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A podcast focusing on the perspectives, lives, and stories of Kansans to provide greater insight into the state we all call home.
AAK_Ep32
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[00:00:00]
Sydney Collins: You ever realize Kansas is just one county fair away from running out of deep fryers? That's funny.
Gus Applequist: I like, okay, if, if you, if you live in an urban area in Kansas or someplace else, um, and you don't go to rural places very often, the, the inability to find healthy food in a rural place is rough. Like, we were in Greensburg the other day and actually they did a fairly good job. Like there was, there was a couple things.
There
Sydney Collins: was a salad bar.
Gus Applequist: Yeah,
Sydney Collins: it was a good salad bar.
Gus Applequist: But I, uh, we're, I was filming out west for Harvest over the summer, and I don't remember which community it was, but we went to this restaurant, my nephew and I, and. Literally every single thing was deep fat fried, like everything on the menu. Like there wasn't a leaf of lettuce to be found.
Sydney Collins: We don't need [00:01:00] no rabbit
Gus Applequist: food.
And like I can do that for a meal, maybe two, but I'm talking about like a week of that my body was revolting.
Sydney Collins: Welcome to Hanson where we're amplifying, connecting and uncovering Kansas.
Gus Applequist: And today as, I mean I feel like every episode is something a little different. We've never done this before.
Sydney Collins: Yeah. So today, um, we had an amazing opportunity to, uh, interview Joel Goldberg and you may know him as the voice of the royals.
So if you are a sports fan, buckle up. We talk about a little bit. If you are [00:02:00] a business fan, buckle up. We talk about a little bit. If you are just a general fan of Joel, buckle up, we talk about a lot about Joel, which is great. So we got a a lot of different, kind of, Joel's doing a lot of really cool things.
So we talk about a little, a little bit of everything. So,
Gus Applequist: so buckle up.
Sydney Collins: So buckle up. So without any further ado, here's Joel.
Again, thank you for being on today. It's good to be here. So I've been listening. I listened to, um, I got through one, uh, half of your first book. Okay. and I have been enjoying your podcast as well. Thank you. Thank you. and one of the things that kind of resonates, uh, or resonated with me through your podcast and even your book is your ability to network and, how you've kind of discovered that.
You, you mentioned like you've been doing it your entire life without that intent. And so can you kind of give us, one, are there any helpful hints that you've learned along the way, but also like how has that helped you in your career in general?
Joel Goldberg: First of all, I mean, I, I [00:03:00] think. The more people you know, no matter what you do and who you are, the better.
You can't know everybody, but I just think the magic happens when you, when you build relationships and trust with people, and you don't have to know where it's going either. Right? And, that's true in any profession. We name a profession that doesn't involve people.
So we're all networkers.
I mean, we, we sit there and say, well, he's a good networker. She's a bad networker. She's, you know, introverted, he's extroverted and all that. And yes, I mean, that all plays into it. And some people are better networkers than other. I think I'm a good networker. I'm not a great connector. Some networkers are great connectors that can very, very deliberately say, you two need to get together.
I'm not as good at that. Um, but I find when you meet people, you network with people, you listen to people. There's a lot of energy and a lot of good that comes from that. You don't have to know what it is. And I, and I'll also just say this, that I appreciate the sentiment for anyone that says, say yes to everyone.
Mm-hmm. you [00:04:00] know, you just just say yes. You never know where it's gonna go. And, and I do agree with the sentiment of that other than the fact that there are only so many hours in the day. So there does have, there does have to be some discernment with it. I don't think you have to know where it's going, but I think you need to trust your gut sometimes and say, is this something that is worth an hour spent going to get coffee?
Mm-hmm. Is this something that could be done in a five or 10 minute phone conversation? And so you, you know, there's no secret or no perfect answer for it, but you just kind of navigate over time. And I think the one common theme, and I think this is true, you know, coming outta the pandemic, that at least I see that when I'm at my best, especially in my speaking business, I'm connecting with people.
And when, when business is flowing, I mean, you guys know this in your business too. When you are with people and you're face to face, there's, it's just a better opportunity to build rapport and trust and to listen to what people might need before you know, whether it is a fit or not. And I think the [00:05:00] more you put yourself out there and do that, the more results you have.
That's what I'm doing in baseball every single day. We just don't call it networking. You know, you're going in there and you're, you know, you're schmoozing with people.
Sydney Collins: Amazing. I love that word.
Joel Goldberg: It was gonna be that, or bs, BSing, I dunno
Sydney Collins: so you moved to Kansas City in 2008, right? Yeah. And so you've been with the Royals since then.
Yeah. Correct. Yeah. I'm trying to segue this, but it's not gonna be a great segue, but they'll give it a try.
Joel Goldberg: I mean, it's all, that's where the magic is, where magic is. The segue is in the transitions.
Sydney Collins: So There's people who get broadcasting and there's people who don't get it 'cause they've never experienced it.
I grew up in radio, so I grew up with a dad who hosted a morning talk show and a mom in sales. Like I got both sides. Yeah, yeah. And so I get it, but there's a lot of people who don't. So for the people who don't, can you kind of walk us through kind of how do you prepare for that day? How do you prepare for that game?
How do you figure out, 'cause it's live, you have to come up with this stuff off the top of your head. Yeah. Is [00:06:00] there planning involved? Is it just, we're just gonna see how things go today? Or like what, what is your process through that?
Joel Goldberg: Yes. Yes, and yes to all of it. Um, there are some elements to this that are the secret sauce.
Like, okay, I have to do this, this, and this. I can get into some of that. But some of it is like, I don't like the term winging it. 'cause winging it to me says that you're just gonna make it up or you're just, you're gonna be unprepared.
Sydney Collins: Mm-hmm.
Joel Goldberg: So I don't know what the right term is for. Being able to do something on the fly, but being prepared, trusting yourself that, you know, uh, you know, trusting myself right now that I don't know the answer to this question, but I'm about to come up with it because I have a lifetime of experience doing it.
Mm-hmm. Versus like, so we could call that pulling it out of, you know, wherever. Or we could say like, I, I know how to do this and, and like, you don't have to have all the answers or the secret formula for everything in advance. So it's, it's I [00:07:00] guess a way of me saying, and somebody asked me this earlier today, about a key to this, or How do you do this?
And it's like, I think the secret to any profession, and certainly for radio and TV, is repetition. But I always like to say it this way when people ask me, and it's a, it's a fair and very normal question to ask. Do you get nervous being on tv? I get asked that. It's not surprising that I get asked that.
It just, the. If they're expecting an answer of yes, it's not, it's not that. It's not a matter of how good are you or not. It's that I've done this a million times. So what I like to say to people is, do you get nervous going to work every day? We tend to make a bigger deal of jobs that we've never lived in before.
And we think we know, we think I say we think is, do we really like, we think we know what the life of a doctor's like. We think we know what the life of a teacher's like. We think we know what the life of an accountant is like. We think we know what the life of sales is like because we know what those [00:08:00] jobs are, even though we don't really know if we haven't walked in those shoes.
But there's something mysterious about television or radio because for the most part, people don't know someone in that industry. They didn't grow up in that industry the way you did. I didn't grow up in that industry too, and I think I found my sweet spot and I found the nerves go away. The more comfortable I got in the business where it just became my everyday life.
So I mentioned all of that because yes, there's preparation every day. I would like to think of I'm having a bad day, or if stuff's going on, or something came up where I was unable to prepare for something I thought I was gonna prepare for. I can do that like that because I can go back into my mental Rolodex and say, I know how to do this on a bad day.
I know how to do this when I'm not at a hundred percent, I'm not feeling well. Or something came up where I couldn't prepare as much as I had to. but the other piece to this, I think, and every day is different, is that there are, to me, a, a word [00:09:00] that I've been using a lot lately that I like for a lot of things is What in your day is not negotiable Like, I have to do this. And there are parts of my preparation for every game that are non-negotiable. Then the rest of it sometimes falls into place as I'm going. There are plenty of days where I walk into a, a Royals clubhouse and I've gotta come up with two to four in-game stories to report on.
Not to mention all the pre-game stuff. The pre-game stuff's easier. I've got a producer that puts that all together. My partner and I have some input on it. but we're my broadcast partner and I and our producer are like a three-headed monster that we all think alike and, and we just have such a good rhythm that I can have 100 say in the show, or 0% say in the show, and I know where it's going and, and we just, we speak that kind of, you know, that unspoken language that's very comforting.
That comes again from reps and experience of just knowing like, we're good. Okay, so what do I need today to get done? And [00:10:00] then, oh, by the way, I gotta get those in-game reports done. And there is some days where I'm like, I don't know that I have great storylines, but once I start to walk into the room and back to networking and talk to guys.
Inevitably, something comes up. They're not saying, Hey Joel, I got a good story for you. But just in conversation and going back and forth, something triggers in my head or something pops up, and then suddenly I go down that path. So a lot of it is on the fly. and then a lot of it is, okay, here's what I know I need every single day to be prepared for it.
Um, and some of it's a little busy, just little busy work type of stuff that enable me to be ready when the game starts so that I'm not playing catch up. so I think more than anything, there's a rhythm to it, and it's different for every single person in my shoes. But having done this so long, 18 years with the Royals in 31 overall on tv, while I'll constantly tweak and look for better methods, I know with my eyes closed how to get ready for a game and do it, on the best or worst of days.
Gus Applequist: I imagine that the, uh, the average royal fan [00:11:00] thinks you have like the best job ever. Mm-hmm. You get paid to sit there and watch the Royals play? They
Joel Goldberg: pay me to talk about a baseball game.
Gus Applequist: Yeah. I guess, so my question, do you, do you consider yourself a fan? And, uh, do you have to, is that like a switch you have to turn off and on during a broadcast?
Joel Goldberg: Yeah. I love that question. I don't get asked it enough, but I try to bring it up a lot because I think it's a, on a personal level, it's an interesting sort of development for my career and my life and the way I go about things. Meaning this, I got into this business the way most people in my shoes, or why most people in my shoes got in this business because someone's gonna pay me to talk about sports on tv, sign me up.
Sydney Collins: Mm-hmm.
Joel Goldberg: I was dreaming of that when I was Yeah. I've, I've got an opening line and if that anybody. I was watching and then sees me speak later. Forgive me for giving away the opening line in, in a lot of my speeches, but I usually get on stage and say, [00:12:00] do you remember a time when you were young as a kid where you were sure you knew what you were gonna be when you grew up?
And I think that evokes a lot of images of, you know, I wanted to be a firefighter, I wanna be an astronaut. I wanted to be a, you know, major league baseball player, whatever. Right? and then I'll say most of us had those dreams and most of us ended up somewhere different, but not me. 'cause there's evidence or there was evidence of my first grade teacher calling home on a regular basis, complaining that 7-year-old Joel was interrupting class once again, giving updates on the previous night's baseball game.
So I had this dream early on. I lay the groundwork for that. To get back to your question, that. I've wanted to do this for as long as I can remember, because I love sports and I love to talk. I still love sports and I still love to talk. However, I would argue that I'm a terrible sports fan, at least in terms of the [00:13:00] way people think of sports fans.
And my wife will remind me all the time, and I, I take pride in this, but it's also not what everybody wants to hear, that I'm a, I'm way too rational to be a sports fan. The beauty of sports is that it gives you the license to be irrational. And I try to remind myself when people get a little crazy on social media or they're just like, they're losing their minds over stuff and it's like, it's just sports.
But I also, my wife reminds me like, this is the escape for a lot of people. This is what takes you away from whatever might be going on in your life, whether it's the stress of work or something at home, or someone that's sick or whatever it is. And if you're not a sports fan, then maybe it's theater, the arts, it's music, it's whatever.
Like we all have that thing For me, music is more, more my escape now and, and theater is my escape now. And the movies are my escape now and, and getting out and hiking and I like to play pickleball. All those are all my escapes. Now. Sports [00:14:00] are not my escape. Doesn't mean I don't watch them every single night.
I'm so analytical and it's not even like, you know, I don't know. At this point in my career, I've, I've covered everything, but I don't know football and basketball the way I know baseball at this point. 'cause I lived every day of my professional life in baseball the last 18 years. But I can't switch off the storytelling mode and the analytical mode.
But I also can't switch off the, what I would call the, the, the, I think the safety mechanism that protects my energy, which means that I don't allow myself to get too, too overly emotional about sports. It's a lesson that I learned from one of my mentors, Paul split off the Royals all time wins. Lead leader who passed away in 2011 and one of my, early broadcast partners when I came to Kansas City and split, pulled me aside my first year in 2008.
Now keep in mind I'd come from St. Louis where they were winning every year. Not an easy thing, by the way, for me to do, not to come to Kansas City. That was easy. That was my choice. Um, to come from, from St. Louis to [00:15:00] Kansas City where everyone was sure that I was more interested in St. Louis. 'cause the Kansas City St.
Louis rivalry. I'm like, I didn't grow up there. I chose to come, come here. I love it here. Um, and eventually, not too far afterward, fall in love with Kansas City. Never wanna leave on and on, but Split said, after a post game show one night, he goes, you look like you're really getting upset over the losses.
And there were a lot of losses. And I said, well, yeah. I mean, I want these guys to win. It's my new team and I like these guys. They're cool guys. And you know, like, go Royals, whatever. And he's like, there are a lot of important people. Are paid a lot of money to lose sleep over the losses and you're not one of them.
And the only thing I would add to that, thinking about it years later, I've actually never said this part of it, but I, I just sort of said it before, is it's not just the important people, it's the people that wanna get taken away from whatever's going on in their life. They don't have to lose sleep over it, but they're gonna, because it enables 'em to forget about something else.
So I don't ever wanna take that away from [00:16:00] people, but I would say the only two negatives to my business are that it's changed the type of fan I am. I'm not even sure if that's a bad thing. It's a little bit of survival mechanism. Um, it enables me to protect my energy every single day, win or lose so that I am not going to let a losing streak or a bad game affect my performance or affect my mood.
It might be just a little bit grumpy or sometimes 'cause winning's easier. It's more fun. Mm-hmm. Guys are happier to talk. But I've done it all. I know how to do it. Um, the other just negative to the job is personal life family. I'm lucky enough that. Been in the business for 31 years. I've been married to my wife for 26.
Uh, we've been together for 29. our kids are 20 and 22. They've never known another life than this. Doesn't mean we had it figured out early on, but we have a pretty good idea of how to do it now. This is our normal. So there was a lot of struggle and heartache and angst early on of can we do a family and life and this business?[00:17:00]
And there are a lot of moments where not so sure, right? Like where, where, where is this all going? Um, and we figured it out. It's the way we do things. It's our normal, there is a rhythm and a routine to our lives as a family in season, out of season. Um, that's very comforting. Like this is just, this is what we know.
Um, so I'm not the sports fan I ever was. I love sports as much as I ever did. I just love it in a less emotional way. Hmm. And. Sometimes I'll try to enable myself to just let loose a little bit and experience that emotion and that heartache, that fans experience because it's part of sports, but I'm not built that way anymore.
Does that make sense?
Sydney Collins: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Joel Goldberg: It's just different. Like I, I'm, I feel privileged to have that perspective, I feel, and it is the most amazing job. And, and so I, I, I do wanna say, like, I, I, I'm not saying all of that to take it for granted. Um, I don't need to [00:18:00] remind myself, don't take it for granted. I see little reminders every day, every stadium I show up at, I get to walk onto the field every day.
And that's really a normal thing for me. And I don't ever wanna lose the fact that there are millions of people that would love to trade places with me. And if I were them, I'd wanna trade places with me too, because it's really cool. But there's also something about then like, okay, let's chill. 'cause this is where you're supposed to be.
This is what you do and this is, this is your life. and if you're walking around wide-eyed and going crazy all the time, it's hard to stay focused.
So just finding that balance on that.
Sydney Collins: when you moved to Kansas City in 2008, was the intent to always stay there?
Joel Goldberg: No, I've been thinking about this lately and I, I don't know why I've been thinking about it lately. Um, I guess just when you're somewhere for so long mm-hmm. You start to reflect on this stuff, and I don't know that eighteens the magical year or what I, I, I know this my whole career, which started with two years in a small town TV [00:19:00] station in northern Wisconsin, and then two years back in Madison, Wisconsin where I'd gone to school and I've been an intern there, and then almost 10 years in St.
Louis. I don't re ever remember there being a time where I didn't have a thought. Like every day of where's the next stop? it's a tough way to live and to work, but it's a, you just have to go through it. Meaning that if I could go back and tell my younger self, I'd be like, just, just go work and, and stop wor worrying so much about getting the perfect resume tape and having the perfect standup and having the perfect story and, and then hoping that somehow it gets you the next job.
It's like everything you did was, it was less about working for the paycheck. Every place I was at, I loved, of course there are always more things you wanted or more airtime, or more this or more there, but it was like, I'm in TV like this. I, I made it, uh, and I just wanted to stay and then I wanted to go to the next place.
And I think there was always this dream of. I think I [00:20:00] know, like I wanted to either get to Chicago, which is where my family had moved when I was 13, and they're still there to this day. And my parents have been in the same house now for the last 40 years. And so I wanted to get back to Chicago, or I wanted to get to Philadelphia where I'd grown up originally because I would, you know, love the Philadelphia teams and I was still an emotional fan or maybe ESPN and Sports Center.
Those are the goals. I don't know when it changed. I'm not gonna sit here and tell you it was year one, but somewhere along the way I wish I could identify what year, if there was a moment. Somewhere along the way I'm like, I'm good. Like, and that was the most liberating feeling.
Sydney Collins: Mm-hmm.
Joel Goldberg: Because, and I really think it probably happened more like 2016, maybe 2015, 16.
I think the, the royals winning and experiencing what that did, being in a small market, the whole country, watching what we were doing, seeing the way Kansas City. Not just Kansas City, right. I mean, people were going crazy here in Salina. [00:21:00] I don't need to ask whether that was true or not. No, it's true. Oh yeah.
No, it was right. Like that's one of the cool things for me about coming to Salina and, I was speaking in, in Hutch a week and a half ago. I'll be in, Wichita to speak next week, is like I go to any of those places and it, my daughter
Sydney Collins: watched you speak in Hutch.
Joel Goldberg: Okay. So it's, but it's, that's like, it might as well be home too.
Yeah. It's the same crowd, right. It's a different town. You're further away from home. You, you need to learn your way around, you know, the mm-hmm. The town and the city and, but I don't like, it feels like home because they're Royals fans here, you know, and not in a way of like, you can get Royals fans anywhere around the world with, you know, the internet mm-hmm.
And streaming and all that now. But like if people are baseball fans here, there's a pretty good chance they're a Royals fan. And so, that's really cool that, that, that we have that type of a fan base. And, but so I, you know, I, I knew in 14 and 15, like this is unlike anything I'd ever experienced before and.
I'd experienced some championships with other teams. I, I think it, it most reminded me of when I worked in St. Louis, the St. Louis Rams went from the worst team in their division to [00:22:00] Super Bowl champions the next year. And it was like no one knew what to do with it because it just was so unexpected.
Mm-hmm. Um, maybe by 15 we were starting to expect it, but it was still so new to be able to win like that. but I don't know up until that point, if, if it was so much about I need to leave somewhere else, but it was like, okay, is there more I can be doing? Or like, do I have the job I love or is there a next step or whatever it is.
And somewhere around there I was like, I haven't put together a resume tape for years. I wouldn't even know where to begin or how people do that anymore. And I don't really want to go anywhere. Like, I like it here. My wife likes it there. My kids like it. My wife had grown up in Kansas City and moved away when she was 11.
Her sister had moved back and got married and kids. So like we were already going to Kansas City. Pretty much from 1996 through oh eight for birthday parties and holidays and births and all that type of stuff. And, um, I mean, shoot, the [00:23:00] first time I ever came to Kansas City was 1996 when my niece was born.
Uh, I left a post game show this year and darted right from a post game show, uh, five miles away to her wedding to watch her get married this summer. Like, you know, that's how long I've been in Kansas City. But I'll just say that once you realize, I wish I knew the moment, but once you realize that you're where you wanna be and you're not looking to go to the next place, it's such a liberating feeling.
'cause you just, you can, you can focus on honing your craft and continuing to meet people and just getting better at what you're doing without the pressure of you have to get it right or else you're not gonna have that next job. It just freed me up to do that. And then the last piece to it is once I started my speaking business in 2000 into 16, beginning of 17, it gave me.
It gave me the chance to kind of scratch another itch and have growth opportunity without having to go somewhere else. So it all kind of came together to a point now where like, I couldn't think of doing anything else and I don't [00:24:00] wanna do anything else. so I just get to enjoy the ride.
Sydney Collins: How has it been?
I'm gonna kinda switch over to Royals of you watch them grow. You gotta be there for the utter of madness that is Kansas City when they win. what is it like to see, 'cause we had, you know, the team, we had Hosmer, we had Salvy, which is who, who's still there.
Mm-hmm. What was it like when people, when members started to get traded or leave the team? Because you built such, yeah. You build these relationships with these players. What's it like when they move away?
Joel Goldberg: It's interesting. It's a great question because as much as I want to play cool and mm-hmm. And I don't wanna play cool, but everything I just said before about just protecting myself, [00:25:00] it hardens you to all of it.
And I remember like specific players along the way that were not even so much like big names, but just guys that I had good relationships with mm-hmm. That when they were gone, it was like, oh, what a gut punch. I'm not even talking about superstars. Like, I remember when they let Bruce Chen go. Mm. And Bruce was such a lovable guy.
Still is. And um, I was like, man, like, just like that, he's gone. Mitch Meyer, who's worked in their front office now for years was kinda like their fourth outfielder and just had a great relationship with him. And then they cut him one day and it's like, man, like I really like that guy. And then over time, the thing with like seeing Hosmer and all those guys go is we all, we knew it was coming.
So as, as emotional and as emotional as it should have been for the fans, I was mentally prepared for that. Like, and then for me, it just became a matter of I can't wait till those guys come back when homo would come back and to be able to interview 'em with another team. And, [00:26:00] um, and the funny thing about it now is now they're all coming back for reunions and they're coming back and, you know, Osmond did a little bit on TV with us last year and, um, we're seeing guys want to get more involved because they get away from it.
They miss the game, they miss the comradery, they miss, like, most of those guys made enough money that they don't ever need to do it ever again. So why do they do it? Because they miss the environment. You know, there's, there's nothing like it. but I'll take like, I think a good example would be Freddy for me this year.
And Freddy to me is one of my favorite people. I don't never, you know, one day maybe I'll rank my favorites, but I dunno if that's a good idea or not. But like my list of like favorites for the most part is not the superstars. Mm-hmm. And I'll push back on that a little bit to myself because savis one of my favorites, my three favorite guys of all time were superstars, at least in the Kansas City way, Alex Gordon, Salvador Perez, Eric Hosmer.
But there's so many Freddie for means out there that just, that's the, that's the best part of the job is meeting these guys that at, on a level that most people [00:27:00] will never get to meet them. And the cool thing about Freddie is fans could feel like there was something about Freddie that fans could sense that he was just that sort of underdog to root for.
And so when he got traded, you know, that, like that one hit me in the gut pretty quickly. And then, and then I went into like that protection mode of, okay, it's just, it's business. But I also, I, I did something that day. I, I did like a, I don't know, three or four minute. Video on all my social media channels, just kind of pouring out my, I wouldn't say pouring out my emotions, but just giving all my thoughts on it.
And the feedback and the responses I got from that were so overwhelming that it took me from a place of being bummed out that he was gone. I understood the baseball side, that it got two [00:28:00] pictures for him, and like the timing of it was really good for the royals. I also understood that it was a great opportunity for Freddie, which I think most fans understood.
He gets to go be a starter on a playoff contending team. But when I saw the response of everybody, and what I sensed was that they, they were responding in such big numbers and the, the views on the social media posts were were astronomical, which is, which, I don't know how much that stuff matters, but when it comes from something that's not controversial and not negative, and it's just a feel good thing like.
That gives me a lot of hope. And, uh, I'm an optimist. I, I'm a storyteller. I, I, I like to live in the, in the positive, not the negative, which is hard to do in this, you know, world that we live in. I think people just felt like their love of him was validated by hearing from me that he, he, he was worthy of their love, that he was as good of a guy and as beloved in, in the clubhouse by the front office, by the [00:29:00] players, by the coaches, by us broadcasters, as much as he was loved by them.
And so that's how I look at so much of this. Now, that's like getting back to before like that, that's what I get out of it, is that, um, yeah, I hate to see it when guys leave, but I feel so happy for the fans that they got to experience, you know, that, and that I got to do that. And now I could, you know, if I pick up the phone right now and text Freddy, I'd hear back from him as quickly as he got that message.
And, and I'll, I'll. Once or twice a year, at least now, send them a message, you know, congrats or a, you know, hope you're doing well, or that type of thing. So, um, it's just part of the business and no one wants, not that they don't want to hear it, everybody knows it, nobody wants to feel that again, it's back to the emotions.
You're supposed to be hurt, you're supposed to be emotional about it. and then ultimately in the end, if the trade works out, they'll be happy. And if it doesn't, they won't. Alright. Um, but that's just the business of it. You, you end up [00:30:00] getting, it's getting harder too because, you know, I'm 30 years older than some of these players now.
When Hosmer left, you know, that was only half of that. And guys before him, they were around my age. And so it's not, I work really hard to try to connect with these players and relate to them as best as I can, understanding that they're really like my kids' age now and not me. So I think it's a little bit harder for me to build the level of relationships that I have with Hosmer and Moose and all those guys, only because there's just more distance in the age.
No different than, you know, 80 something year old Denny Matthews was closer with George Brett and those guys in his era that he is gonna be closer than he is with Bobby Witt. but um, still all gets back to the relationships and, you know, I try to keep in touch with guys very briefly when they move elsewhere.
'cause you never know, um, you never know when they come back. I want them to come back not having never heard from me again, because we might do a good interview together or there might be whatever it is. Mm-hmm. So if that's all part of it,
Gus Applequist: one of the things I love about sports is that [00:31:00] any moment can become miraculous.
Yes. Any moment can just go from being on just another Tuesday at the K to being something that you'll remember for the rest of your life. what, what is it about the game? What is it about, the K that does that and
Joel Goldberg: well, and I, I would say of course, I love the K, but like that's true in any sports venue.
that's true. In, you know, someone's kid's Saturday morning, 7:00 AM soccer game, you know, for a bunch of six or seven year olds. Like, you never know when that moment's gonna happen at the highest level, the lowest level. That's the beauty of sports. I mean, one of my favorite questions that I get on an everyday basis that I have no answer to, but I just laugh at it, is people say, well, who's gonna win tonight?
I don't know. I have no idea. Like, I'll say, like, the question used to be, are we gonna win tonight? As I was walking into the stadium, some fans might be lingering around and I, and, and I understood that, like saying I don't know, wasn't really a good answer for them. So I would just say, I hope so. [00:32:00] And then the questions will become, are you gonna get wet tonight?
'cause the So splash? And I'm like, I hope so, because it means that we won't. Mm-hmm. But sometimes I'll say, I don't know if we're gonna win 14 to nothing or one to nothing, or lose 14 to nothing or lose one to nothing. I don't know if there's gonna be a walk off tonight if this is gonna be the best game of the year or the worst game of the year.
And every time I think I got it figured out, I'm wrong. I learned that back in my second year in oh nine, where I was like, well, we got Zach Ranke going every five days. So that's a win. Well, that, that doesn't guarantee anything. You don't, I mean, that, that to me is the beauty of baseball more than any other sport.
I know in football they say on any given Sunday, but for the most part, you have a pretty good idea of who's gonna win. Like if the chiefs are playing a really bad team, it's not like, well, maybe there's a chance they could lose. No, you now, depending on what year it is for the chiefs, um, it could be more up in the air.
But you have a general idea. It's [00:33:00] gonna be a close game. It's gonna be a blowout. Think we're gonna win, think we're gonna lose. We think it's gonna be close. There's no knowing whether baseball on any given night's gonna be close or baseball's gonna be a blowout, or if you're gonna win or lose. So I think that makes those moments more sweet because you don't know when to expect them.
I mean, there's a game where the Royals came back a bunch of years ago against the White Sox, where I think they were down seven or eight and or nine in the last inning. I mean, I'm sitting up on our set, getting ready for a post game show, and at one point my audio engineer says to me, you thinking you might need to get down to the field at some point for a winning interview.
I'm like, it never crossed my mind, but yeah, I probably need to get going. So like, you really never know, and that, that's fun. It keeps you on your toes. You know, back to the earlier question too, like about the preparation and like mm-hmm. How do you prepare for an interview that you don't know is gonna happen yet?
How do you prepare for an interview when you don't know who your guest is gonna be?
Sydney Collins: That is my worst fear.
Joel Goldberg: It's a scary thing. It's terrifying. And then it became, okay, lemme jot some notes down. Like, well, it doesn't really look good with me looking at my notepad. And so you're just [00:34:00] constantly, and that's part of why you don't have time for all the emotion.
Mm-hmm. You're constantly scenario after scenario after scenario from the first out of the game to the last out of the game. But the fun of it is, I truly go to work every day having no idea what's gonna happen. And so that makes those moments really cool. I mean, if you look at the World Series, it just happened, and for all the talk, rightfully so about how the Dodgers, the lack of equity in baseball and, and you know, how can they have a payroll of over $300 million and the Royals have a payroll of $125 million and you know, it's not good for baseball.
And that's a whole nother story that's not gonna get solved anytime soon. But, but the Dodgers, even with all their superstars and Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman and all these guys, they had two role players that basically won them the World Series in the last game. They had a, they, they had a veteran second baseman that didn't even start the first five games.
And the manager decides on a hunch that we need his steadiness on defense in game six and just his thir 36-year-old presence to, to kind of calm things down. They pulled out a young center fielder out of center [00:35:00] field. They moved their second baseman to center field. They bring this guy in, uh, Miguel Rojas.
I, it's Miguel Rojas, is that his name? See already like a, um, not a household name. He makes some good plays in game six and game seven. They start him again. There's two outs away from the Blue Jays winning the World Series. It's gonna be their first World Series in 32 year olds did 32 years. And this guy hits a home run to tie it.
They then go back on defense for the bottom of the ninth and the Blue Jays load the bases. Hit a ball to him. He's off balance and the only play he has is to go home. He throws the runner out at home and he gets him out. Now there's two outs, bases loaded. And then the guy that got pulled outta the lineup, his name is Andy Paes, uh, young Cuban Center fielder.
He got pulled out. They install him after that home run in the ninth inning because his defense is good. Base is loaded two outs, and the guy for the Blue Jays hits a [00:36:00] ball that's gonna go over the left fielder's head and win them the World Series And Trucking. Out of nowhere from far away in center field comes the defensive replacement who had lost his time 'cause of the second baseman, and crashes into the left fielder and throws his arm up in the air and catches the ball and preserves the tie.
So they go to extra innings in the Dodgers, win the World Series. Uh, PA has probably makes like a million dollars a year. I don't know what he makes. And, and, um, and, and the other guy makes like 5 million, which I know is a lot, but the other guys are making 20, 30, $40 million a year, and we're focused on payroll issues, which is a good focus to have.
But yet it was the under the radar role player that won him the game. And no one could have ever predicted that. That to me and the unknown moments is what makes the game so great and, and showing up every day, having no idea what the storyline's gonna be. I think I do sometimes. Sometimes I'm right, but I'm usually wrong.
That's fun. I like that chaos.
Sydney Collins: Yeah. That's my worst nightmare. [00:37:00] I'm a planner.
Joel Goldberg: Yeah. There's a reason why if we were to do personality tests right now, why? Why I'm the guy that doesn't have that needs a little more structure.
Sydney Collins: Mm-hmm.
Joel Goldberg: Yeah. Right. You know, like, just gimme some guardrails because I need to be all over the place.
Mm-hmm. So it works. It works For live tv
Gus Applequist: I've heard that some broadcasters mentally envision, like sometimes it's their younger selves. Sometimes it's a kid they met one time, but, but a specific listener or watcher at home. I'm just curious, do you have that as you [00:38:00] broadcast?
Joel Goldberg: Not really, but. I think for me, I, I did kind of figure out early on, I speak the same way with, with my speaking, that you have to have a mindset that everyone watching or listening should be interested in what you're talking about.
Or I'll flip it around. Everything that I say should apply to everyone. Like if I get too knee deep into some kind of niche, I'm gonna lose people. So if I'm telling a story about like analytics and, and really kind of
more like stat heavy baseball nerd stuff, I would say I better make it palatable enough and tell the story well enough that the casual fan understands it. and the flip side of it, if it's, if it's on the more of the fluff side of things. And I, I don't mind that because usually when you're doing more of a lighthearted story.
it's gonna have a human interest element to it that [00:39:00] should have told Wright speaks to everyone. But I guess the fan that I'm keeping in mind is the casual fan that if they're not gonna be that knee deep into it, I gotta make sure that, that it's good for them too. So just trying to make sure, like, I don't know that I'd call it a lowest common denominator.
There may not be such a thing, but like how, how, or can there be layers to the story or the report that kind of help both people out? And so, and then like, you know, for me, I try to put myself in the shoes of, of those fans, can I take them somewhere they don't usually get to go. Can I give them a little piece of information that they're not gonna get el elsewhere?
And that comes from the relationships and the trust. Um, like a good example of that would be, and my producers are great, like they, 80 to 90% of the time. My game producer, I've got two, I've got my pre-game producer, but my game producer, 80 to 90% of the time will just say to me, Hey, what do you got for reports today?
Maybe [00:40:00] 10, 15, 20% of the time. If that, he'll say, Hey, can you get me an update on this? I need this, I need this. And that's fine too. usually when they want me to, when they want something specific, it's usually health or injury related. So it is really imperative to me to have a good relationship with the Royals trainer and they've got like three or four trainers.
But there's, and it might be different on other teams, but there's sort of a, not sort of, I mean, there's just an understanding that you're trying to get information about anything medical. You go to the head trainer, trainer and I get it, they don't want three or four different guys saying things a little bit differently.
So that relationship with our head trainer to me, is as important as any relationship I have on the team. And because I, I need him to trust me that, that one, I'm gonna be accurate with the information that he gives me. Two, that there's some information he might gimme that I can't tell. Uh, and the more that I uphold those standards, the more he's gonna tell me, and the more I understand that there's some things he can't tell me, [00:41:00] I don't know whether it's a HIPAA violation or it's just like, we gotta protect some things that you shouldn't know yet.
That's fine. Just let me know. Help me craft a story that does that not only informs fans, but enables me to tell it to them on a level that is not doctor or trainer talk. Meaning if you can gimme some good analogies or a better way to explain this versus just some fancy medical term. The only time I'll use a fancy medical term is when I think it's one I've never heard that is so hard to pronounce or so crazy that I wanna like, do it for more the, like the, the
Sydney Collins: effect.
The
Joel Goldberg: effect. Yeah. And then see if I can get the guys in the booth to repeat it. That's just playing around and having fun. But what I wanna be able to do is come back and so anything that I do medical and it's a, you know, that it's not every night, but it's a lot of nights. There might be a medical report in there.
I want to tell it in a way for someone like myself that has really no background [00:42:00] or, or understanding of, of medicine in the medical side of things. And so that's kinda the way I look at all my stories is if I could do it in a way that everybody understands it and is moved by it or learns from it, then that's the way to do it.
So it's a very broad audience. Got all different types.
Sydney Collins: last question here. Uh, we are asking Kansan, so to kind of bring this back to, do you think you, you've been able to travel with the Royals all over, you've experienced a lot of different fan bases. What makes the Kansas fan either if you experienced Chiefs, royals, anything else?
What makes the Kansas fan different than any other fan?
Joel Goldberg: I, I think one of the things that makes fans in this state different, and I would include the other side over in Missouri. I live, yeah. I live in Kansas. Mm-hmm. But I'm, I'm right on the border. I mean, I, you know, I pull out of our neighborhood and I can go chopping in Missouri across the street,
Sydney Collins: discount gas and liquor
Joel Goldberg: discount, gas and liquor.
[00:43:00] I don't know a lot of other places that have such like bitter rivalries with your neighbors based on the school you went to.
Sydney Collins: Mm.
Joel Goldberg: And so I love the fact that we have, anywhere you go, Kansas City Solano would be the same.
Sydney Collins: Mm-hmm.
Joel Goldberg: Is that you may love your neighbor, but like they've got a KU flag and Yep.
You've got a K State flag and it sometimes it happens in the same household and you gotta figure out a way to coexist and then you can come together and be Royals fans or chiefs fans together. That's really unique like. You know, there are, I know there are probably some other places like that, but generally, like if you go to St.
Louis, where I'd worked before, everybody's a St. Louis fan, and for the most part, they're probably a Mizzou fan. Just like,
Sydney Collins: yeah,
Joel Goldberg: it's not a 50 50 type of thing. You come to Kansas City and it's like, here's a Mizzou fan, here's a KU fan, here's a K State fan. Oh, by the way, here's Iowa. Let's throw all them into the mix.
And there's Iowa State, let's throw them into the mix and there's Nebraska [00:44:00] and let's throw them into the mix. And we're not getting to Oklahoma and Oklahoma State yet. Um, so there's just, I think that makes it really unique. And then they all kind of come together, for the most part, for the Chiefs and root for the Royals.
That's just, that's different as far as like the rest of it. I mean, yeah, of course we have the greatest fans. Right. But every other city's gonna say they have the greatest fans. And they should, like, you, you should be proud of your town or your region. Mm-hmm. And, and your, your team. I don't think our fans are any less or more irrational than anybody else's fans.
Um, you know, I, I think, uh, there are some cities that are a little crazier, some cities that are more mellow. I think the last thing I would say about it is there's something about this part of the country and this region where I, I think that authenticity matters. I'm not saying it doesn't matter on the coasts or in the bigger cities, but they don't always have time for it.
It's such a more transactional, like when you talk about [00:45:00] seeing some of these guys leave mm-hmm. That, that's why it hurts so much because we're, we're such a loyal, authentic part of the country and the region. And so that make that, there's a unique element to that as well, but mixed in there is, is is like this whole.
Love thy neighbor, but you've got a KU flag, you've got a K State flag. And I, that was one of the first things I noticed when I moved here. Your curve
Sydney Collins: is painted with a wild cat where your neighbors is with a Jay Hawk.
Joel Goldberg: I love You go on to sports media in other towns, and everybody's grumpy or upset, grumpy or happy altogether.
Sydney Collins: Mm-hmm.
Joel Goldberg: And here it's like, you're grumpy, but I'm loving this. I think that's kind of fun.
Sydney Collins: Awesome. Well, thank you for joining us today.
Joel Goldberg: It's good to be with you guys. Thanks for having me. It's great to be in Salina. I'm, I'm, uh, there. I don't think they're trying to employ me at the Chamber of Commerce, but every time I leave this city, I go back and telling everybody there's some really, really cool stuff here.
I think it's awesome.
Sydney Collins: Yeah.
Joel Goldberg: So
Sydney Collins: thanks for having me.
Joel Goldberg: Yeah,
Sydney Collins: thanks.
[00:46:00]
Sydney Collins: Well, welcome back. We hope you enjoy that
Gus Applequist: interview with Joel. I thought it was a really great time.
Sydney Collins: Yeah,
Gus Applequist: yeah.
Sydney Collins: We, we were talking a little bit after, is Joel is. Get so deep with his answers.
Gus Applequist: Yeah, that's true.
Sydney Collins: And you, there was multiple times where like I was so wrapped up in like listening to him, I was like, oh no, what's the next question?
Gus Applequist: Yep. I'm familiar with the panic as well,
Sydney Collins: he gives such rounded, this is such a school answer. There's give such rounded answers. Mm-hmm. to our questions. And, and to be honest, when I was prepping for this interview, I was like, what do I ask [00:47:00] someone who, liter one literally does this for a living.
Mm-hmm. And two has done multiple interviews, has so much experience, like, has probably been asked everything. Like he had an
Gus Applequist: interview today, so Yeah.
Sydney Collins: Like, has been asked everything under the sun, so hopefully Yeah. It, I think it turned out really well. But like he just, he's just one of those people that one with his like deep like broadcasting voice Yeah.
To get kind of Yeah. This room
Gus Applequist: has never like it reverberated with him. You can't probably pick that up at home, but like, yet there we put a we lot of radio voices. This was like a whole nother level. Yeah.
Sydney Collins: So we just, I just kind of got caught up with that a little bit. Yeah. Also we, what we did forget is to shout out one, both of his books.
oh yeah. We'll link, we will link all of his stuff, um, in the show notes. There's so many that I can't even think about it. He does have his own podcast. He's, um, just released his second book. Um, I'm halfway through his first one, which [00:48:00] is really, really good. Um, he's a really good storyteller, and all and his speaking, um, if you want him as a speaker.
Um, I mentioned, you know, my daughter just saw him. in Hutch, and it was so funny 'cause I was checking her TikTok and she goes, just listen to Joel Goldberg, voice of the Royals. And so like, later I was like, you know, I'm interviewing him next week, right? And he, she's like, oh, really? Like, it wasn't a big deal to her.
Okay.
Gus Applequist: So it wasn't a cool mom moment? No. Oh, not at all. I'm so sorry.
Sydney Collins: She was like, oh, okay.
Gus Applequist: One, one of the things I've picked up on that I liked was, you always hear these, these broadcasters talking about who they were talking to in the clubhouse. And I always, I always kind of wonder like, okay, is that real?
Or, or is this just, you know, mostly made up and, and it's real, like the, uh, the, the chatting with the athletic trainer, like that was not something I thought about.
Sydney Collins: Mm-hmm.
Gus Applequist: So, yeah. It's okay. I have, I have to tell two brief royals related Okay. Story. So the first is why [00:49:00] I think baseball is the superior sport.
Um. It's because like there's, there's an old, uh, standup comedian, I can't remember which one, but he's comparing football and baseball. Okay. And he is like, in baseball, your goal is to go home in football. You're trying to go to the end zone, you know, and he has, he is like a dozen of those things. I love going to a baseball game because there's organ music, you know, there's hot dogs.
It's ala Exactly. There's peanuts. It's, it's gonna take nine innings. You might as well sit back. You might as well relax. Just have a good time. Like, it's not a high pressure that you go to a chiefs game and there's like miles away that,
can you tell I'm a home buddy?
Sydney Collins: My, uh, this is, this is totally not related, but it's the only baseball story that I have right now. Last time we went to a Royals game, it was my husband and I and there was a guy sitting in front of us and I got us like [00:50:00] really good tickets. we were celebrating something, I don't even remember what it was, but, um, there's a dude in front of us hat on backwards sunglasses on his hat, but he was doing this the entire game.
He had his hand over his eyes shielding his eyes from the Sun
Gus Applequist: Classic. I'll totally do something.
Sydney Collins: And it took everything in my power not to just pick his hat off his hat and turn it around.
Gus Applequist: Well, I'm, I'm glad you didn't do that.
Sydney Collins: My husband would've been mortified.
Gus Applequist: You know, I, I wanna wrap up the, the baseball thing with just saying like, how much I see the Royals doing to try to engage like a Kansas audience. I think it's really impressive. I remember being in elementary school here in Salina and the Royals like, I could be wrong.
I may be misremembering this, but I. I'm pretty sure I remember correctly that the general manager came, the, uh, five or six players, the mascot came and they came to our, you know, to [00:51:00] Metal Ark Ridge Elementary. And they like presented to us as kids what, what baseball was. And I just think that's really cool.
That's, that they were willing and I have no idea if they can still do that. Like, that may be a thing of the past. But, um, that's how you build a, a listener base. Mm-hmm. That's how you like, I still remember that. I still think about that and it still energizes me. Okay. Are you ready to, uh oh yeah. For a little segment.
It's time for ask a cans and sports trivia. Uh, so I have a series of trivia questions relating to sports and, um,
Sydney Collins: are we so bad at this?
Gus Applequist: Most of these are two truths and a lie. Oh, okay. So you stay in a, a one in three chance of getting it right. Okay. Okay. So. You've probably heard that James Nay Smith's original rules of basketball.
Okay. Live at KU after they were purchased for the institution in 2010 for $4.3 million,
Sydney Collins: which is wild, wild to me,
Gus Applequist: right? It's like a piece of paper I think. Um, so I'm gonna give you two truths and a lie, and you have [00:52:00] to guess which one of these original rules of basketball I made up. Okay? So number one, no dribbling, you couldn't run with the ball you had to pass to get it down the court.
Number two, each team had to have five players on the court at a time. And number three, no backboard, just the basket.
Sydney Collins: Two, two in a lie, two truths and a lie. The lie is the back. No back, no sorry. The lie is no dribbling passing game.
Gus Applequist: He'd thinks that, wouldn't you? No, no. The lie is that you had to have five players. It wasn't until I think 1930 that they established that five players does the number of players on the court.
Really? Which is just mind blowing. Can you imagine like eight people playing against eight people in basket? It'd just be so strange.
Sydney Collins: Huh?
Gus Applequist: Sorry, I've, I've, I've kind of engineered this.
Sydney Collins: No, because, so I [00:53:00] was basing that off of, um, 'cause the only like basketball history I know is McPherson, and McPherson is home to mm-hmm.
The Globe refiners. They were the first USA basketball team to go to the Olympics. And I was thinking, I was like, they, I remember somewhere along the way, like it had to be a passing game because it was a clay court and it was raining in Berlin. Berlin. So maybe Berlin, Germany. Mm-hmm. Anyway, in the thirties.
And it was like all this, so that's what I was basing my answer off of. Nice.
Gus Applequist: Okay. Question number two. You may have heard of Jim Ryan, a famous athlete and politician from Kansas. What is Jim Ryan known for? So, two truths and a Lie. Oh, Jim Ryan. Okay, here we go.
Sydney Collins: The most generic name.
Gus Applequist: He was the first American high school athlete to break the four minute mile.
Number two, he was the last American to hold a record for running a mile or number three, he won gold at the 1968 Summer [00:54:00] Olympics.
Sydney Collins: Can you read me number two,
Gus Applequist: the Last American to hold the record for running a mile.
Sydney Collins: Hold the record for running a I'm gonna say that's the lie.
Gus Applequist: That is the truth. Yeah. Um, the lie was that he actually won silver at the 1968 Summer Olympics.
Um, yeah, I, I agree with you. So what this is about is like, do you know how like many of the world's best friend now are from like Nigeria? Yeah. Like he was the last American to be good enough to set a new record and running the mile, which is wild. Okay. Okay, number three. Um, you, you've heard of the sunflower shutdown?
Shut down. Oh my goodness. Show down it's Friday. Guys, you've heard of the Sunflower Showdown. Of course, we pay a lot attention to football and basketball. Um, but there is an overall record, uh, for all sports, uh, between KU and K State. So I'm gonna give you two truths and a lie. So here, here they're number one, Kansas leads [00:55:00] 635 to 509 with nine ties.
Number two, Kansas leads 620 to 514 with nine or number three K State leads. 599 to 539 with nine ties.
Sydney Collins: And this is overall overarching? Yep. Just between them two. Yep.
I dunno.
Gus Applequist: Can I, I'm gonna give you, gimme
Sydney Collins: the numbers one more time. Okay.
Gus Applequist: Uh, kus ahead. 6 35 to 5 0 9. Okay. Kus ahead. Six 20 to five 14 or number three K. State leads 5 99 to 5 39. And, and there's a quirk here, which I can point out as a hint if you'd like.
Sydney Collins: Sure. There's some ties in there.
Gus Applequist: This is two truths and a lie.
One of two. One of them, one of those is a lie. How is that possible?[00:56:00]
I think I broke Sydnee. Uh, yeah, you broke me.
Sydney Collins: Um, I don't know the, the one where. The last one is the lie.
Gus Applequist: Okay. You got it. So, K State, oh my god. So hold on. K State, um, does not lead K State. Uh, that's one thing we can all agree on. The, the, this, the issue here is that they disagree about what the record is.
Sydney Collins: Oh. And so KU
Gus Applequist: believes it's 6 35 to 5 0 9, while K State believes it's six 20 to five 14. It depends how you count.
Sydney Collins: And what sports are we counting? Like are we counting bowling, are we counting tennis?
Gus Applequist: Yeah, we're all I, well to be honest, roping, I don't know that detail, but I think a lot of we're talking about, honestly, I'm, if it's truly everything, I bet it be even higher than that.
So I don't really know. Yeah, and baseball plays one, it must, the major ones
Sydney Collins: like baseball, football, basketball,
Gus Applequist: baseball, football, basketball, Tanner things. Yep. That's okay.
Sydney Collins: Well, I wanna know what the rodeo record is because both of them have [00:57:00] rodeo teams, don't they?
Gus Applequist: I dunno if KU does K State definitely does, or as far as I know, did.
Okay. Question number four. There have been some important firsts in sports that took place in Kansas. Number one, the first national championship, drag race. Number two, the first night game in organized baseball. Or number three, the first round of disc golf.
Sydney Collins: I'm gonna go night game at baseball.
Gus Applequist: As the lie
Sydney Collins: as, oh no.
That I'm gonna say, that's the truth.
Gus Applequist: Okay.
Sydney Collins: The other ones were drag racing and disc golf.
Gus Applequist: Correct.
Sydney Collins: Should know the drag one, but, um,
disc golf is pretty hippie. I would think that is like. In Washington. I'm gonna go disc golf is the lie.
Gus Applequist: Your rationale is perfectly wrong, but you're totally right. Um, it was not disc golf that was actually in Texas. Um, oh. [00:58:00] That's why I say you're totally wrong with your rationale. Um, yeah, the, I was really surprised The first night game in organized baseball.
Yeah. It was an Independence Kansas in 1930. I thought that was weird
Sydney Collins: on the first lights.
Gus Applequist: Okay. Congratulations. You made it to our last question. Oh my. And we're gonna invert the formula on this one. Okay. So instead of, um, two truths and a lie, we're gonna do it's lies Two and a Truth, lies and a Truth.
Okay. Okay. So the namesake of Allen Fieldhouse at KU is former KU basketball Coach Fog Allen. You've probably heard of the phrase beware of the fog. Yeah. But do you know where Phog Allen got his Phog? So, in other words, like why is he named Phog Allen? Okay, that's the question. So number one, it was a nickname he got from his baseball umpiring days from his unique vocal inflection.
Number two, his pregnant mother came to the US from Germany on a ship that was lost for a time in a dense fog that obscured the Atlantic called the Dark Fog of 1885. After arriving in the US she thought the name fit her newborn child. And number [00:59:00] three, his uncle was a famous meteorologist who gave the name to a young athlete as a nickname for his favorite nephew.
Sydney Collins: I'm gonna go with the, because the, my original thought before you gave me those ridiculous answers were his voice was like a foghorn, like foghorn leghorn type of deal of like his voice.
Gus Applequist: You, you nailed it to the wall. That's it.
Sydney Collins: Yeah. That was my initial, so it's gotta be the umpire one. His, his actual name one.
Gus Applequist: Yeah.
Sydney Collins: What was the day? His mom came over and got lost?
Gus Applequist: 1885, the year he was born.
Sydney Collins: 18. 1885. Not. Okay. Maybe, I don't know.
Gus Applequist: Fog Allen is like old time coach, not, oh, not like recent.
Sydney Collins: Gotcha. Well, yeah, I knew that, but like
Gus Applequist: Yeah. Didn't realize it was Wow. Go. I, I just couldn't help myself to be honest. I, I had to be a little silly in the last one.
So his real name is Forrest Claire Allen. And, um, and yeah, he picked it up because of his voice.
Sydney Collins: Hmm.
Gus Applequist: So there [01:00:00] was some useless sports facts from a not sports person. But, uh, yeah. Hope you enjoyed this episode today. If you would be so kind, please like, comment, subscribe,
Sydney Collins: and leave us a review on wherever you're listening.
Gus Applequist: Hope you have a good one, and thanks for listening.
Sydney Collins: Bye.