Transcript of Lebron James Is A Free Agent Again, World Cup Must Win For USMNT, John Smoltz Talking Baseball Plus Our Dingers Only Fantasy Draft

Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Stella Blue Coffee is more than just great coffee, it's coffee with a purpose. Introducing We Brew to Rescue, a nationwide campaign using proceeds from our new ready-to-drink cans to help fund 1,000 pet adoptions this year. Every can you crack open helps a real pet find a real home. Simple as that. Made with 100% Colombian coffee, each 11-ounce can delivers smooth, drinkable energy with a boost of protein. Available in Espresso Cafe Mocha and Espresso Sweet Cream. Built for mornings, long days, and everything in between. Drink Stella Blue, fuel your day, and help save a pet's life. You can follow our progress in real time throughout the campaign by watching the adoption tracker on our site. Grab yours now at stellabluecoffee.com, Amazon, and select retailers nationwide. On today's part in my take presented by DraftKings, it's the Fab Four. It's me, PFT, Memes, and Zach. Hank and, uh, Max are off for the wedding week. I'm very excited for Max. He actually offered to zoom in. I was like, dude, it's your wedding week, and they're— they were at the beach, so, uh, they're having great time.

We're going to talk some NBA free agency, LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard. We got World Cup. We've got John Smoltz on the show talking some baseball. Also talking about our trip to Tahoe coming up in a couple days for chill week. We also have the return of the dumbest fantasy league in the world. It is Dingers Only. For anyone who has not listened in the past, we start a fan— our fantasy baseball league in the middle of the season. The only stat is home runs. And we have Brandon, Jersey Jerry, and Stephen Shea also competing with us. So we have the full draft to see who is on. We also have a couple calls with some of the guys that are getting drafted. So good show. And then reminder, Friday is going to be Dungeons and Dragons. It is all brought to you by our friends at Twisted Tea. It's the Fourth of July week. Summer's here. It is officially official that it is summer because it's Fourth of July week, and Twisted Tea Summer Party Pack is ready to go. Twisted Tea is a refreshing hard iced tea made with real brewed tea and 5% alcohol.

They also have a new summer party pack that has a brand new Twisted Lemonade. It's a refreshing hard lemonade made with real lemons. It's only available in their new party pack, so grab it while you can. Whether you're hanging out at the bar, hitting the lake or beach for a weekend, or day drinking with friends, Twisted Tea is there to turn your day up a notch and make a good time a great time. Keep the good times going all day and all summer long. Keep it twisted. My absolute favorite has been for the longest time the Half and Half. But the Twisted Lemonade is going up the rankings for me. It is so, so good. Grilling out in the back with the Twisted Lemonade, nothing better. So grab a refreshing Twisted Tea today and let's have a great Fourth. Okay, let's go. Welcome to Pardon My Take, presented by DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Wednesday, July 1st, and PFT LeBron James has informed the Lakers that they can look elsewhere. Uh, he is not fired, he quits. And now is going to be a free agent for what we think is the last time.

Late decision 2026. I can't believe we're here, but we're here.

Yeah.

I mean, he's also maybe the best dad of all time because he waited until the day after Bronny's contract was guaranteed to opt out and say, hey, I'm not going to be back next year. So looks like you're stuck babysitting my son. Sorry, there's nothing I can do legally. He now belongs to you guys. So if nothing else, we can report that LeBron James is All-Star dad, first team, first team NBA dad LeBron James.

Yeah.

So now Rich Paul is going around, he's talking to every team that will pick up his phone call. And then Rich Paul is going to present all the offers to LeBron. And then there will be a decision 2026. And it feels like, yeah, we're back in like 2012 all over again. This feels like the will he won't, he just won't stop. And I guess you want to power rank the places that we would like to see LeBron play next year.

Okay. Yeah. Last, Golden State, which seems like the favorite.

That's such bullshit, by the way. Like, if we got mad at Kevin Durant for going to Golden State, this would be pathetic.

Pathetic. And listen, LeBron, it feels like it might be Golden State. It feels like Golden State or Cleveland. Cleveland is the one that would— I think we all can be like, you know what? That's actually a good ending for LeBron. Incredible career, second best player of all time. He's done it for two decades plus. To finish it where he started it, you know, close to, you know, Akron, everything, you know, everything that is involved in that, I think would be very cool. And I would be like, that's a cool move. Golden State. And Golden State feels like it's a strong possibility because Windhorse is, by the way, cooking right now. Windhorse, I know you don't like him, PFT, but Windhorse is cooking.

I think sometimes he just gets over his skis on a take that he doesn't have enough time to think about.

So Winhorst said, he's like, who acted? Who acted here? Did who, who acted with information beforehand?

Did the Heat?

No.

Did the Lakers? No. Did the Cavs?

No.

Did the Golden State Warriors when Draymond Green opted out and opened up the books a little bit?

Yes.

If he goes to Golden State, come on, man. Like, I get it. He want, like, he's going for happiness. He can do whatever he wants. It doesn't matter. And Winhorst also made a good point. LeBron James has every single place he's gone. He has delivered a ring. Every place he's gone as a free agent, he got drafted by the Cavs, didn't win a ring, went to Miami, won 2, went back to the Cavs, won 1, went to the Lakers, won 1 that we don't count, but still. But it's Steph's team. It's Steph's franchise. It's the exact same thing that everyone said about when KD went there. And it's like, it would just be weird. I don't know. You just can't, you can't, even the strongest LeBron fans, the Bronsexuals would have to say, that this is weird.

Yeah, I don't think that Bron sexuals would like it because they've also spent the last, what, uh, like 7 years saying that LeBron and the Lakers, that's their team, that's who they're gonna be rooting for. And then to go to Golden State, I don't think they'd be able to make that switch. And, uh, yeah, they did have information, I guess, because Draymond— what'd he do? He opted out and now he's gonna, he's gonna come back for less money.

Yeah, he said, he, he said that he's, you know, he's been there for a long time. He's one franchise. He doesn't want to go anywhere and he wants to help them try to make one last run at it.

Well, so LeBron wants AD there. The problem with that is that I don't think that the Golden State Warriors have enough stuff to give up for AD. Like, as much as LeBron wants stuff to happen at his beck and call, it doesn't always work out on paper. It just doesn't.

So I don't think that most of the time he's gotten pretty much everything he wants.

His son is on the Los Angeles Lakers. Yeah, that is true.

I will say that the Lakers disrespected LeBron because yes, they got him AD, yes, they got him Luka, yes, they drafted his son, but no, they would not potentially pay him $48.5 million, and that's bullshit.

At the very end.

Yeah, a man has a line, you know what I mean?

I thought they gave out like, you know, lifetime achievement contracts with the Lakers. I thought that's part of doing business where it's like you treat your stars great even in their older years, then they stick around and then they become part of the fabric and the DNA of the franchise. Then more stars will want to play for the Lakers. That's typically how it's been done. I just don't, I don't know that the Golden State Warriors will be it. Like, okay, obviously as a Wizards guy, I don't think that the Warriors have anything that I would want.

Oh, that's why you brought up AD.

My bad.

Well, no, LeBron brought up AD.

I know, I know, I know, I know.

So I'm responding to LeBron regarding those demands. Do I want like Jimmy Butler coming off of an ACL injury? Not particularly. He's not known for being the best guy to have around like a very young group of promising players. That might not be the best teammate to have there. I also don't want to see LeBron go back to Miami. I think that would suck too.

Yeah, that would suck.

I don't want to see you in Miami. And then I saw somebody throw out the Spurs as an option.

That would suck.

That would also suck. I don't want any of these things. I think Cleveland makes the most sense. I think Cleveland. I think everybody would be like, okay, that's kind of cool. And then that adds an entire new layer of intrigue of what do they do with the James Harden situation? How do they build out that roster?

I think it'd be cool though.

I would like to see him back in Cleveland.

It's Cleveland is the perfect ending. The only other thing that I'd be like, all right, whatever, is if he just picked a, like if he maybe did a wheel on a live stream and was like, hey LeBron, you're a New Orleans Pelican. Like, great. That would be cool. That would actually be really funny if his decision was just a giant wheel and he spun it and he just is like, this is where I'm going. Zach, Zach, before— so, so I said at the beginning, if you, if you fast forward, Max and Hank are on island. I actually got a— did you guys pick— you guys didn't pick up the FaceTime from Hank, did you?

I did not.

I was driving. So safety first.

Okay. So I think what happened was, and I want this— if Max Max and Hank are listening to this tomorrow. I want them to know that there's literally zero problem with them missing this episode. It's Max's wedding week. I didn't expect him to come on a Zoom and talk LeBron with us for 20 minutes, but Max and the boys were drunk in the ocean, looked incredible, having the time of their lives. And Max told Hank to FaceTime the group for a vibe check. This was like 2 hours before we were going to record to kind of just see, test the waters to see if, hey, do we have to be there or This was— I was in just like father hell of just getting my kids to try to eat anything that's remotely like food and not just potato chips. And I had just gotten off my youngest getting a little— he says he got bit by Stella. Stella licked him and snatched a little bagel out of his hand. I open up the FaceTime and it's just fucking Jackie Tables drunk as fuck in the ocean with a drink in his hand. And I was just like, get out of here.

Just get out of here, just don't even come. So I feel bad because I think Max was like, oh man, he was pissed. I was just pissed because I saw Jackie Tables having the time of his life. But that's why they're not here.

They are having a good time. They're having an excellent time. Uh, Max is singing karaoke, Hank is handling lobsters. It's a— it's scenes down in, uh, St. Martin.

Can I, can I just— I hate to do this to Max, but he He said that he was the best karaoke singer and then they asked for his playlist. What was his playlist? Does someone have it off top?

Yeah, Piano Man.

Piano Man's not— that's not what you start with.

He did My Way. And let me just say that doing My Way in the, like, on island time in the Caribbean, that, that is bubble. That is some soft Mickey Mouse karaoke shit. Because if you, if you want to sing My Way, you be a man, you do it over in the Philippines. Where they kill you if you screw it up.

Yeah, yeah, it's the law.

It's against the law to sing My Way in, I believe, a handful of countries over in Asia because they take it so seriously that if you mess it up, they will literally murder you.

I, I gotta know. I listen, I agree with that. I gotta know what time in the night Piano Man was because Piano Man is a great karaoke song. There's no denying that. But it's an end of the night song and it's like, uh, you know, everyone's just fucked up and we can do it and everyone sing along. If He's like, if that was the start of karaoke night, you can't, you can't lead with Piano Man. That's a second set song if I've ever heard one. Zach, what are you gonna say?

I'll say, uh, I'm not sure if Rockstar by Nickelback is exactly island karaoke themed either.

I don't know if that's the right— I like that as a choice though.

It's, it's bold for sure.

Yeah.

What's your go-to when it comes to karaoke?

Uh, karaoke, if we're like Saint Martin on an island and we're talking like Wedding season, maybe Bubbly. Colby Caillat could play, uh, anything Pitbull really plays with, like a tropical drink, a frozen drink. And I guess we're gonna round that out and really get into the mood of the wedding, uh, let me go This Old House, Miranda Lambert, probably.

Okay, all right, okay. Means you have a go-to karaoke.

I'm a big Call Me Maybe guy.

Oh, that's a good one.

Just gets the crowd going.

I just like doing tequila and just standing there.

I remember Memes tried to do that at the, at the Las Vegas standup that he did. Remember that meme?

It's a one-man show.

I think that's what made Dave leave. I think, I think it was you doing karaoke and, and our boss, Dave Portnoy, stood up and he's like, I can't take this anymore. And he left.

Buy his book now. I don't know if anyone saw. There was no promotion from Barstool, but Buy his book now. Can't— no, Dave took out the old hammer and emailed the whole company. It was great. I love, I love watching the, the tweets fly after that. All right, back to LeBron. Zach, you think he might just still retire?

I think there's no way he goes to Cleveland because the weather's not nice enough in the winter. With that being said, I think it's because he just wants to keep playing golf. He may just still retire. Like, if he has a great summer and he's like, wow, I've been really enjoying hanging out with the boys, what, do I have to go back to basketball? I don't know if he does.

That's what I've been saying. Like, I would, I was expecting a retirement tour from, from LeBron, LeBron, where he like demanded, you know, like a 30-minute pregame ceremony for every town he visited to give him a gift. But the more I see him playing golf, the more I see the possibility that LeBron's just like, you know what, I think I'm just going to do golf. I think I'm just going to play golf all day, every day, maybe start my own YouTube channel, compete with Bryson. I could see, I could see him going that way. But the fact that he's putting, like, he's trying to assemble a team, even if it is like the geriatric warriors, I feel like he is, he is going to come back and play next year. I just hope that it's with the Cavs and not somewhere else that everyone's going to hate.

Yeah, Olden State. That's what Skip dubbed them.

That's really good.

Really good.

99 on the gun.

Holden State.

Between that and victim Wim Binyama, he is— he's having a summer.

He's— we actually should probably test him for steroids. Like, this is a— he's having a Brady Anderson— holy shit, Skip is 70 years old and he's hitting 55 home runs. What the fuck is going on right now?

Yeah, this is weird. This is weird. But you know what? Appreciate greatness while you still can.

It'd be great if we— if there was like a big story that Skip has actually been just ripping like 80mg Vyvances to get back to the olden state days.

I'm trying to think what the, what the PEDs for those kind of takes are, because those are like old school newspaper guy takes. Like, that's like cigarettes.

Yeah, cigarettes and cigars and whiskey.

Yeah.

And getting divorced. Yeah. He might— him and Ernestine might be on the rocks. And he's just, you know, dipping back into the bottle, maybe smoking some, some cigs, and now he's cranking out takes left and right.

Yeah, like, like the true PED for that would be like a men's-only country club that also doesn't allow any minorities or anyone of like, that's not Protestant. He just goes and sits in the clubhouse and he's like, yeah, you know what, I got it again.

Still got it. How funny would it be? And I wish Hank was on the show because I was just gonna I was just going to put the thought in his head of LeBron somehow playing for the Celtics just to see his reaction to that. I don't think he ever would do that. I think it's probably down to like, I would say the Cavs. He might also be thinking about just going across town and playing for the Clippers.

Well, that's the other big news. So, all right, wait, one last thing, LeBron, because as you guys know, my assistant Dom, who's a a diehard Cavs fan. LeBron can do no wrong. He gave me all the spark notes and things. He actually texted us today and was like, hey, I just drove by LeBron's house in Akron and he's got mulch showing up, or wherever his house is. I don't know where his house is, but he's, he was doing some landscaping. So that's pretty much a done deal. But LeBron, here's some more nuggets. LeBron, posted a new episode on Mind the Game today with Steph Curry. So, hmm, that's a little, hmm. Also, apparently LeBron, the Cavs assistant GM. Hold on, let me make sure I have this right. I believe the Cavs assistant GM. Yeah. Brandon Weems is a childhood friend of LeBron James. Cleveland needs a new GM with Mike Ganzey taking the 76ers job. Weems could maybe get the job by also landing LeBron.

Hmm. Hmm.

Just some things to think about. These are no ways. And then also there's the— he joined a country club in, uh, Ohio recently, which—

what?

LeBron doesn't even have to— like, I'm not— I, I don't know. I wish we had Hank here for this PFT. Like, we, we don't— Hank's in a country club. Like, LeBron doesn't have to— what'd you say? I know they don't have a clubhouse, but yeah, yeah, but LeBron doesn't have to actually do anything to join a country club, right? He just shows up and he says, hey, I'm LeBron, where do I sign?

Kind of the same thing like in Chicago. I was talking about this with Hank where every country club in Chicago has Michael Jordan and Barack Obama as members. They've got lockers for them in case they ever show up. And they can just tell everybody, yeah, they have a membership here. 99% of the time they've never been to that club. Correct. I would assume it's like that in Ohio.

Like every country club has a membership for LeBron James, which actually in a backwards way— and I know we're meandering a little bit here— just shows just how much of a pervert Phil Mickelson is to lose those country club memberships.

Yeah. Yeah. They love having anybody like— yeah, anybody who's anybody. So you can say, yeah, they remember here. That— hell, that's why they, uh, like the, uh, Oakmont Country Club really leaned into Windham smashing the lockers. Because like any stories like that, the locals love sharing that with their friends. It's like, yeah, you know my club, that's where— that's where Windham took out those lockers.

Yeah, pretty cool. All right, so, uh, we have Kawhi now to the Raptors. She never should have left. Uh, like the Clippers Kawhi era is maybe the most unforgettable— or forgettable, I'm sorry— era of all time. Like, they did nothing, just an absolute tease. They opened up a new stadium. Yeah, yeah, planted a lot of trees, maybe get— maybe gonna get in a lot of trouble. But Kawhi back to the Raptors, I mean, as— does this make you nervous at all, Memes? As I was gonna— I was gonna say, PFT and I have to maybe pump the brakes on like Bulls and Wizards being in that, you know, competitive nature in the East. But you actually and Zach have a team that is defending a title. And now Kawhi, when he's playing, is still like a top 10 player in the league. Does it make you a little nervous that he's on the Raptors?

No.

Okay.

I thought you were going to answer that.

No.

They might be able to win a playoff series now.

Okay.

Until they get a big man, then they're not really that much of a threat.

Okay. Okay.

I also, I have my doubts that Kawhi is going to stay healthy. I know that this last year he had like one of his best seasons ever. He's still really, really like incredibly good. I just doubt that he's going to be able to do it back to back years.

Yeah.

All right. What other, I mean, I like it just in the, I like it because I can just see like, oh, Kawhi on the Raptors. Like, yeah, they were really good when he was on the Raptors. They won a ring. Like that makes sense. It just, it's a make-sense situation to me.

Yeah.

He knows it. He knows the town.

Yeah.

What, uh, I could see LeBron going to the Clippers now. That is a realistic spot. I hope he goes to the Cavs, but I could see him going across town.

But they're like, they don't have, they're not, they're trying to basically just retool everything with like the trades they've made. They've tried to get a bunch of picks, which they've done well on. You know, it's going to be Darius Garland and Keaton Wagler going like that's going to be their future. I don't think he wants to restart. Right.

You're probably, you're probably right. I'm just saying that, that, that is a, that would be on the short list of places that I could see him going to.

What other of note moves have happened? I know that Ja Morant, oh yeah. Ja Morant to the Blazers. So Ja Morant traded to the Blazers. I feel like they just wanted him out no matter what. And they finally got someone to be like, okay, fine. We'll take him.

Them.

So now he goes to Portland.

I was hearing that from our colleague T-Bob that he might be going to New Orleans, which I would have been excited for just because with like Ja and Zion, then 40% of the starting lineup would be Bob Marley lyrics. And that would be pretty incredible. But the Blazers, I don't know. I don't know what the Blazers are up to. And Dundon, their owner, it sounds like he's like laying the groundwork for moving the team. Which is pretty fucking early in this relationship for him to be like attacking the city and dropping hints that he's going to leave. I don't like that one bit. But yeah, I listen to memes. You said it. The Jail Blazers are back. Also, Portland. Did you know? I think Portland has the highest per capita number of strip clubs of any city in America.

Is it— so per capita always fucks me up.

It's like per person. Like, yeah, how many?

I, I know that, but how many strip clubs do they have? Is it going to be a wow number, or is it like they just have a decent amount for the size of the city?

Let's see. I think they've got a decent amount. Uh, they've got over 50. Okay, that's pretty good.

Yeah, that is pretty good. All right. Yeah. I mean, Ja, like, I, it's crazy how fast it's all kind of fallen apart for him where it's like he was, he was future face of this league for a minute there. And Grizzlies were like, you know, ride or die with him. And then it's boom, he's gone. Now you have two non-Power Conference guys in Dame and Ja, like maybe the best two pairing of non-Power Conference guys. Going, going, you know, trying to lead the Blazers.

Yeah.

Yeah. Except I don't know if they necessarily complement each other.

No, no, no.

I'm just saying just simply the fact that they didn't play it like a blue blood and they're both really good at basketball. That was the only, that's the only nugget I have.

Yeah. That's a fair nugget.

All right.

What else? Any other, any other moves?

Pete, I'm curious.

No, it's actually been, it's actually been kind of slow.

Yeah.

Landry Shamet back.

Landry Shamet's back.

Jose Alvarado's back.

They're slowly—

Mitchell Robinson not back.

He's most likely gone.

I think he's—

It turns out that Jalen Duren actually did probably play himself out of money because it looks like he's looking elsewhere than the Pistons. Pistons basically like the The rough and tough Pistons got bought, like they basically got bullied by— who did they lose to? Wait, they lost the Cavs, right? Yeah. Like James Harden ended the rough and tough Pistons. That's tough.

Yeah.

So yeah, I guess we'll have to be clued in. Sunday we'll be back in studio, so we'll recap everything.

When is this going to pick up? I feel like it's off to a very, very slow start.

I don't know. Yeah, it has been weird. Also, uh, I know that maybe we haven't talked about it, but Jay Caspian King, who's a great follow on, on Twitter, uh, and actually, actually probably the one guy who— he wrote a piece about Barstool like, what, what was that, PFT, like 9 years ago?

He—

yeah, um, Yeah, I'd say probably 2017.

He's, he was probably the fairest that anyone from traditional media has ever been. Like, just fair. Like, hey, I understand why people like these guys. They have, you know, they have the detractors and like, here's the whole picture. But he's a very funny writer, really, really talented writer. And he's been pointing out over and over how ridiculous it is when guys like Shams make sure that they include the agents in these tweets because it really is the dumbest thing ever. So Shams for Kevin Herter, free agent sharpshooter Kevin Herter intends to sign a 3-year, $27 million deal to return to the Detroit Pistons, sources tell ESPN. The Pistons worked through the deal with Marc Bartelstein and Andy Schefter of Priority Sports on Monday.

What?

Who the fuck cares, dude?

Yeah, I mean, Schefter's been doing this too recently. Like they plug the agents because that's very obviously who's feeding them the information about the contracts. And in exchange for that, they get to get the news out there like 45 seconds before somebody else tells you that exact same news.

Mm-hmm.

That's how, that's how it works. And then if somebody comes after Shams, he can just pull up NBA head coach on FaceTime, be like, here, talk to this guy. He'll get me out of this ticket.

Yeah.

Well, not FaceTime, just a text. Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay. Let's do, let's talk some World Cup before we do that. DraftKings. Win or go home. That's it. The Cup Knockout Round is now and DraftKings has you covered for every single match. The DraftKings app is now available in all 50 states and includes all markets, bringing the game straight to your fingertips wherever you are. From Florida to Texas to California, you're in on the excitement at the speed of sports. Follow every knockout round thriller, every penalty shootout, every stoppage time moment that ends a nation's run. Sweat the matches that matter in real time with the seamless experience built for the world's World's biggest stage. No matter where you're watching, you're always connected and in the game with one app. New DraftKings customers sign up with code TAKE, spend $5 to get $200 in rewards within 21 days. That's code TAKE in partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours. PFT, you are headed to San Francisco, uh, at the— as people are listening to this, you're on a— you're going to be on a flight.

Yeah.

Is this the most must-win a game has ever been?

Yeah, it's definitely a must-win. It's a must-win. You cannot underestimate the Herzegovinians as well as the Bosnians.

Thank you.

And I was doing some research on the country and I looked up famous people from Bosnia and/or Herzegovina. There's really all I got is Yusuf Nurkic. Besides that, like, that's about— that's who we're going up against. But yeah, it's a must-win. It's a must-win because we are I believe for the first time ever in the history of U.S. soccer, we're favored in a knockout round game. I don't think that's ever happened before.

Not only favored, heavily, heavily favored. Significant. We're -700 to advance.

So, but if you've been watching any of these games, you know that anything can happen. You know that, you know, you can run up against a team that defends well, they draw it into extra time, they draw it into penalty kicks, and then it's kind of a crapshoot from that point on. So like these upsets do happen and Bosnia is not a bad team. We should beat them. And if we don't, it's a massive disappointment for the US team. Massive. And then all that talk about like extending Pochettino, that looks kind of weird, right? Like I thought that that's a conversation you have after you win 1 to 2 knockout stage games. Like if we, if we end up winning, if we end up playing against Belgium, Belgium in the second round. Senegal. Or Senegal. But like, I would say Belgium specifically because we've, we've played against them. And oh, by the way, I think the US is something like 1 in 17 all time against European countries in the World Cup. The one win was 2002 against, against Portugal in the group stage. We don't beat European teams in the World Cup. We just never have.

So it's realistic. We could, we could lose that game. And then we have a history against Belgium. And so if we compete, lose a close one against Belgium, I still think you probably would end up extending Poach if we could through the next World Cup because we've— he's implemented a new style and it's looked really good and we've gotten some good results. But yeah, if we lose against Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is, uh, it's, it's a disaster.

Well, it's—

and, and it's going to be— I, I'm going to be very, very disappointed. That, that will be like the most heartbroken I've ever left the stadium, probably, if we end up losing.

You, you can't, you can't lose to them because you— this, this is an expanded tournament, so the tournament doesn't even start until next round. Like, it doesn't.

That, that, right, right. Like, compared to other World Cups. Correct.

So if you're judging on, like, you can't— you just, you have to— it'd be like saying that we, you know, it'd be celebrating a play-in win in the NCAA tournament. You have to get to this next round and then we can start talking of like, hey, this team is different.

Right.

We got to win and we should win convincingly. They're probably going to try to kill them. I think we will too, because they play a very similar style to Paraguay and Australia, who we had no problem with either one of those two teams. And then, oh yeah, Germany. Italy gets knocked out by Paraguay and they just parked the bus for 90 minutes and then, and then took them to penalties. And that's how like an inferior team can win. And it happens all the time in the World Cup in this stage. But I think that given like we're totally healthy, Pulisic looked really good. Then we got, you know, the 9 other starters that we didn't have against Turkey that are, that are going to be suiting up for us and starting. I, I think we win. I think it might be like 3-1, 3-0.

Okay, I like that. I feel good about that. The, uh, by the way, I know that— listen, we are probably the number one perpetrators of what I'm about to say. People flying into a sport and being like, let me fix it, when a sport is doing just fine without casual fans being like, hey, you know what would fix soccer? I love penalty kicks. I know people like— some people don't like— I fucking love penalty kicks. If you can't figure it out in 120 minutes, you, you're goddamn right we're gonna go do penalty kicks. And the penalty kicks between Paraguay and Germany were incredible. Like, Paraguay just not having to fuck up those last two and fucking up both of them and then having Germany come over the top and be like, hey, you, you saw how bad they messed that up. Let me kick this 40 feet above the bar. That was incredible. The Netherlands-Morocco penalty kicks were incredible. Like, I love 'em. I think it's an awesome way to, to end a game that is never gonna end when you're 120 minutes in.

I do too. There's no— there's nothing else you can do if you've played that much soccer. It's like, okay, well, we can't have these guys running like for even longer. The game's over. Penalties are great because it's all the pressure in the world. Like, you have everybody in your country is focused on one guy kicking a shot that should—

they—

you should make it 90% of the time. And it's just— it's so nerve-wracking. You know what I fucking hate though? I can't stand it when you're taking a penalty and you've got the guy doing the little stutter step and he like stops and like he tries to make the goalie jump out of the way, that's bullshit. That's unethical bullshit. Don't do that. Just step up there, kick the fucking ball. Even though that one guy in Germany, he— I think that ball might have hit the lighthouse. He hit it so hard. Like, that was, that was an insane kick. But also credit to that guy because he was a 6th guy up from Germany and they asked 4 other guys, yeah, if they wanted to take the kick, and they said no. And he said, yeah, I'll step, I'll step up there and I'll do it. So yeah, it takes some balls. But like, that was also great goalkeeping by the Paraguayan goalkeeper, uh, who was like going side to side on the line. Like, you can't take a step off, they watch that like a hawk now. But like, that, he, he came up big in, uh, in the penalties.

I love penalties to solve a game. I think it's, I think it's awesome. I think it's nerve-wracking. I think so simple that everybody can understand exactly what's going on, and the, the task at hand for the person who's trying to score is so easy. But then you've got the nerves that just turn them into like puddles of stress and sweat. And I, I love that. That's, that's why we watch sports, is to see like exceptionally talented athletes crumble under unbelievable pressure.

Yeah.

And it's been, I mean, it's been an incredible World Cup. We had Brazil-Japan, which was, you know, last second. Like, it feels like half these games haven't— don't start till extra time. Uh, the, the only unfortunate, like, takeaway I have through the halfway through the knockout stages, everyone's just playing for second because France is just playing on easy mode. Like, they're not even trying and they're just dummying people. Like, that was— that did not look like Sweden could play forever and they would never have had a shot. Like, they could have played— France could have played with 9 guys and they probably would have won that game.

They, they were, uh, so lucky. Sweden was so lucky in the first half, and they were just like missing shots off the post. The goalie was making incredible fingertip saves, but it was just— you knew that the floodgates were going to open at some point. And Mbappé is just— I think he's the best player in the world right now. And France, like I said on Monday, he, uh, he— France could play their backups, and their backups are probably better than almost every team in the entire world. Like, they are chalk and they're favored, but they're favored for a reason. They're so fucking good. Dembélé and Mbappé are like two of the best players in the entire tournament, and they're just— they're unstoppable once they get going. With, uh, with the Netherlands, I love that game, by the way.

That was— that was—

that was one of the most entertaining soccer games I've ever seen. Netherlands against Morocco was, I think, 1-1, right, before they went to, uh, penalties. Um, but it was like a very exciting 1-1 The Dutch have just become like the dirtiest team in the world. And it's so fun to watch too, because they're giants. Netherlands, they're the tallest country in the world, like just by population. So when you ask, when you hear people say like, what would it look like if we had NBA players playing soccer? That's the Dutch. That is literally the Netherlands soccer team because nobody in the Netherlands grows up playing basketball. They have zero basketball culture. So all their tallest guys play soccer. So they've got a giant, like, just mutant group of thugs that go out there and just shove you and kick you. And it's been like that since, like, the 2010 final against Spain. They're just like the most physically brutal team to play against. And then to see them crumble in penalties was awesome.

Awesome.

That was so fun.

Yeah, it's been a great— it's been a great World Cup. Like, it's just the World Cup rocks. And if you're not watching it, you're missing out. Out because it's been, and it's just, it's free sports in the middle of the summer. It's like having 3 games in a row on a Tuesday. It's just like, you just kind of set you, like, it's going to be as similar to March Madness where when this ends in 2 weeks and be like, what do I do now? Like, what do you mean? Like, I don't get to just, I don't just get to flip on a game in the middle of the day. This sucks. But yeah, it's been so much fun to watch. And then The other story we should probably touch on is they bullied our boy Freddy, FreddyLA7, off the Twitter. So yeah, so for people who don't know, FreddyLA7 is a German fan who came to America, tweeted about American culture, got wildly viral and popular through these tweets, was having like— he was meeting like He met JJ Watt, I think. He met— he met— did he meet like a bunch of famous singers and stuff too, Zach?

Yeah, I think he— I think he went to space.

Yeah, he went to space.

Zach, he's doing like a, like backstage concert. I know there's a couple country festivals. He's backstage with artists. He's doing like penthouse suites, like these unfathomable hotel rooms.

And, and just like anything in 2026, uh, seeing anyone have a genuine good time will piss off, uh, the majority of the internet for no real reason other than they're mad, they're jealous, they're pissed off, and they have decided that he is a CIA plant or fake or something and, uh, just bullied him to go off of Twitter. I don't know, I, I guess I do know why we can't just enjoy things at face value, but it just— everyone should just take a step back and be like, hey, you know what, maybe like all the cynicism I walk around with in my head, maybe I'll just, you know, dial it down a little bit and see if I like my life life a little bit more.

Uh, so I did say, uh, Langley on 3 when Germany got— when they got eliminated. Yeah, I don't think he's a CIA plant. I do think that there's something heartwarming about seeing him enjoy, you know, the small things about the United States. And then once it becomes like very, very corporate, where now it's like massive brands that are now paying him to like talk about—

that's not his fault.

It's not his fault, but it also does— it makes people like appreciate the account less than when it's just a guy from Germany discovering the magic of like fried chicken and Tennessee gas stations.

Well, people were hating on it before that even too, but it's like eventually, eventually it just boils down to people are mad that they're getting free shit.

Yeah, people are mad that they're getting free shit. And then also the fact that he didn't show his face, a lot of people were like, well, why is he hiding his face? It's pretty clear because the internet is filled with psychopaths. And, and that would have led to some bad situations if, like, now he became an international superstar. I do also understand why he says like, hey, the influencer life, it's not really for me. That's remarkable self-awareness on his part. Like, that's, that's a good thing that he's recognizing that too. And then also people are like digging through his old tweets and finding out that he was like talking about attending a rap concert and being like, well, how come we can't sing along to all the words at a rap concert? And so now you've reached that stage of people like combing through his history with a fine-tooth comb. There was one weird thing about him, though. One weird— actually, it's like two weird things, but it's kind of the same. So he's a massive Ronaldo fan, Zach. Yeah, his favorite, favorite soccer player. Understandable. And he's also become like a big Saudi Arabia defender since Ronaldo started playing soccer there.

So now he's like, you know, the country, not really, not that bad. Kind of like how Hank is for LIV Golf. But he was just for like the country. And then, so he's a big Ronaldo fan, so he bought tickets to all of Portugal's games, but then he skipped their last game against Colombia and he went and watched like a Little League baseball game in Vermont and then went to some town in the middle of Maine.

Well, where was Portugal and Colombia playing?

Miami.

So I think because then he was going to Germany's knockout game in Boston.

Okay, that's why he went. Yeah, yeah, to Maine instead.

You will know.

Yeah, he was, he was like, I think they were doing the whole trip up there. I think they went to a game in, uh, Canada and then went down to get ready for the game, the knockout game in Boston.

Okay, got it. Okay, that, that makes a little bit more sense. But if you're like Ronaldo's number one fan, you probably want to see him play against Colombia. Maybe.

I think he's going to some of the other games, but yeah, I just, I don't know. I listen Listen, people can just judge however they want. I just— it bums me out that we're at a point where just nothing can just be like, hey, you know what, that thing exists. If you don't like it, close your eyes and just don't even interact with it. But instead, just— and the fact that he was like, I, I don't want to be part of this, more power to him, because I don't know how many people—

he's still got like a, a whirlwind trip across the United States and did like shit that nobody has ever done before. Like, he had a great time and he got a lot of stuff for free. So now we, we shake our hands, we go our separate ways, and he goes back to Germany.

Yeah.

And people are pissed that he had been to America before, but he did say that he was— he had gone to like New York and Vegas, right? But at that point it was just South. Yeah. Or Maine.

People getting mad at, uh, like a preconceived notion that they made up in their own—

correct—

that Freddie said that he had never been here. Freddie never said that it was his, his first time in the United States.

Wow. By like, you know, the Deep South.

Yeah, as we all are our first time there.

Yeah, people are okay with guys having fun, but as soon as he starts having too much fun, it's like, oh well, I can't experience that, so we got to start dogpiling on this guy, right?

And I think that's also the internet. I'm not really like— I'm not losing sleep over the fact the internet bullied this kid. I just, I just wish that— I, I feel like personally everyone should just try to maybe take a little bit of like step back and be like, hey, can I just They don't immediately jump from— it's, it basically is a jump from thing happens to how does this thing the worst thing ever and we need to cancel it. We actively try to ruin things as like a collective society.

I think it's, I think it's for this, it's like GGs everyone. Freddie had a great time, had unforgettable experiences in the United States. It did become a thing where it was just like, I think everybody got upset once every PR company in America started using Freddie as an avenue to like promote whatever their thing was. I think that's what made people be like, hey, I don't like this anymore because he kind of took the magic— no, no, I'm not saying anything bad about Freddie at all, but he didn't do that.

He didn't—

circumstance he was in, he didn't like take up a lot of those offers. I know, I remember like the Delta guy was trying to like get him a private plane. He didn't I know that he like— but talking to JJ Watt, that's totally normal. Like, that's fine. I, I don't think he, he took advantage of a lot of the shit that people were trying to like shove down his throat, because I agree, I understand, like, it becomes just everyone's trying— everyone on the internet's like, oh, how can I get myself— I did see him, I did see him, uh, reading Cancel Me If You Can though. I did see him promoting that, so That would have been funny if Freddie did a face reveal. It was like, go buy a book.

Good for him.

Good for Freddie. Oh, you hate this kid, Memes? You're the, you're the darkest heart we've got.

No, he's cool. I'm just experiencing America.

There we go.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got, I got no problem with Freddie at all. I'm just saying that I think the reason why people started to turn on him was because they saw it as being like Oh, Freddie sold out in record time. And it's like Freddie's just having a good time. It kind of sucks that now it's become like a cynical thing that we have to, we have to look at with like, you know, under a microscope. But I think people just, they started to see that Freddie was going from a cute little story into potentially just being like a face of public relations.

See, I think that's too deep. I think it's simply guy goes viral multiple times and people get pissed off. That's how— that's how like nasty online is. Like, guy gets a little bit of shine and everyone's like, fuck them, you know? Yeah, it's as simple as that. Oh, Zach, you like Freddie?

Yeah, we just gotta get back to fun internet. Everybody take a breath, let Freddie have a good time. And then when he has— when it kind of blows up, all right, so he's having a little bit more fun, like, yeah, it's all good. Everybody take a sec, let him do his thing. Shout out to Freddie. That looked like a sick week, sick couple weeks, Freddie.

The internet used to be a lot more fun. That is, that is definitely true.

Definitely. Should we go back to that or no?

No, was it too far gone?

Really?

That was, that was like the, uh, Titus finding the, uh, the Oakley message forum. That, that's the internet I wish I— that still existed. It's just a message board with dudes who rock their Oakleys every day and they compliment each other and they take pictures, selfies of themselves being like, check out my Oakleys today, and they're like, dude, those are sick.

Check out mine.

And it's just, there's no irony, there's no cynicism, just dudes rocking Oakleys and hanging out, sharing memes with each other.

Yeah, when Titus— I, I was on Mostly Sports when he, he brought that out, and it was like, it, it feel— it felt like it was the year 2002. Yeah, and I say that in like the best way possible, where it's like, we don't know what— we haven't been through the battles of the internet so many times, that we expect something bad to happen. It was just, just guys being pure. And, and I thought about getting involved in the Oakley forums. I don't think Shady Rays would appreciate that.

No.

But listen, I understand why somebody would fall into that.

And listen, I'm not also saying that I'm like the moral arbiter of cynicism online because we definitely fall into the trap of being cynical at times and shitting on things for, for no reason. We all do. I'm just saying I've personally tried to take a step back and be like, hey, maybe not everything is the worst all the time. Maybe some things just can exist as they are and be okay.

Also, I will say this, that if what Freddie was doing during his trip to America was actually making you feel upset, like the emotion of anger, the internet might not be for you, dude.

I was—

it's a good time to log off.

I was pumped that he was making me feel good as an American. Like, oh yeah, Chili's rocks. Oh fuck yeah, we do. Yeah, you know what, Eastern Ohio is kind of cool if you get the right sunset.

Yeah, you know what, like a German that just got over here, yeah, let's send him to NASA. That always ends well. Let's do it.

Oh man. Um, all right, let's do Hot Seat, Cool Throw, then we'll get to John Smoltz, then we got our Dingers Only draft. Hot Seat, Cool Phone is brought to you by our good friends at TickPick. Listen, we just brought on TickPick and they're the absolute best in the business. They were the ones that sent memes and Zach and Shay to Game 5 in San Antonio. They make memories at TickPick, and TickPick is the best because you can make sure that you find the absolute best deals.

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when you go on TickPick, they have the seat views so you can see exactly what you're buying. So you're no obstructed view or like, oh, this is going to be bad. They have exactly what you're going to be buying. They have a price freeze, a lock-in price while you decide. And then they give you a credit boost. Receive TickPick credit when you buy. They are the official fan experience partner for NFL franchises. TickPick, they do it the absolute best. You will not overpay with TickPick. They're going to make sure that you get a great deal. You get into that game. You make those memories like Zach, Memes, and Che. So the best memories start with the best prices, and they start with TickPick. Go download TickPick app today, or go check out tickpick.com. I've been using TickPick since they've come on, and it's awesome. It's seamless, it's great, and you can just find those tickets. Boom, you're ready to go. I actually found the TickPick tickets for, uh, Eddie when he went out for the NBA draft. Here's what Eddie did. He went and tried to buy tickets from a scalper. That's a no-no. He bought a fake ticket.

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TickPick.com or download the Levi's Stadium again, or excuse me, San Francisco Stadium. Yeah, for US against Hrdžković in Bosnia.

Yeah, so there you go, memories. Uh, all right, we're also brought to you by Chevy. Chill Week is right around the corner. You know what that means— no schedules, no plans, just more the good stuff. Chevy Silverado makes that possible. There's a reason Chevy's called the heartbeat of America, and the Silverado keeps that heartbeat strong. These trucks work hard so you can chill harder. Whether that's getting out of town, heading to the lake, or just not turning around when you probably should. It's got the capability, the space, and the muscle— everything you need for a proper summer. Coolers, gear, whatever your version of chill looks like. Because at the end of the day, Silverado helps you tackle more of what you love. And let's be honest, you've earned this summer. Now it's time to go get it. So roll the windows down, turn the music up, and just listen. That's the heartbeat of America. That's today's Chevrolet. Head over to chevy.com to more today. Okay, Hank and Max are out. PFT, you're up. Hot seat, cool throne.

My hot seat is Serena Williams because she lost in 3 sets at Wimbledon. So come back off. Grand opening, grand closing.

Damn.

She was the Homer Simpson meme.

Yeah, she's probably still playing the doubles with Venus. It was a 2-hour game. It was 6-3. 6-7, 6-3. So she won one set. Good for her. She's 44. That's pretty cool that she was able to do it. But yeah, come back over. Also hot seat, maybe, maybe Jaylen Brown. So there was a report that the offers that the Celtics have been getting for Brown are like nowhere near what they were putting out there. So Hank actually, in a roundabout way, might end up being right. Just because the Celtics might not get anything remotely close to what they had planned to have him come back. And there was a comment on Instagram. This was from Orlando Vibe Dealer, commented under a Jalen Brown video, says, man, as a person who can't stand the Celtics, I hope they do right by him by trading him to a city who respects him. Jalen Brown liked that comment.

Ooh.

So yeah, I don't know what's going to happen with him., but it seems like the, uh, the interest level is not what they thought it would be.

Yikes.

Okay.

So, so Hank's fan fiction of Jaylen Brown asking for a trade, then not getting traded, then going back to Brad Stevens being like, dude, it's okay. I'm good. Probably not, probably not looking good.

No, I'm saying like there, there's a chance that he sticks around just because they don't get a good enough offer to end up trading him.

But it sounds like Jaylen Brown wants out.

Out.

He does want out.

Yeah, that part, like, if he's—

that part's over. That part's over.

If he's like that, if he's that upset, it feels like they might have to trade him even for not a great offer.

For nothing. You know that Danny Ainge is trying to get involved in something, you know?

Oh yeah.

The longer this goes on without the Jazz making moves, you know Danny Ainge is just sitting by the phone, just feeding, just scratching, just shaking, got the cold sweats. He let me get a quick hit of something, just a small trade, take the edge off.

Yeah. Okay. Your cool throne.

And then my cool throne is playing victim because, uh, a little follow-up on the WNBA, uh, Caitlin Clark throat punch. Alyssa Thomas is saying that, uh, now she's getting death threats and that people are threatening to, uh, to leak her information online. So in a stunning turn of events, she was actually the one that had the most harm done to her after that foul. Again, I'd like to opt out of the Caitlin Clark discourse until she wins something, but it is ridiculous that this league cannot figure it out in terms of how to— a combination of marketing, protecting, but also encouraging good rivalries with her. Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy that they haven't figured out how to how to make this work from a financial standpoint.

Yeah, I'd agree. Okay, my hot seat is Josh Naylor because I don't know if you guys saw, but Josh Naylor, he got into a little brouhaha with a former teammate, Austin Hedges. Josh Naylor stuck his arm out to get hit by a pitch and Hedges, John Boy, did a lip reading and Hedges yelled at him, you fucking loser. No one likes you. Literally nobody likes you. Which, that would be fine, whatever. It seems like people might not like Josh Naylor. But then we got a story that is quite something from Stone Garrett, who said that— did you guys see this? No. Okay, I'm going to read it for you. Memes, you saw this, right?

I did not.

Okay, so he wrote a story about Josh Naylor, wait, I want to make sure that I have all the facts right. And maybe, well, let me make sure because I don't want to, you know, Stone Garrett played with Josh Naylor. And so in the minor leagues, and Stone Garrett wrote a story on an Instagram comment saying Josh Naylor liked to play stupid games. Dude would come into our apartment, we were neighbors, with aerosol and lighters multiple times. That wasn't his first time in our apartment with a butcher's knife. The guy hid in my closet waiting for me to get home. When I went to hang my shirt up, he jumped out with a knife pointed at me. It caught my thumb, sliced it wide open. I went to the ER. He waits for me when I get back. First question is, are you going to press charges? Next day, coach holds team meeting saying front office wants to keep it hush-hush. I get surgery. He cut my nerves. Still can't feel my right thumb. He got suspended for one game. Two weeks later, he goes to the Futures game and gets traded. He's the most psychotic person I've ever met in my life.

Life.

Holy shit.

Kind of sounds like a fun prank.

Yeah, uh, that— I mean, just team building. Good luck.

I don't know, I should have done— I should have, uh— no, I mean, listen, like, Yahoo Sports wrote about it. Uh, oh wait, here we go. Yeah, ex-Diamondbacks player says that, yeah. A 2016 knifing— this is from AZ Central— a 2016 knifing incident involving an ex-Diamondbacks player and a Seattle Mariners— hold on, I gotta pay for AZ Central. I'm not paying. Get out of here. Uh, former all-star Josh Naylor resurfaced on Instagram June 29th. Stone Garrett, who played for Arizona in 2022, called Naylor the most psychotic person he's ever known when he commented on a video posted by MLB social media influencer Mario. The post from Mario brought up the knife incident, asked for corroboration. Okay, so that was That's crazy.

That is—

that's fucking crazy.

If you're hiding in the closet already for the jump scare, why do you need the knife?

If you're already gonna give that some realism to it—

listen, I was cool with the aerosol lighter thing. Everyone's done that. That's funny. Knife in a closet is a crazy move.

That's fine.

That's not even really a prank anymore. That's just That's just trying to stab somebody.

Yeah, holy shit. So yeah, I mean, that is Stone Garrett's official account, and so he corroborated this. So I guess it was an Instagram MLB influencer being like, I've heard this rumor, can anyone corroborate? And then Stone Garrett was like, yeah, it was me. He jumped out of a fucking closet.

That's— yeah, that's worse than the, uh, the Michael Irvin haircut story.

Yeah, I guess this is all still alleged. We should just say alleged, but I'm reading it right right now on Yahoo Sports, on AZ Central, Arizona Republic. It feels like there's some, some like actual news places are, are reporting on this.

So how did that not get out? That's the other thing.

I said hush-hush. Is it hush-hush? It's fucking crazy.

You think Dan Herren knows about that?

Uh, let's see, would that matchup timeline— would they say 20 No, 2016. No, I, I don't think that matches up. Oh man, I'll ask him though. Holy shit. But yeah, Josh Naylor, that would be my hot seat. I'm trying to think, I, what did I have for my cool throne? Oh, cool throne. Oh, we should, we should have also mentioned Malik Beasley. That seems bad. Yep.

Yep.

Wait, Memes, did you have that as your hot seat cool throne? Yeah, I, I had it on there. All right, all right, so you go into it, Memes. My cool throne though is, uh, Ben Simmons because he's thinking about doing a comeback and, uh, there's no one who does offseason hype better than Ben Simmons. He had a Men's Health—

basketball?

Yes, basketball. He's on his fishing boat in Miami and he had a feature in Men's Health health being like he might come back.

Yeah. Ben, I feel like fishing is your calling.

Yep.

Agreed.

All right, memes, you're, you're hot seat, cool throne.

Hot seat Malik Beasley. He is guilty and going to prison for sports betting.

Yeah.

There's a lot of clips out there that are tough.

Oh, did we just lose PFT?

I think we lost PFT. He was frozen for a little bit there. Just keep going. Let's keep ripping. Yeah, he'll hop back in.

Other hot seat was Caitlin Clark. Emmanuel Acho said the WNBA would be better without Caitlin Clark because she is a bigger distraction than she is an additive.

Oh shit, we need PFT here for this.

Yeah, I know. He said he was sick of Caitlin Clark.

Wait, say it again, the quote.

The NBA would be better without Caitlin Clark because she's a bigger distraction than she is an additive.

Oh man, I mean, Acho is just like— I know we just did this whole thing on— say, like, he's just trying to, to— he basically is that meme, like, how can I go in there and make this about myself, right? Every single discussion that happens online, he's like, well, let me come over the top top with the fucking outrageous take that— you know what, all right, I'm coming on. All right, I'm sounding this out. He is actually nice. Emmanuel Acho is nice in the fact that he does take heat off basically everyone else around him because he says something so ridiculous that's like, okay, now it's about Acho. PFT, I was like, hey, memes, you can keep going, going, and PFT will hop back on. And then he was it was his other hot seat was Emanuel Acho and Caitlin Clark. And I was like, oh fuck, I wish PFT was here. So Emanuel Acho, I guess, came over the top and said that the WNBA would be better without Caitlin Clark.

Yeah, I saw that. And then I saw a bunch of people saying that like Caitlin Clark should leave and start her own league. I don't think that that's going to work either. I think that that's like, we got to be, there has to be something in between that we can all agree on for the success of the WNBA and Caitlin Clark to work out together. And then And Ocho said that he gave, like, he gave that take and then somebody else replied like, you should hear what Ocho said to us in 2020 when he spoke to our entire team. And it was a guy that was on the Yankees. And for some reason they asked Ocho to like give a pump-up speech to the New York Yankees in 2020. And it apparently ended up being the most ridiculous speech ever. I have to find out what was said in that, like, what did Ocho say? To that team that was so outlandish that they're still talking about.

It was, I think, was it Clint Frazier who said that? Because Clint Frazier, yeah, he, he, he lets it fly. We should have him on the show. He lets it fly.

Clint, we, we got to have you on Part of My Take. I want to hear exactly the message that, that Emmanuel Acho delivered to your team.

We need it.

We're Sunday night. Please, please, we will, we would love to talk about what Emmanuel Acho's speech entailed. All right, uh, your cool throne.

Uh, cool throne is just Mexico. Mexico fans were just outside Ecuador's hotel shooting off fireworks, playing the drums.

I love that.

I love that.

That's how you do it. Like, that—

the home—

the home field advantage here is a real thing for them. Take advantage of every, every little piece you can.

Zach?

Oh, my, uh, my cool thing this week, or my hot seat this week wasn't gonna be Serena Williams. I would say she may be being a little selfish, but I can pivot there. My hot seat this week is probably gonna have to be PFT.

Oh no.

I think PFT, I'm seeing a lot of stuff about Anthony Davis leaving the Wizards. I don't know if it's because I'm part of the Wizards pipeline now, PFT, but it's so much so that if there's not a super team assembly clause in your bet, I think your car's gone.

Gone.

I think it's gone forever.

Zach, Zach, talk to me about this because I, I feel like you and I might be consuming different, different news sources. You might be consuming news sources that are more, uh, anti-Wiz, that have anti-Wiz, you know, Wiz Derangement Syndrome. I'm consuming the real news that's saying that Anthony Davis, unless we're getting multiple first-round picks and win now players, he's, he's going to be a wizard.

So you don't think it's going to be just the young core and Jimmy Butler?

I don't know. I, I don't see a world in which that makes sense, like, from a basketball standpoint. Like, you've got, you've got too many people that would play that same position, including young guys that need minutes and Jimmy Butler being old and coming off an ACL. Like, and he's never been the best guy to have on a team around like young emerging players. So I don't know. I don't know. What are you seeing, Zach? Are you seeing Anthony Davis to the Warriors?

Yeah, I was seeing like Anthony Davis to the Warriors, sir. Yeah.

I think you can say like, just knowing that LeBron James tends to get his way, that would be, you know, a reason why he might go out there. But I don't, I think it's more likely that LeBron goes to the Wizards than it is that AD goes to the Warriors. You want to play with AD so much, come to DC, LeBron. We'll have you.

There you go. That's an open invite.

So safe space, you mean that?

Yeah, yeah, I do.

All right.

I do.

And now I'm not just saying that because if LeBron James came to the Wizards that my season tickets would like quadruple in value. That's not why I'm saying that.

Oh my God, it'd be the greatest investment you've ever made in your entire life. Yeah, yeah, it would be insane. A farewell tour.

Yeah, it would be great. It'd be great. You should do it. Listen, LeBron, MJ came to the Wizards. Everybody makes fun of those years. If you came to the Wizards, you got— I'll even say if you just get to like the Eastern Conference Finals with the Washington Wizards, that is worth more than winning a championship or two in South Beach. That's worth more than winning a bubble title. In Los Angeles. I would put it almost on par for winning an NBA championship in Cleveland. Just getting the Wizards to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since the invention of the 3-pointer would be— there'd be no argument anymore. That would be like Messi in this World Cup putting his stamp on the fact that he's the GOAT. Ronaldo's clearly number 3 or 4. If that happened, there's no argument anymore, LeBron. You are Legault, so do it.

Zach, by the way, the hot seat that I had for you that I forgot about, I don't remember. We did the Dingers Only like 10 days ago. We did the draft, which is also hilarious that we drafted it, then we waited. Did you, when you drafted Vinny, you knew that he was hurt, right?

Some things are bigger than performance.

That's right. Is that what you said at the time?

Uh, I don't know if I said that at the time, but I'll stand on that right now.

Okay, because I was texting with Vinny last night and I was like, hey, good news, you're on Zach's team. And he's like, does he know that I'm like hurt?

I feel like he's got great doctors. Home run's coming soon.

Okay, all right, good. I was like, I don't think he knows. I don't think he cares.

No, no, jersey was already in the rafters from season 1, so I just— out of respect, you know.

Yeah. All right, go ahead with your cool throne, Zach.

Uh, my cool throne this week is gonna be Nick Saban. So we did see everything going on with Terron Arnold, a lot going on there. He maybe didn't have the best people around him, a couple guys not looking out for his best interest, but Nick Saban stepped in and said, I gotta let you know as a character testimony, this young man's a good guy. Could be not, maybe not. This young man isn't what the news is trying to make him out to be. Maybe Nick Saban stepped up for his guy.

Yeah. I think he— it would have been a much more effective letter if he had started out by saying, I want to say that I am anti-kidnapping, however, and then the rest of his letter. Just maybe lead off with that next time. So, you know, people don't want people to get the wrong impression for Coach. But yeah, I mean, if you look at it, like, 99.99% of Terrion Arnold's life he has spent not kidnapping people, and they don't talk about that. They just talk about the 0.01%.

And I think also, like, wasn't he overseeing? Wasn't it a fit? Like, he wasn't boots on the ground is what I was seeing online.

Well, yeah, he was.

Maybe he just got the wrong people around you, you know?

Yeah, yeah, he's got— you got to get a better fall guy.

Um, I think, uh, he was kind of in charge, allegedly.

Yeah.

And then he showed up and he was— he was def— they're alleging that he was a very, very, very big part part of everything. But I do— I don't know, it's kind of crazy that this is the first time that I've heard Nick Saban like go out on a limb like this for one of his former players. So I don't know what that means, but, uh, depending on where they try the, the case and who the judge is, like, that, that might end up working.

Yeah, yeah, I think it's, uh, Hillsborough County. Okay, um, a million dollar bond, but now you gotta stay at the house because, uh, unfortunately the lines are That would be very—

I mean, can you imagine a player like playing in a game with one of the ankle monitors?

They requested the monitor, but he said he couldn't perform his job if he had the monitor. They did ask for it.

God, that would kind of rock. That would kind of be awesome if you had a guy like— can you imagine like a pick 6 wearing the monitor?

Be cool. Yeah, taking it to the house. Yeah, back to the house. Um, okay, let's, uh, Oh, last thing, obviously really sad story, but the Chris Johnson news was, was really, really sad. For anyone who missed it, he did an interview with Michael Strahan on Good Morning America. He has ALS. I've talked about it before. I've lost someone in my family to ALS. It's a horrific, horrific disease and it's like there's no cure. So any funding helps and there's a ton of places that you can donate. You know, we obviously have a history with Pete Frady's and the Ice Bucket Challenge. I did something with, uh, uh, for Lou Gehrig Day a couple weeks ago. So anything that can help. We all loved watching him play football. It's a horrific disease.

It just—

and it's not only just like it, it's the disease for the person who passes, but it just consumes your whole family and everyone around you because it just— it's really fast and, and just awful to watch. So terrible news. But yeah, anyone, if you, if you have extra money to, you know, throw around give to a great cause. There's a ton of great causes that are doing ALS research because it'd be great if we could find a cure for it.

So Steve Gleason does a lot of stuff.

Yeah.

Um, and what's kind of crazy is that he had a, uh, Chris Johnson had a teammate, Tim Shaw, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2014. Like, two guys from that same Titans team, um, are dealing with right now. But yeah, yeah, it's a, it's a great cause if you want to donate because, like Big Cat said, it's a, uh, it's a really shitty thing to deal with.

Yeah, it's terrific. Um, okay, let's get to our interview with John Smoltz, and then we will be Dingers Only. And then on Friday, we will have Dungeon and Dragons, and we'll be back in studio on Sunday night, and then it'll be Chill Week.

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Okay, we now welcome on a very, very special guest. It is Baseball Hall of Famer John Smoltz, and he's getting ready for the American Century Championship in Tahoe, which we've— John, we've done it for the last 2 years. This is our 3rd year. Maybe our favorite week of the entire year. I'd have to imagine it's the same for you, right?

It is. Perfect venue, perfect time. Collection of so many different celebrities that you couldn't, you couldn't cherry-pick them, right? Like, there's— they come from all different walks of life and all different backgrounds and certainly, uh, all different golf games. So, uh, not all 91 of them obviously have a chance to win, but it's one of those where do you rank within your peer group. And, and the ones that are there, like myself, that have a chance to win, we want to win. Yeah, it's a great competition. The fan base is crazy. But listen, American Century, they do an unbelievable job not only behind the scenes but putting on this event for over 30 years. The charity component, everything that they do for not only cancer research, but really we're just— we're blessed as athletes to get to be in a unique spot at that venue where people are screaming and and it's not your normal golf tournament.

Yeah.

Does it, does it feel like the juice is flowing again? Like every, you know, once a year you get to feel what you felt. Maybe, maybe it's not the same as, you know, starting pitching or closing a game, but, but getting a little bit of that back has to feel kind of special, especially for some of the retired athletes.

It does. It takes a moment to get used to that kind of tournament golf where, um, you're waiting on the last 3 holes quite a bit to get get those, those shots in because of the jam-packed par 5, par 3, par 5. So when you get to that point, that's when it starts playing on your nerves a little bit. You can maybe get close to the sport of pitching with the bases loaded or pitching in the World Series, and just having the ability to close out a golf tournament, so difficult until you've done it a few times. And 17 is unique, man. It's that par 3 shot that there's tons of people playing music and all the different anxiety that comes over you when you just have an iron in your hand. You would think when you have an iron in your hand, it's no big deal, especially a 9-iron, a pitching wedge. But that's where it starts getting a little nerve-wracking, especially if you got a chance to win or you're in the hunt.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a very fun tournament to be at. It's a fun tournament to watch. Do they— do you get any protection from, uh, from having to be paired with, uh, no disrespect, you know, the Charles Barkleys of the world, some of the guys that might not have a shot to win the whole tournament. Do you get to kind of like make sure that you're going to be playing with guys that, that are in your same, uh, in your same bracket?

I think they do a good job with that in the pairings. They, they really put the guys together and the gals together that have kind of a similar style of golf, but there's unique setups as well too. So So, you know, in the past I've been with some baseball people and then I've been, uh, with a bunch of different people. And if that's the fun part of seeing what pairing is, but then knowing, you know, you're looking to the leaderboard, especially after about the first 9 holes, to see if anyone's having that tremendous start to his tournament. It's a unique tournament where 3 points for birdie and 1 for par. And I say that because in stroke play, I would probably have a much better chance of winning because for some reason all I do is make pars when I get out there. Pars is no good. Usually par is good. You've got to make some birdies. You're better off making birdies and bogeys. I tried to adopt that philosophy— birdies and bogeys, birdies and bogeys. Be aggressive, and then you get in the thick of things and you still don't— you know, you don't want to ever make a bogey.

You don't want to ever 3-putt. But what you definitely don't want to do is make a double bogey because that's minus 2 points. So I got to find a way to get out of that par mode. I had 29 consecutive pars one tournament.

Jesus.

And that is not— you would think that would be great, but it's not. It's like, it's like a snail's pace where other people are making 6 birdies and 10 bogeys and they've passed me. You know, that, that's the difference.

Yeah. I mean, a lot of people are saying out there, I don't know if you've heard the, the rumors and the buzz going through the media. John Smoltz can't win the big one. They're saying that you can't win this tournament, no clutch gene.

That's such— that's true to this point till I do something about it. Yeah, I, I joke about, um, my career path in baseball is the same as my career path in the— in, in Tahoe. In baseball, we finished second 4 times, 5 times. I didn't want to even, you know, 1-5 in the World Series or 1-4, whatever it trying to get that. But that's what's happening in Tahoe. I'm finishing 4th, uh, 2nd 4 times. That's, that's got to change. So I got to find a way to be the oldest winner, which I will at some point. I'm going to be the oldest winner to ever win Tahoe. It's just a matter of when.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You got— can we talk some baseball? So we're taping this before the All-Star break. Is there, uh, a tiers of like teams that you've seen kind of shaking out where it's like these teams, maybe it's the Braves and the Dodgers Dodgers who are just that much ahead of everyone else and it feels like it's their season to, to, to win a World Series and everyone else is chasing them?

I think with the National League being more balanced, there's more teams for sure than the American League. Now the Braves are on a little bit of thin ice with some of their injuries. They've got a nice lead, but it's dwindling because you've got the Phillies making a charge now. You've got some teams like Milwaukee proving their They're not just that small market team again. They keep doing it. They keep finding ways to have young pitchers be dynamic. And then you've got some teams that you scratch your head about. The Chicago Cubs, like, they won 10 in a row 2 different times or more, and then they've lost 10 in a row or more. So it's a— it's a straight— I don't understand the San Diego Padres. They've been a disappointment. The Diamondbacks are trying to get healthy with a couple of their guys. But I think, yes, the Dodgers are the prohibited favors, as they should be, but they don't have Blake Snell, they don't have, um, Glass now, they don't have some of their bullpen guys. The narrative of baseball, and I hate it, is health. We should be dealing with more health than we are.

And so it comes down to who's the healthiest team at the right time to either make the trades to improve their club, or obviously in the postseason. So even though there's more balance in the National League, week, some teams are dealing with some injuries that drastically changed their season.

Yeah. Who would you say would be— like, are there any teams out there that people might be thinking might be sellers who you could see end up being buyers?

Yeah, I've always said, and, and they've never proved me wrong unfortunately, I've always said that the Pittsburgh Pirates sooner or later got to be buyers, but they end up being sellers. They end up not, you know, being in position They've, they've accumulated a lot of talent. They've got Paul Skeens. They got to find a way when you got generational players to get in the playoffs to maximize that, that, that player because you're never going to sign them. They haven't shown that they're going to re-sign any of these guys to a long-term contract. So I think what the eyes are going to be on is the New York Mets. Do they do enough by the, by the All-Star break to not be sellers and still have that roster which has been banged up, and it's got a ton of salary on it. So I look for the Mets to be interesting to watch. Um, the Nationals are getting closer and closer to being really relevant, uh, which, you know, is ahead of the curve. And so they're going to be an interesting team. The Marlins— I don't think the Marlins ever look at being as buyers, but they're playing really good baseball.

Um, and so you got the same old kind of markets that, that you look to, that the big teams cherry-pick from that is going to be interesting. The Central has a lot of competitive teams, uh, they were all close to .500 or above. I think Cincinnati now just below, but I think what everyone's going to be looking at is the American League teams. What teams do they feast off of? Yeah, and, and that's going to be the, the buyer-seller market is going to be majority is going to be, I think, in American League.

Well, yeah, I'm thinking about Schubel in particular, and it's very rare that you would get a pitcher that that is that talented that could be available. So who do you, who do you think makes the most sense in terms of like what teams do you think will be most aggressive for Schubel?

Well, I think first and foremost, um, if it— not in this order, but you got to be able to think that Detroit may have waited too long. So I don't know what kind of package they get for a generational left-handed pitcher, but they're going to expect a lot. Otherwise, I think they're going to hang on to them to the end and then of course not be able to resign them and lose them. But I think the teams that are, are, are able to not only have the prospects to trade for but the ability to sign him long term, be before this labor dispute gets settled or whatever comes on the other end of it. So I think a big market team actually could be in the play for— and it's, it's crazy to think that the Dodgers would be one of those teams, but they're going to be one of those teams whether they do it whether or not they have all of the prospects, they have all of the money, and they have obviously spent a lot of money to see what happens and to shake things out on the other side. Now, I don't think that a small market team, even if they're in the position of making the playoffs, would make that kind of move.

But I heard from the beginning of the year, wouldn't it be unbelievable— and I, I think this ship may have passed— but what would be the prospects of Pittsburgh getting schooble with schemes and being relevant in the postseason. Try to get through those two monsters in the postseason, all of a sudden you've got a team, uh, that's marginal to all of a sudden they are very dangerous. Again, I don't think that's going to happen, but if I was a Pittsburgh Pirate fan, I would be like, man, let's put all our chips in to do that and try to make something happen. But I think for the most part it's going to be somebody who has the ability, I think I think unless they're just willing to give up a bunch of prospects for a 2-month player, which is tough to do, I think the big market teams actually have the best play.

Are you, are you shocked at all about how, how hard guys are throwing now? Like the Jacob Mizerowski, his, you know, if you look at his stats and the fact that he's touching 104 regularly, like that's a, it's just a different game than when you were pitching. Not that you weren't throwing hard and there were guys not throwing hard hard in the '90s, but it, it's— it seems like if you don't have a couple guys on your staff throwing over 100, you're, you're at a disadvantage. And it's just like, it's nuts how it's all evolved.

Yes, but it's warped and it's insane. Um, the reason I say that is it's the reward system that players are chasing. It's because what clubs want is not sustainable. It's just not. Nobody has survived it. We might have one freak, one Nolan Ryan in a generation. I always use this example: Nolan Ryan was a freak, right? You can't even come close to saying there were 5 other Nolan Ryans while Nolan Ryan pitched. We have 25 Nolan Ryans now, right? That's not genetically possible. That's a manufactured, against the odds, where your body can't sustain it. Yes, the, the radar gun's a little juiced, first of all. And guys are definitely training to throw the ball as hard as they can, no doubt. The training of baseball pitchers is way ahead of the training of hitting. And you see this shift going on of what clubs are trying to do and how they use 38 pitchers a year. Think about that, 38 pitchers to get through a season. That's insane. Yeah, but because they have a lot of factory arms, because they have guys that don't know how to pitch but can throw, they can fill the gap with the rules that exist baseball.

Things have to change in a rule change down the road, which is going to come, but they got to get this labor thing behind them. A rule change is going to come, just like it affected the pitch clock and the banning of the shift and all the things that have now made baseball relevant again. We're going to have to do that on the pitching front because right now clubs don't care whether a guy lasts 5 or 6 years. They just care about that moment in time where he can max out for and we're having discussions that we should never be having on the narratives like this. Oh man, Tarik Skubal, unbelievable. When's he going to get his? Well, he had a precursor, already one of those little— I call it, you get a sneak preview of what's coming. When's Paul Skeens going to get his? When's Mizarowski going to get— I don't want to have those conversations. I said 10 years ago what was coming, and it's here, and nobody cares because the guys that are running the game have never played. And so they only care about the bottom dollar and the opportunity to maximize run prevention.

So from their side, if I had to jump on their side, here's what I would say. It works temporarily, but then you gotta find the next guy. And until that runs out, which there is no sign that that's gonna run out, guys' careers are cut in thirds, eighths, tenths, like it's insane. So, but if I had to jump on that side, I would absolutely use guys and abuse guys, which is what they're doing, and get them to buy in, you know, to the narrative that this is how you get drafted, this is how you get paid. Oh, by the way, you're never going to have a 10 and 15 year career.

Yeah.

So that's the byproduct, or I should say the downside of what's going on.

Well, off that. So you were, you, I think you were the first pitcher to be elected in the Hall of Fame who had Tommy John surgery.

Surgery.

And Tommy John surgery now is just like commonplace. It's like, it's basically like, like you're saying, like, oh, you're gonna pitch for a couple years, then you're gonna get Tommy John, then you're gonna be back. What is the rehab like on Tommy John?

Did it—

when you came back from Tommy John, do you feel like brand new?

Or—

because it does feel almost like an injury that's like, all right, check that box, he got Tommy John, now he's gonna be back, he'll be fine.

Yeah, here's the myths behind Tommy John that nobody is paying pay attention to. The theory is this is— you're going to be better, stronger, and you're just gonna— it's like a Band-Aid. You just got to wait 16 months, 16 to 18 months, which is way too long, but everyone's okay with waiting 18 months to think that they're going to get the guy that can actually throw harder. That's a myth. You don't throw harder. You don't get to a place where you just imagine everybody— like, for me, I had about 2,400 innings as I was wearing down, and all those postseason and pitching through pain and discomfort. I knew what was coming. I was pitching with a torn ligament for a year and a half, and I was gonna retire. But Tommy John himself called me, the doctors talked me into it, and I pitched 7 more years, and I was back to where I was pre-Tommy John. But the myth is you're gonna make it. Like, if you have it at 16 years old, there's no guarantee you even get to the next level. You could get back to 16, Here's what Tommy John stats are.

Wherever you have your surgery, wherever you were at, you got a high likelihood of going back to that, but not necessarily advancing from that. We forget about the hundreds and thousands of pitchers who never advance past their Tommy John. But yeah, their arm's good and their elbow's good. But what I felt like— I came back at 10 months, which is really early, and I had a setback with some tendonitis. But then once I was able to get over it, I went to the bullpen. I pitched another 7 years, never really had an injury with my elbow. My shoulder was the one that ended up going. But this is— this, this mindset that parents have, it's insane. I'm gonna have little Johnny get a Tommy John at 12 and he's going to be fine because look at this guy, look at that guy. The earlier they have it, the more susceptible they are to a second one. We've got guys with 2 Tommy Johns and 3 Tommy Johns. This is not abnormal. The arm just— and the body is telling you this is not sustainable. When I see a young man at 14 throwing 92 miles an hour, I cringe.

When a parent says, what should I do with my, you know, I said, put him in the outfield. Stop pitching. He's got the gift. What are we doing? Why are you dominating at 12 and 13 and just pushing the body to the point where it's okay to have a Tommy John surgery? I spent 5 minutes of my Hall of Fame speech on this topic and it fell on deaf ears. Fall on deaf ears.

Yeah.

And I think that's the reality of the why we need rule changes coming towards pitching to change the philosophy and change what we're asking guys to do. If we don't get that, we have a, a sport where the iconic and, and must-see TV starting pitchers are gone. There's no matchups. There's no let me look and go to this game because I got this guy starting. When you look around the league I can't find 10 guys that I would buy a ticket to if I'm a fan to go, I have to go see him pitch. The reality is there's not that many that go 6 or 7 innings anyways, and there's not that many that have the head-up matchup where you go, that's a must-ticket. So baseball's compartmentalized the entity that was the strongest unit that got you to the postseason, that was the marquee matchup They've taken that away and used 3 pitchers for that one. And now it's taking 12 pitchers to 14 pitchers between 2 teams to get through a game. So if you're scrolling around going, yeah, Paul Skeens, I want to go see him pitch, but who is he going to pitch against?

Those matchups have been diluted because we devalued the great role of a starting pitcher by analytics.

So, I mean, I think you make a whole lot of sense, and I wish people would start paying attention to you. What, what rule change could you possibly put in, though, to discourage the way that clubs are just chewing guys up and spitting them out?

Right. And there's a couple of ways you can do it. And when you, when you would have thought about the rule changes that we have today, when those came up, everyone said you're crazy. Not really, because now we realize the game's moving along. The shift, which was killing left-handed ground balls and killing right-handed ground balls, is no longer. So when you have a society of the game that is trying to lift the ball out of the ballpark because it's counteracting high velocity. You have to find a way to incentivize clubs to teach their pitchers to do different. So one of the ways— and I floated this out 5 years ago, and of course they thought I was crazy— was you tie your starting pitcher to the DH. Well, what is that going to do? Well, that's going to give you a competitive advantage if your pitcher goes 7 or 8 innings versus the 4 or 5. That's also going to eliminate the stupidest idea in the history of the game as an opener. Because if you want to start a guy for one inning, then you got 5 or 4 pinch hits coming down the pipe because you lose your DH.

So that's one way to think proactively towards— all right, I'm a club that sees this rule and goes, I'm gonna, I'm gonna continue business the same way. Great, you can do it. See, it doesn't, it doesn't say you can't. It's just, I don't think you'll be advantageous down the road. Now your club says, okay, I got these guys that throw 103. I got to teach them. I really don't want them to max effort every single pitch. I want them to have 103, but let's just try to train them to give me 7, 8 innings, which you can do, by the way. Like, I don't understand why all of a sudden that's such a bad thing. So that's one way to do it. The other way to do it is limit roster manipulation in the farm system and roster— big league rosters by only having 11 pitchers.

Pitchers.

Yeah, if you only have 11 pitchers and you've got 6 bullpen guys, good luck trying to get 4 and 5 innings out of your starters every single time. And couple that with you don't have an elevator system where you can just, you can just have guys come up and down it at will.

It's interesting that you mentioned the, uh, the opener. I was going to ask you about the opener, if you thought that you would have been a good opener. Um, back, you know, later in your career, you got, you got switched to the bullpen. You were a fantastic closer. Do you think the opener role would have been one that suited you?

Uh, I would have quit. I would have flat out quit. And I know that— but here's what's, what's going on again. It's a Strat-o-matic baseball. When you do this, you're basically telling whatever that starting pitcher is that's coming in behind that can't face the lineup 3 times or the top of the order, you're saying to him, you're not that good. And so you've already impacted that next guy. Right? Because he's coming in in the second inning, he realizes he can't face Aaron Judge in the first inning, but he's eventually got to face him. He's just only going to face him one and maybe two times. So that, again, on paper, has ruined baseball. And but it's not against the rules. So that's, that's the rub, right? And I think when you start getting cute with the game and you start thinking on paper is the maximum success rate, it just doesn't work. Like, it works in a game by itself, but if you keep doing that— look at all the teams that did that. And then the one problem— I don't have a problem with analytics, I think analytics is great— but the problem is if that's all your resources and that's the only decisions you make is on analytics, I think you're missing the boat.

I think you just absolutely have no chance of winning a World Series and/or anything else. Because you don't understand the game and how it's played over 162. You got to use your eyes and you got to be able to blend. So these kind of things I've been saying for years, and it's definitely showing up every year in a World Series. You see the teams that win, the teams that don't deviate from their— from the way that they go about the game. Now I will say this, if every game was played in the dome, then you could get more universal kind of statistical categories that are neutral, but you got wind, you got elevation, you got all these other elements that we want to quantify by a stat. We want to show how smart we are to come up with an algorithm or a stat that, that just quantifies 100%. There's no such thing. But if you show me 100% analytics as a manager, I will not deviate from that. Yeah, but there is no such thing. So you have to balance it and you have to play the game in a certain way day so that you can understand the flows and the ebbs and the human nature and the elements.

But if everything was in a dome, then you would have a better case to make for those kind of numbers.

Who's your favorite pitcher to watch right now and why?

That's a great question.

Great question.

Thank you.

I, I just think I'm a generational guy. I like a guy who can sustain time. I mean, I'm— don't get me wrong, I love watching schemes, I love watching I love watching Garrett Cole. I've always been partial to a Zack Wheeler. My favorite for the longest time was Justin Verlander because he had a— I called him a 10-speed bike. You know, he could start at 92 and end at 99 or throw at 100 in the first inning and still end at 100. He manipulated the game and he understood he could pitch in any generation. And my fear for these guys is when they lose their miles per hour, they have no tools in their toolset. They have no way to know how to pitch pitch with, with less velocity because they've been taught max velocity. So, you know, Jacob deGrom, when he came on the scene, drool came out of my mouth, you know. But then he's had 2 Tommy John surgeries since. Uh, I look at a Mizerowski and I go, why, my gosh, this guy would be unbelievable. I hope he sustains it. I hope he can learn that he doesn't have to be addicted to 103, you know, that we don't have to keep talking about miles per hour and we talk about his success.

Every time—

I mean, I want—

I kind of want to throw up when I see his stats. All they talk about is how many pitches he threw over 102 miles an hour. He could have— he could have given up 7 runs or thrown a no-hitter, and they're talking about 102 miles an hour. Yeah, we got to get back to pitching and, and rewarding these guys for great efforts. So, um, there's so many dynamic arms, and there's so many guys that you you go, wow, my number one thing is please stay healthy, please stay healthy, please stay healthy. I want to watch you pitch as long as you possibly can.

Yeah. And, and a question about your career, because you are the best, uh, ever, I would say, that, that started and then closed. When you went into the bullpen, what did you have to change about your mentality? And because a lot of guys don't like that, I would assume, like they're either starters or, you know, it's almost like the old saying, like a bullpen guy's just a failed starter.

Starter.

Like, that's a guy, if he could start, he'd be making more money, but he can't, so he's in the bullpen. You did both at such a high level. What was that— what was that change like for you mentally and just emotionally and how you— how you watched the game?

It was the hardest thing I've ever done. And I know people are going to be like, what, you're still throwing a baseball? But the structure, the personality, everything you just mentioned— first of all, when I started, it was longevity. My sport system was different. You know, we were taught to train for 8, 9 innings. I never max effort a pitch. I could throw 94 to 97, but I varied my speeds. I varied my angles. All the things we were trying to do— guys had a 2-strike approach. All the things that hitters had were totally different than they are today. There was no badge of honor that you struck out 3 times but hit a home run. You were like looked at with a funny face. But when I went in the closer's role for an inning, I could actually let the ball eat, as you would say, 98, 99. But I still wasn't max efforting. I wasn't grunting. It was just the ability to do that, sustain it, and have 81 appearances or 78 appearances where I did my first time. I was exhausted. I've thrown 256 innings in a regular season, and I threw 81 innings or whatever it was my first time as a closer.

I was gassed as a closer. All the warm-ups, all the times getting ready, all the times you didn't get in And just that continual 3 in a row, 5 out of 6, 6 out of 8, those dynamics have changed dramatically. Guys don't pitch 3 games in a row anymore. Guys are max effort trying to strike out 3 in an inning. I'd say mostly they're trying to strike out 4 in an inning if they get a passed ball. And I think it's the difference is what they're being rewarded for. But man, oh man, was it difficult for me to make that transition because of the structure and discipline for a pitching— starting pitcher is the greatest life there is. It is. It's the greatest life. Greatest job, and most people are envious of it when you do it well because it is the greatest job. But then when you go to the bullpen, you're like, forget that. You got to be ready every day. You work out, your eating habits, everything changes. And I learned on the hard way. I learned on the job because there wasn't time for me to gain experience. Uh, the one thing I did have an advantage of is my 14 previous years of starting pitching, uh, gave me the leverage that when I came into the game, guys didn't want to get to 2 strikes.

So I got a lot of quick outs. I got a lot of, you know, outs without throwing a ton of pitches, and they didn't want to get 2 strikes. So, um, I knew how to put guys away, and then it became a leverage for me when I got to the closing world.

How did that affect your golf game though? I imagine as a starting pitcher you get to play a lot more golf than as a closer.

In theory, yes, but reality, no. I played every day. As a closer because I only had to get 3 outs or 6 outs at night, about 10:30 at night. So I couldn't play the day I pitched as a starter, obvious reasons. So I played 4 days in between as a closer. I know a lot of heads turned. I know upper management was freaking out, and I told them it's not that big a deal. There won't be any— you know, I won't sacrifice my ability to pitch. After 55 saves my first year, they never questioned me about playing golf again, but I played a lot of golf as a closer because of the ability— just, you could, and you didn't, you know, you could rest and take a nap, whatever it is. Golf's not, by the way, a strenuous sport, especially if you're not walking 36 or you're not shooting 106, right?

Yeah.

How many, how many of your friends— I would imagine the invite to the American Century Championship is something that you covet, because we talked to the guys and they're like, I just want to get invited back every year because it's that much fun. Have you— do you get hit up a lot having people be like, hey, can you get me in? Can you, can you help me out?

Yeah, that's, uh, that's been a popular text. Um, I try my best, but the turnover is about 18 to 21 per year, I guess, something like that. That's, uh, new players every, every year at Tahoe. And, and I don't take it for granted, you know. I'm honored to have been now 16, 17— I don't even know how many years years it's been. It's been awesome. I missed it once, uh, for top— for missed Tahoe once because I got inducted in the Hall of Fame, and I really, really, really, really wanted to go to Tahoe, but I felt it would be bad luck if I missed the Hall of Fame. So, um, it's definitely a, uh, uh, again, it's a calendar thing. I've told all my kids, 6 of them, don't plan anything, no weddings, um, during July right around the All-Star break because I won't Yeah, smart.

That's smart.

You're—

so we've had, uh, Greg Maddux on a couple times this show. Uh, he's obviously a Hall of Famer as well, but also a Hall of Fame prankster. Did he ever get you with something? Okay.

No, no, there was kind of— I don't know, you know, we kind of had an unwritten code, pitcher on pitcher crime. Um, but he did, he did a little bit of things that, um You know, let's just say I don't know how he didn't get beat up when he was a kid, you know, if he did these as a kid. But he had a way about him in his sneaky kind of weird thinking way of getting through it without anybody really— I guess if he was a .500 pitcher, he couldn't get away with it. But because he's such a great pitcher and one of the best of all times, you knew where your place was when it came to trying to get him. So he set the standards that indirectly said, you can't touch me, which, yeah, kind of brilliant. But, um, also, um, yeah, no, picture-on-picture crime was kind of looked really, really poorly if that— if that— if it happened.

Yeah.

Was that weird at the time that, like, in the media, the way that, uh, Greg Maddux was talked about was like a Boy Scout professor dancer combination. And then behind the scenes, you're like, this guy's the most disgusting human being in terms of the pranks that he tries to pull. Like, how—

how—

who's his PR team?

Yeah, you have no idea what the sentiment most of the time with how— listen, I will say he was brilliant in everything that he did because he gave horrible interviews on purpose. Horrible. And it took the onus off of him and it put it on us, me and Glavin. Probably did more interviews about him than he did about himself in the latter part of his career. And I look back and I go, it's actually brilliant. He could walk down the street, no one knew who he was. He always was by the numbers and did things that, that made him, you know, have an advantage and leverage. And yeah, he created a persona that was totally different. Um, I'll never forget when Ernie Johnson, uh, one of our— and Pete Van Weeren announcers for TBS, I think they coined him the Professor. I think that's where it started. And we were like, Professor, give me a break. Uh, but you know, in the, in the, in the scheme of things and what he was doing and how far advanced he was with his thinking, then that, that fit. But when it came to everything else, heck no, it didn't fit.

Yeah, you know, but he wasn't— he was a good fielder, he was a good athlete, he was a pretty good golfer. All the things that he could have had in his era, he could have had every commercial, he could have been one of the highest marketable guys, but he was low-keyed on purpose. And all those things, I think when I look back, I'm like, you know, he did it his way and he did it where the attention was kind of off of him because he made it off of him. Like when you give answers like, you know, I just kind of got lucky, or just, you know, people are like, what? You know, so he, he, I think, I think he knew what he was doing.

You guys obviously were part of an all-time pitching staff with you, Maddux, and Glavine. And would you guys like share with each other? Would you tell each other things? Like, what was that relationship like? Or was it like, hey, I'm just doing my thing, you worry about yourself, let's just go get wins?

You know what I think the beauty of our threesome was? That we talked about hitting a lot, hitters a lot. What would you do? You know, ask each other questions. We pitched 3 total different ways. Glavine and Maddux were more similar in their velocity and the way that they got hitters out with off-speed. I was the guy that was deemed had all the stuff and should have won all the— while, you know, all the hardware and the Cy Youngs. And I had all that pressure that basically I was, in most people's eyes, not delivering to. But But they were great teammates. Greg was great in the way that he taught me some things and I was able to teach him how to have fun and play games and still have a career. Because he was living such a high level and an expectation was so great that there was nowhere to go from there. When you win 4 Cy Youngs in a row, there's nowhere to go from there. Like, and I, again, was underperforming in other people's eyes until I won mine in '96. And then Glavine was ho-hum and taught me individually how to just be, um, how to fake it, you know, how to have no— I was an emotional pitcher.

I wore my emotions on my sleeve. It had its advantages and it had its disadvantages. He taught me how to fake it because when Glavine was on the mound, you didn't know if he's winning or losing. You know, if he had a no-hitter or given up 10 runs. And I think that part of— I learned how to have a successful campaign, a successful year from Greg. I learned how to fight through my issues and not give the hitter an advantage through Tommy. And so collectively, we showed up every day without saying it, trying to one-up each other. And by one-upping each other, that meant indirectly, Greg threw complete game, 2 runs, 5 hits. Then for me, it was, all right, I better give up 2 runs and 4 hits. Or 1 run. And, you know, so it made us better. And we checked our ego every time we came into the locker room. Because if you didn't, each one of them had a chance, you know, to— if you wanted to be the ace, then you were going to be humiliated at times if that's what was your mindset. And we all lived in our lanes.

And I like this example. During the regular season, over the course of our 10 years, Greg and Tom took took turns driving the car, and I was in the back seat. Come postseason, I jumped in the front seat and I started driving the car. That's the way I felt. That's the way I felt about what I could do. And it all worked out, you know, for 3 special years, uh, 3 special, uh, careers, uh, to end up where we did.

Yeah, it was a great team. And another great player that was on some of those teams, uh, Fred McGriff, the Crime Dog. I'm wondering, did you ever watch the Tom Amansky defensive drills video.

Can you imagine how much grief he took from that? Yeah, I mean, to this day he still has a horse laugh every time we bring it up. And, and I think he got stiffed, to be honest with you. I don't even think he got paid.

That commercial was on probably like 40 times a day for 20 years. Yeah, I know.

Uh, you, if you knew the Crime Dog and how gentle giant he is and how, what an awesome teammate he was, it It's just, it's perfect to see him in that video. Just, we would laugh every single time. But the crime dog was awesome.

That's awesome.

Yeah, it was a great, I'm Fred Mc— it was like he was reading cue cards for his own name in that one clip that they had. It was an awesome commercial. And your manager at the time, Bobby Cox, recently passed away, RIP, just seems like an all-time baseball guy. I've read a lot of the stories, heard a lot of his players talk about him. Um, but was there, was there anything special about him that, that you identified with that you really appreciated?

Well, first of all, you know, a lot of people criticize his loyalty towards players as being blind, and just, it wasn't that way. But he did have tremendous loyalty to his players who, who disciplined themselves, put in the time and the work, and were always prepared. He understood the game was hard, and it was so easy in this game to jump ship on guys, especially managers who are on the hot seat because of their player or a few players. He never did. He had such— he had such credibility in our locker room for what he had done in the past. But his ability to lead men, and I'd run through a wall for him. Like, I say this all the time, he traded for me as the GM and then he was my manager for 20 years. And he was the biggest reason, the single most reason why my career identified with what it did. I could have taken so many different turns for the worse. Under, under, under different leadership. In 1991, I'm 2-11. I mean, there's no precedent for a 2-11 first half guy to stick around in the rotation. In my day, you were going back to the bullpen or back to the minors.

And he stuck with me. I went 12-2. The rest is history. So he just had this ability to treat men like men. And then if you weren't a man, teach you how to be a man. And at the same time give you confidence when you didn't have it. That's a lost art in a game that's identified by failure. And, um, can you— I, I can even imagine today if he was managing and guys were hitting .220, which they do, and league average is the worst it's always been, he would find a way to make that .220 guy feel like he was hitting .320. And that's a special talent because you can see your average every time you go to the plate, and you can see what you're not doing, and it would be much easier to get that guy out of the lineup than to sustain them and give them confidence. And he had a gift with that.

Yeah.

Uh, John, this has been awesome. We can't wait for the American Century Championship. We're going to be rooting for you this year. Uh, we'll be out in Tahoe that entire week. It is one of our favorite events. Like I said, we got one last question. It's a Roback question. rhoback.com, promo code TAKE, 20% off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, rowback.com. Great golf wear. I wear a polo every time, uh, Rowback polo. Uh, Zach in the, in the booth, you got a question for, uh, for John Smoltz?

Uh, how are we doing today, sir?

Doing good, thank you.

Great to hear that. Uh, he did have a quick question. Uh, with the American Century Championship coming up soon, uh, if you could hand select your pairing, is there like a group of guys you'd want to play with most out there?

Oh, good question.

Oh yeah, that's a great question. I've never, I've never actually played in this— I don't think I've played in the same group with Steph Curry, but I'd love to play in the same group with Steph Curry. Um, he's, uh, he's got, you know, typically when he comes into Tahoe, he's coming off of a long playoffs, and he doesn't have that this year, so his game is going to be ready. I always love playing with Marty Fish. Marty Fish is one of my all-time favorites, and now we play together on the Pro Tour that we've started, and a lot of the athletes that are playing on the Pro Tour are going to be at Tahoe But, but really, Joe Pavelski is another one that's one. I just love playing with guys that, first of all, are really, really good. And I learn a lot by watching really good players, even though I'm probably way older than all of them. I love seeing good swings. I love emulating good swings. I don't have any technique down pat perfect, but I just like playing with people who are who are, uh, pretty good.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, and you're very, very good, so maybe this is the year. Do you feel like your game's in a spot where this is the year?

My game is in a great spot. Look, I'm 2 years removed from both my hips being replaced. I have learned a lot about my body since my hips— you know, I was playing golf banged up way too much because I'm addicted to golf. There's no doubt about it. It's— I'll play through a broken leg, broken arm, I don't care. I want to get on the golf course, but I've learned a lot about my game. And, and, and the bet— the bottom line for me, it's, it's not, it's not a hard answer to answer. If I don't putt well, I will not win, but I'll finish in the top 10. I just make too many pars in Tahoe, and I'm going to change that. I don't care if I have to sleep on the green one night to get one with the green, but it's a different surface. Poana treats me differently. I'm going to putt my golf ball that week with the idea that I'm the greatest putter in the world, because that's the only way I'm going to change the narrative. When you make that many pars, you just don't have a chance to win.

So it's got about birdies to bust and maybe sprinkle in an eagle. I haven't had many of those either.

Yeah, we better not see you leave any putts short. We'll get on you if you leave them short.

Yeah, you got to leave a putt short if it's for par, but you should never leave it short if it's for birdie. Yeah, because the transition of that 3 points versus 1 versus 0— so if you, if you're too aggressive on the par putts, you go from 1 to -2 real quick if you 3-putt. So, right, yes, you're right, leaving them short is not a great recipe, but it's the reality of golf. You don't— when, when you first get there, you don't want to 3-putt, but it's okay to 3-putt for a birdie. It is. It's Okay, like you can get— everyone goes, oh, you missed a two-footer coming back. Yeah, okay, but I was trying to make that, that three, that three-pointer, which is more important than that one-pointer. So that— you're 100% right, and I'm, I'm working on that.

That's analytics. Yeah, you're, you're embracing it. You're the number one analytics guy that we've ever had on the show.

That might be one of the cruelest things you've ever said. Yeah, I am. I'm like, I'm I said, I'm, I'm kind of branded as the anti-analytics guy, you know, as a Fox analyst. I'm not. I'm just not. I'm just not going to spit out all this information just because I can to sound smart. I'm going to balance the both. And so when I start looking at a golf game, you know what I do? I, I have notes, books of notes of every round that I played that I learned. What do I, what do I have to do different? So yeah, I'm doing my own analytics. I'm looking at those things because if you don't look at it, you're stupid.

Yeah.

But if you, if you look at it and that's all you pay attention to, then you're stupid.

Yeah.

Because you have to be able to balance what you feel like, your breathing, you know, how, how different things work. And so that's, that's kind of where I'm at.

Yeah.

Just a tip going forward, just don't say I don't hate analytics because that's always a telltale sign of someone who hates analytics. It's always a big but coming.

Yeah, that's exactly right. But when I, but when I talk about it, I'm baseball and I tell you how the game's being played and what should or shouldn't happen, that's based on experience. But then I have to follow it up with, but this club wants to do this because it's based on their information.

Yeah.

So it's definitely a blend that I've learned over the last 10 years. And the reality is, if, if people own up to their mistakes in the game of baseball and make necessary adjustments, I think that's great. But when you're smart and you want to stay smart, you never admit that you need to make changes based on your algorithm. I think that's a mistake.

Yeah.

So I'm all in. Like, I've seen the Rays make adjustments. I've seen the Brewers make adjustments on the fly, by the way, which is brilliant, because then that's telling you what we once thought was wrong and now we're going to do this. And when you, when you do those things, that means you're paying attention to the information and the way that you try to play, and then you're adjusting on the fly. And I think that's great.

Yeah.

Is there one analytic, like, a number that you'll reach out and say, okay, the analytic nerds were right about this one?

Um, that's a great question because the one thing that I promoted them to try to come up with is, is one that I think, uh, would serve us better value in the sport. When you're addicted to exit velocity it doesn't tell you the story. It just tells you that big strong dude hit it 117 off the bat. No kidding, it's going to go over 400 feet. When you're addicted to miles per hour, that's all. So what I've asked them to do is I said, come up with the stat. It's not sexy, but see, all these stats that they come up with, they want to— they want to— they have a quantifiable factor behind them. The one I don't like is expected X. Like, how can you tell me what a player is going to do based this current 10-game span or his 10 starts. Like, that's the one area where I say, nope, you lost me. Because when you throw 240 innings, there's an— there's, there's, there's an ability for you not to be as good at the end than when you're throwing 160, win a Cy Young, and everyone goes crazy because you— they try to translate, well, at 240, this is where you'd be.

No, doesn't work that way. So the stat that I like is that exit velocity You give me the average exit velocity of every time a ball is put in play or an out is made. So in other words, if you hit a ball at 110, great, you get that. But if you swing and miss and strike out, you get a zero. And at the end of the year, all the different things that you're going to have an average exit velocity of a lot lower number. But I guarantee you the number that, that is going to be in the 70s to 80s is going to be your best hitter. And that's been proven. Because they've taken the value of every time he hits a ball and the value of every time he doesn't hit a ball. Because when I— when we get to exit velocity, they don't tell you that that guy struck out 210 times a year.

Yeah, right.

They're just cherry-picking a bad pitch, cherry-picking a good swing. And to me, that— there's no value in that. We just get to see, like, we're enamored with, oh wow, 117 off the bat. So that to me is when you start drawing a line That's a stat that doesn't mean anything. Give me a stat that's more relevant and I, and I'm all in. Like, that's the way I think. And when they come up with those, I'm like, great job. But when they do the ones that just, again, by osmosis, we're addicted to how hard someone swings, how hard they throw, it's not telling the story, it's not helping your teammate. And that's the one thing that, you know, I kind of balance out.

Yeah.

All right, well, John, thank you so much for joining us, and we can't wait to see you in Tahoe. Appreciate it so much.

My pleasure, guys. I look forward to seeing you there.

Before we get to Dingers Only, it's brought to you by Jose Cuervo. When Cuervo enters, every moment just gets better. You find yourself in the center of the dance floor. You can't help but stand up and high-five those around you at the game. You know what? A dinger— we're doing Dingers Only draft, but if you get a massive dinger— that is a José Cuervo moment. That's when the room reacts like it just got the same text at the same time. You stop checking the time. Suddenly small talk escalates to laughing so hard you can barely catch your breath. That's the Cuervo effect, a signal everybody understands. I would say Fernando Tatis home run. You get a dinger from that guy, that's a Cuervo moment. All you have to do is keep it Cuervo with José Cuervo and Dingers Only. It is also brought to you by our great friends over at Morgan and Morgan. America's number one injury law firm. You don't hire the wrong people. If you hire the wrong people, it can be disastrous. That's where Morgan Morgan comes in. They're America's largest injury law firm. They have over 100 offices nationwide, more than 1,000 lawyers with over $30 billion recovered for over 500,000 clients.

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Okay, we are back. It is Dingers Only time.

What year?

What is this, the third, fourth year? Fourth year of Dingers Only?

No, third year, I think.

Fourth year.

Fourth, because I didn't participate.

You pitch, Max pitch. Stephen Chase still has to pitch.

That's right. Yeah.

As a quick refresher for everyone, it is our fantasy baseball league that we start halfway through the baseball season, and the only stat is dingers. So we have Hank, Stephen Shea, Max, PFT, myself, Brandon Walker, Jerry, Zach, and Memes— 9 teams this year— and we are all going to draft 9 players. So no pitcher, obviously it's gonna be DH instead. You have to get the actual position, and the only stat is dingers, and the loser is going to have to pitch against a college or better baseball team. Stephen Che, you still have to do that, which it might take for— I actually think Stephen's so bad at pitching, we should just— we should play against Stephen.

Us?

Yeah, it would be fun.

I'm bad at pitching. I didn't realize the mound was— I mean, I did realize, but like, when I've stood out on a real mound, I went to a field recently, far and elevated.

Yeah, he might be so bad if they— if we have a good field like we, like, if we have the bananas again, pitching so slow, like PFT pitched so slow that I pitched— the hitters, the hitters weren't able to—

like, that's not true. I pitched—

time up the pitches.

And if you have a good field, I pitched an average, I believe an average of like 60 miles per hour, 65 miles an hour.

Right.

Well, that's what I'm saying. It might be fun to just stand in the box with Steven and take walks and then hit dingers off him.

I threw my hardest at Yankee Stadium like 10 years ago in front of a speedometer or odometer, whatever those are called.

59. Okay, that was 10 years ago.

Is that something you're proud of?

I'm just saying, I can't—

I can never— I can't really tell with your cadence. So whether—

not proud. Okay, so we're gonna— and Brandon to catch, uh, second place, I think Zach, right? So Zach has to catch Stephen Jay for Jay. We'll get that done.

Duo.

We'll get that done at some point this uh, Brandon is the defending champ, two-time. He would— he requested that we, this year, maybe everyone puts in $100 so there's a cash prize, because he's mad that he keeps winning things without cash involved.

I've won the Dozen twice and I've won this twice. I've won $0 at Barstool Sports.

Okay, so congratulations on winning the Dozen, Brandon.

Thank you, PFT.

Is everyone— is everyone— uh, I actually—

for—

thanks, Max, for you that—

but how much would you—

it would have— it would have been $10K. K, but I gave it to my team.

I've never won a goddamn thing to have money attached to it. Only things I win are bullshit.

Well, the MVP for the Dozen, there was a cash prize for that. Did you win that for the tournament?

You didn't win that?

Who won?

I did. I got the cash prize.

Oh, fuck yeah.

Congratulations.

But I also forgave it. Yeah.

So it goes to the second place finisher?

No, to the kids.

You want to try to win Lib of the Year? Jerry's won that A couple of years in a row, $25,000 cash prize.

Lib of the Year.

Get a—

get a Kamala poster.

Are you still going for it?

Yeah, I think this year might be $50K.

Yeah, but we're taxing at 100%. Yeah, 100% tax.

Jerry just found that people can switch back and forth between being gay.

So he's—

yeah, he's opening his eyes.

I'm all for it.

What happened there, Jerry?

Dude, I went viral on gay Twitter.

That's crazy. This guy.

OK.

I don't know, Pat. Like, I don't know. Pat made a video.

Like, what?

Tell the story.

So pretty much I have a gay cousin who Pat has met at a gay club. And like, my gay cousin introduced himself to Pat. I don't know if they were trying to get with each other or anything, but they were— they were separated. They were together, him and the other gay— gay, like his partner, whatever. His boyfriend.

His boyfriend.

Boyfriend, correct? Okay, so they were together for multiple years. They broke up about 2 years ago. I found out that out through the Facebook. Then I'm scrolling Facebook, this is 2 years later now, this is like a couple days, like a week ago. I'm scrolling and I'm like, what the fuck? No, that's— and I assume I'm like, oh, this is him. And I was like, oh, this gotta be AI or something, or a joke. His ex-boyfriend who was gay gay. He's not gay anymore. He actually has a baby on the way with a female. So he just totally was like, fuck that, I'm straight now.

Okay.

And then like, I'm saying to myself, like, that's just not possible. Like, you don't just wake up and like, oh, I'm not gay no more, right?

Well, I mean, you could.

I—

it sounds like maybe he was bisexual.

Yeah, I don't know, man. Like, I feel like there's just— you're either all in or you're all out. Isn't that kind of how it—

but I mean, okay, Jared. Nope. No, because so, Jared, you like women, correct? Like physically, you like looking at a woman, right?

Correct.

Yeah.

Colombia.

You like having sex with women? Yeah. Like seeing naked women?

Correct. Yeah.

You also kind of like looking at TJ Watt.

Mm-hmm.

And you like feet.

I've seen you look at a man's feet.

Yeah. You were attracted to my feet.

Yeah.

When you put it like that, you don't like— you're not in love with TJ Watt. But when he comes on screen, you're like, that's a good-looking man.

I'll say this, I've never even had a conversation or even like known somebody who took to go both, to do both.

Have you ever watched porn?

Yeah.

Kind of gay.

Really?

Yeah.

Okay. You watch another guy, there's dick in it.

Yeah, I mean, I guess.

But the tweet that, that, uh, Jerry threw out there without context said, there's no way I can just turn gay. So how did that happen?

So that makes it look like I'm gay. Like I'm saying, oh, I woke up, I'm just gay now. Yeah, yeah. But that— yeah, so I didn't— I forgot to add the context to it. Like, hey, look at my other tweet.

Yeah, I'm straight.

This is—

yeah.

All right, uh, we're gonna decide the order with a, uh, sporkle. So how it works is there's going to be a sporkle up. We'll start with Hank. You just answer any of them, and then it's till—

till—

so, you know, if you get something wrong, you're out. And then the last person standing gets to decide if they want the first pick or whatever pick.

Are we snakes? Snakes around?

But we're just the per— the person who wins picks their spot, and then it goes—

we gotta go in the—

yes, correct.

And please say the, the, the question that you're answering for the podcast listeners so they can, they can, they can hear.

All right, here we go. Ready, Hank?

It's up. It's a grab.

Do free mode.

Free mode.

Yep. All right, so just, we're gonna go around until, until there's one man standing.

Somebody should read the 7 milk options at Starbucks. Oat.

Okay. Okay.

4K.

4K.

Read all the categories.

Go ahead. Uh, one drink served in Waterfountain Movie Idiocracy. 3 subatomic particles. 3 main characters in Park Boys. 4 teams Allen Iverson played for. 6 countries to make these brands. Lego, Lululemon, Prada, Samsung, Lexus, and IKEA. 7 milk options at Starbucks. 6 actresses to appear nude in following movies. There's movies there. 7 original members of the Seven and the Boys. 9 running backs with over 10K career rush yards and 8 or more 1K rushing seasons. And 10 Kevin Costner sports movies.

I'm going to struggle with this.

All right.

Okay.

Okay, go ahead.

4 teams Allen Iverson played for: Philadelphia 76ers.

Okay, Max, that was, that was going to be mine. Um, I'll go with still the Detroit Pistons for teams Allen Iverson played for.

Okay, I'll go with the Denver Nuggets for teams Allen Iverson played for.

I will go with Sweden for, uh, IKEA. Countries to make these brands.

I will go with Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner Force movies.

Okay, I will go with the Starbucks 7 different milks. I will go with skim. Nice.

I would also like to go 7 different milks and go almond.

We're cooking now, memes.

Uh, I'm gonna go Trailer Park Boy characters, uh, Bubbles.

Okay, back to you, Hank.

I will go Trailer Park Boys characters, Ricky.

Mm-hmm.

7 milk options at Starbucks.

2%.

I will go Allen Iverson, Grizzlies.

Well done. Nice.

Sure that Jerome Bettis played for the Rams?

Nope, didn't know that.

Um, I'm gonna go with Kevin Costner, sports movies, Tin Cup.

Nice.

Uh, I will go milk options, whole.

I will go Kevin Costner, sports movies, Bull Durham. See you, Jerry.

Okay, Jerry, Jerry might be in trouble here. Do subatomic particles.

Okay, sorry, I just had to read. I'm gonna do the, um Sorry, I'm gonna do the running backs with, uh, Dan, can you read me the yards again?

Uh, 10K career rush yards and 8 or more 1K rushing seasons.

Oh, okay. Yeah, 8 or more.

It's a lot. Yeah, it's a lot.

Yeah, I'm gonna go Barry Sanders.

Got it. Nice job, Zach.

Or like uh, subatomic particles, and I would like to go with Adam.

Oh, and that's Zach.

I can't believe that's all right.

Me, a lot on the board. That's a crazy move.

Trailer Park Boys, Julian.

Okay, uh, 6 actresses to appear in the following movies. I will go Margot Robbie.

Oh, nice one.

Nice, nice.

Very nice.

Thank you.

7 milk options at Starbucks, 1%.

Running out of milk over there, Steven.

And it's wrong.

Good night.

I thought that was gonna be wrong.

Yeah, that was not wrong.

That's wrong.

They don't have the one.

Uh, I will go actresses in the following movies. Halle Berry.

Nice. Nice. Sat next to her once at UFC. No big deal. I remember she loved me.

I watched that scene as a child.

Yeah, I'm going to go with actresses to appear nude in the following movies. Titanic, Kate Winslet.

Nice, and that's what I thought you were—

uh, give me Emmitt Smith for running back.

That was my answer.

Brandon, give me 10 Kevin Costner sports movies. Give me McFarland USA.

Wow, whoa, good one. He's flexing.

You're just going to dominate that.

Okay, uh, Dan, I'm sorry, I can't see anything. Can you read me the milk that we read off?

Yeah, we've read off whole, skim, 2%, almond, oat.

2 left. We got 2 left.

2 left there.

Yeah.

And then we got— then we got running backs, right?

Yeah, we still got running backs.

Milk or running backs?

Ever seen The Boys?

Milk, boobs, running backs.

Where's boobs?

Wait, what's boobs?

Hold on.

What's boobs?

Boobs.

6 actors appear nude in fall following movies. Oh, I don't think you're a big movie—

No Hard Feelings, Fast Times and Wild Things.

Um, okay, let me go running backs here then.

Okay, um, you go milk.

I could go milk, but I'm out. I'm— All right, I'm gonna take a flyer.

Yeah, this could not—

This can, this can, this can backfire quick. Okay, we got 1%, we got 2%, let's go 3%.

Jerry, Steven, and, and Zach are out. Memes, you're up.

We didn't get 1%.

We have 1% we didn't get.

Oh really?

Yeah, draft that.

Good one.

Good pick, Memes.

Good one.

Uh, 7 original members of the Seven and the Boys. I'm taking the Deep.

Oh, nice.

All right, Max.

I will go Kevin Costner sports movie. For the Love of the Game.

Nice.

Good pick.

Okay.

PFT.

7 milk options at Starbucks. I'm going to go with 4%.

Soy.

Wow.

Good one.

I didn't know that's a milk.

Show me Walter Payton, you cunt.

Oh.

Brandon, you're out of Costner movies.

Well, I had For Love of the Game. There, there's 5. No, not 5. Jerry, Jerry took forever.

I can't see.

I couldn't read.

I can't see either. What do they say? Hold on, let me do a run. Let me do a running back. Let me do a running back. Let me do a running back. Let me do a running back.

Do a running back.

I'm gonna do a running. And here's Here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to do a fucking—

I'm going to do a fuck—

hold on, hold on.

I'm going to do a running back.

5.

There's not 5, 4, 3, 2. Stop that, y'all. Y'all are bothering me. Breaking Away, 10 Kevin Costner sports movies.

It's a good movie, fuck, but it's not Kevin Costner.

You're right.

Goddamn it. Oh no, it's a bicycling movie. Memes. So just memes, Max, PFT, and I do Homelander.

And that was going to be mine.

Yeah.

An egg.

Let's go with France for 8 countries for the following brands.

Nice.

No, I will go with Japan.

Ah, shit. That was what I had.

Fuck.

Good pick.

Good pick, dude.

I'm going to go half and half for milk options at Starbucks. Show me half and half.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Memes knows every single one of the boys, by the way. So So he's just going to win.

Half and half.

Not there.

Half and half.

No half and half.

Fuck.

With Danny and Tomlinson.

It's good answer.

There we go.

All right, Memes, you're up and do Black Noir.

Oh, shit. He does know all these.

He knows everyone.

Fuck.

So, Hank, you're—

I'm out.

Oh, you're out. It's just Max. Me, Max, and Memes.

Come on, Max.

Fight him off. This is just more—

no, he knows every single one.

It's more in line. So we gotta, we gotta, we gotta beat him on that. We gotta beat him on that.

I'm gonna go with, uh, come on, come on. You know, if I'm gonna go out swinging, I'm gonna go out swinging. 6 countries and make these brands. Give me Italy.

Yeah, yes, Prada. I feel like one of these two has to be America.

Lego.

Lululemon has—

yeah, no, Lego I do not think.

Okay, so Lululemon—

no, feels like America.

Give me America. Show me America. United States.

There we go.

Where'd it go?

Where'd it go? That counts.

That's the movie I was fucking thinking.

All right, memes, you're up.

That counts?

Yeah. How does that count?

It doesn't. Has America in it.

Type in USA, see if that's what they're looking for.

All right, Max and I'm out.

I'm gonna do a neutron.

Oh, Jesus.

No, I think usually we treat an accident like it counts.

Yeah, dude, that means it like it counts.

Uh, I will.

All right, fine, I'm still around. You're right.

Well, all right, then you go.

No, no, it's you. I just—

yeah, he got American Fire.

I'll do proton.

Oh, shit.

What about— what about—

what about neutron sparks something? Raven.

What about—

spark anything else?

Mm-hmm.

What about Jamal Lewis?

Raven.

Whoa.

No, I'm out.

Ball don't lie.

I didn't deserve to be in.

Going to do Jennifer Lawrence. No hard feelings.

Oh, I can—

oh, wow.

Come on, Max.

This guy's a machine.

Come on.

I could have got that.

You got this, Max.

Come on, Max. Come on Max! Max! Max!

Max! Max!

5—

I'm gonna go with 3, 2— Electron?

Yeah Max!

Yes way to go Max!

You can do A-Train.

Okay damn it he still has the board just got you right now oh is it wrong is it A-train?

Try it.

Oh, yeah.

Shit.

All right, come on, Max.

Uh, see, she wasn't an original member. I know Starlight is. I don't think she counts as an original member. Could I go China? I feel like one of those has got to be China.

Good guess.

I'm gonna go China.

China. Oh, All right, Memes, you got to get one right. Memes got to get one right now.

You do Translucent.

Yeah, I mean, those—

all right, so Memes—

wait, was— see if— see if what's her name counted.

All right.

Oh, never mind.

Show answers. South Korea.

Italy is Korea. All right, she didn't.

That makes me feel better. Curtis, Adrian Peterson. I was going to say, but I was like, no one else is—

Frank Gore.

Jerome Bettis.

You bitch.

Oh man, that's pretty good.

Yeah, coconut milk. I guess half-and-half doesn't count as milk.

You talking about good nut?

A good nut.

Yeah, good nut. All right, Memes, you— would you like first pick?

I would like first pick.

All right, so, uh, we'll go Memes, then Hank, all the way back to Zach, and all the way back around.

Oh, that's good.

All right, I'll be taking Kyle Schwarber.

That's a good pick.

I had him on my board.

Good pick.

I was so close to getting shorter.

Good pick.

Fucking Boyd. You got Boyd.

He got it. He got all the— he can't compete with the boys.

Okay.

It's Memes' favorite show. It's the only thing he talks about.

And wait, who decided which?

It's literally the only television that Memes talks.

And who decided which Sporkle we were going to do?

Memes.

Oh, interesting.

Oh, really?

And Memes still hasn't commented on Geno.

That's very interesting.

Interesting. That's really interesting. All right, go ahead, Hank.

I will be taking Ben Rice, Pride of Cohasset.

Okay, you, you for real?

Over Judge? It's crazy.

He's 4th in home runs this year. Check those out on your sheet.

Yeah, this is all future.

You don't get home runs that have already happened. Yeah, he plays in Yankee Stadium.

He's a lefty.

Taking a Yankee. That's interesting.

Okay, all right, Steven.

I'll go with potential future Triple Crown guy, Jordan Alvarez.

Good pick, dude.

Good pick.

I'll take Ohtani.

Oh, that's not as good.

I forgot about Ohtani. That's a good pick.

My 1-1's on the board right now.

James Wood.

I'm gonna take James Wood. Okay, DC's own. Good Wood. Okay, number 1 in barrel rate.

As a right fielder, I will take Juan Soto.

Okay, uh, let's check that really quick because I have him as a left.

Okay, okay, well, he's, uh, it's right field on my board as well.

James Wood is right field. He's got—

he's left field on ESPN.

As long as he's played at least 10 games was the rule last year.

Yeah, I'm just— she says right field, but I'm fine with taking him left field.

And remember, if you draft a player that gets accused of child pornography or pedophilia, you are allowed to have one penalty-free cut option for that player.

But you have to cut them before the MLB decides. Yes, I cut Wander Franco before the MLB decided on his punishment.

I'm up. I will be taking, uh, and I will say this name slowly.

All right, here's the left fielder. I don't know why it's right field in this sheet.

All right, goddamn it.

Yeah, that's e-ball.

PFT, you're taking Wood as right field, correct?

I am, yes.

Okay, I will be taking, uh, first baseman Nick Kurtz.

Nice.

You can say it again.

We can cut out— we can cut that middle part. You could say Nicholas Kurtz.

I'm also going to take first base. I'm going to go go with C. Walker, first base.

Okay. Christian.

Christian Walker. Christian Walker.

Live with the year, Jerry won't even say the word Christian.

Okay.

I would like to take, uh, Bo Bichette.

Bo Bichette. You have two. You have two, right?

Yeah. Uh, what position is Mr. Bichette?

Shortstop?

Third? I think he's playing third, but he probably— he's probably eligible for short.

You have two picks here.

This year.

All right.

I would like to take him and then I would like to—

I go—

I'd like to go to future Hall of Famer on my team. I like to take Vinnie Pascutino again.

Oh, I love that. Good pick. Good pick.

He is first base, correct?

That is correct.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

I'm going to go with center fielder Byron Buxton.

Yeah. Good pick. Twins. Good pick. Good pick.

I'll be taking catcher Cal Raleigh.

Oh wow.

All right, all right. I'm gonna take friend of the program, first base Matt Olson.

Fuck, I was gonna take him.

Yeah, future Hall of Famer. Should I try to call him and see if he wants to be on my team?

Yeah.

Okay, I'll try.

Give him a ring.

Let's see.

I didn't, I didn't prep him at all.

Did you prep any? No, I didn't have any prep.

Anyone?

No.

No, I didn't prep anyone.

It's kind of hard being like, hey, we're doing a draft, a fantasy draft in the middle of the season, and I want to call you.

What's— is it more awkward to just cold call and say that?

Well, I don't know.

We'll see.

We'll find out.

And I, I'm guessing he's not going to pick up. I'm pretty sure he's not going to pick up.

Doesn't appear he's going to pick up.

Seems like a non-pickup. Yeah, we will also— we'll make one other phone call whenever Gunnar Henderson gets picked. Stephen's gonna have to call him.

All right, okay, PFT is up.

I'm going to take a future Hall of Famer, uh, maybe future best player in the history of baseball, healthy for the first time in a long time, Mike Trout.

Nice.

He's actually hurt right now. What? He's legit. He's literally hurt right now.

When did that happen? When did that happen?

Stop it.

He just got like 3 days ago.

Are you fucking serious?

You've already taken him, but he like— you said healthy for the first time.

Your hand is off the chest.

He's on the injured list right now.

Like he got injured like yesterday.

Mike Trout, 3 days ago.

I'm looking at you, Angels. Uh, with Trout on IL for now.

Okay.

Hamstring injury shelves Trout?

Hamstring—

let him pick someone at the end!

No, no, he's not out, he's not out.

This is all part of this thing only we've all drafted guys that have been hurt before.

Hamstrings are easy to come back from.

He's not out long.

All right, um, I will take catcher Shane Langaleers.

Nice, nice job Max.

It's a damn good pick man.

Thank you Brando's guy.

Yeah A's.

Oops, hold on, sorry.

Steven.

Steven.

Yep. Sorry, I was entering.

Um, all right.

At what point is Steven gonna take PCA?

Nope. I, I'm technically gonna take a guy who's injured right now. It's for the culture.

Okay.

Munetaki Morikawa.

Okay, that's a good pick.

Hell yeah.

He's gonna be back very soon.

That's just not the right name.

That's just not his name either. Yeah.

And what was the culture?

Munetaki Morikawa. Ohtani.

Yeah.

And what was the culture? We all knew what he was doing.

He was—

for anyone who's maybe not a baseball fan, he was trying to take the Asian guy on the White Sox.

Yeah, right.

Just say that.

Moonball.

Did you— you passed on Ohtani earlier.

Yeah, he did.

Just to take—

you should have done an all-Asian, right?

I got Ohtani.

Yeah, that's true.

I will take catcher for the Colorado Rockies. Altitude, Hunter Goodman.

That's a good value pick, Henry.

Thank you.

Really good value pick.

Mhm.

I would like to do Colson Montgomery.

Okay.

And Pete Alonso.

I am not, by the way, following who's been picked.

No, I'm not doing that at all. I got it.

That's why I'm taking on the longer—

there you go. Okay, that's actually very val— I'm, I'm happy. Thank you for doing that, Stephen.

Alonso was a terrible terrible fit. Uh, I will take Chicago Cub left fielder Ian Happ.

Great pick.

Does hit a lot of home runs. Uh, not forever. It's not the average league.

Nope.

Sorry, who did memes? Who did memes?

It ain't the batting average league.

He took Pete Alonso and Hunter—

no, uh, Montgomery.

Yeah.

Okay. Hmm.

I will go with, uh, this guy is a second baseman. I'm going with Brandon Lau on the Pittsburgh Pirates. 18 home runs. Very cool.

Brother of Jeff.

Um, I'm going to go with first baseman Bryce Harper.

Oh, good pick. Good pick.

Nice pick.

Thanks.

Good pick.

Great pick.

Thanks, everyone. Has Shea Langlier's been picked?

He has.

He has been.

I knew that.

But we're not going to shame that.

No, no, we're not shaming that at all.

Seems like there will be a lot of—

Simply, he has.

No, but I just want to— going forward, because that's going to happen to me.

Yeah.

I'm going to take Detroit Lions catcher Dylan Dingler.

Nice.

Does he go for the Lions?

Detroit Tigers, sorry.

Yeah.

I say Lions.

You did.

Detroit Tigers catcher Dylan Dingler. Great dinger name.

I will take PCA.

Damn, I just—

for that, I will be taking, um, felt good, right fielder for the Atlanta Braves, Ronald Acuña Jr. Nice, nice. And he needs to come back from injury as well.

Good pick.

I will take third baseman Junior Caminero.

I like that.

Shout out to anyone who's listening right now.

They're the best. No, we're having fun.

Yeah.

Is left fielder Riley Green available?

Yeah, he is.

Sounds very available.

I'd take Riley Green, left field.

Okay. You got another pick.

All right.

And then I would like to run— I would like to take another pick here. I want to go— I hope it's Brandon Lowe available.

No.

Nope. All right.

What about—

what about Shea?

Nope, not available.

All right, well, here we go. Sorry. I'm going to go George Springer.

What position is Mr. Springer?

Hmm.

I thought you were a position guy.

I'm writing him down.

He's our documenter.

Oh, my bad. I thought you were—

George Springer's a DH.

Probably need a documentarian too.

I'm documenting my own team.

There's a spreadsheet we could all just pull up.

I'm going to go with shortstop, uh, uh, CJ Abrams. Good pick.

Your guy.

Good pick.

I'll be going with, uh, third, third baseman Eugenio Suarez.

Good pick.

Good pick.

Did someone take Judge? No, no, he's—

how—

what's the timetable?

July, July to August.

Earliest possible late July.

I'm gonna take Judge just because it's gonna look awesome on my— yeah, on my roster.

He's right field, correct?

Yeah, yeah, that's gonna— I have an outfield of Juan Soto, PCA, and Aaron Judge.

That's it.

Yeah.

Okay, I'm going to take, uh, left fielder for the Milwaukee Brewers, Jackson Churio.

And that's a damn good pick.

That's a really good pick.

People forget He was, he was injured the first, first month. Yeah, he's been good since then.

I will be taking second baseman Ketel Marte.

Oh, that's a hell of a—

that's a great frickin' my pick.

Yeah, it was. You're—

but you just had so far away.

You're so far away from your pick.

Okay, check something. Uh, sorry, who'd you just pick?

Uh, I took a—

tell me—

second base. All right, all right, just making sure this guy's not injured. All right, I will take, uh, Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy.

That's not a great pick.

Why?

I don't know.

Uh, I will take— just got off the DL on June 5th, José Altuve at second base.

Okay, okay.

Has Jordan Walker been picked?

No, no, he's not.

I'm gonna pick him.

Smart.

And Ozzie Albies.

Okay, sorry, can you guys say positions before you call the players?

Uh, right fielder.

Okay, Jordan Walker.

And second baseman, Ozzie Albies.

Thank you. Nice picks. Good picks, good picks, good picks all around, boys.

Uh, I will take Yandy Diaz of the Devil Rays, DH.

And who'd you pick right before that?

Uh, José Altuve, second base.

Okay, all right. I'm in trouble.

I'm in trouble.

Steven. Um, Steven.

Just make sure.

Come on, Steven.

Steven.

Steven.

I'll go with Steven.

Steven Che.

Steven Che, you're up.

You know what?

Yeah, here we go.

Do it. Fucking do it.

I was going to pick a guy I have.

Dansby Swanson. Give it to him.

Just— you can just say who you're going to pick.

Gunner Henderson.

Okay, call him.

Right now?

Yeah, call him. Give him a call.

FaceTime or phone call?

Phone call him and ask him if he's willing to be on your Dingers Only team. Okay.

Can you force a trade if he's not?

Yeah, that's true. If he doesn't agree, this is going to be really awkward.

Pulling Eli.

Steven's going to call him.

Calling. Hope he's not playing right now.

No, he's not. It's Monday.

Is it just Monday?

It's just Monday.

It's just another— it's Monday. Monday. I wish it was Sunday. That's my fun day.

My island after Monday.

Shall I leave a voicemail?

Feels good. Yes.

Yeah, it's like, call me back. I want to see if I can draft you on Dingers Only.

Hey, hit me up.

Hey, this is Gunnar Henderson.

Sorry, I missed your call.

Okay, please leave a message and I'll return your call as soon as possible.

Thanks.

Gunnar, what's up, buddy? Steve. Um, I am drafting you on my Dingers Only team. Just wanted to officially welcome you into the squad. Have a good season.

Call me back.

Call me back.

Bye. Okay, excuse me, Max.

I will be going with center fielder Julio Rodriguez.

Good one.

That one lasted way too long. Yeah, that's a good pick, dude.

Good pick.

Thank you.

That's a really—

thanks, guys.

I like that pick for you.

Fucking pick, dude.

I'm going to take Toronto Blue Jays left fielder Kazuma Okamoto.

And that's a hell of a pick.

Great pick.

Should have got it.

Has anyone taken Bobby Witt?

No, I was going between those two.

I want Bobby Witt Jr. Um, this is embarrassing.

Can, uh, how do you spell, uh, uh, W-I-T-T?

No, you don't know the Asian's name?

B-O-B-B-Y.

Oh, did I say left? I meant third base.

Third base.

He's a third baseman. Kazuma Okamoto.

Onto.

Oh, okay, got him.

Yeah, my fault.

Oh shit, yeah.

What was that? Oh shit, yeah, got him right below, uh, my guy Max Muncy.

I should have done—

I will be taking—

oh wait, PFT, you have two, or no, you have them at third base.

Okay, third base, third base.

He's got him at third base.

I'll be taking designated hitter Brent Rooker. Mississippi State.

Nice, nice.

A really good pick.

Thanks.

Nice.

I'm gonna—

it's gonna be so funny when you don't win this year and there's a cash prize.

Big Cat, who'd you just take?

I took Bobby Witt Jr. W-I-T-T. W-I-T-T.

I'm gonna take a right fielder, um, Seiya Suzuki.

And that's it.

Yeah.

Oh, Matt Olson's calling me back. Back.

Oh, let's go.

Hey Matt, I just drafted you on my Dingers Only team. Do you, uh, you ready to hit some dingers?

Yeah, when does it start?

Uh, July 1st.

So don't hit any.

So yeah, just maybe don't hit any between now and July 1st.

Okay, I'll save them up.

All right, cool. All right, welcome to the squad, dude. Let's fucking crush it.

Thank you.

Yeah, fuck yeah, let's go.

All right, love it. All right, talk to you later, man. All right, bye.

He was super fun.

Yeah, he's pumped.

Very—

fuck Yeah, that's what— now we can put them in the title.

That's what ball— the ballplayers need this time of year to get them to the All-Star break. Yeah, like just any sort of boost.

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I'd like to take Manny Machado.

Okay, that's gonna be third base.

No hustle, worst hitter in the league.

Don't say that, that was hate, Brandon.

And then I'd also like to take— is Matt McClain available?

Yeah, yeah.

I take— or I— can I disavow Matt McClain pick and pick a different pick?

No, you don't have to disavow him.

All right, I'll I'll take—

fine, I'll take him.

What position is missing?

Why do you want to disavow?

Yeah, why would you give me—

that seems like strong language.

I would like— I jumped to him too quick on the board, and then—

but you, but you, you got past—

I just stuck with it. But that was a mistake last time, I just stuck with it, so I was gonna maybe pivot. But we'll go with Matt. Yeah, what position is Matt's gonna be? A, uh, I believe Matt's a, uh, second baseman.

Okay, okay.

Are you guys okay with me swapping Matt to Sal Stewart? Stewart though.

Sure.

Yeah, I'll take Sal Stewart.

Wow, Sal Stewart is a great—

he's a first baseman for the Reds.

Really good pick.

That was a good step off.

All right, Jerry, I'm gonna go DH Casey Schmidt. Okay, the Giants.

Brandon, second baseman. JJ Weatherholt, rookie.

I will also go DH from the Giants, uh, Rafael Devers. Did you see him, uh, not take a— yeah, that was bad.

Yeah, so bad.

He was— he got walked late in the game and they tried to pinch run and he literally just said no, no, I do not want to come off.

Show like this manager. Um, what do we think about my guy Freddie Freeman? Has he been drafted?

He has not.

He's not.

I would like to take first baseman Los Angeles Dodgers Frederick Freeman.

Uh, I'm gonna say one that I think has already been picked, and I apologize for that. Colson Montgomery has been picked.

He's been picked.

Yeah.

Okay.

See, I'm happy that I apologize ahead of time. Um, in that case, I will be taking, uh, Kyle Tucker.

Boo!

Yeah, boo!

He's still on right? Yeah. Yes. Okay.

Somebody should take Jose Ramirez.

I'll be taking catcher for the Atlanta Braves, Drake Baldwin.

Okay, hopefully he comes back healthy.

He played yesterday.

Hopefully he comes back healthy. I don't know what to tell you.

Uh, I will be taking, expected to return shortly from the hamstring injury, Eli De La O'Neal Cruz, shortstop, Cincinnati Reds.

Damn good pick.

It's a good pick.

It's a good pick.

I'll be doing O'Neal Cruz.

Fuck, I was gonna cruise it up, man. You're gonna go cruise missiles?

Yeah, you can almost have to let him do the cruise.

That's—

dude, it's fucked up.

Were you gonna take Ellie?

No.

See, that's selfish.

You went the wrong Cruz.

No, I guess. Yeah, you're right.

Damn, fuck.

Get antivirus that way.

Uh, and then left field, I'm gonna do Cody Bellinger.

Fuck.

Uh, I'm going to make sure this person isn't injured. Oh, Jerry, you just said it, right? Is he injured? Is that why you said it?

Ramirez? I don't know. I picked him last year, he was great.

Yeah, I'm gonna take him. No, I'm gonna take Julio Rodriguez.

He's only took him.

He's taken.

They already taken you know, then it's tough.

It's tough out here.

I will take Willer Abreu, Red Sox right fielder.

I'm gonna definitely pick some guys that have already— yeah, that at this point, that's okay, everybody.

Everyone.

It's okay, everyone.

I will be taking—

it's okay, everyone—

left fielder.

Damn it.

Mickey Moniac. Oh, it's okay.

Oh, I like that.

I'm all over the place right now.

Believe in yourself.

I don't believe in myself.

Um, He's a puddle right now.

I will be taking—

I will be taking— oh, you got this.

Here we go.

Third baseman. I apologize if he's already been picked. Miguel Vargas.

Sounds like he hasn't.

I don't think so.

Okay.

Why anybody would take him?

I'm going to take—

I think he's a third baseman too.

Yeah, is that—

is that—

he is the third baseman. I have him as third baseman.

I'm going to take, um, you know what? Yeah, you know what we're gonna do?

What are we gonna do?

Take designated hitter from the Seattle Mariners, Dominic Canzoni.

Good pick.

Nice.

Has anyone taken Manny Machado?

Yes. Yes.

Fuck, that was a long time ago, wasn't it?

It's okay, we're all struggling out here.

I think Zach took him, right?

Mhm. Shit.

You want to give him up to pick yet?

Oh no.

Who you got?

All All right, all right, all right. I need to get— all right, I'll do, uh, Adley Rushman.

This is infield, right?

No, catcher.

Catcher.

Take, um, left fielder. I think— I don't know if he's picked or not. Wyatt Langford.

You're good.

Sounds like you.

Mhm.

All designated hitters are are off the board.

Okay, good to know.

Good to know.

Good to know.

Good to know.

That's great to know.

Wait, that's just not true.

Well, everyone, everyone has one.

Oh, I see.

Everyone has one.

All right, all right, all right.

Sorry.

I'm gonna take, um, I'm gonna go with, um, Jazz Chisholm, second base.

Love it.

Yankees.

Love it.

It's a hell of a pick.

I'm gonna go, uh, center field field Andy Pages. Yep, we'll take close. Uh, I would also like to do a left field. Is Ian Happ available, or someone scoop Ian Happ?

He's gone.

You also have a left fielder in Riley Green.

Oh no, I'd like to take—

I'd like to keep Riley Green.

Okay, you need a right fielder.

Yep.

And a catcher.

Catcher.

You need a catcher.

Get a catcher quick.

Just pick up a catcher.

Yeah, I'll just go, uh, right field instead. I'll go Adolis Garcia.

He's hurt for the year.

Great comes back to—

well, okay, yeah, we did tell PFC that he had to do that.

Great.

When Trout is coming back, are you saying this guy's out for the entire year?

Hoping to return by 2027.

Oh my God, that's really Yeah, what happened?

Uh, tore something in his shoulder.

What about Wyder Abreu?

Gone.

Gone. Okay.

Wow.

Anthony Santander, you're good.

He's available. Right field, is that correct?

That's correct.

Okay.

Am I up? Yeah.

Has anybody picked the left fielder Jackson Churio?

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

Um, this is the part of the draft where we keep doing this.

No, this is going to be a tough part. Yeah, okay, but it's okay, you got to stick with us.

Stephen, I need a left fielder, I'm guessing.

Cherry, you need a catcher.

Okay.

And a left fielder.

Yes.

Yep.

Okay, I will go with left fielder Spencer Steer.

Sounds like a horrible No, I like that you can hear memes' laugh through the—

Brandon, you need a shortstop and a center fielder. And a center fielder, I guess.

Center fielder Joe Adell.

Oh, the Joe Show.

God, what a steal.

Um, shit, he just got hurt. Hurt, but I'm trying to go for like splashy name. I'm trying to go for the all splashy.

You just want to look good on the graphic?

No, you know what, I'm not going to. I did want to look good on the graph. I was thinking about taking Jackson Holliday, but he's— yeah, he's hurt again. He started hurt, he's hurt again. Um, I'm gonna just say some names and you guys just tell me if they've been drafted. Um, has JJ Weatherholt been drafted?

Yeah.

Okay.

And Bryce Stringer obviously was drafted.

No.

Oh, okay.

I'll take Bryce Stringer.

That's, that's not—

that's second baseman.

It's great.

Okay, good pick.

It's a really good one. Yeah, that is a really good pick.

I'm gonna take—

he needs a second baseman and a—

were you gonna take Bryce shortstop?

I was not. Um, I was locked in on Zack Neto.

And that's a hell of a pick.

That's a great pick.

I was thinking about him.

Thank you.

Yeah, his barrel rate is really good.

You going analytics?

I'm strictly looking at barrel rate. I'm a one, one stat man.

So let's—

let me see here.

I still need left field, correct, Steven?

Oh, thank God Steven did write everything down.

Yeah.

Yes.

Left field and shortstop.

I need left field and shortstop.

I am gonna go—

goddamn it.

Uh, I'm gonna go with— I'm gonna go with— I don't know, I'm gonna go with—

this is a panic, this is panic. Yeah, it's not gonna work. Um, This is gonna be really bad.

It's gonna be a bad pick.

It's about to be terrible. Oh man, wait, everyone's about to laugh at you.

Is anyone taking Christian Jelic?

No, I'll take—

I'll take Christian Jelic.

Okay, he's left. Next.

Left, yes.

Okay, I will go with Michael Harris, Atlanta Braves, center field.

Good pick.

Thank you.

I will go with a guy who's been struggling, but I think he's gonna have a big second half of the year. Give me third baseman Alex Bregman.

Love it.

I was gonna take him just out of solidarity.

I was thinking about doing that too.

Yeah, listen, he's gonna, he's gonna turn it around.

All right, Memes needs a third baseman.

I'm gonna go with Zach Gielof. Third baseman, Joe Alvin. Sounds like athletics.

He's gonna— and you're gonna take Lindor?

No, I already have a shortstop.

Oh, you told me you're gonna take Lindor.

Catcher, uh, Liam Hicks, Marlins.

Yep, former Yak legend.

Hank, do you know what you need?

Uh, I need a center fielder.

Yes.

And I will take Dodger Andy Pages.

He's been taken.

I will take Brave Michael Harris.

I just took—

just been taken.

I will take—

listen, this is gonna happen, boys. It's gonna happen.

This is the stuff.

This—

yeah, this is, this is how, this is how Dingers Only goes.

Yeah, this is how it goes, boys.

All right, Jackson Merrill's been taken.

I don't think so.

I don't believe so.

All right, pothead Jackson Merrill.

Okay, I think Hank has a good team.

I came in second last year, I think.

I'm gonna try to take Manny Machado.

Oh, he came in second.

Yeah, I think I came in second last year.

Came in third.

Um, I need a right fielder.

What do you guys need?

Uh, Max and I need a shortstop. So true.

What do you need?

Second baseman.

Has Jake Berger been taken?

No.

Okay, great.

Summer burgers.

So yeah, that's big for you.

That's such a huge—

needed.

I will take Stephen Che.

Stephen Che's up.

Jacques Caglionone.

Okay, good pick.

What was his name again?

Has everyone written down their teams?

I got mine.

Yeah, go over them after.

Or no, Kansas City. Max needs—

I am going to take shortstop. Shortstop. Um, I am going to take shortstop Mookie Betts.

Good pick.

PFT needs a second baseman.

I need a second baseman and this is where I'm about to either win the whole damn thing for myself or possibly, possibly lose the whole damn thing for myself. Because we're trying to time the market on Fernando Tatis Jr. Yeah, I, I think it's, I think it's a, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna time it. I like it. I'm taking FTJ.

Oh, that's what Brandon was trying to do.

Is that what you're going to do, Brandon?

I'm happy you did that.

Try to time the market.

Don't you need a second baseman?

Yeah, he's played second base.

He's played second base. Oh, does he?

Yeah.

Yeah, he does.

Damn, memes.

That's on me.

I got to, uh, he's got 2 home runs.

You know he's going to hit 22.

I need a third baseman.

Yeah, I don't know how many. Jake Berger plays first and third, so I got to—

Barrel right.

He's listed as first and third, but I don't know how many he's played.

Does anyone know?

Who? Jake Berger.

How do I get to all?

I always go to— I was doing baseball right now. I'll do it for you.

Thank you. But I can't get— I have last 5 games, but I don't have—

yeah, no, I got it, I got it, I got it.

You got it?

I got it.

So how many, how many do they need for the 10 games?

10 games.

What position are you trying to draft him at?

First, first, first, first, first.

I'm seeing—

he's on my list as a third baseman.

I'm seeing zero games at third base.

Zero games at third base this year?

I'm seeing zero.

Okay, well, good thing that was integrity. Can we just all take a moment and just say great integrity? Great integrity. Um, all right, that, that sucks because that would have been pretty cool to have Jake Berger on my team.

All right.

You know what?

How's Alec Bohm been?

Pretty good.

He's getting hot.

All right.

He's going hot.

That was who you're going to take?

No, but you should have taken that guy. Who?

Austin Riley.

Well, that's okay. You take Alec Bohm.

I'm going to take Alec Bohm. He's getting hot.

That's what I heard.

Reports on the ground is he's getting hot.

Shortstop Lindor. Okay.

Uh, wait a second, what position does J.J. Weatherholt play?

He plays second base.

Okay, good.

Has Goodman been drafted?

Yes.

Yes, the catcher.

All right, then I'll go—

wait, did you— you still needed a shortstop, Brandon?

Yes.

Tatis hasn't played any games at shortstop.

He's on my list of shortstops, so it doesn't matter.

It does matter because it doesn't matter. I just needed to play 10.

No, it doesn't matter because I didn't get him.

I know, But so you just—

but you wouldn't have even been able to use him anyway.

But he outed himself.

But it doesn't matter.

So we're good.

Yeah, because I didn't get him.

This is how you win the league every year.

Yeah.

Who'd you just pick, Brandon?

Lindor.

Okay.

Because I was thinking the same. I was looking at him at shortstop and then I went to go check his game log. I was like, oh, he hasn't played any shortstop this year.

Right.

But I didn't get him. Yeah. So we're good. So it doesn't matter.

We're on the same page.

He's got 121 balls hit over 95 miles per hour.

Wow. Yeah, 2 home runs.

He's 2 home runs.

He's—

yeah, that—

it's about to happen.

That's turning around.

Kyle Schwarber has as many— had admit this past weekend, Kyle Schwarber had as many home runs in 1 inning as Fernando Tatis had all year.

Wow.

It's a great stat.

Good stat.

Really good stat.

But all we care about is home runs to come right now.

I know, I'm just saying.

Actually, not even fun fact. I don't want Fernando to do shit.

Yeah.

For the next like week and a half. Yeah.

Oh, I forgot about that.

Yeah, these are all wasted home runs. Every, every home run.

What a great pick Lindor is.

Mhm.

Uh, Jerry and Zach both need catchers.

I'm going to go with catcher Salvador Perez.

I was thinking about going, uh, catcher Ben Rice, but he may not be a catcher.

No, he—

and he was also picked in like the first round, second overall.

That's good game log from you guys. My bad. I'll go Augustine Ramirez.

Is that available?

Yep.

All right. I'll go Augustine Ramirez catcher.

So in the past, we've all picked a pitcher in case of a tie for strikeouts.

I'll take Jacob Mizerowski. I'll just write mine down.

No, we're not going to do— we haven't done that. We're not doing that.

Okay.

Yeah. All right. So good job. Good draft, everyone. Do you want to go through your teams? Memes? You want to start start?

Tell us your team.

Hold.

Okay, Hank, you want to start?

I got Ben Rice at first base. I got Hunter Goodman at catcher.

Okay.

I got Ian Happ in left field. I got José Altuve at second base. I got Yandy Díaz at DH. I got Eli De La Cruz at shortstop. Willer Abreu in right field. Alex Bregman at third base and Jackson Merrill at center field.

We got Triple Crown Yordan at DH. We got Munitaka Murakami—

is that his name?

Yeah, Triple Crown.

That's right, right?

I don't know.

Moonball. We got him at first. Brandon Lau, second base. Max Muncy, third. Oh, an infield. Uh, Gunnar Henderson, shortstop. We got catcher Drake Baldwin. We don't even touch the outfield through the last 3 rounds. Mickey Moniac, that's, uh, left field. Michael Harris, second strategy.

And Jock Cagliano, that could be—

what do we know?

No, it's— that's definitively the most home runs are coming from the outfield.

Yeah, but most— but that also means that—

yeah, I guess they're avoiding the shortage in there.

Yeah, yeah, but the shortage in the infield is like the gap between home runs in the infield is like 4. Like all the second basemen have like error different between 4. Okay, listen, just a little chip on your shoulder.

You do you.

What I said, that's the beauty of Dingers Only, is we're all going to find out.

Yeah, yeah, we're playing small ball.

Yeah, that's not what you should do for Dingers Only, Max. We're manufacturing home runs.

Uh, I don't have a— I don't have an order here, but I have catcher, uh, Shea Langley, first base Bryce Harper.

What do you mean you don't have an order?

I didn't— I didn't write it down like the draft order that I I did it by position. Yeah. Uh, second base, Ketel Marte. Shortstop, Mookie Betts. Third base, Miguel Vargas. Left field, Christian Yelich. Center field, Julio Rodriguez. Right field, Kyle Tucker. DH, Shohei Ohtani.

Nice. That's a good team.

Yeah, not bad. Okay, I've got, um, left field, Jackson Chorio. Center field, the super healthy Mike Trout. Right field, James Wood.

That's a good outfield.

Really good outfield. Third base, Kazuma Okamoto. Shortstop, Zack Neto. Second base, Fernando Tatis Jr. First base, Freddie Freeman. Catcher, Dylan Dingler. And DH, Dominic Canzone.

Okay, I have, uh, DH Rafael Devers, catcher Adley Rushman, Matt Olson at first, Bryce Touré at second, 2nd, Bobby Witt Jr. at third, or shortstop, Alec Baum at 3rd. And then my outfield, I'm— I want to jerk off to my outfield. Juan Soto, PCA, Aaron Judge. Hmm, if Aaron Judge comes back, watch out.

I have 1st baseman Nicholas Kurtz, catcher Cal Raleigh, right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr., 3rd baseman Eugenio Suárez, DH Brent Rooker, 2nd baseman JJ Weatherholt, left fielder Wyatt Langford, center fielder Joe shortstop Francisco Lindor.

Um, I got catcher Salvador Perez, left fielder Spencer Steer, second base Jazz Chisholm, DH Casey Schmidt, right field Seiya Suzuki, shortstop CJ Abrams, third base Junior Caminero, center fielder Byron Buxton, first baseman, uh, I do not know who I have.

Christian Walker. Christian Walker, that was your first pick.

I love that.

I've got a designated hitter George Springer. Center field, we've got Andy Page. Left field, Riley Green. Right field, Anthony Santander. Shortstop, Boba Shett. Catcher, Augustine Ramirez. Third base, Manny Machado. Second base, Sal Stewart. And, uh, first base, Vinnie Pascantino.

Nice, great rosters. Memes finishes off.

I got Kyle Schwarber DH, Colson Montgomery at shortstop, Pete Alonso first base, Jordan Walker right field, Ozzie Albies second base, O'Neil Cruz center field, Cody Bellinger left field, Zach Gelof third, and Liam Hicks at catcher.

Shane, who'd we miss?

Vlad Guerrero.

Oh, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, Vlad, he didn't have many home runs this year, but he's gonna hit them.

Yeah, yeah, that's a mistake.

That was a mistake.

Soderstrom.

And reminder, you get one add and drop throughout the year. But that's it. That's it.

It has nothing to do with the injuries.

No, it's injuries.

Injuries.

And there's a pedophile spot, right?

There's a pedophile.

But you can only add and drop an injured player.

Correct.

Otherwise you're like set.

Is it— is it like rest of the year injury or any injury?

Oh, it's any injury. But then you obviously don't get that guy ever again.

Again.

Got it.

But he has to be injured. You can't just be like, this guy sucks, I'm dropping him.

We need it. We need to check on someone in the pedophiles. Oh, Sal Stewart.

Yeah.

Okay, positions: first baseman, third baseman. Okay, so he plays them all, I guess.

Prior to the setback, Mike Trout was enjoying a highly productive and remarkably durable season, appearing in 74 of the Angels' first 75 games.

17 home runs, I think.

Okay, sorry, PFT. Sorry, PFT.

It's It's okay. I think you're fine. I think he'll be back by like early July.

He'll probably be very healthy.

Yeah. Brandon, are you more of a Dingers Only expert in college football?

I'm, uh, I'm equal in both. I'm a definite—

one you've won twice, the other you've won once and got dog walked.

We've only done it twice. I did not get dog walked. I think I was still in it going into the championship game in the playoffs, and that was the team playing for the national championship.

Now you got smoked.

No, I didn't. I think I statistically would have won if Miami had won the national title.

You didn't even know.

They didn't.

They didn't.

They didn't.

And you wouldn't have.

I didn't get smoked.

And you didn't pick Indiana.

It was just more—

but neither of us picked Indiana.

You didn't have like barely any teams that were in the playoffs.

That's right.

He had no good teams. And you could have picked Jaylen, but he's really good at dingers only. Yeah.

That I get no money for.

Well, this year you can win it and get money.

Nobody agreed to it.

No, we— has everyone agreed to $100?

Nobody agreed to it.

Nobody agreed to that.

Right.

Will everyone agree to $100?

As much money as you got, you can't agree to $100.

$500, Brandon? I'll do $500 with you, and it can just be whoever wants to.

But it's just us then.

I will also do $100.

I will do $100.

All right, so the pot will be $500 for me, $500 for PFT, $500 from Brandon, $100 from everyone else.

Now wait a minute.

Yeah, all right, I'll accept that deal. Deal.

Yeah, as much fucking money as you make.

Who, you?

I don't make money, I lose money.

Shit. What about What about— well, no, you know what, Jerry, instead of $100, you got to put up 1% of Bush.

He's got 1-0. You got to give up 1% of your zero.

What about 1% of your future stakes in Bush? Any stake in Bush that you might—

I don't think I'll ever get any stake in.

I want, I want 1% in the pot. I mean, 1% is worth nothing right now, but just to say it, say it, 1% is in the—

I can't, I can't say I got nothing.

I can't say it.

1% of Bush.

Bush.

Fine, done.

All right, deal. 1% of Bush is for the winner.

Wow, we need to make an exception here. Oh, Sal Stewart has played at time of taping 7 games at second.

Oh no, but that's fine.

Is Zach's pick?

Yeah, we said that last year and Zach almost won.

Yeah, that's true.

He did.

True.

So tough list.

I feel great about my guys this year.

Yeah, I mean, Vinny—

yeah, he— I don't— yeah, I feel good about the guys. Yeah, I was looking at the wrong stat for a couple of picks, but I— but we pivoted and we're good.

What was that you were looking at?

I was looking at hits, not home runs.

Hits only would be a good league.

It's only— I don't— I don't hate maybe think of hits only next year.

Walks only. Oh, that would be great.

Just good eye.

I think— I think if Brandon wins this year, we should next year change it to the Brandon Walker walks only league. Yeah, I'm down with that.

Yeah.

If he wins, we are— we're officially doing walks only.

3 in a row, we got to do something.

Yeah, we got to have some kind of party.

The pot's $2K.

Yeah, and 1% of that could be hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Yeah.

Any thought to like a most correct ABS calls incentive at the end?

Oh, oh, who get— who has like the highest percentage?

Oh, an ABS only league would be good. That would be a lot.

That would suck.

That would suck.

Who overturns the most calls?

Yeah.

No, we draft umps.

That's what I'm saying.

Yeah.

Who gets the most? Who gets the most overturned on them?

Yeah.

Yeah. All right.

Good job, boys. Dingers only. Complete. Let's, let's get out there and hit some home runs. Okay. Numbers.

77, 50, 26, 95, 7, 31, 69, 90.

8.

Mm.

Is it?

I just said—

Colton's saying that's 31.

67.

Oh, so close to 69.

7.

All right, love you guys.

Happy birthday, Tate McRae.

Shut the fuck up. Happy birthday to America.