Transcript of World Jai-Alai League Owner Rob Gough Joins Us in Studio | Hour 1

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The owner of the World High-Lye League, it's based here in Miami. He'll be here shortly. He's an entrepreneur. He's an actor. He sold a Michael Jordan jersey here recently for $12 million.

Oh.

Yeah, he's a big collector, and I know a lot of people are interested in collecting. David Sampson is with us. The Sports Business Show and many, many other things— Nothing Personal continues to grow and is doing things no one else has done. I'm not kidding. In the history of sports business, he's doing it better than anyone in the media. And also his baseball coverage with Jeremy and elsewhere on CBS is very good. He'll be on Pitch Clock if you want more baseball than I can get out of this crew because they don't like talking baseball. You'll hear that later on. But Sampson, let's begin. With what happened with Kawhi here the last couple of days, we've got some sound where it appears that he's trying to give off the appearance that he maybe doesn't know who Pablo Torre is. Let's play that sound.

Another Pablo Torre episode came out last night. I'm just kind of curious, as this has gone on, do you pay attention to them?

How do you block them out?

The Pablo Torre podcast that's kind of sort of pushing the investigation.

Oh, um, No, I don't follow it, you know. I don't know what to think of it or really expect. I'm not entertained by it. So like I said before, the NBA did their job, the PA did their job. And yeah, I don't know. I don't even know what he's talking about.

You can understand that, right, Dan? Not entertained by it.

Editorial. So they asked him about Pablo Torre. Let's hear it. Let's just hear it. He repeats the name Pablo Torre by saying editorial. Editorial. What are your thoughts there, David? What's, what's happening there?

I don't have the ego to think that Kawhi Leonard listens to Pablo Torre Finds Out or any of our 17 episodes because he lived them. He doesn't need to be investigated by PTFO and have us open folders of documents that he's signed. of businesses that he's opened, LLCs that he owns, money that he's cashed and then spent. No, no, he lives it. So it doesn't matter that he's never heard of Pablo. What matters is that he understands that he is involved in something of his own making, and he can say all he wants. Hey, I got nothing to do with this, but we're moving on from it. Uncle Dennis, see you later. 5 years suspended. I've switched agents. I'm now a Raptor. I want to just move forward. The only people who say they want to move forward are people scared of anyone looking back. And that's just a reality for Kawhi Leonard.

Okay, but hold on just a second, though. Entertain both the hypothetical with me and the absurdity. You believe it's possible he's not heard of Pablo Torre? You believe it's possible he's telling the truth there?

Yes. No, I do. I guarantee you he did not read the Wachtell report, which started with Pablo Torre finds out. I promise you that when he was— it was brought to his attention last September 3rd that there was something out there about Aspiration and that there was going to be an investigation. And he met the media saying, yeah, I don't really know the amount of money they owe me. It's some amount of money. It may be more than what's out there, maybe less. He's talking about his money. He's talking about his business. And when he's strategizing with the union and his lawyers, they— it's not podcast courts. He's strategizing about real life.

But, but, but, David, let's just, let's just make this any other human being in the world. You have been brought great international shame by one person. You're not going to know his name?

Yeah. No, it's not out of the question, Dan. You asked a question. You may not like my answer, but it's not out of the question that Kawhi Leonard's never heard of Paul O'Toole. There's people in my life and we won a Pulitzer. We won an Edward R. Murrow Award.

But I'm talking about somebody is put in front of an international audience. Your greatest professional shame. You don't know who that person is.

Because to him, it's not his greatest professional shame. That's just not how he looks at this. To him, he paid $700,000. He's a Raptor now, and it's just not a part of his everyday life. He's got lawyers and advisers and people who are far more concerned about things. There are players I've come across in my career all the time who just have no idea that stuff's going on and it's flowing right around them and it impacts them. But in fact, it doesn't change what they have to do that particular day.

We should ask him one more time, please.

I just— I don't believe it. I understand they have lawyers and managers, agents that are dealing with all that stuff for him, of course. But at some point there, he says to them, how did they find out? And somebody says, oh, this is this podcast out there. You know, like, he definitely knows who Pablo is.

It would be a question that he'd ever ask. How did they find out? Because to Kawhi Leonard, he didn't do anything wrong. He's just getting paid extra money to do things for what he believes he's worth. And so that's it. Believe me, they don't spend time sitting around at Kawhi Leonard's house talking about Pablo Torre. Other people may in Pablo's house, but not in Kawhi's house.

The reason I believe it, because remember the brother, all he had to do was plant one damn tree and didn't. So he might not know who this brother is.

He would have planted the tree if anyone had asked him, why are you rubbing your pickle nipples? Pipples. David, what did you do in the most recent episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out? And what do you do with the criticism? Enough already. 17 episodes is too much.

Well, I'll start with the criticism that we live and die by numbers. We live and die by analytics. It's not 100% of what we operate. But I think that Ray Davies has always had it right. You give the people what they want, and the numbers would indicate that people are listening. Paying attention. That was a Kinks reference, by the way.

Yeah, 1970s.

All right, so you're admitting that this is a ratings-driven grift?

It's not a grift at all because there's new information that keeps coming out.

Seems as though you're like, the numbers say that we should keep digging.

And so does Ray Davies of the Kinks.

Make fun all you want, Dan. It's your company. We're doing it for you. Believe me.

Oh, dear God.

If you flipped it on to you. Me to talk about stuff that no one cares about and for you to do the same thing because it's more entertaining and funny, then who's gonna pay the bills?

What did you do in the last episode that is worth chronicling? I will not dispute that you have found an absolute lane, and I mentioned this yesterday, and it's not unlike some of what these murder mystery podcasts do, and it is a thriving podcast economy. You have a podcast lane where everyone's coming to you for the only information there is on a subject, and that's just really rare when everyone is at this trough trying to grab stuff and you've got it exclusively. So what is the latest installment that advances the story? What's interesting about the Boingo episode?

What's interesting is that Kawhi Leonard actually did do something where with Aspiration it was a no-show job. He got paid millions of dollars to do nothing. At Boingo Wireless, he got paid over $600,000 to go sign some autographs on an Army base in Camp Pendleton. But the question is, why would he go there? What's the relationship of Camp Pendleton and Boingo Wireless? What's the relationship of the Clippers and Camp Pendleton and Boingo Wireless? Is it possible that Boingo Wireless, public company, was involved in the salary cap circumvention, allegedly? Well, according to Pablo's reporting and according to what we found out on the most recent episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out, There was a moment when Kawhi Leonard was signing autographs for an hour, getting paid an amount of money, and it's all connected to the Clippers when the Clippers position has been, I don't know what you're talking about. We never get involved in sponsors. We never get involved in any of this. And this specific incident was not covered by Wachtell, who in their report 36 pages, giving the biggest penalty ever handed out to an NBA owner. They specifically stated, but wait, there's more, as though they took the line from Pablo himself.

And yes, there is more. Oh, wait a second. There's still more.

So, David, Mike, David, did he get paid to do a meet and greet with troops?

He did get paid to do a meet and greet with troops. And he did spend what could be an hour doing some meet and greets with troops at Camp Pendleton. And it is possible that Boingo Wireless— spoiler alert— was the sponsor of this meet and greet. And it's also possible that Boingo may have done something to help the Wi-Fi at Camp Pendleton. Wow. Put all those things together. Now, Mike is going to criticize because I get it.

I'm not— you've seen the movie Double Jeopardy!, right?

No. This is not that.

I love Absolutely Judged, by the way. Well, I know you do. Murder isn't always a crime. That's the tagline for 1999's Double Jeopardy, which is—

I feel like they don't do that as much, have taglines with movie titles. They don't do that as much, right? They don't do that.

Yeah, bring that back. Put that on the poll. Should they bring back movie poster taglines? Anyways, you can't get convicted of the same crime twice. The NBA is probably looking at this as a closed matter. They've already handed out the punishment. And they've already ruled on Kawhi's involvement. So like, even though you bring new information to light, it's very evident that the NBA is trying to put this behind them and they can hang their hat on this is the most severe punishment we've ever handed down.

But Mike, they did say in the report that there might be more coming. They did leave—

Have you not seen Double Jeopardy? She holds a gun out and she says, double jeopardy, murder isn't a crime or something like that.

Yeah. And what's happened here is Adam Silver still holding out the gun and he's saying, I punished them already, but I might punish them more.

So she went to jail, false. I believe, if I'm remembering this right. Well, I mean, this is 1999. David, am I remembering this right? She was like convicted of a murder she did not commit, but then she gets out and Tommy Lee Jones is there with a fur brow and he's like, you can't do this. But she kills the guy that actually did it because she can't go to jail knowing that double jeopardy.

Do you not think it makes sense, Mike, for the NBA to leave open the possibility that there's going to be further punishment because they said so? And because of what happened with your guy Terry Rozier and the NBA got completely embarrassed by meting out a punishment and then realizing, well, wait a minute, there was way more. We just didn't have access to it. Whether it's because the government gets to subpoena and gets access to more or whether it's Pablo who has access to more, the reality is there's more. This is not a court of law. This is not where double jeopardy has anything to do with the reality of the situation. So it is clear that the more that we find out, the NBA pays attention to every one of these episodes, I promise you.

But she holds her arms out with the weapon and she's like Double Jeopardy. Dan Levitar. There's sunglasses in boxes today, but in my bed in the hospital, ending our lives all the same. Jeremy Tatché.

It's the finals.

This is the Dan Le Batard Show.

Dan, it was only 28% on Rotten Tomatoes though.

That's, that's a problem.

You put this on the poll please, @LeBatardShow. Is Tommy Lee Jones always there with furrowed brow. Yes, I know. Well, that's yes or no. Let's allow the public to decide. You don't have to vote before everyone else, Roy. It's not necessary. You can apologize. You could leave it for the entirety of the audience. We got to— we assumed what your opinion would be on this. LeBron, I don't know what David Sampson's opinion is on LeBron living in New York and helicoptering to Philadelphia. I'm going to say it. I don't feel like helicopters are as safe as they need to be, and I don't trust them as a form of travel. But I do think it's funny for Maxie to be waiting for a car or an Uber or trying to drive into traffic as LeBron parachutes in.

So wait a second, is that LeBron?

In a helicopter. So what do you make of this? This is interesting to you, Samson?

Yeah, only because obviously we're all a victim of our past. And I think about Kobe Bryant all the time. And I think about relatives who died in a plane crash. And why would you put yourself in a position where you are putting yourself at risk? And don't say you're not. Because while it is true that driving on the 495, the LIE in New York, you're putting yourself at risk. I get it. But there's no reason— he's in Philadelphia. He chose Philadelphia. If he wants to commute, I understand. But you're going to commute by helicopter, basically just raising your middle finger to the city of Philadelphia. There's no reason to even say or make a spectacle of it. And I'm smiling because there's owners who do this. Wayne Huizenga famously took helicopters into Miami like there's no other way to get to Miami than a helicopter. And Bill DeWitt of the Cardinals would helicopter into spring training in Jupiter. I get it. If you have money, it's a great way to get around until it's not. And I just don't see the reason. If LeBron was so excited to be with Embiid and be with Maxey, there's great suburbs outside Philly, great school systems.

I spoke to Mike Hampton about it. So just live there. It's only going to be a year.

My favorite, though, David, was the Dolphins so eager to hire Jeff Fisher that they helicoptered him in from Fort Lauderdale Airport. And the drive is 10 minutes. Like, it would have taken 10 minutes to drive, but it took 20 minutes to go to the helicopter and get over there. But they helicoptered him in because Jeff Fisher had to be brought in in an emergency. Jeff Fisher.

Yeah, that really worked out for them. I took Wayne Huizenga. He took me in his helicopter when he went to look at a suite at Marlins Park when I was trying to sell him a suite. And he didn't like going into Miami, as you very well know. He was a Broward guy. And the only way he'd agree to do it was in a helicopter. He didn't buy one.

He very clearly, though, LeBron didn't choose Philadelphia like he chose the Sixers. But he very clearly has not chosen Philadelphia.

Got his ass. David, me and you park our cars in the same garage on this topic because, yes, as a new Sixers fan, brother, please drive, find an apartment. But I have a question for you from my mommy. My mommy said, please ask David Sampson this question, and here we are. Mommy, I love you. Did you go back and ask and remind all the people who you told that Roy bought the pork that he did not in fact bring that pork? Thank you!

Thank you! That is such a great question. And the answer is no. Wow. And let me explain why. Because I have no great recollection of anyone who I told it to because I was in such a daze that I thought the best way to do it was to apologize on the show with this size audience that Dan has because he's covering—

Not such a daze, though, that you didn't leave the accusation with Roy. You weren't so dazed that you didn't know to accuse Roy.

No, but that's the days, Dan, that I got it wrong. That's why you need corroborating witnesses. That's why a court of law, you generally don't get proof beyond a reasonable doubt with one person remembering something one way in a non-crooked courtroom situation. I had it wrong. I apologize to Roy publicly and privately, by the way, and on the air in front of your massive audience. So, Juju, I would just say to your mom, thank you for the love, but I think I've covered everybody. In terms of who had the feeling that it was the one guy bringing pork into the shiva as being Roy, when in fact it wasn't.

They're tough in Louisiana, Libby. You shoot me, they'll give you the gas chamber. No, they won't. It's called double jeopardy. I learned a few things in prison, Nick. I could shoot you in the middle of Mardi Gras and they can't touch me. That's supposed to sound like Tommy Lee Jones, Tony? I don't think that was Tommy Lee Jones. I haven't seen the movie. Who was the bad guy in that? Was it, was it Harry Connick Jr.? It was in Louisiana, so that makes sense.

I just know that Tommy Lee Jones was there with a furrowed brow. We have the Reaper around the corner here so that David Sampson can select from the bucket. Why'd you make that sound?

I'm tired of this already. We're 3 weeks in, I've lost twice.

Yeah, I don't like it either.

You stole this game from me too.

I hate it.

That's true. We did steal the game from, uh, from Zaslow and Amber. Uh, let's have Roy select for, uh, David Sampson, uh, the, uh, point spreads. Are in front of me now. Let's see what it is that you've selected there for David Sampson.

All right, David, you have the Atlanta Falcons.

Monday Night Football in New Orleans. They are a 2.5-point underdog.

They're tough in Louisiana, baby.

I'm undefeated this year and I want to stay that way, so I am going to stay with the Falcons.

Oh wow.

Because they are not the team that Dan said they were, actually. Because they've got Penix back at quarterback. And so the 2.5 points, they should be favored actually against the Saints. So I'll take them.

Okay, Dan, what did you say they were? Why you would do that? I mean, they were playing with—

they were the worst team ever.

String quarterback and they looked pretty bad. And then Penix came back and he fixed some things.

Packers are bad.

I told you that.

Packers are bad.

Dog shit.

So, David, before we get to some other things here, do you have any thoughts on the Protect College Sports Act that I have not heard elsewhere? Very frustrated with the way this is being talked about in public. I think it's being talked about very poorly.

So I covered another— really something that happened yesterday on This Morning's Nothing Personal. And the reason why I wanted to bring it up to you is that people are forgetting that just because the Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act does not mean that we've got ourselves a law. It's got to pass the House. And in order to pass the House, they've got to pass the exact same bill, the exact same language that is in the Senate bill. Well, already the House of Representatives leadership just yesterday got a letter from the Senate saying, listen, we would like you to make some amendments to this bill. Would you be willing to talk about not capping conference size at 20? Would you be willing to talk about not having a holding period of 3 years, we would be in favor of such amendments. And the problem is that if the House entertains such an amendment, it would then have to go back to the Senate for further debate and then another vote based on what the House then agrees to, if in fact they ever vote for it and if they vote positively and pass it. So all of the talk about what this will mean and how angry people are, whether it's unions or whether it's Trump or Randy Levine, the truth is you guys are like arguing into the wind because none of this is real yet.

So I would just encourage you all to simmer down and let the governmental process, which we have grown to love so much in this country, let it play out.

Baseball things you found most interesting. And I will tell people that if you want the good stuff from David Sampson and Jeremy Pitchcock, we'll have it for you today. But I don't want to cover the same ground. that you already covered. So from the games yesterday, the Cubs have their great season extinguished very quietly by a Padres lineup that I really like, David, especially if Tatis is going to be hitting all of a sudden. You have the Red Sox extinguished quietly. Astros should have never been in the playoffs, but the White Sox are winning a playoff series for the more— first time in more than 2 decades. What stood out from the first couple of games?

What stood out is the timing of everything that's happening, Dan. This is going to have impact during the labor negotiations. And I don't want to mix what's happening in October on the field with what's going to happen starting November 1st off the field.

Yes, you do.

But you're about to do it. No, you're about to do it. If you didn't want to do it right now, you didn't have to do it.

No, but I could have done it if you hadn't.

But you didn't have to do it. You said you didn't want to do it and nobody here believes you. You could have talked about the games. I offered you the floor to talk about the games. You went right away to the labor.

No, he actually didn't ask me.

You chose that, Dan.

You actually said to me, talk about something you didn't talk about on Nothing Personal, something we haven't heard before from you. Did you not say that?

I did.

So then let me do it.

But I was talking about the games.

Okay.

I mean, you want to talk about labor after yesterday? You want to talk about labor after the playoffs have started? You want to talk about work stoppages after— after what I'm asking you about is the opposite of a stoppage.

I don't understand. You ask a question and then you answer it. And then above that, if you don't like the answer given, Then you just pretend that I didn't understand the question.

I'll tell you why, David. I'll tell you why I don't trust you anymore on this front. Okay? I told you immediately after the Kawhi punishment came down, tell me the most interesting thing about the last 24 hours. And your response was, we at Meadowlark had a strategy meeting. I don't— I haven't trusted your judgment since then.

Then why ask the question? Why have me on? Why not just go, go with God and just move on from this 36-minute segment if you're completely bored and disinterested in how I'm going to talk about something because your biggest criticism of your guests is, by the way, please don't repeat what you're doing on your own show. This is my show. I need new stuff.

Give me the new stuff.

The new stuff is that we have a situation where the Red Sox, now the Cubs, the Astros, the players union and the owners, everybody is in agreement that the current system we have where you can be in the playoffs and then gone within like 28 hours, and you can be subject to the vagaries of PCA and Bregman going 0 for 15 and being extinguished, that owners have had it. The union has had it. Why? Because they want to give their players an opportunity to earn as much money as they can. And the way they earn their biscuit is in October. And if a 2-game sample size can label you as a non-playoff performer or as not clutch, Then that is not what interests the union at all. So I think instead of more elimination games, which would be my preference, you're going to find longer series, you're going to find reseeding, and you're going to find a change in divisional play that will try to make it so the best teams are playing.

So everyone hates it because Zazz hates it. Zazz hates this playoff format. You're telling me everyone hates it?

Yeah. So like, David, I, I'm not gonna— I wouldn't go as far as to say I hate it. Like, I like that there's wildcard round. I like that there's more teams involved, but I do feel like kind of empty where baseball is essentially a battle of attrition, you know? It's based over a long period of time. It's 162 games, and then you have a playoff series, and 2 games later your series is over. Like, I don't know. I feel—

Your season is over.

Yeah, I feel unfulfilled.

Yeah, we started with 1 game, which is— I used to love that, the 1-game playoff. Where it's just like the NFL, it's just like the NCAA.

Definitely don't like that.

Well, no, but if they're tied after 162 games, what he's saying is when they had fewer playoff teams and all of the games mattered more, sometimes you'd get to the end of the regular season with a tie. One game to see who advances, that was great. There was nothing wrong with that.

Yeah, we call that game 163.

Right, that wasn't considered a playoff game, right, David? That, like, that was not playoffs though.

No, but then you'd have the one game wildcard game. So it used to be that in 2022 it moved to 2 out of 3 because the owners had had enough of having a full season and then having it disappear in one game. That's different than Game 163. So that's when they went to 2 out of 3. But what you're going to see is this 2 out of 3 is no longer satisfactory to people because it's going too quick. Because what we've learned in a sample size since '22 is if you lose Game 1, you're done. So Game 1 is, in fact, really an all-or-nothing game. And so that's what's trying to be avoided. How do you do it? Shorten the regular season. Labor issue. Increase the rounds of playoffs and the number of games in the rounds so you get to have more inventory to sell to the networks. That's labor. That is what owners want, too. So I think this year is the straw that will break. the current playoff back.

Well, and David, isn't the answer actually no byes? Because you can't make the wildcard series longer when the teams that have a bye are already waiting until Saturday to play in the playoffs. Like, you— everybody just needs to play in the first round then, right?

I like the idea of one bye, and I like the idea of the team that earns the bye to decide whether they want the bye. And I think everybody would take it, even though there's stats that would tell you that resting for 4 or 5 days May not be perfect, but I know running a team that I— everybody's hurting this time of year and I want them to get rest as much as possible. I don't care about pumping in noise and doing simulated games and keeping everyone sharp. I want to give people a moment just to breathe after such a long season. But I think that that is something that could happen. I think also that something that could happen in baseball is what was talked about back when I was there, which is choosing your own opponent. if you've earned that right as a number one.

That'd be amazing. It'll never happen.

I'm completely against it.

It'll never happen.

I'm completely against it. But there, you know, there was momentum back in 2016 and '17, and I thought it was a terrible idea because I'm not a big fan of bulletin board material. Right. And can you imagine if you choose to play one team over another, then I'm walking into that clubhouse and the pickle is sagging.

The pickle. The pickle is not doing well. The baseball guys, ever, ever since the nipple rub, he's not—

it up. Soccer talk. Are you familiar with what's happening with Manchester City?

That's a big one, Mike.

It's a huge one, but it's without precedent. Uh, you want to give us—

we have not talked about this. Do you believe it's possible that they will relegate Manchester City?

I mean, everything is on the table right now, including expulsion from everything. Like, it's, it's subject to the Championship Executive Board.

From Earth?

So here's the thing.

Expulsion from everything. Manchester City is going to be orbiting the Earth with satellites.

So there's no playbook for this because there aren't hard and fast rules for the egregious amount of financial subversion that Manchester City did. Basically, they, they self-dealt and they created a bunch of inflated sponsorship numbers to adhere to FIFA Fair Play rules. They announced all these big deals, but there weren't deals actually there. They were hugely inflated. And this was sort of a financial fair play circumvention. Not sort of. They were guilty of 114 of 115 charges.

Correct.

It's egregious and it's been 10 years running. Every fan— look, I'm a Chelsea fan. We've suffered 2 penalties that Chelsea was guilty of while this entire investigation's been going. You have managers like Pochettino saying that we deserve the trophy. Like, this is a team that made a lot of signings, a lot of high-profile signings, did a lot of winning while skirting financial rules. You have teams, individual clubs suggesting they're going to sue Manchester City individually. So what is your take on this unprecedented story?

The problem that you have here, Mike, is that you've got a lot of American owners in the EPL, and a lot of those owners are saying to themselves, wait a minute, I don't want to have to break the rules the way they're doing it with foreign money, with Abu Dhabi and UAE. I don't want to have to spend this amount of money and commit fraud in order to win. And by the way, there are damages I can prove, which are that I got relegated, let's say, or I did not win a Champions League or a trophy because of what one of my competitors was doing. So there are measurable damages that could be brought against Manchester City, and that would be the equivalent of when the Astros had the garbage can scandal in 2017. Imagine for a minute if the Yankees had said, I'm suing you, Jim Crane, the Steinbrenner family. I'm suing you because you cost me a championship and you therefore cost me the ability to increase my ticket prices or get more corporate revenue. It is a disaster for the EPL. So what they're doing now, if I were them, they are doing a negotiation.

both with Manchester City and with the other owners of the other teams in order to come to a resolution, a settlement, because they cannot have this sort of interleague squabbling.

Dan Levitar!

I mean, Trotten Madonna out there, I don't know what the hell she was doing. And then, uh, what's this, this, this boy band, KPS? KBS? What's their name? I have no idea who that is.

There's BTS. Jonathan Sasselow!

Isn't this the big—

this is the biggest band in the world!

That's right.

Get out of here! That's bigger than Pearl Jam!

This is the Dan Levatar Show.

Is that the co-star of American Siege I see back there involving Bruce Willis? I believe it is. It's Rob Goh. He's the owner of the World High-Lye League. It's based here in Miami. Made news a few years ago because he bought a 1952 Mickey Mantle card David, you're a collector. You want to guess what he bought that card for? A 1952 Mickey Mantle.

$3.5 million.

$5.2 million. And on Tuesday, he sold Michael Jordan's Game 3 jersey from the 1998 NBA Finals for $12.26 million. What's the most valuable piece of memorabilia that you believe you have in your home of any kind? Not sentimental, not priceless to you. If you put it up for sale, it would get the most money. Try to impress Rob Go with something that's in your house.

I would say that I have baseball or entertainment. Whatever you—

whatever would impress Rob Go, the co-star of American Siege.

I have game-used memorabilia from— I have game-used from Jose Fernandez's last start. I have the third base that Ichiro touched when he got his 3,000th hit in Colorado. And I've got the pocket watch from Cast Away. and Radar's teddy bear. Oh, and Josh Beckett's glove. Yeah, I can't specify one specific piece of memorabilia, but it doesn't matter.

Beckett's glove from the '03—

From Game 6.

So the glove with the ball in it, there were 2 gloves. Beckett has one under his bed and I have his other gamer from that game and I have that framed. And he gave it to me in the clubhouse.

It's not the one that held the ball, though, is what you're saying. There were 2 gloves.

David has the backup glove. Josh.

He's got the glove that never came out of the dugout. It was the glove that was there, but it was— he's got, he's got under his bed the glove that had the ball in it. You have a glove that has not had a ball in it.

Don't you also have a ball from the— it doesn't matter. Don't think about it all you want, Dan. I gotta tell you, you can't do anything to make my day worse. You just can't. You don't have that power over me.

Juju, you were saying?

Don't you also have Elton John's glasses, bro?

Whoa.

I do, but those aren't valuable. Those are great. Those are a couple grand.

Uh, Rob, what are your thoughts? And welcome, by the way. It's nice to see you. Your fellow owner, one of whom is dressed like a pickle. Thank you for coming through. I have a number of different questions to ask you, but among the things that he just mentioned there, what did he impress you with? Anything that he said as memorabilia?

Yeah, I mean, that's, that's amazing. I mean, any collector, you got to collect what you love, so that's awesome.

Diplomatic. That was very political. And David's in our highlight chat.

Is he?

Yeah, he loves Pallotta.

Oh, that's great.

I am a big fan of the chat. It is on mute because it is outrageous in its frequency, but I read every single thing that goes back and forth. And I got to tell you, it goes once in a while from an intellectual free zone to another part where it's just passion and incredible excitement. So it's one of my favorite group texts that I'm on.

Rob, we are excited to have you here. We're excited to have you in Miami. We're excited to have you as the new owner of a league that we love and have had a lot of fun with over the years. Why did you buy in?

What is Yeah, I think this sport has so much heritage, you know, not only in Miami but around the world, and it just has so much potential to keep it going for the next 100 years. And I didn't want to see it die a death, you know. And I think we've got a massive opportunity to, to bring it to the world in a different way and make it exciting, like even more so than what we've got going on now.

How is this different from the other investments you make in the sports world? Buying a league versus buying memorabilia that can be worth as much as a league?

Yeah, I'll tell you, even buying this league, I, uh, I thought many times I'm insane because, you know, buying a piece of memorabilia is pretty easy. You buy it and you hold it and, and then you sell it later for a better return than probably buying this league. But it's, uh, it's amazing because it's, it's more difficult than, than I imagined, but it's, it's gonna be so exciting and, and for the fans and for the players and, and it's, uh, it's just something you can, you can build. an organization and create history for the future. So I'm super excited.

If you're ever looking to secure a publicly funded fronton, David Sampson is your guy because you're going to need to bilk taxpayers to get this thing where you need it to go. And given his background knowledge on doing that and now Highline by being a charter member of the Highline group chat, you should talk to David Sampson. He's actually run a team before.

Let's do it.

Rob, I would suggest to you the first thing you need to do as a new owner is you need to show who's boss and you have to do a firing like right off the top just to make sure that people understand there's a new sheriff in town. And I think if you look to your left, there's a giant green fire.

An owner.

I think you fire Cody. You do it better than ESPN did. You make Dan sort of buy his shares back somehow. But it will show very clearly that you are in charge.

You are embarrassing me in front of my new friend who I'm trying to force to see the value in what we bring to the table, given that we We don't actually pay for this team, right? These teams have value. We have a marketing partnership. This is it. This is all we do. But we love the sport and we still want to be—

We love—

minor penalty, 2 minutes for explaining the show.

You can leave now, Mike. Uh, Rob, who's gonna— Mike, Rob, can you— the pickle will handle things from here. You, you get out of here. Uh, Rob, I want to ask you about collectibles. Uh, when you think of how it is that you got involved with this, is this a childhood love? When did it turn into business love?

Yeah, you know, I did it as a child. Um, you know, I was born in the '80s and that's just what you did. And then I kind of discovered girls and, and got out of collectibles. And then, uh, COVID came and I moved to Puerto Rico and I had a, a group chat like, like you guys have. And, uh, and, and I started buying collectibles and thought it was an undervalued asset class. So that's when I bought the Mickey Mantle, and everybody thought I was insane to pay that much money for it. It was 2 times what Mickey Mantle was paid for in the past. I actually sold it 2 years later for $12,375,000.

How did you discover the market inefficiency? I don't think of collectibles as being a space that people don't know how much value there is there.

It's like with anything. It's rare. You've got to have demand. It's something that you can't keep producing. I just felt like the nostalgic aspect of it, and people have been trading these things for 100 years, that they would kind of see value in that. And to me, this is the new modern art. And, you know, back in the day, you'd buy a Warhol or you'd buy a Picasso, and that really meant a lot to you. And now you've got sports, that the fandom and the passion around sports has continued to grow, and you can own a piece of that game. And that's why it's, I think, so much more valuable now and will continue to raise in price.

Did you get to spend time with Bruce Willis off camera?

Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah, we shot that whole movie in 6 days. So you, you shoot a commercial longer. And so that was in— that was during COVID So it was, uh, that was intense.

Oh, I don't, I don't want to ask uncomfortable questions here, but this phase of American Siege and Bruce Willis's career, it felt to me like they were abusing somebody who wasn't all there to keep making movies off of his great fame.

I agree with you. I mean, I think the producer of that movie totally abused him. You know, he put him in a bunch of movies. Yeah, that— I think the producer totally abused him for, for their own benefit, for sure.

Was Bruce Willis the coolest though?

He was great. You know, he was definitely not with it during that point. You know, he had a mic in his ear and they would feed him the lines with the mic and wasn't with it. But as soon as the cameras started rolling, I mean, the guy is a legend.

It just turns into Do you have anything in your memorabilia collection that you simply will not sell?

You know, more personal items that probably aren't worth much. You know, like Von Miller is a great friend of mine. So, you know, he gave me his, his Super Bowl jersey from the Rams or his cleats or, you know, I have a, you know, because he's just a close friend. So those I'll never sell. But yeah, I'd say those. I mean—

How did you come to sell the Michael Jordan Game 3 jersey and how did it arrive at your doorstep? What's the story behind this jersey? Why did you decide to sell it for the $12.2 million?

You know, that's a jersey I never thought I was going to sell, but, you know, when you buy a Hi-Li league, no one wants to talk about Hi-Li. And, uh, and so, you know, you have to kind of be sneaky to get that, you know, that publicity. So I decided to sell it, and it's been fantastic. You know, the New York Times has covered it many times, and New York Post, and today ESPN, and, and Sporting News, and all these big big publications have talked about jai alai now, when they normally would never do that. So it's been fantastic for getting the word jai alai out and I think hoping to grow the future of this.

Rob, our show has loved jai alai for years. We get it. I think it's electric live, but it's undoubtedly a sport that's endangered. It used to be played in other parts of America. Now the only part in the world outside of Miami that plays it is the Basque Country and parts of the Philippines, I guess. You alluded to it. People think that you're crazy for making this investment here. Where do you see the value in this sport, and what do you think you need to change about it to make it more appealing to the masses?

Well, I think I'll be crazy if I buy this league and keep everything the same. And because, you know, that's just the definition of insanity. So, you know, I've got to make a lot of big changes, which we'll be announcing. You know, I'm going to be talking to the players on Friday and kind of announcing some things. But, you know, for me, I've got to push excellence. I've got to have the best players in the world. And if you're not the best player in the world, you know, it's unfortunately, this isn't intramural sports. We've got to probably part ways.

But— So you're going to fire somebody? You're going to fire somebody? You're going to take David Sampson's advice and you're going to fire somebody?

Who do you think it'll be?

We're not going to fire anybody, but—

Can you get Kocheri off of the Renegades? He's been a real thorn in our side.

He's fantastic.

Yeah, yeah, I know. But just like, Like, get him away from us.

But I think the way the game is played in America isn't making sense. And if it did make sense, that arena would be full. And it's not. And, uh, and that, that honestly, when I first bought the team in perpetuity, I was so excited. And I flew in from Puerto Rico with a bunch of my friends and we go to a game and there were like 200 people in this arena that fits 1,800. And, and honestly, that was, uh, that was like the first moment that I said, well, something's obviously not working here. One, what's not working is we weren't selling tickets. Like we had, we, we had nobody that was actually outbound sales. We don't have a team that sells tickets, so that's obviously a major flaw in the model. So that's something that I've hired a team to sell tickets and to fill that arena, because if you have fandom and passion in the arena, it's gonna make the whole experience, not only for the players but also for the people in the audience, better. So, but also I think, you know, we've got a lot of changes that we should make to make this thing better.

David, why are you shaking your head no? You know what he's in for trying to sell in Miami? Miami can be difficult.

Yeah. Rob, as an expert in facilities that are not full, I would just draw your attention to, one, managing your expectations, and two, you got to make sure you fire people.

Can you fire him?

I feel like you've been to prison before and you just went after the biggest guy when you got there.

Yeah. David would do well in prison.

Me?

See you later, David. David, we'll talk to you later. Thank you for being on with us.

I learned a couple things in prison.

We appreciate it. Rob, thank you for what it is that you're doing. We have been supporters of High Life for a long time around here. We take great pride in trying to keep this thing flourishing. Among the big changes, you want to share any with us, or these are— you're going to unveil all of your surprises on Friday?

Well, let's, let's come back and talk about it later and break the news here if you'd like. But I tell you, you guys are fantastic, and I appreciate you having me on and the love that you have for High Life. pushing this thing to the next 100 years.

It's—

you think we can keep the team or—

we should talk about it. I mean, we do.

We do have some big numbers now.

Noncommittal right now.

Well, we're selling teams for a lot of money right now. And, you know, you guys are definitely—

I can take it to the game.

I believe he's just expelled you from everything the same way that Manchester City— you are open bar from everything.

Comfy leather seats.

Rob, thank you.

I appreciate you guys so much, Manny. And congrats on this. This is amazing.

Thank you, sir. He's, uh, the owner of the World High-Lye League. It sounds like the pickle's gonna be out on Friday. It sounds like you're gonna— you're about to lose your—

I'm somehow in a pickle.

You're about to lose your team pickle.