The Bill Simmons Podcast - Ep. 114: MLB Trades, Boston Celtics, and PGA Championship With Joe House, Plus DNC Recap With JackO

Episode Date: July 29, 2016

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons and 'ShackHouse' cohost Joe House talk MLB trade deadline (3:00), Westbrook's big decision (5:00), and whether the PGA Championship needs an identity change (19:00). Then, Bill's longtime buddy JackO weighs in on the DNC (40:00) and whether the Yankees should fold for 2016 (58:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Let's roll oh old school Friday rolling Joe House what's happening hey it's Friday we're rolling middle of the summer don't stop us nothing to talk about and tons of stuff to talk about baseball trade deadline

the worst golf major. A bunch of conventions. The dream team is coming. I don't know. Let's talk about the trade deadline first. I don't like when the trade deadline is on a Sunday for baseball. It hurts my feelings. I think they should always try to make it Thursday or Friday.

I could care less. I mean, baseball is not relevant to me until September these days. It's too hard to keep track of all of the sports. Basketball goes all the way to June. Golf now is squarely in my targets and sights this is your oldest rant you've ever had I don't have time to follow baseball it's a confession

I love this Nats team the one thing they need to do is get rid of Jonathan Papelbon that mother effer after he punched Bryce Harper last year they should have bounced his ass anyway he's been terrible this year. He has the worst strikeout per batter-face ratio in all of the major leagues.

Can't get anybody out, and that's his only job. Time to go, papal boner. I'm with you on not really caring about baseball until September, but I've really enjoyed watching the Red sox and there's nothing else i feel like i've watched a ridiculous amount of the red sox because they have a very fun team with a very fun offense and it's a very atypical red sox team because it's not just a bunch of white dudes it's a very it's the most diverse red sox team we've had and plus plus the final Ortiz season where he's killing it. I know. Congratulations.

Welcome to the 21st century, Boston Red Sox. Yeah. I also really enjoy watching this Nats team. Strasburg has been dominant this season, and Scherzer, when he gets going, 20 strikeouts already this season in a game for Scherzer. I really enjoy it, and Dusty Baker has been what a breath of fresh air. Washington's been lucky. We've had three great managers since the team arrived here.

We had Frank Robinson, Davey Johnson, and my boy Dusty Baker now, and in between some lowlights. But when you have a good manager, it really gives you a comfort, and you can see it carries through with the play of the guys. They play with a kind of swagger and a confidence. Especially the young guys. It's kind of like having a reliable spouse versus

having a crazy spouse. It's the same kind of comfort you can see in people's eyes. When you just have a nice spouse at home who takes care of you, loves you, has affection. That's what a manager does. Manager is just stability. It's just make sure that nothing's going to go wrong.

And when you have a bad manager, that's when you appreciate the good managers. I can remember every bad manager I've ever had. You know what I mean? Like Grady Little. Of course. Jimmy Williams and Grady Little back to back. And I'm still carrying the scars, I've got to say. Yeah.

The worst manager here in Washington by far was Matt Williams. Riggleman wasn't bad. He just made a bad play to get a contract. But Matt Williams was atrocious for both of his two years, including the year that he won manager of the year. You have something else that I don't have right now, which is reliable starting pitching. You have three starters that every time they pitch,

it's pretty reasonable to expect that they're going to do well. And that's the biggest flaw with this Red Sox team right now. They made the trade for Pomerantz, who I really like and has a nice rhythm to the way he pitches. And at the same time, I just don't see in a playoff game, I don't see him getting to the seventh inning ever. He's one of those guys that, you know they have the pitch counts now on the side? And it'll be the third inning and he'll have like 57 pitches. And you'll be like, oh no, that's not great.

Yeah, the internet made fun of that acquisition didn't it they did but it's like it goes back to the whole when you give up these young pitching prospects unless it's like a strasburg type of talent i i'm okay with it every time i think where it hurt them was the pit the picture they gave up espinosa would have been better if they were going after chris sale this weekend you know sure sure sure like he would have been better if they were going after Chris Sale this weekend. Sure, sure, sure. Are they not going after Chris Sale this weekend? I think they are, but the Red Sox have these two prospects that are way above all the other prospects they have,

Moncada and Benetende, outfielder and a second baseman. And I don't know. I just don't feel good about giving up either of those guys it just feels like they're like poppies last season you're not gonna have poppy anymore i know when else are you gonna do it i guess my point is i don't want to pay 100 cents on the dollar for chris sale i don't know if i don't know if it pushes us over the top also i i'm not positive he's a good fit for the city of boston he's done a couple weird things which which both of which i kind of like weirdos yes and no the cutting the jersey was

weird it was just weird flat out strange it was funny but it was also weird it was like imagine like if somebody did that in your office and be'm not wearing these. You're just shredding them with scissors. I respected the fact that he took a stance. And he's like, these uniforms, I'm not going to pitch well on them. I told you this, and you're going to make me wear them anyway. I'm mad about this. I get it. It was just strange.

It's a weird way to handle it. I could see you doing that. It's a good way to handle it. I could see you doing that. It's a good thing you have a stylist on the show. I wish ESPN had made me wear weird uniforms like that that would have affected my performance because I absolutely would have cut them with scissors. But that's the point. I'm not at ESPN anymore.

Yeah. I don't know. I just worry like there's certain guys that just aren't really going to work in Boston, is the reality of this situation. Like, you know, Westbrook, who we talked about. If Westbrook ever came onto the table in Boston, Chris Ryan and I did a podcast for the Ringer NBA show talking about, you know, all the different financial options Westbrook has with his contract.

And the one that makes the most sense, we both agreed, was if he signs a two-year extension where they rip up his extension this year. So immediately he'd make $9 million more this season than he would have. And then he locks down another year for like $30 million. And then he can become a free agent in the summer of 2018. He'd be a 10-year veteran with the same team at that point, which would enable him to get 35% of the cap. So he could sign.

Whoa. Yeah. So right now he'd get 30, but if he stays 10 years, he'd be 35. So he could sign for like five years, $ years 240 million or whatever it is so financially that makes the most sense he has the power to determine how it plays out because he could tell them right now i don't want to stay here i'm not staying here after this next year and you should trade me now or he could say let me sign this two-year deal or he could say do the james harden extension i'll sign for four more years like who the hell knows my point is sure if if for some reason he

said i don't want to stay here trade me to boston that's my best chance to win the title he'd be the most fascinating person that went into boston in a while who's an athlete because he has real contempt for a lot of like the first take kind of shenanigans with the press and the Boston local press is a classic like blow everything out of proportion super negative it's everything he hates and yet at the same time the Celtic fans would love him because he plays so hard so OKC is the only place where he's going to get that protection from the press where they insulate them

and hold the press at bay Boston would be the polar opposite of that polar opposite OKC you get that protection until you leave and then you get annihilated then you get retroactively murdered poor Drea so I'm interested

so you think there's a possibility that Russ Westbrook could not succeed in Boston because of the fit? Is that part of what you're saying? I think he'll succeed from a basketball standpoint. I think some of the off-court stuff would bother him. I think the way the media handles their business down there. And it's something that it wasn't one of the top five reasons I wanted to move to California. I think the way the media handles their business down there, and it's something that, it wasn't one of the top five reasons I wanted to move to California,

but it was in the top 10. So freaking negative. And I really wonder, like, the way he's wired. Like, he was mad at me. I think he wouldn't even look at me at the All-Star weekend in 2014 because I kept bringing up the Harden trade on national TV, which seemed relevant since they traded one of the 10 best players in the league for like 30 cents a dollar. And he wouldn't even look at me, much less talk to me after that.

Like Boston does stuff that's way worse than that. And I don't know. I just wonder. Like Boston fans love KG. They love the roll up the sleeves, try 100 percent of the time, every minute of every game, guys. Those are the guys that always go over the best in Boston. So the fans would love him. Right.

But I think the media would try to try to mess with them and tweak them and do things. Well, the media didn't mess with KG, did they? What, would you mess with KG? That's the things. Well, the media didn't mess with KG, did they? Well, would you mess with KG? That's the thing. I wouldn't mess with Westbrook either. I wouldn't mess with either one of them. There was real fear with KG. People left KG alone.

Yeah, maybe Westbrook would be able to bring that fear to the table. I don't know. Did you and Chris Ryan reach a consensus on what Westbrook should do? Well, here's my question. If you get to play with Steven Adams, Victor Oladipo, Sabonis' son, Enos Cantor, Andre Robertson, and that's really about it.

Where are you going? Are you like a six seed, seven seed, eight seed? I think they have a move yet. I think Presti's not going to be content. I think that there's a big star player that's going to arrive in OKC. And I honestly think his initials begin with B and end with G and have a Lake and a Riffin in between them. And I think it's the perfect destination for Blake Griffin. And I think OKC is going to figure out a way to get him. And all of a sudden, OKC is right

back in the mix, assuming health for everybody. but um interesting you mentioned him because the the uh it was quietly reported this month that matthias testy blake's buddy who blake ended up punching a few times yeah and broke his hand on his face no longer works with the clippers saw that saw that all that news. Not a Clipper employee anymore. So I don't know what that means. And my guess is that we haven't heard the last of that story because it would seem like he's a lawsuit candidate, right? Who, Blake? Matthias Testy. You mean a person, he would initiate a lawsuit?

Well, he got punched by somebody who has made $20 million a year for like five years. Well, how about this? The team is owned by Steve Ballmer. That's, yes. One of the 10 richest human beings on earth. Right. So he was punched by somebody who makes $20 to $25 million a year. They were both employees for a team that's owned by somebody who's worth $10 billion a year.

Everybody made a big deal about how they were family, all this stuff. We're going to work it out. Now the guy no longer works for the team. I don't know. My shit detector's going off. No, my point is I think he got paid off. I think Ballmer would take care of him. Ballmer's not going to indulge any distraction like a silly lawsuit.

That would be my theory. I don't know. You can't just lay off a guy like that on the receiving end of a punch from Blake Griffin. You can't just lay him off. You've got to come up with some kind of financial settlement and confidentiality and all the rest of it. They can't have a distraction entering this season that emanates from that sordid episode. They need to have their best foot forward. It needs to be about basketball there in Clipper Land.

How do you get Blake to Oklahoma City? I don't know if they have the assets. I don't know either. That's up to Presti. just describing sort of, you know, a hypothesis about how this could go, which confirms the right-headedness of a Westbrook two-year extension to just let OKC, you know, buy them enough time, let Presti go do something. Yeah, that makes sense. Because they have room under the cap by way of Katie leaving, right?

There's some room that would be created there. No, they wouldn't, because they'd use all the cap if they were going to redo the Westbrook contract. And I'm sorry to keep talking about this on podcast, but it's easily the most interesting story of the NBA right now because all he has to do is say, I'm not coming back, and they would have to trade him before the season.

They would not be able to ride it out. Oh, sure. Absolutely. And if he signs for another two years, which I think is how it plays out, because I think he's probably in FU mode with this Durant thing, although he's been really quiet. He hasn't said anything. Good for him, by the way. I'm glad he's been quiet.

He doesn't have to be out in public giving reactions. Yeah, and I agree. Durant's been a little too available. Well, he's on the Olympic team. He can't not be available. Just say I don't want to talk about it. Ask me something else. I don't like it.

He was one of the best three players in the league and just spearheaded a seismic change in the balance of power. The problem with OKC is that Stephen Adams is their second best player right now. And I love Stephen Adams. But they lost the length of Durant and Ibaka. Defensively was how they almost beat Golden State in that round three because of their length and their athleticism. And they lost Ibaka and Durant.

And it's just so hard to recover from. I mean, they're going to have to play a little smaller. But, you know, the Westbrook chip on his shoulder, I'm going for the MVP and I'm shooting 30 times a game season, would be one of the most fun NBA subplots of the year. I wish he was on the Olympic team, too. I should mention that. What happened?

Why isn't he on the Olympic team? Some of these guys just didn't want to go. The reality is we don't have three of the four most interesting players in the league on that team. We don't have Curry. We don't have LeBron. And we don't have Westbrook. We do have Durant.

Yep. We do. But, yeah, so I don't know. We'll see how it plays out. Wait, let's talk about PGA. Sure. So I ran into, on the lot at the Sunset Gower Studios where all of our

business is, I ran into your dude Jeff Shackelford, your co-host on Shack House, presented by Callaway. My boy, Shaq. Yeah. And we were talking about how much the PGA tournament, how it's just the ugly stepchild of golf majors. And how it's like the Australian Open and nobody totally understands.

That's rude. Well, that's my opinion. And you can't. It's America. And I get to my opinion. And you can't. It's America. And I get to say what I want. All right. I don't really understand the purpose of it. The PGA tournament.

I don't really get it. I don't understand. It's kind of the poor man's U.S. Open. And I don't understand why they haven't tried to get a little more creative with it. He was saying. So anyway, on your next podcast, you guys are going to try to figure out what they should do with the PGA, how to make the fourth major matter. The PGA is fine. It does matter.

It's not fine. 97 of the top 100 players in the world are at this tournament. It's not fine. It gets the best players in the world. It's not fine. It's not fine. No. It's fine. It doesn this tournament. It's not fine. It gets the best players in the world. It's not fine. It's not fine. No. It's fine.

It doesn't matter. It's not fine. It has the best field of the four majors. I care about the U.S. Open. I care about the Masters. I care about the British Open, the Open Championship, whatever the F we call it. I don't really care about the PGA. I can't remember who's won any PGAs except for like the year.

When did Tiger, he did something? I have no long-term memory of the PGA. I can't remember who's won any PGAs except for like the year. When did Tiger, he did something. I have no, no, no long-term memory of the PGA. It stinks. So I think there's two explanations for that. One, it tends to occur. So, so we're, we are now competing the fourth major of the season before August, which is extraordinary, right? Unprecedented. And it's to accommodate the Olympics. Most of the time, the PGA is mid-August-ish. It's like in the first 10 to 12 to 15 days of August. And there's a full three and a half to four weeks between the Open Championship, the British Open, and the PGA. So it's really easy to overlook the PGA this year

because it feels like we just watched the British Open, and that's because we did. The other thing is— So what's special about that? Why not have it in January? Why not have it in early February? Why not have it at Pebble Beach? Why can't Pebble Beach be the PGA? It could be.

There's no reason that it couldn't be. There has definitely been some speculation and some theorizing, some wishful thinking is probably the best way to say it, of coming up with a small rota, a small rotation of courses for the PGA where it goes between three or four or five different courses and the real true classics. Now, that's kind of the case already, although they don't make it back to various venues with a sufficient frequency.

The idea would be to tighten up quite a bit and to highlight. But Pebble already has a tournament every single year. The rotation you would want is something that has West Coast and East Coast because everybody here on the East Coast loves when major tournaments are on the West Coast because we get to watch them at night. It's primetime viewing for us. So that's an element of it. All right, hold on. So we made some progress here. So my thing is the majors need an identity, right?

The U.S. Open matters. It's the most important American tournament. The Masters matters because it's the same course every year. I know it. The British Open matters because they play it in a bunch of different courses but all of them are dangerous and have like scary roughs and crazy sand traps

and the weather's never good and it has an identity. My thing is the PGA... My thing is the history of golf as well. Yeah. The PGA has no identity. I don't know what the PGA is. So if you're telling me we're making PGA our West coast tournament, every time we have the PGA, it's going to be in the West time zone and it'll come on at night on the East

coast, the last couple of rounds. And it'd be cool. Like even that would be better than what we have. I don't know. I think the PGA does afford the opportunity for some of the classic East Coast courses to get some exposure to, Balti being a fine example. Balti's hosted 16 big-time events in the last 120 years. Pretty good track record of being a place where important things happen.

And there are other courses here on the East Coast. I haven't looked to see what the next slate of courses that the PGA is going to be competed at consists of, but it was at Kiowa a few years ago. And that's a great venue for a championship like this. It was at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin twice in the last ten years because it's visually stunning and has produced two great champions, most recently Jason Day. I do like the idea of having more prominent PGA competition on the West Coast,

but I don't think you would want to do it at the expense of getting some of the great East Coast courses or Midwest courses cut out of the rotation. Yeah, but you just made my point. Have the U.S. Open be East Coast and South and Midwest. Or make the US Open East and South and make the PGA West Coast slash Midwest. At least that would make sense. You want some consistency. You want there to be sort of a regional ownership of these autochannels. Well, here's my, there's two other ideas.

One is they could just take it to some crazy country. Just go to like Asia. The PGA tournament's in Asia every year. Or it's in Australia or wherever. That's one. Two, I've had this idea before, so I'm regurgitating it. Make the PGA the tournament. It's the fourth major.

No caddies. You're carrying your own bags. It's golf plus stamina. What's the point of that? I want to know who's in shape. You want to win the Grand Slam? Get in shape. I want to see Phil Mickelson. You want to win the Grand Slam? Get in shape. I want to see Phil Mickelson.

The glaring example is my boy Beef. I mean, he's the glaring counter to that argument. He's on the other side of that spectrum. Let's go, Phil Mickelson. Carry your bag. Yeah, let's see it. You don't like that idea? Well, part of the thing thing you have to convince the manufacturers

because the big point of the bags is the walking advertisement the walking advertisement they get with these huge bags with huge logos on them. What would be better than Dustin Johnson carrying his bag and the announcers being like, oh, Dustin Johnson's laboring. I think that bag's too big for him, John.

So it's not just the carrying. You would also, they'd have to figure out all the yardages and everything themselves? Yeah. You're on your own. They'd have to club selection, yardages, everything. Yeah, you're on your own. Just like us regular dudes, huh?

Yeah. I kind of like that part of it. Or. I have to figure all that stuff out my own self. Or they're in carts. And the twosomes are just in carts driving around the course. And the bags are in the thing. And that's it.

And they're just driving around. Can they drink? Can they have a couple of Coors Lights in there? See, this should be its own PGA Tour. A couple of bullets? This would make my summer more fun. You know what else makes my summer fun? House.

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You've deliberately stayed away because you don't like being in the national conversation when there's a really good show? I missed the first one. You're the weirdest freaking person I know. No, no, no, no. We had something going on the evening of the first one, and I deliberately said, I only need three hours to get caught up. That's a Sunday night. I'll just sit down and watch all three of them. First of all, you need three and a half,

because the first one's 90 minutes. Second of all, it's a mentally grueling show. You're not going to want to watch three and a half straight hours of The Night Of. It's like you're going to have to break that one up. I would watch the first show first, and then I'd bang out episode two and three after. Maybe I'll watch the—tonight would be a good time for the first episode. Maybe I'll watch it tonight. Yeah, maybe it's a good time for the first episode.

Maybe I'll watch it tonight. Yeah, maybe it's a good time for you to watch one of the best TV shows of the last five years. Maybe I shouldn't have to talk you into this. You see, what's wrong with you? Wow, best TV shows the past five years. Yeah, it's really good. It's really good. All right.

And by the way, just because I have a show on HBO, that's not why I'm touting this show. It's just really good. If it was on some other channel, I would still be bringing it up to you. It's a really good show. Yeah, I deliberately, not only did I not, you know, after I knew that we were going to miss the first one, and I'm saving it, I'm also saving all of the social media and commentary. I haven't read one review of it.

I don't know anything about it. I like to walk into a show not knowing anything. You don't know anything? Just being surprised by all of it. I don't know anything about it. I like to walk into a show not knowing anything. You don't know anything? Just being surprised by all of it. I don't know anything. All I know is what I've seen from the HBO commercials, which, you know, a crime's committed, the dude's in jail, and the guy from Rounders is yelling at him not to say anything to anybody. Did you just call John Turturro the guy from Rounders is yelling at him not to say anything to anybody. Did you just call John Turturro the guy from Rounders? Yeah.

I'm pretty sure it's John Turturro. He's called him because he thinks he's Kanish. Well, he's yelling at him like that. The craziest thing about this show... It's not my fault. I'm not wrong. Gandolfini was supposed to be in the Turturro role, and then he

died. Oh, that's too bad oh it's a pretty good TV what if because if you watch this show thinking of Gandolfini in that part it's kind of mind blowing but it's very good my thing is there's so much TV on and yet I can't

get excited about most of the TV everybody's going to watch this Mr. Robot And yet I can't get excited about most of the TV. Did you try any of iRobot this season? Mr. Robot? iRobot, isn't that what it's called? No, it's called Mr. Robot. I know people like it. I'm not down on it.

I don't want to make fun of it. I tried the first episode. It just didn't take. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood for it. You mean last year or this year? I tried the first episode. It just didn't take. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood for it. You mean last year or this year? I tried the first episode of season one. I wanted to support Christian Slater. And I watched it.

I also tried the first episode of Stranger Things on Netflix, which I liked more. Okay. Because it's kind of, I mean, it's so like, if you're a child of the eighties, it's, it's basically the show that made it made for you. It's, it feels like it was made in 1983 just with better like camera equipment and Winona's in it. I've always, I've always, I've, I'm still in Winona's corner all these years later. Well, because you know, she's, she's a first love.

Yeah. Heather's. Right. Yeah. Never forget a first love. Yeah. Heather's... Right? Yeah. Never forget a first love. Lucas, Heather's reality bites, obviously. Right. A great what if because she should have been in Godfather 3 and she had

to bow out at the last minute because of quote unquote heat exhaustion. Nobody knows what actually happened, but then they had to, Coppola had to put his daughter in there and it ruined the movie. Good what if. It's true. I still don't mind that movie though. Oh, wait, back to the PGA.

So, we're taping this Friday. I'm sure stuff's going to happen, but you really like Dustin Johnson. That was your main dude for this one? Boy. Sure. Well, I mean, he's going to happen. But you really like Dustin Johnson. That was your main dude for this one? Oh, boy. Sure. Well, I mean, he's been my main dude.

He's been a good horse to ride. You had three. Who were your three? I made full unit wagers on Dustin Johnson, Rory, and Adam Scott. What's the most fun? I made half unit wagers, though, and Adam Scott. What's the most fun? I made half-unit wagers, though, on four others. The four guys for the half-units, J.B. Holmes, not going to work out. Patrick Reed, who is at the moment five under on his round today,

and tied for the lead. Brandon Grace, who hasn't teed off yet, but is the even par. And Ricky Fowler, who acquitted himself pretty well in an opening round yesterday. And I'm not giving up on Rory yet. Rory leads the tour in second round scoring. So I expect a bounce back. And he actually was great off the tee, and his iron play was fine. He could not putt to save his life. He did not have a birdie in his opening round yesterday. Dustin Johnson, I've already said my goodbyes to all of that capital. Oh, he didn't do well? He was seven over.

Oh, I didn't even know. I thought that's why you brought him up. No, I don't check in with the majors until Saturday. I just look at the leaderboard and I go, yeah, I don't do Thursday, Friday. You're not going to see Dustin Johnson this weekend. Okay. Which means you're not going to see Paulina either. It's the best.

The best was when he won and I was telling my wife, watch this. The Gretzky daughter is going to put on an all-time performance. And she did. She had the tears going. It was great. I haven't met since Bridget Wilson Sampras have I seen a better acting performance. Although I'm sure it was genuine too, but you just knew she was going to bring it. I like when the wives get really, really, when they really own the camera time that they know they're getting.

And she definitely does. Oh, for sure. What's the most fun story that could happen on Sunday that you would be the most excited about? What golfer being in the mix? So Spieth is having a great day today. And I think one of the cool stories, so far this season, each of the three majors have been won by a first-time winner. And the big three, which was what we entered the season with,

the big three consisting of Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, and I call him Jordan Spieth, yeah, Jordan, Jason, and Rory, have not really been up to the task in the majors so far. Rory's had a couple top ten finishes. Spieth has been sort of off the map. So I would like it if we had, you know, Dave played well yesterday. Spieth is playing well today. And those two guys were in the final group at last year's PGA.

Running it back could be fun. I like that storyline. I also am rooting for. If we got two of those three, that's a fun Sunday for me. Yeah, yeah. And Rory as well. I'm not counting out Rory. His four over yesterday could be a five or six under.

I'm really rooting for a six under today because I might have a wager on six under. It wasn't over under on that one. Imagine how much fun Sunday would be if they were carrying their own bags or riding in carts together. Imagine that that house. I'm going to talk you into this at some point. You're a whack job. Is there any old dude who's kind of lingering who's in the mix? I like when

there's the 45-year-old lifer who's never really been there. Lee Westwood had a good opening round. He was one under or two under. And he's long, long, long been best to not win a major. He's been on or two under. And he's been, he's long, long, long been, you know, best to not win a major. He's been on that list for 20 years now.

So he's probably the best old dude. Steve Stricker also was decent. He's either even or one under. He's 49 years old. And he finished... He's never won, right? Second or third. He's not won a major. No. He's always kind of lingering four strokes back on Sunday for like a minute.

Yeah, but very solid, you know, through 40. He's at the age where he's only playing 11 or 12 tournaments on tour anymore. He's like the Richard Jefferson of the PGA Tour. It's true. That's the best thing about golf. You know, you could be, Phil's right there. Phil's 46, plus one yesterday. I don't like, then we're going to go, because we got to call Jacko.

I know. Oh, Jacko's going to have some things to say. I know. I don't like the Phil Mickelson, the snarky Phil Mickelson comments about how he always is in second place. Who would be a snarky? Yeah, I feel like there's some snarky Phil Mickelson comments about how he always is in second place. Who would be a snarky? Yeah, I feel like there's some snarkiness

toward Phil a little bit. Oh, it's second place again. Oh, you know you're doing well when Phil Mickelson always brings the best out of somebody else. Like, all that kind of stuff. I think Phil Mickelson's awesome.

I don't know. He shot 65. I'm with you. In the Open Championship. That's my point. I'm pro Phil Mickelson. I think he did everything he could have done that day. Me too.

I loved it. All right, so you're coming on. That's what made it so good to watch. You're coming on Shaq House, presented by Callaway on Monday with a recap. Yeah, we'll have a recap of the PGA. Indeed. After you recap it, can you guys figure out what the future of the PGA tournament should be? Just come up with your best option.

I want to hear that. Also, we should mention, hello, friends. Jim Nance was on Shack House this week. Hello, my friends. He was. He was outstanding. He went on. He had a couple great takes.

One take on the proper use of or the proper intersection of television replaying and the rules of golf, which, you know, somebody's got to figure out at some point after the debacles at the U.S. Open and the Women's U.S. Open. Women's U.S. Open was a little less of a debacle. But he had a great, great commentary on that. He also went a little bit get-off-my-lawn about the idea of having a signature call. I asked him about the call. He had done an interview earlier this year before the Super Bowl, Super Bowl 50,

with Dickie Deitch. And he had observed in that interview that the Devin Hester return touchdown in 2007, the Bears against the Colts, might be his kind of historical call. So I started saying, well, it's interesting that that would be the one. He's like, oh, house, house, house, house. This is not about a call. And then he went on the whole thing, and it was terrific. It was really, really good.

The craft is not about a signature moment. It's about the experience that you deliver over the course of the competition. And it's part of why I think people like him at golf. But it was a really good rant. Two great Jim Nance rants. It was a podcast for the ages. I also invited myself to play St. Andrews with him. He's never played St. Andrews.

Good move. You and Jim Nance should be best friends. Maybe you could replace Phil Simms in his life. Joe House, thanks as always. Enjoy the PGA this weekend. Yeah, you too. They're not going to ride in carts, though. Okay.

Well, I'm going to keep out holding hope anyway. Talk to you later. Before we call Jack O, a quick break to talk about Headspace. Most problems begin in your head. Stress, depression, fear, sleeplessness, they start in your mind. They worm their way into the rest of your life. Do you know you can change that in just 10 minutes a day with meditation? That's where the Headspace app comes in.

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Also, our buddies at Framebridge are the ones who frame nearly every poster in my office as well as a couple on our any given wednesday set we did a facebook live with uh chris ryan on wednesday and there was a big doobie brothers poster behind us that a couple people were emailing me about uh 48 by 48 not an easy poster to frame they crushed it framebridge is amazing go to framebridge.com pick out your frame let their designers help you choose they can send you a prepaid package to ship your item safely. You can simply upload a digital picture on the Framebridge site or app.

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Their prices start at $39. Again, all shipping free. Go to framebridge.com. Use promo code BS. You get 15% off your first order. Framebridge.com. And now, we're calling Jacko. On the line, as promised, our friend Jacko.

He was on twice last week during the Insane Republican National Convention. And we promised him equal time. We have equal time here in the BS podcast. We promised him equal time this week. He's a diehard Republican, lifelong Yankee fan. I have no idea how we're friends, but we've been friends since 1988, September. And roommates, we've seen each other naked. It's been a lot of laughs,

a lot of debauchery. And now one of the most important moments of our friendship where I get to give him equal time to talk about the DNC. Wow. Yeah, there you go. How about that intro?

Wow, that's really quite something. Yeah. What were your thoughts? What was your takeaway? Well, actually, I watched a lot more of the dance season I expected to. I guess just being a political junkie, I got kind of sucked into it. I knew I had to do Yeoman's work of watching Hillary's speech last night because you told everyone last week you were going to call me

so I could do a recap of what I saw. So I forced myself to watch it last night. But I watched a lot of it. And, I mean, you know, you have to – I disagree with the Democrats vehemently, but you have to applaud their conventioneering skills. Because unlike the shit show that we witnessed last week, I mean, that's what a professional convention that is well-run and well-organized and hits the themes that one wants to hit and uses the convention as what it should be, which is essentially a, you know, a free TV commercial for your party and your candidate. I mean, they had all the themes they wanted to hit in terms of, you know, basically wrapping themselves in the flag and patriotism and optimism and,

you know, Ronald Reagan's morning in America, you know, keeping the Bernie bros at bay to the best that they could, doing something to reach out to disaffected Republicans that aren't Trumpians. And they did it all without Scott Baio or Antonio Sabato Jr. So really kudos for that. Yeah. So the most interesting thing I read on Twitter, which is a rare statement in itself. Yeah, right. And I forget who said it, but somebody was saying, like, if you're an 18-year-old kid and you watch both of those conventions,

why would you gravitate toward the Republicans? And I think, like, regardless of how this election turns out, that's got to be the most interesting dilemma slash question slash whatever that the Republicans have to be thinking about going forward. Because, you know, you're trying to build future generations. Right. 16-year-old Jacko, if you didn't have your dad as, like, such a diehard Republican and you're just watching both those conventions,

you would end up gravitating toward the one that seemed like it was well run. I mean, this is, you know, there's a whole litany of regrets and recriminations to follow. But one of the things with the Republicans is, you know, I was an unabashed Rubio guy, but, you know, Rubio is like our age, basically. I think he's like 46 or 45 or 46. Cruz is young, too, but he seems older. But if you run Rubio as a nominee, right, he's a new fresh face. So if you're like an 18-year-old or a millennial or whatever,

maybe you're not fully on board with the Republican platform, certainly, but you look at this fresh face guy, you know, it's a, it's a new generation going forward versus Hillary, who's been on the public stage for the past 25 years that you may have grown up with as an, you know, as a, as a teen, as a 20 something, there may be an inclination to go with the fresh face as opposed to the retread that you've seen forever, especially in, you know, allegedly a change election where the polls say that, you know, 70 percent don't like the direction of the country, the way things are going.

So but then when you give the opponent to the status quo is Donald Trump, you know, who just put a freaking brain damaged lunatic game show host in the Oval Office. It's, it's asinine. And you look at the two conventions, and, you know, you have all the crazy Trump people that were delegates, and they're screaming, lock her up. And they, you know, I don't take to my feigning couch about that. But just viewing that versus, you know, waving American flags, and America's great, and it's always been great, it's going to continue to be great and get better. I mean, you know, which one would you gravitate to? That's exactly right.

I mean, it's just such a disaster. Reagan was your favorite politician of all time. Yes. They played the Reagan playbook a little bit at the DNC. They totally did. That had to hurt a little bit. And the amazing thing is, I mean, they had this guy. I caught the tail end of it, but they had this general last night, General Allen, who came out, and I guess thing is, I mean, they had this guy, I didn't, I caught the tail end of it,

but they had this general last night, General Allen, who came out and I guess he was, you know, in charge of, he was involved in Iraq or Afghanistan, I forget which one, but a military leader. And they have all these veterans and heroes and medal of honor winners. And when the, you know, some of the Bernie folks started to say no more war and they were drowned out by USA chants at the democratic convention, like waving USA signs, cheering a general saying like, you know, mark our words, we're going to go get you dead or alive or whatever he said. Like this, you know, saber rattling, militaristic, full throated defense of American patriotism and nationalism and exuberant foreign policy.

And then you have Trump saying like, we suck. We never win. We're awful. It's like, we suck, we never win, we're awful. It's like, you know, two parties flipped. It's hard to, poor Reagan is probably spinning in his grave right now to see, like, what the hell's going on. Do you think they duct taped Trump to a sofa last night during Hillary's speech and put his phone out of his reach?

They had to. I thought the whole convention, you could, you know, and it was funny because I went to bed right after Hillary's speech. But then I woke up this morning, I was looking at Twitter. So the first couple of responses from Trump were grammatically correct and didn't have any, didn't call her crooked Hillary or didn't use any pejoratives. So obviously those are written by campaign people like Manafort or some other flunky who's in charge of things. And then I saw later tweets where he's, you know, he today he was going to, you know, he's going after Bloomberg and calling him little Mike Bloomberg or something,

didn't have the guts to run. So you could see that he obviously got his phone back, but he definitely was in a straight jacket and they keep the phone away from him. Cause you can always tell when he tweets and you know, he was sitting there like venting to tweet definitely it would have been almost funnier and more self-aware if during the speech he'd actually they had duct taped him to a chair and they took a picture of him duct taped to a chair and just tweeted that out it actually would have been funny he could have stolen the night with that yeah Yeah. One of the weirdest hours on YouTube right now

and that's really saying something is the Donald Trump roast from five years ago. Oh yeah.

From Comedy Central. Yeah. And Jeff Ross roasts him and is making fun of him in all these

different ways and Trump actually had a sense of humor about it. Really? Was kind of rolling with it and playing off and stuff like that. I mean, he's had a million issues in this whole election cycle,

but the one thing is just a lack of sense of humor about himself, I think, is the strangest thing. Well, we may have talked about it last week, but there was an article I read, and it was, I can't remember where it was now, but I think it was from this writer, McKay Coppins, who wrote about all the, like, he blames himself to some degree for Trump because he had spent some time with him and written a critical column about it, and then it turns out that Trump was like, you know, how dare he criticize me?

I'll show him, I'll run for president. And there was a long litany of people in there. And one of the anecdotes that was mentioned was after Trump did his crazy birth certificate thing about the president, and he went to the White House Correspondents Dinner, and that Obama, I guess, and his people had talked to Judd Apatow or something, and that they had all these zingers for Trump. And it basically, like, you know, Obama was like, you know, they said, do you think this is too far? And Obama was like, no, we're going for it. So basically like tore Trump down to his face. And I said, like, he just sat there and like, didn't really, didn't really laugh. He didn't smile. He didn't play along. And then he like sort of huffed out of the room and it was like, you know, further, further bred his inferiority complex. It was like,

I'll show them I'll run for president. So I think, you know, it's funny to say that in this roast that he actually had sort of a self-deprecating humor or laughed along with it. Maybe he was drugged up or something, but at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, it said it was, like, noticeable that he didn't like Obama cutting him down and talking about his repeated failings. So it was one more chip on Donnie's shoulder.

Did you see Obama's speech? I saw most of it, yes. I saw most of it. I didn't see the whole thing because I'm old and it was late, but I did see most of it. Okay, so you're obviously not an Obama fan. Right. No, I mean, he's an amazing speaker, though. And I mean, there's very few politicians that can come. I mean, it's hard to command. I've never spoken to an auditorium full of 50,000 people or 20,000, whatever, seats in Philadelphia.

But there's very few people that can command a big room like that. It's hard to do. And you could see it with other speakers, like other speakers this week. Tim Kaine was just objectively terrible. But Obama, there's very few politicians certainly in our lifetime that can are able to hold a room like that and you know know when to raise your voice and when to modulate it so people have to listen in i mean you know that that whole room was like you know of course that's preaching to the choir but that whole room was hanging on his every word and

there's very few politicians who are as good at good as he is you know it's his strongest strength really i think he's he's got to be one of the best speakers i've ever ever seen if not at the top because as you said like there's little tricks that he does he's always in command the pauses that he takes or like sometimes the crowd will start cheering and almost everybody else stops talking when the crowd starts cheering and sometimes he's like a pastor where he'll he'll hear the noise building and he'll raise his voice to kind of match it right and uh and then the sense of humor part and the ability to ad lib i just think like it's basically him and the rock i think are the two best public speakers it's like like watching The Rock cut a WWE promo.

You know who else is good is Biden. I mean, Biden is like an old time, like back slapping Paul, you know, and he, the room loves him too. And, you know, he knows how to do it too. And, you know, he did the same thing in terms of like he owned that crowd. And I mean, there's many other speakers of the ones I watched, you know, that they didn't own the crowd. And it's hard to do. I mean, I don't think Hillary is a particularly good speaker.

No, she's not. And I'm not being sexist or partisan because Michelle Obama was wonderful at it, too. She was fantastic. You know, I didn't think Chelsea was very good. Chelsea may have many wonderful qualities, but her droning, like, affectless speech last night was really, like, brutal to watch. I mean, it's great that she loves her mother and that's all well and good, but her delivery was terrible. I mean, and, you know, she obviously inherited that from Hillary versus from Bill because Bill is another one that can control the room and is, you know, a great natural, well, was. I'm not sure if he is anymore.

It might be time for us to have a, might be a time to have a national conversation about Bill Clinton some bad looks on him last night just like sitting there like with his mouth open and like nodding off seemingly they got to work on him with the keeping the mouth open thing because a couple times it looked like he should have just had a like he should have been in a blanket. Yeah, exactly. He just didn't look well at different times. But then other times he'd look awesome, though. Yeah, I don't know.

I don't even want to know what's going on there. Yeah, he's old. Yeah, I guess so. A lot of living in those years. I thought best speakers, Obama won. I think Biden was great. I i think biden was great i thought uh obama's wife was great and antonio sabato jr i think that was the top four sabato had some great moments but you know clinton clinton you know went on way too long it was like it was like a dad at at his daughter's wedding who had paid for everything and had a couple drinks and was just like,

you guys are all here. You're going to have to listen to me now. Oh, yeah. But he had one moment in that speech that really would have gone over well and I think would have been great for him. And I think would have really ignited the crowd in a good way. He was talking about how just dogged Hillary is and how she doesn't quit and she's going to turn every stone and he had this whole riff about it. And right at the end, all he had to do was say, you know who else you didn't quit on?

Me. And the crowd would have gone fucking ape shit. And they just would have loved it. And he would have at least acknowledged that they had probably the most public marital difficulties of any famous couple ever. It's just to talk and talk and talk about their marriage and their relationship and all this stuff

and not mention that he embarrassed her in the worst possible way. Yeah. All he did was one sentence. I don't know. That's a tough one to touch. I mean, obviously it's an enormous elephant in the worst possible way. Yeah. All I can do is one sentence. I don't know. That's a tough one to touch. I mean, obviously it's an enormous elephant in the room and everybody in the place and everybody watching knows it.

I was thinking about that this morning when I was thinking back about last night. And I'm like, if that was me, like to my wife, right? And we were caught in that way. I had done that and we're caught. And the whole country knew it. And to sit there, I couldn't even imagine sitting sitting in my house with like the scorn of my wife looking at me. And he does that with the whole country knowing it. It's amazing. And she, you know, she gives a speech and said, Oh, you talked about our conversation. And we continued

that conversation. It's complete horseshit. You know, there's this wonderful couple. I mean, give me a freaking break, but to sit there there like just so completely like shameless and just be like, oh, great job, honey. I love you. Like, come on. I mean, I don't know how I could sit there. I would be so mortified. That's the thing. If he just had one line, he addresses it. It's great. It shows a lot of character in his part, the whole thing. I think he should have done it. She did something about, you know, we've been together in good times, high times and low times or something or whatever. And it's like, you know, we've been together in good times, high times and low times or something or whatever. And it's like, you know, she tried to get past that as quickly as possible.

But it's just so oddly awkward. We've had some trials and tribulations. Yeah, her emphasis on words and like what she emphasizes and what she what which word she stretches out. It's just, you know just people have different talents. I don't think that public speaking is really one of hers. We will remember Obama as a wonderful order. I'm not sure we're going to remember Hillary as a wonderful speaker. Yeah, and you could argue that that's like the cherry

in the hot fudge sundae of that job. Ultimately, the sundae, I guess, is what matters. Most people aren't speaking. Reagan was a really good speaker. Right. JFK. I mean, you know, Tim Kaine, you know, and him doing that Trump impersonation.

Yeah, that's rough. If you're not naturally funny or that's not your shtick, like you don't have to try to do that, you know. And, like, I didn't even really mind the Spanish, but he kind of overdid it, and he's like, listo means ready. It was like ninth grade Spanish tape. Tim Kaine, I love it.

Everybody was gushing about him. Tim Kaine, he's the greatest guy I've ever seen. A family was trapped under a truck, and Tim Kaine left the truck, though, with his bare hands. I know. Yeah, just, I mean, you know, the Republican vice president, this guy Mike Pence, who is the governor of Indiana,

he's like totally milquetoast too. So, you know, that Mike Pence, Tim Kaine debate, boy, get your tickets. That's going to be a great one. Yeah, definitely schedule that against a major sporting event. Put that against Game 7 of the World Series.

God. I was thinking during the Biden speech that he's the great what if in the Democratic Party, I think, of the last 30 years. Oh, absolutely. Because our generation, like we're in college, like Joe Biden plagiarist. Just like write him off. They didn't even think twice. Like there's no way. That plagiarism thing was a huge deal in the 80s oh yeah and uh it just seemed like it was a career ender and uh and now you look at them and just it seems like everybody

loves them like i've never heard a president rave about a vice president like obama raves about biden yeah reagan and bush were a little bit like that yeah i guess yeah obama and biden even more and i mean the shame from biden's perspective and really it's an awful thing that his son you know yeah he's obviously a very close with his family and his son died of cancer and had his son not gotten sick and not died i don't think there's any doubt that biden would have run I mean, he had to die to run. And that, you know, obviously, going through that, he can't even imagine it. So he couldn't, you know, mount a presidential campaign. Totally understandable. But I think he would have wiped the floor with Hillary and myself in primaries. I did, too. I agree.

And I think he'd be, you know, heval Office for carpet, choosing it, because he'd be beating Trump by 10, 15 points. It wouldn't even be close. I still think Trump can win. Well, I don't know. I mean, it's interesting. Like I said earlier, these right track, wrong track numbers, some overwhelming majority of people think the country's on the wrong track. So if you really believe it's on the wrong track, why are you going to vote for basically Obama's third term with Hillary, right? And Trump does have this appeal to these people that have been left behind by the new economy and the Rust Belt.

And maybe in Pennsylvania, if he gets enough blue-collar, white, non-college-educated voters in Pennsylvania to swing Pennsylvania, I'm dubious of that, but were he to do that, that would be enormous for him. What's your goal for the Yankees' trade deadline? I would like them to trade Andrew Miller if they could get an enormous haul of prospects. I'm very happy to see that Papelbon blew up again last night and had to be taken out in the ninth inning. He didn't blow the save last night, but they took him out before he could blow it. And now that the Cubs have gone to get Chapman, I would like to see the Nationals say, here, please take all of our prospects because we want to make a run and we need a closer.

And the haul for Miller is going to be higher than Chapman because he's under contract through 2018. And he doesn't have a series of domestic violence stories that accompany the Chapman acquisition. Good guy on and off the field. So I think it's time to sell and get younger and get hope for the future. I'm already all in on Gleybar Torres that they got for Chapman. So I'd like to be in on some more prospects because even though they've been okay, they've been decent since the All-Star break. I mean, the reality is, you know,

they just don't have a team to really go anywhere. So what's the point of getting in and, you know, getting into the one-game wild card, which there's still five or six games out of? I'd rather build for the future. I vote build for the future, and it gives us more time to devote to A-Rod's farewell season. Yeah, well, there's a lot of rumors that they might just eat that contract

and just waive him if they were sellers, but yeah, there was rumors about that they might just say goodbye to Teixeira and goodbye to A-Rod. No, Teixeira's contract is up this year, so that's not as much to eat, but A-Rod has a lot of money still to eat. You know who they should trade him to?

Fox. We need A-Rod for the stretch run. Just get A-Rod for the stretch run. Just get A-Rod on TV. It's over. Baseball's done. He's awesome on TV. Get him on TV. He really is.

Make the move. A-Rod should just retire. All right, Jacko. All right. Fun recap. Enjoy the weekend. You're the best. Thank you.

I'll talk to you soon. Take care. Anytime y'all want to see me again, rewind this track right here. Close your eyes. Take care. Stop burglars from getting into your home. Get $100 off that package by going to simplysavebill.com. Thanks to Headspace. Change your life in just 10 minutes a day with the Headspace app. They give you guided meditations you can use whenever you want. Focus on sleeping, eating, stress, depression. They can make anything work.

Download the Headspace app and start your journey toward a happier, healthier life. Learn more at headspace.com. Don't forget to check out the ringer.com. Some terrific pieces this week about the NFL, Jason Bourne, the conventions, the world series of poker, uh, and especially weird Shea Serrano week in a good way. A lot of good stuff. Don't forget about our other seven podcast feeds on the ringer podcast network, including Favreau and Pfeiffer at keeping it 1600. Favreau was involved in Obama's speech, so listen to that podcast. They've been breaking down the conventions all month.

My new NBA show, End Given Wednesday, returns August 3rd, 10 p.m. on HBO. Check out our newsflash page on HBO Now and HBO Go. That includes every episode and every bonus clip we've done, including last week's show with Danny McBride, Christina Hendricks, Michael K. Williams, and Michael Rappaport, who I defeated in our fake deflacate trial. Thank you, Judge Joe Brown. And thanks for listening. We'll be back next week on the BS Podcast.