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>> All right, welcome back to Last Call.

Checking us out on our YouTube channel.

We really do appreciate it.

Well, you know me, I appreciate like winning money when I place a bet, but I don't play blackjack because I just don't have as much luck as other people do.

But the governor of of Illinois sure does.

Uh, Governor Pritsker won $1.4 million reportedly last year playing blackjack at a casino in Las Vegas.

Now, I got no problem with that, but do we want a future president that's a gambler, Joe?

>> Yes.

>> All right.

You're a poker player.

>> Absolutely.

Absolutely.

I I like the idea of someone who goes into a casino and will put down their money and you have to make choices.

I mean, it you're playing a game.

And I'll tell you what I don't want is a president who's addicted to slot machines cuz then you're just throwing coins in, you know, and hoping, you know, blackjack, there's a theory, there's a way to play that increases your odds.

So, I like someone who can sit there and under pressure make decisions that have a negative or positive outcome.

So, yes, a person who will engage in gambling is that's fine.

>> All right.

To win $1.4 $4 million playing blackjack.

You have to be a good blackjack.

>> Well, and you're at the big table.

>> You're at the $25,000 table.

You could be at the 5,000.

>> No, everybody's always pointing at me about gambling.

I got a table full of hustlers.

>> In case you know it, Governor Pritsker went to Vegas with a lot of money.

>> 1.4 million for Governor Pritsker is probably his kennel fee, you know, for his his family pets.

The guy is the heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune.

He is the most he is the wealthiest elected public official in the in the nation.

So yeah, ever.

So he's he's not this is not any great windfall for him.

>> Bill, you're an Illinois guy.

>> I I am.

And I've uh been to the casinos many many years ago.

I sat at a blackjack table with one of the Everly brothers, >> you know, and I sort of hum to myself, you know, Kathy's Clown to see if I could get a reaction.

I I didn't.

didn't win.

>> Well, I I don't I must have lost cuz I ended up, you know, I learned my lesson long ago and I don't remember if the Everly kid won or lost.

>> Well, and Harry Truman was a famous poker player.

He had games that that lasted I think for a very long time.

>> Yeah.

Apparently they fleeced Churchill to death when Churchill was over at Westminster.

They Churchill thought he knew how to play poker and apparently Truman and his staff Yeah.

never heard of them down.

>> That's not It's not a scandal for JB and it's a fleeting headline.

I mean, he this is the person who removed the toilets from their house that was being rehabbed so that he could save on uh property taxes.

That's a little more serious, I think.

>> Yeah, >> it's it's legal gambling.

I mean, you know, there's nothing illegal about it.

And I I do believe that the the skills used at a poker table, a blackjack table can serve you well when it comes to politics.

You know, I I really do.

I I think it's a good games.

>> How about How about horse racing?

>> That's pretty much like people study that stuff.

>> That's my favorite.

>> Yeah.

I I've always heard that that I remember saying one time when I was playing cards and getting into that and I asked him about horse racing and he said there's quicker ways to lose a million dollars, but there's no sureer way to lose a million dollars than horse racing.

So, I stayed away from >> If I had $6 million, I'd buy that building, but I also fill it up with slot machine.

No.

No.

I would probably uh I'd probably buy a horse.

>> You could win it in the card game.

I like that.

>> Right.

Cuz they cost about $6 million a minute to own.

>> All right.

Well, the beginning of this week, it was the 40th anniversary of something that all St.

Louisans uh those of us who were born Jacob always remember.

And that was Ozzie Smith's famous home run and the call by Jack Buck.

Go crazy folks.

Go crazy folks.

Um everybody kind of remembers where they were at that time.

And I got to share a story with you.

Uh during when the beginning of that series with Los Angeles, I was at the newspaper in uh Danville.

And I had never had a chest X-ray.

And I don't know why I needed one.

I guess maybe for insurance or something like that.

It was relatively newly married.

And I had a big old splotch on my lung, you know, and everybody's I was kind of like, well, this is not good.

They told me it was probably nothing.

But I had to go from Danville over to Carl Clinic in Champagne and it really was nothing.

They said people from St.

Louis get something called hystopplasmosis because it's like moldy around here whatever and just the high humidity it was absolutely nothing but I had never had a chest x-ray so I learned that I was perfectly fine and okay and while driving back to Champagne is from Champagne to Damville is when Aussie Smith hit that home run.

>> You had it on the radio.

and on the radio and like I had this like tear in my eye and I said like I don't know if I'm really really happy that Ozzie Smith hit a home run or I'm happy that I'm not about to leave.

You went crazy with your I was going to say like I really did like go crazy as I was driving back.

Very happy.

>> I think we should put that on our uh tourist brochures.

Come to St.

Lewis for the mold like >> for the mold in your lungs mold in your lungs.

What are like now it's not your house or anything like that in the air or whatever.

I don't know.

>> Like so many times I was actually down at the uh >> newspaper the loading dock at the Jefferson County News Democrat newspaper >> uh in Fesus, Missouri.

and I was working down there and the game was getting close in the end and we had one of those TVs 1985, right?

Was a portable that was like this big, >> you know?

So, we're trying to watch the game.

The guys on the loading dock and the pressmen had a bigger TV.

Oh, yeah.

>> So, we So, the editor goes, >> "We're taking a break, guys."

And we all go out and we're sitting on the loading dock smoking cigarettes when Azie hit that home run.

So there was about a half a dozen of us and we just went absolutely nuts, hugging, screaming, whatever, and then went back and put out the paper.

But I can still remember sitting on that dock watching also, this is in days before cable, making sure the antennas are right.

>> The rabbit ear get the rabbit ears right, you know, and and hearing that.

And I remember thinking at the time, the go crazy folks go crazy because usually you don't think about that.

I just remember thinking that was a really good line.

it like immediately stuck with me and now of course it's become >> and to hear it on the radio okay and not have I just had to visualize what was happening and just to hear it on the radio live it was just it was it was very special and then you know Jack Clark >> well as a Cub fan I didn't find it >> you did right did you even listen to the game >> no and and a matter of fact I I I don't think I did and the paper had sent me to LA was that who this was against the games in LA and I didn't go to the stadium I just did a couple columns about LA and and life and how it was.

>> Well, we got our money out of that one, didn't we?

>> We had so many sports writers on on the playoff games that if you sat around and had breakfast and say, "Who's going to do what?

This guy was going to do this.

This I mean, there was nothing left for me anyway."

So, I said, "Well, I'll do something on I don't know, Hillside Strangler.

I'll find that."

>> Yeah.

I I Hey, I I did those stories in later years after Bill was off that beat.

They would send me to the cities to do the other stories.

Right.

Right.

>> Yeah.

The the the local flavor.

There was something about Jack Buck that I mean that he was able you and I have never heard his family.

I've never heard Julie or Joe discuss that call or whether or not there was any thought behind it.

But everything sounded so spont everything was so spontaneous with him.

And today though when it happens you know that the announcer has been rehearsing you know for because they practice because it it sounds he never sounded.

>> And just one one more thing on that because I did not see it until I saw a replay of the game.

NBC flashed on the uh television that Ozzie Smith had never hit a home run left-handed and the very next pitch he hits a home run.

All right.

Hey, Kirkwood is on top of this World Cup thing, or at least the state of Missouri kind of is.

There's going to be a third train running between Kirkwood and Kansas City during the World Cup.

So, I'm glad that my municipality is on top of things.

I guess this will actually help our downtown area.

But should St.

Louis be getting on this World Cup bandwagon and train and trying to get as much out of this as we possibly can or do we look say like, "Ah, it's just Kansas City.

You're a business guy.

>> I think so.

I mean, I think that a lot of people are going to be coming from Europe and other places and they don't necessarily just want to go to Kansas City.

You'll also remember that Kansas City has no international flights going to Europe.

We now have are going to have two.

That's right.

>> So, I think people are going to be coming in and we should have some kind of program or idea of what we want to be pushing uh to help.

Obviously, England English are fans of the English team um travel.

They're kind of rowdy.

All right.

But we have a direct flight.

So, why don't we be the the England hub for >> Well, see, that's what we were talking about last week.

We've got to clean up our downtown area before before we get that that new service.

So, you know, we're kind of using that as a deadline.

Remember you said you'd wait you'd wait until the week before I would to clean up the city because we're going to If you when it's like cleaning a house, if if you're having guests over on Saturday and you clean on Wednesday, >> it doesn't make sense.

>> Can't even make sense.

So, yes, I I would wait until close.

>> And if the paper sends you to the World Cup, are you going to bother to go to the game when you >> Hey, I I went to political conventions and didn't show up at the convention.

>> It all comes out in the wash, doesn't it?

I was in downtown Kirkwood Saturday for a concert for a Donnybrooker Mary Dyson fab fabulous uh Kirkwood Performing Arts Center.

You don't need any help getting business.

You had there were four pe four people standing across walking down the the the sidewalks in Kirkwood on Saturday night.

You're doing fine.

>> Uh we we need all the help we can get in Kirkwood.

>> Right, Mayor Joe?

You >> So let me get this straight.

The World Cup is going to be here in the United States.

>> United States and Kansas City right across the state.

Okay.

All right.

Hey, and we're right across your television next week.

Thank you for tuning in to Donnybrook and to Last Call.

And once again, thank you, Jacob Kirn.

Look forward to seeing you soon, everybody.

Have a great week and fall will get here eventually.