Pablo Torre Finds Out - We Helped Scatter the Ashes of a Die-Hard Fan (PTFO Vault)

Episode Date: July 29, 2025

We are living in the era of Peak Cremation, and fans have turned to our true American cathedral as a final resting place: the sports arena. PTFO death correspondent David Fleming reports on a cottage industry for die-hards in the afterlife — from team-branded urns and exploding golf balls to franchises that want the on-field ceremonies gone (and forgotten). And then, of course, we help a woman named Edna spread her husband's ashes... while riding a convertible, on a racetrack, flooring it into eternity.(This episode originally aired January 23, 2025.)• Subscribe to Pablo's Substack for exclusive access, documents and invites⁠https://pablo.show/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Okay, so hello, it is me, Pablo, entering, invading even your ears because I have done something I have not done before, which is, take the advice of someone who once told me that if people wish to support you financially, if they wish to support your journalism, your very strange future of journalism, meaning your newsroom, your ambitions, your desire to investigate things, people don't want you to investigate, you should let them. And so I am. On Substack, my newsletter at www.pablo.com. We'll put a link in the show notes of this episode. I have turned on paid subscriptions. And if you didn't know I have a substack, guess what? It's free. And that's still there for you.

And it's worth it. But the paid subscribers who support this show and us will get legitimately cool, personalized benefits to come. We will make it worth your while. We are figuring out here at PT. are post-draft King's future. And, you know, more good news on that front, I hope to come. But in the meantime, pablo.show is where you sign up.

Click the link in the show notes. Help support us. Please. Thank you, thank you, thank you, on that front. And this, this episode today is a hand-picked episode from deep inside the PtFO vault that we sincerely hope you enjoy. Welcome to Pablo Toray finds out. I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is.

In January this year, I took Ron's ashes of skydiving. Right after this ad. So this is going to be a local news story at first. And I promise that as with every story, we have Dave Fleming do for us. Thank you for being here, by the way. My pleasure. It gets big and grandiose and cosmic and profound and stupid and smart and all of that. But this is in the tradition of your study.

of fandom that began arguably on death row in Texas, our episode last year, which was singular in the genre. But this is ridiculous in its own right. This is part of my goff period, I think. Yes, it's Denver. It's a couple years ago. And it's a news story that starts like this. Interesting story here.

Denver 7th's Christian Lopez spoke to a man who spread his friend's ashes on the Ave's home ice just as the Zamboni was driving by. I'm going to laugh at ways that I think will be redeemed at some point, but who is this guy? So this particular fan, his name is Ryan Clark.

And this is the story about Ryan Clark and his best buddy, Kyle Stark. And they were friends for more than a decade. They met at work. Kyle ended up being the best man at Ryan's wedding. And the main thing that they bonded over over the years was their deep love of the Colorado Avalanche. And it involved sort of like splitting season tickets.

It involved if Kyle couldn't watch a game. He would call Ryan who would put his phone up to the TV and FaceTime the game to him. There's a stepbrothers feel here of like guys who just just instantly became best friends over the Colorado Avalanche. Right, down to what feels like a climactic Prattfall. Or would-be Pratt-fall. But, of course, because we are a show based on journalism,

you got to know Ryan yourself. Yes. We ended up talking to him. He had lost his laptop and he had borrowed a phone and he was on lunch break. Okay, so where are you today right now? currently out in Bennett, Colorado. Like a job site or something? Yeah, we were working in the Elizabeth School District,

so this is just a little bit north of that right now. Out of gas station, really. Do we have a limited amount of time? This whole story just started to just sort of pour out of Ryan from the front seat of his car. Right. The reception, terrible. Yeah.

The sentiment. crystal clear. We both, we were avalanche season ticket holders together, so thoroughbred fans through and through. Him more so than myself. I mean, this dude's coffee table in his living room was a honky rink that resembled the Pepsi Center back when it was that before, excuse me,

all arena. And just die hard. One of the best guys I know miss him dearly. If he had the choice whether to breathe there, or watch the avalanche play hockey, he's going to suffocate. You know what I'm saying? He's going to watch the game. Well, that didn't disappoint, right?

That's exactly as we advertised. I just love that he was recording from like half an inch away from his face. Yeah. But you know what's funny is immediately, the minute he mentions Kyle's name, you can see the emotions start to bubble up. Yes. They had been best friends for almost a dozen years when after a seizure, Kyle died in 2021.

Suddenly, even speaking years later, it's still very emotional and hard for Ryan to think about. It's hard to talk and not get emotional, so it's trying not to do because I admit it. But yeah, all around great individual, very caring, very loving, way too young, passed away at 32, so way too young. But in terms of the thing that got Ryan on the news,

him spreading Kyle's ashes on the ice inside their favorite building in the world, I imagine there are some liability concerns, perhaps even criminal fears, when it comes to just what might happen to you if you try to do that? You're not the only one who thinks that way, right? Because Ryan and Kyle's family, they set aside bail money. So they got Kyle's ashes into a Ziploc bag, they got tickets to a game, and they sort of snuck Kyle in.

Two of the hottest teams in the National Hockey League, squaring off tonight, it's the avalanche and the Leafs. Last time these two teams hooked up, it was all... Yeah, January 8th, 2022, the Avalanche are hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs. And it's Operation Kyle. In between periods, he saw the Zamboni come out. And so he worked his way all the way down to the glass next to the visitor's bench,

basically put one foot up on an armrest of a seat, a front row seat, the other foot teetering on the edge of the boards. A family member of Kyle's is like holding Ryan, all 340 pounds of Ryan, teetering on the boards, supporting him from the back. This is not quite subtle. Then he gets the Ziploc bag, gets it up to the top of the glass, and then deposits Kyle onto the ice where their beloved avalanche play. Until the Zamboni.

And I just want to make this clear. What about the machine that cleans the ice? If a hockey fan knows how a Zamboni works, it was kind of. kind of genius because it swept up Kyle and repurposed him into the ice. So now Kyle was literally a part of the entire surface in Colorado. He was integrated into the playing surface. I mean, honestly, from one hockey fan to another tip of the cap to Ryan, there are diehard fans, and then there are diehard fans.

Yes. But what happens after this sequence of events? Like, what happens to Ryan? Well, when a 300-pound man deposits a strange substance over the boards at a hockey arena, it tends to get people's attention. Instantly, an usher was kind of like, what did you just do? What was that? I came down and it took less than I'd say,

I'd say not even a full minute before somebody, one of the little younger Usher kids came over and was like, hey, so what was that? He didn't lie. He didn't run. That's when I explained to him what it was and who it was. He just kind of said, that was my best friend. He's like, and I just put him on the ice. And so they escorted him out of the seats and into the arena where he was informed. He wasn't going to be arrested, but he was definitely going to be banned. from the arena. For how long?

Well, indefinitely, at that point, it ended up being for the rest of the season. Man. And so there is cruelty in that punishment. Right. I mean, it's the opposite of what, of course, you're trying to accomplish you. You're trying to stay in the building with your friend. The cops, the usher, everybody associated with the team, and especially all the fans, were kind of like, that's the coolest thing I've ever seen.

But publicly, you can't do this. Right. But after Ryan is escorted out of the building and he is banned for the rest of the season, and he's watching these games from home where he is forced to be, what is going through his mind? No regrets. I did what I needed to do. Every time I turn that TV on to watch a game, there he is. You know, regardless. Just when they're in that, when I see somebody smash somebody up the boards over there, I'm just like, you got a first-hand few, buddy. There you go. Then it becomes a little bit of sadness.

There's joy mixed in with sadness because it's like, when I die, well, Kyle's gone. I'm Kyle's best friend. I'm like, sitting there going, who's going to, who's going to be that person that can do it for me? And the thing that makes Ryan's story, a story for us in this special way is that it becomes very clear, Flem, as we assign you to look into this story. while Ryan Clark is still searching for his own caretaker in this regard, there are so many other Ryan Clarks. There is an avalanche of ashes coming to your favorite sports arena, your favorite field, your favorite racetrack.

It's coming. This trend is happening as we speak. I do want to establish phlegm that there are other ways to celebrate your lifelong devotion to a sports team that also involve death and death rituals that aren't quite as dangerous, it seems, as spreading your ashes unilaterally in a special operation. Who knew there was a whole cottage industry for fans in the afterlife? You can get your face painted onto a Jets custom painted coffin, and that is grown into Jets' urns. And we found a place where they will take your ashes and make them into a...

golf ball that you can shank unto eternity. Not the greatest website name. I'm just going to put that out there too. Strong disagree. This place is great. I am on now, extraholes.com. It says since the game began, golfers have long to spend eternity on the golf course.

We've made that possible. You hit the ball. And spoiler alert, the ball bursts into, quote, several pieces, releasing the ashes into the air for a short distance before settling softly onto the ground. So this is not quite the long drive competition. Or maybe it is, in fact, the longest drive in a certain sense. You are, again, integrated into the surface. And if you're wondering, it is $350 for a dozen balls.

And so, you know, there's a market, phlegm, a market for this very sort of thing. Yeah. And the highest form of this is spreading those ashes in what have become our cathedrals, our churches, which are the sports arenas. There was a study in 2024 by Mutual Choice, a company that does insurance policies to cover end-of-life costs. And they did a survey of Americans, all 50 states, where they would want their ashes to be spread. 11 out of the 50 states, the number one place where people wanted to have their ashes left

were sports venues. Yes, in Alabama, the number one response was actually Talladega Super Speedway. That surprised me. I know, I'm like, Brian Denny is right there. Yeah. But noted Massachusetts Fenway, North Dakota, the Alaris Center,

where the University of North Dakota football team plays their games. And cremation, by the way, also didn't know this, finding this out through your research. We are living through peak cremation, Flav. 10 years ago, 15 years ago, the ratio cremation to burial

was 35 cremation, 65% burial. They're predicting that by 2030, it will be flip-flop. It'll be 75% of Americans will be getting cremated, and 25% will still want to be buried. Yeah, all of that research, of course, provided by the NFDA, which we all know is the National Funeral Directors Association. Of course.

Which raises the question of these sports venues, right? The places that Ryan Clark, for instance, had a great interest in, how do they feel about this trend? They're scared to death. They are scared to death and they are doing everything they can to try and subvert it and to press pause. Why? What are they so afraid of?

First of all, we should point out, right? Ashes are not, they're not harmful to humans at all. There are no microorganisms in ashes. They're inert. The one thing that they can be harmful to is turf. The alkaline and the sodium levels and the pH levels are high enough that if you were to leave human remains in ashes on really good grass or turf, it could burn it out.

Like if you over fertilize your lawn or something like that. Right. Salt burn, basically. Yeah. Which means that then the groundskeepers need to dig that stuff up. I can imagine pragmatically, this is annoying. But the venues themselves, what do they have to say about this? I think there's a legitimate fear, especially amongst football stadiums,

that at some point, maybe even during the Super Bowl, somebody is going to dive for a touchdown and it's going to be a puff of grandpa's ashes come up. yards and a cloud of grandpa. Exactly. Well, now we know the title of this episode. We really did just name it. They are scared to death because they've already become overrun with requests. Right.

So basically what we're saying is sports has never been more monocultural. It is the lone big tent left in American life. He saved us all the time on this show. And they are not worried about copycats. People who are in fact seeing news stories like the one we played. Yeah. For instance, it's going to baseball. now in the aforementioned Fenway Park.

A woman placed her father's ashes through netting behind home plate at Fenway Park and then posted it on Twitter. Now, the field at Fenway, of course, is legendary and for a lot of people, it's the ultimate resting place. But putting a loved one's ashes on the field isn't allowed, but one woman says her dad would have been proud that she broke the rules in his honor.

I reached out to half a dozen SEC schools, and people wouldn't even respond. People would not be quoted off the record. They didn't want to be reference. They didn't want to be any part of this because they don't want to encourage more people to leave Grandpa at the 50-yard line. Right.

Their silence spoke volumes on the college level. And in the pros... Yeah, in the pros where I have friendships, relationships with PR staffs with front offices. For 30 years. These people, maybe for the first time in my career, and I've done some weird-ass stories.

You truly have. One of my closest friends in a very popular AFC, very successful AFC franchise was like, Flem, whoa, no, I can't, I don't want to be quoted. I don't even want to be mentioned that you reached out to me. The Cowboys PR guy, I put it really well, if not unpoetically. It was like, we don't want a line of hurses lined up outside of our stadium on Sundays. Right.

I imagine maybe they saw this happen also in Green Bay at Lambo, where a fan got tackled, again, trying to, trying to do the same thing. During a Packers' Eagles game at Lincoln Financial Field in 2005, this fan ran onto the field spreading his mother's ashes. He dropped to his knees and made the sign of the cross. He was arrested, bind, and the game went on. Packers' PR, I imagine, not loving this either.

They were immediately against it. The response I got back was, hey, Dave, nice to hear from you again. Thanks for checking, but we wouldn't be able to participate in this one. It's against the law in Wisconsin, and it's against Lambeau Field policy. So the building policy understood. They don't want this to happen. But citing the law in Wisconsin raises that question of, is this illegal in that state and also across the country?

Yeah, I think the Packers PR overstated a little bit. And that's part of what's leading to this trend is that legally, there are no overarching laws on a federal or a state level that prohibits people from spreading ashes or human remains. But that law then defers to, if it's on private property, you need to get permission. And so obviously, arenas, stadiums, racetracks, baseball fields, that's private property.

You need to obtain permission. Right. It's their choice to say in the face of this oncoming avalanche, no. And so in terms of when this trend really took, off. Do we know historically when the cremation and personalization and this whole thing really did turn to something that became a boom? Another fascinating wrinkle to this, right? We reached out to a professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago. Her name is Dr. Shannon Lee Daughey. She's also the author of American Afterlives, which is this fascinating study of the changes in death rituals in

America over the last maybe quarter century. My specialty is American culture and archaeology and history up to the present. And her theory is that it was 9-11 really began to change things. There were things that were happening in terms of increasing options and personalization and certainly a steady growth in the U.S. of cremation. but 9-11 acted like, I guess you would say, an accelerant to these trends where things just rapidly changed after that, particularly a move towards cremation

and the very personalized kind of ad hoc rituals and memorials. She thinks there have been more changes in American death rituals in the last 10 years than the last 100 combined. But because this is all against the rules, it does feel rebellious in a way. Is she familiar with this specific phenomenon, this dynamic? Yeah, she even coined the phrase wildcat scattering. There's something that attracts people to it precisely because it may not be allowed.

Like there's something transgressive about that and a transgressive ritual. It seems like if you're taking a risk to honor the person, it seems like you're honoring them, you know, a little more. You're not supposed to do this shit. Right. Like, I love you so much. I will risk jail to spread your ashes. It's one of the strongest urges that we possess as animals. And sports, more and more, is the only place that people can turn to to fulfill that psychological need. And I think the fact that someone would choose a sports venue as their final resting place or that they would risk to do that for someone they loved, it proves that this isn't a theory. This is happening.

It's happened. Yeah, it does occur to me that we are living at a time when people are fretting about the decline of communal spaces, the secularization of America, the decline of religiosity. But the thing that no one is worried about from a market perspective and a popularity perspective is sports. And post-pandemic especially, it does feel like an arena full of people is our house of worship. It's never felt more special, actually. 100 years ago about a French anthropologist, sociologist named Neil Durkheim called this feeling that we get when we're experienced a spectacle and a group of people where everybody's in one space and going through an experience of awe or relation together. And he called that collective effervescence. And think of like bubbling up, right?

And that makes people conscious of the group of something bigger than themselves. and it is, it causes an experience of euphoria. And it also makes that group stronger when everybody disperses. They remember that special feeling of collective effervescence. And if they keep coming back, it can become addictive. And I think that sports events and sports stadiums, if you're not losing too badly, has that effect. Yeah, that is where I want to just push back on Dr. Dowdy,

because I do think the resiliency of a miserable jet cowboy, fill in the blank sports fan, the losing almost never gets in the way of their true love in the way that you logically might think. Yeah, the suffering is what proves the faith. But this is why I am frustrated to hear these venues, these cathedrals say, actually, to their most devoted parishioners,

we don't want you to bring your loved ones in that form here. That seems to be a tremendous bummer when it comes to the rules. It's not going to work. It won't hold, right? This trend is, it's just, it's too powerful, it's too strong, it's too popular. And they're just stupid to not try and figure out a happy medium or to meet their fans somewhere in between where it's like, okay, if Grandpa was a Georgia Bulldog fan,

we'll figure out a way to get them, sort of, we'll put them in the stadium somewhere and celebrate that this is, I mean, can there be a higher form of fandom? Of tribute. What would it look like if you embraced the Ryan Clarks of the world instead of banned them? Yeah, can we find someone who's doing this?

Can we convince some place? Yeah, to just, to embrace this. What would it look like if a sports venue, embrace this and encouraged fans to do this. And we managed to find that exact spot down in Florida. Of course. So what cathedral in Florida, Flam, agrees with our sensibility here of Pablo Torre finds out?

So we found Wayne Estes, who is the president and general manager of Sebring International Speedway in Sebring, Florida. Hello, everybody, and welcome to a packed Sebring. International Raceway, the original home of Formula One here in the U.S. And of course, down through its considerable history since the 1950s has been a mecca for sports car fans, drivers and teams. Yeah, and this track, by the way, in Seabring, Florida, America's oldest road racing track, but all sorts of races of all kinds are held there and have been for decades upon decades.

And accordingly, they have a very different policy toward their fans. and toward their fans' ashes, then say, oh, the Colorado Avalanche. You get the phone call, and they almost always would start the same way. It would be, I'll bet you've never had this request before, or this is going to be a very unusual request. And almost every time someone says that to me now, I think, I've got a feeling this is someone who's lost a loved one

and wants to distribute the ashes here. We need way more Wayne in the sports world. And one of the things he immediately talked about, was, why wouldn't you do this? To me, it was a tremendous compliment to the venue, to the racetrack, to the event, and I still see it that way here at Sebring as well. It's a tremendous compliment that a place has that kind of passion, that people have that kind of passion for the event, for the venue.

And that first time, I didn't ask anybody. I just said, yeah, we'll make that work. We'll go wherever we have to go. where do you want to go? And accordingly, they have a very different policy toward their fans and toward their fans' ashes than say, oh, the Colorado Avalanche. How do you turn somebody away that makes that request? I mean, it's just a phenomenal honor that anybody would ask

to make that kind of a gesture at the venue where you're promoting events. So Wayne has had as many as three cremation ceremonies in a single weekend. And people, you know... A bit of a pile up, potentially. And it's funny. People, some people want to go in a turn. Some people want to go at the start finish line. Some people want to go in pit row.

And Wayne accommodates it all. We took to his attitude right away. And I stayed in touch with Wayne, you know, as the PTFO death correspondent. Yes. That's part of my job. This is your beat. Yep. And Wayne, God love him, reached out a couple days later and said, you know, I was just

contacted by another fan who is hoping to spread her husband's ashes at the track. And of course, I asked if I could tag along. And of course, we assigned you to go down to Florida. Get to Florida, Phlegm. Who are you there to meet? So we got to meet this lovely woman named Edna Smith, who was at the track to remember her late husband Ron, who loved all things racing, all things. things, cars, all things mechanical.

He always was very avid about air and space and cars and fast cars. We probably had, in his lifetime of cars, he had 30-some cars, and my friends couldn't attest to that, you know, and they were all very unusual cars and fun, fun to drive. Did he have a favorite car? No favorite kind? Yeah. He had an E-type Jaguar, X-K-E. That was a nice car.

That was probably his favorite that he ever had. So you were married to James Bond, is what you're saying. Or wannabe. So as we're watching, Edna stand on the track with you, whose idea was it to scatter Ron's ashes across the track? She wanted to do something that honored him, celebrated his life, the things that he loved, but then also would give her an eternal connection to him.

that she could watch races there, she could return to the track, and always be sort of closer to him. So it was Edna's idea. The ashes sat for a while before I thought about what I could do in honor of his memory, you know, and the first thing I came up

was to go skydiving. So I did. In January, this year, I took Ron's ashes up skydiving. And I was really, really nervous, but it was the mission accomplished. I was just covered with his ashes all over me because the wind blew the wrong way. It was like, oh, my heavens. But it was, yeah, it was awesome, really awesome. And then I, you know, I still had half of his ashes left, so I'm thinking, you know, what else can I do? And my friends kind of helped me with the

idea of the Sebring Race Jack, you know, take his ashes over there. And to be clear, we have are honored that she allowed us to be there for it. Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, it was, we were sort of humbled by that and we approached it that way, that we were there to observe and to knock it in the way. And we understood that this was a very sort of important solemn moment. Yeah, and I want to make clear, too, that one of my real joys on this show is to send people out into the world, you often, in specific. And then finally find out what this religious profound ceremony for Edna and Ron was like. And so I have not seen this video yet.

So let's hit play. Beautiful blue sky. Edna in the backseat of a convertible? Yep. And they let us put a GoPro behind her. So she's got Ron's remains in a Ziploc baggie. And she's in a convertible provided by Wayne. And we are going down the main.

straightaway, she's reaching into the Ziploc bag, and she is throwing Ron. And you can hear her giggling, right? She's giggling, and she's talking to him. Right? She's smiling, she's giggling, she's talking to him. Every 10 seconds, a handful of Ron

is going on to the straightaway at Sebring. And also everywhere else, I think. Ron is in the car, he's in the seats. And Ron's going all over Edna too. Oh, yeah. Ron is omnipresent. Yes, she's emptying the Ziploc. Rarely is cremation also a joy ride.

Yeah, at one point, so then we were in a minivan in front of them as well. And they were stepping on the gas because it's hard to be on... Her hair's blowing in the breeze, her sunglasses around. She's grinning. The way she explained it was kind of like, Ron wouldn't be. be jealous, but he would be so happy that she chose this as a way to sort of memorialize him. This is what he loved and to see her so happy too. Because you cannot get on this track and not floor it.

Right? It's like they gave us access to the track and it was like, I kept going, punch it, punch it, Wayne, punch it. When she got out of the car, she patted her pants and just poofs of smoke. Her ash came up. And I love that. I just love that. You can see, you can see there are, I mean, Ron, God love them.

And there ended up being handprints, fingerprints. It's funny how quickly you get connected to somebody like that when they share a moment like this. And I went out because there were still piles of ashes every so often. We all kind of went out and said goodbye to Ron. Now you understand why people are willing to go to jail to do this because it means it's beautiful. Beautiful, man. Yeah, it really means something more than just going to a gravestone. Well, it's absurd and it's beautiful, and it is, of course, deeply serious.

It's also lighthearted and something we can celebrate as we marvel upon the ridiculous nature of what it means to be a human being. Just something so poetic and beautiful about this ceremony and the fact that it is a mess. Yes. That it's unpredictable. that the ashes go everywhere. When was the last time you were at a traditional funeral or a cemetery and people were giggling and laughing and talking to the deceased? And sort of it was a celebration.

And I think that's part of the changing death rituals in America. That's what people want. They want a celebration of life. And boy, you just saw it there in living color. Yes. Ron is going to be a part of that track. a part of Edna, and also definitely in the upholstery, I think, based on just the statistical distribution of what I was witnessing there in the video. Well, and here's the thing.

Ron is also a part of your favorite correspondent. Ron, at one point, Ron blew into our camera, into our microphone cover. Ron, boy, Ron gets around. I just cannot say this enough. Thank you to Edna for letting us celebrate Ron with her. Yeah. Because it reminds me of. of what we started the story with,

which is Ryan, diehard hockey fan, who didn't have the same welcome Matt laid out for him after he tried to do this for his loved one. But luckily, that was not the end of the story for Ryan and Kyle and the Colorado Avalanche. Okay, so now we're back in Colorado, Flem, with the story of Ryan Clark and his best friend, Kyle Stark.

And you mentioned that this was not the end for Ryan, his banning from his favorite building for the rest of that season. So what the fuck happened? Something magical happened once Kyle became a part of ball arena. They win that game against the Leafs, 5-4 in overtime. Then they go on this incredible streak. They don't lose another game inside Kyle's arena for a month, which is unheard of, right? It's unheard of.

Chimmycena. She's he scores. The avalanche beat the division rival, Minnesota Wilde, 4-3 to shootout at Ball Arena. Terry, that scores. Weddiscog, the overtime winner. It's unheard of in hockey, especially as they're trying to build toward the playoffs. And as a Red Wings fan, I'm watching the avalanche going, what is going on with it? The avalanche can't lose.

Here's McCar, Lucid Row, Arturie, Lekan has scored. He sent his team in overtime to the Stanley Cup final. All I can think about, of course, is that Ryan can't be there. He's at home watching all of these games. He cannot witness the streak because he's been banned. But, you know, I think in Ryan's mind, it's perfect. That's my boy helping him out. That's all I can say, you know.

That was an extra boss. body power play. So you're going, you know, you're going six on four as opposed to, you know, five on four. And, you know, everybody in that corner, he's grabbing their legs. Yeah, hold on, bud. You're going to stay here. It is hard to deny the impact of Kyle Stark. It was awesome to see. It was awesome to know that he was there during that whole time frame, that whole, that whole play out. And I'm sorry that I look away. I just try not to break down again because it's, yeah, it's still fresh, even though it's been a few.

Part of the emotion, though, is joy, right? Oh, yes, yes, absolutely yes. Like, when they dropped that banner, I wish I could have been there for that game, because they should put Kyle's name on the bottom of it, you know, or at least his initials on the cup in the corner, you know? Like, what is this KES? Don't worry about that. Just hang it in that, you know, take.

that layer all put a fresh one on. We're listening to Ryan, yet another person in this episode, getting emotional in a car. Celebrate what his team, their team, pulled off thanks to his best friend. Manson, the McKinnon bouncing puck. His team won the Stanley Cup. The dream, the dream, Flem.

Man, can they spread some Kyle in Detroit? Five seconds to go. Up it comes to the line. And in the present tense, of course, Ryan can go back to ball arena. He was only sort of kept out of the arena for the rest of that season. And then he was allowed to come back.

You can go back to the building where his favorite team plays. And when he is there now, I imagine that all of this feels different. Different, but in a great way. And so now, every time, again, you saw it with Edna, you see it with Ryan. He feels Kyle's presence there.

He talks to Kyle when he's in that arena. He's got a place where he can sort of visit his friend forever now. And I am just left at the end of this episode wondering about that question, which is when Kyle said, I'm like, sitting there going, who's going to be that person that can do it for me when, you know. The biggest question posed in this episode maybe. Yeah, I think what we've discovered is there's now a new highest form of friendship and fandom. Absolutely. It's like somebody willing to spread your ashes, wildcat spread your ashes at your favorite sports arena.

But as for Ryan, it's a little bit sad, right? His person is gone. He doesn't have a person to spread. his ashes. And so as the official now lifelong PTFO death correspondent, I went ahead and volunteered. Right here, Ryan, I got you. I got you. I got media credentials. I'll put you wherever you want to go. And I know we're joking and laughing, but, you know, at the end of this process, I got to tell you I'm 100% serious. I will be there for Ryan when he needs me. Dave Fleming, I have never doubted your sincerity

on these assignments, and I already, whenever it needs to be, long into the future, I am ready. Well, we're going to turn you into golf balls, Pablo. This has been Pablo Torre finds out, a Metal Arc Media production. And I'll talk to you next time.