Transcripts For WUSA 60 Minutes 20150419

Bolte taylor. And i realized, oh, my gosh, im having a stroke rose taylors talk went viral. We need mathematicians. Rose . And soon, Internet Users couldnt get enough of ted talks. Every child. Rose a million views turned into a billion, and now it is an internet phenomenon. Ive been to the future. Want to join me . cheers and applause and now for your Holland College Golden Knights stahl every once in a while, we come across someone with an amazing ability, a power so unusual, so unexpected and so fascinating, it becomes a story. Thats why were telling you tonight about a man named bob petrella who has used his extraordinary memory to create a fantasy world. At forward, a 69 sophomore from little rock, arkansas. This is really unusual. I have never heard of anything like this before, never. Im steve kroft. Im lesley stahl. Im bill whitaker. Im lara logan. Im charlie rose. Im scott pelley. Those stories tonight on 60 minutes. Cbs must be watch update brought to you in part by glor good evening. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and a group of Business Leaders will be in cuba tomorrow for trade talks. Shanghai gm says it will spend 16 billion over five years to build new energy vehicles. And a deck chair from the titanic was auctioned off for 150,000. Im jeff glor, cbs news. Here you are. Anything i can do to make your stay more magical . Well, i wish we could have even more park time. Have dinner with a princess. Oo i want to ride the monorail oh and take a break by the pool. But be back in time for fireworks. Let me see what i can do. Whoa when you stay at a select Walt Disney World resort hotel you get the most out of your vacation. And your family. And this summer, you can save up to 30 off when you book a select Walt Disney World® resort hotel room when youre not confident your companys data is secure the possibility of a breach can quickly become the only thing you think about. Thats where at t can help. We monitor Network Traffic worldwide, so we can see things others cant. Mitigating risks across your business. Leaving you free to focus on what matters most. Pelley if you have Young Children watching right now, usually thats a good thing, but this story is not for them. The pictures you are about to see are agonizing. This will be hard to watch, but it should be seen. Generally, mankind does not outlaw weapons. Anything a military can think of is in the arsenals of the world. But there are a few exceptions and one of them is for a weapon so hideous that virtually every country has banned not only its use, but the mere possession of it. The weapon is sarin. Its nerve gas, and in 2013, it was unleashed on syrian civilians in what the u. N. s secretary general calls, a crime against humanity. A year and a half later, no one has been held responsible. For several months, we have been gathering evidence. Much of what you are about to see has not been public before. None of what we found will be omitted here. About 2 00 in the morning, august 21, 2013, hundreds in the suburbs of damascus were awakened by the panic of their last breath stuck in their throats. Neighbors carried neighbors to makeshift clinics. Victims were stripped and washed. Everything was tried, but nothing could be done. There was no forcing life into lungs that could not accept it. Their nerves, electrified by sarin, fired nonstop. Muscles seized until death released them. Kassem eid nobody knew what was going on. People were just praying for god to have mercy on them. Sir, ive seen things you wont even dream about in your worst nightmares. Im on a tour inside the streets of moadamiyah. Pelley kassem eid has recorded his nightmares in moadamiyah. Four years ago, the suburb rebelled against the dictatorship of bashar alassad. Eid has shown the world the shelling and years of hunger imposed by an army blockade. Eid that was a close one. Pelley he was there in august when strange rockets pummeled the night. Eid and when they crashed, they didnt make the same, Old Fashioned bombing sound. But it was, in a way, silent. Pelley the rockets hit the ground, but it didnt sound to you like they were exploding. Eid yes. They were. Didnt sound like it was. They were exploding. With the closest rocket hit almost 100 meters away from the place that i was staying in. Pelley 300 feet or so. Eid yes. And within seconds. It just took seconds before i lost my ability to breathe. I felt like my chest was set on fire. My eyes were burning like hell. I wasnt able even to scream or to do anything, so i started to beat my chest really hard. Pelley beat your chest . Eid yes. Trying to take. A breath. Just to be able to take a single breath. It was so painful. It felt like somebody was tearing up my chest with a knife made of fire. Pelley over the years, artillery had sheared the tops off of the neighborhoods, so women and children slept in basements. Sarin is heavier than air. It slipped past doors and crept down stairwells. Death was arbitrary it seemed that, for every corpse, there was a witness who just missed a lethal dose. A neighbor appeared at kassem eids door. Eid and she had two of her kids, suffocating and vomiting this weird white stuff out of their mouths. She was begging us to help her to get her children to the Field Hospital. This Field Hospital is just a basement in a building with almost zero medical equipments. Pelley its not a real hospital. Eid its not a real hospital. It felt like judgment day for me. Pelley sarin has no color, no odor. Often, the dead drop never knowing what happened. But their eyes bear witness. The seizures draw the pupils tight, and the world goes dark which might be a blessing. This father had willed his daughters through months of hunger. Now, hes shouting, do yoowu kn what they said before going to sleep . I gave f herood. She said, dad, its not my turn to eat, its my sisters. he goes on, what should we do good people . What are we to do . Look at that face, look at that face. You were being exterminated. Eid i know. I cannot imagine how anybody can do this to people, to other people. Dying this way is one of the most ugliest ways of death people ever knew through history. Pelley the history of sarin begins in the 1930s. It was a nazi weapons program. The name is an acronym of the scientists last names. In 1997, sarin and other chemical weapons were outlawed and the world set up the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons. Scott cairns is a chemist and lead inspector for that organization. A person who is exposed to sarin, what do they experience . Scott cairns a number of physical symptoms and some psychological effects. You get this overwhelming sense of doom and hopelessness and fear. Pelley and what causes death . Cairns typically, its the paralysis of the respiratory system, eventually. Your muscles dont work, you lose the oxygen to your brain. It just puts you into overload. Its a very horrible way to die. Pelley as fate would have it, scott cairns would see evidence of that for himself. He was in damascus with a team the day of the assault. Theyd arrived days before to investigate other alleged chemical attacks. Cairns id just gotten up, and what i thought id heard was another regular bombardment of conventional weapons to the east of damascus. Pelley he had heard the rockets en route to the largest sarin massacre of civilians since Saddam Hussein in iraq in 1988. Cairns demanded access. They raced in in u. N. Trucks and the shooting started. What happened . Cairns the gunman was firing on the first two vehicles. Pelley so, the vehicles were hit . Cairns oh, the vehicles were hit. The first vehicle was disabled. Pelley did you find out who was shooting at you . Cairns no. Pelley why do you think they were shooting at you . Cairns they were shooting at us just to tell us, send us a message. If they wanted to kill us, they wouldve killed us. At no point was there any interest in the turning around and going back to the hotel. Pelley finding and documenting the truth was worth risking your life for. Cairns yes. Pelley howd you go about your work . Cairns very quickly. We didnt have a lot of time. We had places where we could set up our interview stations. We could take samples, biomedical samples from people blood, urine, hair. We had places where we could take medical sample, blood urine, hair. Pelley they also collected swab samples from mangled rockets. Days later they discovered the rockets were much larger and had delivered even more gas. Never before had investigators arrived at a chemical crime scene so soon. Cairns well over 90 of the samples that we took tested positive for sarin. Pelley what witness sticks in your mind as the person you cannot forget . Cairns there are several. A child of seven or eight who lost most of his family. A woman of. In her early 30s who lost her entire family, her husband and all her kids. A man that, out of his 20 family members, he was the only one left alive. So interviewing these people was very difficult. Pelley our work to find witnesses took us out into the desert. The refugees we found were on the run from the regime of bashar alassad. Millions of syrians have fled the country into desolate refugee camps like this one, and over a period of weeks, we have been able to find more survivors of the nerve gas attack. These people asked us to not show you their faces or tell you their names because they have family back in syria, and they are quite certain the dictatorship would hunt them down. Even at that, they told us some risks have to be taken to tell this story. This man told us, assad gassed people. He killed people. Hes killing women. What he did could not be done by any other human being. He killed everything, even the trees. He and his son, who is a nurse told us that they were among those who had given first aid. How many patients did you treat that day . He told us, people were being brought in on ambulances motorcycles, pickup trucks, a tractor, and a semi. There were people rushing in with their kids, crying out, help him, help him. Hes about to die. i didnt have a chance to count. This woman was three months pregnant with her son when the gas entered her lungs. She came to in an aid station. Her brother was carried in next. He was calling my name before he died, she said. take care of your mother, he told me. How did you survive . I lived by gods will. But i wished i had died. Her son was born six months later. She believes he has epilepsy. He loses consciousness, he starts shaking, his mouth foams. The same symptoms i had. How often does he have these seizures . She told us, approximately three a day. The rockets were types used by the syrian army, and they were launched from land held by the dictatorship. U. S. Intelligence believes the syrian army used sarin in frustration after years of shelling and hunger failed to break the rebels. With the threat of air strikes president obama forced assad to give up his chemical arsenal. But if assad was the trigger man, there is one thing odd about the timing. Why would anyone launch the largest chemical weapons attack in decades while chemical weapons inspectors are in town . Cairns i ask myself that a lot. I dont know. Pelley we dont know why. Cairns no. I dont think well ever truly know. Pelley we also dont know, precisely, how many died, but have a look around the makeshift morgues. So many were lost, all at once that the living had to make room for the dead. U. S. Intelligence estimates 1,429 civilians were killed; 426 of them children. Of course, syria is dying, too. Prosecution of this atrocity will have to wait for whatever civilization emerges from the ruin. But the dead will be waiting because a crime buried without justice is never laid to rest. For a look at 60 minutes decision to broadcast some of the most disturbing footage in its history, go to 60minutesovertime. Com. Sponsored by lyrica. I was a doer. Then the chronic, widespread pain slowed me down. My doctor and i agreed that moving more helps ease fibromyalgia pain. He also prescribed lyrica. For some patients, lyrica significantly relieves fibromyalgia pain and improves physical function. With less pain, i feel better. Lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. Tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression or unusual changes in mood or behavior. Or swelling, trouble breathing rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling or blurry vision. 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Until i started gellin. I got dr. Scholls massaging gel insoles. When theyre in my shoes, my feet and legs feel less tired. Its like walking on a wave. Dr. Scholls massaging gel insoles. Im a believer when eating healthy and Drinking Water just isnt enough to ease my constipation i trust dulcolax tablets. I take dulcolax for dependable overnight relief and in the morning i am back to myself dulcolax, designed for dependable relief rose it has become a place where big ideas find a global audience. It is known simply as ted, and ted talks are little presentations that anyone can watch online for free. There are ted talks on almost every subject you can imagine building your own nuclear reactor; stopping cyberbullies; exploring antarctica; a better way to tie your shoes. But what sets ted talks apart is that the big ideas are wrapped up in personal stories, and theyre mostly from people you have never heard of before. And it is those stories that have captured the imaginations of tens of millions of viewers around the world. Giving a ted talk can be life changing, even if some speakers dont always realize what theyre getting into. Bryan stevenson id never heard of ted and i didnt know what a ted talk was. Rose but Bryan Stevenson was exactly the sort of person the people at ted wanted. He was an attorney whod spent years trying to reform the criminal Justice System. They thought hed have a lot to say. He said yes, then he remembered a serious conflict on his calendar. Stevenson it was scheduled two weeks before i had an argument at the u. S. Supreme court. And i told one of my young staffers somebody named ted wanted me to come and do a ted talk and i told them no. And my staffer went crazy, said, what are you talking about . You have to do a ted talk. Rose and what did they say though, to conviyou . Stevenson this is really a big deal. Its an incredible platform. You should absolutely do it. Everybody watches ted talks. Being here at ted and seeing the stimulation. Rose in march of 2012, Bryan Stevenson took the stage at the annual ted conference in long beach, california. He was one of more than 60 speakers that week. Stevenson we have a system of justice in this country that treats you much better if youre rich and guilty than if youre poor and innocent. Wealth, not culpability, shapes outcomes. Rose he made the case for changing the criminal Justice System with the same mixture of passion and logic that he uses to persuade judges and juries. He introduced his equal Justice Initiative in a disarmingly personal way. Stevenson i had the great privilege when i was a young lawyer of meeting rosa parks and ms. Parks turned to me and she said, now, bryan, tell me what the equal Justice Initiative is. Tell me what youre trying to do. And i began giving her my rap. I said, well, were trying to challenge injustice. Were trying to help people who have been wrongly convicted. Were trying to confront bias and discrimination in the administration of criminal justice. Were trying to end life without parole sentences for children. Were trying to do something about the death penalty. Were trying to reduce the prison population. Were trying to end mass incarceration. I gave her my whole rap, and when i finished, she looked at me and she said, mm, mm, mm. She said, thats going to make you tired, tired, tired. laughter rose and with that, he had them. Stevenson ive simply come to tell you, keep your eyes on the prize, hold on. Thank you very much. cheers and applause rose when you ended it, did you think youd done a good job . Stevenson people were very enthusiastic and responded in a really wonderful way. Rose thats what we call a standing ovation. Stevenson yes, yes. cheers and applause rose the crowd also offered financial support, which was unprecedented, since ted talks are not about raising money. Stevenson some people came up to me and they said, you know, we think that what youre doing is really quite extraordinary. There are a lot of people in this room who want to support you. And i had to leave. Rose you had another engagement in seattle . Stevenson i did. And so, i said, well, i cant stay. And much to my amazement, we raised a Million Dollars. Rose a Million Dollars . Stevenson a Million Dollars. Rose and this is happening without you there. Stevenson without me there yeah, exactly. Rose and what difference did raising a Million Dollars at an event that you knew nothing about make for the cause that youve devoted your life to . Stevenson hundreds and hundreds of people were now going to have a chance to get fairer sentences. Rose and it didnt end at the speech, because you have this thing called the internet . Stevenson yes, thats exactly right. Even now, i get lots and lots of people who are responding to the ted talk. Youre an inspiring person. Rose the person who put Bryan Stevenson on the stage was Chris Anderson, the man who runs ted. He chooses the speakers, he hosts Ted Conferences, and he decides which talks go online. Chris anderson there are numerous brilliant people out there, and theyve come up with something really important. And so part of the way we see our. Our role is to help them make their knowledge accessible. Rose its a campfire, in part, isnt it . Anderson it is a campfire. Someone stands up, everyones eyes are upon them, they tell a story. Rose the story of ted began with a small conference in the 1980s. It can record one hour. Rose . Where bold new ideas were presented about technology, entertainment and design ted, for short. Digital likeness, visual technology. Weve had so many people. Rose anderson was a successful magazine publisher. He attended his first ted conference in 1998 and fell in love with what he heard there, and so he bought ted and turned it into a nonprofit organization. In 2006, as something of an experiment, he put a handful of conference talks online. The reaction was almost immediate. Anderson we started to get emails that said things like im sitting at my computer screen crying. Rose an emotional connection. Anderson and. And a passionate connection, like these. These talks had got inside peoples heads and changed them. Jill bolte taylor so, this is a real human brain. Rose one of the earliest ted talks posted was literally about what was going on inside the head of neurobiologist jill bolte taylor. Taylor then i realized, oh, my gosh, im having a stroke im having a stroke and the next thing my brain says to me is, wow this is so cool laughter this is so cool how many brain scientists have the opportunity to study their own brain from the inside out . laughter rose taylors talk went viral. We need mathematicians. Rose and soon, Internet Users couldnt get enough of ted talks. Every child. Rose a million views turned into a billion. What. Rose and now, it is an internet phenomenon. There are all sorts of Ted Conferences being held around the world daily. Ted started its own website, ted. Com. It has 2,000 talks on just about every subject imaginable. I can tell you with great confidence, ive been to the future. I am 17 years old and i am a nuclear physicist. cheering rose its something of an intellectual variety show and it is free. Thank you. I was patient zero. It was frontpage news when Monica Lewinsky recently gave a ted talk on cyberbullying. How does Chris Anderson decide who gets the opportunity . Anderson theres no formula or algorithm that says what is right. Its basically a judgment call as to what is interesting and what is interesting now. Countless men around the world. Rose anderson and his team spend much of their time auditioning. Its become a common complaint. Damn rose . And looking for the next great story. For the past two years, ive spent thousands of hours working with invasive Breast Cancer cells in the lab. Rose a great ted talk demands careful planning. Most speakers get months of preparation and coaching. Changing slightly that core question may make the rest of the talk land just a bit more clearly. Rose there are a few rules there is no selling of a product or a book from the stage; no pseudoscience is allowed; and there is an 18minute time limit. Why 18 minutes . Anderson its a natural human attention span. Its an extended coffee break. You can listen to something serious that long without getting bored or exhausted. Rose the goal is to make it to a ted conference and then get your talk posted online. Speakers do not get paid, yet people line up for the chance to make a ted talk. They hope to be the next amy cuddy. Amy cuddy were really fascinated with body language. Rose she was a largely unknown psychology professor at harvard until she took the ted stage in 2012. Cuddy so what is your body language communicating to me whats mine communicating to you . Rose cuddys talk was about her research into nonverbal communication, but it was her personal story that captured the imagination of the audience. Cuddy when i was 19, i was in a really bad car accident. I was thrown out of a car, and i woke up in a head injury rehab ward, and i learned that my i. Q. Had dropped by two standard deviations. Rose she agonized about revealing she had suffered a traumatic brain injury in that car accident. Cuddy i felt deep ambivalence, and also what have i done . Rose ambivalence . Cuddy yes, have i changed my life in a way that i. That ill regret . Will people be judging me . Will my colleagues think im stupid . The head injury story was really, really personal, and it was something that i had mostly kept locked away. Rose this is the most watched ted talk in the last two years. Cuddy thats what chris tells me, yes. Rose according to Chris Anderson, shes had more than 23 million views. It has turned amy cuddy into a star in this new tedcreated universe. Shes hot on the lecture circuit and has a new book coming out. Chris anderson and ted can make someones career. Do you like the power that it gives you . Anderson i dont think in terms of power usually. Rose it does give you power. You can sit there and change somebodys life by putting. Making them a ted speaker. If you make those choices, then you have power. Anderson well, i would phrase it more as responsibility, but a joyful one. I do love the fact that someone can give a talk, and a few months later, can be known by millions of people around the world. laughter reporter but for maysoon zayid, the fame she received was not the fame she was looking for. Maysoon zayid i got 99 problems, and palsy is just one. Rose shes a comedian, and when she appeared on the ted stage a year and a half ago, she had a punch line. Zayid im palestinian, muslim, im female, im disabled, and i live in new jersey. laughter rose . And she had a serious point. Zayid people with disabilities are the largest minority in the world, and we are the most underrepresented in entertainment. cheers and applause rose she also had an agenda. Zayid i actually thought that once the talk was done, my career would skyrocket. I want to be on tv, and i thought that the ted talk would open the door for more reallife opportunities with me. Rose and thats what ted did not do . Zayid and thats what ted didnt do. But what it did do is it amplified my voice worldwide. Rose with more than six million views of her talk, which was translated into several languages, she believes shes succeeded in a different way. Zayid i didnt expect to hear from so many people that felt the talk was about them. Rose how did you change the lives of people who are disabled . Zayid i think the change occurs mostly on an individual basis. What i think ive done is help people go out there and say, i have a disability. I shake all the time. Its totally fine. You need to treat me as an equal even if, physically, im different than you. And i think what ive done is really empower people to be proud of who they are. A lot of people with c. P. Dont walk. Rose critics of ted and there are some believe that this emphasis on the personal stories has turned ted talks into infotainment, offering easy answers to serious problems. But dont count Bryan Stevenson among the skeptics. He traces part of the current public debate about reforming the criminal Justice System back to the ted talk he gave in 2012. And while he is grateful for the money that ted raised, hes even more appreciative of the platform. Did your experience at ted change you in any way . Stevenson well, it did. It made me more hopeful about what can be achieved if you change the narrative. Rose is there something about ted you want to change . Stevenson i think the challenge is getting people who consume all of this wonderful stuff that ted provides to not just be consumers, but to take what they learn and know and hear, and turn it into some kind of action that may be a little uncomfortable, that may be a little inconvenient, but will absolutely be transformative, to making these great ideas. Really ideas that not only spread but create a greater world. Or stop to find a bathroom . Cialis for daily use is approved to treat both erectile dysfunction and the urinary symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently, day or night. Tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. Do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. Do not drink alcohol in excess. Side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. 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Ok, yeah. I feel that. Its definitely poison. Apparently, im immune to venom. Immune steve. Immune to venom . I came up with so many reasons to put off losing weight. But then i joined weight watchers, got the starter kit and i was like, hey, i can do this. Now theres Nothing Holding me back, i can feel it. Once you get started nothing can stop you. Join for free at weightwatchers. Com, and get a free starter kit when you sign up before april 27th. Stahl every once in a while, we come across someone with an amazing ability, a power so unusual, so unexpected, and so fascinating, it becomes a story. Thats why were telling you tonight about a man named bob petrella, and a College Basketball team that gives a whole new meaning to the phrase hoop dreams. Bob petrella is one of the only people in the world who possess the extraordinary ability to remember virtually every day of his life. But it turns out theres Something Else in bobs memory too a Basketball Team whose history he has charted for more than 50 years called the Holland College Golden Knights. Holland has played in ten ncaa championships and won five. Never heard of them . Well, theres a reason why you havent. How old were you when you first created the Basketball Team . Bob petrella i was 13. January 3, 1964 it was a friday. Holland coming down. Up by only two. Stahl you havent heard of Holland College because it doesnt actually exist. Petrella 28 seconds left in the game. Stahl theyre an Imaginary Team that bob petrella made up. Petrella and the crowd on its feet now. Stahl this is our simulation of one of Holland Colleges games, with bob doing the play byplay. Petrella marcus hayes to demar harvey. Stahl hes been imagining these games for 50 seasons, and he remembers every one of them. Who were the starting forwards in 1983 . Petrella the starting forwards in 83 were otis pookie and brad jasmine. Stahl he can describe them. How tall were they . Petrella otis pookie was 66 and brad jasmine was undersize at 65, but real bulky. Stahl you can almost forget. Tell us about the years they made it to the ncaa finals. Petrella they went to the final between 73 and 75. They won in 74. They went in 77, 78. 80, they lost. Stahl . That none of this is real. Jim mcgaugh i mean, this is really unusual. I have never heard of anything like this before. Never. You made that up, though . Petrella of course. Yeah. Stahl James Mcgaugh is a leading expert on memory and cognition at the university of california irvine. Mcgaugh its not just a series of facts that he recalls, like the memory of the names of the president s or the alphabet. Its. Its a whole story that he has. And the story is rich in detail because you can ask him more and more questions about each of the players. Stahl and its five people every year for 50 years . Mcgaugh thats right. Stahl plus the coach and the college president. Mcgaugh one could not do this without the kind of memory that bob has. Stahl the kind of memory he has is called hsam highly superior Autobiographical Memory and bob, along with actress Marilu Henner, was one of the first people ever discovered to have it. We featured them in a story a few years back. Mcgaugh a 7. 1 earthquake hit the san franciscooakland area on . All october 17, 1989. Petrella tuesday. Stahl people with hsam, and there are still only 56 known cases, remember virtually every day of their lives the way we remember yesterday. What day of the week was august 29, 2005 . All monday. Stahl you all know that . Does it ever freak anybody out . Petrella people misunderstand it a lot of times. They think its photographic. They think its autistic. Stahl yeah. Petrella call you rain laughter Marilu Henner right. Petrella and ill just go along with that. Yeah, yeah, definitely friday. Stahl the mystery is theyre not autistic. They lead normal lives. But dr. Mcgaugh says the one thing they have in common is obsessiveness. Just look at Marilu Henners closet. Henner i like my shoes a certain way right shoe going this way, left shoe going that way. And i have the exact same hangers because then everything slides more easily. Stahl and bob has a few obsessions of his own if he drops his keys on the ground, he feels compelled to wash them. But mcgaugh says bob is the only subject he knows of who has used his extraordinary memory to create a fantasy world. Mcgaugh i guess you could say that the fantasy Basketball Team is another form of obsession. But, you know, we use the word obsession as being, oh, thats terrible, this person is obsessive. Well, thats not all bad. In some sense, its a good idea to avoid germs. In some sense, its a good idea to have an imaginary Basketball Team because it doesnt cost anything and its a lot of fun. Stahl the fun started more than 50 years ago when bob was in junior high, and a devoted fan of his local High School Football team in beaver falls, pennsylvania. They had gone undefeated for two full seasons. So when they finally lost, bob was devastated. His solution create a fictional town with its own team and run around acting out the games. Petrella once my neighbors going, what is Bobby Petrella doing . laughter stahl yeah. What are you doing . Petrella they would just see me out in the backyard, like throwing a football and catching it. And then i would narrate the game, and that was tigertown high school. Stahl the next year, bob gave his imaginary town, tigertown, an imaginary college, holland, with a Basketball Team thats been playing ever since. How does it work . You have a new Team Every Year . Petrella yeah, its just like college. When theyre seniors, they graduate, so we bring in new classes. Stahl oh, every. Petrella which is always kind of fun for me because its kind of like having a new kid or something. Stahl he brings them to life as a novelist would, with personalities, back stories, and colorful names, like neil bo jagger, Travis Shakespeare lamar mundane, and slappy hill, though slappy wasnt actually his real name. Petrella slappy hills real name was sean. He became slappy because, when he was a little kid, he would. He would run around the room and hed go over and hed slap everybodys thigh, and everybody started calling him slappy. Stahl another favorite, 350 pound center isaac moseley, who played in the late 80s. Petrella very nice guy, very gregarious, had a real deep, booming voice. And his name was Isaac Abraham moseley, so hes called, big mo, and hed walk in, hed go big mo is ready for the big show. You know, so itd echo, big mo is ready for the big show. Stahl this is in your head . Petrella yes. His initials were i. A. M. , so whenever someone would ask him something theyd say, isaac how you doing . Hed use i. A. M. I am. And hed go, i am delighted, you know . laughter stahl i cannot believe how elaborate that story is. Are they all like that . Petrella most of them. Stahl in real life, bob is 64, a bachelor, and a freelance tv producer in l. A. But unlike a tv writer or novelist, bob doesnt write his holland stories down with his memory, he doesnt have to. But he does record each players stats and has for half a century. And he continues developing life stories for each player after they graduate. Bobby simmons bob is covering people from the time they get into this school, and a little bit before, to when they die. Stahl bobby simmons, nancy oey, and mark okeefe are among the handful of Close Friends bob has let in on his Holland College world. Simmons and hell send me an email and say, Travis Shakespeare died in a onecar accident on an icy road outside of philadelphia, and its heartbreaking. You know, its like, oh, no, like, i loved this guy and hes gone. Stahl are you caught up with Holland College . Simmons deeply. laughter stahl we caught up with them at a sports bar during halftime of a steelers game, talking holland. Nancy oey any controversy with this season at all . Petrella no, not yet. Oey okay, not yet . Petrella new coach. Oey its a new coach . Mark okeefe whos the coach . Petrella Bradley Hawthorne and it was a nobrainer that he was going to take over. Some people thought he should have been hired five years ago because they didnt think that mcintyre was the best. Okeefe so what happened to mcintyre . Whats he doing now . Petrella he had osteoporosis and had to retire. Oey oh. Simmons wow. Petrella its not funny, its a serious disease. Stahl heres whats weird the three of you are also into this and accepting the reality of it. Simmons i think that goes to what a good storyteller bob is. Oey yes. Simmons and he does it without a pen or without a typewriter or without a computer. He does it in his head. Its amazing. Petrella uhlomi holobi and his first two letters of his name was uh and ho. So whenever he would block a shot or have a great play, theyd go, uhoh. Stahl but how do we know as he spins these tales that he isnt just making it all up on the spot . Mcgaugh you and i can make up names for a Basketball Team right now. But i doubt that we would remember them six months from now. Stahl so dr. Mcgaugh devised a Holland College memory test for bob. Mcgaugh what year is he . Petrella hes a junior. Stahl . Hundreds of questions about different players and seasons. Mcgaugh whatd you think about the 89 team . Petrella well, they started off real slow. They were, like, eight and eight. Stahl he then invited bob back six months later and, without warning, asked the same questions again. Petrella they were struggling. They were a. 500 team. They were, like, eight and eight. Mcgaugh it was seamless, and he just remembers everything about it. Stahl were there any questions he couldnt answer . Mcgaugh no. Petrella the main players were wally white. Mcgaugh and how tall was he . Petrella he was 6, but he could dunk. Mcgaugh was he tall . Petrella no. Hes only six foot but he could dunk. Stahl its hard to fathom the seemingly limitless Storage Capacity of bobs brain. So what is bobs Creative Process . Does he just sit down and imagine the games in his head . Not even close. Petrella and now for your Holland College Golden Knights stahl bob acts them out. Petrella at forward, a 69 senior. Stahl . As he demonstrated for us in this real arena. Petrella from detroit, michigan, demar harvey stahl . Starting with the player introductions. Oh, my god. Petrella and the coach of the Holland College Golden Knights, in his first season Bradley Hawthorne. Stahl are you being the coach . Petrella yeah. Hell be running. And Bradley Hawthorne is not. Not happy. Well, he shouldnt be happy, that was a bad call on him. Stahl in case youre wondering, those last two voices were longtime announcer bill tronzo, and color commentator adonis mcreynolds. Youre both the announcer, and the player, and the crowd. Petrella right. Stahl and youre all the players . Petrella yeah. So, im playing about 5,500 people at once. Stahl but he doesnt actually play them here. Petrella wyatt hickok at the top of the key. Wyatt hickok stahl he plays them in his living room, in real time. This game is against duke. Bob says he doesnt know wholl win until he plays the game. But either way, hell remember the outcome forever. Is there any madness here . Mcgaugh i dont think so. This is a walter mittytype of existence that he has created for himself, except that he knows that he has created it for himself. Stahl you know, children fantasize, little kids you see them talking to themselves the way he does and creating worlds. Mcgaugh yes. He has his imaginary playmates and they are all basketball players. What happens when they lose . I mean, you must be heartbroken. Petrella it depresses the. The tigertown population more than me. They dont have as much to live for. Theyre in a rust belt city. They lost a lot of population, a lot of the factories closed. So obviously that means more to them than it does to me. I have to stop myself because i start thinking what im saying. Stahl sometimes, when you tell the stories, you smile if you know that its funny. Petrella well. Well, i know its funny. I smile because im telling this story. And then i catch myself and go wait a minute, thats not real. Stahl so, is bob like a novelist who creates a whole universe, a Holland College hogwarts . Well, there are no wizards at holland, but there is a mascot. Petrella well, its just. Some, you know, like, trojan type of person. Its. Hes a knight. Mcgaugh do you see it . Petrella i dont like it. Mcgaugh but you do see it, though . Petrella yeah, i see it. Mcgaugh cant you get that changed . Petrella im bob petrella. I live in l. A. I have nothing to do with it. Stahl im intrigued with how he tricks himself into thinking hes not the god of this place that hes not in control of the events in his own story. Mcgaugh its a narrative that he created. And once its created, he. He cant alter it. Thats set. Petrella and thats it. Holland has beaten duke. Mcgaugh it is so interesting what he can do because bob petrella has a life. He has a job. He gets along well. And then, he has this imaginary Basketball Team and he carries that all in his head. Stahl its a big part of your life. Petrella oh, yeah. Well, it doesnt dominate my life, but its always there. Stahl could you live without it . Petrella i dont think i can anymore. Its not hurting anybody including me. You know, its a nice addiction thats safe. And then the crowd goes crazy. Now a cbs sports update presented by pfizer. At the rbc heritage in hilton head, south carolina, jim furyk shot a 63 in the final round to win his first pga tour event in five years. Furyk outlasted Kevin Kissner in a twohole plaffyos. In the nba playoff kyrie irving led the cavaliers over the celtics. In the nhl playoff the isles beat the caps in overtime and the blackhawks won over the predators. Y for more sports news go to cbssports. Com. This has been Steve Overmeyer reporting. R xeljanz is a small pill, not an injection or infusion for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. Xeljanz can relieve ra symptoms and help stop further joint damage. Xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers have happened in patients taking xeljanz. Dont start xeljanz if you have any infection unless ok with your doctor. Tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. Your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz and routinely check certain liver tests. Tell your doctor if you have been to a region where fungal infections are common, and if you have had tb hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take. One pill, twice daily, xeljanz can reduce ra pain and help stop further joint damage even without methotrexate. Ask your rheumatologist about xeljanz. Pelley in the mail this week, comments on the story that we called rush to judgment. Armen keteyian interviewed former duke lacrosse coach mike pressler, who lost his job as a result of a notorious rape scandal involving team members that later proved false. Truly, the Duke Administration got it wrong in forcing mikes sacrificial resignation. But how much of a role did the firestorm led by both local and National Media contribute . This was an atrocity right from the beginning. Shame on the Duke Administration for not backing up their coach and team. But there was also this about the way our story dealt with the circumstances that led to the false charges. Your treatment of the duke boys who hired strippers is insane. In what world do we rationalize the activities of these kids . Im scott pelley. Well be back next week with another edition of 60 minutes. Tomorrow, be sure to watch cbs this morning, and ill see you on the cbs evening news. Hey, girl. Is it crazy that your soccer trophy is talking to you right now . It kinda is. Its as crazy as you not rolling over your old 401k. Cue the horns. Just harness the confidence it took you to win me and call td ameritrades rollover consultants. Theyll help with the hassle by guiding you through the whole process step by step. And theyll even call your old provider. Its easy. 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And now, live from at t stadium, its the 50th anniversary of the academy of Country Music awards, with superstar appearances by bithe ggest Award Winners of all time once in a lifetime duets