Transcript of Pablo Torre Finds Out Has WON THE PULITZER PRIZE | Local Hour New

This is the Dan Levator Show with the Stugatz Podcast.

Greg, have you seen this week's episode of Euphoria yet?

No, I do not watch that, uh, episode, that show.

I haven't seen it yet either. Yeah, we got big news today, very big news. Who would have seen it coming? That's right, a Pulitzer! A Pulitzer Prize!

Pew?

A Pulitzer Prize for Pablo Torre Finds Out! That's right, everybody give it up for Pablo!

Don't be shy!

Come on now! The whole team!

Amin!

Amin!

An entire staff! He won a Pulitzer Prize! That guy behind me too. The team of producers and Dan Le Batard who made a big bet on Pablo Torre Finds Out. It was great to see.

The George Soros of sports journalism.

So Amin, Amin, can you tell us how all of this Like, how did it go down as far as your crew there at Pablo Torre Finds Out finding out that you guys have won? This is an incredibly prestigious award.

Yeah, so it's weird. I got a call from Pablo. He said, "Hold on, let me get Samson on the line." And so immediately I'm thinking—

You're about to be sued.

Well, at the— When I see a call coming in from Pablo, I'm like, "All right, here we go." Like, I was supposed to do an appearance, like, now they canceled it or something like that. All right, whatever. Then he said, "Hold on, let me get Samson on the line." I'm like, "Oh, maybe we are gonna do another episode and this is the setup of guys we wanna see," you know, whatever. It's out of the ordinary for this to happen, but you know, whatever. So he says, "Well, so we just won a Pulitzer." And I said, "Wow, we won the sports Pulitzer, huh? That's crazy, kinda like a sports Emmy. That's awesome." And he's like, "There's no sports Pulitzer." I said, "Well then what did we win?" "We won the Pulitzer." And so I said, okay, well, well then put this in context for me. He's like, okay, last year's winner was about conflict in the Middle East. I'm like, oh. And then after I got off the phone, I looked—

Well, that's all taken care of.

Yeah, I looked it up after I got off the phone and I looked up who the other nominees were. And one was a story about a fatal shooting with no prosecution and about stand-your-ground laws. Important. Done by the Wall Street Journal.

Yep.

The Wall Street Journal. And then the other one was by the New York Times about like transgender youth and medicine and the use of medicine in that and like policies around that. And I said, these are two massive stories that every American has a feeling or an opinion about, but neither of them have to do with the salary cap. I thought that basketball fans didn't care about our story. Like, it, it's just insane. And so there's a level of I'm, I'm not—

you're very taken aback.

I am taken aback because I know there are people who work very hard their entire lives to win something like this. And I just hung out with Sampson and Pablo and, and just explained some salary cap stuff and made some jokes along the way. I wore a Clipper jersey one of those times. And now I'm in the same list as like Ernest Hemingway and Harper Lee.

You are. And again, let's give it up for Amin and the crew there. How about that?

I, I do have some actual like outside of celebrating, which is a monumental achievement for all those involved, including Metal Ark Media. Hooray for us. There is still the pressing issue of this actually still being a sports story with an investigation pending. And I'm curious if you think that the developments yesterday with a journalism award being bestowed upon this story— what does this mean for the NBA? What does this mean for Kawhi? What does it mean for Steve Ballmer? What does it mean for Mark Cuban, who had a million "well, actually"s along the way, you can't really question the journalism anymore since it won this prestigious award.

So we are going to talk to Pablo today. All right, Pablo's gonna check in with us, and obviously that, that right there is like at the forefront of my questions. You know, one of the things that I thought originally when I heard this yesterday was, okay, all those people, guys like Steve Ballmer, who were saying Uh, that's— it's just rumors and innuendo coming from some podcast. All right, well, you can't really say it like that anymore.

If you're Adam Silver, you can no longer afford to do nothing and hope it goes away.

It—

because this— the Pulitzer Prize, and it's Pulitzer, not Pulitzer, but, you know, I don't want to dig—

we're talking to—

the prize gives it legs. It, it's, it's a story now that, that's going to live through the, through the Pulitzer Prize, right?

I'm wondering, because I always just assumed because of some of the episodes. I mean, I were talking like one of the episodes you found out that the investigators hadn't even asked questions about Steve Ballmer, and you just kind of thought that it would go the way that society is going recently, which is, hey, no one cares about your journalism stuff. So what, what is the NBA investigation going to yield? Fewer results than Pablo Torre, and we're just supposed to believe the NBA? The NBA is going to say like there was nothing here? But the most prestigious award in journalism decided to give one to Pablo Torre Finds Out for the very same research?

I think that you touch on something, Mike, that is vaguely to me disconcerting about all this. Were it not for Pablo Torre or someone else taking on this investigation, it just— it doesn't happen. We don't learn the truth. It's a weird direction, legitimately. I know this is an old conversation, a decade old at this point, about questioning the veracity of shared fact, but it really is kind of disconcerting, right, that we just back off of what is— what is going to get audience determines sometimes whether or not there's an investigation of it. NBA fans don't want to hear this kind of stuff.

Yeah, it's weird because there, there is a subset of fans who are like, why are you making problems? And I'm not even talking about Clipper fans, just people, especially in this era where—

I don't understand that.

No one likes a snitch.

That like it's— yeah, they're trying, they're trying to apply that kind of logic to like, why are you snitching? And I'm like, do you understand how the world works or whatever? Or you have other people who are like, oh, if Kawhi figured out a way to make more money, why are you hating on it?

That's not what it's about, right?

Pocket watching is another one that's, that's levied out there. But the reality is this sport is being played under a certain set of rules. And if you subvert those rules in order to get ahead. Even if it didn't work, the intention was to get ahead, right? It didn't work. Clippers didn't win a championship, but they got a player by basically promising him, we'll get you many more millions of dollars than what is legally allowed to be paid to you from any source, right? So you start with that, but then the owner is involved in this. And this is a— from the very beginning, I understood what the conflict was, which is If this were the Knicks and it was Jim Dolan, everyone would be doing the people's elbow. Like, we'd all like gang up because people don't like him, because people don't like him, right? And he does a lot of unlikable things. Check out the Pablo Torre Finds Out episode about surveillance and facial recognition technology that the Knicks are doing, right? But because Steve Ballmer not only is a publicly very well-liked and affable guy, but behind the scenes the other owners like him, The players like him.

He seems like a really good dude who just wants what's best for the sport.

Mm-hmm.

That creates this tension that makes everyone say, "Well, hold on. We don't want to throw Steve in the trash." And we don't, but he needs to be held accountable.

I'd want Steve Ballmer to be my team's owner.

Absolutely.

He funds his own arenas and— Yeah. He really cares about quality.

About the experience, right?

Yes, he doesn't really care about making money, it seems as though, with this venture. He just wants to put a winner out there. That's always what the perception is. And I mean, even still, like, if I were a Clipper fan, while I'd be bummed about this and worried what it means for Kawhi and, and certainly what it might mean for my team draft picks and whatnot, at the end of the day, I'm like, Steve Ballmer, his great sin was trying to improve my team. Now, he circumvented some serious rules in a league that legislates this cap number, but it's kind kind of like the Stephen Ross thing. I'm like, down here people think Stephen Ross is a bad owner, and I'm pointing to all the things like the big thing that he stepped in was he was trying to get Tom Brady. Everybody wants Tom Brady.

And I think the other part of this, and this is where the flip side of that discussion is, which is for the investigation by Wachtell Lipton, who are— they are the premier law firm, right? Like, the NBA, anytime there's any sort of serious investigation, will get Wachtell Lipton in here, right? Their reputations are on the line now because for you to say, hey, we're this very serious, very prestigious firm that does a lot of cases, not just the NBA, and like, obviously this is great publicity for them— hey, we, we investigated the Donald Sterling case, we investigated Robert Sarver and all these things— for it to come out that they didn't ask a single question, like, I don't care Steve Ballmer gets off scot-free. But to say that they didn't even ask the question, the name never came up in your investigations, in your interviews, that sounds like something that is like a, a behavior that's not totally forthright. And so for that to happen, it's like, yo, if you do this, we're— we have the facts, we have the stories, we have the information. We're not waiting on your report. Pablo Torre finds out, has found out.

And so they can't play around with this. And this award, to bring it all back, it, it is an incredible legacy builder for sure. But it's a stamp of approval from the greatest authority. A month ago, I was like, I hope we win a Sports Emmy. And now I'm like, to hell with it, man. Let it— let Ernie Johnson Inside the NBA win a 7 millionth one. They don't have one of these.

Yeah.

So Pablo is going to join us, and I think we all have a lot to to talk with him about, uh, yeah, they won the Pulitzer and, uh, the audio, uh, award for that episode. Uh, audio reporting Pulitzer Prize winning. Did you see this, Greg? You know, F1 was here over the weekend. Really is amazing when you look back at pictures of what that stadium looked like. I don't know, not even that long, 20 years ago. You look what that stadium looked like and now everything going on. Like, remember one year Wayne Huizenga put like— he at least claimed that he put like $400 million into the stadium. It's like, what? What did you do? Yeah, well, where did this money go?

Right. Nice scoreboard.

And you see what Stephen Ross has now done with it. But F1 was here over the weekend. Stephen Ross made this comment to the South Florida Business Journal, quote, Miami is not really in line when they're talking about the Super Bowl. Miami is not really in line. It's always exciting to have the Super Bowl, but that was before we had all these other events. Miami is by far the best weather. It's in their best interest to have one here. But at this point, they don't believe— they being the NFL— we meet all the requirements and the demands. Right.

Is that—

well, I'm not surprised. When you drive by the stadium now, you say to yourself, where's all the— where has all the parking gone? You know, because right now there's so much development there. But Stephen Ross is not going to lose a dime. He's got a gold mine. In the F1 race. He— Stephen Ross makes more money from one F1 Miami Grand Prix race than he does from every Dolphin home game combined.

I believe that. I believe it.

I don't understand that. I mean, I'm an idiot.

It's such a bougie event. I believe that.

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Pablo leads all of podcasting in reading while smiling. If you listen to ESPN Daily, he sounds like he's having the time of his life. Stugatz! Coming up next, I'm gonna tell you how the Savannah Bananas are changing the game.

How do you know I'm smiling?

That's how I find my vocal range. Sometimes I just say, Savannah Bananas! Si bene, bene. Yeah!

This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stugatz.

I hear the argument, and I think they just assume. I keep thinking that there's an angle here. Because Roger Goodell does this a lot. He already did it. Like Cleveland.

They did it here once already.

Cleveland got its new stadium, and Roger's like, "But they don't have the facilities around it." And I keep thinking there's some weird real estate play. Play here because the excuse is they don't have the parking. Bullshit. Like, you're saying that as if I haven't been to other venues that have hosted Super Bowls. I've gone to New Orleans.

Well, and how—

where's the parking in New Orleans?

How are we parking for Dolphin games?

Like SoFi Stadium too in Los Angeles. I almost said Pittsburgh, but yes, LA.

Am I to believe that the permanent structures they built for F1 hospitality are getting in the way of the temporary tents they want to put up for hospitality, and these things cannot be repurposed. It's insane to me. I don't get it. I keep thinking there has to be something here.

Has to be.

Well, if a man— if I got some of the parcels of real estate around here and can develop some hotels outside of El Palacio, maybe we can bring the Super Bowl back here. It's bonkers.

Also though, this quote from Stephen Ross, he kinda makes it sound like he doesn't care. Like, maybe he doesn't, maybe he doesn't, because the, the, you know, look, there's a city, there's a, a group that in every city that's in charge of— there's a committee, you know, in charge of putting everything together. But the home team, in this case the Dolphins, they play a major role in, in putting things together for Super Bowl. Maybe, maybe doesn't care because they have so much going on at the stadium that this is not a big thing for him anymore. Like, like this quote from Stephen Ross, it doesn't seem like he really is bothered by it.

Greg, one of the things that they usually tout is this F1 Miami Grand Prix, that one singular event makes— generates more revenue than the entire season, right, of season tickets for the Miami Dolphins.

That's insane. Jason Jackson told me that. I said, you, you must be mistaken.

So I, I went to F1 over this weekend. I got invited, and it was the first time that I actually got to be in that now permanent, uh, structure, the Paddock Club.

It was your first time there at the Paddock Club?

I've been to F1 plenty of other times, and I've been to bougie areas, but not like finish line Paddock Club. And my main takeaway is this is like 4 levels and each level has a dozen or so suites. They're all big-time corporate sponsors.

And that's permanent?

It's a permanent structure, poured concrete. This is not a temporary venue. They're there, like the, the garages are there year-round. This structure is there. And to my knowledge, it only gets used for Formula 1's Miami Grand Prix. There are other venues outside that are also permanent that I've seen during Miami Hurricanes games and Dolphins games get repurposed. We house some recruits at one by the fan zone. You've probably seen that structure, but the, the main Paddock Club, that's only used once a year and it generates crazy money.

I could—

why the sponsors?

But explain that as somebody who is an ignoramus as I am. There's only one of these a year. In Miami?

Yes, it's in— well, it's a weekend. It's a weekend's worth of revenue that they're generating.

Why?

What happened?

What is the— they travel around to different— it's like golf tournaments. I, I loosely get it, but I mean, what is— so why— what, what is the reason behind there being such, uh, you know, so much loot compared to what the NFL is?

So it's a super bougie motorsport with high-end high-end sponsorships and partnerships.

Right. So you start with the general concept, right? If you think about the NFL, you say there's only 8 home games. Yeah, but there are 32 teams. So each one of those teams has 8 home games. You do the math. It's a lot of NFL games across the nation that are being played. And then you add the playoffs and the Super Bowl, obviously. With F1, there's like 24. How many? Like 24 races globally.

It goes to November.

So your audience isn't just the locals, it's also people who— there are people who travel to all of these. That's number one. Number two, really? Yeah, there are people who travel to all these races.

Global sport.

Number two, they're very affluent, right? That these people who follow the sport, it's not a—

why is that?

That's just how it caters to that. Ferrari.

Yeah, it caters.

You buy a Ferrari tomorrow, like, no Rolex presenting sponsor.

I went from Talladega one weekend in the infield to watching people chug out of prosthetic limbs, right, to the paddock club at Formula One. You park, a golf cart is there to take you to your seat. You get handed a champagne flute.

Does F1 look down on NASCAR?

Yes, obviously.

Of course.

I mean, everyone looks down on NASCAR.

Have you never watched Talladega Nights? Remember Sacha Baron Cohen's character? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Ricky Bobby, you are very—

People go there to feel better about themselves. They go there to hobnob.

I feel like I'd feel worse about myself.

The paddock club is ridiculous.

Dallas.

Like, I was there. You don't actually have— you actually don't have seats in, in the Paddock Club. You have like a dining room table. There's like this little ballroom in the Paddock Club. You get a your own dedicated server and you have TVs everywhere. And if you want to go out and watch the action right there by the start and finish line, you, you go out to a balcony and you basically carve out your plot of land. And then you look to your right and Joe Burrow is there. It's kind of like that.

It's perfect for Miami and people flying in from Brazil and Germany. They don't care that the ticket costs $4,000 or more. They don't care. I mean, this is for the rich and Steve Ross is getting richer because of it. And that's one reason why I think it's absolutely fair and safe to say that he needs the Super Bowl a lot less. Sounds like specifically because of F1.

Sounds like it. This is his legacy here. Like what he has built on this stadium, like the, the attraction that the stadium now is. Yes, that's his legacy here.

I agree. And look, let's, let's— I assume that there was some kind of real estate grift here. Let's take that out of the equation. Then clearly we have to believe Stephen Ross in that he made the decision he's going to generate more money from doing what he did to the stadium and bringing in events like Formula One and tennis than he would make from other things that the calendar would disrupt. Another issue—

Got it, man. World Cup, national championship.

They're in line for another national championship game. Weird. Like, the facilities and everything around is good enough for a national championship game, but not in the tier for the Super Bowl. And the World Cup, but not in the tier for the Super Bowl. Fine for Formula One, which brings in, I think, over 100,000 more people than the Super Bowl, but not up to the quality of the Super Bowl. But clearly it was a good bet. And I do think, and I mention this every time like a broken record when it comes to Stephen Ross's legacy down here, I think he made one of the premier sporting venues on the planet. It needs to be talked about the way Wembley is talked about, because you don't have a venue that can host WrestleMania, that can host Beyoncé, that can host the Super Bowl, Formula One Grand Prix, world-class tennis, which is up to the level of like a fifth major.

Tennis 2.

Tennis 2. Bit my tongue. You just don't have other venues that can do that.

It was— it was not that long ago that it was a constant conversation down here. University of Miami, gotta get out of that stadium, gotta get your own stadium, gotta move away from there, it's terrible. And now, like, there really isn't much to complain about when it comes to University of Miami home games. Like, it's, it's a great stadium.

The facility is, is bar none, one of the, the top in, in the whole country. But that makes his lack of success as a Dolphins owner magnify itself, because when you look around, everything else he's done is the Midas touch. I mean, the facility development he's done is second to none, but the Dolphins haven't won a playoff game, as we all know, in a quarter of a century. And that's— that is glaring, more glaring because of the surrounding opulence of the facility he's built.

So I want to get your thoughts here as well, Greg, on what's going on with Inter Miami. So Inter Miami has played now 4 games at New Stadium. New Stadium's the new stadium.

Mm-hmm.

And they, they're winless. They have 3 draws and they have an historic collapse this past weekend where they led 3-0 at halftime. Messi had a goal and they allowed Orlando City, who has been bad to start this season. Biggest rival as well to score 4 second-half goals, and Inter Miami suffers their first loss in the stadium before they even have a win in 4 games. Now, after the game, you would figure, all right, like, can we get somebody to, to, to face the music here, answer some difficult questions? But that's not Inter Miami style, man. Like, Inter Miami doesn't send out the big guns, the big star players. They don't go out there and I mean, when has Messi ever spoken to the media? And so what— listen or watch this clip here. This is Noah Allen, who, Mike, is, uh, he's an academy player. Like, he's, he's right.

He looks super young. He's played— because he is super young, but he's played several seasons for Inter Miami.

All right, so this is an academy player. All right, this isn't, you know, one of the stars of the team.

He's a— he's an academy graduate. He's been a first teamer for something.

I mean, a guy, a veteran of soccer, you know, a guy who you put out in front of camera and answer some difficult questions. And here's Noah Allen in a really difficult spot after the game. Noah, is it hard, you always being the one that has to face us and being one of the youngest guys after a loss, first loss at home against Orlando City? Is it tough to be that face when there's other players who are older and with more rank?

Yeah, I guess.

I mean, yeah, I'm not gonna lie.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, it kind of sounds like he's a little bit tired, but in that clip you can see why they put him out there. I mean, just many words.

Yes, but very eloquent.

Like, like, that's, that's— and by the way, I saw the interim coach. He apparently answered one question. It was in Spanish. I don't know what the question was. Oh, my Spanish, no bueno. Uh, he came out, he answered one question. And then got up and left. None of the big players talk. That's who they send out after the game. And for me, it's like— now, I don't know if you know, I'm an inaugural season ticket holder with Inter Miami. Now, I gave up the tickets before last season. It just got way too expensive. Way too expensive.

You don't get to tout that if you gave it up.

I just did.

You can't tout it.

Just did.

I'm not alone.

Just did.

Many have.

Contextually, it's an important data point because a lot of people got priced out. I got priced out.

Yeah.

And I kept them even an additional year and paid the prices that were jacked up. Because I figured, okay, I'm gonna make my money back because I'm gonna sell the tickets, you know, when I need to. And it didn't sell the way that I thought it would, so I gotta get out. But this is like— I feel like Inter Miami continues to give me reasons why I don't really love supporting this team, right? Like, they just— so much of what they do seems bush league. It seems like a shady organization. I don't really love what they stand for.

Well, I don't think it's a shady organization, but I do think that—

Yeah, they skirt the salary cap signing the players. That's shady.

You like that though.

Well, yeah, I do like that, but it's so shady.

Okay, Messi— everybody knows Messi runs the program. He's bigger than the club. He's bigger than David Beckham. He's bigger than Jorge Mas. He runs the team. That's why they made a coaching change prematurely, I thought.

Another.

Another. And so Messi hasn't spoken to the local media in A little bit more than 2.5 years.

That's crazy.

Not a word to the local South Florida media in going on 3 years now. And he gets everything he wants. And no fans are complaining because they have Lionel Messi and he's still great.

And by the way, part of the reaction to players never being available— and I remember when I was doing local radio here on 790 The Ticket the first year, first couple years of Inter Miami's existence, They should have been on their hands and knees coming to me, begging me to have players on my show. I had to beg them. I couldn't even get a response. Their PR team is garbage. Okay, garbage. And now finally, I guess because there's been a little bit of an outcry with what happened this past weekend, for the first time this year, Luis Suárez is gonna talk to the media.

They've been getting it pretty good. I don't think that they made the manager change too too early. It seemed as though there was quite a bit of clashing there. We'll see if they make a permanent hire here. But this is one of the reasons why Messi came to the United States and chose Inter Miami, because he didn't have to do this. And I think you got to kind of have to be okay with that trade-off if you're an Inter Miami supporter. I'd rather win MLS Cups than watch Messi, who talks a lot like Noah Allen when he's in front of the microphones. He's not this, this incredible personality. I've seen plenty of Leo post-match interviews when he was at Barcelona. Barcelona, you're not missing much.

Dan Lebatard.

You getting started on the breakfast flan?

Oh man, I've been singing a song to myself all morning long. Breakfast flan.

Stugatz.

Have you never heard the breakfast flan song?

No, hit me with it.

Okay. I wish I had some breakfast flan. Breakfast flan. Where can I find a breakfast like that?

This is the Dan Lebatard Show with Stugatz.

He's not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Like, no one wants to say that out loud, but it's like he's very like, yes, I'm very good at the thing I do. I'm not very good at explaining it or talking or being like— he's not Victor Wembanyama basically out there with—

I don't know, wouldn't you like to feel like he's part of the community a little bit? Like if LeBron— like if LeBron went and played in Europe, can you imagine LeBron never talking to them?

He's part of the community. He was at F1.

He was at F1. And like, he goes to restaurants and he was seen shopping at Publix at one time.

I mean, an empty Publix.

Yeah, I, I, I don't think he's more made more a member of the community by giving a boring post-match interview.

So am I off base and feeling like they're kind of lame?

You're not off base because that part where you trot out a kid to answer for a historic collapse and loss, that your rival, that, that's, that's the kind of cowardly. But the overall and general lack of accessibility, yeah, man, like this is He, like Mike said, he came here because where he was and had he gone to Saudi Arabia and got his ass kicked over there by better players, he would not be able to leave the house and like just have a normal life. Part of the deal is like, yeah, you can come here and no one's going to bother you.

And all right, getting his ass kicked by better players. Yeah, I don't— it's not working out for Ronaldo the way that he thought. And Messi's been pretty good here on, on the pitch for Inter Miami.

I send Mike Instagram reels all the time. It's like this anti-Messi kind of just stuff.

And it's like, at least that's like a Brazilian supporter.

It has nothing to do, uh, nothing to do with like Messi. But it's like, there was a story about Maradona. It's a very famous Maradona thing of him coming out, warming up, and like doing all these tricks. And it was the story behind the game that they were playing, and it was like a massive game, it was like a Champions League game. And he did it because the DJ was playing a song that he really liked. And it's like, it'd become this lore And then he went out and, and in the reel they talk about like Maradona won the first Champions League for the small club Napoli, which is in South Italy. All of the, like, the success of Italian soccer came from Northern Italy, Milan and Rome and, and places like that, and Fiorentina, whatever. And so it was— he took basically— imagine him taking like the Sioux Falls Skyforce and winning like the NBA championship and all these things, right? And I sent the video to Mike and I said, Messi could never just hate an ass hater.

I think you have to— if you're an Inter Miami supporter, once the results aren't there, then I think you can latch on to things like, wait, you're pulling credentials of this press member that's too critical. Wait, we're not putting the star players out in front of microphones to not be accountable. They've had the results. And this approach, it's cocky. A lot of the people that came over that are making the decisions to not have these players go out and speak and, and not put players on 790 The Ticket, they come from bigger clubs in Europe. And they kind of look down on the whole concept of MLS. This ownership group has been super aggressive, has raised a lot of hackles in owners meetings. The old guard in MLS does not like how aggressive the Moss family is about pushing. The time is now. Let's invest in this sport. Let's stop worrying about being fiscally responsible. We're hosting a World Cup. Let's go for it. I like that ambition. And Miami has Leo Messi, and it's a number 10 in a brand new stadium as a testament to that ambition. I think you got to take the good with the bad.

I also think it's premature to write off this season. They have, I think, 4 or 5 matches left before the World Cup break. Last time I looked at the standings, they're third in the East, well in the playoff race. I don't think they have the club to repeat a championship this year, but they'll certainly make a run at it. I mean, they're— despite the 3 draws and a loss in the new stadium, they're still a pretty damn good team.

The Miami Marlins have designated Chris Paddock for assignment, letting go of their $4 million pitcher, one of their bigger free agent signings this offseason. I mean, Braxton struggled off the bat. It'll mean either Braxton Garrett or star prospect Robbie Snelling, both of whom have been shoving at the AAA level, will be their only left-handed shoving.

Yeah, you're trying to make that a thing.

Shoving, shoving is a thing.

You guys don't know ball.

It is a thing. Yeah.

Yeah.

You—

he's not going to win any Pulitzer. Back in my day, you said dealing. I think it's interesting as an outsider that I didn't hear a lot of this talk a year ago because Messi and his team was winning games. And now you guys are— about Chris Paddock, you mean, or— no, back to— back to the soccer conversation. Why?

Yeah, we found the one thing less interesting than MLS soccer. It's unbelievable. It's a big deal.

the— it's a $4 million player.

It's a big deal. Let's all celebrate the Marlins for almost being a.500 team. Yeah!

They're—

what are they?

3.5 out of the wild card?

3-under.

They're right there, man.

Let's not talk about wild card first week of May.

You know what? As a long-suffering Pittsburgh Pirates fan, I don't think it's too soon to start looking at the standings because they're halfway decent, which leads me to my point, which is the coolest of all takes, but Obviously, if you're winning, it makes everything all right. You try to connect this to Messi, it's because they're not playing well, right? Everybody was willing to rationalize their way—

well, I was pretty—

in New England around everything around Tom Brady and Bill Belichick and Aaron Hernandez and everything else, so long as they kept winning games. And then you look at the NHL and the Toronto Maple Leafs, the dissatisfaction with their brand new hire at the executive level has to do with the fact that the guy who they hired isn't a winner. They would be happy up in Toronto to have hired somebody who had a checkered personal past or professional past, so long as it also included a Stanley Cup or three.

I mean, I guess I would say in my defense there, I was pretty loud last year, in the middle of last season, about Inter Miami's antics and what they're about, and they went on to win the MLS Cup. So, uh, again, I, I just I've been turned off.

I think you got a NASCAR approach to a Formula One sport there. They're just going for a different type of clientele. They think that their brand is a premier luxury brand, and every decision that they've made along the way kind of cosigns that.

But, but, but wouldn't Messi being more out there, more open speaking, wouldn't that further help their brand?

So No, so unless he wants to do a 10-minute hit with a big dog every week.

So I should mention today is kind of a big day for Florida Panther fans tonight. Were you aware of this, Greg Cody? It's the NHL Draft Lottery tonight.

Oh, I thought you meant Vinny Viola celebrating a Kentucky Derby-winning horse.

That's right. He's an owner of that, of that horse that won, right?

He's, he's a part owner, but mostly the owner, unlike myself, who owns the tip of the right ear on a racehorse.

I can't believe we haven't gone to Greg early on this because he is a horse owner. He's got the experience and the know-how and the inside insights about horse racing.

Did you know Golden Tempo had a shot this weekend?

No. 23-1. It was such a bunched race. I can never remember this in a Triple Crown race before. At the bell, There were 2 horses that were co-favorites at 5-1, depending on what odds you look at. 2 horses were 6-1, 1 horse was 7-1, another was 9-1.

So no favorite really. 5-1 as the biggest favorite is odd.

It was incredible, and it's an 18-race field, which is very, very crowded, and that's with 4 scratches. So the Puma, it was anybody's race. And this horse, Golden Tempo, navigated from last place to first through 18 other horses It was fantastic. It was the first, uh, Sherry DeVoe was the first female jockey to ever win the Kentucky Derby. The jockey—

trainer, not jockey—

or trainer rather. The jockey had been in 11 Kentucky Derbies before without winning. It was his first time. His brother ran in the race against him. It was one of the most memorable Derbies ever. And now let's hope that Golden Tempo at least runs in the Preakness so we can at least pretend a Cinderella Triple Crown.

Alright, alright. So for the Panther fans though, tonight NHL Draft Lottery, kind of a big deal. Alright, so now am I right where the Panthers can drop no lower than 10, which means they do keep their pick, alright, and they can obviously jump as high as number 1.

What's their percentage chance of getting Gavin McKenna, the prize pick of this draft?

I'm being told by my sources 6%. 6% chance to jump up to number 1.

We usually do.

All right. So kind of a big thing. Get fired up, Roy. Come on. Gavin McKenna.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't think they're going to win.

I mean, why not? They've won it a couple of times.

They have, but I don't think they're going to end up with it. I mean, he's putting himself out there. I mean, we got Toronto and we got the Rangers. That's what's probably going to happen here. I think the NHL is going to give it to one of those two teams.

Oh, you're alleging shenanigans.

Oh, wow. Yep, folded envelope.

Anyone want to park their car in that garage, huh? Anyone?

Wow, I did not expect Roy to take that lane today. Rigged! Just pointing the finger at Gary Bettman that the draft lottery is rigged for one of the original six, either New York or Toronto. How about that?

Learned at the knee of David Stern and the chilled envelope that yielded Patrick Ewing way back when, right?

You believe that, huh?

No, I don't believe that.

I don't believe that. Because it was a folded corner.

We did a whole investigation.

I do buy that, actually. That little episode, I do kind of buy that the NBA liked the idea of Patrick Ewing landing in MSG. I'll buy that one, sure.

You don't think they would have rather had him in America's heartland as a Pacer?

Just say that shit's rigged.

Say it.

It's rigged.

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