Rick Rizz Discusses When It's Time To Hang 'Em Up

0:00Welcome, welcome to the Bret Boone podcast. Explore the mind of MMORB All-Star, Silver Slugger, and Gold Club winner, Bret Boone. As he sits down with his friends from the world of professional sports. Now, up to bat, Bret Boone. Welcome to the Bret Boone podcast. I am Bret Boone. Today I am joined by a very special guest. We've got many years together. We've become really good friends over the years. And he's in the final, the home stretch of his Hall of Fame broadcasting career for the Seattle Mariners, a 2026 campaign is going to be his last. Ladies and gentlemen, Rick Rizz. Rizzor, I appreciate you coming on the podcast. Hey, Boone, anything for you, buddy? You and I have had a wonderful journey together. Yeah, after 52 years, this is going to be it for me. 41 with the Mariners, 3 in between with the Detroit Tigers. So it's kind of rough thinking about these going to be in my final few days.

1:03But I'm looking forward to the next chapter of my life, Boone. So if you can help me out with the retirement, let me know. Give me something. Oh, as this podcast, as you know, Boone, I always got advice for you, Rick. I know. When do you think it's really going to hit you? We got a chance to talk on the phone the other day. I know this is your final road trip. And your count of down, it's like final road trip. You're probably going to start to start to look at things and see things different. I know I did. I know in the end, my last road trip was to Boston. And it's where my I hit my first home run. But in every time I went there, I never thought anything other than I'm playing the Boston Red Sox. I got to win a series here. Who's pitching tonight? You know, I never thought about the nostalgia and the wall and the fact that my grandfather had played there, but I'll tell you at the end, it was weird. I was like, noticing stuff when I was taking a shower. This is one of my last showers.

2:04That might sound a little weird, but, but I just changed for whatever reason. And I started kind of going down memory lane and it all hit you close. When do you think it's going to hit you? Has it already hit you? That's hitting me. As a matter of fact, it started last year because this year I'm doing all the home games. And I've only done four road trips. I did three in early part of the year and this last one of the 2026 season. But last year, when I went to Boston, funny you should mention Fenway Park is that I thought to myself, this is my last time at Fenway Park in 2025. So I'd Shannon Dreyer, who you know very well, we worked together on radio. She does our pre and post. I said, Shannon, it's my last time here at Fenway. She was your kid and me. I go, yeah, I'm really cutting back on the road trips for next year, which is this year. I said, would you please take a picture of me and the monster out there and around the ballpark? So it started to hit me last year, just like it did you when you made your final trip to Fenway Park.

3:04So it's really hit me throughout the year because it's my last time here, my last time there, my last time here in Anaheim. And now, you know, when I get back home, it's going to be a final six game. So it's really going to hit me hard, you know, next week, knowing that after 52 years, this incredible journey I've had is going to come to a close. I've got the greatest memories in the world, the greatest friends in the world, yourself included an Edgar and Ken Brook, the junior and Dan Wilson and J. Butte, all the guys who start for the Mariners for many years. I've got incredible memories to take with me for the rest of my life. It's really going to hit me hard over the next week when we have our final few days, you know, at T-Mobile Park. The weight is over. Football is here and so is DraftKings. DraftKings is now live in all 50 states, one app, every sports nationwide. New DraftKings customers sign up with code 2400, spend five bucks to get $200 in rewards

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5:06defending a title or desperately avoiding last place. I've got you covered every single weekday. The bar is open. It's fantasy football happy hour with Matthew Berry wherever you get your podcasts. Isn't it weird though too? It's like we're not going anywhere. We're not dying. Right. But no, we're not. Right. But a portion of us feels like I'm sure right now you're in Anaheim and you're getting to see Gooby and you're getting to see Mark Langston. Well, you're used to seeing when you pop into town and all of a sudden you're looking at it like, yeah, I'm seeing you and we're still going to be buddies. I'm never going to be in the broadcast booth next to you anymore. You know, that's the that's the weird stuff that kind of pops into your mind. No, it does because you know, I love what I've been doing for the last like I said 52 years. I wanted to do this. But when I was 12 years old, growing up on the Southside of Chicago broadcasts in a game. I wanted to be in the next Louis Apparition. I had it work out. I played a few years on the JB team in college. It's something a little university that's what I saw a slider and I go, what's that?

6:08And my head coach, itchy Jones and I agreed to get into broadcasting my senior year there and it was a wise choice. But yeah, it's it's going to be tough here in the next few weeks. But I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to the next chapter in my life. But I travel when I want to travel. It's been time with my grandkids. So it's exciting, you know, the future. But man, it's going to be sad, you know, when I wind down here in the next seven or eight days, it's game, too, rather. Why this year? When did this decision come? Yeah, that's a great question. You know, I thought about it, you know, prior to the 2025 season. I was going to retire after the 25 season because as you know, my son passed away next three years ago and man, that was devastating for me and that was a huge loss for anybody. And I lost a lot of good friends of mine. Dave Henderson passed away a number of years ago and Julio Cruz and a good friend of mine,

7:11Joe Wing and passed away. And so you know that light at the end of the satellite and got a little bit brighter for me, Boone. I'm 72 years old. I don't know how many years of good Lord is going to give me. But I want to enjoy the rest of them. I'm tired of the travel. To be honest, we loved it. I loved it every second of my journey. I wouldn't trade it in for anything. I've started in 1975 in the minor leagues in double A Alexander, Louisiana, washing uniform, signing the shoes and the underwear and the jack straps are Bruce Souter, you know, with the Midland Cubs and Jack Clark, who was with a lot of the drillers and Mitchell Pages, a lot of great players there. And now here I am, the voice of the Baroness for 41 years. It's been remarkable. So that's when I started to think about it about the rest of my life. And I want to get on a plane when I want to get on a plane. I've never been to Europe. I'm Italian. All my relatives are from Italy. I want to see Rome. I want to eat my way across that country. Boone, some fresh pasta and everything, you know, and take off in May or something.

8:13Or come out to a ballgame next year. Watch the marineries. I can leave in the seventh inning and go back home, you know. So that's what I want to do. I want to spend more time with my grandkids. Travel when I want to travel. And hopefully stay busy doing other things, fun things I don't want to do in my life. And that's when it hit me was a couple of years ago. That's why I made this decision. The only thing about the travel is, yeah, you can travel when you want, but you're not on the private bird anymore, Rick. I'm not going to miss that, man. I'm going to miss that big time. You know, the plants that it's leaving my cheetos at my seat and my ginger ale, you know, I'm going to miss that because let's face it, Boone, we've been spoiled for many, many years of when we travel in the major leagues. Absolutely. What does Rick Riz do away from the ballpark? Because for, well, even for me, I mean, we traveled together, but we weren't hanging out after hours very often. I mean, we've got a few of those that I might ask about a little later.

9:13Yeah, yeah, I want to share. Yeah, and here in Addahime, you know, you know, we're years ago. But I like to, you know, get up in the morning, get my coffee and do my notes. I love the preparation. I, you know, I got to be prepared each and every day. So when I do that, then I can spend time at the ballpark talking to you guys, talking to the players, talking to the manager, talking to the coaches, getting in the other dugout, getting in the other clubhouse, talking with the other managers and players because the fans deserve that. We need to tell more stories. I think that's what I learned from Dave Nehous, you know, when I started in the big leagues in 1983. And then I'll go find lunch somewhere, which I'm getting ready to do here in Addahime. I'll take care of that. Then jump on the bus and get to the ballpark and do my job and talk with the players, find out what's going on. You know, with, you know, yesterday was at honor to a Roberto Clemente. It was a Roberto Clemente day.

10:13So I got Poppy. I got Edgar Martinez to come out of the banding cages and spend some time with me talking about growing up in Puerto Rico and what a hero Roberto Clemente was for him and everybody else on the island and all the other Latin players and Dominican Republic or wherever they grew up. So that's what I'd love to do. I'd love to chronicle the history of the game until the stories of the players. And then at night, once in a while, go have a cold beverage like you and I did that one time at Addahime. Dave Nehous and I and Kevin Cremon did that quite a bit, you know, when I was with David for 25 years. Not so much lately, but it's still fun. I had a beer with Adam Bonero, who is our mental skills coach at a great time talking about life in the bar the other night. That's what I'm really going to miss. Then you get up the next day and you do the same thing over and over again, putting for 50 years and you wake up one day and say, you know, it's time to take care of yourself and do something else. When you talk about the fans, I mean, especially the fans of the Northwest, they've kind of

11:16watched you grow up. You came in as a kid. I know someone who's very close to you is close to a lot of people, Dave Nehous, the legendary broadcaster in Seattle, kind of your mentor. You came in with him, but they've seen you kind of grow up before the game. You stepped into that role and you never tried to fill Dave's shoes. You went about it in a way where you respected his, what he'd meant to that city, to the franchise as the Seattle Mariners. And now you've been doing it. You become in a different way. I mean, for me, Rick, and all the years I've been with him and listening to you sometimes in the clubhouse in between innings, when I'm up there looking, looking at video, your voice has been, you know, kind of just that's what Seattle baseball is. And it's going to be tough as tough as it was when Dave passed and kind of passed the time to you. I kind of feel sorry for the next guy that's got to feel the shoes.

12:19Hopefully he doesn't like you did. He doesn't try to fill your shoes. He just tries to write his own chapter, but I feel sorry for the next guy. What do you think about that? Well, I'm going to make sure the fans realize that, you know, I'm gone. I try to replace the legend and destroy it. That was that was kind of tough with Ernie Hardwell and he came back and we got him back. So I'm going to make sure that I'm away and that Gary Hill takes over on radio, Aaron Goldsmith. There's got a great job on TV and Shana Duran pre and post. And hopefully maybe we hire somebody from the minor leagues and take over. But Michael, it was exactly what you mentioned. I don't want to fill Dave's shoes, but to carry on his legacy. And I wanted fans to make sure that they knew how great Dave Neyhouse was. Not only the year after he passed away, but for the next 10 years after that, 20 years after that, 40 years after that, he's in the hall of fame. He was the first Mariner to go into hall of fame back in 2008.

13:19And anytime the bases were loaded, there was a home run. Grandma was going to... Up and a phone call for Rick. We knew we needed to do that, James. We got all of it. All right, great. Keep going, buddy. I'm here for you as long as you want. Three, two, one. All right. Riz, this portion of the podcast, I usually don't have this, but with you, I want to. All your years with the Mariners, all the great players. I want a little Rick Riz story time. Okay. I'm going to give you a list. I'm going to give you some topics. We're going to start with... Give me one of your favorite J. BUNER stories over all the years. And he's still in Seattle. He still comes into the booth on occasion. I know when I was up there for... We were both together for the 50-year celebration. I had to tell Bohn a few times because he was kind of telling me what to do. I said, what are you, my coordinator? You're my teammate. You don't tell me where to stand, where to go.

14:20And he was laughing about it. Give me one of your favorite Bohn stories through the years. Well, there's some stories that I can't tell, you know, that are really, really funny, you know, in the clubhouse of what he did in Chicago when he put an appetizer on one of the tables that made people, you know, kind of gag. But one of the best stories is he hit one of the longest operands ever. I was seeing him on my phone. Oh, by the way, Riz, watch your thumb on your phone. Watch your thumb and yeah, keep it there. So we get a good view for these YouTube guys. They're going to come watch. Okay. There you go. Keep going. Yeah, J. BUNER hit one of the longest operands ever ever seen in my life. We're playing a Yankee Stadium, a young guy. And I remember that ambulance that was out in Lafielde was by the entrance or the exit of the ballpark in the back wall of Yankee Stadium in Lafielde. Waitayla was pitching and J. BUNER had a home run that hit the back of that ambulance.

15:25It was one of the longest operands I've ever seen. Junior hit a lot of home runs. We got a kid now, Lissar Al Montez. It's going to hit a lot of 500 foot shot home runs. But that was one of the longest operands I've ever seen in my life. J. BUNER was the heart and soul of this team. He took care of things in the clubhouse at Lupinella didn't have to worry about. We were in Cleveland, game three of the American League Championship series. He made an error out there in right field in the ball. I think it was Alvaro. I can't remember who hit it. But if it looks good kill Randy Johnson just kind of staring at him. But he came back later on in that game. He didn't let him bother him. And he hit a game winning home run. He was a gamer. He was tough. And I tell you what, he just wanted to play the game the right way. He was a great teammate. He was great to me when we started our choice. He could share it. He was all in along with the other 11 guys that we started. He was just one of the nicest guys, one of the toughest guys I've ever met in the game

16:28of baseball. But just a great teammate and a great representative for baseball, the Pacific Northwest. Thank God for the trade. Kenny Phelps to the New York Yankees for J. BUNER, one of the greatest trades in the history of our franchise. That's a side failed episode. It was, it became a side failed episode. They were telling Mr. Steinberger that maybe George Costanza, and his past the way or something like that and George Costanza's dad was trying to listen to this. Maybe his son had passed away and he said, I can trade BUNER. He had a cannon for an army. He had a rocket for an army. You can trade BUNER. And Steinberger said, my scout said Phelps. Phelps for the new Phelps. Any way it became a side failed episode, which J. BUNER did, you know, for us after leaving the New York Yankees. But thank goodness we made that trade. All right. I need a Kenny. I need a Griffey Jr. story. Mr. Him and Edgar, kind of the two, you know, the kind of the headstones, the Mount

17:31Rushmore if there were only two. It'd be Edgar and Griffey. Give me a Kenny story. I knew Kenny was special in spring training of 1989. He was just a 19 year old kid and he never grew up, you know, he's 50 something years old. He's still a kid. I wish I could send you the video you had sent me when he found out and everybody found out, it was going to go with the Meredith's all the fame. I can't show it to you, but it's absolutely hilarious. But in 1989, I go out to the ballpark when my son Nick was only about eight years old at the time. And I'm out in front of the dugout at 10 p.d. I'm going to be able to stay there and walk by myself. It's early in the morning. Nobody's out of the clubhouse yet. And Junior comes out and he calls Nick over. So my son, eight years old at the time, goes over and I go, hey, this is pretty cool. Junior's talking to my son, you know. And so after they finish their conversation, Nick walks up to me eight years old and kicks me really hard in my leg and I heard I go, Nick, what are you doing? He said, Junior said, give me 50 bucks if I walked over and kicked you really hard in

18:34your leg. I said, Junior, don't give me that 50 bucks. So from that point on, I knew we're going to have a wonderful relationship and we did for many, many years. But I can tell you, you know, what he did on the field, we all saw what he did on the field. He was one of the greatest players, Boney, that I've ever seen in my career. But he was a lot more than that. He really cared about people and he really cared about kids. I had a friend of mine who had a friend who's a 15 year old son, only had a few months left to live and she said that this kid's dream was just to meet Ken Griffey, Jr. And Junior did a lot for kids. He signed all kinds of photographs and took care of them. So I brought him out to the ballpark and I took him into the clubhouse. Junior was in there and I said, Junior, there's a young man out here and he's in really bad shape. You just like to meet you and he's only got a little bit of time. He's bringing him in. Never hesitated. It's a spring in the clubhouse.

19:34So I brought Andrew in the clubhouse. They sat down Boney for about 20 minutes, 30 minutes and played his Nintendo game in his chair in front of his locker. Franchie, our manager, Jim LaFiever, was right, where's Griffey? Where's Griffey? And I said, he's inside right now. He said, go get a batting practice started. So I walked inside. There was still a lot of good time. He and Andrew on his own. This is before ball game. And so he took Andrew out to the cage. He took batting practice. And then when he was done with his round, he stood there and talked to him. His mom and dad were standing on the one-inch rack at the King's home with me. They were just ballin'. And then finished up batting practice and said goodbye to Andrew. Andrew was mid-thread on radio on TV at that night. I'm sure enough a couple of months later he passed away. But Junior on his own did that. He didn't have to do it. But he made this kid's last two months of his life remarkable and experienced for him. But that's Ken Griffey, Jr. Not enough people. I think here, those kind of stories.

20:35But he was amazing on the field and even more amazing, I think, off the field, especially when it came to kids. How about, let's go. Everybody's fascinated with him. I've got so many stories. But I want to hear the Rick Rizz version of, give me an EACH ERO STORY. Wow, an EACH ERO STORY. Spring training, 2001. You were there if you recall in the early part of the spring, each year I was hitting line drives over Lou said sitting in that folding chair. He was just hitting the ball the other way, hitting the ball the other way, hitting the ball the other way. And one time he almost knocked him off his chair. I don't know if you remember that or not. So I'm down at the lower field all by myself at field one in Piori Arizona and Lou comes down and he's shuffling down there. He said, where's Ted Hyde? Where's Ted Hyde? Ted Hyde was the interpreter for each row back in the 2001 season. I said, Lou is probably a club officer up to the diner room or something.

21:37So Ted Hyde showed up down at field one. He said, hey, can you please tell each row to pull the ball one time? I want to see him pull the ball. He said, OK. So Ted Hyde sat down at some point after that conversation and talked and said, hey, Lou wants you to pull the ball. So anyway, that afternoon we're playing the San Diego Padres. First at bat, each row hits a home long home run to right field over the Burm and right field. And each row rounds the basis. That's where someone goes to the dugout. He said, we OK and Lou says, OK, we're OK. So that's what I remember first of all about each row. You hit the ball the other way like crazy and get a ton of basis. But what he wanted to is you know, you could hit the ball out of the ballpark with the best of them. But I thought that was a great introduction for each row to Lou Pedal about how he prepared. You know, that's what he did for the first two weeks of the spring at the ball the other way. And then he was ready to go and hit the ball all over the place. But he was a lot of fun to watch.

22:38He's still prepared. He's like a he's a psycho. I love the Adam. And when we were in Seattle, I'm watching him from the booth during the home run derby. He's doing long toss and warming up like like he's got an event and it was an event for that's the kind of the cool part of each row because I've never met anybody that once they finish not only their career, but a Hall of Fame career to continue to go to the ballpark and interact and throw throw batting practice. He's a unicorn and he's funny. All right, I'm going to leave the last player for you, not even a player at personality. The one and only give me your best Lou Pedal history. Oh, my goodness. My best Lou Pedal history. I think it's just it's a combination of lose desire to win. You know, my best Lou Pedal history though was on the field with Flanagan Cleveland.

23:40And Russ Davis ran out of the baseline according to Derwood Merrill and was called out and Lou was upset. So he walked all the way out to Derwood Merrill out at second base. And he had an argument with Derwood Merrill. He got thrown out of the ball game and he slammed his hat on the ground. This is not by second base. Slam just had on the ground. Then he started kicking his hat towards first base. He kicked it. He kicked it again. He kicked it again. He kicked it again as he got toward the bag. He kicked it past the first base bag. He kicked it again toward the dugout. He kicked it again. And I saw Junior and J. butler laughing behind their gloves because it was actually hilarious. Then Lou took his hat, fired it up in the crowd. A fan got to it and fired it right back at him. And so but that was Lou Pedal. He was passionate about winning. And all he wanted to do was get to the postseason, get the fans of the postseason. But you know, that was Lou Pedal. I loved doing the pre-game show interview with Lou because he was still sometimes in a

24:45little bit upset if something happened night before. And I just let him bet a little bit. But he was the best. He was absolutely beat. Tought us how to win. You played for him. You knew what it was like. And then he goes, okay, let's do the interview. Rick, I go, okay, Lou, I've been waiting for you. Let's do this. And every night he just wanted to win and get to the postseason. So I love being around Lou Pedal. And then there was the time coming back from a spring training game. You know, when the ball club wasn't playing well, it's spring training. And on the way, on the bus right back to Peoria, there was a park with some kids playing. And Lou yells to the bus driver, hey bus, hey bus, stop the bus. He says, let's get out. Maybe we can beat these guys over here. You know, talking about the kids. But he was a lot of fun to be around. You know him as well as anybody, better than anybody. And I mean, we got a million soys. We beer all day talking about Lou Pedal. I love the guy and what he did for Seattle. He taught us how to win.

25:46He got to the postseason for the very first time. But another story real quick if we have time. Absolutely. We go to New York. It's the American League Division series. It's a series that saved baseball in Seattle in 1995. And we lose the first two games. It's the best of five series. We lost the second game in 15 and a Jim Leritz hit a home run to win game two. Now it's late at night. Yankee stated, we get out of there probably about one o'clock in the morning. We got a bus to the airport. Fly all the way back to Seattle to get ready for game three. We got to go back home to the kingdom and win three games in the kingdom. So we get on the flight. We start to fly home and it was about halfway across the country. It's pitch black in the airplane. And everybody was asleep. But I got up, walked to the front of the plane. I was couldn't sleep. And I saw somebody get up and walk toward me, Boane. And it was Lou. And Lou walked right up to me, looked me in the eyes. And I didn't say a word.

26:47And Lou looked at me and said, Rick, he said, we're going to win this thing. I said, you're right, Lou. We got Randy going tomorrow. Get game, sneak game four. We get him in game five. And he said, Rick, we're going to win this thing. And I swear to God, Boane, I thought I saw flames shooting out of his eyes. And sure enough, Randy Johnson, one game three. I drew one game four with two home runs, including a grand slam. That he won game five in the next race. With the biggest hit we had, the double. But it was Lou Penella. His passion to win, his desire to win, his knowledge. The way that he treated the guys in that clubhouse, you know, all you have to do is show up on time and play hard. Lou was the best manager in the world. But I'll never forget Lou coming up to me and telling, we're going to win this thing. We were down two games to nothing and ended up winning, invading the Yankees in that safe base ball in Seattle. Lou safe base ball in Seattle. I love the guy. All right. I'm going to let you tell, I talked about earlier in the podcast. You know, our relationship for years and years was that he'd rick at the ballpark.

27:48He'd shove a mic in my face. I would make a gesture. He'd make a gesture back and we'd go on. Very rarely off the field. Did we hang out? But there, I'm going to let you tell the story, the tell the Anaheim story. You tell it better than me. You remember it better than me. Well, I love you, building in, and we had a great relationship and we'd get on one another, you know, in a fun way. Absolutely. It was always in a fun way. I remember one time at Spring Training, you always had a slow start at Spring Training. You know, and I'm standing, I was talking to Edgar and Edgar was, his locker was right across from you. And then I'm trying to talk to Edgar and you were getting on me and I was getting on you, but I'm talking to Edgar and then I said to Edgar, hey Edgar, don't you have to hit your weight before you pop off and Edgar went, ooh, that's good, Rick. That was a good one, you know. So that's what happened at Spring Training. Now in Edgar's final year, it's 2004 and it's his last year in the Big Leaks and it

28:55was the last road trip and we were in Anaheim, just like we are now, not at this hotel, but we are at the, oh, the cost of Mesa Hotel. So a lot of us went to the bar after the ball game like we did a number of times and Dave Valley was there and Edgar and you and myself and Kevin Cremon and you guys were smoking cigars where we're having a beer and we're talking and Edgar's there drinking a beer and smoking a cigar and you too, Dave Valley. And then you get on me a little bit and I get on you a little bit like we always did. Now Edgar's been watching this for years, Boone. You and I go at it. And so he had enough and we're having fun. You and I are having fun. You know, get on one another just having a conversation late at night, drinking a beer, smoking a cigar, then Edgar and I wish I could do it with my hands because I'm holding my phone right now. He goes, and your thumbs in the way, and your thumbs in the way.

29:57Oh, dang it. Oh my goodness. There we go. There we go. And so he looks at you, takes the draw on his cigar and he goes, hey Boone. He says, don't get on Rick. Another draw. He's having a better year than you are. And they go, pop me, don't leave me. I got another two years with this guy, you know. And I think for the first time in your life, you may have been speechless because of what I was saying. Yeah, because it was probably right. It was probably right. You were probably having a better year than me. And I'll tell you what, we were both having a better year than Edgar, but we knew it was the end and he was the icon in Seattle. Yeah, but it was one of the greatest nights of my life to spend it with with Poppy, with you and Dave Valley. And it's one of the greatest memories of my baseball life. And here I am getting ready to retire. And Boone, you and I remember that story.

30:57And that's what I'm going to take with me to my grave, whatever that's at is the relationships that you and I had. And we all had together. We had such a great bunch of guys. And I think that's what everybody would either retire as a ball player, as a broadcaster, whatever. It's the memories and the times that you spend with your teammates and the people you really care about, fellow broadcasters in my case. But you guys, you made me feel like a part of the team. And I really, you know, enjoyed that and I love that part about you and Jay Buener and Edgar Martinez and Ken Griffey Jr. And I can honestly say we were a family, we were together. And I wish that other broadcasters had the same experience that I had, you know, over the last 52 years. You know, you have that experience in the minor leagues because you're stuck out of the fuss with everybody, you know, you know, for an entire season. But you guys made me feel special in the part of the team. But that's a night Boone. I will never forget because you started it and Edgar came up with that comment.

32:02And it was one of the greatest nights of my life. So there was a lot of fun. Oh, glad I could be a part of it. No, you were part of it. Yeah, yeah. You know, the job you do day in and day out for so many years, there's a lot of kind of unsung heroes, the producers, the engineers, the guys in the press box, the PR staff. I know you've had a lot of great ones through the years. Who are some of those guys that were special to you? I know Kevin Cremon. You know, he was one of those guys that, you know, I had that kind of relationship with Kevin that I did with you when I'd see him. I'd give him a hard time and vice versa. He was great. But there's a lot of guys that go into this production that we see from, you know, in a three hour game every night. No doubt about it. Kevin Cremon is at the top of my list. He's like my brother from another mother. We were together for 35 years, Boone. When he had his first child, Colleen, I was her godfather and then another daughter, Kate.

33:07And I tell you what, he was just really special. We shared the love of baseball and what we did. He was great at what he did. He made my job so much easier. The guys in the TV booth, Robbie Nielsen and Bubba. On Sunday morning, I would always bring in some donuts. We'd sit there and have a cup of coffee and just talk about life. And he made my job so much easier when I did TV for 25 years. And of course, the people that I work with, Shannon Drares, you know, it's such a great job. But there's so many people, and Gary Hilddown, Aaron Goldsmith and Ryan Rollins-Smith, Angie Mending. They're absolutely amazing. But yeah, there's a lot of people behind the scenes. They work their tails off to do a great job for the fans. So we have a responsibility where it got to be accountable to the fans. I got to show up every day no matter what's going on in my life. I have to check my ego and my issues at the door because I got to be there for the fans

34:10and all those people helped me stay grounded so I can do my job and take care of whatever I've got to take care of my life, you know, after the ballgame. But there's so many people I got to thank, but especially at the top of that list was Kevin Kremman. And then Curtis Wilson does such a great job on TV. He's been around for a long, long time and I can go on and on and on. But we have a great support group on radio and television and we've been really, really lucky to work with some of the greatest people in the world because they care about the game. They care about each other and that's why it works and that's why it's so much fun. We're a couple of weeks away. Your final game. Have you thought about, do you have a final send off that you've been thinking about or are you just going to let it flow? Is it going to be organic? I'm going to try to let it be organic, Boone. I've been thinking about a few things that I obviously want to say.

35:14I'm going to thank John Dietrich, who was my friend in college, my best buddy in college. He got me started in baseball and gave me my first job in Alexander Louisiana 52 years ago in 1975. We moved to franchise two. Amarillo, Texas together. I was his oldest child's godfather too, Robbie. You know, so I've been a godfather a couple of times. And of course, at the top of the list, Dave Nehause. I want to thank Dave Nehause and Marilyn and Reda, their daughter, who's like my daughter. I want to thank David for giving me an opportunity to get to the big leagues in 1983 and to mentor me and to have so much fun that we had on the year and off the year going out and have dinner at dinner at night and having a few cocktails and introducing me to some of the greatest people in the world. All he had to do was just sit there and listen to these great stories like Hank and Gary.

36:15You know, we're at the Pink Pony in Scottsdale. Kevin and I and David have it a big old prime rib for $14. It was huge. It was way back when, you know, and Hank and Gary stopped in and former pitcher in the big leagues with Cleveland Indians Detroit Tigers and the Chicago Cubs and Hank and Gary tells the story when he was a rookie with Cleveland. He comes in the ballgame at Fenway Park. He's face at a left-handed hitter and he gets in the game, strikes him out in three pitches, comes off the field and his teammates say, hey, do you know what you just did? He said, yeah, he struck out that guy. He said, that guy was Ted Williams. He said, I just struck out Ted Williams. He didn't even know. And then the next day his teammates told him, hey, go get Ted to sign a ball for you. And so he goes, okay, so he went over there and said, Mr. Williams, I'm Hank and Gary and said, I know who you are, kid. And he signed the baseball form. And anyway, the next, that game sure enough becomes in the ballgame and Ted, he's facing Ted Williams. This time, things are a little different. Can you say some bad words on this podcast or not?

37:17Anything. Yes, yes you can. We are PG-13. No, we're, I don't know. We're in between PG-13 and R. Yeah. Okay, so anyway, he signs the ball form. He comes in the next day. Now, or that night, now he's facing Williams and he throws him a fastball. Ted Williams, it's a home run about 500 feet. His Williams is running first base. He looks at the Gary and says, hey, kid, you want me to sign that son of a bitch? Do you know, anyway, it's wonderful stories like that, you know, son of a gun that we lost. Son of a bitch. Son of a bitch is better. You bastard son of a bitch. And Maffer, yeah, throw it out there. Just don't go in there. No, no, no, no, no, no, I would never, I would never do that. We're good. I would never do that. But, you know, that's what I love about this game is, you know, spending time with our friends and we had such a great time on and off the field. And those are the things I'm going to really enjoy for the rest of my life.

38:22But I'm going to let it be organic. Let it be organic. As everybody knows, it was announced at the 50 year reunion that Rick Rizz will be inducted into the Hall of Fame next year. Very obviously. I knew that was coming. I didn't know they were going to announce it there. I think nobody did, except for a few people. That was a pretty cool moment. I didn't know. I didn't know. There was only a few people that knew that had to be in the right spot when they announced it. But that's well deserved. That's going to be next year you going in. And it's only fitting that you'll be there next to knee house and all the great mariners. Rick, I appreciate you coming on, taking the time. I know this season hasn't gone as expected. So it is nice. If you were in a playoff stretch and having more than the regular season to announce this year, but it's not looking that way. But I wish you the best, the rest of the way. I appreciate you coming on. And I'm sure we're going to run into each other quite a bit down the road.

39:26For those of you watching the Bret Booth podcast now on YouTube, check it out for those of you who download the podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. Until next time, keep it here. Thanks Rick. Booth, thanks a lot. Love you, Booth. You take care, man.