okay my next guest is probably a very nice man and it's probably a very good boss to
work for not everyone would agree but that's why they're playing baseball in places like anaheim
you know it's a pleasure to welcome the owner of the new york yankees george steinbrenner
now george i really enjoy your show i watch all where's ed mcmahon
no george it's the wrong program yes we're on a little later oh now you must be now
of course as mr reiner explained this is not actually what it appears to be
but the baseball strike has come and gone essentially right by
so but today you must be a very very are you a happy man today because of the result of this
uh settlement i'm a happy man i really am that it's over and it was a short strike and the fans
don't deserve a long strike winners losers anybody get an a nobody wins nobody losing something like
that but thank goodness it was only one day and the commissioner stepped in yeah and i think he
did the right thing and we're back playing for the fans now when something like this happens
when there's an interruption in play it doesn't happen too often no will you go into the clubhouse
tonight and talk to the team do you do we talk to billy what's the procedure i well i know that's
that never happens i never called the dog out and talked to billy let's get that saying right away
uh i talk in the clubhouse once a year i give a great great speech every spring training and uh
can you give us a little the whole team loves it if they don't they're they're playing in seattle
but uh i go and i talk about the dress code the grooming the curfew and the things like this
dress code they love it and usually i can remember one time dress code uh beanie pinellas sitting in
the back surrounded by catfish hunter and sparky loud now that's a losing trifecta the three of
them sitting there and i'm making my speech and up goes pinellas hands i'm talking about appearance
and grooming and pinellas said look he said i was raised in tampa florida i went to jesuit
high school and he said i've been a good catholic boy all my life was raised to worship jesus christ
he says and you're telling me to cut my hair and lou had long hair good looking boy long hair and
i said that's right and he said well every picture i've ever seen of jesus christ his hair is down to
his shoulders well all the team cheers and hunter and lyle think it's great pretty religious group
are they so i pull them up the front of the locker room and this is maybe my greatest moment baseball
threw open the door i said what's that over there penalty he said that's the soccer stadium
i said that's good and that was good for him and then i said and what's this over here and he says
that's our ballpark i said good and i said what's that over there he says that's the superintendent
swimming pool i said good the day you go over and walk across it you wear your hair any way you want
now um what's what's the worst and i don't want to dwell on this but we might as well what's
what's the worst incident you've had with uh billy martin i i haven't had any bad incidents no no
george no no yeah let's as far as just an argument just a difference of opinion i'm not talking about
oh i would say probably billy and i uh uh one time early on when i first had the team we were
playing the mets and spring training and uh yeah i give them a hand that's new york i'm for them uh
they uh we were losing to them and i went in the dugout uh when i probably shouldn't have this is
the one time i did do it and it's brilliant spring training exhibition only exhibition game i would
never do that in the season uh and i walked in poked my head around the corner and i said when
you girls are finished i'd like to see all in the locker room and walked away well he got mad
they went on to beat the mets they scored about four runs in that ninth inning of spring training
and then he came into the trailer after and he said don't ever do that again and he put down a
little speaker radio recorder and said i'm going to record everything you say to me and i told
him something and he recorded it and that's probably the worst thing that's ever happened
and what did you tell billy well i can't say it here you don't want it you want to stay on
the air now yes we do can can you hint at what it might have been though well it wasn't nice
no but i want to say this about billy when he's on his game he's the best
does it does it uh does it bother you that the the mets so far have done really
really well i'm for the mets i i'm for new york i i think it's great that they're
doing well albeit they're not the american league east which is the toughest division
in baseball when you've got the tigers the orioles the red sox you know uh you're not
you're not playing don't forget the indians now you got the indians but
but uh and they've been beating us too uh but the american league east
is the toughest look what the tigers did everybody in baseball last year
well now why is it that that race doesn't seem to be any tighter i mean uh last year the tigers
ran away and this year what you're uh nobody's showing your way yet well you're nine back well
in 78 we were 15 behind the red sox and beat him don't forget that went on to win the championship
uh this we're starting to play the east now this is what counts this this
august september and we're going to be all right we're going to make a real run at him you wait
what was uh uh what was reggie jackson like reggie was tremendous uh the the real questions
when they said there wasn't enough mustard in the world to cover him that's true yeah he is a
real hot dog but he was a tremendous performer a tremendous performer and down the stretch uh
you could count on him he could carry a ball club in september and i'm a great admirer
reggie's he belongs in the hall of fame i know he has his detractors but i'm not one of them
um you mentioned billy is billy should be at the stadium now he's at the stadium now sure
there was there was some discussion that billy sometimes didn't show up as early as
billy is always there of course i don't talk to him or see him until
maybe the day before the game and then after the game never during the game and never anything
like that do i talk to him i mean he's on his own yeah yeah uh would would it be possible to
get a hold of billy now if we called right now yeah right now 15 minutes till game time but
he wouldn't expect a call from me because i never call him oh well let's do something funny to billy
just for the fun of it call him up tell him to take a hike
take a hike just tell him to take a hike well i will do this i will do this i'll call him and let
him tell you that i never call him in the dugout because i never do let's do something else let's
call him up tell him that there's a trade in the works involving ricky henderson you might be right
all right better explain that although by now i guess people would have heard well people
would have heard that ricky didn't get back for the two games tonight because he didn't
know the strike was over well i tell you gang you know they're not all mental giants now uh
now but but ricky ricky henderson was apparently uh you couldn't get a hold of him in time or no
they got a hold of him they got him yesterday and uh uh told him that there was a tentative
agreement and he still headed for california and then he called in today and said he couldn't get
back in time that he didn't know the strike was over now that must just drive you doubly
crazy i've stopped worrying about it i used to have flowing blonde hair on now totally gray
david i'll tell you i've talked i've stopped worrying about it because it happens with
these fellas and you just have to accept it i guess let his teammate take care of it uh
will they get on him a little bit well i think they probably will we've got some
leaders on that team i think we'll take care of it and then i'll take care of the financing
yeah and what kind of what kind of fun are we looking at george well substantial but it
goes when all our players are fine it goes to help the high school kids in new york city who
somehow for whatever reason i don't know can't afford some of their athletic programs if we can't
get athletic programs for the kids in the city of new york then we're a pretty poor city
and so we take our money like those two players that i had that had that little indiscretion in
kansas city when they couldn't find the men's room thousand dollars a piece to help the kids
uh well that's very very generous of you yeah now uh i figured i was gonna
ask should we call billy or what do you want to call him we better do it
a trade in the works for winfield okay and then just laugh it off he enjoys a
good joke doesn't he enjoy ask that guy that sells marshmallows no do i
do i dial the area code here all of these right now no just this oh here all right
damn nervous in indiana you know they got those the ones they still go like that
now you you spent some time in indiana i love it all right i'm very nervous very very nervous so
am i what's the chance uh late in the season if i came out to the park early i could play
uh they tell me you're a good softball player oh yeah what the hell is that sound like you
got crickets up there in the bronx oh no you better talk to him you you're the man here
uh give me billy martin that's mr steinbrenner tell him you're he's just done tell me he's
done that you've had a chance you have other other ideas can't do that uh oh you gotta tell
him we're on the air first hello billy yeah this is uh george you're calling again oh
you got to be kidding me i was just about to call you to tell you that uh that i've traded
you for letterman but will you find telling these fine people here it's a tremendous or tell them
that i don't call you every inning will you please well i can't lie to those nice people george
let's put this way not every inning every other
maybe two or three times every other inning yeah but not in the dugout in the dugout and
that's why i carry the people when i'm arguing the umpire sometimes it calls for george bush
billy billy this is ricky i i won't be there till monday
uh we'll be right back with whitney houston