Embracing Pittsburgh: Rob King and the Heart of Sports Broadcasting

Imagine settling into the embracing warmth of Pittsburgh culture, its Northeastern charm interwoven with Midwestern heart. That's precisely where we found ourselves at Burn by Rocky Patel, joined by sports broadcasting icon Rob King, Greg Brown, and former MLB player Michael McKenry. As we lit up our Decade Cameroon cigars, we traversed the distinctive manners of this storied city, from the enigmatic 'Pittsburgh left' to the genuine community spirit that makes it an ideal place to raise a family. Rob's anecdotes, spanning a 23-year career touching every corner of sports, brought to life the city’s ethos—a fusion of respect, dignity, and a love for the game.

His journey wasn't without its twists and turns, from the humbling days as an unhurried option quarterback to the life-altering baseball advice that reshaped my grasp of the game. Recounting the path from Hobart College to Washington University in St. Louis, Deep truth was shared on how personal adversity and the pursuit of renewal post-high school sports injuries guided my decisions. This segment peels back the layers on the intersection of sports, education, and the lasting influence of mentorship, while also giving a nod to the importance of evolving and embracing change.

Wrapping up our session, we dug into the craft of sports broadcasting—the camaraderie between anchors and analysts, akin to players on a basketball court, and the meticulous preparation that captures viewers' attention. We swapped tales of our industry heroes and the pursuit of authenticity that connects us with our audience as if they're friends sharing a drink. Each story, rich with the ethos of sports and broadcasting, invites listeners to step behind the scenes and discover the profound influence and the creativity that stokes our passion for this vibrant, ever-changing arena.

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!!!!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

another episode of hold my cutter coming your way from burn by rocky patel, just a couple of blocks away from pnc park and right across the street from the studios where you're going to find our guest here, greg brown, michael mckenry, and this is the king and his court. This is the great rob king who is along with michael and me enjoying this featured smoke. This is the Decade Cameroon Binder and filler is Honduran, the wrapper is Cameroon, little notes of vanilla, little smoky coconut and a leathery finish and it's a really, really good smoke.

Speaker 2: 0:36

Yeah, I need to put some oil on my leather. I cut it up and messed it up. I smell the coconut, yeah.

Speaker 1: 0:45

First of all, all what a treat it is. And michael uh gets to work with you almost every single day. I get to watch you and michael work almost every single day. We don't get together enough, but this is a real treat for us and you, rob, are a broadcasting legend. I sound like the fourth, michael McKendry.

Speaker 2: 1:09

This, I think this. I'm in the presence of two legends, so I think this past August was it your 23rd year in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1: 1:15

23rd, yeah, that's right, does it seem like it?

Speaker 3: 1:19

You know how time goes yes and no, right, I mean sometimes things seem like they just occurred yesterday and sometimes they seem like long ago. When I moved here my kids were two and three when my wife and I moved here. It's been an absolutely fabulous place to raise a family. I've told that to people. I don't think you can beat Pittsburgh for raising your family. It's just a great place and I mean I'm pretty much all sports all the time and it's I mean talk about a great sports market and a great city and great people. I've always felt like the people remind me of kind of a mixture of the Northeast, where I grew up, and the Midwest, where I went to school, but the best qualities of both Like they'll tell you if you're a jagoff oh yeah.

Speaker 3: 2:06

They're not going to back off. That's right, but, by the same token, real politeness, real manners, real, you know just. I mean the people here are just phenomenal. Real, real, real people, you know, phenomenal.

Speaker 2: 2:18

I'll even say hey, there's a sprinkle of the South, south, you know I'm the one guy yeah. Yeah, here there's a sprinkle of that, with those manners and different things. And you know, you see, over time, as the united states kind of gets more diversified, different things happen. But yeah, it is the epitome of what I think of growing up, of a great place. You know, to raise a family. I hope to do so, you know.

Speaker 3: 2:38

And I'm a big, I was raised that you should have good manners, right? Uh, hold out a chair, chair. Hold the door open for a person, a woman, anybody. Pittsburgh is the most real mannered city I've ever been in. People let you in with a car and if you don't let somebody in you're a jaguar.

Speaker 2: 2:58

I did not know what that meant for a long time. Oh, it's great.

Speaker 1: 3:01

They let you turn left at the light, absolutely the Pittsburgh left.

Speaker 3: 3:05

And here's another example for me they let you turn left at the light, absolutely the Pittsburgh left. Here's another example for me Every place I've ever lived, you're in a grocery store, right, a new line opens up, right, because there's so many customers in line. You're last in line, or whatever. The last person in line always jacks that because they have the best point of view, the best vantage point to see that that cash register is opening up. What do they say in Pittsburgh? Every time, I'll take the next person in line and nobody complains. That's the way it should be.

Speaker 2: 3:30

That's manners that aren't just true.

Speaker 3: 3:31

It's not just textbook manners, it's real life. I'm going to treat you with some dignity and respect, which is the essence of what manners should be. I go on about Pittsburgh. We could do the whole sportscast or the whole podcast and be talking about Pittsburgh. I love it here.

Speaker 1: 3:47

Well, rob King, who is I mean that? I mean I've not ever met anyone in the business of broadcasting, which can be a bit yappy. Yeah, it can be any city, it's just the way it is broadcast.

Speaker 2: 4:04

Beep, beep, beep. We'll just beep it out right there.

Speaker 1: 4:08

But no one has ever, ever said, athlete or member of the media, anything bad about this guy. They love Rob King. He's so professional, so easygoing, on the air that approach the Hall of Famer because he was born and raised in Cooperstown, New York. The Hall of Famer because he was born and raised in Cooperstown, New York and he's been, as we say, 23 years and going a pre and post-game host, anchor studio guy, play-by-play, all the sports, what's your favorite thing to do.

Speaker 3: 4:36

You know, I've been asked that.

Speaker 2: 4:40

Because he is a Swiss.

Speaker 3: 4:41

Army Knife fan. It is interesting. Like you know, when I said earlier, I'm all sports all the time, like in my backyard. I was the first ever like three-time hall of famer. You know, like I'd be shooting baskets here's a hall of famer, rob Then I'd be in the backyard.

Speaker 2: 4:55

Here's all of them.

Speaker 3: 4:58

And then the same thing with playing baseball and really one of the great things that I've that I that I loved about this job in Pittsburgh and obviously it's changed and some things have changed but the fact that there was the constant variety Like you know, I love talking to.

Speaker 3: 5:16

You know, today's athlete is king and when we're talking about tomorrow, those athletes will be king the ones playing, they're the story, they're the big story. But when you talk to former athletes and they've got a chance to step out of I kind of call it the swirl, like everything around them revolves around the players, as it should be getting your flight on the plane and making sure that there's a nutritionist to look after you, because there's so much investment in these guys. And 30,000 people go to a Pirates game and 70,000 people go to a Steelers game to see these guys perform. So the present is king, but it's wonderful to talk to the people that I grew up watching, and you mentioned Cooperstown. I'm so delighted to see Jim Leland in the Hall of Fame and to get to know him a little bit, not like you when you were here but to talk to a great, phenomenal guy, dave Parker. You know, to interview somebody, there's a guy who should be in the Hall of Fame by the way.

Speaker 2: 6:16

I mean, I'll put my That'll be another episode we're going to tease. That man should be in the Hall of Fame.

Speaker 3: 6:22

Yes, I agree, I just love it all. You know and I and I love like if there was a there was like a sports library, like I'd be in it. You know reading through the old stuff and you know and you know being over my computer. I love the preparation, I love play by play and the memorization that goes with that in football or basketball, the watching of the tape, the preparation for the daily shows, the historical specials I love it all. I've been blessed to be able to do this for as long as I have I mean, I really am and with great people too, like you guys. So to pick a favorite, it's almost like my kid being the kid in the backyard, whatever's in season, whatever I'm doing now, that's my favorite.

Speaker 1: 7:04

That's what you love. Yeah, how about growing up in Cooperstown, new York, though, rob? That is so wide, yeah.

Speaker 3: 7:12

So my father was from there, and his family for years and years and years. I moved up there. In eighth grade I went there quite a bit as a kid growing up I was in Westchester County outside of new york city.

Speaker 1: 7:24

Oh, that's where you're okay, yeah, so so I went.

Speaker 3: 7:27

I was in westchester, various parts of westchester. I was actually born in new york city. If I never lived there, okay, um lived in terrytown white plains, and then we moved a little further north. I think my, my father was just, you know, sort of getting us used to the final. Okay, we're gonna move up and and go to.

Speaker 2: 7:44

So it just kept trickling you that way.

Speaker 3: 7:46

It was actually a really big culture shock for me, because I was at Westchester, I went to John Jay High School for one year I'm guessing it was the size of maybe like a Hampton High School here in Pittsburgh, and then you know fairly, you know well off suburb Um, and then I moved to Cooperstown, which also, you know, not exactly a place, it's poverty's tricking either, um, but but now, now I'm, I'm holding fence posts because my father wants to raise cattle, uh, with a one-armed guy named Ken Tyler and I'm like, oh, he's swinging this ax at me, I'm like what's going on here? So it was, it was a radical change and I don't really remember my first year, year and a half, in Cooperstown that well. I didn't like it at first and then my high school experience was wonderful. I absolutely loved it.

Speaker 3: 8:44

It was a small school so I could play three sports, actually four sports, because I played baseball in the summer and then I wound up playing tennis in the spring, so I could play four sports year-round, which you couldn't do at a big school. I mean, it's occurred to me I could be at a big school and not play one sport at some of the schools around here that are powerhouses. So it was a wonderful experience and of course I'm a huge, huge baseball fan, huge fan of the history of the game. I love reading old books, always have. I love to mention interviewing old guys. I love today's game, I love baseball. So when I go back I do try to slip into the Hall of Fame every second or third time I get back there to visit family.

Speaker 1: 9:25

Did you love it before you moved to Cooperstown? Oh, absolutely.

Speaker 3: 9:28

You did Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, the two biggest sports for me growing up were baseball and football. Those are the sports that I— Option quarterback Absolutely loved. Yeah, I hit a quarterback the slowest option quarterback in America.

Speaker 2: 9:42

I had a good arm.

Speaker 3: 9:45

I just wanted to throw the ball, but what happened was that my lack of discrimination as to who caught it eventually had the coaches saying, well, maybe we need to throw it a little bit less.

Speaker 2: 9:54

Let's keep it closer to you, yeah.

Speaker 3: 9:56

Maybe just pinch it a couple of feet, probably our guy will catch it then. So no, I mean, you know baseball, baseball and I wanted to do something in baseball and I'm getting so far afield here. I was with John Wainer years and years ago and I said, john, I could never understand why, as I went on in baseball and now I started playing less and less, because I was just playing in the summer, I was playing, I played Pony League and I played American Legion because I could play varsity tennis as a freshman. So I'm like, well, that's not a hard choice for me, but I could still play in the summer, I still play baseball. Of course, now you're taking, you know, around here, you're playing fall ball and spring ball and summer ball.

Speaker 3: 10:43

I was taking the baseball season out of the equation. So as each year went on it was, you know my place on the team began to diminish a little bit. But I said, you know what? I would see a fastball and I would think I was on it and I thought I was going to hit it and it would be by me.

Speaker 3: 11:00

And I could never understand that. I don't understand and I always thought I should be able to hit a baseball a long way. I was always able to hit a golf ball a pretty long way. I'm like I don't understand. So now John drops a napkin on the floor of the park house and says I'll tell you what you were doing wrong. And so he went through the whole thing about how you're taught to have a level swing and your first move with your bat to create the level path was to drop it back and then bring it through this way. And he said by the time you drop it back and try to have this level swing. He said a level swing is just you take it. Pardon me, john, if I'm not exactly getting this right, I got you.

Speaker 3: 11:41

The level swing is only level this long. I got you. You're a good player. The level swing is only level this long. You have to bring the bat down through the strike zone and then it levels out and then you bring it back up. Well, by the time you do this and drop the level bat and the bat's dropped back here instead of being here. I mean, look at this face. And so I was like, oh man.

Speaker 3: 12:02

He said you know, if you stood with your back foot to a cage right and you had a tee, a batting tee, that your bat would never hit. So imagine you're in a batting cage right here, you've got a tee right here, your bat would never hit the cage. And I'm like what you know? Because I'm like my first move was this. No, he goes. No, your first move should be this. So I my kids were playing.

Speaker 3: 12:24

My son, schaefer, was playing t-ball at the time so I was like I don't know. So I kind of is anybody out? Here, so I grabbed the tee and did it and I'm like, oh, my God. So then I went to North Park and I'm like, okay, well, let me warm up and let me put it on the fastest one they got.

Speaker 2: 12:38

I'm like it's 30 years ago when I needed him. I can't get him.

Speaker 3: 12:42

I'm like, oh my gosh.

Speaker 3: 12:45

He's a great hitting guru, I mean you talk about and again you talk about like the fun part of the game. I mean to sit there and listen to John Wainer talk about hitting, bob Walsh to talk about pitching, I mean. Or Steve Blass. I mean you know Steve talking about the compete side of it a lot and Bob talking about you know the different things that he would do. I mean you know, think about the access we have to that. You know, I love hearing stories of players being scouted in all sports. Really, I just we're blessed.

Speaker 1: 13:20

Well, you so out of high school. Did you go to Hobart?

Speaker 3: 13:24

I started out of Hobart College. What made you go there? Really, I have no idea. I really have no idea. You transferred to Washington U in St Louis yeah, I did, and that was the reason that I went there was because, well, there's two reasons, you know, when you take your PSATs in high school right, the preliminary to the SATs that was, I think, the very first place I received a letter from. So I was like, oh my God, I got college sent me a letter, you know. And then, my God, I got college sent me a letter. And then, of course, you get hundreds of them. You're just inundated in mail, but it was the first one. And then my best friend went to St Louis University. So I thought, okay, well, here's a place I can go. I can get my feet underneath me.

Speaker 3: 14:08

I'd hurt my knee my senior year of high school. I didn't play my first year at Hobart, went through spring ball, went through two or three practices, hurt my knee, hurt my other knee, and I was like, well, I guess, maybe that's it for football for me and maybe I need a fresh start. So I went to Washington University and I was like you know what, I'm just going to give it a try. So it had been quite a few years since I played high school football and I gave it a try and I played receiver my junior year and then switched me to quarterback my senior year and it was one of those things where I was just talking about this with my son the other day. He rode for a year in college and then he got hurt and I said, hey, listen, at least you had that year and you had some success. He was a freshman rower and he was in the varsity boat and I'm like, hey, you know I would.

Speaker 3: 14:52

I would never be able to look back and say I could have done that without even you know what I mean. I'm glad I you get to my age and the things that haunt you. Yes, we've all done things we wish we hadn't done, but it's the things that you didn't do that you wish you tried. That I think you regret and I'm glad I played football and had a great time and had a blast both years playing. Our teams weren't very good, but you know my roommate in college, who was an offensive guard he and I remain great friends to this day Lives out in Colorado. You know we stay in constant touch and it was a great, great experience.

Speaker 1: 15:33

Well, you were better than you say too, by the way, yeah well, they should have thrown.

Speaker 2: 15:36

We know that they should have thrown more often. They should have thrown more often.

Speaker 3: 15:38

Then I could have led the country in interceptions, not just the league. There you go.

Speaker 2: 15:42

Then you'd be on the history books forever, though that's exactly right.

Speaker 1: 15:45

That's exactly right. Did you go to a school for communications and?

Speaker 3: 15:49

journalism, literature, major. How about that so?

Speaker 2: 15:53

I um and I'll say something about that I've enjoyed, you know, being a guy, that's really. I struggle with english. I struggle with a lot of the communication stuff in school because learning disabilities every day. I get excited to hear his open, because I don't know what's coming, and he articulates it so well and he brings it to life. He brings the city that we're playing in. He brings the circumstance and he brings our city into. Well, and he brings it to life. He brings the city that we're playing in. He brings the circumstance in, he brings our city into it and it's just like. I'm always like this. There's been times, brownie, I'm looking at the camera, they're like Michael, michael, I'm still thinking about it.

Speaker 1: 16:26

I'm like what does that mean? You're?

Speaker 2: 16:27

mesmerized? Yeah, there's been some. He did, yeah, this year. He did the Midnight of Paul Revere and my phone starts blowing up 18th of April in 75, Brownie yeah. My wife finishes the poem or the song on text and she's like all caps and she says Tell King, you just killed it.

Speaker 3: 16:48

He knows, yeah, he knows, that is the one. So I don't know. I mean, you know, most times when you turn on the TV you're seeing guys, you know, not on a postgame show, but if you're seeing a studio format, you're seeing people that are reading stuff off prompter, which is what we I did my whole career. So there aren't that many opportunities to write anymore because we don't have a prompter. Everything's, everything's, um, you know extemporaneous, right, so uh, but that is one opportunity. It's off camera and I can write something and I can read it. He just did it Extemporaneous.

Speaker 2: 17:18

Never heard it.

Speaker 3: 17:19

Amazing. I enjoy that. I enjoy that aspect of it, but, like we said before, I enjoy every aspect of it. So I became an English major because I really didn't know what to do and so I've always loved to read. I mean, I don't have a ton of hobbies. I like sports and I like to read. So I was like at some point I was like, well, I'm going to call it majoring in reading, they can call it English literature. But that's what I did. I just read. And then I wrote papers and then they gave me a degree.

Speaker 3: 17:45

It was great that would be a sense of torture, I think, for me. So it took me a little longer to get through school. I mean, I had no idea what I wanted to do, really none. You remember Wild Kingdom of?

Speaker 1: 17:59

Omaha, the mutual Perkins. Yeah, yeah, right. The guy who started the.

Speaker 3: 18:02

San Diego Zoo and I think might have had a hand in the St Louis Zoo as well. Well, there was Marlon Perkins and then there was Jim who was out in the field. Right, Jim was the guy who would go to on Carson, I think. Yeah, Jim would like jump out of a helicopter on top of a bighorn sheep or whatever, and I'm like I'd kind of like to do that. I think that looks, I think that looks fascinating.

Speaker 3: 18:23

That sounds like fun, like it's athletic and it's outdoors and it ties in a lot of things that I like. But I took, like, biology I'm like not for me, man, not going to happen. So I moved around on different things and then finally I said, look, man, I got to get a degree, you know. And so my last two years, I think, I took calculus, which I actually enjoyed, but other classes that I didn't enjoy that much. And I mean, I'm fascinated by the sciences but I don't have really any real aptitude for it. So I just took English, lit and history classes my last two years. I didn't have enough. I had enough credits to major, get a double major, but I would have had to go back and take an intro class. And I was like, I got my degree, man, yeah, yeah, let's go, let's go start life.

Speaker 1: 19:08

I think you're doing just fine, let's go start life. Yeah, so, washington University Bear, right, the Bears, the Bears. Yeah, do you know? By the way, tribute question, not to put you on the spot, but just curious to you do you know what the name was up until about 1925 for Washington University? Do you know the answer to this? I do not. No, the Pikers. Really, what is a Piker? That's what they were. They were the Pikers, but they changed it in 1925.

Speaker 3: 19:33

Wow. So Washington University football was at one time like I think they're 1-0 against Nebraska. Oh, wow, oopsie.

Speaker 1: 19:40

Did you beat them?

Speaker 3: 19:41

Well, if he was throwing more once again, he had to be throwing, so you did. We won three games in my two years. Two of them were against the University of Chicago. That was our arch rival.

Speaker 1: 19:48

Oh wow no kidding.

Speaker 3: 19:49

So they set the University of Chicago and Washington University set up the University Athletic Association, which had Carnegie Mellon. I don't think they compete in it in football anymore, I think they're still in basketball A variety of like-minded institutions Case Western in Cleveland, emory down in Atlanta, nyu in basketball, johns Hopkins in basketball. So University of Chicago, the Maroon, by the way, the Maroon who dropped football and then picked it back up. So that league, if you want to trace it back and take credit which of course I clearly do first Heisman Trophy winner, jay Berwanger, university of Chicago, drafted by the Bears, and said you can't pay me enough money. Back in 1936, or I think 36 was the first year of the NFL draft Holy cow, they couldn't pay him enough money. You think about that now? How about that? The history of early football is like you know what? I'm going to go? Be a dentist.

Speaker 1: 20:49

You know what I mean. Imagine that now. Don't need that.

Speaker 2: 20:56

You're not paying enough money, and that's also when they had the the one bar face mask. So maybe he could have done both and had a great career, right?

Speaker 1: 21:00

I mean dennis hey guys, I got you created. Yeah, you remember all those guys. They just had no teeth oh yeah, no helmets, no face mask. Yeah, rob, uh, it was a kplR, was your first job out of college in St Louis.

Speaker 3: 21:16

Yeah, I was a producer at KPLR TV.

Speaker 2: 21:18

Okay, that's what a lot of people don't know about, like who you are, the producing, the directing, the writing, all the things they see his face. You guys do so much that people don't know about. And it's funny that every single person that's in this game that I respect and I'm like wow, I just can't believe how good they are. They always talk about the prep and that's the love they have and I'm the same way, I would say the same successful dudes I know and respect in baseball love the grind, love the prep more than anything. I think there's something to be said about that.

Speaker 3: 21:48

I mean, being a producer really, really helped me. So that was my first job out of college. I was basically unqualified, right? I mean I had no qualifications to be working at a TV station. I got an internship. I put in a lot of work for free because I realized I didn't know what I was doing. What made you do it, by the way? So I was remember that friend, I told you about that went to St Louis University. So I was pumping gas at an Amoco station on Little Boulevard.

Speaker 3: 22:18

I actually remember this and I said you know, I don't know what I want to do, I'm not getting through to get my degree in four years. So now I've got extra time I don't want to go to. I took my GREs, I was thinking about going to business school and actually applied to business schools but I thought, you know, I could be a lawyer. But man, I don't want to. I need to. I'm accruing debt Like I need a job, I need to make money. You know, I don't want to go three more years of law school. I want to get out from underneath any debt I've already accrued. I want to start my job. And I said I don'tcaster. I mean, all you ever, do ever, revolves around sports and I was like huh.

Speaker 2: 22:57

That's good advice.

Speaker 3: 22:59

I wonder how somebody gets to do that. Like I was of this belief that like you turn on the TV and like these mystical, magical people are on TV and they're in movies, and who are these people, you know? And so I was like, well, I'll give it a shot. And then really, all I really wanted to do is be a producer. I'm like, oh, I'll just go be a producer. And I was in, I was interning, and then, and then my first job there's a producer and a news director named Gil Engler said you should be on TV, that's what you should be doing. You shouldn't be a producer, you should be doing. You shouldn't be a producer, you should be on camera. And so I was like, okay.

Speaker 3: 23:38

So then my first on-air job was in Utica, the first of a couple of pay cuts I've taken in my career, because you make less money on the air in Utica than you do as a producer in St Louis. And then that's where I started to do it. Every day was in Utica, utica to Syracuse, from there Utica back to St Louis, on air in St Louis, on air in St Louis doing TV and radio, kind of the beginning of talk show radio. So the sports director at that station, rich Gould is still a good friend of mine. He and Bob Ramsey calls the St Louis University game, so I get to see him when he comes into town when they play Duquesne. He was the weekend guy, rich was the sports director and rich is still a very good friend of mine. Um, you're a great, great guy, um. So he and I started to do radio. This was uh, this was way before most sports talk show radio things and we had. He made it so much fun. You know this guy would come in and he'd be like what?

Speaker 2: 24:35

are you guys doing?

Speaker 3: 24:36

Here's a pie chart. You're supposed to talk about the Cardinals here, the Rams here, and then we get off on some tangent and then finally our show was successful. So he was like just do whatever you want. So the two of us just had a, because we were really good friends doing the show on the air. How long did you do that? Oh, two and a half years.

Speaker 3: 24:59

Really yeah, and then I was. But the problem with that was for me with the TV was they didn't have weekend news. So I was doing reporting but I wasn't doing a lot of anchoring and I wanted to anchor. And so and my wife and I, both of our moms, were widowed and we wanted my wife's from upstate New York, megan, from right outside of Cooperstown. Both of our moms lived up there. We wanted to start a family, we wanted to be closer to them in doing that. So all those reasons led me to go from another pay cut from St Louis, got to give up to go up here. That's exactly what happened in both instances. They both paid off. So I went from St Louis to Syracuse, then Syracuse to Pittsburgh. How long in Syracuse?

Speaker 1: 25:41

About five years. And how did you get the Pirate gig, the Pittsburgh gig?

Speaker 2: 25:47

Yeah, how did you end up?

Speaker 3: 25:50

I don't know if we talk about that that much. So back when and again, I'm not you know, like I'm not 100% sure on all the details but Fox Sports was launching these regional sports networks. So they launched a sports network in Pittsburgh and they launched one in the same time in St Louis. And so the Fox Sports net people actually contacted me and said hey, listen, would you be interested in doing a St Louis all sports? And I'm are you kidding? All sports, absolutely. They said, well, you're going to be going to Pittsburgh. First I said okay, so we did the St Louis shows out of Pittsburgh. So I was hired in 2000 to do St Louis shows and they said listen, you know you'll be there a year, year and a half, and we'll move you out to St Louis.

Speaker 3: 26:40

So two things happened. One, as always seems to happen, things move slower than they're put out on paper. 9-11, I think, had a big impact with that as well. That was a year after I'd been there. Big impact with that as well, that was a year after I'd been there. The second thing that happened and I have to tell you I love St Louis. I mean, you know I was there in prime years of my life for meeting people and going out. Yeah, I mean college friends, my friends, my buddy's friends, went to St Louis University. I knew a bunch of people from there, people that I'd met when I was working there. I knew a lot of people in St Louis. I think I was here for about three months and I thought I wonder if I could just maybe stay in Pittsburgh. You know, take that St Louis.

Speaker 2: 27:23

And so no, no, but I'm just kidding, I love St Louis. I did Me too, me too.

Speaker 3: 27:27

So it was like I mean, had it happened then, had it happened after, After that first year, I'd probably be out in St Louis now. But as it turned out, it took. I don't even know when they finally moved, but by that time I was doing as much or more Pittsburgh stuff than I was doing St Louis. We were still doing the St Louis show. So if you're wondering how that happened, it's the hour time difference, Of course. There were lots of times where the Pirates played the Cardinals, and there's no time difference at all. The Penguins played the Blues. There's no time difference at all. You were taping shows and doing all kinds of crazy stuff.

Speaker 3: 28:02

I've heard some of those that's wild, it was fun, it was crazy, it was energetic. You know the people there are so talented and are still. I mean the crew at what is now Sportsnet Pittsburgh is sensational.

Speaker 2: 28:18

So talented they're so good.

Speaker 3: 28:22

So I was doing more, and then at some point I think I was doing probably more Pittsburgh than St Louis, and so when the time came, I wound up staying in Pittsburgh. Who were?

Speaker 1: 28:33

some of the others. Pat Paris, one of those guys. Pat Paris, anybody else?

Speaker 3: 28:37

Brent Stover? Oh my gosh. Yeah, who is doing stuff, I think, with CBS Sports. Pat is doing news, I think, out in Tucson, arizona. Really, good guys. Guy Junker was here for a little while. Guy and I remain friends, of course, stan, I'm trying to think if Marshall Harris was here for a while. Yeah, trenny Kuznarek was here for a while. I don't know if Trenny was here and we were still doing both. Yeah, I was trying to think of the people that were doing both. Yeah, it's. Yeah, you know how this is right, like you know, you can tell. You know, give me a sports set and I can name it for you. Ask me what I had for breakfast yesterday.

Speaker 2: 29:19

I have no idea it all kind of jumbles together. I've actually gotten in arguments with my wife, because I can remember a sequence from 2011 that lost the game and I can walk through it, I can even feel my breath when I'm thinking about it, but I can't remember to take out the trash.

Speaker 3: 29:36

Yeah, you know it's pretty sad, but my wife is a great, great, megan's got a great memory. And I tell people, you know, I don't remember what way, who's that, what happened there, you know, and I just I tell people, I, I know I've had a great life, I'm sure of it. I just can't remember any of it.

Speaker 1: 29:55

But Megan will let me, megan tells me Amen. So, thank you, don't forget where and how did you develop this style? Did you emulate anybody, or is it just this?

Speaker 2: 30:08

did you have a you? I like tell you talk about yoda.

Speaker 1: 30:11

You're yoda did he have a yoda? Well, yeah, people that were mentor, like mike lang, I've, I've, yeah, revere to this day. Which, for me, which is cool about this you guys are my my in this industry.

Speaker 2: 30:26

You guys are my mentors. You guys have poured into me. I've learned more from you guys. You guys have challenged me, you've taught me things and it's been inside the box, outside the box. But the one thing that you guys do better than anybody I've ever seen I've done national stuff. Now I've done a lot of things.

Speaker 2: 30:39

My seventh year, believe it or not, is you guys see the personality and the person and you pull out potential and that's the one thing that's incredible and it goes back to what Teague told you when I first came on, what your job was, and you share that a minute. But, like you guys bring to life and bring out what most people can't. You guys are the epitome of service leaders and thinking about not just the guy right next to you but the fan at home when you're watching the game, because you guys are fanatics when it comes to the Pirates and comes to sports and you love it, and that that shows every single time. You guys even touch a mic or a camera, anything. You see it, whether you're behind the scenes or in the scenes. It's amazing.

Speaker 3: 31:21

You know, I will say that. Thank you, Michael, I'll say that. So I have to. You know, I have to say the Teak line. You have to say it. You have to say it and try to impersonate Teak as well as I can.

Speaker 2: 31:30

Teak's the greatest by the way we share a birthday.

Speaker 3: 31:33

Teak and I are both born March 5th.

Speaker 2: 31:34

I didn't know that. And March 4th.

Speaker 3: 31:36

March 4th and Teak best. Do you know that? What is that Pisces? What is that Pisces? Yeah, yeah, so they change it again. So Teague said we each have a job.

Speaker 1: 31:59

Your job is to make me look good and my job is to make me look good, and it is it really. There's some truth to it.

Speaker 3: 32:01

No, there's a lot of truth to that there's a lot of you know you talk about. Uh, yeah, I get that BA degree right, it says arts and sciences. I'm like I don't remember any sciences, but there's an art and a science. The science is hey, you got to make this guy, you know, and how do you do that? Right, so that's really the job. How do you best do that? I tried to describe what I do.

Speaker 3: 32:21

So what I used to do as an anchor for a local sportscast right, is you were to use a basketball analogy, I think, like, you're the shooting guard, right, you've got to be the star, you've got to pass it on occasion, but you're there to be. You're there to, to, to, to give your opinion, to report the news Certainly all of it. Well, when you're working with analysts, you're a point guard. You know what I mean. News, certainly all of it. Well, when you're working with analysts, you're a point guard. You know what I mean. You have to, yes, you have to get the factual information out to the fans, make sure they're informed, but you have to. You know you're there to set up your teammates. I mean, that's really to me. That's the essence of the job, I think, and it makes it fun. I mean, I enjoyed doing it and it's a collaborative effort. If you're not, if you're not both doing, you know, if you're not both on the same page, I think you're, I think you're, you're sports cast or your or your game is, is doomed.

Speaker 1: 33:15

Some people ask me, like what's your goal of a broadcast? One of my main goals is to, if you're sitting at a bar watching this, listening at home, wherever, taking your device watching, watching the show is to make you feel like the viewer is there with you and you could share a beverage with them. Amen, watch the game with them, make it comfortable and that's, I think, you the first thing that comes to mind, along with professionalism that's first and foremost with Ralph King. But comfort, I just there's a comfort level there and that is something to me. There's a comfort level there and that is something to me. There's a living room.

Speaker 2: 33:48

Feel, yeah, dude, like you guys feel it's almost like it's family style too, like it's comfortable. Whether you're at the bar, you're in the living room, Whatever you are. Yeah, you guys kind of but it's cool because I don't know how you do it, but you blend it together. It doesn't matter where you're at. It's like huh, and I think it's because you guys love the city and you're able to captivate. But even if you go somewhere else, you do the same thing.

Speaker 1: 34:12

So, Rob, is there a Yoda? Is there one person that stands out Again? Put you on the spot.

Speaker 3: 34:19

So the guy I've mentioned a couple of times, rich Gould, one of the things that I really learned from Rich was that you know, you can sort of be yourself. You can, you know, and Rich is a great guy. Hopefully you can just be a genuine person. You don't have to be. You know. You see broadcast news and people are kicking things across the you know newsroom and yelling and screaming. Well, it doesn't have to be like that.

Speaker 2: 34:42

Well then you meet him too, and it's like you're different than I am.

Speaker 3: 34:46

Yeah, yeah, and I mean that's not my personality anyway. So he had a big influence. I think probably others just by osmosis. You know we used to listen to my buddy, rich Absolutely loved Mike Lang. So when I was working in St Louis and remember the Penguins are winning cups now in the early 90s as a producer and you know doing some work there, you know he was like listen to this guy, he is the best. And actually when you think about Mike Lang and I think I told this to Mike once when I was in Syracuse and we would do hockey highlights I would say like, oh, michael, michael, motorcycle, look at this goal, Because the people in Syracuse I mean, I just you would steal it.

Speaker 2: 35:28

Wait, wait, wait. Is that why you come into the office a lot of days? Michael Michael motorcycle he does that to me almost every day. It's awesome.

Speaker 3: 35:36

You know it's. I had a general manager in Syracuse who came up with an idea for me. He said hey, this is an idea. I said that's a great idea. I think I might steal that. He goes well, if you steal an idea from me, you've stolen it twice because I stole it from somebody else. So I think that osmosis brings a lot of that to you. But when I go to speak to classes or whatever, I tell students don't try to be like anybody else, try to be as true to yourself as you can. And when we go back to writing, everybody writes in a little bit. Everybody talks in a little different way To me.

Speaker 3: 36:13

When you're doing TV, you want to be talking with people. Like you said, you're having a conversation with them. They're part of your conversation. You're not. It's not the same kind of TV writing is not the same kind of writing as you can break it down, right? You're not. You're not Walt Whitman doing poetry. You're not. You know Ernest Hemingway doing a novel. You're not a, you're not a newspaper writer. You're, you're. It's a vocal presentation. So you have to write the same way you talk and then make sure when you read it you're reading it as naturally and talking as possible. So I think you know Rich Gould was a big influence. Tons of people have influenced me over the years, but I think it's more by osmosis than it is by going out of my way and thinking I want to emulate this person. I'll say, hey, that's a great idea, and I probably stole it somewhere and don't even realize I stole it and I'm not giving it back.

Speaker 1: 37:11

Favorite athlete of all time that you have maybe actually interviewed, witnessed in person. Wow, anybody come to mind.

Speaker 3: 37:23

I mean, you know there have been like thrills. I mean to see, you know, mario Lemieux, when I didn't get a chance to see him in his prime and to see him towards the end of his career, to see most of Sidney Crosby's career from the mezzanine. You know that's pretty good as far as, like you know, just covering athletes that I've covered. And again, when you go to talk, I'll bring up Dave Parker again, just because if you don't grow up in Pittsburgh, you don't really know it's hard to form an opinion on Dave Parker. I don't think he was particularly good with the media. You see the fans that threw batteries at him and stuff like that. Now you're talking to his teammates and to me that's a big measure.

Speaker 3: 38:09

Look, I want to go in, do my job, be cordial. I'm not going to be friends with people. I want to be friendly, do my job. Hopefully I'm friendly to them. They're friendly to me. I tell the truth when I have to. Hopefully they understand that. But there's no reason for acrimony. But I think Dave Parker brought some of that upon himself, but his teammates loved him. I went up to his house and interviewed him and I was kind of like I wonder how this is going to go. He was incredible, just the storytelling, the humor. He's a funny, funny man. And the other thing about Dave Parker, now that I'm on Dave Parker and you talk about the Hall of Fame, there are players and I'm not going to go down and name a list of players.

Speaker 2: 38:53

This could be you guys and the passion and how we've talked about it a little bit. You've taught me a lot about the Hall of Fame, but this could be an entire episode just on that, because his research and your understanding of the game. It would be phenomenal, especially with the Pirates.

Speaker 3: 39:08

So here's my. I mean I can make a long case for Dave Parker, but I'll just. I'll try to make this brief because I could go on. If we want to go on longer, I'll go on longer. You know Dave Parker. We know about how great he was for five years. We know he had pop-up years after that. We know that part of the, a big part of the problem was he had bad knees to begin with. He played on artificial turf. He played so extraordinarily hard that he got hurt Right. So we're going to hold that against him. And he was productive.

Speaker 3: 39:35

But if I was walking through the Hall of Fame, there are certain players that I would just walk by their place. There's Babe Ruth, ok, and I would maybe tell a story about I'm thinking about my grandkid Now. I tell a story about Babe Ruth, okay, and I would maybe tell a story about. I'm thinking about my grandkid now. I'd tell him a story about Babe Ruth. I'd tell him a story about Willie Mays or Jackie Robinson, then I might pass a few guys. If I came to Dave Parker's plaque I would say you should have seen this guy at his prime. There would have been something about him that I would have said he was incredible, and he was. He was incredible for five years and that to me, and then very good for other years, that counts for something. You know, listen, a good long career in which you maybe never were the top five or ten in the league, that counts for something too. I'm not trying to say exclude those people.

Speaker 1: 40:17

I'm just saying Dave Parker to me did both and belongs in the Hall of Fame in my opinion, well, there will be a Hall of Fame episode with the Hall of Fame. In my opinion, Well, there will be a Hall of Fame episode with the Hall of Fame. We can't thank Rob enough for being on. Hold my Cutter. You can hold that baseball. I'll grab the cutter, rob. Thanks a million. Great seeing you again.

Speaker 2: 40:35

Thanks, man. Yeah, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Yeah, join us for our next episode of.

Speaker 1: 40:40

Hold my Cutter.