Speaker 1: It's a podcast called twenty five wist fucking board and
Speaker 1: they were a whist so, yeah, it's too bad.
Speaker 2: But what did you expect?
Speaker 3: It's a podcast called twenty five whistles.
Speaker 4: Everybody, alright, blood whistle. We do have Brian Howard coming up.
Speaker 4: Philly's great, so that's cool. We'll talk NBA basketball a
Speaker 4: little bit as well. The thing that I would never
Speaker 4: want to do, and I think a little bit it
Speaker 4: feels like when we made you do the testosterone test,
Speaker 4: is that I have people racing their sperm. You got
Speaker 4: have you guys seen this at all?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: What I mean?
Speaker 2: Because they're fast swimmers, right, so what do they.
Speaker 4: Well that's what they say. I don't know, fast compared
Speaker 4: to like us running. They're fast, they swim, so they
Speaker 4: but they yeah, they race them.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's cool. You want to do it?
Speaker 4: I don't. I had to get my sperm checked. I
Speaker 4: did before my wife and I started trying to have
Speaker 4: a baby, because I was forty five and I was like, man,
Speaker 4: if we're gonna like try and like every month, wait
Speaker 4: for that, I need to make sure. And so I
Speaker 4: did that and it was great, Luckily, thank I'm nervous for.
Speaker 2: You, dude, that's crazy.
Speaker 4: It was weird. I was nervous, but it was weird
Speaker 4: first because you're just yanking in a room and everybody
Speaker 4: knows what you're doing. It's it's bizarre.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 2: You've done this.
Speaker 6: No, I've never done it.
Speaker 4: No, no, no, the whole the whole process, because you go
Speaker 4: and you sit in a room and they're like all right, Bobby,
Speaker 4: and they you know, the person working at the desk
Speaker 4: meets you. It's like all right, come on back.
Speaker 2: And then you get a woman at the desk at
Speaker 2: the day.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's not all dude. It's not like a sports bar.
Speaker 2: It's got to be all dudes. Like it'd be better
Speaker 2: if it's all dudes that I'd be like, hey, man,
Speaker 2: you know what's up. You know you gotta do this,
Speaker 2: you know what to do.
Speaker 4: And they walk you back and you talk to a
Speaker 4: second like hey, to a doctor or a nurse, another
Speaker 4: woman and she's they call it a sample and they
Speaker 4: say what you're gonna donna go here your sample, And
Speaker 4: the whole time you're just going in my mind, I'm
Speaker 4: going you're looking at me and you know I'm about
Speaker 4: to yank it and that's weird. For about the last
Speaker 4: I'm just thinking that in my head. But they do
Speaker 4: it all the time. It just yankors all day to them,
Speaker 4: Do they know.
Speaker 6: What you're you're using in there? I'm saying them looking
Speaker 6: at you and being like not, not only do you
Speaker 6: know what you're about to do? What you're about to
Speaker 6: do to this?
Speaker 2: Oh do you have something?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 6: Oh? Well, everybody everybody has the movies, but the movies
Speaker 6: where that the magazines in there?
Speaker 4: Everybody has a phone. Now that's true, but no, I
Speaker 4: was just okay, just curious that didn't magazine things disgusting?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I use the same magazine is gross.
Speaker 4: No, So but you go in and there's an old
Speaker 4: radio that you're supposed to turn up, so so they
Speaker 4: don't hear you. I guess because I just I don't know.
Speaker 4: I picture like that because I was like three rooms,
Speaker 4: I guess while they do this the yankor halls, and
Speaker 4: I was calling it when I was doing Caitlyn the
Speaker 4: Yankor hall.
Speaker 2: This is crazy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, dude, it's no, it's a doctor's office. And oh
Speaker 4: I have a crazy story too, but it's not even me,
Speaker 4: but not only walking down the anchor hall but you
Speaker 4: hear music in the other room, so you know what's
Speaker 4: happening in your hall because I only turn the music
Speaker 4: up when you go in there. And mine was on
Speaker 4: a class. It was like four in a row, Tom Patty.
Speaker 2: That's good.
Speaker 4: And so then when you're done, you have your sample
Speaker 4: and the inside of the wall is it's like a
Speaker 4: metal square, and you pull it back and you put
Speaker 4: your sample on there and you hit a button and
Speaker 4: then you go out and you just kind of hang
Speaker 4: your head in shame as you walk out. Yeah, it's
Speaker 4: like I'm done.
Speaker 6: Yeah, does anybody make eye contact?
Speaker 4: So that whole process was odd. I was nervous about
Speaker 4: the results. But the results came back and is a plus.
Speaker 4: So thank god, plus is a plus.
Speaker 3: Nice.
Speaker 4: I would have told you if it's be minus is
Speaker 4: a plus.
Speaker 6: So I was.
Speaker 4: I was nervous about that, but I didn't get nervous
Speaker 4: until it was like when I got my ACT results.
Speaker 4: You take the test any way, you're not really nervous
Speaker 4: until the envelope gets there and you're like, oh god,
Speaker 4: when I pull the envelope, this justn be life changing.
Speaker 4: And so I got an email saying, hey, your results
Speaker 4: are on the portal, and I went to the portal
Speaker 4: and if it was like sperm count I don't remember
Speaker 4: what the classifications were, but if it was like over
Speaker 4: ten thousand, that was good, over twenty thousand, that was great.
Speaker 4: And mine was like a million.
Speaker 2: Wow, A bunch of guys in there.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I wonder what ours would be. Dude knows.
Speaker 4: I think Eddie would be like dust.
Speaker 2: Does the five? Does the test have to do with
Speaker 2: the sperm?
Speaker 4: I don't know. But my point was they do sperm races.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, Oh, I'll tell you another story. The
Speaker 4: story that came to my mind. So men of the
Speaker 4: world are invited to put their sperm against each other
Speaker 4: in a race where the owner takes on one hundred
Speaker 4: thousand dollars. The twenty twenty six Sperm Racing World Cup.
Speaker 4: It's one hundred and twenty eight samples, each representing a
Speaker 4: different country that's facing off on a microscopic racetrack. I
Speaker 4: guess it's next month in samp Cisco. It's the Kentucky
Speaker 4: Derby of Juices.
Speaker 2: What on earth?
Speaker 4: But they want one hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Now that the payday is awesome, but so like, do
Speaker 2: they take just one of your guys, and that represents.
Speaker 4: You under a microscope. The competitors will race each other
Speaker 4: along a customized micro fluidic track. I don't know, I'm sure.
Speaker 2: And do they put like a what's what's the Okay?
Speaker 4: Here you go the entrance. Are sent a kit which
Speaker 4: to provide semen sample which will be mailed back to
Speaker 4: California process through advanced lab technique such as incubation, sperm washing,
Speaker 4: pipe dding, and through a centrifuge. And I think it
Speaker 4: isolates and prepares the most viable cells for racing.
Speaker 2: Okay, so it gets your fastest.
Speaker 4: Finds your healthiest horse and puts them on the track.
Speaker 2: And then you know how like when you do the
Speaker 2: dog races, they have flash and dash? Is there like
Speaker 2: an egg or something that like.
Speaker 4: Tells them which way to go?
Speaker 5: Point?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 4: It's one hundred thousand bucks. I wouldn't want to be
Speaker 4: a part of this because I don't want.
Speaker 7: To be last.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine your last?
Speaker 4: Like eight? Yeah, the country.
Speaker 2: It's not just you, dude, you'd be letting your country down.
Speaker 2: That's true, you know, it's true.
Speaker 4: I want to stand up there with my hand on
Speaker 4: my heart, knowing that my sperm just won me that gold.
Speaker 6: Amen.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: My have a friend, a literal friend, a close friend
Speaker 4: who was doing a full physical type thing and part
Speaker 4: of it was they were checking his sperm too, and
Speaker 4: so he does the physical and they're like, hey, we
Speaker 4: needed to do a sperm test and he's like all right,
Speaker 4: didn't really know that was going to be part of
Speaker 4: the physical, and so they give him the cup for
Speaker 4: the sample and they just say go on, and he
Speaker 4: has to go into like a public bathroom. What he had.
Speaker 4: They just pointed him at a stall and there are
Speaker 4: like three yearnals, three stalls, and he's like he felt
Speaker 4: like too, he could go to jail, like somebody comes
Speaker 4: in like there's a dude waka in there, I promise
Speaker 4: this for a sample? Probably no, no, no, the doctor,
Speaker 4: but he had to. He had to do it there.
Speaker 2: Heck no, I wonder what's worse to do, like not
Speaker 2: knowing it's coming or knowing it's coming.
Speaker 4: You probably just want to know it's coming. No, no fun.
Speaker 2: After I said, I'm like, that's just not a good
Speaker 2: way to say it.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So that's that thing, that's what that race is.
Speaker 4: That's my story.
Speaker 2: That's crazy.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Times man, they're changing. Bob Dylan said it. They are,
Speaker 4: They're changing. So yeah, good luck to everybody. Yeah, all countries,
Speaker 4: I mean just in life.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we need it, dude, we need it.
Speaker 4: That crap's crazy, Eddie. I have a bunch of stuff
Speaker 4: from you. But I think have we not already all
Speaker 4: talked talked about this time?
Speaker 2: We have not talked about any of this.
Speaker 4: We for sure talked about meeting t Max mom on
Speaker 4: the other show we.
Speaker 2: Did, but not on this show. But which Kevin doesn't know.
Speaker 4: If people hear this, they're going to know about it.
Speaker 2: It was more for Kevin because like if Kevin would
Speaker 2: have been there, he would have been like, what is happening?
Speaker 4: I give you a quick version because a lot of
Speaker 4: people listen to this. Probably Kevin works in a back
Speaker 4: room and doesn't get to hear the show as doing it.
Speaker 4: Can you turn a volume up in there?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 6: But I'm also editing all the time, so just be
Speaker 6: But if.
Speaker 4: Like something you were just dying laughing, you could flip
Speaker 4: it up in here.
Speaker 6: Yeah, because we have a TV. If so, if I
Speaker 6: see somebody dying laughing like you just said, then I'll
Speaker 6: turn the music or the sound up real quick.
Speaker 4: We were going into the Arkansas Texas softball game at
Speaker 4: Texas and it was rainy and cold, and I had
Speaker 4: four or five tickets on my phone from DJ, who's
Speaker 4: hitting coaching Arkansas on my brother in law, and we
Speaker 4: were just like, oh, this one ticket didn't go through
Speaker 4: and a name should be on the list, and so
Speaker 4: they ended up sending me oh the other ticket, gotcha boo.
Speaker 4: Woman in Texas shirt next to us was like, hey,
Speaker 4: do I know you? I was like, and naturally, I
Speaker 4: think it's from the radio show or television stuff've been on.
Speaker 4: Who knows. It's a grab bag out there, And I
Speaker 4: was like, I don't know. She's like, did you do
Speaker 4: something in Arizona? And I was like no, Like you
Speaker 4: did a sports thing at Arizona And I was like no,
Speaker 4: And I sort of thinking, well we did. She said, yeah,
Speaker 4: you talked to my son about his rating on Madden
Speaker 4: his Teamax. Mom.
Speaker 6: What Yeah, sitting right next to you else.
Speaker 4: Getting teket while we were getting in at the box office. Yeah. Really, yeah,
Speaker 4: he was his game because his girlfriend plays on the
Speaker 4: team Texas for Texas.
Speaker 6: Wow, did you see him?
Speaker 4: No? She face time with him, but the cell was
Speaker 4: so bad. I'm glad because he was. She was like,
Speaker 4: look who I'm with. It was breaking all up and
Speaker 4: I was like, he's not gonna know anyway.
Speaker 2: But we were just like, how is this all happening?
Speaker 2: Like it's random.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so so t Max mom to be in that
Speaker 6: spot and she recognized you. That's cool.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she was like linger looking and that happens. But
Speaker 4: usually it's hey, Dandela Stars whatever, breaking Bybones radio shirt
Speaker 4: something like that. But no, it was that it was
Speaker 4: too much access.
Speaker 6: Did she talk about her son's rookie year.
Speaker 4: We didn't get it. It was cold and wet, dude.
Speaker 4: We stayed four and we're freezing our balls off.
Speaker 2: It was cold, man, great seats.
Speaker 4: I think Eddie was able to appreciate, like how fast
Speaker 4: college off ball is.
Speaker 2: Had no idea like baseball. It's just a big field.
Speaker 2: So like, yes, they're fast, but I mean you can't
Speaker 2: really see how fast they are because they're just throwing
Speaker 2: the ball a long way. They're running far. With softball,
Speaker 2: it's so condensed in this small area, dude, it's like, wow,
Speaker 2: double play.
Speaker 4: We were like, it's crazy.
Speaker 2: And the girls hit the ball so hard.
Speaker 6: And you remember how hard it wasn't hit when we
Speaker 6: didn't too much excess.
Speaker 2: I actually enjoyed it. Other than the cold rain, I
Speaker 2: could have I would have loved been there for the
Speaker 2: whole game.
Speaker 4: It's so much more action than baseball.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the girls are so positive, like we're you get.
Speaker 4: To talk crap, except you're not talking crap, you're talking positive.
Speaker 4: But with your team, Like if you get on second base,
Speaker 4: you dance, you do baseball, they'll throw it at you
Speaker 4: next time you get up, or they'll be a fight.
Speaker 4: Unspoken rules. It's you get a hit, you get a
Speaker 4: first base, like, oh, it's awesome.
Speaker 6: Did you catch a football that?
Speaker 2: Sure it did? Sure? Well, well not.
Speaker 6: Technically, Okay, this is why I'm asking this foul ball? Wait,
Speaker 6: what's the what happened?
Speaker 4: We're walking not we're walking to the stadium, we're not
Speaker 4: in yet. And Eddie goes, it'd be so cool to
Speaker 4: catch a foul ball, that was all. And then you
Speaker 4: hear it and you see a ball come over the
Speaker 4: stadium and go tink clink and start rolling down the
Speaker 4: sidewalk and I'm like, dude, there's a ball, go get it.
Speaker 4: And he's like, I don't know. I'm like dude, there's
Speaker 4: a ball, go get the ball. You wanted a foul ball.
Speaker 4: So he runs down and gets it. In softball, you
Speaker 4: have to give the balls back because I only have
Speaker 4: so many and it's not a sport that makes money.
Speaker 6: So yeah, correct.
Speaker 4: So someone from Texas comes out and it's like, hey,
Speaker 4: you just find that ball, and he's like, yeah, you can.
Speaker 2: Here you go.
Speaker 4: And so she goes back and she says to me, Hey,
Speaker 4: this at the pavement. Does your friend really want this
Speaker 4: ball or no, no way, And I said yeah. She
Speaker 4: goes I'm gonna make sure that it can't be had
Speaker 4: because if it's scuffed, it's done. And so she came
Speaker 4: back and she was like, it's scuffed, he can have it.
Speaker 4: It was like five year old, Yeah it up.
Speaker 7: I know the picture.
Speaker 4: You're like a little kid.
Speaker 2: You'll hold it up well, because because I literally had
Speaker 2: just said like, hey, what I want out of this
Speaker 2: game is to catch a foul ball. Yeah, that's all
Speaker 2: I want. And then dude, it was like the heavens
Speaker 2: opened up and that ball came flying over the wall.
Speaker 6: I wonder what. So it was actually from the game.
Speaker 6: Wasn't like somebody hitting.
Speaker 4: It during the game. We got there in the first inning.
Speaker 2: It was a little legit foul.
Speaker 4: It was so cold. We did not have coach. It
Speaker 4: shouldn't have been that cold in May and Austin it
Speaker 4: did it rained all day. It's freezing. We liked the
Speaker 4: four innings and then we were like, it's too we
Speaker 4: have we're freezing our balls off and uh. We went
Speaker 4: back to the restaurant watching on the phone. But Archets
Speaker 4: won the series two out of three games.
Speaker 2: I had a question about that. So like, so, so
Speaker 2: your brother in law DJ, he's coach there at Arkansas.
Speaker 2: We see him and so we're like, love you DJ. Yeah,
Speaker 2: go coach Guessa, right, like, like, does is that appropriate?
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter, Okay, yeah, because I.
Speaker 2: Know he's working, Like we don't want him coming here
Speaker 2: and banging on the window.
Speaker 4: If we did it every inning when everyone walked down,
Speaker 4: but he was right below us and he walked out
Speaker 4: with Jay he loves Yeah. I mean, there's there's too much.
Speaker 4: We didn't do too much.
Speaker 2: No, we did not do too much.
Speaker 6: So it says says the guys who did it, and.
Speaker 2: We didn't do We only did it one time.
Speaker 4: You had do Celtics stuff on today I'm shocked.
Speaker 6: I know, I know, you know, it's kind of like
Speaker 6: the Patriots, where I'm surprised they made it this far
Speaker 6: and I'm trying to be positive about it.
Speaker 4: You're not surprised they were really good.
Speaker 6: You're never really good during their regular season. I'm surprised
Speaker 6: that they're out, Yeah, especially being up three to one
Speaker 6: to like like that. I'm surprised that Missoula. Look, he's
Speaker 6: a great coach, awesome coach, but man like they just
Speaker 6: never changed anything and just kept jacking up threes. And
Speaker 6: they've been doing this, but then he's stopped playing guys
Speaker 6: that are on his bench that were key guys all year,
Speaker 6: like the Shireman's, like the Jordan Walsh. These guys didn't
Speaker 6: really play in the playoffs, the same guys that got
Speaker 6: you that two seed, and he didn't really play and
Speaker 6: which surprised me.
Speaker 4: They trow up that rotation though when it's playoff time
Speaker 4: they do.
Speaker 6: But like when you're about to blow a three one lead,
Speaker 6: like yeah, let's try something else here, and then they
Speaker 6: throw out Shiremen and I think Garza for start this
Speaker 6: game seven. I was like, well, it's a little late now.
Speaker 6: Now these guys are just be nervous. It's Game seven
Speaker 6: and now you want to play. So I'm surprised that
Speaker 6: they really stuck to the guns that much and didn't
Speaker 6: really switch anything up. But yeah, I can't believe.
Speaker 2: They I'm surprised that you're wearing the sweatshirt like I
Speaker 2: would think, like like when the Cowboys lose, they're out,
Speaker 2: like they losing the playoffs whatever, like Cowboys stuff is
Speaker 2: gone for at least a couple months.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because you're embarrassed. Mostly, I just don't want to
Speaker 4: see it because it makes me feel bad.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I mean it's a good point, don't get me wrong,
Speaker 6: But I just this thing's just comfy, dude.
Speaker 4: Yeah, dude is comfy.
Speaker 6: You know, it's raining and we're just like just comfy.
Speaker 4: I agree. Yeah.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 4: Something we didn't get to talked about was Kevin has
Speaker 4: two kids as twins, so I know you're dealing with
Speaker 4: a babysitter issue. Where is do you pay a babysitter
Speaker 4: double because it's twins or is it like one babysitting
Speaker 4: job because there it's two, but it's like one, you
Speaker 4: know one, it's kind of one because they're twins. What happened?
Speaker 6: So last time we talked. I was going to meet
Speaker 6: her that weekend, I believe, and we met her and
Speaker 6: her husband. He didn't watch the kids with her, but
Speaker 6: we just wanted to meet and greet first. She was great,
Speaker 6: she's a nurse. To talk about that a little bit,
Speaker 6: and we felt super comfortable with her right away, like,
Speaker 6: all right, this is great. So then the following weekend,
Speaker 6: last weekend, we went to the wedding. She came over
Speaker 6: early after or late afternoon, and I was with the
Speaker 6: kids because my wife was in the wedding. So she
Speaker 6: had to leave, like three or four hours before me
Speaker 6: to go do a bunch of stuff. And so I'm
Speaker 6: sitting there like, Okay, she's got to come here. I
Speaker 6: got to run her through. So we ran her through
Speaker 6: some stuff and I left. And this is our first
Speaker 6: time being away from kids without family watching him.
Speaker 5: It was awesome.
Speaker 6: I only got one text the entire time. We're gone
Speaker 6: for six hours, Yeah, about six hours, and the only
Speaker 6: text was Hey, where's your trash can? At That's great,
Speaker 6: that's it. And she's like, yeah, white nervous. Honestly, she
Speaker 6: was way like she handled it waybere I thought she would,
Speaker 6: because she's the nervous one for sure out of us too,
Speaker 6: like I'll be like, all right, see you later, Like
Speaker 6: I need this break where she'll be more of like
Speaker 6: I wonder what they're doing. I can't believe, like they're
Speaker 6: just at home with this random girl. But she was great.
Speaker 6: I think it was because she was in the wedding,
Speaker 6: so she was so busy and her mind was going
Speaker 6: which hell, and she enjoyed the experience. She had a
Speaker 6: great night. It was a great wedding.
Speaker 4: What do you pay?
Speaker 6: We paid her thirty bucks an hour.
Speaker 2: Oh, I was total.
Speaker 5: I'm like that.
Speaker 6: No, no, she's like thirteen. Maybe because we asked her,
Speaker 6: were like, you know, what's your rate? We just don't
Speaker 6: lose our first time. And she's like, well, well, at
Speaker 6: first she goes, well usually I maybe sit for like
Speaker 6: people with a lot of money, and we're like she
Speaker 6: said that all wow.
Speaker 2: But then I'm here with you now and.
Speaker 4: I'm like, well I've really dropped a few levels.
Speaker 6: We're not usual people. So now she's like, my rate's
Speaker 6: like twenty five to thirty, and I was like, all right,
Speaker 6: we'll pay you thirty like two of them. Yeah, so yeah,
Speaker 6: I've paid thirty bucks. It was well worth it. Now
Speaker 6: could I do that every weekend? Absolutely not?
Speaker 2: What was the total?
Speaker 6: Two hundred bucks for six hours?
Speaker 2: What do you pay? Nothing anymore? But I used to pay.
Speaker 2: It used to come out to like, yeah, like eighty
Speaker 2: bucks at night. M gosh, dude, little boys and then yeah,
Speaker 2: and then you would like go to dinner.
Speaker 4: Like some child labor laws are being broken.
Speaker 6: I had two hundred you paid eighty for four boys.
Speaker 2: Yeah for like three hours. You were gone for how hours?
Speaker 4: Six?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Six? So like yeah, I was I mean, dude,
Speaker 2: think about going to dinner and spending one hundred and
Speaker 2: twenty five dollars on dinner and then come back and
Speaker 2: give a eighty dollars cash to like a young girl like,
Speaker 2: oh god.
Speaker 4: Did you ever have any bad experiences?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 2: But this is something funny. Funny story is the first
Speaker 2: time we got a babysitter. I had no idea, so
Speaker 2: like she it's just like Kevin was describing it made
Speaker 2: me think about it when it's like, yeah, they come
Speaker 2: over and then you're like, all right, here is the
Speaker 2: fire stinguisher like any of that. But they eat at
Speaker 2: this time, what they need, whatever, they need to go
Speaker 2: to bed at this time, whatever, And then I just
Speaker 2: I don't know. I wasn't even trying to be funny.
Speaker 2: But as we were walking out and like, hey, and
Speaker 2: there's beer in the fridge, help yourself or whatever, and
Speaker 2: my wife goes, no, no, don't help yourself to the beer.
Speaker 2: And I was like, oh, right, right, like I don't
Speaker 2: want my babysitter drinking. But to me, it was the
Speaker 2: first time I'd ever done that, and I thought like,
Speaker 2: why not, Like you're here all day, they fall asleep,
Speaker 2: and like, yeah, yourselet with brude. Like my wife's like, no,
Speaker 2: absolutely not.
Speaker 4: Did you have food for your babysitter?
Speaker 6: Okay? So I asked my wife that morning, I was like, hey,
Speaker 6: should we have food? It hit me that day, I'm like,
Speaker 6: should we do something food? I'm like, ah, she's a
Speaker 6: nurse and she does this all the time. She probably
Speaker 6: comes prepared and she's okay, and I regret it. We
Speaker 6: didn't get anything. She brought like a bag of snacks,
Speaker 6: and I was like, hey, you're welcome to anything in
Speaker 6: the fridge, anything in the pantry, whatever, And then she
Speaker 6: ended up just ordering a pizza, Like we should have
Speaker 6: got her food.
Speaker 2: Did you pay her for the pizza?
Speaker 8: No?
Speaker 2: She could have the move for us is always like
Speaker 2: all right, we're gonna order pizza, should be here in
Speaker 2: ten minutes, and so when we leave, they get the pizza.
Speaker 6: Yeah. See, yeah, we should have done that. I regret that,
Speaker 6: but hey it was the first one, you know. But
Speaker 6: she's also she's pregnant now, so it's like, okay, well
Speaker 6: she's not gonna last for you. We can't use her
Speaker 6: for long.
Speaker 2: Oh the baby's babysitter.
Speaker 6: Yeah. I told us that she's you know, early on,
Speaker 6: but she's pregnant.
Speaker 4: Yeah, a few more months at least. Yeah, unless she's
Speaker 4: sick the first time. Atter stuff for a lot of people.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's what I was.
Speaker 4: I was like, oh, okay, man, if you find somebody
Speaker 4: though that you trust, always do the little things like
Speaker 4: cover their freaking pizza after I.
Speaker 2: Just just know, like babysitter usually you cover their dinner. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And if you forget, like like Bone said, yeah, give
Speaker 2: her a little bit of money. I'm sorry, I completely forgot.
Speaker 4: Here is now, if you kind of a sucky babysitter
Speaker 4: and you just were using her one time because you
Speaker 4: got a straight by it, that's different. But if like,
Speaker 4: if it's something that you really want to be able
Speaker 4: to use a lot.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 4: You really gotta make make them feel valued.
Speaker 6: You know what she did. I just thought about it too.
Speaker 6: She actually did text me and she's like, hey, do
Speaker 6: you care if I uber eat something to your house?
Speaker 2: Is that her way of like telling you didn't leave
Speaker 2: me food?
Speaker 6: You'd like, do you want to order me something?
Speaker 4: I don't think something? Or do you think she was
Speaker 4: just asking just be I think she was asking because
Speaker 4: if for some reason you had a camera somebody saw
Speaker 4: a car drive up, You're like, why is our car
Speaker 4: at the house? Why is it? Yeah? I just think
Speaker 4: it's a somebody. Also, she could be like, you know,
Speaker 4: maybe you don't want people know where you live. Maybe
Speaker 4: you guys purposely don't have stuff delivered to your house.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Oh, I wonder if she was asking because of like allergies,
Speaker 2: you know, like do your kids have allergies or whatever?
Speaker 2: Like if I uber eat something?
Speaker 6: Yeah, the kids were asleep by no.
Speaker 2: No, But I don't know.
Speaker 6: But I appreciate that.
Speaker 2: But overall success, when do you think you're going to
Speaker 2: be dealing with this?
Speaker 4: I don't know. Soon ish, we don't have any childcare
Speaker 4: now we have friends. One time we only left one time.
Speaker 4: We had to prank them over. We went to therapy.
Speaker 2: I don't know, a man.
Speaker 6: How how did your wife do? And you're gone for
Speaker 6: an hour?
Speaker 4: It's only an hour, but still it's the first time
Speaker 4: I've been gone a lot, so I didn't even think
Speaker 4: of it as that, right, because I'm gone every day
Speaker 4: And we were in the car and we're driving. Is
Speaker 4: this the first time we've both been gone? I was like, really,
Speaker 4: because you're always both of us.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I was like, huh, how about that? Uh? I think
Speaker 4: she did great. She has a friend that she really
Speaker 4: trusts that has had a bunch of babies or that's important.
Speaker 4: I guess a bunch of two. But yeah, yeah, so yeah,
Speaker 4: I don't know. We haven't got there yet.
Speaker 2: How was your your weekend away from the baby?
Speaker 4: Did you easy?
Speaker 5: Is he?
Speaker 4: Yeah? So so easy? I mean yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4: It was easy for a couple of reasons. One, her
Speaker 4: parents were there, so I was my fear would have
Speaker 4: been on her more than anything, like she just overwhelmed.
Speaker 4: So her parents were there, so I was good.
Speaker 5: That's it. Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 2: That helped.
Speaker 4: Yeah, if you get a family, if she's by herself. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and her parents came in. They had planned a long
Speaker 4: time ago because I told my wife I want to
Speaker 4: leave for two months after she had the baby. This
Speaker 4: was the first trip that I was leaving on. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and so her parents were like, hey, when he leaves,
Speaker 4: this is like a month and a half ago, we'll
Speaker 4: come into town. He's gonna be gone for a couple
Speaker 4: of days, so we'll just come because it'll be time
Speaker 4: for us to come back. Anyway, we had been there
Speaker 4: in a month, and so it was planned out a
Speaker 4: long time ago that they would drive in. So they
Speaker 4: were there, they got there. We left on Thursday evening.
Speaker 4: They got to like Thursday afternoons. So I hung out
Speaker 4: with them a little bit. And it was difficult because
Speaker 4: we got in Saturday night, but Sunday morning at three am, Yeah,
Speaker 4: super late, so I had to be up at like
Speaker 4: six thirty withth baby. That sucked, But I did get
Speaker 4: to say bye to them, and then I'm I'm just
Speaker 4: now caught up on the week, Like where I'm feeling
Speaker 4: normal again.
Speaker 2: Is your father in law pumped about the thunder.
Speaker 4: They won last year? So I don't know if he's pumped.
Speaker 4: I think he just enjoys it. He enjoys having a winner. Now,
Speaker 4: he watches every game. I think he was pumped last year. Now,
Speaker 4: not that it's expected, but there is an expectation because
Speaker 4: they win all the time.
Speaker 6: Pretty good, Yeah, right, really good.
Speaker 4: So the Lakers didn't look bad last night, thunder just
Speaker 4: so they're just so good. They just so affoicate, suffocate
Speaker 4: you defensively. Yeah, and Chet played really well last night.
Speaker 6: And Jalen didn't even play, right Williams one of the Williams,
Speaker 6: I don't know. I saw him on the bench in
Speaker 6: the street clothes.
Speaker 4: Then that means he didn't play, didn't play. All right,
Speaker 4: let's break and we'll come back with Philly's first baseman,
Speaker 4: former Phillies first basement stud, Ryan Howard.
Speaker 3: All.
Speaker 4: We're going to welcome in Ryan Howard, Phillies' legend, two
Speaker 4: thousand and eight World Series champion, two thousand and six
Speaker 4: National League MVP, Rookie of the Year, really one of
Speaker 4: the greatest power hitters of me watching baseball. He has
Speaker 4: a new podcast now with another Phillies legend, Jimmy Rollins,
Speaker 4: called the six to one to one podcast. You love Baseball,
Speaker 4: You Love the Phillies. Check it out. Ryan is here now, Ryan,
Speaker 4: first question, how much does a manager actually matter? And
Speaker 4: I think you know where I'm going with this.
Speaker 9: Well, Bobby, I'm gonna say that I don't know where
Speaker 9: you're going. All right, Well, a manager does matter. I
Speaker 9: think the manager has to keep the mood in the
Speaker 9: clubhouse nice and calm and easy. I know with uh, well,
Speaker 9: I'm gonna let you take it there. I'm gonna let
Speaker 9: you take it there. I'm not gonna get ahead of you.
Speaker 9: But but but with a manager, it's it's just doing that.
Speaker 9: You're managing the game, you're watching the game, you're seeing
Speaker 9: how things go. I think the great managers have a
Speaker 9: tendency of just letting their players play, do their thing,
Speaker 9: and then they make the moves as they need to
Speaker 9: make the moves.
Speaker 4: I asked, because with the Phillies firing Rob Thompson and
Speaker 4: Don Maddingley taking over, you know it can and there'd
Speaker 4: be a culture change. I know we're not mid season,
Speaker 4: but early enough in the season that it actually affects
Speaker 4: team play.
Speaker 5: I mean, there can be a culture change.
Speaker 9: I think that obviously with with what's kind of taking
Speaker 9: place with the Phillies, it's you know, the guys were
Speaker 9: kind of underperforming.
Speaker 5: I don't really know what was going on in the clubhouse.
Speaker 9: You know, usually when there's something like that that's taking place,
Speaker 9: there's got to be some kind of change, and usually
Speaker 9: a lot of times the managers that the first one
Speaker 9: to kind of take the heat, so, you know, and
Speaker 9: in terms of that whole situation, there's one thing I
Speaker 9: always say too, is that players also have to be accountable.
Speaker 5: I've been on teams, you know, that have had.
Speaker 9: Bad stretches and the mannerier kind of takes the heat
Speaker 9: for it all. But the players also have to take accountability.
Speaker 9: And that was one of the things that I remember
Speaker 9: when I was kind of going through a stretch like that.
Speaker 5: As a player, It's like, hey, what do we what
Speaker 5: are we doing right?
Speaker 9: We've got to try to do better and be better,
Speaker 9: you know, at some point, you know, everybody's got to
Speaker 9: be accountable for their own actions. So, you know, I
Speaker 9: think the team has kind of turning around. They've gotten
Speaker 9: a few wins under the belt, and that team is
Speaker 9: just way too talented to have kind of underperformed the
Speaker 9: way they have. But luckily, the Phillies' history in April
Speaker 9: is not is not the best, but hey, that's why
Speaker 9: you've still got a lot of season left and it's
Speaker 9: a marathon, not a sprint.
Speaker 4: How do you feel about the ABS system?
Speaker 9: The ABS system I think is great. Actually would have
Speaker 9: loved to have it when I was playing. Probably would
Speaker 9: have knocked down some strikeouts or whatnot. But I think
Speaker 9: what it's all about is about getting the calls right.
Speaker 9: And I don't think it's tough for umpires to not
Speaker 9: take it personal. You can understand that, but I think
Speaker 9: ultimately it becomes a tool to where everybody can get
Speaker 9: better and you get a full understanding of what the
Speaker 9: strike zone is and a consistent understanding of what the
Speaker 9: strike zone is. I think the umpires are going to
Speaker 9: continue to get better with that, catchers, the pictures, the
Speaker 9: hitters once everybody gets a better understanding of what that
Speaker 9: strike zone is in being able to utilize it and
Speaker 9: the challenges. Right now, all of a sudden, you're implementing
Speaker 9: these challenges, and you've got to be strategic with these
Speaker 9: challenges because you don't want to necessarily use their challenges
Speaker 9: up too early.
Speaker 5: In the game if you miss them.
Speaker 9: So I think it's a cool addition to the game
Speaker 9: where it's just all about trying to get things right
Speaker 9: because it can change the flow of a game one
Speaker 9: way or the other.
Speaker 4: I think it's fun for fans because it gives us
Speaker 4: something like it's almost like that cup thing where it's
Speaker 4: like which balls under the cup and they start spinning
Speaker 4: the cups and you got to watch it between innings.
Speaker 4: Like it's a little bit of that, but like game affected.
Speaker 4: What I do like about it the most though, is
Speaker 4: the people that are running that system are live in
Speaker 4: the umpire's ears. So even when people aren't challenging it,
Speaker 4: they're telling the umpires like, hey, you're a little outside today,
Speaker 4: like you're a little inside. So the real game feedback
Speaker 4: I think is great for the game.
Speaker 9: Yeah, no, absolutely, because ultimately, at the end of the day,
Speaker 9: you just want to have the insistency and you want
Speaker 9: to have the right call so that ultimately you get
Speaker 9: into a situation where now it's like the players can
Speaker 9: determine the game.
Speaker 5: You don't want to have.
Speaker 9: It be where you know there's a there's a big
Speaker 9: situation where you know a team's got runners on and
Speaker 9: they're either down and they can tie the game or
Speaker 9: they can go ahead, and then the umpire makes a
Speaker 9: call and it ends the game and ultimately can end
Speaker 9: a season or do something like that. But again, you've
Speaker 9: got to be smart with your challenges because if that
Speaker 9: team goes and you uses those challenges up early in
Speaker 9: the game to where you get to that situation and
Speaker 9: all of a sudden, we need that challenge and we
Speaker 9: don't have it, then you just, hey, you're you're at
Speaker 9: the expense of the umpire and those guys are out
Speaker 9: there trying to so you know, they're they're human, They're
Speaker 9: gonna make mistakes, but it happens in the blink of
Speaker 9: an eye, and you're just trying to do the best
Speaker 9: they can out there.
Speaker 4: Was there a version of what the Dodgers are doing
Speaker 4: now in the National League when you were play not
Speaker 4: the same same, but like they just spend all the
Speaker 4: money and have all the players. Was there one of
Speaker 4: those teams when you were in the league?
Speaker 5: Uh? NL? Not really, not really.
Speaker 9: I mean the Dodgers always had, you know, great rosters
Speaker 9: and talented players, but not to the extent of what
Speaker 9: they've been able to go out and go do now.
Speaker 9: But I mean, yeah, I mean, if you had to
Speaker 9: look at a team, you'd have to say that team
Speaker 9: was the Yankees, even though they were in al.
Speaker 4: The Braves may be the team that could play with
Speaker 4: the Dodgers. You feel like anybody in the in the
Speaker 4: NL can actually make it to the World Series other
Speaker 4: than the Dodgers.
Speaker 9: Yeah, there's I mean, there's teams. It's gonna be tough.
Speaker 9: I mean, look, with what the Dodgers are doing and
Speaker 9: how they're playing right now, it's it's very hard to
Speaker 9: overlook them. But again, you mentioned it, the Braves. The
Speaker 9: Braves are playing really well at a very very high clip.
Speaker 9: This is the first time in you know, however many
Speaker 9: years that the Braves have been fully healthy and had,
Speaker 9: you know, their horses on the field all at the
Speaker 9: same time. I mean, you're getting great, great hitting, you're
Speaker 9: getting great pitching. They're just playing great all around team baseball.
Speaker 9: Sneakily kind of back on the radar.
Speaker 7: Man.
Speaker 9: Look, it's it's a little bit of a of a
Speaker 9: of a long shot, but these guys are playing great
Speaker 9: baseball too. You can't necessarily overlook the Cardinals. It's it's
Speaker 9: just all about who's playing good ball at the right time.
Speaker 9: I think the Phillies, you know, get back on track
Speaker 9: with anything and any team, Dodgers included, Like, you've got
Speaker 9: to stay healthy over the course of the season. The
Speaker 9: Dodgers have so much depth, you know, you can probably
Speaker 9: afford to have guys you know, go down at some point.
Speaker 9: But when it comes to September, October, like those later months,
Speaker 9: you've got to be healthy to be able to make
Speaker 9: it and make a big run in the postseason.
Speaker 5: So it's going to come down to a lot of
Speaker 5: that as well.
Speaker 4: How would you get out of a slump?
Speaker 5: I would usually try to It depends on what I
Speaker 5: was doing.
Speaker 9: I mean, I think a lot of the times, if
Speaker 9: I was pulling the ball a lot early on, I
Speaker 9: would try to just kind of back the ball up
Speaker 9: a little bit more and let it get a little
Speaker 9: bit deeper, maybe take a couple of abs and just
Speaker 9: tell myself, hey, I'm going to jam myself no matter what,
Speaker 9: and try to kind of stay back up the middle
Speaker 9: of the field. And so by doing that, it's allowing
Speaker 9: me to let the ball travel and watch the ball
Speaker 9: and track the ball a little bit more into the bat,
Speaker 9: and then as I start to make that contact, then
Speaker 9: I can kind of start to push my contact point
Speaker 9: forward just a little bit more, a little bit more,
Speaker 9: a little bit more, and then boom, all of a sudden,
Speaker 9: there it is. And then starting to work my way
Speaker 9: back in the middle of the field, left center, right center,
Speaker 9: and to left field.
Speaker 4: Would there be at bats where you're going up knowing
Speaker 4: you're just trying to get yourself out of a slump,
Speaker 4: no pressure to actually get on base, You're just trying
Speaker 4: to like progress a bit.
Speaker 9: Yeah, sometimes you just you got to say, you know what,
Speaker 9: no matter what happens here, I'm just going to chalk
Speaker 9: it up because this is what my focus is right now.
Speaker 9: So it may take me a couple of bats to
Speaker 9: let the ball travel. As long as I can start
Speaker 9: tracking the ball again the way and get my timing
Speaker 9: down the way I want it to, I know that
Speaker 9: it's gonna start to come back, and then I'm gonna
Speaker 9: start squaring balls up these next two maybe three at
Speaker 9: bats or whatnot, depending upon what the situations are. Is
Speaker 9: I want to let the ball kind of get deeper
Speaker 9: on me and start trying to track it and kind
Speaker 9: of catch it if I can.
Speaker 4: I'm an Arkansas baseball fan Missouri state like quietly they're
Speaker 4: freaking good. They're always they're those boys fight, like when
Speaker 4: you play for Missouri State. Was it the same kind
Speaker 4: of team?
Speaker 9: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, great, great program.
Speaker 5: I think it's a very underrated program.
Speaker 9: We would always play Arkansas every year, missoo Kansas schools
Speaker 9: like that. Now they're playing you know, they're playing the
Speaker 9: big boys every year, still playing those guys playing Oklahoma
Speaker 9: State yearly. It's always been a very gritty program. I mean,
Speaker 9: the guys that come out of there just you know,
Speaker 9: you look at Drake Baldwin. You know, We've had some
Speaker 9: guys Jake Berger, Luke Voyd, like a lot of guys
Speaker 9: that have come out of there. Brad Zigler. Brad Ziggler
Speaker 9: and I played together, we were we were there at
Speaker 9: the same time. So it's it's a it's a program
Speaker 9: that is is a very hard working program and it's
Speaker 9: still i think on on the up and up.
Speaker 4: How much time did you spend in the miners. Did
Speaker 4: you do the whole travel around on the bus thing?
Speaker 5: Oh? Absolutely absolutely we were.
Speaker 9: What was it started out once I got drafted Batavia,
Speaker 9: New York and New York Penn League and then went
Speaker 9: to South Atlantic League Lakewood, New Jersey, where we had
Speaker 9: I think at that time we were the furthest team
Speaker 9: North and we would travel down to Georgia, South Carolina, Georgia,
Speaker 9: you know, seventeen hour bus rides. So yeah, got the
Speaker 9: got the full experience. And I was in the minor
Speaker 9: leagues for three three and a half years. I got
Speaker 9: September call up in four, drafted in OH one, September
Speaker 9: call up in O four, and then five. Was started
Speaker 9: out in Triple A and then Tommy got hurt and
Speaker 9: went went up for a little bit, went back down
Speaker 9: when he came back, and he got hurt again, was
Speaker 9: out for the rest of the season, and then was
Speaker 9: up the rest of the year and five and the
Speaker 9: rest was history.
Speaker 4: Your call up moment, was it pretty cool or they
Speaker 4: tell you just like hey, you're up your head now?
Speaker 9: No, it's it's always cool man. They they understand like
Speaker 9: this is what you work for. This is a dream
Speaker 9: come true. And I mean I understood just the opportunity
Speaker 9: right where I understood that Tommy was hurt for you know,
Speaker 9: he was going to be on the the back.
Speaker 5: Then they called the d L.
Speaker 9: But like the I L for like two weeks, so
Speaker 9: I knew I was only going to really be up
Speaker 9: for two weeks until he came back, But was really
Speaker 9: just going to try to go up and just do
Speaker 9: the best that I could and.
Speaker 5: Soak it all in.
Speaker 9: And uh, once I once I got up up early
Speaker 9: on in five and then like late in four, was
Speaker 9: really like looking at like, Okay, this is the big leagues,
Speaker 9: Like this is this is awesome, Like this.
Speaker 5: Is what you aspire to. So having that opportunity was.
Speaker 4: Amazing when you got up. Was there anyone you thought
Speaker 4: it was really cool to actually see in person that
Speaker 4: you'd watched as a kid.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, everybody. Just the whole experience.
Speaker 9: I was like when when I first got called up
Speaker 9: in September, I think we went Gavin Floyd and I
Speaker 9: were same draft class and we both got called up
Speaker 9: September of four, and I think our first road trip
Speaker 9: was to Atlanta.
Speaker 5: And you know, you're you're you're in the minor league.
Speaker 9: So like you get to the to the hotels like
Speaker 9: you're usually you're bunking up with somebody, right, you got
Speaker 9: to you got a roommate, and we get in, we
Speaker 9: get we checked in at the hotel and I walk
Speaker 9: in and I'm looking and there's like a king bed
Speaker 9: in there and I'm was like, wait, but there's no
Speaker 9: we don't have roommates.
Speaker 5: So that was the that was cool for me. I
Speaker 5: was like, oh man, we don't have roommates. We get
Speaker 5: our own room. Oh this is amazing.
Speaker 9: So you know that that was kind of the first
Speaker 9: first part of getting up there. But I think just
Speaker 9: seeing all the guys that you've grown up watching and
Speaker 9: now you have the ability to be able to step
Speaker 9: on the same field and play with and against some
Speaker 9: of these guys was was an amazing feeling.
Speaker 4: Is it the six on one podcast? Because you guys numbers?
Speaker 4: Because that's not the area code?
Speaker 2: Is it what?
Speaker 4: Because you guys?
Speaker 9: The funny part about it is is that, yes, it
Speaker 9: is our numbers, because I was number six and Jimmy
Speaker 9: was number eleven. But it's also and we didn't necessarily
Speaker 9: realize it at the time, but it's also the street
Speaker 9: exit for Broad Street in Philadelphia. So the whole thing
Speaker 9: just kind of came together with like that and just
Speaker 9: all made sense.
Speaker 4: When you guys do your podcast, I'm assuming you're like
Speaker 4: across the board with baseball, right, it's not just Philly stuff,
Speaker 4: but it's you guys both played for the Philly c
Speaker 4: you have very you know, in depth knowledge of the Phillies,
Speaker 4: but you're talking to other other players and like clubhouse
Speaker 4: stuff right inside baseball.
Speaker 9: Yeah, there's there's definitely the baseball base but we've talked
Speaker 9: to We definitely talked to entertainers, rappers, other baseball players
Speaker 9: from other squads. We've talked to business moduls, entrepreneurs, so
Speaker 9: we diversify the portfolio.
Speaker 5: So we h.
Speaker 9: We definitely have the baseball talk, but we definitely want
Speaker 9: to have the outreach of being able to reach different
Speaker 9: genres and different people.
Speaker 4: Final question for you, and I was a big fan
Speaker 4: of yours while you played, but do people ever come
Speaker 4: up to you and go, hey, you're that dude from
Speaker 4: the office.
Speaker 5: Absolutely.
Speaker 9: I've had some people I'd go get coffee at morning
Speaker 9: in the morning sometimes and and they would recognize me
Speaker 9: more so from that than ever playing baseball. They wouldn't
Speaker 9: have known that I played baseball, but they were like, hey,
Speaker 9: you look familiar, Like have you.
Speaker 5: Been on the Office.
Speaker 9: And I did a couple other shows where it was like,
Speaker 9: you know, always Sunny and and then Entourage, and so
Speaker 9: it was just funny because people would recognize me more
Speaker 9: so from some of those than actually playing baseball.
Speaker 4: The office thing was legit though, because you actually acted
Speaker 4: a bit, because you had the role of like, hey,
Speaker 4: I got this script. Like it wasn't just like you
Speaker 4: showed up and it was a cameo. You actually acted.
Speaker 4: Did you prepare for that or were you just good
Speaker 4: at it?
Speaker 5: I mean, there was a little bit of preparation.
Speaker 9: But they made it easy for me, you know, it
Speaker 9: was I mean, it was me basically kind of, you know,
Speaker 9: being myself, and yeah, there was there was a script.
Speaker 9: So you know, if I can't be myself, then I
Speaker 9: don't know what. I don't know what I'm doing. But
Speaker 9: but it was it was easy. They they made it
Speaker 9: so so smooth and effortlessly like fun.
Speaker 5: I mean that was the first thing. The guys were like,
Speaker 5: hey man, just do yourself.
Speaker 9: Have fun, like say things how you would normally say it,
Speaker 9: and they that's all we're gonna do.
Speaker 5: We're just we're gonna have some fun with this, and
Speaker 5: that was it.
Speaker 4: I really appreciate the time and hope everybody checks out
Speaker 4: the six to one one podcast. Uh Ryan Howard, you
Speaker 4: guys follow him too on Instagram. Ryan Howard Underscore Double six.
Speaker 4: Really appreciate the time, and again I was a big fan.
Speaker 4: I'm a massive Cubs fan. We weren't in the same division,
Speaker 4: so that was good so I could be a fan.
Speaker 4: But uh yeah, you were fun to watch, Ryan, So
Speaker 4: I really appreciate the time, Bobby.
Speaker 5: I appreciate you man. Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 4: See you Ryan. All right, let's welcome in Mike Workanov,
Speaker 4: national NBA reporter for the Athletic Basketball Business Reporter, someone
Speaker 4: who I look to whenever I can't really understand how
Speaker 4: the NBA works behind the scenes. He also hosts Business Decision,
Speaker 4: which is the podcast he does where he breaks down
Speaker 4: all of this the intersection of sports money power, so
Speaker 4: be sure to go check it out. Mike, really appreciate
Speaker 4: you jumping on. I do want to talk about tanking first,
Speaker 4: if you're ready to tackle that with me.
Speaker 3: Sure, I was gonna say, I don't know if I
Speaker 3: always understand how the NBA works, but I'll give it
Speaker 3: a try.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's what That's what I need help with because
Speaker 4: I've read the you know, the meaningful changes from Adam
Speaker 4: Silver about tanking, like what are we doing here next year?
Speaker 3: Well, I'm trying to figure out how to just shortcut
Speaker 3: this answer. Basically, they're gonna try to find a way
Speaker 3: or they think they found the way where they can
Speaker 3: kind of, you know, try to incentivize teams to be
Speaker 3: better versions of themselves.
Speaker 7: Right, let's put.
Speaker 3: It like that, and instead of trying to be as
Speaker 3: bad as they can be to maximize their lottery odds,
Speaker 3: like they will. You know this Sunday when we got
Speaker 3: we got the latest draft lottery coming up. They're changing
Speaker 3: the odds basically, where you're trying to be middle bad
Speaker 3: instead of horribly bad and hope that when it gets
Speaker 3: to March in April, you're trying to win more games
Speaker 3: than you are, just like benching all your best players,
Speaker 3: and we see an elevated version of college basketball in
Speaker 3: those months.
Speaker 4: When I was reading about it when it first came out,
Speaker 4: it definitely was if you're the worst, you have worse odds.
Speaker 4: It's weird to say worst versus better, but your odds
Speaker 4: aren't as good to get the first pick if you're
Speaker 4: the worst team to incentivize yeah, those teams not finishing
Speaker 4: last last, but then what if you literally have the
Speaker 4: absolute worst team and you need to get one of
Speaker 4: those top picks.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, that's the problem with this, and I think
Speaker 3: this is something that there have been complaints about even
Speaker 3: this current lottery system, which is that they watered down
Speaker 3: the odds for the worst teams. And you know, some
Speaker 3: people said, like, hey, isn't the whole point in the
Speaker 3: draft to give the best prospects to the worst teams,
Speaker 3: right to try to make them better? And I think
Speaker 3: that you could argue, like, hey, there's a reason that
Speaker 3: some of these teams like the Jazz and the Wizards
Speaker 3: are in the lottery for a longer period of time
Speaker 3: is because they're not getting the top pics, so they're
Speaker 3: not getting the best players, and so they're just worse
Speaker 3: for a longer period of time.
Speaker 7: And this probably will not solve it.
Speaker 3: Right, Like, if you're if you're authentically bad, let's say that, right,
Speaker 3: you have lost with integrity because you are just really
Speaker 3: bad at putting out rosters and you're the worst team
Speaker 3: in the league.
Speaker 7: This is not going to help you.
Speaker 3: It's trying to stop the teams that are tanking, not
Speaker 3: the teams that are just like bad by their own
Speaker 3: you know, bad decision making.
Speaker 4: I was looking at all the number one picks over
Speaker 4: the past few years and I really felt bad for
Speaker 4: the Atlanta Hawks, Like they finally get the number one
Speaker 4: pick and it's like the one year, one year that
Speaker 4: it's not a player that would actually change an organization.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the timing is so much of it too, Like,
Speaker 3: you know, it's funny this is happening now because all
Speaker 3: the smart draft people say the next two drafts.
Speaker 7: Are not gonna be that great either.
Speaker 3: So it could be another, you know, version of that
Speaker 3: situation like the Hawks had if you had, you know,
Speaker 3: the number two pick in twenty twenty. The Warriors had
Speaker 3: that and James Wiseman right, Like, imagine if they got
Speaker 3: a great number two pick and how that team would
Speaker 3: have looked now. So timing matters so much so when
Speaker 3: your bad really matters, there's just so much that goes
Speaker 3: into it. Not to mention the MVP shake. Gildis Alexander
Speaker 3: was the number eleven pick, Yokich was the second round pick,
Speaker 3: like Gianna's number fifteen.
Speaker 7: All great players come from everywhere.
Speaker 4: Let's talk expansion. Are the Seahawks, excuse me this, the Seahawks?
Speaker 4: The Super Sonics? Are they going to exist again?
Speaker 7: They very well may.
Speaker 3: It is looking like the NBA is going down the
Speaker 3: road for expansion, So the Sonics maybe a team in Vegas.
Speaker 3: I don't know, maybe though I don't know what that
Speaker 3: nickname is going to be. But like the NBA is
Speaker 3: looking at it, it looks like they're trying to get
Speaker 3: a good price for teams there, and they're really this
Speaker 3: is the closest they've ever come to expansion.
Speaker 7: They've been dancing around it for so long.
Speaker 3: But I think we'll know an answer well may like
Speaker 3: I would say, by the end of twenty twenty six,
Speaker 3: we should know where that's going.
Speaker 4: A lot of the Las Vegas talk has been possibly
Speaker 4: Lebron would be part of an ownership group in Las Vegas.
Speaker 4: Do you think the NBA would allow a guy to
Speaker 4: play and also be part owner.
Speaker 3: Well, they definitely won't allow that. That's part of their
Speaker 3: CBA and their rules. And you know, Lebron seems like
Speaker 3: he's out on it too. Mi Collie and I Joe
Speaker 3: Varden we reported earlier this spring like he's out on
Speaker 3: trying to get an expansion team, and it had been
Speaker 3: something he had wanted for so long, right, and he
Speaker 3: talked about publicly for so long. But the firm that
Speaker 3: he's a partner in fenwly Sports Group which owns Liverpool
Speaker 3: and the Red Sox. They're out on trying to get
Speaker 3: an NBA expansion team, so Lebron for now is also
Speaker 3: out on trying to get one.
Speaker 4: You hear from a lot of people, I feel at
Speaker 4: times ill educated people about how the ratings of the
Speaker 4: NBA have dropped so much. But I think for me,
Speaker 4: what I've been able to see is people are consuming
Speaker 4: the NBA differently, and I could be completely wrong. What
Speaker 4: are your thoughts on the NBA and just generally ratings talk.
Speaker 7: I'm tired of it, honestly, for a lot of reasons.
Speaker 3: One is the ratings don't matter, right, Like, the ratings
Speaker 3: were down and the NBA still got this behemoth seventy
Speaker 3: six billion dollar media rights deal despite all that, and
Speaker 3: now ratings are up this year, and that's for a.
Speaker 7: Number of reasons.
Speaker 3: One of them is that there's a lot of games
Speaker 3: on NBC and it's easier to watch games on NBC
Speaker 3: than it is on TNT. The other there's some inflation
Speaker 3: going on with Nielsen ratings and how they count it.
Speaker 3: But honestly, like if you're an NBA fan, just watch
Speaker 3: the basketball or don't. Who cares how many other people
Speaker 3: watch the basketball or don't. I feel like this is
Speaker 3: wholly individual to the NBA as opposed to baseball and
Speaker 3: to the NFL and hockey, Like sometimes just enjoy the
Speaker 3: sport that you like and who cares who's along.
Speaker 7: For the ride with you?
Speaker 4: To me, when that headline comes up, when those stories
Speaker 4: come up, it feels a bit like whenever the story
Speaker 4: is that a movie studio paid four hundred million to
Speaker 4: make the movie and only made two hundred and thirty
Speaker 4: million back, Like that's so inside. It's like, I don't know.
Speaker 4: My friends like watching the movie. I really don't care
Speaker 4: how much the movie studio spent on the movie and
Speaker 4: how much it made back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, Like that's their money and not yours. If
Speaker 3: it was a good movie, that's you know, then you
Speaker 3: like it, and if not, like you don't you move on?
Speaker 7: I think, I don't know. That's the same thing.
Speaker 3: I think there are better questions to be had about
Speaker 3: the state of like what the actual Encourt product looks
Speaker 3: like and where that's going, and how you know and
Speaker 3: tanking and how teams are built than there is about
Speaker 3: the rating stuff.
Speaker 4: I was reading an article about shoes and how you know,
Speaker 4: some of the shoe companies aren't selling as many shoes,
Speaker 4: especially basketball shoes, because of one of the theories was
Speaker 4: limited star power. What are your thoughts on that.
Speaker 7: I think it's interesting.
Speaker 3: I think it kind of like, I mean, not to
Speaker 3: bring it back to the ratings thing, but it's also
Speaker 3: just about it's harder to build stars nowadays.
Speaker 7: Right, there's the monoculture that everyone talks about, so it's
Speaker 7: harder to break through. So it makes sense that if
Speaker 7: you're depending on stars to sell shoes, and it's harder
Speaker 7: to build a star, then it would be harder to
Speaker 7: sell shoes, right.
Speaker 3: And I think just looking at you know, that whole business,
Speaker 3: it seems like everyone's kind of trending towards ath leisure
Speaker 3: and all that, and you know, influencers are now selling
Speaker 3: shoes or selling shoes or selling apparel and all that.
Speaker 3: So I think everyone is just looking for different places
Speaker 3: to have sponsors sell their products, and so maybe the
Speaker 3: sponsorship from the Mad Player it just doesn't go as
Speaker 3: far as it used to.
Speaker 4: It feels like if I were thinking about it now,
Speaker 4: like whose shoe would I want? It honestly would be
Speaker 4: Kaitlyn Clark. And that's crazy to say, because like, I
Speaker 4: don't play women's basketball. I'm not a woman. But it's
Speaker 4: if it's pick a star who'd put out a shoe
Speaker 4: that you genuinely because I'm a shoe guy, I think
Speaker 4: I would like the Caitlyn Clark. I think she almost
Speaker 4: transcends all the dudes that aren't that last we'll say
Speaker 4: last generation that still play the steps the Lebron's because
Speaker 4: the new guys. You're right, everything is so fractional now,
Speaker 4: it's so hard to be famous generally in media, in
Speaker 4: basketball in general, and like Caitlin Clark has a bit
Speaker 4: transcended that. Am I insane?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 7: I think you're totally right.
Speaker 3: Whenever her signature shoe drops, like, I bet that's gonna
Speaker 3: sell a lot of pairs. Like the Sabrina I and
Speaker 3: Escu shoe super popular, right, like both among NBA players.
Speaker 3: You see a lot of NBA players wearing the sabrina
Speaker 3: Is on the court and then also just you know,
Speaker 3: selling to folks too in stores. And so Caitlyn's probably
Speaker 3: one of the biggest most famous athletes in America period, right,
Speaker 3: So why wouldn't she be the great person to have
Speaker 3: a great selling signature shoe.
Speaker 4: I know you used to work with the Knicks. They're
Speaker 4: pretty good.
Speaker 2: I got it.
Speaker 4: Ye Are you a Knicks fan? I know because I
Speaker 4: know you were covering the Knicks. Do you like the Knicks?
Speaker 3: I listen, I grew up in the New York area,
Speaker 3: so I was a Knicks fan growing up. But then
Speaker 3: when you start covering the Knicks and you're covering sports,
Speaker 3: that gets sucked out of you real quick. But I'm
Speaker 3: a fan of g I think that arena is great. So,
Speaker 3: like you know, I was there for game one for
Speaker 3: Nick Sixers and that that was an awesome place to
Speaker 3: be and that place was awesome when the teams I
Speaker 3: covered when they're horrible and the place was still like
Speaker 3: thriving in the fourth quarter of a tight game.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's like a thirty nine point win, right that
Speaker 4: that game won?
Speaker 7: I mean, that was that was wild. That was blow.
Speaker 7: I did not expect that.
Speaker 4: That is a team though, like the Sixers, and you
Speaker 4: can give me your opinion. They just played seven games,
Speaker 4: so usually game one after a seven game set usually
Speaker 4: doesn't end well for that team that just played seven.
Speaker 4: But a thirty nine point defeat, that's a that's a
Speaker 4: bit disheartening if you're if you're a Sixers player.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, and like the Knicks are rolling right now.
Speaker 3: I was looking up after that game. They've like they've
Speaker 3: got the largest four game margin of victory ever in
Speaker 3: NBA playoff history. Like they're doing things over the last
Speaker 3: four games that teams just have not done in the
Speaker 3: league before.
Speaker 7: And so how long does that last?
Speaker 3: Because if you're gonna win every game by thirty, you're
Speaker 3: probably winning the title, right, Like, it's just there on
Speaker 3: this hot streak that we haven't seen.
Speaker 4: What's with the Knicks? And I'll just sit here for
Speaker 4: a second because I'm so curious ownership to coaching that
Speaker 4: it feels like it'd be a tough place to have
Speaker 4: to work under that ownership group. Your thoughts for working
Speaker 4: under that ownership group.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's a that's a really tough job for them.
Speaker 3: James Dolan is a you know, demanding owner. He is
Speaker 3: a very peculiar owner. Look, he already set the expectations
Speaker 3: for that team for this season when he set out
Speaker 3: he thinks it's a title winning team.
Speaker 7: So you know where that's going, right.
Speaker 3: Tom Thibodeau got the team the furthest It's gone in
Speaker 3: twenty five years last year and got fired anyway, So
Speaker 3: Mike Brown knows the expectations and New York is demanding place,
Speaker 3: and I think, yeah, I mean, look, you get a
Speaker 3: lot of resources, but man, you're walking a tight ship there.
Speaker 7: I think you got to you gotta get what the
Speaker 7: owner is looking for.
Speaker 4: Are you watching every game?
Speaker 5: Am I?
Speaker 7: Well, yeah, it's the playoffs?
Speaker 5: Now?
Speaker 7: Why not?
Speaker 4: Well, I mean some of them are late. I don't
Speaker 4: know where you live, but.
Speaker 3: You met every playoff, every playoff game, every next game.
Speaker 7: No, I'm not watching it.
Speaker 3: I mean listen, I I pass out on the couch
Speaker 3: at nine o'clock. Sometimes I'll admit to that and then
Speaker 3: I'll catch up the next morning. But I can't always
Speaker 3: stay up till like two o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm watched same spent Those West Coast games kill me.
Speaker 4: And I have League Pass and I try to even
Speaker 4: during the season watch as much like it just stays
Speaker 4: on even if I'm not watching it, like I'm trying
Speaker 4: to absorb through a bit osmosis even you know, watching
Speaker 4: some of these teams. And it's interesting that East is
Speaker 4: So I'm going to say wide open now because I
Speaker 4: don't think anyone expected the Celtics to especially to blow
Speaker 4: that series like they did. But the Knicks a real shot.
Speaker 4: It's interesting, the Pistons a real shot. Who do you
Speaker 4: think comes out of the East.
Speaker 7: I still give the seventy six Ers a real shot.
Speaker 3: Like, I know, they got blowed to smithereens in Game one,
Speaker 3: but that happened in the Boston series too, And to
Speaker 3: your point, like they talked about it afterward, they're going
Speaker 3: from highly emotional, high leverage Game seven to Game one
Speaker 3: forty eight hours. I think took a lot out of them.
Speaker 3: So I'm kind of curious to see what they're going
Speaker 3: to do tonight at MSG. But I think it's between
Speaker 3: the Pistons, the Knicks, and the UH and the seventy
Speaker 3: Sixers to come out of the ease.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess. I just don't trust embiid ever to
Speaker 4: even show up for the game. And it's just something's
Speaker 4: wrong and it's it's not his fault, like in an appendix,
Speaker 4: his appendix ruptured. So but yeah, if EMBD plays, Yeah,
Speaker 4: I agree that the Sixers are really good. I just
Speaker 4: don't have any trust he's going to show up and
Speaker 4: be able to play. Most games.
Speaker 3: No, I mean he could he arrives the NBA games
Speaker 3: and one of those boxes label fragile, right like, But
Speaker 3: it then when he plays and he takes the court
Speaker 3: and you watch him move pregame and you're like, how's
Speaker 3: this guy gonna do it for forty minutes?
Speaker 7: And then somehow he does and when he plays, he's
Speaker 7: just a huge difference maker.
Speaker 3: But you just you don't know if he's going to play,
Speaker 3: you know, if it's a seven game series all seven
Speaker 3: or this is the last game he plays.
Speaker 4: One final question. How how many more years you think
Speaker 4: Lebron has?
Speaker 3: Oh man, oh h that's top. I feel like before
Speaker 3: this year I would have guessed none. But I feel
Speaker 3: like the way that this year is gone, he's going
Speaker 3: to attack on another year after this.
Speaker 4: He's been the Lakers. I mean he won that series
Speaker 4: that that that it was him, right, because I mean
Speaker 4: Austin Reeves none, Luca none, So it definitely was Lebron. Hatchiemura.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you count that if you know,
Speaker 4: but Lebron was the dude. So yeah, do you think
Speaker 4: he does a farewell tour? He loves Lebron loves you know,
Speaker 4: the adulation does Lebron do announce it.
Speaker 3: I feel like it because then you could just like,
Speaker 3: you know, help all the things, all the companies he
Speaker 3: partners with just like leverages into this long farewell tour.
Speaker 3: Nike does a whole thing. He can record it behind
Speaker 3: the scenes. Yeah, I mean, like, when was the last
Speaker 3: time someone just suddenly shockingly retired a star of that magnitude.
Speaker 3: It was like, I think it was probably Tim Duncan.
Speaker 3: I want to say, like Tom Brady tried to just
Speaker 3: up and quit and then he had to do it again.
Speaker 4: Anyway, I really appreciate the time business decision with Mike
Speaker 4: working op and get you do such a great job.
Speaker 4: And yeah, thanks for hopping on with us and and
Speaker 4: teaching us a few things because sometimes man that I
Speaker 4: still don't think that the tanking thing is gonna work.
Speaker 4: I don't know how you fix the tanking thing though,
Speaker 4: Like I don't have a good idea. It's not like
Speaker 4: I'm sitting here from the rafters going I know how
Speaker 4: to fix it. I don't know how to fix it.
Speaker 7: I mean, it's a trial run. They're going to run it.
Speaker 7: They already said it. They'reright.
Speaker 3: We look and you know, well we're gonna do is
Speaker 3: for three years and twenty twenty nine. We're gonna see
Speaker 3: what works and try it again. And if maybe there's
Speaker 3: expansion and they have to put a new thing out there.
Speaker 3: So I don't know that they're thinking it's a long
Speaker 3: term this fixes everything solution anyway, all.
Speaker 4: Right, check out Business Decision. Hey, Mike, thanks for the time.
Speaker 4: See later, man. All right, that'll do it. Thank you
Speaker 4: guys for being here. I appreciate you listening to the podcast.
Speaker 4: Appreciate your leaving comments down in the comments. If you're
Speaker 4: you know, listen to this on Spotify, leave a comment
Speaker 4: down there that helps us. I don't know, maybe back
Speaker 4: this week. Maybe we won't. It's just a weird time.
Speaker 4: There's nothing going on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe a playoffs and then it's gonna last forever.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm closer to football is when it really starts rocking.
Speaker 4: You gotta hear us have to do an NFL show
Speaker 4: and when there's nothing going on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's tough.
Speaker 4: Well, what's your favorite dinosaur.
Speaker 2: Team logo? That's tough. Yeah, that gets the draft was
Speaker 2: probably fun for a little bit.
Speaker 4: What's the most fun letter? Well, do that for thirty minutes.
Speaker 4: We're like, all right, we'll see you next week.
Speaker 7: Go to the alpha bit.
Speaker 4: All right, that's it. Well, we'll see you guys soon.
Speaker 4: Thank you very much, thanks to our guests. Thanks to
Speaker 4: you guys. Blow the whistle all right by Everyboddy. Theme
Speaker 4: song written by Bobby Bones That's Me and performed by
Speaker 4: Brandon Ray. Follow Brandon on socials at Brandon Ray Music.
Speaker 8: You can follow the show on Instagram at Bobby Bones Sports.
Speaker 8: Thanks to our crew co host at Producer Ready, Segment
Speaker 8: producer at Kickoff Kevin, and executive producer at Mike Gestro.
Speaker 4: The most importantly, thank you for listening.
Speaker 2: Bobby Bones.
Speaker 4: We'll talk to you next time here on twenty five
Speaker 4: whistles