When I saw Scott Mullins over at 88Nine Radio Milwaukee on Monday, he was excited about his bet with Jim McGuinn, his colleague over at Philly's WXPN, famous as the home station of World Café.
"While there are many reasons to pull for the Brewers including city pride, team spirit and the fact that this is their first playoff appearance in 26 years, I'm really looking forward to a cheesesteak from Sonny's," said Mullins (pictured below, hanging with yours truly and Italian singer Carmen Consoli). "C'mon, how can we lose? We have the racing sausages. The stakes are high. We cannot subject the city of Milwaukee to an hour of the Hooters."
Mullins and McGuinn are betting, of course, on the outcome of the Brewers-Phillies National League Championship series that started yesterday with a 3-1 Brewers' loss out east. If the Crew wins, Mullins gets an hour of airtime on WXPN and some cheesesteaks. If the Phillies win (and by the way, why is the Philly team named for female horses, exactly?), Mullins surrenders an hour of air at 88Nine to McGuinn and sends a stash of brats to the City of Brotherly Love.
The deal got started on Tuesday when WXPN played a track by Milwaukee's Kings Go Forth and Mullins played a track by a young Philly band.
If the Brewers don't step it up today in Philadelphia and this weekend here at home, Mullins better start getting the dry ice together.
"We're betting an hour of our airwaves on the Phils," McGuinn responded. "They've had such a great year so far we believe they can keep it going and take down the Brew Crew. Sausage races? Laverne and Shirley? No. We will bring it to RadioMilwaukee and can't wait to inject a little Dr. Dog and Dead Milkmen into their playlist when we stomp the Brewers."
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
