The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 2: An Intimate and Vulnerable Hour

Episode Date: October 26, 2023

Dan and Mike begin this hour with a conversation surrounding grief and prioritizing family over work after Dan read the story of Marvin Jones Jr. stepping away from the NFL. Dan reveals some sobering details of what the Le Batard family has been going through over the last couple of years. He also explains WHY he and parts of the crew have spent these last two weeks in Los Angeles. Plus, Dan and Mike Ryan discuss a now-scrapped segment where Dan and Mike Schur bloviated about the excellent Philadelphia Phillies team and fan base. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. This is the Don't LaboTar Show with the Stugat's Podcast. After a crowded couple of weeks, after a crowded 20 years right now, it's just me and Mike Ryan in a room talking Inimately, not the normal show and I want to reveal some things. I have not Revealed and talked about some things that I have not talked about and the impetus for it Is seeing a story this week that I'm guessing Not a lot of people Pay guessing, not a lot of people pay attention to,

not a lot of people care about. Marvin Jones Jr. steps away from the team to tend to personal family matters. And he puts on Instagram, something in black and white, something poignant, something artful of him bowing his head. It looks like during the anthem and saying goodbye to his team and Detroit. And he writes, I just want to say that I have so much love and respect for the Ford family.

The city of Detroit, my teammates and coaches to be brief. I'm stepping away from the team to take care of personal family matters. Although this was no easy decision, I cannot be the person player that I need to be brief. I'm stepping away from the team to take care of personal family matters. Although this was no easy decision, I cannot be the person player that I need to be for this team as well as tend to my family from afar. This organization has been amazing, showing love and support for myself and my family over the years. And this time is no different for that. I'm appreciative to my brothers and coaches. I will be rooting for you every step of the way. This is the year. Go get it. Love and respect to all. Marvin Jones Jr. That's a nice statement. And now we're later, the Lions waved him. Well, shouldn't they? Yes, but he needs to step away for a moment during a football season that cannot wait for him to step away for a moment.

Maybe he needs weeks, maybe he needs months, but right now he cannot do his job, that job, a very difficult job, and have the life balance that he needs. I'm sure this was all discussed between the organization. But I'm also sure that it's an enormous decision that's hard to make. He's 33 years old. This probably ends his earning, his ability to earn. The bearing and the grieving of who this person used to be.

Now, maybe he's got career ahead of him, but he has to go tend to family matters and they will convince you in that military school that the family that matters is the one in your huddle. You have to be there for them and he's had to make a choice. He's got to make a choice. Be a part. Keep in mind, Mike, the Lions have been bad, worse than anybody in football for 40 years. This is that they made both of their best players quit. That's their legacy. Yeah. They're, they're third best player. We had to go somewhere else to win a championship.

He has been giving his body to this cause and this team. And this is the best team he's ever played on. And it's probably the best Detroit team that we've ever seen. Yeah. Have you watched Marvin Jones this year? He hasn't been very good. He was awful. He was awful in that opening game of the season, where Cudarius Honey took, it was a fast switch energy drink player of the week that week. And he made Marvin Joneses life a lot easier because Marvin Jones was, was atrocious in that football game. And in seeing that statement, the first thing that ran through my mind was him saying,

I can't be the player that this team needs me to be right now with what's going on in my life. And a lot of that made sense because Marvin Jones at the age of 33s had a very nice career, very nice career in the NFL. I had a receiver at that position. It's hard to get to the age of 33 in the NFL. And if you watched him this season, he very clearly fell off. Waving him was probably something that was going to happen anyways, especially when you look at that receiving core.

I'm not blaming the lions for waving him. My guess is it's something of a mutual decision. My guess is it's one of the hardest decisions Marvin Jones has ever had to make. Let me be clear. I have a fair amount of empathy for whatever it is he's going through. It seems like it's serious, but all I've known for more Marvin Jones this football season is he has not been a contributor. But I want to talk about some of the humanizing parts of this and where it is that he reached me when you said he hasn't been the player that he was because it's impossible to be,

but also when you have this other stuff going on, this is where it reached me, given what my last couple of years have been like, Marvin Jones has had two or three seasons. They're either close to a thousand yards around a thousand yards, but he's making a decision that his family has to be the priority. We talk all the time about it. They tell you in football that it's, you know, family and faith and then football, but that ain't the order. Yeah. Is there a bereavement list that players can be put on? It seemed as though that was a retirement statement. Not, I'd like to come back at some point this season's statement.

And if so, like I understand from a cap perspective why this move was made. I don't think the audience necessarily knows when he writes the sentence, this was not an easy decision. How much goes into, he writes the sentence, this was not an easy decision. How much goes into he is the economy around him, he is the place where money gets made and now future earnings, he's got to make the choice as soon as I leave, it's the possibility I won't get back to that level. Yeah. I mean, it was, I, again, I want to be very clear.

I have empathy for Marvin Jones, but if you watch him this season, future earnings were not really there for the young man, they weren't. Like, it's, I understand this conversation would be different if there were Marvin Jones of three years ago. All I'm doing in setting all of this up is to talk specifically about what my last couple of years have been like in a way that I have not been able to talk about it because the doing of this has become more difficult because of the things that I'm about to tell you, which I have not never mind shared with the audience. I haven't shared some of

these details with you or the people closest to me either because of what must be in play when you're saying I have to go be with my family. Now of course this is happening because he's diminished and of course he's being waved because the lines can wave him. They put him on a bereavement list if he were better. Yeah. To be fair, we don't know what's going on with his family. It seems pretty serious. There is enough for that that statement to go out there. And I don't know what's going on with his family. It seems pretty serious. There is enough for that statement to go out there. I don't think it's fair to assume if people in our audience are doing this, that this wouldn't be a statement that would be put out at the peak of his career, too.

The leave of absence when you have to work. The leave of absence when you need to get your head right and you need to say that your family is the priority, but sometimes you cannot leave, because it will affect too many of your other responsibilities that way. Under other circumstances, if I were not running this company and this company was not in need of what we do daily,

that does not stop, that is an endless grind, I would have, at this point, gone away for a long time. One of the reasons I admire John Stewart and I'm so upset by what happened with John Stewart and Apple is, John Stewart, at this point in his life, doesn't have any reason to care about making something good the way you have to, 80 hours a week. To make that show as good as it was, the only reason to do it is because of how much it cares, because you do it because it is because of how much it cares, because you do it because it's important that you grow and use the platform correctly and keep

being somebody who... Are you talking about an external pressure that's being put on you or an internal one? Because you obviously, you're a co-founder in the company, and you have the support of the company very clearly to take all the time that you need. Yes, but I don't feel like what we do, that everyone can be led to care the way that we need them to care unless they are also seeing that I care the same way, that I am not mailing in this thing that is for all of us, meant for all of us. But let me just get to the portion that I have not told you about and where the difficulties reside in doing some of this stuff. When the umbrella is personal family matters, whatever it is, the kind of lower he has been going through for two years, whatever Tom Brady is talking about,

when he says, I'm 45 happens, life happens, and unexpected things in life that you had no way of knowing how to handle. So the last two years of this and my performance and my confidence and why we're in Hollywood right now trying to get a different feeling for me with the doing of some of this as I am in a great deal of pain and grieving now hurting more than I have over the last two years because my brother's gone. But what was in my two years that I'm going to explain to you in the audience now that is some of the mental health conversation that doesn't get touched about, even though we're talking about mental health more than we ever have, and even though it feels like everyone's

getting bombarded all over every day with anxieties that don't have a lot of precedent. My father, my brother had a cancer in his brain that undiagnosed for a long time was making his behavior erratic, where you saw that he was there a lot of the time, but sometimes some stuff couldn't be placed. And this is before we knew that there was cancer in his brain. And so I'm doing things like chasing him at two o'clock in the morning through the streets of Miami Beach trying to keep an eye on him to make sure that he's not a danger to himself or to others and a couple of different times I had to have him in a way that damaged our relationship. I had to have him Baker acted

because I thought he was a threat that he might end up in a situation that wasn't him that just wasn't his behavior. And one of those times, we're breaking into his house when he is not there to remove the weaponry because the police are gonna have to go in and we don't want him To pick up something that they're warning us the police are warning us that if they go in that things can go wrong during this so I've got That happening over there and also at the same time and I'm hesitant to talk about this because I haven't I

haven't Told my father that I'm going to talk about it, but during this my father was on a medicine that was also making him behave strangely. And I was headed to go pick him up to take him to a psychiatrist. And I get a call from my mother that they heard the hospital that the paramedics that the firefighters found a 78 year old man hanging from a balcony, an eighth floor balcony, that that if they hadn't helped him then, I would have been on the pavement. All this isn't within the last few years. Yeah, and I'm as your work life is.

Yeah, right. Well, yeah, as it feels like everything's falling apart, necessarily, but so. You know, you didn't need Marvin Jones as the on-ramp. Yeah. Don LeBatard. You know what a razor is, Dan? I do not know.

I don't know what a Motorola razor is. You don't? I bet you had one. I did not have one. Really? Let's walk through your phone history. What kind of phone? I never had a Motorola Razer.

I did not have a Motorola Razer. What was your first phone? Ooh. Not a Motorola Razer. Telegraph machine after that. The Motorola Razer Dan was the one that was like really, really thin that it flipped over, but it was like as thin as like a razor blade.

That's why they called it the Razer. What is a telegraph machine? I don't they have one in down nabby still gots the tetanix stop has sunken stop john take a bath to stop is missing stop you think that was my phone you think that my first phone was the titanix emergency signal This is the Don Lebertar show with this two gods. But it's what made me think about it today, and it's what made me think about it because I haven't thank you. It feels like South Beach sessions.

You handing me the tissues. I'm bad with all of this, by the way. Yeah, I know you're the worst person in my entire world to be discussing this with us. I'm terrible with all of this, by the way. Yeah, I know you're the worst person in my entire world to be discussing this with us. I'm terrible with this. But yeah, and I wanted to explain to the audience why I'm doing this, why we're coming to Hollywood and meeting with these creative people

so that we can build something that is different and that satisfies us creatively and that honors all the things that my parents were trying to build of a life for me here. As I come with my wife, I don't have kids. This is the family that we've raised around here. You do have kids.

You do have kids. And I think that's why you were working through it. You have a big family. You have a two-gots is your child. I'm your child. Billy, and now your children have children. And you felt the immense pressure to keep going into work, but also part of that is work was an escape.

The creative outlet brought you peace at times. And it also sometimes, depending on how shows went, compounded what was going on at home. But also hard to do well under those circumstances. The reason that the entree was Marvin Jones is because I identified with the struggle of like, what do I do? What do you do when you have all of these people you care about and a responsibility to all of them.

It falls all on you. And yeah, a lot of that stuff, I knew you were going through at the time. You would try to open up to me. And again, I'm very bad at this. And I kind of felt what was needed was just to be your fun house, the fun sandbox and also just push this thing forward. And I think that there was a realization, I hope with our audience, as hosts are also entitled to age with grace.

And we know that we've been around for a very long time. I do think that there was a, and I hope you felt it, a huge amount of support and understanding when you delivered the news about your brother over the air, which by the way, I know that we were close, but I discovered truthfully that your brother had passed on from you on the air. I think that a lot started to make sense for the listener. And my hope as a producer of this show,

for however long sitting in this chair is, you went through some stuff that will change you forever, change you forever. And on top of that, you're older, you're a different person than you were. We're all very different than we were when we were, I had a ESPN, we're better in some respects, we're worse than others, through whatever prism you may view that.

Let's just say the Reddit prism is what I have to say. No, but I had to check out, like, because of what my last two years are, I've always found criticism hugely constructive, hugely helpful, our audience knows what's good and when we're not meeting that standard. But all of that has gotten so cruel and because I'm in a diminished confidence state, because my temperament isn't right day to day to do this, I have had to totally check out on criticism that used to be helpful just because it was hurting me for the first time.

Same. And I think what was going on there with me is the same thing that was going on with you is that years ago the criticism would not get to me as much because I was way more confident in what I was doing and that I knew better. Now I still feel that way to a degree because I'm a narcissist. Well, but I've never lacked confidence doing this and the last couple of years is the first time that's happened. But I think it's understandable. I mean, it's understandable if you're me, it's not understandable if you're listening

to this and you want the show to be exactly what it's always been. And here your host is falling apart and doesn't know if he should even be at work. Like doesn't, doesn't know if he should be with his wife taking care of, like just an avalanche of things arrived that there's no handbook for. And with that came the realization that the show has to evolve because if you've listened to the show over the course of the 20 years that we've been doing it, the show has reinvented itself from before Hawk to during Hawk to after Hawk from what Hawk put his name in the title to ESPN and video integration to the pirate phase to where we are now,

which is a unique position for us as we've partnered up with another startup company. And in many respects, some of our startup growing pains compounded one another. And we've struggled, I know I have with the lack of visibility because there's a value in just being on mute on a television. As you're walking in an airport.

Yeah, there is a value and I do find myself getting jealous and I do find myself consuming perceived competitors and looking at rankings and seeing where there's a dip there and looking at some metrics and saying, oh, there's a dip there, what can we do? What can we do about it? And I- This is knocked out some of the,

the last couple of years has knocked out wherever it is that I was competitive on this stuff. I really have gotten to a peaceful place. Yeah, I know you're not there, but I've gotten to a peaceful place on the idea of success is being able to do it hard stop. Like being able to do it well, being able to do it happily, but in this climate where all the seeds are disappearing and we are uniquely

positioned to have a very good opportunity to be able to do this ourselves for ourselves for a long time. And that to me, I've learned it later in life that where I was competitive doesn't serve me anymore. Right, I think for most of our shows history, we were always a scrappy underdog. And then after we got the draft Kings deal is like, okay, well, we won. How do we do this now that we've won?

And yet we saw obstacles that we had to figure out how to navigate. And now the obstacle is, as we've all gotten older, as we've all changed, as we all have had these heartbreaking life experiences, where do we go from here? And the answer for the last month has been Los Angeles and your brother spiritually wanted you to be out here.

Part of the reshaping of our show is these partnerships and these people, these mentors, the company has mentorship programs with Mike Sherry and Adam McKay. And realizing that we don't have all the answers and realizing that we want to be that cutting edge creative show. Look, I've noticed where we've dipped in certain places. I've seen things, creative things, systematically get stripped away from the show as the main

thing has just been pushing out this content and just being replaced by dudes. Thankfully, fewer dudes and more women than most of the people in the sports being in the landscape, but still generally, dudes talking into microphones. I look at the lay of the land and I see part of my take is dudes talking into microphones and they're younger and they have a unicorn talent over there and they're really damn good and a couple of years ago I used to be like, yeah, we can go toe to toe, but I realize we have to be different. Pat McAfee, charismatic dude, really energetic, really fun. That's dudes talking into microphones and he's doing it on the platform, an even bigger platform than ESPN afforded us. So where do we win? We win by being creative, but it's hard to be creative, especially for you

when you're dealing with everything that you were dealing with. And I think I speak for the audience. So many times, be it a moss or even at the airports, someone came up to me or I just saw a video Even at the airports, someone came up to me or I just saw a video of Lucie at USC and one of the students at the tailgate was thanking you for just being there for them. And I think that that resonates even more now with how honest you've been with the audience in that you were being there for them.

When you desperately needed someone being there for you, thankfully you had your wife, you had this show, but I don't think anybody could really step up to the level that was required given what you just shared. I will say to that audience that one of the reasons out beach sessions is gonna get better and more vulnerable and we're going to be coming out here to make sure that that property has

the voice in it and the platform that it needs to talk most honestly with people. But even though it has been noisy and a confidence test for two years to see and hear the audience notice with some anger that the show isn't what they've wanted it to be and maybe not these last two weeks either because I know anytime different show anytime we throw change and unrest it gets it's such an intimate medium or friends in your head we're dragging a lot of people through bed and bad work, bad jobs where half of the, they want the show, they expect the show to be a certain thing. Yeah, the LA shows kind of feel like they've turned into like a poorly dressed sports reporters. The most poorly dressed and also the proportion here that makes a little part. Yeah, I'm not so happy with this where you look so much smaller. I know you've lost some great points. It's why Mike sure and Adam McCay are such great mentors. They're like with lighting and everything, you can make it so that somebody...

How are over you in some of these videos? Brad Williams, a little person, looks bigger than I am in some of these videos. But our audience, and Mike, this is what I will tell you. And I've said this before, and I don't mean it to be so too syrupy, but I do believe that as an authentic, different media thing in this competitive media landscape, the thing that we have, that no one else has, no one else has, is that the people whose loyalty is tested even with the battering the show has taken over the last two years, their loyalty, because they ride with us from there. Of, we know what this thing is about,

what it tries to be, what it is efforting to be, and it's an honest version of itself, the loyalty is at least in part, because they believe that they know what this thing is, and they expect this thing to not disappoint them, wherever it is, on issues of the day, on how strong the product is, they expect us not to mail it in and go Hollywood and stop caring. And I'm here to assure you the reason that I'm sharing this with the audience right now,

through the unrest of what I imagine, Mike. I imagine that our show is being met very poorly. I don't know this over the last two weeks, but just with the experience that I have of people generally don't like change unless it's immediately good and change doesn't tend to be immediately good. It takes a minute. The loyalty of our audience has buoyed me there because I think it's unusual the amount of times we get from the people listening to this right now who say, thank you for dragging me through that bad time in a way that brought me something that felt less bad. I will say that the job has done that for me, even at times when I've been thinking, I need to step away from this for a while.

I need to go take care of this thing. And I still think you should. I still think that you should, but I I share the same concerns that if you step away, like what becomes of us. But the criticisms from the audience, while they're more than amused to, while I take them more personally than I ever have, because of my own lack of confidence, it's still a driving force in realizing, no, this is an acknowledgement. Some of your criticisms are true. The show isn't what it once was. And quite frankly, I don't know if it'll ever be that again.

And the pressure that I personally feel is someone that found, found himself back in the EP slot. And during the course of the finals, I was kind of like half in one foot in, one foot in my other responsibilities from Metal Arc. And while you were away, I was just looking at metrics and realizing like, okay, this is quantifiable. The lack of confidence and what it is that we're doing because sometimes I don't know if something's good while I'm making it. And sometimes I do. I generally tend to know. I generally tend to feel like if

it meets our standard, it's probably pretty good. How is this going? I think it's honest. It is honest. And hopefully the audience takes it to heart, seeks it out. And hopefully this serves as an explanation as to why maybe some of those doubts about us have crept in over the last few years. And we're given voice to it that some of them are true, but we're trying to reshape what it is that we're doing.

And once again, reinvent ourselves in the face of challenges that we've never had to before. And trust me, leaving ESPN, doing a show the very next day with a company that I had to alert, hey, well, how do we have internet? You know, that was, I was pretty challenging. We've always found a way to persevere

and navigate these difficult spots. But I can readily admit that right now, I think that this has unsettled ground as I've ever been on around this show, because you've been dealing with stuff that is very clearly waiting on you. It's scary. It's also invigorating and it's fulfilling when you get the shared laughter with people you care about of having done it well. I do agree with the original critique though that I didn't have to spend six minutes talking

about Marvin Jones before I got to. My judgment's off. My judgment's been off. I was prepared to go to my Howard. I'm like, where is this Marvin Jones? Where is this going? My first my first reaction because I had bet on that game was like, that guy stinks. I know I'm trying to humanize him and all you're doing is I was trying to figure out whether it cost you

money or hurt you in a suicide pool or a terrible or fantasy. I just watched. I was locked and I'm like, whoa, this guy's bad. Why is Dan trying to make me feel bad for Marvin Jones's personal family matters when I know he's got five catches this year for 35 yards? Don Lebertard. I am mortified to say that it wasn't but like 10 years ago that I didn't even realize that I went one time to Ron McGill Zoo wearing accidentally my mother's shirt.at's not realizing that I'd buttoned it. That's impossible. It's not impossible. It was one of the most airheaded things.

It seems ridiculous. For everybody involved, I was much leaner at the time. I don't want to make my mother. That's impossible. 280. That's also impossible. This is the Don Lebert Show with this two cats. I guess the reason why we just had the last two segments.

I got to stop crying. I have to stop doing that. That was reserved for Cookelear shows. I have to stop doing that. I know that you're genuinely going through something. And I, you know how much I love you and I value that you love me in the audience that you're going to share this in front of how are the camera guys feeling about all of this. It's pretty heavy. It's awkward. Yeah, they haven't. They must be so confused because

we've done a couple of South Beach sessions while we're here and all they've seen me do is cry. So it's just I'm the crying journalist. But the reason why we just, the ultimate reason why we had the last two segments, so we just had was I had a plan for today's show. And it was a great segment that was done with Mike Sherry and Dan, and it was about sports fandom and how a team can grab hold of a city. And when you have that beautiful relationship where the team takes on the identity of the city and the city loves the team. It's this galvanizing force and it's an amazing thing. And her race sports is why we love everything. We taped that last week to air and her race sports is why we love everything. We taped that last week to air today and that team and that city was Philadelphia and the Phillies.

I believe we should still air that just. I've known that's the reason I believe after this segment, we should air that just so that people can laugh the way that you've been laughing for a week since we taped this segment. I will tell the audience this. We have no segments in the bank that waited this long. Mike asked me to do something that was ever green for a week later. And I decided to talk to Mike sure about one of his favorite subjects. Baseball, and I decided to try to get Mike interested in baseball again. And the only thing

that got him interested, yes, I succeeded, but the only thing that got you interested in baseball again was the Arizona Diamondbacks did not have a bigger national fan than you rooting for that content to get killed because me and Mike Shore were gas bag no at all is about clearly Philadelphia is going to make it to the world's here. Right. You're not the only gas bag no at all in this equation. I was too. And right before that segment, like make sure this is evergreen.

I have it slated for Thursday of next week. And just make sure it's evergreen. We, I think we did this after Philadelphia went up to O in that series and the decibel levels in Philadelphia were being quantified as some of the loudest ever heard in a baseball stadium. Yeah. And you baseball, you sure baseball experts were so certain that the Phillies were making the world serious that the segment would hold up. Yeah. For a week. Yeah. That you didn't heed my warnings. And yet just powered on with when this airs Philadelphia's got a

love its baseball team, even more, We're probably downplaying how much Philadelphia loves its baseball team. And me as someone that doesn't really follow baseball, but knows historically the playoffs are pretty unpredictable and pretending like you know what's exactly going to happen in that sports seems like a misstep. And to see you guys be so sure that the Phillies would make the world serious. The segment would hold up for seven days. And it wasn't even about the diamond backs of the fillies anymore. In fact, rooting for the diamond backs was counterproductive to what my content strategy is. Because you were rooting against having to do less work.

Yeah, well, you were rooting for me. I think I speak for the audience and myself the mic that they want to hear from is mic sure and it's time is limited as there's no more strike and we decided to use one of those precious twelve and a half minute segments on something that could not air and i was actively rooting against it because you baseball guys all right let's talk about this part for a second because

baseball has been great this year. I tried to tell you earlier this season. I'm like, Mike, they have fixed it. Baseball is fixed. They've shaved an hour of fat off the sport. And now you can just marvel at the skill levels that you are seeing. And so you tuned in the other day for one of the few times this season. You noticed that Dusty Baker was in one dugout and Bruce Bochi was in the other.

And you're like, I didn't miss anything. Everything's the same as it was 20 years ago on a related note. I've seen the draft results of this Abu Dhabi baseball league that's going on. And it's Pablo Sanable and Bartolo Cologne. And I think I may get whatever extra innings is for Abu Dhabi because I'm like, I recognize these people. But what ended up happening as this game was going on is I'm going up and down the sunset strip to Lemmy's Haun's and the whiskey go-go. And I'm asking them to put on this baseball game. Just so that you can laugh at

me and Mike Shore, just so that you could root for the Arizona Diamondbacks to take a lead, just so that you can hear this Philadelphia crowd that we were talking about, not only turn on their team, but in a silence that showed clear and obvious fear, the decibel levels were really low because they spent many, many innings knowing they were going to turn on the heart of that line up. Game six, the best fans in baseball. That loved this baseball team had left the stadium early. We're booing.

And games haven't there. Now they're, they're, they were always prepared. They grease the light post for riots in in Philadelphia. They were so mad and they come off so angry. Yes. And upset with this baseball team that just a week ago, you were so sure was going to make the, the, the world series. I turned

on all these CVs down the sunset strip actively rooting against the Philadelphia Phillies. And I recognized one of the pictures that I was watching was someone that you said is the greatest reliever ever or something like that unhittable and all this. That's right. Alvarado. Yeah, how do you feel? Phillies. Yes, he gave up two hits, a sacrifice fly, a run, and I don't understand how anyone ever gets a hit off of this person. He's no Paul Quantrell. Let me explain a couple of things to both you and the audience. No, go ahead because you, you, you, you, explaining baseball to me has been a winning proposition.

What I'm going to explain to the audience about your joy in all of this is the sport of my youth, the sport that I have loved the most. It is quantifiable and clear at FS one at ESPN that they've done all of the tech metrics that need to be done on what people want minute to minute viewing habit and baseball is not being covered. Even though you had two game sevens and I'm telling you that Astros Ranger season was amazing. Garcia is like a Cuban player for my lifetime in terms of how much swagger he had and how he controlled that series with 15 RBI's. But baseball is being covered very poorly and

awful announcing showed that on the day after one game seven and headed into another game seven from eight a.m. to two p.m. None of the shows talked about baseball. It was only basketball and football because basketball and football are the metrics

that people care about. And so I've been trying to convert you. Someone that I know has this ember flickering somewhere in his heart from 20 years ago. And the only thing that summoned you is being able to turn on the television and laugh at me and Mike sure were talking about how changed Philadelphia was. You need to run this segment, I think at this point, just so people can laugh about it. So how changed Philadelphia was what a great environment it was to have Harper and Castellano's sort of represent the Philadelphia every man. And then in the sixth inning of game six, they're booing, they're leaving by the seventh and eighth inning.

And then the funniest thing to happen in that series is all of the interviews of fans leaving the ballpark as they leave the ballpark. The most exciting environment any of us have ever seen in baseball and they have turned on their team angrily and thankfully not violently but clearly with a hostility that would get to anger given how Philadelphia's past is about sports. You're your bravado and confidence in Philadelphia. It didn't just exude in that segment. But afterwards I'm like, yep, thanks guys.

After we wrap the segment, thanks guys, because I think there were up like two O at the time because it's baseball. They can very clearly lose the diamond backs and you guys doubled and tripled down. Oh, were these great baseball guys? I know everything. We've watched all season. There's no way that is happening. There is none whatsoever.

It's one of the reasons baseball is that great. All of the great teams got knocked out. And instead you have a world series that everyone is now telling me that no one cares about because both of those teams lost 100 plus games two years ago. That's a Rod Barajas. I'm pretty sure he cares. This is the only joy you got from baseball. You had in in the games weren't very good.

No, wait a minute. The Rangers and the Astros each. What's the road team always want? I didn't see that series. They won all seven games. I saw like on like on X people. You don't know what I'm talking about with Garcia. I'll too.

I have my buddy master just Foxy and the Ranger. And he said that I'm now his second favorite Cuban. I don't know what that means. Okay, let me explain to you what happened in that series, what you missed and what you did not care about, because it included Dusty Baker doing something I have never seen, which is he was ejected and simply refused to leave. And everyone in baseball looked at each other and was like,

what do we do if this is the case? Because no one ever refused. That's a great move. Like, what do you do? He refused to leave. And not in disguise, Bobby Valentine is just standing in the dugout, but they're trying to icing the pitcher, but not only icing the pitcher successfully icing the pitcher, because I'll two of a hits the home run. This was after Garcia had been plunked on purpose

because he's too showy in a playoff game or it looked like he was plunked on purpose. The Astros claim he wasn't. Dusty Baker refused to leave the field because he's saying he wasn't. Does it look like he's the field because he's saying he wasn't. Does it look like he's too showy or is he too showy? Um, I mean, he's about as swaggering as arrogant and on home runs as anyone. Yes. Yeah. He is that show. We and he creates unrest. But again, probably deserved it. 15 RBI in that series though. 15, 15, including all the ones in game six and seven then end up deciding the series after they plonked He sends dusty Baker into retirement does one of dusty bakers last acts is simply the energy of I'm not leaving the field

You protected me, but I don't respect your authority to kick me out now. What are you going to do? I would like to see that extrapolated to the end where you have a near eighty year old man being taken off physically by security i think i am a baseball baseball uniform couple more baseball questions that i have has proofs bocees had gotten any bigger i mean it's always uh... leading the league in surface area there is no one i thought cladclin hurdle made a run at him for a while but uh... this may be a really dumb question because i there was a time where I was deeply

passionate about baseball and you'd assume that I might know the answer to this. How often has someone taken three different baseball teams to the world series? Well, it's not just that. Dombowski's a legitimate, legitimate Hall of Famer, a legitimate. He's the philates. No, he didn't. He's not getting there, but no, but he was right there to getting the philates. He's with the ph the fill. He's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the

he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's the he's and Mike sure and Dan get to be cocky baseball guys, even though I made them sweat, which was pretty good, a win in its own right. The fact that I can make fun of David Samson for two teams that spent close to $2 billion to get to the world series was also appealing to me. So I was in a proverbial no lose situation. You have to give the audience the segment somewhere. You have to, even if it's not...

YouTube exclusive. Dan, let's put that as a YouTube exclusive with like a subtitle this was recorded when the fillies were up to oh and And Mike repeatedly Turned down warnings for Mike because I thought the context is Mike told us right before we started talking and don't talk baseball This needs to hold for a week one week you, you never do that. I specifically said, don't talk baseball. In the history of the show, we have never done that where something

needs to hold for a week. Yeah. No way I watch this world series now, unless you will make sure do something arrogant, which he's in tomorrow so probably. Okay, well, we have to figure out something to do because Chris Mad Dog Ruthussos threatened to retire the moment that Arizona won the series. And now he says it's just from radio. And now he says it's not at all. Yeah. Howard Stern's making him dress up in a bikini, I think. Who can you do that?

I will do that. I will do that.