The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Ohtani Joins LeBron and Tiger in Living Up to the Hype With Jeff Passan

Episode Date: June 29, 2023

Russillo shares his thoughts on Shohei Ohtani and where he ranks among all-type hype athletes including LeBron James, Tiger Woods, and Connor McDavid (0:40). Then Ryen is joined by ESPN's Jeff Passan to discuss Ohtani's unprecedented career, the Ohtani narrative in 2018 vs. 2023, whether he will remain with the Angels in the future, and more (13:20). Finally, Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (51:01). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Jeff Passan Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

on today we're going all in on otani i want to talk about him the player and the short list of exceeding the hype perhaps of some of the most hyped athletes of the last 20 years and then jeff paston's going to talk about it, where he talked with scouts years ago who actually doubted Otani after spring training and then pivoting that to what kind of decision does he make as he becomes a free agent, maybe even some trade deadline stuff. Life advice. Kyle is back in the mix. Get ready. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here, so be prepared and get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. What do I mean by almost anything? Well, you can't get a ski slope, but dish soap, definitely doable. I want to start today's podcast delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol in select markets. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details.

I want to start today's podcast talking about Shohei Otani. I think right now is the best individual player in team sports in American sports. Now, I'm not trying to hype him up. I don't think he needs the hype. There was hype coming in.

I want to get to hype a little bit later. But every night with this guy, like literally every single night. Our guy Hembo from ESPN who tweets out a bunch of stuff. Researcher over there. Works on Greeny's show, Get Up. This was from two days ago. If you looked at the MLB leaderboard, Otani is number one in home runs.

He was number one in RBI, but Garcia had three the other night, so he's jumped him. Number one in extra base hits, number one in total bases, number one in slugging, number one in OPS, and number one in hits per nine innings allowed for pitchers. This is somebody who won the MVP in 21, was second in the MVP last year, and also fourth in the Cy Young. I'll say that again. He was second in MVP voting in the American League and also fourth in Cy Young. Now, I remember back to the radio days of like, hey, we need to talk more about this. You didn't have to have a radio show to ask that question, but you used to ask it a lot.

A lot of times I'd be like, okay, what am I supposed to do? Just say the guy's name once a week? More once a week should i end every podcast with an otani stat uh talking about it more than zero times would be an improvement so that's what i want to do but i want to put it into comps and then try to figure out how to put together any kind of open who about a guy who's doing something that's basically unthinkable. For me to stretch this guy's awesome for 10 minutes isn't why you're dialing into the podcast. So yeah, I guess we could talk about him more, and that's what I'm going to try to do. The best player in team sports.

I imagine there'll be a little pushback from that. It'll likely be selfish. Jokic has all the momentum right now for what he does in basketball. I think Jokic just having the belt, which he has, deservedly so, but the idea that no one else can take it from him I feel is a little dismissive to what Giannis has done. So if you say it's Jokic,

there's not really a basketball-baseball equivalent because in basketball we are playing at both sides of the floor. So you can't really compare the two, even if you feel like that gives a basketball player a better chance of being a two-way player the way Otani is a two-way player in baseball. The problem is Otani is the only one that's doing it, more so than with football where you don't have the opportunity to do both of

these things. And the best quarterback, like say Mahomes, he's not going to be playing safety or middle linebacker anytime soon. It's just not going to happen. So to some of the other sports in basketball, football, even hockey, like a McDavid, who's the best player in the NHL, if he was also the best goalie, is that what we're looking at here with Otani? I'm not quite sure how you would even do that.

It'd be probably tough to skate back in position. would even do that it'd be probably tough to skate back in position i guess you could say that mcdavid if he played in goal i don't know every other night and then play the first line the rest of this like i'm just again this is stupid because i'm just trying to think of something that i feel like it's even an imaginary like yeah right an imagined thing and comparing it to what Otani is. So if Jokic were a team at the other end, then maybe, I guess. But there's just nothing else here. The quarterback has this massive advantage on importance to what the NFL is because without him, you have no chance. And if you have somebody that's really, really special, he can uplift the rest of the roster. Sometimes we have a great roster with a great quarterback, but I think the great quarterbacks over the course of their career, you'll see the down years roster-wise, bad injuries, cap issues, that that quarterback will still find a way to get you into the wildcard round, win maybe 11 games in the regular season. We don't really know how we can compare anyone to what Otani is doing. We can't compare anyone in baseball history to him. We could do it with Babe Ruth, but it's actually not the same because Babe Ruth wasn't doing this at the same time to the level of what Otani is doing at the same time right now. I know that we're going to turn this into potential NBA Twitter because you'll say, well, wait a minute. If this guy's so good, how come he doesn't win? Well, that's baseball. All right. The sport is not the same. Quarterbacks fair. Basketball players, totally fair. It's a numbers thing on top of everything else. But as somebody who worshiped

Pedro during the late 90s and early 2000s, and again, is the best pitcher I've ever seen, they made the playoffs those first two years. But Pedro, who won two Cy Youngs and got fucked out of an MVP vote from 2000, 2001, and 2002, they didn't even make the playoffs. And they had the best guy doing it, I believe, ever. That's a baseball thing. That's not a, well, if this guy were so good, dot, dot, dot. Basketball, it really is on you. They only play with five. You already know the math. Him not being in the playoffs maybe is why there's also part of it where you go, wait, are we paying enough attention to him? And I'd always ask, like, okay, well, then what's the segment as I'm trying to do it right now,

trying to figure it out, but them not being in the playoffs. The Angels haven't been in the playoffs since 2014, and that's with Trout and Otani. Maybe it was also the hype coming up to it going like, is this guy really going to do this? Is he really going to pull this off? And we're really more on year three of them pulling it off. Because if you look back to 2018, he had the 10 starts. He won rookie of the year.

That was more for the offensive numbers. But then he went from a stretch where his last start in 18 was September 2nd. Then he had the injury. Then we had the COVID season. He didn't have another start until July 26th in 2020. So it was 12 starts in the first three years. So I think maybe if this is even possible, Otani maybe going under the radar a little bit in that it was a slow start to the version that we've seen now.

The version we were promised is the version that we're seeing now, but that was not the version that we got the first three years for multiple factors. But that was not the version that we got the first three years for multiple factors. Again, second in the MVP last year, fourth in the Cy Young. So maybe the hype comp is what we need to come up with to try to figure it out. Because other team sport players, McDavid, Mahomes, Jokic, it just doesn't really work. And I don't think it's fair to those guys because there's no real pitching category. There's nothing comparable that exists of what Otani's doing. the absolute energy of the sun focused on their ascension to what they were going to be. That's LeBron James.

It's Tiger Woods. Well, Tani might be third, but it wasn't what it was for Tiger or LeBron. It wasn't. I think you actually could bring McDavid into this a little bit. But the amount of hype we have, especially when we're looking at somebody like Wim Banyama right, what does Wenbanyama actually have to be to feel like he lived up to the hype? Do you know how hard that standard is right now with the way he has talked about what he could be? What his career will be 15 years from now, what does that have to be summarized as for it's like, yep, that guy lived up to the hype? up to the hype. The bet, the safe money would be, yeah, he's not going to live up to that. His career will not match the way he's being talked about right now. That's the better bet. And that's why we should give so much credit to the guys that not only need it, but exceed it.

LeBron exceeded. The only failure that we'll really be able to say about LeBron when it's all said and done and the level this guy is still at 20 years in is that he wasn't Michael Jordan. Imagine being there on draft night when he gets taken number one overall in 2003 saying, you know, Jay Villas is next to, I don't know, they mixed up the rotation quite a bit. And you'd say, well, if he's not Jordan, you know, we'll see. That's it. And there's some people that will think that he's better than him. I don't,. That's it.

There's some people that will think that he's better than him. I don't, but that's it. That's the only thing you can say is like, well, he was really good, but he wasn't Jordan. I think that works out. I remember the Tiger Woods part. I remember the first time I heard about him. I was in the dorms. I had a golf dork buddy who was watching something because I'm the same age as Tiger Woods. So I was like, wait, what's going on with this guy? He's like, dude, he's playing in a tournament right now. He's the best amateur. He's at Stanford. He's the next thing. He was in Sports Illustrated. It's going to be this huge, huge deal. I was like, all right, whatever. I was

like, I think I'm going to get some wings. He made the cut as an amateur at the Masters, I believe, in 95. He turned pro in August of 96. wings. He made the cut as an amateur at the Masters, I believe, in 95. He turned pro in August of 96. He had not made the cut at the Masters prior to the official announcement. The US Open, he finished 82nd. The Open Championship, he tied for 22nd. This is his first rookie year in 96, not a full schedule. He had some other tournament where he tied for 60th.

And I remember, this is actually funny, I remember being at like a family, it wasn't like a full-blown family reunion, it was a family gathering. And I had all these great uncles that were just old. They're just old, that's the great part, right? And they'd golf all the time. That was their thing.

And I didn't really get it as a little kid. I was like, oh, you guys can't stand your wives. So you guys just drink all day, golf, and then come back and whatever. Anyway, I'm kidding around a little bit. And I'm finishing up school. And one of these great uncles that I did really like, but he was just really, really old. And he was taking pride almost in the idea that Tiger was struggling at this point. He's like, Oh, not so easy. Is it not so easy? Looking back, I'm like, wait, was he racist or just a weird golf guy that was like super protective of like,

you know, golfers can get a little weird about like, eh, you know, pretty hard sport, pretty hard sport. Like, yeah, I get it. You think it's the hardest thing ever. Pretty hard sport. Yeah, I get it. I think it's the hardest thing ever. And then Tiger had five top five finishes with two wins to end his rookie season, then won the Masters by a record differential. He was minus 18, set a course record, has all the majors. We know it got derailed there a little bit towards the end, but to do what Tiger did, he, along with LeBron, and I think McDavid's on that track here, to exceed what we thought of him. I don't think anybody else is on that list. And Otani, from a production standpoint, is there. But there's another story here, because I remember the feeling when I felt like LeBron had arrived. It was in 07. He scores 48 in game five against Detroit. I remember this vividly because I was at a college reunion. Big reunion guy here lately.

And we were at a bar, and you just started seeing LeBron take over against this Pistons team that had kind of been the team. And I remember my buddies being like, hey, we're going somewhere else because we've got to go meet up at this reunion thing. I was like, I'm not going anywhere. I'm not missing any of this. He's arrived, and this is real, and I always felt like that 2007 finals run for LeBron

was so incredibly impressive because that Cleveland team was not good at all, but it happened the same way with Tiger and that Master Sunday in 97, sitting around, think turkey, bacons, buddies on the couch, and now we're watching golf in a way we had never watched before.

She's like, wait, what is he doing what's his score who's in second what's the course record like holy shit like is this guy really going to do it and for otani he's doing it in the ways that baseball you know keeps track of itself over the 162 but for all of us to have that moment where whether it's feeling like otani arrives, because it's not him arriving as a baseball player. He's already done that. It's him arriving in our daily consciousness of the things that we care about. It's the other people that never cared before caring about it.

And he has the talent, and he's so incredibly rare as underselling it. He's different than anything we've ever seen in this sport that we'll never actually appreciate it enough until it's one of those moments this fall, next fall, just a fall where he's playing playoff baseball and we can point back to that moment that

we'll all share like this short list of guys we just talked about. that we'll all share, like this short list of guys we just talked about. I want to keep this conversation going here. We're going to talk Jeff Passon right now, ESPN, MLB insider, senior writer, doing it a long time. So I went through the Otani resume for where he's at right now. We know this month he's sitting 394, 13 homers, 26 ribbies. He's getting on base basically every other at-bat. The pitching numbers are certain nights where he's unhittable.

I know the ERA for June because of the Houston start, whatever. But what I want to do is I want to talk about him. I want to talk about the guy, your experience with it, the beginning of it. But it almost feels impossible because of who he is and how unique this is to put into perspective what he is to baseball. Can you?

It's hard to because normally when we contextualize players, we do so based on history, right? And how do they compare to players of years past? And we can talk about how Shohei Otani is the new Babe Ruth. No, he's not because Babe Ruth never did what Shohei Otani is doing. You know, Bullet Rogan did it in the Negro Leagues. But of course, the Negro Leagues is shorter seasons. The competition wasn't as fierce or as high as it is in MLB now. And the way Otani is single-handedly dominating baseball,

the closest facsimile I have to it in my 20 years covering the game is Barry Bonds. That's the only guy who I've seen so clearly own the sport the way that Otani does and the way that he has the past month in particular. This is one of the best months of baseball, Ryan, that we've ever seen. And I'm not being a prisoner of the moment.

I'm not exaggerating. It's just what the numbers tell us. Since May 30th, so like the last calendar month, he is hitting 396. He's getting on base 48% of the time. He's slugging 972, which is just an obscene, ridiculous number to carry over 27 games. He's got 16 home runs. He's got 31 runs batted in.

He's doing everything you can possibly ask for offensively. And oh, by the way, he's also pitching and in his five starts has a 326 ERA and 37 strikeouts over 30.1 innings. So, you know, I've been saying the same things about Shohei Otani for three years now, and I struggle sometimes to come up with new ones, but he keeps getting better. And that's the most ridiculous part of the whole thing, that he's not resting on his laurels and being like, yeah, I'm better than everyone. No, he wants to be better than the best version of himself. And that's what we've got right now.

How much time have you had around him personally? Not as much as I would like. him personally? Not as much as I would like. The most personal conversation I've had with Shohei Otani, because he does not do sit-downs. He does not do one-on-ones. He talks once a week, essentially. The closest I've gotten to him was at the World Baseball Classic, actually. And it was in the aftermath of Japan defeating the United States in the finals to win the tournament. After that incredible at bat with his friend and teammate, Mike Trout. And there were hundreds of Japanese reporters surrounding the locker room and he was walking out to the press conference and they're all walking as he goes by. And I'm like, fuck it,

I'm going to try and do a walk and talk. So I start walking alongside him and, you know, he doesn't speak English publicly, but he's, you know, he's perfectly fluent in the language. And I was like, you know, that's going to go down as like an all time at bat. Right. You know, you can just tell right there in the moment. and this is one thing i love about shohei otani um there's still a naivete there and he was like really like he was surprised by that i don't think he grasped the gravity of it to an american audience I think he understood in Japan, you know, there's national heroism that comes through athletics in all, you know, all different sports, whether it's the World Cup or the Olympics. But this in Japan was an enormous deal. And I think he understood that.

But I don't think he knew the resonance of it in the United States. And I don't think he quite, you know, I don't know if he knows where his place is in history right now, because it takes so much time and mental energy and physical energy just to do the damn job that he can't even consider it. He can't even think about it. I mean, we have to realize that what he's doing right now is impossible. Like you'd say it's impossible until you see it actually happen, but he's doing two jobs at once and two taxing demanding jobs at the same time and doing them both at a spectacular level. And I just, you know, I sometimes struggle to really put into words what he's doing. You try to compare it to other sports, Ryan, and say it would be like someone being a quarterback and a middle linebacker. Or, you know, in basketball, it's not like a two-way player.

You know, you see a guy who's incredible offensively and defensively, but they are all parts of the same game. Pitching and hitting are, you have a pitcher and hitter in every at-bat, but they are completely different skill sets. And so to translate them the way that he does, it's just magnificent to watch. And I say this often, even if you're not a baseball fan,

you can appreciate what Shohei Otani is doing because I believe he is better at his sport compared to the next best player than anyone in any other sport. Yeah, I would agree with that. And I don't know if it's a baseball thing. I don't know that it's, I don't know if it's a baseball thing. I don't know if it's an Atani thing and maybe I'll pivot back to that, but I want to stay at least like his origin story a little bit, like very early on people understood

it. He's incredibly tall. The body is perfect for athletics. He kind of went away at an early age to just focus on baseball. I think a lot of times, and I'm admitting this, you think of Japan and you think of certain visuals and then you lose sight of like, he's like, dude, I'm from the most rural area ever. And his dad was his coach, but I think he and his both worked like at a car factory or something and you know they they just team and i mean this is a compliment like very single-minded there's a ritual to baseball in japan that is just different like if you if you had guys that grew up playing basketball in america look at the way youth baseball is taught in Japan they'd be like what are you guys doing

um there's almost this deferential thing to I don't know if it's an elder's thing or whatever but like reading about it very much so simple sounds like a negative term here but in the case of understanding Otani I think simple is like one of his greatest advantages that he knows what he's here to do. He loves trying to pursue greatness and not letting the other stuff become a factor probably protects him from some of the downfalls of being one of the best athletes in the world. you saying one of the best athletes in the world because he is six foot four, 225 pounds. He's fast as hell. Like I don't think people recognize the long strides and the strength the guy has like top end, incredible speed. Um, and, and of course there's the power there. There's the athleticism, there's the rotational ability, both in pitching and in hitting. There's the flexibility. He's the total package. But to me, what's even more than the physical part is that he has wanted to do something that has been sneered at and scoffed at by evaluators at the highest level of baseball ad infinitum.

Like the idea that you can do both at once was just the pipe dream. It's silly. And because of Otani's incredible skills, it's almost like they let him do it, figuring that eventually he's going to reach a level where it's not going to work anymore. Except it kept working and kept working and kept working. And it goes, you know, I'll bring this up because I like owning my mistakes. We all fuck up. This might be the biggest one of my career in terms of any sort of evaluation. But he comes over, signs with the Angels for only $2.3 million, by the way. That's another part of this and about the competitiveness of Otani that he knew he had conquered Japan and could learn nothing there anymore.

And he could have waited around for two years and guaranteed himself $250 million plus. But he's like, I'm going to go to the big leagues now. And because of international signing rules, the limit at that point, like if the Angels or any other team had traded for bonus pool money, maybe they could have given him $10 million. That was the max. So he was willing to give up hundreds of millions of dollars to go and pursue this thing. And the Angels said, yeah, we want you as a two-way player. And he comes out during spring training, Ryan, and he looks like he cannot hit. And every spring, I get together with a group of scouts at one of their houses and bring tacos, play video games, just act like idiots, drink beers and talk ball.

And that night, there were, I think there were probably like four guys there and all of them had seen Otani and they were like, yeah, Otani can't hit, man. I was like, really? They're like, yeah, he just, he looks overmatched. He has never seen breaking balls like the ones he's seeing here.

The pitching in Japan, you know, you see all the time guys who can't hack it in the U.S. go over to Japan and pitch really well there. And it's like, if you can't hit a 4A guy or if you're hitting a bunch of 4A guys, yeah, that's one thing. But these are real big league pitchers. And then Otani. OK, so I write this story where I say this, I make reference to the high school breaking stuff. And Otani, in the series with the Dodgers, it's like a preseason freeway series. Otani decides to ditch his leg kick

and go to a little toe twist for his timing mechanism. And all of a sudden, he just starts launching balls. And we always knew he could hit them hard. We always do. Like he was, you know, he was physically talented enough, but he goes out there and has like an incredible first month of the season. Well, like two weeks into it, I'm like, well, got that one wrong. Got the right of me.

And, uh, it, you know, at the all-star game that year i remember a bunch of japanese reporters coming up to me and saying you know people in japan really respect you for saying how wrong you were and i'm like oh great i'm known as the guy who had the shitty take and was able to back away from it it was like a record pivot for b-sin yeah i got that one wrong so i read that story this morning and I was like, whoa. And I got to be honest with you, though. It was the quickest I've seen a guy get off of something because I don't even think he was two weeks into the start of his career in the regular season. And you're like doing a like you look like a CEO screwing up some bank scheme being like, I got it wrong.

And yet there was still one scout. I wrote the quote down. It said, quote, anyone can have a great week in April. That guy wasn't giving up. And, you know, if I go to that room with you, go back into that time, I don't know if it's as much about Otani. And you also pointed in, too, like there's a lot of guys that spend more time in Asia. They'll tell you the Japanese players,

they treat spring training. I remember Pedro in spring training. Like he was just like, whatever, I'm going to throw sliders all day, see what happens. And he just didn't care. But that it was about technique.

It was about all these things. It wasn't about performance as part of the piece, which I thought was, was really enlightening on it all. But it may be something else it may have been something with people who have done this for a living and done it a certain way for decades not wanting otani to succeed because it validates them never thinking it can happen you know like as like as a kid, the shortstop's the best player and he's the best pitcher.

You know, it happens in the high school. And, you know, I know this has been talked about, but American baseball decided this can't happen. And Otani decided, no, it can. And beyond just, oh, he can hit or he's just going to be a pitcher. I remember reading about

it saying like he was thinking about coming to the States when he was 18. They were only scouting him as a pitcher. And in reality, if he had come over at 18, gone to the minors and in his personality to the way he talked about it, like, who knows, maybe I wouldn't even got out of the minors. He's like, I definitely would have been hitting and pitching because at that point I'd been in the system a little bit too early. I wonder if some of the doubt was fueled more by hoping he failed at something that this sport decided you can't do. See, I don't know if it was a hope that he failed necessarily. I think it was just an entrenched and ingrained belief that he couldn't succeed because there had been guys who sort of tried it. Do you remember Casey Kelly with the Red Sox?

He was a first round pick, I think 2008, somewhere in that vicinity. And he was a shortstop and a right-handed pitcher. And the Red Sox let him hit for like the first two years in the organization while he was pitching. And it just wasn't working. You know, Brooks Kieschnick, a guy who was an incredible two-way player in college, did a little bit of relief pitching and DHing in the big leagues. But it was, you know, it was never anything that was regular. And I think that was what was informing the scouts as much as anything.

Like, yeah, we're not exactly open minded to this, but we'll consider it on a lark. And yeah, go ahead and prove to us that it can. Oh, no, you can't prove to us that it can happen. Well, you know what? Then no one can do it. And I think we were all just waiting around for a special talent, right? That's what it comes down to, to me. The type of talent that Shohei Otani has was going to have to brute force its way through the thick heads of everyone who believed that history explains to us exactly

what is going to happen. No, history informs us what is likely to happen. History tells us what we should expect or anticipate. But sometimes there are people, and in the case of Shohei Otani, he's unquestionably one of them, who just break expectations, who exceed everything that we imagine to be possible. And it's up to us as a sporting culture and the people who are running teams as an industry to understand that open-mindedness is one of the greatest characteristics somebody in sports can have. Because if we knew how these things were going to go, then we would be able to pick every game correctly. We would be able to tell you which players are going to succeed. It's the outliers that make sports great. And Otani is the outlier of outliers. Is there any influence to his success and how scouting has maybe been more

open-minded or younger players being like, hey, let me try this? Definitely so with younger players. I mean, we see a guy like Jack Caglione at Florida who led the country in home runs this year and was the Sunday starter for the Gators and is up to 99. You know, Reggie Crawford was a first round pick out of Yukon from the Giants last year. Another left left guy who throws 99 and can hit the ball 450 feet. So there are examples of guys wanting to try. And I think the industry is more open minded to them trying. But I also think it's almost had the opposite effect, Ryan, on implementing it because Otani is so fucking good that it's like the standard has been set almost too of special in order to execute something like this. And I think in the case of a guy like Caglione or maybe even Crawford long term, I do wonder if it winds up being that the guy isn't a DH. Let's say he plays a position like first base and then comes out of the bullpen occasionally and can be a weapon like that. Doing the starting rotation and everyday player thing, I don't foresee somebody else doing that anytime soon

because I think Otani, even though he makes it look as easy as he does, also proves at the same time how difficult it is to do. It's such a great point, though, like what the standard would be for the next guy. Because if you, if you had a guy who threw like 93 and had a few holds and then took some walks as a pinch hitter, it'd be like a really nice thing to have. That's a super valuable player. That's an incredibly valuable player right there. And so I think that front offices, when they're approaching this going forward, need to understand, sorry, you're not getting Otani, but that's okay. It doesn't have to be the most talented player we've ever seen necessarily. You can have a two or three win

player who goes both ways. He just has to learn how to manage things the way that Otani has. And that's one thing that I definitely have not appreciated enough, I think. And I know I'm jumping ahead here, but looking forward to his free agency, we talk about the money. We talk about the winning.

I think those are two very important things. What we don't appreciate as much as we should, I think, is the comfort. And Shohei Otani has a lot of comfort with the Los Angeles Angels because that's been the platform for him to go out and do what he does. They have found what works. It took a few years. It took a Tommy John surgery, but they've figured out how to get on this schedule and how this entire ecosystem around him almost moves to the side to placate what he needs to let him be at his very best. And it's like, look, when we switch jobs, and that's essentially what moving teams is, switching jobs, you're doing the same thing, but you're doing it for a new company. When we switch jobs, we never know if there's going to be an HR person who's a dick or a coworker who gives us grief or a boss who's much more stringent than the previous one we had. And those are all risks that we're taking by jumping to another place.

Otani knows exactly what he's going to get in Anaheim. And if you've spent the last three years looking like the best player in the history of the game, do you really want to take the risk in chasing these other things, whether it's money, whether it's winning, whatever it is, that you're going to lose that comfort you had and that routine that you'd established in Anaheim. Yeah. So let's just go there. I was going to finish with it, but it's a good transition. Still a couple of other thoughts that I have. He's with CA, Nez Belelo. We know the price tag. I used to always look at the Boris thing that I always thought was really predictable and kind of funny is that he would throw that nugget out there maybe 18 months out 12 months out six months out he'd throw out the most absurd number ever and then

when you got the player for 300 million you thought you could get a discount and everybody would talk up the big number for otani like i don't know what the number is that seems like it's too much because i'm i'm i'm with i'm with you right now and it's the most confusing part of this all so coming into this season i i think the industry believed that the floor is going to be 500 million and that the ceiling looks like 600 million and yet otani so far we're like 80 games into the season and by baseball reference he has 6.3 wins against replacement to go back and find a 12 and a half win season ryan you got to go to Babe Ruth in 1927 from an offensive player. Doc Gooden had 13.3 wins in his magnificent 1984 season. But to get it from a position player, you have to go back that far. So essentially, if he keeps this up, Otani's having the greatest season for a player who

hits in a century. That's not an exaggeration either, by the way. Wins above replacement, it's a metric that has flaws, but when you use it to compare over history, it's pretty good. Like, it rewards a season. This would be better than any of the Bond seasons. This would be better than Mickey Mantle

and Willie Mays' best seasons, Ted Williams' best season. We're talking all-time historically great. And yet, I have trouble believing he's going to make much more than $600 million. We're getting to that point where the dollars are so enormous, where the average annual value, let's even say this is a 12-year deal, which I don't think anyone's going to give him because he's going to be 30 at that point. But let's say it's a 12-year deal. We're still talking $50 million a year at 12 years. And currently, the highest AAV on a contract is $43.3 million for Scherzer and Verlander. And those are two-year deals. The highest for a

long-term contract is $40 million for Aaron Judge. And yet when we hear $50 million, Ryan, let's just say Shohei Otani, the hitter, goes out on the free agent market right now. It's a $35 million player minimum. And let's say Shohei Otani, the pitcher, goes out on the free agent market right now, and that's a $35 million a year player minimum. So could we be looking at somebody who reasonably could make $70 million a year? Absolutely. If you gave Shohei Otani $70 million for next season, I'd say you're getting a bargain. Shohei Otani $70 million for next season, I'd say you're getting a bargain. That's the reality of it, but it's a lot like NBA players.

I know NBA players are limited by the cap, but a prime LeBron James season, or a Giannis, let's just say a Giannis season right now. A Giannis season is reasonably worth $100 plus million, Ryan, right? I don't know the NBA nearly as well as you know but i just feel like the value of it right like taking lebron like prime lebron for 10 years of basically you're going to play in the nba finals right yes that's a billion a billion dollars easy you would pay for that knowing that you are going to be dominant as a team over the course of a full decade, like it's a no-brainer. And so, you know, when we talk the ceiling on where Otani could and should be, I feel like in my head, it's 600 million, but the numbers tell us maybe it should be higher, which is a

wild thing to consider in that his teammate Mike Trout at $426.5 million so far is the highest contract in baseball history. Yeah, because if it were two individual players, you'd be spending on those two players close to $70 million in free agency on average annual salary for those two guys. Then you can start getting into what number actually gets to the point where you're like, actually, this isn't worth it financially. I remember the early Ichiro stuff, obviously with Daisuke, Matsui a little bit as well. There would be talk of how much more money that would bring in and revenue because the interest level from Japan.

And then I'd be like, can anybody actually put that real number down? And how does that actually work? I remember when A-Rod signed with the Rangers and it was Hicks, they were like, it's not about the baseball. It's about the condos that we're building and this baseball experience. And if anybody had ever been to that part of Texas, you're like, is this really going to be like a destination? Am I going to want to live here next to this water park? Absolutely not.

That park is a football stadium now, by the way. So good job there. Right. The whole thing was that there was going to be this massive push to build this community around it. So look, whatever somebody spends, I already know what they're going to say. And I'm not going to sit here and say,

is there a number where it actually comes back to not being worth it? But the oddity of it all is that the Angels are a half a game out of the last wild card spot um we know that the playoffs haven't happened for them in almost a decade there's a trade deadline part of it but i would agree and just the very minimal stuff that i've read that i think he's very comfortable with the angels but i don't like if they weren't in contention maybe they go hey look we can't lose this guy for for nothing but now that they're actually in contention which is rare for them i just i don't know what you do here man i don't know what you do if you're

them because it's like how do you trade to trade him. If we're just looking at what the potential return is for him leaving in free agency versus you moving him now, if he leaves in free agency, the angels get like the 70th pick in the draft. And that is it. It's like a million dollars in bonus pool money. It's nothing. If they trade him right now, I'm not saying they're going to get a Juan Soto return,

but they would get pretty close to it. Because if you're an organization and you feel like you have a world series contending team and then you add the best player in the world who you're going to slot into the three hole in your lineup and a top your playoff rotation i mean that is a damn compelling thing to do and to go and trade for him whatever if you feel like he's going to win you a championship this year then you'll be willing to give up plenty. On the other hand, I think it's important to look at the money in Otani's past as perhaps an indicator of what his priorities are. So we talked about how he came over for

only $2.3 million and was willing to forsake hundreds of millions. Then he signs in his first turn through arbitration, a two-year deal for only $8.5 million. And, you know, he gave up probably tens of millions just because he comes out and wins the MVP in 2021 and, you know, has that Otani year. Then he, you know Then he broke a record for single season arbitration in your final year at $30 million. And yet he didn't go to a hearing. He took less than I think a lot of people in the industry expected him to. And he did this, I think, for comfort because he didn't want there to be a fight because he didn't want to be seen as somebody who's going around and prioritizing money over all else. So you've got multiple examples of him not chasing the biggest dollar of him trying to prioritize other things. And then on top of that,

to me, less the money with the Angels, Ryan, is the winning. Talking with him that night in Miami after Japan won the WBC, and talking with him really throughout that whole week, you could just see this twinkle in his eye. I know that's so cliche, but there really was something, I think, that he felt about playing in meaningful games. And I know playing for your country is a little bit different, but he hasn't played a single meaningful game as an Angel. That's wild to think about, but there hasn't been a game that has any playoff implications on the Angel side. The Angels, I don't know if you knew this, Mike Trout still hasn't won a playoff implications on the Angels side. The Angels, I don't know

if you knew this, Mike Trout still hasn't won a playoff game in his career. He's been to the postseason once and they got swept by the Royals in 2014 after winning 100 games and going in as the one seed. Neither Shohei Otani nor Mike Trout, having

been in a substantial game in more than in you know almost a decade and in Ohtani's case his entire big league career the Angels to me have more riding on the rest of this season than any other team in baseball than than the Braves than the Rays than the Orioles than the Rangers than the Dodgers than the Giants than theets, then the Yankees, then any of these teams that are in contention to win a World Series. The Angels just want to make it to the playoffs to show Shohei Otani that, yes, we can win, and we need you to stick around to be the center of that. to be the center of that. I was reading a profile,

one of the GQ profile on them, and I did kind of think it was interesting when he pointed like, hey, when you go to those Northeast cities, like, you know, there's a little bit more there. And, you know, look, I went to an Angels game. It's the worst live baseball experience

I think I've ever been a part of. It's just not. It doesn't, It's just bad. You know what, though? It's different when you grow up in the Northeast, man. That's the last bastion of a baseball town. Boston and New York, and I think you can make an argument that neither Boston nor New York is really a baseball town anymore, but that's the closest thing we have to it. And I understand why he romanticizes games there because they feel different. And I say this as someone who grew up in Cleveland and who lives in Kansas City right now and who has a deep appreciation for the history and present of baseball and who also understands that like you can have great crowds in the Midwest or out West, but nothing's like the Northeast.

Nothing's like baseball in New York and Boston out, you know, in this country, like Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Japan, those places, uh, they bring the love of baseball that we just don't see replicated here anymore. And I think that's the reason why Shohei Otani isn't the biggest star in sports right now. I think it's baseball's place in the sporting zeitgeist. It's just not what it used to be, because if if Shohei Otani exists in the time, Ryan, of Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa, he's bigger than them. He's bigger than everything. Yeah, because we are coming up. We're a couple of weeks away from fixing baseball season in sports media.

So I've just been prepping for that. Because Ohtani's task was something that I don't know. I mean, we keep bringing, I, or at least I do keep bringing up the word impossible. But, you know, I remember reading the articles about like judge can save baseball. It's like if judge for the Yankees, all those home runs, his personality, the body, the looks, like he just, he seems to check basically every single box you can have. But if, if you're, if your friend who doesn't care about the sport isn't asking about that person, it means it isn't resonating, right? Like if your mom's like, who's that guy? You know what I mean?

So unfortunately, Otani's like the next guy up to do this. He's done everything and more than we could even imagine as a baseball player. If it happens in the playoffs, if it were to happen for, you know, the Dodgers or New York or something like that, you know, I don't know how many teams are going to be in play here because there's just going to be some owners that aren't going to write that check so i don't think it'll be as competitive as you would think for somebody with his talents but i it's it's it's a bad time for him to be tasked with this because i'm not sure there's a player capable of turning the cruise ship around this quickly

for what's happening. A hundred percent. And I think there have been interesting little advances for baseball this year. I really do think the WBC was awesome. And, you know, it was in the middle of the NBA season. It was during March Madness. And I felt like baseball had some resonance then. A lot of people watched that game.

Not just in Japan either, but in the U.S. The ratings were very good. The College World Series this year, I don't know how much of it, if any, you watched. But it was the best teams. It was the stars. And it was the highest rated college game that we've had. The Game 3 between LSU and Florida. the stars and it was the highest rated college game that we've had the game three between lsu and florida um attendance is up significantly across mlb this year like eight percent and

granted it was getting toward uh lows that were frightening frankly for mlb owners who wondered where where are the fans but uh i think the pitch clock has been fantastic for the game because the game is more or less the same, and yet it's 30 minutes less time. And any time you can shave a half hour off of anything and keep the integrity of the product in place, I mean, that's as ideal as you get. So I think there are all these things lined up.

But I also think we need to be careful because comparing anything to the NFL now, Ryan, is just folly. It's almost like comparing any other player to Otani, right? It's like that's the difference between the NFL and all the other sports is the difference between Otani and all the other baseball players. And so the NFL is just going to win. I think MLB, instead of comparing itself to the NFL, is trying to look at its resonance in local markets because it has become a much more parochial game. And if you look at gains in attendance, they've been sweeping this year. And that to me is a positive sign. I'm not saying it's a trend, but it's going in the right direction at very least. Yeah. It's always the best point to bring up about baseball. Look at the local market

ratings. You're guaranteeing yourself an incredible television product for six months, every single night in the prime time numbers. And baseball, I don't know. I didn't look at it yet this year. I don't even know if I had last year's numbers, but I remember one of the more recent times I looked at it, like 18 of the 30 markets, it was the number one primetime thing. And it's every night for two to now three, less than three hours, which is kind of nice.

Jeff, you're the best. Thanks for doing this. I can't wait for the deadline and to see if this gets weird with Otani. You know, part of me hopes it does we're doing this. I can't wait for the deadline and, and to see if this gets weird with Otani. So, you know, part of me hopes it does because this deadline is shaping up to be kind of a dud.

But I also, for all of the angels fans who have suffered through many, many, many years of mediocrity, common aptitude, I, I would love to see them have an October worth remembering. And also October in Los Angeles is a lot nicer than other cities.

So selfishly, I would love a freeway series like that. That's the real dream here, Ryan, just a nice, easy drive up the five down the five, make it happen. I just hope he's in those games for him and for the game and all

that stuff so uh yeah go ahead be be selfless i'm just thinking about myself let me be an asshole okay little steven a little steven a in you on the nba finals desires i'm you know what i'm i'm okay being compared to him all day long so i'll take that all right thanks jeff you want details bye 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 And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. LifeAdviceRR at gmail.com. What's up, Kyle? What's up, Steve?

You know, we didn't get to hear from you on Tuesday from the van takeover. People liked it. Very good feedback there, and I know both of you don't really care. Is that fair, or am I assuming? No, that's fair. You did ones that were kind of exciting. You know, we're talking hookers and and breaking up with girlfriends. I mean, I definitely had thoughts.

But, you know, I know that, you know, Van typically goes with just you when he does life advice. So I laid out on that one. That's fine. Yeah, we didn't really talk about it ahead of time. I guess next time we have Van on, just maybe do a little group thing. I'd be into that. People want in on what is it? White boy white boy weekend too that seems like a fun time i think that needs that's what makes it special it shuts it down for everyone else that's why

it's so special yeah to be honest these bands overselling that a bit i think we hung out once just just to be totally transparent with the audience here um although now I feel like the next time he does come down here, I'm going to have to step it up. I'm going to have to step it up a bit. I mean, that was the origin of I'd rather be alone than annoyed. Because he looked at me. I'm not trying to get in a man's sock drawer here. But he looked at me and said something.

And I just went, man, I'd rather be I just, I just rather be alone than annoyed. And he was like, bro, like he didn't say anything for like 10 seconds. He's like, that just hit me so fucking hard. And I was like, he's like, did you just think of that or something? I was like, well, I think I've just come to that. Kind of been my mantra. Right. Yeah.

But enough of that. I'm actually, we're going to, I think we're going to ban any of that kind of content here. I think we all need a break from me talking about that stuff. I think I need a break from it. I've talked about it too much lately. So there you go. Keep it myself. It's not like a great time because you guys are just like drafted rappers and that's like shit I used to do in high school in the basement.

You guys just relive in our youth just as adults. I love it. Honestly, we bitched about LSU the whole time because they lost to Florida State. So that was kind of it. And he is plugged in. I mean, he's like telling you where the backup guard went this guy should be playing it was he's really into it all right let's get to life advice all right leave celebrities alone when they're with their family all right celebrity interaction

help here these all always seem to work guys my wife and i are in maine on vacation this week we're staying at a really i think it might have been last week really nice hotel maybe they go two weeks maybe this guy's got it like that. You don't hear that a lot. Yeah. Much nicer than we've stayed at in the past, which I guess is why we've never had this kind of experience before. LOL. About two days into our stay, we pull into the parking lot after a nice hike and notice a dude with his kids tossing a Frisbee around the parking lot. At first, I was frustrated because he was clearly trying to get me to park quickly so he could keep playing with his kids. What's that about?

But I was obviously trying not to hit the three children running around. But when we got out of the car, I give the guy a quick annoyed look, but realized this dude looks familiar. It was 100% John Bernthal. Oh, wow.

Wouldn't fuck with that guy. I don't know. You ever seen him in person? Ring or favorite? Oh, wow. Wouldn't fuck with that guy. I don't know. You ever seen him in person? Ring or favorite? Oh, no. I've never seen him in person. No. He's got the look about him.

Is he short? He's got a look. He's got a look. But yeah, he wouldn't be like a one seat of actors. I'd be afraid. I know some short guys I'm afraid of. I don't know. I don't know. Let's look up Bernthal. You never know.

These fucking Brazilian jiu-jitsu guys are just popping out of the woodwork here lately. I'm on it. Imagine if you got your ass kicked by Zuckerberg, but if he's been training with a real guy for a couple years, there's a pretty good chance if you went to the ground with Zuck, he'd finish you. He would beat the shit out of

Elon Musk. I think that guy like everybody expects elon to be tougher but zuckerberg fights like he actually does he's trained i don't think elon's just like a big chest guy but fights and trains are also two different things because i don't think i think what zuckerberg is doing is is like i'm he's making up for the lost time thing, which, look, I'm fine with. I totally get. But fights and trains are two different things. Like, he doesn't fight. He trains to fight.

What does Elon Musk do? Less than both. I mean, look, there's a reason there's weight classes throughout history in boxing. So I'm not sure. You know, look, the biggest thing with that is going to be the cardio thing. I doubt Elon Musk's cardio would be even close to Zuckerberg if he's doing this for real and is cranked up his cardio and everything else. But to say Zuck is like a dude getting into fights in the parking lot in high school and then in the alley. Zuckerberg's 5'7"?

I thought he was like 6'3". Yeah, yeah. I take back everything I said. You thought he was 6'3"? I thought he was tall for some reason. Yeah, he's only 5'7". Bernthal's 5'11", by the way. Yeah, that's what I said.

I mean, that's fine. That's not a short guy if you ask me. So if we were doing like a Royal Rumble of millionaires... Wait, you don't think 5'7 is short for Bernthal? No, he said 5'11. Oh, he's 5'11? No, Zuckerberg's 5'7.

Right. I don't think Bernthal is even 5'11. Oh, you're calling Google out? Oh, boy. In shoes. At the combine. Yeah. His combine height is 5'11.

Maybe he is. And he's Israeli. Okay. okay wait very quickly though back to the because like i did want to see that zuckerberg uh elon musk fight like that's i'd rather watch that than like ufc or mma i think a lot of people would i'd watch it yeah but if we had like a royal rumble and it was zuckerberg elon musk and bezos because bezos is like you know the transformation is real with him too like he's big i don't know if he's a fighter but he's big that'd be a good one i don't know i don't know i think he cares what people think more than the other two i feel like i think we're being very no i think we are all being very dismissive of

like the guy who actually likes to fight okay Okay. And I don't think any three of these guys have ever had a stretch in their lives where it's like, you know, I'll, I'll fucking hit a guy. They're all just standing on the edge of the ring. Yeah, but that guy doesn't exist in this scenario. So that, that kind of gets thrown out the window. Okay. Cause that guy would come in and take, take first place, but that guy not in this scenario with all respect to late bloomer mma guys if you weren't and i'm i am calling myself out here okay but you know the difference between somebody who actually like fought a little and was pretty good at it and then got into it versus somebody who was fucking coding

and then took lessons yeah but i'm we're not asking any of these guys to fight like you know prime triple g they're fighting each other none of these guys none of these guys are gonna be that intimidating elon musk is 6-1 by the way, so I don't know. Maybe that's your answer. Okay, all right. So back to Bernthal here. Maybe he's 5'11". Once we got inside, I pulled up his Instagram, and he had posted the day before

a picture of himself with his kids, and he was wearing the exact same sweatshirt. Dude only packs one sweatshirt. And it was the same kid, so definitely him. My wife was like, you should go say hi and say you're a big fan. She thought he would think that was nice, but I didn't really want to bug him since he was with his kids and decided that he wasn't with his family over the next few days. I would go up and say hi, but that turned out to not happen. He was always with his kids and I didn't get to say hello. My wife thinks I should

have just gone up to him, but I stand by that a famous person with their family's kids should be off limits. My thought process was that since we were in a pretty remote part of Maine in a very remote hotel, it seemed like this is the way to go if you don't want to get bugged by fans. My question is should I have just gone and said hello anyway, or do you think I was right to let him be?

I really do wish I had said hi since I'm a big fan, but I feel like I made the right decision. Quickest answer, I think you made the right decision yeah unless he had kids i don't think he said he had kids but that's the only that was your only maybe in is if you had like a kid of the same age you're like hey you know i'm just over here on this side uh this is fucking charlie over here you know he gets a little wound up i just wanted to want to let him know he's available for any type of play stuff you guys want to do like that translation translation can we hang out yeah yes yes is that a boat over there you got it i don't know but uh i just think that was probably your only in uh because nobody wants i mean people are don't want to be thrown out of their thing

anyway especially if they're on vacation but you add kids into the mix and it's like you know probably gets a little bit of that primal annoyance anger in there as well. So yeah, I think you're only in was if you had kids, if not just stay the fuck away from a dude with his family on vacation. I think. I would agree. I'm usually pretty pro don't bother people in public in general. Uh, I saw Zach Braff when we were in the New York doing the New York show in the city coming out of the soul cycle class Wednesday morning, the day after the show my wife and i walked and we're going towards soho and he my wife's like that's that's zach braff and i looked over and i was like holy shit it is zach braff didn't say anything to him because like you know he's come out of working out like i'm sure he doesn't want to chat me up for a

couple minutes i mean i could i guess i could have just been like hey man like big fan like moved on you probably said something to him you probably just say something to him you would have said something i said you probably could have said something to him i don't know i don't know and i'm and i i'm like a big scrub guy i like like i exact rap i like he and donald faze on are hilarious to me but um i don't know i just was like i don't leave him alone like the guy's trying to live his life uh but i think i think listen i think if you just say hey like what's up man big fan just kind of keep it moving that's not the end of the world even with kids but i don't think you shouldn't have had a conversation with kids. So I think you made the right call.

You probably could have said, hey, but I don't really have an issue with you just avoiding the whole thing altogether. I saw Rob Yang at Equinox when I was in New York City, the head of Volter Succession. Oh, yeah. You told me that. That's right. We were both doing.

No, we were on the two benches too we were right across from each other and i was like hey porn's a lifeboat porn could be a lifeboat didn't get it or did get it no i just i just let it go no one got it less than solak yeah no one's no one's ever had that reference his face that should be we should have that be a breakout video his face when he's like excuse me hmm oh okay you're being funny okay yeah yeah we need to do that again to somebody the next time somebody says that's hard though you got that in his defense that was like the first time i think you guys were you know it's like the chemistry is not there he didn't. He doesn't know your thing. That's not a criticism of him at all.

No, I'm just saying for the people out there that are like, oh, Zolak can't keep up. He said lifeboat and then I think the episode just... No, it's an early... Actually, it's I think the third episode of the entire series. I've watched that episode. I've watched Roman so many

different times in that episode where've watched roman so many different times in that episode where he's like my back is fucked and he's just so bad i do trainer right right and no one cares and and kendall starts i just want to bring the team in together and say uh yo and then the best part maybe my favorite single part of the entire series four seasons of that show is in that meeting room where he's like and tom wamsgans is here and tom's like i and kendall just bulldozes right over him and i just love that. I love that part where Tom goes to start talking. All right, now we're talking about succession. Back to our guy here.

Yeah, look, he's with his kid. The interaction is, I think we've said this plenty of times, but the interaction is not going to be as impactful to that person as you think it is. Like I saw a video of John Cena the other day where some guy was like, can you do the can't see me thing and cena who appears to be like as nice as a celebrity as it can be

turns and was like do you mind maybe if i just spend time with my friend instead and the guy's like yeah but he also walks up to cena with the phone being like hey can you do the thing for me which is really bullshit so uh i know it feels like a missed opportunity and all those things but i think you're right and you know the moment that we all want to have we see somebody that we really like like that moment is really only about you and there's almost nothing you're going to say to the person that they haven't heard before um if you have some kind of in or some sort of connection like i still fucked up the vince vaughn thing at drake my buddy's getting married to drake it was this whole deal my buddy's classic move of us who moved to like a sidebar

where nobody was we had interviewed vince vaughn already before on the show and i just went up to him and we saw him on a sideline pretty recently so i'd run into him twice and i felt like hey at least i can just go say like hey what's up his wife looked at me like you dick and then because i went over a massive group of the wedding party came over and we ruined his whole fucking night because he was off to the side in the drake in the side room where there was no one there except for this like emergency overflow bar which we ended up at and i regret it i fucking regret it but you know what he doesn't remember i don't think yeah and that's that's a good point is that you know what what's the end game here of you talking to him for like 30 seconds like you saw john bernthal that's cool

man tell your friends that like you you don't need to have a conversation you guys probably have nothing in common you're not gonna hang out on the side not gonna hang out that's why like i think just like hey big fan man and keep it moving that's not a problem but like if you're if you try to chat somebody up that you have no real business talking to other than you just like like this guy because he's famous or you want to take a picture with him to post it on instagram i just i'm kind of against that i just don't like leave people alone yeah you got to be in the same situation like if there was a fire drill at the hotel and you guys were all standing outside that's when you're on the same level you're like oh this fucking place huh like i was i was with i was in this long line at this beauty shop with my

girlfriend well now wife in large my and jeremy piven was there i was in large mont at this like beauty shop where she was like i gotta go in here and get something so i'm just standing on this line with her and the line just wasn't moving for like 20 minutes it felt like it was probably a little less than that but the dude in front of us turns around as jeremy pivot and he turns around he's like you believe this and it's like that's when we're when we're in the same situation now the same shit is bothering us now we can now like we get each other but like just to be like hey i like what you're. Like that guy doesn't give a shit. But if you guys are on the same sort of level of annoyance with something, that's the only really time that you've got a chance of making a meaningful connection.

So, well, um, yeah, I mean, that's when you were like, Hey, too bad. Lloyd's not here. Right. You know, maybe, maybe the best thing to do is like whoever your top 20 favorites are prep lines yes prep some lines if you're breaking case of emergency just in case i see this guy out right yes like like the vince vaughn one i've since seen him a couple times and it's it's fine he doesn't remember oh he doesn't know you're that guy yeah yeah he doesn't know but i i i was younger that was more about me.

It was about me being able to show in front of my friends I could go up and say hi to him because I'd already said hi to him. And then I fucked up his night. And, you know, I got older. I realize, you know. But we've moved on. His career's been fine. Things are good. I mean, I guess, Ryan, like, obviously, like, you have people come up to you.

Well, look, I mean, when somebody comes up and says something to me first of all i'm not really famous okay so we can start there uh it's not even close to like being what these guys usually an argument for you they usually come up with like a an argument in the chamber and it's like here's why you're pulling the trash honestly it's usually about life advice more than anything else it'd be couples it'd be a wife girlfriend who who like most of my interaction now because i had it i'll admit like there was a smoke show at equinox i don't know why i'm not going to give the specific timeline and she saw me in the parking lot and i saw her like beelining it to me and i was like here we go and she's like can i get a picture with you my boyfriend loves the podcast i was. I was like, all right.

Good stuff. Tell him I said, hey. I tell people, I'm like, you telling me you like something I do never is going to bother me. You know what I mean? And then I remember one time I was with my dad and somebody came up and then he was like, does that get fucking annoying? And I went, honestly, dad, if it never happened, that'd be a bigger issue. Yeah, sure. So that's kind of how I look at it.

But yeah, I mean, there's a couple nights where, you know, the Boston night where this kid just wouldn't listen to me. And I had eventually my buddies wanted to kill him. But he was, I think we already talked about this. It was years ago. But we were out in Southie, which is pretty rare for me because, you know, I didn't really ever hang out there when I lived there. And I know that it's gone through its stretches of different spots being more popular. Now I'm just giving you

history of the bar scene of Boston. But he was arguing with me about some very specific thing with the Celtics. And he didn't come up to say hi. He came up to tell me his take. And I was like, yeah, that's not what happened. And then he was like, well, what do you mean? And I was like, well, because of this. And I knew the player. I knew the coach. I knew like all three sides of the story because I knew the three people. And I was like, that's not what happened. And it wasn't like some huge dramatic thing or some conspiracy or like if it ever got out or no.

And he's like, yeah, I don't think so. And I was like, okay, cool. Great. We could be done. Cool. Go over there now. And so then I went over the corner and he just was like following, following, following, following. And my buddies, because they're not really around me

because I don't live there, they were like, whoa. Like, do you have this with some younger dudes? I was like, yeah, every now and then. It doesn't happen that often. So again, I'm not comparing myself. Like, I want it. The next Matt Damon, or we'll never get him on, but Mark Wahlberg. I was actually

thinking about this for the interview. Because when you see certain things, or we'll never get him on, but Mark Wahlberg, I was actually thinking about this for the interview, because when you see certain things, or Affleck's always out in the mix, he's out in the wild just grabbing a coffee, getting into the car. The number of times you see that stuff, even when you're not even looking for it. I'd like to ask one of those people at that level, what's your day like?

Do you have to map it out? Do you have to think about it? Not peak Michael Jackson where he literally couldn't go anywhere, or even Otani when he goes back to Japan. Maybe that's why I was thinking about it. Otani likes here better because he's like, back in Japan, I can't move. I have to plan out everything. I just would wonder, the next person we get that's at that level of fame, we should just ask them that simple question because I think it's kind of interesting. You should just ask him that simple question because I think it's kind of interesting. Yeah, I just I always think of like the Ben Affleck ones where they catch him smoking a cigarette outside. It's like, you know, you think like, oh, is he like some chain smoker? And Affleck's just like, man, I had one cigarette like this is my one cigarette this week. I was just on a vent and they caught it on camera.

Now everybody thinks I'm like a chain smoker. I don't know. I just wonder what's the truth. Yeah, but it's never that famous. I'd be there'd be some fucking terrible pictures of me out there. I'll tell you right now. That cigarette meme, though, might be worth it. It's incredible. It's so good.

It encapsulates everything. Yes. That you felt like, man. It actually, I think, helps them in a way. Yeah, pretty relatable. Yeah. If there was a bad movie in the Batman meme while that was happening,

those two memes were so strong, I think people were like, yeah, whatever, he's a good dude. The one, too, of him standing on, like, was it him standing with a towel and his back tattoo was just fully exposed is also a very great one.

Yeah, you could, is he having a moment? Yeah, hey, he's the most beamable person there is i guess okay uh this one's quicker uh considering i have otani on my fantasy team corbin carroll what a pickup right out of the draft first place nbd in case you guys wanted an update from that incredible episode our guys checking into 511 185, 33 years old, aging, athletic build,

still aging, athletic build. You're 30 fucking three. Get back on it. Aging. Ryan hates what guys say that. Yeah. I have to do 20 minutes worth of shit just to get my back to move in a

couple hours. All right. This won't be long. This newer guy at work, roughly my age, found out that I play fantasy baseball. So we get to chatting about players and teams and all that. Little did I know, every day he seeks me out and talks exclusively about his team.

For example, he'll whip out his phone, show me his roster, explain to me why he added or dropped or traded this guy. One time he sought me out literally first thing in the morning at 7 a.m. Sometimes these conversations will drag on for 10 to 15 minutes of him rambling on. I give the body language signs of looking away and give the one-word responses after a couple minutes of him talking. Do I continue to grin and bear this daily convo or do I have to actually spell it out for him?

I'm honestly not sure what to do. He's a nice guy. I don't want to be a dick. I don't know what the move is. All right. Yeah, it sucks. It sucks. Because this guy doing this every day there means there's other stuff socially that's like he probably wasn't the coolest guy out of his group and maybe not

always the number one option for the fair sex uh out on the town But he loves those ad drops. He loves those ad drops. And I too at times may be a little guilty of thinking somebody else thought something was interesting. Right? But this is excessive and it's every day. So you don't want to be a dick.

And he's not picking up on any of the social clues. I think you pivot the other way and have fun with it and just start suggesting the worst ideas ever. You know, terrible trades. Like, you know what's annoying is having to remember when Otani's a pitcher or not. Like, I dropped him.

Although some leagues wouldn't let you drop him. Just go so ridiculous with fantasy baseball thoughts that maybe he'll be like i don't want to talk to that guy anymore he sucks at this i don't know kyle um yeah i mean i've got this sort of thing with with like a story like there's a bar that i go to from time to time and there's a dude who works out front and um he's from boston he's a big tall guy and he's got like uh it's actually kind of fun to hear him talk. But every once in a while, I have to go out to the front of the bar for like five to seven minutes a couple of times while I'm in the, you know, while I'm visiting the bar.

And he'll monopolize me with like a story, like my whole five to seven minutes while I'm outside, you know what I'm doing? And he's like, he's telling me the story like, yeah, so there was this girl and I'm fucking it right. And then this and I'm like, holy shit. And it's like, I'm doing what he's doing. I'm looking away. I'm giving him the cues like, yeah, so there was this girl and I'm fucking it. Right. And then this, and I'm like, holy shit. And it's like, I'm doing what he's doing. I'm looking away.

I'm giving him the cues like, Oh yeah. Wow. Like I'm not interested in this. And then, so what I've been doing is I'll just like, while he's telling me the story I'm not into, I'll just be like,

I'll say something about like, I'll just be act like we've been talking about something else. And then kind of like, it kind of like gets him at least to like back up a little bit from his crazy story that I'm not really interested in. And then I'll pretty much go inside. I'll like say something. He'll say, he'll like maybe respond to it.

Like, I'll just completely change the subject. I'll be like, oh, so it's supposed to rain today. Did you know that? And then he'll be like, what? And I'll be like, all right, I'm going to go back in there. So like, instead of just leaving, like in the middle of the story i'll just i'll just change the subject completely after i'm giving the cues yeah it's like a quick jab and he's like what and then maybe he'll say something and i'll be like yeah i know crazy right and then i'll just like i'll be

like all right i'll see you in a bit and that that's actually worked for me because like sometimes like i'd even walk back inside he'd continue the story and it's like all right i'm going to sit down with my friends again and and he's like and then she said to me i mean do you believe this so it was just the guy just didn't take a hint so i just found that you're like it's like like you said a quick jab get him get him off his you know get him off his balance and just be like all right man i'll see you later uh you could do is just like you could just interject with work stuff be like hey man i can't we you know we're just really busy right now i should get that file over to what's his name.

And just like completely every time he talks to you about baseball, just circle it back to work. And then he's going to stop talking to you. Like he's not going to talk about work. Or you could just tell him you quit your league and you don't really care anymore. Yep. I was thinking that, too. I just don't know that there's much else there with that. I mean, it basically it's not even about fantasy baseball.

It's how do I get out of the work conversations. That's why there's a show called Workaholics and why there's a movie called Office Space because these guys exist. That there are companies, there's stuff that they're going to be like, hey, we have cake. I know you're all kind of depressed,

but we got some cake showing up here. No raisins, but we've got cake showing up here. So, um, I mean, this is... Right, right. This is unavoidable. It'll happen in almost every workplace. There'll be somebody that wants to tell you shit that just isn't interesting to you. So I think

having fun with it might be a fun little pivot for you where you could then look forward to it. Like, what ridiculous things can I say to this person? I think it applies to a lot of stuff. It's not just fantasy baseball. All right. Thanks to Kyle.

Thanks to Steve. That's life advice. Ryan Rusillo podcast. Please subscribe. Ringers. Outro Music you