The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 1: Hodgepodgin' It!

Episode Date: May 24, 2024

Amin sticks around for Hour 1 as he and his Oddball co-host Charlotte Wilder discuss the All-NBA Awards and the most likely things to happen the rest of this NBA postseason out a list that is...questionable. Then, in a segment of Share & Tell from Pablo Torre Finds Out, Pablo, Elle Duncan, and Katie Nolan take a deep dive into the moan heard around the world from Luka Doncic's press conference. Plus, David Samson discusses his biggest takeaways from Rob Manfred's presser including umpires, jerseys, the Athletics, robot umpires, and Bally Sports on today's Nothing Personal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Volatility has continued to be a hot topic. I think the Fed does have other cards to play. Are these mega cap tech companies here to stay? Never before has there been a better time to be an ETF investor Beemo ETFs presents views from the desk a show all about markets and investing with ETFs new episodes every Thursday morning This is the Dan LeBattor Show with the Stugats Podcast. Welcome back to Oddball.

I mean, the all NBA teams were revealed. It was pretty, there were, there were a few surprises, but let's just go through, uh, what they were, what first, second and third for first team. Uh, you've got Janice, Luca, Shay, Gilders, Alexander, uh, Yoke, itch, Jason Tatum, anything here surprising to you. All right. So a couple of things. Number one is because the all NBA team is positionless,

so it's not like you had to have a center or you had to have a guard. In theory, the results should mirror what the MVP ballot was. The best five players in the league. And obviously, Jokic won MVP, he's on there, although he wasn't the number one or the unanimous vote getter there.

We know that Luka was on the ballot, we know that SGA was on the ballot, Janis is on the ballot, and then somehow Jason Tatum makes his way in there even though he wasn't top five on the MVP ballot. So I ask, what gives? Why isn't my man, Jalen Brunson up there, Charlotte? So Tatum was sixth in MVP voting.

Brunson was fifth. And I don't know, I mean, I was sort of surprised, but perhaps this is the who you're surrounded with curse when it comes to MVP where Steph and know, Steph and KD, once they were in the Warriors together, it can make people think, well, they didn't need them as much because they had these other great players, whereas Brunson, they obviously needed him. Do you think that Brunson should have been there instead of Tatum? I think so. I thought he was, look, he was a catalyst for a team that was a two seed

and that a lot of people did not have as a two seed. And even throughout the season, they had a lot of adversity in terms of injuries and guys missing. I think while Tatum played on the best team in the league, I don't know that he had a better season in Jalen Brunson is what I would say. Yeah, I have to agree with you. You know, putting all Celtics fandom aside, I think Brunson deserved

to be there. He was a second team along with Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, Anthony Edwards, Kauai. And I don't know, I guess it's so hard to rank, it's so hard to rank these players in terms of like, who's better first team, second team, but that's what we do in this business. How did you feel about this grouping? Yeah, I was all right with this. You know, the real question is, who didn't make any of these teams, right?

Because I think it's kind of, it is interesting. When we get by the end of this, you'll see that there are multiple players from teams that really didn't wow. And this is the part where I will make an argument for the Celtics here, right? That the fact that they had the best record in the league, Jason Tatum was their only representative,

but he's not on the MVP ballot because he had too much help. Well, which one is it? Does he have too much help? And so some of their help should be all NBA with him, namely Jalen Brown, or is it he was so amazing, he carried this team, in which case he should have been higher on the MVP ballot. I tend to think it's the former,

that Jalen Brown should have been an all NBA player. No, we haven't gotten a third team yet, but let's just go ahead and show the third team so that people can see basically what I'm talking about. And again, all these players are great players. We're splitting hairs here. But the idea that the Lakers and the Suns would have two all-NBA representatives,

nothing against KD and Durant, nothing against AD and LeBron, but you guys, if you had two All-NBA representatives, meaning not only were they good enough, but they also played enough games, then why wasn't your team good? And flip side, if Joe Mazzullo isn't anywhere near Coach of the Year voting,

and Jason Tatum isn't good enough to be MVP. Why isn't Jalen Brown one of the all NBA players? Yeah, I agree with you. Also, they were both all stars and I think this is maybe the curse of being too good. I think sometimes there is this element of like, oh well, they won. It's sort of a reluctance to, you know, people might think, well, I don't want my whole ballot to be Celtics. And so they might overcompensate in the other direction, although I really think that Jaylen Brown deserve to be there. They're getting screwed by both ends though.

They're being told that they're too good and not good enough. But that's what I mean. And that's the part that I think is unfair. I think that's what's happening. And I don't think people are thinking of it in terms of like, well, it can't be one and the other. I think it's just a subconscious thing that people do.

Something that was interesting. By the way, LeBron James simultaneously, well, not simultaneously, but he was the youngest player ever to make an all NBA team, and now he's the oldest player ever to make an all NBA team. Very nice bookends for perhaps the greatest career ever. Good job, LeBron. Something we have to talk about is that somebody voted

for DeMontes Sabonis in first place for everything. What is this, like what's happening? I mean, he's not a bad player, he's a great player, but. He's a great player. And believe it or not, him getting a first place vote for all NBA, while egregious, is not as egregious as him getting a first place vote for all NBA, while egregious, it's not as egregious as him getting a first place vote for defensive player of the year.

And so when you look through all of the voting this year, we keep seeing a first place vote for Sabonis for everything. And ladies and gentlemen, this isn't like what it was like 10 years ago where it's like, who voted for him? I guess we'll never know. Like they released the names of all the voters and what they voted for for every single award. We're gonna find this guy and we're gonna find out my guess is

either he's a Sacramento beat writer which I don't believe or more likely a Lithuanian journalist of some sort is trying to do some national pride type sh**. That's your ass buddy. I'm just calling out right now because you can't get away with making a mockery of the vote and expect to keep voting. Yeah. Well, they also impact contracts. Like Tyrese Halliburton made all NBA. That was a big thing in his contract.

He gets more money because of it. He played, he made sure to play 65 games so that he could be eligible. This is a big deal. These are, these are things that matter. Also earlier this week when B became the first rookie ever to make all defense first team. Here are all of his accolades from the season. Rookie of the year, all rookie first team, NBA blocks leader, all defensive first team, defensive player of the year runner up. What's most impressive here, I mean? All defensive team, first team.

That's, as a rookie, that never happens because rookies, by and large, even the ones who are good at this are incredibly lost on an NBA court. And now, my opinion is, he was incredibly lost on an NBA court many a time as well. I think people are seduced by the gravity of leading the league in blocks,

which is very impressive obviously. And he's just so freakish looking. The other thing they got seduced by that, the voters did, I wouldn't put him on the first team all defensive team. I just think that there were better options out there. I certainly don't think he should have been that high in Defensive Player of the Year award. Again, I thought the wrong guy is in third

and that was Bam Adebayo, he should have won it all. But more than anything, I think there's always this subconscious clamor, I think, to be first to something. Victor Wemba-Nyama is going to be great. That doesn't mean we have to declare him great right now. We can let him make his mistakes and do those things and get to that eventual spot where we expect him to be. All right, well, speaking of lists, we have a list here for everybody at home.

It's a blind ranker, and we are going to rank events based on how likely they are to happen. One is most likely, five is least likely. The twist is that we haven't seen the things we will be ranking and we have to agree on them. And our production staff is gonna surprise us. What is the first thing? It goes, all right, it's really go bare,

hits another turnaround J. Oh God. After you hit that one against Denver in game seven. So we have to rank this deciding how likely it is, but we haven't seen what the other things are. This to me, I mean, if it's, if one is least likely. Whatever the least likely thing is, I would say put an extra spot at six and you know,

make that, cause there's nothing that's gonna be less likely than this. I agree with you. Okay, that was easy Okay, so five. What do we have next? Chuck brings his ass to Minnesota for the parade Again I'm going for four. Yeah, not likely not likely. Chuck's a fun guy. He's got to do Like also they have to get there. They have to have a parade for him to visit that too. Chuck's a fun guy, he's got shit to do. Also they have to get there, they have to have a parade for him to visit.

That too, that's also really likely. Okay, Rhee? All right, next up. Tyrese Halliburton wins finals MVP, shit. Oh God, are we just gonna end up with the least likely thing at number one because we've been too hasty? Is plus 5,000 on DraftKings

who won finals MVP. Believe it or not. Three? Yeah, it's three. It's three, but I just want to say, believe it or not, even if I had the foresight of knowing what was coming, still Rudy Gobert is number five and Chuck is number four. Yeah, same.

Okay, the next one is, Ant gets a Nasri tattoo. I say that's most likely. Let's put that at one. I think Ant would probably do this no matter what happens. No, get a two. He's not getting another man's name tattooed on him that's not like a family member.

All right. Like as much as he loves his teammates. Okay, let's see what one is. Cause if Luca goes to happier with the refs. Absolutely. One. Number one is, cause if Luca goes to happy hour with the refs. Absolutely. One. Number one. Look, this is shame on the producers. Shame on the producers.

Because when you do blind rancor, the whole thing is it's gotta be random. You can't start with the least likely thing and end up like a little bit more like, I know what you're thinking like, oh, Luca and the refs hate each other. No, man, when people see each other out and about, maybe not happy

hour, but they'll get to a bar and they might walk in and they're all there. So, I'm, this, this, this is poor. You know what, man? This is what, this is where I feel like I need to start producing. This is what you guys need to do next time we do Blind Rancor. You need to randomize it. Put it, put it, assign each one A, B, C, D, E. Go into the internet, say randomizer, these five letters, and then it'll pop out, and then you can do that. And then that way, because this way was just too easy. I was gonna say, write them down on a piece of paper,

pull them out of a fish bowl, but you're right, there are things on the internet that do that for you now. That could be flawed, yeah. Piece of paper, flawed, I trust the internet. Internet is everything. By the way, Victor Omenyamo was looking for his rookie card. This is how big of a deal he is. He can't even find his own rookie card, Charlotte.

In a local San Antonio hobby shop trying to find his own. I don't get it, can't someone just get that to him? Can't you call the rookie card people and be like, hey, can I have this? Panini, yeah, hey Panini, can you print one more out? Make it one of 500 and wonder how many they make. I don't know how cards go. I don't either.

Were you a baseball card person or a basketball card person growing up? I was a baseball card person, but in the sense that like I would buy them at the Five and Dime and open them and then have no idea what to do with them. Five and Dime, how old are you? The Five and Dime, what are you, from the 40s?

Yeah, we had one. They had a bunch of rubber balls and those rubber things. You also go to the sock hop? Did you share milkshakes with your best bow and straws on either side, with your hair in a ponytail, and like that frilly skirt that comes out, and then you're wearing like hard bodied shoes with socks?

Well, we had a sock hop in elementary school. What's up, you did do a sock hop? Oh my God. So maybe I am from the 40s. Are you from Pleasantville? Like what's going on? What? That's a movie.

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Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories per 12 ounces. Don LeBataard. Or were they gonna buy them and they just jumped the shark by being like, you know what? We're gonna get all of you in the seats. Could you imagine if that happened in Miami, the way that the national media would respond

to the Heat fan base? I don't think Charlotte used jump the shark there correctly. Stugarts. I don't think Charlotte used Jump the Shark there correctly. Stugats! I think you just threw a Jump the Shark in there, and that's not the proper way to use Jump the Shark. Do you even know the reference you're making? Do you know the reference you're making

when you say Jump the Shark? Is it from Jaws? This is the Dunlavatar Show with the Stugats! I've been doing an investigation, guys, that I want to... Somebody had to. I got so many tweets about this. My niche now is, okay, the Dallas Mavericks win Game 2 of the Western Conference Semi-Finals. They beat the Clippers.

They're now obviously playing in the Conference Fin finals against the T-Wolves. But at the postgame presser, Luka Doncic sits down and he takes questions and this happens. We were open shot so just our sharing the ball and our energy was great. What do you think? Okay. Okay. moving on. So if you could not discern from the audio, maybe if you're just listening on the podcast, how would you guys describe what happened there? There was sex noises happening. Yeah, porn.

Yeah. Yeah, somebody was playing porn or nearby having pretty mind blowing sex. Yeah. Because if you were doing it in public, that would be... And to make that much noise, it would have to be quite an experience. I was going to say, like, whatever. No. No, no, no. Nobody's ever done that and minted. I'm sorry. Nobody ever has sex, even good sex. And it's like, ah stream. It's not a constant stream of moaning.

Unless you're trying to fill a silence or something. Which in that situation you wouldn't. Yeah, it's definitely, it's porn. It's porn! It's probably porn. Pornography. A pornographic film. The Clubhouse leader of course was,

this was a media member, of course like at the Zoom Air, we've all seen, you know. Yeah, what's his face, his penis? Yep, that guy, exactly. What was that guy's name? Jeffrey Toob yeah, what's his face is penis. Yep that guy exactly that guy's name Jeffrey to be Very funny name a very on the nose. Yeah, like a Character yeah, we're an adult story. Yeah, so it was a media member was the reigning theory and

There are some suspects in that. Mm-hmm I mean literally Amin al-hassan once had porn on his computer When he was being interviewed, I think by Kevin O'Connor like at a court side postgame thing Yeah, I mean had to close his laptop in my defense We were doing research for a movie that involved a certain adult film actress and so I was What are you doing? You left your computer earlier! What are you doing to me? Oh my god. Hold on, hold on. That was seven hours ago.

That was seven hours ago. I swear to god it was research. I swear to god. Zach, you know what we're doing. Did KOC just catch you watching porn? I mean, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm so sorry Amin, but I can tell you that it was not You know what we're KLC just catch you watching porn. I mean, I don't know what you're talking about. So sorry, Amin, but I can tell you

that it was not a Muno Hassan. Okay. This is where my investigation starts. Amin, what does you, he says, no. So I begin to reach out to four different sources. So I'm trying to get to the, I'm taking this seriously. Okay, this is what I do on the show. I find out in ways that are taking serious things,

stupidly and stupid things seriously. And this case is kind of felt like both. A league source told us that it was not a media member. So they know who it is. Well, what they said in so many words is that the call, the moan was coming from inside the house. Meaning? Meaning this was not a media member, but a Mavericks player.

A teammate of Luka Dantjic trying to mess with him. Oh, I don't know. By playing it off their phone. And so I guess in Europe, this is a thing, a common prank is like, this is apparently a thing where like you change someone's ringtone to sex sounds and you call them at press conference and they're like, was this something like that? And... Yeah, they have passcodes.

Yeah. It's a very tight locker room apparently. Another source indicated this was multiple players, not just one. I guess which is kind of like in, you know, like a... I felt like that was them deflecting. Like it was all of us, like an I am Spartacus situation. They're all standing up, this was me. And so I look at the Mavericks roster, I'm like, okay, who on this list of players would

be doing this? And I personally was rooting for a guy whose name is Alex Fudge, but no one corroborated that. That was just the hope I had. Tough. But then talking to sources who know the team based on personality profiles and so forth. Their educated guess was that this was either, and this is where I get a bit irresponsible

because now I'm just putting guys on blasts hypothetically. Right. You have not really confirmed. All caveats apply here. Yeah. Nobody's going to care. They'll clip it without that part. I am not saying that it's definitely PJ Washington.

Or Derek Jones Jr. Okay. But they are suspects in this case. But the big twist, the new theory into this... The reverse cowgirl, if you will. The twist is that this was not a phone. This was not a video. This was the player, parentheses S, making the sounds themselves.

Shut up, no. No way. Zero chance, zero chance, zero chance. No way. You guys can't. Play it again. No. Play it again.

No. All right, play it again. Nah, man. We were open shots, so just our sharing the ball and our energy was great. What do you think? Uh, okay. Um.

Okay, Moving on. I mean, every time I hear it, every time I hear it, my soul, I relate to the poor guy who was talking and tries to moving. Okay. Well, it's like, it makes him seem like it was his, like his fault. Let's jack that volume up and let's play it again. We were open shot. So just our sharing the ball and our energy was great. What do you think?

Okay. Okay, moving on. His face is so funny. So I know the guy that said that, okay, moving on. That's Tim McMahon. Oh yeah. Tim McMahon. Yeah, that's Tim McMahon, the ESPN reporter.

And so after that happened, he joined a sports center. And you know, you like check mics ahead of time and stuff before you go on air. And I was like, can I tell you my working theory on what happened? He was like, yeah, tell me. I was like, I think that someone that works at the Mavs, who's, you know, sometimes your Bluetooth, if you've used it before, automatically connects to speakers. I think he's in the back, right? I think he's in the back. I think he's watching a little porn because, like,

he doesn't care about this press conference, like, whatever. And it accidentally goes over the Bluetooth speakers. He realizes, oh my God! He fumbles with it. He presses off. Tim McMahon, now this was a week ago, Pablo. Tim McMahon said exactly what you just said. He said he thinks and was hearing that it was a prank that was played, that they were very intentionally did it to throw Luca off

and that someone like tapped into the Bluetooth speaker. Oh, but he's on the speaker, the Bluetooth theory. He's still on the speaker theory that it was someone tapped into the speaker, they played the porn to make it uncomfortable, and then they promptly turned it off. I still stand on the fact that some poor unsuspecting like towel boy was like in the, like, coms kid was like in the back thinking he's watching a little innocent porn. See, I think it's that, but that they had a tab open that they forgot about,

and when they opened up their lap, like it just went and they were like, f*** yeah, yeah, I tried to get it. Because watching porn at work is weird Yeah, and don't do it. Yeah. Why so much time in the day? Yeah, sure Um, I also feel like if you're gonna pull a prank Not that I'm like a porn audio connoisseur, but I just feel like there's funnier Like clips of the horn you could play why I heard saying words This is why I returned to saying words. This is why I return to... To it being a player?

Yes, because this is some... I was talking to Nadir behind the glass over there. Not to put Nadir on blast. Shout out to Nadir. But I was playing this clip for him before the show and he was like, oh, I used to do that in middle... Not him, not I, sorry Nadir. But kids in our middle school used to do that.

Yeah. Like make moaning sex noises because that is what boys do. That's a female voice. I'm sorry. I could see it not being one, but here's what I think is the next step of your investigation. You got to get all the Mavs to moan. Oh, like a police line up. Yeah.

And they all, you have to be like, say, uh, uh, uh, and then they have to do it and see who can hit that specific octave. Yeah. See, it's giving woman to me. Like, I feel like I pride myself on being able to do voices and impersonations and to imitate people. Let's give us your best one just real quick to vouch for your... Journalistically. Just give us your best.

You pride yourself on it, so just give us your best. I know. I also pride myself on not being put on the spot, Katie. Okay, fair, that's fair. We can cut that out. Yeah, no, I mean, it's more of like you- Or maybe Katie can go first. It's more like you can give me a person

that can let me go. I just, I'm definitely not feeling that that was a man imitating a woman. That was a woman moaning. In fact, Pablo, you're a man. Oh, God. Allegedly. I was dreading this challenge. Give it, Pablo, you're a man. Allegedly. I was dreading this challenge. Yeah, you tried to hit that.

Try to hit that on the spot. Try to hit that. Put Pablo on the spot. Try to hit that octave. Back away from the mic. I've been trying to speak deeper into my diaphragm. Sure, but for now. Yes, go up into your...

Yeah, they're all men that have... These guys are six foot 10. They've got these deep voices. Go for it. Try to be her. All right, so... I'm gonna actually not make eye contact there. Me either. It's creepy. I'm these deep voices. You can go for it. Try to be her. Alright, so, okay. I'm gonna actually not make eye contact there.

Me either. It's creepy. I don't know. Please face the other way. You got it. I just want you to know that MetalArc HR does not exist, so you cannot get me in trouble for this. I'm gonna look at Katie, which is kinda weirder.

Don't peek! Okay. God damn. I can't even look at myself. I can't look at myself. I can't look at myself. I can't look at the glass because everyone's looking at me. Stop waving at me. All right, here we go.

Here we go, here we go. Louder. See? It's loud, it's more of a scream. You can't, it's not falsetto. It's not falsetto. It has to have some, yeah. Oh God, I hate it.

He's in danger. Yeah, he sounds like... A little more? No, that was good. No, you sound like an animal that was maimed. I don't think it's gonna get better. No. Okay.

You sound like a dying dolphin. Like a dolphin. See, that's not it. I mean, line all the men up. Y'all can't hit that octave. I know that octave. Get Cortez in here. Get in here, Cortez.

Cortez, come moan into this microphone. Hold my mic and moan on it. Cortez, you can't do it. Cortez says, quote, absolutely not. This is what you're here for. Come on, Cortez. Cortez, come in here. Do it.

Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Damn it, do it, do it. Damn, peer pressure doesn't work when you're in your 40s. That sucks. Wow. But you get my point, Pablo. You tried, but it sounded like a man imitating a woman.

It's a skilled orator. Okay, he's in here. Arms crossed. Can we point every microphone at Cortez? Everybody turn around. Okay. microphone at Cortez everybody turn around okay okay wait a second I somehow feel worse and better about myself yeah that was not that was more convincing his His was better than yours. More convincing.

But you guys are making my argument. That's not a man pretending to be a woman. That's not. That was a woman. That was a woman. So unless they got a female staffer, that was actual porn that they were playing. Or Cortez. Or Cortez.

Or Cortez was there. Could be that too. I don't know. I guess I could see it. I could see it, but I'm unsatisfied. Ironically, I'm unsatisfied with this conclusion. I feel like I want it to be more like, yeah, it was a person and it was this person.

Yeah, I was looking for clues on like the Twitter accounts of like PJ Washington. Were they like sending us signals and stuff? Yeah, nothing. So no eggplant emojis or anything? That's what you were looking for? Yeah. During my deep dive and investigation, I was trolling for some eggplant emojis or anything that's what you were looking for. During my deep dive and investigation I was trolling for some eggplant emojis or a peach.

She had to watch a couple videos to see if he could find that specific clip. If anyone's wondering what's the charges to his credit card. He was looking for the clip and he had his eyes closed. He was just listening. Just trying to see. Just trying to listen. Yeah, you know what next time when you're investigating see if you can find the exact porn clip. Yeah, you know what? Next time when you're investigating, see if you can find the exact porn clip. Yeah. You know, just like watch tons of it and then just close your eyes and then be like, that's the moan.

This is the clip. I found it. Triggering for some of us to hear Bluetooth porn. Yeah, we really just... Bluetooth porn. Do you know this? No. Oh.

What happened? Dan has a joke and is special, but it's very much based on truth of a time during the pandemic that I was showering, getting ready for highly questionable actually, an HQ from home. And in the shower I was listening to music and a Bluetooth speaker that he bought me. But because he had linked up with that Bluetooth speaker before, his phone accidentally linked up with it while he was watching an adult video. So I am in the shower. When he was doing journalism.

And all of a sudden my music became like moaning and a lot of like this. And I remember just being like what the hell and then I like picked it up and I kind of was realizing what was happening and I started like hitting the Volume down button on it to get it to be quiet But because he was watching it and there was no volume and he was confused He kept hitting the volume up button and so it just kept getting louder And I felt like I was being bullied So then I just had like turn the whole thing off and then I had to like finish my shower And then as I'm about to open the door, I'm like, I just I don't want to deal with this right now I have to go beyond TV, I'm like, I just, I don't want to deal with this right now. I have to go beyond TV. I'm like, something, I figured something had happened

that like that. And so I'm like, I'm going to come out the door and he's going to just be standing there. And I don't want to have this conversation and I don't want to like make eye contact and talk about it. Like, I just want him to leave me alone. And so I opened the door and he comes around the corner and he goes, hey, just to like see if I realize,

cause maybe there was a world in which I didn't realize what had happened. That world that was not one we lived in. And he said, hey, and I just like looked at him. And he goes, I opened an email. I loved it. Those dreaded porn emails. I loved it. And I was like, can we do this later?

And he was like, yeah. So I was like, thanks. Cool, thanks. Cool, thanks. I opened an email. I opened an email. he was like, yeah. Cool. Thanks. Cool. Thanks. I opened an email. I opened an email. Somebody sent me a link. It was weird. It was so weird. The White Chocolate Macadamia Cream Cold Brew is back for the summer at Starbucks. So bold and so dreamy.

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Owners meetings, that's enough in person. Word of the day for Friday, May 2424. As we roll on into Memorial Day weekend, could have started with a double overtime victory by the Oilers, but no, could have started with the Pacers not being able to win a game two against the Celtics for the first time. Celtics win a game two, but no. Could have started with what happened in the White Sox Orioles game, but no. May get to all of those. I got to start with owners meetings.

It just brings me back thinking about trudging into different cities four times a year, surrounded by all the executives, all the owners, everybody in the commissioner's office and eagerly anticipating all of the business that was going to get done during the course of those two days. Now that we do nothing personal every day, what I really wait for, although I do miss it, of course I do not as much as I, I don't miss it nearly as much as I love being here with you every single day, live at 8 a.m.

Except Monday, disappointingly, sadly. But now what I get excited about is when the commissioner of any sport, other than maybe the WNBA, after you have owners meetings, the commissioner has to meet the media. It's like an unwritten rule. It's not in any of the bylaws. It's not in the constitution.

It's just one of those things that the media has come to expect, where for me, it could just as much be the commissioner tweeting stuff, not trying to take away the media right to go travel to these meetings. These were in New York, I think. So that makes it a bit easier.

But the commissioner took the stand and had a few nuggets as usual. Commissioners always have nuggets. You have to just look for them. Sometimes, you know, it's very simple how it works. You have your PR team around you. You know what the agenda is because it owners meetings, everything that's discussed has to be formally put on an agenda. It's a real board meeting. your PR team around you, you know what the agenda is because at owners meetings, everything that's discussed has to be formally put on an agenda.

It's a real board meeting. You need notice provisions. You can't just all of a sudden say, hey, I think I wanna talk about blank. Doesn't work that way. So you're pretty much able to prepare. You know what you're gonna say. One of the topics du jour that has come up and has made all of you question every time

you see a bad call and God knows it feels like there have been way more, but that's just prisoner of the moment stuff. It's pretty much normal. Everyone's waiting for what they're calling robot umps. It's not robot umps. It's the automatic balls and strikes. Very different robot arms. I keep waiting for Bridget Moynihan or Will Smith.

I just realized something that making I robot references may be lost on people. I made a Jerry Maguire reference to somebody the other day. I said, you had me at hello or something. No idea. Blank. I thought that was one of those expressions like, frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. I can't remember what movie that is, people would say, but I definitely know what's from a movie Do you really not know you had me at hello? You had me at hello It's what you say to somebody when they keep talking they keep trying to convince you of something But they don't need to because you're willing to do it. You want to do it. You need to do it

You feel like doing it. You're willing to do it. You say you had me at hello. Like so I guess I robot may be a old reference. We're not talking about like a robot. We're not talking about replacing umpires. The excuse that oh the union would be too unhappy because they lose jobs. No that is not ever what baseball has contemplated. What they're contemplating is an NBA, NHL, NFL style challenge. Rule where you can challenge whether a pitched ball is a ball or a strike.

And then there would be an automatic strike zone. There'd be a beep, there'd be a bop. And the umpire would know whether it was a ball or a strike. And then there would be an automatic strike zone. There'd be a beep, there'd be a bop, and the umpire would know whether it was a ball or a strike, and that would be it. You either affirm the call or overturn the call, but it would be immediate. It's brilliant technology. It's technology that exists. It's technology that's being used right now. It's technology that I assumed was coming to the big leagues next year, It's technology that I assumed was coming to the big leagues next year To the point where a year and a half ago. I said it to you. I

Had an official wait to see from January 16th of 2023 For the few percent of you today who are new. Thank you I would tell you that wait to see is when I say something's gonna happen if it does great if it doesn't great I'm gonna revisit it. I don't want to be the guy with 40,000 hot takes a year where I have no idea what I'm saying. I've no care about what I'm saying. Emotion about what I'm saying. I just say it thinking that you're all going to watch it because it

turns out that you do. No, not me. I'm going to have absolute accountability. I said on that day, automatic balls and strikes will be in major league baseball by 2025. And this was back January of 23. Well, the commissioner came out yesterday said not much progress. So therefore there will not be ABS every time he says it. Every time anyone says ABS, I of course get a tummy ache and think of IBS,

but I digress from any talk of any initials. No, not happening. I understand why they need the technology to be perfect. I understand why they need the rules to be perfect, but I think there's a little nuance here as to why ABS is not going to be added for next year. You remember the commissioner has the right to do and implement anything. He can say it, change a rule, wait a year.

And then if the union doesn't approve it, it can just be implemented. There were certain things under the last CBA that the commissioner could just do immediately without a waiting period. There's such tension between the commissioner's office and the union right now. And it's tension that's building toward a negotiation that's coming up. That MLB has the view, correctly so, in my opinion, why bother?

Why are we gonna do anything right now that will even poke the tiger? We do enough poking when it comes to arbitration, when it comes to free agents, when it comes to pitch clock, time of game, all the things that we're trying to do. There's just no reason for it. Now, I think there is a reason for it because one of the ways to grow your game, in addition to having more people wager on it and building fantasy. The other way to grow your game is to have people believe in the product and love it. They've cut the game times down to like two and a half hours.

It's outstanding. It's where it should be. Umpires are a big part of what people complain about. Last night is a funny example. Not funny if you're a white socks fan, not a big deal for the fans of the White Sox because you're not going anywhere this season. What's another loss incrementally? Maybe it gives you another ping pong ball in the lottery. But a game between the Orioles and the White Sox ended with a bad, with a player interference, a runner's interference on an infield fly. Let me set the stage, it's pretty funny.

There's an infield fly rule, which is when all the umpires raise their hand. That's when you know it's an infield fly rule. It's a pop-up. But when an umpire points, which is what the third base umpire did in yesterday's game, he's pointing and calling runner's interference, which is an automatic out, no matter what happens in the play.

Runner's interference leads to an out So it ended up being a double play and the White Sox lose the game and everybody's upset because the interference was the runner on second Ben attendee going back to the bag on the fly ball and just sort of walking back facing home plate where the shortstop, Gunnar Henderson was coming in to catch the infield fly and had to sidestep him and brushed him, got in the way. That's interference. That's a legitimate call by the third base umpire.

People are going crazy on Twitter. Worst call I've ever seen. That's a rule. Even the White Sox manager, the White Sox manager who doesn't have a future as a White Sox manager said after the game, I'm not upset about the rule being called. I'm upset about the rule even existing, which got me thinking about another topic. All the things in baseball or in sports or in business that exist because they've always existed MLB rulebook, let's say it's this thick and if you're not watching on the nothing person with David Samson YouTube channel

Please do just because you can watch and listen this thick let's say two inches and We say we read the rulebook every year. We don't. We know the rule book better than most, but not perfectly. I mean, none of us are rain man. We carry around because we have to refer to it sometimes. Most things we've come across during the course of a career, most situations we've come across. And when a rule comes up that we may not know about, we'll go to the rule book, then we'll go to the commissioner's office, or then we'll go to our manager and GM and talk it all through.

But it got me thinking about rules that exist that shouldn't exist, but they're small ones. They don't necessarily come up too often, so they don't get anyone's attention. My view of things that don't happen often, and then whether or not it is even necessary to deal with is the following. If you have a chance to be perfect

and you have a chance to be right and just and fair, it doesn't matter what the frequency is. I just think that we should all strive for that. So if there's a rule in rule book that no one ever sees, but you think that if you did see it, that's like the job of a lawyer to try to anticipate everything you're going to see, even though the odds are you're not going to see it. Every possible litigation, every possible fight, every possible angle, that's what you're supposed to do when you do an agreement with somebody.

And it's tedious, it's difficult. It's hard to be perfect But there are adjustments along the way in a legal contract You actually have a system to deal with what happens when something comes up that no one contemplated In baseball and in sports when something comes up that rarely is contemplated, but actually there's a rule where there could be discretion but it's not used here, I think you close that hole. I don't think that you should have runners interference in a situation where there's no runners interference.

Call me crazy. The other thing about owners meetings that makes me smile, truly smile, is that there are people in charge of owners meetings in baseball where you have to actually you bring guests and guest speakers. There's a dinner the night before the big meeting. And sometimes it can be a writer. It can be someone famous who comes in, he'll talk politics or he'll talk about any business, something.

It's interesting, always interesting. Absolutely. This year, this meeting, they brought in someone from Nike. Not that famous, not that interesting. What the Nike guy, according to the commissioner, was doing was taking responsibility, a mea culpa, for everything that went on with the uniforms. Seriously. He actually said specifically, the Nike representative appropriately took responsibility for the issues with respect to

the new uniforms. I can imagine sitting in that meeting with our owner. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, you can leave soon. I'm glad that Nike did that. How about the bankrupt valleys? Can we cover bankruptcy? Everybody asks about blackouts. You're all worried about blackouts.

You're all worried about the bankruptcy. You're all worried about watching your games. You should hope for bankruptcy. You should hope for bankruptcy. You should hope for no reorganization under Chapter 11 because then teams will start going over the air and streaming and everybody will have access to everything. It's your dream. You should be rooting for the bankruptcy of Diamond Sports Group. Well, they're already bankrupt.

You should be rooting for no reorganization. Well, they don't even have a plan yet You should be rooting for the leagues to prevail and their objections to diamonds fleeting thought of reorganization That's what I think you should do. They keep delaying it the court does do you know why courts delay reorganization or courts delay hearings? like that? When the parties aren't ready, they ask for a continuance. That's all it is.

A delay is called a continuance. And it means we're not quite ready to be reorganized. We really want to be reorganized, but we're going to need another month. So we stay as is. Gives another month for MLB to get ready to file their strenuous objection. We covered it earlier this week on a hearing, what MLB said and how upset they are and how unreal it is that there is no plan to even look at. But now they have an extra month to even object in a greater way.

What is the, here's another great move there's, they will strenuously object to the reorg plan. The only other thing of note with the commissioner is the Oakland A's. I like talking about the Oakland A's and their move to Sacramento. I like that the commissioner had to point out to everybody, don't you worry. We are redoing everything. New scoreboards, new camera positions, new

seats, new clubhouses. We're gonna be ready for Major League Baseball. It's like the NHL saying, oh the Coyotes are gonna play in a totally retrofitted, ready to go college arena. There'll only be 5,000 people there, but don't you worry. We're just delaying you getting to Utah. They've got to keep saying, so you're going to keep reading that the A's are on schedule. There's only one person I would ask you not to listen to when it comes to the A's relocation.

Don't listen to the head of the Las Vegas Convention Visitors Authority, please. I'm sure he's a great guy, maybe even a great family guy. Don't know him, don't care. I'm saying in general, when people have an agenda, they are not the people to go to for a thorough, unbiased conversation. He's out there saying, we're totally on schedule.

He doesn't know squat about crap. We're totally ready to go. John Fisher's got the money. Even Rob said it. Don't worry, John's fine. We're all good. Nothing to see here. Well, he may be right, he may be wrong.

I may be crazy, but guess what? It's still relocation to me. It's Friday, Coca. Come on, Billy Joe. Since the dawn of mankind, we've cooked our food over an open flame and debated the best way to grill. One thing not up for debate, grilling and beer always go together. And not just any beer will do.

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