Episode 321
Football Legends, Rock Stories & a World Series Leap
Host Bill Donohue welcomes Pro Football Hall of Famer Chris Hanburger, Super Bowl champion George Martin, veteran drummer Joe Franco and Shea Stadium parachutist Michael Sergio for a two-hour show packed with football memories, music stories and an unforgettable World Series entrance. The guests discuss the work behind their careers, the people who influenced them and the risks that shaped their lives.
Hanburger reflects on his military service, his years in Washington and the career that earned him a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He talks about the demands of his position, what it took to stay effective over a long career and the experiences that shaped his approach to football.
Martin takes listeners inside the Giants’ championship years, sharing stories about leadership, playing defense and working under Bill Parcells. He discusses the team culture behind the 1986 Giants’ Super Bowl run and how the players came together to build a championship team.
Franco traces his musical influences from the Beatles and British rock drummers to his own work with the Good Rats and Twisted Sister. Along the way, he talks about developing his technique, playing the local club circuit, recording in the studio and navigating the business side of life as a working musician.
Sergio tells the story behind his famous parachute landing at Shea Stadium during Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. He walks Bill through the planning, the flight and the jump, then discusses the legal and personal consequences of a stunt that became part of New York sports history.
Takeaways:
- Chris Hanburger shares how military discipline, film study and a willingness to play different roles helped him build a lasting NFL career.
- Stories about Vince Lombardi, George Allen and Bill Parcells reveal different ways great coaches motivate players and build winning teams.
- George Martin talks about helping players finish college and giving back through his Journey for 9/11 fundraiser.
- Joe Franco discusses his drumming influences, his Good Rats and Twisted Sister years, and finding the right sound in the studio.
- Michael Sergio relives his Game 6 parachute jump into Shea—from the secret planning to the roaring crowd and legal fallout.
- The guests give credit to unsung teammates and explain why preparation, teamwork and knowing your role matter.
- Beyond sports and music, they reflect on education, giving back and building a meaningful next chapter.
Transcript
The views expressed in the following program do not necessarily represent those of the staff, management or owners of wgbb.
Speaker B:Live from the WGBB studios in Merrick, New York, this is Sports Talk New York.
Speaker C:Good evening and hello again, everybody.
Speaker C:Welcome to Sports Talk New York on WGB Merrick, Long Island, New York.
Speaker C:Bill Donahue here with you on this.
Speaker C: is the first day of November,: Speaker C:November already, folks.
Speaker C:Our engineer, Brian Graves, he's present just behind the glass with us tonight.
Speaker C:I'm glad you're with us tonight.
Speaker C:We got another two hour extravaganza coming your way tonight, folks.
Speaker C:Up first, we'll welcome in the great hall of Fame linebacker from the Washington Redskins, Chris Hamburger will join us.
Speaker C:Next up, we'll talk to the great defensive end and super bowl champion from the New York Football Giants, George Martin.
Speaker C:And coming up in the number three spot, we switch gears as we do time to time.
Speaker C:And we welcome in the great drummer for Twisted Sister and the Good Rats, Joe Franco will talk to us.
Speaker C: of the: Speaker C:So sounds to me like we're going to have a pretty good time tonight on Sports Talk New York.
Speaker C:As always, before we begin, I invite you to follow me on my Facebook page.
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Speaker C:And you can enjoy that then, folks.
Speaker C:Well, our first guest, he played his entire NFL career with the Washington Redskins.
Speaker C: Pro Football hall of fame in: Speaker C:I'd like to welcome to Sports Talk New York tonight, Chris Hamburger.
Speaker C:Chris, good evening.
Speaker B:Well, good evening.
Speaker B:How y' all doing?
Speaker C:We're doing fine, Chris.
Speaker C:How's things by you?
Speaker B:Well, the weather's, weather's very nice down here for in South Carolina for a change and.
Speaker C:Yeah,.
Speaker B:Just kind of taking it easy.
Speaker C:Attaboy.
Speaker C:Good, good, good job.
Speaker C:I punished myself today, Chris, by watching the New York jets.
Speaker C:And as you know, that's not a Real healthy thing to do these days to yourself.
Speaker C:Another game that they could have won, but they dropped it to the Las Vegas Raiders.
Speaker C:Still not used to that, but that's a story for another time.
Speaker C:Now, Chris, you were born in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Speaker C:Your dad was a colonel in the army.
Speaker B:That's correct.
Speaker B:I'm a. I'm not what they call an army brat.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Now, go ahead.
Speaker C:I'm sorry.
Speaker B:Well, that's all right.
Speaker B:And of course, I went in the army right out of high school, had a six year obligation and got out, went to college and, you know, some nice things happened for me after all that.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Now, you didn't want to go to Alaska where your dad was being sent.
Speaker C:You served your two years in the army and you were going to plan your career as an officer, but you had an eye socket injury during a flag football game that kind of derailed that for you.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah, it was just one of those things.
Speaker B:I was at the.
Speaker B:In the military and wanted to go to West Point.
Speaker B:And of course, we were playing what today is called flag football.
Speaker B:In the guy that had the ball, he had his flag pulled, but he kept running.
Speaker B:So I thought, well, I'll just nail him.
Speaker B:So I plowed into him and ended up, I think they called it a tripod fracture of the zygomatic arch or something like that.
Speaker C:Sure.
Speaker B:Spent quite a while at Waller Reed getting put back together.
Speaker C:Oh, man, that doesn't sound good, Chris.
Speaker C:Now, you accepted a scholarship from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
Speaker C:That's where you played for the Tar Heels.
Speaker C:And you played under a coach by the name of Jim Hickey.
Speaker B:That's correct.
Speaker B:He was a very good coach and we had a pretty good team.
Speaker B:And, you know, I never had played organized football until my junior and senior year in high school.
Speaker B:And in fact, I almost quit my junior year.
Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:But I.
Speaker B:And the reason I didn't quit is because it was in Hampton, Virginia.
Speaker B:My dad was stationed at Fort Monroe, Virginia, and they had a thing at the school.
Speaker B:Of course, we were practicing before school actually started.
Speaker B:And if you, if it was your first year of playing, they took clippers and cut a big H in your.
Speaker B:In your hair for Hampton.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker B:So they did that to me and I thought, well, God dang, I can't start school with an H in my head and not be playing football.
Speaker B:So I stuck it out and it kind of worked out all right.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yeah, it did.
Speaker C:Now, you played both ways in college, though.
Speaker C:You played offense and defense.
Speaker B:That's correct.
Speaker B:Back then you played pretty much both ways, and you could substitute, I think, two players on a turnover.
Speaker B:And so when I went to college, you know, as a freshman back then you couldn't play varsity.
Speaker B:You had to play on the freshman team for a year.
Speaker B:But when I became a sophomore, I would go in and play defense for one of our receivers who actually was an All American.
Speaker B:And so that's what I did.
Speaker B:And then from there, they told me that they were going to move me to the OR my senior year, that I better learn how to snap the ball to the quarterback and for extra points and field goals and all that.
Speaker B:So I had to learn how to do all that.
Speaker B:And I played center my senior year.
Speaker C:Now, as a center, Chris, you block for a guy by the name of Ken Willard, who, folks may not know, he had a 10 year career in the NFL.
Speaker C:I believe he played for the 49ers.
Speaker C:Is that correct?
Speaker B:Yeah, he did.
Speaker B:And I think he ended up.
Speaker B:I think he started with the 49ers, and then I believe he may have played a few years with the Cardinals.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker B:If I'm not mistaken, but we had two great big running backs, and, you know, we ended up going to the Gator bowl our senior year and that we won that.
Speaker B:We played Air Force Academy.
Speaker B:I think we beat them 35 to nothing, but that game got me married, believe it or not.
Speaker C:How'd that work out?
Speaker B:Well, here's what happened.
Speaker B:We knew our senior year that if we beat Duke University, the last game of the season, that we were going to go get a bid to the Gator Bowl.
Speaker B:And the young lady I'd been dating was kind of hinting about getting married.
Speaker B:And of course, I kind of put all that off.
Speaker B:And I said, well, look, we go to a bowl game, we'll get married that way, that'll be our honeymoon.
Speaker B:And I figured, you know, that's not going to happen.
Speaker C:Yeah,.
Speaker B:But that'll keep her from talking about it.
Speaker B:So the game comes down to, you know, not a whole lot of time left, and if we kick a field goal, we.
Speaker B:We get the bid.
Speaker B:And if we win and I'm the center and I got over that thing and I'm thinking, oh, my God, what am I doing if I throw it over the holder's head or do I roll it back on the ground?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:But I made a good snap and we kicked the field goal and we got the bid.
Speaker B:And of course, after the game, she came running on the field and, oh, now we can get married.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:And we've Been married ever since.
Speaker C:There you go.
Speaker C:And that's the happy ending, Chris, right there.
Speaker C:Now, you're drafted by the Redskins, 18th round of the 65 NFL Draft.
Speaker C:And when you were with the Skins in the first training camp, you were kind of taken under a whole another hall of Famer's wing, weren't you?
Speaker B:Yeah, a little bit.
Speaker B:Sam Huff, I think that's who you referred to.
Speaker C:Yes, yes.
Speaker B:And, yeah.
Speaker B:And, Sam, you gotta understand, I'm.
Speaker B:I'm not into football at all.
Speaker B:I never have been.
Speaker B:I never played organized football until my junior year in high school.
Speaker B:And I only did that because in Hampton, Virginia, there were two brothers that.
Speaker B:Whose dad was also a military army officer, and they played football all their lives, and they're the ones that talked me into going out for football.
Speaker B:And it really wasn't a big deal with me.
Speaker B:In fact, when I got drafted by the Redskins, I mean, I wasn't even.
Speaker B:That was the last thing I was ever thinking about.
Speaker B:And I think I had gone away, gone hunting or fishing or something, and on the weekend.
Speaker B:But I came back and some of the guys told me that I, you know, I'd been drafted, and I didn't think anything of it.
Speaker B:A few weeks later, I get a phone call from the athletic department.
Speaker B:So they had to call this number, the Redskins, everything.
Speaker B:So I go and call back.
Speaker B:They want me to come up and sign a contract and all this and that.
Speaker B:D.C. and so I grabbed my wife, and of course, I'm still at college.
Speaker B:And we go up there and they offered me, I think, a couple of grand to sign contract.
Speaker B:And I think my first contract was a total of about the two grand.
Speaker B:75 Or 8,000, you know, about $9,500.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:But anyway, and they gave me two tickets to the game that weekend, and I walked out of there, gave the bellhop both tickets and told him to have fun.
Speaker B:And I jumped in the car with my wife and headed back to Chapel Hill.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:But Sam Huff was.
Speaker B:You know, I roomed with him for a while in training camp and on the road before he retired.
Speaker B:And he was quite a guy.
Speaker B:And he.
Speaker B:He told me one day, he said, chris, just keep doing what you're doing.
Speaker B:I think you got a good chance of making the club, especially on special teams.
Speaker B:And so that's what I tried to do.
Speaker B:And I just thought, you know what?
Speaker B:I'll give this thing a shot, and if it doesn't work out, I'll worry about it afterwards.
Speaker B:Maybe I can go somewhere else or I'll try to you know, go back in the military possibly, or I'll do something.
Speaker B:So, you know, it all worked out, though.
Speaker C:Yeah, it worked out.
Speaker C:And some great advice from a great football player.
Speaker C:You could Google that name, kid.
Speaker C:Sam Huffman also played for the New York Giants.
Speaker C:A great football player.
Speaker C:Now, Chris Hamburger is with us tonight on Sports Talk New York.
Speaker C:You played for two hall of Fame coaches, Chris, I'd like to find out your impressions of both.
Speaker C:Vince Lombardi, who people may not remember, coached the Washington Redskins.
Speaker C:I believe it was the 69 season.
Speaker C:And then taking over for Coach Lombardi was a future hall of Fame coach, George Allen, who really took the the Redskins to the promised land.
Speaker C:Talk a little bit about those two guys, Chris.
Speaker B:Well, I'll try to coach Lombardi.
Speaker B:We all had heard all the stories about him and everything, and but I found found him, you know, he had a priest stay with him and training camp, and if you listen to his language during practices, you probably figured out why he had the priest with him to bail him out.
Speaker B:But I can tell you a cute story he had told us in training camp at one of the evening meetings that he wanted us to go around one of the football fields.
Speaker B:And of course, we were holding training camp at that time up in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Speaker B:And the army had a war college there, and my father was stationed there.
Speaker B:So the area was very familiar to me because I was still, you know, living at home at that time somewhat.
Speaker B:But what happened, I would come out, instead of jogging around the field like a lot of the players did, I just walked around and he came up in his little golf cart before practice started, and he pulled up beside me and he said, Mr.
Speaker B:He didn't know our names very well at that point, and he called everybody Mr.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker B:And he said, how come you walk around the field?
Speaker B:And I said, well, Coach, you told us in the meeting to go around the field.
Speaker B:You didn't tell us how to do it.
Speaker C:Ah, yeah.
Speaker B:But I said, but I said, worry if you want me to jog around, I'll be glad to jog around.
Speaker B:And he put his head down and he just got a big he had a grin on his face and he shook his head a little bit and he said, my God, I have mellowed so much.
Speaker B:I just thought it was kind of neat.
Speaker B:But unfortunately, he developed cancer and he passed away.
Speaker B:And I remember the last time I saw him, we actually were on strike as players, and we were working out at a field in Georgetown in D.C. those of us that lived in the area and so forth, and he came from the hospital to the field and he got out of the car and we, some of us got a chance to, you know, converse with him a little bit.
Speaker B:And then he got back in and left.
Speaker B:And it was shortly thereafter that he passed away.
Speaker B:But he was a great man.
Speaker B:And I remember the Mac Truck company offered, came to one of the practices and training camp and brought him a big bulldog thing, you know, for their emblem and all that, for their trucks and stuff.
Speaker B:But they flew in with a helicopter and disrupted practice and everything and oh, he went ballistic.
Speaker B:He was custom out and everything.
Speaker B:But then, you know, down the road, Coach Allen and I just respected that man so much.
Speaker B:He was so.
Speaker B:He just lived football.
Speaker B:That's all he thought about.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker C:Yeah,.
Speaker B:Back then, you know, we.
Speaker B:From a defense and he was a defensive coach primarily, and we had tons of defenses.
Speaker B:We had a lot of audibles.
Speaker B:We could.
Speaker B:We called the signals on the field.
Speaker B:We didn't have to have somebody signaling or whatever they do now.
Speaker B:But we just enjoyed his defensive system.
Speaker B:We had.
Speaker B:And he liked experienced players more than rookies or young players, and it worked out pretty well for us.
Speaker C:Yeah, he called you the General, right?
Speaker B:Well, yeah, somewhat.
Speaker B:That's what the tag name you got when you were calling the defensive signals.
Speaker C:Yeah,.
Speaker B:Jack Pardee.
Speaker B:You know, he was doing it when Coach Allen brought him from the Rams when he came.
Speaker B:And so Jack Bardee was calling signals for a year or two.
Speaker B:And then when Jack retired, I took over doing that and you know, I watched a lot of film and I had.
Speaker B:I'd bring film home.
Speaker B:I had a.
Speaker B:They got me a 16 millimeter projector, a big screen and for the, you know, at the house.
Speaker B:And so I'd watch film.
Speaker B:You can learn a lot about a players and a team that you're going to play against just by watching film.
Speaker B:And I did a lot of that.
Speaker B:And of course you do a lot of that even when you're.
Speaker B:During the day, when you're practicing also, so.
Speaker B:But it was a great system and we all enjoyed it and it just worked out real well for us.
Speaker C:Now, you also earned the nickname the Hangman.
Speaker B:Yeah, I didn't think that was very nice.
Speaker B:I didn't appreciate.
Speaker C:It.
Speaker C:No, that doesn't sound nice.
Speaker C:Yeah,.
Speaker B:No, but I remember, I think I went to either the first or the second Pro bowl out in California and we were out there for the Pro bowl and they were having the super bowl and I think it was Kansas City maybe was playing somebody, the packers or somebody.
Speaker B:And I think it was the Kansas City had a guy cornerback called the Hammer, and I thought that that's what his nickname and I thought that was kind of neat until first couple of plays of the game, he got hammered and he.
Speaker B:That's all.
Speaker B:He didn't play much after that.
Speaker C:The Hammer hammered.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Oh, boy.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:Now we're speaking with Chris Hamburger tonight on the program.
Speaker C:The.
Speaker C:The Super Bowl, I believe it was seven.
Speaker C:Super bowl seven.
Speaker C:You lost it to the Miami Dolphins.
Speaker C:What, what's your recollection of that game, Chris?
Speaker B:Well, it was a close game, and of course, if I remember, Miami had a fantastic team that year offensively and defensively.
Speaker B:And I think the score ended up being 14 to 7.
Speaker B:And our only score came on a mishandled attempt by them to kick a field goal.
Speaker B:And we were able to score seven points that way.
Speaker B:But also that was before they moved the goal post back and it kind of presented a little problem offensively.
Speaker B:You know, you kind of design plays around the goal, the goal post where it was, you know, the pole in the ground.
Speaker B:But anyway, if I recall, I think Billy Kilmer had some people open, but because of the goalpost being up, you know, on the goal line, it.
Speaker B:I think he actually hit it one.
Speaker B:The pole or player couldn't get to it or.
Speaker B:I just don't remember exactly.
Speaker B:But,.
Speaker C:Yeah,.
Speaker B:You know, we.
Speaker B:It was just one of those crazy things.
Speaker B:But.
Speaker B:And I remember, too, prior to the game, we had people that represented some of the shoe companies and so forth, wanting us to wear the.
Speaker B:Their shoes and everything.
Speaker B:And it was kind of funny because they came by the room, you know, the hotel that we stayed in, and they would bang on your door and stuff and offer you, you know, money plus, you know, shoes to wear in the game and all this and that.
Speaker B:And I told him, I said, I'm not interested.
Speaker B:I don't want him.
Speaker B:Part of, I don't want your money.
Speaker B:I don't want your.
Speaker B:Your equipment.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:But it was funny.
Speaker B:The stuff they were offering us was the Cowboys colors because they thought they had all that stuff made up for the Cowboys because they thought they were going to be in the Super Bowl.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:But you got.
Speaker C:You beat them in the NFC Championship Game.
Speaker C:People may not realize that.
Speaker C:And that's what sent you guys to the super bowl against the Dolphins.
Speaker C:Now, Chris, from 68 to 77, you started 135 straight games.
Speaker C:Now, that's pretty rare.
Speaker C:To what do you owe that streak of longevity?
Speaker B:Well, my philosophy was, if I didn't hit anybody and nobody hit me, I could Play all day, all along, all year, many years to go.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:So that's what I tried to do.
Speaker B:No, I don't know.
Speaker B:I just was very fortunate, very lucky.
Speaker B:My whole life has been very lucky, I think.
Speaker B:And, you know, I think there's so many players that can play in the NFL that just aren't in the right place at the right time.
Speaker B:And maybe that's what happened to me, because I never thought of myself as a, you know, an outstanding player by any means.
Speaker B:And I don't even keep up with it hardly anymore.
Speaker B:There's no need to.
Speaker B:And I. I would probably.
Speaker B:If I was a head coach right now, I probably wouldn't have any players, or the ones that stayed would be broke because I'd be fighting them all the time.
Speaker C:And,.
Speaker B:You know, I'd tell them, you want to celebrate and you're going to celebrate, you know, after something that happens in the game other than just, you know, giving the guy a pat on the back or something.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:I said, pack.
Speaker B:Just pack your bags before the game, because after it's over and you do your celebrating, you ain't going to be here anymore.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I mean, they make a tackle and they go crazy.
Speaker C:It's like they just won the Super Bowl.
Speaker C:Kind of ridiculous.
Speaker C:You're right, Chris, and I can see your point.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:Well, you know, the thing of it is, you'll see somebody intercept a ball down near an end zone, but all their fans are together in.
Speaker B:So now he's got to take off running all the way back the other way with.
Speaker B:Waving his buddies to come with him, and they.
Speaker B:They do some stupid thing in the end zone, and you know, somebody.
Speaker B:Why.
Speaker B:Why waste all your energy doing something like that?
Speaker B:And it's just like, you know, the packers, they have great teams.
Speaker B:What do they call it?
Speaker B:The Something, you know, leap up there.
Speaker C:Yeah, I know what you mean.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And they leap up in the.
Speaker C:Into the stands.
Speaker C:Yeah,.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And, you know, you just ask him, somebody's going to get hurt.
Speaker B:And it's ridiculous.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Now, all sports are like that, Chris.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:Yeah, I know.
Speaker C:It goes to the major leagues, too.
Speaker C:I mean, these guys that.
Speaker C:They go nuts, they hit a home run.
Speaker C:If Bob Gibson was on the hill, they'd be sitting on their butt next time they came up.
Speaker C:You know, we can see that.
Speaker C:I mean, like, people say, act like you've been there before.
Speaker C:You know, come on, guys.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And it's like, I just remember I had a lot of respect, like Bud Grant, who coached the Vikings,.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Great.
Speaker C:We hardly.
Speaker B:Ever played them, but I always had a lot of respect for him as a head coach and for his players because they just played.
Speaker B:That was it.
Speaker B:And, you know, it's like Sonny Jurgensen.
Speaker B:He'd throw a touchdown pass, he just turns and walks off the field.
Speaker B:He's not going to go jumping up and down and waving his arms and all that.
Speaker C:No.
Speaker B:And I.
Speaker B:To me, you know, you're there to play football and win games, not put on a.
Speaker B:A show,.
Speaker C:A sideshow.
Speaker C:Yeah, no, I.
Speaker C:Sideshow.
Speaker C:I hear what you mean, Chris.
Speaker C:Definitely.
Speaker C:Well, Chris Hamburger has been elected to the Washington Commander's Ring of Fame.
Speaker C:Now, we spoke about this on the phone a little bit.
Speaker C:Chris, we got a couple of minutes left.
Speaker C:What do you think about the name change to the Commanders?
Speaker C:And how do you feel about being a Commander's Ring of Fame when you played for the Redskins?
Speaker B:Well, back then, when I got in, it was, you know, the Redskins.
Speaker B:That was the name.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:And Coach Allen did quite a bit of work with Native Americans and, you know, some of the tribes and the reservations and stuff like that.
Speaker B:And I had the.
Speaker B:Well, it was an honor for me to have a chance to meet.
Speaker B:And I don't know how many great, great, great grandson he would have been to Red Cloud, Chief Red Cloud, who was a Sioux Indian chief, to beat his.
Speaker B:One of his, you know, grandsons and to learn a lot about, you know, Native Americans and their.
Speaker B:What they go through and everything.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:But I.
Speaker B:Coach Allen.
Speaker B:He gave Coach Allen a. I don't know how to describe it.
Speaker B:It's probably about 6ft tall and probably 4ft wide, and it's printed a print of Red Cloud with his full head dress and other stuff that he would wear.
Speaker C:Like a tapestry.
Speaker C:Right, Chris?
Speaker C:Like that.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:And I am fortunate enough to have a house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and I have that hanging in that house.
Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker B:I've always had so much respect for that.
Speaker B:And, of course, Red Cloud, I don't know what.
Speaker B:How much people realize, but he realized that he wasn't a nice guy by any means, for the most part.
Speaker B:But he realized that, you know, he had to change and he had to have his people change in order to survive because of what was going on back in those days and everything.
Speaker B:But it was just such a great honor for me to have a chance to meet him.
Speaker C:Understood.
Speaker C:Well,.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:He is one of his great grandsons,.
Speaker C:Chris Hamburger.
Speaker C:It's been a real pleasure.
Speaker C:I thank you for taking time out of your Sunday night to spend it with us here on Sports Talk New York.
Speaker C:I wish all the best to you, Chris, all the best to your wife and your family.
Speaker C:And once again, I thank you.
Speaker B:Well, I appreciate it.
Speaker B:Thanks for the time.
Speaker C:That is the great Chris Hamburger, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker C:Up next on Sports Talk New York, we welcome in the great giant defensive end and super bowl champion George Martin.
Speaker C:Stick around, folks.
Speaker C:Foreign.
Speaker D:You're listening to Sports Talk New York.
Speaker D: FM and: Speaker D:Sports talk, you're listening to Sports Talk New York on Long Island's wgbb.
Speaker D:And now back to the show.
Speaker C:We are back.
Speaker C:We're back with Sports Talk New York on WGBB AM FM radio.
Speaker C:We're, of course, live from beautiful downtown Merrick, Long Island, New York.
Speaker C:Beautiful autumnal Sunday here on Long island and the evening is shaping up to be a pretty autumnal evening as well.
Speaker C:And I hope the weather is great where you are and I hope you had a nice day the day after Halloween.
Speaker C: k it was, and a member of the: Speaker C:Just a great pitcher and a great man.
Speaker C:So we're just a little sad about Jerry Kooseman tonight, but we're going to move ahead.
Speaker C:Our next guest, he played his entire NFL career at defensive end for the New York Football Giants.
Speaker C:He's a member of the Giants ring of honor and he was voted the 25th greatest giant of all time.
Speaker C:Now he's a Super bowl champion.
Speaker C:That was when the Giants defeated the Denver Broncos in that Super Bowl.
Speaker C:And I'd like to welcome to Sports Talk New York tonight, number 75, George Martin.
Speaker C:George, good evening.
Speaker E:Good evening, sir.
Speaker E:How are you?
Speaker C:We're doing great.
Speaker C:We're doing great.
Speaker C:How are things by you?
Speaker E:Excellent.
Speaker E:As a matter of fact, I just got off the treadmill doing my evening workout.
Speaker E:So your.
Speaker C:Time is very good.
Speaker C:Good.
Speaker C:Congrats that you're still able to do that, George.
Speaker C:Yeah,.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I'm not doing I start my cardiac rehab after open heart tomorrow, so I'm kind of apprehensive.
Speaker C:But you got to do what you got to do, George.
Speaker C:And that's why.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So I want to ask you when we start off here, who are your sports heroes when you were a kid?
Speaker B:Well, you won't believe this, but I grew up in the rural.
Speaker E:Part of South Carolina and sports was something that we did not engage in or participate with.
Speaker E:So my dad was a, was a sharecropper and I grew up, you know, under his tutelage.
Speaker E:So sports was not a part of my, my daily routine.
Speaker E:It wasn't until I little bit older, when I got in high school and we relocated to California and I began to focus on athletics a little bit and began to participate.
Speaker E:And believe it or not, I was a baseball fan.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:Yeah,.
Speaker E:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker E:So I was an Oakland a baseball fan.
Speaker E:I really liked the Vida Blue and those guys back in those days.
Speaker E:They had a championship team.
Speaker E:And although I never played baseball in high school, I played basketball, football and a year of tennis.
Speaker E:But I had an appreciation for those professional athletes out there in San Francisco.
Speaker C:Yeah, great.
Speaker C:That was a dynasty, that Oakland A's ball club.
Speaker C:They had some great careers and like you said, some great hall of Fame players.
Speaker C:Now, George, you missed only, I believe, six games in your 14 year career.
Speaker C:We're not counting games that were not played because of strikes and things like that.
Speaker C:To what do you owe that longevity and the streak of playing so consecutively?
Speaker C:We'll say.
Speaker E:Well, in retrospect, I'd say there are really two reasons that I can be blessed for.
Speaker E:Number one, that I was a former basketball player.
Speaker E:I played both basketball and football in college as well.
Speaker E:And I think basketball gave me the dexterity to be able to be a little bit more flexible, a little more malleable, as I was planning to avoid some things that that otherwise would have been detrimental to me.
Speaker E:And the other thing is I had a very good series of coaches that made sure that I was always in shape and ready to do what was required of me.
Speaker E:And I think that was part of my longevity, my 14 years there with the Giants.
Speaker E:So being fortunate to have a good foundation and then having good coaching along the path of my development is something that I attribute my success to.
Speaker C:I see.
Speaker C:Okay, now, you played your college football at the University of Oregon.
Speaker C:It was then called the PAC 8, I believe, right?
Speaker C:Yeah, that's correct.
Speaker E:Yes.
Speaker C: th round in: Speaker C:Tell us a little bit about your college career, George.
Speaker E:My college career was one of really enthusiasm and excitement.
Speaker E:I was the first one in my entire generation to ever go to college.
Speaker E:And I received an athletic scholarship for the University of Oregon.
Speaker E:I was a high school all American in basketball, and I was an all state football player.
Speaker E:So not being sure what I wanted to pursue in college, I was offered the opportunity to play both at many universities.
Speaker E:And I chose University of Oregon because I loved the environment there.
Speaker E:It was wholesome and really something that was not confined to a lot of inner city activity.
Speaker E:And so I went there and I played both basketball and football my first two years, and I really enjoyed it.
Speaker E:But I realized my academics were suffering, so I decided to concentrate on football in order to complete my scholarship.
Speaker E:And the funny thing is, when I got to Oregon, I was playing tight end, I was playing offense.
Speaker E:So, wow.
Speaker E:Through a strange twist of face, I was raped.
Speaker E:Number two in the nation at one time at tight end.
Speaker C:Oh, wow.
Speaker E:The problem I had was the guy who was ranked number one was also on the same team.
Speaker E:Yeah, there you go.
Speaker E:His name was Russ Francis, who went on to have a stellar career up in New England.
Speaker C:Oh, yeah, Russ Francis.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker E:So they didn't want to play in the same position, so they switched me to defensive end.
Speaker E:And the rest, as they say, is.
Speaker E:Is history.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:And it ended up working out for both you, George.
Speaker C:And we're certainly glad about that.
Speaker C:Now, you were part of the 86 Giants team.
Speaker C:They won a franchise record 14 games.
Speaker C:Now, that 86 Giants team, George, we know about Coach Parcells.
Speaker C:LT Sims, let's talk a little bit about Bill Parcells.
Speaker C:What made him such a great coach in your eyes?
Speaker E:Oh, without question.
Speaker E:Number one, he could analyze talent almost blindfold.
Speaker E:He had a great nose for who could contribute what.
Speaker E:He knew what your strengths were, he knew what your weaknesses were, and he was able to put together a team that really supported one another.
Speaker E:If you may recall that when Bill came on, he was a little bit apprehensive and a bit upset because the Giants had a general manager.
Speaker E:And he said, listen, if you want me to cook the meals, you got to let me buy the groceries, right?
Speaker E:Remember, he wanted to pick out the talent because after all, he was the one who was going to put it together and he was going to benefit from the success of it.
Speaker E:So Bill had a tremendous sense of talent and abilities, and I was delighted that I myself, along with Harry Carson and Phil Sims, were selected as his team captains.
Speaker C:Exactly.
Speaker C:We're talking to George Martin tonight on Sports Talk New York.
Speaker C:Now, lt, your partner on defense, of course, a Hall of Famer, an all time great, some Say, the best defensive player of all time.
Speaker C:Talk about LT a little bit.
Speaker E:Well, you would quickly run out of words because this guy, beside description, and I can tell you that because I saw it firsthand up close and personal.
Speaker E:He did things that were just not seen before on the football field by a linebacker.
Speaker E:And he had the speed of a wide receiver, he had the strength of an offensive lineman, he had the intellect of quarterback.
Speaker E:I mean, this guy was a complete package.
Speaker E:And the things he did on the field, you know, we as his teammates would look around at each other and said, hey, what the heck's going on here?
Speaker E:And we realized in order for us to be a cohesive team, we had to elevate our game in order to stay competitive with.
Speaker E:With lt. And of course, we never reached his.
Speaker E:His zenith of perfection, but we were good enough to bring our best nine times out of ten.
Speaker E:And that's why we had such a dominating defense along with Harry Carson there in the middle.
Speaker E:We had a great lineb for back in those days.
Speaker C:Yeah, you sure did.
Speaker C:And Phil Sims, not a Hall of Famer, but yet a great clutch quarterback.
Speaker C:What about Phil?
Speaker E:Phil was a.
Speaker E:He was a pleasant surprise.
Speaker E:Of course, you know, when he got drafted, you know, everybody remembered that the, the crowd kind of heckled and laughed because, you know, for Morehead State, Phil Sims and everybody just feel who.
Speaker E:Yeah, right.
Speaker E:I think that made Phil the competitor that he eventually became, because I'll tell you one thing, Phil was the type of guy who had a lot of guts and he didn't back down from anybody.
Speaker E:And we saw that in practice one day when LT busted through and he kind of rough Phil up a bit.
Speaker E:Phil got up and got in his face and he did not back down.
Speaker E:And I'll tell you, from that moment on, Phil Sims earned the respect of every one of his teammates.
Speaker E:And that's what he did on the field.
Speaker E:And I can remember, and I know you're going to get to it, but I remember in the super bowl that that guy had such grit, he had such determination, and he had ability, and it could not have been more evident than the tremendous record that he set out in Super Bowl 21.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:No, you're exactly right, George.
Speaker C:Now, we spoke about those guys who are some of the unsung heroes, guys on that team who don't get the credit.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:You know who I'm talking about?
Speaker E:Of course.
Speaker E:Let me tell you, there's a duo, although one of them did get quite a bit of credit, and they really, really kind of complemented One another.
Speaker E:And that was Joe Morris.
Speaker E:And the backup that was there was his blocking bag, Maurice Carthon.
Speaker E:Maurice Carthon, to me, was the most unsung hero of the Giants during that era because he did his job and he did it with tenacity and with perfection.
Speaker E:And he never uttered a word of complaint or anything.
Speaker E:And he was usually the blocking back for Joe, and he saw Joe get all the notoriety, all the publicity, and he was perfectly fine with that.
Speaker E:And he went on and he did his job and he did it admirably.
Speaker E:And I have such a respect for Joe Morris and for the backfield that we had Maurice Carson because they were a great duo that helped that offense because before it was a team that was primarily a great defensive team and our offense was lacking.
Speaker E:But when those that tandem got there, it really made a huge difference on the offensive side of the ball.
Speaker E:On the defensive side of the ball, if I can say.
Speaker E:Gary Reasons was the one guy who, to me, he was playing with some guys that were actually wore capes.
Speaker E:I mean, these guys were just phenomenal.
Speaker E:They were.
Speaker E:And you know, it's funny because they did a little promo, they did a photograph of them all with Superman capes on.
Speaker E:But Gary Reasons, you know, he was a guy who continually strived to be as good as his co colleagues and he did a heck of a job.
Speaker E:And he was one of the tremendous unsung heroes, along with Maurice Carson during that era.
Speaker C:Those are great teammates, George.
Speaker C:Guys that you described like Gary Reasons, Maurice Carthon.
Speaker C:Those are great teammates.
Speaker C:And as you said, and we described them as unsung heroes.
Speaker C:And just a great answer to that question, George, I thank you so much.
Speaker C: Now, January: Speaker C:Now in the second quarter, you.
Speaker C:You come up with a sack against the great hall of Famer John Elway.
Speaker C:And it went for a safety.
Speaker C:It cut.
Speaker C:It cut the Broncos lead to 10, nine.
Speaker C:And it stayed that way until halftime.
Speaker C:What do you remember about that play, George?
Speaker E:Well, if I can back up just a little bit.
Speaker E:Yeah, go ahead, take a step.
Speaker E:To this day, John Elway probably has a picture of me that he throws darts at because he's real.
Speaker E:If you remember, earlier that year, we played Denver in Giant Stadium, and there was this old, decrepit defensive end left defensive end who intercepted a pass from John Elway.
Speaker E:And to everyone's surprise, including his own, he scampered 78 yards after intercepting that ball all the way into the end zone for a touchdown.
Speaker E:And that was the difference of us winning that game back in that day.
Speaker E:So when we came into the super bowl and we were facing Denver, Elway probably had that in mind.
Speaker E:And he wasn't too happy when that same number 75 corralled him in the end zone and got a two point safety, which gave us the lead and eventually gave us the momentum to eventually win that championship.
Speaker E:And I can remember it as vividly as yesterday because it was a dream come true of unparalleled proportion that we did that.
Speaker E:And, you know, it's something that can never be erased.
Speaker E:And golly, of all my 14 years, obviously that one stands out.
Speaker C:Yeah, I would just like to get Elway on the show sometime, George, and just say George Martin, and see what the guy says.
Speaker C:You know,.
Speaker E:You may have to bleep out the remain.
Speaker C:We have the great number 75, George Martin, with us tonight on Sports Talk New York.
Speaker C: Now, in: Speaker C:Now, that number was five when I believe you, you caught a pass, picked it off against the Cardinals and you had previously tied with four of them and you were tied with a Hall of Famer, Bob Lilly.
Speaker E:Yes, yes, I was.
Speaker E:And when I scored that touchdown you just referenced, I thought that I would be in the lead and be in a league all of my own and it would be something that I could look back on with a great deal of admiration and pride.
Speaker E:But I found out later, which is, it still boggles my mind, I can't figure it out, is that they didn't give me credit for an offensive touchdown.
Speaker E:And I said, wait, what?
Speaker E:How is that possible?
Speaker E:I'm the same person, I'm wearing the same number.
Speaker E:You know, I'm the same man.
Speaker E:But if you score offensive touchdown and you're a defensive player, they don't give you credit for that for some reason.
Speaker C:Yeah, okay.
Speaker E:Yeah, I didn't.
Speaker E:And I scored a touchdown.
Speaker E:Phil Sims threw me a touchdown.
Speaker E:And I was very, very proud because I thought I would break the record at that point in time.
Speaker E:But they say, yep, doesn't count.
Speaker E:You're still at the same number that you were before.
Speaker E:So, you know, that's the way the ball bounces.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Now, I just want to remind folks, George, we'll regress for one second that that run back that the old decrepit defensive end made for 78 yards and the touchdown against that same Broncos team, Coach Marcellus has called that the greatest football play that he's ever seen.
Speaker C:Did you know that?
Speaker E:Yes, I did.
Speaker E:You know, I Don't take that the bow for that.
Speaker E:And I'll tell you why that play would have never have materialized to the point that it did if it wasn't for our defensive back on our team by the name of Mark Collins.
Speaker E:If you go back and look at that play as I'm ambling down the field trying to lateral the ball to Lawrence, not sure whether I'm going to give it to him or not because, you know, if I fumble the ball, I know parcels would crucify me right there on the field.
Speaker E:But as I'm going down the field, there's a contingent of both Giants and Broncos there.
Speaker E:And there's one guy, I think he's a running back who's coming to tackle me.
Speaker E:And Mark Collins sprints the length of the entire field and gets the last block that frees me up to get into the end zone.
Speaker E:And I'll never forget that because that block alone and what he did was to me more impressive than me intercepting the ball and scoring the touchdown.
Speaker E:And I'll be honest with you.
Speaker C:And there's another unsung guy, Mark Collins, guys, that we're talking about tonight.
Speaker C:Now, your seven touchdowns, George came on three interception returns, two fumble returns and or recoveries.
Speaker C:And of course, the lateral return following a block field goal.
Speaker C:Right,.
Speaker E:Right.
Speaker E:Yes.
Speaker E:You did your homework.
Speaker E:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker C:That was when folks may not remember you were lined up as a tight end.
Speaker E:Yes, that's correct.
Speaker E:And by the way, the lateral came from Brian Kelly.
Speaker E:Brian Kelly picked up a fumble.
Speaker E:He rambled down the field and he was getting tackled, I think about on the five or ten yard line.
Speaker E:And he knew he wasn't going to make it, so he just, I guess, impulsively lateral it to me and I took the remaining 10 yards.
Speaker E:And I will always be thankful for what I call him BK for Brian Kelly doing that for me.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Now, your record was since broken, George, by, I believe he's in the hall of Fame.
Speaker C:Jason Taylor.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker E:Down in Miami.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:For the Miami Dolphins.
Speaker C:He notched his seventh defensive touchdown.
Speaker C:I believe he intercepted a pass from Brad Johnson.
Speaker C:But that record no longer stands, folks.
Speaker C:So there you go.
Speaker C:George had to relinquish that title to Jason Taylor, which is not too shabby, but nevertheless, I.
Speaker E:Relinquish it with an asterisk by it because.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker E:When people ask him how many touchdowns did he score, he'll tell you.
Speaker E:8.
Speaker E:People ask me how many touches and I score.
Speaker E:What do I say?
Speaker C:Seven.
Speaker E:No, I don't.
Speaker E:Yeah, right.
Speaker E:Yeah, yeah, of course I Mean, I don't take a touchdown away from me just because I, I scored a touchdown as a offensive tight end.
Speaker E:So.
Speaker E:Yeah, you tell him,.
Speaker C:George.
Speaker C:Tell.
Speaker C:No, that's garbage.
Speaker C:Yeah, make sure you tell them that.
Speaker C:That's for sure.
Speaker E:I'll tell them Jason and I are tied.
Speaker E:Yeah,.
Speaker C:That is true.
Speaker C:Now, you amassed over 90 quarterback sacks.
Speaker C:Now, this is, this is another asterisk here, George, I believe you set me straight.
Speaker C: unting sacks officially until: Speaker C:But the Giants credit you with 96 sacks.
Speaker E:That's correct.
Speaker E:It wasn't an official stat until, as you said, that date that you mentioned, because prior to that it was just another tackle and it wasn't denoted separately from any other tackle.
Speaker E: arted with the giants back in: Speaker E:So, you know, I'm very proud of both my longevity.
Speaker E:I'm proud of my contribution as a player.
Speaker E:I'm proud of the things that I did for the Giants that did not incorporate football.
Speaker E:Also, as being the captain of the team and being the chapel leader and being the president of the NFL Players association and being the executive director of the NFL Alumni Association, I look back on my career in its entirety, and I am very, very proud, pleased with what God allowed me to do.
Speaker E:And it's something that I will always be proud of.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker C:Some resume George.
Speaker C:George Martin with us tonight.
Speaker C:Now, folks may not realize the journey for 9 11.
Speaker C:Let's talk about that quickly.
Speaker C: ,: Speaker C:Now, you wanted to raise money for first responders, for the folks who responded to the terrorist attacks in our country.
Speaker C:Talk a little bit about the journey for 9 11.
Speaker E:Well, first of all, let me talk about the inspiration for it.
Speaker E:I mean, the day of 9 11, for some reason, I didn't go into work early that day.
Speaker E:I stayed home and my wife and I were about to have breakfast when all of a sudden the news came on and we saw this airplane fly into the World Trade Tower.
Speaker E:And like all of the world and certainly all of America, we were paralyzed at that point in time and watched that tragedy unfold.
Speaker E:And what really got to me was this senseless loss of life.
Speaker E:And it was just horrible.
Speaker E:And as an American, I felt very much compelled.
Speaker E:I was angry, but it struck me.
Speaker E:And I felt very much compelled to do something to give back, because it was in New York.
Speaker E:It was in My backyard people who had supported me and loved the Giants.
Speaker E:And I wanted to do something in appreciation and out of respect for those individuals.
Speaker E:And I told my wife I wanted to raise funds for the survivors of 9 11.
Speaker E:And she understood, and she knew the man she married.
Speaker E:She supported me 100%.
Speaker E:And we formed an organization called the Journey for 911, which would see me walk from the George Washington Bridge in New York City all the way out to San Diego, California, some nine months.
Speaker E:And it was second only to the super bowl victory.
Speaker E:That was one of the greatest things that I've ever done in my life.
Speaker C:And I could.
Speaker C:I could say that is rightfully so, George.
Speaker C:I couldn't even fly from New York to San Diego.
Speaker C:I can't imagine walking that.
Speaker C:How did you do it?
Speaker C:How long during a day did you walk, et cetera?
Speaker E:It was very well thought out because fairly Dickinson University helped me draft up the plans for it and had me.
Speaker E:Helped me put together a team.
Speaker E:I had a real good support team of four individuals, and I had, obviously, a vehicle that followed me all the way out there for any emergency or anything like that.
Speaker E:And I set my own objective of 20 miles every day.
Speaker E:And I had to do a minimum of 20 miles every day, five days a week.
Speaker E:And on Saturday, it would be a minimum of 10 miles a day.
Speaker E:And for the seven months that I did that, I only missed one day of not making my objective.
Speaker E:And that was because we had in the flatlands, I believe it was around Oklahoma, where it's so flat, we were facing some headwinds coming from the west in excess of like 60 miles an hour.
Speaker E:And so that was just untenable at that point in time.
Speaker E:So what I decided to do, I didn't want to quit.
Speaker E:What I did, I did something called reverse progression.
Speaker E:And so I drove, had them drive me out 20 miles from the point that we had stopped the previous day.
Speaker E:And I walked from the west to the east, same distance, but in a different direction.
Speaker E:So that's how we made up.
Speaker E:That's how we made up for it.
Speaker C:That is a tremendous contribution to the country, George, and folks should Google that and look it up and truly a great task.
Speaker C:George Martin with us tonight on the program.
Speaker C:George, is there somebody, a coach, a teammate along the way that you've met who has been instrumental in your career?
Speaker E:There's a litany of individuals that is a mile long, and I just want to mention a few of them.
Speaker E:There's a guy who's not an athlete.
Speaker E:He was a friend of mine who I met after my career.
Speaker E:But he had such tenacity.
Speaker E:He had such, I think, determination as a businessman, and he helped me tremendously.
Speaker E:And his name is David Juarest.
Speaker E:And I want to mention that because the transition from the NFL to real life can be traumatic for a lot of guys.
Speaker E:And were it not for this guy named Dave Jurist, George Martin would not have made a successful transition, supported his wife and his four children.
Speaker E:So I will always be indebted to him for that.
Speaker E:The other.
Speaker E:When you mentioned coaches.
Speaker E:Yes.
Speaker E:Bill Parcells is at the top of that list.
Speaker E:Bill Parcells.
Speaker E:There are not enough words to describe how great Bill Parcells was and is to me.
Speaker E:He gave me not only a platform, but he gave me expectations.
Speaker E:And I'll give you a quick story.
Speaker E:One day in practice, there was a guy, a young guy, second first year guy, who was screwing up, and he kept screwing up.
Speaker E:He was jumping offsides.
Speaker E:He was doing things that were just totally incorrect.
Speaker E:And Parcel stopped practice in the middle of the day and called everybody up in the middle of the field.
Speaker E:And he started ranting and raving and cussing.
Speaker E:And we, just as veterans did.
Speaker E:Oh, man, he's going to crucify that young kid.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker E:Bill Parcell, he concludes with this.
Speaker E:He says, this young man, if you screw up one more time, George Martin, I'm going to hold you personally responsible.
Speaker E:And everybody, including myself, was shocked.
Speaker E:But I knew what he did, and it was.
Speaker E:It was ingenious.
Speaker E:He said the.
Speaker E:The actions of one person has a ripple effect on a team.
Speaker E:And, you know, that kid did not want to screw up again and help and hurt the most important person on the team.
Speaker E:And he never made that mistake again.
Speaker E:And I was pissed at the time because I didn't know, what did I do?
Speaker E:What did I have to do with it?
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker E:But parcels, he called me up after practice, he put his arm around me, he said, listen, George, I did that as an example to all of them because if you're not.
Speaker E:If you are not an exception, then they know none of them are.
Speaker E:So they know they're not above criticism.
Speaker E:And that's why I did that.
Speaker E:And I respect him immensely to this day for that.
Speaker C:That's brilliant, George.
Speaker C:That is a wonderful story.
Speaker E:Absolutely brilliant.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And there's a reason why that man's got a bust in Canton, that's for sure.
Speaker C:Now, what you.
Speaker E:Mentioned the bus.
Speaker E:You mentioned the busting Canton.
Speaker E:Now Bill Parcel gets inducted into the hall of Fame, Right?
Speaker E:So you know, Phil Sims or Lawrence Taylor or Harry Carson and these multiple all pro guys are going to be the ones that induct him into the hall of Fame.
Speaker C:But we know that's not true, though, George,.
Speaker E:You could have knocked me over with a feather when he asked me to induct him.
Speaker E:That.
Speaker E:That to me is the greatest off field acknowledgment that I've had as a Giant.
Speaker E:And I say that with all honesty.
Speaker C:Yeah, that is just amazing that out of all those guys, he picks George Martin.
Speaker C:Not that you don't deserve it, George, but you know, you know what I'm trying to say.
Speaker E:Exactly.
Speaker E:I agree with 100%.
Speaker E:You're absolutely right.
Speaker C:Well, that's a credit to you and it's a credit to Bill for picking out a guy who is integral in the success of his football teams.
Speaker C:Now, quickly, in the one minute we have left, George, what keeps you busy these days?
Speaker E:Well, I'm completely retired, but I do my speaking engagement and there are a lot of people, there are a lot of schools, there's a lot of corporations, there are a lot of individuals who like for me to come and talk about my success as a former professional athlete and then talk about the transition from being a professional athlete to being a civilian and more importantly, the education.
Speaker E:Because a huge number of guys back when we played did not finish college.
Speaker E:And one of my greatest achievements was I developed a degree completion program with Fairleigh Dickinson University and the New York Giants whereby we, as current professional athletes could go back and finish our college degrees while we were playing.
Speaker E:And that's a program that I'm just absolutely abuzz about.
Speaker C:That is outstanding.
Speaker C:Well, George Martin, it's been a pleasure.
Speaker C:I thank you for taking time out of your Sunday night and spending with us here on Sports Talk New York.
Speaker C:I wish you all the best, sir.
Speaker C:Stay well, and thanks again.
Speaker E:It was an absolute honor.
Speaker E:Thank you, sir.
Speaker C:That's George Martin, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker C:Up next, we will switch gears and welcome in one of the greatest drummers of all time, certainly known to us in the Tri State area.
Speaker C:Joe Franco will join us.
Speaker C:So stick around, folks.
Speaker C:All right, folks, we are back.
Speaker C:We're back with Sports Talk New York, excuse me.
Speaker C:On WGBB radio here in Merrick, Long Island, New York.
Speaker C:And right now, as we do from time to time, we're gonna switch gears and bring you someone from outside our usual realm of the sports world.
Speaker C:Our next guest is a drummer.
Speaker C:He's known for his legendary work with the Good Rats, later with Twisted Sister.
Speaker C:He is enshrined in the Long Island Music and Entertainment hall of Fame.
Speaker C:As a member of the Good Rats, and if you're a Rats fan, you may know that this gentleman is.
Speaker C:Was also a dishwasher in old Jackson City, Wyoming.
Speaker C:So I welcome to the show tonight, Joe Franco.
Speaker C:Joe, good evening.
Speaker E:Hey, Bill, how are you?
Speaker C:We're doing great, my friend.
Speaker C:How's everything with you?
Speaker E:Everything is wonderful.
Speaker C:Good man, good man.
Speaker C:I'm glad to hear that.
Speaker C:And I'm sure the folks are so happy to hear from you, Joe, After a layoff of a little bit from the Rats.
Speaker C:Anyway, you've been busy.
Speaker C:I know now, so many drummers that we talk to on the show.
Speaker C:One that I could think of right off the bat is Liberty DeVito.
Speaker C:Joe.
Speaker C:He.
Speaker C: ,: Speaker C:And was that your inspiration, my friend?
Speaker E:Exactly.
Speaker E:And as Lib will tell you, Lib and I, I think, have the same record collection.
Speaker E:We are.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker E:Brothers from another mother.
Speaker F:You know, like, it's kind of like that night changed my life, you know.
Speaker F:I mean, at the time, it was like, okay, Mickey Mantle's really cool, but this guy is way cooler, and we have a drum set in the house.
Speaker F:And I started playing along with Beatle records, and it changed my life.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And you practice regularly after that and tell us about your approach to the music back during those times in the 60s.
Speaker E:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker E:Well, you know, in the 60s, the Beatles and Stones, of course, and Kinks, Animals.
Speaker E:I mean, that was the Invasion, and it was amazing.
Speaker E:And I really love playing along with the records, you know.
Speaker E:But the second wave of the British Invasion, as.
Speaker F:I call it, was when who and Hendrix and Cream came out.
Speaker F:I mean, Hendrix was American, but he broke in England.
Speaker F:When that wave came out, it really.
Speaker F:I wanted to be a really good drummer.
Speaker F:I mean, Ginger Baker and Mitch Mitchell, Keith Moon, that just blew me away.
Speaker F:So that's probably the next level of influence.
Speaker F:And then in the 70s, there was all the fusion stuff, Billy Cobham and Tony Williams and all that.
Speaker F:So that carved my identity, you know, because I borrowed a little from everyone and came up with my thing and wound up in the good rats in 72.
Speaker F:Late 72.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So, Joe, you really went from idolizing, we'll use that word loosely, a solid backbeat drummer like Richard Starkey.
Speaker C:And you quickly were drawn to the power guys like Ginger Baker, like Keith Moon.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker F:Exactly, exactly.
Speaker F:It was kind of like, you know, there was other guys.
Speaker F:I mean, didn't mention everyone, but, you know, Ringo came Out.
Speaker F:And then being a Long island guy at the time.
Speaker F:Well, I was a New York City guy, but that's Long Island.
Speaker F:Dino Danelli, the Young Rascals.
Speaker F:I mean, that was kind of like the American Beatles.
Speaker F:And, you know, in that era, the Fudge, the Vagrants, you know, that was another big part of it, you know.
Speaker F:And then, yeah, when Cream and Hendrix came out, it just did elevate the whole thing.
Speaker F:It elevated what you can do on the instrument.
Speaker F:You know, I'm not taking anything away from Ringo and Charlie.
Speaker F:I mean, they were the first.
Speaker F:They're the ones that influenced everyone else, you know.
Speaker F:But I love the evolution of, you know, what you're able to do on the instrument.
Speaker C:Exactly.
Speaker C:Now, you were involved with a band early on called Harlequin.
Speaker C:Now, is that the band that was playing Long island clubs around the.
Speaker C:Yeah, okay.
Speaker C:No.
Speaker C:Oh, no.
Speaker C:We were playing,.
Speaker F:Like, the Electric Circus.
Speaker F:We were playing, like, you know, all the cool New York City clubs.
Speaker F:Cafe Roi, Cafe Bazaar.
Speaker F:And we were called Harlequin.
Speaker F:And then, you know, this is going back.
Speaker F:We're talking like, 60s, you know, late 60s, early 70s.
Speaker F:Then there was a.
Speaker F:There was a Harlequin in Long island in the mid-70s, I guess.
Speaker C:Yeah,.
Speaker F:Yeah.
Speaker F:Totally.
Speaker F:Totally different band.
Speaker F:Okay.
Speaker F:I can't believe you even knew that.
Speaker C:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker C:Now I remember.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I'm an old b.
Speaker C:A b. Lir.
Speaker C:New guy.
Speaker C:And I remember the ads for the clubs.
Speaker C:Speaks and all that and stuff like that.
Speaker C:Well,.
Speaker F:That was good Rats.
Speaker F:Yeah.
Speaker F:Yeah, there was definitely Good Rats.
Speaker F:And.
Speaker F:And.
Speaker F:And Speaks is probably my favorite club.
Speaker F:I was.
Speaker C:Gonna ask you that, Joe.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker F:And you didn't see a bar.
Speaker F:You know what I mean?
Speaker F:Not that there was anything wrong with playing in bars, but when you were on the stage in Speaks, you can look way back and just see a sea of people.
Speaker F:Right.
Speaker F:I love playing that club.
Speaker C:Yeah, it was big.
Speaker C:It was bigger than most of the bars that.
Speaker C:I won't even call it a bar.
Speaker C:The clubs that we used to go to back then, and as you say, just people standing on the floor watching the band.
Speaker C:It was for music.
Speaker C:It wasn't too much for going and getting hammered, that's for sure.
Speaker C:No, no,.
Speaker F:It was for the music.
Speaker F:Well, you know the history of that club.
Speaker F:It was the Action House and it was the Rock Pile, and then it was Speak, and then I think it was the Obi or something.
Speaker F:And then the Speech, you know.
Speaker F:So it started out as the Action House, where the Rascals and the Fudge and the Vagrants and all those Bands that I just mentioned used to play, they were the big bands of that day.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:We're speaking with Joe Franco tonight on.
Speaker C:Well, we'll still call it Sports Talk New York, because that's the name of the show, Joe.
Speaker C:But as I said, as I said, in the open, we occasionally get a musician on here.
Speaker C:I've had Liberty DeVito, I've had Jim Messina, just to mention a few.
Speaker C:And I enjoy that.
Speaker C:I enjoy.
Speaker C:My audience is used to that.
Speaker C:So that's what we're doing.
Speaker C:But now the Rats.
Speaker C:Let's get to the Rats.
Speaker C:Something that everybody wants to hear.
Speaker C:The transition from local club performances to the Rats, it really elevated your profile, so to speak.
Speaker F:Sure.
Speaker F:I mean, you know, we played constantly.
Speaker F:You know, it was kind of like something that you can't do nowadays.
Speaker F:You know, play like five, six, seven nights a week.
Speaker F:You develop.
Speaker F:You really develop your chops.
Speaker F:It's like I could have laid off for 10 years and still got behind the drum kit and made it happen after that, 10 years, because I was in that band for 72 to 82.
Speaker F:And.
Speaker F:Yeah, I mean, you know, we started out playing not only smaller places, but we started out where we had to play cover songs, even though Pepe was writing songs.
Speaker F:And we, you know, the first thing we did were good rap songs, but then it was like, oh, want to work?
Speaker F:Well, we'd have to.
Speaker F:You know, we.
Speaker F:We developed a 50, 50 kind of thing.
Speaker F:And then sometimes when we played our own songs, we say, like, oh, here's a new song by the Stones.
Speaker F:It just came out this week.
Speaker F:And.
Speaker F:And we played 300 boys or something, you know, but like.
Speaker F:But yeah, you know, it was an evolution.
Speaker F:You know, when we first started with Good Rats, we played five sets a night at the Obis.
Speaker F:It was that kind of thing.
Speaker F:And what was really fortunate for us was wlir they loved us and got a hold of our demo tapes of our original songs, and they started playing our songs.
Speaker F:So that made it acceptable for us to go in the bars and play good rap music, you know.
Speaker F:Yeah.
Speaker F:So that was a big help for us, and it helped land about Warner Brothers deal and the rest, you know.
Speaker F:You know, we did six, seven records.
Speaker F:I forgot how many over the next 10 years.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Lir, as you mentioned, Joe was a real good friend of the Rats.
Speaker C:They, yeah, did live remotes many times.
Speaker C:I have the cassettes taped off the radio from the party in the parks to my father's place where you guys did your live album.
Speaker C:I mean, Lir really was a friend.
Speaker F:Yeah, they really were.
Speaker F:And even before we recorded, even before the Tasty album, they used to do these concerts from Ultrasonic Studios in Hempstead, and they invited us to do one of those.
Speaker F:And this is even before Tasty, because they were playing our music.
Speaker F:And so that was really, really a great time, you know.
Speaker F:And, you know, for me, that was my 20s, so what a great time to grow up doing that kind of thing, you know.
Speaker F:Oh, yeah.
Speaker C:Now you guys.
Speaker F:And, you know, the way Long island and Jersey and Connecticut were back in those days, you know, the drinking age was 18.
Speaker F:Sure.
Speaker F:So if you were 16 with some phony proof, you were in the bars.
Speaker C:You were in.
Speaker C:Yeah, Like.
Speaker C:Like I tell people, Joe, every.
Speaker C:Every corner had a bar and every bar had a band.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:Unbelievable.
Speaker C:You could see great live music.
Speaker C:You could go from Speaks out to Suffolk to the Mad Hatter out to the Body Barn to the Clipper, and you'd see a great band.
Speaker F:Yeah, people love traveling with their band.
Speaker F:Like, you know, so we would do the Tri State area, and some of our Jersey fans were like, oh, we want to see you guys in Long island and see what that's like.
Speaker F:It even became that kind of a following where they would follow you doing the whole Tri State thing, you know?
Speaker C:And then there was the upstate college circuit that you guys did.
Speaker C:Oh, the SUNY.
Speaker C:I used to call it the.
Speaker F:Route 90 Tour.
Speaker F:We go from Albany to Utica to Syria, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, you know.
Speaker F:Yeah,.
Speaker C:I went to Oswego, and you guys used to stop by Oswego once or twice.
Speaker F:We did Oswego, Sure.
Speaker C:Yeah,.
Speaker F:Sure.
Speaker F:81 North from Syracuse.
Speaker C:Oh, yeah, yeah, that's it, Joe.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's the deal now.
Speaker C:But Rochester, you guys were huge in Rochester.
Speaker C:I. I remember.
Speaker C:I think.
Speaker F:We were bigger there than we were in Long Island.
Speaker F:I know it's hard to believe because everyone thinks of us as a Long island band, but somehow Rochester had a progressive AM station called wsay, and they would be playing us constantly.
Speaker F:Whenever we played Rochester, we'd go up on the station, do an interview, and it just snowballed and that became our town.
Speaker C:Yeah, definitely big.
Speaker C:You guys did that live album from one of the colleges up there with Beat Up Rambler on it.
Speaker C:I remember that when I got it somewhere in the house.
Speaker C:But you guys opened up for bands like Kiss, Aerosmith, Springsteen at the Garden at the Coliseum.
Speaker C:What were some of your favorite gigs for the nationally known acts, Joe, that you guys did?
Speaker F:I really enjoyed when we opened for Rush.
Speaker F:We did dates with them back in The Hemispheres tour.
Speaker F:Oh, I remember at the Coliseum.
Speaker F:Neil was such a cool guy.
Speaker F:The first show was at Nassau Coliseum and he was checking out our sound check and after it introduced himself asked if I wanted to play on his set.
Speaker F:And he was checking out my set.
Speaker F:It was just a real nice kind of mix.
Speaker F:And then unfortunately Getty and Pepe didn't have that kind of a thing.
Speaker F:But we won't get into that.
Speaker F:Okay, that was a good moment.
Speaker F:Journey, that was a band that we got played with a lot and we really liked each other.
Speaker F:It was, you know, just a good chemistry.
Speaker F:And we play with them in the early days before Steve Perry.
Speaker F:Actually we play when they were four piece with Ainsley Dunbar and Greg Raleigh was doing most of the vocals.
Speaker F:And then we played with them again with Perry in the band.
Speaker F:And so yeah, I think that was probably, I would say probably Journey was our favorite band to play with, but we played way up with C, Trick and Hart.
Speaker F:You know, what happened is like we were so big in the Northeast, so these bands that couldn't sell tickets in the Northeast, the promoters would put us on the bill and they knew they were good for another couple of thousand tickets.
Speaker F:And that's how we got to play with all these bands.
Speaker F:We helped them out and they helped us out.
Speaker C:I went to the Coliseum that night to see the Rats.
Speaker C:Not Rush, it just happened to be Rush on the stage.
Speaker C:You know, I stuck around for their set too, but I went to see the Rats.
Speaker F:Well then, then you remember what happened.
Speaker F:They wouldn't let us come out for an encore because we went on late and played too long.
Speaker F:We didn't know about union rules.
Speaker F:We're bar band, you know, we played too long and so the people going nuts after our show and we went to go back out and they wouldn't let us on, they wouldn't let us go back out.
Speaker F:And that was the run in with Pepe and Getty the next day.
Speaker F:You know, Pepe said to get it, you know, you guys really hurt yourself last night by not allowing us to play.
Speaker F:And he just, you know, he didn't want to hear about it.
Speaker F:You know, he was looking at throw us off the tour.
Speaker F:So you know, it started off good, but then after that first night it got a little sour.
Speaker C:Interesting.
Speaker C:Joe Franco with us tonight on the show.
Speaker C:What were some of your favorite Rats numbers to play?
Speaker C:Joe?
Speaker F:Oh geez, there's so many of them.
Speaker F:Reason to kill, you know.
Speaker F:I love Detroit, make you feel good.
Speaker F:I love Fireball Express.
Speaker F:The energy numbers, Fireball Express Clash Kebab, Rat City in Blue, Beat Up Rambler.
Speaker C:Yeah, I prefer the.
Speaker F:High energy stuff, you know.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Now, Clash kebab, how did the solo and clash kebab come about?
Speaker C:How did you guys institute that into the live shows?
Speaker F:Well, it evolved.
Speaker F:You know, it started out we didn't even have that 6, 8 section in the original song.
Speaker F:6 8.
Speaker F:The time signature.
Speaker F:And then we.
Speaker F:It evolved into that, and that was my favorite groove to play in.
Speaker F:And so I took it from there.
Speaker F:You know, we got into that 6, 8 section at the end, and they let me loose on it, and that became like a big part of our live show.
Speaker F:And, yeah, it just evolved.
Speaker F:It wasn't in the original composition, but the cool thing about Pepe is Pepe was a songwriter, but he used to allow us to arrange this stuff and put our identity into the Good Rats.
Speaker F:And, you know, not all songwriters are like that.
Speaker F:Songwriters come in and this is the way the song goes.
Speaker F:And Pepe came in with lyrics and melody, but he'd let us have some fun with the thing, you know, And.
Speaker F:And I think that, to me, that was the greatest part of the Good Rats.
Speaker F:You know, it had all these different personalities built into that sound.
Speaker F:And that was more like that on the first three records, I thought.
Speaker F:Yeah.
Speaker C:What was your favorite record to make, Joe?
Speaker F:My favorite record to make was From Rats to Riches.
Speaker C:Nice.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker F:Because we were big Flow and Eddie fans.
Speaker F:Okay.
Speaker F:And I remember they used to write in the back of Cream magazine.
Speaker F:They had this column where they would review albums.
Speaker F:And they reviewed Tasty, and they were like, oh, this is really good.
Speaker F:And then I remember a couple of weeks later, they reviewed an album.
Speaker F:They said, this is kind of like the Good Rats, but not as good.
Speaker F:Damn, these guys are fans.
Speaker F:So they were playing the Bottom Line as Flo and Eddie right after we got our deal with Marty Scott.
Speaker F:Passport, and Passport was distributed by Aristotle.
Speaker F:Right, right.
Speaker F:And we were shopping producers, and I told Marty, I said, look, Flo and Eddie are huge Good Rat fans.
Speaker F:Would it be cool to approach them?
Speaker F:And he was like, absolutely.
Speaker F:So they were playing at the Bottom Line, and me and Vicki went down.
Speaker F:We hung with them.
Speaker F:They were just thrilled to meet us.
Speaker F:We told them about the situation.
Speaker F:They said, we'd love to produce you guys.
Speaker F:So we went into Kingdom Sound in Syosset, and basically they just let us play.
Speaker F:They go, you guys are a great live band.
Speaker F:Just play.
Speaker F:And they were in the control room smoking weed, eating McDonald's and Carvel and having a party, and they just Let us do our thing.
Speaker F:And that's why I feel it was the best record.
Speaker F:Because we were a band, we had an identity, we had a sound.
Speaker F:We didn't need to be the producer's band.
Speaker F:We were our own band, you know?
Speaker F:And I think that that record reflected that more than any of the other records we did.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Tremendous album.
Speaker C:From Rats to Riches.
Speaker C:I've had Mark on the show before.
Speaker C:He was a great man.
Speaker F:Yeah, Mark Bowman was amazing, and so was Howard.
Speaker F:They're just two beautiful people.
Speaker F:And.
Speaker F:And, yeah, yeah.
Speaker F:What can I say?
Speaker F:I saw Howard at his book signing.
Speaker F:This might be 10 years ago.
Speaker F:He did a book signing in Manhattan for his book.
Speaker F:And then, as you know, Mark has a book as well.
Speaker F:And his book was more of a compilation of people talking about him and reflecting on his career.
Speaker F:And then bounced back on to him.
Speaker F:It's a great read.
Speaker F:But, yeah, those guys are a big part of rock history.
Speaker F:They send background for so many records that people aren't even aware of, you know?
Speaker F:Yeah.
Speaker F:And all.
Speaker F:All the.
Speaker F:Of course, all the Zappa stuff.
Speaker F:And.
Speaker F:Yeah, they.
Speaker F:They're legends.
Speaker C:Yeah, they are, Joe.
Speaker C:You're exactly right.
Speaker C:Joe Franco's with us tonight on the program now, Pepe and the Lunatics.
Speaker C:That was one of my favorite gigs.
Speaker C:I have that tape live from lir.
Speaker C:How did that come about?
Speaker F:Well, you know, it was just.
Speaker F:It was a time.
Speaker F:It was the early 80s.
Speaker F:Okay.
Speaker F:And late 70s.
Speaker F:Early 80s is when the whole New Wave thing came about, you know?
Speaker F:And like it or not, you had to be influenced by what you were hearing.
Speaker F:Right.
Speaker F:So we were big fans of the Cars and the Police and all of that stuff.
Speaker F:But it wasn't really good rat stuff, you know?
Speaker F:But Pepe, we started writing songs, and it was more like Cars, Police, Vivo, the stuff he was being influenced by.
Speaker F:And we took a break.
Speaker F:We used to take a vacation every once in a while, and we took a break.
Speaker F:And Pepe wanted to go out and play these new songs that he's been writing.
Speaker F:So he asked if I do it, of course.
Speaker F:And then the friend of mine, Lloyd Landesman, who I've known since I was 12, played in bands with him.
Speaker F:Yeah, I used to be a big Stanton deal.
Speaker F:Played bass.
Speaker C:Used to be a big Stanton guy, too.
Speaker C:Joe.
Speaker C:So I. Yeah, Lloyd.
Speaker F:Okay.
Speaker F:So you know Lloyd from when he joined Stanton after that.
Speaker F:Yeah,.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker F:Absolutely.
Speaker F:Yeah.
Speaker F:So basically, we changed the band around and we had Bruce and Skyler in the band.
Speaker F:And we didn't really have a lot of new stuff because Pepe had just finished writing all these lunatic songs, and that became great American music.
Speaker F:That's all the lunatic songs in New York.
Speaker F:Survivor, Icy Cold and Julie.
Speaker F:That's all lunatic stuff.
Speaker C:Yeah, and that stuff worked, too.
Speaker C:It was good stuff.
Speaker F:Yeah, it was good.
Speaker F:It was interesting.
Speaker F:I listened to that album recently because supposedly it was the 45th anniversary and some guy from Greece asked if I'd do an interview with him and talk about great American music.
Speaker F:So maybe put it on and listen to it again.
Speaker F:And it's a really interesting record, but you hear the influences.
Speaker F:You hear Police, you hear Cars, you hear Vivo.
Speaker F:You hear what we were listening to back then, you know.
Speaker F:So it wasn't the Good Rats, that Tasty and Rat City and Blue and Rats, the Riches were, you know.
Speaker C:No, yeah, it was definitely different.
Speaker C:Punkier, a little different line.
Speaker C:That's.
Speaker C:That is correct, Joe.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Now, let's talk a little bit about Twisted.
Speaker C:How'd you get involved with Twisted Sister?
Speaker F:I've known those guys forever.
Speaker F:You know, I've known those guys when they used to open for Good Rats before Dean was in the band.
Speaker F:So I was kind of like the Natural the call when AJ left in 86.
Speaker F:And then.
Speaker F:So I joined the band, recorded an album with them in 87, did a short tour, and he told me, look, I really want to do this new band.
Speaker F:New band, do this record with Twisted, but I really want to do a new band, and I'd like you to play drums.
Speaker F:And that band evolved into Widowmaker.
Speaker F:And it's a long story, because it was first Desperado.
Speaker F:And long story short, that was the beginning of Widowmaker.
Speaker F:A lot of the Desperado songs are on the Widowmaker album and like that.
Speaker F:So that was the evolution.
Speaker F:And to be honest, I was more of a Dee Snyder drummer than a Twisted Sister drummer because I did many projects with Dee since Twisted, you know, the Widowmaker Records and the Van Helsing's Curse.
Speaker F:And I toured with the.
Speaker F:A couple of summers in a row, like, 10 years ago, where we would do Euro festivals and state fairs and casinos in the Heartland.
Speaker F:And so, yeah, and we're still best of friends.
Speaker F:We had dinner, like, two weeks ago.
Speaker C:Yeah, you fit in great with Twisted.
Speaker C:You've collaborated, Joe, with so many famous people who were some of your favorites that you collaborated with.
Speaker C:That stand out in your mind?
Speaker F:Well, I mean, some of the stuff that I.
Speaker F:That I really proud of probably sold, like, 20 records, you know.
Speaker F:I mean, I played with a lot of really great guitarists like Vinnie Moore, Blue Saraceno.
Speaker F:I Did a record with Leslie west and Jack Bruce.
Speaker F:I did a record with Steve Walsh.
Speaker F:No one even knows that record, but it's fantastic.
Speaker F:It's called Shadow Man.
Speaker F:And I did Eddie Ojda's solo record that was a lot of fun.
Speaker F:And we co produced it together.
Speaker F:And it's really hard to say because when you're doing a record, it's like the greatest thing in the world, then you move on to another one.
Speaker F:And while you're doing that, that's the greatest thing.
Speaker F:Have a lot of moments.
Speaker F:And then in the late 80s, early 90s 90s, I got into programming and did records with Mariah Carey and Celine Dion, Taylor Dane, Diana Ross, all these divas, you know, because I hooked up with this guy, Rick Wake, and he was producing all those records and he liked what I was doing.
Speaker F:And they were all programmed because that's just that era, that's what they wanted.
Speaker F:They wanted to be able to change the drum sounds before they mixed if they wanted.
Speaker F:So I got into that end of it as well.
Speaker C:In the few minutes we have left.
Speaker C:Joe, I know you do a lot of instructing now, double bass drumming.
Speaker C:Let's talk about double bass drumming.
Speaker F:Well, you know, there wasn't really a book on double bass drumming.
Speaker F:And in the mid-80s, well, not even mid-80s.
Speaker F:As soon as I left Good Rats, I went to play with this band, Chilliwack.
Speaker F: back from there, it was like: Speaker F:So I'd been wanting to write a book and that was the perfect time to do it.
Speaker F:So I would teach every Monday and Tuesday at the Long Island Drum center, one in Commack, one in Merrick.
Speaker F:And I wrote this book and it became.
Speaker F:It's still a staple for double bass players.
Speaker F:And I'm really proud of it because, you know, it was just me, you know, it wasn't like me in a band.
Speaker F:It was just like my.
Speaker F:My work.
Speaker F:And I'm very proud of it.
Speaker F:Yeah.
Speaker C:What are you doing these days, Joe?
Speaker F:Robbing golf.
Speaker C:Good.
Speaker C:Good for you.
Speaker C:Yeah,.
Speaker F:I'm down in Florida right now.
Speaker F:We're here half the year from mid spring to mid fall.
Speaker F:We, you know, we.
Speaker F:We love New York, but come mid fall, we love it down here.
Speaker F:Yeah.
Speaker F:So we kind of divide our life between the two.
Speaker F:And I play drums every day.
Speaker F:It's just that, you know, I love being outside and outdoors and I love the golf game.
Speaker F:It's one of those, you know, it's always going to kick your ass.
Speaker C:Yeah, I hear you, Joe.
Speaker C:Well, it's been a pleasure being with you tonight.
Speaker C:I thank you for taking time out of your Sunday night to spend it with us back up here on the island.
Speaker C:All the best, Joe.
Speaker C:Hit him straight, hit him long, and we'll talk to you down the road.
Speaker F:That sounds great.
Speaker F:Have a great night.
Speaker C:You, too.
Speaker C:Thanks again, Joe.
Speaker C:That's Joe Franco, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker C: parachutist from the: Speaker C:So stick around, folks.
Speaker D:You are listening to Sports Talk New York.
Speaker D: FM and: Speaker D:You're listening to Sports Talk New York on Long Island's wgb.
Speaker D:And now back to the show.
Speaker C:All right, folks, we are back with Sports Talk New York on WGB radio, AM FM on your radio dial.
Speaker C:Does anyone still have a radio, a Marconi device as I call it?
Speaker C:You could, you could listen in your car online via the web or you can get us via the free Tune in app.
Speaker C:Just tune to wgb.
Speaker C:Very easy.
Speaker C:We're Long Island's oldest radio station with Long Island's oldest host.
Speaker C:Right, Brian?
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker C:No, no, no.
Speaker C:And we're heading into the home stretch tonight.
Speaker C:Just want to mention as we did earlier, the passing of the great Mets left hander Jerry Koozman today in Minnesota.
Speaker C: ed by the Mets, a hero of the: Speaker C:Really hurts, that one.
Speaker C:Really hurts, folks.
Speaker C:But we got to move on and we have a unique guest for you folks tonight as we finish up.
Speaker C: of the: Speaker C:As we remember, it was broadcast on national television by the great Vin Scully.
Speaker C:He was wearing a sign proclaiming Go Mets.
Speaker C:So I'd like to welcome to Sports Talk New York tonight.
Speaker C:Michael Sergio and his lovely wife Orschel will join us very shortly.
Speaker C:Michael, Good evening,.
Speaker E:Bill.
Speaker E:How are you?
Speaker C:We're doing wonderful tonight.
Speaker C:Michael.
Speaker C:How are things by you?
Speaker E:Good.
Speaker E:And when you say unique, you mean I dress unique, I comb my hair unique.
Speaker C:Yes,.
Speaker E:People call me many Things.
Speaker E:But unique isn't one of them.
Speaker C:Well, it's.
Speaker C:You're a unique guest to us because we have.
Speaker C:Well, we just had Joe Franco from the Good Rats on.
Speaker C:So I. I have musicians on occasionally actors, actresses from sports films, but mostly athletes.
Speaker C:So you're in a different.
Speaker C:Different line of work, so to speak.
Speaker C:So that's why I called you Unique.
Speaker C:It wasn't anything negative at all.
Speaker C:It was just the way I chose to describe you, that's all.
Speaker E:I think it's a good thing I'm gonna stop there.
Speaker E:I'm gonna have, what you call me Mr.
Speaker E:Unique from now on.
Speaker E:Okay, here we go.
Speaker C: let's talk about, of course,: Speaker C:Michael.
Speaker C:Let's talk about the event.
Speaker C:How did it.
Speaker C:How was it planned?
Speaker C:How did it unfold?
Speaker C:What can you tell us?
Speaker E:Well, it's so.
Speaker E:It's so rich.
Speaker G:And all the things that had to get done just to jump into the stadium.
Speaker G:And you know what?
Speaker G:It's 40 years ago,.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker G:In my brain, it still feels like maybe it's like six, seven years.
Speaker G:I mean, it's like.
Speaker G:But it's 40 years ago.
Speaker G:And at that time, I had just over 2,000 parachute jumps already.
Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker G:And even that.
Speaker G:I think back on it and say, whoa, wow, wow, wow.
Speaker E:But it.
Speaker E:Let me just start with a little story for you.
Speaker C:Go ahead, Michael.
Speaker E:My mother used to work for Harry M. Stevens at Shea when Shea opened up in 64.
Speaker C:Sure.
Speaker C:Harry M. Stevens.
Speaker C:Folks may remember Harry M. Stevens was in charge of concessions at Shea Stadium.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker E:I like to think of the hot dogs, you know, they were just great.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker E:And she used to.
Speaker E:So at that time, I guess I was, like, 13, maybe 14.
Speaker E:She would take.
Speaker E:We lived in the story, and she would kind of make me come with her to go to.
Speaker E:So that when she went home, I was there to make sure, you know, everybody got home safely.
Speaker E:And I.
Speaker E:So that's.
Speaker E:That whole summer, that whole season, actually, except when school went back on.
Speaker E:I was there at Shea Stadium, and I fell in love with Shea Stadium.
Speaker E:I fell in love with the.
Speaker E:The fact that the bleachers were not only baseball bleachers, but they turned into football bleachers.
Speaker E:And so they were empty underneath.
Speaker E:I used to go in the bleachers underneath that.
Speaker H:And we.
Speaker E:Went.
Speaker E:My brother and I went all over that stadium.
Speaker E:And I.
Speaker G:Just actually fell in love with Shea Stadium because it really reminded me of, like, a gladiator pit, you know, the way it was round.
Speaker G:And you would see that you expect the chariots to come out.
Speaker G:You Know, and.
Speaker E:So I had a very.
Speaker G:Deep schooling on Shay and the Mets themselves.
Speaker G:It was Mets, Mets, Mets, Mets, Mets, Mets.
Speaker G:You know, I mean, it was just all the time.
Speaker G:But that's how I kind of get close to feeling past having feelings about the Mets, very strong feelings about the Mets.
Speaker G:And right about that period, a little bit younger, my mother also took me to Coney Island.
Speaker G:I think I was eight or nine at that point.
Speaker G:And they had the parachute jump there.
Speaker G:And they weren't supposed to let kids eight or nine go on, but somehow she got me on.
Speaker G:And the very first time, you may be sitting in the chair, and it's just like a ski chair sort of.
Speaker G:You'll go skiing, and it's going up, it's going up, it's going up.
Speaker G:And as it's going up, I'm looking at the horizon and coming from the city, you know, it's.
Speaker G:It's.
Speaker E:Usually rooftops and buses, you know, but this was unbelievable.
Speaker E:And I'm sitting in this chair, and there's a parachute over our head.
Speaker E:And the parachute's being pulled up to the top of the lake.
Speaker E:The Eiffel Tower, it kind of looks like, but.
Speaker E:Right.
Speaker E:You know, and I'm looking out over the ocean.
Speaker E:I'm thinking, this is just beautiful.
Speaker E:I mean, it was it.
Speaker E:And then all of a sudden, they let go of the parachute.
Speaker E:The parachute comes down.
Speaker E:So that's another thing that really burnt itself right into me.
Speaker E:I mean, so there's a couple things that if you draw a line, you can probably say, oh, I see how this might lead somewhere, you know, now, to answer what you said.
Speaker E:And, you know, I have a hard time sometimes talking about this because I don't want it.
Speaker E:I don't want the conversation to be anything except about the.
Speaker E:About the Mets, especially 86.
Speaker E:That's its own world right there.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker E:And I really, very seldomly.
Speaker E:I mean, I will have short talks or something like that, but I really don't have long conversations about it because to me, the 86 myths are almost like sacred, you know?
Speaker E:I mean, it just.
Speaker E:Boom.
Speaker E:And they were having so much fun anyway.
Speaker E:Boom.
Speaker E:But the story starts with, again, I've got around 2,000 parachute jumps, and at the time, I'm doing a soap opera called Loving.
Speaker G:I'd come off a Broadway play called I Love My Wife.
Speaker G:And so I was working for ABC in a sub called Loving.
Speaker G:And I'm watching every day what's going on with the Mets.
Speaker G:And like, a couple days before, I think they were.
Speaker G:It was game four up In Boston, and the Sox, the Sox fans were taking bunches of balloons.
Speaker E:They had a guy, a sign on it that said, go socks.
Speaker E:And they were just pushing it out over the field, and it would come down and it was.
Speaker E:It's like balloons, you know.
Speaker E:Oh, whoopee doo.
Speaker E:Balloons and.
Speaker C:Big deal, right?
Speaker E:You know, it was just like, I.
Speaker E:You know, this is where I just start to get plugged up on it, because I only want to say nice things about people.
Speaker E:But if all they had up there were balloons coming down and, you know, and then all of a sudden, I start to get it under my skin and you hear people talking about, look how much they love.
Speaker E:Look how much Fenway loves the team and all the people up there, they love the Boston team.
Speaker E:And it was Boston, Boston, Boston, Boston, Boston.
Speaker E:And it just kind of popped in my head.
Speaker E:I said, you know, in Boston, they got the women's.
Speaker E:What can we give them in New York?
Speaker E:And that's just where.
Speaker E:That's how it folded together in my brain.
Speaker C:Okay?
Speaker E:So, well, I could jump in.
Speaker E:I could.
Speaker E:You know, so that started going in my head, and that turned into a freight train.
Speaker E:And that freight train turned into a lot of stuff, including me winding up in federal prison for it.
Speaker E:But.
Speaker E:But it goes on.
Speaker E:I mean, the story itself, it's a wonderful story.
Speaker E:You know, I'm so happy that, yes, it is 40 years ago.
Speaker E:And I look back now and I say, that's a full length of something that, you know, certainly took over my life.
Speaker E:It changed my life altogether.
Speaker C:Sure.
Speaker E:But the.
Speaker E:Let's go back into the jump a bit now because this is very serious for me,.
Speaker C:Okay?
Speaker E:I said to myself, okay, I'm gonna do it.
Speaker E:I can think we have enough time because, you know, they were.
Speaker E:There was a probability that they weren't going to make it, or if they didn't make it through Game 6, the Mets, when they were back.
Speaker G:In.
Speaker E:New York, they weren't going to make it, obviously.
Speaker E:So that meant I had very little time to put a situation together where I can make a jump into shade with a banner that says, go meds.
Speaker E:I mean, that excited my brain very much, I have to tell you.
Speaker E:And I had the ability and the skills to do it.
Speaker E:So that wasn't it.
Speaker E:I had the.
Speaker E:Had to put things together.
Speaker E:And this is where I can't talk about a lot of it because I think I had mentioned to you that we are.
Speaker E:Put it together a doc, and we're going to do.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker E:Something really full length with it, because it's.
Speaker E:I'LL be honest.
Speaker E:It's such a juicy story.
Speaker E:I mean, the thing is just.
Speaker E:It's.
Speaker E:Let me.
Speaker E:Let me go on, and we'll see what happens here.
Speaker E:So I say to myself, okay, how are you going to do this?
Speaker E:And it becomes a caper for me.
Speaker E:It becomes for me and the people I know, because now I got to get.
Speaker E:This is what I got to get.
Speaker E:I gotta get an airplane.
Speaker E:I probably shouldn't.
Speaker E:I gotta get a pilot.
Speaker E:I probably won't be able to.
Speaker E:I want to get maybe a couple more jumpers that might want to go.
Speaker E:And we don't know about that.
Speaker E:And then I got to get about it.
Speaker E:So what do I know I can do?
Speaker E:First?
Speaker E:I said, well, I can get a banner.
Speaker E:Okay, great.
Speaker E:So the first thing I do, I mean, I live in Hell's Kitchen.
Speaker E:And I said to myself, okay, I don't have time to get actual banner made up.
Speaker E:So I guess I'll find, like, a single sheet and I'll print on, you know, go Mets, and it'll be great.
Speaker E:And so.
Speaker E:But I'm like, where do I.
Speaker E:We're In Hell's Kitchen 40 years ago, times Square.
Speaker E:Where do I find a single sheep?
Speaker E:Where does this happen?
Speaker E:You know?
Speaker E:So I leave my house.
Speaker E:Now, I gotta tell you this, so it makes sense.
Speaker E:I was the house singer at the Improvisation Comedy Club in Manhattan, right down the block from where it lives.
Speaker E:And I used to open the shows for every one of the comics you could imagine.
Speaker E:Seinfeld, Larry David.
Speaker E:I mean, just everyone.
Speaker E:And Larry David lived right around the corner from me.
Speaker E:So I'm coming down the block, and I see Larry coming up.
Speaker E:I said, larry, Larry, come here.
Speaker E:And he comes over.
Speaker E:He goes, what do you want?
Speaker E:I said, I gotta find a sheet, a single sheet.
Speaker E:He goes, what do you want that for?
Speaker E:I said, I'm gonna jump into Shea Stadium, like, in two nights from now.
Speaker E:And he goes to me, sergio, you're always messing with me.
Speaker E:He may have told him out a few other words that are a little bit stronger than that, but he goes storming off.
Speaker E:But now that's just Larry David.
Speaker E:That's just how he is.
Speaker E:Like, two minutes later, he'll.
Speaker G:Come back.
Speaker E:Everybody's peace and love again.
Speaker E:That kind of thing.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker G:And I came to realize this when it was all done, that the first person who knew I was going to jump into Shay was Larry Davis.
Speaker G:Larry David is the first person who knew I was going to jump into Shay's data.
Speaker G:And through all these years, it just.
Speaker E:Reminded me of it, too.
Speaker E:It just.
Speaker E:It just.
Speaker E:It's a funny thing.
Speaker E:All right.
Speaker E:That's a funny thing.
Speaker C:We got Michael Sergio on the show tonight, and we're unfolding the 62, the 86.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker C:Game six parachuting into Shea Stadium.
Speaker C:Continue, Michael.
Speaker E:So there's a lot of things now, especially those four things that I mentioned before, that.
Speaker G:I'm.
Speaker G:I'm.
Speaker G:I kind of can't talk about it right now, but I can pick it up at this point,.
Speaker C:Okay,.
Speaker G:At this point of everything up in the sky over Shea stadium.
Speaker G:It's the September 25th.
Speaker G:It's game six.
Speaker G:I'm up around.
Speaker G:It's October 25th is when it is.
Speaker G:Thank you.
Speaker E:Gonna save me probably for 90%.
Speaker E:Everything I say, she's gonna save me over here.
Speaker E:Because it was 40.
Speaker E:It was 40 years ago.
Speaker E:I'm up around, oh, eight empires high.
Speaker E:Parachute's working.
Speaker E:Everything's going good.
Speaker E:The banner that I had just spray painted in the basement of my building with red, orange and blue paint.
Speaker E:Spray paint.
Speaker E:It looked great.
Speaker E:I'd stitched it to my canopy.
Speaker E:Everything was great.
Speaker G:I'm flying.
Speaker E:Around, and.
Speaker G:It was.
Speaker E:Just beautiful.
Speaker E:I mean, I've made a number of nighttime jumps, but never one that was over a city like Manhattan.
Speaker G:And it really touched.
Speaker E:Me.
Speaker E:It really was,.
Speaker G:You know, let the car going.
Speaker G:But you could hear a.
Speaker E:Lot of cars.
Speaker G:Going by.
Speaker E:Over here because we do live in the city.
Speaker G:It really.
Speaker E:Touched me because it was so such a joyful thing.
Speaker E:I was.
Speaker E:I was having fun.
Speaker E:Nothing seemed like it was really bad or wrong with this thing.
Speaker E:This thing seemed great.
Speaker E:It was like a way to show off in New York that we can do what they can do in Boston, only we can do it better,.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker E:The way to that team, the team was maybe one night out of being out altogether.
Speaker E:And it was, you know, if we could just light a candle, a little baby candle, just get it burning, get this bone.
Speaker E:Because we knew everyone in New York, knew that New York could win this thing, they could win it.
Speaker E:And, you know, anyone who.
Speaker G:Could do what.
Speaker E:I was able to do would probably have done it anyway, because.
Speaker G:That's our.
Speaker E:Team that.
Speaker G:Really meant our.
Speaker E:Team.
Speaker E:And for me, that loving that team goes back 20 years, goes back to 63, 64, 25 years almost.
Speaker E:So it's just great.
Speaker G:So anyway, I'm sitting.
Speaker E:In my parachute, flying along, minding my.
Speaker G:Own business, looking down at Shea.
Speaker G:And Shea is.
Speaker E:The.
Speaker G:Most.
Speaker E:Beautiful thing.
Speaker G:You've ever.
Speaker E:Seen.
Speaker E:From altitudes like that, it.
Speaker G:Really does look like.
Speaker E:A.
Speaker G:Gladiator.
Speaker G:You know, it's Round, It's a ring.
Speaker G:You're looking down.
Speaker G:It's just, just beautiful.
Speaker G:The sky was beautiful.
Speaker G:Looking out at New York,.
Speaker E:Manhattan was beautiful.
Speaker E:I mean, you could see the Whitestone Bridge, Queensborough Bridge.
Speaker E:You could just see everything.
Speaker E:And it was just glorious.
Speaker E:The parachute was working great.
Speaker E:I'm coming down, I'm watching everything, I'm looking at everything.
Speaker E:And I. I had already had a conversation with this train, but I have conversations with myself when it comes to certain jumps, things, if you're doing it, whatever you do, you got to kind of walk it through already, which you might, you know.
Speaker E:And I knew that there were two reasons that I would not jump into Shea.
Speaker E:It was a possibility.
Speaker E:I would not jump.
Speaker E:No, it was a probability I would not jump into Shea if there was any one of these two things were going on.
Speaker E:And those two things were one, if my banner had either gone to shreds or, you know, ripped off my parachute or whatever it was, if I no longer had the Go Met the banner on me, I wasn't going to jump into shade, because that would make no sense.
Speaker E:Some guy would just do it.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker E:No, if he was from Boston or New York, it would just see some guy coming down.
Speaker E:So that, that would not have worked.
Speaker E:I mean, if that was the situation, I would have made a right hand turn, went into the parking lot, packed up my parachute, got on the seventh train and went home.
Speaker E:That's what I would have done.
Speaker G:Just one of those things.
Speaker G:The second one is, if the ball was in play, I wasn't going to go into the stadium, but the ball is in play and everybody's running around the bases and suddenly this guy, no matter what, comes down and lands in the middle of the whole thing and kills the play itself.
Speaker G:And then, you know, maybe then the Nets maybe lose the game and the whole thing is over.
Speaker G:And it's.
Speaker E:Question, no.
Speaker E:I mean, I'm from New York.
Speaker E:I know who's going to get blamed for that whole thing if that happens,.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker G:Like, I'd have to move to Canada and live with the sheep or something.
Speaker G:I mean, it was this whole crazy thing.
Speaker G:So if that had happened, there was a lot of turmoil going on and the play was going on and I was gonna just not go into Shay.
Speaker G:Then I'm coming down, I'm pretty high, and I got a good five, maybe six minutes before I gotta make these decisions on my way down.
Speaker G:And suddenly I start to hear the sound.
Speaker G:It's like.
Speaker G:And I'm thinking, what is this is there?
Speaker G:And I'm looking Around.
Speaker G:I'm looking behind me, you know, and there's nothing there.
Speaker G:And, and it.
Speaker G:Another minute goes by and that sound is getting louder and I'm like, what is going on here?
Speaker G:So I'm just.
Speaker G:Now I'm starting to get closer to the stanchions in the back of Shay because I was going to be coming over like if you had the home plate, the second plate to outfield, I was going to come right through the outfield, down into, into game.
Speaker G:All of a.
Speaker G:Suddenly I'm hearing this roaring sound going on and I'm looking around, I'm looking around and I realized that because of the lights in the back of Shay like that I must have been lit up and, and they saw me up in the sky, much higher up than I thought anyone was going to see me.
Speaker G:So now they're cheering and I come to realize, okay, I'm looking at the game and now I see nobody's running around.
Speaker G:It's, it's.
Speaker G:There's stillness in the stadium.
Speaker G:I'm looking down at the ump, Yankee's looking.
Speaker E:Up at me.
Speaker E:But again, nobody's moving around.
Speaker E:So I'm thinking in my head, oh, he just stopped playing.
Speaker E:This means I can go into shape.
Speaker E:It's like I can go in, I can go in.
Speaker E:Nobody's playing.
Speaker G:And at that.
Speaker E:Point.
Speaker G:I just went over the stanchions came down, it looked so beautiful.
Speaker G:Shade just looks so beautiful.
Speaker G:And my mind said to me, look around.
Speaker G:If you don't look around at this, if you just keep your eye on.
Speaker E:Target, you don't look around, you will never remember this.
Speaker E:So I looked to the right, I looked to the left and then I went back into business.
Speaker E:I just.
Speaker E:And I still have those images, that entire stadiums images in my mind and the sound of the whole thing.
Speaker C:Nice.
Speaker C:Yeah,.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker E:It's just, it was like something you would see in a movie.
Speaker E:I mean, it's something like, it's, it's, it's just amazing.
Speaker E:And, and this is another reason I don't tell it a lot because to tell them is almost to make, to say something that people, it's hard for them to believe.
Speaker E:But I had 55,000 people who believe in it, so I got them valid for me.
Speaker E:You know, we got what, 44 million on TV afterwards I found out and it was very.
Speaker E:A lot of people were watching it and you had everyone in the game.
Speaker E:So I'm coming down now and I see there's nobody moving.
Speaker E:Okay, I'm coming in now.
Speaker E:I would have liked to land around Home plate.
Speaker E:But that wasn't happening because nobody was.
Speaker E:Nobody was moving.
Speaker E:They were.
Speaker E:They were there.
Speaker E:I said, okay, let's do something different.
Speaker E:Let's come down between home and first base.
Speaker E:We'll get down right there.
Speaker E:That's nice.
Speaker E:That'll put us by the Mets of dugout.
Speaker E:That'll be really good.
Speaker E:But I make the little slight left turn.
Speaker E:I'm coming in.
Speaker E:And now I'm saying to myself, okay, you have to make sure you make this landing look not only easy, but pretty.
Speaker E:You gotta really make it look like there was no involvement in this.
Speaker E:That wasn't going to be positive.
Speaker E:You know what I think?
Speaker E:So I'm coming down, and.
Speaker E:I think to myself, you know,.
Speaker G:If you do hit the ground and you start rolling along, that's going to be really bad.
Speaker G:Look,.
Speaker E:You.
Speaker G:Got to get this done.
Speaker G:So I settle in, I'm all in.
Speaker G:I get coming down about 30ft high.
Speaker G:I start to hit full brakes.
Speaker G:The brakes come that they slow me down.
Speaker G:I'm on my feet.
Speaker G:I run, run, run, run, run.
Speaker G:I come to a.
Speaker G:Come to a standstill, and my brain instantly goes to me, do what you came to do.
Speaker G:Do what you came to do.
Speaker G:I put my hands up.
Speaker E:In the air and I'm going, let's go, Metz.
Speaker E:Let's go, Metz.
Speaker E:And it's unbelievable.
Speaker E:It's loud, it's screaming.
Speaker E:And I had been to the Beatles concert in 65 in Shea, and this thing in Shea was five times louder than the Beatles concert.
Speaker E:It was unbelievable.
Speaker E:It really was.
Speaker E:And they, you know, two very nice gentlemen came over, took me by either arm, slowly walked me into the dugout.
Speaker E:And as I was going into the dugout, I saw his hand sticking out, and I gave it a high five.
Speaker E:And it was Ron Darling.
Speaker E:Ron Darling gave me a high five.
Speaker E:Beautiful.
Speaker E:So wonderful.
Speaker E:Just absolutely wonderful.
Speaker E:And I know we have a very short time, so let me just.
Speaker E:Let me just jump to this.
Speaker E:Two years ago, I was at a charity event, and Doc and Strawberry were there.
Speaker E:I hadn't seen them in 38 years.
Speaker E:And I just, you know, never saw anybody for the Mets in 38 years.
Speaker E:But Doc was at a table writing out, you know, pictures and stuff like that for people.
Speaker E:And when my turn came up, I stepped up and said, hey, Doc, it's Mike.
Speaker E:It's Mike, Sergio.
Speaker E:And Doc raises his head up, sees me, and he hasn't seen me for 38 years.
Speaker E:He jumps up, he gives me a big hug, and it's like, I met my brother, who I haven't been with for 38 years.
Speaker E:And like this family reunion it was.
Speaker E:And he goes,.
Speaker G:Oh.
Speaker G:And I said to him, I said to him, doc, I gotta ask you this because I've always, this is why I was so quiet across those 38 years.
Speaker E:It's.
Speaker G:When you saw me coming down to the parachute, were you concerned?
Speaker G:Did you think that you were going to lose or something.
Speaker E:Happened?
Speaker E:And.
Speaker G:He.
Speaker E:Goes,.
Speaker G:Hell no, Sergio.
Speaker G:We knew we were going to win.
Speaker G:When we saw you coming down, we knew we were going to win that game.
Speaker C:That is great.
Speaker G:And.
Speaker E:Strawberry comes over and it's just like talk about getting your eyes teared up as a, you know, I mean, it really was amazing.
Speaker E:And then it goes on so far beyond that.
Speaker E:And just getting to that point is so much more of a storytelling, you know, I mean, this thing, there's so much yet that I can tell out of this and Bushel.
Speaker E:You want to say something,.
Speaker G:Bill?
Speaker E:She's amazed.
Speaker E:She's always amazed when I tell her.
Speaker G:First of all,.
Speaker I: ry, legendary World Series in: Speaker I:It was really a magical year.
Speaker I:I'll never forget that game and seeing this guy coming down, I didn't know that I would meet him years later and then we would get married.
Speaker I:But yeah, it's.
Speaker I:As a lifelong Mets fan and growing up in Queens, what he did was really to give some, some good juju to the Mets that night.
Speaker I:And it became a really magical night for the Mets.
Speaker I:So I just want to add because Michael, you know, his stories about his jump is always, you know, just very colorful and full of just incredible imagery.
Speaker I:And I.
Speaker C:Sure, yeah,.
Speaker I:Yeah.
Speaker I:I want to just tell any Mets fans who may be listening, there is an event coming up called the Queens Baseball Convention some of you might know about is on December 5th and it will take place at the Four Points, Sheridan and Flushing.
Speaker I:To get more info, you can go to queensbaseballconvention.com and Michael here was the first guest that they announced just a few weeks ago.
Speaker I:He'll be doing a 40 minute like panel where, you know, he will be.
Speaker I:They will talk about that night, that legendary night, and then they will open it up to the audience for questions.
Speaker I:So anyone wants to get an autograph and has a question for Michael, you can come to that event coming up on December 5th.
Speaker I:I think it's going to be a really fabulous event with a lot of other wonderful guests.
Speaker I:But Michael being there after 40 years, it's going to be a nice time for the fans who want to really connect with that nostalgic component of the 86 Mets.
Speaker I:I think it's going to be great to hear from him straight hand.
Speaker I:But the other thing is we are making a documentary film.
Speaker I:I think Michael mentioned it before.
Speaker I:We've had a lot of interest in this story, and it's just been wonderful to get that kind of interest from fans, but also just from a human interest.
Speaker I:You know, it's so much more than just the jump itself.
Speaker I:It's kind of like a caper movie, as Michael said, because there was a lot of planning at the pilot and to get the plane and to get the pull off this kind of pull this kind of thing off.
Speaker I:But then also he ended up going to federal prison.
Speaker I:So there was a very big price he had to pay.
Speaker I:The consequences for this med span right here are really high,.
Speaker C:That is for sure.
Speaker C:We got to run, folks.
Speaker C:Is there a website or something somebody could go to to get more information or show.
Speaker I:Just basically, we're pretty easy to get a hold of.
Speaker I:Michael is on social media under his name, so if anybody has any messages they'd like to send to him, they can find him under Michael Sergio.
Speaker C:Wonderful.
Speaker C:Well, Hershel and Michael Sergio, it's been a pleasure.
Speaker C:I thank you for taking time out of your Sunday night to be with us here at Sports Talk New York.
Speaker C:We wish you all the best with the documentary and we will see you at the Queens Baseball Convention.
Speaker I:Yes, thank you, Bill.
Speaker I:And coachescollectiblesny.com is another site that people check out.
Speaker C:Wonderful.
Speaker C:Thanks again, guys.
Speaker C:Usher and Michael Sergio, folks.
Speaker C:That'll do it for me tonight on Sports Talk New York.
Speaker C:I'd like to thank my guests, Chris Hamburger, George Martin, Joe Franco and Michael Sergio.
Speaker C:My engineer, Brian Graves, and of course, you guys for joining us.
Speaker C:See you Next on Sunday, November 15th at 8.
Speaker C:For more sports talk to you.
