Speaker 1: Boom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes a
Speaker 1: week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants of
Speaker 1: the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He treats
Speaker 1: crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the rich
Speaker 1: pill poppers in the penthouse. The clearing House of Hot
Speaker 1: takes break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with
Speaker 1: Ben Maller starts right now Sunday. That's right, hey, you
Speaker 1: you've tuned in on a Sunday, a day of rest,
Speaker 1: to the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller and not David
Speaker 1: Gascon because four hours a night on the overnight clearly
Speaker 1: not enough. Eight days a week, eight days a week,
Speaker 1: and this would be the eighth day of the week,
Speaker 1: a double dose. Not only do you get the Fifth
Speaker 1: Hour podcast right now, assuming you're listening on Sunday, but
Speaker 1: also we have live radio program in the overnight starting
Speaker 1: at eleven o'clock in the West at two am in
Speaker 1: the East on a Sunday morning. But this is all
Speaker 1: about the mail. And if you didn't hear listener mail,
Speaker 1: I love this is my favorite podcast the way I
Speaker 1: love the Friday one doing the conversations, and I put
Speaker 1: up with the Saturday podcast, but the Sunday mail Bag
Speaker 1: always love it. It's a spinoff of Ask Ben on
Speaker 1: the radio show. And we are joined yet again if
Speaker 1: you missed Saturday. Big Mike a Fox Sports Radio icon
Speaker 1: who's been at the company for seventeen years. Seventeen years,
Speaker 1: and he is with us again. So Big Mike. Now
Speaker 1: the way this is gonna work. These are all actual
Speaker 1: questions sent in by actual consumers of the Fifth Hour
Speaker 1: podcast and Fox Sports Radio and and we will just
Speaker 1: randomly ask me. There's some sports questions, a lot of
Speaker 1: non sports questions. There's a lot of people that fought
Speaker 1: Gascon was gonna be here, clearly not realizing the Gascon
Speaker 1: takes off every other weekend. So you're in the gascon,
Speaker 1: not in the Gascon chair as you told us, because
Speaker 1: you're you don't want that chair has been silly, but
Speaker 1: you're in the gascon roles. So you have to try
Speaker 1: to answer either as Gascon or as Big Mike, whatever
Speaker 1: whatever you choose, whichever mood strikes me. I mean, let's
Speaker 1: do it all right, here we go. First question is
Speaker 1: from Matt in Elmira, New York. By the way, these
Speaker 1: questions all set via the show Facebook page. Ben Mallers
Speaker 1: Show or Real Fifth Hour at gmail dot com. Real
Speaker 1: fifth Hour at gmail dot com. So Matt in Elmira,
Speaker 1: New York says Ben and a gascon slash Big Mike,
Speaker 1: Big Mike's name, I would like to know your personal
Speaker 1: opinions regarding NBA players resting well not injured. I understand
Speaker 1: the disappointment of road fans once, for example, the Nets
Speaker 1: come to town, Matt says, and Kyrie and Harden sit
Speaker 1: out for rest. Tickets are wildly expensive for all sporting
Speaker 1: events anymore. Uh, and you have a right to be irritated. Uh.
Speaker 1: To that, some say, why don't these players rest during
Speaker 1: home games instead? But that seems foolish, disrespect your hometown fans.
Speaker 1: So he's going back and forth on this, and uh,
Speaker 1: he said, you know, people bring up Jordan played all
Speaker 1: eighty two games at forty years old. Uh, that was
Speaker 1: that side of the aisle. And he says, I understand
Speaker 1: players health. This is a very long, winning question for
Speaker 1: Matt and Olmira, New York. Uh, he says, I just
Speaker 1: don't know exactly where I stand on the issue. I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear your thoughts, all right, Matt, I will
Speaker 1: go first I hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it,
Speaker 1: hate it, hate it. Do not like it. Uh. And
Speaker 1: I believe that if you're healthy, you should play. And
Speaker 1: I'm also maybe I'm completely wrong on this, but I
Speaker 1: don't think you can correctly predict when he's you played
Speaker 1: x number of minutes or x number of games, your
Speaker 1: body's gonna break down. Right, So not always in North
Speaker 1: I the wage medical gurus who seemed convinced, you know,
Speaker 1: if you play a certain number of back to back
Speaker 1: games in the NBA, you're not gonna be healthy and
Speaker 1: your your body's gonna break down. I think it's voodoo medicine.
Speaker 1: I don't buy it. Everyone's different and what they what
Speaker 1: they can take and what they can't take is different.
Speaker 1: And the other thing too, is you know, it's one
Speaker 1: of those things that's changed where it used to be
Speaker 1: a badge of all you. You would feel shame and
Speaker 1: you'd feel guilt if you didn't play. We'd hear that.
Speaker 1: You know, my teammates need me, the fans need me.
Speaker 1: I know, I gotta be out there. I gotta play.
Speaker 1: Now it's the opposite. We've done a one eighty and
Speaker 1: now it's like, well, it doesn't really matter you. People
Speaker 1: get offended when they're when they're expected to play and
Speaker 1: and and coaches are shamp For example, Tom Thibodeau, the
Speaker 1: coach of the Knickerbockers, when he was in Chicago and
Speaker 1: he had his guys play, he really pushed them to
Speaker 1: play a lot of minutes. And the media, the basketball media,
Speaker 1: the softies in the basketball media, killed Tom tibodoz Well.
Speaker 1: He's like a despot because he wants to he wants
Speaker 1: his guys to play. He plays him a lot of minutes,
Speaker 1: and he doesn't have load management and all that, and
Speaker 1: he got very upset. But I think it's ridiculous. I
Speaker 1: I think it's embarrassing. And I like what they used
Speaker 1: to do in the olden days, because you know, I
Speaker 1: was back in my day when I was a kid.
Speaker 1: What they would do is they'd have they wouldn't give players,
Speaker 1: as I remember, a full game off. They'd only play them.
Speaker 1: And if they played like thirty five minutes a game,
Speaker 1: they play him fifteen or they play him ten. But
Speaker 1: they play a little bit. So the fans on the
Speaker 1: road got to see the star players. Because a big
Speaker 1: part I'm going along here myself, but a big part
Speaker 1: of the NBA marketing is to sell the stars, not
Speaker 1: even the teams. It's it's come out and watch Steph
Speaker 1: Curry and the Golden State Warriors, come out and check
Speaker 1: out Jason Tatum and the Celtics. Well, if you go
Speaker 1: to a game, you pay money, you're being sold that
Speaker 1: you're going to see those guys. And I understand if
Speaker 1: they're hurt, that's fine. But if if they're not hurt
Speaker 1: and they just they feel like playing because you know
Speaker 1: they they're delicate little flowers, that's bull crap. How do
Speaker 1: you how do you stand? I'm with you, Uh, most
Speaker 1: of the way through all of that, I agree. I
Speaker 1: also think that part of winning a championship is durability,
Speaker 1: and it's unfair if while you know some players are
Speaker 1: playing every game for the whole season, they are obviously
Speaker 1: going to take on more wear and terror than the
Speaker 1: guys who are taking it. Gives you an unfair advantage
Speaker 1: if you're deciding to take games off. And it's not
Speaker 1: truly about what a champion is. The champion is the
Speaker 1: guy who can you know, the team that can get
Speaker 1: through all that without you know, breaking down and still
Speaker 1: has enough horses. And you get into the bench and
Speaker 1: you see, you know, well, do you have the guys
Speaker 1: if you lose somebody or if somebody's not you know,
Speaker 1: able to perform, do you have somebody on the bench
Speaker 1: that could step in and fill in. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: part of being a champion is being able to get
Speaker 1: past all that sort of stuff. And on top of that, like,
Speaker 1: if you want to arrest your players, you know how
Speaker 1: remember how the Showtime Lakers used to do it. They'd
Speaker 1: blow doors and by the third quarter they'd be up
Speaker 1: by twenty points and they take all the starters out
Speaker 1: and they never played the fourth quarter. So if you
Speaker 1: really want to arrest your guys, I think that that's fine.
Speaker 1: Do it. Like you said, if you place thirty five,
Speaker 1: you only play him twenty because you're blowing doors on
Speaker 1: guys anyway. I mean, pick your spots to give your
Speaker 1: guys rest when you've already performed, you know. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know. It's like the term and it's a political term,
Speaker 1: but it's jerrymandering, right you read draw That's pretty much
Speaker 1: what these these teams have done. It. It's not just
Speaker 1: the NBA, but the NBA. It's more obvious where you
Speaker 1: people don't like it in politics when you change it
Speaker 1: so you can't lose the election. But there it's supposed
Speaker 1: to be, at least I was raised as a sports fan.
Speaker 1: It's supposed to be a war of attrician right and
Speaker 1: and the team that wins the championship has survived all
Speaker 1: of that and played and put their best it forward.
Speaker 1: So that's where I stand up. And the only problem,
Speaker 1: the real problem is the motivation for the franchises, for
Speaker 1: those teams to rest their players, because the franchises do
Speaker 1: better when they win championships. So they're going to bend
Speaker 1: as many of these rules as they can to get
Speaker 1: that ring. They're not thinking about the fan every day
Speaker 1: that's coming to this to the stadium to watch. They
Speaker 1: just want they just want that championship, so they don't
Speaker 1: you know, teams have a real motivation to do this,
Speaker 1: and until the NBA can figure out a way to
Speaker 1: remove that ability, they're they're just gonna keep doing it. Well.
Speaker 1: The other thing too, is obviously the money. Right. These
Speaker 1: guys that used to be athletes. I don't want to
Speaker 1: say they were disposable, but they were replaceable. And now
Speaker 1: with the amount of money uh that is is especially
Speaker 1: like baseball. Basketball players make it, the star guys make
Speaker 1: it time. But baseball pitchers the baby. We're gonna eventually.
Speaker 1: We saw it last year. But they will get rid
Speaker 1: of pitchers Haiti, because there's a couple of pictures every
Speaker 1: year they get hurt, either getting hit by a pitch
Speaker 1: or running the bases, and they just don't want to
Speaker 1: go in random question, what are the stats as far
Speaker 1: as complete games pitched anymore? Well, forget about that. Can
Speaker 1: we ever get a complete game anymore? No, you can't
Speaker 1: get that unless you've got one hitter or no hitter going.
Speaker 1: They're gonna yank you. Yeah, And who's the genius. Who's
Speaker 1: the mensa that decided your arm's gonna fall off after
Speaker 1: a hundred pitches? Like who decided that that the human
Speaker 1: body can only handle a hundred pitches? Because you hear
Speaker 1: stories like in the old days of Lavon Hernandez pitching
Speaker 1: in Cuba throwing three pitches, or Fernando Valenzuela in in Mexico,
Speaker 1: you know two hundred eighty. Hell, even in the early
Speaker 1: days when Fernando is with the Dodgers, you know, Tommy
Speaker 1: Losorda would leave him in there and they didn't care
Speaker 1: about pitch counts in those days, but it's like they
Speaker 1: just arbitrary number. Well, you get through a hundred pitchers,
Speaker 1: you've gotta start warming somebody up in the bullpen because
Speaker 1: they can't handle. It's like, come on, I don't like
Speaker 1: it all right. J Bone from Portland, Maine writes into
Speaker 1: the fifth hour he says, who is the dude who
Speaker 1: does the voiceovers for the game shows, the Third Degree, etcetera?
Speaker 1: Have you ever met him? No? J Bone, I have
Speaker 1: not met him. The only voiceover guy that I've met
Speaker 1: was the original voice of Fox Sports Radio, who's a
Speaker 1: really cool guy. Met him at the Fox lot and boy,
Speaker 1: I'm forgetting his name, but he's actually the voice that
Speaker 1: I think. He's the voice of ESPN now. But he
Speaker 1: he did movie trailers. Like guy was like a d
Speaker 1: J in Minnesota, and he had a very interesting story
Speaker 1: how he got into the voiceover stuff. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: have not met the voice of Fox Sports Raid. I
Speaker 1: don't even know what. I don't know where the guy lives.
Speaker 1: I know that he's on there a lot doing the
Speaker 1: voiceover stuff. Yeah, I know Bob, You know Bob. Where's
Speaker 1: he at? He is? Uh? He does most of his
Speaker 1: work out of the heart Burbank Studios. Okay, so it's
Speaker 1: just a local guy in l A here, guy in
Speaker 1: l A here. He works with our our imaging department
Speaker 1: as well. I think he also does work for a
Speaker 1: local affiliate here in Los Angeles. So okay, and he's
Speaker 1: a really good guy. Yeah, well that's a racket man.
Speaker 1: The voiceover stuff, that's the way to go. Yeah. Actually
Speaker 1: very talented because not only is Bob the voice, but
Speaker 1: he's also the producer of a lot of those uh
Speaker 1: those bits. So he is uh, he has a sound wizard.
Speaker 1: One man band. That's good alright. Glenn in Chicago writes
Speaker 1: that he says, who would you rather have filling in
Speaker 1: on your show? Fake news or gag on? Or should
Speaker 1: I say which is worse for the show? Well that's
Speaker 1: you know, that's like Sophie's choice. You know, there's no
Speaker 1: right choice there with that. Each bring their own set
Speaker 1: of problems. Um, Brian friendly, Uh, who I have had
Speaker 1: on the show. He's like the go to filling guy. See.
Speaker 1: The thing with Brian is he thinks he's funny and
Speaker 1: he never stops talking, which is problematic. And then a
Speaker 1: gas gun. Uh he thinks he's better than all the
Speaker 1: people that call up and then hangs up on people
Speaker 1: and sometimes doesn't even screen the call. So there's issues
Speaker 1: with both. So I did pick your poison, but some
Speaker 1: of you idiots. He here's the thing, big Mike. Some
Speaker 1: of these guys are like, oh, I like I like chaos,
Speaker 1: and so they like when Brian or Gascons in there
Speaker 1: because it drives me nuts. And I mean the lot,
Speaker 1: I mean the Loody bin, but not the Tom Loody bin,
Speaker 1: and they get very upset with me. Well, I would
Speaker 1: if I had to pick, I'd probably go with fake news.
Speaker 1: I mean friendly is uh. Look, he may talk too much,
Speaker 1: but man, his voice is so smooth. It's like it's
Speaker 1: like having a warm cup of hot cocoa poured in
Speaker 1: your ear hole. You know. It's just yeah for me, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like getting a boiling pot of McDonald's
Speaker 1: coffee and pulling in your lap, you know, and then
Speaker 1: you can see and alright. Glenn also had a suggestion
Speaker 1: for a bit on the show. He says, how about
Speaker 1: take a Regina spin cycle Regina call and have her
Speaker 1: give life advice to callers. Advice from spin cycle, Regina,
Speaker 1: I actually like that. That's a good idea for a bit, Glenn.
Speaker 1: I'll have to wait for a slow day in sports.
Speaker 1: I hope we don't have any of those. I hope
Speaker 1: it's not like last year where everything shuts out. But
Speaker 1: I mean it could be a funny bit for a
Speaker 1: few minutes. Here have Regina give advice out. Be sure
Speaker 1: to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays
Speaker 1: at two am Eastern. Chad from Champagne, Illinois at the
Speaker 1: home of a fighting a line I he says here proudly,
Speaker 1: Hey Ben and Gascon. Of course Gascon is not here.
Speaker 1: What is the weirdest or most craziest thing you have
Speaker 1: ever seen while driving to and or attending a sporting event? Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm glad you asked this question, Chat. I have one
Speaker 1: of the most surreal, riduculous stories about this, and I
Speaker 1: believe that my story is in the top three all
Speaker 1: time stories of things you've seen on the way to
Speaker 1: a sporting event. So let's flashback million years ago spring
Speaker 1: training covering the Dodgers in the Grapefruit League. Uh, and
Speaker 1: the Dodgers had a game in Jupiter. So we're going
Speaker 1: from Vero Beach down the Highway One there to to
Speaker 1: Jupiter for the spring training game. I think that's how
Speaker 1: we went. I don't remember. We had to use maps
Speaker 1: back in those days. So I'm driving down Highway One
Speaker 1: trying to get to the Cardinals spring training facility. I
Speaker 1: think they're still in Jupiter. At that time. It was
Speaker 1: the Cardinals and the Montreal Expos that were the team. Anyway,
Speaker 1: So I'm I'm driving down and uh, there was a
Speaker 1: a bottleneck. There was a bunch of traffic on the highway,
Speaker 1: and we were like, what's going on? And we got
Speaker 1: up to where there had been an accident, and it
Speaker 1: was one of the most insane things I had ever seen.
Speaker 1: In fact, it was so crazy. Well I'm about to
Speaker 1: know you that I thought it was like a TV
Speaker 1: show or a movie or it was like an episode
Speaker 1: of those punked type shows. Hand the God, I'm driving
Speaker 1: down the highway going to the spring training game. The
Speaker 1: accident takes place. It was a hearse that was turning
Speaker 1: left and got hit like kind of head on, and
Speaker 1: somehow the back of the hearse had opened up and
Speaker 1: the casket had it didn't completely fall out, and it
Speaker 1: just kind of moved back, but I think it stayed closed,
Speaker 1: which I was concerned about. But all these people were
Speaker 1: standing around like they didn't really know like what to
Speaker 1: do because like you know, it's a proper way you
Speaker 1: have to move the casket and all that. It was
Speaker 1: very It was unreal, man, it was. And it's one
Speaker 1: of those images that I can close my eyes right now,
Speaker 1: Big Mike, and I can see the image as I
Speaker 1: drove past. It was to forget. Yeah. It was insane, man.
Speaker 1: Any anything you've got, you anything like, yeah, but anything
Speaker 1: that you remember going or coming from a game. The
Speaker 1: craziest thing that ever happened to me go into a game.
Speaker 1: I was heading to see Peyton Manning of the Tennessee
Speaker 1: Volunteers play against U C. L A and the Rose
Speaker 1: Bowl regular season matchup. And uh, on the freeway on
Speaker 1: the way to the Rose Bowl. Uh. Yeah, I I
Speaker 1: took the bird to the windshield like kill the bird.
Speaker 1: Oh oh, destroyed the bird, like crack my windshield all
Speaker 1: the way across spider web the whole thing. I had
Speaker 1: bad guts, like in front of my face the whole time.
Speaker 1: I had to kind of drive with my head to
Speaker 1: the side because I couldn't see from all the bird
Speaker 1: guts that were still on my windshield. It was nasty.
Speaker 1: But you know that I was at that game too,
Speaker 1: He at the same games. Not like a gunshot when
Speaker 1: that stupid bird it too. Man, it was loud. Well,
Speaker 1: I think the bird had it was on a coma
Speaker 1: Kaze suicide mission. That's what I think he had a coming. Yeah,
Speaker 1: at one time I was was driving down the down
Speaker 1: the road and a rabbit ran in front of my car.
Speaker 1: And I'm convinced the rabbit had a death wish and
Speaker 1: got it got what it wanted there. But I've never
Speaker 1: I've never had a bird that would Boy, that would
Speaker 1: freak you out. Yeah, it was a little freaking because
Speaker 1: it hit right in front of my face, like it
Speaker 1: that's where bird guts. Bird guts stuck in the windshield.
Speaker 1: And how do you how do you handle the insurance
Speaker 1: on that? How do you explain to you say, why
Speaker 1: is a bird hit my windshield? And yeah, well when
Speaker 1: the guy came out to replace the windshield, that's not
Speaker 1: like he couldn't tell that a bird hit my windshield.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I wouldn't know how to go about doing
Speaker 1: that on purpose. If I could Yeah, that's reminiscent of
Speaker 1: Eddie hit a boat on the freeway. He got in
Speaker 1: an accident and hit a boat. Yeah, I guess the
Speaker 1: guy's boat had come off the hitch and was on
Speaker 1: the four oh five and kaboom. I guess it's better
Speaker 1: than hitting a boat with your car while you're on
Speaker 1: the water. That's good point. Yeah, that would be Yeah,
Speaker 1: I see what you did there, Pierre. In Springfield, Massachusetts,
Speaker 1: home of the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame, says Ben
Speaker 1: and Gascon. As a youth, I was introduced to the
Speaker 1: strat o Matic baseball board game. Have either of you
Speaker 1: ever had the pleasure to play any of these strat
Speaker 1: o Matic products. I've played all the major sports versions
Speaker 1: except football. They're great for stat nerds and introduced me
Speaker 1: to many players of the past from the nineteen thirties
Speaker 1: to present. Now I am aware of the strat o
Speaker 1: Matic brand. Pierre, I never played. I when I got
Speaker 1: into fantasy, it was it was called rotissary baseball. Listen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what I got really into, and that's what I
Speaker 1: became obsessed with, like stats and and all that, and yeah,
Speaker 1: it wasn't the story. It started at a place the
Speaker 1: guys got together and they created Fantasy Baseball at a
Speaker 1: rotisserie Chicken place in New York, and so they just
Speaker 1: called it Rotisserie Baseball because that was like the name
Speaker 1: of the restaurant. I think that was a story, but
Speaker 1: I don't use anymore. It's now saw fantasy and all that.
Speaker 1: But you knew the strato matic ether big Mike. I
Speaker 1: did not. I had. I had a buddy who had
Speaker 1: a big, giant poster board up in his bedroom and
Speaker 1: he would, you know, get the paper and read the
Speaker 1: stats and and chalk him up. Uh. And then at
Speaker 1: the end of the season we'd all we don't sit
Speaker 1: down and and add everything up and figure out who won. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're dinosaurs. It was important. It was like Sporting News
Speaker 1: had all the stats and that was a big thing.
Speaker 1: And then I do. I'd get them from the Times,
Speaker 1: just from the sports page, just go straight to the
Speaker 1: box scores. Yeah, not so much anymore now now they're
Speaker 1: in your phone. You got him right now, anything you need,
Speaker 1: any statu you passed me? Hey, I was I blind
Speaker 1: him at the Seahawk fan from a limp be all
Speaker 1: Washington rights and says, this is both of you. If
Speaker 1: you could have a town named after you. What would
Speaker 1: it be and where would it be? Like a Mallarville, Mallarburg. Uh, No, No,
Speaker 1: what we should have is Mallard stand. How about that?
Speaker 1: Wouldn't that be good? Mallerstan Yeah, Mallar stand. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: because stand, you know standards of I didn't know this
Speaker 1: when I was younger, but I learned this watching a documentary.
Speaker 1: I think most people know this, but I didn't. I'm dumb.
Speaker 1: Stand just means land, So Afghanistan, whatever, Tobekistan. It's just
Speaker 1: that's just land. That's how they say land. So Mallard stand.
Speaker 1: We would have to be in a place where there's
Speaker 1: a lot of people because I want publicity, and we'd
Speaker 1: have to have like sports teams and you know, nice
Speaker 1: infrastructure and all that. I think you know that that
Speaker 1: corridor that's where most of the population is. What about
Speaker 1: you if there was a big Mike town, what do
Speaker 1: you like? What place called the city? And have you know? No?
Speaker 1: I think I go the opposite. I think my town
Speaker 1: is uh is probably up in the mountains somewhere very
Speaker 1: few people. Probably most of the population would be wildlife.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't like people so I think I
Speaker 1: think my town is just gonna be pretty much me
Speaker 1: and my wife and a few people. I like, we'll
Speaker 1: call it like ling Guardia, Lingardia. I like that, Linguardia. Yeah,
Speaker 1: with the Buffalo Row, you absolutely will need an invitation
Speaker 1: and a passport to get in. So and you'll have
Speaker 1: like watch towers and guys with guns and whoa, whoa.
Speaker 1: I don't know about the guns. No, no guns country. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but we'll definitely have security perimeter though. I need to
Speaker 1: know who's coming in and if you, uh, if you
Speaker 1: break any of the laws, which will all be you know,
Speaker 1: made by me, you'll be escorted from ling Guardia with
Speaker 1: a quickness. So Lingardia sounds like Dubai to me, sound
Speaker 1: a little bit like Dubai. Absolutely dictatorship. Yes, I understand,
Speaker 1: all right. Uh Tony in Seattle Rights and he says, Ben,
Speaker 1: when did you first meet gas Can and what was
Speaker 1: your first impression? I met him at the company. I
Speaker 1: don't remember meeting him prior to that. I met him
Speaker 1: when he started at Fox Sports Radio, and I I
Speaker 1: really didn't think much of Gascott when I first met him.
Speaker 1: I didn't really because I don't really know who was whatever.
Speaker 1: But you know, like like most that he brought up
Speaker 1: the fact that we had worked he had worked in
Speaker 1: San Diego, and I gotta get my start in San Diego.
Speaker 1: And so there's a kinship. Anybody that started in radio
Speaker 1: in San Diego. We all have the same stories because
Speaker 1: like the same ten people still work in San Diego radio.
Speaker 1: So it's it's the same. It's a very small fraternity
Speaker 1: of people in the radio, the radio world. Chris in
Speaker 1: Iowa says, any advice on entering the voice over business,
Speaker 1: Chris says, uh, yeah, Well, I would say that the
Speaker 1: advice it's hard to do, is to just network. And
Speaker 1: we had Mel Procter on on Friday. He talked about
Speaker 1: how he networked when he was at NFL Films and
Speaker 1: one thing led to another and he got opportunities because
Speaker 1: he met people and schmooz uh with with people. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that's that That's the thing. I mean, most
Speaker 1: of these jobs. I say it all the time that
Speaker 1: the advice I always say is that most of these
Speaker 1: jobs in radio and television and voiceover are from who
Speaker 1: you know, not what you know. You know. I hate
Speaker 1: to say that, but I feel like that's the case.
Speaker 1: I think that's the case in most professions. It's like
Speaker 1: networking and and things like that. So that's the hard part.
Speaker 1: And I would say if you're christ and Iowa, if
Speaker 1: you've got good audio, which you obviously think you do
Speaker 1: as a voiceover guy, you've got to find a way
Speaker 1: to get in on these auditions or at least have
Speaker 1: have your stuff heard, which often means you have to
Speaker 1: get an agent, which is problematic, but they and the
Speaker 1: good thing about most agent you don't have to pay
Speaker 1: them until you actually get something. And then when you
Speaker 1: when you have to pay them, or they take a
Speaker 1: big chunk out of your money. And don't don't forget
Speaker 1: the celebrity aspect of the voiceover work. And uh, speaking
Speaker 1: to Mel Proctor, you know he's he's just a guy,
Speaker 1: and yet you know he's been honing his craft. And
Speaker 1: some guy who played baseball for ten years is gonna
Speaker 1: is gonna get a job before he does, not because
Speaker 1: he's any better at it, just because people know who
Speaker 1: he is. They recognize who he is. And you know,
Speaker 1: James Earl Jones does you know so many and you
Speaker 1: know there's they're those those really good voiceover gigs tend
Speaker 1: to just go to actors and people that recognize their voice,
Speaker 1: so it makes it even tougher to break into the business. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: you're referring course to the great jock occracy, Howard co
Speaker 1: Sell talking about that, which is even more pronounced now
Speaker 1: than it was even when Howard was around back and
Speaker 1: back in his days. All right, Mike from Vegas, right
Speaker 1: since says what you propose to the NHL to attract
Speaker 1: more viewers? More viewers? Let's see here, what could the
Speaker 1: NHL do well? The problem with the NHL, on tell,
Speaker 1: there's always been the it's hard to keep track of
Speaker 1: the puck, right, it's not. It's not really television friendly sport.
Speaker 1: Remember when Fox tried the glowing puck, that tracer puck, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that See. I think they should go back to
Speaker 1: something like that because the technology is a lot better
Speaker 1: now than it was when they did. It was like
Speaker 1: they had this tail behind it the whole time. Like, Yes,
Speaker 1: if you just make it like a little bigger looking
Speaker 1: that it's easier to follow. I agree, I think they
Speaker 1: should go back to something like that. Are you a
Speaker 1: hockey guy, big Mike? Oh? Yeah, but I I would
Speaker 1: say I'm a much bigger fan of hockey in the
Speaker 1: stadium than I am at watching it on TV. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's one of those sports that really helps you to
Speaker 1: be there. It's a lot easier to follow the puck. Huh.
Speaker 1: Now I look at you get you, and you hear
Speaker 1: the sound when they crash into the oh yeah, and
Speaker 1: you get to see like the empty ice when they're
Speaker 1: making a line change and there's only like three guys
Speaker 1: on the ice at once, and then you know, it's
Speaker 1: just it's just a much different visual. I'm an anti
Speaker 1: net guy. I liked it when the pluck would go
Speaker 1: flying into the crowd and people would be scrambling to
Speaker 1: get the puck. But there's nets everywhere you go to
Speaker 1: baseball games, that's everywhere. That's nets. Nets, nets. That's that's
Speaker 1: that's annoy Enough of the nets. Uh. Kathleen from Madison, Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: wright saying hello, Kathleen, She says, how did you meet
Speaker 1: your wife? Uh? Kathleen, I met my wife online dating,
Speaker 1: believe it or not. I was doing some online dating
Speaker 1: and struck out quite a bit. And finally, if you
Speaker 1: turn over enough rocks eventually, you'll I think, I think
Speaker 1: the phrase actually, if you kiss enough frogs. Isn't that
Speaker 1: something like that? You know, yeah, something like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know, but that's how I I met my wife.
Speaker 1: And when I met her, I didn't tell her Wilton Radio.
Speaker 1: I told her I did sales, and at that time
Speaker 1: I had my website, So I think I did. I
Speaker 1: think I might have told her I did some website
Speaker 1: stuff something like that. So that's the the story on that,
Speaker 1: Big Mike. Did you meet your wife at? Howd you
Speaker 1: meet your wife at a bar? Online? What you do?
Speaker 1: I met my wife at a bar, actually a bar, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was. That's that's the traditional way to do it.
Speaker 1: That's like that's how people. Yeah, well, yeah, we met
Speaker 1: at a bar, and that's what we've been married for
Speaker 1: one years now. So thank gradually, Jose in Northern California says,
Speaker 1: my lord Ben, thanks again for having your little brother
Speaker 1: Brian Finley on the show. It is so funny when
Speaker 1: you abuse him. Had to listen to the show twice,
Speaker 1: he said, But that and then he wants me to
Speaker 1: replace gag On with Brian Finley. Well, I don't know
Speaker 1: about them permanently. Yeah, I don't know about that. That's
Speaker 1: a little bunch I mean, guess gonna misses so much
Speaker 1: time anyway, it's almost like he's he's here half the time.
Speaker 1: So it's not that big Kevin from Rockford, Illinois writes, So,
Speaker 1: he says, Mr Maller, in all of your years living
Speaker 1: in the not so great state of California, have you
Speaker 1: ever come across any exotic wildlife such as rattlesnakes, mountain lions,
Speaker 1: big horn sheep, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Uh No, not really.
Speaker 1: I didn't see a buffalo on Catalina Island, and but
Speaker 1: that that's where the buffalo rome. Occasionally they'll come into,
Speaker 1: like the back of avalon the city. There you'll see
Speaker 1: a buffalo. And I used to hike around the hills
Speaker 1: in l A and I there were were mountain lions.
Speaker 1: I saw a bobcat. But that doesn't really intimidate you.
Speaker 1: What about you, big Mike here right? No outdoors guy?
Speaker 1: Sure I have yeah, I've I've hidden from bears before. Really,
Speaker 1: you know, dude, I was how scared? Were you were
Speaker 1: you like peeing your pants were Actually it was I
Speaker 1: was staying in Tahoe and I had climbed upstairs to
Speaker 1: the there was like a rooftop like patio thing where
Speaker 1: you kind of see the view of the whole valley.
Speaker 1: It was beautiful, and I as I go to walk
Speaker 1: back down, I see people are like waving at me,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, what's going on. I looked down and
Speaker 1: coming up the condo steps and this was, you know,
Speaker 1: big condo complex. Was a black bear in her cub
Speaker 1: just walking up the steps that I was about to
Speaker 1: go walk back down to get back to my condo room.
Speaker 1: So I like shut the door and and hit around
Speaker 1: the corner. But uh yeah, that's probably my closest encounter.
Speaker 1: And I tried to pick up a snake on a
Speaker 1: hike once. I thought it was just a curvy stick, right,
Speaker 1: I thought I was gonna I was gonna pick up
Speaker 1: this cool looking walking stick. I was like, awesome, it's
Speaker 1: laying across the trail. I reached down to pick it up,
Speaker 1: and it moved, And yes, I did scream like a
Speaker 1: little girl. Yeah, well you're and put You're so much
Speaker 1: bigger than the snake. But still that venom the venom, right,
Speaker 1: yeah sake. Man, it wasn't well, I thought it was
Speaker 1: a stick. It wasn't supposed to move. Yeah, yeah, be
Speaker 1: sure to catch live editions of the Ben Maller Show
Speaker 1: weekdays at two am Eastern Pacific. Jason from Rocky Mount, Virginia, rights,
Speaker 1: Since since Ben you talked about your hat collection, that's right,
Speaker 1: I have noticed the mad Hatter of sports chatter. It's
Speaker 1: one of my many nicknames there. So it got me thinking.
Speaker 1: We have a few minor league teams in the area there,
Speaker 1: he says, remind me your hat size and mailing address. Well, well, Jason,
Speaker 1: I would be very kind. I'm a size eight. I'd
Speaker 1: be very large, Big Mike. You probably have about the
Speaker 1: same side. You have a large head yourself. I have
Speaker 1: a large head, but not that big dude. I'm like three.
Speaker 1: All right, Yeah, I'm I'm a size eight. Uh. And
Speaker 1: you can send it, just send it to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1: The address is what is it? Let me think of
Speaker 1: the address here, boy, I don't know what is you.
Speaker 1: You're there, big Mike? What is the Let me get
Speaker 1: the I gotta go to the car here. I got
Speaker 1: it's won five to six right zero venturable of our
Speaker 1: Sherman Oaks, California nine one zero nine four zero three?
Speaker 1: And what sweet do they have to send it to you? Now?
Speaker 1: Because the mail rooms changed now that they put your
Speaker 1: name on it, just put my name on. I don't
Speaker 1: attention Ben mallor it'll get to you. There you go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they've moved a lot of things around during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: so I don't even I don't even know where to
Speaker 1: get the mail now. I have no idea where to
Speaker 1: get the mail. When I come in, I'm like, I
Speaker 1: don't know where the mail is. So it's on the
Speaker 1: table by the kitchen. Just so you know, there's actually
Speaker 1: some stuff sitting waiting there for you. I'm meant to
Speaker 1: tell you, really, yeah, come and pick up my mail.
Speaker 1: But oh, did I tell you my favorite hat story?
Speaker 1: Do you do you know this one? Have you heard
Speaker 1: this one? That Richie Sexon once spent time on the
Speaker 1: d L because the equipment manager saw on the schedule
Speaker 1: was like the assistant assistant manager grabbed a hat, saw
Speaker 1: that his hat size was like eight and a quarter
Speaker 1: or something like that, just he had a giant head.
Speaker 1: Thought it was a mistake. I thought it was a typo.
Speaker 1: So pulled him a seven and a quarter hat and
Speaker 1: Richie Sexton sprained his neck trying to jam the lid
Speaker 1: on the top of his head because it was too small,
Speaker 1: is there? I remember that? So I thought he he
Speaker 1: thought he had like he had he had intense headache
Speaker 1: or something like that, I thought. And he wasn't sure
Speaker 1: what was going on. And then they figured out that
Speaker 1: his hat was he ended up all with DL because
Speaker 1: his hat was too small. Was he as dumb as
Speaker 1: a box of rocks though? Because yeah, like, wouldn't you
Speaker 1: know if you put a hat on, it's not it
Speaker 1: doesn't fit, especially a baseball player that has to have
Speaker 1: hats on every day at their job. You think you'd
Speaker 1: figure it out, Like what's going on with that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: You know? Yeah, dumb as a box of rocks? A
Speaker 1: R R J in Sane and Tonio. Right, So he says,
Speaker 1: but what's your favorite? What was your favorite board game
Speaker 1: to play? I don't know if you're asking now or not.
Speaker 1: I don't play a lot of board games these days,
Speaker 1: although probably gonna be having a big, big step in
Speaker 1: a in a couple of months, I'll probably played more
Speaker 1: board games. I'll explain why more later. But I like
Speaker 1: the classics and the games when I was younger that
Speaker 1: are still popular today. Like I played Battleship, but I
Speaker 1: mean it was a big deal Electronic Battleship. When that
Speaker 1: came out, it was a big Monopolies is still huge.
Speaker 1: Trivial Pursuit was a big game back in the day,
Speaker 1: Connect for Sorry, Operation Um, Hungry Hungry Hip Hops. When
Speaker 1: I was a kid, I love that. That was a
Speaker 1: fun game. There was a game called mouse Trap that
Speaker 1: had always weird. Yeah, yeah, I gotta we were a
Speaker 1: big board games because we didn't have you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was like a big deal. We had to play
Speaker 1: the board games played many hours ago. Clue you name it.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a scrabble guy. That would that be my
Speaker 1: go to scrabbles your go Yeah, I like like a
Speaker 1: little random trivia stuff. True in Pursuit probably the game
Speaker 1: is that play now? I would say Trivial Pursuit Monopoly,
Speaker 1: but a good Connect Forward game. Wrong with that. I'm
Speaker 1: done with the good game of risk. I just gotta,
Speaker 1: you know, mark some time on my calendar for it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right, that's the problem. Yeah, we're old guys, a
Speaker 1: little big Mike. We can have like game night now,
Speaker 1: we can have like board game night night. That's what
Speaker 1: old people do, right, old people stuff. I was not aware.
Speaker 1: I'm in let's do it, Okay, Carlos in Bang Bang Houston, Texas, right,
Speaker 1: since says Bay, Uh, you're very smart man. Well, Carlos
Speaker 1: think it's very kind of you to say that, starting
Speaker 1: to always suck up to the person you want. Answering
Speaker 1: the question, he says, my question is what happened all
Speaker 1: the Fox Sports regional channels? Why are they called bally Sports? Uh?
Speaker 1: He says, uh, Well, the reason they're called bally Sports
Speaker 1: is because Fox Sports sold all of their regional channels,
Speaker 1: not all of them, but most of them, and they
Speaker 1: were rebranded. If they're not owned by Fox Sports anymore,
Speaker 1: run by Fox Sports, they were rebranded in ballies. With
Speaker 1: sports gambling becoming more and more popular state by state,
Speaker 1: and that really the gold rush for sports gambling, Bali's invested.
Speaker 1: They're they're trying to get that brand to be the
Speaker 1: go to brand for people that are gamblers, and so
Speaker 1: they put their name on all these networks. So it's
Speaker 1: the same people work at those networks. It's just called
Speaker 1: the Bally's Sports Southern California or Dallas or where wherever
Speaker 1: your wherever your location is. So that's the answer. And
Speaker 1: he also want to know if with my birthday coming up.
Speaker 1: You want to know if guess Guesscan or gas Can
Speaker 1: will be getting me another steak? Well, I hope not.
Speaker 1: And then he recommended this is actually a good idea
Speaker 1: for a guest on the podcast Mattress Mac. Do you
Speaker 1: know who Mattress Mac is? Big Mike, do not know
Speaker 1: who Mattress. So Mattress Mac is this local celebrity in Houston.
Speaker 1: He's the He's the bed king of Houston, right they
Speaker 1: call him. Thus, Mattress Mackie sells beds. I think there's
Speaker 1: other household products, whatever you sell, but this guy has
Speaker 1: a deal every year where if you buy your furniture
Speaker 1: and the cheating as Astros, for example, end up winning
Speaker 1: the World Series, you're you don't have to pay for
Speaker 1: your furniture. It's free, right, It's a great marketing gimmick.
Speaker 1: He's done it with all the teams in Houston. Will
Speaker 1: do it for the Texans, the Rockets, the I don't
Speaker 1: know that you can do it for the Rockets these
Speaker 1: days because they're terrible, but the Astroids. And he did
Speaker 1: it for the n c A tournament with Houston, the
Speaker 1: University of Houston. And so what ends up happening is
Speaker 1: if it gets close. Because what Mattress Mac does is
Speaker 1: he takes out an insurance premium. That's the way the
Speaker 1: scam works. And uh, and so the insurance actually pays it,
Speaker 1: but you gotta pay the premium and all that and
Speaker 1: to cover your losses, your potential losses. If it gets
Speaker 1: down to the championship game, Mattress Mac well then hedge
Speaker 1: and he will bet millions of dollars against the team
Speaker 1: that he has on where the risk is. So like
Speaker 1: the Astros playing the Dodgers, he bet a bunch of
Speaker 1: money on the Dodgers just in case, you know, the
Speaker 1: Astros actually ended up winning. Uh, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So you got you know, he would have to bet
Speaker 1: on the Yeah, that's right, I screwed that up bat
Speaker 1: job by me. Yeah, so bell in the Astros to
Speaker 1: cover himself in case the other team one. That's right
Speaker 1: there you go. So, but yeah, I would talk Mattress.
Speaker 1: I would put Mattress back on. It seems like an
Speaker 1: interesting quite a character to do that. But another, you know,
Speaker 1: that's not just a Houston thing. I know that in Boston. Uh,
Speaker 1: they had a thing with the Red Sox where if
Speaker 1: you you bought furniture, you got your stuff for free.
Speaker 1: If the Red Sox won in the World Series, those
Speaker 1: things pop up. Barry in Nashville rights in the music City,
Speaker 1: He says, Ben, I slacked off last week. I didn't
Speaker 1: ask him in a question. Job by me, yet clearly
Speaker 1: very bad job by you, he says. Now that Gascon
Speaker 1: has joined the intermittent fasting, both of you can answer this. Well,
Speaker 1: he can't, he's not here, but big my canons. How
Speaker 1: do you fight back the hunger pains when you fast? Uh,
Speaker 1: he says, And when you end your fast, you weigh
Speaker 1: yourself right away and does the weight loss register immediately. Alright,
Speaker 1: couple of things now. First of all, I'm past the
Speaker 1: hunger pain stage. Like I don't really I don't really
Speaker 1: get that I did when I first started fasting. But
Speaker 1: it's to me, it's just mind over matter. If you
Speaker 1: don't mind, it doesn't matter. And I just would drink.
Speaker 1: I drink a lot of water and try to fill
Speaker 1: my stomach up with as much water as I can
Speaker 1: because there's no calories in it. And then I'll try
Speaker 1: to sweat that out when I go to the gym. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then I don't. I don't wear myself. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't want to have it. I'll wear myself occasionally,
Speaker 1: but I like to wait so I get some serious results.
Speaker 1: But I'm not a day to day weigh yourself. Gay,
Speaker 1: You're supposed to do that, but I don't like doing it.
Speaker 1: I agree with you. I don't think you should be
Speaker 1: weighing yourself because weight is only one small aspect of
Speaker 1: your overall health. And while yes, it's important to stay
Speaker 1: at a good weight, it's more important to live a
Speaker 1: healthy lifestyle. And if you're too focused on just your weight,
Speaker 1: you're gonna lose focus on the things that are important,
Speaker 1: which is being healthy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Now are you?
Speaker 1: Are you in the fasting cult? Big mincre I would
Speaker 1: say that I do tend to try to avoid eating
Speaker 1: heavy at night, not necessarily fasting, but I do. I
Speaker 1: have tried to, you know, make dinner time earlier. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to, you know, skip the desserts. I know that
Speaker 1: if I am going to have something that has too
Speaker 1: many calories in it or too much sugar in it,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to eat it earlier in the day,
Speaker 1: so you know, I have a chance to burn it. Off. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm near with you. To me, the most important heavy
Speaker 1: meal they should be lunch. I'm not. I don't really,
Speaker 1: I'm not a breakfast guy. I mean, I just usually
Speaker 1: I'm doing the overnight, so I'm sleeping during breakfast. But
Speaker 1: I I'll get up and I'll be like lunch when
Speaker 1: I guess is breakfast because I'm breaking a fast. But
Speaker 1: I'm a big lunch guy. Not that I don't like dinner,
Speaker 1: but it's more more important lunch. The last one. Christie
Speaker 1: writes him from Parts Unknown and says, my question is
Speaker 1: if one of your younger callers and fans asked you
Speaker 1: to go to prom as a celebrity, would you say yes? Uh, well,
Speaker 1: that would be awkward. I never went to my own prom,
Speaker 1: so that would be weird, Christie. But yeah, I I
Speaker 1: would be down with it, although I don't know. I
Speaker 1: probably have to, you know, go hang out with some
Speaker 1: dude or whatever, because I don't think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of high school women girls in our demographic. I would say,
Speaker 1: I don't think they're they're grabbing. I'm going I know
Speaker 1: I'm being I'm being sexist there. I just think the
Speaker 1: general sports talk your consumer typically middle aged people usually dude,
Speaker 1: that's uh, I guess yeah, but who am I? So? Anyway,
Speaker 1: but how weald would that be if I went to
Speaker 1: a prom, Big Mike, which that would be very weird.
Speaker 1: That would be very awkward for everyone involved, for everyone involved. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, listen, it's been a fun weekend, Big Mike.
Speaker 1: Look at that. You survived three podcast well the last
Speaker 1: two you helped out on the first one behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: But here we've reached the end of the road Big Mike.
Speaker 1: So I thank you for your help this weekend. I
Speaker 1: made it. I'm glad. It was fun, had a good time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: be on standby because Giscon might not be here next
Speaker 1: week or the week after, so you might oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that phone could ring. You might get the phone call.
Speaker 1: Yeah anyway, Yeah, all right, listen, having great rest of
Speaker 1: your Sunday, Remember the radio show to Night to Night
Speaker 1: back behind the microphones, the powerful microphones and Fox Sports
Speaker 1: Radio will be bloviating the overnight away at two am
Speaker 1: in the East on Monday, but eleven pm in the
Speaker 1: West on a Sunday night into Monday, will recap all
Speaker 1: the events of the weekend here in the sporting world,
Speaker 1: and we will talk to you. Then