Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #376: The bartender who scooped everyone on Balogun to Orlando

Episode Date: March 27, 2023

A Scuffed patron and part-time server in San Diego, BasedGallagher, joins the pod to explain how he got the scoop that Balogun would be visiting Orlando last week. However it all ends up, this was a Tier 1 moment on the Discord and we (Watke, Vince and Belz) had to hear from the man himself, on his impression of Batson and the moment he spilled the tea about Balogun's visit.----Join Scuffed on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. It's game day. USA versus El Salvador in Orlando this evening, 7.30 p.m. Eastern Time. I'm here with Waki and Vince. We'll get to the game tonight and a bunch of other stuff on a busy USMNT weekend. But for the first part of this episode, we have a guest. Let me explain. The scoop on Fuller and Balligan going to Orlando was initially reported. not by anyone on Twitter or by the Washington Post, but by a scuff Discord user named Bass Gallagher, who works at a bar in San Diego,

and served J.T. Batson, the CEO of U.S. soccer, drinks on Friday night, March 17, when Batson was in town for the Federation's annual general meeting, while we didn't have the confidence, or I guess I would, I should say, I didn't really have the confidence to run with the information. Yes, thank you. Thank you. Well, anyway, Gallagher's here now.

We should say hello to him because he's here. Yeah, well, yeah, he's here. Let me just say, in retrospect, it was a tier one scoop, top tier. And so we brought Gallagher on the podcast to talk about it a little bit before we get to the usual Monday review stuff. Mr. Gallagher, how are you? I'm fantastic. Thanks for having me on, you know, a first-time caller, long-time listener. It's a pleasure and honor to be here, guys.

Thanks for having me. Hey, hey, man, no problem. And just know, I believed in you. Thanks, Vince. I've moved on you too. From John. Thank you. I knew you had my back.

What kind of bar is it that you work at? Can you tell us that? It is a magical bar, and anyone in the San Diego area should for sure send me a DM on Discord so I can have you come and hang out. It's just a bar. We've got lots of TVs. Good for getting your chives stare on, watching some live sports. More soccer these days, lots of UFC.

But it's pretty chill, low-key Thursday evening when the USSF crew ended up rolling in. Yeah, we do need to continue to protect the location on the bar just because we probably more soccer efficient to keep going there. We don't want to have that. I'm trying to, I don't want to be one and done. I want to make this recurrent thing. So got to keep it a little bit of the deal. Yeah, it was a Thursday night. I said Friday.

It was Thursday. Huh? Thursday, correct. Yeah. Yeah, okay. So what was that night like for you before, you know, the USSF? crew showed up. Oh man, dude, we had a band that was ass. Like, no other way to put it. They were just like, they were doing, dude, they were so bad. They were doing like, uh, emo covers of songs and

no hate to the music, just to the band. Like, uh, they're, they're very bad. Uh, so it's super dead. My, uh, co-workers like, hey, it's like 15 people on the patio. You want them. I'm like, no, I'm kind of tired of this. You know, and she's like, no, I don't want it either. So we do rock paper scissors. I end up losing. head out there. I see this group. I'm like, oh man,

that's a lot of U.S. soccer jackets. But, I mean, people rock those for fashion or whatever, so it didn't really think of it. And then,

you know, gradually, you know, I ended up taking the card to, you know, open up a tab. I look at the name.

I'm like, T. T.T. Back to me, that looks familiar. Let's go back on my phone. I'm like,

that's really familiar. I don't go on my phone. I'm like, oh, my gosh, that's the guy. And I'm like, oh, okay, okay,

Okay, okay. Text the buddies, see where this goes, and then go out there and try and start riffing with them. So there was a group of 50, you said? 15, 15, 15. Okay. All lovely people. Anybody else you recognize besides JT? No, no, I didn't recognize anybody else other than that. I only recognized them just because I kind of caught the name, but no faces were triggered in my brain. How did you broach the topic of who he was, like you knowing who he was? So when I dropped off their first round of drinks, I was like, oh, you guys are signing

Marino, right? And they started to give it like a little chuckle and they're like, oh, well, if you keep the drinks cheap, then maybe we can afford them. And then I think I said something like, wait. And I kind of leaned over to him was like, wait, you're the guy, right? You're like, yeah, yeah, I'm the guy. You're the guy. The guy.

So Gallagher, did you, did you happen to mention any of the praise that I've been heaping on, J.T. Batson, on this very podcast to his face, possibly. You know, I wish I could say I could, but I didn't. It was more of like a, I wanted to, you know, wish him well on his new journey, you know, talking about how I was like, hey, you know, we're all behind you. Go team. Go all the U.S. soccer team. I'm just trying to hype them up a little bit. I think that's right. I feel like you should have been the number one shout out. You know, you are his big guy. I don't think, I think that would have been a mistake because you were trying to get into position

to gather some information. And if you're mentioning some, you know, some very serious journalists right up top there, it's probably going to climb up. Very serious. Right, I would have blown my cover. Yeah, it seems like your instincts served you well in this episode.

So what did Batson drink? Bombay soda, very classy, not gin and tonic, you know, gin soda. Only the most refined people drink that. So I immediately knew not only is this the guy who's going to land Balagan, I would probably trust him with my life. Yeah, that's true. And you would know that better than anyone what these drinks can tell us, not a person. That means a lot, walkie, thank you.

I didn't realize, maybe I'm, maybe. Maybe I've been living under a rock, but I didn't realize gin and soda was classier than gin and tonic. It is. I feel like it is. It's just because, I think it's like an exclusivity thing. Lots of gin and tonic drinkers out there. Gin and soda is more of a unicorn. Okay.

Okay. And he didn't go with the well gin, right? He specifically, you know, Bombay and soda? Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Not as many Guinness drinkers in the group, which is kind of fortunate.

I think there's an over-tendency for the soccer crew to be Guinness people. Yeah, I'll never had a genus in my life. You're fine. No. They're fine. They're fine. There's nothing. It is one of those drinks where if you say you've never had one, it'll raise some

eyebrows from people, but I think you're in a pretty good spot and having never had one, and I wouldn't go out of every way. It's like, what if a beer was bad and a milkshake was also bad, but it's the same thing? Yeah. So 1.15 a.m. is when things really heated up on the day. Discord, 15 a.m. Eastern Time on Friday. Now, we should, we should frame this. There were, once we got first word from Gallagher that, that he was doing some reporting,

everyone on the East Coast, it was getting late, but we were staying up, and there were more people coming in. Fortunately, Vince was sleeping, so he missed it, but it was one of the most exciting moments in the history of the SCOF Discord. And there have been a lot of those. I'm glad it was. It was one of my favorite moments of my life. I mean, that was fun.

You know, once I knew that I had the discord behind me, I felt like I could really do anything here. I feel like he hasn't responded to the email, but I'm pretty sure I can snag this GM job. So thank you to the Discord for having my back. I'll get your back. Make a little, little simpatico out of it. So tell us what you said and how he responded with regard to Balligan. So I think I was dropping off a drink and I was like, oh, here's for the. This one's for the man who's going to land balligan.

And then the crew, like the rest of the group got a big old chuckle out of it. And then he was kind of like, it was being very coy about it and we're just kind of like, like, kind of like looked down into his drink and then like said something like, oh, like, you know, come and see in Orlando, check, check out what's going on in Orlando, something that effect. And he didn't say much other than that. Just some sort of like offer marks speaking into his drink about Balagan, Orlando, and something being there. Yeah. See, and Gallagher, if I have to point out one mistake, one mistake. Like, this is, this is the whole reason why Bells couldn't run with it. But like when you put it, when you put it in the, like, the fact that you couldn't, that you couldn't get the whole quote,

and, yeah, and, let me, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a mistake, but also that the fact that you had the journalistic integrity to not to not make up a quote. Yeah, not embellish. Yeah, you didn't embellish, you just put what you heard, you didn't quite hear it all the way. And this exact message in the Discord says, JT says something about, quote,

c dot, dot, dot, Orlando, end quote. And yeah, I mean, I mean, for me, that was all I needed. You know what I'm saying? But, you know, for the big J. journalists, I can understand why it was a little But, but I mean, come on. When you, when you ask a man about following Balligan and Orlando.

And he utters the word Orlando. Yeah. Yeah. Like I told Bells, after we recorded Wosa Wednesday, that, like, I fully expected that man to be in Orlando. Like, I don't know why, but Mr. Gallagher, you seem like a trustworthy man. So I was like, look. Thank you.

Full steam ahead. Full steam ahead, baby. It was a little bit, it was a little bit of a confusing. moment though right because you had somebody else yelling at you I mean you were in fact working at the loud bar yeah yeah right right that's a question I've been wanted to ask like how how bad of a server were you to the actual table that you had under your you know I'm saying like like it seems like you're doing a lot of fraternizing over here with the US soccer people but I assume you had this you

had another table that you know fortunately the fortunately the band was so asked that there was like five people in I had like nothing going on. I mean, they're scaring everybody out. So, and then the, the, the USSF crew were smart enough to sit outside where we could close the windows and, you know, protect their ears a little bit. I, for sure, it was way too fanboy about J.T. Batson, though. I was like, like, everything was saying was, like, so interested in, so I probably wasn't the most attentive to the rest of the crew and kind of, like, obviously giving him more attention or whatever. but you know there was no one else to uh divide my attention no other tables these were the

the discord and the the soccer crew were the only things going on my opinion okay okay where were you where were you messaging the discord from from like the kitchen or uh yeah kitchen back service station i would like pop in there uh i would feel the love of the discord and i would get myself hyped up head back out there i would like sometimes uh i was keeping up with like that oh you should say this you should say this and I go out there and uh regurgitate some lines you know be a little puppet for the discord man it is true though when you get like uh 29 emoji reactions to a comment it's really it's really i mean it'll there's nothing like it oh i'm still juiced on it i mean it's uh the love the energy the positivity i mean i i've

been telling my parents i'm like you know guys i'm a i'm kind of popular on a medium-sized Discord right now and they're like, what are you talking about? Like, no, it's cool. It's cool, you know. Let's see. So, so what do you, what's your theory on how the news got out on Twitter? It was probably, it was probably hip hip hip, hip, horhe, wasn't it? He probably told him his group chat.

You know, I'm not trying to, you know, say I'm the guy with the scoops, but I already knew it was true. So I haven't even been keeping up with like Edgar or something like that. I mean, honestly, I knew it in my soul already that what was going on. So the other people tripping didn't really catch my ear. Yeah, fair enough. Yeah. From your position.

Yeah. I'm above it. I mean, come on. You know, I'm Johnny Scoops. Do you have, I mean, you had got the scoop. You have kind of a relationship with the story that's a lot closer to all of us. Do you have any sense of what exactly is going? on with Balagan?

He's traveling all over Florida visiting a ton of different cool places, sporting events, he's in pools, throwing footballs to children. He took a picture of himself looking at the security screen at Walgreens. What's your read on? What's going on? Oh, my gosh. I mean, okay, I feel like the most obvious answer

would be that he's just, you know, taking a tour of the U.S., getting shown around, trying to get converted over to Team USA. But part of me wants to think that this is just like an elaborate ruse and we're getting puzzled. I mean, how incredible would it be if not only did he bail out of the U-21 camp for England with the alleged injury to only be around going to NBA events

and hang out the pool and train in Orlando, but then he actually just is using this to make his way into the England national team. That would be incredibly saucy. and part of me, even though it hurt, wants it just because it'd be funny. I'd have to respect that. And part of me might also want that, except that I recently made a point of staking my entire reputation on him. So I have a lot writing on this.

If he doesn't, I think I'd probably have to leave this podcast, unfortunately. Yeah, it'd be terrifying if he doesn't. I mean, if it doesn't happen, then plus two, why am I even here on this podcast? I mean, what would be the point of any of it? I'm oh no no no I I think there's still a great great deal of a point to it even if he doesn't choose to play for us but anyway go ahead dude um shoot kind of forgot oh oh oh yeah uh you know I've seen people like phrase it like like I think y'all brought it up on the emergency pod but um you know just to framing it as a as an official visit kind of kind of like a college type deal which I definitely encouraged my brother to go on official visits to colleges that he was not going to go to ever. And he definitely knew for sure he wasn't going to go.

So, I mean, I'm like, I mean, I guess that possibility is viable. You know what I'm saying? Like, do I want to go to this England U-21 camp? Or do I want to all expense paid J.T. Batson, red carpet laid excursions, in Florida, you know what I'm saying, I would probably pick that one. That's a no-brainer right there. But it has to be,

it's just no way it can be, this can be a bad thing. Do you guys think that USSF was involved in getting him those like courtside Orlando tickets or any of this stuff? Like do you think that was them? All of it.

All of it was them. Like, I mean, shoot, when he went to that, uh, because the magic in the, Yankees don't. When he went to the Yankee spring training, I think it was Tommy Canley, a reliever for the Yankees, a supposed large soccer fan. You know, he had on a, he had on a jersey and shorts and U.S. shorts.

You know what I'm saying? Like, this was, and the whole fact that, you know, the magic had jerseys for him, Yankees had jerseys. Like, it had to be coordinated from the top, from Mr. For Mr. JT. From Mr. J. one other thing one other thing i wanted to ask you about gallagher is they they wanted they wanted to keep hanging out with you right j t and his crew like they they were like come with us so okay uh j t he was like hey like a swing by our hotel tomorrow uh like we got like some events going on but like we'll we'll hook you up with some swag uh and then we'll see if you know if there's free time or whatever um But it was just kind of like a, hey, like come, come down, grab a free snazzy jacket and sunglasses that I think more than anything.

But, you know, I went down like first thing in the morning because I woke up and I was like, it's like, okay, got to go, got to go, got to show face, got to try and impress Mr. CEO, man, and see what happens. I just got down there and spoke to some lovely, I don't want to say inter, like staffers for. the USSF because they were doing their meetings in their hotel and everyone was lovely the USSF crew all great people everyone interacted with was very nice, very polite

nothing but good things to speak of the Federation and their folks and you did though get a picture with JT which there was some theorizing that this may have been the first time a stranger has ever asked him for a picture in public

I think that's right. I think that's true. I think that's maybe why he was a bit more approachable or like loose with stuff was just probably because this is not a common occurrence for a guy who, I think he was a CEO of some sort of tech company or website that manages like refereeing, youth soccer refereeing into being, like someone's sitting in the discord, like the CEO of a medium-sized NGO. You know, it probably doesn't get a whole lot of picture requests. Yeah. No.

I remember when Sanjay and I went in Orlando, you know, a year ago went to breakfast after the game, the day after the game. And somebody asked me for a picture. It wasn't. Maybe the first time everybody's asked me. Anybody's asking me for a picture. And, you know, it feels good. Let me ask. Just real quick, bills.

I'm sorry. But, but, but, but, yeah, like, like Orlando is, uh, you know, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's, it's, probably the peak of like whatever type of, you know, Z-less celebrity that, that you are, you know what I'm saying? And me too, bro. Because, like, there was just so many people meeting, like, even, like, not even just at the tailgate. Like, I, like, walk into the stadium and sit down at my seat and, like, talk to this

dude behind me, and he's like, hey, man, are you Vince? And I was like, yeah. I don't know. I don't know. Is it something about Orlando, man? Something about Orlando. It's magic. It's a magical place.

Hey, I got to, I got to go ahead. You said Orlando and magic? That was on purpose, right? Kind of on accident, but then let's pretend it was on purpose. But so here's my question. The last question I have for you. J.T. Batson, you know, he gets a lot of, he gets gassed up a lot on this podcast for sure and so far seems justified.

Experiencing him in the wild as like, you know, mono-i-mono, a real person in a real place, what do you make of the cut of his jib? I like them. I thought, so, like the bar I work at, every now and then we'll get like actors and stuff coming in, especially during Comic-Con. And some of them are a lot more standoffish and just kind of like,

okay, yeah, sure, like whatever. Thanks, buddy. Get out of here. John Cena is a great guy, though. You ever meet John Cena? He's cool. But J.T., one of the cool things about him was he was like super approachable. Very, very willing to talk shop like someone said in the Discord, which is nice to see, especially from a suit.

I mean, most of the suits that come in are spiteful people, petty tyrants. But easily, these are the coolest of the suits I've served there before. He's a nonprofit suit. You know what I'm saying? There's a big difference. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You know, it was cool.

It seemed like it had solid rapport with the underlings. Had a nice way of kind of speaking to people below him in rank, which I thought was kind of cool. Respected that. And he was picking up the tab, right? I assume because you ran the card? Correct. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Doing a good job. He's doing the table hosting. You know, it's like, oh, this person needs to drink. this person needs to drink. I was like, respect, respect. You know, that's what the boss should be doing, you know, being the little patriarch of the table.

Did he seem quick-witted? Yeah. I'd say the whole crew seemed rather quick-witted. Lots of chirpy banter when everyone was vibing. Absolutely. I love it, man. It was cool to see him. I mean, like, I thought everyone was very fun for engaging with me. You know, good table. I would serve them again for sure. I think everyone was like so bilingual with women's soccer.

It was really impressive. I was like, oh, boy, I'm struggling to keep up here. That was cool. And then there seemed to be solid rapport amongst all the different people working there. I definitely appreciated them, you know, riffing with some server mortal, you know, about the intergoings of what's actually happening at the Federation. right and and and and i assume like did you see their like eyes light up when when they realized that they were talking to a true sicko you know what i'm saying like the first time you

like marino or bala gun yeah yeah yeah the marino one didn't i don't think it triggered the full sicko but once we started riffing about like balligan and uh geo reina's limited role they for sure started giving a lot more just because they could see that it was deeply diseased they gave you something on Giorina's I have to ask because what did they say? It was more like a I riffed about it

and then everyone got kind of quiet they didn't like that but I did repeat the scuff line about how the Raina drama proves that we're finally a real soccer country and everyone got a real kick out of that I think that might have gotten the most guts busted

in their laughing all right man this is great This is great. You know, they say never meet your heroes. But with everything I'm hearing about Mr. Batson, you know what I'm saying? He's everything I expected.

I expect he's that guy. You guys are great, too. I didn't meet you. I thought you were talking about Gallagher. Yeah, I did. Yeah. You guys got any more questions for him? Just kudos.

Thanks all of that for just great, great work. Great work, man. Thanks for getting up. Thanks for jumping on early with us. It's earlier there, obviously, than it is here. So thank you for that. Yeah, thanks for having me on, guys. Much appreciated.

So you're not just only a bartender, right, Mr. Gallagher? Correct. Correct. Yeah, I'm also a professor. So if a junior college near you is looking for someone to, Teach political science. Give me a call or DM or whatever. That is my day job.

Okay. Just doesn't pay. Okay. Understood. Understood. Any closing thoughts from either, well, first, Waki, do you have any more questions for him? I don't. Okay.

I think I'm not going to ask about the tip. I think we keep that. I don't want to know. That's between them and their server. That would be my question, though. Yeah, that's between. Between J.T. Gallagher and God, I guess. And Gallagher, any closing thoughts for us?

Just, again, thanks for having me on. I think I've been listening to this podcast since at least like 2019. Oh, baby. I don't know. It's been a minute. So this is really fun to be here. I've been telling all my friends, my guys, I've got my favorite soccer podcast. This is crazy.

So thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it. Let's say Roll Aztex, final four. Let's keep it going. Well, I'll be rooting for the Aztecs now. Yeah, for sure. Thank you. I appreciate it, Waki.

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