On January 3, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, Daniel M. Galbreath, Dave Giusti, Stephen Blass, Richard A. Moore, Oliver F. ("Ollie") Atkins, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 3:43 pm and 4:02 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 832-004 of the White House Tapes.
Transcript (AI-Generated)This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.
I'm sorry to set the occasion, but I must say that before we come here, we stand talking about
I guess the only one that really taught me was, for example, was Master Wesky's home run.
I didn't even see that.
I was out of the country at the time.
But your series is great, and it's really a marvelous thing.
I'm happy about that.
So then what he did, you know, and doing good, doing good is what I would try to put in my little name, he, it was very few people, except people who knew him, knew that, I mean, they, you know, they didn't know him as a baseball player, but you also knew he knew that he was very concerned about humanitarian causes.
But then, as a result of an accident, a tragic accident, the world knows.
I picked up the New York Times and the Washington Post and the Washington Star
that they have in this county, where we just read so hard about everything he's done all through the years.
And I had never known him before.
I had never seen anything that we had done before.
He went in and sold it, but in that thing, he didn't try to publicize it in other words.
He didn't publicize it.
But he just went back there and worked with this little boy.
He killed somebody.
Thank you.
He'd always wished, I think, that he could maybe not have the attention, but have everybody see how he could play baseball.
I think that's a great deal.
Well, you know, I totally agree with the idea.
And the same thing with Aaron, leaving out the pitchers and all that.
But had Aaron, instead of playing for the Braves, played for the Yankees,
or the old Giants, or even the Los Angeles Dodgers, he would be considered wrong.
He is anyway.
I guess .
Years ago, I mean, when you talk of 300 hitters, there aren't many these days.
I mean, the pitching is too good to say.
But here you go.
Here's the line.
Year after year after year.
Pigeons or whatever.
Great armor.
And that's the thing I remember about that series.
That one of those shows he made was fantastic.
Well, I think Star Wars is missing.
Do you remember that day?
They would run and say, I think you threw in the hole.
And they would stay there.
Clear out.
Yeah, clear out.
And save the game.
That's right.
Anyway, I just want to say that all of a sudden, here they saw him in a little staircase.
That might be the name.
We came from the sports competition.
So I think it was so great because of what he did in that seventh game.
He put everything, the examples of what he could do into that seventh game.
I was concentrated.
It's great that that happened now.
Well, we did find that.
I'm going to say we appreciate the effort that you've given us to kind of wrap around this.
It's really kind of struggling.
Let me say that what I had in mind, the idea occurred to me yesterday.
I was having a really good time.
You know, you always think of what kind of people a man would want.
And so, some men would want a statue, and others would want a college, or what have you.
And it seems to me that, if there's any question, how many, based on what he was doing when he died, the number of him should be
to help the cause, he died one day.
I mean, Nicaragua's a poor country, you know, basically the poorest of all America votes for.
Their good people have been there in 55, and the decent people, the poorest of them.
Managua is, for the matter of reason, the city lost as much as it did part of the village, or so it was.
Not earthquake-proof, as I don't know in L.A., so it's a great story.
Anyway, so, if you find a building memorial,
Why not really alone?
What I have in mind is that it emanated from Pittsburgh.
I think it did.
I think it did.
I remember that there used to be a lot of ads for the Eisenhardt Medical Center that were put on television during the Gulf.
The Gulf Turnpike never should have been created.
I recall
I think if sports fans basically are generous, and I don't know what will come of it, but in this instance, if the sports world, and then we slip over to the other part, and then we make huge contributions, you could say, I love that you remember this, you see, the Red Cross is asking money, everybody's asking money, there's plenty of places.
What do we do?
Will it help people build homes?
Will it help work in the journal?
We have education through all the things that we've done.
Or.
is that they probably have a baseball park and a coffee shop, one or the other.
And what I would suggest is that in getting the fund to get it, that you have the part of news to build a school and name it, or a very community school, or a baseball stadium, or both, you see?
Now, to help on this thing, I said, I have a business moment.
I've made a contribution.
baseball, but now you ought to go to Bob Richards, not in L.A., you know, I mean, uh, uh, Russell Browns, Big Bob, you know, and, uh, the movie guy, you know, they, you know, they all, uh, the, uh, the, uh, you've got the, uh, owners, owners all over the country, I mean, they're like, you know, this, uh, similar to where he belongs.
Now, they, they, they, they, you see, all the owners, one of them got billed, too, and then they'll start, and then they're, they're friends, you
I think what will happen is that the investments that belong to the public will come in advance.
The five dollars, that's all.
Five dollars.
And everybody can feel that they have a part in it.
If you can do it so it isn't just impersonal.
How long do you want to build a Roberto?
I'm not telling you how to run your show, but I think if you could say we're going to put a Roberto on every school,
Baseball.
I think both would be nice.
Maybe school would be a very nice baseball.
Or a jam or something.
Because he likes to help kids.
And the school then appeals because it gets it a little away from just sports.
But anyway, whatever you want.
Raise your hand if you want to.
I think you should incorporate it, right, Dick?
Incorporate it.
It'll be tax deductible.
uh...
Actually, you know, let's get a picture on this.
Are you?
I'm here to make the record, I promise.
Yeah, that was the most fun.
I just got to turn this over to you.
Did you understand Spanish?
Did you know what he was saying?
I knew he was referring to his mother and father.
And he translated it in English.
I see.
Thank you.
I remember you saying all this work.
You never forgot.
I'm so sorry.
Now, let me give you a private picture.
Here's your picture.
Okay.
Don't keep playing.
I used to play at no time.
No, no.
Let me say that.
I think the idea that you're having the Puerto Rican kids, you're having Jewish kids.
You're a part of them and you're part of them.
But your emotional impact at the beginning will be to hurt the victims and have people come and have a word out so that a part of them can be decided upon.
You've heard of the arts in the day.
Absolutely, God, absolutely.
What are the things that he would want?
How do you like that?
I think there's a lot of good in there.
But you also try to see if there's anything that we could do.
I don't know why.
It might be on the sports, and in Puerto Rico, you see, we can't in Nicaragua, but in Puerto Rico, being part of the United States, you might be able to see if ATW or some other, let's give it some sort of a grant, you know, I mean, why don't we try to see a few bucks in his, but we can't do it in England.
We've held it for a long time.
I don't know what it's going to be like.
Let's check it out.
What he started with, we talked to him late last night.
Yeah.
He said, Danny didn't even have to call me.
Danny, I can do.
I'm totally with you, Danny.
I guess he was on television today.
I'll never forget it.
I'm a little seriously disappointed.
You got one hit.
He's the only guy that's- I know, I know, I know.
But what was his trouble?
Well, he had been in a slump for the latter part of the year, and then it just carried over, and you start pressing, and you start assuming that you have to do more than you have to do.
He didn't appear to be tight, and I watched him closely.
I only saw about two or three of the games.
I saw the seven.
And he appeared to be loose.
But he just- That's the thing, the way they picture it,
I was throwing it by him all the time.
And I think in one game, they even won.
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
He was pressing just so much that he was just almost nervous.
I think it needs a body for a team like that here, too.
Mr. Nixon was the second game involved.
Oh, yeah.
I said on our behalf, though, I'm pitching his name again.
Yeah.
Thank you for your support.
We always like to have you on our side.
Good luck.
We wish you a good job.
We wish the fire as well.
In fact, one of the last times I was out of the boat, the only time I was going to do all-star games was when I was in Pittsburgh.
In 1959, if you remember, I started to get a life-alternation.
We'll send you copies of this picture.
Great question.
Have a good year next year.
With the World Series.
Let me see.
If you get in the World Series.
Yes.
That's a deal.
Thank you.