Transcript of Hunter Pence Loves A Strange Batting Stance | Hour 2

You are listening to the Dan Levitan Show in partnership with the DraftKings Sports App, now live in all 50 states.

Las Vegas, listen up! Don't miss UFC 329 tomorrow night. Join Tony and Lewis live from Stadium Swim at Circa as MMA Hangout covers Conor McGregor vs. Max Holloway. Catch them at 8 Fremont Street, or watch it live on the Lebatard Show YouTube channel starting at 9 PM Eastern, 6 PM Vegas time.

I think I have to watch this tomorrow. I saw yesterday you had the press conference, the, the stare down. I guess today will be weigh-ins, but yesterday at the press conference and Conor McGregor, he's, he's like, he's trying to portray himself that he's back, right?

Yeah, he's trying to portray himself like many who have gone through the things that he's gone through, try to clean up their image after the fact, and we'll see if he still has it in the ring. Tomorrow is an incredible sports day.

Yeah. Starting to clean up his image by walking up to Max Holloway and ripping his sunglasses off.

That's, that, that's actually fine. Like, you pay to see that with Conor McGregor.

Trying to clear up his image by fighting in a cage.

No, I'm saying by being religious. And you wonder, you know, the motivations behind that.

You know, look at him right here walking up, getting in his face.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

That's, that's, that's what you want to see with Conor McGregor. That's part of the appeal. And so we'll see if he still has it. Paddy the Baddy, I think, is on the same card. So now I like him.

He's fun. Naturally.

You know, even if McGregor loses, so as long as he doesn't embarrass himself out there.

I see the angle from the glasses here.

I do.

This is the glasses.

That's scary.

The last thing cocaine sees.

That's scary. Yeah. So Max always wearing the glass. Why is he wearing a bulletproof vest? Is that a bulletproof vest?

Yeah.

All right.

You never know.

You got to be safe, everybody. Everybody likes safety. Yeah. Tomorrow's a great sports day. We got the two World Cup games. You got the MMA. You'll check out Tony on the Levitart Show YouTube channel tomorrow. And Lewis.

Let's get the football already. You know, I'm chomping at the bit. This has been great. The World Cup has been a pleasant distraction for me. We do have Mizaroski and Skeens on Sunday too. Mike Ryan even texted me.

I'm into that.

No reason to even be interested.

Yeah. 12:15 on Peacock, where our show is found on Peacock. And I'm really excited about checking that out because Sunday, no World Cup matches. And you want to see two names. I know Skeens is not up to snuff, right, this season, but he's still appointment television, especially with who he's going up against and the fact that they're just going to be throwing gas.

Dave, I want to—

I thought Tashay was going to shout something from the roof.

I was visually pointing at Michael like, go on, man. This is great. Yay baseball.

It's the same cue as, hey, Alex.

Yeah, that's on me. I should have made eye contact.

I mean, rare the occasion where you don't, so I naturally assumed you were going to go.

I was flabbergasted by the fact that you were—

Would you like to talk more Marlins?

I would, but—

All right, remind me to get to that.

I will.

I'll come back to you in a moment for that.

Bad for baseball.

Dave, I do— I do want to get your opinion on something we talked about yesterday. I don't know if you saw this. The Carolina Hurricanes, they won the Stanley Cup. You know, it sounds like you know the direction I'm going in. So we talked about this yesterday where they're at the point now in the summer where the players are going to get their days with the cup because the names have all been engraved. They're— they've done that for the 2026 Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes. And the top 2 lines on the Stanley Cup with names is the owner, Tom Dundon, who also very famously now owns the Portland Trail Blazers and is a world-renowned cheapskate when it comes to his professional sports teams. And it's Tom Dundon, it's his wife,. And then the names of his 5 children all take up the top 2 lines on the Stanley Cup. Did you see this, Dave Dameshek?

Of course I did, and of course I'm disgusted by it. As I always say, it's the grotesquely wealthy against the rest of us. Well, where are the rules? This is as bad as anything James Dolan did, you know, Charles Oakley and all of that. Etching a kindergartner's name Into the Stanley Cup, into the greatest trophy ever known to man, way better than that dumb World Cup trophy. It's challenged only by the Heisman Trophy, and even that's a reach. It bears the names Orr and Lemieux, which by the way, if you translate the word Lemieux, it equals the best. That's what it translates into, and that's in fact true. It was sullied by the word Devils and furthermore by the word Lightning, but this is a new low for the glorious Stanley Cup. Which, by the way, I'm in Pittsburgh, as I mentioned, and I pointed out to my kids the other day, that's the bar where the Stanley Cup made its entrance at closing time one time, and we drank Iron City out of it and we picked it up over our heads. They couldn't have given a shit about it, but still, it's a glorious trophy.

And now dirty by a kindergartner's name.

It's disgusting. It really is disgusting. And before, again, before people say Zaslo, The previous 2 years, the Florida Panthers won the Stanley Cup. Vinny Viola's name is on it, and so are his 3 sons. Yeah, you know what? They're alternate governors of the team! They work for the team! They have titles! They're actual employees of the Florida Panthers! So of course! And correct me if I'm wrong, I'm pretty certain the 7-year-old Dundon does not work for the team. It's a disgrace.

Disgrace.

No one's correcting you.

Good.

Alright. And I won't correct Dave on his World Cup trophy take. It's a terrible trophy.

Is it?

Yes.

Well, among the many things, it looks like a Rolo candy wrapper, like bunched up at the bottom. And also the scale, yeah, right, there you go. It looks like a deodorant, like a Roli antiperspirant. The scale of it, it's the size of a brick.

It takes up—

Of like the original mobile phone. That's about the size of it. That's not great.

They hand it out every 4 years. And you're— it should be immense in size. I don't know if you saw the Club World Cup trophy that's hanging out in the Oval Office. Like, that meets the moment. This one's pretty small and laughable.

Is there a chance—

round up top?

Is there a chance that Messi demanded it be small so it doesn't look—

No, you idiot. It's been around longer than between—

between the—

maybe a new one.

I mean, between the Heat Hornets and now this comment from you, boy, my goodness, you're having a banner last few minutes. Put it on the poll, Juju. Does the World Cup trophy look like roll-on deodorant?

And Fake Joe Zagacki's furious that you trampled his flat earth joke.

I have to show this video to you guys that I've been trying to get to for a few days now. Where's the other guy? He's, he's, he's in Vegas. I have to get to this video.

You guys should be way more steamed as a sports town that you are the Miami Hurricanes and your rival hockey team stole your favorite college football team's name. It's outrageous. Get to your clips, guys. I'm offended on your behalf.

You've done this bit already.

So I know I've done a bit. Life's not a bit, Zaslow.

So a few days I've been trying to get to this video.

They don't have hurricanes in Tulsa.

There is this play-by-play camp for teenagers. All right. Guess it takes place over the summer. And there is this video that circulated around this week. I don't know if you've seen this, Dave Dameshek, where one of the campers looks like he's maybe 14 or 15 years old. He's standing up in front of the, the room. And for the audio audience, the, the room, the classroom is filled with all the students who are, uh, uh, encapsulated by what is happening in front of them with this student, who behind this student is a projection screen. And it has— I think it's maybe the Bengals— it has the Bengals schedule from pro football reference from like 2009 because This kid has claimed that he can name every team's schedule, win-loss per week, their record since the year 2009. Going back to 2009.

What?

Any team and give him any week, he will tell you who that team played any year and if they won or lost the game.

How old is this kid?

17 years ago, maybe. Yeah, he looks like he's maybe around that age. So they're putting him to the test. They put him up in front of the class, and behind him is the screen projecting whatever team they're now going to ask him the questions and have him say who they played that week, that year, and if they won. Give this a listen and watch.

Lost to the Jets.

What?

Yeah!

Week 2, they lost to the Texans.

Oh!

Week 3—

okay, hold up. Give me a sec.

Okay, no, no, no, I'm not forgetting, I just need to remind myself.

Um, oh, they lost their pets. 4, they lost to the Dolphin Team Legends.

5, they had to buy.

6, okay.

Um, okay, um, okay, let me think. Oh, we take them off to the shark.

Yeah.

7. Um, oh, we send them off to the car. No, we take them off to the ground. That's unbelievable.

These kids are going nuts. Like every one of them has their phone out recording knowing the moment that's happening in front of them.

It's unbelieve— now clearly, like, it's like you're watching— it's like a Rain Man type of deal, you know? And this kid, his brain clearly works in a much different, like a more advanced way than all of our brains work.

We think it's photographic memory? Like, he— it almost felt like at one point when he said like, no, no, I just got to remind myself, it was like he was like scrolling back in the recesses of his mind looking for photos.

Yeah, you know what I mean?

Like scrolling through a camera roll, like, no, no, I'm gonna find it. When was that? When did I see that one? It's unbelievable, like, to be able to recall all of that. And it is so cool. It's so cool to get that moment where everyone is like losing their mind.

So cool. And like NFL analysts and media personalities over the last few days are all retweeting it and commenting, "It's the best thing you'll see today. This kid's amazing." Dave, how cool? Have you seen that yet?

Uh, sincerely, no, that's the first I've seen of it, and that is great. What he is doing is getting as best as he's going to get the reflected sort of the cheers of people and everything else. Good for him. He's probably not destined to be a professional athlete, and neither am I, so I can relate to that. As a, as a nerd. That's wonderful stuff. And like we talked about on Football America upcoming today, um, that's better than the guy who starts the wave at a game. Or do we agree that that guy, he gets some attention and he feels proud of himself, but it's misplaced? If that's an achievement in your life, there's something wrong with your life that you, that you got a wave going, right?

Chris Cody has mentioned he takes pride in being that guy who gets the wave started.

You've started multiple waves, have you?

Usually It takes 2 or 3 cracks. You never get it the first time.

Do you tell your friends? Well, apparently you do brag about it after the fact.

But starting a chant at a game is better than starting a wave, right? In terms of the feeling. Like if you start the let's go XYZ team here, does that feel better? Not starting a chant. Like on third down though, if you're the first one in your section to stand up and get everybody up.

Oh, you then tell everybody to get up?

Oh, you're the one. Let's go.

Let's go.

Now you're making it about you. Anybody who starts—

No, I'm helping the team.

Anywhere is celebrating themselves as much as they are the person that they are allegedly cheering for. It's like, look at me, I'm a better human being because I'm raising to my feet to applaud for you. And as I've talked about for many, many years now, what goes on at the Cannes Film Festival when they give 20-minute standing ovations? Who has the time for that? 20 minutes. And then I used to question it. Well, that's not real. They're exaggerating. And then I've now seen video. 20 minutes for Brendan Fraser because he— because he gained some weight and put on a fat suit. The whale. What did I miss? To weep because he's so touched by it. Standing ovations.

Fat.

Supposed to be a really good movie, though. The Whale, right? I never saw it.

Yeah, whatever. Wasn't for me.

He'd got there.

I'm excited for The Odyssey, though.

Oh, don't even get me— don't even get me started yet on The Odyssey. All right. I'm seeing The Odyssey next week. I said don't get me started. I'm seeing The Odyssey next week. Obviously I'm going opening night. I always see a movie on opening night. If there's a movie coming out that you really want to see and you don't go on opening night, you're a huge loser. You gotta go opening night. I got my seats already for opening night. Of course I'm seeing it, Mike Ryan, I'm seeing it on the 70mm screen, 'cause that's how it was meant to be seen, right?

You're going to the museum IMAX?

No, no, I guess the local theater by me has one of the 70mm screens.

Yeah, you live in a really fancy zip code.

I'm trying, man. I told you, come on, man. I'm trying.

He has a mansion.

Best movie on opening night to see, Zazz, in the history of your life, which was the most satisfying? I'm glad I saw this before, before anything. Like, I'm here on Friday night surrounded by people.

Well, that's always going to be a superhero movie because you don't want the movie spoiled for you, right? That's, that's why you got to see that right away, because otherwise you know, you find out, oh, like take for instance Avengers: Infinity War. You wait a couple weeks, see it, it's like, oh man, Thanos won, he snapped everyone. You're gonna find that out if you don't go right away. So it's the superhero movies you gotta see immediately.

Well, what I was looking for was because when you said that you gotta be there on opening night, I did that with Pulp Fiction and thank goodness I did.

Really?

Because the open in the diner and then those words, bam, ba-dum, you know.

And you didn't want the gimp scene spoiled for you.

Right.

Well, but the— but it was more just the Pulp Fiction dropping down in that font like it did. And you knew it was just a different movie right out of the gate. And I'm glad I didn't hear any hype about it in advance.

It was—

it was a singularly great experience. I think that's the number one movie that I saw.

It's my favorite movie.

It harkens back to— it harkens back to what's playing out right now with Christopher Nolan in that—

why are people panning this movie before it's come out?

Well, because of the Elliot Page stuff. But panning this movie?

Yeah.

But I, I think right now all the big midnight releases and all, all the excitement over big box office blockbusters are usually because something has existing IP. It's usually a comic book movie.

Yeah.

Or, or a sequel or remake of some sort.

This does Odyssey.

No, I know it has existing Odyssey, but the draw here is not the Odyssey. The people have tried to tackle this book and the, and the IP that it comes from. It's famously difficult with mixed, um, results. People are going to this because it's Christopher Nolan. Yeah, people are going to this because they trust this filmmaker in ways they don't trust other filmmakers. It's him, it's Tarantino. Although the box office success of Christopher Nolan certainly surpasses— now he definitely dipped his hand into superhero lore, and that's how he kind of helped build his name, but it wasn't really a superhero movie. Right, but he is now the draw. It's not the actors in the film.

Correct.

It's not even what the film is about.

You'll see whatever he makes.

Half the time with Christopher Nolan non-superhero movies, we don't know what it's about. Sometimes with Tenet, we still don't know what it's about.

That movie sucks. I don't want to hear anyone say otherwise.

It's his worst film. It's his worst film.

A terrible movie.

But Inception, you're like, I trust the guy. Leo was a draw there. Christopher Nolan, different story arc. But now everyone understands. He's recognized. He's won Academy Awards. I am going to see this movie because of the filmmaker. That doesn't happen.

Ironically, when you asked the question, like, The Dark Knight was my experience where I still feel like going opening night is the best opening night experience I've ever had watching a movie.

Oh, The Dark Knight Rises. No, The Dark Knight Rises for me was one of my favorite moviegoing experiences.

Yeah.

Like, as far as just the—

Now is not the time for fear, brother.

The crowd and everyone enjoying it together. Dark Knight Rises was one of my favorite experiences. Maybe that's because of the—

like the hype that was going into it after The Dark Knight. And like, for me, I was still— I was still in middle school when The Dark Knight came out. And so I was like, I believe going into 8th grade, and over the summer going to see it with friends, not really being a superhero movie kid at that moment, and then experiencing that Heath Ledger performance and just being mesmerized by everything that movie was. So then yes, when you get to high school, now it's like Oh my God, The Dark Knight Rises is coming. I can't wait. There's all the posters everywhere. I remember I took a picture next to a cardboard cutout of, of Batman. It was incredible. And like every Christopher Nolan movie, to Mike's point, like those are ones that you want to go see in the theater and on opening night because you know everyone's hyped about it.

There are filmmakers that no matter what, you're going to be in the theater because I want to respect this filmmaker for what he does. I trust the art.

Well, who else is it?

It's Nolan.

It's Nolan.

Well, Spielberg, I'll do that. P.T. Anderson, no doubt. But no one to the box office success and scale that Christopher Nolan does. Christopher Nolan, I think, is the biggest director in cinema right now. He is the chief draw.

Whereas we did it on Football America with Zazz and Amin, Mike Ryan, how say you, 1, 2, 3: Paul Thomas Anderson, Chris Nolan, Quentin Tarantino. You can only watch— number 1 choice, you can watch his movies whenever you want. The 2nd choice, you can watch his movies once every year, once a year. The other one, never his movies again.

I think I— so this is like the F, marry, kill type of game for— so I think the one that you go to to be able to rewatch whenever you want is Quentin Tarantino because of the writing and the quotables and the fact that I have watched those movies multiple times and I never get sick of them. Nolan is the one that I want to watch occasionally. P.T. Anderson, great filmmaker, but that'd be the, the one that I'm killing off.

Oh my God, goodbye Boogie Nights Forever.

Yep.

Shame to death.

Look, it's not an easy choice. There are a couple of filmmakers that I trust— Ari Aster, Robert Eggers, Quentin Tarantino, no doubt— but no one does it like Nolan. No one does it like— I have to see this Nolan picture. I have to see it in the theaters. I have to catch it as soon as I possibly can. No one is doing it like him.

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Tony, you know that moment at a party or at a tailgate where everything just sort of clicks?

I know it well.

It's usually when I show up, everybody goes crazy.

Yeah, you usually take all the credit for it, but it's because Tony usually walks in with Cuervo. I walk in like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cuervo is a thing that turns hanging out into this is the night. It has that effect on people. It does. You usually take the credit for it, but again, it's the Cuervo effect. It's like that moment in a big game where everyone in the crowd just starts standing up, hooting and hollering. Keep it Cuervo!

Keep it Cuervo, baby! Dan Levitar.

Can I tell you something? I don't know, it was maybe like a month ago, and I decided to watch Pitch Clock, and I told Jeremy— Jonathan Sasslo— this is a good show you're doing. This is the Dan Levitar Show. I saw people are upset, and who hasn't come out yet? Tom Holland is tweeting back and forth with Elon Musk, you know, like, can we please let the movie come out before we, you know, critique it? But so people are upset about Elliot Page, right? And people are upset, oh, that they're speaking proper English instead of the English that was written in Homer's The Odyssey, right? You know, making the movie so that I can understand it. Right.

Oh, don't you, Dave, do you always get confused as to how these these kind of Mediterranean period pieces that tap into Greek mythology, they all have the same made-up accent. In Troy, Brad Pitt's accent—

what is that?

"Now you know who you're fighting!" And everyone talks like that, and it's just assumed. It's not of a region at all. It's not an English accent. It is just an accent that talks like this, and we're just to accept that. In 300, Even though Butler did a terrible job of masking his own accent in that, like always. They all talk like, "We are warriors, we have to fight!" What part of the world is this accent from?

Costner's Robin Hood, the range of accents of all the actors in that is maybe the funniest one of all. But yeah, you're right. And I like that, you know, whatever region, as long as it's outside these United States, everybody traditionally just has an English accent. Inexplicably, no matter where they are located in Europe. It's an English accent they always have. Yeah, it's, what people are upset about, Zaz, is that Aphrodite is played by a Black woman.

Oh, it's Lupita Nyong'o, right?

Yeah, that's what they're upset about.

Come on. I mean, come on. Who gives a shit? She's a really good actress.

Look, I don't care if it's not Achilles. In my mind, it's Achilles. There, that, that person. What do I— don't do pronouns. This is based in— that one, you know, the one that I'm talking about. It's Achilles.

This is based in Greece, right?

Yeah.

I mean, I, I feel like the Greek person that we all know is Black, in the honest—

oh, I see what you did there.

I mean, no, but I mean, like, I just don't understand, like, everyone in America being like, oh my God, a Black woman playing a Greek person.

Do you think he's in the movie?

Yeah, I think Giannis is in the movie for sure.

Travis Scott's in the movie.

Oh, that's right. He is. Really? Yes, he is. Mike's being serious. He is awesome. Yeah, he's like a background character.

Sean Avery. Christopher Nolan always casts Sean Avery in his films.

I can't tell if you're being serious.

No, you don't know that? Sean Avery's been in, I think, multiple—

The hockey player?

Yeah.

Get out of here.

Fuck. What?

What?

Gaslighting me? Yeah. Sean Avery.

Are you gaslighting me?

Sean Avery's in the movie. He was in Oppenheimer. There was a scene in— I know Dave Dameshek, who is both a cinephile and a Pughead, recognized one scene like, wait a second, is that Sean Avery?

It's bizarre. Yeah, Aaron Rodgers was also in Game of Thrones. That's another rando cameo.

Oh, but wasn't he under— was he under a mask, Aaron Rodgers, in Game of Thrones? I don't remember this.

What, Aaron Rodgers or Sean Avery?

Both.

Sean Avery is indeed in The Odyssey.

Sean, you know what I watched? You know what was on last night? I'm glad, I love when cable channels work the same way as my brain. You know what was on last night? Victory, one of the great under-regarded sports movies of all time. Set in Nazi Germany, or actually it's in, I think they play the game in somewhere in Germany. The Nazi scourge puts together a soccer team and plays Allied prisoners. Michael Caine, Sly Stallone, It's a gem of a movie if you've not seen it. Have you seen that one? Max von Sydow is a Nazi officer's ass. Have you seen it?

No, I haven't. And Hunter Pence is joining us.

Okay.

4-time All-Star, 2-time World Series champion. He is on the broadcast on Netflix for the Home Run Derby on July 13th. And he was just smiling because he must be wondering, what the hell are we talking about So I'm going to ask Hunter Pence to start here. Number one, are you going to see Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey when it comes out next week? That's the first question. Go ahead.

You know what? If I have time, that sounds like actually a movie I would love to see. And I was actually really remembering that Aaron Rodgers was— I think he was— he in the scene when Khaleesi like burned everyone down? Yes.

Hey, Hunter Pence, nice job.

I remember that. Yeah, I'm a Game of Thrones enthusiast.

And he got torched, right?

He actually gets burned in the ash. I think he gets torched.

Okay. Yeah, that's amazing. I mean, I watch Game of Thrones also. I don't remember that. But did— are you also aware, because I didn't know this either, Sean Avery, former hockey player, that he's been in now 3 Christopher Nolan movies? Are you aware of this?

No idea. Not— yes, not aware.

Pele is in Victory. That was my point.

Okay.

Back to baseball.

Yeah. All right.

There you go. So Hunter Pence joining us here. He's in his fourth season as analyst. On NBC Sports Bay, of course, with the San Francisco Giants. It's a very nerdy conversation you just entered with us, Hunter Pence. What is the nerdiest thing that you do in your life?

Oh, I'm an avid, like, PC gamer, like Dark and Darker and Hunger, which hasn't come out yet, just had an open beta. But I am a pickleball-playing, video game-playing absolute dunce. I've played— I've even played, what is it, Dungeons and Dragons, Magic: The Gathering. I am I am a big, big ultimate nerd for sure, proudly.

So was there ever anyone in your clubhouse that you were able to play these nerd games with?

Um, never did Dungeons Dragons with any teammates, but we definitely played a lot of Magic: The Gathering on flights and things because it was just like super fun to just do a draft. I know most people are playing poker and gambling. That wasn't, that wasn't my thing. Uh, we've, we opened packs and played Magic: The Gathering. I remember Boach walking by like, what the hell is this?

That is funny, man.

Lincecum seems like a Magic: The Gathering kind of guy. Had to be Lincecum.

Yeah, Lincecum into that.

No, Lincecum's like a FIFA, FIFA, PlayStation guy.

Like, are you watching anime also? Are you into that stuff?

I don't watch anime, unfortunately.

That's too nerdy.

I'm more of a— yeah, I'm like sports and I live to play. So I'm playing games usually.

Well, you're on the broadcast on Netflix July 13th for the Home Run Derby. They're changing the rules a little bit this year for the Home Run Derby, right? There's not going to be a clock anymore. Do I have that right?

Absolutely. We're bringing it back. It's going to be the first round's 20 swings for all 8 contestants. They haven't announced all 8, but we've announced quite a few of them. And for me, I'm very excited. This brings it back to like when they're, you know, the precision, the focus, the drama, and also just, yeah, not like an endurance contest and just swing as fast as you can. I hope, you know, I hopefully they're not taking like 6 pitches or whatever the case may be. But I do remember I remember back watching Pujols like laser focus in some of those Home Run Derbies back in the day and just really being in awe of the precision of the skill. And so, yeah, 20 swings. The last swing though, if you hit a home run, you keep going until, until you don't. And then the second round, I believe, is going to be 15 swings in the final round, 15 swings as well.

I like that they're taking the clock out of it, Hunter, because what, what, what's happened over the last few years with the clock, you would have the split screen And like, it's just swing, swing, swing. And like, I can't really—

it's like dangerous for the kids out there because they're like throwing the next pitch when they're like tracking the previous.

Yeah, the balls are flying everywhere.

Like, exactly. Like, I like to watch how far they hit it. Yes. They're just like, no, no, no. Like, that's not baseball. That's not even like— I mean, no offense. Like, I still love the home run derbies and everything, but yeah, no, we don't need balls flying after balls and like not getting to sit there and see the launch that they have. And like, baseball is like, it's a drama. It's a build buildup. It's a focus. And so that's— I'm excited that we're bringing that back and we're going to get to actually watch the home runs that they hit. And there's going to be a lot of pressure on each of these swings. You know, they got to— they do have to lock in. It's going to be a good contest.

We were mentioning earlier in the show, we were reminiscing about cool batting stances. And I feel like I'm like— I feel like I remember you had a good-looking batting stance. And it feels like today we don't get the different batting stances anymore.

You know, I feel like there's still some very weird ones out there. I mean, shoot, I'm, I'm going over some of those swings. I'm looking at Byron Buxton and he's kind of got the straight front leg like Bo Jackson back in the day, which doesn't make any sense to me. You know, there's, who was the, there was a guy that was like standing facing the pitcher. Yeah. You know, a couple years ago, I'm, I'm not sure. I can't even remember who it was. He hit like a bunch of homers for the Rockies. I'm drawing a blank right now, but there's still a lot of like wild stances. Like you watch Luis Arraez, like his at-bats right now for the Giants are hilarious. And especially when he gets 2 strikes, he turns into like a fighting mongoose. Man. He just does not want to strike out. He's exciting. So, ah, you know, like Julio Franco and, you know, was it Batista had a crazy one? Yeah. Kevin Youkilis. Yeah, you're right. Mickey Tettleton is one.

Craig Counsell's batting stance was so ugly, right?

Yeah. What? I don't know. I have no idea what the heck they were doing. You know, there's, I swear I just saw one that was really weird and I'm like, why the heck is he doing that? And they continued to get to the zone every time. But no, no, We have to—

if Hunter Pence is going to go on and on and critiquing other people the way they stand in the batter's box, I'm going to address the 800-pound gorilla in the room. What was with the socks, man? You know, up above the knee. Explain yourself.

Oh yeah, that's a good question. So actually it happened in a game where back in the day, the pants that had this like thick rubber band and I always just like to have them up because it was more comfortable. And both of my knees were bloody from sliding into bases.. And so I had two bloody knees in this, these like rubber bands just gripping at the, the, the flesh. And it was like extremely painful. And I was like, geez, like I just need a relief. So I like rolled it above my knee and like kind of tried to put it down. I was like, oh, this kind of feels like a wide receiver. And the relief of like A, the bloody knees. And then B, when I started running around, I was like, this is more comfortable. This feels way better. And so I started just joking around that I was like basically a wide receiver and I had to wear my pants like a wide receiver. And, and really it was mainly just functional and comfortable is why I wore it. And then I had no idea that it would ever turn into something where other people did it or a fashion statement, but it definitely felt a lot better to play like that.

I didn't care. I didn't care for it, but I think you really did make it okay for NFL punters to go with that look with the pant. You know, their pants are very short these days.

I mean, the punters, are they even like really like a football player? You know, I think they're— we are touching their uniform. No offense, but I mean, they're there. They have a lot to do, but they're not like— yeah, they're important. Yeah, punters are important.

Good save.

Is the current batting stance you were thinking of Jacob Wilson?

No, that was awkward, Jeremy.

Damn it.

Rafael Devers.

All right.

But he's twitchy. Jacob Wilson is twitchy and fun. There's a lot of super weird, you know. Yeah, definitely.

Hunter, we talk about, again, aesthetics at the plate. And we were talking about when I was growing up, there was no score bug or anything else. And now if you look back at it, the screen looks empty. Is the primary reason that Major League Baseball doesn't do away with the home plate umpire aesthetics, that it would be too jarring for our eyes to just see a batter and a catcher back there? Because I, I contend that 10 years from now, we're going to look back at this weird era and say, why were we deferring to the opinion of whether or not that was a ball or a strike of the guy standing back there when the evidence is in front of all of our eyes in real time, what— whether or not it is actually a ball or a Yeah.

I mean, do you still need them back there for, you know, foul tip calls? You need them back there for, you know, the out and safe at home plate. So I think even if we do get to an automated strike zone, I think it's kind of fun to, to like actually challenge the hitters and the catchers on like, how well do you know the strike zone? And you only have so many challenges. I think there's drama in that. I think there's a human skill. I also think, you know, when I'm calling a game and you're watching these umpires beat the players or the players beat the umpires, because it's a story, it's fun, and it hasn't taken too long. Whereas like everyone's kind of enjoying how good are you at knowing the strike zone. There's reasons to add value to players or take away value if you're terrible at it. These are opportunities to showcase skill, which is part of the fun.

Hunter Pence is on the broadcast with Netflix for the Home Run Derby July 13th. That's coming up next week, of course. Can you, can you describe to us You know, you're saying, you know, hitters identifying balls or strikes. Can you describe to us what the process is of trying to identify the pitch as it leaves the pitcher's hand? And obviously that finite amount of time until it gets across the plate.

Yeah, I mean, it's happening extremely quick. And there's an old saying, thinking mind is a heavy bat. So a lot of it is anticipation, preparation, your homework that you've done. And you got to remember, you know, whenever you're playing, you've been, you know, facing this velocity year in and year out every day. You're setting up the machines to kind of overtrain. There's different eye training drills I would do. I would shoot tennis balls at myself 120 miles an hour. So your eyes are a muscle that eventually like start to slow it down if you train it properly. So for the big league players, they're in rhythm with it. And so like you're looking at the miles per hour to gauge like the amount of time you have. But even that isn't exact because sometimes the extension, like, you know, what, how hard they're throwing, is perceived different, but you have like basically an idea there. And then you're looking for certain tunnels. So you're, you're following their release point. I'm getting super nerdy on you here.

That's okay.

And where, where's he letting it go is kind of what I'm watching from, from the film. The film also, and the metrics will show you how much each ball is moving and you can kind of have a guess there. So let's just say some righty has this big sinker. So the, I'm going to watch that sinker on film and I'm going to be like, all right, it's going to be a ball if it starts here, it's going to be a strike if it starts here. If I'm approaching that pitch, I need it to be, and you kind of get like a window, like imagine imagine the box that you're looking at for the home plate. You're taking his, like, release point and timing his rhythm of, like, his up and down with, like, your swing. And then you're hunting, like, a window for that ball to start and knowing where it's going to finish, because it, it'll look like it's in one place, but it's in another. And if you've done your homework, you know what that's going to be. And so, and let's just say it's a, um, I'm approaching a slider or a changeup, it's going to have a different window.

Like, I need this one to start over here in the left. Now, if the fastball starts where I'm looking for the slider, it can be dangerous. So that's kind of the thing is you have to recognize it as fast as you can and for me, I was just approaching those windows.

I mean, hitting a baseball has to be the hardest thing in professional sports, right?

I believe statistically it's like that and like saving a penalty kick is like the two lowest like percentage success rates. So you have to be a little mental to be a hitter in general.

And punting.

And punting, very difficult.

Hunter, you have a, you have a nephew who's the number one prospect in the country right now.

I wouldn't, I don't know the rankings of, of the prospect, but you know, he definitely has done a lot of work. It's pretty— he's pretty remarkable. He's definitely gifted as well. But yeah, he's throwing the ball really hard. He's hitting the ball really far and he's an absolute kind of— he's a bit of a freak. He's 6'6", 220, and he's going into his senior year in high school and he throws 101 miles an hour. So it's pretty exciting.

6'6". Are you worried that he's going to wind up being the best in the family?

No, I would love for that to happen. I'm very proud. I'm so proud of him. And his younger brothers are both going to be very good players as well. But like just how much this kid is like, you know, shown up like and how much he loves it and follows it. I feel like he knows the history of baseball more than I do just through like always playing MLB The Show and reading all these books and he knows all the old players and it's just intrinsic with him. He loves it.

Hunter, we're down here in Miami. I may or may not happen to be a part of the Marlins broadcast. And I'm just wondering, how do you think that they've been able to turn into the best best team in baseball since the start of June. What do you think of this Marlins team?

Well, I think they got some really good arms. You know, obviously like Otto Lopez has had a tremendous first half and all up and down your lineup, man, it is a young athletic, they, they have good at bats. Stowers is so fun to watch hit. You know, just, just coming off the, the, the series that I saw them play, their lineup is just deep, um, and their arms, it's just a lot of disgusting arms. And, and watching some of the starters turn into, uh, you know, who they're turning into, it's just— I, I've actually felt like the Marlins have been, you know, on the cusp of this breakout year for a while. We'll see how it goes in the second half, but I'm a believer that, that they're real and, uh, they're really good as well.

Hunter Pence believes they're real.

All right, I hope he— I hope he's right. You know, I like the Marlins, obviously. I live here. Come on. I hope he's correct. Hunter, there's talk about a lockout or a strike, CBA, that whole deal. Is, is a salary cap ever going to be something the players entertain?

You know, I'm, I'm definitely not the one to be asking about that in particular. Just no idea. You know, I would, I would, I would say whenever I was a player that this wasn't something that they were willing to entertain. And it was something that was fought for from all the players before to, you know, continue to give everyone an opportunity to, you know, get their their, their value, like what you're being paid, what you're worth, and what you bring to the table. So, uh, who knows? And, you know, I just, I just want both these sides— the baseball's in such a good place. I'm hoping that we just continue to have baseball because I love the game. And I, I hope they all, they look to take care of each other. And, you know, we'll see.

Hunter will be on the broadcast. Home Run Derby, Netflix, July 13th. Any other broadcast mates play Magic: The Gathering?

Uh, I haven't played Magic in a while, but no, I, I haven't. We're getting into Dominoes. That's the, you know, Dominoes Tribbage is where we're at today.

Good job, Hunter. Thanks for hanging out with us.

Thank you, Dan. Appreciate y'all having me.

There you go. Yes, my name is Dan. Did I make him uncomfortable with the salary cap question?

I liked him.

He was great.

He was, he was very good.

I love him and I want him to come back on the show all the time and talk baseball and tell me how the Marlins are as good as I think they are.

I think you did a great job, Dan.

Way to go, Dan.

Uh, Sean Avery, huh? Third Christopher Nolan film.

Which other Tenet, Oppenheimer.

Well, I wouldn't remember Tenet because that movie sucks. Uh, who was he in Oppenheimer? Was he Oppenheimer?

No, he wasn't Oppenheimer. Nick, go ahead, name someone that isn't Albert Einstein or Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer. Hmm, he was one of the others.

All right, he wasn't—

John Matuszak, the Raiders, the Raiders pass rusher. I think the Raiders probably have the most, uh, players in movie history. John Matuszak was in Caveman.

Carl Weathers.

Carl Weathers, of course. Yes. The late, great Apollo Creed, the Count of Monte Cristo. Hunter Pence, though, call a spade a spade. He was great.

He was.

But I don't buy it for a second. I don't buy it for a second that he hopes his nephew is better than he is.

Fuck. Come on.

Don't come on here and jive us. Don't jive yourself, more importantly, Hunter. You don't want your nephew to be better than you. You're a Major League baseball player, a rare thing to be among fellow human beings. You want someone in your own family to best you? Come on.

How did we skip the pass that his name is Stryker?

Yeah.

How do we skip the pass? I don't even know what my brain did there. How do we— how did we skip past the fact that his name is—

Yeah, I didn't know his name was Stryker Pence. You were saying—

I don't know, man. How did we skip the pass?

What does that sentence mean? How did we— how did we skip?

Skipped past the fact that his name is Shrek.

No, no, but you said, how did we skip the past?

My brain was working faster than my mouth was.

How does that mean?

What do you want from me?

Come on, Dan, take it easy.

So I'm going to see Odyssey next week. Later this month, I'm going to see Spider-Man. But the big question is, at the end of the year in December, obviously I'm going to see Dune 3. 3 new trailer just came out. Holy shit, take my money. Dune 3 is coming out the same day as Avengers Doomsday. So what are we doing there? It's Dunesday. You remember Barbenheimer? Same thing. This is Dunesday. So the question is, do I see both movies the same day opening day? Do I just spend the day at the theater. Dave, I think that's got to be the move, right?

Well, it's fortuitous. It's serendipity that I mentioned the underrated sports movie Victory that I encourage you— nay, demand that you go and view as soon as possible. Sly Stallone plays the Allied prisoner team's goalkeeper in that movie and also is going to— it was also, of course, Rocky. Maki, I would like to be your Mickey Goldsmith. I will get on a plane and I will train you because I don't think you're ready for this. I think we have to go through some conditioning drills for several months. I'm going to run you on the beach and otherwise have you eat popcorn so that you can do a double feature of this length and magnitude.

I mean, I don't want to be like little Alex with the Ultraviolence where I'm sitting there with like my eyes propped open. You know what I'm talking about, right?

I do. I do. But that's— That's on the table. I want you to do this.

I don't know. Dunes, baby!

For 22 years on this show, we've debated the greatest athletes of all time. Who's the GOAT in football? Who's the GOAT in soccer? Who's the GOAT in hoops? One thing that we all know is Dan's the GOAT of finding the worst possible take. But there's another kind of MVP/GOAT. Note that doesn't get enough credit: the friend who knows to show up with enough Miller Lites. Plus extra ice. Because they just know. The one who already has seats at the bar when you walk up? That is a Miller Time MVP. I've been on this show long enough to know that Dan is gonna make everything about his feelings and Jeremy is gonna push back on whatever I just said, but here's something nobody on this show will argue with: Miller Lite is the summer beer. The original light beer since 1975. This summer, recognize your MVPs. We all have that one friend who makes every game better. Now it's time to give them their moment. Head over to Miller Lite's social media pages to learn more about being a Miller Time MVP. You can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller Time.

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Dan Levitar.

I've never stepped foot on that campus. If you told me right now your life depends on it, go to Santa Fe University and just take a picture. Jonathan Sasslow. I would die. I don't know where it is. This is the Dan Levitar Show. So I do have to give a quick update here. I changed my mind. Yes, well, I changed my mind. It's just a feeling. I think all signs are pointing to LeBron signing with the Cavaliers. Do I think it's gonna happen this weekend? No, it's gonna happen during the week where everybody's talking about and you got the regular TV shows. It's not gonna happen this weekend, but I'm thinking it's going to be Cleveland when, you know, we find out. I think it's— I don't think it's gonna be Miami anymore, and that's a little bit disappointing, but it's whatever. I do want to give a correction where earlier in the show I mentioned how that, that cupcakes shop in Canton, Ohio broke the story 12 years ago about LeBron leaving Miami for Cleveland, and they posted about he's coming back to Cleveland now and he's bringing Draymond with him. The cupcake shop has since updated that Instagram post telling everyone telling everyone this was an old post.

It's not a recent post.

Oh boy.

They put an edit there saying this is a story from years ago. It was like, it was like one of the memories, you know, like an anniversary of a tweet or a post. And they made that clear with an edit on the Instagram post. So all that means is that they got that wrong too. That would be correct. Yes.

So we have to completely disregard their journalistic credentials. Right.

Right.

In the way that he was able to figure out that LeBron was either in the Caribbean or Miami.

That's right. The cupcake shop Dave Dameshek loses a little bit of journalistic credentials. Yes.

Two points on that. One, cupcakes are terribly overrated. Didn't get the whole phenomenon when it happened. The tops versus the bottom. I don't care about the, about the whole thing. And you said you changed, but just to update, no word from your son on whether or not he was able to change his underpants or otherwise before he went off to camp today.

He's at camp. Camp, like he's there, so—

Stinking up the joint.

I assume he's clothed. I don't think he showed up no clothes, so he's there. And I am— I'm not looking forward to hearing from my wife because not only are my boys snitches, but everyone who works at my wife's school, they're also snitches. And they're going to tell her what I just talked about here earlier today that I did not do.

He put his— he put his child's clothes in the dryer as though that was going to somehow clean them.

It's science, Dave. Everybody knows the heat Heat gets rid of the germs and the clothes are cleaner if you run them in the dryer. Everybody knows this. All right.

Okay.

Okay.

Everybody calm down. Mike Ryan, what is this? What is this video? What is this video I saw of Jaylen Brown yesterday? And if there's a camera, Jaylen Brown runs to it these last couple of weeks. What's the— what's the new thing with Jaylen Brown?

I show speed is one of the biggest content creators on the internet.

I don't get it.

He's had unprecedented access for streamer at the World Cup, probably will never get as good of seats as he got for Egypt-Argentina. Might have caused Messi to miss that. He is a noted Messi hater, a Ronaldo stan. But these— if you have a second screen experience, I like to put IShowSpeed's, uh, livestream on there because he has— people are super excited to meet him. He gets incredible access to watch Watch Ronaldo be super excited to meet IShowSpeed is pretty wild. But IShowSpeed caught up with Jaylen Brown. This is an exclusive. This is the first person that isn't Jaylen Brown to get Jaylen Brown's thoughts on the matter. Here is the interaction between Jaylen Brown and IShowSpeed at the World Cup match. LeBron, you got to tell LeBron, you got to pull up, man.

Pull up to Philly.

LeBron, pull up to Philly.

Think about it.

LeBron, Jaylen Brown, PJ13.

He's gone.

He's gone.

He's gone, bro. He's gone.

He also go— he also goes on to tell IShowSpeed, hey man, never play basketball because there is no loyalty in basketball. Which made me think, reported guy who thinks he's the smartest guy in the room, room. I think he thinks IShowSpeed is 14 years old, right? I don't think he knows that IShowSpeed is 21, and this is his job, at least on a trajectory to be just as wealthy and successful as Jaylen Brown. He's only 6 years younger. Yeah, but he was like, give it— he was talking to— he was kind of sunning him and giving him life advice, like, man, never grow up to be a, uh, a basketball player. Like, Speed grew up.

He's an adult.

He's, he's a grown man. He's 21 years old.

This reminds me, I, I feel like it's like when Mike told Mike Tyson met Hasbulla years ago, you know, the little guy. And Mike Tyson thought he was a— I mean, he looks like a toddler. Mike Tyson thought he was a toddler, and you could see in the video, like, he's kissing him.

I think he turned 24 years old.

Yeah, look, he's kissing Hasbulla, doing that thing where you're like blowing his ear, like, yeah, he thinks he's a toddler, right? When Hasbulla's an adult.

I don't know how you watch this as the guy who gets so much secondhand embarrassment. This one really, really bugs me.

I love this video.

I can't watch it.

I love it.

The idea of him like just like blowing raspberries.

He thinks he's a— he thinks he's a toddler.

That's insane.

Hey, come here, let me give you some kisses. He's an adult.