Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Full Show – February 17, 2026

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote reacted to Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts setting lofty expectations for his club in 2026. They also welcomed on Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic to discuss the latest Bears storylines.

The views and opinions of Lela Rahimi, Marshall Harris, and Mark Grotty should not be taken too seriously. Especially when they give advice. Do not take Marshall's analogies, literally. Especially when it comes to Russell Dorsey. The sports thoughts of Rahimi Harrison Grody may change at any time. It's just sports. Gay, thanks. Bye.

Bye. Rahimi Harrison Grody, 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. The issue is basketball has changed because sports and our attention span has changed. And the way we as society have made it a rings or nothing culture. teams are now gearing to make sure that their guys are healthy for the postseason, and they're not as concerned with the regular season, and why should they be? They try to change the minimum number of games played for all the NBA honors, whether it's MVP, Ricky the Year, All-N-B-A, that hasn't worked.

Our company is worth nothing. That's a difference between you and I. Business isn't about money to me, David. If tomorrow my company goes under, I will just start another paper company. And then another and another and another. I have no shortage of company names. I saw it suggested like you take away the three point line. It's like that would bother me because it's like, bro, no.

That idea is terrible. What do you want to do, Russ? Tell me how you want to change basketball. Yes. Oh, you wanted to get physical again. A little bit more. Because like I think one of my issues with, and I love old heads, and I mean that with all due respect. But like I don't, I never like talking about basketball.

Like, oh, back of the day you couldn't just come in a line. I don't think being able to punch people when they drove to the basket. That's not good? That wasn't good basketball. Ben to the rack lays it up, no, but we do have to listen to file. A bet just but after our tent. We got trouble right here in the Motor City. We got big trouble here in the Motor City.

Fight, fight, fight, fight! Lila Rahimi, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, Midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 104 3. The score. You know what? Just for the hell of it. Happy birthday, Michael Jordan. Happy birthday.

Is that Harry Carey telling Michael Jordan, happy birthday? Happy birthday, Mike. Is this microphone not working? Are we in trouble? This is Rahmi Harris and Grody on 104. 3, the score. It's Leila and Mark Grody, but apparently we're having some issues with the microphone situation here.

You get all set. Who's messing with the mics? You know who was just here a second ago? And it still sounds weird. Now it sounds like I'm actually on the. the radio. Do you have both mics on? Wait, hold on. Hello? Hello? Okay, so you have... Wow. So you have the right mic pointed towards you, but the

left mic is on. Right, but that's the mic that's actually... So this mic does not work? You know, you take a day... You take a day off. What did you do? How dare they do this on Michael Jordan's birthday? Gabor Mirrors. Gabor Mirrors was the one sitting here for the last five hours with David Haw, those two. Now, Gabe had issues with the mic, too. Why are you trying to blame Gabe?

Well, because they were trying to say I hate America. So I'm playing the game. You know what I'm saying? I love America. I mean, you refuse to watch the Olympics, and I remember you saying you hated America. That's because I have all the gold medals already. What do I need to watch the Olympics? I have all the gold medals.

Mark never said that. This is Rehemi Harris and Grotie on 104-3, the score. Sorry about our equipment. Yeah, you said it. Evergreen line. said. That's what she said. That's what at 65 outside yesterday. Everybody was happy. Bernie and I did the right thing

and took the day off, so we're all fresh and rested. Just walking about the city. I think you and I were not on the same path, but just walking about the city yesterday. La la la la la la la la having a nice day in the city of Chicago. Swalicking like the beginning of a Disney movie. Earbuds in. Do you go earbuds or do you put the full

cover headphones on when you're walking? What's your walking style? Do you have a backpack? I don't do the full cover of the headphones like these. I go with earbuds or like lately just to be ridiculous corded headphones. Corded? Oh, corded headphones. Yeah, because they're kind of back. And the sound quality is better.

And if you lose them, they're not as pricey. So I like all of those scenarios. You're talking about like these, like the Apple. Correct. That's what I'm using these days because they keep losing the earbuds. Well, I have some extras. So if you need them, let me know. Really?

Yeah. Okay. All right. That's the whole point. save them and stuff for rainy days. Sick. And yesterday it was not. So we had a great time.

It was like being in, you know, the mythical forest in an old school Disney movie. Like not the princesses ones, like Fox and Hound or Robin Hood or something. Okay. Yeah, that's the vibe. It's a good vibe. Yeah, it was a lovely day.

So we thank you for joining us on this Tuesday. Marshall is out. He was here with Russ, uh, Russ Dorsey yesterday. It is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104.3, the score. And there is big news at Cubs yesterday. day, big enough to where it deserves a couple of days of coverage. Tom Rickett spoke almost 24 hours ago.

I want to say it was like 20 or so. We talk about the phrase saying the quiet part out loud and then we shake our heads and usually it's not what you want to hear. Not this time. Tom Rickett said the good part out loud. If you don't believe me, listen to what the Cubs owner had to say. Riggily was incredible in those playoff games last year. And it did remind you of some of those days.

games back in 15 and 16 and somewhat 17 where we had, you know, just the kind of energy. And obviously we want to have those games every year. We obviously want to win the World Series every year. But for me too, it's like it's just paying off all the loyal fans who have come to so many games for so many years and given so much to the team to be able to pay them back with an incredible experience like what we saw in the playoffs last year. That just means a lot to me personally. And I want to do that every year.

sound. Holy moly. He said it. He wants to go back to the World Series. He said the thing. The playoffs reminded him of the feeling, the feeling of knowing what it's like to win. And when you spend money and resources on your team and draft capital and whatever else to get good offensive players, not just pitching, not just the spine of the defense, it's like something was unlocked. It's like the Celine Dion video, Mark. It was all coming back to him now. There it is. It's the, And that's the part, too. I know that Tom Ricketts cares about the fans. He's a fan-friendly owner.

He likes to shake hands with the people in the stands. I've seen him doing. Everybody's probably seen him doing. But really, really, Tom Rickett spent $228 million this winter. He spent last winter trying to tell us why they're not cheap and why that you should understand what the plan is. This year they spent the money. And he does look at this team just the way you and I do look.

Leila, at least speaking for myself, that this is a team that's kind of in must-win mode, considering the division, considering Alex Bregman, considering the signing of Edward Cabrera, all the things that the Cubs have done, who exists on their roster. It's must-win time for the Cubs. It is. And we've said that a lot when it comes to, even last year, you remember we asked the question, are the Bears in Win Now mode? Guess what?

They were, because they won. We just didn't know. Yeah. I didn't know. You know how I feel about this. But this you know. This you absolutely know. Win now. And what was my pitch when it came to not just at the time, the idea of signing Kyle Tucker

and also having that playoff series here at Wrigley. And it was so much fun. And being able to beat the Padres, even though the Padres had the firepower of one of the best bullpins ever created in the last millennium in baseball. You know, I mean, since 2000, that was one of the best bullpins that we had seen, probably like rivaling the Yankees bullpins back in the day. It was that effective. You know, pricey acquisitions when you consider their bullpen,

when you consider guys like Tatis, Machado, resigning them, all the resources they had acquired. And still, it was the home team who took down that team in the best division. Somehow, some way. But you felt it. And, you know, a lot of people have talked about the Cubs slogans. and I guess this is getting a lot of criticism because that's the slogan this year.

I'm an everybody in girl. That was my favorite. Everybody in. Everybody in was my favorite of the last several years of the Cubs. Everybody in. You have to see it as another one. But for me, I think I was in when it came to selling that concept yet again.

Like Jed Hoyer saying, this could be us, but you're playing. You feel this playoff buzz? You feel this? this excitement, everybody talking about the Cubs, and it was so well-timed because it was during the Bears' by week, so all the attention was focused at Wrigley. You know, John Summit plays the show. Wrigley's packed. Everybody's cheering. Like, I will never forget when James and Tyone got that strike out to end the first inning, how everybody's on their feet just screaming. And

it was great. Did it work? Did it all work? What do you mean? To have Tom Ricketts to motivate him to spend and do all of what he's doing. Did it work? He got another taste. He got another taste of, like, it was almost like, remember what it feels like? Wasn't that long ago that the Cubs were winning playoff series, so got a little taste. And it's also must win, not just because of the payroll that the Cubs have, which is, or at least the spending, was second highest in Major League Baseball. It's also the fact that, God, I know I'm not the one who should be talking about the division being weak, because I'm the one that assumed the Cubs are going to win the division in May last year over the Brewers.

But again, again, like for instance, I'll let Pocoda do it. Pocoda picking the Cubs to win the division by 10 games over the Brewers. If you need fan graphs, this is fan graphs, this tells you everything you need to know about the division. They're picking the Cubs to win by four games over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the division. That tells you where things are with the division, that there's one team that everybody is confident about, and that is the Chicago Cubs. Reds get a little bit of love. It's a must-win year for

the Chicago Cubs. Well, I will get into I think some of the particulars is to why the brewers who have been the standard bearer in the division. Bearer. And why they are not picked as aggressively. Now, Pocoda does give the brewers respect. And if there's one thing Milwaukee did do last year,

it was, what was the favorite phrase of the front office for a while, which was outperform expectations? There is no doubt about that. When you decide to win 21 games in a row, yeah, for the career. For the career? No, that is the Milwaukee Brewers in a sentence right there. They do it. That's what they've done. Since 2018, I feel like, that has been the case. And when Christian Eilich ripped off that MVP quality season, it was the only one challenging

Javi Baez at the time. I think that's when they started this run. And, you know, unfortunately, that coincides with the Cubs dynasty or the team that was supposed to be built for a dynasty, the offense being broken, that was kind of the end of that, that 2016 arc. So it's so nice to be sitting here talking to you today about how the playoffs and everything else seem to unlock that competitive spending and that competitive spirit for Tom Ricketts and the Cubs this year. Yeah. And the Bears comp is good too because it's like, I don't know if it actually was the loudest,

one of the loudest it's been at Wrigley Field this year relative to the 15, 16, and 17, and all playoff years that the Cubs have had. But it sure seems like the accounts that we've gotten, it's like never before. And I have a hard time with that just because I was there for every single game in 15, 16, and 7 doing pre and post. He was there. I was there. A lot of you people weren't there, but I was there.

I was there for some. You were there a lot? Yeah. I got to fill in it NBC Sport Chicago quite a bit. I was there. I believe you, I might have, hmm. We might have met in the club's clubhouse at one point in time. I think we did.

As professional reports, hi, I'm Mark Grody from the score. I'm Laylor Amy from, and wait, what was it then? At the time it was Comcast Sportsnet. Yes. Marshall and I worked together Comcast Sportsnet in Philly and that I came here. I remember it because I think it was shortly thereafter. You're like, oh, you're like, I got to get you on the air or something like that. And we did like a one-on-one interview that aired, I think, on one of the shows that you guys do.

I think it was when I was hosting, there was bases loaded, and then there was baseball night in Chicago, so it was probably one of those. You had two shows. And poor Mark, yeah, they were nice to me there. We got to do a lot of shows. That's nice. And then poor Mark Grotty had to find people to interview in the newly renovated clubhouse where there were all these hiding spots. Oh, yeah. And that was not easy. Yeah, that's the part that people don't know about, like, of course, as the pre and post game show hosts, you are attached to the team and you have many benefits, including being lucky enough to travel with the team.

But it's not like anybody is setting up those interviews on the day-to-day basis. Every day you've got to get one of those interviews from one of the players. It's not like somebody's doing that work for you. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3 The Score. And we get to talk about the good part. Tom Rickett spent. The only other team that spent more money than the Cubs this past season in free agency was not the Dodgers, actually.

Don't worry, they're up there. But it was the Blue Jays, who were two strikes away from beating the Dodgers. Dodgers in Game 7 of the World Series. And for everybody who wanted him to do that, he's done it. Now, there are some, there are some staffos in the plan. You know, we'll get to those in a little bit. Also, I'm laughing at everybody chiming in on our text line. Like, for example, the question, 224, who is the sideways man behind Ricketts needs to

be a meme? That is Dennis Colleton, his PR guy. The omnipresent, Dennis Cowell. Shout out to Dennis Colleton. He's a good man. We saw Dennis the night, Marshall and I saying the stretch. I don't know if you recall that we saw Dennis. So yeah, that's who that is.

So just so you guys are aware. And then, yeah, 7-7-3, you're right. Dansby stole that Padre Series. That's where defense combined with enough offense and pitching. When you've got all three phases, if you will, that's where that can come into play. And it would be a good thing. All three phases is not just for the bears. That's true.

Good bringing to bears. That's true. Because that's what I was thinking about, too, the comp to the Cubs and the bear, like with the way, the hunger. Like we always talk about what a great sports town. This is the hunger, the voracious appetite of Chicago sports fan I feel like is like at a 10 right now. And I don't know exactly why. Bears playoffs. But no, but even like because we had the testimonials of it being the loudest people that ever heard Soldier Field.

So that's what I'm saying. Like in that moment, people were just so needy for the bears to be good. And when the Cubs were playing, we were needy. Like it felt like over the usual Chicago is a 10 when it comes to sports fans in the playoffs. It felt like it went beyond that for some reason. And I don't know why. I'll tell you why, Ray. You tell me why.

We back up. That's right, baby. We back up. I need you to know. I get back up. Is that what you guys are doing? I had the idea of doing a segment. We'll take you behind the scenes real quick.

Backstage, Grady. Yeah, yeah. I had an idea to do the we back up rankings, you know, from the wire. I want you to put the word out there We back up Oh Understand me We back up

That was inspired by Alex Spragman's signing Really And but then You know the Bulls went in bold And not No Don't worry about that right now

Don't know We back up baby Also Also let's face it The Bulls had to get rid Of those contracts You're right They actually got something for them

Which is a change So guess what they did According to their plan They got up not back up because back from the bulls is very hot. I get knocked down, but I get up again. You know who else kind of said that? You know who else put the word out there? This is really what Ricketts was kind of doing yesterday. Because he knows, we'll hold him to this standard now.

And when you see Tom Ricketts, he'll be like, hey, why didn't you spend the extra money to get Zach Gallen or something along those lines? But Tom Ricketts talked a little bit more about putting the word out there, if you will. I want more string your ball. This is 17 years that your family's own. the Cubs, and you talked initially about what you wanted to do, it appears you've done most of those things. Is there anything that you feel is incomplete that you and your family would continue to want to try to do with the Cubs?

We just have to win more World Series. I mean, it's about winning. I mean, all this other stuff, it all leads to one thing, and that's about winning. And we just have to put the kind of teams on the field that can be in the playoffs every year and get back on top. He didn't say division. He didn't say intelligence. spending. He didn't say any of that. He said World Series.

And he didn't really pose it as singular either. We just have to win World Series. I want you to put the word out there. We back up. Come on now. Understand me? We back up. I think the important part, though, is when he says that, he knows people are going to hold him to it. His PR guy Dennis, the meme, knows that we're going to ask him about. it. He knows that if people see him in the streets, they're going to come out of him with that question. You best not miss. It was a good day for Tom Ricketts, wasn't it? It's a good day for us because everybody's on the same page about this. Amen. Yes. You are a must-win Chicago

Cubs team. That's it. That's it. And I think unlike a lot of other teams right now in baseball, the Cubs are poised to do this. And whether or not you want to admit it, it's probably because of something you initially pushed back against. So we'll explain that and get into why the money matters here next on Rahimi Harris and Grotie on 104-3 the score before we get to our break. Ray Diaz, Tyler Buterbaugh, our producers, you heard them. They're always up. They even worked yesterday for you.

What? You guys worked yesterday? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, we were here. You guys feel pretty good about yourself, don't you? We're grinding. We're grinding out that holiday.

I'm going to need you too to treat yourselves since some time later, just from me to you. Did you guys talk presidents yesterday? Oh, we did our Mount Rushmore, our own Mount Rushmore, not the official Mount Rushmore? Millard Fillmore, you mix in or something, just to make it different. There you go. That Obama guy's from Chicago. And he talked at the All-Star game, didn't he? We're going to do our presidency bracket in case of March Madness coming up, you know?

Did he say something about aliens are real? Why do we get the feeling that that would turn bad? Yes, the aliens conversation was hilarious. We should bring that up if we have time today. So that's Ray Diaz. Obama! Tyler Beaterbaugh. Mark Rodney, as Wayne Larry.

as discussing our former president of the United States. Brandon Friar is our producer. More aliens from Barack Obama. You can text us 312-644-67. You can call us at that number as well. We are on Twitch, twitch.tv.tv slash the score Chicago. Our Twitch mob is hanging out with us. And we're on YouTube at the score Chicago as well.

So coming up next, let's get into that very thing, how the World Series and the discussion about the budget may be centered around. something you might not have liked, but you might understand how it's working for you now. That's next. Thanks, Ben. Go Cups. Amy Harrison Grody. Can you imagine Lovey Smith doing the whole good, better, best thing?

And saying bleep the Packers. Come on, guys, good better best. Never let it rest. I'll see you on Tuesday. Middays 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. Oh, no. How did you find it that quickly? Do you know what the video looks like?

It's overly ridiculously dramatic. Is it Titanic? No, well, practically. It's Celine Dion, so you're half correct. Right, I was just Titanic. No, this is, instead of something sinking, something is rising. Aw. Yeah.

It's rejuvenation is in the air? It's like the Cubs. That's it! Pitchers and catchers and everybody is picking the Cubs to win this year. And she's running through this ridiculously large mansion that doesn't have any electricity for some reason. And somebody is sitting on their knees. come on, come on. And then she's remembering how good it feels to have a lover or something, you know,

because it's Celine Dion. And then it's all coming back to her now. In perfect pitch. It's all coming back to her in perfection. So when I heard Tom Ricketts say, we need to win more World Series, suddenly I was like, it's all coming back. It's all coming back to me now. I like the just being added.

We just have to win World Series. You know what I think he wants to say to shut up everybody about every. everything else that we're talking about right now. Well, too bad. And that is something that we're talking about right now. We have a four and a half hour talk show. That's physically impossible and literally our job. You can't shut us up. Nope. I've tried to do that for myself. Can't seem to do it there either. That's why we do what we do. We can't shut up. This is Ramey Harrison Grotie. Shut up.

No, we're supposed to talk right now. Quiet. Cementio. Zerwick. It's all coming. Wait. Is that a word? I think that means quiet. it. I hope it does. In what language? In German. Wow. I believe. That was really impressive.

Yeah. Yeah. Figures cross, Judy. I know how to say it in Farsi. That's good. Does that count? But no, we're not shutting up. No. Shut up.

Neither should the Cubs and neither should Tom Ricketts. Because as we've mentioned, he's saying the good things out loud. He's talking about needing to win World Series. One of the ways you do that is by spending money, which he has done in the offseason. Like we said, only the Blue Jays who spent more in free agents spending outside of the Cubs.

228 million, 228 Mill though, this winter. Whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. There's a movie quote for you. Yeah. But he also talked about... Mr. Ma? No. Is it 220, 221, whatever it takes?

And then there's the gun, 27 caliber, 28 caliber, whatever it takes, something like that. It is Mr. Mom. I only know the 220, 21, whatever it takes. That's pretty funny. That's the only way I can quote that movie. But Rickett's also in his yearly spring training availability talked about Marquis Sports Network, which is a additional revenue source for the team to be able to use and spend.

Crane has kind of documented some new issues with, like McKin was saying, RSA, Marquis even has had some cutbacks. If you can go back knowing what you know now, would you have done things differently with Marquis or anything like that? You know, actually, you know, given all the financials, financial, you know, all the, like, the market headwinds for RSNs, I think Marquis is one of the best things we ever did. To be in control of our own destiny and to be able to produce the games we want to produce the way we want to produce them with, with the right people and the right staff and the right level of production quality. I think it's, for us, it's been a huge home run because it's been able to give us a chance to control our own destiny for a while

and has been a one of the, maybe the smartest thing we've done in all these years. And so the cutbacks are just business? Are you happy with the product? Is that the best way? Yeah, very happy with the product. Everyone is. I mean, we've won tons of Emmys and we get great feedback. And we have broadcasters who are loved by the fans and we do a great game day production.

But we also have the economic realities that are facing other sports networks and the declining revenue model. So we just have to balance that out and try to focus our efforts where we can, you know, get a great, great experience and a great production for fans. And just being mindful of expenses because it's been tougher. Given all that, given all that, it feels like things are trending towards maybe all the RSAs being under MLB's umbrella. Is that something you guys are, you're open to? Or do you like the independence that you guys have with your own? Yeah, there's a lot of speculation on that.

I don't want to get too deep in the weeds. But we love the network and we love our independence. We just have to win World Series. That's it. I think you should tag up everything. Everything is just kind of come back to that now. Yes. That should be tagged at the end of everything Tom Rickett says.

That's why it's good. That's why it's good that he said the quiet part out loud and the quiet part was also good. It's a nice day when we can talk about it in these ways. Tom Ricketts needs to just take a page out of Grody's book and instead of, you know, Grotty always just says bears. Yeah, bears. Tom just needs to say World Series. World Series.

World Series. We just have to win. It's like when I interviewed college basketball players and at the end of every phrase, they just answer, they just say, play defense. I'm like, ah, somebody, somebody got to you. Some head coach got to you. Somebody who hurt you? No, it's the opposite.

It's like you are playing defense. Whether or not you want to, dang it. In this case, I think what's important to note is there's been speculation as to whether or not ownership itself in Major League Baseball is divided on not just the spending, but the revenue streams and the structure. There's the Dodgers and the Mets and there's, everybody else when you consider the free agent contracts. However, it's not just the Dodgers and the Mets when it comes to the dominant sports networks

of some of these teams. It is the Dodgers. It's also the Cubs. It's Yes Network for the Yankees. It's the Nesson and the Red Sox. So there are some outliers here from the rest of Major League Baseball who's taken over, say, the fan dual sports networks now because they were previously Sinclair. They got bought as an asset during the pandemic.

They couldn't service that debt because when you don't have sports, it's hard to run sports networks. Bally, same. Formerly Bally, Fandle, and now under the umbrella of Major League Baseball local. And that's teams like the Cardinals, for example. That's teams like the Diamondbacks who are somewhat doing their own thing, but also managed differently now. The Padres are in that boat.

Twins, Padres. Brewers were one of the Fandual Sports Networks. where this really comes into play here. Like half the teams in the league, by the way, is where they are. Far and away, the largest operator of regional sports networks, and because of baseball having 162 game seasons, therefore they had the most inventory, so they controlled the market. That was the number one regional sports network operator, and the reason we bring it up is

because that's where a lot of their money comes from. When you talk about the Dodgers, it's not just the incredible real estate, all the parking lots around Chavez Ravine, being in the number two market. the country. It's the fact that they have a 25-year 6.25 billion-dollar TV deal that runs out in 2038. They don't have to worry about this CBA. They don't have to worry about the next one and the next one. And as was pointed out yesterday on the afternoon show with Spiegel and Holmes, it is tied to the success of charter communications. Now, a lot of these get spinoff. They get spun off as different LLCs where you can you can have different debt structure and things like that. Comcast Sportsnet is a good

example of that. The network I worked for in Houston was previously operated by Comcast Sportsnet, but it was shared by the Astros and the Rockets, which is also typical. But that's why that ended up changing hands. It's why I'm here talking to you right now. So I say all of that to say, Marquis is a better source of TV revenue for the Cubs than a lot of these teams in baseball are in different situations, namely even their division rivals. Marquis helps the Cubs be more financially sound, and this season might be a very good example. Yeah, yeah, no doubt about it. Having private ownership of your company, of your team, makes it a lot easier in that regard.

The Dodgers, too, by the way. Like, it's, we all know what an astronomical deal it is, a sweetheart deal, if you will. And I was doing a little bit more reading on it yesterday, like what the ultimate results of it will be, as you mentioned, 2038. is when this sweetheart deal runs out. That's been put together in 2011 under one Frank McCourt. They will have sheltered, as they put it, $2 billion, $2 billion through 2038. I am interested, and we'll have Evan Angelic a little bit later on to talk about some of the business side of it. how would the Dodgers be affected by a potential salary cap or the negotiations that go on?

I mean, that's something down the road. But it is just amazing when you really look at what the Dodgers are doing, what they've got. I don't want to say gotten away with because they made the deal and they were smarter than everybody else, perhaps accidentally. No, it was timing. That was the last great TV deal that got done in that vein. And that was it. it was, this report says 8.35 billion. At the time it was reported to be in the neighborhood of six.

And it was 2013 and it runs through 2038, averaging $334 million annually. So if you're wondering where that payroll number comes from, there it is. You know, like I said, the Dodgers had other assets when it came to real estate surrounding the ballpark, you know, Chavez Ravine in the parking lots and how much of those count as part of the assets. There's a lot there. So it's not just the Dodgers, though. It's like I mentioned, you know, even the Philadelphia Phillies you can get as part of, as part of the MLB TV, you know, package.

They, though, have a massive deal with NBC. They're part owners with NBC there. So there are some halves when it comes to these TV contracts. The Giants are still within NBC Sports, San Francisco set up. It's NBC Sports Bay Area there. But the big ones are indeed. Rogers, Cubs, Yankees. Mets and us and Y is a little bit of a fluid situation,

but nessen with the Red Sox, like that's the thing. The Cubs are still very much in that respect, part of the halves, and that's what makes this so crucial. Yeah, and they, and they, Cubs Marquis, obviously, with the cuts that they made, they have their challenges still, as I believe it was Crane Kenny who broke on our show, or at least said it out loud on our program when we were out at Gallagher Way,

that Marquis was moved to the ultimate tier on Xfinity, where if you want it, you got to pay. They have the app, you know, that you can get to stand alone for 20 bucks a month or whatever it is, but while, yes, the Cubs should like their own independence, they are not rolling in it like the other teams are at this point. Right, but at the same time, they're not in the situation of, say, the Reds.

They're not in the situation of the Cardinals when it comes to being part of us. a sports network group that is no longer able to be solved. Amen that. Yeah. And that's what makes this really difficult. It also lets you know that it's not just one or two owners who are in different scenarios from the rest of the league. There's more than that.

And I think that's what's going to make this upcoming CBA negotiation so difficult is because you can't tell me that's not factoring into the dissension among the ranks of ownership somehow. It's got to be huge. Yeah. Yeah, that part is real and they will start negotiating once the regular season begins. This is a quote that came across because Jeff Passon was on MLB Radio. This is from Bobby Malone.

This is a quote yesterday. Passon was on MLB radio and said, the major reason we might have a lockout some owners feel is that their team's value is not going up as they feel it should, and that is because of the lack of high-value TV contracts with the teams. It's not an owner's players issue. It's an owner's owner's-owner's issue. that's something that I want everybody to be mindful of here. But I understand in the meantime,

it means the Cubs probably felt like they could be a little more aggressive than other teams, especially even in their own division. And we're just what we're saying. It did take place with the 228 million. So good on the Cubs. It's all coming back to me now. Is it? No, I don't know what this feels like anymore.

It's been way too long. I don't know what it's like to want playoffs two years in a row. I don't know what it's like to not know if the offense is broken or not. It's here. Act accordingly. The Bears and the Cubs are planning to sustain success. What? How do you feel about that?

Who's winning? Who's winning? Who's winning? Do the Cubs win a World Series before the Bears win a Super Bowl? Now that's a sports talk question. Vice versa. Who's winning first? The Cubs are the Bears.

They're kind of on a similar trajectory all of a sudden. Prior to 2016, what would you have said? Ooh, that's really good. Hmm. Because for one team, it was still 85. And for the Cubs, it had been 108 years. So you're saying, there was no all coming back to them now. Let's say 2014, because that's a bad time for both the Cubs and the Bears.

It was dark times. Those were, yes. It was before, before both got, well, the Bears took a little. while. Cubs got better than next year in 2015. So who would have I thought then? That's a great. Probably the Cubs somehow, some way. Oh, sing it.

A little inappropriate. But you've just got to look at it through a playoff baseball list. We're back together. Is it? Are you and the Cubs back together? Oh my gosh. It feels good now, but we run into the same problems that we had in the relationship

and all of a sudden the honeymoon will wear off and it won't feel good anymore. But what is it like to have hope again? I don't know. I've suppressed it. I've suppressed all my hope. My hope. Layla,

Layla, look at me. Hope hurts. It does. Hope hurts. We've got flashlights going in the studio. Is there another team even in the discussion in this town for who would win a championship next? See, that's it. Nope.

Like it's kind of coming back to you, but it's not all coming back to you yet. Is that all? Like the sock? Still a little fuzzy with the socks. Very gray with the Chicago Bulls right now. I was kicking out a random socks theory on my way to work because I do that sometimes, especially with the socks. Yeah. And I know we're horribly late to the break here.

Horribly. We're going to talk some bears because I need Grotty's opinion on something coming up. Oh, bears. But what if the socks greatest star is still the one you expected it to be? Hmm. What if it's Colson Montgomery after all? Did anybody ever think of that? Did people not think it was Colson Montgomery?

Mooney's gotten a lot of attention. Oh, I still think that people know where, I mean, come on now. Colson Loveland, what he did, 21 home runs last year, basically in the second half of the season. Exactly. And then you just pan to Colson and he's like, I've been here. Oh, man, I like him a lot, by the way. His part, like just watching all the various interviews with him, kids got personality. We got to have him on this show.

Good idea, Mark Grody. See? Full of good ideas. That's Mark Grotty. I'm Layla Rahimi coming up on Rahimi-Haris and Grotie. I got to get the host of The Take the North Podcast's opinion on the latest. The latest in the chase for the Bears free agent

and love fest that they have going on with some of the big names. So Bradley Chubb Talk is next. World Series. Rahimi Harrison Grody. Midday's Tindal 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 1043, the score.

That attracted the attention. Alan is sacked. Chubb jumped on top of both. That was a sack by Bradley Chub

careful phrasing this is Rahimi Harris and Grotie on 104 3 the score and as much as our listeners and we all love to dare to dream and we talk about Max Crosby all the time and

did somebody say Max Crosby no we're talking about Bradley Chubb this time we will be talking about Max Crosby at noon I got five on it we will be talking about Max Cross. We're never, what we guarantee on the show is we are never more than a couple hours away from talking about Max Cros. Shout out to all the Maxinistas out there.

Texas. 3-1-2-6-4-67 if you are a Max-Nista. What's up with these Max-Nistas? Yo! We don't want to punch you in the face, though. Unlike like tornadoes and other natural disasters. That's a big callback to a show that doesn't exist anymore. Multiple shows that don't exist anymore.

I just want to kill them. I just want to punch them in the face. Yo. The tsunami. I hate it. Oh, no. And now we are Random FM Morning show

Talking about natural disaster. Hey, how you doing, everybody? Hey, man, did you hear about this natural disaster that just happened? I mean, read about a crack in the earth. Apparently it's called a fault line. I hear those help make volcanoes and stuff. I just get down to the ground

and just start punching it. Now I know that technically volcanoes make them and sometimes they all come from, you know, the core and stuff, but just go with us on this. One thing that is kind of tectonic in the NFL is the fact that the Miami Dolphins have a lot of money that they are unloading from their team. It's not just Bradley Chubb. It's also Tyree Kill. This is, by the way, franchised tag day in the NFL, so we've got to keep an eye on that today, just in case. You just want to see who is of value to a lot of the teams in the league. But Bradley Chubb is reportedly going to be available.

So that is the situation when it comes to the 29-year-old free agent. He will soon to be a free agent. It's a pre-June 1 move. Miami will incur $23.8 million in dead money while saving $7.3 million. That is what you call not ideal when it comes to the cap math. Are we considering cap math here? I think a little bit because I feel the same way about the like, of a big name pass rusher for the bears when it comes to the discussion surrounding Chubb and around

Max Crosby. According to the cap percentages on SpotRack for 2026, this is apt to change at any time. We know with the restructure or whatever. When I combined the cap space that Dio O'Dangbo, Grady, Jared, and Montez's sweats, contracts take up, just those three combine, it's 21.27% of the Bears' cap space. I don't know how you look at any of these scenarios and not understand that that's staring you in the face. There's only so much you can restructure. And even then, you still got to pay people. I'm really glad you're because we're going to get into that, too, later on with Kevin Fishbane. I mean, he laid it all out, like the potential release candidates, contract restructuring candidates, but the point is well taken. The bears are over the cap right now.

They are in the red. They don't have the room right now with which to work. Now, they can finagle some things to get there. As far as Bradley Chubb is concerned, look, this guy, it's pretty simple with him. When he's healthy, he's good. But there have been five seasons where he played eight or fewer. games. That's the concern right there. But when you can go through his career and when he's played, he has been a winner getting to the quarterback. Now, I don't know if you consider the eight and a half

sacks that he had last year, but he did play in 17 games last year. The year before that, he got skunked. He played in zero games. ACL, right? I believe you're right. Yeah. Yeah. Eleven sacks though the year before when he played in 16 games. And then in 2022, he played in it. So when he plays, he's good. He is a 29 years old, so he's still like presumably in the prime of his career. So I like him if you could get past the fact that he is, he will miss a season. He will miss games and a lot of games. He's had, I think, for all the concerns about Max Crosby's injuries,

Bradley Chub has also had very concerning injuries. You know, I think there's a difference when we're talking about a meniscus versus an ACL. I'm not a doctor. I don't play one on TV. But what is more severe than the other? For example, and that's not to say that both injury histories are concerning. But when you consider Chubb's injuries compared to a guy like Crosby, I think the relative value will show that Crosby is still considered a better value.

But Chubb is the recipient of good timing. You know, he has had a couple of very good years. The two full seasons that he did have with the dolphins in 2013, and 25, 20 sacks total, eight force fumbles. Like that's a big part of this, is as we love takeaways talking about the Bears' defense and their success they've had. And then 117 tackles, too. Yeah, that's a robust body of work, but it's two out of three.

Yeah. And that's what makes it tough. Yeah. I like him on the overall, though. Like, if he's a yes for me, like if you're asking, like the production that he can provide overrides for me, and it's worth mentioning, but it does override the potential injury risk with a player like that. What about the fact that he also played all 17 games after the ACL?

Yeah, that's a great point. There was no rest there. There was no reset. There was no setback. Zero and 24, all 17 games last year. That's big for what teams are going to consider right now. No doubt about it. I also got to watch his first training camp because back then, if you remember in 2018,

The Bears had a, what do you call it? Mixed practice. Joint practice. Joint practice. A mixer. A social. Where everybody gets in a fight. Let's all get to know each other.

That was great because we got the cover practice in beautiful Colorado. Had a lovely time. I remember hanging out. City by the bit. Oh, yeah. I remember, for some reason, I remember riding through the hills with Adam Johns and Patrick Finley. We went to the Red Rock's place and all that. Oh, yeah, it was just absolutely love.

Oh, I've always wanted. to do that. Yeah, it was cool. That's so cool. That concert venue. Oh, yeah, I've wanted to go there as well. The acoustics I hear are top-notch. I think Cypress Hill is doing Red Rocks this year, by the way. Really? That's a Mark Grody interest. Totally. Totally. That's a, you mentioned Take the North. That's a Take the North band right there. T-TN? Because we famously, famously said the bears aren't going out like that. Famously, everybody knows that we said that. They ain't going out. That's right. You know who I'm very glad you also asked Cole Commet, whether or not. he thought the counting crows were going.

I did. I did ask him that. And then he came back at you with the hot take of, he didn't like the weekend. About which I am with him on that. There's just something about the, that doesn't calculate. You know me, I listen to and give new music a fair chance. There's a lot of new music that I like.

Nobody loves B96. I don't dislike them at all. They are definitely on my preset. You know who I think would be with us on the, it's all coming back to me now, World Series talk? You know who I think would get the bit? Who? Ryan Dempster.

Oh, yeah. Don't you think? Oh, yeah. I feel like he would get the Celine Dion reference. I think he would because he was a big part. He was around that 26th. He was on the airplanes. He was hilarious.

Fellow Canadian? He was the guy on the Cubs championship team and during that era that just made everybody smile and laugh because he's Ryan Dempster. I guess we got to see if it's all coming back to him now next. The score! Ryan Dempster. Two and two. going to go the passball away

and not the location he wanted but it worked out as fielder swung and missed 7Ks for Dempster efficient much more like the Ryan Dempster that we've seen all season long swinging a miss, right three struck him out four punchouts here in the fifth inning

I mean get rid of an old aging pitcher for a guy who can finally help your team it seems like it makes sense if you ask me I don't know how much of a genius that FD can It's 8 for 14 in the series poll. That's as hot as you can get. You mentioned it.

Go ahead. If your coffee is lukewarm in the clubhouse, put it on Pete Crow's lap, and it will be scalding hot. With Rahimi Harrison Brody on 1043 The Score. I reckon I left a good footprint on how to drink. I know that. This is Rahimi Harrison Grody on 1043 to score, and that is a fantastic introduction to our guest, Ryan Dempster, the former cup from two. 2004 to 2012, two-time All-Star World Series champion, purveyor of humor and music and the like.

And he joins us on our Circus Sports Illinois hotline. Download the circus sports app today. And Cage the Elephant in the introduction for you there, Ryan, just to get ready for this weekend Datings Fest. How are you? I'm doing great. And that was one heck of, I can't, I forgot I said half that stuff. Doesn't that suck? That's our daily basis.

I was going to Marie Lane. You blacked out. I thought he got way too much credit anyway, so it's great. Right. That euphemism, though, for the coffee and Peter Crow Armstrong, that was tremendous. You know, we were talking about PCA. There was an article Saut of Sharma did in the athletic talking about his swing adjustments. I said that that's probably one of the biggest storylines for me is how he's going to adjust to the league adjusting to him last year.

You know, what would you say now, just given what you're looking for with him, for example? Yeah, I think last year for Pete was probably as valuable of a second half as he could have had. And people are going to be listening right now going, what, he struggled in the second half. Awesome. And you know what he did in September? He figured it out. And he got back. He got to his 30, 30.

Like, people always do that. We see in the first half, like a guy will get 14. wins and we're like, here we go. Denny McLean, 30 wins is coming. Guy hits 35, 40 home runs. Like, he's going to hit 7. It is so hard to do that month after month after month and the league adjust and everybody's telling you how great you are and things can slip just a little bit. So I thought what he went through last year and then figured out a way to write the ship in September, I just think it's so huge. And I think that he learned from that, from talking with him. I think he understands how hard this game can be at times,

even though all the success he had. And I think we're going to see an even more polished B. Kromstrung strong this year. And I think, you know, does that mean he's 40-40? No. It just means that I don't think you're going to see these ups and downs like you maybe saw last year. And I think the overall consistency is going to be better. And that's, that's for me, the mark of a guy who's finding himself and I think has finally found himself. in the major leagues. This guy's going to be a star for years to come. Well, you said not 40-40, and that's a fair thing to say. That's hard to put on anybody's plate in this day and age. But what do you think he is? And maybe you just said it.

Like, you still think that PCA is going to be a star in Major League Baseball? He's more of what we saw in the first half of the season than the second half of the season. Yeah, I do. I think that there's a common ground in the middle, and I think that it leans towards more what we saw in the first half. I mean, this has always been the talk of him. He's been doing this since he was 12 with Team USA. You know, I just think, A, defensively, he's as good as it gets. He's Gold Glover.

No doubt. That's one of the best, if not the best center fielder in the game. What he can do on the base pass, you know, maybe there's not 40 home runs every year, but I think 40 stolen bases a year is something very realistic. I think what you learn from talking to guys and being around guys is sometimes when they get into that home run zone where they're just hitting a ton of home runs, and they're not pure home run hitters like Aaron Judge or Pete Alonzo or these guys, is that all of a sudden you start to swing for the home run because you've just hit a bunch. Like, oh, man, I hit 12 this month. Cool.

Here I go. And it becomes something that all of a sudden you get out of your swing and then you lose your swing and then you're trying to find it and you're being, you know, let me take a pitch. Oh, that pitch is right down the middle. Oh, let me, let me go ahead and be aggressive. There's a It's like you just get caught and caught in that hamster wheel, and I think he got caught there for a little bit in August, you know, July and August, and I think he got out of it, and this is a guy who's determined to be great. I think chasing greatness is a really important thing

that more guys should aspire to, and I think that he learned a lot last year. I think he's full on ready to go again this year, and he's just a special kid. He's a special player, and I think, you know, the possibility of what he's able to do, I think will just continue to grow as he matures. He's still a young ball player, especially when he looked at bats and miles and all that kind

of stuff on his career so far. I think he's potentially a guy every year that could be 30-30. Does he have a 40-40? And I'm sure. But to put expectations on a guy, I think, is unfair. And I think we're just going to continue to see a great version of peak armstrong. We're talking to Ryan Dempster, the host of Intentional talk on MLB Network, former Cub for many years. And Ryan, I think you're on to something.

And Mark has talked about this, too. We've talked about it on the air. Where there are times when because PCA is such a good bad ball hitter. You know, where there are times where the swing at the plate looked a little bit more like a golf swing than a batting swing because he was trying to hit something low and give it some launch angle. I think those are the ones where I want them back and to say, you know, it's okay. It's okay to not go for the bad ball when your plate discipline is requiring you to do different things. Yeah, I'm with you on that.

And I think what happens is when we struggle, you know, I can speak from a pitcher standpoint because I can't speak from a hitter because I struggled my whole life as a hitter. So if you look at the numbers, they don't lie. 099 at a Wayne Gretti batting average. You found your niche. It was pitching. Yeah, safe to say. When I struggled, you know, as I found that when I tried to force the issue,

throw the nastiest slider I got. A guy just spat on it and said, I'm not swinging at that. And so for a hitter, I noticed with Pete a lot of the time was he tried to go get the ball, and I'm going to go get it, and I'm going to swing before it's even there. And when he's going good,

and when hitters are going good, that's what makes it hard for us as pitchers is we go, man, this dude is like, you know, locked in. He's spitting on my nasty, but he's waiting for me to come to him. And I think, to me, that's what we're going to come to, kind of see more and more out of Pete is just that comfort in himself and say, okay, and I think that's where he got to towards the end of the season. And, you know, and in September, and, you know, like, listen, you're not going to hit 50. Just because you have 30 at the break, doesn't

mean you're hitting 50. And it's about good quality at bass. And Pete learned all this stuff and talking with him, I know he's determined to just be the best version of himself. And when we see that, he is a bad ball hitter. And that's fine. When you're locking, in it. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Bad ball hitter. Like, I threw a slider in the dirt that bounced in the other batters box and he pulled it for a base hit in the hole in the Olympic Stadium.

So, like, you can be a bad ball hitter and be successful, but when you're struggling, that's where you have to get back. And I just think, you know, this is a kid who puts so much work in and he's going to be perfectly fine this year, and I expect him to be back in center field at the

All-Star game and having that kind of quality season again. Oh, Olympic stadium. Always good to hear about that cavernous stadium where you could... What did you say? What did you call it? The Staud du Olympique. That's what they would always say when you take that train out there to a boisterous crowd of 800 people with

Buzuzziolas and Yupi trying to distract us while we're playing. That's hilarious. I just remember... Stade is stadium in French. Ah. I just remember... You remember the umpire Dutch renter by any chance, Ryan Dempster? Do you remember?

I know the name. Yeah. Yeah. I just remember hearing his voice would just canon through that stadium. You would hear, strike one! From Dutch Rennerd and it would just resonate. And the ball calls were hilarious, too. Ball one!

It was a beautiful place. We all have nostalgia. I remember, by the way, that stadium back in my early years with the Marlins, I went in there, and I was running laps after a start, and I'm running in the Elfield. Every time I get to center field, I'd hear this like, like a club, like boom, boom, like music going, like house music. And I'm like, huh. And then at first I thought it was the player's parking lot, like maybe a guy in the car really like techno.

I don't know. And so I'm like, now I finish my run and I go out to center field. There's nobody out there. And I'm like, and I hear, and I keep walking. And I go further and further into the innards of the Olympic Stadium. And all of a sudden it's getting louder and louder and I open a door. And there is a full-on. rave that is still going from the night before.

What? Really? Amazing. And we went back to the clubhouse with a couple guys. They go, boys, shorts, t-shirts, let's go. And we went out at about 1230, and we had a full-on dance rave at Olympic Stadium. That's awesome. Oh, that's awesome, man. I love that.

We were talking about metric shakes and Gatorade. They were having some other substances, I'll just say. They were having a lot of fun. Close sticks were at an all-time high. Oh, man. It's like walk at the free party you never knew would happen. I love that kind of stuff. I miss those days.

Oh, that is beautiful. That reminds me the time that I was at Purdue University where my cousin went, and there were four of us. We walked into a fraternity house that we were supposed to go to. There was nobody there except for a few of the house moms and kegs. So five of us got to drink out of a keg that was a party that we didn't expect to have. So it was, yeah. The youth we shared. Oh, it's so good.

Oh my God. That's the voice. That's the voice of Ryan Dempster. This is Rahimi Harris and Grotie on the score. Of course, Dempster, the co-host of Intentional Talk on MLB Network, Marquis Sports Network analysts. And of course, he was a member of the Cubs from 2004 to 2012. Got to talk pitching with you a little bit here, Ryan. And here is my question with all these arms, Kate Horton, Matthew Boyd, Edward Cabrera, Justin Steele, Tyone, Shoda, Imanaga. Who do you think by the end of this year, we will have called the Cubs ace in this starting

rotation? I'm going to say Kate Horton. This kid's special, man. I watched it, I mean, a work ethic, determination, studying college. We would have been talking about maybe another round of the playoffs

if Kate had been able, you know, to not have the injury bug bite him there a little bit. This kid's got swing and miss stuff, electric stuff, different slider than we see in the game. I think he's one of the bright arms. around baseball, not just with the Cubs. So, yeah, I think, you know, and his ability to sit on the bench with a guy like Matthew

Boyd and have James and Taya and talk to him about pitching, these are veteran guys who, you know, have been in his shoes before and they're now veteran guys and just, you know, putting their knowledge on him. I just think he's got the ability to be next level good. And we saw so many flashes of that last year, consistent stretches of that. and I think it just continues to build off that. We're talking to Ryan Dempster, as we mentioned, and I guess I have to, I mentioned that I would say this,

so I've got to do it. Your fellow Canadian, Celine Dion, you know the song? It's coming back to me now. Are you familiar? So when Tom Ricketts... I only karaoke that once a week, Leah. You do not. You're kidding, right?

Please tell me you're kidding. Because if not, we would all support you. I'm using them once a week, but I have karaokeed it. See, I knew you would know. So when Tom Rickett said, we need to win more world series, and he said that so declaratively, I thought, I heard the song,

I heard it's all coming back to me now, and then it all came together. But I say that to say, see, now we've got it if Ryan wants to karaoke. Now we're playing it. I love it. But that's how I felt when I heard Tom Rickett say that. You know, when you hear him say, we have to win more World Series,

that feeling of wanting the playoffs again. Like, how did that hit you when you know the owner is saying that out loud? He's putting the standard out there. It came back to me. Well, yeah. And I think, you know, I think that was the standard that Tom set. You know, early on there was the rebuild. Okay, now we are where we are.

And there's a World Series win. And there's, you know, playoffs every year in 2017 back to the NLCS. and all this kind of stuff, and then COVID hit, you know. And it changed a lot of things for a lot of teams. A lot of stuff changed, right? Finance has changed. People left. Other players got traded away, all kinds of stuff.

And then you start to miss the playoffs as a player, as a front office, as an organization, as an ownership. And then you get it again, and you're like, wait, wait, wait, I really love this. This is fun. I want to do this all the time. I want us to win a World Series again. And that should be the standard. And I'm glad that Tom talked about that because I know how much he wants to win and he wants to do it year in, year out.

Like, listen, not everybody's going to be the Dodgers and good for them. Like, they spend the money and they're setting the standard of getting players and developing a winning culture. You know, people are like, oh, the big bad Dodgers, the big bad Dodgers. 2012 Major League Baseball was paying their payroll in April. Like, wasn't that long ago. Yeah, it wasn't that long ago. And so they, it's not like this has been going on for 25 years.

And like we see kind of ebbs and flows of different teams doing this, where they're kind of the powerhouse for a little bit. And I think it's time that the Cubs got back to being in that conversation. And I think Tom said that, means it. And we see it going out there and getting a guy like Alex Breggman, going out there and making a trade for a Cabrera, going out there and signing guys, stacking a bullpen so we have a ton of arms. Like, that's what you need. You need good players. You need depth. You need pitching. And I think the Cubs have all of those things. And as long as you're putting yourself in a top

five, top seven payroll every year, you're at least making the commitment to your fans and to your players that were out here to win. And now you open the door. Like, say all of a sudden you're in first place at the trading deadline and you got an opportunity to acquire somebody that might cost you some money. There's not a doubt in my mind that Tom and Rickett's family and front office, office are going to be like, yeah, let's go get them because we want to win. And it's really awesome to hear. And I hope that it's something that just is the gold standard in Chicago, that every year it's about making the playoffs and trying to compete for a World Series.

And it's just really great to hear him speaking that way. Ryan, thank you for saying that. And then also, before we let you go, we have to talk about this ridiculously good lineup for innings Fest that's going on in Tempe. Friday, it's Mumford and Sons, Gugu Dalls, Mild Smith, group love, peach pit, okay, go, Marcy Playground, Saturday, 21 pilots, Cage the Elephant, Lord, you're on the fray, dashboard, confessional, Silver Sun pickups, Blink 1-82s on Sunday with sublime and public enemy. Big boy, bowling for soup, Eve 6. Like, this is a hell of a lineup, even for Innings Fest. This might be your best one yet. This is really great. Tim Sweetwood, the gentleman who started this festival, and I was a hell of able to come and start being a part of right away with my off the mound show,

really hit it out of the park with this lineup and who's coming and great artists, great people, and we're super fired up. It's crazy. Saturday, Sunday, sold out. You know, if you want a ticket, you've got to go to a secondary market. Friday, we're close to that as well. And then the activation or the baseball activation for baseball fans, you know, you can go to a Cubs game. You can go to the home opener on Friday. and then go over to Tempe Beach Park and come to the festival. There's baseball players there doing hitting lessons and appearances where there's signing autographs, taking pictures.

We have our stage with our show. We'll interview different personalities of the game, players of the game, comedians, rock stars, all of it. And it's just so much fun. It is a beautiful venue right there on the water where you can walk back and forth. Everybody's there to have a good time. it's really killer.

We're super pumped. I'm super excited for what we put together for the shows and can't wait to see how the weekend plays out. And, you know, at the opening day across spring training in the Cactus League, and then we have this beautiful festival where people get to go check in some music and enjoy each other's company. You're right. It's as good a lineup as there's been for sure.

Oh, yeah, we as a team are trying to figure out how to get there. Ryan, it sounds like you've got a bit of business to take care of. I heard a little kiddo's voice there, so we'll let you get to it. has been a lot of fun. Thanks for catching up. Yeah, absolutely. I just, when you guys are lifting, you know, when I'm feeling down, you lift me up, you know, it's really great.

It is all coming back to me. See? Thanks for playing along, right? I can't wait to hear the karaoke of this. I am so excited. Hey, have fun at Innings Fest. Ryan Dempster, his show Off the mound will be a part of it. Thank you for joining us. You got it. Absolutely. It's great to be with you guys this morning.

See, Ryan. That's Ryan Dempster and family. Do you know what song they used to... We gotta go to this Inex Fest. Oh my God. What the hell? How did I miss this? It's like a dream lineup.

Like I was like thirsting for that sort of lineup this summer. I never quite got it. 21 pilots, KG Elephant and Lord Huron together. Oh my goodness. And I like Silver Sun Pickups. Oh, I love Silver Sun pickups. Vertical Horizon is a part of this. KG Elephant's starting to be one of those bands that like, I don't know.

They're not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I don't think. But they're one of those bands that have been around forever. They just keep putting good stuff out, like where you really start to have to appreciate that band and come a little closer. That song, I realized recently is a blast it song. You know, some songs just sound like when you hear them full. Play that song. I heard it for the first time all over again by blasting Come a Little Closer by Cage the Elephant.

That's really good, loud. That's how I feel about Panic Switch by Silver Sun Pickups. Also, vertical horizon. Let's take you way back here. Okay. What was one of my first? favorite home run calls by Dan Patrick. Out of the island and into the hideaway.

Oh. Into the highway. Is that what it was from Vertical Horizon? Yeah. It was slightly overplayed, but then again, everybody's slightly overplayed. I believe it was out of the island and into the hideaway. Okay. Do you know what?

It was out of the island, into the highway. You got to double check because lyrics on this show can be suspect. That's me. No, no. You could just say it. Mark Grody's lyrics are suspect. You could say it. That was the old school sports center after.

Pedro Martinez was on pitching out of the island into the highway. It was like a very commonly used home run call. Oh, by the way, somebody say it ain't so groats, not the weekend because I said I know. I respect the weekend. I really do. Like, like I understand lots of people get joy from the weekend. I don't. Okay. We might touch on that later. And 3-1-2 wants to know that lineup. It was for innings fest. That is going on in Tempe. It starts on Friday, Tempe Beach Park and Arts Park. And it is really cool. Ryan Dempster's show. He's going to have a a big part in it. Jake Peevy is hosting an all-star baseball jam. Miguel Montaro is going to be a part of it.

Get McGee to say we are good. Grand Slam, Maggie. Just call him granny. What? What? Yeah. All right, we're going to figure out how to get tickets to this. I mean. Apparently, like, we got to all pile up into Matt Spiegel's booth on Friday. Let's do it. We'll figure it out. The pressure is on. Mitch Rosen.

In the meantime. In between time. A little bit of draft talk or at least position. knee talk for the Bears coming up because interestingly Ryan pulls Mike at a third Biden and Apple that not many GMs get to have so we'll discuss that next Rahimi Harris and Grody

midday's 10 to 2 on 1043 the score Ryan with Ozzy what is the timetable on his return and how is that going to impact what you may or may not have to do to get a better an option that's part of our job really unfortunate because I thought he was coming along I was looking forward to him

getting this off season. I don't have a specific timetable. I'm sure it'd be somewhere, you know, deep into next year for the injury. So I had a good conversation with him. He knows this is part of his journey. He's going to have to overcome. I got a lot of faith in him and our staff to get him back ready to go whenever that is. But specific timetables, I don't have that right now.

Yeah, Ryan Poles told the truth there, didn't he? This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, the score. And that is a big, issue for the bears because when we're talking about offseason needs, suddenly two positions where I feel like we've talked about them and maybe they thought that they had dressed them and their expensive positions are still ones that we very much are discussing. Number one is the constant disgust in the need of a pass rush. You know, we've talked about Max Crosby ad nauseum. We will until anything happens. Bradley Chubb now being available. And then the other one is left

tackle. And whether or not we like it, Ryan Poles is going to have to likely get a third bite at the apple when it comes to trying to draft a left tackle. First, it was Braxton Jones, who may be available via a one-year-proof-it deal or something along those lines, but the position is very high in demand, which is part of what we know. Two is Ozzie Tripillo, who really showed progress before he was injured with an injury that can be very difficult to time. Ryan Poles did not lie to you. A torn Patelor tendon, especially when you're 6'8 and you play a left tackle offensive lineman. Ozzie, of course, was on the right side before he moved to left, Mark.

We know that that's something that can take a long time. Some people don't come back from it. At least Ozzy is young. And we're looking at the Bears likely having to spend draft capital on another left tackle potential yet again. Yeah, it really, this injury sucks. Because while Ozzie Tripillo was imperfect in his time playing left tackle, it looked like he was on his way. And the Bears' offensive line with Dan Rocharn, Ben Johnson, and all of his staff did a really good job of compensating for the newness of these guys, including Theo Benedette. Theo Benedet needed help over there.

Ozzie Tripillo needed help over there. But the trajectory was really good. Now you have to either, you're right, draft one, sign one, get creative, things like, and I don't think that this is something we're going to see, but until we really see darn all right, just locked in, nobody's going to move him to left tackle, then you have to think about that possibility, too. How important is left tackle in this offense, and is darn all right somebody you start to mess with? and how much do they like somebody like Jordan McFadden, who was, you know, had to play probably too much last year. And you're looking at me right now, like I'm crazy to even bring up his name. But that's where they are in terms of creativity and knowing their own personnel right now.

Well, no, a lot of people are saying Karana Maggi is the fourth bite. But I don't. I didn't even, I wasn't even thinking about Karana Magoggi. I wasn't either because I don't know that they ever set out to have him be a starting left tackle. Now, I know he had to start. that's a different discussion. But when it comes to, I think sometimes you know,

I know he was a third round pick, but I feel like even then, you're probably drafting that guy, especially knowing that he was injured at the time and he played at Yale. Ivy League's a little bit different competition from, say, your Big Ten or your SEC. So I was still thinking that that was more of a developmental

than it was a, you need him on the album cover, as Poles Lakes to say. But yeah, we can count him. okay, so that's four. Yeah. But I considered him more of a depth guy rather than perhaps a starter. I mean, I'm still trying to figure out is, can he play at all?

Because we still don't really know about Corona by God, because we saw him get in, even though he might have been put in in some unfair spots. What was it against Minnesota? Yeah, at Minnesota. So he hasn't necessarily been put in positions to win, but considering he's a third round pick. and maybe he just gets bunched with Ryan Poles' mistakes of the past, as we were talking about in the meeting. Like, offensive line, ironically, you could say,

has been one of the bigger problems for Ryan Poles until last year and this past season. And they went to the store. Yeah. They did the hard thing because that's the beauty of having a quarterback on a rookie contract is you can spend a lot of actual money to get, per se, the best free agency. center on the market, you know, in Drew

Dalman. You can spend the money to get a guy like Joe Duny and then extend him knowing that that's the intent. And good on them. They spent the money on Jonah Jackson and look how that season turned out. We haven't even talked about that, given all question marks that he had had coming from the Rams, he comes in, has a great season, especially when you consider how successful the right side of the line was when it came to the running game. That we don't complain about.

But you can't go to the left tackle store. And when you do, it's expensive. Trent Williams is here to tell you about it. So in the meantime, they've got to figure out yet another plan. Yeah, I mean, that's one of the most important things that they need to have hammered out by the time they step on the turf for training camp at Hallis Hall. And it'll be very interesting to see how they go about this and what kind of resources they put into it. Nobody's trying to call me a poll's apologist.

But am I doing so in not counting Quran Amagagagia in that discussion? No, I think it's kind of sad. I mean, I think it's like just pointing out Karan Amagaji, there were probably listeners who were like the same thing I reacted like, oh yeah, Karan Amagaji who is, like he's a third round pick. He's a third rounder. That's like, that's like, it's not like it was a fifth six. I'm beating around the bush. Charles Linder was seven. Yeah, like, like it's, it's like kind of dancing around bust for somebody like him. Now, it all feels better because of the, the, the, the, the, purchases that they made as you just went through and the success of darned all right.

Like the darn all right thing is just, thank God he really came into his own this year and that you have literally a pro bowl guy as your right tackle. That's so incredibly important, but they've got to figure this out at left tackle. Well, and that's it. And I feel like we're stuck in the same situation. Would I be asking this question if Ozzie Tripillo had not hurt his pettler tendon? No. This wouldn't be, this wouldn't be an issue.

but unfortunately we're faced with a very sobering thought, especially when you consider how much money that position commands. Right, you had the guy. There he was. There he was. We think Ozzie Tripillo and now he's not there. But that's where. It's a pillow.

Yeah, well, I was wondering when he was going to chime in about that. Jeez, Chris, Emma, we can't take you anywhere's. Poor Zepiloh. Poor Emma. That's also to me why it's not a done deal that Braxton Jones is going to be like, yeah, I'll give you guys a year. We just told you how hard it is to find quality experienced left tackles. Man, I can't.

And he may not be the all pro. Nobody's saying that. You know, I've had my fair share discussion about Braxton. I was always worried about his pad level and just how the width of the base at which he was blocking. But when it comes to positional availability, I mean, look how quickly it took for a guy like Kevin Jenkins, for example, to sign. I expect Braxton Jones will get a lot of attention. in a free agent market for that very reason.

Good offensive lineman, even passable offensive lineman. Jared. They're hard to find. Leleno, when he left the Bears in the previous seventh round pick, he landed right away. And wasn't he somewhat of a cap casualty at the time? Yeah, I think he was. And he was also, honestly, he just brought up Tevin Jenkins. He was also a Tevin Jenkins casualty because that's when everybody thought,

oh, okay, you've drafted your guy, highly drafted player in Tevin Jenkins. There you have your left tackle. And we know that that all imploded. And Tevin Jenkins ended up being a guard. And Braxton Jones, the seventh rounder, ended up being that pick or that guy. Fifth rounder. Fifth rounder. Yes.

Yeah. Liddo was the seventh. Seventh rounder. And then the qualifier of always the discussion of, well, dot, dot, dot for fifth rounder. Now, Luke Newman, I feel like, is still a guard in all of this. You know, he was drafted last year. I don't think that his life changes too much because of this. I could be wrong. I don't know that any of us saw.

Theo Benedet's life changing as much as it did after a preseason. Yeah, and that's the other part here because it is, it does seem like a seriously complicated issue unless we look at it as and say, okay, somehow, some way this coaching staff got that Theo Benedict, undrafted guy just sat around in his first year to be effective at left tackle. Ozzie Tripillo, who missed the offseason program and looked like he was going to be at the very least for the year a project and maybe a guy that plays but probably a guy that's not going to play can't do we have enough faith in this coaching to have to say yeah you could patchwork it for another year you could get away with Braxton Jones and I don't think they will with

Braxton Jones just because they sort of said it from the beginning we don't really care that much about Braxton Jones yeah he's our starter we're going with Braxton Jones he did win the left tackle competition but after that once he's he was replaced, he was replaced. He's a good example of look what happens when a guy of that height and that size has a debilitating injury. He had that broken ankle.

And remember how he was still coming back from it? And he didn't even look like himself for a long time. And then ultimately, yes, ended up losing the job. I think experience won out just because it was a new offense too and everybody was learning together. But that's why there's no guarantees here. Thank goodness, Ozzie Tripillo is young. but we just don't know what we're going to get once he is able to play.

A4-7 bears at 25th pick should draft the best available at either left tackle, edge, or defensive tackle. I mean, right now at number 25, if I had my pick out of those, I'm still defense, though, by a hair. Well, it's supposedly a very good class for rusher, edge rusher. It is. But, you know, I believe Clay too. Clay said this last week, Clay Harbor, when he was on with us, let's also consider getting more interior rush. Doesn't always have to be perimeter.

Oh, I'd be okay with them drafting a defensive tackle. I mean, like, is. Or maybe perhaps that's a cheaper position in free agency than edge rusher, yeah. Yeah. And like, is, you know, what's, what's Grady Jared got left? Is Jervon Dexter? Are we just about out of time on Jervon Dexter?

You got two years left on Grady's deal, right? Wasn't it three? Yeah, yeah, you do. And Shamar Turner, too, who you have three years left on his rookie deal. Has to be crucial in this. Big time. Second round pick has to be. We talk about it on Take the North about how the bears are sort of the higher from within bears.

Like when you look at like realistically how their defense is going to get better, it's the guys that exist either playing Shamar Turner or Grady Jarrett get better than you were last year. We're going to have more on this discussion because like not to get really. bleak, but let's not forget that four safeties are all up right now and free agents as well. Kevin Fishbane will join us to talk about cap casualties at 1225.

Coming up next year on Rahimi Harrison Grohl. Oh, I'm leaving. It's halftime. And when I first got on to this story, I'm leaving. I did not think it was appropriate. She is filthy. I held off because I just didn't think it was right for a

broadcast discussion. But sometimes when when everybody else is talking about it to a fever pitch, you have to as well. I'll just read the headline and I can't read everything because I'm not stupid. Plastic Surgeon pumps more drama into a gate at Olympics with injection claim. If you haven't heard, get to know it next. This is halftime here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. It is Mark and Layla in today.

And we spent the first hour talking about how Tom Ricketts said the good part out loud. He said, we need to win more World Series. Not the division, not intelligence spending, not outperforming. He said the WS words, world and series. And then that's when I was like, oh, it's like Celine Dion. It's all coming back to me now. We talked about why Marquina Sports Network is a good thing in this scenario. And then we also went into it with Ryan Demster, who turns out,

karaoke's. It's all coming back to me now. Amazing. Are you surprised? No, I'm not surprised. The man is a showman. And he's also got a sick concert that he gets to go to. Yeah, Grotie and I are really jealous of this whole innings fest scenario that's happening this weekend in Arizona.

If you get the chance to go, I has jealous. And we also talked about the concern surrounding the Bears left tackle position. Again, for infinity. Ever, ever? Ever? Ever? ever? A thousand plus one.

Ever, ever. Okay, I saw this story weeks ago. Ever, ever do that again. Remember what happened in our meeting, Ray, Tyler? I don't know if you were here that day, Grotes, because I think you would have been so distracted that that would have been all you talked about. It was like, well, I've got two stories for halftime, guys. And one of them was a story we already did.

And then the other one was the scenario that has unfolded at the Olympic Games. And do you remember Ryan's face when we first talked about it? Our boss, Ryan Porth? Yes. Piles! Seemed hesitant is the word I'll use for us to do this story. And maybe that's because the headline from the New York Post, the latest on this developing story. I can't do this without laughing.

It's impossible. Is plastic surgeon pumps more drama into... Penis. Gate at Olympics with injection claim. I'm not going to say it. That would require me to have that word on tape. So we're just going to let Chris Rangy do the trick. Layla, come on.

You're a smart journal. journalist. Do you know it's in context? It's okay when it's in context. Didn't they teach you anything in North Texas? Yeah, they taught me that sneaky sneaks like you will take the tape and then use it against me. Yeah, so I'm going to read this story featuring Chris Ranji. A plastic surgeon added a new layer to the penis gay controversy at the 2026 Winter Olympics. And if you didn't know, there actually is one. Alessandro Latara, a surgeon who performs. Penis. Enlarging operations.

told USA Today that he provided the surgery with hyalurotic acid to a ski jumper last month. Now, the concept is, the more you have there, somehow the more aerodynamic you are in these ski jumping events. I don't know. A hell of a story. Like, that's not my area. You can't relate. Is that what you're saying? I don't have those parts.

So we can really ask the question in this situation? does size matter. Yeah, that's true. Because I, yeah. We can get you fitted too, Leila. So the quote says, regarding the news in question, I did in fact treat an athlete from that sport whose name and nationality I will obviously not disclose nor whether he is participating in these Olympics.

However, I can say that I treated him last month and used a generous dose of hyaluronic acid. Did you not know about this story? I did, maybe not in this detail. Can I get that at the dispensary? I wouldn't know. Ray. I do know the hyleronic acid filler for the face exists. People use that.

That's not even inappropriate. Now you're just saying words inappropriately because you're already acting guilty. Remember what I told you about acting guilty, guys? Oh, that's right. See, that's acting guilty. German publication build. Appropriately named. reported earlier this month that Olympic ski jumpers were using

hylerotic acid injections to artificially enlarge their penis which would allow them to wear bigger ski jumping suits bigger suits would help generate more lift on jumps and make it more aerodynamic potentially adding a few extra meters in the air the big suit you got there who doesn't want to add a couple meters I thought it was about how you use the suit

that's what they say Not the size of the suit. It's the motion in the suit. Motion of the ocean. Ocean of the motion. Bears. Grody! Latar told USA today that the ski jumper said

that the ski jumper he operated on said that he wanted to avoid embarrassment in the dressing room. What is going on here? Did the Olympics need to end? Have we reached the end? That's it! Olympics are canceled. Everybody's going home.

You guys can't handle this. You started to take a lot. places it didn't need to go. And the annual running out of condoms has occurred as well. Yeah, that happened like three days in. But here's the better question. Who figured this out?

And how and why? I need the origin story on this. And maybe I don't because maybe it's gross. Matt Nagy's Y and peanuts. Buy me some peanuts and crack your jack. How? How did you have that on the ready? penis

So, you know why? You know why? Because he's a bute. That's why. The quotes continue. I cannot say whether he told me the whole truth, said Latara, who has performed over 3,000

enlargement surgeries. But in any case, we did a good job and implanted a more than generous dose of hylerotic acid. Congratulations. Congratulations.

The results is immediate, so the athlete could wear the new suit after just a few minutes. Wow. That works quick. Yeah. Look at this. Look at that. Wada has chimed in and has said there will be an investigation.

Wada is the world anti-doping agency. That was New York Water. Water. Water. Water. That's Philly. And the International Skion Snowboard Federation's Communications Director Bruno Sossi told USA.

told USA Today that there was no evidence that it was happening at these Olympics. Well, Olatara just told you it was. Okay, Bruno saucy. I really just thought you were going to say Bruno sausage and I was going to die. Sausage, anyone? So he called the allegations, quote, pure hearsay and quote, a wild rumor. Doesn't sound so wild now, does it? I think pure hearsay and a wild rumor didn't say it was wrong.

So we had been avoiding this story, as you can understand. You were waiting for me to be here before we did this story? No, do you know what happened? It had just been talking about so much. At some point, you have a devotion to your own brand. It's a good point. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's been out there.

We've giggled about it in the hallways. Why not bring it to the air? Had to. Yeah. Had to. But there wasn't a solution. We didn't. Problems and solutions.

We didn't. And then I'm like hylerotic acid solution. No. We just didn't have a verbal solution for how to not incriminate myself. When in doubt use Chris. That's the Terry that I keep doing. Oh, I know. I'm sure there has been a few phrases said in reference to Terry and buy certain things. There's only certain people that can get away with it.

I'm not one of them. I am not. I don't believe I am either. I think Terry Bores and Chris Rangier, the only ones you can get away was saying, Petus. The texts. Pes in. Penis now. The texts are as good as you would imagine.

Is that an XL ski jumping suit or are you just happy to see me? What is that? It's a whole family thing. What? I thought you were doing like the Woody Woodpecker thing. I thought it was a theme. That's like the theme song? I thought you were head down the...

I thought it was the interlude from one of those Contra games, or Konami games, like Contra or Kung Fu or something. I don't have time to go to the whole origin. As a child, as a suburban youth, we used to drive every year to a farm in Waynesville, Ohio. Friends of ours that grew up in the Northwest suburbs, but then moved to a farm. So every year we would go to this farm.

A bunch of people on the block, we would all caravan to Wainsville, Ohio, and were young kids hanging out city kids, hanging out on a farm, which is a blast. And I love animals. So it's like this just beautiful, unbelievable thing. But for some reason, the parents all hung out. They partied, they drank, and occasionally would sing that song when something fun would happen. They would just all go, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And now you know more about the Grotie family.

You guys had family sing-alongs. There were, I probably could have condensed that whole story into, yeah, we had family sing-alongs. No, I need the whole backstory. That's just, that's very, very nice, nice. You're really catching on, Leila. Are you kidding? I had to teach you about the office. You did.

Guys, Grody did not know about the five families episode of the office. But I did know about the dinner party and I do know about the deposition. Do you know the deposition episode where they're all said? That's, that is the reading it back to Michael what he said. Who is this, Ryan? Yeah, yeah. That's what she said. No, that's what she said.

It's so. That takes some good actors to pull that off. It really does. That's what she said. That's what she said. Okay, we got to go. Five on it is next. Pneas.

Time for five on it. Rahini Harrison Rooney. Bring you five topics on their minds today. On 104-3, the score. I got five on it. Number one. All right, we got one for all the Maxenistas out there. On Monday, ESPN proposed a blockbuster trade between the Bears and the Raiders.

In this scenario, Chicago would. would send receiver DJ more and a 2026 first round pick to Las Vegas for pass, rusher, Max, Crosby, and a 2027 fifth round pick. Would you be on board with this move? Okay. So number one, I would like to say things to everybody who watched Chicago Sports Tonight on Sunday. It was Chris Bleck, who's now our co-worker, and it's still weird for us to say.

We all freak out on the Odyssey Sports Minutes because we're like, wait a second. Chris Black doesn't work with us. Yes, he does. He's at Westwood Y. He was at another place for a long time. Shout out to Chris Boyd. Yeah, and everybody's always like, I don't listen to you guys. One thousand. We got the numbers. We know.

And we stole Chris Black and Adam Abdallah. So go us. And there was a fight about the Max Crosby discussion. And the question was would it take more than two first round picks? And then people got passionate in the comments as I saw. Because I like to read because sometimes there's something you miss, you know,

and people talk about stuff, and that's how you try to fill in the gaps. People have questions that I don't always have. So they were like, Lila was saying three draft picks. No, I wasn't, not necessarily. It's something along the lines of what Bill Barnwell discussed. There are position players of value to the Raiders.

DJ Moore could be one of them. Other bears, you know, and they have a rich, vast wealth at certain positions. like, I don't know, tight end. I'm just saying there are other positions where the bears have a plethora of people. And so it might not be just draft picks, might not be just first rounders,

might be a combination of assets. That's what I was kind of getting out here. I don't think it's a one-for-one. This was the Micah Parsons deal, so therefore it would be Max Crosby. So I just want to get that out there. Thanks to everybody who is so passionate about it. But unless I say,

yes, I should three draft picks, that's not necessarily what I mean. It sounds like it could work. But at the end of the day, DJ Moore is also making $28.5 million. Now, DJ Moore has years on his contract and we like to say in the biz, the more years you have, the more you can restructure.

But I just don't know if the Raiders want that salary in addition to something else for a return for Crosby. Would it solve a lot of people's problems? Yes. I think Bill Barnwell is saying it for a reason, though. And that's why I give it some credence, because this is not the first time he's brought this up. So who's he talking to?

You know I love DJ more personally and professionally and all that kind of stuff. What? That's right. That's right. But to answer the question, yes, I would be on board with this move for sure. And because it just, like when you go back and you compare some of those trades, and I know you referenced them,

like I'll just go back to even the Khalil Mack trade. Would you say Kalil Mack at that point and Max Crosby at this point? Pretty comparable, right? In terms of being at the peak of their powers and the disruption they could cause. When you say that's a pretty good comp in terms of being at the peak of their powers. Yeah, and I think Vegas still probably considers like giving, they gave them away for two first rounders where the team made the playoffs in the first year. You know, that's the other part of that.

Yeah, two first round picks. a third round pick and a sixth round pick and six years in $141 million eventually for Khalil Mack. Micah Parsons. Everything and it looked good and it felt good and we can debate on whether or not it was worth it. Come back, Leal.

Come back. Salini. He wasn't done. He wasn't done. You weren't done. They're done with me apparently. No, no, no, no. The Butte was done. He had it.

This is a different show. Come back. This is Moheemee and Grotie featuring Chris Rangy. the words I couldn't say in our last segment. Miss a little, miss a lot. Finish your thought. You're dead, Jack. Finish your thought. Michael Parsons, two first round picks. Kenny Clark, four years, $188 billion. This is a good deal. I don't know why anybody would say no to this deal. It's a good deal. We're all giving the disclaimer. We love DJ Moore and they may be bereft of a top receiver without DJ Moore and less Luther Burden takes that next step and Roma Dunesay gets better.

So I'm not just frivolously letting DJ Moore go, but yes, hell yes, I would do that trade. R1. He really is. Yeah. He really is. And I know there was a quiet period last year where he wasn't even getting targeted. And we had a famous interaction DJ and I did. And then what? Yeah, there was a lot of what going on in that conversation. But he still made the biggest catches of the year. You couldn't, you would not have gotten as far as you got without DJ Moore last year. Period. Number two. NFL.com ranked all of the starting quarterbacks during the 2025

season and Bears quarterback Caleb Williams landed among the top 10 at number eight, which is a huge jump from his number 28 standing after the 2024 season. Here's how the top 10 stacked up. Number 10, Joe Burrow, number nine, Jared Gough. There's number eight, Caleb Williams. Number seven, Sam Donald, number six, Trevor Lawrence. Number five, Justin Herbert. Number four, Drake May. Drake!

Number three, Dak Prescott. Number two, Josh Allen. And number one, Matthew Stafford, your MVP. Do you agree with where Caleb? of Williams landed in the NFL.com's quarterback rankings. Okay, this is a curious list. Is it not? Like, number one,

Dak Prescott at number three? Yeah. Yeah, Stafford is at number one. I actually agree with that. I'm sorry. Prescott stood out to me too. And I get that. There was a discussion to be made at an earlier point in the season

that he could have been the MVP. But to have Drake made it at number four, is that just because of a sparkling completion? percentage in the regular season he had. And now couldn't you flip-flop Drake May and Sam Darnold? At least put Darnold at number five because he slayed the dragon of can he win in the postseason. Listen, I don't think they won the Super Bowl because of Sam Darnold.

But most importantly, they didn't lose it either. And you could argue that part of the reason the Patriots lost was because of the play of Drake, me, I know Drake was injured. I know. But the point is that's where this kind of gets open for discussion. Caleb Williams deserves to be in the top 10. There's no doubt about that. I don't know, Groats.

I think he might be a number seven, you know? Maybe, but then, like, I look at the two guys that are behind Caleb Williams. Jared Goff is nine. Joe Burrow is 10. You talk about neck and neck and neck. Like, you could have put Caleb Williams at 9 or 10. You could have put a mix of any of those three guys to me, between 8, 9, and 10, as in I could have seen Caleb at 10.

10 and burrow at 9. You know who's not on this list? Patrick Mahomes. For one year and one year only, ladies and gentlemen. Right at ACL Patrick Mahomes. Is that why? Everybody gets, hey, Tom Brady missed a list because of injury at one point in time in his career. That's what makes this so hard.

Yeah, that we can make our own list. Actually, that'd be fun to do, like projecting, projecting. Note for the show. projecting the top 10 quarterbacks in the 2026, 2027 season. Yeah, we could write that down. Right that down. Robbie, where's Robbie? Robbie, write that.

I think he's in New York. Sometimes he hops on on Twitch, though. I could never tell by his Instagram post, Robbie Triano. I'm in New York. Can you believe this? I'm in New York. He's so happy. He really is.

His story, he's always like listening on some sort of, like, he's always at a DJ show. And he's like, I'm so happy to be here. I live here. Look at all these big buildings. I'm in New York. York. It'll wear off. Daddy, his dad. I mean.

So, okay, so you can't really peg one through ten either, can you? I can't. I'm with you, though. I'm like, yeah, hell yeah, Matthew Stafford, 100%. I'm sorry. Lock it in. It wasn't even a question for me who was MVP. Honestly, I'm good with Drake May, too.

I'm not just going to look at Drake May and say because of the play. I mean, he did get to the Super Bowl, and he was awesome during the regular season. So I think he deserves a top five. spot. Justin Herbert's always interesting, too, because he's great. He's got this beautiful arm, but does he win? Does he come through in the big spots? I don't know if I'm comfortable with him as the top five guy. There's a lot of criticism now that Sam Darnold slated dragon that didn't entirely exist about who's reliable and who's winning in the playoffs and all that. The chargers remain bizarrely inconsistent. But you know, Justin Herbert's got to throw for 4,000.

So that's what makes this tricky. Number three. This is five on it on it on 104.3, the score with Lela Rahimi and Mark Grody. Here's question number three. On Monday, Cubs manager, Craig Counsel, said this about Seya Suzuki's role this season. He DH's the vast majority of the year. The second half, we saw him in the outfield quite a bit more. And last year, Seya-D-Hing last year was a function of the roster, just a function of acquiring Tucker.

That's just how the roster fits together. This year it's going to look differently. We're going to see him in right field a lot. And looking forward to it. I think Sayas had just some not, he's just had some drop balls, frankly. That's what's happened. The rest of the stuff's been solid. It's Craig Counsel talking about Sayas Suzuki's role this season.

On a scale of 1 to 10 on the confidence meter, trademark, Mark, where do you rate your level of belief in Suzuki's defensive ability in right field? Seven. That's being generous. Wow. So you have a lot of confidence in him. I have more than 50%. Okay.

But I do know that the Cubs have lost some games because of SEA in right field. Now, granted, they've lost some games because of other people in right field. And I get that. But I think Sayas right field play improved enough last season to where I'm not as concerned about it. What makes me more raise an eyebrow at this point is once again, you are having to manage, I think, the nuances of your team. Is Sayas Suzuki in right field because you know he's a more effective hitter when he plays in right field? So then you've got to manage that risk reward. Then there's the risk reward of, well, how is Matt Shaw going to develop offensively if he doesn't get regular reps?

Combine that with what do we know about Moises by Astero's. And that's where this gets tricky. It's almost like when we were talking about the playoffs last year and trying to figure out who was starting or if they were opening and how that was going to go in the jigsaw puzzle, I feel like we're still doing that a bit with the position players on the Cubs. Are we not? We are because trying to figure out where Matt Shaw fits in exactly. I mean, I can't. This is one of those times where we could all ask Craig counsel all of these questions about all of these players,

including somebody like Daniel Palencia, who was named as the closer. I can't wait to see what it actually looks like once they get going. I would give the number six, I would say, in terms of some a little bit more concerned. Oh, no, wait. The higher the number, the more concerned, right? No, no, no. Confidence meter. So you're correct. If you're more concerned, that means the number should be lower.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I am more concerned. So I am at a six right there. You can overcome, say, a Suzuki. I mean, we have to be able to do that. It's like, he'll be fine for a while out there. And then just inexplicably, it seems like, either just badly misjudge a ball. And usually when it's a bad play, it's initially there's an excuse given. Like, what happened there? Was it the sun? Did the wind push it? Was it the lights? And it's like, no. Against the Braves a couple years ago, that was outright misfield. Yeah.

There was no excuse. That was just misplaying of a ball. I was just going to say what it usually comes down to is Sayas Suzuki making the mistakes out there. He's not a joke out there. He's not a clown in right field. He's not bad, but he's a little bit of a concern. So, yeah, I put it at a six for him. But the bat is undeniable.

Number four. Cubs done enough to improve their starting rotation. Okay, so here's the thing. Why am I reading on Friday that Zach Allen not only didn't sign with the Cubs, but is making less than Shora Imanaga for that one season? And it's not a ton less. But I think $900,000 is a lot of money. Maybe I'm wrong.

But that's kind of where I sit with this. Is I'm like, wait a second. What was all this one in a million talk? What was all this Zach Gallin is going to be here? There's a six-man rotation and a sunshine and lollipop. Wasn't it with Bruce that I asked the question? By the time it's all said and done, the same question I asked Dempster, and he said, Kate Orton. By the time it's all said and done, who's going to be the ace pitcher?

And I thought maybe Justin Steele. And he's like, no, Zach Gallen. And Bruce has sources. But what Bruce doesn't have is control of the market. Correct. And Bruce, we trust. So if Zach Allen says, I want to go back to Arizona and bet on myself, for a measly 22 million,

then he's going to do that. And I understand loyalty and you know, we all have it to a fault. But on its face, I'm like, wait a second here. Zach Allen's getting paid less than Charterymanagh to pitch. I don't like it. I don't like it.

So you would say the Cubs have not done enough to improve their starting rotation? I don't even know if the answer's yes or no. I just really wanted to use this time to complain about this issue. Penalize her for not answering the question. guys. No, because it really comes down to that for me. But do I have a defined feeling about it yet? I don't know. So you're leaning towards, man, they could have added that arm and it would have been better. You're stuck on Zach Allen. Okay. I am and you know what else? I feel like I discovered him a

long time ago before anybody else did. There was this random game where Father Sackowitz was being from the Cathedral at the Sox game and it was Sox in Marlins and it was in like 2019 or something in like July. And I'm like, dang, who was this picture? for the Marlins, he's just like mowing down capable and decently good socks hitters. It was Zach Gallant. I'll tell you, I'll tell you what's talking about. Nobody was talking about Zach Allen

at that time. And then I was always like, oh, that guy's really good. And then you remember he had traded for Jazz Chisholm. It was like a one for one. I was like, what a compelling trade, a one for one, like a true one for one. Very interesting. And two positions of note, you know, and then he rose to success. And then

I was like, oh, maybe he'll come here and pitch. No. So it's personal. in other words. So now we're really getting to the bottom of this. I discovered, not the Merlin's Scouts. I discovered that he did I not discover he look like Kyle Mooney though? Can I can I see you

and raise you he looks like Kyle Mooney? To answer the question, I will say, I will dare step out Layla and say yes, they are better because guess what? I cannot wait to see Kate Horton for an entire year with the Chicago Cubs now that he is healthy. painful that he was not available.

Why are you jigsing Kate Horton? I'm not jigsing Kate Horton. I can't wait to see his whole. I didn't say I can't wait to see him be a Sy Young Award winner. I didn't say I didn't make any bold predictions. Now I said it. Now it's out there. But absolutely with Justin Steele presumably coming back at some point in time in the season with Edward Cabrera. What are you going to get out of him? You know, and Matthew Boyd. Matthew Boyd was in the conversation for Cy Young last year. So I guess I'm down. right giddy about the Cubs starting pitching right now. Josh Giddy? I am

downright Josh Giddy. Speaking of Robbie Triano. It all comes back to Giddy. That's right. Number five. Five on it on 104.3, the score with Laila Rahini. She was off on President's Day. And Mark Grotty, he was off on President's Day. I'm executive producer Ray Diaz. I worked on President's Day.

Our associate producer, Tyler Buehberbaugh, he worked on President's Day. Tyler, do you regret not taking the day off? I mean, at first, no, but then I saw how nice it was. It's a beautiful. This is really a question designed for Layla to laugh at us.

And our, you know, our go-to place, Central Park Bar, I'm pretty sure they opened up the patio area. So I did kind of think of, it would have been nice. Would have been nice, man. On the patio area. Guys, I decided to take a little walk and I listened to 1043,

the score on the Odyssey app on my walk. And you know what I was watching? Not only were the people all in a good mood, so were the animals. Like the ducks were just, having a love of a little time at the lake all like quacking to each other

like trying to find some food geese were out geese were having a good time yesterday the geese were so happy that I swear they were performing for people at the park everybody was getting treats the dogs were out there

sunning themselves when the animals are in a good mood that's how you know it was a banner day to take off work yeah you know we don't think about the animal portion of that enough because we're all outside

we're all wearing short sleeves Some people are doing the hoodie in short. What about the animals? The animals are back. That's such a nice touch right there. Well, yesterday I did take the day. I slept in a little bit. Went out to Orland Park.

I was out in the south suburbs yesterday. So I was in a car way too long yesterday. Boom. Yeah. But I did get to go to Costco with my buddy, Dan Levy, the cat, which he has a family. I realized yesterday. Oh, a cat family. For, yeah, Dan Levy the Cat.

I realized. Dan is a human. Dave is the cat. Oh, yeah, yeah. I realized that as a single guy, Costco's not necessarily the place for me. I was like, what do I use every day that I need in bulk? It turned out, I got caught.

I did get coffee because I drink it every, and there's a specific brand that I drink every day. Pikes Place, how you do it everybody? And I was able to get that in bulk, but that was it. That was it. And then when I got home, yes, I just, I had no plan other than walking out of my building

and just walking about the city. And I did. I walked all the way down State Street, went to the rack. Yo, hanging out at the rack, man. Nordstrom rack? That's right. That's a great place. I did go to my Starbucks for a little while. Oh, you're, oh, you did?

Did you say hi to the people? But they're inside, so they weren't having the same great time that everybody else was. Right. I usually feel really comfortable. Like in the winter, I feel really good in a coffee shop, not on a 65-degree day. So are you two going to take a day off in exchange or what? Because you know how I feel. I think you should.

Your time is worth a lot to me. You guys are precious. You know, I'll find some. something to do. I got to make a plan. I have a get away for a three-day weekend. I got to strategically plan this when I want to use it, you know. So the answer is yes. TBD.

We're going to take it together. Yeah, we're going to go. We're going to get away, doing producers get away, you know. You deserve it. Producer retreat. So you want to spend more time with the guy that you sit with for five hours a day. Absolutely. I love this guy. Did you see who perked up when I said producer retreat? Old Tanny back there.

Old Tanny's back there? Chris Tannahill. Oh, hey, old Tanny. How you know, buddy? Chris Tannahill wants it on the producer retreat. Hell yeah. That's what I'm talking about. We had a midday show retreat one time to Nise.

That was a good time. Chris Tannahill wants nothing to do with a producer retreat. I don't see it. I don't see it. I don't see it. Well, we'll figure that out in the break. Not that he doesn't love everybody. I'm just saying.

Coming up next, we want to get back into some of the CAP discussions that are abound for these bears. Kevin Fishbane wrote a big article about the CAP casualties. that could happen. This is franchise tag day in the NFL, so we're also keeping track. What? We're keeping track and tabs on that. All right, that's it. I'm cut off. Get it together, girl. Kevin Fishbane, Bears beat rider for the athletic. If Justin Fields is great, he'll be great

with Byron Pringle and Darnell Mooney and Equanimous St. Brown. You'd like better players around him, but I think you'll still be able to find a way to evaluate your quarterback, even if it's not greatness around him. Kevin Fishbane, Talking Bears. Matt Ebert, Flew, George McCasky, Ryan, is Kevin Fishpain.

On Chicago Sports Radio, 1043, the score. Kevin Fishbane is a regular guest here on Rahimi Harris and Grody, and we love talking to him in the offseason two, and he joins us now via our Circa Resort and Casino Hotline, circa Las Vegas.com. He is one of the senior writers at The Athletic Covering the Bears. He also is a great podcast, breaking in with Kevin Fishbane, a sports media podcast, and he joins us via Twitch,

Twitch.TV slash the score Chicago. Hey, Kevin, how are you? I'm good, guys. Happy off season. Happy off season, except, unfortunately, in the very well-written and illustrated story that you posted with the athletic last week, talking about the very realistic issues with the bear's salary cap problems.

It was a nice table that was also illustrated to and showed, whether it was muddy-oed or dead-cap money or how they would count against the cap. What were your takeaways from just the research you put together when you wrote that story? This is new territory for Ryan Poles, really, and the bears. I mean, for the past few years, they've always been up there as having a ton of cap space, great draft capital.

And now, you know, this is what happens when you're good. This is what happens when you sign a bunch of veterans and you start making some bigger splashes in the trade market and extending those guys. You're up against the cap. So they've got some decisions to make. And, you know, I always allude to a conversation I have. Ryan Poles a couple years ago where he leaned on his experience of Kansas City. He goes, it gets harder when you are winning football games because you can't keep everybody.

And this is really going to be the first off season that we might see some of the what, you know, it's a business, as you guys know, but our tough decisions, if Ryan Poles doesn't re-sign Jaquan Bristker, that was his second ever draft pick. If the Bears aside to part ways of Tremaine Edmins, that was really his first huge free agent. splash that they made. So Nishon Wright, who was the story of the year, they might not be able to resign him. So these are the things that come with cap restraints and having a bit of a better team and owing other guys some money.

But the flip side of that, Leila, is there's only one player, really, that you could talk about getting an extension done now, and that's Darnell Wright. and by restructuring some of these guys' contracts, you can flip the script and create a lot of cap space, but that also kicks the can down the road a bit. All right. Now you got me stopped at Darnall Wright. If the Bears were to engage in an extension or even the talks of an extension with Darnall Right, what are we looking at here, Kevin, money-wise? It's interesting, Mark, because I talked to a couple agents who do not represent Wright,

just kind of floated it to them. If you were his representation, what are you asking for? One of them said, I'd reset the market. He was second team all pro. You look at his age. You look at the accomplishments. Remember, he did all that last year, most of it with a brace on his arm. You could say, like, hey, we'll go ahead and get the, you know, we'll top Penae Soule, which right now is the top right tackle contract.

Now, remember, I just like to point out that when a guy resets the market, he's only reset the market until the next got resets the market, right? So like, you know, and again, this is just one agent's kind of thought process. And now they have the fifth year option at their disposal that buys them some time. If they don't get a deal done this year, they can apply the franchise tag next year. So there's a lot of tools of their disposal. But, you know, talking to people, Mark, you know, you're looking at adding like a, you know, a third or fourth year.

You can be talking, you know, $100 million. You're looking in that $20, $25 million a year range. but the way he played last year, I think the Bears would feel good about that. That'd be their guy, right? That was the first, first round pick of the Ryan Poles era. You'd have to be happy to even be having this conversation. I guess, Kevin, if your choices as the general manager of the Bears are either, let your guy at Wright tackle, Darnell Wright, reset the market,

or franchise tag if that comes up, not obviously of this year problem, then you probably would rather a franchise tag, for example, but when those are your options, they're both very expensive discussions that you would have to have. And even a fifth year option is another one where they can extend. But either way, you're looking at pricey scenarios for a guy who frankly deserves all of the respect that has gotten to him. Yeah, it's an interesting conversation too lately because you talk about like the cap number, right? Like he's going to be a very relatively cheap player this year if he continues to play under that rookie contract. Right. If you give him the franchise tag, that's a huge cap hit for that one year that he has the tag.

The fifth year option is a big hit for that specific year. If you can work out a contract now, you can kind of massage those cap hits so they get higher. We haven't even talked about the left tackle possibility, right? Do the bears want to try him out over there this season? If you're his representation, you know, I think right tackle versus left tackle is not what it used to be, but, you know, you could have some money conversations there. So, again, I think a lot of these things are in the category of good problems to have. Like, it is good that their first-round pick from 23 has played up to the point where we can have these conversations. And, as you said, they're not in a rush.

But the one thing to think about for them, when you talk about cash flow, is, you know, after the 2020-6 season, you start talking about guys that you drafted in 2024, and that includes the quarterback. So these are all things that they have to think about. Obviously they want to think about what can we do to be competitive this year, but you also have to keep in mind stuff that's going to be floating down the line. Yep, this is the real part of the NFL every year. And it is nice that the Bears have pulled up in this place where they do have to get creative because they were good talking to Kevin Fishbane,

Bears beat writer for the Athletic and Rahimi Harrison Grody here on the score. What about contract restructuring? because that always feels much more gentle than having the idea to release contributors. What are the possibilities there? Who would be the top candidates for restructuring? Yeah, so your big ones there are Grady Jarrett, DJ Moore, Montez Sweat. I talked to one league source who did the math for me. I was really good at math guys in elementary school, like really good.

And then just went off a cliff. One plus one is two, you know what I'm saying? I mean, that was what we're talking about. I mean, those times tables, those multiplication tables, I ran through them pretty quickly. 33 million they could create. I mean, DJ Moore's contract alone could create 17 and a half million. But remember, when you're restructuring a contract, which essentially in layman's terms, you are turning a salary into a bonus.

I'm not doing a great job with those layman terms, but that allows the cap number to come down for that year. They get the cash up front. And then, but that cap number then grows moving forward. So at some point you have to deal with it. The New Orleans Saints, you never want to be the Saints because they had a problem where they were restructuring guys left and right and just continued to have a lot of cap challenges. So those are some of the guys, Joe Tunney you could do something with as well.

So all those players, they're going to be here next year. Now, I guess I paused there with DJ Moore because we could have a separate conversation about that. But Grady Jarrett's going to be on the team, Monteswe's going to be on the team, you know, Jonah Jackson, Joe Tuny. so you can do these restructures with these guys and lower their cap hits for this year. Give yourself some more cap space and worry about their 2027 cap hit when is 2027. Yeah, I think it's fair.

That's part of the issue is for how long can you keep doing this. You mentioned the Saints, Kevin. The Eagles come to mind. At some point they're going to have to pay that as well just because of the deal they did with Jalen Hertz. So it is something where at some point you are going to have to. address it. I guess there's really no precedence out when it comes to how far all long. But in the meantime, I also think about there's no knock on signing a guy to a contract and then having to restructure a year in. But do you think the bears might want to

stay away from that when it comes to the guys like who they just signed a deals like Grady Jarrett or like a Joe Tunney or a Dio O'Dangbo or somebody along the lines that has that high money but still has years left? Yeah. And that's that short-term, long-term conversation, right? Like, it's like, well, you know, shoot, we really think we could make a deep run this year. We still have the quarterback on the rookie contract. Let's just figure out how much space we can get now to make the signings we want to make now. Now, the other conversation to have about this is who are you using that money for, right?

Because we've learned in the past certainly last year, and I think this has happening more and more that if you want to go get better in March, that's the trade market more so than free agency. So are there guys in free agency that they're going to circle and want to bring in like they did with Drew Dalman? Of course. Are there guys they want to trade for and they need to have that cap space ready for that player or two as well, especially again, if you're kind of not going all in, but you want to be aggressive for this year.

So yeah, with some of those guys, it's going to be a balancing act. Matt Feinstein's the VP of Football Administration. And this is what he's there for. He's there to handle kind of these things. And the bears are generally in it. Like, it's weird to say this because if you go look at, you know, cap space, they're at the bottom of the league or near the bottom compared to past years. But they are, he has put themselves as in a healthy situation where it is not hard for them

to get cap space. But it then just makes things trickier year after year after year if you have to keep doing this. But again, guys, I know I'm harping on this, but you would much rather be talking about it in these terms, and they're being like, well, the bears have $90 million in cap space. They went four and 13 last year, and they have to sign four free agents and hope that all of them hit to even be competitive next year. This might be like a more, you know, monotonous conversation. It's about cap space and restructuring and salary cap hits and all those things.

But it means that the team is in a better spot with the talent on the field. Yeah, and it's important for people to know that, yes, even though you hear things like the bears are in the red, they're under the cap, all that stuff, or they're out of money. They're not really as long as they get creative, and that's why we're having you on. Also, if I may, Kevin Fishpane, I would like to make you an offer. Or actually, I will let you fill in the blank. How much money do you want for that 1984 Chicago Cubs World Series pennant? I'm seeing in your background on Twitch.

Is that what I'm seeing? Maybe I need to look at your background more often. I didn't even know they made those because it never had. happened, kids. The Cubs were supposed to go to the World Series in 1984 against the Tigers, but they got stunned by Tony Gwyn and the Padres. Tell me more about that penned, fishy business. You know what, Grotie, you found the Easter egg. So maybe because you spotted it, you should just get it. I should just give it to you. I would love to own that. That is. I was at, this is six plus years ago. I should know the date actually was my wedding.

At the gift table, you're collecting the gifts, and there was a pennant just sitting on the gift table that's one of my parents' friends had laying around their basement. They thought it'd be funny, just throw it on the wedding gift table. And I put it up, and I kid you not, I did not realize what it said at first. I thought it was, I thought it just said, you know, I didn't realize it said National League champions. I put it up and had it in my office. And then one day somebody pointed out to me like, hey, that, that, that, that, that, didn't happen. They didn't actually win the National

League. I was like, oh, you know what? I feel even better about having it up right now so that I can have moments like this where one Mark Grody can spot that Easter egg. I felt for it. Yep, I got the Easter egg. That's tremendous. If you want to see it, it is on Twitch.tv slash

The Score Chicago. And one of Kevin Fishbane's National Sports Media Association Writers of the Year is also on there as well. Just all over the place. We also, by the way, have a 2018 Memorial Day

10-U baseball tournament championship trophy up there. Wow. Fantastic. I think it's time for you to have like a little yard sale or garage sale just to give away all your or sell all your stuff. Don't give it away.

It takes road show. I need to know the value of these things. Yeah. I wonder what a... The trophy for the... Listen, that trophy is priceless to me. That was one of my greatest coaching performances of all time.

I'm not sure how much it's going to get on the open. market. Antics Roadshow. That's all I have to say. Who's a better coach? You were a Weeder. Weeter talks a big game. He really, I don't know if you're figuring that out about Weedsie, but he does like to pat himself on the back as a coach. I mean, Dan, this might surprise you. I think Dan might be a little bit more emotional out there than I was. But Dan's a fantastic coach. I have gone to see some of his son's games.

I am out of the coaching profession for a while. I did it for a long time, and it was so much fun. So I like to go see my friends coaching their kids. And, yeah, Dan does a phenomenal job. And I love the passion, right? When he's sending me videos of, you know, himself running out to home plate to high five a player, those are great. Those are pretty special.

Do you think he's ever said to one of the kids at some point in time, you're going to have to do your job. Do you think he would say that? Because he might have said that in the Bears media room at some point in time in his life. I'm going to leave it ambiguous. He might have. He might have. I don't know.

I don't know. Okay. Listen, my four baseball players will tell you that, you know, every once in a while I'd have to get after them, right? You have to, you know, not, not, did I have a practice every once in a hour where I was doing my best, Herb Brook suppression? again, again, you know, but we had some good times out there on the diamond. And now we've got to find out who Dan Weirer said that to. Kevin Fishbane, this has been a lot of fun. Thanks, as always, for coming on.

Thank you guys. Bye. That's Kevin Fishbane, joining us via the Circus Sports Illinois Hotline. Download the Circus Sports app today. You went to a pep rally. I did. Or was it? I will let you know I was in Arlington Heights last week where there are a lot of people,

desirous of the Bears building that stadium at a St. Arlington racetrack. So I'll tell you what I found out. Next. Rahimi Harris and Grohys Hymn. On Chicago Sports Radio. Welcome to Hollis Harbor. Not remix the Hallis Harbor video.

It's Hallis, Hallis Harbor. It's Hallis, Hallis Harbor. It's Hallis, Hallis Harbor. It's Halis, Halis Harbor. Listen, the Vanga Boys is only supposed to be used for controversial discussions. Now was the Hellas Harbor. Like whether or not Kyle Tucker is actually injured, okay? And whether or not he was hiding a broken finger from everybody for a month.

It's not supposed to be for fun stuff. Like the idea of a Hallis Harbor type of city slash amusement park slash Bears Project Bears, okay? Bears. That's the official title. They have really big water slides. That's the portage, right? That was the Hallis Harbor. Were you just dancing?

Kind of. I was just doing this. Is this dancing? Yes, I think it is. That passes for dancing. Then I guess I was dancing. I was a dancing. Mark Rodi was dancing.

This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, the score. And you have a Bears stadium hit. Yeah. Not a Bears hit. A Bears stadium hit. Tell me about going to the, we'll call it a rally, but I swear I read the words,

Pepp rally. I think I did too. But I don't want to diminish it. No. It's a stadium rally that you went to in Arlington Heights. It was last week. It was a packed house at the Double Tree Hotel in Arlington Heights. Were there cookies?

Were there the Double Tree chocolate chip cookies? There was not food. There was a bar that you could get drinks from because that's what people get. Yes, I'd, of course, abstained from such practice as I want to do. But yes, and it was a full house out there. There were representatives from multiple representatives. from multiple, a handful of suburbs. Obviously, Arlington Heights, well-represented towns like Palatine,

and Itasca, where I grew up, just all those Rolling Meadows, the northwestern suburbs were in effect. I'll admit, going into this, I called it a pep rally, and I went into it a little bit on the, okay, let's see what this is all about. They're going to be chanting things. There was a group of gentlemen outside of the double tree that were chanting something, and they had like a big Walter Payton video. Like, what would Walter Payton think if the Bears moved to Indiana?

They played their own multimedia outside of the rally? They did. They did. So when I was outside, I was like, oh boy, this is going to be something. However, however, I will say the tone of the meeting that I went to was much more serious than I thought. It would be much more streamlined than I thought it would be much more humility than I thought there would be, as in they conceded on the record that they are well behind in all of this and that they have a, the two things I got out of the speeches, which were one about an hour

and a half, is that they're, duh, well behind, and that Arlington Heights, and these guys are taking Indiana very seriously. The other theme was, it's Illinois against Indiana, which was smart, they pitted again, you want to lose to Indiana? That was sort of a riding theme throughout Illinois versus Indiana. We can't possibly let Indiana happen. It's here. It's a state that exists.

It is a state that exists. And it is absolutely for real. I will say this. I'm not necessarily going in the order I wanted to, but since we mentioned Hallis Harbor, which would have been the portage, Indiana site, you could rule that out. And I know most people were like, yeah, that's probably not going to happen.

ahead and go with that gut. That you could probably pull portage off the table if you would like. What makes you say that? Just from what I was hearing. Okay. Okay. Yeah, from people that I talked, and I talked to people for about 48 hours after the rally as well. So this is coming from knowledge and background and people that I spoke to.

I did speak to one, after I know time is an issue here. I did speak to one Northwest suburban official afterwards. And I said, give me the, give me the, just. tax. Is there any way that the bears would actually move to Indiana? And this person said, and I'm reading off my page, so I get it right, there is no way George McCasky could stomach the heat the bears would take if the bears were to move to Indiana. As this person put it to me, they could not handle losing that press conference on his watch. This is a much bigger bears hit than I realized. When you're

When you're throwing out information like this. Yes. Yes. There's a counter to that, though, really quickly. I was going to say, I want to hear the counter, but let's also do this on the other side of our next guest. We could do more of it. Sorry to produce on the fly, guys, but I think it's important. Of course, talking to other people and trying to get all sides of things, I also, directly in response to that, what I learned was, and that is George McCasky would never do it. Talking to some other people, perhaps on different sides of the story, saying that the bears,

they would never, never, never, never have gotten involved with Indiana if they weren't absolutely serious about Indiana. That they are dead serious about it. Would it be their first choice? I think we know the property that they purchased was their first choice. But at this point, it is absolutely real. They never would have done any of this if they weren't serious about the possibility of moving to Indiana. And this becomes timely again because legislators return for the spring session today. There will be a hearing at 8 a.m. on Thursday before the House Revenue and Finance Committee.

State of the state is tomorrow for J.B. Pritzker. I didn't realize that. So he will, like, that'll pop up. So things are starting to happen right now, but that's some of the backdrop that I can give you about what people are telling me over the last week or so. Okay. Well, not to diminish your reporting, but I. we were late to break and I didn't realize that you had. Sorry about that.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Let me fish. Bears. Bears. Not, I didn't realize you had done all this other reporting. You, you didn't, you did not sell yourself. You were too humble. Well, I wasn't here.

I was not here the two days after. You were too humble in your sales pitch. So I think, is it okay if we address a lot of this? 100% after our next guest. I'd love to. I would like to get into this a little bit more. Yeah, I was love hearing what you have to say too, because you literally, what, had a thesis on stadiums?

Yeah, I did. Like, so your knowledge is excellent. It's been a while, guys. Yeah, well, for all of us. But I did do a lot of research. But no, I mean, this is important. This is new information. I'll recap and give you more, too, later.

And the George McCaskey nugget is absolutely massive. It really is. It is. Huh, you just strapped a little bit of a breaking news bomb on us. I'm a little sneaky like that, aren't? Breaking news is brought to you by none other than Mark Grotie and Dan Weirers take the North podcast. Which we record today, kids.

There will be a new episode coming out this afternoon. There is also massive news in the world of Major League Baseball. And incredibly enough, Evan Drellick was set to join us today. He's the senior writer at the Athletic covering the state of Major League Baseball. The Players Union is going to have a seismic difference ahead of their most important negotiation yet. So we get to discuss it all with Evan. Next. Some shacking news today.

I think are all the players in shock too? Yeah, I mean, we got the Texas. morning and to be honest I think across the board we're talking about the players reps are going to meet today with the union and that's really all we got for for media that is white socks player rep Davis martin who is the player rep for the socks talking to bruce levin that was this morning with the news that was somewhat surprising to hear especially ahead of what is considered the most important negotiation yet for major league baseball as we careen toward the end of the current CBA at the end of the

2026 season. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043 the score and that news is that Tony Clark is resigning as the Major League Baseball Players Association executive director. Now Clark is somebody who

had come under a lot of criticism and a lot of fire when it came to how he was representing the players whether or not they had a strong enough say even in their last collective bargaining agreement that took place. the one that is currently governing baseball's players union and ownership agreement. But that is the word, that is a report that came out this morning.

As you can imagine, Jeff Passan of ESPN, Don Vanada, are a part of that report, and that's the latest news we've gotten so far. It's already tenuous, Mark, ahead of a situation that continues to be tenuous. Like everybody's saying, cherish the season while you can. I think we're already starting to see sides gearing up for what could be a very difficult fight. It really is. And it sucks and it's a headache. And the idea of, my God, I mean, you know, lockout in December is what it would be. If it came down to that, I guess the formal negotiations between the owners and players are expected to begin early in the regular season this year.

But could you imagine a sport that has obviously never had free agency and all of a sudden trying to figure out a plan? You mean salary cap? Salary cap, yes, free agency. Salary cap, yes. Could you imagine, I mean, there's so many complications that would go into trying to hammer that out and who truly wins and who truly loses because it's not as simple to say that, oh, yeah, all those teams, the Pittsburgh Pirates of the world, all of a sudden they're going to be on an even scale.

Unfortunately, it's a little bit more complicated than that. So even with all the fear that exists on the surface, I can't imagine what the negotiations and to put in something that has never existed in baseball, just gives me a headache thinking about it. Now, we were awaiting discussion with Evan Drellick on this. Evan is the senior writer for the athletic covering Major League Baseball and really the labor negotiations and discussions that have gone on. Now it's a busy news day. So Evan might be chasing down news right now. The report from Passen said that player leaders plan to meet at 4.30 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday. That's today.

So that's in about two and a half hours to discuss the fallout of Clark's resignation. Because now they've got to figure out who needs to represent them ahead of what is going to be a very, very, very big battle coming up. at least there is some lead time where you have the season to reacquate yourself with what is supposed to happen next. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's bearing right down and it's like the,

it's almost like the stadium stuff. We're all mentioning it and kind of alluding to it. And now all of a sudden, like the stadium, with the bears, the deal and the negotiations, the collective bargaining agreement, all of a sudden is right there in front of us. It's getting like 2027 is getting way too close all of a sudden, even though we just flipped to 2026. It's right there now.

No, it's so true. What's the phrase get a jump on the day before the day jumps you? That's kind of how I feel like this is going. And the article goes on to say the process for naming Clark's replacement is unclear. And the union's constitution does not outline a succession plan. Bruce Meyer is the union's deputy executive director. He's been quoted in a lot of these stories. he's also one of Evdrellic's quotes in some of his stories.

He's been named by several player leaders as to the most obvious candidate to take over that, according to many sources. Brent Suter, a veteran relief pitcher and subcommittee member, told reporters that the union is going to have an interim executive director and keep everything as stable as they can this year. That doesn't always sound like, that doesn't immediately indicate to me a position of strength,

but I know Meyer has been pretty public in a lot of his statements and conveying the union's message ahead of this fight. Yeah, and they obviously needed a new voice in all of that, and that's exactly what they're going to get. So this is interesting timing for this. Actually, the timing is probably right because of what I just said, that things are going to get real. And once it gets real, do you have the right people on your side, whether you're on the owner's side or the player's side? Well, I can confidently say that when it comes to the reporting side, we've got some guys. What?

Yeah, in fact, Bruce Levine is now joining us. I know we were trying to chase down Evandrolick, but there's a lot of news going on. Bruce, kind enough to join us via the Circus Sports Illinois hotline. Download the circus sports app today. Bruce, you talk to Davis Martin, the player rep for the White Sox. Thanks for joining us from Arizona. Yeah, absolutely. And everybody's pretty much in shock.

All the players and the union reps, they had no idea that this was going to take place. And obviously the biggest thing going on here is the investigation into misappropriation of funds by union leaders. And that's where we find Tony quitting today as the head of the union. So two different issues here. One, what's going on with the union and how these funds are being spent? And two, how does this impact December 1st? and the, you know, the CBA being done and who's going to be the voice of the union moving forward. How does this affect December 1st?

But like, what are the possibilities here, Bruce, in terms of changing for the better or for the worse? Yeah, I don't think that's either one because, you know, they know the cadence of prior negotiations with Tony Clark. So that's a good thing when you know how someone negotiates and you have a rapport. Bring in somebody else from the outside or if it's Bruce Meyer, as Leila mentioned, you know, who's the associate director, the Players Association, that, you know, that may or may not be for a while. We're talking about interim. Interim might be a week, two weeks, two months. we don't know that.

Whatever voice is going to be there December 1st when this contract ends, it's got to be a strong voice with the affirmation of all the players believing in this guy. Meyer, you know, a lot of people like him, a lot of people don't in the players' associations. So with that in mind, it's not necessarily the guy, even though he might be the guy interim. We're talking to Bruce Levine. He is joining us from Mesa, but he was all. also over in Glendale talking to White Sox player rep Davis Martin about Tony Clark's resignation. And something that we haven't talked about yet regarding his resignation, Bruce, is it comes

in the wake of the Eastern District of New York's ongoing investigation into the finances and other dealings of the Players Association for Major League Baseball. And this is a quote from Jeff Passon's article on ESPN, including questions about the use of one-team partners, a multi-billion-dollar group licensing company, partly owned by the union and Players Way, which is a youth baseball initiative, and spent millions of dollars, but only offered a handful of events. And there was a whistleblower complaint, according to this article. The National Labor Relations Board got involved because that's who governs players unions, not just player unions, but work unions. And so this is a federal

matter that I don't know how much players expect this to come into the negotiation when they've got to work with the owners at the end of the year. That could also take a very long time to figure out. Yeah, like you stated, Lila, it's two very different issues. But the impact on the Players Association is if you're an owner sitting there right now watching this, you're going, well, yeah, maybe good for us that Tony's not there anymore. The other hand, you don't know who the new guy is going to be or the new philosophy. The fact that you haven't had any negotiations with whoever the director is and the players' thoughts about who that is,

it's going to be really interesting to watch because, you know, Tony obviously is facing some big issues on his own. The idea that, you know, is he going to be able to avoid a long trial or go to court to defend himself, that the funds weren't misappropriated. Whatever it is, he felt at this time that distraction was too much. He had to step aside. He wasn't going to be able to represent the players or himself in the way that he wanted to, regardless of whether he's innocent or guilty of all this. But for the players, it's a much different dynamic

because it's a little unsettling, not the other guy that's been there for 12 years running the year, union for you and the consistency of the message and the guy. I mean, a lot of the players, you know, love Tony Clark and love the way that he goes about watching the union and watching everything, defending them. So it's just going to be a fascinating thing, and the timing of it, you know, I don't think you could say it could be worse for the players because we don't know that. We don't know who the next real voice of the players associated,

push associations going to be. So we have to wait to report what this means to the players and to the negotiations moving forward. Right now all we know is that Tony Clark is all jammed up and he needs to start defending himself. Well, Bruce, it was a valuable conversation to have with Davis Martin. What were your takeaways from him? And I know the Sox, the Cubs rep, rather, is Nico Horner. Now it used to be Ian Hap. Have you talked to either of those guys? What have been your takeaways from just player conversation regarding this. Yeah, I talked to, I was in Sacks camp earlier here in Cubs Camp now, but it was Davis Martin, you know, said, you know, we don't, we don't know much about this and talk to two

or three out and talk to Ben Intendi and, you know, talk to a couple of the other veterans that are in there with the White Sacks. They said, well, you know, we're not going to talk about something we don't know anything about. We don't know anything right now. And we don't know which way this is going. we're going to have a player's call later on today, and we'll be in,

we'll get enlightened as to where it's at, and maybe we'll have more news for you tomorrow. But, you know, right now it's in flux, and, you know, nobody really knows player-wise what's going on. All right. What's going on? You say you're in Cubs camp right now, Bruce? What's going on?

Yeah, watching Edward Cabrera, and now Conray throw a little bit here over, you know, that when they do their main sides before the game start, they move over to Sloan, the ballpark itself. So we're over here and away from the back fields and guys like Bregman and Horner hitting against them. But as Ron Coomer told me, they're not really hitting like they normally do. They're mostly standing there to give, you know, a little bit of view for the pitcher

as to the pitcher-hitter dynamic when they're. going through their motions. So it's not about trying to hit home runs off your top pitchers. Nothing like that. Who's going to get those first two innings on Friday? Isn't that their first game? I don't know, but I will tell you this, that Jonathan Cannon and the White Sox told me that he's going to pitch for the White Sox

over here. He's going to start. So that's interesting. We got that one down. I'll try to pin down the other one a little later today. Okay. No, I think that's fair. We were laughing about this because I said, oh, before Davis-Margin

gotten hurt, I would have thought he would have been the Sox opening day starter last year. They're kind of in the same position again this year, Bruce, where we don't necessarily know who the guy's going to be on day one for the regular season. No, I mean, with the White Sox, you can make a case for five guys, right, as to who the opener is, you know, is it Smith, is it Burke, is it Cannon? Well, all we know is Cannon is going to pitch for the White Sox, at least according to Jonathan Cannon. All right.

we've got to take his word for it, right? Yeah. I mean, Jonathan Cannon's been there a couple of years. I feel like that's a decent and up source. Yeah. You know, while I'm on the socks here, Bruce, just really quick, do they have a chance to have like a really good and valuable bullpen if they start? Because I'm just like with Dominguez and Grant Taylor and Jordan Hicks and Jordan Leisure and Mike Vassel.

My goodness. Like, could this be a really good bullpen for the White Sox this year? Yeah, I think it could be. It depends how they want to use. You know, Taylor is the big arm. He's a guy in the organization with the best arm. He's going to be in the bullpen. But, you know, Will Venable said that he's going to use them in the middle initially

and do, you know, a couple of innings at a time, not using it. You know, they have, they brought in, you know, new closers. So that's taken care of. But, you know, Mark, I think he made good points that, you know, this team lost more one-ring games than anybody. they had the fewest starting innings of any team in baseball. So solidifying that as well as getting more innings out of these starting pitching, that's going to be the key to our predictions of whether they're going to win 65, 70, 75 games moving forward.

None of it sounds too exciting except for where you remember where they were at two years ago. And even, hey, three, even the socks are not good. Then you have the value of everybody wants bullpen arms. Right. So you can, a little bit of flipping going. on potentially. Absolutely. Come July, you know, hopefully it continues to be a white sacks advantage. But, you know, for for white sacks fans right now, it's all about show me, show me that you're better and then we'll be out there this year. And then Bruce, I know you,

I think you've already talked about this. I know you're on this morning, but just your takeaways from Tom Ricketts, we joke that he said the good part out loud. You know, sometimes it's saying the quiet part out loud, but not in this case. He said World Series were of need. What did you make of his comments? Well, it's different than what we've heard from Tom over the last three or four years because what he was saying then was, you know, we want to be in the playoffs every year. Now, you know, when I asked him, what can you tell the fans, what do you want them to concentrate on? He said, well, we want to win more World Series. So when you spend $175 million on a third basement and your farm system and your young players are pretty much

tack like the Cubs are right now. I think you should say that after winning 92 games last year. You know, he should be talking about winning a World Series. So I don't think it's too shocking, but he said it. And at least fans can hang on that a little bit. Well, and I think he also, we've talked about this a little bit. We were planning on talking about it with Evendrelic, Bruce, the idea of how Marquis and the Cubs having that network should help them. You know, at times like these where other teams don't necessarily know how their TV revenue is going to shake out? Yeah, well, their TV revenue is pretty high, but it's not what it was three years ago. No team other than the Dodgers who gets 350. So here's how it shakes down.

The Dodgers get $350 million just from their TV deal, okay, if you can fathom that, right? That's over a third of the billion dollars that they take in a year now. Okay? There are a billion dollars every year. And a third of it comes from their TV money. All the other teams in baseball are nowhere near that. They're more like 20%. Some of them 15.

Some of them hardly any anymore because of the fact that the cord cutting and people not doing cable, not all doing other things. It's been lost in the transition of what's going on here. There's no real way to understand the monetizing of RSNs any longer. So with that in mind, the Cubs are still in good shape, but they're all looking toward Major League Baseball two or three years from now and maybe trying to do all the games locally for all the teams. We'll see how that works.

Yeah. that makes it much harder for MLB to seize control. It's good to be the Dodgers, though. You know, it's really good to be the Dodgers. It is good. You're taking a billion dollars a year, and that's mind-boggling when I heard that from a source yesterday. So that's a lot of money, and, you know,

they do a lot of things the right way there, besides having this enormous TV deal. You're right about that, Bruce, and thanks for the info. That's really good stuff. just some late-breaking reporting out of Bruce Levine to help us put the pieces together. Bruce, thank you so much. You're the best ever, Bruce. Have a great day, guys.

Thanks, Bruce. That's Bruce Levine, joining us live from Mesa with the latest on him talking to Davis Martin of the White Sox, the player rep, and trying to figure out what's going on with Tony Clark resigning earlier today. That was why we were supposed to talk to Evandrelic. We booked that interview before it happened. I'm guessing that something came up, Ray. I'm guessing that some news might have.

Kevin to have to change course. Yeah, something came up. Something came up. Something happened. Yeah. So I will look for Evan's report on that in the meantime. Speaking of score reporters coming up with some really good news nuggets that are like very valid to conversations. Let's get back to what you just reported to us when it came to the Bears Stadium latest.

The reports you got regarding whether or not Indiana is really valid for the Bears. And your takeaways from what sounds like just a very informative meeting that happened in Arlington Heights. So Bruce helped us out with some key information. And I think Mark's needing to go to his in a little bit more and we'll react to it too next. Layla Rahimi, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, Rahimi, Harrison Grody on 1043, the score. Okay, so let's recap. Oh, this is Brody's Cage the Elephant. There's been a lot of news on this show today.

And I don't necessarily know that we planned on all this news to happen, but it's happened. Cage the Elephant is part of Innings Fest. And if you have, if you're going this weekend to Tempe for Innings Fest, congratulations. You made an excellent decision. Grady and I are jealous because the lineup looks amazing. Including Cage the Elephant. Yes, which is why this is playing. And Ryan Dempster added to that.

And then we found out that Ryan Dempster sings it's all coming back to me now, which was the song that I said made me feel something. when I heard Tom Ricketts say, we need to win more World Series. Yes, you do. It's all coming back to me now. Then we just heard from Bruce Levine, who gave us some really important information as to, like, for example, how the Dodgers business model works. And then he also talked to Davis Martin and he's at Cubs camp right now regarding the news

surrounding Tony Clark, the Players Association president, having to resign. And then, on top of all of that, Mark Grady's like, oh, let me tell you about going to this rally in Arlington High. and then you drop some real news bombs here. So let's reset and reevaluate and explain the bear's likelihood of being in Indiana, what you heard, what the attitude is toward the Arlington Heights and surrounding areas leaders who would be affected by the bear's stadium. And then also the important nugget of everybody seems to be acknowledging the obvious,

which is they're behind schedule. Yeah. You know, in order of importance, how would you like people to go about this info? Well, yeah, I went to the rally last Wednesday, I explained a little. a little bit earlier in Arlington Heights at the Double Tree Hotel. And then I'd spent some time afterwards there, and then I spent some time on the phone the next couple of days talking to all the different parties and was given information, some on the record, some off the record.

So I guess I'm not exactly where, I guess I'll start with the Indiana portion of this. And that is, the theme, again, at the meeting was if there were two things that they kind of admitted, it was it was not a cocky-wracky. This was not people like chanting things and cheering and giving standing ovations every two minutes. It was very well done, very streamlined with multiple representatives from multiple towns in the northwest suburbs, admitting that they are way behind for all the reasons that they're way behind right now. And that is because the state basically early on said no to the bears. So they are acknowledging that they're way behind.

They are acknowledging that this is Indiana versus Illinois. They're acknowledging that Indiana is absolutely serious about it. What people should get out of their minds is the Portage part of it. It's Hammond or bust when we talk about the Bears, if they were to potentially move to Indiana. It would be Hammond in Northwest. Indiana instead of farther downstate and Portage. According to your sources. According to my sources, yes, yes.

That is probably a good idea to get your mind out of that. One of the other important part to this is, or just conceptually, is speaking to one of the officials from one of those towns in the northwest suburbs, off the record, in a conversation, this person surmised that the Bears would, there's no way George McCasky could stomach the idea of moving to Indiana, could not, as it was put to me, could not handle that press conference, that they must win. We know the Bears have lost some press conferences in their time.

Ownership has lost some press conferences. This person said there is no way they could handle losing this press conference. But I also have come to understand that there's no way the bears would have ever, ever, ever, ever considered Indiana if they weren't serious about Indiana. So even if George was going through some personal emotions about, I can't move the bears to Indiana, he got over them. And the Indiana thing is real. People in Arlington Heights know it. And everybody else knows it too. Well, that's it for me is on one side of that report.

You have the concept of, well, are the bears wasting everybody's time then, if that's the case? You know, did Portage Park put together all of this, you know, this media and this press conference and find somebody to finance the stadium? Like, they didn't do that work for nothing. For example, Austin Bonta, the mayor was talking about Portage. Yeah, obviously. Portage, like they were on the phone with us last week. And additionally, Hammond, like, you don't put together site surveys and higher renderings and all of that.

That costs time and money. I can't see George McCaskey doing all of that for no reason. For allowing them to do all that for no reason you're saying? That's a good point, knowing George a little bit in terms of his ethics, which I believe are probably very strong. Yes. Now, it's just my conjecture. I understand what you're saying.

You know, I do. I do. Because, yeah, why would you, if you were just, if you knew it's going to be Hammond, then why would you allow another town to go through with their whole proposal? And maybe that's the nasty side of it. If other places, other towns want to jump in and make a proposal to us, hey, that's your problem, right? I mean, that's the heartless part of what collectively the bears might be saying. Now, I said this last week.

I will refrain that typically that is done first to then woo a team. like the bears to get the like they'll say oh we have all this land and there's been a lot of speculation from our listeners saying like oh well this is the only place they could find land arlington highs was the only place no that's the point is all these other municipalities come forward and they say we have this to offer you and then there's a discussion about the taxes and that's also been of course the sticking point here the state of illinois understands that it has to come in and backstop whatever could happen with the local entities. That's how they see it working.

Cam Buckner told us that as well. I'm just saying that that process is common. It exists. But what we haven't typically seen is if you know that already and you've already bought land somewhere, like I just, I wonder about making groups do that when you know that they're not a real.

Right. It's a little fishy. A likelihood happening. Yes. Thank you. You're not a real contender and all. So I'm to keep in mind, too, with Indiana, and this was pointed out publicly at the meeting, and it has to be taken seriously. And that is the fact that, you know, some people know and maybe do not know that their Indiana State Senate passed a bill to create the Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority.

The bill is pending before the House. That could happen any day. Like, maybe today that will happen. And then it goes to the mayor of Indiana. He would sign it. but they adjourn Indiana has urgency. The governor of Indiana. The governor.

Yeah, not the mayor. I've dealt with a bunch of mayors in Ireland, tonight, so that's why. You said something very important there. Notice that you said the Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority. So that's separate from the entity that's financing Lucas Oil Stadium, for example. So that's important to note here as well. Yeah. And so at the end of this month, their legislative season is done at the end of this month.

So they have an urgency to get this done. So that's another thing that was publicly pointed out that they're just behind and everything has moved so slowly and maybe understandably from the state's point of view because they don't want to raise your taxes. And that's what Illinois is looking out for. And it should be pointed out again that the legislators return for spring session today in Illinois. And from what I understand, there's going to be an 8 a.m. hearing before the House

Revenue and Finance Committee this Thursday, State of the State, tomorrow with J.D. Pritzker. So there's a lot happening this week for Indiana and Illinois. And again, they were not cocky in Arlington Heights. They are conceding and understanding that they're, not that they can't get it done, not that Illinois and Arlington Heights can't get it done. They have just conceded, and I just think I laid out all the reasons why and how they're just well behind right now. Well, and it's not necessarily them as a municipality. It's the whole process is behind. It very much takes two to tango in the lag here.

Dan and I are considering changing the podcast names to shovels in the ground because, you know, the north has been taken. Shovels in the ground have not occurred yet, so that could be the name of the new podcast. Well, you know, when I was on my little enjoying everybody enjoying outside walk yesterday, you know what I saw? A crane in the sky. Well, well, well, did it make you think of the new?

the Bears? It did, actually. Yeah? And then I giggled and people wanted to know I was laughing to myself. If only that crane could break ground right now at Arlington Heights. Well, well, somebody already broke ground, hence why you need the crane because it builds, you know, on top of the... Oh, so there was ground breaking somewhere.

Oh, are you reporting that the Bears broke ground at a stadium somewhere, I'm guessing in, I don't know, where? No, I don't think the crane over the high rise I saw in Lake Shore East. I couldn't even think of like... ...is the Bears Stadium in Arlington Heights. I'm pretty sure, but I'm with you. I think there's... One of the things I always look at coming home to the city

is I always look for cranes in the air. Yeah, man. So we did see a crane in the air. And it wasn't Crane Kenny, although he has been known to go in the air. But so we've got that going for us. I also want to point out this. I thought this was important.

This was from the Chicago Tribunes report of the rally you went to. Yes. Rolling Meadows Mayor Laura Sinoika. And forgive me if I'm not saying that way. She was kind of a badass. that thing, but go on. Yeah, she said here she goes, the proposed Indiana law would be a bad deal for workers.

She said Indiana sales pitch is that you can build a world-class stadium by short-changing the worker to build it. Illinois doesn't work that way. We know our families deserve better than a race to the bottom. The key sticking point as they report in Illinois has been over how the state would legislatively or financially

aid the bears in their desire to build a stadium. In particular, topics have evolved around assistance for infrastructure around Arlington Heights. property tax certainty for the team, which you don't have, you don't have property tax certainty. Bears want it though, don't they?

You have one property tax, one bill, and another the next, and this year is a perfect example of that in Cook County. And payment of debt for the soldier field renovations done more than 20 years ago at the team's behest. So that is on the table in this, is that that was new to us initially. The mayor brought it up,

Brandon Johnson, but that, yes, the 500 million or so that is still owed on those 2003 renovations is very much part of this discussion. No doubt about it. It might be third on the list, but it is very much on the list. I think the good news is if you're just wanting peace and all of this and you're just, you're like, one of those people, just come out, I just want the stadium. The infrastructure part does seem to have been loosely agreed upon in terms of, okay, everybody is agreeing that that could be something. It's what you just said. It's the negotiating with the local municipalities over the property taxes, which is a real thing.

And that's the part where you could tell I have a, I'm a little bit, I would rather see it just personally. I'd rather see the Bears stay in Illinois. But I do still want to know about all the things that you, me and Marshall have been talking about. And that is how it will affect people that live in the city that you and I live in and the state that you and I live in in terms of your pocketbooks and your money and your accounts. Yeah. And to me, there's two ways to go about this. Number one, make people vote. Then your opinion as a listener and as a listener and as.

somebody who lives in Cook County or in the state of Illinois actually gets recorded. And then the other one is, I don't like to socialize cost and privatize profit. That is where I stand on this. It has been proven to bid a bad deal. That doesn't mean you don't support with infrastructure. I understand. Yes. Yes.

But as far as giving everything away, there's a difference between $1 billion for infrastructure and $7 billion for an entire stadium project. Absolutely. And the bears are paying for the actual stadium, too. That always needs to be pointed out that they are putting two bill-do of their own cash into this. That ain't all of it. That ain't close to all of it, but it is $2 billion. Yeah, and as long as you and I don't get property tax certainty. We don't. I don't feel confident in that for others either after they've bought their land.

But bears. Bears. Bears. All very important to know as far as the latest on this. So that is Mark Roddy's Bears Stadium hit. Thanks for indulging me. Yeah. I haven't had a Bears hit or a stadium hit or any kind of hit lately.

Maybe after the show, though, man. All right. Hell yeah, Grady. I mean, with the twist and turns that this show has taken, that I did not expect serious news after, say, our halftime segment, but, you know. A couple of them. We got range. Yeah, that's what we do.

Oh, you think that this show is going to go off the tracks? I don't think so. Well, it will, but then it'll get back on other tracks. Okay, good. Speaking of all of that, everybody's like, Leila, you're not from here. You don't know anything about Chicago. only lived here for 10 years. Don't even worry about it.

We had a party for you for a decade of Chicago sportsness. Well, you know what I could have used? What? The Cubs primer to Alex Bregman. They did everything that you should do with somebody new to town. So we'll listen to it next. Yes. Rahimi Harrison Grody.

The great Kevin Harlan. I just pulled through the Taco Bell drive-through, and I've got a couple of big, nasty Supreme Burritos right here waiting to beat. The first thing they ask you now, are you using the app? The app, no, I just want my burrito. I don't want to use an app. Bring a lot of mild sauce because I'm going to escort it all over the way. Put some hot sauce on my burrito, baby.

Rahimi Harris and Grody, Midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on the score. I'm a winning baseball player and focused on winning. Yeah, we know you are, Alex Bregman. But what am I? Not a winning baseball player. I'm also not new to Chicago anymore. Well, you're not from here. That's how I feel about it.

It just turns into country gibberish, like reverend. Reverend. I told you, one, 10 years, and you're in. You're locked in now. You're locked in. I mean, you gave me 8.5 bears. I did. Your grandmothered in, grandfathered in.

Can women be grandfathered? Although it's really awkward for the half bear. How are you slicing that? Half bear. Oh, yeah. I don't want to really cut any bears in a half. No. It doesn't.

Does that mean... Does that mean Lela gets a nine bear? Officially nine bears? No, that's too much. Yeah, it's either eight or nine. I think I get eight. I'm a roundup. I'm a roundup kind of guy.

I like that. How many bears would you give one Alex Bregman? Or should I say Alex Bergman? Well, wow. How about we wait and see? I'm not ready to assign bears to Alex Bregman yet. Oh, yeah. Well, the Cubs are trying to win you over

because they decided to do a little initiation for Alex Bregman when it comes to important things. Chicago people should know. What is Dave Matthew's gate? A gate into the ballpark. Oh my God. That's nasty. Okay, let's do it again.

Yes, start over. Finish these lyrics. Hey, Chicago, what do you say? The Cubs are going to win today. Every day. What happens on Fridays at 120? Cubs games. Is Naperville in Chicago?

It's a suburb. Do people from Naperville think they're from Chicago? Yes. What does it mean to take the L? Taking the train. We fly the W at W. Sears or Willis? Sears. What is the jewels?

I don't know. Is it a supermarket? Yeah. Okay. What is the lowest acceptable degree to wear shorts? Mine? Personal? Yeah. 32.

What is LSD? No idea. It is Lakeshore Drive. Oh. Thought it was a drug. Lower or upper wacker? Upper. Was that right?

It's an opinion, but usually yes. Okay. How many Mondoos are you bringing to the river on St. Patrick today? Three. You might need a little more. If you see this billboard, where are you in the city? I have not seen those, but I know Brian Earleckers from New Mexico. Does ketchup belong on a hot dog?

No. Mustard. Relish. All right now. What about now? How many bears are you giving Alex Breggen? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I might be able to set a base of just because of that. Now, he's got a long way to go here.

I'm going to say, I'm going to say six and a half. Wait a minute. Can I do half? I have to be able to do halves. Six and a half bears for Alex Bregman right now because he wasn't perfect. I thought the Dave Matthews gave here. It's pretty funny. The video is hilarious.

It's an entrance into the stadium. Now, Dave Matthews band decided that they would dump their waste products into the Chicago River years and years. and probably over a couple of decades ago now is when that happened. And they've never really gotten over it. No, they shouldn't. No, they shouldn't. That's a horrifying visual. It really is.

From what I hear of reports experience. It's rude. It's rude. Dave Matthews band holding your guitar up real high and dancing around, silly, Dave Matthews. Do you have a Dave Matthews impression? No, Mully does. Molly does. I will not do it just out of respect for Mike Mulligan, who does the Dave Matthews.

I think he does. if I'm not mistaken. How about the jewels? How about that? I loved that. I love that. What is the jewels? I don't know.

Is it a supermarket? Yeah. Did he recover quickly? That was that edited? Because he's like, I don't know. I mean, okay. I like the LSD too. I thought it was a drug. It is. He's right. Yeah. I also didn't know that one until the famous tweet by Tony Andrew. racky when he said Jose Kintana took LSD to the clubhouse but didn't know where to go and I was like, what? I'll tell you where to go with that. I'm like, oh, Lake Shore Drive

because he got traded from the socks to the Cubs. Oh, oh. Customers, bro. Somebody help Jose Kintana. He's high right now. I got to get to the ballpark. I got to admit, as a some, I guess I'm a fake lifelong

Chicago because I too grew up in the suburbs like not neighborville but as one of the questions, yes, everybody in the suburbs claims they're from Chicago. I'm guilty of it. I did it. To be fair to outsiders, we don't care.

If you're from the suburbs of Chicago, that's understood. It's just easier. You deserve to be proud of me from the city. Can I say something as a call screener here at 104.3 the score? I go through these phone calls and you know exactly who you are if you do this.

If you live in the suburbs and you say you're from Chicago and we like to give, you know, we like to drop, like tell us where you're from. You can get specific. Because we'll be here all day saying Chicago, hey, so-and-so from Chicago. So tell us your neighborhood. And then when I ask this question, it'll be Naperville.

It'll be Skokie. Like, that is not Chicago. Don't do that. Just be proud of where you're from and tell us where you're from. Okay. So that's, that is, I feel like, uniquely Chicago. Very. Like, because I've got family in Southern California, too.

And nobody just says, the suburbs. We say the town you're from. Because it has a name, like Robert Paul. He has a name. So then you just say where you're from, you know, and then that makes it a lot easier on everybody. Now, if you're from the city, then you deserve all the rights and respect given to you being from the city. Right, which is why I quickly backed off of saying I was because, yeah, you deserve to say that. The one thing I didn't, that I was confused about in this Chicago test was I had never heard the, how many mountain dos dos do you bring to, was that?

That I never heard. I was not aware of that either. This is mountain do stuff. I guess the Cubs need it. To the river for St. Patrick's saying. No, I get it. Like, I guess because it's green. I know they were referencing beers.

Were they, oh, there's a code word for the, like, they can't say beers? Oh, I don't know. That's strange. 312644, 64, 67, if you know what the hell the Mountain Dew thing is. There's no way to know, is there. Let me tell you about the jewels. I decided that I was going to make one of those TikTok famous hoagy salads, you know, the Italian grinder salad.

Yeah. And I bought myself the Italian trio from the jewels to make the salad. and I'm very excited. Oh, wow. Had salami, it had provolone, and had pepperoni. Can't eat it tomorrow because it's Ash Wednesday. I'm going to make it today. Oh, nice.

Well, okay, for doing that. Thanks, Jules. My walk to Jules recently was I did a little taco night for myself. So I bought some ground beef from Jules and some taco powder to put into the beef. Taco powder. Taco powder. Yeah, Taco powder. It's LSD.

Taco seasoning. And myself a little taco party at the house. Dave and I had a taco. A little taco. party. I love that. Yeah. Poor Dave.

Dave is the only one who really didn't get a lot of play on this show today. Well, I got him. He's on a fancy feast diet now, so we have to load up on those every time we go to the Jules as well. Does Dave, do you just bring Dave with you, like people who bring their pets to Petco? I wish I could. Like I said, he's afraid of most people that are not me for some reason. By the way, Alex Bregman got the Chicago dog, right?

So he and the Pope Pope Poplio the 14th, but know what's up with the Chicago dog. Guys, can we not test the Pope? The Pope. If Pope Leo wants to put, I don't know, any condiment on his hot dog, can we not test him? The point is he got it right, Leila. It is correct. We had to test him. The Pope gets it.

I'm not okay with it. He gets it. The Pope is Chicago tough. He's fine with the test. That's right. The Pope. I feel guilty. Don't worry.

Hey, look, the Pope blessed you with a sense of humor, right? So you're allowed to talk about the. the pope and have fun with the pope my pope and my god and my baby jesus are not mad at jokes and sense of humor okay not even baby jesus not even baby jesus none of the none of them joseph all of them the apostles and mary none of them they're all listening and laughing at our show what about saints lawrence and matthew they are saints are they around they're next okay