LS: Who was your favorite owner in baseball?

CG: Tom Yawkey of the Boston Red Sox. He was the greatest ever, for the players and for the game.

LS: Who was your easiest interview?

CG: Ted Williams. He was smart and had a great voice. When you asked him a question he would give you a clear and concise answer. And not just for me but for all the reporters.

LS: What is your favorite stadium?

CG: Fenway Park.

LS: What is your favorite city?

CG: Boston. It's a great town. Who would of thought that a kid from Wyoming would live in Beantown but we love it. My wife and I raised our kids there.

LS: What is your favorite hotel?

CG: Actually, when I was with the Yankees, we stayed at the Kenmore hotel in Boston. It was right down the street from Fenway and they were very nice to us there.

LS: You've won a few awards in your day, haven't you?

CG: I was the first person in the field of sports to win the George Foster Peabody Award in 1972. At the ceremony when I spoke I thanked them for finally recognizing sports on television. It was the first time they had ever really recognized us. I mentioned that in sports, the script doesn't change by the month, by the week, or by the day, but by the second. I also won 13 Emmys, six of them as the producer of the "American Sportsman."

LS: You're also a great fisherman and I know you fished with a couple of Presidents.

CG: I fished with President Carter and President Bush. It was a great honor.

LS: What do you think of the current state of a sports?

CG: It's so different now. Everything is money. Big team payrolls. The inefficiency of small market teams trying to compete. The Yankees have a payroll of $107 million. Other teams have payrolls of $28 million. How can they compete? It's a shame that money has become such a big factor and the players are so obscenely rich. But nobody tells the owners they can't give it to them. There's no rules. That's the biggest difference now is that money runs the whole thing.

LS: Do you think team owners are too easy on players who break the rules?

CG: Well you have the union now. The players should get down on their knees every night and thank Marvin Miller for that. He was a great labor lawyer and beat baseball every time. Take Carl Everett, the outfielder for the Red Sox. He just butted an umpire so they fined him and suspended him for 10 days. Now the union is appealing it even though he did butt the umpire. He probably won't win the appeal but they fight every incident for the player. They're so powerful that they can shut down the game any day they want. It used to be, when I was with the Red Sox, a player couldn't go anywhere unless he was traded or he quit. Now they have free agency and there's a lot more movement of players.

LS: I know you're familiar with the book Bob Costas wrote on improving baseball. Do you have any suggestions that you think would improve the game?

CG: They've got to do something about the inequity of the little markets competing with the big markets. The Yankees get at least 50 or 60 million dollars alone form cable and they're going to get an even better deal on their next contract. Markets in Minnesota, Kansas City get two or three million. So how can you compete with them. They have to do something about that. They just had a blue ribbon panel study where they said they've got to do something to reward the smaller markets to give them a chance to compete more evenly. Also, if need be, if the club is not doing well, like in Montreal, move the franchise. That's the main thing. I don't see too much wrong with the NFL setup or the NBA, but baseball has got problems.

LS: Who are your favorite sportscasters of all time?

CG: Ted Husing was my favorite when I was growing up. I loved Mel Allen and Red Barber. They were great baseball announcers. Nowadays, I think Al Michaels is the best play-by-play announcer. Bob Costas is a very bright guy and is great in the studio. Dick Enberg has a drama to him which is outstanding. Now we really have two categories, with the play-by-play guys and the analysts. I would say John Madden is the top analyst. Everyone seems to like him. In basketball, there are two guys I like a lot. One is Hubie Brown on Turner Network who is very intelligent and the other is Doug Collins, who I think is very good. In baseball, I always liked Tim McCarver.

LS: We recently lost two of our Board of Director members, Don Dunphy and Jack Brickhouse. What do you have to say about these two?