 Welcome back to summer camp presented by Ford. I'm Maritah Rodman, alongside my good friend Susan Walton, the radio broadcaster for the Yankees. She has been covering the Yankees since 1987. Wow. Ten-year anniversary of George Steinbrenner's passing. Susan, I know he meant an awful lot to you. Just how influential was he on your career? Well, everything. And when I got to the Yankees and started running around with a microphone, you learned really quickly that, unless you had Mr. Steinbrenner, you had absolutely nothing. And George used to go into, they used to say things like the eagle has landed, or Steinbrenner, and everybody would run into outside the old clubhouse. And George would go out the back door and run to the elevator. And I used to follow him, Mr. Steinbrenner, Mr. Steinbrenner, and if you weren't allowed to get into the elevator and if I beat him up the ramp, when he got off the elevator before he went into the office, he would talk to me. And I did this for a long time. I sometimes think he waited for me, but it was really cool. And Lee became, I won't say friends, but really he was really instrumental because the next winter he always had beat writers Christmas luncheons. And that year they were going to 21. And I wanted to go. And I wasn't invited because I was a girl and it's only for guys and you're not a real reporter because you have a microphone, you don't have a pencil. And so they went and I didn't go. And I wrote Mr. Steinbrenner a letter. What I did was get the sales department of WFAN to find out how many people listen to my 505 spot and how much advertising they sold for that spot. And so I wrote it down. This is why I am important. And this is why you should see me. And I said I'm coming down to Tampa. And I demand an interview and send it off. And I went down to Tampa. I didn't tell him I was going to a spa, but I was going down to Tampa. And the little blinker on the phone was blinking when I got to the hotel and his secretary told me I was going to see you at nine o'clock in the morning. And by the way, I have Xeroxed every letter of this and I've given it to every woman in the building. So I said, okay, I'll be there. So I go there. It's nine o'clock in the morning at American ship, which was in Tampa at that point. And I walk in. And he said, well, I said what? And he said, I don't like women cops. I don't like women in the army. I don't like women sports casters. I don't like women firefighters. I want women to spend my money and look pretty. And I said, I can do that. And then I said, now about the pitching staff, which you think is really good and is really awful. And he started a laugh and that's where that started. It was not easy. George was really tough on me. I mean, you never knew when you were going to be cut off. George was really tough on me. I was really tough on him. I did not want to make him angry. But over the years, he started trusting me. And I really got a lot from him. And a year after that, he had said to me, Weldman, always called me Weldman never. Susan till the end, always Weldman, one of these days I'm going to make a statement about women in sports. You're it. And I hope you can take it. This was before the death threats and George getting me is anybody in my life except for my mother and my grandfather and he taught me a lot. He was really hard on me. But what I learned to do was to I learned toughness from George. You know somebody like whenever you have a problem and I always say don't don't fight with me. I learned from the best. And that was George. I have to ask you about that picture behind you. This is when George was reinstated in baseball after the suspension. W F A N let me and my producer Steve Cohen fly down to Tampa and we had like a welcome back George night we started at nine o'clock and it was like an opening presence we had we're getting on and mattingly and Reggie was on. Reggie was on everybody was on and then at midnight magically George appeared the clock struck 12 and there was George on the other side of the update and I've still got that tape and we play it every now and then but that was from that night. March 1st midnight when George came back from being reinstated for when he's reinstated. You also really got him and Yogi Berra back together a big radio moment one that you thought would either help better your career. Or career. Well well that was you know that was something that it was almost an accident. Yogi was going to open his museum and our program director Mark Schoenfeld said you know you're going to host Yogi and the 73 Mets and he's opening the museum and wouldn't it be cool if you could get George and Yogi to make up on the radio and I said oh yeah yeah sure I can everybody had tried Arthur Richmond stick Michael everyone I knew had tried to get them together enjoy well. So a few days later George and I were talking and he said I said George I want to ask you something about Yogi and he said why what's wrong. And as soon as he said what's wrong I said OK go for it. And we started talking about it and don't forget I had never I had never met Yogi Berra. I mean I was not there and my allegiance was to George and and I I worked this out with Dale Berra the two of us on a phone on how this would happen. And a lot of times I thought it wasn't going to happen. We weren't allowed to tell anybody just in case it did not happen. And George timed it from the airport there. He actually flew to New Jersey in January and came in. And I was hiding behind a post I remember and and Dale Berra had said to me what are you doing. And I said well either this is going to be great or my career is going to be over in two seconds. Meanwhile I had I had gotten I had set up things Ted Williams was going to call in and junk a Rajiola and Bill White and all Yogi's friends and said oh please let this work or I'm going to be here for three hours with the 73 Mets. And I you know what am I going to do with that. So it did work and I remember after an hour George got a little tired and he went back to the hotel and I called him afterwards and I said what do you think George. He said what a great night for the New York Yankees that he stopped and that George tone came out and he said yeah and it wasn't too often bad for you. Wildman wasn't so that was that was George. You always have to get a little zinger in there at the end. Now I know he's had an incredible influence on you. I have to say you've had an incredible influence on me. You've been covering since 1987. There we are. My ninth season with you. You took me under your wing showed me the ropes not only in terms of baseball but also exploring some cities. Susan we have had some good times over the years. What we have and the good thing about Meredith is that Meredith we are in the hot dog. Yeah. The good thing about Meredith is like I'm up at six o'clock in the morning. So and there's a whole day when you go on the road and most people don't want to go out. Most people there we are we're in San Francisco. We went everywhere. But you know you got up early like I did. And I think we went to Niagara Falls. We went to the falls in Washington. Yeah we were with different different mascots. That was sweet on you Susan. Remember that he came in. Yes all that that and the one in Seattle was a good one to we like that. And there we are in Washington on those little scooter things where we see I try a lot of things because of Meredith or else I you know I've been there done that. There we are in Niagara Falls. I think that might have been my favorite except for the wineries that weren't really good. But the falls were good. And also we had a great trip to Maine as well for your birthday which was quite lovely. We did. We went to a banquet which we went to. There we are in Christmastime. A banquet Maine is where I was in theater. I did a show up there like 40 years ago and I went in the theater and I showed Meredith where the theater was looked exactly the same. Nothing has changed in a banquet. And you know that was great. We've had some good times. See it's all because you get up early because most people don't get up early. It won't do those things. What we didn't do was the paddle boats in Baltimore. And I haven't taken you on the swan boats in Boston yet. But eventually we'll get back there. We are on the list hopefully 2021. There we are in London where we went to go have high tea at the festival. We went to the hospital. The hospital was a fire. That was a really cool experience because not only were you there, Claire Smith was there as well. Talk about some powerful women in baseball who have been through a lot, are pioneers and really I wouldn't be here without the two of you and the ground that you've paid for me. Thank you. Claire Smith, Hall of Fame. Newspaper writer is one of the best of all time. If you think I had trouble, Claire Smith had the same kinds of stories. And so it was very tough back then. But we made it through it, Meredith. And we got to be at the top of the spire with a high tee and our little hats, whatever they call them, those little fascinators. The only thing I didn't get to do was meet the queen because I thought she'd like me. And I wanted to meet the queen because I think we'd get along actually. Well, if I could make it happen for you, I'd certainly make it happen for you. But unfortunately, I don't think I have that kind of pull. Well, you might. I mean, if we can get to her, I think she would have liked coming out with us. I think so too. She would have had a great time. Now I want to go make a list of things to do in 2021 because we're not going to get to do it in 2020. So maybe that's what I'll do when this interview is over. Okay, I think that's a good idea. Susan, thank you as always for the time. Thank you so much. See you soon.