the submarine. And this. This cannon swung to the right and it was. It was right on us. And my father said, come up here and stand by me and make sure that they know that it's just you and me on the boat. And he's on the radio. Coast Guard. Coast Guard.
And then about maybe 10 minutes later, the cannon swung back to the front of the bow. Guy went up the ladder, and then the submarine submerged.
And so we went in right after that. He didn't want to take any chances of them changing their mind, so we went back into shore, went to the Coast Guard station, and sure enough, the guys in the Coast Guard station knew that the submarine was there, and they were going back and forth between international waters and US Waters. And by the time a navy destroyer would go out there, they'd be back into international waters.
[00:11:53] Speaker C: It sounds like the plot of the Russians Are Coming. The Russians Are Coming. That movie came out in 1967. 68.
[00:12:00] Speaker E: Very similar. Yeah, very similar to that.
[00:12:03] Speaker C: Only that was more of a. Yeah, that was more of a comedy than what you went through.
[00:12:06] Speaker E: No. Yeah, this was not funny. This was scary as could be. But there were other encounters, too, that I had, you know, with the Rolling Stones. You know, they spent a lot of time in Montauk. They love Montauk. And they were renting a cottage in ditch plains about two years later, in 67, I think it was. And I'm on the boat again, and there's, you know, there's a beach called Ditch Plains, where. Where they used to hang out, and there's a deep trough. Trough of water right next to the beach where trawlers would tow the nets. And there were a lot of fish in there, but it was only less than a football field away from the sand. It was that close. And so 5:30 in the morning, we're towing the nets, and my father says, take these binoculars and look up on the beach. So I look up on the beach through the binoculars, and there's like seven people up on the beach, guys and girls naked as jaybirds. And. And he said, take a good look at the guy on the left. And so I'm looking, and sure enough, it's Mick Jagger.
[00:13:12] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:13:12] Speaker E: You can. You. You Know, the face, it's him. And. And then one of the guys actually saw how close we were to, you know, to the beach and so forth. Must have thought we were trying to take pictures or something, because he came out to the water's edge and started throwing rocks at us.
[00:13:28] Speaker C: Oh, geez.
[00:13:30] Speaker E: In the buff.
[00:13:31] Speaker C: Oh, God, that's crazy.
[00:13:34] Speaker E: And so dial. And dial it forward, Ken, to 2005. Here I am running, running an arena as a GM. I'm in the dressing room with the Rolling Stones and Mick Jagger and the mayor. Mayor Jennings. Mayor Jennings gave me the keys to the city that night. And we're getting ready for a photograph. And I looked down at. I'm standing right next to Mick Jagger. And I said, mick, you're not going to remember this, probably, but I started talking about some of these stories that I had encounters with the band earlier in my youth. And he looks up at me and he says, yeah, you're right, I don't remember.
Of course, back in those days, in the late 60s, probably some serious drugs.
[00:14:18] Speaker C: Yeah, I would say so. But what got you involved?
[00:14:24] Speaker B: What led you to your career like this?
[00:14:27] Speaker C: What were your influences? Why did you decide this kind of career?
[00:14:31] Speaker E: You know, that's a really good question. So I actually was out west working in an advertising agency. I spent six years. Well, I went from Colorado Springs to Bakersfield, California, to Santa Rosa, California. And then I opened a agency in Salt Lake City for this company. And by doing that, they gave me the opportunity, if and when I wanted to leave after two years of being there, that I could sell 50 of it, which I, you know, was given ownership of. And. And so we had our first son out there, my. My first wife and I. And so we decided that we wanted to move east. So they honored their. Their contract with me. I sold my half of the agency, actually, ironically, to my attorney and my accountant. They both. Both bought it together.
And I moved east. And I had looked at Hartford and I had looked at Albany.
We were both from Long island. And, you know, we didn't want to go on Long island, but we wanted to be close enough to be able to drive out and see the families.
So we picked Albany, and I started an agency in Albany, had a number of clients. And I got to meet Joe Fuchsia, who owned the Colony Coliseum at the time in Latham. And I started to do advertising and marketing for him. And at one point, he made me an offer that was incredible. And I decided, you know, because when you own your own business, there are good times and there are Bad times. And so if, you know, if you're not bringing enough money in, you make sure your employees get paid. But sometimes it's a little bit rougher on the owner. So I decided, you know, I'll take this offer and see where it goes. I didn't know much about the entertainment business, but I was real good at marketing and communications and, and he said, I'll teach all the rest. And you know what he did. And I learned everything on the concert side and so forth from Joe. And within 24 months I was buying 55 shows a summer and I was booking all the shows at the Colony Coliseum and I spent 10 years there as the GM before I moved over to be the marketing director here in, in 1994.
And, and I only did that here, I started here as a marketing director because the company that I started working for, which I, which ironically is the same company I'm working for now, SMG, at that time in 1994, they only had 21 accounts. But Pat lynch, who was the GM here at the time, who hired me, said, you know, this company's growing leaps and bounds and you're going to be a GM before you know it and you should take this job because this company is really going to be a career builder for you. So I decided, let's take a shot. So I came in and I served as a director of marketing here and they liked the corporate office, liked what I did so much that I actually, Pat lynch went to LA and the guy in LA went to Mobile, Alabama and the GM and Mobile came to Albany. And so that three way swap of GMs had to have a tremendous amount of PR and marketing materials had to be produced and everything else. And I produced all of that for the corporate office out of, you know, here in Albany.
And about a year and a half later the GM that came in from all from Alabama was caught doing some things that I won't get into.
[00:18:16] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:18:17] Speaker E: But he was terminated. And Mike Breslin went to my company and said we want to be able to interview Bob Belver and, and see if he might be a good guy for the job. And so I credit my opportunity to Mike Breslin because he was the one who really made that happen.
[00:18:36] Speaker C: All right, tell me the story about Willie Nelson and the Tequila.
[00:18:42] Speaker E: So Willie Nelson played the Starlight Music theater in the mid-80s. This was right around 86, 87 somewhere in there.
And so I had asked his manager Daryl at the time if there was any chance that Willie might sign a just an 8 by 10 photo, you know, because I.
I had. Had Sammy Davis sign one. I. You know, I had all kinds of people that were performing back then sign them.
And he said, willie doesn't sign them even. He didn't sign autographs. So I said, okay, no problem. And so Willie finished the show, and I get a call from backstage, and it's Darryl. And he says, willie wants to see you on the bus. And I'm thinking, oh, boy. What. You know, what's wrong, right? So I knock on the door, go up on the bus. He's sitting at the kitchen table in the bus, facing the bus driver, and there's a bottle of Jose Cuervo Gold on the table. He says, come on. Come on and sit down, son. I said, okay. So I sat down, and he takes a swig out of the bottle, puts it down on the table and passes it over.
Have a drink. And so what are you gonna do? Say no to Willie? No.
[00:19:59] Speaker A: Did he.
[00:19:59] Speaker B: Did he offer you a doobie?
[00:20:01] Speaker E: No, no, he didn't do that. But there was plenty going on in the back of the box.
[00:20:05] Speaker C: Yeah, I imagine. Yeah.
[00:20:07] Speaker E: But the.
The. Great. And. And we talked. The greatest thing is we just talked. He just wanted to get to know me. And. And it was. It was almost like. I feel like he might have been asked or maybe they might have said something about me asking about signing a photo. And, you know, when he found out probably that, you know, they. They said that he doesn't sign, that he must have. Something must have clicked in him and to say, well, let's bring him on over and he can meet me. And it was, though, it was the nicest thing to do for him because, you know, I think I always wanted to meet him. And we sat and we talked for a good hour, and, you know, six or seven swigs in that bottle later.
[00:20:54] Speaker C: You're doing a duet with him at that point, right?
[00:20:56] Speaker E: Yeah, we were doing a duet. All right. Yeah. I think I was slower in my words, much quicker than him, so.
[00:21:02] Speaker C: All the girls I loved before.
Oh, man.
[00:21:07] Speaker E: But. But, you know, I tell you what, Ken, that the stories that are in this book are going to make people's ribs hurt from laughing so loud.
It makes me. When I go back and I read it again, it makes me laugh just as hard. And. And so there's a couple of things that I share in the book about when I was the director of booking for the U.S. so I was the GM all this time for. For, you know, 30 years. But in the early 2000s, while I was GM here. The corporate office wanted me to move to Philadelphia, and they wanted me to be the director of booking for the US And I had young kids, you know, that were in sports and so forth, and I. I really didn't want to do that to them. I didn't want to uproot them. So I said to the president of the company, you know, I. I can do this from Albany if you'll allow me to do it from here. I'd be happy to, you know, help her out the tours and do it from here. And. And he wanted me to do it because I had had a tremendous success in getting some of the biggest shows and concerts, you know, back in the 90s, late 90s, with, you know, two Backstreet Boys sellouts, two N Sync sellouts, two Britney Spears sellouts. I was getting shows left and right, whereas many of the other arenas were not getting many shows. And much of that is attributed to my relationships that I built from the old Starlight days with people like Rob Light, who is now the managing partner of Creative Artists Agency, the biggest agency in the world. And so Rob, at the time when I was at the Starlight, he was what. What was considered then a line agent. He represented a certain number of acts. And so when you would buy from the agent, he'd do all the paperwork and contracts and get them out to you and so forth, and he would represent the interest of the artists. And so Rob grew up on the agency side of the business, became the president of CAA and now the managing partner. And we kept a tremendous relationship and friendship. And in the late 90s, he and I were constantly talking and, you know, if it was Shania Twain going out or whoever it was, I was getting dates for Albany left and right because of these relationships. And the president of the company knew it. And so he said, you know, come on down to Philly. So my response to him was, let me do it from here. I have the relationships. I can do it from here. And so I spent better part of five to six years as the director of booking, and I was routing, you know, all kinds of tours. And one of the things in the books, this is the best thing that I've ever done in my career. And. And I'll share this with you. And it wasn't in Albany. It actually took place in San Antonio, Texas. And it was while, as I was the director of booking in the U.S. and, and I. I routed 19 stops, 19 tour stops for the Vince Gill and Amy Grant Christmas show.
And Albany actually had a date that year, and so did, you know, many, many other cities. But I kind of felt at that time that I wanted to help San Antonio because we had just gone into Iraq, and there wasn't even any video or media video coming out of Iraq yet. But there was a lot of people on edge. And so in San Antonio, which is a big military town, the people going to the Vince Gillen Amy Grant Christmas show were no doubt, you know, in a situation where many of their husbands and wives were serving over in Iraq. And so I contacted the US army, and I got a hold of the general that oversees the broadcast, broadcast military network. And I told them, I want to try to connect the families live from the show with their loved ones in Iraq. And the general said, son, I hope you've got a big budget, because something like that, you'd have to pay for satellite time. And you're talking about a lot of satellite time.
So I said, well, I don't have a budget. I don't have anything. But I think that this would be really inspiring for the military to be able to see that kind of interaction take place. And so he agreed, but he said, you know, I don't. I don't put much stock in it. So he gave me the senior vice president of the satellite company. So I reached out, spoke to him, told him what I had in mind, and he turns around and says, let me call you back in 30 minutes. Well, about 15 minutes later, my phone rings, and he says, we're in. Cost me nothing. Wow. And so on the night of the show in San Antonio, Vince Gillen, Emmy Grant put on a show in the beginning, first half that was incredible. And then the lights came up full, and Amy Grant went to the front of the stage, and she. She reached out or. Or looked out at everybody, and she said, I don't want you to go anywhere. I have something special.
And so she calls up seven ladies onto the stage. There were seven bar stools, and. And they sat in the barstools facing out. And the kids were on the stage sitting in front of them, facing out.
And so Amy goes to the first lady and. And ask her name, and she's. And then she says, if you could have anything in the world for the holidays, because keep in mind, this was mid December Christmas show.
What would you want? And with that, the. The wife and mother started to tear up, and she said, I wish I had my husband home. And with that, the whole back of the stage lit up from edge to edge with huge video screen, seven guys sitting in chairs in front 400 uniform military personnel behind him at 4:30 in the morning, Iraq time.
[00:26:58] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:26:58] Speaker E: And. And they zoomed in on her husband and he said, hi, honey. Oh my God. Can I. I gotta tell you, I was in tears. I mean, literally, I was in tears. And I looked up and down every row, every seat, every single person in that arena was in tears.
Yeah, that's the most incredible thing.
[00:27:18] Speaker C: That is a. That's. That's an incredible, incredible story.
[00:27:22] Speaker E: I mean, so, yeah, so what happened, the reason that I got this all to happen was because from the start of the concert, through the interaction, which took about 40 minutes, and through the rest of the concert, which, the second half of the show, the entire concert and interaction was broadcast live to 118 military bases around the entire world.
And. And so that's why the general and army was into it. And that's why he gave me the name for the satellite guy and so forth. So. And we did this. I did this myself. I didn't do it. I didn't have any help with corporate.
Corporate didn't even believe that I'd ever get it done. But I did it not because I wanted anybody to know that I did it. And the company never put out anything to say that it was done. It wasn't anything for recognition. It was because the country was on edge. We just went into Iraq and we wanted. I wanted to do something that was meaningful. And so two weeks after the tour got finished, I got a box delivered to me, which was a framed gold record from Amy Grant with a note that said that what we did in San Antonio together was the best thing that Vince Gill and Amy Grant have done in their career.
[00:28:41] Speaker C: Wow. That's amazing. Truly amazing. Yeah.
[00:28:44] Speaker E: So that's all in the book. And, you know, there's a lot of other stuff in the book, too.
[00:28:48] Speaker C: I got. Obviously, I got to talk to you about sports here. I mean, there's been a number of great sporting events. Hockey, there's, you know, there was one frozen four when you were there, and 2000 with 2001. 2001, you're with Boston College in North Dakota in that rematch from the 2000 frozen four in Providence. Many basketball tournaments, including what we witnessed last year with the Albany regionals with South Carolina and Iowa coming out of that.
What's it like trying to bid for these events? And I know next year you'll have the hockey regional back at MVP Arena. So what's it like trying to bid for these and getting these events?
[00:29:31] Speaker E: Well, you know, it's a passion that we, we, and my staff and I have, and the LLC Sports foundation, you know, our community, we all bid on it together, but it's something that we have a strong passion for. I think bringing NCAA sports into Albany is not only a great economic impact for businesses and for, you know, stimulating the economy, but I think it's a pride thing. I think that when you bring in like last year's NCAA women's basketball with Caitlin Clark in Iowa and setting a new record for largest number of broadcast viewers of any female sports event ever, when, when they beat LSU in the, in the regional championship and, and having four days of sold out 14,000 people per day attendance, there's a, there's a feeling of pride there in your market, in your staff, you know, in your building.
And, and the same thing goes back to what you were talking about. There was an era from 2001 through 2003, which was an incredible time period for sports in Albany, to have the frozen four here in 2001 and then follow that with the national wrestling Championship in 2002, where Kel Sanderson remained undefeated and won the championship here in Albany, which later was a centerfold in Sports Illustrated. And then in 2003, the very next year, we had the NCAA Regional Basketball with Carmela Anthony, and Syracuse went on to win the national championship down in New Orleans. And so those three years were just incredible.
But by the time 2003 was over, the building started to get tired and it needed to have a reinvestment and it needed to have some upgrades and so forth. And to the credit of Dan McCoy, the county executive, as well as the Albany County Legislature, they put money into the building in, you know, in the 2015, 16, 17, 18, in that late teens, 2,000 teens, they reinvested back into the building and that's what got the NCAA interest in coming back. They had told us what the downfalls were after the 2003 regional.
And there are still some things that are challenges that we have to address in going forward, the biggest of which is the NCAA feels that we really need more hotels and more full service hotels in downtown.
And maybe with the soccer stadium project that is being proposed, and I think there might be another hotel being envisioned for downtown that could really make a difference in how the NCAA will look at our market. Because right now they feel like we're deficient on hotels. And that's not to take anything away from our hotel partners that have been there for us each and every year that we've asked them to be that they've been Terrific. It's just that the number of teams that are, that are now involved in these NCAA events and their fans and the number of officials and sponsors and broadcast hotel room requirements, that's all elevated over the years. So.
But yeah, we love hosting these events, frankly. We're going to have a, one of the biggest events could be as big, if not bigger than last year's NCAA event, which is going to take place this year, August 1st through the 3rd. We're going to have the World Championship of the CrossFit Games. And this building is going to have 14,000 people in it for each of three days.
And it's going to be broadcast to I think 110 countries and about 75 to 80% of the people that are coming to the event are going to be coming from other countries, not just from other places in the US Wow.
[00:33:38] Speaker C: Longest chapter in your book, dealing with Antonio Brown and that whole opening Empire arena football situation.
How much of a nightmare was it to deal with him?
[00:33:51] Speaker E: Well, that's pretty good word, nightmare. I, I would say that that's a pretty appropriate word.
Having said that, I will, I will tell you that there are times where I felt like he was a nice guy and he was actually nice to talk to and then there were times where he wasn't and you know, where it would almost be like a, almost a bipolar thing where, you know, some days you would catch him where he was great, the other, other days it would be completely different. And I'm not blaming that on any particular reason. But you know, the stories that were out in the media, everybody knows what they were with, you know, getting thrown out of restaurants or hotels or, or you know, or his team being, you know, in a bad situation because of non payment or what have you.
And I'm not going to judge anybody on that. But you know, when, when you're in a situation where you've got an office right down the hall from us, you know, they share space here in the arena. When he was here and at 9 o'clock in the morning my offices were filling up with marijuana smoke.
[00:34:58] Speaker C: Oh geez.
[00:34:59] Speaker E: They were in their offices smoking and you know, I had to have some people go home. They couldn't take it anymore. And you know, so having those discussions with him, you know, he was good about it. He said he'll go out, they'll go outside and do whatever they're doing instead of making it be inside. But you know, at, at the end of this whole thing when, when the field system and, and all of the stuff that was owned by him and, or his trust, you know, that had to be taken out of the building. He had sold the field system to a guy down in Florida. And I had gotten an email from the guy saying that he just wired the money, he just paid the money, he had a contract signed by, you know, the trust.
And, and then the same day I got that email where the purchaser was saying he wanted to bring a truck in and take the field system. That same day, another representative from Antonio's organization was at the building and was trying to take the field system out.
And, and so we couldn't let them take the field system out because it had been sold and we had proof that it had been sold so long and short of it. And I don't know how where I came up with this, but I said to him, we're not going to let anybody take this field system out, whether it's you or whether it's the guy that bought it from Florida, unless I get a court order or I have a sheriff that directs us to release it because of them determining the rifle owner.
And so it ended up being a situation where the Florida purchaser reached out to, I think, Sheriff Apple. And because I told him the same thing and he sent them all the paperwork and the proof of the wire going into their account and Sheriff Apple brought a deputy sheriff down and directed us to let him take the stuff out.
But it was, it was nasty. And you know, towards the end there, there was a move that was, you know, that took place, which was really a blackmail move.
And, and I won't get into it. You know, I think it's, it's in the book, but I actually had to contact the FBI because it was that bad. And, you know, fortunately they didn't have to go and, you know, visit Antonio or, you know, do anything further, but it was pretty close.
[00:37:34] Speaker C: Wow. Well, it's an amazing life you've had in this business. Life with the Stars will soon be available for purchase. And Bob's going to have a lunch part launch party, not lunch launch party and book signing from 3 to 5pm on Saturday, April. April 12th at MVP Arena. Bob, appreciate the visit. We always have great things to talk about every time we see each other. So looking forward to some hockey next year at MVP arena. And hopefully one of these days we'll get to actually a concert one of these days down there.
[00:38:02] Speaker E: That's great, Ken. Well, thanks for the opportunity to go on. And remember, if people go to lifewiththestars.com they can buy the book. They can get more highlights about what's in the book before they buy it. But that's the best way to get it because there's, there's no books in retail stores yet. That's probably not going to happen until May or June. But if they buy the book now and they bring it to the firewalls game on April 12 between three and five, they don't have to necessarily go to the game if they want to, that's great. But if they bring the book down, I'll be happy to sign it for.
[00:38:36] Speaker C: All right, Bob, Appreciate a few minutes and good luck with it and maybe till it'll be a New York Times bestseller.
[00:38:41] Speaker E: Well, let's hope it's going to going to be a story of the Daily News on Sunday.
[00:38:44] Speaker C: Oh, good. That's great. But I appreciate it. Thanks again.
[00:38:47] Speaker E: All right, take care.
[00:38:49] Speaker C: That's Bob Belber. Coming up, Ken Fang of Awful announcing. We'll talk some sports media. You're talking, you're listening to the Parting Shots podcast.
[00:39:12] Speaker F: How can you measure the value of education based athletics? Well, the value is in what makes it invaluable. That's because school sports aren't just about winning. They're about learning and growing. School sports aren't just about gaining trophies and accolades. They're about learning life lessons, bringing a whole community together, developing character and integrity, having coaches who mentor you and teammates who become lifelong friends. And you can't put a price on any of that. That's what makes education based athletics invaluable.
Of course, when you participate in school sports, you want to win and become a better athlete, but the purpose is so much greater, becoming a better person. Support your local school sports programs and if you have a student, encourage them to get involved.
[00:40:03] Speaker C: This message presented by NISFA and the New York State Athletic Administrators Association.
[00:40:13] Speaker B: Hi, this is Union men's hockey alum Charlie Moxam. You're listening to the Parting Shots podcast.
[00:40:19] Speaker E: With Daily Gazette sports editor Ken Shot.
[00:40:23] Speaker C: Welcome back to the podcast and we always like to have our next guest on to talk about sports media, it's Ken Fang from Awful Announcing. Ken, how are things going?
[00:40:30] Speaker D: Good, Ken, how are you?
[00:40:31] Speaker C: Not too bad. Yeah, a lot of great stuff going on. The NCAA tournament started, Major League baseball season, some the college hockey seasons, NCAA tournament time for the men. The women just completed. So we're in a crazy time here in March.
[00:40:48] Speaker D: Oh, I love it. It's, it's probably to me is the second best sports month of the year the other October for baseball. But I'M loving this part and all the overlap is just absolutely wonderful. The college sports, baseball coming in, the masters is coming in very shortly. So it just shows that we're very. That warmer weather is on the way.
[00:41:09] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, let's start with Major League Baseball. As you said, the season opens for real on Thursday and we know we had the two games out in Tokyo between the Dodgers and the Cubs, but it gets going for real on Thursday. And the big news happened a couple weeks ago when it was announced that ESPN and Major League Baseball will be parting ways at the end of the season. ESPN basically has reduced its baseball coverage. Sunday night games and the baseball tonight's just once a week. On Sundays there's really no games during the week anymore. Like when they first started back, he had that Wednesday night doubleheader and it was a lot of fun. But they had a conference call Monday to talk about Sunday night Baseball and start the season. Carl Roberts, who's a play by play guy for ESPN's Sunday like, says he's just optimistic because the platform the ESPN is and will be flagship with flagship. When you think about the entities that are going to be on that flagship, I don't want to say requires, but my, my goodness, if you're a sports variant, you're going to want to have baseball. But I mean ESPN has basically just shoved baseball, I mean to the side. And it's either football and NBA that dominate or college football that dominates. What happen happened to this relationship?
[00:42:25] Speaker D: Yeah, it's a great question.
I think also you have to look at the commissioners, whether it's gone from Bud Selig, who and also Peter Ubroff, who basically signed that deal back in 1989 to put baseball on four days a week with ESPN. It was Sunday night, it was Tuesday night, Wednesday night and Friday night. So you had baseball four nights a week for espn. It was a great relationship. They since reduced it, as you mentioned, all the way down to the fact they only have Sunday night baseball now. And we remember, the old school fans remember that they used to have baseball tonight seven nights a week. And now it's just as you mentioned, just one night a week, just as a pregame show to Sunday night baseball.
It's almost to the pact where we all remember when we as hockey fans used to complain about ESPN's treatment of the NHL until they signed it back again. So I think it's this, it's where the relationship is right now, where ESPN is shoveling it and not really making it a priority.
I think if ESPN had Signed like they have the wild card games, the first round. But had they gotten into more rounds, I think they would have prioritized baseball more. But they allowed their share of the playoffs go to tbs. They don't have the World Series. They don't have a conference. They don't have a National League Championship Series or the American League Championship Series or even the World Series. So that's a big. That that's really missing from ESPN's arsenal of baseball, all going back to 1989. And I think now it's to the point where they feel that they're paying way too much. And I agree that with Carl Rabbit. I think we'll see baseball still on espn, but I think on a reduced, even in a more reduced manner, if you can believe it or not.
[00:44:13] Speaker C: Wow. I mean, will it be a Sunday night package or will be spread out through the week?
[00:44:20] Speaker D: I think it'll still be a Sunday night package. I think instead of every week, I think they'll just probably have selected weeks and they'll still continue to continue to have the Home Run Derby because that's a big event for them. It's a temple event. Ever since the 1980s, ESPN has carried it and I think that's the two events. And I think they'll still probably have the wild card somehow in some capacity. But I think ESPN is just. They don't feel that they're getting the value. They're paying $500 million for 26 regular season games. And I really fault Jimmy Pitaro for overvaluing it, to be honest with you.
They're seeing Apple TV coming in with paying $8 million for 26 weeks for the same amount of games. So I think ESPN feels that they're not getting the value for. For it. And I do believe that they'll, they'll eventually stay on, but again in a reduced capacity.
[00:45:07] Speaker C: I mean, how important is it maybe to get back to. You know, I remember Baseball Tonight was on a 10, 10, 10 to 10, 10 to 11 before sports center and then on after Sports Center. Can we get to back to like some of that? I mean, maybe not two shows a night, but at least one maybe to see what. Because I think that's, that's really, I think what hurt ESPN just doing away with that.
[00:45:33] Speaker D: Yeah, I agree with that. And the thing is, is that also too people are also watching the highlights on their cell phones. That also has hurt ESPN and the immediacy of Baseball Tonight. But even if they don't do a Baseball Tonight like the old school, at least you have a discussion show, have Jeff Pass, Jeff Passon, who's there, the great insider that they have even have Carl Ravich on or Tim Kirchen. You can even bring in Scott Van Pelta host one night a week because he's a big baseball fan. So I agree with you. They need to have some type of baseball discussion. They basically seeded that all to make MLB Network and MLB Tonight. But the problem is that MLB Network isn't on as many homes as espn. So you need that type of programming and I would love to see that come back. But again, Jimmy Pitaro has decided to deprioritize baseball in a way to the fact that it's almost like the NHL. It's an afterthought. And you don't hate to see that for the national pastime.
[00:46:34] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean what happens if they don't come to an agreement? What happens to Sunday night baseball? Who takes over that package?
[00:46:41] Speaker D: Well, the speculation that NBC is interested interested in it. They would probably have it on Peacock though they wouldn't have it on terrestrial television, regular television. They would probably have selected games as just like as I mentioned, ESPN will probably have.
There's also talk that maybe TBS would take it over. But I think it's right now NBC is in the. If ESPN decides not to take it over, I think espn, NBC is a leader in the clubhouse with that. Whether they would take a 26 week package all on television or just have a mixture of 13 games on TV and 13 games on Peacock, we'll still have to wait and see. But of course NBC has committed some Sunday night games to some Sunday nights to the NBA following football. So we'll see how they manage to balance that. But seeing year long with NBC and sports on Sunday nights, I don't think that's a bad thing.
[00:47:35] Speaker C: Yeah, we'll see what happens. Could be an interesting development as we go on throughout this this year, of course the NCAA men's basketball tournament going on right now and of course women as well.
[00:47:45] Speaker B: But.
[00:47:45] Speaker C: But the men's tournament had a. Really has had a somber feel to it at the start of this tournament because Greg Gumbel is no longer with us. He passed away after Christmas this past year. Passed away because of cancer. I know he missed last year's tournament but I think his loss is felt now because he's no longer with us. I mean I think CBS did a great job both before the selection show and then with Ernie Johnson prior to the start of the tournament on last Thursday. The tributes they had to Greg and That was just, it's, it's just hearing for whatever Buddy says just seemed like very emotional time for these broadcasters.
[00:48:27] Speaker D: Yeah. And the fact is, is that Greg was a guy that you knew was going to be there. I mean, he started in 1998 after he came back from, from NBC after he had gone there to host the NFL on NBC for four years after CBS lost the NFL. But he just seemed, that seemed to be his event.
I mean, he was, of course he called football for a while and then he gave that up in 2021, but he still remained on the NCAA tournament and it seemed like he was going to be there for as long as possible. But as you mentioned, he wasn't there last year. We all, he was at a family manner matter. But then after we found out that he had cancer and died of it this year late last year, things began to make sense. But you know, yeah, you feel that his presence is definitely missed because he was just a great host. He knew how to let Charles Broccoli and Kenny Smith go and let them go and give their, and go crazy if they have to and be silly. But that's fine because Greg knew what was good television and that's missed in this day and age. Ernie Johnson has that gravitas similar to Greg, but there aren't too many hosts that know when they have good television and just get out of the way and let their analysts go and give us great television. And Greg did a fantastic job at that.
[00:49:51] Speaker C: What is his legacy? I mean, obviously we know his brother Brian Gumbel has been a successful broadcaster both in sports and news. But, but I think, I mean, try to, I'm trying to be nice here, but I think Greg was more beloved than Brian.
[00:50:04] Speaker D: I think that's true. I think, I mean as much as I love Brian and he was more serious, Greg had the more had the sense of humor in the family, even appearing on Howard Stern every once in a while and also a big lover of the Rolling Stones, if you didn't know that. But it certainly has been documented and chronicled on CBS over the last few months regarding that. But Greg definitely had the sense of humor. He definitely was more beloved. I think you're right about that. Although Bryant was more into journalism and more serious. But Greg definitely was more the fun loving guy. And I think that that's what helped him. I think that's why what endeared him to viewers because viewers could sense what he was feeling with if he was, if he didn't like a segment or he felt the segment was getting a little too silly. He would just stop it. But he also, again, if he knew it was getting fun, he would just let it go. So he'd let it ride. So Greg was a guy that his legacy is going to be again, one of the first black men to host a major event. They also called the Super Bowl. He called two Super Bowls for cbs.
And of course old school people remember him, old school fans remember him and Chris Berman hosting Sports center on espn. So and of course New York Yankees fans will remember him calling the Yankees on MSG network and calling selected Knicks games there. But and he also has was part of the NBA on NBC legacy too. So he's got a great, he had a great career. And I don't think the fact that no one has said a bad word about him just goes to show how nice he was. And you know, I got to interview him a couple times, Ken, whether at an NFL on CBS media day or one time for my own podcast.
He was just great to talk to and he just seemed genuinely interested in you when he talked to you. And I think that's a gift that, you know, not everybody has. And he made you feel important and he made you feel like you were the most important person in the room when he talked to you. And I think that people will remember that.
[00:52:13] Speaker C: Well, speaking of the NCAA tournament, Yukon, two time defending champion got ousted on Sunday by Florid. And we saw the Dan Hurley interview after the game with CBS and he was emotional. He was also emotional walking off the court, which was caught on tape there and saying some not so nice things about the officiating of the game and telling Baylor, I hope you don't get by the officials. And then there was a threat by the UConn sports information director who is probably trying out for the Trump administration with this, trying to, you know, be strong arm into the guy who shot the video. But I mean, I didn't see much coverage of this on any of the studio shows there, CBS or tnt. True me.
Why wasn't this, why wasn't this brought up more? I mean, that's just, I think it was really uncalled for Hurley's actions.
[00:53:14] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean it's, it's one of those things with Dan Hurley. Either you like him or you don't. And of course I, I have a mixed feeling about him because he was coaching my alma mater, Universal Rhode island and did a great job with them before he went to UConn. So I'll always have special feelings about that. But you always talk about Dan Hurley's behavior on the sideline. Overbearing, yelling in your face.
He's emotional.
And of course, when you saw that interview with Tracy Wilson and the press conference afterwards, you feel if you just saw that, Ken, you're thinking, wow, there's a guy who cares about his players. He loves his players. He'll. He'll go to the back for them. But then when he does something like that, when he's yelling like that about the referees, and then the, the. The UConn's sports information director making threats like that, I. I'm surprised that I'm with you. I'm surprised that it hasn't gotten more coverage.
I was talking with this, with my podcast partner Stephen Nagishi yesterday on our live stream on YouTube. I know everybody has a live stream on YouTube. I don't.
[00:54:21] Speaker E: I don't.
[00:54:21] Speaker C: I don't yet.
[00:54:23] Speaker D: Maybe we'll get to one.
[00:54:25] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm waiting for the cameras to be putting. Wait for the cameras to put in my studio here at the office.
[00:54:30] Speaker D: Okay, well, we'll get to it.
[00:54:32] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:54:32] Speaker D: But it's so funny because we were talking about that. I said, you know, I've. I've dealt with the, um, people. And he said, I think there's going to get fired. I go, no, I know the UConn administration, they protect their own. And they're. And I said this. They are like the Kremlin. They protect their own and have their own fiefdom. And this guy, the Sid, is probably not going to get fired because, you know, they feel that they. UConn feels that they, they don't do anything wrong, and they, they feel that they're bigger than anything else over there. And you know what's interesting? The fandom is will support Dan Hurley, whatever he does, and they'll get a. Support the sports information director, too, so he's not going to lose his job. So I. You're right. They should have gotten a bigger story. This should have been a bigger, bigger story. But I think, in a sense, the media kind of protects Dan Hurley because when it comes time for interviews, he gives them to them. He's very cooperative.
[00:55:27] Speaker A: You'll.
[00:55:27] Speaker D: You'll notice. Remember the last year, during the run, the last two years, he was constantly on cbs. He was always on tbs. He's always cooperative. So I think, in a sense, the media likes him for that. But also, at the same time, you just got to realize that the sports information director's got to. And I give the UConn president credit for taking that video for taking all that stuff and kind of scrubbing his. Scrubbing the, you know, his behavior of the sports information director's behavior and tweet, taking that down to threatening the reporter. But still, you know, you, it's out there and you got to be careful in this day and age. And the sports information director, I don't think he's gonna get disciplined, but he should have been. He really should have been because of, you know, you can't make that type of behavior.
[00:56:14] Speaker C: Of course, we just had an incident here on Friday night with the Northville girls basketball coach pulling the hair of one of his players. And that's been just as to how it blew up the Friday night after the game. And just, I mean, I credit Northville High School for, you know, acting quickly the way they did. And that was just, that was just. Yeah, the story is still, still to be told because of. Their parents are pressing charges. So it's, it's, it's kind of a nutso. Yeah. So last time we talked, Ken, there was a deal in place for espn, Fox and Warner Brothers for a streaming deal.
It's dead now. What happened?
[00:56:56] Speaker D: You know, I think ESPN saw it and they just realized, because also there, as you meant, you made reference to it earlier, they're having their own standalone streaming product that's going to be launched later this year. So why compete against that? I'm not surprised that it died. ESPN makes a lot of grand, grandiose projects that they kill. And I wrote about it. Awful announcing how they've done that before, whether it's, remember ESPN the phone or ESPN3D. That comes in with a lot of hype. But I think at the time they saw that, you know, we're going to be competing with our own standalone product. Why should we be giving. Which we, which you're going to have, and we're going to charge people for it. And they would have charged a lot of money for this one to this, this what they call venue sports that was going to come off the ground. But, you know, it was going to be. It would have been cannibalizing their own product. And why should they be allowing Foxy part of this and why should they be allowing Warner Brothers Discovery of TNT Sports? Because ESPN wants to do this alone. So I'm not surprised that. I was surprised that they actually decided to do it with Fox and TNT Sports and Warner Brothers Discovery, which owns tnt. So I'm surprised that it lasted that long. I'm also surprised that the week before they even announced people who are going to run it staff.
They had almost the infrastructure in place. But I would have, I would have been interested to see if that actually had continued how they would have had this run in existence and co and run in place and also run side by side with their flagship product which is what they're, what the, what the project is called. I would have been interested to see how they would have run that and how they would have been tried to justify that cost. But I, I'm, I'm, I, I think they had to, they had to kill one of them. One of them would have had to die off. And I'm, I'm surprised that venue lasted that long going into, you know, that never got off the ground. But I'm surprised that they actually went that far with it with the S. With Fox and tnt.
[00:59:10] Speaker C: Yeah, well, obviously you mentioned ESPN is gonna have its own standalone Warner Brothers Discovery has Max. So it seems like Fox is the big loser out of them. What are they going to do?
[00:59:20] Speaker D: Well, they're trying to use to be which is their free service and they purchased, they're beginning to put more sports on that. If you remember, they put the super bowl there too. And actually I was really impressed how the clarity and there was no buffering as opposed to what Netflix had with their problems with the Tyson Paul fight. So I think you're going to see a lot more events going on to be, they're going to be that partner. They're putting a little bit more sports and shoveling more sports there as well. So I wouldn't be surprised to see that. And maybe perhaps there may be a little bit of a subscription portion where they put more Fox sports programming there. So look for that I don't think Fox is going to be totally going into streaming, but they're going to probably use to be a lot more.
[01:00:05] Speaker C: Yeah, well, we just got an announcement earlier this week that Bob Carpenter, the longtime play by play voice on Washington Nationals on television, see you later. He's going to retire at the end of the year. I mean how much did this catch everybody off guard?
[01:00:21] Speaker D: Yeah, you know, it's interesting because he was, he was there right from the beginning with Matson and the Washington Nationals. And you would have thought that he would have probably gone because now that Washington Nationals get their own rights and they negotiated a settlement with the Baltimore Orioles to have their own rights and now be able to sell their rights, you would think that he would have gone over with them, but he decided that not to do that. So Bob Carpenter, if you remember he was the Original host of College Game Day believe it or not with Lee Corso and Dino Cook back on espn. So before Tim Brando took over and Chris and Chris Fowler. But yeah, Bob Carpenter is a guy who's had a great long career. He's caught a lot of sports. Baseball has become his, his signature sport. Doing that on massive in the Washington Nationals and he's going to be missed. He's definitely, he's definitely become a homer on the Washington national broadcast if you ever get to watch that on MLB tv. But he's a guy who's been a pros pro going back to the 1980s and I'm sure the Washington national fans are going to miss it. Yeah, definitely a surprise. Kind of like when John Stone announced his, his retirement during the season last year with the Yankees. So interesting stuff to see and we're getting to see a lot of the baseball announcers that we have come accustomed to retiring and going, going bye bye.
[01:01:41] Speaker C: What do you think of the hiring of Dave Sins by the Yankees for the radio?
[01:01:44] Speaker D: I think it's a great move. Dave Sims, a guy I know, he did a great job with the Seattle Mariners. He lives in New York. Anyway, he lives in, he lives in the New York City area during the off season. So I think he decided that it was time for him to be moved closer.
These New York, these announcing local radio jobs don't come up very often and there was an opportunity for him to come back home and work with the Susan Waldman which I think will be a great team. And Dave's a professional. He's, he's fantastic. He just, he's done a great job with the Seattle Mariners calling them I think back since the early aughts. So I think he felt, you know, time to be back home in New York and be able to call the games. I think he'll do a fantastic job.
[01:02:27] Speaker C: Of course like me, he's a Philadelphia native and we were supposed to yes, we were scheduled to do an interview about a few weeks ago but some things got caught up. He had some meetings and we're trying to reschedule. We did have on last week the host of the postgame show on Yankees radio. Emmanuel Barbari is also the voice of the CNN's basketball team here. So we had a chance to talk with him about the role and what he's going to dealing with that. So he's looking forward to being the permanent post game host and he'll probably fill in occasionally when Dave takes some time off. So that'll be a lot of Fun. Let's wrap things up. You and I were, you know, posting back and forth Sunday afternoon watching the NCAA Women's Hockey championship game between Ohio State and Wisconsin and what a game it was. Ohio State was 18.9 seconds away from repeating as champions and there's a play that Ohio State player covered the puck in the crease with her glove. You can't do that. They did look at the video review to see if it was and referees called it. Penalty shot taken. Scored tied a game going overtime in Wisconsin, won in overtime. And I think and I gave a shout out to the play by play announcer Jason Ross Jr. And I'll admit I didn't even know who he was until I looked him up on, on X and he did a great job. He called the game great and laid out when he needed to lay out. And I thought he did a fantastic job.
[01:03:53] Speaker D: Yeah, he's a young kid. He started I think a couple years ago to be honest with you. And he's a guy from Detroit, Ken, who is probably has a great future in this business.
I saw him, he mentioned that he, he's been trying to get in and using social media, but he has, as you mentioned, he did a fantastic job calling hockey. I don't know how, what his history in college calling hockey is, but he did a fantastic job. He knew the nuances. He knew it wasn't someone who was a beginner. You could tell someone when someone hasn't called hockey. You can tell but it seems like Jason Ross seems to have done it well. But I gotta tell you, watching that game and I, I was watching it after you notified me saying hey, the game is on. So I, I turned on espnu. It was a fantastic game. But Mark Johnson, of course, if you know he was the part of the 1980 Men's Olympic Hockey team. He's coached the Wisconsin women's team for a very long time. Was also the coach of the U.S. women's Olympic hockey team in Vancouver in 2010 that won the silver medal. I love the fact that he said to his coach, his team right when they were doing the penalty, when it was ruled that it was they had the option for a penalty shot, he said who wants it? And Kirsten Sims said I'm going to do it, I'll take it. She did a fantastic job. Of course Ohio State says you mentioned and we were talking off the air both it was a legal penalty shot by going a little bit of a backwards and pack and using her hands to do a little, to do a Deke but hey, they're not going to call that. And she scored the goal and then she scored the winning goal, so. And of course she scored the winning goal two years ago, Ken. So Kristen Sims will never have to buy a drink in Wisconsin ever again.
She's a hero winning two championships in three years and she's, her name is going to be synonymous. Wisconsin may not win the men's hockey championship, but they're doing fans, they have a dynasty with eight championships in the women's game. And that was just a fantastic game to watch. As you mentioned, Jason Ross Jr. Did a great job. AJ Malesko, she knows the women's game inside out and a great analyst on ESPN as well. So a very well called game and a fun game to watch. You know, the announcers knew when to get out of the way and went to make to talk about the review. They were right on top of it. It was fun game to watch.
[01:06:18] Speaker C: Yeah. And of course I'll get the opportunity to see Wisconsin in October. They're going to be here at playing in the new Union hockey facility, Mohawk Harbor Event Center. Union's hosting the women's icebreaker. So I got to see Wisconsin next season. So I'm looking forward to that. It'll be a lot of fun bringing the national champs in.
[01:06:37] Speaker D: Oh yeah, absolutely. And you know, you got, as I mentioned, you got Mark Johnson, of course, his dad, Bob Johnson. You know, it's a great day for hockey. You know, the late, great coach of Wisconsin, the men's team too. So he's got a great, he's got a great legacy. And you know he's, he's has a great legacy of his own coaching the Wisconsin women. And it'll, I'm sure you'll have a great chance to talk to him and talk to him about that, about the championship games as well.
[01:07:04] Speaker C: I can, yeah, it would be a lot of fun. I can't wait to do that. And I'm out of sort of out of college. I'm not really out of college hockey mode because we had the men's tournament starting on Thursday and be following that as well. So that'll be a lot of fun to see how who gets to St. Louis in a couple of weeks.
[01:07:21] Speaker D: Yeah, and absolutely. And Manchester, New Hampshire is going to be hosting a regional there as well. You got the Boston College Eagles who are the number one overall seed. The Providence College Friars who are big in my state of Rhode Island. They're going to be up in the Manchester region as well. So, so it's going to be a lot of fun. And of course ESPN will, will be carrying that. But yeah, college hockey, it's a fun sport to watch if, and really, you know, and as you well know, in this, in this, in the central region, Ken, you've got those, those great schools there as well. So they maintain and they got a, a great presence. Of course, you had the ECAC where you are at Hockey east where I am. It's just, it's a great, it's great fun to watch these, these teams and the schools go for the national championship.
[01:08:07] Speaker C: Yep. This, as long as they know Mr. Overtime will not be in the building, they'll be happy.
[01:08:11] Speaker D: Yes, exactly Right.
[01:08:13] Speaker C: But I'll be watching, so that counts. But can't appreciate a few minutes as always. And we'll talk soon.
[01:08:19] Speaker D: Oh, absolutely, Ken, anytime.
[01:08:21] Speaker C: All right, that's Ken Fang. Speaking of college hockey, we're going to have Mike Schaefer, the head coach of the Cornell men's hockey team, talk about winning another EC hockey championship and talking about his final season as the head coach. You're listening to the Parting Shots podcast.
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[01:09:09] Speaker A: Hi, this is Greg Floyd, Emmy award.
[01:09:11] Speaker C: Winning they made me say that news.
[01:09:12] Speaker A: Anchor at CBS 6 in Schenectady.
[01:09:15] Speaker C: You're listening to the Parting Shots podcast with Daily Gazette sports editor Ken Schott.
Welcome back to the podcast.
[01:09:21] Speaker B: My next guest just won his seventh ECAC hockey tournament title.
[01:09:26] Speaker C: And as a nice way of going.
[01:09:27] Speaker B: Out because he's retiring after 30 years.
[01:09:29] Speaker C: Of coaching at Cornell, he's got one more game at least.
[01:09:32] Speaker B: Michigan State in the NCAA tournament. Please welcome to the podcast, Mike Schaefer. Mike, appreciate you coming on. Know you're busy getting ready for Thursday's game against the Spartans. How are things going?
[01:09:43] Speaker A: Busy. You know, it's always busy at this time of year when you get all the different types of travel plans and preparing for all kinds of different opponents and that. So yeah, it's, it's, it's something that you, you want that busy kind. So it's, but fast, it's frantic and, and as we get ready to play on Thursday.
[01:10:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I was hoping to catch up with you after the game against Union on February 28, but you got hit in the head with a puck there in the second period. What happened there?
[01:10:13] Speaker A: Oh, just took a unfortunate inadvertent puck that Came in the bench and caught me and yeah, it was.
Caused a little bit of problems here. So. But you know, it is what it is now. It's, it's uh, getting over most of it and, but you know, it's just as a coaching hazard, you're on there, no mask on, and sometimes you get, sometimes you get hit.
[01:10:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:10:40] Speaker B: Well, let me, let's talk about, as I said, your seventh title, second in a row. And to me it comes. This is right full circle for you, Mike, because your first two years you won back to back titles in 1996 and 97 with Cornell and then you're closing out your career with consecutive titles. I mean, have you had a chance to look back on the symmetry of it all?
[01:11:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean it's, it's, you know, it's. This one was a little bit different than last year. I kind of felt pressure last year we had one, one so long and you know, the whole year I was thinking about retiring and so it was just a nice way. But this year was, you know, for me, for this year was just, you know, a lot of gratitude. You know, I was calm through the whole process and the knowing that this was it and, and so it took it all more. It took it all in and was really grateful for, you know, all the things that, you know, all the things that, you know, have gone on and just to get there is such a hard thing and, and so really grateful that we got in the championship game and you just never know and, and you know what can happen once, once you get to Lake Placid. So pretty grateful that, you know, as we were able to put ourselves in position and then you always gotta have a little luck, you know, at different points of the year and, and it didn't seem like we had a whole lot of luck for a lot of different parts of the year, but we definitely, you know, it's pretty fortunate against quarterback late in the game and, and you always need a little bit of that in order to win.
[01:12:16] Speaker B: Yeah, let me, let me get, let's get into that because I want to, don't want to forget that you guys were down two to one. You pulled Ian Shane for an extra attacker. Then there's a pound of cold, about 150 left. So now you're looking at, oh, we got a, you know, try to not only, you know, kill off the penalty, but get, get the, get the shorthanded goal to tie it. So the face offs down in the Quinnipiac end. You want it go up the ice and Kyler kovic scores with 139 left me. As that whole play was developing, could you believe what you were seeing?
[01:12:50] Speaker A: Actually, I just see it a whole lot because we're getting guys ready to. To.
We're just getting guys ready to, you know, pull the goaltender. We talked to guys on the bench about getting ready to, you know, to attack off of. Off any kind of loose puck to. To go and go on offense. So I, I think that, you know, kind of not surprising, but I'm pretty sure I think they had only one defenseman on the ice, you know, as far as the power play is concerned. But, yeah, we went for it. And, you know, when the goal originally went in, I thought it got to Tim Regal on the back side of it, but as it was being forced there, it ended up hitting some hitting the goaltender and the. In the.
Caught him leaning, you know, going. Going to that back door pass. So it was good.
[01:13:43] Speaker B: I just. Yeah, I was watching the game at my desk at the office on Friday. I'm thinking they're going to win this game. I just knew that, that when that goal was scores, they're going to win this game. And sure enough, Rigo scores the power play goal late in the first overtime to win it. And then you guys just carry that momentum over against Clarkson. Scored two first period goals. Yeah, Clarkson gets one in the second, but you hold on and you're hoisting the Whitelaw cup once again.
I know you were very emotional last year. Was the emotions different this time?
[01:14:13] Speaker A: You know, it was, it was.
It wasn't as emotional for me as last year. I mean, it was, it was, it was emotional because I just thought we played, you know, in the game against Quinnipiac, I thought we played really well. I thought we limited the amount of scoring chances they had, you know, and I thought we executed a real good game plan, especially we had an overtime. I thought we really started to carry the play with regards to overtime, of keeping pressure on them, some extended shifts and stuff like that. I guess Clarkson just, you know, got up to a real good start and I thought with the whole first period, we played with a real good pace. Second period, we, you know, we had a couple of speed bumps in the way, but at the same time, you know, we. It wasn't like we. We weren't creating some offense. And then the third period, I think we just did a good job of locking it down. And, you know, I thought, you look, looking back, we hardly gave up a whole lot in the third. Kept the shots from the outside, you Know, I think they had one or two chances in the third period, but you know, for the most part I thought our guys did a really good job just riding the wave and staying above them and making sure that, you know, we locked it down and I was pretty proud of the guys for doing that.
[01:15:19] Speaker B: Listening to some of the post game interviews with the players afterwards, they just, they love you. I mean they just do anything for you. What does that feel like to have players like that who are just so, you know, passionate about playing for you and the dedication they have?
[01:15:33] Speaker A: Well, I think there's always been a bond. I mean you got think about, I mean, not all your players love you. I mean, you know, you know, you got to be realistic with that. But I think you just gotta be, you know, honest and, and fair, you know. And for me, I think that our guys get, you know, get the blunt, blunt truth. They know where they stand and whether they like it or not, it's kind of up to them. But we work pretty hard with them. They're, they're a good group of kids. I mean, I also think it goes back to the kid and I think that that goes on our, to be our coaches, assistant coaches of just bringing those type of kids that want that, that type of coaching. You know, Ben Sire was here before. I brought a lot of those guys that wanted back to back championships and Sean Flanagan, I mean he just great guys that want that. Right? That's not, that's not really me. That's, that's the type of kid that's coming in and I really commend Benny and Sean and our staff for bringing that type of player that wants that. That's the biggest thing.
[01:16:43] Speaker B: When you came back to Cornell, how was you played there in the 80s? The program was sort of muddling along. What was your goal when you arrived to take over as a head coach?
[01:16:55] Speaker A: Well, I think it's everybody's goal the first couple years just to set the culture that you want. I mean there's, you know, when you take over a program, there's always good culture there some way shape or form, but it's also you want the culture that you want and, and that, that doesn't matter what new head coach comes in, what you do, what's going on. You've got to create your, your culture for you as a head coach. And then I thought that takes a little bit of time and you know, everything is, it happens in the first one or two years, but it's actually, I think it's a five to six Year period. Because you got to get your own recruits in, you got to get other guys in. It's a learning process and takes a long, long time. And so, you know, it's. But then that, that is just maintaining that vision and that's the job of the head coaches kind of keeping the long term vision, you know, in the forefront, not, not sacrifice any of that, which is probably the most tempting thing as a head coach. You know, immediate success versus long term vision. And it's a battle, I think every coach fights, you know, and it's a tough fight as a coaching staff because you, you want that immediate satisfaction but sometimes you need to, need to take it on the chin for, for long term, long term prosperity.
[01:18:12] Speaker B: But you obviously, as I mentioned earlier, you won the first two years. So what were your thoughts after winning the second consecutive one at, in 97? Do you think, oh, this is going to be easy, we're going to do this every year?
[01:18:23] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Honestly, you do. You know, I think you get spoiled. You do think it's going to be, you know, maybe a little bit easier than it is. And then, you know, you, I really, I think that, you know, it kind of continued through 03.05, 2010 and then you think that, you know, but then, you know, served a real slice of reality there from 2010-24, you know, from injuries to, you know, just not getting it done, not playing well, the, you know, other teams playing really well, you know, and, and so it. So many things have to go right in order to win it. And you know, it says slice of reality is, is that particular time for, for us and Covet was another one, you know, killed us. So that's why I was so grateful over the last few years to get what we got. And I really appreciate it. It's not easy.
[01:19:22] Speaker B: I want to take it back to 2015 and you hosted Union in the first round of the ECAC hockey tournament. Union the year before won the national championship, but they were not that same team and you end up getting swept by Union. And I think the seven nothing game in game two was, I think shocking to me just the way that whole thing developed. It seems like Union was a faster team and you guys were still in that big guy, try to slow it down mentality. Did you have a change of philosophy after that game in the way you recruited players?
[01:19:53] Speaker A: Not really. You know, I think that, you know, I think the, the change of policy probably came a little bit more, you know, when they changed all the rules of the NHL back in 03 is that we knew that we had to make adjustments back then, but, you know. Yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't any time, you know, near there. I mean, you know, I, I thought, you know, you look back and we lost to Union and. When did you win the national championship?
[01:20:21] Speaker B: 2014. The year before.
[01:20:23] Speaker A: Yeah. So we were fine. I mean, like it's. If you remember, we lost the semi final to the Union up at Lake Placid and, and, and in that game, you know, we were all jacked up, ready to go, but we, we lost a couple guys in practice that week.
You know, Dustin Mowry still, you know, really stings in that particular one. And we lost that game up there. They're a good team. Not saying we'd beat them, but you know, we gave him a good run in that game. I don't remember that game but, but it's, that's what I'm talking about. You can have all those different years and it still might not work out for you. Right? I mean it's so. And every team fights that in the ecac. That's not just us.
[01:21:09] Speaker B: And you mentioned about COVID How tough was it to sit out that year, the 2020, 2021 season, then to come back and try to get back to where the program was pre Covid?
[01:21:21] Speaker A: Oh, it's brutal.
2020, you know.
You know, I don't know if I had a team as strong as that from top to bottom that was healthy, you know, at that particular time of year. I mean, you know, it was incredible. And, and then, and then I have all those guys. We only graduated three from that. People don't realize we were only graduating three kids from that team, you know, good ones, but we were only graduating three and a lot of guys coming back. So it was extremely difficult and even more difficult to cancel the next year when we were going to have. We thought that, you know, kind of ahead of schedule in 2020. We thought we were going to be pretty solid for the following year, so. But it is what it is. It's just one of that. And that's why I say you're so grateful when, when things do do work out.
[01:22:16] Speaker B: How have you changed as a coach?
[01:22:22] Speaker A: I don't have changed a whole lot. I mean, pretty demanding. But you know, I think that, you know, I said that, you know, I've changed as far as systems are concerned and in different places and, but never really changed. I don't think our foundation of who we want to be and play for each other and you know, team first and, and culture first and you know, we've gotten there in different ways. But you know, I, I don't, I don't think I've changed a whole lot over the, over the past 30 years. You know, the first few years is culture setting. So I'm definitely a different type of coach just because I think the kids that we have are nowadays and I think in a lot of programs are so committed, you know, on and off the ice and everything they do. Things have changed a little bit, but, but I don't think I, I've changed a whole lot.
[01:23:14] Speaker B: How has the game changed in your 30 years?
[01:23:20] Speaker A: I don't know. I mean, again, I think the systems are, are, you know, everybody talks about different systems that, you know, coaches are using now. Man, they've been using those for, you know, coaches. We think we're pretty smart, but same type of systems that, man. I played junior hockey with one of my best coaches I've had, Don McKee in Ontario and we were playing a three man, three man system that everybody, everybody had a different, we played five man unit. Everybody played a different system. One, one, three to a two, one two to a one, two, two. You know, confused the heck out of teams and I, I still never, you know, you know, 40 years there, I still never had the guts to do it, you know, and so I, I don't think it's changed a whole lot. I mean, obviously equipment and guys are bigger, stronger and faster, but I don't think the game, it definitely took a change in 03, you know, when they changed the rules as far as, you know, high hits, hitting from behind, clutching and grabbing. I think the game changed a lot from that particular time. But not, not overall, of course.
[01:24:27] Speaker B: Casey Jones will be taking over next season. You were teammates with him at Cornell. You coached against him when he was at Clarkson. What's he going to be like as the head coach at Cornell next season?
[01:24:37] Speaker A: Well, I think that he has the same, I think it has the same kind of mentality about team first and great guys and he's done a tremendous job at Clarkson. You look, you look at their, their program over the years, right? I mean, you know, they're, they're always near the top, always pushing it, always producing pros, you know, and so I don't think it's going to change a whole lot. They're always good on and good defensive teams up there and can win games in different ways. So I, I think that there's a lot of good college coaches now and he's one of Them and, but he loves Cornell so that, that's a little bit of a. Bit of a difference is that when you get that buy in where you know someone's just all, all in, right? Just flat out all in with breathing, living every moment to want to see your alma maters succeed, it's a little bit of a. I think it's a little bit of a different mentality than any some other places.
[01:25:34] Speaker B: What will you miss about coaching?
[01:25:38] Speaker A: I miss just the day to day. Coming to the ranks, seeing the kids, see the players talking, hanging out.
That's always been the fun part. Watching, putting game plans together with, you know, practice at the start of the year and just watching things develop. I mean that's, I think everybody, if you talk to a player or coach, you know, that's the most enjoyable part of it. And the other 90, I'm not going.
[01:26:00] Speaker B: To miss one bit like big deal with me.
[01:26:06] Speaker A: I'm talking budgets, fundraising, you know, recruiting, all that stuff. So you know that that's the stuff that I'm definitely not gonna miss.
[01:26:16] Speaker B: Especially with the NLIS and transfer portal now. It's just, it's really crazy now. I mean, I don't know how coaches can last as long as you have in this day and age.
[01:26:26] Speaker A: Yeah, it's, it's different, but there's a lot of hungry young coaches out there that. It's just what the landscape is now. You know, I see you just adjust and you, you do exactly what the landscape entails. And so it's a college hockey will be pretty good, that's for sure.
[01:26:41] Speaker B: Well, Mike, I appreciate a few minutes. Let me ask you about Michigan State quickly, before we called a.
[01:26:47] Speaker C: Called an interview.
[01:26:48] Speaker B: What's it going to be like to take, take on them on. They just won the Big Ten title in double overtime the other night. What's it gonna be like to face.
[01:26:56] Speaker A: Them just like any other time when we, you know, when you face that first round, you're gonna play a great opponent. We played Maine last year, was on a roll like the year before. We played Northeastern and won the Hawk east championship. You know, bu, you go through the years, you play someone this time of year, they're good, you know, so it's just a matter of getting out and sticking to your own identity. And you know, they, they play fast. They try to force it down your throat all night long. It's pretty, you don't, you don't even have to watch one game to see, see their philosophy. They're, they're a hard, hard working team that wants to play fast and wants to play hard. So, you know, I think our league prepares us well for that. We got a lot of teams that have a very strong consumer mentality, and we're gonna have to be ready for that, and. And we will.
[01:27:44] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:27:44] Speaker B: Well, Mike, I appreciate a few minutes. Good luck on Thursday and thank you for your cooperation throughout the years. I know sometimes, you know, guys like me can be a pain, you know, asking some tough questions, but you've always handled it well. And thank you and enjoy retirement.
[01:28:00] Speaker A: Yeah, appreciate it. Thanks a lot.
[01:28:02] Speaker B: That's Mike Schaefer. We'll be back to wrap up the podcast and I'd like latest winner and Deli Gazette's auto racing contest in just a moment.
[01:28:25] Speaker E: If you really want to know what's going on in your community, you have to read the Daily Gazette. We don't take. Take a side. We're right down the middle, and we're gonna get to the truth. Our reporters and photographers are out in the field bringing you updates every minute with trust, accuracy, and integrity. From the first page to the last page. Independent, probing journalism. We're finding out what's going on in community where nobody else is covering. It's who we are. It's what we do.
[01:28:56] Speaker D: Hi, this is Union College.
[01:28:57] Speaker E: Matt, hockey head coach Josh Helgi.
[01:29:00] Speaker F: You're listening to the Parting Shots podcast.
[01:29:02] Speaker D: With Daily Gazette sports editor Ken Schott.
[01:29:06] Speaker C: Back to wrap up the podcast. The week six winner in the Daily Gazette's auto racing contest was Kyle Fitzpatrick of Ballson Spa with 60 points. Kyle wins a $50 gift card. Congratulations, Kyle. The VIP winner was Scott Luscher of Capitol Land GMC with 35 points. I had a measly five points. I also want to correct the number of points that Jerry Peel of Frankenstein's had in week five. It was 50 points, not 15.
I'll announce the auto racing contest winner's name and that winner's name will appear in Saturday's Daily Gazette. To play, go to dailygazette.com and click on the auto racing contest banner.
Just because COVID 19 mandates are easing, that does not mean you should relax. Be vigilant. If you have not gotten vaccinated or received a booster shot, please do so. Do it for yourself, do it for your family, and do it for your friends. And a reminder, vaccines do not cause autism.
Don't forget to download the Daily Gazette app and sign up for our E Edition so you never miss a headline. Subscribe today at www.dailygazette.com. we have a lot of great specials going on. When credibility matters, trust the Daily Gazette on the latest edition of the Stan and Shen Podcast, Stan Houdy and Shenandoah Briere talked about the sports news that went nationwide at the end of the Northville Girls State Championship final. Things went back to fun and food as they reviewed four different Girl Scout cookies and shared their top four music albums, two that must be listened to by the other co host. The Stan and Shen Podcast is available wherever you get your podcast.
That wraps up another edition of the Parting Shots Podcast. I want to thank Bob Belber, Ken Fang and Mike Shafer for being on the show. If you have questions or comments about the podcast, email them to me at shot. That's s c h o t
[email protected] follow me on X threads and bluesky Lapshots.
The views expressed in the Parting Shots Podcast are not necessarily those of the Daily Gazette Company. The Parting Shots Podcast is a production of the Daily Gazette company. I'm Daily Gazette Sports Editor Ken Schatz. Thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time from the Parting Shots Podcast studio in Schenectady, New York. Good day, good sports.
[01:31:36] Speaker D: Sa.
