 Just wanted to start out and to get your reaction to the film I had had either of you seen that before I Have not no it was great. I didn't see the book. I didn't see the movie, but I have read the book I Was gonna start off first of all with Bill and ask you How you got into Your artwork in terms of the Negro Leagues. What was the inspiration and I'm a big baseball fan first and foremost and I was kind of fancy myself a slick fielder in baseball and I have this defensive Book on baseball guys that were real good with their gloves and one of the pictures was Josh Gibson in there And he was squatting down behind a plate and there was just something about his eyes. You know what I mean? and I Felt like I had to paint that and for whatever reason I don't know I just you know, I love baseball and then I painted a couple more and I kind of was wondering what am I doing here? And then I just said to just dive in and research Negro Lee history You know what? I mean, it's it's a it's a bit of history of America that a lot of kids don't get to know about We know about Jackie Robinson. We may know about satchel page. Some of us know about Josh Gibson. That might be the extent of it So I just kind of wanted to pass on to everybody else what I had learned Through the research and that's kind of like how I go about is by making paintings great Nate, of course your father Played in the Negro Leagues, I believe for the Indianapolis Clown So as a young man, when did you first start to learn and hear about the Negro Leagues? I always did because my father was usually gone during the summer when we were small And like every other household my mom took care of everything because dad was always going But if I had to take a guess Five six seven Somewhere in that neck of the woods And what kind of stories were passed down to you some great ones? And I'll make it short because I know we got to get out of here But I had the pleasure to see this myself as a kid we were kids and One of the barnstorming teams came to St. Petersburg, Florida and Josh happened to be on that team and I remember very very well some whatever many years ago because it was on a Friday night and Josh just like the film said hit this ball and Of course us kids were so astonished at the fact that this ball looked like it just went to the moon We all begin to run out to run up to the Gate and to try to get out and go and see just how far that ball went and of course You kids it's nighttime. You're not going anywhere So that particular night was really like Christmas Eve. You can't wait to get your gifts tomorrow morning. Well, we almost Literally didn't get any sleep at all Because we were dying to wait for daybreak So that we could go and see what that ball actually landed and just how far it landed I Had the it was a true blessing I took my daughter to meet her or the side of the family this Christmas for the very first time in St. Petersburg And it went down the street where the park was and I said to her and I stopped and I pointed and I said I want you to remember this spot and this distance and then I want you to remember this distance from this spot To that street and then ten yards for the street and then 25 yards to the fence and then 365 the home plate And no one when we drove up and drove up to home plate and I said to her and to them This is how far the ball went on the night that Josh Gibson hit that home run when we were kids and we all sat and figured in And somebody did a little math and sure enough just like the film said the ball was well over 500 feet It was just amazing to see how far that he could hit that ball And just like the movie said he couldn't just run he could fly and just like the movie said He had one of the better arms of Vlad Guerrero. I see a shirt back there Roberta Clemente arm he had one of those arms one of the few arms that we talked about You had to have one of those because it was a halit sir and not a rifle But he it was just simply amazing to have had the pleasure to be able to witness that as a child and to see Josh firsthand Bill and your research for your paintings was there a particular Player that you became really enamored with or if you could go back into time you'd love to talk to personally I'm a Jackie Robinson guy. You know, I grew up in LA So as a as a kid and a dodger as a Dodger fan you your your pump with Jackie Robinson So um really I probably would say he's one of my first favorite baseball players ever and then will Clark San Francisco Well I'm sure you would have a few things to say about Jackie Robinson Nate because I know I've I read an interview where you talked about how Your first team you played with the Dodgers. I know you were scouted by many clubs But you are already had made your mind set up pretty well that you are going to be playing for the Dodgers And I think Jackie Robinson Was a big part of that decision so what are your thoughts on Jackie and and did you ever get a chance to meet him and talk with him? many times Like he stated I had many many offers because I had I had as a kid 17 had the opportunity to go to Wichita, Kansas where they hold the annual National amateur baseball tournament every season even to this day When I played in that tournament The good Lord had his hand on me because I went 15 for 25 And I had about 12 offers or 13 offers and Cleveland The socks the cubs they were all they all offered a lot more money than the Dodgers But it was because of Jackie that I chose to go to the Dodgers because he's the one who broke the color line He's the one who sacrificed for us, and I thank mr. Ricky for giving him the opportunity and in turn that gave us the opportunity Jackie retired just before I got there, but he did make trips back and forth to Viro Beach and the one thing that Bothered him the most was to go into the the cafeteria or the restaurant and find some of us sitting Separate from each other He didn't like that and he would stand there and make a statement You move over there and you move over here and you go over there and you come over here Because he thought it was that time that we really should become one cohesive unit and one person and not Have this separatism anymore, but that was Jackie. That was who he was He did so much for us. He did so much for society And because of that I chose to go to the Dodgers and no place else One of the things in the film that I found particularly interesting was the commentary by effa manly and I believe there was another person talking about how when the major leagues integrated Not only did it mean eventually the demise of the Negro Leagues, but a lot of the major league owners came in and basically rated a lot of the Negro League teams and and basically took players for almost You know no money at all the implication of course was made in the film. I think quite strongly that branch Ricky Had more than just humanitarian ideals in mind in terms of signing Jackie Robinson would either of you have a comment to make about that in terms of the the You know the signing a way of in other words what I'm saying trying to say is that Negro Leagues baseball was a major American institution in black America and It's basically The the bittersweet side of it is that with the integration of baseball it basically ended that so any thoughts about What happened there? You have really big stars and you have a you have a draw You know, I mean, it's it's it seems just it was a natural progression Unfortunately, fortunately, I don't know how to phrase that, you know It's you have a product It all comes down to economics Regardless of what we do whatever we do it comes down to economics and I think the reason he made that decision Because if you remember the movie Jackie Robinson movie when he went to Montreal They didn't want him within a thousand yards from Montreal when he had the seasons that he had and Mr. Ricky decided that he was going to take him to Brooklyn You remember if you saw the movie the owner and the general manager of Montreal insisted Please you cannot take him out of Montreal. He means too much to us economically and that's when mr Mr. Ricky Realized that he had made the right move and he had done the right thing and he had chosen the right person Because Jackie had to endure so much stuff but he knew then that Which Jackie and all that he can do and all that he brought and all that he could bring What it would mean to the box office and that's basically what this whole thing was about I want to We could go on for a long time, but I want to make sure our audience gets Some questions in any any questions or comments about the film we and actually Mary my wife is right over here and she has a cordless microphone, so We're going to bring the microphone over and and you can Everybody will be able to hear your question or comment Hi, my name is Graham Womack. I'm a baseball writer One of my friends from the writing community had a question for you Mr. Oliver he had said that you face satchel page in 1961 as a batter And so he was curious to know what that experience was like. I think my knees stopped shaking last week You stand there and you look out and I don't care how old he is, but this is satchel page This is not just one of the best pictures in the major leagues a Hundred years ago. It's satchel page and You know about satchel because of your father, you know about satchel because of the history and You stand there and you're facing satchel page. It's just It's like you have been taken out of yourself and I'm someplace else I can't be here standing facing satchel page because I have no business being a satchel page But it was something and just like satchel always said and the people always said in baseball satchel had a rubber arm and what that means people is satchel could just throw baseballs until there was no more baseballs to throw He never had a sore arm because of the way that he threw he threw more three-quarter We have high three-quarter Medium and low three-quarter through more here so there wasn't much strain on the arm because you know this thing is not made There's no baseballs forever but satchel would find that release point where it did not bother him and The re one of the two main reasons he was so successful is because first satchel couldn't throw a ball straight and Like today's pictures they they talk about how hard you can throw that's irrelevant when you're hitting Because you can throw a ball through this building and if I go up to the plate as the leadoff hitter the first thing the guys are gonna ask me What's he got? I'm gonna say it's straight. That's all they want to know He can throw it through the moon. If it's straight, they're gonna hit it and Satchel was effective because it might come down and look like a fastball But then it might look like a sinker and then it might come down and look like a fastball And then it might look like a slider if you cannot throw a baseball straight Velocity is irrelevant It's because it's the timing factor and the timing mechanism and a hitter that makes you successful and that Ability to not be able to throw it straight is one of the primary reasons He probably won whatever three or four or five hundred games that he won, but I Can remember that very vividly right this minute standing in and we were playing in Portland in the old Monalma Stadium and satchel is out there They were still the Indians triple a club during that time and It was a tremendously tremendously fond memory and experience that I'll never forget Bill do you have a particular favorite story? You've got a wonderful satchel page painting in the exhibit any anything that you recall from Your research on satchel that might be interesting just what he said about What was a guy's name a real fast speedy guy? Papa Bill Papa Bill. Yeah, they said he could when they were rooming together That's that cool Papa Bill could make it back to the bed Before the lights went off when he turned the light switch That's how fast he was. I'm gonna I'm gonna help Bill if you don't mind Yeah, please cuz my father used to tell me this story all the time Cool Papa Bill is so fast That he would hit the switch and be in bed before the lights went out. Yeah what he said And and Bob Kendrick at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City Tells a little different variation on that story and he said a lot of them the the motels They would stay at that were were kind of run down and the wiring wasn't very good And supposedly the origin of that story was there was a point where you turn the light off And it took a few seconds before So there's a lot of variations on that I think we had another question here. Yes, can you hear me? This is actually a question for you Terry. I want to ask about the baseball Reliquary and your relationship to the Cooperstown Hall of Fame often institutions are defined in opposition to other institutions I mean would you call yourself? I mean, I don't know. How would you describe your relationship with Cooperstown? Well, I'd like to call it kind of an alternative, but also a compliment to Cooperstown, I mean obviously we're not doing anything on the kind of grand scale that Cooperstown's doing we're very I mean The organization is very modest financially We receive a very tiny grant each year from the LA County Arts Commission and we have memberships everybody can join the reliquary The annual membership dues are $25 and vote in our version of the Hall of Fame, which is called the Shrine of the Eternals but I think that we Whereas for instance with the Hall of Fame the elections there are based upon Statistical accomplishment for our Shrine of the Eternals. We kind of throw the stats out the window We are more interested in the The stories and the lore of baseball and keeping alive those stories for future generations. So I Don't think I mean actually we some of the people at the Hall of Fame really like what we do It's mostly people in the library. I don't know about I don't know that the upper Management or the people that run the Hall of Fame know much or even care much about what we do but so I think we're kind of an all at the at the same time an alternative but also a complement to in the sense that we also have a little bit more freedom than they do in terms of commenting on things and and You know, they're they have a lot of corporate sponsors They're very tied in the Major League Baseball So they have to be kind of careful with what they say and we don't really have to do that with the reliquary We can kind of do whatever we want to do. We don't have any kind of sponsorship like that So I hopefully that answer your question somewhat Mary there's a way is there another yeah, I Don't know if people know but there's a really great movie done by John John Leonidakis on the baseball reliquary. I think You should all see it. It's a great movie. I don't know what you're a pin Yeah, that's called not exactly Cooper's time. It was a film. He did a few years ago It does give a good overview of the reliquary. You're right And I think if you go to his website now, they're streaming that film for free You can like go to one of the streaming sites and see it for free so you can you can actually see that on on line I think thank you for pointing that out Right here, Mary. Oh You want to be here all day, don't you You start talking about co-facts we could be here the next week So I will just give you one co-facts story. I take that back. I'll give you two The reason you never saw a sandy co-facts story until recently is Because when Hollywood came to him He came to us and he said guys, they've come to me and they would like to do my story and My response to them was this Either you use every single person in his clubhouse or you use no one That's Sandy from day one to this day The best co-facts story I had started with me Sandy had food poisoning on a Saturday night He told me this is my locker. This is Sandy Please forgive me. This is more he wills. This is co-facts So I'm leaning over Sandy. Well, what are we gonna do now? He's supposed to pitch today and He called me brook, you know, I was a Robust hundred fifty pounds And he says right now I can't tell you brook. So this is about 11 we go out do our batting practice We come back in it's 12 30 game shows at once Sandy. What are we gonna do? I Don't know brook. So I run into the training room and I said bill. What's happening? I Don't know Nathaniel Calls me Nathaniel. Hmm. So I go back out Brook, I mean Sandy. What are you gonna do? Well, I guess I'll give it a try brook. I Immediately take off. I run down that clubhouse out that door Over to the visitors clubhouse because if you remember Mac Jones He and I came up together in the minor leagues and I knocked on the door And I asked the clubhouse guy if he would summon Mike Jones to the door for me, please and I told Mac this almost verbatim. I says Mac Sandy had two hours sleep all night long Usually when he comes to the ballpark and he is not will and he doesn't have to concentrate on hitters and pitches and location He scatters maybe one two three hits at the most. I Said to him if I were you I would go back inside I will call a clubhouse meeting and I would decide how you guys are going to divide them up Slam's the door in my face. This is the honest of God truth slams the door in my face We go out The game starts the score is five to nothing. We beat the braze Mr. Kofack scattered Three hits. Mr. Jones struck out four times What happened to the umpires and the managers and the coaches When the players went to the big leagues From the Negro leagues the Negro leagues had umpires managers coaches not just players Players went to big league ball. What happened to them? They stayed around as long as they could and then they had to go find jobs I think Emmett Emmett might have been the only one that I knew of that went to the big leagues, but I don't But that's a tremendous question I have no idea what happened to them I would imagine they just you're right They all got other this is what I'm saying. That was the end of the of an era for Negro league baseball only some of the top players Mitriculated over or signed Emmett Ashford you'll see quite a bit of material him on him in the exhibit. He started umpiring it was it was When Jackie Robinson signed Emmett umpire Emmett Ashford was working for the post office in Los Angeles and he umpired games amateur league games Postal league games and he said, you know, I think there's gonna be a role in the future for African-American umpires I'm gonna start looking at this very seriously and in 1951 he signed with the Southwest International League Became the first African-American umpire in organized baseball. So not only was he the first African-American umpire in the major leagues But also in in the minor leagues as well. And of course, then it was all many many years Until 1965 when he broke in in the major leagues the umpire I think for six or seven years in the Pacific Coast League and And But basically most of those people, you know, they they got other jobs like like Nate said. Yeah Was there another question over or Mary we're we're Hi, thank you for first of all for doing this presentation. It's fascinating and wonderful. I found myself Wishing that we still had the Negro leagues so that major league baseball had a group of players to pirate because These days there are so few African-Americans in major league baseball that that They're practically non-existent and I've I've often wondered why it is that Major league baseball as it works to recruit so many Latin-American players and good for them They have all these training camps and what have you down in the Dominican? Why they're not doing the same thing here in the US for communities that have a lot of African-American young men who are who would be good ball players and I know this probably isn't in in your purview at all But but it's been it's been a concern of mine that if there were a Concerted effort on the part of major league baseball to do the same thing here as they're doing for the Latin-American players We could have more African-American ball players In the major leagues just I'm just wondering about your thoughts on that if the if you have any at all Good point. Would you like to address that? I know a lot of us would do with money and low-income neighborhoods You know with a soccer ball or a or a basketball you can have five to ten kids playing with one object and baseball There's cleats. There's bats. There's there's a lot of a lot of equipment that you have to buy That's one of my views of it It's not as much about what we don't have it's about what they care about They don't care about us The reason I say that as I know that for a fact I've done the RBI program for the last eight years in Oakland They gave us five thousand dollars a year to run a program Five. I'm literally donating of my time. I Don't care dealing with young folks. African-American. I'm involved in a program in Birmingham, Alabama that is 95 percent African-American and We have approximately now 15 to 20 states African-American we have We have the Bahamas. We have st. Martin. We have some other countries, but we are doing African-American stuff We approached minor league baseball and they gave us a very nice donation to help our program. We approached Major League Baseball, how much did the charge to get in here? How much cost coming to the thing? What that's how much money they gave us? They don't care and I say that from experience Because I've been going through it when eight years with their RBI program and this is the first year. I didn't go do any work with the RBI program and this is our third year with the Piper Davis Foundation is what it is one of the old Negro Leaguers told a young man in Birmingham that if you use you are welcome to use my name if you're going to do something with kids and So the Piper Davis Foundation started we started recruiting. We started getting teams from all over the country and Next summer, I think July 10th through 15th will be our fourth tournament in Birmingham That is the reason I say what I say because I am a living fact that they don't care and I think You know what irritates me about this is the fact that every year On April 15th Major League Baseball trips over themselves to talk about all that they're doing for Jackie Robinson and the celebration of his integration of baseball and making by the way tons of money off of licensing of Jackie Robinson materials and I think Nate would probably agree that of Jackie Robinson were alive today and saw The incredibly low percentage of African Americans not just on the playing field but in the managerial ranks in the front offices, he would be aghast and It's it's a great. It's a great point and I don't know quite what the Future holds. I mean, would you care to even speculate on what what we might see five and ten years from now? they've got Tony Regans used to be the general manager of the his California Angels is Anaheim Angels at L.A. And he runs he they gave my hundred million dollars to hit this program a Lot of us that play try to get involved with the program and do some teaching whatever whatever Just so we could have an insight as to what is actually taking place how this a hundred million dollars is being utilized wife and I went to New York a couple years in a row I Worked for him and I tried to meet with him in New York because his office is there and This last time we thought we had it. We had an appointment set up. We had a luncheon set up Gloria and I were where we were supposed to be and of course at the last minute He had another meeting now Why would you schedule another meeting if you've already scheduled a meeting with my wife and I? If it's not life or death, why would you cancel that appointment? so Those are basically some of the things that happen some of the things that occur hopefully It'll change because the first two kids last year were African-american Mr. Green and and the other kid that was drafted number one. So that's just two Two out of I don't know how many rounds there were and I think there was another kid that went in the ninth or number nine number ten But they will say It's getting better because we got three out of a Thousand I Don't know I don't really I'm not very bitter, but I just don't put a lot of stock and major league baseball anymore because they Let's just go across the bay. Look at Oakland Look at the players that came out of Oakland You got two Hall of Famers that came out of Oakland you got three you got two Hall of Famers that came out of Oakland You got Willie Willie start your that came out of of Alameda You got so many players that came out of Oakland that play for so many years They stopped coming into the African-american neighborhood. Why would you do such a foolish thing? They stopped doing it. Don't go in there. You know, don't show your face. Don't do no tokens. Don't do anything That doesn't make sense to me that you would take the scissors and cut off your nose despite your face When you've had so many great Hall of Fame type players to come from this Oakland, San Francisco Bay area. Why would you stop doing that? Probably and that has changed because you could go to the Dominican and get players for a little nothing And over abundance of players for a little nothing Why don't we have academies in Cities where our kids can go and develop and become better players Or become players at all or just get a chance or an opportunity at all But we don't When I was with the White Sox They sent me over to the Dominican Republic every city almost every city All 30 teams do have and I do mean have academies with living quarters with fields with instructors with Everything that you can think of To help develop a baseball player. How many do we have over here? We might have five We got one in LA we got one in Houston One in Philly one in Pittsburgh somewhere. We don't even have five that I can think of But the thing that concerns me and irks me the most there's nothing in northern California Doesn't make sense to me. That's how I feel about it, and I'm glad you asked that question so I can express myself You know another yeah Another thing that I just want to throw out for your consideration is While we talk and celebrate Jackie Robinson if Jackie Robinson were alive today a young player contemplating entering the sports world would he even consider baseball over football Basketball which were sports that he many people thought he was superior to than baseball So I even I even question whether Jackie Robinson would have even gone into baseball if he were growing up today If I had the answer question, I would I would say probably say no, you know But the one thing I want us all to think about Is I want you to think about next Sunday's football game. I want you to think about the previous Sunday's football games And how many players at the end of the day come up seriously injured? This is just my opinion football Has got to do something You got 300 pound men young men that can run as fast as a 190 pound guy Colliding with each other. What do we have two locomotives coming together? and if you think about Practically every single football game you see there are a lot of severe serious injuries Football better come up with something. So now I think if parents would look at that and Say this game is too rough for my son When I could have a midget playing baseball and make a million dollars We just had one win the most viable player and The man of the year he won sportsman of the year athlete of the year most viable player And he is probably one of the most exciting players you've ever seen play this game of baseball And what are you five five five four if you're stretching maybe a little bit But if you remember his commercial and you know, it was all over the place and at the end of the commercial He says I'm all I'm everywhere He can do everything so you can't do that in the other sports I mean how many five four point guards are you gonna have I mean five four quarterbacks and running backs and you know so there's a possibility now we may get more and more back into baseball because of How dangerous football has become and it you know, you got to have some size to play basketball Some other questions I think Okay in the back This question is directed towards mr. Oliver. I'm a native Saffron, Siskind played a little bit of baseball And I was just wondering I grew up when I was a little boy. Really maize was my guy And I was just wondering, you know, I know that you had a little relationship with him down in Arizona during spring training every now and then I was just wondering do Just like to hear a little bit about that You guys got keep me all month We don't call Willie maize Willie maize We don't call him that either. Hmm. We call him Chico Nobody's gonna say ask me why One nickname maize Chico and it's stuck inside our clubhouse. So if you ever have an opportunity Just hi Chico, he's gonna look who you've been talking to There there is so many stories Dennis I could tell you about Willie. It's just he's the most wonderful I'm not supposed to tell this story so you can swear on your deathbed and your mom's grave You never heard it from me But here is a guy that would We're gonna have a day off tomorrow on Monday, you know, we always have Monday's off Well, we're going to fly into New York Late tomorrow afternoon Willie's gonna leave tonight and he's going to go to New York and When you get to the hotel now my first year with the Giants I get to the hotel and my lights on on my phone now What did I don't know about New York? Willie has gone ahead and I don't know how many of you remember the Petrocelli Clothing outfit back in the day. Yes. Yeah, I told you You remember the old alpaca sweater back in those days Willie would go ahead and in his suite. He had two king-sized beds Willie has had the front desk turn your light on Leave a message come up to my suite Once you got into that room and Those days alpaca sweaters were $50 a piece. We were talking to 60s. That's some nice change On the bed are two alpaca sweaters with your name on them Not just every player Every manager every staff member every member of the media every member of the broadcast crew Willie never left anybody out, but this is the kicker You go to him Terry to say thank you and he'd want to beat you in he want to beat your head off Don't come say thank you pee wee get you two sweaters and get out If that's him he did not he just did not want you to come up and say thank you I Think it was his way of Giving back because you know it wasn't it wasn't such a verbal man and I think to him It was his blessing to do what he did You know you say the prayer goes up and the blessings come down. Well, it was Willie's blessing to give and He just gave and he just gave and he just gave He was such a special man special person He did so much for so many of us That I can't tell you there's some things that Willie mays has done that I'd love for you to know But I can't tell you I promised him. I wouldn't tell you But he has done so much for high school graduates Over the last 50 years and I can't tell you what the rest of it. I shouldn't have told you that much but every year He does something for a group of high school graduates To the tune of full-right scholarships For the last 50 years That's the kind of man. He is he just you know, he likes to stay But if he finds out now, I don't care I grew up in San Francisco right at the threshold of The golden era of the Pacific Coast League the seals last season I remember the grown-ups talking about pump see green going to the Red Sox and to them that was very significant to me I didn't understand what the big deal was in the next year the Giants came and here's Willie mays And like the gentleman over there was speaking. We all wanted to be Willie mays when we played on the playground I had this thought that maybe there was a correlation between the demise of the minor leagues Over the decades and how colleges have become the Equivalent of the the minor leagues the training ground for the ball players of today And how the majority in my mind the majority of the college players are indeed white rather than of Color, do you think that's a contributing factor to the small or reduced number of African-Americans in the majors I Do because as much as we'll talk about integration It killed us as far as baseballs concerned Especially in the South because I was born and raised in the South 90% of the kids got moved beyond One bus right where their parents and most of the parents don't have cars So if you move more than 20 25 miles to another school away from your and out of your neighborhood There's only one bus that goes there and only one bus that returns from there You had absolutely no chance whatsoever to go out for the baseball team You couldn't go out for the football team. You couldn't go out for the basketball team. If so How would you get home and practice this over? So without having the opportunity to have played in high school You certainly aren't gonna get a scholarship to play in college so there are not any No, not maybe not so much now, but then that many African-American kids playing college baseball and even so much today if you look at college baseball and look at a lot of the teams But like you stated earlier, I Would say 90% of the colleges now are sort of minor league Facilities because you know you draft a kid out of college the year to so he is in the big leagues because they play They play almost 80 90 maybe a hundred games if you if you include fall ball and you include spraying and that sort of thing and The nc2 a playoffs so it has become sort of a feeding ground But we're hoping we're hoping and praying that this whole thing changes and that more kids now realize Here's a golden opportunity a better opportunity. There's no better pension plan in the world than baseball has so That's the fact you can play Doesn't matter the size doesn't matter the statue You're gonna stay healthy longer you're gonna play longer and you're going to make twice as much money as football So hopefully this whole thing changes, but yeah, you're right Colleges are producing been producing more and more. I Had one final question and then we're gonna Go upstairs and take a look at the exhibit And I think I don't know whether a Joan mentioned it, but they have a beautiful catered Reception so you'll there'll be plenty of food and drink up there My question is and you'll you'll see a kind of a little bit of a focus in the exhibit on Kurt Flood and a Wonderful, yeah, me too a Wonderful mixed-media artwork by Greg jizuski who also joins us today from Southern, California. Greg. Can you It's elicit of a lot of interesting responses in the guest book and make sure to sign the guest book today And let us know what you think about the exhibit, but I wanted to ask Nate If he had a chance to meet Kurt Flood and maybe share a story or two about him and his importance to Other ballplayers of his generation and today I Can say a couple of things about Kurt But the one thing I want to stress and emphasize the most is all the money you seeing floating around Acting sports whatever whatever whatever is because of Kurt Flood's sacrifice Sacrificed a Hall of Fame career a potential and I'm not so sure that Going eight for eight offer co-faction drysdale on a Sunday afternoon doesn't warrant going to the Hall of Fame But Kurt sacrificed all he did for everybody and That's why there is so much money floating around today in all sports and In entertainment because of the sacrifice he made by breaking What's the line he broke the Reserve class. Yeah, yes, and then when it finally came to fruition with the The guy from Boston and I think Messerschmitts was the other one McNally McNally and Messerschmitt those two Then that's when everybody came aboard, but I want to tell you a quick story before we go and I'm and I'm done Bob Gibson was his roommate and he asked him to stand with him. He has Hank Aaron to stand with him He asked a lot of guys to stand with him because they were big stars that the owners were not going to get rid of him and Yes, shrimps kid was another and they turned their backs on him and I'm gonna tell you this story because We were holding Fantasy camp for doctors for over 20 years and Reno and we invited Bob Gibson one year And he says the one thing he regrets most in his entire life He's not standing with Kurt and also another focus of the exhibit You'll see another very outspoken player from that time period Doc Ellis When when he passed we were at his funeral service and a lot of players Yeah, were you there? Yeah, a lot of players as you remember may remember especially Lou Johnson Got up in tears and said I'm sorry that I wasn't you know I should have backed doc and some of the things that he said but I just I Was making decent money and you know, I just I just I just didn't have it within me to do it Yeah, well, I don't know about you we I could go have this thing go on for another hour or so But but Joan would be is is is Insistent that we go on up. So we're gonna go up to the sixth floor and and and so but thank you guys for fabulous