The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Who Pays For The Meeting Between Rob Manfred & Tony Clark?

Episode Date: June 18, 2020

Who Pays For The Meeting Between Rob Manfred & Tony Clark?

Think about real life as compared to millionaires and billionaires. So if I call you... I think it's like you can do it to any group. It's no different. Because we're not a relationship. You and I are not in a relationship. If there was a problem, if there was a fight, if every day...

If you and I had a fight. Wexler and Klank came in the studio before the A team. Which they never did. And there was a stare-down. Oh, yeah. And I said, hey, Matt Ross and Brendan, we need to go get dinner. You guys pick the place.

We got to sell this beef. You got work it out. You pick up the tab because you're picking the place. That's what you're saying. Or if you're trying to make, if you've screwed up, you say you picked the place and then I would then pick up the tab. Because I'm trying to make up with you. Sure. And that's the question here is who picks up the check because who thinks they're in the wrong.

I think Manfred thinks he's in the wrong because he's the one that jumped on the plane. So now I'm changing my opinion. There we go. Now we're back on my side. You just flip me in the middle of a segment. So yeah, I'm wrong. Let's play role play very quickly before we go and take some phone call. 713212-125-79 if you want to get in 7-1-3-1-2-5-7-9-0.

I'll be Rob Manfred. You'll be Tony-Roe-ring-ring. Hello? Hey, Tony, this is Rob. Hi, Rob. How are you? I'm a little... Things aren't going well.

Yeah, it's a disaster. I'm getting a lot of heat. I was on ESPN yesterday and I got ridiculed. Yep. Why don't we meet one more time? Just you and your five lieutenants, me and my five lieutenants. Look, I'm not going to New York right now. Why?

I don't think we need to meet. Okay. Let me be, let me extend my olive branch to you. Let me come to Phoenix. Okay. Okay. Yeah, we can, you know what? Sure.

And let me, I'll fly my own plane, my expense. Okay. And I'll get my own rental car, Uber, limousine. And why don't you find us a place? Definitely. Look, we'll get you at the airport. We'll take care of that. Oh, you're going to pick me up the airport.

We'll send a limo, but I'll, and we'll pick a place for it. Okay, so let's make this, let's get this right. You're going to pick the place. I'm going to come here and I'm going to fly here on my own with my lie with my lie lieutenants because we feel bad. Yeah. You and I did not resolve that. No, nobody listening to us right now has any idea who's supposed to pick up the tab

for the yochail? Because I don't know. You just convinced me 90 seconds ago. I was going to pick up the tab. I chose Rob Manfred first and then you talked me out of it and then somehow I talked to you back into it. There's a simple solution. All right, Brendan.

break the tie, who picks up the tab for the hotel? Manfred for sure. Explain. Manfred represents the people who own the business. I don't know if maybe I'm in the wrong here. I've never taken my boss out to business or out to dinner.

That's a good point. Oh, okay, so you're saying when in doubt, owners or bosses always take the employee out. Does Ross ever pay for you? Yes. Not a lot. But you guys are mutual. Yeah, but I pay most of the time.

Yeah. Like you paid when you took us to house parks. Yeah, and I'll, and I'll still do that. Matter of fact, I owe you a meal for coming in today and tomorrow. I'll buy lunch tomorrow. Chinese food. Whatever you want? That's so good. Bernie, you want Chinese food?

I will happily take Chinese food. Fair enough. Look, that's what we just did. I know. Why aren't we negotiating this contract? Why weren't they just doing this? This is why it pisses me off about baseball so much. It's that what's going to happen in like these 70, the 72-hour window starting

like two days ago when they met for the first time in Phoenix. It just should have been happening all along. Why were you not doing this? All right. Maybe our audience can help us. Who picks up the tab? See, I think the biggest argument in the favor of man for picking up is owners always pick, I mean, bosses always pick up for employees.

Let's go to Kendall and League City on the Matt Thomas show. Kendall, good afternoon. How's it going, Matt? Good. Man, I got a. say, as much as I hate to say, if there is a check on this, because let's be honest, they probably got enough points or cops wherever they go. They're probably going to get it handed to them anyway because of their status.

Right. If there is a check, as much as I hate to say it, if they don't go Dutch, it's going to be an itemized split for who wants to pick up whatever. Like, whoever gets the venue gets this, whoever brings the drinks, get that. I mean, they're on such a rocky terms right now. I don't think there's going to be either side saying, you know what? Yeah, I'll take care of this. We're in the wrong.

So they're going to basically have the meeting and just not even talk about it. Like it's the, it's not like it's sight unseen. It's like we'll figure this out later. It's like put it on an invoice for us and bill us later kind of thing. I think so honestly because they know that the public eye is completely on them. They know that they've got to get something done soon. And honestly, I think they feel like, in person, I feel like they really shouldn't let basketball or football or soccer any of it beat them to the punch. Because if they do, their eyes are going to be on something else.

They're going to lose a lot of revenue and a lot of fans, myself included. If they can't ask this out, this is why I was perfectly fine with leaving the game myself after I got hurt in college. Because I saw the business side of it and it hurts the game so much. But the problem is it's as important as anything else on the field. what these guys make and how the money is distributed and how these stadiums are filled and how their advertisements are in. I mean, I wish we could talk about what's happening in between the lines. But I guarantee you, Kendall, that if we took a word-by-word conversation of this radio show in the last 10 years,

I bet we talk as much about contracts and business as we do about the actual course of play. You're probably right about that. So that's why it's such a big deal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And with the amount of money that's being tossed around there, it's easy to see why they're so worried about everything. I mean, but still, I got to say, I think it's going to be like, let's just try to hash this out.

We'll worry about the details later. Yeah, sounds good. Kendall, thank you for the phone call. I have another proposal for you. Is this about paying for the hotel? Yeah. And the tech. Well, we could also, you can also rent out a room at a convention center, but that'd be too much.

You can get this to be private. Go ahead. Early on in my relationship with my wife. wife. Yeah. One of the reasons why I enjoyed it so much, the relationship was instead of just offering to pay for the tab, she offered to get the wine. So we went to like a nice steak dinner and we were going to order a bottle of wine.

And she's like, oh, we'll just, I'll get the wine tonight. And I was like, oh, thank you. And she wasn't saying you have to pay for the food, but she was just offering to pay for the wine. Maybe there's a deal here where Manfred's. pays for the steak dinner and Tony Clark pays for the one. You do it Dutch that way. Alcohol

versus food. But if I'm Manfred, I've already paid $50,000 to fly a private jet to Phoenix from New York on a short notice. I don't know where you and I stand on this anymore. We both are like flip-flopping. We're going full dolphin flipper right now. That's why we need sports because we can't make up our mind.

We're like America when it comes to politics. Yeah, but this has been like two of my favorite segments of radio. We need a negotiator on this. Could you imagine that they were arguing about who pays for what? I could totally see them. I could see them like standing up and yelling at each other at the table. And Rob Manfred being like, I flew to come here.

Because let's face it. I don't, does the MLB have a jet sitting at the airport waiting for anybody to go on it whenever they need to go? Probably not. Right? Yeah. He's got to call a private jet company and say,

in six hours, I want to fly from New York to Phoenix. And it can't be cheap. So you know what, Tony Clark? Be the better man. Get the hotel at the Ritz Carlton. Get a big conference room. Serve heavy apps. And get us a deal for 2020.

Final hour of the Matt Thomas show next on Sports Talk 790.