Unknown Speaker 1 (26:58)
Yeah. It's about 30 minutes from Fort Myer, where you can fly in and fly out if you're flying, you know, commercial airline. So I was there for Grant Thornton, who I do some freelance work, some projects for, in the space of diversifying golf and growing the game of golf. And there are young, dynamic players. Colin Morcal, who, you know is my favorite, was not there this weekend, but Tony Finau, both Corda girls, Nelly and Jessica, who are just two of my favorite athletes, period. There's so many. I mean, Lydia Cole, there's about 20, but there's a core. Ricky Fowler, there's a core of them that decided a few years ago with Grant Thornton. And Wasserman is heavily involved, but he represents a lot of them, if not all of them. But Grant Thornton decided they were going to do this, and Goff decided, you know, you're not going to grow the game of golf by having the same people who look the same, who do the same things, who come from the same places as other sports grow. Golf's not going to do that without some effort and without some outreach to people who look different. And they asked me to be sort of the voice of this and the person who helps drive the content of this or facilitates that. And I'm grateful that those people I just named, among others. But that's the core of it. Mel Reed, who you have gotten to meet and know a little bit that they are people who I just. I don't just like them, I don't just respect them. In almost every case, I admire them. I've gotten to sit and have dinner with them, stand around and hang out with them at the golf course, dinners, projects, and what they're about and who they are, what they stand for, what they. And it's like, wow, I'm pretty lucky to be involved in this. So I go to this this weekend. It's a couple of times a year, maybe three. The players is another place where we convene. But while I'm walking up the golf course, you know, it's, you know, there's 5,000 or so people, not a big crowd. It's not like waste management where people are hanging off and stuff. It's not crazy, but it's in Naples. But a guy comes over and says, mike, excuse me, I'm so and so. And Bobby Orr just saw you walking off the golf course and would love to say hello and we couldn't catch up with you. I'm like, I'm sorry, what did you say? And he said, bobby Orr is here and he would love to say hello, saw you and wonder where you're going to be. I said, are you kidding me? It's a joke. He said, no, no. So I said, where is Bobby Orr? Where are you guys going to be when I come back down these stairs? Is he leaving the property? The guy says, no, he'll be in this room right here in the small ballroom. Take a drink of water after. At 6 o'clock, 6 to 7, I said, you tell Bobby Orr I will move heaven and earth to come down here and say hello. So at 6:15, I walked downstairs because we were about to start our program and dinner. I walk into a room and there's Bobby Orr. And he stands up and he has a hundred thousand kilowatt smile on his face and just said, mike, it's so great, so great to meet you. Sticks out his hand and says, I'm Bobby Orr. You know, there's not, I don't know, 10 times in my life where I have been more stunned and honored in the moment. And sometimes, you know, you're in a context where, you know, you're going to meet famous people. And some of them, as you know, Tony, I've met all my heroes, all of them, all my Chicago guys, all of them from Ernie Banks and Billy Williams to Frankie Jenkins to, you know, Bobby Hull and Savers and Ditka and all of them, you know, but Orr is not one of my heroes, but he's Bobby Orr. He's no lower than the third greatest player all the time. And our dear friend Bob Ryan, every time you and I say Gretzky, he calls us in the immediate aftermath and says, stop it. It's awe. And I go, I'm standing there having a hug or two or four with Bobby Orr, and we're talking about all kinds of stuff. And I said, are you aware of this thing? I said, when I first heard you wanted to see me, I thought you were going to scream at me, because what I say about Gretzky and you, he starts laughing. I said, what you don't know is every time we do that on the show, Bob Ryan calls me or texts me and says, shut up. Stop it. It's Orr. It's not Gretzky. And Bobby Orr is laughing so hard, he's got tears. And first of all, he's, you know, Bobby Orr. People don't realize, like, he's 76 years old now, and he's as fit as he could possibly be. I said, how much golf are you playing down here? And he explained to me that he didn't live in New England anymore. Like a lot of us who get cold, who play in places like Chicago and Boston and live our lives there. He said, I'm in the sun now. I'm down here. I sold the place. He told me, wherever he sold his place, Cape Cod, whatever. He said, I can't play. Just have back surgery, but I'm playing. And we talked about a lot of stuff. And he just. The part that got to me was he said, how were you when I got traded to the Blackhawks? And I said, I was a senior in high school, so I had to be 17, which means it had to be 1976. And he said, that's right. He started screaming, that's right. That's right. That's why I got traded. He said, I'm really sorry I couldn't be who I wanted to be because my knees were. I was shot. I couldn't do it. And that, to me, you know, that's what. When I was that age. And Bobby Orr got traded to the Blackhawks, that was an unbelievable thing. And Bobby Hull had just left. Hull probably had gone in 72 or something like that, or in a Black Hawk uniform. And he did play something like, I don't know, 40 games that he just. His body gave. He couldn't play. But we stood there talking about other stuff for a while, and I just. I Thanked him. We took some pictures. He said, you make sure you show up. You send this to Bob Ryan and. Of course I did. And you and Kelleher and that's great, Eric. And you know what Kelleher feels about.
