Pardon My Take - MLB Preview With Jeff Passan, Caitlin Clark Gets Revenge, The A's Ownership Is A Joke Plus We're Getting A Turtle
Episode Date: April 3, 2024Caitlin Clark gets her revenge on LSU and the women's Elite 8 Monday night was awesome (00:00:00-00:12:08). John Fisher and the A's management are a complete joke and we're now all in on the fan movem...ent to expose these frauds (00:12:08-00:24:32). Providence basketball fans might gaslight Ed Cooley into resigning (00:24:32-00:28:09). Hot Seat/Cool Throne including Schefter's revenge on Rodgers and Rajon Rondo retires (00:28:09-00:45:25) . ESPN's Jeff Passan joins the show to talk baseball, what the next moneyball will be, the super teams and teams that are an absolute joke, boycotting his Hall of Fame vote and tons more (00:45:25-01:47:35). We finish with listener submitted FAQ's and we're getting ourselves a gambling turtle (01:47:35-02:05:03).You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/PardonMyTake
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Hey, pardon my take listeners. You can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube.
Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music.
On today's pardon my take, we listened to the people and we have a baseball preview.
A real baseball preview. Been wanting to get Jeff passing on for a very long time and it did not disappoint.
Awesome dude. Great interview. Tells us all about the game.
Some teams we should be looking out for. We're also going to talk some women's final four.
We had Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese on Monday night. We also have a update to the
Oakland Athletics and fuck John Fisher. We are joining the cause even more. We're going
to do hot sea cool throne. We're going to do FAQs. We're joining the cause even more. We're gonna do Hot Seat Cool Throne. We're gonna do FAQs.
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yours today is Wednesday, April 3rd and Caitlin Clark is her.
Her Hermothy.
Hermothy Clark. That was a, that was an awesome two games. I'm going to say it right now. That
was awesome two games because I feel like people were just focused on Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese. We love women so much. I watched
the second game, Juju Watkins, first, uh, Paige Becker's and that was awesome. Paige
Becker's might be my goat. Yeah. We love women more than any other podcast in America. I
love women. Love all. Did you watch? Do you love women? I do love women. I did watch. What
was your thought, Hank What's your big takeaway?
Great play by both sides. She's her
Which one's her?
They're all her. They're all her. Yeah, it was it was honestly a good even van lyth. No, yeah, she might not be her
Well, I don't oh you all hang sir. I take no no, she's no she's her. I don't want bad game
I don't blame her. I blame Kim Mulkey Yeah, oh, yeah, cuz Kim Mulkey just refused to make an adjustment when and then at the end of the game when she put Johnson on her
That was like why why hasn't she been defending Caitlin Clark the entire game?
Well, she did have a few fouls, but yeah, she Johnson was I think she had three fouls in the first half
But she was awesome. She she's the one watch. Also her. Also big time her. Future.
Yeah Kim Mulkey it felt like she was like there was some kind of grudge maybe like a
Malcolm Butler thing going on where she was like I'm gonna punish Van Lith and just make
her guard Caitlin Clark one on one. Someone I think one of our colleagues and I'm sorry
that I didn't I think it might have been Regs, but I probably got this wrong,
but he said that Kim Mulkey is perfect
because it's like if Bob Knight dressed up as like,
like in the bird cage.
Yeah, yeah.
That's really what it is.
It's a good point.
And it was, yeah, it was a very bad job coaching by her
to not make an adjustment on that.
I knew that something was off with Kim
from the second she stepped out on the court
and she was wearing the most understated thing that she could possibly
I want Kim Mulkey to be like full on Kim Mulkey. But wearing the technical or dream court code.
Instead, she looked like like Leslie Knope celebrating St. Patrick's. But we can't be
hypocrites because we've always said like when Cam Newton used to dress in his crazy
hats and then lose a game. I think Kim Mulkey knew that they were in trouble. And that's
why she dressed down because she was her ass whooping. That was a get my ass whooped suit.
She didn't want to wear like a magic eye dress to the podium afterwards.
She wanted to wear a full tiger skin.
Yeah. Now to be fair, I thought that LSU was just pounding the shit out of Iowa in the
first half. And it also, it was awesome. It was a great sporting event because we were
very excited to watch it. We had talked about it for a few days. It was highly anticipated and then it lived up to the expectation, which is rare.
Well let's wait to see if it's a great sporting event because we don't have the ratings yet.
Okay yeah we'll wait to see that.
It was only on ESPN.
We think it was.
If it had been on ABC then maybe it would have been better than it was.
We have to argue the ratings no matter what.
Yeah.
Whichever way they go we have to find a way to argue about it
constantly because as everyone knows, we watch sports only that other people want to, a lot of
other people want to watch. And if a lot of other people aren't watching it, then that sport means
nothing. And it's funny because the ratings, when they are on network as opposed to on cable,
there's always a massive difference. Like if you look at the men's side of the bracket,
when they show like the highest rated games
of the season so far, or of this tournament,
they're all the CBS games.
Yeah, the other ones, which I understand that it is a thing,
but still to this day, I don't understand who has CBS
and doesn't have ESPN, or who has ABC
and does not also have ESPN.
Hospitals.
Hospitals, yeah.
Maybe.
Old people.
Maybe.
Maybe some hotels.
And you know what I realized watching this game?
Who doesn't have ESPN?
Because I got it like 20 years ago.
You understood.
Remember when ESPN got Monday Night Football
and people were like, this is bullshit?
Yeah.
Like, how could you do this?
Yeah.
Or even when they had Sunday Night Football,
I was like, this is bullshit. No one can watch. Like, well. Can you even this? Yeah, or even when they had Sunday night footballs like this is bullshit
No one can watch like well, can you even get a cable package that doesn't have ESPN?
I would like yeah, there's like a 10 channel basic package. It's like CBS
ABC just thought of our next punishment. Yeah
The god. Oh my god, maybe dorm rooms that actually might not have ESP that would be torture
No, cuz I will when I was in some kids in dorms are not using 20. Oh shit. We just got a yeah
Yeah, that's a fair point. Okay. I
Realize that Hank is right. I know but I had ESPN when I was in college
I remember PTI like the first episode of PTA. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah
Again age us. God damn it. We just hey just said a trap
We just walked further into it. They're just using YouTube TV
Damn it. They don't have they don't have the women's college basketball game for my Sega Saturn
It sucks. We got to get off this topic because I've been having a couple days where
Yesterday, I thought that dream on green actually bought a
bedazzled
Testicle necklace. Oh the nutsack. Yeah, it was NBA Central. Yeah, that was gonna get you sometimes
But yeah, the games were awesome Kim Oakey no idea what she was doing, but Caitlin Clark like that was
Something about great athletes and rising the occasion and being like you could tell it was very personal for her
Even though she was saying it wasn't but it was very personal getting the revenge
Dropping 40 like hitting shots out of nowhere. It was awesome. It was a great watch is a great game
I actually think you cons gonna beat him though
Because I think you know like if you watch the second game
Gino had a game plan for Juju Watkins that Kim. Okie just didn't have for K. Kim
Okie's game plan was one on one
and then have all your bigs drop back.
Yeah.
And so she was just getting open look after open look.
I think, you might be right,
because I think it's gonna be UConn
and South Carolina in the finals,
but it would be awesome if we had dueling
NC State UConn finals.
That would be great.
In both brackets, but I think I like the format
of the women's game better.
What do you mean, the quarters? The quarters, I like the quarters. I, you know, I like the format of the women's game better. What do you mean the quarters the quarters?
I like the quarters. I you know I was thinking about this as well because I
Quarters makes more sense that was reset, but I like that the the college basketball is the only basketball that does haves
Yeah, they're the only basketball that does also I like one-and-ones
Women's doesn't do one-and-ones. do five fouls per quarter as a double bonus.
One and ones are fun because you can just be like, well, this guy sucks.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I mean, if you're what, my one knock against the NCAA tournament on the men's side is that
down the stretch, if there's like two minutes left in the game, it just turns into a foul
fest.
Oh yeah.
Where the game stopped every five seconds and you don't get that in the women's game.
Well, you get it sometimes.
Remember Caitlin Clark versus who was it? Oh yeah.
Otto or no. Yeah. At the very end of that game.
Oh, West Virginia when she hit her shot like 17 free throws. Yeah.
But I think it minimizes it. Yeah. Like it, it lessens it.
Whereas sometimes at the end of men's games, it becomes like, okay,
there's really no action going on. Yeah. But either way,
it was a great night of basketball. I had, I had, uh, I was very,
like I was glued to my TV.
I think women's basketball already arrived, but arrived even more.
Yeah, I think it's here.
It's here, it's now, they're her.
It's very now.
Until we see the ratings.
We're going to have to wait to see the ratings.
And the one group of people that did not like the game last night, the city of Albany.
Rebecca Lobo just took a wild shot at the city of Albany.
They got a stray shot.
When she's like, yeah, there's really nothing to do in this city.
And Albany's just sitting there watching.
It's so proud that they're hosting a game.
All eyes are on the city.
And then Rebecca Lobo just taking a big steaming dump all over it.
But did they have any arguments against?
Yeah, yeah.
So McKenzie works here at Barstool.
She's from Albany.
Okay.
She was quick to respond.
We actually have the biggest Walmart in the world.
Also state capital.
Yeah, so up yours.
State capital's gotta count.
Yep.
Something, like pizza.
How many people do you think,
here's something nice to say about Albany.
I would say out of any state in the United States of America
people get what's the state capital wrong more
with New York. Yeah, maybe Pennsylvania. So then it's like the fun like, no, people get what's the state capital wrong more with
New York. Yeah, maybe. So then it's like the fun like, no, actually it's Albany.
Yeah. Albany is the capital. It's also, I don't know if that was a compliment.
It might be the most corrupt city in the world. Really?
I think most people that serve at the head of the New York state government end
up getting arrested at the head of office. I think it's like 90% of Chicago's
got to run for it. Chicago is pretty good. Baltimore. Baltimore. What do you call
somebody? Are they, are you just basing that off the wire? I've been rewatching the wire
It's such a good show yeah, I remember hamster damn
But don't you think that if you ask like a hundred people what's the capital of New York?
They'd be like New York. I think most people say New York. What about New Mexico? That's another one Santa Fe damn Hank nice Hank
Florida What about New Mexico? That's another one. Santa Fe. Damn Hank. Nice Hank. Florida. Tallahassee. Hank, Mr. Geography. What about Pennsylvania? Oh, this one's tough. I know
this one. Pennsylvania, Montpelier. What about the state you reside in Chicago yeah oh fuck wait Chicago's not a you live in
Illinois of an Illinois this capital of Illinois is Montpelier yeah correct
you know I'm pill you're gonna get it right Springfield yeah yeah nailed it I
think there's a Springfield in all 50 states I read that like 10 years ago
yeah yeah that's why Simpsons everyone can claims the Simpsons is somebody from
Albany called an Albanian
Yeah, it's a do tough night for the Albanians. You'll rise up or a New Yorker. You got it
They probably have good pizza and a lot of snow
Someone brought a pizza pizza shop brought a pizza to Dave and they gave it to one the way out it looked amazing
Yeah, and there's a Sunni there
Yeah That's so new Billy every part of it is how yeah Friday's yeah
Drag you to TG Jake you should be so lucky TGI Fridays is it's fantastic. I hate you there
All right other things we got to talk about we got to talk about the Oakland A's so PFT and I have
Unveiled gambling strategy this year. We're betting against the A's minus one and a half every single game so far. We're four and one
this year we're betting against the A's, minus one and a half every single game. So far we're four and one. But, and we've, we've have a long history of John Fisher, fuck John Fisher,
piece of shit. We'll never buy anything from the gap. Uh, I think that's what he, I think
that's his, where his money's from. So the A's are a joke. Uh, the A's have great fans.
The A's are moving to Vegas. The fans are losing yet another team, we feel
really bad. And there's this website called the last dive bar that is supporting the fan
movement they did for opening day they did a big tailgate thing outside of the stadium
a ton I think was like 20,000 people basically showing hey we have fans you just don't put
out a product and you're moving the team you piece of shit so the last dive bar has a bunch of
merch which is great and they have these bracelets and a couple A's players were
wearing the bracelets and mysteriously got benched and sent down yeah I think
there are four players that they've spotted but the the biggest names Ruiz
Estuary Ruiz he was your hit by pitch he was my hit by pitch guy I think there are four players that they've spotted but the the biggest names Ruiz estuary Ruiz He was your hit by pitch. He was my hit by pitch guy
I think he led the majors in stolen bases last year. It's very fat. He started out
I think he went three for five. Yeah, and then they sent him down to triple-a. He was wearing a last die bar bracelet
He was wearing a last die bar bracelet. There was the other guy there. They're all-star from last year. He got benched
So there it seems to be that they're punishing the guys that
are wearing these bracelets, right? They're basically saying
we like the Oakland Coliseum, and we like the fans like to
support us, we want to support them. So they're punishing their
own players allegedly, for going up against the ownership. And
it's sad, man, like a little going to get a little bit
serious. But there's nothing more evil than an owner of a
sports team that treats their fans like shit. And this guy is the king of it. This
it should be illegal what he's doing. He's he's taking away joy from an entire city.
He's taken away like families growing up and becoming fans of the team and memories that
you're going to have with your family going to these games. He's taken away the community
because he wants to make a little bit more money, even though this guy, he's a fail son. His parents own the Gap. He inherited
all of his money and he wants to be like, Oh, I want to make a name for myself. I want
to make my own money. I'm going to steal a team away from a city that loves it. And we're
going to move it to a city that does not give a fuck about it.
Yes. And they're cowards Because he doesn't, he never faces
the music, he never answers to what he's been doing, he's been putting out a terrible product
and basically saying look no one's here when we know when the A's are rocking that place
is awesome. The Coliseum is one of the coolest places when they've had these runs. You know
the 20 win game, 20 game winning streak back in the Billy Beane days, the,
the playoffs where they had guys dressed up and all this fun stuff.
They're passionate fans and this fuckhead, John Fisher has basically robbed them not
only of their team, but kind of of their dignity because they've, the way they're going out
is so sad and what he's putting on the field is so sad
that he's like, oh, well, no one's showing up.
No, no, no, you did this.
You created all of this and you're a piece of shit
and we stand with the city of Oakland
and the fans of the A's and it's so petty that he's,
we don't know for fact that he made these roster moves
because of the last die bar bracelets.
But a coward like him would make that type of move.
Well, if you listen to the way that the manager had to justify the moves, you could tell he
did not believe what he was saying.
It sounded like he was just, he had to say something that was not the owner told me to
do this.
So he came up with something with Ruiz where it's like, yeah, you know, last year he needed
some things that he had to work on and he did not address at all what he's, you know, he's obviously one of the
best players on your team. And we're trying not to lose. It's a big double middle finger
to your fans and credit to his fans because they have organized boycotts. They've organized
reverse boycotts. They've organized protests. They're doing everything that they can. Like
normally when a team gets moved, it's usually, people are upset about it but you don't have this big uprising against it like you saw in in like European soccer
for the Super League where people flip their shit. The A's are the A's fans are actually
going out there and making their voices heard and just thinks having a guy. Yeah that just
is outwardly hostile to your fan base. So I don't know if you know and they turned their
replies off on their Twitter. They turn their replies. That's the most cowardly shit you can get. They're cowards.
So here's another thing that is crazy in the cowardly nature of the A's front office and
ownership. So last night we were talking via text and we were talking about how we won
again because the A's stink again. This is not a we're betting against the players. We're
betting against John Fisher because he's a piece of shit. And he's going to, he's actually going to do everything in his power to make
sure that we keep winning our bets. Correct. Crazy. Correct. So we were talking about it
and we were talking about the last dive bar and how cool it was that these guys are, you
know, so passionate about the A's and trying to get the fans, you know, being like, Hey,
we're still here. So, uh, we, we, I I was like let's go buy some of these
bracelets support them I went on the last I bar website their merch is awesome I
got a little crazy because I was gonna buy merch for all of us so I ended up
buying a lot of merch so I hit submit on the merch and Brian who runs the last
I bar emailed me like two seconds later and was like this is email whoa what an
order just want to make sure you intended to buy all those items. It wasn't a slip of the thumb. Mind
blown. So I was like, shit, he probably thinks that like I mess up. And so I replied to him
and I was like, you know, I'm Dan. We have part of my take. Like we support you guys.
And he sent me a couple of links in the story with the last dive bar and the ACE specifically
just shows how cowardly these people are. The last dive bar has been doing this for a while where
they've been making incredible merch and being a part of the community and helping the community.
The A's actually commissioned a bunch of the last dive bars work and MLB sent like a letter
to them and was like, Hey, you're in copyright infringement.
And Brian was basically like,
but you don't understand, all of these designs,
the A's commissioned this from us.
And essentially the A's,
once it was clear that they were gonna move,
they ghosted the last die bar completely.
Never thanked them for anything they had done for them.
Never said like, hey, these guys made a lot of cool shirts and promos and all this stuff.
Like, Brian was saying that they did bingo night that he ran.
They basically pretended they didn't exist and won't even look them in the face.
This passionate fan group that has been doing a great job for the A's.
So the A's used them the minute they they were going to move, we're like,
oh we don't know those guys, and have ignored them.
So, if you're looking to support the A's,
they have a couple other groups,
so the last iBar, we're going to be,
I bought a lot of stuff, so we'll be wearing it,
we'll be wearing their bracelets,
and we want to support the city of Oakland,
because owners like this are pieces of shit,
they should not just sell the fucking team.
Sell the team to someone who wants to keep it in
Oakland it's like we're at a point now where fans are smarter than they've ever been we know what's going on
It's happening actually right now kind of low-key with Jerry Reinsdorf
He's pulling the same shit right now
And if he tries to move the White Sox to Nashville we will absolutely be like fuck you and do the same thing
So it's just we're at a point now where fans can figure out
We're not stupid. We know what's going on and we stand with city of Oakland and fuck John Fisher
We do and nothing would make me happier than if every single player on the A's wore that bracelet
Yeah, what are you you can't fire all of us? Yeah, and that's that's a little unfair because they have jobs
They want to get and they want to get paid family. They want to be in the big leagues. I get a bad spot
I'm not saying that they're bad people if they don't do it at all because they have jobs. Yeah, they want to get paid. They have families. They want to be in the big leagues. They're in a bad spot.
I'm not saying that they're bad people
if they don't do it at all.
It would just be funny to see what the A's would do
if everybody on that roster also wore the drapes.
Just sell the fucking team, man.
Like, just do it and go fuck off.
And you can make a lot of money.
You can make a lot of money.
Sell it to that Oracle guy.
Yeah, any-
There's a lot of money in the Bay Area.
Find another, just one billionaire
That's that's who we should be putting pressure on any of these like weird Silicon Valley
Yeah people as we've said on the show before if you're a billionaire and you don't own a sports team
You're fucking weirdo one of those people need to step up to the plate and just offer them a big big offer
By the A's keep them in Oakland
I have thought, the thought crossed my mind,
because our betting strategy is that we're betting
the same amount against the A's every single game.
My thought crossed my mind that what if we just
won a game, doubled it, won a game, doubled it,
until we had a billion dollars and we'd buy the A's.
That would be an awesome story, wouldn't it?
Also, Major League Baseball, you're currently embroiled
in a gambling scandal right now. Do you think it's the best optics to move a team to Las
Vegas? If Rob Banford is serious about the gambling issue, I think the first thing he
should do would be to not let a team move to the city of sin.
I agree. I agree. But either way, the last I bar guys and not like I said, I wish I had a list of the other ones. I'm sorry that I'm not don't have all of them. But there's other other age groups that are doing great, great work. We are in preliminary talks, depending on where our travel takes us this summer to potentially come out and support last I bar. Yeah, we just did a live podcast in this in the
Maybe we can trick john fisher to come on. How could we do that? I don't know. He doesn't he doesn't talk to
anybody. We just put like a big box and a string and a pair of like khakis underneath with a with
a big striped polo disregard everything that we've said we are the biggest John Fisher fans
Yeah, love to talk to him pick his brain about how to be a successful businessman
Hey, you know what John Fisher?
You're probably misunderstood want to come on pardon my taking explain your side of things because we're just getting one side
Right softballs only and it seems like in today's culture billionaires are the easiest targets for people and they don't get to stand up for themselves
So we would like to be your mouthpiece. Oh man, how great would that be if we could trick
him to come on and then he walked off? Yeah, that'd be great. He's a piece of shit, man.
Oakland 68 was the other one. Oakland 68 is the other fan group that I think does great
stuff. They've worked in conjunction with last I bar say something nice about the A's
as well. Their outfield grass is awesome.
Dude, the Coliseum rocks.
I love the grass in Oakland.
I know.
I even bought, I'll say it, I bought a couple art prints.
Oh, of the Coliseum?
Yeah, from Last Dive Bar.
We're going to put it up in the studio.
Yeah.
We're going to stand with Oakland.
And if you've seen the artist's rendition of the stadium
that they're planning on moving to, or the one that Fischer just threw out there, it looks like the Sydney
Opera House. Yeah. It's just ridiculous. They're not going to move into that stadium.
It has me juiced up too, because it's like we have, you know, an awesome platform that
we're very lucky to have. And it's like, if we can use it to stand up for the regular
fans, like fuck John Fischer. Yeah. This is a fuck John Fisher podcast unless he wants to come on and then we'll have him on and again softballs
only John. Yeah. We'll be so nice. We'll ask you oh hey what's your favorite type of jean
cut? Yeah that's good. That's a fair question. First question John. Hard question. Tech vests
are they back? Yeah. When you thought of making polos with vertical stripes,
were you like, ka-ching?
You remember those swing commercials
that you used to have with the all-white background people
jumping over each other?
That was brilliant.
Yeah, man.
You're an advertising genius, John Fisher.
You're not a fail, son.
I would like to just put this out there.
I will fight John Fisher.
I would, too.
In Rough and Rowdy.
Yep.
I will fight him with one hand tied behind my back. I will fight him with both hands tied behind
my back. So you fight him with one hand. I'll fight him with none. Just head butts only
from big cat. Fight us. John Fisher, you bitch. Fight us. You won't. He's probably just sitting
in his little mansion and like, Oh, Vegas won't like you. That's the other thing. Yeah.
You're going to go out there. They've already got their billionaire Mark Davis. Yeah. And
he rocks. He's not going to, he would never move got their billionaire Mark Davis. Yeah, he's not rocks He's not gonna never move a team never he would
Damn it we got ourselves in that one Hank calls old again your old, okay, okay
Can I talk real quick about a fan base since we're on fan base talk that I wanted to give a quick shout out to
And that is the Providence Twitter
Providence basketball Twitter fan base because I don't know if you guys have seen this but
they're basically gaslighting Ed Cooley into resigning.
Yeah, they started there were I think it was April Fool's joke with a fake account blue
checkmark account being like Ed Cooley is about to resign story coming soon. And they've taken that and the hashtag the
resignation is trending. And I actually think if there's one fan base that could get someone
to be like, wait, am I resigning? It's the Providence basketball fan base. They're an
army. They're crazy. I love them so much. They are a weapon. I do not ever want to be
on the wrong side of pride. I got John. I mean, it was once John Fanta did the windmill
dunk. They're like, our powers
are unlimited.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So they're going to get Ed Cooley to wake up and be like, am I resigning?
There's probably somebody in the Georgetown, in the university that has seen that and been
like, wait, is coach leaving?
Listen, I know that he's probably not resigning, but it was 0% chance on Sunday and it's at
least a 5% chance today.
Yeah.
All because enough people are tweeting the resignation.
Max, you agree, right?
Yeah, no, I just love that you said it probably because you don't know for certain whether
he's resigning.
Exactly.
The thought has been put out there and now he has to do a press conference saying he's
not resigning.
That at least has to happen.
You think he's going to do it?
He has to address it.
I think he might issue a statement.
He has to do something. No, he's going to do it? He has to address it. I think he might issue a statement. He has to do something. The world is talking and he has been weirdly silent throughout all of this.
It is weird. It's a very funny situation. Shout out to Providence Twitter. They are, yeah, they,
I saw the video Rico did with them. They're psychos. Oh yeah. They're psyching. Like,
it's a great, they're just passionate about Providence basketball and they have time on their hands
Yeah, uh, by the way breaking moves
Zach Eady has been named national player of the year back to back
Great
Great good
brilliant day for basketball
My theory was that uh that, that, you know,
Ace Smith's from, from Texas. Yeah. Everyone's like, why does he pronounce
his name like that? It dawned on me when we were watching the games. I was
watching with Titus and I was like, remember Joe Theismann? His name used to
be Thiesman and he changed his name to Theismann so that he would help a
marketing campaign for winning the Heisman Trophy, which by the way, he did
not win. Um, I think Ace Smith Smith changed the pronunciation of his name to rhyme with Naismith. Think
about it. Yeah, I am. Makes sense. I am thinking about it. But yeah, Zach Eaddy won. Congrats.
So that wasn't enough for Ace Smith. That wasn't enough for him. Not nearly. He got
close, but not enough. Yeah, Zach Eadie is national player of the year back to back
And we'll see if he can close. Did you guys see the clip of Zach Edie?
Playing baseball. Yeah, very funny gas. I would have fucking taken that
300-350 easy respectfully respectfully knock it out of the park. He threw what 75 74. I think yeah. Yeah, he just looked so I
Bet it'd be hard to hit though. Yeah, I mean it's it's hard. It's hard to look at on the mound
What are you gonna say Jake ace miss his father said the B was originally a sharps s no He changed it down the Naismith Ward wrong the German letter that resembles B, but it's actually respectfully you're wrong
Dude whose name it is
You're wrong, dude whose name it is. You are wrong.
We're too smart for you.
Yeah.
Okay, let's do Hot Seat Cool Taron and then we will get to Jeff Pass in great interview.
We touch on the A's with him.
PFT, are you ready for your redemption?
No.
The chill calendar.
Hot Seat Cool Taron is presented by Core's Light from Dayman.
Yeah, you got it. You got it. Dude, he's hot bait. You can do this, buddy. For people who are watching. The chill calendar hot-sea cool drones presented by course light
Like there was a lump in his throat when he realized that he had to go back to the calendar It's my money. Hey, hold on. Hold on. Hold on slow cap
That was a much easier door. That was a much easier door.
Light work.
We got a glass.
Dominated that.
Glass slipper in this one, boys.
Definitely not Oakland's.
Dominated that.
All right, so Hot Seat Cool Drone is brought to you by Coors Light.
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Coors Brewing Company Golden Colorado Hank.
Well, I'll see his fanatics. We've talked about a few times, but it's starting to bother
me now that I'm watching a little more baseball just like not being able to read the pitcher's
jersey and it seems like every single night there's a new example of that those old eyes the
jerseys just being pieces of shit seeing it in person I was like those are really
small the the Nationals coat like they have the the first base coach had like
different colored gray top and bottom yeah the Yankees pitcher who was
sweating he just sweat through his jersey completely the sweat seems to be
an issue for the for the road
uniforms
And I just feel bad for the fans because like if you order it used to be like if you order
You know the most expensive jersey comes stitched it comes everything and the ones that the fans are getting are also
Shitty so it's reached a point. I don't know what that like they're on the hot seat
They have to solve this yeah now if you want to get a good jersey you have to order a knockoff jersey
Yeah, and it comes you like wow this looks awesome. You have to order an old
Jersey. Tom, Tom layer, one of our great producers here, parcel had a perfect tweet when the
Mets and Brewers were, were brawling and there was a screenshot of McNeil, Jeff McNeil going
crazy and he was just like, it's so hard to look tough in these jerseys because look his yeah, I saw you Have you have like size eight so small?
It's you can't be a tough guy in that cannot the side-by-side with
Jason Kelsey and Fletcher Cox throwing out the first pitch was tough because Kelsey was rocking the old uniform
Cox was rocking the new one
Yeah, and you saw and you're like wow Kelsey looks way stronger the Cubs had the Cubs logo the secondary logo patch on
Some players had on their right some players had on their left. That's bad. It's crazy crazy crazy
hot seat
And then my cool throw is big Al
Mmm, they guys back kid from Jersey Little League World Series a few years ago said my name is big out. I hit Dingers
Okay, I don't want to boss go you but he never made it to the region
Little League World Series coverage. He never he never made it to Williams for Williamsport
Okay, you're right. He gets very upset when people say that cuz they're like he never made it on TV
That's all right this kid and he never made it to Williamsport. No, it's it's it's hot. We want TV. Yes
I was okay, so that's impressive. Yes. Hi that that I have yeah, you have high lows
We need those one for three with a ribby. Did you do a camera thing? What do you mean?
I'm Big Mac's and I drink soda my name name is Max Elante my favorite player Shane Victorino
Wait just put your favorite player Shane Victorino and it's yourself, so
Pull it up. We've never told Max Elante like two sodas and get an angry
Alright, my name is Max Elante. I'd like second place
My name is Max Elante never cutting my hair after this video. And I'm gonna grow into some big meaty clappers.
Yeah, Big Al is skinny now.
Yeah, he looks like he's skinnier than he was in that video.
And he hit a home run in his high school game.
Yeah. Yeah.
He was jacked up.
I think he's just Lil Al now.
Yeah, he is Lil Al.
Oh, here we go. I remember watching this.
Weird Al. You were cute. Oh here we go. Yeah, I remember watch this weird. I played again
You were cute big diddy
That Lenny yeah, what we say
Say that cuz I thought it sounded more Italian Delaney? Yeah. It sounds Irish. You kind of had that eye look
like I'm gonna cry. Delaney? I look like I'm gonna cry face back then too. Yeah. He has
resting cry face. Yeah. All right. Max shared something interesting with me the other week.
We were talking about soups. Did you know that in Philadelphia they eat turtle soup?
Like actual turtles? Like turtles. They eat turtles in soup snap snapper soup max's dad eats turtle soup like three times a week
Right snappa. Yeah, I actually have an update on that
I talked to my dad about that this weekend and he couldn't fathom that other parts of the country don't eat
Well, Tony here's the thing is like it is funny because you would think like we eat all types of meat
But turd I think it's because turtles it's probably tortoise in the hair
Probably did the did enough good PR for them. Yeah, we're yeah where they yeah
Like there's they're all in children's books little bunny rabbits little turtles that they they've skirted our appetites. Yeah
Yeah, but if you were even in the if you were in the wilderness like bunny you think is fair game
I would never think like if we got a turtle we can eat this no they swim around the mud
Although yeah, but think about it funny. I'd get a bunny
We can there and catch a bunny and then we can cook you can't catch a bunny
No, probably not no, you could catch a turtle. I would go for the river and just catch but that's thing is you could catch turtle
my bare hands
Easy catch a turtle not easy to eat a turtle though
it's like lobster I just crack it over a rock like a yeah smash but yeah
turtle gusher turtles and bunnies they've gotten great whoever did the PR
on turtles and bunnies chicken money chickens though got great PR and we
can't stop eating chicken do they have great PR they do their little red hen
there's no I don't like I don't think that's good PR that's yeah the sky oh yeah did she say the sky is falling no that's not good PR because they're little red hen. It's no I like I don't think that's good PR. That's yeah Oh, yeah, did she say the sky is falling? No, that's not good PR cuz they're not like cute
Yeah, like turtles and bunnies are cute turtles are just so slow that it seems unfair to write
They're just like whoa. I'm gonna get there eventually. Yeah, there's a bunch of guys like in the
1600s in Pennsylvania, let's go hunting. Yeah, just walk outside and they walk slowly after a
turtle and got it. Yeah, it's it actually is like the easiest
thing to catch. I would imagine. Yeah. Turtle. My other cool
throw is Ray John Wando. Oh, yeah. Retired. Didn't know he
was not retired. At least I thought he's been retired for
three years. Yeah, I thought that was NBA Central when I saw
that. That kind of rules though, to just be like a drop of
retirement when everyone's like, what? You were retired. Yeah. I thought that was NBA Central when I saw that. That kind of rules though, to just be like a drop of retirement
when everyone's like, what?
You were retired.
Yeah.
But yeah, shout out to Ray John Rondell.
Great career.
All time great.
Yeah, we actually had a funny, were you with me, PFT,
when we were in Indianapolis and we saw Blake Portals' agent?
And we were joking.
We were like, yeah, remember when he retired just
accidentally on the show?
He's like, yeah, that caused a lot of problems.
Yeah.
Like we got a ton of people hitting us up for comment
and like interviews and Blake just said like,
no, I'm only talking to part in my take.
That's awesome.
He rocks, yeah.
Good for him.
Yeah.
Okay, your hot seat, cool to run.
My hot seat is USPS, the postal service.
Okay.
Because they're seeing a big, big uptick in traffic via
Cooper de Jean oh yeah so Cooper de Jean's tryhard
cornerback at Iowa gritty guy hard worker coach's son coach on the field
plays the game the right way smart ham and eggs shifty gritty guy sneaky
athletic guy yep tough tough he's a tough guy person in last one out. Yep
So he is he's recovering from a leg injury
He had a broken leg and he has sent a letter to every NFL team informing them that after suffering the broken fibula November
He has now been cleared to return to all football activities. He's gonna do his own workout April 8th at Iowa
He's gonna do on-field testing and position work without any restrictions
He sent a letter to every team in the NFL. I need to know was this letter written
Was it mailed was this an email if so Adam Schefter reporting it as a letter not the correct story
Whatever it is one NFL franchise is gonna absolutely love this guy. Everyone else is gonna be like fuck this guy
Yeah, I saw that.
It's try hard move, but you got to try hard.
Yeah.
If you're applying for a job, you have to stand out somehow.
Yeah.
How many other defensive backs sent a letter?
None.
To every GM?
None.
My cool throne is women's college basketball.
Oh, because it finally made it.
As we talked about the top of the show, big matchups, but it didn't officially make it until Bob Ryan weighed in about oh, yes, and Bob Ryan
Had this following tweet after the the Iowa LSU game. I applaud the greatness of Caitlin Clark Paige Bukers
Angel Reese and Juju Watkins, etc. But in fairness to their predecessors
I don't see a better point guard than Dawn Staley or a better post player than Lisa Leslie. Great women's basketball skill
set is not new. You have not officially made it as a sport until Bob Ryan hits you with
a back in my day. The better. So this is the highest compliment that Bob Ryan can give
the game of women's college basketball by saying it's actually not as good as when he
was watching. And, and just flexing on everyone. I've been watching for a long time.
Also the back in my day here isn't even back in Bob Ryan's.
Bob Ryan was old. Yeah. When Lisa Leslie was like 50 years old, old, older.
Yeah. And Dawn Saler were playing. We, we, it was a one, two combo.
Cause it was Bob Ryan and then it was Ravel saying still believe Caitlin Clark
could have gotten a better deal for herself and a better deal for us sports
fans. If she returned to Iowa versus going to the WNBA, she's got a shot
to change WNBA, but it's still a long shot. Just the perfect, we watched an awesome game.
We should celebrate it. Well, actually, and then you do. And then people were replying
to him basically calling him a clown, which reveal has to be used to that by now. That's
yeah, default. He probably has the clown emoji muted on Twitter.
Definitely.
So people were calling him out and then he said, it's not a great deal for us sports
fans, even in the replies.
So I don't know what Ravel means by that.
A sports fans.
A sports fans.
We deserve better.
We do.
We do.
We demand better.
All right.
My hot seat is, we didn't talk about it on Monday, but it happened late Sunday night. Russell Westbrook,
getting into an argument with a Charlotte Hornets fan wearing a balloon hat, a grown man wearing a
balloon hat. Now, Russell Westbrook has been very clear that if anyone calls him Westbrook,
he will confront them. And I respect that. But Russell Westbrook also has to realize
that you are in an argument with a Charlotte Hornets fan, crone ass man
in a balloon hat, never getting to fight with someone who has nothing to lose.
That guy has zero to lose in life.
He's a diehard Hornets fan in a balloon hat.
He has nothing.
There's a great quote that is completely proven by this video.
Never get into an argument with a fool because from a distance no one can tell the difference.
Yeah and as you watch this video you're like, is two fools.
Russell Westbrook, excuse me I almost said the B-R-I-C-K word.
Russell Westbrook looks like a much bigger fool than the balloon hat guy because he's
arguing with the balloon hat guy. And I just, I don't want people to antagonize NBA
players. But it would be funny if we could just see like how ridiculous of a costume
someone could get in an argument with Russ Westbrook wearing. Yeah, just just keep upping
it. A guy in a literal balloon. I feel like if you wore a balloon hat, the malice at the
palace doesn't happen. Yeah, the guy that throws down
Yeah, he's like, oh a little bigger target. It was this guy also seeing the balloon fly off with a punch would have been awesome
Awesome, it just floats up into the sands. Yeah, but can we get like can we get a Russell Westbrook arguing with a furry?
Yeah, we could probably do my little
Brony the my little pony bros. Yeah, that could definitely also happen. Maybe someone who's just actually naked. I
Don't know if you'd want to fight a naked guy. That's also a great way to get out of a fight
Yeah, just take all your clothes off and try to fight but it would be funny to see how far because he will argue with anyone
Including balloon hat man. Who's a hornet? The Hornets fan is definitely the saddest part of this
Do you think you like the blue? balloon hat is like whatever. He saw a balloon hat, he put it on.
Being that hard of a, die hard of a hornets fan, you got problems.
Do you think he would get into a fight with somebody wearing a Russell Westbrook jersey?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That would be great.
I think there's no limits.
And then my cool throne is Adam Schefter because Shefty finally got his revenge for the whole Aaron Rodgers saga,
lose my number, Adam, all that stuff.
Schefter, I didn't even know this was a thing, but Schefter treated Jets QB.
Aaron Rodgers earned $81.14 through the NFL's performance-based pay system, the lowest amount
among all NFL players last season.
I didn't even know this was a thing. It's kind of cool that it is, but the system rewards all NFL players last season. I didn't even know this was a
thing. It's kind of cool that it is, but the system rewards all NFL players based on their
play time and base salary. If a player has a low base salary but plays a significant
number of snaps, he earns more through the system. With Rodgers having the opposite of
high salary and playing just 30.33% of snaps due to his torn Achilles, his total amount
came to $81 and 14 cents that rocks
Shepter that was Shepter getting it back and he did it with facts
There's a reason why he did it to Aaron Rodgers and not to Demar Hamlin
Yeah, I want to see the Demar facts how much did Demar get paid last year?
Yeah, this is a cool system though if you if you're on a shitty contract and you play a shitload of snaps
You should get more. Yeah, I like it. Yeah, but
Good job Shepter. I know he was smiling when he sent that hand off.
Jake, your hot seat cool thrown.
My hot seat is studying.
A student at NC State emailed a professor saying
he's lit AF right now and asked if he could move
the test to Wednesday, and he did.
Smart.
The professor was like, this is awesome.
This is possibly my favorite email of the year.
You've convinced me.
Yeah, I like it.
That's really strong work by that guy.
Usually those don't work.
And great job.
Like, you not only helped yourself,
but the rest of the class that was too cowardly to send
that exact same email.
Lit AF.
Lit AF.
I always hate the stories this time of year
from professors that are like, we're still in school
to go to school.
You have to come to class every single day, 9 AM.
I don't care if there's a parade.
Although, I do think this is very specific like
if it was like Duke or Kentucky or Kansas
I feel like the professor has an ability to be like
we expect to be here. You know what I mean? Like NC State
you have to let them take the test the day later because no one expected this
run
whereas a blue blood you'd be like listen we listen, we don't celebrate Final Fours,
we celebrate championships.
Kansas, I could see it happening
because it's the biggest thing there.
Duke, definitely not.
Also, if I was a professor,
I just wouldn't schedule an exam
for the three weeks of the tournament
because you never know.
But if you're NC State.
Yeah, you didn't even think
you were gonna be in the tournament.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
My cool thorns, no hitters.
The Astros did it again. This time it was one person. Yeah. Yeah, uh my coolthorns no hitters the Astros did it again. Yep. This time it was one person again
They did it again a lot of big no-go. Yeah. Yeah
I'm so over no hitters. Remember when no hitters used to be like you did even go to bonus coverage
I so I'm over no hitters, but I can pinpoint exactly when it started. I think it was the start of last season
Oh, I think I've been oh, yeah, you're right over no, it's right at right opening day opening day 2023
I was like no more no hitters. Yeah, this is pretty crazy since June 2022 via Jason Stark Astros for no hitters
The rest of the league three. Oh
So that that's a big including postseason including postseason. Yeah, that's important. Yeah
Okay
Let's talk some more baseball. We got Jeff passing on awesome interview with him PFT
You got a quick word from our sponsors before we get to Jeff Jeff
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participating locations. Now here's Jeff Passon.
Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest is Jeff Passon from ESPN, talking baseball.
Jeff, first of all, thank you so much for joining us. We've wanted to have you on the
show. We're light on baseball coverage, so this is something that we've wanted to do and have you on. So thank you for joining
us. We want to do a little baseball preview with you, talk about a bunch of different things,
but I think we need to start where everyone is thinking right now. Can you tell us when we're
going to get an answer to Shohei Otani's situation? I think it's going to be a long time. And here's why. This is such a tiny little spec of a much
larger investigation that's going on right now into this alleged illegal gambling ring in Southern
California. And there are ties to Las Vegas and there are ties to casinos and there their ties to Las Vegas and their ties to casinos and their ties to all sorts of
other things involved here. And because it's such a small thing, I understand like it's a big headline
because it's a big name and Shohei Otani and like international man of mystery and we don't know a
whole lot about him to begin with. And now our insight into him is that he's, you know, from his account, $500,000 wire transfers,
like at least nine of them being sent to, you know, this bookie.
And maybe it was his translator and the money got stolen from him.
Like, it's a patently ridiculous story.
But in the grand scheme of things, it's just a tiny part of the bigger one.
And because Major League Baseball doesn't want to step on the toes of federal investigators,
its investigation is more or less going to be going parallel, but waiting until the end
of the federal investigation.
And because of that, it could be a while till there's any sort of, I guess resolution is
maybe the right word, but more than that, clarity. Because this thing is still so opaque and so odd, and there are so many unanswered questions
at this point.
And I think that's the issue that everyone has with it.
What's the fucking truth?
Right.
Yeah.
That's smart by Major League Baseball, by the way, to wait for the federal investigation
to happen.
They get to play it as slowly as possible.
But you're right.
So it's a tiny speck in that investigation, but also Shohei's saying that there's been
a big crime committed against him personally.
So that's another investigation that could happen.
But to my knowledge, there haven't been any charges pressed against him for the crime
against Shohei.
Is that true?
You are correct, the FT. And that's the part of this that's really confusing
to us as reporters right now trying to figure this out.
If a crime is committed,
generally authorities are involved
and they get looped in and they get told
what the alleged crime was and they start investigating it.
Now, Otani's camp has said that they've
referred these allegations to authorities. They just don't say which authorities they've referred
them to. And until we get a sense that there's an actual investigation going on into this alleged
massive theft, why should we believe that there was a massive theft? Because Shohei Otani says so?
Because there's incentive for him not to lie?
Sure, like if you go out in public and say,
I got stolen from, there's no reason not to believe you,
but we'd like to at least verify that.
We haven't been able to figure out at this point
which agency is investigating, if any,
Ipe Mitzohara, the translator.
And that to me is the confusing part.
That to me would answer a lot of the questions.
Like, if we know who's looking into the alleged theft,
then all of a sudden we realize, okay, yeah,
this isn't just Shohei Otani's word.
This isn't just his lawyer or his people going out and saying he got
stolen from the cops are actually looking into this, uh, which don't know which cops,
if any, at this point are looking into it and what they found.
Right, right. The whole story. And I mean, add in the fact that he is the face of baseball.
I would assume that it would be held. It would be dealt with a little bit differently if
it was a journeyman player and this had happened
They have to obviously be very careful with this. Okay, so I'm waiting for the forensic accounting
That's what I'm I'm banking on. I didn't even know that forensic accounting guy. Yeah, I didn't even know that existed
Until this story happened. I was like, oh shit. That's a job. Okay, isn't that what Ben Affleck did?
Oh, and he was just killing people. Yeah the movie the accountant
Yeah, that's a harmony. Yeah, just killing a forensic account is an accountant that has a gun
Yeah, that's exactly what it is. Okay, got a higher hit man
all right, so in terms of this season and a little preview I read your story about
the fact that this is a weird spot for baseball right now because the
playoffs have expanded but also the collective bargaining agreement has
changed. Now I'm not very smart. I understand the playoffs expanding part.
Yes, thank you. I am NOT. Because I read it and I was like I just couldn't
understand it. Can you explain it to me like I'm five how the collective
bargaining agreement has now made it so that more teams feel like they are have a chance to compete and get into the playoffs. So let's look
back at the last three Octobers. The team with the worst record in the league
three consecutive years among playoff teams has made it to the World Series.
And so what that suggests to teams is October baseball is a complete crapshoot.
You know, this isn't like the NBA or the NFL that quite often it's pretty chalk in the playoffs.
Like, you know, if you have Patrick Mahomes, you are probably going to be making it to at
least the AFC championship game unless you just have a complete garbage roster surrounding you.
And even if you don't have a wide receiver room that's worth a damn, you still can go and win a Super Bowl.
In Major League Baseball, your regular season record,
you know, the Baltimore Orioles won 101 games last year,
got bounced early.
Atlanta, two years in a row, 100 plus wins,
bounced by the Phillies.
Dodgers, bounced by the 84 win Diamondbacks,
who finished 16 games back of them.
What that says to teams is, as long as I got like a lottery ticket, as long as I got a chance
in the postseason, that's all that really matters. And so instead of playing for those 100 wins,
teams are content to go out there and spend enough money to go and play for 85 or 86 or 87 wins and hope that they catch a heater.
And so what has happened, even though there's immense payroll disparity in baseball,
you've got the Mets, the Yankees, and the Dodgers all with payrolls over $300 million,
and you've got nine teams above the luxury tax threshold, and then you've got nine other teams
that are $100 million plus below that luxury tax threshold. And then you've got nine other teams that are a hundred million plus dollars
below that luxury tax threshold.
Like you've got this enormous payroll disparity,
but you only have four teams really.
And in the Rockies, the White Sox, the Nationals,
and the A's that don't really have much of a chance.
I mean, let's look at the Pirates.
Like the Pirates have a low payroll.
They have a young team and they have started five and oh this year.
And I understand five and oh, start in baseball.
You know, it's it's like two or 3% of the season.
But at least it shows like they have the opportunity to be competitive.
And in Major League Baseball in 2024, guys, you don't have to be great. You just have to be competitive and in Major League Baseball in 2024 guys, you don't have to be great.
You just have to be competitive and get to October. And then once October comes, anything
really can happen.
Yeah. I'm still, I'm upset a little bit with the Nationals. I can't be too upset with them
because we did win a World Series just a few years ago. So that buys me like 10 years of
goodwill for them. But the, the other teams that you mentioned, particularly the A's,
we've stumbled across a
Market inefficiency in baseball. We have a betting algorithm that we figured out which is just bet against the athletics every single day and
It seems to be pretty profitable thus far
But on behalf of A's fans, what the fuck are they even doing with their team?
They're they're going they're trying to move the team. The owner is not trying to be competitive at all. In fact, he's like trying not to be competitive. They sent Ruiz back to AAA. They benched their
All-Star from last year. Word on the street is they did it because they were wearing protest
bracelets, which we stand with those players if they were in fact wearing the last five
bar bracelets. If you're the Oakland Athletics, how is this not a crime to just not even try to be competitive in the sport?
Like how what's the motivation for the other owners to be okay with certain teams not even trying to put forth a competent product?
Because the second that there are constraints that are put on one team, all the other owners worry that it's going to be put on them. If at some point they try to move a team, they try to lose games to get
higher draft picks, et cetera, et cetera.
Like owners, owners never, I mean, think about it like billionaires
don't like regulations and that that's essentially what you're asking for here.
And it's a really reasonable thing because I'm sorry, but as, as somebody who grew up in Cleveland and who worshiped the movie
major league, I never thought I would see it in real life. Yeah. Yeah.
That's exactly what's going on here.
They are sucking as bad as they could possibly suck in order
to facilitate a move that shouldn't have necessarily been made in the first place.
And I think that like the saddest part of this whole thing beyond Oakland getting its last professional franchise
ripped away from the city is poor Las Vegas inherits the A's of John Fisher.
Yeah.
Like there is, oh, I can't wait for all of the excitement when a complete horseshit franchise
with an owner who has proven for five years going on
once they get there that he does not care.
That's what we want to have as Las Vegas fans.
That's what's gonna draw us out to the ballpark.
It's just backward.
And it shows you like when there are
poor incentives in place, this is the consequence
of that.
Like this is the upshot of there being incentives to stink and be rewarded for it.
And you know, in the last collective bargaining agreement, I think MLB did a better job of
disincentivizing tanking.
You know, they put a draft lottery in place.
If you if you have a player who is a top hundred prospect who comes and wins rookie of the year, you get an additional first round draft pick. Like there are things there now. It's not perfect,
but it's better than it used to be. The A's are just like, I don't care. Our draft pick is
going to get moved down because we've sucked for so long. Okay.
Like it's just, you know, it's unfortunate that owners didn't take a stand on this and
that their self-interest got in the way of the greater good of the sport.
Is there any hope that the A's don't move because it does feel like Vegas there's, there's,
so it's, it's dead. We, we, we should, it's not, it's not dead. You know like Vegas, there's, there's, so it's, it's dead. We, we, we should-
It's not, it's not dead.
You know, there, there's a, there's a group of teachers,
for example, who were trying to say,
hey, the hundreds of millions of dollars
that you're spending on this stadium,
that you are gifting to a billionaire.
Yeah, that should go to kids.
Yeah. That should go to education.
But it's a last ditch effort. In all likelihood, it's probably not going to work
and this is going to happen.
But here's the thing, guys.
As badly as the A's have screwed up their on-field product,
they have screwed up in many other ways business-wise too. They have been trying to get a stadium deal done in Oakland for upward of 20
years now and haven't been able to.
So the notion that they're going to be able to land the plane here, uh, and,
and move things to Vegas, it's not a done deal.
It's just that all the momentum is going in that direction.
So we're rooting against the obviously John Fisher. We hate him.
I'm pro teacher and pro kids. Yeah. It's child. This is a pro child podcast. Yes. Yes. Okay.
So other question about the disparity and this is maybe you can tell me this is crazy
to think but I have the feeling that if the Dodgers keep losing in the playoffs the way
they have they're going to try to change the playoffs so that it's cause like we've heard the rumblings where they play a five game series and they're like,
this isn't fair. We should be in the playoffs still. Is that, is that a real fear of mine
that they're going to try to tinker with it because they're going to basically say these
teams like you mentioned, the last place team to make the playoffs has made it to the world
series. Is that going to happen?
It's certainly possible after the 2026 season
when they get into new collective bargaining discussions.
Because remember, like, it used to be
just a one game wild card,
now they've expanded it to a three game wild card series.
It's like, to major league baseball,
more playoffs is never a bad thing.
When you have a sport whose national audience
has dwindled to the point that MLBs has,
where it's become like a completely regional sport
that has a postseason that some people watch,
but a fraction of what you used to,
still more eyes are on those playoff games
and more playoff games equals more TV money
and more TV money is a good thing
when the TV money that you have right now
isn't necessarily going in the right direction.
So I absolutely could see that.
Now you can make the argument, Big Cat,
like you want your postseason
to closer represent the regular season, right?
And the the the easiest way to do that is to have longer series because over longer series, you know, it's not quite as small of a sample.
And the the weird shit that happens in baseball may not happen
quite as much as you would have in a three game series.
So if if that first round were to expand to five, it wouldn't surprise me.
I don't know if it's for the sake of the Dodgers though.
I think it's for the sake of when you have people saying,
hey, what's the point of the regular season
if you win a hundred games and then like, you know,
that you can get bounced in the playoffs.
It's a reasonable argument.
It's just that if the Dodgers weren't choking things away in October, the Braves weren't
choking things away in October, then the discussion wouldn't quite focus on them the same.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What about the Yankees?
Because it feels like this entire postseason discussion is all for naught because the Yankees
are just going to win everything for the next five years.
Hmm.
Definitely not.
No, we say hard no on that.
The one Soto does look here's my problem with one Soto being on the Yankees.
He's too fun of a player to be on the Yankees.
Like I want somebody I can hate on the Yankees just you know ruining everybody's dreams.
One Soto is a very difficult player to root against, but does seem.
Do you hate Aaron Judge? Yeah, I kind of hate Aaron Judge.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, because he's very large and intimidating and if I was that big
I would be an all-star too. I would hit 70 home run
I didn't like when I didn't like when they they celebrated that home run ball that he hit like it was the the Major League
Record. Yeah, which was the dumbest thing ever. Yeah, I guess I don't really yes
I hate Aaron Judge, but the Yankees aren't as hateable overall as I would like them to be but it seems like they're built to be just a
powerhouse and I feel like we're we did our season preview another our preview
but our picks and I wish I could go back and change them and just say it's gonna
be the Dodgers and the Yankees you can in the world it's gonna be the Dodgers
of the Yankees yeah in the World Series but what would be like I would I would
be I would be okay with the Dodgers Yankees World Series. It's been a long time since we've
had one of those. And the Yankees, let's remember, their last World Series win was in 2009. I
understand they've had 27 championships, right? So they can rest on that and there's no complaining
about that. But 15 years for a fan base that every year comes into
the season thinking we need to win the World Series, it's totally World Series or bust,
like Yankees fans right now are salty. I mean they wanted to get rid of the general manager in the
offseason, they wanted to get rid of the manager, like this was a seminal year and then Garrett Cole
gets hurt, you know, the best pitcher in baseball for at least two months.
And I wasn't quite as bullish, frankly, coming into the season on the Yankees.
I worried that they were too old.
I worried that their pitching wasn't deep enough.
But these first five games, they've looked awesome.
And the fact that they have come back, especially in sweeping Houston,
which the day after they play the Yankees, they go out and throw no hitter.
Yeah.
I mean, it shows you like this Yankees team means business right now.
I just want to see it continue and not on a personal level,
but on a I'm still not fully in that the Yankees are a juggernaut.
I think the Dodgers are a better team.
I think the Braves are a better team.
And I picked the Orioles in the American league East. And honestly,
I still think the Orioles are a better team than the Yankees. Yeah. Yeah. They're very
fun team. Yeah. What Jeff, what's the next money ball? What's the next thing that front
offices are doing that is different that might be at the head of the, you know, the tip of
the spear here where it's like in 10 years, we're going to be like, Oh, that what they did was genius and they
won titles and they, and they had such success. What's the next like marketing efficiency
in baseball that teams are now going after?
A cheap plug here. Back in 2016, I wrote a book called the Arm and it was about the idea that major league baseball every year
wastes about a billion dollars on pitchers who are injured. It's not quite that, you know,
it's not quite that. It's a lot of money that they spend on guys who get hurt.
And, you know, when you see the number of pitching injuries that there have been this year,
the number of big name guys who are out because of arm injuries,
figuring out how to keep pitchers healthy is the Holy grail of major league
baseball.
And the first team that can truly figure out how to do it is going to win
championships because of it. Now, the problem is,
I don't know if that's an achievable goal, right?
Because all of this starts in youth
baseball. All of this starts when you're 12 and 13 and 14 and you have some dickhead coach who's
going and throwing you out there much more than he should. So this is a problem that frankly,
a lot like concussions. It's not the same thing because concussions, it's a life or death thing,
but it's similar to concussions in the fact that it starts at a really early
age and then manifests itself when guys get to college and when they get to
pro ball and when their bodies get bigger and they're throwing harder, um,
figuring out how to save arms. It's not just individual teams,
major league baseball as a whole is taking this on because I think they realize
Just how big of a problem this has become so is there one?
Front office that you know of that feels like they're you know
They're being very proactive or one front office that you're like this this this group of people are they're doing something that could eventually
Lead them to the right path of figuring this problem out
I mean in terms it's interesting you look, when you look for something like that, you're
looking for the teams that do process the best, right? Because this is going to be a
very process oriented thing if they can figure it out. You know, there's not going to be
like some mad scientist who's just sitting back there and goes, aha, I figured out how
to do this. I was looking at spreadsheets
and this tells me, no, this is a combination of doctors, of trainers, of performance folks,
you know, analytics, like everyone is trying to get together to solve this. And when you
look at the teams that have understood and developed good pitchers, you think that
they would be able to apply those same principles to pitching injuries as well.
And that's the Dodgers, the Guardians, the Rays, you know, teams that are very, not just
analytically inclined, but understand that when you're approaching a problem, you have
to do it in a very uniform way to try and get the best solution
Yeah, what about this Jeff? What if what if some teams just are doing preemptive Tommy John surgeries on every pitcher that they drafted?
Well PFT to
To quote from my own book the greatest
predictor of a future arm injury
greatest predictor of a future arm injury is a past arm injury. And if you have surgery, you are far likelier to have a surgery in the future because of it. So I love the preemptive
Tommy John surgery idea, but you're a moron.
Okay. All right. Listen, there are no wrong answers except for that one.
None. Of course.
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Passon, okay similar to the question about who's gonna, what's the next moneyball? I love thinking
about the teams that are on the rise that have the young like rosters that people don't
know about yet. Obviously the Orioles people know about, but that was a couple years ago.
They started to put it all together. That evolution is one of my favorite parts of baseball.
The year before they become real good teams.
I've always said that the 2015 Cubs
were one of my favorite teams
because they completely overachieved.
But what teams should we be looking at this season
that they might be a year or two away,
but they're gonna play some really fun baseball
and they're gonna have some guys
that people are gonna wanna watch?
I love the Cincinnati Reds.
And we saw a little of it last year in Big Cat,
like you see it with the Cubs.
This is a dangerous team.
They hit a lot of home runs.
And whether it's Spencer Steer, Christian Encarnacion,
Strand, Ellie Delacruz, you know,
Matt McLean is going to be an all-star.
He's out for the year with shoulder surgery.
Noel V. Marte out with the PED suspension.
But someone like Will Benson, you know, he was with Cleveland for a long time, never, never got a crack
there, goes to Cincinnati and is playing a pretty damn good center field for a really
big guy right now because TJ Friedl is on the shelf. So like that's three good bats
that are out and Cincinnati is still winning because of their hitting and they just have
a lot of pitching depth too.
And when it comes to pitching, you know,
I almost look at it like the Royals once upon a time
before their championship had like five really good
left-handed arms.
And pitching is such a crap shoot that if out of five guys
you can get like a good starter and a good reliever, then that's a pretty good outcome.
There's some of these other organizations have done better
at developing pitching frankly, but I look at Cincinnati
and they've got like seven, eight big league rotation arms
right now, if they can get three good pitchers there,
they're gonna be a problem
in that nationally essential division for a while. And while that
division right now doesn't look the greatest, Cubs are going to
be good soon, because I think they're going to start spending
some money this winter, and they have one of the three best farm
systems in baseball. So they're going to be good. I just can't
imagine the Cardinals continuing to be as mid as they have been for a long time. I don't think the fans are
going to stand for it. Honestly, Pittsburgh is on the come up.
It's not just the five and oh start Paul schemes is coming
soon. And he's gonna be probably, you know, as long as
he stays healthy, he's gonna be one of the 10 best best
pitchers in baseball for a while. And Milwaukee is just constantly solid.
Like they're a process team that does the process well.
And so the NFL Central has a chance in the coming years
to be really, really good.
Yeah, I agree.
I mean, it was not too long ago that we had,
I think that 2015 year where it was the Pirates, 198 games,
the Cubs 197, the Cardinals 100 the Pirates 198 games Cubs 197 the Cardinals
won 100 yeah and the Cubs also they they saved all their money on the pyrotechnics for opening
day so they're gonna be able to spend it on free agency so that was good. How can you do that? Well
like how can you just is there any explanation for how it can be so bad? I don't know the
explanation here's my only my only take? I don't know the explanation.
Here's my only take when I saw it,
because I was at the game yesterday.
I got there a little bit after they had this incredible,
I don't know if you saw it, PFT.
I'm looking it up right now.
It was one of the craziest pyrotechnics I've ever seen.
All I said to myself when I saw that video was,
thank God, thank God the Cubs won a World Series,
because that was old Cubs. That would
have been a like front page story. I don't know if you remember, but there was like,
it was like 10 years ago when Ron Santo passed away and they had a bunch of kids sign a card
and then a reporter found the card thrown out in the trash, like in the dumpster outside
Wrigley like immediately after. So they used to do all this shit. It was one of the worst pyrotechnics ever but thank God they won a World Series
I think you can get away with it when you win a World Series recently
They keep coming out of the dugout and then they only have two of the sparklers working
Yeah, and then one of them doesn't even really yeah that well. It was so pathetic. This is pretty it's not good
It's not at that point. You just got to not have sparklers at all. I kind of like it though
It's just like we had to do something to make it feel different. It is different. Yeah
It's quite some it's definitely different. Yeah
Speaking of young arms Yamamoto out in LA. He stunk in his first appearance
He was really bad second appearance pretty good
So where are we at? Are we, if you're a Dodgers fan,
if you're in the Dodgers front office, are you not concerned at all with Yamamoto? You just talked
at first start up to nerves and you think, okay, this guy's as promised. He's going to be great for
a number of years. Yeah. They're not going to give $325 million to a guy who they're going to be out
on after one start, but them giving $325 million to a six foot tall right-hander,
there's a lot of risk involved in this contract,
especially because he doesn't do things
the way that pitchers do now.
Like if you're a pitcher in 2024,
the goal is to get as strong as you possibly can
and to throw harder than
everyone else and the way you do that is in the weight room, it's in training
your arm, Yoshinobu Yamamoto does things completely differently.
Like have you seen the javelins that he throws?
No, I actually have.
Yeah.
It's crazy.
So, so he goes into the outfield and he throws that they're not like real
like stab you in the head javelins.
They're they're like the it's it's it's almost like a like a combination
between a real javelin like a nerf one. Yeah.
And he goes and throws these things and he does
stretching and yoga poses and handstands.
And he just has this extremely functional strength
that reminded people in the Dodgers organization
of Tim Lensko.
That's the comp that they're making on this guy.
Because when you look at him, you know,
he's not a big guy.
He's not like a traditionally strong guy.
He just makes his body move better
than anybody else out there.
And that's what they're banking on.
And it's the sort of thing that, listen, like we're, we're all older now.
We weren't, we may not be professional athletes, but we realize that your body
creeks a little bit when you get into your thirties and your muscles don't
work quite the same and to sign them to a 12 year contract, they did that because he's only 25, right?
And they're spreading out the risk over multiple years.
But man, when you get into your 30s,
that sort of regimen,
I will be very curious to see how that plays as he ages
because it works now and it works really well now.
And I think he's gonna be really good now,
but long-term you do wonder how his body is going to react to that.
Do you think Major League Baseball from a front office perspective has kind of figured
out Japanese baseball and the fact that there's they feel a little more confident getting
these guys because there was a time when it was, you know, Daisuke, Rabu, Kaz Matsui,
some of these guys, Fukudome, they were good, but they were not
what everyone kind of thought they would be. And then you have Shohei and even the Cubs
yesterday starting with Imanaga, who was great. Are teams more confident when they bring a
guy from Japan in their translation to MLB?
A hundred percent, and that is strictly because of the data that we have now.
Like you're able to take every characteristic of a pitch that a guy throws and compare it
to people around MLB and see the effectiveness and translate it accordingly.
In the past, you were just going on eyeballs.
Like you were just going on the word of scouts who said that, hey, I think this guy is going
to be this
and we're gonna go out and bet on it.
Now they bet on the numbers.
And in the case of Imanaga,
I think his health and the long-term viability
of the shoulder and elbow was the only reason
that he got $53 million.
There was an expectation that he was gonna be
a nine figure type guy because the stuff,
even though like we just look at on screen when a game's going on at a fastball that's
you know, top it out like that last pitch he threw was 93.
And it was it was down the middle.
But the characteristics of his fastball, even if the velocity is not there, play really
well, you know, he gets a lot of induced vertical break, which
in a non-nerd term essentially means the ball has carry to it. So a normal fastball, right,
as a hitter, your eyes are trained to expect a fastball to drop a particular amount before
it goes to the plate. When you have a really high vert number,
the ball stays up on a higher plane
for a longer amount of time.
And that's why you see swings underneath those fastballs.
And so because the pitch characteristics
of Imanaga were so successful,
and because the metrics say
that this guy's stuff is gonna play,
teams are a lot more confident
that what they think they're gonna be getting in terms of performance, they're actually going to be getting translated to MLB.
That's interesting. Yeah, interesting. I like that. So with the World Series last year raise or excuse me, Diamondbacks Rangers.
It felt like the Diamondbacks came out of nowhere. We are seam heads. We understand that Dan Heron turned that coaching staff around. Is there, by the way, can we, can we talk about Dan Heron for a second? He is the best. Yeah. He is, he is
one of my favorite human beings in baseball and getting to see him in the world series last year,
like it brought joy to me because nobody deserves it more than that guy. Yeah, he deserves all the credit. So now this is a hall of famer.
All we're still working on his case.
He had what the best postseason. Yeah. ERA, ERA of all times or less.
Yeah. In the world series. I know we got a bunch of stats, Dan Heron stats.
We're going to get them compiled and we'll get you voting for him.
He should be in the hall of fame. Yes. So,
so this year are the expectations for the dime backs or they,
are they a legit contender again? Because it seems like
they kind of came out of nowhere last year. Nobody expected them to reach the
World Series. Is that now the expectation for the Diamondbacks? It should be. They
just happen to play in a division with a team that spent a billion dollars this
offseason. And so any headline that the Diamondbacks were going to generate, you
know, the the Dodgers,
they just wash over everything.
I mean, they're like an unstoppable juggernaut,
who also, by the way, got swept by the Diamondbacks
in the postseason last year.
And the Diamondbacks, by the way,
like they're a better team this year
than they were last year.
They go out and trade for Eugenio Suarez,
they resign Lourdes Gouriel. They
sign Eduardo Rodriguez. They get Jordan Montgomery on an absolute steal. We saw Jordan Montgomery
carve in the postseason last year. He's a guy who's got big balls and wants to pitch when it matters
and to get him for a one-year, $ million contract, and to pair him with Heron and Brent Strom,
guys who both pitched in the big leagues,
both were really good pitchers in the big leagues,
but also have embraced numbers
in a way that Montgomery has too.
It's a perfect pairing, I think.
So this is a better Diamondbacks team than last year.
That division's just nasty.
The Giants spent a lot of money this
offseason. Got Jung-Hoo Lee from Korea. He's been really good to start. Got Jorge Saler. Got Blake
Snell toward the end of spring training and Matt Chapman as well. Very much improved team. San Diego
sucked last year. I think they're going to be better this season. Like there are four potentially excellent teams in the
National League West and I don't anticipate like all the wild cards
coming out of there but it wouldn't surprise me if two of the wild card
teams in the National League came from the West. Yeah and the other side that
World Series the Rangers have the opportunity I guess every team has this
opportunity after they win a World Series. But when was the last time we had a repeat? Was it 1999?
99 to 98, 99 to 2000 when the Yankees went back to back to back. There has not been one
this century.
Yeah. So do the Rangers, do they have a chance? Are they well positioned? Would you expect
big things out of them this year?
I'm going to be able to answer that question better, I think, in August. And here's why. Right now, what the Rangers have is a devastating offense.
Marcus Simeon at the top of the order, Corey Seager,
who's just as clutch as it gets after that.
Wyatt Langford, who at this time last year
was playing for the University of Florida,
is like near the top of the lineup right now.
And the Rangers stole him in the draft
with the fourth overall pick.
He is really, really good.
Like the comparisons from scouts have been to Mike Trout.
He's not as good as Mike Trout,
but he has like that linebacker build,
six foot, six foot one, 225 pounds,
just like a ball of muscle.
And he can hit the ball really, really far.
They got a full year at Evan Carter,
and I can go on and on about their lineup.
The reason I want to wait until August though,
is because they have three pitchers right now
who are on the injured list,
who were expected to be back by then.
DeGrom.
Mack Scherzer, Tyler Moly, and Jacob DeGrom.
And DeGrom is, Scherzer like, he's going to be effective.
He will be fine. It's him and Verlander. They're just freaks who pitch into their 40s and still
find a way to be power pitchers. Then, uh, Molly's coming off Tommy John surgery and, uh, has been
solid, like an innings eating type guy, but de to grow when he's healthy guys is the best pitcher on the planet.
Yeah.
Um, and, and having him back in that rotation down the stretch and
knowing that you're not going to have too big of an innings limit on him because
he doesn't have to pitch the entire season.
Like the fact that you can crank him up in, uh, in August and September and
send them out there in October.
If Jacob deGrom is all well and good this year, the Rangers, I'm not sure that they
become favorites again, but I'm not sure either that there's a better team in the American
league.
Yeah.
By the way, I looked up preemptive Tommy John surgery.
You call me a moron.
Yeah.
There are a lot of people that have thought about this and discussed it, so it's an actual conversation.
There's more morons.
Oh, absolutely, there are morons too.
They're all on message boards.
But a lot of people are talking about it.
Yeah, you got morons backing you up.
You mentioned a name there, Jeff,
that I wanted to bring up.
And I was thinking about it yesterday
when I was at the Cubs game and I saw Chris Bryant,
and it made me sad that Chris Bryant was, it's of falling off and he also went to an organization that has
not had success and he's almost lost. But Mike Trout will we ever get to see Mike Trout
play in the playoffs. Will Mike Trout ever be either freed from Los Angeles or maybe
they put a team around him because it's crazy that we're this deep in the Mike
Trout's career and he is such a surefire hall of famer and we still don't have that like
seminal Mike Trout playoff run.
Yeah, because Mike Trout's one playoff series that he's had over a career that is now in
its 14th season. Like that's a ridiculous thing to think that you can have a guy who is a first
ballot inner circle hall of fame.
Like when you talk about the greatest players of all time,
Mike Trout is going to be in that conversation.
He's had one playoff series.
It was against the Royals and they got swept in three games.
It's, it's as ugly as it can possibly get.
And it just shows you how baseball is different.
And I think that it's one of the things I love
about the game that you can have the two best players
in the sport and you can make a pretty damn good argument
that Shohei Otani and Mike Trout were the two best players
on the same team and that team is still garbage and has been garbage for a while now building
around him. I don't see it. And here's why I don't see it because the angels are a fundamentally
broken organization starting at the top. I don't know if this is the same in capped sports.
Like when you have a terrible owner in football, can you still win?
No. Yeah, you can.
I think if you have a great quarterback, terrible, terrible owner. No bad owner. Yes, definitely.
Okay. All right. That's fair. Um, Art fair. Artie Moreno last year had the opportunity
to do something that would have changed the trajectory
of this franchise.
He could have traded Shohei Otani
near the trade deadline.
In fact, the Angel's front office was going around
soliciting trade offers for Otani in hopes that there was one moment of weakness from Artie
Moreno where he said, you know what, fuck it, go do it, trade him. And they wanted to have offers
ready because if given that opportunity, they knew that 10 minutes later he might change his mind and that the window was
that minuscule to go out and get this deal done, which would have brought back.
I mean, I'm not exaggerating here, like top 10 prospects, like a huge, huge return that would
have allowed this team to weather this transition better. Instead, what Artie Moreno chose to do was to build around Shohei Otani
and to add Lucas Gialito
and to go out and trade for guys,
to add to a team that was fundamentally flawed
in that anyone out there who knows baseball knew
was never going to make a run.
Yeah.
Was never going to amount to anything.
And what happened in the process is that an already mediocre
farm system got gutted completely.
And now they're in a position where they don't have,
I mean, don't have really any good prospects.
You know, I think they're the 30th ranked team
in terms of farm systems by Kyle McDaniel at ESPN.
They, their major league roster has a few guys, like they have some interesting guys on it, but in a division like the AL West that has the Rangers,
the Astros and the Mariners, the Angels aren't competing there. And they're also not willing to
go over the luxury tax threshold. So when you don't have prospects, you don't have a reasonable big league roster
and you're not willing to spend money,
explain to me how you're gonna be any good.
Yeah.
The answer is they're not.
Right.
And so because of that,
Mike Trout has been enormously patient
and he desperately wants to win in Los Angeles.
He so badly wants to have a good team
in Orange County that allows him to complete his story.
His story, he wants it to be the guy who stayed
with the franchise for his whole career.
He's somebody who that matters to.
But the intersection of that desire to remain with the team,
with the desire to be able to walk around
with a big fat ring on his finger.
Like those two things are buttoned up head to head
right now because the man's not getting any younger.
Time is wasting away.
And at some point you would have to think
that his desire for a championship is going to overwhelm
that desire to stick around with the angels.
So free Mike Trout. Free him.
I just want to see him play playoff baseball. I want to see him hit balls, you know, million miles.
That home run he hit the other night was incredible.
He, Max, our producer wants him in the Phillies because he's obviously a Philadelphia guy.
So maybe we get that up. Speaking by the way of that home run, are they choosing the balls again?
I hope so. I think they are because the overs are 66%
in the first week of the season,
which obviously small sample size,
but you also got some really bad weather games
where they're not conducive to runs.
I'm hoping they're juicing the balls again.
Why wouldn't they?
I mean, pitchers would complain.
I remember talking with Justin Verlander
at an All-Star game a few years ago,
like when the balls were really flying,
and he just went off.
And the problem with juicing balls
is Major League Baseball,
like we're always on the edge of an integrity problem
with the sport after the Astros.
Like, is that not the lingering consequence
of what Houston did? It's that we always are gonna wonder
are things on the up and up with major league baseball.
So in the wake of the trash cans
with your biggest star by far
and meshed in a gambling scandal,
do you wanna beat you some balls?
Like, do you want that to be the storyline there? I'm okay with it too. Maybe Shohei just needs to bet overs and he gets
out of the debt. Yeah. There we go. We solved all the problems. Maybe, maybe Shohei being
on a team where it's profitable for him to win if he bets on his own team. Maybe that's
good for the sport too. Maybe he was $4.5 million in debt because he's bet on the angels every
day. Yeah. I want the balls juice
I want to see the balls. I want to see dingers people like dingers with baseball
It's like the most important thing to to the old timers to the custodians of the game are the numbers
And so you wouldn't see this you wouldn't see anything in basketball if you know if points points are up in basketball
But nobody's complaining about it right everyone's like okay like, okay, more points, good for the game.
In baseball, it's like, well, you can't make the balls
easier to hit because Babe Ruth.
You know, like what do all those numbers
that I grew up loving mean if the new numbers
are way bigger?
And I think baseball needs to just embrace,
or they need to reject that and say, you know what,
screw it, if the balls are juiced, the balls are juiced.
These are the new balls now.
Yeah.
I think, honestly, I do think a new generation of baseball fan is looking at it from that
perspective more than the numbers or everything, because the numbers have just been so skewed.
And beyond that, we need to look at numbers by generation, not like baseball is this one enormous continuum that you have to judge
on. Like, I'm sorry, but Babe Ruth wasn't playing against, like, black players, Dominican
players, Venezuelan players. The 60, you know, the 60 home runs, the 61 home runs that were
hit back in the 30s with Ruth, or the 20s with Ruth and in the 60s with Garreg,
like completely different.
It was just a different game entirely.
Babe Ruth was going against guys who worked day jobs
in the off season who threw 85.
If you had Babe Ruth playing baseball today, right now,
he would stink.
Now you could give, no, it's true.
Yeah.
You could give him a, you could give him a year to train.
Right.
And I think the, uh, you could give him new equipment.
So he's not swinging like a three pound bat up there.
Yeah.
And I think if you gave Babe Ruth, this guy with immense physical
talent, the ability to adjust, then he would be a really good
baseball player.
But if you took 1927 Babe Ruth and dropped him into
the big leagues today, he'd be down in triple A.
Yeah, he was eating like 14 hot dogs a day and drinking
a pint of whiskey every night.
A real mans man.
I was gonna say, sounds like an awesome life.
Yeah, so off of that, Jeff, I was curious because
you're our generation.
We're all similar age.
And you have entered.
Your career has been incredible entering into this game
and the way it's covered by older guys and some people who
are a little curmudgeony.
You had a famous, you boycotted your Hall of Fame vote one
year, is that correct?
Yeah.
I still have not voted. I still have not voted for the hall of fame.
It's been like five or six years now.
I love that.
So what is the pushback been by guys that you see in the press box and some of
these older guys who are adamant that, you know, steroids,
we should just pretend it didn't happen. It's like we, we're,
we're with you and that no, it happened. It actually saved baseball.
Let's stop pretending that it didn't happen.
Has it been weird or awkward for you in those moments
where it's like you're kind of a new generation
and speaking for a new fan base, guys our age,
going against some guys who are like,
no, we have to keep baseball sacred, which is so stupid?
I think I was really lucky
because I started doing this when I was
23 years old. Like I, you know, I,
I got hired at the Kansas city star to be the national baseball writer because
another guy turned the job down because he wanted an extra week of vacation that
they wouldn't give to him. And, uh,
I was single and I didn't make much money. And my editor at the time
knew that he could kick my ass and make me work all the time. And I wouldn't say anything. So
that's how I got started. And I think because I've been doing this for 21 seasons now, you know,
the older guys in the press box, it's like, I'm a veteran at this point. I've been doing this for a while.
So there's not a whole lot of pushback.
I think there's mutual respect.
When you do anything for 20 years, it's tough to stick around in any job for that long at
this point.
So I think they respect my opinion because not just the tenure, but because there's logic behind it.
Right.
I found the way that the hall of fame handled steroid users to be appalling.
And I found it that way because it was rooted in this, this Halcyon
notion of what baseball is.
Baseball is green grass and baseball is a hot dog at the ballpark
and sitting there with your arm around your kid and going, hey, old pal,
we're going to have a good day at the ballpark. No, baseball and the Hall of Fame especially is
not that the Hall of Fame is a museum that should celebrate the good, bad, and ugly of the sport.
And if you're going to honor the best players in the game, you can honor them
while still acknowledging their misdeeds and the issues that they have.
Barry Bonds is the best hitter I have ever seen.
It's honestly, it's not even close.
Barry Bonds on account of the accomplishments
that he had even before he started using performance
enhancing drugs is a hall of Famer.
So are you telling me years at the end of a career
are going to essentially nullify and erase
the incredible things that he did before that?
It just, it didn't make any sense to me.
And the moment where I decided to stop voting,
and I'll just say this,
like it makes me sad that I don't vote
because there are some cool things in this job.
And that time, like when I filled out
my first hall of fame vote, I was so proud.
I was like, I've done this long enough
to earn the privilege to do this
and to be part of something that, you know, it's an important thing in baseball history.
Like, if you're a Hall of Famer, that still means something.
Yeah.
So to not vote, it made me sad.
But, you know, Joe Morgan sent out a letter through the Hall of Fame. And it was an email, it was like a thousand words, if I recall
correctly, essentially saying why players who have used performance enhancing drugs don't belong in
the Hall of Fame. And you want to talk about like the epitome of moralizing and excluding people who
don't align with what your thoughts are on what something should be,
that to me is antithetical to a history museum.
Like a history museum is a place that should welcome all,
even if it is ugly as it gets,
because we learn from history.
And that's how, as human beings,
we understand the world by looking back
and seeing what things were like
so we can understand how to place them
in the present context.
Yeah, very well said.
I mean, the short version of what you just said
very eloquently is, I think I speak for PFT,
the steroid era rocked.
It was fun.
Yeah, it did.
It was fucking awesome.
Guys just hitting moon shots.
It was fantastic.
It was fantastic.
It was the last time that baseball
was nationally relevant.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The McGuire's Sosa chase.
That was appointment television across America.
Absolutely.
Jeff, I had one last question.
This has been awesome.
We're definitely going to have you back on later on
in the season.
So my last question is a row back question, r-h-o-b-a-c-k.com.
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joggers, shorts, all at rowback dot com, promo code take.
My last question, a personal question, you got your back blown out by a tree?
I sure did.
So for people who don't know, who don't follow baseball, Jeff works constantly, he's always
present.
There was a time, was it last summer, where
you were kind of absent for a little bit, and then you pop back up and you're like,
hey guys, just a heads up, a tree fell on me. I'm working through this, but I broke
my back. How and what and are you okay? I am okay, so thank you for asking that.
Okay, so I'm living in suburban Kansas City
and our neighborhood, it's a town called Prairie Village
and it looks exactly like it sounds.
There are giant oak trees everywhere, very bucolic place.
And in our front yard, there's like a probably
7,500 foot tall oak tree.
And a huge storm just like blows through town
and off of the oak tree, all of a sudden,
like you hear a snap and this huge branch goes down.
Now I'm not that big of an idiot
to be outside during a storm.
So I'm like looking through my front window like, holy shit.
That like, thank God I wasn't out there.
But a piece of this branch, which was really like the size of a normal tree landed on my
neighbor's truck.
And so, God, I'm going to sell my wife out here.
I feel terrible. But so our power is out.
And my first instinct is not to go and help the neighbor.
It's to go and find an Internet connection so I can book a hotel that night.
Because I didn't want to sleep in the middle of summer in Kansas City
when it's it's hot as shit in my house.
So my next door neighbor somehow still has an internet connection.
I go over there and my wife says to me, she's like, uh, Hey, lazy shit, uh, come
out and help with the neighbors.
Like five, five, five, five.
So I go outside and, uh, my next door neighbor has a chainsaw.
And, and let me tell you, um, there's been this axiom that I've heard throughout my entire life,
and it's that Jews don't do yard work. And there's a reason that we shouldn't do yard work. It's
because we don't understand what happens when chainsaws are being used, right? My neighbor
cuts a branch and all of a sudden this limb that is about 25 feet up in the air, it starts to roll.
I didn't know what a rolling tree meant because, you know, I don't do yard work.
But by the time I realized that this tree was falling and it was about to hit me, I turned around and tried to run, but again, 43, Jewish,
not the most athletic guy in the world.
I could not get out of the way in time.
And by the time it was all said and done,
I was pinned to the ground underneath this enormous tree
and had broken the L1 vertebrae in my back.
And I knew like I
stood up and
It was pure adrenaline
Like I didn't realize at the time that I was a foot away from being paralyzed I was you know 18 inches away from it hitting my head and killing me
I got very very lucky and
Had really good medical care. And that night,
I got to thank the doctor because he introduced me to ketamine. And let me tell you, medical
grade ketamine. It was, it was, it was that night that I broke my back. I was sitting
in the hospital, the doctor gave me ketamine. I ordered a Taco Bell to be delivered to the hospital at 3 a.m
and I watched wrestling and
It was one of the best nights of my life. Oh my god, that's a wild story
I'm glad that you're okay now, but it's thank you at the time when it's like oh a tree fell on Jeff
Everybody was like what? Yeah, huh? That doesn't make any sense at all.
But Jeff, I have one last question for you.
I did a little research on you.
I want to give you the opportunity to explain this.
I heard a story that you had a really excellent senior prank
when you were in high school.
Yo!
How did you hear about that one?
I got dirt on you, Jeff. I got dirt on you, Jeff.
I got dirt on you, dog.
Clearly.
This is like some Nardwar stuff right here.
Have you seen it, by the way?
Have I seen the senior prank?
Oh, yeah.
It's on the internet.
No, no, I haven't seen it.
So it most certainly like is out there if you find it.
This is going to sort of tie together a couple stories.
So where does it start?
Somebody in my journalism class senior year, I don't remember if it was me or a friend,
but we thought, Hey, wouldn't it be hilarious to bring a stripper to school?
And the answer is actually, yes, it would be.
And so as senior year is winding down, the beauty of journalism class is that we were
allowed to go down to the teacher's lounge and use the phone there to make calls for
stories.
And so I went down to the teacher's lounge and used the phone to call up local establishments
and see if there was a lady who might be willing
to come to a school. And in fact, there was. And I had arranged, so it was our principal,
he was a new principal that year. And I had arranged for him to sit in the senior commons
area where all the seniors eat at the school.
Like the nerdy kids that said,
Mr. Steyer, it's your first year here.
We just want to have like, have a good time
and sit around with you and celebrate your first year.
And so it was like, it was, everyone was involved in this
from like the nerds to the football players,
everyone in between.
And the plan was for the stripper to come in dressed like a teacher and go up to him
and say, Mr. Steyer, I'm looking for the anatomy room. And he would say, we don't have an anatomy
room. And then she would say, well, I'm the anatomy substitute. And he would say, We don't have an anatomy class.
And then she'd say, Well, I guess I should give you one then.
And then like, I would hit the music and the whole thing would
start. So go to the back of the school, sneak her in. The
problem was, this was before like, Venmo or anything like that and before I had any money,
so I had to go around soliciting donations from people. People were given a dollar or two at the
time to get the fund to pay for this to go on. Well, when you tell a lot of people that a stripper
might be coming to school, they tend to tell other people. And so word had circulated around and the whole like,
this is like a 1500 kids school in suburban Cleveland.
I would say like almost half the school was in the area,
just looking for it.
And a bunch of teachers were around too.
And they were trying to nullify this as best they could.
Thankfully some football players, I think, like started a fight as a diversion.
Like it wasn't a real fight, but it was to get all the teachers off the scent.
And I was able to sneak her back into the commons.
Well, she walks up to the principal immediately.
He knows immediately.
He knows exactly who it is grabs her by the wrist
takes her over like toward the weight room and into the gym and a
Mass of people start rushing over it's like I'm not gonna say it's a riot because it's like suburban Cleveland a bunch of white kids
Going over there, but it was it it was like it was like a Woodstock 99 riot
Yeah, and and and so they end up going over, they bring her out, three cop cars pull up.
Yeah, like this was a deal.
Geez.
I ran to the bathroom.
Were they strippers too?
That would be great.
I ran to the bathroom. I had a list of everybody who had given me money,
and so I needed to get rid of the
evidence. So like I burned the list in the bathroom. And that day, I'm worried because
we're supposed to pick up our caps and gowns after. And I'm wondering if word is going to get back
to the principle by the point at which I'm supposed to pick up my cap and gown that I was the instigator behind the
stripper kerfuffle. And I grabbed my cap and gown after I tell him my name and I have, I was like,
I use Sane Bolted out to my car because I knew if I had that cap and gown. And as I'm like the
coup de grace of this whole thing, I'm walking across the stage and I go up
and I shake the principal's hand
and he leans in and says, I owe you one.
And you can see on the video that my parents have,
like I have this big smile on my face
and I feel really good about that.
And do not regret it one bit.
You know who deserves credit?
My mom.
And here's why.
That morning, she comes down and is going to work
and sees this enormous stash of cash
just sitting on the table.
And she's like, what's that for?
I was like, well, we're doing a prank
and we're gonna bring a stripper to school.
And she says, are you sure that's a good idea?
And the answer of course is yes. And a good idea? And the answer, of course, is yes.
Yeah.
And you know what?
She let me do it.
Yeah, that rocks.
She let me do it rather than like, if my kid tried to pull that these days, I'd
be like, no fucking way, you moron.
But my mom was willing to let me do completely stupid things.
And all of this is memorialized in a
camcorder video that was taken and uploaded onto YouTube. It's
have you have you seen those videos on TikToks like school
back in the 90s? So cool. Yeah, it's that it's that video
actually. And, and, and that also includes the aftermath of
the stripper being taken away and all the kids getting pissed off about it.
I'm gonna have to watch this video. That sounds awesome. It also sounds like your principal
recognized the stripper. Yeah. It was like, no, not you. And that's why you didn't get his name.
Like, oh man, I didn't know this was your job. That's why are you here? Oh man. Well, Jeff,
this has been awesome, man. Like I said, we've wanted to have you on for a while and and I'm happy
We did it and we'll definitely have you back talk more baseball. I look forward to it and I apologize for my rambling stories there
No, no, no, we we interviewed Bill Walton. No one rambles. So when you have that as the bar
Thanks so much Jeff
Appreciate you guys having me. Thanks, man. Have a good one
Oh, thanks so much, Jeff. Appreciate you guys having me.
Thanks, man.
Have a good one.
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Okay let's wrap up. We've got some FAQs. By the way I had a question just pop in
my head. How much money do you think Liver King's spending on Twitter ads a ton infinite everywhere?
It's crazy man pussy and bio. It's nuts
I just can't get away from him he might or it's either that or he's the only person that actually is paying money to advertise
That also could be it. Yeah, he's everywhere now. Yeah
Well, he admitted to using steroids said that he would stop using steroids and now he's definitely not using steroids, right? Definitely not. That
was the funniest apology ever when he was like, I've let my fans down, I've let the
primals down. There's a ton of people who still follow what he's doing, right? I'm
sure. Yeah. There's, I mean, the world... Future congressman. A lot of Billy, Billy
footballs, yeah. Yeah, okay
Hey PMT Since the new studio is completed in Chicago. Are we going to see the return of Larry the gambling goldfish?
Oh, I'd love to see this tradition brought back to honor the legendary fish that came before that I would there's one legendary fish
Yeah, what do you mean?
Six were kind of duds. Yeah the one that you have on your thigh
ish I I mean, six were kind of duds. Yeah, the one that you have on your thigh. Ish.
I still can't get over the fact that you got the dead goldfish's
body tattooed on your thigh.
Yeah.
And I can't believe you kept it for a while.
You would have brought it up every show.
Oh, yeah.
Yes.
I actually, if anyone knows any tattoo removal places in Chicago,
I got to finish it out before the summer.
Yeah, we might bring Larry back.
Larry was a legend.
The reason why we haven't done him recently
is because it's hard to recreate the magic
that we had with that one special fish.
Also, keeping a goldfish alive is very difficult for us.
And people were getting mad whenever a goldfish died.
But yeah, I would, if we could have someone,
someone has to be in charge of Larry
and we have to have him living in a place that we could easily put a camera up to and PFT
I could just stand there and be like here's this week's picks. I'm in
What now what dumbest it's it's it's what we're gonna say animal abuse it wouldn't make sense
What we're gonna say and realistic. What were you gonna say?
What like what if we could put him in the lottery ball machine somehow?
So the fill the machine up with water, but then like every day he would just get
Yeah, I feel like you wouldn't survive one of those that thing no, but imagine if he got selected. Yeah
You know what? You're right. Yeah, it is sick. I know I thought I didn't say it
But yeah, I I was looking at I was like imagine thoughts would splatter. Oh, yeah, they kind of rock
Here's here's here's what I'm gonna say
to the AWL's I
My pledge to you is I am going to
Ask Paige who runs our office who's incredible if she could get a goldfish and keep it alive
And if she says yes, then maybe we'll bring it back
memes
What do you got memes? What about a gambling turtle? Oh, I would be in for a gambling
But that I'll take forever from do the pic maybe that that would be very funny. Yeah, we're gonna turtle race. It's sick
Yeah, so races are old. They know I became a gambler. I had a rubber duck
No, it's turtle race in Key West, Florida hundred bucks, but it's 12 years old goldfish dies
It's like okay. It's a goldfish like if a turtle died on our watch like turtles never dude you
We wouldn't is pre-gates you max like people were very mad about the goldfish dying
But could you imagine we had a lot of goldfish people forget my sister only time she ever visited the office
She found dead Larry and then they got mad that I flushed it down the toilet
That's what you're supposed to do with the gold. Yeah, that's exactly
We should if you flush we total down all that was the first one turn into a ninja
We kept the second one in the freezer for six months. We should actually we should get a tour
I like the way that you're thinking memes. I think this is good idea because his pics would be very funny
We just set up a camera and and go live with it and be like, okay
We'll just wait till he makes his pick.
He could actually, wow.
It just never worked in the third off.
No, wait, hold on.
We got one and we had Billy take care of it.
It was just, it was a gut.
No, but a turtle.
What if we got a turtle and on the, when we take the Thursday shows, we just have for
like 20 minutes or whatever it is, a picture in a picture of him just doing the pick right
here.
Yeah.
So while we're doing the picks, he's just doing his pick.
I like that a lot.
And if- I like that a lot. And if he dips five games below 500, we eat him. Yeah. So while we're doing the picks, he's just doing his pick. I like that a lot. And if I like that a lot, and if he dips five games below 500, we eat them. Yep. I think
tournament to soup. We crack his shell. I think turtles are so much more difficult to
keep alive than gold. All right. So what we need is we need someone who has a turtle.
I'll take care of that. Okay. Memes, take care of the turtle. All right. Memes, taking care of taking care of the turtle so memes what you should what we really should do is the turtle shouldn't live in the office
It should just come in on Thursdays for his pit
What this is me?
Alright, but so so I like this so if we could set up
Like how funny would it be if we're doing our picks and then people who are because
Shout out everyone who watches the show now
I love that we have so many people watching the show, but if you had a turtle just slowly
In the picture in a picture while we're talking about the games the turtles making picks. Yeah, what about a mini horse?
No down. Oh, it's too much pony. It's too much work. We know they're talking about this before
What and you I feel like our kid just asked us if we get a mini horse
I said down and you said no ask your father. Yeah, we're down
Anything that I don't have to worry about I have too many I have too many things
I have three kids a dog Jerry a Rico a fucking Brandon
I have a lot of things what if we get a snake a poisonous snake? I hate snakes
I hate snakes actually if we got a snake I kill you boys that that means your brains like the most poisonous snake possible
Okay, maybe that yeah, no speaking of animals turtles in though memes. Yeah, get your turtle
What are we gonna name this? I'm in for them. That's forcing me to get a turtle. What should we name the turtle?
football football is a good name the turtle? football
football is a good football the turtle like if it's me it could be memes as turtle
It's something with an M. So like memes and oh, yeah, do we want to limit it to just football picks max
Yeah, we could have well we could test them out in other pigs in other sports. He means a max
Yeah, name a max football football even max
Football max no name of max because then we'll have to always be like max or are we talking about max?
No, because you're gonna like max shit his pants mean to this turtle if he's bad at pigs, and it's just gonna exactly
Max pooped himself what we're talking about max the turtle or max a human oh
We just got the ratings. Oh, oh tell me did I like the game?
Shepter tweeted it that's what I know the most watched NCAA women's basketball game ever, 12.3.
OK.
Didn't beat the men's.
What was the men's?
15 for NC State Duke.
Decent question.
That doesn't matter, though.
That was on CBS.
Yeah, that's true.
That's huge.
Yeah.
Last year was like 9 million, so yeah, that's a huge jump.
Shout out to the women. And now I feel comfortable saying that's a huge jump. Mm-hmm shout out to the women and now I feel comfortable
Saying that was a great watch. I liked it. Do you feel comfortable? I thought it was good, but I liked it
Mmm, eight percent less than the NC State Duke game. I would have liked it a little more
Yeah, if other people had watched it. Yeah
What's the deal with the thing in front of Hank? Oh, yeah. So you should know you should know we actually had a
sponsor come in
Salespersons walking them giving them a tour of the office and
He saw that thing and was like what the fuck is that I had to explain to him what it was
That's the octopus that we had when we did one episode of Barstool Van Talk. Mm-hmm
And so it's an octopus. It's a dead octopus inside formaldehyde
It's funny when you don't even explain it because we had Alex Crusoe came into the office today
He's gonna be great interview with him coming Friday
He's like what is that? I said is it's an octopus. He's like he just looked at me like what you're gonna
Say anything else like no, it's an octopus. Yeah, we can probably move it somewhere else
We just we found it. Yeah in a box and I was like all the octopus
We'll put in the studio. We just haven't really found a better place. We should drink it. I thought about that earlier
That's formaldehyde though. So
probably die
Probably we're old
Probably die or what? I think you would die if you drank all that you would die
What do I say like Ed Cooley's probably gonna resign or he is gonna not say you would die, okay?
Sip would be fine. How much for meldehyde?
Hey PMT gang kind of serious question is pug okay
He's read the vet for what seems like the weeks and our AWLs are genuinely concerned about his well-being
If you guys have to make the decision to put him down
We as award-winning listeners have to know right now if he's gonna pull through or not. Thank you. It's not too early
Not by the way two tablespoons of formaldehyde will kill you. Yeah, that would kill all so we have to have one
Yeah, you just get a wiki buzz
It pugs fine. He he was dealing with an ear. Yeah. Oh yes. Yeah, I just got another garbage. I'm doing okay
He ate a chicken bone and you got to keep those or did you eat a chicken bone or was it icebreakers gum?
Both yeah both. Yeah, he pug lost a lot of weight though from his ailment. He's looking good
he's looking lean and
And we just put a bench press next to it behind it right behind his desk and do we know what's wrong with you?
Pug I
It's garbage
The vet gave me medicine doing better did pug do you have all your shots I?
Did not now I do okay?
How are you feeling today doing good we're doing better
Pug
All right last one fun one hey PMT gang was ever a point where one of you big cat and PFT mostly thought about
Quitting slash leaving the show not no not really
No, I don't think it's ever happened
Closest is no we were like upset after Barstool Van Talk, but yeah, I don't think it's ever happened. Closest is no. We were like upset after
Barstool Van Talk but I don't think we... it was never anything that was
like imminent to happen and with contract stuff it's just something you
have to go through every couple years and then you just come back because you
didn't want to leave. Yeah I don't think... I'm trying to think I mean I've I'm I
don't think I've even been close to being a free agent at Barstool
So that that part has never been an issue be after Barstool Vantok
We were upset, but I don't think we ever I think after the JMU Wisconsin game
Well, no that was I wanted to kick Hank. Yeah. Yeah, you think I wanted to just get away from Hank. Yeah, that's all
No, I don't Hank. Well, how many times have you wanted to quit show I once suggested taking myself
Yeah, you did and we said no no no no yeah, that was crazy. That was a long time to be corporate Hank
No, no no no
I was just like I was editing the show and I hated listening to myself
And I was you know this is before Billy before Max for anyone so I was the one that was catching all of the like
If you're not big cat or PFT. We fucking hate you
So it's getting my head
And I was like if you guys want to you know I won't take offense. That's I think that's what I said
I was like I'm not you know I I get it you could probably put someone in that's more entertaining that people like better
Like I won't take offense. We said fuck. No. Yeah, it was the fastest fuck no ever
Aren't you glad that we did that very glad are you welcome? Yeah sure yeah, okay?
We basically PFC. I actually met about it, and we're like we got to wait till the Patriots are bad
We got to wait this out just a few I think that was I think that was after this was like
2017 yeah, it was before the sixth Super Bowl so we had to wait it out a little Hank
Are you a little bit nervous about this Super Bowl? No
I know it was after the fifth before the sixth right and we were like
We got to wait it out there and be bad and then they want another one
You should be nervous about the cell phone. I'm not I'm excited. No Brooks Koepka always said if you if
There's nerves to me that I think that's excitement. So like I am nervous, but I'm excited
If that makes sense pressures are privilege. Yes, like, I am nervous, but I'm excited. If that makes sense. Pressure's a privilege.
Yes.
But...
Like, I'm not nervous, I'm excited.
You're not even... you're not thinking about what happens if the Celtics lose in the playoffs.
No. You can't... that's a loser mentality. You're a fucking loser, so that's why you're doing that.
But like, I'm not thinking like that. I'm excited.
We've worked so hard to get to this point, and now it's our time to shine.
Hank, I have more Stanley Cups and World Series than you. We've we've we've worked so hard to get to this point and now it's our time to shine Hank
I have more Stanley Cups and World Series than you
Since we started doing the show
Nothing we're tied in World Series. Yeah, you're tied in one. Yeah, but more Stanley Cups than you. Okay, sick
You root for the Cowboys
Not anymore
You don't have max to pick on though. Well, maybe you will.
One of you guys.
Yeah.
And beats back this year.
This year?
I mean this week.
So that will, Max, are you going to get your hopes up?
Oh, what if, what if you beat them though, 8-1?
Hank, you'd have to shave your beard.
You'd have to shave your beard.
Say yes.
Right now.
Yes, yes. If the Sixers beat, if the sixers or the Bulls beat 8-1 I don't think in a
series in a series yeah and if we sweep no no yes no I'm not doing it without
stakes you guys already said yes you already said yes you already said yes
I said yes I find the Bulls are probably not going to make it.
I'm all tangled up over here.
Alright, numbers. 40.
If I get this, you have to shave your beard. 8.
Fine, if I get this, you have to shave yours.
No.
Huh. 18. Not so tough now.
No, you're the one that just does these bets and no stakes.
12. 99, but I mean.
20. There's no way that this you guys
Do you guys can do a fucking better Jamie Wisconsin shut up?
I should actually say that every time we ever do a bet ever when you're like to bet to bet to bet you guys
Both of your alums played a game. Look we don't care the game already means so much. Did you come up?
Fucking meltdown it did mean so much. Did you come up with a bet? We tried to you guys were like no
No, we're not doing a bad. I don much did you come up with a bet we tried to you guys were like now now we're not doing about I don't think you came up with a
bet school but tangled over here let's name the dammit these wires all right
what let's name the turtle Tony Tony the turtle no what about max what about
football football is not a bad also pretty good No, what about Max? What about football? Football's not a bad name. Football's a pretty good one. Sports. What about just sports? What about? What about sport? Ooh,
sports the turtle sport. What about Mr. Pear? I like it. Done. Mr. Pear. Mr. Pear. Mr. Pear.
Mr. Pear. Yeah, we'll feed him pears. He'll have to be off to go get the pear for the pick. What about Mr. Pear? Mr. Pear. Mr. Mr. Cream. No, it's Mr. Pear. Mr. Pear. And
we'll just see how well I bet you we can get someone. I bet you we can get like the food
coloring stamps and we can stamp the slices of pears with the different logos
Yeah, and that will be that will be how he picks his games which pair mr.
Pear and we should never discipline him never or we should really discipline
Whoa that sounded kind of like torture
No, just be like strict parents that no that sounds like you want to eat them. That's the Philly coming out means
I I'm not saying do don't do this memes, but cuz turtles
I guess their shell is like their skin like it can be hurt if you pierce their skin
But it would be cool if you put a handle on them. Yeah, just pick them up
Or don't do that. Oh are if you sew laces into the back of them like a football. Oh
Mr. Pair no, mr. Pair deserves better. I fucking love mr. Pair it when mr. Pair dies and be very sad. Mr. Pair misbehaves
I'm just gonna be like mr. Pair. Mr. Pair
Mr. Pair tummy tacks. Mr. Pair you need to fix the door on the spaceship before you're gonna all launch of it
We're all gonna kiss mr. Pair and get weird turtle diseases
All right numbers
Mr.. Bear's Gonna Rock I mean that's we're gonna sell some shirts you got to get this turtle like a sack mr.
Bear can you get this turtle like soon so we can have them start picking shit yet. Just go to 10 Lizzy
Yeah, any turtle guys out there. Let us know let us know I also need to find a dentist in Chicago
I've been meaning to same What is this?
Right now come on Max figure it out you
had to remove
You have an El Camino there so all right numbers 40 3
77 8 18 99 put actually say so many 21 77. 8. 18. 99. Actually just say something. 20. 21.
91. See you everyone Friday. Alex Caruso in studio. Love you guys. Take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, take me, I'm talking away, I don't know what I'm to say, I'd say it anyway
Today is a model day to find you I'll be coming for your love of tea
I'll be coming for your love of tea
Needless to say, I'm on a sinning
It's about being stolen away
Southern advice I've been taking on me
Take on me, take me on
Take on me, on you go
You're not doing what I want to do
Things that seem easy, but I thought
Just to play my worries away
You're all the things I've got to remember
You'll be shy and away
I'll be coming for you anyway You'll be shy and away I'll be coming for you anyway
You'll be shy and away
I'll be coming for you anyway
Take on me
Take on me
Take me
Take on me All we do
We live on
Take on me
Take on me
We live on
Take on me
I don't want to die We live on Take on me, I don't care, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me