00:00All right. Good morning and welcome to the Carson Anderson program. Doug Carson, Scott Anderson, Kang Behind the Glass.
00:07Look, we got a lot to get to today, but we're going to start off talking about the passing of
00:13our colleague, Pat Caputo, who was a Detroit media legend.
00:22And we knew he was was he knew he was battling and we knew it was tough and we knew
00:29there'd been a lot of silence lately.
00:33And obviously, the news yesterday, sadly, felt like it was inevitable.
00:41And we just figured today we'd open with with talking a little bit about Pat.
00:47And I think Pat managed to thread the needle of being abrasive, gruff and graceful.
01:00And I think everybody moving forward that I come across in life, their demeanor.
01:09When it comes to gruffness, we'll be measured against Pat Caputo 100 percent.
01:16And his and his gruffness and abrasiveness was offset by his grace.
01:20And I'll give you a great example.
01:22One of the things I can't that I'm not a big fan of is when you just simply attack the
01:27source.
01:27You don't whatever the source is saying.
01:30If they have an argument.
01:32And they and you think they're wrong, rather than explain why you think they're wrong, you just say, well, that
01:38guy's an idiot.
01:38Okay, I'm not I'm not a big fan of that.
01:41If you think somebody is completely off base, tell me why they're off base.
01:47Why you think they're off base.
01:50And Pat.
01:53Attacked me on that in that way, but here's how he did it.
01:58And this is the one that really stood out.
02:01We were debating whether or not the Detroit Tigers should go after Carl Pavano, free agent pitcher.
02:06That's a long time ago.
02:06It was a long time ago, but Pat, who is as well schooled in the sport of baseball as anybody
02:13in the Detroit media.
02:14Unbelievable.
02:15Lapped the field.
02:16And I'm going toe to toe with Pat.
02:18Okay.
02:19About Carl Pavano.
02:20And we go go.
02:21It goes on for a while.
02:22And then Pat slows down, stops and looks me dead in the eye and says, okay, I'm going to do
02:28my Pat impression.
02:29And it pales in comparison to yours.
02:30But everybody does.
02:32That's the thing about Pat.
02:33And that's what makes him a legend and a one of a kind is everybody has some sort of Pat
02:38impression, but he stops and he slows down.
02:40He goes, okay, look, I'm going to say something here.
02:45And I'm going to start with this.
02:47I respect you.
02:48Okay.
02:50I really respect you.
02:51I think you're great at your job.
02:53Okay.
02:57But you have no idea what you're talking about.
03:03Okay.
03:14So here's the follow up though.
03:17It got embarrassing the next day in that moment.
03:22Like I didn't like being attacked as a source.
03:24Like you don't know what you're talking about, but here's how it got embarrassing.
03:28And here's the grace the next day or shortly thereafter might not have been the next day, but he comes
03:34up to me.
03:35He goes, Hey, I want to tell you something again.
03:38Here we go.
03:39Yeah.
03:39I really meant what I said.
03:42I really, really do respect you.
03:44And I can tell he kind of felt bad, but that was just his way.
03:48And he was like, and it got to the point where he was emphasizing how much he respect me.
03:53I got embarrassed and he managed to get away with doing the one thing I couldn't stand.
03:59And, and that's, it was this Carl Pavano and I'll never forget him staring me dead in the eye, slowing
04:07everything down.
04:08Like I want everybody to hear what I'm saying.
04:12You have no idea what you're talking about.
04:16Pat was, um, I wish I, you know, I've got a good memory for a lot of things.
04:22The one thing I don't have a great memory for is, um, who I did my first show with.
04:28I don't have a great memory of that.
04:29I suspect it was probably with Pat Caputo because early in my career, I had the chance to, of the
04:38on-air career.
04:38Anyway, I had a chance to work a lot of, a lot of weekends, a lot of post-game shows.
04:43Um, and it was like a rite of passage for people that came into this radio station, whether it was
04:52back in the AM 1270 days or now the 971 ticket days.
04:55It was a rite of passage for the new guys to come in that you're going to have to work
04:58with Pat and working with Pat was, if you could say the term acquired taste
05:09and something that you look back fondly on, this is exactly what it was.
05:12Like when you're in it, you're, you're, you're frustrated, you're concerned, you're a little disheveled because Pat was such a
05:24presence.
05:26He was, he was loud.
05:28He was brash.
05:29He was gruff.
05:30He was brilliant in his own way.
05:33And it was like, you know, kind of a little bit of marking his own territory, but also it was
05:39marking his own territory in like a circle.
05:42But he, eventually he was going to let you into that circle.
05:46And once you got through that, if you could bust through that, then it was awesome.
05:50And that's how it was with me.
05:52We, we went at it one time about, uh, he, he called me out.
05:56He would listen, he was listening to me doing a post-game show and then we had to do a
05:59weekend show together.
06:01And this is for the Tigers, probably in 2001, 2002, somewhere in that era.
06:07And I was talking about one player who's, you know, hopefully was going to reach free agency.
06:14And Pat had called me out, um, because I didn't understand the arbitration rules at the time.
06:21I didn't fully understand them, but what I didn't do was take it into account about arbitration.
06:25I'm like, oh yeah, I forgot.
06:26I just should have said, oh, he also has another year of arbitration.
06:28And Pat wouldn't let me forget about it.
06:31And he was hounding me on it.
06:32And, and initially it was, I thought it was mean spirited.
06:36And it was something he would bring up constantly over like the next month and a half of us doing
06:41shows.
06:42It was like, yeah, okay.
06:43Yeah.
06:43But you know, Gator, uh, you know, don't forget about the arbitration.
06:47Okay.
06:47And stuff.
06:48Okay.
06:48You know, maybe forget that they have a couple of years of arbitration.
06:51Teams got control and stuff.
06:52Okay.
06:52You know, you forgot about that.
06:54It's okay.
06:55Not holding that against you, buddy.
06:56It's okay.
06:57But then after a while, it just became like a running joke.
07:01And he wanted to have that running joke, which was great.
07:05And, you know, you, you have to let your own guard down to, to welcome Pat into your life.
07:11And once you do, it was great because then he could appreciate who and what he was, which was his
07:17brilliant mind, an encyclopedic mind.
07:19Obviously, you know, you had the nickname, the book and, and, and for excellent reasons.
07:24And, you know, I mean, we, you and I would joke like we would, you and I would call each
07:28other.
07:29Occasionally, I'd be driving down to a baseball game and listen to Caputo.
07:31And I'd be like, you're not going to be what Caputo's just said.
07:33You're like, what?
07:34I'm like, he was just going through the 1971, 400 meter freestyle relay team of Indiana university.
07:43And, you know, it was starting with Mark Spitz and then going on and mentioning the other three guys on
07:48the 400 free relay team.
07:50I mean, that that's Caputo.
07:52He knew everything about everything.
07:55And even if he didn't, he had the confidence that she's like, okay, I'm, I'm cool with it.
07:59I'll ride with it.
08:00You're awesome.
08:02And over the years, you know, the friendship was just better and better.
08:05And every time, you know, you got to see him, he had a smile on his face and he had
08:10that laugh that was just, he'd love to laugh.
08:12The last couple of years, when he would come into the building, we were rare.
08:16We had rare Caputo sightings in the building for us because Pat was typically a weekend and weekend.
08:21Yeah.
08:22But he would make it a point to come into the studio and say to us during a break, hey,
08:26love you guys.
08:27Listen to the show the other day.
08:29Really gated.
08:29You made me laugh with saying this or that dog, you were spot on on this.
08:33And, you know, that's, that's the reward of the friendship is that it lasted all that time.
08:39It may start off rough, but in the end you have nothing but fond memories about it.
08:45And, you know, Pat was, he was a classic, an absolute classic and a conduit for everybody here at this
08:53radio station.
08:54The second you step foot in here, you got to work with Pat and it ends up being a great
09:01experience.
09:01If you let it and he is going to be sorely missed for all the stories, all the impressions.
09:07He, he told me he loved it, not just mine, but everybody, because everybody would call in and you have
09:14to do a Pat because his voice is so damn distinctive.
09:16He was, he was, it was incredible and, and, and people wanted to, and he was also, he was the
09:23bridge between the 68 Tiger fans and the 84 Tiger fans.
09:29And when Pat started in, in media, not just with the Oakland press, but he was also part of those,
09:35uh, early, early Tiger post game shows they had on TV or pregame shows they had on TV.
09:41Um, you know, right around that time of them winning the world series in 84.
09:45So he had all that knowledge.
09:47He had that reputation, uh, and it was solid.
09:50And, and the relationship he had with the listeners is extraordinary.
09:58Those people that listened to Pat were the most loyal listeners listeners that we have on the station.
10:04They loved Pat.
10:06We all love Pat, but the people that listened every weekend truly love Pat.
10:11And there wasn't anybody here that would rather work any shift other than Pat Caputo.
10:17You could tell Pat, Hey Pat, I need you to work 12 hours straight on Saturday, you know, in the
10:22middle of, uh, January.
10:23Is that cool?
10:24Honestly, can you do that?
10:25Yeah.
10:27That's not a problem.
10:28It might be a little thin, might have a little soliloquy here and there, but you know, okay, I'll do
10:32it.
10:33And he loved giving you a little trivial nuggets too.
10:36I remember doing a show with him and he's like, cause he knew I liked music.
10:39He's like, Hey Gator, you know, the song, uh, uh, hello walls.
10:43And I'm like, what from like the sixties, like hello walls.
10:46And like, I remember seeing that like an infomercial on TV.
10:49He's like, yeah, yeah.
10:50You know who wrote that song?
10:51Like, I have no idea that Willie Nelson.
10:54Like, well, that's a Willie Nelson song.
10:56Well, he didn't sing it, but he wrote it.
10:58Farron Young is the one who sang it, made it popular.
11:02Like who the hell is Farron Young?
11:03And why do you know this?
11:04And why do you know that Willie Nelson wrote it?
11:09Because Caputo.
11:10Yep.
11:11We're going to have stories throughout the day.
11:13Um, yeah, I don't think we relegate this to 10 minutes.
11:16I mean, no, no, we're going to, yeah, yeah, we'll get, we're, we're going to talk some,
11:20uh, some Pistons.
11:21We'll probably circle back to Pat kind of at the top every hour.
11:24Cause there's more stories to tell.
11:25Kang, I want to get your thoughts.
11:26And, um, there's just a lot to say about our, our good friend and colleague, Pat Caputo.
11:32So we will circle back to that.
11:35Scott, the Pistons have won five in a row in the post season.
11:39Oh, have they?
11:39Yep.
11:40Up to nothing on Cleveland.
11:41We will get to that today at 10 20 phone calls and feedback as well.
11:45We'll have the best of what was said in the post game from the coaches.
11:49And there's something interesting said from Cleveland's coach.
11:51Uh, we will get to all that as the show continues.
11:54It's Carson Anderson on 97.
11:57One.
11:57Bye.
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