John Bolton - August 03, 2011


Thom's place


Episode Stats


Length

14 minutes

Words per minute

185.31155

Word count

2,625

Sentence count

280

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Tom Racine is an avid hockey fan and puck collector. He has over 3,000 pieces of hockey memorabilia in his collection and keeps them all on display in his basement in order to display them in a special place in his home.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Okay, so here's Tom Racine. We're going into his special hockey room here. And look at this.
00:00:07.840 It's a hidden door to hide his treasures. Okay, so we'll go on. He's turning the lights on.
00:00:14.960 And look at this. I want Dad to see this. Check this out, Dad. Look at the puck collection.
00:00:22.420 Look at the pucks. Un-freaking-believable. Look at this.
00:00:28.600 3,334 as of today.
00:00:30.940 3,334. Now, Tom, I want to ask you this. Is there one in particular that you... I mean, there's so many here. Is there one that kind of stands out?
00:00:38.100 Yeah, there's a couple. This one over here. This is...
00:00:43.040 Let's go see.
00:00:44.880 From the Guelph Biltmore Mad Hatters. It's one of the first crested pucks from the late 50s, early 60s. 0.90
00:00:53.360 It's kind of neat. It's old. It's as old. Old is older than I am, I think.
00:01:01.220 And then there's a couple NHL ones that I have. But there's several. I mean, that tower in the center, there isn't a biscuit in there that's worth less than $50, roughly.
00:01:11.040 Wow. On average. So, like, there's a... That's kind of like my sacred tower.
00:01:17.240 And I know people... People know that you collect them and you've had people actually send you pucks and kind of get them in the mail.
00:01:22.420 Here, I found these.
00:01:23.320 Yeah. I... I've had many... Many guys just drop off bags. They've been either in the garage or in the basement.
00:01:31.340 You know, and there's always a gem or two in the bags.
00:01:34.720 I'm just wondering. I'm just looking at the way that they're mounted up here. Is this your own idea or did you get this somewhere else?
00:01:41.020 No. It's a puck collecting buddy of mine in Albany, New York.
00:01:48.160 Made these for his basement, but he upgraded to oak cabinetry.
00:01:53.020 And he told me, what am I getting on? He asked me, what am I going to do with these things?
00:01:55.840 They used to be 8x4 sheets of plywood.
00:01:57.700 And I said, well, I'd take them, but I have no way to get them here.
00:02:01.600 And about a week or two after that, wouldn't you know it, someone from here was going down there with a truck.
00:02:07.140 Threw them on the back of the truck.
00:02:09.360 I got them here.
00:02:10.580 Didn't really have any room for 8x4 sheets of plywood, so I cut them.
00:02:14.680 And so it made four great display boards on either side.
00:02:17.200 Beautiful. Beautiful. Look at the pucks up here.
00:02:19.940 How many did you get?
00:02:20.900 3,334.
00:02:22.940 Many of these seen gameplay? Do you know?
00:02:25.960 Actually, quite a few.
00:02:28.700 The best part about puck collecting is the fact that every logo on a puck describes a team.
00:02:38.280 And if you look at the edge of the puck, you can date that puck.
00:02:42.560 And then all you've got to do now with the internet, you just go and punch in that team,
00:02:46.100 and you can literally find players who play for the team.
00:02:48.300 Well, it's interesting because I look up here, and you've got all the teams that no longer exist.
00:02:52.900 You have the Hartford Whalers, the Colorado Rockies.
00:02:55.420 That's a rare one.
00:02:56.400 Yeah, yeah. I mean, look at that.
00:02:58.320 That probably, who was the goalie who played for Cherry?
00:03:00.500 Is it Hardy Astrum?
00:03:01.460 Hardy Astrum.
00:03:01.980 Hardy Astrum, yeah.
00:03:02.760 What did Cherry say about him?
00:03:05.320 He said, Hardy Astrum's standing in the middle of the road one day,
00:03:08.020 and a truck came down and went right through his legs.
00:03:09.680 Right through his legs.
00:03:10.260 Yeah, that's right.
00:03:11.000 And you see all those ones.
00:03:13.000 I mean, all the Minnesota North Stars.
00:03:14.700 You see them.
00:03:15.120 It's unbelievable.
00:03:16.480 There she is.
00:03:17.700 There's my wife. 0.99
00:03:18.220 Karen wanted you to know that the number of pucks are on the other side of this board.
00:03:21.600 Oh.
00:03:21.860 Actually, you'll get a kick out of that.
00:03:25.480 3,334.
00:03:28.820 Unbelievable.
00:03:29.920 Tim Harden is counter-recycled.
00:03:32.240 Okay, now I want to ask you a little bit about these masks.
00:03:35.700 Where do you get masks?
00:03:37.260 I mean, those are pretty sweet.
00:03:39.640 I mean, that's really...
00:03:40.220 My brother played pro for 15, 16 years, and that one there is from Finland.
00:03:49.220 The first one is...
00:03:50.600 Actually, this is a really nice one.
00:03:53.000 This is the one he wore when he played for the Maple Leafs in St. John's, the farm club.
00:03:57.040 Yeah, yeah.
00:03:57.640 And it's Newfoundland.
00:04:00.160 There's the entrance to the Harvard St. John's.
00:04:02.160 Yeah.
00:04:02.680 And so you've got the lighthouse on one side,
00:04:04.920 and then Signal Hill, the first radio message.
00:04:09.240 Which, what was it, Marconi?
00:04:10.920 Yeah.
00:04:11.340 So, yeah, it's kind of neat.
00:04:13.500 That's fantastic.
00:04:14.980 But, no, Bruce played a long time,
00:04:17.480 and because he traveled and only lived out of suitcases and apartments,
00:04:21.900 he brought a lot of stuff here.
00:04:23.140 He lives in St. Louis now, but he said,
00:04:25.680 you know, just leave it there, and one day he'll come and take it all back.
00:04:28.760 I see here, you know, you've got these black and white photos.
00:04:32.360 That's pretty special.
00:04:33.240 Yeah, this is game seven.
00:04:35.760 Henderson's probably the nicest of the three game winners that he got
00:04:38.920 in 72 was in game seven, and then, of course, game eight.
00:04:42.780 And people forget that he scored.
00:04:44.460 He got those.
00:04:45.020 He was like the man.
00:04:46.440 Three game winners in that series, and eight games.
00:04:48.140 The last three games.
00:04:50.220 Unbelievable.
00:04:51.500 Now, the boards.
00:04:52.860 You've actually got boards in here.
00:04:54.040 Where'd you get these?
00:04:55.060 Well, I mean, the top rail and the kick boards on the bottom
00:05:00.820 actually come from the arena in town, the complex, when they changed.
00:05:04.920 They were throwing all the stuff out, so I just happened to be driving by one day,
00:05:08.620 and so I piled up by the garbage can, so I took as much as I could.
00:05:11.920 And I had an idea that one day I would do this, and so I stored it,
00:05:15.660 and then that's where it comes from.
00:05:18.440 And then I just built them.
00:05:19.440 I watched them when they built this house.
00:05:20.940 I watched them frame it.
00:05:22.460 And I see a name down here, and this is rather timely because it wasn't very long.
00:05:27.540 Was that Bob Probert there?
00:05:28.380 Yeah, it's Bob Probert.
00:05:28.980 He was here for about three hours.
00:05:30.540 He was just like a little kid when he was here.
00:05:36.200 He loved it in here.
00:05:37.180 He actually came back twice.
00:05:39.960 He just dropped by your house, didn't he?
00:05:41.420 He just dropped by to sign the boards.
00:05:42.600 He found out I wanted him to sign something, and I wrote a story about it.
00:05:46.460 It's pretty good.
00:05:47.000 I've had a lot of comments on the day he was here,
00:05:49.420 and it was kind of a sad thing that happened to him.
00:05:51.940 It wasn't very long ago either.
00:05:53.480 I mean, it was only within the last couple of years he dropped by.
00:05:55.640 Go down here just to see what else you've got.
00:05:57.720 Look, all the hockey sticks.
00:05:59.220 Yeah, I don't know if you're CFL fans in Sarnia, but I'm sure you are.
00:06:06.400 Whose shirt is that up there?
00:06:07.620 It says Racine on the back of it.
00:06:08.660 Yeah, that's my dad's.
00:06:09.360 Yeah, Mo Racine, fighting the CFL.
00:06:11.340 There he is right there with the Ottawa Rough Riders.
00:06:13.200 You can see him.
00:06:14.500 17 years, and so this is all stuff I collected as a kid for the most part.
00:06:21.220 Really?
00:06:21.600 So you've had this a long time?
00:06:22.700 Yeah, I've had this stuff for a long time.
00:06:24.280 And I mean, this is my dad's game-worn 1960 Grey Cup sweater.
00:06:29.380 Sweet.
00:06:30.080 And this is his game-worn 1973.
00:06:32.600 That's the jersey there.
00:06:34.260 Oh, jeez.
00:06:34.980 And the one from 68, my sister has, and the one from 66 I have, and they lost to Saskatchewan in that one.
00:06:49.880 But that's your 66 Grey Cup sweater there.
00:06:52.320 So it's kind of weather-beaten.
00:06:54.200 Yeah, well, you can see, back in those days, you can see they didn't change them.
00:06:58.360 Yeah.
00:06:58.660 They sold them.
00:06:59.660 Yeah.
00:06:59.920 They got ripped.
00:07:00.620 Isn't that something, right?
00:07:01.720 Yeah, it's a new day.
00:07:02.240 Jeez.
00:07:03.800 I remember this poster over here, the Hockey Canada.
00:07:07.500 I think I had that poster at one time.
00:07:09.740 Well, 72 fuels a lot of the passion I have for the game.
00:07:13.540 I absolutely think that, you know, you can argue what 72 was, but I think it defines us as a nation when hockey is concerned.
00:07:22.560 And whether you like the way we won or not, the unity of the whole thing that brought this country together back then,
00:07:29.980 and to have lived it as a 12-year-old kid, and then understand it as you get older.
00:07:35.880 I mean, heck, we had our road hockey games for the next three or four years, and we sang both the Russian and Canadian.
00:07:41.340 That's how I know the Soviet Union's national anthem from the 72 Summit Series, and I agree with you 100%.
00:07:50.260 Stuff from the Forum in Montreal right there.
00:07:54.000 Yeah, the seat actually comes from the Forum.
00:07:56.920 Yeah, let's take a look at this.
00:07:57.940 How did you get your hands on this?
00:07:59.800 Well, my dad asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I told him the year that the Forum closes, I'd love a seat.
00:08:06.180 And it was 96, I think it was 96, and so I'd love to get a seat, and he said, okay, and I gave him the information on how to get the seat.
00:08:18.680 In June of 1996, I think it was, this big box arrived, a Purolator UPS, and there was a card in it.
00:08:26.920 And it was happy birthday, 1996, 97, 98, 99.
00:08:33.800 Sweet.
00:08:34.860 Yeah, so he got me the chair.
00:08:36.660 Now, you've had a lot of people come in here.
00:08:38.320 There's a lot of autographs on the wall, and you said people signed us.
00:08:42.340 There's a lot of hockey players that have come around, eh?
00:08:44.200 I kind of have, like, a...
00:08:45.080 Dark Carpenter is sitting down there.
00:08:46.460 Yeah, Dark Carpenter, Ryan Vandenbush, Dale Howardchuk was here, Probert, Crowder.
00:08:52.520 I missed Bobby Hall, Mark Crawford was here.
00:08:55.500 Bobby Hall was supposed to come, and he got busy signing autographs at another function
00:09:00.920 that stayed an hour or two longer than he was supposed to, and the next thing you know, I got chopped.
00:09:05.960 But that would have been kind of neat to have him here.
00:09:08.140 Yeah.
00:09:09.320 I know a couple of years ago, Hockey Night in Canada, didn't they do something about people who have collections?
00:09:14.200 Yeah.
00:09:14.380 You got featured on there a little bit, didn't you?
00:09:16.220 They came for three hours, for a minute, and I think it was 40 seconds of video.
00:09:23.660 But it was great.
00:09:25.060 It was on Hockey Day in Canada, they featured it.
00:09:28.700 Every February, they have Hockey Day, and they did a little segment right from here.
00:09:34.640 It was pretty neat.
00:09:35.560 I'm wondering, is there a record for the most pucks?
00:09:39.700 Well, if there is, I'm miles away from it.
00:09:43.520 You think so?
00:09:44.020 Oh, yeah.
00:09:44.760 I know a couple of fellas in Toronto that have close to 8,000 to 10,000.
00:09:48.980 So...
00:09:49.380 Maybe you think you want us to get in.
00:09:50.960 But those are guys that are...
00:09:52.600 I mean, I can get a little bit crazy, but these guys are...
00:09:56.460 They're the gurus, and one of them's written a book.
00:09:59.780 Exactly.
00:10:00.960 So...
00:10:01.400 Yeah, but you've got a lot of pucks here. 1.00
00:10:03.720 Well, I've got a lot.
00:10:04.840 A little collection.
00:10:05.700 You've got a lot of these collections, I notice, when you go around...
00:10:08.500 I remember...
00:10:09.940 I'm going to ask you about this, because I used to have...
00:10:12.420 It's like poker chips.
00:10:13.280 Yeah.
00:10:14.100 Do you have those?
00:10:15.260 Poker chips?
00:10:15.900 Yeah.
00:10:16.160 Right behind me.
00:10:16.740 I used to have a little carousel for the poker chips.
00:10:23.020 I don't have the carousel, but the carousel basically was a poker chip carousel that was
00:10:29.220 adopted for these, I believe.
00:10:30.580 Yes, it was.
00:10:31.540 Because the shields were what you put these in.
00:10:34.380 Now, these are from 61, and this is a really neat piece, because it's a piece of Canadiana,
00:10:43.380 really, what I call it.
00:10:44.160 The original six.
00:10:45.000 Yes, the original six, and it's some great players, Howe and Hull and Bellevue, they're
00:10:49.540 all on there.
00:10:50.340 Yeah.
00:10:50.840 And then if you...
00:10:52.360 Here's my guy right here.
00:10:55.640 Davey Keon.
00:10:56.320 Davey Keon.
00:10:56.880 He's my guy right there.
00:10:58.060 That was my favorite player when I was younger.
00:10:59.620 The things I like to do is, like, I got this picture.
00:11:02.400 Yeah.
00:11:02.600 And, I mean, it's just a moment frozen in time from any hockey game, but on the back
00:11:07.780 of it, there was a date, and I ended up researching it and found out that you can't really see it
00:11:13.640 on it, but this is a game from 1964, and I found the summary in Montreal 1-2-1, and the
00:11:20.540 interesting thing about it is that McCourt wearing number four, it wasn't too long after
00:11:24.780 that that another guy came along and wore number four.
00:11:26.940 Ah, good point.
00:11:28.580 Absolutely.
00:11:28.940 That's the thing about the picture.
00:11:30.140 What's with the mini...
00:11:32.820 That's my brother's when he played in Pittsburgh.
00:11:34.920 They won their first Stanley Cup in 1990, and Bruce was a member of that team, and that's
00:11:39.720 the Prince of Wales trophy for winning the conference, and then every player gets...
00:11:44.260 And he has them here at your house.
00:11:46.500 Isn't that amazing?
00:11:47.820 Yeah, I expect him to come and take those one day, but...
00:11:50.480 Wow, it's absolutely amazing.
00:11:53.820 I'm going to turn the camera off just so I can poke around, but just remarkable.
00:11:58.280 You know, somewhere in my dad's house, I got a hockey puck for you.
00:12:02.060 I keep telling you about it.
00:12:03.520 Yeah.
00:12:03.820 Yeah, here comes...
00:12:05.820 What is it, what is it, get off the track, here it comes, clear the track, I got a Toronto
00:12:10.120 Maple Leaf hockey puck from 1974, he was at a Dairy Queen, and he signed it, and I'm sure
00:12:15.080 that's worth a fortune.
00:12:17.060 I'm sure it is.
00:12:18.100 There's another one, too, for Shaq that he did, was it Donut, it wasn't the Tim Hortons
00:12:23.880 ones, but he was involved with the Donut Company, and they had pucks on it with Eddie
00:12:27.620 Shaq's signature, and I think I have one of those around here.
00:12:30.460 Yeah.
00:12:30.960 Now, the pucks, so this is basically what they're worth, I mean, a puck's worth a couple
00:12:36.340 of bucks, and anything special that you can...
00:12:38.940 Well, yeah, it's like I was saying, like in here, John, there isn't anything in here
00:12:42.580 that I would let go for those $50.
00:12:43.940 Yeah, $50, right, right.
00:12:45.640 The WHA ones, I mean... 1.00
00:12:48.440 Oh, yeah.
00:12:49.300 You know, WHA, I love the WHA.
00:12:53.680 There's about 300 pucks in the complete WHA collection, which I don't have, but, you
00:13:00.820 know, the Nordiques puck and the Sharks puck are both in the area of $75 to $100.
00:13:06.680 Wow.
00:13:07.680 Probably the most expensive puck in here that I have is this one, and it comes to the
00:13:12.560 Quebec League's Plattsburgh Pioneers, who played 11 games back in the early 90s.
00:13:19.920 They were horrible.
00:13:22.000 The team closed up operations, and they've been wiped from the record books of the Quebec
00:13:28.540 Major Junior Hockey League.
00:13:30.540 And so any memorabilia you get from the Plattsburgh Pioneers is huge, and that puck's worth about
00:13:36.940 $150.
00:13:37.360 Where'd you get it?
00:13:38.200 I got it from a guy in California.
00:13:40.280 In California?
00:13:41.200 Yeah.
00:13:41.380 Guy in California.
00:13:42.020 Yeah.
00:13:42.560 Big puck collector down in California.
00:13:44.920 Unbelievable.
00:13:45.800 Yeah.
00:13:46.100 So that's probably one of the most expensive ones I have.
00:13:49.980 I've seen some go for $200, $300, $400, $500.
00:13:53.480 The original Spalding pucks from the 30s, they're $300, $400 pucks.
00:13:58.860 Wow.
00:13:59.600 They have the baseball on them, the Spalding baseball, but it's the hockey puck.
00:14:03.680 Yeah.
00:14:04.340 Unbelievable.
00:14:05.080 Wow.
00:14:06.300 Well, thanks for coming.
00:14:07.340 Thank you.
00:14:07.820 Thank you.
00:14:07.920 Thank you.
00:14:07.960 Thank you.
00:14:08.020 Thank you.