Hour 2: Robert Wuhl & Frank The Tank Join the Show

**Craig Carton** (0:00)
It's The Carton Show with D-Mack. Happy to have a dear, dear friend of mine stop by. I don't get to see him as much as I'd like to.
A true baseball historian, just ask him, Mr. Robert Wuhl joins us for a minute. Bobby, how you been, kid?

**Robert Wuhl** (0:14)
I'm fine, I'm fine. It's good to see you.

**Craig Carton** (0:16)
Let me ask you a question. When people see you and recognize you on the street, as they typically do, is it A, you're the guy from Batman? Is it B, you're the lollygagger from Bull Durham?
Is it C, you are the greatest sports agent of all time? Or is it D, assume the position, the really funny, really smart American history doc on HBO many years ago?

**Robert Wuhl** (0:46)
Batman trumps everything.

**Craig Carton** (0:47)
Really?

**Robert Wuhl** (0:49)
Batman was a huge movie. I mean, Batman trumps everything. And then you're going to be surprised about this.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:55)
Go ahead, Cobb.

**Robert Wuhl** (0:57)
Not Cobb. My first movie was a little cult film called The Hollywood Nights.

**Craig Carton** (1:01)
I know very well. Right.

**Robert Wuhl** (1:03)
I get stuck. Willie Fritz, the head coach of the University of Houston, right? I went to Houston when I said hi, he goes, New Bomb Turk. He's the biggest fan. Hollywood Nights.
Bull Durham. If I'm in a sports round, it's R-list in Bull Durham, of course. And Cobb in Blue Chips.

**Craig Carton** (1:21)
I don't remember Blue Chips.

**Robert Wuhl** (1:22)
Yeah, I'm in Blue Chips, too.

**Craig Carton** (1:23)
I don't remember that. Do me a favor. Reporter, right? Tell people the story.
Because these people have never heard it. I love your story. Tell people what happened when you and Mitch Modell went to Boston and he was trying to get business done for a signage inside the Boston Garden. And you went with him because you're as a friend. As a friend. I'm friends with Mitch. I saw him a couple of weeks ago. By the way, Mitch is healthy.

**Robert Wuhl** (1:48)
Yeah.

**Craig Carton** (1:49)
Beat cancer, which is great. So good for him. Tell people the story how the Celtics thought that you were R-less and that you were there to negotiate the deal.

**Robert Wuhl** (1:59)
Absolutely true. Mitch Modell was a friend of mine. You remember Modell's sporting goods, right?

**Chris McMonigle** (2:03)
Of course.

**Robert Wuhl** (2:05)
We were just good buddies. I mean, we were very good friends. And my wife's family is from Massachusetts. So, I was staying with her and Mitch says, I'll meet you at Boston because the Yankees were playing in the Red Sox in the playoffs.
And I said, he says, I'll meet you at the Boston Garden. I go, what are you doing there? He goes, well, I got to negotiate a deal with the Celtics for advertising time. I go, what do you want me there for? What am I doing there? He goes, yes, meet me there. So, we go in and I'm sitting there and the execs all come in. And Mitchell jokingly says, oh, you know my agent, Arliss Michaels?
And because I played a sports agent on TV, on HBO and I said hi. And he starts negotiating and everything and he wanted Kevin Garnett to do something. And the guys at the executive said, well, I don't know his agent, Jill Smulyan. And I go, well, I know Jill. You know, because I did know her.
Because she put athletes on the show. And they, and they, the executive said, would you excuse us for one second? They go out, they come back with the president of the Boston Celtics. And they actually thought I was going to negotiate the deal.
And the next day in the papers, they wrote this story which has no basis of truth. But it was like, Arliss was negotiating a deal, you know. It's the old one, the legend becomes fact, print the legend, right? And that's a true story, yes.

**Craig Carton** (3:24)
Did he get the deal done?

**Robert Wuhl** (3:26)
Yes, he did.
Yes, he did. And he's great at it. Mitchell knew exactly where to put advertising.

**Craig Carton** (3:32)
Yes, he did.

**Robert Wuhl** (3:33)
He knew in right field to put, you know, Modell, because that's where all the home runs went, in Yankee Stadium, go to right field. So he knew whatever they cut there, he's going to have that shot.

**Craig Carton** (3:42)
Did you speak in the meeting?

**Robert Wuhl** (3:45)
Just what I said, I go, I might have made a joke here or there, but that's a true story. They thought I was there to negotiate.