 Welcome to Yes We're Here, Meredith Marocco, it's alongside Sean Clancy, the owner of Foley's New York, the best baseball bar in New York City. Sean, how are you holding up for all this? I'm good, Meredith. I can't complain. I mean, to be honest, all my family, everybody's wow, all my staff are wow. So, you know, I'm like everybody else. We're just writing this out, waiting to see where it's going to go. How do you manage the staff and how do you go about wondering when you could possibly reopen? From the staff point of view, when they decided to close the city, I've always had a view of my staff are like my family. So I've always had the view that I'm never going to put them in harm's way. So when they close the city, I close police. I wasn't going to have them risk getting on a train or a bus, you know, for take away or delivery for the sake of a couple of dollars. I'm like, we're closed. So basically my whole goal for the last eight weeks has just been making sure that they're well, you know, staying in touch with them. And most importantly, I've continued to pay the staff the whole eight weeks because I wanted to be fair to them. And that's been my only goal because, you know, we can't, we can't worry about my life. I live by the rule that I don't worry about things I don't control. So I don't worry about anything until they tell me what they got to do. I mean, there's a lot. It's scary, that kind of stuff that we may have to do in order to reopen, but that's for another day. Until Cromwell and Bellazio, the Bellazio say, hey, it's ready. It's time to open. I told my guys, enjoy the time with your families. Do what you can. And don't worry about Hamilton. We'll take care of Folies when the time is right. You had mentioned that you like it to be a family atmosphere. And that's what it is when you walk in the door at Folies. It feels like you're almost home. Everybody's very friendly. Why is that so important that you created a family atmosphere like that in New York City, not just with the staff, but the patrons that come in as well? I mean, that's, to be honest with you, if you take what, you know, I mean, the Irish are known for their hospitality and that's what basically what it is, is to make people feel welcome. And, you know, that was my goal long before I ever wanted to be a baseball bar. I wanted it to be, you know, an Irish bar. You know, you stop people on the street and ask them what an Irish bar is going to tell you, oh, it's friendly people. It's good food. It's a warm environment. And that's what I wanted to do. And basically the baseball part of that just, I mean, you know, you're on the road for six months a year. And, you know, it's nice when you can go somewhere you have your places to go to. And I kind of wanted to make Folies that place where if, for example, you are one of the clubbies or one of your guys, they don't want to sit in their hotel room. They don't want to go to, you know, Buffalo Wildmans, whatever it is. They're somewhere they can come where they know the people where they can sit and relax and feel like they're not on the road. When did the baseball aspect come into it for you? Because you didn't grow up watching baseball. It wasn't until you were bartending in New York City that you even started watching the game a little bit. How did you fall in love with the sport of baseball? Well, to take it back, you're right. Obviously, I grew up in Ireland where, you know, we didn't have any baseball. And, you know, I've had a chance to tell him the story, but I got a Reggie Jackson T-shirt when I was seven, and I was convinced he was one of the Jackson five. My parents were married here. My father worked in two very, very famous establishments. He worked in touch shores and he worked in the room rooms. And touch shores with a lot of famous people came in and he took care of all the baseball players because the biggest reason why I was, he didn't like baseball. So he wouldn't be bothering Mickey Mantle or Joe DiMaggio or Yogi Berra. And, you know, it's funny, Mickey Mantle gave my father a jersey and my father gave it away. He was like, I didn't want a jersey that he'd worn and signed. I know it wasn't no use to me. So, so I knew about baseball and I read about baseball and I would get, you know, people will come home every summer and I would have, I was, I had a Don Manningley glove and I couldn't be Don Manningley out of the lineup. So I knew about, I knew I would read as much as I could about the game. I was a ferocious reader and I read as much, but yeah, it wasn't until I came here. For good in 1991, September 1st, 1991, and I went, the first place I went was Yankee stadium. And I, to this day, I can still remember how I felt when I walked up until I was in the upper deck. And I walked up and I walked out on the first time I ever saw that field and every year until the close of Yankee stadium. That first time you went for opening day when you walked up and I mean the chills. I mean, this is, it was a cathedral. Now you have over 3000 signed baseballs from all kinds of different people, 4000 now signed baseballs of all different types of people, whether they play for the Yankees, Mets or another team, umpires, everything. How did you start that memorabilia collection and how long did it take you to accumulate all the stuff? Um, actually, the funny thing is when I opened when I walked through the doors of parties, I had five baseballs, people like give me and actually the first baseball I ever got was Joe McEwing. And he actually isn't even signed to me it's signed to my son Ryan. And every now and then Ryan will ask me, you know, when I get the baseball, they wanted to get a baseball back and I'm like, Well, you can have it in the other 4000 and a couple years. But why I decided on baseballs was, as I started to meet different people and the collection started to grow, I realized space was going to be an issue. And I wanted to do something that was a little uniform uniform in one sense, and also, um, like, for example, Pat LaFontaine, the Islander, one of the, by the way, one of the de nicest men I have ever met. I mean, I know they say hockey players are nicer. If I have to remember, but there's a lot of famous people have come through for this and I've had the opportunity to meet a lot of them. No nice amount of that guy, but you know, he said, Why you have me sign a baseball? And I said, Pat, how many hockey pucks have you signed in your life? He said, Tens of thousands at this stage. He said, How many baseballs have you signed? He said two. So that's why everybody, and they all take up the same space. So I can put 15 baseballs in the size of one football. Now, while they're all special in their own way, I'm sure, is there one signature that you really cherish one baseball that you say that's, that's the one I'm grabbing if I ever leave. You know, the funny thing is I get asked that question and not a lot of people say, Oh, you know, you have to have a favorite piece. And, you know, now I do have a baseball signed by Pope John Paul II. He's a bona fide. He's an actual saint. The one I might grab is I do have one signed by my kids. I look forward to the time when we can get back to Foley's. Before I let you go, was there one person that walks through the door that even shocked you? Because I know you have a lot of athletes and celebrities coming in there. One from the best point of view was David Wright. Because his first night in New York, he came to Foley's. And one of the greatest nights we had was his last night in New York. And probably for all the ladies out there, the second one was John Hamm. And John and I have become, I won't say good friends, but he comes to see me when he's in New York. He's a good dude, and I like that. I'm probably the only guy who makes fun of him. You know, I'd never seen an episode of Mad Men before. I met him. I'd now binge watching Mad Men to try and catch up. But, you know, I mean, just, I mean, there's so many. I mean, I remember that I was Godsmike the first time I got to meet you, Marjorie. After the writers many, many years ago. Oh yeah, that was probably, what, six, seven years ago now. Crazy. Well, Sean, thank you so much for joining us on Yes, We're Here. And hope you and everyone in your life remains safe and healthy. And we are hoping we can get back to Foley's soon. I hear I look forward to it. Take care.