0:00:03 - (Mike Rhyner): Nobody would have thought that I would be the one. Reiner. Sports talk. Baseball, Baseball, baseball, baseball. Oh, with the big mic. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah, okay, now I get it. Isn't that a lightning strike, boys?
0:00:22 - (Ralph Strangis): What happened over there, Grego?
0:00:24 - (Mike Rhyner): We had a little lightning strike right outside the window.
0:00:28 - (Ralph Strangis): The Texas Rangers win the World Series.
0:00:32 - (Mike Rhyner): All right, all right. Here's a tip for all these Americano league teams.
0:00:36 - (Ralph Strangis): Don't wait. You said tip?
0:00:37 - (Mike Rhyner): Yeah, tip. Okay, with a P. Keep jamming the ticket, colon. Nothing but a big Gen X jerk off. This is a cool night or what? Although somebody would hear that. Go. I'm back. Hello. She says talk, so we talk.
0:01:06 - (C): Speak.
0:01:07 - (Mike Rhyner): Yes, speak. It is another episode of your dark companion, boys and girls. Yes, yes, yes. We're coming to you live in the late afternoon. There's a little bit of a change. Normally up until now we've been going a little earlier in the day and I think that there's going to be an alteration in that from henceforth we will be going about this time, if we can. Now the if we can of it depends largely on who else is going to be on the other end of this thing.
0:01:46 - (Mike Rhyner): For instance, we've got another coming up this week, but the if we can on that day can't go at this time. So that'll be going at what time?
0:01:59 - (C): At 1:00 clock noon, actually.
0:02:01 - (Mike Rhyner): Noon? Yes, that'll be going at high noon. We'll be joined by Jesse Hawila, the weather Guy on Channel 8, a frequent contributor to Little YDC Weather. Now, see, that's the kind of genius I've been looking for from you.
0:02:25 - (C): That's why I'll haven't kicked me off the show yet.
0:02:29 - (Mike Rhyner): Masterful bond months like that that have put him where he is today. We come to you by the miracle of Riverside, though. And look, I don't know what Riverside is. I just know that that's how we're doing this. Yeah, it's voodoo. And we're joined today by another second timer, a third timer. This is the third timer, he says.
0:02:59 - (Ralph Strangis): I think it's a third.
0:03:01 - (Mike Rhyner): All right, great.
0:03:03 - (Ralph Strangis): Like anyone can even know that.
0:03:06 - (Mike Rhyner): He's a guy that I can't get enough of anyway. And if he wants to be on here three times, five times, 10 times, whatever, we will have him. He is the great Ralph Stranges.
0:03:17 - (C): Yeah, Bestie.
0:03:20 - (Mike Rhyner): And he joins us today via the miracle of Riverside from his crib in California, right?
0:03:28 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah, yeah. Rancho Mirage, California, in the Coachella Valley, where today It's a balmy 113. Whoa.
0:03:37 - (Mike Rhyner): But it's a dry heat.
0:03:40 - (Ralph Strangis): Let me tell you about the most recent addition to the compound here. And when I tell you this, I want you to know it has changed my existence. I. I put a pool chiller in. That's right. Chiller. That's right. So when it's horribly hot, like these days, it cools the water down about 15 degrees. So when it might be like bath watery. Now here, mine's a crisp 82. And it lets me use the pool. I haven't. I haven't seen my first electric bill, which I'm thinking should be several thousand dollars, but boy, it's a lot of fun now.
0:04:26 - (Mike Rhyner): And I'd say that's a bargain at twice the price.
0:04:29 - (Ralph Strangis): I gotta tell you, whatever it costs is what it costs. Otherwise I don't go outside, right. And I've got. I'm doing this week, I'm putting cool deck on. You know about the cool deck, right? So it's a little nicer on your feet. And when you put your arm on the. Like when you're in the pool, if you put your arm on the deck or whatever. So it's. And it's going to be a light purple. My cool deck, it's going to be sort of with a Vikings logo someplace.
0:05:00 - (Ralph Strangis): What do you think about that?
0:05:01 - (Mike Rhyner): So I think that's pretty neat. But how does this cool deck work? What is it? Is it some kind of a spray or what?
0:05:08 - (Ralph Strangis): It's a pale purple right here. My shorts. For those of you watching on through the miracle of Riverside, what are you.
0:05:15 - (C): Trying to show us?
0:05:17 - (Ralph Strangis): The color? So this is kind of a purple here. Okay. It's a very light, faint purple. And that's what we're looking at.
0:05:23 - (Mike Rhyner): That looks white to me.
0:05:26 - (Ralph Strangis): Well, it's purple. It's a very light lavender. So what happens is the cool deck, you know, it keeps it a little bit cooler, the temperature on the deck, and then they put texture on it, then they put a color on it so that you don't slip and slide and all that stuff. I needed to do some work to this place when I bought it a year ago. And I'm almost done with the outside stuff, so this is it. But that takes the back. The back pool area out of commission for this week.
0:05:51 - (C): So how much did all that cost you?
0:05:53 - (Ralph Strangis): I wait. I wait for my friends to ask me to be on their podcast, is all. I'm doing this.
0:05:59 - (Mike Rhyner): Well, that's good. That that's a noble pursuit, I'd say.
0:06:02 - (Ralph Strangis): I think so. Did the people know how it was that I was your guest today, and then not your guest today, and then now your guest today with this.
0:06:12 - (C): We might have overreached a little bit.
0:06:15 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah. So can I. You want me to tell the story group?
0:06:18 - (Mike Rhyner): Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Because I haven't heard this story. I'm the last to know this.
0:06:23 - (C): You're on the text message for.
0:06:25 - (Ralph Strangis): So the Dallas Stars inducted me into their hall of Fame.
0:06:29 - (Mike Rhyner): Yes.
0:06:31 - (Ralph Strangis): Let's go. Fantastic. Into their hall of Fame. And that will occur in November. November 15th, 16th. Weekend. Joe New and Dyke and I are going in. So right after this, I'm assuming Grooves was so excited about his bestie going into the Dallas Stars hall of Fame that he gets on the text, hey, bestie, I want. Will you come on the show? And I said, yeah. And he goes, well, the first opening we have is August 11th. And I'm thinking, well, the announcement was a few weeks ago. It's not going to be that sort of newsworthy, but okay, I'll come on with you. Sure.
0:07:11 - (Ralph Strangis): So last. What day was it, Grooves? Was it Friday?
0:07:13 - (C): It was sometime last week.
0:07:15 - (Ralph Strangis): I'm trying to find this Friday or Saturday. And he texts me and says, hey, Mark Cuban says he can come on the show on Monday, the 11th. So, you know, go screw yourself. I said, okay, that's how we're doing it. That's how we're doing it. And then he said, I can't tell you.
0:07:38 - (Mike Rhyner): I can't tell you how many times groups has told me to go screw myself.
0:07:42 - (Ralph Strangis): Oh, I know. No, and it's.
0:07:44 - (C): And I'm a violent person.
0:07:46 - (Ralph Strangis): We do it lovingly, so it's fine. But. So I see that. I see that he sends me, like, 20 dates. Here, pick one of these. And I'm like, I don't want to do that. I don't want to go through the calendar now, and I don't know where I'm gonna be. And, you know, I said, listen, when we get a little closer, why don't you text me and we'll do it then? He said, okay, closer to the day, then. Was it this morning or.
0:08:08 - (C): When did you text me yesterday last.
0:08:11 - (Ralph Strangis): Like, yesterday evening, and said, Mr. Cuban is unable to attend. Oh, oh, so now you want me. So he said, we'll triple the rate. I said, perfect. Three times, nothing is still nothing.
0:08:27 - (Mike Rhyner): Wait a minute. We're. We're tripling the rate for this?
0:08:30 - (C): As he said, three times, nothing is still nothing.
0:08:34 - (Mike Rhyner): Okay.
0:08:37 - (C): I had very little doubt that this is how this was going to go, whether it was on Air or off air whenever we got Ralphie back in. Because admittedly, we probably overextended ourselves. First off, the way we book things, we typically do Mondays and Wednesdays and that's it. We usually book stuff two or three months in advance, ideally, but usually at least a month ahead. Every date has been booked within a month.
0:09:03 - (C): A month out.
0:09:04 - (Mike Rhyner): Yeah, we give everybody a good chance to cancel, right?
0:09:08 - (C): And then we get opportunities. Every now and then we try to fit stuff in. But yeah, like. But even booking Ralphie, yeah, I'm seeing, like, July 23rd is when I texted him. That was the day that the hall of Fame announcement was okay. And, you know, I'm like, hey, any chance he can join us in person sometime to celebrate this? And you basically say, yeah, when I'm in town in November, I believe is when the.
0:09:33 - (C): Well, and I'll, you know, I'm gonna play both sides here. But, you know, Ralphie says, okay, when we get. Yeah, when we get to the ceremony, I'll join you in person. I was like, awesome. But maybe we can also get you on Zoom, you know, sooner than that. And of course, that's when I throw out the dates. And he responded, God, you guys can't wait to get me on, timely as fuck. So then what?
0:10:02 - (Ralph Strangis): Two weeks ago, my own joke, you know? Hey, and I haven't even smoked weed yet today. Think about that. Whatever, okay?
0:10:09 - (C): You've at least taken in some of the second hand weed out on your pool deck.
0:10:15 - (Ralph Strangis): Well, whatever. The fumes are out there. Yeah, man, they got a lot of.
0:10:19 - (C): You know, you're right.
0:10:24 - (Ralph Strangis): Oh, yeah.
0:10:24 - (C): He also said, like I said, talk to you then. And then you say, why not just wait till next summer, then. And then I said something else, you know, just me trying to explain because I know that, like, it's not my favorite look of like, hey, we really want to have you on for this exciting news. And then how about a month later?
0:10:44 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah.
0:10:45 - (C): Yeah. So then you're like, oh, or like fall of 2027, maybe I got some openings. Then I say, so cocky now that you're a Hall of Famer.
0:10:55 - (Ralph Strangis): Okay, but if you're gonna hang. If you're gonna hang a pitch on me, where do you think it's going?
0:11:01 - (C): Oh, upper deck.
0:11:02 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah.
0:11:03 - (C): Yeah.
0:11:03 - (Ralph Strangis): Come on.
0:11:03 - (C): I'm not mad about it. Yeah, and then we get an opportunity to bring on Mr. Mark Cuban, who you may have heard of.
0:11:10 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah. Oh, yeah. Now listen, I wouldn't drop you guys so fast.
0:11:16 - (C): And see, that was my thinking, too, as Bestie would understand if you got a chance to have Mark Cuban on your show and the only time was right now you'd have hung up on us.
0:11:27 - (Ralph Strangis): Hi, Sharks. My name is Rhett. Today I have a product that gonna keep you cool in the summer.
0:11:37 - (C): Yeah, it'll be $15,000.
0:11:40 - (Ralph Strangis): 10% for a light purple cool deck that looks.
0:11:45 - (C): Yeah. Same color as your legs or your.
0:11:48 - (Ralph Strangis): Jump on this show now too? Or is it just you and me?
0:11:51 - (C): No, this is your companion.
0:11:52 - (Mike Rhyner): I'm here, I'm here. I'm pick. I'm picking my spots.
0:11:57 - (C): But anyway, so yeah, then I'm all, I have to tuck my tail between my legs. Yesterday, like, hey, bestie Cuban can't do it now. Can you come back on?
0:12:07 - (Ralph Strangis): How fast could I say yes?
0:12:10 - (C): You said you did say yes, but it was just sure, period. Like, this was not. This was not a thrilled. You thought you were gonna get hurt again.
0:12:21 - (Ralph Strangis): Ask me here. Let's do it. Do it here. Read the text.
0:12:24 - (C): Okay.
0:12:25 - (Ralph Strangis): Okay.
0:12:25 - (C): Where'd it go? Bestie Cuban had to cancel tomorrow. Would you be able to join YDC as Originally scheduled at 3:00 your time?
0:12:34 - (Ralph Strangis): Sure.
0:12:40 - (Mike Rhyner): That's what. That's what I would expect from you.
0:12:44 - (Ralph Strangis): But that did.
0:12:44 - (C): That did feel like karma though. The whole situation where it's like we're asking a dude that just got a inducted into a hall of fame, hey, can you move? Because we got someone else. Even if it is Mark Cuban. And that's just such karma or whatever, where it's like, hey, now, do you want to come back on now that we can't get that guy?
0:13:05 - (Ralph Strangis): Sure.
0:13:05 - (Mike Rhyner): Some. Sometimes things just work the way they're supposed to.
0:13:09 - (C): It was all meant to be, bestie. Just like you and me, baby.
0:13:13 - (Mike Rhyner): All right, now we're going to talk to you a lot about the hall of fame thing and everything. But I want to know this. How do people get by in that hot weather out there? And what's the difference between hot out there and hot here? Is it just a humidity thing?
0:13:30 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah, it's way better here. And I'll tell you why. Because. Because without moisture in the air, you ask the guy tomorrow, what's, what's his name? Jiggy or something? The weather guy.
0:13:41 - (Mike Rhyner): Jesse. Yeah.
0:13:44 - (Ralph Strangis): Okay. Ask Jesse about the difference between the humidity and the dry. Because on in the shade it is cooler and at night it's way cooler. And so like I remember going out in Dallas, I used to smoke cigarettes. Best if I go outside to have a cigarette at 11 o' clock at night, it felt like it was three in the afternoon, and my balls were sweaty. Right. Like, you can't. Like it just drips, you know? And here, if I go outside after the sun's down here, it's kind of nice. I mean, even 85 or 90 without the humidity is pretty nice and the breeze and stuff. And, you know, I can sit out for a little bit. I take a Jacuzzi every morning, no matter how hot it is, because I don't. I take one step, it's off my bedroom, and I'm in it, and I don't feel any of the moisture in the air, so it just kind of feels like I'm sitting in the Jacuzzi. So this. This has to be. This has to be maybe one of your strongest content shows yet, I'm thinking.
0:14:46 - (Mike Rhyner): Yeah, we're. Hey, we're well on our way to. To a really good one.
0:14:49 - (C): This is why you're in the hall of Fame.
0:14:51 - (Ralph Strangis): Well, it's a Hall of Fame show. It's a Hall of Fame show.
0:14:53 - (C): Yeah, there's a couple hall of Famers and me.
0:14:56 - (Ralph Strangis): That's quite a thing. You know, this hall of Fame on. On so many levels. I wish I could explain all of it to you. Maybe I will one of these days.
0:15:05 - (Mike Rhyner): So did you think that you were going to make the hall of Fame this year? I mean, what was your. What was your vibe? I mean, you probably knew that it was about time for you to be strongly considered. Did you have a pretty. A pretty good vibe about this year?
0:15:22 - (Ralph Strangis): No. I mean, look, I. Here, I. It's been 10 years since I've been in there. You know, it's a long time. And in those 10 years, I've done a lot of different things. And I'm not, you know, for better and worse, I'm not that guy anymore. Like, I'm not the voice of the Dallas Stars anymore. And so I've had to kind of, like, I live, you know, I live a very different life. I'm. I'm. I live alone. I live in a small town.
0:15:53 - (Ralph Strangis): I don't see a lot of people. I. I kind of, you know, move in circles. They have no idea who I am. Not that I was anything amazing, but, you know, like, they. They had just no idea about my history, and I don't volunteer it that much. I got a friend I play golf with all the time, Angelo. And Angelo likes to tell everybody because he's a hockey fan. I say to angel on the golf course, don't tell anybody. I don't want to answer hockey questions for four hours. You Know, like, so. So I'm kind of been like that. I've been at arm's length. Also. Me and the Stars had a pretty acrimonious split, and over the years we sort of had our ups and downs as well. But Brad Alberts, the Stars president, a very nice job of reaching out to me and, and keeping me close and inviting me to games and, and talking to me and engaging me in conversation, asking me about different things about the franchise and what I might think about this or that.
0:16:47 - (Ralph Strangis): And this year at the playoff games, I sat with Brad in I think maybe four games in his suite, two against Colorado and two against Edmonton. And so it's like the way I understand their hall, they have a builder category and they have a players category. So they induct one every year. Okay, so. And then there's the guys with their uniforms retired for the Dallas Stars are automatically in the hall. And the owners, the former owners of the Stars are automatically in the hall.
0:17:20 - (Ralph Strangis): So in the hall already are Norm Green, Tom Hicks, Mike Madonna, Yuri Letman, Sergey Zubov, the two Minnesota guys whose numbers were retired. Neil Broughton, and it was retired in Dallas, and Bill Masterton. I'm sorry, Neil Broughton, Bill Masterton and Bill Goldsworthy. Okay. All the Goldsworthy and Master. The numbers were retired in Minnesota. I believe that their families get invited to all of this stuff. I don't think they come to these.
0:17:49 - (Mike Rhyner): Yeah.
0:17:50 - (Ralph Strangis): And the first three classes were a builder and a player. So the first year it was. And I went to that one. It's the only one I've been invited to. I got invited by Bob Gainey because Gainy went in. So I sat at one of Gaines tables. And so it was Gainey and Hatch, Gary and Hatcher. And that was a lot of fun. And at that night, Brad Alberts came to me and he said, one of these days you're going in. And I said, yeah, you know, when pigs fly.
0:18:15 - (Ralph Strangis): And. And then the next year they put in Ken Hitchcock and Eddie Belfort. I didn't get invited to that one. And Hitch, my golfing buddy, didn't even invite me to that one. And so I told him.
0:18:27 - (Mike Rhyner): The hell I told him, man, I'm.
0:18:31 - (Ralph Strangis): Telling the hard line. And that he's going to lose major points with the Hardline, the original. You know, I'm Ryan, you're the hardline. Okay. I love Bob Sturm, I like Corby. I, you know, I'm okay with those guys, but you're the hard line. And. And.
0:18:54 - (Mike Rhyner): I did do that. Hey, I Did. I did.
0:18:56 - (Ralph Strangis): He didn't seem to care. Yeah, I know you did. Oh, I know you did. And then. Let's see. So then that. So then. And Eddie didn't invite me. Although Eddie and I aren't that close. Right. I mean, we're. We're very. We're friends, but we're not that. Like, he wouldn't invite me to that. And by the way, it's expensive to be inducted into the hall of Fame. I don't know how many. I don't know if I want to go down that one today, but. So go for it. So you got my cables you gotta buy extra tables for.
0:19:21 - (Ralph Strangis): So. So I. I don't blame those guys for not, you know, like, the count is really tight. You have to be. It's. It's. I mean, I'm good. They're great about it. Robin Doherty there, who's. Robin's the best man. And she's helping me with all the logistics. And Joe Calvillo of the PR staff. I know you know Joe. They're helping me with all this stuff. But then the next year it was. Well, it was Eddie and Hitch. And then the third year was Brendan Morrow, and he was a gym.
0:19:49 - (Ralph Strangis): I'm sorry.
0:19:50 - (C): Jim Lights.
0:19:52 - (Ralph Strangis): Lights.
0:19:53 - (C): You heard of them?
0:19:54 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah.
0:19:57 - (Mike Rhyner): All right. Some serious.
0:20:01 - (Ralph Strangis): Went in, and I didn't get ready to that one either, because, guarantee you. Jim Lights and. And. And Brendan Morrow again. He's got. Brendan Morrow had so many people there. I guess the count was so tight, and it was really tough. So it's tough, right, because there's only a certain number of tables and places and you want your friends to come and your family. So this year I wasn't even thinking about it. I honestly wasn't thinking about it. I thought, you know, someday maybe they want to put me in.
0:20:31 - (Ralph Strangis): I don't know. I'm not. It's not something that's on my radar. It really wasn't Ryan's. I swear to you, when I say this like, it really wasn't on my radar. And then one day I got a call from Brad Albertson, kind of out of the blue, and. And Brad said, we'd like to induct you into the. This year's hall of Fame. And I said, absolutely, I'd love to do that. And. And. And I'll tell you, since he said that to me, it's been a.
0:20:56 - (Ralph Strangis): It's been really cool. I think about it all the time. I. I write notes about my speech all the time. I got so many jokes. I'm not going to be able to use. But they're so freaking funny. Maybe I'll. Maybe I'll use them here.
0:21:08 - (Mike Rhyner): Yeah, use them here.
0:21:12 - (Ralph Strangis): And so bad. Like. But I would write them down anyway. I, I sit here and I write everything down and, and like I haven't started to write the speech. I won't do that till about, I guess, probably two weeks out. I'll start formalizing that and. But I got pretty. And you know, when I've invited my. My mother's still alive, right? She's 86. She's so excited. She got all her outfits picked up my, you know, my.
0:21:38 - (Mike Rhyner): That's important to him.
0:21:39 - (Ralph Strangis): It's important to an 86 year old mother.
0:21:42 - (Mike Rhyner): Yes, it is.
0:21:42 - (Ralph Strangis): My father's gone. My father's gone, but my mother's still alive and I'm really happy that she gets to see it along with, you know, my daughter and Mike's. Guess who's at my table.
0:21:53 - (Mike Rhyner): Who?
0:21:53 - (Ralph Strangis): Stephanie Stranges. Your friend. Your.
0:21:57 - (Mike Rhyner): Yes, that's right.
0:22:01 - (Ralph Strangis): The table with me and my. And my daughter Savannah and my brother and his wife and my mother and my sister and my nephew Sal. And it's going to be great. I'm, you know, I'm really looking forward to it. It's a whole big weekend. You know, they do a family dinner on the 14th where you just get to bring kind of your core family to Bob steak and chop house. Me and New, we get to do that. And then there's the game on Saturday where me and Newey are going to drop the puck and do media and sweet hop, I guess.
0:22:28 - (Ralph Strangis): And then Sunday night when. Well, Sunday noon, I'm throwing a party to watch a Vikings game at noon someplace. I still got to find a room to do that. You guys know any places?
0:22:37 - (Mike Rhyner): We probably help you with that.
0:22:39 - (C): We can probably hook you up.
0:22:40 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah, good. I need a place for Sunday afternoon football club. Vikings, Bears at noon on November 16th.
0:22:45 - (C): And then you can get us into your party.
0:22:49 - (Mike Rhyner): Listen, Yeah, I mean, you should do it anyway because we're giving you an opportunity right here, right now to workshop some of these jokes and see how they're gonna go over.
0:23:00 - (Ralph Strangis): I can't. Let me tell you, they're so good. But I'll tell you, I promise you here when it's done, when it's done, I promise you I'll come on and I will tell some of the jokes that I knew I couldn't get away with at the event and I'll do it just for you guys. How do you like that, Ashley, huh?
0:23:19 - (Mike Rhyner): Yeah, Ashley.
0:23:20 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah.
0:23:20 - (C): Ash.
0:23:21 - (Ralph Strangis): Well, she's. Isn't she in charge? Or.
0:23:26 - (C): Is anybody.
0:23:27 - (Ralph Strangis): Would that be something you might be interested in? So. Yeah, but I guess, you know, here's the other thing. I don't own a tie. I don't own a tie. I do not own a tie anymore.
0:23:40 - (Mike Rhyner): God. Really?
0:23:42 - (Ralph Strangis): Yes.
0:23:42 - (Mike Rhyner): You're my hero.
0:23:44 - (Ralph Strangis): Dude. I don't. I'm telling you here, I'll tell you a secret. Okay? Okay. This isn't on live or anything, is it? Lie to me.
0:23:53 - (Mike Rhyner): No, no, no, we're not lying.
0:23:55 - (C): We'll edit this out.
0:23:56 - (Mike Rhyner): Nobody listens to this.
0:23:58 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah, I'm not going to wear a tie. One way or the other. I'm not going to wear a tie. If I go up with a tie on, I'll take it off during the speech. But I'm. Because, you know, who cares about. This is people who wear ties.
0:24:12 - (Mike Rhyner): That's right.
0:24:14 - (Ralph Strangis): Even the NHLPA dress code now you don't have to wear ties. Ties. So I'm gonna lean on that. Tell you what else, my friend Tom Gallardi, the owner of the team, I don't think he likes to wear ties. So I'm in good company here. But I, you know, I. I can.
0:24:29 - (Mike Rhyner): Almost promise you without knowing Tom Gallardi at all.
0:24:33 - (Ralph Strangis): Yes.
0:24:33 - (Mike Rhyner): I don't think maybe we had him on the. Do we have a show on the radio? Did we ever have Tom Gallardi on the radio?
0:24:42 - (C): On the radio, I believe. Yeah.
0:24:43 - (Mike Rhyner): Yeah, I think we did a time or two.
0:24:45 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah.
0:24:45 - (Mike Rhyner): I. I guarantee you that is not a tie guy.
0:24:49 - (Ralph Strangis): No, he's not a tie guy. I know he's not. I know he's not. And I'm like, well, you got to wear a tie. But all the, you know, the junior execis, they like that. You know, they, like, wear tie.
0:25:01 - (C): They're just trying to prop up big tie.
0:25:04 - (Ralph Strangis): So you know what they do? We get jackets, Ryan.
0:25:09 - (Mike Rhyner): Oh, you get jackets.
0:25:10 - (Ralph Strangis): Oh, hall of Fame jackets. So they're gonna send me the thing. There's a guy at. What's his name? They sent me the email yesterday or this morning. There's a guy at Neiman Marcus that has the measuring thing. I said, well, I can't go to Neiman Marcus in Dallas if I'm not gonna fly in there to do Reiner's show. Not flying all the way to Dallas to get measured for. For a Hall of Fame jacket.
0:25:37 - (Mike Rhyner): So are these jackets leather with a stars logo on the back or. Or what?
0:25:42 - (Ralph Strangis): Yep. It's like the Michael Jackson dragon from Thriller. You Know, it's green. It's a suit. It's a black. It's a black jacket. It's a suit jacket or something. So it's me. And so. Yeah.
0:26:00 - (C): Where's the green on it?
0:26:01 - (Ralph Strangis): A patch on it. And I think the patch says. I think it's the hall of Fame patch. And I think the crest is here. I did look at a picture. I just don't remember. But, you know, I'll put it in. I'll put it in the closet and I'll wear it every year when I come back. I guess I do get invited back every year. And I get a date every year. I guess I get a plus one. So.
0:26:22 - (C): Hello.
0:26:23 - (Ralph Strangis): We can rotate the staff here? Yeah, yeah. Every year. Yeah. Okay. You know, then Grooves can come the second year, then Ashley can come. You know, we'll just do that.
0:26:39 - (C): It's assumed that you would be next in line.
0:26:47 - (Ralph Strangis): So, yeah, I mean, you have me on the show and stuff, but I gotta tell you, like, I'm really thankful to Tom Gallardi and to Brad Alberts. You know, I really care about the organization that hasn't left me. You know, I've been. I'm. I write substack, and sometimes I'm critical of the league and. And of some of the policies, but it's because I care and I like it. You know, I like that. I love the organization.
0:27:16 - (Ralph Strangis): I'm always trying to look out for the organization. I really am. And, you know, to be able to be honored by them in this way after all these years, to get back up there, I even traded text with Daryl Ray. Whoa, whoa. First time now?
0:27:40 - (Mike Rhyner): This is new in my life.
0:27:43 - (C): Is it just a wiener pick?
0:27:45 - (Ralph Strangis): Was it what?
0:27:46 - (C): Just a wiener pick? Like, hey, check it. Check this out. This is a Hall of Fame.
0:27:57 - (Ralph Strangis): This is real text with words on it.
0:27:59 - (Mike Rhyner): See, she should be. You're ruining everything.
0:28:03 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah, so we. I texted him, you know, Daryl's getting inducted as the Foster Hewitt recipient for the NHL's hall of Fame. That's a big deal. So. So he goes in as a broadcaster for the NHL, I think a week before I go in with the Dallas Stars. So it's kind of a big week. Big Ralph and Razor week, if you look at it that way. And, you know, I. I told the stars, like, I'll do anything, man. You want me to, you know, jump on with Razor for five minutes, I'll do it. You want me to, you know, love to see that?
0:28:35 - (Ralph Strangis): Well, anything, you know, like, I'm. Look, I'm. I'm Open man. I'll, I'll do anything they want to do. I want to make this a super fun weekend for the fans. I guarantee you this, you'll never see a speech like this in your life. I will light that room on fire, man. It'll be fun.
0:28:51 - (Mike Rhyner): You know, I, I, I don't wanna, I don't want to, you know, be dismissive of anybody or anything, but the Ralph Razor days were really, really good ones just as far as watching hockey. And not only watching hockey, but teaching hockey to the fan base because you know, you guys, and I guess Mike Fornes was in there somewhere too. But, but you guys were the ones who taught these football loving yahoos down here what hockey was all about.
0:29:26 - (Ralph Strangis): Razor and I had a couple of really good things going for us. We had three. We had Tom Hicks, okay. And an unlimited checkbook. We had a team on the rise where nobody else in the Metroplex was on the rise. Cowboys had finished their run. Mavericks and Rangers were. Forget about it. We had the stage to ourselves. And the third thing, the key to mine and Razor success and the success of the franchise was the ticket.
0:29:53 - (Ralph Strangis): And I don't say that lightly. The ticket. We all grew up together, didn't we? The, the, the synergy between the Dallas Stars and Sports Radio 1310. The Ticket, what Hitch did on your broadcast to have cargo on all those guys, you know, we, we had such fun in the, in the charity challenge and all of those things. So we had this sort of groundswell of new and a great team and you guys were new in town and we all wrote it together and Daryl and I had a, Daryl and I were really helped by all of those things.
0:30:26 - (Ralph Strangis): And, and then Razor I think is still on in the mornings, right, with the Musers. Is he still?
0:30:30 - (Mike Rhyner): Yes, sir, I would imagine so.
0:30:32 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah.
0:30:32 - (Mike Rhyner): So, you know, but I don't know that.
0:30:35 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah, I kind of got, I got left to BAP for a long time because we needed somebody over there. It was our flagship for all those years. And they were like, well, okay, Ralph, you're at wbap, which I, I did and I enjoyed it and I like those guys, but it wasn't you guys. It wasn't fun and crazy and you know, I mean, you know, I, I think I led into Rush Limbaugh or something.
0:31:00 - (Mike Rhyner): Well, I mean there's only one ticket, but if you got to be somewhere, WBAP is not a bad place.
0:31:05 - (Ralph Strangis): Not a bad place. And I really like, I say I love those guys over there. We had a good time, but you know, but the Ticket. So. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for saying that, Ryan's. I mean, I just did a piece in, in my substack about changing booths and things like that. And I, you know, I kind of said something about, you know, fans get over everything. You know, I did it for a while. I left and they liked the new guy and then he left and they moved Razor over and they liked him and then he left and they got Josh in there and now they like them. You know, this is the progression of life. It's, you know that it's all about change and fresh and turning it over.
0:31:37 - (Mike Rhyner): So that's what it is. That's exactly what it is. You know, I mean, I'm going through a lot of this. The same thing. You know, people come up to me and tell me they miss me. Well, I've been gone for like five or six years and they've reworked the show and they've. And they've gone on without me, you.
0:31:59 - (Ralph Strangis): Know, now I do this move to Rancho Mirage. Nobody will know who the hell you are.
0:32:06 - (Mike Rhyner): I'll sit right in there too. I'll bet.
0:32:07 - (Ralph Strangis): Oh, you'll fit right in. You come over, sit on the pool deck with me on the cool deck. We'll get the pool chiller. We'll get a big.
0:32:16 - (Mike Rhyner): Sounds like fun.
0:32:18 - (Ralph Strangis): You know what I did? I bought a joint roller today. Well.
0:32:27 - (Mike Rhyner): All right, you go get the joint roller and while you do that, I'll do the mid show read here. How about that?
0:32:33 - (Ralph Strangis): The reads I'm going to show you this.
0:32:38 - (C): Works out.
0:32:39 - (Mike Rhyner): Let me do the mid show read and we'll look at the joint roller right after this. Robbie, let's see here. What are we talking about here today? Oh, we're talking about this. We're talking about pain. You know, a lot of guys are out there roaming through this world and they're in pain and they hurt all the time and they're not sure what it is, why it is, where it's coming from or anything like that. They just know that they would like to free themselves from pain and, and anxiety and maybe sleep again. Because, you know, if you're hurting, you can't sleep.
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0:34:13 - (Mike Rhyner): She will give you the knowledge to care for yourself. That's their ultimate goal. That's what they're all about. That's what they want to do. Find your relief from the aches and pains, the emotional stress, and drain and sleep again. CBCDallas.com is where you will find them on the Internet. They're at 8550 Plano Road, Suite 101 in Dallas. That's in the northeast quadrant of that burgeoning intersection of Northwest highway and Plano Road.
0:34:41 - (Mike Rhyner): Begin your healing at the House of Healing. I got one more here.
0:34:48 - (C): Oh, yeah, you do?
0:34:49 - (Mike Rhyner): Okay, maybe you've heard of this thing we do around here called the OG well, the OG is back. Thursday, the 14th of August, Grego Shoopy and me. Yeah. Together again in studio at a new time, five o' clock in the afternoon. We'll still be talking sports and only sports, and sharing our hardline positions on all the teams, players, coaches and ownership around here this week. We also have a little announcement, so join us live on Patreon, 5:00 clock this Thursday for the OG another episode of the OG with Grego Shupy and me.
0:35:37 - (Mike Rhyner): Is that it?
0:35:38 - (C): Nailed it.
0:35:39 - (Mike Rhyner): All right. Excellent. There we go. All right, back to Ralphie. Ralphie, you still with us?
0:35:45 - (Ralph Strangis): There I am. Where would I get it? Where am I going to go? I. I don't have a pool I can jump into. It's all covered up. It's 100.
0:35:56 - (Mike Rhyner): I don't know, you might go out.
0:35:58 - (Ralph Strangis): For a little walk.
0:35:58 - (Mike Rhyner): Who knows?
0:35:59 - (C): Yeah, you picked up your Joint Roller. We thought we might lose you.
0:36:01 - (Ralph Strangis): 113. See that?
0:36:04 - (Mike Rhyner): Wow. Wow. That is serious. Yeah, here's it say, but it's a dry heat.
0:36:14 - (Ralph Strangis): But it's a dry heat. End of the week, when everything's done, it's going to be 98.99. And let me tell you, 98 here feels like 60. No, not really. You remember these things? Ryan's?
0:36:28 - (Mike Rhyner): What things? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I do, I do, I do.
0:36:32 - (Ralph Strangis): He perked up. So. So here's my. Yeah, I don't. I don't roll. The pre rolls are so good. Like, I don't roll, but I got. People give me flour and stuff sometimes, so I got this. Listen to this. No, let me tell you about this machine quickly. You are now the proud owner of truly unique rolling machine. This roller was not made in China, so it's not something Donald Trump ordered and is not conventional plastic.
0:37:00 - (Ralph Strangis): Sure, others may look similar, but after a month, you're left holding a broken mess of parts. Our rollers typically last a lifetime. How's that for a big day for me?
0:37:10 - (Mike Rhyner): That's kick ass. That is a kick ass roller.
0:37:14 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah, I roll tobacco in it.
0:37:19 - (Mike Rhyner): Rolling drawing, you know, listen, no matter.
0:37:21 - (Ralph Strangis): What you're rolling, they want to pump you full. You know, the docs will pump you full of narcotics and Xanax and all that other stuff. Man, forget about it. Forget about it. I had all that. I had surgeries and cancer and things a few years ago, and I just said, I'm not going down. Not our galley. And that's when I kind of got serious about this stuff. So it's good. Anyway.
0:37:44 - (Mike Rhyner): Well, like I said a minute ago in the spot, there was a time when I was going through a very painful situation myself. And I did what I. I just talked about. I went out there to the CBD house of healing and they gave me stuff that took care of it.
0:38:00 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah.
0:38:00 - (Mike Rhyner): And it worked.
0:38:02 - (Ralph Strangis): Yes.
0:38:02 - (Mike Rhyner): And I'm a big believer now.
0:38:05 - (Ralph Strangis): My. My aunt Rita, who was, you know, a very sort of conservative person about stuff, some things, wouldn't touch marijuana until about the last two years of her life. And it helped her a lot. And, you know, she kind of got turned around on it because, you know, it helped and it worked.
0:38:24 - (Mike Rhyner): Yeah, that'll happen.
0:38:26 - (Ralph Strangis): All right. All right. So what are we going to talk about now?
0:38:30 - (Mike Rhyner): Well, what I want to talk to you about is something that I've always.
0:38:32 - (Ralph Strangis): Wondered about, and that is, I didn't do it.
0:38:36 - (Mike Rhyner): I. Yeah, you did. Yeah, you did. I know you did. That is the stars final days in Minnesota. When. Do you recall when somebody came up to you and said, hey, man, did you hear?
0:38:58 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah.
0:38:59 - (Mike Rhyner): And you probably said, what? Hear what? We're moving. The team's moving to Dallas. Do you remember when that was?
0:39:08 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah.
0:39:10 - (Mike Rhyner): Tell us about that, Gez.
0:39:13 - (Ralph Strangis): This is a cra. You know, it's a crazy story, right?
0:39:15 - (Mike Rhyner): And I like crazy stories.
0:39:18 - (Ralph Strangis): The other guy you have to talk to about this seriously is. What was his name again? He went in With Brendan Morrow last year. Grooves.
0:39:25 - (C): Jim Lights, I believe.
0:39:26 - (Ralph Strangis): Right. Talk to Jim Lights about. I'm serious. Lights knows a lot about this story because it's interesting. So Norm Green gets to Minnesota in 1990. He gets there with not very deep pockets, but has the same view as everyone. How the hell can you not make an NHL team work in Minnesota? Right? And then that first year, we go to the Stanley cup final and we get beat by the Pittsburgh Penguins, and I think we're still the only team in NHL history to lose season ticket holders after going to a Stanley cup final.
0:39:59 - (Ralph Strangis): That, that first year, the opening night In Minnesota in 1990, Norm's first year, my first year, Bob Gainey's first year, we had 4,500 people in for opening night. Think about that. 4,500 people in a 17,000 seat, 18,000 seat hall in the state of hockey. So Norm goes through this for a few years for. For a couple of years, and he thinks, I don't know, man. I can't. They won't give me a new building.
0:40:26 - (Ralph Strangis): I can't get into this retail development that the Met center was on the same property as the Mall of America was built. Okay, so the, the building that the North Stars played in, the Met center and, and next to it for many years, Metropolitan Stadium. Did you ever get to Metropolitan Stadium to see the Twins or Vikings play Ryan's?
0:40:44 - (Mike Rhyner): I did not.
0:40:45 - (Ralph Strangis): Okay. So it was out in the middle of nowhere. It was a southern suburb, Bloomington, at a time when expansion in the Twin Cities was kind of moving north. Everybody's kids played hockey in Minnesota, as you might imagine. And so on a Tuesday night for the northern suburbs to decide they want to drive an hour in the snow to go pay whatever it was to see an NHL game in Bloomington when they had their kids playing, you know, at the. At the local rec hall.
0:41:12 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah, it was hard to draw people. Like, it was hard to draw. And the North Stars also didn't do a great job of aligning themselves with the other hockey products in the state, which the Wild have done beautifully. Right. So. So anyway, Norm also was having a bit of a personal legal issue with some, With, With. With someone who worked with the Stars. And we knew that he was not happy about anything that was going on in Minnesota he wanted to have.
0:41:41 - (Ralph Strangis): I did the video for it. We had a plan to make an adjacent. A connecting mall between the Met center and the Mall of America. And Norm wanted to develop the mall. And the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, City of Bloomington all went, no, no, we're not going to do that. Well, we want you to help us with building improvements. No, we're not going to do that. Well, we want to maybe build a new arena or go downtown to the Target center in Minneapolis. No, we're not going to let you do that.
0:42:08 - (Ralph Strangis): So Norm starts going, I don't know what the hell I'm doing here. I don't know. I don't know how much longer. He put. He put a new scoreboard in with his own money. He redid all the seats with his own money. He liked ice cubes in the urinal. He did. This was a thing. Norm Green put ice cube. Have you ever been in any of these places with ice cubes in the urinal?
0:42:26 - (C): Well, it is nice to have a cold.
0:42:28 - (Mike Rhyner): I. I have experienced this.
0:42:30 - (Ralph Strangis): Oh, yeah. And. And like, yeah, when it drops in, it's like. It's like this nice, comfortable, cold thing to rest it in. Right. So isn't that where you were going with that grooves?
0:42:40 - (C): So I was joking about, like, drinking out of it.
0:42:43 - (Ralph Strangis): Oh, okay.
0:42:44 - (C): Either way, yours is better, though. You're the comedian. You're the hall of Famer.
0:42:48 - (Ralph Strangis): I'm the hall of Famer. I'm the future hall of Famer. I'm. I'm targeting.
0:42:52 - (C): You're a Hall of Famer. In my heart.
0:42:54 - (Ralph Strangis): Thank you, YouTube groups, whatever. So, anyway, so. So he had done all this stuff, he thought, you know, and then all of a sudden, we could hear that he was actively looking for something. This is where you might want to call Jim Lightsabout, too, because who. The story, as I understand it, was, he's out. That's it. I'm not staying in Minnesota anymore. And the league said, well, you got to find a spot. You got to find a spot to land fast.
0:43:22 - (Ralph Strangis): So he thinks he has a deal in Anaheim, and we're going to be the Anaheim Stars. No kidding. And he had asked the league, I don't know if it was before or after this meeting, but he goes to the meeting and. And they say, well, you know what? Disney wants a team in Anaheim, so we can't give you Anaheim. So he says, well, I need somebody to help me. He liked Jim Lights from one of these committees at the NHL, and he said, can Jim Lights help me find a place?
0:43:51 - (Ralph Strangis): Somehow they got connected. So then they started.
0:43:54 - (Mike Rhyner): What was like, what was Jim Lice doing at this time?
0:43:57 - (Ralph Strangis): Well, he was working for the Detroit Red Wings, but I don't exactly remember how he was. Like, he might have been out of Detroit by then or something, but. And then because he came to us in. I want to say it was shortly after I got there, like, September, October, that first year. 93, 94. I had already been there. And then Jim and Jeff Kogan came in in, like, September or something, so. So now they go, well, we got Wayne Huizenga.
0:44:26 - (Ralph Strangis): He said, well, we're gonna go to Florida. We'll be the Florida Stars. Well, no, the league says Wayne Huizenga from Blockbuster wants a team in Florida. We. We want Wayne Isinga to do it. He said. They said, I tell you what, though. You can find a place to land. We'll waive the reload fee. That's my memory. I don't think they charge him. I think it was 50 at the time. 50 million, I think. I don't know what it is now. Half a billion or something or more.
0:44:49 - (Ralph Strangis): But we'll waive the reload fee. And. But you got to get it done. So I think maybe that's when lights came in. Anyway, they're scouring. They go to Houston, they go to Indianapolis. And then Norm remembers he knew Roger Staubach, and he knew Roger Staubach from another board they were on or something. He calls Roger and he said, I don't know. What do you think about Dallas? He said, I get your meeting with the mayor.
0:45:12 - (Ralph Strangis): So he got Norma meeting with Bartlett. Wasn't that his name?
0:45:15 - (Mike Rhyner): Yeah, Steve Bartlett.
0:45:16 - (Ralph Strangis): Bartlett, yeah. So he gets him a meeting with Bartlett. Bartlett says, well, I don't know. Carter's got eminent domain here with the Mavericks. He's got to say, okay, so Carter said, I'm not going to be the reason they don't come. Come here. Come on, guys. Bring the hockey team here. And I think Mr. Carter has a ring from the Stanley cup in 1999, if I'm. If I remember that correctly. But he was always a fan and a supporter, so everybody says, okay, so now we're back in Minnesota.
0:45:43 - (Ralph Strangis): If you look at. Hey, Groos. Or Ashley, if you guys can look up quickly. Stars, 92, 93 in Minnesota. The game by games. If you look about six weeks before the season ended, you'll see, you know, we're kind of hanging out kind of. And then all of a sudden you see LL LL L I win. L l l l like these guys. Just. That was it. We just. Everybody gave up at once, right? So I started hearing the rumors from the hockey side, like, from that they had kind of heard of it. They got wind of it.
0:46:20 - (Ralph Strangis): And so then it was trying to figure out who was with who. So Norm had Two operations going at once. He had the Minnesota North Stars in Minnesota, where he was gone physically. He had checked out. He wasn't there. And two guys, John Thomas and Pat Forcia, who lived a very colorful life. Someday you might want to Google Pat for I promise it's entertaining. Those two were the executives and they were running it.
0:46:45 - (Ralph Strangis): And then Norm was. He had a lawyer named Brian, I won't remember his name, Brian something. And it was hard to get information. We had all kinds of people in the office, thought they were going down to Dallas. And I was like, I don't know, man. I. I don't know. You know, I knew Norm kind of liked me, so I heard we were gonna go. I heard it was coming, and then I heard, yep, that's it. We, we announced it, I think right about a month before the end of the regular season.
0:47:16 - (Ralph Strangis): And the last month of the regular season was a show. And fans were all of a sudden, oh, well, you can't move. We love you. Yeah. Did you buy any tickets?
0:47:26 - (Mike Rhyner): Yeah. Well, where you been?
0:47:28 - (Ralph Strangis): Did you spend any money on advertising? Did you. You know, we could. No local buyer in Minneapolis wanted anything to do with that team or the Twin Cities. We couldn't sell. So that out of state mall developer from, From Calgary gets it. He didn't have any allegiances to the area, so we knew we were gone. So. Okay, so they hired. He hired a guy named Bill Strong as the first president of the Dallas Stars.
0:47:50 - (Ralph Strangis): Thank God that lasted only briefly and. But Strong did. Strong was around a long time. He was like a cockroach at the end of the Holocaust. Like he was. He was. They put him. He's a sales guy. They always put sales guys in charge of broadcast. Like, what the. You know, like. So I got to talk to this sales guy, you know, he gave us one year for Christmas. This is true. Our Christmas gift from the Dallas Stars from my boss that first year was a handful of expired Blockbuster Video coupons.
0:48:24 - (Ralph Strangis): Just scratch out the date and write in a different date. That was. That's what he got us. I also had it in my Minnesota contract that when that guy retired there, Al Shaver, and he did. It was my play by play job. Well, Bill Strong wasn't so keen on enforcing any of that. And I had a year left on my deal and he hired Mike Forens without telling anybody. So I got you.
0:48:51 - (Mike Rhyner): He didn't, he didn't even tell you that?
0:48:53 - (Ralph Strangis): No, I got Norm on the phone or. No, first I got Bill on the bill. He says, well, you know, you can come, but for half your salary. And I go, what? I mean, I was making like 40 grand. I go, what? And so then talked to my dad. He said, find Norm. Get Norm on the phone. So I found Norm. And it was in the days when, you know, didn't have cell phones. We were, you know, it wasn't a thing, really. It was hard to look people up. But I found him. I got him. I got him at his home, wherever he was in the summer. I was at my uncle's house. I'll never forget the call. And I called Norman. I said, look, I said, you got.
0:49:35 - (Ralph Strangis): You got a lot going on down there. I said, but I'm your play by play guy. He said, no, that's already been settled. I'm sorry, but I can't do anything about that. I said, look, Norm, I got a year left on my deal. I think I can help you. I think I can help you a lot down there. I was a young, energetic guy, you know, I was Ralph, you know, full of piss and vinegar and so on. And I said, but if you don't want me there, tell me right now and let's work something out, because I don't want to be a. You know, I don't want to be the guy down there that didn't get the job, whatever. He goes.
0:50:03 - (Ralph Strangis): The guy said, I don't need an extension. I just. On your say so, if you tell me to come, I'll come. And he said, I think you'll be great with us. I want you to come down. And. And so it was Norm Green who got me to Texas. That was it. And without Norm Green, I would not have been in Texas. There's no chance. So I got there. I had to work for Strong for I don't know how many years, but, you know, we worked around him.
0:50:29 - (Ralph Strangis): Was there.
0:50:29 - (Mike Rhyner): Was there any kind of. Was there any kind of blowback from Strong once Norm told you that. That he wanted you there?
0:50:38 - (Ralph Strangis): No, no, no. I mean, we. You know, Bill was a. You know, I think a lot of it, too, was the. The left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing. A lot of times, you know. You know, I mean, I. I think he was. I think maybe he didn't know and he didn't want to know. And then I kind of popped up, and he's like, oh, shoot, what do we do now? And so I came down and I was. You know, I was a. I was a good soldier. I was a horrible analyst, but a good soldier.
0:51:02 - (Ralph Strangis): And I did a couple years with Mike Forens. And then Mike moved to. Moved on. And they moved me over, and then they said, find us an analyst. So I called up some guys I knew. I called Darren Pang, I called Rob Ramage. I called. Who else would have been working then? Billy Jaff here. There were about four or five guys. Doug Armstrong came to my office one day and he sent down my office. I didn't have an office. Came down the thing. He said, hey.
0:51:24 - (Ralph Strangis): He said, I just played golf with this guy in Kalamazoo. He's pretty funny. And he said, do you know Darryl Ray? And I said, I don't know him. I know of him. Sure. I met him maybe once or twice in Hartford. He was working for the Hartford Whalers, you know, with. He and John Forsland were on air partners in. In Hartford. And so I called Razor and I said, send me your tape. He sent me his tape within two minutes. I just. I walked into Lights's office the next day, and I hand him the tape. I said, that's our guy. I said, it's not even close.
0:51:50 - (Ralph Strangis): I said, he's going to be so good here. Like, I was so, like, I knew he was going to be good. And. And he has been. He's been good. Great, right? And. But, you know, you have to sort of. And I write about this a lot, like, at the team level, there are no broadcast people in broadcast very often, right? They have. They have a salesperson or a marketing person or, you know, this radio station, they don't know anything what we do. They have no idea what we do. They. They can't talk to us. They don't. They can't manage us very well. We're not manageable people. We are hard. We're hard people to manage, right?
0:52:24 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah. You're nodding. See, we're. We are. We're as tough as they freaking come. Like, I would hate to be my boss. I would hate it, right? And I couldn't do it, man.
0:52:34 - (Mike Rhyner): I couldn't be my boss.
0:52:36 - (Ralph Strangis): No. Oh, God. Horrible, right? Horrible. That's why I don't. I can't be in an office. I can't be around. I can't be around corporate types. I just. I. I mean, I start sweating and.
0:52:48 - (C): I, you know, I think it's the ties.
0:52:50 - (Ralph Strangis): It's the ties.
0:52:51 - (C): Yeah.
0:52:52 - (Ralph Strangis): It's the ties. Groovy.
0:52:53 - (C): I'm telling you, Ralphie, it is.
0:52:54 - (Ralph Strangis): So. So anyway, you know, we got through this and we all got, you know, we all started to get along, but, you know, clearly, when you have got people who don't understand sort of the business. But the reason we had a simulcast was because of money. We didn't. We didn't have the money to hire. We had to buy our way onto the air. We had no rights fees. We had to buy our way onto the air. I don't remember the deal we made with the ticket. I think it was a straight barter deal even. Maybe.
0:53:20 - (Mike Rhyner): Like, that's what I always heard.
0:53:22 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you might know this because we didn't. You guys didn't have rights money, I don't think. Although we would have been pretty cheap.
0:53:28 - (Mike Rhyner): We probably had it, but we were. The. The ticket was not inclined to spend money on something like that.
0:53:35 - (Ralph Strangis): Oh, no, they don't. The ticket throws money around like manhole covers, right? I mean, like, I go in there, we don't even talk about that. Pay 8 bucks an hour to. To host what? What? I make more at McDonald's than go to McDonald's. Okay, I got it. But that's kind of how this is. So. So it's. It. It was very. Was very hard, like, for the people in Minnesota. This is. I mean, they blame Norm Green, I blame the hockey department and the business side of the previous 10 years for drafting shitty.
0:54:18 - (Ralph Strangis): For not paying attention. The owners were absentee owners. They lived in Cleveland. My father represented them for a while. The Gun brothers, George and Gordon Gunn. Now, at the end of this deal, let me tell you about this deal, too. So the Guns are trying to find a buyer for the North Stars in 1990.
0:54:38 - (Mike Rhyner): Didn't they have the Cavaliers for a while, too?
0:54:40 - (Ralph Strangis): Yes, they did. Yeah. Yep. Yep.
0:54:43 - (Mike Rhyner): Yeah.
0:54:44 - (Ralph Strangis): George and Gordon Gunn. George was blind and used to sit at the top of the building and listen on his headphones to Al Shaver. And that was. I always enjoyed that story. Right. And I got a very nice letter from Gordon after I. After I moved to. After I started going working for the Dallas Stars. He knew my father, of course. Of course my dad knew those guys. I couldn't get a job when the Gun sold the team. Then I finally was able to get a job, right.
0:55:15 - (Ralph Strangis): Norm Green didn't know anybody, so that helped me. But. But they made the NHL said this because the guns wanted 10,000 season ticket holders in Minnesota. They were going to move the team. Norm Green came in and said, you know, we'll take it. And. And the league said to the Guns, look, we'll give you the next expansion franchise and we'll allow you to pilfer the roster of the Minnesota North Stars.
0:55:38 - (Ralph Strangis): The Guns were Awarded the San jose sharks in 1991. And they took about our entire minor league roster and they got to select like six players. It's never happened before or since an NHL dispersal draft. And it was kind of right about the time before Gary Bettman came to power and Bettman shut that down. So we got, we got crushed on that deal. So it was a very confusing time. And the people in Minnesota are still mad at Norm Green and they're probably still mad at me.
0:56:06 - (Mike Rhyner): So was it a, like a sad day among the staff when the word came out that it. That we're moving to Dallas?
0:56:14 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah, I mean the people in the building were like. A lot of people thought they were going to. Yeah. Like, oh no, I've been told I'm gonna go. And they only brought one broadcaster, me. They brought nobody else from the broadcast site. I'll tell you another story. So we had archived all the Minnesota North Stars radio stuff. Somebody at the station was so mad that they bulk erased all of it with the.
0:56:43 - (Ralph Strangis): They erased all the Al Shaver stuff from the Minnesota North Stars. 26 years of radio tapes of Minnesota North Stars hockey got erased because they were mad at us for leaving. So none of that stuff exists? Very little.
0:56:56 - (Mike Rhyner): Wow.
0:56:58 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah, it, it was hard, man. And we had a. My friend Mark Barabo and I, the trainer, the head equipment manager at the time, we made T shirts. Thanks Minnesota, with all the guys signatures on it, you know, and we sold, I don't know, we sold 500 of them or a thousand of them or something out in the parking lot. And we didn't sell them for much. We just wanted to do that, you know, like we thought that might be a nice thing. I don't know. I don't have one of those T shirts anymore.
0:57:29 - (Ralph Strangis): It was sad. It was really sad because it was the team I grew up with. And then to sort of bring this full circle. The only remnants left in that Dallas Stars organization, organization officially now are, you know, Neil Broughton, you know, the two retired jerseys guys, Storm Green and now me going into the hall of Fame. Right. I was, I was, I was the OG Stars fan. I started going to games when I'm six years old. Like I, I've been a fan of this franchise since the beginning and then I worked for him for three years in Minnesota and then I came to Dallas and you know, so for me to go in is a really.
0:58:05 - (Ralph Strangis): To represent my home state, to represent the Minnesota North Stars franchise in. This is. It's pretty, pretty cool and pretty overwhelming when I think about It.
0:58:15 - (Mike Rhyner): Yeah.
0:58:16 - (Ralph Strangis): Because it is down to just a few of us.
0:58:17 - (Mike Rhyner): So it's really cool. You were to be congratulated, man.
0:58:23 - (Ralph Strangis): Thank you. Well. And I'm sorry I'm not a very good guest. I don't talk much, but I might be the worst guest. Right. Because he just doesn't stop talking.
0:58:32 - (Mike Rhyner): Look, I. Look for guys who have stories. I want stories. We gotta have stories of being true. And you got stories, man.
0:58:45 - (Ralph Strangis): I got stories that I can't tell. I know, but I sure wish I could, man. I gotta tell you, I sure wish I could.
0:58:52 - (Mike Rhyner): Well, this is just a little podcast. Nobody's listening, you know?
0:58:56 - (Ralph Strangis): Well, that's what I think, you know?
0:58:58 - (Mike Rhyner): Like, is that like we're going over the air or anything like that?
0:59:02 - (Ralph Strangis): Dude. You know, look, so I've got this weekly podcast. I always say this when I'm a kid. I did pretend TV shows in the basement on the couch. Right? I do. I do a. I made scores for the NFL on Sundays. I do an NFL Today studio down in the basement, and I put the scores up on this bulletin board and I wrote the teams out and. And all that stuff. And now I'm doing a pretend TV show in my living room now.
0:59:29 - (Ralph Strangis): And so after 60 years, I've made no progress.
0:59:35 - (Mike Rhyner): That's kind of the way I look at it, too. I'm doing a pretend. On a TV show or radio show or something in here. I don't know what it is, but it. It's pretend.
0:59:48 - (Ralph Strangis): It is.
0:59:48 - (Mike Rhyner): You know, it's.
0:59:49 - (Ralph Strangis): Well, it's fun, right? Like, I. I really enjoy it. Ryan's. I mean, I get excited to go on the air again, and, you know, it's. I. I like to express myself, and you do, too. You know, I don't know what the hell we do, right? What are we gonna do? Watch the guys put cool deck on our swimming pool or. Like.
1:00:10 - (Mike Rhyner): Not me, man.
1:00:11 - (Ralph Strangis): I gotta do this. I gotta. I gotta write. I gotta be.
1:00:14 - (Mike Rhyner): Yeah.
1:00:15 - (Ralph Strangis): Time.
1:00:15 - (Mike Rhyner): I guess I do, too. I mean, I. Like, I'd been retired and not doing anything for a few years. I. You know, I had a podcast originally, right. Like, right after I stepped away from it, but that was at a place where they didn't know what to do with it, and it just kind of went kaput. And now, I mean, here I am again. I can't quit, man.
1:00:40 - (Ralph Strangis): No, I. What are we gonna do?
1:00:42 - (Mike Rhyner): Like, I don't know.
1:00:43 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah, I. I can't. I mean, I have. And I have my assistant who's a really sweet young person, and she Comes over once a week and I really look and we do a show in a day. You know, we. We do our Riverside. We do those and then we edit it in and then we have the Ralph cast, the podcast, the TV show is what I call it. And, and we do it. We put a 30 minute show together every week and we edit it, we post it, we put graphics and photos and videos and all kinds of stuff on.
1:01:11 - (Ralph Strangis): On the Ralph cast, the podcast, the TV and YouTube substack, Ralph stack and Twitter at Ralph stranges and the Instagram. I forget senseless Ralph, I think. But anyway, I just. I gotta do something, man. I gotta do something. I'm not gonna stop. And I follow you on the sub.
1:01:29 - (Mike Rhyner): Stack, but that's where I get you on the sub stack.
1:01:33 - (Ralph Strangis): Thank you very much. I'm. I like the sub stack. I enjoy writing and, you know, these days you don't have to work for a station, as you know. We're not working for anybody. We're.
1:01:42 - (Mike Rhyner): No, no.
1:01:44 - (Ralph Strangis): That's the beauty of it. Why would we work for anybody? Ryan's. We are.
1:01:48 - (Mike Rhyner): I don't know.
1:01:49 - (Ralph Strangis): Oh, my God, I'm the worst. I know that. I know that. Jesus. Anybody had that it. Anybody had to. Anybody had to deal with me as an employee, you know, because I know what I know and they don't, you know, they don't have any idea what I do. They see me on TV and go, well, he must be doing his job. And then they bring you in and they say, you know, we didn't like. And I'm. Oh, stop it. Just stop. Just don't, you know, like if you hadn't sat in the chair. I don't want to hear what you got.
1:02:21 - (Mike Rhyner): Yeah, they found me very difficult to deal with in that way too. I was not always, not always really accepting of constructive criticism.
1:02:34 - (Ralph Strangis): Not us. Look. Huh? Let me ask you this. Groups, Mike, who's easy to work with at the ticket? Anybody.
1:02:45 - (C): Honestly? Most everybody, at least in my experience. Just. I get along with everybody, as you know.
1:02:50 - (Ralph Strangis): I'm everybody's phone Mike. No. Oh, he was easy. Let me tell you something. I'm betting.
1:02:59 - (C): There'S been too many fights related to ticket people lately. I have no interest.
1:03:06 - (Ralph Strangis): We're all, we're all tough to deal with because we want it good. We want it right. Yeah. You know. Yeah. And that can work under those conditions.
1:03:15 - (Mike Rhyner): Yeah, that's it. We know how it's supposed to be and that's how we want it.
1:03:18 - (Ralph Strangis): That's all we want.
1:03:19 - (Mike Rhyner): I mean, is that really that hard?
1:03:22 - (Ralph Strangis): No, we have a. I. I used to say this. I had a boss one time told me this. He said, always say, don't we do this for a living? I say this like, don't we do this for a living? Why is. Why can't I get the proper audio mix in my headset? Why is it that this doesn't work? Why is it. I mean, I'm here. I showed up. I got all my. Ready. What's going on? Oh, yeah, well, yeah.
1:03:48 - (Mike Rhyner): Some things just can't be answered.
1:03:50 - (Ralph Strangis): Nope.
1:03:52 - (Mike Rhyner): There are certain metaphysical questions that just have no answer. Ralphie.
1:03:56 - (Ralph Strangis): We can endeavor to persevere. Michael. We can endeavor to persevere.
1:04:01 - (Mike Rhyner): We can and we will.
1:04:03 - (C): By the way, bestie looked up the game log from Minnesota last season.
1:04:10 - (Ralph Strangis): You can see it.
1:04:11 - (C): I was gonna say, my guess would be somewhere around the 56 game mark is when they were told, because that was a win. And from games 58 to apparently 84.
1:04:23 - (Ralph Strangis): Oh, we had 84. Yeah, they're going back to 84.
1:04:25 - (C): Okay. Is that accurate? Okay. Seven losses and three ties or. Sorry, seven wins, three ties. Everything else, a loss. Out of nearly 30 games.
1:04:35 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah.
1:04:36 - (C): After finding out.
1:04:37 - (Ralph Strangis): Oh, it was.
1:04:37 - (C): That was about mid February.
1:04:39 - (Ralph Strangis): The give a meter was at zero for the. Those last, like, 35 games.
1:04:44 - (C): You can tell.
1:04:45 - (Ralph Strangis): Oh, my God. And, you know, and everybody was trying to, you know, wrangle and dangle, and so I got there first. I got there. I was one of the first guys in. On Memorial Day weekend, my brother and I drove down, and then I started doing. I'd go to churches and. And Lions clubs and Rotary clubs, and I made a video, and I took a stick and a puck with me. That's true. And, like, I hit so many of those damn things, and, you know, little.
1:05:16 - (Ralph Strangis): I took. Here's what. I took Mike Madonna with me to Target one day. They had a. They had a. Some sort of a promotion, and Mike Madonna was coming to sign autographs. And, I mean, there was nobody there. Nobody knew who he was. Nobody knew, you know, like, nobody knew he was. I know. Nobody knew who I was. Nobody KNEW who Mike McDonald was. And the woman at the Target turned to Mo and says, you know, we could. We could put Target furniture in your entire condo, and we would like to do that for you.
1:05:47 - (Ralph Strangis): And Mo's trying to be real nice. And I go, are you kidding me? Don't. No, you don't want that.
1:05:54 - (C): Did you take it?
1:05:55 - (Ralph Strangis): Say this. It's gonna. It's not gonna go with the rest of your. You know, you know, young, hotshot, look, so. But yeah, I mean, nobody knew who we were. Nobody. And it was starting from zero, and just a handful of us came down. I'm one of the few that didn't work for the hockey department. Who else? There was one sales guy and a couple of sales people, but that was it. Like, I was the only guy.
1:06:22 - (Mike Rhyner): Wow.
1:06:23 - (Ralph Strangis): Yeah. Danny kept his crew together. Right. Because Bob would. But the rest of us. Oh, yeah, it was tough. I'm lucky. I'm very lucky.
1:06:33 - (Mike Rhyner): Think about the idea of coming to Dallas.
1:06:36 - (Ralph Strangis): What did I think?
1:06:37 - (Mike Rhyner): No, what. What did. What did Bob think? Bob Gainey think?
1:06:42 - (Ralph Strangis): You know, I think if I'm remembering right, like, we all kind of looked at. It was like. I mean, I looked at. It was. It doesn't matter how. I. What I think this is where the job is. And I think for. I'm just gonna guess that for Bob, it was. It was the next job. It was the next place. I mean, he came to us from Epinal, the Ecuya. The. The Squirrels in a small town in France. He was the gm, the coach, the bus driver, and the Zamboni guy for the Epinal team in France as he tried to kind of move into coaching in a very small village.
1:07:15 - (Mike Rhyner): Wow.
1:07:16 - (Ralph Strangis): Four starts. Yeah. Ask him about that sometime. And. And then I'm assuming Dallas was just the next stop on the tour, right, for him. I mean, that's what we are. We're gypsies. Whatever's the next place is, man, we're there. So. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.
1:07:36 - (Mike Rhyner): Ralphie, you're a trip, man. You were a trip. As always. Thank you for doing this once again. Anytime. You will be a frequent guest on ydc, I can tell you that.
1:07:46 - (Ralph Strangis): Well, you always get you a jacket and then grooves has to execute, and you got to get me in around my Mark Cuban dates and stuff.
1:07:56 - (Mike Rhyner): Yeah, well, that's.
1:07:57 - (Ralph Strangis): That's.
1:07:58 - (Mike Rhyner): That's a groups thing there.
1:08:00 - (Ralph Strangis): I'll. I'll. I'll stay with my bestie on that one. Yeah. Hell, yeah, right, baby? Yeah.
1:08:05 - (C): You still love me?
1:08:05 - (Ralph Strangis): Hell, yeah. Smooch.
1:08:08 - (Mike Rhyner): All right, there he is, the great Ralph Strangis, with us on your dark companion once again today. Let's see.
1:08:16 - (C): Oh, God.
1:08:19 - (Ralph Strangis): What we have, like.
1:08:22 - (Mike Rhyner): Oh, I can do it, I think. Oh, yeah, I did. All right, here. We don't have enough cable here.
1:08:32 - (C): Okay.
1:08:33 - (Mike Rhyner): No, I don't.
1:08:34 - (C): Things are happening.
1:08:35 - (Mike Rhyner): Yeah, things are happening. We're very, very organized around here. If you. If you watch this thing at all, you already know that. Yeah. All right, now I'm told to slow down because we're about to to get to. Okay. Okay. Three, two, one. Thirsty. Thursday, 28 August is Rough Riders fantasy football draft night. And we and the whole Sunset Lounge gang will be holding their our draft party. You can catch our draft live at 3:30 and then come on out to the game.
1:09:18 - (Mike Rhyner): Use our special code. Let's ride 25. Let's. Let's ride 25 and get a ticket. Preloaded with $6. Good. Tour your first Thursday, Thursday drink or at concessions. And remember, every Thursday, the Lazy river is 21 and up. So you got to get in that lazy river. You can find all episodes on our Patreon page. You can also find us on YouTube, Spotify, follow us, share us on your social media. That means everything to those of us who swim in the waters of the podcast.
1:09:55 - (Mike Rhyner): And while we're at it, if you're feeling what we're throwing down, how about a nice review? If you're by the channel on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, you can help others find us by leaving a review. What? What's so funny?
1:10:10 - (Ralph Strangis): Oh.
1:10:13 - (Mike Rhyner): He should be rolling. Yeah, towards that. Buell, bro. All right. Thank you, Ralphie. Thank you, Ashlea. Thank you, Becca. Thank you, Shoopy. That'll do it for us today. Bye.
1:10:29 - (Ralph Strangis): Bye. Bye.
1:10:31 - (C): Love you, bestie.
1:10:32 - (Ralph Strangis): Love you.
1:10:40 - (Mike Rhyner): All right, I'm gonna go take my pants. Your dark companion is a stolen water media presentation.