The Best One Yet - ⚾🌭 “BoringBall” — Baseball’s biz strategy. Twitter’s April Fools. Egg-flation’s #1 winner.

Episode Date: March 31, 2023

Major League Baseball has 10x as many games as the NFL, but half the revenue — so it just made three rule changes to fix “The Boring Problem.” Tomorrow, Twitter is yanking away blue check marks from all its legacy famous people, but can Elon go from “free” to “fee?” And we got an update on the Egg-flation Situation: Egg prices have popped so much that one company’s profits surged 700%.Play the weekly TBOY Quiz: https://go.tboypod.com/Can you go 5 out of 5 on this week’s pop-biz news stories?$CALMLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Friday, the Real Friday, March 31st. And today's pod is the best one yet. It's a T-Boy. Thank God. It's Quiz Friday. Oh, it's not just Real Friday.

It is Quiz Friday. Jack, what's going down today? Our one-minute weekly pop-biz pop quiz drops today. Yeties, go to go. T-boypod.com. Take the T-boy Quiz Challenge. Challenge your besties. Can you whip up the takeaways faster than we can say green eggs and ma'am?

Green eggs and ma'am. Green Eggs and Ma'am, Green Eggs and Ma'am. Jack, what's our first story for today's pie? The Major League Baseball season began yesterday, but the business looks different this year. Baseball has a brand new anti-boring strategy. For our second story, tomorrow, on April Fool's, Twitter is making its most controversial change yet. You live by the blue check mark, you die by the blue check mark. And our third and final story, we just found out how much money one egg company made during egg flation. Jack, a 700% egg profit omelet.

Benedict. Scramble. Potatoes on the side. Shock, Schuke. But Yetis, before we hit that fantastic mix. Just the perfect mix to go into a weekend with. I love this mix, man. There is a dirty little secret spreading across America we wanted to tell you about.

This is a sneaky little surprise that nobody is talking about right now. Yeties, is your neighbor's lawn green? But we got to interrupt. Is your neighbor's lawn? A little too green. It's a little too green. Yeah, it feels like it's charteruse. That's a problem.

Get this, Yeties. Americans are painting their lawns green. Jack, can you repeat that one? Because it may have to sink in for a second. Americans are whipping out the paintbrush and painting their lawns green. We repeat, you don't water your lawn. Apparently, you spray paint your lawn. Wall Street Journal reporting reveals what we're calling the Great Lawn Live.

Yeah, we're not talking green plants. We're talking green paints on the plants. Just for men, it's for your side burns. Yeah, well, Benjamin Moore is for your side ferns. But there are two reasons that people are painting their lawns green. And the first is Mother Nature. Yeah, with chronic droughts, water is scarce, but paint is plentiful. The second reason people are painting their lawns green is the money.

Yeah, Jack, about how much does it cost to water your lawn all year? $1,000 if you're in a low rain place. How much does it cost to paint your lawn? $200, give or take. That's it. And the third reason people are painting their lawns? Panic. Yeah, you're hosting the in-laws this weekend.

you want to keep up with the Joneses. Yeah, you do. So many Americans are treating their lawns like a Claude Monet canvas. They're going full Bob Ross on their backyard. If a Jack and I jumped in T-boy style, here's what we're thinking. Maybe the great lawn lie isn't so bad after all. Yeah, if you hydrate your hydrangeas, good for you. And if you pigment your patio like Picasso, good for you, too.

Forget the fertilizer. Let's hit our three stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. They had an idea to call. A cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is a norm. That's it. I don't even think they need to practice.

50% that's a fat tip. Tea Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, because we're ready to go. We can't wait no more. So just start the show. Start the show. For our first story, Major League Baseball just began, but baseball has an interesting business problem.

The boring problem. It's the boring problem. So this year, baseball made three. major rule changes to kill off the bar. Jack, what do we say the other day? It ain't spring unless you spill mustard on your skirt at a ball game. Peanuts, popcorn, and programs. Get your programs here.

The baseball officially is back to pre-pandemic levels. We jumped in T-boy style. Jack, what kind of numbers are we seeing, man? Last year, Major League Baseball recorded a record revenue of over $10 billion. Not too shabby. But Jack, can we sprinkle on a little context? at the big four sports leagues. That's double the revenue of hockey, same revenue as basketball, but half the revenue of the national football league. Baseball, it has 10 times the number of

games as football, but it makes half the revenue. So why? Why does baseball make so much less money per game than football does? It's a big question. We'd ask Yogi Berra, but he'd probably confuse us. The answer, Jack, to why baseball's bringing in less money is because baseball has a growing, boring problem. It has a boring problem. And the numbers show, that it's become a little more boring. In 2022, Major League Baseball experienced its lowest batting average in 54 years. And in 2022, baseball games for three hours and seven minutes long on average. That is longer than ever.

The average games longer than the average Godfather movie. Yeah, part four. Oh, by the way, you could write a novel before the ninth inning finishes. So yet, he's baseball has added three rule changes this year to try to kill the boring and bring back the fun. Jack and I call this the anti-boring strategy. And frankly, MySpace should have done this too. Rule change number one, a 30-second timer between batters and a 20-second timer between pitches. Sorry, Mr. Ortiz.

You can't just crawl out there like it's a Balenciaga runway. You got to run. The second rule change is that they increase the size of the bases. All three bases have increased from 15 inches to 18 inches. That base, that is the base runner's sanctuary. If they're on base, we're going to get more runs. We're going to have more fun. And finally, they banned the defense.

defensive shift. The defensive shift. That was brutal. That was just a buzzkill for all baseball fans. I hated the defensive shift. We all hated the shift. I got to ask to sprinkle on even more context here. You've been going to billies over in the Bronx to watch games with your dad since you were just a baby boy, haven't you, man? Stans. It's Billies or Stans? We're a Stans family. So I got to ask you, are these suggested rule changes actually going to work? Yes. They were already in place for spring training and the average game was 20. 25 minutes shorter. Not too shabby. If so facto, Jack, are we saying that baseball just became 13% less boring?

There's a lot of standing still and doing nothing in baseball, but there's 13% less of that this season. Okay. And we love that about baseball. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the dugout watching Major League Baseball? We're all competing in the attention economy. Now, yeties, people often say that we millennials and Gen Z, we have a short attention span. Well, you know what?

They're wrong. They're wrong. We'll watch 50 hours of Game of Thrones and an hour and a half long succession finale. No problem. There's nothing short about that. Consumers don't have shorter attention spans. We just have more competition for our attention. Baseball's problem is that it takes too long and it's not enough fun.

So people are watching something else. So baseball's solution is to increase the value for your attention. More fun and less time. Baseball doesn't have to be TikTokified into a 30-second swipable video with emoji graphics. Jack Aaron Judge, as we are recording the video, this podcast, just hit a home run in the Yankees opener. That is fantastic. And he did it in six fewer seconds of standing still and doing nothing. Yeti's baseball just needs to boost the fun per minute. Because we're all competing in the attention economy, even baseball. For our second

story, tomorrow this weekend on April Fool's Day, Twitter is revoking blue check marks for everyone who doesn't pay them. Which means Twitter is trying to do the unthinkable. Go from free to fee. Yeties, we are talking about the biggest product change to Twitter since Elon brought that sink into the building a year ago. Before Elon took over Twitter, there were 420,000 people in businesses that had those blue check marks. But it kind of made the blue checkmark a thing, didn't they check? It was their thing. But tomorrow, Saturday, April 1st, those 420,000 blue check marks are revoked. If you are the Pepsi Corporation, if you are the Prince of England, it doesn't matter.

You got to pay Elon eight bucks a month. though you are going to lose that blue badge of honor. But wait, there's more. Bessies, you don't just lose the blue checkmark. Your Twitter experience also becomes meaningfully worse. Elon announced this week that only paid users are going to show up in the for-you section of a Twitter feed. Meaning only paid tweeters can ever go viral. And only paid users can participate in Twitter polls.

Meaning only paid users are going to have fun voting on stuff. But there's one thing we should point out for everyone. Even paid Twitter users will still see ads. So Yeti's Jack and I were looking at this story, and that's when we realized the meaning of the blue verified checkmark has transformed. It's transformed from a badge in the past to an accessory today. Let's talk about that blue checkmark. Those 420,000 people with legacy blue checkmarks, they earned it like somehow. They earned it by either being super famous, semi-famous, kind of famous, or in our case, kind of

Maybe sort of maybe kind of famous. Yeah, quasi quasi semi-round down famous. Or maybe you're just a journalist. Yeah. And the old verified checkmark, they actually verified it. Like, they check to make sure you are the person you say you're being. With the new system, anyone can buy a blue checkmark. So it's not a badge.

It's more of a fashion accessory. Now, some may buy this blue checkmark for their ego. Look my blue check mark. Others may buy this blue check mark for the alga. Look ma. My tweet got a lot of exposure in the 4U section. It kind of went viral. But either way, it doesn't matter.

The blue check mark used to be a badge. A signal to the rest of the network. Now, the blue check mark is a nice, pretty blue accessory. It's valuable only to the individual who buys it. It's kind of like a brooch. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Twitter? Elon is trying to do the unthinkable here. Go from free to fee.

Now, Yeties, Elon says he is doing this massive transition to treat everyone equally and to fight the bots. But it's also a financial hair marriage. It is because Jack and I should also point out that Twitter announced last week their valuation has fallen by half. Where is it now, Jack? It was $44 billion when Elon acquired it, and Elon thinks it's worth $20 billion today. To be honest, it's probably worth less based on the numbers. Yeah, advertisers have bailed from Twitter, and now they're trying to make up for it by selling $8 a month checkmarks. But Jack, what does that mean for Twitter now?

It means they have to charge $420,000 people for something that has always been free. For everyone else, it's a $96 a year paid experience that doesn't even eliminate the ads. Elon is trying to do the unthinkable with $8 a month checkmarks. Go from free to fee. And now a word from our sponsor, Robin Hood. Golf at 11 a.m. pickleball by two. Got to see the grandkids, but I don't know if we'll have enough time. You're probably not thinking about retiring to Del Boca Vista quite yet.

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Robin Hood does not provide tax advice. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC. For our third and final story before the weekend, we just got the numbers from the nation's largest egg producer. And Jack, what did their profits just do? They octupled. They octopled. You're going to need a dictionary for this one, yeas.

Because supply and demand giveth, but supply and demand taketh away. Yes, it does, Jack. We are talking about the eggflation situation. The frittata fiasco. Oh, my. My omelet, Jack. I put eggs on my caviar these days. Yeties, the average price of a dozen eggs. It was $1.46 in January 2020. Where is that price of eggs now?

It's gone from $1.46 cents to $483 today. Eggs are the new nest egg. Can we say that eggs Benedict are broken? We can. And the government confirms that this is the worst of all the flations. Yetis, egg prices are the number one biggest price to pop out of any other food in the economy over the last year. What caused the egg shortage? It was the aviolice. flu epidemic. It's the avian flu epidemic. Sadly, a whole lot of chickens fell victim to a bird pandemic. A shortage of egg laying hens cause your huevos to go locals. Well, perfect timing,

because guess who reported earnings just this week? A huge egg company. Yeah, the biggest egg company in the entire United States. Actually, a normal egg company, a normal egg company, that is big. Actually, I think it's jumbo-sized egg company. Jack, one out of five eggs in America is made by this egg company. And this egg company did marvelously last quarter. Get these numbers. Sit down, stand up and flip up again. Revenues doubled from last year for this company. Profits? They're up 700% compared to last year. We repeat. Profits have eight-xed. Profits have octopled. Cal Main Foods. That's the company. The only Mississippi-based company I remember covering on the show. It absolutely is, Jack. Now, like Ricky Bobby, Cal Maine does one thing and one thing only and one.

What is it, Jack? Raises chickens to lay eggs. But guess what? Strange thing we've noticed about Cal Main, the egg producer. Not a single one of their 53 million birds caught this flu. Jack and I are staring into the frying pan. How does this management team explain their perfect health record? They credit robust biosecurity protocols.

We didn't ask for details. They didn't give them to us. Apparently their coops are like the safest place in America, Jack. 57 million birds across 47 steeds were infected by this epidemic. And yet not a single one of the Calmain hens called in sick. Good job, Hans. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our egg-laying buddies over at Cal Maine? Supply and demand giveth, but supply and demand taketh away.

Now, yeties, we know what you're thinking here. This is the most basic first-level analysis of Econ 101 that explains Cal Maine situation. The avian flu wiped out a billion eggs per month from our grocery stores, so the prices for eggs rose. Yeah, that's the simple reason why Cal Main sales doubled and its profits jumped 700%. But strange thing, Nick and I noticed as we researched this story. Yes, we did. Cal Main stock price is barely up.

We just said their profits went up 700% and yet their stock is only up 12% in the last year. The reason is that investors know the eggflation won't last. Eggflation ain't forever. The high prices of those eggs is incentive. incentivizing farmers to restore production ASAP. Soon, egg supply will come back to normal, and so will the prices of eggs and the profits for eggs. So the way we see it, supply and demand allowed Cal Main to increase profits by 8x last quarter.

But investors know, supply and demand will soon take it away. Jack, can you and that Jeter jersey whip up the takeaways for us over there? Baseball has gotten longer and less exciting, but rule changes could fix that. because we're all competing in the attention economy. For our second story this weekend, legacy Twitter checkmarks go away. They're for paid tweeters only. Elon is going for the unthinkable, from free to fee.

And our third and final story is Cal Main. They're loving every minute of this eggflation situation. Supply and demand giveth, but supply and demand also taketh away. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Chris Harpy from lovely Asheville, North Carolina. If you were born in the month of March, by the way, happy last day of March, it means you're special. Yes, it does, because people born in March are more likely to become

billionaires compared to those born in any other month. According to a study by Wealth X, individuals born in March have the highest likelihood of achieving billionaire status. March, it ain't for millionaires. March, that's for billionaires, baby. Now, I should point out, I'm born in March. My wife is born in March. I should point out your entire family is born in March, Jack. Okay, Brewster's millions. The sequel is Brooks's billions. Jack, I got to say, you might be the only person I know right now who can afford an egg. You get an egg. You get an egg. Must be nice. Jack's having eggs and ma'am all weekend long, man. Yes, I am. Slamming Sam. Yettys, you looked fantastic all week. Jack, you looked amazing. How's Baby Brooks doing, by the way? Baby Brooks is crushing it, man.

He put on 38% of his weight in two and a half weeks. He's almost big enough to play the T-Boy Weekly Quiz Jack. You know what the equivalent would be for me in terms of weight gain? I'd have to gain 54 pounds to put on that kind of percentage. Oh my omelet Yetis! We'll see you Monday. Celebrate the wins. And before we go, congratulations to Yeti's Sumerine and Alex,

a couple of Warden NBA besties who just had their wedding down in Cabo. And congratulations to every householder. who was just named the first honors grad at the University of Georgia at 14 years old. And Ava Perez just got accepted to the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music. Keep playing it, Ada. And a big shout out to Jason and Eric Diamondstein, who are traveling to Israel for Eric's bar mitzvah trip. And Michael and Madeline Romero,

enjoy that Mexican disco first year anniversary over in Kansas City. And congratulations to Chris Anderson, who passed his CFA Level 1 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Oh, and Alicus, you might want to switch it into autopilot. Happy 27th birthday. We know you're ripping it in that Tesla right now. And a big birthday to Bear Vazel, who's celebrating in Moorhead, Minnesota. Happy birthday to Mia Lino in Scottsdale, Arizona.

And Zenobelloos, enjoy that birthday at Kellogg celebrating with some deep dish in a logistics class. Happy birthday to Jet the Pilot Shepherds in Walpole Mass. Just outside Boston. And Elijah Owens is turning 12 in San Antonio. Texas. And happy birthday to Chris Lindauer in New Athens. And Carrie in Columbus is celebrating that birthday with a Rubin pizza sandwich and cake. And if you're still listening, you deserve credit. Check out go.com to take our weekly pop biz, pop quiz. Play the quiz, get five out of five. Get a shout out on next week's pod. Nick and I will see you Monday. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. Nick and I both

own stock of Robin Hood. And now a word from our sponsor, Robin Hood. Spending money can be tough. We're all tempted by that top we just saw on TikTok. Even harder, saving money for when you're 60. But what if you got paid money to save money? Robin Hood Retirement offers the only IRA that does that on every eligible contribution every year. For every eligible dollar you contribute to your retirement fund, they match 1% of it. No employer necessary. Limitations apply. To get started, go to robin hood.com slash T-boy and get your first stock for free. Conditions apply. That's robin hood.com slash T-B-O-Y. All investments involve risk.

Contributions to and withdrawals from IRAs may entail tax consequences. Robin Hood does not provide tax advice. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC. I love your just outside of Austin thing, like more than anything we do. I'm so glad. It makes me very happy every time. Just it.