Transcript of Hour 2: Dan Le Batard > Moo Deng

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New York, New York. This is the Dan Levatore show with the Stugats podcast. Chris, we've stepped in it again with your father. He's legitimately mad. He didn't like that he was being serious, and we clipped him with the hard Hard Network out. We're getting to Ron McGill in a second. But go ahead, Greg, continue what it is that you were saying with the safety of knowing you're not going to get Hard Network out again.

Yeah, no, I'm not going to do that. It's so facetious and hitting the wrong note with me when you guys say, We got them again. We apologize. Oh, it's never going to happen again. It's ridiculous. We'll do it next week. I could go on and on about why it's getting very tiresome to me.

You sound emotional.

Well, it's disrespectful.

It's super disrespectful. I literally can't win because I'm looking at the clock and I'm timing what I'm saying to be done before the clock expires.

You're always winning. Just know that.

Yeah, but he's doing what we've told him to do when he's still getting clipped. That's what he's upset about.

Yeah, and it doesn't feel like a win to me. Believe me.

It's a tough club to be a part of, isn't it?

It is sometimes.

My favorite thing is when you're set up on this show to look bad, and then afterwards everyone tells you, That was a win.

Yeah, okay.

Classic Levitard show. Team Greg. Team Greg. Team Greg. Team Greg.

Team Greg. He's not buying it, guys.

I mean, Dan's very sorry. It happened until the next time, and then he'll be sorry again.

I wasn't sorry that time, actually. I wasn't in any way sorry that time. In fact, Chris asked me that time, nor did I apologize to you during the break. I told you what happened during the break, which is your son said to me, Should I? And I initially said, No, don't. And then I'm like, Yeah, go ahead. And so I wasn't sorry in any way about that time. And I didn't apologize to you that time. I often apologize to you, and you always went around here. You're our most popular creature.

I told them both not to do it for what it's worth, Greg.

This is the other thing that happened during the break that I was laughing about, that Stugatz throughout the entirety of the break, as your father is steaming, Stugatz is like, I told them both not to do that when he didn't say such a word. Not a syllabus, just a straight lie in your father's face.

He said it in my ear, actually.

Oh, wrong button. Sorry.

You gave me the opposite. You gave me the look of like, Oh, we're close to the hard network out.

I did no such thing.

Oh, that's funny.

That Joe Burrow is always funny.

The total insincerity of Stugatz is what's funny. We're going to get to Ron McGill in a second, but let's play the Stat of the Day music real quick, please. Start of the day, start of the day.

In this year, start of the day.

In the NFL in quarterback rating with a rating of 113.6. He trails only Joe Flacko.

That's pretty good. I've got one here from Benjamin Jermann Solak. Since the start of the 2021 season, you've got one team that is first in points per drive on defense, first in EPA per play on defense, and third in success rate on defense. That is Robert Salas, New York Jets. Really great at defense, can't solve their quarterback problem.

They're not Salas anymore.

That is correct.

Rfk Jr is now the interim head coach.

Can you guys get for please, that photo that I put in the slack of RFK Jr? I want to put it on the screen, and I want to ask a question whenever it is that you get that RFK photo. But Ron McGill is joining us now. I don't know, Ron, if you are making any preparations for what it is that's happening in South Florida with this storm. You're certainly a veteran of many of them. Can you tell us where it is that you are on everything that's happening presently with the weather in South Florida and what's approaching?

Yeah, well, we're closed. We're closed today. We'll be closed tomorrow. Bottom line is several groups of animals can't go out on the habitat simply because the water level is so high that the motes have risen. Theoretically, you let a lion out, it could swim across and get out. So a lot of those animals are going to be maintained within their night enclosures until this water, at the very least, recedes. With that said, we're hoping that we get nothing more than more rain and a little bit of wind. Certainly not what the people are dreading in the central, western part of the state. I feel for them, having been through Andrew myself, having been through Wilma and Irma, some serious storms that we've had the effect down here. I know what that's like. Just watching the images of people trying to get gas, getting the sandbags, evacuating. To me, it's a PSD thing. And having it come within two weeks of Helene, where people still have nothing but trash loaded up in front of their homes, unless it's picked up, it's going to become another added projectile, another added headache. Man, it's a nightmare. It's a nightmare.

Just to pivot slightly, Ron, I'm shocked because apparently we haven't talked about Mu Deng, the Mini Hippo, with you yet. This was a Internet phenomenon over the past month. This mini hippo that lives in Thailand, I believe. He was very tiny and shiny and wet-looking and very cute. There's lots of videos of him eating and enjoying water. They parodied him on and SNL the other night. What can you tell us about this little mini hippo and why he's taken the world by storm?

Well, first of all, he's not a mini hippo. He's a pygmy hippo, which is exactly what Dan Levatard is here at the zoo. When Dan Levitard was born here at the zoo, I I want you to say he was just as cute, if not cuter. Dan Levatard is just... But we didn't basically whore him out like what they're doing with Moudang. We gave him a little bit more respect. In today's world of social media, it's just a matter of getting all these images. So they try to get all these images of them fondling and messing with the Pygmy Hippo baby. Granted, it's gotten a lot of attention and become an Internet sensation. But at the end of the day, it's a pygmy hippo. It's a baby. It's cute like all pygmy hippos are. I venture to say, like I said, Dan was as cute or cuter when he was born out here and still thriving, even though he's not quite as cute anymore. Just a lot fatter.

So is the zoo that is, in your words, whoring out Moudang. Should we be canceling them? Are they acting unethically?

No, I don't mean it that way. I'm just saying that what we try to do is rather than take Dan Lebitard and handle him all the time and do all these things, we want Dan Lebitard to be with his natural mother out there on the habitat so he can learn to be a pygmy hippo and not be an Internet model. Anybody who knows Dan knows that Dan does not like that attention. So we try to respect that, appreciate his cuteness from a distance. But it is a pygmy hippo. It's not a mini hippo. I've heard that over several platforms now. Oh, it's this mini hippo. You have a mini schnauzer or a mini Datsun or some weird little breed. It's not. It's this actual different species that's smaller than the average, than the normal river hippo. It is a protected species, and it is a unique, beautiful animal. Listen, there are people who say we're going to miss the boat because we didn't get all this free publicity and such. But we're not going to take an animal away from its mother and handle it and do all kinds of things like that simply to get a bunch of clicks.

We want the animal to grow up to learn how to be a pygmy hippo, so we left him with his mother. We didn't do a lot of that handling on purpose so that he grew to be the pygmy hippo he's supposed to be.

I should explain to new members of the audience that as soon as we left the ESPN, because the ESPN would not allow us to name a hippo at the zoo, Dan Lebitard, because they were afraid of a hippo escaping, trampling people. And then the headlines, Disney's Dan Lebitard kills innocent people, that when we left the ESPN, the first thing we did was go to the zoo, give a donation, and get a Pygmy Hippo that was in my name. Jessica, forgive me for interrupting you. I think there was a little bit of context that was required there for new listeners.

Good context, Dan. That's also helpful to explain, because last week when we were talking about potentially casting a show or a movie about this show, I was going to make the joke that young Dan Levatard should be played by Moudang, but it's more appropriate to just say young Dan Levatard played by Dan Levatard at the Miami Zoo, Ron. Is a mini hippo an actual thing? I know you said they're different species, but- It's a pygmy hippo. There is no such thing as a mini hippo.

No such thing as a mini hippo. No such thing.

Let me go to some video here of a lion, I think, walking through the streets of Rome. I want to get Ron McGill's analysis here of what's happening in this video. Ron, what's the context that you can give us here?

Well, certainly not normal. Not something that I would be very comfortable about.

Terrifying. It looks like just a normal neighborhood, and it's just a freaking lion just walking around.

Yeah, that's a very big adult male lion that certainly has the potential to do a lot of damage.

What do you do if you come across that on my street? Hey, Hey, Lion.

Well, certainly You don't run because you don't have a chance running. And once you turn your back and run, that's going to certainly incite that lion to chase you. I would certainly put my hands up and I try to back up slowly, but never take my face and my hand, my frontal view of that lion. Make sure he always sees your face, sees you as big as you can, slowly back up, speaking firmly like, Hey, go away, lion. Hey, lion. That thing.

Do not try to run. What about hissing?

You can try that, Chris. I don't know how far that's going to get you. You got that, but that is- That's scary.

It is. That's legitimately scary.

It's us, though, not a lion.

I know, but I am scared of that. I think that works. It's unpredictable.

That would get eaten.

Could also buy the pride of a lion book if you wanted to.

Good plug there. Great. Great to go.

Thank you. That's Chris.

How does this happen, Ron? Do you have any theories on how it is that a lion could be fouling the streets of Rome that way?

There's probably a traveling circus going through and not having the proper containment. A lot of these areas that don't have the laws and restrictions that we have here in this country, even though even with the laws and restrictions we have here in this country, we've had incidents where we've had tigers walking around Florida. So who the heck knows? But generally speaking, these are usually traveling acts as they're going from one city to another, and an animal escapes because they just don't have the proper containment. On a rarer note, I don't know how it is in Rome, but here in Florida, a lot of these people have these animals that has pets, which is another flippin disaster.

So the Jets just fired their coach, and I've been wondering, what is the head zookeeper? What does a zookeeper have to do to get canned? How does that work?

He's not the head zookeeper. He's not the head. He's demeaning. It is demeaning. He's not the head zookeeper.

I don't mean to demean you, Ron.

No, no, no. I mean, for me to get canned- No, no, not you, Ron.

Someone under you.

Listen, for anybody working with animals to get at the zoo, you'd have to do something that's actually grossly irresponsible, letting an animal out where it presented a danger to the public, giving the animal something that led to its severe illness or demise, not properly caring for an animal, not securing certain locks, certain areas. And even in that, there's a system of discipline that goes through the zoo here where you have a verbal discipline, then you have a written discipline, then you have a disciplinary action, then you have a suspension, and then you can. So it's not one of these things, unless you go out with a gun and start shooting things, that it's going to be an instant canning.

So it's not like sports?

Not like sports. No, not like sports. But of course, we're not making that money either.

Ron, I've mentioned before the pond in my backyard There are lots of ducks in this backyard, lots of duck families that have been raised. And about a week ago, there were some workers that were sent to our backyard, seemingly. They had a miniature boat in which they were corralling all of these ducks and then picking them up by their feet and walking them out of the neighborhood for us to not be able to see where they were going. My question to you is, should I believe that these ducks were being relocated or something much worse? Because it was pretty scarring to watch, honestly.

Yeah. My suspicion is that they were probably Muscovy ducks, a non-native species, and probably people were complaining about the ducks, and those ducks would more likely than not being euthanized. I mean, it's always possible they could have been relocated, but I don't know where they relocate them to because they're a non-native species, and most people don't want them in their yard anyway. They produce tremendous amounts of fecal material. They are not generally liked by a lot of the people where they're found. If they're corralling them up, it's usually a company, an organization that is specifically contracted to eliminate those ducks.

Ron, always good seeing you. I will tell the audience again that Ron McGill, there is no bureaucracy between him and helping the animals. It is just him, and he is a caring individual who does the right things. And he's not a zookeeper. He is not a zookeeper.

I'm very proud to be known as a zookeeper. I was a zookeeper for many years.

Okay, but you're not a zookeeper now, and it's the most Samson question possible to get into the zoo segment by asking how a zookeeper would be canned. Thank you for being on with us, Ron. His favorite topic. I will tell the audience again that if you wish to care for the animals in a way that will take the maximum advantage of your money and use it most efficiently, the Ron McGill Substantive Endowment is the correct way to donate if you want to care for the animals. Thank you, Ron. Appreciate it, guys.

Stay safe.

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Don Levatard.

The elephant went into a 711 and bought a pack of cigarettes. But my question to Ron is this.

Stugatz. That joke didn't really land the way you wanted it to. We all just stared at you.

It didn't land at all.

This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugatz. You have got Still a seething Greg Cody here that I'm going to try to cheer up by telling everybody that the Greg Cody Show featuring Greg Cody is a podcast that you should listen to because it is entertaining and it is always climbing up the charts because what Greg Cody does with that podcast has been a career rejuvenation. Many people listen to it. What is on this week's Greg Cody Show featuring Greg Cody?

Actually, we have our mutual friend Izzy Gutieras on with us, and he He shocked me by revealing something very personal in his life, and it's worth listening to.

What was it?

Well, I'm going to tell you, but then tell you why you need to listen.

No, don't tell us, Greg.

Don't listen to the podcast. No need to tell us. That's fine. That's a good promotion of the podcast. Greg Cody also, by the way, is saying something, David, that I wanted to get into with you because he does not want a Dodgers-Yankees World Series, which is something that I'm assuming baseball wants. I would I think that baseball would think it catastrophic if it were anyone other than Dodgers-Yankees.

That's Yankees. I think Major League Base would be okay with that.

I think they'd prefer Dodgers-Yankees.

A little nugget for you is that baseball hated the subway series because it shuts out the entire central and west part of the country. So they're not rooting for that.

Ohtani is the biggest thing in baseball this season, right? If you have the New York and LA markets and O'Tani Tani versus Judge, it doesn't get any better than that. But you don't want it. In terms of TV-rate. Oh, I do want it. Are you kidding me?

Okay, I misrepresented what it is that I thought you were saying. Bad set up. Yeah, bad set up.

Yeah, check the show notes. No, I said that if you're a TV, if you're Fox, you are openly cheering in the studio to get a Dodgers-Yankees World Series.

David, I have a question, though, because this is interesting. If Major League Base could only have one team, would it be the Dodgers or the Yankees?

Dodgers, Ohtani.

Really? Ohtani is bigger than the biggest brand in the sport, the Yankees.

Ohtani is not bigger than the brand of the Yankees, but right now, it's his first year in the postseason, and they want to get him all the way through, just get him to the World Series. Him being eliminated by the Padres, which is a very likely outcome because the Padres are a better team, it's not ideal. But yes, Yankees, Dodgers would be the number one that they're rooting for.

I don't think they're a better team, David. I think they're a healthier team. I think that their record over the course of the regular season doesn't make them a better team. But because Freeman is hurt and Betts isn't quite right, I think you can make the argument that they're better now because they're healthier.

The starting rotation for the Dodgers is definitely hurt, but every team is hurt. I'm talking about not the regular season, though. In the postseason, you talk about who's better now.

But the way that you measure who's better is over the representative sample size of 162 games, is it not?

Not in October.

And health is a huge part of that, right? The Dodgers rotation is decimated. So whatever hope they had of staying in games with the Dodgers, or with the Padres, The Padres hit six home runs in the last game they played, and it's only getting worse to the point where Dave Roberts didn't rule out the idea of Shoheya O'Tani pitching at some point in the postseason, which won't happen, but is an insane thing to not rule because of how desperate you are for pitching.

What did you guys make of Dave Roberts sending video to the league offices of Manny Machado? Grainy video from a camera that was far away of Padres' third basement, Manny Machado throwing a ball toward the Dodger dugout in a way that didn't seem especially violent, but still necessitated a report from Dave Roberts.

Mlb will get that. It'll be Mike Hill, and he'll get that, and he'll do what MLB used to do when I would stand up and yell, We will not be contracted, and they would just ignore it completely. So that video is ridiculous. Dave Roberts was not being thrown at by Machado. If Machado wanted to hit him, Machado could have hit him right between the eyes. So that was just what players do all the time between innings. They throw the ball.

But Dave Roberts said he was unsettled by it.

That's how you get fired.

I can't believe we're talking about baseball, and we haven't gotten to the craziest thing that happened yesterday. Emmanuel Clasey gave up Finally, Chris. Thank you. The tigers. This is one of the best postseason at Bats that you can ever see, given the circumstances, with Kerry Carpenter going yard against Emmanuel Clasey. So Class A had given up five runs all season. He was the best closer in baseball.

By far, the best closer in baseball in years.

His stats over his first four seasons are comparable to Mariano Rivera. That's how great he's been in the regular season. He comes into this game in a zero-zero ball game in the ninth. With two outs, two strikes, Kerry Carpenter up to bat, battling off a couple of sliders already. Class A throws the third slider in a row, Only the second time all season, he's thrown three straight sliders in an at bat. This is a guy who had the MLB best opponents OPS against left-handed hitters in the history of baseball. In the history of baseball, facing at least 100 left-handed hitters in a season, the OPS was under 300. And Kerry Carpenter, who had the fifth best OPS in baseball against right-handed hitters, goes yard for a three-run home run. There are so many more stats that are available on this, but the big one, when we were talking about big home runs last week and everybody said, Oh, be Kirk Gibson. This was Kirk Gibson. It's the first MLB player to hit a two-out, two-strike go-ahead homer in the ninth ending of a postseason game since game one of the 1988 World Series.

You It can't be Kirk Gibson in the division series.

In terms of the moment- No, you can't. David, it's October.

It also cannot be one of the biggest, all-time greatest at bats in a series that includes the guardians and the tigers. I mean, it cannot be.

The tigers are having one of the- I don't care. More historic runs of any- No.

Great at bats happen for the Dodgers. They happen for the Yankees. They happen for teams that people care about.

Can I try to give you some stats that might make you care about this at bat? Sure.

I will just say, okay, Mason for the A's, throws 104 miles an hour, and he is not close to being the reliever that this human being is. There is nothing in the sport more unhittable than this guy in the late innings. In the regular season.

Well, that's the whole thing. He was spectacular all year. Carpenter, this is the first home run by a left-handed hitter against Emmanuel Class A all season. It's the hardest hit ball against Class A of his entire career. It was at 110 miles an hour off the bat. It's the first three-run homer he'd ever given up in his entire career. Again, he had only allowed three runs in his previous 44 and two-thirds innings pitched. Five earned runs in 270 plate appearances in the regular season, three in seven plate appearances now.

It hurts me for you that no one cares what you're talking about in here. You guys are all just looking around.

Nobody even cares at all.

Jeremy Class A, we've been listening the whole time.

I hate that you are this enthusiastic and you're met everywhere by yauning indifference with this guy. Unless it's a Yankee, he doesn't care. A met. A Yankee or a Met, he doesn't care at all.

Maybe a Dodger, maybe a Philly.

Anybody who plays for Cleveland and Detroit is irrelevant to him. He doesn't even care about the Mets, actually.

That's not true. Can I give you a name? Can I give you a name that maybe helps here? Because this is the third player in Tiger's history with a go-ahead homer in the ninth evening or later of a playoff game, joining Maglio Ordonias and Al Calin.

How are you talking?

Did I get you back?

Al Calin. All right. That's when the tigers were the Tiger.

We did it.

Calin. Come on.

That's when the tigers meant something.

A battery.

He needs something right now.

I hate that we become your great grandfathers show. God, I hate it so much.

One of the greats.

He was no yes, but still.

You're right. He was no yes. You're right.

Instead of just asking through social media to go to Detroit, can you submit some budget of what it would require for you to go to Detroit?

A a plane ticket because I imagine the dozens of Tiger's fans that have reached out asking for me to be in Detroit this week.

You're going to do it for him, Samson. You're going to pay his way. You're saying you're in.

I will do a flight for him to go to Detroit. You just said in there.

I guess he'll let me stay there. I guess he'll let me stay. I just figured I'd bring my wife. I don't want her to have to stay in a random place.

It's a work trip. That's not the way you negotiate. Jeremy, he asked you a question. Jeremy, he asked you what it would take.

I should have started higher.

Yes, real amateur negotiation negotiation. Do me a favor while you're at this, please. Do me a favor. Look up for me whether Al Kaelin was better than yes, because I think he was.

No way. There is no way, Dan. No.

I mean, are you kidding?

A hundred % Al Kaelin?

No. I'm pretty sure-Do it in Boston. Yeah, there it is. The bias of you have to do it for four or five teams or Stugats will simply not respect it. But I'm pretty sure Al Kaelin was more of a Hall of Famer than Carl Yustremski was.

Says nobody in the history of baseball.

I was ready to help Jeremy. You wonder how easy it is to outnegotiate people. Can you imagine the idiocy? I need a plane ticket. Okay? That's what you'll get.

I mean, it does help.

A plane ticket would help me be there. He agreed to terms. He was going to buy you a plane ticket. It was done. Then you started negotiating on wife and home and lodging and food. He asked you what you wanted. All you had to do was it correctly when he asked you. He was going to say yes. He was ready to fly you there, and then you started negotiating for distant family members.

Well, my wife is not a distant family member.

You were about to go to other family members if your wife, too.

Well, I went up to UCF and created content with my brother using an iPhone, so I'm able to do this without much help from anybody else in our staff.

All I need is- So your wife doesn't have to go then.

She could have had the iPhone for me. Somebody needs to film, Dan, and we're not going to send another person from our crew. There's a hurricane coming.

Okay, I'm I'm pretty much done with you yelling at me. It started with just getting to be happy about this.

Tiger. Minor penalty, two minutes, asshole.

Multiple people walked up to me at the end of the day and said, We don't like the way the show treats.

In line. Yeah, I've always had more homers.

By the way, I've texted Tim Kurchin, so we'll have an answer on this soon.

Well, you can just look it up on the internet.

No, that's how you do it. You ask Tim, who's better, Calin or Yas, and whatever his answer is, that's the winner. That's a gas.

Where's the Look at me, Louis Button?

What'd you say? I missed it.

I just texted Kurchin.

Look at me, Louis.

That is cool.

I would accept Kurchin's answer unless he says Calin.

Again, you can just use the internet. You don't even have to learn You don't need anything anymore. You just have to know how to find it. It's not really that hard. Or you can do it even lazier than that and text him, Kurchin.

We're just going to put into Google who's better, and we're going to just get a one-word answer?

No, you can just look at the numbers and read basic math. I did. I told you, more homework for yes. You gave me more homers.

That wins, I mean.

David, you're a baseball man. Do you have an opinion on K-Line versus Yaz?

He already told you that Al K-Line was better than Yaz.

Two and a half minutes ago.

On what basis?

All of the bases that are run-around.

Absolutely anecdotally. Okay.

Let's go ahead and do against the spread, please.

I text passin.

I text Shams. Oh, wow.

Button bar is not working. It wasn't me. It's time for Against the Spread.

We're in a contract here. This is a sponsored segment by DraftKings. You are doing it that way in a contract here.

Jess, give me a background music.

We're about to ask for millions of dollars from DraftKings.

Against the Spread is sponsored by DraftKings. Stay tuned because you'll hear about all that DraftKings has to offer throughout the show. Draftkings, the Crown is yours. David, start us off.

Can we try the music one more time if we're going to do this? Is there any way to get the button to work?

She's doing fine. She's doing better than the-Are you going to do it in the background?

That's fine. Kayline had a higher OPS.

Against the Spread. Tonight, we've got a major Game 3, Philly's Mets. Let's just say that the Philly's held Aaron Nola to pitch in Game 3. Whoever wins game 3 of a five-game series will win that series, blank percentage of the time. Fill in the blank. Aaron Nola and the Philly's over the Mets.

Against the Sprade.

What is the percentage of time? Is it like 78% of the time or something absurd like that?

I'll just need someone in my ear.

Okay. We don't know what the number is, but that is good sponsored content where we don't have any information or music, but we're going to give you betting information that you probably shouldn't take. Jessica, what do you have?

Purdue and Illinois, Dan. A couple of Big Ten teams playing this weekend. Illinois is pretty good. I think they're still ranked 24th right now. Good offense. Luke Altmaier playing quarterback. Defense is really solid. Purdue is one of the worst football teams I've ever seen in my entire life. And somehow the spread is only 19. So I'm taking Illinois to cover that.

Against the spread.

Against the spread.

Jeremy, bring us home. Sometimes you don't bet on a team, you bet against the team. And that's what I've been doing with Purdue all year. You're right. They are terrible.

It's honestly, it's sad. And I think they need to light the giant drum on fire and perform an exorcism on it to come back and win a game.

Notre Dame beat them after losing to Northern Illinois, something like 70 to seven or something crazy. 66 to seven.

I have an update from Passing. He said, Holy bleep, that's a tough one.

Thank you for that expertise.

He'll get back to me.

Text Shams.

I will. I'm looking at the numbers. It may be a dead heat.

It's pretty close.

It's really Yeah, that's why Passing said it's a tough one.

That's why you can't just look at the stats, Dano.

Yaz wants seven gold gloves. I don't know about the battery.

How many World Series for Yaz?

He was in one World Series, I believe. Did he win one?

I don't think he won a one.

How about Calin?

Played for the Red Sox. Kaelin has a Championship.

He does.

Not great.

So does Trent Dilfer.

Okay, very good. Different sport.

Good reference. The Championship ring has been demerited over the years, and you know it.

Kayline has 10 goal gloves.

Ten goal gloves? I think Yazz I just had 11. I misspoke.

Seven.

Hey, so baseball? We're going to keep going with that. Padres, Dodgers. We're already talking about that series. Michael King is on the mound for the Padres. Walker Buhler is on the mound for the Dodgers. They have had slightly different seasons. Walker Buhler has been really bad despite being part of that 2014 Vanderbilt National Championship team in the College World Series. So you have Michael King on the mound. Padres are minus one and a half at home. We're taking the Padres. Again, To win by more than a run.

You have them winning by more than a run. By more than one and a half.

I have an update from Passon. He said, Yas' peak was better than Kaeline's peak. Slightly into Yas, 51:49.

Yes. You said you wanted Tim Kurchin's opinion on this. I got Passon's. I'm not a poor man's Tim Kurchin.

No, we love Passon. Passon should have gotten Woja's job, not Shams.

Under what scenario?

He likes Yas better.

I mean, you don't got to do anything else for me. Passon also pointed out that Yas wanted MVP and a Triple Crown.

Thank you. Triple Crown. Yeah. Triple Crown, which went about 60 years without being won before Miguel did it.

Let's talk for a second here about what happened with Shams because I talked about this a little bit with David on Nothing Personal. I will be on with David on Nothing Personal, 8:00 AM Eastern on YouTube every day this week, except for Friday. It's time to review the top three highlights of the day.

I'm joined, as always, by my co-anchor, Snoop. Hey, what up, though? Snoop number one has to be getting the new iPhone 16 Pro with Apple intelligence at T-Mobile.

Yeah, you should hustle down at T-Mobile like a dog chasing a squirrel chasing a nut. Nice analogy, Snoop. Dogs do love to chase squirrels.

And squirrels love to chase those nuts.

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That is very impressive.

You know, you all can take some of those savings and buy some Snoop merchandise.

That's exactly what I'm planning on doing with my saving, Snoop.

Now, take it away, Snoop.

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Apple intelligence coming fall 2024.

Don Libtard. You don't remember the idea for a home run call?

I was probably like, That Kind of Thing.

Something? Okay, no. The home run call was, That Kind of Swing, That Kind of Thing.

Stugatz.

Oh, it's a good call. Thank you. And plus, it doesn't matter who's hitting it. You're not tailing it to a particular name. Correct. All that jazz. You don't got to do that. That would be a great call. Up, up, and away. That Kind of Swing, That Kind of Thing.

This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugatz. One of the things that we were talking about, this is the smaller, petty part of this. For those of you who know that Woj and Shams were once pupil and mentor, and then became bitter rivals. And if you know the inner workings of the information business and this fight for millions and tens of millions of dollars in the information business. And if you've been listening to this show, you know that Woj was very proprietary about how he was a power broker at ESPN, where it is that he allowed people that he got along with to appear on ESPN or not appear on ESPN, and his rivalry with Shams became a bitter one because Shams became the only person on Earth who could do that job as well as Woj was doing it. Learned at Woj's knee, and I think he's still in his 20s, if I'm not mistaken. He may be in his early 30s, but he is a real prodigy in this business to be able to do what Woj was doing with a lifetime of basketball sources and did it differently because he had a lot of players as sources.

It wasn't just management, it wasn't just agents. He was doing the job differently. Pat McAfee had Shams on all the time, and Shams was the only person at ESPN working anywhere in basketball on ESPN who was allowed to appear on any show that Woj didn't approve of as a basketball voice because he was doing it through McAfee, and it would appear that McAfee enjoyed doing that with Shams to Woj. I thought it was very strategic if you're doing the petty stuff on this that so many people enjoy, that Woj goes on Jim Rome's show yesterday to talk about proud and happy he is that Shams has that job, when I thought that the only reason Jeff Passant was being considered for that job is because Woj wanted one of his guys to work at ESPN, even if he didn't have any basketball source which Jeff Passant does not. Even if we've already seen, Adam Schefter went into the basketball information business, Stugatz, and didn't do it well because you cannot just go from one sport to another without a lifetime of sources and be breaking news all over the place. They're very difficult jobs to do well and have.

Shams is legitimately the only person on Earth with the credentials, the reputation, and the sources to be able to do that job as well as Woj did. I found it surprising that the money hasn't come out on what it is that Shams is earning because these are jobs that now make between $7,000, $10,000, and $11 million a year because the information business is so valued by a company at ESPN that has downgraded how it does and spends on journalism, but not on this information. On this information, they're replacing the journalism they used to do that was more comprehensive and thorough with just get to information first with one of the insiders.

Well, we saw what happened live on the show today when there was a story breaking about Sola being fired. We had an insider react to not being the insider for that story. And what struck me about this entire situation with Shams and with Woj is, how does it work when you're negotiating? If you don't have any of the sources that you need to have, is it that you don't need the sources anymore? Because as a front office, we would give the information to whoever we wanted to. We would choose in Baseball Insider nationally to give certain things to, much to the chagrin of local media. But we would do that, build because we would want something back. You don't just exchange little black books. So I don't know how Jeff Passon or anyone else would have done that job.

It is interesting. I always thought that Shams was the natural replacement to Woj because he already has those contacts. He doesn't have to ask Woj for them. He doesn't just have the contact. It's not like... Because you're right, I think with Passing, you're handing him the contact list, but he still has to develop the relationships. Shams already has the relationships and he has the numbers. For me, that was the natural guy, a younger Woja.

A contact list doesn't help you here. That's not how you do that job. Just having the phone numbers Woj has.

To give the audience an idea just how much money these jobs pay, Woj left over $30 million on the table when he left. I mean…

Is it possible the whole beef was just KFabe? Set up this grand dramatic succession plan?

It's as possible as Aaron Rodgers ousting Robert Salah because of the in-flight choices on movies.

I was kidding, but I think both those things could be true. I mean, who wants to watch McGroover for a 14th time, Dan?

Right. Rang true to me.

Thank you. Yeah.

Do you have any information or opinions on this subject?

I have a question for you because listening to you talk, this led me to wonder, do you think that Woj would have retired abrupt and surprisingly to many, if not for Shams on his tail?

I believe that the pressure of that job was only that pressurized for Woj because of the existence of Shams. There's no third... Chris Haynes is good, and there are a number of people who are good at it. There was no one and is no one that compares to those two. The Bronze medalist there is a distant third.

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