A Front-Row Seat with the Sportswriters Who Sat There
Sit down with host Todd Jones and other sportswriters who knew the greatest athletes and coaches, and experienced first-hand some of the biggest sports moments in the past 50 years. They’ll share stories behind the stories -- some they’ve only told to each other.
John McGrath: “It Was a Front-Row Seat to the Greatest Sports Events.”
We trek into the Pacific Northwest and catch up with John McGrath about his 40 years of writing about sports. He puts us in Dodger Stadium for Kirk Gibson’s famous home run and recounts other deadline horrors. We’re on the field for The Drive, and with John as he stumbles unexpectedly into memorable Olympic moments. He recalls time with a young Michael Jordan, John Elway in his prime, and Bo Jackson playing baseball. Hear about John butting heads with Ken Griffey Jr., and how a magic run by the Mariners saved baseball in Seattle. Oh, and John shares his reaction behind the keyboard as the Seahawks lined up to pass from the one with a Super Bowl on the line.
McGrath was the sports columnist at the Tacoma News Tribune from 1991 until his retirement in 2018. He was a fixture in Seattle, 45 minutes away, and at national and international sporting events. John covered six Olympics and a slew of World Series, Super Bowls, All-Star Games, Final Fours, and championship boxing matches.
Prior to his 27 years in Tacoma, McGrath was a columnist, based in Chicago, for the National Sports Daily from 1989 until that paper folded in 1991. Before that, he was a sports columnist for the Denver Post from 1984-89. John was a general assignment sports reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution from 1981-84 after working a year at the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi. His journalism career began at the Columbia Daily Tribune in Missouri in 1978-79.
John is a native of Elmhurst, Illinois, outside Chicago. He graduated from the University of Missouri in 1976.
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John McGrath transcript
PBA_John McGrath
Speakers: Todd Jones & John McGrath
Todd Jones (00:00):
John, welcome to Press Box Access. It's great to reconnect.
John McGrath (00:07):
Great to see you, Todd. Yeah, it's been a while.
Todd Jones (00:09):
Well, you look like you're in some kind of bomb shelter or cedar closet or something. Where are you sitting at, John?
John McGrath (00:15):
Actually, I am in my son's cellar, which is a good place. In case there's a nuclear war outside, I think we're in good shape. It does look like a scene from Breaking Bad though, doesn't it?
John McGrath (00:26):
But everything sounds good, and you look great, and looking forward to the conversation.
Todd Jones (00:33):
Well, you're only seeing me from the neck up, and I don't even know if that looks great, but we'll go from there, so. I'm just so glad to reconnect. It's been a while.
Todd Jones (00:41):
This is really John McGrath, right? The sports columnist at the Tacoma News Tribune for 27 years. Let me check.
John McGrath (00:51):
Yep, that same one.
Todd Jones (01:14):
Alright. We've got that confirmed because you disappeared on me, John. You took that buyout in 2018. I've been searching for you, combing the Pacific Northwest, like I was looking for Bigfoot.
John McGrath (01:27):
Yeah. Well, Bigfoot would be one way to call it.
Todd Jones (01:33):
There were a few nights on the road with you, John, where I did think I saw a Sasquatch.
John McGrath (01:38):
Yeah, yeah. It was fun, just looking back. Some of the ball players or athletes, they'll tell you that what they miss most about their careers is not so much the winning and the losing, and the ups and downs, and the competition, which is all obviously, what they live for and played for.
John McGrath (01:58):
But just the camaraderie. Just being with friends, who turned into lifelong friends. And being there every day. And they miss all that. They retire, they go their separate ways.
John McGrath (02:11):
And a lot of times they don't even talk to each other for years and years. Maybe they hook up at some old timer's convention or something. But no, it's the friends that you miss the most. In my case, that's certainly true.
Todd Jones (02:25):
Well, it's true for me too, and I really miss seeing you on the road. I mean, I was joking around about searching for you, but you used to be everywhere. Olympics, Super Bowl, World Series, All-Star Games, Final Fours.
Todd Jones (02:35):
I always knew if I showed up, John McGrath was probably there sitting near me.
John McGrath (02:40):
Yeah. Probably. Looking back, it was quite a career and yeah, you named the big sporting event and I probably had some experience at covering it. And you know what, it was fabulous. It was a front row seat to the greatest sports events of the last 40 years or so.
John McGrath (03:06):
And you talk about a dream job, that would be in the conversation for sure.
Todd Jones (03:16):
John, when you think about it, a dream job like that, is there some story that sticks in your mind that maybe kind of speaks to what the job was like, what it was like to do?
John McGrath (03:39):
Yeah. I was talking about this the other day, Todd, because I see it so often on highlights is the Kirk Gibson home run. Famously kind of limped up to the plate against Eckersley.
John McGrath (03:54):
And I was sitting in the auxiliary stands at Dodger Stadium. Not the main press box, but for the big events of course, they have auxiliary seating. And it was among the fans.
Todd Jones (04:06):
Where was that seating at, John? Where was the auxiliary?
John McGrath (04:09):
It was, I want to say first base side, but it was outside. And three or four rows in front of me were fans, and three or four rows behind me were fans.
John McGrath (04:18):
And that wasn't uncommon. That would happen at Yankee Stadium or round baseball. You would be basically sitting in ... and which was fine because you almost got a better feel for it than you would be enclosed in a press box.
John McGrath (04:33):
But in any case, Gibson gets up there and gets the home run for the ages, and you have the whole Vin Scully description and the gesture by Kirk and everything. And all of a sudden I feel this sort of it felt like rain, but it wasn't rain, because it was dry, pleasant fall night.
John McGrath (04:52):
And it was beer because the stands yeah, everybody was cheering, ecstatic, just this euphoria in the stands. And they did, I guess what I would've done if I were a fan is just throw your beer as high as you can in celebration with everybody else.
John McGrath (05:12):
But the problem was, and always has been for me, is you get any kind of liquid in your keyboard and your story goes fizzle. It's like the Wizard of Oz. You remember when the witch gets water on her and, "I'm melting." Well, you could almost see that on your screen too.
John McGrath (05:31):
So, I was more fearful for my screen and my story than I was looking back at maybe seeing one of the most famous home runs in baseball history. Your personal saga always took precedence no matter how dramatic the event.
Todd Jones (05:50):
John, I think maybe you should have tilted your head back like a baby bird, opened your beak, and just taken in some of those drops falling from the sky.
John McGrath (05:58):
You know what, Todd, I think I did but to no avail. Actually, the keyboard did survive and I was able to file a story. God knows what I wrote.
John McGrath (06:13):
All through my career, and I'm sure you've talked to other guys who've told you the same things, sometimes if your deadline is 9:30, say, and it's a tie game at 9:25 with no resolution in sight, you just have to be ready to file boom. Like that, like a finger snap.
John McGrath (06:35):
So, you have to write two different stories. One if you win and one if you lose. And just make sure you press this bright send button when it's all said and done, which by the way, I didn't do a couple of times.
Todd Jones (07:45):
Well, you were in Tacoma for nearly three decades. You were also, in Chicago at The National, the Denver Post, the Atlanta Journal Constitution. John, you worked in four time zones. How were you on deadline? Any horror stores besides Gibson?
John McGrath (08:03):
I was late in every single one of them. Fortunately, and for the most part, I had begun my career in Columbia, Missouri. That was an afternoon paper. And I went to Jackson, Mississippi with afternoon paper. The Atlanta Journal in those days was an afternoon paper. And the Denver Post had just recently converted to morning.
John McGrath (08:25):
So, by the time I got to mornings, I was a little bit better on deadline. The afternoon situation, if you were not a fast writer, it could linger and linger because you had all this time. And you had 14 hours to do a story.
John McGrath (08:47):
Well, in my case, I would wait 13 and a half hours to write, to get going. And in fact, I remember, Todd, there was a game at Lambeau Field we were covering, and it was the playoff game between the Packers and the Seahawks.
John McGrath (09:08):
And snow as it would happen in Green Bay, started falling around halftime, maybe third quarter. And really started falling toward the end of the game. And then we went down to the locker room and got our quotes. The Seahawks had lost in overtime.
John McGrath (09:25):
And I get back up and these kids, maybe two of them were carving some sort of initials in the snow that was visible from the press box. And somebody remarked, "What kind of idiots are these? What are they doing down there, these idiots?"
John McGrath (09:42):
And I said, "Hey, don't knock them. They've written more than I have." And that was about an hour after the game had ended. Yeah.
Todd Jones (09:51):
I remember those afternoon days. I started at the Cincinnati Post in the late '80s and early '90s, and we had those afternoon deadlines too.
Todd Jones (09:58):
And I can remember covering a Monday night football game in Houston with the Bengals and Oilers … and that's how old I am, by the way, a franchise that doesn't exist in a stadium that doesn't exist.
Todd Jones (10:08):
But anyway, I remember walking out of the Astrodome and the sun was coming up because we didn't have those pressing deadlines and we were writing all night. So, I hear you about procrastinating. I always treated it like they were term papers in college.
John McGrath (10:23):
Yeah. It was a different experience, it really was. And especially with the afternoon guys, it allowed you to really you could linger around the clubhouse in baseball, for instance. You could stay when everybody else or the morning guys had to clear out, you could kind of take your time and get a little bit more in depth information.
Todd Jones (10:51):
John, do you have a memory of a time where you lingered and it led to something surprisingly great just because you were lingering around?
John McGrath (10:59):
Well, I do remember … well, I go back to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans and it led to me falling asleep on the hotel floor before I started. And because all those temptations in New Orleans, and, “Well, what the hell, I've got 14 hours,” whatever it was. But it turned out to be a frantic deadline.
Todd Jones (11:34):
Suddenly you were writing running.
John McGrath (11:35):
Yeah, because I had slept. I was very tired, by the way.
Todd Jones (11:44):
New Orleans will do that to you. It'll make you tired.
John McGrath (11:47):
It did to me, yes.
Todd Jones (11:50):
Well, deadline is always something that's fun to talk about with sports writers, especially back in the days before the internet when you just had to beat the presses. The pressure was on.
Todd Jones (11:59):
And so, sometimes some of the greatest things that happened in sports at night were some of our worst memories. Right?
John McGrath (12:07):
Yeah. And then the Olympics would completely skewer everything. I don't know, I still don't remember sometimes what time it was I was supposed to be in and a lot of-
Todd Jones (12:21):
Or what day it was. Really, I mean, sometimes in Sydney, Australia, I was like, "Is this Tuesday or is it Wednesday?"
John McGrath (12:26):
Right. And I finally got to the point where I think I was on deadline at 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon, I think. That was the equivalent of 11:00, I want to say.
John McGrath (12:38):
But it took me forever. And I was in Barcelona and I finally got it together to where I was able to finish my story sort of on deadline, but at least it was ... the Olympics can be if you cover it as in 9:00 to 5:00 situation, the story's old for your readers.
John McGrath (13:03):
But I do remember kind of perfecting it to the point where I could finish my story and go down to the little public bar down there that was open 24 hours and have a nice picture of sangria and relax for the sunrise.
Todd Jones (13:22):
Right. Always good for the transitional sentences.
John McGrath (13:24):
Not a bad gig.
Todd Jones (13:27):
You mentioned the Olympics. I think you covered like six of them, John. And we were talking about lingering in the clubhouse, and at the Olympics, you could just kind of wander around sometimes and stumble into something unexpectedly magical. I mean, that happened to you a few times, right?
John McGrath (13:46):
Yeah. I remember one case, Todd, it was in Beijing and I was lost. They have these various places where you would go and almost like big conference centers.
John McGrath (14:06):
And they would have maybe judo in one room or one stage as it were, maybe table tennis in another, a weightlift, whatever the case might be.
John McGrath (14:18):
Anyway, I was there to cover somebody from the United States, which we used to call locals. I mean, the closer they were to your home paper, the more you were supposed to be interested in them.
John McGrath (14:29):
I don't know what the hell I was there for but I couldn't find what I had gone to the conference center for. So, I just said, “The heck with it. I'll just walk in here. There's an event starting right now. I'll just walk in and see what happens.”
John McGrath (14:48):
And it was a women's weightlifting event, and I'm there, not many press were there for sure. There was no American in the finals or whatever. And it was three women you've never heard of. All the competitors were essentially right in front of me. I had like a folding chair.
John McGrath (15:10):
And this one weightlifter was particularly, I mean, her facial expression was galvanizing. I mean, just mesmerizing. I can still see it. And the amount of not just power, but determination, it was mind blowing.
John McGrath (15:30):
And she lifted it, and pivoted, and lifted it over her head and dropped it, and she won. And she was from Columbia.
John McGrath (15:41):
And there were some writers there, and TV people, and radio people from Columbia, they started crying. And in addition to high fiving and everything other, they started crying. And I asked one of, I said, "What's going on?"
John McGrath (15:53):
And he said, "Well, this is our first medal. This is our first gold medal ever in the Olympics. And everybody thinks of us as this drug cartel headquarters. Which of course it has been, and maybe always will be, whatever, but this is a moment of pride for all of us."
John McGrath (16:08):
And it turned out she was the first gold medal winner ever in Colombian. And later went into politics down there.
John McGrath (16:17):
But so, I wrote about just stumbling in not expecting anything and seeing one of the great sporting events I've ever covered. And that was out of nowhere. That was out of a mistake. I couldn't find what I was supposed to be covering and walked into that.
John McGrath (16:35):
And that would be, to me, the quintessential Olympic moment for me.
Todd Jones (16:41):
That's interesting because again, it's nobody you've probably heard of back home. It's nobody that TV's focusing on. And yet, if you're there in the moment, it's an amazing thing to witness. And then you get to write about it and put the people back home in Tacoma with you.
John McGrath (16:57):
Yeah. There was another time, and I think it also, was Beijing. Beijing and Sydney, I covered them both and I kind of get them confused because it was both a long ways away on that crazy time change.
John McGrath (17:13):
But anyway, I'm at the airport … this had to be Beijing. You remember some of those post I want to say 9/11 Olympics.
Todd Jones (17:30):
Right. The security was unbelievable. Yeah.
John McGrath (17:32):
Yeah. You would need a pass to get a credential, to get another pass, to get another credential that got you in this area where you get another credential for another pass.
John McGrath (17:40):
And anyway, I'm waiting at one of these airport shuttle places where you ... and this guy comes over and I look and I see he's from Mongolia, and he had a television crew with him.
John McGrath (17:55):
And he comes up to me and he goes, "Do you mind if I talk to you? I'm from Mongolia TV." And I said, "Well, sure." And then people would ask, "What did you tell the Mongolia TV reporters?" I said, "What I always tell the Mongolian TV reporters." No, he asked me-
Todd Jones (18:14):
What did you tell them, John?
John McGrath (18:15):
… what my expectations were for Mongolia. And I said, "Well, to tell you the truth, that's not been prominent on my radar, but I really wish you guys well. Thank you."
Todd Jones (18:32):
I don't think Mongolia's going to win AFC East.
John McGrath (18:35):
So, as it turns out, in boxing, that was their first gold medal, and they won a silver medal. And then in judo, I think they won their first gold medal and first silver medal in the country's history. And in boxing-
Todd Jones (18:53):
Wow. You’re like a good luck charm. You just show up and countries start winning things.
John McGrath (18:57):
Well, the boxer who got this silver, I think his left arm, he got a shoulder separation. So, he was boxing with one hand, and it was the most courageous thing I've ever seen.
John McGrath (19:07):
You're in against one of the greatest boxes on the planet, your size, and you have one hand. And he lasted, he took the silver medal. I wrote about that or something. I wrote about Mongolia and I get an-
Todd Jones (19:28):
Because you were such an expert on Mongolia, I mean, you had to go there.
John McGrath (19:32):
Yeah. So, I get an email from this resident, I assume he was an American living in Mongolia. And I got an email from him and said, "Hey, this country's gone nuts because the prime minister is on a three day bender. He was just on TV and he was slurring his words. He was just crazy with ecstasy because Mongolia had four medals."
John McGrath (19:54):
And I thought, "Oh, that's a nice story. I'm kind of ..." So, ever since then, Mongolia, right on, man.
Todd Jones (20:02):
Well, he read your column and he's like, "Man, I think I might have to throw a few back."
John McGrath (20:07):
Yeah, yeah.
Todd Jones (20:10):
Well, sometimes the Olympics would just present you with situations like that. No name athlete from someplace you really don't know much about.
Todd Jones (20:17):
But other times throughout your career, it seems like whatever market you were working in, you always had some superstar athlete that kind of took up a lot of oxygen in that market. And I wanted to bring up a few of those guys.
Todd Jones (20:31):
And the first guy I want to bring up is somebody we never really talk about or hear about anymore. But you worked in Atlanta in the early 1980s, I think from like '81 to '84, and the Braves weren't any good yet. And they got Ted Turner owning them, and there's a lot going on down there that nobody's paying attention to.
Todd Jones (20:51):
And they had a player named Dale Murphy. And Dale Murphy won back to back MVPs. And yet you don't hear about him at all today.
Todd Jones (21:00):
I'm struck by the fact that somebody like you covered Dale quite often in those days. What do you remember about a guy who's kind of fallen off the radar?
John McGrath (21:10):
I voted for him as long as he was eligible for the Hall of Fame, Todd. And I know that every voter has different criteria. In my reasoning was that Dale was the best player in baseball two consecutive years. He did not have the longevity stats but he did play.
John McGrath (21:33):
Not like he was one and done. I mean, he was back to back MVP in center field, by the way. He was a great center fielder, a great hitter, a great leader, a great man. And one of my favorites ever to ... win or lose, he was always there try to give an honest answer and felt sometimes bad.
John McGrath (21:58):
I remember him sometimes coming back the next day and saying, “Hey, I'm not sure my answer was as good as you needed last night.”
Todd Jones (22:08):
Really?
John McGrath (22:09):
Yeah. Oh no, he was unbelievable. And you're right, even though the Braves were on WTBS in those days, and a lot of the country got them, Dale just kind of faded into the background.
John McGrath (22:35):
Yeah. And he kind of resurfaced with the Phillies and et cetera, but it's too bad that people don't remember that he was as good as he was.
Todd Jones (27:29):
Well, you moved on to Denver, as a sports columnist at the Denver Post. And in those days, in '84 to '89, the Broncos, they were it. You could write them 24/7, right?
John McGrath (27:49):
Yes. In fact, I mean, there were stories that were actually true of the snow in Denver, it would snow most heavily actually in like November and in the spring. But before a Broncos game, the players' driveways would be completely shoveled, ready to go.
Todd Jones (28:14):
Really?
John McGrath (28:15):
And then everybody else in the neighborhood had to suck it up.
John McGrath (28:17):
And I do remember doing a talk show or listening to a talk show there once when Bobby Layne had died and the two hosts were regaling Bobby Layne's stories. Well, Bobby Layne was quite a character and a gambler, and a drinker, and just out of a Hollywood script from 1950s, '40s and stuff.
John McGrath (28:47):
And he had died. And they laugh and they tell stories, and then there's a kind of a pause, and then one of the hosts says, "Now, more seriously, the Broncos are playing Sunday." And I thought, “The guy died. What's more serious than a guy dying?”
Todd Jones (29:06):
What a transition.
John McGrath (29:08):
"Now, we moved to more serious matter. The Broncos ..." Yeah, it was quite a trip. I was there for the obvious, the John Elway 98-yard drive in Cleveland.
Todd Jones (29:24):
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Let's hear about this, John. So, you're there. Were you down on the field at that point in the game? Because the media used to be allowed down onto the field in the final minutes of a game.
John McGrath (29:35):
Yes.
Todd Jones (29:36):
So, what was your vantage point of the drive?
John McGrath (29:39):
That it went right by me and that I had no replays. And I had scribbled some notes, but I was so transfixed by the situation that it just kind of happened in a blur.
John McGrath (29:55):
And then I do remember afterward going back up to the press box and all these Browns fans, it was cold, it was overcast, it was Cleveland in December or January I guess it was. And they were all heckling and booing, and I thought, God, I really felt for them.
John McGrath (30:18):
I actually liked Cleveland and had some fun there, but the idea of facing this long, terrible winter and losing the way they lost was, yeah, I could relate to it a bit, as just a person.
Todd Jones (30:36):
Well, Elway was certainly in his prime in those days. And if the Broncos were 24/7 news, Elway was at the eye of the hurricane. As a columnist in those days in the '80s, what was it like to cover somebody like John Elway?
John McGrath (30:50):
Yes. He was fine by the way, and a great talent. But the scrutiny was, I think, suffocating. It had to be for him.
John McGrath (31:06):
The Rocky Mountain News, the other newspaper that we were in competition with in those days, once did a very innocent story about what celebrities in Denver gave for Halloween trick or treat. And I think Elway house gave Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, if I'm not mistaken.
Todd Jones (31:35):
Seems reasonable.
John McGrath (31:36):
Yes. A very vacuous ... well, as it turns out, he had an endorsement deal with Nestle's Crunch or butter, whatever it was. Butterfinger. The candy they were giving out was not consistent with his endorsement of another candy. He got really mad. And I guess I could see why.
John McGrath (32:00):
But when the candy you're giving at Halloween becomes kind of an event that's covered in the news and becomes actually controversial, you know that life in the goldfish bowl is pretty suffocating.
Todd Jones (32:17):
Yeah. It's not like he was putting razor blades and bobby pins in them.
John McGrath (32:20):
No, no. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Honest to God.
Todd Jones (32:26):
Well, you said he was fine to deal with ... could you have conversations with him? Because these days, quarterbacks you get them like one time on the podium once a week. Was Elway pretty available to deal with, and talk with, and try to get to know a little bit?
John McGrath (32:40):
Yeah. Probably the players who were his friends and he had a lot of them, I mean, a lot of offensive linemen. And John being a smart guy, knew that if you make friends with anybody on your team, it's going to be the offensive lineman if you're a quarterback, for sure.
John McGrath (33:01):
He was one of those guys that would hang around and have beers with him and talk. And he was one of the boys. And not so much with us, but again, like I say, he was fine, he wasn't evasive or confrontational or anything like that.
John McGrath (33:22):
But to be John's buddy, you had to be in those days about 285 pounds and 6'4" and have a really-
Todd Jones (33:33):
And give out the right candy at Halloween.
John McGrath (33:35):
Yeah, yeah. Exactly.
Todd Jones (33:37):
Well, it's always interesting when a superstar in a market commands so much attention. And you experienced that too when you went on to Chicago, when you worked for The National. God bless The National soul, three years in '89 to '91.
Todd Jones (33:56):
First one obviously, is Michael Jordan, but you had like the young Michael Jordan, right? I mean, this guy had not yet quite become everything he is now. I'm curious what it was to cover Michael at that point in his career.
John McGrath (34:12):
Yeah, like you pointed out, he was up and coming. He'd already had his famous game against the Celtics, the 63 point playoff game. The full year I was at The National and Charles Barkley won MVP that year. And I think just because the voters were tired of giving it to Michael.
John McGrath (34:38):
And this is before he had won his first championship. '91 was the year that we disbanded. In fact, we disbanded on the very night the Bulls clinched in Los Angeles for their first of the sixth.
Todd Jones (34:56):
I didn't realize that The National died on that very night.
John McGrath (34:59):
On that afternoon, yeah. And I was told that the Bulls players were down on the court talking about it. And I said, "Oh, really?" And then Jack McCallum from Sports Illustrated said, “Well, John, they weren't crestfallen or anything. They were talking about it.”
Todd Jones (35:18):
They were like taking credit. That was a head on a mantle. “We killed The National.”
John McGrath (35:27):
Yeah. I did a story on them winning the championship because I wanted to kind of have that on just being able to cover a championship team for the first time in my career.
John McGrath (35:42):
And even though it came on the night that the paper had disbanded, kind of obviously, a bittersweet situation. But yeah, Michael was still in those days ... and Mark Vancil, who was also, on our National staffing members, Mark would work for the Sun Times.
John McGrath (36:04):
And Mark can tell you once Michael was just a kid and didn't really know a lot of people in the Chicago area, but he and Mark had forged a little bit of a friendship.
John McGrath (36:20):
And he calls Mark up one night and he says, “Mark, can I bring over some beer and maybe we can grill out?” Mark said, "Hey, man, that sounds good. I'll get a couple of steaks." So, Michael Jordan comes back to Mark's place, and they grill steaks and have a couple of beers.
John McGrath (36:38):
That was Michael Jordan before The Last Dance. And that's how much that you talk about a transformation, and it was inevitable. It was just inevitable that he would-
Todd Jones (36:58):
I mean, he went on to become a global figure and the world of media changed to the point where it was 24/7. And those days you could have a conversation with a guy like Michael Jordan, and it might not be anything you quote him on.
Todd Jones (37:11):
You just have a chance to talk. He knows where you're coming from, you know where he's coming from. And you established some kind of working relationship.
John McGrath (37:21):
Yeah. Well, a lot of times I know Bob Verdi, who was covering the sports columnist for the Tribune in those days. And Bob, very, very great writer by the way, and a good old buddy of mine. But Bob loved golf and Michael was sort of getting into golf at that point.
John McGrath (37:41):
And I remember Bob would go in the locker room and talk with Michael about golf all the time. It was just something besides basketball. And he obviously, enjoyed the conversation because he's still, I think probably out playing golf as we speak.
Todd Jones (37:59):
Like we should be.
John McGrath (38:01):
Yeah, right. And that just didn't happen later in his career. But to me, he was the greatest player that ever lived. And that comes with the situation. You're not going to call friends over to grill steaks when you're a global icon.
Todd Jones (39:42):
Another guy that you got to cover a lot who became like a global name, like an asteroid streaking across the sky, was Bo Jackson, and I think he was in Kansas City when you were writing in Denver.
Todd Jones (39:55):
So, there was a time where you got to see a little bit of Bo in action in two sports. Did you ever get to know Bo?
John McGrath (40:04):
No, I never got to know him, but I was able to interview him once and right at the beginning of his Kansas City career. And I remember he had an infield hit and I want to say a home run or a triple, but he hit the ball ...
John McGrath (40:26):
You saw the two facets of Bo Jackson in one game, the speed to be able to beat out an infield single and the power.
John McGrath (40:32):
And to me, he had Hall of Fame potential in two sports. And I'm not sure, and we can go through the great athletes of all time who had Hall of Fame potential, I don't know if anybody had what Bo had in terms of that.
John McGrath (40:57):
I mean, if he had stuck with football, which is a big if because of the hip injury was sustained in football, but my God, he was as good a running back as there ever was.
John McGrath (41:08):
And if he had stuck with baseball, which I think in retrospect, if they had come down and told him what's going to happen, he would've chosen baseball and he would've hit 700 home runs.
John McGrath (41:20):
He struck out a bunch of times too. But you make up for it with your home runs, your speed, and that great obviously legendary throwing arm.
John McGrath (41:42):
Anyway, I talked to Bo in Kent City locker room, and in those days, players were assigned by their last name alphabetically. So, Bo's locker was next to Danny Jackson, who was a pain in the neck.
John McGrath (42:04):
And Danny Jackson sort of interceded on the interview. I would ask Bo a question and Danny Jackson would say something smart ass to interfere with the process.
Todd Jones (42:16):
Not cool.
John McGrath (42:17):
I almost called for the PR guy, but then, I don't know, I just thought, "I'll just soldier through it." But ever since, you hate to wish ill will on anybody, but when Danny Jackson would give up the occasional home run, I would smile.
Todd Jones (42:42):
Oh, we had those. I know a writer who used to those, I know a writer who used to have an all plane crash team. That he would put guys in certain seats and move them up to the front if they were particularly egregious in their actions towards the media. So, I got what you're saying.
John McGrath (42:58):
Yeah, yeah. And Bo, of course, as great as he was, Heisman Trophy winner and all that, he did not have the cache in the locker room. He didn't feel to tell Danny, "Shut up, I'm doing this, just mind your own business.
John McGrath (43:17):
He was kind of shy and withdrawn. Just socially a little bit awkward and nice enough, but did not feel like he had any kind of room to tell a veteran to shut up basically.
Todd Jones (43:35):
Well, let's move on to Tacoma because there's a guy there in Seattle, 45 minutes up the road, who in some ways was like Bo and that his talent was such that it just drew everybody in. But he wasn't always somebody who always wanted to deal with the media.
Todd Jones (43:53):
And that's Ken Griffey Jr. Jr. could be hot and he could be cold as a media person, which I always felt like, “Okay, that's fine.” You know what I mean? You deal with him on his own terms that way. But obviously, his talent was so prodigious and he really just lit up the Pacific Northwest, right?
John McGrath (44:12):
Yeah. He's sheer talent. And everybody saw that his persona was a little bit confusing to fans because everybody thought he was happy-go-lucky and he wore the cap backwards and had a very picture photogenic smile.
John McGrath (44:31):
But no, there were some sour notes there. And exactly, he could be hot and cold. By the way, win or lose sometimes after they won, he would be a no comment guy. And you're kind of thinking, "Jesus, Ken, you guys won the game. You hit a home run. It's okay.”
John McGrath (44:59):
And we had kind of a interesting relationship. And one of the big moments of all that, memory wise, Todd, he had broken his wrist making a spectacular Spiderman-like catch in center field at the Old Kingdome in the middle of the ‘95 season. It was Memorial Day weekend. He had to have surgery and he was going to be out for about two months.
John McGrath (45:32):
And he comes back, post-surgery goes okay, but now, he's got to come back and just get in major league shape in terms of timing.
John McGrath (45:48):
So, they assign him to Tacoma, the Triple-A of the Mariners. And Ken did not want to be in Tacoma. He had never played Triple-A baseball and he kind of took that as a matter of pride that he just skipped it all because he was too good.
John McGrath (46:03):
But they assigned him to Tacoma and he came down on a Friday afternoon with, it looked like his bodyguard, and friend, and confidant. And came in and a lot of people had gotten no notice that he was going to be there for batting practice and were there autographs, sign this ball, take a picture, whatever.
John McGrath (46:29):
And he wanted none of it. And he walked right by everybody. He didn't say hi, he didn't shake hands. He acted like, as Ring Lardner once wrote, the side dish he didn't order. The fans were just, "Get out of my way."
John McGrath (46:47):
So, I saw all that, and then I wrote for the Saturday morning paper what a jerk Ken Griffey had been. And pretty blunt. And he was a very popular player, obviously. But I saw how he kind of treated the fans and I wrote about it.
John McGrath (47:19):
Well, later that night, you know how sometimes retrospect, you kind of reflect and I remember sitting somewhere probably in a ... well, not probably, I was in a bar.
Todd Jones (47:32):
Hmm. Imagine that. Was I there with you?
John McGrath (47:36):
Yeah. And I thought to myself, "God, I might have been a little hard on him. But hey, what the hell? He's a grown man, he can handle it."
John McGrath (47:50):
So, the next day the paper comes to my house and I take off the rubber band, and the column is there, but it's on the front page-
Todd Jones (48:03):
Oh-oh. A1.
John McGrath (48:04):
... of the paper, A1. “Griffey is a Jerk.”
Todd Jones (48:08):
Was that the headline?
John McGrath (48:10):
Something like that.
Todd Jones (48:11):
Wow.
John McGrath (48:12):
Yeah.
Todd Jones (48:13):
And there's your mug.
John McGrath (48:16):
Yeah. Oh, yeah. So, Saturday comes and goes, and then nothing happened. Sunday morning I get a call that, “Come to the stadium. Griffey's going to play.” Because he had no plans on playing. So, he did suit up, he did play. But before that, he wanted to talk to me.
John McGrath (48:44):
And I walked in and got George Karl was there. He then was coaching the Sonics in this little locker room at the Triple-A stadium. And Ken just let me have it. And he wasn't offended, but he said his friend was, and to apologize to his friend. And I said, "Sure." We shook hands, but he really let me have it.
John McGrath (49:15):
And George Karl, who I always respected and admired and thought he was a great coach, but George said something to the effect of, "Boy, you just can't trust these media people." And I thought, "George, stay out of this."
John McGrath (49:30):
But Griffey ended up going one for three that day. And that was kind of precursor to a lot of other things that happened.
John McGrath (49:43):
The story ends by the way, kind of very happily, at least for me. I was invited to Cooper's Town to his Hall of Fame induction and there was a party for him. Cooper's Town's so cool. I don't know if you've been there, but the whole weekend is wonderful.
John McGrath (50:07):
And I saw Ken and he was dressed up and saw him and shook his hand and said, "Congratulations." He said, "Thank you." We shook hands and smiled, and that's the last we've talked. But yeah, a very interesting tumultuous at times relationship.
Todd Jones (50:23):
Well, that's the way it is for columnists sometimes, and a superstar in a market, it's just not always going to be wine and roses, nor should it be. Right?
John McGrath (50:31):
Yeah. And if I could do things over again I'm not sure, maybe I would've been a little lighter on that Saturday morning column, but yeah, there were a lot of layers there.
Todd Jones (53:57):
Well, Jr. wasn't the only person who defined sports in the Pacific Northwest, especially professionally.
Todd Jones (54:05):
The city of Seattle has been blessed with some great moments from great players, teams, the Supersonics. You forget that the Supersonics were there before they went to Oklahoma City, the Seahawks obviously.
Todd Jones (54:16):
You've covered a lot of different things over the years as a columnist in Tacoma, in your homeland out there. What sticks out more than anything when you think about all those years?
John McGrath (54:28):
Well, the Mariners was new to me in terms of this team that I had never really known anything about. And their stadium situation coincided with everything. They were desperately trying to stay in Seattle with the threat of moving to Tampa Bay under consideration.
John McGrath (54:59):
And so, the team was just playing to win, but the organization and the fans and everything else that was playing to survive and to stay here in Seattle.
John McGrath (55:11):
And that became, I think one of the great fun runs I've ever been privileged to cover was how they made the playoffs and it was just delirious. They were down 0-2 to the Yankees and ended up winning three straight in the Kingdome.
John McGrath (55:33):
And it just meant so much more than just winning and getting to the playoffs. It meant keeping the team here. As it turned out, they had a public vote that lost, but they went behind closed doors and had worked something out to the extent that a lot of fans were mad at them for essentially the politicians circumventing the vote.
John McGrath (55:59):
It lost very narrowly and probably would've succeeded if they had voted the next day or the next day after that. But they had a lot of mail-in votes that said no.
John McGrath (56:09):
In any case, covering a team that was playing not just to win, but for the ultimate stability of keeping the sport in town was pretty amazing.
Todd Jones (58:56):
The great news is that the Mariners were able to stay in town.
Todd Jones (58:59):
And I wanted to ask you quickly about the other franchise in town that has drawn so much attention over the years. And that's the Seahawks.
Todd Jones (59:08):
And I want to ask you and close with this one particular moment, because as a columnist, you can't find any more red meat than on February 1st, 2015, the Super Bowl Seattle loses to the Patriots 28-24.
Todd Jones (59:25):
Now, you're sitting there in your press seat. There are 26 seconds left. The ball is on the one yard line, the Seahawks have this monster back, and Marshawn Lynch, the beast. Pete Carroll, “Just give him the ball and you're going to win the Superbowl.” Right?
Todd Jones (59:42):
What was your thinking when you saw that scenario unfold?
John McGrath (59:48):
Horrified when I saw Russell Wilson line up in the shotgun, and I'm, “What are we doing here? And then he's going to throw the ball. What are we doing here?” He threw, Todd, to the like fourth receiver on the roster.
Todd Jones (1:00:12):
Oh, it's nice of him to go through his reads in that moment. Right?
John McGrath (1:00:14):
Yeah. There's a reason the guy was a fourth receiver. And it went through his hands. And then of course, it was intercepted in the end zone. And that's that.
John McGrath (1:00:28):
I do remember looking at the monitor and seeing Pete Carroll with both hands on his knees and this astonished look. And I was kind of kept waiting on what's he going to do now? Because every button he'd pushed to that point had worked. What's he going to do now?
John McGrath (1:00:47):
And instead his reaction was ... yeah.
Todd Jones (1:00:53):
Total surprise.
John McGrath (1:00:54):
He had nothing left. It made for a very easy column to write. But I always thought, “Man, there was still a chance.” The ball was like at the one foot line, inside the one. Hey, maybe you get a safety. Stranger things have happened. And then they have to kick off.
John McGrath (1:01:19):
You could actually call for a free catch. And then if you call for a free catch, you get a free kick. All that was still in play, obviously, not entirely plausible, but certainly possible.
John McGrath (1:01:37):
And then Michael Bennett was offside as he always was, or not always, but most of the time-
Todd Jones (1:01:46):
Enough.
John McGrath (1:01:46):
... he was offside. Enough. And then the ball is ... and then that's it. That's the game.
John McGrath (1:01:52):
But it's interesting, Todd, having Marshawn on the one foot line or one yard line has become synonymous with the ultimate failure when success was so close. Around here, it's kind of a buzz phrase. “Hey, we had Marshawn on the one foot line, what happened?”
Todd Jones (1:02:20):
I know as a writer, when you're sitting there and something that starts to unfold right in front of you, you're almost like everybody else. You're like, "What are you doing? You're overthinking this."
John McGrath (1:02:32):
Yeah. Sometimes during the Super Bowl, there's so much to cover and there's so many other people, especially if it's your hometown that's in the game, there's eight people there. And you're all kind of running over each other covering the same thing.
John McGrath (1:03:00):
But to be able to see it right in front of me, that was one where I didn't miss my deadline.
Todd Jones (1:03:09):
You didn't miss it in any of those four time zones either.
John McGrath (1:03:12):
Yeah, yeah. I would say that was quite easy. But another Super Bowl that I covered, was Pittsburgh and the Seahawks in Detroit.
John McGrath (1:03:25):
And what happened there was interesting. We had all these people, none of us was watching TV and nobody at the desk was watching TV.
John McGrath (1:03:34):
As it turned out, there was some officiating calls that John Madden had an issue with. And talked about it, and it became a national story unbeknownst to us who were at the game and didn't hear John Madden talk at all.
John McGrath (1:03:51):
And after that, I always said, "Hey, we need somebody to watch the game on TV just to ... you employ all these people, let's just make sure we're covering what the nation is talking about.”
John McGrath (1:04:09):
What was interesting is the next day I asked Mike Holmgren face-to-face, I said, "Hey, there's been a lot of talk about the officiating. Do you have any second day thoughts on that?"
John McGrath (1:04:23):
And he said, "Actually, the only problem we had was with the fans being given the terrible towels. But there was no equivalent for what the Seahawks were — there were no kiosks selling Seahawk souvenirs, because that was a little unfair. But as far as the officiating, no."
John McGrath (1:04:42):
Well, that was the morning. That was, I want to say Monday morning or Tuesday morning. No, Monday morning, I'm sorry.
John McGrath (1:04:55):
They get back to Seattle later that afternoon. They have a rally at the stadium, and Holmgren says, "I didn't realize we had to play two teams yesterday. One in gold and black and the other in stripes."
John McGrath (1:05:12):
So, somewhere between when I asked him about the officiating and when they landed, I think he also, saw the John Madden comments.
Todd Jones (1:05:22):
He could have used somebody watching television too.
John McGrath (1:05:25):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But underscores the premise that if it happens on TV, it happened. And if nobody saw it on TV, it didn't happen.
Todd Jones (1:05:41):
Well, John Fogarty once sang, "I know it's true, because I saw it on TV."
John McGrath (1:05:47):
Yeah, exactly.
Todd Jones (1:05:49):
Well, I know what, John, this has been a great time. You took the buyout in 2018, and I just want to wrap this up and pay tribute to you for overcoming some of the health challenges that you've had.
Todd Jones (1:06:03):
One of the reasons I was joking around about losing touch with you is that you had a lot going on. In late 2019, your liver disease was diagnosed, and well, you tell it. You didn't know what was going to happen. Right?
John McGrath (1:06:19):
Yeah. Actually, I'd had some persistent stomach ache that wasn't terrible, but it was persistent. So, I finally went into the clinic and just said, "I have a stomach ache," expecting them to give me like two pills and come back Wednesday afternoon.
John McGrath (1:06:40):
And instead they kept me there that night. And after a bunch of tests, and tubes, and crazy drugs and weird dreams, and six days later, I was told that I had six months to live. And I thought, "Wow. That certainly hastens the process here. I thought might have a few years."
Todd Jones (1:07:10):
Yeah. Talk about deadline.
John McGrath (1:07:12):
Yeah, right? So, that was quite a wakeup call, I guess. And I got everything all set to transition into the next stop as they call it, or whatever the euphemism is on the ...
John McGrath (1:07:34):
And I had actually some nice folks that came over, non-denominational, but basically social workers who wanted to talk about the journey, all that stuff. And got my will in order and ready to go. Lord, take me. And never got the call. So, here I am, three and a half years later.
John McGrath (1:08:01):
I also, got hit by a truck in February.
Todd Jones (1:08:03):
Yeah. In February of this year, you're crossing the street and a pickup truck runs you over, John. What the hell?
John McGrath (1:08:12):
Yeah. So, I'm still hanging, and loving each day, and appreciating each day. And thinking I'll get called when it's time to get called, but for right now, it's all good.
Todd Jones (1:08:32):
Well, let's make this an afternoon deadline, one that's way off in the future, and I'll join you then. Obviously, I'm so glad you're on the mend and doing better and still with us.
Todd Jones (1:08:44):
I know I miss seeing you on the road. We had some good times together covering events over the years, and this has been very enjoyable to catch up once again.
John McGrath (1:08:53):
Todd, I certainly, enjoyed it. And I applaud what you're doing for our business and it's just a wonderful way of keeping up with again, I could go full circle with the characters and the friends that I accumulated over the years in this wonderful business called sports writing.
John McGrath (1:09:18):
And congratulations to you for keeping all of us kind of in the loop.
Todd Jones (1:09:23):
Thank you, John.
John McGrath (1:09:23):
And remembering and recalling what wonderful jobs we had.
John McGrath (1:09:28):
Thank you.
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