The Ryen Russillo Podcast - NBA Is Back! World Series With Jeff Passan, Plus “the Most Important Election of Our Lifetime” With Chris Cillizza.

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

Russillo opens the show by reacting to the opening night of the NBA (0:48). Then, he’s joined by Jeff Passan to reveal who has the edge in the World Series, explain how special Judge and Ohtani are, and pick who he thinks will win (17:19). Then, Chris Cillizza comes on to discuss what makes this election unique and explain why we’re living in a "take" world (56:24). Finally, Ceruti and Kyle join for Life Advice (88:30)! My wife slept at another man’s house … should I be pissed? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Jeff Passan and Chris Cillizza Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Okay, a lot going on in today's episode. The NBA season opened last night. Games were a hard sell on that segment, but we'll talk about it because the NBA started. But more importantly, the World Series is getting started this week. Jeff Pass and the ESPN, gracious with his time, break down everything, including the star studded matchup, Botani versus Judge. And we've got Chris Saliz, an old friend from youth basketball days. He's in politics. There's an election apparently going on. Let's try. Let's do it. We're going to talk to him. Who do you actually believe? And life advice.

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Opening night in the NBA, only two games, I'll run through them. It wasn't the most exciting night ever. There's a couple of storylines that I want to touch on. So the Celtics and three-point shooting was just absurd. 61% I think going into the fourth quarter. And a very common, repetitive thing that you see from the Celtics and their preparation and just being smart about things. It's like, let's find the weak link, attack him, and then swing the ball all over the place and that weak link was one Carl Anthony Towns.

So there's two plays in the second half that kind of jump out in particular that kind of play to like exactly what I'm talking about. I mean, it was happening a lot, but it didn't necessarily mean switch into catch, you know, you know, you're going to have to be a little bit more there's two plays in the second half that kind of jump out in particular, that kind of plays like exactly what I'm talking about. I mean, it was happening a lot, but it didn't necessarily mean switch into cat shooter drive, you know, whatever. I mean, the soldiers were playing five out almost the entire night. Um, I would argue even with all the three point attempts they took and they said they were going to take more and we'll get to some of those numbers here in a

second, like they even take some, I'm like, I can't believe you're taking that shot. But I think the increased emphasis on volume means that there's gonna be some contested threes from like three to five feet behind the three point line just because they want to get, gotta get those numbers up. So two plays against Kat, Tatum, ball handler, the big who was assigned to Kat or Kat was assigned

to the big was Cornette was Horford. They'd set a simple screen up top for Tatum. They'd get to switch Tatum against Kat. The Knicks would send help to Kat and Tatum would make one simple pass. And then the next pass would be swung to a wide open three. It happened in a corner three on the left side with Derek White. And then they ran it again, or it looked like they actually wanted to get it on the other side and still ended up on the left side. And then it ended up being a skip pass to a wide open three to Jalen Brown. So the good news for the Knicks, you're not playing the Celtics every single night. But it was very clear, even with the new cat toy that you have in New York, you

know, he's going to have monstrous scoring nights, defensively who this But it was very clear even with the new cat toy that you have in New York, you know, he's going to have monstrous scoring nights. Defensively who this team is right now is not who they're going to be later on when they hopefully get Mitchell Robinson back. But just think like, have they not done the cat trade? They don't even have that as a center. I also thought it was a little alarming that Drew Holliday was the primary defender on cat, which we have seen before. They've done it with Embiid. alarming that drew holiday was the primary defender on cap, which we have seen before. They've done it with Embiid. Some of it I think is to mess up some of the switching stuff.

If you have a one five or a ball handler center sending the screen. So it was just, I don't really know that there's a ton of, I'm not going to sit here and be like, oh, this next thing, this this isn't gonna work out. Bridges has his shooting struggles in the pre-season two of 19. He was better last night. This hitch thing that we're seeing videos of is alarming, but I can't, I just have a hard time believing all of a sudden, Miles, excuse me, Mikhail Bridges is just not going to be good on offense. I'm not there yet.

I'm gonna need a little bit more time to go with that. The Celtics shot 61 threes last night. They shot a league leading 42 and a half threes per game last season. So are they going to shoot 60 plus every single night? Probably not. But they had talked about shooting more threes and man, did they. The other side of that is they took only eight games plus every single night, probably not, but they had talked about shooting more threes and man, did they.

The other side of that is they took only eight free throws. So it would just be something for Celtics fans. I don't know how many games they're gonna be losing this year, but if you start looking like free throw differential and bitching about every little thing because you're obsessed with your team, like, oh, they just never get any calls. Like, well, you're not gonna get any calls

if you take 60 threes a night. Again, they're never get any calls. Like, well, you're not going to get any calls if you take 63s a night. Again, they're not going to take that many, but there will be some relation there to a lower free throw total. So I'm just warning you bloggers, there you go. One last thing on this game, with the Celtics hitting their 29th three, they tied the all time record with 11 minutes to go.

I think it was about like a minute in when they hit the 29th and then they missed their next 13. It was clearly all they were trying to do on offense. I was like wanting to see it happen. I don't know that it would have changed my life. But when they dribbled out the last one and Reggie Miller's like, no, that's good. It's the right things.

No, it isn't. Chuck it up again. Full tempo, everything you got. Take it early. You know, all the bad two for ones in huge spots. I want a three for two there. I want someone sprinting up. You say, wow, they missed 13. They'd had their chance.

No, there was still time on the clock and there was still a record in play. Get the shot up. This dribbling out stuff to like honor each other. I, you know, it's just not, I think there were as much, I love Steve Kerr when they took Klay Thompson out of that game years ago. It's like, leave them in. See, see if we can get 70 here tonight. You know

All right, so that game wasn't great, Minnesota Lakers also not all-timer But some really good stuff from Anthony Davis that we'll get to here in a second. He was incredible Turnovers and second-chance points a big part of why the Lakers had this buffer kind of in the score throughout the entire night Lakers better movement and seeing Reeves just be able to show that he's so much more, um, it's just going to be really important for him this year, because I just think he's such a terrific player. Um, so I thought there was more movement, just more stuff like, Hey, entry pass here cut, but there's also something else over here. So, you know, I don't know if that's JJ in the entire, I assume it's JJ in the

staff that I think is just really up for the challenge. But Anthony Davis was the story 36 and 16 for assist. He took 15 free throws. And when Anthony Davis takes a lot of free throws, that just means the other team is helpless against him. Cause Davis does not foul bait like others. He's not somebody where you're watching just multiple plays being like, how did he get those free throws? Like, why are you bailing him out of that one? I know years ago, I was in the game with a guy called, I think it was He's not somebody where you're watching just multiple plays being like, how did he get those free throws?

Like, why are you bailing him out of that one? I know years ago, and I still reference this game, it was a Memphis regular season game where he took a million free throws, but he earned like every single one of them because he just had this fire that night that I think is the thing we wish we saw more often from him. Despite the fact he was fantastic last year, finally stayed healthy. For me, it's never been a doubt of his talent. wish we saw more often from him, despite the fact he was fantastic last year, finally stayed healthy. For me, it's never been a doubt of his talent. It's just always like his availability. And now he's, you know, after last year's that, I don't know if that's a fluke or maybe the new normal for him.

He looks, he looks thicker. Um, which I think is maybe better for him, but look, he had an attitude last night, the stuff at the rim, just complete domination, the block on Rudy when Rudy tried to dunk it and 80s coming from the other side and just again, some attitude from him that I loved. And you know, he's the best player on the court last night. So he was incredible. Julius Randall, not incredible.

Now he's five at 10, 16, nine at four. It's his first game with a new team. So I'll relax here a little bit. Unfortunately, just little reminders of some of the stuff with him that can just be really frustrating because we know how talented he is. The numbers that he's put up

we've been through the whole thing. But like if you go through those teams, you know, the old joke of like every team has to have a leading score. It was well, if we don't have a better option than him, he's probably the more talented guy. If your team's not very good, he's going to put up all these kinds of numbers. But with Ant there in Minnesota and the way they play, you're going to need Randall to be just more invested in the times that he doesn't have the ball and they were talking about how like he was a little too passive.

I didn't think he was passive in the beginning. I just thought he was like not interested throughout the game. There's just a few plays that I'll pick. I could have done way more of these, but I'll keep it brief here. I'm not going to turn this into a recap of his Miami playoff game. There was a free throw attempt. He's got the inside position on Austin Reeves. He just doesn't even box them out.

Reeves gets the rebound Reeves. Also, if you look at that play was really smart and the way he kind of baited Randall into thinking that he wasn't going to crash the boards. So he stays away from them instead of lining up right on them. So that's something I'll be looking for more of the briefs and see if you can get other guys that way. But unfortunately for Randall, it's like you didn't even bother. And then immediately after that, he's opposite the ball on the lower block. So he's kind of like on the baseline and Ruiz his assignment and Ruiz just, it wasn't even complicated.

He just snuck behind him because Randall stopped paying attention to him. Rui gets the catch dunk. Randall doesn't even move. Then it's kind of like a head down, you know, up and down the court. The transition defense for Minnesota was terrible last night. Uh, and Randall is part of that. Like when he doesn't feel like he's going to be involved or is like, uh, what am I really going to be able to do? I'll just, I'll just take it easy on the way back. And then he had a foul while the Lakers are in the penalty really early with seven minutes to go, and he's like, Oh, I'm going to be able to do? I'll just take it easy on the way back.

And then he had a foul while the Lakers are in the penalty really early with seven minutes to go in the fourth quarter. But it felt like Minnesota was putting together a little bit of a run based on Ant starting to just dial up his stuff and he fouled Anthony Davis 94 feet away from the hoop after a rebound. It's like, okay, well now it's just free throws. So first game, new team.

I'm not going to freak out about it. I do wonder it was Randall starting and the Nas element because the cat trade Nas read allowed you to make the cat trade. And I think the funniest thing about last night's games were that you had the cat deal on defense where he's the weak link, he's going to be attacked. And now he doesn't have Rudy covering up for his mistakes or just not even like, you know, cat has had moments, I think like against Jokic, he did really well

because it's all in front of him and it's a bigger guy. So it's a little bit, it's not like he's shutting down Jokic, but he just battled. And I don't know maybe if there's like a standard of Minnesota's defense where he felt like he had to crank it up.

But again, the Knicks are gonna be really good. They're not gonna be playing Celtics every single night. And the center situation is still TBD until we know the health of the rest of the pieces for the Knicks. So it was just that in those moments with Kat last night defensively, you're like, oh, this is, this is kind of where he always was until like Rudy raised everything. And then you have these awesome perimeter defenders, Minnesota with Ann, McDaniels, and I think Alexander Walker gets after it too. There's a lot of good options there defensively.

And then while that's happening, you're being reminded later in the game. Sorry, it's not the exact same time, but later that night, you're being reminded watching Randall of why the Knicks would be like, yeah, no problem. Like we have to put, you know, everybody can talk about DeVincenzo, but I think part of the reward was the DiVincenzo minutes, like backlog of how that was all going to work with Bridges in the mix. But then also with Randall going like, if we get a full season of Randall and Brunson, does that get in Brunson's way a little? And I think it would have. So yeah, really early, but kind of a funny little storyline as I was watching both players on new teams

show the reasons why the former teams were like, yeah, we could probably live if we move on from this player. This NBA season on a FanDuel, you can make every play pass, end point, mean more on America's number one sports book. And right now new customers can bet $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if your first bet wins.

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I love it. It's like, say you like something and now all of a sudden somebody gets off to a bad start and you're just like, hey, this is like a completely different line just a few minutes into the game. But you have to be strong and you have to be strong mentally to make it through that.

Couple things that Sixers over under, we gave out our over under picks, obviously, in the NBA preview show with Bill in house, which is so much fun. And it was 15 and a half on the Sixers total. It's still 49 and a half. That might be just the, hey, how come everybody's heard already play?

I mean, they can't go too low because if the sixers play everybody like this, still gonna be a really good basketball team, right? All right, so the other one that I was looking at too is the massive jump in the Zach Eaddy number for NBA Rookie of the Year. He's plus 290. That just tells me there's value in Reed Shepard

at plus eight. So, I just don't know if Reed's gonna get enough shots from the OGs, the mid-20s OGs that have all been extended with the Rockets. And whether you wanna ride with my picks or have a hunch of your own, now's the perfect time to get in on the action. Just visit FanDuel.com slash Ryan, R-Y-E-N

for a chance to score $300 in bonus bets. Have a ball, betting ball with FanDuel, official sports book partner of the NBA. Must be 21 and older, and present in select states or 18 plus and present in D.C. First online real money wager, All right. The World Series is right around the corner and we're thrilled to be able to get some time with Jeff Passany, ESPN baseball senior writer. All right. You had an awesome thought that you shared with everyone and I want to kind of start

there and that Dodgers, Yankees, this incredible tradition for those of us that are old enough that can remember, Tani, Judge, the stars, the geography, like all of this in this moment, this yearly question about where baseball is. What could this World Series provide for this sport? I've been waiting my whole life for this. And this coming from somebody, Ryan, who grew up in Cleveland, who lives in Kansas City, who appreciates the plight of small markets, and who understands that baseball is not like basketball or football or hockey, in that there is a gap

among all of these teams, and sometimes, not just like a regular gap, sometimes a two or three standard deviation gap when it comes to payroll. And so, I think I'm supposed to be the person who looks at this World Series and says, fuck that. Like, I don't want to see that. This says everything that's wrong about baseball.

But to me, it's just the opposite of that. This is everything that can be right about sports. Behemoths don't equal bad. Large markets, large payrolls don't equal problematic for somebody who desires a level playing field for some of the smaller market teams. What I love is good baseball and stars being put in position to do things that we're going to talk about

years down the road. And when you have two teams that have the pedigree that the Yankees and the Dodgers do, both organizationally, but even more important among the players who currently populate their rosters, you're setting yourself up for something that's really cool. And baseball is a sport that is so steeped in history that I think we need to appreciate the fact that these two organizations have met 11 times and

that the last time was in 1981 when I was a year old and that this thing has been percolating and festering for like 40 plus years now and The fact that frankly we haven't had a Dodgers Yankees World Series in that time is an amazing upset. Like, we've been waiting for this moment. And so, I don't look at it as being problematic that you have an entire swath of the country that's ostensibly not interested in this because it doesn't involve their particular teams. I think this is an opportunity for everybody who has ever watched baseball,

whether it's because you love the Detroit Tigers or you love the St. Louis Cardinals or you love the Colorado Rockies, the Miami Marlins or any other team out there, to see what the game is capable of when you put together two really good teams that have that history and hope that someday over the next 10, 15 years, your team gets good enough that suddenly you are part of

the modern history and that 30 or 40 years down the road, the matchup between the team that you root for and another team has the same feeling as the Yankees and Dodgers do because that is what's possible in baseball. There's an interesting parallel between not just the dominance of Judge and Otani, but that Judge with his almost superhero frame, I mean, I shouldn't even say almost, he does the thing that's the most exciting thing in this sport. Um, he's in New York. He's got the looks that it was like, could Aaron judge save baseball? And there was a bit of a baton handing of this moment of like, who's the next guy to save baseball and next guy to save baseball.

And it's like, well, maybe that person doesn't exist in whatever form you expect it to be. And then a tani delivers on every promise imaginable. And, you know, I don't know't know if it would bring the country together around baseball, but Ichiro was really, really popular. I don't know if it's the fact that he's from Japan that maybe he couldn't be as popular as Judge. I don't know. I feel like he is as popular, at least in the baseball sense. But Otani was essentially supposed to be the next person. So it's not a question about necessarily saving baseball,

but more a question of how have you seen these two guys who've really delivered on every promise you have, not necessarily facing off against each other, but being the front line of this competition? It's super weird, because I think baseball is the only game where you have actual real one-on-one matchups going on all the time. And yet during this World Series, the closest we're going to see Aaron Judge come to show Hey Otani is if Otani hits a fly ball to center field.

Like otherwise, there's not going to be any kind of matchup between the two. So you're not going to get the satisfaction of Otani on the mound throwing pitches to judge. And yet there's something really palpable there for me. And I think you're right about Otani. I think Otani is that guy. And we're always in the baseball universe, like looking for the face. I don't know. Why is that you think, by the way? Why is it that baseball fans always want there to be a face? Is there some like insecurity going on there where we feel like?

I don't think it's a baseball thing. I think it's just that we expect it. You know, it happened post Jordan with all the different people that were supposed to be the next Jordan. So you realize like the Kobe was the closest thing to it from an aesthetic point, but then you realize you're like, okay, well now it's just, it's, it's part of the branding, but then it ultimately ends up becoming a

disappointment because nobody is going to be that person. So I think hockey has some of the same things of like who is the face of it? It's like, okay. Well, it's clearly McDavid now and if McDavid were an NBA player Then he probably would have heard about how overrated he was all summer long. I think we're a little harsher with the NBA guys in football I think it is a it's a league wide thing But because baseball's had its own challenges for every years you want to start the meter at I but because baseball has had its own challenges for every year you want to start the meter at,

I think the reality is there is no one person that can necessarily take that on in maybe the way we grew up with it. And yet it always feels like there has to be somebody that's anointed even if it just seems misguided. Dude, that's exactly right. It's like there needs to be a face of baseball when sometimes there isn't. I feel like Ohtani is. To me, like the feeling I get watching Ohtani, it's the first time since junior that I've actually felt that way. You know, we want to, we've wanted to anoint Mike Trout. We've wanted to anoint Bryce Harper. Honestly, I feel this way even with judge who I think has everything there for him, right? He's got New York.

He's got not just uncommon size, but never before seen size. Before Aaron Judge came along, there was never a player in Major League Baseball history who was at least six foot seven and weighed at least 280 pounds and hit. Like literally, you go and search on baseball reference and the only other guys who come up are like John Rausch. They're just pitchers, you know, Cece Zababia. There's never anyone who's done what Judge has done. So in theory, he should be the guy,

but I don't know that ever took. With Ohtani, it feels like it's taking. And to me, I think when I look back on the 2024 season, Ryan, I'm going to remember that this was the year where Ohtani became everyone's in the same way that Sosa and McGuire became everyone's in 1998. It's like, here's this guy who's doing this thing we didn't think is possible.

I never conceived of a 50-50 season. And part of it, I think, is because I'm the person who hates round numbers. I don't hate round numbers, I just think that we worship round numbers to an extent. That's a specific hatred, though. Yeah, it's a weird hatred. But round numbers are why nobody throws

100 pitches anymore. Like, we set ceilings based on zeros. I think my zero base ceiling was the idea that somebody could do something starting with a five and ending with a zero and have it be both home runs and stolen bases. It's a very specific skill, right? But it's a super baseball thing to want a 50-50 season and to see it. The particular joy that I got out of this, this is the second time in Shohei Otani's life that this has happened, where it feels like he's a secret that gets shared with the greater audience.

Now, we've talked plenty about Otani on this show. I've spent the last five years talking about him on Sports Center on Baseball Tonight on Pica, everywhere, just trying to spread the gospel, shaking people like, hey guys, something super cool is going on right now. You should take a look because if you like sports, you're going to enjoy this. But it's like he was always just stuck in Orange County. You know,

at first he was over in Japan, he was across an ocean. And we didn't or couldn't fully appreciate what he was. And now it's like, you know, he was sort of tucked down near Disney, hidden away, played games late. There was always an excuse to not look at Ohtani and what he was doing and fully commit. Now that he's a Dodger, there doesn't feel like there's an excuse anymore. It feels like somebody who is really blossoming in the eyes of the world.

And to have him do this. In a season that started with after the first game, his best friend betraying him to the tune of 17 million dollars. And all the questions that we had is Shohei involved? Was he the one who was gambling? What's real? What's not?

To go from that point all the way to now where he's about to play in his first World Series, it's just a really cool, fascinating story. And I think speaks to the man's ability to compartmentalize unlike any baseball player I think I've ever seen. He is a fucking machine when it comes to that. And it's not just single-mindedness, it's not just obsessiveness.

I think that this is just like it's his DNA. He was meant to do something and he embraces that and does it extraordinarily well beyond the stretches of what our imagination can conceive. Yeah, and I think for the casual people, John, you just hope that he has those moments. I mean, it was funny, I was reading some kind of preview and it was almost like they were down on him

for what his production was or wasn't during the postseason. And you're like, I don't know, dude, 11 games in, like look between bets. And then the Tommy Edmonds story, which is its own insane story here, um, being put into duty here. Uh, you know, Tony's been really good on the other side of that. Like you look at the judge stats. I mean, Stanton's been carrying it, the offense, which is kind of funny that, you know, Giancarlo has become this kind of forgotten man in the shadow

of judge. And without them, I don't even know if they're in the world series. Anything in particular, because I feel like too often we already know what the right answer is. It's constant. I want to talk about some of these bullpen guys, just the randomness of the score. And that's kind of your answer all the time, but it's not a great conversation. Is there anything specific with judge that you think is happening that's leading to a continued postseason struggle here? You know, his swings off a little bit. Like that, that's reality. His swings a tick off right now and the man swings as much as anyone out there, but when you are six foot seven, Ryan, you got some pretty hefty levers.

In baseball, when your swing is off just a tiny bit, you're not going to be the king that he is. You're not going to be the guy who every game he walks out there, it feels like he's going to hit two home runs. You add that to the fact that he is facing, in theory, in the postseason, better pitching. There was one thing that is so hard for me to quantify, but I think it goes to mindset because Judge and Otani are really similar in a lot of ways. I mean, if we look at the paths that they've walked, like Judge got to the big leagues in 2016, Stunk came back in 2017, hit 52 home runs,

and looked like the person who we see now. Like this guy who was gonna be the heir to Derek Jeter, and holy shit, he actually is. be the heir to Derek Jeter and holy shit, he actually is. Otani arrived with this mound of hype. And do you remember the story I wrote in Otani's first spring training about his hitting? I do, yeah. Yeah.

Like that was what Freezing Cold Takes was created for and still like to this day. I think I gave you a hard time about it. Even I don't, I don't know if I did or not, but it was just, there was such a rush to hope that it wasn't going to work. I know. People inside of baseball. And I remember reading it and going, well, I don't know.

I'm not down at spring training watching him, but it was, it was so much certainty from different voices in baseball being like, oh, there's actually like a hole on the inner, you know, I'm like, I'm kind of, it's like, so this guy that was supposed to be Babe Ruth after a few hacks down in warmer temperatures, like it's just over, it's just over, right? Not just that dude, like spring training hacks.

It's, I want like Allen Iverson to come in and just go, spring training? Spring training? Are you serious, Passive? Because, and I, listen, we make mistakes in our jobs and we learn lessons. And one lesson I learned that spring was like, chill, yo. I, look, all I had to do do was Pedro was my guy for spring training.

Because he would just go, hey, I'm going to work on sliders today. And he would give up a ton of runs. And then everybody would be upset and be like, is he her? Is he not going to be good this year? And he just didn't realize some guys don't even, the red light needs to be on for real. You know why I wrote that story though?

And for those who haven't seen it, the story is kind of- Don't read it. No, no, please do. Because it's funny to see, I'd like to think I was, I think at that point I was like 15 or so years into covering baseball.

And I mean, I had scouts calling me up being like, hey, Otani, it ain't happening, dude. You should just pitch. I think part of that, and this speaks to the power of Otani. I think part of that is not necessarily that they wanted to see him fail, because I think they understood that if he didn't, it changes the game. But I also think that for decades and decades

and decades, evaluators had preached the idea that there's no way anyone can do it. Not in the modern game. That's exactly what it was. It's exactly what it was. And like I've been in not, I can't say it's the same thing. But when you have people that have done something their entire life, when it comes to evaluating and for me and basketball players, when you have enough people kind of telling you the same thing, it's hard is not as like a non-evaluator going, Hey, sorry, all of you guys are wrong. But that wasn't even about Otani.

It was strictly to your point as I jumped in there is that nobody wanted to believe that they had been wrong for decades about what somebody could or couldn't do. And that always makes me wonder like, what's, what's the next thing? Like baseball forever. Like, I don't know when it started, maybe early 2000s, but it just felt like maybe it was Evan Longoria or the first time and granted they'd call them up a little, maybe you call them a little bit later. I remember Chris Bryant was another one of those later call-ups cause

of contractual stuff, but it was just like, what do we do? Why are we, what do we do? Why are we, why are we seasoning these guys? Why are we having them in single and double and triple and then kind of like reassessing after three years in our system, it's like, we think these guys are that talented and then just everybody just came up and that's kind of the norm now and that's the way that it, it should be done and arguably should have always been done. So I think Otani was like one of those last pieces of resistance of, well,

I, it doesn't like this, if this works, it'll mean that I've been wrong about this my entire professional career. And that was definitely baked in to all the opinions on that spring training piece. I'm super okay being wrong too, because of, of what has sprouted from this. And I love the fact, Ryan fact Ryan that that we have talked about like the largest man ever to play playing simultaneously as the guy who does something that we didn't think could be done

You want to talk about a sport evolving? We can sit here and say that baseball has evolved in the last quarter century as much as we've seen in any quarter century, I think, since like the dead ball era. And it's the way that the game is played, you know, starting pitching the de-emphasis on that. It's the size and skill of the men who are playing now. And it's what they are, it's just what they're all capable of doing. Like it's, it's uncommon, I think, to see that sort of growth in a sport and it more than anything. And, you know, I don't know if I'm like an evangelist for baseball, but what I do think is that the game gets a bad rap now, and I

think there's a lot more to it than people want to realize or people get the credit for maybe. And so when I'm trying to point out, hey, if you are from all these places that aren't New York or Los Angeles, watch the World Series because you're going to see really cool things. It's because guys like Otani and Judge are doing things differently and are capable of different things than whether it's the players on the teams that they watch every day or the players 25, 50, 75, a hundred years ago. Like this is where the game has gone. And I think it's also a sneak preview for where the game in many ways is going.

Okay. Let's talk about these pictures. Cause right now we've got, uh, Cole Flaherty in game one Flaherty lit up in his last one, the irony being also the Yankees thought they were in on Flaherty the trade deadline. So you feel like Cole has the advantage there. Um, Flaherty was sick for what it's worth. On the seven earned run one or the five earned run? Yeah, on the seven. That's the one that came after the seven shutout innings. So I'm going to give it

like. Okay. All right. Because it's two bad starts and one amazing start. And he's your game one guy with rest. I think it's Ryan, it's very simple. I think when you watch his fastball velocity on the first five fastballs he throws, that's going to be indicative of the kind of start you're going to get from Jack Flaherty. If it's, if it's, if it's 90 to 92, no good. If it's 92 to 94, he's got a shot. Okay. I'll be looking for it. Um, game two, Yamamoto, who's been a big,

a mixed bag. And then I think it's still TBD for the Yankees, unless you know more, um, as of right now, as of this taping, I didn't have it. It's very likely to be Carlos for Don. Okay. All right. So that means you've got a bullpen game in here, um, easily from the Dodger side of it, because you've already seen this, um, Brazier's had two starts and Michael Kopeck who, uh, I don't know how many Red Sox fans remember that he was

in the sale trade originally. And I mean, you want to go through his, he couldn't throw a strike a couple of years ago and now he's, he might be this, you know, I don't want to call him the scariest arm in all of baseball, but like when he comes into a game now for the Dodgers, it's just overpowering stuff. So how do you think, like, what is the strategy there with how they'll do the bullpen start and how you can use Koepke knowing how valuable he is later against what would be the middle

of the slina for the Yankees where imagine they just hope he's going to overpower them like we've seen him do so many other times against Linus. Yeah, this is where playoff baseball has gone. It's that you can have a reliever who sits a hundred and breaks off nasty sliders along with it and you could see him in the fourth inning it like if there's a leverage spot you know managers like they they manage playoff games now extremely aggressively but the conundrum for Dave Roberts is that aggressiveness has like a sell-by date on it, right? And if he does it too soon and overexposes his bullpen guys,

there's a real fear in that. Ben Lindbergh, I don't know if you saw this story on the ringer last year, but Ben Lindbergh wrote about the idea of a familiarity penalty in the playoffs for relief pitchers. It made a very compelling argument that if a team sees relief pitchers multiple times in a series, it is going to get harder and harder for those relief pitchers to go out and actually be effective. To the point where the penalty may be even tougher

on relief pitchers than it is on starting pitchers the third time through the batting order. And as we know, like the third time through the order penalty, which is a real thing, has changed starting pitcher usage throughout baseball. That is just a fundamental thing that we now know exists. During the regular season, the relief issue isn't very problematic because you're only playing three games at a time or maybe four in a series. So the most you're going to see a guy in a series. So the most you're gonna see a guy in a series usually is about two times.

During a seven game series though, especially when you take your best relievers and tend to put them in the same pockets of the lineup and say, okay big boy, go and get out the guys who can do the most damage. Well, if you're seeing them three or four times because you have off days built in after game two and game five, so you can pitch a guy theoretically in one, two, three, five, six, seven. You're not going to throw anyone all seven unless it's maybe like a Tim Hill left-handed reliever who's got a rubber arm. But generally speaking, you're not going to see a guy for all the games. But six of them?

That's a super reasonable thing for a team to go into. Dave Roberts has done a really good job with the Dodgers of not overexposing his relievers in the Division Series and in the NLCS. But the fact that he can turn to Michael Koepke and Blake Trinen and Daniel Hudson, who has been on a World Series mound and chucked his glove after locking things down and striking out Michael Brantley back in 2019. And Evan Phillips and Anthony Banda has been really good. And Edgardo Enriquez is, I don't know if he's gonna make the roster but He is like such the epitome of what playoff baseball has turned into he started the year in low a

through 104 down there and Now he's pitching in the playoffs Even though he pitched like five innings in the big leagues before the end of the season So Dave Roberts has options, but at the end of the day, Ryan, I think this series, as much as anything, comes down to can the Dodger starters last long enough not to overexpose the Dodger relievers? Pete Okay. And Bond has been terrific. And yet, you know, he's been on a million teams. He's got a career five ERA. I mean, you go back and look at Kopex numbers two years ago, because I was looking at it again this morning. And we haven't even talked about the Yankees

bullpen because like part of the joke here is like, hey, were the white socks actually good? Because you've got all these arms. Where Luke Weaver, who has been on nine teams since 2022, It's been a nine team since 2022. Cousins was with the White Sox. Hill was with the White Sox. I think the Luke Weaver topic is where we start this with. Because again, a lot of my baseball knowledge comes from those years being around it every single day in Boston. In the beginning, Theo got the job with the team right as I moved back.

That's why I've just always have had all this admiration for him because he was also just really fucking good at his job. But they would load up on all these relievers and you'd be like, oh, this guy was pretty good with Arizona or whatever. And he wouldn't even be on the roster in June. And then you just go, wait, this guy's the best GM. And then you start to realize other than the true tier one relievers, the randomness of the reliever's career is the most impossible thing to figure out. Because you know all the parties involved, what did these teams see? What did the Yankees see? Because the intensity of these innings from where these dudes were a few months ago and the the fact that it's, it's working this well, it's just another lesson of like

who you break camp with with your 25, like it doesn't matter because even if you're one of the best teams, you're probably going to have to find two or three more arms that work out and you still have no idea if it's going to work out. So we can all talk about spin rate, what they're looking for and the wrong, but like it is absurd how often it feels like the Dodgers will hit on some guy that's not the high profile name that has huge at bats, huge innings off the mound and big playoff spots. And yet the Yankees have kind of rebuilt this thing on the fly and it's a massive part of their success. I appreciate the way that you use an active verb there like hit on this guy because

they're like hit on this guy because it is the teams a lot of times doing this. It is their analytics people and they're pitching people getting together and saying that we know how to create a better pitcher. I've been working on this story about how hard it is to hit in baseball right now, talking with a bunch of players. And part of it is talking with pitchers. Because as a hitter, there are only so many things that you can do to fix your swing quickly. It generally doesn't happen.

As a pitcher, you can walk into a pitching lab, grab a baseball, and learn a new pitch in 10 minutes. All you need is a high-speed camera, a track man to show you the spin profile, and some comparisons like, I want a splitter, you know, like Yoshinobu Yamamoto's. So I'm gonna try different grips and I'm gonna mess around with it

until the movement profile matches Yamamoto's. And once I have the right grip, the right axis on it, I'm gonna just try and get feel for this. And you know, some guys learn new pitches really, really quickly. Luke Weaver was one of those. Luke Weaver. And to use it in a game though,

like, you know what I mean? Dude, they will use it in the game that day. Like they will 100% use it in the game that day. Right, cause I just, knowing how basketball works, anybody that's ever played like, you know, high school or higher, you'll see guys do stuff in practice that you're like, Oh my God. And then it's like, as soon as he's in the game, it's like, I'm not comfortable. Like I'm not going to ever like, you haven't done any of the things like that

happens in basketball all the time. And when I was reading about Weaver and the Garrett Cole connection of like, yeah, maybe just try this grip. And it's like, so now I'm just unhittable. It's crazy. Yeah, maybe just try this grip. It's like, so now I'm just unhittable. It's crazy. Yeah, it is. And the thing is like, we have to understand that like relief pitching is like relationships. It's like at the beginning,

you think you've stumbled on something and then, oh my God, it can fall apart so fast. And it's- Appraisers is a perfect example of that. Totally, totally. It's like, he's like a light switch example totally totally it's like he's he's like a light switch you know some years he's on and other years it's like this guy pitched in the big leagues it gives you the greatest appreciation of what Mariano Rivera did not actually not just in the postseason but the man's

consistency in a job where there is no consistency is Why I don't like relievers in the Hall of Fame. I know it's a hard old man take I just feel like the best relievers have like one-third of the inning of starters and and to me that matters like the ability to go out there and navigate lineups multiple times, I think is a tremendous skill. But how can you say no to Mo in the Hall of Fame? Like a consistent reliever and one who did what he did in the playoffs, I mean, no brainer there.

Yeah, he's the best weapon of his generation too. It just was, I think there was always a psychological edge to it. you knew waiting for it. I don't even know how that could be debated. And by the way, the piece by Ben on the ringer, like I remember thinking like, yeah, because I was having a little old guy in me going, this reliever starter thing, like this is this. Have we gone too far?

Yeah, right. And when it first started happening, I know I hated it because I still felt like, you know, the starter that knows how to change, like the whole point of paying some of these starters as much as they are is like, what is my one two going to look like in a short series? Yep. And those were the guys that you banked on all the time. And I do think that there's, I don't even think there's any argument on the other side, like I would be cautious

of using like say, Kopec early to add to the familiarity in a lesser leveraged inning against the Yankees. I just would go, I'd rather them see him five times instead of six. So if I'm lining him up in, I don't know, there's still some resistance to it, but there's plenty of supposed aces that we, you know, every single postseason, your second inning and like four earned. Like what, what happened? You know, and that's just, that's just what it is. Yeah. And when you look at the rotations of these two teams, right?

I know Yamamoto got paid $325 million. I don't think he got paid $325 million to go four innings at a time. Um, yeah, is that what he's averaging? Like four and two thirds right now? Well, that the, I mean, throughout the playoff, those are starters. Excuse me. The starters are averaging four and two. I think it's, I think it's actually less.

I think the average in the entire sport is like four and a quarter innings this postseason, like, and part quarter innings this postseason. And part of that is because Detroit did bullpen games and Stephen Vogt in Cleveland was putting Cade Smith. It's interesting. Cade Smith is like a fireman. It's such a goose gossage era term and one that I think has been lost to time. But the idea of somebody coming in an important spot

and putting out fires, it's just that it doesn't happen in seventh inning now, it happens in third inning. And manage- Okay, so would Kurt Schilling be yanked today? Yeah. Which is, which is in like insane, right? Because if you really want to dig into the Schilling run in the postseason, it's hard to match it.

And you would think because of his approach and his notebooks that he loved telling everybody about, you would know that he had a plan. He had a plan the third time through it. Now we're not even asking anybody. Look, I understand. Like most pitchers just are not good enough to look a third version of them,

look like a third version of themselves. Yeah, but even so, doesn't that go to pitch mixing and doesn't that go to, to being thoughtful? I mean, Curt Schilling had the right idea. Like approach is everything and it matters and you just gotta, gotta be perfect. That's all. Just can't make mistakes because I don't want to. Yeah. Like especially, especially on that third look, like big league hitters will capitalize on mistakes. And so there's that, there's that line between being a little

bit too fine, uh, and, and just being careful and, and executing your stuff. And you know, Garrett Cole got paid $324 million in order to be the guy who goes to the lineup a third time and you know, maybe a fourth too. Yeah, I know it's done for a very specific reason and you know, the, the numbers bear it out. But I think when it comes to the playoffs, you know, there's just some of those ACE versus ace matchups I just miss. I do too. Preach. That's all I'm talking about. So I'm not upset

because I think it's wrong. I'm upset because I used to just love going, all right, let's stack up the first three. And then there would always be, you know, granted for even Atlanta success. And you could argue, you know, I think there was a bit of a Dodgers parallel where, well, it's not the same thing, but you know, every single year with that Atlanta rotation, you just be like, look who they're putting in the four slot.

Like that's ridiculous. Steve Avery's going game four. Anyway, all right, let's finish it here. Let's finish it here. Because I don't want to talk about Steve Avery all day. Who's your pick? Normally, I'm pretty convicted by the end of when I'm choosing. I reached out to a lot of people because I did not know what the right answer was i think these teams are super even. Add that they share so many qualities like you get to this point.

Ryan in the post season when you don't chase and don't swing and miss and the yankees and dodgers have the lowest chase rates on pitches out of the zone like they're really disciplined hitters up and down both lineups. Pitching wise I think the Dodgers have the bullpen advantage just because of their depth but the Yankees have a pretty distinct starting advantage. Defensively both teams are pretty good I think the Dodgers are a tick better, but some of the metrics think that the Yankees are better. Base running, the Yankees are a tire fire and the Dodgers are really good. When things are as even as they are there, I'm not going to pick a series on base running, but there's a scenario where I could see the Yankees losing a game because of something stupid they did on the bases. That said, I got Yankees at seven.

I don't feel great about it. The Dodgers are a really, really, really good team, and they beat much better teams in the National League in the Padres and the Mets than the Yankees did in the Royals and the Guardians. But I just think at the end of the day that this is as much a bet on Juan Soto and Aaron Judge as it is anything. And I think the starting pitching is going to carry the Yankees. Pete Yeah, I know. It's my fault for not bringing up Soto at any point earlier, but you were talking about the moments, you know, and I've had so many moments here with Soto where, you know, if I was doing something, because I watched a lot of

postseason baseball, but if I had something else going on and it reminded me of being younger, it's like, Oh, Soto's up judges up even standing like, okay, I'm going to like audios going on that screen. That's what this series is, man. Like that's what this series is. I have to watch Juan Soto in the playoffs because you know, it, when it comes to his eye, he's the closest thing that there's been to Barry Bonds since Barry Bonds.

Nobody is Barry Bonds, but Dan Wansoto does a really good impression of him. Like, from the pitches that he will look at to the at-bats that he will take, and in that at-bat against Hunter Gaddis in the 10th inning of game five of the ALCS, I have seen better at bats, right? The whole best at bat of all. Juan Soto has taken better at bats, like in the postseason. But damn,

the guy has such a flair for the dramatic. Whereas you asked earlier about issues with Judge and what it could potentially be. The contrast that I saw with Judge and Otani is that Otani said publicly, the playoffs are different and I'm going to treat them like they're different. And Aaron Judge said, I treat this like a regular season game because that's like, that's how he got here Aaron judge got to this moment by being so in control of

Everything that he can be in control of it's inconceivable to him that a moment can be bigger and I think if there's anything outside of the swing that's potentially holding him back, it's that his approach that has led to all of those regular season successes may not be exactly applicable in the playoffs. Juan Soto, man, that guy, he craves the spotlight, the moment. He wants the bat in his hand when something needs to be done. And it's why he's going to make a lot of money this winter. Yeah. And that's Soto at bat. It's worth, and we'll finish here, but, and I don't know who, maybe it was somebody after the broadcast, I don't know if it was during the broadcast,

if you'd, it was 1-0, he's's one one looking, he fouls off the third pitch. And then he starts shaking his head, but he's saying like, I got it. I'm on it. I'm on it. He goes on to foul four straight pitches and then the seventh pitch hits that home run. And you could tell in, I don't know that I would have picked it up because I'm not as into it as I used to be, but the reminder of like, once you saw the lip reading part of it, go on. Yep.

We're like, okay. Like a guy was at bat and he was, and here's Gad has been terrific. And he's just like, Nope, like I'm, I'm good. Now there's nothing you're going to beat me with. And if you, if you even come close, like I'm turning on it and it was just an awesome moment. I have studied a lot of Juan Soto at Bats. I wrote a big feature on them a couple of years back.

I didn't need to see the lip reading. It's just the body language with him. Like when he's nodding his head and he's shuffling and he's feeling himself a little bit, I was, you know, I thought Jeff Frank or I dug the TBS crew, by the way, Brian Anderson's awesome. And and him and Frenchie and Ron Darling together. Did you hear Frank Corer early in that at bat? It's like, are you guys thinking what I'm thinking? And he was sad, like, I just

daring to even share it. Yeah, I know. And and I it was pretty prescient. Because when Juan Soto gets comfortable in the batter's box, he is capable of doing incredible things. All he was doing was waiting for the fastball because he knew that Gattis wasn't thinking anything else by him. Once he started fouling those balls off, Ryan, then he knew he had him because at some point He was gonna go fastball and if it was anywhere close to the plate like a daddy hack was incoming and It deposited ball 400 plus feet over the center field wall. And there you go. I can't wait

I'll pick Dodgers just because most of it's gone, but not all of it's gone. So You enjoy those three big starts buddy. All right. Jeff Passon, you can read him on ESPN. He's got a great piece that he shared with us before we even started taping on everything that you need to know and specifically the Judge of Tawny storyline as well. So check that out on ESPN.com. Enjoy the World Series, man.

Thanks, Ray. I appreciate you having me. All right. This is going to be a little different here. Check that out on ESPN.com. Enjoy the World Series, man. Thanks, Ryan. Appreciate you having me. All right. This is going to be a little different here. We're days away from the election. We don't talk a lot of politics on the pod. There's probably reason for that, but I'm excited to talk to Chris Solis because he's been in the game as a pundit for a really long time. He is traveling the country now as the

build up to what has been called the most important election of our lifetimes. Although I think it'll be replaced by the next one. And he's also my junior high basketball teammate. So that might be the most important. That's the most important fact. Yes, by far. What's up man? It's good to see you. I mean, things are good. Life is good. It's this time of year, it's a lot because everybody I run into, it's just like, hey, who's going to win? I'm like, man, if I knew that, I get why that's the question,

but normally by this time, I feel like a couple of weeks out, you have like some sense of who's going to win, you know, at least if you buy the polling, which I know a lot of people don't, but I really don't have a good sense. You know, like I, I'm very much a creature of the moment. Like I'll talk to someone and they'll like make a case for Kamala Harris. I'm like, that does, that does make good sense. And then someone will be like, yeah, but what about this for Trump? And I'm like, I also agree with that. You know what I mean? So it's like, it's just, the thing that's

hard is everybody wants certainty and there's no certainty. It's just close. Like that's the certainty. Yeah. I was looking and again, Salizah has a sub stack called So What and there's tons of stuff on there all the time. And you were referencing the Gallup front page and I'll look at the polls, whether I want to or not, when you're on X as much as I am for work. Yep. And, you know, there's just be these moments where you'll think, oh, okay, well, this thing's over, you know, there's, there's all of this momentum

or somebody sharing a poll and then you realize like, okay, but where are there biases, where is their motivation behind it? And so I know that before we get to some of the polling stuff, you talked about Gallup and a simple question of like, which we've all heard of before, are you better or worse off than you were four years ago? And the data for this would be alarming for Harris just because 52% are saying worse, 32% were saying better, 9% said same, and that was a downturn certainly on the better. I wonder if the question itself though is always

a little flawed. I just wonder if the pessimism of the person answering it, I don't know, maybe it's in a battle with the hopefulness of so many people that would answer this. That would look like a dooming number, but we know that it isn't. Yeah, I mean, it's not. I think one thing that you have to remember about this election is it really is kind of a unicorn. Like you mentioned, I always say this when people are like, is this the most important

election ever? I'm like, look, I worked in cable news for a really long time. They say it's the most important election every four years. Why? Because that's what makes you watch it. It's not a big secret. You know what I mean? I will say, I don't know if this one is not the most important election, it's the most unique election. And I think that's what I've seen in a really long time. Former president trying to become a future president for the first time since Grover Cleveland. First woman of color and South Asian woman

trying to become president. Sitting president of the United States drops out of the presidential race, on July 21st before an election year, which by the way, you will appreciate this. I was at a little league baseball tournament in Cooperstown, New York, and went to the baseball hall of fame on that Sunday,

because I was like, well, surely Joe Biden won't drop out of the race Sunday, Sunday at two o'clock in the afternoon. So I didn't bring my laptop because I was like, I'm going to be present with my kid. And of course he dropped out. Great. Thanks, Joe Biden. So there are just so many factors that are unique to this election

that it makes it hard to look back and say, okay, well, when we've had this situation in the past, it meant this, we haven't had this situation in the past. So you're exactly right, Ryan. Typically in the past, if a lot of people thought things were better four years ago, then they probably wouldn't vote for the sitting incumbent vice president of the United States because they didn't like the last four years ago, then they probably wouldn't vote for the sitting incumbent vice president of the United States, right? Because they didn't like the last four years. At the same

time, Donald Trump is the Republican nominee. And whether you like him or hate him, I will tell you that he is totally known by everyone in the country. There's no one that you go around and say, do you know who Donald Trump is? And they're like, no, I haven't heard that name. And two thirds of people say they don't approve of him. That would be a killer for any other political candidate, but isn't for Donald Trump. So we have all these colliding things that in past elections, we would say, oh, definitely this means fill in the blank is going to win. But we have so many of them that are contradictory that it makes it hard, I think, to look at one thing and be like, okay, that definitely tells us we know what's going to happen.

Pete So growing up and, you know, just paying attention to this stuff, because you paid attention to it, you always felt like there were these moments that just ended a campaign. Like it was just over. And looking back at what, whether it's an affair or a bad photo or one ad, you know, like Dukakis has a couple where you're like, Oh, it's over. Yeah, right. But there was also, you know, the ad about somebody on work release, I think from prison, Willie Brown, Willie Brown is the former mayor of San Francisco. All right.

Well, not him. I don't know if there's a death moment anymore for any campaign. I don't. And I don't know that it's talked like Trump has a litany of things you could point to and be like, okay, well, that would probably end it. He's like, nope. I think the Harris 60 minutes interview, once we saw what it really was, like, I think for a lot of people that would, and I don't know if it's because we're desensitized to it or if we care way less about the person you're potentially voting for and more about what you're voting against. So the person becomes insulated in a way that it never was before. Because really, it's not that somebody loves Trump or somebody loves Harris, it's that they despise the other side way more than

they care about the candidate. And that's how they're able to survive. I think that is critically important. I think so many people vote against something rather than for something or someone. And that's so different than it was even like 15 or 20 years ago. I remember 15 or 20 years ago, even they would say, look, you can run a negative campaign, but at the end, you have to give people a reason to vote for you. And I'm not sure that's the case anymore. The other thing I would say is, particularly as it relates to Trump. So there's an episode

of The Simpsons, just stick with me, this I hope will make sense. There's an episode of The Simpsons where Mr. Burns, if you don't watch The Simpsons, the old crotchety, old billionaire corporate guy in the show, goes to the doctor and he gets a checkup. The doctor comes back and Burns is like, so doc, am I healthy? And the doctor's like, no, you actually have every disease known to man and some we've never heard of. Right? And so Burns says, well, why am I not sick then? You know, I feel fine. And the doctor says, we call it furry Stooges syndrome. So

he takes like all these like, he's like, this little one is pancreatic cancer. He's got like these little like furry things. He's like. So he takes like all these like he's like this little one is pancreatic cancer He's got like these little like furry things. He's like and he pushes them all into this little door that he's got and they all block They're so it's you know, they're all trying to get through the door at once and so none of them make it through the door That's how I feel about trump. He says and does so many things that if you were Any other candidate you'd be like, Oh gosh, that's a, that's a big problem. I mean, I remember in 2015 when he went on stage in Arizona and said, I like my war heroes not captured about John McCain. I remember I worked for the Washington Post at the time I wrote Donald Trump's one month campaign for president has

officially ended. Well, I mean, you know, I guess maybe that's why I don't work for the Washington Post anymore. The point is they all block. So many things are trying to push into the public eye that they all get blocked in some way and it is a remarkable thing for him. For her, she has drastically limited her media exposure drastically. You know, she's gonna wind up giving under five interviews with what we would describe as mainstream media. Some of that is because mainstream media is dying and

some of that is because she is not good in these settings. She's purposely trying to be vague because she knows the more specific she puts on anything, the more problems she has. Yeah, I think with her having more exposure, we were realizing why she had so little. Yeah, she's not a great candidate. Right. Yeah. I mean, I covered her in 2019 when she ran for president. She wasn't a great candidate then. I don't think she's a great candidate now. That doesn't mean she wouldn't be a good president. I don't know if she'd be a good president, but she's not a great candidate. She's not, she is not a natural like a, and it's hard to compare.

I mean, I don't want to do too many sports things, but you know, when, when people compare people to Jordan or whatever, I'm always like, dude, don't, you know, that's like not fair. It's like comparing people to Barack Obama. Like Barack Obama is a whether you again, you can hate Barack Obama, but you need to acknowledge it from a political ability perspective. He has a massive amount of natural political ability and she's not that. But of course, I mean, it's an unfair comparison. Neither is George W. Bush or Donald Trump. Like Barack Obama is one of one in terms of his abilities. Yeah, I thought Harris won the debate. And I thought Trump had a really hard

time. Like, I guess, you know, I'm just not very political, but as an observer of people and somebody who talks for a living has been doing it two plus decades, I think I have some perspective where it must be really frustrating for both parties to be like, how are we not beating the other person's brains in? Totally. How are we not destroying, but then it's just like everything's countering each other in a way where Trump, if he could be 15% less Trump, just a little dialed down from, from his just like core personality

and to get more moderates involved, then I think he would win in the landslide, but he is incapable of actually being that person. He can't. My favorite thing with him is so like, this is my radical proposal for Trump. I wrote this like a couple of weeks ago, which is, let's just say that for the last month of the campaign, Donald Trump never gave an interview, never did a rally, never posted anything on True Social. The only thing that they did was once a day,

the campaign would put out a press release or a tweet or whatever. They put one thing out a day that basically said like, Kamala Harris has been the vice president for three and a half years. They have failed on immigration, the economy, and inflation. We need a change. That's it. years. They have failed on immigration, the economy and inflation. We need a change.

That's it. You could be different words, but that's it. Now, would he get some press like, is Trump dead? You know what I mean? Are they hiding him? Is something medically wrong with him? Yeah, he'd get some negative press, but I think he would win. I genuinely do because to your point, it would be less.

The more he is out in public, the more people are reminded that even if they like his policies, they find him and his personality not appealing. So if he disappeared, if his personality was simply out of the picture, I actually think it might accrue to his benefit. But of course, to your point, Ryan, imagine Donald Trump not doing that. I mean, it's just, it's unimaginable, right? He can't, it's not, he could never do that. Even if somebody came to him and said, I guarantee you will win if you do this, he wouldn't do it.

No, I, it's just at this point, it's not what he's going to do. And I think for, like I was looking at some of the polls this morning, again, whatever you want to make of them, I think Harris and the I was looking at some of the polls this morning, again, whatever you want to make of them. I think Harris and the overall, which is somewhat irrelevant is up, I think, a point and a half as of this morning. Um, and then if you look at the electoral projections, Dems have 191 to 122. But then if you dig into that where it's like, okay, the certainty, electoral votes versus the likely ones, you know, that's

where the Republicans make up a lot of ground. But then I've seen some electoral college maps where it shows Trump in an absolute landslide. And I guess my question is you, you've been doing this. Who do you trust? Like, what do you actually trust when you're trying to figure out something that makes any kind of sense. So, I mean, I have a few people, like the people that I like tend to be people who are unafraid of the Twitter mob, particularly on the left.

So in politics at least, there is, you know, there probably exists this for sports and the NBA too, but definitely for politics, there is a thing that is kind of like, if you ever say, Oh, I actually think that was smart by Donald Trump or Hey, Donald Trump might win. It's like, how dare you? That's a dude. I'm not, this is not about whether I want Donald Trump to win or not. My job is not to tell you what I want to happen. My job is to tell you what I think is going to happen. So like people who are unafraid, which I like, of saying things that they know are not going to win them plaudits with the kind of, you know, the Twitter sphere, which by the way,

I know it doesn't matter as much as it used to, but it still matters a lot in politics and political journalism, despite all of Elon's stuff. I like Nate Silver. I think he's smart. I think he is unafraid. And you like him. Didn't he destroy you? Yes, but he was pretty nasty to you. Dude, if I Ryan, if I didn't like all the people who don't like me, man, I wouldn't like anyone. It's a tough game. But look, I don't know him. I don't know him. I think I met him one time.

I don't know him at all, but I kind of like him and think he's pretty smart and pretty honest. I mean, it admits I don't know what I don't know. I like Jonathan Last, who writes for the Bulwark, who's obviously an anti-Trump guy, but I think is thoughtful and reasonable. But I don't know, is there one person in your life, let's just say the NBA, where if they tell you something, you are certain it's true, I don't really have that.

I'm always like, that person is smart, I get their reasoning for thinking that way, but also I'm not 100% convinced of anything because I don't know that we know. Well, I definitely am at a point where I'm like, if you're waiting around for the person that's gonna get 100% approval rating from you, then you just go like, okay.

It happens to me in less serious. Yeah. I've had people come up to me and be like, I've been listening for 10 years, but I can't believe you said this about the Milwaukee Bucks. And ever since then, it's be like, I've been listening for 10 years, but like, I can't believe you said this about, you know, the Milwaukee Bucks. And, you know, ever since then, it's just like, okay, so you've liked 10 years of it. And then I had a take on your favorite team that you didn't like. And so now it's just over.

The relationship is over. I guess, like, it just feels like I'll look at like, Embiid propaganda. All right. So Embiid, as you know, because you're a huge basketball fan, there was just this push. It felt like this push. Well, all of a sudden, like if you didn't think he was better than Jokic, then you were just a basketball idiot. And it wasn't about whether or not he was better than Jokic. It was just about making sure like MVP voters were more like it was just,

it was like this, this campaign of, of people. Yeah. But it wasn't even something that was like, you know people. Totally concerted effort to move public opinion. Yeah. But it wasn't even, some of them were real people and then there was a lot of people that weren't real people. And so whenever I see anything related to politics, like my first thought is like, okay, well, where is their motivation?

Like where is this coming from? That should be your first thought. A lot of times when you look at polls, right. And whenever I'm looking at polls or any, any stuff that's supposed to matter, like my first thought is doubt with all of it. So I think the three and a half year part that Trump should have hit on way more in the debate, he didn't. And it leads right into the immigration thing.

Cause I've gone through reading about it. Um, because I'm, I'm fascinated that this could actually happen because I think it's, it's so nasty if the motivations behind it are true. Like if you want to look up any of the stuff and I was on the Pew research site, so not everything's updated with that because they're not going to post anything until there's like tons of data. But basically we had a downward trend of illegal immigrants going all the way up into 2019 from like 07 to 2019. I don't know that there's much debate in that. There's certainly

different ways you can cut it up where it's like households and then in all this stuff, stuff, but like the raw number is the chart going up, is the chart going down. It's pretty clear there's a massive spike here recently. What do you believe is actually true behind this and the reasons for it? I do think that, look, you can't talk about politics or policy in this country over the last decade without talking about Donald Trump. I do think that there was a reaction to what Democrats believed was way too punitive measures at the border. So Biden comes in and he loosens up a bunch of things. And those things, and now they tried to surge border patrol.

I mean, they tried to do things. Donald Trump paints it as though Biden was like, we want everyone to come into this country legally. I don't think that is the case, but I do think they were resistant to taking any of the things Trump put in place and leaving them because the sense was Trump separated kids from their parents. This is not American.

So I think they got rid of a bunch of stuff that if you could go back and give them true serum, they might not have done because the real situation and if I was Kamala Harris, I'd be saying this every day is hey look, we came in with the best of intentions. We know there is an issue at the border. We cannot have people willy-nilly coming to this country illegally. We need to do something about it. We tried to put solutions that we thought would work in place. They didn't work as well as we had hoped. We need to be something about it. We tried to put solutions that we thought would work in place They didn't work as well as we had hoped we need to be a little bit tougher Boom, boom boom are the things that on which we need to be tougher on

Like to me, that's a no-brainer because Biden is not popular. She's not going to win by being a second term of Joe Biden She won't I mean if that's the choice she will lose But she's been like a little resistant to do that. Lately, she's said a lot more like, look, my presidency wouldn't be Joe Biden's presidency. You know, one of the things, Orion, like this is like a 50,000 foot thing, but one of the things that's so hard, and you touch on it is it's so hard. If you're me, like people, when you write about politics for a living, people spend their whole time, some people spend a lot of time trying to figure out like, well, what, secretly,

what's your agenda? And I'm always like, man, I wanted to tell you, like, you can follow me around, you can like listen to my phone calls, like, I don't have like a super agenda at all. I'm mostly like trying to figure out, okay, what do we know? And then what are the established facts? And then based on my reporting, my years of experience, okay, what do I think that means? Now, that doesn't mean I'm right, but that's what I'm trying to do. The first part of that used to be easy.

Okay, what do we know? What are the established facts? When it comes to immigration, when it comes to crime statistics, it's like we used to say Okay, the department of justice says violent crime is dropped. The FBI says violent crime is up Well, trump says actually no like they're revising those numbers upward. They don't count certain things like the the easy the part that used to be easy Established facts isn't anymore and that's what I struggle with because it's like man. I don't I'm not trying to like manipulate. I'm just trying to get back to like, okay, at the root, what are we talking about, you know, which should be easy, but it's not.

Yeah. Because I think there's, there's never been more awareness with different things. So if I see more crime videos, then I'll just think, okay, well, this means there's more crime and it's like, well, or are you just seeing more videos of the same things? And then you can go back and look, trying to go through crime data and come to a specific conclusion is I've tried. I can't, I can't come to any kind of.

No, the immigration part of it, like the, the argument with immigration has always been like, oh, well that means, look, people have been arguing about new citizens or non-citizens, just new people showing up since the first time a white guy stepped foot on the United States of America. You go through any book in history, one of the biggest issues always is we don't want any new people here, okay? Yep. I mean, my dad is an Italian coming into this country. It was a huge issue in the 40s and 50s. Yeah, it's always been an issue. Right. And my father's side is not that far removed of, of coming over from Italy.

So when I think about like the basis of what this is supposed to be, then you can have this moment where you're like, am I actually being un-American by not? But then I think about the most stressed communities, the people that need the resources that are American citizens and you'll read their stories and you'll see this stuff. And I don't, again, maybe it comes back to the heightened awareness part of it, where you just think, well, if your position is that it's an unlimited number and it just doesn't matter. And if you don't believe in like an infinity, then you're un-American. I'm like, well, then we can't have a real conversation about it. And I've heard those positions before.

well then we can't have a real conversation about it. And I've heard those positions before. And I don't know if like, it just seems like the worst version of this story is really nefarious. And I don't know if I believe that though either. And that it's just, hey, get this many people in here, get them to certain states and people can sit there and be like, well, how are they going to vote without a license? I was on the phone with a Massachusetts DMV because I had to get a title for a car. The first option, the first option when I called

the phone number was the immigrant license program and I, I, I thought, wow, how? That's the first prompt. And I did it again this morning to make sure that it was true and it was true. And, you know, look, maybe I'm, I'm turning, it's not even a position as much as it is. I've had a really hard time understanding like what's actually happened. And the worst version of the story, as you know, from the right would be this is strictly about

like changing the future of voting and illegal voting and all these different things. And I'm like, it's somebody, are they really trying to do that? And I don't have an answer to that. I just know what is out there. So the thing that I have struggled the most like doing this, particularly since I've been doing it myself, like not working for a big media organization is like, the, and I know this is true of sports

as a consumer of sports. It's like, and I know you've been thankfully a critic of this is like, the thing that gets eyeballs makes people money motivates people is the most extreme take on any situation. Right? Like, right. You don't even really have to believe it. In fact, I can't imagine a lot of people do believe it, but it's like, that's the thing that gets you on TV. That's the thing that gets, like in my world,

that gets you subscriptions to paid subscribers, to Substack, because it's like, people want to believe that the other side is absolutely terrible. And that they, and not just that they're stupid or ill informed, though they think they are, but that they're like malicious. You know, like this is intentional.

Like these policies, these policies are put in place because they have a secret agenda you don't want to know about. And man, that's so hard because my experience in politics is like, I always say this, you know, the cliche, it's true, is like, politics is a lot more like Veep than it is like the West Wing. And that's been my experience is like, it's much less, people always accuse the media of like, oh, you guys, you get together and decide what the story is.

I'm like, dude, I've worked in huge media organization, like, we can't even figure out like what conference room a meeting about like, planning what to do on election night is in the idea that we're like, all getting together on like some like broad scale scheme. Like, I just and that's what sucks for me is like, I know I could make more money by being like, either Democrats are involved in this, they want to overthrow this country and they hate America and it's communism or Trump is Hitler. That would get me more page views, attention and money. But

like, I don't think it's true. So like, I can't, I don't feel good saying it. And that world sucks. Like the take world is definitely true in politics. I know it's true in sports. And I think it is detrimental to like trying to actually, to your point, like get to the bottom of, okay, like what are we actually doing and why? Yeah, look, I mean, I totally understand the parallel with the sports part of it.

Cause I was like, I just can't, I know what would work. I know today if I said, Hey, I think Ronnie Jr is going to be an all star in four years and everybody's going to download this episode because they can't believe somebody said it, you know, so I know how I could do it. Um, but then it's funny because in your world where I'm far less educated Um, but then it's funny because in your world where I'm far less educated because it's not my job. Um, I kind of pay attention to what I pay attention to, you know, and is the epiphany that I've had years ago is that ultimately the audience is to blame for the coverage that they get because it's up to you to decide. Yeah. Yeah. So who was who was, how many presidents have you interviewed?

Three. Three. I think, yeah. All right, so maybe that's a little, I guess three. And Obama was just tier one. There's no one even close to him in the Senate. Yeah, like I just think- No, I could totally understand it. I can see it. Like again,, like I just think. No, I could totally understand it. I could see it.

Like again, I mean, it's like a, I do spend, not just cause I'm on this pod, but I mean, I do spend a lot of time thinking about like the analogies and the comparisons to sports. And like, you know, there are people who have a lot of natural ability who wind up being like okay in the NBA, for example, Michael Beasley. You know what I mean?

Fine career. I mean, disappointing, but fine. A ton of natural ability didn't really make it. There are people with not as much natural ability, but who have a pretty good career. They work hard, blah, blah, blah, like Peyton Pritchard, whatever. I don't know who it is. And then there are people who have a ton of natural ability and realize their potential.

Doesn't happen all that often, but that's Obama. Obama at every stage, as the lights got brighter, and this is not true for all of them, in fact, it's almost not true for any of them, as the lights got brighter, he got better. And most of them struggle as the lights get brighter. They just do, the stage gets bigger, there's more people, there's more eyeballs, there's more everything,

and they struggle. And he didn't. I mean, I was watching something this morning, he's doing some Rally for Harris, and he's like, dude, rapping Eminem lyrics because Eminem is there. And most people, I'd be like, Oh my god, you know, like if I said to you, Hey, Ryan, I just saw a video of a politician rapping, uh, uh,

lyrics from Eminem. You'd be like, Oh, that's a disaster. But like, it was pretty good because like, he's good. Like, you know, it's sort of hard to put a finger on it. Just like, he does It's sort of hard to put a finger on it. Just like he does intangible intangible things that are really, really good. And so yeah, he's the I think he's the most naturally talented politician of my lifetime that I've covered. And he was able to put that talent plus work and smarts to have a very, very successful political career. Whatever you think of what he did from a policy perspective, if it's about winning and losing, the guy won and won overwhelmingly.

Yeah, that's the answer I expected. Look, man, I'm fired up for you. I was checking out the Substack again this morning, so what? And it's not just politics, because I know what a huge sports fan you are, and you even had some stuff going on this summer when we were talking again. So give us the quick sell on that and let I know what a huge sports fan you are. And you even had some stuff going on this summer when we were talking again.

So give us the quick sell on that and let us know where we can find you. Okay. So yes, right now I will tell you this close to the election, it's a lot of politics, but it will not be... Probably gonna be... If you go there thinking I'm doing like breakdown of the Celtics three point shooting in game one, I'm not doing that currently. I leave that to the experts like you. But yeah, I mean, I write a lot about personal stuff.

I write about sports. I'm doing a show. This is actually cool. So I wrote a book in 2023 called Power Players, Sports Politics in the American Presidency, which just was like the sports presidents played, the sports they liked, what sports did for them in terms of like forming who they are. And Monumental Sports, which owns the wizards and the caps,

the Leontas family, they were like, hey, what if we did a show around this book? So it's coming out, show starts right around election day actually. And like, it's basically like me talking to politicians and former politicians and about the sports they played, like, it's cool, though, because I interviewed this one guy who is a NHL hockey player is now a member of Congress from Minnesota, of course. And like, they were like, Hey, get out on the

ice and put on the goalie pads and let them shoot at you. So there's a lot of that there's a lot of me looking like an idiot trying to compete with like really good athletes. I played in a pickup game with Mark Warner, the Senator from Virginia. I played Reggie Love, Obama's old body man in one on one. Breaking news, he won. You never realize that you're as old and slow as you actually are until you see it on video. You know what I mean? Like in my mind's eye, I'm like splashing and cutting

and then I watch it and I'm like, who's that fat old guy running around sweating? It was me. I was never that good, but I've gotten worse. But anyway, so that show I'm psyched for because like, I just, you know, politics, only politics is soul crushing. It really is. Like I gotta do other stuff. And so that's what I'm trying to do in this life.

But check out the substacks. Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. Can I make one pitch? The substack stuff is I decided it's all free until the election. So you literally don't have to pay a dime. You can read all the coverage through the election for free. Everything on it is free. You want to help me live?

Awesome, become a subscriber, but you don't have to. Is that a good pitch, help me live? I wanna help you live. I'm gonna be my slogan. Help me live. Enjoy Texas, man. And it's really cool all these years later, catching up. Thanks, Chris.

Sure, dude. Breaking news, it's 95 in Texas today. Not surprised. Thanks, dude. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet. What's up?

I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, I'm going to show you what I do. I'm going to show you what I do. I'm going to show you what I do. I'm going to show you what I do. I'm going to show you what I do.

I'm going to show you what I do. I'm going to show you what I do. I'm going to show you what I do. I'm going to show you what I do. I'm going to show you what I do. I'm going to show you what I do. I'm going to show you what I do. I'm going to show you what I do.. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required.

The email address as always, lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Keep your Ed Quinn aspiring actors, actors questions. Some of them are terrific already. Saruti's in the dark right now. Where are you? We're in Bill's office. The studio you guys did over-unders in the light. I don't know if it's motion.

We also got locked out earlier and had to go talk to security. That was fun. So it's been an eventful morning. Spotify spring break. Is this what was going on? Yeah. Gotta check his email.

Wow. I don't check my email. There was a really, there was quite a bit of controversy about me not checking one specific email years ago. And to prove it. It's funny that I did. Now it's funny. Yeah, to prove that I was not lying, I had no idea.

Never checked in. Was I supposed to be at this? No, we had a lot of people be like, is Rosillo showing up? And I'm like, no, no chance. Is my charger there? You're in that room. Oh, that's right.

God, I really hated to tell you this. I looked everywhere I went to Laws and Found, it's definitely gone. I wanted to tell you, people aren't that way. It'll be there. I went yesterday. I followed up. It's not anything. Somebody moved it.

I'm sorry. I don't think anyone would have stolen the charger. Somebody must have moved it. Cause people do stuff like that. It's such a nice charger too. That's great. All right. Sorry man, I tried.

So this first email is, coworkers keep stealing stuff. No, a charger's free game. Chargers, a Mac charger, MacBook charger, not free game. Chargers and lighters. Chargers and lighters. Yeah. Yeah, I'm constantly getting my heaters taken from me. All right, wife slept at another man's house. Should I be

pissed? Yeah. Here's a good one. Kyle immediately with a yep. Hey guys, been struggling with this one. 43 married two kids living in an SEC university town relevant to the story. All right. Okay. This past Saturday, a friend of ours, let's call him Ed, was having folks over in the afternoon for his birthday. We met Ed about six months ago because our kids are in kindergarten together. Ed has recently divorced and moved here a couple years ago because his kids are here. I consider Ed a friend of getting drinks, played golf and gone to a concert with him. It's a lot of stuff. It's a lot of hanging out. My wife and I drove separately to Ed's as I was planning to leave after a couple hours to head to the tailgate football game that evening. I ended up leaving around 5 PM and my wife and kids stayed

and presumably go home after. So he left Ed's at 5 PM to go to the game. Wife and kids stay there. Imagining that they're going to go home because that's what usually wife and kids do. I arrived home from the game around midnight to find my house empty. I've not heard, that must have sucked. I have not heard from my wife or Ed since I left his house earlier.

I call and text my wife, get no immediate response. I checked the last known location of her phone and at a brief glance, it appears to be somewhere other than Ed's house. I get in the car to drive where it says and where it is, um, is right when my wife calls me back. All right, so again, I'll read that sentence again. I get in the car to drive to where it says that she is when my wife calls me back.

He wrote that right, I read it poorly. She's hammered and says, Ed took away her keys and would not let her drive home. She asked if I wanna come pick her up and my sleeping children up. I say no, just sleep it off and come home in the morning. In retrospect, I probably should have gone and picked them up at 1 a.m.

But at the time I was furious and didn't want to go storming over there and make some big scene in the middle of the night. The head space I was in at the time, who knows what I would have done. I feel very weird and uncomfortable about this, but believe that probably nothing happened. However, if the situation had been reversed,

I would 100% call or text my buddy, whose wife it was, and let him know what was up so he would not get the wrong idea. The fact that Ed did not do this is suspect in my opinion. How pissed should I be about this? Should I blacklist Ed going forward? Should I divorce my wife? The shittiest part of the situation is our kids are great friends and if we cease to have a relationship with Ed and his kids, I'm the bad guy who couldn't get over it. Am I making too big of a deal about all of this?

Whoa, all right, lot to go with here. Who wants to go first? The kids are there. And I think that's like, you know, that's makes you feel a little better about it, I think. You know, sort of like Carmella bringing AJ over to Furios. It's just like, you know, it's got an air of innocence to it.

Yeah, I think it's weird that- AJ knew what was up. I think it's weird that the guy didn't say like, hey, just so you know, whatever. Maybe he just assumed, you know, the guy's wife would have the wherewithal to be like, I'm going to sleep. I'm sorry. I can't, I can't go home. But if she was that hammered, you know, he probably should have said something. Yeah, this isn't like without the kids. I would say this is weird. Like I, as somebody who also cave to my wife being like, what if you're, what if there's an there's an emergency like can you turn your location on and finally i was like okay.

I think i would i would choose to sleep outside before being like yeah you know just our friend who's a woman i just slept enough in her house i just think. I'd rather just not fight and sleep at a park bench and wake up and go home then. Then have to like explain that this was just a friend looking out for me and letting me sleep on the couch. But because the kids are there, I think it takes to edge off. And I think if you should be, if you're having a conversation with anyone, it's probably more your wife instead of your buddy who offered this woman and children a place

to lay their heads because you could have let her go and she could have ruined her life with a DUI with two kids in the car. Opened, the headline sounds way worse than the actual story is. You know, I think you're still able to feel bad. Hope you didn't lose the game too, because you probably would have been extra upset. Maybe that's part of it.

I agree, this seems like, it's, I mean, it's not, I don't think it's grounds for divorce. I mean, if she's like over there hooking up while the kids are there, like that's a pretty bad look. Yeah, that's like someone you would know if she's that person, I think. Yeah, you'd have to be a pretty shitty person to do that, I feel like.

And if you, I don't know, there would be signs, I feel like, until this point. So I don't know that that's the case. And as far as your buddy not hitting you back, like I could see myself not doing that, not because like, you know, I was trying to be shady or anything was going on. I just, I don't know, like maybe I just thought

she would have said something and I could see myself doing that. So I wouldn't, you know, maybe it's ignorance, maybe it's whatever. So I wouldn't hold that against your buddy. I think you have every right to be annoyed and pissed and it is incredibly awkward. And, you know, I don't know what your mode of,

do you give her the silent treatment? Is that whatever like kind of discipline that you feel like you need to dole out is probably worth it. And I think she would even admit like, that's kind of f'ed up. But it does seem a little bit innocent. Like your buddy did kind of help her out. And I feel like there would be signs too.

If this was something bigger, like, I don't know, like this is, if it's a one-off incident, I don't think it's grounds for like blowing up a relationship. That's the part that's tough. That's tough. But the kids thing and then being friends, man, like that is true. Like you're gonna be the bad guy. That sucks.

You have to be so freaking sure that, you know, that you can't trust them or something happened to really blow that scene up. So, you know, maybe it's like a beta move, but I kind of would just be mad for a little bit and let it slide. Yeah, it's like, if the conversation is, listen, you can't get hammered when you're, you know,

you're in charge of bringing the kids home. And if she says you're right, I think that's kind of it. You know what I mean? You don't really need to belabor. If she's like defending her position here, then maybe you have bigger problems. But I think if you're just like, Hey, if you're the person in charge, you knew I was going and you, you know, you can't, you just can't do this. This is parent life now. Those days are over. I'm just like, we'll figure out what to do if I get too drunk. And if she just agrees with that, then I think you're good. I think you could just move on, you know, to the best of your ability.

I need to know more about her. I would offer having the kids and sleeping over isn't also great either, to be honest with you. So if she's, if our guy's about 42, 43, let's say they've got a couple of kids, I mean, maybe she's the same age, maybe she's a few years younger. Look, people can go to things, they can drink too much and then it gets away from them. And I mean, it happens. All right, so I, to run through life where like, no one's ever supposed to let this happen, I think that's kind of like the two versions of people at times.

So people can completely understand it, and the people that are just think it's like the worst thing ever, like how could you ever do that? Right? I don't want to ever be that strict in my life where I would think anybody having this happen, like, okay, well you just have to completely write them off. But is this something that she does?

Does she do this regularly? I mean, SEC, there's fucking no rules down there anyway. So, um, you know, that, that might be part of it. Um, and the fact that the guy stepped up and was like, no keys, but you're right. Like there's never going to be a hundred percent absolute certainty on this one unless you believe in your wife. Like, is this a complete one-off? Then don't even worry about it.

Like I wouldn't worry about any of this stuff. Is this a pattern? You know, do you want to look at her texts with Ed? I hate going into the phone thing. I hate it because I think it's such a violation. But when you're married and you have something like this, you know, is that something where you go, I may need to just get some confirmation on this one because I do think it's weird that he didn't reach out. But then again, SEC country, he might've just been hammered too.

And is even thinking about it. Next thing you know, it's later. I guess I would just, I think you're right to be mad, but you have to, and I don't want you to send a follow-up email because it's your wife, but you have to run through like her resume of events. Like is this abnormal? And then if it's abnormal and you actually believe everybody,

you know, just move on from it. But if it's a weird little pattern here, like I'm just telling you, like the emailer, there would always be a little lingering thing with me. And it would have a lot to do with like what Ed's all about. How good looking is he? You know, like what is he, what's he been like? You know, I'm serious. Like where are you right now in your marriage? Like if things got a little stale, like I'm not trying to fuck this guy up here with the email,

but these things would be running through my head a little bit, but. Does he also have a squat rack in the garage? Right. Yeah. It's like, did you hear his Julius Randall stuff? He's day one, he's already locked in. I don't know that there's an easy out for you here, but if your wife isn't normally doing stuff like this,

maybe she likes to have a good time or whatever. That's again, no judgment on it. You're usually the driver. That's the other thing. My wife is a bit of a lightweight and that's fine. And I'm the one who drives when we go places. So usually I'm like, okay, all right, come on. It's time to go.

And if she's just like, normally she's like, it's fine. Cause my husband will drive and she just, I don't know, let it slip that she was, you know, you were leaving and going somewhere else. And she was just, you know, sorry, normally when we go to these things, I just don't count my wine glasses because you're driving us home. And maybe she was just a slip of the mind. All right. Um, I think we got it. I think we got it. We had a lot of people following up on the mattress and the recycling thing. One guy said, hey, I'm an insurance agent in Vermont. Heard your recent life advice about the mattress.

There's a mattress recycling place in Burlington. Gave the link. You don't know George, dude. You don't know George. He doesn't care about you. If George just had to call and have the garbage pick it up tomorrow, he's still, that's too much for George. Yeah.

You think he's gonna click on a link and schedule a mattress pickup? Like, come on, man. It would be easy. That would be mature. That would be an adult sign. George isn't ready for that yet, links. But we appreciate him sending it in.

Okay, this sounds like a good idea. Buying a vacation home before primary residence. Player comp JR Smith with moderate anxiety. He has none. Gym stats, male, 30 years old, 5'11", 185, curling 40 pound dumbbells with good form, hashtag arm farm. I'm reading, or excuse me, I am reaching out, not reading well today,

the narrator said. I'm reaching out with a simple yet interesting inquiry. I'm currently living in Chicago with my fiance and have been pushing for years to target purchasing our second home and staying in our rental apartment, which we loved. We were recently on an excellent rural weekend getaway in Wisconsin, and this idea seemed to gain some traction with the fiance. My thinking is that the homes we were targeting in Chicago are in the $600,000 to $800,000 range and are moderate upgrades to our rental, which is $21.50 a month.

Great neighborhood, two beds, one bath. And vacation homes in the Midwest are super cheap. 250 to 450 K huge yard near or on a lake. We could also Airbnb the vacation home and potentially make some of the cash back. Is this a great idea or what? Do people do this would love some advice from the group. Love the pod. I love this. I love this. I don't know. I mean, I don't know if it's the right thing to do, but I would say specific to Chicago, because whenever you get in the old Zillow,

you know, you're just like, what else, what else is out there for me in my life? And you're like, let's go on Zillow. Whenever you look at Chicago stuff, I always blown away by how low the prices are for properties. Um, in comparison to to other major cities. Chicago's just easier entry. If you want something kinda nice, you're like, well, this in lower Manhattan would be this, or this in certain parts of LA, or whatever.

This seems like it's so much cheaper to live there, and I do think the prices would back me up on that. Then you start sneaking into some of the fees that come with these places, and you'll think, oh you could totally handle that mortgage you might not even feel it. Wait what are these fees and they're just massive. I don't know what the tax situation is inner-city Chicago even though I've looked at it. I know cowherd's got a place out there but yeah he's probably not even feeling it probably not even

doing them or he's like four four point 4.5 rate. What's that? Um, if you were able to stay in a place in Chicago that you like, and you're avoiding all of that stuff, I think specific to Chicago, which is why it's the first thing I thought of based on my very limited research, but this might be the move. If you wanted to get a home ownership and get in the game and start the clock rolling here. You really need to have, as far as the seconds,

because I think people just look at a tradition of like you're buying a vacation home before you're buying your real home. And it's like, well, actually, this makes more sense. Yeah, your dad might not get it. Yeah, right, your dad may not get it, Kyle. Make a shirt, that's a really good one. I would really research the Airbnb thing,

because I think a lot of people get massive wake-up calls on that kind of stuff. Because you actually have to do something or find someone to do the thing. Yeah. And you have to like, I've rented a few Airbnbs from places that probably weren't like peak season. And they always call me back being like,

hey, do you want this, this thing again? So you're probably going to have a lot more empty dates than you realize, but I don't think this is completely out of the question, especially when you factor in what the monthly expense is on a purchase price for the second home. And then you have to also be very honest with yourself about how often you're really going to use it. Okay. Um, because I think a lot of people that want to dabble in the second residence, it is the coolest idea. It's like, man, this is going to be so cool. We're going to have everybody over. It's going to be the spot. And then yeah, I'm actually busy that weekend. Most times. Yeah. Nobody's coming over. And if it's far enough, like if it's a plane, right. You know,

If it's a plane. Right, you know, like, could I live in the south of France for a few months a year? Nope. It's too far away, dude. Right. It's too far away. Now, this guy's just strictly talking about late stuff in Wisconsin, which apparently is awesome. I've never spent any time there. Yeah, I got a blind spot with Wisconsin for sure.

You do? Yeah, I got a big blind spot. I'm not really sure what the what the Airbnb scene would be. Fond du Lac. You do you? I got a big blind spot. I'm not really sure what the, what the Airbnb scene would be. Fond du Lac? Right over my head. Don't even know. Yeah, I didn't even know how to pronounce it. Yeah, I'm not even sure I have it right. Is it a bar?

I think a lot of people do that though. Probably all of those six. I think a lot of people do the Chicago, Lake House in Wisconsin thing. Like that's a couple hour drive. I have a buddy who kind of is in that scene. It is. It's not that big of a deal.

Yeah, if you're looking around at houses that are in your budget, you're not like blown away. And you know, you've always said like the thing about, you know, the freedom of leaving, you know, your apartment is kind of like, sort of, you can't really put a price on that of just being like, yeah, I don't wanna re-up this. I'm gonna move my shit out.

That's cool. And if you're looking around, you're not falling in love with anything. And you're like, yeah, I do have this thing over here that is a nice little getaway. Maybe we get some mailbox money. I actually I think it makes sense. Yeah, your dad might not get it. But if you're not like falling in love with anything, and you're like, man, I hope we can get this house and I hope the financing comes through and you know, everything else seems like a mild upgrade. Like he says,

yeah, wait till you find something that knocks your socks off. The only thing though is, and I, I could be wrong about this, but I'm just like thinking this through logistically, you know, you're going to have a hard time probably getting a second mortgage, right? If you do want to buy a house or something in the Chicago area, if you already have this, this, this vacation home. Um, so, you know, the interest rates are also like still kind of high. Like there are some, there are some red flags here. Like if you really love this place, you're renting and you're like, so, you know, the interest rates are also like still kind of high. Like there are some, there are some red flags here.

Like if you really love this place, you're renting and you're like, whatever, you know, we could live here. What's your, you know, you guys, is the kid situation happening? Are you going to need more space in the future? Uh, that's all, that's all something we got to think about here because I do think like once you're paying that mortgage rent for that one and rent at your current place, ah, you might kind of be, you're going to kind of true yourself if you, if you,

you're probably not going to be able to do both unless your finances are awesome. Yeah, I would add like 15% to 20% on top of like whatever you think your math is. Like this is what's going on. It's always more. The mortgage rates have gone down, but there was a slight uptick, I think yesterday. So if you're looking at from where they were at a year and a half ago, they're down from there.

But it can get a little tricky depending on what your income is. I remember living in Connecticut and I had a three-bedroom condo. Purchase price was just over $400,000. I didn't make that much money even selling it because Connecticut had raised the property taxes quite a bit. So there was this window where if you were selling something, it just wasn't really going to work out for you. Anyway, the point is that it was the best money I'd ever made at ESPN. And I called my mortgage guy to go like, well, look, my out of pocket based on my salary

for this, I was like, can I get a house in Vermont? Like what if I want to do a lake house in Vermont, you know, purchase price within this range? And he was just like, you're going to have to come up with 50, 60% down for a second home. All right. That was when I lived in Connecticut. I don't know if that's a Northeast thing. I don't know if it's a Leicester-Salvo market. Maybe it was just the one guy that I was talking to. because then when I moved to California, all of those rules are gone. Like they don't, nobody goes, Oh, you have to do

this. They don't, they don't, they ask completely different questions. They don't ask as many from what I can tell. So I don't know if it's a regional thing or what, um, again, it probably has a lot to do with what your financial situation is, but Saruti is right to bring it up because when I was even just presenting the idea, it seemed like there was no way it was even

worth researching it because they were like for a second home and for what you were trying to do, this is all of the things that you'll have to do to even get approved for any kind of second mortgage. And I was like, Oh, all right, well then there's no point because I'm not going to have the money to just out of pocket 60%, 50% down payment on some kind of second house. So I kind of like the idea specific to the Chicago part of it because of an upgrade or to buy something at the same level that you're at right now and you're totally content renting, but you're going to be putting money towards something else that you would hope to be a longer term asset.

Again, I like real estate more than I like the ups and downs of the stock market. I understand people who like the stock market way more because you just hit a button and then there's all your cash. Totally understand it. But if you look at this as like a real, like there's, there has to be a longer term play in a desirable place. Real estate wise, you know, it's my opinion is it's always a little bit safer. Yeah, I agree. If you're,

if you're within reasonable driving distance to this place and you can make it a point to like go up there like multiple weekends a month, I think it's worth it. Uh, but yeah, it's not like a beach house where you're like gotta be in season. Lake houses, Wisconsin year round. Don't know if I, sorry in the dark again. Darn. Or thank you, Wargon.

All right, I think that'll do it. How's Wargon been? Has he been the wild card to Spotify spring break thing or what? No, I think Wargon was more of a wild card at intro days. Then he has, I mean, last night I got in yesterday. So last night was like my first night here.

So I don't know, but what do we do? We did a dinner, we did in and out. Wargon did not go, but we went to a bar afterwards. Love that. Good for Wargon. We gotta do in and out. Next time we do over, under, proper, the rated, we gotta bring that up.

We gotta bring it up. I got my answer. Sounds like somebody has a rated lean. I like somebody has a little bit of a lean. Yeah. I could tell based on the tone alone. So yeah, this, who knows? Friday we could have potentially hung out at my house in Manhattan. No, we're gone Friday. Tomorrow is the day. Thursday is the day. No, I'm saying by the time Friday show comes out. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Find out Monday cause we'll be back.

Well, no, you're going to find out Friday because I'm not going anywhere. That's true. That's true. People do want to know more about war gone though. They're like, what's up with that cat? He's an interesting dude. Yeah. Stay, stay tuned is all we can tell you. Tell your friends subscribe. Uh, all right. We'll be on YouTube regularly. And of course the Ryner solo podcast ringer, Spotify, all the guys up at HQ

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