Transcript of Rob Stone Praises The Crew's Production Work | Hour 1

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I've got a lot of questions for this guy. Look at his face, uh, baby fresh. You'd never guess that this guy has been doing international soccer for damn near 3 decades. This is his 13th World Cup between the men and the women. He's the lead studio host and Fox Sports Sports commentator Rob Stone. Rob, thank you for being on with us. I do have a lot of things to ask you. Hypothetically, give me the hypothetical that is a better semifinal than what we have.

No, this is it. Like, I mean, this is, this is a semifinal fit for a final, right? Spain versus France. I think a lot of people could easily make the case that France has been the best team at this tournament and Spain is doing what Spain does, just kind of growing into it and peaking at the right time. No, I love this. Spain, France, like, and then by the way, on the other side of the bracket, you know, Argentina and England. This is— these are like dream matchups for a network. You know, if this was NFL, it would be Brady in his prime. And what are the other big brands? Steelers, Cowboys, Raiders, right? Like, yes, please. Everybody's very happy about this. But I don't think— I don't think you get better than Spain and France.

But you do. Then the next one. The next one has genuine historical hatred in it.

Yeah.

And look, we can talk forever about the Falklands War, right? No, I'm still taking—

I'd like to—

Spain and France today than England and Argentina tomorrow.

Can you explain to people the history that is here beyond, beyond the moment? We're talking about proud powers that believe in soccer over a century. So explain to people what why this is the biggest thing.

You're talking today's semifinal or just the World Cup in general?

I'm talking about— well, no, not the World Cup. I'm talking about these two games between these four teams.

Yeah. So, you know, the rarity of having the top four teams in the world come together and colliding on a stage and at an expanded World Cup that will be the most viewed World Cup in the history of sporting events. You have today at least, right, Spain and France, two programs that go back decades and decades with the care and the pride. I would say Spain probably goes back a little bit deeper than, than France, who's really been on this tear since '98 when they won it at home. And then they have a chance today to get to their third straight World Cup final. Like, hit the pause button on that for a second. Think about that. We're not talking about third straight Super Bowl appearance or third straight NBA Finals appearance where it's in consecutive years. We're talking 4 years, 4 years, 4 years. So realistically, for France, they get a win today, it'll be 9 straight years that they've been in the championship game of the world. So what they've been able to do is really borderline unheard of. Two other nations have done it— West Germany and Brazil. That was, you know, that was before the quote unquote modern time.

And then what Spain has meant to this sport for so long, yet they've only won World Cup— one World Cup. It's crazy to think 2010 is the only time they've won a World Cup. This is only their second ever semifinal game. But, you know, the sport is, is in their DNA, much like I think, you know, a lot of the South American countries, whether it's the Uruguayans or the Colombians or Argentina or Brazil, where you are— you come out of the womb And this is what you do. You are a soccer fan. You care about your sport. You know the players. You love them when they're on your club team. You hate them when they're playing against you. But when they're representing your colors, you lean all in. I cannot wait to get out to the stadium today for Spain and France.

I want to throw a ridiculous hypothetical in your face. I'm going to put this on the screen right now. The hand of God. You tell me if that happened today. Like, how, how, how does history remember this nonsense now that we have—

I love this nonsense. I'm, I'm all for nonsense. Nonsense.

This is beautiful.

The hand of God in Mexico. Diego Maradona. I love that, that stuff, that stuff. Um, VAR would have eaten it up, chewed it up, spit it out, um, taken it away from us. Um, and we would have been, we would have been— if this happened today, or how about this, if this would have happened tomorrow when Argentina is playing and it's Messi going up there and his little frame somehow, you know, elevates and knocks it in with his hand and VAR kills it, People are good with it because that's the right thing to do. But being able to look back at it decades later to see it and to have something that has a name like the Hand of God is just so perfect, like meant for t-shirts, meant for documentaries. It'll never, it would never happen in this day and age, but I'm so glad it did happen.

A shocking revelation by somebody who's got a pristine reputation. Rob Stone should go viral for endorsing cheating there. He is pro-cheating in a way that's aggressively loud. Mike, surely you want to talk to Rob. You've got a minute.

Dan, if you're not cheating, you ain't trying, brother. You know that. He's right about that.

Rob, a couple of decades ago, you made a bet on soccer and you left ESPN at a time where it was really brave to. So you've seen the growth of soccer in this country. I think there's been a sizable sea change in how legacy media is talking about the World Cup. Gone are the tropes of it's boring and there's no scoring, and people are actually making an honest effort to talk about the game. What do you make of that and where, where do we go from here?

Real quick, a tip of the cap to John Skipper, because I firmly believe that behind the scenes he was one of the driving forces that changed that narrative. And it started at ESPN. You know, I was a young buck at ESPN as a production assistant, and I did some reporting and some other things. But soccer was a joke. It was an inconvenience. It was low-hanging fruit. And, and to John's credit, he came in and he kind of laid down the law and like, no more. Like, this is the world's game. This is the world sport. This is a growing sport in this country, and we need to treat it with the respect. So to John, tip of the cap. Thank you for everything you've done to grow soccer in this country. I think the changing moment for me was the 2002 World Cup, and ESPN had it back then, and I was doing studio work in Charlotte, North Carolina, living on Korea/Japan time in North Carolina during the summer. And that was, I think, kind of like a throwaway World Cup in a lot of bosses' minds. Like, ah, the hours are awful. No one's going to watch.

And then all of a sudden we're getting these viral videos of people waking up at ungodly hours in places like the Dakotas and Nebraska and gathering en masse to watch the games and care about it. And I think for me, that was, that was the World Cup. That was the trigger moment where I was like, no, no, no, we're going to be fine. You know, we dealt with it at Fox in 2018 when it was our first men's World Cup and the US failed to qualify. And you know, listen, I was pretty hungover the next morning, I'll admit that, and a little bit lost and foggy, but I also knew that soccer had grown to a level that even if your quote unquote home country wasn't playing, this sport in this tournament was gonna be just fine. So I am loving these moments of still millions of people coming into the tent and experiencing soccer for the first time. I got a lot of people asking me a lot of crazy ass questions about stoppage time and the clock and hydration breaks and what this guy means and why they're doing this. Um, but yet there is such a, a larger base of people who can handle those answers and welcome people in and make them feel comfortable.

And yeah, I think this summer is just another kind of growth point, particularly with it being here on home soil, where people are going to say the sport is here, it's settled, it belongs, and it's only going to grow.

Rob, from, from this dream semifinal round, we're bound to get a great final, but What to you is the dream championship game, both in terms of TV draw and in terms of best matchup?

It's a tough one because, you know, the England-Argentina thing for a viewing audience here in the United States, England obviously brings eyeballs, but so does Lionel Messi and so does the defending champ. And to have the opportunity to have France and Argentina play a repeat final 4 years later where you have arguably the best collective in France with some of the greatest stars. And Kylian Mbappé is that guy who's probably going to take over the mantle for Lionel Messi. And then you got the 39-year-old Argentinian who just keeps on soldiering on and going now like 120 minutes in 2 out of his last 3 games and going the full 90. And you've got a GOAT that's playing. So I think whenever a GOAT is involved and you've got those iconic colors of Argentina, your eyes just go there. So I think the dream final— and I'm sure there'll be some pushback and I know people are smarter than me and have numbers, but I would go France, Argentina.

Rob, if people didn't call you an ugly American for changing a rule in the game, what would you change about this tournament?

Good one. You know, by the way, I'm so happy we haven't been ugly Americans at this World Cup. I think that's been like one of the real big wins. And I'm not— I'm not making a joke about that. Like, I have been so warmed up by the thoughts and the visuals and the feedback of people coming to our shores and coming into our country and, and wanting to take as many gallons of ranch dressing as they possibly can back home.. And Erling Haaland, I don't know if you saw that, he got off the plane yesterday with a stuffed raccoon and a gin bottle. I don't even know where you find that. I'm kind of proud of him and jealous that I don't know where to get that, but he's taking that back to Norway. So I love the fact that our country has really opened up our front door and our front porch and said, come on in and enjoy what, what we are, whether that's Waffle House or Costco or stuffed raccoons. All right. But to get back to your point, like, so one of the things— listen, I love this sport dearly. And one of the things that I hate about it is there are like 2 or 3 things that prevent a lot of sporting fans from coming in and enjoying that sport.

So Urban Meyer is a dear friend of mine. There's the raccoon, right? Like, the raccoon is going to bring people in. I don't know what kind of gin bottle that is. It's amazing. I wish it was more like— really, if that was truly American, it would probably be like a possum on a Jack Daniel's bottle. But we'll save that for another— we'll save that for another show. I hate the diving. I hate the faking. If there's any way I can kind of get rid of that, because that rolling around, the theatrics tricks that is part of this sport and the DNA of this sport, but it also turns off so many people and it's unnecessary and it, it stains the reputation of this sport and of those players. So if there's a way— and we've tried and we've done a pretty good job narrowing that down, but it still exists— but get rid of the diving, get rid of the rolling around, get rid of the faking.

I did not have, uh, the sentence "there's the raccoon" being uttered during this segment.

It's good production work. Yeah, excellent behind-the-scenes work, Dan.

Uh, thank you.

Uh, the crew was ready.

It It sounds like what you're saying, if I'm reading between the lines here, is that the dream matchup in the final would be the game you get today in terms of excellence, in terms of not stories, just excellence. You believe soccer, you believe these to be the two best teams in the tournament in terms of soccer.

Yeah, I think so. But there's no chance I'm going to complain about any of these potential matchups in the final. And I don't mean that just as a company guy. Like, I'll be happy to watch Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane try to bring it home. I would love to thrilled to see the GOAT Lionel Messi, you know, try to, try to end his, his international career with back-to-back World Cup titles. I'm thrilled to see Spain try to get their second World Cup ever, ever. I don't know how that's happened, but France has just been so damn good and so deep and so talented. And I think the way they play is, is kind of addictive. And if you drop in a newbie into the stadium or in front of the television and they're like, watch this team, those people are going to go, damn, they're good, they're fast and they're athletic and it's sexy and I want to watch more of this. That's not a reason that I like them in the final. It's just I love the allure that the French have created this summer. So I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled. However it plays itself out.

But ideally, I'd like to see France get through today and it's going to be a you-know-what of a fight for them to get past Spain. And I hope, I hope there's extra time, like give me an extra 30 minutes of this and maybe some, some PK drama because I would love the, you know what.

You guys know what the hell— what is that? Do you know?

It's gonna be a hell of a fight.

I think he would have said a hell of a fight if he meant hell. The you know what made it seem like it was stronger than hell.

Heck, Rob, as far as career achievements go, where do you rank winning the 24/7 WWE title?

Pretty damn high. Pretty damn high, I'll tell you that. Um, yeah, I'm a wrestling nerd. I've been into it for a long time, going to the old Hartford Civic Center in the mall and watching Blackjack Mulligan with the claw and I remember being in an elevator with George "The Animal" Steele when I was on a road trip with my Colgate soccer team on the island, taking on Adelphi and just like freaking out. Yeah, I have the belt. They were kind enough to give me a replica of the belt and it's heavy and it's legit. And when a few cocktails enter the bloodstream, the belt does come out around the house and it's so fun to kind of like put it around the shoulder, put around the waist, particularly when people are there who have no idea what the hell is going on. But it's such a nagged it. Like, everybody just wants to be around the belt and they want to touch it and they want to hold it. They want to put it on and take pictures. Uh, the 24/7 belt was a pretty, pretty awesome moment. Um, can I— can— do we have time?

Can I, can I tell more about the 24/7?

Yes.

All right. So Triple H, um, you know, we know who Triple H is, right? He was in our studio that day. You know, this is back when WWE was on Fox, and I had heard that I'm gonna win this belt and I'm gonna lose it, like, rapidly. And I said, hey, You can't. I'm having this conversation with Triple H. I'm like, hey, can I lose this title with some dignity and some pride? And he's looking at me like, what are you talking about? I'm like, could I get like fluorescent light bulbs just smashed over my head? He's like, he's like, no, you can't. I go, how about like, you know, an undercarriage shot, a low blow? He's, he's, he's, and he's actually starting to get pissed at me. I go, a chair to the back. Like, can I take a chair to the back or a chair to the head? He's like, please stop talking. Vince will kill me if I let any of these things happen to you. You are going to get rolled up. You're going to get pinned. 1, 2, 3. You're probably not going to see it happen. And I didn't.

And that's it. That's the end of your reign. So my reign was like, I feel like in the 6 to 8 second window, but still a hell of a run.

You are a maximum professional. You can do the World Cup on the biggest stage. You could do college football. But I'm going to throw a curveball at you here. I know it's not— play-by-play is not your specialty, but let's just say that you had to break into coverage in the middle of your studio show and announce what was happening in this video. I'm throwing you a surprise video with no warning. Can you give the audio audience here, as if it doesn't have videos, some understanding of the video that you have been given?

Oh man, this thing is amazing, right? So you got an— you got a bison who's just enjoying a July day, but he sees a couple people out in the distance and, oh, now you're taking out the binoculars, now you're invading my privacy. You know what, let me roll over scratch that itch, and now I'm pissed, right? I'm telling you, when you see the smoke and the dust kick up and I shake my head like that— yeah, get your damn white pickup truck out of my way because I'm charging this way and I'm going to save the young kid because he's got a future. But old man, you're going to learn a lesson and you're going to share this lesson with future generations. You can run like you— like, like you think you're a gazelle around these trees. But brother, I'm finding you. Your best— your best tactic is to get up and climb that tree. And I'm gonna give you 1, 2, 3, you're not doing it, and son, you are gonna go up in the air. Give me the countdown. 3, 2, 1, we've got takeoff.

That is well done.

Excellent work.

Pro's pro. What a bad spot you put him in and he just reacted brilliantly.

You was not gonna fail with him.

No, he's an excellent broadcaster, uh, Rob.

Great still, by the way. Oh, that's a great image.

It's the opposite of the Jordan Jumpman. Uh, thank you, Rob. Good seeing you. Uh, we appreciate the time, sir.

Pleasure, guys. Have a great summer.

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Dan Lebotard.

Can't trade Moreno.

Nice hat.

Nice hat, asshole.

It's what he's most known for. It's not like I'm holding on to it.

Greg Cody.

Nice hat.

They were 9-2. But it's Marino.

Nice hat.

And then the next time we saw Marino after Greg Cody traded him, he threw for 5 touchdowns.

Nice hat.

And he was being the man on the COVID of Sports Illustrated. You can't trade Marino.

Nice hat, asshole.

This is the Dan Levatar Show.

Something I should have asked him that I didn't want to put him in a bad spot on. The last time we had this conversation about the magic that is in the studio between Thierry Henry, Zlatan, and Alexi Lalas, we were talking about the fact that there seems to be a genuine lack of respect there that you just don't often find on television. And weird as it is, this is super weird to me. I was having this conversation with a couple of television executives this last weekend. It's weird to me that—

Executive friends?

Yes, my executive friend.

Add it to the list.

Name dropper.

People who don't understand, uh, and these people didn't, and many television executives don't. Chemistry on television is rare. It's really hard to find, and the only time you will usually find it, with this as an exception, is if people genuinely like each other. And not often enough are people who genuinely like each other putting on a show together, uh, and falling into laughter instead of chuckle-fest because they're just people who enjoy being around each other. It's not It's not any secret television executive ingredient. They don't have them. You either put the people on television who like each other, or they don't like each other and respect each other enough to do the television well. But Amin floated a theory that I had not considered, that in 2026, Alexi Lalas and the three of them might all be in on— this is all professional wrestling, guys, none of it's serious, it doesn't matter— Alexi Lalas is going to be there to be the villain, to be the professional wrestler who comes out and bothers the crowd on purpose. I don't adhere to that theory. I don't think that this is a put-on. I think the two guys don't respect him.

But if I was trying to find something that worked among guys who don't actually like each other, that's the move I would go with. Put the guy on that the other guys don't respect and have him be okay with the role of, I'm gonna be the villain. That's my— my job is to be paid very well here this late in my career to be out here and have these guys and be their foil, be the court jester so that everyone can hate me and people won't notice that Zlatan and Thierry Henry are just okay at broadcasting. You may think they're better at broadcasting, but they're there because they're stars, right? They're there because as personalities or players, they were stars. That's not why Alexi Lalas is there. He's there to be the foil.

I don't think professional athletes are willing to play those kind of roles. I think there's too much ego involved. I think there's too much pride involved to say, like, hey, like other radio shows or TV shows do. This is your role, this is your role, you're going to be this guy, you're going to be this guy. I think there's too much pride involved where they're not willing to play that role.

I watched a lot of those three interacting, and I think the disrespect is pretty genuine. If it isn't, they're good actors. I think that the other two, the two accomplished guys, see Lalas as the token American. We had to have an American broadcaster. For a U.S. World Cup. This is the guy we got.

He's been there forever, though. They didn't just have him for the U.S. World Cup. He's like their longest-tenured analyst.

I know, but for this World Cup, you have to have an American.

I mean, you have to. The disrespect seems genuine because one of them is French and the other one is Zlatan. And Zlatan doesn't respect anyone, really. I think Alexi should be commended because I do think he's playing a heel and he's not too offended by it, which is interesting considering not just the fact that he's the American star, but because he's been the de facto credible voice, even though he always says outlandish things. Guys, American soccer fans have not liked Alexi Lalas's takes, both on the sport, the homerism, and the political stuff too. He, he is not really well respected within his own community, but he became a huge television star, and I do commend him for leaning into the dynamic It allows Lahtan to be the most Lahtan.

I want to celebrate something that just happened here, which was Greg Cody at the height of professionalism. He's never done this before. He wrote me a note that said, "I have a bison fact." Yes. And I want to stop everything that we're doing.

Thank you.

To acknowledge that Greg Cody's judgment— and I'm going to give you carte blanche here the rest of the way on our careers.

Okay.

Any time you feel like you have something that could bring everything that we're talking about to a screeching halt, We will stop the show in your honor.

Okay, to do it.

What is the bison fact that you have?

Well, I'm like the, the bison correspondent for the show. As you know, we just vacationed briefly in Wyoming where I was face-to-face with a major herd of bison. As you know, we had a private tour guide.

Face-to-face?

Yeah, I was face-to-face. I was within 20 feet of a bison in a car, so I didn't put myself at risk like this guy. But when I'm watching that, here's what I see. I see a horny bison. I see testosterone raging through that bison, and I'm serious because this is the onset of mating season for bison. This was a horny bison who's agitated easily. He's got testosterone, and he's— 2 months ago, he would have been more docile and probably just laid there, guarantee.

Maybe. I don't think you can guarantee that, even though I just did. It was that your bison fact?

Yeah, that was my bison fact, is that it's mating season. And the testosterone and the horniness explains the agitation.

ZZ Top is hiding there behind one of the trees, but that's not working. And it is, it is just, it really is amazing video. I want to, I want to talk about something else here though that is— are you okay? Is everything all right?

Ha!

Christopher just whispered to me, it looks like Uncle Dick. And it did.

That looked like my brother being cartwheeled by a bike without the mustache, like without the beard.

If you didn't have the beard, that's Uncle Yeah, I'm going to call my brother and make sure that wasn't him.

Bison Daley.

Mike Bison.

There you go. Nice. Let's keep it going, guys.

Please don't. That's enough. Bison Daley and Mike Bison. That's all the Bisons. That is enough.

And Bison Street Fighter.

Dan Levitar. Baker Mayfield tearing up Tampa Bay, 38 for 45.

Greg Cody.

Shreddum!

This is the Dan Levitar Show.

The Lawless combination on, on the broadcast is, is one thing, uh, but last night I think Netflix finally got the sporting event that it wanted the way that it wanted it. There were complaints about Will Ferrell. For those of you who are not watching the Home Run Derby last night, the standout things. They got the story right. The Jordan Walker stuff was nice, right? You got the drama, the family. Like, man, oh man, the NBA tried to sell us the Curry family for a while. Family sells. Family— when you start throwing love and passion and parents and kids into things, uh, Netflix got the Home Run Derby. The Home Run Derby had grown stale, I feel like. I feel like most people people were ignoring the Home Run Derby and were mad at Netflix for their last baseball foray. Baseball people can be super precious, so when Netflix is sitting there promoting all their things, even though that's why baseball's there so Netflix can promote all its things— like, don't, don't get this twisted. The reason Netflix got baseball isn't because they want baseball. They want baseball's eyes to be talking about and thinking about Netflix.

Like, they're only in live sports to sell all the other things they have, but they have to do it in the modern age. Gone is the quaint time where you could just sit your celebrities in the All-Star Game seats, right, to promote their shows on your network. This is the new way we're doing it, and it sounded like it got universal applause everywhere. I heard very little criticism of anything except for Will Ferrell and a little bit for Barry Bonds.

I had it on the second TV in the Zazzle Mansion family room, so I didn't have the sound on it because on the big TV I was watching my stories all night, but I was able to see what was going on with the Home Run Derby. And certainly the finish was really fun. I mean, Kyle Schwarber, of course, hometown guy, he had a good performance in the finale. And so the entire crowd there is, is, is rooting against Jordan Walker in the final at-bat. And they keep going back to Walker's parents. His mom and his dad are sitting in like the third row and they're so into it. And he, he needed to close hitting 5, I think it was 6. 6 consecutive swings, because on the last ball you get to keep going. So he needed 6 consecutive swings to win, and he got it. And the crowd, which was so jacked because of Kyle Schwarber, they're just dead silent and then heading for the exits like they lost the game. I've never seen that over here.

You can hear Walker's family in a crowd that's been stunned silent in Philadelphia, right?

But Philadelphia, make no mistake about it, if it wasn't for Dad being up there, Philly crowd wanting Schwarber would have booed the heck out of this guy Jordan Walker.

They booed him like crazy.

Not once Dad was up there.

No, they—

I mean, I think maybe once Dad was up there, they didn't.

That was during the interview. Once it was like they were done selling, I think at that point a lot of people had left. So at that point they weren't booing, but they were. And even Wilson Contreras in the semifinal was the same thing where he got close to winning and they were booing him.

It was right—

the drama with the home crowd, with the, with the home guy made it— like, I was a little— the first round of it, I was just like, this feels like every other Home Run Derby. But that semifinal and the final, it was a great Home Run Derby.

And gotta give Philly fans credit because they also were great at reading ball off bat. Like, they knew in, in something that was all about swings, and you knew how many were going to be left when the ball was coming off Contreras's bat, when the ball was coming off Walker's bat. If it was a fly out and it wasn't a home run, they instantly knew and were erupting and then booing every time the ball was off the bat and it was going to be a homer.

It wasn't exciting. Look, I don't want to be the guy who throws a wet towel on everything. It was an exciting finish. To the Home Run Derby. But I'm sorry, it's not a great Home Run Derby field when the Home Run Derby champion before this season had never hit more than 16 home runs in a season. This is not a slugger. Nobody on earth, including Cardinals fans, think of Jordan Walker as, as a classic—

you are being a wet blanket for no good reason.

Baseball fans know Jordan Walker. Yeah, he's been one of the Cardinals prospects for many years.

Okay, he had 16 home runs as a rookie, and until And after that, this season, he's got 22. This is his first year.

He beat Schwarber. Schwarber's a bomb hitter.

I know. I'm thinking back to the days when a Home Run Derby would have 8 or 10 true home run hitters.

Yeah, but 22 home runs at the break is really good.

It is. And prior to this season, he had hit no more than 16 in a whole season. I just don't think— I don't think anybody thinks of Jordan Walker as a classic home run slugger. And so why is he invited to a Home Run Derby?

Because they're all classic home run sluggers now. Everyone who plays the sport is a classic home run slugger.

Especially when you got, you know, your friend out there throwing, throwing law balls.

You're being a wet blanket on something that was positive. I don't know why you— No, you are though.

It's a bad Home Run Derby.

Well, let's hear from Barry Bonds here real quick. He disagrees slightly with Greg Cody's appraisal that it's a bad Home Run Derby. It was the greatest Home Run Derby I ever seen. I had to match 3 home runs.

11 home runs to get to win.

11 home runs.

Amazing.

What got me was this, Jordan, was this. You were so calm and you used your hands well. You never cared how far the ball went. You actually used your hands well as a contact hitter and just hit the ball. Just, you were just fluent and just fluent. And it was probably most amazing. And for me to say it, brother, I'm gonna tell you right now, I've seen a lot of home runs. Bonds, but to come back from 11 with only 15— we're talking only 15 swings, brother.

You got my—

you can appreciate it. You got my trophy too, bro. You got my—

I just want to point out Cody is laughing at Barry Bonds throughout Bonds' praise. Yeah, you were.

You know what they didn't show there? Uh, they cut it out, is when Barry Bonds said to Jordan Walker, and you did it without steroids. Congratulations, man.

All wet blanket.

I loved Barry being like, and I'm even saying it.

I mean, if I'm telling you and I'm even saying it, it does sound odd to me.

It does carry weight though. Like, he didn't have to say that. But the fact that he's saying, this is me telling you those are good home runs, you can laugh at that. I assure you that Jordan Walker was registering who was saying that because that's the greatest hitter there's ever been in my lifetime.

And he's sitting on a couch with pool holes as well.

Yeah, there's that. Let's play though. Let's see if the wet blanket Greg has something on this, on the emotion of Jordan Walker. I'm going to get Greg on this. It's a father, it's a father and son thing, and I'm going to get Greg on this. He's going to change his mind here.

They're still booing you. What's it like to have 40,000 people boo you?

Um, I was once told you don't boo nobody, so it feels pretty good.

Yeah, right.

How about your dad, Derek?

Get over here, get over here. How about your boy?

Oh, he was awesome today.

I just loved everything about it, just his attitude, his approach.

Coach.

The smoothness is—

the swing looked like his dad.

But, uh, yeah, he just did a great job.

We're so proud of him.

Did we sway you?

I mean, yeah, I, I love the father-son relationship. That's why when the— listen again— when the father started talking, the boos calmed down.

And you wanted him to be booed?

I still maintain that it was not a great— it was a great finish to a Home Run Derby, but it was not a classic Home Run Derby where you've You got guys in the field who have a chance to hit 50 home runs.

You're just saying, okay, I think we could— like, yes, Judge wasn't in it, Ohtani wasn't in it, but like, it was a good product. Yes, maybe there could have been a couple bigger names. That seems to be your only gripe here.

Here's the— let me tell you something. The Home Run Derby equivalent is the Slam Dunk Contest in the NBA. It isn't what it used to be. It is— you don't have Michael Jordan in the Slam Dunk Contest anymore.

But wait, just Junior Caminero before the All-Star break had like 12 home runs in 18 games, and they've got, you know, they had 3 of the top 4 home run hitters in the sport and walkers in the top 10. Like, I don't— I don't know what you wanted from last night that would have made that any better. But okay, your point stands. You are a wet blanket, even if you say on the front end that you're not a wet blanket.

I'm waiting for it to be on a network channel.

Okay.

You guys are easily pleased.

Maybe Fox or Fox Nation.

The thing—

$17.76.

I saw that price.

Incredible.

The thing that I want to talk about from that game, uh, and from tonight's All-Star Game that I don't think is getting enough attention, though it's getting plenty of attention in baseball— Zack Wheeler has had an all-time 'I'm taking my ball and going home' moment. Zack Wheeler is so angry and so petty that he has done something in a moment of anger that history will record heard he was not an All-Star this year. And Zach Wheeler, for those of you who do not know, he has been the Phillies— he's been a great pitcher for the Phillies for a couple of years now, and he deserves to be in this All-Star Game. And he's still mad about how hard it was to get into last year's All-Star Game. But wherever it is we talk about the ego of Jalen Brown or Tyler Herro and how and where they get disrespected, I don't have a lot of examples of the kind of petty of a guy had a chance to play in the All-Star Game in his hometown, and because they didn't ask him to play in it soon enough, and he knew he deserved to, and he's not wrong in any way.

Doesn't make any sense that Jesus Lozardo would be in the All-Star Game as his teammate over him, unless you consider the fact that he just pitched and Scubal had no answers for him because of how pissed he was pitching. He had a chance to be in the All-Star Game in his hometown, which is something you get get once in a lifetime as an opportunity, and he declined it because he's like, I'm not going to be the fifth option. I was stunned by that, the amount of self-respect that man has and the indignity that makes him torch Scooble in his last outing because he's like, no, I'm one of the best. Why are you not regarding me as one of the best? Why do I have to beg to get in your All-Star Game? You know what, I don't want to be in your All-Star Game. Keep your All-Star game. I just haven't seen a whole lot of athletes do anything like that.

I loved it. I, I, for everything you said, but I think we could agree that if he had some type of clause in his contract, if I make the All-Star Game, get a million dollar bonus, he'd have been in it.

So can we find out, can we find out if Seth Wheeler has any clause in his contract? Because I believe that this indignity is not something that I would just wash away with money. This is an uncommon amount of petty, because there's not an amount of money I could give a player to say, hey, how much would you give me if I let you play in the All-Star Game in your hometown? It's, it's something that people dream about.

Can he do the semantics thing of like accept the invite and then be like, I need to rest my arm? So then on his resume, yeah, if he had a bonus clause, he can be considered an All-Star, but I'm not going to play.

But that was the whole thing is he was frustrated because there were several guys who opted out because they were going to be pitching on Sunday. He was already frustrated he wasn't at added in the initial roster, then they didn't ask him in the second go-around because they knew he wasn't going to be able to pitch. So when they came to him for the third time after disrespecting him that way, he was like, you know what, screw you, I don't want to do this anymore.

It's $1,776 for the whole year. Dan, do you know what you get? The home of real American freestyle.

Yellowstone, but not, not Yellowstone, but the guy, the guy from I think Rob Lowe has a show.

Rob Lowe and more.

Gutfeld!

Isn't he hurting his own bank account though? Like, if you're an all-star, your next contract you get more money.

It's a game show.

If I'm Wheeler there, I might give him the middle finger, but I'm at least accepting the bid first so I can put on my resume that I'm an all-star.

Dan, do you like the Property Brothers?

Let's, uh, let's have Kirkshin on today or tomorrow to ask him, uh, about that. And in the interim, I want to play some cringe television for you guys, uh, before I play this sound, I just want you guys to know that Justin Verlander was never designated for assignment and Justin Verlander was drafted second overall, not in the late rounds. Now play the A-Rod sound.

I also look at you as like I look at Tom Brady, Jeter, you know, Papi Mariano, guys that played into their 40s and doing it at a high level. But this for the young ones that are out there watching, how do you explain being a late draft pick, being designated for assignment a couple of times with two different seems right?

Me?

Yeah, no, nothing wrong.

You got the wrong notes!

What? Hey Ron, what are you doing?

Plays it off like he's joking on the shoulder.

Come on A-Rod, what do you do? Oh wow, a master at work. I see a horny bison.