The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Local Hour: BOOM BOOM!

Episode Date: September 19, 2024

Today's cast: Dan, Amin, Chris, Jeremy, Roy (who was slightly behind), and Tony. While it's still time to celebrate the trailblazing nature of Adrian Wojnarowski post-retirement, Dan and Amin want to discuss some of the behind the scenes elements of Woj's career at ESPN and how his role impacted others' opportunities for better and for worse. Then, Kurt Warner wonders how people "watch all the games" as he breaks down film which leads the crew to a conversation on the different roles on sports TV and what ACTUALLY goes into each. Plus, Shohei Ohtani is the greatest baseball player who ever lived and continues to prove why. Also, remember Jim Abbott? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. often as you'd like? Or has that sense of curiosity been left behind? Kids are always learning, always growing, but as adults sometimes we lose that spark. What's something you've been wanting to pick up? Gardening, a new language, maybe finally beat your best friend in bowling. Therapy can help you reconnect with that sense of wonder. Your back-to-school era can start at any age. Better help, because learning and growing should never stop. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give Better Help a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists

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Jersey City, New Jersey, please drink responsibly. Shadow Show. Shadow Show. Shadow Show. Shadow Show. Shadow Show. Shadow Show. Shadow Show. Amin isn't really a morning person totally, so when he hits me with a burst of enthusiasm and burger breath saying yesterday was National Burger Day. It startles me because I'm not used to this early in the morning I mean having fire yet. What what did you do on National Burger Day because my father celebrates National Burger Day. He informed me yesterday that

you could get a one-cent bacon cheeseburger at Wendy's with any purchase for a penny and as we learned yesterday a penny costs more to make than it does to spend. It costs almost three times as much to make a penny as it does to have a penny have any value. Which means technically that burger costs three billion dollars according to Greg. That's right. According to the mathematics of Greg Kabuki, the Greg Kabuki. But what did you do to celebrate Burger Day?

So my buddy Antoine told me, hey, a lot of places are doing two for ones. Should look it up. So I looked it up and sure enough, there was a burger joint that was doing two for ones. I got two burgers and a milkshake. And I said, maybe this is too much food at midnight. But I said, you know what?

It's National Burger Day. Now put it on the poll, Juju, please. Is two burgers and a much food at midnight. But I said, you know what? It's National Burger Day. Now put it on the pole, Juju, please. Is two burgers and a milkshake at midnight too much food? What constitutes a purchase? Like, can I just go in there and be like, I would like a side of ranch, please. And it's like 25 cents and it's like, all right, give me my junior bacon cheeseburger.

You think you can, they're probably rules. We should have tested it yesterday. We should have sent you in trying to do it. The cheapest thing I can find. Yes, I would have assumed, without reading the fine print, that you have to buy something that's at least worth as much as what the bacon cheeseburger

would normally be worth. You know what the end around for that is? You say, I'd like one side of ranch, please. Oh, here you go, go just take it. Like, no, I wanna pay for it. How much? By the way, when I ask you at the window for an extra side of ranch, don't here you go, go just take it. Like no, I wanna pay for it! How much? By the way, when I ask you at the window for an extra side of ranch, don't tell me it's 19 cents.

Like give me the side of ranch. Does that annoy you more at a fast food joint or like a regular wing joint? Cause if I order 10 wings, and nowadays, 10 wings is like 20 bucks, and I use my little ramekin of ranch, give me more god damn ranch. Yeah, I think if you are-

No more charge. If you are anything more than a fast food place, like get a grip. I get it, you don't want people abusing it, but if someone's just asking for one more ranch or one more blue cheese, just give it to them. There's no middle ground with fast food places. They either charge you for every single one

or they will take a handful and like throw you 72 ranches that's all about the manager if your managers up your ass about it Look, there's the places where they charge you. These are poor these frontline people man. They just they don't have a hard time They just act like there's coming out of their check or something They asked the waiter like hey Can I get an extra ranch and it's the one that it's like the Ken's ranch that has like the peel off foil on the Top and he's like I'm like buddy, it's one ranch, it's 19 cents, what are you giving me that for? If you got a waiter, nah, man, you cannot be treating your customers like that.

If you're a fast food place, I get it, because then, like I said, if the manager, the owner has it, then they're doing all types of accounting and stuff, like, wait, man, we lost $17 this month, what happened? Well, Tony's been giving out ranches left to right, like they're popcorn. Old burger breath Jeremy, who just whispered in my ear,

I interviewed Jake Burger for Burger Day. Oh God. Available now on Miami Mike Dubb. Get out Jeremy. Yes. Wherever you get your podcasts. Well, we're shorthanded today, so to send him out is gonna cost us.

Delayed penalty maybe? I mean, I get to talk baseball? No, well, I do need you to talk baseball, but nobody here wants to talk baseball, which I'm pretty bothered by. Nobody ever wants to talk about what I want to talk about minor penalty two minutes asshole there yeah but it's said incorrectly it should be two minutes asshole it's not the penalty should be for being an asshole. It's not two minutes, comma, asshole.

Call him an asshole. That's right. Like the phrasing on this isn't, isn't correct. We need a pause. Yeah. Well, a comma, we need a comma. So it doesn't sound like it's just someone penalizing him for being an asshole by calling him an asshole. This is the Don LeBattor Show with the Stugats Podcast.

Today's episode is sponsored by DraftKings. Stay tuned because you'll hear more about DraftKings than all it has to offer throughout the show. DraftKings, the crown is yours. If you've been listening here for a while, you know that I am fascinated by everything happening in the business of sports content, at least in part because I'm not retired right now because what Metal Arc Media is doing is trying to compete in the space of sports

media content. I can't help but find it fascinating when ESPN turns into a bit of a frat house where on Monday night football they're saying tits and again and again and Pat McAfee is getting drunk in Ireland and Shannon Sharp has a sex tape. It's a super interesting time to see what happens when athletes converge on what used to be a journalistic space and kick down the door on we're here now, and McAfee goes begrudgingly to a meeting on campus with journalists he doesn't like

and that he says don't like him, because of course the athletes are a threat to everything that's been the standard in this industry for a while. To be fair, McAfee is one down in terms of journalists he doesn't like would like him that the way about that anymore how do you mean all because he knocked out woe jane and he knocked out woe

jwile using shams which was interesting and woe jaz pataro as a giant ally i mean he's got the president of the company is responsible for everything that's happened with woe jr uh... and and mcafee was using shams his nemesis on the espn in the afternoon when and and amin left this part out a lot of people don't know this and it's a little early for because we're celebrating the pioneering career of woege but woege was really vindictive about how he carved out the space on the espn for where it is that people would and could be used around basketball, and he consolidated all of the power.

I'm saying that, not a mean. I know that because I've talked to too many people at ESPN who were afraid of falling on the wrong side of woge. Also, it's never fun when you find out where in the picking order you are. You think you're number one, and then all of a sudden someone walks in and says, hey, I wanna put Shams on my show every week. And you can't do nothing

about it and your big brother can't do nothing about it. That's got to be a jarring situation. Imagine that, okay, just in the minutia of silly sports media stuff. Woj's ally is the president of the company. But McAfee's got the relationship with Iger. That's the head of Disney. And McAfee had to get in there and be rented, not owned, under the understanding, because he cares deeply about his audience and not changing, not changing because Disney makes him change. So he says, I'm going to do it. You got to let me do it the way that I want i'm gonna do it you got let me do

it the way that i want to do it you got let me curse you gotta let me do the things i want which include shams woj's nemesis when woj was controlling where everybody was like don't get this part twisted if people were appearing somewhere on the network woj had a hand in how it is that that was happening and the opposite if people weren't appearing on the network, Woj had a hand in how it is that that was happening. And the opposite, if people weren't appearing on the network, there was that too.

That part's more damning. Isn't it? Like I just feel like, the first part what Dan said, that's kind of normal I think, of like creating opportunities for people. It's the- The removal of opportunities, the suppression of opportunities.

It's real power, okay? Woj was a power broker, Potaro's a power broker, McAfee's a power broker, and Eiger is the biggest of the power brokers. But the reason I bring all of this up, okay, as we all compete in this space, and I know you guys get tired of me talking about it, but as I said, it's been a singular obsession.

I've never cared about the business of money before this because I just wanted to speak at the microphone and do the writing, but now we're responsible for trying to compete in this space and we're trying to do it by doing it differently. But Kurt Warner said this on Monday and I want to, after football games, and this is the part that I want to talk to you about. I want to talk to you about documentaries too, as I see that Oprah and Apple are fighting, and she just bought back. She didn't like the documentary that Apple was doing,

so she just bought it back from Apple. Must be nice. Yeah. Kurt Warner says on Monday, I've been grinding tape since 8 p.m. last night, and I have gotten through 10 games. How do all of these people talk about these players and teams on a Monday as if they've watched the games

and really can evaluate them? Can you guys share your routine so I can see if it's more efficient? And then Ryan Fitzpatrick gets in with, I would recommend a healthy dose of Red Zone and Steven A. Anything more than this and you're wasting your time, Kurt. That's a great tweet. I mean, this part is interesting to me

because Kurt Warner is unbelievably meticulous about what his analysis is going to be and he's going to be careful about criticizing people because he lived it and he wants people if they're going to criticize to be informed and not be flippant but the grand majority of most football coverage on television on mondays is less informed and prepared then kurt warner's

but we gotta go to market and so not everyone's breaking down game tape and what do you do with what it is the kurt warn is saying there? Because he's trying to play the game fair, but that's not what's gonna get rewarded. It's not gonna, ESPN has Zorlovski, they have NFL Live, they have Ryan Clark doing some film breakdown. McAfee does a ton of it,

because people do like film breakdown. But he's not wrong when he says this is a super complicated sport. And in order to analyze it correctly you gotta be thorough and you can't do it on all of the games on monday morning so so dan let me tell you so first and foremost it always blows my mind whatever your sport is whether it's football is basketball is baseball or whether you are generalist of sports generalist right the people said

i had uh... bucks raiders on that screen and I had, you're full of shit. There's no way you can watch multiple games at the same time and be detailed and nuanced. Correctly. You can watch it, popcorn and beer, sure. Wings and beer, oh my God, oh my God, he just had it.

You can do that. You cannot watch and retain information and nuanced information what you're going to job but you're talking about this the way that you watch basketball you and i watch basketball differently you're sitting there watching every possession and you're doing analysis on adjustments that i'm not doing i am doing popcorn and and a drink i'm not analyzing what his spolstra done in this time out

while I'm watching four other basketball games. So when you put that in that perspective, Dan, if you are watching, and this is why it always tickles me, when people watch general sports shows, what Kurt Warner's talking about, he's talking about NFL specific, and we'll get to that in a second, but people who watch

first take Undisputed those kind of shows and then Yell and argue about what Stephen a or skip or Shannon says that do you think these people watched every single sporting event with a keen Eye and like and nuance and with the DVR pausing. Well, I do wonder though. I wonder what the audience, given the power. There's a difference. What I'm building to is there's a difference

between a general sports analyst and a sports specific analyst. There's a difference that you're making that I don't think the audience is making. I don't think, I believe the power of television is such that if there's expertise being blown in my face on television, that the grand, especially if it's morning television,

especially if it's the audience that has historically been around morning television, which back before the pandemic wasn't working. Like wasn't, during the day was at home instead of being somewhere that they had to be working. Those people were watching sports and I don't believe they're making a distinction, the distinction that you're making between Stephen A says this and Kurt Warner says that.

They might say Kurt Warner knows more because he's a quarterback, but they're not going to say Kurt Warner's analyzing that game because he's breaking down tape in a way that Stephen A. Smith isn't. I don't believe those are distinctions being made by an audience. I think the other thing too is when you look at those morning day television parts where people don't want to hear cover two shell breakdown, right?

Like you want to hear the headlines of the day. You're tuning in to hear, oh, the Cowboys lost 45-19. What's happening with Dak today? Did he deserve the money that they gave him to be in the season? It's hard to break down nuance like, oh, the corner was lost 45-19. What's happening with Dak? Did he deserve the money that they gave him to beat him this season? It's hard to break down nuance like, oh, the corner was shading to the inside here. That's why he was able to beat the man on the,

like those kinds of things are tough to digest early in the morning, if at all. Well, no, absolutely. That's a morning show. No one's coming for hard analysis. They're coming for just get me caught up on everything that happened last night because I went to bed early, right?

Is Kurt Warner attacking like Stephen A here, or is he attacking fans? He's not attacking. He's asking, he's almost not, like, bless his heart. He's like, how is everyone else doing this? Am I doing this wrong? Well, I think he's being sarcastic. I think he's seeing a lot of bloviating on television

and saying, these people are giving very strong opinions without being as informed as I am about the opinions that they're giving. That's an obnoxious tweet from Kurt Warner. No, no, no, guys, you got this all wrong. Kurt Warner's a nice guy, man. I know he's a nice guy, but he's being, it's kinda like we did a thing here

when we went out to Dolphins training camp a few years ago. For the next three weeks, we were all just like, I was out at camp, and whatever I say after that, that's what he's doing here. I just want everyone to know, I'm watching all these games. Dan Olawski does this stuff too, where he posts a video,

he's just like, just so you know, I've been diving into the tape here. It's like, you're watching a little tape, okay? You don't need to overstate it. They're just shoving in our face, we get it, you're smarter than us, Kurt Warner, we get it, you know football.

That's really what he's doing there. He's like, I don't know what everyone else is doing, but I'm watching every game, every play. And it's like, we getcha. I don't know why you guys are getting a Kurt Warner here, man. He's a nice guy. They made a movie about him. I like Kurt Warner.

I'm just saying, this is a look at me Louie tweet. I don't know if you do. This is a look at me Louie tweet. This is him saying, I watch tape and the film better than everybody else, as you should. Look at me Louie. It's like, as you should. Look at me moving. It's like, yeah. Yeah.

You co-signing this nonsense? Well, you keep coming back with Kurt Warner's A Nice Guy, which no one disputes. Too sweet to be sarcastic. Too sweet to be sarcastic. I don't believe that was a genuine question that he was throwing at the internet. Please, internet, help me be more efficient

at how I study football. Please teach me Juan Lemonface 46534. Are you breaking down more film than I am? And Ryan Fitzpatrick in that tweet, like he senses what I got. So he's like, let me give him a little something here. Like, oh, you're gonna be, like, we get you, Kurt. You're watching all the film.

Sarcastic asshole, Ryan Fitzpatrick. There you go See that answer I was sarcastic that was sarcastic one of the frustrations that I had as I came up in the business I mean is that I was perpetually explaining to people the difference between a beat writer or a Reporter and what it is that I was doing columnist as a columnist i'd always had to explain and in people's eyes would glaze over the beat reporter uh... is interested in news in facts uh... it's not about analysis it's not about opinion i was explaining this all the time and i might as well have not been because it didn't matter that i was explaining it to athletes and

everyone else alike i don't believe that when people are consuming most sports coverage that they're being any kind of discerning. They're just trying to rest their mind and maybe something on the television is interesting or entertaining, but they're not making much of a distinction, I don't think, between the generalist, as you said,

because it's not possible for Stephen A. Smith to know everything about everything it's not possible to be one of the i mean i know sounds like it but it's not possible to be somebody who's uh... whom who is thoroughly informed on all the sports the same way there's a reason that they're expert ariel hawani can exist in one sport he can and he's talented enough to do that in a couple of sports we can do it in all sports no no it's it's like when Adam Schefter was doing

South sideline NBA games I was like look there's no shortage of people that we have at the network who are qualified who have done this job who want that job who want more opportunities more reps at that job and because Adam Schefter played fantasy basketball with Chris Paul or whatever, fantasy football Chris Paul, he's like I kind of got into this NBA thing I want to do this sideline stuff. I'm like you're demeaning the position like this isn't like just something that anyone walks in and does this is something that requires an acumen connections and a dedication to it. So I mean I would

propose to you right now, we can define all the different roles, right? You have a show host, a studio show host. Their job is to make great television. How do I keep the conversations balanced? How do I get all the voices in there? When do we move on to the next topic? All right, so think of your Chris Fowlers,

think of your Mike Greenbergs. That's who you are. Your Pablo Torres. Right, sure. And why'd you roll your eyes at Pablo Torres? This guy, this guy. Does he really move on to other topics? He's one of the star hosts of Menolark

and you're sitting there mentioning all the other people at other companies. I'm always smiling. I'm too sweet to be sarcastic, Dan. All right, so next you have your analysts. Now, analysts come in different flavors. You have your former athletes, you have your former coaches slash front office people,

and then you have people who have been reporting and digging into this area for so long that they've almost like in the newspaper version, they've graduated from beat writer to columnist so Stephen a Smith would be an example right Stephen a Smith Anytime anything NBA happens. It's not just because Stephen a Smith is a magnetic personality It's also because he has bona fides. He covered the NBA for a very long time. He is very connected in that world So when he sits down in an analyst seat

That's why he gets to do that. Max Kellerman on boxing, right? He is so deep and connected in that world, even though he is not a former boxer or a boxer training or whatever, we accept that his knowledge is so deep and runs back so far that he can sit in that analyst seat, right? Then you have reporters. And these are your newsbreakers, your Schefters, your Passons, you know, your Chris Haines' your Shoms' these are the guys that are going out there getting information and then breaking it to us.

When Shoms tells us something, when Chris Haines tells us something, when Jeff Passons tells us something, 99% of the time. That's always right. Not only is it right, why is it right then? Because they're not telling you their opinion. I'm not telling you, like I think it's going to be 92 degrees today.

They're telling you, I just checked the thermometer, it's 92 degrees right now. That's what they're telling you, which is different from me and you saying, I think it's going to be hot today. We've had a crazy hot streak the last week. You're making distinctions though that I believe the average person watching sports television is simply saying to themselves i could do that i Have had no training in any of these things i can do every one of those jobs That's being done up there maybe some of them are saying i'm too shy to do it

But that i don't believe that they believe that there's any special training that goes into much of anything that is on television when it comes to sports expertise. I had this conversation with a comedian buddy of mine, right? We were talking about podcasts, like the people who do podcasts, who are funny on podcasts, but are not comedians, and how they react to the backlash when something goes wrong. And I was saying to him, I said, the reason why is because you guys, you comedians,

you are used to, hey, I went up on a stage with a microphone and I said stuff that the crowd instantly did not like. They didn't think it was funny or thought it was offensive or whatever, and you gotta navigate that. And that's your life as a comedian Right. Whereas people were funny on podcasts again, you're not looking at an audience even right now We're one of the biggest podcasts in the world. I don't see millions of listeners. I see cameras. I see Jeremy

I see Chris. I see you. I don't see the people who are listening to watching to this on YouTube You'll hear from them later. I'll hear from them later, but I'm used to it, right? I'm used to people not liking, not agreeing. If I'm a host of a podcast that's popular, gaining popularity, and I say something and people say, wait, it's like, I don't like that thing, all of a sudden I'm getting this negative feedback that I've never gotten in my life at this scale. And so I don't know how to handle that they think it's easy to sit here and speak in the mike and be interesting

and funny and insightful every time it's not but it looks easy you know why cuz we're fucking good everyone thinks they're showman where's my camera until the lights are on till the bright lights turn on and then you choke. You can't do this. I saw Roy Wood's new show. It's exceptional.

It's really, it's got range and it's really hard to do what he's doing and make it look as easy as they make it look to have a space between smart and dumb, a range. It's uncommon. What is it? What is the name of the show because he's only it's only had one episode and it's something along the lines of I've got news for you but it's a it I'd love that you know Bill Maher tackles it one way John Oliver tackles it another the way that he is getting people informed

by bringing them into a circus tent where a bunch of comedians are talking about the news of of the week and downloading everybody on what's happening in america with information that's funny but also informative it's hard to do all of that in their first show at least and i'm assuming it will grow it was excellent called have i got For You. And the other thing about that show, John Oliver's show, and indeed any general sports show, right, that the part that people don't understand also is those shows all have armies of researchers. Damn right.

Their hosts are getting handed stacks of information. Mike Greenberg would walk, we can make as many jokes as we want about Greeny. He's excellent at hosting. Greeny would get a dossier this big every morning about everything that happened in sports and he's thorough, he goes through it, and so when he sits in that seat and he talks, and he's talking from topic to topic, he may not have watched any of it, but he's

got a playbook of information that he has processed and is now Regurgitating very expertly which again is not well easy job you say this I want to ask you guys this question Everyone listening to this and everyone watching this Yes, or no you believe they think they could do greenies job Yes, or no, because I believe the grand majority of people listening to this think that it's just sitting up there and there's not an actual skill to it, that it's just finger guns. I can't explain to you how bad Stugatz would be at the hosting job. Even though he thinks he would be great at every job in

sports media, he would be so very bad at it because he would just over laugh every time he got nervous and not realize, no, you got to carry it here. This is something that you can't just laugh and sink into the laughter. He would be so chummy too with like the former athletes. It would just be like a chuckle fest between everybody But you would crush it Dan I Have been a host. I wouldn't be a host at one of those. I wouldn't be good at one of those shows I don't I'm not particularly good at television. I'm just okay at television like that's not that's a different skill set It's a all of these are different skill sets. What are you shaking your face about?

Yeah, it feels a little fake humility there like I'm not even that good. No, I don't. I don't think I'm that. I think I'm just okay at television. Dan, you sound like what we told Tracy McGrady. You're going to be a Hall of Famer. And he's like, really? Tracy McGrady, up until they announced, had no idea he was going to be a Hall of Famer. I mean, I don't have any training in television other than doing television. Like I have. That's most of the people on have the people but no but I'm saying I came up as a writer that's not most of the people on TV there are plenty of people who have training in what it is that they're doing you're the anomaly not that not most people that you didn't have training and I didn't have training that's the stuff what do you mean how

do you not understand that this is something that people train for you just did what we were just spending the last 20 minutes Saying the audience doesn't understand you just said I could do that those people don't have training what you just spent 15 minutes Explaining to everybody what the different roles are different single most different the single hardest thing of all the things we've talked about Is probably that driving right that the Ernie Johnson the Mike Mike Greenberg, the host of those pregame shows because you've got to keep it flowing without it seeming too herky-jerky. I don't know. They all got their own difficulties, right? It's kind of like, hey, at what age is it easiest to be a parent? Like when your kid is a baby, when your kid is a toddler,

when they're in high school. It's different. What is the answer to that? What is the answer to that? There is no answer. The answer is it's always hard. It's just different kind of hard. After 18 has to be the easiest time to be a parent, no? Because at that point, you really can't tell them shit. And yet, you still will always feel that, no, no, but I'm your parent. You think, I talked to you about this,

I don't know if it was on or off the, oh, it was when we were Pablo, and I said, the way sometimes you talk to and about your dad makes me wanna slap you. Like, how dare you, man? Like, what do you think this guy thinks? Do you think this guy looks at you as Dan Leventhal, this master of an empire?

No, he looks at you like, little Daniel, talking shit back to me, are you kidding me? The easiest part to parenting, the easiest window, is like three months to seven months. Because like the first three months, they don't sleep, it's like crazy sleep schedules. Once you get them on that sleep schedule around three months to seven months. Because like the first three months, they don't sleep, it's like crazy sleep schedules. Once you get them on that sleep schedule around three months, before they're lifting their neck up,

they just go wherever you put them. They just plop them down, they'll stay right there. If they cry, feed them. That's it. First of all, you don't know why they're crying. Sometimes it's they're upset. Sometimes they shat themselves. Sometimes-

If they cry, feed them. It works. See, there you go. Thenoking like the dad, right? That's definitely dad talk right there. Like, well, I don't know, it's easy. 37 months, I had to do shit. Yeah, you didn't have to do shit. No, I'm telling you, even that window of three to seven

months, they're just lying there. Like, once they get to seven months, now they're moving around a little bit more. You're stressed the entire time. Like, oh my God, this hasn't moved yet. Oh my God, they're not even solid yet. Oh my God, like, you're always stressed. You're stressed the entire time, like, oh my god, this hasn't moved yet, oh my god, they're not even solid yet, oh my god, like, you're always stressed. You're stressed holding him the first couple of months,

by three months, you're twirling that thing around like a pizza. I'm like, got one hand, I'm making a phone call, I got the kid in one hand. I'm telling you, by three months, you're like, you're good. And this is why your kid cusses you out now. I can't believe that you thought it was easy, three to seven months, when they're screaming shit monsters.

Like I am terrified of that age. You're spinning infants around on your finger like metal lark lemon. Folks, The Dan LeBattard Show with Stu Gotts is sponsored by BetterHelp. What's something that you'd love to learn? As an adult, do you make time to explore the new things as often as you'd like? Or has that sense of curiosity been left behind? Kids are always learning, always growing, but as adults sometimes we lose that spark. What's something you've been wanting to pick up? Gardening, a new language, maybe finally beat your best friend in bowling. Therapy can help you reconnect with that

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But it's just his titties are sitting on the shelf that is his belly. Stugats. He said titties. It like shocked me a little bit. I wasn't quite prepared for titties are sitting on the shelf that is his belly. Stugats! He said titties and it like shocked me a little bit. I wasn't quite prepared for titties. This is the Don LeVatar Show with the Stugats! We're on Max right now and you can catch us on the DraftKings network from Monday to Friday 11 to 2 p.m. Eastern. We are also on Peacock with Dan Patrick, NBC Sports Fast

Channel, Monday through Friday from 12 to 3 Eastern. YouTube is always available for you at 9 a.m. in the morning with our live show, Eastern Time. But when I mentioned Dan Patrick, he had a similar take to Greg Cody yesterday on the arbitrary Otani and the 50-50 just being a round number. Otani is in town, he stole another base yesterday. I'm telling you, even with the new base stealing rules where there are limits on the number of times that you can throw to first base, it's still startling to me to see someone of that size stealing bases like Konseko, Konseko did it for a while,

but getting to 50 bases stolen at that size when you're that kind of power guy is unusual. Jeremy, what was his career high in stolen bases before this year? Cause that would be 26. So he just decided, okay, hey, I signed this big deal, can't pitch this year, how else can I add to the team? What can I do here?

I'm gonna steal 50 bases. I mean, like, this is why he is on his way to being the greatest baseball player ever, because he, like, when have we ever seen this? A guy who does everything on the field. No, there's no such thing. Well, he gets caught stealing. He's not that good at it, to be honest.

He gets caught stealing a lot. Why, Tony? He's a tank, what do you want him to do? He gets caught stealing from like's not that good at it, to be honest. He gets caught stealing a lot. What, Tony? He's a tank, what do you want him to do? He gets caught stealing from you, he's 6'5' 270. Well no, but Tony, usually the guy who gets caught stealing a lot is someone who stops stealing. Like that's usually how that one goes. I'm actually curious, Jeremy, are the new rules,

like is it easier to steal now? Yes. With the new rules? Yes. Yes. But he's also only been caught stealing four times this year. A lot of skeptical people are saying that this stolen base increase is because of the new rules. Yes, yes. But he's also only been caught stealing four times this year. A lot of skeptical people are saying that this stolen base increase is because of the new rules. Let me ask a question.

It is. As an ignorant person relative to baseball to everybody else in the room, maybe not Tony. Tony, me and you are on the same, we're on the same ignorant side, right? Thank you, thank you, thank you. Okay. I'm looking up like, hey, what was the most?

50 sounds a lot, what was the most ever? I don't know, it's a hundred and something with Ricky Henderson. The most ever. What? It's 138 by some guy named Hugh Nichol in 1887. I'm just gonna assume that doesn't count because there were no black people or anything. But number two.

Well, there were black people, they just weren't playing baseball. Not playing baseball. Yeah. Number two was Ricky Henderson, who in 1982 stole 130 bases, and I thought about what you just said, he gets caught a lot, right? Because he he steals like a 130 out of 172 attempts how is that possible whatever the rules are how is it possible you steal 130 bases and only get caught like 40 some he was really

good at it I mean he was better than anyone ever at the stealing of bases in fact he stood next to Lou Brock when he broke his record and held the base over his head and said to Lou Brock, I'm the greatest. Like that. That's, what do you mean? How does that happen? Because he was great at stealing bases.

Jeremy, take a look at the career number of times that Otani gets caught stealing because you're doing it this season. It's easier to steal bases. The Nationals are all, they've got like 10 guys who can steal bases. That's entirely fair, but we talk about how crazy it is that he stole 130 bases in 172 attempts.

That's about 75% of the time you're stealing the base. Ohtani's doing it at a 92% clip this year. It's ridiculous. So I can look at the career, but this season, if he attempts to steal, 92% of the time he's safe. That's with 50 homers, 48 homers. What's happening here?

Right, like this guy was created in the lab, no? Like this isn't normal. It is not in any way normal. It is unprecedented in the history of this sport, and this sport has more history than any of the other sports. Years ago, I asked a question, this is when I was college, I asked my buddies, like, why do you keep switching the pitchers, like, well, left-handed pitchers do better

against certain guys, right-handed pitchers. Oh, okay. But if we ever had a guy who's a switch pitcher, and then it thought to me, like, that would be insane. Could you imagine that, if the guy just went up to the mound, like, oh, you wanna throw up one of those, okay, I'll just turn this way, give me my other glove. That would be insane. Could you imagine that if the guy just went up to the mound like, oh, you want to throw up one of those? Okay, I'll just turn this way. Give me my other glove.

That would be crazy. And like, but everyone's like, that's never going to happen. And I look at Shohei now and I'm like, is it that far off? If we see this guy who does everything else perfectly other than throw with his offhand. I think we do have an ambidextrous pitcher. He has one glove that fits both hands, I'm sure. And my limited baseball knowledge. I also had no idea Ricky Henderson stole so many bags I just there was a game this year I'm trying to remember I think it was a

Cleveland game where they hadn't been held to so few hits since they had been no hit by Jim Abbott it was along the lines of, do you guys remember the viral video of two young black kids being introduced to In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins? Telling a generation that Jim Abbott threw a no-hitter with one arm and that there was a Yankee pitcher

who pitched with one arm. Seeing a generation realize, oh my God, there's a guy out there who once upon a time threw a no-hitter and pitched for the Yankees and he had only one arm, it was like a riddle that doesn't have an answer. If you have not seen it, you would not be able to explain. How could you explain to somebody if you have not seen it

that there was a pitcher who had only one arm? Well, I mean, let's be fair. You really are pitching. The other hand, you just needed- Most pitchers use one arm. Yeah, in case the ball comes back, you catch it. But if the ball never comes to you, you could throw a no-hitter, right?

If you're just throwing strikes or pop-ups. It's just more dangerous than anything. Well, it's it's not there's no way to protect himself in the line No, he had the glove no. I what yes. He's what would you think he's playing the position without a glove Yeah, he doesn't need a glove. What? No, so you I'm introducing you to the fact that Jim Abbott threw with one arm and also had a glove. What I'm saying about this being a riddle is, okay, for those of you who don't know about Jim Abbott at all, how the hell are you a Major League pitcher who fields his position with a glove and only has one arm? How do you throw a pitch and have a glove after throwing a pitch?

It's a riddle. That's the more impressive part to be honest. Throwing a no hitter, not impressed. Okay, like so you're a good pitcher. Being able to have a glove that you didn't put on very quickly after you throw in the pitch, that's impressive. But I imagine most people listening to this who don't know what I'm talking about with Jim Abbott don't even know where the glove was because how do you throw a baseball if you've got the glove? If people are listening to this and they don't know what I'm talking about with Jim Abbott,

I think they're imagining Jim Abbott throwing the ball the way you would a high-lie pelota with the glove that you're throwing it with. Wow. That would be awesome. People who are listening to this who have no idea how Jim Abbott did that, where do they think the glove was? In the crack of his ass?

Like where do they think it was? Like kind of like in between his, well, he doesn't have an armpit on the, I don't know where the hell the glove was. He had an arm. Yeah. Oh, here we go. We have video of it here. He would tuck it in the other armpit. I had him doing it like this, like like under the chin I'm throwing 90 miles an hour Through a no-hitter with the glove under the chin would be crazy. Oh, no wait hold on the glove is kind of likes

Perched on his nub. Yeah It was misleading. It's perched on his knob and it doesn't have a hand a little misleading what you guys did there Oh, yeah, exactly. I was envisioning a fully one-armed person, like nothing at the show, like from the shoulders gone. Oh, so it's not impressive, because he, you know, has half an arm. He's not one-armed, he's one-handed. One and three quarters.

This is crazy. He's got an arm. He's got a full arm. He's got an arm and a forearm, he doesn't have a hand. You guys, once again, this is why no one trusts the media. Let me play this Dan Patrick sound for for you because he agrees with greg

cody that fifty is just an arbitrary round number sort of agrees let's hear this show a little nice had an mvp season even if he doesn't do fifty fifty and if you go back to when the season started coming off surgery a a procedure, you also had his interpreter and the gambling debts, was Otani involved, not involved, he's in Korea, they open up the season, is he going to play, how is he going to play, he's not going to be able to pitch, is that going to affect his hitting?

That's before we even start the season. And now you go 48-48, it won't have the same ring to it. And that will be unfortunate because we haven't seen this before. 48-48, I hope he gets to 50-50 just because then history will be, I think, kinder to him and this monumental season. But if he ends up like 49, 48, and then it's like,

oh yeah, well how many home runs did he have? How many stolen bases? We'll get it confused. Did he have 48s? 49s? Oh, the other way around. 50-50? Everybody's gonna consume it and go,

man, that year, Oh Tony went 50 50 You don't look back and go boy that year that guy went 48 49 People hate math. I do think they hate math and so they need it made easy for them because it is while not as impressive as 50 50 49 48 has also not been done by anybody. 49 is one of the worst numbers in general. That's why you don't see safeties wear it. If you think about all the numbers, if I ranked all 100 numbers,

49's a bottom five number, I think, of all the numbers. Wow, really? It's just not, the nine in general, all the 39, 29, nine is just not aesthetically- Unsexy numbers? Just not a sexy number. So I, he needs to get to 50. What number is sexy for you, Chris?

Well, 21 and 23 are sexy numbers. We already talked about this yesterday. For some reason, the eight and the five were viewed as the most voluptuous. We didn't know whether the five had a belly or an ass. We don't know which way the five was going. So he's got the ball in one hand, right? And then the glove sits like this.

See how the glove can it can stick very easily. So all you gotta do is tuck it right here. But you have to have it facing the other way so you can put your hand in it easier. Like he kinda has it. Well, I mean, I'm, this is, I don't know, this is a left-handed glove. I'm assuming his glove would have been right.

It's a right hand, it's for a righty, that glove. Yeah, no, but this goes on the left hand, right? If I had another, okay, let me do it this way. Just so Chris feels, Mr. Baseball Chris, okay. Well if you're gonna do it you should be authentic you should try and You're not also someone who has half an arm, and you're doing that I mean someone right-handed would have that glove okay. Oh wait, but I guess if he's through if he only has my bad You see my point. Yeah, thank you. You're screwing up a mean mechanic. Exactly, right. So this thing sits on it perched right here as you can see because the glove is very tight,

right? It's tight. It's got oils and stuff. They put rubber bands around it to make it nice and tight, right? It's here. So it doesn't just flop off like, you know, that sheet I had earlier. I could do all types of movement like this if I hold it close enough to my body right and I got the ball here right I'm throwing and now boom boom okay and I'm not it's my gotta damn boom boom by the wrong leg and just cuz you hit us with a boom boom doesn't mean that we're all like amazed oh look Jim Abbott's in our midst look at this I'm saying he hit us with a boom boom and it seems like you can throw I balls. Boom! Oh! I'm telling you, as someone who's never done that

in my life, I just saw the dude do it one time. You guys are marveling and I'm saying, not that hard. Okay. What you don't understand is that when you throw a baseball, when you're pitching, you're supposed to be able to point your arm at the target to be able to give yourself the proper lineup of your shoulders and then come back. So if you're using this small part of your arm to hook the glove

at the right balance, you have a wrist that's allowing you to keep the balance of the glove! He's got a knob! He's got a knob! It doesn't allow him to do that! He's keeping it tucked in! This is crazy! What was the name of the boom? When you're hiring for your small business, you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs has the tools to help find the right professionals for your team, faster

and for free. As Metal Art Media continues to grow as a content studio, we strive to hire only the best and most qualified candidates. Thankfully, with LinkedIn, they have made it easy for us to find them. LinkedIn isn't just a job board. LinkedIn helps you hire professionals you can't find anywhere else, even those who aren't actively searching for a new job but might be open to the perfect role. In a given month, over 70% of LinkedIn users don't visit other leading job sites. So, if you're not looking on LinkedIn, you're looking in the wrong place.

On LinkedIn, 86% of small businesses get a qualified candidate within 24 hours. Hire professionals like a professional. On LinkedIn, post your job for free at LinkedIn.com slash prep. That's LinkedIn.com slash prep. Post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Now's a good time to remember where the story of tequila started. In 1795, the first tequila distillery was opened by the Cuervo family. And 229 years later, Cuervo is still going strong. Family owned from the start, same family, same land.

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