Hi everybody, welcome into the Felger and Maz Off-Air Show. It is an absolute special one as we have a special guest in here this week. If you need no introduction, first of all, I just want to tell you again, the Off-Air Show is once again brought to you by Miller Lite. Miller Lite, over 50 years of Miller time, over 50 years of story, the proud sponsor here of the Felger and Maz Off-Air Show. And they bring you this week, none other than Bob Lobel joining us now from Parts Unknown. Bobby, how are you doing? Michael, it's great to see you, man. I go back to so many times you were such a go-to guy. You and Bob Ryan were the go-to guys on Sports Final. It was a time that I don't think we can ever repeat again. Well, that's obviously what I want to talk to you about. You're on a new venture. You've got a new YouTube show that we're going to talk about, Bob. But when's the last time you were on the air? When's the last time you were on TV? I don't know. it was probably 1908 I mean it seems like 1908 2008 probably 2008 not local news no sorry not local news of course I watch TV but I just you know I just don't get caught up in the local channels I don't know what it is whether it's streaming or whether it's CNN or whether it's MSNBC or whatever you know what bbc news it's all much different now as you know as you know as but peter brown is the guy behind this venture and he's the same guy he was my the boss to me and a boss to your lovely wife sarah underwood who i worked with for a number of years at channel four and i miss her greatly so uh the fact that i introduced both of you i gotta get something for that uh no doubt that's a that's a story for another day but bob i was gonna ask you i mean You haven't checked in recently, but do you think you would even recognize what's being done now versus what you used to do and how you used to approach it and how it used to be when I first got started and you were kind enough to put me on the air? No, you earned that, buddy. You earned it. I wasn't kind enough to put you on. You earned it. And you're a great golfer and a great goalie. I remember going over to Nantucket and see you play a goal against, I don't know, whatever it was. William Shatner was there these are all old times but no Mike I don't think I would recognize it now I'm just really glad I don't have to be there now and do it because I'd be hard pressed to come up with something unique and different every night to get people to watch it was a lot easier back then when there wasn't so much competition and you could do sports spotlight you could do all those things why can't we get players like that you could really fool around but you'd have to come up with something really unique and different to compete these days. How about just handling it like a journalist? How about trying to find out a story? Mike, everybody knows what happened and the highlights. Everybody knows what happened. Everybody knows the scores. Everybody has seen the highlights, whether it's real time or on their phone. I mean, the phones have changed everything. I think you guys are blessed. You and Tony are blessed having it on the radio and having it on television at the same time. I think that is a gift. I wish Upton and I were on both radio and television. is a gift of biblical proportions, and I really give you credit for pulling it off. You guys sound great, and big plug to Jim Murray, too. He's unbelievable. Well, real quick, you think Jim Murray's the real talent on the show? He's the real star. Well, actually, I do, but you know what? Nothing personal. I love Tony. I love you, but Murray brings it. I'm constantly amazed at Murray. Well, but, okay, so, Bob, I mean, I understand the immediacy of the Internet. Everyone's on their phone, But even outside of that, do you think people in these jobs try and even do it like you used to do it? And do you miss it? Yeah, I miss it. I miss being there. I miss the people I work with. I miss Jack. I miss Liz. I miss Joyce. I miss Bruce. I miss those people. I miss Sarah and Lisa Hughes. I miss all those people, okay? But to go back and do it now, it would just, I don't, it would take too much. You just can't. How can you compete? You just, you can't. You can't compete. I'll just speak for myself. I miss, I feel our best days, we're trying to be you, our best days, we're trying to be Glenn Ordway on his best days. And I think our show tries to, I don't know, I sometimes feel like Tony and I are the last of the Mohicans. Well, you are. You know what? You are. There's nobody that's going to come along and replace what you guys have done. You are the last of the Mohicans. But I consider myself an entertainer before I'm a journalist. And I think what you're doing now is the same thing. I mean you wrote for the Herald you did all that stuff but you an entertainer now you not a journalist You know that The things you say the things you do whether you believe them or not they done at the right time and the right timing I, you know, I listen. I said, he doesn't really believe that, but he says it anyway. I was always an entertainer, not a journalist. And I think you'd have to agree that's where you guys are sitting right now. I think that's kind of lost because I think the people that cover the teams and talk about the teams are afraid to kind of go there. And back in the day, you weren't afraid to go. Yes, I do agree with that. Because you know Bob Kraft will punish you. You know Bob Kraft will find a way to punish you. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. All right. So you're doing a venture called Front Row Sports. Tell us real quick, Bob, what that is for the people who don't know. All right. This was a Peter Brown, as I said, former news director, boss of me, boss of Sarah. And he came up with the idea of preserving these behind-the-scenes experiences that entertainers like me and journalists like Shaughnessy and Ryan and Mike Lynch experience behind the scenes, stuff that's not been out there. and we've had over 107,000 hits. Any local television station would like to have that number of hits on a given night now. 107,000 hits and it's increasing every day and it's to bring all stories that you never heard from behind the scenes. Stories like Dwight Evans being in right field behind Bill Buckner and what really happened on that play. Stories that people haven't heard about. The story is Lynch with Bill Belichick, Bob Ryan with Brett Auerbach and Bill Russell, and Larry Bird and Bruce Springsteen, not separately, but together. There's a Larry Bird and Bruce Springsteen story. Shaughnessy talking about Francona and about Manny and Pedro and stuff. Stuff that it's really fantastic. Stuff I'm really interested in when I watch and I really enjoy it. I don't give a shit about my stuff. I'm just talking about the stuff these other guys have found out. So, for example, give me the real story of the Bill Buckner play. Dwight Evans told me, okay, that Buckner, there's this pickoff play on it, second base. And Marty Barrett was sliding over towards second base, and Buckner was sliding over towards second base as well. A couple of steps. And Buckner was hobbled anyway, because he had a bad leg, remember? Of course. They put him in, I don't, the names escape me now. But remember, Buckner was out of position because they had a pickup playoff, and the ball came over, and when you watch the video, he moved to his left first before he came in on the ball, and that's what really threw him off. Had the pickup play not been on at second base, things would have been totally different. Maybe. We don't know. I'm just saying that's what... And Evans was the only person in the ballpark that had the best view of it because he's in right field. Huh. So that's a story no one had heard before. Give me something on Most. Well, Ordway, this is Ordway's story that most pants caught on fire during a broadcast. And Ordway was, there was a time when he lost his teeth and Al Gretter, who was the color guy at the time, reached out and grabbed him. There was a time when I was sitting next to Most. We came up to do the pregame show and we said, you know, I'm sitting next to him doing color. And he's, of course, he was, he always thought I was there to take his job. So I was never on his good side. It's the same thing with Ordway. But Johnny, he said, and now we're up here doing basketball battle with the Boston Celtics playing, and he had no idea who they're playing. He had to look over and look down and see who the other opponents were for the Boston Celtics that night. That's just Johnny Moe's stuff. I think Glenn actually lit him on fire. That's not confirmed, but Glenn might have done it. No, I think he was smoking, and his figure had dropped, and Glenn had to put it out. He didn't light a bonfire. So how about you and Lynch? You know, obviously, competitors back in the day, now doing this together. What's that been like for you? It's been great. Mike and I have always been good friends. We've always, whenever, and we wouldn't tell the news directors, if I didn't have a tape or Lynch didn't have a tape, we'd kind of secretly call each other up and say, can you send it over a dub of, you know, what's his name getting into a fight or whatever it was all about. And, you know, I'd send it to him. he'd send that stuff to me. We were always like good friends and although we were competitors and now afterwards we're doing a podcast together and been doing it for about 10 years. I don't know how long you know, nobody knows about it but that's alright. I know about it. I don't even watch it. So there you go. Well, speaking of not watching it, Peter informs me that you've never watched a replay of one of your famous sports finals with Ted Williams, Bobby Orr and Larry Bird You never watched that I have never watched it Mike And you know what Why Well because I be too critical of myself I mean I was there we did the show I'm happy we did the show. I'm happy we were able to pull it off. It was an hour show. We just did it. And it was kind of amazing it all came together because of, you know, Ted's son being in the, you know that story, right? Ted's kid came in. We were going to do a show with Bird and Orr, the two winter sports gods in Boston. And the week before, Ted's son, John Henry, not the owner of the Red Sox, but Ted's son, John Henry, came in because he was hitting on one of our interns. You know, big deal. He says, I hear you and you're going to do a show this weekend with Larry and Bobby. You want Dad to be there? You want Ted to be there? Because he's going to be in town. I said, are you kidding me? And that's how he got Ted there. Ted's son came in the station because of our intern, Debbie Robleski. it was Robleski that made that show possible so but that's another thing that's not going to happen now Bob because everyone has their own publicist website that right go right to social media see that's why this uh front row Boston sports is so unique because these are things that would never happen now because you're not going to get that close to the players or that close to the coaches or never have a chance to experience these things like I haven't seen the Bird-Springstein thing with Bob Ryan, but I'm sure Ryan's got a treasure trove of all kinds of stories covering the Celtics. That's you never, and your point is so well taken, you never would have a chance to do that now. You're always, if you don't do a thing with Drake May, you're going to be sitting inside some Dunkin' Donuts side. Who were you closest to, Bob, back in your day? What player or manager or, you know, figure were you closest to? Fisk. I was too close to Fisk. That was your guy. I was too close to him. I mean, we both came from New Hampshire, both about the same time, around 67, not 67, but when he came up as a rookie. And I came down from Manchester, New Hampshire. We did some, when I was in New Hampshire, he did some, we did some high school basketball games and he was the color guy and I did the play-by-play and he was a rookie with the Red Sox. It was a big deal bringing him into the gym in Rochester, New Hampshire. You can only imagine. But then we kept the relationship, and I just talked to him a couple weeks ago, as a matter of fact. He's living in Florida and Illinois and whatever, and he seems to be doing okay. How did you cover him when he went to the White Sox? I went out to Chicago. I interviewed him behind home plate in Chicago. Talk about that. Then he first came back with a member of the White Sox, he hit a home run. I said, why can't we get players like that? It was a perfect segue. But one of the great benefits I got out of that, And again, like I said, we were too close. He was the only guy I really felt I got too close to. Because there are things that happened with him that I would never tell. We went on a golfing trip to Scotland together, along with six other guys, stuff like that. But one of the biggest stories I thought we ever got was me being in his kitchen when he got the phone call to be in the Hall of Fame. That was a pretty cool story to get. Bob, when you say, and obviously the catchphrase, why can't we get players like that? Was that the first time you used it? When is the first time you used it? And who'd you use it on? Luke Gorman was the general manager of the Red Sox, and he traded his first baseman for Larry Anderson to the Houston Astros. And that was the first time I used it. When Jeff Bagwell, we did a home run, you know, obviously went into the Hall of Fame, but obviously it was why can't we get players like that and Lou Lou was such a great guy he came up to me and asked me not to use it anymore and I said Lou I can't stop it's too good I just seriously Mike I think yeah and he's such a great guy and he one thing he did tell me that he told me he had a trade for Roger Clemens he had traded Roger Clemens to Houston uh for some really great players but the houston owner stepped in at the last minute and nixed the deal i mean that i had never heard that before but lou sat there in the lunch room going to lunch louis like to go to lunch and the sun will come up so i'll go down and we'll go to lunch lou always said that right but he told me he said you know bob i had i traded clemens and they when the owner shot it down it's really interesting stuff i mean i was blessed to have a chance to to do that michael as you know But we were blessed to have a chance to work in those days and also those characters. I mean GMs like Lou Gorman Harry Sinden. Oh my god Harry Sinden Harry promised to take me Harry promised to take me to the Masters to Augusta to play in Augusta He said I gonna take you down to Augusta to play golf Well I never took him up on it and then he got pissed off at me for something and I never got the invitation back again That Harry Harry was just And you know what DuPont wrote a great article last week about Harry... How come Harry Sinden is not recognized in the Boston Garden, either by name or whatever. And I totally agreed with him. Yeah, there's no recognition of Perry Sinden in the Boston Garden. And he was the one that brought everybody into the present-day Bruin culture. So, again, guys like Heim Bloom or Craig Breslow or Don, you know, they're just, they're not compelling. Like, go ahead, but you know what I mean? I know exactly what you mean. Why would you want to have them on the air? They're just talking heads. No reason to interview them, even if you got the interview. There's no character there. The characters are gone. I agree. For whatever reason, people, I'm sure there's still characters. I'm sure these people behind the scenes still have something to offer in terms of personality. But by God, don't ever show it in public. Sam Kennedy's a different guy. Sam Kennedy is a different guy now than he ever was. They've ruined him. All right, Bobby, so tell me, so give me a plug. Give me the next thing you got coming up on Front Row Sports or something that you want to promote? Look, I'm going to say it's all worth watching on YouTube. Same channel that this is on, okay? We have dropped 37 videos already, 37, between Bob Ryan, Dan Shaughnessy, who I think is one of the great sports writers in America right now, Mike Lynch, and yours truly. 37 videos spread out with the four of us, and we're dropping more to come so to bring up one isn't going to do it you should just i'm just begging you well i'm not begging you because there's no money involved here michael we're not making any money off of this either we're not getting paid so i'm not doing a shill here for brook cream okay we're not making we're not making any money off of this it's it's not john sour for you know sewer stuff and i'm not it's not an electric you know coleman electric i'm not doing that. I would if I could, but I'm not doing it. But we're not making any money off of this, and it's just for the fans. And that's it. Believe me, you'll be happy tuned into. It's Front Row Sports for Front Row for Boston Sports on YouTube. Okay, Bobby, just in close, I just want to say for a minute, on a professional and personal level, a professional level, I told you, I think Tony and I, and Shaughnessy is still doing it, but there's an older generation of guys that covered sports in Boston that I think on our best day, Tony and I are trying to do what you did and what Glenn Ordway did way back in the day, and so you're an inspiration professionally to this day, and I know I've told you that before, and I want to tell you that again and say it here, and personally, for people who don't know this, Bob Lobel is responsible for my wife. Sarah just came on and said hello off the air. I met Sarah the first time I was ever invited on to sports final, March of 2000. They had just traded Ray Bork. I think they needed a hockey voice. Maybe they were short. DuPont couldn't do it. I don't know. Bobby brought me on. And Sarah was just quickly. Sarah was walking off the news set. I was walking on to the sports final set. We said hello. I did the show. I came off the air, and I went back in the sports office. where you and Burton went, all those guys were, and I said, hey, what about her? Who's that? And you said, Felger, don't even worry about it. She just got in from D.C. She's got a boyfriend. Don't even try. And I didn't. I didn't follow up. Six months later, I ran into her in a bar, and that's how we got together. But you're responsible for putting us together, kind of, even though Burton and the rest of you tried to throw me off the scent right after I got off the scene. But anyway, professionally and personally, Bob, you've meant a lot to me over the years. I want you to know that. You're very kind, Michael, but I'll reiterate. You always brought it. You always brought the A-game, and that's what we really appreciated. And I returned the compliment. It's a great compliment for me to hear what you had to say, but I returned it, you know, twofold. So thank you. I couldn't be happier for your success with you and Mass. I mean, this is going to get out as by far the best sports radio talk. It's more than a show. I should have asked Jim Murray. I should have put Jim Murray in there. Come on. Next time we'll get Murray on. Bobby, thank you again. Front Row Sports on YouTube. Lobel, Lynch, Shaughnessy, all that. Catch it, Bobby. Thank you again. It was great to catch up. And we're doing it for free. Michael, thanks a lot. I love you, brother. Thanks.
