Barbara Frum: Hi Mr. Ballard.
Harold Ballard: How are ya?
Frum: How are you?
Ballard: Well, I'm all right.
Frum: You won a hockey game.
Ballard: Well, I won two. Whatsamatter with your addition?
Dick Beddoes: That's right, Harold. You won two...
Ballard: Why don't you get somebody on there who can handle the job, Dick? (Frum laughs)
Beddoes: You have some problems with...
Ballard: I don't know what damn females...
Frum (jokingly): Listen, I just go for the hearts and flowers, so I'm there Saturday night...
Ballard: They shouldn't let females on the radio anyway. They're a joke.
Beddoes: They're a joke, are they Harold?
Ballard: Yeah.
Beddoes: Well, Harold...
Ballard: You know where they're good...
Beddoes: That's what people are saying...
Ballard: You know where they're good dontcha?
Beddoes: Well, I do know how women are best, I do...
Frum: Do you mind that millions of people are going to hear you say that?
Ballard (louder): You know where they're at their best, dontcha?
Beddoes: Yes, and I like it that way...
Ballard: So do I and that's where they should stay. I let them out once in a while. I give them their shoes once in a while...
Beddoes: But talking about jokes, Harold, that's what some people are saying you pulled in respect to the rehiring after the firing of Mr. (Roger) Neilson.
Ballard: Oh?
Later on...
Frum: Dick? Would you describe the drama of his return on Saturday night? It was genuinely moving and, as Mr. Ballard so politely just said, I am something of a weak hockey fan.
Beddoes: Well, indeed, Barbara, it was one rare - rare ovation at Maple Leaf Gardens when the people - 17,000 of them - saw who was behind the Maple Leaf bench.
Frum: Well, it was a definite two-hanky scene, wouldn't you say?
Beddoes: Well, people were saying, "Hey! Something's happened! Hard-hearted Ballard has given in. And here we got back the guy we think should be coaching the hockey club and we're going to stand up and show how..."
Ballard: Just a minute...
Frum: And there's the godfather up in the window looking down benignly...
Ballard: I'll tell you something. The night before, the Daily Star had an article saying the worst-coached team we've ever seen...
Beddoes: Harold, there's no question the Atlanta game...
Ballard: ...and everybody - all you media guys, the whole bunch of you - "you should get rid of Roger Nielson" and the calls and...
Beddoes: I beg your pardon, Harold. The news media did not say that.
Ballard: They certainly did! I'll show you the clippings out of the paper!
Beddoes: No, very few of the media...
Ballard: Now I'll start on you - there was a lot...
Beddoes: There was very few that I read...
Ballard: Of course I shouldn't pay any attention to you fellas because you don't know the difference between a puck and a ball - a baseball.
Frum (still pleasant): Well, lookit, Mr. Ballard. You did fire him...
Ballard (loud): I'm talking to Dick and you don't know the difference between them and why I should allow myself to be taken in by a few dummies that don't know hockey - they don't write, they're critics!
Frum: Hang on now, Mr. Ballard...
Ballard: Would you keep quiet?
Frum: No. This is still my show.
Ballard: Well it isn't...
Frum: I have another question for you...
Ballard: I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to Dick. So when you learn to mind your own business and let me talk to Dick, it'll be fine. Good-bye.
(Click, line goes dead)
-Taken from As It Happens March 5th, 1979