Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Transition: Don't swim in the Chicago River

Episode Date: March 12, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote welcomed on Matt Spiegel and Laurence Holmes for the daily transition segment.

The score. Say my name. Jesse! That got intense there, didn't it? Thanks to everybody who was a part of this show. It was a lot of fun today. Andrew Brandt actually told us important information. It's always nice to go to school.

Thanks to Clay Harbor. Thanks to Russell Dorsey. Thanks to Ray Diaz, Tyler Beuterbob, Brandon Fryer, Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, Max Curtis, Cody Westerlin. Thanks to everybody who is a part of the show. Mark Grotty, thanks to you for being here. Oh, no. Thank you. How could you say thank you to me when I want to say thank you to

you? Because I'm the one doing the most talking. How can I possibly be the man when you're exactly? That was a derivative. Thanks to Dave the cat. Oh, DTC. I know. He's so fluffy. Dave meow-hous? Dave me-auth-oh. Oh my goodness. That would be the name of like a Matt Spiegel cat, I feel like. Hi, Matt. Hi, hi, Lauren. Isn't it river swimming back? Isn't that something that we were told during the, what did Ray tell us? Oh my gosh. Just made me think of that with Dave Matthews. Apparently. Mealthus.

Dave Miaoheus. Somebody's got a neighbor cat out now. People are swimming in the Chicago River again. Was that Ray? We got the, uh, from mayor, Brandon Johnson. Yeah, don't do that. Don't ever do that. He hasn't even gotten to the announcement yet.

It's always weird when you're down, like, on the river walk and you see people in, like, the little single kayaks and it's the little rentals that are plastic. And there's just like, all the water in the world is just splashing all over them. And you're like, that doesn't look clean. They don't know. You know what Spiegel? It's a little thing that I call. that I invented Out of Town Stupid

little thing. You did invent that. No, no, you did actually. Ray, you were saying. Then he invented Guaghi. Yeah, I invented Guaghi as well. Spiegel steals all my stuff. I do steal all your stuff. I steal your hair care. You know the birth of Out of Town Stupid? Birth of Out of Town Stupid was when Art Teal of the Seattle

Post-Intelligencer was on with McNeil and was laughing at them for the acquisition of Rick Meyer. He was laughing at them. Wow. And saying, I can't believe you guys got that guy. Like, did nobody do their homework? And I was like, are we out of town stupid

on Rick Meyer? The answer is yes. He's like that dude on 3rd and 10 will have an open guy 12 yards down field and throw it 7. Good luck with that guy. I've been hearing Michael McCasky had something to do with that. I honestly got... Really? Yeah. Yeah. So you think that description just describes

one former Bears quarterback, huh? No, there's a whole big pile of them, I think. It's really, it describes us as humans. We've got to make sure that we're not out of town stupid when somebody comes here. Did Ray ever explain the river? What was the one Clay said? Same, worse, the same?

Oh, yeah, same, better, worse. Better worse the same? Ray, what was the swimming thing? As we talked all over you? I saw the tweet from Alice Ian of the Tribune. Mayor Brandon Johnson has announced the return of the annual Chicago River swim. I've never done that once. Don't do that.

That sounds awful. I'm here for a lot of Mayor Johnson's initiatives to get people to love the city. Don't swim in the river. Enjoy the river. Don't swim in the river. Enjoy the river. Walk the river. Take pictures of the river.

Do not swim in the river. Take the taxi boat. That's cool. The water tax is so fun. It is. It feels neat. Take the architecture tour for sure. Everyone who's a resident should do it once a year.

I agree. Don't swim in the river. What about once every 10 years? Because I finally went like last year. No, do it again next year. Who are we going to take? Was it Tevin Jenkins that we were going to take? Oh, that would be perfect.

Grossest guy. Oh, man. Yeah, hey, he's re-upped in Cleveland, man. Oh, he did? Tevin, yeah, got another one-year deal with the Cleveland Browns. I thought maybe the Jedrick Wills acquisition completes our exchange. He just talked, by the way. He was the first person to talk out.

When did you get in? When did you get in? I don't know. I didn't, I was just back there talking to Sean Sears. I said, who's spoken so far? And he said, just Jeddric Wills. Do you talk about having his femur reattached to his hip? No, none of that.

Is that bad? Is that bad? Is that bad? happened to is like, that's how you miss the season, which he did. Hold on. But relative athletic score in 2020 draft. Yeah, 2020 was a long time ago. So the femur's up here over by the hip?

Over by there. I thought the femur was down. I'm confusing it with the tibia. It's a really long bone. The tibia is down between the knee and the ankle. And he has to have that reattached. That doesn't seem like it's good. But the mire, there's a fee and a mure?

I think so. For people who don't know, he's an offensive lineman. the Bears. People hear Jedrick Wilson are like, who. They signed him. He was the number 10 overall pick in 2020 and played with the Browns and was hurt all of last year. Did not play a game. 2020 was a long time ago. Yeah. My friend of Fia posted something that I was like, yeah, damn right. She said March 13th, 2020 was the last normal day. No, no, it wasn't because March 11th was I don't know why I know this off the top of my head. March 11th was the day that I had to tell NBC Sports Chicago, we should probably not broadcast

from the United Center Concourse. We end up at West End, which is Naurnaw, David Haud dropped me off into CVS because I couldn't find aloeuvre gel to mix with my rubbing alcohol to make hand sanitizer. And then the NBA got canceled. What a time. What a time. That was a wild four hours

in my life. It was a wild four years. Yeah. So that's March 11th. That was March 11th, which I believe was a Wednesday. Am I correct? March 12th was Gobert. Gobert touches all the recording devices March 13th was like, what's going on? And then it was over.

I remember, was it the Big East tournament that got canceled? I was watching when they're like, you know, we're not going to play these games. I'm like, all right, well, that seems extreme. I crowned DePaul, the champion of the Big East because they won the last game in the Big East tournament before they canceled it. And so, oh, and David Kaplan was supposed to broadcast.

He went to all the way to the garden. And then he ended up coming back. I was like, right, why are you? Oh. Yeah, there's nothing there. By the way, March 11th was a Wednesday yesterday, and in 2020, March 11th was a Wednesday. That's why Fee brought it up. You have the two matching March 13th, the Friday to 13th. The glitch in the Matrix?

Can we just pretend like the last six years didn't happen? I don't know. I've enjoyed some things in the last six years. The Bears won a playoff game last year. Yeah. The Bears season was up. Cubs won a playoff series. The Bears want a playoff game.

I mean, we can select what we want to keep. I see where Lawrence is going. The last two years of my radio life has been quite lovely. See? Oh, yeah. I was to work with you. What the hell? Well, I'm just saying.

I was just saying the last two years have been good. Well, the way I say it, honestly, these are the best problems I've ever had. You know what I mean? With a partnership. That's actually pretty, that's a good way. Do you mean relative to your other partners? Yes. I hate to tell you this, but you're just a good broadcast problem.

Well, no, I'm just saying like. Having also been your broadcast. I appreciate it, but like, you know, all of life, we're going to have stuff. You know, we're always going to have stuff. Our stuff is very manageable. Wouldn't you agree? No. Yes, I would say most of it is managed.

Most of it was manageable. But yes, this is very manageable. Yeah, it's always been manageable. I'd read the Spiegel book on your 100 partners in radio. Oh, it's written. It's written. It's also in large print, 100 partners and then in tiny print in radio. The chapter.

The chapter on Ray Diaz is a doozy. It's a freaking doozy. Oh, I know. Ooh, man. All this stuff that I've been burying for years about Ray. Ray knows where the bodies are buried. Hey, Ray, Ray, Ray, they're walking all these hallways, BBM.

Ray Deer's, I hope you're looking to see the air quotes, vegan. Okay? Pescatarian now. You know what? This is the second day in a row, Mr. Spiegel. Yes. You are flirting with our producer. And I don't like it.

That's true. I feel like he's wooing you. It's upsetting Alex too. Mr. I had a hundred partners knows how to put on the charm. Tandy is going to be out for a little while. We could use someone with some experience running a board. Hey, you two. Stop wooing.

Ray, how you doing? What are you doing next week? And you know, me and Ray, we go back a ways. You know, so. I might be working on a Sunday hit and run with this guy. That's true. You told me not to worry about that. That's true.

March 22. Wait a minute. For the debut, hit and run. Had to go down the depth chart a little bit, and then I was offered Ray, and I'm like, of course, I would love to work with Ray. Who doesn't want to work with Ray Diaz next week while Tanny's out? Who doesn't want to do that? I'll go on the nose with a Seinfeld reference here. Here we are cutting ridiculous promos for your show.

Oh, yeah. What's your sign-house? I just, I yelled for you guys. Speaking on Holmes! That Kramer often will just look at Jerry and Elaine and say, Can't you two just admit you love each other? I just, I think of that so many times for different things. Have you guys heard?

Sex to save the friendship. Yeah, that's right. Exactly. Have you guys heard the Spiegel and Holmes, the promo that we do for you guys? Do you know how much energy we put into that thing? I really like it. I really like it. I appreciate it.

I haven't heard it yet. Listen to Spiegel and Holmes. They told us. Remember how we do the ones for Molly and Hall? Yeah, absolutely. It's the cross-promot one. Tyler, can you call that up? Can we hear that?

I will just preface this by saying, like, we were in the studio. Lail and I, and they told us it got really lots of energy guys. I might have overdone it. But I think I sound ridiculous, but if you guys like it, that's great. Do we have it? I'm sure, I hope fine. It's not important. We got the gist.

You better listen to them at 2 o'clock. Oh, here it is. We got it. This is you guys promoting a lot. Spiegel and Holmes. Always talking Chicago sports. Is that good enough? That's too much. That's the outset. That's probably a little much.

Spiegel and Holmes. All right. Spiegel and Holmes. You know what? Just run them all. I like all of those. I know I had the outtakes. That's amazing.

All right. So what's better? Those outtakes from Groties or Ozzy's outtakes when he did the blue shoe commercials with Danny. Always Ozzie. Those are pretty great. Wait, how have I never heard about this? Oh, Leila. Or Dave Watson.

Well, I guess I don't. I do want the last six years to have happened. Dot.com. Dot is my favorite. Yeah, that's really good. Dot com. I need to add an extra dot here. Russ is like, oh, no, you know, Russ trying to be as nice as he possibly can. No, you don't have to do that.

A friend of mine who owns a recording studio has the outtakes of Jack Brickhouse in his dotage trying to fight his way through one of the last commercial reads he ever did and just spitting into a cup for like the entirety of the 45-minute session. And it's just, he told me like the cup was basically full as Jack was trying to get a dry mouth. and I was howling while we listened to it and he will not give it to me. He will not give it up. So I just describe it every chance I get. Didn't you also do like a behind the scenes or like some sort of recent like, yes, I am the voice of the Felco commercial interview?

No, maybe. For some reason, you came up and the Felco thing on my social media feed and I forget why. Oh, could be Tom Loxus with his podcast, The Lour. Yes. I was one of the first guests on his new podcast. Check out the lore. L-O-R-E, wherever you get your podcast. Yeah, and the Feldkoe thing came up.

And yes, if you've been watching TV and you're like, that sounds like Speaks. It is. For quality windows, siding indoors. He's doing it. He's doing it. It's like I'm right here in the room. He's doing the thing.

It is pretty cool, though, Spiegs. I mean, I know you probably. I know. I get that part. You live a long life, you know? We like Russ Armstrong over here. It's a Russ Armstrong house. Damn right.

Right. I mean, my actually. You're actually is. My sister's is. Is it? My sister-laws is. It's been delightful. Yeah.

Save me on heating and air conditioning costs. Shout out to Russ. Oh my God. Russ is wonderful. I felt so bad. Russ was like, I'd be happy to do your windows sometime. And I was like, well, Russ, it's just a window. I just have one.

I have one window. Is it a nice window though? Just looking out of the window. He's very large. He's got a sliding glass door. Oh, yeah. So I was like, watching the asphalt grow. If I had to repeat.

pair my window or get new window it would be with us without the ass it doesn't really pack a wallop it's geeky grammar humor but it is the truth how many yard rushing did you have this season keeping your head above water which one is that

temporarily good time good time that's the song begins just looking out of the window dino I just not the beginning of course I never knew the lyrics I didn't know that that was a lyric. That's so

watching that's so spot on. It's evocative. Yeah, yeah. Did you know. The Master's song has lyrics? The Master's song? The Butler Cabin theme? No, I did not know. Yes, Augusta, your dogwoods and pines and I forget like... Dogwinds and pines. Yeah, no, it definitely has lyrics. Wow.

Song by Jim Nance? I had no idea about that. Did you guys see the Jim Nance clip from a couple weeks ago that Lawrence had found it put in the thread where Jim Nance is talking about when you said, you're a good golfer. And it's like, if you can break 90, if you can hit in the 80s, you can call yourself a good golfer. That's what most of the people, including the golfer, said. That's not what Jim said. But Jim said, we're going to raise it up to a hundred

so we can include Al Michaels. Because if you can break a hundred, Al, if you're out there, then you should be able to call yourself a good guy. We want to make him feel better. And apparently that's true that Al Schuffles. Al Michaels is a golf course scuffler. Really? Who tries to break a hundo. on a good day. And people tell him he's good. Oh, wow, you're doing great. You're doing great. Yeah, you're the best. But like, Jim was just giving like a minute and a half

answer about golf and at the end, it was like, oh, shrapnel for out. How about to take a shot? Grody, we are going to have to get to 63rd Street and do some hitting this year. Oh, I would love that. I would love that. I actually went to a cage in LaGrange recently. No, not the cage. I mean, the golf. Oh, yes. We have threatened to go golfing many times. But definitely, I will always. I will also go to the batting cage. Yeah, that's what I, for some reason I thought that's what, but yes, we have talked about this for like three years now, Lawrence.

I have not done any baseball or softball activity in over a year. Okay. Because Lawrence and I think we're at about the same level of golf. We don't need to drag down a foursome on an 18-hole course. I did that already with some, with, I think it was Shane and Danny and Mark Carmen. I was, you had Danny out there. Obviously. He was like, oh, grow, just pick up your ball.

Just throw the ball up there. Just pick it up. So I was like, I got to get down to people more on my level. So, yes, Lawrence, let's do that. Yeah, we should just go out there to 63rd, hit a couple balls. Say hi to people. I love that. I would truly love that.

I played one time with Danny and with Mack, and I remember, like, I hit a really good, like, fairway wood. And Danny's like, I'm surprised at how good contact can you make. I'm surprised. And I was like, screw you, buddy. Screw you. I'm a human. I golf sometimes. Fight me.

He's a very insulting golf part. He's seriously. He's like, grudge, grudge, just pick up your bowl. Just throw it up. Nobody's going to care. It's just his natural default. He's just insulting. Insulting talker. He did pick up on living on a golf course, though.

Living on a golf course. He did decide. I bet your lyrics, by the way. He's the chorus. Oh, really? Yeah. Help us out. So it's Augusta, your dog woods and pines.

They play on my mind like a song. So you draw out the word Augusta. So it's Augusta. It's you that I love, and it's you that I'll miss when I'm gone. All right. It's like, it's like MASH, right? most people don't know that mask has lyrics. Well, those lyrics are a lot darker than the Augusta song.

It's sad and people are dying. Suicide is painless. I will say the fact that the Augusta theme, you can read the lyrics and not get to a racist part is a relief. That's actually kind of surprising. That's what I'm saying. You were like, do you sure you want to read all those? I'm like, hey, it's time for the Kentucky Derby.

Let's do the lyrics of my old Kentucky home. Don't. Let's not do that. Don't. Don't sing the text. fight song while you're at it. Don't do the Choo Choo song. Texas fight is okay. It's the eyes of Texas. That's the one that's even more to

yeah. Don't want to do that. Stay away from that stuff. Don't want to sing along when Georgia scores a touchdown either. There's a lot of stuff. A lot of songs you want to skip. But not the Good Times theme. That one you can sing. That one just killed. Sing it with some soul. We used to have good theme songs. Yeah, now it's skip intro. That's the world we live in now.

We don't really care about the theme song. And they've gone shorter and shorter because they know you're doing that. Exactly. How can you not? Like, if I have the option of getting right to the program I want to watch? I know, but it's sad. It is. I always watch the intro at least once.

Yeah. It's like not buying a newspaper. Well, but it's also like there's clues in there. Like the true detective intro sequence with great music by the handsome family, a band with Chicago Roots actually, the original true detective where it's like all those overhead shots. And then a lot of other shows kind of copied it. Ozark had the thing where they would have four different like tools.

Right, but there's like, right, exactly. And there's faces that sort of appear in and out. And I've always thought there's clues in there. Like, there's thought process that's going on from the people. You know? Yeah. No, you're right. That's why we love the ZipRecruiter song.

Is it? I mean, we love it. Oh, it is a good song. Because there aren't jingles anymore. It's really well done. And it's really well. The second verse of the ZipRecruiter song is amazing. I want to hang out with the extended version of the ZipRecruiter song.

Me too. Try it for me. Yeah, man. Try it. Maybe you got, maybe Tributosaurus becomes the ZipRecruiter. We've talked about doing TV theme night for a long time. Well,

sometimes you guys do that in between songs. Please let someone do Barney Miller. Oh, we would. That's the first, it's one of the first things you learn in orchestra. That baseline is crazy. I also taught myself the Simpsons theme song in orchestra.

That's good. Pretty good. Yeah. Yeah, man. So, but we'd have to do like 60 TV themes. They're kind of short. That's true.

But we could extend them. No, what about? I'll be there for you, friends. Sure. Yeah, right, of course. That's a real song. There is an extended Sanford and Son, though, by Quincy Jones. Of course there is.

It's a badass, like, seven-minute version of that thing. Of course there is. Because it's Quincy Jones. He does, but I'll do what I want. I'll do what I want. You guys can edit it however you want. But I'm doing all of this, and then you can decide what you want. Let me realize my vision before you cut it to 30 seconds.

Damn right. You could play Raw Hyde on repeat for the country and Western. fans. Get them up. Get them out. Sign them up. Turn them out. I would also suggest Nightcourt. Night court is pretty hopping. You got a crazy, if you got a good sax player.

Yeah. Maud. And then there's Maud. Lady Godiva was a freedom rider. She was. Let's go. And then there's Maud. WKRP in Cincinnati. Sure, right. It's beautiful.

That's a beautiful song. Here's what we've got coming up on the show today. We get a lot. Todd McShay is going to be on the show. We are going to talk to him at 5 o'clock today. get an idea of what's going on at the draft. John Marrosi's going to join us, and we'll ask him if he believes what

Mark Zorosa is out here saying, because, man, Patrick Claibon of NFL Network is going to join us at 3 o'clock. Categories is back. I have them right here. The category is very excited. It's a very popular assignment on the show. Very popular.

I'll let you know what they are. I'll let you know what they are. So the third, no, I'm just kidding. Come on. ruin the whole thing. That's an Excel spreadsheet. And in the 2 o'clock hour, we're going to follow on something that you guys did on the show today. Andrew Brandt, who is Professor Brandt, is outstanding.

And we want to ask a cash flow question. Is that what's going on here with Bears Free Agency? Boy, oh, boy. And that's where we're going to start. We're going to talk Bears free agency and talk free agency with you. That is coming up after Tanny's final open before vacation. Not just before vacation. And he's going on vacation.

So you can stop, Twitch, mop. So his final open before vacation, he's coming up. He's leaving. He's leaving. Goes to Twitter, Jeff Agrest. Chris Tannanhill, leaving the score. On vacation. On vacation. That's coming up next. Here on the score. Good job, Tom. Have a great show. Thank you, Lawrence. And this segment is brought to you by almost freeteeth.com. Save on dental implants today. Why pay more at almost freeteeth.com. You can save up to 95% on full mouth implants. Brand new smiles finally within reach. Visit Almost Free Teeth. com today.